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Can user data be recovered after formatting and flashing stock ROM?
I am exchanging my old Android L phone for a new one. I have formatted the whole phone including bootloader and flashed its stock ROM using SP Flash Tool twice. I hope my data has been overwritten.
Are there any chances that my data may still be recovered?

It can be recovered using complex sector scanning, however if you used Encryption, your Data partition may still have information on it, but it will still be encrypted.
The main source for recovering Data other than using Root Access to do a full sector scan of the Data / Cache Partitions, is to undelete data on the External SD Card..
You can do a sector scan of your storage without Root Access also, depending on your Android Version.
You should Overwrite the Data partition, not Delete the data and then Flash it again...
Deleting the Data Partition and the Flashing it again, doesn't actually Overwrite the old user data... Formatting it is not Overwriting it Either...
You need to do a Full format of every sector to Overwrite it...
Try writing over the internal storage with another file, repeatedly copy and paste a file until your device can not fit anything else ... Then format it ...

I have formatted the whole phone including bootloader

Bootloader can't be overwritten, your device will be bricked. I think you meant boot partition which contains kernel. But that doesn't contain personal data you've been saving. That's saved on userdata partition which is mounted at /data and one of its directory /data/media/0 is exposed as /sdcard through emulation. So the major concern is to securely erase /data partition.

Are there any chances that my data may still be recovered?

Please note that on most newer device /data partition is encrypted by default (FBE/FDE enforced using forceencrypt or contents_encryption_mode flags in fstab). In this case your actual data is saved to /dev/block/dm-0 which is a logical volume mapped by device-mapper's crypt target over userdata partition. It means that data available on userdata block device is encrypted and not identifiable.
Secondly Android issues a scheduled/continuous TRIM command to flash storage (eMMC), which makes sure the deleted data is physically Erased from cells (which is a requirement before re-writing it; this is where Flash Media differs from HDDs).
Thirdly when you do a Factory Reset with stock recovery, BLKDISCARD or BLKSECDISCARD is issued before creating filesystem (formatting), which again makes sure the whole block device (userdata) is Erased. It means that all the Logical Block Addresses (LBAs) which belong to this partition will now return zeros if read.

If all of the three conditions meet on your device, be ensured that your data won't be recoverable.
Note that:

Overwriting data may not necessarily overwrite it, particularly on F2FS, which always writes data to new blocks as a part of it's wear-leveling strategy.
Simply formatting (creating filesystem) neither erases data nor overwrites it. It just recreates data structures (e.g. superblocks, file tables, directories, inode/block bitmaps, journals etc.). Formatting should be accompanied by TRIM or BLKDISCARD.
There is still a possibility that data is not Erased from physical cells (PBAs) even after issuing TRIM or BLKDISCARD, and it can possibly be recovered e.g. with chip-off forensics. There are a number of factors involved, including Over-Provisioning space, Wear-Leveling and Garbage Collection capabilities of the eMMC on your device.

For more details: How to make a complete factory reset, without anyone being able to retrieve my data?


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Split screen with Android Go pie
If I understand it correctly, the only thing that makes an Android ROM a "Go" version is the "ro.config.low_ram=true" entry, which brings several optimizations for low end devices and improves the performance by disabling some of the android features. One of them is the ability to display two apps simultaneously on the screen, using the split screen function.
So my question is - can only the split screen (or multi-window) function be enabled on an Android pie Go ROM, without disabling all other "Go" optimizations?
I'm using Resurrection Remix pie ROM on a Motorola Moto E 2015 phone.

According to me, it can't be done, because running two apps side-by-side requires a large amount of memory (RAM).

Well, I used to run two apps in split screen with RR nougat just fine on the same phone, occasionally. Maybe the pie version of android needs more ram, and the experience could be choppy, but I guess it could be done with pie also, by disabling the low ram entry. But then all other low ram optimizations would be lost, which probably help the phone run smoother all the time. On the other hand, split screen can be toggled so it should only affect the performance, when it is enabled.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Does a Google Drive WhatsApp backup restore newer mesages?
Say I have backed up WhatsApp to Google Drive on some date X, then I uninstall it or format the device. On a later date Y, I reinstall WhatsApp and restore the Google Drive backup. Would the messages sent between dates X and Y be included in said backup?

I think the answer is No. Because, it is the WhatsApp app itself, which is responsible for doing the backup to Google Drive. So, if the WhatsApp app isn't installed, no backups can be done.

@PuspamAdak I am asking about restoring a backup. WhatsApp would have already been used to create said backup. My question is whether that restores any files from after the backup date or not.

How could somebody restore something that he doesn't even have?
your Gdrive backup will restore the messages till date X.
If your WhatsApp was active between date X and Y then you would have already received the messages in your WhatsApp(whom you didn't back up on the Gdrive).
So on date Y if you reset your phone and restore the backup from date X then you will have messages up to date X only. and if you didn't use the WhatsApp by date X & Y and you just installed it again now then all the undelivered message between X & Y will be delivered right now.

My WhatsApp would in theory be active during those two dates. The question is if I, say, format the device after that. Would I still get those messages?

Yes, the messages between date X and date Y are indeed preserved.
I have attempted this now, and it has successfully worked.
Do note that I was using the same phone and number, hence I do not know the success rate of this under a different situation.
Also, the old backup as it was does not contain the new data until and unless you update it from the settings.

Do note that messages between X and Y cannot be included with Drive backup (no backup was made after X, so the messages don't exist in the backup). You must have gotten those messages directly from WhatsApp's servers and got confused that they were restored from backup.

@Firelord The old backup as it was would not contain the new messages from WhatsApp's servers until you update it.

@Firelord is correct. What is/was not backup, cannot be restored. The only logical explanation is that the messages were on WhatsApp servers waiting for you to connect, then they delivered them to you.

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


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programatically edit numbers from messages
Here is the issue
i changed phones..
i before hand backed up calls and messages using sms backup and restore. everything went fine. I have the xml files i can see the messages and the numbers correctly in the xml.
the restore in the new  phone for some reason decided to add the sim country code to every number that did not have a country code which made the numbers completely unusable
I do not understand from where come the country code I do not see anywhere the settings in the aosp messaging app to remove the country code.
is there a way to edit the numbers on the messages or to make sms backup and restore app not to add the country code of the sim card.. I think it detects the country of the sim or the country of the phone based on imei? and then if a phone does not start by +xxx it add it..
I find totally unacceptable that the restore got somehow altered. and I cannot find the root cause..
questions is can i use adb or some api in python or whatever to fix the mistakes.. I still have the original xml files from sms backup and restore with the numbers untouched.
thank you

You can edit the XML files and add the right country codes before import. If you want to fix it programatically directly on phone you need root access.

the main question what or who added the country code is it the android OS? or the restore app?
the data of the restore should not have been tampared with

It is propably from sms app, but hard to say unless you mentioned which app you use. You can try if numbers without country code will be rejected. The answer is just to avoid wrong country codes


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"Device Admin" apps are asking for permission to erase my data after failed login attempts! How can I confirm?
I was about to install the Outlook app on my phone, when it asked me to activate it as a device admin. (See image below):

I'm sure few people read the whole warning. One part greatly concerned me:

Monitor screen unlock attempts
  Monitor the number of incorrect passwords typed. when unlocking the screen, and lock the phone or ease all the phone's data if too many incorrect passwords are typed.

Well shoot, if there's risk of all data being erased, I'm not really not that interested anymore! I often accidentally swipe patterns while I'm holding my phone in my hand. Plus a friend or young family member may be fooling around with my phone, unknowingly creating me a very long restoration process and lost data I can never get back.
What I'm wondering:

Is this just a generic warning given for any app requesting admin privileges? Perhaps it's possible that Outlook doesn't use the erase feature?
Is there a way to verify how many incorrect login attempts will trip the erasure?
Can I override the ability for it to erase my phone? (I'm guessing not.)

Is this just a generic warning given for any app requesting admin privileges? Perhaps it's possible that Outlook doesn't use the erase feature?

Only the operations which the app can perform are shown to the user. If the device admin screen shows an operation like "Monitor Screen Lock Attempts", then rest assured, the corresponding app does have that feature.
I am sharing an image from an app named Tasker which employs only one device admin operation and is asking only for it. This should be sufficient that the device admin screen doesn't show generic operations but only app-specific ones. This can further be tested against the list of maximum operations that can be shown from here.

Is there a way to verify how many incorrect login attempts will trip the erasure?

Developers might be able to see it by analyzing the code from the APK using special tools. You could test this using trial and error on your own by using android-x86 and running your app on it. Try incorrect passwords and count for yourself. I'm not aware of an easy way.

Can I override the ability for it to erase my phone?

I do not know as of now. An Xposed module like Bypass Exchange Policies might be able to do this.

Good idea, using Android x86 to find the failed login threshold. I'll report back if I find some useful data.

I tried it myself with a Google account in Outlook. Didn't do anything even after 11 failed attempts.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2015/02/17/pin-lock-updates-outlook-ios-android/
"this is an app-level wipe, not a device wipe. The Outlook app will reset and Outlook email, calendar, contacts and files data will be removed from the device, as well as from Outlook’s cloud components. The wipe will not affect any of the user’s personal apps and information."
Phew! wish they said that in the install process TBH.

I wish that page were more explicit. To me, it's only referring to manual reset issued by the company. It doesn't mention incorrect password wipes.


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How to restrict new apps using network data by default?
Is it possible without third-party apps, through system configs? All news apps have the right to use both cellular and WLAN networks and doesn't look secure to me. Doing it manually isn't fun.
Thanks.

Google/Alphabet is making money from ads and ads are loaded via network. Now guess how likely it is to find an option to restrict system wide network access for (new) apps...

Any solution IMO would require a third-party support, even for using the inbuilt iptables.

You can use iptables if you have root. But that's too complicated to be easily manageable, such as when you switch from Wi-Fi to mobile data. Better is to use third party app as @Firelord suggested.


