[Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Questions & Answers] IT_Architect:
- Yes, there will be a prompt with a checkbox for updating the app.

- Yes, there is also a big green Update button. That update button is for preloading the latest OPERATING SYSTEM update. It's a log bigger "Yikes" than when you wrote this. The latest Android 9 Pies have gone from boot loader version 1 to 2. That's the same as bricking the phone for many.

Other:

This is my first phone without root, so now without TWRP, I've been practicing wiping and restoring to determine what is possible without root, and perfecting and documenting backup and recovery apps and procedures. Here are some things I discovered and am thinking.

1. "15. On PC: Run Smart Switch, restore everything EXCEPT settings (i.e. old Pie settings won't translate to Oreo properly)?"

It might never be a good thing to restore settings. My phone was set up on U1 XAA December 2018 Oreo 8.1 firmware and restored from my Note 3's SmartSwitch backup without restoring settings. For my backup and restore practice I did a SmartSwitch backup followed by a factory reset in "Settings/General management" so the setup wizard would not force me to connect to the Internet, and flashed the same XAA software that I did the backedup with. This time I let it restore settings too. When I got to the point of running ADB to run the command "pm disable-user --user 0 com.wssyncmldm", it returned an error that it didn't exist. I thought I must be missing something so I copied and pasted and received the same error. The blue Software Update program was there and it didn't show disabled. I was puzzled how the blue Software Update could be there and the command tell me it wasn't. I re-flashed again, but this time when I restored from SmartSwitch, I turned off restore settings. Everything worked as expected and I could successfully run "pm disable-user --user 0 com.wssyncmldm". At first I decided I should do this step before the SmartSwitch restore, but now I'm not so sure. I need to have confidence of where things are when the phone is setup for use, no prior to the SmartSwitch restore when afterwards the status might show me what I want to see, but might no longer be real.

2. I learned that with the USB connected, simply firing up SmartSwitch on the PC will start it on the phone.

3. I learned SmartSwitch is only restoring apps. I cannot use TWRP without being rooted, but I can Helium. Helium freezes when I try to restore, but it uses the same format as ADB, so I can restore that way and then I can do granular restores with apps and data and it works. I did not let my phone be hacked by the play stores "Security Policy update" ransomware. I went into Settings/Apps/Show system apps/Security Policy updates and in "Battery", turned off "Allow background activity". In "Notifications", turned off everything. In "Apps that can change system settings" I turned that off. If the Security Policy Update runs, it aligns the phone's policy with the Play Store. It will not automatically update offending software, such as your call recorder, but it will list it. If it lists it, it's trashed because the new policy, now implemented on the phone, will prevent the app from communicating with anything and hang. I know of no other option than to re-flash your phone and do a restore. If you download the new compliant one from the play store, you will find an app that is no longer worth having because the main purpose for it existing will no longer work. Therefore, I don't use the play store for anything anymore and have been getting pre-2019 apks from places like apkpure. The phone works great now.l

I'm glad I can for the most part use Helium to cover for TWRP. I will be wringing this out some more this weekend before I put the phone in service and post any refinements here.

Thanks for all of your help!