[SOLVED] Google Play Services Missing on Fresh LineageOS+Open GApps - Xiaomi Mi 4

I picked up an Mi 4 a bit over a year ago to test Windows Mobile as the organization was evaluating the ecosystem then.
There wasn't enough interest in it so the phone sat in a drawer for several months.
Wanting to breathe new life into the device, I made the switch back to Android this morning via MIUI 8 without issue.
Then I learned LineageOS was available for it so I laid that down:
Got TWRP setup per https://twrp.me/devices/xiaomimi3.html & https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/cancro/install
Got LineageOS installed per https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/cancro/install
At the same time, installed the nano variant of OpenGApps http://opengapps.org/?api=7.1&variant=nano
Everything went off error free and the phone booted just fine.
But after getting it all setup, I started seeing several notifications that various apps won't work until Google Play Services is installed. When I tap on the notification, a window briefly launches then disappears just as fast. I assume it was the Play Store but it can't be certain because its essentially a blank window that appears for less than a second without fully drawing/rendering the content within. When I click on the Play Store, it won't open at all, often not even displaying anything (even momentarily) on screen like the tap on the notification does.
I booted back into TWRP, re-applied the same nano variant but that didn't help.
Thinking I made a mistake somewhere, I started over by wiping and reinstalling the OS, downloading & pushing a fresh download of the nano variant package yet the problem persisted.
After the second installation I decided to try with the super and stock variants but both failed due to not enough space on /system.
I'm in transit at the moment so I'll give it another go with the mini then micro variants later, but wanted to get this out there in the event someone could point out what I might be doing wrong.
Thanks in advance.

Solved - Use Mini Variant
I applied the mini variant and all is well.
So I have to ask the question: Was what I experienced to be expected? If not, what might I have done wrong?

Install disk info and post a screenshot here
You system partition should be 1.2 gb.
Sent from my Mi 4 using XDA Labs

Related

[Q] Windows 8 metro apps won't opening

I own a dell inspiron 15 with windows 8 officially installed on it. I purchased it four months ago.
For about a month or two now, the metro apps that came with the installation won't open. Some start loading and the screen turns white and stays that way. Others start loading and the loading ring and the app icon later gets disorganized. The apps in question keeps sending notifications but not accessible.
I really need help with that.
Also, I stopped using the microsoft login sometime back because always entering the long password became annoying. Now for some reason, it keeps telling me there is a network problem whenever i try switch to my microsoft account although i have a working internet connection.
My bluetooth and sd card slot ain't working properly but i believe all these are linked to one problem.
I have tried all the solutions posted online;
*Troubleshoot
*Activate windows
*Use Proxy
*Clear store cache
*Re-registry store
*Resolution change
and all but non worked. I can't update the OS because i cant open store in the first place.My last resort is to format the laptop but i dont want to do that now. I havent backed up most of my data and i dont know whether that'll fix the problem.
Neither can i take it to a dell or Microsoft shop because painfully there ain't one here. So i have to rely on my own understanding.
It seems it ain't enough so am desperately in need of help. *_*

Dying TF700-t?

So, I know am not as knowledgeable as most on this forum, so please be gentle!
I am using the TF700-t, 64 GB internal, with a 64 GB sdcard.
I installed Crombi-kk 4.4.4 on my TF700 a few months ago. Everything worked fine for a couple of months, then I started noticing apps would freeze, the tablet would suddenly reboot on its' own volition...the tablet seemed to have a mind of its' own!
I formatted the tablet, reinstalled, clean install of apps (no backed up data), it worked fine for a few weeks, then the same issues, along with app icons suddenly disappearing from the main screen and new app icons appearing on their own. Really spooky!
Three days ago, I formatted the tablet, installed Crombi-kk again, clean app install, worked fine for a few hours, then started misbehaving again, with the same issues, but now some of the apps (e.g.: Alarm Clock Xtreme) did not function at all (resulting in me oversleeping and being late for work).
Today, I formatted the tablet twice, reinstalled Crombi-kk, installed apps, and rebooted after each app installation (prior to opening the apps). I am noticing that some apps (specifically Google Play Music) refuse to open on the tablet (Apollo works fine). Several apps take a significantly long amount of time to open. There is no seeming pattern as to the issue.
Call me perplexed in North Carolina! Any suggestions or ideas as to what could be occuring? I am on the verge of going out and purchasing a new tablet (but it will not be another ASUS), but do not really want to spend the bucks.
Are you on the correct bootloader???
Other than that, I would recommend to flash a different rom and see if you get the same problems.
I would start with CROMI-X or even stock rooted, try ZOMBi, CM11 - lots to choose from.
That should tell you if this is rom specific or unique to your tablet.

