How to troubleshoot/debug slow phone that burns battery? My phone is a Samsung Galaxy S5 mini, so it's getting old by industry standards. Until a few months ago, it was doing fine, but recently the battery life and response time have drastically degraded. Even with every optimisation I know of, I am now lucky if the battery lasts a day (~16h). 8h is more typical. The phone sometimes hangs for long enough for the screen lock to activate (2 minutes). When the hanging is particularly bad, I have noticed that the phone feels warm.

I have seen messages saying that two apps (Facebook messenger and DJI pilot) have caused ~17 errors each in the past week, so I should optimize power settings. Activating "save power" hasn't helped.

The standard battery indicator says that 20-25% is used by the screen , 15-20% by the Android System, and 10-15% by Android OS. I tried to get more information on the battery by installing "Repair Battery Life". This app claimed to repair 5 "low" cells. But it seemed far too easy. I'm sceptical whether an app can repair battery cells.

I can think of some things that have changed in the last few months, but I wouldn't expect them to have made such a big difference. I have installed some new apps, but none use more than 3% of battery. I assume this means that they're not consuming enough CPU to hang the phone either. One of the new apps is perhaps more of a suspect than the others: Netguard. I would expect that less network traffic would save battery, but I could be mistaken if apps are very aggressive about retrying the connection. Finally, I have moved house, and the reception (wifi & whatever you call the normal network) might be worse, but not noticeably.

What else can I try to get more information on the problem(s)?

Update: I noticed two new symptoms.

1) the phone only seems to hang when I am out of wifi range.

2) looking closer at the battery menu under Settings, there seems to be significant battery usage at times where the phone is "awake" but the screen is off. Does this mean that some app is constantly waking the CPU?

Update2: today I had the screen on for 2 hours straight, which took my battery from ~75% to 15%. Clearly, a lot of this was for the screen, so I was surprised to see that in the battery stats, it says that the screen used 15% of the battery, while "android system" used much more: 19% and 5 hours of CPU time. "Android OS" also has a significant contribution with 8%. Is there any way to narrow down why the Android components are so active?

Educated guess is you have apps that are running in the background and eating up your battery. Samsung power manager app/thing is not great (at least on my sgs7 it isn't), but it's pointing you on possible culprits. Easiest way to debug is uninstall the apps and see if device acts any differently (give it a few days or a week to see). Or another way is factory reset start from new and see how it goes from "stock" and add apps slowly and see. Or it could just be the battery is aging and simply can't hold a charge like it used to. There isn't a silver bullet way of trouble shoot battery life unfortunately.


How do I sync calendars using Funambol? I have set up a local Funambol server and created an account. Then I installed Funambol Sync 9.0.1 on my android device (HTC Desire, CyanogenMod 7.0.3 stable (Android 2.3.3)) directly (by APK) because I don't have (and don't want) The Google App Pack.

I configured it and it syncs contacts fine. However, it only gives me the option to sync contacts: my user interface looks different than the screenshots on here. When opening the sync app I have only one big button that is labeled "Sync Contacts", I don't have a list like in the screenshot. Also, the 'Settings' don't have an "Account" tab.

I wish to sync calendars (at least). What could be the cause of this? Have I installed it incorrectly?

I got it to work now. The problem was that

calendar sync appearently wasn't supported by Funambol Android client v9.0.1 (which is not the latest version, whatever their download page says)
the most recent version v10.0.3 has a bug that prevents a calendar from being created if none exists on Android v2.3 and above.

You can either wait for the next snapshot or patch it yourself: in the Funambol Android Client sources in file src/com/funambol/android/source/pim/calendar/CalendarManager.java find the line (280):

if (Integer.parseInt(Build.VERSION.SDK) == 8 ) {

and replace it with

if (Integer.parseInt(Build.VERSION.SDK) >= 8 ) {

and compile.


Pastel Colors in Phone/Dialer I've got a Pixel 2 running Android 9 (Pie). The other day the colors for the contacts on the Phone/Dialer Favorites screen switched to what I can only describe as 'pastel'. They don't match the contact colors in the Messages App (though the used to). Switching a contact color in the Messages App has no effect on the new pastel color for the contact in the Phone/Dialer.

I don't think I fatfingered anything to cause this but I'm not going to swear to it. When I noticed it I had just picked up the phone and unlocked it to make a call.

Color Inversion (Accessibility) is not enabled. Dark Mode is not enabled. Phone is totally stock.

What caused this and how do I revert it?

Update 1

Co-worker with a Pixel 2 that recently upgraded to Pie noticed the same thing. It's quite possible the change happened at the same time for both of us (not at time of upgrade but a few days after). Is this something Google did? Something about Material Theming with the new Material Design they rolled out, pulled and rolled out again? Also, I've restarted and done a power off, so I don't think this is a transient glitch.

Update 2

Co-worker's Messages app has gone Pastel, mine has not so far, despite force stopping the Contacts App, the Phone/Dialer and Messages and doing a restart and power off. Phone is 23.0.208561757, Contacts is 3.0.6.209518734, Messages is 3.4.048 (Yehu_RC26_xxhdpi.arm64-v8a.phone).

Update 3

Yet another co-worker (Pixel 2 / Pie) has the same symptoms as me (Pastel Colors for contacts in Phone/Dialer only). So it seems this is definitely something to do with some kind of rollout of something by Google.

Went to Settings->Apps & notifications->Phone->Settings->Uninstall updates (three dots) and ended up with 20.1.197612390. Colors are back to normal. Will see how long they stay this way and if they change the next time the Phone app is updated.

Update 1

The phone app was updated and the pastel colors returned. Downgraded again to get rid of them. It looks like this intentional on the part of Google.


Documentation of /system/addon.d Placing scripts into /system/addon.d/ makes them execute before and after every OTA packag upgrade.
This
is
used
or
mentioned
in
multiple
places.
I have multiple questions about this:

Is this a general Android feature or just provided by many custom ROMs? If only ROMs, any notable exceptions?
Where is the documentation / specification / source ? I would like to get to the APIs that I can work with.
(related) What is it with this /tmp/backuptool.functions that seemingly anyone is sourcing at the beginning of the script. How could I find out which functions are provided by this and what they do?

Thanks a lot!

It's not a standard, but just a convention which is followed by many in custom ROM world. IIRC it's the LineageOS/CM who introduced the idea. So their repo is the best place to see latest changes.
There is no complicated API, just a few bash script functions to backup/restore some files during OTAs (dirty flashes).


Is it possible to root the Samsung Galaxy Fit? I have a Samsung Galaxy Fit. I am not able to find any guide on the web regarding how to root it. Is there some method suitable for beginners?

According to some users in this thread, application named "SuperOneClick" is able to successfully root your handset.  You will need to install it on your computer (various Windows and Linux flavors available).


Contacts History for SMS Stopped Working I noticed that when I go to Contacts > History, the last entry for SMS history is February. All text messages made from then on is no longer being logged in the History view. However, all call history seems to be fine.

I have searched my phone but couldn't find a setting to enable/disable the text message history logging. Anybody knows how to fix this?

Phone model: Samsung Galaxy Ace
Android version: 2.2.1

Update: It appears to be malfunctioning. I texted 8 different contacts today, it only logged 1.

I have solved this issue by going to Contacts > Display Options > Select contacts to display > Check all


How to root my Samsung Galaxy S5 (SM-G900A) (kernel version: July 22, 2014)? I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 (SM-G900A). I am aware of towelroot, however it only works for "phones < jun 3 2014" for and my kernel version is dated July 22, 2014:

How to root it, if possible without tripping the KNOX counter?

Kingo doesn't seem to support Samsung Galaxy S5.

I think you should search on xda developers on the forum for your specific device but i don't think you can root it without flag knox and break the warranty i have an S4 with knox too and  i couldn't find an way to root without flagging the knox counter

http://autoroot.chainfire.eu/#odin << here you can find the autoroot for your device and will flag knox just download it and follow the  steps you can easily find on xda developers on how to use odin


How to remove app-malware-virus that's not visilbe in the app list I downloaded an apk from this site that it was supposed to be a modified app for a game (Candy Crush Saga). Here you can find the download link.

The problem is that not only the app doesn't do what it was claimed to do (i.e. provide you with tricks, unlimited lives, etc) but most importantly it is a malware-virus.

So after installing this app, I get pop up windows with ads.

First of all I removed the apk and tried to search for the installed app through settings. Surprisingly I couldn't find anything apart from the apps I have installed through PlayStore!

Then I installed Clean Master and AVG Antivirus but neither managed to find any problem.

I also tried using DEBLOATER (I installed it through wine on my fedora 25 laptop) but this didn't work either.

I also connected my phone to my laptop and tried to find and delete the bloatware but I wasn't able to find it.

So my question is how can I remove this "app" when it's not visible in the app list?

For reference I am running Android 6.0 and my phone is Oukitel k6000pro and my PC runs fedora 25.

You can use DEBLOATER to hide those app because removing require root access.
Download from here.

Learn how to use the software at XDA Forum

Note: It's a Windows executable, so you need a Windows machine to be able to use it.

Edit: Drivers can be downloaded here or here


Are apps downloaded from an unrestricted market disabled when the phone is used in a restricted market? I am currently on t-mobile in the US and have access to a lot apps that are not available in the Indian android market. What happens to the apps that I download off the US market when I return to India and plug in my local sim card?

Most applications should not disable itself, but that depends on the individual applications.


Call recording problem I use a Samsungs Galaxy Star Pro GT-S7262 with Jelly Bean 4.1.2. I have installed quite a few call recorder apps from Google Play and though they are recording all the calls, whenever I play back the recordings it sounds like everything has been recorded in fast forward mode (or is playing as such).
It is happening with all the call recorder apps I have installed. What could be the problem and how can I resolve it as everything sounds jumbled and indecipherable

I have the same problem and also installed many callrecoders, but all gave the same problem. I downloaded the audio files from my phone and loaded them into a sound editor (i.e. sony soundforge). I played the file 5.5 times slower and noticed that they played well, I could understand the conversation perfectly.
So it seems that all is recorded only played back 5.5 times too fast. This is a problem which can not be corrected within the phone.
My advice: download all audio files to a computer, convert and save them with the new speed. They will work fine!


