The appium-android-driver cannot unlock the screen on some devices

[nghiadhd]

[email protected]
Issue devices:

1. Galaxy Note 3: Model: SM-N9005, version: 4.4.2
2. Galaxy S4: Model: GT-I9500, version: 4.4.2
3. HTC one: Model: HTC6525LVW, version: 5.0.1

Other devices still work well

Note: In the past, the Galaxy S4 still works well, but after upgrade to newer OS version, it doesn't work any more

Issue: "Encountered internal error running command: Error: Screen did not unlock successfully"
Expectation: The screen should be unlocked

---

After do some investigating, found that the adb command to start the unlock doesn't work
adb with args: ["-P",5037,"-s","xxxxxxxxxx","shell","am","start","-n","io.appium.unlock/.Unlock","-S","-a","android.intent.action.MAIN","-c","android.intent.category.LAUNCHER","-f","0x10200000"]

I can reproduce the issue by adb command

adb -s shell am start -n 'io.appium.unlock/.Unlock' -S -a 'android.intent.action.MAIN' -c 'android.intent.category.LAUNCHER' -f '0x10200000'

Some addresses

The '-S' option doesn't work (should be remove from command)
If the unlock is on foreground, the command doesn't make effect

My solution, use 'adb shell am force-stop' to kill 'unlock' and 'adb shell am start' to restart 'unlock' app. I tested on issue devices and confirm it works well

adb -s <UDID>  shell am force-stop 'io.appium.unlock
adb -s <UDID>  shell am start -n 'io.appium.unlock/.Unlock' -a 'android.intent.action.MAIN' -c 'android.intent.category.LAUNCHER' -f '0x10200000'
adb -s <UDID>  shell am start -n 'io.appium.unlock/.Unlock' -a 'android.intent.action.MAIN' -c 'android.intent.category.LAUNCHER' -f '0x10200000'

Weird that after force-stop, we should call 'am start' 2 times to invoke the 'unlock' app. That's should be the reason why '-S' option doesn't work

[imurchie]

Interesting! Thank you for the detailed update. I'll take a look at this!

[nghiadhd]

Thank @imurchie

That's seem a critical issue. The test script always failed if the screen cannot unlocked

[rkavalap]

+1

[rkavalap]

Issue moved to appium/appium #7401 via ZenHub