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How to fix moon+ reader voice stuttering in Android 9?
With my Samsung s8+ and android 8 I could listen to ebooks with the voice reader without problems but since upgrading to Android 9 it stutters and produces strange noise and stops. How can I fix that?
I use Moon+ Reader Pro 4.5.7.
P.S.: The problem only occurs with the Google Voice, not the Samsung Voice.

Have you considered asking the dev? Seany is quite responsive (at least he was in the past). Maybe it's something he can fix.

Thanks, I will contact him!

Let us know the outcome then! And give him my regards :)


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Removing knox from my phone
I am trying to reuse my samsung galaxy j3 prime phone which i havent used in a while i have some things i want to get off of it as well. My problem is that i have knox on my phone which i hide with my important apps and files. I cant rememeber how to get into or even find where it's hinding in order to get into the app. Alone with the fact that i cant rememeber my longin information. Is there anyway to make it show up so i can get inside my account?

try to disable KNOX by typing pm disable --user 0 com.sec.knox.seandroid in adb shell. When uninstalling KNOX, you are asked if you want to backup your KNOX data

Ok i will try that but im not really even sure what you said. But i think i can figure that out. Im new at all this i wanna learn but cant seem to rapped my head around all if it. Like a dog chasing its tail. I also cant even access root. Bbc agent im guessing has it locked down.

I tried that it didnt work


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Does the auto factory reset reset the counting of 15 wrong attempts?
I just set up a PIN to my device when I saw the option of enabling auto factory reset after 15 wrong attempts to unlock my phone and I now wonder: for how long are these 15 attempts valid? One hour? Day? Ever?

I do not think it would make sense to take an action if the failed attempts are not consecutive (no successful login in between, that is).

The failed unlock counter will reset when the device is successfully unlocked.

I won't try it myself, but it makes sense and I don't know how I didn't realize it. Thanks.


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How do I troubleshoot low touchscreen event rate?
I have a strange slowdown on my device (non-rooted Android 5.0.2). At times, the screen becomes unresponsive. And touchscreen testing apps register only a few events per second when I move my finger over a screen, as opposed to dozens.
Sometimes it gets back to normal. I manage to make it normal with appkillers and/or service disablers, but it's a) not reliable b) random actions instead of  searching for the root cause.
So the question is: how do I trace down the issue? I'm a programmer so I'm able to use tools if necessary.
GNU/Linux tools and general troubleshooting (identifying and killing offending processes) don't work well in intent-oriented architecture of Android, so some android-specific tools are necessary, such as Android Profiler.

Try one of the apps that will let you run a terminal window and run the top command -- that will show you the processes using the most CPU.  I use "Terminal Emulator for Android" -- it is easy to install and use.

Note that while on Android 5 top has a limited usability, on Android 8 it has none, as it shows only 2 processes

You might have to use one of the more advanced terminal apps to get a more accurate top output, but that require rooting your device which it sounds like you do not want to do.


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Mobile data turns on automatically
I am using Moto One power mobile and android version is 9.0 pie. I have two sim cards in my device, and one is used for data. The other one's data switches on automatically, and there is no active data pack on that sim; so it deducts from my main account balance. How can I stop that?

It has been fixed in the Feb patch Update,
just Go Settings -> About phone -> System updates -> Now update


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How to run regular google maps on android go?
I'm trying to install the regular heavy version android google maps from play store but it only brings up google maps go. What should I do to fix this?

You can install it by downloading the APK file of the app from any site.

you can download it here from apkmirror
https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/maps/maps-10-14-1-release/


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Managing /data/system/netpolicy.xml: what do these policies mean?
Seems like it wasn't clever of me to restore Data (policy/stats) with Titanium Backup. It has all that apps' unique UIDs from my previous system (actually, the same phone, but wiped and flashed) and now I'm starting to think that the same apps now have new UIDs, so the settings may be completely wrong, except the system ones, right? If I remove all the policies from the file, should I expect it to repopulate with defaults? Is this file controlled by that system app which allows to enable/disable cellular/wlan access?
What do all that policies mean? In case of manual setting. They're mostly 2048 and 3840, but there're 2816, 1792 and 768 too.
The reason why I've started to worry about it: Play Store is having some problems with the connection. To be exact, when I download starts it runs with Download Manager (uid: 10010, com.android.probiders.downloads) and the manager keeps saying «reconnecting», meanwhile other apps have no problems with the internet access. 10010 has 768 policy + it whitelisted (<whitelist>...</whitelist>), but at the same time I see that another app has 768 policy and it's some little game, I restricted it in internet access UI. However, it's not a total connection failure: it can download a couple of megs, then speed drops to a few kbs and only then it starts to say «reconnecting».
Maybe (just maybe) it has nothing to do with netpolicy.xml and it's something else causes the problem, but I don't know what else tbh.

problem solved by manual deleting all the setting lines and rebooting the device. when you open your system app with internet usage settings, it repopulates the file. actually, it repopulates the file right when you open settings, without reboot. 768 means allow both WLAN and cellular, 3840 – disallow both.

netpolicy.xml file mainly contains settings that are made from Settings > Network & internet > Data usage and Settings > Apps & notifications > Advanced > Special app access > Unrestricted data. So you can delete the file and make these settings any time to regenerate the file.


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Marshmallow: Adding system-wide custom root certificate
On Android 6 if I move my own root CA from
/data/misc/user/0/cacerts-added

to
/system/etc/security/cacerts/

it doesn't work anymore.
It is in the system list and active, but my browser says certificate missing. Why?


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How to extract Facebook messenger password
I would like to ask you how can i see the stored password of FB messenger on my phone.
What i already tried:

Password reset did not work since the mail that was used is blocked and the phone number is in the bottom of the sea so no access there too.
It is not logged on with another website or application to get the password from there
Facebook support do not reply to the requests to reset the password

Please let me know what else i can try to find my saved password.
Thank you.

Usually such apps like FB messenger don't save the password at all. They use username/password for authentication the first time and then get back an oAuth token that is used afterwards for authentication. The oAuth token is random and therefore can't be used to get back the password.

Dear Robert, so i understand that in that case there is no way to retrieve the password from the app or any other option. So im guessing the only option is to work with FB directly to reset the password.

Hi Ritorio, I have not analyzed FM messenger how it authenticates, I just said what is usually used. Anyway FB messenger disallows local backup via ADB therefore even if it would save the password you would need root permissions to get access to the private app data of FB messenger.


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Using Termux to Backup Android's Contact List
In Termux's website's main page, they write (among other stuff):

"use rsync to store backups of your contact list on a remote server"

This makes me wonder:
Android's Contact List is stored in an SQLite DB, which is a file on the phone's internal storage.
rsync synchronizes files.
So If I understand the required implementation behind this idea,
then what they mean by the quoted sentence, is that you can simply synchronize the whole SQLite DB file, to a remote server.
The problem is:
What happens when the day comes, and you need to Restore your Contacts DB?
I assume that Android will not let you copy the SQLite DB file that you saved aside, over the current (new, and empty) Contact List's SQLite DB file,
So how will we do the restoration?
I hope someone understood their idea in this sentence..

It is simple: On file level you need root permissions for creating the backup of the contact SQLite db file and you need root permissions for restoring a backup.

Termux provides an API to retrieve contacts list. You don't need to backup/restore the database file.

@Robert Thank you, so without root (on my device, not inside Termux which of course has root) it's completely impossible?

@IrfanLatif The Termux-contact-list command in Termux API enables Reading the Contacts List, but what about Writing it back?

@spaceman I didn't use the API but it must be working on both sides. Just as any contacts backup app works

@IrfanLatif according to the termux-contact-list command documentation, it only Reads, not Writes.. https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Termux-contact-list

@spaceman may be. I'm not sure about that.


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Recording digital audio with Android
I am unable to record digital audio (e.g. from a computer or another phone) with my Android device. I have plugged in a TRRS audio and mic splitter and plugged that into my phone, and used a male-to-male cable to connect my source device to the mic input. It can be seen that the built-in mic is not recording, but all it records is static, no matter the gain level. How can I get this to work?

Microphone and Audio Input are separate inputs.
I can see the confusion as they both use 3.5mm Jacks, however Audio Lines require a pre-amp prior to the output side, the pre-amp amps up the raw line to give it volume and this outputs digitally formatted data rather than Analog data.
The Microphone on your Android is supposed to be connected directly to a small microphone inside the Headphones, this headphone Microphone is NOT pre-amped and therefore you get a raw analog output from that microphone.
The problem is because you are putting a pre-amped digital data into an analog raw line.
You can use a small microphone like the one in your headphones to test the cable is actually working.
To input Audio data into an Android device, you have many methods that do not require any cables like WiFi Media Servers or even USB OTG Microphone pre-amps .

it seems like the audio input is valid, but bixby seems to hijack that channel so I cannot actually use it, though there was once I managed to get it to work, but I forgot how now. Do you know how I can force the input?

Or there are a few video tutorials on how to connect an android phone to record audio from the piano. How is this different?


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How to wipe the cache partition of a Samsung Tablet?
I am trying to wipe the cache partition of a Samsung Tablet GT-P5100 which does not start the Android operating system any more. Only the Samsung logo is displayed before it starts over.
Therefore, I launched the recovery mode and selected the menu entry wipe cache partition as shown on the first photo:

When I press the power button the Erasing ... starts as shown on the second photo:

Right after, the erasing is stopped by an error as shown on the third photo:

Finally, an Error! stops the process as shown on the fourth photo:

Immediately, the device restarts.
What is going wrong?

I have deleted this answer as i am not sure this Texas Instruments (TI) OMAP 4430 SoC is shipped with fastboot mode at all. Ususally Samsung devices have Odin Download mode, please follow this instructions instead
https://twrp.me/samsung/samsunggalaxytab2gmsunified.html

(old answer still can be viewed here)

Thank you for your hint. I did not have a look at TWRP yet. I will read through, check it out and let you know if it worked for me.


