xDrip may not make a sound if the alert sound file is too short

[lfagotbouquet]

Subject of the issue

High glucose level alerts are not generating any sound or vibration at night while it is working fine for low glucose level alerts. Discussion related to this issue: https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip/discussions/2133

Your environment

Xdrip version: 33be05a-2022.01.31 Hardware data source: libre 2 Device: Motorola one (android 10) Settings: high and low alerts configured similarly with a sound and vibration (and the override silent mode option selected)

Expected behavior

I expect the high level glucose alert to emit a sound and vibration during the night, like it is the case for the low level alert. The high level alerts can be seen in the xdrip log and are reraised every one minute for several hours (as no sound or vibration is waking me up they are never snoozed) Ideally the high level glucose alert should behave in the same way as the low level alerts in my case during the night and produce a sound. Please note that the high level alert are working fine during the day and are generating a sound when I turn on the screen in the morning. I also checked that notification settings are correct and no battery optimization or no disturbing mode is activated.

Actual behavior

The high level alerts are not generating a sound or vibration during the night, while it is the case for low level alerts. High level alerts are only starting to emit a sound when I turn on the screen when I wake up.

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

Configure a high level alert and wait for an hyperglycaemia during the night. Check the xdrip log to see that a high level alert is raised frequently and never snoozed.

Screenshots

Please find below an example of a xdrip log with a low level alert correctly snoozed during the night and a high level alert that is no generating any sound or vibration and hence is logged every minute.

[lfagotbouquet]

As explained in the discussion thread 2133, I did new tests during the past week and the issue actuallty doesn't seem to be related to the high or low alert category:

" After some new tests during the past week, I found that this issue is not related with the High or Low alert category... Actually I was using a sound named "Beep-Beep-Beep Alarm" for the Low alerts and "BeepBeep Alarm" for the High ones (to have a longer sound for low ones). And if I'm using the "Beep-Beep-Beep Alarm" for the High alerts, then my phone is ringing and vibrating during the night for these alerts as well.

So it seems to be related with the alarm sound, maybe at night when my phone is unused for a long time only a long alarm is able to "activate" it again? (I'm not at all an expert on Android so I'm very speculative here...) And it's surely more an issue with Android or my phone hardware and not xdrip itself. I also tried to look into the code and even though high and low alerts are handled a bit separately, at the end the notification seems to be sent in a similar way.

It's also not a critical issue for me anymore as I found a workaround for me. It's still a bit strange that the "BeepBeep alarm" are only working during the day on my phone (and with an old phone with Android 9 it was working fine with this sound during the night).

Thanks for everyone that spent some time on this issue to help me. "

[Navid200]

@lfagotbouquet Thanks for reporting this and figuring out what was causing it.

If you select the short alert that does not work, will it sound if you tap on "Test Alert" on the "Edit Alert" page?

[lfagotbouquet]

If I'm tapping the "Test Alert" on the Edit page with the short alarm, my phone sounds and vibrates correctly.

[jamorham]

Please check the behavior on the latest nightly as there have been quite a few changes in this area since the reported version.

[Navid200]

@lfagotbouquet We need feedback from you. Without it, we have no choice but to assume there is no problem any longer.

[lfagotbouquet]

Ah sorry for the delay, I missed the previous message.

I'm not using anymore the very short alert that was causing the issue but I'm going to try the short alarm again with the lastest code version to check if the issue is corrected. My glucose level is very unstable during the nights these days so I should be able to check it this week-end (as I'm surely going to have some alarms during the nights).

[Navid200]

@lfagotbouquet I am sorry about that. Please do NOT intentionally degrade your control just to cause an alert. That's not what I meant. Just in case I have stated anything that may have suggested that, please always focus on perfectly controlling your diabetes. Anyone asking you to do otherwise for the sake of an app, is wrong.

[lfagotbouquet]

Ah thanks for your warning but I'm just going to add an very short alert at a level slightly below my usual alert (keeping both). So in case my glucose level is climbing during the night, I can check if the very short alert is indeed ringing or if it's like before and the usual alert is reached.

In the end it's not going to impact my control to cause an alert, and it's not going to raise an alert for nothing. If I don't have any hyperglycemia during the next nights I won't be able of course to test if the issue is fixed. I'm not going to try to raise this alert intentionally.

[lfagotbouquet]

I try to reproduce the issue with the last stable version (344deb4-2022.11.16) using the very short "BeeBeep Alarm" sound for a High alert and I'm still having the issue. In the logs, I can see that the alert was raised multiple time without producing any sound.

Anyway I'm not using this short alarm anymore so it's not a critical issue for me now. Maybe it's an error specific to my smartphone (Motorola One).

[Navid200]

@lfagotbouquet Would you mind editing the title of this issue to reflect what you have found? You found out that this is not related to high versus low. But rather, it has to do with the length of the sound clip. So, it could also happen to a low alert. The current title is not representative. You can for example change it to something like:

xDrip may not make a sound if the alert sound file is too short.