mystvearn

I set two alarms, turn off the phone, waited, nothing happened. Did it when the phone was on, alarm went off. Did it in flight mode, alarm went off. So the alarm can't resurrect the phone when its off completely or is it just me?

daivik

No it can't. Not many standard electronics can just turn them selves on.

If it's off, there is no power, so the phone doesn't even know what time it is, let alone if an alarm is running. Don't even think all PCs can turn themselves on at a certain time.

icehot666

I don't know any smart phone that can do that, my mrs iphone can't do it I know that much...

ludlum

An app that could turn on the phone (and activate the alarm) from cold would be nice. This would help those who like to leave their phone off at night.

mystvearn

I see. No idea, first time owning a smartphone. My previous nokia and SE phones can turn itself on just for the alarm to sound and shuts itself again

Gearu

My LG KC910 (Renoir) turns itself on for alarm, and am disappointed (and am glad it's being confirmed here) my SII doesn't do this, thought all phones would do it.
I don't like leaving my phone on at night as I don't want to be woken by a call (let alone by the random girls that have been calling me from india, feels like people at the three call centre have been matching up my profile with their unmarried daughter lol), but for me the SII almost compensates for this by letting you kill the data transfer and phone operator connections.

Last edited by Gearu; May 29th, 2011 at 03:47 AM.

daivik

why d'you not just put it one non-vibrate silent??

mystvearn

Same like Gearu, when I sleep I turn off my phone. I am now putting it in flight mode. Does anyone know a flight mode app/widget? The way I know of placing it in flight mode is by pressing the power button for few secs. This is the first phone I own which does not turn on for the alarm and something new for me.

Rajiev

Hope you are kidding. Cos your reply couldn't be more technically wrong

Most of the devices CAN turn them self on. Its a "NEW" technology called standby

Most phones, including smart phones can turn them self on a specific time. Thats how they can perform automatic turn on/off and can sound the alarm when they are off.

This IS a limitation of SGS 2. Being the best smart-phone yet is not a excuse for that

Simple workaround:

Use Flight Mode

Last edited by Rajiev; September 23rd, 2011 at 10:30 AM. Reason: Solution addition.

planetf1

It's a silly omission. Nokia's symbian phones and N900 maemo phone could both do it. Another omission is no LED message indication. Still otherwise the phone is fantastic...

That being said I charge my phone nightly anyway, so just leave it on now.

There's a tool in the market "tasker" that is useful (if a little geeky) which can automatically switch the phone to flight (or silent) mode overnight & back again in the morning based on time, location etc.

Twinn

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Last edited by Twinn; September 24th, 2011 at 11:24 AM.

Slug

And the HTC Desire Z. And the HTC Hero. And every other Android handset on the market that I'm aware of.

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matttye

Standby is not the same as "OFF"

Try setting an alarm on your average dumb phone that usually wakes up for the alarm, then remove the battery from it and put it back in.

I guarantee it won't work. That's because when you "shut down" those phones they actually go into a sleep/standby mode like you said; so if you actually remove the battery you get a true power off.

Alarms that turn the phones on are simply illusions.

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Hawker

I agree, for these phones to be able to turn on the alarm when they are "off", they must be drawing power of some description to be able to compare the time against its alarms, but the power they draw are absolutely minuscule. I had an old unused nokia which I didnt turn on for months, and there was still plenty of battery left in it when I turned it on.

Its a nice feature to have and its a shame "smartphones" dont have it.

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KTP

if you want to turn off your phone, you could always get an alarm clock.

problem solved

matttye

It's probably because smartphones use more power. More RAM, faster processors, etc. There'd be more of a drain on the battery just because of the components used.

loony

i still have nokia5800. that will turn on, so i use that for my alarm clock....has a better wake sound too! lol

Shotgun84

Funny you should say that. You have to be rooted but "No Moar Powah" turns you're phone on just before the alarm goes off.

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lotus49

I don't know why anyone would ever turn off their phone except when they are on a flight and taking off or landing.

If you want an alarm clock but don't want calls or email alerts to wake you up, just turn the phone into flight mode while it's charging overnight. The battery life pretty much requires that you charge the phone overnight anyway so what's the big deal?

kayne5

My old Nokia e71 (smartphone) can alarm while off... I'm lucky I put extra alarm on it, cause this time I charged my SGS2 switched off... and of course, no alarm. That's disappointing.

atmasters

I have to agree with most on here when they say put your phone in airplane mode and use your alarm. What is the big deal if your old phone can wake up for the alarm. I think it is not fully off if that's happening anyways.

Riche101

I use it all the time its a great app

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Ashcancell

So, first of all, if I don't turn my phone off at night, the performance is greatly diminished the next day, until I turn the phone off and back on again. Does simply putting it into airplane mode fix this? Because if it doesn't, then airplane mode won't help at all.

