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How to decrypt and mount Android devices?
In Linux, you can read data a device encrypted e.g. with LUKS by doing cryptsetup luksOpen and mounting the volume. What is the equivalent for this in Android, i.e. what specification for encryption is used and what is the syntax to decrypt a device, e.g. my /data partition? I suppose that Android uses my lock screen PIN as the encryption key, correct?
Reason I ask: While attempting to debloat my Samsung A40FN with stock Android 9.0 Pie, I seem to have accidentally uninstalled some app required for Android to boot properly, resulting in a boot loop/soft brick (I can still enter recovery and download mode). As I've learned, uninstalling apps by pm uninstall does not actually delete the apps from the device, but just removes them from my (unrooted) user space by modifying entries in /data/system/packages.xml - which is by default encrypted by Android one a lock screen PIN is set up.
In order to rescue my data, it was suggested to flash the device (i.e. reinstall all packages) using the HOME_CSC firmware file instead of CSC, which supposedly keeps the data partition from getting wiped. However, this seems futile as the apps responsible for this mess will remain disabled as long as I don't reset /data/system/packages.xml. And to do that, I need to decrypt the data partition first.
Rooting the device does not seem to be an option as this supposedly wipes the data partition by design (is this true?). But isn't there a much simpler way to do something analogous to cryptsetup luksOpen and just copy my data?
Some information:
FRP lock: Off
OEM lock: On (L)
Bootloader level: U3

Your bootloader is locked, so the only way to edit the file would be an exploit that allows you to gain temporary root permissions. As your phone is running an older Android version but that will requires a lot of luck that a matching exploit exists and you find a way to execute it. But as you can't boot I don't think this is realistic to find an exploit that can be executed against a not fully booted phone. That would require a really low level exploit such as on USB level or something like that.

And yes, bootloader unlocking erases user data, so rooting is not an option.

this is for educational purposes only e4crypt/f2fscrypt for FBE file-based encryption (dmcrypt for FDE full-disk encryption)


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How to install TWRP on Huawei Honor 8 FRD-L14?
I have tried rooting my FRD-L14 yesterday. I have successfully unlocked the bootloader, OEM, FRP, and developer mode on the phone to install TWRP. I have also installed ADB (with corresponding drivers like fastboot like the usual). I have inputted the usual flashing command through fastboot:
.\fastboot.exe flash recovery .\twrp-{version_name}-frd.img

However, after trying to flash both TWRP versions 3.6.2 & 3.0.2-0 (as shown in a video guide to install TWRP on FRD), I am always stuck on the "Your device is booting now..." screen when entering recovery mode either through ADB or [power] + [Vol Down] buttons. I have to always press down [power] + [Vol Up] buttons in order to do a regular boot. I have already spent countless hours trying to look for a solution to install TWRP rather than giving up.
Some of the websites that I have browsed through seems to have a custom TWRP that is fit for FRD-L14 but unfortunately, the download links seem to have expired already.
XDA Developer Link with no solutions on continuing to install TWRP
Expired Custom TWRP Link Page
Link where I get my official TWRP downloads
My phone is a FRD-L14C567B402 (USA only) running on Android 7.0 Nougat with Hisilicon Kirin 950 processers and EMUI version 5.0.4....
Current Plans:
I am planning to download every single TWRP version on the Official TWRP website for FRD and try every single one of them... If this fails, I am not sure how to successfully install TWRP
Any other suggestions or solutions to solving this problem? Thanks in advance!

I recommend to start with reading error message from fastboot flash recovery ;)

I am not sure how to enable error message while flashing the .img to the recovery through fastboot since I did not get any error messages while doing that!

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Cannot log in after disabling Android package from TWRP or with ADB
I have Google packages on Android disabled for security. Today I enabled the Play Store, Framework, and other stuff and now I can't log in to Android without restarting. I can't remove the package using ADB because it is unauthorized, as I can't log in.
I am rooted and disabled these Google packages. Enabling them seem to restart the phone at login (after you enter the password)
I can get into TWRP recovery, but it doesn't support the pm command-line tool.
I need to disable these packages.

Answering my own question. If you have a package that is crashing or restarting at boot, you can disable it by using a recovery shell from TWRP. You can disable packages by editing the /data/system/users/0/package-restrictions.xml file and add inst="false" stopped="true" nl="true"inside the XML line of the package that is causing the trouble.

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


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How can I increase the maximum stack size of notifications in the notification tray?
So my current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S21. I receive a LOT of push notifications, by choice. The problem is, when I receive those push notifications for, say, Twitter, the number of notifications that are displayed in a single "stack" in the notification tray CANNOT exceed 24; once the stack reaches 24 notifications, I do not receive any further push notifications for that app. This is a HUGE issue when I'm trying to keep track of a big Twitter thread or watch for an important email. My previous phone, a Galaxy S8, had a maximum notification stack size of 40, after which the same issue occurred; this leads me to believe that there is some variable SOMEWHERE that can be changed to increase or decrease the stack size.
Just to clarify, since Google brought up similar questions but no relevant answers:

I am not referring to the notification badge displayed on the app icon on my home screen; I am referring to the notifications in the notification tray viewable by swiping down from the top of the screen. Image attached to show what I am talking about.

This issue is not app-specific; all apps seem to have a stack size of 24, whether it's Twitter, Gmail, YouTube, a game, or whatever. Each app DOES have its own stack, but each of those stacks can only go up to 24 notifications.

I have checked every setting I could access on my phone; none of them changed anything relevant. If there is ANY way to change the stack size, even if I have to manually dump my phone's kernel to my PC and use a hex editor to change the relevant bytes, I will do it.
Thanks in advance.

You can't unfortunately

There is no option is on any phone that allows you to do that, sorry.


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How to retrieve my voicemail messages to audio files?
I want to download a backup of my voicemail messages to mp3 (or any other audio format), but I don't know how to do so.
My scenario is the following:
I received several voicemail messages during the last few months, and now I want to download them for a personal backup.
My voicemail app (built-in from the factory. Samsung galaxy A10) gives me the option to listen to these audios but does not give any option to download/archive/save/forward to these messages.
On my carrier website (Orange in France), I'm able to retrieve (and download) only the last 15 days' messages. They keep the listened messages just for 14 days (30 days for the not listened ones).
I've tried to use third-party apps to download my messages (e.g., "voicemail saver" that is paid and "visual voice mail & missed call alert" that is free), but none of these apps worked to recover these messages.
My question is: since I can listen to these messages, I'm sure they are stored somewhere. So how can I retrieve them?

I assume the apps you have tried are working like call recorders, but as far as I know call recording no longer works on recent Android versions. On modern mobile networks everything is IP as well, but I don't think you can use that interface to access the voice messages this way, as this interface is not public and thus not accessible for you.
The only way to directly download those message is the web interface of your mobile network provider, but as you told us this way does not work.
As you have still access to the voicemail messages via phone the following two options are available:

Use your SIM card in an older Android phone (best Android 7 or older) and try a working call recorder app or one of your voicemail saver apps. On those older Android versions they should work.
Play back the voicemail on your phone and place a microphone next to the speaker to record it. The microphone can belong to a second smartphone, a PC or any different other (digital) recording device.

I'll probably go through the second option, but I'll also give a try to the first one. I didn't know these messages were directly related to the SIM card. I thought that they were stored in the built-in voicemail app

Can recording work if the device is rooted?

@RockPaperLz-MaskitorCasket If the call recorder supports using root for recording it should work. or you directly use the appropriate Magisk module: https://www.xda-developers.com/basic-call-recorder-magisk-module/

Thank you Robert.

Could you physically save them in a analogous manner?
You know, record them with another device whilst playing them from your phone.


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How do you show a phrase or sentence in full screen?
Previously there was a menu option in Google Translate to show the translated text in full screen so it's easy to read from a distance. You could also use english as the visibility was the main feature useful in like a noisy nightclub or if one was temporarily or permanently mute.
However that feature in the latest update has disappeared.
I tried internet searching for "full screen" google translate for tens of minutes but couldn't find any answers.
What's the easiest way now to show large text, preferably though not necessarily using pre installed apps (such as Google translate) for availability?
See screen cast recording for further details.

Could you clarify if the question is about "text translation" (as per the tags) or "showing text in full screen" (as per the title)?

Removed "translate" tag. Google translate was where I first discovered this feature in a convenient format but it is not necessary to use this app, just has to be easily available on android phones.

If I'm understanding your question correctly, you're likely looking for a signboard app.  Just be warned, I haven't vetted any of these myself, so if you're wary of malicious apps (becoming more prevalent these days despite Google's mitigation efforts) you'll want to take your own precautions and research before settling on one.  For additional features such as preventing touch, etc., you may want to search for "kiosk" apps instead.


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How do I extract the boot image from my ROM on my phone to modify with magisk?
I am trying to root my phone and I need to extract the boot img from the ROM on my phone preferably using the phone itself. Then I will modify the boot img with magisk.
How can I extract the boot image and save it on my phone?

The easiest way is usually to download a firmware update for your device and extract boot image. Have you already  unlocked bootloader?

please provide link or at least mention phone model


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Android TV/box, wrong date time, and no internet access
I have a few Android TVs and Android TV boxes around the house, and one common nuisance is: that if the time and/or date are incorrect, then the internet for those devices won't work. Also through the ISP we use, the automatic time/date checkbox option does not work either.
The Android TV devices only forget the time/date once a month at most. But it is very unintuitive for someone to think that the time/date needs to be correct for the internet to work. Once more with the incorrect time/date, the internet in Firefox for Android still works. But not for Chrome or YouTube (if the date is incorrect). It's very frustrating and has been like that for years despite performing all the Android system updates available.
Why do the time and date need to be correct for Chrome & YouTube to work on Android TVs and TV boxes?

