text:
Mkbootimg: Repacking Android recovery produce corrupted image
I want to replace the kernel inside twrp 12.1 recovery with my kernel that I built.
Now with only unpacking and repacking the recovery image I end up with an image of different size
The recovery image size is 128M
root@localhost:~/mkbootimg# ls -alth recovery.img

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 128M Jul 15 12:40 recovery.img

The tool I'm using is google mkbootimg
mkbootimg -h
usage: unpack_bootimg.py [-h] --boot_img BOOT_IMG [--out OUT] [--format {info,mkbootimg}] [-0]

Unpacks boot, recovery or vendor_boot image.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --boot_img BOOT_IMG   path to the boot, recovery or vendor_boot image
  --out OUT             output directory of the unpacked images
  --format {info,mkbootimg}
                        text output format (default: info)
  -0, --null            output null-terminated argument strings

Output format:

  * info

    Pretty-printed info-rich text format suitable for human inspection.

  * mkbootimg

    Output shell-escaped (quoted) argument strings that can be used to
    reconstruct the boot image. For example:

    $ unpack_bootimg --boot_img vendor_boot.img --out out --format=mkbootimg |
        tee mkbootimg_args
    $ sh -c "mkbootimg $(cat mkbootimg_args) --vendor_boot repacked.img"

    vendor_boot.img and repacked.img would be equivalent.

    If the -0 option is specified, output unescaped null-terminated argument
    strings that are suitable to be parsed by a shell script (xargs -0 format):

    $ unpack_bootimg --boot_img vendor_boot.img --out out --format=mkbootimg \
        -0 | tee mkbootimg_args
    $ declare -a MKBOOTIMG_ARGS=()
    $ while IFS= read -r -d '' ARG; do
        MKBOOTIMG_ARGS+=("${ARG}")
      done <mkbootimg_args
    $ mkbootimg "${MKBOOTIMG_ARGS[@]}" --vendor_boot repacked.img

Running the commands the tools suggests
root@localhost:~/mkbootimg# ./unpack_bootimg.py --boot_img recovery.img  --out out --format=mkbootimg |     tee mkbootimg_args
--header_version 2 --os_version 16.1.0 --os_patch_level 2127-12 --kernel out/kernel --ramdisk out/ramdisk --recovery_dtbo out/recovery_dtbo --dtb out/dtb --pagesize 0x00001000 --base 0x00000000 --kernel_offset 0x00008000 --ramdisk_offset 0x01000000 --second_offset 0x00000000 --tags_offset 0x00000100 --dtb_offset 0x0000000001f00000 --board '' --cmdline 'console=ttyMSM0,115200n8 earlycon=msm_geni_serial,0xa90000 androidboot.hardware=qcom androidboot.console=ttyMSM0 androidboot.memcg=1 lpm_levels.sleep_disabled=1 video=vfb:640x400,bpp=32,memsize=3072000 msm_rtb.filter=0x237 service_locator.enable=1 androidboot.usbcontroller=a600000.dwc3 swiotlb=2048 cgroup.memory=nokmem,nosocket reboot=panic_warm buildvariant=eng'
root@localhost:~/mkbootimg# nano mkbootimg_args
root@localhost:~/mkbootimg# sh -c "./mkbootimg.py  $(cat mkbootimg_args) -o  repacked.img"                root@localhost:~/mkbootimg# ls -alth repacked.img
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 67M Jul 15 22:20 repacked.img
root@localhost:~/mkbootimg#

I had to modify mkbootimg_args and change --header_version to 3 because the tool didn't like it
but you can see the repacked.img is 67M where the original recovery.img is 128M
Flashing the repacked image to recovery partition I end up with destroyed boot/recovery screen


text:
My voicemail is gone
My carrier is consumer Cellular they sent me a new SIM card because they said mine needed to be updated. After inserting the new one my voicemail is gone. I tried to set it up again but it says my phone number is not associated with the voicemail on my phone. Everything else is working so I’m assuming I put the new SIM card in correct. I have a Samsung Galaxy A21.

Have you tried contacting the carrier?  Maybe they dont support free voicemail anymore.

So far the carrier hasn’t been much help. I’m going to try them again. Maybe I need to switch carriers.

After I got through to my carrier they tried to fix it. Now my phone won’t work at all. I’m going to have to try a factory reset.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
"You don't have another device" when trying to install Android apps on ChromeOS
This is a weird situation: since I don't have a smartphone, I installed PrimeOS on a USB stick and booted on a laptop. Under this live system, I installed some apps in Google Play Store just to test them (the laptop is recognized as a mobile device).
Afterward, I decided to overwrite the USB stick with ChromeOS. Now under ChromeOS, the Play Store shows my installed apps, but of course, I cannot access them anymore. It seems impossible to delete them or install them again. The Play Store says, "You don't have another device".
Any ideas to solve this?

PlaySore can not know the other "device" running PrimeOS because it doesn't exist anymore. From PlayStore perspective the installed OS is the device not the physical device.

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts. Sorry, I'm not sure what you want to achieve. Do you actually want to have the Android app on ChromeOS? Otherwise, you might have to resort to dual boot or use an Android emulator.

Yes, I want to use them under ChromeOS. In the past, I had bad luck with android-x86 (neither wifi nor lan worked).

If it's okay, could you mention the app you want to install? It seems the app is incompatible with ChromeOS and thus it cannot be installed, but without knowing the details, it's only a wild guess.

@AndrewT. I don't think that is the problem. It happens with every app, including Telegram or the official app from my bank.

Fair point, but I still think the relation to PrimeOS is tangential as Robert has explained. Instead, this looks like a question on how to install Android apps on your laptop running ChromeOS. I have to admit that I don't have experience with ChromeOS, but I learned that not all Android apps are supported on ChromeOS and even more, ChromeOS Flex doesn't support Android apps, thus probably back to the alternative of dual boot or using Android emulator.

Yes, it is probably not related to PrimeOS. Given that I run ChromeOS as a live-system, I'm pretty sure the same problem arises from different boots from the usb stick (I may try this later). The actual problem is that the play-store tries to book-keep my installations.

As Andrew T. pointed out in the comments, ChromeOS Flex (which I'm actually running) does officially NOT support Android apps.

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


text:
Can't update or install app with new Google Account
I have two accounts on my phone

institutional google managed workspace - x@school.com
private gmail - me@gmail.com

The institution that manages (x@xchool.com) ended relationship with Google and switched to Microsoft instead. I am no longer able to use that email address as my Google Account.
I am now logged in with my private gmail - (me@gmail.com), but I can no longer update nor install existing apps linked to my obsolete account (x@school.com). I get Google Play Store error "oops something went wrong" - even if I uninstall the app and try to install it brand new.
How do I fix this?
Do I just have to remove my old gmail account (x@school.com) from the phone? If I do this, will I lose everything on my phone (i.e. all my apps will be removed?)

Removing a Google account form the device will not delete apps. Some paid app may refuse to work but they never just disappear.

I removed my old google workspace account (x@school.com), and I am now able to install the app with my logged in (me@gmail.com).
I was just too scared to do that before. The existing apps still work, so I can now slowly uninstall/reinstall them at my leisure.


text:
S9 died black screen cell gone but I need to decrypt my SD card- Help!
My S9 black screen death, now GONE. TMobile replaced now I have a Moto G5 android. It does see the files but does not open. I have encrypted my SD card not aware I had to decrypt from my S9 but now I can't. I have copied all information from SD card to my Win 11 pc just to have safety I hope. I've been Googling for an answer but all confused on what to do...?
So many softwares to get me to buy, don't know if it will work or any other paths to do.
Really appreciate any feedback please!

If you can not access the sd-card the card was formatted as internal storage? If yes the necessary encryption key is stored within the flash memory of your phone (also encrypted by the lock screen pin/password and the gate keeper. So if the phone dies the data on the sd-card are gone.


text:
How to read signal strength of all frequencies received by antennae
Since all smart phones have antennas, and these antennas are capable of detecting and receiving many types of signals including wifi, 2g, 3g, 4g, and 5g, then "we" should be able to make apps that help us observe the strength and presense of all these signals independent of the SIM card we happen to have and whether or not our phone is in airplane mode, correct?  However, the signal-detector type Android apps I see out there only work when the radio transmitter is powered on, and even then it's limited to the particular service addressed to our SiM.  Am I missing some vital factoid?  I feel I must be.  Something is not adding up for me.
I do have a dedicated EMF detector "Electro-smog Meter".  It doesn't have transmitters yet it's antennae seem to work just fine.

You can for bluetooth and wifi. For others, the OS has to allow it. I  dont know if it does.

