text:
LineageOS - is it possible to install and run apps without using Gapps or MicroG?
I am trying to work out whether it would be possible to use a custom rom such as LineageOS without flashing Gapps rather than using the LineageOS+MicroG as an option. The basic requirement is to be able move away from the Big Brother.
I have read that LineageOS+MicroG option is a good one but it creates security risks because of the need to do signature spoofing.
I am just a newbie here and wondering whether it would be possible to install a downloaded apk directly on LineageOS? If yes, would like to find more details on this process. If no, are there any solutions to this problem or we just have to put up with the Big Brother until Linux phones make inroads into this space?
Many thanks
EDIT: Thanks for all those who provided valuable comments/suggestions. I decided to try out LineageOS for MicroG and found it quite a painless process. The phone works great without the Big Brother tracking me. I also run DNS66 (from F-Droid Store) which stops ads on some apps. Overall, pretty much impressed with the outcome.
Thanks again.

As mentioned I am a newbie in this space and trying to get my head around this issue. Would appreciate if you can point me to a good source explaining this. So far, I have only found out that there is a security issue using MicroG but haven't seen anything that refutes this. Thanks.

I feel like there's a different concern: 1) yes, it's possible to install and run apps without any Google dependency (custom ROM cannot include Google apps by default), but 2) apps that relies on Google services might not work well, and thus needs Google replacement, like OpenGApps, MicroG, etc... otherwise, download alternative apps that don't rely on Google services at all.

@AndrewT., thanks very much for the clarification. Is signature spoofing a requirement with OpenGApps as well?

@gdesilva no. OpenGapps is a bundle of Google Play Services, its dependencies, and other Google apps, originally developed by Google. So they don't need spoofing. microG is an alternative, hacked, open source, partial implementation of Play Services. The microG package com.google.android.gms claiming to be Play Services (Google Mobile Suite) is not developed by Google, so needs to spoof its signatures. // All of this has nothing to do with app installation, which always works. But apps dependent on Google APIs may not work without GMS/GSF etc. Or may work with limited functionality.

Related answers: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/209870/218526, https://android.stackexchange.com/a/217900/218526, https://android.stackexchange.com/a/216646/218526, https://android.stackexchange.com/a/215550/218526

Many people are going Google-free and gapps-free now.
Do it like this:
Install F-Droid store, then install Aurora store from F-Droid.
Aurora store is to install apps from Google Play store.
Most Play store apps will run fine...  some won't.  For those, look for alternatives.


text:
Why my Android suddenly stopped connecting to my Mac?
I usually use my Android device (Samsung Galaxy S7, Android version 8.0.0) to debug my app from my Mac (developer option enabled). Usually when I connected my Android, the Android File Transfer will start to jump around to complaint that it can't browse my Android, and on my Android, it will ask some kind of permission for the computer to access local files. After I say yes, the Android File Transfer will immediately show my Android file contents. But even without that, my Android will usually still showing up on adb devices.
But today, nothing showed up on my Mac, at all. Android Studio doesn't see anything. adb devices doesn't show any device connected. The Android also doesn't show any sign that it's connected, like a kind of notification that it's connecting using MTP or PTP. Now there's no such notification. The Android File Transfer also silent. If I open it manually, it shows "No Android device found. Please connect your Android device with USB cable to get started." But the Android device is still charging.
I tried using different Android device, using the same cable. The Android File Transfer happily jumped around at the first chance. So it's not about the cable either.
How can I fix this?

Check the Android USB settings if it is set to "Charge only".

@Robert it’s set to MTP. I do see an option above it says “charge only”, but the currently selected option is “MTP”.

And sorry to state the obvious, you have rebooted both devices (phone and Mac)? I've had to do that sometimes on my Mac.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Could a Play Store family plan block apps abroad on my Google account
Background:
I have a problem with region-blocked apps.
After moving abroad I must download region-specific banking and eid apps and after changing my Play Store Region, paying methods, clearing cache, and memory I still can't access the applications I need.
Interestingly, when I log my old university e-mail on Play Store I can access all the apps I need even though this Google account has no Paying methods and not even a registered address.
Question:
Is the account I want to use having its access deferred because of a Google Music Family Plan subscription from the country I travelled from.
Even if I'm not the Family Plan manager could this payment block apps where I am now?

Apparently yes.
Google family subscription can cause your Play Store to not recognize a new area you are in. I suppose it has to do with certain group permissions such as sharing Play Store settings and app versions.
Anyway, after quiting the Google family group I was in, my Play Store showed the apps I needed.

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


text:
Why does my mobile data work only on hotspot?
I own a Samsung Galaxy A71 and I'm on Reliance Jio network.
When I had bought this phone and put a new Jio SIM on it, my mobile data worked fine, but the hotspot didn't. My laptop browser said 'DNS not found' or something along those lines. I solved it by updating APN settings.
Fast forward to eight months.
Right now it's the exact opposite. My mobile data works very rarely. I get maybe a bar of signal at best. On 4G network I get 20-30 Kbps. A WhatsApp message goes through after 10 min. But if I connect my laptop through the hotspot, suddenly the data works seamlessly without any problems. A YouTube video on the laptop at 720p can load without any buffers, the same cannot be said on the app in my phone.
Any idea why this would happen? Something to do with the APN? Or something with the network?
Also, the JIO tower is right next to my house. Why would I get only a bar of signal?


text:
Which app in Play Store shall I use for app2sd and how shall I use it?
I am learning info from https://android.stackexchange.com/tags/insufficient-memory/info, which says too options for moving apps from internal storage to removable SD card.
My Android 4.4.2 is not rooted, so I guess my Android system itself isn't able to move app to SD card.
According to https://android.stackexchange.com/tags/app2sd/info, which app in Play Store shall I use for my Android 4.4.2? Is Link2SD a good one for mine? I was wondering how to use it? I selected some apps (by starring them), but I don't know what to do next.

Thanks.

this kind of apps require root access (or at least a mount script, for which you need a root access)

Is there an app which doesn't require root access? What is my option now for the problem of https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/228892/how-can-i-increase-storage-space

root with Kingroot, install SuperSU and delete Kingroot manually. i recommend to make a file list of /system before, that way you know where Kingroot have placed hidden files

To avoid the kingbloat: shouldn't Towelroot work on Kitkat devices?

Don't use any app. Bind mount directories (like /data/data or /data/media) manually by putting an init.d script.

@IrfanLatif Could you be specific?


text:
Can 2 smartphones be connected via microUSB-USB cable + OTG USB female 2 microUSB for ADB to work?
re.:
Can 2 smartphones be connected via microUSB-USB cable + OTG USB female 2 microUSB  for ADB to work?
There are USB C <> USB C cables on a market, found none microUSB <> microUSB
So not sure if using USB hub as a middle-man can work or should I use 2 OTG  microUSB <> USB female cables,  interconnected by USB2USB cable
--
Ok, started with microUSB 2 USB cable inzserted into OTG USG female 2 microUSB cable to get microUSB 2 microUSB cable.
Should I enable USB debugging on both devices ?
I connect from Android 5.0.2 smartphone to  Android 4.2 tablet
On tablet , the only selectable application for usb debugging is called
com.android.partnerbrowsercustomizations.example
just enabled it on tablet
run on smartphone in Terminal Emulator
adb devices
daemon started successfully
starting it now on port 5038
List of devices attached
none
adb list devices
Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.32
and help list
no IP address on tablet
device not connected
is OTG cable not fit for ADB ?

Why do you want to use a USB cable if the objective is to use adb on one phone to access another? Just setup adb in wireless mode on one phone, connect both phones to same wireless network, then use another phone with adb client to access the first phone.

@Firelord Robert from another thread, advised me to start ADB connection with USB cable than switch to WiFi mode,  since USB cable connection to be mandatory
BTW
I would prefer WiFi Direct communication, no router involved, if supported by 2 Android smaretphones.
This is my first ADB try, so I follow advices provided by others.

@Firelord
"Wireless ADB on non-rooted Devices
Note: This requires a one time use of a USB cable, so have one handy.
from
https://beebom.com/how-use-adb-wirelessly-android-device/

@Firelord
"Wireless ADB on Rooted Devices
If you’re on a rooted device, you don’t need a USB cable. Not even once.
from
https://beebom.com/how-use-adb-wirelessly-android-device/


text:
My android keeps telling me my lock password is wrong but it's correct
After rebooting my  rooted, unencrypted, android phone, the lock screen keeps telling me my password is wrong. But I am very sure that the password is correct. Because I input this password once per day. I have adb debug enabled and I can connect this phone to computer, what can I do now? I don't want to reset my phone, that will lose my data. Thanks a lot.
PS: Another weird thing is even if it keeps telling me my password is wrong, after attempting this correct password many times (more than 30 times, I didn't count), there is no password failure attempts warning at all.

Is the password prompt the regular lock screen or the mini-OS after boot that allows you to enter the FDE encryption password? If it is the latter the expected password may be different from your lock screen password. Both can be changed independently on a rooted device.

@Robert the phone is not encrypted at all. So no FDE. Just a regular lock screen. Because the phone is 3 years old and battery is not very well, I keep rebooting the phone about every two days and thus I does enter the password every two days. I am quite familiar with this rebooting and entering lock screen password process. But today, it's just weird day and the system no longer accept my correct password anymore.

guess some file corruption caused this. ext4 journaling file system is not the best choice for eMMC NAND flash memory (even if it's just one upper layer, and the drivers already provide smart underlaying wear-levelling) - be prepared for more failures in the next months and dead eMMC in the end

@alecxs Thanks a lot for telling me the possible cause. I thought it was hard drive (NAND chip) issue too. Does it mean my NAND chip drive reaches the end of its life? Does it mean the phone will become a rubbish soon? Since the NAND chip is built-in, it's not easy to change the NAND chip. This is the second phone I met such issue. Does phone have so short lifetime? I can use my more than 10 years old laptop today, but can not use more than 2 or 3 years phone.

yesterday a friends Galaxy J6 (2018) died out of nowhere, right after 25 month (24 months warranty). can't even reach recovery or download mode, it always boot loops on splash screen when holding volume dn + power for 10 seconds. i told him it's a brick

@alecxs Thanks for sharing the experience. OK. So phone (emmc) breaks too easily. It's really not worth it.

