yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Fire General] Quadriflax:
I bought my wife a Fire HD 10 for Christmas and just set it up with no real issue. Nova Pro is the launcher and I didn't tinker with any settings yet, just set some preferences as you do when it first installs. Seems to work fine except every now and again it will launch the Fire OS launcher when hitting home and takes a second tap to get back to Nova.

Point being, I don't know that it's a particular setting you changed in Nova because a new install has the same issue over here. It seems to happen randomly, from the home screen, from various apps (e.g., Chrome). I see v4 of the hijacker was released just a few weeks ago, so maybe a bug? I know the flicker is normal, but never saw any reports of it sticking to the Fire OS launcher like it is doing for us. I've told my wife to expect the issue for now and it's far from a deal breaker, but if there's anything I can do to help figure this glitch out, let me know.
[Fire General] BaronKiko:
Both are summed up in a similar way. Basically (and forgive the lack of detail as I have had a bit to drink :P) there is a limited amount of RAM available and when the tablet runs out it closes the oldest thing that isn't protected like the default launcher. When you click home the delay caused by the app starting from nothing causes the system to load the default instead. After the first press it is now loaded meaning the second time is quick enough to not cause the issue.

You can mitigate the issue somewhat by using a launcher that uses less resources/boots quicker (Evie is pretty good for it) or by using apps that use less resources. The only way to fix it reliably is by corrupting the default launcher (details in the help doc) stopping it from ever booting again however that comes with other issues so may not be the solution for you. It's worth noting that's how I have my tablet configured but I am technically capable of fixing it when it goes wrong via ADB and the like.

I did see something called sticky intents that may help but I have been busy so I never got the time to implement and it's not a massive deal anyhow because as you said you can just press home again.

Finally, on my tablet pressing the home button on the second page does indeed take you back to the first page as it should in both Evie and Nova (the only 2 I tested).
[Fire General] BaronKiko:
As an fyi this has been opened as an issue on the GitHub: https://github.com/BaronKiko/LauncherHijack/issues/31

I suggest you follow that to keep tabs on when/if the issue gets resolved.
[Fire General] Quadriflax:
I figured that might be the case. It's just funny that in all the research I did prior to pulling the trigger here that never came up. But after additional reading to how it works, I figured that was probably the case. I looked at the corrupt launcher option and I don't think I'm comfortable with that particular hack. Seems a lot of people have issues with it and overall the hack isn't well received. The extra tap isn't terrible, especially since it's my wife's tablet :p

I mean, I've used ADB before, and largely I'm comfortable with following instructions, but it's my wife's tablet and honestly, she'd probably be fine with the stock launcher if she gets bothered by the hack going back and forth. If it was mine, that would be another story (though I probably wouldn't have bought it in the first place!).

Not sure what sticky intents are, but I'll follow this thread for future developments. I'm in awe of people like you with mad skills to help communities out for no real gain. I hope your holiday season is awesome and thanks for being a cool person all around.
[Fire General] BaronKiko:
Sticky intents are meant to stop the launcher getting killed off, I think. Honestly not all that sure as I only saw it in passing.

I made this because I have a fire tablet and the default launcher annoyed me. I use it all the time so I might as well release it. Saying that releasing It has turned out to be a lot more work that I first thought as people love finding ways of breaking things xD. I appreciate your support regardless.
[Fire General] atvking:
I'm trying to enable Accessibility Services on my Fire HD 8, but there doesn't seem to be an option to toggle it on or off. Is anyone else having this issue? I've tried v4 and v2.1, running Fire OS 6.3.0.0.
[Fire General] BaronKiko:
Yeah it's detailed here: https://github.com/BaronKiko/LauncherHijack/issues/33

Use the commands for now, looks like I will have to update the instructions when I get a chance. If you find a way around it do let me know
[Fire General] atvking:
I was able to get it to work with v4 without using commands. There was an update to Fire OS 6.3.0.1 and after the update I changed my system language from English Canada to English United States to get "Show Mode" working. After that I decided to try one more time to see if for some reason Accessibility Service would work and it did!
[Fire General] ryevick:
Well I'm not worried about it. The home button has now been accepted in my mind to be used only to close apps or folders. I have it setup just the way I want on 2 pages so the dreaded swipe of a finger to go between them is not-so-bad and I'll save the use of widgets for my phone. I'm diggin' it! Much better than the horrid Fire Launcher.
[Fire General] s99me:
Shoutout thanks to BaronKiko :)

Searched thread, only see one similar mention due to language preferences.

