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Is it possible for an Android alarm clock app to not turn on the screen when it rings?
Recently, I asked this question requesting recommendations for an Android alarm clock that does not turn on the screen when it rings on Software Recommendations StackExchange.
The reason I do not want the screen to come on while the alarm is ringing is because I want to reduce battery drain while the alarm is ringing.
I have yet to receive any responses, and I'm still searching for such an app.  That got me wondering: Is it even possible for an Android alarm clock app to not turn on the screen when it rings?

Definitely possible the app decides if just a tune is played or other actions are taken. My favorite Teatimer works this way. You may need to change some config settings.

@Robert Thanks Robert.  I'm looking at Teatimer now to see if it can also work as an alarm clock.  How can one tell if it is actually leaving the screen off vs. displaying all black pixels?

@Robert I might have figured out a method to determine if the screen is just filled with black pixels or is actually in standby (which I'm not sure if that's the same as screen off... do you know?).  Many Android devices have an LED that will illuminate when the device is charging and is in standby.  From what I can tell, that LED is not illuminated when the device is charging and not in standby.  So that LED may be a good indicator.  I'm not sure if this technique works in all cases though.

@Robert I tested the Teatimer app you recommended, and the LED I mentioned stays illuminated when the timer sounds, so if my test is accurate, then it looks like the screen is truly off.  (Curious if you know of another test.)

Are you talking about the notification LED? That LED is just an LED without any connection to the screen. It can be addressed by any app if I remember correctly via the notification system. In any way you can also disable blinking in timer settings.

@Robert Yes, the notification LED.  In this case, I'm just using it as a possible technique to see if the screen is really off or just filled with black pixels.  Do you know of a better way?

As I said the LED has nothing to do with the screen. And why would someone show a black screen? I am not sure if this is possible at all if the device is locked. I would check logcat for screen events.

@Robert To answer your question, see https://github.com/JonasBernard/FakeStandby


text:
Gmail app repeatedly notify for the same email
When I receive an email, there will be a push notifcation from the Gmail app. If I leave it unattended, it will pop up again and again.
I set the sync frequency at every 15 minutes in order to get notified as soon as possible. However, it seems that every time the account syncs, it will notify me about any unread emails. The notification will just keep popping up until I read the email. Is there a way to only notify once for each unread email?
I found something called "Notify once" in the gmail account settings, but not in other accounts' settings (like outlook accounts).

Are you talking about a gmail mail account or an third party IMAP/POP3 account configured in GMail app?

I'm talking about all accounts I set up in the Gmail app. It seems to be an issue with the app. The Outlook app seems not to have this issue (same email accounts).

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Boot Linux from stick in Termux
This question explains in detail why it's basically impossible to boot Linux from a USB stick.
But I am still wondering: is it possible to load and "boot" a stick-bound Linux distro from a USB stick using the Termux terminal app? It can already access files from sticks and run other distros like Arch, so I'd imagine it to be quite possible.
I'm open about the specifics. I'll take whatever distro works.
The idea is to setup a stick-bound persistent Linux instance for specific tasks. I want to run this Linux both on PC and android through the same USB-Stick, although I'd settle for an android-only solution at this point.

A Linux that works on Andorid devices (ARM) and PCs (x86) does not exist. The kernel and all binaries have to be compiled for one specific architecture.

You cannot "boot" Linux from a USB stick due to the limitations explained in the answer you already linked. But you can always run any Linux environment using chroot from any storage media that works on your device, using any terminal app. But make sure your distro is built for your device architecture, as Robert said. PCs are usually x86_64 and mostly Android devices are ARM. But x86 PCs and phones also exist. Arch is explained in this answer: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/208132/218526

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


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I want to clear data on whatsapp to recover my messages but i lost the number would whatsapp send a message to the umber?
The sole reason for doing this is that I blocked and reported a contact and the contact blocked me too and I need the messages back but I don't have the old number I used to open the WhatsApp how do I get those messages back

Running WhatsApp with a phone number you don't have access to is a very bad idea. You should always migrate the account to the new number: https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/account-and-profile/about-changing-phone-numbers

I'll go a step further: "Running WhatsApp is a very bad idea."  ;)

WhatsApp will send verification code to your old number. Without thay, you can't restore chat backup.


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Can 2 mobile devices detect each other's presence using NFER technology?
If 2 mobile devices are in the same room can they identify each other or detect the presence of each other by using Near-field electromagnetic ranging (NFER) technology ?
And the second question is what technologies give  such an opportunity at all ?

When I understand the Wikipedia article on NFER correctly this requires special hardware that is not yet present in Smartphones. Therefore this questions seems theoretical to me (which means that it is Android independent).
Regarding your question what other technologies can be used to detect devices in the same room I would like to reverse the question:
What other technologies can not be used for such a purpose. Using some creative use of technologies like Bluetooth, Wifi, GPS, NFC, mobile network you can for certain use cases invent usage schemes that allow to detect devices nearby.

NFC (hold devices next to each other)
Accelerator sensor + mobile network ("bump devices to communicate")
Wifi (open a mobile hotspot, or Wifi-direct)
GPS + mobile network: devices with the same location
Bluetooth - devices in range
Speaker + microphone: use audio tones with frequencies non-recognizable by humans to communicate between devices
...

Nearly every sensor or technology provided by an Android smartphone can be used to establish a communication between two or more devices, depending on the sensor, the situation, the devices and so on. You just have to be creative and know the limitations of each technology.


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Galaxy Note 3 blacks out on rebooting at lock screen
I'm having trouble rebooting Samsung Galaxy Note 3, where it starts rebooting after holding lock button, but blacks out when/before it reaches lock screen. After blacking out (or before rebooting) it toggles empty charging battery logo in intervals and vibrates in between. As shown in the video here.
I just replaced new battery with the old one and got same behavior. However, when I connected phone to power supply (battery taken out, connected 3.8V straight to the pins), phone boots up perfectly normal and operates normally, as if nothing happened in the first place. This might be worth mentioning; the current supply, mean reboot sequence, can be pretty high (some times, e.g. right before it gets to lock screen, there is a current spike of 1A - 1.5A) but drawn current is lowered few seconds after boot to cca 200 mA and only spikes up (then back down) if any application is opened (that is, if there is action).
So that got me thinking that old battery is incapable of supplying needed current for reboot, but doesn't look like that this is it, since response is the same as in the case of new battery (got original).
EDIT: I just accidentally found out if I short negative pin of battery and another one in between negative and positive pin, while phone is rebooting, it reboots normally, without issues and operates normally further on, even if shorted connection between those two pins is removed.
Also am able to reboot it normally from now on and don't need to short those two pins each time on reboot sequence.

The third pin which you shorted is usually the battery health pin (see this answer. This pin is used by the OS to monitor the battery status. My guess is that for some reason (dirty terminal? Loose contact?) that was not connected properly, leading the OS to being unable to read the battery health and therefore the symptoms as in video // I suggest cleaning the terminal (light sandpaper) and if the problem persists, use a small strip of aluminum foil folded to make a perfect connection between the third battery pin and the terminal

@Keno Before you managed to make it work again have you tried to get the battery status as shown by various hardware info apps? Would be really interesting if the shown battery data were looking normal.


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Android ignores DHCP "Search domain" unless it's on a VPN
So I have a single subnet, flat LAN, multiple wired access points all in bridge mode.
I have ISC-DHCP server and Bind9 DNS server configured for dynamic DNS hosts etc.  The DNS provides a local zone of my public domain, *.lan.publicdomain.com but is not externally marked as a server for that domain.  Thus internal *.lan. hosts are on the LAN server and *.publicdomain.com hosts are on the external public DNS at 123reg.
I also have an OpenVPN port open on the public IP.  Externally vpn.publicdomain.com leads to my current IP.
It all works, I can be on the VPN on 4G or public wifi ... or be on my local wifi and access all my LAN hosts either way.  I can actually be on both my local Wifi and VPN at the same time.
The android issue is that while on the VPN going to say:
http://somehost:8080/
Will resolve correctly to somehost.lan.publicdomain.com and the site will open.
If however I disconnect from VPN and just connect to my bare Wifi, my phone will still access somehost, but it will not resolve it without specifying the FQDN.  It's like it will accept the search-domain from the VPN DHCP pool, but it will not accept it from the ISC-DHCP server locally.
Is this something to do with Android forcing DNS to avoid adblocks?  Only when on VPN they can't get away with doing that as it's insecure and corporate types would object loudly.
I should note that all normal LAN clients, like Windows10, Linux etc, all honor the search domain in DHCP.  Just not the android in LAN mode.
Phone is MotoG5 Plus, android: 8.1.0

Check Android network settings if "Private DNS" (or similar) is enabled. If it is enabled it may ignore your local DNS config outside of VPN. Not sure if it would make a difference if your local DNS server would support DNS over TLS or HTTPS.

Related answers: https://android.stackexchange.com/search?q=user%3A218526+%22search+domain%22

The issue appeared to resolve itself.  I think it might have been some complicated negative DNS caching because I only added the LAN DHCP search domain later and tried to test it.
I wouldn't have expected it be cache as switching back and forward between connections and one resolved and one didn't, on either connection it resolves to the same IP.