Here is my output in /dev:
RMX1911:/ $ ls /dev
ls: /dev/event-log-tags: Permission denied
ls: /dev/.coldboot_done: Permission denied
ls: /dev/cgroup_info: Permission denied
__properties__     gpiochip1            memory_bandwidth   pts                     smd8            v4l-subdev17
adsprpc-smd        gpiochip2            msm-rng            qce                     smdcntl8        v4l-subdev18
adsprpc-smd-secure gpiochip3            msm_aac            qg                      snd             v4l-subdev19
apr_apps2          graphics             msm_aac_in         qg_battery              socket          v4l-subdev2
ashmem             hw_random            msm_alac           qseecom                 stderr          v4l-subdev20
at_mdm0            hwbinder             msm_amrnb          ramdump_a610_zap        stdin           v4l-subdev21
at_usb0            hypnus               msm_amrnb_in       ramdump_adsp            stdout          v4l-subdev22
at_usb1            i2c-0                msm_amrwb          ramdump_cdsp            stune           v4l-subdev23
at_usb2            icesdcc              msm_amrwb_in       ramdump_ipa_fws         subsys_a610_zap v4l-subdev24
avtimer            iceufs               msm_amrwbplus      ramdump_md_a610_zap     subsys_adsp     v4l-subdev25
binder             iio:device0          msm_ape            ramdump_md_adsp         subsys_cdsp     v4l-subdev26
blkio              iio:device1          msm_audio_cal      ramdump_md_cdsp         subsys_ipa_fws  v4l-subdev3
block              input                msm_evrc           ramdump_md_ipa_fws      subsys_modem    v4l-subdev4
btpower            ion                  msm_evrc_in        ramdump_md_modem        subsys_venus    v4l-subdev5
ccid_bulk          ipa                  msm_g711alaw       ramdump_md_venus        tty             v4l-subdev6
ccid_ctrl          ipaIpv6CTTable       msm_g711alaw_in    ramdump_memshare_DIAG   ttyHS0          v4l-subdev7
cg2_bpf            ipaNatTable          msm_g711mlaw       ramdump_memshare_FTM    tun             v4l-subdev8
console            ipa_adpl             msm_g711mlaw_in    ramdump_memshare_GPS    uhid            v4l-subdev9
cpu_dma_latency    ipa_odl_ctl          msm_hdcp           ramdump_microdump_modem uinput          vga_arbiter
cpu_variant:arm    ipa_tethering_bridge msm_hweffects      ramdump_modem           uio0            video0
cpu_variant:arm64  jpeg0                msm_mp3            ramdump_venus           uio1            video1
cpuctl             kgsl-3d0             msm_multi_aac      ramdump_wcss_msa0       urandom         video2
cpuset             kmsg                 msm_qcelp          random                  usb-ffs         video3
dcc_sram           loop-control         msm_qcelp_in       rfkill                  usb_accessory   video32
device-mapper      mdmreason            msm_rtac           rmnet_ctrl              usf1            video33
dpl_ctrl           mdmrst               msm_sps            rpmsg_ctrl0             v4l-subdev0     video4
dri                media0               msm_wma            rpmsg_ctrl1             v4l-subdev1     video5
ecryptfs           media1               msm_wmapro         rpmsg_ctrl2             v4l-subdev10    video6
fd                 media2               mtp_usb            rpmsg_ctrl3             v4l-subdev11    video7
freezer            media3               network_latency    rtc0                    v4l-subdev12    vndbinder
fscklogs           media4               network_throughput sensors                 v4l-subdev13    wlan
full               media5               null               smcinvoke               v4l-subdev14    wwan_ioctl
fuse               memcg                ppp                smd11                   v4l-subdev15    zero
gpiochip0          memdev               ptmx               smd7                    v4l-subdev16

Based on the provided list, the following entries are related to the modem cellular:

at_mdm0: This entry typically represents the modem device in Android systems. It is commonly used for communication with the modem for tasks such as AT commands.
ipa: This entry refers to the Internet Protocol Accelerator (IPA), which is responsible for handling various network-related tasks, including cellular connectivity.
mdmreason: This entry is associated with the modem and is used for managing modem reset and initialization operations.
mdmrst: This entry is also related to the modem and is used for modem reset functionality.

These entries suggest the presence and functionality of the modem cellular in the device.
Rooting a phone can grant greater access to system files and settings, potentially allowing you to access modem devices and perform actions like reading signal strength without a SIM card. However, the ability to interact with modem devices after rooting depends on the specific device, operating system version, and modifications made during the rooting process. Tools like Android Debug Bridge (ADB) commands or modem-specific utilities can be used to retrieve signal strength information, but caution is necessary as accessing and modifying modem devices can lead to instability, loss of functionality, or even damage to the device. Additionally, the availability of signal strength information without a SIM card may vary depending on the device's hardware and software capabilities. Thorough research, consulting reliable sources, and proceeding with caution are recommended before attempting any modifications or accessing modem devices.
Based on most voted answer in this (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12855482/sending-at-commands-via-adb-android), you can perform AT command from given modem device in /dev directory, in my phone case is at_mdm0
echo -e "AT\r\n" > /dev/at_mdm0

Now, try AT+CSQ to check siqnal quality with modem without SIM card

This does not answer the question. Please edit it provide an answer.

I can see I am getting in over my head quickly, but I hear you saying it is possible to check signals quality without a SIM card as long as you have enough permissions.  It sounds like older scrap phones could be retro-fitted with a custom Android OS that was focused on utilizing the hardware merely for signal analysis / metering.  Does that sound true?

My original question was basically, "Can we make apps" that would do this stuff?  And what I am hearing is, "Yes, but those apps would have to be running on a very specialized OS that has very different permissions than a normal Android OS."  Am I getting it?

Your output showed "Permission Denied" because you were not rooted?

Smartphones do have the hardware capability to detect various signals, the ability to access and observe this information is controlled by the phone’s operating system and hardware. This is deliberate design for security reasons.
Most signal detector apps available on the Google Play Store work by accessing the phone’s built-in signal strength measurement tools. These tools are typically only active when the phone’s radio transmitter is powered on, which is why these apps may not work when the phone is in airplane mode or when the SIM card is removed.
I included some helpful  links above as well as here and here
May you can  try  to tweak a custom recovery like TWRP and include a command line functionality in it for this purpose.

Three of your links point to articles about low-tech cell phone detectors.  I may have been unclear in my question.  My curiosity is about using smart phones especially in non-emitting (airplane) mode as signal detectors.  I'm not so curious about building devices to detect cell phones.

"Smartphones do have the hardware capability to detect various signals, the ability to access and observe this information is controlled by the phone’s operating system and hardware." This is what I'd like to know more about.  What if an Android operating system really tapped into that information and displayed it?  That would be super useful (to a certain select group of EMF connoisseurs).

That is a security constraint within the Android / i)S or any other cellphone OS.- in a custom recovery you are at root and source is open. If you know how to write API calls to the hardware you can write a command line Util that displays this but once the full OS boots up - forget about getting this info.


text:
Unexplained Bluetooth notification upon disconnecting
Pixel 6a, Android 13 (July update) was connected to Jabra Elite 65T and I experienced this weird and inexplicable notification

On disconnecting the BT, this notification appeared:

On tapping it, it turns out to be the previously paired Jabra but showing it as unknown.

This was very strange because:

Jabra BT was given the permissions the first time it was paired and never asked for them ever. I've been getting calls with contact names read out too.

I didn't receive/approve any other BT paring request ever.

This notification appeared only after disconnecting and not on connecting

Just to rule out the unlikely event of another BT device possibly somehow getting connected,and asking for phone book access, I again connected & disconnected to see the notification yet again. This has never happened in the past AFAIK. Also in BT connections no other device was showing up

I am trying to understand why this happened but can't think of any reason neither does a Google search help.
Can someone please explain how the Jabra device shows up as "unknown" and ask for previously approved phone book access?

You need to do some more tests


text:
Disabling Android swap with ADB `swapoff`
I'm using non-rooted phone, how do I disable swap with ADB using swapoff?
It says
swapoff: Needs 1 argument (see "swapoff --help")

Here is swapoff --help
usage: swapoff swapregion

Disable swapping on a given swapregion.

Where to find swapregion?

swapoff cannot be run without root (CAP_SYS_ADMIN to be more precise).

Most Android devices do not have a swap area like typical operating systems do. Instead, Android manages memory differently, using techniques such as zRAM and low-memory killers to manage memory allocation among processes
Having said that, swap may be created by magisk or related modules. To see if it's there:
# cat /proc/swaps
Filename            Type        Size    Used    Priority
/dev/block/vnswap0  partition   2097148 1472552 -1

swapoff <block device path>
swapoff /dev/block/vnswap0

It will most likely give you a resource busy error. Have to run it at boot-time.
Useful references: Stack Overflow - Swapon failed trying to enable zram.

At least since Pie, it may be possible to disable swap with:
adb shell settings put global zram_enabled 0


text:
Understanding Records.json data points from google geo takeout
Within the records.json file from Google Location data takeout, there are activity types with accuracy values.
I am trying to understand how accurate an activity type of, On Foot / walking will be.
How is this calculated ?
GPS fixes via wifi scan ?
In vehicle activity?
I am a digital forensic investigator.

I would expect that "foot/walking" is based on the movement speed may be correlated with the acceleration sensor data.

strong textLocation accuracy is controlled by GPS, Wifi and Cell towers.  For it to be more accurate, you need to to turn on High Accuracy Mode.

How Maps finds your current location
Maps estimates where you are from sources like:
GPS: Maps uses satellites to know your location up to around 20 meters. When you're inside buildings or underground, the GPS is sometimes inaccurate.
Wi-Fi: The location of nearby Wi-Fi networks helps Maps know where you are.
Cell tower: Your connection to mobile data can be accurate up to a few thousand meters.

From Find & improve your location’s accuracy
Step count is measured vis silicon devices on the phone and they are pretty accurate.  However distance travelled using step-count data is dependent on the user entering their height.  From this apps such as Samsung Health work out your stride.  This is an estimate at best.
Walking a track
Google maps already knows how long a track or walking route or roads are.  If you are waking or running these, then it is exact +/- Location accuracy.  Pure GPS error is about 5m in clear sky.  I have seen figures of sub-metre accuracy with the use of Wifi and Cell Towers.  But I cant find any references right now.


