I had been doing a great deal of tinkering trying to get my phone's battery life back in the last few days, and I made good progress, but I severely jacked up something related to the microphone/speaker/video recording.
PROBLEM:
The problem, as far as I can tell, is that every app that tries to access the microphone can't do it--this shows up when I try to use Google voice input in various text fields with a little "Can't reach Google at the moment." Same with trying to do a search by voice in Google Now--brief brief flash of the microphone red, then back to gray, with "Can't reach Google at the moment". Additionally, my Touchless Input cannot be enabled--the box has automatically unchecked itself, and pressing it makes the button get a little gray, registering the action, but no checkmark will appear.
Additionally, other apps which would use the mic don't seem to have that functionality--Evernote, for example, would crash if I attempted to record an audio clip. This was before I performed a factory data reset last night--and the problem has persisted regardless.
There are two other, seemingly related, issues. First is the inability of the phone to capture videos. The camera opens fine, and I can take fine stills with it, but pushing the video recording button makes the red "record" flash for a moment before a "Not able to record media" message pops up, and the camera returns to the still photo mode.
Second is the inability to play videos. I have tried playing videos in as many formats as I could try, from within several players, including the stock "Photos", "Gallery", and "YouTube" apps. "Sorry, cannot play video" pops up, or the app simply crashes. Similar story for attempting to play music through the stock "Google Play Music" app. And it gets worse. I can't make or receive calls. Actually, let me revise that. I can't hear anything being said on the calls, over the speaker, or through headphones (though I've yet to try BlueTooth). The call appears to connect, but I can't hear anything from them, and they can't hear anything from me.
So--that's the basic summary of the problem--threefold.
1. No audio input through mic
2. No audio output through speakers--my phone doesn't ring when I get a call, although it will vibrate and the options to take the call appear as they normally would.
3. No audio/video playback whatsoever for other media.
I'm running Android 4.4 on a Droid Mini, unrooted, and I just completed a factory reset last night.
ANALYSIS:
Here's the wrinkle. I know this isn't a hardware problem, because I have found a surefire fix that makes all of this work properly if I absolutely need it, it just sucks. Rebooting into safe mode is what does it. Playback resumes as it did before I had the problem. I can play videos, pump music, and Touchless Input works flawlessly--although interestingly, it has me re-enter the catchphrase three times every time I get into safemode, like setting up from scratch.
My consternation comes from the fact that, to my very limited knowledge, all that safe mode is doing keeping any user-added apps from running. Which is all well and good, but I just did a factory reset. Literally when I boot the phone no user installed apps are running, and yet there's a definite difference when I boot into safe mode, cuz everything works there.
So, safe mode must do something more than just disable user-installed apps--and I need to know what that is if I'm going to fix this thing. I have added 4 apps since then-- App Ops, GSAM Battery Monitor, BetterBatteryStats, and Button Savior (Non-root), all of which I know from experience to be very "well-behaved" apps.
Anyone know what safe mode is doing besides disabling user apps? Along those lines, does it revert updated stock apps to their factory state? I ask because very, very briefly, while my phone was slowly trying to upgrade the 40-odd pieces of Bloatware from the Play Store, the microphone was working. Which makes me think that the culprit is one of the system apps in it's updated form. If safe mode runs these apps as they originally appeared on the phone, that might explain it. It would also hopefully let me painstakingly disable these apps, one by one, to find the culprit and disable it.
I say culprit because of something I stumbled across trying to research this--weirdly enough, in a message from the devs of Shazam. devs of Shazam They say that the issue has shown up on 4.4 and the cause appears to be one app somehow monopolizing access to the microphone. I could see this breaking the video as well, and potentially the audio playback if, as I assume, Google uses the mic to help tweak the sound of the speakers.
Anyone know any more about any of the aspects of this? I will be posting back myself as I learn more.
