Develop Bugs

[Q] Disabled Apps Reenabling Themselves After Reboot

Hi everybody - Searched all over, haven't seen any info on this issue. I apologize if I missed something
Recently, some apps I disabled on my Verizon Galaxy Nexus have begun to automatically reenable themselves after every reboot. The specific apps are Google Books, Google Earth, and Videos.
This did not used to happen. Further, my other disabled apps (the VZ apps, News and Weather, Movie Studio, etc.) stay disabled just like they are supposed to.
I'm not sure exactly when it started happening, so I can't pinpoint any changes or apps that might have caused the issue. If it matters, I'm not rooted.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated - the ability to disable unused apps was one of the reasons I got the phone. Thank you!

Update
Quick update. After I found my device would not complete a factory reset successfully, I contacted Verizon for a replacement. The replacement device factory resets successfully, unlike my first.
However, after setting up the new device I found that it too has the exact same problem with disabled apps. Google Books, Google Earth, and Videos (but no other disabled apps) all reenable themselves after every reboot. I noticed this before installing any apps or tweaking any settings. It seems there is a problem with these particular apps or in the way the are treated by ICS.
Either way, it's a shame that this major advertising point for the device does not function as advertised.

Interesting. I was wondering why I was seeing updates available for Earth and Video in the Market, seeing as how I had disabled them...

fyi I suspect it's a Verizon thing - I have both disabled and they're staying that way.

Thanks Clancy_s for the info. That's an interesting possibility.
It's also interesting to me that I haven't been able to find much chatter about this. I've posted the issue here, on the Google Mobile help forum, and on the Android Project Issues list (after searching each for previous mentions), and haven't heard much back.
I'm wondering how sporadic the issue might be, or if it might be connected to certain types of accounts since I've seen it on two phones now. I realize it's not a critical issue, but I've certainly seen a lot more concern on Android forums for less.

Just received my 3rd device (original plus 2 replacements, first 2 sent back due to other problems besides this one). The same problem with disabled apps reenabling themselves after a reboot persists. And this is after a factory reset, without adding any apps, changing any settings, without being backed up to my google account, without location services on. Same apps - Google Books, Google Earth, Videos. No other apps affected.

I'm having this problem as well. I disabled Google+, but it becomes enabled again after a reboot. VZ Backup Assistant and Google Talk stay disabled as they should.

Google earth did this for me also, so I just deleted the app. Of course you need root to do it.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

Same problem with Maps
Title says it all. Really annoying.

Sigh... you're not alone. I disabled the Google search bar and after awhile the phone will automatically reenable anything that was disabled.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Batter drain

Why is google services higger than display
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium

