If you've been missing bus arrival Here Comes the Bus (HCTB) push notifications, the problem might be the device you're using. Almost all Samsung Galaxy mobile phones and tablets equipped with One UI 3 and later (Android 11+) have a battery life–saving feature that puts apps that run in the background to sleep, which causes your HCTB notifications to be delayed or missed altogether. (See the note at the bottom of this article for a list of the affected models.)
In some cases, the delayed bus arrival notifications can be received minutes, hours, or even days late, or they will appear only after you have opened the HCTB app or unlocked your device. This is common if the app has been in the background for several days without being opened.
Note: This is not a problem with Here Comes the Bus itself — it's a well-known behavior on Samsung devices caused by the battery-saving features in One UI. These aggressively restrict background activity for apps not used frequently, putting them into sleep or deep sleep states to conserve power. This delays or blocks push notifications (such as bus location updates) until the app is actively used. Many other apps face the same issue on Samsung phones.
Fixing the Issue
To fix this problem for your device, follow these steps:
- Open your device's Settings page.
- Open your Apps settings.
- Find Here Comes the Bus in your list of apps and select it.
- Tap Battery.
Note: On some models, the app battery usage settings may be under Battery and Device Care >> Battery. - Choose Unrestricted.
Note: This allows full background activity; if Unrestricted isn't listed exactly as an option, look for a setting such as Allow Background Activity or Not Optimized. - Return to the Settings page.
- Select Battery and Device Care (or just Device Care).
- Tap Battery.
- Tap Background Usage Limits.
- Disable Put Unused Apps to Sleep.
Note: Check the lists of apps under Sleeping Apps and Deep Sleeping Apps. If Here Comes the Bus is there, remove it. (You can also use the overflow menu [
] to clear the list.)
The preceding steps are usually enough to clear the problem. If you want to leave the fix at just these changes, you can skip down to step 14 to complete the procedure. - Return to the Background Usage Limits page.
- Select .
- Disable Adaptive Battery (or Adaptive Power Saving).
- After you are finished applying your device changes, force-close Here Comes the Bus (for example, you can swipe it away from your recently used apps).
- Reopen HCTB and test the fix by waiting for the next scheduled bus notification.
POSSIBLE OTHER FIXES
If the problem continues after you have made the above modifications, here are some other things to try:
- Disabling power-saving mode: Go to Settings >> Battery and Device Care >> Battery and turn off Power Saving.
- Verifying your notifications permissions: Go to Settings >> Notifications >> App Notifications >> Here Comes the Bus and make sure that Allow Notifications is enabled (and that relevant categories such as bus alerts are on/not silenced as well).
- Turning off Data Saver: Go to Settings >> Connections >> Data Usage and disable Data Saver (or add Here Comes the Bus as an exception).
- Updating your device: Go to Settings >> Software Update and check for system updates.
What to Expect After These Adjustments
After you've made these updates to your device, bus notifications should arrive in near real time, even when the HCTB app has been running in the background for days. The app uses standard high-priority push delivery where possible.
AFFECTED MODELS
The list of Samsung devices that have this issue includes the following (and possibly others):
- Galaxy S series: S20, S21, S22, S23, S24, S25, and their Plus/Ultra variants
- Galaxy Note series: Note 20 and earlier (updated to compatible One UI versions)
- Galaxy A series (mid range): A-series models from ~2020 onward (such as A23, A53, A54, A73, and newer budget/mid range lines)
- Galaxy Z series (foldables): Z Fold series (Fold3, Fold4, Fold5, Fold6, and Fold SE) and Z Flip series (Flip3, Flip4, Flip5, and Flip6)
- Other Galaxy models: Tablets (such as the Tab S series), older flagships upgraded to One UI 3+ (including S10/S9 in some regions), and any device running One UI 3 or higher with the relevant battery features enabled