Help Difficulties with Android 10

[Johncoool]

I used to always buy flagship devices but due to lack of cash I recently bought the Samsung Galaxy A02 which only cost me $120 brand new from a good shop.

The performance of the device is superior to the old flagship devices that was I was using which were the Sony Xperia Z1 and Z5 compact, released in 2014 and 2016. It also has a much bigger screen with a very good screen to body ratio and a large battery.

However, it does not have a notification light or Qi charging or Type C micro USB port or 5G for cellular data or 5 GHz WIFI connection. It only has the 2.4 GHz WIFI connection.

I am facing issues with the same apps that have been using for years as they do not seem to work the same way on the phone anymore.

It is as if the phone is encrypted or does not give enough privileges to the apps to run normally.

The phone does not load the O/S after a restart or a startup until it is unlocked. I could not fine a way to undo this from the information that I found online.

I had 2 apps that run on top of the lock screen but this has been removed since Android 8.0. tried several apps to lock the WIFI. The app locks the WIFI and Bluetooth and cannot be started until a password is entered after tapping on the WIFI or Bluetooth button. I tried 2 apps for this and it does still work for the Bluetooth but as for the WIFI, it would only work sometimes and other times it would just turn on.

I also had 2 apps for killing apps. One is the "Kaspersky Battery Life - Saver & Booster" and the other is "KillApps - Close all apps running" by Tafayor Tech. The Kaspersky app does not work at all and the other one only works sometimes.

I tried the latest updates for these apps.

Is there an expert of Android 10 that can shed some light on this? I even reset the phone while it was still brand new just in case that was the issue. After the phone is reset there is an immediate update that is applied to the phone O/S and I wonder if it would be better without it.

Is there a link that would highlight similar inquires and would help me to understand if there is a solution for this at all.

I have been at this for several days but it seems like I am losing the battle.

I will not be rooting the phone until the warranty has expired which is a year from now.

 

[Hadron]

What was your previous Android version? There are a couple of things that can happen when you move to a new android version. One is simply that the newer version uses a newer SDK and newer APIs, and some old apps that have not been updated for the new version just don't work. In this case if the developer has not made an update you simply have to look for an alternative app.

Another is that OS features, and the access given to apps, change, and sometimes features or access that were supported in previous apps are withdrawn in newer versions (i.e. not available at all, or require special privileges, as opposed to just needing the API updating). I can't say whether that's the case here because some of the things you ask about, e.g. apps to lock BT/WiFi, are things I've never used, though in general third party control of system settings is more constrained than it used to be so this is a possibility.

Apps running on (or accessed from) lockscreens is something that has changed a lot over the years, and is basically gone in recent Android versions. Nothing to do there, it's gone.

One thing I will suggest: forget the task killer apps. You don't need them, they just interfere with the OS's own optimisation, and frankly you are better off without them. Let the OS suspend recently-used apps itself, it actually saves power switching back to a suspended app rather than relaunching one that's been closed, and the OS will close it itself if the RAM is actually needed (there is no merit in keeping a lot of free RAM). I will note though that both of the apps you have named have been updated in the last year, so it's unlikely that they don't work at all on the two year old Android 10 - Samsung's particular build for this particular device may be a different matter (distinguishing what is due to the Android version vs the manufacturer's particular ROM vs the individual device is often tricky).

I'm puzzled by the statement that the phone doesn't load the OS until you unlock it, but as you don't describe what makes you say this it's hard to say more (except that the lock screen is part of the Android OS, so if that has appeared then the OS itself is actually running, even if a particular app like the launcher hasn't loaded).

I'd also not worry about an update that was applied. Partly because it's probably just a security update rather than a major feature change, partly because if it's been applied that's it unless Samsung allow you to roll the ROM back by reflashing older firmware (which most manufacturers don't allow). A factory reset doesn't undo any updates to the system, it just erases user-installed apps and data and sets the system settings to their defaults, nothing more.

 

[Johncoool]

Thanks for taking the time to post a lot of details and for the tips. I will try them.

