Watch-initiated time sync not functional

[BryanJacobs]

This app does not automatically send time to the watch when the watch connects. It should do that, because without doing that, watch-initiated automatic time sync does not work. If you think there are people out there who wouldn't want the time sync to be automatic, you could add an option to disable it, but... I don't see why this wouldn't be an "always" thing on connection.

As a side note, it would also be nice if there were an intent to reliably launch the app in the background. Right now I have automation launch the app and then send it away, but it'd be better if I could ensure the app were running for automatic time sync from phone -> watch.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. With a GW-B5600 watch, enable "automatic time sync".
2. Launch the G-Shock Smart Sync app with Bluetooth enabled.
3. Wait until 00:30:30, 06:30:30, 12:30:30, or 18:30:30 exactly by the watch's time
4. Witness the watch rapidly connect to the phone and then disconnect, but not sync time (no "recv" text on display)

Expected behavior
The watch should automatically sync with the phone four times per day.

[izivkov]

Thanks, I will look into it.

I was under the impression that when auto-syncing, the app will run its actions. (The app cannot tell difference between auto-connect or short-press lower-right button). If one of your action is "Set Time", the time will be set. In addition, the user may want to sync watch's reminders, etc, so this is a more flexible way to sync other things in addition to time.

As you say, there maybe a difference between button connection and auto-connection. I will find out, and then we can decide whether to run actions, or set time only. This app is not an exact copy of the official app, so I did not try to emulate all functionalities. After all, time sync is just a short press away, by setting an action to set time, and running the action. But good features should be implemented.

About the app running at the background, this is done in other apps by setting a notification, which always shown on the top of the phone. I personally find this very annoying, and this is why I did not implement it. Hope we can hear form other users about this.

[BryanJacobs]

I do have "set time" as the only action for custom actions, and it's not happening when the watch auto-connects. If I click the button in the app it works fine.

Personally, I don't particularly want to use the phone at all. I just want the watch to keep perfectly correct time without my interacting with anything manually. I live outside the radius covered by the atomic clock radio stations, so syncing from my phone is the best way to have a perfect watch.

On Android 12, a background notification can be reduced to one line ("minimized"), making it no substantial problem, but that wasn't exactly what I was asking for. I'm fine launching the app using automation, it would just be nice if there were a way to launch it with a non-foreground activity via an Intent. It only needs to stay running for ~2m for the watch to sync, not continually.

[izivkov]

Just to clarify about the last point - is this activity something you would write yourself, or is it an android setup?

[BryanJacobs]

Goal: When the phone's bluetooth is enabled, any time the automatic sync on the watch runs, the watch time is set.

Possible implementations in descending order of convenience:

1. Whenever a paired watch BT-connects to the phone, the app pushes time, even if the app is not running all. Unsure this is possible at all with Android - I don't know you can run the app on every BT device connect.
2. Whenever a paired watch BT-connects to the phone while the app is running, the app pushes time to the watch. The app can be launched in the background via an Intent. I use automation outside the app to send the Intent. (answering your question: the code for receiving the Intent and using a non-background Activity need to be in the app; the code for sending the Intent is in automation software outside the app).
3. Whenever a paired watch BT-connects to the phone while the app is running, the app pushes time to the watch. The app has a "scheduled run mode" where it launches itself at particular times. This is not great because who wants to write another scheduler.
4. Whenever a paired watch BT-connects to the phone while the app is running, the app pushes time to the watch. I use automation outside the app to launch the app's MainActivity on a schedule. This is not great because the app actually pops up on the phone screen four times a day, which is annoying.

Hope that answers your question?

[izivkov]

Ok, thanks for your input.

[izivkov]

For some reason, my watch stopped auto-updating time. I have it set to auto-update, and have stopped setting the time from any app for 3 days already, but the watch will not try to update the time at 6:30:30, etc. Any body knows why? I need to capture what happens during auto-update to add this feature.

[BryanJacobs]

Have you made sure the watch is in an area where it can't receive time from an atomic clock LF radio signal?

Have you made sure to be looking at the watch for the full minute, to see if it did attempt to sync? The face will display the attempt, but it only lasts a few seconds - blink and you'll miss it. Attempts are in my experience at 30 seconds after the nominal mark, but the manual doesn't say that... it just says "around 12:30" etc.

Note that the watch's sync behaviors are time-zone-dependent... like, the time zone the watch is set to affects whether it thinks it should try to atomic-clock-radio-sync (and does that also mean BT sync? No idea).

Beyond that, no idea, sorry.

[izivkov]

I was finally able to get my watch to sync automatically, by resetting it back to factory defaults, and waiting for a couple of days after manual setting. (I have only tried the 6-band sync, not the BT, but it should work with BT as well). There is a slightly different behaviour now: short pressing the lower-right button does nothing, You have to hold the button for about 3 seconds to set time manually. Not sure why this is the case, maybe somebody can clarify.
I am travelling at the moment,and plan to address this issue early Dec. when I get back.

[izivkov]

These features were added:

• Add the ability to auto-sync the watch's time periodically initiated from the watch (4 times per day)
• In addition to time update, the calendar events are are also updated periodically.
• Fixed an issue with actions. If the action button was pressed a second time to run actions again, the second attempt failed. Now this is working.
• Added ability to enable/disable auto-time sync in Settings.

@BryanJacobs: You may want test the auto-sync feature and let me know if you are having any issues before I close this Bug. Thanks.

[BryanJacobs]

I've commented out your code making it take a picture every time, and will test over the next few days.

[BryanJacobs]

Automatic syncing works, thanks! The time set is off by around three seconds (the watch is set to a time slightly in the past), likely due to the lack of offset accounting for latency in the logic that pushes the time to the watch, but with this I can rely on my phone to keep the watch from drifting too far.

Thanks again!

[izivkov]

@BryanJacobs
OK, great! I'm aware of the time offset, but my phone is usually between 0 and 2 seconds off anyway. It is possible to use NTP, but then we have to deal with making sure the phone has connectivity to the internet and deal with it. Maybe we can look into doing this in the future.

I forgot to mentions, you can disable the auto-time adjustment in the settings now.

I have cleaned up the code a little, you may want to get the latest.

Finally, would you consider sharing your method of waking up the app periodically to get the time? Is is some kind of cron script, or some manual setup on your phone? I think people would find it useful. If it is a script, you can fork the project and submit as a PR if you like. Of if you don't want bother with PR, just add it here, and I will incorporate it. If it is a manual setup on the phone, you can update the README file in a similar manner.

Thanks

[BryanJacobs]

I meant the watch ends up at around -3s relative to the phone, not relative to some outside concept of time. You can test yourself and see - watch when the phone transitions to a new minute vs when the watch does after a sync.

[BryanJacobs]

I wake up the app using the app Tasker, available on the play store.

[izivkov]

OK, thanks. I will look into the delay. I usually see about a second delay. 3 secs is a bit too much.

[izivkov]

I will close the issue now.

[izivkov]

I updated to code to adjust for the 3-sec delay.