Not having a correct date could be a symptom too, not necessary a root cause. I'm wondering how getting date/time automatically can depend on ISP. Can you share a bit more details?

Its just it has never worked from our home. But works from other friends places, and the ISP is the only difference. Its like it can not resolve the IP address from the domain name of the time date server through our ISP.

I suppose I can try a different name server through the connection settings than the one provided by our ISP to try and get the IP address of the time/date server resolving.

A lot of WiFi routers also work as NTP server (AFIK announced via DHCP). May be the router of the one ISP does not provide NTP services?

A correct date or at least a date not too far away from reality is important for every internet device in these days.
The reason is that internet connections are mostly HTTPS (HTTP over SSL/TLS) connections and one integral step for establishing TLS is checking the used server certificate if is is trusted and valid. Each certificate contains two dates: not valid before and not valid after. The time span between both dates defines the period in which the certificate is valid. This validity period lasts between 3 to 12 months.
So if your system date is so wrong that is is outside of the validity period then the validity check can fail even if the certificate is perfectly valid and the TLS handshake will fail and so no connection can be established which means no data can be transmitted.

I'm sure the time had to be correct too. I can test that on my android tv box later to see if only the date needs to be correct. That can save me time later if I only have to fix the date. One of our android tvs forgets the time/date every time it is switched off. I'm guessing it has a dead CMOS battery, and so can't remember the time/date while powered off. It had that problem when we bought it brand new.

Your isp most probably started filtering the ports due to an attempted ddos attack or something. Maybe they did some wrong configuration for which ntp port is blocked and thus the tv / tv box is not getting time from ntp. I had this problem for a month and today the senior engineer of my home internet isp fixed it.


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Chrome (Android) auto download pdf every week (is it a virus ?)
A year ago i've been fighting against an hacker that had access to a lot of my accounts (not very difficult since my passwords were record with google account). Somehow he archives to get the codes from 2FA on my phone. I guess he had infected my phone as well (dunno if he infected my PC or my phone first and if he archieve to infect both threw one). I decided to reinstall android. Now as a 2FA i'm using authenticator app from google. Since that time, I also reinstall windows on my PC to be 100% safe. I obviously changed all my passwords since that time, multiple times.
I received a month ago an alert from microsoft saying that someone break in (again). So I changed the passwords (again). Im weakly checking connexions. Hackers are still trying but for now they just could not break the password.
But more recently, I've notice chrome app autodownloading a PDF once or two a week. I dont have any tab open to the domain where it comes from, it never ask where i want to store the file even when I enable this parameters. The file is called reaching-all-learners.pdf and come from this link : https://education-static.apple.com/product/reaching-all-learners.pdf
BE CAREFUL ABOUT THE LINK since I dont really know what is the matter with this site and how legit it is or not.
I'm wondering if any of you, with cyber knowledge could tell me what is going on and how I can fix it so it stop download this file again and over again.
I've ben looking on internet and no one looks having the issue. I have run couples of antimalware process (malwarebytes and the default security app from android) and nothing have been founded.
Thanks for taking the time to read me .

The download link is legit from Apple, at least nothing to be worried about the file. Also, probably related: Chrome - unprompted auto-download of files after opening the browser - bug or something else?

Are you sure it is legit from apple ? Because the education-static.apple.com is kinda weird. Yeah i'm gonna take a look to the thread ! Thanks !

It's one of the subdomains of apple.com, that one is related for Apple Education. The file is like a brochure for the webinar with the same name by Apple.


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My Google Username is a non-Google email address and I used it to log onto a new Pixel 6 Pro which now won't add my Exchange account with same address
I have a new Pixel 6 Pro and have migrated apps and settings from Pixel 3a via my Google ID. My Google Username is my regular Outlook email address and not a Gmail address. When I now go to add my Microsoft Exchange account, I get an error message in red saying 'You have already added this account' because it sees my Google account as an email account, which it isn't.
The 3a ran Outlook for me with my Exchange email address, contacts (4,000+), and calendar quite happily alongside using the same email address as my Google Username. The 6 Pro won't have it!
Five different Google Help operatives over ten days have failed to provide a solution or answer my question which is: Should I get a Gmail address and change my Google Username to that and if I do so on a PC, will I be able to then add my Exchange account on the phone, and will I lose all my app data and set-up on the 6 Pro? The 3a was traded in and is irretrievable.
Any ideas on here would be very welcome.

Don't your Google account also has a gmail address? Even if you usually use your Outlook mail address as account name I would assume that your Google account then has two email addresses assigned, the Outlook plus a Gmail address. I would remove the google account from your device and re-add it using that GMail address.

Thanks Ruben - No, my Google account only has one email address, being my Outlook mail address, so I was stuck.  However, as a last effort before doing a factory reset and logging on again with a new Google account and Gmail address, which would have lost the App data, I simply deleted my Google account from the phone!  The world did not end, all the Apps were still there and the phone let me load my Exchange account with Calendar and 4,000+ contacts!  Extraordinary; who would think that the solution for a Google problem on a Google phone is to delete your Google Account!  Ha ha ha!!!

When you say your device "sees" your Google account as an "email account", which do you mean?

An Exchange account, Google account, and IMAP email account should all be distinct despite it being possible to use the same username string.  Furthermore, your Microsoft account/Office account, Outlook, Outlook.com, OWA, Work/School permutations, etc, can similarly be distinct despite also possibly having the same overlap (I'm not familiar with the specific distinctions on that end, I just recall it was not at all intuitive).  You should have the ability to specifically add the exact account types you require, and manually configure them respectively.

Thanks Arctiic - yes, what you say should all be correct but the phone simply would not give me the option to add the account in any way or method.  I meant what I said:  My Google Username is an email address, the Pixel software thinks I have added that as an email account and wont let me add another account which uses that email address.  Anyway, I stumbled on a solution by simply deleting my Google account from the phone, anticipating Armageddon, but nothing nasty happened and it then let me add my Outlook-based Exchange account and everything is fine, including all the Apps.  Very weird.

That in itself it also unusual, because it should theoretically allow you to add multiple users of the same account type, i.e., you can have multiple Google accounts added on one phone.  But in any case, whatever the circumstances were, I'm glad you were able to resolve the issue!

On a Pixel 7 with Android 13, a detour via “Set up manually” worked around the problem for me.
In detail: When you see the message “You have already added this account” when trying to add an Exchange account, e.g.: (the red rectangle is a redaction)

… then type in another valid e-mail address instead, e.g.:

Now you can tap on “Set up manually”, resulting in, e.g.:

You can now type in your real e-mail address in the “Email” field. Do not bother with the other fields unless you have to; instead tap on “Switch to modern auth”. After waiting for “Getting account info…” you can proceed without any problems.

According to the OP's comment,

Anyway, I stumbled on a solution by simply deleting my Google account from the phone, anticipating Armageddon, but nothing nasty happened and it then let me add my Outlook-based Exchange account and everything is fine, including all the Apps. Very weird.


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Using a VPN Server on Android device in order to perform remote vulnerability scan
I am working on an Android Java application that performs a vulnerability scan of the network where the mobile device is. Since I cannot install any type of vulnerability scan tool on Android I would like to send the vulnerability scan packets from a back-end server (running open-vas) to my android device and then make the android device forward them to the destination hosts inside his network. The easiest way to do that would be to create a VPN Server on the android device, but I don't think it's possible with the VpnService APIs. From what I have found it looks like someone managed to forward traffic with VPN Service: Android VpnService - How to forward intercepted internet traffic.
Another idea was to create a sort of packet wrapping: I can wrap the original packet coming from the back-end server inside a standard TCP packet, send it to the android device, unwrap it and forward it to the host inside the device's network. Although I don't know if this would really work in my case for 2 main reasons:

I will probably receive RAW packets from the server (since vulnerability scanners forges specific RAW packets for vulnerability testing) and Java does not have any support for manipulating packets
Even if I am able to unwrap the packet I will still have a RAW
packet to send and from what I have seen Java does not have any
support for RAW sockets for security reasons.

So do you guys have an idea if there is a way to create a VPN Server on Android to do this remote vulnerability scan?
Thanks!
PS Maybe rooting the device will give some more alternatives but I am reserving this as last chance.

Package unwrapping on application layer is equivalent to creating the packages and sending it. If you can't forge arbitrary packets this won't work. And the VPN solution will give you access to the Android device but I don't think that you will be able to access the network the Android device is in (otherwise the VPN would have to run in network bridging mode).

@Robert thank you very much for the answer. I agree with you in both cases...I have to investigate if arbitrary packets forgery is possible in Android but I am pretty sure that it is not.
For now the only solution I see is root the device and install the binary of an OpenVPN server like you would do on a Linux Machine.

I would install Kali Nethunter for Android with root. That should allow arbitrary packet forging as well as sniffing via Wireshark.


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How to know which app is crashing/throwing exceptions in the background?
I'm asking this question as an end user. All of the sudden every x hours an exception is shown on my phone for a brief moment. Something along the lines of could not get x coordinate bla bla. So I guess 1 of my apps needs location permissions but doesn't have them (anymore). I'd like to get rid of the exceptions. However they also show on the home screen, so it's probably a background app. How do I identify which one?

an exception is shown on my phone for a brief moment -- are you seeing a toast, a notification, or a dialog? See if this app is able to log them. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evanhe.nhfree

Most apps print exceptions on logcat. For seeing these messages you need to enable Developer options and Android Debug Bridge. Then you can connect your phone via USB to a PC with adb/Andrpid SDK installed and see all messages by executing  adb logcat.

