Why didn’t my reminder ring?
On Android, a reminder that never rang is usually the phone stopping it, not the app forgetting it. These are the settings behind it, in roughly the order they break reminders. They apply to any reminder app, not only Nimits. The names of the settings vary a little from phone to phone.
1. Battery optimisation
Android can put an app to sleep to save battery, and a sleeping app’s reminder may not ring at all. Open Settings › Apps, choose the reminder app, then Battery, and set it to Unrestricted.
2. Your phone’s own battery manager
Some phone brands add a second power manager on top of Android’s, which closes background apps whatever Android has allowed. Look in your phone’s battery or device-care settings for a list of apps allowed to run in the background, or to start on their own, and add the reminder app to it.
3. Alarms & reminders permission
On Android 12 and newer, an app needs the Alarms & reminders permission to ring at the exact minute. Without it, Android is free to deliver a reminder up to 15 minutes late. It is under Settings › Apps › Special app access.
4. Notifications are blocked
If the app’s notifications are turned off, a reminder can only appear while the app is open on screen. Check Settings › Apps › the app › Notifications.
5. The full-screen alarm is off
On Android 14 and newer, showing a ringing screen over a locked phone needs its own permission. Without it, the reminder arrives as a notification behind the lock screen, which is easy to miss.
6. Do Not Disturb, and the alarm volume
A reminder app that is not allowed through Do Not Disturb stays silent while it is on. And a reminder that rings at alarm volume is easy to sleep through when that volume is at its lowest.
7. The app was force-stopped
Swiping an app out of recent apps is usually fine. Force stop, in the app’s settings, is not: Android cancels every alarm the app set until it is opened again.
How Nimits deals with this
Nimits checks each of these permissions itself and says so on its home screen, with a button to the setting that fixes it. Its Alarms & permissions screen can send a test alarm in 60 seconds: lock the phone, put it down, and you know whether this phone delivers.
If an alarm is stopped anyway, History marks it as one that did not reach the phone, rather than counting it as your miss.
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