Mount Android encrypted data partition on PC My Nexus 4 screen met a tragic end due to violent contact with flooring tiles. Everything works except the touchscreen (which displays fine but does not react to touch any more).

I would like to get a full copy of my data partition, but my device uses Full Disk Encryption, with a lock pattern. I can easily get image files of my partitions from CWM recovery through adb:

adb pull /dev/block/mmcblk0p23 ./userdata.img

which gives me a nice 6GB file, but mounting this image is another story since it is encrypted. My PC uses XUbuntu (I also have Windows at hand if necessary, but I guess a linux system is more useful here). My phone is rooted.

I know my unlock pattern of course, so there should be some way to mount/read my userdata.img file. Any pointers ?

Thanks !

I can confirm with 100% certainty that the numbers are indeed 1-9 for the pattern unlock.

My Nexus 4 met the same unfortunate end (except on concrete) and after some Googling, I found this post and was able to follow personne3000's answer in order to mount my pattern-encrypted userdata partition.

I'm running Ubuntu 15.04 x64 and had to apt-get install android-tools-adb android-tools-fastboot in order to continue the procedure.

My pattern is this (3x3 in order from 1-6):

[_   1   2]
[3   5   6]
[_   4   _]

Booted my phone to recovery from bootloader by running fastboot boot twrp-2.8.7.0-mako.img, and then when TWRP loaded, ran adb shell twrp decrypt 234856 and it successfully mounted my encrypted userdata to /dev/block/dm-0.

My 234856 decrypt password, ordered from 1-6 starting on the left, correlates to the positions on the above pattern grid, where '2' in the password correlates to '1' in the grid.

@Rhaegar Android sees the pattern as 0-8, because those are the bytes it uses when generating the SHA-1 hash for storing the pattern (http://www.cclgroupltd.com/a-rainbow-table-for-android-pattern-locks/), but TWRP sees the pattern as 1-9 when decrypting the userdata partition from the command line.

Huge +1 to personne3000 as without him providing that highly valuable information straight from TWRP devs I would not have my Android data right now.

I <3 Stack Exchange :)


How do you progress through the Droid Explorer unpack option? I'm using a Windows 7 PC and am trying to unpack an *.ab backup file created using Helium. If I right-click on the file in Windows Explorer and select the Unpack option that now appears after installing Droid Explorer 0.9.0.4, I'm first asked for a password. I provided none when creating the backup, so I simply leave the password field blank and press OK to continue.

Then, something weird pops up, and I'm not sure how to continue. I see this window, asking me what I want to open java.exe with:

Is that supposed to pop up at this point? Am I missing something that should be installed that would avoid this? I have Java 8 Update 31 currently installed on this machine.

This looks like (as stated in my comment above) that it has to do with the Path of Java not existing in the windows PATH environment variable.

I am adding your comment as well as part of this answer:

  Weird, that was (sort of) it! Java was in fact in my PATH environment variable, but it was using the directory C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath\ which contains only 3 symlinks to my actual Java bin folder. Double clicking on any of the symlink shortcuts results in the window I noted above. I temporarily changed my PATH variable to point to the real Java folder, and then your Unpack feature worked fine. (I then put my PATH variable back, since I don't know what potential security issues I'd open myself up to by leaving it altered.)


USB Internet is not working in sleep mode I am using Micromax Funbook Pro. The USB Internet connection gets disconnected after the system goes into sleep mode after 1 minute. I want to keep the connection alive. Please help.

I use the WakeLock app when transferring data, to prevent my device going to sleep. It's simple but effective.


How to perform a hardware reset of a galaxy tab S? My tablet is stuck at a screen (S Voice) and otherwise completely irresponsive.

I tried to press the power key for some time, hoping for a hardware reset (like the one found on PCs). I also tried the Power-Volume-Home combo - no response.

Is there a hardware way to reset a tablet ? (I see a tiny hole on the edge, right of the Home button but it is really tiny)

I do not want to perform a factory reset or "hard reset" as shown on numerous pages (using Power-Home-Volume). This requires the tablet to be powered down
I can wait for the power to drain and hope the tablet will restart but I would prefer to perform a reset first

I ended up waiting for the power to completely dry up and it restarted.


Trouble on the instalation of the Cyanogen? I'm trying to install Cyanogen on my Xperia L. I've done all the steps until here.

My problem is on step 5, I don't know what I'm supposed to do. On the sideload method, it says to select install zip > install zip from sideload, but on my phone there is not such option.
In the push and install method it says to navigate to the phone's mounts and storage. But there is also no such option on the phone. What appears in my phone is the following:

Reboot system now
Apply update
Wipe data/factory reset
Wipe cache partition
Reboot to bootloader
Power down
View recovery logs

Progress: I've uploaded the CM to my SD card. I've tried to run it using Apply update > from sdcard1. It runs for a while but it ends up in a screen that says:

Cyanogen
Recovery
Install failed
Finding update package...
Opening update package...
Installing update...
This package is for device: C2105, C2014, C2105, C2104, taoshan
this device is .
E: Failed to install /sideload/package.zip
Please take note of all the above lines for reports
Installation aborted.

The problem here is that my device is an Xperia L C2104 (according to the box). I'm starting to think that I should upload it to /sdcard/0/.

Pay attention to this particular part of the log:

This package is for device: C2105, C2014, C2105, C2104, taoshan
this device is .

The reason why this happens is that CyanogenMod ZIPs have the option to check the device it's being flashed on before it continues, so it won't get accidentally flashed on the wrong device.

If you look inside your ZIP and view the file META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script, you'll see something like this:

assert(getprop("ro.product.device") == "C2105" ||
       getprop("ro.build.product") == "C2014" ||
       ...
       abort("This package is for device: C2105, C2014, C2105, C2104, taoshan; this device is " + getprop("ro.product.device") + "."););

Now I find it weird that your recovery does not report the correct device model (this device is .). Your recovery might not have been built correctly.

Anyway, if you remove the entire assert( line up to );, the ZIP should flash just fine. Although if I were you, I'd take a bit more caution, since there is a possibility that the model info reporting isn't the only thing wrong with your recovery.


How can I manually extract my contacts from a backup image of Android? So I recently made an .img using dd of my Froyo installation on my phone prior to wiping and installing a custom Jellybean ROM. Turns out that the contacts were saved locally and not with Google.

I cannot for the life of me find my contacts anywhere on the images when I mount them. I've also tried attaching the .img as an external SD card to see if it could import and then export the contacts in a virtual android emulator. I just can't find them anywhere. I'm guessing they're hidden in some sql database somewhere in the guts of the OS but I'm out of ideas. Is there a way to boot the .img as the main OS on the Android emulator? Is there an easier way to go about this?

Well, this took a long time. For future searchers, here's what you can do:

Find your contacts2.db file hidden somewhere in Android. Most of the time it's located in /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases. I was lucky and found it in a search through Titanium Backups' tarballs. Nab that file. It has everything in it in a sql database.

I then found this excellent script to extract and convert all contacts into a .vcf format for easy importing into the next device. It's located here on Github and requires two dependencies (on an Ubuntu 12.04 machine in which it was written for): sqllite3 and libsqllite3-dev:

sudo apt-get install sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev

After dependencies are satisfied, save the script on Github as dbconverter.sh. Mark it as executable:

chmod +x dbconverter.sh

use the script like this:

./dbconverter.sh contacts2.db > contacts2.vcf

You will then have a lovely .vcf file for easy importing into your phone.


LG G2 - USB debugging disables when I connect to a PC I'm trying to set up remote debugging on my brand new LG G2 phone.

Seen here: http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/developertools/mobile/

So far, I've:

Enabled developer options
Enabled "USB debugging" on the Developer options screen
On the "PC Connections" screen - I've set "USB connection method" to "PC Software"

So - everything looks good at this point.

However, as soon as I connect the device to my PC, the "USB debugging" setting on the "Developer options" screen turns gray (disabled). If I go to DevTools on Chrome on my PC (chrome://inspect/#devices) and check "Discover USB devices", my phone is not listed.

What else do I need to do?

The PC Software setting is just for installing and using the LG PC software. Once your drivers are installed, enable USB Debugging, plug it in, change it from "charge only" to "MTP" and USB Debugging should work.


Bootloader/BIOS, flashing ROM and correlated risks. Why Android devices are more brickable than PCs? I have a solid experience of installing different OS (Linux, Windows,...) on PC. I would like to try just for fun to install Linux on a unbranded Android low cost tablet acquired in 2015. I spent some time browsing the web and as far as I understood there is a risk that during the flash procedure the device could be potentially damaged. So I read extensively on how to backup the ROM using TWRP and all related matters. I would like just to have some explanations on the below topic:

Scenario #1:
I have a PC, if I want to try another OS I can just format the hard disk and install it, in no way there is the risk of damaging the BIOS motherboard. Motherboard and hard-disk are separated, so no problems may arise.

Scenario #2:
I have a tablet, want to wipe out Android and install an upgraded version of Android or a Linux distro suitable for mobile devices.

Why in this scenario there is a risk to get an unusable device?
Is this because in this case motherboard and unit memory are bundled together? So wiping the memory will also erase the configuration settings of the motherboard?
Do we have here the equivalent of BIOS settings?

SHORT ANSWER:

Android phones are more brickable than PCs because they can hardly communicate with us if the bootloader is erased. And bootloader(s) live on Flash memory (eMMC) partitions which are prone to deletion quite easily (even during an update process). If you unluckily damage these partitions or they are worn out, there is a great chance you won't be able to communicate with device ever afterwards.
See Boot Process: Android vs. Linux and Android Device Partitions and Filesystems for details.

LONG ANSWER:

A device is considered bricked if we are unable to communicate with it. Now let's see how we communicate with devices at very lower level - say - when there is no Operating System installed or it gets corrupted/erased accidentally.

PERSONAL COMPUTERS:

There is a standardization in PC world. BIOS is a mature firmware that provides a well developed platform to communicate with the system. It has ability to enumerate the hardware i.e. load basic hardware including motherboard, CMOS/NVRAM, RAM, hard drive, optical drive, graphics card and screen, keyboard, mouse, network card, and other peripherals connected to USB.
During Power On Self Test (POST), BIOS identifies all above said hardware by communicating at all internal and external buses whose paths are hard-coded with BIOS, sending them a signal like who is where?
UEFI - an evolution of BIOS - overcomes the limitations of 16-bit operation mode and maximum 1MB RAM usage. It's a minimal OS in itself which can even recognize and use filesystems, providing a better user interface, more configurable boot options and support for larger disk drives.

