Not possible to get through initial setup on a device controlled by "Google Family Link"

[monsdar]

Overview

Note: My phones are set up in German, below I translated any texts as best as possible. Please don't wonder if it does not fit perfectly.

I installed the App on a Samsung Galaxy A51 which is set up with Google Family Link. I configured that my kid and I are both allowed to give permissions to new apps.

After installing Voice the following happens:

• Open Voice app
• "Welcome to Voice" screen -> Continue
• "Your library..." screen -> Continue
• "Add first audio book" screen
  • Tap on "Folder" -> Nothing happens
  • Tap on "File" -> Nothing happens

As far as I remember from my own phone at that point Voice asks for permissions to read the file system and I was able to select the directory where my audio books were stored. This simply does not happen on my kids device.

When checking the app settings menu on the kids phone it states "No permissions required". When looking in the permissions screen on the parent phones "Family link" app Voice does not appear in the list of apps to give permissions to.

How to reproduce

• Set up a phone with Family link
• Install Voice on it
• Start the app, follow the onboarding screens

Version

8.2.3

Android Version

Android 13, One UI 5.1

Device Model

Samsung Galaxy A51

[monsdar]

Hope I'm not jumping to conclusions here... The fact that the device is "Family link" enabled is the only difference to a relatively fresh set up phone. Therefore I'm thinking that this is the source of the issue.

[monsdar]

I found the root cause: My wife blocked a number of apps that should not be available for the kid. Turns out you can block the "DocumentUI" which is used as a folder-picker during setup.

Reenabling it wasn't enough though, seems that at least on the Galaxy A51 I needed to activate a few more apps so the DocumentAI could load successfully.

I was able to find this when I tried a different audio book app that also couldn't load the folder picker, but showed an error message like "Please enable ...DocumentAI". That pointed in the right direction and I was able to solve it.

So to avoid future parents from running into this I suggest adding a good error message. As this is solved for me now I'll close the issue.