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Apps Marcher Complication stops updating

Der Keyser

Der Keyser

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 18, 2016
266
202
Hi.

I have an issue with the Marcher step counter app and its complication.
The app works fine and updates it's graphs on the watch whenever launched.

But the complication that shows your currents steps stops updating after about 3 - 7 days, and I have to reboot the watch to get it going again. Anyone else seeing this problem?
[doublepost=1477656563][/doublepost]Just to clarify: AW Series2, Tried both WatchOS3 and now 3.1. The issue remains
 
Hi, thanks for the report. Also, what version of iOS is on your phone? I've not seen many reports of it stopping, but it has happened a couple times. Are you running any other complications that update continuously?
 
CobraPA said:
Hi, thanks for the report. Also, what version of iOS is on your phone? I've not seen many reports of it stopping, but it has happened a couple times. Are you running any other complications that update continuously?
Click to expand...

Well it was most prominent when running IOS 10 but i have also experienced it on 10.1
However, it hasn't happned in the last 12 days, so I monitoring the situation now.
I have the AccuWeather, battery and calender complication active as well. AccuWeather has been less than steller but an update not to long ago made it much better. Maybe that has influenced the stability of the watch or the general background update for all apps?
 
I suppose that is possible. The updates are mostly controlled be Apple's software, so it's hard to tell. If you see it continue, one thing that may help is to enable sharing crash data with Apple, if you have it disabled. If there is an app related crash that info will eventually get to the developer.

When it stopped updating, what did you see on the complication? Was it zero in the morning and never updating? Or was it stuck on yesterday's number? I have seen it stay on yesterday's number in the morning until the first update, but then it normally updates after that. I suspect that may be a power saving behavior on Apple's side, as the app performs a reset at midnight.
 
It stopped in the middle of the day, and it showed the step count for that day up until that point.

I'll see how it goes
 
Well it happened yesterday again, and its still frozen today (with yesterdays number showing).
So it seems to freeze overnight (no reset) as well when it happens.

The only thing I did yesterday was record a brisk walk with the builtin finess app. I can't recall if that has been the case every time, so now i'll pay attention to that.

Rebooting the watch now.
 
hmm, interesting. Another way to restart that should work without rebooting... Remove the complication from the watch face, display that watch face, then re-add it. It may even work to switch faces to one without Marcher and then back. (Although sometimes it is just easier to restart the watch.)

It probably isn't related, but what timezone are you in? Maybe there is an obscure bug related to midnight detection.
 
Im Living in GMT+1 western Europe.

I'll try your suggestions next time it happens.
Haven't consciously tried swiping to a new watchface, but Maybe that has corrected the problem several times without me noticing it was stalled in the first place.
 
Okay, it happened again today. Changing watchfaces does not help. Still stuck. If i remove the complication and add it again it resets and updates the stepcount. So thats a workaraound for now.

The freezing does seem related to me using the built in fitness app (outdoor walking). It seems to only happen when I take a long walk with the fitness app turned on. But it's not conclusive yet, and it does not happen everytime... so....

Strange issue. Hope you can think of a possible reason :)
 
That's interesting. That sounds like an Apple issue. I wonder if they delay updates for complications if an exercise is running, then in some cases forget to restart them. I'll see if there's a way to diagnose that. Unfortunately, most of the background updating is controlled by Apple's code, so developers are limited in what they can do to force a restart.
 
I'll continue keeping an eye on this behaviour and see if I can narrow it down further.
 
Well, it's not linked to the fitness app running.
My complication froze yesterday (and still is), and I haven't been using the fitness app for several days now.

So it seems to just randomly freeze
 
Are you still running the Accuweather app as well, as you mentioned earlier? I'll have to do a little testing with it and see if there is something related. Does anything else stop updating? Or just Marcher?
 
Yes, i'm still using the accuweather complication. That does not seem to stop all together like marcher, but it does some times seem to "forget" to update in the background. That means it shows the temperature some hours ago, and I have to wait for it to update when i click it. But it's not frozen.

I'm beginning to suspect that app/complication as well. Marcher works beatifully on my wife's watch, and she doesn't use accuweather either.
 
Apple says that the number of complication updates will be throttled to some limit they set. I've not seen this happen in testing yet, but I would expect some version after 10.0 to implement limits on complication updates. They have said that updates may be stopped if the limit is reached. I also recently found that they claim the limit is for all complications on the watch face, not just a single complication type. This makes me wonder if they are starting to pause updates, and some combination of complications can lead to this happening.
 
I'm starting to believe you are right. Since removing the accuweather complication two weeks ago, marcher has worked flawlessly.

So there's something wrong with the accuweather complication. But as far as I can tell it has still not been WatchOS3 updated, so maybe that's the problem?
Maybe I should start looking for a new weather app. Seems accuweather's applewatch support is just for show...

EDIT: Almost right after posting this, it stopped updating again... :-(
So it's definately not accuweather causing the issue as it is not installed on my watch right now.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, I added AccuWeather here for about a week, but haven't noticed any issues. I'll keep any eye on it though. I have a couple things to check, like the time zone difference, but haven't had a chance to investigate yet. Thanks for the report!
 
Well, i have tried everything and all, but my marcher still stops updating randomly (sometimes after a few days, other times it takes a week or two). To reenable I have to remove the complication and add it again or reboot the watch. Really really annoying

I'm still om 3.1 as i avoided the 3.1.1 fiasco, but here's hoping 3.1.3 when released will fix the issue. It happens on my wife's series 1 as well - but far far less than on mine. Really strange no one else has reported this.
 
I wonder if you have some crash that I am not seeing. Do you share crash information with Apple? If so, I will eventually get access to some logs (hopefully.) I checked just now, and Apple is showing no crashes at all for the current version of Marcher. That seems pretty unlikely, but maybe it is true.
 
CobraPA said:
I wonder if you have some crash that I am not seeing. Do you share crash information with Apple? If so, I will eventually get access to some logs (hopefully.) I checked just now, and Apple is showing no crashes at all for the current version of Marcher. That seems pretty unlikely, but maybe it is true.
Click to expand...

No, I don't. I guess i could enable that if it would help
 
Probably, but i'm inclined to try the upcoming OS 3.1.3 update first.
Is getting a test edition on my watch complicated?
 
No, not really. Apple has an app called TestFlight. It is free for download on the app store. I can add people to test builds of apps and you will get an invitation to install the test version using TestFlight. You can remove the test version whenever you want to re-install the released version as well.
 
CobraPA said:
No, not really. Apple has an app called TestFlight. It is free for download on the app store. I can add people to test builds of apps and you will get an invitation to install the test version using TestFlight. You can remove the test version whenever you want to re-install the released version as well.
Click to expand...

Okay cool. I'll get back to you if 3.1.3 doesn't resolve the issue once released
 
Well 3.1.3 made no difference. If anything it now stops updating all the time. It's completely useless at this point.
Tried reinstalling, tried removing all other "non native" complications and so on. No dice...

My wife's S1 watch also suffers from the issue although not nearly as often as mine.

Think I'll give one of the other step complications a go and see if they work better.
 
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