If I don't use a password to lock the phone then the device starts normally but if it is secured then it waits for me to unlock it and then it would give the message that the phone is starting.

A similar issue on Android 8.0: https://forums.androidcentral.com/h...-apps-dont-start-until-i-unlock-my-phone.html

The old devices that I had ran on Android Kitkat and Lollipop and Nougat, the Nougat one was upgraded with custom ROM to Oreo.

The apps ran on all of them normally expect for the apps that run on top of the screen that did not work on Oreo.

I did update the apps to the latest ones from the Android store but with no benefit.

The App lock app that is suppose to lock the WIFI does work on Bluetooth but not on WIFI, I also had an old version of another app that worked better than this one but only once in a while. I could find many others that work as well.

The below link is the app lock that controls the WFI and Bluetooth in case you want to test it too. I don't like this one as much as the one I had b4 which is no longer in the playstore because it asks for a lot permissions that I don't like to give.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.domobile.applock.lite&hl=en

I also faced issues with all the firewall apps that I tried until I saw that the VPN setting needs to be set in settings. I was hoping that the others would have similar solutions.

As for the update. I updated the phone and then after the reset it updated again once I connected it to the internet. But it might have been a newer update.

 

[Hadron]

The thing is, I don't think the people over at AC got this quite right. Phone calls and alarms definitely do work without you having to unlock the phone after a restart (in general: I'm not denying that that person had such a problem, but in my experience it's not a general Android OS feature). As well as never having that problem myself, having used every android version since 1.5 with the exception of 3 (tablet only) and 6 (which I skipped over), I checked this explicitly myself today. And you said that Oreo (Android 8) worked for you, but Android 8 was the version where the people at AC were saying this problem existed.

It is the case that other user apps do not start until you unlock, which includes calendar reminders (which is a bit annoying - I suspect Google would say it's a security thing, but it would seem to be a marginal benefit to me). For what it's worth, the message on my lockscreen after a restart is "unlock for all features or data", which seems a more accurate description than "android is starting" (since, as I've noted, the OS itself is actually running). The only time I see "android is starting" at that point is after a system update (though different devices, different manufacturers, can behave differently).

Sequential updates with a new device are not unusual, at least not if the device is well supported. My wife recently bought a new phone (Pixel 5) and it installed at least half a dozen updates, one after another, that first afternoon (I installed them all, since I knew she wouldn't have the patience with the phone to do that again and again).

Yeah, I see what you mean about that app's permissions! I would not install that myself: either it was written by an incompetent who requested every permission they could think of rather than work out which it needed, or else it has a use for those permissions which isn't at all obvious from its functionality (which may be something I don't want it to do). Now sometimes there are non-obvious reasons why a permission may be needed, e.g. bluetooth LE requires location permission on Android (I can't see a technical need, so suspect this is about Google's business interests instead, but any app using bluetooth low energy access will want location permission). But I can see no reason why this app should be able to install other apps, which is a bit of a red flag to me.

 

[Johncoool]

Not sure why I still show up as a Newbie. I posted many threads on this forum over the past 2 years and managed to get most of them closed and some of them I solved on my own...

Anyway, I consider myself as a Microsoft Windows support expert as it was my job for many years and now it is my hobby. I constantly find new and original solutions that I need and post some of them in forum so that others can benefit from them. I also improved my Android skills over the past 1 year and managed to root my 3 other phones because I needed certain features to work on them. I also created a guide on converting an Android device into a desktop Android PC after I got a dead zone on the screen of my Flagship phone and posted so that others can benefit from it. Link to the guide: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...-with-large-screen-and-extra-storage.4279447/

I did not stick the SIM card in it yet because I am not able to get it the way I want yet. It is like all the experience I gained over the past few years did not pay off when it came to this phone.

Is there a way to increase app privileges with ADB commands so that it can control in a better way the features that I need. It should all work perfectly since the apps are in Android playstore.

I will do another reset and see if it works without letting it auto update. I have to try this just in case it is the only solution.

