HTC One M8 Marshmallow - Alarm Clock

[chrisw99]

Since updating to Marshmallow, my alarm clock app has not been going off at 6am, which it has done for months.

However, the alarm does go off the second I wake the phone up regardless of whatever time that happens to be.  It's as though the phone is now in some kind of deep sleep overnight until I wake the screen.

 I found this in a recent review of my alarm clock app...

When your phone is not used for a while in Android 6.0 some non essential apps will be frozen and their notifications won't show. This is called "doze". Alarm clock xtreme is one of these apps so if you put your phone down when you go to sleep, the app will get frozen and not show your alarm

So my question... How can I stop a particular app being frozen in Android 6.0?

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi

I do not use that phone but a member calles @jeffkinn does so I've tagged him in to see if he can help. 

In the interim is their an alternative alarm clock app you could download?

[chrisw99]

I think I've possibly found the answer, but I won't know till tomorrow morning.

Now in Android 6, there's a Battery Optimization under the Power settings.  Selecting this and then All Apps shows the battery optimization for each app, the default is Optimized (which means freeze the app when the phone has been in standby for a while).  I've changed the setting for Alarm Clock Xtreme, the app I use, to Off so lets see if it works as it should tomorrow morning..

[63johnw]

Hi, it could also be that the alarm clock app you are using hasnt yet been optimised for marshmallow.

[thesoupdragon]

The Stock HTC Clock's Alarm function works normally in both my M8 and M9 (both with Android 6.0)

HTC Clock is a system App so I imagine would not be affected by Doze? 

[chrisw99]

2 mornings since I turned off the battery optimization for the Alarm Clock Xtreme app, and it still isn't working. . e.g. this morning it was set for 7am, didn't go off.  As soon as I woke the screen at 7.23 the 7am alarm went off.

I guess I'll just use the system alarm clock instead.  Shame, there are a few nice features in the app I used.

[thesoupdragon]

I've just looked at the App (Alarm Clock Extreme) on the Play Store.

looking at the reviews other people on Marshmallow are having the same problem across different devices.

So it might pay for you to contact the Developer and request an update to fix the issue.

Link to Alarm Clock Extreme

TSD

[chrisw99]

If the issue is Android 6 freezing apps in standby to save battery, I doubt the developer will be able to do anything about it.  I'll give it a go though.

I quite liked the fact I could have a random playlist of mp3s as my alarm so I never knew what song I'd wake up to..!

[hrym]

The other possibility is that it's nothing to do with Doze and that the app hasn't been optimised for Marshmallow.   I'd certainly start with the developer.

One thing, and apologies if this has been asked before: have you tried clearing data for the app?   I had one that crashed after the upgrade and doing that fixed it.

[Nabs]

I'm guessing the alarm app you are using it utilising the Android Job Scheduler or the Android Alarm Manager (bothe build in system services). Since Doze now blocks these in Marshmallow your alarm app is never likely to run, at least not until the developer updates their app to support it.

@chrisw99 It may be worth contacting the developer of the app and pointing them to this page of the Android Developer Documentation which gives instructions on how to use some new code that's added to the Android Alarm Manager for exactly this purpose.