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Contact names not showing on dialer, but do show in Recents
Have a Samsung J3 2017 (SM327).  About a week ago, noticed that incoming & outgoing calls going to/from someone in my Contacts only shows the number, not the Contact name, so I often have no idea who's calling me.  But when I hang up and look in the Recent call log, the Contact name shows up correctly there.   I have tried every permission, every setting possible.  Spent an hour with an ATT tech - nothing.  Did a factory restore - nothing.  Took it to a Samsumg authorized serviced center and had it completely reflashed.   Fixed the prob for 2 days, then reappeared.   Any info?

Found out source of problem.  It was ATT Call Protect app.  Disabled app and issue solved.

Ideas:

get a new phone :-P
another app is handling the calls and lacks permission, could be yours or a virus. maybe try uninstalling/deactivating all apps until you find it. or start from scratch with the factory reset, add apps and check


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Bixby command to rotate the screen?
On my Samsung S9 the Bixby application is updated, so I can remap it to applications or commands.
How can I create a command to rotate the screen?


text:
Completely compromised, but how?
I'm hoping a few geniuses out there can  lend there wisdom, I'm at a complete loss. Or maybe I'm the simple type.
I would like to assume I'm "hacked" but the situations I've been through lead me to believe what I'm dealing with is something a little different?
I'm seeing the strangest activity on my mobile device, as well as my fiances. And I believe whatever is plaguing our phones is also effecting my PC as well. Went from Note 8's which saw some of this bizaar behavior to two S10's for 2 weeks. After seeing the same things but worse in the S10's we actually switched carriers to another set of S10's and are having the exact same issues.
I noticed I was being properly updated either. And I couldnt view the previous update info which I should be able. And when we dropped our previous carrier the phone was able to update properly after about a day of being deactivated. Then with our new carrier, they rolled me back to the Feb edition if SE for Android status after already giving me March.

have you tried a security check on your google account?

You have to describe the screenshots, without the knowledge what you did and why you think something shown on the screenshot is strange we can't help you.


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Adding custom bootup script to Android-x86 Nougat
I've been happy using Android-x86 Nougat on my system. Thanks to everyone who made that work.
I'm now trying to make one small change which is that I want to run a custom init script (a shell script) at bootup.
It seemed like a simple idea which I've done before on KitKat without problems. I modified init.rc and added a service to start my script.
But what happens is on bootup, I see:
04-17 13:16:14.823  1210  1210 I init    : type=1400 audit(0.0:6): avc: denied { execute_no_trans } for path="/system/bin/mystart" dev="loop1" ino=280 scontext=u:r:init:s0 tcontext=u:object_r:system_file:s0 tclass=file permissive=1

That error is a SELinux permission error so I then proceeded to try these solutions:

Disabling SElinux
write /sys/fs/selinux/enforce 0

And checked that this causes the system to be in permissive mode but at bootup, the same error still occurs.
Adding a custom SELinux policy, I added:
build/target/board/generic/sepolicy/mystart.te
type mystart, domain;
type mystart_exec, exec_type, file_type;

init_daemon_domain(mystart)

But this still doesn't allow the service to proceed.
Tried to run it as a post action:
on property:dev.bootcomplete=1
exec u:r:shell:s0 shell shell input log adb sdcard_rw sdcard_r net_bt_admin net_bt inet net_bw_stats -- /system/bin/sh /system/bin/mystart

This still hits the same avc issue.

Edit: This issue is for a boot script (not an ELF executable as in the other case) and furthermore, as I mentioned above, turning off SELinux enforce does not permit the script to be run.

The avc denial you have got states that:

init is running with its context u:r:init:0, you want it to execute /system/bin/mystart (script, binary, whatever) which is labeled as u:object_r:system_file:s0. But init isn't allowed to execute system_file in sepolicy. However you have set SELinux permissive, so it's just a warning, not actual denial.

Therefore you don't need to do anything with SELinux unless you set it enforcing. There must be some other problem with your shell script. Put set -x; exec >/data/media/0/mystart.log 2>&1 at the start of your script to see what happens when it's executed.
RELATED: How to run an executable on boot and keep it running?


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How to use Android Auto in Poland?
Has anyone managed to successfully use Android Auto with any car based in Poland?
My Motorola Moto Z2 Play fails completely when I am trying to connect it to my Toyota Aygo 2018+ (tried many good quality USB cables): Android Auto shutdowns itself automatically after about 0.5 second and car's display shows "Unrecognized device".
After reading some stuff in the Internet and contacting Motorola and Toyota support it turned out the entire thing doesn't work, because I don't have Android Auto application installed on my phone and I don't have it installed, because it is not available in Poland.
Yet, I've heard and read some stories about people here, in Poland, able to use Android Auto without any problems. Does anyone have any idea, how this was accomplished?
The only idea that comes to my mind is that these people somehow managed to force-install Android Auto on their phones, somehow omitting Google Play store limitations (i.e. unavailability of this application in Poland).

You can download the apk from apkmirror.com and then manually install it.

indeed, Android Auto is not available in Belgium either. Downloading the APK manually solved it for me! But I had to reinstall the APK recently because I dont get the updates automatically.


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Transfer Android app with offline data to NEW PHONE without ROOT
I've purchased a new phone and have transferred most of the data from the old device to the new one using various means.
There is one app, however, that does not have account login, so I cannot save cached data in the cloud. Meaning that I have no choice but to move/restore the app to the new device with the offline (cached) data.
This app is quite important to me, and I need the offline data.
I know of the following techniques to do this:

Backup and restore app + cached data using Helium: copy & replace the 'sdcard/carbon' folder from the old phone to the new phone. After doing this, restore the app with data on the new phone.
Root the device and use Titanium backup to do the same.
Backup apps using the 'Backup' feature in Google Drive.

Helium just did not work (with a brand new phone with Android 8.0!).
I cannot use Titanium as I cannot root my old phone at this point (before backup is complete). And restoring the app this way will in all likelihood require that I root my new phone as well, which is a deal-breaker.
Does Google Drive Backup work with all third party apps? I did not see the app I want to save in the list of apps whose data was being saved by Google Drive.
What should I do? Can anyone advise?
EDIT:
All of the techniques given on various sites for both partial and full backups (including nandroid backups) are device specific, i.e. you can restore to the same device only, not from one device to another. This includes both Droid Explorer and Simple ADB Backup too, apparently.
Is there no general way of restoring an app with data to a new phone without root? Google Drive backup does this without root. If it can do that, why can't other apps?
Also, various people suggested using MyBackup Pro / Android Assistant / DrFone+. All these tools give up before even trying: they all seem to require root.

adb backup is pretty general because it stores data in a way which allows restoring to any device. if the app is not allowing adb backup, you still can extract the app from any other backup and convert to adb backup. check if stock recovery has backup option

@alecxs: "if the app is not allowing adb backup, you still can extract the app from any other backup and convert to adb backup. check if stock recovery has backup option" please explain what you mean by this :)

some stock recovery have backup option http://www.patchworkoftips.com/backup-restore-data-stock-android-system-recovery/5904

@alecxs: LG Nexus 5. Carrier unlocked but not rooted.

twrp is available for hammerhead. but bootloader is locked. you can not boot twrp from fastboot :(

@alecxs: so, first unlock bootlader and root, right?

Nope! Unfortunately you cannot unlock without data loss

@alecxs: right, yeah, it will wipe the device

There is maybe a exploit which allows rooting without custom recovery. Some chinese apps will do that! https://pastebin.com/pN7jnBTc

you can install TWRP with locked bootloader - install TWRP app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.twrp.twrpapp - root the source phone with KingRoot  https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3159986 - backup your stock recovery and flash twrp recovery from TWRP app - boot into recovery and create a backup of data - replace base.apk in /data/app/ with your modified version (allowBackup in manifest) - wipe dalvik cache - reboot system - create adb backup  - install modified apk to destination phone - restore adb backup

@alecxs: thanks brah, am trying out all these various suggestions of yours. Wish Helium worked. Actually I should be able to get the offline data with adb backup command, but since this app is not showing up in Google Drive's list of backed up apps, I'm guessing it's either not targeting API 23 or auto-backup has been disabled .... :(

@alecxs: if possible, could you edit your answer with all these approaches that you've suggested? It would be very helpful to others too .... :)

it's not really targeting question - without ROOT - and it is very device specific (exploit, twrp) ...

You can use adb backup. You can specify the package name for backup a single app (for comprehensive details refer to Nikolay Elenkov)
adb backup [-f <file>] [-apk|-noapk] [-obb|-noobb] [-shared|-noshared] [-all] [-system|nosystem] [-keyvalue|-nokeyvalue] [<packages...>]
adb restore <file>

Note: some apps won't allow adb backup. even if adb backup is allowed, cache is not included.
Find a [GUIDE] How to enable adb backup for any app, decompile, recompile and sign the apk, where you have set the following flags:
android:allowBackup="true"
android:fullBackupOnly="false"

On the source phone, update the apk with your modified one. To do this without uninstalling, this may require to increment the android:versionCode in AndroidManifest.xml, and you must sign the apk using the same original signature that was used previously for the apk from the Play Store. This is the pitfall if you are not the author of the app it is not possible. However, if you manage this the install will succeed without data loss. Otherwise install will be rejected. (You still have the option to set allowBackup directly on rooted phone, but this may be out of scope because with root you can backup app directly) apparently there is no way to override AndroidManifest.xml during runtime
Once you have installed the modified apk you can make a backup of your app from source phone, and restore it to destination phone without root.
Install the latest Platform Tools and run from cmd.exe as Administrator:
adb.exe backup "-f C:\example.ab -apk -obb com.example.package"

edit:

be aware you have compiled a different app that can't be updated via PlayStore anymore

starting with api level 30 modified apk is no longer required as the flag seems ignored
xda-developers.com

starting with api level 31 the flag is different
android:debuggable="true"

someone claims he was able to get a full backup with HDDRawCopy and QPST without root https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3570178 Once you have it, extract app data from backup and create your own backup.ab including cache for injection (new question)

adb uninstall -k <pkgname> will keep the app data, adb install -r example.apk will force the reinstall. not sure if this works with different signatures

If you modify the apk file the app is no longer genuine, hence it is a different app that can't be updated via PlayStore. And if you uninstall the modified apk and install the latest from PlayStore you los all your data. Therefore In my opinion you just have to accept the truth: If the app denies backup you can't restore it via adb backup on an unrooted device.