 

[Johncoool]

It failed. I tested the WIFI lock on Oreo and failed there as well.

Seems that the issue started with that version of Android.

Most probably it is a glitch in the system.

I will contact the developers and post updates here.

 

[mikedt]

I used to always buy flagship devices but due to lack of cash I recently bought the Samsung Galaxy A02 which only cost me $120 brand new from a good shop.

The performance of the device is superior to the old flagship devices that was I was using which were the Sony Xperia Z1 and Z5 compact, released in 2014 and 2016. It also has a much bigger screen with a very good screen to body ratio and a large battery.

However, it does not have a notification light or Qi charging or Type C micro USB port or 5G for cellular data or 5 GHz WIFI connection. It only has the 2.4 GHz WIFI connection.

Frankly I find that quite surprising for a new Samsung Galaxy phone released in 2021, especially the lack of modern features I've highlighted. Also apparently it's got some cheap Mediatek processor rather than Samsung's own Exynos, or a Qualcomm Snapdragon in certain markets. It's like a very budget Chinese device from a few years previous, e.g. a TCL or something. About the lack of a separate notification LED, I don't think any current Samsungs have that now. My Galaxy S7 does have a notification LED, but my Galaxy Note20 Ultra does not.

And as for your apparent problems with Android 10, I can't really help you with that, other than endorsing what @Hadron has already posted.

 

[Hadron]

Yeah, the death of the notification LED is an annoyance, since I personally find them more useful than the ambient/always-on displays that are the current fashion (I program the colour to indicate which app the notification is from, and can see that from farther away than I can read some silly little low-contrast icon). But I'm afraid that if you want one of those these days you pretty much have to buy a Sony (which is an expensive way of solving that problem, though part of me does feel that their determination to not follow the herd and continue to offer headphone jacks, notification LEDs and displays without notches or punch holes does deserve to be rewarded).

 

[Johncoool]

Thank you both for your remarks.

One more thing that the phone lacks is that when I installed the compass app I got the message that the app will not work on the phone because the needed sensor does not exist which means that I will need to buy a real compass.

I am generally disappointed with Sony products.

I bought many Sony products over the years thinking that they are the best but unfortunately all of them eventually stopped working or had issues. They built their reputation in the 90s with having the best TVs (Which is probably true) but it did not carry on with their other products.

The Z5 Compact that I bought in 2016 with 1 year extended warranty started getting a dead-zone a few months after that warranty expired and I am not a heavy smartphone user. The dead zone expanded with time until the point that I had to go back to the older Z1 Compact 2014 which also now has a dead-zone which lead me to have to buy this affordable Samsung device.

Anyway, I am also searching for other apps that have my requirements and see if any will work while I wait for feedback from the developers. There are not many apps that secure all the same things...

 

[mikedt]

Thank you both for your remarks.

One more thing that the phone lacks is that when I installed the compass app I got the message that the app will not work on the phone because the needed sensor does not exist which means that I will need to buy a real compass.

I had to lookup this Samsung Galaxy A02, as I'd never heard of it before.
https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_a02-10708.php

Which brings up another point about this device...

It seems to be completely devoid of any sensors I'd expect in a smart-phone, e.g. a compass, or a gyro, It only has the absolute basics.

That's in addition to the cheap Mediatek processor, which I've only seen in budget Chinese phones, and knock-off Samsungs.

Where did you actually buy this phone, and what region or country are you in?

 

[Johncoool]

I am sure that it is not a knock off but this is a poor country, So they manufacture phones for this region using old parts.

I am in the Middle East.

That is besides the point... I will find apps that can work on it.

 

[mikedt]

I am sure that it is not a knock off but this is a poor country, So they manufacture phones for this region using old parts.

I am in the Middle East.

Yeh, I'm sure it isn't knock-off, otherwise it wouldn't be on GSM Arena. Although it seems Samsung is now really localising their range of devices and markets. I'm actually in China, and we only see their flagship devices like Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series, plus a lot of fake Samsungs.

That is besides the point... I will find apps that can work on it.

Good luck!
Wish I could help you more.