text:
Custom init rc constantly failing/rebooting
I created a custom .rc file (/etc/init/nerding.rc) which initializes a custom "service" I made (/system/bin/listen) at boot, but after an hour or so my Android gets sluggish, isn't very responsive and when I check the dmesg, my nerding thing has failed and restarted thousands and thousands of times. Like once every 3 seconds.
The idea behind my file is that it listens for specific volume key and touchscreen taps whereupon it then hides or unhides some specific apps. Think 'Apex,' but with less evidence.
I'll post the code and see if anyone has any suggestions/ideas. Please keep in mind that I only have JavaScript experience, so my BASH (or whatever Android's version is called) coding is haphazard at best. I am guessing my issue is because I'm not running my service as a 'oneshot,' but if I don't then the listen tool only listens once and quits. It needs to run every...2-5 seconds?

code for /etc/init/nerding.rc *

service nerding /system/bin/listen
   class main
   priority 10
   user root
   #oneshot
   seclabel u:object_r:system_file:s0

end of code

code for  /system/bin/listen *

#!/system/bin/sh
function checkQuickHide {
  ups=$( dmesg | grep '(released) HW keycode = 0' | wc -l )
  if [ $ups -gt 4 ]; then
    dmesg -C
    pm hide jackpal.androidterm
    hider
    exit
  else
    checkuptime
  fi
}
function checkuptime {
  #grab last 115 (volume up key)
  uptm=$(dmesg | grep 'keycode = 115' | tail -1 | tr -s ' ' | cut -d ' ' -f2 | cut -d ']' -f0 | cut -d "." -f0)
  if [[ $uptm -eq '' ]]; then
    dmesg -C
    exit
  else
    checkdowntime
  fi
}
function checkdowntime {
  #grab last 114 (volume down key)
  dntm=$(dmesg | grep 'keycode = 114' | tail -1 | tr -s ' ' | cut -d ' ' -f2 | cut -d ']' -f0 | cut -d "." -f0)
  if [[ $dntm -eq '' ]]; then
    dmesg -C
    exit
  else
    checkdiff
  fi
}
function checkdiff {
  daff=$(( $dntm-$uptm ))
  if [[ "$daff"  -gt 3 ]]; then
    dmesg -C
    exit
  fi
  if [[ "$daff" -lt 0 ]]; then
    dmesg -C
    exit
  fi
  fing1
}
#Screentouching
function fing1 {
  #first finger
  f1x=$( dmesg | grep 'tpd_down id: 0' | tail -1 | cut -d ':' -f4 | cut -d ',' -f0 )
  if [[ $f1x -eq '' ]]; then
    let f1x=1000
    exit
  fi
  f1y=$( dmesg | grep 'tpd_down id: 0' | tail -1 | cut -d ':' -f5 | cut -d '-' -f0 )
  if [[ $f1y -eq '' ]]; then
    let f1y=1000
    exit
  fi
  fing2
}
function fing2 {
  #2nd finger
  f2x=$( dmesg | grep 'tpd_down id: 1' | tail -1 | cut -d ':' -f4 | cut -d ',' -f0 )
  if [[ $f2x -eq '' ]]; then
    let f2x=1000
    exit
  fi
  f2y=$( dmesg | grep 'tpd_down id: 1' | tail -1 | cut -d ':' -f5 | cut -d '-' -f0 )
  if [[ $f2y -eq '' ]]; then
    let f2y=1000
    exit
  fi
  finglocs
}
function finglocs {
  if [[ $f1x -lt 740 ]]; then
    exit
  fi
  if [[ $f1y -gt 50 ]]; then
    exit
  fi
  if [[ $f2x -gt 50 ]]; then
    exit
  fi
  if [[ $f2y -lt 1200 ]]; then
    exit
  fi
  endgame
}
function endgame {
  dmesg -C
  app=$( pm list packages | grep jackpal.androidterm )
  if [[ $app != '' ]]; then
    pm hide jackpal.androidterm
    hider
    exit
  else
   # echo 'Reveal Hidden App'
    pm enable jackpal.androidterm
    pm unhide jackpal.androidterm
    exit
  fi
}
function hider {
  svc wifi disable
  appst=/data/data/jackpal.androidterm/app_HOME/apps.txt
  app=$( cat $appst )
  for x in `cat $appst`;
    do
      if [ -e /data/data/$x ]; then
        pm hide $x
      fi
    done
  exit
}
checkQuickHide

end of code
I'm sure this could be more succinct and efficient, but everytime I tried to combine some steps I broke it!
The error I constantly get in dmesg is (with a higher pid each time):
[  277.585578] (3)[1:init]init: Service 'nerding' (pid 4073) exited with status 0
[  277.585621] (3)[1:init]init: Sending signal 9 to service 'nerding' (pid 4073) process group...
[  277.585871] (3)[1:init]init: PropSet [init.svc.nerding]=[restarting] Done
[  282.457675] (1)[1:init]init: starting service 'nerding'...
[  282.458615] (1)[1:init]init: PropSet [init.svc.nerding]=[running] Done
[  282.458687] (1)[1:init]init: property_set("ro.boottime.nerding", "282427639311") failed: property already set

Please, any suggestions, revisions, or criticisms are greatly appreciated.


text:
When taking a photosphere picture with a Google Camera app, how can I get a pointer to which photo is missing?
When taking a photosphere picture with a Google Camera app, I sometimes have issues to find which photo(s) are missing to complete the photosphere.  How can I get a pointer to which photo is missing?

Unfortunately, the Google Camera app UI doesn't provide a way to customize the overlay.   The only way to see what is missing is to keep moving your camera around until it shows you the blue circles indicating the missing frames.
In my experience, it's usually spots right around the zenith (directly up) or nadir (directly down) that are most easily missed.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How can I install SuperSu on a pre-rooted Android head unit?
I am working on a pre-rooted Android head unit. I can do "adb root" or "adb shell su" using wifi adb. So there is root access and Su binary on the device. But I can't use root applications because there is no app to grant root access. I have tried installing supersu or superuser on /system/app. I made it install the apps but they say "device not rooted" when I try to run them.
So how can I make supersu see my su binary?

If an app is required depends on the su binary. If the su binary just grants root permissions without interaction in an app, then you don't need such an app. But it may be possible that the su binary is only usable via adb and not from within apps. You may need to install SuperSu or similar and then replace thee existing su binary with the one from SuperSu (better not remove the original su binary just rename it just to make sure you dont loose root permissions at all).

...but they say "device not rooted".... See How does SuperSU check if a phone is rooted?.

Also related regarding adb root and adb shell su: How to grant certain apps root permission through ADB?

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


text:
Why does this app from F-droid ask for location?
I find Syncopoli interesting for backup of own data. It's like rsync for the phone. But it asks for location and I wonder why would the app need it? I'm not terribly paranoid, I'm just privacy aware.

It's spelt out clearly in the readme on the app's Gitlab website

ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION: unfortunately, Android 8.1+ now mandates this permission AND enabling location services for apps to get the SSID. So, if you are running Android 8.1 and above and want your profiles to sync only when you're connected to a specific SSID, this permission AND enabling location services is required.

(Emphasis supplied)
Open source apps usually address such concerns, so it's a good idea to lookup the documentation.


text:
How can I jump to a given year on the Google Calendar application on my Google Pixel 6 phone?
I  use the Google Calendar application on my Google Pixel 6 phone. Sometimes I want to look at some event a few years ago. How can I jump to a given year on Google calendar?

On the web, you can press the g key to go to a particular date.

From Google support How to navigate to a specific date in google calendar Android app. E.g going to Aug-14&seeing events

... there's no way to do this in the Android app, but you can ask Google Assistant to list events from a given month or date. For example : "OK Google, show my events in August this year", then click on a result to open that event.

I didn't fully verify this as I don't use Google assistant but by invoking it on long press of home, and keying in as advised, I could see events upto two years ago.

The fact that the android app doesn't allow this is so stupid. It would be so easy to implement a picker that you could show tapping on the top bar to select a date and move the calendar to that date, like the material date picker.

This is not an answer the question, since that is app specific. However a 3rd party app like aCalendar (which is just another frontend for google calendar) offers years to pick from the hamburger menu, which might be quicker for selecting a specific year than an assistant. Maybe it is worth taking a look at this or other such apps.


text:
Location icon/sound keeps popping about once an hour on Amazon Fire tablet, how to make it stop?
On my Amazon Fire tablet, I've never had an issue until last week.
This icon pops up random, maybe once or twice an hour with audible sound as well. (Verso is the title of sound it makes from ringers list)
It literally makes that sound at same time as the icon appears. I hear the sound, Verso, then I look up to right top corner to see the "Arrow" icon there then it goes away in 1 second.
The icon is the same arrow icon for "Location" in settings.
Due to Location arrow, I've gone down the list of app permissions & turned off Location in all 18 apps using "Location". It still happens with all turned off!
Would anyone know of this and how I can stop it or at least control it?