I found a working method in XDA article 1 and XDA article 2. It's lucky that my android phone is rooted, so I can simply remove the key files and reboot :
adb devices
adb shell
su
rm /data/system/*.key
rm /data/system/locksettings.db
rm /data/system/locksettings.db-wal
rm /data/system/locksettings.db-shm

One more thing which bothered me is I have no ideas what the problem really is at the beginning. I did see some online questoins regarding the same issue such as link, but so far, no one can provide a logic explanation about this issue.

only for devices where login credentials not involved in encryption


text:
How to resize the screen of the virtual android

Is there any way of resizing the screen in correlation with the virtual device? I have been looking everywhere but none seems to have my problem or I may be missing something. Waited for the device to boot and it still has the same problem. When resizing the device the screens get much smaller following resizing.

Wait until the emulated device has been booted, then you should be able to resize the virtual device and the virtual display. At least it works out of the box without problems.

@Robert the problem still persists. I've installed it long before and it works fine but now I don't know what could be the problem. I have a missing adb but that doesn't effect the screen size does it?


text:
Is there a way to allow app permissions while not allowing them?
I have an app (android) I want to use for something minor, so it's not a need, just a want. All it's supposed to do is control some lights. But it's asking for every permission you can think of (Chinese apps) and of course I am not about to let some LED controller app access my contacts, location and make phone calls etc. So is there a way to run an app in like a virtual environment so I can allow it to have those permissions while feeding it useless information? The app in question is BLE Remote.
Apologies I am TERRIBLE at asking questions...

Relatedly what happens if you deny permissions to the app?

You don't need all those permissions. Get another app.

It is possible if your device is rooted. If not search for open source equivalents on F-Droid or search in Izzy's app lists

You could repackage the app and remove the unnecessary permissions: Decompile it with apktool, remove the permissions from AndroidManifest.xml rebuild it with apktool and then sign it with a custom key (Java keytool can generate those) signing can be done using apksignerfrom Android SDK.

It depends upon how the app is programmed. You can try using XPrivacyLua (requires a rooted device) or AppOps (from Sikka apps -- may be Chinese developers, don't know for sure). Both of these apps can restrict specific data leakage (contacts, IMEI, etc.). So even if you agree to allow XYZ permissions to your concerned apps  they still wouldn't get the data they requested.


text:
IP blacklisted - unusual traffic - possible malware?
Over the past month I've had about 5 or so occasions where Google force me to do a capture on a normal search, saying that there is unusual traffic from my device.
Recently, past few days, I've had a few specific websites and apps timeout while all other services work as normal.
So, I decided to look into my devices traffic. I found this quite difficult on an android device. But what I did find is that my ip address appears on two blacklists. One of the blacklists state the following:
This IP is infected (or NATting for a computer that is infected) with an infection that is emitting spam.

Note: [ip removed] appeared to be suspicious because it was using the following name to identify itself during email connections (port 25) via the HELO/EHLO smtp commands: ".".

I have installed avg antivirus and performed I full scan where no threats were found. The only email client I use is gmail which does not use port 25. Avg does not have a firewall so I have not yet blocked outgoing requests on port 25.

How might I find out what is sending requests over port 25?
How might I remove it
Are there any other steps I should take?

Please help.
Thanks.
Nokia 7.2 handset
Android 10 (up to date)
Using 4g connection
Edit 1: I have factory reset my device and have a different IP address. As soon as I went into chrome I was greeted with "we have detected unusual traffic from your computer network" and the new IP appears on two blacklists for the same reasons. Although the connectivity issues to specific websites have now been solved.

Are you using a VPN? That's one common reason for this as I realised when I had this issue long back

It's possible that this is a dynamic IP and thus you're sharing IP with others. I've had once the same experience when accessing Wikipedia and noticing I suddenly got a notification for vandalism from my IP address. At this point, the issue is possibly not on your device, but you're just unlucky to get this IP address from your data provider. Try toggling the mobile data (or airplane mode) to reset the IP address and hope that you get a new IP address that is not blacklisted. Otherwise, contact your mobile provider to let them know about this issue.

@beeshyams I am not using a vpn

@Andrew T. I have toggles my data and it yields the same up address, also since this problem started I have restarted my device dozens of times.

Regarding the edit, there are at least 2 probable causes: 1) your device is infected (and this question is a valid question trying to identify the culprit, perhaps https://android.stackexchange.com/q/17745/44325 might help), or 2) a range of IP address is blacklisted due to someone else on the same provider doing something suspicious, which you can't do anything about it (perhaps VPN might help, otherwise note each blacklisted IP address and tell the mobile provider to investigate the issue)


text:
Android telephone with a screen that works inside the rain/water spray just as well as in dry region
Well I keep having to fight with all telephones I buy. often wishing back to the time when you could just call instead of having to type on a touch pad.
Not because I don't like it, but because the smart screens seem to live their own lives when they get wet/droplets fall on them.
In my work and generally whereever I am it's more often than not wet and I need to be able to communicate with people in those weathers. I could of course wipe the screen, but within seconds the screen is doing its own thing already. (Currently owning a pixel 3). On top of that even in dry weather the screen seems to have a lot of "ghost" clicks when I touch it, that or it doesn't recognize my touches at all...
Is there a way I can make the screen less random and working better in rain?
I've tried several models, pixels nexus phones one plus, samsung... All seem to fail me.

Do you use a screen protector? That should help in moisturise interacting with screen, especially if it's tempered glass with a high rating

Runbo X3 or similar

@alecxs do you really suggest that only "rugged gear" things work in rain? I find that hard to believe: in a lot of places there are more days with rain than dry days. So why wouldn't high end mobiles aim for those?

first cars in the world where electric. i still can barely see on german roads. that's also hard to believe. i think only good old gsm cell phone with physical buttons is recommended. google is one of the worst quality products


text:
How to root "Samsung Galaxy A11" (model number: SM-A115F/DSN)?
I have SM-A115F/DSN (Galaxy A11) running Android-10.
Can I root it and, if so, how?
Maybe someone has already rooted the same device.
I am a beginner and I need a complete step-by-step method. Thank you in advance.

https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/blob/master/README.MD#introduction https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=4139015

https://android.stackexchange.com/q/225021


text:
How do I change default search provider in Firefox?
I have been using All the Internet on my computer and now I want to make it my main search provider in Firefox on my Galaxy S20.
Does anyone know how to change your main search provider so it would now be alltheinternet.com ?  I would love to be able to have it on both my computer and on my phone.

You can manually add a search provider to Firefox this way:

Open Firefox app
Click on the 3-dots-menu (in the new Firefox version in the lower right corner:

Select Settings
Select Search
Select Add search engine
Select the option Other and enter the following values:

Name: All the Internet (adapt to your preferences)
Search string: https://www.alltheinternet.com/?q=%s

Save the entered values using the check mark in the top right corner
Mark the entry "All the Internet" in he search engine list as default search engine.

You can configure a different/custom search engine as follows:

Open Firefox
Click on the 3-dots-symbol (top right corner)
Click "Settings"
Click "Search"
Select another search engine as standard (by just clicking on it) or add a custom one (which is the last possible action in the list of available options)

the 3-dots icon is now on the lower right corner (new Firefox version). And the list of available search engines does not contain an entry for alltheinternet.com".

Well, it depends on your settings. Actually, you can lift the url/settings bar up again (as it used to be). It's just the default setting that has changed, indeed. And yes, alltheinternet.com is not part of the readily available options. But that's why I stated that one may add custom search engine.


text:
How can I configure Telegram to open links using Opera Browser instead of Chrome?
My Android is v6, but answers for any other modern version are OK too.

Install Better open with, reset all defaults and use that to select the Telegram link to show an option to open with other browsers ( I don't have Opera installed but you can see other browsers in the screenshot below). You can set it by "always open with" or give you the choice to select (it has a timer option for selection)

click to enlarge


text:
device boots into recovery every time I reboot, probably because playing with a system app
Today I removed chrome browser that was a system app. At first unintentionally my hand tapped on "integrate updated system app into rom" (titanium backup app) and my immediate attempts to cancel it failed, and chrome icon changed to android robot. Then without any restart I uninstalled it using titanium backup, so that icon got disappeared.
I used my phone for a couple of hours until I attached it to the charger and turned it off. Now every time I reboot, it boots into recovery (twrp 3.0.2).
My phone is Sm-J510F with official android 7.1.1 and it's rooted.
Is there any hope I can boot into system without factory reset?

There can be several possibilities so let's check step by step

check whether your volume kye is not pressed ( what happens if your device has fallen down by the volume side there are chances that the volume button would have got pressed.