ktetreault14 said:
Why is google services higger than display
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the perfect kind of question for the Help Thread pinned at the top of this forum. See link in my signature for the direct route.
Anyway, Google Services has gotten a little out of hand with how much it thinks your phone is Google's for Google to use as Google sees fit. Perosnally I hate that and I cripple the GSF's ability to take too much control of my phone.
Full disclosure, I haven't done this on a GS4 yet, but the phone model shouldn't matter as the Google Services Framework isn't model specific. I've done this on an HTC Sensation, HTC Glacier, and a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 and I get a noticable improvement in battery life and reduced wakes / wakelocks.
This is a good old fashioned dirty fix, as it breaks some things. GTalk and GNow or whatever Google is calling those services this week (and maybe a few other things) will not work after doing this. They are casualties of the dirty fix. But if you're like me and never use GTalk or GNow this will help. Basically the only Google service I use is the Play Store. So I disable everything in the GSF that isn't needed to run teh Play Store. Gmail and Google Maps are unaffected by the changes I list below.
I use System Tuner Pro to disable some of the start up items in the Google Services Framework. Additionally I froze the GTalk and Gnow (Google Search) apps. And no, you can't just freeze those two apps without touching the GSF. The GSF will still create wakelocks when trying to activate them even if they are not there. So you have to modify the GSF as well.
These are the things that I disabled in the GSF using System Tuner Pro. Basically anything that starts with GTalk or Talk in the GSF can be disabled.
gtalkservice.diagnostits.gtalkdiagnostics
gtalkservice.connection autherrordialog
talk.talkprovider
gtalkservice.diagnostics.gtalkdiagnosticsbroadcast reciever
gtalkservice.serviceautostarter
gtalkservices.datamessagereciever
gtalkservice.sendxmppreciever
gtalkservices.packageinstalledreciever
gtalkservice.xmppendpointreciever
gtalkservice.service.stalkservice
gtalkservice.pushmessagingregistar
These are optional other services to stop, but these will just stop a few extra alarms and wake ups. Having these stopped may disable more Google Services.
checkin.checinservices$reciever
checkin.checkinservices$triggerreciever
checkin.eventlogservices$receiver
checkin.eventlogservice
You can freeze the GSF entirely with 1 easy step and that will also kill the wakelocks. But the Play Store becomes another casualty if you do that. Disabling the events above will stop the Google Services wakelocks dead in their tracks, and allow the Play Store to continue working. (Though I haven't tried purchasing a paid app yet)
Other minor quirks...when installing an app from the Play Store after making these changes you may not get the notifications in the status bar showing that it's downloading or installing. It still works, you just don't get the notifications.
Also, when you turn on wifi or mobile data, the signal bars don't turn colors. They stay gray because you aren't connecting to the google servers anymore. (They normaly change color to indicate that you are connected to the Google servers)
I highly recommend making a Nandroid backup before trying any of this. Once you do that, go nuts! Try to activate or disable more events and see what your results are. You can't hurt too much when messing with the GSF because it will just shut down google elements. Worst case, you can always just reactivate everything, reboot, and it'll all work like it did before you messed with it. Super worst case, you can just restore your backup and it'll return you to normal. There is absolutely nothing you can break permanently by trying this.

So if you use Talk or Google Now your battery's pretty much screwed?

rizoh66 said:
So if you use Talk or Google Now your battery's pretty much screwed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those apps certainly don't make battery life better. That's for sure.
Google's goal with those apps is to create a good user experience. They are not considering battery life or sharing system resources. As a result the apps work great and look super pretty, but they come at the cost of battery life and priority resource access. If maxing out the cpu to make sure the phone is connected to the Google talk server is what it takes to make sure its ready to go whenever you take the phone out of your pocket, then that's what Google is going to do.
They care about the 98% of android users who wouldn't know how or even care to look at the battery stats who will tell all their iPhone using friends how smooth and fluid the GTalk is. They don't design the Google Services Framework for the 2% of people who will care about the overuse of system resources. And they really don't design it for the 0.5% of users who might be able to limit the reach of the GSF.
You can limit Google's use of your system through less invasive means as well, like turning off sync and what not. That will make a dramatic impact. But doing that combined with what I do to disable GTalk completely and totally eliminates wake locks caused by Google. I can keep my device on for a week and the battery stats will not show a single Alarm caused by Google or 1 second of wake lock. But I'm willing to trade off not using some of the Google servicesmto make that happen.
Sent from your phone. You should be careful where you leave that thing.

But it is the first time this has happened
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium

ktetreault14 said:
But it is the first time this has happened
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then try a reboot. Sometimes you just get a bad battery cycle that is plagued by wake locks.
Sent from your phone. You should be careful where you leave that thing.

In-app billing became unavailable

As the title says. My donation version of Amplify says that my device doesn't support in-app billing. But it did, ever until yesterday. I also can't access the SwiftKey store. It didn't affect the apps I've purchased, only in app payments. I tried reinstalling these apps, and I also tried to clear cache of Google Play Services. And Google Play Services is on the latest version, I checked that too.
I'm on stock Lollipop D855.

