I should like to thank everyone who replied to my request for help. I am pleased to know that others share my dislike of Google and would like to avoid it completely. If I were younger I’d attempt to set up an organisation to fight it, even though chances of success are infinitely small. I am particularly grateful to Taurus for summing up objections to their virtual monopoly of nearly everything. I wonder if I can have permission to quote those objections please.
I’d like to make some comments on individual points that were made. I am using the latest version of the e/os operating system but have run into a good many problems. I should like to repeat that I am not an advanced user and will gladly accept that I may not understand all that is needed in order to make technology function properly. But like the rest of the responders I have done my best over the years to fight the beast. I suppose I can’t give up Android, as I understand it is the base for e/os. I don’t use social media or google maps, G-mail, or anything else that I am aware of that comes from Google. I have to disagree to some extent with HellsBells with respect to noting if one can’t find a substitute it isn’t important after all. I am being urged (not quite compelled yet) to use a device that permits my health team to monitor a bodily function, but it is available only from playstore. So far I have refused, but it hasn’t helped my relationship with the health service. I also have a bank which directly states that the app must come from playstore and not be side-loaded, and a large department store says the same. I can say categorically that they are notavailable from App Lounge. I have tried to download Aurora store, as suggested, but it is noted as N/A and I haven’t succeeded in getting it by direct download. The same is true of DuckDuckGo privacy app. My efforts to use F-droid always ends in frustration.
I fought even getting a mobile telephone, but circumstances forced me into it. I can’t even use a car park without one. But I insist on privacy and reject very much the comments of friends who say they don’t mind if everyone knows they stopped for a pizza on the way home from work. That misses the point entirely.
I appreciate the encouragement and look forward to any other advice on offer.
Absolutely. Feel free. (With the caveat that I’m no bona fide researcher of these things.)
Try to clear the cache + storage of the App Lounge and see again of you can find the apps. I f you give us the names of those apps, we can try it on our devices as well.
No problem for me to find and install it from the App Lounge.
Hello MRTN,
Thank you very much for your help. I am utterly frustrated, as you may have guessed, since nothing I do seems to work. I have now cleared cache and storage and tried everything once again. For the medical program to work I need the ‘FreestyleLibre’ app. It does not appear in App Lounge at least for me, and when I try to download it directly, it only shows availability through Google app play. I have tried again to install Aurora store, but after I tick on it in the App Lounge menu, it comes up with ‘N/A’, and as I said before I can’t download it from any other source. Despite the N/A I have tried to download it, but after showing 100%, the message reads ‘retry’. The store app I want is John Lewis plc (or their credit provider, NewDay) and the bank Santander. None show up in my App Lounge menu, although John Lewis did at one time. I never got it to function, and it no longer appears.
Since you appear to be successful, as with Duck Duck Go privacy app, I must be making a simple mistake -doing something wrong- but I can’t work out what it is.
Thank you once again.
I guess this is /e/OS v1.15?
Re App Lounge, you are probably aware that some users have issues – there are some ideas in this thread I answered recently. Need help: Issue with lounge app by app installation - #2 by aibd
I’m in a quite similar situation. I’m talking about it with my lawyer
Autora store is available in F-Droid.
I had problems with /e/ os store few times. It did not give me some apps like in your case and when I started using /e/ os, it did not give my banking app but asked me to login in google play first, giving me google play login screen in side store app.
I did not log into but install banking app on smartphone of my friend, and than pull it via adb on pc, and from pc to /e/ os smartphone. Not very convenient but you do this only once. Aurora ( e os ) store recognize and continue to update banking app although it was not installed via store.
