Warning when updating Android 11 to Android 12

[Andy Burnelli]

Google screwed up with Android 12, and they probably don't even realize it.
<https://i.postimg.cc/FHJ16nvF/update01.jpg> Android 11->12 screwed up!

I don't yet know why most of my apps just stopped working.

Has anyone else seen this happen (Samsung Galaxy A32-5G)?

[Andy Burnelli]

Carlos E.R. wrote:

>> Be advised, for whatever reason, my move hours ago from Android 11 to
>> Android 12 was a disaster in terms of apps by the hundreds not working.
>> *Warning when updating Android 11 to Android 12*
>> <https://groups.google.com/g/comp.mobile.android/c/GngVnfddiT8>
>
> But you do not login your phone to google, and you disable some
> services. That may be the reason it doesn't work for you.

MANY apps are simply _uninstalled!_ when you move from Android 11 to 12!

Thanks for trying to help. Here is some documentation on my progress.

<https://i.postimg.cc/FHJ16nvF/update01.jpg> Android 11->12 screwed up!

<https://i.postimg.cc/BZD7B2tr/update02.jpg> 22.12.15 (150400-439420056)
<https://i.postimg.cc/cJK9rbjn/update03.jpg> Reload all software :(
<https://i.postimg.cc/yNwf9T4r/update04.jpg> Google Play Services update
<https://i.postimg.cc/mkSVvfc0/update05.jpg> 22.12.15 (190400-439420056)
<https://i.postimg.cc/QNqfqdVX/update06.jpg> Android system on Windows
<https://i.postimg.cc/yNtmVWnz/update07.jpg> WebDav set to Android root
<https://i.postimg.cc/Y0wQWVJn/update08.jpg> Windows reads Android root
<https://i.postimg.cc/DzQFrfw3/update09.jpg> The default homescreen
<https://i.postimg.cc/Xqqb6wcn/update10.jpg> The Nova homescreen
<https://i.postimg.cc/MHNhkgpY/update11.jpg> App is not installed
<https://i.postimg.cc/nc9yKV3S/update12.jpg> App can be installed
<https://i.postimg.cc/0QN3z96f/update13.jpg> Only then does it work

Given I've moved Android from one version to another for many years, and
given I've never had this problem, I don't think it's that none of my apps
were obtained using the Google Play Store app (but it could be that Nova
launcher was what screwed it up... dunno yet...).

Plus, _all_ my apps were gotten using the Aurora Store as none used the
Google Play Store app so it's not obvious (yet) why hundreds of app
shortcut icons lost their underlying apps in the move from Android 11 to
Android 12.

That's why I asked if others saw what I saw.

I just switched launchers to the default and noticed it put a single icon
on a single homescreen page (for scores of pages!) and then the last five
pages were filled from corner to corner with app icons - all of which were
NOT gray like they are in Nova.

So it "might" be Nova 6.2.18 that's all messed up in Android 12. Dunno yet.
So I updated Nova to Nova 7 using Aurora Store (same as Google Play Store).

Nope. It wasn't that.

>> The net is _hundreds_ of apps no longer work for whatever reason.

>> <https://i.postimg.cc/FHJ16nvF/update01.jpg> Android 11->12 screwed up!
>

> I have not detected yet any app that doesn't work for me; I have not
> tried all of them, but at least they were all installed. Maybe hangouts,
> I think it was deprecated, but my previous phone had it, so it has been
> installed in the new one.

I think the app is there but the icon isn't pointing to it anymore.
For example, I have a "DevCheck" grayed out icon now.
When I press "DevCheck" it says:
This app is not installed
The app for this icon isn't installed. You
can remove it, or search for the app and
install it manually.
[REMOVE] [SEARCH]

When I press [Search] it pops me instantly into the exactly correct page
for that specific app in Aurora (which is interesting as I would have
expected it to pop me into Google Play Store, which wouldn't have worked).

Then it has an [Install] button (as if it was never installed), and then an
"Open" button after that, and then it is installed "again".

When I go back to the icon on my homescreen, _now_ it's fine for that _one_
app (which I re-installed from Aurora). Hmmmmmmmm......

I suspect something fishy is going on in Android 12... but what?
MANY apps are simply _uninstalled!_ when you move from Android 11 to 12!

[s|b]

On Wed, 4 May 2022 10:03:54 +0100, Andy Burnelli wrote:

> I don't yet know why most of my apps just stopped working.
>
> Has anyone else seen this happen (Samsung Galaxy A32-5G)?