text:
Storage manager (SM) Partitioned Micro sd card but how to mount the extended partition and use it as internal storage.?
Question:- Storage manager (SM) Partitioned  Micro sd card but how to mount the extended partition and use it as internal storage.?
I purchased 6 months before, Samsung Galaxy s20 Fe with android 12 with 128 GB internal memory and a 128 GB external Micro SD card. I am an IT freelancer professional, so I have a job is for testing daily 1000's of different android apps some I have keep installed to create logged reports either monthly weekly or quarterly and my other work is to do some short video advertisements or photo editing and some other GPS technical official apps to do my job in an instant go while traveling.
I want to set default installation of apps location to micro sd card, i tried but it only moves the main APK files, leaving ODBB file like  data, cache, lib, and dex in internal memory thus occupying space in internal memory. I want to keep my internal memory free for output files of video editing to fast rendering of photo editing or video editing file on mobile.
I have tried Adoptable storage ( formatting external micro sd card as internal)  without rooting once in my android 6.0 Marshemellow and thought it may work in android 12.0.
i tried following commands in following sequence
adb devices
adb shell

r8q:/ $ sm list-disks adoptable
   Disk: 179,0 (output of list-disk adoptable command)
r8q:/ $ sm has-adoptable
      false
r8q:/ $ sm partition disk:179:0 mixed 40
r8q:/ $ sm set-force-adoptable true
r8q:/ $ sm list-volumes all
        private mounted null
        public:179,1 mounted 5C8A-85AC
        private:179,3 unmountable
        emulated;0 mounted null
r8q:/ $sm format private:179,3
r8q:/ $sm mount private:179,3
r8q:/ $ sm has-adoptable
      false
r8q:/ $ sm list-volumes all
        private mounted null
        public:179,1 mounted 5C8A-85AC
        private:179,3 unmountable
        emulated;0 mounted null
r8q:/ $ ls -al /dev/block/platform/soc/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root   80 2022-11-07 13:12 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root   60 2019-02-11 06:25 ..
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 1680 2019-02-11 06:25 1d84000.ufshc
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root  140 2022-11-07 13:12 8804000.sdhci
r8q:/ $ ls -al /dev/block/platform/soc/8804000.sdhci
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 140 2022-11-07 13:12 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root  80 2022-11-07 13:12 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 100 2022-11-07 13:12 by-name
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  18 2022-11-07 13:12 mmcblk0 -> /dev/block/mmcblk0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  20 2022-11-07 13:12 mmcblk0p1 -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  20 2022-11-07 13:12 mmcblk0p2 -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  20 2022-11-07 13:12 mmcblk0p3 -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p3
r8q:/ $ ls -al /dev/block/platform/soc/8804000.sdhci/by-name/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 100 2022-11-07 13:12 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 140 2022-11-07 13:12 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  20 2022-11-07 13:12 android_expand -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  20 2022-11-07 13:12 android_meta -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  20 2022-11-07 13:12 shared -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p1

Result is fine with no errors, it partitioned the micro sd card and converted formatted and mounted my 128GB card to 2 parts ie.as in mobile phone settings>storage in android 12.0 its showing 47.63GB card after commands it means its mounted and the micro external card is parted 47.63 portable is showing. but second  partition is not showing in android and the  files apps moved is still saving in 47.63 gb public:179,1 mounted 5C8A-85AC not the other one which  is private:179,3 unmountable and not being used and remaining 80.37 GB is unallocated and not usable

I rebooted my  android phone twice still.
But internal its still showing 100GB remaining and its not added and why the remaining space partition of  80.37GB  is its not showing in android device how to mount or show in GUI of android and how to now 80.37GB partition as adoptable storage or format remaining  80.37GB as internal memory and extend my internal memory storage and how to use the partition in micro sd card and remaining
i tried $sm mount private:179,3 to  to mount 179,3 private  sd card second parition but still its hidden and showing invisible
on  command  ls -al /dev/block/platform/soc/8804000.sdhci/by-name/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  18 2022-11-07 13:12 mmcblk0 -> /dev/block/mmcblk0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  20 2022-11-07 13:12 mmcblk0p1 -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  20 2022-11-07 13:12 mmcblk0p2 -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  20 2022-11-07 13:12 mmcblk0p3 -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p3

it showed 3 partitions of  micro sd card  ie /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 & p2 & p3  but  how can we mount  the  undisplayed parition by
mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /data/sdext2 will it  write in init.c  so that  its gets  every time i reboot restart  the  android phone. by which command i can show  the  micro sd card hidden partition so that  it can be  displayed in settings-storage and wordk as  adoptable internal storage
Thanks for giving time and reading my question and  i will be  obliged to get experts advice solution for  my problem . Thanks a lot in advance for  your precisous time advice and knowledge sharing and help.


text:
How can I get this former Lifeline phone working?
I have a UMX U683CL. My mom has had some of the worst luck with phones via Assurance Wireless; this was her third or fourth one in about three years, and they've all misbehaved terribly. They didn't even want this one back, and I found it again recently and thought I'd repurpose it as a much newer phone for me (my phone is a six-year-old Alcatel potato that's served me well running apps, but it's small and slow and old). I started down the road of rooting and got super overwhelmed and confused in a hurry, and ultimately gave up and just used Tiny ADB to uninstall all the bloatware on it that I didn't need. It seemed like it would be fine, so I went ahead and got set up with Tello and had them send me a new SIM card. It got here, I put it in the phone... and nothing. I ended up doing a factory reset to see if that helped, since it could just reinstall all my apps and things from the cloud easily, and still nothing. All of Tello's advice involves updating the system in various ways, and that's where the problem is.
This phone never succeeded at updating once, in the time my mom was using it. It would periodically try and fail, and was mostly an annoyance whenever it did. But if I do Settings > System > About phone > System update (Update OEM software), none of the options there succeed at anything. I do update profile, it makes a cursory attempt to do it and then I get a popup about "waiting for retry" (with five attempts). Each attempt takes a minute; if I let it muddle through all five, eventually I get a message that says "Your activation could not be completed. Please try again later. If the problem persists you may need to contact Customer Service."
I do update PRL, and the mU Software Update overlay just sits on "Checking for PRL update" infinitely.
If I go to system update,  I get a screen with info about wireless updating and how it works, and if I hit "checking for updates", it checks and then says no updates are available.
If I hit the last option under the system updates menu, UICC Unlock (important for this instance), I get a popup from mU Software Update that says "UICC unlock fail. Error Code: 23. Description: DM Auth failed with 407 status code".
Assurance Wireless isn't going to be able to help me with this. I don't even want to bother with calling them, because I'll end up with someone in a call center in Dubai or wherever, and they're not going to be able to do anything with the fact that it's not a current, active Lifeline phone. So. Is there a way to deal with this? Would rooting get me around these issues and let it work as a phone NOT on the Sprint network?
Edit: Since I've mostly struck out with this same post over on Tom's Guide, I'll clarify some things here as well. My primary wish is to get the update functions working so that I can progress with activating the Tello SIM. As far as I can tell the phone is already unlocked; Assurance Wireless will likely be of no help, and my mom never dealt with Sprint directly, because this is a former Lifeline phone, so they wouldn't be able to help either. And if the updating can't be fixed, I would like to know IF rooting would bypass the problem, and if it would then I have to find someone who can really hold my hand through it because my dip into rooting was super baffling and unsuccessful.


text:
how to make Samsung j3 with 8G rom usable
I have a Samsung j3 phone with 8g internal rom, 16g sd card and Android 5.1. It is in excellent condition.
Recently "storage is running out" errors started appearing, and even services stopped working because of this. There is nothing on the phone except the usual Google stuff (maps, googleplay etc).
Photos, videos, etc are of course stored on sd card.
I already disabled all samsung apps (bloatware).
I already configured apps to use sd card when possible (only a few apps offered this and even those store much of their data in internal storage).
Right now I can use the phone only if I empty the caches of applications and switch off networking. As soon as I enable networking, the caches start filling (googleplay, maps, etc) and in a few minutes storage run out.
Is it possible to make it usable with rooting and using a custom ROM? If yes, what ROM should I try?
"Usable" means to me:

calling,
texting,
browser,
photos,
some kind of navigation (maps)

Some users have encountered that Android keeps a lot of old and outdated stuff internally. Unfortunately these directories are only accessible on rooted devices. On unrooted devices the only way would be to perform a factory reset. But as apps are getting bigger you may end up again in the same situation. Note that rooting automatically erases all user data thus is equivalent to a factory-reset.

"If yes, what ROM should I try?" you can browse available ROMs on XDA Devs, but note that ROM recommendation is off-topic here.


text:
Opening iptables for initial Android setup blocks connectivity
I installed an AOSP Android 12 based ROM with root. I set up a simple custom stateful iptables firewall to block all connectivity except for a browser. I connect to WiFi and there is no internet. This setup does work after some initial network activity occurs on a freshly setup ROM with just the default firewall left in place for a little time (until browser able to access internet).
What sequence of events occurs behind the scenes on a freshly set up Android ROM for the internet connectivity to be enabled? What sort of things must occur for Android network connectivity to become available for apps after a fresh installation and after having established WiFi connection?
There's no internet if you just open up the firewall for one app on a new installation and having connected to a WiFi.


text:
Is screen mirroring/remote control faster via USB or Wifi
I use Airdroid via wifi to remotely control the device from PC, but I also want a high definition mirroring. Is mirroring/remote control faster via wifi or usb? Thanks.

You can't answer this question in general as there are phones with USB 2.0 and other with USB 3.0 connection. Note that a phone having an USB-C connection can be USB 2.0 or 3.0, thus the USB-C port doesn't tell you anything on the connection speed. Only if the phone has an Micro-USB connection it is USB 2.0 for sure.
USB in general should have a lower latency and is more reliable as Wifi uses a shared media and thus can be disturbed by other devices using the same frequencies.
If the phone supports USB 3 modes then it should also be faster than WiFi. Most USB 2.0 devices usually get around 30MB/sec (240MBit), so some Wifi set-ups may be faster but that depends on the Wifi modes supported by the phone, the used Wifi router and the Ethernet connection between PC and router (a connection WiFi-to-Wifi is almost never faster than USB 2.0).
But even if it only supports USB 2.0 then it may be the preferred connection, unless you try to use the phone for remotely viewing videos or other situations where the display is constantly changing.


text:
How do I install/update the Trusted Certificate Store on a Lenovo IdeaTab?
Most of the tutorials I have found either allow you to open a file browser to browse to the cert(that button isn't visible on my device), or install from an SD card. I tried the install from SD card option, but it just presents a toast that no certificate was detected, even when I moved it into the root folder of the SD Card.
It isn't a special cert for an app that I am trying to install, I am just attempting to install the ISRG Root X1.der cert, which is required for modern sites using Let'sEncrypt(a sizeable part of the internet).
Or is there a way for me to force the device to pull all of the new/modern certs from Google?

What Android version is installed and is the tablet rooted?

@Robert the device is running Android 4.1, and it is not rooted. I’m just trying to get it working for a family member

On Android 4.1 you can simply install a root CA certificate as user certificate. But that won't help you much because the main problem is that Android 4.1 does AFAIR not support TLS 1.2. Some Google apps has been updated to use an additional crypto library for TLS 1.2, but most apps don't use this provider and thus don't support TLS 1.2.

@Robert, I’ll take my chances with installing it, and hoping most sites still have TLS 1.1 support. The issue is that I can’t seem to figure out how to install the cert. I can toggle existing certs on and off, but in the menu, the only option I see is to install from an SD card, but it seems it doesn’t detect the cert from there anyway.

