How do I prevent my GPS-tracking app from stopping?

Question

I'm running a very simple open-source Android GPS tracker:



https://github.com/herverenault/Self-Hosted-GPS-Tracker



I have it set to post GPS coordinates from my phone to my server every 30 seconds. The problem is: it sometimes works, and sometimes sleeps for 3 minutes, or 8 minutes, or sometimes seems like it is completely stopped.



What might be causing this and is there anyway to prevent it from happening?



This is not a "secret" app or malicious in anyway; the person running it knows they are running it. I just don't want to make the user re-launch the app every 5 minutes, or even whenever they restart their device (which the code says it supports already).


— Bing | Sources

Answer

The Android OS intentionally tries to prevent applications like this from running to prevent battery drain. For Android 6 specifically, you need to know about the doze and app standby features. Doze prevents applications from running when the device is not in use. App standby defers network activity for seldom-used applications. Both of these are likely affecting your usage.



Running GPS (actual GPS, not just location services), is a huge power drain.



If you don't care about power, you can try:




  1. Keep device on with your application in foreground.

  2. Whitelist your application for doze and app standby (see above link).


— mattm | Sources

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