Hail Mary at making Graphene work

Xplet1veDeleted

otterfoghornrainfall Well, yeah, specifically this issue for now, yes, and I'll try what you suggested and hopefully it works.
So yeah, those 3 apps, but those are just the 3 apps that didn't work today, I assume there will be more stuff that I'll struggle with later. So yeah, I'm just generally venting a feeling that this might be less than ideal for me. It's less frustration and more that I have concerns that configuring this thing will continue to be a forever struggle down the road, and that I might come across some major impasse at a critical time and not have any easy recourse to solve it and be screwed. It's not that EVERYTHING has been a problem, at first my experience setting up graphene was fairly breezy but lately these handful of things i need to configure specifically for ease of use regarding international travel/ex pat living have been giving me fits, and I don't have unlimited time to work it all out.
If I were either much more skilled with tech or traveled much less then GOS might work better for me, but it seems that both those things combined has the potential to make life very difficult for me down the road. I'm trying to learn and get better with it all, but realistically I don't think I can get there before I leave again. I'll try a few more things, hopefully I can get some stuff working...but I might do that and still wind up having to bail on this project before it's all said and done.
I guess I just wish there was like, a middle ground solution for people like me who would like to take more ownership over our privacy but just don't currently have the skillset to pull off graphene immediately, I feel the learning curve here is very steep for someone not trained in tech and it's been too big a jump to go straight from iOS to this.

DeletedUser713

Xplet1veDeleted a middle ground solution for people like me who would like to take more ownership over our privacy but just don't currently have the skillset to pull off graphene immediately

That's iOS.

thmf

Xplet1veDeleted I'll give it a shot

Xplet1veDeleted But I do take offense that I won't implement advice that others have offered

Xplet1veDeleted I'll try what you suggested and hopefully it works

Xplet1veDeleted I'll try some of the suggested fixes people posted here

Xplet1veDeleted I'll try some of the fixes people have suggested here and we'll see what happens

Xplet1veDeleted I definitely didn't try any of that...

I don't know how much longer the current wall of text should be for this to happen, but man just tap the fking toggle. It's really that easy. Open app settings -> tap the exploit compatibility toggle -> done.

Xplet1veDeleted

DeletedUser713 Is it, though? A middleground, for people who want to take more more ownership over their digital experience? My experience with Apple is that you don't really own your data they do and will essentially hold you hostage if you try to leave their ecosystem, and you can't really do a whole lot to learn stuff and better your position because they won't allow you to really do much of anything and nothing outside their walled garden works on their platform.

DeletedUser713

Xplet1veDeleted Is it, though? A middleground, for people who want to take more more ownership over their digital experience? My experience with Apple is that you don't really own your data they do and will essentially hold you hostage if you try to leave their ecosystem, and you can't really do a whole lot to learn stuff and better your position because they won't allow you to really do much of anything and nothing outside their walled garden works on their platform.

Sorry, I'm really not trying to be rude, but that is ideological horse s***.
How exactly does Apple "own your data"? Are we talking about iCloud? Or what data are we speaking about here?
Nobody will "hold you hostage". That is a mental barrier in your head created by convenience. Yeah, ofc you will have to export some of it manually. But that goes for any other platform. Try switching from Linux to Windows or Mac, do they also hold you hostage because you can't transfer over everything seamlessly?
"learn stuff and better your position" - you can better your position and you can do quite a lot on iOS.
Nobody forces you to use Safari. Nobody forces you to use iCloud Keychain. Or Apple Mail. Or Maps. Or iMessage. Or Apple Music. Or even their shitty keyboard. Not even Apple Pay in some regions (and spreading). In fact, you can uninstall most of the bundled apps and never use them again. And ofc, some stuff like iCloud Backups can't be entirely replaced with 3rd party solutions. Different question then: what exactly is the alternative on Android? What is the alternative on GrapheneOS? There is none. Because it never existed in the first place.
"nothing outside their walled garden works on their platform", does it now? So how come my non-Apple monitor and keyboard (which I'm using right now) and my non-Apple headphones somehow connect to my Mac?? How can I AirPlay to my Samsung TV? How come that my iPhone has Bitwarden and Brave and Nextcloud running? Naturally, everything works. It just doesn't work like the Apple equivalent - but that's the whole point. So many people are so butthurt that other services or devices can't replicate Apple's features 1:1 that they start bashing Apple for all the wrong reasons.

There's a good reason, why the GrapheneOS team is recommending iOS as the next best alternative to GOS: it has the highest security out of all consumer grade products OOB. You don't need to flash an OS, you don't need to tinker, you don't even need to do any research, because it's spoon-fed by the OS itself. Apple already offers a tremendous amount of features (security wise) that most Android phones can't even dream about. And Apple's platforms certainly don't do any of what you've been speculating about.

