text:
What does it mean when Google Maps says "moving"?
I left work like it says , drove to my friends which you can see , but it says I was moving from 8.23 am -2.30 am but that I didn't leave. I don't think I accidentally turned it off when I left that morning. So what does it mean to say moving.

Screenshots (click images for larger variants)

From the last point (Harding's) to your current point, it assumes that you were moving, probably because of changes in distance or because of movement.


text:
How to troubleshoot/debug slow phone that burns battery?
My phone is a Samsung Galaxy S5 mini, so it's getting old by industry standards. Until a few months ago, it was doing fine, but recently the battery life and response time have drastically degraded. Even with every optimisation I know of, I am now lucky if the battery lasts a day (~16h). 8h is more typical. The phone sometimes hangs for long enough for the screen lock to activate (2 minutes). When the hanging is particularly bad, I have noticed that the phone feels warm.
I have seen messages saying that two apps (Facebook messenger and DJI pilot) have caused ~17 errors each in the past week, so I should optimize power settings. Activating "save power" hasn't helped.
The standard battery indicator says that 20-25% is used by the screen , 15-20% by the Android System, and 10-15% by Android OS. I tried to get more information on the battery by installing "Repair Battery Life". This app claimed to repair 5 "low" cells. But it seemed far too easy. I'm sceptical whether an app can repair battery cells.
I can think of some things that have changed in the last few months, but I wouldn't expect them to have made such a big difference. I have installed some new apps, but none use more than 3% of battery. I assume this means that they're not consuming enough CPU to hang the phone either. One of the new apps is perhaps more of a suspect than the others: Netguard. I would expect that less network traffic would save battery, but I could be mistaken if apps are very aggressive about retrying the connection. Finally, I have moved house, and the reception (wifi & whatever you call the normal network) might be worse, but not noticeably.
What else can I try to get more information on the problem(s)?
Update: I noticed two new symptoms.
1) the phone only seems to hang when I am out of wifi range.
2) looking closer at the battery menu under Settings, there seems to be significant battery usage at times where the phone is "awake" but the screen is off. Does this mean that some app is constantly waking the CPU?
Update2: today I had the screen on for 2 hours straight, which took my battery from ~75% to 15%. Clearly, a lot of this was for the screen, so I was surprised to see that in the battery stats, it says that the screen used 15% of the battery, while "android system" used much more: 19% and 5 hours of CPU time. "Android OS" also has a significant contribution with 8%. Is there any way to narrow down why the Android components are so active?

Most apps that claim that they can regain your battery life do more harm than anything. Get rid of that "repair battery life" app. Then, get rid of facebook app / messenger to see how much battery you gain. If you want, you can visit facebook via chrome and save it on your homescreen as a chrome shortcut. FB on chrome supports push notification I've read. So you still would be updated on that front. As a baseline, remove all apps that you've not used in a couple of weeks or so. Then test to see if it makes a sizable difference.

Push notifications via chrome is a good idea. I haven't had the main fb app for ages because it was a battery drain (and because the notifications were annoying). I will see how things go without FB messenger.

For further hints, our battery-life tag-wiki is a good starting point, too. You also can check my list of battery helpers to see if one of them can pin down the culprit (I personally often use BetterBatteryServer for that, but GSam should be a good choice as well).

How much time since the last cache and Dalvik wipe, OP?

@DeathMaskSalesman I hadn't heard of dalvik before. It looks like I'd need to root my phone in order to clear that cache? Is the other cache you mention for each app individually? I haven't cleared that in a long time.

@craq In my opinion, it would be best to purge the cache and the Dalvik cache once in a while. This is doable from a custom recovery such as TWRP, but flashing one will void your warranty. Then again, with such a recovery, you could back up your whole app data and try a factory reset, to see if the issues disappear, and always being able to restore your data if not.

@DeathMaskSalesman It sounds like clearing the dalvik cache will be more work than I'm willing to put into solving this. Can you please clarify what the other cache is that you refer to?

@craq The other cache is the /cache partition, and it indeed is the space allowed to apps to cache data. For completeness, the Dalvik cache is a set  of machine code precomputed by Android for each app, in order to speed up their execution.

Running Facebook in chrome wasn't giving me notifications, and wouldn't even show me messages. Instead, it linked to the play store to reinstall messenger. I found "messenger lite" instead. While I much prefer the reduced feature set, and it seems to have helped my battery life a little, the main problem is still there.

I deleted the cache for most apps through the Application Manager. In this case it didn't help.

Educated guess is you have apps that are running in the background and eating up your battery. Samsung power manager app/thing is not great (at least on my sgs7 it isn't), but it's pointing you on possible culprits. Easiest way to debug is uninstall the apps and see if device acts any differently (give it a few days or a week to see). Or another way is factory reset start from new and see how it goes from "stock" and add apps slowly and see. Or it could just be the battery is aging and simply can't hold a charge like it used to. There isn't a silver bullet way of trouble shoot battery life unfortunately.

I've seen some nice tools that monitor battery health for electric vehicles, and hoped there might be something similar for phones. If not, then I'll have to assume the battery is OK (can't do much about it if it's not), and use trial & error to track down which app is at fault.

It turns out that as bad as the power manager app is, it seems to be the best available. I uninstalled the apps from facebook and DJI a week ago, and the problem seems to have gone away. If it returns, I'll report back.

Unlike the iPhone and Galaxy S6 and newer phones the S5 mini has a replaceable battery. Batteries get old. Get a new one. Not terribly expensive on Amazon.
Personally the G5 was the last Samsung phone I owned. I wanted to go from a G4 to G6 except Samsung stopped the replaceable battery with the G6. G5 was OK for a year or two but then I wanted to upgrade so went to the LG V20. I do a lot of subway riding and watch movies so go through 2 batteries every day. I love the LG with it's fingerprint unlock too.
I can only imagine Samsung followed the iPhone with non-replaceable batteries as a designed-obsolescence which I think is a dirty trick to play on consumers and a greedy business strategy.

It's not my downvote, but I imagine it's because most of the answer doesn't address the question. While the problem could be the battery, I'm starting to think that 1) the onset was too fast, and that battery degradation tends to happen slowly. 2) that wouldn't explain the performance issues. You did give me an idea though: I can try swapping the battery and see if the problem persists.

Correct.  My experience with bad batteries is that they bulge out a little but it's not too noticeable until next to a new battery. Bad battery should be the fist thing to rule out fast discharge.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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google map problem today
Where are the other options? I cannot see them on Google Maps. I used to be able to see a "route options" or "avoid tolls" button but now seems to have disappeared this morning.

Screenshot (click image to enlarge)

Could it be because you've chosen cycling as an option? Do you see the same effect when you choose driving / public transport?

I think this not an Google Map Issue. This is Expected Scenario.
If in your current Selected Route any tolls are there then only it will show those options, In your current routes ferries are there. So, you are getting that in your route options.

I believe that this is because you have the cycling option chosen.  When I start a bike route, I only have the option to avoid ferries.  When I switch it back to a driving route, the options that you are expecting to see return for me.

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


text:
LG G3 (d852), no OS, not loading into TWRP
So I have been having troubles with my ROMs, and I decided to format everything to clean it up and do a fresh install. PC wasn't copying rom zip to the device, so I tried to use ADB Sideload and push the zip through that. Something happened on the Device's side, and I cancelled it, but it wasn't going back or finishing. I took a risk and pulled the battery, but now the phone boots up into the LG Logo boot screen, but does nothing from there. I am unable to boot into recovery from there, as if the buttons don't work. PC doesn't connect to the device, so I am unable to boot into recovery via ADB. Does anyone have suggestions or is the device completely bricked?
edit: phone's LEDs starts cycling colours after a few minutes, and device manager detects something, refreshes, but nothing comes up. I'm assuming these LEDs mean that the phone is trying to boot, but can't boot into anything due to no OS installed. ADB still doesn't detect any devices, and I am still unable to get into TWRP from here.

Looks more like corrupted OS than no OS; try to boot into recovery by 1: remove battery 2: put battery back in, and power up by pressing both power button and vol up button 3: when you see LG logo release the buttons and immediately press them again to boot into recovery 4: perform a factory reset to clear corrupted files. 5: reboot.

I'm still unable to get into recovery using these tips. Screen just stays at the LG logo, unresponsive.

I'm sorry I seem to have mixed up the key combination. For your device, it seems to boot into recovery mode with power + vol down instead of vol up. Give it a go with this one.

power and volume down doesn't work either. Nothing seems to be working.

Can you get into download mode?

Haven't tried this before, and it does get into download mode. What can I do from here? Sorry for nooby questions.

http://www.modifyandroid.com/stock-roms/lg/how-to-flash-stock-rom-for-lg-g3/ follow this guide but be sure to use firmware for your model here ( http://lgg3root.com/lg-g3-stock-factory-firmware/ ) the link in the guide
doesn't seem to work. If you use network locked phone, find their firmware. Use the CSE method, it will wipe your data but you will probably salvage your phone.


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Xiaomi Redmi 1S bootloop on inserting battery
I have a Xiaomi Redmi 1S running stock MIUI 7 global stable ROM and one day while I was using my phone it suddenly restarted and then it went into a bootloop. The phone would power on upon inserting the battery without pressing the Power button.
It kept restarting but by pressing down the Volume up button I could enter into the recovery mode. But the phone was still restarting after the a few seconds even in the recovery. But I could navigate within the recovery and I tried wiping the cache and then the phone restarted and later worked fine.
A week later, the phone suddenly restarted again and this time I am unable to navigate in the recovery. The phone just keeps restarting itself after a few seconds even in recovery and fastboot mode.
What could be the problem with my phone?

How restart occurs? while opening any application or simply from current page?

@RahulGopi It just restarted when I opened a folder in the launcher and went into a bootloop.

using default MIUI launcher right?

