text:
Calculate phone's battery capacity
I found this product (check the product here) on Amazon. Can this product be able to calculate the power of my phone's battery if connected to the USB port of my phone? I want to check the original capacity apart from what the manufacturer or any file on Android says.
Will the phone's USB port output the required power for this function?
I tried 3C Battery Monitor, the app says it's 1580mAh, but its 2100mAh in websites and on the battery (it's a phone by a well-known manufacturer, but I don't want to say it here because I don't want the answers to be focussed to the phone make or the model).

Do note that battery capacity will wear down over time. The 3C app likely observes and reports the current full capacity, while the website gives factory (new) capacity.

Is the calculated capacity be trusted? I found here (http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/145263/where-are-the-battery-capacity-files-located) that the app uses two sources, one of which is the Android APIs. Android APIs can be edited if there's a root access, so it I modify it, does the app find the actual capacity?

What about the device I've provided in Amazon (http://www.amazon.in/detector-voltmeter-ammeter-capacity-voltage/dp/B06XJGDCBN?tag=googinhydr18418-21&tag=googinkenshoo-21&ascsubtag=065f9406-95d9-4e30-bdb6-7baa5c10a194)?

Tested again. This time, it is 2333mAh for the same phone.

Then I'd say that the app itself reads inaccurately. Refer to @beeshyams 's answer. P.S. Personally I have a small in-line meter (shown in this question) to measure battery capacity through fully charging, though I admit that's not for everyone.

I am basing this answer on the concerns expressed in comments and your main question

Firstly, there are many ways of measuring mAH of batteries with different results, so the device manufacturer is the best person to ask this question- it claims to read battery capacity but how it measures is not known from the product description. There are different methods for hardware measurements with varying results ( a subject in itself ). See this to get a feel

How to measure capacity of a Lithium-ion battery - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

Next, as covered in the answer here
Where are the battery capacity files located?, it is quite possible to amend the values on a rooted device but ultimately it depends on the app which chooses from where to read the values from
Your main concern, it appears to me is to know the true mAh of battery which is covered here using the 3C app , in my answer How to determine maximum capacity of a battery in mAh? - received fake battery

You could try the accubattery app, it is known to give a somewhat accurate reading. It also gives other quite interesting information about your battery.

It's nice to know about the app, but the device runs on Android Jelly Bean, which is not supported by AccuBattery.

I have one of those devices for my custom built race drone, I use it to check voltages so I am not sure how accurate it is on mAh. I dont think its necessary to buy such device for your use case, the apps are accurate enough.

Thanks for the review about the device. But I am concerned about the Android battery API files which might be accessed and modified if there is root permission. What if I modify the file to, like 3000mAh, do the apps provide exact value for capacity?

@Neeraj I dont quite understand what you mean by that however most of the battery calculating apps use algorithms that measure the mAh going into the phone while charging, and how long it takes to increase per percent. There isnt a single android file that tells you the true capacity of your battery after wear.

Apps are inaccurate. I've been testing for four days where I get four different readings - 1580mAh, 2333mAh, 2335mAh and 864mAh. What I mean in the previous comment was "In the question here http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/145263/where-are-the-battery-capacity-files-located by beeshyams, it says about the file where battery capacity information is stored. In my findings, not only battery, but even the CPU clock speed are stored in files in /sys/. So, may be, the apps are accessing those files to get mAh?"

@Neeraj Perhaps some do, however I know that accubattery in particular follows the method I have described. Yes they are inaccurate, but they give some level of accuracy on your battery capacity. (Also they are more accurate if you charge from 0-100%) I do know of apps that get cpu frequency from files in /sys/ and they have been pretty accurate as far as i know


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Lineage OS changelog in update screen?
If I recall correctly, with Cyanogenmod from the update screen I could click on a future download and see the change log. Is there anyway to restore that behavior with Lineage OS?

There is now a change-log for LineageOS, and it's prime on their download screen you can see it at https://download.lineageos.org/

I have never seen that changelog list on cyanogenmod update screen but it sounds like a nice feature.
There is at least one webpage with changelog and there was a changelog app (no longer working with lineageos).However a new app is there for lineage changelog. Maybe that does help.

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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sort: votes


text:
Virus or Malware
Surfing net and pop-up said "Galaxy -Your system heavily damaged by four virus!"  Address on top said, "us-philospohizing693lo.win/..."  Says if I don't remove now will cause severe damage to Sim card.  Already damaged 28%.  Click ok to download fix.
I am afraid this is a malware or something bad like that.  Don't know what to do.  Please help.  Not backed up now and 20k photos etc.   I have Samsung Galaxy Note 5.  I hit ok and stopped and did not hit "Repair fast now"  Am I messed up.  Afraid to do anything because this looks like scam, but also looks kind of official.  Don't think I have an virus protection on phone unless it came with it. About a year old. DESPARATE, PLEASE HELP.
Pop-up saying from Google said I have 4 viruses that already caused 28% damage to sim card.  Wants me to install Applock for free on Google Play and click ok to start.  Sent from >us.philosophizing693lo.win/...<  Is this legit or malware or something bad and what do I do now?  Scared and Afraid.  Second question, sent 40 minutes ago but forgot the Applock from google play part.

There's a contradiction in terms: a popup from Google would never speak of viruses on Android, as there are none (i.e. no Android viruses, though there's enough of Android malware).
That looks more like malvertizing, especially as it asks you to "install some app". Do not follow that advice, do not install that app. The appearance you describe is a known malvertizing pattern, caused by malicious Javascript in one of the websites you've visited – which in addition means, avoid those websites as well.

Got the same popup some years ago. It is surely a scam since Google doesn't provide antivirus services. Do not press anything and just close the browser or press the back button. Just to be safe you can download an antivirus app like Avast or AVG and scan your mobile phone. I wouldn't worry though.

I'd never trust any Android app calling itself "anti-virus". Why fight something that doesn't exist? That's like a "unicorn feeder": you cannot feed a unicorn unless you have one :)

@Izzy I agree with you to a point. Malware exists in android as well though.

Sure, see my answer – that's exactly what I wrote :) But naming the product "anti-virus" is mostly just playing with people's anxieties to make them use the product, which is why I don't trust those.

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Google Play Games
For me and my friends the Google Play Games App always laggs whenever you're trying to view achievements. Since we all have a Nexus 5X, I can't get any feedback whether it is a common problem.
I am wondering, does anybody have the same issue? It is rather annoying that whenever I want to look at my achievements, I can't because of the lagg

I believe there is a problem with the Play Games app itself.
I have encountered this issue, too, and it looks like the app loads images in its main (UI) thread. This means, that this thread won't be able to render frames until the image is ready. As processing those images takes long time to finish, some frames will be skipped. This will result in laggish effect.
So, all we can do is wait for Google to fix this issue.


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Galaxy A3 (2016) broken screen access files
I have a Samsung Galaxy A3 (2016) - SM-A310F - with a broken screen from a friend to try to backup the files on it. Touch doesn't work and you can't see anything, but I can unlock it with the home button, since no lock screen code is set.
When I connect it to the computer I can't access any files. Samsung Kies says that the device is locked and I should unlock it, even though it is unlocked. I think this is because the device is in charge only mode. USB debugging is disabled so I can't access the phone via adb.
I already checked the broken-screen tag-wiki, but didn't find any solution which helps in my case. I can't access via adb, fastboot doesn't work, too. And I can't install CWM/TWRP because an option is disabled in settings :/


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Can a faulty Micro-USB cable cause damage to your device?
Hardware damage caused by USB Type-C cables by drawing too much power has been widely reported:

https://www.howtogeek.com/240777/watch-out-how-to-buy-a-usb-type-c-cable-that-wont-damage-your-devices/
http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/4/10916264/usb-c-russian-roulette-power-cords
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3002064/computers-accessories/beware-bad-usb-c-cables-google-engineer-warnswhile-naming-names.html
http://gizmodo.com/cheap-usb-c-cables-could-kill-your-phone-or-laptop-1757115350
http://www.androidcentral.com/usb-c-problem-isnt-going-away-anytime-soon

Is Micro-USB affected?

Root of the problem is non adherence to standards and not type C as a class of faulty cables.
The damage caused specifically relates to :

poor adherence of standards to the extent of being non standard
Using a wrongly rated resistor by one plus
in their products, which fried other devices connected to such cables

Benson Leung is a Google Engineer who carries out extensive testing of practically anything related to type C, which you can read on his Google Plus
If you use any non standard product, you always run the risk of damage / poor performance. This is equally true of micro USB cables, though I haven't come across such bad press for micro USB ( barring chargers of spurious quality)

USB-C cables are "intelligent" (own chip in the cable) and the USB-C PowerDelivery (PD) standard allows higher voltages for loading. In USB-C the power supply, the cable and the phone have to agree on who is the source, who the sink and how much power in what voltage will be delivered. This is very complex with the result that there is a non-negligible chance that something goes wrong or event extremely goes wrong (damages something).
Micro USB cables are "dumb": They have no no chip. Hence the only effect an Micro USB cable can have is that it is too thin and therefore reduces the electrical flow, delaying the charging process.
However theoretically you can still damage your phone if you use a non-charger that is not backward compatible. But in this case the cable will be innocent.


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Samsung galaxy S7 edge from HK soft/firmware
I am a massive novice when it comes to this, please can you help? I bought a S7 edge SM-G9350 from hongkong but it did not GooglePlay etc. I live in the UK and wondered how to get my phone software to be the same as UK phones? I saw this link but it is a bit advanced for my understanding. Thank you.

Well, the answer will be quite the same as those you referred to. You can try some stock ROMs from Sammobile and check if they have English onboard. If you bother particularly about Google Apps, they can be installed separately.

thank you. I only need to get access to Google play store. if I can get that then I won't need to change ROM. can you tell me how? thank you

Obtain Gapps from here, and then in fact you have two alternatives:

Install custom recovery via Odin and then flash Gapps with it.

