Setup guide
Phones are built to save power, restart themselves at night and install updates while you sleep. An alarm panel must do none of that. Ten minutes on these settings, once, and your Alarm Station stays on duty for years.
On the Station, open Settings → Keep this Station running. It shows which of the settings below are already right and opens the exact Android page for each one you still need to change. The items marked “check by hand” are the ones Android does not let apps see.
Menu names differ slightly between Android versions and brands; the wording below is Android 13–15. If you cannot find an item, search for it with the magnifier at the top of Settings.
The Station lives on its charger. Use a mount, stand or adhesive strip that keeps the phone still: moving it while armed is treated as tampering and sets off the siren — by design.
Settings → Lock screen → Screen lock type → None (or Swipe).
After a reboot, Android keeps every app — including Alarm Mobile — locked out until the PIN is typed. With a PIN lock, a Station that restarts at 4 AM stays dark until someone walks over to it. The alarm's own code protects the panel; leaving the app while armed sounds the siren.
Settings → Apps → Alarm Mobile → Appear on top / Display over other apps → On. The in-app checklist opens this page for you.
This is what lets the Station put its keypad back on screen by itself after a restart, an update or a crash. Without it Android only allows a notification you must tap.
Settings → Apps → Alarm Mobile → Battery → Unrestricted. When the app asks “Allow Alarm Mobile to always run in background?”, tap Allow.
Settings → Apps → Alarm Mobile → Notifications → On. Keep the small “Alarm Station is running” notification — it is how Android knows the app is essential.
Settings → Software update (Samsung) or Settings → System → System update (others) → turn off automatic download and automatic install.
An automatic update reboots the phone in the middle of the night. Install updates when you are home; the Station re-arms itself afterwards.
Settings → Connections (or Network & internet) → Wi-Fi → ⋮ / Advanced: keep Wi-Fi on during sleep: Always; turn off “Switch to mobile data” and “Adaptive Wi-Fi” if the Station has no SIM.
A Station with a prepaid SIM keeps working when the home Wi-Fi drops. Without one, make sure Wi-Fi is never allowed to sleep.
Battery saver / Power saving mode, Ultra power saving, Adaptive Battery “sleep” for Alarm Mobile, Digital Wellbeing app timers or Bedtime mode on the Station phone. Each of these can pause the app.
Samsung adds two features that shut down a Station on their own. Both are off in two minutes.
Settings → Battery and device care → ⋮ (top right) → Auto optimization → turn off Restart when needed (older One UI: Device care → ⋮ → Advanced → Auto restart → off).
Samsung reboots the phone between 3 and 5 AM when the screen is off. Your Station would come back at the lock screen with the app closed — exactly what this guide prevents.
Settings → Battery and device care → Battery → Background usage limits: turn off Put unused apps to sleep, then Never sleeping apps → + → Alarm Mobile.
Settings → Apps → Alarm Mobile → Appear on top → On.
Settings → Battery and device care → Battery → More battery settings → Protect battery → On (caps charging at 85%, so a phone that is plugged in for years does not swell). The app's Battery protection page shows the same thing.
Alarm Mobile keeps the screen on by itself while it is the Station. If you use Samsung's Settings → Display → Screen timeout, any value is fine; leave Screen saver off.
Settings → Battery → Adaptive preferences → Adaptive Battery → Off, or keep it on and make sure Alarm Mobile shows Unrestricted under Apps → Alarm Mobile → Battery.
Settings → Apps → Alarm Mobile → Display over other apps → Allowed.
Settings → System → System update: Pixels download updates automatically but only install when you tap Restart — leave it that way and never tap it while you are away. Also open Play Store → Profile → Settings → Network preferences → Auto-update apps and pick “Don't auto-update apps” on the Station, so the Alarm Mobile app itself is updated when you choose (it re-arms itself after an update, but you should be there the first time).
These brands ship their own battery managers that kill background apps aggressively. Each has an “autostart” list and a per-app battery setting — Alarm Mobile must be allowed in both.