Most likely because your certificate uses a very uncommon file extension. Usually certificates have file extension .cer or .pem not .der.

@Robert I found the cert as a .pem here. Weirdly though, it still throws the same toast error: No certificate files found on the SD card. And, I made sure to put it at the root of the SD card too, in case it doesn't check subfolders.

You can try to pack it into an .p12 file (PKCS#12). This format is actually designed for private and secret keys but it can also contain certificates. Use e.g. https://keystore-explorer.org create a new PKCS#12 file without password and then import the certificate into this p12 file.

@Robert, that got me a little farther. When I click on the cert, it brings up a prompt to enter a password. When I don't enter anything, it throws an "incorrect password" error. When I do set a password, and use said password, same thing.

PKCS#12 supports different encryption algorithms and also it seems to make a difference between no password and empty password, so a lot of possible problems. I also read that Android does not support PEM, so I would recommend to use the .der certificate and rename it to .cer or .crt. Such certificates should be found by Android.


text:
Where is the Google Tasks folder on Android?
According to this website, it's
/data/data/com.google.android.apps.tasks/.
On my phone, there's no such folder anywhere. In fact, there's no /data/data anywhere. I do have the Tasks app installed. My Android version is 9, my phone is a Samsung Galaxy J5.
I am hoping that I can recover an older version of Tasks' database, because something very important was somehow deleted, that's why I am looking for the folder. Anyone knows where it is?

I thought as much. Not going to root the phone. Any way I can access the folder if the phone is plugged in into a Windows machine?

/data/data contains the app-private folders. On devices without root you can not access this folder, neither on the device nor using a connected PC.
But there may be one way to get indirect access to the data:
Google Tasks app seem to have backup enabled, so you could try to get the private app data via adb backup:
adb backup com.google.android.apps.tasks

If the created file is larger than 1KB the backup may contain the file(s) you want to get access to. You can decrypt the created backup file using this command-line tool: https://github.com/nelenkov/android-backup-extractor
Using adb requires an USB connection to a PC, activated developer options on the phone and inside the developer options  an enabled "Android Debug Bridge" option. On PC side you need adb installed from Android SDK and the adb driver assigned to the correct device manager (assuming you use Windows).

Unfortunately, the backup returns a 1KB file. Still, the app data takes over 3MB and the cache 311 KB, so I would like to try to extract them and see what's there. I tried adb pull and that doesn't work essentially because the phone is not rooted. I tried to use run-as, but I was told the package is not debuggable. I can't even list the directory contents. Any idea that doesn't involve rooting my phone?

@Nicola As I wrote adb backup is the only chance to extract app data on an unrooted phone. There is no other way. The security concept of Android does not allow user access to app-private data.


text:
How to force Android 8 to connect WiFi without internet?
For some reason, I need to connect my Samsung phone (Android 8.1) to WiFi locally, no internet required.
However as soon as I send some data through it, the connection suddenly get terminated that I have to reconnect again, even when "no internet" prompt have been clicked "keep connection".
No luck in implementing answers from similar topics as well
Stay connected to specific Wifi which has no internet
neither forgetting entire other network.
Any suggestion? Or it's simply impossible for non-rooted device?

Does this also happen if you are in flight mode (no mobile connection) and no other configured Wifi is around?

Yes, tried that too. Doesn't seem to have any effect, remains disconnected after a while


text:
Whatsapp notification bubble on app icon: change to look like Apple ios 15 i.e. RED and NUMBER of UNREAD MESSAGES ? So prominent
Android 12 Motorola.
Is it possible to display the number of unread messages in a prominent color - preferably a RED and the NUMBER of UNREAD messages ?
This would make it much more prominent once the phone is unlocked.
Also, when unlocked the message appears on the screen then intermediately disappears: on ios I can make it permanent - until dismissed.
Admittedly on the lock screen it does display the unread WhatsApp: this is for a user that is not so familiar with smart phones and does not use one enough to get used to it properly.

Do you mean "RED" or "READ"?

Yes, I do mean the color red ! The UI is proprietary /written by google in Java ? Can a red large circle with a number for the number of unread(!) messages be displayed ? Or is this functionality that cannot be added ? By changing code, overlaying, or in settings. The message does not remain on the screen when unlocked! The prominent badge for unread messages of ios 15 is far better. Please only responses from people that can offer a solution.


text:
Microsoft Launcher on Xiaomi Redmi Note 11S reports false data to Microsoft
I am using Microsoft Launcher to control time spend by my daughters with their mobile phones. On the mobile app side things seems to be working fine and dandy, as Microsoft Launcher correctly measures and counts that time:

The problem is that, after I have "upgraded" their old phones to 2 x Xiaomi Redmi Note 11S 6/64GB, it seems that this app is reporting an incorrect values to Microsoft servers / Microsoft Family Safety service:

Or sometimes it reports nothing:

Is there anything I can do about it (tried uninstall and install the app again, restarted device many times, to no avail.)? Is there any "live human" support at Microsoft that I could call to get a help? Or browsing forums and asking is my only option?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/contactus
Remember that they can bypass the restrictions on the launcher by entering apps directly or by switching the launcher.


text:
Why are filenames containing some emojis renamed to Chinese characers?
I have a setup to transfer my files from my Windows machine to my Android phone via Syncthing. I notice that some files whose names have emojis are renamed to  strange Chinese characters:

 C→ߌ⠃
 C→ߌ㠃
 T→ߌ䠔
 N→ߌ堎

As the result in my phone they are write-protected. I'm unable to delete them:

However files whose name contains this emoji ✔ are not affected.
Not sure if this is relevant to the problem, but for full information, when I try to remove this protection, diskpart doesn't detect my Android phone.
Next in line: Why are files with wrong character encoding name write-protected?

You only have MTP access to your phone. It appears to have problems with the character set. You must deal with this on the phone itself, which is sort-of off-topic here on Super User.

The cause is possibly due to wrong character encoding (similar case: Receiving Chinese blocks of texts in the Messaging app). Not sure how to fix it since I'm not familiar with Syncthing though.

Andrew nailed it in his comment. You can see a similar issue reported  between other Operating Systems and duplicate file names, here Unicode errors while syncing between Mac OS X and Linux
Maintainer of Syncthing says

... People moving files between systems have historically been stoically accepting of special characters getting mangled. Nobody in Sweden is that surprised when a file räksmörgås ends up being called r‰ksmˆrgÂs. That’s fine. But it doesn’t work when we need to sync changes bidirectionally between systems with different encodings...

(Emphasis supplied)
Background to the above discussion is the closure of this issue Sync between Linux and OS X causes massive unicode errors

do you know how to delete these files? diskpart doesn't detect my phone

Sorry, no idea about that


text:
Recovering corrupted system files and apps without losing user data
I have an Android phone that partially stopped working:
During a video call, the phone suddenly rebooted. After rebooting, some major system features were missing, and I can't seem to get the back to working.
The catch: I cannot try the usual solution of doing a factory reset to try to restore system files and apps that may have been corrupted. I moved from my home country, and this phone is used for access to bank accounts and such, which I cannot easily just reinstall, as I can't re-verify my identity in the apps.
TL;DR: Apps still work, but can't update them, and lost core system functionality, like the home button and notification area. Is it possible to recover them without losing my app data linked to the device?
Details
What stopped working

General:

Home button and app switching (buttons do nothing)
Search bar on Settings app does not show up, only a blank gap
Motorola's Gestures (shake to open Camera or Flashlight)
Custom screenshot stuff

Home Screen:

Can't see notifications
Corner shortcut icons for Camera disappeared

Notification Area:

Cannot expand area for more icons or see settings
Lost settings customization
Cannot see notifications

Google Play Store

Cannot find apps in the system (no pending updates, can't see installed/uninstalled lists)
Cannot download new apps (stuck in "Pending")

What still works

General:

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Apps
Can access settings
Volume, brightness (including adaptive), Camera, Lock button
2-button navigation's dragging upwards (it's the only way that allows me to reach home screen, from app screen)
Back/Return button
Install apps from their APKs

Home Screen:

Fingerprint and password login
YouTube Music's play bar

Notifications:

Can see notifications inside the Settings app, in Notification history
Can still hear the notification sounds + vibration
Can open a very basic version of the notification area, with 6 default icons, which I can turn on or off

Settings app:

Can normally change settings back and forth
Move files between phone and SD
Clear app data and cache
Start/stop apps

Play Store:

Search apps and see ads
Google Play Protect
The store app is able to update itself

What I tried

Rebooting, multiple times
Rebooting into safe mode - Same system issues
Opening the bootloader's recovery mode and trying all options that weren't factory reset
Installing a new launcher app: it works, but no changes any errors
Resetting Google Play app to factory version and clearing all data

Google Play app was able to update itself, but it cannot find any app in the system

Clearing user data for multiple Google apps, like Google Play Services or App Customization
Uninstalling updates for Motorola's apps

Phone details

Model: Motorola One Vision (2019)
OS: Android One 11

Version: RSAS31.Q1-48-36-23
Latest patch: May 1, 2022. I believe support has ended.

Possible paths to a solution?

Reinstall system files without touching every other file

Can't perform a system update, as it seems to have no more support as of this year. But maybe rerun one, somehow?

Backup or transfer all app settings, with their accounts and verification status

to a new phone or Android VM; or
then hard reset the system on this phone, and safely restore the state

I realize this is possible with some backup apps, but I fear on the safety part, because I'd lose what I can still currently do in case it somehow fails

Verify integrity of storage of system files to restore safety, with a tool like Windows's sfc /scannow and chkdsk /r
Troubleshoot system dependencies

In case this is a corrupted app situation, find which service call is failing for the missing system functionality
Perhaps accessing logs from Play Store or when rebooting in safe mode? Or figuring out the external calls performed by the app for the installation process?

Anything else?

I'm open to suggestions for achieving these, or perhaps alternatives to recovering the functionality. Thank you in advance.