Try to install Gapps via adb sideload. Not all devices/vendors allow this, but you can try.
Firstly you need enable ADB, then drop the Gapps zip-archive into folder with ADB and run
adb sideload gapps.zip

There is also manual way of install (described for example here), but it's rather cumbersome.

Thank you. I flashed my rom from the China version to HK version, which has googleplaystore. There are some issues now however- can't send SMS, can't use dial pad during calls. Is this a common problem when flashing Roms? Can I flash a UK rom (different model number) onto this phone?

At least, you can try to flash UK ROM. And no, it is NOT common problems, unless the regional versions of phones have significant differences which might be your case. SM-G9350 seems to be compatible only with SM-G9358, and only partially.


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How to set default phone number for contacts?
USE CASE:
When I do voice dialing with Google on my Android phone or more importantly text messaging it always asks which phone number I should use for the contact. That's really frustrating when I'm driving.
Is there a way to set a default so it just uses that one?

Open up the Google Contacts app on Android.  Go to the desired contact (do not edit the contact).  Long press the phone number you want to set as the default number.  You should get a pop-up dialog with Copy, Edit before calling, and (Tada!) Set default.
You can do the same thing with email addresses.
This works with the official Google Contacts app from the Google Play Store.  If it doesn't work on your phone, make sure you are using the official app and not a phone vendor-supplied version (Samsung, LG, etc.)
This works in Contacts Version 6.01 that was installed on my phone by Motorola and Version 2.5.4... from the Play Store.

thank you.  Works great.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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OTA WiFi vulnerability - what can be done?
Several Android phones appear to be vulnerable to an exploit in the WiFi firmware, allowing an attacker to run malicious code on the WiFi SoC, and even execute code in kernel space. Google patched its Pixel phones and some recent Nexus models, but older models such as the Nexus 5 have no patch available yet. It seems that no attack is known in the wild yet, but if there was one it could spread quickly from device to device.
I have a Nexus 5; what can I do to secure my phone? For now I have WiFi turned off, but that significantly reduces the usefulness of my phone. I'm comfortable running commands with adb to install drivers, if that's possible. I'm also willing to install another OS, although I'd rather not have to.

Although this is a vulnerability, there are no known exploits of it... The reality is there likely will never be because unless it is focused to a single device, and unless you are a celebrity, high-ranking government official, or some other high-profile individual, this vulnerability falls under the same category as most Android vulnerabilities... it is just fluff for media and not a real problem. This is one you can safely ignore, unless you are one of those 0.0001% of population that is under extreme scrutiny and constant privacy attacks.

@acejavelin Unless I'm mistaken, this vulnerability would allow a worm to spread through a general population of devices and run any code on them. That seems pretty serious to me, and hardly limited to a minority of users. I'd love to be proven wrong tho.

@z0r Vulnerability does not equal exploit. But I can't prove you wrong... All I can tell you is there is no known exploit, and if there is ever one other security features of Android are likely to prevent it, such as DMverity, SElinux, sandboxing, etc. These are not considered in looking for a Vulnerability. Besides, this is a hardware based Vulnerability, you can't do anything about it... Your OEM or SOC manufacturer would have to correct it.

As discussed on security.se, this vulnerability could give an attacker complete control over a phone, and could spread like a worm. PoC code is already public, so creating such a worm would be cheap (even profitable). I see it as only a matter of time. So if it's true that "you can't do anything about it", I guess you mean my only option if I care about this is to buy a new phone. Pity. I do care, and I think most people should.

You should be buying a new phone anyway, as N5 is out of support for quite a while, so it's also only a matter of time before it's exposed to any other kind of vulnerability. Although custom ROMs would bring monthly security patches (I always have the latest LOS build on my devices), nobody knows the device better than Google and therefore no device-specific patches.

@Andy Yan, so LOS has this vulnerability patched?

Your link lists it on the April security bulletin, so any ROM that merged the April security patch set should have the patch.

This Chip is common in many Phones. The details of the exploit are sufficiently well known as are 1000's of others, the chance of the average person getting hit is low (unless you work somewhere interesting and keep interesting Info on your Devices - Computer, Tablet, Phone, even some TV's are spying).
Partial List of affected Phones with this Chipset: Nexus 5, 6 and 6P, most Samsung flagship devices, and all iPhones since the iPhone 4.
So many are affected. It someone were so inclined they could own any Device with this Chipset within WiFi range - chances of it being your Device is remote, so don't lose sleep just Update (if you're really worried).
Updating to the newest Firmware and Software is almost always the correct answer to this problem - rarely new Updates introduce worse vulnerabilities.
So, always Update. It's the only Solution. This one Hack is not the only thing affecting your various Devices. Updating prevents all but Day-0 and the as yet unrepaired Bugs. If it's worth it for your Boss to pay let them know.
See:
Part 1: https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.ca/2017/04/over-air-exploiting-broadcoms-wi-fi_4.html?m=0
Part 2: https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.ca/2017/04/over-air-exploiting-broadcoms-wi-fi_11.html?m=0


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Can Android Device Manager only locate your phone if it is signed in to your Google Account?
My phone was stolen two days ago, and I have only just had internet access to start looking up ways to find it - or, more specifically, at least recover the photographs on it.
While I had tried to back up the images by loading them onto my laptop, for some reason the phone wasn't showing up under "My Computer" so I gave up...ironically this was the day before it disappeared (it was a new phone).
I am pretty sure it was signed into my Google account, but I hadn't changed any other default settings. I tried searching for the phone on Android Device Mananger, but it can't locate it - presumably because the thief/ves wiped it? I guess I'm just hoping that maybe the device manager can't locate the phone because it's off...
Otherwise, is there any other way at all that I can retrieve my photographs?
Thank you (:

If your photos were not synced to an online service, like Google Photos, your only option is to hope you get the device back somehow, ADM cannot get your photos or other data regardless. If you had your Google account setup that is all that is required for ADM to locate or wipe your device

On a somewhat good note, modern devices have Factory Reset Protection, meaning if your Google account was setup, you had basic security (PIN or password) and someone doesn't know the password, your device is a worthless brick to them since even a factory reset will not clear FRP and the device will be unusable without your Google credentials.

It's true (about FRP) since Android 5.1

To use Android Device Manager (ADM):

Your device's location access need to be turned on and be signed in to your Google Account. Android Device Manager won't work for devices that are turned off or that don't have a mobile data or Wi-Fi connection.

No, you will not be able to retrieve photos remotely from your phone. You can check whether your photos were uploaded by default to Google Storage. To prevent from losing photos in the future, you can setup your phone to automatically upload photos to the cloud.


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Why can't I move apps to the external memory on Huwait P8 lite 2017?
I have a Huawei P8 Lite 2017 phone and it is slow as hell simply because the internal memory is almost full. I have a 64-G microSD card, but for some reason I can’t move any of my applications to that one. There are no ways to properly analyze and free space either.
In a nutshell the OS and the app date uses all my 16G internal memory.
It’s kind of annoying. Any suggestions what to do?
UPDATE (15-Apr-2017): The main issue (as shown in the screenshot) is that some apps use a lot of internal memory and there is no way to move them to the SD card. Any ideas how to make that happen without rooting? It seems to be a common problem.

What do you mean under There are no ways to properly analyze and free space either? What shows storage menu applet?

@Suncatcher hi there. I have just updated the main post for more information. Thanks.

Your answer is here.

No rooting needed, try this. Works for me. https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software/auto-formatting-sdcard-to-internal-t3583875

It seems like they have removed that option, I am using the same device and had previously using Marshmallow device. I do not have a storage issue though. This is the trick that worked for me, I changed the default storage to SD Card before I installed and updated apps. The app package is stored on internal memory but the data is on SD Card. However, my internal storage is always a minimum of 3GB and note that I have lot of apps, including games.
I guess if you change the storage type late, it doesn't move the data of apps to SD Card.
My advice is, backup your apps then reset your phone. Thereafter, initially  change the the default storage to SD Card then you can reinstall your apps.

That sounds good, but backups never work the way you want them. It's just too much hassle and something always goes wrong. Haha.


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Want data off broken phone. Possible?
The screen of my samsung S6edge is showing black but the rest of the lights work if i push the hardware buttons. I don't seem to be able to get my touch screen to respond at all.
The autobackup wasn't able to work while I was away because it never had access to WiFi.
Is there any way that i can pull my photos off it? I have a mac with dual boot windows and am happy to add a linux boot if that will make my life easier.

What happens if you connect the phone to PC via cable?

I tried that but my computer doesn't even recognise my phone's existance

And previously it was recognized?

And what is with your phone's screen? Damaged? Broken? Why it is black?

You can have not only screen broken but also internal memory, if your phone experienced hard accident.

It might depend on whether or not you enabled Developer Options in Settings before you lost use of the touch screen. Try downloading Samsung USB drivers for PC and install on computer or laptop, turn phone on and connect to PC with data cable. If it installs, you can list folders from your phone and copy files.

You could buy a cheap USB to HDMI converter and connect the phone to a tv/monitor. When you can see the screen, try and see if the touch screen works.
If the touch screen doesn't work, you can connect a mouse to the phone using a micro USB OTG hub, and also connect the HDMI to a USB port (if you bought a micro USB to HDMI converter you'll need a micro USB to USB adapter too)
Example of items. Note: I can't guarantee this will work.
http://m.ebay.com/itm/351932566559
http://m.ebay.com/itm/Hot-USB-3-0-to-HDMI-Converter-Cable-Display-Graphic-Adapter-for-HDTV-1080P-/122176138189


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which termux package provides the "mount" command?
i try to install "mount" with apt, but i can't locate it, or a package that contains "mount".
i've tried:

just to run mount:

no command 'mount' found

apt update && apt upgrade
apt install mount busybox toybox

busybox is already the latest versuib; mount and toybox do not exist.

apt -s mount

option not understood

apt search mount

proot ...

apt install proot
mount

not found...

google, locate mount, ls -lR. GOT YOU

The mount command is part of the util-linux package.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Util-linux
Try apt install util-linux

Doesn't look like it's the case for Termux: dpkg -L util-linux | grep mount gives nothing.