Lucenzo7 said:
As the title says. My donation version of Amplify says that my device doesn't support in-app billing. But it did, ever until yesterday. I also can't access the SwiftKey store. It didn't affect the apps I've purchased, only in app payments. I tried reinstalling these apps, and I also tried to clear cache of Google Play Services. And Google Play Services is on the latest version, I checked that too.
I'm on stock Lollipop D855.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you do anything different between yesterday and today in terms of usage

Clear Google Play Services cache
I realize this is an old thread but we've had problems along these lines...it hurts because when users complain we can help them but how many are just quitting/uninstalling? Anyway, the magic for us is to tell users to clear the Google Play Services cache and do a device restart. A bit like "Have you tried turning the computer...." but on this Google is not much help in identifying whose fault it is. This happens to about 5% (we estimate of users who would like to make a purchase but cannot).
Again, maybe this will help someone who got here looking for this answer or something else entirely.

(Q) How can I disable Instant Apps for Android

Like the title says, I've noticed since updating to 7.1.2 at least 2-3 times a day I am thrown a notification for "updating Instant Apps" but it never tells me if it was updated or installed. I tried going to Settings -> Google -> Instant Apps and it is disabled yet these apps are auto-downloading and installing in the background. I have auto-updates off on the play store but this still occurs.
Is there anything I can do to disable or at least cripple the instant apps? I'm reading the purpose of instant apps is so you can try an application without installing it, I do not want to test drive apps like Buzzfeed so however I can disable it would be great

fatapia said:
Like the title says, I've noticed since updating to 7.1.2 at least 2-3 times a day I am thrown a notification for "updating Instant Apps" but it never tells me if it was updated or installed. I tried going to Settings -> Google -> Instant Apps and it is disabled yet these apps are auto-downloading and installing in the background. I have auto-updates off on the play store but this still occurs.
Is there anything I can do to disable or at least cripple the instant apps? I'm reading the purpose of instant apps is so you can try an application without installing it, I do not want to test drive apps like Buzzfeed so however I can disable it would be great
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, using Titanium Backup I couldn't find the package com.google.android.instantapps.supervisor but using a root explorer I found the application in /data/app/com.google.android.instantapps.supervisor-2
I also found saved data in /data/data/com.google.android.apps.instantapps.supervisor
I have no idea if this will prevent the service from auto-updating as it has been without permission but I know where it is now...
Update: Deleting both folders causing settings to crash when you go to Settings -> Google -> Instant apps, so it might be deleted off my phone entirely. I will update if I see the application re-install itself

Instant apps are temporary apps. So you can't uninstall them or disable it. It's a feature built into Android that is not going away. Your only option is to install a rom without Gapps. Otherwise deal with it.
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

superchilpil said:
Instant apps are temporary apps. So you can't uninstall them or disable it. It's a feature built into Android that is not going away. Your only option is to install a rom without Gapps. Otherwise deal with it.
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
deleting those two files seemed to have broken that feature.
My issue was that I disabled that service through settings as suggested by one of the google support pages but it would still download and install "Instant Apps" the service throughout the day, not the actual temporary apps themselves. So it's been dealt with lol

oh man, when i saw this i thought i had a virus on my phone.
especially when i couldn't find anything named "instant apps" in the app drawer

I am hoping that this will work for me as well. The first time I saw the instant apps pop up I just connected to a free wifi in Mexico and freaked out. This seriously bothers me. I uninstalled it and it came back update after update. I also will not be using any instant apps, so this is something I want to break.

speedee12 said:
I am hoping that this will work for me as well. The first time I saw the instant apps pop up I just connected to a free wifi in Mexico and freaked out. This seriously bothers me. I uninstalled it and it came back update after update. I also will not be using any instant apps, so this is something I want to break.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
some how it was pushed back on to my phone. this is not a permanent solution...

so I'm trying to disable this through other means now and I found something interesting? I need someone with more experience to chime in as far as what these* lines* do*.. and where I found it...
so in /data/data/com.google.android.apps.instantapps.supervisor/shared_prefs/phenotypeConfigurations.xml there are these three lines:
<boolean name="Supervisor__enable_instant_apps" value="true" />
<boolean name="Supervisor__disable_url_resolution" value="false" />
<boolean name="TestFeature__enable_test" value="true" />
I flipped the value of these three entries to see if this will disable it. I find it odd that for the first line it was set for "true" when the settings say it's off. I will update again if I see this come back. My coworker had suggested that this may be built in to the Google app itself? Let's see...

