Android Question Apps not launching with One UI 6.0 (Samsung, Android 14)

[ema01]

Hello there,
first of all, did any of you had a TON of problems with samsung devices since their october security update? Because on all our app i've seen a dramatic rise in crash logs and all from flagship samsung devices. Most of them are nullpointer exception in sub calls, which makes me thing the activity is being killed immediately, some of them were generic security exceptions that i was not getting on any other device, even affecting Android 11 devices that supposedly did not have the exception implemented (so i had to make other changes that were not needed before)

well, one customer has just updated its S23 to android 14 with One UI 6.0 and our apps won't launch. They hang indefinetly and i don't really know where to bash my head at this point. I'm still waiting to know if ALL our apps won't launch (so it maybe, possibly, could be a problem in B4A?) or this one specific app (we have two very versions of it on the store)

I don't know how to gather more info, i haven't received any logs from the play console, I'm trying to have them download the system logs and maybe there will be something

for context, our apps background services (declared in the manifest), bluetooth in the background (declared in the manifest, related permissions declared and checked) and this particular app also exact alarms (USE_EXACT_ALARMS declared and checked)

Edit: ALL our apps are affected. I'm sending him a mockup that doesn't use BLE and see if it's related.

Edit 2: Older apps of ours that targeted older SDK versions are also affected.
We already tried disabling the New Wonderful App Blocker Functionality to protect you from non-whitelisted apps and rogue APKs, how dare you install an app that does not come from approved stores?
Anyway an S23 is on its way so in a few days we'll be able to do some tests on a real device (and of course i'm sure here it will work)

Edit 3: Mockup without BLE, additional services etc is working.

 

[ilan]

i have the same issue with my apps on samsung ultra s23 android 14

have you found a solution?

 

[wes58]

i have the same issue with my apps on samsung ultra s23 android 14

have you found a solution?

Have you tried posting about the issues on Samsung Developers Forum - https://forum.developer.samsung.com/c/mobile/12 ?

 

[ilan]

Have you tried posting about the issues on Samsung Developers Forum - https://forum.developer.samsung.com/c/mobile/12 ?

i doubt that android forum can help me with b4a questions. it's not like that all apps are not working on samsung android 14 only my apps that are compiled using b4a are not working and i also dont think it has only to do with samsung. i think it has something to do with android 14 but because i could test it only on samsung i mentioned that i had issue with my apps running on samsung.

 

[mcqueccu]

Am not with my machine at the moment but I will setup Android 14 emulator, run a B4A app and give feedback later

 

[ilan]

I will setup Android 14 emulator

how? i tried with android studio and also with avd manager but could not get it to work.
the only emulator i can run is api 28

btw. i need to mention that the app one time works one time not. so it is not always the same behavior.

 

[mcqueccu]

New Project - No libraries Added

Result: Running Ok

Old Project with all these libraries running OK as well

 

[mcqueccu]

how? i tried with android studio and also with avd manager but could not get it to work.
the only emulator i can run is api 28

btw. i need to mention that the app one time works one time not. so it is not always the same behavior.

You can open the SDK Manager.
Make sure other items are Deselected. Then Choose these two items to install

1. Android SDK Platform 34 and
2. Google play intel x86-64 Atom System Image (Android 34).

After that, you can create AVD with the Android 34 platform tools

 

[ilan]

New Project - No libraries Added

View attachment 148087

Result: Running Ok
View attachment 148086

Old Project with all these libraries running OK as well

View attachment 148088

Try to install in release mode then open close open close app several times. (Close complete!)

 

[brunnlechner]

I had the problem that my app no longer started with Android 14 if the font size on the smartphone was set too large.
Related to "h = SU.MeasureMultilineTextHeight(Label3,text)"

 

[ilan]

I had the problem that my app no longer started with Android 14 if the font size on the smartphone was set too large.
Related to "h = SU.MeasureMultilineTextHeight(Label3,text)"

ok, thanks i will check if i have something like this. the weird thing is that on first time after app is installed it starts fine but then on the next start i get a white screen like the app is not launching. then i tried another app an there i had a different behavior. first time was ok, second time too but third time white screen. then again open close work and then not. i need to mention that on android 13 i have no issues.

