Nexus 7 2013 - Flash Recovery Image: Failed remote size too large? I have a nexus 7 (2013 model) and its stuck on the Google logo. I went to the bootloader menu and unlocked the bootloader. Now I'm trying to install a recovery image, but:

After doing a 'fastboot flash recovery clockwork.img' I get the following error:

sending 'recovery' (11312 KB)...
OKAY [  0.361s]
writing 'recovery'...
FAILED (remote: size too large)
finished. total time: 0.365s

If there is another way to unbrick it that would be good too, but right now I just want to reflash the rom image to an updated stock rom.

Download the factory image and just extract the tgz and you will find a flash-all file,

Reboot to bootloader and connect your phone then just double click on the .bat file if you an Windows user or .sh if you a Mac or Linux user then follow the instructions!


Force settings button on Chrome for Android on Samsung devices using AOSP rom Is there any way i can force settings button to appear on Chrome for Android on a Samsung Galaxy S4 after flashing to any AOSP ROM (Current: SlimKat 8.9). I found out that Chrome does not create a Settings button which you can find on other devices that has the navigation bar instead of hard keys. Other apps work fine and has the settings button appear.

i just got a Galaxy Note and I noticed that the button was missing; however, this tablet comes with a physical menu button that you can use for that purpose


Lock screen of Nexus 5 during active call How can I activate my PIN lock screen by default during an active call? If my proximity sensor turns the screen on during the call I frequently drop will accidentally disconnect by clicking the "end" key inadvertently.

Nexus 5, 4.4.3, Stock Android/Nexus 5

Go into Settings -> Accessibility -> Uncheck the checbox power button ends call. Now during call, when you press the power button, the screen locks; Pin/Pattern/Password screen appears.

I have tested on my device but not on nexus 5. Have to do in emulator.


No internet access to Google apps on Android 4.3 So I installed 4.3 on my new Nexus 4 and I found out that I couldn't use the play store, gmail app and other Google apps. I tried clearing the cache but it was of no use. All other apps are working perfect and my internet connection seems okay too. Please help. Thanks!

I had the same issue with the .zip version of the OTA I found on XDA. What worked for me was removing the google account from settings and re adding it.


Mobile Network not available despite full coverage I've been to my network provider and the problem is with my phone.  I woke up on Tuesday with an unread message but have been unable to respond since.  My lock screen says that I can make "Emergency calls only", but shows full network coverage.

I have CM7 on the phone, and tried a new install last night to no avail.  I did spill some water on the phone about two weeks ago, but the phone has been working fine since.  Most confusing is I received the text above at 08.00 and the problem has been present since at least 10.00 on the same day.

Any advice is welcome. Samsung Galaxy S2

Try installing the standard ROM, if this also doesn't work you can be sure that this is a hardware problem with the phone.

I think the problem occurred when you spilled water on your mobile phone. It will oxidize and become damaged over time. If you had lost your phone in salt water, it would be destroyed immediately. When you lose your phone in water or spill water on it, you should take out your battery immediately and deliver it to professionals to clean it before it oxidizes.

Since the phone has been in contact with water, your guarantee is void.

How a water sensors looks like: http://altinett.no/2/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/futkskade-mb.jpg
There is two water sensors in this picture. One looks like a black circle and white in the middle, this censor has not been in contact with water. The other censor to the left looks like a black circle with red in the middle, this has been in direct contact with water.

How an oxidized motherboard looks like: http://altinett.no/2/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/fukt-korrosjon-lcd2.jpg
This case is irreversible.


What folders should I backup to my computer I have a SGS2 with ICS. The phone is rooted. I use Titanium Backup Pro for backup, but that only backups to the phone itself, so if the phone is stolen or lost those backups are gone as well.

I have SSHDroid installed, and yesterday I made a backup of the sdcard folder to my home server using rsync. Now I would like to know if there are other folders that have data in them that I miss. I don't necessarily need a full backup of the phone, don't know if that's useful. I just want all user data safe.

So is there something that I'm missing? If so, what folders should I backup as well?

Your SD card contains pretty much all the data you need.

In addition to app backup, you can also use SMS Backup+ to backup your texts to the SD card (and then to the home server).

Titanium Backup Pro version has an option to backup files to your Dropbox folder, so you can use that instead of rsync if you like.

Also, try to move as much data to the cloud as you can - including contacts, settings, photos etc - you get peace of mind knowing that most things are already backed up even if your phone gets damaged or stolen.


Weird battery issues There's this phone I got, it belonged to my girlfriend's mom, but she just gave it to me since it stopped working and I wanted it. The problem is it won't charge. I'll plug it in and the screen will turn on, but I get a picture of an empty battery with a yellow crossed out battery sign in the bottom right.

I've played around with it a bit and, after some testing, concluded that the problem is with a faulty battery - it won't charge in other devices, but other batteries will work and charge in this one.

My question is, could this be something I'm able to fix easily, or would I have to buy a new battery? She said that it broke because someone tripped on the cable while the phone was charging and it fell on the floor. I don't really have enough interest in the device to buy a new battery, and I doubt she does either, so if I can't fix it that's it for the phone....

It depends on the battery, most are not repairable - if it's anything internal in the battery then there is nothing you can do but get a new one. Batteries have a limited lifespan anyway, it's normal to replace instead of 'fix'.

It is possible the connector broke off the batteries logic board (the part where the thing you plug into the device's metal makes contact with some other metal thing connected to the battery - part that isn't covered on the battery) has been shifted/broken off of what it's connected to and can't make a clean connection. If this is the case, you can try soldering the connector back onto the logic board.

Not knowing what phone type you have I can't give you a specific video that shows how to do this, but you can do a google search on your device/battery on how to connect the connector to the logic board - from there you'll know what to look for on the battery to see it it's not connected as well.


lg stylo 4 debugging the following is not working on my lg stylo 4:To enable Developer options you have to go to About Phone (or About phone > Software info) and tap Build number 7 times

reason being is I don't have an ABOUT PHONE OPTION in settings. PLEASE HELP ME!

THANKS
MIKE IN FORT WORTH

From the Verizon support page :

To enable Developer Options, navigate to: Apps > Settings > About phone > Software info then tap Build number seven times.

Ensure the Developer options switch (located in the upper-right) is turned on

Tap USB debugging to enable or disable.

Enabled when a check mark is present.

If presented with Allow USB debugging? screen, tap OK.


Bugs w/ SMS w/ Iphones When in a group chat with iphone users I often get:

Messages that are received late
Messages that send late
Error messages stating a have received a "multimedia message" from one
member of the group chat, when no message was sent

I understand that imessage and iphones don't play nice in general. But are there any steps that I can take to reduce these issues. Any advice at all?

(Using Nexus 6, but have experienced this problem on the 5 and Galaxy Nexus. All T-mobile.)

It seems when iphone owners deactvate imessage you can send and receive sms to/from them without problems. It seems lollipop cannot read sms because it seems an imessage and not a sms. A clear bug.


Why the battery need to be loaded before to root? I read in some tutoriel that for the root to be working, battery needed to be loaded around 70 at at least.

Why is it so?
Does it endanger the phone, or it just prevent the root to be working for some reason?

It's a safety factor.  Depending on the exact method, the rooting process can take a hour or more and if you run out of juice in the middle of the process, your phone can wind up bricked.


Phone stuck on Google logo after trying to install Jelly Bean I have a Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0.1

I tried to install Jelly Bean, and followed all instructions I found on a website (forgot which one). I installed cwh and twh first.
Then I installed Jelly Bean. After the installation I rebooted my phone and it got stuck on a cross with the four colors for more than one hour.
So I tried to remove all of this (Jelly Bean, twh).
But now it's stuck on Google logo.

I tried everything.
I don't know what to do to make my phone work. I flashed it but it's not working.

Can you help me? (A stressed student who cannot pay for the repairs)

Thank you , I really need an answer

By the way, I have a mac.

I had the same issue long ago with my G1. I forgot to wipe Dalvik cache. It's an option in the recovery menu, you should do that.


MID-android tablet with no Bluetooth All I ask is for an answer. Can I put a Bluetooth dongle on this tablet and run Bluetooth devices such as a keyboard/cover. It's a MID-android 4.1 with a mini USB port and adapter cable to a full sized USB. Everything else is stock. The kernel is standard 13.something, I think.  thank you

According to this XDA post Bluetooth USB dongle support is native starting from Android 4.2.2. So if you're running 4.0 as the tag suggests, it doesn't work. You'll have to update the tablet.

Also, you'll have to confirm that the USB port supports full host mode with USB Host Diagnostics.


Lost root when phone rebooted - can't get to download mode only Android system recovery I have had my phone (Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9505, Android 4.4.2) rooted for a while (can't remember exactly how I did it now) but last night I exhausted the battery and when I charged and powered back on I had lost root. SuperSU quits with error message "There is no SU binary installed and SuperSU cannot install it. This is a problem!"

I have tried to re-root following these instructions but when I do the Volume Up + Centre Home + Power combination I don't get the warning message about installing custom OS, instead I get:

  Android system recovery <3e>

  KOT49H.I9505XXUFNA5

  Volume up/down to move highlight; power button to select.

  reboot system now
  apply update from ADB
  apply update from external storage
  wipe data/factory reset
  wipe cache partition
  apply update from cache

  [Exposed Android with red warning triangle]

  # MANUAL MODE #

  -- Applying Multi-CSC --

  Applied the CSC-code : BTU

  Successfully applied multi-CSC

Now from here I don't seem to be able to flash TWRP because nothing shows up in Odin when USB is connected. If I select "reboot system now" I get back into un-rooted Android (annoying because I make extensive use of multiple profiles on Titanium Backup); if I select apply update from ADB then the S4 then appears as a device when I run adb devices:

List of devices attached
6496ea42        sideload

But still nothing on Odin.

Can anyone advise how I can re-flash TWRP and re-root?

Many thanks

Tristan

On the Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-i9505) Volume Up, Power and Home is to enter recovery mode. Volume down, Power and Home is to enter 'Download Mode'. From download mode you can make the device visible to odin. From Odin you can flash a custom recovery, or root the device with CF Auto Root and other methods such as flashing a pre-rooted stock ROM for example.

