Google Now, Trebuchet and Frustration
One minute you wake up and the next you're wondering WTF just happened here. That's what happened to me yesterday. Like most days I was going about my business not bothering anyone when Google (via Android on my phone) informed me there were some apps that were ready for updates. As I'm not one to have thousands of apps on my devices, and most of those being official "Google" apps, I went ahead and hit the button for "update all."
A little later in the day I found myself in a place with no cellphone coverage. The receptionist even asked me if my carrier was T-Mobile when I mentioned something about having no service to my friend. Apparently, TMo is the only service provider in the area who doesn't get service in that particular office.
Fast forward about 40 minutes and we leave. As soon as we step outside my phone informs me there is an OS (that's operating system to you laymen) update. A little excited about the fresh new goodies I'm about to receive I stave off my curiosity until I get home and have a (semi) stable wifi connection for the update to download.
I install the update. The phone reboots.
And then there's the problem.
At the top of my home screen, where the "Google" search bar used to be is a Google Now card telling me of someone I've never met before's birthday. I can't swipe it away, close it or otherwise remove the card from my home screen. If I swipe my screen to the right the card floats along with the new page. This goes on for as many screens as I have setup (4, if you're wondering). There is no conceivable way to remove the card or set it back to the search bar. If you tap the bar or long press on it, it open Google Now.
Friggin annoying.
I open Google Now, go to Settings looking for a setting to turn off "cards" on my home screen. There isn't one. So, I toggle all cards off. Great, the card floating at the top of my home screen is off, but it's still there asking me to setup Google Now. It's not gone, it's just ghosted - transparent, if you will.
I try Google Now ==> Menu ==> Customize == > and nothing. There's still no option to remove the card from my home screens.
I try going through Android Settings and nada.
I ask on social media and people suggest the same steps I've already taken. Gah!
The evening runs late so I go to bed. The next morning (this morning) I see that card at the top of my screen and it all comes crashing back in on me. And so, I search off to the internet. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to search the internet for Google Now settings or problems? I search on help forums for my devices make and model, on Google's own support forums, on the WWW in general and no answer presents itself. Finally, I see a post on a forum about how to bypass the card. It removes the Google functionality from the search bar, but it also removes the card from floating at the top of all my screens.
I should note, the card was relocatable ore removable with a long press, like other apps and widgets. There was literally no getting rid of it.
It turns out, if you long press on the home screen and open the themes and widgets customizer:
Other options were to install an Androidn launcher such as Google's own Now Launcher, Nova Launcher or whatever Launcher you want.
But, I didn't like that answer. Why should I have to install something to replace something I don't like? So, I kept looking. I finally read somewhere about a "trebucher" launcher built into the Cyanogen OS. Apparently, it has a tendency to fail in this exact manner and other people have been dealing with a lot longer than I have. What caused my error to show up? The new OS update or the Google app update?
And so, I follow the rabbit hole a little deeper. What's "trebuchet?" According to the internet, when Google rolled out their Now Launcher for Android Cyanogen wanted to compete. The OS managers over there rolled out their Trebuchet launcher to compete with Google Now. This is what was somehow activated, or a setting somewhere was changed to activate it, on my device.
To turn it off, or reset it, I needed to go to Android ==> Settings ==> Apps ==> All and find Trebuchet. To reset it, you "force stop" and then clear the caches (those are memory dumps, to you lay people). Or, if you want to remove it, you have to root the device first. I didn't want to root anything so I cleared the caches hoping it would "reboot" the Trebuchet Launcher and clear up the problem I'd been having since the update.
Instead, clearing the cache cleared all my personalized settings on my device. My apps were removed or replaced from the home screen; each app needed to be relaunched and re-setup. Agh! Why didn't anyone mention that? Not that customizing the device is such a problem, it's just a pain in the ass to remember all the little features and tweaks that I'd made over the past year.
Resigned to having to re-customize my entire device I decided to go ahead and take the entire affair one step further: I reset my phone to factory, wiping all data, music, photos and videos I'd saved over the past year. Sure, most of it was backed up to the cloud, but I'm certain not all of it was, so I may have lost a few things I didn't care enough about to back up.