2.if the 1st is not your problem then try checking your Rom setting if your device is rooted. there are chances that while flashing custom rom your rom would have been not flashed properly so the device gets into a loop and is not able to load your rom.

if not rooted, then there are chances that the problem is with your rom.

solution
Try hard resetting your device this may fix it.
or reinstalling your device rom.
some time while restoring the device can also cause this problem. so I would suggest checking your rom once. if still, the problem persists comment down will try some other fix.
wish you luck..

not pressed, 2. rom is flashed properly and I was using it for months ( > 6 month ), 3. it's rooted, 4. I'm looking for a way other than reseting it. It would be my last chance.


text:
import pem file containing multiple CA certs
Using Samsung S4, Android 5.0.1, not rooted.
Recently I have found at least two websites that the Chrome browser on Android 5.0.1 reports https is not secure. This is because the phone does not have the root CA cert required installed. I know how to load individual CA certificate pem files into the user list using the Security menu and "Install from device storage". I wanted to load all the current ones. I had to get "SectigoRSADVBundle.pem" from Sectigo.com as this CA is used by one of the local government websites which must be newer than Oreo release but and the other pem I found in the Oreo pem files
I tried concatenating more than one pem file but it only loads the first entry in file. I tried making a pem file using the Oreo pem files so it had this layout:
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
...
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
...
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

but only the first pem is loaded. I most likely do not need all of them but I have no idea which files are newer than my Android built in system list.
Is there a list of new CA created since Android 5.0.1 (or a way to build the list) if I have to load them individually?
There are 137 pem files is there a way to load all CA certs using just one file?
Whenever you put a cert in User Certificates section when the phone reboots the is a warning message, so my next task will be investigating moving it to system list

Have you considered to just install LineageOS? The S4 is still supported and you would get a recent Android version with CA certs preinstalled. You can install e.g. stable LineageOS 16 https://download.lineageos.org/jfltexx

@Robert maybe when I sort some other unrelated issues. I was just reading the installation instructions I found no mention of how to restore system back if LineageOS is missing a feature I need (eg sms scheduling).


text:
Is it possible to add widgets available in home screen on lock screen (on rooted phone)?
I am using android 9 on Samsung device, is there is any way to add widgets available in home screen on lock screen (on rooted phone) and able to use them without opening lock screen ?

It is possible with edxposed and GravityBox module.
Note: Gravitybox doesn't go well with heavily modded UI like Samsung, Huawei etc. So check the XDA
thread, for your device specific issues and fixes. It may or not work.

Installation instructions for EdXposed (though it's for Android 10, it is applicable for Android 9 too as far as installation of EdXposed is concerned). Note that some Samsung, Huawei devices also have issues in installing EdXposed and you may need to try alternatives (YAHFA /Sandhook)

Download & install GravityBox from XDA thread

In the GravityBox menu Lockscreen (first menu option) →Shortcuts, select the apps you want displayed on lock screen

Test by tapping the widget, opening the screen lock. Your application should be launched. Unlike Phone and Camera options that are usually found on lock screen and can be launched directly without unlocking device, you need to unlock device to access the app launch. If you want the behavior to mimic phone /camera, you will need to disable lock screen

it was rally helpful in adding 1×1 widgets ( through shortcut ) but i was wondering is there is way to add 4×1 2×3 type widget or adding face lock widget (like the clock if we swipe on clock we get music face wiget(to control pause next previous ) or like weather ) .

@BigGorilla I don't think it's possible. But, you can always request developer on the XDA thread


text:
'Network permission' notifications for apps in Android 10 - turning off
I have Android 10 on my phone. In the 'Settings - SIM card & mobile data - Mobile Data - Network Permissions' menu, I have set wifi & mobile data access as "disable network" for some of my apps.
The problem is, when I open such an app, it shows a notification "App name is Forbidden From Using the Network" with two buttons to choose from - "Keep disabled" or "Allow". This cannot be minimized or removed without choosing either of the two buttons.
After choosing "Keep disabled", the nuisance does not go away. Each time the app is opened next, there is a toast informing "Network is turned off for App name. You can modiy this in menu location". This happens every time! And sometimes (probably after a reboot, not sure) Android 10 forgets the setting for that app and the mandatory notification comes again with the buttons to choose from.
Can this behavior be prevented or at least minimized?

Getting rid of that annoying notifications is possible but not easy. I had exactly the same problem and used Automate https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.llamalab.automate to solve it.
In Automate I created a flow that waits for a notification to appear (you can define conditions which must be met to select only these unwanted notifications) and then executes 'snooze' operation on it. The length of the snooze time is freely adjustable, I chose 48 hours. That solved the problem once and for all.


text:
What can I do to slow down battery degradation of portable power bank for my Android phone?
I just got Inland USB-A 5,200mAh Power Bank w/ LED Indicators for my android phone. It has a one-year warrantee, which  seems to tell that its battery might degrade significantly after one year of uses.
The power bank came fully charged. I don't have  a plan of using it sometime soon, except for something unexpectedly, and will just set it aside for weeks or even months. I was wondering how to slow down battery degradation as much as possible?
For example:

In what percentage of charge shall I leave it, when I set it aside? Emptily, fully charged, or somewhere between?

Does its battery degradation depend on how many times it has been  discharged and then charged, and how often it has been ?

Power banks too have the same type of batteries as Android devices (Li-Ion or Li-Po) so the answers covering points you raised are :

In what percentage of charge shall I leave it, when I set it aside? Emptily, fully charged, or somewhere between?

40% is the best for storage
Quoting from this answer

When the phone is marketed, manufacturers, typically charge the battery to around 40% as you may have noticed. This is good for battery longevity and ensures battery degradation does not occur on storage. See BU-702: How to Store Batteries for better understanding

Does its battery degradation depend on how many times it has been discharged and then charged, and how often it has been ?

Quoting from this answer

Yes. The more you use the battery , more the number of discharge cycles ( which covers both charging and discharging as explained earlier) and drop in battery capacity... (see answer for graphs and picture)

Now, the unasked part, charging while in use, see this answer

charge when the battery drops to 50% and stop charging at 80 or 90%.

You may want to look at hardware solution for the last point.


text:
Does Android update and Google services still work on Huawei P30 Pro?
It's one of the best smartphone in the market, with all the top specs, is it a bad time to buy it in 2020 given the fact of US Government bans?
I am concerned about Google services and future Android updates. Can anyone  provide some insight on these matters?

The situation is fluid and likely to change but,  based on available information :
It looks safe to buy

Huawei P30 & Pro: Release Date, Price & Specs - Tech Advisor

Note that the P30 was announced before Huawei was put on the US trade blocklist (aka its 'entity list'), and therefore continues to have full access to Google apps, services and security updates.

It's emphasised by this XDA blog

(entity list)... prevented Google from licensing Google Mobile Services (GMS) for new Huawei device models made available after May 16, 2019.

Speculatively speaking, given that Huawei's market share outside China has taken a hit, it's unlikely they will do anything to damage their product line business

Caveats

From the same XDA blog

As we explained last week Huawei won’t receive support from Google if any changes they make to their future software builds break compatibility with Google apps.

SafetyNet status-unknown

We reached out to Huawei, though, to clarify if the company can continue to implement GMS into software updates for its existing devices indefinitely without collaboration from Google, and also to find out if existing devices will continue to pass SafetyNet Attestation following an update

(Emphasis added in quotes)
I suggest you keep a track of the XDA blog which is frequently updated and take a decision, if these inputs don't suffice.


text:
Are there any smartctl similar tools to detect (eMMC/Nand) storage flash failure in advance on non-rooted android?
So far, I have two android phones which become kinda brick due to storage failure.
One phone suddenly missed many apps and files one day. And another one does not accept correct lock password one day.
When I try to look into mobie phone storage related topics, I am surprised that so litte info I can find.
I can not even find an app to tell what my phone's storage type and model are. I tried the famous AIDA64, it doesn't really give me anything about my flash drive. I can not even know if it's a NOR, NAND or eMMC.
I have some/many mobiles and some are rooted and some are non-rooted. I am wondering if I can find a general solution to detect flash drive failure in advance so that I can backup properly before it failed to boot and lose data. (I use smartd/smartctl on desktop OS for this purpose)
From my bad experiences, I really don't have any trust on mobile phone storage anymore. I have some other mobiles/pads/tablets broken too without knowinig what the real problem is. I guess they might be due to flash drive failutre as well.
Thank you very much for your help.

Related https://android.stackexchange.com/a/214029/131553

@beeshyams just read it. Thanks for the info.

Does this answer your question? Is it possible to know the wear level information of a phone, like SSD have with SMART?

@IrfanLatif Thank you very much for the reference. That is the closest information I ever found online. But it doesn't answer my question because the solution provided in that question requires rooted device. But I have put non-rooted device explicitly in the questoin title.


text:
Droidexplorer cannot find device. Galaxy Note 4
I accidentally deleted the entire photos folder on my Galaxy Note 4. My quest to recover the photos in this folder has led me here. I have installed the SDK on my PC (Win7) and droidexplorer is all set up, but it won't detect the device. Yes, developer mode is activated and yes, the USB debugger thingy is turned on. Droidexplorer sounds really super helpful, but it's not detecting my phone.
I saw several other threads about platform-tools needing to be reverted to an older version, but I can't figure out how to find the version I need, and it is difficult to understand some of the posts/events/etc. between stackexchange and github because I am not super experienced with coding.
I got this far because I'm not very good at giving up on things, but I am just about out of time to spend on this problem.
About the device:

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (refurbished, in case it matters

Unrooted. Not necessarily opposed to rooting the phone, but if it would wipe memory that won't work.

Running 5.1.1

I need help figuring out why droidexplorer cannot find my phone. Do I need to replace the platform-tools folder? Is it something else? Is the damn thing too old for this?
Thanks to anyone who is willing to help.


text:
NOT REGISTERED ON NETWORK
I recently bought a used Samsung S8 but it always tell me that "NOT REGISTERED ON NETWORK" I have at several times tried to clear data on Sim Toolkit, Reset Network Settings and Factory Reset but nothing at the end. when i contacted the person who sold me the same phone, he just went to blame me for upgrading it to android 9.0 which i do not think is true. someone again told me that it could have been blocked by the manufacturer. please anyone to help me with the possible solution

Have you tried to insert a working SIM card?

@Robert yes, i have tried several times

yes that's what it is saying NOT REGISTERED ON NETWORK but it keeps showing full network bars on the screen

@Robert check my edited post


text:
Find APNSourceService
I have a TicWatch Pro 4G. As some may know, the watch only supports Vodafone. But from what I have seen, that's mostly down to the fact of the correct APN for other networks not being available. After looking in the usual places like /system/etc/apns-conf.xml, I found most APNs to be present there. However, the menu to choose the APN is always empty. After a lot of digging, I found this thread on here:
Where apn configs are saved in Android?
In there, it is mentioned that there is such a thing called "ApnSourceService". However, there is basically no information available on this except that thread and some mentions in the source code, one of them being in the TelephonyProvider.
In that thread, it was said, that one can disable such a Service using Magisk. However, I found no information on which service that might be, or where to find any clues. Also I looked into system-apks to find any mention, but I didn't find something useful.
I also tried listing running services, but at least I didn't find something useful in there.
Also I'm not really a professional, it might well be I'm completely on the wrong path with the "ApnSourceService".
Thanks for any help


text:
How can I backup my Fennec profile, properly?
I need to backup my Firefox/Fennec profile folder.
One way to achive that is by copying it into an external storage. Although, I'm affraid restoring it will not be easy, due to file permissions.

