By default all system apps are disabled ?

[MarkC]

Im working on another issue with the contacts app and stumbled across this setting neslted away in Meraki.

In Profile and settings, clicking on More andriod options and then selecting Android System Apps I can see where it says By default all system apps are disabled.

Does this mean that The Contacts app which is pretty much a standard app will be disabled, hence why it's trying to re install itself all the time as part of the system.

If I white list the app then I'm black listing all the others if I've read the documentation properly?

Cheers in advance

[koolmike]

I'm not sure what qualifies as a System App. But I noticed that in my "Android for Work" devices, a lot of the system apps like the Camera or Text Messages disappear.

I'm not sure about the Whitelisting one App causes a blacklist of all the others. But in my setup, I created a Blacklist and left it blank. This allowed all the system apps to be enabled that were previously gone.

[Dadof5]

I ran into this same issue and accidentally applied this to the wrong tag. This removed the phone app from all my Samsung phones because Samsung has it's own phone app. You have to know each System App's ID which you can get by going to the App list and going to settings and then Show System apps.  All the com.xxx apps should be your system apps.  I will see if all our staff are unable to call in the morning.  Hopefully setting the blacklist as blank will have the phone app return. My concern is that will load all the apps I don't want installed.

I find it very frustrating that you can apply this system apps setting and essentially brick your device. There should be an easier way to enable basic apps besides trying to figure out each device's app list. The same with the device's blacklist. Do I need to know each specific phone's list of apps for this system setting to work properly?

[MarkC]

I've placed the apps I need onto a white list and the contacts app, only the contacts app is having issues with deleting itself, re installing, wait a few minutes and then it happens again.

So I thought to test on a system without MDM. Guess what contacts is rock solid.  With a phone on and booting into safe mode then the problem doesn't happen.

I've gone as far as creating the bare bones of a profile, whitelisting android system apps and guess what.....  Same issue.

[MarkC]

I've placed the apps I need onto a white list and the contacts app, only the contacts app is having issues with deleting itself, re installing, wait a few minutes and then it happens again.

So I thought to test on a system without MDM. Guess what contacts is rock solid.  With a phone on and booting into safe mode then the problem doesn't happen.

I've gone as far as creating the bare bones of a profile, whitelisting android system apps and guess what.....  Same issue.

[Dadof5]

What phone model are you using? I am finding that some phones have custom apps and using the wrong app id will result in an error.

[MarkC]

I've tried a number of phones, Motorola G5 and a google pixel.  All the phones are having the same issue which is just bonkers.  It's only the contacts app that seems to terminate, uninstall then re install

Even gone ahead and created a new profile where I whitelisted system apps and yet contacts still does that strangeness.