Volume button shortcut no longer works

[Naomitr0n]

Sony Xperia 1V, only one light level. App used to work great, but I got an update to my Xperia myself and the volume shortcut stopped working. Torchie also worked great too but no longer does. Toggling inside the app works just fine, and the volume keys are detected correctly (a sound plays when it does), but the flashlight doesn't turn on at all with it. Accessibility service was enabled correctly. Tried a combination of just FlashDim enabled, just Torchie enabled, both enabled just to see, still no dice.

Something on Android or Sony's side changed to cause the issue as both your app and Torchie used to work flawlessly until I got a system update and it no longer does. I do not remember if I've had any updates since it first broke.

FlashDim:

• Version: 2.4.3 (31)
• Installer: org.fdroid.fdroid
• Build: release (HEAD-10d22b0)
  Phone:
• Manufacturer: Sony
• Brand: Sony
• Model: XQ-DQ62
• Product: XQ-DQ62
• Device: XQ-DQ62
• Board: kalama
• ABIs: arm64-v8a,armeabi-v7a,armeabi
• Light levels: 1
  OS:
• Version: Android 15 (35)

[cyb3rko]

I don't think the problem is on Androids side, as it still works on my Pixel 10 Pro with the newest updates installed.

[Naomitr0n]

I figure it's something with Sony's implementation specifically, given I couldn't find anyone else with this issue. Anything I can do on my end to provide insight as to what's going on?

[cyb3rko]

Sorry, I don't think there's anything we can do on our ends.

[Naomitr0n]

Sorry, I don't think there's anything we can do on our ends.

There is though. Logcat, debug log, etc, I'm just not sure which method to provide. It might be throwing an insightful error if I knew where to look for it and what to provide you.

The app is able to control the flashlight with button presses, so the phone is correctly supported. The app is trying something when the volume shortcut is pressed, so it's receiving that too.

You're not even going to try? This feels unnecessarily dismissive for no reason

[cyb3rko]

If you have one, I will of course read through the logcat / debug output.

[Naomitr0n]

20_10-14-12-36_289 - long no change.log
20_10-14-13-00_263 - on, off.log
20_10-14-13-17_591 - shorter no change.log

Sorry, misunderstood :) Tried to use Logfox to get a few different captures, two for background noise, one where I tried the volume buttons twice. Interestingly, each time the toast says "Held volume keys. FlashDim turned off." It never says "turned on", almost as if it's falsely detecting that the flashlight is on? The app UI has dedicated on/off buttons instead of a toggle button.

Also worth noting, if I press the volume keys while in the FlashDim submenu of the Android Accessibility Page, the "Use FlashDim" slider turns itself off, then back on whenever both volume keys are held. Tried having battery usage optimized (which was the default) and also changed to unrestricted, same result.

I didn't see much in logcat (though I'm more on the desktop side of coding than Android), I don't know if there's anything useful for you there. Is it possible it's just detecting the current flashlight state incorrectly?

[cyb3rko]

Without looking at the logs I would like you to check again how the accessibility settings for FlashDim are configured.
I feel like you activated the "Shortcut for FlashDim" in the Android settings, because FlashDim does never show toasts by itself (at least I can not remember to have implemented that).
In fact, that Android setting only allows to toggle accessibility permission for FlashDim.

Instead, please disable that setting and ONLY enable the toggle at the top, which says something like "Use FlashDim".

[Naomitr0n]

Oh interesting, I could only get it to work before by enabling both. Here's how it was before:

Tried disabling that second one, now it reads it as just changing volume, the flashlight never turns on for it. No toast for FlashDim, no feedback that both volume buttons were pressed, it just acts like I hit one of the two volume buttons, not both.

Interestingly, I went back to Torchie Quick to see if it would work again by only enabling the top one, and Torchie works now with only the first of the two enabled, but FlashDim doesn't.

There's also this spot at the bottom of Accessibility Settings that I saw, under a General header called "Accessibility Shortcut". It was enabled before, but disabling it doesn't seem to change anything, though maybe it's lockscreen-specific.

[cyb3rko]

For me it works with only the first toggle being enabled, all other should be disabled.

And make sure, that the options below are also deactivated for all other apps (for example Torchie).
Otherwise they could override the key events.

[Naomitr0n]

I guess that's the weird part, my assumption was that Torchie and FlashDim would have operated the flashlight in the same way, but it does not appear so. I believe Torchie is no longer maintained to the point to where F-Droid makes note of it using an outdated part of the Android SDK. Obviously I want to keep this functionality, so FlashDim is what to use, but somehow Torchie works, but FlashDim doesn't.

When I'm testing these two, I have only the first toggle of each app enabled, and the other app's fully disabled (i.e. when I'm testing FlashDim, "Use FlashDim" is enabled, but the lower toggle is disabled, and both Torchie toggles are disabled -- and vice versa when testing Torchie).

Is there any logging FlashDim does that would show up in logcat? I didn't see any mentions of "flashlight" or "flashdim" in the logcats I captured earlier, I don't know that changing the toggles so the "FlashDim Shortcut" is disabled would change that. If not, how do I help you debug what's happening on my end?

[cyb3rko]

Just tested the logging.
When pressing both volume buttons and the app catches that, it should write the following logs:

In the code the logging and the activation of the flashflight are right next to each other, so if the log is written, it most likely also tries to toggle the flashlight:

---

With all that being said, none of your log files include anything like "Both volume buttons pressed" 🫤
I have no idea why Android does not trigger the key event for FlashDim on your phone..

[cyb3rko]

I don't think I have asked that yet - which OS are you using? The stock OS of your phone or something like GrapheneOS?