You can only backup it personally if you have root access. Assuming you do have it, use tar command to backup the content of Firefox's data directory. As for preserving file permissions and Selinux context, recursively search for files using find or ls, and than save each file's permissions  and security context in a  dedicated file - - to be used as a central repository of file permissions. Done.

That's the gist... I just can't figure out the dedicated file part. Would you mind creating an answer?


text:
Does TWRP backup all apps and data, as opposed to ADB?
I need to backup every single user installed app, beyond system apps.
I have heard that adb backup will only backup some of these apps (the ones which allows it). Although, I'm not sure if this is the case with TWRP. Is it?
I want to make sure that when I restore, I won't have to download apps and configure them, again. If TWRP can't achive this, what can I do, alternatively?

Currently, I am running this command to backup with TWRP:
adb backup -f data.ab --twrp compress data system
Do I need to include any other partition?

@beeshyams I was thinking about doing both ADB and TWRP backups. But now I think this is not necessary. Right? // Thanks in advance!

What does TRWP backup include? should answer the question I guess :) For more, see these questions.

@alecxs can you elaborate or reference why it is not important?

The user @beeshyams, answered correctly, in the comments. However, this person did not want to answer, directly.
Here's the answer:

ADB will not backup a lot of things.

TWRP will backup all apps and data except /data/media unless you use this or Magisk module "TWRP helper".

TWRP is far more reliable in backing up than using adb to backup.

TWRP will also backup apps and their config. Have a look at our nandroid tag, it's questions and read the tag wiki.

Back up all partitions. It's while restoring you may skip partitions depending on what you are trying to do.

I wouldn't do ADB because: a) it won't backup everything; b) I don't know much about it; C) why bother when there is a proven solution in my view?

UPDATES

@alecxs says:

It's better to keep one single partition per backup.ab file because some older TWRP have issues with restoring.


text:
How can I set encryption password, when making a backup with TWRP via ADB?
It is not about decryption, like others have already asked.
I need to know how to set encryption key, via CLI.
adb backup --twrp then what?
Will it use my phone's encryption password?
If so, why won't it ask me for a different password like the GUI does?

The adb backup for twrp works differently than adb backup that works when Android is running. TWRP doesn't support encryption of backups. Well, it is not at least mentioned here: https://twrp.me/faq/openrecoveryscript.html


text:
Port to port routing in rooted android device locally
I want to route the incoming TCP packets of one specific IP.
Packet can arrive on any port on android. Packet needs to be forwarded to one specific port on the same device, Without using middleware server (router etc) .
Can SSH server or firewall be used? Or is there any other solution to this problem?

Solutions suggested here should work for on-device forwarding as well: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/207342/218526


text:
Safe to share boot partition?
On XDA, at times I see users requesting for boot partitions of a particular version of stock ROM and some people helping out by uploading and linking them.
I am not sure if it is a good practice, mainly because
a)  it may contain sensitive information
b) it may create problems for the recipient, if they use it as John Wu creator of Magisk mentioned in the context of patching boot images
I searched around for answers, but no luck. To localize the problem consider that the question relates to devices with A/B Partitions, while a broader answer is welcome

the tweet doesn't explain the reason but it is unrelated to security. it is not 'safe' to patch a foreign boot.img regarding the functionality of Magisk because of the following reason:
Magisk Manager assumes

cpu architecture
encryption type
encryption state
dm-verity

read from host device is equal target device, it does the patches according to host specifications (where Magisk Manager is currently running, regardless of the origin of boot.img
while this is bad practise, i want to contradict because it will cause issues only in rare corner cases and is (most likely) 'safe' to patch a foreign boot.img

Thanks but I don't think your last para holds. He wouldn't be warning if it was just an edge, rare case +1

magisk popularity heavily increased and topjohnwu is overhelmed with support and does not look into every issue. a lot of noob requests may led him gave that kind of common warning, just to reduce possible causes. in fact, lot of noob issues are caused by a update back to v.7.3.5 where Magisk Manager silently changed it's usage regarding forceencryption (FDE) which makes older rooting tutorials invalid and causes data loss (which topjohnwu is probably not aware of)

indeed new magisk manager check for (SAR) system-as-root device is important reason not to patch foreign boot.img. also things have changed when it comes to dm-verity on super partition


text:
How to play one-channel audio in both headphones?
I would like to have exactly the opposite of this question, or this.
Some audio documentaries on youtube that I want to listen to with an old-style (wired, non-bluetooth) headset have only one channel audio. That is, I hear audio in just one ear.
Is there a way to hear the sound in both headphones while playing that? (That would improve the experience, the voices are not always clear, etc.) — I mean, maybe there is an app that has a setting for that.
NOTA BENE:
I am referring to wire headphones here, not bluetooth. The device is Xiaomi A2 phone running Android 10.

EDIT after comments:
Opening the audio file in Audacity, I see this:

Although Mediainfo says 2 channels:

I haven't researched further about that specific YouTube video (will do when there's time), but there's a possibility that the problem is on the audio source (recorded out-of-phase), because AFAIK, true mono audio shouldn't be a problem when played on stereo speaker (it will play the same waveform on both left & right channel)

@AndrewT. - Taking the ogg audio from youtube on my computer and using Audacity, I have exported it as a mono mp3 which indeed is heard fine in both headphones. On the other hand (as seen at the link you posted) that other out-of-phase stereo file was not played at all on a speaker but was played fine on (I guess both) headphones. Mine is played by the single external bluetooth speaker, as well as by one of the two headphones. There might be a difference here.

Err... looking from your screenshot, I'm afraid the audio source is actually stereo, but the audio is only recorded on 1 channel, which makes a big difference than a true mono audio :( but I'll check myself later. Meanwhile, you might be interested in music player apps that can select only 1 channel to be played on both channel (not sure for the keyword though)

Going by @AndrewT 's suggestion, you can try this app. Description seems to fit your need. I have not tested it, though

@beeshyams - I am trying it but haven't yet found a way to send that one channel to both headphones

@AndrewT. - After setting the phone to play audio as mono, the youtube app plays that one-channel audio in both headphones (just as you said it would be with any mono! And the solution oddly becomes similar to what I thought was the opposite!) Thank you!

@cipricus no problem, this can act as a good duplicate post since this case is unique compared to existing questions (sharing earphones and one-channel headphone) :)

Two of the comments made by @AndrewT have suggested to me the good solution:

true mono audio shouldn't be a problem when played on stereo speaker
(it will play the same waveform on both left & right channel)

and

the audio source is actually stereo, but the audio is only recorded on
1 channel

As the youtube audio in question is not a mono but a stereo with just one channel (Audacity was right, Mediainfo was wrong), a solution is exactly the one that initially seemed to me the opposite of what I wanted: rendering the file as mono — and thus, playing it through both headphones.
This solution works on Android 10, the setting is under Accessibility, Audio& on-screen text.


text:
How to create image of internal storage to attempt data recovery?
I accidentally deleted an entire folder of photos a few days ago on my Galaxy Note 4. My PC was also down because of a failed hard drive, so I was unable to back up my phone prior to this accident.
At that time, I didn't even know what "adb" meant; now I have droid explorer and Android SDK on my PC, and have worked out how to get my PC to detect my phone. Now I want to make an image of the internal storage; there are lots and lots of other threads about this, but none of them explain the commands people are using. I have been very careful not to use my phone for much of anything (it has been set to airplane mode to reduce the chances of things writing to the drive), but I can't keep that up for long.
Can somebody please explain what commands I need to use in order to get an image of the internal storage? I keep seeing information about "booting in recovery mode" and bootloaders but I have also seen people discussing dumps of internal storage without these things.
I just need to check if my photos are still there. It's pretty frustrating to figure this stuff out with very little knowledge of coding and zero knowledge of Android software, so if somebody could help me figure out what to do next and be thorough with explanations, that would be excellent.

check your hardware Qualcomm (trltexx) or Exynos (treltexx)? root your device with cf-auto-root, get image of userdata partition via adb, recover files with extundelete (see above)

Would I need to root my phone in order to get an image of the userdata partition? It is unrooted, and I am not necessarily opposed to rooting it, but I have read posts on other websites about people bricking their devices. The last thing I need right now are more technology problems. Also, what is ~$ in adb? Irfan linked a thread I was just reading, and there's a long post in that thread with the command  ~$ adb pull /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata data.img. I'm trying to make sure that I understand what I am doing before I try something.

adb pull requires adb root

https://android.stackexchange.com/q/229008


text:
Unable to connect my bluetooth to pc or otherphone
I am unable to connect my bluetooth with my pc and with other phone but i can connect it to bluetooth headphone and speaker. I get pair option and device get paired (after confirmation ) but it do not get connected.
Phone Samsung J7 Nxt
I tried deleting caches and files of bluetooth in apps on my phome but it does not worked.