If your device shows as not being rooted, when previously it was and you have not unrooted it manually, this could be an issue with the SuperSU binaries, and sometimes installing these via the app, or via the 'recovery' option within the app can fail. You can download the SuperSU zip from Chainfire and flash it in a custom recovery.

Generally the safest bet is to backup anything you need, flash the Stock ROM through Odin, and root, or flash a pre-rooted stock ROM. Then you can flash a custom recovery and from that recovery flash whatever you need.


Share Menu Sort Order I make frequent use of the Share menu.  Most frequently I share URLs to Pocket so I can read them later, though less frequently I'll share to email, SMS or Facebook Messenger.  Since I've upgraded my Samsung S6 Edge to Marshmallow, I've noticed that when I open the Share menu, frequently there's about a 1 - 2 second delay where Android re-sorts the order of the items on the Share menu.  Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of this behavior is that more often than not, Pocket, my most frequently used target is moved from the first screen of the Share menu to the second while a Hangouts chat with a friend that hasn't been active in over a month is moved to the first item in the list.

My question is this:  Is there any way I can control the sort order of items on the Share menu?

Had the same issue, it was very annoying. Did not want any share menu replacement apps.
So now found the trick: when the share menu opens, long press on the app - a menu popups with an option to pin it.

Your post is a year old, I guess you might have figured out it already :)


New SIM activation: Do I need to reboot? I recently received a new SIM card from the telecommunications service provider I switched to (I kept my mobile number).  This is what I have done so far:

Went through the "activate SIM online" process
Powered off my mobile
Replaced SIM cards
Started my mobile again

The mobile appears to have detected the new SIM alright (I can see the new provider's name) but it says "emergency calls only".  I checked with the new provider's support and they said it may take up to an hour to get activated.

Now I am wondering, do I need to reboot my phone again before the new SIM can connect to the network, or are there other means of forcing the SIM to try to reconnect, such as

switching mobile data off and on again,
turning on flight-mode temporarily
...anything else?

Usually a new sim card, before activation, will not be recognized by the phone at all (it will either say 'no service', or 'no Sim')

So, being that your phone recognized the carrier, it must be that the Sim is fully functional, and the reason that it says emergency calls only, is because the number wasn't fully ported, as you have stated.

Your phone should be able to detect automatically, the ability to make calls.
If it doesn't, then going into airplane mode for a moment should do the trick.

You can also keep trying to start a call, this will make the phone look for connection


How to run my Play Games with its correct game progress after it runs another Play Games account of the same game app? I have this problem as a game user. I have contacted the game developer and they told me that's an issue of google instead of their game.
I have an old phone A with a Play Games account A that saved my game progress A. I have another old phone B with a Play Games account B that saved progress B.
I now have a new phone C that signed in both Google accounts A and B. When I opened the game, it loaded my game progress A, but actually, I wanted to load progress B.
Therefore I signed out my Play Games account A in the game settings inside my game, and signed in my account B. Restarted the game, but it still didn't load progress B.
So I cleared the cache and data for both Play Games, Play Store, and my game app. I uninstalled my game app. Then I switched to my account B in Play Games and installed the game app again. However, it still only ran progress A.
So I gave up to play progress B in my new phone C, and opened my game in my old phone B. Turns out my old phone B, even it only logins to Google Play account B, runs the game with progress A. None of my phone seems able to load progress B anymore now.
Does that mean my Google account A overwrite game progress A onto B? How is this even possible and how can I fix it? Ideally, I want to run progress B in my new phone C. Or, at least my old phone B runs my game progress B back again.

Looks like the problem is finally found out. I guess it is because when my new phone downloading .dat files from the cloud, I immediately signed in account B. It was saved at the same location in my new phone as account A. The data then sent back up to the cloud. Therefore when I opened my phone B, it downloads the data back from the cloud to my account B.
Lucky enough, I have backups of the .dat files somewhere else very long time ago to restore it.


WhatsApp contact has wrong name associated with it in contacts (but correct name within WhatsApp itself) - How to fix? In setting up my new Samsung S4 mini one contact (guy) got confused with another (girl). When the girl would phone me, I'd see the guy's picture (via google) and name. Somehow I changed the number and saved the girl as a separate new entry. Along the way, I must have done something wrong, cuz as a result I've now got the following entries in contacts:

guy: Phone, Google, WhatsApp
girl: Phone, Google
(same) guy's name: WhatsApp of the girl ( ! )

In contrast, within WhatsApp itself, the names of the guy & girl are correct.

How to fix?

PS: If I try to delete the guy's name girl's WhatsApp contact, I get the following message popup:

  You cannot delete contacts from read-only accounts, but you can hide
  them in your contacts lists.

I was facing the same problem.
I followed following steps which resolved the issue.

Removed the WhatsApp from Setting-->Account (no Impact on whatsApp).
Removed the Google account & added back.

This solved my problem.


Cannot play .mp4 videos with the default video player I downloaded some .mp4 videos on my PC and I want play them on my Samsung Galaxy Ace 2.

Despite the .mp4 videos can be played in my PC1 (with no problem), in my device (using the predefined video media player) the video cannot be played.

This screenshot shows the videos that my device cannot play them:

Only the video (pointed with the green arrow) - which is the default video that my device has can be played.

When I select any of the other videos, the device says: "Content not supported":

Each time I send the video (via cable from the PC to the device), it will show two options:

Do you wish convert (insert_video_name_here.mp4) before copy it to the device?

Yes, convert and copy (recommended).
No, just copy (File will copy, but it might be possible it cannot play in the device).

No matter which option I select, the video is not playable.

This is the information about the predefined app:

I was reading this answer and this one too about similar problems, but what I understand is due the resolution of the video, but I have no idea what can I do for play these videos in my device (despite those videos are .mp4 or .wmv files "the same as the predefined video - pointed with the green arrow in a previous screenshot").

I really don't want download another app and play the videos with them, hence I ask:

How can be played those videos wth the predefined app?

1 Windows 7 Professional 32 bits. Using Google Chrome "as video player" and the Windows Media Player.

PS: I also read about software which can convert videos for device-compatibility, but I'm not sure if those are free-malware applications.

You habe 2 choices:

Download another media player such as VLC, MX Player, etc, then test the videos with them to know for certain if the problem is isolated to only the native video player or not. These apps are better than the phone native video player, come loaded with more codecs and can play more formats. However, you said you didn't want this solution.
Convert the videos to the appropriate codecs, resolutions, bit rate and other parameters recognized by the phone's video player. You will have to 'duplicate' the playing video parameters to the non-playing videos by checking the differences between them. Then, you can convert them on your PC before transferring them to the phone.


Is it possible to have Android only alert me when specific email accounts have new mail? I have Froyo 2.2 on my HT-03A "Magic" phone.

Currently, I am in the process of consolidating all my email accounts into my Gmail account, so that I can access them anywhere. I want to be able to not only access them on my phone, but also through the Gmail interface at any computer I use.

However, one or two of my accounts are attached to some mailing lists. If I have my Gmail account connect to their POP server, my phone is going to be ringing like Quasimodo with OCD. In other words, constantly.

Is there a way I can get my Android phone to sound the email alert notification based on which account is getting the email?

I would suggest trying Priority Inbox, which can notify, vibrate, or ring on just your new important mail. Switch to using the Gmail app, instead of the standard Email app. Then go to Menu > Settings > Priority Inbox.

Additionally, mail filtering is a more "hands on" solution for this problem that both complements Priority Mail, and helps resolve the issue when using other email applications. For instance, in my Gmail settings I created a filter for incoming mail addressed to one of my aliases. I set that mail to Never mark as important, Skip Inbox and apply a label. When email addressed to that alias arrives, I am not notified. But I can use that label to go back and read that mail at my leisure. The same can be done for your mailing list accounts, using the list: search parameter. Gmail provides a few other useful search parameters such as has:circle and has:attachment.


How to backup large contact photos? Most modern Android devices allow storing large photos of each contact.

I tried exporting all my contacts, then importing them.  All the large photos were lost.

How can you backup the large photos associated with each contact?

Backup and Restore

Following the app recommendations made in this XDA post How to backup local contacts with their high res pictures ?

I set a hi res 1984 × 1800 picture for contact and backed up using Super backup: SMS and contacts , took a backup , deleted the contact and restored

To my eyes, it appeared to be high resolution as originally set

The other app was not tried as it was pointed out in app review that it didn't work beyond 720 resolution

I tried to locate the storage of these high resolution pictures to manually verify the restored file size but couldn't. Method described in Where does android store contact photos ? didn't work

Edit

The reason I wanted to verify pre and post backup - restore process was to check if hi-res photos were backed up , not wanting to believe my eyes judging the resolution of the picture in a small circle on an LCD screen. So I asked this question High resolution contact pictures in Marshmallow - what is their size and where are they stored
As iBug explained in the accepted answer the resolution is capped to 720 by 720 irrespective of the picture size , an improvement implemented from KitKat days

It turns out that my suspicion was well founded !

As an aside, contact thumbnails (  used for notifications, messaging applications ) which are scaled down to 96 by 96 can be scaled up to 256 by 256 by this Xposed module Clarity

Bottom Line: Any contact picture irrespective of original resolution will look no better than a 720 by 720 resolution, whether you use an app , Gmail sync or for that matter in any manner


I have locked myself out of my Samsung Galaxy S5 How can I get my Samsung Galaxy S5 unlocked without having to do a factory reset?  The phone is asking me to enter a back up pin number,  but I don't know what that is. I have tried EVERY password that I thought we set up on this phone but now it says that I only have 1 more try b4 it will factory reset and erase all my info....Please, HELP!!

I think there is a way to remove the lock. While I don't own this particular phone, you can flash Aroma File Manager to the phone by copying a zip file containing the manager to your external SD card. Boot the device into recovery, and then install the package. Go into the system files of the phone. There is a file somewhere called password.key or pattern.key, depending on whether the lock is a pattern or pin/password. Delete it. If the system files are not showing up in Aroma, make sure the device has mounted the system files in options. Reboot, and the lock should be removed.