Xplet1veDeleted

DeletedUser713 Haha damn OK take it easy bro, sorry didn't know there were so many iOS stans on the Graphene forum, no offense intended with my apple bashing!
I used to like them, I really did, I was an iphone guy for 12 years and was relatively happy for most of them, but the much lauded Apple user experience has really dipped in quality the last couple years, has been my personal lived reality at least and when my last one broke I just really didn't want to shell out $1k+ for another one. Can you blame me? I got tired of constantly having to spend hours at a time dealing with apple tech support (which I didn't used to have to do) only to be told "oh we don't know what's wrong, you'll have to take it to an apple store to get it fixed in person" and the nearest apple store is over 45 minutes away so the problems, they did start 'a pilin'. And sure, all the hand-holding and idiot proofing is great so long as it all works, but when the tech allegedly sets you all up for success and you wind up losing half your shit anyway because apparently it never synced to icloud properly in the first place for reasons nobody in the support division seems to completely understand, such a collection of experiences tends to sour one's opinion on the whole operation a bit.
Oh, and exporting my remaining data out of icloud wasn't like, a bit of a trivial inconvenience, it took literally days to do even with an apple support guy guiding me the whole time because THEY DON'T FUCKING KNOW HOW TO DO ANYTHING EITHER! I'm not even mad, I'm just like, incredulous at how bad they've gotten the last few years, it's almost kind of funny at this point...The Great Enshitification of the World is all-encompassing apparently.

So yeah, as a disillusioned former set-it-and-forget-it apple guy I thought it would be cool to like, learn how to do some stuff myself and take some responsibility so I didn't have to deal with all that nonsense anymore. So sue me I guess if GOS weren't the right choice for my needs but don't be all mad at me for having a hard time with it as a non tech guy trying a new thing! The learning curve is really steep, ya'll should actually be super proud of me for even giving it an honest go - most people I know just complain and do nothing, at least I'm complaining because I'm trying something out and it's been a giant pain in my ass from day one.

And everything would actually even be totally fine if this were my regular lifestyle, it works well enough for the moment and I do kind of like putzing around trying to figure it out. But I'm leaving soon for a part of the world where most people don't even own a personal computer, they use their smart phones for EVERYTHING and I still run into plenty of challenges sometimes even with an American-based iphone + local e-sim which is about as seamless as it can get. Just coming to the realization that in such a scenario and even after months of tinkering I'm likely going to be in over my head as a virgin graphene user who still can't get his credit card app to launch after almost 2 weeks of troubleshooting. Can't just do everything from a laptop browser there; you NEED apps, commercial ones, many of which apparently fight with GOS, and may or may not be made to work eventually with some indeterminate amount of additional effort - effort which I may not wish to expend as ex pat life in and of itself already presents its own unique challenges, additional ones are preferably avoided when possible. These are not woe-is-me complaints, these just some facts I'm learning and am subsequently adjusting myself to.

So whatever, I got a few more weeks to mess around, I'll try some of the suggested fixes people posted here assuming I can figure out how to execute properly (big if) and if I can solve it all before I leave cool, if not I'll suck it up and figure out which of the other two platforms sucks the least...I'm surrounded by bad and worse options, such is life as a tech consumer in 2026. The horrors persist yet so do I.

CGG

Dude, everyone here read your complaint. No body is forcing you to use GOS. So to finish this useless discussion install android on you p9a or buy an IPhone. Problem solved.
Everybody here who uses gos are happy using it. Including me. So if you cannot accomplish what you need with the system just change it.

If there isn't a solution for you, solved it is already.

Sorry for the wrong marking @DeletedUser713. My mistake

CGG

And particularly for me today GOS is the best OS available. I have px9proxl and 2 px10 fold all with gos. I left all models of iPhone until 16 to use graphene. Without this project I prefer use no mobile phone. All my apps works, everything works perfectly. I would install gos even at my microwave, washing machine, etc if possible.

Xplet1veDeleted

CGG I mean that's awesome for you that you're in a position where you can abandon your smart phone in lieu of using anything other than graphene. That's not my reality though, my lifestyle won't allow it. I certainly didn't ask for the world to be this way, I personally would love to go back to the days of not needing a damn smart phone for anything, the 90s were effin' grand.

DohnJoe

Xplet1veDeleted I can't sit around trying every single possible workaround indefinitely

I am not sure about what you are trying to achieve, but I can assure you that my experience has been very different, and luckily less frustrating.

I agree that sometimes you need to flag some options to make things work (it's usually a couple of taps once you learnt the system), but very rarely you can't use an app because "it's broken" or "it doesn't work". I think that with a little bit of patience you can have your setup running correctly, also because once you set your apps, usually you don't need to touch them anymore.

When you first migrated from iOS to Android you had to understand how to use a different operating system.
Now that you are migrating from Android to GOS, you need to understand how to use another different operating system :)

Just give yourself time and try your best.
If you think it's too much of a burden, as already pointed out, you can flash back your stock Android OS, or go back to iOS, which you already know.

If you are trying to achieve better privacy, keep in mind that you still need to change some of your habits, no matter what OS you are using, and this includes also GOS.

