App to monitor what [permissions?] other apps are executing? - G4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm looking for an app that monitors and logs what happens, in real time; live; like the running services and processes in the application manager, on a behind the scenes level... kind of like a wakelock detector, but deeper and more sophisticated...
For example, my phone is always showing a notification randomly, "Finding Location" and "Location Found" and the notification remains stuck until I manually clear it, and it happens with no apps visibly running, and it will pop up again and again randomly. And on my girlfriends phone, with NO apps running, And the phone sitting on the table not being touched for hours, lockscreen STILL locked; her phone will start playing audio of sorts, like an Ad is playing or a youtube video, but when you unlock the phone there are NO visible apps running, no tabs are even open when you open the browser, nothing on the notification bar, this audio that plays is 100% completely invisible and hidden, and cannot be shut off without pulling the battery and rebooting the phone. This occurance has happened in a few occasions now.
So I am looking for an app that monitors what "hidden" actions are being executed and where they are coming from. It has to be from apps that are obviously running or waking in the background and using the parent apps "permissions" to trigger and allow access to my location via GPS. And on my girlfriends phone, something similar, somehow a background app that's hidden; is at minimal; using a "permission" to access my audio/speaker, and We'd like to track down the source of where this obscure audio is originating from so we can further investigate.
Is there some type of app that does this? Or is there a way to acomplish What I am trying to do? These are just two major examples to try to help illustrate what I mean.

Hi!
Try on Settings/Developer Options, scroll until the bottom and you should have something like "Inactive apps", there you should be able to see all active (and inactive) apps installed on the phone. Except the system apps...
There you can also switch from active to inactive, but if you open the app, or if the app becomes active by itself somehow, the status change.
But in those crazy situations like add-aware, probably you should try "Clean Master". The publicity is annoying but use to be effective. After the problem be solved you uninstall it.

Related

Notifications always on top?

I was wondering if I could change the setting of my notifications (whatsapp/facebook etc.), in a way that they won't always appear on top.
It is quite annoying when you're gaming, watching a movie, taking a photo or something else.
Maybe I overlooked a setting?
Anyone? I just now had a crash because a whatsapp message wanted to interfere with a game...the game crashed and so did my phone...very annoying!
Normally there's some setting in the app itself that turns off notifications and such like.
Each app will be different.
I should have been more clear: it's not that I want the notifications turned off (this is of course a basic setting that anyone can find), it's just that I don't want them to interfere and/or stop full screen activities such as gaming and taking photos.
They shouldn't do that in the first place. FOr example, i don;t get any issues with facebook notifications and the like coming on screen when i'm watching a movie or playing a game.
It may be that certain apps are a little more forceful than others. in which case, you may have to turn the notifications off fo r those apps, or set them to only vibrate or something.
some apps give various different options for their notifications other than just on or off, like vibrate and flash only.

Help with "Screen Overlay" settings not allowing me to run some apps.

I had a problem with Waze...so I uninstalled and then reinstalled it. When I open it up....it does the normal "Allow Waze to access this device's location?" So I select ALLOW and then I get this "Screen overlay detected" prompt. Says I have to first turn off the screen overlay from Settings> Apps OPEN SETTINGS ....so I hit the open settings and then it goes to the Draw over the other apps "Enabled list" of apps. I then scroll down to waze and it is already set to No...or off. I tap on Waze and then the draw over setting shows the toggle set to off....and also grayed out.
This happens with several apps......I have never had to deal with this "Draw over other apps" setting on any android device I have had yet to date. I had been using the Nexus 6 prior to the G4 and never had this problem with Overlay settings or the draw over apps thing. So I am perplexed at this....is this something that has come about more from Marshmallow?
Any help with getting some of my apps to get past this to start would be very appreciative...thanks!
bump....
Same problem here with a G3
I'm having the exact same issue with Waze on a G3.
I guess you have an app that is using overlays, like Lux Lite or the likes to setup brightness or color. Give that app the permission and your troubles should be over.
Sent from my H815 using Tapatalk
I've got the same problem. But I've set it to allow Twilight permission, and is still doing that endless loop with the greyed-out bit mentioned above.
I got it to work by turning overlay OFF for Twilight.. but then Twilight doesn't work. Why is this app even checking for overlays? Waze gets to be uninstalled for this treason.
So frustrated
I don't use Waze, but this same issue has rendered my G4 a nuisance rather than a useful tool. For example, I cannot add nor edit contacts because my contact list doesn't have permission to access my calendar (which shouldn't matter), but I cannot grant that permission because of screen overlay. I can't add anything to my calendar from my phone because of screen overlay. Custom ringtone... nope. Screen overlay. Essentially anything that involved editing, adding, or deleting of any kind is verboten because of this screen overlay nonsense.
I have tried turning off screen overlay to all apps that will allow me to, but some are grayed out and unable to be changed but they appear to be off. I can't even imagine what app I have installed that would use it so I can target it specifically and uninstall it altogether. Is there a fix for this other than turning it off for all apps? Maybe an app or bit of code that suppresses it?
Thank you in advance.

