iOS Shortcuts: will a “Time of Day” personal automation run if the phone’s not been picked up for a few hours?

Question

Created Nov ’20

Replies 4

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I want to use use my iPhone to make a daily call to a web URL; much like a cron job if I had a home server. In theory, this should be so simple:

Open iOS Shortcuts app
Go to the Automation tab
Tap the ➕ icon
Choose Create Personal Automation
Choose Time of Day
Set a time and choose next
Use the “Get Contents of URL” action in the “Web Requests” section
Disable “Ask Before Running”

✅ The above works great if I set the time of day to something like 9am, when I will likely be using my phone.

❌ It never runs if I set the time of day to 6am when:

I am still asleep (so the phone hasn’t been picked up for 6–8 hours)
The phone is on charge and connected to WiFi
Do not disturb is enabled (note: I have tried disabling “Do not disturb” without success)

My theory is perhaps if the phone is inactive for x time then daily automations won’t run but hoping someone has a definitive answer. Thank you!

Boost

Answer 1

Michrome OP

Nov ’20

Whatever was causing this to not work has now resolved itself 🤷

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Answer 2

jshingler OP

Dec ’22

I am experiencing this problem on ios 16.1.2. In the morning I receive a message that something "... hasn't passed". I've spent the last 45 minutes looking for information but haven't found any. Really hoping someone can help.

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Answer 3

hepcat72 OP

Jun ’23

Glad your issue resolved itself. I assume you are using get contents of URL to make a webhook call or something, because that action by itself doesn't really do anything when the phone is locked.

For timed webhook calls, I usually use either a crib job or a node-red workflow on my computer, which would be more reliable.

I do have some Siri automations and I can say that there are some specific actions that will not run when the phone is locked. Also, just a heads up, if your phone battery is marked as "degraded performance", an AI will randomly decide to power down your phone over night, which will prevent automations from running. (I mitigated this with automations that control a smart outlet that prevents my phone from getting to 100% charge.)

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Answer 4

myassin OP

Oct ’24

I created an automation to open an app at a certain time everyday (12:00 AM) the problem is it doesn’t run if the iPad is locked. Is there any way to make this automation run even when I’m not using the iPad? I unchecked “Run After Confirmation” and “Notify When Run”.

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