Alarm does nor work unless phone active

[sargan]

I have SGS - vanilla f/w 2.1
In UK on an unlocked phone, with Vodafone SIM.

Set alarm (standard clock) ... and it does not work if phone switched off ! .... works OK if phone is switched on ... but not if phone is off, which is normal overnight.

I amazed ,my 14 yr old Nokia does this no problem ! ..... I googled around and on some other Samsung phones you can fix it under profiles ... but can't find a solution for SGS .
This seems a significant bug.
Any work around ?

[extorian]

This is the same for nearly all smartphones. The phone has to be switched on as the alarm clock is just an app like any other that runs on top of the operating system. You can no more process a video in Windows while your PC is turned off than you can have your alarm clock sound an alarm on an Android phone.

Nokia use a different system. The alarm clock is in hardware and can hence turn the phone on or sound an alarm even if the phone is off. However, you can't replace the alarm clock on Nokias unlike the hundreds that are available on Android.

What most people do is charge their phones over night while switched on. If you're concerned about it disturbing you with calls / emails / texts while asleep then simply put it on silent when you go to bed and plug it in, or use one of the hundreds of apps that can do this automatically.

[sargan]

Wow .. that is a serious 'flaw' or omission if you don't like word flaw.

I am on my 4th smart phone, and this is the first one that could not wake itself up to sound a set alarm.

If you had a new car and found remote unlocking would not work, and manufacturers response was it's a software unlocking program, and only works when engine is running - obvioulsy I need to unlock when engine is off .......... doesn't it sound ludicrous.


I travel a lot on business and for years have relied on my phone being the alarm clock ... always worked, and I don't take a charger with me, just charge phone during day via USB.


So it looks like I will have to 'go back in time' and either buy an alarm clock, or carry a mains charger.

In your suggestion of putting it on silent overnight, does then that allow the alarm to ring even if rest of phone is silent ? you mention use one of many apps .... care to suggest one or more for me to look at.

[Scythe]

I am on my 4th smart phone, and this is the first one that could not wake itself up to sound a set alarm.

Uhh...I've had a quite a few as well and none of them powered on to sound an alarm. That's controlled by the hardware. It's also not a flaw, since the alarm isn't dysfunctional. Especially since 95% of smart phones follow the same behavior...

If you had a new car and found remote unlocking would not work, and manufacturers response was it's a software unlocking program, and only works when engine is running - obvioulsy I need to unlock when engine is off .......... doesn't it sound ludicrous.

That's not really a valid example since the context is completely different. Does your car's built-in GPS turn on when the car is off? That'd be more relevant.

In your suggestion of putting it on silent overnight, does then that allow the alarm to ring even if rest of phone is silent ? you mention use one of many apps .... care to suggest one or more for me to look at.

Just put the phone on silent and the alarm will come on just fine when its time for it to go off.

[extorian]

Don't get me wrong - I missed this feature originally too (I came to Android from a Nokia N95 2 years ago).

However, it doesn't sound ludicrous to me no. Android phones are more powerful than most PCs were just a few years ago. They are far closer to working like a PC works than a phone. As such, I don't expect it to do stuff when it's powered off. In fact it's comforting to know that some random alarm isn't going to go off while I'm in a library or cinema or somewhere where I would normally turn my phone off. Off should mean off.

To use your car analogy, you would also find it ludicrous if when buying a new car you couldn't choose the engine, colour, size, model, etc. Android gives you a choice of what alarm app to use, but to do so the alarm clock has to be an application, and hence the phone needs to be switched on to run it, just like any app.

I still don't understand the problem of keeping your phone switched on over night. It's surely less hassle as you don't need to remember to turn it off, and you don't need to remember to turn it on when it comes to the morning. Meanwhile it has a number of advantages. Your alarm will work. Your phone will log all missed calls and messages that occur while you're asleep, and all your emails will be sat there waiting for you. We've already discussed how to make it not disturb you while asleep.

If you're away and you charge your phone via USB during the day, then it will surely have plenty of power to last over night (I'd make sure it was at least 20% charged). If my SGS can last a whole day from 9am to midnight on with 90% battery still remaining then you don't need that much to last over night while it's not being used. So, again, just keep it switched on?

The alarm will ring if it's on silent, yes. In fact you can adjust all of the volumes individually (Ring, Alarm, Notification, Media, System, etc), but the silent mode does NOT silence the alarm - it only silences the Ringtones and Notification tones. Also when you set the alarm itself there are a bunch of options to set volume for that specific alarm.

None of the other alarm apps will switch the phone on, but if you just want to see what some offer (such as asking you a mathematics question before it turns off, or gradual wake up, shake to stop, etc) here some:

http://www.androlib.com/android.appl...reme-BtCF.aspx
http://www.androlib.com/android.appl...eter-tEwA.aspx
http://www.androlib.com/android.appl...erl-jiEiC.aspx
http://www.androlib.com/android.appl...ock-jACxi.aspx
http://www.androlib.com/android.appl...phit-xFBD.aspx
http://www.androlib.com/android.appl...rmed-qzwB.aspx
http://www.androlib.com/android.appl...agic-EjiC.aspx
http://www.androlib.com/android.appl...mpro-wAjA.aspx
http://www.androlib.com/android.appl...dock-DtED.aspx
http://www.androlib.com/android.appl...free-BFpn.aspx

There's around 680 apps which mention "alarm" listed here anyway - obviously not all are alarm apps, but many are: http://www.androlib.com/r.aspx?r=alarm&ap=2&ar=4

[Mary Curtis]

Wow, I wish I would have known about this before purchasing my Android. I hope that manufacturers come up with something that allows for the phone to be shut off and have the wake-up alarm work, like my old phone did.

[Mary Curtis]

Wow, I wish I would have known about this before purchasing my Android. I hope that manufacturers come up with something that allows for the phone to be shut off and have the wake-up alarm work, like my old phone.

[extorian]

When I came to Android from my Nokia N95 a few years ago, I too felt like this. But now I wouldn't have it any other way.

Do you really want to have to wait for your phone to boot, all your emails to download, all your text messages to arrive, and not know about any important missed calls you might have got during the night? Why not just have your phone switched on through then night?

The reason I used to prefer my phone off was because I didn't want to be disturbed during the night by stuff. But that's not a problem with Android because it is so much more powerful than that. I use Tasker to automatically put my phone into silent, dim the screen to minimum, etc, if I plug it in to charge if it's between 11pm and 9am and place it face down. I have it come out of silent automatically if any of those aren't true (e.g. when I unplug it when I get up). Remember alarm's don't have to be silenced by having your phone in silent mode, so you won't miss them. Smart phones have to be charged every day anyway, so the above system works very well.

[rkoshler]

Understand that our phones are not phones, they are computers that allow you to make and receive calls. Can your laptop turn on by itself to wake you up and make you coffee?

android development and android developer

[magicunicorn]

try pouring water on it