Timer stops on its own after 1 hour and 40 minutes

Tkoo

i did not do anything. i paid for the pro version and shortly after that it started. every time now it does it, 1hr 40min exactly. every time

timo

There must be something different with your setup compared to other installations, because I've now only heard from 2 cases of this problem. I still don't know what that difference is.
Can you try to completely reinstall the app (make a backup of the database) and do not make any changes to the app (no sync, no setting changes), only import that database again and see if the problem continues?

Tkoo

timo i uninstalled and reinstalled this morning and then did a hour test and it ticked up to over 5 hrs by the time i came back. i did a backup and restore but whatever was acting up, it did not restore the 2-3 days of 1hr 40min, they are just gone. so whatever the glitch was. but it seems to be working now and good.

should i keep the google drive backup turned off?

timo

Tkoo Are you sure that you imported the backup file that you previously saved? I've never heard of a case in which data is not backed up to the backup file. Or are you referring to the sync?
You can test keeping the Google Drive sync off for a few days and then enabled it again. Maybe we can narrow down the problem source so I can reproduce it at some point.

miquellaboria

I have the same problem in two Macs, but it stops at 50 minutes....

timo

miquellaboria Did you read through the discussion and can rule out those options (timer stopped on other device and synced, stopped due to inactivity / idle detection, left the geofence)? What device are you using the app on?
I have no clue why the timer would just stop randomly

miquellaboria

timo I use the App on macOS (MacBook Pro & Mac Studio), the problem occurs in booth.
I start the timer and in 50 minutes it stops...
Actions I test:

I use Amphetamine App, to not allow Mac to Sleep.
I disable inactivity action. (But on all cases I'm working more than 1 hour).

But always at 50 minutes, the timer stops.

miquellaboria

timo Today I change from Google Drive to iCloud Sync, let's see if I can do some tests during today. I discuss anything here.

timo

miquellaboria Something must be triggering the stop... Is it always exactly 50 mins, even when you are working on the Mac? What exactly happens? Is the "popup" showing with "timer stopped"?

miquellaboria

timo Same problem with iCloud

I'm working and in the status bar I see Timer is stoped.
When open main window I find it's stoped exactly at 50 minutes:

carlosedubarreto

The same thing happened to me, I started using the software yesterday. (I read the whole post before wrinting here)
I bought the PC version and I'm using the trial on my android.

When working on the PC it kept running without problem, I didnt select any fancy option on the app in android and on the PC, since I work from home, the only thing that I had enabled was the google drive sync. but it was working very well during the morning, it kept running for more than 3h.

I remember that at afternoon, at some point the tracking stopped automatically. I dont remember what time it stopped, but I think it was around 1h40

When I went to sleep I put the software to track my sleep, when I woke in the middle of the night and went to check, it was stopped at 1h40.

I'm feeling that it might have something to do with android putting a process to sleep or something like that.

Now I stopped the sync and I'm going to test on the smartphone and on the pc at the same time for testing, to see if any of them will raise the problem.
As soon as I have a result I'll post again.

timo

carlosedubarreto Let me know if disabling the sync changes anything. It's a mystery to me what would stop the timer at exactly 1:40, and why it is only happening to you. This thread is from 2 years ago, since then I haven't heard about this issue any more

carlosedubarreto

timo I was feeling it might be something related to android, and now I'm thinking that it might be something related to the focus timer.
the funny thing is that while starting to track a tastk, it automatically showed me a notification about a pause, and that the pause was finished.
but I didnt start the focus timer, I just started tracking a task, I wasnt expecting that it would work like the focus timer.

Here is the notification I received, its in portuguese, it says, "Pause finished, Lets continue with the next session"

But this is how my focus timer is

Now I disabled the automatic start of session and interval to see if it makes any difference

carlosedubarreto

Intersting is that on my desktop the focus session was not started, but checking on on my android, it was running, but I didnt started it

See, I started a task here

when looking at the notification I saw that I was at session 2 of 4

And when looking that the focus session, it was running even that I didnt tell it to start.

I'm still letting it run to see if it will stop at 1h40, but it could be the reason for the problem?

If I remember right, in the morning I didnt have a problem, because I didnt install the software on my phone, at afternoon, I installed it on my android, and also enabled the sync via google drive. That was when I had problems.

I also dont remember changing any option about the focus session. Is it possible that the default options of focus session on mobile is causing this problem? It looks like it might be the real issue. I'm still letting it run on both desktop and mobile (without sync) to see if one of them will stop automatically and when.

I think I got it. I had the automatic pause and continue session enabled on my settings, and by default it seems that working hours tracks the times and warns about when I go over the time on the session focus. so it seems that if I have the automitc pause and continue enabled it could stop automatically.

I disabled it on the desktop and I'm running to see if it will go over 1h40 and on mobile I left it enabled.

carlosedubarreto

Hum, I think I got it.

The problem seems to be the mobile app.

You can see here when it was about to finish

And when it finished

From what I undertood, its not a problem its more of a confusion.
On the mobile App,. I was able to find some settings that could stop and start the session timer automatically and that it could sync with the time tracking.

In resume, I'm almost sure that disabling these 2 options, might solve the problem. I'm testing it now wihtout them enabled

so my guess is that people with the mobile version synced had both options enabled and that it then automatically disabled the tracking even if the person started the track on the desktop version.

When I finish testing on the mobile I'll send the final info.

BTW on desktop it went beyond 1h40 without a problem

On desktop, from the test that I did, just by disabling the automatic pause already helps, but the "main problem" is that some people (like me) disdt understand the options, and having automatic pause enabled as with the sync with the tracking time, was the real problem causing this stop.

Sorry for all the confusing text, I was trying to give as much information as possible, but I think it got a little confusing.
But hopefully It makes sense

timo

Oh that's a lot of info and text! Thanks for the detailed info.
So when you enable the "sync focus timer with time tracking "option then it's is expected behavior that starting either focus timer or the work timer starts the other timer as well (including the auto start/stop functionality of the focus timer, if configured).
The focus timer does not sync via the Cloud Sync, this is also expected behavior.
The focus timer should only start when either the work timer or the focus timer was started on the same device. Based on my tests, this is working as expected.

carlosedubarreto so my guess is that people with the mobile version synced had both options enabled and that it then automatically disabled the tracking even if the person started the track on the desktop version.

On what device do you have these focus timer settings enabled? If it's only on Android, but you start the timer on Windows, the Android app should not stop the timer

carlosedubarreto BTW on desktop it went beyond 1h40 without a problem

Probably because the timer stop & database change on Android side hasn't synced back to Windows yet

What would you suggest I should change?

carlosedubarreto

timo Yeah, sorry for the hectic info.
I was in a rush and also wanted to send the information, so it was not the best way.
About the configurations I used, I did so many tests that I dont remember actually. But very interesting to know that the config in the desktop wont affect the one in th mobile version and vice versa.

About the changes, I dont think it need changes, maybe just a warning when the person enables the "Auto start/stop" and/or the sync with time tracking. Or some visual information that could be seen in the time tracking view and on the swession timer, to know that the auto stop and the sync with session time is enabled. Just because it can be a little confusing to connect both information mentally.

Honestly, I think a visual sign would be better than a warning.

Because probably a few people will change that (like I did) but wont actually understand what happened, and having a sign could even be simpler to explain the the person. (like, if you seen the sign ... on, it means that the session timer will take control over the tracking time.... )

Thanks for all the info 🙌