Thanks again for all the comments and help. I hope it won’t seem too whingey to reply to some individually. First, thanks, Taurus, for your permission… I wrote a ‘thank-you’, but it wouldn’t go through, as the message was said to be too short! With respect to getting Aurora Store on F-Droid, I have tried that several times. The app seems to download, but when I go to log-on, there is a choice between signing up with Google or anonymously. Ticking the latter does nothing: I just can’t get on. I am using the latest update MRTN: /e/OS v1.15. I would be fascinated, nottolino, to learn if you get any satisfaction with legal advice. I am told by everyone or every organisation I have consulted, that I ‘take it or leave it’, as far as Google goes. I shall follow up any other suggestions, but so far no luck.
I’m sorry this seems to be a list of failures, but judging from replies, I feel there must be some way through, and perhaps all this will lead somewhere in the end.
That is incredible MRTN. I have just gone back to App Lounge and got nothing like that. Am I doing something completely stupid, do you think? I tick on the search icon, type in the name of the app, and click on find. I get a list that bears no relevance to what I have asked. I see from your screen shot, for example that H&M comes up, but not so on mine. I am really puzzled, but given what you have shown, there must be a simple solution somewhere. Any ideas where I go next?
Check the Settings in App Lounge → Show Applications → Show Common Apps
Have you marked the checkbox?
Try to disconnect Applounge account then reconnect it, the search fails lately.
I’ve been working hard since my last comment, and again I want to thank members for all the help offered. I have to admit, though, that I am about to concede that Google wins. I simply cannot get anything to work. I note in other threads that a good many people appear to have had the same experience. From what I can make out, it is a matter of luck: some have no problems at all, and others can’t get on the first rung of the ladder.
Before closing, perhaps I can be allowed to make several points:
- MRTN. You provided the results of a search in App Lounge for some of the apps I’d like to install. I wonder if you would be good enough to interpret for me what is meant by signal. I can tick that and get reference to a site, but I’m not certain where it fits in. Thanks.
- I’m having an incidental problem in that sometimes a notice appears, such as invalid request, on top of the keyboard. I haven’t found a way to delete it, so the keyboard is unusable. I have written for help, but I had already tried all the suggestions offered.
- In the App Lounge I can see the apps I want in the menu, but when I try to download, they don’t appear. For example, Freestyle Libre is listed, but not when I go to download it. The same is true for a banking app.
- I finally managed to get Aurora store, but I can not log in anonymously except 1 in 10 tries.
- When I have got into the store, I have seemingly downloaded several apps, but they won’t open.
I am writing all this just to show the state-of-play. I still want to outwit Goggle, but I think it is going to be impossible. Given that some people succeed, has anyone any idea why there should be such variation? I would even be willing to buy a new phone, but the OS I am using is the latest, and it would appear that the problem is not with the phone, but with AppLounge.
Kind regards
That’s just the filename of the screenshot, because I forwarded them from my phone to my desktop via Signal Messenger.
When I read how many problems you have with /e/OS, I can only give one advice : backup your personal data and perform a factory reset.
Hm, It could be your network provider blocking or rerouting certain connections. So I started using vpn, after Surfshark VPN was bought by globalist ( WEF behind)I started to have issues , for example I could not send mail from murena account what I reported to Murena. I abandon Surfshark, and there are only two VPN providers which could be at least partially free: Proton and Mullvad.
Normall apps even banking if you can pass saftynet and rootbeer that phone is not rooted, and some banks even if you fail tests, will work fine.
There are some malicious apps with political agenda for example McDonalds which will check safty net, root and than that you have active connection to google store and than that your account is politically correct. If you dislike woke madness for example will not work… Not only that it wont work with anonymous account from Aurora but some personal accounts as well still acitve with google. Google keeps them active to track such users. So I dont eat in McDonalds any more, and changed services from all such services with hidden agenda. So my all apps, banking, eId , are working fine on /e/ os with VPN or without after changing ISP and mobile operator.
A million thanks MRTN. I suppose I ought to have had the nous to do it long ago, but I have done a factory reset, and it seems to have worked. I haven’t spent a lot of time yet, but so far so good, and apps are appearing in the AppLounge. After literally years of struggle, I appear to have made a good start thanks to you.