Database Develop

[Q] Goole Search (Entries Refresh) wakelock

Since the latest update to Google Search (version 3.1.8.914827) I've noticed that periodically I'd get a very long lasting wakelock. It doesn't seem to cause horrendous battery usage, per se, but it does seem to keep the phone up for a long time, and so I'd notice that battery performs slightly worse than usual.
BBS shows a wakelock caused by EntriesRefresh_wakelock, and under Running App, I'd see an entry for Google Search (EntriesRefreshIntentService).
I'm running stock 4.3 with Sense 5.0 and all that, non-root and not modified in any way.
It may be relevant that while I have Google Now enabled, I disabled location history / location reporting, and I also disable/enable Location Services as needed. GPS is left off.
Does anyone know what this Entries Refresh Intent Service is?

First time I noticed this today. When I went in to Google Now, it wasn't responding so I forced stopped it and that seemed to fix it for me.
EDIT: Forgot to mention I'm not an HTC One user. Currently using Note II N7100 on CM 10.2. Just found this thread via Google.

Do you also toggle on and off location services as necessary? I'm wondering if the latest version of Search can't handle intermittent location data.
Sent from my HTC One

babule said:
Do you also toggle on and off location services as necessary? I'm wondering if the latest version of Search can't handle intermittent location data.
Sent from my HTC One
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am also having this problem on my Nexus 7. I had location turned off so I turned it on to see if it will happen again.

babule said:
Since the latest update to Google Search (version 3.1.8.914827) I've noticed that periodically I'd get a very long lasting wakelock. It doesn't seem to cause horrendous battery usage, per se, but it does seem to keep the phone up for a long time, and so I'd notice that battery performs slightly worse than usual.
BBS shows a wakelock caused by EntriesRefresh_wakelock, and under Running App, I'd see an entry for Google Search (EntriesRefreshIntentService).
I'm running stock 4.3 with Sense 5.0 and all that, non-root and not modified in any way.
It may be relevant that while I have Google Now enabled, I disabled location history / location reporting, and I also disable/enable Location Services as needed. GPS is left off.
Does anyone know what this Entries Refresh Intent Service is?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i notice this as well on my i337m rogers galaxy s4 android 4.3 TW Goldeneye 13

Same on my Nexus 5. Location disabled, gps off.

Noticed this as well on my note 3. For me as soon as i enable all the location settings the wakelock goes away. If i disable location settings as soon as i access google now once, the wakelock starts.

I am a galaxy s3 owner running ArchiDroid 2.2.4 which is a CyanogenMod 10.2 fork, I did notice this wakelock today, using Wakelock Detector I found this service remained on for 24minutes on a 12.5 hours period, I have just "greenifyed" it and let see what happens, I will keep you posted.
By the way, this issue began after disabling location services on google app.

This is ridiculous! Also don't know where audio mix is coming from.
Phone is a Nexus 5.
Tapatalked from my Nexus 5

exact same situation. nexus 5 as well
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

babule said:
It may be relevant that while I have Google Now enabled, I disabled location history / location reporting, and I also disable/enable Location Services as needed. GPS is left off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Moto X (4.2.2) republic wireless. Same setup
*edit - I found that turning location services on (WIFI/Cell but not GPS) stopped the lock.

Had the same problem today on my nexus 5
Inviato dal mio Nexus 5 utilizzando Tapatalk

KoRRo89 said:
Had the same problem today on my nexus 5
Inviato dal mio Nexus 5 utilizzando Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same on my nexus 5 , any solutions?

Same here on my Nexus 7, it's really annoying

the7thson said:
Same here on my Nexus 7, it's really annoying
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems like its an issue with Google Now and a lack of Location Services. I have the same issue after setting Location to Device Only (and turning off GPS) - it actually stopped the intermittent wakelocks I was experiencing, but last night my Nexus 5 was awake for several hours straight.
My hypothesis is that wakelocks will end if
A) Google Now is turned off (if Locations services are disabled)
B) Location Services is set to Power Saving (if Location services are enabled)

Same with my note 3
Sent from my DE Note 3

anybody figure out what causes this? nexus 5 here
for now i just disabled google now

Hi to all, same problem here, after disabling google now and disabling all "location" settings from google apps I managed to stop this wakelock.... hope google will fix this .... asap !

I had the same issue, so disabling Google now (opening Google now, settings, toggle it off) has stopped this wakelock for me!
Sucks a bit to turn it off, but I'd rather not have the wakelock than have good now info, I'll just wait for an update/fix.

Bad battery life after KitKat upgrade - Solution

You've probably seen a ton of complaints on the bad battery life after KitKat upgrade. Google Services is seen at 90+% in battery stats, and the battery is discharging very quickly.
Factory reset is reported to cure the problem. Many are disabling Google Location services. There's also a workaround suggested by Sony, to disable backup and interest-based ads, or uninstall the latest Google Services.
[edit Jul-1-2014]
New Google Play Services 5.0 is now out, and its APK can be downloaded and installed just by searching for it in Google. It's reported to cure the problem for some, temporarily or permanently. It's recommended to try it first, before going with the suggestion below.
[previous post contents starting here]
However, there's no need to resort to the above, a much "lighter" solution may work. I've attempted it on my father's ZR and it worked.
Thanks to grim_ripper for mentioning steps that I forgot.
What needs to be done:
1. Go to Settings / Security / Device Administrators, disable Android Device Manager, if enabled.
2. Go to Settings / Apps, disable Google Play Services. It'll ask you to uninstall all updates, agree to it. After disabling it, some of other phone services might crash. Don't mind it.
3. This step might not be required according to the feedback from grim_ripper, however I'll list it "just in case": press "Clear data", or "Control data usage" and then "Clear all data". Make sure that in the Google Play Services app page, it's listed as disabled and has 0kB data usage.
4. Re-enable Google Play Services. Hangouts will immediately ask for its upgrade, get into Google Play Store and upgrade it.
5. Reboot the phone. You should see no crashes at this point.
6. In case you want Android Device Manager to function - go to Settings / Security / Device Administrators and enable it.
That's it, Google Play Services battery usage will be back to normal, and battery life seems even improved over JellyBean.
[edit Jul-13-2014]
The fix might stick for some, and some will find the battery drain coming back after several days. I'm over a month with it, and everything is still fine. However, the results are mixed.

Jack_R1 said:
You've probably seen a ton of complaints on the bad battery life after KitKat upgrade. Google Services is seen at 90+% in battery stats, and the battery is discharging very quickly.
Factory reset is reported to cure the problem. Many are disabling Google Location services. There's also a workaround suggested by Sony, to disable backup and interest-based ads, or uninstall the latest Google Services.
However, there's no need to resort to the above, a much "lighter" solution may work. I've attempted it on my father's ZR and it worked.
What needs to be done:
1. Go to Settings / Apps, disable Google Play Services. It'll ask you to uninstall all updates, agree to it. After disabling it, some of other phone services might crash. Don't mind it.
2. Press "Clear data", or "Control data usage" and then "Clear all data". Make sure that in the app page, it's listed as disabled and has 0kB data usage.
3. Re-enable Google Play Services. Hangouts will immediately ask for its upgrade, get into Google Play Store and upgrade it.
4. Reboot the phone. You should see no crashes at this point.
That's it, Google Play Services battery usage will be back to normal, and battery life seems even improved over JellyBean.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I confirm that this works, I didn't even clear data.Just disabled android device manager, uninstall google play services, enabled android device manager, re-install play services and finally reboot

Thank you, I completely forgot about Android Device Manager blocking the app disable. With your permission, I'll update the instructions.

I have just tried that thing you posted, will see how the results are in a few days.
One thing I noticed after upgrading to KK is night time for about 8 hours the battery drains 10% while in JB 4.3 it drains about 20% or more.
But the usage draining is similar to JB in KK. Will see if this thing works. Don't like to go to barebones CM11 cause I will be missing on the many features of the phone.
Let's see

It s working here too!
At first, I didn't even thought I had a problem but I looked in the processes and saw this f... Google service running.
Now my batterie last even better than when I was on 4.3.
Thanks

Jack_R1 said:
Thank you, I completely forgot about Android Device Manager blocking the app disable. With your permission, I'll update the instructions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No Problem. I found out that this method only works as long as you don't reboot the phone after the fix, otherwise you'll need to do the whole process again. Mine went well until I waited till my battery was fully discharged before charging, hence forcing a reboot which play services started misbehaving again

I just realized a new battery drain problem, the Xperia social services keeps draining my problem

grim_ripper said:
I just realized a new battery drain problem, the Xperia social services keeps draining my problem
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh yes, I have all these disabled. Perhaps this is why I had to restart the phone a couple of times already (changing SIM cards back and forth), and the original Google Services problem didn't come back.

Jack_R1 said:
You've probably seen a ton of complaints on the bad battery life after KitKat upgrade. Google Services is seen at 90+% in battery stats, and the battery is discharging very quickly.
Factory reset is reported to cure the problem. Many are disabling Google Location services. There's also a workaround suggested by Sony, to disable backup and interest-based ads, or uninstall the latest Google Services.
However, there's no need to resort to the above, a much "lighter" solution may work. I've attempted it on my father's ZR and it worked.
Thanks to grim_ripper for mentioning steps that I forgot.
What needs to be done:
1. Go to Settings / Security / Device Administrators, disable Android Device Manager, if enabled.
2. Go to Settings / Apps, disable Google Play Services. It'll ask you to uninstall all updates, agree to it. After disabling it, some of other phone services might crash. Don't mind it.
3. This step might not be required according to the feedback from grim_ripper, however I'll list it "just in case": press "Clear data", or "Control data usage" and then "Clear all data". Make sure that in the Google Play Services app page, it's listed as disabled and has 0kB data usage.
4. Re-enable Google Play Services. Hangouts will immediately ask for its upgrade, get into Google Play Store and upgrade it.
5. Reboot the phone. You should see no crashes at this point.
6. In case you want Android Device Manager to function - go to Settings / Security / Device Administrators and enable it.
That's it, Google Play Services battery usage will be back to normal, and battery life seems even improved over JellyBean.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I confirm that it works. At least for a week or so - after that the GogglePlayServices problem appeared again....

Dont helps in my case too.
At first it seems that it works, but after a day the google services are again over 75 prozent or so.
Thinking of going back to 4.3 or hoping that a fix will come soon.

Is it necessary to factory reset after update to kit kat to encounter the battery drain problem?

I had these problems and the only save cure is to disable the location services. Some times you would think a solution helps but stucked with an empty Phone suddely is a bad thing.
Sent from my C5503 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Is something known of a fix from Google for the google services?
I ask cause since yesterday evening the akku works normal in my case. Dont see the google services as first in line of accu consumption like before. Seems that everything works fine again.

Lemmi1 said:
Is something known of a fix from Google for the google services?
I ask cause since yesterday evening the akku works normal in my case. Dont see the google services as first in line of accu consumption like before. Seems that everything works fine again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After I disabled the location service I see the android system in the second line. And the google services almost at the bottom line. The battery usage still not very good.

Been through several reboots by now, everything enabled, location is used, the problem didn't return, on both mine and my father's phones.
The only thing worth noting is my phone configuration - not rooted, STAMINA mode disabled, Low battery mode disabled, Queue background data disabled, Location-based WiFi enabled.
Waiting patiently for the next Sony update.

OK, the method seems to be obvious.
Does it need to be repeated after every reboot?
I also do not understand why installing the latest Google Play (after removing it the way it is written here) is not bringing the problem back .
Thanks anyway.

By the looks of it, the issue might be caused by user data being present already in Google Services since before the KitKat upgrade, but this is some type of data that's not necessarily present once it's deleted. Maybe some sort of duplication / overloading of data from multiple places, and this changes the order of loading.

one word: AMAZING
after this all the lagging of UI and keyboard is removed.
I was intending to install CM11, but after this fix I think I will stay with stock ROM

Ok this worked well for a couple of days including the UI lag fix but now Play services is destroying my battery again. I'm fed up with my ZR (Bluetooth issues and all) Just ordered a Nexus 5 yay!
Sent from my C5502 using Tapatalk 2

New Google Play Services 5.0 is out, if it didn't reach you yet - you can install it. It stops the battery drain.

WiFi keeps turning on and off on its own

I don't know what might have happened, but this morning, I tried to connect my Phone to WiFi, and for some reason, it wouldn't. The WiFi toggle button that you see when you pull down the Notification Bar, now that WiFi button keeps turning on and off constantly. The time it takes between each toggle (on to off or off to on) is just about 0.5 - 1 sec. This is crazy. I can't connect to my WiFi.
I googled for solutions, no luck. I hard reset my Phone, no luck still. I wiped Partition Cache too. I entered into the Safe Mode, the same behavior happened. It's weird. It's like my Phone is possessed or something. A virus maybe?
Any input would be much appreciated. My phone is running the latest Firmware from T-mobile. And I got the update maybe 1-2 weeks ago and it had been working fine until this morning the issue started.

