Notifications Broken - Try uninstalling Weather Flow (Version as of 25/03/13)

[finiterex]

Hi all,

I've been having problems with notifications not working consistently for all apps including the standard message hub etc. I have just done a manual upgrade to latest Nokia firmware for my Lumia 920 (1308.04) and was very happy to see notifications now working. Long story but had to manually install all apps and settings, everything was working well and then I installed Weather Flow. Instantly notification stopped working. I uninstalled Weather Flow and bingo notifications back again for all apps.

So while I'm pretty sure I've proved Weather Flow is the issue I'd really appreciate it if anyone could try this too. If you experience the same I'll then report it to the app developers/Microsoft.

 

[jhguth]

I'm pretty sure I had issue with it and the lock screen not updating

 

[phytio]

Testing. This has been driving me CRAZY.

 

[irvin792]

Testing, will report back

 

[finiterex]

Cool thanks guys, reckon this could well be the cause of many issues with notifications posted to the forum as its such a popular app.

I'm also wondering if rather than the app being at fault its something to do with the number of background apps/threads as well.

 

[rockstarzzz]

I've had notification issues and I don't use this app.

 

[jhguth]

I don't think the OP is saying its the only cause of notification issues

and it would stand to reason that if this app is causing notification issues, others could as well. For me the Weather Flow lock screen does not work, and after I chose it when I switch the lockscreen to anything else that doesn't work either. I have to power cycle a few times with another lockscreen selected to fix the problem.

 

[finiterex]

Hi guys, definitely not saying WeatherFlow is the cause of all notification issues. However the behaviour I've seen and been able to recreate shows that on my device this app stops notifications working for other apps. Hence asking others to test to validate.

I do not know how the background tasks/notifications and threading works, but am wondering if a given app can cause the background tasks/notifications engine to abend in some way.

Note I also have the following background tasks permitted:

BBC News Mobile
Battery
Facebook

Under Advanced:
BBC News Mobile
Battery
Extras+info
Facebook
gMaps
Here city lens
Here Drive+ beta
Met office
Nokia Music
Skype
WPCentral

All notifications working (tile updates and toasts) whether locked or not.


With weatherflow installed notifications for skype stop full stop, other apps intermittent or none at all, tile updates for non-core apps stop.

Uninstall weatherflow all is good again.

May not be the app that is broken but could be OS and app just happens to expose issue... Or could be app is broken.

Be nice if MS paid this some attention hence hoping if we can prove this behaviour is consistent we can inform dev and ms.

 

[Geddeeee]

No problem with Weather Flow on my 920. All notifications from all apps working correctly. Battery life is great too.
Took phone off charge yesterday at 8am, still on 70% at 9am today. E-mail push on, all app notifications on. Really happy with this phone, it rocks!!!

The thing that drains battery is surfing the web extensively. Keep that to a minimum, and you should be golden.

Never had a problem with my 920, with anything. Maybe I've just been lucky.

On latest 1308 FW too...

 

[finiterex]

Thanks geddeeee. Can you confirm what background tasks you are running?

 

[Geddeeee]

Sure..

WeatherFlow, Facebook, WPCentral, Metrotube, Nokia App Highlights, Connection Tiles.

If you are having problems, then block the apps running in the background, and tick 'Turn background tasks back on for this app the next time I open it'. That may cure some issues.

Keep in mind that WP8 only lets you run a certain amount of background tasks. It may be worth making sure Skype is one of the top six, if it's important. I wouldn't bother with any Battery meter apps. More often than not these consume more battery power. I've tried a few, and they cause problems. This may be the cause of battery drain and intermittent notifications.

You don't need a battery meter. This ain't Android!!! Ha ha ha... Pin the 'Settings' to your start screen and scroll down to Battery saver, if you want to check percentage. A bit more hassle, but rules out those stupid battery apps!!!

Cheers!!!

 

[finiterex]

Thanks bud appreciate your input! I've recreated the behaviour with weatherflow several times now. Wondering if background apps are limited to a number of threads and skype + weatherflow are consuming a large number of threads causing the issue. I don't know enough about how this works... Be interested if a dev could comment?

