Pre-ramble

It’s here! All the questions Timeriffic users ever have. If you don’t see it here, it’s not a question.

You can’t say that to our users.

Ok, if you don’t see a question here, it’s not worth asking.

I’m quite dismayed in your lack of seriousness. People rely on Timeriffic.

If you have a problem, and no one else can help, maybe you can hire The A-Team. The F-A-Q Team.

You won’t take this seriously no matter what I do?  Will you? Fine then. I quit. People you are on your own with these answers. Good luck.

App Issues

What’s the most recent version of Timeriffic?

It’s best if you are running 1.09.12. If you aren’t pick up some fresh squeezed in the Android Market.

 

Timeriffic is not working.

Not really a question now is that? Hmm, now you have me asking the questions. The number one culprit for these things is a “task killer” or “task manager” application.  Maybe you recently installed one  or  it came pre-installed. These applications can prevent Timeriffic from running its service. The ones named Advanced Task Manager and Advanced Task Killer are particularly known to interfere — in this case you just need to open Advanced Task Manager/Killer and mark Timeriffic as an “exclude” or “ignore”.

Another culprit in the “not working” camp are when Timeriffic gets moved. Did you move the app to sdcard? Timeriffic will not work from the sdcard.

 

Timeriffic crashed and burned. Well I might be exaggerating just a little but it is the greatest app (or so I hear) but I just can’t get it working. Help!

Hmm, another statement not a question.  Sorry about this crash. It’s a known issue that happens sometimes when you start editing an action. If you retry again it should work. We are working on fixing it. Another small issue might be the crash happened before the app even opened. If this happened to you, visit the Market, uninstall the app and re-isntall it.

Why does Timeriffic ignore my vibrate choice?

No “good vibrations” or any for that matter. Some recent culprits are other apps! Handcent (SMS message application) for example has a known issue ignoring the setting of the system notification state. It appears to have stopped working properly recently. It will always vibrate even if it is set by it’s own setting NOT to vibrate. The app’s bug forum does note improper notification behavior from other users, so it’s likely that another app is having an issue and not Timeriffic.

 

Does Timeriffic automatically start up on a reboot of the device?

Yes! Simple Answer.

Want more details? Keep on reading. Timeriffic is designed to run at a specific time. It’s a timer, what gave that away?  So for example if you have  two actions one at 6am and one at 4pm and restart your device at 1pm, it normally will reboot and use the settings it had when it shut off.  Since a reboot at 1pm should be finished before 4pm it keeps the settings from 6am.  Should you power down the device at 3:55pm and then power it back on at 4:10pm your device was off during an action. Timeriffic may not work as you expect in this rare case.

 

Can I have Timeriffic only mute the phone call ringer and leave notifications alone?

We have all been there, sitting in class or a meeting on a Friday and your party anthem “Let’s get Physical” ringtone starts blaring. Time for a little Timeriffic!  Use it to correctly control the notification volume and the ringer volume independently. Please edit the action that modifies the notification volume and you will see a new option.

 

Why does Timeriffic seem to not handle Bluetooth, Airplane and Wifi modes all that well?

How dare you insult the fine scientists of our lab! You shall pay for your insolence. Oh wait…There is specific issue with the Android system: please try switching airplane mode on/off first and then create another action one minute later switching bluetooth on. That’s because in Android it is not possible to switch Bluetooth when Airplane mode is on.
Your actions should look like this (times are just examples):

- 7:00 AM Airplane set to Off
– 7:01 AM Bluetooth set to On
…
– 9 PM Airplane set to On

Also please note that turning Airplane mode On automatically turns the Bluetooth and Wifi Off. When Airplane is On, you can turn Wifi On again (in the next minute) but you can’t turn Bluetooth On.

How can I be all powerful and have Timeriffic control Mobile Data on/off?

Bit of a Napoleon complex there, eh? Unfortunately 3rd party Android applications cannot control the mobile data  functionality.
If you want you can use the application “APNDroid” (free, on market) to control the internet data on/off. Timeriffic can be used to control APNDroid, to let it turn data on/off at specific times.
APNDroid has an FAQ, which is not nearly as entertaining, but indicates on which phones it works or not. You can contact their developers at apndroid@googlegroups.com.

 

I swear I muted my phone in Timeriffic and then it just stopped working, please can you help me?

If you use Volume Locker or RingGuard, then yes the volume is set to 0 when you mute, and you need to set a non-zero volume in your action to bring back the ringer.

Example:
- 9 AM : Ringer=Mute
- 10 AM: Ringer=Ring, Ring Volume=60%

The first action will implicitly put the ring volume to 0% because you have an app that supports the RingGuard protocol installed.

Before we used to not set the volume to 0 when muting, and RingGuard would complain the app changed the ring/volume and would restore it.Now that may seem like an odd choice to some users and to us.Unfortunately this is how RingGuard defined this protocol, not us, so we need to comply with the requirement.

 

Ideas, Tips, Tricks, Recipes, Etc.

Could you tie Timeriffic into the Calendar app?

Right now the answer is the SDK around the calendar is not as stable as we would like. When/if it gets more stable we will certainly review this suggestion as a possible feature.

 

Could you tie Timeriffic into Google Talk then?

The Android security model ensures that one app cannot modify another unless they have a protocol to communicate together. And in this case there’s none that we know of. When/if it gets a protocol we will certainly review this suggestion as a possible feature.

 

Would a Timeriffic notification just for Email/SMS be possible?

Timeriffic can control the *global* notification setting. That’s something right?
SMS and the email or gmail apps also have their own *private* settings on how they deal with notifications. The Android security model prevents Timeriffic from modifying these apps’ private settings. When/if it gets a protocol we will certainly review this suggestion as a possible feature.

 

My screen keeps on “going black” and I’m not sure why?

It’s not a case of some deadly Android virus, if you were worried.  It’s normal for the screen to go black for 1/2 second. That’s how Timeriffic changes the global brightness of the screen. There is no official way for apps to do that in Android and consequently it uses a workaround. The black out is a side effect of this.
If you never change the brightness using Timeriffic, the effect will not appear.

 

I so wish and hope GPS control is coming to Timeriffic. When can I expect it to help save my battery life?

Timeriffic cannot toggle the GPS setting, which is a system-protected setting. You can only change it via the Home > Settings application. You can also try to use the Power widget which is integrated in Android.
Note that in general you don’t really need to toggle this setting off — the setting does not turn off or on the GPS hardware, merely it allows other applications to use it. If some application is using the GPS when it should not, you should remove that application.

 

You guys are funny, but didn’t solve my problem or I have a great new feature you must implement. I read this whole page, what now?