david 921 Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 (edited) I am unable to set the default app to view images. Every app that can open an image pops up the dialog to ask which app to use and whether just once or always, but it won't remember "always". If I go into the defaults in settings, it does not show any app set as the default for images. If I go into the system settings for the app I have selected to always open images, it does show that it has been set as the default for certain actions, but won't say which, and only allows clearing them. Am I alone here? Can anyone else set the default app to always view images? UPDATE: See below for the cause. Edited February 24, 2020 by david Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hook 2,945 Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 I'm able to set a default app-- that is, after I selected always for my gallery app, tapping any photo in my file manager launched the photo in the gallery app without asking again. You are right, photo app doesn't appear in the list of default apps, but if you go to my photo app under settings app, it is listed as the photo app that opens by default and I can revoke the default status there. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
david 921 Posted February 23, 2020 Author Share Posted February 23, 2020 Would you be able to post some screenshot of the screens? I think we are looking in the same places, but mine is acting differently. Also, which file manager and which gallery app? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
david 921 Posted February 23, 2020 Author Share Posted February 23, 2020 I retested, and with Solid Explorer, it works. With Total Commander, it asks every time. With X-Plore, it uses its internal viewer. With the default camera app, it asks every time (and when I select my gallery app, and it opens, somehow does use the gallery app, but still shows in the app screen that I am in the camera app). With the pocophone gcam app, it uses its own internal viewer. The gallery app I am using is: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.photosgo I did try picking another app to use always, but same results. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hook 2,945 Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 This is the gallery app I use: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simplemobiletools.gallery.pro I don't use any of your file managers. I mostly use Explorer (The non-root version of Root Explorer, which I use whn I'm rooted). If a file exploer has it's own internal viewer operating as a gallery, it may not make the external call to Android. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
david 921 Posted February 23, 2020 Author Share Posted February 23, 2020 38 minutes ago, Hook said: This is the gallery app I use: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simplemobiletools.gallery.pro I don't use any of your file managers. I mostly use Explorer (The non-root version of Root Explorer, which I use whn I'm rooted). If a file exploer has it's own internal viewer operating as a gallery, it may not make the external call to Android. I installed Explorer and got the same result. I can't try the gallery app, because it is pay. Can you try the one I am using? I bet it will work for you. Something is messed up on my phone. I am guessing some other setting or app is causing this. If anyone else has the issue, we might be able to find the root cause together, by comparing apps/settings. It seems odd that the image viewer doesn't show in the defaults screen. That might be part of the puzzle, unless that is how Android normally operates. I will check on a Pixel 1, running Android 10, to see if it shows the image viewing app in the defaults screen. It is the camera app that was the biggest issue. Now that I have the gcam app installed, and it has its own internal viewer, it isn't as bad. That one does go to Google photos when you tell it to display all photos. I would rather it go to whatever gallery app I want to use, but I can't find how to customize that. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hook 2,945 Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 30 minutes ago, david said: I installed Explorer and got the same result. I can't try the gallery app, because it is pay. Can you try the one I am using? I bet it will work for you. Something is messed up on my phone. I am guessing some other setting or app is causing this. If anyone else has the issue, we might be able to find the root cause together, by comparing apps/settings. It seems odd that the image viewer doesn't show in the defaults screen. That might be part of the puzzle, unless that is how Android normally operates. I will check on a Pixel 1, running Android 10, to see if it shows the image viewing app in the defaults screen. It is the camera app that was the biggest issue. Now that I have the gcam app installed, and it has its own internal viewer, it isn't as bad. That one does go to Google photos when you tell it to display all photos. I would rather it go to whatever gallery app I want to use, but I can't find how to customize that. Yes, it works with your gallery app. When I cleared the default on my app, the next time I tapped a photo in Exploer it gave me the dialog to chose an app. I chose yours (if the app isn't top of the list, it doesn't let you choose once or always). I closed your gallery app and tapped a photo in explorer again. The dialog came up again with Gallery Go at the top and I tapped "Always". After that, tapping on a photo in explorer always launches the Gallery Go app. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
