Bug or Google arrogance?

[Hadron]

An oddity just now: I looked in the Play Store and see an update for Chrome waiting for me. The reason that is odd is that Chrome is disabled on my phone, and indeed I checked that just a few days ago. Hence it shouldn't be showing updates.

So I check and guess what, it's been re-enabled, and not by me! So what gives? Is this a bug in the final Android 11 beta, or have Google decided that they know better than me and overridden my preferences?

I've checked that it's disabled again and so far is staying that way, but I'm wary now.

 

[MoodyBlues]

If some random, drive-by poster had said that, I'd think 'yeah...right... '

I can't answer your question, but I'm curious about its answer.

 

[Fox Mulder]

I've had the same thing happen with some system apps, maybe Chrome was one. Not often, maybe once or twice but that's once or twice too often.
Anyway I just did a 'wtf', re-disabled them and moved on.

 

[Hadron]

I'm kinda hoping it was a one-off glitch and I'll never find out what caused it.

As you'll have worked out, I was not pleased. I'd already been annoyed by a non-Google app giving me that same misleading message about turning on location that Maps sometimes produces: misleading because my location service is already on, and what it actually does if you click OK is enable Google's misnamed "location accuracy" feature, turning on wireless location which "incidentally" allows Google to collect more data - the real reason Google like to prompt for it I'm sure. Worse, it does that silently rather than taking you to the settings where you can see the description of what it does, which is sneaky and dishonest. So seeing this message (which is a Google prompt, not written by the app developer) left me badly disposed towards Google already, and then I saw that Chrome had been re-enabled. So yeah, I was not pleased with Google.

(In fact you'll have gathered that it was the dishonest location message that p***ed me off more, except that that was a known offence, while seeing Chrome back was both a surprise and icing on the cake).

 

[Dannydet]

Big brother is watching you and changing things behind our backs....

 

[Hadron]

Dammit, it's either a bug or they are really determined that you don't keep Chrome disabled. An update just popped up for it in the Play Store again. Chrome itself hadn't been re-enabled, but the update was cluttering my list anyway. I could get rid of it by pressing "uninstall updates" in the Play Store, but I suspect it will be back. And I'm sure that if I'd touched "install all" it would have re-enabled Chrome (as I suspect this is how it became re-enabled yesterday). Which also makes me wonder: if I turned automatic updates on would it ask me whether I wanted to enable it, or just do it?

Another oddity is that Chrome stores a few MB of user data even when disabled: you have to enable it to clear the data, and when you do if you select "clear all" it throws you out of Settings (so unlike any other app) and by the time you can get back to it those data have been recreated.

So it seems to be a minor irritation: I can leave Chrome disabled as long as I check my update list and "uninstall updates" for Chrome whenever they appear. But why is it trying to push updates for a disabled app in the first place? It smells of Google not respecting my choices, yet not having the honesty to just flag Chrome as something you can't disable.

 

[Deleted User]

Do you just Disable the Chrome app or did you go to

Google Account - Security - Google Apps with Account Access - (Chrome & Backup and Sync from Google) - Manage Access - Google Chrome - REMOVE ACCESS

I have no idea if that helps if you haven't done so.

I find Google is an enormous rabbit warren of added menus, and I suspect most Google employees have no idea what the monster they keep feeding actually does, or that are any good at their jobs. That's just me on a bad day though, I don't think things through.

Incidentally I had the You Tube Music app install on me without prompt afaik.

Also while I restrict a few things in Chrome and in other areas, I personally don't bother too much with avoiding Google now.

 

[Hadron]

I had just disabled it, because that should be all it needs to disable an app. But guess what: my Google account security settings don't even have a section for "Google Apps with Account Access", just "third party apps with account access". Though if I go into "manage devices" and select my phone it shows a list of 2 "browsers you are signed in on", one of which is Chrome...

I'm actually almost as far down the path of avoiding Google as I can practically go without either rooting and removing them completely from my phone or changing platform. And I've made practical investigations of both of those options just in case Google annoy me too much, which honestly will take very little now (the way they took advantage of brexit and a weak, careless UK government to move UK data to the US, which offers no legal protection for the data of non-US citizens, then told people you either accepted that or give up Android, any apps you've paid for, email addresses you may be using, any media subscriptions you have, really deserves only one response).

