Ok, so here's what I did. I was hungry and annoyed about a previous project (buying Google Play gift card with cryptos to pay for ChatGPT with fake google account, Google needed to "verify" my purchase of the gift cards...). Anyway, I had installed ChatGPT in my main User Profile, but under the work profile in that User Profile which I created with Shelter. I was holding my baby and talking to my wife while mindlessly going through Shelter and setting all the apps to autofreeze when I hit the widget on the home screen (because I hate invasive apps like everyone else here). Well, then I had the bright idea to make it show all the system apps in the work profile and then set those to freeze as well. I did most of them, and then I tested it. My phone froze. The display now blinks my wallpaper for half a second then goes black for two seconds and does this over and over.

Here's what I have done to try and remedy it:

I've tried getting in with ADB. I cannot get into the phone. I do not think I have USB debugging enabled.

I have tried Safe Mode, it still just blinks even though I can see Safe Mode at the bottom when it blinks.

I have flashed the latest OTA update to try and reset some of the system settings. The update was successful but after reboot, it still just blinks the screen. No change.

I haven't made a backup recently, so I'm really hoping I can find a solution. Obviously I still know my PIN, and the phone itself is in good shape (Pixel 8 Pro). Any comments saying I'm an idiot are welcome as long as you also pair it with a potential solution besides factory reset. Thank you for any and all help. I love GrapheneOS, even if the security is so airtight I can't get into my phone when I do something dumb.

  • de0u replied to this.

    iraqi_sunburn Wow.

    I have never used a work profile, thus never used Shelter. Is "autofreeze when I hit the widget" a Shelter feature? If so:

    1. it might (or might not) be helpful to ask the Shelter author for advice.
    2. It might be productive (in a general sense) to file a request that the Shelter app to refuse to "autofreeze" any system apps, since that is (as empirically determined) a recipe for disaster.

        de0u Yeah, Shelter has the widget and you preset the apps to autofreeze upon hitting the widget within the Shelter app. To be fair it does warn you when you show the system files that messing with them may cause issues. I just thought the issues would be for the work profile only, which I was going to delete anyway later since I was just doing a test run of this anonymous ChatGPT setup idea.

        I may report that to Shelter, but it's a pretty popular app, I doubt they're going to help in time for me to get my phone working (I need it fixed ASAP and I'm on the verge of factory resetting). I do have a habit of finding glitches and rekking my machines before having to do full resets, so maybe I should catalog them and report to the appropriate folks its out there for others not to to do haha

        • de0u replied to this.

            iraqi_sunburn To be fair [Shelter] does warn you when you show the system files that messing with them may cause issues. [...] I do have a habit of finding glitches and rekking my machines before having to do full resets [...]

            Hmmm. That might argue for a policy against proceeding past a warning unless one has an up-to-date backup.

                Would booting into safe mode be of any use ? You cab delete apps in safe mode .

                  Skyway I tried, but it was still flashing and I was unable to do anything, even though it said safe mode at the bottom. I ended up resetting the phone :/ but now I am making regular backups using SeedVault > local storage + Synching to my computer then compress to tarball and upload to Proton drive.

                  Thinking about making a script to automate this using Termux, but haven't taken the time to do it yet.