After this initialization of system, BIOS/UEFI reads bootsectors/bootloaders from bootable media like hard drives, USB storage or even network. It means that a PC is able to communicate with us even if there is no hard drive installed; it'll inform us: No bootable media detected. It's because BIOS/UEFI is stored on Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM that evolved from ROM, PROM and EPROM) connected to motherboard. If you somehow manage to erase or damage this EEPROM, yes your PC will also be bricked but that's rare.

ANDROID DEVICES:

Now coming to Android devices, hardware components are not connected to motherboard through buses, instead the core components that include CPUs, GPU, RAM, Flash/eMMC (equivalent of HDD or SSD), WiFi and bluetooth module, USB connectivity, UART (serial ports), JTAG (a very lower level serial communication protocol), GPS, modems (for cellular connectivity) are all built on a single System on Chip (SoC). Most of these components are not discoverable by SoC firmware (roughly equivalent of BIOS/UEFI) unless a Device Tree is loaded by final bootloader (e.g. ABOOT) into device memory i.e. just before kernel (OS) is loaded. And if you have no OS on the device, you are just depending on the minimal communication protocols provided by bootloader(s). At this stage only a few hardware components (usually graphics, NAND and some way of serial communication) are working, and that too with limited functionality.

Manufacturers may provide protocols at pre-bootloader or bootloader level e.g. Download Mode (QFIL / QPST / Qualcomm HS-USB QDloader 9006 and 9008 modes; PS: I don't know much about MTK or other SoC vendors), Fastboot, Odin etc. But these - Service Modes; what they call it - are disabled by OEMs for security reasons and as a part of their business strategies. Some manufacturers allow unlocking these service modes at user's risk after special approvals. Some hacks may also be used e.g. finding some test points on main board, shortening USB wires, using JIGs etc.
Lower level communication protocols e.g. JTAG are for development purpose only and those are almost impossible to be discovered and used for repairing purpose, though the same would have been possibly used for initial writing of firmware (including bootloaders) to flash memory. Some hacking tools like eMMC Flasher boxes/adapters may also use similar protocols for IMEI unlocking and other "black" stuff ;)
Also there have been successful attempts to boot Android from USB / UART ports but that's very rare now a days and requires a lot of technical knowledge and hacking skills.

All of these methods used to unbrick devices are not officially supported by most of the vendors, vary from vendor to vendor (not standardized) and are poorly documented for end user's usage.
That's why Android devices (or generally saying devices with embedded components) are more brickable than PCs.

RELATED:

Can I flash Android on device with overwritten mmcblk0?

SOURCES:

Device trees I: Are we having fun yet?
Android vs. PC

See Also:

Why mobile phone manufacturers lock their devices?


Firefox / uBlock Origin only showing camera / image apps when clicking on a file upload button I'm looking to import my uBlock Origin settings from my desktop PC, which is in a text file, to uBlock Origin in Firefox for Android.

The issue is: When I click on the 'Restore from file...' button on uBlock Origin in Firefox Android, I only get prompted to choose between camera / image apps:

In a Windows PC, clicking on that button will open up an Explorer window allowing you to select a text file to import. I can't import a text file with any of the above apps  shown. Is there an app I should install to allow this? How should I configure it?

Details: I have Google Drive and ES File Explorer installed. This is on Android 4.4.2, Firefox for Android 44.0, uBlock Origin 1.5.5.

As confirmed by OP this app resolved the problem App Picker Classic. From app description

  If you have app choices that are currently hidden - maybe you chose "Always" by accident once, but you'd like to be able to reinstate the app and choose each time - then reset these by clearing the defaults in the application manager of your phone/tablet.

In addition, this app permits working with some app intents and resolves common URLs. One needs to install the app, reset defaults and enable required app.

Note

Despite the app being not updated for last two years, it even works with Marshmallow, as can be seen from @Arlinds answer here - which was a surprise to me, and the reason for remembering it !


Google App and Google Play Services force close - SecurityException My friend's Samsung Galaxy S phone (with CM11) has been recently having an issue, where Google Play Services has been randomly crashing with this message in the logcat:

java.lang.SecurityException: attempting to read gservices without permission: Neither user 10103 or current process has com.google.android.providers.gsf.permission.READ_GSERVICES.

The same thing happens to the Google App upon trying to perform a search in it.

Make sure that the GApps flashed onto the phone after flashing the ROM is indeed supported on that ROM.
If you are using the package provided by Cyanogen then please download Delta GApps below. The package provided by Cyanogen has some bugs.

GApps for all KitKat+ CMs

1) Download the base package for KitKat

2) Download standard Addons for KitKat

3) Download any other addons for KitKat you may want.

4) Transfer files onto your device.

5) Boot into your custom recovery.

6) Wipe Cache, Dalvik Cache.

7) Install/Flash the zips/packages.

8) Boot into CM11.

9) Try opening them now. If you're unable to open Clear Data of all the Google Apps and try again.


TalkBack won't turn off I have a Motorola Moto E running KitKat 4.4.4. It somehow got into TalkBack mode and now I can't swipe the screen to get into Settings. I did a factory reset, but it's still there! How can I change the settings when I can't get to them?

If you have inadvertently enabled Talkback, you can quickly pause it then go to the Settings and disable this feature.

From anywhere on the screen, swipe down then right in a single motion, as if you were drawing an “L”.
(This should work whether the phone is on the lock screen or unlocked.)

You will then see 2 options in the top corners of the screen, select “Pause Feedback”.

When the Suspend Talkback message appears, double tap “OK”.

You can now normally go into  Settings > Accessibility and disable Talkback.


Remove SMS notification on Lenovo A800 How can I remove the SMS notification in status bar? I think I have no Notification setting.

If Lenovo didn't change the stock messaging app: open Messaging and press the Menu in the down-right corner and choose Settings. Scroll down to the Notifications section and uncheck Notifications.


Shell .profile or /etc/profile for old android 2.3.3 Just rooted my old phone with Android 2.3.3 and I would like to define some aliases for each shell I start (with adb or terminal app). I found this question where one answer says that /etc/profile (=/system/etc/profile due to soft link /etc->/system/etc) is one of the files the shell sources on startup. But this post talks about /system/bin/sh being a link to /system/bin/mksh, which is not the case on my 2.3.3 system.

Despite the fact that strings sh produces /etc/profile as one output, the file is not sourced.

Does anyone happen to know the old Android version and whether I have a chance to get /etc/profile or some other file sourced on shell startup? I thought it might be a permission problem but even rwxrwxr-x does not help.

As I wrote in the other question, adb shell does not start a login shell. Only login shells read /etc/profile.

As you can see in Android 2.3.3 sh source, main.c lines 175ﬀ. only if argv[0] starts with a hyphen-minus is the shell considered a login shell. However, a few lines below (lines 185ﬀ.) there is code to read the content of $ENV.

So you could trick it and enter the following code after entering adb shell mode:

ENV=/etc/profile sh

You can probably use exec to replace the current shell, but this is the shortest to type I can come up with, as you will have to type it every time.

Alternatively, you can compile mksh for Android 2.3 (it works down to at least 1.5, if not older) manually (the Android.mk file is version-specific, unfortunately, so you’ll have to call Build.sh directly) and add the binary, then replace the default sh with it (I tested that first with Android 1.6; the newer the mksh version used the better, as early versions had bugs, e.g. preventing adb install from working).

Disclaimer: I’m the mksh developer.


Samsung Galaxy S2 bricked? I own a galaxy sII. 3 weeks back, I downloaded and flashed the MIUI ICS rom on my phone. A week later I tried to update the ROM through ROM Manager. Everything went fine except when after flashing the latest ROM, the phone restarted and displayed the error:

[ RST_STAT = Ax20000000 ]
KERNEL PANIC UPLOAD MODE

I entered into Download Mode - ODIN and tried to connect my PC to the phone but the PC failed to recognize my device, throwing the error - 'Device Malfunctioned'. It's been 2 weeks and I'm perplexed as to what to do next.

I can enter ODIN Mode but cannot get my PC to connect to the phone. I installed the drivers manually, but ODIN doesn't recognize my phone. I connected to different PCs with different USB cables, still no luck.

If it does connect, it disconnects immediately. Also, PC fails to recognize the device, but the phone charges through the USB cable.

Any help would be appreciated.

EDIT:

My PC is running on Windows 7 64-bit.

It turned out that the USB pin of the phone had become faulty and needed to be replaced.


Google Play deducted extra Rupee 50 after first-time Play Store purchase of an App/Game. Why is that? Today I bought Temple Run: Oz from Google Play. When I filled all the credentials in to pay rupee 53.18 for this application then it automatically deducted rupee 50.00 from my credit card and after submitting it again deducted rupee 53.18 from the credit card. But the original price of this game is rupee 53.18, why did the extra rupee 50.00 deduction happen?

How can I get this money back?

Is buying an application on Google Play not secure?

Don't worry Vinit, one of the standard way for payment gateways (including Google Checkout and PayPal, PaisaPay etc) to validate your account is by deducting a small amount (typically 1 USD or  an approximate equivalent 50 INR) and returning it in next few days.

Please wait for few days and while doing so, please observe for any reversal of 50 INR. If you see a credit to your payment account then all fall in order.


How can I verify that a widget updates only when it's visible? I've installed a task manager widget that shows me the amount of free memory I currently have in the icon of the widget. When I look at it it updates every ~3 seconds, so it definitely drains some battery and consumes some memory when it's active and updating.

I want to make sure it doesn't update when the widget is invisible:

When screen is turned off.
When another app is running.
When widget is placed on another (invisible) home screen tab.

How can I check whether the widget updates only when it's visible or even when it's invisible?

It doesn't update only when it's visible. Because all widgets are drawn by the host (i.e. the home screen or lock screen), there's no way for the widget provider to tell whether the widget is visible or not.

It would be possible for the service that keeps changing the widget to find out when the screen is turned off. In recent Android versions, you could verify that using the Battery screen in Settings. Add the widget to your home screen, then (while the phone/tablet isn't plugged in) leave the screen turned off for some time. Turn it back on, and see if your task manager app is listed on the Battery screen.