Backup or transfer of security apps like identification apps from a bank is usually prevented. Accessing the file-system to correct something requires root. So the only possible way would be o try to reinstall a full system image. Motorola doesn't seem to provide official download links for the image, so you may have to us an unofficial mirror like https://mirrors.lolinet.com/firmware/motorola/kane/official/ but there are dozen of variants for your phone. Those ZIPs should be installable via side-loading and recovery (requires connected PC).


text:
Find phone number attached to data-only sim card
I have 2 data-only sim cards that I use with 4G routers (Huawei E5576-320), and I need to be able to differentiate them. The "phone numbers" attached to the cards should allow me to differentiate them since they are displayed in my contract. Unfortunately, I can't find this information anywhere. I can't think of another way to tell them apart because the bodies of the cards are identical and I don't know which card (of credit-card format) I detached them from.
I checked the router settings but can't find the information anywhere. I also tried to put the sim cards in my phone (Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G) but the sim card manager from the settings app tells me "unknown number".
Is there a way to find this information? Or is there another way I could differentiate them? Thanks in advance!

Do the data-only SIM cards support SMS? Then you could simply send an SMS containing the phone number to the number itself and see where the SMS is received.

They unfortunately don't.

The service provider finally sent me the numbers printed on each card, telling me which one was which. All clear. Thanks for your help Robert.


text:
How do I delete duplicate contacts on device with Google Contacts (Android)?
I am using Google Contacts app on my Android phone. I have hundreds of contacts stored on device, which I do not want to store in my Google account. After importing some contacts, I now have many duplicate contacts. How do I remove the duplicates, using Google Contacts?

Sadly, the Google Contacts app does not offer a way to easily remove duplicates from the contacts stored only on the device. There are apps available on the Google Play store that promise to do this, but none of them are reputable, so if you don't want to share your contacts online, you may not want to use these apps.
If you want to remove duplicates from contacts that are stored online in your Google accounts, you can follow these instructions:

On your Android phone or tablet, open the Contacts app .
At the top left, tap Menu and then "Merge and fix".
Tap "Merge duplicates". If you don’t get this option, you don’t have any contacts that can be merged.

You can move the contacts stored on your device to your Google account, if you want. When I tried this, Google Contacts only found a couple of the duplicate contacts at first, it did not find the majority of them. But a day later, the Google Contacts app found all of them.


text:
Access cloned apps data in Android 12
I am trying to extract the image folder for the cloned Telegram app from my Redmi Note 10 Pro (Android 12, MIUI 13.0.15, no root), but with no success.
This folder is under /emulated/999/android/data, but no file explorer seem to be able to read its content and Google hasn't been able to give me a solution so far.
Is there a way to actually access that folder, either through the phone or with a Windows/Linux PC?

You can try t use adb from a PC via USB. You need to install adb and driver on PC side and enable developer options + adb on Android side.

but no file explorer seem to be able to read its content -- that's because your file manager apps are installed for the user 0, while you're trying to access content of user 999. So that's not gonna work. You can install file manager app for user 999 (in other words, make a clone of your file manager app). Open that cloned file manager, and you should be able to see those files. Another thing, MTP won't give you access to those files.

Also ADB won't give access to files owned by secondary users. Details here. Also related: How to share files between regular account and work account?

@Firelord i obviously tried that, but with no luck.

Is your cloned File manager able to list other files for user 999? Is the telegram's folder under Android/data not visible?

Regardless of the cloned Telegram, is the original Telegram app's data shown on the file manager?

@Firelord yep it is, but when i open the android/data folder no data is shown

@AndrewT. If i use a non-cloned file manager with special permissions, it can read that folder


text:
Is there a Win10 cloning tool for Android devices?
I am looking for a cloning tool similar to Macrium for Win10, that is capable of cloning Android devices to a runnable virtual machine image.

Theoretically possible but unlikely that you be able (or want) to do this in reality because of the following problems:

Cloning of a device is not possible unless it is rooted (and even then some keys can't be extracted because they are protected in the ARM TrustZone).
Android devices have an ARM CPU, PCs usually an x86 CPU, which means the PC would have to emulate an ARM CPU which is very CPU intensive and thus the emulated Android will be slow even if you use a high-end CPU.
An Android firmware is not universal, it is developed to target one specific hardware (display, touch digitizer, Wifi chip, System-SoC, ,...), so you would need an emulator that emulates exactly your hardware. It is unlikely that you find such an emulator.


text:
Is there a way to access logs from before a factory reset?
I recently had to factory reset my phone due to it crashing to the Android Recovery screen.
It seems that several other users have had the same issue; all in the past week.
Is it possible to view system logs which were recorded prior to a factory reset, after the reset, in order to diagnose what may have caused this?
I suspect it's not as the reset wipes data; but hoping that logs are put to one side somewhere before the reset so that infromation about the root cause can be identified after the device's issues are resolved & it's again accessible.
Related: FairPhone Forum discussion on the underlying issue.

In a regular Android system logs are saved to the user data partition which is completely erased on factory reset. Unless FairPhone has modified Android in a way that certain logs are saved to a separate partition logs the factory reset has wiped everything in a way that makes it impossible to restore.

Logs are not saved to persistent storage unless you do so. Saving the logs to external storage or extracting the log files before performing the factory reset is also up to you. On some devices pstore also has a small buffer for userspace logs but that also needs to be configured.

Thank-you both; much appreciated.

UPDATE
Per the comments thread - this probably isn't a solution to the question I'd asked; rather this is just how to view logs (and it's possible to do without the app by running adb shell logcat (optionally writing to file by appending  > logs.txt (note: the log is a continuous stream, so this won't stop until you stop it or the phone's disconnected) without the need for steps 3 & 7 below (i.e. those which relate to the Logcat Reader app).

I found a solution for the FairPhone 3...

Enable developer mode:

swipe down from top of phone
swipe down from top of phone again
click the ⚙ (i.e. the cog icon) to view the settings menu
click About Phone
tap the build number entry 7 times

Enable USB Debugging:

return to the settings menu
click System
click Advanced
click Developer options
Enable USB debugging

Install LogCat Reader via Google Play

App in Google Play Store

Connect the phone to your computer

use a USB to connect your computer's USB port to your phone's USB C port
swipe down from the top to see your notifications
tap the USB charging options menu
select file transfer

On your computer install Android Debug Bridge (adb)

Documentation
Downloads
Download the appropriate version for your OS
Extract the files from the compressed file

On your computer, connect adb to your phone

Open a command line & navigate to the extracted package tools folder
run adb shell pm grant com.dp.logcatapp android.permission.READ_LOGS

Open the LogCat Reader app on your phone; it should now have access to view your device logs.

Hi John. This doesn't answer the question that you posted. This is an answer to a question which could be titled "How to view Android device logs?". For that this answer would work. Although that third-party app part is not needed there.

@Firelord Ah sorry - this allowed me to find FATAL EXCEPTION: main from a time before I'd performed a factory reset; though there were no other logs there until much later (i.e. until the time at which I'd performed the reset).  It's possible that I'm misremembering timings of events (I'd had to reset many times over the past few days so it's a bit of a blur); but assuming I've remembered correctly, maybe the FP3 stores the most recent fatal exceptions somewhere permanently?  I admit that it's more likely that I'm wrong given everyone's saying this can't be done though.


text:
What is this "hand with three sparkles" button on the sidebar of Motorola, and how do I get rid of it?
I have a Motorola phone running on Android 12. I have no idea what this button is with the hand with three sparkles above it is and I want to get rid of it.

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thank you.

According to OP's own founding on Reddit - Android 12 Moto Gestures floating button problem., this is a "Swipe to split" shortcut accessibility button on Motorola devices,

DaveOJ12's reply,

Try this:
https://reddit.com/comments/tdadwe
Settings
Accessibility
Swipe to split

phKoon (OP)'s reply

Moments after I had posted, I managed to get rid of ir by shutting down the "Moto Actions and Gestures" (that is nowhere to be found except via the expanded windows view), by opening any of the actions menu: https://i.stack.imgur.com/4C4Q1.jpg
But that hint of yours would've been so much simpler, it's spot on.

Outside_Active_7574's reply

Thank you so much; this worked a treat, though I found leaving on "Use Swipe to split" and turning off "Swipe to split shortcut", is what allowed to me to keep Moto Actions but removed the floating logo.
Cheers.


text:
Why would Android display "Security policy prevents use of unsecure networks" message?
When disconnecting a non-rooted stock Samsung Android Nougat (7.0) device from a WPA2 WiFi connection, Android briefly displayed the following message:

Security policy prevents use of unsecure networks.

An internet search found a thread with someone reporting the same issue, but no resolution was provided.
Why would Android (or perhaps something in Samsung's ROM?) be presenting this message?

What is the form of this message? A Toast, a Dialog, a Notification? You can look into the logcat and repeat the steps that leads to that message. Something might show as the caller for that message. Also, what device administrators do you currently have enabled? // There is a suggestion here. See if that helps. https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Chromecast/Security-policy/m-p/201791/highlight/true#M21181

This or this//

//or this


text:
How can an app detect ADB being used (e.g. with HttpToolkits)?
I have an app that stops working (at the login screen) when I have my device connected via ADB using HttpToolkits to get traffic. It seems odd; how does the app know that the phone is being used with ADB?

how does the app know that phone is being used via adb? -- you get that answer by reverse engineering the APK. Alternatively, you can approximate your answer by looking/web searching for the tactics that makes an app be aware of USB debugging being enabled or activated.Your app is probably listening for an intent or parsing notification contents. We can't be sure though. // Also, it is not weird for an app to disable its functionality if it detects itself in an unfavorable environment. It is an annoying thing to do to the user though.

Possibly related (old question, not answered yet): How is USB debugging mode related to root detection?


text:
Partial/restricted access to photos and videos
Many apps such as Facebook and Instagram simply request access to all "photos and videos". Presumably this is so they can show you their own gallery to choose from when posting them online. The risk that these particular apps have access to everything, not just the photos you choose, is probably low (but wouldn't be that surprised if they're scraped for ads).
Ideally, Android could offer a barrier so I could share only the photos I want with each app. E.g. I was hoping I could use a separate app to find the photos I wanted and share them to the Facebook app. Unfortunately when sharing, Android still requests permission for the app to have access to everything. Better yet, Android could offer an API to show a gallery but the app can't read the image contents until the user has chosen it.
Is there a workaround to limit photos and videos access that apps get?

