GOOGLE APPS

[mimichelle13]

I'm not sure if I'm wanting help I of course I do but I'm definitely venting in most polite way possible. This is happened on numerous phones Samsung Note 20 Samsung Note 21 ultra s22 5G I'll Google One phone I know a Motorola. I don't know why it took me till just now to realize that it's most likely just a Google issue Google gboard doesn't like to record on my words sometimes it'll stop swipe in the middle and make me type out a couple of words before it'll start swiping again. The Google keyboard clipboard only saves one item as soon as I save another item the previous one disappears. My Google store apps are set to automatically update and they don't I have to continually check it for updates and update it manually. When I'm doing an edit in Google photos it will edit and then when I hit save it closes everything out I have to go back into whatever app I was in to go back to what I was doing. Google maps continually freezes. So I started using Waze which is also owned by Google and it wants to take me the long way everywhere I go it will not take me on my main roads no matter how it's set. Sometimes a Gmail may take days to go through. There's other issues and they all seem to be Google related so I contacted Google one and after they couldn't figure out what was wrong they decided to blame it on the phone but it's been on like five different phones I'm only using half of my capacity of storage I do not use public wi-fi. Only home Wi-Fi I do not use Wi-Fi calling I don't know that any of this makes a difference I'm just trying to fill you in I will attempt to share a pictures and screen record if it'll allow me to doesn't seem to want to send anything unless I do it via a link another Google issue. Here's a couple screenshots to show you what I'm talking about it would not take the screen record says your community doesn't support that. Screen recorder would definitely help with any misunderstandings.

 

[VidJunky]

I feel your pain in some of this but perhaps I can offer some advice to ease a portion of it.

1. Google gboard doesn't like to record on my words sometimes it'll stop swipe in the middle and make me type out a couple of words before it'll start swiping again.

When you try to save words in Gboard are you touching the word after you correctly spell/enter it? For example if you wanted to spell Nick, Nich instead, when the word appears touching it usually indicates to the app that this is a replacement and the word you would like to use. I've had to enter the same word a few times before it gets it but usually it does and stops prompting me or misspelling the word I want. I've never had swipe just stop or stop working. That could be something like a cache issue. Have you tried clearing the app cache or even uninstalling and reinstalling the app? I would try clearing the cache and data first and doing the install stuff as a last resort.

2. The Google keyboard clipboard only saves one item as soon as I save another item the previous one disappears.

Have you enabled the clipboard feature? There is a more advanced clipboard feature that can be enabled where it saves multiple items and you can then pick and choose which one you want and it saves them indefinitely. We usually get questions how to clear items from the clipboard more than how to save items to it. Here are the instructions for turning on the advanced feature and a link to the source.
How to use the clipboard feature in Gboard

1. Open any app where you can type text like Google Keep.
2. Tap on a section of the app that triggers Gboard.
3. Tap the clipboard icon.
4. Turn on the toggle to enable the clipboard feature. ...
5. Copy an image or text from somewhere like Google Chrome.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjLtOyajKCAAxVTAzQIHbeCABwQFnoECA0QAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.androidcentral.com%2Fhow-use-clipboard-gboard&usg=AOvVaw1x3vLo6t30b_1fLgYAgBA6&opi=89978449

3. My Google store apps are set to automatically update and they don't I have to continually check it for updates and update it manually.

Yes this is a thorn in my side as well. I don't know why they stopped updating automatically. At one point they wouldn't update automatically if the permission requirements changed. Now they just seem to not update regularly. I've actually been wanting to look into this myself and you've motivated me. I found this article with several methods for trying to get auto update working. I'll try them later today but in the meantime this is for you.

Google Play Store Isn’t Auto-Updating Apps? Try These Fixes

The Google Play Store should automatically keep your apps up to date for you. But if it stops working, here are some things you can try to fix it.

www.makeuseof.com

4. When I'm doing an edit in Google photos it will edit and then when I hit save it closes everything out I have to go back into whatever app I was in to go back to what I was doing.

I don't use Photos to do edits. Samsung offers me more options and features so I've been using their service. for this. I also use several free apps depending on what I'm trying to accomplish. I've found no one place seems to have the best of everything. Sorry I can't be more help than that.

5. Google maps continually freezes. So I started using Waze which is also owned by Google and it wants to take me the long way everywhere I go it will not take me on my main roads no matter how it's set.