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How to enable USB debugging from TWRP recovery
I have a android device with dead screen. I have installed TWRP recovery for adb interactions while in recovery. I have lineage os 16.0 (Android 9) on my device. I want to access the device screen via using scrcpy. But I don't have developer mode enabled meaning USB debugging is not enabled.
How do I enable USB debugging while in TWRP recovery?
Host device will be windows PC with ADB installed.
I have seen some online guide as in how to push RSA key. from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30178911/how-to-authorize-and-accept-adb-rsa-key-with-broken-touch-screen-on-android. It says I should use
cd ~/.android then
adb push adbkey.pub /data/misc/adb/adb_keys
Is this still applied in Android 9 or lineage os 16.0? Since this guide is little dated.
Note: I search for simmilar topic and all the answers are about how to back up the phone not how to enable USB debugging. This is not what I want. All I want to know is how to enable USB debugging through editting files while in recovery adb.

https://android.stackexchange.com/q/213116 add entry in /data/local.prop. before using scrcpy delete other adb.exe which comes bundled (or set environment variable 'ADB=path/to/adb.exe'). concatenate files 'cat adbkey.pub >> adb_keys' instead of adb push


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The normal directories of storage of this app is empty. Does it got anything to do with my phone being unrooted?
There is an educational app in my android phone that allows me to download videos for studying them offline. I have downloaded a lot of videos and have my storage filling up to the brink because of it.
I would like to transfer those videos from my phone to my android emulator on my PC.
I have opened

Internal Shared Storage > Android > data > com.emedicoz.app

It turns out to be empty! I have got 3.5 GB of data for this particular app and there is nothing showing over here!
I have accessed data of other apps using this similar directory and been successful at it. But this app's data shows empty.
I have tried backing up this app using third party apps but they are not successful in backing up any data more specifically any videos. They only backup some configuration and settings.
How do I access the data of this app? My phone is not rooted and I don't have an SD card on it. Does it have any bearing?
PS: I have Android 9 PKQ1.18

The linked question might seem technical. If you can see data on "Internal Shared Storage" without root, then it's actually the "external storage". However, there's also "internal storage" that can only be accessed with root access.

I solved my problem. My device was unrooted which is why I can't view any files in the directory. I tested root access with an android emulator for the app and Tadaa! I am able to access ALL the files!


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TWRP 3.3.1 help
I'm using TWRP 3.3.1 right now with device with dead screen. So I need to use adb commands to do backup and wipe. I did read the commandline guide available at https://twrp.me/faq/openrecoveryscript.html. I believe client side/script is supposed to be used in recovery adb shell right?
Given that it is correct. I am trying to backup and wipe my partitions. Problem is wipe command, format command, and backup command does not work. I checked that mount command works.
Help me with the solution and if the available commands differ in 3.3.1 please let me know what are all available commands.
note: it seems like shell script use script in /sbin/sh if this is incorrect shell script to be used tell me which shell script i am suppose to use and how to chroot to it (is that even correct term?)

what exact command did you type, and what is the error message? 'adb pull /tmp/recovery.log' will tell you

@alecxs i tried backup and wipe  both command were "not found" it means either it is not available in 3.3.1 or different in 3.3.1 So I need to know the way around.

that is not exact command, you are missing prefix twrp and arguments

@alecxs well that worked like a charm. The guide at TWRP was not clear enough for me. Thanks.


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Can android mobile device support the access to WiFi (No internet) and Mobile data which provides internet at the same time?
Question: I would like to connect android mobile device to WiFi Router (No internet) and to use mobile data simultaneously. The use case is, one android application works on LAN created by WiFi router and other applications (e.g. gmail, youtube etc) work using mobile data. I would like to use all these applications together on a mobile device.
I tried this but I am able to connect to either WiFi or mobile data but not both at the same time. I have used different phones for e.g. Samsung, Redmi running on Android 9, 10, 11. I have got the same results.
Maybe, this question has already been asked many times in the past. I have found answers like the mobile device shall support "Multi path TCP" technology, the mobile device needs to be rooted, the mobile device needs to be in developer option etc.
I don't want to root my phone and I don't want to use developer options.
How to check which phones support this kind of operation? If it is not supported, what can be the limitation - it is a hardware or Android OS which does not support it? How to check all this?

Multi path TCP is unrelated to what you want. This is more for linking multiple Internet connections for redundancy and speed. Additionally it requires a special multipath server on the Internet that all used Internetconnections address and that unpacks the Multi path TCP stream. Therefore this technology is more like a VPN connection using multiple Internet connections at the same time.


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Why did my WiFi, bluetooth and hotspot stop working all of a sudden?
I had this very awkward experience, today. My Samsung Galaxy A10s running Android 10 has ran into some serious trouble. I am shocked to find that my Wi-Fi is not turning on, my bluetooth is frozen and my hotspot is also not turning on. I do not realize, why this is happening. I am not a regular Wi-Fi user, I prefer Mobile networks, and it is extremely shocking to find that my device is not properly working.
My attempts to fix this

I tried clearing the cache memory, of all apps, individually one by one, freeing up almost 120+ MB from internal memory.

I tried booting into safe mode, and then tried to enable Wi-Fi / hotspot/bluetooth, but still my efforts were all in vain.

I updated it manually to get the latest patches. But, still it is not fixed.

I tried resetting the network settings to default, but, still, my problems still persist.

I do not know what else to do, to save my phone. All these features, that I lost are very very important to me. I humbly request to help me. Every help will greatly appreciated.

Did the device install any updates recently (check security update date)? If not the only option is to save all your files and perform a factory reset. If after the FR Wifi/Bluetooth still do not work it will be most likely a hardware problem (Bluetooth and Wifi is usually provided by the same chip).

@Robert Thankyou, for the reply. After I got this problem, I updated my phone, thinking that the update would fix it. But it didn't do anything. Also, I'm not in a position to do factory reset! How can the chip get damaged?

Chips are aging just like humans. Additionally circuits can break and cables as used for antennas can break, too.

@Robert This phone, in question is only one and a half year old. And the WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities are turned on / used only when needed. Everything was working quickly and fast, just the day before all these problems surfaced.

It's common for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Hotspot to break together in Samsung devices since the OEM uses low-end hardware implementation for that part in budget devices. I myself have 2 Samsung devices (one budget, one midranger) and a Samsung T561 with the same issue.
So yes, its a hardware issue


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Able to text and use internet, but no phone calls
It is a refurbished Yureka Note.
I added a newly activated sim in it. It's sending and receiving text messages. After saving the gprs/mms settings sent by mobile operator, I am able to use internet (which is pretty fast) as well.
However, despite trying variety of things, I am unable to make or receive calls on it. When I tried calling it from another number it says: outside network coverage.
Given that signal is full, my guess is that this has something to do with no VoLTE support in this phone.
I tried many options from ##4636## also. If I select WCDMA/GSM only then there is no signal. When I use LTE only, there is signal but calling to it says Line Busy.
Is there any way to make calling work on this device with this sim?

You are correct LTE has no own voice service, only VoLTE can be used in a pure LTE environment. If 2G 3G or CDMA Carriers are available and supported by the phone they will be used for phone calls. But those old systems are sometimes already switched off by some mobile network operators.


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How to decrypt /sdcard | Keymaster HAL 4 | Unexpected value for crypto key location
-Update:
Looked into TWRP log, and it seems like it has key problems:
I:Setting up '/data' as data/media emulated storage.
I:mount -o bind '/data/media' '/sdcard' process ended with RC=0
I:mount -o bind '/data/media/0' '/sdcard' process ended with RC=0
I:File Based Encryption is present
e4crypt_initialize_global_de
Determining wrapped-key support for /data
fbe.data.wrappedkey = true
Wrapped key supported on /data
calling retrieveAndInstallKey
Key exists, using: /data/unencrypted/key
Using Keymaster HAL: 4 from QTI for encryption.  Security level: TRUSTED_ENVIRONMENT, HAL: android.hardware.keymaster@4.0::IKeymasterDevice/default
begin failed, code -62
Upgrading key in memory only: /data/unencrypted/key
upgrade_key failed, code -38
e4crypt_initialize_global_de returned fail

And this is after I wanted to decrypt it:
I:Command 'decrypt *********' received
I:Set page: 'singleaction_page'
I:operation_start: 'TWRP CLI Command'
Attempting to decrypt data partition or user data via command line.
E:Unexpected value for crypto key location
E:Error getting crypt footer and key
E:Could not get footer
Failed to decrypt data.
I:Done reading ORS command from command line
I:operation_end - status=0

Checked the location at /data/unencrypted/key and the files are there for sure.
Currently I'm on the same ROM as the one that on I could access my internal storage, but the issue could be that I went FDE -> FBE -> FDE as it's mentioned in the comments.
Keymaster error codes are respectively:
KEY_REQUIRES_UPGRADE = -62
INVALID_ARGUMENT = -38
How to fix the keys is the answer I might looking for.
Long story short, I screwed up, and now I have an encrypted storage (with my files that I want back) but TWRP and the OS thinks it is not.
It goes like this:

The Magisk v22.0 update screwed up my phone, which stuck in a
bootloop.
After countless tries with Magisk  (updating, uninstalling.
installing, removing mods, adding mods) in TWRP, I read somewhere to
dirty flash the ROM.
Due to an HDD failure in my PC, I did not have any storage to back up
my internal storage from the phone.
Because I wanted to update the ROM anyways (from MIUI 11 to 12) I
decided to flash the newer one. That was the first mistake.  This
made the bootloop worse, and now it stuck in fastboot mode, no
recovery. After many sleepless nights I found out that not every
USB-C cable is equal, and I couldn't reach my phone via fastboot
because of the cable itself.
Due to an HDD failure in my PC, I did not have any storage to back up
my internal storage from the phone.
So now I was able to flash an original fastboot ROM which still gave
me bootloop, but after wiping (not formatting, so the /sdcard fs
doesn't gets erased) Data and Cache in TWRP.
Then reflashed the fastboot ROM, and somehow it worked.  When It
booted up, I had to type in my screenlock pin again, and after setup
all my files were available.
Now that the phone worked again, I wanted to finish what I started,
to update to latest EU (recovery) ROM. This was the second mistake.
It did not work (because it required formatting data, which I did not
wanted to, and just wiped it), and came bootloop again.
So I went back to the fastboot ROM again, which fixed the phone
again.
But this time, it thinks the internal storage is not encrypted.

