from LGs to pixel 6...sooo many questions

[walterkurtz]

hi everybody. i wanted a dual SIM phone for travel and have been testing out the iphone 13 (pro isn't available) and now pixel 6. i have had LG phones for probably the last 5 years so i am quite familiar with android. but some things are different on the pixel. and i'm not sure if that's a pixel thing or an android thing. but i thought i'd start by asking here...

1 the AOD is one of the main reasons i don't think i can switch to iphone. on the LG it traveled around the screen. i don't see that happening on this pixel 6. is that going to cause screen problems?

2 i am used to using buttons over gestures so i've turned them on in the system settings. on my LGs i could rearrange the buttons and also add a very handy button to pull down the notification screen. i don't see that option on the pixel 6. am i missing it?

3 on the iphone i learned i could set a shortcut that would open a better photo app when i tapped the camera icon. can i do that on the pixel? (i am using nova launcher).

4 what's up with my storage?? i'm no mathematician but it seems like 40-50GB are missing...



5? this is a new problem but i've only had the phone for 3 days and if it's persistent we'll have to part ways...since last night i've been seeing a lot of circular arrows every time i try to perform a task. is that like the dreaded spinning wheel on a mac? it began when i tried to unlock a lot of locked videos in the google photos app. did i break the processor??

6 oops forgot one: when i try to set night light on a schedule (like my LG) it keeps switching off. is this just a glitch??

i know this is a lot. any advice you can offer is appreciated. thank you so much!

 

[B. Diddy]

No worries about burn-in: https://9to5google.com/2017/10/17/google-pixel-2-oled-burn-in-protection/

You can't change the order of the nav buttons natively. There might be 3rd party apps that can do it.

Regarding the photo app -- do you mean you want to launch a different camera app when you launch the camera, or that you want to open a different gallery app when you tap the button to review the photo you just took within the Camera app?

Your Storage screen doesn't make a lot of sense, since the system should be around 12-14 GB. 1.1 GB is way too low. And if you add up all of them, it's way over the 164 GB reported. Has it always looked like this? This and the buffering/waiting arrow make me think something is glitching in the system. It's probably worth doing a factory reset and seeing if the problems persist.

Also, Nova Launcher was known to be fairly glitchy on first use on Pixel 6's. Try clearing the app cache/data for Nova, then restore a Nova backup again (or just set it up from scratch). But I don't see how Nova would be the cause of the screwy Storage stats.

 

[walterkurtz]

No worries about burn-in: https://9to5google.com/2017/10/17/google-pixel-2-oled-burn-in-protection/

You can't change the order of the nav buttons natively. There might be 3rd party apps that can do it.

Regarding the photo app -- do you mean you want to launch a different camera app when you launch the camera, or that you want to open a different gallery app when you tap the button to review the photo you just took within the Camera app?

Your Storage screen doesn't make a lot of sense, since the system should be around 12-14 GB. 1.1 GB is way too low. And if you add up all of them, it's way over the 164 GB reported. Has it always looked like this? This and the buffering/waiting arrow make me think something is glitching in the system. It's probably worth doing a factory reset and seeing if the problems persist.

Also, Nova Launcher was known to be fairly glitchy on first use on Pixel 6's. Try clearing the app cache/data for Nova, then restore a Nova backup again (or just set it up from scratch). But I don't see how Nova would be the cause of the screwy Storage stats.

oh wow thanks for this. i thought i read something on reddit about nova and pixel 6 not getting along so well. i'll try an app cache/data clear first.

i want to launch a different camera app. i don't love the gallery app compared to the one on my LGs but i can get used to it.

very interesting about the storage. i assumed the 5 items listed below "apps" was meant to add up to the total or something close to it. i am surprised to learn that the system should be using so much more! i've only had the phone 2.5 days. i can try a factory reset after i try the nova fix.

thank you!!

 

[B. Diddy]

If you want to use a 3rd party camera app, just install it and place a shortcut to that app on your homescreen. But the Google Camera app is so powerful on Pixels that I would recommend against it -- 3rd party camera apps probably won't be able to take advantage of all of the powerful AI the Google Camera software uses to make the photos so good.

The Android OS generally takes up about 5-6 GB. On Pixels and certain other phones, that amount is doubled because of the use of dual A/B system partitions (which allows for seamless system updates -- i.e., not having to wait for a long time during a system update before you can use the phone again).

 

[walterkurtz]

is there a 3rd party app you recommend that might give me a better assessment of my storage?

i did a search yesterday and it seems like it might be a common problem.

 

[B. Diddy]

DiskUsage is a good one.