Data on Home Screen widgets not updating as I would expect

@BlynkAndroidDev @Dmitriy

Hi Alex. Further to my observations that the home screen widgets are not updating as I would expect on my phone. I’ve done some more testing.

Under beta 2.27.1 (and I think also on the current release). I suppose my expectations are not in line with what is happening. I thought that the widgets would update irrespective of whether blynk was not loaded and active (but logged in), loaded and in background or foreground. I suppose my expectation is based on other icons like WhatsApp, mail, calendar etc which update the shortcut icon irrespective of the state of the app.

On testing I’m finding that on my phone the widget is only updating under 2 scenarios: Firstly when blynk is active and in the foreground and secondly when I open and close the home screen widget to view the update frequency.

If this is what you have intended then the usefulness of the home screen widget is somewhat degraded for me.

Alex, let’s know if you need logs and if so then what sequence/scenario I should follow before I send the log.

You didn’t mention if on Cloud or Local… and I can’t remember from any other topics :sweat_smile:

But even with Beta or non-Beta versions, and using my LS, I do not see any issues with either case.

I have a Button for a closet light and two Labeled Value displays for temperatures… both displays set for 1 minute refresh… and everything works with or without the Blynk App running in the foreground (well, I have to assume so… can’t see them :stuck_out_tongue: ) or background. But the project associated with the widget MUST be active (Play mode).

Now, getting the desktop widget to always match the proper colour of the associated widget is a bit of a dice toss :stuck_out_tongue: They occasionally change to something else.

Running on:

LG G6 phone with Android 8.0 & Acer Tablet with Android 4.4.4

Now I know having a conflicting result may not help you as much as confirming an issue, but perhaps it may point to a phone or permissions issue?

Described scenarios are not all in which home screen widgets should work. The only limitation is that the project, which contains the widget for home screen widget, should be active, start, in run mode, independent of Blynk app state (foreground / background, but of course, the user should be logined, and home screen widget would not work for several different accounts).

1 Like

I’m going to have a look at this point. I have shared the project to another phone/account. It’s my wife’s phone so I will steal it from her and remove Blynk and the project and retest. She won’t notice.

@Gunner thanks for chipping in. I’m on the cloud - well the app is not me :slight_smile:

2 Likes

I would agree with the above. That is my experience too so I would assume it is a bug?

@BlynkAndroidDev I’ve done more testing. Conclusions so far are that some widgets are behaving as you have outlined above. But some are not. The project in question is the one I shared with you the other day. First tab is tiles and rest of the tabs are normal screens. So that means that my issue is not entirely phone specific.

Before I go into details I have a question to @BlynkAndroidDev and @Dmitriy. When selecting widgets for the home screen should I be able to select widgets from a screen under a tile? If so then I can’t. Let’s know.

No, we do not allow to use tiles widgets for home screen widgets.

OK. Probably too technically challenging for the payoff?

I did want to get some of the widgets from under the tiles onto my home screen. My workaround to this is that I create a duplicate widget on an accessible screen in the project (under the “widget” tab on the project I sent you) pointing to the same VPIN and device as the widget under the tile. This means both widgets get refreshed from the device as needs be. I then put the duplicate widget on my phone home screen. I assume this is OK? Can you let me know? It seems to work except for the anomaly that some of the duplicates behave as they should but others don’t.

Anyway, other than to reply to my above question I think there is no more for you to do. I’ll just continue playing with my workaround until I get it working.

Thanks.

1 Like

I’ll check that, if it would not take too much time from me - I’ll add possibility to add widgets from tiles. You are the first user who asked about home screen widgets from tiles’ widgets)

That would be very helpful as my workaround is not a reliable option and of course there is extra cost (not that it would break the bank) and maintenance.

Maybe not many people use tiles and even less, as a subset, use home screen widgets :slight_smile:

Do you need to also have a look at the colour stability issue that @Gunner I have seen?

I’ll check that, usually home screen widget will be updated after editing project’s widget, but maybe there is some more complex issues.

Normally what I have seen is that the colour may change on a refresh of data.

Ok, I’ll try. I’m sure it would not sync with ‘set property color’ commands, but should reflect color setup from widget’s settings.

That is the issue… It sometimes just changes its mind and goes a different colour from the projects referenced widget. Meanwhile the project (it is just a button controlling a Sonoff).is just quietly running in the background, not getting edited or even poked at (that’s what the home screen button is for).

The project button is Orange, but I have seen the Home Screen one turn Blue or Green… can’t quite remember… It is not often that I need to use the button, I just poke at it to hear it click from another “room” (ok, the other end of the motorhome) :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like

Nothing more satisfying than the click of a relay operated remotely.

1 Like

It is Orange in the project… just saw this happen now when I turned it ON, OFF and ON again…

Should I be updating to the latest beta to test this?

And did you manage to see if you can allow selecting of widgets for the home screen under a tile?

For sure, no “set property” color syncs for now.

The selection of widgets from tiles will be available in next beta, after 2.27.1 release. We are too busy currently with current tasks.

Thanks for the update

Can I just clarify if you think have fixed the home screen widget colour change issue? I can’t quite understand if you are saying you have or haven’t. However, I’m not seeing it fixed. What about you @Gunner.

No, I just checked and it was blue, not orange… until I pressed it, then back to normal colour… but now that I look closer at it, it seems to be changing to the colour (blue) of the 2nd button in the project… that one is NOT on the desktop, so there is some sibling rivalry going on I think :smiley:

PS, notice the new scaling power of the fonts :sob: