New issue with unlocking my Samsung phone via phone link app on PC

Hi all,

Just re-read all the comments, and although people have mentioned submitting a feedback request, nobody shared a link to it so we can upvote it.

So, here's the link to the feedback request (Microsoft has turned it into a "collection", which is what they do when people submit a bunch of the same feedback as different requests): https://aka.ms/AAnzhzi

Go upvote it. It currently has 180 upvotes, which isn't going to get any attention.

The bad news is that there's an official response on that feedback blaming the problem on "security" in Android 13.

My S22U updated a few days ago to Android 14 and OneUI6 and now this workaround is mostly broken.

We used to have to give permission on the phone (Start Now) - once - after a phone reboot - and we could connect every day without phone interaction until the next phone reboot.

Now you have to give permission on the phone every time you open the PC Phone Link app..

But.. if you lock the phone with Phone Link (PC) still running/attached, you can still unlock the phone by blindly typing the pin (as before).

ditto to chipster' comment.

seems like a bunch of us here that all want the same thing, with samsung &/or MS ignoring it.

HAS ANYONE BEEN ABLE, OR TRIED, TO INSTALL EARLIER VERSION OF THE SMARTPHONE SERVICE ON THE SAMSUNG S22?

i never CLOSE or stop the phone service or the app & services on the PC (PC 'hibernates' across night hours), so would've hoped that it would've cached the 'permission to display phone screen' token, but, no joy.

This feature is now totally broken. It was great while it lasted, but they've been chipping away at it relentlessly till now it isn't worth the bother. Any time I want to remote in, I have to go find the phone, find my glasses, squint at the tiny screen, poke at the tiny keyboard. By that time, I might as well just use the phone.

This is FAKE security, Google. Like forced password changes, it only degrades the user experience while making security worse. It's another fine example of stupid, useless corporations telling us how to live our lives, while they themselves wreck everything.

You suck.

Getting remote control to work on modern Android is a huge rabbit hole. No remote control software (Anydes, Rustdesk, Teamviewer) works in unattended mode anymore because their host service gets killed once the phone is locked (no, it's not a power saving issue, it's probably some permission policy and/or a Samsung thing), but MS Phone Link and MyPhoneExplorer get around this and stay alive when the phone is asleep. The reason that PIN entry doesn't work over the remote is that at some point the PIN entry screen became a "secure" screen which can't be captured by screen grabbers ("project_media" permission, which can be given through ADB to any remote control app so you can connect remotely without the idiotic "start casting" dialog). So the best it gets is a remote control app (like Rustdesk) which shows a black screen where you can try to enter the PIN blindly by clicking where you expect the number buttons to be (because input is still working in this high-security model).

I'm pretty sure the PIN entry GUI in MS Phone Link just emulated clicks at the location of the number buttons (guessed from the screen size and maybe some hard-coded database of common GUI layouts). This method of blind clicking still should work - heck, you can overlay a screenshot of the PIN entry screen over the black screen in a remote control program and click yourself. MS most likely removed the function because Apple threatened to ban the app otherwise.<removed>