From your settings, go to the apps /app info section (depending on the Android version, it may vary), enable display of system apps, delete cache and try. If that doesn't help, delete data of Bluetooth app (you will lose all paired connections) and try.

still unable to connect and when i click on paired devive setting i only get internet access option earlier i used to get so many options

Reset Bluetooth in those devices that aren't getting connected, usually instructions or Google will tell you how to //If this doesn't help too, please [edit] to mention this as a troubleshooting step carried out, so that others don't suggest the same


text:
Hidden fastboot mode or no fastboot?
So here is my problem: I cant get in to fastboot mode on my wiko tommy 3 android 8.1.0
Here is what I'm doing:
adb and fastboot are installed on pc (windows)
I have developer options and OEM bootloader unlock enabled
In terminal adb devices shows my phone
I enter adb reboot-bootloader but it does not say "fastboot mode" on screen like I have read it is supposed to. It just restarts my phone. ( note I have tried variations like reboot_bootloader; same result).
W
So my question is am I doing it wrong or is fastboot not on this phone. Or is it hidden somehow?

enter recovery mode, from there select reboot to bootloader


text:
How to stop notification sound from playing three times?
I noticed several years ago after getting a new phone that newer versions of the Android software seem to play my notification sound three times. Prior to this phone it only ever played once. It gets pretty annoying and I was wondering if there's any way to configure this so the sound only plays once? Or is this hard-coded?
It has happened with my last three phones, so it's likely a feature of newer versions of the Android software. I have a Samsung Galaxy J7 running Android 7.1.1.
Whenever I get a notification sound (custom WAV sound that is just the door chime from Star Trek TNG playing once) for an email, app, etc, instead of just playing once, it plays three times in a row.
I have not been able to locate any settings that would allow me to configure how many times it plays.

Ironically, I had this problem.  I just checked my Star Trek Chime file, and the file contains the chime three times.  Whoops.  Try a different custom sound.  The whistle file I got from the same website just whistles once.


text:
How can I send music from an app to one BT device, but keep all other sounds on another BT device or on the phone?
I am blind, literally, and I use Androids built in screen reader, TalkBack.
When I want to get my jam on, I want to be able to send my tunes to one BT device, and keep all other audio either on the phone or on another BT device.
I used to have a Galaxy S10. My favorite feature was the "Separate App Sounds" option in Samsungs "Sound Assistant" app. It let me do exactly this. Is there any way to do this on other devices?
I have a Pixel 3A XL. I don't mind rooting or installing another rom, so long as it works with my Google Fi E-SIM.
I appreciate any help and ideas. Weather you can help or not, thank you for reading.

Buy a samsung.
There hasn't been an answer for nearly 2 weeks, so this flippant one will have to do. Still looking for a better answer.


text:
Restarting a bricked Android phone
My Lenovo K8 Note has bricked. I am able to format it with ‘Smart Phone Flash tool’ (Mediatek). I wanted to know how I can load Android on it and restart it. I tried to format it and it was successful. When I tried various versions of Android (Nougat and Oreo) the phone did not start. While I had loaded Nougat nothing happened after I downloaded it on phone, on downloading Oreo, the welcome screen went into a loop. Presently the phone is in formatted condition.
I wanted to know the following:

If I format the phone and simply download the latest version of Android in it, will the phone start working? (something like assembled PCs where I can format the HDD and load a version of Windows for it to start). If so, which version of Android should I use? Pls. point me to the downloadable ROM file. (the phone originally came with Nougat)

If the above technique is not possible, what should I do to revive my smart phone? Before the phone bricked on its own, I had not unlocked the bootloader (never had any requirement to do so).

I don’t want to buy a new phone in the present economic condition. Hence, pls. guide me on how to revive the device. Any pointers will be gratefully acknowledged.

if you format your device it becomes a brick https://blog.hovatek.com/so-whats-all-this-talk-about-meditek-secure-boot-and-da-files

OK. Yes I had to format my device as it was not responding to a Nougat or Oreo downloads. What can i do to revive my phone pls?

flash a stock ROM and try to recover IMEI and calibration data from scratch

Download your phone's original software from the device maker and reinstall to its released state.

Where do i get stock ROM for Lenovo K8 note pls? The website is too big to search. Initially the device was launched for Android 7.1. I tried to use Lenovo's recovery tool. The phone is going in a welcome screen loop.Thanks.

you need to recover nvram partition

if you weren't lazy you would have already read that other question suggested and found this link

I tried the solution in the link. The phone is going into a welcome screen loop. In fact previously I had tried a similar solution at XDA website. Then also eh welcome screen was going into a loop.


text:
Keep phone screen lock unlocked until lock it manually
The Lock Screen uses two timers. The first timer is the "Sleep" timer which turns off the device display to extend battery life.
The second timer called the "Automatic lock" timer turns on security features like pin, pattern, password or face unlock and protects the device from unknown users.

screenshot (click image for larger variant)
So I want that,

My phone do not get locked when the screen go off until I lock it manually( i.e. by power key). By default 30min is the max. time when the screen get off but the phone do not get locked on lock screen.
How to manually turn off screen without locking the phone (because if i use power key i will need to enter pin or password).(second one is not so important I just to know is there is a way instead of just relying on screen timeout)

Note: Device is Samsung j7 nxt, Android 9.0 rooted and Magisk and Edxposed Manager installed.
My device do not support face unlock and fingerprint unlock. I use shared wifi, so that cannot be used for smart lock. I do not have Wi-Fi at home I use phone data and there is some issue with my Bluetooth Unable to connect my bluetooth to pc or otherphone.
The only way to achieve this thing is through increasing time in lock automatically.

https://android.stackexchange.com/q/215891

The timer is not only there to save battery it is also there to protect your screen. According a different question you own a Samsung J7 which has an AMOLED screen. Therefore if you really want to keep the screen on for a long time make sure to reduce the brightness to a minimum otherwise you will earlier or later see ghost mages because of the AMOLED has worn out. I also recommend to you not to keep the display on for an unlimited amount of time.

you want the screen go off, but don't enter pin when use again - that is afaik what smart lock functionality provides. so any emulated event which can trigger smart lock should do the trick, don't you think so?

Difficult part of this situation is that OP doesn't have access to conventional smart unlock methods like Faceunlock, Wifi, Bluetooth, Location fence. So the solution has to depend on automation using system (OS) properties. That brings a caveat, it may not run on all devices. It runs fine on my OnePlus 7,with Oxygen OS, Android 10.

I prefer using MacroDroid for automation , since it is free (upto 5 macros) and easy to learn. To understand how MacroDroid works, see answer here (Not affiliated to any app). Credits to this solution go to user pr3jker  who uploaded his template in two macros (accessible from the templates section of app). This is a no-frill, bare bone macro improvised from those and can be improved upon to meet specific needs. The good part is this meets both requirements asked by OP. You need two macros.

First Macro (unlock w/o PIN)

Triggers:

Screen Off
Empty Trigger

Action

System Setting → Secure → Setting Key, enter lock_screen_lock_after_timeout (copy paste sometimes adds invisible characters, so key it in) → Value enter 86400 (or 86400000 on Android 10 as it uses mlliseconds iso. seconds) make sure it is integer selected → OK and name, save the macro
Logic: When the screen goes off (depending on the sleep time you set in your device) or when called by another macro (empty trigger) the actual lock screen period is extended to 24 hours (86400 seconds). Effectively, you are setting sleep time to 24 hours, irrespective of the system sleep time setting (Your screen will go off as per the system sleep time but actually it is 24 hours) . So, when you press the power key to unlock, it does so without needing to enter PIN.
To test, set system sleep time to 15 seconds, let the screen fade and go off, unlock device by power key press (Don't lock device by
power key, let  the screen go off)

Second Macro (to toggle the first macro)

Trigger: Empty Trigger

Action Enable /Disable Macro →  from the drop down menu choose the first macro  → Toggle Macro  → OK, name and save the macro

Go to the widgets section of your launcher, locate MacroDroid shortcut widget and drop it on home screen and assign the second macro to it.
When you click the widget, the first macro is disabled and on next click it is enabled. You can add corresponding text warnings or audio feed back on toggling, since disabling Key guard (PIN) is a security risk and you agree that you are consciously doing it. For example, another action can be added in the second macro, lF Macro enabled (first one) pop up message and audio warning so that you are aware of zero Key guard security.
Note: Disabling the macro only ensures that it is not triggered again but the previous values will hold - for example, if you set it for 24 hours and disable it after 2 hours, the behavior will persist for another 22 hours. So, either set the time period short or see the template macro for remedy. Like I said, it's a bare bone macro in the answer.

Since you have EdXposed installed, you may want to install Xposed edge module and map gestures to the second macro (choose shortcut and then MacroDroid shortcut as action). This is what I did since I am mostly at home and don't really need to lock my device and with a gesture enable key guard when stepping out.


text:
Can you use a screenshot of the "export accounts" QR Code of Google Authenticator as a backup?
In the Authenticator app you can hit transfer accounts -> Export Accounts. It will present with you a QR Code.
What exactly is this QR Code? Can it be used to backup Google Authenticator?
I am looking to hard reset my phone and I am looking for a way to backup and restore Authenticator.

If you have a lot of 2factor protected accounts you may think about using an alternative authenticator app that has backup functionality on the new phone. Authy is for example such an authenticator app.

The QR code contains all your private keys for generating the 2fa login code for each of the accounts you chose to export, so yes you can use it to backup and transfer to a new device. I would test that the screen shot works properly, and be very careful with the screen shot backup.
You can even extract the actual private keys from the QR code, i.e. with this script, https://scito.ch/content/extract-secret-keys-google-authenticator-qr-export

This is what I figured, but it's good to have a real answer. And yes of course, that screenshot isn't to bad taken lightly

Get verification codes with Google Authenticator - Android - Google Account Help explains how the QR codes are used:

They are used to transfer authentication codes on to new device or in your case after factory reset. QR code needs to be scanned to restore account(s). Screenshots may not work.  It's better to use a scanner as explained here

You need to generate one QR code per account, if you are using multiple accounts.

They don't backup the authenticator app itself, you need to install the app on the new device or use Google cloud backup to restore app. Note that the restored app from cloud only restores preferences and not codes. Neither, is using adb to backup a good idea. If your device is rooted, of course, you can backup fully and restore using titanium-backup.

What exactly is this QR Code?

This blog explains (it's beyond me)

The QR codes simply divulge a URI with the secret key for generating tokens. They look like: otpauth://totp/[keyname]?secret=[secretkey]

Note that you are better off using Authy app as recommended in Google help page for reasons :

Recovery backups are encrypted.