text:
Creating a backup partition on Android
It would be lovely if I could manually  allocate a portion of space to create a partition for backup that's separated from the other partions that gets wiped or replaced when flashing a custom rom so for example as root if I can create /dev/sda99
Mount it backup the custom rom and other files and in twrp recovery I can mount it again and flash the custom rom and the backup and it doesn't get wiped when I format the data in twrp.
But I don't know if it's even possible.
This is a list of my partition
.../files/home # ls -alth /dev/block/by-name/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 3.3K Jul 16 16:55 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1.8K Apr 12  1971 .
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 frp -> /dev/block/sda5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   14 Apr 12  1971 sdc -> /dev/block/sdc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 bluetooth -> /dev/block/sde5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 featenabler -> /dev/block/sde24
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 uefivarstore -> /dev/block/sde41
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 devinfo -> /dev/block/sde28
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 dsp -> /dev/block/sde9
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 modem -> /dev/block/sde4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 cmnlib64 -> /dev/block/sde13
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 limits -> /dev/block/sde35
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 modemdump -> /dev/block/sde39
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 msadp -> /dev/block/sde32
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 splash -> /dev/block/sde34
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 tz -> /dev/block/sde2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 abl -> /dev/block/sde8
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 keymaster -> /dev/block/sde10
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 vbmeta_vendor -> /dev/block/sde17
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 vm-linux -> /dev/block/sde23
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 xbl_config -> /dev/block/sdb2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 ALIGN_TO_128K_1 -> /dev/block/sdd1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 ocdt -> /dev/block/sdd6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   14 Apr 12  1971 sdb -> /dev/block/sdb
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   14 Apr 12  1971 sde -> /dev/block/sde
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 xbl -> /dev/block/sdb1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 mdm1m9kefs3 -> /dev/block/sdf8
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 mdmddr -> /dev/block/sdd4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 cache -> /dev/block/sda6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 fsc -> /dev/block/sdf7
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 logdump -> /dev/block/sde38
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 mdm1oemnvbktmp -> /dev/block/sdf12
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 oplusreserve2 -> /dev/block/sdf14
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 rawdump -> /dev/block/sda9
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 vm-data -> /dev/block/sde44
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 hyp -> /dev/block/sde3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 mdm1m9kefsc -> /dev/block/sdf11
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 oplus_sec -> /dev/block/sde27
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 oplusreserve1 -> /dev/block/sdf13
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 uefisecapp -> /dev/block/sde20
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 ddr -> /dev/block/sdd3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 mdm1m9kefs1 -> /dev/block/sdf9
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 oplusreserve4 -> /dev/block/sdf16
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 persist -> /dev/block/sda2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 vm-system -> /dev/block/sda8
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 keystore -> /dev/block/sda4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 mdtp -> /dev/block/sde7
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 spunvm -> /dev/block/sde33
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 userdata -> /dev/block/sda11
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 multiimgoem -> /dev/block/sde21
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 vm-keystore -> /dev/block/sde43
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 apdp -> /dev/block/sde30
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 engineering_cdt -> /dev/block/sdd5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 oplusdycnvbk -> /dev/block/sdf2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 ALIGN_TO_128K_2 -> /dev/block/sdf1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 oplusreserve3 -> /dev/block/sdf15
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   14 Apr 12  1971 sda -> /dev/block/sda
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 ssd -> /dev/block/sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 aop -> /dev/block/sde1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 devcfg -> /dev/block/sde14
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 limits-cdsp -> /dev/block/sde36
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 mdtpsecapp -> /dev/block/sde6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 misc -> /dev/block/sda3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 qupfw -> /dev/block/sde15
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 secdata -> /dev/block/sde42
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 apdp_full -> /dev/block/sde31
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 cdt -> /dev/block/sdd2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 cmnlib -> /dev/block/sde12
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 dip -> /dev/block/sde29
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 imagefv -> /dev/block/sde25
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 logfs -> /dev/block/sde37
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   14 Apr 12  1971 sdd -> /dev/block/sdd
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 storsec -> /dev/block/sde40
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 DRIVER -> /dev/block/sdf18
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 fsg -> /dev/block/sdf6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 mdm1m9kefs2 -> /dev/block/sdf10
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 modemst1 -> /dev/block/sdf4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 modemst2 -> /dev/block/sdf5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 multiimgqti -> /dev/block/sde22
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 oplusreserve5 -> /dev/block/sdf17
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 oplusstanvbk -> /dev/block/sdf3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   14 Apr 12  1971 sdf -> /dev/block/sdf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 boot -> /dev/block/sde11
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 dtbo -> /dev/block/sde19
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   15 Apr 12  1971 metadata -> /dev/block/sda7
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 recovery -> /dev/block/sde26
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 super -> /dev/block/sda10
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 vbmeta -> /dev/block/sde18
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Apr 12  1971 vbmeta_system -> /dev/block/sde16
.../files/home #

I know must of Android uses mmcblk as reference for all the partions but the layout on my device is different I don't know why.
As you can see the bootloader abl and the recovery are on separated block sde
userdata and super partion are on sda block so if were to use parted on /dev/block/sda to create a partition, is it safe ? Is it going to have an impact on recovery and bootloader? is it even possible to allocate memory without shrinking other partions?
Overall it seems like a risky process but it's worth it


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How to Avoid My Video Being Cut to 10 Seconds When Posted to Instagram Stories?
I learnt that since late Sep 2022, the duration of IG stories has increased from 15 seconds to 60 seconds. However, today when I tried to post a 25-second video to Instagram Stories in my Android phone (actually the video was an MP4 converted from a still picture using ffmpeg, because there are words in the picture I would like viewers to have enough time to read), added music to it (Instagram also showed 25 seconds in this step but the number was greyed) and then published the story, the published story became 10 seconds only (not even the old limit of 15 seconds).
I tried a few times but the result was still the same. I searched the Internet but seems no one mentioned a similar problem. What steps do I have to do in order to make sure the video (and the music) can last for 25 seconds? Did Instagram detect my video was actually a still picture so it treated it as a photo?


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Emails with attachments are getting queued by Gmail app
I am facing this issue with the Gmail app, where the emails without attachments are going through, but the one where I attach something like a pic stored on the mobile, the email gets stuck in the Outbox.
But I can send emails with attachments through the web browser.
Things I've tried:

Uninstalled and installed the Gmail app again
Updated the apps
Clear cache + clear data + restart phone

None of them works.
The Permissions page shows Files and Media under the Allowed section, so the permissions should be fine.
Not sure what else I could try.


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Androids bluetooth connection with accessory keeps dropping
I have an accessory that connects with smartphone through dedicated app.
I tested it on few other phones and tablets - they work great.
Yet for some reason while connecting to my Moto E20 phone, the connection drops after ~5 sec. Then it reconnects after another 15, drops again, untill after few times fails completly.
I tried to test all different settings, with zero success. Made sure that there's no battery savings, no processes limit, changed Bluetooth from 1.4 to 1.6 etc. What could possibly cause that? I don't want to reset device to default :/

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange. Is the Bluetooth accessory also paired with other devices near you, thus the other device may be trying to connect to it, and the accessory disconnects the connection to the Moto E20? Or in other words, have you tried unpairing it from all devices and only pairing it to Moto E20?

To time it, how did you observe that it was dropping


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Data backup in recovery mode?
My Samsung a51 is broken and for some reason I can't turn it on, download mode is not available, only recovery mode. It has quite a lot of important data, mostly pictures. Is there a way to make a backup in recovery mode?

No... Everything in Android is encrypted... even if you could get to the files, they would be unusable.


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How to stop YouTube from auto-translating the audio of some videos?
Now it is possible to add multiple audio files to one video for different languages on YouTube. When I want to listen to an English video, it chooses French audio because I'm French, and I have no way to change that on the Android app.
I changed my location in the settings to the United States, but that didn't change anything. I also set my preferred language to English (United States) in my Google settings, but that didn't change anything either.
How can I listen to the original audio of a video that is not in my native language in the YouTube Android App?

EDIT: The only solution is to change the language of my phone to the original language of the video I want to listen to, which is very annoying. I would like to know if there is a better way.

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts. Possibly related to YouTube and localization: Disable title translation of YouTube videos.

Nope, the only solution is to change the language of my phone to the original language of the video I want to listen to, which is very annoying. @AndrewT.


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How to factory reset a bricked Oneplus 3T?
A friend gave me a bricked oneplus 3T and asked if I could do anything.
I assume bootloader is NOT unlocked and usb debugging NOT enabled.
I’ve tried msm download tool but I only was able to use the oneplus 3 one (instead of 3T). any time I try msm I get Sahara error after a few seconds. Looks like the phone changes state when I start uploading OOS.
I did manage to get to adb sideload and upload the OOS but the screen is still black after rebooting.
I’ve tried multiple usb ports 2.0 and 3.0 and different usb cables. I also tried other computers (always win 10).
If anyone would like to help I can provide more informations,
Anyway thanks for reading.
Update : I’ve managed to use fastboot oem unlock and then ‘volume up’ two times then ‘power’ button to accept if anything is displayed on screen and I think it worked because now I can flash recovery and boot. I flashed twrp but when I boot in recovery I get a black screen. When I do adb shell I can use commands like twrp sideload

It works better the other way round.  You provide all the pertinent information and then someone will try and help.

How did you manage to brick the device? Considering the age of the phone it could be a hardware problem like dead Flash memory or some other chip.

Sorry if I did not provided enough info, I’m new to android stack exchange.
I’ve bricked the phone flashing the wrong os (op3 instead of op3T) since then I have a black screen and sometimes vibration. I randomly get access to adb or adb sideload or fastboot while playing with the power and volume keys. The point I don’t understand is why my phone is disconnected when I start the job in msmDownloadTool. I managed to skip the hwid check but then the phone disconnects and instantly reconnects and I get Sahara communication failed error or sometimes it’s stuck on firehose hand check failed.

@Robert yeah it could be but I don’t know how to make sure if it’s hardware or software issue. Would you have any idea of how I could make sure or even get a clue ?


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Can I allow audio from only Spotify during Do Not Disturb?
I've started listening to music on spotify with the sleep timer as I go to sleep. However, I normally have Do Not Disturb enabled when I sleep, and Do Not Disturb blocks all media because I have the "Media sounds" setting setting to not be able to interrupt. I don't want to enabled this setting because I don't want things like text messages to ding during the night.
I see there is a way to allow notifications from specific apps through Do Not Disturb, but is there a way to allow audio from specific apps? Specifically, I'd like Spotify to be able to play when I have Do Not Disturb up, and nothing else.
I'm running Android 13.

You can control which Apps can break the "Do Not Disturb"

Open Settings
Search for  Disturb
Select do not disturb
Select App notifications
Select Add apps
Select Spotify

This only applies to notifications, not Media; meaning, not the music that spotify is actually playing.


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Regain access to phone with Family Link parental control
My phone Motorola E22i (XT2239) did an update and is asking for my password (not a PIN). The password is requested on the lock screen. It's never looked like this before.

I tried my Google account password and my dad tried his password, but neither works. We also tried resetting it, but it has reset protection, so we can't even do that.
What password does it want?

It may have a Motorola account.

@ChanganAuto I don't remember signing up for that.

That looks like a password screen when the device is encrypted with FDE (Full-Disk Encryption). It usually asks for the lock screen password. Otherwise, you may want to try "default_password".

Supposedly you can reset the screen unlock password. I havent tried it

Unlock a Motorola Phone without Losing Data by ADM
A simple and convenient tool that can be used to accomplish this task is Android Device Manager – ADM. Your Motorola phone, like any other active Android device, is linked to your Google account. The main point of this method is to leverage access to your Google account and password, to get around the original problem. You can unlock the Motorola phone password without resetting it on a computer or another phone, but you need to provide a stable internet connection for the duration of the process.
Step 1: Type the address www.google.com/android/find in the web browser on any device.
Step 2: Sign in with your unique Google account username and password.
Step 3: Google will start to search for your device. If you have multiple devices registered on the same account, choose the one you want to unlock from the list.
Step 4: Three options will appear on the screen, click on one that allows you to change the password.
Choose Change the Screen-unlock Password
Step 5: Empty window will appear. Enter a temporary password, and click on the Lock again. If the process is successful, you will get a confirmation message.
Step 6: On your locked Motorola enter the previously used temporary password, and your device will be unlocked. You will be able to use your phone any without limitations and set up a new password for permanent use if you so decide.

