Hotspot does not stay alive when the screen is locked

[kalzEOS]

First off, I am not 100% certain if this is an issue with the app or the OnePlus 12 phone that I have and their extreme "battery savings" measures they shove down people's throat. I do know for certain that I have turned off battery optimizations for this app everywhere and the "allow background activity" is turned on. The "do not optimize" option is chosen in the settings. The "Stay Alive" is checked, "show hotspot notification" is enabled. I am not sure what other settings I may need to keep this app alive. It just never stays alive for long after I lock my screen and put the phone down. The hotspot stops, and I'd need to restart it again. It has never done this until recently when I had to redownload the app from the Play Store. The phone is on the latest software as always, and so is the app. The only thing I can think of is that I have the Google Play Store version of the app, and if I should instead get it from F-droid or here. I don't know.

[kalzEOS]

So, installing the APK from GitHub seems to have worked (for now). I'll keep testing and see. I knew Google would do something to an app like this.

[pyamsoft]

Thanks for letting me know :)

I wonder if this is some kind of internal tweaking that OnePlus does. I don't believe Google itself modifies the functions of APKs uploaded to the store - I officially distribute only on the Store.

Glad that you've figured this out though :)

[kalzEOS]

Thanks for letting me know :)

I wonder if this is some kind of internal tweaking that OnePlus does. I don't believe Google itself modifies the functions of APKs uploaded to the store - I officially distribute only on the Store.

Glad that you've figured this out though :)

I don't fully think that it is an internal tweaking that oneplus does, as it is not doing it now on the GitHub version of the apk. This only happens with the google play store version.

[pyamsoft]

Go to know, very odd

The builds are exactly the same for the Store and Releases/fdroid, so I wonder why the behavior is different.

Good to keep this all in mind, thank you :)

[Elf-song]

Having same issue. Latest version from github tethering from a Galaxya53 5g ,fully updated, to an Asus TUF5701 laptop on Windows 11 that is fully updated if that helps.

Tetherfi works great until phone screen is off for a bit.

Have enabled or disabled everything on both devices and ap that I can think of.

Still, great app and highly useful for those of that don't have carrier provided hotspot functionality.

[pyamsoft]

Interesting - this may be a regression from the new build though I haven't personally observed this problem myself.

To both of you then: What websites (if you are willing to say) were you browsing at the time this happens? Is the problem consistent - for example, it always shuts off when you go to websiteXYZ, or it always shuts off after 2 minutes with the screen off - anything I can look for?

[pyamsoft]

I'd be curious to know if the previous release also shows this problem for you. Right now we are on build 53, but in the Github releases you should be able to access older builds like 51 - does this still present the problem?

[kalzEOS]

Interesting - this may be a regression from the new build though I haven't personally observed this problem myself.

To both of you then: What websites (if you are willing to say) were you browsing at the time this happens? Is the problem consistent - for example, it always shuts off when you go to websiteXYZ, or it always shuts off after 2 minutes with the screen off - anything I can look for?

only Netflix. I use it at the gym because their WiFi is ass and Netflix doesn't work there. I have not tried any other websites to be honest, only Netflix. It happens after a couple of minutes after locking my screen. And I only notice it when my Netflix video stops working.

[kalzEOS]

Ok, so an update. Now even the github apk doesn't stay alive. Also, when I connect, I can essentially just Google things. I can't watch YouTube, Netflix or even plex. I can't get to the app store either on the iPad. The is now basically unusable at all.

[pyamsoft]

Are you using the App version of Netflix or YouTube on a phone?

On mobile phones, the only thing guaranteed to use the HTTP proxy is the web browser.

YouTube, and probably by extension Netflix and Plex are actively stopping the usage of connections like how TetherFi works.

The app store/play store also use a different kind of connection, which third party apps like mine are unable to support.

This sounds like a compatibility issue, rather than a bug to me now. I have zero control over how these services choose to allow or restrict access sadly, so there is very little I can do on my end to make these services work :(

[kalzEOS]

Netflix is the app and it used to work no problem for a very long time. Could be a recent update they did? I don't know. YouTube and plex were both on the browser and neither worked. I used to be able to turn it on and connect both kids' tablets and forget about it forever. Not anymore, sadly. :/. It now doesn't even stay active.