How to get around sensors not updating instantly?

[lament orchid]

I have the wifi signal strength sensor enabled, and it reports that it updates instantly, but unfortunately this is not true. it updated every few minutes or so. when i smash the slider of on/off a few times, i see the values updating to a other value all the time. so it is not true that this sensor is updating in real time or close to instantly.

Perhaps it is possible to manually enable/disable the sensor with a automation to get values?
Will this still work if the companion app froze or crashed? (if yes, thats actually not good in my case)

Thanks!

[onyx snow]

we may have marked this sensor incorrectly, you dont have to go to extreme measures to enable/disable to get it to update. You can simply request an update https://companion.home-assistant.io/docs/notifications/notification-commands#update-sensors

why do you need the RSSI to be instant? if it were to be instant that would be a lot of state changes

we do offer an optoin to update once per minute in sensor update frequency

[lament orchid]

i am seeking a way to know if the app is still active, to be honest.

if its not updating any values anymore for over, say a minute, i know the app probably froze or crashed, and i can send a intent to use tasker/automate on android to restart the home assistant companion app.

[lament orchid]

ok, but creating a option to manually update every 5s or so could also work?

i am using a device that has relatively old hardware, and sometimes the app freezes or crashes. rare, but still.

[onyx snow]

if the app is crashing we should get the crash log and fix the issue so it doesnot crash

[onyx snow]

the app importance sensor will tell you if the app is open or not as in the foreground

[onyx snow]

make sure android system webview is up to date, but that should not impact sensor updates. sensor updates can be impacted by thigns like battery optimization and data saver etc...

[lament orchid]

hmm, worth trying. if the app froze the app might still be technically open though

[onyx snow]

what do yo umean freeze like the dashboard becomes unresponsive?

[lament orchid]

I get a android system message that the app is not responding and i can then click wait, or click close.

[lament orchid]

According to home assistant, the companion app's importance sensor of this device, the app is still in foreground.

How do i know when the app crashed. Like asking the app to do something but acting on timeout

[lament orchid]

so i just figured out, that during the above message, it's still getting updates from the wifi signal strength sensor.
It is not updating when the device is locked.

Is there something to use to know when the app stopped working?

[onyx snow]

if you are still seeing sensor updates whle this happens then theres nothing you can look at sensor wise to determine this

if htis happens while the dashboard is visible first check android system webview is up to date in the play store

i would also start by disabling custom cards taht could be causing an issue too

[lament orchid]

yeah i could delete cards i actually need...