@Firelord a pill shaped toast at the bottom

That is a toast. The convenient method to see historical toasts is that app I mentioned earlier. Non-convenient but more insightful method is adb logcat.


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how to force an old app to be supported in the higher android version than it's supposed to be?
I have a very almost similar question to this discussion: Is it possible to run old apps on newer versions of Android? If so, how?, the question in the discussion hasn't even got answered officially yet, so I don't think it's duplicated.
Besides my question more want to ask about the possibility if the app that used to work in my previous android version i.e Android 11 and after updating my phone to 12, the app that used to work, doesn't work anymore.
The app that I'm talking about is "Stack Exchange" i.e. the android app version of this very site and has loads of similar features to this site. Sadly, however, the app doesn't seem to have the older or the latest version and it's even rare and not listed in Play store, mind you the app used to be in Play Store, but I don't know why they removed it, the app itself doesn't seem to be dangerous and it helped me a lot to even ask, answer, pose questions and getting notifications. This is the link of the app if it matters: Stack Exchange.
I'm not a developer, so if you explain rather complicated things I'm afraid I wouldn't understand. However if it's just a small edit using apktool, apkeditor I would probably understand.
Is it possible to make this app functions again as usual using small tricks? Or at least tell me why this is happening. I mean, I have another old app that worked in my previous android version (11), but is still also working now. Why only this app that doesn't work? What's the issue?
I also have collected all possible duplicates that after I read they apparently are not relevant.
I honestly think there's still hope to use this app after reading Robert's comment in this discussion: How to use an old version of an app that wants to get updated. Also: How to use an older version of an application?

I know the app. The official explanation was that the mobile website works well so that no app is needed anymore (IMHO the app is way faster and reliable for daily use). Unfortunately I have bad news for you, if an app doesn't work on a newer Android version this is usually caused by new restrictions introduced by Android. To adapt an app to the new version often a lot of code changes are necessary, some times you have to rewrite parts of the app. As the Stackexchange app is closed source making those modifications is extremely hard as you have to make it on Smali code (not Java).

I'm disappointed they stopped developing the app. But anyway thanks for letting me know that.

I was an Android developer, and I know why the Stack Exchange app doesn't work on Android 12. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I have the knowledge to reverse engineer the app and fix it. As for why it disappeared: Why did the Stack Exchange Android app disappear from Google Play Store?


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My Samsung phone just keeps restarting
I have never been in a situation like this. I was developing some widget app on my Samsung A12 with Android 12 and all of a sudden, while building and running the app, the system just shut off. It restarted, then after I typed the PIN code, while trying to load the home screen, it does it again. Then it loads again, this time it shuts off just in the lock screen.
And it keeps doing this forever. I cannot even shut it down, I tried hard booting it with volume down and power button but it only goes as far as to the home screen (after PIN). It restarts again
This phone has a few months, it is not rooted, battery is at 70%, never did this to me before. I was setting an attribute for a widget android:maxResizeWidth="@dimen/widget_min_width", then when testing it this started happening.
I am watching the wretched thing doing restart after restart. Is there anything I can do before trying to remove the (unremovable) battery?
New info: I managed to get in Safe Mode and it looks like it works, so it's some app, I guess

Looks like I figured it out. First, that Samsung is the worst at developing software.
Secondly, yes, indeed, using android:maxResizeWidth="@dimen/widget_min_width" sent One UI into a crazy coma. I had to remove the app and rebuild it without that line


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Is there any way to force a factory reset without being able to get into the bootloader nor the os?
I got a Nokia C100, when setting it up I messed up the password but didn't realize until I had locked the device, I can not log into the device, the bootloader only shows Fastboot mode, and android find my device is not finding the device at all. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to try get around this, that I know of USB debugging is not turned on so I have no idea if I can use any usb tools.


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Change Google Maps start screen
When I got my new phone, when I opened Google Maps, the default screen I had had a search bar at the top with a local map under and local stuff at the bottom. For some reason, when I open Maps, now it momentarily opens this screen and then jumps to "set destination" screen as though it assumes I want to navigate somewhere. I then have to press the back arrow to go to the search/local screen.
This has only recently changed but I can't find how to stop it so it opens on the normal search screen. Does anybody have any ideas?

Were you, by any chance, opening the "Driving" widget instead of the "Maps" app?

Thanks for quick response. I think you have just cracked this. The icon i was using is a square with a blue triangle and grey triangle (driving?). i have just found a maps icon with a coloured drop pin and that opens ok. I will see how it goes from here. Thanks again for your help


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Rescind 'find my device' location permission in Google account
I had lost my phone somewhere in the same room I was in. To make it ring in Google's find my phone feature, I had to give it full permission to process it's location data. How do I rescind these permissions?

On your device, go to your Google services and preferences found in your device settings, and under Find My Device toggle the option off.  For the device-level, you will want to go to App Permissions and toggle off location permissions for the Find My Device application, then also disable it as a Device Administrator app from your Security settings.  This should disable both app-based and browser-based permissions for the device to be pinged.

This completely disables find my device. I don't want that. This is definitely a Google account level setting, as I could enable it without having physical access to the phone.

Ah, I misunderstood your post then.  However, in that case, just disregard the first sentence and follow the latter portion of my answer, that should take care of the device-level permissions.

Actually upon re-reading your OP, I'm realizing I don't understand what your inquiry is lol.  Can you please explain with more detail what exactly you're trying to accomplish?


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Is there any app cloner that 100% works on android 12?

I used app cloner when my OS was android 11 and it worked very well, now mine is 12 and I have installed all possible apps that I could think of to just clone an app. It's a very simple task, but I'm really disappointed none of them works well without crashing.
The only one that "almost" works is the app in the picture above, app cloner. When I said "almost", that means the app can be opened, but when I touch/tap a certain button in the app, it force closed and there's an error notification from the app cloner. The reason I like this app, because it could allow the user to install two or more (if it's premium) apps with the different version of the very same app which, AFAIK there's no app other than this that could do so.
I don't need a virtual space or any app cloners that just duplicate the main app I want to duplicate, what I want is an app cloner (just like app cloner that I'm talking about) that is able to duplicate "an apk" file i.e. the apk file that hasn't been installed and the most important part is the apk file might have different version from the original app that has been installed.
Is there any app such like that to do this? Or even is there a way, a very simple way to clone app with different version on android 12 without crashing? I read somewhere that this OS version android 12 has clone profile or whatever, I'm not sure what that is, and I couldn't find the article, if in case it has something to do with the cloning app, I would also hope you mention that in your answer.
Thanks in advance!
P.s. I might just install this app in my virtual android emulator if there's no solution for this, but I hope you could give good news that it's still possible to clone an app with different version in this OS.


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How to change the User Agent string in Chrome browser on Android (mobile phone)
I've looked all over the internet, does anyone know how to change the user agent the google chrome for Android browser sends out?  Trying to do this on my dev phone.  If not has anyone been able to accomplish this using a proxy server?
Phone:  Chrome for Android
User Agent String (that I want to change):  Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 10; SM-G960U) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/103.0.0.0 Mobile Safari/537.36
Any tips would be very much appreciated.

If you are connected to PC - there is Chrome Remote Debugging and from there you should be able to change the user agent string, but you should clarify the environment (i.e. proxy only, if a different chrome based browser allowed, etc.)

This is directly on an android mobile device with no pc attached.  I wanted to have the end result untethered to a PC so am willing to use a proxy to accomplish this.
I was able to find a workaround which was to use firefox and check the "desktop mode" checkbox (tried the same thing for chrome and it doesn't work).  I feel like not being able to change this is also a privacy issue in some sense(maybe that will make people bubble up).

Note that you are free to send your own feedback to Google: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95315?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid but given that Android allows for different Browsers/browser engines to run on the platform, other apps like Firefox may serve your needs better.

My ChromeXt Xposed module is capable of it. See its README:
## User-Agent spoofing

One can edit the User-Agent from the Info panel of Eruda console. A valid User-Agent should contain only ASCII characters. Currently, ChromeXt only changes the User-Agent HTTP header, which works well but is deprecated.

For Chromium based browsers, when the User-Agent spoofing is not taking effects, refresh the page using the reload button in the page menu. (By contrast, a swipe refresh might be insufficient.)

Note that the DevTools can also change User-Agent.


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Encrypt files using Android shell tools
I want to encrypt and decrypt some files (symmetrically and asymmetrically) on the Android command line, including the one in the TWRP recovery. Is there a program which can do this?
I've tried googling but I've found nothing so far. The only thing which comes close is this GPG port from the GuardianProject, but it seems rather old and is unmaintained.

You can install Termux from Fdroid to get a well maintained command-line environment including gog openssl and so on. If you have a recovery that allows to mount and decrypt user data files and run executables from that partition this might als work from within recovery.

You want ARM64 static binary of AESCrypt? But AES is only symmetric.

Yeah something like this would be great, thanks for the pointer. I am thinking of compiling openssl for ARM64 since it offers a HUGE range of crypto operations.

aescrypt_static_aarch64_v3.16


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External SSD drive can only be detected when Android is on 100% battery
Android 11 will communicate with the external drive using a -y- connector, one lead to power, and the other lead to PNY 1TB drive.
However, once the battery drains below 100 percent, Android refuses to acknowledge the connection to an external drive unless the drive has been connected at one hundred percent battery charge. Unplug the external drive while the battery is below one hundred percent charge and you are forced to wait until the battery is charged to one hundred percent before you can reconnect to the aforementioned drive.
That being said, I am able to connect -y- cable to Android and to the external drive as long as the battery is charged to one hundred percent, establish a connection to the drive and then unplug the power lead and remain connected to the drive until the battery is drained.
How about addressing this limitation?

