Turn on the Internet on Android when in sleep

Question

I have an Android app that needs to sync to the internet, but as soon as the phone goes to sleep I can't access the internet. It only happens when the user uses the "battery mode", when it turns off the data after 15 minutes. I wrote a test app and its turning the data on, but it still does connect to the server.

What I tried:

When I turn the data manually off, then the app is turning it on and it works
I also tried WakeLock, but it did not help.
The alarm works as expected, even when the phone goes to sleep for hours

Tested on Motorola Atrix Android 2.3.3. I can't rely on Wifi. In real life it will sync every week. How can we make it possible?

AlarmManager:

alarm_manager = (AlarmManager)getSystemService(Context.ALARM_SERVICE);
Intent intent = new Intent(this, AlarmReceiver.class);
PendingIntent pending = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(this, 0, intent, 
                        PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);
alarm_manager.setRepeating(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, 
                        System.currentTimeMillis(), 15000, pending);

AlarmReceiver:

public class AlarmReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {

    @Override
    public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
        Log.d("MYTAG", "RECEIVED getMobileDataEnabled: " + getMobileDataEnabled(context));  
        if (!isOnline(context)) {
            Log.d("MYTAG", "NO INET");
            if (turnOnInet(context)) {
                Log.d("MYTAG", "INET IS ON");
            }
        }

        HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
        HttpPost httppost = new HttpPost("http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/ping/pong/moto/");
            try {
                List nameValuePairs = new ArrayList(1);
                nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("short_code", "ROFL"));
                httppost.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nameValuePairs));
                httpclient.execute(httppost);
                Log.d("MYTAG", "POST FINISHED");
            }
            catch (Exception e) {
                Log.e("MYTAG", "MYTAG", e);
            }
    }

    public boolean isOnline(Context context) {
        ConnectivityManager cm = (ConnectivityManager)context.getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.CONNECTIVITY_SERVICE);
        NetworkInfo netInfo = cm.getActiveNetworkInfo();
        if (netInfo != null){
            Log.d("MYTAG", "isAvailable: "+netInfo.isAvailable());
        }
        if (netInfo != null && netInfo.isConnectedOrConnecting()) {
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }

    public boolean turnOnInet(Context context) {
        ConnectivityManager mgr = (ConnectivityManager)context.getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.CONNECTIVITY_SERVICE);
        if (mgr == null) {
            Log.d("MYTAG", "ConnectivityManager == NULL");
            return false;
        }
        try {
            Method setMobileDataEnabledMethod = mgr.getClass().getDeclaredMethod("setMobileDataEnabled", boolean.class);
            if (null == setMobileDataEnabledMethod) {
                Log.d("MYTAG", "setMobileDataEnabledMethod == null");
                return false;
            }    
            setMobileDataEnabledMethod.invoke(mgr, true);
        }
        catch(Exception e) {
            Log.e("MYTAG", "MYTAG", e);
            return false;
        }
        return true;
    }   


    private boolean getMobileDataEnabled(Context context) {
        ConnectivityManager mgr = (ConnectivityManager)context.getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.CONNECTIVITY_SERVICE);
        if (mgr == null) {
            Log.d("MYTAG", "getMobileDataEnabled ConnectivityManager == null");
            return false;
        }
        try {
            Method method = mgr.getClass().getMethod("getMobileDataEnabled");
            return (Boolean) method.invoke(mgr);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            Log.e("MYTAG", "MYTAG", e);
            return false;
        }
    }
}

AndroidManifest.xml

Turn on the Internet on Android when in sleep

3 Answers