Background recording: battery and phone settings

Recording is designed for a phone lying in your pocket with the screen off. For that, the system needs the “Always” location permission — without it, the phone keeps recording only with the screen on, which means both battery drain and the risk of a broken track.

1. iPhone: Settings → ENDURO.FAMILY → Location → “Always”. If it’s set to “While Using”, the app asks to raise the level when recording starts, and until the permission is granted it shows a warning and a red card on the recording map: without “Always”, recording stops as soon as the screen goes dark.
2. Android: on the first recording start the app first explains why it needs background location (the “Background location” dialog); only after “Got it, continue” does the phone ask for system permissions — choose “Always”. Then take the app out of aggressive battery saving (on some firmwares — “Autostart” or “No background restrictions”).
3. Don’t swipe the app away from recents during a recording — the system may stop it.
4. Turn on notifications: if the system does freeze the recording, a reminder arrives that wakes it up.
5. The screen dims during a recording — that’s normal, recording continues. The numbers stay visible on the iPhone lock screen and in the Android notification. Need the screen on permanently on the handlebar — raise auto-lock in the phone settings.
6. Start the first recording on a new phone where there’s a connection: the app receives the economical recording mode setting and keeps using it offline afterwards.

Android: lift the battery restriction

Android saves power harder than iPhone. With the screen off, the system delays position updates, and on Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei and OnePlus it can put the recording itself to sleep. The app handles part of this: at a stop it switches GPS to standby and wakes it with the motion sensor. Only you can lift the battery restriction — the phone won’t let the app do it. While it stays on, a yellow card sits on the recording screen. Tap it and the phone opens the right settings screen.

1. Stock Android, Pixel: Settings → Apps → ENDURO.FAMILY → Battery → “Unrestricted”.
2. Samsung: Settings → Apps → ENDURO.FAMILY → Battery → “Unrestricted”; then Battery → Background usage limits → remove the app from “Sleeping apps” and turn off “Put unused apps to sleep”.
3. Xiaomi, Redmi, POCO: Settings → Apps → ENDURO.FAMILY → Battery saver → “No restrictions”; enable “Autostart”; lock the app card in recents.
4. Huawei, Honor: Settings → Battery → App launch → ENDURO.FAMILY → turn off “Manage automatically” and enable all three switches.
5. OnePlus, realme, OPPO: Settings → Battery → Battery optimisation → ENDURO.FAMILY → “Don’t optimise”; lock the app in recents.

Recording is gentle on the charge: when the connection is lost, the app doesn’t hammer the modem with retries — it stores points locally and sends them when the network returns. At a stop, the position goes to the live map once a minute instead of every few seconds — the group sees “stopped N min” while the phone’s modem rests. On Android, GPS goes to sleep after two minutes at a stop. The motion sensor wakes it, and you save charge on every break.