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iPhone Keep phone awake though screen is off? (iOS7)

L

LosLoco

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 28, 2012
113
83
Hola dudes and dude-ettes!

I've gotten myself a Philips nightstanddock for christmas, but I'm hugely annoyed by the fact, that I have to keep the screen on all through the night, if I want the alarm-app from Philips (HomeStudio) to actually go off in the morning.

A little digging through the almighty internet has provided with an idea as to why this is, and it seems to be something do to with the phone going to sleep/hybernating after the screen has been on for a while, and third party apps can't wake this sleep again (or something like that).

Now, dear jailbreakers, my question to you is - is there some kind of tweak on cydia, that makes it possible for a third party app to set off an alarm, even though the screen is off? Even if I turn the brightness all the way down (which is a huge bother to do every freaking night), the light from the screen still irritates oh so much.

I have absolute no insight into how this all works, but I have this idea, that it's a question of preventing the phone from hybernating (ideally just when it's docked/connected to a charger).

Any ideas?
 
Why not use the regular alarm app to wake you up instead of the Phillips one?
For something like that to work you would need someone to write a specific hack for that specific Philips hardware to function right like it was supposed to do when it was sold by Phillips.
 
ScreenDimmer can do this, but it's iOS 6 right now and hasn't updated I think (maybe it has?). Might check.
 
Applejuiced said:
Why not use the regular alarm app to wake you up instead of the Phillips one?
For something like that to work you would need someone to write a specific hack for that specific Philips hardware to function right like it was supposed to do when it was sold by Phillips.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't mind using the regular alarm a bit - but the dock goes to auto-standby after a period of time (that I don't quite now what is...)

I don't really see it being such a specific hack, though. As far as I understand, the culprit is hybernation/deepsleep, that kicks in after a period of time after the screen has been shut off. If this hybernation/deepsleep didn't kick it, the problem would be solved - nay? :)

Surely, there must be some kind of tweak that disables hybernation/deepsleep?

It's worth a try, if nothing else :)
 
Well, Background Manager allows you to control which apps can remain running. You can tell it to keep apps that you add to the list running in the background (forced backgrounding). That prevents them from backgrounding out and quitting which is the normal process on stock.

I think they have updated for iOS 7. If you can't find it, try removing the space between the two words. Never can remember how it goes for all tweaks because some devs use spaces between the words and some don't.
 
I just found this from another thread

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/17718830/

DaEmOnN said:
There is a very simple reason why everyone is having different experiences with this app. I am developing an app that also has alarm functionality, and it has the same problems that this app has.

The built-in alarm app has some privileges that no app in AppStore can match. Therefore no apps in app store can:

- Play a sound while the phone is muted
- Change the current volume while in background
- Play any sound larger than 30s while in background
- Play any sound in infinite loop while in background
- Display a "Snooze" button in the alert box (like the default app does)
- many more..

You can do pretty much everything once the user opens the app, but the typical user expects that the alarm will go off without leaving the app open. Setting an alarm in those apps is the same as scheduling a local push notification that fires at a certain time, playing a 30s sound.

Unless Apple allows other apps to use the private functions of the built-in alarm, all custom alarm apps are doomed to be shiny, cool-looking replacements that don't work. iOS7 will bring background execution functionality, but I don't believe it will make those kinds of apps functional, as apps probably still won't be allowed to wake up on their own and take over your home screen.

Perhaps Apple can limit the functionality to alarm apps only (like an app can only continue streaming media if it's a radio or VoIP app, and gets rejected otherwise).
Click to expand...

So I have no idea if Background Manager will do anything, I'm afraid - but it's worth a try !
 
LosLoco said:
I just found this from another thread

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/17718830/



So I have no idea if Background Manager will do anything, I'm afraid - but it's worth a try !
Click to expand...
Well, no idea. I use My Alarm Clock, but it's a nightstand clock and I don't use it's alarm features. I know that if I add an app to the list of exceptions on Background Manager it keeps it running until I kill it. But I've never added an alarm clock app to it.

My reasoning behind that is that since the stock alarm clock will work whether the phone is locked or not, I use that. One because I've added my own alarms (jailbroken of course) and hate the ones in the app (although I love the clock) and two because sometimes my iPhone has a bad habit of spontaneously restarting.