so I had to unroot my phone because I forgot to log into snapchat, then re-root after, and Instant Apps was back yet again. The changes I made to the XML file persisted but the app was back.
I think I found a way to remove it entirely. I used Root Explorer, idk what other applications would work for this. So I navigated back to /data/app/com.google.android.instantapps.supervisor-1 and I clicked the base.apk and I had an option to uninstall, I did this then rebooted my phone to see if reboots are why it fixes itself except the entry for Instant Apps has been removed from settings. This appears to permanently remove this feature.

every time I think I fix this it keeps coming back lol, I finally called Google Support and this is the first they are hearing of it. The application re-installed itself at 430-some Mountain Time on it's own, other times it re-installs upon reboot. I'm going to find a way to cripple it if google cant
I recommend calling support to let them know that Instant Apps is enabled even though the switch says it is disabled.

fatapia said:
every time I think I fix this it keeps coming back lol, I finally called Google Support and this is the first they are hearing of it. The application re-installed itself at 430-some Mountain Time on it's own, other times it re-installs upon reboot. I'm going to find a way to cripple it if google cant
I recommend calling support to let them know that Instant Apps is enabled even though the switch says it is disabled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same annoyances, "Installig Instant apps" notification appears randomly during the last month, and reading in the logcat they are updates/patches to the new feature, managed by finsky app (Play Store). The most scaring thing is that one time it appeared also during mobile data connection, which is not acceptable (and 800kb background data from Play Store). Google is being too aggressive with it. Why not simply integrate it and update it along with Play Services like the other 1000 google APIs ? !on WIFI!
Thank you for your tests, unfortunately the update process seems to be triggered by Google Play services itself or by Google play store.
I searched for related alarms/wakelocks in Amplify and could only found one wakelock coming from com.google.android.apps.instantapps.supervisor itself: .ExperimentUpdateService. I decided to keep it as this probably isn't the trigger.

ninestarkoko said:
I have the same annoyances, "Installig Instant apps" notification appears randomly during the last month, and reading in the logcat they are updates/patches to the new feature, managed by finsky app (Play Store). The most scaring thing is that one time it appeared also during mobile data connection, which is not acceptable (and 800kb background data from Play Store). Google is being too aggressive with it. Why not simply integrate it and update it along with Play Services like the other 1000 google APIs ? !on WIFI!
Thank you for your tests, unfortunately the update process seems to be triggered by Google Play services itself or by Google play store.
I searched for related alarms/wakelocks in Amplify and could only found one wakelock coming from com.google.android.apps.instantapps.supervisor itself: .ExperimentUpdateService. I decided to keep it as this probably isn't the trigger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah that's now my only worrisome complaint is that it ignores the play store settings and will download over any network connection. You can try submitting feedback through settings and suggest they fix this part so that it updates as you said. Thanks for the additional info, I'll try disabling that and report back if it makes any difference. I doubt that's the source of the problem though so I uninstall the apk so something else must be initiating it.

Thank you guys for this thread! I have the regular Pixel and have been seeing this happen... "Instant Apps" was disabled but somehow still updating either itself or something else, and I wondered if there was an additional switch somewhere to disable it. Looks like the answer is no. ?
Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

So I noticed every time the play store found an update, magically Instant Apps was back. I began to notice that this may be a service built into Play Store and not the Google app itself. So I had an idea, I went into Settings for Android and turned off background data for Play services. Obviously this will affect quite a bit, but honestly I am at that point from fighting this feature that I'd gladly give that up. So far after 2 days I have not seen the application re-install itself. It has been more permanent that the other solutions I've had so far.
There's an article from XDA in Analysis and Opinion talking about Instant Apps and Play Store 7.8.15, apparently this issue is affecting people all the way down to the Samsung S5... although people are hesistant to believe this issue exists for whatever reason.