From How to Unlock my Motorola Phone with/without Factory Reset
I am not associated with this website.


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Turn on WireGuard VPN when launching certain apps with Tasker
I'm having some trouble setting up a Tasker profile to enable Wireguard VPN when launching specific apps on Android. I created a profile and added the "STATE" option where it checks if the VPN is on, but I'm not sure how to make it detect when an app is launched. Basically need:

If X app is launched
Then check if VPN is on, if not turn it on.
If it VPN fails to connect, throw a message. (optional)


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Is there some way to prevent myself from shutting down my [rooted] phone in some specific cases?
This is question is basically an acknowledgement that I'm very f-ing lazy.
First, I'm on a Pixel 6 Pro running stock A13, rooted and filled with Magisk modules.
I needed to find a way to guarantee I'll wake up, so I tried Alarmy (I just noticed the apk id is droom.sleepIfUCan, haha), which has a really cool feature of posing a few physical and/or mental challenges to stop the alarm from ringing.
But well, the very first day I tried it (with no real need to wake up at the time I set), I didn't feel like waking up, as I had nothing scheduled, so I simply turned my phone off (I'm not sure, but I think Alarmy blocked my screen and stopped me from pulling the dropdown menu or switching to other apps, so I used the Power+Vol Up menu) and found an easy way to beat the purpose.
I'm wondering if I can somehow I can circumvent this:

Perhaps Tasker could block and unblock Shutdown using Alarmy's actions as triggers;

Another approach would be to somehow block it via terminal/Termux. The only times I ever need to turn my phone off is during chess tournaments, so I wouldn't mind having to enable Shutdown again and disable it afterwards;

Maybe this can be done with a Magisk module;

Or, my last guess, maybe I'll need a custom ROM for that.

And of course, perhaps this is not possible at all. Is it?

Possible duplicate: How can I prevent myself from powering down my phone while "Alarmy (Sleep If U Can)" is trying to wake me up?, but it might be outdated

Definitely related, but I don't think it's a dupe. On Jan 2015, current Android was Lollipop and Magisk wasn't released until 2017.


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Opening items from the google news feed using Firefox?
Im using the google news feed (swipe left from home) a lot. However, i want to open the respective links using firefox instead of chrome (mostly because i can disable autoplay on firefox, but not on chrome i dont think).
I tried looking through the options as well the internet but i havent found a way to open these news items in "custom" browser.
Is it possible ?

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts. We have existing Q&A: Prevent apps opening links in Chrome Custom Tabs (i.e. open in default browser directly), Disable all in-app browsing while keeping Chrome as default browser. If you're not using Chrome, you may want to try disabling it.

There is one "simple" way to open your Google Feed links in Firefox instead of Chrome. Disable Chrome in your apps. If you do not need Chrome for anything, this is certainly the easiest way. Immediately, all feed links now open in Firefox. The Google app still works for search, and now Reddit links for example now open in Reddit immediately as a side effect.
I also have Chrome Remote Desktop installed, which wants Chrome installed, but is happy to work on Firefox anyway, so it would seem.


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Where should I put Android kernel modules?
I compiled custom kernel with couple extra drivers and due they had conflicts when I tried to add them as built-in drivers to kernel, I had to compile them as separate modules. I signed the modules, insmodded them and they work well. No conflicts.
The problem is that I neither have modules directory in /system/lib folder nor /vendor/lib. I tried to create them manually but even after creation, it didn't load after reboot.
Now questions:

Where can I put kernel modules if I don't have these folders?
How can I make it without modifying system? I want to ship the kernel as only 1 AnyKernel3 zip.

Please, if you at least know answer to one of these questions, respond either as answer or comment.

I feel that this is about programming/development, so off-topic here.

Put them in /system/lib/modules/ or /vendor/lib/modules/. You need to load them using a boot script. They are not auto-loaded. To avoid modifying /system, use Magisk modules.

@IrfanLatif, I can remount /vendor partition as rw and then add those modules and folders. Issue is at loading them. How can I load them?

My init binary is compiled code. Where else can I add insmod /vendor/lib/modules/module.ko line?

See Magisk Boot Scripts and How to run an executable on boot?.

Thanks @IrfanLatif . I will take a look at them


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Temporarily use a Samsung A40 screen with a Samsung A30
A friend of mine broke her screen (samsung A40), and she would like to recover her photos (not saved on google photo, debug mode not enabled). We struggle to unlock the screen blindly, so I was thinking of using the screen of another phone (samsung A30) to temporarily replace the screen just the time to get the picture.
Is there a chance for this procedure to work? How can I check if both screens are compatible?

Usually for replacing you need identical components because the display and digitizer drivers are integrated into your system's kernel and can not be replaced and usually they only support one specific component.

@Robert you mean this device tree thing? Arggg. So there is no solution?

I am not an expert to Samsung A30/A40 display. Based on the hardware specs they have the same resolution but different screen size. But besides this data I don't know anything, e.g. if the hardware connector is identical and what digitizer is used. Also keep in mind that when switching display you may end up with two defect displays...

It is unlikely that it would work, and you could damage some electronics.


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Can't unlock bootloader after `fastboot oem lock` on Xiaomi
I have owned a Xiaomi Redmi 9 for a while now and I have a problem. A short time ago, I locked the phone's bootloader to make it like new, and it was a serious mistake. I bought a new mobile and thought about using the old one as a backup. This endorsement should have:

Bootloader unlocked
Root activated

I must add that that device had a Mi account that belonged to me and I deleted it. After doing that and relocking the bootloader using the precious command of fastboot oem unlock, the next message appears:
FAILED (remote: Unlock failed...return to fastboot in 3s)
finished. total time: 0.015s

Original screenshot of terminal output
I have tried to use the Mi Unlock software, but when I enter my new Mi account and press the Unlock Now button, I get the following (what is covered was the ID of my old Mi account)

I have tried to insert my SIM card, add the new account, activate the OEM unlock option, and try to unlock the bootloader using Fastboot, but I get what I indicated.


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On Android 13, is there still a 2G kill switch?
A feature was introduced in Android 12 that prohibited 2G usage (except for emergency situations), that’s sometimes called the 2G kill switch.
However, I now have a Samsung Galaxy A04s and the switch is nowhere to be seen, despite having 2G, 3G and 4G available in the preferred networks menu.
So, was it removed from Android 13 ? Or is there something specific with my phone, my country (France) or my mobile operator (Free) ?

Have you read that this was not a general feature of Android 12 but is also limited to a "radio HAL 1.6" (which only had Pixel 6 at that time). Even if your phone was released afterwards Samsung heavily modifies the OS so Samsung may simply have decided to use an older HAL. I am not sure what are the minimum requirements for that HAL in Android 12/13.

This XDA article is on the same topic but has more details: https://www.xda-developers.com/android-12-disable-2g-modem/

I have Galaxy M12 on Android 13 (OneUI Core 5.1, the same as your device) and there's also no setting for it while it seems it's available on OneUI 5.x. OneUI Core 5.1 calls com.samsung.android.app.telephonyui/.netsettings.ui.NetSettingsActivity while the Activity mentioned on the Reddit is not available (based on testing). My very wild guess is that this option might not be available on OneUI Core, the stripped-down version of Samsung's OneUI.

Another discussion on Reddit about forcing 4G rather than disabling 2G while the said feature was also mentioned.

Thanks for your insights ! Though I wonder why it isn’t present in OneUI Core. I thought OneUI Core was lighter in the sense that it’s stripped of whatever is too demanding or absent from budget hardware, and that looks more software-related… Maybe I should ask directly on the Samsung forums.


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Block spam SMS based on unique words
I have many annoying SMSes with unique words, such as: "For Cancel Enter 12".
I am looking for a way to filter those SMSes based on a phrase.

Welcome to a Q&A site Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange. Please note that questions directly asking for app recommendations are off-topic. Instead, we prefer the asker to just state the underlying problem that they want to solve and not put any restrictions on apps only. Otherwise, you might be interested in our sister site, Software Recommendations Stack Exchange instead.

I created a Q there - But No body answer yet.


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hostapd reappears after deletion or renaming
Device: T-Mobile "Revvlry" branded version of the Motorola G7+.
ROM: https://doc.e.foundation/devices/lake, which shows up in the phone settings as Android 10.
Rooted: Yes. I'm using Termux which has superuser rights in Magisk, and su gets me #.
How do I disable the Mobile Hotspot feature?
I'm trying to disable hotspot but I can't find hostapd on android 9
Following the instructions in these two questions, I found hostapd in /vendor/bin/hw and attempted to rename or remove it. It disappears momentarily the first time I list the files after deleting, but if I exit the terminal and then return and list again it reappears. Same with renaming, it appears under the new name and then reverts. The remount step also causes hostapd to reappear even though it gives an error -  "mount: '/dev/block/dm-0'->'/vendor': I/0 error".
Any changes to files in root directory (/) are gone after reboot
Why if I delete a file or folder from root (/) it comes back when I reboot?
I've found these answers which explain how Android will restore system files in root from a boot image, but I did not need to reboot my device to make hostapd reappear. Also, the first question I linked says that they were able to delete/rename hostapd successfully.

It might help to know what hostapd does and whey yo need it gone.

@rohitgupta Deleting or moving hostapd disables the mobile hotspot functionality. This is covered in detail in the two questions I linked.


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What app does this icon belong to?
Just wondering which app this ican belongs to.

Where does the icon appear?