USB y cables that you describe are not covered by the USB standard. That means they can work or not, in your case it seems to be the latter. Better try a USB-C hub with upstream power delivery (assuming your phone has an USB-C connector and supports power delivery). BTW: I don't understand the title of your question.

@Robert I've updated the title since the original didn't describe the issue.


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What are the content of backup generated using Android system recovery?
I have an old Android Lollipop phone stuck on boot loop. I backed it up using recovery to my SD card.
What are the files included in that backup? Does it contain my application and its data, or it only has media files?

Which recovery did you use? What's the backup file name? How big it is? Did you open the file?

backup generates 6 files and total size is about 11 gb, backup files name are like "userdata_20151001_000800" and i am using stock recovery which come with old android lollipop devices.


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Trying to flash Gapps on Sony Xperia 10 III AOSP android 12
I have a Sony Xperia 10 III open device and I have build an AOSP android 12 and flashed the build to the phone which has booted successfully. Since the AOSP is not having any google apps prebuilt, I tried flashing the Gapps through ADB sideload by downloading the .zip file of the Gappa from NikGapps, BiTGapps etc. While trying to flash the .zip file from the ADB in recovery mode, the flashing was not successful and the following error occured:
I have a Sony Xperia 10 III open device and I have build an AOSP android 12 and flashed the build to the phone which has booted successfully. Since the AOSP is not having any google apps prebuilt, I tried flashing the Gapps through ADB sideload by downloading the .zip file of the Gappa from NikGapps, BiTGapps etc. While trying to flash the .zip file from the ADB in recovery mode, the flashing was not successful and the following error occured:
E : Failed to find META-INF/com/android/metadata
E : Failed to parse metadata in the zip file.

It was found that the directory tree of the downloaded .zip file was META-INF/com/google/android/metadata, but the search was done in the tree mentioned in the first error. I pulled the 'android' directory outside the 'google' directory. After this change, there is a signature verification error that arose
E: footer is wrong
E: Signature verification failed
E: error: 21

Since the recovery is stock, there is no option to disable signature verification. I am also unable to flash third party recoveries like TWRP and ClockWorkMod on Sony Xperia 10 III.
Is there any other method where we can flash Gapps to Sony Xperia 10 III? Kindly reply.

Not sure if it may help, but AFAIK custom ROM (e.g. LineageOS) recommends to flash GApps before the first boot: "NOTE: If you want the Google Apps add-on on your device, you must follow this step before booting into LineageOS for the first time!"

If your device is unlocked you can boot any recovery ROM you want, so why keep stock recovers?

I don't find any third party recoveries for Sony Xperia 10 iii. I tried flashing some TWRP recovery images but it only crashed.


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FBE securely wipe all data
According to android documentation the FBE system has two different levels. Credential Encrypted (CE) storage and Device Encrypted (DE) storage.

Does a factory reset of an FBE phone reset the keys of both storages?
If I run a full disk encryption on a phone that had FBE enabled by default and then proceed to factory
reset- will BOTH CE and DE keys be different from what they originally
were before FDE?
What would hypothetically be recoverable of the previous system assuming full physical access? Data remanence and all. (I assume bootloader is completely unencrypted. Is there anything I'm not aware of like an unencrypted swap or something?)

A factory reset is designed to erase all keys. A device can only support one encryption method. So you can not use FDE on a device that is FBE.


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Binder from Android to chroot linux
Situation:
Android OS that runs chroot'ed Ubuntu.
As i understand Ubuntu does work on top of android linux kernel,
which have integrated Binder interface, i checked few examples here.
Does it mean that i can compile this 'client' library for ubuntu that will use binder /dev/binder?
And at same time have an android application that will act as 'server'?
The idea is to get IPC working between these two systems.

Yes it will work. But the native binder library isn't available in Ubuntu chroot. You'll have build the library / binary with Android NDK (not with GCC) and copy the shared libraries from /system/lib[64]/ to Ubuntu's /lib/.

thats not gonna work then because i cant use android Bionic from ubuntu

Linking to Android libraries with Ubuntu's GCC or building statically linked libraries is a big challenge. So better go for some other option. Why not simply use socket? If you own the app.


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Impossible to select script line on mobile fone
On any mobile fone running Android, it is impossible to select the whole script line. If you slowly try to move the line to expose more of the script line and then attempt to move the blue end mark of selection to select more of it, it will select everything else in the thread at the top. Is there any other way to select a script line?

Here everything gets selected. And the Select All option will select everything in the post. It is impossible to select the line.

If you are referring to the StackOverflow site, I would try the 'Desktop site' option in the browser to see if that helps as markup format code seems to behave as described when rendering into a horizontal scroll region for lengthy code lines.

thanks! at stackexchange. i also realized i can go into edit post and then easily copy it there. xd


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How can I prevent an application from closing in the background on Android 12?
I have a Pixel 6, and have the application "Fate/Grand Order" installed. On an earlier version of Android 12, the game would remain opened in the background, when the application was switched. That means, when I returned to it after e.g. looking something up on Chrome, the game would remain loaded, ready to proceed.
However, after updating Android 12 (not the game itself), the application would immediately close when switching to a different application. Returning to the game will cause it to start from the beginning.
How can I force Android to keep the game loaded in the background?
What I've tried
I have read in several sources that setting an app's battery usage to "Unrestricted" will cause the application to remain open in the background. I tried that, but the behavior did not change.

For information, my Pixel 6 has 8GB of RAM, and the developer options show that only 4.8 GB are used on average. So I highly doubt that the application is being closed out of a lack of RAM. Furthermore, Fate/Grand Order only requires 242 MB of RAM, while Chrome needs 337 MB.

"How can I force Android to keep the game loaded in the background?". End user can't. Developer of the game can. Take logact when switching to other app to see why the app gets killed. If needed you can use my app WhatsRunnig to get a more broader picture of RAM usage.

@IrfanLatif Thanks for the response. I ran logcat when launching and switching the application, but the output is very verbose. Any hints on what specifically I am looking for?

Look for "ActivityManager", your app's PID and  package name.

@IrfanLatif I've had a look around and ended up writing a bug report to the developers. It seems to be a bug with this specific unity version and this specific android version, so nothing even the devs can realistically do aside from upgrading.


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Create boot.img from compiled kernel
I am trying to install Magisk on a RePhone. The only operating system related download I found (on the company's website or anywhere else) is this: https://myrephone.com/opensource.7z
That seems to be the kernel source, so if I understand it right, that should be roughly what I need to obtain boot.img. I have compiled an Android system before and afterwards the file just existed and I could use it, but here it doesn't. Is it possible to create that file from the compiled result? If yes, how?
Some more background: Not much development work seems to have been done on this phone model so far, so I can't just install LineageOS or TWRP. The stock recovery doesn't allow full ADB, only sideloading, so I can't run arbitrary commands on the phone, like extracting boot.img from it. The bootloader is unlocked.

I don't have enough rep. to create a "rephone" tag, but I think it would be useful, because it's a totally separate model and even manufacturer. Could someone please do that?

Tag created. Please suggest a tag wiki edit, otherwise the tag will be removed after 6 months if it's only used on 1 question.


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Create custom SELinux domain using magiskpolicy
Tried to make custom domain for an app that is installed from PlayStore. I created a module that would patch the policy at boot and edited system/etc/selinux/plat_seapp_contexts to assign the app my new domain.
sepolicy.rule file:
type battery_app appdomain
allow battery_app sysfs * *

I also added this line of code to plat_seapp_contexts:
user=_app seinfo=platform name=com.someapp domain=battery_app type=app_data_file levelFrom=all

After running ps -eZ | grep com.someapp the app is still running in untrusted_app domain. I don't know what i did wrong.


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Bootloader Is Unlocked But Yet Recovery Is Not Flashing (Fastboot Failed error)
I Unlocked My Bootloader  And It Is Showing Me In Red Color (Bootloader:Unlocked) But When  I Tried To Flash Recovery It Failed.
recovery is device specific so no problem in recovery.

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.

well, crystal ball says, your device model does not have separate recovery partition


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Where are edited photos stored?
The Camera app stores photos in some DCIM folder, and these can easily be accessed to attach to an email message, or to download to a pc over an USB cable.
In the Photos app, I can edit a photo, and save it as a separate photo file, and can see it among the unedited photo's and attach it to emails.
However, those edited photos are not visible over the USB connection, and cannot be downloaded to a pc.
It seems as if only the Camera app can store in the DCIM folders, but other apps can read files from that folder. Is it true that other apps cannot store in DCIM? Is the photo editor part of the Camera app? I did not yet try other photo editor apps.
Related problem is that the app Kopie ID from the dutch government cannot store the edited photo of an ID in DCIM so that you cannot upload it in a browser web app. (Purpose of this app is to be able to black out unneeded sensitive info, and to add a watermark)
I guess that android tries to play it more safe than good old unix / dos, where the file is the basic unit of info and the directory structure allows for very flexible file sharing between arbitrary apps.
Thanks for any hints on sharing files between phone and pc, and between apps.