H830 LG G5 - Too many problems to list in title

So I have a fairly large host of problems on my LG G5 H830. I've tried a total of 3 different roms, and most of the problems have persisted throughout each rom.
Resurrection Remix:
NFC will not turn on, switch moves but it stays greyed out and does not activate NFC.
Magisk Manager periodically unroots; I have to reflash the MagiskManager zip in TWRP about twice a day.
Storage manager shows that I have 16gb total internal storage (I have 32), so it shows that I am using a negative amount of space on my drive.
System Process sometimes stops responding, causing the lock screen to not show and allowing anyone to access my phone for a short time.
Whenever I try train my voice model for Google Assistant, the Google app stops responding before crashing. This means that I can't get the "OK Google" prompt to work.
My battery sometimes simply fails to charge. For example, I charged my phone overnight, and the battery graph shows that it charged to about 50% or so before dropping back to about 20% and staying there until I noticed in the morning.
AICP:
Storage manager shows that I have 16gb total internal storage (I have 32), so it shows that I am using a negative amount of space on my drive.
(I haven't tested Google Assistant, and haven't had the System Process or battery drain issues - but I didn't have the rom installed long enough to truly test.)
Xenon HD:
NFC will not turn on, switch moves but it stays greyed out and does not activate NFC.
Storage manager shows that I have 16gb total internal storage (I have 32), so it shows that I am using a negative amount of space on my drive.
(As with AICP, I didn't install the rom for very long and did not test for the Google Assistant, System Process, or battery drain issues.)
The one problem that persisted through each rom was the incorrect display of storage capacity and usage, but TWRP has no problems with this. It also has no problem with charging. In addition, I've tried resizing, repairing, and re-formatting to EXT4 on my system, Data, and cache partitions. I don't know what else to try at this point, but since TWRP doesn't work any differently than I'd expect, it doesn't seem to me like a hardware issue - but then, I'm not an expert by any means, which is why I'm opening this thread.
Gannondalf said:
So I have a fairly large host of problems on my LG G5 H830. I've tried a total of 3 different roms, and most of the problems have persisted throughout each rom.
Resurrection Remix:
NFC will not turn on, switch moves but it stays greyed out and does not activate NFC.
Magisk Manager periodically unroots; I have to reflash the MagiskManager zip in TWRP about twice a day.
Storage manager shows that I have 16gb total internal storage (I have 32), so it shows that I am using a negative amount of space on my drive.
System Process sometimes stops responding, causing the lock screen to not show and allowing anyone to access my phone for a short time.
Whenever I try train my voice model for Google Assistant, the Google app stops responding before crashing. This means that I can't get the "OK Google" prompt to work.
My battery sometimes simply fails to charge. For example, I charged my phone overnight, and the battery graph shows that it charged to about 50% or so before dropping back to about 20% and staying there until I noticed in the morning.
AICP:
Storage manager shows that I have 16gb total internal storage (I have 32), so it shows that I am using a negative amount of space on my drive.
(I haven't tested Google Assistant, and haven't had the System Process or battery drain issues - but I didn't have the rom installed long enough to truly test.)
Xenon HD:
NFC will not turn on, switch moves but it stays greyed out and does not activate NFC.
Storage manager shows that I have 16gb total internal storage (I have 32), so it shows that I am using a negative amount of space on my drive.
(As with AICP, I didn't install the rom for very long and did not test for the Google Assistant, System Process, or battery drain issues.)
The one problem that persisted through each rom was the incorrect display of storage capacity and usage, but TWRP has no problems with this. It also has no problem with charging. In addition, I've tried resizing, repairing, and re-formatting to EXT4 on my system, Data, and cache partitions. I don't know what else to try at this point, but since TWRP doesn't work any differently than I'd expect, it doesn't seem to me like a hardware issue - but then, I'm not an expert by any means, which is why I'm opening this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty much every issue you're having has been documented already, so it's not your phone.
