[Q] Sygic stops GPS tracking in background after a while, yours too? - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi,
recently I tried out Sygic which works really nice except for one thing:
when Sygic is running in background after a while (seems randomly) the GPS message disappears (upper message in attached pic), the Sygic message remains (lower message in attached pic).
When I click the Sygic message, the app behaves as if I restarted it (says "initializing" on top right). Luckily, it remembers the old route.
Yet sometimes I don't drive myself and would like to do other stuff and have Sygic tracking in the background.
It works fine with Google maps.Yet not with Sygic. Especially when I launch any other app (even the browser, a video or something), Sygic stops tracking immediately (not always but often) or some time later.
GPS is set to never turn off in Sygic and all settings are set to "optimal".
Could that be the Android OS turning something off for Sygic as it might believe it's no longer used or something?

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Sygic is more sophisticated than Google maps and uses more ram. If you start opening other apps after Sygic then they will get higher priority in ram. Sygic doesn't really stop so much as get pushed out of memory until it gets switched to again. Not much you can do about it really.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

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Ah that explains the issue, already feared something like that.
The only annoying part is that it no longer tells me where to go when that happens.
Does anyone know whether this happens with other apps such as Navigon as well?

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Since the newest update (at least I didn't notice it before) Sygic has an option "Run navigation in back..." under Battery management.
Haven't tested it yet but that supposedly sets the oom_adj values low enough for the app not to get killed.

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Ah thanks, that is new indeed.
Yet I tried this and eventually the same thing happens sooner or later. :/

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Open Sygic.... go to SETTINGS than go to BATTERY MANAGEMENT (i don't know witch is the correct option in english as my SYGIC is in ITALIAN)... the first setting that is show to you is the opportunity to deactivate the GPS signal after a definite time.... change it!

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Yeah that option is now replaced, you can only check/uncheck it. I checked it so it keeps running in background but still shuts off after a while when using other apps.

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You're right. I have the same problem. This is ridiculous. You are running navigation and expect it to give you the directions at the right moment, but you don't know that in the meantime, while you got a phone call and checked your messages it was turned off silently and no longer working.
Without an option to guarantee it's working and can't be stopped in the background, you're as if you have no navigation at all.
If this can not be fixed it's better not to even install Sygic, cause this takes away a major part of what this app is meant to do. So stupid.
I have tried Igo and it was the same. How serious is that?! To have a navigation, which can stop while you're using it and need it, without warning!
Did anybody find a solution to this?

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Not really.
Either simply leave Sygic running in foreground / don't leave it running in background for a while or use a different app.
After I purchased it I also noticed some other annoying issues, e.g. voice says "take exit number 24" instead of how we navigate here "take next exit to A2" (our motorway navvigation signs do not show the exit numbers anyway), forcing me to look at the app way more often when there is an exit leading to 2 different motorways.
Due to such issues as well as this annoying "I die if you leave me running in background" I decided to switch to Navigon. Nicely, this app even tells you which motorway to take AND where it leads to, so I don't even need to look at it.
I haven't run a full test yet. Yet I left a video running in full screen and Navigon kept running in background navigating. Once I know more, I report back (if I don't forget). In any case, I wished I didn't have spent the money for Sygic after all. What do free map updates any good when the app isn't suiting oneself.
P.S.: I did inform Sygic support about the background issue and they requested more information as they didn't experience this issue yet. I provided that but didn't get another reply, the thread was then archived.

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Landorin said:
Not really.
Either simply leave Sygic running in foreground / don't leave it running in background for a while or use a different app.
After I purchased it I also noticed some other annoying issues, e.g. voice says "take exit number 24" instead of how we navigate here "take next exit to A2" (our motorway navvigation signs do not show the exit numbers anyway), forcing me to look at the app way more often when there is an exit leading to 2 different motorways.
Due to such issues as well as this annoying "I die if you leave me running in background" I decided to switch to Navigon. Nicely, this app even tells you which motorway to take AND where it leads to, so I don't even need to look at it.
I haven't run a full test yet. Yet I left a video running in full screen and Navigon kept running in background navigating. Once I know more, I report back (if I don't forget). In any case, I wished I didn't have spent the money for Sygic after all. What do free map updates any good when the app isn't suiting oneself.
P.S.: I did inform Sygic support about the background issue and they requested more information as they didn't experience this issue yet. I provided that but didn't get another reply, the thread was then archived.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you also for the way Sygic works. It's s not that great. Thanks for sharing about Navigon. Please, test it and post here if the situation with "silent background death" is the same. I would appreciate it if you let me know and will be checking to see how you feel about it when you post your comments.