SD Card fills up with GPS/*.txt files My Galaxy ACE SD card fills up with .txt files in the GPS folder when the GPS is on. I often run out of space. This doesn't happen with my other Android phones.

How can I diagnose and fix this?

It's most probably a buggy 3rd party app (preinstalled by Samsung or by you).

To find the offender I'd install Permissions and narrow the problem down to apps with precise GPS location permissions.
If this list is huge you can also cross-check with running apps (Task Killer or QuiteTaskmanager, the latter lists more but is not available in Google Play).

If you're rooted you could also run 'lsof | grep sdcard' to see which processes have these gps/txt files open and subsequently delete the offending app, here's a sample output:

1|root@android:/ # lsof | grep sdcard
com.googl  2635    [...] /storage/sdcard0/Android/data/com.google.android.apps.maps/[...]
com.fsck. 16308    [...] /storage/sdcard0/Android/data/com.fsck.k9/[...]


If someone puts my SIM card into their phone, will they see my text messages? If someone takes my SIM card and puts it in their phone, will they be able to read my text messages?

What will they be able to access in terms of my personal information other than make outgoing calls using my SIM card and receive my text messages?

Text messages are stored on your phone, not on your Sim.

Therefore, if someone puts your Sim card into their phone, they will not see any text messages that you have received on your phone, unless you have manually moved your SMS's to your Sim.

As long as you haven't saved your contacts to your Sim card, they will not have any personal info at all.

Have in mind, that there are apps like WhatsApp, cashapp telegram, and many others that their only authentication system, is your phone number. Therefore if you had accounts with any of the above, chances are that anyone with your Sim card can now go ahead and set up a WhatsApp or other accounts with your number.

I therefore suggest that you contact your phone company and transfer/cancel your number as soon as possible.


Almost certainly bricked device, looking for advice I have a Galaxy S3 (d2att) which had been working fine on CyanogenMod 13 when one day it randomly shut off in my pocket and wouldn't turn on again. It was using a third-party battery, and afterwards, the battery appeared to be slightly inflated. That being said, it still wouldn't turn on even after trying two other batteries.
Other than that, here's a list of other random bits of info I found about the device in its current state:

The batteries are charged. Checked with a voltmeter.
The batteries are being charged through the phone. Voltmeter used again here.
If I take the battery out and then plug a usb into the phone, the notification light turns red for a few seconds before turning off, even if I put the battery in. This only works if the battery is out of the phone. For a period of time, putting the battery in before the light turned off would keep the light on until it was unplugged. Sometimes it would even display the Samsung logo before dying again.
When I plug the phone in without the battery as described above, "qualcomm hs-usb qdloader 9008" shows up as a device in the device manager. Until it dies, that is.
I've also tried using a USB jig.
I also checked for a voltage across pins 4 and 5 of the usb while it was plugged into the phone. It displayed a voltage consistent with what would be expected. After using the JIG, this voltage would go away until the battery was removed. However, the phone did not boot into recovery, nor was it recognized by my computer.

So, my question is: is this phone dead for good? I imagine it is, but if it isn't then that wouldn't be so bad either.

Yep 100% sure it's hard bricked as the qloader 9008 shows up.

The whole eMMC is damaged or just the boot partition. But as it was caused by a faulty battery, I guess it is damaged completely and would need to get replaced (eMmC chip).

There is 3 methods that can be used to recover the device:

Repairing via an SD Card (for corrupted boot partition)
Repairing via JTAG (need JTAG interface, soldering in the main board, etc,)
Hardware replacement if the above didn't solve the problem.

After successfully completed the above, yoi should be able to flash a firmware normally.


Screen brightness too high on auto mode when in the dark room An Android-based HTC Desire S is set to "auto brightness" display mode. The brightness is adjusted okay unless the device in a completely dark room. In a dark room then display is very bright - tolerable, but really uncomfortable.

Is there a way to make it less bright without disabling "auto brightness" mode?

Short answer: no.

Auto brightness is usually a battery waster.

I like to use the Brightness widget, it will let you turn on/off auto-brightness or with one touch adjust the brightness to one of several presets.


Installing GApps on an old bargain tablet (Impression i10a) I recently was given a free tablet that is turning out to be more trouble than it is worth. I've been trying for weeks to get some form of GApps installed. I've read through the only resource I've found on the device and had little success. I'm currently the last poster on this thread.

  I have a i10a which came preloaded with ICS 4.0.3. I used Root_with_Restore_by_Bin4ry_v32 to get full root (it came sorta rooted). I'm having trouble finding a gapps package that works right.

  I've used:
  gapps-hdpi-20100817-Impression_10 from the second post
  and
  gapps-ics-20120429
  both of which would crash at the setup wizard endlessly.

  I finally got through to the launcher after using gapps-ics-20120224 which was the closest number to what the build number was
  (i10a 0.1.05 eng.root.20120223.R&G)

  But any gapps I try crash almost instantly. I don't really know what other packages to try at this point...

Is it possible that there is just no version of GApps that would install properly on this device or is it just a matter of going through every one? Is there some strategy to finding the correct package beyond "it must be 4.0 compatible"?

I've done this on a cheap tablet before, really all there is to it, is to get clockworkmod installed on the device, then flash cyanogenmod's gapps onto it.....unfortunately I did a little bit of digging, and wasn't able to come up with much as far as getting clockworkmod installed onto that particular device....there was one point in time where you could just flash the market/play store apk directly onto the device, however these days it requires the full blown framework to run correctly, so you can't just flash the apk separate, but rather you need to flash the whole zip file in recovery.


Issuing adb shell commands with arguments So I can issue a shell command on my GalaxyS5 device using this:

$ adb shell run-as com.steenriver.littlecrane 'sh -c pwd'
/data/data/com.steenriver.littlecrane
$ adb shell run-as com.steenriver.littlecrane 'sh -c ls'
cache
files
lib

So far so good.

Now, if I want to supply an argument to the command, the shell will not see it:

$ adb shell run-as com.steenriver.littlecrane 'sh -c ls files'
cache
files
lib

I also tried starting a shell outright, and then type in commands in the terminal, but doing that just makes adb hang completely, and output nothing.

$ adb shell run-as com.steenriver.littlecrane
u0_a197@kwifi:/data/data/com.steenriver.littlecrane $ ls
<hangs>

How can I give an adb shell command with arguments?

"-c" switch of sh command requires (and uses) a single argument which is the full shell command as a string.

This should do the trick:

adb shell run-as com.steenriver.littlecrane 'sh -c "ls files"'

In the original example, "files" is interpreted as an extra argument of the "sh" command (simply discarded when using the "-c" switch) , not of the "ls" command.


Is there a way to see 3G connection time? I have a time-based data plan, therefore I would like to have a report of the 3G connection time (possibly with a weekly reset). However, all the application on the market reports the data usage, and not the time spent online.

Is there an app for that (for Gingerbread)?

My Data Manager app displays what you need. Check out its data pie (left-to-right swipe) and make sure Time button is pressed.


Did the meaning of „Protection Level: signature“ change with Android 6? The Developer documentation writes on the protection level "signature":

  A permission that the system grants only if the requesting application is signed with the same certificate as the application that declared the permission. If the certificates match, the system automatically grants the permission without notifying the user or asking for the user's explicit approval.

This was as I always knew it. But it seems to somehow contradict what the same documentation writes about WRITE_SETTINGS, which is marked as "Protection level: signature":

  If the app targets API level 23 or higher, the app user must explicitly grant this permission to the app through a permission management screen.

Does that mean the behavior towards this has changed with Marshmallow – and a non-system app using a different signature can still access functionality covered by it, provided the user agrees? Also, with the new "mentality" of automatically granting permissions of a group where the user already has another permission granted: is this permission also granted automatically then (like with all permissions of the protection level "dangerous") – or is the difference here that it always requires the user's agreement, no matter what?

Note 1: there were a lot of changes towards how permissions are dealt with in Android 6+. To not make a "too broad" question, I've tried to split it up; so for the other parts, please also see: Permission system changes with Android 6.0: What are the implications for us users? and Android 6+ and account permissions: where have they gone to?

Note 2: This definitely is of relevance to the end user, as it's about his/her data – and cross-checking permissions for possible implications should be part of the installation or rather app selection process. I'm not asking from the perspective of a developer on how to deal with that when writing an app (though that might be interesting at well ;)

No, the meaning of protection level of "signature" is not changed in Android 6.

We can 'git blame' the file PackageManagerService.java and check function grantSignaturePermission. The basic logic didn't change since Android Lollipop. The following logic was added in Android 6:

    if (!allowed && (bp.protectionLevel
            & PermissionInfo.PROTECTION_FLAG_PRE23) != 0
            && pkg.applicationInfo.targetSdkVersion < Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {
        // If this was a previously normal/dangerous permission that got moved
        // to a system permission as part of the runtime permission redesign, then
        // we still want to blindly grant it to old apps.
        allowed = true;
    }
    if (!allowed && (bp.protectionLevel & PermissionInfo.PROTECTION_FLAG_INSTALLER) != 0
            && pkg.packageName.equals(mRequiredInstallerPackage)) {
        // If this permission is to be granted to the system installer and
        // this app is an installer, then it gets the permission.
        allowed = true;
    }
    if (!allowed && (bp.protectionLevel & PermissionInfo.PROTECTION_FLAG_VERIFIER) != 0
            && pkg.packageName.equals(mRequiredVerifierPackage)) {
        // If this permission is to be granted to the system verifier and
        // this app is a verifier, then it gets the permission.
        allowed = true;
    }
    if (!allowed && (bp.protectionLevel
            & PermissionInfo.PROTECTION_FLAG_PREINSTALLED) != 0
            && isSystemApp(pkg)) {
        // Any pre-installed system app is allowed to get this permission.
        allowed = true;
    }

From the above code, we can see,

if the permission is specified with "signature|pre23" and the app target sdk version is less then 23, it will get this permission, because this permission was moved to system permission in Android 6.
if the permission is specified with "signature|preinstalled" and the app is pre-installed system app, it will get the permission
if the permission is specified with "signature|installer" or "signature|verifier" and the app is installer and verifier, it will get the permission.