RE battery meter, im using "battery" which seems to have a good rep. I'm quite a heavy user so maybe being a bit over optimistic on battery life. Why do you think this could be causing the issue?

 

[phytio]

Well I uninstalled Weatherflow (and a bunch of other things) and my notifications are working again. I'm pretty pleased, thanks for prompting me to do this. I reinstalled most apps except Weatherflow but, while I don't think I've provided that much evidence for your hypothesis, I'm nervous to reinstall Weatherflow to see if it breaks everything again, because it seemed like my notifications only got going again after I'd uninstalled all my apps that run in the background. I uninstalled London Travel, and it's unavailable for WP8 now! I have no idea where I'm going in London any more! I don't want more apps to become unavailable after I uninstall them to render me even more hopeless...

 

[Geddeeee]

I think maximum background apps is 6.

As I said I'm running Weather Flow without notification problems. My background apps number less than 6, and I'm not getting any problems. In fact I have had no problems with the phone at all since I got it.
No lock ups, restarts proximity sensor problems etc.

The only time I did have problems is when I had a battery metering app installed. I've tried them all with the same problem of notifications not showing. Since I've stop using them, my phone is working fine, and with less battery drain too.
Can get close to 2 days. And I'm using the phone a lot too....

Might be worth installing less background apps with NO battery metering ones, and see how you do..

Good luck!!!

 

[finiterex]

Thanks for response. I'm running only three background apps so am wondering if this is to do with the number of update threads each app uses (or possibly the way in which a given apps uses this part of the API).

I'm starting to think you might be right about battery meter apps.

 

[finiterex]

So further odd behaviour. Reinstalled weatherflow and all notifications now working fine... Did note that weatherflow was updated recently though so new version may have fixed issue.

Be VERY keen to hear from anyone with knowledge of hoe background apps/notifications work

 

[ChMar]

So further odd behaviour. Reinstalled weatherflow and all notifications now working fine... Did note that weatherflow was updated recently though so new version may have fixed issue.

Be VERY keen to hear from anyone with knowledge of hoe background apps/notifications work

There is no thread specific stuff for notifications. Battery meters run once in 30 minutes read the battery and update the live tile. Weather apps that use background to do work do the same. Once every 30 minutes they connect to network pull data and update the live tile.

Now about that working in background once every 30 minutes. The SDK says that if your app crashes while doing background works(2 crashes) it won't be submitted again to run in background. This is to protect your phone from apps with bugs. So if that part of background operations crashes you need to reopen the app in order to rearm it to run in the background. That reinstall trick beside clearing the app cache also forces you to reopen the app. Once an app capable or running in the background is relaunched it's background code will again be submitted after 30 minutes.

So the basis is that any app that crashes during background work will not gain another chance to do background work. Simply relaunch the app from the live tile to reset it to work in the background. I imagine that you mostly rely on the live tile and you don't open the app that much. This means if it crashes in background it will stop update and you need to relaunch it from start screen. Bad part is that you don't know if the app crashed in the background. Good part is the dev of the app get to know it the app crashed in background and correct it's code.

 

[finiterex]

Thanks for info. Problem wasn't app not updating, it appeared to be this app stopping other apps updating (background).

Does this functionality work the same for both optional background tasks and those that cannot be stopped?

 

[ryansstuff]

Well I have a nokia Lumia 920 and my notifications are working fine for some apps. But my marketplace is not given me app updates. Including weather flow. Thanks for reporting that if this update does not fix it I will remove it and see if that works.

 

[fwaits]

I think maximum background apps is 6.

As I said I'm running Weather Flow without notification problems. My background apps number less than 6, and I'm not getting any problems. In fact I have had no problems with the phone at all since I got it.
No lock ups, restarts proximity sensor problems etc.

The only time I did have problems is when I had a battery metering app installed. I've tried them all with the same problem of notifications not showing. Since I've stop using them, my phone is working fine, and with less battery drain too.
Can get close to 2 days. And I'm using the phone a lot too....

Might be worth installing less background apps with NO battery metering ones, and see how you do..

Good luck!!!

Definitely not true with WP8, maybe there is a cap still on WP7.x, I don't recall, but I thought it was more like 8 or so.