Unlocking phone sometimes makes apps have a low opacity

REPRODUCIBILITY (% or how often): 5%, maybe less. I unlock my phone often, but it is very memorable, when it actually happens and it seems to happen every other day.
BUILD ID: 3.3.0.16 (Rokua), Device adaption: 0.2.1.25
HARDWARE (Jolla1, Tablet, XA2,…): Xperia X Compact (seems to have been reproduced on other devices too)
UI LANGUAGE: German
REGRESSION: (compared to previous public release: Yes, No, ?): Yes, this was introduced in either the last release or the one before it.

DESCRIPTION:

Sometimes unlocking the phone randomly changes the opacity of the currently focused application. The actual opacity value seems to vary, but text becomes noticeably harder to read. Swiping slightly from the side (switch app gesture) makes the text readable again, but this doesn’t persist. You need to restart the app or hope for a unlock to randomly change the opacity again to something more readable.

This mostly seems to happen after the phone has been locked for a while, but I haven’t found exact conditions to reproduce it. Fingerprint unlock vs code doesn’t seem to make a difference. This only affects the app that was focused before locking the phone, all others look fine.

PRECONDITIONS:

Locked phone with screen off. Maybe it needs to have been locked for a while. Have an app focused before locking the phone, so that this app will be focused after unlock.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE:

  1. Unlock phone
  2. (hope you are lucky enough to reproduce the bug)

EXPECTED RESULT:

Old app is in focus and looks as it did before locking the phone.

ACTUAL RESULT:

Text in app is barely readable, and it looks like the entire app has opacity set to a value lower than 1.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Sadly I do not have a screenshot, but I’ll attach one if I can reproduce it again and remember to screenshot it this time.

Just managed to get a screenshot of it, although in this case the text is still pretty readable, it can be much worse:

without bug it should look like this:

14 Likes

Workaround for me in the (rare) case that some transparent layer after unlock makes the screen unreadable is to change screen rotation from portrait to landscape mode and vice versa.

7 Likes

I need to try that next time, I never tried that, I think. Thanks!

Mentioned here also - https://together.jolla.com/question/224599/33014-ui-snafus/
Seems like a 3.3 bug…

3 Likes

Rotating does help from my experience. But the bug itself is rare on my XA2. Thanks OP for report!

1 Like

Same here. 5% guesstimate is realistic. Only since 3.3. (I’m on XA2+)

1 Like

+1 and in case of apps running with root privileges (like root@tIDE) rotation doesn’t solve the issue

1 Like

Bump. Still an ssue with 3.4.0.24 (Xperia X).

Also this topic seems related: Transparent overlap UI

2 Likes

I experienced something very similar with 3.3, but it didn’t hit me yet (or at least not often enough to make me remember) on 3.4.
Update: today, I took a screenshot while the Notes app was “dimmed”. Then I was able to confirm that changing orientation actually restores readibility by removing the opacity.

Just became aware of this same issue in my Phone app. The text (all the dialled numbers, contacts etc) is faded and slightly swiping the app makes the the text clear temporarily. But let go off the swipe gesture and the text fades again. For me, changing the screen orientation didn’t help.

The fix that worked for me is restarting the Homescreen from Settings:

SettingsUtilities -» Tap Restart button under Homescreen

(If you don’t see Utilities in Settings you may need to install Sailfish Utilities from the Jolla Store.)

I am on Sailfish OS 3.4.0.24 on Jolla 1.

1 Like

You don’t need to restart home screen to fix the opacity issue. It’s sufficient to switch between landscape and portrait mode and switch back. This should restore opacity.

As I mentioned, changing the orientation did not fix the issue for me. Only a restart of the Homescreen worked.