Conclusion: the signature protection level didn't change its meaning in Android 6. If a permission has signature protection level with other flag, such as pre23, preinstalled, intaller or verifier, it has new meanings.

The following explains the confusion about WRITE_SETTING permission in the question:

The documentation on WRITE_SETTING is incorrect about protection level. If you look at the Android source code at  frameworks/base/core/res/AndroidManifest.xml:

 <permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_SETTINGS"
        android:label="@string/permlab_writeSettings"
        android:description="@string/permdesc_writeSettings"
        android:protectionLevel="signature|preinstalled|appop|pre23" />

you can see the protection level is signature|preinstalled|appop|pre23.

A non-system app using a different signature can access functionality because of the protection level of appop, which means the user can choose if this permission is on or off.


How to preemptively block a non-contact on whatsapp I read this QA but it didn't specfically address my question. I also only found how to block a contact or someone that already sent you a message.

Say I have blocked numbers on my phone. They are not contacts. I don't want to hear from them. I don't want them to message me - ever.

How can I block someone when there's no chat between myself and them? (avoid potential harassment)

Or, alternatively, can I make it to only receive messages from people on my list?

No.

On Whatsapp you can't block people just by their usernames. You must open the chat between you two and block the person from the right-top menu. However, you can add that number as a contact, open the Whatsapp chat screen (you don't have to chat them. Just open their chat screen.) block them and then delete them from your contacts again.

And no again.

Whatsapp doesn't support a feature like "Receive texts from my contacts only." But you can reduce what people who aren't in your contacts can see about your profile (Last seen, Profile photo, Status)


How to start browser in incognito mode by default? I have a samsung galaxy tab 2 10" running Android 4.0.4. Is there a way for the default browser to automatically start up in incognito mode? Or, is there an alternative browser that can do it?

I don't know about the default browser being able to -- but searching the Playstore for incognito browser yielded a bunch of promising results:

InBrowser promises to be a fully featured incognito/private browsing experience for Android 1.6 and upwards including Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich. Looks like it knows nothing else than "incognito browsing" (i.e. no other mode). Rated 4.3 stars with 2000+ votes, it sounds very promising.
INCOgnito Private Browser seems to be comparable. Again a 4.3 star rating, but not yet 100 votes (too new, I guess)
Frost Lite - Private Browser is a third example I want to mention here: rated 4.4 stars at about 1,500 votes it seems to be more feature-rich than aforementioned browsers (e.g. offers tabbed browsing).

For more details, just follow the links. For more examples, use the first link to my Playstore search results.

I would like very much to offer you a solution for the pre-installed browser as well -- but unfortunately, I a) do not know any, and b) I think it unlikely. Of course I love to learn better -- so anybody, please correct me if I'm wrong with my assumption :)


Why won't JRD MMITest go away? This app (which doesn't actually appear to exist on my phone) keeps popping up randomly on my phone. Its called JRD MMITest and seems to want to test the functionality of the phone.

It covers such tests as accelerometer, touch screen, radio, speaker, bluetooth, wifi, etc but all of that works fine without the app even testing for it.

In what I suspect is a related issue, certain phone features have also turned off from time to time... Auto Rotation being one of them and I noticed my Play Store app's data had suddenly been restricted on wifi. I have since corrected these issues with no further anomalies becoming evident as yet.

My phone is a Vodafone Smart 4 Mini (Model Number 785) running Android Jellybean 4.2.2.

I've completed the testing successfully and restarted the phone under the impression that this would prevent it from coming up again. (as per Annoying MMI test on Alcatel one touch evolve?) however the app keeps coming up randomly.

I don't know what else to do here, does anyone have any suggestions?

According to tnagy on the topic of JRD MMITest:

  This is the manufacture test of your Android phone's internal components. It will perform a check on the main components like LCD display, sound, etc.

You should be able to disable the app if you do not want this app to perform regular checks.

From Settings > Apps, slide all the way to the right until you see the all apps screen (not downloaded or running). Scroll down to MMI Test and click on it. Note: On some devices it might be listed as MMI Test II, or some other derivative.
After clicking MMI Test in your list of all apps, you should be able to Disable the app. This will keep the app on the phone, but it will not be able to run at all, even in the background.

If you want to permanently remove the app, you can root your phone and install an app like Titanium Backup, which can delete system apps, such as MMI Test.


When I click a link on my S8 Chrome browser the link opens elsewhere? How do I make my S8 Chrome browser open links clicked within it, to open in it & not the Samsung browser?

Your Samsung browser must have become the default browser for certain links. And therefore it always redirects you to that browser.

To stop that from happening go into your phone settings -> apps -> Samsung browser -> set as default -> clear defaults.

Now, the next time you press on a similar link, it will ask you which app you want to open it in, select the chrome browser as the default.

Sometimes chrome will force you to open links in an external app, for example YouTube will always open in it's app. To avoid that, you can open the link as a new tab, by long pressing on the link and selecting "open in New tab"


Use of Dalvik VM in android Can someone please explain why exactly Dalvik is used in android? Is it to provide portability and ability for the application developers to write hardware independent code? I dont think it is used for security reasons, since application sandboxing is being attained via unix style user permissions where each application is running under a different user id.

So it is used to store everything you need. For example:

You own a Samsung Galaxy S4, you need:

Verizon Tools
Samsung Camera Drivers
Speaker Drivers
etc

So dalvik is a partition which is used to keep everything that your android device needs. It keeps everything ready to launch once you boot up your phone. =)


What are "custom ROMs" in relevance to Android? I have heard custom ROMs before, but I do not know what that's supposed to mean in contrast to Android itself, the physical hardware, or the stored-software it's comprised of.

I know that a ROM is essentially firmware, but in some contexts it can be also understood as a ROM image.

So what does "custom ROM" mean within Android? A customized bootloader or source?

Also, what would be the point of customizing it if it was a firmware image?

A custom ROM is basically any ROM (the Android image) that didn't come from the manufacturer of the device.

As for why you'd do this, there are a few reasons

Some manufacturers don't bother providing updates after device release.  Custom ROMs can provide a newer Android version than the manufacturer and thus provide additional features and security updates.
Also, there are various features that some manufacturers don't include, such as 2-way call recording.  Custom ROMs using custom kernels can provide these features.


How to have the OS launch applications at startup time? I am running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean on a Samsung Galaxy SIII.

I am trying to figure out how to configure applications such a Skype to start up automatically once the system has gone through the bootstrapping process, finished booting, and started up. I would like to be able to do this via an application that does not require my device to be rooted, if possible. When I look at the information related to Skype in the default Application Manager, I can see that the Skype application makes use of the "run at startup" permission, which means that it should be possible to configure this app to run at startup but I could not find a checkbox to do so on this screen, nor from the Skype application settings. A similar situation may take place with other apps as well.

This post deals with preventing apps from starting up, and mentions useful third-party appilcations such as Autorun Manager which seems to be maily concerned with blocking applications from starting and from restarting once killed, or at least this is what I gather from the app's description on the play store, and Autostarts which triggers which manages which apps are triggered by events.

So, here are my questions:

Why isn't there a preinstalled native Startup Manager app on android to control which apps are to start by default and which aren't?
If skype requires the "run at startup" permission, and there is no place in the OS or in the app to configure such app to start up automatically, then what does this permission achieve?

Thanks.

It really would be nice to have some startup manager shipping with the system, which lets the user decide what to start and what not. But that's not the case, it works a bit different:

Apps with the "run at startup" permission can register a "listener" for the BOOT_COMPLETED broadcast – which the system always issues on that event. This way they get notified of that event, and can decide to perform some action. That could be starting some background service which keeps running – but they could also do something little and then exit again.

IMHO Skype has an option to automatically log you in after boot, so you're available for incoming calls. AFAIR that's even the default behavior of the app. If there's no background service running for that, it might register for some cloud messaging then – which again would "wake it up" to deal with incoming calls. That way the app had no need to permanently run in background. Indeed the app also declares the com.google.android.c2dm.permission.RECEIVE permission (C2DM stands for "Cloud 2 Device Messaging", which now is GCM = Google Cloud Messaging), so this could be the explanation.

UPDATE:

Andrew T. confirmed this in the comments:

  I finally checked the Android manifest of Skype by opening its APK file (base.apk), and indeed there is com.skype.android.push.DeviceBootReceiver with intent filter android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED. I didn't investigate what it's doing though. Also, I forgot that broadcast receiver is not listed under running process as John mentioned (I can confirm this being a developer). So, you're correct on your guess :)


How some android phone supports 4k video capture and playback while some pc doesn't.? I just heard of the Snapdragon 805 specs and i was astonished to see that it supports 4K Video capture and playback, then came to know that some Sony Smartphones already supports 4K Video capture and playback and it has it the market already.

My PC, an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 with 6GB DDR3 RAM and an NVIDIA 9500GT 1GB DDR2  doesn't support 4K Video playback (captured in RED).

Does it mean that those Smartphones that does support 4K Video playback is actually faster and more efficient than my PC if not, how do they do that.?

Most smartphones have dedicated video encode and decode hardware. It's specifically designed for that task, and it has a fast connection to the memory, and often the decoded video frames can be accessed directly by the compositor hardware so they don't have to be copied (or blitted) into the framebuffer. You wouldn't be surprised that a handheld digital video camera can do 4k video capture: it's specifically designed for that purpose. Your smartphone works the same way.

Most PCs don't have this special hardware, so they have to do video encode and decode with software, on the CPU, or with a special compute shader on the GPU. Either way, that's always going to be slower and less power-efficient than having special-purpose hardware.


Altering left-right sound balance on Android 6.0.1 I have a hearing problem and I need to custom balance right and left outputs for my headphones.

How can I do it on Android 6.0.1 ? (I have a Nexus)

Conclusion so far: It seems like Android system is lacking some of the standard accessibility features that can help people with disabilities access and experience the Google Play applications. My next mobile will be iOs.