DNS queries are cached permanently, how to reliably clear DNS cache on Android 7+? Is there a reliable, reproducible way to clear DNS cache on Android Nougat 7.0?

I know there is at least one other question like this but that one was from 8 years ago and I hope I can ask again and see what people are doing these days.

To explain a bit more my setup:

I am testing a simple web page loading in Chrome browser with Wireshark packet capture to see the DNS requests. I am also running dnsmasq on my LAN and have mapped my webpages name: mymovies to the correct IP address of the machine on my LAN that the web server is on. So http://mymovies should work and it does load.

The DNS lookups initially start with the DHCP server appending the DNS suffix (.home) so in the packet trace I see a DNS request for mymovies.home which fails because I don't have an IP address mapping for that in dnsmasq.conf. So a second DNS lookup for just mymovies appears and is successful.

Mostly I find that subsequent DNS lookups are always just for mymovies and never again for mymovies.home no matter what I try to clear the DNS cache:

I am testing over WiFi with a Moto G5 running Android 7.0 and it is rooted so I can run commands from within adb shell to the OS.

I have tried lots of things like:

Closing down Chrome browser and starting it up again.
chrome://net-internals/#dns to clear host cache and flushing the sockets too
Settings > Apps > Chrome > Storage > Clear Cache
ndc resolver clearnetdns wlan0

The only thing that seemed to work for me was turning the phone off and on again. After restart I opened http://mymovies in Chrome on the phone. The page loaded and in the Wireshark trace I see the first DNS request for mymovies.home which fails as usual followed by a DNS request for mymovies that succeeds. I then closed down that tab and opened a new one and loaded the page again.. I did this twice. Each time now I see a dns request for mymovies only.. it doesn't even try mymovies.home.

I restarted dnsmasq server and the first DNS lookup after that was for mymovies.home followed by a lookup for mymovies. But since then the DNS lookups are now only ever for mymovies. This is despite restarting the dnsmasq server a few times and trying the four so-called DNS cache clearing steps listed above.

But to confuse the matters, I tried the trick of switching into and back out of Airplane Mode. Now when I load my little test web page a few times it doesn't seem to cache at all anymore? Loading the webpage always initially gives a DNS look up for mymovies.home which fails then a lookup for mymovies that succeeds. Even after restarting the phone the DNS lookups have now stopped caching completely and it firstly tries mymovies.home every time!

I think this caching behavior is normal and expected but I'd just like a way to clear that cache so it goes back to trying mymovies.home without me having to restart the phone.

I'm not sure if the IPv6 has anything to do with things? In my router I have specified the IP address of the Raspberry Pi on my LAN that dnsmasq is running on so the router directs DNS requests to it.

I don't want the page to stop caching OR to always cache. I just want to be able to clear the DNS cache in a predictable manner so I can make the DNS request for mymovies.home appear once followed by the expected DNS caching.

HOW DNS QUERY AND CACHING WORKS?

  Mostly I find that subsequent DNS lookups are always just for mymovies and never again for mymovies.home

NOTE: Just to make sure, check that .home search domain is set:

~$ dumpsys netd | grep 'search domains:'
        search domains: home

This behavior is due to Negative DNS Caching. The question is not explicitly about Android but more about the understanding of how DNS works. In short:

When you type mymovies in a web browser (assuming that the browser doesn't cache DNS), Android's DNS resolver checks domain <--> IP mapping in local cache (netd) and /etc/hosts. Then it makes a query (for A record) to the IP address of DNS server it received from DHCP (or you set manually), which is dnsmasq in your case. As standard is to append suffix first, so mymovies.home is queried first. See details in How does Android OS do DNS name resolution?
dnsmasq checks static mapping in hosts and dnsmasq.conf file. If no result found, it forwards query to upstream DNS server, whatever configured in dnsmasq.conf or /etc/resolv.conf (or whatever mechanism the system uses) - say 1.1.1.1.
After receiving a successful or failed response, dnsmasq answers the client (Android phone) along with Time To Live (TTL) value.
Neither dnsmasq nor 1.1.1.1 is able to resolve mymovies.home because .home is not a known Top Level Domain Name (TLD) to any authoritative server. So a NXDOMAIN response ("which means that the queried domain name does not exist in the DNS") is returned by root server (or some intermediate recursive caching server). Response includes an SOA record with high TTL (and SOA.MINIMUM field) value - say 5 hours.
dnsmasq caches the NXDOMAIN response with 5 hours expiry and forwards the same to Android.
Android's resolver caches the same for 5 hours, but that time may get doubled in some situations; see some explanation here. Also How long does negative DNS caching typically last?.
Android's resolver makes another query for (A RR of) mymovies, which succeeds at dnsmasq and is returned with a smaller TTL which must be 0 in your case (see option --local-ttl in dnsmasq man).

So Android's resolver will make next query for mymovies.home after 5 hours, and for mymovies after 0 seconds. If you want that mymovies.home should be tried again sooner, define a static mapping, which can possibly be --address=/mymovies.home/ to get NXDOMAIN from dnsmasq with no TTL. Or to have some fun, setup NXDOMAIN Redirection locally.

DNS TROUBLESHOOTING:

I'll suggest you to simplify your setup. You don't necessarily need Wireshark, just use --log-queries option to see how dnsmasq responds to queries. Also once get rid of cache COMPLETELY on Android and DNS server. But note that you may still end up getting a cached response from some recursive non-iterative server, like if your ISP does DNS interception.

  I have tried lots of things like:

  chrome://net-internals/#dns to clear host cache and flushing the sockets too

Clearing browser's DNS cache doesn't clear OS's system-wide cache (maintained by netd), though both need to be cleared. Better try testing with some native tool (like dig or nslookup) which doesn't rely on system's resolver and doesn't do caching itself. On Termux, for instance:

~$ dig mymovies @<dnsmasq_IP>
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR
;; ANSWER SECTION:
mymovies.com.       0   IN  A   192.168.1.124

~$ dig mymovies.home @<dnsmasq_IP>
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
.           10678   IN  SOA a.root-servers.net. nstld.verisign-grs.com. 2020010901 1800 900 604800 86400

Note NOERROR response and the TTL (0) of positive answer, while NXDOMAIN response, TTL (10678) and SOA.MINIMUM (86400) of negative answer.

  Even after restarting the phone the DNS lookups have now stopped caching completely and it firstly tries mymovies.home every time!

However on the very next query (dig mymovies.home @<dnsmasq_IP>), there would be no AUTHORITY SECTION. It's because SOA RR (the source of negative TTL) is not cached (as per RR format): "SOA records are always distributed with a zero TTL to prohibit caching". But dnsmasq is doing negative caching (see option --no-negcache), so this time it's responding with NXDOMAIN from its own cache, but with no TTL.

That's why if you clear cache on Android, it then keeps on querying mymovies as well as mymovies.home because both are not being cached on Android due to zero TTL, unless you restart dnsmasq or 10678 seconds pass. To verify, send SIGUSR1 to dnsmasq and see in log the expiry time against mymovies.home cache entry. However some other DNS servers may behave differently.

CLEARING DNS CACHE:

  ndc resolver clearnetdns wlan0

This command clears DNS server, not DNS cache. See How to configure DNS properly?.

  Is there a reliable, reproducible way to clear DNS cache on Android Nougat 7.0?

Yes, but not a straightforward command-line method. From the perspective of negative caching, we don't have anything like unbound-control flush_negative on Android. ndc resolver flushnet <network_ID> was removed in Android 7, though flushDnsCache still exists. Neither we can call _resolv_flush_cache_for_net from command-line. Services network_management and netd_listener also don't provide any such method.

However setResolverConfiguration (part of netd service) states: "Flushes the cache as needed (i.e. when the servers ... change)". This can also be called using ndc:

~$ ndc resolver clearnetdns <network_ID>
~$ ndc resolver setnetdns <network_ID> home <dmsmasq_IP>

* network_ID can be obtained using dumpsys netd | grep Default

So the cache should be cleared with DNS server reset. Additionally sending broadcast android.intent.action.CLEAR_DNS_CACHE (flushVmDnsCache) might also be required to clear DVM's cache (or kill the apps). A simple explanation can be found here.

But I'm not sure if this method works on all Android releases.
Turning Wi-Fi OFF and ON (or Airplane Mode) must work as network_ID is destroyed and a new one is created.
Or restart the networking / caching daemon (netd). This also restarts dependent services (including zygote), so causes a soft reboot and kills all running apps:

~# setprop ctl.restart netd

There's also a hack to bypass / disable DNS caching entirely using environment variable ANDROID_DNS_MODE=local. But it also disables search domains (.home suffix in your case).


Can I use installed apps from unknown source even if I turn off "Install from unknown sources"? I have Moto G running Android 5.1. I had to turn on "Install from unknown sources" to install some apps from my employer.

Now can I turn "Install from unknown sources" off to be safer and still what I installed before from my employer will keep working without any problem in all cases? Also if I do the same in my new Samsung device running on Android 6.0.1?

Yes
Because enabling the option install from other sources , turns off the security checks carried out by Google Play  during installing only. It has no bearing on running the apps thereafter. So you can safely disable that and run the employer apps without any problem. This is true for all versions of Android ( I haven't come across anything to contrary in Nougat)
Download from sources other than Google Play says :

You can let your device download apps from sources other than Google Play by turning on the "Unknown sources" feature.
IMPORTANT: Your phone and personal data are vulnerable to attack by apps from unknown sources. If you download apps from unknown sources, be aware that your phone may be damaged or lose data.

There is no mention of running apps but you can turn app verification on to:

The "Verify apps" feature regularly checks activity on your device and prevents or warns you about potential harm.


How to enable the landscape mode on the default launcher on Android Marshmallow? I can read on various news websites that in Android 6 Marshmallow, it is possible to rotate the screen on the launcher.

I can't find any setting about this on my Nexus 5 and when I activate automatic rotation, it doesn't rotate on the launcher.