@Robert thx for testing, never tried. thought when uninstalling with -k only the pkgname is left

@alecxs If this would work it would a security problem as it would allow you to read out private app data. If you try to do so adb install -r ... gives you the following error [INSTALL_FAILED_UPDATE_INCOMPATIBLE: Package <app> signatures do not match the previously installed version; ignoring!]

@alecxs I found the changes in the official documentation however it only speaks about device-to-device migration, not adb backup. I don't know how exactly the device-to-device backup works but it seems to be different to adb backup as I don't manage to backup app data with targetSDK=30 and backup disallowed.

@Robert found another doc https://developer.android.com/about/versions/12/behavior-changes-12#adb-backup-restrictions

A good finding. That would mean effectively adb backup is dead since Android 12, for all apps that target API 31+ (e.g. all apps from Play Store) even if they declare allowBackup="true". A quick test on my Android 12 device seems to confirm this. Seems like this is the way Google put adb backup EOL (it was already deprecated for several years).


text:
how do I connect an android phone to a Linux wifi?
I am using my Debian Linux computer (called 'theresia') as a wifi access point.  I can use the network from iOS, Meego and Maemo, and from my other Debian machine obviously, but none of my Android devices even sees the signal.
from Debian, the icon for the signal is different than the access point produced by an Android phone (here, the nozhatu signal):

any clue?

That is Ad Hoc Network symbol. Standard Android does not support Ad Hoc networks.

I see.  so to solve the issue on the Android side, I have to go root each of the devices I want to connect.  to solve it on the Linux side, I have to produce a normal WiFi signal, right? (https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/4418/why-cant-my-device-see-an-ad-hoc-wifi-network is more informative.)


text:
Can I repurchase apps so they can be shared with my family library?
The documentation states:

Any apps or games purchased after July 2, 2016 are eligible to be added to Family Library. If you purchased the app or game before July 2, 2016, it’s eligible for Family Library if the developer has made past purchases available. You can find out whether this is the case by tapping Read More on the app’s details page.

https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/7007852
I have apps that I purchased before this cut off date that I would like to share via my Family Library.  Unfortunately when I visit the Play Store page for these apps I am offered either an Install or Uninstall button instead of the Buy button.
This leads me to ask:

Am I able to repurchase these apps with my primary google account so that  I can share them via the Family Library?
If I purchase them with a Family Linked child account will they be shared with the other members of our Family?

Yes
The solution I have found is to purchase the software with another family member's account and from there set the Family Library toggle to true.
This can be done from a child account with the caveat that parental permission will be required if their account has been configured with that option.


text:
Is it possible to install a clean Android on new Amazon Fire HD 10?
I see that Amazon is selling Fire HD 10 for $99. Aside from not wanting to see their ads I am deeply suspicious of Alexa spyware and not interested.
I have seen claims that FIre HD 10s 2017 could be rooted, but don't know what model the current ones are:
https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Fire-HD-10-Inch-Tablet-32GB-Black/dp/B01J6RPGKG/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=fire+hd&qid=1555563314&s=gateway&sr=8-1
Is there a known way to ideally install a clean Android on the new Fire HD, or worst case, is there a way to disable the ads, the Alexa spyware etc.
https://www.tweakhound.com/2018/12/18/hacking-my-amazon-fire-hd-10/


text:
Android automatically setting Chrome as the default browser eve though I change
I don't want Chrome to be my default browser. I set my default browser to Firefox. Then when I click a link, It opens in Chrome again. I get back to default apps settings to check and I see Chrome is set to default. This is out of my will.

Have you gone to FireFox settings 'Make Default Browser'? Have you gone to Apps/Default Apps/Browser? Are they in agreement? Have you disabled Chrome?

Yes, 'Make Default Browser' led me to default app settings. Also gone to Default Apps / Browser settings. But after closing the Settings app, things get to Chrome way. Also, for a while, I was able to select Firefox as a default browser and Android would ask me everytime which app to use when I clicked on links. I would say 'Always' on Firefox but would ask again. Today is just Chrome. I did not try disabling Chrome and I think I don't want to do this.

@UmutÖzdemir I had to disable chrome when even when I had Firefox set as the default browser, all in-app links would open and that browser was marked as "Powered by Chrome". Now with Chrome disabled, things open well in Firefox. I keep Edge browser as a backup. I never had a day when Chrome would override my default browser setting and trust me I've been using Firefox since years. This seems like some device admin app doing it or some app which has the permission to "Modify system settings". You should try again after disabling that permission for chrome or any other doubtful app.


text:
Umidigi F1 battery percentage
I recently bought a Umidigi F1 smartphone, and I can't figure out how to enable battery percentage to always be displayed in the notification bar. If I go to Settings -> Battery there's no option to enable that.

I don't think stock Android gives that option. Some OEMs provide this option under Settings - > Status bar. You can check there. Otherwise, GravityBox xposed module can do that, but requires a rooted device.

@Firelord Using a Nokia 8.1 here. Stock Android One device and there's that setting in battery. I believe if its not there then it can be hidden under SystemUI tuner hidden settings. For the rest, I don't think Xposed is available for Android 9, at least not officially.

Seems that I can't enable the SystemUI tuner. Nothing happens when I press and hold the gear.


text:
How can I sort applications by cache size?
How can I sort applications by cache size?
I can sort applications by data size in Settings → Apps storage, but it doesn't take into account the cache size, which can sometimes be significant.

I use Android 6.0 with an LG 4.

Elixir 2 offers this feature. Install and launch that app, go to Applications, click the four horizontal line at the top, and choose Cache size under Sort By.

Note: tapping on Cache Size causes my device to get stuck on "Please Wait", so this may or may not work with your device.


text:
How to prevent apps from entering immersive mode in portrait mode?
Some games in portrait mode will enter immersive mode automatically, and my navigation bar and notification bar will be hidded, and it is really annoying for me.
Is there a way to prevent that from happening? Root, Magisk and Xposed(Edxposed) is acceptable.

Do you mean they are hidden even if you swipe up from the bottom? If not, they are designed that way -- they want to be full screen.

@S.Mitchell No, they will appear If I swipe up from the button, but I want to prevent them from being hidden totally.


text:
Reusing adopted storage
I have sdcard formated as adopted storage. I have also root and made a copy of encryption key which is in /data/misc/vold dir. I'm using it to access files on sdcard on PC with Linux. I'm planning to format /data partition and set up everything from beginning. Question is if I place same sdcard, with same content (formated previously as adopted storage) in phone and key file in /data/misc/vold from TWRP can I be able to access files on fresh system?

Since key is getting erased when you perform factory reset you may be able to do so but maybe when you put your key in that system it will screw up everything related to system. Isn't it easier to backup data to pc and then format the card too and restore backup just to avoid something going badly.

I can but this take time. That's why I'm asking if it's possible to do it.

You have TWRP so why not just try and answer the question by yourself

It works as expected. After wiping data partition and rebooting to system I made encryption of data partition as I always do. Then again reboot to recovery. I copied encryption key for sdcard (with the same content, I didn't format sdcard) to /data/misc/vold and make sure that file belongs to root.
After rebooting to system again I didn't have any notification about formating sdcard. One thing I had to do: move data to sdcard. And after this step, I can see all my content on sdcard, which was mounted as adopted storage.

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


text:
HTC desire 530 battery drains fast
I tried everything to prevent my battery from draining, but noting seams to help. I've tried a new battery, power saving apps, getting rid of apps. Is this a software issue? Would a rom help with the battery? Thanks

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts! I have no straight answer, but a pointer: our battery-life tag wiki lists a bunch of relevant (answered) questions which might help you. Please check and then let us know if it solved the issue (and what did it). Good luck!

OK thanks for letting me know

The least I could do for someone new – who might not be aware that many of our tags have such wiki page available :)


text:
Unable to get USB file transfer working on Oreo 8.1
My son has an LG Xpression Plus running Oreo 8.1, and he's having trouble enabling USB transfer (MTP) when connecting to a Windows 10 PC.  The phone used to allow USB transfer, and now it simply charges.  We've tried multiple sync-cabaple USB cables, including the one that came with his device, but no luck.  These same cables allow USB transfer for all the devices we tried.
Additionally, the phone behaves the same no matter which Windows 10 PC we connect it to, even with PCs his phone hasn't previously connected to.
We've tried all the solutions listed in How to get USB file transfer working on Oreo 8.1?, but nothing has worked.
Has anyone else run into this problem, and managed to fix it?
Thanks in advance, this is driving us nuts!

Have you rebooted the phone?

When swiping down to open the notification area, is there no entry at the very end stating your device is connected charging? If it is, doesn't tapping it offer you to switch?

Based on Izzy's questions, here's what worked for me:  With device plugged in, swipe down to open the notification area.  Tap on "Charging".  Select "File transfer".  Choose "Just Once" or "Always" depending on your situation.  The PC will ask you what you want to do.  I have it open in Windows Explorer and I browse from there.  Hope this helps.  Thanks Izzy  for the pointer.


text:
Is it possible to change the ip settings for ap0?
I was wondering if it's possible to change the gateway IP of ap0 to like 192.168.43.2 so while the device is working as a hotspot some other apps on your network would detect your device.
but also it would work if I can sort of link both 192.168.43.1 and 192.168.43.2 with each other.

You can manually assign an IP to any interface as well as configure DNSMASQ to reserve a specific IP for DHCP server when hotspot is turned on.

@IrfanLatif well I have no idea how to do that can you please respond to this question so others can use it too that be great

Is your device rooted?

@IrfanLatif of course it is i use lineage os with magisk


text:
Delete free apps from Play Store library
I want to delete free apps from my Play Store library. I don't want to remove paid apps because I obviously paid for them so that means that they are useful to me in some way or another. However, I have accumulated a list of around 500 apps, of which 90% aren't used anymore.
The problem is, I can't remember which apps I paid for and which not. When I click on each app, I sometimes don't see that I purchased them, just the standard "Install" button.
Is there a way to filter out paid apps from my library?