There's an older related post on this topic: How do I adjust audio balance of my Android phone headphones out? – but it seems that it's not matching recent versions of Android anymore. Like this CNET post it recommends going to Settings › Accessibility and check the "Hearing" section (which I could not found on my Lollipop devices – according to the linked question, it might be device-specific and not available on all devices – the Samsung S6 e.g. seems to have this, for other devices it seems to have been removed) for either the "Sound balance" or the "Music Effects" item. So if your device has that: great, you're done!

If your device does not have this setting, there are 3rd party solutions. But as far as I am aware, they all require your device being rooted. If that condition is met, you can e.g. use:

the Audio Balance XPosed module (see this XDA thread for details)
the Viper music effects app recommended in the linked question (still maintained; the download page mentions "Android 4.0~6.0")

As much as I've looked around, these seem to be the only options available currently.

Update by Victor Spinei after evaluation:

In order to download and install this you might need to check:

Settings/Security/Unknown source to be ON
Settings/Google/Scan device for security threats to be OFF
Close security applications like Lookout
Do not forget to restart all those services after installing the audio apps.


Android OS using a lot of background data My phone (Xperia P running Jellybean 4.1.2) is consuming a lot of background data (about 70 MB in just 15 minutes) Since, I have a restricted usage of 2 GB, it's causing a great problem. I've already disabled auto sync, background data and other related stuff. Don't know the reason. Please help!

Are you rooted?  If yes, then try Droidwall. Its an android firewall app which will give access to only those apps which you want thereby saving a lot of data. Hope this helps.


Make iso of sdcard + data directory I need to be able to make an iso file of the /mnt/sdcard and /data/ directories on both rooted and nonrooted phones(for forensic analysis). Older phones I can mount to my linux machine and run mkisofs and it works perfect. However on newer devices I can't seem to mount the devices.

Android has dd built into the shell so I can use that to create an iso of the directories as well. However besides the sdcard I can't find anywhere that I have write access on the system for non rooted phones.

So my question is where on an android system can I get write access while in the shell other than the sdcard and the data directores. A broader question would be to solve the problem of either mounting the device or making the iso file from outside android's shell.

No way to do that without root, for good reasons (security). I recommend you to take a look into Andrew Hoogs Android Forensics book, where you'll get a lot of insight not only in this speecial context, but for other Forensics related issues as well as general background information on Android devices and the Android system itself.

Without root, you will not be able to access all directories on internal storage -- most of them will be denied to you even for reading, let alone writing. If access would be that easy, all security would be gone, as apps could freely access everything. However, there are a few directories you could get write access to (probably to install some forensics tool I guess?), such as temp directories. Not being at home I currently cannot check which ones this might be (try e.g. /data/local, which is what the playstore app uses as temp folder for app installations, or check with the mount command which mount points use tmpfs -- though not all tmpfs file systems may grant you full access).

A fully detailed description would be beyond the scope of this site, as we focus on end-user problems; forensic specific problems are rather not end-user related.


RDP/VNC App that has 1:1 mouse cursor support? I've tried a couple different remote desktop programs, but I'm having issues with the mouse support...

For starts, I have to double click everything, even things that are normal a single click, or a single click in the Android OS...

I'm on Archos 101 Android 2.2.1.

I'm pretty familiar with the process of remoting at this point, so my question basically is "which remote desktop solution provides the best experience with a full keyboard, mouse and HDMI support monitor?"

Thanks.

I'm not sure what you mean by "HDMI support", but i myself use Teamviewer.

I have tested lots of programs like this for my android, and my experience tells me that this is the best app for me. I hope you get the same impression.


How to install split-apk as system app? I would like to know if its possible to convert a split-apk user app to a system app. One example is the google messaging app, it has a couple of apk files, lib and oat folders and base.dm file in its own /data/app/ folder. I tried copying everything to /system/app without success.

This question has already been asked here, but it hasn't been answered.

I'm using Android 10 rooted with Magisk. I already tried moving a regular .apk file to /system/app without any issues.

Figured it out after a bit of troubleshooting. Done using Root Explorer.

Copy "base.apk" and "lib" folder from "/data/app/xyz" to "/system/app/xyz" and set the permissions. Make  sure to not delete the files from /data/app/xyz after copying!

Example with Google Messages:
- Create a folder called "GoogleMessages" in "/system/app"
- Remount "/system" as read-write when warned
- Copy "base.apk" and "lib" folder from "/data/app/com.google.android.apps.messaging-xyz" to the new folder
- Rename "base.apk" to "GoogleMessages.apk"
- Give respective permissions to the folders and files.

Permissions for folders -> rwxr-xr-x
Permissions for .apk and files inside lib -> rw-r--r--

I can't guarantee that this will work on every device, just make sure to have a proper backup ready if something breaks or just use the file manager in recovery to delete the created folder.


Pc doesn't detect my S7 I have a Samsung S7. When I connect the phone with my Pc to transfer work datas ( I use a USB cable), it doesn't detect the phone.
How do I fix this problem?

You need to install appropriate usb drivers for the PC to detect your device.

It may be that  your PC is missing the required USB drivers or they have become corrupted, thus unable to recognise the device

If running Windows install the Samsung USB driver (includes MTP drivers as well).

Once installed reboot your PC and reconnect your Android device, it should be recognised.

Alternatively for Linux the guide for installing the drivers is found here: How to setup ADB/USB drivers for Ubuntu

Since you didn't mention your OS I have to assume Windows or Linux (sorry couldn't find MacOS instructions)


Setup Android for kids? How to setup Android so that the phone app is completely usable without a pin, but all others apps need unlocking

First of all, question is very nice.
You can do whatever you want for your kids simply by creating another account like a Guest.

  But, Google already launched their app called "Google Family
  Links". Here you can control whatever apps you want your kids to
  use and also how long they've access to the apps. You also track their
  usage by your phone and can lock (Blocking them from more usage) the
  phone.


Right to Left English for left handed people I have a big phone (Moto G). I'm left-handed, so everything on the left of the screen would be so much more convenient on the right, and vice versa.

But wait, Android 4.2 introduced Right-to-left (RTL) layouts! The problem is that I don't speak any RTL languages, just English.

My understanding is that Android sets whether it's LTR or RTL, and any app can read this setting to display an appropriate layout. Can I set my Android device to be right to left while still using English?

You'd have to use a custom ROM to do this, because the layout direction is a fixed part of the locale information, not a user-visible setting. Even if you could, you'd find that most apps wouldn't change. It takes development and testing time to make Android layouts bidirectional, and the support wasn't added to Android until Jelly Bean, so apps tend to only use it if they actually do support RTL languages.

Even on apps which do support it, you'd probably find strange behaviour because English isn't supposed to be laid out right-to-left. For example, text labels that are too long might have the "..." at the start instead of the end, or vice-versa.

So in summary, it's a lot of effort to end up with a broken configuration.


Insufficient memory. First aids tried. Everything is tried! Pls help! We have two phones with same problem.
1) Micromax Canvas A110
1GB RAM,  4GB Internal,  8GB EXTERNAL SD CARD
Ice cream sandwich 4.04

LATEST PROBLEM:

On rebooting( turning the phone and switching it on again), all APPS disappear!!

Contacts disappear. All downloaded apps are gone!
But their shortcuts are there on homescreens. When touched it says APP NOT INSTALLED.

Trying to download again is impossible.
ERROR : INSUFFICIENT MEMORY...

A) Tried moving all Apps to INTERNAL SD CARD. (only two options show,  Internal storage &  internal SD card).
Most apps are not movable. Show in Grey. Does not allow to move from internal.

B) Default write disk is EXTERNAL SD CARD

C) Tried clear cache. Tried clear data from Google PlayStore but it still does not allow to download!

2) MICROMAX CANAVAS A300 (Micromax Canvas gold)
32GB inbuilt memory. No expandable storage in any external SD Card.
I can't tell you how it has ruined my life..

Very much used to always cut paste apps,  pictures &  every other data to expandable SD card helps in Samsung Note 3 and other phones, an inbuilt restricted memory of 32GB still seemed ok.
Only that apps don't use it!

I still move to 'Phone storage' from 'Internal Storage'.
Because apparently 'Phone Storage' is better than 'Internal'.

But I'm still haunted by Insufficient storage. Insufficient space problems whenever I try to install a new app. I've to compromise and Uninstall a few apps and also run 360 to clean system junk files and residual files.

Pls help! I'm sick and tired of this! Badly need to have whatsapp messenger back in place for mom

For insufficient memory

Disclaimer: Try at your own risk. I am not responsible for any data loss.

Go to Settings > Apps.
* Select Google and Clear data (this clears the Google Search and Google Now Application data).
* Select Maps and Clear data.
* Select Chrome and Clear data (only if you have logged in to Chrome and made sure that all your bookmarks are synced to Google Servers).
* Select Google Play Services and Clear data.

Disappearing apps

If the apps disappear, it may be because they are installed on the external SD card and may need more time to load.


How to root ATT gs4(SGH-I337) in 4.4.2 I want to root my s4 and I was waiting for kingoroot to develop a root method for 4.4.2 but I was wondering whether there are other one click root methods out there that are low - risk of bricking. If you know any that would be great. Thank you!

As of right now, the only root method for the AT&T S4 4.4.2 is via a convoluted flashing method detailed on XDA Developers.  It's definitely not low-risk, nor anywhere close to one-click.  Additionally, a new update is supposedly rolling out, so this may complicate things even further.


Network unlock code not working I have bought a used Motorola Defy (MB525), rooted, running CyanogenMod 9 (ICS 4.0.4).

It is locked to work with only a specific carrier. I bought an unlock code, and unaware to this the previous owner got an unlock code from the carrier. Both are the same, so I suppose the code is correct.

When I insert a GSM SIM card from another carrier and turn on the phone, I get a message that roughly translates to "insert SIM network unlock PIN" (see image below).

When I insert the unlock code, it blinks a message VERY fast, I can't even read it, then it says "failed on requesting network unlock", or something like that.

I have performed this more than 3 times, does it mean my phone is locked forever?

I have also been told to remove CM9 and reinstall the stock ROM in order for the unlock to work, but (1) I have no idea if this would actually help, and (2) I have never changed a ROM before and, althouh I used CM9 to create a nandroid backup, I have no idea how to reinstall CM9 and then restore the backup.