Now I can't access the internal storage. Even the camera app says that first I need an SD Card to take photos.
It's clearly still encrypted because when I browse it in TWRP, the structure and files are there, but the names are like "74t7Z1,dnvgIIexr1QAfhD".
The problem being neither the OS, nor TWRP knows the storage is encrypted, so it doesn't even tries to decrypt it, and there are no options to do it.
Tried to set encryption in the running OS, but it gave me the same results: even tho TWRP asks for decryption key, and says it successfully decrypted, the storage is still a mess like it's in encrypted state.
Is there any way to manually force some flag, so I can access my files again?
I have the encryption key, I just need some way to decrypt the storage. I think of something like an ADB command to flag the partition as encrypted, so TWRP and OS would try to decrypt it.
Thanks in advance!

your description is too broad. it looks like you switched encryption type from FDE -> FBE -> FDE so at least you should install ROM+recovery which support FBE. be aware encryption keys are downgrade protected

It seems like it really is an encryption key problem.
TWRP log showed this:
Determining wrapped-key support for /data
fbe.data.wrappedkey = true
Wrapped key supported on /data
calling retrieveAndInstallKey
Key exists, using: /data/unencrypted/key
Using Keymaster HAL: 4 from QTI for encryption.  Security level: TRUSTED_ENVIRONMENT, HAL: android.hardware.keymaster@4.0::IKeymasterDevice/default
begin failed, code -62
Upgrading key in memory only: /data/unencrypted/key
upgrade_key failed, code -38
e4crypt_initialize_global_de returned fail

pulled the whole block, which is 230GB (256GB storage...).
How do I decrypt a double encryption? This is the question I cant find an answer to :/

tucana:/ # df -h
Filesystem       Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
tmpfs            3.6G  288K  3.6G   1% /dev
tmpfs            3.6G     0  3.6G   0% /mnt
tmpfs            3.6G  140K  3.6G   1% /tmp
/dev/block/sda30 356M  1.1M  355M   1% /cache
/dev/block/sde51 320M  139M  181M  44% /firmware
/dev/block/sda32 228G   15G  214G   7% /data
This is the current state after pulling, formatting data, then installing latest OS wich already has force encryption. Just push back data? Because the img is like 230GB :D

well, rip then
Tho I don't want to let it go. Is there any way to decrypt *.img offline/locally

It was sda32. How is it hardware-backed? Never read it in documentations, all I saw was the key, and some salt, no hardware-based encryption.

so all you need is flash the ROM which did the FBE encryption (MIUI 12?) and let TWRP decrypt. if it fails you can read this chat for creating keyring and decrypting manually (FBE)

this TWRP should work https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/recovery-3-4-0-10-tucana-official-unofficial-twrp-xiaomi-mi-note-10-cc9-pro-stable.4015805

I came across somebody with a similar issue after an OS update...
I used TWRP from the beginning, exactly the version you linked. The problem is not with TWRP sadly.
I will look into the forums you linked, much appreciated. Thanks for you effort so far, I learned a lot.

Reading about FDE I think I never had FDE. Because it required to enter pass at boot, which prevented the phone to fully boot up -> preventing apps like clock or calendar (alarm) to work if the phone silently restarted at night.
So now I'm pretty sure that its only about FBE.

"FBE keys derive sub keys using HKDF-SHA512. The master key is wiped on factory reset which leaves FBE keys encrypted without any way of decrypting them in future.
The master key is itself derived from user's passcode and SHA-512 of 16KB random file. Resetting the device wipes this file and seed which makes it impossible to reconstruct the same master key again even if user sets the same passcode again after factory reset."
Well, I guess this is the end. Even if I could retrieve deleted master key from a formatted /data, I already formatted and wiped it like 10 times, so no chance :(

FDE is using 'default_password' on all Xiaomi devices, no need to enter password on boot. crypto-footer is used for FDE and flag forceencrypt= is for FDE only (and the value is pointing to crypto footer. FBE keys are wiped on factory reset because stock recovery is sending deleteKey instruction to TEE. Are you 100% sure TWRP recovery does the same? simply formatting userdata partition does not affect keystore

as i already mentioned keys are downgrade protected. you need proper ROM version (including firmware, modem, etc) which matches the version that created/modified 74t7Z1,dnvgIIexr1QAfhD file last (key is in xattrs). then, and only then, TWRP is able to decrypt, because TWRP uses other partitions for decrypting (assuming you did not factory reset from stock ROM/recovery and keystore is not wiped yet)

https://android.stackexchange.com/q/216155


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able to use the user-installed app even if we remove the app's odex file
I want to get the answers for the following queries:
If I remove the app's odex file from the data/app/packagename/oat/arm64/base.odex , then does it mean that the app will run in the same way as it would have run in the Dalvik Virtual Machine (DVM) environment?
Is Android Runtime DVM compatible? The reasons for asking this is I removed the app's odex file as described above and still I am able to run the app?
Thanks a lot for your response.

Are you sure the app was not active in background? The Linux base of Android allows to delete the binary of a program while it is executed. Then the program will still have access to the file even so it is no longer present in file-system. Reboot your device to make sure that the app really work without odex.

Creation of Optimized DEX files is profile-guided. It doesn't necessarily happen at app installation time. Android may run apps using JIT compiler even without creating odex files. And odex can be recreated. See may answer to https://android.stackexchange.com/a/225620/218526. Further related details can be found in my answer to https://android.stackexchange.com/a/221749/218526. Also somewhat related: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/208132/218526 and https://android.stackexchange.com/a/218507/218526.


text:
Auto-update apps by APKPure
Is there a way to auto-update apps by APKPure, similar to what the Google Play Store offers?
Apps that are installed through APKPure require constant manual update-management.

For any app to be updated silently (that is, without user intervention)  by another app, the latter/installer app needs to have INSTALL_PACKAGES permission granted. That's not gonna happen unless the app is a system app. Or, if you have root access than that's the other way.

Is that a general statement or specific to APKPure? I have root access, but the app never prompted me for the INSTALL_PACKAGES permission?

It is a general statement. Root access is useful if the app makes use of it. Your Apkpure app might not have been designed to make use of it.


text:
Block IP/Domain (youtube.com, facebook) and other distracting sites connected via phone's hotspot
Is there a way to block youtube.com and other distracting site like facebook.com when my Laptop is connected via android hotspot at my phone's end i.e. blocking sites via android hosts file. After reading the following techrepublic article, makes me think it's possible but not sure so asking this question.
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/edit-your-rooted-android-hosts-file-to-block-ad-servers/
To edit phones hosts file, android phone must be rooted so I want to be sure before rooting my phone,
If this is not the correct approach then what other options are available.
Thanks

See my answers to How to Block/Filter Sites on Mobile Data Connection and How to block access to a website?. It's already a widely discussed topic: https://android.stackexchange.com/search?q=how+to+block+websites


text:
Samsung bootloader unlock but failed to flash custom rom
I go to Settings > About Phone > Software Information then tap the Build number 7 times to enable Developer Options.
Then I connected my device to the internet and go to Settings > Developer Options > OEM Unlocking set to Enabled to unlock the Bootloader, (the phone is reset to data factory but the OEM Unlocked says it's already enabled after that).
Now I want to flash a custom ROM, but I failed to do so and the error in download mode says Only official binaries are allowed to be flashed. I think this is somehow related to Bootloader which is not fully unlocked. Is there anything I should do before flashing custom ROM?
I'm actually trying to root my device and I'm following this tutorial.
DEVICE INFORMATION:
Samsung Galaxy J6 (2018)
SM-J600G/DS
Android 10
Android Patch is Feb. 1, 2021

you did not unlock bootloader. read about vaultkeeper

I tried searching for it and found this link https://www.droidwin.com/unlock-bootloader-samsung/?unapproved=2229&moderation-hash=f5a4b539c0c1163dde393659e2bf8608#comment-2229
I followed the procedure but I'm lost at STEP 4, where I need to long-press the Volume up, there's no such an option.  Only the PRESS VOLUME UP to Continue and VOLUME DOWN to Continue. Anything I'm missing here?

Volume Up and proceed with step 5. in case OEM Unlock is missing, also read about RMM protection. if OEM Unlock is enabled device is ready to flash custom binary

@alecxs - I mean, Only the PRESS VOLUME UP to Continue and VOLUME DOWN to cancel (Restart phone), I tried pressing the volume up and just proceed to the download option while it is waiting for the ROM to be flash. I did nothing after that, I tried to reboot and set up the device since it has been reset to factory data, I enabled the developer options, check if the OEM is grey out or exist. It does exist, however, its not grey out.

Also, from the download option, there was a quote OEM Lock: OFF (something like that).

Nope, it doesn't work. Same issue, nothing new. From the link above, it says the OEM unlocking toggle is turned on and is greyed out as well. that's when the bootloader is surely unlocked. In my case, it doesn't grey out and can be turned off/on. I'm lost at step 4, after booting to Download Mode, there should be an option where I can unlock the bootloader again (Hold volume up to unlock bootloader). This one is mising.

I'm still searching for a solution, maybe I need to install the old version of android and retry the unlock the bootloader. But it doesn't make any sense, something is missing.

After finishing the initial setup, the OEM Unlocking Toggle is already Enabled. I'll try searching for KG or RMM.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/bounty-fix-for-persistent-rmm-state-lock-after-7-days.3886716


text:
Samsung S21 where is enable auto space after period setting
I cannot find the setting for auto space after period when I'm typing a message on my Samsung S21.
Anybody knows where it is?
*hope it's not part of the autocorrect, because I have that turned off, because it's making a mess in my language

Which keyboard app you are using? Look into its settings. Go into Settings app -> System / Language & Input > Virtual  keyboard -> your keyboard app -> look for the setting you are after.

The feature and its setting depends on the keyboard app. I don't know if Samsung Keyboard has it, though I know Gboard has this.

I use Samsung keyboard

@Firelord: thats the first place I looked, but it's not there

Samsung keyboard does not have that option to add a space after a full stop. It has an opposite option instead which adds a full stop before two spaces, converting one of the spaces after a word to a full stop.