[Guide] A simple list of easy Quality-of-Life changes for your XZ1C!

Hey everyone! I just got an XZ1C myself a few days ago, and I'd like to share a few of the little quality of life changes I personally use to make the everyday experience with this phone more to how I like it. I figured maybe everyone could contribute a few ideas here and there to help other users deal with things they might be frustrated with, but not know a solution for.
A couple of notes - I gave up the root life a while ago, so all of these solutions are non-root! Also, some of these apps are paid apps (though they might have lite or free versions). Sorry! But as a software developer myself, I have the obligation to pay it forward when I find a nice app.
So here goes!
Making the volume keys default to Media Volume:
Having owned a Samsung phone before, this is one of the things I miss most in almost any other Android phone. But, as they say, there's an app for that! There's a very simple app called Media Volume Only (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=catchpower.gogo.mediavolumeonly&hl=en), which binds your volume keys to Media by default. It asks for Call permissions to see if you're in a call, where it will then bind the volume keys to call volume. Otherwise, it will always be Media, which is great!
However, that means there isn't a super easy way to changing your ring volume, unless you first press the volume key to bring up the sliders and hitting the down arrow to show the rest of the sliders....which brought me to:
Re-adding the missing Ring/Vibrate Mode switch to quick switches:
I am using Central Europe .374 + US oem file to get Fingerprint+VoLTE on T-mobile; I'm not sure if it's because of the CE1 region or whatever else, but I couldn't find any button in the quick settings that would just toggle the phone to ring mode, vibrate mode or silent.
To remedy this, I use Shortcutter (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.leedroid.shortcutter&hl=en). This allows you to enable a ton of different switches in the quick settings dropdown, though some of them may not work properly without root and only with other phones. After installing Shortcutter, swipe over to the "Pull-Down" tab, then hit "System Setting Tiles". In this list, scroll down and you'll find "Ring Mode". Turning this switch on will put the Ring Mode icon into the box of icons you can edit your quick settings with. Finally, pull down your quick settings, click the pencil icon to modify the quick settings and scroll down to find Ring Mode.
This way, it's easy to switch the phone to silent before going into a movie, or a meeting at work.
Fixing the crazy stock backlight control:
The stock backlight is a little crazy right now. It jumps around when the room is dark and it does not transition smoothly. A great app for controlling backlight is Lux (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vito.lux&hl=en). It even allows you to keep different profiles and define exactly how bright you want the screen to be in any lighting situation, and it will keep a map of your selections for you! You can control all sorts of variables, like how quickly it will transition, if it should only transition given what % of lighting change, so on and so forth. It's really very powerful and useful. I haven't had any trouble with the XZ1C display since installing Lux, which I've used on previous phones as well. Highly recommend this one! There's a free version called Lux Lite (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vitocassisi.luxlite&hl=en), but I've never tried it so YMMV.
Alternative for No Double Tap to Wake (or not having Ambient Display):
This is another one I have almost always used on phones that aren't Nexii/Pixel or Motorola. Gravity Screen (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.plexnor.gravityscreenofffree&hl=en) gives you a ton of different ways to automatically wake up the phone to the lockscreen. I find that using ONLY the Proximity Sensor setting to turn ON the screen (and turning everything else off) has negligible effect on the battery, and maintains extreme usefulness. With just that setting, when my phone is on the desk I can poke the phone where the proximity sensor is (as if I one-tap it) and it will wake up. If I take the phone out of my pocket, the phone turns on and is already waiting for me by the time I look at it. Super convenient!
UPDATE: Another user (quack3d) mentioned the app WaveUp(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jarsilio.android.waveup) which does exactly how I have Gravity Screen set up. If you want just that, this seems to be a great and simpler alternative! Thanks!
If you want more options, it has all sorts of other things like turn on by motion, etc. etc....I personally don't use those though, so I can't vouch for how well they work.
Double Tap to Sleep
I'm pretty sure you have to pay for this one, but Nova Launcher Prime (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teslacoilsw.launcher.prime&hl=en) is an incredible launcher, and it allows you to specify custom gestures on the desktop. The gestures can trigger all sorts of things, one of which is Screen Lock. If you select the Time-Out method of locking the screen, it will work with fingerprint unlocking.
Custom Auto-Rotation Switching:
Normally, I don't like auto-rotation. I use my phone a lot in bed (lying sideways), but I still want to use it in portrait. So, I prefer to have my phone default to NO auto-rotation. That being said, it's annoying when you pull up a funny gif or the photo album or youtube and you want to just flip your phone over to watch a video. Sure, you can drag down the quicksettings and flip that switch, but there's a better way! That's where Automate (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.llamalab.automate&hl=en) comes in! Automate allows you to program your phone to do just about anything (especially if you have root) based on custom triggers.
In Automate, if first select "More flows..." and search for a script called "Auto Enable Rotation" by the author Anthony Beaumont. Once you download this script and run it, it will present you with 2 options, either to "start" the script service, or to "modify" the list of apps. You'll want to "modify" the list of apps and start a new one. To this, you can add apps such as Album, Youtube, Twitch and whatever else you want to watch in landscape mode. Finally, once that's done, stop the script and start it again, but this time select "start". (You can also select in the 3 dot menu to have this script run at start-up. Highly recommended!) Now, when you open Album/Youtube/Twitch etc. the phone should automatically flip to auto-rotation.
