I googled this topic extensively and got nowhere, maybe because I "googled" it, LOL.
Chrome for Android discontinued bottom navigation bar, the best feature on tall phones and on mobile browsers imo. I uninstalled update on my Note 8 and got back to Chrome 64, put nav bar back on the bottom in flags.
This only seems to last for couple of hours, after which Chrome updates itself again without my permission. First it will show red update arrow for some time, then the arrow is gone and Chrome is updated.
I have auto-updates switched off. I pressed 3 dots in Playstore - Chrome, no auto-updates are selected. The last one was stupid advise from internet, as pressing that enables/disables all updates, not for specific app. It is the same as disabling it in settings.
On google forums in 2017 users complained about it, moderator was pretending to help and in the end he said "this is now resolved". Maybe it was for a little while.
I don't want to use other browser, this has all my auto-fill and bookmarks and it's much better on the phone than on the mac.
I don't want to disable Play Store either.
Is there Chrome mod apk that has auto-updates disabled or is there a way to really completely disable Chrome auto updates without root?
I'm surprised users aren't complaining. I'm surprised this isn't talked about on social media and in the press. Even if that was in their T&C and Privacy, I feel like they just showed us middle finger and I don't trust google at this stage more than facebook.
Please advise.
Related
I've been ignoring google updates notification and I have my auto update settings turn-off and yet, google was able to force their update. Very shady. I've been using an old chrome version and the notification keeps popping up to remind me to update chrome but I just ignore it because I don't want to update.Then a few days later, chrome started to auto download their update everytime I restart my phone so I always force close my download manager to stop it. Then this day, chrome suddenly hang up while I was browsing and my phone was unresponsive. Home and volume button doesn't respond so I pressed the on/off button to lock it then screen went off. Then when I press it again to show the lockscreen, no response. So I removed the battery and put it back then turn my phone on. Then chrome started to auto download again and as usual, I force close download manager again before it finish the download. Then a few minutes later, a notification showed and say chrome was succesfully updated. Feels like google have complete control of our phone. .
Heh! Feels like google compromised my phone... Told my phone not to update any app then google steps in and overrides my phone's setting and silently did what they wanna do. Shame on you google! Very shady company. I wonder what else they're doing on my phone without my consent. This should be put on the news to warn people. Stop fooling people that this is an accident because you don't accidentally override other people's gadgets and install whatever you want.
See how many people complaining about google's action.
productforums.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/chrome/gLlJazwMkFs
Some very weird things started happening on my phone earlier today. It's a Nexus 5X, running 8.0 Oreo, with the October security patch. I'm not rooted and I'm careful about what I install. The phone is fairly new, from this summer.
I will begin with describing what I did in the hours before this started. I can think of two things that possibly could have started it:
1) Two of my Facebook contacts sent malicious links to me an hour before. It looked like Youtube videos but was not. I did NOT open any of these links, knowing directly they were harmful (not sure if you can be affected by just receiving them, not clicking on them?). I received them in the Messenger Lite application (an official app from Facebook with scaled-down functionality).
2) A few hours before the Facebook links, I sideloaded an APK containing the new Pixel Launcher. I got the APK from Android Police/APK Mirror.
Can't attach links, but Google for: Hands-on with the updated Pixel Launcher, including the new Pixel 2 features [APK Download]
The APK was working fine and nothing seemed odd with it (I used the launcher for a few hours). As long as Android Police know what they uploaded, this shouldn't be the cause for my problems. I bet on Facebook Messenger instead. (People that click such malware links typically get their Facebook accounts hacked, however my account seems fine and my account didn't spam others with the same link. I did not change password or did anything else to "recover" my account yet).
So what happened after this on my phone?
Here is the first thing I noticed. I open Play Store to install updates. It turns out I have one update pending, it's called BankID. This is a major Swedish app used by nearly every smartphone user in the country, and it's for signing into government websites, bank websites, insurance company websites, and much more. When I click update in Play Store two things happen almost instantly:
1) Six pictures are downloaded from Messenger Lite to my phone. That makes no sense, how could clicking a button in Google Play trigger something to happen in Messenger Lite? In fact I tried it three times, with the same behavior every time. (Well, actually opening the Messenger Lite photo album, there are only photos there I already downloaded, so nothing new seems to be added there - but the photos were probably re-downloaded I believe).