My phone just started doing this as well. Wifi keeps turning off and on. If I want to keep it off I have to restart my phone. If I want to use the wifi I have to manually toggle it from the wifi settings. Just weird it started doing this just recently. Maybe an app we both have installed?

I think I've found the issue. Sadly only after 3x reformatting the phone.
Go to Settings, Location, then click on Improve Accuracy, then turn off WiFi and Bluetooth Scanning (actually just the WiFi scanning would do the trick, but I decided to just turn off both of them). I suspect an update to one of Google system apps might have caused the phone's WiFi to behave weirdly like this. For the past 2-3 years I've had this phone, it had been fine with these two options turned on. It changed yesterday.
Let me know if this solution works for you.

febzz88 said:
I think I've found the issue. Sadly only after 3x reformatting the phone.
Go to Settings, Location, then click on Improve Accuracy, then turn off WiFi and Bluetooth Scanning (actually just the WiFi scanning would do the trick, but I decided to just turn off both of them). I suspect an update to one of Google system apps might have caused the phone's WiFi to behave weirdly like this. For the past 2-3 years I've had this phone, it had been fine with these two options turned on. It changed yesterday.
Let me know if this solution works for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha I was about to post this solution as well! Turning off the wifi in location accuracy fixed it. You're right about probably some Google app is causing this as this hadn't happened before yesterday. Sorry you had to format your phone to find this out...hopefully google or samsung can fix this from their end.

Thanks for this! Working for me (I'm on Tekxodus URv7.4R2 N5R9 with Emotion Kernel (r23).
Was driving me nuts. I'm a bit concerned about the loss of wifi for location accuracy though since my phone's GPS has been borked ever since i can remember.
Update: I noticed a recent review on the Play Store for Android Wear referring to a recent Wear update possibly causing the issue. I have Wear installed for a watch. Just curious if anyone experiencing this problem does NOT have Wear installed?

muzzy996 said:
Thanks for this! Working for me (I'm on Tekxodus URv7.4R2 N5R9 with Emotion Kernel (r23).
Was driving me nuts. I'm a bit concerned about the loss of wifi for location accuracy though since my phone's GPS has been borked ever since i can remember.
Update: I noticed a recent review on the Play Store for Android Wear referring to a recent Wear update possibly causing the issue. I have Wear installed for a watch. Just curious if anyone experiencing this problem does NOT have Wear installed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just uninstalled wear and same issue persist. Last app from Google that I did an update on was Google home...formally known as chromecast.
---------- Post added at 10:30 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:04 AM ----------
I just uninstalled Google home and the issue went away.

I do have Google Home and Android Wear installed as well. I checked the Google Home App Play Store Page and someone commented there pointing out about the issue too.

febzz88 said:
I do have Google Home and Android Wear installed as well. I checked the Google Home App Play Store Page and someone commented there pointing out about the issue too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup that was me leaving a comment haha

i have had exactly the same problem for a day or two. while disabling "location>improve accuracy>wifi scanning" stops the bug temporarily it doesn't really solve the problem. wifi scanning is an important location feature when navigating. in narrow streets or in buildings one usually does not have gps reception, also the wifi scanning technique for determining the devices location is usually faster and uses less battery than gps (how ironic).
this bug is extremely annoying. i am on an unbranded, unrooted s5 on 6.0.1 (g900f). i can not believe that this also happens with s7 and pixel phones, this is really ridiculous (see similar thread on androidcentral forum. can't post url because this is my first post). if anyone finds a permanent solution for this problem, please tell us!!!