I liked Waze better than Maps for navigation because the speed trap reports were more up to date than on Maps. Then Waze had to go woke on me so I dropped them. Yes, I know they're owned by the same company but Waze tries to be social where Maps is business, loosely speaking. When I was using the app though I never had issues with routes. Like I said Waze tries to be social so it usually offers you the least congested routes or the fastest routes based on what it sees from the community. In your pics on Maps all of the routes are the same time. It looks longer 2 minutes longer time wise but it is the same route that Maps says is 15 min. Maps does more of the straight line thing. It may show you congestion but likely won't take you around it. Again this is one of those cases were no one app gives you the best of everything and it is why people prefer one over the other in most cases. I'm wondering if Waze might be taking time of day and congestion into account in your photos? Does Waze offer alternative routes? I don't remember but I would imagine they would but that was one thing about the app, it was harder to navigate inside the app because they were trying to do so much extra it was hard to find the simple stuff. In the case above you could choose to avoid highways and likely get one of the alternate routes shown on Maps. I can't see why it would put you on the highway other than congestion though.

6. Sometimes a Gmail may take days to go through.

This issue used to be a common issue with devices that had too much saved data on the device. I remember having talks with people and the answer was deleting text messages because they had 20K or 30K saved on their phone. FB, Insta and Twitter were big contributors to this too because they always had stored caches that seemed to gum up the works. Devices these days seem to do well as long as they get restarted regularly. Restarting a device is the most basic maintenance that can be done. It clears out the cobwebs to speak and greases the wheels. There's not a lot that we can offer beyond that without knowing what device you have and what app you're using?

7. I'm only using half of my capacity of storage I do not use public wi-fi. Only home Wi-Fi I do not use Wi-Fi calling I don't know that any of this makes a difference I'm just trying to fill you in I will attempt to share a pictures and screen record if it'll allow me to doesn't seem to want to send anything unless I do it via a link another Google issue.

Most of these are good practices. I don't think your device has any malicious activity going on. There shouldn't be any harm in using WiFi calling. Regular restarts and keeping clutter to a minimum is probably going to have the most impact with the least effort.

8. Here's a couple screenshots to show you what I'm talking about it would not take the screen record says your community doesn't support that. Screen recorder would definitely help with any misunderstandings.

It would be nice if your SMS snapshot didn't have a phone number or the number was blocked out. Devs may remove it for that reason.

 

[B. Diddy]

Google gboard doesn't like to record on my words sometimes it'll stop swipe in the middle and make me type out a couple of words before it'll start swiping again.

Do you mean that when you're swipe-typing, it'll sometimes just show a single letter as you're swiping around, instead of forming a word? That happens to me sometimes. I think it might have to do with my finger not being in constant contact with the screen as I began the swipe, but it could also be a little bug with Gboard.

My Google store apps are set to automatically update and they don't I have to continually check it for updates and update it manually.

How long are you waiting to see if the apps are updating? I don't have my apps on auto-update, but I do set my wife's and my parents' Pixels to auto-update, and whenever I check, apps have been kept up to date. Sure, there are usually some apps shown that have a pending update, but I'm sure if I waited another day or so, they'd update. Just keep in mind that auto-update doesn't necessarily mean that the apps will update the exact second the update becomes available.

When I'm doing an edit in Google photos it will edit and then when I hit save it closes everything out I have to go back into whatever app I was in to go back to what I was doing.

Try clearing the Google Photos app cache and data (this won't affect any of your photos, whether they're saved locally on the phone or in the Google Photos cloud). Go to Settings>Apps, select Google Photos, then Storage, then clear cache and clear data there, and then Force Stop the app. Now open it again, give it a few seconds to resync, and see if the problem persists.

Google maps continually freezes.

Try clearing the app cache/data for Google Maps as well, using the same steps as above.

Sometimes a Gmail may take days to go through.

If this has happened on multiple phones, then I would wonder more about an issue with your network, rather than the phone or with the Gmail app. But to clarify -- are you using the Gmail app for your Gmail email account, or are you adding other email accounts (like Outlook, Yahoo, etc.) to the Gmail app and using those?

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Also, since you mention that these have happened on all of your phones, regardless of the brand, I would also wonder if something you habitually install is interfering with the normal function of these apps. Try booting into Safe Mode and see if the problems persist:https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/2852139?hl=en. Safe Mode temporarily disables any 3rd party app you installed, so it can help narrow down the issue. Since most of the issues you describe are due to Google apps that are probably preinstalled on your phones, you should still be able to use them.

If the problems don't come back in Safe Mode, then you know that something you installed is the culprit -- but it can be challenging sometimes to pinpoint the culprit. Sometimes you just have to uninstall apps one by one until the problems go away for good. I'd start with any 3rd party antivirus/security apps, if you have any installed, as well as "phone cleaner/RAM booster" apps.

