Accessing local computer using hostname From my tablet running Android 9 I would like to access a web site on my local server using its hostname (server). This works fine from my laptop computer running Debian 10. However, on my tablet I get the error message "This site can't be reached" when I enter the address http://server.local in a web browser. Any clues?

Duplicate of: How to ping a local network host by hostname?

I order to access a local computer from Android using hostname. You have two options:

Add the IP address vs. hostname mapping of the local computer to /system/etc/hosts file on your Android device. See How to edit 'etc/hosts' file? and How to edit '/etc/hosts' file on non-rooted phone?

OR

Run a DNS server on local network. Usually a WiFi router is already hosting a DHCP+DNS server.

Make sure that DNS server is aware of the hostname of the local computer e.g. communicated through DHCP or some other mechanism.
Make sure that DNS queries from Android device goes to local DNS server and not on internet. See How to configure DNS properly?

Turn Private DNS off on Android 9+, and
Add static DHCP/DNS from settings, or
Add DNS using ndc resolver setnetdns command-line, or
Use VPN based app mentioned above to force DNS server, or
On rooted phone use iptables DNAT for port 53 to force DNS server

RELATED:

How does Android OS do DNS name resolution?


Why do so many applications try to get the SIM and network operator name? I understand what Android permissions mean and I have a specific question about two telephony permissions.

I've been using XPrivacy for a while and noticed that many apps that ostensibly have nothing to do with the low-level telephony features, nevertheless make repeated calls to getSimOperatorName() and getNetworkOperatorName(). MyFitnessPal Calorie Counter is one such app.

What need would ordinary apps have to call these methods?

For example, why would MyFitnessPal care I'm using AT&T or Verizon, when the app could be running just fine on a Wi-Fi only device?

I have read that Android applications created through a standard method are set by the creating software to ask for certain permissions by default, even if the developer did not pick them. The permissions you mention may be among those. So the developer might not be interested in them at all.


How much does Android use Wi-Fi for network discovery when not connected? When I have Wi-Fi turned on, but not connected to any network, how much does Android use the Wi-Fi function? I'm asking this because apparently Wi-Fi activity uses considerable* amounts of battery.

Is the device constantly scanning for Wi-Fi signals to find a network to connect to? Or does it only do it at some intervals to save battery, so that all significant battery use happens only when it's connected? Are there any settings related to this?

(I have Android 2.2.1 but I'm interested in information about other recent versions as well if there are significant differences.)

* - "considerable" should not be interpreted as a synonym of "large" or "too much". I'm not suggesting Wi-Fi drains my battery immediately, just that the energy consumption is worthy of considering.

I'm pretty certain the wifi drains more when scanning than when actively connected to a network. So when you are not going to use wifi, it is better to turn it off and use cell network (which you'll be using anyways while not actively connected to a wifi).


Is there a way to play music files from a specific time? (From 0:30 til the end of the track, for example.) I have a Nexus 5 and I'm trying to find out if it is possible to play only certain sections of music files instead of the whole track.

For example, if I want to skip the first 30 seconds, is there any setting I can change for the file or in the music player so that whenever I play that track, it automatically skips the first 30 seconds? Or if I want to play only the segment from 30s to 1:30s for that track, I can specify this is the settings for that track somehow?

I'm currently using the default music player on my phone, but if this is only possible with an app from the Play store, that would be fine with me as well. I browsed through some of the popular apps but they don't make it clear whether or not this feature is present.

This isn't gonna be a the best answer but just Google MP3 cutter. I used one of the apps and they do a good job EDIT: Just select your points and hit 'Start Cut' https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beka.tools.mp3cutter


System apps location on Android Jelly Bean I chose to pose this question here, since I don't have any Jelly Bean device nearby.

On Android KitKat, system apps are located at /system/priv-app/. On Lollipop and Marshmallow, instead, they're placed under /system/priv-app/name-of-the-app/.

Following a similar fashion, I would like to know the path of those apps which are installed as system apps, on Android devices in a version range going from 4.1.x to 4.3.x (namely, all of the Jelly Bean builds).

Are their APKs located under the /system/app/ folder directly, are they placed in a folder of the same name of the corresponding app, or are they present in a completely different folder?

Thanks in advance.

To my knowledge, before Kitkat .apk files of system apps all went to /system/app. Kitkat added the /system/priv-app directory. The structure having an additional directory level came later (LP or MM).

References:

AOSP Privileged vs System app
What's the difference of /system/app/ and /system/priv-app
Android 5.0/Lollipop: Force rescan of /system/priv-app


Download and Install (aka sideload) Facebook Home APK I'd like to try out Facebook Home however I don't have an approved device to install it from the Google play store.

I've tried googling this to not avail...where can I download the latest version of the APK released on May 10, 2013 and how can I install it.

There's actually no need to "black hat" or sideload the app. If you can't find it in your Google Play search, or if clicking on "Download" from the http://facebook.com/home page lands you in the Google Play install page but it says your device isn't compatible, then don't worry, there's another way.

I have a Sony Ericsson Xperia P and I googled hard for a solution; then I read that Facebook pushed an update recently which (in addition to adding support for 2 more phones) let's you "Use Home anyways". So how to install Home in the first place, you say? Head on over to 1 Mobile Market (http://www.1mobile.com) and download their app. Once installed (make sure you enable "Allow unknown sources" in your phone's Security settings), look for Facebook Home in the 1 Mobile marketplace and install (again, make sure you can install from unknown sources). It should run automatically once installed and you should see the "Use Home anyways" option.

Facebook Home the legal and official way. Worked great for me! Enjoy!


Contact avatar colors What do the different color contact avatars mean? My Samsung automatically generates avatars for new contacts. I'm wondering what the different colors mean. I can't figure out the pattern.

Different colors on contact avatars are randomly generated from an array of colors. If you look at the Source Code of Contacts app, you will find something like this in a xml file.

<array name="letter_tile_colors">
    <item>#DB4437</item>
    <item>#E91E63</item>
    <item>#9C27B0</item>
    <item>#673AB7</item>
    <item>#3F51B5</item>
    <item>#4285F4</item>
    <item>#039BE5</item>
    <item>#0097A7</item>
    <item>#009688</item>
    <item>#0F9D58</item>
    <item>#689F38</item>
    <item>#EF6C00</item>
    <item>#FF5722</item>
    <item>#757575</item>
</array>

This array consists of HEX color codes for different colors.
So when you create new contact, a function will pick any color at random from that array and it will be assigned to the avatar.
Since, the color is assigned at random, you won't find any particular pattern.


Restrict market updates to WiFi network In order to save some volume on my data plan, I'd like to limit updates from the market to the times when I'm connected to a WiFi. And as every good geek, I want this to be automated, in other words, if I am connected to a WiFi network, check and install updates from the market (for those apps that I allow to automatically update). Is there a way of doing this?

I'm running Android 2.2 on an HTC Desire. If it helps, I have Tasker installed.

Update: I don't want to change the autosync settings.

Update II: I'm not rooted and am looking for a "stock" solution.

This will only work if you're rooted, but DroidWall is a really good front end for Android's iptables.  You can filter access to data based on WiFi and 3G to just about anything in your phone (including the Market) that could request it.


Why can't I update my device? I have a Galaxy S3 (GT-I9300), my current Android version is 4.0.4.

I am trying to define software updates for it, via the Software Updates screen. (Settings > About).

However, I get "Unable to connect to network" every time. What network is it trying to connect? Can I define it? If so, what should I define it too?

Also, will software updates allow me to update to 4.1.2? If not, how can I?

Can anyone please point to a resource which explains it? (Or even better, answer it here).

If I'm lacking any technical details, please leave a comment and I'll edit my question right away.

May be I am too easy with you.
But just for the fact of helping, were you able to access internet through your mobile?
If the answer is 'Yes' then there must be a bug with your OS. (There are possibilities for that in one or two devices)
My suggestion is to use 'Kies' from a PC.
Last week only I got to know even GT-I9300 devices are network locked in some countries. A friend of mine's GT-I9100 started asking for Network Unlock code all of a sudden. After a master reset, we noticed some new apps from Vodafone and the default language turned into Spanish or something.
So I think your GS3 might be trying to access its original operator.
Or may be some other reason.
Just try my suggestions if you didn't do already.


Refresh Downloads list I have Android 4.4.3 on a Nexus 5.
I connected the phone to a laptop, and there I deleted most of the files in the Downloads directory of the phone.
Nevertheless, these files still show up on the phone when I open Downloads (of course, when I try to open them, I get an error).

Is there a way to refresh the Downloads list?

This is a correction for Akhil's answer. I have tried this on Android Lollipop and it works :

Settings > Apps > All > Download Manager (NOT Downloads) > Clear Data and Clear Cache.


What is Onetimeinitializer.apk Android application? Anyone know purpose or any document about Onetimeinitializer.apk? It is a built-in application.

I searched for a while but did not find any information about it.

Does anyone have documentation for it? Thanks.

According to this it runs the first time you boot up (Cyanogenmod?) and prompts you for what Google Apps to install.


How to capture downloading address of downloading file? I am downloading the file in PC browser so I can easily capture the download link by entering into Downloads Tab & click "copy link address"

In Android, I know by long press on Download button, it gives menu so I can use "copy link address" to capture the address.

but not all sites display download address in Download tab, I mean Link address of download button & downloading file are not same.

so How to capture downloading address in androids OS?

Android OS is 4.2.2

Browser: chrome 30.0.1599.82

Better choice for you is try to install third-party download manager, I recommend Loader Droid https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.zloy.android.downloader


Samsung Galaxy S3 phone - typing additional symbols There are some symbols available when using the on screen keyboard on my Samsung Galaxy S3 phone, but I would like to access additional symbols, like percent sign and degree symbol.  How can I do that?