I suggest you to re-read this thread because you already received very good advices.
Good luck

Xplet1veDeleted

DohnJoe Man, I certainly hope so, I'll try some of the fixes people have suggested here and we'll see what happens. I'm sure there's some way to do it, I just get very dismayed and discouraged sometimes because I'll often try something someone suggests but then find that there's like 10 additional steps I need to do first to make THAT one work and I often don't know how to do those either.

I never actually had an android before, I went straight from iOS to this and it's been a rough transition from hardly having to do anything to now having to do literally EVERYTHING. Doing it this way wasn't my first choice; I wanted to make the switch eventually after doing more research and preferably while still having a functional iphone but the thing shit the bed last december and I was on medical leave from work a few months, so I figured it was now or never to try out the graphene project.

I mean granted I've learned a lot and I'm sure with time I could learn enough to get it to do what i need it to do. It's just been taking a lot longer to figure out than I anticipated and I may just not be able to get it over the hump in the time i've allotted for myself. And the fact that I finally got a dummy google account operating and still nothing worked was a pretty big curveball.
Oh well, I'll just...keep at it till the clock winds down, I guess.

userofgos

@Xplet1veDeleted Have you tried any of the following? Which was linked to here: Novalissoide

Possible workaround solutions

Native code debugging
Allow the app to make use of native code debugging. Launch app.
If unsuccessful, proceed to step 2.

Settings ➔ Apps ➔ App in question ➔ Exploit protection ➔ Native code debugging

Exploit protection compatibility mode
Enable the per-app exploit protection compatibility mode. Launch app.
If unsuccessful, proceed to step 3 for testing only.

Settings ➔ Apps ➔ App in question ➔ Exploit protection ➔ Exploit protection compatibility mode

Turning on the exploit protection compatibility toggle reduces system security but may allow the application to run without crashing. The app crashed because GrapheneOS detected a memory corruption bug that may be exploitable by an attacker.

Secure app spawning
3.1 - Temporarily disable secure app spawning.

Settings ➔ Security & privacy ➔ Exploit protection ➔ Secure app spawning

3.2 - Disable the exploit protection compatibility mode as described in step 2.

3.3 - Restart device. Launch app to see if this GrapheneOS feature caused the compatibility issue. The app may be refusing to run if it detects a different spawning mechanism.

Significant security loss and directly affecting some privacy using Zygote

Disabling exec-based spawning reverts to using the traditional Zygote spawning model AOSP's app processes
Spawned as a clone of the Zygote
Each app process has the same random secrets for ASLR, SSP, memory tagging, pointer authentication, setjmp canaries, and heap randomization
Half of the userspace is made of app processes
Applies across all profiles
App in profile A and profile B have same random values, which they can see

3.4 - Revert to secure spawning by enabling it again and restart device.
See step 3.1 above.

Xplet1veDeleted

userofgos Nope, I definitely didn't try any of that...I don't know what a lot to those words mean, so it's probably going to take another week or of research to figure out how to implement that stuff. But I'll do my best and give it a go if I can.

userofgos

Xplet1veDeleted Nope, I definitely didn't try any of that...I don't know what a lot to those words mean

Well therein lies the problem. If one asks for help but doesn't follow the advice, suggestions, or solutions - no one can help you. I get that the technical terms, functions, and features can be hard to understand, but they are important to know and have some grasp of. :)

My suggestion to you would be to just enable Exploit Protection Compatibility Mode (which turns off all the features mentioned here userofgos ) for the apps that you're having issues with, see if they work after that.

You can do this by tapping and holding the app icon (example Grab) > Selecting App Info > scroll down to Exploit Protection Compatibility Mode > toggle ON

If you don't want to use that blanket method where it disables all exploit protections for that app, then you move on the changing them individuallly as noted here userofgos

subwoofer

This all depends on your priorities, to me being able to control storage scopes and network permissions per app is something I am extremely unwilling to give up now that I have it. It's not just that though overall the grapheneos experience is the best experience I've had on any phone and I now take the view that the few apps that don't work properly are not worthy of my patronage. I'm a grapheneos snob.

DeletedUser713

Xplet1veDeleted none of what you've just written has anything to do with what you've written before, congratulations. At first it was the "evil ecosystem" and "holding us hostage" and now it's just a case of idiot Apple support rep. I don't even know if you are trying to solve your problem or are wasting everyone's time on here, because it seems like the latter. And since GrapheneOS doesn't have any support reps, we (the forum members) take that place now. Seeing a pattern here.

Novalissoide

Xplet1veDeleted Nope, I definitely didn't try any of that...I don't know what a lot to those words mean, so it's probably going to take another week or of research to figure out

I see, so you've been spending all this time, yours and ours, all these meters of writing stuff and you've not gotten to the very first troubleshooting steps? Exploit protection compatibility mode?
https://imgur.com/a/yAlNQZO

edent

Xplet1veDeleted FWIW, I was able to use Grab in Thailand without any issues in December.
8 Pro, GrapheneOS, Play installed, Grab on main profile.
I ordered food, tracked taxis, and all the other normal things.

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