Help Pedometer apps won't count steps while screen sleeps - will there be a fix for this?

[Stringfellow]

I thought I would put one of the available pedometer apps on my Incredible, thinking it shouldn't be too hard to find one as handy as what my old Sony Walkman phone shipped with (it ran when the screen was off, tracking my whole week's walking). Needless to say, I am disappointed that HTC does not support this functionality, causing any installed pedometer apps to quit counting steps as soon as the phone sleeps. With the supercharged battery which I plan on buying, I wouldn't be sweating so much the power consumption, and it's really disappointing to be left without the choice to let programs of my choice run. Will there be a fix for this problem anytime soon? Anyone happen to know, of if there's something else I can do about it?

 

[Stringfellow]

bump

 

[Member207894]

I have no experience with pedomoter apps and wasn't aware of this HTC-imposed limitation you mention. But this seems like a perfect use case for Tasker.

You'd have to create a profile that sets the display timeout to infinite (23h 59m 59s) once you launch your pedometer app. If you want to prevent the display from killing the battery, that same profile can also adjust the brightness to a low setting. I have a Tasker profile that does exactly this when I launch RoboDefense (except it turns the brightness up, not down...).

One feature I really like about tasker is that when you leave a profile - in this case when you exit your pedometer app - any settings that you changed within that profile are automatically reverted back to the values before you entered it. Meaning your display timeout will go back to what it was before you launched your app.

 

[Hightech]

If you're using pedometer to check distance walked....you might want to try mytracks instead.

Works great, doesn't time out and gives you distance, time and a nice track of the route you walked.

Just a thought.

 

[joekuz]

I recently installed open open gps tracker app....looks very similiar to mytracks as suggested....have not had a problem yet...and the amount of stats it provides is amazing...

 

[Stringfellow]

I recently installed open open gps tracker app....looks very similiar to mytracks as suggested....have not had a problem yet...and the amount of stats it provides is amazing...

Do these GPS counters require a GPS service plan?

Regardless of the answer to the above, the difference between a step counter or pedometer and GPS is that the former never requires a fee to operate, some of them (on other phones) don't even need a reset or restart to count all of your steps, distance traveled, and calories burned for the past week, and this is all done without uploading to the whole world via satellite where you've been! But with Incredible, they lose count of every step you take with the screen off, and HTCs UI leaves me no options to fix that, which is just beyond inexcusable!

The issue which I have raised isn't really about pedometers, but that the Incredible screen has more say in deciding on the execution of background processes than the user does, simply by the arbitrary stoppage of running processes when it goes to sleep. This ain't no minor flaw, folks - in Windows, while you're away, your updates still install, your anit-malware scans, your disk defrags, and your torrent apps keep sharing, with no dependence whatsoever on the screen - right? How can anybody be OK with Incredible letting the screen have such arbitrary control of your running processes? I would just like to see more options to decide for myself whether the tasks which I run should stop as well as the screen when it dies to save my battery.

 

[Stringfellow]

I have no experience with pedomoter apps and wasn't aware of this HTC-imposed limitation you mention. But this seems like a perfect use case for Tasker.

You'd have to create a profile that sets the display timeout to infinite (23h 59m 59s) once you launch your pedometer app. If you want to prevent the display from killing the battery, that same profile can also adjust the brightness to a low setting. I have a Tasker profile that does exactly this when I launch RoboDefense (except it turns the brightness up, not down...).

One feature I really like about tasker is that when you leave a profile - in this case when you exit your pedometer app - any settings that you changed within that profile are automatically reverted back to the values before you entered it. Meaning your display timeout will go back to what it was before you launched your app.

Thanks for the info on Tasker, which I see people raving about for it's various uses. I'm sure I'll find lots of uses for it too, eventually, But for the problem which I'm dealing with now, I don't think I want the screen to be dark while I'm viewing the pedometer screen outdoors in daylight, and if it remains bright enough to view, then it would certainly be wasting energy when I put it back in my pocket.

At issue is the fact that the other processes sleep with the screen whenever it goes to sleep. I want the screen to sleep when it does, but the UI should allow me to decide whether the processes should run in the background while I am active in others, and it should allow me to decide on allowing them to run without the screen - the fact that this is not the case just pushes absurdity to stupendous levels! Am I wrong on the above conditions? Is there a way that Tasker can help me keep anything or everything running, but not the screen, if I wanted to?

 

[Stringfellow]

I have no experience with pedomoter apps and wasn't aware of this HTC-imposed limitation you mention. But this seems like a perfect use case for Tasker.

You'd have to create a profile that sets the display timeout to infinite (23h 59m 59s) once you launch your pedometer app. If you want to prevent the display from killing the battery, that same profile can also adjust the brightness to a low setting. I have a Tasker profile that does exactly this when I launch RoboDefense (except it turns the brightness up, not down...).

One feature I really like about tasker is that when you leave a profile - in this case when you exit your pedometer app - any settings that you changed within that profile are automatically reverted back to the values before you entered it. Meaning your display timeout will go back to what it was before you launched your app.