Originally I had 3 pages of symbols, including the degree symbol. There was an "update" and it's gone. I use it a lot and miss it.

I just downloaded the GO keyboard and it has a degree symbol °. Yay!


how do i clear up space because my phone is almost full? Can i sweep the storage. Is this data i don't want or the data that runs my phone. Not sure exactly what my huawei phone stores in storage. Whats miscellaneous?

The storage you sweep refers to stuff like cache or minor app memory. Most of the time, these are things you don't need on your phone that store excessive memory in order to make the phone run a little faster.

Miscellaneous refers to the files on your phone (think of as a file manager) and stores things like your downloaded files from the internet, movies you downloaded, and really anything in your internal storage directory. Some of these files (like .android) are necessary to run your device. The things you installed from chrome or app data only effect those parts of the device and are therefore safe to clean.

Most of your storage is probably made up of apps, music, and photos. I would remove some of those in order to save the most data. For photos, use google photos and put them on the cloud instead of storage if you take a lot of them. This way, you will have the most storage as you can.


How do I share an app across two phones? I have two phones that are set up with the same google account.

I have a paid app I bought and use on phone 1.

Is it possible for me to use the app on phone 2?

If so, how do I do this?  In the market it asks me to buy it again.

Your application purchases are tied to
  your Google Account and can be
  installed an unlimited amount of times
  on any device

http://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=113410


Can you run Android in a VM on PC? I came across a how-to guide for running Android 1.7 in a virtual machine (VirtualBox), but 1.7 is old. I haven't been able to find a Android 2.2 or 2.3 image anywhere, does anyone have any ideas on how to virtualize newer Android OS's? Preferably a free virtualization solution like VirtualBox.

Here is the link about virtualizing 1.7:

http://osxdaily.com/2010/12/14/run-android-using-a-virtual-machine-on-a-mac-or-windows-pc/

They send you to here to download Android disk images:

http://virtualboxes.org/images/android-x86/

But I can't find anything newer than 1.7, anyone have any ideas?

Android-x86 seems to be the most current project, with nightly builds available at http://android-x86.moonman.dk/

I think the lack of activity one sees isn't so much a licensing/warez problem, it's just that the OS simply doesn't work too well with desktop systems yet, being highly phone & touch-centric.  That and there's simply not a lot of interest for it yet.

I don't know if this project has the Google Apps (particularly Market) baked in or not.  If not, that's another major piece that significantly reduces the usefulness of this OS.

Finally, there'd be the problem of getting drivers for all the various hardware made available.  Considering Android's Linux base, I'm not sure how easy or difficult it is to do.


Disable Split-Screen/Multi-Window for apps Forgive me if this is a duplicate post as I couldn't find a solution in post history.

My question is concerning Split-screen/multi-screen functionality in Android Nougat. Is there a way to disable app split screen functionality? My device is a rooted Motorolla Nexus 6 with Android 7.0. I was wondering if there was an adb command or a line I can add to the build.prop file to disable multi-window in the system.

If it is easier, is there a way to simply change what occurs when the recent app button is held?

[Is] there a way to simply change what occurs when the recent app button is held?

You can tweak the Overview (Recent) button for long-press event using GravityBox [N]. GravityBox requires a comapatible Xposed Framework.

In GravityBox module, go to Navigation keys actions → scroll to Recents key → tap Long-press action → choose an appropriate action.

From then on, long-pressing the Overview button would not show spit-screen mode.

Tested on Nexus 6 running stock Android 7.1.1.


What is the mysterious "CDC Serial" device and why do I needed it? I've built my own PC computer from parts I purchased online, I did a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit with SP1 (full version, no OEM bloatware), and I ran Windows Update several times to get the latest and greatest updates from Microsoft. I was pleased to see that everything worked as expected, no issues whatsoever, not in software nor in hardware. Next, I connected my brand new Samsung Galaxy S4 Plus (GT-I9506) phone to a free USB port on the computer. Windows detected following 3 different devices.

USB Composite Device
Galaxy S4 (sg)
CDC Serial

Windows automatically installed and configured the first two devices (see screenshot above). Except the "CDC Serial" device. It didn't install that one.

What is "CDC Serial" device?
Why do I need it?
How do I install it?

The very first thing I did was to check the user's manual (the complete manual, not the getting started guide). There is not a single reference to "CDC Serial". I'm not an expert, but I do understand some of this. The "USB Composite Device" is installed so that Windows can communicate with the phone over the USB cable. The "Galaxy S4 (sg)" is the name I gave to my phone during setup, and this is the device that presents itself to Windows as a media player, makes use of the MTP protocol, and this is what shows up in Windows Explorer.

How am I supposed to know what "CDC Serial" is if it's not described in the user's manual? I have never seen that before on any Android device when connected to a PC. I did a search for "cdc serial" on Google and all I could find was people doing some hacks to their phones, like rooting, changing ROM, and generally just hacking it.

So what if I don't want to do any of that? Is it still important to configure the "CDC Serial" device? How does it impact the functionality of the phone, e.g. when syncing data between the phone and the PC, if I decide I don't want to follow those hacking tips and tricks to try to install this device?

I contacted Samsung Technical Support about this and they had no clue what I was talking about. They said they would look into it, but that's it. No help at all.

The user's manual says I can change the USB connection type from MTP to PTP. It essentially makes the phone present itself to Windows as a still camera device. I tried that there were no issues with drivers not being installed. Windows detected only the "Galaxy S4 (sg)" device and it was automatically configured and installed.

In this mode, only picture files can be transferred between the phone and the PC. So this is very limiting, in my opinion. But the "CDC Serial" device was not detected. How so?..

I've never found Windows to be very helpful in identifying drivers either. Here's some information for you on what USB CDC is. According to Wikipedia:

  USB communications device class (or USB CDC) is a composite Universal
  Serial Bus device class. The class may include more than one
  interface, such as a custom control interface, data interface, audio,
  or mass storage related interfaces.

Additionally, a resource called the USB Software Resource Center has this overview of CDC:

  There are three classes that make up the definition for communication
  devices: the Communication Device Class, Communication Interface Class
  and the Data Interface Class. The Communication Device Class is a
  device level definition and is used by the host to properly identify a
  communication device that may present several different types of
  interfaces.

All of that is developer-speak, but it really just means that a USB CDC driver helps your PC 1) understand what services your phone can provide it and 2) start talking to your phone to use those services. I don't know for sure what service the CDC Serial driver you see represents but I'm pretty confident that installing the official Samsung drivers for your phone would resolve the red X (the drivers that Windows installs automatically are sometimes generic and are often insufficient).

In its current state, with your phone connected as an MTP device, do you have any trouble transferring files or doing anything else you want to do with your phone from your PC? If you're not having trouble then it's possible the CDC Serial driver is only used for connecting your phone as a modem or serial device (as when communicating with your phone from the developer tool ADB). If you aren't planning to use your phone in this manner, you can safely ignore the failed installation of the CDC Serial driver.

I wouldn't stress too much over it and would install the Samsung drivers if you run into any trouble.


KidLogger data and configuration file location After downloading and installing from kidlogger.net, the app runs well on my Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

I want to locate the storage location of the data as well as the settings files, so that I can use Dropsync to sync that folder to Dropbox.

Where might I find these files?

An app whose package name is com.example.app has its data files in /data/data/com.example.app. This applies to pre–Jelly Bean systems, and to the first user on Jelly Bean systems. For other users on Jelly Bean systems, user 1 has the data files for com.example.app in /data/user/1/com.example.app, and so on.

However, none of this information helps you to use an external app to sync an app's files. Reading another app's data files can only be done on a rooted phone, which is probably not something you want to do on your child's phone. Even then, you need an app that's designed to work with root access, such as DataSync or AppSync. And even then, it's possible that the Kidlogger app keeps its data in encrypted form, to force you to use their sync service, or as a precaution against tampering with the logs. After all, if the sync app can get access to the logs, there's nothing to stop the user of the phone doing the same thing.

The only reliable and secure solution would be to ask the developers of Kidlogger to add a feature that syncs the app data to Dropbox or an online service of your choice: one the user of the phone can't access.


Moto G 1st Gen - Mobile Data not working after upgrade to 5.0.2 After upgrading to Lollipop from 4.4.4, mobile data doesn't work. I have tried all the solutions listed in various forums including,
1. Reboot
2. Reboot after re-inserting the sim card.
3. Manually add the APN (Got the settings from the service provider)
4. Toggle between the Preferred Network type (2G and 3G)

I have only one usable sim slot, and so cannot use sim slot-1. I have heard it worked for a few guys after putting the sim in the other slot, but unfortunately I cannot try that out.

Any suggestions?

Okay, so here I am posting an answer to my own question.
I finally visited a Motorola service center today to get the problem fixed and I was told that they are aware of the issue and that they'll be rolling out an update with a fix in 5 days.
Hopefully everything will turn out well after that.


I'm with Virgin Mobile; should I buy Unlocked or Sprint-locked? I'm looking around at buying a Samsung Galaxy S5, and learning quite a bit about what GSM and CDMA are while I'm at it. In that respect though, I have no idea what Virgin Mobile is, though I know Sprint is CDMA, and the Galaxy S series, from what I understand, seems to be GSM. Virgin sells them, though, so I assume getting an S5 will be fine. I'm just wondering which one, locked or unlocked, will provide me with the easiest process when setting up the S5- or whether there'll be a difference.