david 921 Posted February 24, 2020 Author Share Posted February 24, 2020 11 hours ago, Hook said: Yes, it works with your gallery app. When I cleared the default on my app, the next time I tapped a photo in Exploer it gave me the dialog to chose an app. I chose yours (if the app isn't top of the list, it doesn't let you choose once or always). I closed your gallery app and tapped a photo in explorer again. The dialog came up again with Gallery Go at the top and I tapped "Always". After that, tapping on a photo in explorer always launches the Gallery Go app. Weird. It worked properly in the Pixel 1 that I tested too. I will test some more tomorrow to see if I can get it working on the Pro1. Thanks for testing it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
david 921 Posted February 24, 2020 Author Share Posted February 24, 2020 I have determined that some other app is making this fail on my phone. I ran the Explorer app that you are using and told it to always use Gallery Pro, but it would still ask every time. I then used Titanium Backup to batch freeze all my apps (hundreds) except for Gallery Pro, Titantium and system apps. When I opened an image in Explorer, it went right into a viewer. I thought it was using an internal viewer at first, but then I went into Gallery Pro's system settings and cleared the defaults. It then asked which app to use when opening an image. So it is being set, but not using it due to some other app's interference. I will have to freeze half the apps at a time until I narrow it down. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
david 921 Posted February 24, 2020 Author Share Posted February 24, 2020 (edited) I have no idea why this app would cause this to fail, but this is the guilty app: https://llamalab.com/timesheet/ It used to be on the Play Store, but is no longer there. I uninstalled the version I had and reinstalled from their website and it caused the same issue. I don't think I ever actively used the app, so no big loss. But out of hundreds of apps, that is the last one I would expect to mess up the default image viewer. 🙂 UPDATE: I should mention, this app did not show up as having any running background services when I looked in developer options in Android. It also doesn't require, or even support, root access. Edited February 24, 2020 by david 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hook 2,945 Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 4 minutes ago, david said: I have no idea why this app would cause this to fail, but this is the guilty app: https://llamalab.com/timesheet/ It used to be on the Play Store, but is no longer there. I uninstalled the version I had and reinstalled from their website and it caused the same issue. I don't think I ever actively used the app, so no big loss. But out of hundreds of apps, that is the last one I would expect to mess up the default image viewer. 🙂 That is always the risk of having many apps (lol, more than 3 I sometimes think). I remember back when I was using Palm PDAs. When things went screwy, the best, but most painful, approach was to hard reset and then install one app (they were called programs back then 😉), test, install another app, test and so forth until you found the culprit. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
david 921 Posted February 24, 2020 Author Share Posted February 24, 2020 1 minute ago, Hook said: That is always the risk of having many apps (lol, more than 3 I sometimes think). I remember back when I was using Palm PDAs. When things went screwy, the best, but most painful, approach was to hard reset and then install one app (they were called programs back then 😉), test, install another app, test and so forth until you found the culprit. At least with the help of Titanium, it allowed me to do batch freezing and unfreezing with filters I set up, and I did half at a time, so it only took several attempts to find it. I refuse to call Windows applications "apps". They are programs or applications. 🙂 I have been meaning to organize my apps for a while now. I'll probably end up uninstalling some that I feel I will never use, but if there is a chance I might use it, I'll keep it around... "just in case", and then never remember that I have the app. 🙂 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
david 921 Posted February 24, 2020 Author Share Posted February 24, 2020 I also found out that out of X-Plore (long press, Open With), Solid Explorer, Total Commander and Explorer (the one @Hook uses), only Explorer opens Gallery Go in the way it would be opened if you opened Gallery Go and opened an image. The other 3 open it in some sort of restricted mode, where you can share, but the other editing functions aren't available. Some sort of read-only mode. That may be due to an android change that the others haven't caught up with yet, or they did it on purpose. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hook 2,945 Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 (edited) I love Explorer (and Root Explorer). It isn't like most file managers and on first glance appears overly simple, but once you learn it's use of tabs and using hold everywhere to get options, it turns out to be very powerful. I usually have 3 tabs open, one for internal storage, one for external and one for Dropbox which looks just like another drive. Edited February 24, 2020 by Hook 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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