This is what I found out recently. Android has the concept of app specific storage versus shared storage, see: https://developer.android.com/training/data-storage . Apparently, apps have a preference of storing in app specific storage. A reason might be that using shared storage may be harder, because cooperation with other apps may be needed.
But there is a way to move or copy your photos from app specific storage to shared storage, in order to make those accessible to your PC over an USB cable. When viewing your screenshot image, just move it upwards to see the information block below the image, where you can add a description, view details, but also select options like Back Up Now, Move to folder, Copy to folder, Add to album, etc.
When selecting Move/Copy to Folder, click SD Card Folders , where you can create a new folder, or select an existing folder. These are shared folders that you can access from the PC over USB.
On the phone, the shared folder 'myscreenshots' on the SD card is internally known as this, by clicking the SD-card icon in the header when showing this folder:
file://storage/CA26-07E6/Pictures/myscreenshots

On the (linux) PC, this folder shows up in the file explorer as:
Unisoc Phone / Pictures / myscreenshots

Photos edited via com.google.android.apps.photos aka Google Photos are stored directly to your Google photos (cloud) storage, that's the reason it doesnt appear over MTP or via file managers.
On PC, open https://photos.google.com/ on a web browser to access them.
Any app could technically store data in /storage/emulated/<user-id>/DCIM

I guess that android tries to play it more safe than good old unix / dos, where the file is the basic unit of info and the directory structure allows for very flexible file sharing between arbitrary apps.

See, you must understand that unlike UNIX/Linux the majority of Android users aren't powerusers so Google definitely has some directory-level restrictions for users as well as apps and this is done for security purposes. However as I stated above, to the best of my knowledge, no restrictions have been imposed over /storage/emulated/<user-id>/DCIM

I use the builtin photo edit app of my Motorola phone, but the edited photos are not visible in the link you recommended. The automatically archived photos are. Perhaps I should switch to another editor app? +1 for your general info, thanks.

I'm sorry for not being fully helpful. Alas I dont have any info about your case provided it is Motorola Stock editor


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How to determine why my pixel 3a running android 12 just beeped, and stop the unexplained beeping
My cell phone has a habit of beeping, with no recent notification present either on the lock screen or on the screen you get when you swipe down from the top of a home screen. (Sorry, I don't know what that screen is called.)
Casual investigation showed no way to find out why it just beeped, and three different screens showing different (inconsistent) sets of recent notifications - one of them showing only what time each app had last produced a notification, with no content.
One of these three lists distinguished between silent and non-silent notifications.
I was unable to find any interface that controlled what kind of notifications a given app could generate. The best I could do was a binary control for whether they could generate notifications at all.
I don't want to be interrupted by beeps without any associated notification I know how to find. I'd prefer to be able to get notifications, with beeps, from a selected small set of apps (calendar, text messages). Ideally, I'd prefer to apply more detailed controls (my podcast player need not tell me about automatic downloads, but I'd like to know about download failures). But given the (ahem) user friendly design, I'll settle for shutting up the random beeps, even if it means I can't get audible notifications from other apps; I do however require an audible ring for phone calls, so permanent do-not-disturb-mode is not an option.
Note that I'd be overjoyed to RTFM. Pointers to documentation will be gratefully welcomed. But from experience, Android vendors routinely customize the UI, such that a manual for e.g. a Samsung might well require me to interact with UI elements not present on a pixel running the same Android version. Also, Android 12 "made Android fun again" (according to one reviewer) by making major unexplained UI changes, as well as breaking existing functionality. So I fear that a manual for an earlier Android release will just tease me with instructions to do things no longer possible.

Guess your device has the Google apps (Playstore etc) installed? I saw that with one such device I had here a while ago. Took me quite some weeks to pin-point the culprit – and it was auto-updates being installed via Play. You could try to "silence" related apps one by one via settings › apps – like Play Store, download manager. I cannot remember which one finally did it. And yeah, that "fun" of breaking things has a long tradition – at least back to the times of 2.x from where I remember it still…

Aha - that also answers the question of how to control app notifications in more detail. You look for Apps, select each individual app, and look for notifications within that, so settings doesn't take you there if you search for notifications.

Nope, else it would turn up each single app you've installed. And the trouble with those "update notifications" in my case was they were "audio only" and thus left no "visible trace". I can't remember what brought me on the track – probably the fact that it was the only device with GApps on it and the other devices didn't have that problem (I usually run my devices Google-free; that one was a simple test device).


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Increase brightness level without using backlight
I'm looking for a way to increase "software" level of brightness in Android without changing the "hardware" level, just like as if I was applying a brightness filter to an image file in Photoshop.
I've tried some apps like Screen Filter, but they seem to only decrease brightness below 0%.
Desired effect shown below, doesn't have to be super high quality.

I understand that it's not going to look exactly like in the picture, it is only there for demonstration purposes.

Changing brithnes and other display related parameters can not be influenced by apps. The brightness decreasing apps you have mentioned just us a trick by showing a permanent overlay over everything and that overlay has alpha transparency set to reduce brightness of the background that is shining through. Touches are also going through that overlay. This technique only allows to reduce brightness but not the opposite.

@Robert Thanks for the explanation, it all makes sense now. I wonder if it's possible to use the same trick but with white semi-transparent overlay, but that's probably a topic for another unrelated question.


text:
Android without wallpaper - is it possible?
I've just got new S22 phone and wanted to customize it. I wanted to have just a black screen as background, but I could not find any way to do it. On s22 one needs to choose some wallpaper- there is no option None.
Then I checked my old phone and a new tablet - same there ...
Then I checked all the questions here filtered by "android wallpaper" - and found nothing ...
this is crazy?!
Am I missing something or is it really not possible to have "wallpaper : None" on Android? (just simple black screen background.)
(I know I could use black colored image as wallpaper, but is it such a "hack" the only solution?)

For reference on my Pixel 2 Android 10, selecting home screen background/Wallpaper brings up a bunch of photo/image options along with 'Solid Color'. I have it set to Black.

Just like OS and built-in apps, predefined wallpapers are also one of the things that can be customized by the vendor, so it depends whether they provide a solid black image or not.


text:
Avoid re-downloading files with Termux in its own downloads folder
I have some files for which I don't have any app to open them with, but whenever I try to open them, instead of the "try looking in the Play Store for an app to open your file" dialog, I get this from Termux:

And I don't want to copy the file into a second "downloads" folder, because I already have it in ~/storage/shared/Download

Go to Termux App Info screen and clear defaults. But if you don't have any other app installed which can handle .xlsx files, Android will automatically pick Termux because it can handle many types of files. // There is a solution in the latest Termux release. Add disable-file-share-receiver=true and disable-file-view-receiver=true entry to termux.properties file.

Solution that doesn't work:

Go to your homescreen
Press and hold the termux icon
There would be an icon which looks like an 'i'. Tap on it
Scroll down and clear defaults

But you'll mostly end up seeing no such options and even if there exists one, it wont be helpful in this case.
I can confirm since I reproduced your issue on my device using the stock Android file manager.
The only possible fix is installing an application that can open such extensions, in your case for xlsx files, the official Microsoft Excel android app or Xodo docs would do the trick.


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How can I list which TCP Congestion Control Algorighm my Android device is using?
How can I enumerate the complete list of TCP Congestion Control Algorithms that my Android device supports? And how can I see which apps are using which algorithm?
I'm trying to figure out why some open-source apps suck so bad at uploading and downloading on networks with bad Goodput (eg high packet loss, jitter, and latency).
One thing that can be done to drastically improve Goodput on poor networks is to modify the TCP Congestion Control Algorithm. Doing so requires both the server and the client to support a given algorithm. So the first step is to determine which algorithms are available, which are provided by the OS (Android).
How can I get a list of all the TCP Congestion Control Algorithms that my Android device supports?

See also https://stackoverflow.com/questions/73258421/which-tcp-congestion-control-algorighms-are-supported-and-used-by-okhttp

To list available TCP Congestion Control Algorithm (CCA):
adb shell sysctl net.ipv4.tcp_available_congestion_control

To list allowed TCP CCA:
adb shell sysctl net.ipv4.tcp_allowed_congestion_control

To display which TCP CCA is currently used:
adb shell sysctl net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control

Example on a stock Pixel 3a:
sargo:/ $ sysctl net.ipv4.tcp_available_congestion_control
net.ipv4.tcp_available_congestion_control = cubic reno

sargo:/ $ sysctl net.ipv4.tcp_allowed_congestion_control
net.ipv4.tcp_allowed_congestion_control = cubic reno

sargo:/ $ sysctl net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control
net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control = cubic

References:

Android Modders Guide - TCP Algorithms
XDA - [KERNEL][OC][STOCK/CROMI] JB 4.2.1 ★ Hundsbuah ★ 10.6.1.14.10 ★ v3.4.0 ★ BETA v3.4.4, post #1881
Android Code Search - kernel/tests/net/test/sysctls_test.py


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Dark Mode glitch on Vivo v23 Pro
Why is the Dark mode in my Vivo v23 pro like this? It's bit transparent in darker areas, I'm able to see my phone's background and icons. Its very weird. Any solutions?

It looks like a burnt-in screen to me.

Is it? Any solutions?

@SayanManna try screen burning a white image

That's a display defect. This forum is mostly intended for software support.

This does not provide an answer to the question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post. - From Review


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Mobile data usage on smartphone when NordVPN is turned on
I've recently started to use NordVPN on smartphone as I need to spend a lot of time in public networks.
However, it is only 5th August and I have already got a data warning that I have used 2GB of mobile data.
Which makes me think that NordVPN does not change the "carrier" network automatically, when I switch from LTE (4G) to some WiFi (office or home).
I've contacted NordVPN support team, they told me that all traffic is accounted for an actual app (e. g., Firefox) and NordVPN. The problem is that the mobile plan provider somehow adds these two traffics. I use an Android phone.
How to solve this problem? Thank you!

