Incognito mode not available [SOLVED]

[8angr0ves]

I recently bought a Umidigi A3 phone, I wasn't expecting much for the price point. But so far I've been pleasantly surprised, though I've found a few oddities in the software. One of them is that a select very few apps and websites only work in landscape view. But the one that annoys me the most is that Chrome and any other Chromium based apps have the incognito mode disabled, the main button is there in the menu but it's greyed out. I've rummaged through all the available setting on the phone and haven't found anything even referencing incognito. I've also tried to root the phone for some other reasons but the root tools keep failing, probably because of a locked boot loader but it's not a deal breaker yet. I'm getting used to other private browsing apps such as duck duck go but I'd still like to have the option. Thanks for any advice.

 

[svim]

Try going into your Settings >> Apps menu, find the Chrome app entry, open it, tap on the 'Force stop' button, then find and tap on the 'Clear data' button. Now open up the Chrome app again and see if that 'New Incognito tab' button is still greyed out.
https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95464?co=GENIE.Platform=Android&hl=en

Otherwise, an option you might want to look at is Mozilla's Firefox Focus app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.focus&hl=en_US
It essentially works all the time as Chrome's incognito mode in that by default when you close the app it automatically clears all cookies, trackers, saved passwords used during your current session. It's also good HTML5 support. But it might not be for you as it's by design just a bare-bones browser. It doesn't support bookmarks, has limited tabbing, and no syncing with a desktop browser equivalent.

 

[lvt]

Hmm, I always thought Umi phones use stock Android?

 

[Milo Willamson]

I use Ghostery for privacy

 

[JAngelus]

Here's a possible solution that works:
1. Go to Settings → System → About phone
2. Tap ‘Build number' 7 times, then unlock the screen to enable the Developer options
3. Step back to the System page and go to Developer options
4. Scroll down to USB debugging and enable it
5. Download ADB driver installer from http://dl.adbdriver.com/upload/adbdriver.zip
6. Unzip and install the driver.
7. Connect your phone to USB while its screen is unlocked.
8. Select Run from the Windows Start menu (or press Win key + R), then type cmd and press enter
9. Type and enter 'adb devices', then Allow USB debugging on your phone in the pop-up window.
10. Type (or copy and paste) and enter 'adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 org.chromium.example.partnercustomizations'

 

[yaboy]

Love the 10 step program. No idea what just happened but it fixed the problem. Thanks man. There is probably an interesting story behind how you formed this solution.

 

[JAngelus]

Some of the vendors like to tweak the software, based on what is allowed by Google. Like to load the default page to their website and etc. This removes the customization. I have not tested it on other devices than the UMIDIGI a3 pro, but it should work on every other device.

In the umi case their modifications blocked the incognito...

 

[Isaac Muñoz]

Hi, I know this is old, but I just got the same issue. I follow the 10 steps listed, but my "New incognito tab" is still grayed. I try in some other ways, and with some different solutions I find in other forums, but the cmd console keep saying "Failure [not installed for 0]". I really don't know what can I do now. Maybe you have an answer to this? Thank you.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Welcome to Android Forums, Isaac Muñoz!

Since this thread was marked 'solved,' you're not very likely to get help with your problem. [None but the curious--like me --will be reading it.]

I'd like to suggest starting a new thread. If you do, please post as many details as you can, such as your device's make and model, your Android version, and the version of Chrome you're using. We'll try to help you get this sorted out!