You can cripple it by restricting its access to internet via firewall. Unfortunately this method also drives up battery consumption as the firewall does jujitsu with "Google Play services for Instant Apps" - I am actively fantasizing about taking my baby sledge to this thing and going back to a "dumb"-phone that doesn't have all this drama constantly! I'm using an S5 right now. This is definitely a google thing. They have a similar self-install-without-asking "feature" on windows via their chrome browser. Just look up "SwReporter" in that program's directory. It self-populates with an executable as you use chrome normally and there is no option in the program for it to not do that. You can safely make a shortcut to that directory and empty it out regularly to restrict its functionality which is presumably for keeping an eye on you. I am also trying an alternate method of changing security to prevent write access to that directory. I have no idea how to do that on an unrooted android. Any ideas? And does anybody know how to cripple "instant apps" malware/spyware backdoor "feature" on an unrooted device without eating battery like crazy?

Today I noticed that Instant Apps was installing without my permission. When I clicked on that notification, it brought me to the Google Play Store. (In Google Play Store, I have auto updates disabled.) I have an unrooted Galaxy Note 4 and I can't even find the settings for Instant Apps under the Google settings. Why aren't the settings there? I found the app in the Apps settings called "Google Play services for Instant Apps" (thank you G1A). I cleared it's the cache and data and then uninstalled it. So I'm assuming it will not come back but you never know.
EDIT: Well the "Google Play services for Instant Apps" reinstalled itself AGAIN WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. Getting sick of tired of Google's POMPOUS business ethics.

If it reinstalled itself.... then his would require root privileges in order to disable.

yeah this issue is annoying, it seems to initiate the download upon every reboot and each time it checks the play store for updates for any of your apps.
I found a way to disable it but it required freezing the app through Titanium Backup. I have NO CLUE why I couldn't see Instant Apps before in this list but it is listed as "Google Play Services for Instant Apps." It does not re-install or try to even download, does not show in Settings under Google, but if you look at the app itself in settings you will see it does still run. I am not sure to what extent but yeeeaahhh at least it doesnt seem like it can run anything

No problem As an update, changing security permissions (specifically for writing) for chrome's target folder Definitely (in windows 10) serves as an effective measure to blockade its ability to regenerate itself. This same method also works for microsoft edge located in the C-Windows-SystemApps folder. I presume that the programming methods would be analogous with android on google's end. Anybody know how to restrict write access to a folder on android? So long as it checks for a folder existing and it does exist (multi-decade programming approach) then it attempts to write to that folder. However, because it's already running in stealth mode (aka background) then it will never show an error message when it fails to execute, and it won't report back either, as that functionality depends on the contents of the targeted folder it is denied access to. It should be effectively crippled without excessive CPU consumption if you can just restrict its ability to write to the default folder that it installs itself in. Any ideas how to execute this kind of blockade?
UPDATE: As a way to cripple not Instant Apps specifically, but an entire host of functionality on the android platform, something called "Power Saving Mode" seems to knock out a key background runtime required for this pest to run. Unfortunately it doesn't let you pick and choose what it shuts off, so other useful apps may lose their functionality too. Post if anybody finds a more app-specific method!

Does this crap have its own separate package? If so, you could uninstall it and make a dummy APK having the same package name. This could prevent "updates" due to signing key conflicts, but might also break things...

Google Play Music Keeps Stopping

I use GPM on a daily basis. I have uploaded 75k of my own music over the years and do not want to switch services. This morning I got up and went to start playing music as I always do it says "Google Play Music keeps stopping". I cleared the cache, data, uninstalled, reinstalled, rebooted the phone,installed the apk from an alternate source, etc. I did some digging in CCSWE and there are some services and receivers that are disabled. I reenable them but they go back to disabling themselves. I'm not mega familiar with reinstalling these things via adb but I assume there is a fix that way. Can someone more knowledgable in this please tell me what I need to do to fix this? Thanks in advance. Note10+, Sprint, Snapdragon, November security patch 9.0.

Are you blocking other apps, using CCSWE, and did you make recent changes to apps blocked?

raul6 said:
Are you blocking other apps, using CCSWE, and did you make recent changes to apps blocked?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am but there was no negative impact before today.