 

[puppykickr]

I had just disabled it, because that should be all it needs to disable an app. But guess what: my Google account security settings don't even have a section for "Google Apps with Account Access", just "third party apps with account access". Though if I go into "manage devices" and select my phone it shows a list of 2 "browsers you are signed in on", one of which is Chrome...

I'm actually almost as far down the path of avoiding Google as I can practically go without either rooting and removing them completely from my phone or changing platform. And I've made practical investigations of both of those options just in case Google annoy me too much, which honestly will take very little now (the way they took advantage of brexit and a weak, careless UK government to move UK data to the US, which offers no legal protection for the data of non-US citizens, then told people you either accepted that or give up Android, any apps you've paid for, email addresses you may be using, any media subscriptions you have, really deserves only one response).

Have a Google day!!!

lol

Just messing with you.
As POed at Google as you must be, and know that I am, I have to say that I have mixed feelings about your issue.

You see, I have to feel empathy for you, because what Google is doing is wrong, and I have also had the same sort of things occur with me as well.

On the other hand, I have to be a bit happy, because now I am not so alone in my experiences with this, and perhaps it really is not just me, my devices, or both!

I must say that I fell in love with the crappy 5.1.1 that I put a new battery in recently.

Although the device is very low end, it does allow the disabling of all Google apps, including Google Services.

Anything I need that is Google related must now come through the browser, and I am fine with that for this device.

It is a secondary device, used solely to keep me from having to bring devices into this room.

But it is the only device that I don't have to keep a constant watch out for Google.

 

[puppykickr]

Hey, check one more thing...

I find that when I disable and delete data from unwanted apps that often the oermissions for that app get reset to default.

I don't think I need to say that Google apps have some of the worst permissions...

So after the data delete, then the disable, double check that all permissions are denied.

 

[Hadron]

Well with the app disabled the permissions section is greyed-out with the words "no permissions requested". That will only be an issue when it's re-enabled.

But this morning I not only found that the update was back, but that Chrome had been re-enabled. And I had checked very carefully that it was disabled yesterday, so I'm afraid this was definitely not something I did by mistake. Moreover clicking the "uninstall" button in the update in the Play Store did not get rid of it, it just said it was uninstalling the update then returned to how it was - or it did the first 6 or 7 times, eventually it took notice and did what I told it to (Chrome had of course been disabled again in the meanwhile).

I have sent Google feedback on this (using the fact that I'm on the Android 11 beta to hope that maybe they'll take a little more notice than I'd usually expect), telling them that I hope this is a bug but that it feels like it is taking less and less notice of my choices each time (first just posting updates to a disabled app, now re-enabling it and resisting all attempts to remove the update from my list). I don't hold out much hope of their taking notice, but you never know.

If I find tomorrow that it's not only been re-enabled but set as my default browser I'm buying an iPhone!

 

[puppykickr]

Well with the app disabled the permissions section is greyed-out with the words "no permissions requested". That will only be an issue when it's re-enabled.

But this morning I not only found that the update was back, but that Chrome had been re-enabled. And I had checked very carefully that it was disabled yesterday, so I'm afraid this was definitely not something I did by mistake. Moreover clicking the "uninstall" button in the update in the Play Store did not get rid of it, it just said it was uninstalling the update then returned to how it was - or it did the first 6 or 7 times, eventually it took notice and did what I told it to (Chrome had of course been disabled again in the meanwhile).

I have sent Google feedback on this (using the fact that I'm on the Android 11 beta to hope that maybe they'll take a little more notice than I'd usually expect), telling them that I hope this is a bug but that it feels like it is taking less and less notice of my choices each time (first just posting updates to a disabled app, now re-enabling it and resisting all attempts to remove the update from my list). I don't hold out much hope of their taking notice, but you never know.

If I find tomorrow that it's not only been re-enabled but set as my default browser I'm buying an iPhone!

Perhaps it is time to do what I had to do, and use a firewall to prevent Google PlayStore from having any access.

https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/grey-shirts/noroot-firewall/noroot-firewall-4-0-2-release/

 

[Davdi]

@Hadron said 'If I find tomorrow that it's not only been re-enabled but set as my default browser I'm buying an iPhone!'
I'd be looking KaiOS or a feature phone. I may do that anyway and just keep the Android phone sans SIM for GPS/BT music player and camera.- Or just get a Pine Phone.