What happens if you factory reset without restoring any apps? In other words, factory reset, choose not to restore your apps (or don't attach to a Google account on initial setup, and do it post-setup). In other words, do you have an app that is blocking this access?
doogald said:
What happens if you factory reset without restoring any apps? In other words, factory reset, choose not to restore your apps (or don't attach to a Google account on initial setup, and do it post-setup). In other words, do you have an app that is blocking this access?
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Trying this now. Thanks for the suggestion!
Update: Tried this. Did another FDR, signed in to one of my Google accounts afterwards, but haven't updated a thing. The audio/voice/video/bugs seem gone; however, the ****ty battery drain I had before is back. I'm playing around with some settings to find out what can be done. I'm also going down the list and updating the system apps one by one.
Does anyone know a good testing process (ie, should I run the app? do I need to restart after install? run the app and close? etc) that will keep me from getting false negatives (ie thinking an app isn't causing the problem when it is)?
Update again: I'm working down in alphabetical order through the factory apps. However, after the most recent factory reset, it appears that my battery drain is back, and as long as the battery drain is there, the phone works normally. So, not looking good in terms of battery+functionality for me. Went through the 40ish apps that were on the phone stock--after the fresh reset, the phone is working, but the battery life is shot to **** all over again. Not sure what to make of all this, and now back to being frustrated with a 4 hour battery life from the phone that never sleeps. UGH
Update yet once more:
For kicks and giggles, tried unchecking the "Touchless Control" in settings, to see what effect that would have on my battery. But, reasoning that whatever wakelock was keeping my phone up all the time had to be persisting after it was needed, I guessed I needed to reboot to get rid of them. Booting up again, I'm back to battery life without audio/video/etc. Very confused here. Apparently it has nothing to do with the apps installed, period.
Facing the Same problem please someone tell me What should i do
Same problem! No audio call
Inviato dal mio Redmi Note 3 utilizzando Tapatalk
Please help me I have this same problem. No audio, cant play video, nd mic isn't working.
Last few days I had Kingo SuperBattery app installed on my android tablet and last time I turned it on the touchscreen was VERY messed up. I had a Messenger chat-head and some other notifications but the device was very very slow and I couldn't click/touch anything properly and it looked like I had one of those viruses you get on the PC that make it slow as sh** no matter the hardware you have. It looked like somebody else was using my device and all the widgets and icons in my home-screen were trying to move themselves and other weird stuff like that. The first thing I did was to turn-off the wi-fi and it was quite difficult and it didn't even work. I tried using the Clean Master Antivirus app and start a scan and it did not find anything but I also did a phone boost with it. I didn't see any problems with the the device while in the CM Antivirus app, it was kinda like a way of taking a deep breath and then again the same stuff in the home-screen. I couldn't click/touch on the chat-head from messenger and something was always trying to open my notifications slide. The reason I used my tablet was actually because I was trying to fix my phone using my PC (bootloop issue) and the only way to get the .ftf (ROM file) in the sd-card was to use another device (I couldn't find an sd-adaptor) so I tried using my tablet :/ but then here is the "new" problem I'm telling you about ^^^^^^^^^^. I prayed to God at some point and things started getting easier :angel:. I managed to go to developer options and enable "Show Touches" and that's when I saw there was always a dot right above the notifications area (for those who don't know, the Show Touches setting shows a dot on every spot where there is touch). I opened the CM app again and found that the persistent touch-dot (if that is its name) disappeared. I kind of found some tricks to use the touchscreen properly after I realised how the problem works. And then I uninstalled the Kingo Battery Saving app and the problem was gone! :laugh:
Moral lesson: be careful with third-party, rooting, and suspicious looking apps.