Android photo picker recently introduced with Android 13 addresses this concern.
This feature was initially available in devices with Android 11+, since it is rolled out as a Play Store update. With the November system updates, the good news is that this feature is available all the way back up to Android 4.4. The rollout is slow because:

Apps need to be updated to include this feature ( needs to be compiled against API level 33, corresponding to Android 13).

It needs server-side updates from Google. Few popular apps have been updated and I see this feature on Twitter and Chrome (screenshot below)

A useful summary of Photo Picker:
Excerpts from a blog How Google is backporting Android 13’s Photo Picker

Many apps that need to access photos or videos don’t need persistent access to them or access to other types of files. Your favorite social media app, for example, shouldn’t need to access every single photo or video stored on your device at any time they want. Instead, apps like these should only access photos or videos explicitly chosen by the user, and only when they’re actually going to do something with them (like composing a new tweet).
The app then has temporary, read-only access to those files. When the app’s process ends, it loses access to those files
... users can quickly share media files between apps, and they can do so without having to worry about granting access to their entire photo and video library in the process.
For app developers, meanwhile, the feature reduces friction by removing the need to request any permissions

(Emphasis supplied)


text:
Given a contact in my Google Contact app, how can I see where it is stored? (which Google account? SIM card? phone internal memory? etc.)
Given a contact in my Google Contact app, how can I see where it is stored (which Google account? SIM card? phone internal memory? etc.)
I use a Pixel 6 and Android 12.

AFAIK there isn't a built-in way on Android.  You may like to try this. I haven't used it


text:
Samsung XCover: can't turn SD external memory into internal memory, even with adb
I have a Samsung XCover 4s, android 11, and I can't find a way to turn a part (or even the entire card) of my sd card into internal memory. With ADB I tried to follow this tutorial:
$ sm list-disks adoptable
disk:179,32
$ sm partition disk:179,32 mixed 75 # 75% as external

unfortunately when I restart my external storage is smaller… but my internal memory still has the same size. Any idea what I am missing?

there is second step 'migrate data' required (but is suppressed intentionally on oneui)

@alecxs Uhm interesting… so is there a workaround in oneui? Can I 'migrate data' from adb (I can't find how), or in a different manner?

no, but try "force allow apps on external" in developer options + 'adb shell pm set-install-location 2' this might affect new apps installed in adoptable-storage by default. or try 3rd party app (like Link2SD) which also has option for native App2SD (no root/no 2nd partition required)


text:
Is there any possibility to access pictures on my S10 which always freezes on startup
My S10 always freezes on startup, because of an update. It just doesn’t reach the end of the loading bar. I know I could wipe the data via recovery, but I want the pictures back at least.

Have you tried booting into safe mode?

You can go into safe mode in one of two ways.

Press and hold the Power button until you see the Power Off icon.
Press and hold the Power Off icon until you see the Safe Mode icon.
Press on the Safe Mode icon

OR
I can not verify the 2nd method right now as I don't have an S10, but the above is simpler anyway.

Press and hold the Power button until you see the Samsung Galaxy Logo Screen.
Release the Power button.
While the logo is still visible, press and hold the Volume Down button until you see the Safe Mode indicator.

To exit Safe Mode, press on the Power button and restart the phone.

Well after a lot of research on Friday I can say more about it now.
The phone booted into download mode all the time. The only thing which helped was to install home csc. After that it worked perfectly fine again.
Thanks for all your answers :)


text:
Does Google know my screen lock PIN/password?

Where does Google save my screen lock password as it asks me to verify my Google account by entering it?
That means Google knows my screen lock password.
Where can I find that password in my Google account or from Google?

Your password doesn't leave your device and therefore Google doesn't know that//Android has a key store mechanism to make it impossible for anyone to access it

When does it ask to verify your Google account? Is it on "forgot my password"?

That could be the Google Factory Reset protection. Have you performed a factory reset using recovery menu? Android saves a hashed version of the Google account password to ensure you are the owner of the phone.

@AndrewT. when i try to login to my google/gmail account and i have activated two factor authentication i guess , so in many option "try another way" like it is asking me to verify that's it's my account by otp, or by screen lock password

@beeshyams   how to find that, help me i forgot my screen lock password , and also usb debugging is not enabled on my phone,i want to save my data because it is showing that service center guy will restore it to factory settings and i will loose all my data, and some guys are suggesting like by doing some trick like scratching in some part of motherboard can unlock , help me out is there any way to save my data

@Jimmi I am really sorry but can't think of a way

@AndrewT. how to find that, help me i forgot my screen lock password , and also usb debugging is not enabled on my phone,i want to save my data because it is showing that service center guy will restore it to factory settings and i will loose all my data, and some guys are suggesting like by doing some trick like scratching in some part of motherboard can unlock , help me out is there any way to UNLOCK MY SCREEN and save my data.

no pin, no data recovery, sorry. that is called 'security'

@alecxs  is there no way like ,by using adb command like deleting gesture.key or any other way , some guy told me they can unlock by scratching in some part of motherboard, is that possible, it's like ip or ic scractching

@alecxs   Device - oppo reno 2f.   android version- 9 or 11.  it's an screen lock 6 digit pin

While every app is different, and there is no general way to know for certain what data is being collected/transferred, a common practice is to use a hashed/seeded string of a password (instead of the password itself).
In this way, the password can be entered on your device, password is hashed/seeded, and only the hash is sent to a central server for comparison (the server also should only have the hashed/seeded string stored, and not the actual password).
When the hashed/seeded strings match, access is granted, as this indicates the original password was entered correctly.
This is not without its problems, but they are seldom realized in actuality.

For more information:
https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/704865/Salted-Password-Hashing-Doing-it-Right


text:
Is it possible to have android contacts with only a carddav sync
I use android contacts and have my contacts synced with carddav. at the moment I have a google account in which new contacts seem to go. I try to get away from using google.
Can I drop the google account?
Will new contacts then be stored in the carddav list, which will be synced.
Thanks for help!

You can disable contact sync in Google settings or use a phone without Google account.


text:
Google Chat randomly hyperlinks words like "see", "zoo", "walmart", and "in a" on Samsung Galaxy S22, Android 13
I am using Google Chat from GMail on Samsung Galaxy S22, Android 13. Some words like "see", "zoo", "walmart", and "in a" are linked randomly. When I tap it, I can search for the word(s) or click map which actually doesn't do anything as it's not a place.
I don't see any recently added apps that might be doing this. I have also restarted the phone as well as wiped the cache and data for GMail to attempt to fix it. The only thing I can think of is the update I performed yesterday as I don't remember seeing this happen prior to that.
How to fix it?

Since you tagged this question with [tag:google-hangouts], did you mean that the issue is only on Google Hangouts? Does it do anything when tapped? If it's possible and not sensitive, could you post a screenshot of it? Also, in case it's related, could you also mention the device model?

It is actually only happening in Google Chat. Which isn't an option. I am not sure if that is different than Google Hangouts or not. When I tap it I can search for the word(s) or click map which actually doesn't do anything as its not a place.

It is a Samsung S22 which I have started finding this is a common Samsung issue apparently.

It's been happening on my Note20 as well.  I think I found the setting that controls it, but it's kind of crap for a fix because it disables a lot of other things as well.  To get to the setting, open the Gmail app and go into settings.  Choose the account-specific settings for the account you are using with Chat.  Scroll down about one screen worth and you will see a checkbox option that says:

Smart features and personalization
Gmail, Chat, and Meet may use my email, chat, and video content to personalize my experience and provide smart features. If I opt out, such features will be turned off.

Turning this off will not un-create the random word links it made in the past, but it will stop all future links from appearing.  However, doing so will also disable the smart features in other Google products on your phone, as well as disabling features like Package Tracking, Smart Compose, and Smart Reply.  So unfortunately, it seems that either you live with the janky, buggy link generation that Chat wants to do, or you have to live without some of the other more useful features you'd find in Chat, Gmail, and other Google apps.


text:
Why aren't website shortcuts on home screen available across multiple launchers on Android?
On a Moto (G60) smartphone running Android (12), I have two launchers installed.  The first is the default Motorola app that comes preinstalled, called Moto App Launcher (12), and the second is called Nova Launcher Prime (7).
The problem is when I use Chrome (107) and click "Add to Home screen" in the first launcher, and then set the second launcher as default, and then switch back to the first launcher and click the website shortcut that was added to the home screen, it doesn't work and gives a message saying "Shortcut isn't available".
For instagram.com you can click in Chrome "Install app" which creates a shortcut on the home screen that works in both launchers, but for facebook.com that option is not available, and the shortcut only works in the launcher that it was created in.
Is there a way to create a website shortcut on the home screen that will work across all installed launchers?
Update:
I tried using both Hermit Browser and Kiwi Browser and neither of them worked.
The shortcuts on the home page are grayed out, the same as before when using Chrome.
Except for the Instagram shortcut that was created in Chrome using "Install app".
Is there another way, or maybe an Android app that can install any webpage as an "app" even if the webpage not a Progressive Web App (PWA)?
See picture:

I cannot setup Chrome so I cannot verify my claim, but the issue you're having is likely because of this: the website shortcuts which are accessible from any of your launchers might actually be Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) and as such, appears as Android apps per se. That way, all apps in your Android would be aware of their presence, not just the launcher apps per se. On the other hand, the websites which don't offer PWA for them are added sort of as a bookmark when the user adds them on the screen. Normally, such data is handled only by the launcher set as default at that time..

...and hence other launcher apps wouldn't be able to get that data, let alone share it. I think the actual source of this confusion is actually the browser, because it never tells the user whether the shortcut that is to be created would actually be a PWA or not. Otherwise, you could have identified the problem yourself, or at least have had some information to investigate a bit into it. // If my claim is correct, than you can't solve this problem of yours.

Hi, yes, that makes a lot of sense.  It seems that if a webpage can be installed as an "app" (because it is indeed a PWA), then in Chrome the option will be "Install app" instead of "Add to Home screen".  So that seems like a way to know the difference nowadays.  But yeah, maybe it's just not possible right now.  Guess I'll just install the actual apps for now instead of using simple browser shortcuts across the different launchers.  Of course I can still open a browser and navigate to a bookmark or type in the website address, but where's the convenience of that?  Haha.