 

[mikedt]

@Hadron said 'If I find tomorrow that it's not only been re-enabled but set as my default browser I'm buying an iPhone!'
I'd be looking KaiOS or a feature phone. I may do that anyway and just keep the Android phone sans SIM for GPS/BT music player and camera.- Or just get a Pine Phone.

Do you like using Safari? Because that's what Apple will make you use, and you can't uninstall it.

Safari is the only browser on iOS devices, isn't it?

 

[dontpanicbobby]

It's a feature!

 

[Hadron]

Do you like using Safari? Because that's what Apple will make you use, and you can't uninstall it.

Safari is the only browser on iOS devices, isn't it?

Actually, no: you've been able to install alternative browsers for some time, and with iOS 14 you'll be able to change your default apps. One of the stupidities in recent years was that you could install and use a different browser but if you clicked on a link in a different app it would still open in Safari, but that is changing now.

I wasn't entirely serious about buying an iPhone, but while they are still a walled garden and rather inflexible they've become a little better recently (I'd like to see some of their improved anti-tracking and privacy notifications in Android, but when you remember what Google's business is that's never likely to happen). They probably have reached the point where I could bear to have one, though they are a long way from what I'd prefer.

Meanwhile Chrome seems to be re-enabled at around 10am every day now. I'd genuinely prefer them to be honest and say "we consider this so vital we won't let you disable it" rather than overriding my choices like this. I do find it ironic though, that Google were the main beneficiary of the anti-trust measures that forced Microsoft to allow a browser choice on Windows (rather than pre-installing IE as the default) but they not only pre-install Chrome on everything but are now refusing to let me keep it disabled.

I'm just hoping that this is a glitch which will go away with the next update. Otherwise the question is whether this will gradually wear me down to the point where I root and excise (which might break one mission-critical app), buy another phone (with the risk that the same annoyance will still be there) or change platform (which is an extreme step). I know that "accept the update and just don't use the damned app" is the least disruptive answer, but I'm not inclined to let them annoy me into giving them what they want (especially as this is the third regular annoyance on my phone, all of which stem from my not simply giving Google whatever they want even where it doesn't benefit me and may be actively contrary to my wishes).

 

[bcrichster]

My Moto G Stylus has done this too, with their horrible Google Photos app(s) after a system update.. THAT I COULDN'T STOP FROM HAPPENING!!!!!!!!!!!????? I'm disliking Android 10+, more and more. Sure you can just keep the update from downloading off mobile but the moment ya connect to ANY WiFi, you're updating fast AF, no options otherwise..

 

[Hadron]

Forced updates at least are a problem I haven't encountered - that seems to be mainly a US carrier feature. Though I tend to apply any system updates that are going.

For me Android 11 isn't very different from 10, and does include better permissions control. Whether this nonsense is also part of A11 I don't know. It only started a few weeks after I updated the OS, so I think a Play Services update is more likely to be the cause (though it only started a few days after the last update to that).

 

[Hadron]

Well I've now gone 2 days without Chrome re-enabling itself, and think I understand the pathology.

It seems that Google have decided that I should accept the update even if the app is disabled. As long as I don't uninstall the update it will let me keep the app disabled, but if I uninstall it it will re-enable Chrome 24 hours later and pester me to update it. Of course it used to be that disabling apps automatically uninstalled all updates, so this is two changes Google have made: disabling doesn't remove updates and the system will re-enable an app to force you to install new updates.

As I have a 128GB device (about 29GB free) the extra 40-45 MB this update uses isn't a huge problem for me. But it's still an act of absolute stupidity on Google's part: what does it matter whether a disabled app is up-to-date, since it is disabled? And re-enabling the app to push the update is supremely arrogant, especially since it doesn't disable again once it is updated, which means that if you allow auto updates (the option Google promote) the disabled app would be enabled and updated in the background with no interaction with the user, and remain that way. Plus the Play Store no longer posts notifications to let you know an app has been updated, and if that's also true with auto updates enabled then the user would not even be given an indirect, obscure clue that their choice had been overridden by Google.

So the question of the thread title is answered: it is simple arrogance by Google.