P.S. Thanks to @VidJunky for pointing out the phone number in the screenshot, which I edited out, and for the detailed response above!

 

[mimichelle13]

Thank you both for your detailed reply with suggestions. I can't uninstall the app for one it's preloaded as far as Gboard goes. Yes I do type in the word I want it to say and then I will tap on it so it knows and it does save those. I didn't think I mentioned that but if I did I apologize it was not unintentional. What I'm saying is that when I go to swipe in a word sometimes like if I want to put in the word completely it might your cop or coy instead. it'll only do a few of the letters. So I'll type it three or four times and it does the same thing every time so I just manually type it in and then it will work again. it's weird and frustrating!! yes I've activated all the proper settings for clipboard it still will only record one item and automatically deletes it when a new one is copied. I might tend to agree with you that maybe my fingers leaving the keyboard but when I try it three four times and it's still only giving me one letter there's something wrong and it's not me not that time anyway lol.
And I appreciate that you use something different because you have a Samsung I've as mentioned in my previous original post that this has been happening with several different phones Samsung Google pixel Motorola so it's just Google Google's having issues and I wish I realized that it was Google a long time ago I would have saved myself a lot of money and getting new phones thinking the next one's going to be any better the worst one was the Google pixel isn't that funny

 

[mimichelle13]

Do you mean that when you're swipe-typing, it'll sometimes just show a single letter as you're swiping around, instead of forming a word? That happens to me sometimes. I think it might have to do with my finger not being in constant contact with the screen as I began the swipe, but it could also be a little bug with Gboard.


How long are you waiting to see if the apps are updating? I don't have my apps on auto-update, but I do set my wife's and my parents' Pixels to auto-update, and whenever I check, apps have been kept up to date. Sure, there are usually some apps shown that have a pending update, but I'm sure if I waited another day or so, they'd update. Just keep in mind that auto-update doesn't necessarily mean that the apps will update the exact second the update becomes available.


Try clearing the Google Photos app cache and data (this won't affect any of your photos, whether they're saved locally on the phone or in the Google Photos cloud). Go to Settings>Apps, select Google Photos, then Storage, then clear cache and clear data there, and then Force Stop the app. Now open it again, give it a few seconds to resync, and see if the problem persists.


Try clearing the app cache/data for Google Maps as well, using the same steps as above.


If this has happened on multiple phones, then I would wonder more about an issue with your network, rather than the phone or with the Gmail app. But to clarify -- are you using the Gmail app for your Gmail email account, or are you adding other email accounts (like Outlook, Yahoo, etc.) to the Gmail app and using those?

-------------

Also, since you mention that these have happened on all of your phones, regardless of the brand, I would also wonder if something you habitually install is interfering with the normal function of these apps. Try booting into Safe Mode and see if the problems persist:https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/2852139?hl=en. Safe Mode temporarily disables any 3rd party app you installed, so it can help narrow down the issue. Since most of the issues you describe are due to Google apps that are probably preinstalled on your phones, you should still be able to use them.

If the problems don't come back in Safe Mode, then you know that something you installed is the culprit -- but it can be challenging sometimes to pinpoint the culprit. Sometimes you just have to uninstall apps one by one until the problems go away for good. I'd start with any 3rd party antivirus/security apps, if you have any installed, as well as "phone cleaner/RAM booster" apps.

P.S. Thanks to @VidJunky for pointing out the phone number in the screenshot, which I edited out, and for the detailed response above!

I was prone to think along those lines too that maybe it was something I installed but here's what's funny is that I don't do transfer of data and apps and all that I do it the old-fashioned hard way at least with these last two phones just to ensure that that didn't happen and I have not a lot of stuff stored on my phone very very little it's only a half capacity everything's virus scan or scan through play protect Google play whatever it is daily says everything is fine I don't have anything installed from any other place but Google store so if it's coming from something from there which everybody that's looked at my phone says it's not but I don't know I mean it was fine and I didn't install anything new and then all of a sudden it just wasn't fine anymore I've gone so far as not just clear cache but clear the data and start over from a fresh and it still does it eventually it's just crazy and I know I'm not the only one having issues with Google apps a lot of people are thanks for letting me vent

 

[B. Diddy]

All of these issues with Google apps you describe can be easily tested in Safe Mode, so give that a try.

