Use of smartcase on/off magnet occasionally causes Nexus 10 to crash& power off instead of sleep

[big matty]

Hi everyone, I dont want to exhibit bad etiqutte here, but I also want to help people with a problem that took me over a month to narrow down. So here's the deal - it gets too spammy to keep posting the same info to multiple sites, and ultimatly I think this needs to live in Google's bug-tracking, so I've posted it here:
Issue 43503 - android - Use of smartcase's on/off magnet feature occasionally causes Nexus 10 to crash and power off instead of sleep - Android - An Open Handset Alliance Project - Google Project Hosting

If a mod feels that this isn't propperly in sync with this forum please feel free to delete. I'm just thinking that if someone reads the title here on this super-popular forum then it could save them a bunch of headache.

I think I've isolated this bug: Use of smartcase's on/off magnet feature occasionally causes Nexus 10 to crash and power off instead of sleep

Best,
Matt

 

[Heelsandeers]

Re: Use of smartcase on/off magnet occasionally causes Nexus 10 to crash& power off instead of sleep

My Moko came in yesterday.... So Last night was my n10s first night In it. And when I went to turn it on today it wouldn't power on.

I plugged it in.... And eventually got it to power up.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD

 

[Devlyn16]

Re: Use of smartcase on/off magnet occasionally causes Nexus 10 to crash& power off instead of sleep

I have had this happen once in the week since I got my cover, I think a contrubuting factor COULD be the strength of the magnet used so we might benefit if those who experiance the problem share which cover we are using. Length of time in cover triggered sleep mode would be useful as well. Finally those that can consistantly replicate the problem, could you check and see what happens if you put the device in sleep mode via the power button, then close the cover.

Poetic slimline: One power off in roughly 10 days. Resolved by holding the power button until it vibrated. Note my Nexus very rarely is in cover sleep mode for more than 12 hours straight.

 

[big matty]

Re: Use of smartcase on/off magnet occasionally causes Nexus 10 to crash& power off instead of sleep

I have had this happen once in the week since I got my cover, I think a contrubuting factor COULD be the strength of the magnet used so we might benefit if those who experiance the problem share which cover we are using. Length of time in cover triggered sleep mode would be useful as well. Finally those that can consistantly replicate the problem, could you check and see what happens if you put the device in sleep mode via the power button, then close the cover.

Poetic slimline: One power off in roughly 10 days. Resolved by holding the power button until it vibrated. Note my Nexus very rarely is in cover sleep mode for more than 12 hours straight.

I have a fair amount of data I can contribute to the questions you're asking. One disclaimer - a fair amount of this was gathered while I was still unsure of the culprit. I point that out because if you read the Google thread you'll see that I think Location Services ~could~ have been causing some of my crashes - so further testing may be needed. Now, with that out of the way...

-I saw this happen with the rooCase and the supCase. The supCase is the case I currently use, I have removed the magnet from it now

-I had Battery Montior pro installed for a long time while testing, and using its time-stamped batteryhistory.txt file I can say that at least some of the time, if not all the time, the crash happened while the cover was closed, or closing: so crashed after recieving "go to sleep" command and not during the "wake up now" command

-At first I thought this only happened while it was asleep for extended periods of time, but later found that was not the case and that it could happen at any time (Note: Never a reboot or visible crash mind you, because it was always after closing the cover that I would re-open it to find it had crashed.) Once I closed the case and opened it 30 seconds later and it had happened.

-I had thought about the notion of using the power button to first turn off the unit, but I personally chose not to try because: 1) the system will still get the magnet command, even if its a redundant command (IE - you use the power button to "go to sleep" but then when you close the case I'm guessing it will still send the problematic magent command "go to sleep". 2) unless your case closes tightly, like the supCase, any jostleing of the case could cause the maget to go on/off and thus not give you the opportunity to press the power button, which happened with the rooCase. 3) The main reason - once I found the culprit I didnt want to see my Nexus 10 crash even ONE more time! But I agree this would be a great troubleshooting step

-Another troubleshooting step if someone's up for it: do usb logging and then open/close the case until it crashes, see what the USB log says. (I tried USB logging, but when I was I was not using the case so never caught it!)

Have a good one,
Matt

 

[big matty]

Re: Use of smartcase on/off magnet occasionally causes Nexus 10 to crash& power off instead of sleep

Edit: Sorry, I'm having problems with the forums today.

 

[big matty]

Re: Use of smartcase on/off magnet occasionally causes Nexus 10 to crash& power off instead of sleep

Edit: Sorry, I'm having problems with the forums today.

 

[Devlyn16]

Re: Use of smartcase on/off magnet occasionally causes Nexus 10 to crash& power off instead of sleep

I'm wondering if this bug is the reason the cover that clips to the back of the N10 hasn't been released.

It also occured to me that I need to be careful when referring to magnets. Some of these covers have magnets that serve as the clasp as well as the sleep mode trigger.

 

[big matty]

Re: Use of smartcase on/off magnet occasionally causes Nexus 10 to crash& power off instead of sleep

I'm wondering if this bug is the reason the cover that clips to the back of the N10 hasn't been released.

I was thinking the same thing. Also I think its interesting that because there is no official case released, these third party cases (which seem to all have magnets), are going to increase the crash report frequency of the device. From a business point of view I think its fascinating that a company's reluctance to release an accessory for a device is hurting that devices stats!

 

[JayR Harvey]

Re: Use of smartcase on/off magnet occasionally causes Nexus 10 to crash& power off instead of sleep

I've had my Nexus 10 for about a two a half now and about once every other week if I've had my tablet in sleep I've found it hard to wake it and found that the tablet would eventually reset itself. I have a case on it but it some universal case for most 10 inch tablets not one for the nexus 10 with the magnetic smart cover although I just ordered one and am waiting for it. So I don't think its the magnets although I should be getting my poetic case soon and can find out if it gets worse. I keep it in daydream mode most of the time to keep it from happening because its a bit disconcerting.

 

[Des Morse]

Re: Use of smartcase on/off magnet occasionally causes Nexus 10 to crash& power off instead of sleep

I've had the Poetic hardback case for a couple of weeks now without any problems. Depending on what I'm doing, it can be opened & closed several times in 30 minutes or left closed for over 24 hours.
Went for the hardback as it's in my briefcase & in & out of the back of the car frequently

 

[anon(847090)]

Re: Use of smartcase on/off magnet occasionally causes Nexus 10 to crash& power off instead of sleep

I am using moko and dont have this issue yet. it works fine. maybe 4.2.2 fixed the issue. i got the moko case a week ago.

 

[big matty]

Re: Use of smartcase on/off magnet occasionally causes Nexus 10 to crash& power off instead of sleep

This was on my original N10 which turned out to be defective. I'm sure it was the defect not the case now. False alarm.

 

[twilite2000]

Re: Use of smartcase on/off magnet occasionally causes Nexus 10 to crash& power off instead of sleep

In my humble opinion I don't think it's the magnets on the case. I've had the MoKo slimline for 2 months and have never had a problem. All my reboot problems occurred while using my Nexus. Since the update I've probably had maybe two reboots but only while I was using my Nexus never when waking from the case.

 

[big matty]

Re: Use of smartcase on/off magnet occasionally causes Nexus 10 to crash& power off instead of sleep

In my humble opinion I don't think it's the magnets on the case. I've had the MoKo slimline for 2 months and have never had a problem. All my reboot problems occurred while using my Nexus. Since the update I've probably had maybe two reboots but only while I was using my Nexus never when waking from the case.

Yup, original was defective fasle alarm. Oh well.