Regardless of the result, your task manager app is probably doing more harm than good. Android isn't like Windows: it's designed to keep as much memory in use as it can, and only frees memory when it has to. See Do I really need to install a task manager? for more info.


How do one know what is the reasons why an android apps exit with exceptions? Sometime, when you install a particular apps in the emulator, it work perfectly fine. So, you install the apps into your phone and/or tablet and it throws an exception when you run it.

Similar, when you install a particular apps in the emulator, it does not work & throws you an exception but when you install the apps into your phone and/or tablet, it was able to run perfectly.

So, my question is how do I know what is the reasons behind why apps exit with exception? Where can I find more information so that I can actually know the reasons why the apps exit with exception?

Example: One can go to a particular folder of the apps and open the logs which tell the user that the apps exit with exception is because it does not have a GPU or it does not have enough RAM and so on.

IMPORTANT: This question is from the end-user point of view. This is NOT a question from a developer point of view. Thank you.

If you as a user experience such crashes, and want to help the developer to get them fixed, you can use tools such as aLogcat (free) - logcat or Bug Reporter to catch a log of what happened:

While aLogCat allows you to restrict the log closer to the crash event (by letting you define what to capture), Bug Reporter enables you to send other useful information along, such as device specifics and the like.

EDIT: As Liam pointed out correctly in his comment, due to permission changes in Jelly Bean (4.1) some of those log viewers where no longer able to see anything but their own log entries. If your device is rooted, the easiest way to get them working again is to convert them into system apps (e.g. with Titanium Backup). If your Android version is 4.0.x or lower, you should not be affected by this.


What is the max sd card size for the LG optimus dynamic What is the maximum size of sdcard that LG optimus dynamic supports?

LG on its website here has featured the specifications for your device, and the relevant one is:

  microSD™ Memory Slot                             Supports up to 32 GB memory card**

Now you can buy the micro-SD card of size up to 32GB.


Evo 3D constantly locking up I have the Sprint Evo3D, and as of late its been locking up a lot. When it locks up, the screen is no longer interactive, nor the buttons at the bottom. I have to power it off and then back on then I can use it again. This happens frequently, almost every time I use it. Sometimes have to power it off 2 or 3 times in a row to use it again.

I've had a few ROM updates, and its been happening since maybe 3 updates ago? Hard to remember. I've done a factory reset and haven't reinstalled anything but its still happening.

Running Android 2.3.4, HTC Sense 3.0, Software 2.17.651.5, PRL 21083


Internal storage has been wiped out in blink of an eye I connected my phone (Redmi 1S) to my PC (Windows 7 64-Bit) as media device to view and copy files from PC to phone's internal storage. I saw some unwanted files & folder are present in storage and decided to delete them. i deleted some junk folders and disconnected my phone from PC. After that i opened gallery to see i recently transfered photos from PC. I just felt shocked to see that the gallery is showing photos only present in SD Card and my internal storage is empty. I opened file manager to check files and there is only pre defined folders are only present like Android, DCIM remaining files and folders are just gone. i don't know what happened. Please help me guys what just happened? and How the files are gone?

You've most likely deleted the storage folder seen in the PC view.

This folder isn't necessarily present in the root of your internal storage, it's more like a link to your whole internal storage. I don't know about how it's generated, but since Windows disrespect links, deleting it is effectively wiping the internal storage itself. I had this happened to me on my own Nexus 4, and restoring data was a painful process, and in most senses failed - most of my music files are only available as 8MB fragments, and pictures are distorted or simply unreadable.

Do check out the data-recovery tag wiki for tips on attempting to restore it, but as I said, don't get hopes up on restoring data in one piece.


Why Does Not My File Explorer See A Mounted Folder? Why can't i see a mounted folder into my file explorer (checked ES file explorer and RootBrowser) , but i can see it from a terminal?
I'm mounting a folder (/mnt/sdcard/Source) into other folder (/mnt/sdcard/Destination) with the next command (requieres Root permissions):
mount -o bind /mnt/sdcard/Source /mnt/sdcard/Destination

If i check with the ls command, i can see the files, but not on my explorer.
I'm testing it on a Moto G running Android 4.4.2 (Kitkat), but the same command works fine on Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean).

Seems like here's the answer and solution: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2718760 .
Quoting biopsin.

  Since Android 4.2 and the intro of multiusers there is a problem with bind folders across sdcards, making any attempt on mount bind folders as root would result in visible to root only.
  Solution is to fool Android with temporary hijack debuggerd to create the mount binds for us. Thanks Chainfire for this workaround!
  * Download both files and rename without .txt
  * edit debuggerd.mnt to suit your needs (using any other dir then /emulated/legacy/ will result in read only if browsing folders from sdcard0)
  * move debuggerd.mnt to /system/bin
  * move mount.sh to any place with execute permissions
  * execute mount.sh with any preferred method.
    cheers!

Content of "debuggerd.mnt.txt" below.

#!/system/bin/sh

# Mount sd hack
mount -o bind /storage/sdcard1/Download /storage/emulated/legacy/Download
mount -o bind /storage/sdcard1/Ebooks /storage/emulated/legacy/eBooks
mount -o bind /storage/sdcard1/Pictures /storage/emulated/legacy/DCIM
mount -o bind /storage/sdcard1/Pictures /storage/emulated/legacy/Pictures

And below content of "mount.sh.txt".

#!/system/bin/sh

# Mount hack
mount -o remount,rw /system
stop debuggerd
mv /system/bin/debuggerd /system/bin/debuggerd.bak
mv /system/bin/debuggerd.mnt /system/bin/debuggerd
start debuggerd
sleep 2
stop debuggerd
mv /system/bin/debuggerd /system/bin/debuggerd.mnt
mv /system/bin/debuggerd.bak /system/bin/debuggerd
start debuggerd
mount -o remount,ro /system
echo "Mount hack enabled"


unable to remove google account from lenovo vibe p1 m I have added my gmail account in my lenovo vibe p1 option  m mobile phone but I am not getting any option to remove the account from the mobile. I searched in settings->Accounts but no such option is given. Please help

Go to setting > google > tap the account u want to remove > then tap the  recent page button (square shape ) 3 times then  remove option will be shown !


wpa_cli not found on rooted device? I rooted my device, then I go to adb shell and type su to enter wpa_cli.
I was surprised that wpa_cli: not found appeared, although I get information when I type wpa_supplicant.

I know that wpa_cli is from same library wpa_supplicant from this  link

The wpa_supplicat's command line interface (wpa_cli) is not installed as default on most, Android devices. My Galaxy S running CM10 contains it though. I guess you have to manually (compile and) install it.


What information does Chrome/Android send to Google to discover my "WiFi based" location? Their commercial geolocation API doc says it needs a list of every WiFi access point around, with, for each of them:

MAC address,
ESSID
signal strength,
a few others.

Common devices probably query the geolocation web service like this.

However, I'm interested in knowing if Chrome/Android actually sends more information to Google, like:

my device WiFi MAC address or "ID"?
my GPS location? (say, to geolocalize WiFi APs around me for Google)
etc.

The best answer would be a (sniffed) query dump from a WiFi enabled device (bypassing https). A source code review may also be useful, but for Chromium only.

Looking at the source code of Chromium, the data structure holding the Wi-Fi data doesn't seem to have any more data that you mentioned, so I find it unlikely that they actually send other Wi-Fi related data somehow in secret to their servers from Chrome. (Only age is added to the request afterwards as I can see.)

And it wouldn't make much sense anyway. Your device's Wi-Fi MAC address or ID or anything that is Wi-Fi related is completely irrelevant for the geolocation system. It doesn't matter who wants to know his own position, what address he uses etc. The results only depend on the data provided in the API. The MAC address of the Wi-Fi network provides the approximate position of the network itself and the other data like the signal strength make a distance estimation possible.

The device's GPS location could come handy for the system though. I guess that Chrome doesn't send it only because most of the devices running Chrome don't really have a GPS chip thus they don't know the GPS location. But Android devices simply have to send this data. As stated above the network's address is what provides the position information in the queries. For that Google needs to map a more or less exact location to the address and they need to collect that information somehow. Some years ago there was a scandal that the Street View cards didn't take just pictures, but also collected Wi-Fi data. They were forced to stop doing that so now the only logical way for them to collect it is to rely on the trillions of Android devices in the wild.


Disconnecting a call Can anybody tell me how to disconnect the call in between. The screen on my Samsung Galaxy 3 becomes disabled during the call , it becomes very difficult to get the screen back during the call to disconnect.

Generally you simply use the power button to re-enable the screen (if the proximity sensor doesn't automatically do it) and hit "end call".

However, some people like to be able to do it with their hardware buttons, which is addressed in this question: Can I hang up using a button?


How to add contacts using adb without user interaction? Following this I found out how to add a contact using adb. The only thing that's bugging me is that the user has to okay/cancel the action, because a create-contact dialog appears on the screen. What I want is for the command to automatically add the contact without waiting for the approval of the user. I've already looked through this, but couldn't find a way. Does anyone know how to do this?

For your Android 4.4.2 device the command to add a contact is (replace the Bo Lawson and #123.. to whatever you want):

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.INSERT -t vnd.android.cursor.dir/contact -e name 'Bo Lawson' -e phone 123456789

Now to get it to save. This is Android 4.4.2 specific. Pressing back will save it. For this you need to use key events. With Android 4.4.2 it is key event 4. You are going to need to do it at least twice.  Once to exit the keyboard, the other to exit and save. If required use it again to completely exit from Contacts app.

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.INSERT -t vnd.android.cursor.dir/contact -e name 'Bo Lawson' -e phone 123456789
adb shell input keyevent 4
adb shell input keyevent 4

This worked on my rooted Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro running Android 4.4.2.

Edit: I found a post on Stack Overflow which references this command.


How do I copy Opera Mini browser cookies? Is there a way to copy the Opera Mini's cookies from one phone to another? (same model of phone)

If you are rooted, you could use an app such as MyBackup Root or Titanum Backup to backup Opera Mini, and then restore it on the new device.

It is not possible if you're not rooted.


What can I do with DLNA on an android smartphone? What can I do with DLNA on an android smartphone?

