(Android) Notification disappears while on pause

2018-06-19 22:20:08

My foobar2k for Android's notification started disappearing when the music is on pause for some time (~2–3 minutes). Unfortunately I haven't been able to pinpoint the exact moment in time when it started behaving like that, maybe it was the last update but I’m not sure.

The reason it bugs me is that after i restart the app, scrobbling (using external scrobbler) won't work anymore and it requires me killing foobar (via force stop) and restarting to make scrobbling work again. This issue is of course irrelevant to foobar but i think that the disappearing notification is a bug in itself.

I’ve recorded a video of it happening: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RUeUMpQPnmYJm54B57U7wpUXpPZhQ2IZ/view
The notification disappears at 1:24

Foobar2000 Mobile version 1.1.17
Phone: Oneplus 3T
Android 8.0.0 build A3010_28_180517

Re: (Android) Notification disappears while on pause

Reply #1 – 2018-06-20 07:05:12

Personally I would recommend to report it on dedicated foobar mobile forum:
http://forum.foobar2000.com/forum/

Regarding problem itself I bet this is aggressive power management - your Android is set up in such way that  it quickly closes unused apps. Check settings in "Apps" and "Power" sections of Settings app. Exact settings and the way to access them vary between various Android versions. For example Sony's Stamina caused that I had to add Textra to "Never optimized apps" to be able to hear and see notifications from this app, especially after longer time or when battery level dropped below 15%.

Re: (Android) Notification disappears while on pause

Reply #2 – 2018-06-20 08:06:53

It's a bit weird since it only started to happen recently even though power management exists in Android since version 7 I believe?

Anyway, thanks for the advice, I’ve set foobar to “Do not optimize” and will see what happens.

Re: (Android) Notification disappears while on pause

Reply #3 – 2018-06-20 11:20:38

It exists at least in 6.0.1. on system level - this is how I encountered and solved issue (changing system list of non power-optimized apps). On Sony it is realized even in 5.x series through Stamina settings - it has its own list of apps allowed in the background. Remember vendors use their own addons, tweaks, etc.

Why it might happen for you just recently?
You might recently installed some 3rd party optimization tool, clicked something due to some system nagging ("tip"), reached some very low battery level for the first time, which triggered it permanently. Many possibilities, no knowledge of how you use your device.

Re: (Android) Notification disappears while on pause

Reply #4 – 2018-06-21 12:14:16

That "Do not optimize" option mentioned is to disable Doze for that app, and AFAIK Doze only works after quite a while when the device is resting and the screen is off, not just a couple of minutes. On Oreo, power management is more aggressive. Apps that aren't targeting Oreo have a toggle in the App Info->Battery screen that says "Background activity" under "Manage battery usage". It's enabled by default, and if you turn it off you might have issues with notifications. Apps targeting Oreo don't have that toggle, and presumably can sort themselves out with Oreo's new power management features, so if the fb2k app is targeting Oreo, it might be buggy, if it isn't, then check if that toggle is on or off.