Anyone else currently running Fire OS 5.3.6.4 (mine is on HD 10 2017) with Launcher Hijack V4 + Microsoft Launcher? The launcher keeps prompting "Set Microsoft Launcher as your default launcher? NO YES".

Clicking YES arrives at the Settings main screen, I assume because FireOS removes the "Default Applications" screen?

Clicking NO does nothing.

In the Microsoft Launcher settings, it shows....

"Set Microsoft Launcher as your default launcher, and superpower your phone"

"Something went wrong. Please try again."

Unsure if the outcome would improve if I ran the following from adb shell....

adb shell pm hide com.amazon.firelauncher
adb shell pm disable com.amazon.firelauncher
adb shell pm clear com.amazon.firelauncher
[Fire General] krsmit0:
You can't officially change the default launcher. Look for a different launcher to use.
[Fire General] OrphanedPixel:
I'll have to do that sometime.
[Fire General] donutzman:
I unlocked my tablet today and instead of home screen I got the Hijack app launcher choice. I think this resulted from my launcher (APEX) getting updated by Play Store. Any way to prevent the Hijack app from showing after there's an update delivered for the launcher? Thanks!
[Fire General] Zboy745:
Which Apex ? I am using Apex Classic.
[Fire General] donutzman:
Not Apex Classic. The one I have shows as version 4.3.8 right now in Play Store

When you get updates to Apex Classic it doesn't throw your Hijack app choice screen up? Why do you use classic over the newer one?
[Fire General] Zboy745:
No it just installs. It doesn't do that to me. Have you choose Apex and then hit the home button ?
[Fire General] donutzman:
I chose Apex and hit home after installing the Launcher Hijack app. It was a couple days later that I turned on the tablet to find the Launcher Hijack choice screen there.
[Fire General] JeffATL:
Was working now getting accessibility not enabled, tried uninstalling and reinstalling , and reexecuting. Using FTV v2

adb shell settings put secure enabled_accessibility_services com.baronkiko.launcherhijack/com.baronkiko.launcherhijack.AccServ
[Fire General] DragonFire1024:
Try:

adb shell settings put secure accessability_enabled 1
[Fire General] JeffATL:
Thanks. Unfortunately that did not work but then I noticed a spelling error in accessibility corrected in quoted text in this post , seems to have worked
[Fire General] skyrocketeer:
This worked for me!!! Thank you
[Fire General] DB126:
Same - HD 8 8th gen w/Nova. Easy Peasy.
[Fire General] iteek:
I had the same issue, check my post here to fix: https://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=71396226&postcount=124

---------- Post added at 02:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:46 PM ----------

https://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=71396226&postcount=124

Found a fix
[Fire General] n3kf:
Excellent. I'll give it a try later today.
[Fire General] iteek:
Cool, let me know how it goes, will be interesting to know if it works.
[Fire General] BaronKiko:
I would be surprised if this works with LH2 as it's waiting for a signal that the classic fire launcher has opened so if you remove it then no launcher will ever boot. Give it a go and report back but make sure you have a way to re enable the fire launcher first. As I'm aware you can only delete the fire launcher on a rooted device but you can hide it which doesn't seem to make any difference to me. My bet is that you are rooted in which case you can just change the launcher, if you are so sure I can give it a go on my device and assuming it all works I can update the initial post to notify others.
[Fire General] iteek:
I disabled the Fire Launcher using an app that requires root. You can enable Fire Launcher using ADB.
[Fire General] n3kf:
So you are rooted?
[Fire General] iteek:
Yes I'm rooted. I'm not aware of a way to change the launcher root, other than using Launcher Hijack. I'm not sure Nova Launcher would start when booting up automatically without launcher hijack. I don't want to risk testing either.
[Fire General] BeeWall:
Maybe modifying Nova to have the fire launcher package name would work, but it would have to be done every Nova update.
[Fire General] BaronKiko:
If you are rooted then just install another OS as Amazon's Fire OS doesn't really offer anything unavailable on Cyanogen Mod or any other android OS. Then you can just set the launcher as you please. That's not to say you have too and it's interesting to know that you can improve it with root.

