Alarm clock that works when phone powered off

chanchan05 · Jun 5, 2014

To be honest I don't recall seeing threads of Androids not keeping time correctly. I have a slew of Android devices, from cheap entry level ones to higher end ones, but all tell time correctly.

If the device in question is a cheap branded chinese device or clone, it's an unfair generalization. I done think those stuff even go through quality control, and it won't be the fault of Android but the manufacturer, since they are the ones who build the kernel for their devices, not Google.

Deleted User · Jun 5, 2014

Jeran2 said:
Android phones tell time perfectly?

There are so many threads on here and elsewhere complaining about this problem.

And as far as I can tell, I have never heard of an iPhone user complaining about this time keeping issue.

If Apple can do it, why can't androids do it?

Mine does, and every other Android I've owned does. You're not alone with the problem you're experiencing, but neither are we who have never had this problem.

Simon_Gardner · Jun 5, 2014

Jeran2 said:
iPhones are cheaper?

Yup. My Note 3 cost

Hadron · Jun 6, 2014

Jeran2 said:
Android phones tell time perfectly?

There are so many threads on here and elsewhere complaining about this problem.

Never had that with any of my devices. Only person I know who had a timing problem with their Android phone was when his phone picked up a network from a neighbouring country which was in a different time zone and resynced to that.

Conversely, if you are citing iPhones as perfect time-keepers, do a quick Web search on the problems they've had with the Spring/Autumn time changes. Not once, which would have been forgivable, but many times.

Seriously, if a phone isn't keeping time there will be a reason, but it's not intrinsic to the OS. I could imagine that an old phone (dead CMOS battery) would lose time if powered down, and if not set to synch time from the network that could be a problem. But it's not a general Android feature.

Deleted User · Jun 6, 2014

I've seen a thread or two around here on the subject, for both Jeran2's model, and I think there is one on the Moto G as well. I suspect the OEMs dropped the ball somewhere, as no one seems to have a fix that works every time, nor do they seem to be in a rush to correct it. All that being said, Hadron, I agree with you in that Google isn't to blame here.

Slug · Jun 6, 2014

Jeran2 said:
And my question is why doesn't someone design a modern android phone to do this?

They have - see posts #23 and #39.

I don't know how hard it would be to write a program for androids to actually keep the correct time

The clock is maintained by the hardware itself, similar to how a PC's internal clock is maintained by the computer BIOS.

There are several apps in the Play Store which will synchronise a device with NNTP servers, but they require root access. The Automatic date & time option in Settings/Date & Time is much less reliable, so if you have that enabled try switching it off and see if the clock maintains better accuracy.

Puddy Tat · Jun 6, 2014

Well this will gag you.
Reading through threads and saw this one and it rang a bell. I have a Huawei Y300 and the clock app is set to a time and I can hold the power button, phone displays the shut down choices, pick shut down, phone takes time to do whatever they do when shutting down, screen goes blank. Phone will not ring. If you hit the power button quickly it does nothing. Hold it and the startup or splash screen shows. Several seconds the phone is up and running. So to me that is off.
Set the alarm clock and shut the phone off and wait for alarm. All of a sudden the splash screen shows, phone comes alive, alarm goes off. Press the "alarm off" button and alarm stops and phone shuts down again. The phone app came with the phone and cannot be deleted. Listed as system app. I only stumbled into this action a few days ago when the alarm went off and I knew I had shut the phone off.
.
Update: Checked it again after phone was off. Pulled the battery for two minutes and replaced. Alarm worked just fine.

MLSS · Jun 14, 2014

I have owned 3 Android phones and have never had any issues with the time being off......

dvhttn · Jun 15, 2014

Slug said:
..... There are several apps in the Play Store which will synchronise a device with NNTP servers, but they require root access. The Automatic date & time option in Settings/Date & Time is much less reliable, so if you have that enabled try switching it off and see if the clock maintains better accuracy.

Wot ^^^^ said.

I've never had my Android phome be out by any more than a few seconds and I now use one of the time sync programs anyway. When I had Nokias they would ALWAYS need resetting when the clocks changed even though they were set to automatic update via the network. They always had the latest firmware and I 'searched' the interweb a few times but never found an answer. But my Android phone just 'works' (in this respect).

Just saying that's what I've experienced. As other posts indicate, people's mileage may vary ......

Dave

asdfaf · Jun 29, 2014

Additional note: for those who are really interested in shutting down their phones at night, and who are really interested in the alarm sounding from power off. I've been selling chinese android phones for more than a year, and never seen one which can't do that. seems that generally all that brands take care to implement that whatever-it-is which allows the phone to do that, and a built-in alarm app which is able to communicate to that system

ddal79 · Dec 1, 2014

Hi Just picked up a gs4 on sale. I was also very upset just coming from a waaaayyy outdated metro pcs coolpad which had this alarm ability. I literally just stumbled across this forum as I tried to set my gs4 for an alarm as i turned it off to charge. Sheesh sometimes the latest and greatest is not all that its craked up to be

tc35_98 · Mar 8, 2015

Most of your phones never truly go 100% off. What you think is off is simply a very low-power state, like a stand-by. We should take the off-state in a relative perspective.

My old blackberry would do this. It even went one step over, even if it down by due to slow battery, it will still wake up and give alarm, but that feature went away with the OS upgrade. I put a pre-paid SIM card in it just to make sure the time is kept up to date, and it keeps accurate time for waking up as I travel around the world. It is a wonderful solution. It is wonderfully reliable.

My Lenovo (Android phone), after being flashed, seems to also do this. If any of you is interested, I'll pay more attention to it and let you know.

