Question Auto shut down when sleeping

[Lozand]

Hi, my partner likes to fall asleep watching Stan or Netflix or Disney or something but it keeps playing once he’s asleep & the light keeps me awake. I’m looking for an android setting or app that will either force shut down the screening app & lock the screen after a period of time - or will simply lock the phone after a period of time despite it playing an active episode. Does this exist?

 

[mustang7757]

Welcome to AC!
Which device ?
Some devices have auto restart schedule which will reboot the phone to the lock screen or can look into this app in the play store could possibly do what your looking for.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.arlosoft.macrodroid

 

[winmod21]

Hi, my partner likes to fall asleep watching Stan or Netflix or Disney or something but it keeps playing once he’s asleep & the light keeps me awake. I’m looking for an android setting or app that will either force shut down the screening app & lock the screen after a period of time - or will simply lock the phone after a period of time despite it playing an active episode. Does this exist?

Welcome to Android Central

Lots of radio & podcasts types of apps have 'sleep timers', so I'd open those apps you've mentioned and if they might as well.

 

[VidJunky]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Netflix or Disney app didn't have timer or episode check for activity setting. On my Smart TV they always seem to ask after a few episodes if we're still watching.

I don't think scheduling a restart will work for this issue. You can try but I've not seen a auto restart that ignores activity. It's not going to just kick you off if it believes you're in the middle of something. Can you imagine the phone saying I was told to restart I don't care you're in the middle of something, it's time.

I think the activity is going to be your stumbling block on this if the apps themselves don't stop I don't see many options that are going to override what the device sees as activity to perform a function. What device do you have? Samsung's Bixby Routines might be able to preform a task to lock the screen at a certain time or perform some other task that would interrupt viewing. If you have a Samsung. You'd probably have to play with it and see what it's capable of. Speaking of tasks, I was sitting here thinking if something like Tasker could help. Tasker is an automation app that will automatically trigger actions and perform tasks. These actions are limited though. It might be able to turn the screen off but it cannot put the device to sleep. I have not seen or heard of a non-native app that can power off or restart a device.

Just thinking along the lines of stopping the app, I wonder if a parental control app would work for this...? Many can disable apps based on a schedule or limit app usage. Setting these apps to only be active for 2 or 3 hours or saying they should shutdown at 2am. Where it gets tricky is those times when you need more than a few hours or stay up beyond the designated time. The other issue would be that to get these features you might have to upgrade the service. I know parental controls through my carrier are basic unless you upgrade which gives you more control but also costs. Another ironic thing about these apps is they for some reason don't work on the more cost effective devices. This makes no sense since most of us are not giving flagship devices to our children. When I needed it, I couldn't even install the app on child's Samsung A series device but could on my S10 + at 10 times the price.

You could test the behavior to see what happens if you use a silent alarm. An alarm will pause any playback or sound from the device even if the alarm has no sound associated with it. But alarms only last for a minute or two even if they automatically repeat. The question is, how does this effect the behavior of the app? Will it permanently pause the playback, which might be enough to cause the device to see this as inactivity and allow the screen to timeout or it might resume.

Let us know what device this is and maybe there will be other suggestions.

 

[mustang7757]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Netflix or Disney app didn't have timer or episode check for activity setting. On my Smart TV they always seem to ask after a few episodes if we're still watching.

I don't think scheduling a restart will work for this issue. You can try but I've not seen a auto restart that ignores activity. It's not going to just kick you off if it believes you're in the middle of something. Can you imagine the phone saying I was told to restart I don't care you're in the middle of something, it's time.

I think the activity is going to be your stumbling block on this if the apps themselves don't stop I don't see many options that are going to override what the device sees as activity to perform a function. What device do you have? Samsung's Bixby Routines might be able to preform a task to lock the screen at a certain time or perform some other task that would interrupt viewing. If you have a Samsung. You'd probably have to play with it and see what it's capable of. Speaking of tasks, I was sitting here thinking if something like Tasker could help. Tasker is an automation app that will automatically trigger actions and perform tasks. These actions are limited though. It might be able to turn the screen off but it cannot put the device to sleep. I have not seen or heard of a non-native app that can power off or restart a device.

Just thinking along the lines of stopping the app, I wonder if a parental control app would work for this...? Many can disable apps based on a schedule or limit app usage. Setting these apps to only be active for 2 or 3 hours or saying they should shutdown at 2am. Where it gets tricky is those times when you need more than a few hours or stay up beyond the designated time. The other issue would be that to get these features you might have to upgrade the service. I know parental controls through my carrier are basic unless you upgrade which gives you more control but also costs. Another ironic thing about these apps is they for some reason don't work on the more cost effective devices. This makes no sense since most of us are not giving flagship devices to our children. When I needed it, I couldn't even install the app on child's Samsung A series device but could on my S10 + at 10 times the price.

You could test the behavior to see what happens if you use a silent alarm. An alarm will pause any playback or sound from the device even if the alarm has no sound associated with it. But alarms only last for a minute or two even if they automatically repeat. The question is, how does this effect the behavior of the app? Will it permanently pause the playback, which might be enough to cause the device to see this as inactivity and allow the screen to timeout or it might resume.

Let us know what device this is and maybe there will be other suggestions.

Yeah wasn't on the auto reschedule worth a try don't use that feature but a tasker app like I link probably could do it , not aware apps like Netflix have timers but digital well being might be another option

 

[Mr. Lucky]

I’m looking for an android setting or app that will either force shut down the screening app & lock the screen after a period of time - or will simply lock the phone after a period of time despite it playing an active episode. Does this exist?​

Based on this description from https://www.android.com/digital-wellbeing/#dwb-app-timers, it sounds like you might come close to what you want:

"In Digital Wellbeing, you can see which apps and websites you use most and set daily limits. Once you hit the limit, those apps and sites pause and notifications go quiet."​

Thing is, I'm not sure if pausing the app will cause the screen to go off. If not, or if your partner's usage time is not predictable, MacroDroid might be useful. I don't have the video apps you mentioned, but here's a macro I created using Peacock as the video source, and it does what you want.

Plain-English translation:
Triggers are the "things" that cause the macro to do something. There can be multiple triggers, and if any of them are true, the macro starts. In your case, it would be a single trigger with multiple apps listed. If any of them are true, the macro starts.
---
Actions are what happens when one of the trigger conditions is met.
1. A variable named "!continue" is created and has its value set to 'yes'
2. Everything between "WHILE / DO" and "End loop" is a series of actions that are repeated as long as !continue = yes
Every 20 minutes (or whatever time the two of you agree on), a pop-up will appear in the middle of the screen asking "Continue?" If 'yes' is tapped, the popup disappears and the loop restarts with a new 20 min timer. The default is 'no' with a 5 second timeout timer. If 'no' is tapped, or no response, the macro will fake a Back-button press (to exit the video app) and then turn the screen off.

​

---
Constraints (the green section) represent additional items that must be true (in addition to the trigger) in order for the macro to execute. There are none in this example, but you could for instance, constrain it to certain days of the week, between certain hours, etc.

 

[Lozand]

Amazing thanks for all of the suggestions and detailed instructions everyone! I will test them out & let you know what works