I understand it allows wireless streaming media, but beyond that I have trouble finding details.

Will DLNA enabled smartphones receive data from servers? Will I be able to hit "play" on my smartphone and listen to it on my DLNA enabled stereo?

An Android phone with DLNA should be able to both send and receive.  My Galaxy S uses an app called AllShare to manage it, and there are others like 2Player in the Market. I'm sure you could stream to your stereo.


Play Protect : Device not certified - What does it mean? I would like to know what it means when Google Play Protect certifies a device. My Moto G6 (Ali) is not certified in the Play Store.

(Tap to enlarge)

Is there any way to certify my device?
Currently, it's running a soak test OTA firmware from Motorola.
Is there a problem if my device isn't certified ?

See your Play Protect certification status Google Play Help answers you :

  What it means if your device isn't Play Protect certified

  If your device is not Play Protect certified, Google doesn’t have a record of the Android compatibility test results.

  Keep in mind that:

  Devices that aren't Play Protect certified may not be secure.
  Devices that aren't Play Protect certified may not get Android system updates, or app updates.
  Google apps on devices that aren't Play Protect certified aren't licensed and may not be real Google apps.
  Apps and features on devices that aren't Play Protect certified may not work correctly.
  Data on devices that aren't Play Protect certified may not back up securely.

  What to do if your device isn’t Play Protect certified?

  If your device isn't Play Protect certified, we recommend contacting your device manufacturer. Ask for a fully tested, Play Protect certified device.


How does my Android units get into gmail without IMAP or POP set as active? I just checked and IMAP and POP are shut off, and there is no forwarding enabled.

So how does my Android have access to all my Google stuff in the first place?

And what is to keep something else from getting in there with the same method?

Google has it's own API that it's clients use to access it's services. IMAP and POP are things Google provides in addition to that custom API, for the benefit of those who use other e-mail clients.

The thing that protects your mail and such is your Google account's username and password. When you give your Android phone your Google account username and password, it's able to use those credentials to access ALL Google services on your behalf.

Thus, once you give the phone your Google uname/pw, it can get to your calendar, mail, play store, etc, etc without you having to give the credentials over and over.


How do I know that a charger is a Turbo Charger for my Moto I have a bunch of USB chargers lying around and I wanted to clear the mess. Is there an easy way of knowing which ones support the Turbo Charging function of my Moto G5?

Does every company have its own version of fast charging or is there pre-agreed protocols that are negotiated between phones / batteries & chargers.

I do have this monitoring app "Ampere" installed & it shows 1630 mA right now as the charging current at a 24% battery level.

Can one tell from this whether we are in fast charge territory?

Also, can one typically tell from the specs printed on the charger itself? e.g. This charger shows

  Model C P49L SPN5967A Output 5.2V 2A

Does every company have its own version of fast charging or is there pre-agreed protocols that are negotiated between phones / batteries & chargers.

Yes. See this answer How does fast-charge work?. This list is not exhaustive and doesn't cover all types but get the idea

  I do have this monitoring app "Ampere" installed & it shows 1630 mA ....

Yes. It's a fast charger, normal charger will not charge usually beyond 1100 mA

  Model C P49L SPN5967A

Google it. You will find listed on Amazon and in the supported phones, you will see that they ( I didn't verify all) support fast charging

  How do I know that a charger is a Turbo Charger for my Moto

It doesn't seem to be going by the list of supported phones. But be aware that some or most turbo chargers do fast charging and vice versa. But it's best to get one that specifically supports your device


How can I disabled/lock certain settings components I'm trying to find a way to disable or lock certain settings components for Android Tablet. We need to protect the tablets from out students pressing un-allowed settings. Kindly assist

We need to hide:
- Apps
- Backups & Reset
- Accounts
- Accessibility
- Developer options

Screenshots attached to be more accurate, thank you in advanced?

You could consider using an EMM that supports COPE devices and MDM but that costs per device per month and some technical experience. More info here: https://androidenterprisepartners.withgoogle.com/emm/.
If you don't want to pay for an EMM you can use an open source one like WSO2 but you need to set up your own IoT server running 24/7 and you need a good technical background to understand the instructions. Mind you that doesn't prevent students from rooting the phone and uninstalling the app, so you can only really use this method if the students are not too tech-savvy.


How to access Local PC drives in Bluestacks I have installed BS 4 on my windows 10 laptop.
Now i have installed ES File Explorer on it through Google Play Store.
After that when i am trying to access my local drives i am unable to access it or you can say unable to find path of local drives.

Secondly, i observe my windows icon has QUESTION MARK why it is like that.

Thanks
Adeel Imtiaz

You can easily share files between BlueStacks and Windows using shared folders. Just place your file inside it and you can access it from both Windows and BlueStacks.
Let's understand it:
The default shared folder in Windows is located in C:\ ProgramData\ BlueStacks\ UserData\ SharedFolder  (assuming C:\ is your Windows installation drive). In BlueStacks, the same folder is located in (Root)/ sdcard/ bstfolder/ BstSharedFolder.

BstsharedFolder is bluestacks shared folder with your pc contents and vice versa.
You have to put files into the above folder to make accessible from pc as well as from bluestacks itself.

Additionally, the default Windows Library folders are accessible from BlueStacks. They are located in /sdcard/bstfolder/ as Pictures, Documents, etc.
A file manager app is required to navigate folders inside BlueStacks. In this answer, i'm  using OI File Manager. To share a file, follow the steps below:

1.Download and install OI File Manager in BlueStacks.
2.On Windows, navigate to BlueStacks Shared Folder [C:\ ProgramData\ BlueStacks\ UserData\ SharedFolder] and place the files you want to use in BlueStacks (like photos, videos, downloaded APK files, etc.). You can also use the Windows Library Folders for this purpose.
3.In BlueStacks, launch OI File Manager and navigate to BlueStacks shared folder [(Root)/ sdcard/ bstfolder/ BstSharedFolder]. If you have placed files in your Windows Library, locate the respective folder from bstfolder directory in BlueStacks.

Similarly if you want to access BlueStacks files from your computer, copy the particular file to BstSharedFolder using OI File Manager and the same file will be available in Windows SharedFolder location.
Note: This article is originally written by David. Source


How do I prevent auto-mounting of ext2 partition on OSX? I've created a 512Mb partition on my HTC Desire's (running LeeDroid) SD card to store apps.
When I used Windows, I'd never had a problem with this partition becoming read-only, unreadable or corrupted.

Since I switched to a Mac, this partition got corrupted several times. Somehow, I thought it was LeeDroid's fault, and didn't blame it on the Mac.

I installed Cyanogenmod on the Desire to overcome this problem, but the ext2 partition on the card still kept getting corrupted. I read on the Cyanogen's forums that Linux and OSX automatically mount the ext2 partition when the phone is plugged in, causing the partition to become corrupted, and then this made sense.

Question: Is is possible to prevent OSX from automatically mounting the ext2 partition on Android phone's SD card?

I'm no Linux buff but this Macworld article seems promising assuming you know the UUID for the volume and don't mind working from the terminal. The article wisely recommends backing up the volume before messing around too much.

Also... Googling for Android+phone+UUID is returning links which are related to programming. Perhaps retrieving the UUID from an Android phone is a separate question for this problem.


How do I disable twitter notifications? Twitter keeps send me

  @Jim and @Bob just retweeted...

notifications on my Android phone.

I've tried disabling the notifications following these instructions from twitter.

However I'm still receiving these notifications. Any idea how to disable?

Go Settings/Apps/Twitter

Uncheck "Show Notifications" under the "Force Stop" button.


Phone takes up to 20 secs between click on phone number and actual call, receive multiple times the same sms My phone is behaving oddly and I don't understand what is going on.

It started a few days ago. When I click on a phone number or a contact (that link to his phone number to call directly), the list of last called number is correctly updated, the click is effective, but the actual call begins about 20 seconds later ! If I click multiple time on the phone number, it will call this number multiple times, but after the laps of 20 seconds.

Moreover, I found another bug that started the same day. When someone sends me an sms, I receive it multiple times, like 10/15 times, throughout the day (not at once). It's like I receive a new sms every hours, but it's still the same.

I didn't installed any new app or didn't make any update of the OS just before.

I tried to reboot the phone but the problem is still here.

I'm wondering if it's a hardware issue that makes android buggy, or an update of an existing app that makes it behaving that way.

Here the list of installed apps :

9Gag
Barcode Scanner
GMail
Google+
Prey Anti Theft
Andmade share
Dropbox
Endomondo (pro)
Facebook
Google Authenticator
Google Drive
Google Play Kiosque
Google Play Musique
Hangouts
Headspace
Jewels Star
Maps
Google Chrome
Profile Flow
Google Search
Vocal search
Skype
Street view
Super Sudoku
Twitter
Youtube

It's an HTC One, and I didn't rooted it or installed a specific ROM, it's the OS from the purchase.

Thank you for your help !!

I know this is probably the last thing you want to do but a factory reset is probably the best thing to try.


OverlayFS and external SD card Last days I get (not so) old Samsung Xcover2, I root it and install CM 11 (KK 4.4.4).
Unfortunately Samsung GT-S7710 have small amount of internal memmory (1.18GB).

Now I want to know if there is way to mount ext4 formatted SD card as overlayFS.

Thanks.

This isn't a real answer to your question, but it is some hopefully useful information:

according to https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Overlay_filesystem

"Overlayfs has been in the linux kernel since 3.18"

according to the answer and the comments here >>Which Android runs which Linux kernel?<<

linux kernel >3.18 seems rare in Android. If your kernel is >=3.18 you may be able to use some terminal commands to manually mount it how you want, I think your best bet would be looking up linux commands for using overlayfs.


How do I set a custom SMS tone for a single contact? If it matters any I have an HTC Desire Z with the original Sense install.

We have this monitoring service at work that keeps an eye on the various servers and starts frantically SMS'ing me whenever things aren't working right.

I'd like to set a separate notification tone for SMS's from that one contact. How do you do that? Under the contact I have an option for the Ringtone, but there doesn't seem to be an option for the SMS notification tone.