Bring up the keyboard,
tap the keyboard input method chooser in the bottom right,
select the "cog" and it will bring up the keyboard settings.
A short way down there is the "More typing options". Tap that.
in there you will find an option "double tap space bar to add full stop"


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Temporary rooting of android device
Recently, I was wondering if rooting needs to be a binary choice - root or no root. Can I have a phone that is unrooted, but for specific tasks, I temporarily root it, or temporarily get some privilege escalation for a specific app, and then back to unrooted either on reboot or some other way?
I was intrigued to see that there has been some discussion on such things in this stack exchange site:

temp root vs permanent root, where it was stated that "AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note 4 currently has temp root", but it seems a very old post
this answer about 4 leading root methods hints about "exploit based temp root methods", but it also says they are still in development or outdated

Any temp root method that somebody could point me to, that can be tried? It doesn't have to work on the latest android version, although if it does, even better.

For gaining temporary root permissions you need an vulnerable device and a matching exploit. Google and other manufacturer are fixing vulnerabilities every month, therefore what you are trying to do may be possible but it depends on your device. The older the device the higher the chance for a vulnerability you can use. But please keep in mind that everything you can do can also be done by a malicious app secretly in background. Therefore using vulnerable devices is a bit like playing with fire, the wrong app can destroy everything...

How to manually root a phone?

"Temporary root" is a wrong or at least vague term in my opinion. Root is root. You get the ability to run commands with UID 0, all of the (37 or more) Linux capabilities and a fully permissive SELinux context. If some capabilities are missing or SELinux context is not fully permissive, that's "incomplete root". But once you have root, it's up to you if you allow the apps to use root privileges or not. If you do, it's permanent root. If you don't it's temporary. So every rooting method can be considered permanent or temporary, depending on your choice.


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How to troubleshoot DNS not resolved issues?
I can't open Hotstar/Disney+ on my Android phone/ Android TV. Upon investigation, I found out that the webpage hotstar.com is not opening in general on my phone/TV and is throwing an "err::NAME NOT RESOLVED" error. I can open hotstar.com on my laptop using the same network. Since this problem just started abruptly, I don't even know where to look for. Thanks for any suggestions you may provide.

Start with dig. See my answers to How does Android OS do DNS name resolution? and How to configure DNS on Android? and How to clear DNS cache on Android?

I did some more investigations and it turns out my ISP is probably spoofing my DNS queries. It works fine if I use a VPN or a private DNS(on my phone, dns.google) or an encrypted DNS (using the app blokada). However, using those is really cumbersome on a frigging TV and I had to sideload those apps. It also shows non-existent domain on nslookup on my desktop. I did factory resets on my TV, it didn't help. I may try changing the DNS manually if I can figure out how to connect to my TV in debugger mode. I can't set up a static ip for my devices either so far.


text:
My phone is not saving things (screenshots, download from browser, etc)
So one day my phone shutdown and when restarted I started to get some issues. Screenshot was not working saying that there was no space left. Gallery had no images/videos at all. File manager was not opening properly. I started to dig up and was able to get an stack trace:
## Issue explanation (write below this line)

## Exception
* _User Action:_ UI Error
* _Request:_ Application crash
* _Version:_ 3.5.9
* _OS:_ Linux Android 10 - 29
* _Device:_ OnePlus5
* _Model:_ ONEPLUS A5000
* _Product:_ OnePlus5

Crash log

java.lang.RuntimeException: An error occurred while executing doInBackground()
    at android.os.AsyncTask$4.done(AsyncTask.java:399)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.finishCompletion(FutureTask.java:383)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.setException(FutureTask.java:252)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:271)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1167)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:641)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:919)
Caused by: android.database.sqlite.SQLiteException: unable to open database file (code 14 SQLITE_CANTOPEN)
    at android.database.DatabaseUtils.readExceptionFromParcel(DatabaseUtils.java:184)
    at android.database.DatabaseUtils.readExceptionFromParcel(DatabaseUtils.java:140)
    at android.content.ContentProviderProxy.query(ContentProviderNative.java:437)
    at android.content.ContentResolver.query(ContentResolver.java:962)
    at android.content.ContentResolver.query(ContentResolver.java:890)
    at android.content.ContentResolver.query(ContentResolver.java:846)
    at com.amaze.filemanager.asynchronous.asynctasks.LoadFilesListTask.listMediaCommon(LoadFilesListTask.java:336)
    at com.amaze.filemanager.asynchronous.asynctasks.LoadFilesListTask.listVideos(LoadFilesListTask.java:324)
    at com.amaze.filemanager.asynchronous.asynctasks.LoadFilesListTask.doInBackground(LoadFilesListTask.java:165)
    at com.amaze.filemanager.asynchronous.asynctasks.LoadFilesListTask.doInBackground(LoadFilesListTask.java:68)
    at android.os.AsyncTask$3.call(AsyncTask.java:378)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
    ... 3 more

Could be corruption on file db? I have one app called "Files" which I can check, and I see all files there. I can take pictures/videos, record voice etc, so that doesn't seem the problem.
I think the issue is related to indexation of those things, I've tried re-scan with several apps, but none worked (media re-scan, rescan sd, etc)
I don't want to factory reset at the moment so I'm looking for an alternative solution (maybe a path to where is the db, so I can delete files, or an app that can help me to re-index things [if is the case], or system access to assess the issue)

Have you tried to manually clear the app data of the Android Media Store app? That forces a rescan and a defect old database is deleted (only the database is deleted not the media files).

Well I have no Android Media Store app, only gallery, file manager and some relateds, anyway I've cleared app data from most applications also cache and rescan didn't worked as supposed to. Any other suggestions?

Every Android since Android 5 device has an Android Media Store app. It is a system app.

Ok, i've found media storage, cleared data/cache, still getting same issue :/


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Samsung "My Files" app: where is trash?
Situation
There is a Samsung A10 with Android 9. Some files are deleted by My Files app. I tried to find its trash tool by this post:

Open my files. Tap the 3 vertical dots in the upper right corner. On the menu that opens select settings. On the settings menu scroll down to make sure trash is turned on.

For me, there is no option to enable trash.

If you're not seeing anything that says trash then you might try looking for a my files version update in the galaxy store.

I updated My Files app, but still there is no option to turn trash on.
Question
Am I missing something? How can I see trash in Samsung My Files app?
Other questions

I tried some apps like these to recover deleted files. Some of them did find some old deleted photos, but not the ones which are deleted today:

diskdigger
dumpster
digdeep

I also tried Gallery app: its trash is enabled but its restore didn't work. I think because the files are deleted by My Files app, not Gallery app. Not sure.
What else I can try to restore deleted photos and videos in My Files app?

Yet another question
I tried undelete app. It mentions that there is no root mode:

Without root, the application can only recover cached images.

How can I root the device without messing it up? Just to be able to use undelete app.

Don’t try to root just to undelete something. Following that path requires a full factory reset. Once you factory reset a lot more data gets deleted and finding your currently deleted data among that would be very difficult (impossible if it gets overwritten by that time). If your Files app doesn't offer trash despite being fully updated, than it means it never had trash option to begin with when your data was deleted. And even if you somehow end up installing an update which introduces trash option, you still wouldn't achieve anything. Because when data was deleted, trash wasn't there.

...as trash wasn't there, your data was instantly deleted, instead of being classified as trash. You can learn about data recovery  if in case, you have had root access. https://android.stackexchange.com/a/208114/96277

@Firelord Right, it makes sense.

@Firelord Trying to avoid such a data loss in the future, what's the standard approach I should use? Any app? Any tool? Is there any related post that I can study? I appreciate it if you point me in the right direction =)

Currently, there is no standard approach. You can be prepared by having a rooted phone or at least a custom recovery such as Twrp installed. After that, what you can try depends on some factors. This post has covered this topic well enough. You can try reading it to get a heads-up what you would need to do in future. https://android.stackexchange.com/a/208114/96277


text:
Prevent user from installing any applications
I have Galaxy J1 smartphone with OneUI and I have to prohibit installing any applications on it. I tried disabling appropriate activity in PackageInstaller, but that can be bypassed with Factory Reset in settings. Installing any AppLock applications does not help, because then can be easily removed by just booting into "Safe Mode". Is there a way I can achieve my goal?

Disable app installation is the job of an Mobile Device Management (MDM) system. However factory reset is always possible.

What MDM system can I use at home for free (I need it for single device)?


text:
Can't authorise android lenovo tablet in USB debugging mode
I have Lenovo YOGA Tablet 2 830LC X86.
Rescue and Smart Assistant tool is a software to work with this tablet.
When i activate USB-Debugging in tablet i face the error below in Rescue and Smart Assistant tool.

Unauthorized is because after activating USB-Debugging mode in tablet and connecting my tablet to PC, there is no popup asking me if i want to trust this PC, which i have to agree (permanently).
By deleting the adbkey file found in C:\Users\[Username]\.android folder the permission dialog did n't appear on my device.
What should i do to fix this issue?

Edit after comment :

I am using USB charging cable.
I have windows 7
USB OEM driver for Lenovo > When i connect
lenovo tablet to pc a pop up shows up on pc to install usb driver.
So i installed it & after that i can see tablet folders.
But i did n't install any other things.
Have you reset the USB authorization on
the device too (usually inside Developer options) > Is this your
mean revoke USB debugging authorization? If yes i did it several times.
Is the device detected by ADB (call adb devices on command prompt)
I found a adb.exe in this path : C:\MagicPlusMini\app
After enter adb devices command it founds : Baytrail6F284E37 offline
I found another adb.exe
Here is the command prompt :
C:\Program Files (x86)\Rescue and Smart Assistant>adb devices
List of devices attached adb server is out of date. killing...
daemon started successfully
Baytrail6F284E37 unauthorized

I would delete all those old adb versions and use the one from Android SDK. Multiple adb versions in one computer only make problems or replace those versions with the one from Android SDK.