I have followed this guide and my phone is now unlocked.

I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner user, because it involves pretty advanced commands and procedures, and uses ROMs and tools from untrusted sources. Proceed at your own risk!

The performed steps were basically:

Create a complete nandroid backup on the SD card.
Google for a stock ROM for the specific phone model I owned, and the specific carrier that it is locked to. I found one on a random forum. This is not recommended for obvious security reasons, but I was desperate. If your carrier provides an official stock ROM, I definitely recommend you prefer using it.
Googled for the ADB drivers for my phone model. In this case, the Motorola drivers worked fine.
Connected the phone to my computer and flashed the stock ROM. In my case, this actually downgraded my phone from android 4.0.4 to 2.3.3 and unrooted it.
Performed the unlock procedure using the unlock code I had.
Rooted my phone again, and installed a new recovery menu
Applied the nandroid backup from the recovery menu.

Result:

Phone is back as it was before, but unlocked.


Can I format android phone's internal storage with adb? I formatted my phones internal storage with ntfs and now it doesn't appeared in usb mode and also not in file manager. And phone's feature like gallery, camera, recording etc are not working. Is there any way to format internal storage again with fat32 file system? I think there should be a way in ADB to format it. I don't have much knowledge about it but think it is easiest way!!! Please someone help me....

I just did it cant believe...............
I find a command on a website where i just place my mmcblk number that I known via Paragon exFAT,NTFS&HFS+.apk app and run this command as a Super user
  " mkfs.vfat /dev/block/mmcblk0p33 "
and now i got my internal storage back on my phone.


I cannot root or access developer options My Samsung Galaxy Tab A (model number SM-P550 if you want to know the specs, Android version 6.0.1) will not allow me to "unhide" or "unlock" my developer options no matter how many times i tap the build number. On another note i am unable to root my device and because i do not currently own a pc and i have tried every mobile rooting technique i could find, thank you for adressing this issue.
Edit - so i finnally figured it out, this device has many "accounts" and you can only access thing like the dev options on the "owner" but i was using "guest" but i still cannot root but im sure i will figure it out eventually, thank all of you for your suggestions and help!

Every Android should be able to get developer options.  Wrichik Basu's comment says how to show developer options. However OEM Unlocking (first step to root) is disabled on basically all Samsung phones.


Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 charging paused, battery temperature low I have a new Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. I recently bought it online. It was working fine, but now the tablet is not charging and keeps giving the error 'battery temperature low'. I tried charging it by switching the tablet off, but then it gives a yellow error sign.

I can only get min to charge in safe mode. In normal mode it makes the charger connect sound, immediately followed by charger disconnect sound. To start in safe mode simply power down and restart, it will first show static Samsung logo, and then start animated Samsung logo, when second logo starts press and hold volume down. The screen will go slightly grey after a few seconds. You can leave the button then, it will start in safe mode.
Only workaround seems to be rolling back to Kit Kat.


What do the buttons on the Android power control do? The first two buttons on the Android power control widget are Wifi and Bluetooth. What do the other 3 buttons do?

The last three are GPS Receiver, Data Sync and Screen Brightness. As seen here.

And it looks like the Extended Controls app gives you even more control (android police article) and here it is on appbrain.


Does any version of Android support smb natively? I use Android 2.x on my phone and will buy a Tegra 3 tablet in the (hopefully) near future.

I use files on my NAS with my phone. I can access those files with external tools (ES file explorer), but other applications cannot access these files.

I just wonder if Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwich have built-in support for smb?

In a word: No.

In order for all applications on the device to have access to a cifs mount, cifs support needs to be compiled into the kernel (or at least available as a loadable module).

I've never seen a device that shipped with such a kernel from the manufacturer.  Doesn't mean that they don't exist, I just haven't seen them.

Now, for some devices that have been rooted/unlocked and replacement kernels can be compiled, I've seen kernels made with cifs support built in.

Once you have cifs support in the kernel, you could use an application like Mount Manager to handle the system-wide mounts.

The applications like ES File Explorer you've seen with cifs support have their own private implementation.  They are unable to mount the share into the global namespace such that other apps could take advantage.


Why are some meetings in a frame, and others with a plain background? Some meetings in Google Agenda, coming from the same agenda, are in a colored frame, while others are with a solid background:

What is the reason for the difference? Is there a way to fix this to have unified colors?

Google Calendar Help says

  Invitation status

  Events on your calendar look different depending on how you’ve responded:

  If you’re attending an event, the event will be a solid color.
  If you’ve answered maybe to an event, you’ll see diagonal lines
  across it.
  If you haven’t replied yet, you’ll just see the event’s outline.
  If you said no, you’ll only see the outline and the event will be
  crossed out.

So, I guess it's the outcome of how you responded to them


Will my Kindle Fire still work the same with GO Launcher? I was thinking of getting GO Launcher on my Kindle Fire, since I want a new look on my Fire. But, I don't want to change it's defaults programs and functionality.

If I get GO Launcher, will I still be able to open my Docs and Books in normal Kindle Fire fashion? Will it change the functionality of my Fire?

The only way I've found is from the ugly old Carousel.  I keep a link to it accessible on my new launcher and go there to open a book or document.  It's not as graceful as, say, a direct link to the book, but it works.


Can I use my android phone to enable my computer to access bluetooth devices? My computer can communicate with my android due to in the same wifi network.

I have bluetooth headphone and perhaps other bluetooth device (bluetooth mouse, etc).

I just bought a bluetooth dongle for my computer. However, given that my android device can communicate with my computer anyway via wifi, I wonder if it's necessary?

If anything, if it's possible, will quality deteriorate?

My question is a bit more awesome than this

How to use an Android device as bluetooth USB dongle?

This one ask if computer -> USB -> android phone -> bluetooth is possible

I am asking if computer -> wifi -> android phone -> bluetooth is possible.

In fact, I am interested in computer -> bluetooth -> android phone -> bluetooth too

Why would I? Well, Windows 10 cannot connect to 5 bluetooth headsets at once. Maybe sending the sound to my smartphone that can connect to 5 would solve that?

So, actually making your phone into a bluetooth dongle is a lil' bit nasty due to permission issues. BUT, there is another way. As you are willing to use this "measure" to stream your PC's audio to your bluetooth headset, you can download an audio streaming app from the appstore (such as SoundWire for Android), set up the connection between your PC and your smartphone, and THEN you share your phone's media through the phone's bluetooth service to the headset. Maybe there can be a loss of syncronization for games and videos, but music will be just fine! Hope it helps


How to have one-button access (on HTC incredible) to do voice dialing or voice commands? My wife finds her HTC Incredible incredibly difficult to make a quick call without having to look at the screen.  She'd like to have a one-button activation of the voice dialing or voice commands "call <   >" or ""

I thought one option might be to reprogram the optical trackball button.

This is rooted with CyanogenMod.

I'm not sure about the optical mouse specifically, but CyanogenMod does give you the option to alter the behavior of the various capacitive/hard buttons on the phone to some extent. In Settings->CyanogenMod Settings->Input you can set the long-press behavior of the home and menu buttons, and completely change the behavior of the search button.

What I've typically done is set the search key (or long-pressing the search key) to open up the voice search app. You could substitute the voice dialer or anything else you wanted if you set it up this way, with the trade-off being that you lose the default search functionality (in my case it's okay because I never use the search button).


How do I delete all data from my Android phone? My phone has got some error and I am returning it to the service center. As my phone contains my personal data, images and videos I would like to erase them so that they can never be recovered (even after being rooted).

Is there any easy way to do that because I am not an Android developer.

Does factory reset do this trick for me?

As John states in his answer, a factory-reset is sufficient in most cases. I doubt a service technician would take the effort required to restore the data from your storage – though it's definitely possible.

What John had in mind, however, is true: If flash storage is really wiped, all data is gone from it. It would take a highly specialized forensics expert a long time to restore at least a part of it. So unless you have the secret formula for a longevity serum stored on your device, and your service technician knows that, it's definitly not worth the trouble.

If you want to be on the absolute safe side, take a look at Nuke My Phone resp. Nuke My Tablet. These tools do not simply delete your data or wipe the storage once, but they overwrite it multiple times, then wiping it, and then finalize their work by a factory-reset. I very much doubt that a single file would be restorable after that procedure.

Btw: Always think of your external SDcard, which might not be covered by the procedure. You should better remove that and keep it with you; the service techs don't need it anyway.


How do I actualize the visible files in File Explorer on Windows browsing SDCard of Sony Xperia Ray? If I browse my SDcard on Windows 7 I can see only the folders that where there the first time I connected the phone via USB.

When I create a new folder on the device later, It is not visible in the Windows Explorer.

these are the steps to reproduce:

connect the phone via usb to Windows
open the sdcard in windows explorer
use ES File Explorer to create a new folder on the sdcard

now the new folder is not visible in Windows. Even a refresh with F5 doesent make it visible in Windows.

How can I solve this problem?

Just disconnecting and reconnecting the phone is not enough.

You have to restart Windows. Then the freshly created folders will appear in your filebrowser n Windows too.


Using ADB, what command can I use to break/permanently destroy a Galaxy S5? I really need to know how to completely fry an S5 (don't ask why) using ADB while attached to a USB to my computer. Someone had posted the instructions for an S4 but the command only turned it off and on again when I used it. If there is any other method I can use to do this (break it I mean, but not physically), let me know.

Requires root access

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/block/mmcblk0

It won't complete through the whole disk, but will proceed to a point where the device flashes black and falls irresponsive. All data are not erased, but the system is gone and it's very hard to recover.

For the same effect:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/block/mmcblk0 bs=4096 count=256
# Only erases the first 1MB, where the GPT table lies

Alternatively (for Galaxy S5 and other "modern" phones):

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/block/by-name/aboot

An aftersale service can recover the device without breaking it open, which is what you wanted. I'm not going to post any details about recovery, only the fact that it can be recovered.


Amazon Fire HD 10 (7th Generation), two profiles and non-working installation of Google Play Services on 2nd profile I have an Amazon Fire HD 10 (7th Generation) with the latest version of Fire OS (5.6.0.0) installed. I would like to use two adult profiles, both should have access to the Google Play Store.

