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

i'd be tickled to death to once again see a black screen where i could poke the unlock code into to resume the phone screen on the pc.

it seems your "MS Phone Link ... get around this and stay alive when the phone is asleep" is no longer true with android 13 (seems like that's when functionality got nuked, per MS quote below)

your "("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)." may be just the ticket to restore my ability to control screen from "different floor in house" .

i'd tried to connect to the s22 a while back via ADB, but couldn't get connection to work. guess i'll have to go back after it again.

if you please, what version of the PC and 'link to windows' were used?

for some time i was able to get by with the phone-link-1-22102-202-0.appxbundle on PC with samsung standard 'link to windows' .

didn't seem to ever realize any success with reverting to previous phone 'link to windows'.

and, the ms response on this issue is "Hi, thank you for your feedback. Please note that this change was made due to the security requirement update with Android 13 OS release. Thanks for letting us know about your dissatisfaction with the update. We've shared it with our development team to look into it further. Thank you."

translation: suck it up!

so sad when a great tool goes bad!

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. I hope Tim trips and falls into a meat grinder after selling all the 0days to the NSO group.

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>

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.

Agree, no answer to this.