1) NFC is completely broken on h830 in custom ROMs.
2) Magisk works fine, stop using magisk hide and built in magisk busy box, it will hide root from itself. This is a magisk issue not a ROM issue. If you need busy box download it from play store.
3) Storage size being incorrectly shown had been the case ever since cm 14.1 became available and therefore affects all Los based ROMs.
4) Don't use Google Assistant but others have stated there are issues with it.
5) Make sure after rebooting to unplug and replug your charger or it won't charge.
6) If it was a clean flash and you installed correct gapps, you shouldn't have system processes force closing. Make sure your using opengapps 7.1, arm64 and newest version available and nano or pick version.
The above issues affect basically every lineage os based ROM currently. Hopefully this helps
jeffsga88 said:
Pretty much every issue you're having has been documented already, so it's not your phone.
1) NFC is completely broken on h830 in custom ROMs.
2) Magisk works fine, stop using magisk hide and built in magisk busy box, it will hide root from itself. This is a magisk issue not a ROM issue. If you need busy box download it from play store.
3) Storage size being incorrectly shown had been the case ever since cm 14.1 became available and therefore affects all Los based ROMs.
4) Don't use Google Assistant but others have stated there are issues with it.
5) Make sure after rebooting to unplug and replug your charger or it won't charge.
6) If it was a clean flash and you installed correct gapps, you shouldn't have system processes force closing. Make sure your using opengapps 7.1, arm64 and newest version available and nano or pick version.
The above issues affect basically every lineage os based ROM currently. Hopefully this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot for clearing this up! I'll take those suggestions and see if I have any luck (especially with the battery charging issue, since I mostly figured the other ones out on my own). I just came from a Moto G3 with RR, which seems to be a lot more stable than the H830, so all this at once caught me by surprise a bit.
Again, I appreciate your help with this.
Gannondalf said:
Thanks a lot for clearing this up! I'll take those suggestions and see if I have any luck (especially with the battery charging issue, since I mostly figured the other ones out on my own). I just came from a Moto G3 with RR, which seems to be a lot more stable than the H830, so all this at once caught me by surprise a bit.
Again, I appreciate your help with this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem. By the way, I think RR is probably the best custom ROM for our device overall, especially if you like customizations But, they're are still some issues. Another issue to be aware of is that on Los based ROMs the camera isn't anyways saving videos (messed up part is that this only started happening in last month or so, it worked fine before that lol).
Gannondalf said:
Thanks a lot for clearing this up! I'll take those suggestions and see if I have any luck (especially with the battery charging issue, since I mostly figured the other ones out on my own). I just came from a Moto G3 with RR, which seems to be a lot more stable than the H830, so all this at once caught me by surprise a bit. Again, I appreciate your help with this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just an honest opinion. You shouldn't have got a LG G5 if your intention was to use AOSP roms. You could get a Moto Z Play, or a Moto G5 Plus.
LG and Samsung phones would always have issues on AOSP roms.
suhridkhan said:
Just an honest opinion. You shouldn't have got a LG G5 if your intention was to use AOSP roms. You could get a Moto Z Play, or a Moto G5 Plus.
LG and Samsung phones would always have issues on AOSP roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm starting to realize that. I got it based off of the design (which I really like, especially with the rear fingerprint scanner) and the specs, and didn't do much more research than seeing that there were confirmed methods of installing custom roms. But, at this point, I can't return it and I'm more interested in getting it to work as best as I can.