I had no problems installing the required Google APKs and apps from the Play Store in the primary profile, i.e.:

Google Account Manager
Google Services Framework
Google Play Services
Google Play Store
And then apps within the Google Play Store app.

But now, when I try to do the same procesure and install the Google Play Services APK above below the secondary profile, I get the following error when trying to install:

  App not installed.

Nothing more; no error text, no error code. I've already tried rebooting the device and uninstalling the Google Apps and installing them in a different order. The crazy thing is: It already worked with two profiles before I factory resetted the device. The reason why I factory resetted was that I incorrectly added two Google accounts to the first Fire HD profile. That messed up Gmail and other apps. This is driving me insane.

Does anyone else encountered that problem and know how-to fix it / workaround it? I will not factory reset my device again, installing all apps and entering all the credentials takes hours. I am also afraid to uninstall the "Google Play Services" below the first profile, since I do not know if a new installation would work.

Thanks a lot, that helped (Fire HD8).

Had the problem that I tried to install Google Play on the second user, but it always said "Download Pending".

Solution thanks to your steps:

Install for first user on tablet
After Google Play Services and Google Play Store are updated on first user, write down version numbers
Install on second user:
3.a Google Account Manager
3.b Google Services Framework
Find same versions of Google Play Services and Google Play Store from first user on APKMirror and install on second user


Google Maps Navigation Icons I'm trying to get hold of the icons used in the step-by-step view of Google Maps

I've extracted the APK from my device and scoured through the drawables folders etc but cannot find them anywhere. They are also not listed on the Material Design Icons webpage.

Does anyone know where they are stored?

Although not exactly what I was after, I have found a way I can get hold of them for now.

Stupidly, I didn't even think to have a play with desktop Maps. I followed the image URL for an icon when using directions on the desktop app which gave me a PNG with, what seems to be, all of the icons - maneuvers-2x.png

May be of use to anyone else interested


Insufficent rights for npm install in Termux on Android I'm trying to install a Node.js module in a folder, for example, /data/data/com.termux/files/home/storage/shared/documents/projects/code/js/test-npm, from Termux on rooted Android 6 running npm install. Installation starts, but never succeeds, throwing errors and warnings like npm ERR! cb() never called! and WARN tar EPERM: operation not permitted, futime.

Which permissions should I grant to npm and how?

Update 1: tried running npm install in /storage/emulated/0/Documents/projects/code/js/test-npm, got the same errors. Termux has Storage access permission in Android installed apps manager.

WARN tar EPERM: operation not permitted, futime indicates that futime syscall (used to change file last access and modification times) fails with error: EPERM. From utime manpage 1:

  EPERM  ... the caller's effective UID does not match the owner of the file ...

That seems to be the reason of failure. You are using path: /data/data/com.termux/files/home/storage/shared/ which is actually /sdcard/ 2 (symlink to /storage/emulated/0/). It's not an actual filesystem but an emulated 3 view of underlying filesystem (ext4 or f2fs). It has fixed permissions and doesn't support many features of Linux filesystems including symlinks and ioctls like FS_IOC_FIEMAP 4.

Due to fixed permissions all directories and files in /sdcard/ are always owned by user root (UID 0). So while trying to change file's timestamp, Operation not permitted is returned. touch command however uses utimensat 5 which has different permissions requirements.

So to avoid this problem, you should not use emulated filesystem. Termux $HOME directory is on ext4 or f2fs, so it's a good place to save files. Use e.g. /data/data/com.termux/files/home/npm-test directory.

From comments:

  But is it possible to somehow create a link inside $HOME to another location, which will grant all the rights that Termux has for $HOME for all the subfolders of this distant location?

No it's not possible on non-rooted phone. Apps can write only to their private directories in internal storage (which is /data/data/com.termux for Termux) and in shared storage (/sdcard/Android/data/com.termux). Apps with Storage permission granted can read and write to whole /sdcard/. There is no other place on device where apps can save files 6. With SELinux disabled or permissive, it's possible to write to a sub-directory created (with adb shell) in /data/local/tmp, but it's not intended use of this directory.

LINKS:

1 utime manpage
2 How do I access $HOME/storage outside of Termux (with a file explorer)?
3 What is /storage/emulated/0/?
4 How can I make a symlink inside /storage/emulated/0?
5 How to change the modified date of a file without root?
6 Where Android apps store data?


How to make Google Chrome definitely remain as the desktop version? How to make Google Chrome definitely remain as the desktop version?

Every time I use Google Chrome it returns to the setting for mobile.

There's a method suggested here, based on this XDA thread for both rooted and non rooted devices:
Rooted Devices

First Method: Download a file ( chrome-command-line) mentioned in the article, change it's properties and place in appropriate directory, relaunch Chrome

Second Method: From the XDA thread linked, download ChromeDE.zip and flash

Since I don't have access to PC, tried the second method and it worked. Chrome now opens in default desktop mode ( Moto X Play, 6.0.1, Chrome 52.0. 2743.91)
Unrooted Devices (not tried by me)

Download the file mentioned in first method above

Using adb , enter
adb push /chrome-command-line /data/local/chrome-command-line

Thanks for asking this, I have been wanting to do this but was too lazy to search
Edit: User Agent Switcher app for rooted devices can do the same, and in addition offers a host of other choices and creating shortcuts


Transfer a large file from PC to smartphone I have a Samsung Galaxy S2, and a PC with Windows XP (I do not have WiFi). I want to transfer a 2.1 GB file from the computer to the phone. If I transfer the file as usual, I have the following error:

  Failed to copy the selected files. Not enough free space on the
  device.

I think my problem is related to the type of the file system. What is the solution of my problem is there?

first and foremost you should have your memory more than 2.1GB.
secondly,check the file type i.e FAT32 or not.please check the specs of your mobile.you generally get this message when you transfer a file onto a oc.please go through the link specified


Why is checking Android filesystem possibly harmful? I just had an idea to do a filesystem check of all Android partitions when I noticed there is an option to do that for /data /system /cache in STweaks app (which comes also with Dorimanx Kernel) but it warns:

!WARNING! This is a VERY DANGEROUS OPTION![...]

So why is it so dangerous?

It's even riskier than cybersam says. You shouldn't check/repair a mounted filesystem (i.e. when it is in use), on any operating system, because programs might be using the files while you're checking them and possibly making changes. This could cause the checker to think there are errors where there are really no errors; it might cause unexpected behaviour of any program that happens to read or write files during the check; and any files written during the check might be corrupted or completely lost.

On a PC, you can check a non-essential filesystem by unmounting it before the check, or you can check a system partition by booting from a USB stick or CD so that no filesystems from the hard disk need to be mounted. On Android, the closest equivalent is doing it from the recovery: this way, you can check any filesystem other than the one the recovery is on (assuming the recovery doesn't mount the SD card).


Changes made in developer options revert back to default after turning off developer options I am trying to enable Force GPU rendering option in the developer options. But after enabling it and then turning off the developer options, the developer settings revert back to default. How do I make these changes stick permanently?
Using a Vivo Y53, Android Marshmallow.

In order to keep developer options running, simply don't turn developer options off. That's the only possible logical way.


Android sync with calendar works only one-way I have a Phone with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and I am trying to synchronize my calendar with my Google account. The problem is, that sync only works one-way. Data from Google are transferred to my phone, but events from my mobile calendar don't upload to Google account. I tried various settings but I am obviously missing something.

How can I fix this?

I fixed by giving the mobile calendar the same name as its called on Google...


Save more then 200 SMS per contact on 2.3? I've noticed that my Samsung Galaxy Gio (Android 2.3) saves only 200 SMS per contact. Is there any way to save more?

In the messaging app, access menu > settings > text message limit

and set it to a higher number you like.

Hope this helps.


How to extract stock apk from TWRP backup? I installed TWRP recovery on my phone and backed up the system, data and boot partitions before installing CM12.1.

I would like to extract one stock apk (FM radio) from the backup on a Linux system. How do I mount the system.ext4.win file?

Rename the system.ext4.win file to system.ext4.tarand extract it.
If your
TWRP backup is not in compression method, you will directly get to the /system folder or if your TWRP backup is in compression method, you will get a file named system.ext4 which you'll have to just rename it to system.ext4.tar and extract it to /system folder


Wi-Fi hotspot and internet connection I bought a few days ago a Hauwei P30 lite, which comes with Android 9.
In my case, I often connect to the Internet via the mobile network. When I configure the smartphone as a Wi-Fi hotspot (tethering), the smartphone apps are not allowed any more to the Internet (while the external devices exploiting that same hotspot for Internet connection are). In other words, If I use the smartphone as a mobile 4G+ modem, then no Android app has Internet connection.
For example, after enabling the hotspot, my laptop connects flawlessly to the Internet through the smartphone hotspot, so I can open for example WhatsApp web, but I cannot use it because the WhatsApp app on the smartphone is not allowed to the Internet. I find that rather silly.
My old 3G smartphone with Android 4.2.1 provides a hotspot while at the same time allowing Internet navigation from the smartphone, so that the WhatsApp scenario described above works flawlessly.
The new smartphone with a 4G+ modem does not allow that. ????
For the record, I am settled in Italy.

Well, one of the system updates has upgraded my smartphone OS from Android 9 to 10.
And that has fixed the problem.
Now my smartphone can work flawlessly at the same time as a Wi-Fi hotspot for external devices while maintaining Internet connection for itself.
Well done! I hope some of the next system updates will not revert the situation. :-)


Nova Launcher: Lost the App Drawer Icon I've installed Nova Launcher on an old phone (1st Gen MotoX). I'm trying to child-proof it by disabling most of the default apps and clearing the home screens with nothing that a child shouldn't be getting into. After updating some Nova Settings, going back to home screen rendered the App Drawer icon missing (the one in the middle of the dock at the bottom of the screen).

Interested in a fix and how to prevent this from happening in the future.

Easy to fix. Just hard-press on the desktop until the query for Wallpapers, Widgets, Settings shows up. Select Widgets, and select (what on my list is #1) - Nova Action. Once placed, it turns into a menu with "App drawer" as the first choice, along with about 30 others. Once you have it selected, move it to your desired spot, either on the desktop, or in the dock, or whereever.