Upgrading from 11 to 12 went without any problems on my Pixel 3. From my
personal experience, Samsung phones are crap. Never again!

--
s|b

[KenW]

Same on my Pixel3


KenW

[Andy Burnelli]

s|b wrote:

> Upgrading from 11 to 12 went without any problems on my Pixel 3. From my
> personal experience, Samsung phones are crap. Never again!

Thanks for letting me know what your porting experience has been, as you
are a reliable & helpful poster to the Usenet newsgroups over the years.

I've ported many Android versions over, so it didn't even occur to me that
moving from Android 11 to Android 12 would literally _wipe out_ my apps.

I keep thinking they _must_ still be there, and maybe they are, but when I
run the _search_ in my (rather excellent) GitHub App Manager, they're gone.

Re-installing them is easy enough, except that there are _hundreds_ of them
that are missing. If it was just a few score, it wouldn't be so
frustrating.

What I'm having trouble believing is that Android _deleted_ the apps?
Could that be possible?

<https://i.postimg.cc/L4tFb7ND/update14.jpg> The apps are gone!
<https://i.postimg.cc/15m2YzgR/update15.jpg> Where did they go?

[Andy Burnelli]

KenW wrote:

>>Upgrading from 11 to 12 went without any problems on my Pixel 3. From my
>>personal experience, Samsung phones are crap. Never again!
>
> Same on my Pixel3

I'm pretty sure it's not common since Android 12 has been around a while.

I don't know why it happened yet, but I'm glad it happened as I'm learning
a lot by debugging why _hundreds_ of apps don't seem to have remained on my
phone when I simply migrated from Android 11 to Android 12.

I find it hard to believe hundreds of apps were _uninstalled_ so they're
probably still there, much like a Windows app would still be there if you
moved it such that the Windows registry could no longer find it.

I find it plausible that the "*indexing*" operation that Android does when
it is first run is where the problem lies - which means it's more likely
due to Google (and/or Samsung) than to the Nova launcher I added,
especially as it's the same Samsung so they would have tested the default
launcher too.

In fact, when I defaulted back to the original launcher on Android 12, the
apps still were _not_ there, so I don't think it has anything to do with
the launcher, per se. In fact, I documented there were 119 homescreen
pages, most of which had only a single icon on them, but the first page had
more and the last few pages were filled to the brim.
<https://i.postimg.cc/mgQkjB77/update16.jpg> 119 homescreen pages!

For example, one app that's grayed out is Zoom, which I higly doubt is
suddenly incompatible with Android 12. While I can't believe Android
actually _deleted_ the app, it won't show up in any tool that I try.
<https://i.postimg.cc/brtpv9T1/update17.jpg> Even Zoom disappeared!

I suspect Android indexing went bad; but I don't know _anything_ about
Android indexing; so that's just one of the options which has to be
proved or disproved.

[s|b]

On Wed, 4 May 2022 22:07:58 +0100, Andy Burnelli wrote:

> What I'm having trouble believing is that Android _deleted_ the apps?
> Could that be possible?

Maybe they were older versions only supported on Android 11? And by
upgrading to 12 there was a conflict and the apps weren't auto-updated
to a version supported by 12 which resulted in an uninstall. (I'm just
guessing here.)

--
s|b

[Piet]

s|b wrote:
> From my personal experience, Samsung phones are crap.

Leave off that "Samsung" and I agree.

-p

[Andy Burns]

s|b wrote:

> On Wed, 4 May 2022 10:03:54 +0100, Andy Burnelli wrote:
>
>> I don't yet know why most of my apps just stopped working.
>>
>> Has anyone else seen this happen (Samsung Galaxy A32-5G)?
>
> Upgrading from 11 to 12 went without any problems on my Pixel 3.

I've upgraded all the way from Android 4.2 to 12, of course that includes
migrating through a series of phones, from Nexus4 to Pixel5a

Earlier than that, in the Android 2.x days on Nexus1, upgrading and migrating
was /not/ such a smooth experience.

[s|b]

On Thu, 5 May 2022 22:35:04 +0200, Piet wrote:

> > From my personal experience, Samsung phones are crap.