You could, potentially, manage your traffic by following a couple of rules:

When you are on the move, i.e. using mobile data
a. Turn OFF  Wi-Fi
b. Turn OFF VPN
c. Enable Mobile Data
When you are expecting to use an unsecured WiFi (e.g. Internet Café, Airport)
a. DISABLE Mobile Data
b. Turn ON VPN
c. Turn ON Wi-Fi

The order that these are done in is important. This does, of course, assume that you do trust your carriers internet access to be reasonably private.
You could potentially automate with something like If This Then That or you may be able to find an app that lets you have a button to toggle these settings.

Yes, thank you. A little bit involving procedure, but it seems the only option.

There is an issue here that NordVPN do not recognise. From Jan - Oct this year I had adequate mobile data. In November my mobile data consumption rocketed up. In December the NordVPN app consumed most of my mobile data allowance, so I turned mobile data off. I contacted NordVPN, they have not got a clue. To me something in the App is consuming data and this error has emerged in Q4. I'm going to get myself another VPN that pays a bit more attention to it's customer. I would recommend that you do the same.
When I look at the mobile data usage log for Nov and Dec, NordVPN is the number one mobile data consumer.


text:
Prioritize cellular data over Wi-Fi
Is there a way to set the phone to prefer cellular data over Wi-Fi so that it will use cellular if it's good but Wi-Fi if cellular is not?  Similar to the "Switch to mobile data" setting but in reverse?
The intent here is while using internet as a passenger in a car and driving through areas where coverage isn't great, I bought a cheap prepaid hotspot from another carrier (that's providing the "Wi-Fi" referenced here), but I want my primary cellular plan on my phone to be used first rather than that.
Right now I manually switch between the two, but there are areas where which one is better changes quite frequently, so it'd be nice if this could happen automatically.

This is probably not exactly what you wanted, but I experienced similar issues, and the way it sort of worked for me is either:

Ensuring the Wi-Fi is of such an excrutiangly bad quality so that Android thinks it's an Internet-less connection and therefore only drops to it when the cellular is at absolute zero.
To ensure that the phone thinks there is no internet over Wi-Fi, you could probably try blocking the URL it uses to check the connection, on your router. I remember there was a way to change the default generate_204 url in Android (see this: Change the server that Android uses for an internet connectivity check?) - change that to msftconnecttest.com/redirect or something that uses its own domain you're not afraid of blocking. (as the default gstatic.com is actually used for other purposes as well)


text:
How to block the installation of a particular app from Google Play?
I wish to block and disable the installation of a couple of applications such as social media applications of Instagram, Reddit and Discord.
Is there a particular way that the user is unable to install the application even after going to Google Play?
Is there a thing like add to Block-List? If there is a parental control feature to do this, how do you select particular applications only?

Unfortunately, there is no such thing in Google Play Store (aka com.android.vending).


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SimpleSSHD Missing SCP?
I successfully got SimpleSSHD running on my OnePlus 7T and I can SSH into the phone fine and I can also connect using WinSCP.  However, whenever I try to transfer a file, I get an error 127, which apparently means the scp command wasn't found.  I can confirm from the CLI that it thinks scp doesn't exist.  But does that not come with SimpleSSHD?  Am I missing something with the installation?  I should add, I am transferring files to /sdcard/*

After talking with the app author, it sounds like it's an issue that may not get resolved, but he confirmed that he had to do some funny stuff to get scp working and the Android updates have probably broken it.  So I ended up using Termux instead and wrote some documentation on it, in case anyone comes across this later.
Termux Android SSH Server Setup
SSH Setup

Download and install Termux on the phone

Enable File Storage permissions for the app (I had to manually do this)

Start the app and run these next steps in the app

Install dropbear and openssh
pkg upgrade
pkg install openssh
# When OpenSSH asks about overwriting your local config file, answer N to keep the local file

Run the command passwd to generate a login pasword

Start the SSH server
sshd

NOTE To Stop the SSH server, run this pkill sshd

Ref: https://www.crisisshelter.org/install-ssh-in-termux-openssh/
Key-based Auth Setup (Windows)
Generate Keys

Download https://www.puttygen.com/

Run puttygen

Select:

RSA
Bits: (2048 or 4096 for better encryption)

Click Generate

Wiggle mouse in blank space of program

Copy the public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file and save it to a file named authorized_keys

NOTE: Output should look like this
ssh-rsa 1231AD_REALLY_LONG_KEY_HERE_FG123= rsa-key-20220806

Save the private key as id_rsa.ppk

Send Public Key to Phone

Connect to the phone's IP using WinSCP on port 8022
Enter a blank username and then the password set above
Manually change to $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys (Note, the location of the home directory may be different so use what your path shows)
Transfer the authorized_keys file created above to this folder

Setup Key in Kitty/Putty

Setup the SSH connection as usual, being sure to use port 8022 and the phone IP
Go to Connection->SSH->Auth and select the id_rsa.ppk file saved from puttygen
Be sure to go back to Session to name and save the connection
Click Open to connect
Hit enter to skip the username and it will use the certificate to authenticate

Setup Key in WinSCP

Setup a New Site using the option at the top of the connection list
Select SCP as the file protocol
Enter the phone IP and port 8022
Click Advanced and navigate to SSH->Authentication
Select the id_rsa.ppk generated from puttygen and click OK
Click Save and name the connection
Click Login
Click OK to bypass the username prompt and it will use the certificate to authenticate

Disable Password Authentication

After ensuring you can login using the certificate, log back into the phone using SSH

Edit the sshd config file
nano $PREFIX/etc/ssh/sshd_config

Modify the following line to this setting:
PasswordAuthentication no

Save changes and exit with CTRL+X

For good measure, set the password to some random password
passwd
# Enter some RANDOM_STRING

You can exit the shell session now

Termux Logs
SSH daemon does logging to Android system log, you can view it by running logcat -s 'sshd:*'. You can do that either from Termux or ADB.
Ref: https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Remote_Access


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How can I disable "Simulate Secondary Display" when the simulated secondary display prevents me from reaching the button?
My Question will get more information over time.
I got a smartwatch (h1-c-aladeng) on my birthday, I very love it but I make a serious problem that I can't fix.
Its specification:

Screen resolution is 240x240, very hard to read and type on a keyboard, and a slight misalignment of the touch screen.
Running Android 9.0.
The model (display in "Find My Device"): Lanix Ilium LT510

My problem:

A lot of features have been turned off. That is why I use the developer option and turned some features back on, but I accidentally touched "simulate secondary display" and put a display on the screen, The "Simulate Screen" blocked the screen, and I can't reach the "none" option in the setting.
During that time I have USB Debugging turned on and "always allow this computer". After that, I accidentally turned the developer option off, I turned it right back on and I didn't know that action will clear all the authorized computers connected to it.

Before authorized cleared:

I can still use ADB, recovery mode, but it just shows "No Command" and auto restart.
Boot to fastboot makes it put the "fastboot" on the screen after that it just auto restarts. I try anything I can't make it disappear.

I'm stuck with a second screen. and there is a way I can turn it off?
More:

I don't think I can get the answer but I will still waiting...

I have tried to factory reset like here but it is in a different way I think.

Is there no way to factory reset it with just one physical button?

I think this watch doesn't have a real screen, it is likely this screen is just a small monitor like a PC and has software simulate it because it has too much delay like I'm going to left. It needs to be around 0.5 seconds to actually go into my point. It doesn't behave like a real phone that has mostly no delay.

I have searched and there is a mode called EDL mode but I didn't know how to access it.

I have an idea. I can connect to my phone using a micro-to-type C USB cable. Is there an app that can config the option of the OTG device?

I am able to make the "Restore factory settings" tab pop up by pressing the button multiple time but I wasn't able to touch the "confirm" button:

I open up my watch (don't worry my warranty is still there I didn't scratch anything) and here is the circuit in that:

Please is there anyone that can help me in this situation? I can't do anything, why does USB debugging need an authorizer I just allow this computer before. I can't use any wipe tool. please help me to fix this.

Give scrcpy a try if possible, might just work! It shows whatever resolution you tell it to. scrcpy is very versatile and can allow you to play with the options (via --help) to get the button you need pressed. For instance, MOD+f enables fullscreen mode. etc etc. There's also guiscrcpy if you want a graphical front-end.

the resolution of my watch is 240x240
by the way is there any code that can disable the "simulate secondary display" or development option?

Use the following command to disable the display overlay via ADB
adb shell settings put global overlay_display_devices null

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text:
Can a hacker unlock the bootloader of an android device remotely?
Is it true that you can not unlock the bootloader of an android device remotely and the only way you can infect the firmware or bootloader is to have physical access to the device.
What about rooting? Can a hacker root your device remotely?
So if it is true does that mean that no matter what kind of malware your device is infected with you can remove it by simply performing a factory reset?

again, no answer without knowing phone model. for example if device is exploitable with mtk-su, malicious app could gain root access remotely (on tap). for some devices bootloader unlocking is possible by modifying devinfo or seccfg partition (can be done with root access). in case system partition is modified too, simple factory reset won't fix

@alecxs: What about Huawei or Samsung phones? If there is difference between models then what about huawei p or y series or Samsung s or a series? (I have many phones)

@alecxs: So do you think if I got infected by the pegasus spyware on a huawei phone, I can remove it by performing a factory reset?

