Help Reminder Alarms Not sounding or Displaying

Thanks for the reply.

My thinking here is that 'something happened' at some point between October 23rd, when I first started using the phone, and the end of October. The Titanium Backup I am using in which I did not restore system data was made October 29th. I (regretfully) did not think to make one right after I got the phone. So I am concerned that any system files saved in that backup may already be 'corrupt'. That's why I only wanted to use the Apps and their data during the restoration, but avoid restoring any possibly affected system data.

I think if there were a problem with the ringtone files not getting restored then none of my alarms would ever sound. But some of the daily repeating alarms do, and all of the non-repeating alarms (such as any I make to remember something later in the day) seem to work just fine. This issue of daily repeating alarms suddenly not sounding is one that dates back for me through 7 devices and 3 operating systems. I personally feel that whoever writes the software for smartphone and PDA calendars has bugs in their programming, and it never has gotten fixed since the 90s. It's always been the same issue from Palm OS thru Windows Mobile and now Android. But previously I was always able to 'fix it' (until the next surprise outage) by reformatting and rebuilding the device. This time that doesn't seem to be working. However, Android OS is the first OS I have used which relies on 'cloud storage' (Google account). I really think something is wrong on THEIR side of the issue, and they aren't doing anything about it. When I make several changes to reminder alarms either on a phone or with the online Google Calendar, I have problems trying to get them to sync and show all the alarms on both places. Sometimes I have to sync many times, de-select which calendars to use, then re-select them, and even after all that it might take 15-30 minutes even by wi-fi for Google to sync their calendar with my phone. I found tons of forum posts tonight by Android phone users with the same issues, and usually no solution.

The update to my previous post is that the alarms worked (mosty) up through 10PM tonight. Then, the 2 alarms following that did not go off on either the Droid X OR the Ally. After that, the final daily repeating alarm of today at 11:15 did sound on time. Whatever is causing this is 'hit or miss'.

I just turned off the settings I found under Settings/Privacy which allow your data to be backed up and restored to/from Google servers. Then I did another Factory Reset. This time I even had to re-activate the Droid X with Verizon. I have my Google account set up, but I am not going to restore or install ANY apps or data. I'll revert to using my Ally, and see if tomorrow's alarms happen to sound or not on the Droid X. If they do, then I can start restoring my apps one at a time per day, and see if I can figure out which one may possibly be tied into the problem. I should know something by 2012. It sucks, but I have tried everything else I know how to do.

The DX just sounded a test repeating alarm I had made yesterday which fires at 12:10 AM (I'm a night owl). So that's a good start. The first alarm of the day is about 13 hours away.

Bottom line......When Motorola pushed the GB OTA for the Droid X they broke something in the calendar notification system. The Motorola and Verizon forums have extensive threads where users are complaining about all the exact same symptoms I was seeing.

I have SBF'd back to the full .340 Froyo ROM, and all my alarm problems have vanished!



But for those who like puzzles, here's one. During the scope of my lack of reliable reminder alarms on the DX, I was using my LG Ally instead (both phones are fully operational). It was sounding all my daily repeating alarms for the same calendar. Once I finally got the DX fixed, I turned off the radio and sound on the Ally, so I wouldn't have to dismiss duplicate alarms. The alarms on the Ally would silently stack up and then I dismissed several say a time later on. But on day 2 old doing this, and every day since, the Ally has not displayed any alarms at all. Because it its on airplane mode, it has no link to the online Google calendar, so it cannot know I am dismissing the alarms on the DX as they occur. I expected it would continue to silently stack up alarms.

I now wonder if the ' rollover' event that tells the calendar to start a new daily repeating alarm cycle also requires radio contact with the cloud based Google calendar?

Does anyone know the answer?

More to add - I had the Ally briefly on the air last night (turned of Airplane Mode) and then turned Airplane mode back on before I retired for the evening.

Today it is displaying my daily repeating alarms again (with the sound currently turned off and on Airplane mode). This sure looks to me like proof that in order for daily repeating alarms on the Google calendar to 'roll over' at midnight, the phone must be able to communicate with their calendar server. It apparently doesn't happen locally within the phone's calendar app.

ndex477 said:

Is your phone synced w/your Google email calendar? Just wondering?

Click to expand...

Yes, it is. I have tried using PimlicalA in its mode where only the phone`s internal calendar gets used and it doesn't sync with anything. Even that way the daily repeating alarms would stop sounding eventually.

So far only two solutions have worked. One is to stay on Froyo and never update to GB. The second I am just trying today, but it looks promising. I have upgraded to .605 GB and then flashed Cyanogen Mod 7 for the GB kernel. So far since setting that up the DX has reliably sounded every alarm using the synced Google calendar and PimlicalA. I'll know in a few days if it will remain reliable. One of the mod folks told me he thought the CM7 ROMs fixed this problem.

Cyanogen Mod 7 FIXES, that's FIXES this problem!! I have not had a single missed alarm in all the time I ran CM7 on my DX since the above post.

As I understand it from doing a lot of online research, when Motorola got their hands on Gingerbread to muck it up with all their crapware, and then push it out to the DX, they had broken the alarm notifier software. They know about it, but don't care.

However, I have since upgraded to a Galaxy S III, so the Droid X is now retired.

Root your Droid X and Flash CM7. You won't regret it.