Top left just next to the time

Duolingo - App to learn new languages


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Restore Smart View on a Galaxy phone
I had an Android (Samsung Galaxy) smartphone with AT&T providing the carrier service. Because AT&T owns DIRECTV, they allow unlimited streaming on their DIRECTV app using AT&T's cellular network data that does not affect your normal internet or hotspot data limits like it would for, say, Netflix.
That allowed me to stream DIRECTV with no data limits or surcharges to my phone over the cellular network while traveling in my RV. I would then use the "Smart View" (Miracast) feature on the phone with my Amazon Firestick/TV to connect the two devices over a direct-WiFi connection (the Firestick has a wireless transmitter/receiver built in to facilitate this connection).
The direct-WiFi connection ability that "Smart View" used was important because the connection used this feature instead of demanding a WiFi connection to the internet over AT&T's network, eating up my data limit, negating the advantage of the unlimited streaming if I was required to access the internet using AT&T's cellular network or hotspot capability.
I recently upgraded to a new Galaxy A14 5G phone running Android 13 to get the benefits of 5G. Samsung/Galaxy, in their infinite wisdom, deleted the "Smart View" functionality, "replacing" it with "SmartThings", which not only requires a WiFi connection to the internet or a special SmartThings hub/router to function, and in addition, it does not support Amazon Firestick or many other devices "Smart View" used to support.
Any help or constructive guidance on how to get "Smart View" or a similar app that only required a direct-WiFi to implement the screen mirroring capability would be appreciated. I have been hunting for such an app for weeks now.

Welcome to a Q&A site Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange. Looks like Smart View is an independent app that can be installed, is this what you meant? Otherwise, looks like SmartThings also includes Smart View, but it's only available on One UI 3.1. Galaxy A14 5G on the other hand, is running on One UI Core, the stripped down version which lacks some features. Not sure if it's possible.

Smart View was originally a Samsung app that came installed on my previous phone. The app you linked me to does not look like the Samsung and I believe based on the language used in the app that it was not developed in the US. It also says it contains ads. That said, I am downloading it and will give it a shot!!! I appreciate the link and will let you know how it works out!!!

I tried the Smart View app you pointed to. It appears it will only work to connect the Android phone to a Sony or Samsung Smart TV. I am trying to connect my phone to an Amazon firestick. Although it can see my firestick when direct-WIFI is on, it will not connect and therefore will not allow me to send my video to the firestick.


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Display message on Android TV sent over network
I have several Android TV boxes driving TVs in my house.  I switched them over from Kodi.
I used to send a message to Kodi (using Netcat) from a Linux box that runs a phone system.  When a call arrived, my Kodi boxes would display "Incoming call from Bob 1-234-567-8902".
Kodi had a native API for displaying messages.  Does Android TV?  If not, is there a way to display messages sent over the network, possibly an app?
P.S. I'm not asking for "the best app" - just is this possible and ideally example apps that can do so.  I found that I can write my own Android program (per this post) but hoping not to code something when not needed.


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Is there a universal ADB interface for microcontrollers?
ADB is a great tool to communicate between my PC and android device. I was wondering to save space with hobby projects, if it is possible for ADB to be used by a microcontroller? The only reference of such an attempt I've come across is from an XDA post where the author created an ADB interface for the microcontroller, which would enable control of sensors and motors directly from the phone. However, the provided links were mostly inactive regarding source and didn't have detailed explanation of the process leading to the final product.

On phone/device side adb is designed to be executed in a Linux environment as a daemon process. As most microcontrollers do not provide a high-level OS like Linux adaption will be difficult. Als adb is a protocol that is provided by Android to be used e.g. by a PC. The opposite direction (Android controls other Android device or devices that support adb) is not provided by Android or it's SDK.

@Robert thank you for the detailed explanation. I have stumbled across this repo and wonder with a deep dive in the understanding of the protocol I can achieve a communication ?

If you just want to implement adb protocol this might be possible if the microcontroller allows you to program it's USB part. However most of the adb functionality will be not applicable to a microcontroller as most have no file-system and also no shell. So the question remains what you want to use adb for.

The bare minimum would be to restart the machine with adb reboot on a timer.

I never heard of it before. Pretty interesting.. and also a great website (talking of the content lol)
This is a partial answer - About the inactive links
Seeing that the website was working, I was sure that the links must have been changed without the proper redirects and apparently I was correct.

Not working links on the XDA post:
http://robots-everywhere.com/re_wiki/index.php?title=PropBridge (only
source for now)
http://robots-everywhere.com/re_wiki/index.php?title=Serial_on_Android_using_the_audio_port

I couldn't find what it's refering to by "PropBridge" in the first link, but I found the second link:
https://www.robots-everywhere.com/re_wiki/pub/web/Cookbook.AudioSerial.html
You can find the list here:
https://www.robots-everywhere.com/re_wiki/pub/web/Cookbook.Cookbook.html


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How to go through initial setup of Samsung Galaxy S23 without using Wi-Fi or SIM card with data
How can Samsung S23 initial setup be finished with no internet connection - no Wi-Fi and no SIM card with data?
When the phone is started with no SIM card inserted, initial setup wizard page "Choose a Wi-Fi network" can't be skipped. When the "Skip" button is clicked, a popup is shown with message:

A netwok connection is needed to continue setup. Connect to Wi-Fi, or insert SIM catd and use mobile data.

Well, if it's not letting you, then you probably can not.
As part of the initialisation, it

does updates and
disables features on your phone that are not allowed in your country.

There may be other things it needs to do as well.
One solution is to root it.  But you have to go through the initialisation process first.


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Notifications not appearing until a day later
Events that I put into the (Google?) Calendar app that came preinstalled usually don't show a notification until at least 24 hours later. For instance, it's now just after 7:00 pm, 30 June 2023 Melbourne time, yet I was just notified of an event at 6:00 pm, 29 June 2023, just over 25 hours ago.
My phone is a Samsung S20 Ultra, with all the updates available on my network carrier.
What could be causing this and how could I fix it?


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Lollipop - disable certain background process
I have an old (but rooted) phone running Android 5.1.1 (Lollipop).
I realized it runs many background processes which I absolutely don't need.
I can stop them manually via Settings > Apps > Background processes, however I wish to keep them disabled: they slow down the cold-start of the phone which I don't like.
So I'm looking for a way to not just disable but completely ban certain processes (i.e. ban them from starting).
How can I do this on these old versions of Android? Unfortunately Google is quite blurry and noisy for these search terms.

Are they init services, system apps, or user apps? See details here. How do you know they are not needed?

A solution is to reduce the number of installed apps.

System apps: like Google Photos+, or Google News, etc.

@RohitGupta: how can I uninstall System apps? :)

@Daniel if you want to uninstall system apps, you can try pm uninstall command.


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Is it possible using Cerberus to enable ADB Debugging on my broken android
I have a OnePlus Nord 5G and stupidly I never enabled ADB Debugging, and now the screen is completely ruined. However, I still have the Cerberus connectivity. I have tried through the various means Start Service and Start Application to try and enable ADB debugging. Is this at all possible or am I chasing a dead end?
I have also downloaded Screen Stream through Google Play to my phone and then started it remotely through Cerberus with hopes of trying to connect. However, I am met with a Press Start to begin on the Screen Stream webpage 192.168.1.106:8080. Any way around this as I cannot touch the screen to begin anything.

I don't think there are a lot users around that are familiar with Cerberus. May be you should describe what functions you can execute using Cerberus at the moment.

Is this the Cerberus trojan horse?


text:
Is there any app that can accept incoming calls and play a voice message using Text To Speech?
I used to use an app that could do exactly that. When a person would call, the app would accept the call, enable the loudspeaker, and play a voice message aloud using text-to-speech. Meaning, the app would accept the call, enable the loudspeaker, and play a voice message aloud from the phone's speaker.
As the call would be on loudspeaker, the caller would be able to hear everything that was being said. The call would end when the caller (or the receiver) would hang up. If no one hung up, the call would continue indefinitely after the message was read aloud. The app was completely free.
Unfortunately, I cannot find that app now. Does it still exist? If not, is there any other app similar to it available currently?

Any decent hands-free driving app should do this.  Try Ultimate Car Dock.  OTOH, this is probably off-topic

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts. Please note that questions directly asking for app recommendations are off-topic. Instead, we prefer the asker to just state the underlying problem that they want to solve and not put any restriction for apps-only, so we'd appreciate it if you could [edit] the question, add some details, and/or remove the restriction. Otherwise, you might be interested in our sister site, Software Recommendations Stack Exchange instead.

Related, though maybe not answering the question fully: Accept call then play a pre-recorded voice message to caller, How to use Tasker to answer a private number, play an audio file to the caller and hang up?


text:
Alert sound with no pop-up from google calendar on android
On my Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (Android 13) phone I'm getting the default notification alert sound but no pop-up.  I had been getting the alert for a while.  To track it down I turned off notifications for all of my apps and then started turning them back on one at a time.  Determined that it was coming from google calendar. There's nothing in Notification History or the Notification Panel when I get the alert.  It happens all day long.  Anyone have any ideas.
Problem solved: Suggestions from another forum said turn off notification reminders. That solved the problem. I'm not sure why you would get notification reminders when notifications are turned off but apparently that's how it works.

Welcome to the Q&A site Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange. Hi, looks like you've found the solution by yourself, which is great! Consider post it as a proper answer since self-answering is not only allowed, but even encouraged!. Thanks!


text:
Android: how to use adb commands to block/unblock specific app from using the Internet, on rooted device if needed?
Background
I want to temporarily block a specific app from using the Internet on my Android device, using a batch file. The device is rooted, so it should be possible via the PC.
The problem
I actually found something over the Internet that seems to work fine for most apps:
@echo off
set package_name="com.android.chrome"

c:
cd\
cd C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\platform-tools

for /f "delims=" %%A in ('adb shell dumpsys package %package_name% ^| findstr "userId="') do (
  for /f "tokens=2 delims== " %%B in ("%%A") do (
    echo Extracted UID: %%B
    adb shell "su -c 'iptables -A OUTPUT -m owner --uid-owner %%B -j DROP'"
  )
)

And to unblock:
@echo off
set package_name="com.android.chrome"

c:
cd\
cd C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\platform-tools

for /f "delims=" %%A in ('adb shell dumpsys package %package_name% ^| findstr "userId="') do (
  for /f "tokens=2 delims== " %%B in ("%%A") do (
    echo Extracted UID: %%B
    adb shell "su -c 'iptables -D OUTPUT -m owner --uid-owner %%B -j DROP'"
  )
)

Thing is, as I wrote, it doesn't always work for all apps.
I also tried this instead:
...
adb shell "su -c 'iptables -I OUTPUT -m owner --uid-owner %%B -j REJECT'"

What I've found
I've found an open sourced app called "AFWall+" , and inside of it, I've noticed a file that seems to call many functions to block the app. When launching the app and applying a blocking rule, it indeed takes some time, which means maybe it's worth checking out:
https://github.com/ukanth/afwall/blob/beta/app/src/main/java/dev/ukanth/ufirewall/Api.java#L660
I've tried to launch it and debug, and I think it created more than 90 adb commands in the process of blocking a single app that I chose...
But, it seems it worked.
The questions

Is there a minimal way to block an app completely from the Internet using adb ?

