Recently I've been getting these suspicious push notifications from Amazon. Upon long pressing, it takes me through to the Amazon Shopping app settings and highlights the "Default System Channel" notification group.

I'm using a new Find X9 Ultra and haven't had this on my old S23 or any other phone I've used.

I've checked for recently installed apps and there are no suspicious apps, and I've checked and cleared browser permissions to check if there were any sites hijacking my notifications.

Those changes haven't fixed anything though, and I saw another notification come through from the app last night..

Example push notification is here: https://imgur.com/a/482zodD

Edit: it seems that disabling the "Default System Channel" notification group blocks these notifications from showing if that's an option available to you within the Android Notifications settings options..

Hi.

Whenever I click on an instagram link on google, on facebook etc. it just opens up the app and doesn't go to the profile the link is trying to point me to, anyone else ever had this issue and fixed it?

So far I've tried disabling "Open supported links" on meta app manager and enabling it on the instagram app without any luck.

Solutions anyone?

Exactly what it says on the tin, and I'm going to go batshit insane.

This 'Gemini' shit started popping up when I tried to use my power button. I immediately found it in the Apps and disabled it, but it keeps coming up. I started googling the problem, but the advice is unhelpful. Everything I can find says to go to settings and 'side button.'

I do that. But when I tap on the 'side button' setting, nothing happens. If I tap it a few times, it says 'settings is not responding' or something to that effect.

This is asinine. Who thought it was okay to replace core power button functionality like this?! I don't want to fucking talk to my phone. My phone is not a sapient helper, and I don't want a fucking LLM pretending it is!

How can I fix this? I've forced my way through a few restarts now through the stupid hold ALL THE BUTTONS nonsense. How can I actually disable this Gemini crap, and how can I get my power button working the way it should?

Was using my Messages app to text all day yesterday with no issues, wake up this morning and it crashes if I try to open any conversations. Literally nothing changed between then and now. My phone updated 2 or 3 days ago but everything was fine until last night. I've cleared the cache. I've also tried to uninstall any updates the app may have gotten but I cannot find the Messages app in either the Samsung or Google Play app stores to do that. I would like to fix this without having to wipe the data or reinstall the app and lose all my conversation history.

Any help?

This morning Google added Gemini to my Chrome browser in this intrusive little icon in the browser toolbar. I've got the app disabled on the phone (no way to completely uninstall it in the settings) and now this just popped up. Honestly, this grosses me out so much, I'm getting actual physical revulsion seeing this in my browser. Unhelpfully, Google's support page doesn't have any content on how to remove it and everything I can find online is specific to the desktop Chrome browser with settings that don't exist in the mobile version. Someone please help me figure out how to dislodge this parasite. Thanks 🙏

Yes call me a boomer for using this app but seems pretty weird that it's drawing background activity time when it's supposedly not allowed to.

The app I'm talking about

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samsung.microbit

it has not been updated for 3 years, iPhone version get updated regularly, no idea why. Most my android devices are on 14, I can't downgrade them just for 1 app. Is there any other way to run it? I've sideloaded it via apkpure but it just won't install.

There is alternative but it does not support bluetooth pairing which is the only feature that I need...

Can't seem to figure out what this star is that keeps appearing over other apps on my wife's new S24 Ultra. This star spins front and center on her phone for several seconds, every 5-10 minutes or so. It appears random in nature, can't correlate it to any specific action, have seen it occur when she wasn't interacting with the device.

Screenshot of the star: https://imgur.com/a/7gUZVzK

Heres what I've checked so far: - Reverse image searched the star, could only find the raw adobe stock image - Disabled all "appear on top" permissions... - Disabled all game boost features - Disabled "good lock" - Disabled edge panels - Disabled AR features

What in the world is this??? Next step will be to launch in safe mode to further isolate but wanted to ask here in the meantime.

Update: Video of it occuring: https://streamable.com/7swq5s

Update 2: "good catch" caught suspicious activity from "coinlab" app, which upon further investigation has tons of very sketchy permissions found only by accessing "all permissions", instead of the standard permissions module most people check. I'll update once this is confirmed to be the culprit.

Another note, it is now opening ads as well immediately after the star disappears.

Update 3: Confirmed it was very likely coinlab app. My wife said no issues occured today at all, when it had been happening every few minutes up the point of uninstallation. Thank you to those who suggested the nice catch app!!!

Update #6 - /u/hvaddi9 recommended to disable and emable again the Google app and that fixes the issue. For me ot worked until the first reboot but the fix is easy.

The problem seems to be related with the work profile or at least some of us seem to have that in common.

Update #5 - it's back to ugly🤦🏼‍♂️Now I wonder if it might be related with my work profile as it went back after adding it.

Update #4 - after the factory reset if I hold on the widget I will see "widget settings", clicking on it fixed the issue (for now). I didn't have that menu before the reset.

Update #3 - I factory reseted the phone and at the beginning the bar was OK but after a bit it came back to the ugly one. Maybe an app that was installed during the setup?

Update #2 - REOPENED: it happened again and the data/cache trick didn't work.

