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How do I recover contact from android phone(one plus one) after touchscreen stopped working?
I dropped my phone, and the touch screen stopped working. So, I can't access the phone. The phone is practically useless besides looking at the time. Is there a dongle that I can use to control the phone externally like a pc? Or any other way to recover my contacts from the cellphone, besides actually fixing it?
I want to get a new phone, and don't want to spend money on fixing it.

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts! May I recommend you taking a look at our broken-screen tag-wiki – which holds pointers for this issue as well as other stuff related to, ahem, problems with a broken/unresponsive screen? Especially a look at its "data recovery" section will prove helpful I guess :)

Did your phone was connected to google services?

If only touch stopped working and screen is properly visible then you could try the USB OTG with keyboard and mouse to go to contacts app and export your contact or sync them to google account

You can use adb commands for touching your phone.
The command for touching the screen is:
adb shell input touchscreen tap x y

For more information about the adb you can read here:
http://adbshell.com/
Good lack!

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


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Partition Reset in Redmi 1S
Running custom Rom on my Redmi 1s, I changed to stock MIUI 9 Rom. Then, I installed latest MIUI 8.2 on it and rooted. I cannot boot into TWRP, so I installed ClockWorkMod, and tried to install custom ROM and failed. I thought it was due to file type issue, and I partitioned Internal storage(followed steps in CWM). Now, the internal storage got reduced to 4.6 GB.
Tasks performed:

Installed stock MIUI 5 using fastboot mode. Then, installed latest MIUI 8.2, shows 4 GB in ES file explorer.
Changed partition table to default mode, using adb shell with parted.
Then, I have increased /system partition to 2GB using parted.
Now running, custom Rom with aroma Gapps.(This custom rom was backed up a month before partitioning internal storage, Restoring this also doesn't solved the issue).

Now, in settings it shows 4.31 gb of 7.28 GB used. Es file explorer shows used 1.65 Gb out of 4.62 GB. Also, I cannot access Internal storage in TWRP recovery.
How to reset it back to 8GB?

Have you ever tried this one?
https://forum.xda-developers.com/redmi-1s/general/tut-repartition-redmi-1s-to-increase-t3506904 Please check the PS section.

This one I have used. But, the problem is not about /system partition. Its about internal storage. Device has 8GB storage, but now I have access only to 4.3 GB which is half the size. Now the device is not with me.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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How to disable text correction suggestions (underlined) with Google Voice typing?
When I use Google Voice typing to produce some text, a fair amount of the text becomes underlined (and if you tap the underlined text a drop-down list presents suggestions to correct any errors in the voice recognition). However, this functionality makes it very cumbersome to manually edit the text with the keyboard (I find that I have to first tap the underlined text, then choose delete and rewrite the entire snippet of text again). Moreover I find that most often the suggested corrections are incorrect, so they are not helpful.
I'd much rather turn these corrections off if it was possible, and simply edit any errors manually with the keyboard. Can it be done? Thanks.

I'm also looking for an answer to this problem. The drop-down list of spelling and grammar suggestions that appears from Google's voice typing text correction/suggestions covers up the actual suggested corrections (in the horizontal strip based on keyboard settings) that I would like to use, when I tap into a word that has been underlined. There does not appear to be any setting for turning off Google voice-typing text correction/suggestions. The text correction/suggestions settings in the Android keyboard(s) settings have no effect on it, and there is no setting for it in the Google Voice Typ

The best work-around I have found is this:
Tap on the (underlined) word you are interested in changing.
When the (unwanted) suggestion box appears, tap someplace outside of the box.
The box will disappear but the cursor will remain where you originally tapped.
Now you can either start typing, or deleting, or you can click on a suggestion from the regular suggestion strip below.
Hope this helps.

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


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Gboard not switching back to previous language
I have three languages (Hebrew, Russian, and English) that I use regularly. I also have two others (Arabic and Esperanto) that I use occasionally and have installed.
Usually, whenever I hit the language button, it switches back to my most recent language (which is very convenient for typing in two languages- one tap to switch to Hebrew and one tap to switch back to English).
However, since yesterday, I've had to cycle through all my installed languages to get to the one I need. I tried restarting my phone, but it didn't help. Is there some setting I'm missing or something an app could have done to change why this is occurring?

Seems to have been an update :( I can't find any option to undo it

Indeed. The last update was the Friday before it started happening and I barely used my phone all weekend. I hope it's fixed (I just added Greek to the languages I need to occasionally type).