FYI you can actually disable the default launcher on a non rooted OS by side loading a corrupted APK to your device however with LH2 you lose the reference call to start your chosen launcher so DON'T do it if you are using this mod (reference here). Depending on how you disabled the app you could potentially make a corrupted version that still produces the required call to truly hide the default launcher but I think the easier alternative would be using the draw over other apps api to black the screen out while it's changing, add some nice fading and I think you could have quite a nice effect. Unfortunately I couldn't work out how to get the draw over other apps api to work during my testing and can't put in enough time to work out why but if anybody else know how to get that working please pull the code and submit a pull request, I know how to do the timing so all I need is a method that can black out the screen.
[Fire General] iteek:
There isn't a custom ROM for the 6th gen HD Fire devices yet.
[Fire General] parrotgeek1:
to fix this, change the second GLOBAL_ACTION_RECENTS to GLOBAL_ACTION_BACK in both instances
[Fire General] BaronKiko:
I clearly haven't been keeping up with this thread, I will blame Zelda :P

Any particular reason you say that? I am just about to give it a go regardless as it bothers me too.
[Fire General] BaronKiko:
The change works well, would still like to know why but it's up for others to use. I have updated the version info properly this time so it should update properly rather than updating from the original version.
[Fire General] BeeWall:
Judging by the names, because it goes back instead of to recents.
[Fire General] BaronKiko:
Haha, but why does that make the difference as the code immediately navigates elsewhere.

My guess is that the issue was caused by the delay on opening the app switcher but why was the second one needed in the first place? Also you would assume going fire launcher -> app switcher -> back would leave you at the fire launcher where you can't just open another app.
[Fire General] BeeWall:
I have no idea. As I said, just guessing. However, I'm guessing there isn't much of a difference. I think the only reason it flashes recents is because of the transition animation, which is why disabling animation fixes it.
[Fire General] ttcontributor:
No, disabling animation still doesn't' fix the flickering of the recent menu. It might be sth else [MENTION=5723969]parrotgeek1[/MENTION]?
[Fire General] BaronKiko:
It will always flash recent because it uses that menu as a convenient point to open your custom launcher. It would get stuck when you call the open app routine before it's finished switching to the app launcher which could have been fixed all along with an extra long delay but nobody want's to wait half a second after you click the home button.

What I really fail to understand is why the second app launcher/back is needed in the first place.

I would still like to add a black screen over the top while it's doing the transition to make it feel professional but when I looked last getting the api, that lets you draw over other apps, to work seemed like a pain.

Regardless it's nice to have improved it today but enough of it for the day and back to zelda for me.
[Fire General] parrotgeek1:
It needs them because there is a security feature to prevent an app from opening another app less than 5 seconds after you press home button. It is in AOSP to help prevent ransomware opening itself over and over. Forcing recents to open and close itself *internally* launches an activity, but this code path is not checked by the timer, and it stops the timer in fact.

If you don't have another recents/back call it will look weird because the entire recents animation with the cards sliding up will play ON TOP of the new launcher and then vanish.

I think the 2 recents calls was causing a problem because 1 of them was randomly ignored due to cpu load so the recent apps would stay open
[Fire General] Radi0star:
Does this app run on reboot? Right now I use a corrupted firelauncher.apk and have to exec an adb command every time I reboot.

If this app could run as a service/on startup, it would be great (if it doesn't already).

Edit: for those interested in the corrupt launcher
[Fire General] tatundria:
autolaunch on boot

Is it possible to autolaunch this app on boot? OnBoot AppStarter seems to be not working anymore...
[Fire General] gman759:
Following the instructions on this forum and this thread, I was able to get Launcher Hijack v4 and Nova (downloaded from from Play Store) working. Thank you so much for working on this and making it available.