Might have to build it. https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/tree/master/packages/util-linux

libmount is disabled in Termux's util-linux package. mount and umount are shell scripts which call same binaries from /system/bin.

Either type
/system/bin/mount

manually or create a shortcut by
ln -s /system/bin/mount $PREFIX/bin/mount

so that you can access it more easily later.
Don't bother with toolbox or toybox. Whichever contains the mount command will be symlinked to by /system/bin/mount.

While which mount yields nix, any of the following should produce output in Termux on Android, Chromebook and Fire OS.
/system/bin/toybox mount
/system/bin/toolbox mount
/system/bin/mount


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My internal memory(not free storage) just vanished?
I own a lenovo vibe c, currently running Android 5.1. The phone has an internal memory of 16 GB.
The phone ran well for about 8 months, and as my mother used it more it was not put to heavy tasks until I downloaded Asphalt 8 and NFS no limits. Gradually the phone began to lag and it was about two weeks ago that the phone lagged seriously and at last my mother took it to the service centre. The guys at the centre did a factory reset (perhaps) and as a result I lost my games(). After that when my mother brought the phone back home I was stunned to see that the internal memory has dropped down to 8 GB (according to the system, see below). But however clean master shows it to be around 4GB (while before it showed the total space to be 16GB):

Now I'm really confused. Please help me.
Also I want to say that to play the games again without lag I decided to root my phone to install the RAMEXPANDER and swap some sdcard memory to increase the ram virtually. So I also have a question that can the rooting process take away some memory(as a side effect, in case something went wrong) ( I am new to it and so I don't know much about it)
I had swapped about 600MB memory of my internal storage and also I had noticed the problem before I installed the RAM expander. I am totally confused with it, while the system shows 8GB storage, other apps like Clean Master, ES File Explorer, KingRoot etc. everyone shows it to be around 4GB.

Well, the first thing you can do is remove all that Clean Master, RAM Expander, and other "speedup" or performance enhancing garbage... all they do is slow down your device and the very premise of Ram Expander of closing apps will cause nothing but problems. I am confused by your post, if your internal storage had "vanished" the phone would not function. Can you articulate the problem better? Although at this point I would recommend clearing app caches, clearing the cache partition, and as a last resort performing a factory reset.

I am confused too. I have never seen this before. I think some part of my memory just got hidden (sort of) and so the system cannot show it (correct me if I am wrong). As for RAM expander, i have tested it to get somewhat positive results.

BTW, Clean Master doesn't take into account system files, so the 4.14GB is correct if you consider the 3.86GB is for the system. Adds up to exactly 8GB, I guess I don't see the problem. It matches what the system's storage app says too. Sounds like a deeper problem (hardware/kernel or ROM issue) than your apps... Factory reset and see if it clears it, or flash back to pure stock w/o root.

But previously clean master showed the total space to be 16GB, but now it shows this. Also I want to avoid factory reset. BTW by the RAM expander I mean ROEHSOFT RAMEXPANDER (root required) that swaps some amount of ur sdcard memory and makes the system believe that the actual ram is the physical one + the virtual one. It does not close apps to boost the device.

Oh... I got it.... You lost your storage to Ram Expander, it is using it as cache space and it is not accessible to applications or regular internal storage anymore. (best guess after I looked at RE again)

Not cache space... Virtual memory..  you probably assigned 8gb to it?

@jyoti proy Or perhaps at the service centre, they opened your phone and removed the previous memory to reduce it to a new one of 8GB (⁉⁉)

@WrichikBasu A smartphone is not like a PC where you can simply plug memory banks. RAM is rather on the chip itself. So service centre at best could have "swapped" the entire device. But I rather go with what acejavelin writes, as that's the most likely cause: to create swap space, that space must be taken from somewhere. So if OP confirms having assigned 8GB swap, that perfectly matches. In that case I'd rather reduce swap to 1GB – as swap is far from being a "performance booster". Especially not in this context.

@acejavelin your guess would have been correct if I had noticed the problem after installing the RAM expander, by the problem had caught my attention before that. Also with RAM expander I swapped 600MB memory, which I later freed up.

@Izzy I had swapped about 600MB memory of my internal storage and also I had noticed the problem before I installed the RAM expander. I am totally confused with it, while the system shows 8GB storage, other apps like Clean Master, ES File Explorer, KingRoot etc. everyone shows it to be around 4GB.

There are several apps available helping you to analyze your storage. What also would help is using a terminal app (or adb shell) and check the output of df (and maybe mount). The former should reveal how much storage is really there, and the second should confirm which storage is used. More over, our internal-storage tag-wiki links some useful questions with answers.


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lineage OS encrypt phone --> bootloop
I upgraded CM13 to LineageOS14.1 on a Xiaomi Note 3 (kenzo), setup everything, and decided to encrypt the phone (from settings/encrypt phone). It asked for a pattern, and then rebooted.
I never got to see a timer as seems to be expected from reading around. The phone got into a boot loop (vibrate, show MI logo, show lineage mascot for about a second, then reboot, over and over again). I left it doing this for about 40 minutes when I decided something was wrong.
I can now boot into TWRP 3.1.0-0, but any attempt to boot normally results in the above.
How can I get my phone to boot again? (if possible without losing data, I have backups, but if I can spare the hassle of reinstalling everything...).
The device was rooted, and I installed nightly lineage lineage-14.1-20170405-nightly-kenzo, along with gapps and lineage su package.
"Longer term", how do I encrypt the phone without breaking everything? Is there a bug in lineageOS (I've not seen anything on the bugtracker, except for another device (athene))?

For the records: I just had it with a Samsung A5 2017 (SM-A520F) after encryption of the disk. Very annoying! And the data wipe, well, wipped my data… now I'm reinstalling everything. Good luck to the others!

If you are able to boot into TWRP format and wipe the device (dont loose your backups) and restore your backups.
After that everything should be back to normal (without encryption).

For future reference, choosing repair for /data in TWRP seems to solve bootloops right after encryption. The device stays encrypted. This worked on two of my devices and I didn't notice any data loss.

Here's a really convoluted workaround if anyone's still having trouble. I was unable to solve it with the comment above about using the repair option.
There are multiple bug reports for this on different devices in the lineage os Jira. One commenter suggests a workaround (once you get out of boot loop):

Fresh install CM13

(Note that for my device, HTC One M9 I had to modify a line in the flashable zip due to a
 firmware upgrade. See This commenters post on how to do that:
 https://jira.lineageos.org/browse/BUGBASH-457?focusedCommentId=14507&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel#comment-14507)

Boot into CM13, Run though setup
Set a pin or pattern (IMPORTANT)
Run encrypt phone
Once phone is encrypted and booting, reboot to TWRP (twrp will need your pin or pattern)
Go to TWRP settings be sure the rm -rf setting is checked
Go to wipe and wipe the data partition (this shouldn't reformat it)
Go to install and Flash LOS
Boot to LOS, you'll be asked for your pattern/pin from earlier
You'll need to set a pin/pattern for lineage itself, but it works.

More detailed instructions from that comment:
https://jira.lineageos.org/browse/BUGBASH-457?focusedCommentId=14354&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels%3Acomment-tabpanel#comment-14354
CM13 archive:
https://archive.org/download/cmarchive_nighlies

If you can boot in TWRP and the device does not look encrypted, and you tried already to flash lineage again without success and you always get bootloops, try in TWRP to go to wipe, select "format data". Attention, this seems different than just "wipe data". When I selected format data, a dialog asked me to type "yes" to continue, it even showed that it would unencrypt the partition.


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How Can I open it?
I have a phone it is samsung sm-a8000...
Can someone please tell me how to turn it on.
it only shows logo upside down and stucked.
This is what I did before this error:
I used Root Explorer then I change something in the system folder then I rebooted it and it doesnt open up in home anymore..please help me

With these details all we can recommend you is to "do something else" to revert your changes. You could e.g. restore the backup you've certainly made before modifying system stuff. If you didn't make a backup (really???), all that's left is to flash the device with a fresh ROM.

You can hard reset your Android device it will normally revert changes you've made. Here's how you can do this
Here the link to it


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How to receive notifications when an app goes on sale on Google Play store
I would like to know if there's a way to receive notifications on the computer (online) or smartphone (offline) when a customized list of apps goes on sale on Google Play store. (Maybe through e-mail, RSS feed, SMS, etc.)

The implementation of this project could be easily developed if there is an available API from Google. I think there is no free Google API for this purpose. You can receive emails or SMS on your mobile phone when a new Android application is published on the Google Play Store, but you need a special API from Google.

For Android there is an app that does what I need, but if you need to connect to the internet  to receive notifications, then it's the same as manually checking.
For the iOS there is a site that at least allows you to apply some filters and receive notifications through RSS feeds, would be nice to have an Android alternative.
Was hopping to find something even it needs to use IFTTT to combine services.

I do not think you can combine services, only if you will like to create a web service that maybe helps you for your project.

Yeah, sites or apps can only interact with IFTTT if the creators want. I thought about creating something similar to this but just don't want to create something from scratch because there are already similar options that just need filters and notifications.

If I have understood correctly, do you like to implement something similar to  the website such as game archives? This could be easy to implement as a software program.

I have my own website, so as last resort I could probably use the same sources of that site and make my RSS feed with my filters, to see the apps from my list that go on sale.

Yes, exactly. I hope that I helped you with your problem of your program.

Yeah, although I feel that it would be like killing a fly with a bazooka, I will try that option if I can find a place to upload the files like Google Code to avoid changing my website. Thank you.

I do not understand your logic, but if it works is ok. Thank you.


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Making apps think you have a lower version of android
so i want an app or something like that that makes apps think you have a lower version of android even thogh your android version does not change

You can achieve it by rooting and installing build.prop editor app from there can change model no. of phone, version, manufacturer name and many more stuff yeah you can also simply revert it.


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Application or timetracking
Is there any android app to monitor the time you have worked with another app in the android device?
I want to see how many hours I use an app in a day.

