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[Q] Nexus 5 in China - No Google Now then no search access

Hi Guys,
I live in China and just bought a HK-spec Nexus 5 (D821). Upon receipt of the device I inserted my China Unicom SIM and proceeded to setup the phone. Firstly I noticed that everything was in Chinese automatically, so I changed the language. Then I noticed that nothing was updating, so I setup my VPN and used that to download all the updates. Once everything was updated I noticed that Google Now was absent and I wasn't able to enable it.
I searched the forums and found the two solutions offered to enable Google Now. One involved GPS-faking, signing out of my Google account for search, then deleting all data for Google Play Services, Google Play and Google Search. This didn't work, i think because the phone did not allow me to fully disable Google Play Services, saying that it "can't uninstall because this package is an active device administrator". Then when you click on "manage device administrators" it lists only one - Android Device Manager with a check box for allowing to lock or erase a lost device... That was a dead end.
The second method involved wiping the device then reinitiating with a non-China SIM installed. I used an Australian Amaysim SIM card and it appeared to do something different to my original installation. The phone started up in English, and asked if I was in an Australian time zone, despite the Aussie SIM not working at all on the Chinese networks. I then connected to my WiFi, and added a Google account and was asked to enable Google Now, which I did successfully, with cards loading up. However the one issue I have now is that I cannot access Google search without my VPN being active. Google Now says I don't have an internet connection unless my VPN is active and the search bar doesn't even respond..
I do have internet access - there is an H next to my network signal strength indicator and I can browse to non-China bookmarks in Chrome. However I cannot use the important search bar without a VPN - very frustrating!
My previous phone is an HTC One X with stock ROM running 4.2 and it never had a problem accessing Google Search in China without a VPN. What has changed now with the Nexus 5? Is it related to Google Play Services updates?
Can anyone help???
Thanks

Disable adm and try again

Thanks for the quick reply - care to elaborate how to do that?
When I go to disable the Device Administrator apps, Google Play Services is not present to disable. Only the Android Device Manager.

Ok, it appears that when I disable that single entry under Device Administrators I can actually disable Google Play Services.
Once Play Services was disabled, I logged out of my account for Google search and was then surprised to find that although all the Google Now functionality was gone, my Google search worked without VPN.
Then re-install Google Play Services and Google Now has returned but I cannot search without a VPN.
Why is it one or the other but not both?

This can't be helping
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/business/chinas-battle-against-google-heats-up.html?_r=0

[Q] OTA Update Broke Smart Lock?

Downloaded the OTA update on my S6 yesterday, and I noticed that Smart Lock (the feature that keeps your phone unlocked if you are in trusted locations, etc) had stopped working. I went to check the Smart Lock settings and now they are greyed out! Did this happen to everyone or just me?

people in Edge forum reporting same issue so you are not alone.
i think most folks here are waiting the couple days needed for a dev to update the OTA to be root before updating which is why you dont see a lot of response to this question.

It definitely messed up lock screen stuff. I use fingerprint and now I get the lock at the bottom of the lock screen sometimes. When I pull it up it does nothing, then switches to fingerprint mode.

Well, disregard my complaint. User ignorance. The day they update rolled out I also bought a new car with bt (for the first time)and paired my device. Apparently I just didn't recognize what smart lock looked like.

I think this update messed up the camera or something. My pictures seem blurry as hell.
Sent from my SM-G920V using XDA Free mobile app

I can confirm that mine does the same thing!

Glad it was figured out. I was going to say my smart lock has been working fine with my LG G Watch after I installed the update.

If you have a corporate Exchange account which requires a password or fingerprint, then Smart Lock will no longer work after the Samsung update a few days ago. I'm getting around the problem at the moment by setting up some profiles in Tasker. I have also read that if you remove your Exchange account and switch to Nine Exchange email from the Play store, that brings smart lock functionality back.
EDIT:
More testing. After disabling Tasker, I have confirmed that removing my Exchange account from the phone does indeed make smart lock start working as expected again.
Also, I've downloaded and set up Nine and Smart Lock still works as expected. Just FYI in case anybody else is experiencing this issue. Something to look at.

You normally use gmail for exchange? If so, uninstall updates for gmail then readd your account and smartlock will work again. This is a known issue on other devices.
One of the versions of gmail after 5.1 broke it... You may not see the issue unless you reactivate gmail. Many users report smartlock working until either readding their account or reactivating gmail. But regardless, downgrading gmail seemed to work...