2) The BankID update downloads to 100 % (the downloading takes a little longer than expected), then it halts and does nothing, i.e. it's not installing. No error message, it just stops there. I can choose to abort and try again, which I do three times or more, with exactly the same behavior.
Also, I now notice Play Protect hasn't run for two days, but when I try to run it, it seems to be down. After ~30 seconds of scanning it says "App verification temporarily down". "App verification temporarily down" could very well be connected with the halted update I just described? It still says it hasn't run for two days after this.
When I experiment, I notice other things that are very weird indeed.
1) Notifications in Gmail, Snapchat and possibly other apps aren't coming through. By opening the apps, I can sync manually.
2) When I move a file to a new folder using the Downloads app (Files app, stock one) I get a error message saying the move operation failed. This also triggered the photo notifications from Messenger Lite (same behavior as described above, with six photos). However, after a while the moved pictures are indeed in the right folder, even though the error message saying otherwise.
3) After some time I remove "app data" for the Google Play app. When I open it after that, there are now three app updates pending (e.g. Google Wifi also). But the same behavior occurs, when I try to download one or all of them, I get the Messenger photo notifications and the updates halt at 100 % without installing. So the BankID app - which could be targeted by attackers for obvious reasons - could just be a coincidence. It could have happened with any app I suppose, this was the only one pending right then. But still, why couldn't Play Store detect other pending app updates until I refreshed it the way I did? Was Play Store blocked from connecting to Google (or forced to connect to some other server, perhaps?).
What did I do after all of this?
I uninstalled three apps:
-Facebook Lite
-Facebook Messenger Lite
-Pixel Launcher APK
However the uninstall process was very odd. A process called "Package Installer" had a notification saying "Uninstalling Lite" and "Uninstalling Messenger Lite". It didn't seem to be working, it was stuck after some time. I restarted my phone and the apps seem to be gone now, at least they aren't listed in Settings --> Apps. So the uninstall process was successful I suppose, even though it didn't seem to work.
After I restarted my phone I also noticed:
-When I install Messenger Lite from Play Store now, it's easy to uninstall it the way it should be - in mere seconds.
-When I open Play Store, updates are now installing fine. Play Protect is also scanning fine now.
Everything looks back to normal now. But I'm not trusting my device. I'm gonna factory reset it. Before I do, I wonder:
-Can I feel safe the wipe would erase whatever malware I might have had on the phone?
-Is there something I could do to let us know what caused this? Upload a log here somehow?
The only piece of advice I have received as of now is: "Try restarting in safe mode, installing some AV software, and generally looking for suspicious processes." I haven't done that yet, would it still be a good thing to do? Must I install AV software before rebooting into safe mode, or could I install it directly from safe mode? (App suggestions, AV software?).
Usually I'm very careful and security-minded. I haven't had something like this happen before. So I'm very intrigued and mad about this. I'm gonna change my Google account and Facebook account passwords later on I think (I already have 2-factor authentication enabled).
One last thing: When I install Pixel Launcher on my non-rooted phone, it's not running as a system app if my understanding is correct. (At least it shouldn't be). But none the less, when I wanted to uninstall it I had to go into Settings --> Apps and tap "Show system apps" to find it in the list. Is that normal? Perhaps it doesn't mean anything, I just want to know.
Thanks for your advice in advance. Anything else to add? What should I do know? All you might have to say is appreciated.
Come on now guys, someone must be able to help?
If I factory reset the device, will it be clean? I didn't mess with custom ROMs, root, the bootloader or something else. (I suppose the bootloader is locked).
I have three devices with GBoard installed: A Samsung Note 3, S8+ and another S8+. A few weeks ago they added the clipboard manager to GBoard (beta), which I thought was pretty cool, although my Samsung's already had one. On these three phones I have two accounts my fiance's on one of the s8+ devices and my own on the other s8+ and the note 3. My devices still have the clipboard manager, hers no longer does. The icon is just gone and it's not the overflow. Just to be safe I cleared the storage for the GBoard and started fresh but now the clipboard manager was gone still. So I'm guessing it's a server side switch as she had it and now it is gone, lol. Anyone else experience anything similar? Google giveth and taketh away. Thanks in advance.
Hey anyone? Wow no one has any information?
Same here, I uninstalled Gboard and reset the apps Google Play Store, Google, Google Play Services, Maps.
Afterwards it was no longer possible to access the clipboard feature again, although I am back on the beta version.
areimanios said:
Same here, I uninstalled Gboard and reset the apps Google Play Store, Google, Google Play Services, Maps.