Experiencing it too since sometime last week, extremely annoying. For now I'm removing the less frequent languages. By the way removing the languages and re-enabling them doesn't help either.

Apparently fixed as of the most recent update (6.7.15.175732024) on November 15th.

Yes!!! Finally!


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Mobile Google Maps' setting for receiving location share notifications
tl;dr: Is there any specific configuration switch or setting that controls whether mobile Google Maps is or isn't showing notifications about someone sharing a location with me?

I've been sharing location with my wife and friends and vice versa for past few months. Every time someone wanted to share location with me, I've been receiving two kinds of notifications -- regular email sent to my Gmail account and mobile Google Maps' notification. Tapping the other one always led directly to mobile Google Maps application with shared location shown in map's center.
Recently I have turned off many of Google Maps settings, privacy switches, I have disabled most of, if not all, of suggestion tips notifications etc. One of those turned off was most likely responsible for Google Maps's notifications, because I'm no longer receiving them.
Right now, if anyone shares a location with me, I'm only getting a regular email sent to my Gmail account. Because my mobile Gmails (actually PC's one also) has a regular lag of 5-50 minutes in receiving emails (since they're actually sent) such notifications are pretty useless for me.
I'd like to re-enable mobile Google Maps' based location share notifications, but I don't know exactly which configuration switch, option or parameter is responsible for them. Can anyone help here?

First of all try clearing the cache of Google Maps application.
Secondly try changing the appropriate notification switch using the following steps:

Open the Google Maps application
Tap Menu Menu, go to  Settings >> Notifications >> People and places >> location sharing (get updates when people share with you on maps)
Next to the notification (location sharing), turn on the switch (if enabled already, turn the slider off and then on).

The location sharing switch is exactly what I was looking for / what is the solution in this case. Thank you for a perfect answer.


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Does Truecalller app leak your phonebook?
Sometimes, I cannot find new contacts that I add to the Truecaller phonebook, but sometimes, I think if it shares/leaks my contacts to the public. It shows other people's contact details that I never added there. So I am thinking if it is doing the same to me.
Android: 7.1.1
Phone: Oneplus 3T

Yes it does. When using the Truecaller application or services, you have already accepted their privacy policy:
So, in this case, you agree that:

Truecaller may use your personal information collected by their application to provide, maintain, improve, analyze and personalize their Services for other Users, partners and third party providers.
More specifically, Truecaller may use such information to provide names of contacts from your address book to other Trucaller users.

Exactly. For details, see: Truecaller is a privacy risk. And if they say they use those data to "improve … their services for … partners and third party providers", that definitely smells for "selling your data". That's the way you pay for their service.

@Izzy Is there any alternative for TrueCaller that respects the user privacy?

@LéoLéopoldHertz준영 to be asked at our sister site. Or rather has been asked just a few hours before your question here: Android app to to block international calls from a particular country. See my answer there.

Precisely. In fact, there is a plethora of evidence suggesting true caller is a privacy invader.
Just as Izzy mentioned, it's clear that the phonebook databases are uploaded to their servers even without consent from the users whose data end up leaking into their servers.
Truecaller uses "crowd-sourcing" to get data to their servers. In this article by Shaik Sharoz, the author explains the logic behind crowd sourcing:

The thing happens in this Crowd sourcing is they collect the data from you and shows to you in return. Suppose When a user installs the true caller app in his\her mobile, After installing it all the contacts which are present in the users mobile will sync with the servers of True caller app.

Consequently,

This brings out a privacy issue that your name is appearing in the search results to others very openly without permission.

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


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Why no native support for phone call blocker by Regex +44.* in Oreo?
There are many privacy problems in phone call blockers such as TrueCaller leaking your phonebook (thread Does TrueCalller App leak your phonebook?) in Android phonebook blockers.
I really think the support should be native.
I would like to understand why it is not at the moment.
There are many threads about the feature in non-native targets by 3rd party apps but none of those threads offer a simple, strong-security and strong-privacy approach for the problem: thread Android app to to block international calls from a particular country.
Example block function: block all UK phone numbers by Regex

+44.* so matching UK country code and any other letter after it

OS: Android Oreo 8.0
Phone: Oneplus 3T

Natively?  Not that I know of.

@SiXandSeven8ths Yes, exactly, therefore this thread.


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Play sound from two apps simultaneously
Is there a way to play sound from any two apps (or more) simultaneously on Android? For example I have Audible reading a book. I'd like to play sound from a relaxation app at the same time. Or from my music collection.