Multi device support.

Better password protection.

Recognise all Google codes

Most importantly you can
backup and restore easily.

This is not answering the question.


text:
How can I turn OFF Google Lens search, permanently
I really don't like google lens.  I've been searching for ways to turn it off.  Searching on line usually brings up an answer like this:

On your Android phone, you go into your settings/apps and click on the 3 dots at the top right of the screen. Choose show system. Scroll down to the Lens, Qlens (or both depending on your phone) and then click Force Stop and Disable (if available). This should stop the service from running until you click on it again or it updates.

The problem is, when I do that on my Andriod phone there is no Lens nor Qlens listed among the apps (even after clicking show System Apps).
I did find one thing that says to "Disable" (or Uninstall, but Uninstall is not an available option, but disable more-or-less the same) the Google App, and re-enable it.  This works, but only for about 1 day, after which Google Lens magically re-appears.  For three days now I have Disabled the Google App once a day.
Is there any way to permanently get rid of Google Lens?   It's horrible.

I discovered an approach that, at least for two weeks now, seems to have worked.
I tried a twist on this approach which I had mentioned above:

I did find one thing that says to "Disable" (or Uninstall, but Uninstall is not an available option, but disable more-or-less the same) the Google App, and re-enable it. This works, but only for about 1 day, after which Google Lens magically re-appears. For three days now I have Disabled the Google App once a day.

The "twist" is I did NOT re-enable the Google App.  This seems to have permanently removed Google Lens (Yay!!), and I have not noticed any other functionality missing from my phone since I did not re-enabled the Google App. Yay!!

Update: It's been over three months and Google Lens has not come back since I implemented this approach!  Very satisfied.

This link shows how to disable the feature.
It's hard to follow at first, just replay it a few times.
Basically type chrome://flags in your chrome browser, which give you a "search flags" prompt, type in lens, then disable each of the items that appear.  Type Relaunch (to relaunch Chrome); close Chrome; Lens will still be there.  Re-boot phone; Lens is gone!
https://youtu.be/6PlEuLNPxqY
Good luck.

This is the correct answer if you're coming from Chrome on desktop too, bothered by 'Search images with Google Lens' in context menu instead of 'Search Google for Image' that it used to be.

This flag doesn't exist any more.


text:
Why does typing "One way they can fit it in" as a text message create a link to Google Maps?
Today I noticed that when I typed and sent "One way they can fit it in" in the Facebook Messenger app for Android, it created a link (underlining the text, see first image below). When I follow this link, it prompts me to open the Compass app or Google Maps.
I have found that it does not work on the Messenger app for iOS or Windows, but does work for other messaging apps within Android. When opening the link in Google maps, it responds with a message, "No results found" (see second image below).
Can anyone else reproduce this behaviour? Does anyone have any idea what Android feature might be causing this phenomenon?
Edit: I am on a Samsung S8, using Android Pie, although my friend can also see this on his Huawei P10. This behaviour happens on both Facebook Messenger and the default Samsung Messages app. I have tried several other similar phrases, but I have found that the general form of text that forms this link must begin with "one", end with "in", and have three or more words in between, one of which must be the word "way" (For example, "One foo bar way hello world in" creates a link).

I was able to reproduce on a Pixel 2, Android 10, latest version of Facebook Messenger. I wasn't able to determine anything in the logcat, but others may have better luck. My guess, assuming it isn't something nefarious is that it is some Q/A or dev test mechanism left on in production.

I'm also experiencing the same thing. There are many different words that, whenever they appear in a text, are underlined and link to Google Maps with the word in question in the search bar.


text:
Installing magisk with Android 11
Is there a problem with, or something missing from, the steps at this guide for installing Magisk on Android 11?
Specifically, in step 13, it says to flash the patched boot image (patched by Magisk Manager) to the phone, with
fastboot flash boot patched_magisk.img

followed by
fastboot reboot

And then to verify root in step 14 by checking in the Magisk Manager app. But doesn't step 13 reset the phone, so the installed apps like Magisk Manager are also gone?

unless you set preserve force encryption in advanced settings (before patching) step 13 does break encryption, therefore you are right userdata partition must formatted in order to work unencrypted on next boot. that is in fact a factory reset and the reason why magisk manager must installed twice. But repeating every step is unnecessary, once the boot.img is flashed your device is rooted. the tutorial has mentioned in step 6 'leave both "Preserve" options enabled' (you probably overlooked)

Thanks @alecxs ; I'm not sure if this was the reason in my case, as I am 99% sure I left the Preserve option enabled (the version of magisk manager I was using only had one preserve option, which is for force encryption). Also, after step 13 (the first time), with adb shell, I couldn't "su", it seemed like non-rooted. Anyway, then the 2nd time I did retry from step 6, but the patched image ended up being the same as the one from the 1st time (diff showed no difference), so I thought maybe I somehow messed up in the flashing step, Somehow, flashing the same patched image the 2nd time worked.

Certainly not. It's safe
All that you are doing in this step is to

Check if your device is recognized in fastboot mode by fastboot devices

Replace the boot image by the patched boot image on your computer by
fastboot flash boot xxx.img.

fastboot reboot will boot you into OS where you can verify root as next step recommends.

This the normal way of rooting using patched images and will not affect your installed apps. See Magisk official documentation

Thanks, I think I did something wrong the first time. When I tried it again a second time, it was working as expected.


text:
Attempting file recovery (deleted photos) on Note 4 via accessing /data/userdata; rooted phone, patched adbd, but now USB debugging won't work
I made a post about this yesterday, and I managed to make a lot of progress today, but I'm stuck again, and I am trying to decide what to do. I am not really experienced with coding, but I happen to be very good at teaching myself how to do something when needed and also very bad at giving up.
Below is a summary of my progress thus far:
INITIAL PLAN

Install Android SDK, drivers to PC (Win7, 64 bit)

Root phone (used CF-Auto-Root)

Patch adbd to allow root permissions (installed adbd insecure and SuperSU)

Access /data/userdata

Get image of /userdata, attempt to find files

I am stuck at step 3. I have adbd insecure and SuperSU, but using either of these causes USB debugging to be disabled. Regardless of how I toggle things, I lose my connection to my PC and cannot enable USB debugging.
Some research uncovered that there's something called SELinux that is preventing me from enabling USB debugging while adbd insecure is enabled (patched adbd). There are posts in the adbd insecure thread on the XDA forums from other people (check the last page) describing a similar problem:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1687590
And one post at the end explaining that they fixed it with an app called SELinux Switch:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=79689054&postcount=267
SELinux Switch would allow me to turn off the protection preventing adbd insecure from working. Can I get some feedback about this? I'm not enjoying this stuff, and I really need to get back to other endeavors, so it'd be a one-time use, and then I will probably uninstall it from my phone because I won't need it.
ALTERNATIVE PLANS
I also have two alternative "paths" I could take to attempt to recover the deleted photos. I'd rather not do that right now, because I don't think I have time, and because I am trying to avoid anything that would overwrite the deleted photos, but they exist nonetheless:
Alternative 1: Droidexplorer and busybox
I already have droidexplorer installed on my PC and my phone is rooted, so I guess I could install busybox and see if droidexplorer can recover the deleted photos.
Alternative 2: Magisk with/without busybox
I would rather not do this, because it sounds like it would take the most time and more monkeying around with internal storage, but apparently adbd insecure isn't an active project anymore and most people use magisk for rooting, etc. This is an alternative, but it's the least attractive option.
What do people think? For now I am going to try the SELinux switch, since it seems the simplest way. If people could please try to avoid using too much jargon and explain commands, etc. it would really help out; that way I wouldn't need to look up unfamiliar terms first.

As the phone is already rooted: why not working directly on the device using adb shell? An approach would be to extract the userdata partition (storing the image e.g. on an SD card or directly to the PC), then extracting your contents on PC using e.g. TestDisk/PhotoRec. You could use my tool Adebar to create scripts for that ("partition backup"), though that would require either Linux or Cygwin. Example command line if you know the partition: adb exec-out "su -c 'cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p46'" > "images/userdata.img"

Adb insecure is very old and I would assume that no one still uses it (if you really want an insecure adbd you have to manually patch the adbd version installed on your device). The same is true for Droidexplorer.

I should have been more clear; I can do adb shell su and lots of other commands, but I can't do anything that requires root, despite being rooted. My understanding is that /userdata is protected and requires root access; searching the internet reveals that many people using adbd insecure are prevented from root access in android 5.1.1 and higher, because SELinux doesn't allow it, and something about the kernel prevents changing the enforcement status manually.

Attempting adb shell su and then adb root briefly starts the adb daemon and then it says "error: device not found". Using setenforce=0 to change the SELinux status from enforced to permissive doesn't work (getenforce gives "enforced" as a result). In addition, patching adbd while in USB debug mode kicks me out of USB debug even if I have that box ticked in the developer menu. Unless Magisk has the ability to get around this somehow, it sounds like rebuilding the kernel without the automatically enforced SELinux setting is the only way out.

Robert, do you suppose you could recommend an alternate method that doesn't involve doing anything that would wipe /data/userdata? If you don't know any, that's okay, but I'm trying to find other ways to do this and apparently Magisk setup inherently wipes the device. Finally, I know I'm "shouting into the void", but it's REALLY stupid that there isn't some way to prevent accidents like this. It should be much easier for a user to recover data than this.

just to avoid confusion, there is no such /data/userdata

samsung kernel doesn't allow selinux permissive (however you could double check with this app) be aware every install will heavily decrease your chance to recover deleted files

adb shell su -c "cat /dev/block/dm-0 2> /dev/null" > userdata.img https://android.stackexchange.com/q/219346 (linux only)

Let us continue this discussion in chat.


text:
I can't access my phone after a factory reset, because the Gboard doesn't work!
After doing a factory reset on my Huawei p9 lite because it was missing a lot of features like the calculator, alarm, notes and even Bluetooth. After it asks me to log in my linked google account, I can't type my email because the Gboard doesn't work, it shows up the microphone and it doesn't even want to listen to my voice!