Any idea how to enable this feature?

Auto rotate Home screen was one of the top features of 2nd Android M Developer preview.
I hate to burst the bubble, Auto rotate home screen feature was not incorporated in the final version of Android Marshmallow 6.0.

  We're  disappointed to see that auto rotate support hasn't made it to the home screen, however. In the second developer preview, the Google app added an "allow rotation" option to the home screen settings, which let the home screen rotate like any other app on the system. We loved it. It never made the jump to the final version, though.

Source

However, if you have got a rooted phone, you can modify build.prop file to get this feature.

Navigate to and open /system/build.prop file using any Root explorers
Add log.tag.launcher_force_rotate=VERBOSE at the end of the file
Optional step: Add lockscreen.rot_override=true to enable screen rotation in your lock screen
Reboot to see the feature working!

Source


Media scanner ignores .nomedia on external sd card I have my music on the external SD card on my phone, and use FolderSync to automatically sync podcast files to the same SD card from my computer. There are .nomedia files in the podcast folders (they are synced from the computer), but not in the music folders. When I start SongBird, both music and podcast files show up. Why? What can I do to fix it?

If I wipe the media cache, SongBird shows no music and no podcasts. When I run rescan, it only says "Scanning /storage/sdcard0" (internal SD) but afterwards the media files on the external card (/storage/sdcard1) show up in SongBird.

I use DoggCatcher with virtual feeds (watched folders) to listen to podcasts.

Phone: Samsung GT-i9000 running CyanogenMod 10.1.2-galaxysmtd

This question is a little old, but I will post my findings on it.

This seemed to be a bug in Android 4.0. There was an issue in Media Scanner that it ignored the .nomedia file in most instances. If you cleared the Media Scanner cache, it would re-index and then honor the .nomedia file.

According to the bug report, it was fixed with this changeset.


How do you disable Ambient mode? I disabled Google Assistant on my phone* but Google's Ambient mode kept showing up when my phone was on charge.

I didn't want Ambient mode (it wasted power and blocked me from accessing the lock screen); how do I make it go back to pre-Assistant behaviour?

Note: I have turned off Google Assistant; this had no effect.

Mi2S with Mokee kernel (Android 8.1.0)

I have successfully disabled Ambient mode.

... by turning on Google Assistant and then turning off all the options (including Ambient mode).

The Google Assistant options can be reached (on my phone at least) by traversing: Settings | Google | Account Services | Search, Assistant & Voice | Google Assistant | Assistant (tab) | Assistant Devices | {choose your device}.

I'd like to see Assistant off -> Ambient off, but for now it's a solution...


What is trying to connect to the network? When I'm not actively using the network, I usually turn off Wifi, Bluetooth, and Data. Since upgrading from Android 4.3 (stock) to 4.4 (OTA update from my carrier) I notice two things:

Battery life plummets. The device could be fully charged at night, but when I wake up it reads < 20%. This with Wifi, GPS, Bluetooth, and Data all disabled, and no applications actively running!
I often get a small system popup at the bottom of the screen that says something to the effect (translated) "Could not contact the network. Please try again when your have network access". This looks like a system popup, especially since it is in my local language.

Looking in the Network Usage area, I see nothing suspect. The largest user is Google Play at 1.89 MB, below that Skype at 804 KB, everything else is below 500 KB. Looking in the Battery Usage area, I see "Operating System Android" at 33%, "Screen" at 23%, and "System Android" at 13%. Before the 4.4 update, only one of the two "Android" listings were shown (I don't remember which) and it was in fact well below the screen usage (i.e. the screen was at the time by far the most battery-hungry app). Note that all three of these names "Operating System Android", "System Android", and "Screen" are translated from the system locale language.

Unfortunately I cannot peg the problem on the 4.4 update as during the same day I did install 3-4 calendar apps to see if any of them provided a better experience than the default app. I have since remove all of those.

This is on a Samsung Note 3. I currently have the following applications installed: Ankidroid, Appops, Earth, Waze, Skype, SatTrack, AirDroid, Opera, ES File Manager, JuiceSSH, Firefox, Galaxy Call Recorder, Pocket Planets, Widget Locker, VimTouch, LastPass, Translate, Dolphin Browser, XKCD, Podcast Addict, Swype, Swiftkey, Motion Planet, Read Later, DCentral1. Podcast Addict is set to never automatically check for podcast updates, though XKCD does automatically check. I don't use Swype's Living Language feature that was recently noted as a source of battery drain and network usage. I have tightened down some apps' permissons via Appops and later with DCentral1. Additionally, there have been other apps installed and since removed from this device.

How could I further troubleshoot the battery drain issue? Should I leave the network on to see what will use it? Additionaly, how could I check which app is trying to use the network when I get the "Could not contact the network. Please try again when your have network access" popup?

It turns out that the issue was that Location Reporting was enabled. Disabling this misfeature increased my battery life almost three-fold, stopped the notification popups (which I've since learned are called toasts), and now the spooks will have only a slightly harder time to find out where I've been.


How to access wifi on an android phone that comes without it? I purchased a cheap smart watch (this one). It doesn't support wifi. At the moment I can surf and watch videos by being connected via bluetooth to my tablet.

But I plan to root the device and install google play on it. I would like to install other apps on it afterwards too. It has a simcard slot and I can use a 2G network to do that.

But I am wondering if I could either buy a plug and play module or build something that would enable me to access wifi on the watch? Or is it not possible?

I'm sorry you actually need a WiFi receiver to be able to access WiFi. If there's no hardware in it supporting WiFi, you cannot add that by means of software.


Application that is able to resume failed download It's often happening when I want to download a file with browser that download fails due to a bad connection and then I have to download a file from the beginning.

Is there an app or browser plugin that is able to continue downloading of failed download?

I found only byte tornado app which is not much help.

Maybe this is not what you are looking for, but if you have installed busybox and a terminal application, you can continue your download with:

wget --continue --output-document file.part URL


Clear stock browser cache? I'm trying to do some css / javascript changes to a webpage with the android stock browser.

How does one clear the stock browser cache, on the Samsung galaxy s3? I've checked settings and settings -> developer settings as well.

Clear the browser by hitting the settings on your phone.

Navigate to privacy settings Hit clear cache.


"APN settings are not available for this user" My phone is a stock Nexus 4 from Google with the 5.0.1 Lollipop image from Google.

I've mistakenly hit "reset APN settings". Instead of resetting them to defaults, it wiped them off and grayed out the "add access point" button. I don't know what to do to gain access to this back.

I've tried launching the "Settings" activity from the terminal with root access (using the "su" command), see this answer, but the "Settings" activity crashes right after its launch.

What can I do? There seems to be a user permission problem. I'm using the only user account configured on this phone, besides the "guest" user.

I've found the problem: I had bad permissions on various MMS-related files that I've copied from a backup, especially inside data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/.

Files inside data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/ have to belong to the radio group and be owned by the radio user. CHMOD has to be at least 761.


Titanium backup only shows "Overview" tab A few days ago, my phone ran an automatic update of Titanium backup, which used to work fine.

Now when I launch it, I am stuck on its home screen. I've tried restarting my phone, nothing changed :

There is no backup/restore tab, no schedule tab...

What can I do to remedy this ? Will reinstalling TB be useful ? Will doing so delete its data (like the back uped apps) ?

The phone : Asus Zenfone 2 Laser (ze500kl) rooted with SuperSU, using Android 5.0.2

If @Firelord's comment doesn't work, try:

Settings -> Apps -> Titanium -> Force Stop and Clear Data and Clear Cache
Rename folder /data/data/com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup
Rename folder data/com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup on both your internal and external SD cards
Uninstall / reinstall Titanium Backup
Open Titanium Backup, go through initial welcome screens
Settings -> Apps -> Titanium -> Force Stop only
Restore the copy of the old /data/data/com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup/databases to restore labels and schedules

These days I backup Titanium Backup with Helium to avoid such problems :)


Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 says "Storage Space Running Out"...Help! My Samsung Galaxy Tab 3, says: Storage Space Running Out; Some Functions May Not Work.
I purchased a 32 GB SDHC card to see if it would help.  I just opened up the SD card and inserted it. It did not Help. Was that wrong? Can somebody please tell me what i'm doing wrong?

Your tablet is probably saving all your apps and files to your internal storage. You can start saving apps to your SD card or move all your large files onto your SD card manually.

Setting your apps to download to your SD card

Open the My Files app
Navigate to your SD card, and create a folder called Apps
Tap on the icon with four horizontal lines on the top right
Tap Settings
Under Select Directories, tap Set Home Directory
Select the Apps folder you just created on your SD card

Your tablet will now save apps to your SD card in the future.

You can also create more folders on your SD card and move all the bulky files (music, videos etc) that are on your internal storage to your SD card. You will have to do this manually.


How do I configure Google Latitude to auto-update with location regularly on a Motorola Droid? On the surface, this is same question as this question, but I've made the changes according to that question's accepted answer and I still cannot get latitude to auto-update unless I have an app using GPS open.

If I fire up Google maps or MyTracks, a location is sent.  but once I close or switch to a new application, my location no longer transmits.  It has been like this for several weeks.

My Android version is 2.2.1.   GPS is on, but the GPS icon doesn't appear until I start an app that uses GPS.

I actually seem to remember that being a requested feature for an earlier version of android (1.something).

Am I missing something else?

More data: Google maps version 4.5.0 (#4519) 5.0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAh4yiCzgKw I guess I'll need to retest and see if I still have the issue)

My issue was resolved by upgrading Google Maps to v5.0.

For those troubleshooting this issue, also see this question (which should probably be your first step):   How do I set Google Latitude to auto-update with location regularly?


Insert today's date in Google Sheets I use Ctrl+; to insert today's date since my Microsoft Excel times, but how do I do it in Google Sheets app on my Android phone, without a keyboard?

1) Format the cell as a date
2) Select the cell you want add date, and click the calendar icon shown as in attached picture, the current date is inserted.


Share location between iOS and Android..? My wife and I find it really useful to share our locations with each other. Until now we both had iPhone's and were using the "Find my friends" app, but my wife is now using Android (Samsung S8).