Keeping an alarm app running in the background does you no good if your phone restarts on you. I need to get up, so if my phone DOES restart I know the stock alarm will still go off.

My only advice is to test it. If Background Manager is iOS 7, try it and set your app as an exception in Background Manager. Add an alarm in your app for a few minutes ahead and then leave the app. See if it goes off when it's supposed to.
 
Well, I'm definately giving it a go. Just had a quick "session" with the developer of Background Manager on Twitter, and he suggest, that it should work, if I check "forced" at the alarm app. And he said, that I should contact him tomorrow, if it doesn't work.

I love helpful devs like that, and it makes paying 0,99 for the app so much easier to know that the dev actually cares to help :)

So it's downloaded, I've done nothing more than add the alarm app and set it to forced. Now I'll just have to wait 6,5 hours to see if it works in the morning (better set up oldfashioned alarm as backup ;) )
 
LosLoco said:
Well, I'm definately giving it a go. Just had a quick "session" with the developer of Background Manager on Twitter, and he suggest, that it should work, if I check "forced" at the alarm app. And he said, that I should contact him tomorrow, if it doesn't work.

I love helpful devs like that, and it makes paying 0,99 for the app so much easier to know that the dev actually cares to help :)

So it's downloaded, I've done nothing more than add the alarm app and set it to forced. Now I'll just have to wait 6,5 hours to see if it works in the morning (better set up oldfashioned alarm as backup ;) )
Click to expand...
I've never needed support from the dev, but good to know he's responsive if I ever do need it.

Yeah, forced mode is what you want. That keeps it live.

Note that the tweak is great for all sorts of apps. I use it to keep my music streaming apps running when my iPhone is locked.
 
eyoungren said:
I've never needed support from the dev, but good to know he's responsive if I ever do need it.

Yeah, forced mode is what you want. That keeps it live.

Note that the tweak is great for all sorts of apps. I use it to keep my music streaming apps running when my iPhone is locked.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I can see the tweak being valuable in a lot of instances.

However, a quick question. "Native" means "how it works without the tweak", right? :D
 
LosLoco said:
Yeah, I can see the tweak being valuable in a lot of instances.

However, a quick question. "Native" means "how it works without the tweak", right? :D
Click to expand...
That is correct. I know there's a reason it's included, but that reason escapes me right now.
 
Sadly, it didn't work :/

Guess it's got something to do about Apples limitations to what an app can do when screen is locked :/

Guess I'll have to dig even deeper in the almighty jailbreak-universe to find a solution. Now I'm just getting good old stubborn! :D
 
So, I could be way off-base here, but is it possible to set a regular alarm and the 3rd-party alarm to go off at about the same time? The regular alarm should wake up the device, and then the other app should be able to do its thing, no?
 
Insomnia is what you are looking for. It keeps everything running even when you shut off the screen. You can turn it on and off. The pro version lets you put on a schedule so it turns itself on and off when you want with out ever touching it. Idk if it works on iOS 7 tho.
 
goobot said:
Insomnia is what you are looking for. It keeps everything running even when you shut off the screen. You can turn it on and off. The pro version lets you put on a schedule so it turns itself on and off when you want with out ever touching it. Idk if it works on iOS 7 tho.
Click to expand...

But isn't that what Background Manager also does?

I don't think the problem is having the app running (as I believe Background Manager also keeps the app alive), but restrictions from Apple on what an app can do, when the screen is locked. And these restrictions doesn't really seem to be avoidable (not through any tweak I can find, at least...)

----------
Qaanol said:
So, I could be way off-base here, but is it possible to set a regular alarm and the 3rd-party alarm to go off at about the same time? The regular alarm should wake up the device, and then the other app should be able to do its thing, no?
Click to expand...

Yeah, that may be a workaround, albeit not a very pretty one :D Not entirely sure it would work, as I don't know the full length of Apples restrictions on third party apps, background, lockscreen and everything :)
 
goobot said:
Insomnia is not a background app. It's an app that keeps the phone running like the screen is on even tho it isn't
Click to expand...

which sounds exactly like what I want ! :D

But sure enough, Insomnia isn't updated for iOS7 :/
 
Thanks for the help, guys. I think I found a solution with the tweak "screen dimmer" that let's me turn off autolock and turn off the screens backlight :)

Only caveat is a bug that turns up the screens brightness at times, but other than that, I think it will work :)

Thanks for all your input! :)
 
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