And that's where I'm at now. While I was typing this out, my phone was resetting and updating 60 apps, or so.
I'll admit, I was mad at Google for something, apparently, Cyanogen OS did to my device. My anger wasn't directed at the right target and if anyone at Google reads this, I'm sorry about all the very frustrated feedback I sent.
[EDITED to Add]
I'm seriously thinking this might be my last Android phone. As Android become more and more fractured, keeping up with settings and profiles is becoming a pain in the ass. It's been hours - HOURS! - of going through and resetting things and I still can't get them the way that I had them before. Either earlier settings have moved or just flat out disappeared. Some that I know I've played with before have up and vanished without even the geniuses over at XDA-Developers or OnePlus.net forums knowing where they went. The going philosophy seems to be: just download an app that addresses those issues. I'm not entirely sure why I need to download an app every time I want to change a setting anymore. Want to rearrange the soft buttons? Download an app. Want to change the color of the capacitive buttons? Download an app. Want to have more control over the Notifications Bar/Drawer? Download an app. Download an app! Download an app! Download an app!
Where are the evil stepsisters running around screaming "Cinerdelli? Cinerdelli? Cinerdelli?"
[EDITED to Add]
Gah! After taking the phone back to stock, reloading all apps and going through an exhausting period of updating everything while trying to remember what settings I'd set nearly a year ago and throughout the past twelve months, the stupid Trebuchet Now bug came back. Gah!
So, until Cyanogen decides to fix this, I've decided to capitulate and download a Launcher. I played with Flow which I'd played with in the past but gave up on because it was filled with Twitter and only Twitter updates as well as not being able to have the Google Search widget on the home screen.. If I could set it to a Twitter list or a hashtag, that would be great, but since I can't and neither Instagram nor Feedly links came through, I went ahead and uninstalled the launcher.
Next, I downloaded the Action Launcher 3 for trial. I haven't really used it yet because the phone's battery was getting dangerously low and it needed to be put on the charger which is in the other room. It looks interesting, though. Kind of like Blackberry's BB10 OS. I think. I've only seen demos.
A little later in the day I found myself in a place with no cellphone coverage. The receptionist even asked me if my carrier was T-Mobile when I mentioned something about having no service to my friend. Apparently, TMo is the only service provider in the area who doesn't get service in that particular office.
Fast forward about 40 minutes and we leave. As soon as we step outside my phone informs me there is an OS (that's operating system to you laymen) update. A little excited about the fresh new goodies I'm about to receive I stave off my curiosity until I get home and have a (semi) stable wifi connection for the update to download.
I install the update. The phone reboots.
And then there's the problem.
At the top of my home screen, where the "Google" search bar used to be is a Google Now card telling me of someone I've never met before's birthday. I can't swipe it away, close it or otherwise remove the card from my home screen. If I swipe my screen to the right the card floats along with the new page. This goes on for as many screens as I have setup (4, if you're wondering). There is no conceivable way to remove the card or set it back to the search bar. If you tap the bar or long press on it, it open Google Now.
Friggin annoying.
I open Google Now, go to Settings looking for a setting to turn off "cards" on my home screen. There isn't one. So, I toggle all cards off. Great, the card floating at the top of my home screen is off, but it's still there asking me to setup Google Now. It's not gone, it's just ghosted - transparent, if you will.
I try Google Now ==> Menu ==> Customize == > and nothing. There's still no option to remove the card from my home screens.
I try going through Android Settings and nada.
I ask on social media and people suggest the same steps I've already taken. Gah!
The evening runs late so I go to bed. The next morning (this morning) I see that card at the top of my screen and it all comes crashing back in on me. And so, I search off to the internet. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to search the internet for Google Now settings or problems? I search on help forums for my devices make and model, on Google's own support forums, on the WWW in general and no answer presents itself. Finally, I see a post on a forum about how to bypass the card. It removes the Google functionality from the search bar, but it also removes the card from floating at the top of all my screens.
I should note, the card was relocatable ore removable with a long press, like other apps and widgets. There was literally no getting rid of it.