I did read  from Virgin's help site: "Your non-Virgin Mobile phone needs to be unlocked to work on the Virgin Mobile network."
Not sure how relevant it is.
(From the last question in the Get Started section, about halfway down the page)
http://www.virginmobile.ca/en/support/sim.html?province=ON&geoResult=failed

I'm just wondering which one, locked or unlocked, will provide me with the easiest process when setting up the S5- or whether there'll be a difference.

If you're buying the phone from the same carrier that you will be using the phone with, there's no difference to you. The only thing that makes set-up hard is if you buy a locked phone from one carrier to use with a different carrier: in that case you need to unlock it first.

Unlocked phones do have a slightly higher resale value, because the next user can use them with any carrier without having to get them unlocked. Unlocking a phone from the carrier typically costs in the region of US$10, and you can do it officially (by paying the carrier a fee) or unofficially (in an independent repair shop, or through a third-party website).

There's no advantage to the user of having a locked phone.

To avoid confusion: note that this carrier lock is completely unrelated to the PIN or pattern you use to unlock your phone. It's also completely unrelated to having a locked bootloader. Those are three separate concepts; they just have similar names.


Can't do battery checks On my Sony Xperia E C1505, I can access the service menu via dialing *#*#7378423#*#*. If I then get to the tests menu, I can test the battery. However, the start level is at -1% somehow, meaning I can't do these tests as well. How do you get a device at -1% battery?

Why is this happening, and what can I do to fix this?

Couple of reasons:

The battery level is read from the  chip, which resides in the battery casing. It is probable that the chip has gone bad and can only be verified by replacing the battery
Less likely is that the fuel guage drivers which process battery information like voltage, current, temperature, NFC etc and in turn feed it to the other parts of the OS have been corrupted and only a factory reset or flashing stock ROM can help establish

Service center is always an option if you are lucky to find competent people


Is it possible to factory reset without losing my google play movies? I have a few movies downloaded from the google play movies app, and I don't want to re-download all of them. My wi-fi is slow. It would take DAYS to re-download.

If you reset you phone, you lose all google data unless you had a back and restore activated. However if you had offline videos from google play movies then you won't lose this videos since they are saved to your google account and not directly to your device...


How to block ads on Chrome for Android? I am using Adaway & ads are blocked across different apps on my phone. However, Ads on Chrome Mobile are not getting blocked. Can someone help?

AdAway (root) SHOULD block all ad-hosts. So in my case, chrome blocks all ads on webpages because it can not load them cause of blocking the ad-host system wide.

Try updating the host lists in AdAway.


Blocked SIM card and getting asked for PUK on Lineage OS 17.1 I installed Lineage OS 17.1 on my Samsung Galaxy S3. Everything worked just fine until I put in my SIM card. The first thing which happened after booting was getting directly asked for the PUK code although I didn't even enter a PIN at all. So I just rebooted the phone again which made it not recognize the SIM card anymore.
After that, I put my SIM card in my Samsung Galaxy S5 with stock ROM and I got the message that my SIM card is permanently blocked.
Any idea what happened there?

You have SIM password. You enter wrong password. Then it ask for PUK code. PUK code is link with sim card.
Use sim on normal mobile. Is it ask PUK code.
You can get PUK code from customer care. You can also get it from your online register account.
Get PUK code and use it. Weather sim card work after it.


I don't want ANY action to take place within the Google Now launcher for default browser This seems to be a totally unanswered topic, please enlighten me but...

I don't want ANY action to take place within the Google Now launcher for default browser. I simply want to click on the search box and have it display results for me within Google. I can't get it to stop "asking" for a browser or going to Chrome or going to the default browser. Why can't I simply turn this off?

The default browser constantly pops up unrelenting, not allowing me to use my Google card settings, and simple search box.   If I set a default browser, it will actually launch Chrome right out of the Google app, not allowing a simple search within the app.

Going into privacy and turning off "Open web pages in app" does not work, it still opens Chrome. There must be a way, beacuse essentially Google Now cards is useless and the Google Widget is useless, because it always opens Chrome under all circumstances.

Similar to Stop Google Search Opening in Chrome

Going into privacy and turning off "Open web pages in app" does not work, it still opens Chrome.

Actually make sure that setting is on being that you want it to open in the Google app

Then go into settings>manage apps. Open chrome, Google now, and any other browser apps and clear their defaults.

If that doesn't help, clear data of the Google app.


Is there a TRUE brightness controlling app? I need to set my brightness below what Android allows me, and thus I'm testing a bunch of "dimming" apps. What they all have in common though is that they put on a filter over other apps so while they protect your eyes they do nothing to get you more battery life.

Is there an app that has low-level access to the screen brightness so that when you go beyond the default minimum brightness it actually gets you more battery life?

RootDim might be fitting, but I need something without root access.

I have been using Lux Lite and it works well for me.

Lux isn't your ordinary brightness app. It intelligently adjusts the brightness of your display based on the environment you're in. If you step into a dimly lit room, Lux will automatically lower the brightness of your display to make it not only comfortable to read, but to also preserve battery power.
Lux is also able to adjust the screen temperature of your display automatically to make it appropriate for night usage. At sunset, you can have Lux automatically warm your display and switch to your Night profile. If you're an astronomer, you can enable astronomer mode to cut out harsh white light. If you have a root enabled phone, you may even be able to apply these enhancements at a low level with Lux's plug-in system.
Perhaps the best thing about Lux is that you can teach it how to behave. If the backlight is too bright or dim for your liking, simply open the provided Dashboard, adjust the brightness slider to the level you desire, then hold the link button. Lux will use this new 'link' as a reference in future.


SMS notification on Bluetooth How can I get text notifications on my 390 Plantronics bluetooth device from my Galaxy Prevail 2 if it has that feature?
I have tried my settings in my phone but it only has the option for call audio.
What else can I do?

If you're talking about Audio here (e.g. having notifications, alarms, etc. sent to your (Bluetooth) headset), you might wish to take a look at SoundAbout:

SoundAbout settings screens (source: Google Play; click images for larger variants)

This app allows you to define which audio signal is routed where (even on certain conditions). I'm not sure how far the free version goes concerning Bluetooth, as the app description says Bluetooth behavior - (Pro version). To my understanding, those "behavior settings" only include specifics like "force to mono", but I don't use the app myself, and thus cannot tell for sure.


Updating GPlus Signature Error I've installed Resurrection Remix 2.0 ROM (i'm a big fan of), and when I want to update Google Plus to the newest version I receive a signature error for installed version, when I go to application manager I can't find it there to uninstall it.

It works fine but I want to update it.

Can anyone help me with this.

I'm using SG2
Kernel thoravukk 2.57
Rom: Resurrection Remix 2.0

I have solved this issue by using Titanium backup, because G+ was set as system app. I couldn't update it so I changed the condition for G+ from system app. to user app using titanium backup by long press on the app and select change to user app from the menu.

Thank you all for your help,


How to hide roaming network icon from Status bar? I'm using Lava Iris Atom 2 phone with Vodafone's SIM. I'm in home network. Problem is, I see the roaming icon in the Status bar.

I tried all the settings like select network or hide roam.  If I remove click from data roam, my internet wont work.

Please give  an accurate answer  on how to remove roam network icon from Status bar?

You Android needs to be rooted because that icon is managed by SystemUI and you can't tweak it without having root privileges.

A simple way is to use GravityBox (requires Xposed Framework). It is available for Jelly Bean, Kitkat and Lollipop.

Install it → activate its module → launch it
Go to Statusbar tweaks → check Disable roaming indicators

That's it.

 (Click image to enlarge)


Is it possible for any app to connect to Internet over cellular when the data connection button is off? I have the following situation on an Android 5.1 phone.

(I don't think this may be a duplicate as the other similar questions I saw were about intentionally allowing or blocking apps from Cellular access.)

Because of an automatic daily-pass (they call it) charge upon any momentary connection to the Internet, I turned off the Data Connection button (from the drop-down quick menu screen) a little before the current day expired as I usually do to avoid an extra day's charge.

I was also at home next to my always-on WiFi.  This I mention because supposedly WiFi is always preferred over cellular network, right?

Hours after the button was off, I got an SMS telling me that I have connected to the Internet (cellular), and I will be charged for yet another day.  I immediately checked the Data Connection button and it was indeed off as I had left it.

So, I'm curious as to how the connection could have happened.

I want to report the company for fraud.  But, I need to be certain.

Is it possible for any application to override my manually selected Data Connection button position and use the Cellular network for data?  (And, even more so when I'm on WiFi at the moment?  But this is not the main issue.)

Now, if by any chance this is indeed possible, what would be the way to be certain my Cellular data connection is never used until I decide to do so?

Thank you.

After complaining to the phone company, it turns out that the issue is (believe it or not) 4G related.

They refunded my unfairly charged amount, and switched me to a different data plan that excludes this daily-pass automatic connection so this won't happen again.

I have found this answer to another post which is correct for here also.


Photo thumbnails can no longer be seen I took some photos and when I went back to look at them the thumbnails are black and corrupted.
How does this happen and can they be repaired?

Assuming the original photos are still available, the loss of the thumbnails is not an issue, so you can dispose of the corrupted files. The Gallery app will read the images directly. In fact, certain space-management apps will delete thumbnails for space recovery. I use SD Maid, which recommends their disposal in the SystemCleaner panel. I have done this a number of times, without system degredation. The Gallery obviously still works, as I can still find and display any of the near-1000 images taken on my phone. If you choose not to use SD Maid to clean them up, you can do this manually with any File Explorer app to find them in the DCIM\thumbnails folder. This folder is the sibling to the Camera folder (DCIM\Camera). Select and delete all the thumbnails without a problem, just don't do the same to the original images until you've backed them up.


