Avoid This Game-Breaking Android Bug 11
Here is such an unusual one. If you play games on Android 11, you might have noticed that two bars in your phone’s normal user interface can get in the way: navigation and status. These thin little lines appear on top of your gameplay, making it impossible to see or click on important parts of what you are trying to play. For instance:
As one google forum user writes :
“This can be played when you swipe up to show recent apps and then return to the app. Either the status bar does not disappear, or the navigation bar does not disappear. In addition, if the navigation bar does not disappear, when you rotate the orientation, the navigation bar moves to the center. “
Users have been reporting this issue to Google since September , but it looks like the company has been providing workarounds for the answers. In some cases, Google representatives indicated that they were unable to reproduce the bug , which seems odd considering how many other users have complained about its existence.
Android Police notes that the issue isn’t just about pixels. Beta testing of Samsung One UI 3.0 devices is also found to be affected. This looks more like a pretty obvious Android 11 bug than anything else, and hopefully Google will fix it soon – otherwise it’s a pretty frustrating situation to run into when you’re trying to chill out with a quick game.
Don’t try to fix your Android 11 smartphone yourself
I also read a lot of reports from Android 11 users trying to fix this issue using all sorts of traditional troubleshooting methods. This includes attempting to rollback an Android 11 update – a complex process that requires an unlocked bootloader, an older version of the operating system, and some know-how so that you don’t damage your device when you try to flash it.
I’ve also seen users try the typically tried and tested technique of factory resetting their phones. If you restore from a backup, you will at least save a little time by returning your device. But if you choose to start from scratch instead, you’ll spend a lot of time rebooting your phone and re-downloading all of your apps, only to find that your efforts haven’t fixed the said error.
Yes, there doesn’t seem to be a universal fix for the UI blocking bug yet. Instead, I recommend putting your phone in Do Not Disturb mode and taking care not to pop out of the game for any reason. Don’t check other apps. Resist the urge to pull down the notification bar, which can cause UI issues.
If you launch the game and there are no annoying streaks on it, keep playing and do nothing else. I admit that this limits your multitasking, but at least you should be able to get through your game. However, if that doesn’t work, you may just have to try your luck with other mobile games while you wait for Google’s fix – it may not be the same for another.