New OTA Android update, good or malware?

As I am sure all Alcatel Idol 3 owners noticed by now, Alcatel have, over the last year or so, released on Google Play "updates" for most of their builtin software - the launcher, file manager, radio player, photo gallery, calendar and more - with what is, if I can be blunt - malware, updates whose only intention is to show you ads and notifications (whereas the original applications, obviously, did not have ads) which you have no way of disabling, and who knows what else.
I avoided this crap by "uninstalling" the updated applications and getting back the preinstalled versions.
BUT, today I started getting on all my Alcatel Idol phones (I have 3 of them!), OTA Android update. And I'm worried what would happen if I click it. Will I get the "updated" (malicious) versions of all the builtin applications with no way to revert them?
Does anyone have an experience with the new OTA update that came out yesterday? Can you tell me if after the update, the "joy launcher", "file manager", etc., are decent versions or the crappy versions which show ads?
P.S. Alcatel, you guys are idiots. I love your phones, and in the past bought 5 of them, but I'll *never* buy another phone from you because of this malware issue.
i have been wondering the same thing, i was scared to even touch the notification to see if it is a large upgrade or just 1 or 2 megabytes, in case touching it forces me to download it. please note, i have no idea if the OTA is any good, but i'm going to continue this post to vent about alcatel idol 3.
i was a bit annoyed with the last system upgrade, which started flashing the screen on and off periodically when any notifications were left active... for me, i always leave some notifications going, so that i don't forget about them or just want to leave them up even if i never take any action with them...
so i'm sure this takes a toll on my battery, since the screen will be flashing on and off for a few minutes before it stops.
i was shocked when a few months ago (or even a year?) apps started sending ads to the notification bar, from reading some posts i figured out you not only had to stop auto-updates in the play store, but also go into the updates app and disable them there. i didn't even know ads on a stock system were a thing, until i saw my dad's BLU $50 phone and realized that's how they make a decent phone $50.
since my idol 3 4.7" was relatively cheap at $180, i could see how they might need to put ads, but if i got a brand new alcatel phone at over $400, i'd be even more furious, do they put ads on their brand new phones?
i see a lot of cheap phones on amazon now listed having versions with "lockscreen offers and ads" including idol 5s
as long as the ads aren't malicious, and if you can just block notifications in android (i dunno if they somehow disable that) then it's sort of worth saving the money
anyway, i've had my idol 3 4.7" for just about 2 years, it's still fine, but i guess i'm starting to think about getting something else. i'd love to get another small phone, right before this i had an xperia z1 compact which i loved but the the battery started failing and bloating after less than a year and a half, so i'm kind of thinking i should never spend over $200 for a phone again (that one was $350)
my android history has been
nexus one $529
galaxy nexus $435.50
xperia z1 compact $350
idol 3 4.7" $180
i've been looking at nokia's new androids lately, or some kind of honor maybe
but my idol 3 4.7" is still working fine pretty much
i just remembered one other thing i hated about the marshmallow updated, which is the adopted SD card storage...
from what i understand if your phone dies, everything that was on the SD card can never be read again, because it works only when plugged into your phone. i mean i guess that's good for security, but it should be optional. it'd be nice to just be able to take that SD card to a new phone and just have everything that was there on it again.
i just noticed someone's post about "semi-adopted" SD card, which i guess means making 2 partitions, which kinda makes sense, but it would be nice if android offered that as a preset option. i had just gotten an SD card a few weeks before the marshmallow update came out and moving apps to SD for apps that supported it, worked fine.
anyway, i don't think and kinda hope no one read this, i'm not sure why i wrote this
I know that feeling, bros
Actually, I managed to uninstall built-in apps using adb shell, which was described in the discussion about Debloater (the app itself did not work after Marshmallow update):
Code:
pm uninstall --user 0 com.package.name
(this uninstalls system apps for the current user, so that they cannot be launched, do not notify about their updates in Google Play, and this works without root)
nyh said:
BUT, today I started getting on all my Alcatel Idol phones (I have 3 of them!), OTA Android update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dear nyh, what is your region and phone model (like, 6045K or 6039Y or with other letter in the end)? Here in Belarus (Eastern Europe), my 6045Y does not notify of any update (current system version 6.0.1-010 20).
Mankann said:
Dear nyh, what is your region and phone model (like, 6045K or 6039Y or with other letter in the end)? Here in Belarus (Eastern Europe), my 6045Y does not notify of any update (current system version 6.0.1-010 20).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the 4.7" model 6039S, and three more phones of the 5.5" model, I don't remember now their model number.
What I'm running now appears to be Android 6.0.1 build number "1BGD-UED2". I don't know how this relates to your number. I noticed the "update" program tells me the new version is "0100020" which is suspiciously close to the number you said, maybe it's the same. With your version, does "uninstalling" the "Joy Launcher" (and other) applications to get back to the preinstalled one, gets you a decent version, or one with ads?
nyh said:
I noticed the "update" program tells me the new version is "0100020" which is suspiciously close to the number you said, maybe it's the same. With your version, does "uninstalling" the "Joy Launcher" (and other) applications to get back to the preinstalled one, gets you a decent version, or one with ads?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, I understand now. It seems that your phone wants to update to the version that removes fastboot commands (so I suggest you triple-think and triple-check before upgrading).
"Uninstalling" system apps does not revert them to preinstalled versions, it makes them completely unavailable until hard reset (they are only listed in Settings labeled with "Disabled for current user" and cannot be run). If you decide to do this, you should first install some alternative apps (like Nova Launcher, Google Calendar etc), or else you won't be able to boot and use your phone.
I have the Idol 3 5.5 6045l(USA) Android 6.0.1 Build number 7VGE-UEE1.
I am reluctant to install the OTA I have pending:
______________________________
System update available
010 01 (471.5 MB)
New in this version
Version 7VGS-UES6 includes a security update that fixes Android major security flaw.
Update info:
- Netflix service
- Gameloft games
- UE improvements& bug fixes
______________________________
I am baffled that Alcatel would include Netflix & Gameloft with a major security fix.
After the adware riddled system app updates(that I've reverted to original) I will wait for more information before updating.
I love my phone and was considering buying a back-up or an Idol 4s especially as it seems that the front-facing speakers have been dropped from Alcatel's 2018 lineup.
But the bond of trust concerning system & app updates has been broken.
[Not sure whether one will be able to revert adware riddled system apps after the update]
That's real bad
Maybe this "security update" is resolving BlueBorne vulnerability (actually I wrote Alcatel about this, and they told me not to have bluetooth on all the time, wait patiently and install an antivirus which of course I did not do). But Netflix or Gameloft as system (priv-)apps is a no way (I struggled with TWO hidden Facebook services preinstalled on my phone until I found a method to "remove" them, which I described above).
If such an update comes to me (it may take days, weeks or months before it reaches all regions), and if no one installs it, I will do it and report here
I was stupid and sleepy and didn't fully check the update notes in depth when I saw it pop-up yesterday, I figured the majority of it was for security and maybe a couple of quality of life improvements like a new lock screen, even the entry about the Netflix app just sounded to me like they were fixing a problem people might have been having with it. suddenly I have and Netflix app I didn't want, a news app, some sort of Alcatel store front and two space wasting games (or at least one game and some gameloft "50 free games thing I have no use for).
I got rid of the apps that could be insta-deleted, and the netflix app can at least be disabled, but the filemanager is by far the worse offender. It's "boost" download and obnoxious UI, not to mention it clutters my notifications and lock screen. I've managed to quiet it down by canceling its access and whatever permissions I could. The fact that it restarts itself after a few seconds is just as irritating even before the reports that it actually may make my phone operate worse. I haven't experienced anything yet aside from the Google Play store crashing once while trying to figure out how to get rid of the update, but that was shortly after doing the factory reset and it's only been a day.
Whats mroe annoying is this now part of their most recent update on Idol 3. It's now impossible to revert or kill this as it's all baked in, not even factory reset will remove it. The new file manager app restarts at every turn, even after Force stop and will not allow you to disable it, and it seems to resist methods of hiding it from the user. I'm still seeking ways of getting rid of it that dont require rooting my phone but at this point it seems like the only possible answer, which is a shame because I was fine not rooting android, this was a really nice phone until they ruined it with this garbage. I know I'm pretty much screwed because My computer doesn't always seem to respond properly to Android stuff for some reason so any attempt to root will probably result in me bricking the thing, and even if I could root I'm not certain I'm comfortable with my phone being that open with other applications like this roaming around not to mention the questions of whether any of my desired apps will respond poorly to my doing it. But I wanted to at least add my voice to the rest that are complaining about this and telling Alcatel this is the last product of their's I'll ever own.
@PN04
Thank you for your very detailed report. Sorry to hear of the predicament you are now in. It goes without saying that I - thanks to you - will not be updating.
PN04 said:
I got rid of the apps that could be insta-deleted, and the netflix app can at least be disabled, but the filemanager is by far the worse offender. It's "boost" download and obnoxious UI, not to mention it clutters my notifications and lock screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have you held down on a notification and hit the (i) and then block notifications?
does it somehow disregard that? that was a new feature added in marshmallow
zxcvb2 said:
have you held down on a notification and hit the (i) and then block notifications?
does it somehow disregard that? that was a new feature added in marshmallow
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have, it takes you to the app notification section where you can reduce it's priority, stop it from peeking and "hide sensitive content" (not sure what that last one means but I turned them all off anyway). As far as I can tell it's teeth are pulled as long as I don't actually start the app or give it any permissions when it asks, but the fact that constantly force stopping it only gets rid of the menu bar on my lock screen for a few seconds and that little stupid broom icon is constantly showing in my bar at the top means it's still an ugly scar on an otherwise nice phone. also App memory usage claims it's used 27 mb in the last 3 hours and I havent' even touched it.
