Hi @ncls welcome to the /e/ forum.
Aware that you really want quick fixes, I think I should first point out
- ⚠️ Do not update Google Apps for now this is 29 days old now with contributions to 19 days ago.
It is not yet proven but updating /e/OS and / or Android version might force one to Update apps, and it might be hard to go back to this advice, and something “nearly working” might break further to “not working”.
You say /e/os 1.2 in your title, I think this will be the reason that the “fundamental” issues you are looking at seem unusable to you.
In case you would consider an upgrade (not especially suitable while travelling), perhaps start from telling us exactly what you are running
You may have read of an /e/ server outage may preclude some “quicker fix”. Maybe you read about App Lounge upgrade … but I think you will need newer /e/OS to get App Lounge to update itself in the way suggested here
… then you would be back to my first link warning, Re Google, assuming that is what you really want!