Why is my countdown widget not updating?

If your countdown widget is not updating, check its event title and saved date, your phone’s clock and time zone, and whether the number counts calendar days or full 24-hour periods. In Soon, a stale display, a different selected event and inconsistent day labels need different fixes.

First, compare the same event in both places

Open Soon and find the event named on the Android home screen widget. Confirm its full date and any saved time inside the app, then compare the day counts. Note what each screen shows and when you checked it. If the app has the intended date but the widget still shows an older title or value, investigate the widget refresh. If the title matches and the numbers differ by one day, check the counting method below before changing anything.

Check the saved date, year and optional time

Read the date on the event’s detail screen, including the year. An event saved for next year can look like a frozen countdown when you expected this year. Soon’s event form has Date, an optional Add time control and Repeat. Without a time, the saved target starts at local midnight, while the event remains active through that calendar day. With a time, it ends at that moment. If you correct an event through Edit, reopen it to verify the saved result. If Edit does not respond, report the control problem using the troubleshooting details below.

A calendar day is different from 24 hours

At noon on Monday, Tuesday is one calendar day away, but Tuesday at midnight is only 12 hours away. A counter showing full 24-hour periods therefore has zero whole days left, plus 12 hours. Soon’s Android widget and regular event list count calendar days. Some large in-app countdowns and the detail screen’s days-left message use full 24-hour periods instead, even for events without a time. That is a current display inconsistency, not a setting you missed. A date-only large card can also leave its hours and minutes unchanged until the view redraws. Use the saved date and calendar-day count to check a date-only event.

Check the phone’s clock and time zone

In Android’s date and time settings, verify the date, clock and selected time zone. Enable automatic date and time and automatic time zone where your device supports them, then confirm the results are correct. These are separate settings. Soon uses the device’s local time zone; its event form does not offer an event-specific time zone. A saved target can therefore display differently after you travel or change zones. The Location field is a text label, not a destination-time converter. For an event elsewhere, establish the equivalent time in your phone’s current zone before saving a timed countdown.

Make sure the widget is following the event you expect

Soon’s Android widget shows an active pinned event first. If none is pinned, it shows the nearest upcoming event. Open the intended event and use its pin icon if you want it to take priority. Check the actual home screen widget afterward: the gallery inside Soon is a preview and may show a different upcoming event. There is currently no independent event picker for each Android widget. Adding another widget gives you another view of the same shared selection, so two widgets showing the same event does not indicate a refresh failure.

After changing a pin, refresh the app’s main view

A pin change in the detail screen does not itself send the updated selection to the Android widget. After pinning or unpinning, close the detail screen, switch to the Widgets tab, then return to Home before checking your phone’s home screen. Switching tabs redraws Soon and attempts to send the current event data to the widget. Treat this as a troubleshooting step, not a guaranteed repair. If the old selection remains, record both titles so support can distinguish a selection problem from a counting problem.

Allow for Android’s widget refresh schedule

The home screen widget does not tick every second like an open detail countdown. Soon requests periodic widget updates at 30-minute intervals and schedules additional refreshes around local midnight and the displayed event’s end. It also requests a redraw when changed data is sent from the app. Android’s periodic widget mechanism does not support intervals below 30 minutes, and Soon’s additional scheduled refresh uses an inexact alarm. Android can delay that work under power-saving restrictions. A number that has not changed immediately after midnight is not proof that the target date is wrong; an exact refresh minute is not guaranteed.

Check whether the countdown has finished or repeated

If the widget switches titles when an event ends, check the next upcoming event before trying to restore the old display. Soon’s widget can move on automatically using the event data it already holds. A repeating event can instead advance to its next weekly, monthly or yearly occurrence, making the remaining count increase. Check Repeat if you expected a single deadline. A nonrepeating date-only event remains active through its date; a timed event ends at its saved time. Finished nonrepeating events are available in Memories inside the app.

If it still looks stuck, preserve the evidence

Check Google Play for an available Soon update, restart your phone, then open Soon again. If the app is correct but the widget remains stale, try removing and adding only the widget; use the separate Android widget setup guide if needed. Avoid clearing app storage or uninstalling as an initial fix: Soon stores event data locally, and uninstalling erases app data. If the mismatch persists, contact support@hugosoftware.net with your phone model, Android and Soon versions, the expected date and time, and screenshots of both displays. State whether it began after midnight, travel, an edit or a pin change.