Refreshing Please Wait Re-Visited

[RichardPHarvey]

I'm one that is still suffering from the "Refreshing Please Wait" issue.  I happened to notice something this weekend that may be part (if not all) of the cause at least for me.  What I noticed was, at home where I have super strong WIFI the application seems to wants to connect now and then to cellular rather than WIFI.  When I experienced the refreshing issue I looked and sure enough the app was connected via cell service which in my home area is really pretty crappy, often going into the "no signal" range.  Why would the app even choose to jump onto cellular when there is WIFI available.  There does not seem to be any way to adjust this.  One time over the weekend I had to logout out of Vera and back in to even get the app to use WIFI.

Any thoughts...?   

[RichardPHarvey]

Just noticed another thing, there is a geofence running that I'm not using and I can't figure out how to turn it off.  Anyone know...?

[RichadL]

I'm also having the same refreshing issue. The App wants to connect via cellular even when I'm home where I have a strong Wi-Fi signal. I can force Wi-Fi by selecting "Reset on next Start" and then closing the App and re-loading it. However if I don't keep the App running in the back ground it reverts back to cellular when reopened.

[agoodman82]

I often now get the "loading circle" and VeraMate doesn't always refresh unless I force close and then re-open the app. I've also noticed a general deterioration in VeraMate performance overall within the last month including the loading/refresh issue, my cameras freezing, and geofences becoming less responsive. There was a time when VeraMate was working flawlessly for me and I wish I could get back to that point because I'm just not too pleased with its overall performance lately.

RichardPHarvey: To remove a geofence go to "geofence" in the settings, click on the pin for the geofence you no longer want and then click on the red "delete" button.

[RichardPHarvey]

RichardPHarvey: To remove a geofence go to "geofence" in the settings, click on the pin for the geofence you no longer want and then click on the red "delete" button.

That does not work, clicking on the pin for the fence I don want does nothing, click hold does nothing. If I slide just off the pin it thinks I'm looking to create a new fence which is when the delete button arrives, deleting there does not delete the original fence.

[veramate]

That does not work, clicking on the pin for the fence I don want does nothing, click hold does nothing. If I slide just off the pin it thinks I'm looking to create a new fence which is when the delete button arrives, deleting there does not delete the original fence.

The UI for selecting pins is definitely lacking, and something I've been wanting to fix.  Basically you need the edit screen for the geofence, which will also give you the delete button.  You need to select away from the pin, and then back on the pin if it doesn't appear.   Worst case, perhaps create another pin temporarily, and then you should be able to select the pin you want to remove.

You should also be able to disable the fence being activated on the scene by editing the scene/locations via the scenes configuration screen.

[veramate]

I will also look into this more.   A bad connection may definitely cause it to have problems deciding what network to use, though it should always try to switch to the local network if it's available... there may be a problem here.

I've also seen issues which the configuration data Vera returns - it doesn't seem to match the API documentation which I'm adhering to.  Evidently there is a work around other apps are using, but I haven't discovered it yet - I've attempted to counter it, but it may not be working in some instances. 

[RichardPHarvey]

I will also look into this more.   A bad connection may definitely cause it to have problems deciding what network to use, though it should always try to switch to the local network if it's available... there may be a problem here.

I've also seen issues which the configuration data Vera returns - it doesn't seem to match the API documentation which I'm adhering to.  Evidently there is a work around other apps are using, but I haven't discovered it yet - I've attempted to counter it, but it may not be working in some instances.

This is really an issue for me using VeraMate at home on my iPhone.  I can turn off cell service so it's forced on WIFI and never do I get the "refreshing" stall, so for sure that's my issue.  Why it would ever choose cellular over WIFI is confusing to me.

[legend99]

@veramate any update on the refresh issue?

Thanks

I will also look into this more.   A bad connection may definitely cause it to have problems deciding what network to use, though it should always try to switch to the local network if it's available... there may be a problem here.

