[Roveer]

I've been working an issue with Blackberry support for over a month now that I want to share and solicit your opinion on.

Any android 6 device that is registered on BES 12 that utilizes BSCP (the BB VPN) in order to communicate with the BES server will go to sleep (DOZE) after a period of time, disconnect the VPN and no longer receive anything from the BES server until the device is picked up and unlocked. All mail flow, appointments, notes etc (anything) will stop coming down to your phone.

I experienced this in my testing and thought it was a bug so I opened a ticket with BB. After a month, they reported to me that this was "intentional". They also told me that some tech's have been doing their own workaround by keeping their phones plugged in (which does keep the phone from disconnecting).

I went absolutely ape#$% on the tech and told him that this is BS, that this is not typical behavior for any type of email software much less BB enterprise software. Since when does a product just "stop working" and that's considered acceptable. I told him that my ancient 4.1.4 software does not go to sleep and neither should their current day software.

They had no answers other than to say it was a development decision to break the product in order to save battery. I told them that could/should have been a slider switch which would put that decision in the user/admin's hands.

I also told them that I had found a workaround called disable doze (small app) that keeps the phone communicating by disabling doze, but that their BSCP interface should be exposed to doze so it can be disabled and removing the requirement of disabling all of doze on the phone.

So, before I start my march up the chain of command at BB I wanted to get some opinions on whether you see this like I do, complete screw up on their part, broke their own product, or if I'm just wound a little too tight and should accept not getting email when the phone decides to go to sleep.

Oh, This happens on Priv as well, so BB software and HW!..

What do you think.

[Rodney Wilder]

I've acquired a PRIV and have been playing with it just as a personal device connected direct to activesync in order to test and work through bugs in hub and android. I'll connect it to our BES12 server next week after I acquire a gold license and see if I have the same issues.

[Roveer]

You'll need to activate it on a profile that uses BSCP. That's the key. I've looked in the logs and can see the exact moment that the phone starts to initiate doze mode and the BSCP VPN starts a shutdown sequence. Once that has happened the phone can no longer communicate with the BES server to receive email. The "key" on the notification area disappears. Once you pick the phone up, and unlock it you see traffic and then the key re-appears (re-establishing the BSCP VPN) then any new email, appointments etc will come down and any applicable notifications will fire off.

I chose BES because it was an outbound only solution and did not require opening any inbound ports to my server. Many other activesync solutions require you to expose activesync to the internet which I don't want to to. We are a very small shop and I couldn't imagine trying to defend a MS server against open inbound ports which is again why I chose BES.

I'm just stunned that BB would consider this a viable configuration that the device just stops working. When the support manager (I had already started to escilate) told me that tech's in BB were getting around this problem by keeping their devices plugged in I really couldn't believe what I was hearing.

Scenario: So I'm on the road, phone is holstered, doze kicks in, no notifications, email, appointments etc until I unlock the phone and re-establish BSCP. That is NOT how the product was designed. I don't think that is how it worked under Lolipop. Of course I can't go back and test. All bootloaders locked.

Frustrating. How can I be the first to report this?

[Rodney Wilder]

Yup, BSCP is a requirement on our BES as well in order to access some internal network services.

Other than better up to date banking apps, I really prefer my bb10 devices to android 6 even after 2 months of heavy daily use. ...well and the nice swipe triage in Hub, do like that.

[Enterprise_Documentation]

This is a Known issue that BlackBerry is working on resolving:
http://help.blackberry.com/en/bes12-...e-Notes-en.pdf
See page 9 issue 1496190.

Product page:
http://help.blackberry.com/en/bes12-...s-app/current/

[Roveer]

This is a Known issue that BlackBerry is working on resolving:
http://help.blackberry.com/en/bes12-...e-Notes-en.pdf
See page 9 issue 1496190.

Product page:
Manuals - BES12 Secure Connect Plus app - latest

My problem does not match any of those in the "Known Issues" on page 9.

My problem is on a Priv Device (Not Samsung), and Has nothing to do with battery saver mode (disabled), has nothing to do with Not connecting to BSCP (connects just fine), and does not have anything to do with Android OS 7.0

It has to do with DOZE, not battery save mode. The actual workaround is to use an android app called "disable doze" which does exactly what it says. This solves the problem of the phone disconnecting from BSCP but now you don't get the advantages of doze at all. I developed that fix, BB does not have that in their KB.