Resolution
Possible solutions if adb devices shows a device as unauthorized:

C:\Users\JohnDoo>adb devices
List of devices attached
17310D821D  > unauthorized

Disconnect USB between PC and device
Stop adb server by entering adb kill-server in command window
On device use Revoke USB debugging authorizations in Developer Options
On PC delete adbkey file in user directory, for example C:\Users\JohnDoo\.android
Reconnect the device to the PC
Open a command window and enter adb devices. Watch the device's screen for any Authorization message and allow the connection.

The device should now show as device:

C:\Users\JohnDoo>adb devices
List of devices attached
17310D821D  > device

If the above does not help, re-installing adb and or USB drivers may help.


text:
Chrome Tab Grid Layout can no longer be disabled via chrome://flags, is there another way?
I used to be able to disable Google Chrome on android from having the Tabs Grid, by disabling the flag.
That no longer seems to have any effect. Is there another way to change this setting?

Doing some more research, I find that this is no longer enough
Update: That used to be it, but with the most recent update Google broke this fix, but never fear there is a temporary solution to make it work again.

Type chrome://flags/#temporary-unexpire-flags-m88 into the address bar
Tap on the drop-down menu in the Tab Grid Layout entry
Select "Enabled"
Tap the Relaunch button at the bottom of the screen

I suspect that will only be a temporary solution though.


text:
Is it possible to backup data from a locked android phone?
So i forgot the PIN number on my old phone which was not rooted, had no recovery software (Cwm, Xrec, etc.) installed on it, and has usb debugging and auto-mount disabled. We don't know the google account associated with the phone. Basically all I have is the phone and a usb cable. Is there a way to get the user data out of it? Adb won't recognise the device btw. I do apologise if it's a stupid question. The phone automatically connected to the wifi, and I'm on Linux, if that helps. But I managed to get into recovery but adb only recognises the device in sideload mode. The files inside the phone is extremely important to me because it contain photo of my family member that were passed away.
Phone: Vivo V7 Plus
I wanted to try brute-force the PIN with program but unfortunately the phone will cool down for 7000 second (3hours+)
Info
My phone model: Vivo 7 Plus
USB debugging: Not turned on

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

So i found a way to unlock my phone (Vivo V7 Plus) without losing any data !
Special thanks to @alecxs for guiding me through the process !
In order to unlock the PIN lock, I open my phone case and short the test point in order to get into EDL mode (Note: Different phone have different test point, search where is your phone test point before proceed. )
After successful short the test point, I can see the "Qualcomm port 9008" is open !

When Qualcomm port 9008 is visible from device manager, I proceed to run the software. So, here is the MAGIC part! I used a tool from MRT but its cracked by a developer called officialroms. The different between cracked and original MRT software are cracked version doesn't have to buy additional hardware to make it work.
I clicked on start and the program run until it show all is done, after that I restart my phone and everything worked !

Here is the instructions link that i follow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUOFvRkmBMc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Enm-8CvGqIY&t=189s


text:
How do I add new text to speech entries using Gboard?
I was using SwiftKey prior to this but I switched over to Gboard because it has better voice recognition when using speech to text. Something got changed in SwiftKey recently and the quality of speech-to-text went down significantly. But with SwiftKey I was able to correct words that I dictated and I thought that that improved the speech-to-text algorithms.
With Gboard there's no option to correct a word so I can't improve the speech to text recognition. Does this option exist and I can't find it?

With Gboard, there's indeed currently no option to correct a word so that you can improve the speech to text recognition.
The  closest option is to add  some entry in the Gboard personal dictionary (screenshots from Androidd 12 + Pixel 6), thanks user1874594 for showing me this trick:

Then you'll see the fixed word as a suggestion (only after the voice typing stopped being active):

long time with no answers so this one wins by default :) I'm on Android 12 now so I don't know if the question is applicable to my current setup.

@jcollum by default, my favorite way to win! https://youtu.be/BXHyFETXPc0


text:
Charging/USB Notification Not Appearing on LG X Charge
For the past month I have been trying to connect my phone to my Ubuntu Linux with little luck- for context, I used to run Linux Mint and managed to get things to work just fine. However, I switched over to Ubuntu, and when I tried to set up ADB again, it mysteriously just refused to list the device. The phone still charges,  but nothing detects it; not mtp-detect, not lsusb, not adb devices. It does not show the charging notification, no matter what (and I know for I fact I haven't muted the notification or anything like that. It used to show the charging notification, but unfortunately I can't pinpoint exactly when it stopped.)
Initially, I thought it was a data transfer/charge only cable issue, so I checked maybe twenty cables and not a single one of them worked. I then figured it may be a problem with Ubuntu, being as I'm pretty inexperienced with the OS (and Linux in general). A bunch of package re-installations later, still no change. Also tried several other computers (non-Linux), none of them detected the phone either.
...And then I tried another, identical LG X Charge phone; exact same Developer options, same model number, same firmware version... and it worked instantly, charging notification and everything. The only difference between the two is that this other phone has never been connected to the Ubuntu computer. It was connected with the same USB cable and through the same port. (Also, yes, both phones were unlocked.)
I'm kind of at a loss at this point- I've tried revoking USB debugging authorizations, I've changed the USB configuration to everything under the sun, I've tried doing it in Safe Mode... I've even done a factory reset on my phone, and still no dice. At this point, I'm convinced it's an issue with the phone's USB port itself, but I have absolutely no idea what would make it suddenly react like this. There hasn't been any external damage to the port between me switching computer OS' as far as I'm aware of. The only other theory I have is that, somehow, when I installed Ubuntu, it messed up the authorization and the phone thinks it's still authorized when it's not- though it wouldn't explain it being unrecognized by other computers, and one would think revoking the authorizations would've fixed it...
If further specifications are required, I'd be happy to supply. Adb devices simply has a blank space under 'List of devices attached' when ran, and mtp-detect says 'No raw devices found', while the other phone is detected by both of these.
EDIT
I am still seeking information on this- if I'm correct in my assumption that it's an issue on the phone's port end, does anybody have any idea how I would go about fixing this, or am I just gonna have to get a new phone...?
This is all especially pressing as, it turns out, when I factory reset my phone, I found out my backup hadn't actually backed up everything- so I would definitely like to have some sort of solution or even idea of what the issue is so I don't repeat a mistake like that in the future.

I suggest you get the usb port replaced. Get a rough quotation from reputed repair shops and see whether repairing or buying a new phone makes more sense.


text:
Is there some trick to block the Netflix "BangBang" sound?
That horrible sound that hurts my ears, on the start of every episode with Netflix logo...
I would even root my phone if that sound could be detected, filtered and blocked...
May be some app that when there is no sound playing for 10s, auto lowers the volume to a minimum?
I use headphone always - I need to - but that just worsens the problem...
These big companies and their lack of config options are quite annoying...

Hey bud! I don't think there are such kind of apps. This is a very very specific issue. One quick thing you can do is writing to Netflix. They might take it as user feedback and implement something that might ease your issue.

Are you sure that the audio video clip of Netflix that shows up is not part of videos shown to users? If they are a part, even Netflix can't give an option to disable it. All it can do is to skip right to the time where the sound ends. I don't think we users can do anything given that the app is proprietary. One could try using a hack where some app reads up that Netflix is going Full screen, read the position of time slider, and if it is to the left extreme, then click X coordinates right to it so that bang bang sound is skipped. I don't think this would be smooth in implementation.

A fade in sound effect, everytime a sound begins playing, lasting 5s could work too. I will try to talk to netflix but i got used to not have much hope... An auto skip the initial 5s would be great too! May be some android app that macro record and plays screen tap events!

This is a manual (non automatic) workaround.
I installed this app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alwaysvolumebutton
It is highly configurable. I can move the buttons, rotate them, and make them transparent. And the volume percent shows on the button.
So with 1 click, i can quickly mute sounds and not show the bright annoying system volume control. To mute is a initially disabled option.
So, b4 clicking on play, i hit the mute button, and again after the bangbang, and that is very simple to use.
It may be buggy to configure, but as soon you manage to, it works fine.


text:
Android SD card encryption
I was looking at some encryption standards and was wondering, what kind of encryption algorithm does Android's SD card encryption use? Is it AES 128 or a different algorithm?

Android uses adoptable storage to encrypt SD card. AES-XTS-256 to encrypt files and AES-CBC-CTR-256 to encrypt filenames.

Thanks! I thought that it would use AES 128 due to performance limitations.


text:
Hand shields bluetooth antenna in Google Pixel 4a 5G?
Is it a reported issue with the Google Pixel 4a 5G, that the bluetooth connection of the device is disturbed when having it in your hand?
My headphones work flawless if the pixel sits on my desk, but stuttering begins when it is in my hand..
I wonder whether the issue is specific to my device.

Of course your body can weaken a radio signal, especially when your hands come close to the antenna. I would recommend to check tear-down videos of your device to learn where the antenna is located and make some tests if holding the device in different ways have an effect on your problem.

It shouldn't though. Bluetooth and wifi operating frequency is 2.4GHz. They easily pass through walls.

I know, this is why I was surprised myself @defalt. And indeed the issue was not with the hand.

If you're having troubles with your new Google Pixel 4a 5G from late 2020 in 2021 or later I recommend downloading the latest Google connectivity apps and update your system to  the latest Android version.
I was forced to set-up my device offline, the original version must have had some kind of bug with the bluetooth. After installing the updates everything worked.
I was able to determine, that the issue is software related after conducting a few tests. It turns out, that not holding the phone but turning on its screen is causing the stuttering.


text:
Why does otg mount take long time on some mobiles? Can it be sped up?
I have an external 500GB SSD drive. I connected it to android devices via otg cable.
It works fine. Once it's mounted, it's pretty fast.
The only problem is the mounting time. At some devices, the mounting time is fast and about 6 seconds. This is fine to me. But at some devices, the mounting time will take up to 50 seconds. They are all running Android 10 with different models and brands.
I am wondering why the moutning times are so different among devices and is that possible to speed up the speed on the slow devices (without root).
Thank you very much.
Edited:
Some more information:
The LOST.DIR folder will be created at the first time mount.
The partition map/scheme is Master Boot Record.
The file system is FAT32. The reason why I don't use exfat is because some mobiles do not support exfat.
It doesn't matter what files inside the drive, the mounting time will not change. Even with a empty drive, the slow mobiles will still take about 50 seconds to mount. (so far).
For instance, for one slow mobile which is Sony brand. It can mount the drive really fast when it's exfat file system. I forgot to count the time, might be less than 10 seconds. But when it's fat32, it will take about 50 seconds to mount. I can not test it again because I have put data in the drive. If it's not necessary, I don't want to cut them out and reformat.
Thanks a lot.