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tiho5 said:
I agree with you also for the way Sygic works. It's s not that great. Thanks for sharing about Navigon. Please, test it and post here if the situation with "silent background death" is the same. I would appreciate it if you let me know and will be checking to see how you feel about it when you post your comments.
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Click to collapse
I have been using Sygic for quite a long time and noticed that on my Galaxy Captivate, after initialization, if you switch to some other app then return to Sygic (either from the app icon, or from the task bar) it always restart.
However on my Galaxy S3 after switch back to Sygic it just continues wherever it left off. I guess that my Captivate had less memory to run Sygic while I have plenty on the S3.
Also in Sygic, go to Settings / Notifications and Sounds / Advanced and turn "Sound always on" would let Sygic to continue to turn-by-turn announcement even if it is not in the foreground, even when the screen is off.

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I have plenty of free memory (using HTC one x) and still it's killed. But this is not a problem of sygic. it's a problem of Android. Or may be indrrd sygic didn't make the right settings for the memory registration of this app (if that's something that they could do). As I see the oom values of this app are pretty high usually when I check.
Also about the voice: I have this option checked. But I never had an occasion when it spoke to me when it was killed. I'll check again. May be I didn't notice it...
Thanks for your comment on that. I'm surely going to test this.

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tiho5 said:
I have plenty of free memory (using HTC one x) and still it's killed. But this is not a problem of sygic. it's a problem of Android. Or may be indrrd sygic didn't make the right settings for the memory registration of this app (if that's something that they could do). As I see the oom values of this app are pretty high usually when I check.
Also about the voice: I have this option checked. But I never had an occasion when it spoke to me when it was killed. I'll check again. May be I didn't notice it...
Thanks for your comment on that. I'm surely going to test this.
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Click to collapse
You probably you haven't set the option to switch off GPS after a certain amount of time. Go to Settings /Battery management / Switch GPS off after... then move the slider until you see "never".

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pentel1954 said:
You probably you haven't set the option to switch off GPS after a certain amount of time. Go to Settings /Battery management / Switch GPS off after... then move the slider until you see "never".
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Click to collapse
Thanks for trying to help. This option is set properly to "never" with me.

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Hey all,
sorry for the late reply.
Sad news: Navigon dies in background as well. Just like Sygic, it doesn't always happen. But once you start using other apps actively it will eventually kill Sygic and Navigon silently. As someone already pointed out, it's likely an issue due to how Android works.
I had the relevant options ticked to never disable GPS or anything and it made no difference.
So you can use another app but you can't actively use your smartphone, e.g. I can have Poweramp run in foreground and switch tracks without Navigon dying (it also keeps talking to me via voice, even when the screen is turned off). But if you're not the driver and want to do more than just that then you'd need a second device or so.
Cheers,
Landorin
P.S.: at least now I could test both apps and personally, I'll stick with Navigon. Navigation by voice is so well developed that I don't need to look at the app while driving and if I do look at it, track assistant is better developed too (it shows you the motorway signs). With the app "Directory Bind" I was also able to move the whole big app + maps onto the external SD card.
Hopefully, the Sygic devs will listen to the community feedback and catch up in development over time.

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Landorin said:
Hey all,
sorry for the late reply.
Sad news: Navigon dies in background as well. Just like Sygic, it doesn't always happen. But once you start using other apps actively it will eventually kill Sygic and Navigon silently. As someone already pointed out, it's likely an issue due to how Android works.
I had the relevant options ticked to never disable GPS or anything and it made no difference.
So you can use another app but you can't actively use your smartphone, e.g. I can have Poweramp run in foreground and switch tracks without Navigon dying (it also keeps talking to me via voice, even when the screen is turned off). But if you're not the driver and want to do more than just that then you'd need a second device or so.
Cheers,
Landorin
P.S.: at least now I could test both apps and personally, I'll stick with Navigon. Navigation by voice is so well developed that I don't need to look at the app while driving and if I do look at it, track assistant is better developed too (it shows you the motorway signs). With the app "Directory Bind" I was also able to move the whole big app + maps onto the external SD card.
Hopefully, the Sygic devs will listen to the community feedback and catch up in development over time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this elaborate report. It will be useful for many.
And yes, the navigation soft producers must make some conclusions.
If I find a good way to protect an app from being killed, I'll post it here.

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