Collin3 · May 9, 2015

tc35_98 said:
Most of your phones never truly go 100% off. What you think is off is simply a very low-power state, like a stand-by. We should take the off-state in a relative perspective.

My old blackberry would do this. It even went one step over, even if it down by due to slow battery, it will still wake up and give alarm, but that feature went away with the OS upgrade. I put a pre-paid SIM card in it just to make sure the time is kept up to date, and it keeps accurate time for waking up as I travel around the world. It is a wonderful solution. It is wonderfully reliable.

My Lenovo (Android phone), after being flashed, seems to also do this. If any of you is interested, I'll pay more attention to it and let you know.

I'd like to know what's the model of your Lenovo Android phone. I had old Nokia phones which all could do this , but now it's so hard to find a smartphone which would have this simple function. I'm looking for a new smartphone right now and certainly want to get a phone with this nice function.

Dingledoodie · Jun 7, 2015

Just found this old thread today as I've recently upgraded my phone from the HTC One to the HTC One M8.

The M8 is the first mobile handset I've ever owned that doesn't alarm from being off. (I've owned several Nokia's and HTC's over the last 15 years).

The alarm-from-off feature was very useful for me at work. We're not allowed our phones on so I'd switch off and put it in my drawer. I had alarms set to remind me of my break times. I often used to forget and work through them!

So aside from just morning alarms, I've found the feature really useful for various reasons over the years. I love my new M8 but I'm really missing that feature.

EarlyMon · Jun 7, 2015

Dingledoodie said:
So aside from just morning alarms, I've found the feature really useful for various reasons over the years. I love my new M8 but I'm really missing that feature.

HTC has had a not-really-off mode under Power settings called fast boot and it was defaulted to on, but I don't think that it is anymore. Eventually they started advising against it as it caused instability issues. It's possible that they fixed it. I just turned it on with my M8 and tried it out - the alarm didn't work for me. You might want to check though as I have no end of root mods on mine.

I grabbed one of my older HTCs without the feature and it wouldn't alarm through power off, so I'm guessing that it may have been tied to that on your HTCs.

Humdrummer · Jun 21, 2015

I owned a Nokia 6250(?) flipphone a & loved setting the alarm to wake me op.
Them my battery died, but had a spare & inserted it. Unfortunately, I was late getting up. Alarm apparently terminated due to removing battery.
That's when I figured out my Nokia was not " truely shut off, but in a sleep mode. PULLING the BATTERY will show if yours is Off or ONLY SLEEPING.
Good luck finding a good one & Don't forget to post your results. Thanks

Marcus Storn · Aug 13, 2015

People who wants the alarm to sound when their Android smartphone is powered OFF should go for one of the Chinese brands. Most of them have enabled this most useful feature in their Android offerings. My Alcatel Onetouch Idol 3 will happily wake up from a totally powered-off state, sound the alarm at the preset time and then power off again immediately.

That's how it worked with ALL Symbian phones, whether dumb phones or smartphones, that's how Blackberry used to work and that's how modern smartphones should work! Hear Samsung and Apple!

Hadron · Aug 13, 2015

You do know that Alcatel are French, not Chinese?

Marcus Storn · Aug 13, 2015

LOL!

ALCATEL ONETOUCH is a brand within TCL Communication, an international multicultural company which designs, develops, and markets globally a growing range of mobile and Internet devices. TCL Communication is a public company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (2618.HK) and part of TCL Corporation one of the largest consumer electronics companies in the world.

mikedt · Aug 13, 2015

Alcatel Mobile is a join venture between TCL and Alcatel Lucent. The phones are made by TCL. They're branded as TCL Onetouch here in China, I don't see the Alcatel brand at all. TCL makes domestic products, TVs, air conditioners, fridges, washing machines, microwaves, etc. But they don't use the TCL brand much outside Asian markets, they use brands like RCA instead for things like TVs and Hotpoint for washing machines.

craigtow · Sep 9, 2015

I would just like to add that I am only here because I discovered only today after more than 2 years that my HTC One X will turn itself on from Powered OFF if an alarm is set. I thought that perhaps I had not turned it off properly, but I am able to reproduce the result every time.

Dingledoodie · Sep 9, 2015

craigtow said:
... I discovered only today after more than 2 years that my HTC One X will turn itself on from Powered OFF if an alarm is set.

Yeah, I had the One X. I've had the; Hero, Desire, One X, One and now the One (M8). Only the One (M8) won't alarm from off. Strange.

emjay18 · Sep 11, 2015

Methos1979 said:
You had a phone that could be powered off and it would turn itself on and wake you up like a clock? Really? I'd like to know what phone that was.

I thought the original post was some kind of joke when I first read it. Now there are great apps that put your phone into a sleep-like mode and can be configured to only allow certain callers or texters to get through (or none) and then turn on at the correct time and wake you. But work from being powered off? I call BS.

no, i actually had one quite some time ago which would do this. it wasn't a smart phone, just a simple flip, as i recall. i had turned it off one night, not needing or wanting it to wake me up in the morning, and i remember being amazed when it still did. i actually liked that feature, once i realized i even had it, lol! who knew?

RazzMaTazz · Sep 13, 2015

In airplane mode, Galaxy S5 loses like 1% battery overnight, or 3% when not in airplane mode.
So I have 2 questions:
1) Why would anybody want to turn their phone off?
2) Why did I read this thread?

dvhttn · Sep 13, 2015

RazzMaTazz said:
...
1) Why would anybody want to turn their phone off? ....

Because their phone is a phone and they're not interested in anything it may/may not do when they're asleep? Smart or not smart.

Dave

Alarm clock that works when phone powered off

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