Why won't the Shield remember my app?

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#2178018 14-Feb-2019 05:38

@Rikkitic the thing is you keep hitting these issues and people try and explain them to you and help you with them then you come out with comments like "I think this subject has run its course and I have no more to say about it so this will probably be my last comment."

we are tying to help you understand what your problem is and explain how and where your equipment sits and how it works and some of its limitations and you dont want to talk about it any more.

you are constantly making threads on here with your issues, which isnt a bad thing but if you know more about your devices and their limitations maybe you wont run into these issues or if you do you know its because of such limitations.

yea it sucks when you buy something thinking it will work only to find out is only sorta works. im sure most of us have done that before. its just time to live and let live and learn what you can and cant do with it.

Rikkitic

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#2178032 14-Feb-2019 07:26

Jase2985:

@Rikkitic the thing is you keep hitting these issues and people try and explain them to you and help you with them then you come out with comments like "I think this subject has run its course and I have no more to say about it so this will probably be my last comment."

we are tying to help you understand what your problem is and explain how and where your equipment sits and how it works and some of its limitations and you dont want to talk about it any more.

you are constantly making threads on here with your issues, which isnt a bad thing but if you know more about your devices and their limitations maybe you wont run into these issues or if you do you know its because of such limitations.

yea it sucks when you buy something thinking it will work only to find out is only sorta works. im sure most of us have done that before. its just time to live and let live and learn what you can and cant do with it.

Agree. That is also what I was trying to say. I do appreciate the efforts that people make to help me out with things and I hope I make that clear. I always try to make a point of thanking everyone. I said I thought the subject had run its course because I think it has. The question I had was well-answered by @dfnt, for which I expressed my gratitude, but as usual the discussion also broadened to a more general one on Android/Android TV and the differences between them and I tried to explain where I was coming from. I'm not trying to cut the discussion off, but I do think it has run its course. I have some frustrations with the Android OS and I am not impressed with the Shield and I have said all that and I have had the expected reactions. I'm not sure where else this particular thread can go, but if anyone else wants to continue it, I am happy to listen.

Edited to add: I just realised something as I was thinking about this. Back in the day, when I was younger and more energetic, I enjoyed delving into technical things and solving problems. It was fun to puzzle out how things worked and it gave me a kick when I was able to add functionality and make something work in a way it hadn't been designed to. This was in the days of MS-DOS, when I did a lot of assembly programming and wrote TSRs that made use of interrupts in creative ways. Along the way I learned a lot about the hardware and software involved.

The difference is that I am not young and energetic anymore, and I don't have the patience I did then. I also don't have the background because I am not playing with a wide range of devices anymore. I just want to plug something in and have it work. My days of playing with technology are over. When I run into obstacles like those described in this thread, I get frustrated. Maybe I express that more than I should.

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Oblivian

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#2178036 14-Feb-2019 07:43

Handle9:
Is there really any need to be so condescending and rude about this? I don't really know what that is meant to add to the topic.

The intention was, not to sound condescending, but flip the complaint about the shield being a dud on its head - to point out for every complaint made about a working as designed product seemingly to not be without extensive work being needed to bypass it's out of box functions, there is equally often often a flipside reason the product thats 'working' and used as a basis/baseline for others to, is not always a valid/legitimate start point.
Jase8925 has gone into a similar train of thought a bit deeper about the frequency being noticeable.

The tone of the first posts/issues could equally have been done, by a user who used someone's shield. Who then got a Chinese box and tried to do some of the similar shield only functions and find it not possible. I have a friend who's just dropped his Q7 for a NUC for that reason.

dfnt

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#2178071 14-Feb-2019 08:53

Rikkitic:

The difference is that I am not young and energetic anymore, and I don't have the patience I did then. I also don't have the background because I am not playing with a wide range of devices anymore. I just want to plug something in and have it work. My days of playing with technology are over. When I run into obstacles like those described in this thread, I get frustrated. Maybe I express that more than I should.

I'm kind of this opinion too, I work in IT on complex systems so the last thing I want to be doing when I get home is dealing with complex things

The easier the technology the better

Rikkitic

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#2178223 14-Feb-2019 12:14

When I ask a question and find an answer, I try to post the answer for the benefit of anyone else who may be watching. My question here got a bit obfuscated by the ensuing discussion, but I did get an answer and I just tried it and it seems to work fine.

The issue with the Shield and Zattoo, as well as other apps, is related to an apparently unfixed bug as well as intended behaviour. The way to get around it, at least with Zattoo, is indeed to clone the app. This is what worked for me:

First the appropriate Zattoo TV app needs to be downloaded from APK Mirror or a similar site. Then it must be sideloaded onto the Shield. It will show as a system app and it will disappear when the Shield is rebooted.

Next, download App Cloner (use APK Mirror; it is no longer available on Google Play). Run App Cloner and clone the Zattoo TV app, giving it a different name. This is very straightforward. Afterwords run the clone to install it. Once installed, you can use it like any other app and make a shortcut to Kodi Favourites. I believe this should work with any modern Kodi version. I did it with 17.6. In spite of what some of the documentation indicates, this only works if you do the clone on the Shield. It cannot be transferred from another device unless you pay for a premium upgrade.

