Black bar bottom of google play store and amazon prime video

Villa said:
No!
It has been documented before in the old Forum.
Don't recall exactly which device(s). Most probably was the U1!
AFAICR it was fixed in a firmware update.

@nicolasschmidt's issue happened (he noticed it!) recently.
What caused it? We don't know?!
Click to expand...

When I saw it happening in the U9-H also, and so easily resolved, I had hope that I was doing something wrong when testing in the U1.

It is strange how it affects some apps but not others, Kodi and SmartyoutubeTV are not affected. And in the apps where it happens it doesn't interfere with the content playing, YouTube app plays fine in full screen for instance.

Ando so I installed the app that @nicolasschmidt mentioned in his post (Amazon Prime Video), and the first page of the app starts with a bar with its own icons, but when you ask for a preview of a movie, the bar is not there but the space is taken by the so said "black bar" that doesn't switch off, and the movie is not centered in hight... :cautious:
 
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Villa said:
No!
It has been documented before in the old Forum.
Don't recall exactly which device(s). Most probably was the U1!
AFAICR it was fixed in a firmware update.

@nicolasschmidt's issue happened (he noticed it!) recently.
What caused it? We don't know?!
Click to expand...

ArcticWolf said:
A good number of the forum regulars here are still running their trusty U1's & it's not a problem that I can recall being reported recently, (not that my memory is the best these days lol ;)). (Perhaps reported on the old/original MINIX forum?)
Click to expand...

Yup, I did mention in an earlier post that this is an issue that was possibly covered over on the old forum, I just couldn't remember any of the details either ;).

So far no, we don't seem to know what specifically has caused it but the OP reports it very suddenly began for him back in July. Best educated guess so far would be an app update from the Play Store that has had these undesirable effects. (The Play Store itself has recently received a face lift that may play a part in this too.)

It's probably app specific & it doesn't seem to affect all apps installed. Hopefully it's reversible or a future app update will correct it :).
 
CybeRider said:
When I saw it happening in the U9-H also, and so easily resolved, I had hope that I was doing something wrong when testing in the U1.

It is strange how it affects some apps but not others, Kodi and SmartyoutubeTV are not affected. And in the apps where it happens it doesn't interfere with the content playing, YouTube app plays fine in full screen for instance.

Ando so I installed the app that @nicolasschmidt mentioned in his post (Amazon Prime Video), and the first page of the app starts with a bar with it's own icons, but when you ask for a preview of the movie, the bar is not there but the space is taken by the so said back bar that doesn't switch off, and the movie is not centered in hight... :cautious:
Click to expand...

Sounds more like that's an issue with the Prime Video app itself too!!?!?!?! Hopefully another update will fix it :).
 
Yes it appeared suddenly right after a update of apps on the play store (many stock apps).

It is not a shadow, it is the solid background of the bottom menu (that’s why it’s resizing the app).

It is app specific. For me it is google play store and amazon prime video (others have reported it for other apps I don’t have)


My assumption is also that a futur app update might resolve that, I just don’t know which one!
 
nicolasschmidt said:
Yes it appeared suddenly right after a update of apps on the play store (many stock apps).

It is not a shadow, it is the solid background of the bottom menu (that’s why it’s resizing the app).

It is app specific. For me it is google play store and amazon prime video (others have reported it for other apps I don’t have)


My assumption is also that a futur app update might resolve that, I just don’t know which one!
Click to expand...

It is well understood it is a black bar, the size of the drop down icons bar. "Shadow" "glitch" "void" whatever the name, it should be possible to clear it out as it is with other machines. The fact is, when you open the Playstore in a regular smartphone you get a bar down there with several icons which are activated by the touchscreen. This bar is not visible in the Minix boxes, in the U9-H it is not visible at all (yet I could call that black stripe on and then take it off, as mentioned in above comments), in the U1 I am convinced this "ghost bar" (another name, but I take suggestions), is caused somehow by the absence of the touchscreen to activate the bar that shows in the smartphones and unfortunately there seems to be no way to get if off.

As far as I could see all the apps I have installed that produce the black bar in the U1, have a functional bar in that area when started on a smartphone.
 
I'm getting it in the Play Store on the U9-H now lol!!! I've changed nothing.

However, if I press and hold the menu button to bring the nav bar with icons up and then press and hold the menu button again, the black bar then disappears with the nav bar.

Obviously, the U1 may behave differently but try it and see. Clearly this isn't completely isolated to the U1.
 
nicolasschmidt said:
With the U1, it’s not disappearing even that way...
Click to expand...

Thought that would probably be the case with the U1 based on @CybeRider 's test results using both devices. (I see what you meant too, it's not a silhouette/ghost, it's a hard nav bar just without the actual icons). Was worth a try though. (Just for the sake of trying it, if you repeat bringing up & closing the nav bar 3 or 4 times using the MENU button, any changes then or still stuck with it? (I'm fairly sure I know what your answer will be, but give it one final go ;).)

If this issue is that much of a PITA for you, ultimately three choices....

1) Obviously, just put up with it & hope that a future update rectifies it. (However, it would be well worth reporting the issue to Google/Amazon respectively. The more people that report it the better the chances of a resolution, & possibly quicker too.)

2) Using the U1's app settings, roll the affected apps (or any apps you even suspect of being involved) back to the stock versions for the firmware you flashed to, (turn off auto updates for said affected apps in the Play Store beforehand). (Obvious downside there, the original versions are potentially quite old now which could come with their own different set of problems or lack of features respectively.)

3) You could source versions of the Play Store & Prime Video (& possibly the main Google app) APKs dated from just before the rough timeframe when this issue first began for you & try loading them instead. Try sorting the Play Store/main Google app first & see if that solves it for the others, if not, grab the additional APKs. (Another way of going at it could be to reflash the device again & as soon as the device actually does the initial Google sign in pull the ethernet cable before anything can start updating. Then go to the Play Store & disable auto updates for any app you even suspect as being in the loop for causing this problem. If successful, you could try enabling the auto update for them one at a time again until you recreate it & you'll then have a definitive answer. Again, one downside, no way to stop the Play Store app itself updating but a the APK for that alone might do the job too. (AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH LOL)

I know it's potentially a bit of messing around but you might get lucky & get your U1 back as it was pre-July :). (Unfortunately we're all stuck between a rock & a hard place with issues like this!! Obviously we all want (most) of our apps up to date for bugs fixes, security, etc., etc. However, sometimes those updates can have highly undesirable consequences & knock on effects with other apps too, or cause even more problems than they ever resolved, (case in point :( ). (Google completely ruined a couple of older 10" tabs I used to use, (the buggers).)
 
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