First of all can you run those two apps at same time? I'm not quite sure but I think sometimes when I listen to music and play game it plays both sounds, but I'm probably wrong and only one sound source is allowed at one time.

The answers in this question worked for me. I used Rocket Music Player. https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/125250/how-to-have-two-applications-play-sound-simultaneously

i have the similar situation on my note9 running android 10 kernel version 4.9.118*
and using OneUI 2.5.  I noticed that my phone was doing this when I was listening to spotify and then i launched another music app expecting the spotify to stop but both keep playing music.  It seems any music or audio app can multiplay with other music/audio app simultaneously.

In Android, there are some things called tasks and processes. Whenever an app is opened, processes are started, threads are created, and these run and together make a task. Android system is multi-tasking, no doubt on that, because you can switch from one app to another through the tabs option in your phone.
But, Android system runs only one main task. When you open an app, and you're currently using it, then it becomes the main process at that point of time. Other apps, which may be open, continue to run in background, but only one app and its processes run in foreground.
Playing music, that is, accessing the speaker, can be done by foreground processes only. If you start a music to be played by some media player, and press the home button, then also the music keeps playing. You might think that the music is playing in background, but that is not the case. In this case, even if you've come to home screen, then also the app processes are running in foreground, although you're not able to see the app window.
If you try to open any app at that moment, immediately the media player app processes become background, and hence the music is stopped.
In Android, threads and tasks cam be killed by pressing the back button.
Two main processes cannot work in foreground together. Many processes may run in background, but only one foreground main process.
In this context, you cannot play sound from two different apps together.

This isn't true at all! Start some music playing. Now open your email app. The music keeps playing, even though another app is in the foreground. I even listen to podcasts while playing a game with the sound on - and both the podcast app and the game are capable of playing sound at the same time.

Sorry to say, but in my phone, this never happens. One sound always stops when the other starts, except notification sounds.

Huh. Must depend on the model, I guess. Android phones do come in a pretty wide range of feature sets.

@WrichikBasu Where is your source? You're so off here, go and read about intents, context, activities, services, tasks and then just keep going until you can correct yourself, like seriously - this answer is unhelpful

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје

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


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How can I protect my phone against Krack Attacks if no updates are forthcoming?
Today, there was disclosure about Krack Attacks that affect WPA2. The attacks are primarily executed against end-point devices (phones, laptops).
In many cases, you can patch your router. The way the vulnerability works, according to the website author:

This means a patched client can still communicate with an unpatched access point, and vice versa.

In cases where the router is patched, we're cool. But sometimes, I have access to WiFi networks outside of my control, and I can't guarantee they're patched.
For these cases, it makes sense to patch my device -- but (based on the Linux driver source), for my specific phone (and I'm sure many others), I don't forsee updates ever becoming available -- we just don't get updates.
In these cases, what can I do to minimize or mitigate the risk of this attack?
Someone recommended using HTTPS Everywhere, which is (unfortunately) only available in Firefox on Android.

You can't... Unless you are very adept at building custom kernels, although I don't know know for sure where the core of WPA2 is, if it is in the drivers (in which case you can't do anything with it) or in the kernel. If it is in the kernel, AND Google releases a patch that is kernel based, AND you have access to kernel source, AND have an unlocked device, and know how to compile and flash a custom kernel, you could do it. Although if that level of security is important to you, unlocking the bootloader shouldn't be an option. Basically, you have until your phone's manufacturer does it.

acejavelin is right. You can wait for manufacturer to push patch if they do. Which device you have?

I've owned several phones, and only one of my previous ones (OnePlus X) had any sort of updates. I know we can't fix the core kernel issue ourselves; but surely there must be something we can do to mitigate or minimize. There are thousands or millions of phones in the same situation (no regular vendor updates).

I think this falls in the same category as Bluebourne... Yes, it's real, but not very likely to occur. One significant difference here is there is no working exploit if this vulnerability, meaning we know it exists, but we don't know how to actually use it (unless that changed from yesterday morning) except a handful of researchers in a lab environment.

We also made a proof-of-concept script that exploits the all-zero key (re)installation present in certain Android and Linux devices. It will be released once everyone has had a reasonable chance to update their devices - Official Source. So there's no way as of now by which you could be immediately affected. || @nightblade9 there must be something we can do to mitigate or minimize. Make sure you're on HTTPS always.