Thanks for the info on Tasker, which I see people raving about for it's various uses. I'm sure I'll find my own uses for this, but if it shuts the screen off, then it would be kinda hard to view your pedometer interface while outdoors in the daylight.

At issue is the fact that the other processes sleep with the screen whenever it goes to sleep. I want the screen to sleep when it does, but the UI should allow me to decide whether the processes should run in the background while I am active in others, and it should allow me to decide on allowing them to run without the screen - the fact that this is not the case just pushes absurdity to stupendous levels! Am I wrong on the above conditions? Is there a way that Tasker can help me keep anything or everything running, but not the screen, if I wanted to?

 

[kayst]

You're complaining about an app that goes to sleep when the screen turns off - most of us here complain about the oposite: apps that WON'T go to sleep when the screen turns off. I'm pretty sure that if your pedometer app wanted to stay awake, it could, since many apps do continue to run when the screen is off, either by design (nav, my tracks, media player, etc) or by bad programming.

So, in summary, it's not a problem with android, it's a problem with your app - they need to code it so that it stays awake and keeps running when the screen is off.

In addition, there is no such thing as a GPS plan, the GPS is simply a receiver and you can use it without cell service.

 

[Stringfellow]

You're complaining about an app that goes to sleep when the screen turns off - most of us here complain about the oposite: apps that WON'T go to sleep when the screen turns off.

I have not experienced this myself, and you clearly have not used any of the available pedometer apps on Inc.

I'm pretty sure that if your pedometer app wanted to stay awake, it could, since many apps do continue to run when the screen is off, either by design (nav, my tracks, media player, etc) or by bad programming.

So, in summary, it's not a problem with android, it's a problem with your app - they need to code it so that it stays awake and keeps running when the screen is off.

In addition, there is no such thing as a GPS plan, the GPS is simply a receiver and you can use it without cell service.

On the pedometer apps (actual step counters) and their developers, what I read and experienced indicates that you are wrong - I have actually tried them all, and every single one of the pedometer apps fails to retain the step count once the screen goes dead. Some app developers even warn on their Marketplace page of this specific problem (have you read anything on this?), with specific references to HTC. The HTC UI developers, have created this issue which is nonexistent on non-HTC phones, and this must be so if the step-counter app developers still hope to get paid by those who don't own HTCs! Obviously, the issue does not stop all running processes from killing your battery on the sly, and then there may be some which even you would not always want to have stopped with the screen - and maybe these problems of the present or future are caused by the same issue which kills pedometers on HTC!

As for running apps which just won't die when you want them to, one of the first things I did with my Inc was to isntall Advance Killer - it's like a sledgehammer, could be made a lot easier to fine-tune for each use (like when you don't wanna stop your torrents, or that streaming movie vid which you had started, your widgets, notifications, or even your phone. There are lots of ways to kill your phone battery, but most of them can be stopped with considerably less grief than discovering that one of the important, and nearly universal functions which had caused you to invest in a smart phone does not, and cannot work due to some careless design flaw which only the UI developer can change, and has been ignoring!

GPS is simply a receiver, and I could probably find uses for a satellite dish without paying the Dish people. I just wondered if Verizon has a block on anybody who tries to use the GPS receiver (I'm a former AT&T contract slave, so excuse my paranoia) without buying a plan, or if the apps mentioned here are addons to the Verizon GPS service.

 

[kayst]

Nope, I haven't used or researched any step-count apps, and I'm not a developer, so if they say they can't do it then I guess they can't. It's just strange that it seems like other apps can stay awake if they want.

Verizon has no block on the GPS and there is no extra charge to use any GPS app. I take that back, there is an extra charge to use VZnav, but there's no reason to use that since Google Nav is free and works great.

 

[joekuz]

Not trying to be an a$$...but none of the ped. apps you tried had a option in settings to...disable screen locking or auto lock...something of that nature....? App I mentioned earlier has this option as well as my golfgps, and a few other apps i have on phone currently....but only apps that may have a need to be "always on" have this....Very odd that a ped. app would be missing this...

 

[mario6619]

Step Counter - Pedometer Free Mario Hanna apk. Works perfect even after the screen goes to sleep.

 

[mikedt]

Are you using any so-called optimizers, task killer etc. that might be nixing the pedometer app.

 

[mario6619]

No.

 

[dwilliams10]

I thought I would put one of the available pedometer apps on my Incredible, thinking it shouldn't be too hard to find one as handy as what my old Sony Walkman phone shipped with (it ran when the screen was off, tracking my whole week's walking). Needless to say, I am disappointed that HTC does not support this functionality, causing any installed pedometer apps to quit counting steps as soon as the phone sleeps. With the supercharged battery which I plan on buying, I wouldn't be sweating so much the power consumption, and it's really disappointing to be left without the choice to let programs of my choice run. Will there be a fix for this problem anytime soon? Anyone happen to know, of if there's something else I can do about it?

I'd suggest you to install a new pedometer app. There are many good alternative out there. But if you're unsure which one to get, this list may help:
https://www.stepcounterpedometer.com/best-pedometer-apps/