Enter all your app and website passwords automatically with fingerprint:
For better or for worse, I keep all of my online passwords saved in Lastpass. It turns out that once you have an account and saved passwords, Lastpass has an incredible app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lastpass.lpandroid&hl=en) that can pop up over Chrome and just about any other app on your phone that can fill in the username/password fields for you using your fingerprint! It doesn't work for all the different browsers out there (I just use Chrome), and there may have been a pay wall for the in-app password filling, I forgot (sorry!). That said, it's super convenient to head to any site and just tap the fingerprint to log in.
Additionally, if you're a Lastpass user already, they also have a Lastpass Authenticator (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lastpass.authenticator&hl=en) that works in place of the Google Authenticator (you can add Google Authenticator 2factor sites to the LastPass one), which is IMHO superior because the keys are linked to your account rather than to the physical phone. Also, if you have LP Authenticator + the Chrome addon on your PC/Mac, on some sites you don't even have to enter the Authenticator number, you can just press "approve" on your phone to get into the website on your PC. Awesome!
Send links from your PC to phone or phone to PC
Ever read something on your PC and wish you could link it to your phone super quickly and not have to go through emailing it to yourself? I use Pushbullet (Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pushbullet.android&hl=en PC: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pushbullet/chlffgpmiacpedhhbkiomidkjlcfhogd?hl=en), which allows you to directly link webpages from PC to phone and vice versa. Additionally, if you give it the permissions, it can hook up your phone's notifications to your Windows notifications (not sure about mac), including allowing you to read and send SMS from your PC. I believe it also has file transfer capabilities, but I don't use it.
I think that's it for now...I'll add more when I think of them. These are just a few of the mods I run which makes using the phone more effortless and enjoyable; please, feel free to add more and I'll add them to the list if there's something you want to share! Hope this helps someone out there!:highfive:
maidguitar said:
Re-adding the missing Ring/Vibrate Mode switch to quick switches:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alternative implementation that I use: Add a toggle on the home screen to quickly switch between Ring/Vibrate/Silent modes
First install Media-Mute [free & ad-free]. What this app does is automatically mute the media volume whenever the ringer volume is also muted, which applies to both Vibrate mode and Silent mode.
For some reason, since Android 4.x Google has decided that Silent mode should only apply to the ringer, instead of silencing everything that can make sounds out of the speaker. Media-Mute fixes that.
Next, install Silent Mode Toggle [free & ad-free], then add the widget on the home screen. Switching modes is now super easy, just tap on the toggle.
What I really appreciate about this app is that it allows customization to the toggle order. For example, I never use the vibrate mode, so I can set it to toggle between Ringer > Silent only.
As a bonus, it also lets you use your own custom icons for the toggle, super cool and makes it possible to perfectly complement your home screen layout.
Hide the annoying "running in the background" notification that comes with Android 8.0
With Android 8.0 Oreo, Google thought it would be a great idea to permanently remind you of any background processing currently running in the form of an impossible to dismiss notification.
While the intention was well meaning, the execution leaves a lot to be desired.
Thankfully, there's an app for that! Just install this cleverly named app Hide "running in the background" Notification [free & ad-free], problem solved!
Vibrate phone when call connects, ends
Yet another app to the rescue! VibCall [free & ad-free] brings this useful feature found on some OEM phones to any compatible Android device.
Basically, your phone will vibrate once to let you know that a call has connected, and twice when a call has ended. It's something that once you've used, you wonder why it's not baked into the Android system as a default option.
Add a fingerprint (Smart Lock) compatible screen lock toggle on the home screen
So Sony has unilaterally decided to remove double tap to sleep feature with no sign of bring it back. But I still want to turn off the screen and lock the device by tapping on the screen instead of waiting for the system to hibernate or hitting the power button.
The OP listed a paid solution which brings back double tap to sleep, but for those looking for a free alternative, this is the solution I'm currently using - Smart Screen Lock Pro [free & ad-free].
It's not a double tap anywhere convenience, but a toggle that is better than nothing, and most importantly it's compatible with fingerprint unlock. I've tried numerous screen off apps in the Play store, and this is the only one that I was satisfied with.
IMPORTANT: Take the time to carefully read and follow setup instructions, it's necessary for it to work properly due to OS restrictions. Once it's setup correctly, simply add a shortcut on the home screen and tap it to lock.
It's worth mentioning that it's not a true "instant" screen off and lock, but without root this is probably the best solution we'll get.
Non-root ad blocking
Ads are a necessary evil for the current economics of the Internet, but aside from the annoyance factor, they eat up precious mobile data, plus there's also very real security risks with ad networks, potentially hogging your phone's resources and draining the battery.
Whatever the argument, if you do decide to block ads, there are quite a lot of ad blockers to choose from.
Personally, I use dns66 [free & ad-free]. In my experience, it's very lightweight, and I haven't seen any ads in my browser or apps.
It does have its quirks though, sometimes downloads fail, such as OTA update or file in browser, for one reason or another (the author says it's a bug with the Android OS itself, see linked post).
But it's easy to workaround, just temporarily disable dns66 by tapping pause on the notification, and download again. After download has completed, tap the notification again to resume.
By the way, this is also the main reason I installed the hide background notification app.