I'll probably be studying up on rooting this weekend.
ichmoimeyo said:
@PN04
Thank you for your very detailed report. Sorry to hear of the predicament you are now in. It goes without saying that I - thanks to you - will not be updating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, no update for me either thanks to PN04's findings. I have managed to silence the Update app by uninstalling updates on the app and then turning off auto update and notifications. So far so good, no nagging messages about the update. Considering my latest security patch is from Nov 2016, I was not expecting to get any more anyway.
Shame on you Alcatel for ruining an otherwise perfect phone! Maybe i can get one more year on this one. The Xperia XZ1 Compact is looking more and more attractive, apart from the price (native Wifi calling, VoLTE and band 12 on TMO US, stuff that this phone didn't have and start to become more important for me).
Glad it helped. I guess I can take some measure of comfort in that at least.
The result of the upgrade.
nyh said:
Does anyone have an experience with the new OTA update that came out yesterday? Can you tell me if after the update, the "joy launcher", "file manager", etc., are decent versions or the crappy versions which show ads?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, I was surprised nobody came up to talk about their experience with the upgrade, so I took a risk and updated two of my Alcatel Idol 3 phones (mine and my son's) to the new update. Like in the old movie, I have good news, bad news, and ugly news:
The bad news was that the application content of the update was just as lousy as I feared it would be. It has the evil file manager and a bunch of other crap applications which spew notifications all the time, spontaneously install applications you never wanted to install, and so on. The strangest thing is that the update claims to add Netflix support, but actually uninstalled the Netflix app that I already had installed, which was very annoying (I had to re-install Netflix, re-download my downloads, and tell Netflix that I don't have the "old" device any more so it will let me download on the "new" one).
Also, the last on the bad list: after using the new system for two days, I haven't found a single thing to be better than the old system. This update doesn't upgrade Android - it's still exactly the same release 6.0.1 as it was before. The "patch level" is listed as November 2017, so maybe it has some security improvements, but I can't really tell.
The good news is that with some considerable effort, I was able to get rid of all of the crap (at least, everything I found so far). There is a new application called "Apps" which installs random crap. You can't uninstall it, but you can "disable" it and it never runs again. The evil file manager you can't uninstall (or disable), but its menu has an option to not send notifications, and then it doesn't. Then I went to the list of applications and uninstalled (luckily, that's possible) a bunch of games and other crap that Alcatel installed for me. If Alcatel had a better track record, I might actually enjoy trying out the new games they installed for me, but as it stands, I was worried about what might happen if I run them - I prefered to uninstall them. Anyway, after doing all that (sorry I don't have more detailed instructions), I am running with the updated Android for two days, and I haven't seen another ad, unexplained notification, or unsolicited application being installed. Hallelujah!
The ugly news is that after two days, I'm starting to worry that this version is less stable than the previous one. In two days I had to reboot my phone at least three times, once it hung during taking a video, once when Netflix suddenly couldn't find my downloaded content, and once when another app suddenly couldn't use the SD card (and a reboot solved these problems). I can't say I never had to reboot my phone, but this seems to be more frequent than I used to do it. I'm not sure this a real new problem or just a string of bad luck - only time will tell.
Mankann said:
Ah, I understand now. It seems that your phone wants to update to the version that removes fastboot commands (so I suggest you triple-think and triple-check before upgrading).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is "fastboot commands", and why should I be worried if they are removed?
Mankann said:
"Uninstalling" system apps does not revert them to preinstalled versions, it makes them completely unavailable until hard reset (they are only listed in Settings labeled with "Disabled for current user" and cannot be run). If you decide to do this, you should first install some alternative apps (like Nova Launcher, Google Calendar etc), or else you won't be able to boot and use your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not my experience... In the Google Play app. For most applications, "Uninstall" lets you really uninstall an app. But for built-in applications, when you "Uninstall" it asks you if you really want to revert to the pre-installed version, and that is actually what happens. This is why I did on my Alcatel Idol 3 for a year before this latest update. In application tray, when you long-press an application, it lets you "uninstall" regular applications, but for built-in application, the uninstall operation is simply missing. I never found any way to do what you describe - "disable for current user". Somebody above suggested this can be done through adb, but I never saw a way to do this in Alcatel's normal UI.
I wrote above my experience from the upgrade, which you can read, but I have two small comments about your experience:
PN04 said:
I got rid of the apps that could be insta-deleted, and the netflix app can at least be disabled,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's hilarious (or more accurately, sad) how people who already had Netflix installed (like me), their installation got deleted - but for people who never had Netflix, it got installed and made unremovable. Great job Alcatel!
PN04 said:
but the filemanager is by far the worse offender. It's "boost" download and obnoxious UI, not to mention it clutters my notifications and lock screen. I've managed to quiet it down by canceling its access and whatever permissions I could. The fact that it restarts itself after a few seconds is just as irritating even before the reports that it actually may make my phone operate worse.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I did to solve this was to reduce its permissions and more importantly, go into the file manager, go into its "settings", and ask it to stop its notifications. Luckily, it worked, and I never heard from the filemanager again. I don't know if it continues to do evil stuff in the background. It appears it is still running (my app info tells me it has used memory in the last 3 hours), but using "0%" CPU.
PN04 said:
this was a really nice phone until they ruined it with this garbage.
I wanted to at least add my voice to the rest that are complaining about this and telling Alcatel this is the last product of their's I'll ever own.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I wonder if someone in TCL lost their marbles with these adware updates... As I said, I bought *five* of these phones - for me, my wife (two phones), mother-in-law and son, and I would have continued to recommend their phones if it weren't for the tricks they started to pull off last year.
nyh said:
What is "fastboot commands", and why should I be worried if they are removed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One of the Alcatel's OTA updates (IIRC, it was from Lollipop to Marshmallow) removed the ability to send fastboot commands to the phone, so that it became very hard to unlock bootloader and install root or custom ROMs. Actually it was already discussed here many times.
nyh said:
Somebody above suggested this can be done through adb, but I never saw a way to do this in Alcatel's normal UI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can either use adb shell or you can use shell directly on your phone via apps such as Terminal Emulator (Google Play, F-Droid). Of course you cannot do this within "normal" GUI, because it is designed not-to-be-able-to-break-things
I work from home/am self employed so most of the time so my phone doesn't get outside except for a few occasions a week otherwise it's usually connected to the home wifi so that I don't waste data. But this weekend I had to run a few errands and in a single hour outing using mobile data, I force quit the file manager maybe 26 times as opposed to 5 - 8 times just connected to wifi so I feel like it's constantly trying to ping servers unless you restrict it to mobile data. I also noticed that number dropped by half to maybe 3 or 4 times in the house when I had a few apps like AIMP or one of the games I do play on it to pass time idling in the background. As I said before I did cancel every permission I could find for it and it still manages to crawl out of the grave every so often but maybe those apps had a high enough priority level so having them active an in memory pushes it down the list.... Literally while typing this just now I was charging the phone and got the signal that the battery was full, woke it up to check if file Manager was running, saw nothing on the lock screen, unplugged it and File manager popped up again.
This update is a cancer. I haven't had to restart yet, but I've definitely noticed a few more app crashes. The loss of Fastboot might explain why my first attempt to hide the offenders with ADB failed. after installing every thing , switching to developer mode and connecting it to my computer the phone just refused to show up in the program (again, this might still be a computer issue because I've had trouble with minor developer tools in the past). I may not be an Android developer like some people on this side but feel like I fiollowed the instructions correctly. I get the feeling this is bad news. We might not be able to even get a different rom installed on it at this point.
Is it possible someone has an older version of the firmware that can be reinstalled over top of this some how? ugh, I really can't afford to have to buy a new phone right now.
PN04 said:
This update is a cancer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. People, please try to avoid this update. If you can find a way to stop the "update" process from notifying you, great, if you don't, learn to leave with them - it's better than doing the update.
After another day experience with this update, I figured out that:
1. The "Google Play Services" processes takes 30% of the CPU all the time, and causes my battery to run out after 6 or so hours. This was not the case before the update. I can't figure out what is calling the "Google Play Services". I see the evil "File Manager" running, but it's not taking up CPU, and nothing else takes CPU except the "Google Play Services".
2. Every once in a while - several times each day (!) - something "hangs" in the OS, and applications start to hang: sometimes they can't start, sometimes they can't read their data (!?), sometimes they can't connect to the network (!?), and other bizarre phenomena. Rebooting the phone solves the problem, and I've been doing this several times each day now. Before that I rarely had to reboot the phone (maybe once a week).
Avoid this update. Like the plague. Shame on Alcatel / TCL.
Mankann said:
Code:
pm uninstall --user 0 com.package.name
(this uninstalls system apps for the current user, so that they cannot be launched, do not notify about their updates in Google Play, and this works without root)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't work for me:
pm uninstall --user 0 com.jrdcom.filemanager
Error: java.lang.SecurityException: Package null does not belong to 10096