How do I reduce the amount of storage my Email application data is taking up? I’m using an LG Tribute phone (Virgin Mobile service).  The default email app installed is synced with my Microsoft Outlook account.  I only use this account for ticket confirmations, boarding passes and the like.  However, recently I noticed it is taking up the following storage:

Total: 635 MB
App: 24.5 MB
App (SD Card): 0 MB
Data: 610 MB
Data (SD Card): 0 MB

Considering my phone only has 2 GB of storage, the above is a heavy price to pay.  When I hit the “Clear Data” button, I get the message “All this app’s data will be deleted permanently.  This includes all files, settings, accounts, databases, etc.”  I don’t want to delete my account so I was wondering if there is any other way to slim down how much data my Email application is using?

Dave,
I am using LG nexus. Encountered same problem and concern with yours. Here is what I discover then did: tap "Settings"-"Storage"-"Photos&videos"-"Images"(I've chosen "Photos" app to open images always)-"Assistant"-"Empty your trash-bin". In this last step, you will see some other options that the "Assistant" provided. Choose accordingly.
Have a blessed day!


What is SELinux and its purpose? For those of you who don't know, SELinux is a collection of administrative tools on Linux OS'. However, what is it for on android, and what does it do on android? After all, Android is not Linux.

SELinux contributes to part of the Android OS. Its two modes, 'Permissive' and 'enforcing' can have a huge impact on the versatility of Root usage.

The purpose of SElinux is for security and explained by the Android site:

  As part of the Android security model, Android uses SELinux to enforce mandatory access control (MAC) over all processes, even processes running with root/superuser privileges (a.k.a. Linux capabilities). SELinux enhances Android security by confining privileged processes and automating security policy creation.

Then in the background section it goes on to explain the two modes permissive and enforcing are:

  SELinux operates on the ethos of default denial. Anything that is not explicitly allowed is denied. SELinux can operate in one of two global modes: permissive mode, in which permission denials are logged but not enforced, and enforcing mode, in which denials are both logged and enforced. SELinux also supports a per-domain permissive mode in which specific domains (processes) can be made permissive while placing the rest of the system in global enforcing mode. A domain is simply a label identifying a process or set of processes in the security policy, where all processes labeled with the same domain are treated identically by the security policy. Per-domain permissive mode enables incremental application of SELinux to an ever-increasing portion of the system. Per-domain permissive mode also enables policy development for new services while keeping the rest of the system enforcing.


Samsung Captivate not booting after root I recently installed Clockwork Recovery, and used that to install CyanogenMod 10 on my Captivate using this guide. Every thing worked perfectly.

I backed up the stock ROM. Then I realized that my contacts and data were gone in the new ROM. I read in an article that you could restore the data part of the backup using the recovery in Nandroid, so I recovered it. But when I rebooted, the phone got stuck at the spinning CyaogenMod screen.

I made the problem worse by trying to flash the mtkareys zImage kernel, and repeated the process described in the guide. Now, I can't get into recovery mode nor the Android (CyaogenMod) OS.

I suspect that I would need to use some tool that uses my Ubuntu 12.04 or Windows 7 PC, because the only resource that I have access to is download mode in the phone. Nothing else seems to work. Please understand that I am a beginner who has never even written an app for android (I do have the sdk installed though).

What Izzy said is correct. Also, never give up! I found that there is always something you can do to unbrick your captivate.

The xda-developers wiki page is very useful in this regard. The sections about bricking and unbricking should be very useful. While it's very difficult to enumerate all possible ways of unbricking here, understanding the nature of the brick (soft or hard) and looking for alternative ways in the forums is always helpful. The techniques that I know of so far are:

The 3-button method and its variations, as listed in the wiki page above. (There are variations, just search for them in xda-developers)
Using your PC and the USB cable. Izzy's answer is one such method.
Hardware solutions that involve cutting a USB cable or using resistors. When you have a hard brick, you may have to resort to these.

Good luck and don't stop searching! There is always a way to unbrick your Captivate.


AppMgrIII doesn't uninstall android bloatware - only disable I have an old LGLS660 with 4 MB internal memory making install of new apps almost impossible - added MicroSD card to expand by 16 GB - rooted successfully with kingoroot.

So I d/l this app I was able to move some apps but not uninstall the android ones I don't use which was the entire point of all this fiddling.

How should I get rid of the unwanted apps?

after looking at KINGOROOT more carefully I realized it has built in tools to remove the android apps. So I uninstalled this program b/c it was not necessary.


Determining the cause of a strange "the other side can't hear me" issue Recently I started to notice that a lot of people who call me, can't hear my voice during the call.

The phone is an almost 2 years old Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini pro, so I guess the microphone could just get old and somewhat start to fail.

Also it could be wrong from the beginning. I didn't had that much calls until recently. I think noticing it just now might be reasonable.

According to my experience the problem only occurs during incoming calls, I've never experienced it while I called somebody. And only in the first incoming call, if I was recalled right after the first call, everything was fine. This makes it look like if it is the provider's issue.

And of course some app blocking my microphone also came into my mind, but I don't have many installed and I don't know if any of them would do such a thing anyway. (The phone was never rooted, it has the official 2.1 ROM, etc.)

The question is: because I still have some of the warranty left... how could I determine if my problem is a hardware problem, a software problem or a provider problem to know where should I go with it? (According to my experience if I just say something is wrong without hard evidence, the repair service and the provider will only try to make the other take the blame. Not to mention that they will factory reset the phone, say that they couldn't reproduce the problem, so it had to be one of my apps.)

This doesn't really answer the question, so just for the record if anybody else has the same issue:

I don't know about other phones, but small Sony Ericssons have an interesting feature. They have small buttons in the corners of the screen. One of them is muting the microphone. And... as the user rises the phone to his ear, the screen that was turned off for the call turns on because the phone is moving, and the ear hits the mute button with an 50% chance. The other side swears and hangs the phone, so when I finally see the screen turning on again, the button and the mute sign isn't there yet.


How do I stop from getting notified twice when I get a text to my Google Voice number? When I receive a text message to my Google voice number, I get a notification from my text application, as well as the Google Voice application. It would seem that the message is being forwarded to my cell number, but I've turned off text forwarding in the Voicemail & Text settings.  Is there another setting that I am missing?

From Google Voice settings (on the web, not the phone app), under phones, select your mobile number, and Edit.  Uncheck "Receive SMS on this phone"


Factory Resetting My Device I'm planning to factory reset my device soon. So I wanted to know how do I transfer my notes to the SD Card. I don't want to lose them. Can someone please provide a meaningful tutorial on the matter. Please feel free to include methods to transfer other stuff as well.

I got the app send to SD when I had my MYTouch and I transferred my photos, apps, notes to my note3. Everything was on my SD card as long as you don't have an emulated file you are fine.  once I got an emulated file on my note3 nothing transferred to the next one. You can open a dropbox account and an evernote account. Once you do the reset you download the apps and you sign into those apps and you have your photos and your notes.. another photo saving place is myphotos.com.. good luck with the reset :/


How to install core GMS packages to use Google Play Store? I am having an issue with my brand new phone Huawei Mate 9 EMUI 5.0 from China. Somehow, when I want to install WhatsApp on it, I get the following message

Install core GMS packages to use Google Play Store

Here is the screenshot

What can I do to solve this? I just got the phone and I am lost.

I can well remember that Huawei devices can be added with GMS by flashing a flashable GMS package.

You'll need to first find a compatible 3rd party recovery for your phone. IIRC TWRP is (unofficially) available for Mate 9, so you can take a look at XDA Developers Forum.

After flashing recovery, go to OpenGApps and download a package that's suitable for your device (arm64-7.1-pico) and flash it via recovery. Voila! You now have GMS and Play Store on your device!


What does my Samsung Galaxy 5 consider an App? After a recent phone update (which took too long due to "too many apps") I saw the total apps updated was over 700.  I only have 69 apps on my phone.  Why the discrepancy?  What does my android phone consider an "app"?  Can I delete these others?

69 normally visible apps don't account for all the system apps/packages/functions.

If you run an app like CCleaner you can easily see, using the app manager section, what all the apps on your phone are. Most of them will be locked and you can not remove them, as without root you can't generally touch system apps.


Can someone please tell me what the icon on the left means After updating my Samsung Galaxy s8+ software the icon on the left appeared. Anyone know what it means?

It's the new data saving icon in Android 8 Oreo on Samsung devices.

Try turning off "Data Saving" and it'll disappear.

Source: XDA Developers


Saving a picture from a text message to my phone (asus, zenfone) how do I save pictures to my phone that I receive through a text message?

I can think of four options:

Try long pressing on the picture (either in the message list or after tapping on it in full screen mode).
Press the physical or software (Three dots) menu button and select something like: 'Download' or 'Save to phone'
Tap to view the image full screen and screenshot it, then crop it using the gallery app
Download a different sms app that allows you to save pictures, then set it as default (e.g. Google Messenger
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.messaging&hl=en


Importing contacts from other phone to Moto G I want to export my contacts from Micromax Q7 to Moto G. I have moved all the contacts to sim and then imported the contacts to Moto G from that sim. The problem is that each contact have more than one number but Moto G is showing only 1 number.

How can I get those other numbers linked with the contacts?

SIM cards only support one number for each contact, so you should be better off exporting the contacts on your Micromax device as Contacts.vcf (export to SD card / something like that) and opening the VCF on your Moto G to commence import.


Why do I have less internal storage space after moving Google+ to my SD card? I'm having a puzzling problem. I was pleased to see that the latest version of Google+ now supports being moved to the SD card.

