I recently changed my smart watch to a oneplus3 smart watch.
I mostly use the watch within HA for BLE Tracking and running certain automations when I put the watch on charge, I have set all the permissions on the watch as follows:
Location = Allowed all the time
Microphone = Allowed
Nearby devices = Allowed
Notifications = Allowed
Phone = Allowed
Sensors = Allowed all the time
Disable Touch - Not allowed
Pause app activity if unused = off
I have the BLE Trasnmitter set to enabled and I use the BLE command notifcations to set low latency and high power, the BLE Transmitter is also set to be stopped if I start charging the watch or leave my home geofence.
I had the same automations set up on my pixel watch 2 but the battery was poor so upgraded.
with the Oneplus 3 Watch I find the sensor updates for charging dont happen unless I go into the watch app tray and re-open the HA app, I also find on some occasions after a few hours the BLE transmitter signal is no longer being picked up by my bluetooth proxies, again to re-initiate this I just need to go in the app tray on the watch and re-open home assistant at which point the signal starts being recieved again.
I dont think this is a HA problem as this didnt happen on my previous pixel watch (I have logged it with oneplus) but not sure they will help or beable to fix it as they just said clear the cache and data which I have done but the issue is still happening after doing so, I need to re-open that case but was wondering if anyone was using the same model of watch for similair things.
Or if maybe anyone had any idea of the cause, it feels like the watch is closing or killing the HA app after a period of time even although the pause app activity if no longer used is switched off, would be good if there was a way to prove that so I can take it to the one plus support team.
Have a query for one of the Developers if someone knows?
The BLE Transmitter, should it transmit in the background even if the app is closed?
What I find is when the signal stops being recieved all I do is re-open the app and the signal starts being recieved again, would have thought the BLE Transmitter would run in the background regardless of if the app was opened or closed (Same as it does from my phone, runs in the background no matter the state of the app on my phone)
I also find if I open the HA companion app on the watch then swipe to the right to close the app it also stops the BLE Signal from being transmitted which I dont think is expected behaviour but dont have another watch running Wear OS 5.0 to test with.
If I close the app on my phone from previous apps page the transmitter keeps transmitting (which is expected and its what I would expect to happen on the watch too) someone correct me if they think this is wrong please?
I suspect the oneplus 3 watch is closing the app after a period of inactivity and that seems to be killing the BLE Transmitter process which I think should be a background process (This also never happened on my previous pixel 2 watch) so something seems off with the WearOS implementation on the oneplus 3 watch or the wear Os 5.0 version, I plan to re-open the case I logged with Oneplus tomorrow but just looking for some help\guidance on how it should work so I can relay that via the case I logged with them.
Havent found anything out yet, still have the same problem.
I find the BLE Tracker works consistantly if I open home assistant app on the watch and dont open any other apps, if I open other apps then home assistant gets closed and stops transmitting the ble signal, it also stops recieving sensor updates for thing’s like charging state as well as the ble commands you can send to stop\start the transmitter if you have left\arrived home. I have also found if its transmitting and I put the watch into bedtime mode the transmitter will work through the night but its not ideal having the watch in bedtime mode all the time.
I have inconstancies when putting the watch on charge or leaving\arriving home, both of which run an automation to start\stop the ble transmitter, I find sometimes when I arrive home it fails to get re-enabled as that watch has closed home assistant and is no longer recieving the command to re-enable the transmitter, same if I put the watch on charge the transmitter should be stopped then re-started when it its removed from the charger.
I logged it again with Oneplus support and they asked me to factory reset the watch, I tried that but the same problems exist, they have said they will pass the case onto the technical team, that was on Monday just passed, I am yet to hear anything back about the problem.
I might return the watch and just to back to the google pixel watch as mostly I have been using he watch for BLE tracking using the Bermuda BLE Trilateration integration. will take another week or so to see if support come back to me before I make the decision, have had samsung and google watches work with this funcationality with no issues previosuly so it must be related to the operation system software customisations on wear O\S from OnePlus.
I have experienced the BLE (not BlueTooth) usually supports only one connection. If one app is connected, others cannot set up a connection to the same app. This is a design limitation.
Workaround is to close the app, disable BlueTooth to break the session, enable BluTooth and start the other app to establish a new connection.
Frustrating. Buying a new phone or watch will not solve a design choice in the BlueTooth standard.
The same functionaility worked fine on my pixel watch 2 and galaxy watch 6, I changed to the one plus 3 watch due to it boasting 5-7 days battery life, I dont believe its a bluetooth limitation as it worked on other watches with no issues, when the oneplus 3 watch stops transmitting the home assistant ble signal I dont need to stop or start bluetooth, I simply re-open the home assistant companion app on the one plus watch and it starts recieving the signal again, the watch must be stopping the home assistant companion app and any background processes which is probably why the watch has such good battery life but I would not expect it to stop processes when you have set the permission “Pause app activity if unused” to off, maybe so if that was set as on but not off.
I am still waiting on a reply from one plus regarding this, I chased it up a couple of times but they havent been much help, I’ll probably get rid of the watch to be honest and go back to a google pixel watch or samsung smart watch as those were working fine they just dont have as good battery life which I guess is a trade off for having something functional.
Also the watch has only standard apps installed, the only app I installed on the watch from the play store is the HA Companion app so if there is something else using BLE on the watch and prevening the ble transmitter from the home assistant app from transmitting then it must be one of the standard apps so this issue is 100% related to the oneplus 3 watch.
Also not to mention it works fine from my phone without a problem, have used the BLE transmitter for multiple phones which have lots of other apps installed and never had the same problem I have now with the oneplus 3 watch, so its very unlikely a limitation with bluetooth and the bluetooth low energy transmitter, it’s a bluetooth trasnmitter within the home assistant companion app which can be used for room presence, its worked for me for the last 3 years using ESPresence and now Bermuda BLE Trilateration, only since I got this watch a month or 2 ago have I had this problem with it stopping transmitting the signal intermittently and that can be resolved by re-opening the HA app on the watch itself, which is annoying as it means you need to keep checking rather than just set and forgot like I have had with other brands of watches and phones, its still working on my phone without an issue, just means I need to carry my phone everywhere with me if I am wanting my room presence automations to fire.