Android 6.0 is over a year old. I've had it on my phone for 6+ months. Who leaves their software "broken", and yes it's broken if you have to wake your phone up just to get your email, for more than 6 months when what is broken is the primary functionality of the software are selling.

That's a total fail...

Roveer

[acidrain84]

How long is it before a device will "doze"?

I ask because we have over 60 users with a Priv activated using AFW User-Privacy Premium, and I've honestly never seen (or heard anyone complain) of this issue.

[Roveer]

Not exactly sure. It's been a while since I've tested since I installed "disable doze" app. An hour to a few hours (no touching the phone, total inactivity, not charging either). I know that when i left my phone overnight without connecting it to a charger it was unable to receive email until I picked the phone up and went through the lock screen. The key (BSCP VPN Connected) would no longer be there and would re-appear shortly there after.

Do you expose your activesync to the internet or rely on BSCP adapter to connect via the VPN? That's my configuration Activesync is not exposed and the only way the priv can get to the BES server is across the BSCP VPN. Also, phone connected to same physical network as BES 12 server may not need BSCP VPN. I read BSCP Documentation and it said something about if it finds the BES12 server locally it won't use the BSCP VPN. One way to make sure its not connecting outside of BSCP would be to turn off WIFI and make all the communication via cellular data for your test. Also, my phone is AT&T Branded and is on Android 6.0.1. I asked BB support if my problem was an isolated case because of any of these particulars but never got an answer. I was stunned that this problem was not reported prior to me coming across it so I fully assumed I was an isolated case. Then they started saying it effected all android, all devices and was 6.0.1/doze related.

My test for this was as follows:

Leave the phone overnight (not charging). Don't pick it up or unlock it in any way. Send it an email and see if you get an audible notification. I wasn't getting a notification of any kind. If I then sent an email to my pop email account which is totally outside of my work email I would get the notification no problem. Then I'd pick up the phone, quickly unlock and the Key (VPN) was missing from the top of the screen. In a few seconds it would re-appear and then the email would start coming down to the phone.

Another slightly more complicated method is this: (must have access to your BES 12 server). On your phone in your BES12 Secure Connect Plus app go to diagnostics. You'll see your tunnel IP address which will be 172.16.0.something. That's the phones VPN ip address. You should be able to open a command prompt on the BES12 Server and ping that address. If the VPN stays up you can always ping the phone, if the VPN goes down, than you won't be able to ping the address. So collect your IP address the night before and ping it in the AM and see if it pings.

I wrote some extensive batch files that would ping my phone ever few seconds and when the ping would fail it would turn the screen a inverted color to draw my attention. That told me what timestamp to inspect the device logs (android logs), where I found the BSCP adapter detecting doze and actually shutting down the BSCP VPN. It was all there in black and white.

I test BES 12.4.1 and 12.5.1 same experience.

I installed a 99 cent android application called "disable doze" which does exactly what it says and the problem went away completely but now I have diminished battery life.

I'm also disappointed because I wanted to use a Samsung S6 Active but found that when it went into lock screen the VPN would shut down (for different reasons, Keystore failures). From the post from Enterprise_Documentation above I see that is a known problem for ALL Samsung phones. WTF... Samsung is what percent of the android market? For the past 6 months every damn phone I tried had some freak'n problem that caused it to fail. I started feeling like I was the only one using BES 12 on Android. and BB Priv on BB BES I was basically unglued... Then he tells me the BB Tech's keep their phones plugged in to avoid the problem. Aarggg.. Really.

If you have access to your BES 12 server you can always start a ping to your phone with a ping 172.16.0.yourphoneip -t (the -t makes it run until you stop it). When you notice it fails then try sending email to the phone. Of course you have to leave the phone without touching it for an hour or more for doze to actually kick in. Maybe you don't see this problem because so many people are always touching their phones, and overnight they are charging. Phones that are connected to power will NOT Doze, so charging phones will not exhibit the problem.

Would love to hear what you find since you have a sizable population.

Any more questions, fire away.

Roveer

[acidrain84]

We are reliant on BSCP for ActiveSync (it's not exposed to the Internet) and we use cellular data exclusively so there's never an instance where the device is on the same network as our Exchange server. I'll test out your process and get back to you.