Android 12 upgrade problems

pcartier · Nov 17, 2021

Since upgrading to Android 12 several things no longer work on my Pixel 4XL.

My camera does not work (black screen!!).
And as a result:-
I cannot use the camera to scan on bank apps, although the permissions all seem still seem to be good (worked fine before upgrade)
Face recognition no longer works ANYWHERE !

Also

I am no longer able to sync my contacts from the web to my phone.

Has anyone else experienced similar failures with this Android upgrade?

codesplice · Nov 17, 2021

Do you get the same black screen with both the front and rear cameras? Are you using the default Google Camera app or something from a third party?

pcartier · Nov 17, 2021

codesplice said:
Do you get the same black screen with both the front and rear cameras? Are you using the default Google Camera app or something from a third party?

Hi. Thanks for response.

In the meantime I actually fixed the Camera related issues. It had to do with the new "Camera access" and "Mic access" privacy settings to disable access to the Camera and Mic sensors (referred as 'Toggles' in the docs). You need to add these to the Quick Settings panel and then enable each toggle if it is off.
However ...
Contacts sync still does not work !
I have checked under "Passwords and Accounts" and switched on Contacts to try an trigger a sync. It just hangs! And I see a message: "Sync is currently experiencing problems. It will be back shortly" ... this has been there for the last 10 days!! Under "settings" I have also checked the new "Google .. Services and Preferences" dialog "Settings for Google Apps" .. and then "Google Contacts sync". There, I see a "Need contacts permission" message at the top of the screen.I click on "Manage settings" ... and on the next screen the "Automatically sync" toggle is ON.
So it can only be permissions. I check this via Settings > Apps > Contacts > Permissions. But there I see "No permissions denied" .. and I can confirm this for both Contacts and Phone.

puppykickr · Nov 17, 2021

Double check the permissions for Contacts.

Somewhere there is something like "show all apps with this permission" and there you can check which apps are allowed and denied the contacts permission.

You can just go into any app's permissions that you know has the contacts permission, select contacts, and there should be the 'show all apps with this permission' option.

Good call on the camera issue, I was just about to mention that new change and then read your next post.

pcartier · Nov 18, 2021

puppykickr said:
Double check the permissions for Contacts.

Somewhere there is something like "show all apps with this permission" and there you can check which apps are allowed and denied the contacts permission.

You can just go into any app's permissions that you know has the contacts permission, select contacts, and there should be the 'show all apps with this permission' option.

Good call on the camera issue, I was just about to mention that new change and then read your next post.

Hi.
Thx again for feedback... Well, tried a few things as you suggested & got it working at last: after a couple of restarts, battery removal .. and several sync & permission toggles to OFF along the way.
What I do notice with the new contacts is that call records displayed per contact also include my messaging apps (e.g. voice & video calls for Telegram, Signal etc). This brings up a couple of questions:
1. Even after deleting my call history (under recent calls in the phone app) I see that per contact there are still call history items. How are these removed .. for all contacts at once ?
2. Is it possible to remove the history for my messaging apps from these contacts (I have the history in my messaging apps and anyway I cannot see what business it is of Google's who I contact with non-Google applications!)

puppykickr · Nov 18, 2021

Well, to be honest, this was part of my reason for going non Google.

In fact, I do not use any stock (built in) or Google utility apps.

This would be much better if I had a better device, but things are what they are.

So on my device, there are no records of calls in or out.
Messages, the same.

Of course, the messages remain unless I delete them, but call records are nowhere to be found.

Contacts, even though I use a third party app for the purpose, does not sync with the cloud or other apps.

Yes, this led to tedious manual entering of all contacts.

I also use Telegram, but the only records of what goes on with that app remain on that app- minus some cool/funny stuff that I save onto the SD card.

I have replaced every utility app on my device with Simple Mobile Tools.

https://www.simplemobiletools.com/

Personally, I recommend getting the apps from F-Droid.

pcartier · Nov 19, 2021

Thanks again for your valuable feedback ... and you are absolutely correct: one should not use the default Google utility apps!
I am sick and tired of Google intruding into every aspect of the most simple operations I perform; their whole company is just one big phishing operation!
I have tried several times over the years to extract myself but it is not easy: in the early days of Android I purchased an app to sync my contacts directly to my phone (this app then disappeared!); I also tried an image (Cyanogenmod) several years ago but they also crashed. And anyway, not everything I needed to do then was possible. I also looked at F-Droid recently for DeepL translator distros. I also looked at "Android without Google", but that gets too complex and fidgety! Time is a factor for some of us

Anyway, in the end I gave up and imported my contacts (exported from Outlook) to Google contacts in the cloud, synced with my phone (manually; I switch off auto sync), and then deleted them in Google Contacts on the web (I only do this once or twice a year). I do similar stuff with Google Calendar. It is, nevertheless, important for me to be able to import my contacts (occasionally) and calendar info (more frequently).
Anyway, I shall look at this suite of tools and see if it works for me. You have given me the motivation.
Thanks again, and if I have any questions I would appreciated it if I can contact you with them
Regards

codesplice · Nov 19, 2021

If you want to completely ditch Google on your Pixel phone, I can't recommend the Graphene OS project highly enough:
https://grapheneos.org/

Android 12 upgrade problems

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