Screen timeout (after two minutes) does not work in Zotero iPad app

rafael.ambag · August 20, 2023

Just reporting that the screen timeout does not work in the Zotero iPad app. My iPad is set to auto-lock at two minutes. In the Zotero app, there is a setting called "allow to sleep" which I have also toggled on. However, despite this, the screen does not time out even after 2 minutes. Maybe this is a bug in the iPad app.

Have just checked the auto-lock feature for another app (Goodnotes), and that works fine.

iktsuarpok · 2025-01-14T03:48:08+00:00

I have the same issue, significantly reduces battery life

dstillman · 2025-01-14T04:15:42+00:00

@iktsuarpok: This is an old thread, and we've since removed the setting that @rafael.ambag was referring to. In current versions, when you're in the reader, it keeps the screen on for 25 minutes, and then lets it auto-lock according to system settings.

It doesn't "significantly reduce battery life" unless you walk away from the device while the reader is open. Are you saying that's what you're doing?

iktsuarpok · 2025-01-14T05:29:18+00:00

Thanks for the clarification. Yes I leave my device in anticipation that it would auto-lock in 2 minutes per my iPad setting. Why not just go with iPad setting and let the user decide?

dstillman · 2025-01-14T06:02:25+00:00

Because the OS setting applies to all contexts and isn't necessarily appropriate for a dedicated, likely non-security-sensitive reader where you may be reading dense pages for minutes at a time without needing to interact with the screen. You might want your phone to auto-lock after a minute if you're in your bank app, but you don't necessarily want the screen to darken after 40 seconds (which it does for the "1 minute" setting) while you're trying to read a complicated paper. And you shouldn't have to go into system settings and find the auto-lock setting before every reading session.

At the same time, an "Allow device to sleep" setting in the reader, like we had before, doesn't really make sense either, because it's not something you should have to manually manage — you shouldn't have to decide "this is a really confusing page, so I'm going to go toggle that setting". If you often read without touching the screen for minutes at a time, you just want your screen not to darken in the middle of that.

We could consider restoring a setting in the main app settings that made this configurable, so you could decide how long it should keep the screen on in the reader or just have it always follow the system setting.

Just as one prominent example, though, the Kindle app seems to ignore the system setting as well, and I'm not seeing any setting to control that. Same with Apple's Books apps. Kindle seems to wait 5 minutes before letting the system timer start. Books seems to do 3m 40s. We made our fixed timer 25 minutes due to accessibility concerns, but given that it still uses the system setting after the initial time elapses, maybe going with 5 minutes for the fixed time would be fine.