I suggest you use both a PC and your mobile for this solution.
Using your PC, visit your Play Store's order history. It would list only those apps you have bought so far. Now, in your Play Store app, go to Account (rightwards swipe from the left edge) → Library.
Compare the two lists. The ones which would not match would be the free ones.
This is not user-friendly but should get the job done nonetheless.

Ok thank you, this will do I guess. Still frustrating that something like this isn't easier. Not your fault though. :)

I don't understand why you need this. Google Play will register what's in your library, so if you paid for it (or got it at a limited "sale" for free), you'll be able to install it later when you need it.
Just make sure you don't delete any paid app from a 3rd-party store (although 3rd-party stores tend to have a similar feature), or delete anything you don't need from Google Play.

As I said, I don't want to remove ANY paid apps from my library because I have no way of knowing which ones I bought and which not later on. I would just end up downloading free apps or buy a new one despite me having already bought one


text:
Will apps exempted from background optimization be affected by low-battery triggered energy saving?
I disabled optimization for Whatsapp. I want to limit Whatsapp only if the battery is low.
Does LineageOs 14 ignore the whitelist on low battery out of the box already?
I'm wondering about this because Whatsapp Web reads 'phone not connected' too much freqently on wifi and I disabled optimizations, as a countermeasure (yet it does not seem to be working)... despite that I'm curious about android and lineageos behaviour regarding this.


text:
Disable chat-heads (for WhatsApp, etc.) on Samsung devices
After an Android 9.0 Pie update on my Samsung Galaxy Note 8, I have noticed that Whatsapp Messenger notifications come up similar to how Facebook Messenger notifications are delivered - with a chat head. This is a circle with the messenger's profile picture showing, and clicking on it opens a small window with the message shown.
I preferred when this chat head was never there, and I got to see a preview of the message for a few seconds just below the top of the screen when a message arrives.
I have tried turning off pop-up notifications on WhatsApp, but this seems to be something different entirely, as the chat heads continue to come up.
Is it possible to turn this feature off?

Follow this path to enable or disable the mentioned "chat heads":
Settings > Advanced features > Smart pop-up view
Then, toggle whatever applications you'd like to show "chat heads".

WhatsApp does not naively support chat heads. So, this is being done by using a third party app. Probably you installed one, or in a rare case your phone manufacturer baked such a thing into the phone UI.
Please look into your device settings and also go through your installed apps if you notice something.

Actually, it does. I found this post on another forum where people have the same problem. I haven't installed any such third party app.

@JohnDoe interesting. Then this is something being done by the OEM. As I said, WhatsApp doesn't support such a thing natively. And as Firelord said and per your comment, it must be the Pop-up windows.


text:
How can I get all my files off my phone without USB
I have an "Essential" android phone that is rooted, has terminal and supersu installed, but will not acknowledge that it is plugged into a computer rather than an AC charging station. lsusb on the host computer does not find it.
Under settings, "USB Debugging" is on. This doesn't seem to be helping.
The shell is present and operable with the terminal on the phone itself. curl is present. ssh and sshd are not. I have wireless. How can I get all my files off the phone? Some files are too large to email to myself.
What I feel like I want to do is run tar -cf - . | ssh mydesktopmachine \> android.tar but there's no ssh right now.

So I did manage to get it working with SSHDroid. The real problem was not what I thought it was at all.
I unplugged my wireless booster (Buffalo) and it started working. For some reason the booster blocks IP between the machines on the WiFi and the machines on the wired LAN even though they can find each other with ARP. I'm really glad I didn't start leaving a bunch of "does not work" product reviews.
(In case anybody's wondering why USB Debugging was getting nowhere, the data pins had come unsoldered; when the power pins finally started to go I knew what that problem was and took it into the shop to be repaired.)

Have you tried the following:

Turning USB debugging off and then on?
Changing wires? (sometimes the wire is a bit faulty)
You can install ES file explorer and then use the FTP, it will be transfer over local WiFi, it is pretty fast.

Have tried replacing wires and toggling USB.

@Joshua how about the ES file explorer FTP Method? u just need to follow the on screen instructions in ES file explorer to set up ur phone as the server, then from ur computer, u can browse files in ur phone with the windows file explorer

I always use the ES file explorer when I forget to bring out my wire

I have too many files to pick them up one by one with the UI.

@Joshua then u can just go Network -> View on PC ->  then it will give a address to key into ur File Explorer  on windows

@Joshua I just tried it, it is pretty fast, a fast wifi router will do as it is transfered over local lan and not over the internet


text:
Samsung j737p frp lock solution when OEM is also locked
I have successfully flashed the eng boot.img via Samsung tool pro but after switching it on adb is still not active. I saw a post that claims I should load the official firmware to remove oem lock I have successfully done that but OEM is still locked. Please any solution is highly appreciated.
P.S the phone is SM-J737P refine edition.

And also all bypass solution on YouTube are not working to me.

The only solution i can think of is a method i personally discovered a few years back that has been adopted by other people and nicknamed "Pre-Hacked" ...
First you need to download a Hex Editor..
The firmware must not be encrypted...

Open your System or Firmware file in the Hex Editor, This may take a while...
Search for # begin build properties
Once found, you have located the Build.prop start.
Scroll through the build.prop, ( After "begin build properties" )
Find ( ro.frp.pst=/ )
Change the line to have a # before it ( Comment the line out )
ro.frp.pst=/ to # ro.frp.pst=/

Now you have removed FRP by breaking the crucial property that tells FRP the whereabouts of your FRP Partition.

Save the file as a new file with the applied changes to Build.prop

thanks but a samsung firmware has various section{ AP BL CSC CP}  so which am are opening exactly?

and please can you give me a link to afree hex editor all are paid

Heres my favourite ( HxD ) ... https://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/

Try all files... One of them holds the system.

thanks a lot i have search through the hex editior but i can not find the # begin build properties i can find begin. build separately but not together please help me


text:
Is it possible to install "iproute2" on Android?
I tried to use git clone in googlesource's page but it didn't do much. I want to use the ss command from the package but I don't know how to install it. My phone is ARM 32-bit.

You can't install a whole package on Android as you do on Linux distributions. Android does have ip command built-in from a modified iproute2 package. Many ROMs come pre-bundled with ss binary too. If not, you can build static binary for your device's architecture from source, or try this one.


text:
Android asks to re-enter WiFi passwords. Is my phone compromised?
I have a Galaxy S8 (SM-950F) with Android version 8.0.0. I have rooted the device with Magisk. I have a couple of Magisk modules, including Bixby remapper, F-Droid Privilaged Extension, liboemcrypto disabler, libsecure_storage companion, and Cloudflare DNS.
Recently I realized I have to re-enter my password for all WiFi networks even though the passwords are the same.
Is this simply a corrupted WiFi password file case (I have no Idea how the software on this phone manges passwords) or it could be that the phone is somehow compromised and some malware is forcing me to re-enter passwords in order to log them?
I appreciate your help in advance.

Not sure it's really a malware. Since your phone is rooted, it would be trivial for malware to read the file where the Wi-Fi passwords are stored, given it's in plaintext.

@DeathMaskSalesman Good point. Where can I find this database?

On Pie, the location should be /data/misc/wifi/WifiConfigStore.xml. On older Android versions, it used to be /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf.


text:
Possible hacking of my OnePlus6. Contacts disappearing under 'Speed dial'
The speed dial section in my One Plus 6, until now had a list of contacts who I used to call recently and/or contacts who I used to call on a frequent basis, never used to be a speed dial contact that I had manually added.
But now, all of a sudden, it's empty.
What can be the reason? Is there a good chance my phone is hacked?
Can someone please me

I doubt that your phone has been hacked. There have been other people complaining about the same problem has shown in the OnePlus Forum and even here. It must be a problem with the app itself. One simple solution will be to use another Phone app. Or if there is an update to the OS or Phone app, then update it to the latest version and check if the problem persists.

thank you so much! But how can I check if there are updates to the Phone App in particular?

Usually it should come with an update of the OS. You will have to wait for OnePlus to give an answer to the problem

If (and only if the answer) the answer is satisfactory, you ca mark it as "accepted" as shown here.


text:
Continual "Google Play Services has stopped"
On my Samsung phone (not sure which model), every few seconds I get the message "Google Play Services has stopped" with options to "Close app" or "Send feedback".
Regardless of choice, the message appears a few seconds later.
"Force Stop" and "Disable" are both disabled for Google Play Services. Uninstalling Google Play Services produces an error that uninstallation failed. And Google Play Store doesn't work.
How do I fix (or at least disable) the thoroughly broken and persistent Google Play Services?

Yes you cant disable it
You should go first Setting-Secure-administator apps
You need to disable (find my phone)
Now you can disable google play service


text:
Offline Voice-to-Text Now Showing Up?
I am seeing many articles pointing to how to setup Android Voice-to-Text offline, but I am not seething the setting where they tell me to look (languages & Input).
Has the location changed, has it been removed? Does my phone just not have the capability?
Works online.
Android 8.1.0 - June 5, 2018
PRO_SELFIE - SKY_Pro-Selfie_V06_20180625

In Settings -> Languages & input, tap on Virtual keyboard, then Google voice typing. Tap on "Offline speech recognition", then All. Select the language(s) that should be downloaded and use offline.
Alternatively, if you have Gboard installed, in Settings -> Languages & input, tap on Virtual keyboard, then Gboard. Click on Voice typing, then "Offline speech recognition". Click on "Offline speech recognition", then All. Select the language(s) that should be downloaded and use offline.


text:
ADB issue while connecting through WiFi
I am running adb port forwarding from computer to mobile with this command:
adb forward tcp:6401 tcp:50000

which is working completely fine (accessing 127.0.0.1) when I am accessing it through the same computer, but once I try to reach it through local WiFi (local IP 192.168.1.134) I am getting 'connection refused'. What am I doing wrong ?