@RahulGopi Yes, the default launcher.

is it a default folder by MI, or created by you, or which apps are included in that folder. Is device reboots every time, while you open that folder.

@RahulGopi It's the default Google folder and the phone just rebooted that time and now it's in a bootloop. The phone starts when I insert the battery and keeps restarting at the mi logo.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

I tried to flash the device with recovery, fastboot but nothing worked.
The problem was a faulty power button. I disassembled the phone and checked the power button using a multi meter. It was faulty.
After removing the power button the phone is working again now. I use the charger to power on the phone either by using TWRP recovery or fastboot commands.

The issue was the phone hardly stayed in FASTBOOT MODE or Recovery Mode for 2-3 seconds and went back to boot loop.  Basically it had to be really  fast fingers when the phone is connected to LAPTOP to achieve this.
I did as mentioned in the post of @Robert_xes...

On your laptop(I used a Windows 10) Download the fastboot.zip and unzip it and keep it ready. Download the latest MIUI Stable ROM and keep it in your desktop or if you have a SD Card remove it from your phone and copy it to SD cards and insert it back .
The moment the phone is connected to laptop (it will start its bootloop) .. get it into fastboot mode (power and volume down) and the moment you get the fastboot logo, CLICK  on flash_recovery.bat
TWEAK -PLEASE NOTE GETTING INTO FASTBOOT MODE AND THE PHONE STATYING IN FASTBOOT LOGO SCREEN (WITHOUT GOING BACK INTO BOOT LOOP  BEFORE YOU HIT FLASH_RECOVERY_BAT) MIGHT NOT HAPPEN THE FIRST TIME... IT TOOK ME AT LEAST 10-15 TIMES TO GET THE TIMING RIGHT WITH FAST FINGERS TO MAKE SURE FLASH_RECOVERY.BAT FILE PUSHES THE TWO FILES. You have to do this very very quickly.
  Keep trying again and again and again and again till his happens.(you will see for a fraction of second some file being pushed and an OKAY message at command prompt screen . If the PHONE is in BOOT LOOP  then flash_recovery_bat will only show "waiting for Device/Signal" message. You need to keep doing this till it is achieved . Only then you can proceed to next step.
Once step 2 is done. by now your phone would have gone back to its boot loop logo mode and you will be only seeing MI logo looping continuously.
Now get into RECOVERY MODE by using the volume UP and Power button simultaneously.
 TWEAK - PLEASE NOTE. Again as indicated in step 2, since your phone is in BOOT LOOP you need to try this again and again till it gets into recovery mode... sometimes it will get into recovery mode but doesnt stay there and goes back to bootloop. As soon as it comes into recovery mode , hit the down arrow(which you will see in recovery mode) and NOW the phone stays in recovery mode.
Once you have reached this step - 90% of your problem is solved as you have come into recovery mode and all you have to do now is follow the steps  7-9 of his solution. In my case I did not install new ROM , I just did a  factory reset, wipe cache and wipe Dalvik Cache. The reason I didnt install new ROM was because the problem had started only after upgrade to MIUI 8.
As Next Step - TWEAK - I  used one of the options of recovery to do a POWER OFF. Then kept it for charging and waited patiently till charging. Most of the phones in boot loop would have had their battery drained

Credits:http://en.miui.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=663881&page=1#pid13355815


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How to stop ads for turning on Google Assistant?
I'm not sure what's changed but the past week or two I've been getting notification ads for Google assistant every day, very annoying. They take the format of 'why not call a friend?' 'Want a joke? ' - Turn assistant on! That kind of utterly valueless nonsense.
I believe these come from the Google app, but here's the thing:

Google App notifications are OFF
I cannot remove or disable the Google App

How do I stop these daily ads I didn't consent to? I've hunted and there is nothing in the settings anywhere allowing this.

Thanks but the feed is already turned off, along with all notifications

It may not be from assistant at all - please install app mentioned here and track from which app those things are emanating

Turns out turning off auto-update on the Play Store has fixed it. No idea why or how, very unexpected - but it's done it!
I'd be interested to hear if anyone else with this issue can resolve it the same way.

Note: The question isn't super specific on that in contrary to its title, so I'll assume that you have Assistant turned off or don't want it. I don't think there would be ads otherwise.

OP's answer stated that turning off auto-update on the Play Store fixed his issue, which seems very random and probably unrelated to me. There's a sure way to disable these notifications though, and it's starting to be a known trick for people who don't want Google Assistant at all :
By changing your device's language to a less known regional variant of it, you'll make Google think that Assistant isn't available for you and your country, thus preventing it to be offered to you anymore by those "ads" or by long home button press.
For example, if you live in the U.S, and speak English, your device's primary language probably is "English (United States)". Changing it to "English (U.S Virgin Islands)"  will make any mentions of Google Assistant disappear from your phone. In my case, my device's language is French (France), so I changed it to French (Swiss) to get rid of Assistant.
Keep in mind: Assistant may someday be available to all English countries so this solution isn't completely future-proof.

Thanks for the extra info, hopefully it's helpful to someone! I agree about the randomness of my solution, but it was actually after following advice is read elsewhere. Must be an odd connection between the play store and the Google standard apps; maybe even a bug

Hiya, I noticed that you were unable to post images on here due to low rep. However, you could mention the links in the comments here, then other users can incorporate them into the post. Thanks!

For me, the problem was not the annoying notifications — I just turned off Google Assistant. (In the Google app: Settings > Google Assistant > Assistant > Phone) The problem was that it keeps begging you to turn it back on. But anyway, the method of getting rid of Google is the same:
Uninstalling all updates for the Google app by clicking "uninstall" in the Play Store (rolling back to the version that comes with the system) and turning off auto-updates for it in Google Play seems to help.
But it sure has its problems. Sooner or later, the newest version of the Google app will ship with all phones, and rolling back won't help.
And then, you will just have to search how to uninstall apps with ADB/Fastboot and just uninstall the Google app altogether, if you're comfortable doing that. There is a utility for Xiaomi phones called "Xiaomi ADB/Fastboot Tools". It can remove any app and requires no root, but you will need to enable USB debugging. Even if it doesn't work for non-Xiaomi phones straight away, I'm pretty sure it can be made to work with them, or you can just use the command line to do the same things.
I am sure that removing Google isn't harmful to your device in any way. If you're addicted to Google search, you can just use Chrome's search bar widget. And it seems that Google's two-factor authentication for your account is a system-integrated thingie that doesn't depend on the Google app at all. But nevertheless, if you're going to remove the Google app from your phone, I DO NOT guarantee that you won't brick your phone and/or two-factor authentication by doing so, and you should do your own research. It's pretty unlikely that you'll brick it, though.

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


text:
Is it safe to delete nvram folder?
I've got a Mediatek based phone (Meizu 7 pro plus) and I've lost the IMEI2 number. I mean that it is null into phone settings, but filled when I do *#06#.
I've tried many things, such as:

A Factory Reset and wipe out data.
Install an older official ROM (and wipe out data).

But each time:

When I use the phone for the first time (just after wiping it out, or flashing), the IMEI2 is filled and I can call, SMS, etc. as long as I don't restart the phone.
If I restart the phone (no matter how many times or the SIM slot I'm using), the IMEI2 is null and I can no longer use the mobile network.

I've tried to use softwares claiming to change IMEI numbers, but they doen't work.
I've tried to set it with the engineering mode (send AT+ command), but it refuses saying that the operation is not allowed on a "userbuild" (and yes, I've tried to insert spaces at many places between or after some symbols).
I've seen people recommending to delete the whole nvram folder (on many sources and people replying back that it worked for them). But I don't know what is the purpose of that folder (I do know what is a non volatile RAM, but I have no clue of the impact of deleting it on Android).

Back it up and delete so you have a chance for restoration.

And, of course, note down its permissions, ownerships and SELinux context.

After a backup, I tried to delete the nvram folder (via adb root ; adb shell ; su - ; mv /data/nvram somethingelse). I do confirm that this folder is created from scratch when you reboot the device.
So the answer is yes, it is safe to delete the folder.


text:
does a wireless adapter work in my tv android box to boost wifi signal
I would like to boost the wifi signal coming into my tv android with a Tp-Link 600 does this work.

Probably not. I'd expect the Wi-Fi transceiver and antenna in your TV to be higher-gain than that in a USB Wi-Fi adapter, simply because the TV has more room for a large antenna and more stable power. Using an external Wi-Fi adapter would only improve things if

the TV is in a fully enclosed case, and you can mount the adapter outside the case; or
the TV was very cheap and badly designed.


text:
Do I loss Apps and Data
I have installed Lineage OS 14.1 on my Redmi 1S, and installed GApps(Aroma) from opengapps.org. I have increased /system partition size to install GApps package. New nightly with some fixes are available. If I continue to install nightly and GApps, Do I lose my apps and data?
previous observations:
1. Installed Nightlies many times using TWRP(I think it has been overwritten).
2. Installed Gapps(earlier used pico) several times.(I think it has been overwritten).
Above two steps doesn't ends up in error, and booted to system well(no data loss).
But, now steps are different:
i. place a file named part in one of the root folder.
ii. install partition increase zip
iii. wipe all
iv. install ROM
v. execute resize
vi. install Gapps.
I am confused that whether I loss, system app's and user app's data after installation if I skip wipe all.

I followed these steps and no errors or boot loops.

Reboot to Recovery(TWRP)
Install new nightly.
Go to Wipe-> Advanced wipe, select system and click on Resize partition. Execute it.
Return to TWRP home screen.
Install Google Apps.

After that rebooted to system, no loss of system app data/user data occurred.

Installing ROM on an unwiped system partition can be dangerous. It would be better to just wipe the partition. And of course you will lose the data.