Asking for apps is off topic

You can simply dial *#*#4636#*#* in your native dialer.
You will receive a list of options :
Phone information
Battery information
Usage statistics
Wi-Fi information
Third option is what you might want to choose.
Sort the results by Launch count, and you will receive the list of apps in descending order of usage time.


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No password input after locking the device from Android Device Manager
I have forgotten my unlock pattern and tried to lock my device with a password on Android Device Manager (ADM). It did lock and a message, "Your device is locked by Android Device Manager" appears, but there's no way of entering a password on that screen.

There's no password field, and just a back click and it's all gone. Pressing that lock icon doesn't work, it's not a button, neither sliding up or down, left or right is any good.
How to unlock it?


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LG G4 Bootloop--how do I get my pictures back?
My LG G4 just recently went into the dreaded bootloop. I plan on sending it to LG to fix, but my pictures from earlier in the year are on the phone's memory. I also have a ton of music on it, but my pictures are more important to me. I checked in my Google Drive account, and it had automatically backed up on April 11, 2017. However, I cannot for the life of me figure out if or how to view or obtain the backed up information? Anyone have any ideas?

Unfortunately, Google Drive does not backup your photos directly from your Gallery. It only backups data, like user settings and probably cache, from your various apps. Next time, if you want to backup your photos and videos, use Google Photos which would have eliminated this issue.
It seems that accessing your (and my) phone's backup is not possible through the web version of Google Drive. It is however possible, in the Android version, to see the size of the data being saved and by what app.


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Android suddenly freed up several GB of space itself? (Note 3)
My Note3 has been nearly full (~500MB or so left) for a month or so.
Tonight I was web-browsing in Chrome, and accidentally hit "download" on a gigantic multi-GB file on archive.org.  Chrome froze up for a while (maybe 10-30 seconds or so).  I scrambled to get to Settings to turn off mobile data, and luckily the download failed.
Here's the really weird thing.  When I started poking around the phone afterwards, I was really surprised to see over 3GB of memory free.  There had been probably less than 700MB free before this happened.
Where did all that space come from?
On the face of it this would seem to be great-- "yay, free space!".  But, I am a little antsy and confused, as well as just plain curious, because I have no idea how the phone did this.
1) Is this a known behavior that Android does sometimes?  I don't recall ever seeing this happen before.  I vaguely remember Windows having some laundry list of things it deletes when space needs are dire-- does Android do something similar?  Maybe some kind of backup installer / system snapshot / crash dump kinds of files?
2) Is there any way of finding out what it deleted?  Or otherwise what it did to get this space clear?
(I'm hoping to find out what it did delete, b/c I want to make sure it didn't just choose to delete something I wanted to keep, ie "hey, you haven't looked at these photos in three months, so you'll never miss them; they're going in the trash.")
3) If it deleted some backup install or system snapshot or crash dump kinds of files, that'd be great... but it'd also be great how to TELL it to delete these kinds of things next time to free up the space by choice.  In other words, "If I could have had 3GB this easily all along, how can I ask for it?"

I heard that iOS has such a feature (there was a report a while back that by downloading a huge file a cleanup process was triggered, most likely removing caches and temporary stuff, to free up space). Never heard of such a thing on Android, though. What Android version do you have running on the device?

My phone is Android 5.0, Note3, Verizon.

Now that you mention versions, it wasn't that long ago (a few to 6 months) that the phone updated itself to 5.0. Maybe there were installer files or something that it deleted?

There was such a thing in the past (around 4.2), when internal storage was "remapped". On some devices, files had then been copied over to the new place, but were also left in the old (without the user having an easy way to access that old space). But even then, downloading a "big file" didn't trigger a cleanup, the user had to do that manually. If the ring buffer was big enough, you might find some traces in adb logcat – but I'm afraid it's too late for that now (those entries most likely have been rotated out already).

BTW, I backed up all my personal data from the phone last night. (Pictures, office docs, ebooks, etc.)  I compared to my previous backup and didn't see any unexpected difference. So whatever the phone cleared, it doesn't appear to have been personal data.

On the logcat cmd, I read about that somewhere, but I thought I'd have to be rooted to do it (I'm not). I should try that. Thanks!

adb logcat doesn't require root. Most ADB commands can be used without the device being rooted. Be welcome to our ADB tag-wiki :)


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Why my phone keep restarting apps?
When i play game, my phone always restart the game every few minutes to the first screen. It is same when i play a video it is always blinking and skip few seconds every few minutes. It is so annoying when my phone restart some apps every few minutes. Plase help me find solution

First thing you do is fully wipe your phone data/Factory Reset.
Still get random reboot? Check your Xiaomi ROM you used. It's Global,China, Global Dev, China Dev, or Distributor ROM
How to do that? Go to Settings - About Phone - MIUI Version
If your ROM is distributor version, the version code will like 66.44.33 If it's BETA ROM the version name will be MIUI 7.3.2 | Beta and for the global is MIUI 8.3 Global
After you know what's ROM inside your phone. you can re-flashing the ROM that you can download here
How? after you downloaded the ROM, move the downloaded ROM into your phone storage then open Updater App, click the three dots button on the top right side than choose Update package, selected the ROM you have been downloaded. Start flashing wait till finished. Your data will not be wipe if you on the same ROM version BETA - BETA or Global - Global
IF your ROM is Distributor version you must search the same China ROM version like your Distributor ROM version.


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Warn or Block Internet Access When No VPN?
I use a paid VPN service (TorGuard) and when I run it on my computer, I am able to configure the client to completely block Internet access if the VPN is disconnected...
The Android version of my VPN client does not have this option, so my question is, is there another way I can completely block Internet traffic if my VPN is disconnected?
Alternatively, is there a way I can get some sort of warning when the VPN is disconnected?
I'm using a Kogan Agora 6+, running Android 6.0 ("Marshmallow").

Which is your VPN client?

I use TorGuard at this time.

If you set up your vpn connection manually in settings. The three dot menu bar has this option in one if its menus.


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Unwanted Apps (Maybe malware) downloaded and installed on Android device
Off late, I have been observing some unwanted apps getting downloaded and installed on my Android device without my knowledge. Upon noticing I uninstalled those apps. However, the next time I switch on my data or connect to Wi-Fi, in no time does it re-install those apps. Is there a way in which I can troubelshoot this ?
Below are the couple of apps that are getting installed (please not none of these are available on Play Store):

Content Visual
VedioZone
UC News
WhatsApp (This is not the original WhatsApp with a slightly different icon)

I tried doing a Factory Reset with no success
I also tried resetting the device by going into the recovery mode with no success.
I disabled allowing apps to installed from unknown sources.
The Quick Heal anti-virus does not detect any threats.
Edit 1: I could see multiple instances of the above listed app as shown in below image:

Have you checked Apps install on their own, Apps are installed in my smart phone without my permission? and similar questions?

Yes, I did. Check my updated question.

@Yash I recommend you download and scan your phone with this anti malware: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.malwarebytes.antimalware It's free and worked great for me.

@Yash download and run a full system scan. You may also buy antivirus software like Quick heal if you like (I prefer free software a bit more, at least for my phone)

@WrichikBasu The majority of those "antivirus" apps for Android are mere scam, as far as I know.

Quick heal is not a scam, I can assure you. I have it on my PC.

I think some malicious process running on your device so go to
Settings->App->Running (Tab)
and try to identify unwanted process and if you get it stop the process and try to uninstall belonging application of respective process.

I could not find any suspicious processes running

OK,then try to install ES File explorer in that there is activity logger is there so you will able to see which app downloading what type of content so by this way may be you will get which app installing other apps.

This is some kind of virus that has worked its way into the operating system. The only solution is to flash the default operating system again.
Since you did not specify the phone model, I'll be generic about my answer.
Reflashing the stock operating system is a process where you download the default operating system from the phone manufacturer website and load it into the phone, overwriting the existing operating system which is infected. A factory reset will not work in this case. Doing this involves unlocking the bootloader, which will void the warranty. Contact your phone's manufacturer and ask if there is a way to repair the phone without voiding the warranty. If there isn't, google your device name and "flash a custom ROM", or a custom operating system that many Android professionals prefer over the stock one. In your case, instead of writing the alternate operating system, we are simply rewriting the default one from the manufacturer.


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Moto G5 Plus - will the US sim free version work with a UK sim card?
I'm getting a new phone and I'm pretty set on the Motorola G5 Plus. I live in the UK but I will be traveling to the US soon and I'm considering buying a new phone while I'm there ($230 vs £250 here which is about a £50 difference even with MA sales tax).
Anyway - I am wondering if the G5 Plus from the US would work without any issues in the UK and the rest of Europe with a UK sim card. I googled around a bit and found some info on GSM bands but I hope that someone knowledgeable will be able to give me a definite answer.
This is what I found on Motorola's official website regarding this phone's bands:

Moto G Plus - XT1687 CDMA (850, 850+,1900 MHz) GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850,
  900, 1800, 1900 MHz) UMTS/HSPA+ (850, 900, 1700, 1900, 2100 MHz) 4G
  LTE (B1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 25, 26, 38, 41, 66)

I have also found bands supported by British carriers and they seem compatible to me but I would like to be sure first (it's also quite important that it works in the rest of Western Europe as I travel from time to time).
Thank you in advance!

If you have verified that the UK bands in use are included, I can't be more sure of compatibility than you already do...

Unfortunately it would not work on 4G as O2 in the UK requires band 20 which the US version of the phone XT1687 does not support.


text:
My phone keeps clicking on things that I'm not even clicking on?
Sometimes my Sony xperia z5 just start freezing, clicking on apps, turning drawer's pages and doing things like that without me doing anything . In my opinion it looks like a problem with the touchscreen and the display because it's like if someone touches it but nobody is actually doing it, I am also pretty sure that there isn't any virus . Do you have any idea about the causes of this?
Ps: My phone got the latest firmware and not a modified rom

Sometimes, such problem occurs due to overheating of device because of continuous usage.

It could be it considering my phone has a snapdragon 810 which gets hot really fast...