I've looked at the "Trusted Contacts" app, but that only seems to share the location temporarily. We want to share locations permanently, without manually authorising all the time, and without annoying notifications.

Is there any way,  that works on both platforms to permanently share your location with someone else ?

Google maps has live location sharing, built in.

It works for both, iPhone and Android devices according to Google support

You can set it up in just a few steps:

Open Google maps, in the menu, select location sharing. There, it will ask how long you want to share your location for.  Select until you turn this off and choose an email account to share it with. (Both have to have a Google account to use this feature)

The same is done on an iPhone after downloading Google maps.

Now, every time you open Google maps, it will show you exactly where the other person is located.


Contacts backup with multiple Google accounts How can one manage backup when you have one device or two devices and 2 or 3 Google accounts? (Work, personal, family)

Firstly, go to the new Contacts preview page by Google on your PC. Sort through the incredible mess that is sure to be there. Log in with all your accounts and then import and export your contacts from one account to another to segregate them into the proper categories (as you said, Work, Personal, Family). I suggest that you keep a single dedicated account for each category, for the smoothest experience. You can mix usage of all your accounts too, but that would just mean unnecessary hassle.

Then, whenever you save a new contact on your phone, make sure you select the appropriate account from the drop down menu at the top of the new contacts page.

Remember, any time you make a mistake in saving a contact, don't try to deal with it on your phone. You will end up creating a bigger mess. Just use Google Contacts on PC and deal with it thoroughly.


Mobile Network disconnects during an incoming call My mobile network normally remains connected so I can use apps like chat, whatsapp etc. However, during an incoming call the mobile network gets disconnected. Is this normal behavior ?

There is an app called TrueCaller that is supposed to show the caller details when there's incoming call from an unknown number. But since the mobile network disconnects during an incoming call this app always fails to show the name and shows an error message "unable to connect". It seems the normal behavior is for the network to remain connected during an incoming call.

I'm using Android Jelly Bean, 4.2.1. And previously had used Gingerbread (2.2.3) and Froyo (2.2.1). I experienced the same problem in all these 3 OSes.

This is normal if you are using a CDMA carrier, such as Verizon or Sprint.  GSM carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile can allow simultaneous voice and data, but CDMA cannot.  This is supposed to change with LTE devices, although last a checked it wasn't working with all of them on Verizon.  If you have a CDMA 3G only device it won't work.  I'm not positive but I think even with an LTE device on Verizon that supports simultaneous voice and data it still won't work if you are out of LTE coverage area.  I used to work for Verizon until a few months ago and this seemed to be the case.


Galaxy S3 - email notifications not working for emails going to subfolders I have set up my GS3 to receive my work emails from Outlook exchange server all works fine, I found the subfolders, (not as easy as you would hope) I am using the defaul email app ( our security protocols are too hard to try to find new apps!)

Q1: I can't get the subfolders to stay up to date without going into each folder and synching. Can anyone give clear instrcutions relevant to my phone to resolve this?

Q2: I don't get a new email notification when an email goes directly to a folder. I only know about emails going into the normal inbox trays only. This was an issue with my old Blackberry too, but did get resolved eventually by setting up folder access rights. Does anyone have a resolution to this. In the account settings there is no way to change notifications for folders only the whole account so this is turned on and working if limited to the in box only.

thanks

While you're in each sub-folder go into Settings->Sync Options and change to sync automatically or on the schedule that you want.


How to Install ClockworkMod on Innos A35 I tried to install ClockworkMod via ROM manager. My device(Innos A35) wasn't listed, but I chose one that was on the list thinking that it would somehow get installed. There was a download, but when I reboot to recovery mode the old recovery software with only a few options is shown. I was thinking that rebooting to recovery mode would bring up something like this if ClockworkMod was properly installed. Can someone point to me what could be wrong? Or can someone tell me how to manually install ClockworkMod without using ROM Manager?

Any recovery, be it ClockworkMod or TWRP, or others, must be specifically created for each device (or sometimes device family, if their hardware is similar enough) separately.  Picking a random device off a list in ROM Manager will not work, and may even damage your phone.

Quick Google, XDA, and Rootzwiki searches don't bring up any relevant hits for "Innos A35" at all, so it's safe to assume that this device is not supported by any well-known recovery makers.  This may be because the device is too new, or there simply is not enough interest in it from the Android developer community.


How to setup an Android tablet for use by an older person I consider myself fairly competent with tech, but I am more of an Apple guy so I had very limited exposure to Android, so far, and my problem is that I want to set up an Android tablet (Acer Iconia 16GB, running Android 4.2.2) for usage by an older person (my mother).

For the time being she will only use Skype to communicate with relatives and friends.

How can I set up this so that it works basically as a single-purpose device?
Are there any utilities or apps I should install?
(For example I noticed that the font, even at the maximum size, may still give her problems- she will use Skype for voice/video only, so screen space for text is less important than being able to read messages and labels).

I am also worried that notifications (including the ones about patches/updates) may give her anxiety, at least at the start, so I'd like to know if it is possible to disable most of all of them.

If anyone has other suggestions for this use case, even if not explicitly mentioned in my question, please contribute. It's my first attempt at this so I may be missing a lot.

You would probably wanna:

-Setup a launcher like Nova Launcher (my personal favorite) solely to setup gestures for daily used tasks like calling and viewing SMSs.

-With Nova launcher change the icon size to maximum (130% i guess) to make icons more visible.

-Go to Accessibility and change the text size. Since it varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, the customizability may be different. Tinker around in the accessibility settings to find something useful.

-Change ringtone, notification sound and alarm to something loud and distinct.

-Turn on Haptic FeedBack in Sound settings (varies from manufacturer to manufacturer again)

-De-clutter the home screen! May even want to sort them by folders (drag an app over the other)


How can I run Android applications on my computer? Is there any method for using Android applications on a computer, because I found this tutorial but my laptop just has 1 GB of RAM and works very hard. I want to use WeChat on my PC because I like it very much.

You need either Bluestacks or Youwave. I think Bluestacks can not be installed on your PC because of less RAM (minimum of 2gb recommended). So Youwave is your only option. It is easy to install and use.

Click here to download YouWave for Android on PC


Samsung Galaxy S4 not getting software updates of 4.3 or 4.4 I have a galaxy s4 device running on 4.2.2. I am not getting any updates for the same. When I do check for updates it says "You already have the latest version". I know 4.3 has officially released for galaxy s4.

I don't want to root my phone and update it. Since it is officially released why i am not getting the updates ?

Please suggest any solution so that i can get my phone on latest OS version.

Thanks

Sometimes OTA (over the air) upgrades are very late to turn up.  Also, your carrier can delay things, which is nice of them.  You should try installing Samsung's Kies software and upgrade that way.


How to block some SMS, but only allow phone calls? Hi I have a Samsung Galaxy 2S. How do I block SMS texts of my choice and only allow the phone calls? How do I block certain numbers from texting and not all of them, in other words, but allow the ones I'm blocking from sending me texts to call me instead if they so choose?

Blocking Contacts entirely is easily enough done. There is also SMS and call filtering applications that are free on the market- ESET AV is also a paid alternative. SMS filter and clean inbox are two alternatives for SMS blocking which both work quite well.

To combine both, there is a aFirewall SMS and call filter.  With many of these apps you're able to create set filers for calls, SMS or contacts to prevent them from bothering you.


Install Python to run speedtest-cli on android phone with no access to device - via adb I want to install python on an  android phone (the phone is connected to a pi so I don't have any GUI or physical access to the device). I can connect to the phone via adb shell and run/install packages via apk files easily. I want to install python on the device so that I can run speedtest-cli remotely via adb shell. https://github.com/sivel/speedtest-cli
Speedtest-cli requires python. So far I have tried the following based on online articles.
1. Installed termux app via APK. I can access the underlying files remotely. I tried install python using pkg command but could not error below.

1|:/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin # ./pkg install python
This must NOT be run as root as it will break your environment (root will be required for nearly everything due to changed file permissions)
1|marlin:/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin # whoami
root

2. Installed Qpython on the device using adb. However the issue is that when I launch adb command to launch Qpython I see a prompt on the device - Allow Qpython to access media Options - Accept or Deny. Since I don't have access to device I can select either of the options. Is there a way to send command via ADB to select - Accept ?

Would appreciate any other ideas as well. My end goal is to run the speetest-cli utility via adb shell on a device that is not physcially accessible.

Solved this eventually. Here is what I did -

Installed termux via downloading apk and performing adb install com.termux.apk
Remotely launched the termux app via adb  (monkey) (this is needed to complete install on the device) monkey -p com.termux -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER
once termux is installed I installed python and speedtest-cli on the device using adb input text and keyevents -

adb input text "pkg install python"
adb input keyevent "66"
adb input text "pip install speedtest-cli"

Then navigate to /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin
here you should have the speedtest-cli script that you can invoke from adb shell

/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin # ./speedtest-cli
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Testing from XXXXX
Testing download speed................................................................................
Download: 20.18 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed......................................................................................................
Upload: 3.98 Mbit/s


How to change user account with Tasker? Is there way to change user account with tasker?

You need root access for this answer to work.

Setup this action in a task:

Code → Run Shell →
Command: am switch-user USER_ID,
tick Use Root

To know the USER_ID of a user account, see my answer here.


Android Market - Want to see Best Applications Is there any way to see "Top Best (i.e. Top 10/50/100, etc.) applications" in Android Market as we are looking in AppStore ?

I means to say which applications/Games are famous amongst the people as "Angry Bird" is famous game in Appstore, applications may have either higher ratings or higher viewer, how do i come to know about applications in android market?

Appbrain.com allows you to view the android market and which apps are most popular, most downloaded, hottest... all within different time frames.


Galaxy SIII is displaying small-size low-quality pictures for contacts My brother and I have a Galaxy SIII, we both have the most recent firmware and software updates.

We both have the same contact whose picture is fetched from his Facebook profile picture.