However, I just installed it on my HTC Desire and, having moved it to the SD card, find I now have 2MB less internal storage space on the phone than I did before! Since the previous version was over 12MB, surely the new version should have freed up a significant chunk of internal storage space? I thought this would help address the problem of constantly running low on space, but it seems to have made it worse. Would be grateful for any suggestions / advice!

Version 1.0.7 is significantly larger than previous versions. Even after moving to the SD card I'm showing 14.5MB taking up system storage. That'll account for your 2MB reduction in space.

Google generally hasn't allowed for their apps to be moved to the SD card, presumably so they can be sure widgets will work or other performance considerations. However, since this version weighs in at over 24MB I guess their hand was forced.


Droid Mini charging and battery problem My Droid mini have a strange problem, when I am charging the phone with some USB cables  it charges very slowly and phone battery discharging very fast. but when I charge with original cable it works normal. are there any differences between the usb cable quality? thanks

Yes, this is well possible.

Ususally, the manufacturer advises to use its cables only.
But usually, there's no problem with other cables.

However, there might be a problem with the phases of the cable.
Sometimes if a cable is folded one or more of the phases can break or a solder joint at the jack might be loose.

If it's the wrong one, your phone might charge very slow or even not at all.

But you also mention that your battery drains fast.

You can take a look at it by using apps like Better Battery Stats by chamonix or the usual battery monitor.

If you don't find any strange energy-consuming threads, then it might well be the cable - either a defect like broken phase.


Problem accessing the Market I have a Sony Ericsson Xperia with Android. I can't download from the Market because there is some Gmail account that I don't have an idea how it got there.

This means that I don't know the password! I have tried to change that email but I can't so what is your suggestion what should I do?

Go to Settings > Accounts and Settings, click on the account that you don't know the password and then click the Remove Account button on the bottom. So next time you open up Android Market you'll be prompted to type in a new account


Do I need to root my phone to get a tcpdump? I'm troubleshooting my aCal installation and the good folks at aCal asked me for the output from tcpdump -A -- do I need to root my phone and install busybox or can I do this from a terminal emulator?

Yes, tcpdump is an administrator-level application (I highly doubt there will ever be an Android permission level to view all other apps' network traffic). Once rooted, if you have tcpdump binary (compiled for your device's cpu type) on sdcard, try:

su
mount -o remount rw /system/
cd /sdcard
cp ./tcpdump /system/xbin

Now you can use tcpdump command.

Without rooting, you could intercept traffic on your wifi LAN by setting a proxy to your computer in your device settings, and installing mitmproxy in a virtualenv on your computer and running it.


Nexus 4 wont hold charge after screen and battery replacement I've just replaced my broken screen and put a new battery into my nexus 4 following this you tube vid:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZDAIgwbXk4.

When I first plugged in the charger (1A generic usb charger) The battery level dropped to critical and the "connect your charger" message popped up about 20 times per second.  I turned it off and plugged in the charger but it wont charge.  It displays the battery charging graphic, but the battery never takes in charge.

I thought it might be a dud battery so I replaced it with another new battery.

The new battery charged once successfully, (and here I was thinking that I had pulled my home repair off that this point and was just about to break out the champagne and celebrate!)

I just plugged in the charger and the phone did the same thing.  Lost the charge, flashed the 'connect your charger' pop up a zillion times per second, and now again, it wont hold any charge.

Any ideas on what I can do?

Any and all help much appreciated!

Bruce.

I suppose you prob got a new phone by now or fixed it.

But if you say the "The new battery charged once successfully" you mean you were able to charge it only with the phone off?

If so, sounds like you might have had a short circuit somewhere near the battery's USB port connection, and only occurs when a certain circuit is on due to the phone being on. Or it could be just something is loose... hard to tell from the details given.

What I'd do is try and take it apart again and see if anything got damaged or loose around that area.

Gotta keep in mind these devices are very delicate and use low voltages. You gotta do fixes like this as if they were "surgery" and take all precautions, proper tools, etc. A bit of static electricity discharging from your hand or even damaging the track in the board somehow can cause big time damage. Tiny transistors are easily damaged by static electricity so always wear a anti-static wriststrap when doing these repairs.

Let us know what happened!?


Change stock Clock app timer noise? In the stock clock app (4.2 stock Android), there's a timer function; the one where e.g. you type in 8 minutes and an alarm goes off in eight minutes. However, the noise it makes is absolutely unbearable. It's like a smoke alarm. There doesn't seem to be an option to select a different sound. I'd rather not use a different clock app; I like the stock one. I just want to change the horrible noise. Any tips?

I've got the same problem and the annoying sound can not be found in /System/media/audio/, but in /system/app/DeskClock.apk/assets/sounds/Timer_Expire.ogg. In any case, it seems difficult or impossible to change.

There is more info here:
http://androidforums.com/nexus-4/668411-super-harsh-countdown-timer-sound-nexus-4-how-change.html


Why is this app install failing as incompatible and can it be force installed? I've used the Yell app for ages (com.yell.launcher2). It's recently updated and should be compatible with modern android (and is listed as compatible with 4+). I'm using LineageOS (=7.1) on a rooted Samsung Galaxy S7, which is certainly up to date. But the installer (when I open the APK) says it didn't install as it's incompatible, which surprises me.

Is there a log, or a way to tell, what the exact conflict is, either via GUI or terminal, and based on that information, is it likely that I can force it to install (perhaps it won't work once installed, but I suspect it will, but for sure it can't run if it doesn't get installed in the first place). If so what might work?

Install this APK with adb install from your PC, or pm install from a terminal emulator on the phone. This will give you the reason of failure. Alternatively, you could also search through the log output of adb logcat, though this approach is more tedious.


Google Japanese Input/Simeji warning about inserted data I've recently bought a Samsung Galaxy Pocket with Gingerbread (Android 2.3).

I expected Japanese not to be there as an input method, although Korean is there (why Korean and not Japanese and Chinese?), and anyway, I looked for apps that allowed me to type Japanese.

I found Google Japanese Input and Simeji. Both look wonderful... in the screenshots. I haven't tried any yet. The reason is that every time I try to turn them on, a warning appears that says (translated from italian):

  Attention: this input method can gather all digited text, including password, credit card numbers and other personal data. Continue?

I didn't accept, but this means I cannot type Japanese. What is the exact meaning of this warning? I mean, other than the literal meaning that I can understand. Why should it take my credit card number, if and when I type it? Or my passwords? Or am I missing something?

Basically, it's saying that the app could potentially steal your information, as it's a keyboard and therefore processes what you type. For instance, if you typed your password in and it was malicious, it could potentially record that (and everything else you type). Of course, you could trust Google wouldn't do that...Android is simply reminding you of the risk.

Further reading: The FAQ for the Hacker's Keyboard

The warning can be found in the Android source (see line ~2687).


How to use Tasker broadcasts in Macrodroid? I have this app , forcedoze which enforces better doze
for extra battery saving. I want to enable / disable it on schedule for which I see broadcast for Tasker

com.suyashsrijan.forcedoze.ENABLE_FORCEDOZE

(Broadcast values required : None)

And a similar one with DISABLE

How do I use this in Macrodroid? Guess I need to use intents but am clueless on this, not having used it and it looks complicated - am not sure what to fill in multiple options ( if my guess is correct )

My solution requires sending the intents with superuser (root) privilege and unfortunately, the Send Intent action in MacroDroid does not permit that. So I've used the Script action of MacroDroid as a workaround.

Sending a broadcast (it is universal, not Tasker specific) alone would not do anything here. Using the logcat, I noticed that the app starts the service named ForceDozeService and then issues the relevant broadcast.

Script (en.sh) to enable the ForceDoze:

#!/system/bin/sh

su -c 'am startservice com.suyashsrijan.forcedoze/.ForceDozeService'
su -c 'am broadcast -a com.suyashsrijan.forcedoze.ENABLE_FORCEDOZE -n com.suyashsrijan.forcedoze/.EnableForceDozeService'

Script (ds.sh) to disable the ForceDoze:

#!/system/bin/sh

su -c 'am stopservice com.suyashsrijan.forcedoze/.ForceDozeService'
su -c 'am broadcast -a com.suyashsrijan.forcedoze.DISABLE_FORCEDOZE -n com.suyashsrijan.forcedoze/.DisableForceDozeService'

Use the action Script in Macrodroid as:

sh FILE_PATH      // such as /sdcard/en.sh

That should work.


How do I silence incoming call and text message ringtone without hanging up in the Galaxy Nexus? I have set up MP3 ringtones for both incoming calls and text messages on my new Galaxy Nexus, but I can't figure out how to silence them without hanging up (in the case of incoming calls) or without having to wait until the entire sound bite is over?  Any suggestions?  Does anyone know how to do that?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

When the Galaxy Nexus is ringing...

Tap the power button on the right side of the screen.

The ringtone will stop and the screen will switch off. BUT the call has not been hung up.

You can even press the power button again to switch the screen back on and the ringtone is silent if the call is still waiting to be answered. The voice call will still be at the correct volume when you actually answer it.


Changing vibration intensity for system on Lollipop? Currently the vibration intensity in my Lollipop ROM is too high, even for things like haptic feedback. This is a problem with most ROMs on my device (Xiaomi Mi3W), and was fixed in 4.4 with an alteration to framework-res.apk here, but I can find no information on what files were changed. The only this I can find is here on xda-developers forum, but this is for GB and neither the LP or KK framework-res have that xml file. I cannot replace the LP framework with the KK framework because I am guessing it will just cause bootloops/force closes.