It turns out, if you long press on the home screen and open the themes and widgets customizer:
- Long press on the home screen to pull up wallpapers, themes and widgets options
- [2] Click the three dots, or swipe up (but that didn't work for me) and find option for Search Bar ON/OFF. I switched it from ON to OFF.
- Choose Widgets (at the top of the setting drawer) and find Google App which will then place another search bar at the top of your screen. It won't be a full featured search bar, but it'll work.
Other options were to install an Androidn launcher such as Google's own Now Launcher, Nova Launcher or whatever Launcher you want.
But, I didn't like that answer. Why should I have to install something to replace something I don't like? So, I kept looking. I finally read somewhere about a "trebucher" launcher built into the Cyanogen OS. Apparently, it has a tendency to fail in this exact manner and other people have been dealing with a lot longer than I have. What caused my error to show up? The new OS update or the Google app update?
And so, I follow the rabbit hole a little deeper. What's "trebuchet?" According to the internet, when Google rolled out their Now Launcher for Android Cyanogen wanted to compete. The OS managers over there rolled out their Trebuchet launcher to compete with Google Now. This is what was somehow activated, or a setting somewhere was changed to activate it, on my device.
To turn it off, or reset it, I needed to go to Android ==> Settings ==> Apps ==> All and find Trebuchet. To reset it, you "force stop" and then clear the caches (those are memory dumps, to you lay people). Or, if you want to remove it, you have to root the device first. I didn't want to root anything so I cleared the caches hoping it would "reboot" the Trebuchet Launcher and clear up the problem I'd been having since the update.
Instead, clearing the cache cleared all my personalized settings on my device. My apps were removed or replaced from the home screen; each app needed to be relaunched and re-setup. Agh! Why didn't anyone mention that? Not that customizing the device is such a problem, it's just a pain in the ass to remember all the little features and tweaks that I'd made over the past year.
Resigned to having to re-customize my entire device I decided to go ahead and take the entire affair one step further: I reset my phone to factory, wiping all data, music, photos and videos I'd saved over the past year. Sure, most of it was backed up to the cloud, but I'm certain not all of it was, so I may have lost a few things I didn't care enough about to back up.
And that's where I'm at now. While I was typing this out, my phone was resetting and updating 60 apps, or so.
I'll admit, I was mad at Google for something, apparently, Cyanogen OS did to my device. My anger wasn't directed at the right target and if anyone at Google reads this, I'm sorry about all the very frustrated feedback I sent.
[EDITED to Add]
I'm seriously thinking this might be my last Android phone. As Android become more and more fractured, keeping up with settings and profiles is becoming a pain in the ass. It's been hours - HOURS! - of going through and resetting things and I still can't get them the way that I had them before. Either earlier settings have moved or just flat out disappeared. Some that I know I've played with before have up and vanished without even the geniuses over at XDA-Developers or OnePlus.net forums knowing where they went. The going philosophy seems to be: just download an app that addresses those issues. I'm not entirely sure why I need to download an app every time I want to change a setting anymore. Want to rearrange the soft buttons? Download an app. Want to change the color of the capacitive buttons? Download an app. Want to have more control over the Notifications Bar/Drawer? Download an app. Download an app! Download an app! Download an app!
Where are the evil stepsisters running around screaming "Cinerdelli? Cinerdelli? Cinerdelli?"
[EDITED to Add]
Gah! After taking the phone back to stock, reloading all apps and going through an exhausting period of updating everything while trying to remember what settings I'd set nearly a year ago and throughout the past twelve months, the stupid Trebuchet Now bug came back. Gah!
So, until Cyanogen decides to fix this, I've decided to capitulate and download a Launcher. I played with Flow which I'd played with in the past but gave up on because it was filled with Twitter and only Twitter updates as well as not being able to have the Google Search widget on the home screen.. If I could set it to a Twitter list or a hashtag, that would be great, but since I can't and neither Instagram nor Feedly links came through, I went ahead and uninstalled the launcher.
Next, I downloaded the Action Launcher 3 for trial. I haven't really used it yet because the phone's battery was getting dangerously low and it needed to be put on the charger which is in the other room. It looks interesting, though. Kind of like Blackberry's BB10 OS. I think. I've only seen demos.
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