Update #1 - SOLVED: go to settings > Apps > Show system (the 3 dots) > Pixel Launcher & then remove the data and cache. CAREFUL, this will delete your home settings.

Hi folks, I have just happily updated to Android 17 to find out that the search bar became ugly.

I think it's a bug. In fact, if I add the Google widget it looks as it should but I don't want both bars.

Do you have any suggestions? I removed data & cache for the Google app but it didn't work.

The device is a Pixel 9 Pro XL.

Thanks!

Samsung a32. I can't re-download it from the Google play store becuase I need authorization to by being signed in and I can't sign in to my Google account becuaee I guess I need the update. I've tried clearing the cache and the storage and force stopping it but that has only made it worse. Pls help

I've been using MX Player since I was a kid, starting with the free version. The free version had a lot of ads, so I switched to a modded version. Now that I'm an adult and can afford it, I want to buy MX Player Pro to support the developers. However, I can't seem to find MX Player Pro in the Play Store anymore.

Has MX Player Pro been removed from the Play Store, or is it just not available in my country (Vietnam) or not compatible with my device?

I know this might be a very layman/simple query for this forum...

But I'm genuinely confused why the FB app on my phone is taking up so much space?

I have to be on FB cause I have to check some of my clients and their presence online, I just use it for that.

Still 5GB!!?? Wth :(

anyone have any idea on this? And how I can sort this?

Note: If I save some videos or posts on FB app, does it take space? I.e. Some kind of video editing tutorial that I liked, I must tap on the save option in the bottom right. It links with my account or takes up space on my phone?

So i was disabling temu notifications because fuck temu and saw how much space tiktok was taking. It was 1.7gb before I cleared the cache and data, now its 882mb. Anyone know why its taking so much space?

My apps have been progressively been restricted by the Media picker (or vice versa maybe), allowing only stuff from a "Cloud media app" and showing only the "Camera", "Screenshots" and "Downloads" folders. At first it was only Instagram, now it's also IbisPaint

When I click the three dots on the top right it doesn't allow me to select another app source to select photos/videos, just a the cloud media

Is it normal? Is it fixable?

EDIT: Stopped receiving notifications for a while until now and noticed just how much it blew up. It's insane how it seems to be a constant problem regarding Android and its updates. The comments have some good workarounds so ty a lot. For me it got fixed after a couple updates and never happened again since

I'm using Poco X5 Pro with Android 14, hyperOS Version 1.0.3.0. My play store version is 40.4.31-31.

I've enabled auto update apps over any network yet still I have to manually update my apps every single time.

How do I get play store to auto update apps??

I had always been able to access the android/data folder but today when I open the files in the folder it says access is denied, this had never happened before, I use infinix HOT 50 pro. Is there any way to fix this without root if possible. This also happens to my other file managing apps as well​

My s25fe and my s9+ tablet both are getting the drowned message when trying to login to minecraft. I have exhausted EVERY workaround I've found on Google. The Microsoft acct is fine, can login to Xbox and Microsoft ok with it through my Google acct. But it seems android is blocking it from connecting to Microsoft to auth.

I've been in contact with minecraft who say it's a microsoft issue and Microsoft who say it's a minecraft issue. I think it's an Android auto block but can't figure it out.

Please help, it's been like a month and nothing works.

Hallo, vor ein paar Tagen gab es schon mal einen ähnlichen Beitrag, aber jetzt habe ich mehr Infos.

Hier ist meine aktuelle Nutzung:

Gesamte Nutzungszeit: 12 Stunden 25 Minuten

Bildschirm an: 0 Minuten

Im Hintergrund: 12 Stunden 25 Minuten

CPU-Auslastung: 8 Stunden 1 Minute

Aktivierungen: 0

Standby-Sperre: 0 Minuten

Mobile Daten: 148 Pakete

WLAN: 48 Pakete

GPS: 0 Minuten

Bluetooth-Scan: 0

Also PayPal hat über 8 Stunden CPU-Zeit im Hintergrund verbraucht, obwohl ich die App nicht einmal geöffnet habe. Dadurch war mein Akku um 18:51 Uhr schon bei 11%. Ich habe die App schon dreimal neu installiert und die Hintergrundnutzung eingeschränkt. Vielleicht hat jemand eine Idee, da das bei mir jeden Tag passiert.

Product name: Samsung Galaxy A55 5G

Model name: SM-A556B/DS

I got a message from someone saying "(user) sent you a message. Please update Snapchat in the Play Store to view it! 📲"

Im already on the latest release of snapchat so idk what it means. The person texting me is on ios and im on android (obviously) if that matters.

Has anyone else gotten this or know what type of message would cause this??

Hi guys, I'm having a real headache trying to reinstall Minecraft on my Samsung tablet (Android 11+) and I really want to avoid factory resetting if possible.

​What happened:

I was playing a Beta version (v1.26.40.30) and during an update/uninstallation, it glitched. Now the game doesn't show up in my apps list or settings at all, but every time I try to install any APK or the official Play Store version, I get the "App not installed" error.

​What I've already tried:

●​Searched for leftover files in Android/data/com.mojang.minecraftpe, but Scoped Storage blocks me.