Does anyone know of a system modification that be changed to lower system vibrations for everything? The modification can be in the source or compiled ROM.

Thanks

Settings> Sound & notification> Other sounds> Vibrator intensity.


How to install Nexus 6 / 5X / 6P Drivers in Windows 7 properly where fastboot can see it? I have the Nexus 5X drivers installed properly on Win7 64bit and it shows up in my device manager as Nexus 5x. I can verify that it gets detected as I see it in chrome inspect page. But when i try to do a adb devices or fastboot devices, it wont see the phone. what could i be doing wrong?

And yes I can transfer files when I select MTP mode.

ADB devices was detecting the phone, but fastboot devices wasn't. I had to do the following to get it to work on Win 7 64bit:

Reboot Win7 and Press F8 on boot screen and select: Disable Driver Signing
Boot phone into bootloader
Device Manager you should see an Unknown Device popup
Manually install the driver by selecting: android > android adb (screenshot)
Then goto command line: fastboot devices

Let me know if it worked or not. If it did, all I ask is thumbs up this post! I spent a good 3 hours to figure it out. No where on the net has a solution that I've found.


Can I Recover Email Address That Have Been Signed Into On My Galaxy Phone?? When I factory reset my phone, it had signed me out of my Gmail account that I had created and used for my Google Play Store. And now I cannot remember what the exact email address was.

It has my SMS backup and restore on it and all of my pictures and contacts and important info. Is there a way to find out what the email address was??

All account data on the phone is lost after a factory reset. Perhaps you can use a different way to find that email address, however.

Did you ever send email from that account to one of your other email
accounts? What about to a friend or family member? See if you can find one
of those old messages.
Did you ever log into a Google service using that account on a PC/Mac
browser? If so, maybe you can find it in your browsing history or
saved passwords.
Did you link that Google account with any other online service? Did
you create a Google+ account with that address? You might have if you
ever wrote a review of an app in the Google Play store. Try and find your Google+ profile.


What does the "@" symbol in the Running Applications/Services mean? What does the "@" symbol in front of the time given in the right column of Running Applications/Services mean?

See screenshot below.

Phone: Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505)
OS: 4.2.2

Screenshot (click image for larger variant)

It means that the process has been running longer than 99 hours, 99 minutes, and 99 seconds. It's a formatting bug.

The second hour digit, after reaching '9', will simply continue with the next characted from the ascii alphabet:

0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~

Where in this case ':' means 10, ';' means 11, '<' means 12, etc.

For example, '<5:12:34' means 125:12:34 and '?5:12:34' means 155:12:34.

It's fixed in Android 4.3

The Related bug report is here: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=41401


My computer doesn't detect my Samsung Galaxy A5 at all on bootloader mode I'm trying to unlock my bootloader on my Samsung Galaxy A5. I've done a lot of research and can't find a solution.

My problem is that whenever I turn on bootloader mode, my computer doesn't even see it, but when I'm on normal mode, the phone is just working normally and my computer detects it.

How can I fix it and unlock my bootloader?

I assume you're trying to "unlock bootloader" in the way you would do to a Nexus, i.e. fastboot oem unlock. Unfortunately Samsung almost never made their bootloaders work like that - the only thing even close is Download Mode + Odin where you use Odin (their proprietary tool) on PC to load stuff like recovery images onto the device.

Since it's not clear what you're intending to do by unlocking bootloader (likely rooting), consider taking a look at XDA for discussions and development specific to your device. You might even find yourself a custom ROM in the end, but no guarantees.


How can I prevent my device from automatically converting SMS to MMS? The Galaxy S I9000 messaging app automatically converts long SMS messages to MMS. How can I disable this?

You can't do so with your samsung official messaging application, all of what you can get is a pop notification that you are now in the MMS zone (Converting to multimedia message...).

I would recommend Handcent SMS application, available at the market, and has an option for not converting texts (SMS) into MMS


Minimum volume is too high with headphones Got the HTC Sensation XE recently. Liking the phone and the beats headphones/ear-in phones that come with the phone.

However, the minimum volume is just too LOUD!!!

The beats integration was one of the reasons I bought the phone so I don't want to buy different headphone with volume control.

Is there a way around this?

For me the app Fine Volume Control was the solution.
It does not need root, unfortunately is not free ($ 2.50) but provides a 7 day trial.

However it does a great job: it subdivides the media volume range in 100 steps, allowing a much finer resolution for your volume choice including enabling to shut the volume to almost nothing. In the setting there is also the option to enable extra low volumes.

Overall it solved the problem for me perfectly and made my phone a much better music player, thus it is worth every penny. To my knowledge this is the only app with this functionality at the moment.


How to access content of the google drive app backup? I accidentally uninstalled an Android app (GPSLogger), and lost all the app data (GPS tracking files). Now I can see is an automatic backup in google drive, but the app does not recover it, when I re-install it.

Question: Is it possible to access the backup with some ohter tools and to extract the contained files manually ?

This is a not complete answer to the above question, but just a helpful hint.
As it is stated on Android Backup Service help page

  Not all apps use Android Backup Service. Some apps may not back up and restore all data.

So you should at first check if GPSLogger utilize Android Backup Service and then try to extract backup data.

The most proved way to backup app's settings is to copy folder

/data/data/com.some_vendor.some_app

beforehand and then to restore it manually. Or use some professional tool like Titanium, of course.


Partial Wakelock - Android System *backup* = NO deepsleep/doze mode I'm seeing following partial wake lock through BetterBatteryStats (inside of Partial Wakelocks) and it seems that, this wake lock keeps my phone awake at all time and prevents deep sleep / doze mode(

  *backup* (Andriod System)

I'm using Huawei Nexus 6P (stock, rooted (no mods)) with latest Android 6.0.1 (MHC19Q).

Please advise.

* UPDATE *

I created following:

Issue 207700 - android - Partial Wakelock - Android System backup = NO deepsleep/doze mode - Android Open Source Project - Issue Tracker - Google Project Hosting

workaround(s) (NOT fixes):

reboot - temporarily address issue (until phone is plugged & unplugged to/from charger).
Settings -> Backup & reset -> Back up my data -> Toggle On to Off - long(er) term solution, yet you're left without backup going forward...

I had the same problem, but it occured after I had restored my phone from google backup. More precisely the "backup" wakelock appeared when I unplugged the phone from the charger. Thereafter the wakelock kicked in and remained doing so until I restarted the phone. But whenever I plugged in the charger, the wakelock came back again and another restart was a must-do.

How did I solved that? I just disabled the "back up my data" under "backup & reset", restarted the phone and enabled the "back up my data" again. At least for now the wakelock has not appeared again.

This was my trick.


Huge Data Usage started last month - 4GB over mothly average I have an HTC One (M8) with Cyanogenmod 12 (12-20150625-snapshot-yng4nao09n-m8) which I have been using since June. Before that I had a different version of CM on the same phone and did a full reset. Late September, high data usage by the Android OS system showed up like the bogeyman out of nowhere. I've had a 3GB plan for 2 years and have never once gone over until now where I am over by 4GB.

Verified Backup and Sync is turned off for the phone and for photos. I also cleared the cache and data for Google Backup Transport, Google Play Services, Google Play Store, and Google Services Framework, rebooted, and thought I had the problem solved, but installed My Data Manager and waited.

The built in Data manager shows everything as Android OS, with no option for me to restrict. Data Manager caught it happening today and says its EasyAccessServices. What is EasyAccessServices, anyway? In All Apps the option to disable EasyAccessServices is greyed out.

Every data jump has been in the same amount: 0.64GB (650-680MB). It will happen at different times of the day, on random days. This has got me tearing my hair out in frustration. I've got some rollover data built up but I can't afford too much more of this.

EDIT: Its been explained that EasyAccessServices is the pointer/gesture app built in to the OS that basically acts as the touchscreen driver. I can't tell if the data was uploaded or downloaded, but maybe the app is trying to update itself and failing. Looks like com.htc.easyaccessservice is version 2.0.831094.

EDIT2: I can Force Stop the application. When I do I still can use all the gestures I can think of in NovaLauncher and Facebook.

(Click image to enlarge)

After trying everything I could think of, I did a factory reset on the phone. So far no more issues.


"Storage space running low. Some system functions may not work" I have  Sony Xperia v3 and I always get the error "Storage space is running low. Some system functions may not work." What should I do to solve this problem?

This question is way too broad and was asked to death, general consensus is

remove applications and media you don't need, if you are rooted remove unused system apps
move as much applications to sd-card
install a cleaning application (like clean master), they can make a difference
use cloud applications such as dropbox to sync your heavy files across multiple computers and devices, why store all those >5MB pictures you've taken on your limited device if your Hard drive has much more capacity?


How can I recover the files in LOST.DIR on my SD card, and what are they? I've always had a LOST.DIR folder on my external SD card, which until now has been empty.  Today my phone complained that my SD card was damaged and wouldn't mount it, so I pulled it out and looked at it on my computer.  There's now a 70237 file inside LOST.DIR which is 128 MB.  It starts with something like "ë<MSWIN4.1", seemingly to indicate that it's a dump of a Windows 98 FAT boot sector (which makes no sense).

What did Android dump here and and why?  (I think I may have disconnected my phone from my PC yesterday without ejecting the drives first, so that might be the "why", though it was from Windows XP and not Windows 98.)  Is there a simple way to recover the information in this file?

According to this Super User answer, LOST.DIR is the folder  mac disk repair looks for as part of it's repair process.