Whenever that contacts call either of us, her picture is naturally displayed. Only the difference is that it displays a nice, fullscreen, high resolution image for him, and a tiny, about 100x100 low-res picture for me.

What can cause this? Same contact, same picture! Is this some sort of setting I need to check?

Google contacts supports max. resolution of 98x98 apparently.
Hope they will fix this soon.
Anyway if you set high res. photos in the phone they will be displayed accordingly until you restore again your contacts from google servers.


Google Play Market hangs I've just updated to Android 4.3, OTA.
Now when I try to start Google Play, it hangs.
Here is a part of log:

07-31 09:27:47.683: E/AndroidRuntime(20321):    at com.google.android.finsky.layout.play.PlayTabContainer.onPageScrolled(PlayTabContainer.java:120)
07-31 09:27:47.683: E/AndroidRuntime(20321):    at com.google.android.finsky.activities.TabbedBrowseFragment.onPageScrolled(TabbedBrowseFragment.java:462)
07-31 09:27:47.683: E/AndroidRuntime(20321):    at com.google.android.finsky.activities.TabbedBrowseFragment.rebindViews(TabbedBrowseFragment.java:345)
07-31 09:27:47.683: E/AndroidRuntime(20321):    at com.google.android.finsky.fragments.PageFragment.onDataChanged(PageFragment.java:256)
07-31 09:27:47.683: E/AndroidRuntime(20321):    at com.google.android.finsky.activities.TabbedBrowseFragment.onDataChanged(TabbedBrowseFragment.java:296)
07-31 09:27:47.683: E/AndroidRuntime(20321):    at com.google.android.finsky.api.model.DfeModel.notifyDataSetChanged(DfeModel.java:100)
07-31 09:27:47.683: E/AndroidRuntime(20321):    at com.google.android.finsky.api.model.PaginatedList.onResponse(PaginatedList.java:370)
07-31 09:27:47.683: E/AndroidRuntime(20321):    at com.google.android.finsky.api.DfeRequest.deliverResponse(DfeRequest.java:488)

I am totally locked! What can I do to enter Google Play?!

If clearing the cache doesn't work then another option would be to uninstall updates to the Play app. In a lot of cases this seems to do the trick.


There is a way to remove everything but one app from android? I have an spare phone that I want to use with the music app 'Caustic 3'. My plan is to use this phone just to it. There is a way to remove everything and install just this program, like an ROM? Just turn the phone on and it open this app directly? And use all the machine resources to think just this? Thanks

Removing system apps can damage your phone and make it unable to function.  I would recommend installing an app like macrodroid then setting up a macro to kill off all the other applications and only run Caustic 3. If you really want to remove the other apps, then installing something like System app remover (ROOT) would do the trick. The first method is a lot safer however.


Add obsolete phone to contact I have old messages from contact sent using temporary phone number he had on vacation. I want those messages grouped under his name in conversations, so I added it as another number to contact details. Messages are now fine, but this "obsolete" number is now clutters phone list when I tap on contact and need to chose what number to dial.

Is there a way to add a number to contact, but make it not appear in list of numbers to call when you select contact?

As first answer mentions, I can set other phone as default, but this still leaves obsolete phone on contact summary page and you can still accidentally call it with mis-click. I'd really like it to only show on contact edit page and be uncallable or at least not without confirmation prompt.

You can select a number as "default" or "main" and then this number will be dialed when you call that person.

Usually it can be done by long tap on a number and then selecting "Set as default".


How do I diagnose the last shutdown? adb root? Everything I've read indicates /proc/last_kmsg used to be how, however that seems to have changed with Android 6.0 (I'm on 8.1). I've also seen reference to /sys/fs/pstore/console-ramoops for Android 6.0+, but I have no file called that. I can't ls the directory either, because apparently I don't have root shell with adb.

I've tried adb bugreport, but that doesn't seem to contain shutdown logs.
I've tried adb root, but I get the message:

adbd cannot run as root in production builds

I have a Nexus 5x that is rooted, with TWRP and Magisk.

The only other suggestion I've seen is to edit '/system/build.prop' to include the line ro.debuggable=1, but I can't access that file either due to a lack of root access.

I've spent a week trying to sort this out. Surely it can't be this hard to find shutdown logs?

Why are you trying to read the shutdown logs ?

May be there's another method of diagnosis.

Have you tried logcat ?


No Google apps and no install zip option in recovery mode I have a galaxy s3 and I put CyanogenMod on it but there are no google apps and when I boot into recovery mode there is no install zip option to install the gapp ROM how do I get the Google apps on there

Seems that your recovery got broken, Now you'll have to flash another one the same way you did the first one, via Odin, and i recommend you this version,

CWM_Touch_6.0.4.4_with_Odin

After you flash the recovery, Boot into it, Then select the "GAPPS" version that is compatible with the ROM version you've installed, If you don't have it, Just choose the compatible one from this thread

GAPPS_ALL_VER

Once you flash GAPPS, you're done.


Insufficient Storage Available when installing Google Play Services I have rooted my Kindle Fire 7 (4th Generation) and installed Gapps using the Jmz Fire HD7 Tool. Everything went well, but, when I was trying to start Gmail, it asked me to update my Google Play Service. When the installation was nearly finished, a message "Insufficient Storage Available" popped up.

What can I do? I have tried to clear all data and force stop Google Play Service, and it still can't be updated. Any help would be appreciated.

EDIT

Pasting the result of df here... looks no good.

Filesystem               Size     Used     Free   Blksize
/dev                   435.9M   288.0K   435.6M   4096
/sys/fs/cgroup         435.9M    12.0K   435.8M   4096
/mnt/asec              435.9M     0.0K   435.9M   4096
/mnt/obb               435.9M     0.0K   435.9M   4096
/storage/usbotg        435.9M     0.0K   435.9M   4096
/storage/emulated      435.9M     0.0K   435.9M   4096
/mnt/secure            435.9M     0.0K   435.9M   4096
/mnt/asec              435.9M     0.0K   435.9M   4096
/mnt/obb               435.9M     0.0K   435.9M   4096
/system                  1.1G     1.1G    23.9M   4096
/cache                 852.4M   483.7M   368.7M   4096
/data                   12.3G     1.3G    11.0G   4096
/mnt/sqfs              124.6M   124.6M     0.0K   32768
/persistbackup          10.8M   184.0K    10.6M   4096
/mnt/shell/emulated     12.3G     1.3G    11.0G   4096

First, turn off power on and off your phone and see if the problem still exist . If so,
Go to your storage usage located in your settings and try deleting one unimportant app
If steps #1 or #2 didn't work or go through, just simply unmount the SD card the correct way. Don't just pull it out. If you have been doing this, it is probably why it's doing that now.
If you have done these steps, it should work. If not, go to a little side store that fix phones or the mall. You can also go to your service provider and see if they can fix the problem. Otherwise, go to amazon.com and look up SD card installment kit and you should be able to pick which one you want from them.


How do I access my SD card through a Windows USB connection? I'm trying to upload a simple PDF file to my Droid X Android 2.3 phone. I connected the cable and uploaded the file but I don't know which folder to put the file into. Android's PDF applications aren't helping at all and they all seem to look for files in SD. How do I access SD contents from Windows? How do I know if I have an SD card in my phone?

Most Android file managers and dialogs start you off in the SD card; if for some reason yours isn't, it's located at /sdcard .  This is also the directory that is mounted when you hook up your phone to Windows via USB.

Just to make sure here, you aren't trying to access the PDFs while the phone is still mounted in Windows?  You won't be able to, if that's the case.

If you want to look around more on your phone to find out where the PDFs are, you need to use a file manager on your phone. Most phones come with one preinstalled, simply called "Files" in the app drawer. Usually they open directly to the SD card directory (which is /sdcard in the root file structure).

If you don't have a file browser already installed, try ES File Explorer from the market, it's quite good and has boatloads of features. It also starts off browsing in the sdcard by default, and if you have root you can explore the entire file system, not just /sdcard .  It also has a "Search" function which may help you find your PDF files by filename.


Does the Verizon HTC One (M8) restrict GPS in China? This is a cross-post of "Why does my phone's GPS not work in China?"

Based on some of the answers and comments there, I am attempting to figure out what GPS sensor is being used in my phone, and what, if any restrictions Verizon and/or HTC and/or Google has placed on it.

I am currently in Beijing, China now, and have a China Unicom SIM card in my phone, not that it makes any difference - the GPS doesn't work with my Verizon SIM in either.

My phone:

Model number: HTC6525LVW
Hardware version: 0004
Android: 5.0.1
HTC Sense version: 6.0
Software #: 4.17.605.5
HTC SDK API level: 6.55
Kernel version: 3.4.0-ga9a3f03 and@ABM010 #1 SMP PREEMPT
Baseband version: 1.12.20.1211
Build number: 4.17.605.5 CL452965 release-keys
PRI Version: 2.90_002
PRL version: 00000
ERI Version: 5

As far as I can tell, it doesn't. I was simply running into a classic "urban canyon" problem.


Samsung Galaxy S4 eye tracking In the Samsung Galaxy S4 connection eye tracking video it shows a person watching a video. While watching the video if they turn their head the video will pause.

I want to ask, if the video is seen by two or more people what will happen to the video?

In S4, Eye movements are tracked by Front Camera. In this principle, the Persons Eye focused within the front cam is taken into consideration. (This doesnt works when there is no light or  dim light). This works well based on the viewing angle  (around 45Degree or something) of persons eye and Device front camera. This makes the possibility of detecting, one persons eye. so the play/pause depends on the single user not the multiple people. This makes sense when there is lot of crowd behind the user who is watching the video.


Is this Official ROM of gt-i9506? Device: Samsung Galaxy S4 gt-i9506.
The size of some (linked removed because faulty) Samsung ROMs is 1.3 GB while CyanogenMod corresponding ROM's size size 0.3 GB here.
I cannot understand so big difference.
I want to get a stable release.

Is the former the official ROM of gt-i9506?

