Hello everyone! For those of you who own the Pixel Fold, it is very important to help the team out with beta testing new OS releases.

We generally need more help with testing new releases across all supported devices, but there are at least some people doing that for other supported devices. As The Pixel Fold is much more expensive and not as widely released (it was only released in a few countries), the amount of people using it and who are contributing by testing new releases and providing feedback are currently near zero.

If you own the Fold, I encourage you to help the team out by using the alpha/beta OS release channels and reporting your feedback in the discussion thread for the new release on here, or the testing channel on Matrix:

https://app.element.io/#/room/#testing:grapheneos.org

All releases go through the alpha, beta and finally stable channels. They're not separate releases, but rather the same release that's intended to make it to the stable channel. By using the alpha or beta channel, you're able to provide feedback so that any regressions can be fixed (and the release replaced with the fixed one) before the release gets to stable, where everyone will receive it. It is an extremely important part, and a great way to give back to the project!

Thank you all, and I hope to see some new faces in the testing room, both Pixel Fold as well as people using other devices.

    I have a Fold. It is on Graphene OS. I just switched to alpha ch., from stable.
    I noticed that there is no alpha release. So will it default to the current Beta release, or keep my current stable release?

      csrcsr which version of GrapheneOS are you on right now?

        csrcsr no. Set it to beta and it will update to latest beta.

          the last ten digests in 'Build Number' available under 'About phone' in Settings

          OK, running alpha. Found my first issue (also happens on the current stable build -07 26):

          I use an app by Honeywell called Total Comfort TCC for my TSTAT (com.honeywell.mobile.android.totalComfort). I know from previous installs that in tablet mode, it forces landscape. On the Pixel Fold, when using this app in unfolded mode, the app works fine and forces landscape as expected (which is OK as the Pixel Fold unfolded is landscape).

          However with the Pixel Fold folded, the app does not function properly and tries to force itself to landscape, but then immediately forces itself back to portrait and then back again in an endless loop that can't be stopped unless you unfold the Pixel.

          One caveat: this only happens if the "Display size and text" from android settings is set to the lowest level for display size. Obviously this is causing the folded mode to be more like phablet size or some DPI setting that the app freaks out about. But I am not sure why it insist on switching back and forth endlessly.

          I will mess with the DPI settings in developer mode to see what happens.

          GOS Build number: Tq3C.230805.001.A3.2023080800

          UPDATE on DPI settings test in dev options.

          With the display size in android settings set to the smallest level, the dp is dev options is 485.

          Setting the dp in "Smallest Width" to 534 or higher fixes the problem, and forces the app to behave like it's in tablet mode and does not flip back and forth.

          Setting the dp to 477 or lower also fixes the problem and allows the app to act like it is in phone mode and remains in portrait mode.

          So
          Less than 478 Ok
          478-533 Bad behavior
          Greater than 534 Ok

          UPDATE 2
          Changing the DPI didn't help. When unfolding the Pixel, the app misbehaves there instead.

          So basically the lowest level in "Display settings" for display size causes problems for this app (and perhaps others).

          I will echo what @scrampker said in this post:
          https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/6649-pixel-fold-issues

          2) Complete loss of partially-opened functionality. Cannot open to use as a tripod to see the outer screen. The moment you open the phone even a millimeter, the outer screen shuts off entirely. Stock behavior is to use accelerometer and hinge position logic to achieve this functionality.

          It would be nice to have this feature as it allows you to view the front, unfolded screen while using the phone itself as a stand.

            I noticed new feature in settings>display>colors for "saturated." This is on the alpha build for the fold.

            However the color changes do not persist on all screens. I think it only works on that menu screen.

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              • Post #14
              • Edited

              matchboxbananasynergy I definitely plan on (eventually/in the near future) purchasing the Pixel Fold to assistance with testing. Thank you for this information.

                Alpha build running great! I see the constant updates but no issues.

                I guess the stable is currently the same as alpha, because I just switched over to alpha and there's no update. Definitely missing the tripod capabilities of the stock OS.

                I have to commend the team for one huge thing though... I have almost no apps that refuse to work. The gapps combability layer must have seen major improvements since I re-installed gOS on my Pixel 6 Pro like 9 months ago. I think I had to set compatibility mode on 2-3 apps, but other than that, I was able to get WearOS, Pixel Watch, and well, everything working. This was a nightmare less than a year ago. Very pleased to see this. Hopefully Google doesn't pull the rug and ruin all this progress. I suppose they could at any moment.

                  One other big issue I've had with all my gOS devices is that my screen goes blank quite often. Like 5 times a day. Typically when I try to power on my device or use the fingerprint to wake. The fix on THIS device is to unfold, the re-fold. With the P6P this was not possible, so I had to reboot. Probably 4 times a week due to this issue. Seems to persist on other devices. Something in the codebase.

                  I don't know if this is a Fold issue in general or GOS, but the Fold is always warm/hot when using it. or charging it. So much so that the battery drain is high and charging is super slow. There is no specific app listed as draining the battery in the battery settings.

                  Are there any tweaks I can alleviate this situation? I already turned off 5g (LTE only) as I don't even have 5g on my plan. Does anyone know if this is a Fold hardware issue or GOS?

                    scrampker The gapps combability layer must have seen major improvements since I re-installed gOS on my Pixel 6 Pro like 9 months ago. I think I had to set compatibility mode on 2-3 apps

                    If an apps crashes with exploit protection compatibility mode disabled, that doesn't have anything to do with sandboxed Google Play Services on GrapheneOS.

                    Those apps have memory corruption bugs, which are picked up by hardened_malloc on GrapheneOS. If those apps no longer crash, then the app developers have fixed their memory corruption bugs: this isn't something fixed by or changed by GrapheneOS.

                    GrapheneOS provides the exploit protection compatibility mode for apps which have memory corruption bugs. Enabling the togggle switches from hardened_malloc to Android's standard allocator (Scudo) and will reduce address space size from 48 bit to Android's standard 39 bit.

                    For more information, please read: https://grapheneos.org/usage#bugs-uncovered-by-security-features

                      BUG:

                      I am running the stable version for the Fold. I was messing around in settings and turned on the color correction (settings > accessibility > computer and motion). Once you turn it on, its stuck on, even of you toggle it off. Only a restart fixes it.

                      csrcsr following up on battery drain... its mostly that the phone is warm\hot all the time. Even with the screen off, not being used. So much so that it regulates the charging such that the phone is only capable of charging if its turned off completely or if I use an ice pack pressed on the back.