LOST.DIR is something mac disk repair looks for and will ask about as part of it's repair process. If it's related at all to the standard lost+found, then it's a special file that holds all the corrupted or orphaned files found during a file system check.
Something is checking your drive and finding a problem it wants to make note of in LOST.DIR. I think this sort of thing is more likely to happen with Macs on non-HFS drives.

Android also creates this directory as part of it's filesystem check and puts files there which Android believes are corrupt.


Rooting HTC One M7 Verizon I have an unrooted HTC One M7, from Verizon. I used to be able to root it with KingoRoot, but now that does not work. I have tried many things to do this:

KingRoot
KingoRoot
TowelRoot
WeakSauce
The PC Version for KingoRoot
iRoot (PC and app)
And several other programs

None of those worked. I am running 5.0.2
I can not unlock my bootloader with HTCDev.com because my phone is branded by Verizon.

Also, Rumrunner does not work. I get either: (F**k it) or (Such dumb issues you have...). I would also like to know what is causing this.

My end goal is to be root with Cyanogenmod and TWRP Touch.

Thanks in advance

EDIT:

I think it would be good if I provide some more information:

The HTC Sense version is 6.0

The Software number is 6.22.605.6

The HTC SDK API level is 6.55

The PRI Version is 4.79_002

The PRL version is 15480

The ERI Version is 5

The Kernel version is:

3.4.10-gdcab6f5
and@AABM #1
SMP PREEMPT

The Baseband Version is 1.13.41.1209

The Build number is 6.22.605.6 CL495599 release-keys

And the Software status is Official

I think some of these aren't relevant, but I just put everything to be sure.

http://theroot.ninja/

Support almost all HTC devices, starting with HTC M7 up to HTC 10 and also Motorola's.

The only chance that you have is the Sunshine root app. But this is a paid method, and there is not free version.
It will check if the device is supported and if root is available and then ask you to pay using Paypal (that was the last method when i used it awhile ago).


What is the name of Android Device Manager Service When you turn on Android Device Manager in Google Settings, it is possible to locate your phone by going to http://www.google.com/android/devicemanager

I have a very small cellular data allowance on the phone, and I want to ensure that only the android device manager service is using cellular data.

I downloaded the NetGuard app, that allows me to control what can use cellular data at a very detailed level, however, I can't work out which service I need to enable for cellular data to make android device manager operational.

The Android Device manager is by default allowed:

<wifi
    blocked="false"
    package="com.google.android.apps.adm" />
<other
    blocked="false"
    package="com.google.android.apps.adm"
    roaming="false" />

https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard/blob/master/app/src/main/res/xml/predefined.xml#L19


WhatsApp doesn't prompt to restore from local storage I ran into this weird situation, where:

I backed up my WhatsApp to local storage, inside the Databases folder

Then I changed my WhatsApp number (to another new SIM)

Format my HTC Phone (HTC One E9+ Dual SIM).

Copy back all WhatsApp folder back to the Internal Storage

Re-install WhatsApp, but, all it asks me is this (below)

Upon "Skip", nothing, no chat restored.

I have already renamed the database file as per Restoring your chat history to msgstore.db.crypt12 and also kept the same file with the name msgstore.db.crypt. But, it simply, doesn't even detect it & asks nothing as backup found/restore.
Any guess/idea?

I had problems with this too, and today finally it worked.  I'm not sure which of the following additional steps did the trick, so I'll list both:

I copied the entire WhatsApp folder over from the old phone to the new one (apparently the asker already did this).
After installing WhatsApp, I gave the app all possible permissions before running it: under Settings/Apps, select WhatsApp, tap Permissions, and then select all permissions listed under "denied" and tap "allow" (you can revoke the permissions again after the backup is succesfully restored).

After doing this, running WhatsApp and confirming my phone number, I was finally prompted to restore the local backup. Before that, I had selected "give permission" in the popup from the screenshot above, then approved the permissions it asked for, but apparently this is only for the Google Drive restore. It looks like restoring a local backup only works if the permissions are already present?!


Is there a portable scanner connect to an android phone? I dont know whether my question is right to ask here. please advise me if I need to ask this kind of question at other areas.

I am investigating to find a right portable scanner to connect with an Android mobile phone (such as HTC Desire). After scanning a paper from a portable scanner, the mobile phone will receive the file as a pdf or jpg. That's it!

Would this be possible to do?

Thanks in advance.

Try to look for Bluetooth scanners. Android supports bluetooth and there is SDK API for it so you could create your own app to receive and process data from scanner.

One such device I could find: http://www.planon.com/products/docupen/xseries


Custom keymapping for games? I'm using an iPega Bluetooth controller with my HTC Desire 510. For most things it works great, but I am running into some issues with Ravensword 2. Ravensword finds my controller and connects fine, but when I start playing, certain actions can't be performed (attacking being one of them).

Is there a way to custom map my controller? I'm not on a rooted phone as I can't find a reliable way to root this device.

For root you didn't specify what carrier you have, so use this Google search

For custom keymapping use Tincore Keymapper. Here is the wiki page for Tincore.

I like this app for customized controller settings. A little bit of a learning curve, but doable.


I get no ping repsonse to my phone. Why? I went to www.whatsmyip.org and got my public IP address for my phone.  Just for kicks and grins, I tried to ping it, but didn't get a reply.  Is ICMP turned off on my android phone?

Either your phone silently drops pings, or the router it's behind, either your wifi router, or the 3G network's router that NATs your phone drops them.


Unbrick a device having broken volume rockers A technician checked my phone's (TCL S950/Alcatel One Touch Idol X) hardware and broke the volume buttons. I flashed TWRP recovery, because I wanted to install the latest CyanogenMod. The latter in turn bricked my device since it doesn't get past the boot animation. The volume buttons to get into Recovery or Bootloader don't work and ADB doesn't detect the device either.

What can be done to unbrick the device?

Since you cannot access fastboot without using the volume rockers or having access to adb: No, you cannot do anything else but repair your volume rockers or buy a new phone. If you want to repair the rockers, you can check on iFixit for a manual. They may have one for your phone.


Whatsapp limiting network usage? Someone I know has recently registered with Whatsapp and has been a heavy user of Video chats and other bandwidth heavy features. Today they've had an issue with sending and receiving messages, and got some kind of warning about network usage (I've not actually seen the warning).

I checked in the Network usage settings / statistics and the user has managed to send and receive a whopping 1GB (respectively) within one week :P. Does Whatsapp impose some kind of restriction on the usage of its network with regard to data usage? I'd just like to be able to work out whats causing the error, and how the user can best handle it :).

Thanks for any clues and your time, regards!

P.S. I have sent an email to Whatsapp's support, but I reckoned I might get a quicker response here :P !

There was and possibly still is a restriction on message forwarding but there is none on data usage.

  WhatsApp has announced it will restrict the number of times an individual message can be forwarded.

The only restriction on video is about the size. When it is larger than 16MB then you need to reduce it.

  If you choose to send an existing video, it is limited to 16 Megabytes. On most phones, this will equal about 90 seconds to three minutes of video. If you choose an existing video that is larger than 16 MB, then you will have the option to trim the length of the video before sending it.

You should check if data limit is set or not on the phone. Go to Settings -> Data usage -> Cellular data usage. Clicking the gear, should show you the data limit and if it was set or not.


Google Drive directory synchronisation Is there any software available to select one (or maybe more) directory on your Android device, and automatically sync it to a directory (collection) on Google Drive?

This seems that this could serve as a decent automatic backup utility or as a way to synchronise files on your device with minimal hassles.

Use FolderSync. I was using it to sync folders with Google Docs. After upgrading to Google Drive, sync still works. I have just tested by adding new Google Drive account. Google Drive is fully supported. Just, choose Google Docs when adding account in the app.
In case, you don't want to pay, its free lite version is also in Play Store, but with some limitations.

It supports two-way sync as well as one-way sync (up or down). You can use its up sync for backup purpose. It also supports filters based on size, extension etc. So, if you want to backup all photos from your SD card, the app is good to go. It features Delete after Upload, too.

You can schedule sync jobs, too. So, it can do backups automatically without any hassle. The best: It features Instant Sync. If you turn it on, files will be synced as long as they will be modified or added in folder.


Will this audio/video cable work with a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1? I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and I'm looking for a cable that will allow me to output audio and video to a TV. I found this on a website and I was wondering if anyone has tried it or knows if it will work?

As I had commented to @onik's answer: If this cable does not have a DAC (Digital to Analogue Converter), this cable will not work.

I also found a search result about a scam related to this kind of cable, which again confirms this. Since I am unable to view the video (restriction at my work) I am unable to see to comment more on it.


Can't move or share files in My Files app just downloaded some mp3 files and needed to move them from downloads to my music folder. not sure if its because of the new system update, but for some reason there is literally no option to move, copy, share - nothing. just move to secure folder. i tried that but all you can do is move the files out of the folder once theyre in so that was worthless. i can select them or select them to edit or select them to share. no options come up except 'move to secure folder' or 'compress'.

went to app settings and cleared the cache for my files app. when i went back to the app i was able to see all of the file options (move, copy, delete, etc) again.


Reinstall ROM from a new SD from scratch My HTC Desire (Bravo) rebooted by itself in the middle of the night; the result is that I lost all the apps that were installed on the SD card (that is probably corrupted). Now that I have another SD card, i’d like to reinstall the ROM that was on the phone (Rooted - MIUI 2.35a) from scratch and from the new SD.

I installed a new recovery, but when I switch the SD cards, the classic recovery starts and I’m not allowed to install anything. I tried with and without partitioning the SD but nothing. If I let the phone start with the new SD nothing happens and all I get is a twenty-minutes HTC splash screen.