Go into your contacts.  Open the contact you want to personalize the message tone.  Click "edit".  Then scroll down to the bottom and click on "ADD ANOTHER FIELD".  Tap to put a check mark beside "Message tone" then tap "OK".  Then tap on "Message tone" and your options should come up e.g. Media storage, Zedge, etc.  Tap which option you want to choose the message tone for that person.  then choose the ringtone for them and tap "set ringtone".  Make sure you then "save" that contact.
That worked for me with my Samsung Galaxy S5.  Hope this works for you.


Changing Screen resolution on Samsung Tablet S2 or S3 I am preparing to buy my first tablet. It does happen I am shortsighted. In my PC I change the screen resolution to enlarge fonts. I have windows 7.
Is there a way to change screen resolution in Samsung Tablet S2  (Android 5) or Samsung Tablet S3 (Android 7).

Alternatively are there other ways (or apps) - to enlarge fonts ?

Absolutely, you could try out some accessibility features that serve almost a similar goal (as changing resolution in Windows)

You can easily enable large fonts or display scaling under accessibility in Settings.

Depending on the Android version in question, you can enable large font for example by going to Settings >> Accessibility >> Large text e.g on my device

You can also tweak related settings like enabling or disabling high contrast text (varies with android version)

Settings >> Accessibility >> High contrast text

  High contrast makes text easier to read on your device. This feature
  fixes the text colour as either black or white, depending on the
  original text colour.

Another option to enhance readability of text on your device is using magnifying option (in Accessibility) allowing to zoom in or out certain parts of display.

If you looking for third-party applications to do the job try these:

Big Font (change font size)

Or

Big Font (change font size & display size)

I'm not associated with the above mentioned applications but
 doing a quick googling showed these are most used :)


Connect OnePlus One through adb keep disconnecting I'm trying to switch my OnePlus One from CyanogenMod to LineageOS, and to do so I need to use adb adn fastboot. I use Fedora 28 as OS on my PC, with the latest Gnome as DE.

The usual "data" connection works fine, meaning that I can access my phone's internal storage and copy files from/to that memory. Trying to use adb, I I changed the USB mode to "charge" and enabled adb from the Developers Options menu under Settings.

As soon as I connect my phone to the PC, it looks like it is stuck in a loop of connecting and disconnecting the device. I don't see any prompt on my phone regarding the adb connection, and dmesg shows the following output:

new high-speed USB device number 31 using xhci_hcd
usb 3-2: New USB device found, idVendor=05c6, idProduct=6765, bcdDevice= 2.32
usb 3-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
usb 3-2: Product: A0001
usb 3-2: Manufacturer: OnePlus
usb 3-2: SerialNumber: 23deaeca
usb 3-2: reset high-speed USB device number 31 using xhci_hcd
usb 3-2: device firmware changed
usb 3-2: USB disconnect, device number 31

where the device number starts with 1 and goes up, and up, and up, until I physically disconnect the phone.

adb start-server (executed as root) shows no error whatsoever, but adb devices shows nothing (both as root and as regular user (not sudo)).

What's happening here?

After a few digging, I found out that the problem was due to an old version of abd in the Fedora's repository. Downloadting the latest platform-tools from the website fixed the problem.


Custom DNS server not resolving wildcards I've setup my WiFi connection on my Galaxy S7 to use a custom DNS server. My PC runs a DNS server at 192.168.0.100 and serves a few A records:

home.local    192.168.0.100
shed.local    192.168.0.101
*.shed.local  192.168.0.102

When I run tracert on my PC (192.168.0.100) it correctly resolves home.local, shed.local and *.shed.local.

Using PingTools I ran tracert on my phone. home.local and shed.local both resolve correctly to their respective addresses.

However the *.shed.local yields:

  Unknown host

Is there some difference in implementations of DNS between Windows and Android?

Yes, you cannot specify wildcards in /etc/hosts in linux (and therefore Android). People in Linux world have moved on to dnsmasq, I'm not sure what is the equivalent on Android. You'll have to work around it (maybe use proxy or some other setup?)


How do I clear app cache/data on android without accessing settings? I actually can't open the settings and desperately want to clear the cache of an app which is not working properly. When I open the settings app it is forcefully closed down again and again. How do I resolve this? Does anyone one have idea about how do I clear app cache/data on android without accessing settings?

Clean Master can clear your app's cache and data. CCleaner is less intrusive, but does not work well with some devices. You might want to try them both out.

Just in case you want a quick method to clear your app data, and do not want to install anything, you could try opening your recent apps (you can access it by tapping one of the buttons on the bottom of your phone, and it shows a list of all the apps that are open). Then long-press the app which needs to have its data cleared, and select App Info. This will take you directly to the settings page in which you can clear the app's data.


Widget to display Outlook calendar I am coming to Android from Windows Phone and trying to replicate my old experience, which included showing my next appointment on the home screen. I understand there are things called widgets that can do this. My problem is that every widget I've tried shows my "Google Calendar" (which seems to consist in its entirety of public holidays) rather than the events in my Outlook calendar. I've installed Outlook on the phone and if I click the Calendar icon at the bottom, I see the events. But how do I get those to show up in the widgets?

I was never able to make any of the "top" calendar widgets, including those recommended here, show my Outlook calendar. They just showed my empty Gmail calendar or Google calendar or whatever.

However I eventually discovered, way down at the bottom of the widgets list, that there was already an Outlook widget installed and waiting for me:

Putting the Outlook Agenda on my "desktop" does exactly what I want:


memory card not working i bought a new android phone and i inserted a 32gb sdhc card that i used in my htc on it. it works well for 3 days , suddenly it showed me a message unsafe to remove memory card. then i reinserted the memory card but it is not working . then i inserted it on my htc sensation same thing happens nothing is showing. then i used a card reader to read the memory card in pc but my pc not showing any thing. i tried different memory card all that is working well in my pc and also in my phone. the 32gb is not reading any where. how can i recover all data from it. my important data is on my sd card can u please help my to sort out this problem . please help me kindly

Sounds like a damaged flash card, or a broken file system.

If it's a Windows PC, insert the flash card, then press WinKey+R (or go to Start -> Run) and type diskmgmt.msc, then click OK. You should be able to see your flash card within the list, and see if it's got any partitions listed.

In this case, I've got a 2GB SDHC card plugged in, which shows up as a 1.89GB device with a FAT partition that fills the entire card.

You may find one of several things:

The device doesn't show at all. If this is the case, then sorry but your data is gone. Short of some very expensive recovery techniques, you're not getting it back.
The device shows but there are no partitions. This usually means that your partition table is broken or unreadable.
There is a partition, but Windows doesn't recognise the file system (it might show as RAW or Unknown). In this case, your partition header and/or file system headers are broken or unreadable.

In the latter two cases, you may be able to recover some data, but expect corruption and missing files. This is especially problematic on flash cards where the cells that store wear-leveling metadata have become corrupted, since mapping the logical cell address to the physical cell becomes impossible. The card will have to be replaced too, since it is clearly damaged.

Recovery can be done in several ways:

There are commercial and freeware tools that try to do this. Google for "SD card recover" and similar terms - I'm sure you'll find many results.
Use a low-level tool or command like dd to read a full copy of the SD card, then use sfdisk to find the offset and size of the file system and extract it, then mount it. (see this blog post)
If all else fails, use a tool such as binwalk to manually extract files from the drive binary image. This is tedious and rather involved, but can recover data that automated tools miss.

In future, I highly recommend keeping backups!


Tethering options for the laptop and the phone I have a rooted Samsung Galaxy S3.

I am about to go abroad and will need to connect my laptop
to the Internet without having someone come and install a
DSL or cable router (as the waiting time to install these is
quite long I would be gone before the internet technicians drop by).

So what I have decided is to purchase a SIM card and connect my laptop
to my android phone to do internet browsing. My understanding is that with tethering I can transform this phone into a router or wireless hotspot.

What are tethering options (settings or apps) for this phone?
Is it better to connect the PC to the phone wirelessly, via a USB
cable to use tethering, or via Bluetooth tethering? In terms of speed, I guess Wi-Fi tethering would be superior here.

In my experience, bluetooth tethering (using Bluetooth Garden) has been problematic. It disconnects too often, or can't open certain sites.

USB tethering (via ClockworkMod Tether) was OK. This way, my phone would be charging while providing internet to my laptop. Downside is I needed to install a program (not an issue, because the program is safe) on my laptop. Another downside is I couldn't tether another device (like a tablet) to the phone.

Turning my phone into a hotspot, was a better choice. I could surf with little issues. I could connect my tablet or laptop to the phone via WiFi. However, this drained my battery quickly. I'd occasionally fix this by plugging my phone to an outlet with a charger.


New LG G3 randomly crash I have bought a new LG G3 (D855, 16GB Flash, 2GB RAM), and rooted and flashed CM12.1 on it.

The phone works great (somewhat), but sometimes the screen turns itself off and the phone gets stuck in this state. Holding the power button neither turns the phone on nor off, and I have to remove and reinsert the battery to turn it on.

It has happened 7 times since Sunday.

I thought it might be due to overheating (a hunch), but could not find anything to confirm this.

How can I solve this problem?

Had the same issue. Solced by connecting to external power supply. Did some searching and apparently, thus cyclic crashing can be due to a bad battery...


Disable screen turn-off during phone call I know this might be a possible duplicate question but I haven't found an answer yet.

phone>call settings>proximity sensor is not available in my version of android.

Is there another way to disable the screen turning off when i dial or receive a phone call?

Is there an app i can install that does it?

Regarding the duplicate question: This question is different because i'm targeting android 4.x and beyond and because I want to disable the proximity sensor completely, it's broken on this device but even if it did work, I would like to override it somehow, preferably without having to install an app with ads etc.

Proximity sensors allow the screen to turn off when close to the ear during a call. It should automatically come back when it's uncovered i.e. when it's not close to the ear.

That said this app seems to promise that functionality -> Smart Screen On Off


View "What's New" in landscape in the Play Store When I'm on my Nexus 7 (2013) in landscape mode, the Play Store shows me the permissions list, but nothing about what's changed in the application being updated. In portrait mode I get the full details. Is there some way to quickly view application details in landscape mode?

Of course I would figure this out just after asking the question:

You can view the application details in landscape mode by first selecting the application in the left-side panel, then clicking the larger application icon or title in the right-side pane.


My Galaxy Nexus can't connect to unsecured web using wi-fi at home My Samsung Galaxy Nexus can't connect to unsecured web using wi-fi at home.