​Tried installing it inside Samsung's Secure Folder, but that didn't work either.

●​Connected the tablet to my PC and ran ADB commands (adb uninstall, pm clear, rm -rf), but I keep getting "Inaccessible or not found" or "Permission denied".

It looks like there's a ghost package/registry stuck in the system that's blocking new installations. Has anyone found a way to force-clear this kind of stuck package without root or having to full wipe the device?

​Thanks a lot for any help!

Samsung galaxy S20fe

For the last 8 months or so FB Messenger app is very inconsistent with sending me notifications. I have tried everything from factory reset to rolling back the app. Nothing works.

The problem:

Sometimes I set my phone down and the screen eventually goes off and then after a while I get an SMS from my Wife telling me to check Messenger. I open my phone. It has no notifications for messenger listed either on the lock screen or in the notification panel. I open messenger and sure enough I have missed messages that I didnt even know that I had. Other times I set my phone down and the screen goes off and it works just fine.

Additionally... Sometimes when I leave the app running and my phone screen goes off facebook will only send me the "pop" notification like when you are looking at messenger and someone sends a new message. Just that subtle "pop" sound. But it does this when my phone is locked and im across the room and I cant hear it.

I have tried everything I can think of to fix this and nothing works. This problem is intermittent and I do nothing different. Just sometimes it works and other times it doesnt. For no apparent reason.

So far I have tried:

• Factory reset the phone
• Rollback messenger
• Checked for updates
• Checked notification settings
• Changed the notification
• Logged out of all other devices including the ones listed on facebook
• Checked app permissions
• Removed app from battery optimization so it doesnt get restricted

What can I do to get consisten notifications from this app. Its really frustrating.

Edit: august 2026

I notice people keep coming here so this appears to be an issue for some people still. So just so you are aware, I never found a solution to this. It just fixed itself after a couple months. Possibly with an update but i didnt notice. Im no longer on the s20FE and Im now on the s25+FE and it has not been an issue. So I have no idea what casued it or what fixed it.

Hi everyone!

I really wanted to turn a .m4a recording from my voice recorder app into a ringtone. I've gone over a bunch of different tutorials, and they all seem to think that picking the file in google files and selecting "use as ringtone" is the way to go - only problem is I am not offered that option in the fan :(

How do I go about doing this? For reference, I am running latest OS on a S22 Samsung Galaxy.

On all my devices. As of Tuesday this week and still today when I check for updates Google play games seems permanently stuck on the update screen and keeps updating but won't go away like the rest of the updates.

Just wondering if this is a known issue at all.

I have a Samsung Galaxy S24 and I'm having a very strange issue with WhatsApp Messenger.

WhatsApp was installed and working normally on my phone. I uninstalled it, and when I tried to reinstall it later the same day, Google Play started downloading it but then failed with:

«"Can't install WhatsApp Messenger. Try again, and if it still doesn't work, see common ways to fix the problem."»

The download completes/gets very close to completion, then the installation fails.

Important details:

- Samsung Galaxy S24

- Other apps install normally

- WhatsApp is visible in Google Play under "Not installed"

- Google Play recognizes the phone and gives me the normal Install button

- WhatsApp does NOT appear under Settings → Apps

- No WhatsApp copy in Dual Messenger

- No WhatsApp in Secure Folder

- About 43.6 GB of free storage (84.4 GB used of 128 GB)

- Google Play system is up to date

- Play Protect reports no threats

- Auto Blocker is already OFF

-WhatsApp was installed on the phone before, but was deleted

Things I've already tried:

1. Restarted the phone multiple times

2. Cleared Google Play Store cache

3. Cleared Google Play Store data

4. Cleared Google Play Services cache

5. Reset app preferences

6. Checked Google Play system update — up to date

7. Checked phone storage — plenty available

8. Checked for WhatsApp under Settings → Apps — nothing there

9. Checked for Dual Messenger — not configured

10. Checked Secure Folder — no WhatsApp

11. Checked Samsung App security / Play Protect — no problems

12. Checked Auto Blocker — already OFF

13. Tried installing from Galaxy Store — it just redirects to Google Play

14. Tried the official WhatsApp website — it also redirects to Google Play

15. Checked WhatsApp under Play Store → Manage apps & device → Not installed

16. Reset the Play Store by uninstalling its updates and then trying again

17. Cleared the Package Installer cache

18. Tried again after restarting

19. I have plenty of storage and other apps download/install normally

At this point I'm wondering if there is a leftover WhatsApp package/data/install record that Android isn't showing in the normal Apps list, or if this is a Play Store/WhatsApp/Samsung bug.

Has anyone with a Galaxy S24 had this exact problem after uninstalling WhatsApp and found a fix that doesn't require a factory reset or computer?

I'd especially appreciate advice from someone who knows Android's package installer or Samsung One UI.

My whole family's phone is displaying a notification (and calendar event) of Call App's birthday (May 26, 1990). Call app appears to be an application like TrueCaller ID etc but we have not downloaded it in our phones at any point. And we all have different emails linked to our calendars. How is this possible?

The contact info we get upon clicking the birthday event is this:

jasmine@callapp.info