Alternative for Background Transfer Service to run uploads in background

Question

I've used background transfer service (BTS) API for Windows Phone in two apps and experienced very bad problems. It became one of the main source of bug in the two apps as for some reasons, download are often refusing to start, whatever I set in the flags (Connected to wifi, not connected, connected to a power outlet, etc.), and it was random from a user to another. This and bad response from the servers.

Is there a more customized way to achieve it? Which threads or loop remains alive in my app when I'm navigating to the external:// world? I should probably check with counters.

My main question remains: appart from the BTS, is there something to allow a 3-4 megs file to upload even if I navigate out from my app to play an mp3 from an external:// app?

Answer 1

Once you exit your app, you are pretty much shut down. You can masquerade as a location tracking background agent to remain in the background when you get deactivated, though you'll suck battery and I believe there can only be one of these active at a time. Generally, highly not recommended (and you'll probably fail certification).

A better way to do this if BTS is not to your liking is to use a ResourceIntensiveTask. This will only be triggered when the user is plugged in and has WiFi but will allow you to run whatever you want for as long as the conditions are met (for example, at night) which should be plenty of time to upload a 3-4 MB file.