I have faced this issue in my Samsung core prime. The device used to heat up real fast. I know the pain :)

Hardware problem. Your digitizer may be defective. You should consider taking it to a repair shop

My phone had same issue, this touchscreen issue got me my phone replaced which was under valid warranty.
You should take it to the respective mobile service centre.


text:
Samsung galaxy s5 doesn't turn on my powerbank Platinet 9000mAh
My powerbank platinet 9000mAh after 5 minutes of standby goes asleep and wakes up when I plug in charger or any device.
When I connect raspberry pi, usb camera, wifi adapter or pendrive my powerbank wakes up. Problem is with my samsung galaxy s5. Nothing happens when plug my smartphone  - powerbank remains in sleeping mode. Firstly I have to connect any other device - then it's wakes up for 5 minutes and I can plug in my samsung and charge.
Where is the problem? There are no  buttons on powerbank.

It looks like the phone is not recognising powerbank as a powersource for reasons unknown. change the USB cable and see if it helps

No, it doesn't help. Weird for me is that - I can charge my smartphone but previously I have to wake up powerbank (By plugging for example wifi adapter into powerbank).

Actually I haven't got any other smartphone nearby so I will check it as fast as it possible. My powerbank have one input 5V/2A and two outputs:
5V/1A & 5V/2.1A - I have checked both. There is no "Iphone port". My stock charger is 5.3V/2.1A, does it matter?

that shoudn't matter- it seems to be a samsung issue ( though no proof to say so)

I have tested powerbank with LG g3. Works fine.

That confirms my gut feeling that it is a Samsung problem - you can write to both Samsung and Powerball guys to see if they can help.


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Screen turns on when I bump phone
I have a Moto E 2015 LTE (surnia) running Lineage OS, Android 7.1.1.  Every time I bump the phone the screen turns on to tell me the time.  I can't find a setting to turn this off.  I couldn't find such a setting in the stock Android either.
Does anyone know if there is a hidden setting somewhere to control this?  I'd be willing to build my own Lineage ROMS if that is what it took.  It looks like modifying com.android.systemui will be necessary.  Does anyone know how to download that code, and build that APK (perferably without building an entire ROM?)
EDIT: A friend clued me in to the fact that this is sort of standard behavior for android phones these days (it's been a while since I had one).  But the question still stands.  I would even be ok with some way to disable the accelerometer completely, if that's what it took.
EDIT 2:  I found out that I can disable this behavior by disabling com.android.systemui.  I am afraid that is a bit too drastic, so perhaps I will browse some source code to see if I can modify just that app, instead of the whole Lineage ROM.  The question remains though, in case anybody knows how I would go about finding and building source code for com.android.systemui.

What do you mean by when bump the phone?

I mean it is sitting on the table, and if it is lifted or moved in almost any direction the screen lights up, and becomes touch sensitive.  I find this very obnoxious; I don't want it on unless I turn on the power.

By "I don't want it on unless I turn on the power", I mean "I don't want the screen to be on or touch sensitive unless I press the power button".

IDK about your OS, not having used it. I am wondering if this behaviour is triggered by an app. To identify the app - Charge the phone fully and run wake lock detector for a few hours (when you don't expect the phone to be used ) watching out for Screen Wakelock (clock menu of app). Look out for which apps are trying to keep the screen awake. If nothing shows up, move the phone and immediately go to this screen to see which app is triggering it (I am guessing it to be some exercise monitor app ) . //

// you could start with installing the app and moving it to see before doing the long test. If you are lucky you can home on to the app. This app can run on non root devices also. If this hypothesis of it being caused by app is correct, uninstalling that app is far less drastic than what you are prepared for. If not, you have rooted out one possibility !

Also, in settings maybe under move or ambient display, see if you have sung like raise or move to wake- i see that pixel phones have it from Google

@beeshyams, thank you for helping.  I checked for those options, but I don't seem to have them.  After installing Wake Lock Detector (which didn't seem to catch what I am observing), I was inspired to start disabling packages en masse to find the package that causing the problem.  Turns out it is com.android.systemui.  I will edit post again.

This sounds awfully lot like Ambient Display at work. It should be in Settings - Display if it exists.

@Andy YES!  got it.  It was under settings -> display -> ambient display, as you say.  I suppose that beeshyams was talking about the same option but for some reason I didn't see it.  If you post an answer, I will award the bounty.

Good it's solved

The behaviour sounds a lot like Ambient Display at work. The toggle for it should be in Settings - Display, if it exists.

EDIT the following screenshots are from the OP's phone.  Notice, the "Ambient Display" element does not have a toggle switch in the image below.

The image below is the submenu that appears upon clicking "Ambient Display".

This was annoying me to no end, thank you.  On my android, "ambient display" item doesn't have a switch, but instead opens a sub menu with an option called "Pick-up: pulse notifications on pick-up", which does have a switch to turn off.  However, the "Ambient display" item on my phone has the same sub-text, which is why I had not considered it might be the problem earlier.  I think this a very confusing UI, because I do want "wake screen when you recieve notifications", but that is not all that "Ambient display" does on my android.  Thank you so much!

@rexroni Motorola phones are known for Moto Display, their own, more powerful implementation of Ambient Display, and those enhanced subfunctions you mentioned are part of it, presumably backed up by extra sensors. That's why they are also getting more than just a simple toggle even when on a custom ROM.

@rexroni good to hear that the issue's solved! If possible, could you provide the screenshot for Motorola's Ambient Display setting? You may also edit this answer and update it with your screenshot to make this answer more correct!


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How to login to Android with Security Key?
I would like to login to my android by my security key.
The phone has NFC support which is the easiest way to authenticate the login if supported.
I am thinking how to accomplish the task by 3rd party app.
The login is well maintained by the OS so not sure if possible at all to change the login way.
Security key: YubiKey Neo (NFC support)
Android: 7.x, 8.x

Not supported by default in Android 7 nor Android Oreo 8.x.


text:
Get logs for file transfer using any medium
Is there any app (using root permission also if possible) using which i can get logs for file transfer using MTP or Over Bluetooth.
I know about SysLog app but does it print MTP logs also.
Any help will be appreciated.

What's the actual problem you're trying to solve? The answer might not be as simple as just installing an app.

I want to find some files are copied from my machine or not on particular day.


text:
Is it possible to migrate an SD card formatted as adopted storage to a new phone without reformatting?
My phone (Moto X Pure 2015, a.k.a. Clark) hates me.  It's a refurb that I doubt was properly fixed, which was a replacement for my last one that had a bad USB port, but the issues didn't start until post-warranty (both original and 90 day for refurb).  My wife decided to get an iPhone, so now I have hers, which is also a refurb, but it still works correctly for the most part.  I would like to migrate everything from my phone to hers...including the 64GB Micro SD card formatted as adopted storage...without formatting the card.
Is this possible? Are there any options that don't include extra memory cards, usb sticks, or computers?  I know I can move everything to an intermediary storage device, or to a new card in the new phone, but if there's a way to do it without that extra step, that would be nice to know. I'm rooted and running nearly the latest Lineage OS nightly (4/3), if that makes a difference, and I'm open to things like key extraction if I can get a good guide on what I actually need to do.

Are both devices rooted?

@beeshyams See my answer. As I wrote, it might have a missing step: I've never tried that, as I don't use adoptable storage (and don't plan to).

@Izzy yes, both devices are rooted

Though you did not (yet) confirm both devices are rooted, this solution might be of interest for those where they are:
Following up to our adoptable-storage tag-wiki, you will find a link to How to decrypt adopted storage? Based on that, the following approach seems feasible:

From the original device, extract the encryption key file located in /data/misc/vold
Copy this file to the new device

There's a missing step, though: As the file has no fixed name, I assume this must be stored in some settings database. So that database entry must be found and added to the new device. On the other hand, the name might as well be derived from the label of the SD card it belongs to.
So basically, this answer might be incomplete – but the approach worth a try. If someone can provide the missing step, please do so in the comments and I'll integrate it here (with credits given, of course).

But even if the encryption key is somehow moved from one device to another, wouldn't this be similar to moving a hard drive from one computer to another? Meaning the files will likely be there but the device probably doesn't know how to use the files or what they are for.

That's especially correct for apps installed on the device and their data, @acejavelin – good points. OP didn't ask for that aspect, and so – shame on me – I didn't think of this. In other words: It might be technically feasible to move the card including its encryption to a different device, but it would be absolutely useless to do so, LOL

@acejavelin Unlike a computer, there are some standards for how storage is used.  I doubt the OS would detect externally installed applications, but theoretically, applications should detect their files.  For instance, TitaniumBackup has been able to reload its config from the card after wiping the device.  A counter-example is Google Play Music, which doesn't recognize downloaded music on the card, and it must be re-downloaded after a wipe (same account, same songs).

@NDGeek I can confirm TiBu – but that's nothing to do with "adoptable storage". Don't mix that with "portable storage" (SD cards): once adopted, it's rather internal  storage, i.e. /data/data & Co. Which is why acejavelin is absolutely correct: even if the card is "successfully transferred", there's rather not much benefit from that.

@Izzy My point is that I can wipe /data via TWRP, ignoring the "internal storage" SD card, and it will effectively reset the device.  However, I don't lose access to the card.  I'm not exactly sure how this ties into the encryption key being located in /data.  It may be that it's actually a copy from another location.  It may also be that the phone stores the encryption key in hardware, and copies it to /data on initial boot, or something else entirely.

@NDGeek you confuse some storage locations. Please check with our storage tag-wiki. The "internal SD card" is only linked below /data, so wiping that partition only removes the link which then is recreated at the next startup. And adoptable storage is not the "internal SD card", though it adopts the "external SD card" as "internal storage". Still I'm confused on how the encryption key file survives that wipe…

@Izzy I apologize if I'm using the wrong terminology.  I believe we're talking about the same components, but I'm using the wrong names.  As for how the key survives the wipe...I don't know if it's Nougat or TWRP specifically, but an XDA comment points to Nougat: "The .key will take care of itself automatically"

@NDGeek a magic key then :)

Tag wiki of the adoptable-storage which you used is a good start point :

When you adopted the external SD card, it is encrypted with a key that is unique - hardware key that is specific to your device ( not common to model). This means you cannot read the SD card on another device, even if same model.According to the [Android documentation][1] :

.. Keys are associated with adopted devices based on the adopted partition GUID...Because the contents of an adopted storage device are strongly tied to the
  Android device that adopted it, the encryption keys should not be extractable
  from the parent device, and therefore the storage device can't be mounted elsewhere.