Google Chrome allows the "Add to homescreen" option on all webpages for a launcher only if the launcher is (1) A system App and (2) is the default launcher. You can use Kiwi Browser e.g., to create Web Page Homescreen shortcuts for other launchers.

Yes, Chrome was "adding to homescreen" properly for the current system app launcher that was set as default at that moment.  I did update my question about how I tried using the Kiwi Browser to add a shortcut and the shortcut it created still didn't open after switching launchers.  Maybe some day Android will be able to set any webpage as an "app" so that it's available in any launcher, but that would also add them to the app drawer which is not as nice as having simple homescreen shortcuts.


text:
If my LG phone got stuck (as in, did not react to hard reset) in download mode and I had to pull the battery, should I skip attempting to stock flash?
I factory reset my LG k7 phone to help with battery and storage issues, but upon reboot, I found that it was glitching up at the setup screen and says the 'Setup Wizard isn't responding. Would you like to close or wait?" on a black screen.
Due to this, I had planned to go ahead and stock flash it, as I was recommended to do. Before proceeding with this, I decided to test out putting my phone in the required download mode.
But when I tried disconnect it, which, for my phone model, means giving it a forced reset, it didn't respond no matter how long i held the buttons, which left me to assume it was frozen.
I then pulled the battery.
So my question is: should I take this reaction to being put in download mode as a bad sign and skip the stock flash? If the phone were to freeze up like this during the flashing, it would cause an interruption and a likely bricking. What should I do?


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Where should I put my Xiaomi backup file in order for it to be visible to the restore system?
My phone is MIUI Global 12.0.8, Android version 10 (QP1A.190711.020). I did a BAK file of some apps which I created using the backup mechanism of my phone directly.
I access the backup and restore functions with
"About phone --> Back up and restore --> Mobile device ---> Back up / Restore.
I put it inside any backup folders I saw on my phone. But when I come to the "restore" function, it says "No backups here yet".
Where should I put the BAK file in order for that stuff to work?

The folder is
Redmi Note 9\Internal shared storage\MIUI\backup\AllBackup
The important point that I was missing is that the whole backup folder, say "16062022_172724" which contains all the BAK files should be put there, otherwise this will not work.


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Strange message after wiping data/factory resetting on Pixel 6 device
Last night, I flashed my Pixel 6 phone because I want to move to Pixel 7. After flashing, I turned on the phone for a while, and then I used the Recovery >Wipe data/factory reset option. Unfortunately, after finishing, a strange message appeared.
-- Wiping data --
E: Open failed: /metadata/ota: No such file or directory
Formatting /data...
Formatting /metadata...
Wiping Titan M...
Wiping keys...
E:gto_esehal SecureElement:t1_recv_window_append free = 261

E:gto_esehal SecureElement:t1_recv_window_append free = 261

E:gto_esehal SecureElement:t1_recv_window_append free = 261

E:gto_esehal SecureElement:t1_recv_window_append free = 261

Data wipe complete

Is it something serious? Can I sell the phone in this condition or should I return it for a warranty? Isn't this some sort of security flaw? Other than that, everything works fine.

Which part of the posted message do you think is strange? Titan is the Google security chip.

On a tangent - I hope you signed out of your Google account before factory reset, else there would be factory-reset-protection kicking in//On the main question, besides what @Robert said, there is no error reported, so it's fine AFAIK


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Cannot delete a WhatsApp contact
Firstly, I tried to delete the contact in WhatsApp. It lagged a bit and it didn't ask me a prompt to delete the contact. (It's only for that specific contact, the rest works fine.) Then, I went to my contacts app and delete it there but the same thing, it won't delete at all.
What am I doing wrong?

Delete cache of Whatsapp, may help

If you've also got Signal installed, it's the most probable cause for those persistent shadow contacts in WhatsApp. See: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/214769/391775


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Cannot set up Android tablet with Family Link
I bought 2 HUAWEI Mediapad M5 Lite (Android 8) devices for my children, one year apart (both the children ages, and the purchases of the devices). I managed to set up my son's device first with Family Link so that I can control it from my Android 11 phone and other Android devices that I use. However, I cannot get the 2nd one to be "seen" by Family Link. I don't remember exactly how I set them up, doing it one year apart, but I can see that they're both linked to different e-mail addresses that I created for my kids and even the one that cannot be recognized has parental controls enabled (with a warning to "Get more controls" with the Google Family Link app). When I go to the Family Link app and try to add a device for my daughter, I get a message to go to the kid's device ➡ settings ➡ account ➡ parental controls and there I don't see anything else I can do to add the device.
So, other than resetting the device and trying to add the account from scratch, is there anything else I can do?


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How can I set my android x86 UEFI installation resolution to 1920*1080 in my VM?
How can I set my android x86 resolution to 1920*1080 in my VM?
I tried this:Can't change screen resolution of Android-x86_64 installed in UEFI mode
but it didn't work.
BTW I have a UEFI installation
Thank You in advance.

I solved it!
These sources helped me:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60576471/how-to-set-a-custom-resolution-on-android-x86-in-vmware-player

https://groups.google.com/g/android-x86/c/2u1zrTkCiU8?pli=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTeb7_YaujA

Boot into (DEBUG mode) from the grub menu on boot.
Press enter after the boot completes(the screen stops producing text outputs)
Mount your efi partition by running this command:

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

(sdax, here x may vary for you, but for me, it was 1)

Change directory to /mnt/efi/boot:

cd /mnt/efi/boot

Edit android.cfg, as shown in the picture below

vi android.cfg

Inside Vi Editor

i. Press 'i' to enter edit mode
ii. Press 'Esc', type ':w', and press 'Enter' to save.
iii. Press 'Esc', type ':x', and press 'Enter' to exit.

Now reboot

reboot -f

That's it, you have Android x86 in your system's native resolution!


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How can I configure my Pixel 6 to start video recording at a given time?
How can I configure my Pixel 6 to start video recording at a given time? (e.g., video record from 6 am while I am asleep)


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Reboot Loop after logging from the block screen, Redmi Note 11
I have a problem but since I'm not an expert I need your help. I don't know if this is the right place but I'll try to reach for help anyway.
It's been 3 days since this smartphone (not mine) started behaving like this. I power it up, I type the PIN and after 15/20 seconds a little spinner starts rotating with a black screen in his back, shutting down the phone in 5 seconds (if I don't login with the PIN it doesn't shut down!! is this an indication that the problem is on the software side??). When I power it up, it goes in to the "main menu" where I got 4 options: reboot, wipe data, safe mode and MIassistence.
I would like to find a way to solve this issue without wiping the data.
What I tried:

Deleting trash apps from the home page (my mom's fault, didn't know she played 20 games)
Using the cleaner ( I got time to clean, but this didn't solve)
Set the smartphone to developer mode -> set the usb connection type to: file transfer->
wait for the reboot, plug the usb in pc, wait in blockscreen, wait... wait... Nope I got to type the PIN in order to access data! So I have to type it and the smartphone shuts down leaving me another time. When I go back I'm not able to access data because I have to login...
Tried to log, put the smartphone on stand by, wait... it shuts down!
Tried to update (now it's android 13.0.10, it says stable but there are available updates..) but obviously I got no time.
Tried to go in Safe Mode, there is no "safe mode" label at the bottom-left and it feels the same as "normal mode"...
Tried to massage the screen, front and behind (idk if the video suggesting this was a troll, I tried but probably he doesn't care about massages.)
Tried to spam power button
Tried to smash it on the ground, it works now! Thankk you guys for the attention :)
No just kidding it does not work (and I did not smash it on the ground)
Tried to find running processes, I was not able to find those.
Tried to do a "security scan".. it gets to 6% and the smartphone shuts down (there is a payment environment issue anyway, and a green tick on the privacy & security, a spinner loading for the virus check, which I'll never be able to check since Redmi NOTE 11 shuts down!!!!).

I've also tried all of this without the sim card on, nothing changed.
I read this could be a firmware issue, but I'm not this much into android stuff, and I feel overwhelmed by all of these things.
Questions:

Anything else to try in this basic level
What could be the problem? (I'll try to look by myself but I don't have ideas on what to look for atm... I would like to know if having a way to update the firmware from pc would solve this.)
Is there a way to access data even though I'm not logged in?

Sorry for the ignorance on the topic, hope this doesn't resembles other questions on this forum, hope I'll get help, thank you for your time.


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Enabling NFC on vivo V2205
So, vivo Y35 (V2205) has an NFC hardware inside.

but apps (and settings) ways that 'NFC is not supported'
[
[
I am looking for a way to enable NFC (preferably without root, but rooting is fine)

Specs:

vivo V2205
Android 12 (1 October 2022 update)
PD2225KF_EX_A_12.0.8.7.W20

GMSArena reports that your device doesn't have NFC. Vivo's page for your device also doesn't list NFC. See https://www.vivo.com/in/products/param/Y35

Seems like the used SoC supports NFC but the NFC antenna and other auxiliary hardware wasn't included in your phone model.


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McDonald's app showing "Your device did not pass our security check ..."
A client came to fix his phone because it is receiving this message when he opens the recently installed "McDonald's" app:

Your device did not pass our security check. Please check that you run a Google trusted OS version, that the device is not rooted and that you have no harmful apps installed

Curiously the phone is not rooted, and is also a modern and updated Samsung phone.
What could be the issue? solutions?

Most likely the app has used Google SafetyNet check. There are apps in PlayStore which also use this test and show the detailed result.

Known issue: Reddit - McDonalds app not working, HardwareZone - Redmi Note 9, HardwareZone - Huawei Mate 30 Series, Zwame - Xiaomi Mi 9T / 9T Pro (Redmi K20 / K20 Pro) (Portuguese), App complaints (Turkish)

Try to run a safety net test on the device. Check if  they have a custom recovery, or if the bootloader is unlocked. If it is Samsung, check if Knox is triggered. How do you know it is not rooted? In what way did you check?

Also, what device is it? If it is Samsung, check if Knox is triggered.

How do you know it is not rooted? In what way did you check?

You should integrate your comments into your answer.


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Can you install Google Play Store with adb after it was uninstalled?
I have a non-rooted Samsung phone that runs android version 9 as shown in the image below.

