iOS Version 17.1.2 Phone Goes To Sleep

In iOS and iPadOS 17 it appears Apple made some changes to the power management schema. "Device Sleep" is different from the screen auto lock. On my iPad the screen auto lock will come on and the screen dims and goes blank. But SmartSDR stays running in the background so the device doesn't actually "sleep" - it just turns the screen off to save on power.

But you have to specifically "allow" this and specify which apps are allowed to stay running in the background. In SmartSDR turn off "Disconnect on close" and turn on "Ask before disconnect". In iOS go to Settings -> Screen Time -> Always Allowed and add SmartSDR to the list. This will not prevent your screen auto lock from coming on, you have to turn that off in Settings -> Display & Brightness if you don't want your screen to auto lock.

I was having the same problem. I run my Flex with the iPad in the shack and run JS8Call on my Mac mini for sometimes days at a time unattended for long periods of time. The iPad's screen would auto lock but after a period of time the device would actually go to "sleep" and disconnect the Flex. Adding SmartSDR to the list of apps always allowed during downtime fixed it so that SmartSDR doesn't disconnect from the Flex.

Let us all know if that fixes it for you like it did for me. There is some apps like FieldView that we use on the iPad in tractors and combines that disable the screen auto lock, even in iOS 17, if that app is in the foreground and connected to the machine's CAN bus. I'm not sure how the app does that, but I don't think I'd like that on a mobile device for SmartSDR. If I'm going to leave SmartSDR running for a long period of time, unattended, I think I prefer to have the screen auto lock and turn off, but the audio stays alive and the app stays connected to the FlexRadio.

I had submitted a support request to Marcus for the issue with the app disconnecting after the screen goes out, those settings seemed to fix it here.