I do have trouble getting Google Now Launcher to work. I downloaded 4.1 Large apk from apk mirror, I downloaded the same from Play Store, and both give me the same problem, that is:

When I try to open the launcher, whether it is through Launcher Hijack by Home button, or directly from the app icon, it gives me the following error message:

Update Google App, so I downloaded Google App from Play Store, successfully installed it, however, I am now stuck in a loop, with the message:

Home Pages is currently your default launcher. To try the Google Now Launcher, select it from Settings->Home.

There is no Settings -> Home on my tablet.

Any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong? I have searched extensively for an answer, couldn't find one.

Thanks in advance for your help.
[Fire General] Socs509:
Brilliant, thank you. Learnt to love the fire thanks to you guys.
[Fire General] tatundria:
Autolaunch on boot

How can I autolaunch on boot launcher hijack v4?
[Fire General] Dimanesterenko:
not working on hd8, "To detect home button press" appeared but its empty :confused:
[Fire General] FischeFr:
Question

Hi guys,

I tried Launcher Hijack V4 yesterday on a fire tv stick and set a "normal" app as launcher. This worked quite good but when I closed this app I returned to the default launcher. If there was a pseudo-app just starting an app like kodi, waiputv etc. , waiting until it terminates and restarting it again an again you could use the stick in a kind of kiosk mode. Do one of you know such an app?

Furthermore it would be great if there were a short documentation about Launcher Hijack's settings. I know the app is for free and you all are spending a lot of free time and that's great, but maybe someone could spend an hour for a settings-readme.txt. If there is a description about the settings I didn't find, please tell me.

Thanks! :)
[Fire General] EjLync0:
thank you for this good app :)
[Fire General] pthieu:
Need some help with Parental Control message

[Deleted, wrong thread]
[Fire General] eldani82:
I've been using the Hijacker for a good while, thank you for the great app! I hadn't updated it to the latest version until I had reason to. That was today. The app stopped working, so I was trying to see if any setting had been reset. This is what I can tell:

The device is a Kindle Fire HD 10 (2017) with Fire OS version of 5.6.4.0 (636558520).

The app isn't listed in the settings under manage all applications on the "all" apps tab.

When I try to install the apk again (assuming the app had been removed somehow), a popup tells me that version 3.0 is already installed.

When I install 3.0 anyway, it says "installed", but the app is still missing.

When I try to install the recently downloaded 4.0.3 instead, it does not work and says "App not installed" with no further information.

When I go to accessibility -> detect home button press, I have no such option.

I assume the last issue is because the accessibility options have been disabled due to an update, which has happened in the past. That one I should be able to fix with an adb shell command, but what do I do about the LauncherHijacker not working/being missing despite the apparent success at installing it?
[Fire General] Jabbitt:
Same here.

Kindle Fire HD8, Fire OS 5.3.6.4 (626533320)

Just as I tapped on the screen whilst browsing a web page, I saw a window with a message relating to LaucherHijack but it disappeared. Now like the above post, no amount of reinstalling the app will bring it back. When I do reinstall the app, it's always an update, never a fresh install and once it's finished, I can't run the app, only close the installer.

It doesn't appear in any app list, not even Nova Launcher when I run it. Also, the accessibility option for it has vanished as well.

Is this some kind of sneak attack by Amazon? :)
[Fire General] brodie01:
According to the git hub page, someone was able to get it working again by rebuilding and renaming the package. Seems like Amazon has blocked the package name from running.

Anyone have any ideas how to do this? I'm a newb when it comes to Android.
[Fire General] brodie01:
Ok. I can confirm this works. I renamed the app throughout using android studio and rebuilt the apk. Full disclosure - I had no clue what I was doing. But I was able to install and it’s working again, setting returns to accessibility and launcher app works as it did before.
[Fire General] shadowvfx:
Care to share the modified apk? Like others, I lack the tools and knowledge to rename the app in Android Studio. A link to the fixed APK would be extremely helpful.

Thanks.
[Fire General] FreakyyLike:
I modified the apk, works fine again on my Fire HD8(2017).

Make sure you deinstall the old App. Go into Settings>Apps>All>Swipe to the right till all and search your old App. Then install the new Apk.