Pegasus depends on zero-day exploits, I don't think your huawei phone got infected. simple factory reset won't remove root kit

@alecxs: But since rootkits by definition infect the firmware and you said huawei and Samsung phones can't be rooted or unlocked remotely so the installation of a rootkit without physical access should not be possible right?

right. your device is secure

If you can dream it up, it can be accomplished ;) I do not know of any PUBLIC methods to do this at the moment, but I assure you it's possible.
For example, there is a malware called "xHelper" and also matryoshka. You'll see that in this particular example, the kit abuses root privilege to silently install xHelper by directly copying malicious package files to the system partition (/system/bin folder) after re-mounting it in the write-mode.
It also has a sister-kit called Triada. These kits take the extra steps of making their core files immutable, and overwrites to system library /system/lib/libc.so.
This means that you would need to enter into Recovery mode, chattr the libc.so to mutable, delete and replace it with a good version, then re-image. Did I mention this malware family removes your root access? ;) You can get very evil with Android or any OS if you want to.
As far as your second question, factory resets are usually enough to shake malware infections, but if you have an advanced adversary, it can enter parts of the boot process that would be extremely difficult to detect and remove. That said, we're talking government-level attackers.
Most phone malware can be shaken by uninstalling the offending app and/or even rebooting. If you look at 'Exploit Brokers' that buy malware professionally, one of the biggest and most expensive things they pay for is PERSISTENCE. That's because maintaining the malware on the device is increasingly difficult these days.

modifying /system/bin will trigger avb/dm-verity and deny boot. therefore it is necessary to disable dm-verity, but that is not possible on locked bootloader. so this kind of infection does apply to old insecure devices with weak/broken secure boot implementation only


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Accessing An Android Device With Broken Screen Via ADB and Unauthorized Machine in 2022
I've done a lot of experimentation on this, but can't seem to get anywhere. I'm looking for guidance on recovering data from my broken Android phone(s). It seems like this is going to require some advanced forensics recovery process at this point.
Is it possible to push files or do any device manipulation if it's put in Recovery Mode/Fastboot/etc?
So far I've uncovered two methods that have saved two phones:
ONE: Use scrcpy with keys found on an old laptop backup from ~/.android/adbkeys.pub
shell$ scrcpy -b4M --print-fps --push-target=/sdcard/Download/ --verbosity=debug -t --disable-screensaver
shell$ adb pull /sdcard/errrrything* /localbox/

This obviously only works if you can push APKs via a working debug session. I happened to have a working copy of an adbkey.pub from an old backup I found.
TWO:
Again, finding a good ~/.android/adbkey.pub and copying it to the device via push like so:
shell$ adb push ~/.android/adbkey.pub /data/misc/adb/adb_keys
shell$ adb pull /sdcard/errrrything* /localbox/

This will push your key to the device, but obviously won't work while the phone is booted Normally unless you click "Grant Permission" on the prompt, which is impossible without a screen to see/touch.
Moving along back to my original question: Is it possible to push files or do any device manipulation if it's put in Recovery Mode/Fastboot/etc?
If so, I'd think it would be possible to remember the steps and timing for the volume/power buttons and slip in.
Any help is appreciated! If it helps, these are my phones I'm trying to recover:
Pixel 3a XL (USB Debugging On. Rooted.) - OS Version Unknown. 2 Years Old.
Motorola Nexus 6 (USB Debugging On. Rooted) - OS Version Unknown. Also 2 Years Old.
Small Note: I know this question might be seen as me trying to do something "unethical" but I can prove these devices are mine and am not trying to break in to stolen phones or whatever. That said, I understand if you assume the worst - it's probably best to think that way in life. I digress..
Thank you for reading,
-notdan

Finding a good adbkey.pub and copying it to the device via push doesn't make sense. If you can push a file you should be able to directly read and extract the files. In my opinion the best option to use an USB keyboard to unlock the phone (lock screen) and to register a Bluetooth keyboard. Without a working screen this is not that simple, best is having a similar device to practice. Once you have the Bluetooth keyboard paired, accepting the adb prompt should be easy.


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Why did Chromecast stop working on my Android?
I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus smartphone and recently I stopped being able to cast anything to my TV nor my speakers, whether YouTube or Hulu or even just sound/music apps like Spotify. It seems I can't connect to either Chromecast video nor audio devices. The devices I can cast to at home do appear on my list of possible casting destinations, but then the content won't display. The attempt to connect from my phone seems to fail every time! Other people at home are able to cast fine. I have already also tried wiping the cache and data storage on the Google Home, Android System Webview, Chrome, and YouTube apps. No improvement!

Somehow I remembered that I had recently turned on my Avast VPN. It never turned itself back off! The VPN connection seems to prevent my phone from casting audio and video to my home devices. Turning my VPN off manually on the phone corrected the problem!

Checking for VPNs or other networking issues could help, it's usually something silly that gets in the way but occasionally they are unrecoverable but it's rare.
Try using it on a direct connection if possible.
Good luck!

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.


text:
Can't access my Activision account because the google authentication code was deleted. How do I get it back?
I've been trying to log into my Activision account but I can't because the google authentication code was deleted off the app. I've been trying to contact support but I can't reach them. Is there a way where I can recover the google authentication code back on the google authenticator app.

Unlikely, though usually services that use 2FA also provide a backup mechanism (e.g. one-time use backup code), just in case of this exact locked-out situation.


text:
Can I convert phone into USBC touchscreen display?
Is there a way to join two Android phones so that one of them is the touchscreen for the other?
For example, to retrieve data on a cracked phone or to play games on a larger Android screen.


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Micro SD cards work on phone with Android 8 but corrupted in phone with Android 11?
I have two SanDisk micro SD cards, a 8GB one for storing my photos and files in a Sony Xperia XA1, which runs Android 8.0 as the OS, the other one is a 128GB used in a Sony Xperia L3 phone, running Android 8.1. Since both of them had problems after years of usage, I bought a new phone, which is a Motorola e40, which runs Android 11.
When I transferred the micro SD card to the Motorola e40, it said the micro SD card is corrupted and asked for re-formatting. It happened to both of the micro SD cards. But the cards were actually working when I put them back to the Sony phones.
I wonder if the problem is on the OS. Does Android 11 use a micro SD card with a file system format different from that used by Android 8? Or is it the problem of the different phone brands?
I recall that both cards had not been formatted by me before when I used them for the Sony phones, so they should be pre-formatted by the manufacturer.
Also, the Motorola phone asked whether I would like to format the card as internal or portable storage (I did not choose either of them because the cards actually can work in the Sony phones and they contain data). But this option never appeared in my old Sony phones. So is it a property of the phone or Android 11?

Is your SD card encrypted? I'm going to assume it's not, but there may be an update you can install that fixes the problem. If the device is different, use the device the SD card works on and copy all the files to your computer as a backup, usually this is a sign that your phone's SD reader is corrupted or going bad, either that or it's the SD card. Hearing you have two different devices, I will go with my chance and say the problem is with the SD card, prepare a backup while you can.


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Can I recover notes from before I factory reset my phone?
I have a Poco X3 NFC and did a factory reset just yesterday, but apparently lost a very important password and I can't seem to get it any other way. It was stored as a note from the "notes" app by Xiaomi and I don't even know which type of file to look for or if there's any software for that task.
Thanks in advance

no data can be recovered from phone. that's the main purpose of factory reset. check mi cloud for backup

If your password was in a .txt file, maybe you can root your device and use third party software, the only downside is you'll have to pay a lot only to begin with if it even finds the file, maybe the software will let you view the password if it finds it,therefore it will be most likely that if it wasn't in a text format, no software can restore the password data unless it was a screenshot that was deleted. I'm sure you may have found a way, if not, the password is long gone. The only fix is if you written it somewhere safe beforehand or have it somewhere deep in your brain. I highly recommend you use a password manager that you can link to your Google account.


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Instagram black screens on launch - Samsung S22
I have recently reset my instagram password and logged out of my account on my phone. However, I am now unable to use Instagram on my phone as it just black screens.
I am able to log into my account online(computer).
I have tried uninstalling, clearing the cache and restarting my phone to no avail.
I have also tried installing a prior version of Instagram, which did nothing to my situation.


text:
Wireless Android debugging not working
I am using the Android Studio Chipmunk edition. My Android device is connected to the WiFi and my PC is connected to the same router through ethernet cable. My devices are running Android 12. So, it seems like I am fulfilling all the requirements.
I was able to connect a few times and able to install apps wirelessly. However, I am failing now. One of the following two things happens each time:

The QR scanner does not do anything when I scan the code as if it didn't recognize the QR code at all.
The QR code is recognized and I get a message about the pairing taking a while.

I also tried using the six-digit code for pairing by none of my devices are showing up under "Available Wi-fi Devices".
What am I doing wrong?

Possibly related: the technicality, possible reasons for failing, and possible fixes (disclosure: I wrote the answer).

I got the same problem here. After getting tired of some other fixes, I just tried to forget the paired device on Phone setting, turn off the wifi on phone, turn on the wifi again, scan the QR and it works :)

Same happened with me but this fixed the issues:
Run: adb connect <IP address>:<Port> in your terminal whenever your mobile fails to connect.
You can find the IP and port in your phone's settings Settings>Developer Option>Wireless Debugging.
If it gives any error, add a path of your android sdk platform tools in Environment variables [For me it was C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\platform-tools]
If you can't see AppData folder then turn on the option to view hidden folders from control panel.
In case you don't know how to add a new path in Environment Variable then:

Search Edit environment variables in your Windows search bar and click on the result option.
Click on Path>Edit...>New
Add the path and click Ok > Ok

I got an error saying "failed to connect to 192........"