Why didn't my apps install on my new U11+ ?

I just bought a U11+ as an upgrade to my U11 and am configuring it, which is taking longer than I expected because neither of the two backups I did (htc's and Backup Your Mobile) installed most of the apps (or their data). Also, I've had two System updates in the last two days.
I got my custom background, the Keep Notes app (plus its data) and Facebook; that's pretty much it.
What did I overlook?
Oh, yeah... I cannot find a setting to keep the display on when powered. Anyone know how to do that?
If you did a jump to a new OS version or device that may be why.
If you did any major firmware updates on the new device, it's factory reset time.
Otherwise clear the system cache.
Manually loading them may be your only option.
Welcome to the fking planet
blackhawk said:
If you did a jump to a new OS version or device that may be why.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That occurred to me when I (finally) checked the OS version and saw that it was 8.
I've been getting update notices for the last two days and the most recent one (the third) was the Android 9 OS (update # 2.19.401.2). Where can I check on official updates so I can get an idea when this will stop (because manually looking for updates this morning got me nothing, then I saw the update prompt a couple hours later).
Updated to 9, rebooted and verified that Google Drive is connected, but I'm still not getting Backup & Restore to work. Will have to experiment with the others.
Jeff in 92833 said:
That occurred to me when I (finally) checked the OS version and saw that it was 8.
I've been getting update notices for the last two days and the most recent one (the third) was the Android 9 OS (update # 2.19.401.2). Where can I check on official updates so I can get an idea when this will stop (because manually looking for updates this morning got me nothing, then I saw the update prompt a couple hours later).
Updated to 9, rebooted and verified that Google Drive is connected, but I'm still not getting Backup & Restore to work. Will have to experiment with the others.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I learned long ago that if your OS is fast, stable and fulfilling its mission, let it be.
I've been on Pie for 2 years, my last reload was 1.5 years ago, still fast and stable with minimum maintenance. What's not to like?
Unless you start screwing with the firmware and bring in new issues that need fixed.
Security generally isn't an issue unless you do something stupid.
There's no saving dumb bunnies... be careful what you load and download.
blackhawk said:
If you did a jump to a new OS version or device that may be why.
If you did any major firmware updates on the new device, it's factory reset time.
Otherwise clear the system cache.
Manually loading them may be your only option.
Welcome to the fking planet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did a Factory Reset (but it stayed Android 9). I did this because I had 'restored' a lot of files from Backup Your Mobile's (aka BYM) work on my U11.
Two things are bothering me:
1) The HTC Transfer Tool is not working this time (it transfers the PIN Code, but never gets to CONFIRM. After repeated attempts following reboots, etc., I have noticed that the PIN Code sometimes flickers off and back on again; what's up with that?).
2) BYM transferred my SMS and MMS to my U11+, but clicking on a text message that includes an MMS just makes the message thread avatar flicker and stay on the message thread listing (not even a flicker of the thread is displayed).
You mean screen lock codes?
First I don't password lock devices. You're the most likely one to end up getting locked out.
If you do use one I wouldn't attempt to back it up and transfer it. If it gets corrupted what follows won't be fun.
Pie's a good OS.
Clearing the system cache never hurts to try when experiencing glitches.
blackhawk said:
You mean screen lock codes?
First I don't password lock devices. You're the most likely one to end up getting locked out.
If you do use one I wouldn't attempt to back it up and transfer it. If it gets corrupted what follows won't be fun.
Pie's a good OS.
Clearing the system cache never hurts to try when experiencing glitches.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I did not mean screen lock codes. The HTC Transfer utility worked the first time I tried it before the Factory Reset, but it's not working now. The PIN Code is displayed on the source phone, but it doesn't activate the confirmation button to do the transfer.
I have since learned that many of the apps that were copied over via Google Play's utility also transferred the data, but not all the apps were transferred.
More research to be done, it seems.
Jeff in 92833 said:
No, I did not mean screen lock codes. The HTC Transfer utility worked the first time I tried it before the Factory Reset, but it's not working now. The PIN Code is displayed on the source phone, but it doesn't activate the confirmation button to do the transfer.
I have since learned that many of the apps that were copied over via Google Play's utility also transferred the data, but not all the apps were transferred.
More research to be done, it seems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My bad... I use Google search a lot and it doesn't need to be that specific model or OS version most times. Many of the issues are long standing. I even use solutions for other manufacturers models. Whatever comes in handy.
And/or just play with it until I work it out.
I haven't used that app. If you upgraded the firmware or are transferring data from another device these kind apps can screw up especially with app settings.
If you're doing a factory reset because of an issue or a crash they can inadvertently reload the root cause of the issue.
It's nice to save the homescreen, theme, icon setting on a reload using these though. Most apps I hand reload/configure or use the app's backup setting file like with Poweramp or DIGI Clock which are very intensive to set from scratch.
Critical data I save in a master backup folder(s) as files. Be ready to reload at any time as most crashes while rare give little or no warning. Redundantly backup critical data to at least 2 hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC.
Most times a factory reset is to give the device a clean slate. Looking over app settings while setting them up helps to spot things you may have previously missed. It helps a lot to be familiar with the nuts and bolts at the user interface level. Many times when troubleshooting this is where the answers lurk.
I consider my first load or two on a new phone trail runs. After which it's pretty well sorted out for a clean load. I do the same on PCs. Android's are very forgiving but poorly written apps or the user can still skew hidden user settings that are hard to find/access on a stock device. A stable, fast load is a pleasure to use and will run well for a long time with only simple maintenance on a stock Android.

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