Init Variable Location changed with Automagic v1.35?

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skiptannen
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Joined: 13 Jan 2014 21:39

Init Variable Location changed with Automagic v1.35?

Post by skiptannen » 08 Jun 2018 18:48

Hi Martin,

I was just wondering if anything in version 1.35 changed the way the action Init Variable Location works. I have a number of flows that use that action and they worked for years, but they stopped working after the update to version 1.35 - the actions simply time out. I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 5 running Android v 7.1 and Location Services are set to Battery Saving mode, and that always worked fine with the Location Provider in the action set to High Accuracy (Experimental). Since the update to v1.35, the only way to get the action to work is to have Location Services set to High Accuracy.

Thank you for your thoughts.

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Martin
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Re: Init Variable Location changed with Automagic v1.35?

Post by Martin » 08 Jun 2018 18:57

Hi,

No, there was no change in this action. Maybe Google Play services was updated in the background and now behaves slightly different. Maybe try to reboot the phone once to see if this helps.
For me action Init Variable Location still provides a location for High Accuracy even when the device location mode is set to battery saving. Did you turn off WiFi scanning of the device?

Regards,
Martin

skiptannen
Posts: 82
Joined: 13 Jan 2014 21:39

Re: Init Variable Location changed with Automagic v1.35?

Post by skiptannen » 08 Jun 2018 20:11

Thank you for responding so fast. I have rebooted since the update and I don't believe my device has the option to disable Wi-Fi scanning. I've looked at Wi-Fi Advanced options and I don't see that option.

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Desmanto
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Re: Init Variable Location changed with Automagic v1.35?

Post by Desmanto » 09 Jun 2018 10:16

Maybe the wifi always scanning option has been moved to other places. Try to find it at network setting, maybe advanced option. Try at Developer option too.

If you still can't find it, try to use Action Set System Setting, Category Global, find the value wifi_scan_always_enabled, make sure it is 1.
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skiptannen
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Re: Init Variable Location changed with Automagic v1.35?

Post by skiptannen » 09 Jun 2018 13:29

Thanks Desmanto. I know Samsung doesn't follow Android conventions so sometimes things are hard to find or don't exist at all. :(

I didn't find anything in Wi-Fi Advanced or anywhere else in Settings, but Allow Wi-Fi Roaming Scans is off in Developer Options and wifi_scan_always_enabled is set to 1 in Action Set System Setting...

I would like to fix this, but I think I'm just going to run Location Services in High Accuracy mode for a few days and see if it has any effect on battery usage.

Thanks again.

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Desmanto
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Re: Init Variable Location changed with Automagic v1.35?

Post by Desmanto » 09 Jun 2018 16:00

Actually not only Samsung. A lot of other vendors also strayed away from android standards.

I think the problem is not with automagic, but with google play services. In every update, Automagic will update its API to follow the play services version. Seems the play services version from Automagic 1.35 breaks your flow. Probably there is some extra restriction imposed in the latest play services. You can try to leave the location high accuracy on (GPS on), it is actually only used when some app calls for high accuracy. Otherwise, it will fall back to battery save mode. But I still prefer to turn it off, because I don't any ru- away app suddenly killing my battery because it uses the GPS in the background without me noticing.
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skiptannen
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Re: Init Variable Location changed with Automagic v1.35?

Post by skiptannen » 10 Jun 2018 12:30

You could well be correct that it's Google Play Services. I've seen changes in the past that would make this a reasonable assumption. For example, I have a flow that populates a home screen widget with various system settings (brightness level, audio levels, current keyboard, location method, etc) and the flow pulls some of the information by using actions Init Variable System Settings. I've found a couple of times over the years that when an upgrade was done the values for location_providers_allowed changed and that broke some flows. Kind of frustrating and seemingly unnecessary...

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Desmanto
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Re: Init Variable Location changed with Automagic v1.35?

Post by Desmanto » 10 Jun 2018 17:37

location_providers_allowed also doesn't work anymore at my new phone. Have to use the root version. It is google's part, it can't be helped, have to deal with it. We can only find workaround or probably someone figured it out how to bypass it.
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