androidschmandroid said:
i have had exactly the same problem for a day or two. while disabling "location>improve accuracy>wifi scanning" stops the bug temporarily it doesn't really solve the problem. wifi scanning is an important location feature when navigating. in narrow streets or in buildings one usually does not have gps reception, also the wifi scanning technique for determining the devices location is usually faster and uses less battery than gps (how ironic).
this bug is extremely annoying. i am on an unbranded, unrooted s5 on 6.0.1 (g900f). i can not believe that this also happens with s7 and pixel phones, this is really ridiculous (see similar thread on androidcentral forum. can't post url because this is my first post). if anyone finds a permanent solution for this problem, please tell us!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have Google Home installed? After I uninstalled that the wifi issue stopped

alanmv567 said:
Do you have Google Home installed? After I uninstalled that the wifi issue stopped
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no, i do not.

muzzy996 said:
Thanks for this! Working for me (I'm on Tekxodus URv7.4R2 N5R9 with Emotion Kernel (r23).
Was driving me nuts. I'm a bit concerned about the loss of wifi for location accuracy though since my phone's GPS has been borked ever since i can remember.
Update: I noticed a recent review on the Play Store for Android Wear referring to a recent Wear update possibly causing the issue. I have Wear installed for a watch. Just curious if anyone experiencing this problem does NOT have Wear installed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it your GPS or the Compass? If it can still detect your location but when you use, for example, the Google Maps Navigation, it couldn't really detect where/which direction you're going then it's probably just a compass issue. All you need is some calibration.
I fixed my friend's phone compass issue (and she thought her GPS was broken too) last week. The easiest way to calibrate: just download the GPS Status app and tap on the Calibration option and follow the instruction there.
Always try to calibrate your compass first as the first possible fix whenever you think your GPS is starting to go crazy, it might help.

Go to location>improve location>unchecked wifi scanning. It just worked for me

Uninstalling android wear seems to have worked for me.

febzz88 said:
Is it your GPS or the Compass? If it can still detect your location but when you use, for example, the Google Maps Navigation, it couldn't really detect where/which direction you're going then it's probably just a compass issue. All you need is some calibration.
I fixed my friend's phone compass issue (and she thought her GPS was broken too) last week. The easiest way to calibrate: just download the GPS Status app and tap on the Calibration option and follow the instruction there.
Always try to calibrate your compass first as the first possible fix whenever you think your GPS is starting to go crazy, it might help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely not the compass, been through the calibration process. Attempted many fixes including special GPS settings and utilities. At times the phone can sit there with screen on for over 10 minutes without acquiring a single satellite. I'm thinking hardware issue, possibly contacts for the antenna. In any case, not relevant to this thread...

I rebooted into recovery and wiped both CACHE and this fixed the issue. I did not change any settings in any apps either.

DirtySant0 said:
I rebooted into recovery and wiped both CACHE and this fixed the issue. I did not change any settings in any apps either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had tried this prior to reformatting my phone and it didn't help. I then wiped the cache again and reformatted the phone; in fact I reformatted and cleared cache 3x because the issue kept coming back after I reinstalled apps again. This is weird, the situation and resolution vary a lot from one user to another. Then I simply turned off WiFi Scanning under Improve Accuracy in Location, and the issue went away.

WHEW! Uninstalling Wear and Home did it for me. For now, anyway. I "fixed" it this morning by toggling Ultra Power Saver on and off, and it worked all day until I came home from work. Then nothing helped until I found this thread. Changing GPS settings didn't do it for me, but I'm still on Lollipop so my location settings are a little different.
Thank you, Febzz and Alan!

Google home was the issue!!
Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

Changes in router's Wireless Security had caused it in my case
This is old thread but still I am posting this solution as it could be useful tip for someone in future.
I had this issue and was causing me real headache. I initially thought it was hardware failure of my phone but later I found reason is something else.
For some reason I had changed Wireless Security of my WiFi router from WPA2 Personal to something else (I guess WEP).
That was causing my phone (intex cloud 4g) often to turn on and off WiFi on its own. I changed the Wireless Security back to WPA2 Personal and phone is now back to normal (not turning WiFi on and off on its own)

Changes to Device Administrator keeps crashing settings

I know there's got to be some setting turned on that is preventing me from toggling the apps in Device Administrator because whenever I go to it, I can see the full list, and when I attempt to toggle one of them on or off, settings crashes and locks the phone. I have two apps that have been toggled on, so somehow I was given the ability to do it before this hard to find setting was turned on preventing me from toggling any more apps....
Any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong? Thanks!

