Prevent Oreo or Pie to pause LocationListener when in background

Question

I've done an application for my personal use (GPS tracking when trekking, with sending position to another phone, for survey).

It was under Lolipop and working fine.

New phone, under Pie.

Working fine if application is in foreground, but set in pause by Pie when in background.

How to keep it working in background ?

I tried in "Device Care" > "Battery" > "App power management" unchecking "Adaptive battery" or "Put unsued apps to sleep" not work. I put my app in "Apps that won't be put to sleep" but don't work too.

Is there a "simple way" to programmaticaly keep my application active in background ?.

AndroidManifest ? Or same as for screen: getWindow().addFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_KEEP_SCREEN_ON);

My app is based on onLocationChanged(final Location location)

Thanks for help Regards

Answer 1

After searching a lot, I think I found the solution here : https://developer.android.com/training/location/permissions

The problem is that I got API29 (android 10) that require new permissions (not necessary in android 8 or 9).

it's in androidManifest.xml

If in foreground:

<!-- Recommended for Android 9 (API level 28) and lower. -->
<!-- Required for Android 10 (API level 29). -->
<service
    android:name="MyNavigationService"
    android:foregroundServiceType="location" ... >
    <!-- Any inner elements would go here. -->
</service>

or if in background:

<manifest ... >
  <!-- Required only when requesting background location access on
       Android 10 (API level 29). -->
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION" />
</manifest>

I only test foreground solution android:foregroundServiceType="location" and it is working fine.

Programming is hard job. Knowledge is harder.

Have fun. Thanks.

Answer 2

One of the options is to use Alarm Manager to request a run of a receiver time to time (say, every minute, or even every few seconds), or request location updates from LocationManager