I have to edit the url with https:// to load the webpage. Some pages work but most of them just won't load.

Your issue ain't related with Browser APP, it's a Network configuration regarding the proxy settings.

As you can read from your phone's user manual on page 63:

  Proxy settings are used by Browser but may not be used by other apps.

Since you've mentioned that only "Browser" gets affected, and that all of them work fine under 3G, this leaves us with an WiFi settings issue:

Touch the "Settings" icon;
Touch "Wireless & networks" > "Wi-Fi";
Touch & hold your network in the list of Wi-Fi networks;
Touch "Modify network" in the dialog that opens;
Select "Show advanced option";
touch "None" under Proxy Settings, then touch "Manual" in the
menu that opens.
Clear the proxy box, make sure nothing stays there.
Touch Save.

Open the browser and give it a try. You should now be able to navigate without problems either with http and https.


Galaxy S4: "Application cannot be installed in the default install location" I had uninstalled some of my apps but now I can't install them again. Play Store gives me "Application cannot be installed in the default install location" error when the download is complete.

I guess it's a common problem but none of the solutions worked!

I don't even have an SD card! How the hell am I going to solve this problem?

Duplicate of Play Store 4.9.13 insufficient storage error and icon issues

But my rep can't comment yet, so I'll repeat my answer:

The correct answer to this problem, and I always see wrong explanations, is that you have a duplicate /data/app-lib folder for the app or apps that are giving you that error.

To fix: Using adb, terminal, or root explorer:

compare /data/app to /data/app-lib

you will see, for example:

/data/app/example-app-1.apk
/data/app-lib/example-app-1
/data/app-lib/example-app-2

OR

/data/app/example-app-2.apk
/data/app-lib/example-app-1
/data/app-lib/example-app-2

So for 1st example remove directory: /data/app-lib/example-app-2

and for 2nd example remove directory: /data/app-lib/example-app-1

Then your app will install just fine!

ALWAYS REMEMBER TO KEEP THE SAME NUMBERS,

IF THE APK IS 1 REMOVE 2... IF THE APK IS 2 REMOVE 1!


ADB sideload doesn't work, no drivers Sometimes on my Nexus 9 (LMY48M)ADB sideload doesn't work as the device doesn't have a driver. This is true for both stock and TWRP. However, ADB from booted Android works perfectly. I have ADB version 1.0.32 (Windows 10 x64) and latest SDK with Google USB driver installed. How to solve this? I am searching on XDA, in case I find a solution I'll post it for general knowledge.

I needed to edit the android-winusb.inf driver descriptor file for the Google USB driver.

Add in the device hardware ID from Device manager under the Google Nexus(Generic) section for the unrecognized device connected in sideload mode as (for both the x86 and x64 sections):

%CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_D001
%CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_D002

Switch off Windows Driver Signature Enforcement,
Reboot,
Add the modified USB driver manually to the listed device in Device manager,
Let it install the unsigned driver, and now it works.


Can I lock the Nexus 4/7 bootloader after flashing a non-stock ROM? I know that doing a fastboot oem unlock will both unlock the bootloader and wipe the data on the device. Unfortunately, while this allows me to install a non-stock ROM like Cyanogenmod, my understanding is that it also allows anyone w/ physical access to the device to flash or boot a different (potentially malicious) kernel among other things.

Is it possible to then do a fastboot oem lock and still be able to load the non-stock ROM? If this is possible, what sort of warnings might appear, if any, during the boot process? And finally, would doing another fastboot oem unlock still wipe the data?

I understand that also flashing a recovery like CWM OR TWRP would allow flashing malicious images even ifthe bootloader is locked. Please assume that only the default recovery would be used.

Additionally, is doing something like this to secure a non-stock ROM posdible on any non-nexus devices?

Yes. Locking the bootloader is possible after you have installed a custom firmware.

A locked bootloader will not allow you to ad-hoc boot custom binaries (using fastboot boot boot.img and will not allow you to directly write to the flash chips. An unlocked bootloader however does offer you this and newly available commands are:

fastboot flash partition image
fastboot boot kernel-image

So, if it's locked you will only be able to either boot the normal or the recovery system which themselves need to enforce the chain of trust and ensure security. Current custom recovery images won't enforce any security, so you will have to install a safe stock recovery after you have installed your custom firmware.

Regarding the stock recovery, this will not allow you to install any upcoming custom builds, only stock firmware (that's digitally signed by Google) will install.

So, to have a working chain of trust with no holes in it, you will need to first unlock the bootloader, then install a custom recovery, install a custom firmware (etc.), then re-install the stock recovery (extract it from Google's stock image), then re-lock the bootloader.

The procedure to upgrade to newer firmware builds will be a bit tricky at the moment:

I think there exist user-land tools to unlock the bootloader from a regular (rooted) custom firmware (like CyanogenMod) without the penalty of a full wipe. This way you can unlock the bootloader without a wipe, then (temporarily) boot a custom recovery (via fastboot boot cwm-recovery.img), do an adb sideload update.zip and finally relock the bootloader using fastboot oem lock again.

One note: I think I have read somewhere that the Nexus 4 doesn't to a full wipe with subsequent unlocks after it has been unlocked/relocked once. I'm not sure about this, you will need to test this once.


Clock to use when giving presentations When I give presentations, I have to keep an eye on the clock to make sure my speech does not take more than alloted time, or in the end to know whether I can take more questions.

Looking at my watch is inconvenient, I would prefer my Android phone's large screen to:

Just display the time (for example 14:28).
Not go into standby mode.
Hugest font possible, black on white, landscape.

Sounds trivial. Is there such an app?
Priority to free apps, biggest priority to open source apps.

Digital Clock does almost everything you ask. Ignore the rubbish picture from the page, it is a full-screen clock with white text on black and it's free.

To configure it as you need, launch the app, then open the settings (tap the screen to open the options then tap Settings) then set:

Clock->Screen timeout to unchecked.
Clock->Orientation to Landscape.
Time & Date->Show date to unchecked.

You can also adjust the time format and colour if you wish. The time is about half the screen height, but I can easily read it on my phone from more than 20ft away so that may not be a problem.


How much RAM does a Huawei H868c Glory have? I want to run "Terraria" on my Huawei H868c Glory, which is running Android 4.0.4.

How much RAM does it have?

The amount of RAM for the Huawei Glory (H868C) is 512MB (390MB available to apps). According to Terraria via the Play Store:

  Optimized for Android OS 3+ and requires 512MB RAM.

So, you should be able to run it. If you are able to install it from the Play Store, then you will most likely be able to run it. It doesn't hurt to try.


Downloading... don't turn off target (S7 Edge) I accidentally went to download mode and this "downloading don't turn off target message" appeared. It took me at least 20 seconds before I finally pressed volume down + home button + power button. My phone seemed to have rebooted after I did this. Was any harm done? Did my phone download something? Kinda worried because I'm not sure if it damaged my phone or something. Thanks!

That's Odin mode, designed for flashing firmwares from PC via Odin or Heimdall. As long as you didn't flash anything during the period, you're fine.


Droid Explorer - Input string was not in a correct format When opening Droid Explorer, it gives an error message "Input string was not in a correct format."

How to fix it?

As the developer of Droid Explorer, I would suggest that this is more suitable as a bug report, which actually already exists.
Although, there is probably a workaround that you could do.
I have seen that this usually happens when there is a version of the SDK that was pre-release or something along those lines. The error happens when it tries to verify the SDK version. The folder names are used as the version, and when there is a letter in the version name, Droid Explorer does not like that.
Check the android-sdk/build-tools directory and see if there are any folders that have A-Z in them. If one does, that is the problem. For example, I have seen situations where there will be a folder called android-4.4W. I would suggest deleting that folder, open the SDK Update Tool and download the versions of the build tools that you want/need.


How do I prevent people from shutting down my samsung phone? When I have the passcode enabled, you can still shut down my phone when you press the power button. Is there any way to prevent people from shutting down my phone?

You can't do it 100%, because it is, like mentioned by bmdixon and in here
How to prevent someone from powering off an android device?, a hard-wired feature. But you can get rid of the on-screen-option with this App: Smart Lockscreen protector (Play Store)


How to set the home screen sideways Usually apps, settings etc. set automatically sideways when you turn your phone horizontal and if your "Screen rotation" is enabeld.

But why does the home screen/ lockscreen does not set to horizonal view automatically as in the picture above? Always when I try it, it does not work like these:

Now, I would like to know how to set the home screen/ lock sideways generally! That means by all andrid phones of all producers with this problem.

Custom launchers like Nova Launcher can rotate sideways. Unfortunately a stock launcher can't do that.


Is it possible that your password remains as it was earlier after going to the service center for unlocking I have doubt that my phone has been unlocked by someone from its service center but when I saw my phone and I found the same lock which was earlier so I want to ask that is it possible that people at service center can recover the password after unlocking it?

No it's not like that. It depends like if you are having an hardware problem ,they might wipe out your data and if are having an internal problem then they will wipe your data and then they will go through their procedures.


strange theme on Galaxy S4 my little brother has played on my Galaxy S4. I don't know what he did. Now it looks strange.

Does anyone know how do i fix it.

Thanks in advance.

Since this is a Samsung Galaxy, evident from the screenshot, I would look first to the "Home Screen Mode" in the Device section of Settings.

Settings > Device > Home Screen Mode

See if the setting is not "Starter Mode", which gives a simplified home screen with large icons.

If so, switch the setting back to "Standard Mode" and click Apply button. You may have to bring your icons back manually when you do so, to configure the home screen to your liking again.


How to Screen Record on Samsung Galaxy A30s My goal is to record my screen. Coming from a Huawei, I would have in the upper area icons an option with "Screen Record". I'm now using a Galaxy A30s with Android 10 and these are the only options available

and

So, no screen record.
If I go to Settings and search for "screen record",

If I search under apps,

How should I do it?

Edit
As pointed by Robert, I tried to enable the screen recorder via adb but didn't get the desired result.

Download Platform Tools and unzip the folder in location of your choice
Open Command Prompt in that location

Connect the phone with the computer allowing USB Debugging

Run
adb shell settings put global settings_screenrecord_long_press true

and this opens up the following in the phone

Click "Allow" and run the command again

and appears to be working.