Some time ago I uninstalled Google Play Store from my phone because I thought that I could reinstall it if needed. I used the following command:
adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.android.vending
Now I want to install Google Play Store again. I downloaded an apk file for Google Play Store from apkmirror which can be found here. I tried to install Google Play Store again by issuing the adb install command with the name of the downloaded apk file:
adb -s 5200088af0785579 install com.android.vending_33.1.16-19_0_PR_487270566-83311600_minAPI19_maxAPI24\(armeabi-v7a\,x86\,x86_64\)\(nodpi\)_apkmirror.com.apk.
When the command is executed I get the message that the streamed install was successful as shown in the image below. After I searched my phone for Google Play Store, I couldn't find it anywhere, including my Google folder and Apps list. I also looked at disabled apps. If I try to uninstall the apk version of Google Play Store with adb uninstall com.android.vending I get the message that the uninstall was successful, indicating that it was indeed installed on my phone. I just don't know how to access it. Issuing the uninstall command again gives an error as shown in the image below.

Is it even possible to install Google Play Store after uninstalling it? Am I using the correct apk file? Are there some additional steps I should take to make it work? Or is there an alternative method I could use to reinstall it?

Duplicate of https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/215313/how-to-reinstall-an-accidentally-uninstalled-app-through-adb The PlayStore app package name is com.android.vending.

I managed to install it in the end. You must specify the user for which you are installing it with --user USER_ID. The USER_ID for the main/primary user is 0. After adding this argument to the installation command, Play Store was successfully installed and accessible on my phone.
adb -s 5200088af0785579 install --user 0 com.android.vending_33.1.16-19_0_PR_487270566-83311600_minAPI19_maxAPI24\(armeabi-v7a\,x86\,x86_64\)\(nodpi\)_apkmirror.com.apk
EDIT:
Although I managed to install it with the command shown above, Google Play Store keeps crashing.
@Robert The solution proposed in the question you linked actually works. Just for clarity, here is the full command that solved my problem.
adb shell cmd package install-existing com.android.vending

A bummer that this question was closed, but for future readers: Make sure to install gsf too, or it will crash. In total, there are three essential apps to make the Google Play Store work: com.google.android.gsf, com.google.android.gms and com.android.vending. Install them by typing adb shell and then: pm install-existing packagename (repeat that last part replacing packagename with the name of the three mentioned apps above). After that, restart your phone for good measure.


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Will "Apply update from SD card" delete my data?
Will I lose my data when using Recovery's Apply update from SD card option? And, if so, will I lose data on the phone, on the memory card or everywhere else?

Phone: Samsung SM-A107F/DS (Galaxy A10s)
System: Android 11, One UI Core 3.1
Bootloader version: U8
Recovery: stock
Root: NO

there is no factory reset on Apply update from SD card, 90% sure you won't lose data. however, some weird situation may occur where update is too new and encryption has changed to unsupported conversion (must not happen, but random people claimed)

And in rare cases after applying an update the device is no longer able to fully boot (e.g. boot-loop). In such a case your data is still present but the only way to "recover" the device is by performing a factory reset.


text:
How to control the phone with on screen touchpad?
In Windows 10 and above there is an option like in the below screenshot to control the current device using a virtual touchpad. I'm looking for something similar in Android. To be more precise I'm not looking for an App to control another device but to control the current device.

Use Case
I have Galaxy Tab S7 which has fairly a large screen almost comparable to an office laptop. I often use Evernote, but there is no option to resize images in its native Android App. On the other hand web version of Evernote has the option to resize images, and also the web version works perfectly fine in Chrome for Android. But the issue is that the image can be resized only using a mouse click event, even the official keyboard cover of the Tab sends only a touch event instead mouse click event.

I am confused by what you want to accomplish with having a visual touchpad on an Android phone, blocking parts of the screen, controlling that same Android phone. Please edit your post with a use case as to how the user would interact/achieve certain tasks.

Related/possible dupe: Virtual track pad to control mouse pointer in Android

@MorrisonChang added a use case.


text:
OEM Vulkan support on Itel A48 (L6006s) unavailable despite Android's and Arm's specification
I have Itel A48 (L6006s). I've confirmed that it has a Mali-T820 GPU, which supports OpenGL®ES 1.1, 2.0, 3.1, 3.2, Vulkan 1.0, OpenCL™ 1.1, 1.2 Full Profile, RenderScript™.

However, as I was coding a Vulkan app, putting a call to vkEnumeratePhysicalDevices(instance, &deviceCount, nullptr) informs me that no devices are available. vulkaninfo on Termux gives "ERROR at vector".
Does Itel A48 (L6006s) support Vulkan?

Perhaps worth noting that this device runs on the watered-down version Android Go edition, thus some heavy usage features such as graphical computation might be disabled.

I've tried to find out whether vulkan is not available on the android 10 go edition, found no information, however, the device has an aarch64 capable CPU but is restricted to the armv7-a instruction set, so I guess the vulkan unavailability might simply be another restriction the AOSP or OEM doesn't just think is worth mentioning.


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Cannot log out of Gmail
On an Android phone I had to log in to my Gmail account to update an app via the "Play Store".
I noticed (to my extreme annoyance) all my emails appearing as notifications on the phone's front screen.
Once I was done, I logged out of the account, via Settings > Users & accounts > Remove account.
The notifications of my emails did not disappear, but I then cleared them manually. As a precaution, I checked the Gmail app, and it appears to have downloaded a total copy of my entire email history into some kind of cache.
On my computer, I removed forcibly signed the phone out, but this had no effect.
The Google help page "Sign out of Gmail" says:

The only way to sign out of the Gmail app is to remove your entire account from your phone or tablet.

That is what I did.
I assumed there must be a glitch. I guess Google never tested this properly, because, they figure, who would want to log out from us?
So I logged into the account again. This time, to sign out, I went via the Gmail app itself.
This successfully cleared it, and when I went back into the Gmail app, it showed no emails and asked me to set up an account. Thank goodness.
Still paranoid, I switched the phone off and on again. The Gmail app now shows everything again. The phone is not logged in, it is disconnected from wi-fi, checking on a computer shows the phone has been signed out.
The Gmail app shows every message I ever sent or received, without any password. This is a shared phone. It gives no option to sign out, because the accounts page says I have no account signed in.
What do I do?

Possible duplicate: How can I remove my emails from the Gmail app?

I believe I've worked around the problem:
Settings > Storage -> Other Apps -> Gmail
Click "Clear Cache" and "Clear Data".
The storage usage amount reassuringly decreased, and the app no longer shows my emails.
As a precaution, I did this for every other stock app on the phone also, some of which also appeared to have a large amount of saved "user data", despite the phone only ever being purchased and used for 1 banking app.
As an additional paranoid step, I then created and logged into a blank throwaway account, logged out of it and deleted all the data again.

Boann's answer should help, but I prefer to even disable the application. When you uninstall GMail application updates (that can be found in the same screen from which you uninstall it, on some Android versions as a button, on other in a menu), you can disable the application (the button should appear where the uninstall button is for uninstallable apps). Unless you enable the application again, there will be no GMail application available for use on your device.
Beware of that the Play Store can enable applications. I recommend disabling Play store app too, unless you are going to use it in near future.


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Android Calendar - event snooze poor functionality - any settings?
I have been struggling with Android Calendar event reminders for quite some time, leading to missing events and reminders.
The snooze function is very poor. If you miss the event (don't press snooze or dismiss), it doesn't remind again, just stays in the "notifications" but no new sound etc. at any point. Even if you snooze it, often the event does not appear again, or it appears only once.
The problem is, when the event appears, it goes away quickly, if you don't notice it, there is no other reminder coming automatically.
I have found 0 settings (Samsung S8 phone) to change the behaviour. I recall the functionality was much better on Windows Phones, and hell, even in old Nokia phones with Symbian.
I use the calendar a lot, but to be honest it makes me miss many reminders, noticing those late - not very useful.
Is there really any settings for these?
Are those any better in newer smartphone models or same **it in different package?

As a first step I would disable battery-optimization for the calendar app.


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how do I make bixby have a default command, for e.g. take screenshot
How do I have a default bixby take screenshot command.  Android 12/13


text:
How to enter download mode on T-Mobile's Samsung Galaxy S20 FE?
Whenever I try accessing download mode on Samsung Galaxy S20 FE, I click on reboot to bootloader but it takes me to a bootloader menu, where I get options like recovery mode, start, boot to FFBM, etc... yet, all of these options lead me into the main recovery mode menu.
The phone is locked by T-Mobile and I think it may have something to do with it, I'm trying to flash the modem to unlock the phone.
Any advice on how to get it unlocked?


text:
Which filesystem should I use on my SD Card?
I have a 1 TB SD Card in a Fairphone 3 running the latest Lineage.
Recently I had issues with random reboots and now found out that my SD Card is formatted with FAT32, which might cause troubles on such a disk size.
I tested a bit, and unlike lots of info on the internet, both exFAT and ext4 seem to be recognised just fine. And there is also F2FS which is touted as a good choice.
So, which FS should I use? I use Linux everywhere so desktop OS compatibility is not a problem.

Does this answer your question? Best file system for an external SD card

unfortunately not, as it is quite dated


text:
How do I delete the default images when I plug my USB thumb drive into my FireTV?
I have a Kingston USB thumb drive and every time I plug it into my FireTV there is like 100 images that show up that I don't know what file folder or where they are. How do I get rid of them? I tried deleting the "Android" and "LOST.DIR" files and making a new file with those names to block them. I just want my images and ONLY my images to show up when I plug my external storage devices into my TV. Can someone help me?

Those look like from a user guide. image029.jpg mentioned something about an account, but it's too blurry. What is mentioned on it?

yeah, the pictures are blurry even when I click on them. I have no idea what they say or what they are for, and more importantly where they are from? I just want to get rid of them. When I plug the same USB thumb drive into my computer. I cant find the pictures. I cant find a user guide, nothing but when I plug it into my Firetv my pictures are all mixed in with all this junk.

I think there's a possibility that the images are actually on the internal storage of Fire TV and the file manager is not only showing the content from a USB thumb drive but also the whole storage. Perhaps it might be possible to see the property of the image file to check the location, but I don't know how this file manager app works.