I would assume that most users only have one Android device, hence they don't notice the different mount speeds. It would be interesting if you could add the details to your question which device requires what amount of time and how many files of what type are on the ORG stick.

@Robert thanks for your reply. The slow one is Sony brand. Sorry that I don't really want to reveal all the detial models. What inside the OTG stick does not matter. Even if the OTG is empty and mounting time will not change. The file system is fat32. The LOST.DIR folder will be created automatically after mount. For this Sony mobile, it takes about 50 seconds to mount the disk when it's fat32. But it will take a much less time to mount, when it's exfat. I forgot to count the time when it's exfat, it might be less than 10 seconds. I can not really test it now, because my drive has data now.

logcat usually helps.


text:
Transfering lot of images from device to windows
Hello Android Community.
I need to transfer something like 15.000 images from the internal memory of my Redmi Note 7 (Android 10) to my PC (Windows 10 46 bit).
I'm trying to transfer these using the (stock) USB cable, the problem is that it seems just impossible to complete the process as I 'm having (in order):

File not found error.
Path not avaiable errors.
Device not responding.
Explorer.exe freezes.
Other random errors.

My question is if there is another and less painful way to transfer these data (maybe using a linux virtual machine?).
I tried using  even google drive but it does not show my photos even if they are under backup with google photo (maybe i'll post a question about it).
Thank you.

Use adb. A much better solution is to create a full path list of all the images you want to copy in a file. Than setup a simple batch script to take each line from that file as file path of the image and adb pull it from the device using adb. If there comes an error, log the file path and the error in a separate file and continue. Even if the script cannot continue, you would know where the script stopped (at which file), which files have been successfully and exactly which of them are yet to be copied.

The benefit is that you are not sucking up resources with GUI so PC related errors and freezes should not occur. File not found or path not found errors shouldn't occur unless for some reason the media database of your device is corrupted or the device connection gets broken. That's what I think.

You can also do the reverse. Setup an SSH server on Windows (using Putty / Windows WSL). Setup Termux or Terminal Emulator on Android. Write a simple shell script that creates a list file, than copies each file to the SSH server hosted on Windows from Android. This way, you can avoid much of the freezes and possible file not found related errors that may be specific to using your PC

Done with ADB, thank you. (btw, i think that all of these issues are quite unacceptable in 2021).

@Raydar Totally agree file transfer problems belong in the past...


text:
I want to download torrent files to a fashdrive attached to modem or router (local server ) by initiating the download from the mobile device
I want to download torrent files from my mobile but since I don't have enough storage I want the files to be downloaded to my local server (the flashdrive/pendrive attached to my modem which can be accessed wirelessly), Is there a way to do this?
I don't want my laptop running continuously for downloading torrent files, instead I would like to use my mobile phone but the problem is that I have very limited storage in my android device. Is there a way to download to a remote Pendrive or storage device attached to my modem or router?
Thanks in advance.

I don't think that a Bittorrent app exists that can work the way you want. In my opinion you should better get yourself a Raspberry Pi or a similar tiny computer. Those devices require very little power and can be configured very flexible if you are willing to learn Linux. The chance is high that there is already a Bittorrent client for Linux that can be controlled using an Android app.


text:
What's the best way to protect my rooted Android 7 from malware and hacking?
Considering I have to use cellular data and being not connected to the internet is not an option, what measures can I take or tools I can use to keep myself protected from prying eyes?
My first step will be to do a clean rom flash in case I'm infected already, but as soon as I do that, I'd like to ensure that I remain clean and protected because I would be using my phone for very private data. What can I do? Besides the obvious and common sense stuff of course.
Android 7 | Rooted | Moto C Plus

Your question is difficult to answer in general because using a known to be insecure device is always a risk. How large the risk is and how to reduce it depends on how you use the device and what apps and use cases are the minimal set you don't want to miss.

Questions like this are sort of open-ended, in the sense that there is no definitive answer out there. Everyone can suggest this or that thing and claim theirs is the best way. They might not even bother to demonstrate how their solution improves upon existing ones. How would you evaluate them then?


text:
Cannot reinstall Google Play Services
I can't seem to reinstall Google Play Services again.
I tried the APK file thingy from Google but it didn't work. I tried a website called APKPure.com but it also didn't work. I also tried some videos but those are for different models of devices.
I didn't know that Google Play Services plays a big role for an Android and now I can't even sign in into my Play Store account (the sign in button for the Play Store isn't working).
Also, if this helps, I use a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (I think it is a 2016 model).
Is there a way to fix this problem?

Google Play services is a system app which can not be reinstalled (unless your device is rooted). You should edit your question and add more background on what happened in detail and what you tried. And the story about your youtube channel is irrelevant for the question. Please just delete that part.

While we may be sympathize with your situation, please understand that is a Q&A site for helping future readers, not a personal troubleshooting site. We all are volunteers and your urgency is not a priority. If it's very urgent, consider to bring it to service center instead.

You might want to try a trick using the Device Administrator.

Settings > Security > Device Administrators
Deactivate Android Device Manager
in Settings > Apps find the Google Play Services
Uninstall Play Services updates

This might restore the version originally shipped with your phone depending on your vendor.
Check if you can activate Play Services again in Settings > Apps > Google Play Services.
Enable Device manager again, like above.
Edit: If this does not help I'd suggest to backup your data and do a device factory reset. (see e.g. https://www.rd.com/article/factory-reset-android/)

So uhm... I removed the device Administrators (Like I don't remember when) And I THINK I did the uninstall google play services updates? I'll see if I can factory reset my device.


text:
Running services in developer options is missing
I want to check the apps that are running in the background to stop them.
Android 10
MIUI 12
redmi note 7s (NOT ROOTED)
i tried a lot of apps from playstore they doesn't seem to work properly (Doesn't show the amount of ram used and not able to force close or end the background apps).
I also tried the developer options but there was NO option for "running services" in the developer options, is there a way to enable this in developer options.

How about something like this? https://i.stack.imgur.com/rwaud.jpg


text:
Can I backup my phone or install TWRP recovery while stuck in Lineage OS recovery?
Highly unfortunately for me, I had thought it was a great idea not to make any backups when going to test if I was properly able to upgrade/downgrade Lineage OS versions. I had replaced my TWRP recovery with Lineage OS's recovery, and then I "upgraded" to the same Lineage OS version I had currently been running, and my phone ran into a boot loop (The never-ending Lineage OS bootup screen). I believe I ran into this boot loop because I might have previously accidentally installed TWRP's "system" app, and this would have been a problem due to LineageOS's enforcement of priv-app whitelisting rules.
My device is a: LG H830
What I do have: Root, an unlocked bootloader, ADB/Fastboot, the TWRP recovery file
I believe I am screwed and that there's no way out of this except just factory resetting/formatting everything. If I was correct in my research, my phone model blocks all fastboot commands, excluding bootloader + "unlock" related commands, and as a result, I don't believe I am able to do a backup using ADB (I tried adb backup -all and it didn't work). Lineage OS recovery has no way of backing up files, and I don't believe it is possible to use it to flash TWRP recovery. All I need to be able to do is to save/backup my photos (Which are located in my internal storage). I think it is highly probable that I have finally entered into a hole that I can't get out of. However, if anyone has any ideas about what I could do to either back up what's on my phone (Mainly photos/internal storage if possible) or to flash TWRP without resetting/formatting everything, it would be substantially appreciated. Thank you!
Sources I checked out:
Team Win Recovery Project for the LG G5 - Post indicates that LG G5 H830 has flashing locked
Backup & Restore Android with ADB - Backing up via ADB would have worked if I was able to successfully boot into Lineage OS and approve the backup operation, but I can't because I am limited to being able to boot in everything except system
Does Lineage Recovery have backup? - This is a post with answer(s) that designate the fact that Lineage OS's recovery isn't able to backup

How did you first manage to install Los in your device if not through fastboot? Normally, my suggestion would have been to issue the command 'fastboot boot twrp.img' to temporarily into TWRP and take the backup from there.


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How to keep adb TCPIP on after a reboot?
I am using android 9 (lineage os 16.0)
Is there anyway of retaining the TCPIP on status after a reboot?
It's annoying to continuously reconnecting it to pc than moving it to charger.
I am aware that if there is other person on the same network it is vulnerable but this device will not leave my home network so that's ok.

Without root you can't: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/216474/218526. With root you can: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/232083/218526. Duplicate questions: https://android.stackexchange.com/q/232978/218526 and https://android.stackexchange.com/q/157981/218526.

Having adb running in wireless mode doesn't make the device vulnerable. Device user still has to authorize access whenever a new adb client tries to connect to your device. It increases the risk if the device user is doing multitasking swiftly and the authorisation dialog suddenly pops up and you end up clicking ok because of muscle memory.


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Vietcombank Smart OTP app says "Your device does not match security requirements. Please re-activate Smart OTP on other devices"
I am trying to use the app Vietcombank Smart OTP on Android. This is the Smart OTP app of the Vietnamese leading bank Vietcombank. The app downloads fine, but everytime I start it up I get this error message:
ANDROID
Thiết bị của Quý khách không đảm bảo yêu cầu về bảo mật. Vui lòng kích hoạt lại Smart OTP trên thiết bị khác
Your device does not match security requirements. Please re-activate Smart OTP on other devices

This error message can be seen here:
https://smartotp.vietcombank.com.vn/shield/android.html?4
I have tried this with 3 different brand-new phones and I get the same error message.
Some descriptions for Vietnamese readers:
Không sử dụng được app Vietcombank Smart OTP. Mỗi lần mở app lên đều nhận được lỗi như ở trên.