By partition table change and "wipe all" you already made it quite clear that you will lose data - AFAIK there aren't any lossless repartition solution (like what you do on PC OSes) on Android to this date.


text:
SM-T320 randomly fatal crashes then bootloops for a bit

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 Wi-Fi (SM-T320 or mondrianwifiue)
Rooted with cf auto root using superSu v2.82
custom recovery TWRP 3.1.1-0
Android version stock 4.4.2
Kernel version 3.4.0-4441590

Within android OS the tablet randomly crashes and then bootloops when disconnected from the charger. Intrestingly though during the bootloop sometimes the screen flickers before shutting down and rebooting.
The bootloop stops after being shutdown for a while or if the charger get's plugged into the tablet.
Oddly however, when booted into the custom recovery TWRP there is no issue. Even if entering TWRP during the bootloop. The bootloop stop until trying to boot back into the system.
I recorded a logcat of an initial crash.
As far as kernel logs here is the Dmesg after the bootloop. The last_kmsg was blank.
I suspect the battery connection is the culprit but I do not know why there is no issues within TWRP.
Does this look like a software issue or a hardware issue?
Thank you

You are right about the battery connection; try this trick: 1. Hold down power button for 10-15 sec while keeping it plugged in 2. When the tablet powers down and shows charging indicator, remove the cable and it should simulate removing the battery.
There was a constant error with sec_fuelgauge which is a process that regulates battery on hardware level. Check to see error at line 955 and so on later.

That trick for simulating the battery pull trick did not work but thank you for your response. What make you think it is a battery connection issue? Was it from the logs or my explanation?

The logs. There was a constant error with sec_fuelgauge which is a process that regulates battery on hardware level.

Great and thanks, it has been a bit since I have read kernel logs. I slightly remember that error -110 ment a lack of power for usb but I was not totally sure. You should put the part about the logs in your answer.

Edited the answer. Maybe backup your data and factory reset? It works wonders for most problems which you can fix. If it is a hardware problem, you might be out of luck (I really don't think it is)


text:
How to know used data by someone after enabling Wifi Hotspot?
My iVooMi Me5 Smartphone runs on Android 7.0.
I enable WiFi Hotspot frequently for some users.
I would like to know data usages by users based on day and date.
Please let me know, how to get it?
Regards
FewL

There is no inherent way to do this with stock Android that I have encountered.
According to this there is, or used to be in the past.  https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-measure-data-usage-from-a-wifi-hotspot, but I cannot find that in my android 7.0 phone.
There are apps on the play store that claim to track data more detailed, but I have not used them, or know how safe they are.


text:
Docx document is read-only in LibreOffice
I created a docx file in LibreOffice on my computer running Debian 9.1 with KDE and copied it to my Android phone. On the phone I try to open the file with the LibreOffice app. However I can't edit the file and just read the document as it's read-only - I get:

This file is read-only, saving is disabled.

I already tried a couple of other formats and doing File->Save a Copy on my computer.
How can I get it to be editable?

Try  Open Document Reader which opens and permits modifications of all files in ODF ( format used by Libre office and Open office

May I ask why do you insist on using DOCX (proprietary) as an extension instead of using a native and open-source extension in LibreOffice, such as ODF? If ideology is not an issue, you can consider MS Office Mobile to edit docx effortlessly. It also can edit (per my experience) ODF files.

I don't insist on using docx (note that I also tried the Office Open XML Text .docx). Actually I would prefer using ODT. But with an .odt file I get a blank screen that says "All apps associated with this action have been turned off, blocked or not installed" when I try to open it. Maybe that's worth a separate question or an edit to the question. (And I don't want to use anything else except LibreOffice or, if necessary, OpenOffice.)

Is it stored in a location that LibreOffice has permission to write to? I don't know if the LibreOffice app has the ability to create new files, but if it does then it may be worth testing to see if it can save a new file into the same directory that you've got your exiting one in.

I tried my internal storage and my SD card. I get the same error for both locations. Not sure if there are some specific subfolders one could try in addition. I also tried the app OpenDocumentReader which didn't even show up in the list of apps to open the file with nor does its browsing work. What is going on here?

In your computer open terminal and cd to the directory where the file is located, then type sudo chmod 777 PATH_TO_FILE, then send it to your device.


text:
What is "http://www.168077.com/12078/index.html" this webpage on my Tab browser

I am getting this web page,titled "smart Site"
http://www.168077.com/12078/index.html on my Android Tab. Even After resetting to factory setting, it keeps popping up after some time.
After selecting any browser it redirects above link. Like This,

I am afraid if it is something like any hack ware or something, I don't know.
My tab also lags after  opening this site
I am using BSNL PENTA T-PAD 83AAQ1 purchased from Amazon. Android Lolipop with 1 GB RAM.
Thanks. Sorry for bad English

Does the browser launches itself on its own (or even if you have to select a browser but you didn't do anything prior to it) with that website? Or, does that website is launched in a tab of any browser when you are browsing something? See related Q&A: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/178024/96277

Maybe DNS poisoning? Does other devices on that WiFi network opens same page in browser?

No, I am using SIM Card not WIFI, and even on the hotspot, no devices show such behaviour.

After Scratching my head for so many days, I got an idea which works. I hide all unwanted packages using adb shell pm hide "packagename". I think com.adups.fota was the culprit

This is seemingly an extremely stubborn malware, that probably came  to my android device through play store.  Even if I reboot my NO-root device into "safe mode", it persists. However I was able to remove it by a factory reset, at least apparently.

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


text:
Can't boot into recovery or downloading mode on galaxy player. Is it hardbricked?
I have a galaxy player 5.0 -old build and everything, but I like to experiment with it- and i wiped cache and did a factory reset and tried to reboot, and for some reason wouldn't want to boot up. So i just killed it, and tried to re-flash the stock firmware(had been rooted and some other stuff), and it failed, and now it just has a pic of [phone--triangle with !-- computer]. I can't get it to go anywhere- recovery mode, downloading mode, can't even turn it off without taking the battery out. My question is, am i done for? Is it hardbricked?

When you put the battery back in, does it wait for you to hold the Power button in order to boot, or does it boot on its own?

It waits for me to hold the power button in

It's probably not hardbricked, only softbricked. The phone with triangle and exclamation mark is telling that you didn't flash properly. In that case it should still allow you to boot into download mode. Remove battery, put it back in and hold the appropriate buttons to boot into download mode and then reflash rom

thanks for the reply, but I tried that I don't know how many times :(. Isn't there something you can do when you take the battery out, like hold the power button for awhile before putting it back in? I tried all kinds of stuff like that, but no go

Well sometimes buttons don't work and sometimes you can only boot after several attempts. Try these anyway: Pwr+vol up, Pwr+vol down, All keys pressed simultaneously, one of them should force it to reboot. As soon as you see it turn off, press keys for download mode. Follow this guide if you get stuck in bootloop https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1850600

That still didn't help. Going to see if those little dongles you can get on Ebay to force the device into download mode can help at all.


text:
WiFi goes to sleep when device asleep
On my Samsung Galaxy S7, whenever the device goes to sleep, the Wifi goes to sleep as well.
Meaning:
* If I'm connected to a WiFi network and the device is idle for about 10 minutes (tested it), the device won't be connected to the WiFi network anymore (ping is unreachable)
* If entering a WiFi network area and device is idle, it won't connect to the network until I turn on the device manually.
There are exceptions:
* While charging
* When disabling deviceidle option via adb (adb shell dumpsys deviceidle disable), the problem is the option is reset after reboot
What I've checked so far ?
* Different Wifi networks
* All 'Keep WiFi on during sleep' options
* All 'Smart network switch' options
* Setting my router to specific channel and not auto
* Manually disabling almost all possible apps under 'doze' option
* An app to 'keep the device alive'
IMHO, as disabling 'deviceidle' actually fixes the issue (until next reboot), it's some kind of a bug in Android which tries to optimize the WiFi process, but, I hope someone proves me wrong.

No 'WiFi saving' button, only 'test ping' and some diagnostics.  I'll try enabling the wifi scan and report back, thanks!

Actually I can't find the wifi scanning option neither

Android 7.0, found the WiFi scanning option, it was ON...

What is your question exactly?

Settings › WiFi › tap the "overflow menu button" on the top-right › Advanced › WiFi Standby set to "always" should solve it.

Hi@Izzy, that's 'Keep WiFi on during sleep'  I referred to

See: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/141444/android-phone-constantly-loses-wi-fi-connection/142340

Thank you @xavier_fakerat but it looks like most of the solution on the other page relates to the WiFi network itself while I encounter the issue on multiple networks.


text:
OEM unlock for Android phones
What is the purpose of OEM unlock?
What would happen to my device if I enable that option? Will it mean that my bootloader is unlocked?

Not the question but the answer addresses your question

When you think that option in developer options you just make your bootloader unlockable not unlocked. Unlocking can be done from fastboot

The purpose of an oem unlock is 2 flash custom roms and or root your device along with a few other things just because you switch the OEM unlock in your developer settings does not unlock your bootloader. To unlock your bootloader you have to enabled developer options select OEM unlock the make sure you have USB debugging enabled and then depending on manufacturer there be different steps take to actually unlock it.