Second, like most everyone else, my older, less intelligent phones could do this. While I realize that we all should probably just get over that and move on, the fact that this particular part of the technology seems to have gone backwards is very frustrating, especially for those of us who have relied on cell phone alarms for many years and who are susceptible to losing travel alarms while on the go. Having this feature on a phone continues the line of thought that everything you need (barring food and water) is in one place, and this oversight still seems strange to me.

Third, in regards to the standby vs. off thing: honestly, nobody cares what the "official" terms for the phenomenon is, so long as we can have our alarms still go off and not lose all of our battery life. For me personally, I would like to get that alarm feature back without killing my battery at night and while still gaining the advantage of turning my phone off so it functions correctly the next day. If, while is "standby" mode, I can get that effect, it doesn't really matter exactly what is happening inside the phone.

Lastly, if the "standby" option won't work for smart phones because of their increased resemblance to computers (more power, RAM, faster processing, etc.) why can't most of the phone be shut down, leaving just the clock on and a command that turns the phone on when it reaches a certain time?

As an post script, how does one root their phone? I have searched and can't find a description on how to do this. Thanks

matttye

Samsung under clocks the processor when the screen is off, so if you put the phone in aeroplane mode and turn the screen off it shouldn't use much power through the night.

Why not just charge your phone through the night and have full battery when you wake up?

The difference between these phones and your "less intelligent phones" is that the less intelligent ones could last for days on a single charge anyway. Smartphones can't.

As for rooting, have a look in the "all things root" subforum on here, it has a comprehensive guide.

Last edited by matttye; January 28th, 2012 at 06:27 AM.

shu48

I couldn't agree more. All my old Samsung phones would switch on and sound the alarm. My old XDA orbit and orbit 2 both did this and they were old smartphones, running windows mobile. So anyway they did know what time it was when they were switched off.

I am new to Android and very surprised that android phones don't do this. It is particularly useful when you know that you don't have much battery left when you go to sleep and want to be sure that the alarm will go off and wake you up, instead of the battery going flat while you sleep. Would be nice if they did this. Especially as all the phones I've had over the last 10 yrs or more have been capable of it.

I am currently (as I type) waiting for my android phone to charge before I can go to bed because otherwise I might not get up at the time I need to be up in the morning.

Logan47

As I recall older phones were designed in a different manner as part of their function was hard coded into them thus they could power on for alarms. Simple kind of bios if you like. Real smart phones are no different than your PC. When they are off they are off, with only minimal power keeping settings and not wasting more than that so unable to initiate any preset function such as alarms.

mattyboyo

As you wrote that, I was sleep in bed with the phone on charge next to me and the alarm set to wake me up on the morning. Best solution. I'm asleep, the phone it's fully charged in the morning and the alarm goes off. But of i'm in a hotel with no power by the bed then I put it in flight mode and it uses a couple of percent in 8 hours.

matttye

Why dont you just charge the phone while you sleep?

codral

Wow... i've never had a phone which couldn't turn itself on for the alarm, my old Desire HD and desire could do it, the n95, my 8210 and all my other phones here and there... The backup battery in the phone I believe should keep track of the time.

As for PC alarms, i've also never owned a PC (except maybe an old 386), and i've had a few, that didn't have an alarm feature in the BIOS that would wake the PC or laptop up from being totally off.

Man that could have sucked, lucky I read this... Disliking this phone more every day!

(just tested, i9100GT and yeh, doesn't turn on... Wow. wonder how many times this screws me when I go camping etc)

Last edited by codral; January 30th, 2012 at 03:57 PM.

WilfMoralee

try BLN, you'll need a custom ROM.

As for alarms, agree with 99% on here, flight mode the way to do it whilst charging overnight.

Slug

That's odd, because neither the Hero or the Desire Z can power themselves on from a powered-off state.

codral

surely I didn't imagine it... I wonder if I did... that's friggin scary if that's the case, because I would frequently turn it off when travelling etc... Wow, after looking into this further neither of them worked... How the heck did I never discover this, that's scary as hell... I'm sure there were a few days when I could have sworn my alarm didn't go off but I'm always oversleeping so.. yikes!

Slug

The human mind is a strange and powerful thing.

Jonmon13

My android powered phone when completely powered off turns itself on for alarms...

Slug

Really? Which device would that be?

Gearu

I think some do it, I think it's up to the manufacturer more than having anything to do with android.

My old LG does it, it was flash not android, but they may have continued implementing it. If not possibly a random HTC phone.

It's funny that jonmon13 signed up just to write that.

Last edited by Gearu; February 16th, 2012 at 11:35 PM.

Avua

I may surprise you now but recently I purchased Samsung Galaxy W (GT-i8150) in Samsung official reseller in China and it can actually turn on the phone when you set an alarm clock (just need to put a tick in alarm clock's settings). What's more, there is already a call recorder installed. You just need to press a single button while talking and voila - your call is saved (the sound quality is quite good btw).
I contacted Samsung today and they said that the Chinese somehow managed to make it work although they know nothing about it.
I believe we could demand Samsung to implement these technologies in their next updates.