First connect adb with usb then make connection in same network. Don't disconnect adb over usb. Now execute adb over tcp. If you are forwarding to some port means you have to disable firewall on that port. To disable firewall on port if you use linux. Open terminal or press ctrl+alt+t, Then try with these commands
ufw allow port_number

here replace this port number with forwarded new port number.
If you are windows user
this thread may helpful for you.
After allowing this port restart your adb server. Once the device is connected over wifi then you can remove your usb from your pc. If you need to know about port forwarding in adb see this thread.


text:
How to fix "mount: 'remount'->'/system': No such file or directory"?
angler:/ # mount -o rw, remount /system
mount: 'remount'->'/system': No such file or directory
1|angler:/ #

When I try in Kali Linux in my phone:
root@kali:~# mount -o rw, remount /system
mount: /system: special device remount does not exist.
root@kali:~#

Am I missing something?

You  have added a space between the two options you passed: rw and remount. You need to remove space after the comma , and then repeat the command like this:
mount -o rw,remount /system

This should work. Tested on OnePlus 6.

Ups yes that was it. Thx :)


text:
How Can I Check the Location of a File (e.g. Cluster or Sector #) in the Internal Storage?
I would like to know If I certain file moves on the Flash memory (internal storage), between writes/updates to it.
Is there some way I can get the file's location on the Flash memory?
(Cluster Number, Sector Number, etc)
I am using Android v8,
and can either install use an App for that,
or use the Command Line, If a relevant command exists in the Linux command-prompt that Android has.

I assume by saying cluster you mean Windows' allocation unit, commonly called block in Linux world. It's a unit of data storage a filesystem uses. A cluster/block may consist of or correspond to multiple sectors on underlying storage media (HDD or flash storage). Sector is the minimum atomic unit of storage an OS can read or write. Block size is decided at the time of filesystem creation i.e. when we format a partition (high-level formatting). Partitions and filesystems make it easy to categorize and organize our data on the physical storage device.
HARD DISK DRIVES
"Sector" may refer to a physical sector or logical sector. In early days of HDDs there were only physical sectors created by dividing clusters/tracks on rotating disks into small parts. Cylinder/Head/Sector (CHS) has been a popular method of addressing before the Logical Block Addressing (LBA) was devised. Instead of directly dealing with physical sectors, OS now talks to disk controller firmware (through SATA/SCSI commands) referring an LBA number. Firmware in return maintains an LBA to CHS mapping itself, which includes ECC, G-list (disk's defect table) etc. This mapping (1:1 / sequenced / linear) (ref) is created during low-level formatting of disk drive when manufacturing, which never changes except if some sector is marked bad and remapped to some spare sector. So the OS / filesystem is aware of the physical geometry of the disk, which is propotional to the geometry of LBAs.
FLASH STORAGE
On flash media (SSDs, eMMC, UFS, SD cards etc.) there are no rotating disks and hence no cylinders. NAND flash is made of silicon cells, each cell consists of one (Single-Level-Cell), two (Multi-LC), three (Triple-LC) or four (Quad-LC) bits. Cells are grouped into pages (e.g. of 4KB) and pages into erase blocks (e.g. of 128 KB). LBAs to Physical Block Addresses mapping is fully controlled by Flash Translation Layer; a part of flash controller firmware. OS knows nothing about it, it can see at maximum the LBAs, not what's happening below it. Not even the ECC of failed memory cells, and that's why we don't realize the bad health of eMMC unless it fails, except by reading EXT_CSD (requires root) using mmc-utils or from /sys/class/mmc_host/*/*/life_time (if driver supports).
Since a page of memory can't be just overwritten unlike HDDs, a whole EraseBlock has to be Erased first before being Programmed (written). A side effect is that a number of pages are erased/re-written and the physical mapping changes even if a small file is edited. This unnecessary read-modify-write (RMW) is called Write Amplification. On HDDs, files aren't physically replaced unless shortened or elongated. OS is aware of these physical changes on HDD, but not on flash memory.
WHAT IS SECTOR?
So after all what we are concerned with is logical sector. Storage media informs the OS of its logical sector size but “the default of 512 covers most hardware” because HDDs have been using 512B from early days, though things have changed with 4Kn format for HDDs too. 512B is the size what OS sees, in actual it's a bit larger to make some room for header, ECC etc. Physical sector size on flash storage is of no use to us.

Your queries:

I would like to know if a certain file moves on the Flash memory (internal storage), between writes/updates to it.

It depends on the definition of “move”. On flash storage, even if you don't write to a file, it may keep on changing its true physical location due to background Garbage Collection; a phenomenon controlled by FTL internally to reduce WA, to achieve Wear Leveling and to provide high write throughput (Program operations) by deleting invalid pages in background (Erase operations).

Is there some way I can get the file's location on the Flash memory (Cluster Number, Sector Number etc.)?

Yes you can get the filesystem block addresses of a file which have a linear mapping with LBAs of underlying block device (partition). But these addresses aren't the actual/physical file's location on the Flash memory. However usually one isn't concerned with true physical location unless some forensics or data recovery is involved.
EXAMPLE
~# cat /sys/block/mmcblk0/queue/logical_block_size
512
~# blockdev --getss /dev/block/by-name/cache
512
~# tune2fs -l /dev/block/by-name/cache | grep 'Block size'
Block size:               4096

So the sector size here is 512B while filesystem block size is 4KiB. Let's create a test file:
~# echo foobar >/cache/test_file
~# cat /cache/test_file
foobar
~# filefrag -sv -b512 /cache/test_file
Filesystem type is: ef53
File size of /cache/test_file is 7 (8 block of 512 bytes)
 ext:     logical_offset:        physical_offset: length:   expected: flags:
   0:        0..       7:     307200..    307207:      8:             last,eof
/cache/test_file: 1 extent found

* debugfs -R 'stat test_file' /dev/block/by-name/cache can also be used in place of filefrag
Created file (of 7 bytes size) occupies 1 filesystem block. -b 512 converts block size (4096B) to sector size (512B). "test_file" should be at 307200th sector, same for partition and filesystem because filesystem occupies whole partition:
~# blockdev --getsize64 /dev/block/by-name/cache | awk '$1 /= 4096'
65536
~# tune2fs -l /dev/block/by-name/cache | grep 'Block count'
Block count:              65536

Let's read the file directly from partition:
~# dd if=/dev/block/by-name/cache skip=307200 count=1 | head -c7
foobar

It's there. Now locate the file from the start of eMMC:
~# readlink /dev/block/by-name/cache
/dev/block/mmcblk0p25
~# cat /sys/block/mmcblk0/mmcblk0p25/start
7471104
~# dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 skip=$(( 7471104 + 307200 )) count=1 | head -c7
foobar

So even if filesystem and partition are deleted, you can read the file (provided that it's not overwritten).
Let's do some more digging:
~# rm /cache/test_file; sync; echo -n 1 >/proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
~# dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 skip=$(( 7471104 + 307200 )) count=1 | head -c7
foobar

File is deleted from filesystem, but physically still there. Let's ask FTL to delete it permanently:
~# fstrim /cache; sync; echo -n 1 >/proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
~# dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 skip=$(( 7471104 + 307200 )) count=1 | head -c7

And it's gone. But most probably it's still there somewhere in Over-Provisioning Space, scheduled to be Erased in next GC, just we don't know where it is.
Note:

dd on naked partitions is a killer. Be cautious!
tune2fs and filefrag are part of e2fsprogs. filefrag isn't shipped with Android, build from source or try this one. fstrim is a busybox applet.

RELATED:

When should fstrim run?
What makes recovery of deleted data difficult / impossible?


text:
Change file (pictures, videos) timestamp from filename
When moving files around tru different dirs and across PC / smartphone, timestamp for last modified date usually get reset to the very datetime of move / copy operation. This lead to files being non-chronologically sorted in some apps (Gallery), quite annoying especially for Images and Videos.
Usually these kind of files follows the naming convention of IMG_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.jpg for Images and VID_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.mp4 for Videos.
So I thought about combining touch and extracting character from filenames, the timestamp being in effect part of the filename itself.
I found this script at Ephestione's HQ
for i in IMG*.jpg; do busybox touch -t ${i:4:8}${i:13:4}.${i:17:2} $i; done
but works in terminal only. I tried to make a script out of it but it doesn't work (see below)
#!/system/bin/sh
#change timestamp for images filename IMG_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.jpg
for i in IMG_*.jpg
do
    touch -t ${i:4:8}${i:13:4}.${i:17:2} $i
done

#change timestamp for whatsapp images IMG-YYYYMMDD-WAnnnn.jpg
for i in IMG-*WA*.jpg
do
    touch -t ${i:4:8}1234 $i
done

#change timestamp for videos filename VID_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.mp4
for i in VID_*.jpg
do
    touch -t ${i:4:8}${i:13:4}.${i:17:2} $i
done

#change timestamp for whatsapp videos IMG-YYYYMMDD-WAnnnn.mp4
for i in VID-*WA*.mp4
do
    touch -t ${i:4:8}1234 $i
done

Ideally I'd like to put a script like this in the top level DCIM or Pictures directory and have it process all the Images and Videos in the subdirs. Of course I'm rooted.

Remove from the script the .${i:17:2} in for loop.
It should be:
#!/system/bin/sh
#change timestamp for images filename IMG_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.jpg
for i in IMG_*.jpg
do
    touch -t ${i:4:8}${i:13:4} $i
done

#change timestamp for whatsapp images IMG-YYYYMMDD-WAnnnn.jpg
for i in IMG-*WA*.jpg
do
    touch -t ${i:4:8}1234 $i
done

#change timestamp for videos filename VID_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.mp4
for i in VID_*.jpg
do
    touch -t ${i:4:8}${i:13:4} $i
done

#change timestamp for whatsapp videos IMG-YYYYMMDD-WAnnnn.mp4
for i in VID-*WA*.mp4
do
    touch -t ${i:4:8}1234 $i
done

Note that the images and videos from WhatsApp according to your script have the same time 12:34.
Edit: To also go through subdirectories, change the for loops as followed:

for i in `find . -type f -name "IMG_*..jpg"`
do

j=`basename $i`

echo $j

touch -t ${j:4:8}${j:13:4} $i

done

Explanation:
find . -type f -name ".mp5"`: find files ( -type t) whose names contains " IMG_.jpg" ( -name "IMG_*.jpg") in the current directory ( . ) and subdirectories.
j= basename $i : Get the filename (not the entire path), and assign it to j.
touch -t ${j:4:8}${j:13:4} $i : Change  the file's modification time based on the date and time retrieved from ${j:4:8}${j:13:4} .