How come there are so many commands that were used on "AFWall+"?

"it doesn't always work for all apps." perhaps you might want to clarify what doesn't work. I'd assume that the internet blocking doesn't work, not the command doesn't register, but a clarification won't hurt.

@AndrewT. I don't know the cause of it. I just noticed that the Android app somehow succeeded to communicate. Or at least it seems this way. I have tried to explain all that I've tried... I just want to know if there is a better command/s to do it. Perhaps I'm missing here something.


text:
How to solve battery charge issue on Galaxy A04
I don't know if it's the recommended 6 hour charge policy that I didn't follow when I bought this phone but it's behaving weirdly when the battery charge reaches zero percent. It goes off and then when I plug it into the AC charger it shows the lightning sign without showing the number which in this case is 0 going upwards. This goes on for hours until I long press the power button and volume down button(several times) to completely drain the battery. This behavior persists on every battery drain and I would like to get rid of it permanently, Thanks.

What is the "6 hour charge policy"? Note that letting the battery reach 0% and the phone shuts down is the best way to degrade the battery and additionally there is a small chance to destroy the file-system and loose all your data. LiO batteries should best be kept between 20 and 80% to prolong their life.

The six hoirs charge is usually recommended for new phones where you are needed to charge the battery for at least six hours. To prolong the lives of batteries, Samsung gave us an option to limit maximum battery charge to 85 percent.

Based on your description, your phone is not brand new. The 85% limit is nice, but the opposite direction (deep discharge) can cause even more damage to the battery.

@Robert, had another android phone whuch was samsung brand and didn't refuse to update the charge percentage when plugged in. This one gets stuck at the lightning logo forever without accepting charge. Is it a must to keep phone charge between 5 and 85 percent?

@Robert, another user posted a similar issue to Samsung forums and Samsung recommended the deep drain. How is it bad?


text:
Uninstalled Game Optimizing Service on Samsung Galaxy A50 (Android 9) will be re-installed immediately
I am trying to uninstall Game Optimizing Service bloatware on Samsung Galaxy A50 (Android 9):
adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.game.gos

As soon as i post this command, I see that GOS briefly disappears from the applications list, but then after a fraction of a second it re-appears again. Something is watching its state and re-enables it.
How to get rid of GOS bloatware?
Here is an excerpt from logcat:
2023-07-01 12:37:37.047 5088-5088/? I/VVM.VvmPkgInstalledRcvr: onReceive() : action android.intent.action.PACKAGE_REMOVED packageName :com.samsung.android.game.gos
2023-07-01 12:37:37.048 4581-4581/? D/SamsungAlarmManager: Remove alarm for next reason : android.intent.action.PACKAGE_REMOVED : package: com.samsung.android.game.gos
2023-07-01 12:37:37.055 4581-4581/? D/ApplicationPolicy: checkExternalStoragePkg - uid - 1000, key - PackageNameExternalStorageWhiteList, packageName- com.samsung.android.game.gos
2023-07-01 12:37:37.055 4581-4581/? D/ApplicationPolicy: checkExternalStoragePkg : Not match found
2023-07-01 12:37:37.055 4581-4581/? D/ApplicationPolicy: packageRemovedForExternalStorage : Match not found
2023-07-01 12:37:37.056 4581-4581/? D/ApplicationPolicy: checkExternalStoragePkg - uid - 1000, key - PackageNameExternalStorageBlackList, packageName- com.samsung.android.game.gos

2023-07-01 12:37:37.055 4581-4581/? D/ApplicationPolicy: packageRemovedForExternalStorage com.samsung.android.game.gosuserId - 0
2023-07-01 12:37:37.055 4581-4581/? D/ApplicationPolicy: packageRemovedForExternalStorage userId - 0
2023-07-01 12:37:37.055 4581-4602/? W/BroadcastQueue: Background execution not allowed: receiving Intent { act=android.intent.action.PACKAGE_REMOVED dat=package:com.samsung.android.game.gos flg=0x4000010 (has extras) } to com.sec.imsservice/com.sec.internal.ims.imsservice.ImsIntentReceiver
2023-07-01 12:37:37.055 4581-4581/? D/ApplicationPolicy: packageRemovedForExternalStorage : adminUid - 1000
2023-07-01 12:37:37.055 4581-4581/? D/ApplicationPolicy: checkExternalStoragePkg - uid - 1000, key - PackageNameExternalStorageWhiteList, packageName- com.samsung.android.game.gos
2023-07-01 12:37:37.055 4581-4581/? D/ApplicationPolicy: checkExternalStoragePkg : Not match found
2023-07-01 12:37:37.055 4581-4581/? D/ApplicationPolicy: packageRemovedForExternalStorage : Match not found
2023-07-01 12:37:37.056 4581-4581/? D/ApplicationPolicy: checkExternalStoragePkg - uid - 1000, key - PackageNameExternalStorageBlackList, packageName- com.samsung.android.game.gos
2023-07-01 12:37:37.056 4581-4581/? D/ApplicationPolicy: checkExternalStoragePkg : Not match found
2023-07-01 12:37:37.056 4581-4581/? D/ApplicationPolicy: packageRemovedForExternalStorage : Match not found
2023-07-01 12:37:37.056 4581-4581/? D/ApplicationPolicy: packageRemovedForExternalStorage : adminUid - 10051
2023-07-01 12:37:37.056 4581-4581/? D/ApplicationPolicy: checkExternalStoragePkg - uid - 10051, key - PackageNameExternalStorageWhiteList, packageName- com.samsung.android.game.gos
2023-07-01 12:37:37.056 4581-4581/? D/ApplicationPolicy: checkExternalStoragePkg : Not match found
2023-07-01 12:37:37.056 4581-4581/? D/ApplicationPolicy: packageRemovedForExternalStorage : Match not found
2023-07-01 12:37:37.056 4581-4581/? D/ApplicationPolicy: checkExternalStoragePkg - uid - 10051, key - PackageNameExternalStorageBlackList, packageName- com.samsung.android.game.gos
2023-07-01 12:37:37.056 4581-4581/? D/ApplicationPolicy: checkExternalStoragePkg : Not match found
2023-07-01 12:37:37.056 4581-4581/? D/ApplicationPolicy: packageRemovedForExternalStorage : Match not found
2023-07-01 12:37:37.056 4581-4581/? E/SDAgentPackageStateReceiver: Not going to handle 'com.samsung.android.game.gos'!

2023-07-01 12:37:37.060 4581-4581/? I/ConditionProviders: Disallowing condition provider com.samsung.android.game.gos

2023-07-01 12:37:37.061 4581-4581/? D/AudioService: com.samsung.android.game.gos(10134) is removed

2023-07-01 12:37:37.069 4581-4581/? D/SdpManagerService.receiver: On android.intent.action.PACKAGE_REMOVED : DATA = package:com.samsung.android.game.gos, UID = 10134, UserId = 0, Is replacing? false

2023-07-01 12:37:37.075 4581-4813/? D/SdpManagerService: handlePackageRemoved - PackageName : com.samsung.android.game.gos, UserId : 0

2023-07-01 12:37:37.131 4581-4681/? D/[a11y]: getUserAccounts0
2023-07-01 12:37:37.133 4581-4681/? I/chatty: uid=1000(system) AccountManagerS identical 3 lines
2023-07-01 12:37:37.133 4581-4681/? D/[a11y]: getUserAccounts0
2023-07-01 12:37:37.135 4972-5014/? D/EventHandler_FLP: PACKAGE_ADDED
2023-07-01 12:37:37.135 4972-5014/? D/PackageInfoManager_FLP: action : ACTION_PACKAGE_ADDED, packageName = com.samsung.android.game.gos
2023-07-01 12:37:37.136 4847-4847/? D/KeyguardUpdateMonitor: received broadcast android.intent.action.PACKAGE_ADDED
2023-07-01 12:37:37.137 4847-4847/? D/MetaDataParser: updatePackage() com.samsung.android.game.gos true
2023-07-01 12:37:37.138 5049-5049/? D/RoutingNotificationHelper: set : ((5049) true , false)
2023-07-01 12:37:37.138 5049-5049/? D/RegisteredServicesCache: invalidateCache
2023-07-01 12:37:37.138 4847-4847/? D/MetaDataParser: removePackage() key = com.samsung.android.game.gos

Considering all your questions today you should really think about installing a custom ROM like LineageOS. That would get you more control and you could start free of Samsung and Google background services.


text:
Disable device admin apps functionality completely
Every time I activate Google Play Services and reboot my phone (Galaxy A50, Android 9), Google Play Services gets automatically added to Device admin apps. It prevents also Google Play Services from deactivating on the Apps page. Each time I have to remove it from Device admin apps.
Honestly to say I don't like Device admin apps functionality at all and want it vanish from my phone so that no application could be added there even if it eagerly wants to.
Is it possible to remove Device admin apps functionality at all?

If you don't want to have Google Play Services with device admin capabilities do not install them. There are projects aiming in providing a replacement for Play Services, I don't know how good they are as I don't use them.


text:
Cannot control Nvidia Shield volume while streaming to TV
My setup:

Nvidia Shield is connected to the TV
I use the optical out of the TV to connect two speakers
I use the Nvidia Shield remote to control the Shield volume out (not the TV volume or the speaker volume: just the Shield volume)

This setup has worked just fine for years, but I recently changed my TV from an old Panasonic plasma TV to a QLED from LG and it doesn't work anymore.
What happens is that I can change the volume just fine if I'm in the dashboard or if I play a file locally. But if I stream something (I tried Netflix, HBO Max, and Disney+), the volume doesn't change and I get the pop-up saying that I have to go into settings and set up the remote control. This ONLY happens when streaming, and it did not happen with my old TV.
I can change the volume just fine if I set the output to be the TV speakers instead of the optical out, but obviously that's not what I want. I have tried checking/unchecking IR, CEC, and HDMI fixed volume control in the Shield's settings but no luck. I also try to set up the remote again but also there, no luck.
I'm looking for suggestions on how to be able to make it work also during streaming. Thanks!

