Question Three pesky issues with Android 16 and OneUI 8.0

[DrJustice]

I've just got my first Android phone and hitting a few issues.

System: Samsung Galaxy XCover 7 Pro, Android 16, OneUI 8.0

1. Top button flashlight not working with screen locked.

According to the docs and what can be seen in the settings, it should be possible to assign the flashlight to a button and have it working when the screen is locked. There is a specific option for the latter.

However, to switch the flashlight on or off, I still need to press the power button, then unlock the screen. Only then will the flashlight obey the top button. I know about the quick settings panel, but I use a flip cover and would like a single top button press to operate the flashlight.

What's going on here? Any way of getting the flashlight to work as indicated in the settings, i.e. with a single push of the button even when the screen is locked?

2. How can Gallery be stopped from picking up unwanted images?

The Gallery app has decided to pick up a single .jpg and a single .mov file from my music library. I have no idea why or how it did that, picking to "!random files form hundreds of .jpg files in the Music library. The library is on an SD card, in the Music folder.

There is no way to remove these in the Gallery app without deleting the actual files, or so it seems. I can do that and reinstall the affected files, if need be, but there has to be a better way.

Searching for info on this, it seems the best bet would be to make a ".nomedia" file and place that in the Music folder to stop Gallery from picking up any files from there. However, it seems that Android will not allow creating a file beginning with a ".". If I just make a "nomedia" file and then try to rename it to ".nomedia" it just disappears into thin air(!) It's not possible to do this from windows when connected with USB either - none of my text editors allow saving to the connected Android device's SD card, and I'm not allowed to copy across anything that has a filename which starts with a .".

So a catch 22 there - Android is fighting me hard.

- Is Gallery really so primitive that I can't properly manage the content or how it picks up images?
- How can I make a ".nomedia" file in the Music folder on the SD card?

Any tips for resolving this would be appreciated.

3. How can I access the USB settings directly?

When USB is connected I get a notification that can take me to the USB settings, where I can manage the connection. I can also find the the USB settings by searching for "usb" in the Settings app. However, I can't for the life of me find a way to access the USB settings directly. One would've thought it would be in Settings -> Connections -> More Connection settings, but there nothing there?

Any help in locating a direct access to the USB settings would be appreciated.


P.S. I've interrogated ChatGTP extensively for all three issues, but it lives in a different reality and has no clue about any of it. Also done general searches with no luck so far. If the mods want this broken up into three postings, I'll do that.

 

[mustang7757]

For the flash light do you have it set as a shortcut option on the bottom of your lock screen?

USB you pull your notifications panel down while it's plugged in to get more options

The photo gallery I'm thinking your sd card defaults there but been long time since I had a device with an SD card , should be option to not go to gallery

 

[DrJustice]

Thank you for the tips!

Re. the flashlight:

That bottom thing is apparently called the "Now Bar". It has two icons, one for phone and one for camera. If I first hold down on the lock screen to get to the lock screen editing mode, I can then hold on those icons and change their function - the flashlight is available there. It still needs a press on the power button and then a swipe of those icons to activate, so not "less work" than power button and the the top button.

The lock screen Settings tease with pictures of lock screens with four such icons at the bottom, but I have not found out if/how that can actually be changed. I'll continue to research that. Of course, I'd still like to have the flashlight working with a single press on the physical top button, but from all my research so far, that's simply not possible. This reduces the usefulness of the physical button assignments.

My old beloved XCover 2710 had a dedicated button for the flashlight. However that's now relegated to history as the 2G Network in Norway is being switched off soon, which is why I bought this new phone

Re. USB settings:

Yup, that's what I'm doing. But if I clear the notifications, there seems to no longer be any way to get to the USB settings . Or if there is one, I don't know about it (yet...). Also being able to set charging + file transfer as the default would be useful (this might be possible in "developer mode"(?)).

Re. Gallery not picking up random images:

This seems to be a plain old bug. I mean picking up two "random" images, and nothing more makes zero sense. I still have not found any solution to the inability to make a ".nomedia" file (i.e. with the dot s in front).


These issues perfectly illustrates the feeling about Android mentioned in my "Introduce Yourself" thread: "Hard things are easy, and easy things are hard"

So, I'm still on the hunt for the best solutions to these issues. I may just be completely off w.r.t. my expectations about functionality. I don't know how much of it is vanilla/standard Android (if there is such a thing) vs Samsung customization (e.g. the inability to create a ".nomedia" file). If/when I find solutions, I will share them here. Oh, and I seem to be the only person on the forum posting about the XCover 7.