The size of more than a gigabyte is true. I also flashed the official ROM of this device a short while ago. As already explained, this is caused in the difference between the very light CyanogenMod Rom (about i think 60 apps preinstalled) and the heavy, overloaded Samsung Touchwiz Rom (about 300 apps preinstalled).

For official samsung roms / firmwares i recommend the site SamMobile.com. They have all of the official roms for all samsung devices and are very reliable. The only negative point is that you have to sign up to download files and even then you have incredibly slow download speeds. You only get high speeds with paid subscription. But there is a "workaround" there:

An XDA user developed a brilliant tool called SamFirm Downloader. With this tool you don´t even need to sign up to SamMobile. You just need to enter the information of your device and ROM and the tool downloads this ROM with full (possible) speed from the SamMobile servers. You can get the tool here (download link under attachments of first post).

Step-by-step:

Download the newest version of SamFirm Downloader in this XDA post and unzip it.
Run the program
The only required information are model and region.
Fill in the model field. Model in your case is "GT-i9506". If you have a different phone you can google for the device model number or look on the sticker under phone battery.
Fill in the region field. This field decides which rom version (vendor) you get, as every single vendor like T-Mobile has its own firmware version. You need to enter the vendor code. You can find it for your specific country and vendor on this site. Just click at the Select country drop down menu, search your provider and copy or remember the short (3 letters) at the end of the line. Don´t download directly from this site as it´s very slow.
The checkbox needs to stay on Auto
Click on Check Update. If your model and region code were correct, it should have retrieved the correct (newest) firmware for your device.
If you want to get the ROM checked for download errors after download completed, check Check CRC32.
Check Decrypt automatically. You actually could do it manually after download, but why don´t let the program do it automatically?
Leave the rest as is and finally click on Download

You´re done! After some time you have the final zip-archive in the folder of SamFirm-Downloader which you need to unzip and then you can flash it with Odin.


How to bypass lockscreen Android Marshmallow? After Updating to Marshmallow my PIN is no longer being accepted, USB Debugging is disabled, no root, bootloader is locked, what can I do?
Is there anyway to get the data off the device, aside from JTAG or sending it to some data recovery company who can remove the Memory Chip and interface with it directly and copy the data that way. Full Disk Encryption is disabled, is there any way to bypass the lockscreen? And no I haven't forgotten the PIN, its a 4 digit I have been using for 8 months, nobody else has physical access to my phone, so I am pretty sure it has not been changed by someone.
Do not suggest factory reset please. There just has to be a way. Android Device Managerr doesn't work either.

Try with this Dr.Fone for Android, it can help you unlock Samsung Galaxy and LG without the passcode, and no data loss.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4o8z_lDLd0


Samsung stuck at animation logo When I try to turn on my GTS6312 this happens :-

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b7eBNPs2Oyvfs41c1BwzVSp4uEjCEErs/view?usp=drivesdk

I can not boot into recovery. I flashed the stock ROM but it does not solve my problem.
It just stucks on the samsung constantly glowing animation.

Well, this can be caused by either a hardware failure or simply a software error, also called a soft brick.

If your hardware is damaged, e.g. the eMMC chip is damaged, there is no much you can do than sending the phone to a repair shop.

In other hand, the software failure can be ''repaired" by flashing the device with a full firmware, aka 4 files firmware, this cam be found online. Then simply flash it with Odin or any flashing software and your soft brick  should be solved.


I have a refurbished Samsung Galaxy Tab with no Android Market App I bought a refurbished Samsung Galaxy Tab running
Android 2.3.5

There is no app for Market on the phone.
When I get to market directly, it only shows my Iconia and I've already downloaded things there that I also want on my Galaxy.
When I'm told to sign in to google account, it says I can't add that account, it's already there. I'm not trying to add it, I'm trying to sign in through the google system.
Skype will not download, either.

Have you tried installing the Market?  I've installed the 3.4.4 Market from Android Police a few times, if you're looking for a safe file.  Just put it on your SD card or internal storage (make sure it has the .apk extension) and install it via a file manager.  Settings -> Applications -> Unknown sources needs to be checked for this.


After update, car radio stopped playing audio through USB from my Samsung S5 using AOA I've bought a Pioneer radio for my car that supports Android Open Acessory (AOA) 2.0. I was happily living with it playing my music through the USB cable to my Galaxy S5 phone. High quality connection and charging at the same time. Just one cable. It was great.

To configure it, it was just necessary to select the correct USB connection type (MTP, if I remember well).

Now here comes an update to Android 6.0 and everything stopped working. It still charges, but I can't make the music go through the car speakers. The USB options now are inside the developer mode. I've tried all the options, but can't make the music go through the USB cable.

My old Moto G, with Android 5.1, successfully connects and plays through the USB cable.

Any fix, workaround, or help to debug is appreciated.

The problem is that I was using an app called SoundAbout that automatically routes the audio output. I've installed the app to use in a car that I rented and forgot about it. It is a nice app, but gives no notification that it is in use. Just had to uninstall it and everything worked fine.


How can I find preinstalled apps via adb? Is there a way to find for example a preinstalled WhatsApp?

So before I delete WhatsApp I can check if for example Samsung has a pre-version installed on the device (and so I can’t fully remove it)?

With the normal „path“-command I got the actual WhatsApp path! But the Preinstalled WhatsApp-Path must be somewhere different!

Greetings

Dossy

adb shell pm list packages com.whatsapp
adb shell cmd package list packages com.whatsapp   # works on Android Nougat and above

Any of those commands would show whether WhatsApp is installed or not.

To know where the APK is installed, run:

adb shell pm path com.whatsapp

To get all the paths where both user installed APK and inbuilt APK is, run:

adb shell dumpsys package com.whatsapp

Look under the category 'Packages:' and 'Hidden system packages:'. The line with ResourcePath shows the path of the APK.

If your intention is merely to ascertain the existence of that app, then using adb is an overkill. An app can easily achieve the required objective. See my answer here for that.


Is there a Bluetooth earphone that can control the Music being played? I'm looking for a bluetooth earphone set, or a device compatible with it, so that I can control the music (play/pause & next/previous) without actually touching the phone.

Is there any hardware that does this? The reason is, I'm getting home from work, in a crowded bus, standind, trying to hold on with one hand, and the other hand cannot reach into phone, unlock the screen, find the next button and press it. It's too hard :)

Or any way to use the volume button for previous / next ? This would be much cheaper, and fancier :)

This sounds a bit like a shopping question, which is off-topic here, but as a general answer: Yes, it's possible to change tracks from Bluetooth headphones.

Almost all headphones that support A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile), which is required for better quality music streaming, can also handle AVRCP (Audio/Video Remote Control Profile) which handles controlling the playback.

As an example, I have a Samsung SBH-170, which has buttons for play/pause, next/previous track, volume up/down and call answer.

Just check that the headphones you're going to buy support A2DP, and most likely they support AVRCP as well.


How to change calendar week start day in Android? I prefer my week view of my calendar to start on Monday rather than Sunday. I already have my Google Calendar set that way (to which I sync).

How can I do the same on my Droid (Android 2.2)?

This is apparently not possible on a Motorola Droid with Android 2.1.

FroYo is slated to release next week. Maybe it will also change the ability to set this value. (If it does I'll change this answer.)

Sadly, this is still not possible with Android 2.2 either.


what is "com.google.android.ext.services" What is com.google.android.ext.services? I accidently found this app in the running list and when I open it contains a settings and then it have opening links option inside it that contains the apps that I have installed in my phone and this help me to disable some of Google apps that I can't do in settings.

I have provided the screen shots of my phone, I disabled about 4 google apps with this and it can also have the option to disable the sytem's important apps like "message" etc. When I searched it in google and mi community I can't find anything and I want to know the thing behind this.

It also contains an option "special acces" which contains details about apps usage and battery optimisations etc.

com.google.android.ext.services is a package found in Gapps.

The answer to this previous questions should provide the explanation on what the app does.


Can you install a generic ROM on any device? I am relatively new to rooting and stuff. I have just rooted my android tablet. It's a Chinese tablet, not much about it is available on the internet.

Can I install ROM for another device on my tablet? I saw many videos on YouTube showing "How to install any ROM on any Android device". Does 'any' here mean that I can install, let's say, a Nexus ROM on my tablet?

Is there some generic ROM which can be installed on all androids? If so, can I install this generic ROM and then upgrade to a ROM of another device?

If no, is there a way to do so? (If not, then how do manufacturers put their ROM for the first time?)

You won't be able to install a ROM from a different device,  unless it is ported to your device - there are write-ups on the XDA forums on this. There isn't any generic ROM for all devices. Each device has its own chipset and hardware, that has its own firmware (software) design for it. In order for there to be a generic ROM, it would have to have the software and drivers for every device out on the market. The size of the ROM would be so large it wouldn't fit on most devices, let alone have room for anything else. Manufactures flash the ROM to their devices. From there we the can unlock the boot loaders, flash a custom recovery, install kernels and flash a custom ROM designed/made/ported for our device.

Check out this link and search for your device. http://forum.xda-developers.com/. There are other forums on the internet, but you can search Google for them.


Nougat: How to use Full Disk Encryption instead of File Based Encryption? Nougat comes with File Based Encryption (FBE) and Direct Boot.

I would like to return to Full Disk Encryption (FDE) instead (or in addition to FBE) and make sure the data partition is fully encrypted when the phone is turned off.

For security reasons, I actually want the phone to be a complete brick until I type-in the Full Disk Encryption password.

This should be possible since my Nexus 5x (upgrade from Marshmallow to Nougat) could do this.

I expect this to involve a factory reset and maybe even rooting, and I'm fine with that.

My reason is that File Based Encryption is inherently much less secure since it gives a choice to app developers what to encrypt and what not. Sooner or later people will store sensitive data unencrypted (for "user experience" reasons), because it's now possible.

I am aware of this question, but the author seemed confused whether his device is encrypted or not, and it doesn't answer how to use FDE instead of FBE.

So, how to use Full Disk Encryption instead of File Based Encryption?

You have a couple of options - regarding device status, ROM origin && course of action -  though every1 of them is focused on changing flags in fstab.qcom.