Panosu said:
Last few days I had Kingo SuperBattery app installed on my android tablet and last time I turned it on the touchscreen was VERY messed up. I had a Messenger chat-head and some other notifications but the device was very very slow and I couldn't click/touch anything properly and it looked like I had one of those viruses you get on the PC that make it slow as sh** no matter the hardware you have. It looked like somebody else was using my device and all the widgets and icons in my home-screen were trying to move themselves and other weird stuff like that. The first thing I did was to turn-off the wi-fi and it was quite difficult and it didn't even work. I tried using the Clean Master Antivirus app and start a scan and it did not find anything but I also did a phone boost with it. I didn't see any problems with the the device while in the CM Antivirus app, it was kinda like a way of taking a deep breath and then again the same stuff in the home-screen. I couldn't click/touch on the chat-head from messenger and something was always trying to open my notifications slide. The reason I used my tablet was actually because I was trying to fix my phone using my PC (bootloop issue) and the only way to get the .ftf (ROM file) in the sd-card was to use another device (I couldn't find an sd-adaptor) so I tried using my tablet :/ but then here is the "new" problem I'm telling you about ^^^^^^^^^^. I prayed to God at some point and things started getting easier :angel:. I managed to go to developer options and enable "Show Touches" and that's when I saw there was always a dot right above the notifications area (for those who don't know, the Show Touches setting shows a dot on every spot where there is touch). I opened the CM app again and found that the persistent touch-dot (if that is its name) disappeared. I kind of found some tricks to use the touchscreen properly after I realised how the problem works. And then I uninstalled the Kingo Battery Saving app and the problem was gone! :laugh:
Moral lesson: be careful with third-party, rooting, and suspicious looking apps.
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Click to collapse
Greetings and welcome to assist. I'm glad you resolved your issue so I'll close this up
Regards
Sawdoctor
i have the verizon ellipsis qutar7 tablet and i use only for my security system as a monitor and for the most part is does a good job, but i keep getting play store has stopped or messenger has stopped or a few other error messages. the table still seems to show the cameras working in the background but had to see some with the popup on the screen.
so does anyone here have a fix for this? i have tried about all i can to try to fix it but even resetting it has not helped. i have notices turned off so i do not get those taking up resourses. i tried turning off all the apps that i did nto need or use and or disabling others and that did not help. i still get a few notices in the top as icons. but i would like the popups errors to go away for good.
maybe someone knows of an app tha tcan monitor this and stop them? or maybe an app that will restart the tablet at night and then restart the apps you want to be running?
thanks bp.
My wife and I both have Note 20 Ultras. Mine is fine. Her microphone randomly turns on. She'll be sitting there working or watching TV and it will suddenly think she's talking to it. She can see what it thinks she's saying on the bottom. I've checked it top to bottom (as best I can) and I found nothing wrong with it. I scanned it for malware using multiple apps and none of them found anything. I checked to see what had permission to use the microphone and there was nothing there.
Does anyone have any ideas about what could be going on with it?
Thanks
If it's not Bixby, Google Assistant, etc all of which I never allow to run, than it's likely a rootkit or virus. Device Care>memory, clear cache then see what apps are cache at the top next it happens.
Likely something she installed or perhaps got by the browser or inadvertently downloaded.
Virus scans don't find everything... WYSIWYG. Find the cause or factory reset it, change passwords and reload with caution. Social media apps and other trashware shouldn't be installed on the phone.
The longer malware is allowed to run, the more damage it can do. I give myself 2 hours maximum to find/erraticate or otherwise fix before a factory reset if I suspect malware.
Tic-tok Mr. Wick...
Thank you!
Hello,
My phone is experiencing strange issue. While using Messenger, during video calls i start to notice ghost touching, phone is reacting as If I'm touching screen but I'm actually not doing it. It's happening from some time already and only in that particular app, none other. Also It's not like it happens during every call, just once in a while, after few minutes in the call (not right away).
In meantime I've already updated that app, tried reinstalling it. Of course its official app from Play Store.
I'm completely clueless how to approach debugging of that issue. Looking for any suggestions beside "do factory reset" lol.
Clean the device’s screen before using it and make sure your hands are tidy too.