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


text:
Reviving a bricked MediaPad M2 10.0
I own a Huawei MediaPad M2 10.0 (M2-01AL). It was rooted since long.
I wanted to try to install Magisk, so I did it from Magisk Manager. I don't exactly remember what I exactly did, but eventually I screw up the tablet entirely that it entered a boot loop at the Huawei logo.
I just want to reflash it from stock, or something that boots
I have tried several fastboot flashing, but eventually got my hands, thanks to XDA, on what look like official stock firmwares by Huawei. File names:

Huawei_MediaPad%20M2%2010.0%20LTE_Firmware_M2-A01L_V100R001C178B003CUSTC178D001_Android%205.1.1_EMUI%203.1_Finland.rar
HUAWEI_MediaPad_M2_10.0_Firmware_M2-A01L_Android%205.1.1_EMUI%203.1_V100R001C209B005CUSTC458D001_Malaysia_Channel-Others.rar
HUAWEI_MediaPad+M2+10.0_M2-A01L_Firmware_Android+5.1.1_EMUI+3.1_V100R001C100B010CUSTC100D001_Germany_Spain_Belgium.rar

These archives contain the magic update.app to be put into SD card and then boot the tablet with all keys pressed.
The firmware flashes the entire contents of the archive into the ROM. However such a flashing stops at around 90% with a generic failure message and request to reboot.
The tablet won't boot.
This is entirely a software problem with the device.
Also tried extracting the .img from the .app with Huawei Extractor and flashing system via fastboot, no result. Phone is still unlocked and FRP is unlocked, as the bootloader reports. I can flash recovery successfully, but I haven't yet found an English TWRP, only luck Chinese and Russian.
Question is: how do I restore this tablet to at least a bootable state? I would like to try this alone before going to a repair shop in my city, there are plenties of it.
Updates
I have successfully installed TWRP in a language I understand. I can see that the system partition is damaged because TWRP, on reboot, says that no OS is installed. This is a first step. I also reflashed stock boot just to make sure, because I found that in order to uninstall Magisk one has to flash the backup Magisk makes. Unfortunately I had no time to fetch that backup, I was too lazy. Anyway I extracted system from the update.app and flashed it via fastboot. No result, the tablet is still in boot loop

Of course I will edit my question to provide any possible clarification upon comments

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because I have sold the device as scrap and answer is no longer required

three years later, just for the protocol (you probably meanwhile figured out) the reason for stock ROM not booting along with modified recovery was most likely dm-verity

Doesn't stock ROM provide stock recovery as well?

yes. but you only flashed extracted system and boot


text:
Unlocking Bootloader to wipe internal storage
I know that unlocking bootloader does wipe the /data partition. However, can it also wipe the /storage partition and others, too?

It wipes all data on the internal storage... Data on an SD card setup as portable/external storage is not touched in most cases, it is recommended to remove an SD card prior to unlocking the bootloader just in case though.

So your answer is: It wipes 100% of the phone?

Yes, all user data, apps, music, pictures, videos, etc... unless they are stored on an SD card configured as portable storage. It will essentially be as "blank" as the day it came out of the box from the manufacturer, except as noted.

Then, after unlocking, relocking is possible?

Nexus, Pixel, or OnePlus... yes... Otherwise it depends on the device, some can and some can't be, but they all have a "flag" of somekind to indicate it was once unlocked. For example, in Moto devices they have a Bootloader Status number, it is 0 when locked, but if relocked becomes 2, and it can not be set back to 0 ever.

I m not using these: Samsung and/or US carriers, etc. Mine is LG.

I don't believe LG devices can be "relocked"... but your comment makes me think you don't understand what you are unlocking. Unlocking the bootloader and unlocking the SIM (carrier unlock) are completely different, I have only been referring to bootloader unlock.

Note: I unlocked the bootloader on my Huawei P8 GRA-UL00, and my user data wasn't wiped. I'm not sure why, but it is possible user data does not get wiped in some instances.

There is nothing like storage partition. What you see under /storage/emulated is a FUSE implementation of /data/media/userID. Whenever you unlock or relock the bootloader, fastboot causes factory reset of the device which wipes data and cache partitions. No bit of data escapes it, including what you see under /storage.
Source:

printf("oem unlock requested:\n");
printf("\tUnlocking forces a factory reset and could\n");
printf("\topen your device up to a world of hurt.  If you\n");
printf("\tare sure you know what you're doing, then accept\n");
printf("\tin %d seconds via 'fastboot oem unlock_accept'.\n",

Think of it that way: whichever partition accumulated user generated data gets to be wiped. They mostly include data and cache partition under normal circumstances (no deliberate tampering that is).

When we say data is wiped during oem unlock can that operation be conceived of as like a calloc operation that zeros out that block of memory on the relevant partition? Or is the wiping basically a deletion in the filesystem but the data may still be physically present on the disk where something like the dd command could potentially recover it?

@jxramos implementation of oem unlock is vendor specific and is not publicly disclosed, so I don't really know how data wipe takes place.

It wipes the complete storage when the bootloader has never been unlocked. If it has been unlocked it just wipes /data as far as I have experienced this on my oneplus x. (Onyx)

I m thinking about LG, not 1+. Still I don't have any 1+ phones either.

@user167294 should be the same, but Im not 100% sure

fastboot oem lock  is only supported on a handful of devices, many devices use a specific process that requires flashing a signed image.

Ok, I will remove it then.

What do you mean for "complete storage"?

Everything the user has modified on the phone. It is like a factory reset


text:
Do the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P have the same camera?
The Nexus 6P has an excellent camera.
Is the camera hardware and photo-processing on the Nexus 5X exactly the same as the 6P?

Yes, the Nexus 6P and 5X share the same 12MP camera with a Sony-made sensor according to this article on XDA, which is generally considered a reliable source.


text:
Open PDFs Automatically from Browser in Google Drive or Google PDF Viewer
Is it possible to configure Android to automatically open PDF links in an application such as Google Drive or Google PDF viewer instead of clicking link, then selecting the PDF from Notification bar.
The following question Android Tablet - Download PDF and open it on browser is similar but the accepted answer with using pdf.js plugin in FireFox is a discontinued product.
We plan to deploy many Android tablets where users just use them to print PDFs, the default UI experience seems counter intuitive.
We just want user to select PDF in browser, open it, and select print; ideally replicating the simplicity of how iOS works for viewing / printing PDFs.
The tablet used in Galaxy Tab S2 running Android 6.0.1.
We cannot use Adobe Acrobat PDF viewer as the PDFs we need to print don't print correctly with Adobe PDF viewer.

Yes, it works but doesn't open from web links needs to download first as well. Adobe PDF reader can auto open from clicking links in browser

Cloud Viewer add-on for Firefox opens PDF links without downloading the file.

View PDF, DOC, XLS and PPT files without downloading them to your device. Save downloading time and space on your device. Here's how it works: Just before a compatible file starts to download, you are prompted to open the file in the Google Docs Viewer instead. If you choose to open in the online viewer, a new tab is opened and the viewer is loaded.

It does give the print option also but I haven't verified it. Tested on Firefox 55.0.2, the latest on Play Store
On clicking a PDF link, you get a self explanatory dialog as below

On version 62.0.3, it says "This add-on is not available on your platform.
Not compatible with Firefox Quantum."


text:
Galaxy S8 can't connect to cellular network when connected to car bluetooth
I have a new Galaxy S8 but unfortunately when I pair it with my car (Porsche Macan 2 years old) it can never find the cellular network, status in the car is "Searching for network" and no phone calls or internet access. The reception in the car is fine if I unpair the phone. My wife has a Galaxy S7 and it has no problems with reception when paired and phone calls work fine. If I unpair the phone and pair again it will work, but then when the phone is back in the car later it won't connect to the network.
I do get a message on the phone "remote SIM activated" but I'm not sure if this is the cause and I can't find any relevant settings (or help about this feature) to force Android to use the phone SIM.
Any ideas? I'm new to Android so possibly I'm missing something basic. Thx.

Find phone mode in your car menu and set it from premium to handsfree


text:
Downgrade Android 4.2 to 4.1
I have an Asus K013, an old tablet running android 4.2. As i have no use for it now, i want to downgrade it to android 4.1 as Wiimote compatibility is broken in 4.2+. However, I don't think it runs stock android (though I'm not sure) so I'm not sure how I would downgrade.

K013 (otherwise known as MeMO Pad 7 or ME176C) comes with Android 4.4 minimum, as shown on PhoneArena and supplied by the HelpDesk of ASUS themselves. Therefore, there's no lower version of official OS you could downgrade to. Since it's an Intel-based device, you won't be able to find custom ROMs for it either. Not to mention that there are only a handful of examples where custom ROMs can have a lower Android version than the lowest provided by stock ROMs.
TL;DR: No you can't.


text:
There is a list of running apps displaying on my tecno 7cs always
There is a list of running apps displaying on the right hand side of my Tecno 7Cs. It begun when I accidentally tapped something (I can't remember) after I connected it to a USB. How can I get rid of it?

Look inside Settings - Developer options.

You have made your 'Show CPU Usage' enabled in debugger mode,
Go to settings-----> (Scroll Down) Developer Options-----> (scroll to bottom) Show CPU Usage -----> disable it.


text:
Incognito recovery Android device
Is it possible to recover credit card information used in incognito mode  on my Android device?
I have tried repeatedly to no avail and actual card stolen it is imperative I get this information...

no sorry...  its not possible....

Chrome Incognito Help says this —

Chrome doesn't save your browsing history or information entered in
  forms. Cookies and site data are remembered while you're browsing, but
  deleted when you close Incognito mode.

So as far as it goes, no you cannot recover any of the information of your credit card.


text:
Combine duplicate layouts into one layout on Gboard's multilingual support
I have been a SwiftKey user for a long time and for various reasons I am looking to switch to Gboard (one thing is the search feature). However, there is one thing that still keeps me to SwiftKey.
I generally use English, French and Greek layouts. I really enjoy the multilingual layout feature of SwiftKey and I was hoping that Gboard would do it in a similar way. However, this is not the case.
SwiftKey and Gboard both unify EN and FR layouts. However, SwiftKey only really displays one option (fr/en) in contrast with Gboard that displays two options: fr/en and en/fr. I don't know the purpose of this, but it means that I have to change two layouts in order to write Greek, which I don't really like.
Has anyone found any solution to this "problem"?

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


text:
Password protecting shell access
We distribute android devices to other developers so that they can develop on our devices. We want them to be able to install / uninstall / debug apps, but we don't want them to be able to run adb shell and look around in the file system. Our devices are rooted. Is it possible?

If they would be able to install apps, what would stop them from using those apps  to peek into your filesystem directly or through a local shell? I don't think I understand what you really want. If there are certain files you don't want them to see, encrypt them perhaps?