It turns out that the issue was due to the new TV reporting being able to do surround.
The old TV did not do this, but what happens now is that because this one allegedly supports "surround", Shield expects that the remote for the surround system has to be used.
The workaround was to disable surround in the sound settings of Shield, and now the remote works just as before.
Still, it'd have been helpful to have a better message than "set up your remote", used in pretty much every kind of situation.


text:
Galaxy A50 shows SSID of my hidden network
I have a network with hidden SSID on my Mikrotik router. There are only three devices that connect to it. All other devices connect over another, guest, virtual access point, with other SSID.
Today I wanted to add my friend's phone, Samsung Galaxy A50, to the guest network, but found that it shows the SSID of my hidden main network, which it has never connected to. At first I thought that it is a bug in recent router firmware, but all other devices of other models do not show this network at all.
When I change the network name, it disappears from the list on this Galaxy A50. When I change the name back to the original one, it is shown again.
How is it possible? Is there a spy service on one of out devices that leaks data about my network to, say, Google?

Are you aware that hiding a Wifi results in every device that is configured to connect to this network permanently try to connect to this network thus broadcasting the Wifi details out? If you want to protect a Wifi set it to WPA2 or even 3 and assign a long password that is far more secure that any hiding.

One possibility is that your friend may previously have connected to another Wifi with the same SSID.
The Phone does not know its a different Acesss Point, it goes by the name.
To test

Goto Wifi settings and forget or delete saved networks
Restart the phone
Rescan for networks

Forget, restart and rescan doesn't help. It still displays this network. SSID is unique. I am sure.


text:
How to add new user to group, modify user/group, or log in as root on Android?
I have my crappy Samsung J5 (6) phone and after rooting it, I want to do something. I'm testing what happens if I add the current user to the root group. My username is j5xnlte, but when I try usermod, it says
sush: usermod: not found

What commands I ran and the output:
j5xnlte:/ $ whoami
u0_a102
j5xnlte:/ $ su
j5xnlte:/ # whoami
root
j5xnlte:/ # usermod
sush: usermod: not found
127|
j5xnlte:/ # exit
127|
j5xnlte:/ $ usermod
/system/bin/sh: usermod: not found

Maybe I don't have the ability to mess with users or groups? How I can add a user to a group on Android? I also want to know how to log in on Android as root or create a new user.

In the GUI you can never login as root. Each app runs on it's own user, thus you have no Linux user account but a lot of them. User account management is done by Android system. The only way to execute something as root is on command-line (via su) e.g. in adb shell or Termux shell. Apps that can make of root do exactly that in background.

See these answers to understand Android users and login process: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Is there no way to login as root, I guess it is possible to give root permission to every normal user by editing the Kernel


text:
How to install an app that is available on older and newer Android versions but not on mine?
I have Bluetooth MIDI Connect installed on my Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 tablet which is currently running on Android 10. My kids are using it to connect to the Bluetooth piano. My understanding is that it cannot be upgraded to a newer version of Android due to the decisions of Samsung and/or Google. I can't upgrade the tablet to a newer version of Android.
Recently, I created a second account on the same tablet for my second child. When I wanted to install the app on the second account on the same device, I realized that I can't because it's not available in the Google Play Store, meaning that when I search in the Play Store, this app does not come up in the list. On the second account, I went via Chrome directly to the link of the app, and the reason why I can't install it is:

This app isn't available for your device because it was made for an older version of Android.

I tried from my phone running on Android 13 and I can install it.
My understanding is that Google changed something and now it does not allow apps that are not explicitly compiled using some of their APIs to be available in the Play Store for that particular version of Android. But I could be wrong.
Just to show that I've done my research, I see the following options:

Try to find the APK of the older version and install it manually on the tablet as a third-party app. The problem here is that I do not know which site to trust.
Somehow take the app files from the first account on the tablet and install them on the second account. From what I've seen for other apps that were on the first account, when I installed them on the second account on the same device, I went to the Play Store and I had a feeling that the app was not even been downloaded. It might be that the app as in the compiled code is the same for the two accounts, just maybe with separate data elements. I could be wrong on this one, it is just a hunch.
Somehow download the APK that is currently available for Android 13 in the Play Store and hope it will work on Android 10. I see the risk here that it may not work.

I do not want to root the tablet. I can't seem to find this app on APK Mirror, and I tried it with several other apps, but I can't connect my piano to it.
How can I install this application on my Android 10, Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 tablet? How can I install this app that has older and newer versions?

The Bluetooth permission system was totally reworked with Android 11. That you can install it on Android 13 is nice, but it it does not support the new Bluetooth permissions it should not work. Why it is not visible on Android 10 tablet is a question only the app author can answer. May be the app has not been released for tablets at all or something like that. Unfortunately it is not possible to a description from Play Store why an app can not be installed.

The same app works on the same table, just on another user account. Thus it should not be a problem of compatibility. It's just a matter of installing it on the second user account and it should be working. I just can't install it since it is blocked by google play.

Android apps have a manifest file that describes software features, capabilities and permissions required. These then define which OS/phone/format the app will work on.

App manifest overview
Every app project must have an AndroidManifest.xml file, with precisely that name, at the root of the project source set. The manifest file describes essential information about your app to the Android build tools, the Android operating system, and Google Play.
Among many other things, the manifest file is required to declare the following:

The components of the app, including all activities, services, broadcast receivers, and content providers. Each component must define basic properties, such as the name of its Kotlin or Java class. It can also declare capabilities, such as which device configurations it can handle, and intent filters that describe how the component can be started. Read more about app components in a following section.
The permissions that the app needs in order to access protected parts of the system or other apps. It also declares any permissions that other apps must have if they want to access content from this app. Read more about permissions in a following section.
The hardware and software features the app requires, which affects which devices can install the app from Google Play. Read more about device compatibility in a following section.

From Android Developers>Docs>Guides

If you find an old copy of the apk on another site, you have to risk virus attacks if you decide to trust them.

The only very remote possibility is to download the apk (it is a zip file), hack into it, and change the manifest.  Be warned that if the app actually needs those features then it is liable to just crash.

The AndoridManifest.xml is one reason an app is not available for a certain phone/tablet, but not the only one. App developers can define in Google Play Console to which devices they want to make an app available. Thus if the developer decides to release an app only for Galaxy S23 then this can be done in Play Console. Also editing Andoridmanifest.xml is only necessary if Android refuses to install it. A lot of apps can be installed without problems even if they are not listed in Play Store for your device.

@Rohit Gupta yes, I was thinking of doing that. However I couldn't find the apk on the apkmirror site that I would trust more than others. I guess it's better to find the older version that was working before android 10, rather than the newever version right? I mean with the newer apk for android 13 if I change the manifest I guess it might crash, however with the older one e.g. android 9 it should be safer. Is there a chance that I can re-use the files that I have installed on the first account on my tablet? since the app is installed on my tablet on my first account

@Robert, how would I do that? could you briefly list a series of steps that I need to do? e.g. 1. go to the googleplaystore and download the apk. 2. enable third party apps on my tablet... Many thanks

@MMT My comment was long. What do you mean by "that"?

@Robert. By "that" I meant your purvis sentence :"A lot of apps can be installed without problems even if they are not listed in Play Store for your device". Thus how could I install the Bluetooth midi app?

@MMT just download the APK file from thisr party Sites like APKmirror.com or APKPure.com and then install it by selecting the APK on the phone or if you have enabled adb and connected the phone to a PC with running adb via adb install someapkfile.apk.

@Robert I managed eventually. Since you were the closest to the solution how can I mark your answer as the good one? The way to do it is 1. download the xapk from apkpure.com 2. install the special app that can handle APKs 3. With the special app install the xapk.


text:
Is it possible to rescue data from a Google Nexus 5 which is stuck in bootloop with locked bootloader and no working recovery mode?
I have found my Google Nexus 5 which I had problems with in 2016 concerning the infamous stuck power button. At some point, the phone was stuck in a restarting loop. Then, I managed to leave this loop by pressing the power button multiple times.
After that until this day, when I start it, it is stuck in the Google booting animation of the spinning colored balls. It stays in this animation forever, it has now been in this state for the last 12 hours. Interesting is, that when I turn it off by pressing the power button, it automatically restarts, coming back to this animation screen. Looks like this (animated and moving):

I don't care about the phone anymore, but I care about my data. Some important things:

phone is not rooted
bootloader is locked
fastboot mode works (Power + VolumeDown)
recovery mode doesn't work (Select it from fastboot mode and then "No command" is shown and I press Power + VolumeUp)

So, I can use fastboot commands but not adb commands.
Things I have tried / researched (feel free to correct me):

Connect the phone in fastboot mode to my PC and start recovery mode via fastboot command from here. Doesn't work either, the phone restarts then and stays in booting animation.
Tries to start a custom recovery image in fastboot mode via fastboot command, but this requires the bootloader to be unlocked.
Found out that the phone uses an eMMc for storage which you can't remove from the phone and connect it somehow to your PC to access the data (is there really no option to get the data if I remove the eMMc?)

Please, in 2023, is there ANY WAY in this world I can rescue my user data under these circumstances or at least some more things I could try?

Because of the locked bootloader the possible actions are very limited. I am not sure if there is a way to enable "safe mode" as it might allow the device to boot. Do you remember which Android version is installed (and if the user data is encrypted)?

Hi @Robert, thank you a lot for your questions and suggestions. I can tell quite precisely when the phone came to this problem - it was in September 2016. So it has to be Android 6.0 - 6.0.1 Marshmallow, because I have looked up that the Nexus 5 never received a Nougat update. Also, I have never encrypted my user data. Would be a dream to use some safe mode to have it booted. Best regards.

Hey @Robert, some ideas for my situation? Best regards.

Sorry but I don't see a way to access the data on software level as the bootloader is locked. The only way remaining would be on hardware level to unsolder the flash chip and uase a special flash reader to access the data. Both unsoldering and reading the chip requires special hardware and a lot of knowledge. As I don't have any experience in that area I can not give you more details.