Download: https://www.mediafire.com/file/kqa89yndk468itf/Launcher.Hijack.v.4.0.3.b.43.Clone.apk/file

Update:Users reported that the Deinstallation is maybe optional. Try it first without! :)
[Fire General] shadowvfx:
Excellent. Thank you VERY much.
[Fire General] eldani82:
Thanks for the link to the cloned app FreakyyLike. I tried the same and while building the modified app was easy enough (the IntelliJ IDE has some awesome refactoring powers), I still got the same error as before (app not installed). I guess I forgot to change something ;)
[Fire General] vincentx77:
The old app doesn't show up under the apps section, or I can't find it. Fortunately, the MediaFire link worked for me!
[Fire General] FreakyyLike:
I have updated my first Post, maybe it'll help you :)
[Fire General] Maxpawner:
Thx, it works on my HD 10 also, f*** Amazon! :D
[Fire General] FunkyMunkySheep:
Amazing! Thanks FreakkyLike! Worked perfect on my Fire HD8(2017) 5.3.6.4. :D
[Fire General] Zboy745:
Thank you so much!!! I woke up today and there was lovely popup on my home screen saying launcher hijack has been blocked. So I came on here and saw you had a solution. Thank you very!! Wtf Amazon ?!!
[Fire General] MrsAngelD:
Thank you so much for this :) I had this message today when I woke up and this fixed it!
[Fire General] mightymike2001:
Totally AWESOME, Thanks!
[Fire General] Badzuk:
Thank you, it worked great on 7" 2017
[Fire General] PoorAndNeedy:
This worked for me! But I tried removing the old one and couldn't find it, and I tried reinstalling an old version and still couldn't find it (I got the successfully installed notification on V4.0.1). I think amazon's update to amazon launcher just removes the app as soon as it is installed. That being said, it worked for me even without uninstalling the old one.
[Fire General] oystersmile:
Thank you so much, works great on Fire HD 10 2017. I couldn't see or uninstall the old app (even using the tip in the update) but the new app still worked anyway. Maybe Amazon could just improve their launcher and this wouldn't be quite so necessary :confused:
[Fire General] FreakyyLike:
I updated my post again^^

Deinstallation seems kinda optional but worked for me in the first place.

Maybe [MENTION=8089882]BaronKiko[/MENTION] will soon find an official way and Update his App.
[Fire General] lovingboth:
And on the HD8 2017 too, down to not seeing the previously installed version anywhere: settings or Nova.

That would get in the way of selling AMAZON Prime and AMAZON Kindle books and AMAZON apps and using the AMAZON store... which is the only thing the Fire HDs are supposed to do. According to Amazon, anyway. (See also the way that the Amazon app store versions of Netflix / iPlayer won't cast to a Chromecast, but will notice that it is happening - deeply pathetic, Amazon.)

Enormous thanks to everyone who has done the work to enable us to do other things with hardware we own.
[Fire General] sweh:
FWIW I was able to remove the old version with

adb pm uninstall com.baronkiko.launcherhijack

Then I installed the new version with

adb install Launcher.Hijack.v.4.0.3.b.43.Clone.apk
[Fire General] Quadriflax:
Well, you know more than I do. I installed Android Studio, opened the APK, followed two guides on how to rename the package, and I can't figure out how to actually save it to a new file. I tried save, I tried build (which just gave an error). Would you mind sharing what you did with a n00b who only has minimal programming experience?

The app posted here works great, but seeing as they can block package names, this seems like a cat and mouse thing. I'd like to make a unique version, but I spent over an hour fiddling with it and got nowhere. It doesn't look hard, so I must be doing something extra dumb. Since you got it working, I'm hoping you can help.
[Fire General] MalevolentAmmo:
Thanks for this. Works like it's supposed to. :good:
[Fire General] brodie01:
To be honest, i simply did a “find usages” for launcherhijack and renamed it every instance I found. Then I looked for “application Id” and changed the name so that the build name changed. Then I built the apk and then generated the signed apk (both under the build menu). I didn’t try to save it as anything else, I just overwrote the original source. It was ugly but somehow worked. I’m a noob as well so I can’t provide any step by steps - sorry. Hope this helps even a little.