I like the way that GrapheneOS is evolving. I wanted to report a few issues on Github but was unable to create an account there because it's nonfunctional with my privacy tools.
Here is the list. Feel free to open Github issues on my behalf if nobody else has done so.
It may well be that some of these are upstream issues. I'm sure somebody here will know where to direct this feedback, in either case.
Ask me if you need more details.
- MTP takes too long to disconnect after large USB transfer.
a. Connect the phone to your laptop over USB.
b. Enable file transfer in the USB options that pop up in the drawer.
c. Copy gigabytes (how many?) of files to the laptop.
d. Sit idle for a while (how long?). I don't believe this is the result of improper USB power management, like suspending power to the bus. I think this is all on the phone side.
e. Try to eject the phone from the laptop.
Then I get a notification on the laptop that MTP is disconnecting. It does finally succeed but it takes literally minutes. This is long after all the files have settled, so this isn't a buffer flushing issue. It should take milliseconds.
- Getting DCIM (photo) folder contents (as in just filenames) can take minutes.
a. Connect the phone to the laptop over USB.
b. Enable file transfer in the USB options that pop up in the notifications on the phone.
c. Click through to the DCIM folder on the laptop. It should have hundreds if not thousands of photos or videos.
d. The file explorer on the laptop side just sits there spinning for minutes. Eventually, the photos do appear.
This transaction involves literal kilobytes of data. It should be done in trivial time. But I would imagine that the algorithm is grossly inefficient, resulting in some vast number of round trips over USB instead of consolidating the results in one efficient transaction.
- Wake-on-lift burns battery and serves no purpose.
a. Let the phone fall asleep on your desk.
b. Lift it forcefully.
c. Watch the screen wake up.
There is no advantage to this. I'm perfectly capable of pressing the power button to wake the phone. It just drains battery fruitlessly most of the time because the phone experiences random forces in transit (in your bag or pocket or whatever). GrapheneOS already seems to have severe battery inefficiency (like 3X drain rate relative to my stock Android with comparable battery capacity). This exacerbates the problem to no material user advantage. At minimum, it would be nice to know how to disable this.
- PIN code still necessitates fake fingerprint scan.
a. Set a PIN code on your phone. Disable fingerprint lock.
b. Wake the phone up.
c. It asks you to put your thumb on the screen before you can enter the PIN.
There is no point to this. It just increases phone access latency without either increasing security or protecting from accidental touches. (I can create plenty of havoc by accidentally touching the phone. For example, once my phone turned on the flashlight inside my bag and started overheating as a result. All because the drawer can be accessed without unlocking the phone. This redundant fingerprint contact requirement does not prevent that.) At minimum, it would be nice to know how to disable this.