Alright, thank you very much for your judgement!

there is a way to root it on locked bootloader and enable usb-debugging with edl mode (firehose programmer here). depending on how far it boots could be possible to copy out files during the boot animation (if reached decrypted stage)

After many hours of trying to make my Nexus 5 start again, I have given up on my data and wanted to make it work again at all. I have unlocked the bootloader via fastboot oem unlock and tried to flash a factory image. However, it said FAILED (remote: 'flash write failure'). When I tried to erase cache via fastboot, it said FAILED (Write to device failed'). So I couldn't write at all.
Also, when I rebooted bootloader after unlocking it, the bootloader was locked again. I have learned that therefore, it seems like my eMMc chip is dead. RIP.
See this.


text:
Repacked modified super.img - can't see new files
I got a Chinese phone with an MTK6761 SoC, running Android 13 (has the virtual A/B partition and DM-verity/AVB enabled). I managed to unlock the bootloader and root it through Magisk and MTKClient tool running on Manjaro Linux. So far the only "issue" with that is that as I have seccfg modified, I have the annoying message at boot stating that the partitions are corrupted (because of dm-verity). In that regard, I tried disabling dm-verity through the usual methods with no luck.
The problem that I am facing is as follows:
I am attempting to modify the bootanimation file, which is inside the "product" virtual partition. I found that it is inside super.bin, so I unpacked it using the lpunpack commandline application with the command:
lpunpack super.bin ./Images`

Then, I found there was an image, product_a.img which has the bootanimation.zip, so I increased the allocated size by 10 MB with the following commands:
e2fsck -f product_a.img

fallocate -l 2275078144 product_a.img

resize2fs product_a.img 555439

Then, I mounted it to a folder named "product" with the following command:
sudo mount -t ext4 -o loop,rw product_a.img product

To access and modify its content I used Thunar Root and replaced the bootanimation file with my custom file. Then I unmounted the file using sudo umount product and repacked everything with the following command:
lpmake
    --super-name super
    --metadata-size 65536
    --metadata-slots 2
    --device super:5368709120
    --group main:4504506368
    -p "product_a:none:2275078144:main" -i "product_a=./product_a.img"
    -p "product_b:none:0:main" -i "product_b=./product_b.img"
    -p "system_a:none:1678229504:main" -i "system_a=./system_a.img"
    -p "system_b:none:139591680:main" -i "system_b=./system_b.img"
    -p "vendor_b:none:0:main" -i "vendor_b=./vendor_b.img"
    -p "vendor_a:none:411607040:main" -i "vendor_a=./vendor_a.img"
    -virtual-ab
    --output ./super.img

I must say that I had to place vendor_b before vendor_a because it being a 0 byte partition made lpmake complain if it was the last partition. To get the actual size of each partition I used the result of "stat" command for each, and I used a metadata-size of 65536 as it was "recommended" online.
Lastly, I flashed it to the phone through MTKClient:
 python mtk w super super.img

The partition was written successfully and the device started correctly but I could not see any changes. So I dumped once again the super image from the phone, and I verified the changes were actually applied to the ROM, and that is when I got really confused. I also tried removing files and adding files to the partition, only to find that the device do not see the changes but they seem to be there when I dump it back tu my PC.
I would really appreciate if someone could help me figure out what I am doing wrong.

disable dm-verity/FEC first

I tried disabling dm-verity using the command fastboot --disable-verity --disable-verification flash vbmeta vbmeta.img using the vbmeta_a.img image that I dumped with MTKClient, but that always results in a bootloop. What am I doing wrong?

you could try to flash vbmeta_a and vbmeta_b instead

I tried flashing vbmeta_a and b with the parameters to disable. The phone does its boot process (shows boot logo) but when it has to show the boot animation it turns off. Same thing happened when I tried to patch vbmeta_a with Magisk and flashed it with MTKClient. Perhaps I have to patch some other partition as well?

Maybe. can you double check vbmeta is disabled? https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/221756/what-is-02-in-the-magisk-patched-vbmeta-img

Sorry I didn't answer. What I tried was running the fastboot command to disable and then dumped the vbmeta file again. Compared both files with HxD, the only difference is at offset 70, what was a 0x03 on the original is now 0x00. Tried to find the word "verity" but it does not appear on any.  The only words I can make out are avbtool 1.2.0 and a word "fingerprint" I suppose is the for the key to verify. There are other vbmeta partitions (vendor, system) shall those be patched?

yes, patch all these partitions with HxD manually and give it a try

I tried patching every partition as you said but I can't find "verity" on any of those images. What do I have to replace in HxD? By the way, thank you for your help.

see the hex 02 on the right picture

I tried setting to 0x02 on that position on all three files. Also I tried writing 0x00 on the other positions as shown on that thread but in either case, it keeps boot looping. I believe there is something different with this device that I am missing.

dig more into FEC


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Without back up info and unable to receive verification code,, how can I access my Google account
I cannot access my Google account because I lost my back up info and I cannot receive a verification code, because I no longer have access to my old phone. How can I get into my Google account?

Try Account Recovery.  It will ask you some questions.
The complete process is here

Forgot your password

Follow the steps to recover your Google Account or Gmail. Recovery

You'll be asked some questions to confirm it's your account. Answer the questions as best as you can.
If you have trouble, try the tips to complete account recovery steps.

Reset your password when prompted. Choose a strong password that you haven't already used with this account. Learn how to create a strong password.

If that doesn't work, then the help suggests that you create a new account.  And this time, give it your phone number for recovery.


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Touchpad scroll direction
When using a touchpad mouse connected to an Android device via Bluetooth, is is possible to invert the scroll direction when using two fingers on the touchpad?
By default, it works like "natural scrolling", where moving your fingers down on the touchpad causes content to scroll up.    I prefer content to scroll down as I move my fingers down.


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How do I restore deleted video? Xiaomi forces me to log in to their cloud when I open the Gallery's trash
An important video from my wife's phone was deleted by accident today. I want to restore it. The phone is Redmi 5 plus, Android 8.1.0, MIUI Global 11.0.2.
When I go to Gallery, instead of opening the local trash folder, it forces me to log in to Xiaomi Cloud. When I try to log in to the cloud, it says that it will send SMS but instead, it was calling twice and then sending SMM once. The call interrupts the internet connection and as a result, that field to enter number disappears, and even though it says number during a call as a voice message, I have no place to input it. And the code from SMS wasn't accepted. Then it said that I was out of maximum attempts to log in.
I don't understand why would I have to log in to use the local trash folder. If I had to sync with the cloud first, and without it, I can't restore it - then I don't care about that Xiaomi Cloud.
Is there still any possible way to restore that video? Preferably a free one.
P.S. Just in case. I've been trying to install Wondershare Dr.Fone. It turned out to be such a peace of ssssoftware... First, it offers a free download, a long installation of the whole package, and no choice for a separate tool. Then it shows something it found (which seems to be already existing videos and I didn't see the one I needed) and then when I click "recover" it wants me to pay money. Yea, right.
Then I tried Recuva from my PC, marked the phone as a target folder, and connected via USB in a photo-sharing mode ("photos sharing P2P" - something like that). Didn't find a single video. The trash in the phone's system gallery redirects to the cloud login form.
Google Photos was set up previously but for some reason, it didn't upload video automatically, which I also don't understand. On my phone, it's the same: photos are uploaded automatically, but videos need explicit confirmation every time even though settings say explicitly "automatically upload photos and videos".
Any ideas?

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts. We have a canonical for recovering data, though it's quite technical. Meanwhile, how did she delete the video? Is it from a certain app? As for Google Photos, I don't know if the video was actually backed up or not, but Google Photos's "Delete" option deletes on both device and cloud, though the user should have been warned through a confirmation dialog.

Google Photos had settings to not use mobile internet. And she was constantly using mobile internet, not wifi, so it wasn't synced before deletion. I'm not sure which program did that. She wanted to send it to me via one of messenger apps but something went wrong and she said that there was some popup with mentioning "1 file" and question. She didn't read it and just tapped "yes" or "ok". I guess that's the one that deleted it. But I didn't see it and she didn't pay attention to it, so no one knows for sure which program has deleted it.


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Picture taken from external Bluetooth connected camera -> save to smartphone camera folder
I am using MacroDroid and Tasker to automate multiple triggers/actions. I have managed to use this as a trigger for an example: a specific Android intent is received and then a photo is taken (even when the smartphone is locked) and the photo is sent as an attachment via email.
I want to do exactly the same with an external mini camera. When a trigger like an intent is received (for example in MacroDroid), the external camera will take a picture and will save it IN my smartphone's camera folder.
So, i am looking for a way to communicate using software from my Android smartphone (and wireless) with the external camera and achieve what is described in the previous paragraph. Is there any way to achieve this ?
Thank you in advance for your time and advice.

The original revision about camera recommendation has been posted to HardwareRecs.SE: https://hardwarerecs.stackexchange.com/q/17965/364


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Asus Zenfone 4 Max does not start anymore
I have quite an old mobile phone Asus Zenfone 4 Max (ZC520KL, X00HD_4) with Android 8.1.0.
When starting, it asks for the schema to unlock then it restarts indefinitely, showing some recovering options (try again or restart).

I restarted with the volume down + power buttons to have further recovery options.
I have tried to wipe the cache partition before restarting, without any success.

I would like to avoid wiping data as I received my new mobile phone the day of the old one's crash. I would like to recover data.
If I run graphics tests, the test is failing (I have no further details).
Last_logs file is showing this error:

Libc: access denied finding property ro.sf.lcd.density
W:Failed to read max brightness: permission denied
Kmsg_logs:
/soc/qcom,cam_smmu/msm_cam_smmu_cb1: could not get #iommu-cells for soc/qcom,iommu@1e0000

Is there any way to fix this issue? Is there any hidden shell that I could run on the mobile to set the missing parameter and maybe make the mobile start? I cannot install any application as I cannot start the mobile.
If not, is there any way to copy the data from the mobile to the computer? I cannot go further than the recovery menu.
I would like to avoid running a factory reset not to lose data, but if I have no choice, is there any way to recover the reset data?
I have no Google recovery, nor SD card in the mobile as it was not detecting it for a few months. It seems the debug mode is disabled as adb devices does not show anything. I don't know how to use fastboot correctly.
EDIT
Unfortunately, I have wiped data by running a factory reset. I think I have lost the last 2 years photos without any possible recovery. If someone could confirm or not, as I could continue hoping or not


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Completely wiped out the OS on my ZTE phone and now it boots to Team Win Recovery Project. What do I do to fix it?
I wiped out the OS on my Android ZTE. Now, whenever I power on my device, the only thing that comes up is the third-party application "Team Win Recovery Project". It is showing all types of reboot options and I don't know what to do from this point.
Can someone please help me?

TWRP is a custom recovery which can be used to install custom ROMs. You just need to find a custom ROM (or the original firmware). Both have to match exactly your device model.