Is there a way to leave the phone plugged in, but schedule when to actually charge it? Under my normal daily use, my phone would have around 50~40% battery power left before I go to sleep.  I don't want to keep my phone plugged in to charge over night, but I do want it to be at 100% when I wake up.  Is there a way to disable charging while it is plugged in, and re-enable at a scheduled time?  i.e. one hour prior to I wake up.

Nexus 6 32GB rooted currently running CHROMA, using Motorola Turbo Charger.

Why don't you want to keep the phone plugged in overnight? Per Is it better to detach a charger when my Android device gets fully charged?, it sounds like sitting at 100% on the charger for ~6 hours is not considered harmful to the lithium-ion battery in your device.

That said, you can purchase a light timer for under $20, set it to only turn on for an hour or two in the morning, and plug your charger into it at night.

But actually, if your phone drains by over 50% during the day, this is probably not the ideal solution, because allowing the battery to drain further overnight until the timer kicks on means that it will discharge even more deeply than it currently does, which will wear down the battery's capacity far more quickly over time than being at 100% charge for 6 hours per day will.
So an optimum cycle might be to charge it to 100% in the afternoon, when it's only down to, say, 70% charge, instead of waiting for bedtime; and then put it on the timer as described above when you go to bed. Just be sure to give it a full discharge occasionally (once every 2-4 weeks sounds about right based on your usage).


Can I delete .com.google.Chrome files? There are many .com.google.Chrome files in my Download folder (How do you want to open this file?)  Is it okay to delete them?

It's safe to delete them. They are caches or incomplete downloads from unknown versions of Google Chrome (judging by name).


Always-on VPN sends no traffic I've set up a L2TP/IPSec VPN server with pre-shared keys, and everything works fine when I connect to the VPN manually.

However, when it's set to be the always-on VPN, everything changed. It seemd that no traffic was sent to the Internet anymore. If I opened a URL, the browser would return Error code: ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED.

Is there anything wrong with my configuration of my phone or the VPN server?

I'm running android 4.4.4 with a recent CM nightly build.

I think the problem is an bug in android kitkat listet as  Issue 64819.

it says:

  Android 4.4 VPN: DNS request packets' source IP address is always private address

  A packet capture shows that the DNS packets are sent out of the public
  interface, as expected, but source IP address is the VPN-assigned
  private address, which is not publicly routable.

  This issues does not occur on Android 4.3.

see here:
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=64819


How to disable Google Now Cards? I find Google Now Cards annoying. How may I disable them?

Open Google app.
Go to Settings > Now Cards

Disable both Show all cards and Notifications.

This should solve the problem.


Is it possible to create 100+ tasker profiles from a spreadsheet? I'm looking to create multiple tasker profiles that trigger based upon DOB of a client and send a SMS wishing them a happy birthday.

That's easy enough, but replicating the same thing time after time over 100 times is pretty time consuming. Does anybody know of a way to achieve this externally to Tasker and then just importing them in? I have all the DOB and names in a spreadsheet so I'm hoping it could be simple.

Or, is there a way for Tasker to check DOB in your contacts folder and auto send an SMS if the date matches?

Tasker imports/exports are usually in XML format. You can export your Excel file to XML, but it'll need a lot of formatting to become tasker-readable. The template is listed on the sidebar for r/TaskerFiles/.

If you have the DOB in the correct field in Contacts, you can trigger a task off your calendar (in Beginner Mode / Tasker version 4.5u1m for Android 4+ : Create a profile with State > App > Calendar Entry). You can select a specific calendar, and there's a calendar that just contains the birthdays of your contacts.

That's the trigger. After that, you'd need to retrieve the name of the contact (which should be contained in the calendar event title), match it to a phone number, and then disable the trigger so you aren't sending SMSs all day while it's someone's birthday.


Can't Install BOTIM android application in Oreo I have Moto G5 with android Oreo OS, I am trying to install BOTIM application from play store, play store able to download it, but it gives error during installation (Can't install BOTIM app). Even I have tried to clear the play store cache and app data with multiple restarts, still I am facing the issue. Also I tried to uninstall the Play Store updates and made Play Store as factory version, this doesn't workout either.

Pls suggest.

I have identified the issue. I mounted the SD card as Internal memory. Due to this the app (Not only this app, even ) failed to install in to memory. I remounted SD card as portable storage, then i am able to download and install the app.


Android x86 Marshmallow not booting on Virtualbox and VMware Workstation I've downloaded the latest Android x86 (android-x86-6.0_20160129.iso) from here and tried to install it to the HDD on a VM in VMware Workstation and in Virtualbox.

The installation seems to proceed properly (using EXT4, and EFI Grub) and i get a message that it has installed successfully. However when I reboot it passes GRUB, picks the correct Android installation, but it does not boot. I get the result seen in the screenshot below and then a blank screen with a blinking cursor.

I've seen somehow similar questions on Android-SE (here and here), but they use older versions of Android x86 and don't seem to have solutions that work for me.

The VMs in both VMware and Virtualbox have: HDD=4GB(IDE), RAM=2GB, 2 CPUs and they boot through EFI. I've tried nomodeset and xforcevesa in the Grub boot parameters but nothing seems to work.

The .iso does boot up though all the way to the GUI in Live mode (LiveCD).

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. I have a feeling that the solution might be something linked to the graphics settings but i'm not exactly sure.

Found the solution!

You have to edit menu.lst file. Here is how:

boot in debug mode (usually the second option in boot menu)
when booting stops (for me it just hangs there with flashing cursor and without any prompt) enter mount -o remount,rw /mnt
enter cd /mnt/grub
enter vi menu.lst
press Shift+a
right under the first boot entry find the line starting with kernel initrd=/in (your line might look different; it depends on Android version; in general just find the line that starts with kernel)
at the end of the line type vga=834 nomodeset xforcevesa
press ESC then :wq - these commands will save the file and quit vi
enter cd /
enter umount /mnt
enter reboot -f

Now the system should reboot in the VESA mode of your choice.

This will enforces to use the VESA driver for X.

You can replace the vga=xxx by any number you want for your screen resolution.
Also tested that 832 works fine (gives 800x600 resolution).

You can find all the VESA modes when you use the iso file and pick the boot option to boot in VESA mode - it will show the list with all modes (numbers are in hex and there is also a redundant letter in front of some modes - ignore it) and you can test them there immediately to see if it works and is good to use in this menu.lst fix, but you have to convert it from hex to dec first using any hex->dec converter.


OTG is not detecting in VIVO Y30 I have SanDisk MicroSD OTG and MiVi MicroSD to C-Type converter. I am trying to mount OTG in my VIVO Y30 but it is not detecting. I checked in Settings > Ram and Storage space, but OTG is disabled. I also installed OTG checker app, but no luck. Please suggest. Thanks.

For VIVO Y30 mobile, pls go to setting and search for OTG and enable this (by default, it is off) .. Once making this, you have to connect any usb device within 5 mins or the setting will be on off automatically. Please try and let us know


Why my LG G4 cannot boot or use TWRP custom recovery but cyanogenrecovery without problems? For several days I am trying to get TWRP custom recovery on my LG G4 h815 International. Currently the phone is unlocked and has Cyanogenmod 13 and cyanogenrecovery but without google gapps. I really want to have google gapps on the ROM but I am unable to flash with cyanogenrecovery Unable to flash gapps via cyanogenrecovery on a LG G4 (LG h815 Int). Therefore I want to replace cyanogenrecovery by TWRP recovery.

When I do fastboot boot twrp-3.0.0-0-h815.img, the phone boots normally.

When I do fastboot flash recovery twrp-3.0.0-0-h815.img a get no error and successfully flash but I cannot boot into recovery.

When I do fastboot boot cm-13.0-20160209-NIGHTLY-h815-recovery.img, the phone boots correctly into cyanogenrecovery but this recovery gives an error 70 when flashing gapps.
Flashing cm-13.0-20160209-NIGHTLY-h815-recovery.img is also successful and I can successfully boot into cyanogenrecovery.

For all nightlies of cyanogenrecovery I am able to boot in recovery and/or flash but all of them gives error 70.
For all of the 4 versions of TWRP https://dl.twrp.me/h815/ I cannot boot into them by using fastboot. Flashing al of them results to that I am completely unable to boot into recovery (also no cyanogenrecovery anomore).

Also I unchecked update cyanogenrecovery in developer options.

When flashing TWRP with flashify there is no error but also no boot into TWRP. Flasing cyanogenrecovery in flashify gives also no error and booting properly in that recovery.

Does anybody knows why I can boot into cyanogenrecovery without problems but booting into any version of TWRP seems to be impossible. I have the idea that my phone doesn't accept a TWRP recovery because of cyanogenrecovery boots without any problems after flashing.

Finally I got TWRP on my LG G4 h815. The problem was that I had to use the TWRP version of the LG h811 instead of h815. The developers of TWRP put recoveries for the h815 under h811 downloads and recoveries for h811 under downloads for h815.


Programmatically add wifi networks on Android I have a list of about 100 WiFi SSIDs and passwords that I've extracted from my old phone and I want to add them to the new phone that runs Android 10 and I couldn't find any useful information on the net as everything seems outdated and not working.

A bit about my phone: it's a OnePlus 7 with OxygenOS 10.0.1, rooted with TWRP and Magisk. The wifi networks come from an old OnePlus One with Cyanogenmod wich is not rooted. I obtained the passwords following https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/86zkzf/restoring_wifi_passwords_from_old_device/

The closest thing I've found is this: https://github.com/steinwurf/adb-join-wifi but it works only one network at the time and it doesn't work very well, often passwords aren't added and I have problem escaping the SSID and passwords.

I've also tried to look for wpa_supplicant.conf but apparently it's not used anymore, instead I've found a file called WifiConfigStore.xml but I'm not sure if it can be edited manually or it needs a program, I tried to use wpa_cli but I get an error at startup, I looked for apps but nothing like I need.

I believe the way to go is through WifiConfigStore.xml but its format looks non trivial so that I'm not confident to update it manually plus there's the change it's managed by a service and any change I make will be erased.