Determine app that causes notifications

There are several notifications that are annoying to say the least.
We have a lot of control to handle app notifications that appear, but this is a system notification it seems, I can't identify what system feature is triggering the alert, then of course disabling it.
Running the Oreo Beta on a fresh install.
One of the notifications is: "blah blah app is using the battery, select for more details..." or something to that affect. It is a Android system notification, but I can't figure out what triggers that one and how to disable it.
Example, Life 360 app running in the background all the time, the alert will randomly show in the notification bar. Just swiping down and looking at it often makes it go away, I don't select it, or I just clear the alerts with the bars at the bottom.
Thanks
Go to Google Play and search for an app called "Hide 'running in the background' Notification" by iboalali.
Awesome. Thanks

Aggressive memory management and app killing

Ever since the most recent forced update on the 10th my LM-G710VM has had an issue with memory management.
It will literally kill ANY app, twitch, YouTube, maps, music etc. The moment it's in the background.
Here's an example, watching a YouTube video, click the home button to listen to it in the background while using maps, it will play for about 5 seconds then stop playing. If I pop out the screen for the little floaty picture in picture it won't kill the app. (usually)
This is the same with any of these apps.
Sometimes even just getting a text message and opening the pop-up response will kill all apps underneath it.
I've checked developer settings, adjusted the allowable background apps, Uninstalled a bunch of unused apps etc. I can't seem to find exactly what is causing this, it's really starting to make my phone hard to use.
Ideas?

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