After hours of trying different things, I realized the problem is that I used Swiftkey. Apparently, third-party keyboards will trigger this issue. So you have to disable any third-party keyboards and use Google keyboard or the default keyboard of your smart phone.
Sau nhiều giờ thử nhiều thứ khác nhau, tôi nhận ra vấn đề là tôi đã sử dụng Swiftkey. Có vẻ như bàn phím của bên thứ ba sẽ gây ra vấn đề này. Vì vậy, bạn phải tắt mọi bàn phím của bên thứ ba và sử dụng bàn phím Google hoặc bàn phím mặc định của điện thoại thông minh của bạn.


text:
OTG disconnects when screen turns off
I am using OTG external drive constantly. But it will always disconnect when the screen turns off. This causes data loss issues. I tried to find any related settings in system settings and developer options, but no luck. I tried to disable battery optimization etc.. None of them works.
Btw, I am running Andriod 10 (non rooted) (Sony model).
Do anyone know how to fix the issue or workaround it?
Thanks a lot.

@alecxs thanks a lot for your reply. I think the problem is due to the built-in filesystem driver. I tried some third-party FAT32 and exFat drivers and they don't disconnect when screen turns off. But third-party drivers have some limitations, for example unable to really mount the drive on un-root device. I think I am out of luck on this device's built-in driver. Btw, the issue doesn't happen to all android devices. I think it's model specific issue.


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ADB wireless :- problem with IP
I use adb wireless tcpip connection but every time I connect my device to my router it assigns a new IP address to my android device which requires me to plug my phone again and restart adb in tcpip with the IP address provided, I dont want this to happen every time, I just want to enter the same IP address and put adb connect <ipaddress>:<tcpip_port> and connect to my device.
i tried to use static IP for the network using the mobile but due to some reason this restricted me to use  internet(it was connected to the modem but not able to use internet).
More info:
Android 10
MIUI 12
redmi note 7s
i use scrcpy and have created a bat file(.cmd file) which when clicked runs a series of commands to connect to my phone wirelessly using adb and mirror the screen and control it remotely but because my router assigns a different IP ever time i connect my phone i have to edit the bat file.
Even if I type the commands manually without connecting the device with USB cable (adb connect <ipaddress>:<tcpip_port>) it says: unable to connect to <ip addr>:5555: cannot connect to <ip addr>:5555: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it. (10061) , then i have to connect it with USB cable and again start the adb in tcpip.
What is the use of adb wireless connection if I have to connect it to pc by USB every time (at the beggining) to make it wireless for that specific time.

This can be a device and/or a router problem. Check the MAC address shown for the phone in the router web UI. If it changes then MAC address randomization is implemented wrong in your device. If not make sure to enable the option to assign always the same IP to the device via DHCP. This option is available in normal routers.

hostname is whatever name your residential gateway has assigned to your phone ip address (line 3). you can find it in router settings or from nslookup

IP address is not the problem here. reason is your phone is unrooted therefore the wireless app is unable to start adbd. so you have to plug in usb cable each time and switch to wireless regardless of IP address. This is fixed in android 11
however, regarding your IP issue you can use hostname instead (it is hard-coded here in %device%)

@echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion

set device=android-6cf1b33d5e54da8d

for /F "delims=[] tokens=2" %%f in ('ping -n 1 -w 1000 -4 !device!') do (
  set client=%%f
  echo %%f | findstr /r /c:"\<[0-9][0-9]*\.[0-9][0-9]*\.[0-9][0-9]*\.[0-9][0-9]*\>" > NUL 2>&1 && goto connect
)
echo !device! device not found
pause
goto end
:connect
adb connect !client!:5555
scrcpy -s !client!:5555
:end

Thanks for the replay, but I'm new to batch scripting, can you please explain me the substitutions I have to make in the above code.(How do I get my device id  and little more about the code please)

https://stackoverflow.com/q/2613826 https://stackoverflow.com/q/5898763


text:
How do I find out what app is showing a toast?
Several times a day my Android phone (Samsung Galaxy A51, Android 11) is showing this toast

We're having trouble connecting. Check your network connection and try again.

If I stay offline this toast will return every few minutes. How can I find out which app is posting these toasts. And most importantly how do I get rid of them? Long-pressing the toast doesn't show anything.

You can use AppOps to get status of operation TOAST_WINDOW like this: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/215658/218526

Using the Toaster app I found out that the toasts were coming from SmartThings app. I have no idea what this app is for and I'm certainly not using it. In the settings I managed to uninstall it and I assume this will stop it from spamming me with toasts.

You can use Android's adb tool:
adb shell uiautomator events

Make sure you have USB Debugging enabled on your device.  Connect your device to a computer and open a terminal to run the above adb command.
Running this command will dump out system events - you will get a LOT of information.
For example, here's a Toast I created by setting an alarm with the Clock app:

11-27 16:31:32.510 EventType: TYPE_ANNOUNCEMENT; EventTime: 6865213;
  PackageName: com.google.android.deskclock; MovementGranularity: 0;
  Action: 0 [ ClassName: android.view.ViewGroup; Text: [Alarm set for 15
  hours and 59 minutes from now.]; ContentDescription: null; ItemCount:
  -1; CurrentItemIndex: -1; IsEnabled: true; IsPassword: false; IsChecked: false; IsFullScreen: false; Scrollable: false; BeforeText:
  null; FromIndex: -1; ToIndex: -1; ScrollX: -1; ScrollY: -1;
  MaxScrollX: -1; MaxScrollY: -1; AddedCount: -1; RemovedCount: -1;
  ParcelableData: null ]; recordCount: 0

Note the app in question is listed under PackageName as com.google.android.deskclock;.  This should give you a good idea which app the Toast has originated from.

You could use the Toast Source app for that. It not only integrates the app icon and name with each toast message (first screenshot below), but also gives you a history of toasts you received and which app sent it:

Toast Source (source: Google Play; click images for larger variants)
Quite privacy friendly it doesn't even require the Internet permission (so no ads either). But as it uses accessibility services, it's unclear whether it will survice Googles current purge.

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


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Xperia XZ1 won't boot after changing to pseudolocale
This would be the most ridiculous brick I've encountered
What I did:
Having enabled Developer options, I tried setting cibarA [XB] (Arabic when reversed) as my main language.

As I figured out now, this should be a pseudolocale.
Since not everything was reversed, I thought a restart might make even more things reversed, but it actually made my phone not able to boot (properly) after that.
Current state:
On startup, it shows the Sony logo (as usual), then a black screen with tools icon for a while (also usual), then animated Xperia logo (also usual), but after that, the animation gets stuck and remains like that. When I press the power button the screen goes black and the phone is in a kind of semi-turned-on state. Pressing the button again lights up the black screen for like half a second, the green led indicator of charging also seem to brighten a bit during the time. When I hold down the power button I get a reduced power menu:

I tried to hold down the Power down option to boot into Safe mode, which it did, but I ended up in the same situation, except that there is "edom efaS" written down there on that black screen :D.
I tried searching a bit, but could not find anything for such a specific case. I thought maybe using ADB (although im a noob in that) could help, but I found this post which says I would need root. Which reminds me:
My device:
Sony Xperia XZ1, non-rooted, latest official firmware, from EU (Czechia), developer options enabled, with USB debugging hopefully allowed for my PC in the past?.
I hope this is sufficient, since I cant get into the system to check for details.
Ill be glad for any tips or guides on what I can do or which you can point me to. I use my phone quite a lot on a daily basis with important stuff on it. I should be able to grasp technical terms (am an IT student), altough I havent done much Android experiments myself except rooting my older Z1 Compact a few years ago. Thanks!
EDIT:

I tried to get to fastboot, but it did not find my device, i guess probably would need unlocked bootloader for that?
I tried to use adb shell in that half-on state, but the UI is not there, so I cannot confirm anything, and on pc it still says "adb.exe: device unauthorized." and on next line "This adb server's $ADB_VENDOR_KEYS is not set".
I tried flash mode and Sony Flash tool, just to see what it says. It says This phone is locked and points to unlocking Bootloader. But I can see the IMEI here at least.
Holding Volume down and power button as described here does vibrate, lights up a black screen for a short while and then dims, and then vibrate again and does a casual startup process described above. I guess again, an unlocked bootloader needed?
Was able to pick up a phone call! It rang in my bluetooth headphones, so I picked it up, and then a call UI showed on the screen. Although, I was not able to move on, I found eg keypad codes here, but I cannot confirm them when in the call. After ending it I get back to the black screen. So I guess the phone actually IS booted, but just the UI is not working. Could this help?


text:
What to do if my phone is stolen?
My phone was stolen recently.
I read that if you have a Google account connected to your phone, the thief needs to enter your Google password when wiping the data or factory resetting it.
However, after my phone was stolen, I changed my email password and remotely logged my phone out from my account.
Should I have not done this?

Google does not store the password on the device, instead it uses authorization token that can be disabled individually. Therefore instead of changing your password you should logout the stolen device using Google's Security section: https://myaccount.google.com/device-activity

I did exactly that, but my question is, now that I have done that, if thief wanted to factory reset my phone, will he be prompted with a "enter google account password"

if your device was reachable in https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager after it was stolen, the answer is yes, device is FRP locked after factory reset

Why should a thief factory reset the device? An Android 6 device is so old it has no value if you would try to sell it.

