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Widget not updating right and acting strange

Bug Report

  • Device: Xiaomi 12 Lite (2203129G)

  • OS: HyperOS 1.0.38.0.ULIEUXM, Android 14 (UKQ1.231003.002)

  • App: Habitify 44.1.0

  • Widget: Habit list, filtered to a user-created area

  • Launcher: Smart Launcher, widget inside a stacked widget container — but the bug reproduces identically with the widget placed directly on the home screen and with the stock Xiaomi Launcher

Summary

The habit list widget does not reliably refresh and does not respond to the first tap after being idle for a while. Occasionally, tapping the widget spawns additional instances of the app.

Symptoms

  1. Stale widget after remote changes: Marking a habit as done in the web version (desktop) sometimes does not update the widget. Opening the app syncs it and the widget then matches again.

  2. First tap swallowed after idle: After not interacting with the widget for a longer period, tapping a habit's checkmark does nothing except reload the widget. The second tap then opens the app (instead of showing the old inline "done" overlay), where the habit can be crossed off manually.

  3. Multiple app instances: After the tap-does-nothing → tap-opens-app sequence, waiting a longer time and tapping another habit sometimes opens a second (up to three total) instance of the app, visible in the recents overview. Hard to reproduce on demand because of the long idle period required.

Already ruled out / tried

  • Autostart permission granted

  • App excluded from battery optimization

  • App excluded from MIUI/HyperOS "boost" (protected from "close all" in recents; the recents lock itself froze the phone when toggled)

  • No browser extensions (e.g. uBlock) interfering with the web app on the desktop side

Note

The previous inline overlay for marking a habit done directly from the widget was preferred over the current open-the-app behavior.

Posted by An Anonymous User ·
4 comments

Comments4

  • Minh Thư

    Team•

    Aug 10

    Hello!

    Thank you so much for taking the time to share such a thorough and detailed breakdown! Having your exact symptoms and the steps you've already tried helps our team tremendously.

    I'd love to address your points, clarify how our widget currently operates, and confirm one of the issues with you:

    1. Widget Sync & Auto-Refresh:

      Currently, when you check off a habit in the web browser, that update syncs to your mobile app first before updating the home screen widget. The widget does not have a background auto-refresh function for remote changes just yet. I have passed this to our dev team so they can evaluate adding auto-refresh capabilities in upcoming updates.

    2. Direct Check-in vs. App Navigation:

      The direct inline check-in overlay was part of our previous widget design. In the current version, tapping a habit on the widget is intended to open the app directly to your Journal view, with that specific habit highlighted at the top so you can conveniently log your progress or custom values.

    3. Clarifying Issue #3 (Multiple App Instances):

      We want to make sure we understand this bug completely before passing it to our engineering team: as we understand it, you tap on a habit and the app shows no response at all at first, but then later (or after tapping again), it suddenly spawns/opens multiple screens or instances of the app in your recents menu?

    Please let us know if we've captured Issue #3 accurately so we can dig into it further. Thank you again for helping us make Habitify better!

    • An Anonymous User

      •

      Aug 10

      Hey. Yes, you got point 3 right. I cant 100% tell you under which conditions it will happen, making it hard for me to reproduce it, but I got times where the app has three open activities in the app preview and all I did basically boils down to what you described.

      Also: Do you plan on adding back the overlay? I like it more than what we have right now. Maybe an option to choose which one to use?

      Thanks a lot :)

    • An Anonymous User

      •

      Aug 10

      Oh and about point 1:

      I think not having auto refresh for the widget makes it kind of pointless to use it, cause I would need to open the app manually each time, to get an overview, which is up2date and synced with my other devices. The widget alone has no value if the information could be out of date anytime and if the widget needs me to open the app, I could also just remove the widget, save the space on the home screen and just get the details I need from the app, since I need to open it anyway.

      • Minh Thư

        Team•

        Sep 16

        Hi!

        We just updated the version 48.1.0 on Play Store. You can download it, re-add the widget and check the work of widget again. Let me know if there is any issue that still needs me and my team to check further.