This is hypothetical but removing user 2000 from sdcard_rw and sdcard_r groups should help. Android doesn't have the in-built tools to remove a user from a group and I can't seem to find third-party ones either.

@Firelord well yes the point would also be to block any app to peek into the filesystem

Simply not possible with root access. Without root there can be some workarounds.

It might be possible by modifying su  source code. You can modify so that some commands require a password such as the shell. Create your own custom su based on the device.

Hi! We tend to invite answers which work or are useful, not just speculative because that doesn't  help much. Moreover, this is just a pointer (and that too for development, something end-users can't afford) and not exactly an answer. And, when there is a bounty more efforts are expected from an answerer than usual.

This doesn't make sense at all. Users have root access, they can place a different shell binary at different location, and can even use a different su binary.


text:
mi5 screen turns off after I touch the home button / fingerprint reader
On my MI5, if I touch the fingerprint reader on the home button, the
screen turns off. Then for 5-10 seconds nothing happens, and afterwards I can click the ON button, which shows the lock screen once again.
It appears that others have hit a similar issue with the screen turning on: XDA post, MIUI forum post.
Questions:

How can I stop this from happening?
I don't use the fingerprint reader. Is there a way to disable the reader completely? The only ways I found require either root and fiddling with system files (miui post above, StackExchange question), or applying duct tape.

More details:

This started just now, not after any specific action (didn't update/install/etc)
I don't have, and never had, any password/pin/drawing/fingerprint - I only slide the lockscreen up to unlock the phone.

I tried setting a pin, and also pin+fingerprint - same behavior

I've set "sleep after" to "never"
Device: Xiaomi MI 5, Android 6.0.1 MXB48T, MIUI Global 8.1|stable 8.1.2.0(MAAMIDI), baseband TH20c1.9-00055, core version 3.18.20-perf-gfacbe79

Turns out that the device's screen was defective (because of a fall an a bad replacement job). I had the screen replaced, and now the issue doesn't happen anymore.


text:
How can I directly edit text files over SSH or FTP?
Sometimes I want to edit text files on a remote computer (such as linux scripts, websites, etc.) but I only have an Android device at hands (let's say I'm sitting in a train and have nothing better to do with my time).
I could download the files over SSH, edit them, and upload them again, or even edit them on the SSH console, but this is tedious (I mean MORE tedious than it already is to edit text with an handheld device, if that is possible).
Is there a way that I can directly edit the files remotely? I would envision a solution that might, for example, automatically download the file, and upload it back on save.

For what it's worth, here are the solutions I've found so far, but I'm happy with none:
DroidEdit has an SFTP/FTP option in the pro (paid) version. I have not tested it myself so I can't guarantee anything.
I used to mount a samba or NFS share on my local Android file system, using the CifsManager app, which can be tunneled through SSH, and then you work on the files as if they were on your local device. However, this required a rooted device, and I'm not sure it's still possible with recent Android systems (the problematic part being to mount a file system that isn't provided by the base Android system ; it seems the cifs or nfs kernel module is not part of standard ROMs anymore).
If your remote computer has a desktop environment, you could use a VNC client (there are a few available for Android). But remote applications are not designed to work with a touchscreen, and without keyboard/mouse.

nmm lets you edit text files directly over ssh.
From the Google Play description:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.mfile
《NMM File Manager / Text Edit
File management, support archive viewing and modification.
Terminal emulator, support ssh connection.
High-performance text editor, code editor:
Find and replace (supports mark all, regular expressions).
Auto determine text encoding.
Auto indent and code folding.
Show line numbers, whitespace, EOL, control characters.
Multiple programming languages highlighting.
Customize the bottom toolbar, quickly enter or delete text.》


text:
Exclude folders from LG G6 stock gallery app
I'm really enjoying the stock gallery app on my LG G6, but I can't find away to exclude folders (or "albums") from the default view.
This is really annoying, since it's showing album art and basically adds every music folder with album art in it to that view:

Does anyone know how I can hide those?

If it doesn't have option to exclude you can make it do that. Just use any file manager that can create file, and create file named ".nomedia" (without quotes) inside folder where are those images. However I think this will have side effects so music player may be unable to locate music in that folder if there is any also video too, but I'm not completely sure about it.


text:
How to enable preview in notifications on an Oppo phone
I recently started using an Oppo A77 phone and have no experience with ColorOs. All I am trying to do is to be able to display a preview (sender/subject/body/something) show up on my notification window where Gmails notifications come up. There is no option to select preview messages in the notifications settings.
This is my notification setting for gmail:

and this is how my gmail notifications come up:

How do I get a preview of my gmail notifications on an oppo A77 ?
This is the exact question asked on other sites and no one seems to know the answer :

http://www.androidauthority.com/community/threads/how-to-get-expanded-notifications-in-a77.47010/#post-110606
http://community.oppo.com/en/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=55040&page=1#pid577510

Screenshot (click to enlarge)
I think I found the answer. I was also looking for the answer because I also wanted to expand my notifications and I tried it and it works.

This doesn't work on Oppo A77

Pinch or scroll using two fingers

Deactivate applock for wtsap etc.. And you will get the preview... Confirmed ..
Goto "settings" "app encryption" and "unlock" the apps you want to preview.

What makes you assume OP uses that applock app? I see no indications for this.


text:
Is there a way to forward online calls to cell network?
I am traveling abroad and roaming costs are extremely high. Therefore, I thought about the following. I would leave a smart phone at home, connected to my home wifi. Then I would call that phone via Skype, Hangouts, whatever online service and the phone would forward my call through the local mobile network. This way I could make local calls via web in my home country.
Is there a way to do this?

Use Google Voice with the Hangouts Dialer app and you take out a step and it's completely free. The Hangouts Dialer app uses Google Talk service, so as long as you are in a country with Google service, you make -and- receive calls free via WiFi.

Unless you have a particular reason for wanting to route through a secondary device, a more direct approach would be to investigate apps that are available to you that use wifi-calling. These can be used even in airplane mode (with wifi subsequently turned back on) and behave the same way whether you are in your home country or abroad - ie no roaming charges.
These are often carrier specific (at least in my experience).


text:
Is it possible to remove lock screen on Android 7/Nougat?
In earlier versions of Android (<6) there was an option to have screen lock as none. Couldn't see the same option on Nougat. Is it even possible in Android 7?

Settings->Security, Under Device Security, tap on screen lock and select None.(It allows you to unlock device directly to home screen)

I don't think that exists in Nougat any more.


text:
What is this symbol on this video
I recorded a video and cannot play it. It is close to 1GB in size and I used a huawei mate 9. Smaller sizes are fine.

install any other media player and check. (select media player that support different formats )

But the same app recording smaller video size can be played

Are you trying to play it on same phone on which you recorded it?

Try downloading VLC player or MX Player.
If the video doesn't show up on these apps as well, the file might be corrupt.

It may not playing because higher video size or high resolution of the video. Sometimes lesser RAM and ROM are unable to play high resolution videos(on built in media player). Try some other players available on store like MX player etc(MX Player would be a good option), or copy your video on PC, if its not even plays on PC then your file is corrupt.

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


text:
Cant unlock phone after using Google's Find my Device
I forgot my phone's pattern lock, when I used Google's Find my Device, it just locks my phone and I don't know what to do. How can I get back in to my phone?

I don't know how new your phone is, but some of the older builds allow you to do a factory data reset, and it clears off the password. If you were lucky and had USB debugging enabled at the time of locking it up, you could do a backup of your stuff to your computer before you do the factory reset. I use Mobogenie, although some people say it's buggy, and it does have a lot of adware. I'm fairly sure you should be able to use Mobogenie on it even if the device is locked.
By the way, as far as i know, Google's Find My Device is for only if it's lost or stolen and you want to find it, or lock it up so a thief can't access it.
EDIT: To unlock your phone via ADB without factory reset(if you had USB debugging enabled), read this answer to another post here.


text:
How to get Adoptable storage encryption key without root access after I "forget it"
My micro SD card (set as adoptable storage) was corrupted while I was using my phone (Wiko Tommy with Android 6.0) during a trip.
Probably because of a writing error on the filesystem, I guess.
I tried to unplug the SD card and to plug it again several times, but it didn't change nothing.
I should have stopped there, and wait in order to repair the SD card filesystem a few days later.
But my phone wouldn't let me take pictures with the SD card unplugged ("storage is full", even if the internal storage wasn't full).
So I unplugged the SD card, and told my phone to forget it. That way, I could use the internal storage again and take pictures.
Back with a computer available and with a SD card reader, I made an image of my SD card using the dd command.
I tried to analyse filesystem problems with Testdisk, recover files with Photorec...
But I realized that the SD card is encrypted and that this is probably my major concern.
I found this method that would enable me to get the encryption key and to read the SD card.
Unfortunately it requires root access to read the /data/misc/vold folder, and my phone is not rooted. I would happily do it but I couldn't find any path toward it (it's a Wiko Tommy).
So I'm stuck there. Do you think of a way to get the files on the SD card back?

Find a way to root my phone?
Reverse the "forget" action so that the phone would read again the SD card (when the corrupted filesystem is fixed)?
Find a way to get the encryption key without root access, and then read from the image I have on the computer?
Use another SD card as adoptable storage, replace its contents by the old one (when the corrupted filesystem is fixed)?