How got the device so messed up? Did you managed to get root access and changed the installed system apps?

I rooted it for 2 years just fine till It got soft-bricked or something similar, but I got it fixed at an official Huawei store where I live for 50$ but I somehow didn't even notice the calc and apps missing until it was too late, I decided to do a factory reset and thought it would fix it, but the keyboard doesn't work, I'm lost on what to do @Robert

flash stock ROM. make sure flashing process does not include accidentially re-locking bootloader, keep bootloader unlocked

How can I flash a ROM if I don't have access to any menus or anything it's only the google verification thing and that's it @alecxs Also in FASTBOOT mode it says "Phone Unlocked" and "FRP LOCK" don't know if this is useful or not, but just in case.

I don't know if this is so complicated or am I just dumb, but I've been trying stuff for what seems like ages, and I can't figure it out, is there a certain guide I should be following? @alecxs

You can try a USB-OTG cable and connect a USB keybaord.

it seems there is official TWRP available for your device (since ~1 week) please try this one instead

install latest platform-tools
download service ROM according to your phone model
connect usb-cable and enter fastboot mode (Vol Dn + Power)
install usb-drivers
flash the common partitions only
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash cust cust.img
fastboot flash vendor vendor.img
fastboot flash product product.img
fastboot flash version version.img
fastboot format:ext4 cache
fastboot format:ext4 userdata

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


text:
Share to an automation app/webhook?
I am working on a project, and it all starts with the share menu on Android. I'd like to be able to take the (in this case) URLs that are shared from various apps, and send them directly to a webhook. Basically, I'd like for there to be an option on the share screen, along with Gmail, WhatsApp etc. for 'webhook', that would ping the webhook directly without any further interaction. I'd rather not build my own app for this...
What I've tried:

IFTTT - doesn't seem to support this, even with the Android app
Tasker - I already have it but it doesn't seem to do this, I think there's another paid plugin that might do what I want, but I've struggled with config
IFTTT again, I can get what I want with a roundtrip via email etc., but I'd rather not...

Is what I want possible? Do I need to make my own app?!?

I ended up using https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.rmy.android.http_shortcuts
Android HTTP Request Shortcuts - which achieved exactly what I wanted.

Most automation apps could probably support such an task, in Automate (free) it would be:

Flow beginning block; start of a task
Content shared block; await "shared" URL
HTTP request block; call the webhook with URL from #2
(loop back to #2)


text:
WhatsApp chat backup in Android backup on Google Drive
I recently broke my Google Pixel 3a and now I got a new phone (Samsung Galaxy S9, running on the same Android version, Android 10). Now I would like to restore my WhatsApp chats from my old phone. I could not manage to retrieve the local chat backup from my Pixel phone and I did not store any WhatsApp backups on Google Drive. However, I have a phone backup called 'backup of Pixel 3a' in my Google Drive. I was able to restore that backup on my new phone. As it seems, that backup contains my local settings, call log and which apps I installed on my previous phone. Apparently, some app data is also included in this backup.
Now my question is: Is there any way to retrieve my WhatsApp chats from this phone backup on Google Drive?

See this https://mobiletrans.wondershare.com/whatsapp/read-whatsapp-backup-from-google-drive-on-pc.html

Note that according to the manifest file, WhatsApp disables system backup, so it's not included on the phone's Drive backup.

Related: How do I access to my WhatsApp backup in Google Drive?

Is there any way to retrieve my WhatsApp chats from this phone backup on Google Drive?

I don't quite understand, if you want to backup from Google Drive, if it's been set up, then it should be automatic. Check your google drive, top left menu, backups, if there exists a whatsapp file. If not, you don't have a backup in GD.
What I would probably do is to try and access the phone through ADB (if possible) repair the phone/screen, copy local files over, deactivate google drive backup, and just restore from local backup.


text:
Encrypt Tablet function in Android x86. Android 6 in Oracle Virtual Box
I am currently running Android x86 version 6 in Oracle Virtual Box.
My intention is to run some software my company creates and to test it without the need for a physical tablet.
The software i install requires the tablet to be encrypted using the Settings -> Security -> Encrypt Tablet feature in Android.
However all i get is the OS reboots and no encryption happens.
So i have two questions:

Can i get encryption to work?
Is there a way to fool the software into thinking that encryption has worked and not actually encrypt it?

The reason the software wants an encrypted device is that in the real world the device will store customer and financial data. In my test system its all fake data so i dont care about encryption.

Android x86 is IMHO not a good platform for testing software as it is a simple community project. I strongly recommend to use the Android emulator with Google provided images instead, or best a real physical tablet. Otherwise your test results are not very realistic and reliable.

@Robert Do you have a link where i can get the recommended Google images and Android emulator? I require Android 6.0

Install Android SDK or Android Studio. Use the AVD manager and select and Android 6 image.

@Robert None of the ARM images will run from Android Studio. They all hang on the Android starting logo. Any ideas?

Do not use ARM images in an emulator, only use x86 images. Also make sure your CPU supports virtualization and install the appropriate virtualization helper tools (Intel HAXM/AMD Hypervisor driver). Both are available via Android SDK maanger.


text:
Weird ftp issue during data recovery of Android phone! Can you solve it?
I am trying to recover lost data on a Note 3. It is rooted, so I did what I saw here:
http://datas-recovery.com/static/recover-samsung-lost-data.html
I did successfully connect to my phone and set up clonezilla, but I faced a weird problem with this line:
ftpput -v -u qwer -p pass -P 40 192.168.42.79 mmcblk0p27.raw /cache/myfifo

I did use my computer ip, 127.0.0.1 and localhost, but all failed.
this is the message with localhost and 127.0.0.1 :

ftpput: can't connect to remote host (127.0.0.1): Connection refused

and this is the message with my ip address:

ftpput: can't connect to remote host (192.168.1.50): Network is
unreachable

OK, for troubleshooting I had tried to get to my ftp server from Firefox in my computer and from another computer. Both connected to my ftp server successfully!
Note: my computer is Windows 10.

No localhost/127.0.0.1 is not the IP of your phone, that is the loopback network card which is only accessible on the device itself. Therefore if you try to connect to 127.0.0.1 on your Smartphone you try to connect not to your PC but to your smartphone (where of course no FTP server is running). Execute in cmd shell ipconfig /allto see all interfaces and their IP addresses. And make sure PC and smartphone are connected to the same network.

I know that, and as I mention, I did add the ip of my computer but I did get the message I mentioned above. (ftpput: can't connect to remote host (192.168.1.50): Network is unreachable)

Does this answer your question? How to recover a deleted file from /data partition?

@alecxs It is good, but I couldn't find data user path, could you help me with that ? please

mount | grep ' /data '

Thanks @alecxs.
I got this (/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/userdata /data ext4 rw,seclabel,nosuid,nodev,noatime,discard,journal_checksum,journal_async_commit,noauto_da_alloc,data=ordered 0 0).
So after (adb shell) then (su) I had issued this (adb shell 'stty raw && dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/userdata' > data.img) but got this error (tmp-mksh: can't create data.img: Read-only file system).
Also tried to issue it without (adb shell)&(su) then get a file with this inside (/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/userdata: cannot open for read: Permission denied).

adb shell su -c "cat /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/userdata | gzip 2> /dev/null" > userdata.img.gz


text:
Can I improve accuracy of Google Location while hiking
My Google Location history is amazingly helpful and informative, and generally accurate. I have all settings set to highest so I can always get the best location accuracy. I've read several posts about how Google estimates my location, using cell towers, wifi SSIDs/BSSIDs, etc and it all makes sense. But when I go on my daily hike, the accuracy is 'way off' by a few miles. I take photos on my hike and their Geo-location tagging is accurate to within a few feet, so I know the location information is available with GPS.
The following screen shot gives an example. The red line was drawn by me and represents my hike. The blue lines are the estimation by Google Location. My hike follows a ridgeline that surrounds a residential neighborhood. Obviously, my phone's location sensor is latching onto either cell-towers or wifi access points in the neighborhood.

Is there any way I can tell my phone to use GPS to report location, rather than wifi or cell tower, during a hike?  If I launch google maps during the hike, will that cause my accuracy to improve? I often take photos at various locations along the hike (and these are accurately geo-tagged) but this doesn't seem to help the location map below.  I did notice that, if I use a 'hiking app' such as 'map my walk' or 'strava', the location as reported to Google is very accurate. So do I need to launch 'any app that uses GPS' to make the GPS location available to Google?
Also, I've read that I can click on 'blue dots' on the map to see where it's getting the location information from, but I see no blue dots no matter how much I zoom in.
Thanks!

I would assume that Google tries to minimize the used battery by default but if another app already uses GPS Google can also get access to the calculated GPS positions. Just use e.g. a track recorder app on your phone and check if it improves the Google location history or just use the recorded track.

Without using a third-party app, you are going to have to keep the Google Maps app open at all times.
I use Google Timeline along with Google Fit for daily exercise walk tracking. In the pocket, screen off, I get what you get, nearby areas or generalized activity around my home. When I have the Google Maps app open, screen on, I can get walking tracks down every street such that when I look at it in Timeline/Google Fit it looks like I'm tracing the neighborhood blocks. If I go into a shop and forget to bring the Google Maps app into the foreground, even when I'm listening to a podcast, the location will jump to when I finally remember to bring forth the Google Maps app. And as expected it does drain the battery more.
I'm using a Pixel 2 with Android 10. Reducing battery usage has been theme with the newer versions of Android so I'm in agreement with Robert, unless you have something trying to getting GPS location data, the lower accuracy location data will be used. I would expect walking directions (like driving directions) which has the Google Maps app in the foreground all the time have the most accurate location data.
One compromise is to open the Google Maps app at some moderate frequency (say 5 minutes) and allow it to get a GPS lock. While the detail of your track not be as accurate as "on all the time" the positions recorded would at least be more aligned with your path.

