TC keeps forgetting plugins

[petermad]

2ghisler(Author)
On my Samsung Galaxy S20 I found out that it has to do with the phone's feature to automatically put unused apps to sleep.

Today I noticed that the WiFi Transfer plugin was missing in TC, so I checked this:
"Settings" -> "Battery and device care" -> "Battery" -> "Background usage limits" -> "Deep sleeping apps", where i found the WiFi plugin.

I tapped the 3 vertical dots in the upper right corner and chose Remove, and then removed the plugin from the list. That automatically put the plugin in the "Never auto sleeping apps" list, and the plugin was back in TC.

Another way to avoid having the phone putting specific apps to sleep is to go:
"Settings" -> "Apps" -> tap on the app and choose: "Battery" and select: " Unrestricted".

Or of course one can completely turn off: "Settings" -> "Battery and device care" -> "Battery" -> "Background usage limits" -> "Put unused apps to sleep" - with risk of increased battery usage.

[ghisler(Author)]

Wow, what a bad feature - I would understand if it would just put apps to sleep, but making them invisible to all other apps is terrible.
At least you now found the way to make them visible again.

[ricsip]

I have also a samsung android phone. And no matter how I whitelist or remove the plugins from the sleep-eligible or deepsleep-eligible list, occasionally all the installed plugins disappear from the TC UI. For me the messing with the settings above did not help.
This issue started approx 2 months ago. I didnt update my android OS since a very long time, so that cannot be the reason. Maybe a google play store recent update broke this functionality for me. It will be a fun trial and error (nooot) to figure out what the hell.

[ghisler(Author)]

Have you tried the latest beta? In it I'm using a second method to find plugins. This works at least with my Galaxy S10e, which then shows that plugin name with (dozing) appended. However, this is with Android 12, I don't have any Samsung devices with newer Android versions. In my tests, I put the plugin in "deep sleep" mode, then it disappeared from TC and I added the workaround.

If you don't have the beta yet, you can get it via Play Store as an update by enabling beta versions here:
https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.ghisler.android.TotalCommander
I would really appreciate if you could test this.

[ricsip]

Have you tried the latest beta? In it I'm using a second method to find plugins. This works at least with my Galaxy S10e, which then shows that plugin name with (dozing) appended. However, this is with Android 12, I don't have any Samsung devices with newer Android versions. In my tests, I put the plugin in "deep sleep" mode, then it disappeared from TC and I added the workaround.

If you don't have the beta yet, you can get it via Play Store as an update by enabling beta versions here:
https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.ghisler.android.TotalCommander
I would really appreciate if you could test this.

I am on my way to try it. Will take some time, but I will definitely let you know, as it for sure hurts my use case.

[petermad]

I have now removed my TC-plugins from the Samsung list of "Never auto sleeping apps" to see if TCA 3.60b4 has solved the problem.

[ricsip]

Have you tried the latest beta? In it I'm using a second method to find plugins. This works at least with my Galaxy S10e, which then shows that plugin name with (dozing) appended. However, this is with Android 12, I don't have any Samsung devices with newer Android versions. In my tests, I put the plugin in "deep sleep" mode, then it disappeared from TC and I added the workaround.

If you don't have the beta yet, you can get it via Play Store as an update by enabling beta versions here:
https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.ghisler.android.TotalCommander
I would really appreciate if you could test this.

Sofar it seems working (plugins visible), but that may be due to fresh install of the beta TC, so I need to wait at least a week or 2, to see if it breaks after that.

[ghisler(Author)]

The plugins should show up with the text (dozing) behind their names when they were found using the new method. If (dozing) is missing they would be visible also in older versions.

[ricsip]

The plugins should show up with the text (dozing) behind their names when they were found using the new method. If (dozing) is missing they would be visible also in older versions.

Definitely no "dozing" can be seen in my case, so will have to wait more...

[ricsip]

Ok, now 1 of the 2 plugins I use, shows "name of the plugin (dozing)" and its icon changed to the standard yellow folder icon. So this seems to be working.

However, if I click on it, it just enters into it as if it was a standard folder, and I see an empty folder inside it. Going up to its parent, I see the (dozing) disappeared from the end of the plugins name, and the original icon is seen. But it seems the plugin is not resurrected from its graveyard, and does not seem to function properly.

[ghisler(Author)]

That's odd, when "(dozing)" goes away it means that the plugin is fully visible and accessible again.

I can simulate apps in deep standby on my phone by going to Android settings - Battery and device care - Battery - Background usage limits - Deep sleeping apps. After putting a plugin in there, it appears with (dozing) in Total Commander. But when I then click on it, I can again access it. But this is on Android 12, I don't have any newer Samsung phones to test with. Can you follow these steps and report what is happening?

[petermad]

I can simulate apps in deep standby on my phone by going to Android settings - Battery and device care - Battery - Background usage limits - Deep sleeping apps. After putting a plugin in there, it appears with (dozing) in Total Commander. But when I then click on it, I can again access it.

Tested the above with 6 plugins on Android 13 (Samsung Galaxy 20) and Android 14 (Samsung Galaxy 54) - and it worked as described. After waking the plugins via TC, they were still on the phones list of "Deep sleeping apps" though.

[ghisler(Author)]

After waking the plugins via TC, they were still on the phones list of "Deep sleeping apps" though.

That's the case on my phone too, it looks like Samsung doesn't remove the apps from that list when they are awakened. I also tried with a different app: I put the app "Calculator" on the list, then launched it from the home screen. It didn't disappear either.

Now the question is why the plugin doesn't work for user ricsip. Either the deep sleep mode is different when invoked manually than when invoked by the system. Or he uses a different Android version than 13 or 14 which behaves differently.

[ricsip]

After waking the plugins via TC, they were still on the phones list of "Deep sleeping apps" though.

That's the case on my phone too, it looks like Samsung doesn't remove the apps from that list when they are awakened. I also tried with a different app: I put the app "Calculator" on the list, then launched it from the home screen. It didn't disappear either.

Now the question is why the plugin doesn't work for user ricsip. Either the deep sleep mode is different when invoked manually than when invoked by the system. Or he uses a different Android version than 13 or 14 which behaves differently.

I am using 2 plugins with TC: the LAN plugin (SMB client) and the Paragon NTFS plugin. The 2nd one seems to be behaving strangely. It does not open the Paragon app, when I click the TC Paragon plugin icon. It just enter into an empty folder.
If I open the Microsoft NTFS for USB by Paragon Software app in the Android app list, the proper UI opens up. As far as I recall, using the plugin from TC used to open the same app UI before. But now I am not sure anymore.

[ghisler(Author)]

In my own plugins, I have added an activity which I can open to awaken the plugin. Paragon NTFS is a third party plugin which doesn't contain this activity. Therefore you need to exclude it from deep sleep yourself to prevent the problem from happening.