[Bug]: Android OS widgets show stale data after idle

[piotr-iohk]

What happened?

Android OS home-screen widgets can show stale data after the physical device has been idle with the screen off.

On simulator/emulator, while the widget stays visible, OS widget data appears to refresh on schedule. On a physical Android device, after the phone is left idle and then unlocked, the OS widget can still show old data. This seems to affect OS widgets generally, but is easiest to spot on the Blocks widget.

Expected behavior

Android OS widgets should refresh after the configured background interval, or catch up shortly after the device wakes/app becomes active.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Add a Bitkit Android OS home-screen widget.
2. Confirm the widget has current data.
3. Lock the physical Android device and leave it idle with the screen off for around 20 minutes or longer.
4. Unlock the device and check the OS widget.
5. Compare against current data. In the same idle test, iOS OS widgets showed updated data while Android still showed the old state.

Logs / Screenshots / Recordings

bitkit_logs_2026-05-29_12-23-10.zip

Bitkit Version

2.2.0

Device / OS

Samsung (Android 14)

Not reproduced on iOS device. Simulator/emulator observation showed scheduled refresh while the widget stayed visible.

Reproducibility

Always

Additional context

Code inspection suggests Android OS widgets and in-app widgets use separate caches and refresh paths:

• In-app widgets refresh through app-side widget repository jobs.
• Android OS widgets read cached data from the app widget DataStore and rely on a periodic WorkManager refresh.
• OS widget XML uses no platform update period fallback.
• When the device is idle, Android may defer periodic work, and there does not appear to be a foreground/unlock catch-up refresh for OS widget cache.

Likely fix direction: trigger a one-shot OS widget refresh when the app foregrounds or when active OS widgets exist, and/or sync fresh in-app widget data into the OS widget cache.

[ovitrif]

@codex is there some kind of event we could hook our os widgets updates into which triggers after the Android OS returns from Idle?
I know there is one when the OS has booted (ie. after restart or shutdown+startup), I have seen some open source code kf apps registering handlers for those, IIRC I've seen it in the ACINQ Phoenix app's Kotlin Multiplatform code.

[jvsena42]

Could also be related to the 15 min refresh interval (minimum allowed by android for widgets)

[jvsena42]

OS widget XML uses no platform update period fallback.

OS widgets use Jetpack Glance instead of XML

[chatgpt-codex-connector]

Summary

• Yes — Android exposes PowerManager.ACTION_DEVICE_IDLE_MODE_CHANGED for Doze/device-idle state changes, and Intent.ACTION_USER_PRESENT for the user returning after wake/unlock. I wired both through an app-process receiver registration rather than a manifest receiver. Sources: PowerManager docs, Intent docs.
• Registered an app-lifetime widget refresh receiver for ACTION_USER_PRESENT and ACTION_DEVICE_IDLE_MODE_CHANGED.
• Added AppWidgetRefreshReceiver to enqueue widget catch-up refreshes on unlock and after device-idle exit.
• Added a one-time WorkManager catch-up path that only enqueues when active Android OS widgets exist, and cancels catch-up work when the last widget is removed.
• Triggered the same OS widget catch-up when Bitkit returns to foreground.
• Added a Context.powerManager extension for the receiver’s idle-state check.
• Added one user-facing changelog fragment for the stale Android OS widget fix.

Testing

• ✅ git diff --check
• ⚠️ ./gradlew compileDevDebugKotlin (Gradle could not resolve org.gradle.toolchains.foojay-resolver-convention:1.0.0 from configured plugin repositories)
• ⚠️ ./gradlew testDevDebugUnitTest (same Gradle plugin resolution limitation)
• ⚠️ ./gradlew detekt (same Gradle plugin resolution limitation)

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