So I not only have to run Google Maps, but also, keep it in the foreground and with the screen on - oh well!  Regarding the idea of opening Google Maps every 5 minutes; that might be good enough, but - I can imagine that during those times when Google Maps is not 'active', location sensing may jump miles across the valley to the arbitrary GPS or WiFi access points that it is currently latching onto!   I will try this and report back.

You can go into your Google Timeline to remove or correct erroneous locations (distant cell towers or WiFi spots). If anything it will help clean up a personal timeline and hopefully improve the dataset since the app is tracking walk activity the majority of the time.

if you look at the image I pasted above, there's no 'dot' associated with any of the 'end points' on the map, so I don't see how I can edit anything. Am I missing something?

Ah I stand corrected, you are right, I was thinking of stores or similar. I'm not sure if its possible to remove those errant locations (short of removing the entire track).

Above I commented that I could not see any dots associated with any of the endpoints. I just discovered the 'settings' icon (gear icon) on the map. One option is 'show raw data'. With that feature enabled, lots of red dots appear. I can hover over each dot and an 'accuracy circle' appears on the map.  Sadly, I see no option to delete a dot, or correct it. Some of the dots that are way off show a small (good) accuracy circle, so that isn't necessarily a great guide.

There's a trick: open Google Maps, press Go button, then select a very far away destination that you are not going to arrive, then confirm to find a route. Google map will keep running on background without screen on. Also turn off the navigation voice to avoid the sound they would make. By doing that, Maps will always track your current location even if you are not really going to that destination and all location data will be saved. I use that trick often and it's way more accurate than default location report.

I'm somewhat familiar with that 'trick', but how do you keep the map from being visible? I can start navigation, then 'lock' the screen and the screen is dark while navigation continues. But if I want to use the phone, I can hit the menu button and the navigation app shrinks to a small window, hovering over whatever else is on the screen.  I cannot get it to disappear altogether (background) without killing it.  Edit - I can also achieve the same by launching a hiking/exercise app like 'map my walk' or 'strava', and telling it to track my progress.


text:
I cant get on my samsung sm-t387w tablet
I have tried several  passwords that I might have used, but no luck. My tablet is still on and it is asking for a password to turn it off. I even spoke to samsung customer service for an hour and they couldnt fix it.

get on, get off? what password, google account? do you think password will be gone after reboot?


text:
Is it possible to remove the ability to choose between which sim card to send text from default android sms application?
I have this requirement where I need to completely disable sending sms and calls even by accident from SIM 2 which I only use for Mobile data (Sometimes I Force network to LTE and SMS and calls won't be made even by accident when its locked to LTE my issue is when not network is in auto mode). One suggestion to prevent accidental messages is to keep the balance 0. But sometimes I get free messages bundled with packages ;)

The red arrow shows the option for SIM 2 messaging option. Is there anyway to remove that option? (much better without root)
My device is Samsung A30 & android version is 10, Using android messages version 11.1.60.153.

settings - SIM card


text:
Google 2-Step Verification (Android) Google prompt does not send to every phone where signed in
For Google 2-Step Verification (Android) Google prompt, from Google UI, it states that 'After you enter your password, Google prompts are securely sent to every phone where you're signed in.' But, that is not true. I have 3 phones which are signed in. But Google prompt keeps popping up only on one phone. This annoys me much because I don't take that phone with me all the time. I don't want to sign out that phone because I need to use it sometimes too. How can I let Google prompt send to all the signed in phones? (OR temporarily block that one without signing out)

Can you check on https://myaccount.google.com/signinoptions/two-step-verification if the devices are listed on "Google prompts"? Also, you might be interested in the official help center for Sign in with Google prompts, particularly for "You don't get a Google prompt".

@AndrewT. Thanks a lot for the information. They are listed on "Google prompts". I read the section about "You don't get a google prompt". But I don't find google play services app in the play store app. Thus, no way to update it. Maybe something wrong with the google play services app. Not really sure. Cheers.


text:
WhatsApp showing different value for used storage on app info and in-app settings
In my Samsung Galaxy S9, WhatsApp is showing that it uses 37.89GB of internal storage when I checked the app info.

Due to that, my phone's data is getting full and all the other apps are getting hung due to less storage space left in my mobile phone.
When I checked the WhatsApp 'Settings' -> 'Data and storage usage' it shows only 195.1MB of data has been stored for WhatsApp.

From where the 37.89GB of data is being shown in the app info on my phone?
Please note: I don't want to delete my WhatsApp and reinstall it to fix this issue because I don't want to lose my WhatsApp messages, and I can't take the backup also because there is no more space left on my mobile to take the backup.

The storage usage which you saw in the device settings page (App info), includes cached data too. Click on the Storage in the App info page of WhatsApp. There you will find a Clear cache button. Click on that.

Side note: WhatsApp's data storage information only shows the storage usage by multimedia and messages. Besides those things, WhatsApp also stores its settings, multimedia that you have shared with others, and downloaded statuses. So, you cannot rely much on the information which is shown as Storage usage in WhatsApp. If you want to know more about the real storage usage, open up a file manager and browse the WhatsApp folder inside the primary storage. See these screenshots and note the differences (114 MB vs 12 MB):

I cleared the cache and but still it dosent helped me because it still shows that I have 37.84Gb and in total 37.89GB, please check this link for the screenshot link but when I checked the whatsapp 'settings' -> 'Data and storage usage' it shows only 195.1MB of data has been stored for whatsapp. I am super confused from where does this data(37.89GB) is being stored
I deleted all the sent items(docs, images, voice messages and all) still the issue remains sae

Look into the WhatsApp folder in the device's storage. Look for hidden files too. See whether there is any file taking up a lot of space.

Cleared all the hidden files from WhatsApp folder in the device's storage but in those hidden folder all the data comined together was like ~2MB only. Still I cant find the 37.89GB


text:
Phone unresponsive after fastboot boot command
I try to root a Xiaomi Redmi note 5. After issuing the command
fastboot boot twrp-3.4.0-0-vince.img

The screen turns black, with the Xiaomi logo at the center of the screen and 'Unlocked' is written at the bottom. I've tried several img versions, verified their names are correct(that is, they don't end with a double .img), as well as holding the Volume up and Power buttons, but the outcome was always the same.
My CMD:
C:\Users\Oagroup\Desktop\ADB>fastboot devices
380387a fastboot

C:\Users\Oagroup\Desktop\ADB>fastboot flash recovery twrp-3.4.0-0-vince.img
target reported max download size of 536870912 bytes
sending 'recovery' (36804 KB)...
OKAY [  0.801s]
writing 'recovery'...
OKAY [  0.527s]
finished. total time: 1.330s

C:\Users\Oagroup\Desktop\ADB>fastboot boot twrp-3.4.0-0-vince.img
downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [  0.801s]
booting...
OKAY [  0.154s]
finished. total time: 0.959s

C:\Users\Oagroup\Desktop\ADB>fastboot oem device-info
...
(bootloader) Verity mode: true
(bootloader) Device unlocked: true
(bootloader) Device critical unlocked: true
(bootloader) Charger screen enabled: false
OKAY [  0.007s]
finished. total time: 0.010s

Thanks for the help.

https://android.stackexchange.com/q/214902 the first command flashed TWRP, therefore you must disable dm-verity. i recommend OrangeFox Recovery because TWRP has issues with disk quota

I don't understand the instructions in the link. What should I do after I download the zip? Should I flash it, and if so, how? (I am all new to this stuff).

no-verity-opt-encrypt-6.1.zip can be installed from TWRP menu. please confirm your device is vince (not whyred, rosy, riva) flash TWRP from fastboot (again), then fastboot reboot (while keep holding Volume Up)

after flashing keep connected, press + hold Volume Up only (not Power), type fastboot reboot while holding Volume Up, release Button when you see TWRP splash screen


text:
on a termux app terminal access where should I put my own runnit service to start on phone reboot?
I wrote a simple service like this one: http://smarden.org/runit/runscripts.html#apache2
$ cat start_node_exporter
#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/sh
termux-wake-lock
. $PREFIX/etc/profile
/data/data/com.termux/files/home/bin/node_exporter --collector.wifi --collector.tcpstat --collector.runit --collector.processes --collector.mountstats

I would like it to run on phone reboot

Explained here very well: https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Termux:Boot

I have already tried that, that sshd example did not work on reboot the .termux folder disappeared.

Did you install Termux Boot app?

Indeed, the instructions are pretty clear on the page you shared


text:
where i can find combination firmware for samsung A207F(A20s)
I need combination firmware/file for remove FRP from my Samsung A207F(A20s).
Where from i can find it?
I very searched for it but could not found any things.

Does this answer your question? How to bypass "Verify your account" (Factory Reset Protection)

@alecxs i've seen combinationfirmware.com/combination-samsung-galaxy-a20s before, there is no any link for download. you see any download link for combination file?

@alecxs yeh, i've tried the sim method, but does not work on android 10 an latest security patch update

bootloader has downgrade protection i doubt you will find combination rom which is flashable on latest version. just wait a year or so..


text:
Change language of an Andoird app?
Some Android apps allows users to change language in setting,
but some apps fixes the app language to the system language.
If the app does not allow the user to change language, can I use the different language from the system default language?

Does this answer your question? Is it possible to run applications with different locales (languages)?

Translations are added by the app developer for every language they want to support in their app. If the developer didn't translate the English strings to any other language, app won't change locale when changed in device Settings.

I wanted to know if there is a way to accomplish this without rooting or using any virtual-machine-like (such as Parallel Space).

Translations provided by the app developer is sometimes does not make sense since they sometime use machine translation.


text:
Is there a 'first'or 'original' language in the app?
Many Android apps supports multiple language so that it follows the system default language or users can select language from the setting.
Sometime the translation quality is poor, so I would like to see the 'original' version of the app, not the translated version.
Is there such as option?

See this https://developer.android.com/training/basics/supporting-devices/languages

Does this answer your question? Change language of an Android app?