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OnePlus 3: Not receiving WhatsApp messages when app is closed for a while

  • /e/ version: 0.12-q-2020111083843-dev-oneplus3
  • Device model(s): OnePlus 3

Summary

WhatsApp messages are not received when the app is closed for a while. Only when I reopen the app I receive new messages.

The problem

Steps to reproduce

I just installed /e/ OS on this phone, and imported a WhatsApp backup from a different phone, where I had no issues.

I tried all the default stuff found in tutorials:

  • Notifications are enabled (I receive messages + notificaitons for a few minutes after I close the app)
  • WhatsApp is exempt from Battery Optimizations
  • Background restriction for Whatsapp shows "Background usage can't be restricted"
  • Data Saver is disabled.
  • Power Saving Mode is disabled.
  • Background process limit is "Standard Limit".
  • I enabled Cloud Notifications in MicroG for a while but it didn't seem to help, and WhatsApp didn't register as an app that uses this service. So I disabled it again. I also recently used a different phone with Lineage OS, where I installed MicroG manually, but never enabled cloud notifications. WhatsApp was working without issues there, so I suppose it doesn't use Cloud Notifications.

Note that I had similar issues when running OnePlus 3's original OS (Oxygen). Here also disabling all Battery/Data saving options didn't help and receiving WhatsApp messages often didn't work, but most of the time waking up the phone (turning on the screen) was enough, I didn't have to open WhatsApp. Might have been related to deep sleep when the screen is off for a while. But I hoped that it would work fine with a different ROM. Could the remaining proprietary SW have an affect on this (drivers etc)?

Signal seems to work fine, but I think it has some special measures built in to work without google, it normally seems to rely on cloud notifications.

What is the current behavior?

Once the app is closed "Running services" in the developer options shows 1 process and 1 service for WhatsApp for a few (~10) minutes, then it disappears and is shown under "Show cached processes". A few more minutes later it's also removed from there. When I view the battery usage of the app, "While in Background" shows only 3 hours while "Last full charge" in the battery menu shows 19 hours ago.

What is the expected correct behavior?

WhatsApp messages are received while the app is closed, the WhatsApp process is running in background.

Technical informations

Relevant logs (adb logcat)

This seems to be the only WhatsApp related log from about the time when the process is removed from "Running services": 
11-21 14:32:19.481  2490  3159 W SyncManager: Detected sync making no progress for startTime 41100093, mTimeoutStartTime 41100093, mHistoryRowId 445, syncOperation JobId=108252 ***/com.whatsapp u0 [com.android.contacts] PERIODIC Reason=Periodic (period=1h00m00s flex=2m24s). cancelling.

Relevant screenshots

n/a

Solutions

Workaround

n/a

Possible fixes

Are there any hidden battery optimization options in /e/ OS? Like a doze mode, or background process restrictions?