Google Services not working

My Google Play Store Stopped working + google play Games and also facing syncing problem with gmail and calendar , (no issue with internet connection) even after full reset .
also i am not able to add any other google account.
Nexus 5 Android 5.1.1 + rooted + xposed+ default kernel
and today i did clean cyanogen 12 installation but after adding my account this problem arrive again after some time

Have you tried narrowing down the issue, maybe a fresh install (don't root or install Xposed), add your account, run it for a day or two, or at least longer than you know it takes for the problem to occur. Just to make sure it's not an Xposed issue. I've never had issues just with rooting, but it always helps to eliminate any other possibilities.
I've seen something similar to this, and I never really figured it out. I'm using stock image, just root, but my issue was several google sync would not work, like contacts, calendar, and a few others. I tried removing the account and adding it back, it worked like you state, a few hours maybe, then it would have sync errors again. I re-imaged fresh, and I believe when I initially configured the phone the first time, I added my account when it asked instead of skipping it, like I do occasionally. It's been going strong since, but I still don't know if that was a correct "fix"

cyanogen have a setting to remove root access so i did , but the problem still there. i am 80% sure that this is not a root problem .
so i removed my google account but now i cant add any of my google account with my phone (Error -As shown in last screenshot)
i did a fresh start before so again its specifically related to my that google account (as i think)

possible cause of this problem -
1- Latest Stagefright Patch update by google on my nexus 5 (Problem occurs sometime after update)
2- Freedom app , which is used to activate some of my app . i tried this app 2 or 3 days before .http://onhax.net/freedom-iap-apk/

i found one quick solution
i Removed host file from Etc folder in root directory and now problem gone

One question, do you use or previously used an Ad-block app?

yup is that app cause problem?

Google Assistant deleting home address

I'm at a loss here. I have asked Google for their help and they were useless. I have been using a Samsung Galaxy S8+ (AT&T). It has a feature called SMART LOCK that uses a Trusted Place, which has worked in the past without any issues. For those that don't know or use it, it allows you to keep your device unlocked while your at a trusted place. With that being said, My home address keeps deleting from Google Assistant > Settings> Personal Info> Home & Work Locations. My work location stays here, but my Home Location keeps getting deleted for some reason. I can't figure out what is causing it.
I've deleted it and edited it many times and yet it still happens.I thought it was an app or allowed program, but I went through them and didn't see anything that shouldn't be allowed in my Google account. I have deleted my cache, data and uninstalled updates on all, Google Play Store, Google Assistant as well as a few others. Yet my Home Location keeps on disappearing for no apparent reason. I wouldn't care so much, but I use the Smart Lock feature while home.
I have used Tasker from the play store and set up commands and this didn't even work to unlock phone while at home.
I have wiped my phone many times and it still happens. Does anyone else have this issue or at least know a fix or is this a bug?
Any help would be much appreciated.

Sounds very frustrating. I have not heard of the issue before.
I'm wondering if you have also cleared out your Gmail address/contact info and Google calendar profile, as well?
What happens when/if you create a new alias profile? Will the alias address remain?

I would have to get back to you on that. I haven't tried creating another profile (alias). I can create another Google account and see what happens. I was also wondering if it was a fb so that could be doing it, but I have the same apps on my tablet (running marshmallow) and it doesn't get deleted from there.
Is doing it on my phone and my wife's.

Google password manager asks if it should save PWs although it SHOULD be deactivated?

Hey folks,
so although I deactivated the f***** password manager, it still keeps asking me for EVERY password in EVERY app if I wanted to save it. I can't seem to get rid of this behaviour.
What I tried up to now:
deactivated the PWM via my google account settings on my phone
reactivated and deactivated it again to see if it was just some setting that had gotten stuck
turned the phone off and on again
started chrome -> settings -> password, although I assume this is an app-internal value
opened my phone's account on my pc, altered the value here (I could see both on the PC when I turned the PWM on/off on the phone and vice versa, so the value change works, but google chooses to ignore it)
Is there anything I have overlooked? Is there any additional value that needs changing? Other google services, for example syncing my contacts (at least those that my old phone didn't eff up) worked without any problems.
As another approach to get rid of this sh***y behaviour: is google's password manager a standalone app, can I just uninstall it via ADB?
Dunno if anything of this is important: Phone is a Sony Xperia 10 II, unrooted, three days old.
In case I forgot any useful information, please ask.

Welcome to XDA! Seems like you did everything to turn off the Google account PWM option. It's not a separate Play Store app.
Only thing I can think of is there's a another Play store 3rd party PWM app installed like LastPass or Sony bloatware app, etc...

Thanks mate!
Nope, there is no other password manager installed and I tried my very best to get rid of all the bloatware I could find and thought to be safe to uninstall. Also, the password saving question bears the Google-"G", so it shouldn't be any 3rd party program.
Is there anything else I can do except being frustrated and annoyed? =/