In other words, you cannot separate the device and external SD card as separate entities to access memory - ( except when device is connected to a laptop )
Technically, it is possible to retrieve the information contained in the card by recovering the key , in the absence of device. Foot note in the wiki offers a couple of methods but you would need access to a computer , which you do not wish to use
There may be another catch - Samsung encryption may be proprietary and details are not made public

To sum it up, your best bet would be to transfer contents to a laptop, and transfer them to the external SD on your new device
Edit: If both devices are rooted there may be a way, which I am not aware of ( seeing Izzy's comment)

I'm sure a TWRP /data backup and restore to new device could do the trick as well if I'm not mistaken. Would be much simpler in my opinion.


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Accessing data after flashing new ROM?
My S6 Edge was stolen so this question is intended to answer some of my fears.
Phone was PIN locked.

Can data from internal storage (like photos) be accessed if a new ROM is flashed and lock is cleared?
Can a new ROM be flashed if device is encrypted?
Does reset via recovery mode console remove the encryption and data?

EDIT:
Some notes
- ROM was all stock
- Usb debug disabled
- No SD card storage expansion on it

Was the device rooted and with custom recovery?

sorry should have mentioned - no, it was all stock, USB debug disabled.

See 2. :)
Yes. But to answer the question behind it: without knowing the passphrase, that wouldn't mean encrypted storage became accessible. Passphrase and key are required to decrypt.
A hard-reset just cuts the power. A factory-reset should remove data and reset the encryption (as it would clear the encryption key along)

What you left out is data on your SD card. If the card was not encrypted, the data of course can be accessed. Otherwise, see 2. again.
As you report your device stolen, beeshyams pointed out another fact that might be of interest to you (in the now cleaned-up comments): Factory reset protection would be an added complication to the thief. That is, if it was available and enabled on your device (FRP was introduced around Android 5.1.1 but only automatically enabled for devices which originally shipped with Android 5+), even when flashing a new ROM the "possessor" would still need your Google credentials in order to use it. There are ways to work around that, but they don't work on all devices and are also not easy to perform.

@beeshyams not flash. Think e.g. of adb shell and adb pull, which are often possible via a custom recovery. Not sure how that deals with encryption then (I know e.g. TWRP can), which is why I originally didn't mention it. I assume, though, that it would require to first enter the passphrase in the custom recovery (how should it decrypt otherwise?) In short, to your original comment: FRP has nothing to do with protecting your data – it's about making the device useless for the "illegal possessor". Which is not what OP wanted to know ;)

thanks. How about if there was no encryption for 1)? Also, by hard reset I meant Volume Up+Home button+Power button which boots in recovery mode and allows wipe. I'm not sure how FRP would work in this case. Not a problem re SD card, didn't have one.

Might be worthwile to note that the device does not show up in my findmymobile.samsung.com account anymore, which I think means the device has been wiped - or at least this is what the samsung rep tried to explain.

@w00t without encryption, a so called "dirty flash" would be able to access your files, provided the lock can be worked around. IOW: that flash wouldn't change anything in this regard, as the lock remains intact – unless it comes with different system defaults (e.g. ADB enabled and no security check on that). And no, a hard-reset is "pulling the battery"; what you describe is a factory reset. I'm not sure concerning FRP either; vaguely remember only one of the two approaches (settings vs. recovery) can kill it; IMHO the one via settings, as there the user was authentified.


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Use an application automatically
Is it possible to first automatically open an application and then automatically click on a few buttons within that app ? Is creating such a profile possible?

You should try Tasker

There is app called automate which probably achieve what ur saying like following examples like

sending message on specific app is running, when like battery percent is n% then do this, etc.

More description on there website

[Require root]use thisapp it's records your touchs and play it as you want like speed and times of cycle


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Calibrate accelerometer?
I'm developing an app that is supposed to measure vertical accelerations, and in the process I've discovered that the accelerometer seems to be uncalibrated. When the phone is lying perfectly horizontal, the Z axis acceleration should be 9.81, but it is about 8.81 (X and Y being roughly 0.0).
I can of course offset the error from within the app by letting the user "calibrate" the app while the phone is lying still. But it seems odd that there is no method within Android to do this - sometimes Google Maps prompts me to calibrate the compass by moving the phone in figure eights - but I have not seen any way to calibrate other sensors... is it possible?
A further problem is that if I turn the phone so the top is facing straight up (up/down in line with the direction of gravity), the offset of the axis' are different from what is expected, and different from the offsets I get when the screen is facing up. This all seems to indicate that the accelerometer is not as accurate as one might think, and when adding rotation to the mix the results get even more skewed...

Thanks for the clarifications that these kinds of apps don't really help. At best a placebo. Will delete my answer since it didn't help and lest others be mislead

Maybe you could decompile and add those inputs to the question to give it more focus on alternate methods as also prevent app based answers


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How can a web page get my phone number via the Google Now browser?
I tapped on one of the cards in Google Now, which took me to breitbart.com. A few seconds later, I got redirected to cinemobi.club and was told that I signed up for a paid subscription to that web site, which was immediately followed by an SMS saying:

FreeMsg:You've subscribed to Cinemobi for £1.99/week.Free for first 24hrs. Unsubscribe? send STOP CINEMOBI to 80206.Need help? Call 08009247988

How is this even possible? I didn't enter my phone number and I'd never entered any personal information in this browser (or Chrome) because I only use Firefox, except when opening a link in Google Now because they don't honour my browser preference by default.
Here's the link I opened originally: http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/04/13/venezuela-socialist-mob-assaults-archbishop-caracas-holy-thursday/
In case it helps, there must be some JavaScript code in that page that made a POST request to cinemobi.club, based on the screen I got when trying to go back:

I'm using a Nexus 5X with the latest patches.

If I may, let me suggest you a browser which is reasonably secure. Rather than using Firefox or Chrome, you may want to opt for IceCatMobile, which (like Firefox) lets you add extensions to further personalize its behavior. I'm suggesting so because my IceCatMobile, with the uBlock extension, blocked 32 requests to other sites, one of which could have caused your redirection to cinemobi.club. I'm not affiliated with any of the abovementioned apps. I recommended IceCat over Firefox due to news of built-in advertising and too much info going back home inside the latter.

Furthermore, I have no real answer to your question. However, as Google likes to install their apps as system apps, they are granted far more control on your system than other software, so beware.


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Where can I find the Caller ID settings on BQ version of Android N?
I have a BQ Aquaris U, which I have upgraded to Android 7.1.1, but now when I call somebody, my number is private. I cannot find where the related setting is moved. Thanks for the help!

After hours of searching among the settings:
Phone -> More options (three dots) -> Settings -> Calling Accounts -> SIM -> Additional Settings and voila, there it is :).

I don't have the same options. It appears that this solution is specific to the phone model.

@ale Or rather, the Phone app in use.

Yes, I believe that only applies to BQ version of Android.

it is there, but it's greyed out. what the heck?

Go to the phone dialling pad screen. Then go into the 3 little dots top right of screen. Select 'Settings', then 'More Settings' and in there you'll find the setting you're looking for.

nope, there is no caller id there (8.0)


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How to upgrade a phone with only 8Gb. internal memory
A relative of mine has a Sony Xperia M4 (E2303), with only 8 Gb. of internal memory. Of course, it comes preloaded with all the Sony bloatware (games centers, music store, etc.) AND all the Google bloatware, and they can't be removed, AFAIK.
Currently, the phone reports only around 320Mb. of free internal memory, and therefore it can't be upgraded to new Android versions, even though they show up as available; when you try to download them, the warning about "not enough memory" appears. The same when you try to upgrade an app like Whatsapp.
We have already moved every app that we could to the external SD card, as well as every photo, music file, etc.; in fact, when you go to "Settings/Storage" to try to transfer data to the card, nothing shows up, because everything that could be moved has been already.
Given this, what are our options in order to upgrade this phone, or its apps?

If I have to install a custom ROM, I will, but I'd like recommendations on whether the existing ones for this model are stable.
If there's any way to delete the unneeded bloatware, that would be great.

320 Mb after moving all the things? Something's not right. Have you cleared Cache from Settings->Storage? If yes, have you tried to factory format it from Settings->Backup & reset?

I'll try clearing the cache the next time I see my relative, thanks for the tip. As for a factory reset, how should I save the data he currently has before doing so? The photos are saved in the SD card; aside of that, he uses Line, WeChat, Google Keep and WhatsApp. Is the data automatically backed up in his Google account? Do these apps save their data in the SD card, if they have been moved there?

Keep and WhatsApp data can be synced from Google after formatting. IDK about Line and WeChat. After formatting apps moved to SD card won't work, you need to reinstall.

Well, I finally found out about what happened, after learning a bit more about how Android works. It turns out that, although the bloatware apps are installed in /system, their updates are installed in /data. In other words: Google and Sony's bloatware not only eat up space in your system partition, but also in the space that is supposedly for the user.
What I did then was to disable every unnecessary app, and hit the "revert to factory version" option (don't remember the exact wording). This way, although you can't delete them from /system nor shrink said partition, at least you free up internal memory. After doing so, we had more than 900 Mb. of free space, and so we could update the apps that my relative actually wants to use.


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Streaming TV audio to Android device through Wi-Fi
I have an LG Smart TV and I want to hear its audio on my smartphone with headphones.
Another possibility is to use two smartphones, one connected to the TV by P2 cable and another receiving the audio from the smartphone.
I want to do this through Wi-Fi. I do not want to buy more devices, so I want to use my smartphone.
Is it possible, like using an app for this?