Afterwards it was no longer possible to access the clipboard feature again, although I am back on the beta version.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, what sucks is that I disabled the Samsung clipboard so she could use the GBoard one, basically so she didn't get confused and they remove it? WTF?! It would be better if Google's implementation did pictures but so far it was working well. And why did they turn it on only to turn off a bunch of users right afterwards. I'm so tired of being dogfood for Google. Crap at least let us do something cool to make up for your crappy testing and coding. Arg!
Fifth313ment said:
Yeah, what sucks is that I disabled the Samsung clipboard so she could use the GBoard one, basically so she didn't get confused and they remove it? WTF?! It would be better if Google's implementation did pictures but so far it was working well. And why did they turn it on only to turn off a bunch of users right afterwards. I'm so tired of being dogfood for Google. Crap at least let us do something cool to make up for your crappy testing and coding. Arg!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They seemingly test out Gboard with and without the clipboard feature. I cannot blame them for this, hopefully they keep it in at release.
Yeah it's missing in the latest beta for me, as well as latest release.
Gone here too... I'm really disappointed with Google. Gboard's clipboard manager was the best solution I've ever seen, without those crappy persistent notifications like other apps.
Now they went and disabled it on my account too. So my fiance and I both had it on that recent beta and then they took it away seemingly for everyone, wtf?! I was actively using it. My main gripes were to allow for a settings option to enable or disable the clipboard for those who have one on their phone already. Also for swipe typing to allowing going to the space bar to continue words as almost every other swiping keyboard does. That way you can type a while sentence and never have lifted your finger once. And I'm so tired of devs putting nothing or the last update in the changelog section. They should be forced to out something in so we know what we are getting!
What the hell is this Google doing with gboard.
I was very excited about the clipboard feature but Google has disabled it in the latest beta update..
Soo angry ???
Ok, new info. Google has reenacted the clipboard but made clips only lasting one hour and then they see automatically deleted. You can lock them so they don't get deleted though. Also you can disable the clipboard which is great as I was asking for that feature. So the Samsung clipboard is still the best for Samsung users as it also does pictures and doesn't delete anything automatically. I do think the hour delete feature blows and should be an option you can change to anytime you want (hour, 24 hours, week, never, etc). The clipboard was enabled on my phone and my fiance's phone about a week ago.
Edit: OMFG, Google did it again and removed it from both of our accounts again! Man they are stupid and pay men less than women but they tried to makeup some story why it wasn't true. You were able to find the clipboard icon in the overflow menu within the keyboard and now it's gone. Also the first time you viewed it, it would ask if you wanted to enable it.
I was thinking it was just me. Glad this post is still around.
I' m affected by this right now
When activated Google assistant interrupts constantly, as often as every couple of seconds sometimes. I have tried the advice from every thread that I can find on the subject, but nothing works.
When disabled I then get constant pop ups of the notification prompting me to turn it back on!
I have a Xiaomi MI9 running android 10, but it doesn't have the normal menu that is present on the phones used in all the articles or videos showing how to be rid of google assistant. So for example on my phone the google app does not appear in the app manager list, and nowhere can I find the 'default apps' option.
I even tried - as suggested by some - installing Amazon Alexa as the assistant app, but there's no way to toggle between them and I still get pestered all the time but the google app, disabled or otherwise.
I am ready to consider any option, getting of the MIUI, rooting the phone, setting it on fire, whatever I need to do to be rid of this issue, It's making my phone unusable.
Please help!
lenovo yoga book yb1-x90f here. still used almost daily. still love it.
like many others, i've had issues with the play store updates and general installation of apps (and facebook app usage - it would crash upon opening). there are many posts on both subjects. well, about a week or so ago, on a whim or maybe accidentally, i tried to install updates without the one tried-and-true method i know about, which is to enable 'battery saving mode' prior to hitting that update button... and it worked... and it's been working fine since (without battery saving mode enabled). has something changed? then yesterday, on my notification shade, i received a message about a facebook post?!?! how, i thought, as facebook doesn't work on the device (it's chipset no longer being supported by facebook, ages ago). so i tried launching the facebook app... lo and behold... it works. again, what gives? should i expect a *gasp* android os update next? yeah... no. lol.
thoughts, comments, explanations?
regards.
p.s. if the topic(s) has been posted and discussed already, i offer my apologies for double posting.