Privacy Browser Android

That is a very interesting set of symptoms. Thank you for being so specific.

I have not been able to replicate the issue on any of my test devices. Can you please post screenshots of About > Version? Also, do your symptoms change if you are running a light or dark theme?

Hello,

Yes, it is an interesting bug. Throughout my use of PB since updating to v3.5 and after reading your reply...

In regards of Light Vs Dark themes.

After running some test based on your speculation, I've found the following.

- When changing the PB app theme to Light from Dark (I use the dark theme) the issue goes away. I can restart PB with the white theme and the issues i not present.
- If I were to change the app's theme back to Dark the issue returns.
-Webview theme seems to have no effect on the matter. No issues there.

Odd behaviors
All these using the app's dark theme.

- The issue seems to come and go. By "comes and goes" I mean that early in the morning, around 8:00 the issue is very present. Around this time is when I did the app's theme tests. Once I was done with the test I set the app theme back to Dark, as I prefer the Dark theme.

- I used PB again around 13:00-14:00 and no issues even thought I was using the dark theme.

- I used PB again around 19:00 and the issue is very much present again.

- A new behavior, which I had not uncounted nor tested was opening a link from another app on PB which resulted on the issue at hand. PB loaded but the link/page never did. opening a second tab then going back to the first time and reloaded resulted on the link/page successfully loading up.

I say, you hit it on then nail by suggesting the app theme as a possible culprit.

Note
I want to point out that I do not use "system default" as my option under "App theme" I use Dark. Furthermore, my android system option for theme is dark which is far from a dark theme, nevertheless is is my set option.

I hope this helps.

I believe you are experiencing the issue described at https://redmine.stoutner.com/issues/605.

I have not yet been able to pin down the cause, but I have eliminated a number of things that it isn't. I have created a debug build of Privacy Browser Free that changes the order things load when the app first starts. This can be installed alongside your current Privacy Browser app without causing problems. You can download the debug build from the following URL (expires in a few days):

https://owncloud.stoutner.com/index.php/s/KQrSrpSoMsI3I9M

Would you be willing to test it out and see if it improves the situation?

Also, regarding the dark theme, if you haven't already done so, you should look at the information at https://www.stoutner.com/privacy-browser/common-settings/dark-theme/ about using developer options to set a dark theme system wide on Android 9. After doing so, you can set "System Default" for theme in Privacy Browser and it will inherit the dark theme settings.

Can you test out the updated debug build at https://redmine.stoutner.com/issues/605?

Soren Stoutner wrote:

I believe you are experiencing the issue described at https://redmine.stoutner.com/issues/605.

I have not yet been able to pin down the cause, but I have eliminated a number of things that it isn't. I have created a debug build of Privacy Browser Free that changes the order things load when the app first starts. This can be installed alongside your current Privacy Browser app without causing problems. You can download the debug build from the following URL (expires in a few days):

https://owncloud.stoutner.com/index.php/s/KQrSrpSoMsI3I9M

Would you be willing to test it out and see if it improves the situation?

I tested the debug-build side by side with my standard PB installation. The results were always the same. The same issue as described in this thread applies to both.

What I found out after setting Dark Theme as Always On under Developers Options for Android's 9.
Perhaps this applies to all motog family phones.

- I noticed that after setting Dark Theme as Always On under Dev Options the issue as per described on this thread would go away. No more problems.
- With time, I would notice the issue make itself present again. I noticed a pattern, that around 9:40 and 21:40 is when the issue would manifest after being suppressed by setting Dark Theme always on under Dev options . The issue I came to find out is that around these two time bookmarks the Dark Theme set to Always On would reset back to the Automatic setting.

WHAT!

Yes. I tested these for 3 days and the pattern played on point. Could this be a bug introduced on the latest security patch for the motog family phones?

I say "the motog family phones" because of the correlation you pointed out between this issue and the bookmarks.

- AS Of Right Now --

I'm updated to PB v3.5.1

So far this one has shown no issues. I've turned off Dev Option given that the setting auto-resets back to the default of Automatic thus not solving the issue with PB for me.

Could a possible solution be having PB not use Android 9's Automatic theme at all. To either always be ON or OFF.

Anyways, thanks for PB. I hope this helps somehow.

V X wrote:

- I noticed that after setting Dark Theme as Always On under Dev Options the issue as per described on this thread would go away. No more problems.
- With time, I would notice the issue make itself present again. I noticed a pattern, that around 9:40 and 21:40 is when the issue would manifest after being suppressed by setting Dark Theme always on under Dev options . The issue I came to find out is that around these two time bookmarks the Dark Theme set to Always On would reset back to the Automatic setting.

WHAT!

Yes. I tested these for 3 days and the pattern played on point. Could this be a bug introduced on the latest security patch for the motog family phones?

I say "the motog family phones" because of the correlation you pointed out between this issue and the bookmarks.

That sounds like a really bad modification Motorola has made to Android. Significant enough not to purchase a Motorola phone in the future.

Could a possible solution be having PB not use Android 9's Automatic theme at all. To either always be ON or OFF.

When an app that uses the Day/Night theme starts in Android, it is always running the OS theme at the beginning. If the user has manually specified the Light or the Dark theme, and that theme is different than the OS them, the app starts briefly and then restarts into the opposite mode. This has the negative result of briefly flashing a white or a black screen during the startup process. Hence, the desirability of setting the theme at the OS level.

Thanks for the clarification regarding the Dark Theme setting under Dev Options.

And yes, regarding motog Dev settings auto-resetting back to the default. This is my first time experiencing anything like on a moto device. To my knowledge this didn't happened before. This is why I think that perhaps it is a bug that is either part of android 9 or was introduced during one of Mototorola's security patch updates.

I am not aware of this being a general problem with Android 9, but all my Android 9 testing was done on an emulator, which isn't always the same as a physical device.