While working on this, I studied the Geforce forum thread linked to above where there is an animated discussion about the issue. Apparently I am not the only one who feels the way I do about the Shield!

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surfisup1000

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#2178281 14-Feb-2019 14:39

Rikkitic:

I now strongly feel I did not pick the right device so you are correct about that. The Shield has been an absolute pain in the butt. I have had to find hacks to work around its various limitations, which may well be by design but they are irritating in the extreme.

What annoys me most is I did research all of this at the time to the best of my ability, but it was absolutely not made clear that the Shield was a specialised device for specific purposes. The impression I had was that it was a top of the line Android box, not that there were all kinds of things regular Android boxes can do that it can't.

I hate the Shield. I hate all the grief it has cost me. But I feel stuck with it now. I have managed to find ways around most of its obstacles. This latest is just another one. I see from the link above that there is a way to get around the issue. Whee, another thing to get around, courtesy of the Shield!

Is it for sale then :)

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#2178289 14-Feb-2019 14:53

People keep asking that. Not after all the work I have put into it to make it into a decent streaming box. Sorry.

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gbwelly

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#2178410 14-Feb-2019 18:00

If Zattoo is a built in app you can grab the APK from the Shield, slightly change it's name and re-sign it using APK Editor Pro. I did this to keep BBC iPlayer from disappearing on each restart. Don't fall into the grass is always greener mindset with the Shield, sounds like you are fed up with it, but once it's all set up it really is the best of the bunch. Try some of the stuff you are trying to do on an Apple TV if you want to see a system fighting you at every turn.

Rikkitic

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#2178415 14-Feb-2019 18:20

Thanks for the boost. I have never had a complaint about the Shield hardware, just the firmware and the philosophy driving it. Nvidia seems obsessed with YouTube. Google must be paying them.

I am not displeased with the performance of the Shield, just all the (sometimes) enormous hassle I have to endure to get it to do things that should be straightforward. Now that I have solved this latest issue with the App Cloner, I have no big complaints.

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gbwelly

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#2178528 14-Feb-2019 20:24

Rikkitic:

enormous hassle I have to endure to get it to do things that should be straightforward.

Yeah, I know how you feel, everything is becoming more fragmented. I refused to go down the track of using a mouse and keyboard in the lounge with a browser on the HTPC, or a Chromecast on the phone. The Shield is still the least worst. My environment is like the swan on the lake for the family, behind the scenes there is all sorts of paddling shenanigans going on under the surface with DNS unblocking, custom APKs, sideloaded apps, Plex, Sonnar, HDHomerun etc. Pain in the ar8e to set up, but worth it now it's done.

dfnt

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#2178546 14-Feb-2019 21:07

gbwelly: If Zattoo is a built in app you can grab the APK from the Shield, slightly change it's name and re-sign it using APK Editor Pro. I did this to keep BBC iPlayer from disappearing on each restart. Don't fall into the grass is always greener mindset with the Shield, sounds like you are fed up with it, but once it's all set up it really is the best of the bunch. Try some of the stuff you are trying to do on an Apple TV if you want to see a system fighting you at every turn.

Sounds like this is the best approach for you @Rikkitic

I had, and quickly returned, an Apple TV 4K. That is definitely a system that's very locked down in the typical Apple way.

driller2000

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#2178640 15-Feb-2019 07:53

dfnt:

Rikkitic:

The difference is that I am not young and energetic anymore, and I don't have the patience I did then. I also don't have the background because I am not playing with a wide range of devices anymore. I just want to plug something in and have it work. My days of playing with technology are over. When I run into obstacles like those described in this thread, I get frustrated. Maybe I express that more than I should.

I'm kind of this opinion too, I work in IT on complex systems so the last thing I want to be doing when I get home is dealing with complex things

The easier the technology the better

Yep and the Shield when used as designed - is an awesomely simple, powerful and reliable device.

Rikkitic

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#2178659 15-Feb-2019 08:49

I still don't understand why it is designed not to work with stuff that cheaper boxes have no problem with. Sideloading can be nearly impossible with many apps. All it seems to want to do is shove YouTube and Netflix at you. The world is bigger than that.

Why is it designed to make geo-unblocking of sites like Zattoo impossible? Who appointed Nvidia policeman of the world? This limitation is extra stupid because the Zattoo app works fine on any ordinary box and you can also stream from the site on any browser. And of course you can also clone the app. So what is being achieved?

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gbwelly

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#2178667 15-Feb-2019 09:06

Rikkitic:

So what is being achieved?

It really is a matter of contractual obligations. To bundle Zattoo with the device they are required to put a real effort into making sure it works only in the regions of the world where Zattoo have the rights to distribute the content. If we go back to discussing other devices which do not play by the licensing rules, the thread will again descend into a bun-fight.

Rikkitic

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#2179709 15-Feb-2019 09:40

In fact, now that I have this latest in a long line of issues out of the way, it is working pretty well for me. But it didn't out of the box. I found it to be surprisingly inflexible. I have pretty well got it to work the way I want by turning off everything on the home screen and using Kodi as my interface. This works thanks to a couple of brilliant add-ons.

Many people seem happy with it as it is and good on you if you are one, but not everyone has the same experience. There is no right or wrong here, just what works for you.

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