> Leave off that "Samsung" and I agree.

håhå (-:

--
s|b

[Andy Burnelli]

s|b wrote:

>>> From my personal experience, Samsung phones are crap.
>
>> Leave off that "Samsung" and I agree.
>
> håhå (-:

I think it's more likely that the problem is "perhaps" related to the fact
I recently changed my GSF ID as per this recent thread on that topic.
*Have you ever tried to CHANGE your unique GSF ID on your Android device?*
<https://groups.google.com/g/comp.mobile.android/c/Ixl2uMSLADc>

It "could" be that the missing apps have a GSF ID that is now different
from what I have now, where Android 12 "may" have noticed that during the
"indexing" process.
<https://i.postimg.cc/0Q4xmPPR/gsfid01.jpg> How to change GSF ID

This is just a hunch though... as I don't know how to tell what GSF ID is
embedded in any given app.
<https://i.postimg.cc/YStB48LH/gsfid03.jpg> Filter out GSF apps

Does anyone?

[Andy Burnelli]

Andy Burns wrote:

>>> I don't yet know why most of my apps just stopped working.
>>>
>>> Has anyone else seen this happen (Samsung Galaxy A32-5G)?
>>
>> Upgrading from 11 to 12 went without any problems on my Pixel 3.
>
> I've upgraded all the way from Android 4.2 to 12, of course that includes
> migrating through a series of phones, from Nexus4 to Pixel5a
>
> Earlier than that, in the Android 2.x days on Nexus1, upgrading and migrating
> was /not/ such a smooth experience.

Like you, and many others, I've ported Android's from 4 to 12 over time and
this never happened before, where I suspect it's related perhaps to this:

<https://i.postimg.cc/0Q4xmPPR/gsfid01.jpg> How to change GSF ID

My suspicion (which needs to be tested) is that the apps that are missing
"may" be apps which utilize the GSF ID (perhaps they included GSF in their
code?) such as the Zoom app where I still need to test that hypothesis out.

<https://i.postimg.cc/brtpv9T1/update17.jpg> Even Zoom disappeared!

I suspect the app is still there, but that the "indexing" disabled it.
Dunno yet as I'm still scratching my head as to why it happened.

Bear in mind to reinstall the missing apps is easy other than it being
hundreds of them, but what's more difficult is to do it slowly so that I
can figure out what's _different_ about the missing apps from those that
remained.
<https://i.postimg.cc/L4tFb7ND/update14.jpg> Food Tracker gone!

BTW, you might be able to appreciate one thing that Android 12 does for me
which is that, for the _first_ time ever, when I click on a missing app to
install it, automatically Android _knows_ to bring up the Aurora Store.

Huh?
How did it know that?

In the past, the only options in the list didn't include the Aurora Store.
<https://i.postimg.cc/fy8TpHFW/updateallapps06.jpg> No Aurora option

Oddly, now it goes _directly_ to the Aurora Store when an app is missing:
<https://i.postimg.cc/15m2YzgR/update15.jpg> Dash cam gone!

I suspect I've accidentally hit upon something _fundamental_ in Android.
But what?
--
Usenet is a team sport where each person adds value in their own way.

[Andy Burns]

Andy Burnelli wrote:

> Like you, and many others, I've ported Android's from 4 to 12 over time and
> this never happened before, where I suspect it's related perhaps to this:
> <https://i.postimg.cc/0Q4xmPPR/gsfid01.jpg> How to change GSF ID

Sounds possible, even probable, but I suspect you're in a tiny minority to alter
the ID, not the sort of thing I'd try on my daily driver phone, but maybe on a
spare that I could factory reset in case of problems ...

[Andy Burnelli]

While altering the GSF_ID is simple, I agree they wouldn't have tested that
scenario since almost nobody does it, so it's something they didn't test.
a. You connect with adb over USB
b. And you run the reset script on Windows

I do not know that this is the problem though, as most apps were installed
well before I did that (which I had done only recently).

There may be something _fundamental_ between apps that remained vs those
that disappeared, yet I haven't yet catalogued which apps remained and
which disappeared.

An example of the apps that did _not disappear are, for example:
Alpha Backup
App Backup & Restore
App Locker
App Manager
Aurora Store
Automate
Baria
CARR
Calina
Cards (this is the app you recommended)
Cellular-Z
Cube ACR
Duckduckgo
EDS Lite
Etar
F-Droid
FairEmail
Fake GPS
Google Maps
Google Play Store
Hushed
Invidious
K-9 Mail
Keepass2Android
Messagfes
NetGuard
NetMonster
Network Info II
NewPipe
Open Camera
OpenVPN Connect
Phone
Phone Signal
Privacy Dashboard
PulseSMS
SMS Backup & Restore
SatStat
SetEdit
Shizuku
Shortcut Widget
TapeACall
Termux
TextMe
Tor Browser
Ungoogled Chromium
VLC
Voila
WhatsApp
X-Transfer
X-plore
ZANavi