KryptosXLayer2 said:
I know there's got to be some setting turned on that is preventing me from toggling the apps in Device Administrator because whenever I go to it, I can see the full list, and when I attempt to toggle one of them on or off, settings crashes and locks the phone. I have two apps that have been toggled on, so somehow I was given the ability to do it before this hard to find setting was turned on preventing me from toggling any more apps....
Any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was getting the exact same issue on my S8+ yesterday. Do you perhaps have the latest/beta version of Call Recorder by SKVALEX installed? With my issue at least, I think it was down to that app, well a conflict between the two versions I had on the phone. May have been coincidence and could have been unrelated of course but removing both (old and beta) then just installing the latest beta sorted the issue, or t least the issue went away at the same time...

chippyuk said:
I was getting the exact same issue on my S8+ yesterday. Do you perhaps have the latest/beta version of Call Recorder by SKVALEX installed? With my issue at least, I think it was down to that app, well a conflict between the two versions I had on the phone. May have been coincidence and could have been unrelated of course but removing both (old and beta) then just installing the latest beta sorted the issue, or t least the issue went away at the same time...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not, I don't have that app nor do I think this is AN app preventing me from adjusting Device Administrator toggles

I Had the same problem in my note 7, only thing I could do was a reset all app settings, that solved the issue

Widgets not updating

My widgets are very slow to update. It may take him a half hour or longer to update. I have checked battery optimization is not on for those apps, although one of those two apps that I have the problem with background data is grayed out. So I can't turn on allow background data. Not sure why that would be great out.
Any thoughts?

Wunderlist Task List.
DTG/GTD
But, I did some things poking around, don't remember for sure what all, but I had read that changing the Animation Scale etc to .5 would help. I did change that.
Before posting, I had found that Wunderlist was on battery optimization. Changing it didn't appear to help, so I posted. But now, it seems to be working. Maybe it's fixed. I'll post back in a day or two and indicate if it is still working or has stopped again.

Well, no, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that's the only change I made, and at that point it had started working.
Are you having same problem, albeit different widgets?
FYI... mine is now not working again. I'm not surprised. But am frustrated.

Update...
I am finding that it does eventually update. It feels like the phone has been taken over by something. But, then, other things don't seem slow.
I just installed Gsam battery monitor, and ran the ADB cmds to try to identify apps using battery. Maybe I'll find something using a lot of battery and hence cycles.
My battery does seem to be going down quite a bit faster than it should.

It cleared up for a while after a factory reset,But it's back, and, I find that notifications from Lightflow come in 30 minutes after recieved.
It's like the phone is operating in molasses.
I'm beginning to think this phone is crap. If I switch back to my old Mate 9 it works fine.

jd14771 said:
certain apps aren't syncing well with pie. i had this same issue with Beautiful widgets, could not get the weather or time to update unless i manually updated it.
Under <Problem APP's> App Info > Battery
1.A Make sure the app is allowed background activity
1.B Make sure the app is not set to "optimized"
. (note: by default, the optimized list will only show apps that HAVEN'T been optimized, . you have to select "ALL" at the top to see all apps.)
Under <Problem APP's> App Info > Mobile Data
2.A Make sure "allow background data usage" is enabled.
2.B Make sure "allow app while data saver is on" if you have data saver enabled.
. (enable this if you want to be sure an app will receive background data.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestions. I don't seem to be having any luck with that. Had already done those.
But!! ...
I just found a post after doing a global search for another issue I am having that seems to coincide with the widget issues, which is, Play Store freezing during updates. The post was in a Xaiomi forum. He said that he found if he had blue tooth on, his play store would constantly freeze. He turned off BT, and rebooted, and it worked.
I just did the same thing...and it is working...both the play store, and widget updates.
Interesting to have the great feeling of success, along with the frustration of a new (newly realized) issue yet remaining (BT).

Looking for a little further and through the settings on Bluetooth, I turned off Bluetooth scan. Now at first I would still have problems with Bluetooth on even though Bluetooth to scan was off. That of course would be very quickly after turning it on or off at cetera.
so this morning I get up having left Bluetooth on all night, with scan off, and everything's working fine. I did find last night that when I would first turn Bluetooth on even with skin off, the problems would be there. But of course when you first turn Bluetooth on it's going to scan anyway.
so I will update this thread little later after I see a little more about weather. Just having scan off actually cures the problem, in case someone else runs into this and it helps them.