I've also seen issues which the configuration data Vera returns - it doesn't seem to match the API documentation which I'm adhering to.  Evidently there is a work around other apps are using, but I haven't discovered it yet - I've attempted to counter it, but it may not be working in some instances.

[ember1205]

You remove the GeoFence by going to Menu -> Settings -> GeoFencing

On the right will be a trash can symbol next to each GeoFence that's defined. You can only do this on the mobile app.

With regard to connecting to Cellular "every now and then", I'm guessing you have an iPhone with Wi-Fi assist turned on. Go to Settings -> Cellular and scroll all the way down to turn it off.

[veramate]

@veramate any update on the refresh issue?

I'm still having a lot of trouble replicating the issue - it is only happening with a small number of users, which looks to be related to their cell coverage.   I'm hoping to get a release out in the next week or so which will try and make better decisions if network problems are found, but can't confirm this will fix the issue yet.

If anyone would like to beta test this specific issue, please send me a PM with your email.

[Don Phillips]

I do not have that issue very often, and usually it is related to my Vera 3 internet connection or the status of the Mios servers.  What I do when it first happens is restart VeraMate.  Many times that fixes it. If not, I then open the regular Vera app. It confirms Vera is up and running, and many times it is not. After a few minutes, when Vera responds, I typically find VeraMate is working as well.

[veramate]

I do not have that issue very often, and usually it is related to my Vera 3 internet connection of the status of the Mios servers.  What I do when it first happens is restart VeraMate.  Many times that fixes it. If not, I then open the regular Vera app. It confirms Vera is up and running, and many times it is not. After a few minutes, when Vera responds, I typically find VeraMate is working as well.

Thanks for the input, that is helpful to know.  That has been what I've mostly found as well (ie problems connecting to the server).   

As a more indepth update, my investigations point to 2 issues VeraMate should be able to do something about:

1) If VeraMate switches to use MCV servers instead of direct/WiFi for whatever reason, it doesn't switch back again to direct/WiFi quickly if it's available - this I am working on to do "smartly", but mostly only causes problems with very bad cellar connections which can be hard to detect.

2) MCV specify fallback servers to switch between (for loadbalancing or failures).  The biggest issue I've seen is this configuration is sometimes not correct and points to unreachable servers.  In that instance I've seen other servers that are sometimes usable, but sometimes only look to be usable and don't actually fail !!  This means VeraMate thinks they might be correct, but instead, never returns, and hence the "refreshing" note.   This is the main issue, and very hard to test/get around.

[agoodman82]

VeraMate,

If you are looking for any beta testers to try out new updates to VeraMate that might solve the 'Refreshing, please wait..." issue (which I still experience), I would also be happy to volunteer.

I actually get the issue quite frequently, regardless of whether I'm on my home wifi network or away from it, when my phone is using cellular data. The diagnostics always reveal devices error messages in red stating "Error: Connection timed out (server down?)" along with some relay number for mios.com.

I will admit the fix for me is simple... simply close VeraMate and re-open it. However, this does get annoying at times, and it would be infinitely better if the connection error simply never occurred in the first place.

Anyway I'm currently experiencing the issue so I'd be happy to test any potential solutions that you may be able to come up with down the road.

[veramate]

VeraMate,

If you are looking for any beta testers to try out new updates to VeraMate that might solve the 'Refreshing, please wait..." issue (which I still experience), I would also be happy to volunteer.

I actually get the issue quite frequently, regardless of whether I'm on my home wifi network or away from it, when my phone is using cellular data. The diagnostics always reveal devices error messages in red stating "Error: Connection timed out (server down?)" along with some relay number for mios.com.

11.5 is out today which has some better detection for WiFi - this may not be the main problem, but I think will help, so any feedback on this will be helpful.

If anyone is getting this error (during the event), 2 details can help me analyse - these can be seen in the setting/diagnostic/show diagnostics. 
Please let me know what the value is for :
1) Connection type
2) Server.   Just the relay part should be enough.  Eg, relay12

I'm assuming this is all UI7 issues - this shouldn't happen on UI5.