Huawei phone which doesn't stop tracking?

[Searcher2]

4 of my family/friends have Huawei P30/P30 Pro phones which we use for hiking navigation. The problem with AlpineQuest, for us, is that if we don't look at AlpineQuest relatively frequently the app will stop tracking (even though the Track Recorder toggle is still in the On position after the tracking has stopped). The only setting I can see to keep the app alive is Settings/Battery/App Launch/AlpineQuest/Manage Manually and ensure all options are on (auto launch, secondary launch and run in background). No enhanced battery saving options are on.

I know it has been said that it could just be down to the optimisation within the Huawei phone and there is nothing that can be done about it, but in frustration I looked around and found that MMTracker (which I used to use) has been resurrected so I installed that. As part of the install process the app asks if the system should keep running when the screen is off (or something to that effect). My partner now runs MMTracker to track routes without an issue. She has tried running both at the same time and AlpineQuest on its own and AlpineQuest always stops tracking part way through the walk.

I am still running AlpineQuest but still get tracking issues so wondered if anyone has got an Huawei phone which doesn't have this issue - and if so, what settings they have adjusted to get it to track reliably? I hope I am just missing something as I am guessing that MMTracker changes a setting as part of its install process specific to MMTracker which I don't know about (yet).

[Psyberia-Support]

Hi,
I've added various known settings based on user feedbacks concerning problems with the track recorder here: https://www.alpinequest.net/en/help/v2/ ... _recording.
Unfortunately I don't know other settings, but until now, all users having similar problems resolved the issue by changing some system settings (but maybe P30 hasn't been tested yet).

Note that the Android system has only one optimisation setting for apps (called "Allow battery optimisations", that you can turn off for specific apps). The application asks the user to turn off this setting when you first start the tracker, and changes the setting by itself if granted to do so.
All other optimisations are added by the manufacturer overlay, so sometimes it's difficult to know which one is the cause (and the app cannot ask user to disable it).
One option you have is to contact the Huawei support and ask them how to disable all optimisation settings.

The last question is why MMTracker is not optimized. If the app is not distributed on the Play Store, then it may have less optimisations applied on it (for example they can still request complete device files access or turn on GPS while in the background, whereas it's no more possible for app published on the Play Store).
But this is only a possibility.

[Searcher2]

Thanks for the reply. I really want to get it sorted without having to buy a different phone - because whilst MMTracker is good for the UK, I don't have maps for other countries. I am no techie but it seems to me that it's just the track recorder that gets stopped and not the whole Alpine Quest app. As an example, TomTom just gets shut down completely after a period of inactivity and I have to restart it. With AlpineQuest the app still appears to be open, The Track Recorder toggle is still in the on position but the track is not being recorded. Since your reply I have checked the battery settings againand they appear identical to my MMTracker settings.

[geofactotem]

This may not help but here goes. We both have Honor 9 phones (part of the Huawei group). Obviously I use Alpine Quest but my wife uses a different mapping app simply because it links to its website where if it can be bothered it synchronises her tracks to give an annual total. She doesn't use it for mapping and the only thing I have managed to teach her is how to read the coordinates if we have an accident. Anyway I digress. Just recently she has noticed that her app now drops the track ( randomly) from time to time. Except it is not random it is when she uses the phone to take a photo. She now presses resume or something afterwards and it is problem solved after a fashion. (It is not an issue with AQ). So there might be something that you are doing seemingly unconnected that is causing the issue.

[Psyberia-Support]

Searcher2, unfortunately and as already explained, the application cannot correctly work if the system closes it or closes its tracking service.
The only way to fix this, is to setup the system so it leaves the application work correctly.
If you cannot find any setting to prevent the system to kill apps (which is a serious problem for a system), you can try to contact the Huawei support.

Note that Huawei devices always had issues with applications running the in the background (see here for example), unfortunately I cannot recommend this brand anymore.

[Searcher2]

Thanks. The main reason for the post was to try to find out if anyone else had the same problem and overcome it.

After the post above I took a photo whilst tracking and it didn't affect the tracking. However, on my last 2 walks in have set MMtracker and AlpineQuest running at the same time. The tracking on MMTracker has been killed off but AQ tracking has continued. Not conclusive but I will keep trying this method. On my partner's phone MMTracker keeps running whilst AQ tracking gets killed. So odd. Whilst I appreciate you don't recommend Huawei phones I don't really want to change it just yet. It's waterproof, fast and has a great camera... ideal for hiking

[Psyberia-Support]

I completely understand, you should be able to use the app smoothly on any device, it's completely legitimate...
It's just that I'm feeling helpless.