Background tasks no-longer running

[BGBrereton]

Hello. I own a Lumia 920. I've had it since it since February. In July all of the background tasks for apps from the marketplace stopped running. A few weeks later they started up again. Then a few weeks after that they stopped again. I'm now into the third week of them not running.

For me the apps involved are BBC News Mobile, WeatherMaster, WPCentral, IMDb, Wikipedia, Metrotube, Simple Calendar and Locksider. All but Locksider have a background task to regularly update the live tile. Locksider has a background task to updated the lockscreen image at a configured interval. The live tiles and the lockscreen image all stopped updating on the same day. The apps were still listed in settings as "allowed" but some of the live tile apps put the last time they were updated on the live tile and this clearly shows that they have just stopped updating.

To try and diagnose or work-around the problem I have disabled/blocked all of the background tasks, restarted the phone and then re-enabled individual apps to see if they would work. No matter which app I try it is clear that the background update runs once only and then not again after that.

I reported the problem to Microsoft here: Background tasks no-longer running - Microsoft Community. A moderator did reply with, "The issue you are having is actually currently under investigation and Microsoft are working on a fix." So it's good to know that a fix is being worked on but no more information than that was provided.

So, I'm wondering whether this is a widespread problem. Are lots of people having this? Is it understood? Does anybody have any ideas what causes the background tasks to stop working? Is there anything I can do to work around the problem?

Any help will be gratefully received.

 

[DBDev]

It could be something wrong with your push notifications. See this thread: http://forums.windowscentral.com/wi...ations-work-why-sometimes-they-might-not.html

 

[BGBrereton]

No, I don't think it's push notification related. All apps will update once if they are run, etc, but not after that. Also, some of the apps involved, like Simple Calendar, don't require an internet connection.

GDR2 is now available for my phone. I'm going to update this weekend in the hope that it fixes or resets the issue.

 

[jfa1]

If that doesnt solve the issue try the previous posters suggestion and get back with us.

 

[BGBrereton]

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I have tried the previous poster's suggestion anyway:

• Is battery saver off? Yes
• Do you have a working internet connection? Yes
• ... are you within your usage limits? Yes

But, yes, I'll report back after the GDR2 update.

 

[BGBrereton]

I've applied GDR2/Amber. The problem remains.

 

[Onager1286]

I'm having the same problem. Hate to say it but for being a headline feature of Windows Phone, Live Tiles are pretty unreliable.

 

[BGBrereton]

Week four for me now. I'm starting to fear this is going to be permanent.

 

[foxbat121]

Yes, it is a known and wide spread issue. There are many threads like this all over the places. There is no known sure fix for this other than hard reset your phone.

 

[Al_2]

Week four for me now. I'm starting to fear this is going to be permanent.

I've had this problem three times on my L920 and each time the background tasks starting working again after I uninstalled a few apps that have the option to use background tasks - even if I'd blocked those apps from running in the background. So maybe try removing 3-4 apps you don't really use that you've blocked background tasks for and leave it overnight and see what happens. I can't guarantee it'll work but it's worked for me three times!

 

[BGBrereton]

In the Microsoft forum the Microsoft person said a hard reset may not fix the problem as it'll probably just come back.

But I'll try Al_2's suggestion.

 

[Zeaneal Nicky]

Go to settings Swipe left there Background will appear and unblock blocked apps and maybe that will fix ur problem but if it doesn't than go to support center

 

[fwaits]

Ok so I had this off and on and finally figured out 2 things that helped me understand and manage the problem. Since then I'm running perfectly.

1. There is a cap on total number of background agents that can run before it causes this issue. (Hopefully this is addressed better in a future update) I believe someone said the number is around 15. (I'm not 100% sure that's the cap, but its a good number to work with)

2. Some apps have agents running even if they are not listed in the Settings -> background tasks list.

So what I ended up doing is first, blocking any apps you don't need background tasks for in Settings -> background tasks. I have about 8 items in here not blocked currently. (You've probably already done this for the most part) What I then did is go through every app and open them to check their settings and see if they have Live tiles, background tasks/agents, toasts, etc. on in them and shut them off there if I don't want them active. I also uninstalled a few apps that I found I really don't need/use as well. Take a count of the number of apps you have with active tiles, tasks enabled in the individual app settings as well as the background tasks list and try to keep that number at or below 15. Note that some games have background tasks as well and may not show in the background tasks list to block so they are taking up a slot. Once I did this my tiles and toasts began working near flawlessly and have been for weeks with no problems.

To keep this managed whenever I download an app that I don't already have enabled for background tasks, I make sure to check the settings for it and disable any if necessary. Also do this for app updates, as I've seen some apps that were previously blocked on the background tasks list get re-enabled after updating them. Hopefully this helps you regain functionality of your tiles and background tasks, it worked great for me and seems to be the "Holy Grail" after struggling off and on with the issue for some time. Let me know if you have luck with this method so more can learn and hopefully get more functionality out of their devices as well.

 

[neo158]

BBC News Mobile, if it's the one I'm thinking of, was discontinued and the dev created Paperboy as a replacement.

 

[BGBrereton]

Thanks so much to Al_2 and fwaits. Based on their advice I decided to be more assertive and uninstalled most of the apps listed in the background tasks advanced section. Hay presto! The remaining apps' background tasks sprang back into life. Not sure it's possible to draw a solid conclusion from this, other than it being caused by having too many apps installed - or possibly that it can be caused by a rouge app. Maybe the problem is caused by having too many apps installed that can run a background task or having a rouge app with a misbehaving background task? Significantly, which I hadn't considered, the background task for these apps doesn't actually need to be running (or listed as running) to cause the problem.

A number of the apps I uninstalled I rarely use, so it's no big deal to lose them in exchange for the apps I do use a lot being fully functional. I'm now going to re-install the apps I do use a bit and see what happens.

Thanks again.

 

[Al_2]

Glad to hear it's working!

A Windows Phone with dead tiles is rather boring!

 

[fwaits]

Yep, its definitely too many tasks running. Uninstalling is one way, manually disabling live tiles, background tasks, etc in each app, blocked or not is another. Combined its done me great.

 

[BGBrereton]

Well I've now reinstalled the apps I use reasonably frequently. As advised, I've been careful to disable background operations in these apps that I don't actually need. All the background tasks that I do want are still working. I'm very pleased. Thanks again.

 

[rdubmu]

I have been also experiencing this issue. USA Today doesn't update. Only my calendar and Bing News.