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Screen Keeps Turning On

L

lexluthor

Android Expert
I have a Droid X. I had been on gingerbread stock rooted. I recently flashed an ICS ROM (after a factory reset).

On both operating systems, my screen randomly turns on maybe a few times an hour.

Is there any app that could help me figure out what's doing it? Since it happened on 2 totally different ROMs and after a factory reset (apps restored via Titanium), I don't think it's an OS thing and must be a misbehaving app.

I do have better battery stats and look around there, but there's really not anything obvious there.

It's pretty annoying.

Any ideas?
 
i would reccomend installing ALL apps from the market place. There could be an incompatible issue somewhere because the apps originated on a different OS, could be wrong but im willing to bet that will solve the problem. Clear data before unistalling or you could maybe only clear data and see if that works
 
The problem occurred on the GB Stock ROM, so it's definitely not an issue of apps originating on a different OS.

The only way your suggestion would work is if it I uninstall one at a time, stare at my screen for an hour and if the screen still comes on, uninstall the next app and try again. No way I can do that with 300 apps. Plus there are times where it might not happen for hours. Don't see how that suggestion will work.

I was more looking for an app that might help me analyze what's going on. Or maybe a way to generate a system log that someone could help review. Is there some way I can log my phone's behavior and then stop the log right after the screen lights up and then look at it and see if the log tells me what happened?

Any other ideas?
 
Well you could start with the currently running or cached apps. You can view them via menu>settings>applications>running
 
Is there anyone who might have some ideas on this? It's really pretty annoying.

It's got to be an app that's doing it because I've had the issue on 3 different ROMs (using the same apps restored with Titanium).

I really don't want to delete all my apps and then reinstall them 1 at a time. I might only catch the screen coming on every hour or so. To install an app, sit there and watch my phone for an hour and then install the next app isn't a realistic solution.

Is there no way to run something that might be able to monitor what's going on? Even if I could narrow it down to 20-30 potential apps, then I might be able to brute force a solution.

I am rooted, if that helps.
 
I would try a standard log monitoring app like catlog, alogcat, etc. Catlog has a record log widget you can add to your homescreen. Since logs can sometimes be difficult to review and pinpoint a specific event, you can use the widget to stop recording the log soon after the screen comes on, then go review the log such that the event will at/near the end of the log and more easily identifiable.

Catlog Market Link
 
iowabowtech said:
I would try a standard log monitoring app like catlog, alogcat, etc. Catlog has a record log widget you can add to your homescreen. Since logs can sometimes be difficult to review and pinpoint a specific event, you can use the widget to stop recording the log soon after the screen comes on, then go review the log such that the event will at/near the end of the log and more easily identifiable.

Catlog Market Link
Click to expand...
Seems like a decent suggestion. I must be doing something wrong with catlog though. I put the widget on my home screen and I click record log. It asks me for a file name and I click ok. In my notification bar, I get a notification that catlog recording started. Then it goes away immediately. If I click the menu button in catlog, I still have a record option, so it looks like it's not recording. The log files are null.

Am I doing something wrong? How do I get catlog to work?
 
Ok. Well, I ran alogcat for a while. When the phone woke up, I paused the log and saved it.

I can see some apps listed around the time the phone woke. So far, I've uninstalled a few of them and the screen still is coming on. I have a couple more to try.

What else should I be looking for in the logs?
 
I almost don't believe it myself, but I figured it out!

I continued to go through uninstalling apps that appeared in the log around the time the screen randomly came on.

After I uninstalled foldersync lite, the screen no longer came on. I installed it again (restored my titanium backup copy) and the screen came on. Uninstalled, no screen on, installed, screen on, uninstalled, no screen on. After the uninstalled, I did wait a good couple of hours each time to make sure.

I then just posted in the support forum for foldersync. Within a few minutes, the developer posted asking me if I had the full wakelock option in the app on and that if that's on, each time the app does a sync check, the screen will come on. Yes, I did have that option on!

Wow, months of the screen annoyingly coming on solved.

That option is NOT defaulted to on, so I certainly am not going to blame poor app coding. I don't recall why I turned it on. I think I was having a problem with uploads stopping when the phone went to sleep, so I must have turned it on to see if that resolved it.

Now I know why I try to keep everything as close to default settings as possible.

Very happy the developer got back to me so fast and provided me a definitive resolution.

Thanks to anyone who posted in here as well.

It's an app I used an need and it would have followed me to a new phone even.

Very happy I figured that out!
 
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