If these were problems that were directly related to bugs in the code, then there would be widespread complaints flooding every forum and every tech news outlet, since everyone uses Google apps. But despite you saying that "a lot of people" are having issues, this is the first time I'm seeing a report on it (apart from the Play Store auto-update apps question), and I'm on this forum a lot (as you can tell from my post count), so I wouldn't call this widespread.

 

[mimichelle13]

I will try your safe mode suggestion.
I didn't mean to imply that it was a widespread problem.

There is a Google community forum that I was reading and there were people complaining of similar issues. Albeit not as many complaints per single user.

I can't honestly answer how long I wait from when an app can be updated to when I actually update it. I only just started to receive notifications that I had updates pending.

I can say that were a couple times that I sent on Google play store and the updates pending list was long...32 apps once. I have not seen any apps that have updated on their own as they should.

As far as clearing the Google photo app... I'm pretty consistent with clearing app cachet weekly for apps I use often. For other apps I do it every other week or monthly.

I'll let you know what happens with safe mode

Thanks again

 

[mimichelle13]

All of these issues with Google apps you describe can be easily tested in Safe Mode, so give that a try.

If these were problems that were directly related to bugs in the code, then there would be widespread complaints flooding every forum and every tech news outlet, since everyone uses Google apps. But despite you saying that "a lot of people" are having issues, this is the first time I'm seeing a report on it (apart from the Play Store auto-update apps question), and I'm on this forum a lot (as you can tell from my post count), so I wouldn't call this widespread.

I have one answer to share. I got a notification a few days ago that I had 4 updates pending. I looked and they were ones I had set for auto update. So I left them. I just received another notification that I had 14 updates pending and 4 needing approval. So the list is growing without auto updating the ones that are set to do so.

I still haven't figured out the app issue with my Google apps. Thinking back to when this began in 2018 on my note 9 and which apps I used then that are the same as I'm using now and it's very few
Same Google apps plus a few newer Google apps, personal bank apps and that's really it. A couple dating app Everything else has changed but the problems keep growing.

My games have all changed and there's only 4 .

I do have a couple system apps that no one has been able to explain. And there's no info on them online. One of them I found on a forum recently, but it was an old thread and it had been locked so I didn't get much from it.. only that it is possibly installed by manufacturer for not so good reasons. It was mentioned to mainly have been preloaded onto the cheaper model, no name brand Chinese phones. I honestly didn't think Motorola was in that class.. then again when I first started to experience these problems I was on a Samsung and all my phones were Samsung until the Google pixel pro 7i bought in Nov. The system app I'm referring to, which is not on my pixel but is on my Motorola XRVD ( until recently this has not used anything . Now it's at 15.65 mb. When I click on it the Wi-Fi usage is at almost a gig .99mb) There's another similar one XRCB (it's at 0)

Another (in list ) of "system apps" is shell (system android icon) I've asked multiple times (Google, Motorola, att&t and on this forum and no one really knows. I do eventually receive a hesitant answer . None of which have been the same) what this is because it's not preloaded. It was not on either phone (pixel or Motorola) when purchased. But it's on both now. And it has a lot of access to my phone. Permission to everything, but it uses no Wi-Fi or data. Very very very strange.

Also yesterday using my recorder (for my nuisance neighbors and their herd of chihuahuas) even I saved the recording it said saved but it wasn't in the app or in any of My files. So I looked at my settings and it was set for saving on device and other apps. I would never choose this setting. I changed it and it worked fine. This is similar to what is happening with my screen shot editing. Sometimes it saves it in my Google photos and sometimes despite that it says saved I can't find it anywhere. The only setting for the screenshot editor is for notifications. No choice on where it's saved out anything. So I do not know where my photos are going. And I can't uninstall it. Most the apps I'm having issues with after preloaded and can't be removed.. so it leaves me really stuck.

I have been to remove apps that I can just go to the website and use and not keep it installed on the phone and there's not been a positive change yet.

Yesterday the phone use for calls was really weird. It was dropping calls with full signal. It was telling me server busy. When I was able to actually make or receive a call, won't I was speaking to said I was cutting out.

And since yesterday my g board has decided it wants to randomly change the words of typically likes to type for me (which are much shorter words than what I'm actually typing) to much longer words than I'm actually typing. It randomly switches back and forth.. it was only doing the short words before.


Ok so on and on We will go
How bad it gets No one knows
Frustrated but no longer mad
There's a mission here to be had
Common sense & an intelligent girl
Somewhat challenged in the tech world
I'm someone who needs to know
So, off on a venture I will go


Hahaha had to just be silly for a minute, but this is no launching matter... Lol