Apps losing state

[mark7914]

I have a problem with apps losing state on my S8.

This began to be most noticeable with Firefox. An example: I can be logged into a site. I put the phone down. I pick it up again 10 minutes later and flip into Firefox. The web page reloads, and I'm logged out.

If I then go to log in, it doesn't know the email and password (these would normally sync and be available). If I type them in, it appears to work but remains logged out and will go around in an endless cycle.

If instead I close Firefox and then open it again the last tabs are reloaded, and I'm logged back in again.

It's tempting to think it's a bug in Firefox, but this can happen with apps, too, and also coincidentally widgets on the home page lose their state. For example the Audible one would normally show the last audiobook and time/position. That goes blank. Occasionally an app will ask me to log in. Close it, open it again, and it's already logged in.

It's as if the phone has a temporary cache for remembering the state of apps, and it's getting corrupted.

This has been happening for a few months. It isn't an OS update since the phone still has Android 7 as shipped. I never update anything. Except Firefox which I allowed to update itself but that hasn't made any difference. So this isn't due to an update and if it's a bug in the OS it wasn't evident for years.

The only coincidence I can think of is that around the time this started happening I began running a VOIP program which is "always on".

Battery was replaced about 6 months ago and battery life is very good.

Is this some kind of optimisation setting I've managed to turn on?

 

[me just saying]

try wiping system cache.

* Turn off the device.
* Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
* When the Android logo displays, release all keys ('Installing system update' will show for about 30 - 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
* Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe cache partition.”
* Press the Power key to select.
* Press the Volume down key to highlight “yes” and press the Power key to select.
* When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
* Press the Power key to restart the device.

 

[mark7914]

At "Installing System Update" I got a large yellow triangle screen with "No Command" written underneath before it progressed to the menu, maybe because there is no system update to install, I have that package disabled so the phone never detects or downloads them.

Phone booted normally after the wipe command - we'll see how it goes now (the problem only seems to occur after about 22:30, oddly enough - forgot to mention that). Thanks

 

[mark7914]

Hmm.. it's not that. The problem remains.

It must be something that I've installed or changed that's causing this, but what it is, is a mystery.

As is the fact that it only ever happens in the evening, generally after around 10PM.

Even if there's, say, 75% battery remaining. It's as if it's some sort of power saving mechanism malfunctioning or a fault in the cache that stores app states.

 

[mustang7757]

Hmm.. it's not that. The problem remains.

It must be something that I've installed or changed that's causing this, but what it is, is a mystery.

As is the fact that it only ever happens in the evening, generally after around 10PM.

Even if there's, say, 75% battery remaining. It's as if it's some sort of power saving mechanism malfunctioning or a fault in the cache that stores app states.

You can check device care if any apps put to sleep or if any option in there to optimize, next you can lock i belive 5 apps to recent apps list see if it still needs refresh after that .

 

[mark7914]

That was it..

All of the apps which misbehave were in that list. If I remove them from it, the problem goes away, but the battery life drops like a stone.

The feature doesn't work as I had thought it did - I had imagined that the apps are closed so they do not use processor cycles thus preserving the battery, but what I'm guessing the phone does is kill them rather than shut them down gracefully and they get upset.

Or, the apps themselves are supposed to respond to that call to shut down and they do not do this gracefully. The memory/cache associated with them gets freed or orphaned.

The other curiosity is that when the apps are added to that list they're not supposed to be able to send notifications. Yet, they still do. Maybe they have to have been active recently for that to work.

Some apps seems to be OK with being in that list and behaves so I'll add them back in and see if each behaves properly. (Firefox certainly does not). Thanks!