How do I manage to reinstall everything with a brand new SD without touching the old one? I did all the backups, so I can fully wipe all without problems, it’s just that I don’t want to reinstall the ROM on a corrupted SD and make the copy afterwards.

Thanks in advance.

Ok, I solved it by myself. I partitioned the SD (with gparted live) in full FAT32, then I loaded the Clockwork Recovery on it and it ran perfectly.

Then I successfully wiped the phone, partitioned the SD and installed the ROM.

Now my phone has a new Android installation with a brand new SD.


Start with Second Tablet on Google Play My old tablet was a LePan II from QVC.  It quit on me.  It wasn"t worth the money to have a pro look at/repair it. So, I got a Proscan PLT9045K (from ShopNBC).  After I got it charged, I went straight to Google Play, but I do not see how to add a new device.  I understand that there's not really a way to delete the original device from my account (and if there is I'd like some help there).  How can I connect my new tablet with my existing Google Play account.  I really don't want to set up a new gmail.

What you need to do is to enter the account information on the new tablet.  It should ask you for it (along with the other stuff like the time and date) when you first power the device up.  Alternatively, it will ask you for it when you open up the play store/market app on the device.

There's no need to remove the previous device from your account nor is there any way to.  You can have at least 10 devices associated to the same google account at the same time.

Also, the device will automatically get removed from your account after it hasn't been in contact with the play store for about 9 months.


How can I change the volume increment from the volume buttons? On my Samsung Fascinate, the volume buttons change the volume by 3-4x the amount that I would like them to. Is it possible to adjust this amount?

You could try flashing a custom kernel with Voodoo Sound.  I don't know if it changes the volume increment but it may provide better values for those increments, and certainly a much better sound experience overall.


How to "completely" delete Xposed Framework and modules? I did two things to install Xposed. Firstly, I flashed xposed-v75-sdk21-x86.zip and then installed the .apk file. I can now uninstall the app itself but how can I erase the flashed file of the .zip?

Also, where are the modules stored? How to delete the modules completely?

Device is LG G3 D855. Running on Cloudy G3 ROM.

Note: provided that you end up at this post in search of solving the bootloop issue caused by an Xposed module, my answer here would better help you .

For any Android Lollipop

I can now uninstall the app itself but how can I erase the flashed file of the .zip?

See the attached files in the first post of this thread. In relevance to your device's CPU architecture, download the uninstaller archive and flash it from the custom recovery. It would undo the  changes the installer archive made.
In essence, the installer archive keeps the original system files but appends in their name .orig  or convert them into archives (unofficial installers do). It then places its modified files at their location. All uninstaller does is remove the modified and extra files and change the backed up files back to their original self.
Relevant section from the uninstaller script

echo "- Restoring/removing files"
rm -f /system/xposed.prop
rm -f /system/framework/XposedBridge.jar

restore_link   /system/bin/app_process32               0 2000 0755 u:object_r:zygote_exec:s0
restore_backup /system/bin/dex2oat                     0 2000 0755 u:object_r:dex2oat_exec:s0
restore_backup /system/bin/oatdump                     0 2000 0755
restore_backup /system/bin/patchoat                    0 2000 0755 u:object_r:dex2oat_exec:s0
restore_backup /system/lib/libart.so                   0    0 0644
restore_backup /system/lib/libart-compiler.so          0    0 0644
restore_backup /system/lib/libart-disassembler.so      0    0 0644
restore_backup /system/lib/libsigchain.so              0    0 0644
restore_backup /system/lib/libxposed_art.so            0    0 0644
if [ $IS64BIT ]; then
  restore_link   /system/bin/app_process64             0 2000 0755 u:object_r:zygote_exec:s0
  restore_backup /system/lib64/libart.so               0    0 0644
  restore_backup /system/lib64/libart-compiler.so      0    0 0644
  restore_backup /system/lib64/libart-disassembler.so  0    0 0644
  restore_backup /system/lib64/libsigchain.so          0    0 0644
  restore_backup /system/lib64/libxposed_art.so        0    0 0644
fi

If you've the knowledge of setting the appropriate SELinux context for a file in Android from recovery mode, you can simply map the files the installer would've changed, revert the changes using command-line and set the correct context. No uninstaller would be required.
Note: If you're not using the official Xposed Framework then the uninstaller may not work for you. It may even cause unforeseen issues. Best is to search the web for the uninstaller.

Also, where are the modules stored?

Xposed Installer app downloads the modules under /sdcard/Download.
They may be called modules but they simply are apps to Android, hence the APK would be found under /data/app or the locations covered here by Izzy. Alike every app, there data directory would be found under /data/data.

How to delete the modules completely?

Deleting an Xposed  module is no different than removing any user installed app from Android. So, you can use any technique that you would use to remove an ordinary app.
Note that the file XposedBridge.jar under /system/framework/ is what provides modules the necessary APIs to interact with the modified framework.

For Android 4.2.x - 4.4.x
Use the file Xposed-Disabler-Recovery.zip located at /sdcard/Android/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/files. Flash that file from recovery mode (requires a custom recovery) to disable Xposed Framework. If you don't have such file, download it from the first post of the official thread.
That archive, in essence, changes /system/bin/app_process.orig to /system/bin/app_process i.e. it removes the modified app_process and brings the original file back to its glory. It doesn't delete the Installer app. You can make those changes on your own too using adb in recovery mode.
The concept of modules here is no different from what is covered in the above section.


Does Samsung Galaxy S II show any indication that sms sending is complete? If I send an sms from Samsung Galaxy S II, it just shows a toast message saying Sending Message... which disappears in a few moments. Is it possible to set it to show some kind of confirmation that the sms sending is complete? Or ss this dependent on the telephone company?

Open the message thread in the Messages app and it should say "Sent" and the time at which it was sent.


Screen timeout versus secured lock time I just updated to Jelly Bean on my GS3 and am mostly impressed.

I am having trouble with the screen timeout setting, however.  When I go into Display>Screen Timeout and select a time, say 30 seconds, I get a message that says "Screen will turned off when screen is locked.  Secured lock time is currently set to 5 seconds." My question is where? I cannot find this Secured Lock time setting in Display settings, Lock Screen settings or Security settings, which would seem to be the intuitive places to look for it. Further, even though I get this message, my screen now does not turn off at after 5 seconds, or ever as far as I can tell.  After walking away from the phone for 20 minutes, I returned to the screen  blazing in all its AMOLED glory.

Your problem is not in display but in Lock screen. I had the same problem and fixed it: Go to settings, lock screen, then secured lock time, and set it for ten minutes


How to pull data from internal memory on an unrooted phone? Yesterday, I suddenly discovered that I had lost all the user files on the internal memory of my android phone. All my photos, my music, my PDFs, audio recordings, everything. I will explain the events leading up to this in a separate paragraph below.

I have a Lava Z90 phone and I do not use an external SD card, so I must work with my phone to recover all data. I've been googling and following stuff I get from the internet(including Stack Overflow). Here's what I have done so far.

Tried using photo recovery apps available on Play Store. None of them worked.
Decided to go more technical. Enabled USB Debugging and OEM Unlocking from Developer options in my phone. Then I used ADB pull command, pull /dev/block/mmcblk0 /home/data.img to try create an image of the entire internal storage so I can analyse it using PhotoRec. It says pull: not found
I assumed this is because my phone isn't rooted?  I tried to root it with the KingoRoot apk but that didn't work. I have Ubuntu on my PC and there is not KingoRoot for Ubuntu. My next step would be to use Wine to run KingoRoot on my machine and try to root my phone that way.

I have the following questions:

How can I create an image, a data dump of my entire internal storage that i can later analyse for my data?
Can I do it with an unrooted phone? If not, how can I root my phone with ADB?
Am I going about this right? Is there a better, easier way to recover data that I should use instead?

Thank you very much.

How I lost my data

I recently uninstalled the TikTok app from my phone. Yesterday I connected my phone to my PC over mtp and found that there were certain leftover folders on the internal memory. One was a folder with Chinese name, one was a folder called ByteDance and one folder called Thumbnails. I assumed that the first two were leftovers from the TikTok app and the third was mere thumbnails. So I deleted them to save space. Nothing happened that day, except that I couldn't access any of my WhatsApp images through WhatsApp(they were still accessible through the gallery). However, when I woke up the next morning, all my data on the internal memory was gone. I still have contacts my messages and my settings, just that everything that was accessible through the file explorer has disappeared.

for Mediatek devices do following:

if your device is encrypted

get a temp root shell with mtk-su
dump your decrypted userdata partition /dev/block/dm-0
(this will take ~25 GB/h)

sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb extundelete testdisk
adb push mtk-su /data/local/tmp/
adb shell chmod 0755 /data/local/tmp/mtk-su
adb shell /data/local/tmp/mtk-su -c "cat /dev/block/dm-0 2> /dev/null" > userdata.img

if your device is not encrypted

switch off device, remove battery (if possible)
install VCOM preloader drivers (Windows)
find a scatter file for your ROM
download SP Flash Tool (Windows)
do a read back of userdata partition (SP Flash Tool)

once you have a ext4 disk image of userdata:

open userdata.img with testdisk (linux)
copy deleted files, or
scan the whole userdata.img with extundelete (linux)

testdisk userdata.img

  [Proceed ]
  [None   ] Non partitioned media
  [ Advanced ] Filesystem Utils
  (press Enter 3x times)
  [  List  ] List and copy files
  (deleted files are colored red)
  a to select all files
  Shift + C to copy the selected files
  (select destination folder)
  C when the destination is correct

extundelete userdata.img --restore-all

  (check folder ~/RECOVERED_FILES/media/0/)