Long press power button. This is what I see

So, still no option to record screen. I restarted the phone as well just in case but that wasn't enough either.

You can install a screen recorder app from google play store. There are many different ones available. Just do a search on "screen recorder".
For instances,

ADV Screen Recorder
AZ Screen Recorder
Mobizen Screen Recorder
Screen Recorder & Video Recorder
Super Screen Recorder


Will a "standard" "Made for iPhone" headset's remote control button work with a Samsung Galaxy Mini S5570? Running either latest stock Gingerbread or custom CyanogenMod Jelly Bean?

By will the button work I mean either by the operating system or by a 3rd party app from our nice selection: See Izzy's answer on How can I control both volume and track skip on my Android device from my headphones?

I need proper music support on this device, skip track, fast forward and rewind (for podcasts).

It should work IMO. I have used a standard Galaxy Nexus earphone on my iPod Touch; it could do everything from skipping to record voice etc.


no more free space after android update I have a Samsung J5 since I upgraded to android 6.0.1, I lost 4.61 GB from my storage space, its 8GB in total. I tried to wipe data and still 4.61 GB is used. I do not know how to delete the files or to return to an old android version but I really need those 4.61 GB

Help please

No way to revert back to an old version since you are on marshmallow, Samsung won't allow you to, for security reasons.

You can get back some space by uninstalling  bloatwares, but you'll need root.

Try also moving movable apps to an external memory, works with mine (I also have a J5 8GB), at Settings > Application > Application Manager


Can I use an external USB Adapter with Airmon on Android? I have an Android phone and it doesn't support monitor mode internally. I have an external Alfa AWUS036H and I ordered a cable for it to plug into my phone. My question is, what app should I use to put the external adaptor into monitor mode? I am rooted, but I refuse to install a ROM or a kernel. Thanks!

Short answer is maybe.  You could grab an adapter (they are roughly $5) that would allow you to plug in to the charge port (almost always micro USB) to a standard USB port (AKA USB A):

Like this page of options

Then you could try plugging it in.  Android has been adding Ethernet as well as Mass Storage drivers to try and accommodate devices over the USB bus.

I did a little searching and it appears your adapter has been used by other Android users (probably for exactly the same air capture purpose good 'ol aircrack and/or wireshark).

Here's a video even, enjoy

VIDEO NOTE: Newer devices will most likely not need the extra power cable this guy talks about newer devices are putting more power over the port just for things like USB hard drives, and devices.


how to root your Android or at least understand how it works I do not know exactly how rooting works or if it can even by done on my Android (Samsung GT-N8013) device. No rootkit appears to exist yet for Android 4.1.2,  so I am left with figuring out how to root my device via other means.

All I would like to do is do certain operations (on my own device!) e.g. read a file regardless of its permissions or run certain programs as root. So assuming we have

your own physical Android device
the permission model of Android/Linux
the tools available e.g. adb, Android NDK,

is it at all possible to make a process run as root on the current Linux version of Android 4.1.2?  If nobody has a direct answer to this, could you please offer any ideas on how to even begin attempting to do so, or resources that really show you how rooting works (not just a wikipedia link)?

(All I know of so far is rageagainstthecage and gingerbreak, which are unfortunately, exploits, and don't work on 4.2.1 anyway. )

Thanks for any help.

root permissions means that you have full permissions to all the items of the kernel. I do not see how you can use an app that requires root permissions to work when the user shell you are operating does not have it.

As far as the in's and out's of manipulating a shell for root permissions I have no idea.


How can I encrypt my external SD card on Android? I want to encrypt or password protect on my external sdcdard.

Thus whenever I remove my ex SD card it will not allow to show any of its data without password, even if it is inserted in Computer.

Is it possible or not? If yes then how can I achieve this?

Use BoxCryptor. It has companion applications for Windows, Mac, iPhone & iOS. You can keep your encrypted files in cloud (Dropbox, Google Drive or Microsoft SkyDrive) & access them on any platform.

I use it on regular basis for offline files too (what you are looking for). I keep encrypted container of BoxCryptor in my Dropbox and use FolderSync two-way sync to take all files offline on SD Card. Then, I use BoxCryptor to decrypt those files locally whenever I want.

If you don't want to use cloud, just don't use it. Choose SD card in BoxCryptor app. After inserting the SD card to PC or Mac, one needs BoxCryptor applications of Windows, Mac (Encrypted files are compatible with EncFS-Linux too) & password to read those files & folders (file names & folder names are also encrypted).


How Can I Ressurect My Chat History from Google Talk on Droid? I'm chatting someone on my Droid, but when I check the chat history in Google Talk, that chat isn't there. This chat is confined to my phone, but I want to keep a record of it off my phone. Is it saved somewhere in the phone in a log file or something? Can I manually forward that chat to my desktop?  I can't ctrl+a / ctrl+c the conversation to my e-mail account, so that's out.  What else?

Google chat/Talk sessions can be recorded and saved to your Gmail account using a Gmail setting. From Google's Chat Support pages:

  Changing your chat history settings

  You can adjust your chat history
  settings in Gmail at any time. Chat history for Google Talk is only
  available to users who are signed in with a Gmail username.

  From Gmail:

  Sign in to Gmail.
  Click the gear icon  at the top of any Gmail page, and open the Chat tab.
  From the Chat tab:

  Select 'Don't save chat
  history in my Gmail account' to disable chat history saving, or,
  Select 'Save chat history in my Gmail account' to enable chat history
  saving.

  Click Save Changes.

  Keep in mind that if you've disabled chat
  history saving, people you chat with may still choose to save chat
  histories in their Gmail settings. If you would prefer that someone
  you're talking to doesn't save your chat, you can take the
  conversation off the record. If you're talking to someone who is
  connected to the network with a desktop chat client, it's possible
  that his or her software is keeping a separate copy of the chat
  history.


Are users always asked to accept application permissions? Does the Android OS always ask a user to review an application's permissions if it is not downloaded from the Android marketplace directly? For instance, downloading an application from a non-Google Android marketplace or directly from a website or computer. I could not find any information about this If so, please provide a documented occurrence or source.

No, or at least not in a way that can't be automated away.  Titanium Backup can install apps without the user seeing this prompt, for example.  It may require root to do this.

Without root, only the system can access the areas needed to install apps.  So barring any bugs, apps can only be installed by the system and the system will show the permissions if the Market has not already.  I don't have documentation of this, but the source code is freely available :P

Edit: Eldarerathis points out the AOSP security page, which indicates that the permissions dialog will be presented on app install, although adb install does not require this (presumably because you have physical access to the device in that case).  This is also confirmed by another official resource that sbaskin89 found.


Available space is more than total space on the memory card I recently purchased a 16 GB memory card. But my android shows available space is more than Total Space and when I try to install a new app it says insufficient memory.

Total space: 8GB.
Available space: 13.88
Device: Swipe Elite 2
Android Version: 5.1

What's wrong here?

I spoke to the SanDisk customer care and it seems to be known issue. By using the SD Formatter Tool it's possible to restore full capacity on SDHC/SDXC cards.

The below Help center article has more details on it.

http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/14827/

Thanks,

Arun


How to factory reset a android sunrise My Phone is an Lg Sunrise and it wont let me factory rest nor is the volume down and lock button working so what else could I do

Install the correct drivers for your device, and install 15-second adb installer from here.
Right-click in your ADB folder (usually in root of C:) and open a command line and input the following:

adb reboot bootloader

Check to see if the phone is in fastboot mode.

fastboot devices

If it doesn't show anything, wait a few seconds and try again.
Wipe the user data/cache.

fastboot -w


PadFone X using MHL? What is the PadFone X using to output audio/ video to the tablet dock? Is it propriety firmware, MHL, or what? I'd like to hardwire to a monitor/TV. It would also be nice to be able to wire back to the dock when an OTG hub is connected to the phone. Would this require a hacked cable?


Galaxy S5 unable to switch to 4GLTE when Wi-fi is turned off I have had my Samsung Galaxy S5 for about a year now and it has been working fine until a few days ago. I would use my wi-fi when I have access to it and then I would switch to my 4GLTE when I don't have access to any wi-fi. This has been working for the longest and I only had to switch to 4GLTE when I'm at working or driving. But recently, my phone would not switch back to 4GLTE when I lose wi-fi connection or even turn off the wi-fi option on my phone. Restarting the phone would temporarily fix the issue but I was wondering if there is anything else that I can do?

I got the phone from T-Mobile but I been using MetroPCS ($60 unlimited data plan) since about 2 months after using T-Mobile.

I suffer from the same issue. I have discovered the following to work for me.

To prevent it occurring: Turning off WiFi Calling seems to work (It's the last item under "Settings >> Call"), if you have it available and on. I've not had to to resort to flight mode (see below) since disabling this.

Countermeasure when it occurs: Putting the phone into Flight mode and back out of Flight mode will restore the ability to connect to 4G, at least until the next time it fails after coming off WiFi.

Hopefully the above will help you avoid rebots.


Is it possible to restore data partition backup to an android phone on the fly with just adb shell? adb shell dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p7 > backup.bin

works to backup android phone partition to computer but when I want to restore using

  cat backup.bin | adb shell dd of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p7

it didn't work. the shell continues waiting for input instead of writing to the target immediately that I expected.

Is there something wrong with the command?

Is it possible to cat a file to an android phone with just adb shell and internal commands on the fly(without push backup file to phone first)?

I found something more problem adb shell makes.(the extra 0x0D)
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11689511/transferring-binary-data-over-adb-shell-ie-fast-file-transfer-using-tar

  It seems the adb shell command translates LF to CRLF:

So adb shell cat to local computer seems not so good. But I still want to know how to cat directly to remote shell.

The push to sdcard solution is not applicable while restore data partition to a phone without external storage support.

This will work on a linux:

adb shell dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p7|sed 's/\r$//' > backup.bin

In MacOS it can be made to work as well, you just need to do it with Perl:

adb shell dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p7|perl -pe 's/\x0D\x0A/\x0A/g' > backup.bin


Beginner's questions on tweaking non-branded Android phone (rooting, update recovery, update rom) I have some beginner's questions for clarifying some concepts in Android phone.