Yes, 1234 it's a dummy timestamp. Script seems to work even if it stderrs some touch: invalid date

How about having it work tru subdirs?

I will modify the script when I have time to go through sub directories too

@JuTutt See edit


text:
Customization beyond just the app drawer and home screen?
I have a Motorola E4 running Nougat, and I was wondering if there was a way to customize the colors (and fonts if possible) used in the GUI menus? I have Nova launcher installed, and while it is nice to be able to tweak the app drawer and Home screen, it can't do much more than that AFAIK. Thanks.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=projekt.substratum

Okay, it appears root and/or custom ROM is required. That's more low level hacking than I want to do.


text:
Battery usage screen: where did signal strength details go to with Oreo?
In 2012, we had the question on What's the meaning of signal strength colors in battery usage screens?. Now, with Oreo, I can no longer find those details on my device: tapping on the graph no longer reveals them. Have they be removed – or am I just (color) blind and missed something? How to show them in Oreo?
(in case it matters: I'm using LOS 15.1 / Android 8.1)

I think this was the case with Nougat too, though I am not fully sure.

Nope. In Nougat they still can be reached by tapping the usage graph (just checked on LOS 14.1 / Android 7.1; my BQ still has no Oreo available). I've tried multiple web searches already, but nothing turned up; maybe I didn't have the correct search terms; the screen was called "history details", or in German "Verlaufsdetails").

I've seen people recommend GSam Battery monitor as an alternative. Requires ADB I think for some stats.

Thanks @SSS. Though the primary goal of my question is to find where the setting might be hidden, 3rd party solutions might serve as a last resort. I'll never understand why such useful features should be removed in the first place…


text:
Install Split APK Manually
Recently I got to know a thing called split apks, and found the slices as invalid apk files, only the base is. Unfortunately, this means the usual default package installer is unable to handle this, and as such I got to know another thing called SAI, a split apk installer, capable of working with or without root. However, being curious, I wondered how it all worked internally, and began to do a bit of research. I didn't get far, but I got to find out about pm install commands, and I happen to have root access which is apparently mandatory if I am to go this path, as the terminal won't let me run pm install-create without first running su.
The next step is pm install-write all the slices, and this is where I fall. The most obvious way for me was to cd to the directory of the slices and pm install-write them one at a time, which didn't allow me to do so, and it seems to be expecting an int rather than a directory string.
Questions (TL; DR):

Can I install split apks without any extra apps (in my example, SAI)?
Am I in the right direction with pm install commands?
If the answer to question 2 is yes, what am I doing wrong, and what should I be doing instead (it seems to want an int instead of a directory string, not sure how to convert)?
Are there any other methods I can explore (preferably rootless, but root is also fine)?

Thank you for your time.

Tested pm myself on Pie. Let's suppose that our package is called com.example.apk: you'd install it with pm install com.example.apk. Next, to install the split parts, you need to issue pm install -p com.example com.example.split.apk, where -p com.example refers to the package name of the base package, and com.example.split.apk is your split package. Let me know if it works for you.

@Salesman: I assume the question is about "App bundles" and if I remember correctly the different split-up APKs all have the same package name. Installing such a slit-aup app should be possible using bundletool.

@Robert Yes, seems like we're referring to the same thing. In that case, either bundletool from a computer or pm from a rooted device will do the job.

@Salesman I'm using a P2a42 rooted with magisk 18.1 running AEX 6.4, and the pm install command keeps failing, saying it can't read the file. I've tried chmod 777 on all the files and it still won't even install the base apk. I've yet to try the slices, but I assume they'll be unreadable as well. Anything I can do?


text:
Forgot password on Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 - how to reset?
I've lost my password on my almost new Samsung Galaxy S4. Now I can't unlock the tablet, and I can't shut it down since all these actions require the password. The only thing I can do is restarting it.
Now I want to reset it to factory settings, so I can set a new password. However, all the guides to a hard reset say you have to turn it off first. This I cannot do since it requires the password.
How can I reset or shut down the tablet without a password?

If you have time, let the battery drain. Then power up the tablet with the charger. Press Power + Volume Up to go to recovery (until you see the recovery screen) and reset the tablet.
If not, hold Power + Volume Down for up to 45 seconds to restart the tablet. When it restarts, press Power + Volume Up to go to recovery (until you see the recovery screen) and reset the tablet.

Sources:
Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 Reset Guide: How to Master Reset, Reset Network Settings, Soft Reset your Tablet
Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 - Factory Data Reset (Powered Off)

Option 2 did it, thanks. 15 seconds were enough.

Doesn't that trigger FRP (factory-reset protection) without the account being removed prior to reset? Be sure to check if you can run the initial setup before you "give away" the device, @cheeesus – or the "receiver" won't be that happy…

@Izzy Thanks for the advice, but at the moment, the device is staying with me.


text:
Disable smooth scrolling in Android Chrome 73
Is there a way to disable smooth scrolling in Android Chrome 73.X? It seems like it's now enabled for all sites by default, and setting it to “Disabled” in chrome://flags does nothing.
Motivation: The smooth scrolling behavior makes Ctrl+F-ing through long pages pretty painful (a couple seconds of pointless animation between each result).


text:
Arc Welder app: Launch App, Test, and Download Zip buttons missing
My Arc Welder app has been broken for some time now I can't find any other questions on how to fix this so I thought I would ask myself. my arc welder is missing the "Launch App", "Download Zip", and "test" buttons. it has been broken for some time now. it has worked in the past but I don't know exactly when it stopped working. I don't believe that it became broken from an update to the app because I've seen other people that have it working and I haven't done anything to anything that I could think of related to the app except I have tried a lot of flags in "Chrome://flags" but because none of those have worked I have restored to default and its still broken.

Honestly amazed it is still working in any fashion based on my research.

I had the same problem. Searched the net and landed in this page. No solution.
I started fiddling around. Tried hitting the TAB button. Success. As the focus moves from the last visible box, the buttons appear.
Have fun.


text:
Possible Virus? Link at the bottom of some messages
My friend is getting this Chinese writing at the bottom of the odd sent text message, only on very few texts. It seems to be a link to a website something like 11.am. I have used AVG, Malwarebytes and Kaspersky, and they didn't find anything.
Has anyone got any ideas?
Thanks

It is a website. It goes to a chinese casino webpage (or something like that). Anyway, because the text 11.am is written like that, without a space between the dot and a, it looks to see if it is a link, and since it is a valid link, it processes it as so.


text:
Get Android notifications in Windows
This question doesn't seem to have been asked here before, although the exact opposite question (get Windows notifications in Android) has been asked.
I'm thinking here of getting notifications in Windows from (pretty much) all Android apps, and not from a tiny subset of apps (e.g. messaging apps).
There used to be a way to get app notifications through Cortana, but that was disabled in 2018 and still has not been enabled either in Cortana or in any other product offered by Microsoft. Is there some other way to do it?

See https://community.kde.org/KDEConnect#Windows. You can build KDEConnect for Windows.

I've had great success with Join in the past (and in fact with Tasker overall, which is superb): https://joaoapps.com/join/
And while it's a paid service, Pushbullet has also been very useful: https://www.pushbullet.com/


text:
Why Tasker can't recognize WIFI SSID
After I changed my device and import the tasker's profiles from the old Samsung to the new one (Huawei), the "Wifi connected" state can't recognize the SSID any longer.
I can confirm it's related to the SSID, I've created a simple profile detecting WIFI state only, and if I don't put any name in "SSID" field, the profile get green when the wifi is connected, and the profile with SSID still gray.
And it's also strange that, some times, while a turn on the wifi, the profile turned green, and maybe one second or two, it turns to gray again.

If your device is running Android 8 or 9 you are affected by the new system policy that throttles Wifi SSID scanning. May be what you observe are the consequences of this policy.

@Robert Thanks for the information, very helpful. seems like that is the problem, the new phone indeed has Android 9 installed, and not the old one. So the new question will be: is there ways to reduce the wifi scan times of Tasker.

I think we're going to need some more information; always good practice whenever troubleshooting any system, look at the log files.
Switch on logging for Tasker using the instructions here: https://tasker.joaoapps.com/userguide/en/faqs/faq-how.html#x2
Set up your profile with no SSID name so you get a green profile, toggle the wifi off and back on again, then look at the log file.
Then set up your profile with your failing SSID name, toggle the wifi again, look at the log again.
Are there any obvious differences or error messages which start to point us in the right direction?

thanks for the tips. I've run the log, and there's no interesting message in it. I think it is related the wifi scanning throttles as @Robert mentioned in question comment.


text:
Power on when charging but only when battery level is greater than 20%

I have recently tried to fit a tablet into my car and I came across a problem with waking up the device
without using the power button. My solution is to boot the device whenever it is charging, but
I have noticed that when the battery level is at 0%, the device boots and then immediately shuts down.
I have used this adb option to trigger this behavior:
fastboot oem off-mode-charge 0

However this boots the phone without checking the battery level and as I said - if the battery is dead, the phone (or rather a tablet- Nexus 7 2012) turns off immediately - it drains the battery faster that I'm able to charge it.
Is there any way to make the tablet boot only if the battery level is greater than, say, 20%?

When the device is on it is probably drawing more current than is available from the charging port.  Make sure the automobile charging adapter you are using can generate sufficient current required by the device.  On most electronics there is a marking (either embedded in the plastic or on a sticker) near the power adapter that indicates the voltage (V) and current (I) requirements for the device.