Thank you

Find a way to root my phone? Not relevant... see below
Reverse the "forget" action so that the phone would read again the SD card (when the corrupted filesystem is fixed)? No, the forget action deletes the decryption token. It cannot be recovered by normal means.
Find a way to get the encryption key without root access, and then read from the image I have on the computer? No, the decryption token is in a directory that can only be read with root access, but it doesn't matter because the decryption token does not exist anymore.
Use another SD card as adoptable storage, replace its contents by the old one (when the corrupted filesystem is fixed)? There is a fix like this, it can be used in some situations like this or when moving to a larger card, the problem is that even if the corruption of the card is corrected, the data cannot be decrypted because the decryption token was erased when you "forgot" the card.
I am sorry to say, but your data on the card is now just random 0's and 1's, there is no way to decrypt the data without the decryption token (I call it a "token", it is the passphase/key or whatever you want to call it), the data will never be recoverable by any currently known method.
The root access is no longer relevant, if you didn't have it already... the reason is because to root the device requires the bootloader to be unlocked (in most cases) and doing so wipes all data on the phone, including the decryption token, which is why it is stated if you have root prior to this occurring there is a chance you can retrieve the token and decrypt the SD card.
The real problem is the token is gone because you did a "forget", if a new token is generated (by adopting a new card) it will be different than the old one. If you reinstall a "fixed" SD card with the same data, your phone will not know how to decrypt it and cannot read the data, it will most likely recommend that you format the card as either portable or adopted storage so it is usable.

ok, I thought the key was still there because it could be used again (for the next adoptable storage), or because as I read on the link provided in my question: "'forget' the drive removes it from the system, and should presumably delete the associated encryption key (which doesn't seem to be the case in the current preview build)"

@proprit In the preview version of Marshmallow it may have left it, but in my Moto G 2015 it clearly removed the key, I assume all production versions do as well.


text:
samsung s4 not responding to factory reset
Good day
My samsung s4 just died and wount go on or charge
I have tried the sound up and donw button with the power button with home screen button with no luck
Can any one PLEASE give me advice how to fix my phone

Do you not even get the battery charging animation when you press the power button? What has factory reset got to do with anything?

If your device's battery doesn't have any charge or power, you can not reset it.
Change your charger, or the battery, and try to see if your device is charging.


text:
Bluetooth won't turn on
I have a GALAXY S6. I have rooted it and have made use of apps such as Greenify, Servicely and Pixel Battery Saver to save battery. The only thing not working is Bluetooth. It is not turning on. I checked Servicely to see if some bluetooth service was blocked but nothing. If I try to share a file through bluetooth it says: "Turning on bluetooth", but after that nothing. I have tried through settings and it does not turn on. At root browser system > app there are: Bluetooth, Bluetooth MidiService and Bluetooth Test. Maybe I have deleted something I shouldn't. Can you help me out? I will not factory reset cause that will delete everything. Thank you!

Have you installed a custom ROM? You may have probably installed a custom ROM that is currently (at the time of installing ...) at the beta state. Those beta ROMs were unstable and may cause some bugs. However, if you have got your device running a beta custom ROM, then you can always switch back to the stock ROM of your device.


text:
How to extract a system image made with FlashTools?
I have a system image made with FlashTools. The image and tool are available here
Since I have a Mac I can't run FlashTools, also what I need to extract is just an apk that I accidentally deleted from my device.
Can the system.img file be extracted from a Mac?

first hit on Google does it help?

@ЈеднорукиКрстивоје I tried imgtool and simg2img but none can read the file format.

Ok, stupid question did you unzip archive first? Also in which format is this ROM when you download, I can't see link unless I register (won't happen)

@ЈеднорукиКрстивоје Yes, the contents are shown here in this question. I tried both tools with system.img and also tried renaming the file to system.img.zip to see if I could unzip it, but  then result file is also compressed in some other format.

@ЈеднорукиКрстивоје trying with the raw system.img gave the error "bad magic" and unrecognized format with simg2img and  imgtool

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


text:
Google Image Search using Android
I have an image on my smartphone and I want to paste it into Google Image Search to see if I can get similar images.
I can do this by pasting the image using desktop but not using Android ...
Is there such a possibility?

Instructions performed on Firefox for Android on stock Android 6.0.1.

Switch to Desktop mode in your preferred browser (it changes the user-agent).
Open https://images.google.com and tap the camera icon next to the search bar on the page.
Tap Upload an image
From the bottom sheet pick Documents. (This option might not be available in some Android versions.)
(Click image to enlarge)

In the left pane, select Images or Internal Storage and select your image file. That's it.

There are several search apps available which may assist you here, for example Search By Image (using Google/Tineye/Yandex image reverse search engine). This app lets you pick an image from your gallery (or take a new one with your camera), perform some basic editing (crop/rotate), and then fires a corresponding search for similar images.
The list initially linked (disclaimer: link goes to my own site) gives you some alternatives.

Steps for reverse image search from a smartphone:

Click here to visit Ctrlq.org.
There you will find Reverse Image Search option (Google's official) and within there you will see the Upload button. (It will allow to choose from camera and gallery.) Click on it and select an image.

This will search and display to you related images on your mobile phone.


text:
I uninstalled Trebuchet from nexus5 using lucky patcher
Help please I uninstalled Trebuchet from nexus5(thinking it was a bad app ) using lucky patcher  now it wont boot.  Please help me guys!!

It shouldn't stop booting entirely, just show a black screen instead. USB debugging on? adb install a new launcher from your PC.

Yea your right. Just a black screen. Yes USB debugging is on.  How do I install the new launcher on my laptop? It has a Ubuntu system on it

Install Android SDK first (so that you have the adb binary), then adb install /path/to/file.apk to sideload the APK to be installed. I have little experience with Ubuntu so I won't risk offering you details, but shouldn't be hard. Here's some link for reference: installing ADB; using ADB install

Hi Andy. The phone is so screwed up now :( I should have tried to follow your instructions but instead   my bf insisted he take the phone to a phone fix store called Nano TECH and they had it for 2 hours,  costed 55$,  came home, turned it on..  ...  and Oh my gawwwd its worse then ever.  just a black screen with white Google in the middle of the screen and a white lock emoji on the bottom for 5 seconds and then it vibrates and goes blank then the same thing again. . No Kali. No Twrp Manager..  Wow

Dang. Try flashing a factory image? I hope you can still enter fastboot mode...

From this state you just need to enter fastboot mode and reflash Lineage (or whatever custom ROM you're using) the same way you flashed it initially.


text:
How can I trigger an action on one Android device with another Android device?
I recently got a new device and my old device will now be used as a music player with my bluetooth speaker. However, I wanna save battery by not having the old device's bluetooth on the whole time. What's the best way I can trigger an action to turn off bluetooth in my old device using my new device (ie. as I'm heading out)?
I'm guessing there's a way to use Tasker to detect my new phone's location and then toggle bluetooth on the old device accordingly but is there another way that would be less resource intensive? I'm thinking maybe NFC? Like as I walk out of my room I tap my new device to my old device and it turns off the bluetooth and when I get back home the same action reactivates the bluetooth.
Thanks

Tasker is the right idea. Have a condition "Bluetooth Near" (to check if BT is on and it sees your new device), and then an exit task (firing when the condition no longer fits) to turn off BT. Not tried, but should work.


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Overheating Android phone
After the replacement of the LCD screen on my device, it started to overheat, and so my smartphone is restarting as a result of the overheat.  I disassembled the phone, and it seems that the connection within the screen is causing those overheats. Are there any tools for Android to confirm that the screen is the cause?

No, this is a hardware problem, and the hardware doesn't have fine-grained enough sensors to isolate it. There might be two thermometers in your phone - one inside the system-on-chip, to check whether that is hot enough to be damaged; and one inside the battery, to perform the same purpose. To isolate where in the system a hardware problem (such as a short-circuit) might be, it would need separate thermometers on every component, and current or voltage meters to identify shorts. Consumer phones just don't have that, so the information isn't available to Android.
If you had a thermal imaging camera, you could find the sources of heat in the hardware while you use the phone. If you had a multimeter, you might be able to probe various parts to find a short. But those are both electronic engineering tools, and using them is well outside the scope of this site.

Thanks a lot for your response Dan, I just adjusted the thermic paste I found under components, and the problem is fixed, no overheats, I never had this kind of problem, but it seems that ajusting the thermal paste fixed it.Thanks.

With CPU-Z you can look up which sensors are too hot, but therefore you have to know how hot things can be and where they are located. This would mean you can do a closer look a this point and in theory you can look closer to the point where it is that hot which would mean you would find a short circuit or a cable with too much resistance which you could then replace.

I already checked with Phone checker, it shows : system_h : 95°C, Cluster0, cluster1 and gpu around 83°C, dcxo0 : 80°C and modem around 78°C.

Therma paste fixed my problem.


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Bought an app, uninstalled it and automatically got a refund - how to disable?
Few hours ago I bought an app on Google Play Store that I don't need at a moment, but it looked handy and was on sale. I have installed it, fiddled with it for a few minutes and then uninstalled it. As soon as it finished uninstalling, I got an email that my order was cancelled and refunded. The app isn't in my library anymore and I can buy it again.
I don't remember it happening previously when I uninstalled apps just after buying, so it looks like this automatic cancellation was introduced recently. (Or perhaps it's configured per app by developer?)

Can I opt out of this feature and not get refunds automatically?
Is there any official statement from Google that such feature was enabled?

This is almost certainly a feature of this specific application.  Why not name it so people can actually investigate your problem?

It was Tasker, if that matters.

You need it for at least 2 hours

@rrrrrrrrrr I know that refunds are time-limited, that doesn't answer my question.

It's an old question but here is what I could find

Google Play Refund Policies (click on "refund policies" on first line). says

You may get an automatic refund if you uninstall a paid app shortly after first buying it. If you want to reinstall the app, you'll have to buy it again and you will not be eligible for a refund on that purchase.

(Emphasis added)

That explains why you got a refund and IMO, it has nothing to do with an app being on sale. It's applicable to paid apps.
Google doesn't define shortly (I couldn't find)
I couldn't find anything that one can opt out to prevent this happening, so don't be in a tearing hurry to uninstall paid apps (you have 48 hours to claim a refund - see this answer)
As per this blog, if you purchase but don't download the app, you can circumvent the immediate - uninstall - refund

This Reddit thread hinted that it has been for a long time (even since Android Market, but questionable...), but the time limit for automatic refund was changed from 24 hours -> 15 minutes -> 2 hours.