What would they do with it? Throw it in the trash?

a thief usually will try to sell EVERYTHING


text:
No tetwork (sim card doesn't allow connection to this )
Help please.
I repaired my phone's imei with xposed and now i have no network connection.
When i choose a network it says: sim card doesn't allow connection to this.
I put the sim in other phones and sim was ok.
tried only gsm , only wcdma and no change.
Phone model is y560 L02 qualcomm

Xposed only works on Java based apps, not on native apps and not on Android that are not an app. Hence it only "repairs" what is displayed to you, however the RIL, the daemon that performs the actual interaction with the mobile network is not affected by Xposed.


text:
AVD Pixel_XL_API_30, emulator process gets killed every time in Android
I just downloaded Android Studio's latest version being: 4.1.3 (18 March 2021) with the repository being: android.googlesource.com/platform/tools/adt/idea. The problem is that my AVD Manager is unable to load any of the Virtual Devices, however, light it might be. Currently, I am using Pixel_XL_API_30.

It shows "The emulator process for AVD Pixel_XL_API_30 was killed."

Can anyone tell me if this new version problem or is a bug?

Make sure that your CPU supports virtualization technology and it is enabled in BIOS. Install also the appropriate support package for Intel CPU (HAXM) respectively the other package for AMD CPUs. Make sure your computer has enough RAM - min 8GB.

The most frequent reasons for this is

Windows: Not enough disk-space on drive C: (where Android stores its emulators)

Enabled Windows hypervisor!

Hit Windows-Key and enter 'features', select 'enable/disable Windows Features'
Disable 'Windows Hypervisor Platform' (this disables Windows Subsystem for Linux as well)

This worked for me, you currently can't have both unfortunately even in Windows Pro.
Edit: There seems to be a solution with Hyper-V

Yup, for me, it was not enough disk space. Thank you

Please mark as the accepted answer, thanks.


text:
Lenovo - Internal Storage and SD-Card empty (on device and pc)
As stated above.
Someone asks me to help him with his phone.
I have no clue what happened, I never heard about thats happening before, soo.. yeah...
The phone is an Lenovo with Android 6.0.
It has an 16Gb SD-Card.
Since a couple of days the pictures weren't accessable. So my friend brought the phone to me.
When going to the Data Manager (The "App" where you can see all file of internal/external storage) it says "Empty" while trieing to view the internal storage.
It doesn't even recognize the SD-Card.
Same goes when I look at the phone from my PC (via USB).
The phone still works. WhatsApp still works, but is unable to make BackUps because of "No Internal Storage detected".
Is there anything I can do? The last BackUp of whatsapp is corrupted and I would hate to have to tell my friend that all the pictures, WhatsApp Chats, etc. is gone.
Thanks for everyone trying to help.
EDIT 1:
The variables are filled as followed:
External_Storage = /sdcard
Android_Storage = /storage
EDIT 2:
The find cmd on "/storage" and "/sdcard" works I think.
I get a very long list of files and folders, but I get  "Permission denied" on "./data", "./root", "./dev", "./init" and some other folders. (I guess that's because I haven't rooted the device?)

Test the SD-card in an USB SD-card read on a PC and check e.g. in Windows if Diskmanager recognizes the card at all. If not the card is most likely defect.

@Robert the diskmanager recognizes it as "F:" but no Volume (not empty not used, just nothing). But at the same time the internal storage is empty too, so how can that happen? Because the phone is still running and can even be rebootet.

@alecxs WhatsApp was only an excample to state that Apps mostly work. Except when they have to load something from the internal storage/sd-card. I cant look up photos with the media app, can't create backups from whatsapp, but the apart from that everything still works. And that is whats confusing me. How can everything still work, when nothing can access the Internal Storage/the internal Storage is corrupted?
Also I have no clue how to check both the variables. I  never did stuff with android before other than using it.

@alecxs Updated the question, Sorry that it took so long :/

you can backup Internal Storage /sdcard and MicroSD Card /storage/1A2B-3C4D via adb pull https://android.stackexchange.com/q/226573

adb backup does not work for WhatsApp. However there is solution to downgrade WhatsApp to older version which allows backup. be careful don't forget -k flag when uninstalling (keep data)


text:
How does Samsung store pictures marked as favourite in the Gallery app?
I had marked a number of pictures as favourite on Samsung S10 Plus, I then renamed the DCIM folder to 2021_Backup (I had backed up my pictures onto a hardrive). After this I could not see any pictures in the favourites folder. I am assuming Samsung stored the list of all favourites somehwere and had a pointer to the actual image. Once I changed the folder named it lost that pointer and could not show those pictues. I have renames the fodler back to DCIM and that hasn't helped either. Something else is missing. Again, I am guessing the DCIM file got a different internal filename when I renamed it or something.
Any ideas on how I can get those favourites. I had spent a while marking them.

Your Gallery app might have identified the images, not directly, but via MediaStore. Mediastore is an indexed collection of some file types. Once you renamed the directory, MediaStore most likely reindexed all the files in it, so index number changed. Then, when you renamed back, index number must have changed again. These index numbers would always differ from the numbers your Gallery app used to identify, access and mark your images as favorites. Since files at such index numbers don't exist, your Gallery app can't show you favorites. That's my guess.

Goign back IMO is a lost cause. Your app would probably be having favorites entry in a database with files identified by mediastore provided indexes. You can verify this by looking the private and public app data directory of your Gallery app. You would need root access though. I don't have a Samsung device or I would have confirmed this already. BTW, are you using default gallery app or a third party gallery app?


text:
How to I block advertisements for one specific app?
Lately I've been getting ads for a TikTok-like app called Kwai. These ads always include girls of questionable age dancing very suggestively to the sound of very bad music.
These ads appear on many of my apps, from YouTube to Duolingo (and other language study apps), and it's very annoying to see these while I'm trying to concentrate, especially since it always comes with loud music (while I'm wearing headphones to listen to my lessons). I did manage to get rid of them on YouTube by using Vanced, but I've still got issues with the other apps I use.
I don't mind any of the other ads that show up; it's only this one I've got beef with. That being so, I'd like to know if there's any way to block all ads for this Kwai app, specifically, from showing on my apps.
Thanks in advance!

Since these objectionable ads show up in multiple apps, they are likely being mass-distributed by a large advertising provider company (such as Google).
I don't think you'll be able to successfully block ads for a single product that are distributed this way, but since the content of the ads is questionable, you can determine which ad provider is delivering questionable content, and file a report with them.  If the content being pushed is illegal in your jurisdiction, you can also involve law enforcement.
Finally, you can notify the developers of all the apps in which you see these ads and let them know about the issue.  They can then file a report with their ad providers and consider finding more suitable ad providers.  If you leave accurate reviews regarding this issue, you may be able to pressure the developers of the apps you use to find a more appropriate advertising provider or remove the advertising content altogether.  Often, you can purchase paid versions of apps that have no advertising.


text:
Boot to ROM recovery instead of TWRP
My phone is OnePlus 5t.
In fastboot mode I flashed TWRP
fastboot flash recovery twrp-3.5.2_9-0.img
and every time I try to enter recovery mode it just start the original recovery mode that came with the system.
But if i enter 'fastboot' and type:
fastboot boot twrp-3.5.2_9-0.img
the TWRP comes up....
How can I make it automatically TWRP? ty!

Edit: someone send me this: adb device doesn't listed on cmd {Lenovo K8 Plus}
And this was the problem:
Another common mistake after flashing TWRP you must not boot into android. Reboot straightforward into recovery right after flashing, otherwise your custom recovery will be replaced with stock recovery /system/recovery-from-boot.p

A lot of system ROMs automatically flash a built-in recovery ROM when you boot it. Therefore if you want to permanently stay at TWRP you have to identify where in your main ROM this happens and disable it.

How can I do it? I have no idea....

usually TWRP will figure it out itself when you swipe to allow modifications

i think u need to flash 2 more files , called "force dm verification" and "decrypt" not sure that's the exact name but these basically get the job done

this can be useful for modifications. but will not solve the problem caused by recovery-from-boot.p


text:
How to unlock a Photon Q with an MSL code?
I'm having a strange issue with a Motorola Photon Q. The Photon Q is carrier locked to Sprint but has long since been paid off. I have the IMEI and the MSL code to unlock the device to use with other carriers, but I've hit a roadblock in actually getting it unlocked. I called Sprint and the guy that answered seemed very helpful. He tried to unlock the phone. He even read through the manual to try to make this work. In the end he talked to his supervisors and informed me that because of how old the Photon Q is they can't unlock it through IMEI and that I need to go to the carrier that the phone will be used with, AT&T, and have them unlock it using the MSL code. So, I went to AT&T to talk with them about unlocking it with the MSL code and they didn't even seem to know what an MSL code was. I explained to them exactly what the Sprint guy explained to me several times but they didn't seem to understand. They wanted the IMEI, which didn't work. They kept asking me if it was an AT&T phone. Nothing I said seemed to get through and I still don't know how to unlock this phone.
So, how do I unlock this phone, the Motorola Photon Q, to be used with non-Sprint carriers like AT&T?

Devices manufactured prior to February 2015 in general, are not SIM unlock-capable. Sprint FAQ. Your device is from 2012.

@Robert I know. As i said, the guy from Sprint said that. I have the MSL to take to AT&T and have taken it to them. They don't seem to even know what an MSL code is. As I stated above. According to Sprint AT&T can definitely use the MSL to unlock the phone to be used with AT&T.

@Robert also, despite what's been said and what you've linked to I know for a fact that it's completely possible to sim unlock a Motorola Photon Q because people have done it. I just don't know how to.

You know that is was possible to unlock this device, but not if it is still possible. As I said if the unlocking requires something special on provider side which has been switched off long ago then unlocking was working but not now. Also it seems like the new provider has to support unlocking. Read "I have the MSL code for my device. Does that mean that my device is unlocked?" of the FAQ.

@Robert That's not the question I'm asking so answers to it wouldn't help here. I know just having the MSL doesn't unlocked the device. I need to know how to use it to unlock the device or at least how to explain to AT&T what they need to do to unlock it since they don' seem to know.