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Since Android 11, there is a system feature where it resets app permissions after a certain amount of time has passed and you haven't used the app. I hate this, it keeps resetting apps I use infrequently.

I know you can turn it off on most apps, but it seems to turn back on when there are app or system updates. There must be a way to disable this feature entirely or to make the default setting off instead of on.

I have tried various searches but I can find nothing. Others must have had the desire to disable this annoying feature? Any help would be appreciated!

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    As of Android 12 there's no setting to disable the feature entirely. You've to do it for individual apps which is a cumbersome job. To make it relatively easier, you can use PMX. Disclosure: I'm the author of the app.
    – Irfan Latif
    Commented Jan 2, 2022 at 10:29
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    In Android 12, even with the toggle OFF it still happens and i still get notifications about it. This "feature" is more nuisance than anything else
    – matthewkuhl
    Commented Jun 6, 2022 at 1:34
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    @IrfanLatif Your application can control the "Remove permissions and free up space" "feature" of Android? If I can toggle it FALSE for all 196 installed applications I'll buy it today! :)
    – Paul
    Commented Jul 15, 2022 at 19:22
  • @Paul AFAIK the same feature is named differently in different Android releases: "Remove permissions and free up space", "Auto revoke permissions", "Remove permissions if app isn't used", and may be others.
    – Irfan Latif
    Commented Jul 15, 2022 at 21:49
  • I think this might work on some Android versions in an adb root shell: pm disable com.google.android.permissioncontroller/com.android.permissioncontroller.permission.service.AutoRevokeService ; pm disable com.google.android.permissioncontroller/com.android.permissioncontroller.permission.service.AutoRevokeOnBootReceiver
    – Alexander Pruss
    Commented Sep 10, 2023 at 21:55

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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I have not found a way to completely disable this "feature", but it can be done per app: Google play store→your profile picture in the top right→"Play protect" (even if it's off)→gear icon in the top right→permissions for unused apps→"Auto-remove on" tab
Then click each, turn off the "Remove permissions if app isn't used" slider and go back.

The app "RepetiTouch" can be used to record and repeatedly execute clicks, but you should be careful with it, when I just tried it, it somehow got into another menu and installed a random app.

This still needs to be repeated after every app install. The closest I've found to automating this is letting an automatic app like MacroDroid trigger on app install and use the "Secure settings" plugin to launch the Google play store activity "[Play Protect] com.google.android.finsky.protect.impl.PlayProtectHomeDeepLinkActivity", which is the "Play protect" screen.

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Since you haven't mentioned your OEM, Android skin, etc., I'm going to answer this from my device's perspective, i.e., a Realme device (steps below would also work with any Realme/Oppo/OnePlus device)

Go to app info on each of those apps > permissions > toggle "remove permissions if not used" to OFF.

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    The question is to disable the feature globally, not for individual apps. OP mentioned that.
    – Irfan Latif
    Commented Jan 2, 2022 at 10:22
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Disable Play protect service at all. I have disabled it, and now permissions are not being removed. There is only one disadvantage - it is annoying banner in Google Play asking me to turn on Play protect.

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    This did not work for me.
    – Paul
    Commented Jul 15, 2022 at 19:18
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    @Paul Maybe it auto-enabled itself. It does that all the time. I'm pretty sure that's against GDPR.
    – Fabian Röling
    Commented Dec 21, 2022 at 21:47
  • It didn't auto-enable itself for me for a while, but I still got removed permissions, so it's unrelated.
    – Fabian Röling
    Commented Feb 13, 2023 at 2:41
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Open Settings, open Play Services, scroll down to "Unused Apps", then de-select "Remove permissions and free up space". This is on Android 12 but should also work on 11.

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    This approach is similar to karthik nair's answer for each app, though it's unclear if disabling only Play Services would work.
    – Andrew T. ♦
    Commented Nov 10, 2022 at 20:45

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