PS I can make photos and video which proves that it actually works when I get back to China.

Last edited by Avua; March 25th, 2012 at 05:08 AM.

sntaylor

there surely should be no reason that a phone like this cannot 'wake itself'

if it can save and update the time when off/back o!

i like others here have resorted to just sleeping with phone in charge, i just kike to keep it switched off it i can!

bertandla

Download "wake my Android Pro" from Google Play, its a free app.
Install it, set it and forget it, all alarms and calendar reminders will now wake the phone.
Hope this solves your problem, it certanly solved mine!!

Shazbat

I've downloaded this but can you tell me what the 'invisible wake' settings are and what I should have them on, as so far my phone is still refusing to turn itself on when the alarm goes off?

Cheers

speedycolzalez

I haven't LOL'd so much at a thread for some while. Some interesting theories here

The reason old dumb phones can wake up for alarms is the clock and alarm circuitry is implemented in the hardware (like a watch) rather than the software (like a computer). Hence why if asks if you want to switch the phone on when an alarm goes off (at least my Nokias did).

Where as your Android phone is a computer and like a PC (be it Windows, a Mac or, ironically, Linux) when you switch it off, its off. It will not do anything until you switch it on again.

Android phones could wake for alarms if the chip manufacturers put the logic in their chips to support it (storing and firing alarms) like they do for the battery charging gubbins that comes up when you charge the phone when it's off. This is an example of functionality implemented in hardware.

Wake My Android Pro will not switch your phone on to fire an alarm. It simply stops the phone entering deep sleep so you phone won't disconnect from wifi hotspots or enter the "sleep of death" (according to the blurb).

Last edited by speedycolzalez; May 10th, 2012 at 04:53 PM.

suicidallooney

Too many people are confused as to why the alarm doesn't work so let me explain properly


The phone uses an operating system (android) just like a computer uses windows


In order for the phone to boot/load into the main OS(Android) it needs some form of instructions or a more basic OS... this is known as BIOS, Basic Input Output System.

This basic OS the "BIOS" operates buttons such as the on/off button. Once the system has been triggered by the on/off button it then loads from BIOS to android and from there on you can use the alarm clock and do other things

Untill android has been loaded/booted the alarm clock will not work as android is currently turned off. regardless if the phone screen is on or off (charging for example whilst turned off)

The Basic Input Output System does not include an alarm clock. That is controlled by android.

Older phones are able to use the alarm whilst turned off because the main "OS" is also the BIOS

Android and the phone BIOS are too different software. The BIOS is also a hardware/chip inside the phone.

If the BIOS does not include an alarm and the main OS is not booted, the alarm clock will not work.

"wake up" mode does not exist. BIOS never turns off unless the battery is removed it's always awake and able to keep track of time, it just doesn't have any software for an alarm...

On your computer it has a small battery inside the motherboard to keep the BIOS awake at all times

Slug

Android devices don't have a BIOS; when powered-up the bootloader runs, which contains the instructions necessary to boot the Linux kernel.

suicidallooney

That is true but it is the same difference, microsoft, apple, linux uses different terms to describe the same thing. my explanation is to keep it simple for those who don't even know what a bootloader is

two won

My old shity black berry did it and my girl friends I-phone s4 does it is there any way to make it do it. Like maybe kicking it cuz I need my alarm to work for camping wake UPS and things where I won't have the phone on all night wasting battery for emergencies

sntaylor

In fairness, with wifi on, my battery drops only 4% over night! So you could put it in aeroplane mode and be fine when camping!

Slug

^this

Radios are disabled but notifications still function, so the battery lasts literally days.

aaronmafia

I was late for work today because of this terrible inconvenience. LOL. The thing that really gets me is that back in 2000 whenever one had those Nokia bar phones and junky flip phones, they could be powered off and would turn on (by itself) when the alarm went off. So my "SMARTPHONE" cannot provide me a service that was implemented in normal phones over 10 years ago. By the way I am using a Galaxy S3... Just wanted to give my opinion.

nixf01

Hate to join in the me-too scenario but this is bugging the hell out of, so much so that I had to register to comment. Not everyone wants to keep their phone on 24/7 and it genuinely never occurred to me that this basic option wasn't available as standard. As a result I nearly missed a really important meeting.

I've only had my phone a couple of weeks (Samsung Galaxy S2 - ok maybe I should have gone for a newer model, but I'm on a tight budget) but I'm really starting to wish I'd splashed the cash for an iPhone 4, despite my irritation with the whole Apple marketing machine. I don't find it at all user friendly and I'm not a technophobe by any stretch of the imagination...

mattyboyo

If you really want to turn the phone off till you need it and need an alarm to wake you up, buy an alarm clock. I gave a clock radio so I can see the time and have an alarm it I need to. It's great, works every time and wakes me up to a different tune every day