I pressed menu on one of the pictures and the only options I get is sort or play/pause slideshow. I looked around the TVs settings and dont see any way to access any internet storage. When I unplug the USB from the TV and check the Media input nothing shows up. So im confused...are these pictures on the TV or the USB.

NOW IM REALLY CONFUSED. I am not very tech savy which is part of why I joined this site. I would like to learn and get with the times. I formatted the thumb drive which, correct me if im wrong, restores the USB back to factory defaults and erases everything? After doing that, I plugged the USB back into the TV and those files are gone. So problem solved....mystery not solved....IDK


text:
/sys/class/net on Android 12
Recently, I bought a new phone with Android 12. This command worked on Android 10 (just Termux, no ADB, no root):
cat /sys/class/net/wlan0/statistics/rx_bytes

but failed on Android 12.
Any work arounds without root? Only shell commands are accepted, not Java/Kotlin and such.

Apps cannot access /sys/class/net/. It's restricted by SELiux policy.

So, you mean it is impossible (without root) and no workarounds?

To my knowledge, yes. Not even ADB shell can read sysfs. There are Android APIs you may use to get network stats.

What Android APIs can I use? Best if it is not battery consuming and it must be ran through the command line.

See NetworkStatsManager.


text:
Transfering WhatsApp Data Between Two Phones
I recently had a problem while transferring my WhatsApp. I had lost access to my primary phone (Samsung Galaxy A71) for a while and had to use a secondary phone(Huawei P20). During that time I installed WhatsApp on my secondary phone but I did not use the Google Drive backup to restore the chats and instead started to use it as is. Now that I have gotten my primary phone back I was wondering how do I merge my WhatsApp data between the two phones on my primary phone because it already has the most data and the local storage and secondly I have to return the secondary phone as soon as possible.

According to Google, there is some 3rd party software which will merge 2 WhatsApp backups. You will have to generate a backup file of both your installations.
Here is an extensive XDA forum post about it. This Reddit thread proposes software which does it for you. I don't know the software though so be careful with your chat history.

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:
WhatsApp "something when wrong with your chat history" and msgstore.db got automatically deleted
I have this problem since updated my Whatsapp to latest version where at random time it will crash and display a notification saying:

It happens so many times throughout the day.
I have a rooted phone. And when that happens I can see that my msgstore.db from /data/data/com.whatsapp/databases is completely gone others like wa.db,etc are left untouched.
I have backed up my msgstore.db somewhere in my phone and I can just copy that to the /data/data/com.whatsapp/databases no problem, but sure enough sometime in the day same error pop up and my msgstore.db got wiped.
The easiest way to trigger this error by simply back up my chat in the settings and enable google drive upload, when the local backup complete and the backup showing "preparing google drive backup..." The Whatsapp just simply crash.
I have tried reinstalling whatsapp and setting the chown like in Restore Whatsapp but that doesn't work. I even tried setting SELinux to permissive and have no luck.
Here's the logcat just in case: https://pastebin.pl/view/b8fe76fb
Owh ya, I forgot to mention that my msgstore.db is sized 3.58gb :)
Any help will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Have you been able to restore your messages? I have the same problem. Trying to restore old msgstore.db.crypt14 databases is stuck at 44% for a long time but eventually fails. In the log it's saying that the database disk image is malformed

@TheLostOne Short answer: No. I tried everything I could, and it seems that there's a problem with the database and how new version whatsapp handle the error. I just gave up and start fresh since there's nothing I can do. I did store the old msgstore.db and old version of whatsapp so I can view it offline if I ever need it. Still hoping that someone could find the solution, but until then, I don't think there's an easy solution


text:
Can 2 apps access camera at the same time, especially in a rooted Android phone?
My phone is a Samsung Galaxy Note. When one app is using a camera in the background, is it possible to use another camera app at the same time? Some people say it depends on how the applications are coded.
Also, the app “Sound Assistant” makes 2 music apps using a speaker at the same time. And there are apps that use front and back cameras simultaneously. Does it mean that access to the camera by 2 apps at the same time can be possible?
I want to know if the phone is rooted or if an app has root permission, there would be a change in the answer. I wonder if I use custom ROM or kernel, this can be possible. Btw, I am talking about Android version 5.0-6.0 which was released in 2015-2016.

Cross-posted from Stack Overflow with additional context: https://stackoverflow.com/q/74419327/2821954

I am sorry i “ll delete it. Btw do you have an answer in this question? Thanks

There are a number of questions here and I'll start for the non-root/stock ROM:
Q1: Can app A use the camera at the same time as app B?
A1: No.
From https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/media/camera.html#release-camera

Caution: If your application does not properly release the camera, all subsequent attempts to access the camera, including those by your own application, will fail and may cause your or other applications to be shut down.

Q2: What about apps that use the front and back camera at the same time.
A2: Older devices were hardware/software limited regarding being able to use both at the same time. Device variation made supporting camera difficult. Developers had to check if both were able to be used and the original Camera API was being replaced by the newer Camera2 API. While API improvements have been made, Cameras have always had manufacturer/device specific "cool features" only enabled for manufacturer camera apps and unavailable to third-party app developers both then and now. Android 5.0 was when the newer Camera2 APIs were introduced but that didn't mean all features from the older Camera APIs were supported.
Q3: What about mixing audio from two different apps?
A3: The general concept is called "audio ducking" or "audio focus" and is allowed on Android. I don't know if the app you are referring to is doing more perhaps with legacy Samsung SDK APIs.
Q4: Okay does anything change with root?
Root just gives superuser access to all apps and allows for a level of customization. Unless the ROM is modified the Android framework APIs are still the same. You can see that the low level Camera framework is quite involved and I doubt just having root will allow for multiple apps using the camera at the same time. Realize that Custom ROM builders have to spend time probing the stock ROM to enable standard framework features for upgrading Android OS versions. Any access to "hidden APIs" would be bonus.

Thank you morrison. I appreciate. In Q2, there were galaxy s4 (maybe note4)that had a double shot feature which allowed to use front and back camera at the same time . And their version was lower than android 5.0 i guess. is it just an exception?
And Q4, you think rooting phone cannot make make multiple apps use camera at sametime. But in custom ROM , it could be possible anyway..? Sorry my english is bad so hard to understand precisely.  thanks for reply again

Regarding the S4, probably regarding the 'double shot'. Flagship/high end phones generally get more features. Honestly to get the feature of 2 camera apps at the same time you are breaking intentional design of Android (in the past that camera app took up a lot of processing power and now generally to prevent spy apps), so while I won't say it is impossible, unlikely unless working closely with hardware manufacturer.

Thanks . so you mean the feature “2apps using camera at sametime” can be possible through rooting or custom ROM but seems quite difficult to be performed - did i understand right?

"2 apps using cameras at same time", not possible just with root, maybe possible if you are a Samsung firmware engineer. Note that any Custom ROM you find in XDA or elsewhere isn't written by anyone working for Samsung. So realistically not possible.

Oh i understand now thanks alot:) so root cannot make this possible and Even if developers create custom ROMs , this is an untouchable part and only Samsung developers can modify it- did i understand correctly? But isnt it related to android developers? Not samsung developers. Cus samsung use android to their phones and this is related to android framework

As far as i know custom ROM is related to OS and it doesnt have to necesserily created from stock ROM . so isnt it nothing to do with samsung..?  Sorry my english agian thank youz

Samsung takes open source Android OS and make it work on their hardware. Android OS has no defined way to make 2 apps access camera so anyone who want it has to do it themselves. Camera usually involves low level drivers which is very hardware specific so getting that wrong means the camera doesn't work and possibly the phone doesn't work. Good luck with researching more if you are still curious.

Oh you mean android in samsung doesnt allows this feature so rooting and custom ROM can not modify this and only way to make it possible is modification by samsung developer? I thought the links you send me was about android itself so i was thinking android made a limitation on this feature so custom ROM developers can change this regardless of samsung. So sorry to bother you by asking again thank you

sorry to ask you again.. but i heard kernel participates in hardware drivers like camera bluetooth etc. and kernel can be modified by developers too. Even if developers work on linux kernel, “2app using camera at the sametime “feature seems almost impossible? I heard there are many source that are not based on android like ubuntu touch and kali linux , do they also dont allow access to camera by 2apps??
If it's a routed phone, you can delete the basic camera application on the phone. Before i install this again, Can i rebuild this to allow 2apps to use cam simultaneously?


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Can `rm -rf` reset rooting phone’s system partition?
As far as I know, a factory reset cannot make the phone unrooted. Then what about system partition?
In rooted Android, apps can have root permission so they can do everything. I want to know if an app performs a factory reset by the command rm -rf, will it reset everything including the system partition? Because in a rooted phone, we can change system partitions like controlling the battery and making the click sound disappear when taking photos, etc. I want to know whether factory reset and rm -rf can wipe the modified system partition too.
Btw, if I use custom ROM before performing the system partition, will the modified system partition be reset?

By default the system partition (even of a custom ROM) is read-only, so you would have to remount it writable. With root permissions an app could do so and also delete files and folders on a system partition. But I would not call that "reset", more "eliminate" because if you delete everything on the system partition afterwards there is no os to boot anymore.


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Bug in chrome app with notification slider, starts search on page
So I have this bug, I already reported it to OnePlus but didn't get any feedback.
I have a OnePlus 8T, which has a physical notification slider above the lock button on the side of the phone. This slider will put the phone in silent, vibrate, or sound-on mode. The bug is that whenever I do this when I'm in the google chrome app, it will start a search on page.
Is this a bug that people know about? Is it a feature? Any ideas what it could be?
I provided a screenshot below to show what I mean. Sorry for the dutch, but as you can see it started a "search on page" when on the right you see that it also switched to vibration mode

This appears that Chrome tries to overlay a Search operation via a hardware operation, and then pass the control to the hardware layer for its proper operation, too. Search the Chrome options for shortcuts, gestures, something like that, to switch it off if possible.

According to the Oneplus community post, looks like it's possible to customize the alert slider: "There’s also ways to customize it teeny bit as well. From the settings menu go to (Buttons & Gestures) then tap on (Alert slider) You can adjust each of the 3 triggers there are a few options you can toggle on and off. One thing that persists however through all 3 settings is the alarm." Could you try checking it?