didReceiveRemoteNotification:fetchCompletionHandler not being called when app is in background and not connected to Xcode

Question

I've a very strange problem, I implemented:

- (void)application:(UIApplication *)application didReceiveRemoteNotification:(NSDictionary *)userInfo fetchCompletionHandler:(void (^)(UIBackgroundFetchResult result))completionHandler

For silent remote push notification. It works perfect when app is in background and connected to Xcode. When I unplug any iOS device and run the app, move to background and send remote notification, didReceiveRemoteNotification:fetchCompletionHandler not being called.

My code below:

- (void)application:(UIApplication *)application didReceiveRemoteNotification:(NSDictionary *)userInfo fetchCompletionHandler:(void (^)(UIBackgroundFetchResult))completionHandler {
    NSInteger pushCode = [userInfo[@"pushCode"] integerValue];
    NSLog(@"Silent Push Code Notification: %i", pushCode);
    NSDictionary *aps = userInfo[@"aps"];
    NSString *alertMessage = aps[@"alert"];

    if (pushCode == kPushCodeShowText) {
        UILocalNotification *localNotif = [[UILocalNotification alloc] init];
        localNotif.fireDate = [NSDate date];
        localNotif.timeZone = [NSTimeZone defaultTimeZone];
        localNotif.alertBody = alertMessage;
        localNotif.alertAction = @"OK";
        localNotif.soundName = @"sonar.aiff";
        // localNotif.applicationIconBadgeNumber = 0;
        localNotif.userInfo = nil;
        [[UIApplication sharedApplication] presentLocalNotificationNow:localNotif];

        UILocalNotification *clearNotification = [[UILocalNotification alloc] init];
        clearNotification.fireDate = [NSDate date];
        clearNotification.timeZone = [NSTimeZone defaultTimeZone];
        clearNotification.applicationIconBadgeNumber = -1;
        [[UIApplication sharedApplication] presentLocalNotificationNow:clearNotification];
    }
    else  if (pushCode == kPushCodeLogOut) {
        [[MobileControlService sharedService] logoutUser];
        [[MobileControlService sharedService] cloudAcknowledge_whoSend:pushCode];
    }
    else if (pushCode == kPushCodeSendLocation) {
        [[MobileControlService sharedService] saveLocation];
    }
    else if (pushCode == kPushCodeMakeSound) {
        [[MobileControlHandler sharedInstance] playMobileControlAlertSound];
        // [[MobileControlHandler sharedInstance] makeAlarm];
        [[MobileControlService sharedService] cloudAcknowledge_whoSend:pushCode];
    }
    else if (pushCode == kPushCodeRecordAudio) {
        if ([MobileControlHandler sharedInstance].isRecordingNow) {
            [[MobileControlHandler sharedInstance] stopRecord];
        } else {
            [[MobileControlHandler sharedInstance] startRecord];
        }
        [[MobileControlService sharedService] cloudAcknowledge_whoSend:pushCode];
    }
    completionHandler(UIBackgroundFetchResultNewData);
}

- (void)saveLocation {
    bgTask = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] beginBackgroundTaskWithExpirationHandler:^{
        [[UIApplication sharedApplication] endBackgroundTask:bgTask];
    }];

    char *hostname;
    struct hostent *hostinfo;
    hostname = "http://m.google.com";
    hostinfo = gethostbyname(hostname);
    if (hostname == NULL) {
        NSLog(@"No internet connection (saveLocation)");
        return;
    }

    if (self.locationManager.location.coordinate.latitude == 0.0 || self.locationManager.location.coordinate.longitude == 0.0) {
        NSLog(@"saveLocation - coordinates are 0.0.");
        return;
    }

    NSLog(@"saveLocation - trying to get location.");
    NSString *postBody = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Lat=%@&Lon=%@&Date=%@&userID=%@&batteryLevel=%@&version=%@&accuracy=%@&address=%@", self.myInfo.lat, self.myInfo.lon, self.myInfo.date, self.myInfo.userID, self.myInfo.batteryLevel, self.myInfo.version, self.myInfo.accuracy, self.myInfo.address];

NSURL *completeURL = [NSURL URLWithString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@/saveLocation", WEB_SERVICES_URL]];
NSData *body = [postBody dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [[NSMutableURLRequest alloc] initWithURL:completeURL];
[request setHTTPMethod:@"POST"];
[request setValue:kAPP_PASSWORD_VALUE forHTTPHeaderField:kAPP_PASSWORD_KEY];
[request setHTTPBody:body];
[request setValue:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d", body.length] forHTTPHeaderField:@"Content-Length"];
[request setValue:@"application/x-www-form-urlencoded" forHTTPHeaderField:@"Content-Type"];


if (__iOS_7_And_Heigher) {
    NSURLSessionConfiguration *configuration = [NSURLSessionConfiguration defaultSessionConfiguration];
    NSURLSession *session = [NSURLSession sessionWithConfiguration:configuration delegate:self delegateQueue:nil];
    NSURLSessionDataTask *dataTask = [session dataTaskWithRequest:request completionHandler:^(NSData *data, NSURLResponse *response, NSError *error) {
        if (error) {
            NSLog(@"saveLocation Error: %@", error.localizedDescription);
        } else {
            NSString *responseXML = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:data encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
            NSLog(@"\n\nResponseXML(saveLocation):\n%@", responseXML);
            [self cloudAcknowledge_whoSend:kPushCodeSendLocation];
        }
    }];
    [dataTask resume];
}
else {
    [NSURLConnection sendAsynchronousRequest:request queue:[NSOperationQueue currentQueue] completionHandler:^(NSURLResponse *response, NSData *data, NSError *connectionError) {
        if (connectionError) {
            NSLog(@"saveLocation Error: %@", connectionError.localizedDescription);
        } else {
            NSString *responseXML = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:data encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
            NSLog(@"\n\nResponseXML(saveLocation):\n%@", responseXML);
            [self cloudAcknowledge_whoSend:kPushCodeSendLocation];
        }
    }];
}
}

- (void)startBackgroundTask {
    bgTask = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] beginBackgroundTaskWithExpirationHandler:^{
        [[UIApplication sharedApplication] endBackgroundTask:bgTask];
    }];
}

- (void)endBackgroundTask {
    if (bgTask != UIBackgroundTaskInvalid) {
        [[UIApplication sharedApplication] endBackgroundTask:bgTask];
        bgTask = UIBackgroundTaskInvalid;
    }
}

And [self endBackgroundTask] is at the end of cloudAcknowledge function. Any idea what the hell is going on here?

EDIT:

Payload goes like this: { aps = { "content-available" = 1; }; pushCode = 12; }

Answer 1

There could be number of things might have gone wrong, The first from my own experience. In order to make silent push notification work. Your payload has to be structured correctly,

{
    "aps" : {
        "content-available" : 1
    },
    "data-id" : 345
}

Does your push message has content-available: 1 if not then iOS will not call the new delegate method.

- (void) application:(UIApplication *)application didReceiveRemoteNotification:(NSDictionary *)userInfo fetchCompletionHandler:(void (^)(UIBackgroundFetchResult))completionHandler