It's just not possible.
Setting your smartphone aside for a moment, even assuming you have an extraordinarily stable WiFi signal, transmitting audio over WiFi would introduce enough latency to ruin your day.
In some cases, the transmitter side could introduce a delay on the video stream to compensate for the audio delay (forget about gaming or anything like that in this case). Your LG TV might have a "AV Sync Adjustment" option, but even then, this might not be enough.
In any case, your TV will not cast audio by itself and here we come to your "second phone" as transmitter. The phone is unlikely to have a line-level audio input, and even if you still have a phone with a 3.5mm audio jack, that is a microphone input. To make things worse, this input is MONO.
Your

I don't want to buy more devices

rules out any other type of audio input adapter for your transmitter phone. I'd say this is a dead end.


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Download apps that are listed as being incompatible with my device in the Play Store
After installing Cyanogenmod on my Samsung S3 mini, I have found that the Play Store does not offer any additional apps. For some of the apps, I assume the only requirement I am missing is a newer version of Android, as I have been able to use them successfully when installed from a third party source (which is potentially dangerous).
I want to get apps that I know work with my device from the Play Store. Is there a way to do this?

And which are these additional apps the playstore should offer?

@xangua The only thing I could think about are CMTE themes, but they're visible anyway.

Market Helper works perfectly, if your device is rooted. It can spoof another device on a different carrier.


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My coolpad note 3 lite is not switching on
It is off and i cannot switch it on. While charging i press power button nothing happens only the led glows to show charging. It is not getting recovery mood also.
I think power button might got defected. I don't know. Please help me fast and urgent.

if you use an sd card try discarding it and then switch on then you can now power on your phone

Do you have dropped it? Probably power button can be broken then. If not then try to find a reset switch lot of tablets have a small hole labeled as reset where you can insert a small pin and holding it will reset your tablet. This problem constantly happens with me but resting it helps. Don't worry none of your data will be affected.

Isn't that a rear microphone??

It will be labeled as reset not mic

ther is nothing to reset in coolpad note 3 lite

I think you should to try to fix that power button. If it still won't work then try reinstall firmware.


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Download stops with no msg
I'm trying to get apps and I have plenty of storahe but about half a second after download starts it stops with no message

Which browser are you using?

As I understand, maybe you could not have connection on the Internet or broadband on your mobile device. But please give more information. I hope it helps.


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What are that symbols mean especilly the red point and the circled phone

What are that symbols mean especilly the red point and the circled phone is it a call recorder

This link shows the similar red dot in the notification
Yes, It seems to be call recorder notification.


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Need help installing Whatsapp on a new phone
I recently upgraded my phone to a newer model. My old phone was rooted (using Kingroot) and I had somehow installed a program that allowed me to force moving an app to the SD card, which is what I did with Whatsapp since it used up the available space extremely quickly.
On my new phone (which I installed the same SD card, but wiped it), when I try to open up Whatsapp, I get:

Unfortunately my device doesn't even have 2.6 GB total free space after all the system apps eat up most of the storage, however the SD card is empty and has plenty of space.
In my Whatsapp backup on Google Drive I have lots of things I don't even want backed up. Is there a way to manually edit the backup in Google Drive and remove some of the large files to reduce the size and be able to back it up with the space I have on my device?
If not, if I root my device again (which I would really prefer not to do) and move Whatsapp to the SD card again, would that fix the problem, or is it still going to keep looking in the internal storage to restore the backup?
Or let me know if you have an easier solution. I simply don't want to lose some of the photos and videos there as well as chat history.
Note: I tried doing https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout, however the archive created when I select Google Drive is only about 150 MB - nowhere near what my Whatsapp backup is.

Possible duplicate of I don't want my Whatsapp Media to restore (Google Drive BackUp)!

@xavier_fakerat That doesn't answer my question. That's only about deleting the entire backup. My question states that I want to only delete some, but not all files from the backup so that it will fit on my phone.

If you want to download your whatsapp application data from Google Drive, here's a tool for that. You can then delete any media you wish and restore your messages and the remaining media back into WhatsApp.


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How can I fix virus-infected USB flash drive using my Android (via USB otg)?
My USB flash drive was plugged into an infected PC, and now it contains viruses. Actually, that flash drive was filled with stuff I wanted to transfer to my Android. So I decided to use that flash drive on my phone anyway (via otg) considering those PC viruses would not affect an Android. It went well in the beginning, I transferred files successfully, but now the flash drive shows size 0 bytes when I connect it to phone.
Is there any app that could help me?
My phone is sadly non rooted and I can't root it without PC I guess.

Did you try formatting it?

I still had some files on it which I needed....

You can try recovering them later

I decided to get it to a PC after finding no solution. So should I delete this question or let it stay here?

Let it stay. May be someone some days will find a solution


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Power Down a Locked Device
So I brought a Samsung S7 while on a trip, quickly ran through the setup, adding a fingerprint and a pattern password. I didn't pay much attention to the pattern password, as I had the fingerprint.
What I didn't realise is that you need the pattern password every time you power on, and now I've forgotten it.
What I'm now trying to do is turn the phone off, so I can turn it back on using Power + Volume + Home combination and reset the phone. But it seems to be asking for my pattern before it can turn off.
So how can I turn the phone off?

Try power button + volume down at the same time for about 10 secs or more

adb shell reboot -p should power off

Holding the power button for a very long time should force a power down

I wasn't able to turn it off, but what I was able to do was restart it, and then hold the button combination mentioned in the question.


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How to access the RecycleBin or trash folders and recover deleted files?
Deleted a file, with the option to delete permanently unchecked. Tried to retrieve it then, only to find out that Android has no visible recycle bin...

When deleting files with the option to delete permanently unchecked, they do go to a RecycleBin folder or trash folder if you delete them using an app that lets you see the files you deleted.
There are actually ways that allow you to access and browse those folders and all invisible folders, even without root access, you can recover images this way using DiskDigger.

Android has no "Trash Folder". Maybe your file manager provides one but with no info provided, we cannot determine how it is. Usually unchecking such an option like "Delete Permanently" just disables file shredding, which is far different from moving to a "Trash Folder".

I have Asus ZenFone Selfie (Z00UD) with Android 6.0.1.
And it allows to view deleted photos from the gallery by unchecking such option, hence my assumption. I thought that there should be a different app to see more files besides photos.

Very sadly the feature of keeping deleted photos is provided by the specific gallery app, not the Android OS. AFAIK very few apps have such a feature.


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Downgrade Galaxy Grand Prime SM-G530H to Kitkat
I upgraded my SM-G530H to 5.0.2 via the phone Software Updater a long time ago. Now I want to downgrade it and flash the stock 4.4.4 ROM via Odin but it fails with this log
<ID:0/010> Added!!
<ID:0/010> Odin v.3 engine (ID:10)..
<ID:0/010> File analysis..
<ID:0/010> SetupConnection..
<ID:0/010> Initialzation..
<ID:0/010> Get PIT for mapping..
<ID:0/010> Firmware update start..
<ID:0/010> aboot.mbn
<ID:0/010> NAND Write Start!!
<ID:0/010> FAIL! (Auth)
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)

After some search people say the ROM must have the same baseband version to flash. But I can't find any Kitkat ROM on SamMobile that match my baseband (it's looks like Kitkat baseband is different from Lollipop's one)
So anyone can share a method to downgrade to stock Kitkat on SM-G530H?
I had previously installed a custom recovery (TWRP 3.1.0) and my baseband version is G530HXCS1BQA1

Most devices would not allow a downgrade, at least not a downgrade operation that involves the bootloader.

I know what the bootloader is but can you explain the "involves the bootloader" part? I'm still new in the android customizer world.

If the downgrade process downgrades the bootloader itself, usually it will not be allowed.


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Weird package "com.google.ccc.abuse.droidguard.droidguasso"
Recently my phone shows "Android is starting Optimizing App 1 of 1" at every boot. I intercepted this and found it running dex2oat in this way
/system/bin/dex2oat --runtime-arg -classpath --runtime-arg /system/framework/XposedBridge.jar --instruction-set=arm64 --instruction-set-features=default --runtime-arg -Xnorelocate --boot-image=/system/framework/boot.art --dex-file=/data/data/com.google.android.gms/app_fb/f.apk --oat-fd=45 --oat-location=/data/data/com.google.android.gms/app_fb/f.dex --runtime-arg -Xms64m --runtime-arg -Xmx512m
I also managed to grab a copy of the APK. The original APK and DEX disappears after dex2oat is done. Its package ID is com.google.ccc.abuse.droidguard.droidguasso and it's only 6.5KB in size. There's not even a META-INF folder in the APK. Google shows no exact result about it.
I'm afraid whether it's a malware but I can't find out anything more. Can anyone help me?
I have the intercepted APK uploaded to Dropbox.
Edit: Got rid of it by creating a blank file at /data/data/com.google.android.gms/app_fb. But I still wonder about its malice (if so).

@DeathMaskSalesman Yes I do. Its MD5 is 8326f83bbec520d3077c8106e5bf889b. 6582 bytes in size.

Disclaimer
This APK's code is obfuscated, hence it's difficult to ascertain its purpose. For those who have doubts concerning my analysis — and I encourage you to —, feel free to download the decompiled APK from my MEGA account.

Analysis
First and foremost, I'd like to state that there are five characteristics of this code that made me think:

the code is obfuscated;
no permissions are ever declared inside the AndroidManifest.xml;
even if the code itself is obfuscated, there are strings which mention EGL, shaders and rendering;
a method in the code probes the device's graphic card;
this APK is not signed.

As for point 1, I often decompiled Google's apps, and they do like to obfuscate their code.
Point 2 greatly limits the potential nefarious actions an app can perform, as long as the app doesn't inherit its permissions by another app.
Points 3 and 4 seems to hint at a software which is devoted to draw on the display.
Point 5 is fascinating, as Android's package installer doesn't normally allow installing unsigned packages.

