Google Now Issues

[amg137]

I recently upgraded my Verizon GNex to JB, but I seem to be having some issues getting full use of Google Now. I've tried both the semi-official verizon build and the most recent bugless beast release, but both have been having the same issue.

When I first launched Now, I wasn't presented with any of the setup prompts that I've seen on several articles about Now on the Nexus 7. Every time I launch it, it temporarily goes to the screen with the mountain background at the top, thinks for a second, and then reverts to a blank search page. I have been using it for over a day now and I don't get a single card popping up by default. The appropriate cards do appear when I search for things, but it would be nice to get the much-prised automatic weather and sports tracking. If I check the settings to force cards to display, all I see are Voice, Phone search, and Privacy & accounts, with no Now options.

Is this a problem with my privacy settings, or is it an inherent problem with the roms/current version of Now available to non-Nexus 7 devices? If it's anything I can resolve myself, what do I need to do? Thanks

 

[Insp_Gadget]

Can't speak on the Verizon GN, but I'm not having any problems on my WiFi Xoom. Do you have Web History turned on? And have you gone into the Now settings and set up your favorite teams, etc. I know you're not necessarily supposed to have to do that, but it might help.

 

[amg137]

Yes, web history is on, as is location services. Originally it wasn't, but I enabled it shortly after starting to troubleshoot. As I said, for some reason I don't have any "Now" settings, so there isn't any way to force cards to show up. I've searched for local weather and my favorite teams dozens of times since I enabled all the tracking services and still nothing ever shows up. The only thing I can think of that should be different from the average user is that my account is a university-linked google apps account rather than a standard gmail account.

 

[Insp_Gadget]

Yes, web history is on, as is location services. Originally it wasn't, but I enabled it shortly after starting to troubleshoot. As I said, for some reason I don't have any "Now" settings, so there isn't any way to force cards to show up. I've searched for local weather and my favorite teams dozens of times since I enabled all the tracking services and still nothing ever shows up. The only thing I can think of that should be different from the average user is that my account is a university-linked google apps account rather than a standard gmail account.

Hmmm, I'm a little confused about something. You say you don't have ANY Google Now settings? When you open Google Now and scroll all the way to the bottom of the listed cards, do you see a menu button (the three vertical dots)?

Perhaps this will help: How To: Setup, Configure, and use Google Now

 

[amg137]

Yeah, it's strange I know. I've seen that link before, but it doesn't help me much - I never received any of the setup prompts the first time I launched it. I'd have no problem with setting the cards myself, heck I'd probably prefer not to be surprised by them. Regardless,I go through the following -

1. When I Launch Now, it goes directly to the Now screen with the little mountain background thing at the top, and it shows the typical android loading circle. The page is otherwise blank. This goes on for about a second before...
2. It gives up and opens the google search app with the generic white/gray background and some of my most recent searches. I can hit the mic and do google voice searches, which will come back with the relevant Now cards when it should.
3. If I check my settings from this page, all I see are Voice, Phone search, and Privacy & accounts. There are no options for Now.

There is no menu button to try to hit in the second or two that the now screen shows up, I've looked and even tried just hitting where it should show up, to no avail.

As nice as project butter is, I was really looking forward to the shiny new Now functionality. :-\

 

[Insp_Gadget]

Yeah, it's strange I know. I've seen that link before, but it doesn't help me much - I never received any of the setup prompts the first time I launched it. I'd have no problem with setting the cards myself, heck I'd probably prefer not to be surprised by them. Regardless,I go through the following -

1. When I Launch Now, it goes directly to the Now screen with the little mountain background thing at the top, and it shows the typical android loading circle. The page is otherwise blank. This goes on for about a second before...
2. It gives up and opens the google search app with the generic white/gray background and some of my most recent searches. I can hit the mic and do google voice searches, which will come back with the relevant Now cards when it should.
3. If I check my settings from this page, all I see are Voice, Phone search, and Privacy & accounts. There are no options for Now.

There is no menu button to try to hit in the second or two that the now screen shows up, I've looked and even tried just hitting where it should show up, to no avail.