My device only draws 0.8A of current while the charger can supply 2.1A so I don't really think this is the case

Lithium ion batteries draw more charge current when capacity is low.  The 20% cutoff may be by design to prevent a brownout condition for the processor.


text:
Can spammers use the phone number being called as their spoof number?
I originally bought Tasker several (5?) years ago to screen calls by:
1) blocked name/number--hang up
2) not in my contact list
3) family
4) friends (in my contact list but not family or Professionals)
5) Professionals
6) Previously blocked callers
Within the last few days I've received calls which ring in as family and the number is apparently the same as the number being called.  Have you experienced that and is there anything that Tasker can do about it?

Not much can be done... Spoofing Caller IDs is cery common now and most people use apps that can call online... They Mod the registered number so it will look like yours...

If you know Exactly Who is doing this, They are abusing the Caller ID Service wich is illegal in my countries... Report them to the relevant Authorities.

I have no idea.

Usually spoofing from the same number is not possible because it causes error's on the MSP end, and they block the weird call .

I guess I will try checking the calling number against the phone number, even though that seems really weird.   Thanks for the feedback.

It works through overseas Call Redirectors ... You call the overseas call center, you give the number for the ID to use, The server or call center calls the target using the number you specified and then connects the calls together   .. Patches the calls together... It works best like that because the originating number calls an entirely different country and phone in another country... That country has an entirely separate call made out and into the target country... This makes it very hard to follow the call

If the call were originated overseas, could they specify the spoof number and called number to be the same?  Pretty sure it was a scammer trying to get me to redirect my internet through their server.

Yes they could however when i tested this for a report a made to my mobile service provider... I never managed to get the call to go through as the same number... It caused a problem on the network that almost worked like an infinite loop, The call never went through... Both ends just keep ringing...

I realized something after writing this... Whilst testing, i Initiated the call from the target device... Because the person was NOT Initializing the call from your device, You obviously could receive the call that way ( As long as you are not already ON a Call.. )


text:
Android phone bahving strangely after passing metal detector
Phone is Oneplus One running Cyanogenmod (usure about the version but it should be the latest released to OpOs)
It all started after a metal detector scan - the phone would work for 20-30 seconds fine and then the screen would freeze indefinitely. Upon restart you could see the same behaviour. Once I was back home I plugged it to my laptop to try to retrieve some of the data and noticed that while connected the phone was absolutely fine.
This led me to believe the issue is software related so I did a factory reset. Unfortunately, after that the issue remained so I decided to try to flash the ROM. Started by turning off my phone so I can go into the fastboot menu but now after turning it off it won't turn back on.
I'm certain that it isn't a battery issue but I'm running out of options. Neither power + vol up or power + vol down work at the moment and connecting it to the laptop does nothing.
Any suggestions what to do next?

What makes you think that it is not a battery issue? Problems that occur only when the device is unplugged are a strong indicator for battery issues. Try a power supply that only charges the phone. If the problems do not appears when charging, most likely the cause it is dying battery.

Because after freezing, I could restart it and it would start with the same battery percentage before freezing again. Also currently it doesn't charge after plugging it to anything at all.

Sounds like a faulty sensor... As soon as you requested access to the Metal Detector ( Magnetic Field Sensor ) It caused a Short Circuit that results in the power failure..... However if you are talking about a Physical Metal Detector like at an Airport or secure building, Then that is an obvious problem caused from the Frequency of the Metal Detector... Metal Detectors pump out a frequency and listen for the returning frequency, The returning frequency is different depending on the type and size of an object .. So the computer analysis is based on something similar to Sonar Beaconing.

I can not imagine that the frequency of a Metal Detector would cause a hardware issue on your device, however it is possible ! ...


text:
Is there a way to change the default file manager app?
I was wondering whether I could replace the file manager that comes with my phone with a 3rd-party app in a way that any app that needs file access, goes through the 3rd-party app to find the appropriate file. The only other similar question I could find here is left unanswered and I wasn't able to find anything online.

I don't think Android offers to set an app as a default file manager app (at the least not up to Android 8.x). Are you talking about Documents Provider which helps you to pick a file through an app, and shows UI like this one? If yes, you can simply disable (if rooted) or uninstall the package com.android.documentsui (named Files in App list). You than would be able to use a third-party document/file picker.

The default file manager app is a system app (if we are talking about the same app), therefore a replacement can only be an app from your manufacturer.

Related: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/210168/218526

Thank you all for the comments. @Firelord I wasn't thinking about Doc Provider, but thanks for bringing that up, it might work as an alternative!


text:
How can I make Google Maps speak the street names when the voice is set to a foreign language?
I'm running Google Pixel 2 with latest updates. You can change the navigation voice language in Google Maps via:
hamburger icon (3 horizontal bars) --> Settings --> Navigation Settings --> Voice selection --> choose any language
I have my Google maps voice set to French. However, it no longer speaks street names! I am using Google maps to navigate using voice only, without a screen, while riding my electric skateboard. So, I really need it to speak the street names while I'm riding, but I want the voice to be in French. Any way to do this?

The best answer would be for GOOGLE TO PLEASE FIX IT so we can have an option to turn street name speaking on or off regardless of the chosen system language and the chosen Google Maps spoken language (they should be functionally separate).
However, this is the only current work-around I have been able to discover:
the solution is simply to change your entire phone language to the foreign language you want spoken, as apparently the street names can only be spoken in the phone's default language. This is dumb.
Anyway: main phone settings --> System --> Languages & input --> Languages --> Add a language --> choose the one you want (ex: French) --> tap and hold the hamburger icon (3 horizontal bars) next to this new language and drag it up to re-order this language to be on the very top (it is now your default system language).
That's it! Now, back in your Google Maps navigation settings you'll see that the default language (French) is now chosen, and under it it says what it used to say for the English default language: "Prononce les noms de rues" (Speak street names). It now speaks street names in French, just like it used to do for English. However, the down-side is that my entire phone is now in French instead of just the audio for my Google Maps, like I wanted. Google, please fix this!

Actually, you only need to change the app language, not the phone language.
open Maps, open the profile menu, go to settings and select app language.
Please Google, fix this.

If this works now to speak the street names in the foreign language, not just the directions in the foreign language, this is new. At the time I wrote my answer, it did not.

There's no reason why the above "solution" needs to be so complicated. Open Google maps. Cluck settings. Click navigation. Click language. Click default.
That's it.

You should try testing your own answer. This doesn't speak the street names in the foreign language at all. It speaks in a non-foreign language. Then, if you change to a foreign language it only speaks the directions in the foreign language, but won't speak street names anymore. Refer to my question. Read it carefully.


text:
Disabling USB debugging by default
When I connect my LineageOS 16 (Android 9) device to my computer, USB debugging turns on by default. Even when locked. That doesn't seem safe, so I searched through my settings to change that. I turned off 'Android debugging' and revoked USB debugging authorizations, which seemed to be the end of it. But then I rebooted and the 'Tap to turn off USB debugging' notification comes on again immediately after reconnecting!
How do I disable USB debugging by default?

That does not sound like an official LineageOS release - may be it is a custom LineageOS based ROM that has been altered by the developer to always enable ADB?

I thought I was using an official OnePlus 3 build, but I'm not entirely sure now. My build number starts with 'lineage_oneplus3-userdebug 9'. Is that normal?

No, that is not normal. Seems like you installed a debug build. These builds are designed to be used on development devices only.

Oh okay, that's good to know. Can I switch to a release build without losing data? If yes, do I get them from the built-in updater or from https://download.lineageos.org/oneplus3?

I rifled through my Recycle Bin to see what the name of the archive I originally downloaded was, and it was lineage-16.0-20190409-nightly-oneplus3-signed.zip. So I do believe it wasn't a debug build.

I ended up going back to stock, but this bug might be interesting for people finding this thread later: https://gitlab.com/LineageOS/issues/android/issues/308


text:
How has a WhatsApp contact removed our older conversations from my phone?
I’m baffled . All my previous conversations with one WhatsApp contact are no longer in our WhatsApp chat. They have all been wiped off preceding April 2019. I cannot retrieve from the archive either. I’m confident it is not something I have done, and this contact has erased them somehow on his ph7 WhatsApp. I’m really curious as to how this can be done?
Thanks for your help

It is not possible for anybody to delete old WhatsApp conversations from your phone without having access to your phone. The only exception is the short time period during which the sender can retract his message (s).  Even that option will leave a note on your side saying that This mesaage was deleted.
It is very likely a case of somebody else accessing your device and deleting the older conversation from your side. Some people have previously used WhatsApp web interface to access the chats of others without their knowledge. But even for this the user needs to scan the WhatsApp Web QR code using your mobile phone. You can check for active WhatsApp Web sessions by:
Open WhatsApp > Tap on 3 dots at top right > WhatsApp Web.


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Is it possible to install regular, non go version of android firmware on a device running android go?
are there any alternative, 'non go' android firmwares for my Samsung J4 core phone available?
The Samsung J4 core comes with Android Go.

Maybe... This is entirely dependent on the device and if developers have come up with a custom ROM for it as each device is unique. Check XDA Developers forums for options is the best bet.

The Samsung J4 core has only 1 GB RAM, therefore a current regular Android version may cause trouble with such less RAM.


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How can I see the price of an app I already purchased on the Google Play Store?
I would like to find out the price of an app that I have already purchased, so that I can suggest it to a friend. When I look at the app listing, it doesn't give the price if I already have it.

As user acejavelin stated either incognito or logout of google account. Which is what I suspected.

You can search it on the website of Google Play Store

But you would have to do it in an incognito/private browsing tab... or log out of your Google account in that browser, otherwise it just says "Installed" or "Purchased" and does not list the price. There is no way to do with within the Play Store app when you have your Google account active in the app.

In the play store app swipe form the left then go to Account and tap on ORDER History.

If the price of the app changed since the time user bought it, this solution would show an obsolete price. I have bought many apps at 100% discount (during an offer period), so this solution is not reliable.