1212793 - E-mail notifications/background syncing doesn't work

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1213169

(Firefox OS Graveyard :: Gaia::E-Mail, defect, P1)

Description

[Chris Lord [:cwiiis]]

This has been happening for a few weeks now I think, I didn't report it in case it was a transient thing, but it doesn't seem so... I haven't received any e-mail notifications on my device for a while now. When I load the app, it confirms that the last sync is whenever I last manually checked for mail (many times the frequency of which I've set it to check - often days).

This affects both accounts I have setup on the device (one Gmail, one hosted via GoDaddy).

Calendar syncing seems to work ok (or at least, as well as it's ever done).

Comment 1

[Andrew Sutherland [:asuth] (he/him)]

Yeah, I'm seeing this too, and had also assumed this was fallout from other instability that had blocked new dogfood builds being spun.  It seems like the requestsync API we are using to wake up the email app gets tired of doing its job and stops waking up the email app eventually.  The fact that it takes a few cycles likely suggests why regular QA testing has not caught this.  (Or QA has caught it but there's a mix-up and it's believed something like bug 1206156 already covers the regression.)

Trying to get an aries build to investigate has been a painful series of events, but I'm now crossing my fingers as hard as I can, so I should hopefully have one soon.  Or I will have transferred out of Firefox OS and bought an iPhone.  So either way, happy ending for me!

Comment 2

[Andrew Sutherland [:asuth] (he/him)]

[Blocking Requested - why for this release]:
Periodic sync done broke.  Investigation thus far strongly suggests this is a platform regression and I'll spin a bug off for that now that we mark as a blocker, but we should mark this up as a blocker too.

Comment 3

[Andrew Sutherland [:asuth] (he/him)]

I have successfully passed the buck to the DOM team on bug 1213169 while also authoring some really great zingers.

Having determined the root cause, I can confidently say that there are a number of workarounds that are all horrible.  (Whenever periodic sync stops working, you can reboot the device or disable and re-enable periodic sync inside the email app.  Alternately, you can ensure that your device never updates its clock, potentially by keeping it on cellular data or wi-fi at all times and never losing connectivity.)

Comment 4

[Andrew Sutherland [:asuth] (he/him)]

I came up with a better workaround:
1) Under "Settings > Date & Time" turn off "Set Automatically"
2) Reboot the device or disable and re-enable periodic sync.

Comment 5

[Andrew Sutherland [:asuth] (he/him)]

Duping to bug 1213169 since there is nothing to do in the email app itself and this provides blocker clarity, etc.