As nice as project butter is, I was really looking forward to the shiny new Now functionality. :-\

It sounds like Google Now is "gimped" on your phone. Is the keyboard showing up by default? The white/grey background screen you describe is what you get when you set the focus to the search bar (thus making the keyboard show up). Is the keyboard showing up even though you haven't tapped inside the search bar?

If you can't get to the Settings menu, are you able to get to the "Sample Cards" page? From there you can change settings for each card.

 

[amg137]

Yes, the keyboard is showing up by default - is that an issue? No, I cannot get to the sample cards page. There isn't a special settings menu related to any specific card when I search for it either, which was my first thought when I couldn't find the Now settings. Could it have something to do with that lawsuit that caused google to dumb down the search bar on the GNex? I would have thought that they would have gotten that fixed for JB. It seems odd that nobody else running JB roms on a GNex has reported this issue though, which makes me believe it's something specific to my settings somewhere or perhaps something to do with my account being google apps.

 

[Insp_Gadget]

Well, the keyboard shouldn't be showing up until you actually tap inside the search bar. Try tapping outside of the search bar to see if the keyboard disappears (or you can try the little down-arrow that appears next to the Home button when the keyboard is displayed).

Once you get the keyboard out of the way you should be able to scroll to the bottom of the Google Now screen to see the menu button, which should lead to your settings for Google Now.

The keyboard popping up on its own is not normal. Are you using the default keyboard or a third-party keyboard? There may be a setting that was overlooked. Does your keyboard automatically pop up in any other apps?

 

[amg137]

I've done that before, but there's nothing to scroll past. The menu button is in the bottom right, but it only leads to the three options I mentioned before.

 

[Insp_Gadget]

I've done that before, but there's nothing to scroll past. The menu button is in the bottom right, but it only leads to the three options I mentioned before.

The menu SHOULD show: Settings, Sample Cards, Refresh, Send Feedback, and Help. If you're not seeing "Settings" then something is seriously wrong. If you ARE seeing "Settings" and then not seeing "Google Now" on the Settings page, then something is wrong. (You said you're only seeing "Voice, Phone search, and Privacy & accounts"? "Google Now" should be at the top of that list.)

Prior to going into Settings, at the bottom of the screen (towards the center) you should see "Show more cards...", and after pressing that, you should see "Show sample cards". If you're not seeing any of this then something is wrong with your ROM. Perhaps something got corrupted during the install or there's a bogus setting somewhere that we're not thinking of.

I am quickly running out of ideas for what else to check. Perhaps someone in the ROMs section might have more ideas? Since you're using a leaked ROM and/or a custom ROM, it's possible that there is an undocumented setting somewhere that got triggered by mistake or it's just a bug that needs to be fixed in the ROMs. I really doubt your problem has anything to do with what type of Google account you're using. The keyboard behavior is odd and you are missing settings in the menu. Those are software/ROM issues; not account issues. Very strange.

I'm sorry that I wasn't able to help. If I come up with any more ideas, I'll let you know.

 

[ThsGuyRightHere]

I ran into something similar using my work Google Apps account - Web Search History was disabled on the Apps domain. I told Google Now to use my personal Gmail account which has search history enabled and cards started loading.

 

[amg137]

I suspected it might have something to do with that, I suppose I should probably make a gmail account for Now. Any idea if there's a way to merge two google accounts? Google music uploader also stopped letting me log in to my apps account, but almost all of my music collection is already in the cloud, and all of my apps are linked to that account. I could always just reupload everything, but that would be a real pain in the ass.

 

[pistos]

Google Now and Music WILL work with Google Apps accounts. But, you need to have the administrator for the Google Apps accounts turn that feature on in the administrator dashboard.

I had the same problems described above with Google Now under my Google Apps accounts, until I enabled Google Now for our Google Apps accounts in the Administrator control panel area of Google Apps.

 

[funkylogik]

just one of my daft stab-in-the-dark guesses but maybe since youve only just switched on search history, its still learning you and your interests?

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or crazy) guess

 

[shadroe]

pistos,

Where in the Administrator control panel can I find the listing for Google Now? All of my Core Google Services (8) and Additional Services (67) are turned on for all users...

NM -- found it. It's in Settings > Mobile > Android settings

Thanks!