UI Droid and shield 2019 weird behaviour

[three6zerocool]

Hope I am in right forum now?

Continuing thread from another forum....

I have been using UIDroid  since the original version, on two shield devices.
Went to use it last night on my 2019 Shield, and it opens up as per normal, but I cannot select anything, and cannot exit out of the application.
(have to force close the app)

I then discovered the latest version, so tried upgrading, only to discover that it does the same thing.
Curiously, UIdroid still works fine on the older 2017 Shield in my bedroom.

I installed the app onto both shields, and I believe that version was from March 2022, and was version 1.6x

I then completely nuked the uidroid app from my 2019 shield and rebooted.
I then installed the V2 app from the first post in the UIdroid forum.

Instead of a menu with everything non- selectable, I just get black screen, and can not access the settings menu.
After repeated app launches, I managed to get it to display the settings screen, and then manually entered my NextPVRserver details.
Still just get black screen.

I then installed an old version of UIdroid (1.44 or something), and it just worked as normal.
I then tried upgrading it to the latest V2 version apk.
The same thig happened, and the menu just becomes unelectable, and you have to force close the app.

Currently I seem to have completely screwed things on the shield 2019, and  no version of UIDroid will work after installing anymore.
Tried clearing the cache, killing all data for the app. All unsuccessful.

Kodi nextpvr addon working fine, and likewise any other 3rd party IPTV app that can use m3u from NextPVR.

It's just UIdroid that no longer works on my 2019 Shield.

I am thinking it is a permissions issue, as when I go into the shields apps, and locate the app and select it, and then clear cache and data.... both do not change.
(ie. both would normally go to 0)

So, in the interim, I have had to nuke the app, and just using Kodi now until I find what is causing the behavior.

(grin)  Uidroid on my Fire Cube devices work fine, but have not upgraded them to the latest version.
I swapped back to using Shield devices, as I have micro stutter issues with Fire Cube 3rd gen, and despite marathon efforts, I can not resolve it.
So, shield 2019 has no micro stutter, but now has no UIdroid either.

Not complaining, just making an observation, and posting to see if it could be an Nvidia Shield 2019 update that causes this behavior.
I have not completely powered down the device, so that might be the next thing I try, and then install the same version of UIdroid that is on the 2017 shield.

[mvallevand]

Thanks for the repost.

As I posted earlier I am pretty sure the Shield works with V2 since VCR58 tests using it.

I would install the new mediax version and then in settings shutdown the app and clear all the data from the app. Then start it up and send NextPVR logs. With no cached data it should go to the settings screen.

[VCR58]

I use uidroid 2.1.4 on my 2019 NVShield Pro all the time. Haven't seen any of these issues.

My Shield Android TV SW version is 8.2.3.

You might also check to see how much storage you have left on the NVShield. Could be you are running out of space. Just a suggestion.

[three6zerocool]

Update 2:   'Resolved'

I messed around for a long time, and no matter what, I could not get Ui Droid 'any version' to work.
(just an unresponsive menu, and needing to force close the app)

My shield had been doing a few weird things, so I decided to Factory Reset it.

After that, I installed the 2.14 UiDroid MediaX version, and it worked perfect first time, and found my NextPVR server.
Whew, so that's good.  

Somehow my shield got messed up enough to cause that mayhem.

[mvallevand]

Thanks for sharing and again for keeping the issue linked with uidroid.

The factory reset won't do the system update that may have caused the problem though. Ensure it completes fully.

Martin

[three6zerocool]

Yes, had quite a few updates to install.

I actually discovered what the issue was tho, so probably didn't need to factory reset.

It appears that the problem was the fact I was using a 3rd party Bluetooth remote, as my original one malfunctioned quite recently, so replaced it with a generic 3rd party Bluetooth remote.

It works with every app I have tried, except UI Droid.
I discovered that the OK button does not work.  Can scroll up and down, but when I select something, nothing happens, so that's why nothing apparently was happening, and why I could not exit out of the app.

Even weirder, if I have a menu option such as TV Guide highlighted, then press arrow right, then the TV Guide opens, but highlighting and pressing OK button does nothing.

The makers of the 3rd party remote say it is Shield compatible.
Was thinking of installing Button Mapper, and compare keycodes from an original Shield remote to the 3rd party one, and see if I can remap the OK key.

Interesting anyway......

[mvallevand]

The logs would have shown that and I can probably get the dpad centre working.

It also doesn't explain the problem you were describing with black screens or the setting screen.

[three6zerocool]

Yes, you are quite correct.

I think I might have done more damage than good, when I started upgrading UIdroid to various builds etc.
I was using the 3rd party bluetooth remote, and I first noticed the unresponsive behavior when trying to use what had previously been a perfectly workiing UIdroid version. (Albeit an older version)

From my perspective, it just was not working, and it did not compute to me, that it could be the new remote I was using that was causing issue.

When I did the factory reset, I paired and used my 2017 Shield remote, and when I installed UIdroid, it of course worked perfectly.

Then I paired the new bluetooth remote, and when I went to try UIdroid, I got the same weird behavior, and I thought 'what the F!'
I then grabbed the paired 2017 remote, and it worked perfect,  tried the 3rd party remote, and no go, then after a bit of button pressing, came to the realization the dpad's OK button on the 3rd party remote was not working.

The 3rd party remote works perfect with other apps like Kodi, and native Shield use.. even long pressing brings up running apps menu etc.
So... 'weird' to be sure.

I also have a Harmony Elite paired to my Shield 2019, but have an older family member who has trouble with the Harmony universal remote, so just used the simple bluetooth remote with CEC to power everything up.

I think over a long time, I have tried a lot of different software, custom launchers, and other software, so factory reset probably was not wasted, and had backups of Kodi configuration etc, and other things.

[mvallevand]

The remote is probably is working but it might not be sending the typical dpad centre. Upload the logs and hit the key and hopefully we can see what is being sent.

Martin

[three6zerocool]

I had been checking out Button Mapper Pro, as I purchased it some time ago for Fire TV Cube, but never had it on my Shields.
Quite cool, and I mapped the TV button on the 3rd party remote to launch Kodi.

My Shield 2019 uses this for it's Dpad center key
DPAD_CENTER
23

The 3rd party remote is a FireTV Style bluetooth remote, and Button mapper reports it's center dpad key as
NUMPAD_ENTER
160

The cursor directional keys for both remotes are
DPAD_UP
19

DPAD_Down
20

DPAD_LEFT
21

DPAD_RIGHT
22

Apparently there is a one time ADB command to change permissions on the shield, to allow Button Mapper to remap those keys.
However, I can not seem to connect to my shield via ADB, and get error of 'unauthenticated ' when trying to connect over network.
From what I have read, one seemingly has to connect first via USB debugging, and then after the user authorizes that initial connection, it then works via network debugging..
I did not have a male to male USB Type A, 3.0 cable, so have not tried it as yet.