Running automation while iPhone locked?

[woody]

Hi everyone,

I noticed that in order for the OmniFocus watch app to always be up to date I obviously have to launch OmniFocus on my iPhone once in a while. I think I heard on MPU or Automators that mcsparky had a way to launch OmniFocus first thing in the morning in order to have everything updated.

I tried to recreate this behaviour through automation in the shortcuts app but always get “Failed to run automation”. This is run time based, which works fine if I have the phone unlocked.

Is it even possible, or did I mix something up?

Thanks for a hint in a direction

[Tjluoma]

I have heard @MacSparky mention that he uses an automation to keep DevonThink sync’d with his iPad, but I’m not sure exactly how he’s doing that.

I tagged him on this reply so he’ll hopefully see this.

[sylumer]

@Tjluoma

have heard @MacSparky mention that he uses an automation to keep DevonThink sync’d with his iPad, but I’m not sure exactly how he’s doing that.

I tagged him on this reply so he’ll hopefully see this.

That DTTG sync question has been put to him a couple of times already.

MacSparky’s Shortcut to Sync DEVONthink automatically overnight

hi @MacSparky, You mentioned on a recent episode of either Automators or MPU that you have a Shortcut to launch DEVONthink To Go every night in order to sync your databases (due to the iOS requirement that an app is active in order for syncing to happen). Can you share this shortcut or else explain how you have it setup? I envision something like (1) launching DTTG, (2) setting display brightness to something low (5%?), (3) waiting X seconds (how many?) until DTTG has enough time to sync/re-ind…

Devonthink iOS wakeup and sync?

David mentioned in a recent podcast that he has a shortcut on ios that wakes up his phone at night to force sync devonagent, any advice on how I could get started on replicating this?

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@woody

I noticed that in order for the OmniFocus watch app to always be up to date I obviously have to launch OmniFocus on my iPhone once in a while. I think I heard on MPU or Automators that mcsparky had a way to launch OmniFocus first thing in the morning in order to have everything updated.

I tried to recreate this behaviour through automation in the shortcuts app but always get “Failed to run automation”. This is run time based, which works fine if I have the phone unlocked.

Opening an app on the iPhone is a foreground activity, so I believe that would require the device to be unlocked.

It would be worth you checking that OmniFocus is enabled for Background App Refresh in the Settings app. That should generally ensure you stay up to date.

[woody]

Thanks a lot. I’ll take a look at the settings and will be watching that linked topic.