Basically, while flag in fstab.qcom for FBE is

fileencryption=contents_aes-256-xts[:filenames_aes-256-heh]

and defines options for content && metadata encryption, flag for FDE is

forceencrypt

or

encryptable

U don't need to root.

Because u have nasty Nexus 5X (had very bad experience with that device) u can unlock bootloader, boot custom recovery - TWRP will suffice - format (not wipe!) userdata, push modified fstab.qcom with flag encryptable (or forceencrypt), reboot to bootloader, and boot device.

Not quite sure whether re-locking bootloader after changing fstab.qcom will cause a bootloop (did couple of lobotomies on that devices, but haven't tried this particular scenario).

Either way, if u try to re-lock bootloader && that ends in bootloop, u can always flash a TOT file.

There r modified boot images for that device for same purpose, but with additional code - custom sepolicy for root.


How to find how many hours an Android phone has been used? I want to know if there is a method that can tell me how many hours an Android phone has been used. Just like we have cheat codes that we used for Nokia phones; they tell us the hours (regardless of factory reset). Any alternate for Android?

Go to Settings → About phone → Status,
scroll to bottom and you will be able to see Up time.

I think this feature is available on Android 4+.


How to add 5 week shift schedule to calendar? I need a way to set in my workschedule wich repeats over 5 weeks in the calender, it looks like this:

NNNN FFF
LLL FF MM
MM FF NNN
FFF LLLL
FF MMM FF

(Night, Free, Late, Morning)

Is there any way to do this? I really want it in my calendar and not as a seperate app, I've seen "My Work Schedule" and "Work Calendar Lite" but they're not at all what I need.

Using a Samsung Galaxy S3, hope somebody's able to help me out, this really sucks, especially since my colleagues can easily do it on their Iphone ...

As far as I can tell, this is not possible within Android's calendar apps. It is possible, however, in Google Calendar's web app. If you are syncing with a Google account, you can go to Google Calendar and set up events to repeat every 5 weeks. You would have to set up each segment separately, but you could then set that segment to repeat every five weeks.

For example:

Go to Google Calendar
Add an event for one day of work (say, a single night shift)
Edit event...
Check box for "Repeat..."
In the popup that appears, set to repeat every 5 weeks, and select the days that week that have the same schedule (e.g., Mon, Tues, Wed).
Repeat for each segment in your schedule.

If you use the same Google account to sync your calendar to your phone, the schedule should appear shortly.


I have this 64 gig microSD and it seems I can't utilize it I have an LG Stylo with 16GB internal storage and just bought a 64GB microSD because I was tired of running out of space. So I manually moved all of the apps I could to the external storage. This freed up a few gigs. Now I'm goinf to update an app and my internal is up to 15.4 gigs?? Why? My apps are still listed under the "Internal Storage" section but once I select an app, it states it is in External Storage. So why is this happening? Is it leaving an undisclosed amount of data inside anyway? Is this a bug? I'm debating on deleting one of the apps through internal storage and see if it wipes it off my SD. By the way, my 64 gig is hardly being used. Maybe 6 gigs tops

You can't move apps to memory card. It is possible only if sd card is adopted or via apps like link2sd (require root). Yes there is option move to sd card in app manager but that moves small amount of data to sd. So if you want more space for apps adopt your SD card and that's it. Some bare minimum is class 10 SD card or UHS I if you phone support it.


How can I change the function of the volume key in messenges? I have a Galaxy S5, android version 5.0

When I have the default messenges app open, if I press the volume key it increases or decreases the size of the font rather than the volume. Is there a way to change the function of the volume keys

Open the message app. Press the menu key. Choose settings. Choose "Display". Uncheck the option change font size.


Android Encryption porting I'm currently trying to enable the full disk encryption in Android on my custom board.
Some informations:

The /data Partition is the 4th Partition on my SD Card.
after the /data Partition there is >2MB free space
the /data Partition is ext4

If I run vdc cryptfs enablecrypto inplace 1234 I get

logcat | grep crypt
E/Cryptfs ( 2407): Orig filesystem overlaps crypto footer region.  Cannot encrypt in place.

If I run vdc cryptfs enablecrypto wipe 1234 I get

device-mapper: table: 254:0: crypt: Error creating IV
device-mapper: ioctl: error adding target to table
device-mapper: table: 254:0: crypt: Error creating IV
device-mapper: ioctl: error adding target to table
device-mapper: table: 254:0: crypt: Error creating IV
device-mapper: ioctl: error adding target to table
device-mapper: table: 254:0: crypt: Error creating IV
device-mapper: ioctl: error adding target to table
device-mapper: table: 254:0: crypt: Error creating IV
device-mapper: ioctl: error adding target to table
device-mapper: table: 254:0: crypt: Error creating IV
device-mapper: ioctl: error adding target to table
device-mapper: table: 254:0: crypt: Error creating IV
device-mapper: ioctl: error adding target to table
device-mapper: table: 254:0: crypt: Error creating IV
device-mapper: ioctl: error adding target to table
device-mapper: table: 254:0: crypt: Error creating IV
device-mapper: ioctl: error adding target to table
device-mapper: table: 254:0: crypt: Error creating IV
device-mapper: ioctl: error adding target to table

and the device reboots afterwards...

Some extended information:
fstab

cat /fstab.boundary
....
$BD4    /data    ext4    nosuid,nodev,nodiratime,noatime,nomblk_io_submit,noauto_da_alloc,errors=panic    wait,encryptable=footer
....

init.rc

cat /init.boundary.rc
...
mount_all /fstab.boundary
...

Screenshot from the partition layout:

Any help is very welcome.

I assume you use the wrong parameter in your fstab. You can't place the footer in space already reserved for a filesystem. Either make an extra partition (sdc5) and specify footer=/dev/sdc5:0 (to put it at the beginning of this partition) or specify a negative offset to use the space at the end of the partition, e.g. to use 16k of the partition specify: encryptable=footer,length=-16384

Not sure if you'd need to make your ext4 filesystem not smaller than the partition, otherwise it could overwrite your footer.


Does this permissions request make sense? I would like to use a vendor's application to enable remote access to a security DVR from an Android phone. The app requires permission for "read phone status and identity".
I'm not an Android developer, but that doesn't seem like an appropriate permission, since the application has nothing to do with the phone number or the phone operation. It would work equally well without any phone functionality.

I contacted the developers, and they say:
"The application makes that request to get though the firewall on the phone.
The program does not store or use that information.
If you manual set permissions in the firewall then the program will need the permission."

Does that make sense to anybody? Is there a "firewall" in Android that is somehow related to phone state and identity?

Before I call BS on this response, I wanted to check here with experts just in case there is some obscure relationship.

While the permission might make sense, the explanation does not at all.

To my knowledge, READ_PHONE_STATE has nothing at all to do with a firewall or networking. It is a READ permission (so what could that have to do with passing a firewall?),

giving access to your IMEI/IMSI and phone number
lets the app figure out whether a call is in progress
if a call is in progress, gives access to the phone number of the remote device

I bet the app has the INTERNET permission as well (confirmed as per Google Play link you provided). The app is free of charge. Minimum Android version is 2.0, so READ_PHONE_STATE was not forced on it (it is enforced for Android versions up to 1.6). So I rather assume it carries some ad module which requires this permission: the combination of INTERNET and READ_PHONE_STATE is very common to those (it needs to obtain the ad information, and most likely uses your IMEI to identify you -- in a positive sense, to see what ads have already been shown; but of course it could as well be used otherwise).

If you've already installed that app, you can verify this using e.g. Lookout Ad Network Detector or TrustGo Ad Detector. You could also check with Addons Detector to see if it carries any other module piggie-back (e.g. for analytics, which again would explain READ_PHONE_STATE to identify your device).

Second thought: Why would that app need to get through the phone's firewall (if there were any)? Isn't it supposed to do connections to the outside? If that would require anything else but the INTERNET permission, what should the INTERNET permission stand for?


Possible to patch the Android kernel with root? Basically there's a boot rom exploit on Tegra X1 chips, specifically the Nintendo Switch that allows you send payloads while it is in Recovery Mode and basically run unsigned code (homebrew, custom firmware, and even launch Linux distros). The payload launcher works on PC, Mac, and Linux, and has been ported to Android, however for it to work on Linux it requires a kernel patch for the EHCI (USB 2.0) driver. Devices that support xHCI (3.0) can execute it without any problems. On Android it is done using a USB-OTG adapter by the way and works without root access. I suspect that the only way to patch the kernel is with root access or a custom ROM/kernel with the patch. Here is one hacking team's (fail0verflow) patch without any instructions: https://github.com/fail0verflow/shofel2/blob/master/linux-ehci-enable-large-ctl-xfers.patch

Someone also wrote a Python script for Linux that patches the kernel memory here: https://gist.github.com/DavidBuchanan314/41b12362cc4d8c539dc441d75155f2e9

I tried to run it using Termux with the python package installed however it results with this error:

0x0
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "ehci_patch.py", line 70, in <module>
" " ".replace("PLACEHOLDER", hex(ksyms["ehci_urb_enqueue"])).replace("PLACE2" hex(ksyms["lookup_address"]))
KeyError: 'lookup_address'

Tried to also run it with su first but it says sh: python: not found
Anyway, I don't think that "hotpatch" script could even properly work on Android as it is meant for desktop Linux systems.

I would appreciate any leads or information on a way to patch the kernel either with root access or perhaps a way to get the python script working. I forked the Android app with hopes to improve it and translate it to different languages and I want to be able to provide a solution with instructions to get it to work on EHCI devices (if it's possible at all on Android). It would be amazing if it's possible with a Magisk module as well.

That Python script appears to work by generating the source code for, then compiling a custom kernel module, then loading that module to do the actual patch. It expects, among other things, a working C compiler, make program, and kernel sources (at least headers) for the kernel you're running at /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build.

So, no, that's not going to work on Android. Typically you have none of those things. With a cross-compile environment (on a PC) set up to build your phone's kernel, you could likely build that module, copy it over, then (as root on the Android device) load it. But building it directly on the phone would be quite an undertaking.