Yet examples of those apps that are now grayed out are.
AIMP
AdClear
Adobe Acrobat
Amaze
Andronix
AppOpsX
Bridgefy
CPU-Z
Cuprum PDF
Cx File Explorer
Cythara
Dalvik Explorer
DashCam
FX
Foxit PDF
Frost
GasBuddy
Greenify
Hangouts
HangoutsDialer
Helium
InviZible Pro
Koler
LinkedIn
Malwarebytes
Maple JB
Meet
MiX
Monoic
MuPDF viewer
Nine
Notepad
Open Mail
OrfoxRIP
Outlook
PDF Converter
Planisphere
Pocket Paint
Primitive FTP
PulsePoint
Rocket Player
Samsung Notes
Signal
Signal Spy
Sketch a Track
Solid Explorer
SuperFreezZ
TEdit
TextPlus
TomCam
TorServices
Torchie
TouchTrails
Trekarta
Trekarta Lite
Tutanota
ViewRanger
Viral
Waze
Xodo
Yalp Store
Zoom
ownCloud

I need to figure out if there is a difference between those two sets.

[Andy Burnelli]

Update.
<https://i.postimg.cc/hPD2Y2Yh/update29.jpg> Step 1 finding missing apps
<https://i.postimg.cc/5yqkCGRW/update28.jpg> Step 2 finding missing apps

The good news is that almost every app which was completely deleted (save
for the now-unreferenced icon that the Nova free launcher appears to have
saved) installed when I pressed on the grayed-out icon as shown below:

And, what is really nice is that in Android 12, for whatever reason, the
FOSS Google Play Store client _also_ shows up as one of the "Interceptor"
options (in my Android 11, the Aurora Store did not show as an option).

Yet, for a few apps, even the available launchers failed to find the app.
However, what works every time is to point that set of options to my FOSS
App Manager which does show up as an "Interceptor" when installing apps.
<https://github.com/MuntashirAkon/AppManager>

That "Interceptor" tells me _everything_ I need to know about the dead app.

Such that it's easy to re-populate all the apps which were deleted during
the upgrade from Android 11 to Android 12 but whose app icons remained.

ACTION:
android.intent.action.VIEW
android.intent.action.VIEW
DATA:
market://details?id=nu.firetech.android.wifiwarning
market://details?id=com.helgekeck.wifitool
URI:
intent://details?id=nu.firetech.android.wifiwarning#Intent;scheme=market;launchFlags=0x13400000;sourceBounds=513%201098%20674%201280;end
intent://details?id=com.helgekeck.wifitool#Intent;scheme=market;launchFlags=0x13000000;sourceBounds=30%20188%20191%20370;end

If I new how to _edit_ that intent, there is even a "Send Edited Intent"
button, which "might" be used to find the app for me.

But a browser search works just fine to find the grayed out APK.
<https://duckduckgo.com/?q=nu.firetech.android.wifiwarning>
<https://duckduckgo.com/?q=com.helgekeck.wifitool>

The first of which seems to be located in the F-Droid repository:
<https://f-droid.org/en/packages/nu.firetech.android.wifiwarning/>
Although a similarly named app is also found in the GitHub repository:
<https://github.com/firetech/wifiwarning>
Which is where I might have gotten it from (as I don't recall).

The second program is much harder to find on the main repos.
<https://www.google.com/search?q=com.helgekeck.wifitool+%22wifi+tool%22+android+apk>
where it's all over but none are in the main repositories.

I was easily able to reinstall the first but not the second, at least using
the main repos that I normally use.

In summary, I'm not yet sure why some of the apps were deleted in the move
from Android 11 to Android 12, but maybe it's the apps which were installed
from unusual sources (although I normally only install from three sources):
a. Google Play Store repository (using the Aurora Store client)
b. F-Droid, Github, or Sourceforge repositories (using a web browser)
c. Official home pages (for canonical apps, such as AuroraOSS or NewPipe)

[Andy Burnelli]

As a related datapoint, I found this revealing sentence in this thread:

Sentence: "Changing your Android ID is akin to doing a factory reset (at
least as far as Google Play is concerned. It has no effect on your
downloads)."

Thread:
[APP] Raccoon v4.12 - An apk downloader for Google Play
<https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/app-raccoon-v4-12-an-apk-downloader-for-google-play.2772436/post-53275172>

What I'm "assuming" is the following "may" have occurred:
a. The apps that didn't get deleted had one Android ID in them
b. While the apps that got deleted had a _different_ Android ID

The question I need to ask (find out) is whether or not any apps have an
Android ID or GSF ID permanently (or temporarily) associated with them.

Do they?