@AndrewT - I have a feeling things are mixed up. 1.for  immediate uninstall as in the Q I couldn't find time limit (doesn't mean it doesn't exist :-) 2.Two hours was the standard refund policy, now it is 48 hours and possibly 15 minutes refers to intimating that your refund is accepted click on refund policy - follow these instructions 3. As we know with Google, things keep changing so often, so it's possible what the edit claims may have been applicable at some point

@AndrewT - see, when I wrote this answer, it was 2 hours, now it is 48! https://android.stackexchange.com/a/131442/131553

@AndrewT in the comment before last please read reddit for edit

Oops, forgot to mention the Reddit thread was from 2015...


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Where are WhatsApp call logs stored?
I know about the .db files and files that are used to store messages or so, but I need to know where are the call logs stored too. Thank you very much.

All user installed application data are stored in /data/data/package_name and database(.db files) are stored in /data/data/package_name/databases.
You need to manually find which db from /data/data/package_name/databases file is  call logs file.


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100% CPU load, battery drain with no app minimized/running in the background
I have a Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 S625 global variant (4/64GB). A day or so ago, I noticed a quick battery drain (from 100% to 24% after a whole night idle and 2-3 hours of heavy use the next day) and from there, it was dropping a percent every 2nd-3rd minute. It never happened before as it's a 4000mAh battery and usually lasts around 2 days on normal use.
I'm new to the smartphone world and I was reading online about the usual causes of battery drain including background apps consuming it and overcharging issues damaging the battery. I got worried as last night it was indeed left plugged in for like 2-3 hours maybe after a full charge. So either the battery is damaged due to overcharging, or it's some software issue.
Now what I noticed is the CPU usage is maxed with no app running in the background. I don't know if CPU-Z's usage info is accurate, but it's 100% when the battery is like 15% or lower and 40-50% when the battery is 20% or above. Maybe there's some background process or maybe it's normal, I don't know. I'm pretty clueless at this point. Here's a screenshot of CPU-Z:

Really appreciate it if anyone helped me with this one. Thanks.

The reason for battery drain is mostly app. Either because of the poor development skills of the developer or because the app is doing something it shouldn't. Well, if you overcharged it for 2 hours after the full charge, you don't have to worry. No battery is that bad to die like that. I mostly left my phone on the charger overnight and I don't have any problems, yet :).
Is the screenshot from CPU-Z taken just when it loaded or a few seconds later? Because in every phone, when it just loads, it shows high CPU usage.
However, you should see if there is any shady app like fancy keyboards or fancy galleries. Try deleting them and see what is happening or apps installed out of the Play Store.
You can use an app called Wakelock Detector to see what is causing the problem. You can find some help about it on XDA.

Thanks. The picture is taken after a few seconds. I'm aware that it goes high as soon as you launch CPU-Z but the picture is taken after sometime and the usage it show stays between 80s and 100s. I have Gboard and default gallery and will stay with them as they do the job.

Now after charging to 90% and restarting phone, usage was between 15-20% and it has risen to  40-50% after sometime at 84% battery. Will try factory resetting it to see if it's caused by an app.


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Can't move System from one phone to another using twrp?
I have a HTC desire 510 (broken) and a HTC desire 510 (rather unharmed).
I made a backup of the system on the old one to the new one using twrp 3.1.1 to the external sd card.
If I put the sd card in the new phone, I can't restore the backup to the new phone, as the backup is not shown to select in twrp. On the other hand the backup of the stock sw I did on the new phone is available for restore. What can I do?

In the new phone's TWRP, did you select External Storage or External SD as the storage from where to restore?

I had only one option, Internal Storage and External SD. This phone does not have an "internal" external storage as it can be found on the samsung galaxy SII. I found the solution in the mean time.

Found the solution in the thing called „internet“:
(in the following it is assumed, that all backups are stored to a SD card).
TWRP stores backups with a „serial number“ of the phone. i.e. when looking into a SD card, there is a folder called TWRP/BACKUPS. Inside this there are subfolders named after a unique ID for every phone. E.g. CC48TY402141 or something like this. I think TWRP derives this code from the IMEI and possibly from other information on the hardware of the phone.
Inside such a subfolder all backups from a certain phone ares stored.
To convince TWRP to restore the backup from my old phone to a new phone I had to do the following:
I made a backup of the stock software of my new phone. TWRP then created a new subfolder with the ID for the new phone in TWRP/BACKUPS, and stored the backup of the stock ROM there. Then I moved the backup out of the subfolder from my old phone into the new subfolder. After restarting TWRP the backup from my old phone was available and could be restored to the new phone without any hassle.

+1: did not think about this. Very good.

By the way, for my device, the unique ID is equal to the ro.serialno property, readable by using getprop ro.serialno.


text:
Why is data usage very high in the Instagram app?
Just by opening your instagram app you will be faced with a high volume of internet usage
Why is data usage very high in the Instagram app?

Because on Instagram is a lot of pictures and videos and that uses quite a lot of data. I don't use Instagram a lot but it used about 7GB of data in less then a month (on wifi). However there is "cellular data use" in instagram settings and you have option to set it to use less data, however I don't know how efficient is that.


text:
Why Android phones do not have firewalls?
By default, Android phones don't have firewall (unless the user roots the phone and installs it themselves).
On Windows PCs, they have a built-in firewall, and warn the user of security risks if they disable it.
That doesn't make sense, since phones aren't being less exposed to malicious networks than computers. And even more, most Android phones can't be updated to received the security patches after the OEM support period ends, while Windows PCs still can receive security updates for a long period of time.

What do you think a firewall on the phone would achieve?

@DanHulme just like iPhone, disallow some apps from making any kind of internet connection.

Manufacturers and even Google often do not give their reasons for a lot of things. If you can't find the reason on the web through a search, it is unlikely the reason behind the decision is publicly and authoritative available.

Most consumer firewalls block incoming connections only and allow all outgoing traffic. This is to make configuration easier; you enumerate what services you are running and want to allow, but you do not need to enumerate all the kinds of outgoing connections you want to allow.
Most Android devices do not run as servers. Setting up a server process that can listen and respond continuously breaks power-saving features. If you want to send data to an Android device, you get the Android device to connect to you, possibly alerting or sending via cloud messaging, which is a connection setup and managed for power-saving from the Android client-side.
What will a consumer firewall do for a device that isn't running services? Nothing, because there is nothing listening that you can block traffic to.
If you run server processes on your Android device, this situation obviously changes, but this is not the expected normal usage.

It might be worth adding a bit of background about the contrasting fact that PCs do typically run as servers, in some respects.

Plus, it makes more sense for Android firewalls to block outgoing traffic, especially in light of the fact that plenty of Android apps "call home".

Since your home router blocks all incoming ports by default, and your phone still works, you can still use a firewall, but I don't see an actual reason for that.
The truth is, there is no need for a firewall for Android devices as long as you use reputable Android apps from the Google store. You are unlikely to encounter any issues as long as you are not using any suspicious apps which leak information (even reputable apps from the Play Store may leak private information to third parties for the purpose of advertising, and that one may not like it).
Even though you installed a firewall on your device, you are not fully protected against WiFi eavesdroppers in cafes, coffee shops, airports, schools, and hotels. In such a case, you can secure your wireless internet connection using a VPN connection to create several security layers. When connected to a VPN, all your Internet traffic is sent from your computer/device through an encrypted tunnel to the VPN provider’s network. Thus it’s encrypted and secured from any local Wi-Fi eavesdroppers at the hotspot.


text:
Blue light filter turns on automatically at sunset, but often doesn't turn off at sunrise
I have a manufacturer-unlocked Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (purchased directly from samsung.com), which came with Marshmallow but has been updated OTA to 7.0 Nougat, and is not rooted.
One new feature Marshmallow brings is the Blue Light Filter, which has options for automatically turning on and off, either according to a schedule you specify, or at night based on your local sunset and sunrise.
I'm using the latter option, and while I've found the filter to reliably turn on every day at sunset, I frequently have to manually turn it off the next day. It's not 100% of the time though, and in fact, on rare occasions, I have woken up before sunrise and been using my phone when the filter suddenly turned off, so I know it is at least capable of working properly. (Note that it has never, to my knowledge, failed to turn on at sunset, regardless of whether I'm using it at that time or not.) I'm speculating that maybe it's failing to turn off if the phone is in deep sleep mode at sunrise. The times of sunset and sunrise are determined based on your location, so an as-yet-unnoticed issue with Location Services could theoretically be a factor as well.
I did a Google search and was able to find informational articles about the feature in general, as well as multiple forum posts from users experiencing problems getting the feature to turn on or work at all, but found no reports of it otherwise working properly, but not automatically turning off.
Am I the only one experiencing this issue? Is it something specific to the S7 Edge, or to Samsung builds in general, or is the same problem known to occur on other devices? And of course, most importantly: How can I get the Blue Light Filter to reliably turn off at sunrise?

I, unfortunately, don't have an answer for you. I have an S8 and mine was working flawlessly until I recently wiped my device and reinstalled everything. My S8 is now doing exactly what you are describing. I see your post is quite old and wondered if you figured it out on your phone? Previous to my S8 I also had an S7E that did the same thing. Thanks. Paul J Reed

I never did figure it out, no, but it seems to have stopped occurring, because I'd forgotten about this post! My only guess is that either: an OTA software update fixed it; some app was interfering, which I've since uninstalled; or something deep down in either the power-saving or app permissions menus was responsible (I've messed around with each several times since I last recall experiencing the issue).

@PaulReed See the answer I just posted. Haven't investigated it more deeply to verify that this is indeed the cause, but it's an educated guess. The problem resurfaced at one point and I think that sometime before that I had gone through and made some pretty extensive changes to the advanced options of the power-saving and other Samsung-provided device management features, in trying to troubleshoot some other issue.