How can I add programmatically my networks? Is there an adb command, a file I could edit on the phone or an app that can help me with this?

I've also had the same problem with losing all WiFi networks when upgrading LineageOS, so I've written a tool which will convert your old wpa_supplicant.conf to new WifiConfigStore.xml (and I'm not using Google accounts or other "upload all my stuff to some cloud" privacy nightmares)

You can find it here: https://github.com/mnalis/android-wifi-upgrade

Even with just SSID/passwords list and without original wpa_supplicant.conf file, file format for WifiConfigStore.xml is not really complex (it is just very verbose). With minimal programming you can use template in my code used for filling it to replace $SSID and other variables in order to generate it from your list).

Note that it will require root (or recovery rom with full adb or filemanager access) on your new android device in order to actually upload newly created WifiConfigStore.xml to the phone.


How to delete/edit one in series of reoccuring events Is there a way to delete or edit just one event in a series of reoccuring events?

Htc Desire

Kernel Version 2.6.32.15-gf5a501c

Software Number Version 2.29.405.2

Yes, when you choose the particular event you want to edit or delete you are given 3 options (at least on my Droid 1 I am):

  Change only this event
  Change all events in the series
  Change this and all future events

Choose #1 to change just that one event in the series.


Google now - retraining the voice model Sometimes my phone ignores the Ok Google command. I've noticed that I need to say it in the exact same way, as I said it during the voice model retraining. Even a wrong distance between my mouth and my phone's microphone can cause it to ignore the OK Google command.
Is there a way to save many voice model profiles just like you do it with fingerprints? In android 6.1 you can save up to 5 models of your fingerprint, all of them are checked during the fingerprint authorisation.
If I could record more than 3 "Ok google" commands during the voice model retraining, I think it would work much better.

This is sadly not possible.

You could, however, say OK Google a little bit different each time it has to be recorderd. This might help to make sure that your voice is being recognized when you aren't saying OK Google in exactly the same way as your voice model.


Is Google Allo supposed to capable of being the default SMS app? On a Moto G5 Plus with Android 7.0 (Nougat), Google Allo was installed from the Google Play Store.

Going into Settings > Apps > (gear icon) > SMS app the list shown does not include Allo.  Is this universally the case, or is this something 'wrong' with my situation?  Is it correctable?

It's not possible - it's universally the case:

  First off, Allo isn't a Hangouts replacement. You can't set the messaging service as the default SMS client on your phone. It does offer the ability to message a contact that doesn't have Allo installed through Play Services, but that's about it. You can also talk to contacts over SMS, with the message itself routed through Google's servers, but Allo isn't an SMS service by design. In this regard, it has more similarities to WhatsApp than iMessage.

Emphasis added by me.
(source)

Note: It seems that Allo is going to be discontinued.


How to recover contacts from backed up galaxy S2 (gingerbread) files I recently gave my old Galaxy S2 to a friend as I just got an S3 and before I did, I copied the "My Files" folder from my phone to this computer via USB debugging mode and then factory reset the phone.

I have since noticed that I had saved a few of my contacts on my old phone rather than to the sim since when I put the new sim in, there are some missing contacts. I was wondering how I might recover the contacts I had saved to my old phone from the copy of files I made on this computer.

I have the following files:

Is there anything I can do to get the old contacts?

SIM contacts are not synced, neither are "phone" contacts. If you had used Google contact, they would have been synced with your Google/GMail account -- but then you wouldn't have noticed their loss, as they would have been synced back to your new device. Had you saved them as SIM contacts, they'd also be on your new device.

Which leaves us with the other non-synced variant: "phone contacts". Those are stored on device internal storage (to be more precise: in a database file located in /data/data/com.google.android.providers.contacts/databases), which is not directly accessible by normal users, so you could not have simply copied it.

Conclusion: as these data are not stored in "My Files", you have not copied them. And as you've factory-reset the original device, you cannot simply restore them from there. So apart from a quite expensive forensics recovery (done by a data recovery specialist) from your old device, there's no way to recover those contacts, sorry.


Disabling hangout calls for phone Is it possible to only disable voice/video calls in hangouts but leave messaging?

Nope you cannot only selectively disable video calls. The least you can do is disable incoming invites from the app settings.


How to recover stored wifi password? My Android device (A Samsung Galaxy S7 SM-G930F, version 6.0.1) has different wi-fi networks saved. I would like to recover some of the password it has stored.
Browsing through the web I searched possible solutions but none of it has worked for me.

Stored password in wpa_supplicant.conf are encrypted, and even if I change the build properties "ro.securestorage.support" to false, old password remain encrypted or get deleted, and I would like to recover those.
I know that wi-fi password usually get backed-up on google drive, but I have no idea how to recover them from the backup online.
I heard about an Xposed module "Wifi password" which supposedly should show the wifi password instead of the normal dots, but I have a TouchWiz device and if I install the Xposed Framework i'm afraid it would wipe my data, included my wifi password.

I understand that encryption is meant to keep safe your password, but as far as I know, every time I try to connect to a wifi network it uses the real password, so they have to be stored somewhere or decrypted on the go.

Can anyone help me?

EDIT: As I said, if I change ro.securestorage.support property on build.prop file, my stored password either get deleted or they remain hashed.

If i delete .system.wpa_supplicant

  all saved WiFi hotspots will be lost for the first time.

Also as said in the comments, the password isn't encrypted so there's no "way" to decrypt it, but it's hashed and there should be a way to recover it

The hex value you found in the wpa_supplicant.conf is the PMK (not the PSK directly but some intermediate value computing the PSK or something like this). This value is not encrypted, it is hashed as defined by WPA2 using PBKDF2 SHA-1 with 4096 iterations see Wikipedia.

SHA-1 is a one-way function, which means that it can not be reversed.

Wifi still works, because the PSK is the actual key Wifi requires to work. The passphrase is just for the "dumb humans who can't remember a simple 64 hex chars value" (aka user convenience).

Hence there is no "decrypt" function. The only way to retrieve the password back is to perform a brute force search on that password (trying all possible passwords). Depending on the length of the password and your hardware (CPU, GPU) this can take some days, weeks, months or years.

There is an issue on Github with indicates that the tool "hashcat" is able to break this value using mode 12000 (-m 12000):

See also Encryption algorithm used in WPA/WPA2


ToDo list, with SPECIFIC repeat option I'm looking for a simple to-do list, that preferably is cloud-synced. I'd like something with a relatively light-weight, simple interface, similar to Any.Do or #fetchnotes. I was using CheckMark Pro, but it is really WAY overkill for what I want.

My biggest criteria is that I want to be able to set a task to repeat, some interval from the date it is completed. Most of them let you repeat every 6 months or 2 weeks or whatever, from the due date. But take this example:

Task with due date of 5/30.
Task set to repeat every 6 months from completion.
I complete the task, marking it done, on 5/13.
The next occurrence should now repeat 6 months from 5/13 (the completion date), not from 5/30 (the original due date).

And of course whatever reminder is set (2 weeks for example) should be relative to the new due date, 5/13 in the example above.

Most of the one's I've looked at either are not cloud-synced. And I've not found any others than CheckMark Pro that allow the next occurrence to repeat based on COMPLETION date rather than DUE date.

Astrid has support for scheduled reminders based on completion date.

Cloud support is also present - tasks sync with astrid.com

Also Remember The Milk allows a user to schedule due dates depending on the completion of a task - one needs to enter "after x days" instead of "every x days". Android and iOS apps available.


How did can I find important partions of any android devices? Please Help Me !!!

How did can I find important partions of any android device . Using adb or fastboot . Such as, boot, recovery, etc...

I mean to backup any androdi device rom . I have tried with "ls /dev/block/" . Then I see many things.

        I've tried another with "cat /proc/mounts" . This one give me more pressures .
Take a look at this .

Sorry for my English :'(

You might want to take a look at this answer or, even better, at Android Folder Hierarchy, which most likely gives you the necessary details.

Using that information, your best approach to backup via ADB might be:

# find the device for the partition
mount | grep system
# from the output of the above (data from your screenshot), now back it up
# using "dd":
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p12 of=/mnt/sdcard2/system.img bs=1M

if is the device to back up, of the target (I just placed the image file in the root of your sdcard, you might wish to adjust that). Take care not to mix up the two, or you might destroy your system! (this is why dd sometimes is backronymed "data destroyer"). bs defines how much data to read/write in a single operation, my example uses 1 MB; you might play with this and e.g. use "8M" to speed things up, but do not set this too high.

Above example just handles the /system partition. Repeat it similarly for any of the other ones listed in the linked question which you want to have backed up.


Some Google Apps Accounts Stuck On "Waiting for Sync" I have several Google Apps (Free Edition) and one traditional Gmail acct set into my Nexus 4 (stock 4.2.2). All accts use 2FA (2 factor authentication).

Using the gmail app, all (GApps & Gmail) but two (both GApps) of those accounts are able to retrieve/sync emails successfully. The settings on the Forwarding and POP/IMAP are identical for all accounts.

I've tried removing the accts, force stop & clear data on gmail app, then recreating both accounts. I've tried leaving (for long periods of time) the auto-sync checkbox ON for those accts. I tried the fix outlined in this video (Auto-Sync data was already enabled, but I disabled, exited, then re-enabled).

What else can I try to get those two accounts working!?

Are you using your main Gmail password, or a 1-time use password.

Check out this link
http://support.google.com/mail/answer/1173270?hl=en


Boot from SD or external hardware device? I've tried researching this before, but was unable to encounter an answer. Can you boot a rooted device through USB-C, SD, or something? I'm currently running a Galaxy S9+ and want to keep Android Pie on the internal storage, but I want to choose to boot from an external device through the bootloader (if there is one). I know how to access recovery mode and such (the mode where you hold the Bixby button, volume up button, and power button), but I don't know if a bootloader can be accessed. Please inform me if it is possible to boot from external hardware via a bootloader, not sure how strict Google is.

You always have to modify boot.img, so the answer is no. If you considering to edit boot.img and manage to mount the external disk to /system, you should mount another partition to /data too.
There are apps like Multirom out there which can loop mount ext4 image files located on internal storage. Afaik not for pie, you should try with some old device first before soft bricking your S9+