Settings → Apps → Manage apps → Alarm Mobile → Autostart → On; Battery saver → No restrictions; Other permissions → Display pop-up windows while running in the background → Allow and Display over other apps → Allow. In Recents, pull the app card down to pin it (the lock icon).
Settings → Battery → App launch → Alarm Mobile: switch from Automatic to Manual, then enable Auto-launch, Secondary launch and Run in background. Settings → Apps → Alarm Mobile → Battery → Ignore optimisations.
Settings → Apps → Alarm Mobile → Battery usage → Allow background activity, Allow auto launch; Settings → Battery → More settings → Optimize battery use → Alarm Mobile → Don't optimize; turn off Sleep standby optimisation / Smart 5G if present.
i Manager → App manager → Autostart manager → Alarm Mobile → On; Settings → Battery → Background power consumption management → Alarm Mobile → Allow high background power consumption.
Close to stock Android — follow the Pixel section and additionally turn off Settings → Battery → Battery optimisation → Alarm Mobile. Disable “Attentive Display” on the Station.
If you have a brand not listed here, the site dontkillmyapp.com documents every manufacturer's background restrictions and is the best reference we know of.
Everything above applies to tablets — the settings live in the same places. Three extra notes: pick the camera that faces the room (Station Settings → Which camera; on most tablets the screen-side camera is on the long edge, so mount the tablet in landscape); use the tablet's original charger, since many tablets slowly discharge on a weak phone charger even when “plugged in”; and turn off any Screen saver / Daydream / Dock mode feature, which replaces the keypad with a clock.
The iPhone and iPad Station app is in development; these are the settings it will need, published now so you can prepare a spare device. The iPhone Remote is separate and needs only the notification settings in the next section.
Settings → Display & Brightness → Auto-Lock → Never. Also turn off Settings → Display & Brightness → Attention Aware Features (iPhone with Face ID) so the screen does not dim when nobody is looking.
Settings → Face ID & Passcode → Turn Passcode Off. Like Android, iOS keeps apps locked after a restart until the passcode is entered; a Station must come back on its own.
Settings → General → Software Update → Automatic Updates: turn off both “Download iOS Updates” and “Install iOS Updates”. Also Settings → App Store → App Updates → Off on the Station.
Settings → Battery → Low Power Mode → Off; Settings → General → Background App Refresh → On and enabled for Alarm Mobile.
Settings → Accessibility → Guided Access → On, set a Guided Access passcode, then open Alarm Mobile and triple-click the side (or Home) button → Start. The device now stays in Alarm Mobile and ignores the Home gesture and other apps until you triple-click and enter the passcode. This is the closest thing iOS has to a dedicated panel mode.
Settings → Battery → Battery Health & Charging → Optimized Battery Charging → On; on iPhone 15 and later you can also set a charge limit of 80%.
The Remote does not need to stay awake — it just needs to be able to interrupt you.
Settings → Apps → Alarm Mobile → Notifications: allow notifications and make sure the Alarm alerts category is set to Urgent / “Make sound and pop on screen”. Then Settings → Notifications → Do not disturb → Apps (or “Apps that can interrupt”) → add Alarm Mobile, so entry and alarm alerts break through Do Not Disturb and Bedtime mode. Set Apps → Alarm Mobile → Battery → Unrestricted so alerts are not delayed.
When the app first asks, allow notifications and Time Sensitive notifications. In Settings → Focus, add Alarm Mobile to the allowed apps of every Focus you use (Sleep, Do Not Disturb, Work), and enable “Time Sensitive Notifications” in each.
After a reboot, an app update or a crash, the Alarm Station restarts itself, turns the screen on, brings the keypad back and re-arms in the mode it was in — no exit delay. If the Station is unreachable for more than five minutes, every paired Remote receives a “Station offline” alert, and a “back online” alert when it returns. Still stuck? Contact us.