You first need to pair device with:
adb pair IP:PORT

You need to get IP, PORT and the pair code from android Wirelesss debugging menu (be careful, the pairing PORT is different from the connect PORT).
Then, when asked to prompt code, enter the code you see on your phone.
Finally, connect with:
adb connect IP:PORT

On Windows, I had to allow adb.exe through the Microsoft Defender firewall for this to work:

Press the Windows key
Search for "Allow an app through Windows Firewall" and press Enter
Make sure adb.exe is allowed in there

I also had to connect both the PC and the phone to the WiFi only. Having the PC connected to ethernet only caused similar issues.

The above plus a restart of my PC solved it.

None of the answers actually worked for me. What did the trick was to:

On Android Wireless Debugging > Pair device with pairing code
On cmd do adb pair ip:port with ip/port from above
Device now appears on Android Studio > Device Manager

Sometimes putting my phone in Airplane mode for 5-10 seconds and then turning it off resets the connection and allows me to wirelessly connect to the device. If that doesn't work I will try turning the computer's wifi off and on too. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Recently I wasn't able to connect wirelessly to my main computer, and it wouldn't work until I connected to a different one.

You did not talk about enabling Wireless USB debugging in the dev options. If you don't do it you should get an error which says that the connection has been denied by Android.
You should try to ping your phone. If the ping works, open a cmd and type 'adb connect 192.168.X.X'  with the IP of your Android device.
Obviously your phone and computer have to be on the same network.


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How can I fix the phone bricked?
My phone has just bricked after I do something using ADB and now I can't do anything to it. I can't hard reset, The volume part is broken off and does not respond only power button, The touch screen is frozen and not working but I can see the time still running. I have my phone turned USB debugging on but I forgot to always allow this computer. I tried many recovery tools but most of them can't work without USB debugging. My phone is old it uses a micro USB port. I am able to connect it to my working phone and show Its own files. Does this have an app that can reset my bricked phone or software on pc that can fix my problem? Thank you.
Edit: My phone has android version 9.0

there exist several ways to recover data from ancient phones, but can't tell a single without knowing phone model and android version

My Android version is 9.0 and I don't know much about its model but I know It's not Samsung model

Most Probably you are in a recoverable situation. So your phone can be flashed in EDL mode but most manufacturers have their EDL mode hardware locked. So you probably need to go to someone who has little expertice in hardware to get into EDL mode.


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how to turn off a samsung A10 that keeps rebooting?
I have had my Samsung A10 for about 2 years now. A few days ago it restarted by itself and got stuck in Upload Mode: It was showing a screen with two options: connecting to PC and Rebooting the device. A message was displayed at the bottom of the page saying something about missing bootloader. (I don't remember the exact message). After rebooting the phone as guided in that page (press and hold the Volume Down and Power buttons), it now keeps rebooting and does not load any further than displaying the android logo.
I googled about it and tried to do some factory reset (press and hold Volume Up and Power buttons) but it didn't help, because the phone reboots fast and doesn't allow me to choose the factory reset option or any other option in the page.
I can't even trun the phone off. It drives me crazy. Any help would be highly appreciated.

Is there a behavior change when you connect the phone to a charger?

@Robert Not at all, but It does charge and when connecting it to a computer it makes connection sound.


text:
Increase number of fingerprint attempts
Is there any way to increase the number of allowed fingerprint attempts before PIN etc is demanded? I'm comfortable using adb shell if necessary.

At least until Android 7, an Xposed module named Fingerprint Enabler was able to do that. Not sure if it supports higher Ándroid versions (7 was the last running on the only device I had with a fingerprint scanner).

Is that something that can be done without rooting or bootloader unlocking or whatever?

No, definitely not. And I'd be very surprised if there's a non-root solution to that.

Unfortunately it seems like it's not possible without changing the source code, not even on a rooted device. The max number of attempts is hardcoded at line 43 of LockoutFrameworkImpl.java (and stored in the constant field MAX_FAILED_ATTEMPTS_LOCKOUT_TIMED), and the number of failed attempts is stored in the mFailedAttempts private field, declared at line 69.

Thanks for the info! Seems like a crappy way of doing things. I could see the logic if fingerprint sensors were 100% reliable, but they're far from it.


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Can the OnePlus 8 Pro IR camera be re-enabled with LineageOS?
OnePlus got into some heat providing an infrared camera. They subsequently had to disable it,

Therefore, we are already working on an OTA that we’ll push out in the coming weeks to offer the Photochrom filter while limiting other functionality that may be of concern.

Can this be re-enabled with LineageOS? Has this feature been hardware-removed in new devices?

Re-enabled on March 4, 2022.
The LinageOS device name for the OnePlus8 Pro is instantnoodlep. From that repo we can see instantnoodlep is is based on OnePlus sm8250-common. This repo is the android_device_oneplus_sm8250-common which you can find on GitHub in it you'll see a patch named "sm8250-common: Unlock gc5035 camera". The gc5035 is the IR camera, (camera without an IR filter).

sm8250-common: Unlock gc5035 camera
This change lets us use gc5035 camera, which was blocked by OnePlus long time ago after people discovered its magic capabilities. By default only com.oem.autotest can use it, however if we replace the first character with a NULL byte, then strncmp returns 0, and thus we pass the check and allow everyone to use it.

All ROMs based on LineageOS should have this patch, if they're newer than the March 4, 2022 date.

Note: keep in mind you MUST use an Camera app based on GCam. Stock Apps and OpenCamera will not work.


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details of quick ring/call/drop flood attack - phone unusable and overheated
A while ago I read about an attack performed with an application that rendered the attacked phone unusable and overheated for the period of the attack.
If I remember correctly the attack was based on initiating a call and quickly dropping it so that the attacked phone would not ring or display the number of the attacker but it would endup unusable and overheated.
This whole thing might have been limited to a specific network type, eg. LTE, but I'm not sure if I remember this correctly.
However, I cannot find information about this attack or the app that was used to render it.
I don't plan to use it, I just want to inform myself about it and to understand why the network provider is not rate limiting or banning the attacker.

I don't have many articles for you, but I can confirm this also was able to happen on iPhones as well. Attackers literally called my coworker over and over as we both watched, meanwhile he got an email alert that his credit card was being used. It was a fraud distraction.
Keywords to search for: fraud distraction, phone denial of service via calling, incoming dos attack (phone model)

https://securelogix.com/threats/tdos-attacks/
https://www.cisecurity.org/insights/white-papers/cis-primer-telephony-denial-of-service-attacks
https://www.cisa.gov/uscert/ncas/tips/ST04-015
https://scambusters.org/distraction.html

To summarize how I would personally do this if I were a crrrrrriminal? I'd buy a VoIP server subscription or setup a PBX (or a few) and then use multiple providers and a scripted call routine to flood the line. It would be next to impossible to stop, as the phone company has zero interest in stopping potentially billable calls from being connected. It also could be a legitimate thing (like a radio station prize, etc).
There's a few steps left out of this for obvious reasons. ;)
Cheers

But what I heard, was much more elevated than this. It wasn't just a simple call to keep you distracted. The attacked phone was not ringing, it wasn't doing anything, just overheating. The attacked person might not even realize what is happening.

@learner have the call ended a second after it is started?

@notdan Do you know of any free VOIP services that can be used for this? I want to figure out how to do it to scammers. I tried using a python package called PyTextNow (it uses TextNow and pretends to be a browser) but I couldn't get it to work.


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Can android 11 take 2 wired USB controllers
I have an Android 11 box (Android TV Box 11.0, 4GB 64GB Decodificador Android Box, Amlogic S905W2 Smart TV Box"), and am trying Retroarch.
For controller 1, I have a Power A Liquid Metal XBox One controller.
Works fine so far.
But no matter what I configure as Input 2, the 2nd controller stills controls player 1.
I tried several controllers for Input 2, and it's always the same thing.  I tried a Wired Rock Candy Switch controller,  BlueTooth Atgames Legends Mini, and I also tried using a second Power A Liquid metal Xbox One controller.
No matter what I do, it seems to think that both controllers are the same controller.  (both control player 1).
What I noticed that's weird is that since it thinks both controllers are the same, and I mapped both  Input 1 and Input 2 to it, when I'm in certain menu screens, when I hit down, it registers twice.  I'm guessing because it thinks both players hit down.
I tried both SNES9x and Final Burn Neo.  The problem seems to be at the Android level (before getting to Retroarch).
Is it normal to have an Android 11 device only accept one controller?  Or is it possible that it's a problem with my device specifically?

Update.  I tried connecting a new controller via Bluetooth: Ipega 9087s.  Same problem.  But one thing I just noticed is that in Retroarch, when I set the inputs, it lists both controller's "device index" as "virtual".  It shows "Virtual" for both controllers.  This does not happen when I use Retroarch in my FireHD10 tablet.  Same controller, the "Device Index" actually shows the name of the controller (Ipega 9087).  Is this a clue?

This is the bug [Android 11 DP/Beta] Bluetooth Gamepads Aren't Reported as Source of Input Events".
A workaround is described in a reddit post by /u/SuttonX:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidGaming/comments/kb8mzw/accessibility_services_block_controllers_android/

If you don't want to get Tasker, you could just manually go in to your phone settings and turn off all your Accessibility Services permanently.

Thank you!  I was starting to think my device had a defect!  I just wanted to note, in that bug report, the person wrote "Bluetooth gamepads", but it turns out to also affect USB gamepads.  Thanks again, this was driving me nuts!