Ensure Companion starts

[Guy_]

If you start an app which has a companion and the phone is not in range or syncing, the companion obviously does not get started.

When the phone becomes in range or syncs does the companion automatically get started or is there a method to follow to ensure it does get started?

[JonFitbit]

Is this on iOS? We've just fixed a similar sounding issue on iOS and will be included in the 3.55 release, due at the beginning of March. 

[Guy_]

@JonFitbit  -  its a general question.

[JonFitbit]

The companion should be started automatically. Let me know if it isn't though.

[Guy_]

@JonFitbit  -  thanks, it doesn't seem to, or there may be something else happening.

• With phone Bluetooth off start the watch app with companion and try and communicate with the companion, it will fail [obviously]
• Turn phone Bluetooth on and try and communicate with the companion, it will still fail.

• Stop the app and restart it and try and communicate with the companion, it will work.

That's using the Fitbit Studio sample companion project.

It is possible that some reset code is required in between? If that is the case what is it?

[Pietero]

@Guy_  Don't simulate it with turning bluetooth on and off but walk away from your phone. I have a golf app and users walk away from their phone a lot. Each time the companion is started, which is annoying for me.. I never know when the app started due to a established connection or because when the app is started. 

[Guy_]

@Pietero  - the issue is for the case when notifications are not working, what happens when the app on the watch is started?

And what happens when the issue stopping notifications is resolved on the phone?

Is the companion  started or not? It's almost secondary if the app still can't communicate with it. 

So does the companion get started, and if so why does it not respond?

[ac_devel]

I am having a similar issue: I always ask my users to have the phone close to them and keep the Fitbit app open in background. However I noticed that sometimes, some data from the users don't reach my server and so my hunch is that sometimes, companion app gets dormant and data is trapped in the queue. There are cases where this gets solved by syncing watch and phone but sometimes this does not work. I even experienced this situation this morning: I had my Fitbit app open, close to me and connected to the watch but my data did not go through. I tried using a send button but nothing happened. I then tried to re-run my app and it works fine. 

See my issue here: https://community.fitbit.com/t5/SDK-Development/File-transfer-failur/m-p/5229213#M17993

Is there any solution to this and is there a way to know that companion is not responsive? 

Is there anyway to know companion app is not responsive? I have an installed app and I don't see logs anymore. 

[Gondwana]

One way is for the watch app to send a message or file to the companion, and have the companion send an acknowledgement. If the watch doesn't receive the acknowledgement within a few seconds, something has gone wrong.

[ac_devel]

@Gondwana thanks for that suggestion. I will add that. 
This leads me to a different but related question: so I had a button that manually sends the file. Now one file gets sent while the other is not. The file that gets sent is about 3545 bytes. While I can't see the other file's size, I see that the biggest file that got transferred (watch - phone - serve) is at 

18064. 
The 3545 file is a session made today, while the other one is done last night. I wonder why the former file will be sent but not the other when the communication bridge is open. 

[Guy_]

@Gondwana  - thanks for the suggestion but if something is wrong how do you ensure the companion gets started without having to restart the watch app?

This is the problem.