 

[mcqueccu]

ok, thanks i will check if i have something like this. the weird thing is that on first time after app is installed it starts fine but then on the next start i get a white screen like the app is not launching. then i tried another app an there i had a different behavior. first time was ok, second time too but third time white screen. then again open close work and then not. i need to mention that on android 13 i have no issues.

Yes, I experienced it a couple of times on the emulator. When I close and open multiple times, some open to white screen with the log stating only the starter Activity started, other times it run fully

 

[ilan]

Yes, I experienced it a couple of times on the emulator. When I close and open multiple times, some open to white screen with the log stating only the starter Activity started, other times it run fully

so it is an android 14 issue and not a specific phone.
i think @Erel should check it and maybe we need to update something?

 

[ema01]

i have the same issue with my apps on samsung ultra s23 android 14

have you found a solution?

Hi,
not yet. We bought a S23 (not ultra, but we had reports on ultra/non ultra and at least on another samsung device) updated everything and of course our apps work on that device
However, by looking at the play console, it reports ANR inside a specific function. This is a function that i use to autosize the text of a label, it's possible there is an edge case that makes this function loop forever, but without experiencing it first i can't tell for sure

 

[ilan]

Hi,
not yet. We bought a S23 (not ultra, but we had reports on ultra/non ultra and at least on another samsung device) updated everything and of course our apps work on that device
However, by looking at the play console, it reports ANR inside a specific function. This is a function that i use to autosize the text of a label, it's possible there is an edge case that makes this function loop forever, but without experiencing it first i can't tell for sure

try on the emulator, it seems like it has something to do with android 14 and not specific with samsung phones.

Yes, I experienced it a couple of times on the emulator. When I close and open multiple times, some open to white screen with the log stating only the starter Activity started, other times it run fully

 

[ema01]

try on the emulator, it seems like it has something to do with android 14 and not specific with samsung phones.

I Can't, the applications use BLE. My main development device is a Google Pixel 6A running Android 14 anyway

Re reading the thread i completely missed the line about font too large and stringutils causing a hang, that could be actually it. I'm going to test later

 

[ema01]

@Erel I can confirm that setting the font to larger than default causes the application to hang on su.MeasureMultilineTextHeight

 

[mcqueccu]

Testing the Issue with basic B4Xpages. I realized from the logs, when the app is closed, and it says Activity is not Paused, that is when the white screen comes.
But when it says Activity Create (first time), the app runs normally.

'THIS WILL LOAD THE LAYOUT AND RUN NORMALLY
*** Service (starter) Create ***
** Service (starter) Start **
** Activity (main) Create (first time) **
*** mainpage: B4XPage_Created
*** mainpage: B4XPage_Appear
** Activity (main) Resume **

'This will shows WHITE SCREEN AND WILL NOT LOAD
** Activity (main) Pause event (activity is not paused). **
*** mainpage: B4XPage_Disappear [mainpage]
*** Service (starter) Create ***
** Service (starter) Start **

 

[ilan]

Testing the Issue with basic B4Xpages. I realized from the logs, when the app is closed, and it says Activity is not Paused, that is when the white screen comes.
But when it says Activity Create (first time), the app runs normally.

'THIS WILL LOAD THE LAYOUT AND RUN NORMALLY
*** Service (starter) Create ***
** Service (starter) Start **
** Activity (main) Create (first time) **
*** mainpage: B4XPage_Created
*** mainpage: B4XPage_Appear
** Activity (main) Resume **

'This will shows WHITE SCREEN AND WILL NOT LOAD
** Activity (main) Pause event (activity is not paused). **
*** mainpage: B4XPage_Disappear [mainpage]
*** Service (starter) Create ***
** Service (starter) Start **

very good @mcqueccu. you did a very good bug debugging and found the issue. i will also check when i get home.
i hope @Erel could provide a fix for that issue. so it has something to do with android 14 and not samsung phones only!

 

[ema01]

so it has something to do with android 14 and not samsung phones only!

My pixel confirms