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.

 

[VidJunky]

Let's start at the top.

1 As for the flashlight, Are you using the quick settings panel at the top of the notification bar to cycle the flashlight? To use this feature, you have to wake the screen, either double tap the screen to wake or press the power button, draw down from the top to show notifications and quick settings, and tap the flashlight toggle. You're saying this operation requires you to go the additional step of unlocking the phone fully by entering a PIN, pattern, fingerprint, etc?
Google returned these suggestions.
To fix the Galaxy XCover 7 Pro flashlight not working until unlocked, configure the dedicated XCover Key in settings to trigger the light directly. If this fails, clear the Camera app cache, ensure power-saving mode is off, or restart the device to resolve system conflicts.
Key Solutions:

• Program the XCover Key: Go to Settings > Advanced features > XCover key to assign the flashlight function to the button for instant access.
• Clear Camera Cache: Flashlight issues often stem from camera app conflicts. Go to Settings > Apps > Camera > Storage > Clear Cache/Data.
• Disable Power Saving: If the battery is below 15%, the flashlight may not activate. Turn off Power Saver mode.
• Restart/Safe Mode: A simple reboot can fix temporary glitches. Test in Safe Mode to rule out third-party apps.

2 You don't describe these unwanted images or give context. What makes them unwanted, do you mean that they are app icons and stock images from other apps, or do you mean they are images from photo editing apps that you don't want displayed in your gallery? The way the gallery works is it searches most folders on your device and pulls any images into your gallery. Nothing is stored in the gallery, it is a "viewer", a way to interact with your images from multiple sources in one place. Images deleted from the gallery deletes them in the folders they live in, because nothing is stored in the gallery app, so be careful removing items, you're not removing them from the gallery you're removing them from the folders they live in. Anyway, having said that, the way you would stop them from appearing in the gallery would be to add a "no media" txt file. Here's a short video that explains how to do this.

3 Finally with Samsung there is no way to access the USB settings "directly". Even if you could you're not able to preemptively set them, so for instance you wouldn't be able to set them to always be File Transfer. As a safety feature to prevent unauthorized access the default action is charging and a pattern or PIN must be entered every time to enter other settings. Because of this I imagine, the reason there is no direct access is because it has to be connected for there to be options, and when the USB is connected the notification is always present providing access that way. This is just how Samsung does it.

 

[DrJustice]

Thank you , VidJunky - I appreciate the input!

1. Yes I know about all that by now. The issue is that I would have hoped that the hardware buttons would always work, not needing to fiddle with the screen, but that's just not a feature it seems. This greatly diminishes the utility of those buttons IMO.

Also, as noted I have indeed tried LLMs, but all too often they don't have the faintest clue and are just rambling

2. The full context is in the OP. I understand that it's a viewer only etc.. Aa explained this Android 16 and OneUI 8.0 system on the XCover 7 Pro simply does not allow the creation of a ".nomedia" file". I have explained how this fails in the OP and posting #4. The video is 5 years old, and unfortunately not applicable to this system.

3. Yes, it seems to "just be that way™" ) The issue is that if you remove the notification, the only way to get the USB Settings back is by unplugging and plugging back the USB cable. This is inconvenient if you have flushed the notifications and want to access the USB settings again, e.g. during a long mixed charging and file access session. It could be said to be a security deficiency that you can't disable file transfers once the notification is gone.

I will call Samsung support and see if they can solve issue 2, the inability o create a ".nomedia" file.

 

[mustang7757]

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.

I'll help quickly on the short cuts on lock screen , long press an empty page on your home screen >select wallpaper and style>tap the top screen to the left and at the bottom + choose flashlight as your short cut

 

[DrJustice]

I'll help quickly on the short cuts on lock screen , long press an empty page on your home screen >select wallpaper and style>tap the top screen to the left and at the bottom + choose flashlight as your short cut

Yup, I have those things going. It's a bit different on this system though. The quickest access to the flashlight by pure screen usage, when the lock screen is involved, is by replacing one of the two bottom icons (phone and camera is the default) by long press on the lock screen, then long press on one of the two icons. Unfortunately, most places where you can add an app/widget does not have the flashlight as on the available ones.

That's another funny with Android - no two systems, or even iteration of a specific system seem to do things the same way, there are always changes and very little seems to be documented properly. This makes it way too easy to talk past each other.

These and other issues and frustrations aside, I quite enjoy this system. It allows a lot of cool things to be done really swiftly

 

[mustang7757]

Yup, I have those things going. It's a bit different on this system though. The quickest access to the flashlight by pure screen usage, when the lock screen is involved, is by replacing one of the two bottom icons (phone and camera is the default) by long press on the lock screen, then long press on one of the two icons. Unfortunately, most places where you can add an app/widget does not have the flashlight as on the available ones.

That's another funny with Android - no two systems, or even iteration of a specific system seem to do things the same way, there are always changes and very little seems to be documented properly. This makes it way too easy to talk past each other.

These and other issues and frustrations aside, I quite enjoy this system. It allows a lot of cool things to be done really swiftly

I'll get back to you later tonight but look into Samsung Good lock in the galaxy store you can customize more

 

[DrJustice]

Yes, it could seem like using 3rd party tools to do a few things would make different devices more compatible., and also easier to discuss across brands and models. Some searching and reading confirms that XCover 7 has several differences in features, menus and so on from other models with the same base system.

I'm not so keen on installing so many apps though, I like a minimal system. It's looking like I'll just have to live without a few things that way, but I'll recalibrate my expectations and get used to it - no problem. It's always fun to learn a new system though, and I think I'm a good way along for knowing the possibilities and limitations of this phone.

For apps, I'm into things like music software (running Poweramp which seems really good), astronomy/starviewer apps, GPS/map stuff for wild camping and the like. Very dull and unadventurous, I'm afraid

Edit: I just had an LLM give me a tip about Shortcut Maker, which can possibly make the USB settings available other than form the notifications. I'll read some more about that and perhaps try it out. It also mentioned 'secret' dialler codes like "*#0808#" - maybe there's a Pandora's box of possibilities with those... I'm already aware of the developer mode, which is supposed to allow setting default USB behavior. Lots to explore!

 

[BerryBubbles]

Just a thought...

When I had a device with a SD card & needed a .nomedia file, I did the following:

- Turned off my phone. Removed the SD card & connected it to my Windows PC card reader via an SD card adapter.
- On my PC created an empty (0 bytes) '.nomedia.txt' file in notepad & saved it to my desktop. Right clicked the file & renamed it to '.nomedia'
- Copied it to the appropriate location on the SD card. Returned the card to the phone & booted up the phone.
A little archaic, (like my description), but it worked.

As long as your card isn't encrypted & you have a PC card reader, I would think this should still work. (The key word being 'think')

Samsung designates a file with a ' . ' in front a system file & will in most cases hide them. That might be why the yours disappeared. I bypassed the android system & used the PC as I could confirm the file was in the right place.

I really don't know why the gallery would only pick up a couple of files.

 

[DrJustice]

Thank you, BerryBubbles!

Good advice on creating the ".nomedia" file off device. I have an old laptop lying around that can do it. The reason I think it disappears is twofold: I can't see it anywhere, even with the "show hidden system files" option enabled (it says "system", so there's some uncertainty with that) which does show some files starting with ' . ', and I can't see it when connected to a PC, and if it's there it's not taking effect. I have deleted the gallery data and cache and restarted the phone a few times, and those two specific files pops right back every time . Very strange behavior indeed.

Will let you guys know how if it works out!