Guess
My guess is that this is a piece of software developed from Google, by Google. The APK is unsigned, but it might theoretically be installed by a system app, thus bypassing the signature restriction.

I have reason to believe that com.google.ccc.abuse.droidguard.droidguasso is Droidguard (a Google safety tool). There's minimal information about it on the web, and the best source for SafetyNet information (which is related to Droidguard) has explicitly said that he would not publish information on it as it would only be useful to attackers. Touching on the other answer, SafetyNet is not an obfuscated package, and just contains the classes.dex file. As Droidguard is indeed obfuscated whereas SafetyNet isn't, my guess is that Droidguard evolves slower than SafetyNet.


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Pull data from disabled device
I have a Samsung Galaxy S6, with a completely disabled screen. I want to pull recent images and data from it. USB Debugging is enabled, but the phone needs a passcode for me to access its' data. Is there any way I can enter the passcode or access the data remotely?


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How to install Android through CWM after accidentally deleting it
I have the Android phone Lava Iris X1. Unfortunately I have deleted my operating system in my phone. I want to install a new version of Android (Lollipop) on my phone with the help of Clockworkmod recovery. Please help me to do this.

It's vital to search for some information, before attempting to change your system or parts of it. It's not too trivial of a task.

sir my operating system is deleted how can i recover please help me to fix this problem

@Death Mask Salesman i am make backup and search all knowledge about them but unfortunately my Operating system is deleted Please help me To fix this


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is there a way to know what Uri the apps on my phone connect to?
there's one app on my phone that i need to know exactly what Uri it uses to connect to it's server. is there a way to find out how?
tl:dr - i'm not trying to hack or damage, and actually the app is developed by the company i started work for, and the guy before me wrote the Uri, but as he removed the source code when he left. Now my boss has only said to me "find it", and now as i'm extremely new to server stuff, i see no other way to recover it other than finding out what uri the app uses.

By decompiling the app may be?

@esQmo no, that wont help in my current situation!

look for a software called wireshark
easy way look at your router maybe in
the support options to capture the network traffic to the router. On android maybe this app PacketCapture hard way device in your network that can run wireshark with a network card that can run in the promiscuous mode and that can act as gateway for your mobile
open this capure file in wireshark
here you have many options to analyze the net packages i.E. Statistics -> HTTP -> Requests
you could export the result to maybe filter

Wireshark
Promiscuous mode

This could be the basis of a good answer but to be really helpful you'll need to describe how to do this.

@SIMMORSAL ... what router model are you own?

I could get my hands on the uri by other means, but as this answer could be a good backup plan, i will mark it. And thanks.

Android app on playstore like "APK EDITER" can do your work. It opens the source code of the app and you can get the URL .

and it if works, can you please give full details step by step on how to achieve this.

Thanks, but the app is a unity game, and the uri has been inputted in inspector, not directly in the codes.


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Android Strange Display Multipled [virtualbox]
I don't know what's the category of this problem. But i only encountered this in several apps that runs under my emulator of Android 4.1.1 under VirtualBox.

What should i do to resolve this problem?

Does your graphics card/driver support the emulator?

@esQmo, i dont think it's about graphic card. Bcoz the display, it works fine on another app... home screen, settings, etc... but only several apps showing this kind of strange thing. Any other clue?


text:
Is it possible to view and intercept android's activity launch from a PC
I know when a particular activity is launched (for a particular app) it may or may not require additional arguments. Also, if an activity is exported then I (or any other app in the device) can launch it manually using adb activity manager like
am start -n yourpackagename/.activityname

If needed, I can add arguments with this command using -e flag as well.
So here is what I expect:
Is there a way which can detect the launch of an android activity and show details such as the package name, name of the activity that is being launched, the arguments which are passed to the activity during launch, etc. I can do this with tools such as Drozer also
We all know about intercepting proxies such as OWASP ZAP or Burp which intercepts http requests and show us the headers and body data. I am looking for such a solution. Can this be done?


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Android Lollipop 5.0.1 apps cache saved in apps data Example:
In Android Lollipop 5.0.1: cache are stored within apps data. Example:
Facebook app had saved 400mb, not as a deletable cache but as app data. When I want to free up space I have to clear data and log in again and again... How to solve this issue?

The most sensible solution - not to use FB, and the apps like FB:) Such crap is not worth of having it on the device.

The problem is that not only fb but all apps have the same issue


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Android 6.0, backing up SD card before reformatting
I use Vodafone Tab Prime 7 (Android 6.0.1; hardware remotely based on Alcatel One Touch) with 32GB Samsung SD card (almost 30 gb full). I was using in for a few months but now with all my apps installed (many of them moved to SD card), my android started to be rather slow and it often happens that it restarts on its own or gets stuck with apps that are on the SD card. I want to reformat my SD card (and in the same time clear some garbage) but I do not want to lose my apps (nor I do want to install them all over again, there is many of them). My plan is to move all the files on the SD to a computer, but because the SD card is formatted as an internal partition I am not able to do that.
What is the best way to back up all my data on SD card, and put them safely back after I reformat the SD card (which I suppose will fix half my problems, correct memory errors atp.)?
Can I simply copy them via Android-PC usb connection? (I am not sure if it will copy all the necessary data). And if I would somehow set the sd card as external, copy all the data to PC, would there be a way how I could put all those data back after reformatting the card?
I will probably figure it out somehow, but I would like to know more secure ways of doing it.

What means formatted as an internal partition?

Or 'formatted to be used internally'. My tablet and many others offer a possibility to format the SD card that way so the device could use it. Its not optional.

So you speak about regular formatting by the means on tablet. Why don't you able to do backup to PC? I mean copy to PC->format->restore from PC. Any error?

I gladly would if PC would in any way recognize the SD card formatted specifically for internal use. Its not visible (unless reformated as to be used externally as a regular data storage, which would delete all my data).

How do you format internally and to be used externally? Describe the menu path you use in both cases.

When inserting the SD card to the tablet device, the device writes smth like: In order to use the sd card as an internal storage …

http://www.theandroidsoul.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/sd-3.png

Ok, I assume under internal system means ExFAT filesystem, and under portable it means simple FAT32. So the card is not visible to PC neither via card-reader, nor when the phone connected by cable?

Thanks for the info. Card is not surely visible via card-reader. When connected by cable, as a write in OP, some contect is visible, but I doubt that its all (I will check) and I am not sure if it can be copied this way directly, and then copied back (for example if it copies all files required for it to work again after reformating). I want to be sure that it works before I give it a try. Thats a part of my original question.

Try to install DiskInfo and tell me the exact filesystem on your card.

So far DiskInfo does not show the SD card. I will look into it later today. So far I found this topic, something in it could help. http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/134230/sd-card-not-showing-files-when-connected-to-pc  http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/38745/check-and-fix-sd-card-errors-within-android-itself

As you state that

some content is visible, but I doubt that its all

I assume that by the means of tablet your card is visible and accessible. You doubts about incompleteness of displayed files are groundless, because usually most of the app data is hidden, that's why you don't see it.
I see two solutions here:

Install TWRP or any other custom recovery which allows doing full NanDroid backup.
Steps for making backup in TWRP are quite simple and described in many tutorials, e.g. this.
Gain root on the tablet (if not having already) and make manual partition backup via ADB.

After you set up ADB and gain root access, you can make backup with:
adb pull /dev/block/mmcblk0

and restore it with
pv mmcblk0 | adb shell dd of=/dev/block/mmcblk0

where mmcblk0 is the name of your card, which can be taken from the DiskInfo, for example.
You should decide which approach is simpler for you.
P.S. I highly doubt that reformatting card will fix your errors and memory issues. Their cause seems to be in installed apps, not in filesystem.

Thank you for the extended description. I will look into it. Concerning memory errors and crashing, it happens from time to time with any app that is moved on the sd card. (It was not happening few months before as often as now. I get random notifications like "app X stopped working", and its really arbitrary.)

I took the common user approach. Uninstalled most apps manually. Slowly completely reformatted the SD card, installed apps again. Works splendidly for now, no crashes. I hope that these more advanced guidelines will help others with similar needs.


text:
What Android 6 (marshmallow) change prompted for systemless rooting?
Since Android 6 , Chain fire used Systemless rooting for installing SU binaries or for rooting purpose in general.
I was curious to know what changes in operating system prompted for systemless rooting in the first place. Was it just safety net api detecting old rooting methods or was there an Android OS or other api's change ?
In particular Which enhancement listed here does it get affected with and how ?


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Change Arabic digits to English while phone language is Arabic
Every time I set Arabic language it comes with Arabic digits, and could make them English Format by MoreLocale 2 App, that needs grant with adb permission.CHANGE_CONFIGURATION.
Now I would do this without 3rd party apps, I didn't find anything similar in build.prop file, and I don't know how ?

Arabic digits : (٠ - ١ - ٢ - ٣ -٤ - ٥ - ٦ - ٧ - ٨ - ٩)

Are you asking how to make the same locale change without using any apps? Why?

@DanHulme Yes I want to change the language in the phone settings to Arabic but keep English digits, I believe it's only 2 letters change because if I set language to AR and location to DZ, in the app mentioned in the main question then it will be set to to English digits + Arabic language that's what I want to do without 3rd party app.


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Samsung S7 - Facebook Messenger Drains A Lot of Data
I have the fb messenger app on my phone which I use regularly, but in all the months I've used my phone, I've never surpassed 50 MB per month of data usage for that app.
About 2 weeks ago, I got the Nougat 7 update, and I believe ever since then (it started happening around the same time) my Messenger app has been draining data. Within a week, it used about 500 MB of background data.
Is there anyway I can fix this?

It's very bizzare that messenger using heavy data.
The possibilities are:
• May be you have shared a video to few contacts and it is using data!
• May be you have clicked a big video file and switch to another app(video is still loading and using data to finish it to the end of video).
Or
• Viewing videos frequently shared by someone.
If these things are excluded, it may be a bug.
• See playstore if there is an update.
Or try clearing Cache and Data and log in again then observe data usage.