I am using a non-branded phone (ASK SP404) running Android 4.0.3. The Android OS in the phone comes from the manufacturer and it is non-rooted. I could use normal apps from Google Play but not the more powerful ones that need root privilege. Recently, I want to find a way to backup and restore my phone's rom (like Norton Ghost). However, from my previous thread : Could a non-root Android 4.0.3 smartphone's rom be backup?, I know that this operation seems impossible without some serious tweakings of my phone. "Tweaking" involves risks so I want to clarify some concepts before performing such potentially danger tasks.

My questions are :

Does every Android phone has a Boot Partition, a Recovery Partition and a Rom Partition ? (Boot Partition stores the Linux Kernel, Recovery Partition stores the BootLoader and the Rom Partition stores the other Android system and application files)
Is every Android phone's BootLoader locked ? How could I tell whether it is locked or not ? (Supplementary Info : I could go into the Factory Mode of my phone by turning on my device with "power on" + "home" key, the Factory Mode has the following menu items :

Factory Mode
Full Test
Item Test
Test Report
Version
Reboot

It seems that my BootLoader does not let me to backup/update my phone's rom. I can't tell whether it is locked. Moreover, when I enter the "Version" option, the following information is listed :

IMEI1 : 35958561001666
IMEI2 : 35958561001666
S/N code :
MT012345678901234567
10
SW Ver. : HTC_A100_V401
Custom Build Verno : 1331982298

I am not sure whether this phone has used a HTC A100's firmware rom ! ]
Must I unlock the BootLoader if I want to update my phone with a custom rom (e.g. CyanogenMod) ? What exactly is the meaning of "unlock" ?
Must I unlock the BootLoader if I just want to root my phone to run some rom backup programs such as "romdump", "titanium backup" etc ? If not, would I void my phone's warranty by just rooting my phone ?
I know that the "SuperOneClick" program could be used to root many Android 2.2/2.3 phones. Could this program be used to root an Android 4.0.3 phone ?
If the "SuperOneClick" rooting process fails somewhere along its way, would the failure hurt my phone and brick it ?

That's all my concerns before I would actually perform some serious tweakings to my phone. I am sorry if I have asked too many naive questions and/or I am looking for too much, but I hope the answer(s) in this discussion may be beneficial to other Android tweaking beginners.

Thanks for your attention. Any suggestion ?

1 : Yes , Android does have many partitions as mentioned Here

2 : By default it's locked unless you unlock it as mentioned Here

3 : Yes , it must be unlocked as mentioned in XDA-Developers's Flashing Guide

4:

A: No you don't have to

B:It depends on your vendor.

5:Yes, It can as mentioned in XDA-Developers's Root I9100G

6:it might brick your phone but for me it stopped in the middle and it didn't brick.


Unlocking boot loader **doesn't** wipe data. How is it a security threat? MiA1 is probably the only one of it's kind that doesn't wipe data when bootloader is unlocked (tested by me and widely known)

It is said to be a security threat. I am not clear how

Say my device is stolen and one wants to access data how does this feature make it easier given

I use 6 digit PIN and fingerprint. One has to get past that before adb can be activated and  used to transfer data to a PC.
The device is encrypted (Oreo 8.0.0)
Debugging turned off

(I am not  talking of risks of unlocked boot loader. I understand that)

This is not a hypothetical question but something I need to understand, this being my daily use device.

I don't have information that calls for three letter agencies to use sophisticated tools , so that angle can be ruled out while answering (though useful to know).

I am looking for realistic threat assessment

Using twrp decrypt password one can easily write a simple brute force script to guess your password. And as I can see it, there isn't any limit on how many times this command can be executed, so depending on the strength of your password, your device will be unlocked one day or the other.

Having debugging turned off doesn't make any difference in TWRP


Remove downloaded system update from Huawei Due to unfortunate circumstances I need to use my old phone again (Huawei P8 Lite 2017 Emui 5.0.1). I did a factory reset a few days ago, and am now trying to install my most important apps.

Unfortunately I keep running into space constraints. It seems there is a 2.4GB file downloaded for a system update, but even before installing any apps my phone did not have enough free space to execute it.

I am willing to accept being stuck on a lower version till I switch my phone, but I need to remove the huge file as the 2.4GB is blocking me from installing critical apps.

I have already blocked new updates from being downloaded automatically, but am now stuck with the one that is already there.

So hence my question:

How can I remove the downloaded system update from my Huawei phone?

What I tried so far:
- Install a file browser and look for an OTA dir, I don't seem to have access to that
- Go to the update and storage cleaning apps, but I did not see any way to clear this download

I imagine I could do a factory reset and block automatic downloads before connecting to wifi, but as I just installed and configured 80% of my apps, I really don't want to do that.

Go to settings > apps and Clear Data for the Software Update app. Seems to work as the app takes up 3GB with an update downloaded.


Network Problem in Android x86 I dual booted Android x86 8.1 iso in PC. Everything went nice but when I set it up it was not getting network. I am using USB device for internet connection. Can anyone please tell how to fix it?

What do you mean by USB device for internet connection? Are you using a dongle with a SIM card? If so then those dongles need their respective software to connect to PC which are (in most cases) only available for Windows.

If that is not the case, try these steps.

In a terminal, type:

sudo vi /etc/init.sh

add 4 lines below to init.sh

netcfg eth0 dhcp
echo nameserver <ip> > /etc/resolv.conf
dnsmasq
setprop net.dns1 8.8.8.8


Opening Google Search results for music in PowerAMP? Is it possible to have Google Search open music files via PowerAmp instead of the default player? I have tried to see if there is a default music player, but it's not set. Music is listed under "searchable" items, there is no way to add, but I would love to be able to quickly search for music via the Google Search on the phone.

Or is it possible to have Android Music (default player) not auto-search all music but create an index of specific directories? By defaults it will also include all call recordings and whatsapp voice messages. It would be enough to only have the music on sdcard/Music indexed.

That's two questions in one -- it would have been better to separate them.

If you execute an action which has multiple apps as options -- such as e.g. tapping on a music file in your file explorer when having multiple players installed, Andoid initially asks you for the app to use -- and lets you chose to make it the default. Worked fine for me with the Cubed player. This requires the "additional" app has a corresponding "listener" established as PowerAmp does, in your case.

After an app has been selected as the default, you can easily reverse that choice. Look under System Settings / Apps / All (sweep tabs to the left, if All is not visible).
Select the Clear defaults button (near the bottom) on the App info page for the Android stock music player (Google Play Music in my case, unsure if that one is your Android stock player).
If it asks for confirmation, confirm yes.
The next time you search for and select a local audio file, you will then be offered the opportunity to choose your preferred player app (enable the Use by default for this action checkbox, if you wish).

You can exclude locations from being scanned by the media scanner by placing a file named .nomedia within those directories. The media scanner will then exclude this directory from its scan, and thus contained files will not make it into the library. You still can chose manually to play them by e.g. looking them up with a file explorer.


ADB Backup: Will it erase root? This may sound like a stupid question, but I have a Honor 5x I'd like to root, and I want to use adb backup to backup all my phone's data so I can restore it after unlocking my bootloader (which erases the phone's data).

My question is:  If I backup with adb backup -all, when I'll restore my phone's data, will it erase root? Probably not, but I just don't want to risk it.

No. Backing up and restoring won't affect root.

Basically, adb backup backups a portion of /data partition, while rooting mostly affects /system partition and soemtimes / (boot ramdisk, for system-less root). You can safely back it up and proceed on rooting it before restoring the backup.


Chrome 37 back button I've tried various different Google searches on this, but can't seem to find the answer or even someone reporting the same problem.

I cannot for the life of me find the browsers back button. It's annoying enough that google decided to remove the refresh button from the address bar, but they can't seriously have completely removed the back button from the entire app could they?

Screenshot (click image for larger variant)

I know under usual circumstances I can use the Android OS back button, however if I'm in the browser, then exit out to the home screen or switch to another app, and then reopen the browser, the back button no longer goes back in the browser - it goes back to the last activity I was in e.g. the home screen.

NOTE: This behaviour is not consistent. Like right now it is not happening, but a day or 2 ago, it was and I literally had no way to go back to the previous page because each time I pressed the back nav button the browser simply closed. So even if this does not always happen, I'm still puzzled as to where the browser back button has gone..and yet they leave the forward button in the menu...I almost never use the forward button.

p.s. If you too find the removal of the refresh button from the address bar ridiculous too, make sure to star the issue here so that the devs might notice and actually revert it.

Yes, they've completely removed it from the UI, so you have to use the Android back button.


How to connect laptop to internet via Galaxy S2? I am traveling with my notebook and I want to connect to the internet using my cellphone data connection.  I have a Galaxy S2, and I've set up a portable Wi-Fi hotspot, which my laptop successfully connects to.  But thereafter I cannot connect to the internet.  Can't browse, ping, nothing.  All I can ping is the gateway (which I presume is my droid).

Is there some secret switch I'm missing?

Depending on your carrier, FoxFi may help you out. It allows you to share you mobile data plan as a WiFi hot spot. Just be careful not to use too much or your carrier will get suspicious.


How can I use google now on my android to set an alarm more than 24 hours away from now? I know that the alarm can be manually set to a time greater than 24 hours from the time of creation, but I want to be able to do it all verbally. I have tried looking over the internet with no success. I am using Google Now (The personal Assistant). Thanks.

Maybe try saying "Set an alarm for Wednesday at 7 AM"

Source: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2940021?hl=en

Update
Since it was found that an alarm can not be set more that 24 hours ahead of time. The workaround is to set a calendar reminder a day ahead of the desired date to set an alarm. This can be done by saying "Remind me to [make an alarm for tomorrow] on [May 26, 2016]" where the parts of that statement are the title of the reminder and the date. The statement can be adjusted to add a time if necessary.


Copy app URL from Google Play In Google Play, how do I copy the URL of an app I'm browsing so that I can paste it into a post or on a word document or notepad using my Android device? In a web browser it's easy to do this, but what about other apps that have corresponding URLs or other URIs?

If you have Google Drive installed on your device then you can use the 'Copy to clipboard' option within the share menu.

If you scroll down past the reviews you should see a 'Share' button:

After clicking this you will be shown the share menu which contains a 'Copy to clipboard' option:

Clicking this will copy the URL for the app to your clipboard, allowing you to paste this into another app.