iOS full-time background-service based on location

Question

I'm currently writing an application which depends on location tracking and sending data about the position to the server. The problem, however, is that it has to run 24/7 and currently I'm experiencing random crashes which occur every 2-3 days. What I have done to make the application run constantly in the background is I put a NSTimer in a beginBackgroundTaskWithExpirationHandler method right iside the applicationDidEnterBackground method. The timer executes each minute and stops/starts the location service.

Here is a sample crash log

The code basically looks like this:

UIApplication *app = [UIApplication sharedApplication];
__block UIBackgroundTaskIdentifier bgTaskId = 0;

bgTaskId = [app beginBackgroundTaskWithExpirationHandler:^{
    NSTimer *t = [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval: 1 * 60.0 target: self selector: @selector(onTick) userInfo: nil repeats: YES];
    [t fire];

    if (bgTaskId != UIBackgroundTaskInvalid){
        [app endBackgroundTask: bgTaskId];

        bgTaskId = UIBackgroundTaskInvalid;
    }
}];

I am using GCDAsyncSockets for connection purposes, each call having a timeout of approximately 30 seconds.

I'm really out of ideas, what might be the reason the crashes occur?

Answer 1

Your timer is probably firing off AFTER the task is invalidated (after [UIApplication sharedApplication].backgroundTimeRemaining gets to 0.

The thing is that you can't make the application run constantly in the background. If you want to execute code every once in a while, your only option is going to be using the background location API, setting that your app is using the location background mode in its plist. You would be getting the CLLocationManagerDelegate callbacks, and you have some time to do some work when those methods are called.

See the Apple documentation regarding background modes: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#DOCUMENTATION/iPhone/Conceptual/iPhoneOSProgrammingGuide/ManagingYourApplicationsFlow/ManagingYourApplicationsFlow.html

And the location-awarness manual: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#DOCUMENTATION/UserExperience/Conceptual/LocationAwarenessPG/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40009497