GCM Push doesn't work :(

[Kenneth Corbin]

This has been a sporadic problem since the old C2DM days.  We request a registration ID, we receive a registration ID.  We send the registration ID to our backend server.  The backend server pushes an acknowledgement to device.  All seems well from the server side but the message never arrives back at the device.  Or sometimes it arrives 5-90 minutes late.  We have developed a bag of tricks seems to have a 100% resolution rate on pre-ICS devices.  ICS and above has been more problematic.  And now I have one user on 4.1.1 where nothing we try seems to work.

Their phone is not rooted

They have uninstalled and reinstalled our app multiple times

Device has been restarted multiple times

Our app cannot be installed on the SD card

They are trying this with a good WiFi connection to avoid possible new restrictions on mobile carrier data networks

Anyone have any other ideas we can try???

FWIW, the pre-ICS instructions we use to resolve this issue are

Go to the home screen and select Menu > Settings > Accounts and Sync

and make sure Background Data and Auto-Sync settings are enabled.  While

you are here, press the Google account setting and Sync Now.

Request a secret app feature that unregisters the current GCM registration and requests a new one

Restart the device and try again.

Power down your device, remove the SD card, then power it up and try again.   I have no idea why this would make any difference, but it got one user up and running.

[crashe...@gmail.com]

You will find that this feature will work once you enter flight mode and then exit flight mode. I have performed extensive testing on the GCM service. I have found this service to be useful only for general notifications where time is not a factor for correct operation (software update notifications only). If you need absolute reliability every time a message is pushed out, do not use GCM. The problem you describe appears when first connecting and after some time of inactivity. I've seen up to and exceeding 15 minutes for a pushed message to appear on the device. Toggling flight mode will force message reception. Once a message is received all subsequent messages will be received giving the appearance the system is working. After some time of inactivity messages will again lag. These are my findings. Google may report otherwise but I have not experienced any proof so far.

[crashe...@gmail.com]

Also, there appears to be a 20 message limit until flight mode is toggled. This means that after message 20 is received no more messages are received even when all 20 are received in succession without fault. If flight mode is toggled messages once again continue to be received until 20 is reached.