It turns out that it seems to be related to the power-saving features on the S7. Apparently at some point, the background process that automatically turns the filter on and off at scheduled times got added to the list of processes to be managed by the power-saving mechanism, after which point, any time my phone was in power-saving mode and had not been used recently, the scheduled toggle of the filter's state would not fire. I'm assuming that was just never the case at sunset, as I'm much more likely to have used my phone recently at sunset than at sunrise.

The times of sunset and sunrise are determined based on your location, so an as-yet-unnoticed issue with Location Services could theoretically be a factor as well.

This is indeed another possible cause.
This sometimes happens on my Google Pixel 3a with the equivalent Night Light feature since I usually turn off the location service. It seems when the current location is very stale/outdated, the feature will be automatically paused.
When this happens, I can just turn on the location service for a moment and wait until the device is located, then the Night Light will be enabled/disabled automatically again, then I can turn off the location service afterward.

+1 . on Android 13 Pixel6a, I have turned off location services but yes night light still works likely because in the sub menu "Google location accuracy" is enabled

Disabled Google location accuracy and set night light to start a few minutes later.. It gave me warnings but then turned night light on time!  Vagaries of versions

But then, this needs to observed (turns stale ss you say)

@beeshyams yeah, based on my personal observation, "stale" might mean "more than 3 days or even 1 week", then it suddenly didn't turn on/kept turned on, either at sunset or sunrise.

guess stale time depends on Android version too (on 13 now) . Device location has been off for 3 weeks now, "sunset to sunrise" works though I'm settings of schedule it flipped on it's own to "none"


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Is it possible to send a text as my un-rooted device is shutting down using Tasker or any other method?
I've set up a Device Shutdown event on Tasker, and I'm trying to use it to send an SMS text before the device dies due to the battery dying. I've got:
Event: Device Shutdown -> Task: Phone: Send SMS

Send SMS is set up currently to just send to myself for testing, but it's not working. I was hoping to have it send a text to the last sender if the last text received was less than 10 minutes ago, and the battery is below 3%, but I can't even get it to just send a simple text without conditions.
According to the tasker help file:

The phone is about to shutdown (completely turned off, not standby).
Note: this is right before shutdown. You might backup a file or
  similar, but UI interactions such as dialogs and anything that takes a
  significant amount of time will not work.

From this note, my guess is that Send SMS takes too long to execute, however I thought I'd throw this question out anyway.

You should use State > Battery Level as a profile context with minimum and maximum battery as 3%.
In the task, You can use %SMSRN to get phone number of last received SMS.
Then to check the condition of whether Last SMS text is received less than 10 minutes.
%TIMES has the current time in seconds. You need to use Variable Convert
to get %SMSRT time in seconds and then do maths on the two values,
You can also use the / and % maths operator to get things like 'remaining minutes'.


text:
Nexus 7 (2012) soft bricked not recognized by OS
I'm going to say in advance that I'm no expert in this subject, so any help is well appreciated...
I have a Nexus 7 (2012) that I had rooted to install Cyanogen Mod in the past. Long story short: The device wasn't working well with CMod, I tried to flash stock again through TWRP but the rom was corrupted and now I'm stucked in a bootloop. I believe it is soft bricked but:

The device doesn't show up/mount on Win10/Linux even after installing drivers, changing usb ports or cables etc.
Adb or fastboot doesn't show any devices
USBDeview doesn't show my device

If anybody in here can help, I'll be forever grateful.

Download factory images. Power down device, hold volume up+down + power. That should get you booted to fastboot (bootloader) and flash factory image with fastboot. A thread with full instructions

@Josue Riveira Have you read that fastboot doesn't show the device? Because if it's a common flash procedure it won't work

@ThiagoM It means you have not setup fastboot properly.. Or you're missing something, like for example, some devices require you to specify the vendorId in the fastboot command itself, like fastboot -i vendorId flash blah bomb. Check your XDA forum for proper guides

@GokulNC As I said before, fastboot command does not work. I've tried again just for sure, the only thing I get is <waiting for any device>, for ever.


text:
Accidentally Uninstalled Download Manager
I was using my phone ASUS Zenfone Max when I accidentally uninstalled my Download Manager, I thought it was a random pop up download when you go to sites so I deleted it. After that, when I tried download photos from Google, a window popped saying "The Browser has stopped working". I have also tried to download from Google Play Store, but it won't let me download any apps at all. I also tried opening the "Downloads", that can be found on the settings, but this pop up window shows up see photo. I tried downloading an apk file using another download manager (named ADP), it got installed, but when I tried to download photos again from browser and apps on Play Store it still won't let me. I think the reason is that the one I deleted is the built in app. I don't know if I reset my phone will help me to download files again. Please help, I have already searched the internet but I still can't find a solution.

https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/26797/how-can-i-replace-stock-download-manager-that-google-play-uses?rq=1

Is your device rooted? If not, it is odd that you were able to uninstall your Download Manager (probably com.android.providers.downloads), as it is a system app. Are you sure that it isn't just disabled? As for why both the Browser and the Play Store aren't working, it is due to them handing over the download to the Download Manager, which, in your case, is missing. Since those apps expect the abovementioned to be present, an alternative one won't work.

My big brother has the same phone (ASUS Zenfone Max). He installed an app where he can send built in apps to other devices via APK. So he sent the Download Manager APK on my phone, tried to install it but the "com.android.providers.downloads is not working" still keept popping out. In the end I decided to Factory Reset my phone. And it worked.
My phone is not rooted so I was shocked that I deleted a built in app. Maybe because of the pop up download I got when I went to a website (I was checking sites to download Korean Dramas). I read from forums that if they deleted a built in app and chose factory reset there was no assurance that the said app will be in the device, so I presumed that by sending and installing the original apk file of DM and by choosing Factory Reset the system will recognize the installed apk file and reset it.

You can never delete a system app through Settings app. Since the device was't rooted, it is clear that you ended up disabling it which was reverted to stock condition after factory reset. Your action of sideloading an APK didn't make any effect, because factory reset clears everything a user did before reset, including sideloading any APK (unless moved to non-data, non-cache partitions). ;-)

It would be better if you reset your device. It reinstalls all the base applications. But be sure to backup all the files.

Resetting a device only wipes the user's data. It could help in case the OP deactivated the Download Manager, but not if they actively uninstalled it.

Resetting some devices reinstalls the base system in that device from scratch. Anyway that's how it goes with my device. If you backup your data there is no problem resetting a device. It should work.

It may work for a stock device with a flashable copy of the stock system already provided by the manufacturer and if the stock recovery has already been instructed to do so. It won't work for custom ROMs, though.

That's the risk of installing  custom roms

Not much of a risk, since one just needs to reflash a zip, with no userdata loss. Anyways, let's wait for the asker to test the solution.

Check your Android version . Get the app file from someone with the same Android version . Install the file and convert it to system file and reboot .
Next time don't mess with system apps

If your phone is rooted and custom recovery is installed then you can reflash gapps it will solve your problem(choose gapps according to your mobile architecture) open gapps link here.
Disclaimer I'm not responsible if you bricked your device. Do it your own responsibility.

-1: the Download Manager is a system app which has nothing to do with the Gapps.


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Switching app icon background from white back to transparent
I'm using a Xiaomi phone running Android 6.0.1 MMB29M with MIUI global version 8.5.3.0 (MALMIED). A while ago I foolishly tried out some of the themes available by default, then hoped to switch back. That didn't really work, in the sense that no matter what I now do, the app icons now have a white background instead of the transparency many of them used to have.
How can I enable app icon transparency again?
Edit: I've looked at
Remove App icon background
and tried to use the first solution suggested there, but it's not clear to me how to install a .mtz file; the theme settings doesn't allow it, nor does double-clicking the .mtz in the file explorer.
Notes:

I'm hoping for an easy solution of course, but I won't hesitate to SSH into that sucker and edit stuff manually if need be.
If you need additional information, ask in the comments.
I don't have a Google Play account nor an account with Xiaomi, and would like to keep it that way if possible :-(


text:
How to remove the SIM Toolkit from my phone? (Without root or flashing any ROM)
This application is sending a lot of spam to my phone recently, two or three times a day. I deactivated broadcast messages, tried converting USSD pop-ups into notifications to avoid being interrupted (didn't work). Basically, everything I tried didn't work, so now I want to remove it from my phone. Is it possible to do it without root, with ADB or something? I'm not a power user but I have used ADB to give permissions to some apps before.

This might help: How to Uninstall Carrier/OEM Bloatware Without Root Access

@GokulNC Just as a heads-up, SIM Toolkit is installed on /system even on LineageOS, hence it doesn't seem to be related to carriers.

@DeathMaskSalesman Though the title of the article reads 'Carrier/OEM', they mean all the system apps.

@GokulNC Of course. Mine was just a precisation.

Connect Your Phone to PC Using Data Cable.
Turn on USB Debugging
Setup ADB Connection
Type
adb shell

Hit Enter and type again this
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.android.stk

or
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.android.stk2

Application Remove Example Image

to backup (we can restore'm too) and list the packages: https://stackoverflow.com/a/4033005/1422630

An app can be disabled without root by running
adb shell pm disable-user com.android.stk

I've prefixed adb shell because pm commands usually are not available to untrusted users/apps.

If the app in question is stored in /system and it cannot be disabled then it's impossible to remove/disable without root. Android simply doesn't allow "user" to mess with system apps. That being said without knowing device specifics I've seen some cheap chinese phones include adb root which is a somewhat watered down root specific to adb (usually only for debug builds). To test have adb working on a pc and while connected to device and run adb root. If it works it should restart adb service with root perms. But again this is a longshot.
Assuming you get root (one way or another) and you know the name of the app in question find it in system/app or system/priv-app. Mount system as rw and remove the app (I'd recommend copying it to your pc as a backup just in case something breaks).