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Using Google Keep on a Samsung S21? Don’t install One UI 4

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Samsung has been busy rolling out Android 12 updates to a bunch of smartphones over the past few weeks. While the rollout has been largely bug-free, a specific subset of Samsung users has encountered a rather peculiar issue. Apparently, the move to Android 12 and One UI 4.0 seems to have caused an inadvertent bug with Google’s popular note-taking app Google Keep on select Samsung smartphones.

According to the user who first reported this problem, he noticed the issue after finding that an auto-numbered list on his Google Keep app behaving strangely. Whenever he tried to navigate through the list by scrolling, the bug caused extra numbers to be automatically added. The problem also manifests whenever users try to add newer items to the list. The user in question was using a Samsung Galaxy S21+.

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The user also shared a screenshot showing the result of what the bug had done to his numbered list. Because he could not get Samsung or Google to respond to this bug, the only fix he could think of was to open the numbered list using a web browser on a PC, where it is correctly displayed.

A screengrab showing the issue with numbered lists on the Google Keep app on Samsung smartphones.
The latest One UI 4.0 update is messing up numbered lists on the Google Keep app. Tim O 8971/ Google Support Forums

While people have been talking about this peculiar problem for over two months at Google’s support forums, it gained substantial traction after a 9to5Google report prompted a Google volunteer contributor to confirm and acknowledge the problem exists. The contributor, a Diamond Product Expert on Google Forums, also revealed that there is no timeline for when to expect a fix as of yet. Chances are, we may only see a fix whenever Google issues an update for Google Keep on the Play Store.

Interestingly, not all smartphones running One UI 4.0 atop Android 12 seem to be affected by the problem. The issue appears to primarily affect some units of flagship-grade devices like the Samsung Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+, and the Galaxy Note 20. So far, there have been no reports of any Samsung Galaxy A series or M series phones facing this issue.

Nevertheless, if you happen to own one of the smartphones mentioned above, and also use Google Keep on Android a lot, it might be a good idea to hold off on the long-awaited Android 12 One UI 4.0 update for a couple of days. For those who don’t use Google Keep at all, we don’t see any reason you should push back the One UI update.

Rahul Srinivas
Rahul Srinivas
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Rahul is a smartphone buff turned tech journalist who has been tinkering with all things mobile since the early 2000s. He has…
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