How to manage autostart

schweizer

In AOSP there is no feature for the user to control which apps autostart. Some OS provide an interface for this but GOS does not. The app developers decide themselves if their apps autostart.

But the programmer of my SIP client forgot to set this flag so I have to start it manually all the time. And some other apps that Ineed rarely do autostart and then drain my battery in the background.

There are only few open source apps to control this behaviour. One is autostart but it is very outdated. A newer one is Brevent but this required ADB so basically rooting. Which I do not want.

How do you handle this problem? Is there an equivalent to autoexec.bat in Android?

How can I list the apps that autostart?

de0u

schweizer I wonder if it might be productive to ask the author of the SIP client to declare the start-at-boot flag. That flag is the Android equivalent of AUTOEXEC.BAT, which is not a scalable approach.

23Sha-ger

schweizer
adb is not rooting. Actually it's the only way to grant or deny an app the BOOT_COMPLETED broadcast.

adb shell appops set <package_name> BOOT_COMPLETED

Will prevent an app from autostart.
There is no way to grant it if it's not in the app manifest.

Send me the app github I can submit a PR to ask for it.
This is quite simple, just an intent update i.e.:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED" />

Ilgar

schweizer
if I understand it correctly disallow background battery usage prevents app from autostart and also you can disable/enable apps which you use rarely.

regarding adb I think there's high risk to compromise security.

schweizer

de0u I did already but they said it's not possible for them. i guess too expensive to hire a dev.

Other than that it can't be an equivalent to autoexec.bat because that one was editable by the user.

Am I really alone with this problem?

schweizer

23Sha-ger I am not sure if I got you right. The adb command will prevent the app from autostart?

I tried with an app that autostarts without neccessity but I get:
>adb shell appops set com.removed.for.privacy BOOT_COMPLETED Error: Unknown operation string: BOOT_COMPLETED

The apps I am struggling with are proprietary. Did I get you correctly that editing the app manifest requires decompiling and recompiling the .apk? I guess that would be too much for me.

schweizer

Ilgar if I understand it correctly disallow background battery usage prevents app from autostart

You did not get it. The disallow background toggle does not prevent autostart. Each app declares itself whether it autostarts. The user has nothing to say.

Ilgar you can disable/enable apps which you use rarely.

This is very poor usability. I do that for apps that I need twice a year but not for apps that I use every second day. It takes ways too many taps to disable and enable. And it is not an answer to my question.

I just did a test. Under developer options you can show the list of active services. The app that shows a notification after each (re)start is not in the list of active services. So the disallow background usage may prevent continuous running in the bakground but not the initial start.

Ilgar

schweizer You did not get it. The disallow background toggle does not prevent autostart. Each app declares itself whether it autostarts. The user has nothing to say.

so you're saying that with battery usage restricted it still can operate? auto start is a thing I noticed also, a long time ago, that's why I used to disable/enable apps

This is very poor usability

no, it's not, I put shortcut to all apps to dock, so all I need is to scroll through list, choose an app and enable it, disable in app drawer is easier.

patienttruth99

I appreciate seeing these adb commands as there are some apps that I'd prefer not start.

That said, on the other hand I use Tasker to launch a couple apps 30 seconds or so after boot. Works pretty well.

Joe-FastFeet

I support the request to provide the user with the ability to independently determine the list of autorun applications.