See this use Lineage OS and you are good to go. http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/10/17/lineageos-beats-google-punch-fixes-krack-wpa2-vulnerability-android/

@ЈеднорукиКрстивоје thanks, that seems like a good approach. It's unfortunate they don't have an official release for my phone yet. Cheers.

If your phone manufacturer or service provider will not push updates there are a few things you can do (some already mentioned in comments.) From easiest to hardest, these would be:

turn off wifi and only use mobile data (easy but possibly expensive, depending on your plan)
update your own wifi router, and only use wifi on your network and others that are confirmed patched
buy a new phone (They will have updates - could this be an excuse to get a new one?)
use a different kernel. LineageOS is generally leading edge, as Једноруки mentioned, so it will have an update very soon
write your own kernel. Tools exist to help you work on Android kernels, and the update required is publicly documented.

The thing to remember is that currently it is unlikely to happen. Yes, once the exploit is out there and spreading, you'll want to be on a patched phone, but don't panic about it today. And the attack is mitigated by VPN's, https etc.
For technical analysis and up to date security commentary on this, look at the Krack tag on Security Stack Exchange.

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


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S7 Edge second sim disappears randomly
I've got a dual-sim Galaxy S7 Edge (SM-G935FD) this spring and everything was fine until a week ago my second SIM started to disappear randomly. Basically I wake up the phone after a while and I see no indications of the second SIM: no signal bars and "No SIM card in slot 2" message in settings. Rebooting the phone sometimes solves it for a while -- the second SIM becomes visible and works as expected but after a few hours it disappears again.
Things that I have tried so far:

wiping out cache partition
forcibly setting second sim to "2G only"
manually choosing mobile operators for both sim cards
swapping sim cards -- problematic sim card would still disappear after a while,
now from slot 1.
putting the problematic sim card into another phone -- it works just fine, not disappearing at all
factory reset

The issue still persists. Currently my first sim (the one which works well) is set to "auto (4g/3g/2g)", also mobile data goes through that card. My second sim (the problematic one) is set to "2g only", although setting to "auto (3g/2g)" gives same result.
Inspecting phone logs with adb logcat while the second sim is invisible hasn't revealed anything suspicious..
My software:
Android 7.0
ROM: G935FXXU1DQEJ
Build: NRD90M.G935FXXU1DQGN

Try to put some other sim instead of problematic one and see what happens

It appeared to be a bizarre SIM issue: after replacing the SIM I haven't seen such behavior for more than a month. It's weird that the SIM would fail sporadically and a reboot would fix it, also that it would happily work on other devices. Anyway, this is hopefully solved now.

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


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Has Google removed the recent searches browser from the search app for Android?
I remember on the feature detail by this [article] (http://gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/news/google-search-gets-a-new-recent-tab-for-android-1672686) was introduced and enjoyed using it. Now it has disappeared without warning and I want it back. Can I reenable it?

I believe it didn't remove it. When I tap the search bar on my Android, It appears several suggestions of recent searches I've made... the UI might have changed, but not the functionality

No that had always existed but the special screen for viewing comprehensive search history, recently introduced, is now absent - see the picture

Just checked, the Recent option is there, on Android 7.0, in the same place where the picture shows...

Not in my case. I triple checked before posting and again once more now.


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How to set up fingerprint unlock on Honor 6A?
Could please someone name the exact checkboxes I need (not) to tick on Honor 6A to have it unlock with my fingerprint? Fingerprint is configured and recognized in the settings, but the phone keeps asking for PIN every time.

Are you using another lockscreen application?

While I don't have the device, but basing on existing knowledge on lock screen options: do you use storage encryption? What lock screen options are available to you?

Basically you have to set up a pin (or password) before you can enable
  fingerprints on the device, and you will be always required to enter
  the pin/password when you first boot or the first time you log into a
  protected user account.

After that point, if you have the fingerprint enabled for unlocking, you can use the fingerprint to directly wake and log in if you are using the default lock screen.
Many users have observed that  if you have installed anything that overrides the lock screen, this will stop working, and you will need to use the PIN again.
References

Use fingerprint to wake screen without PIN?

Thank you very much for the enlightening link. I did have a 3rd party screen lock application active. Now that I removed it, my phone unlocks with a fingerprint as it should.

Anytime! I am glad you resolved the issue


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To list apps reading/writing contacts?
I would like to get the better overview of applications reading and writing my phonebook i.e. contacts.
TrueCaller incidence shows that I do not have sufficient understanding and full control of the phone itself.
Similarly, my recent OnePlus data collection incidence belongs to the same category.
I think the very basic feature of listing all applications that can access (read and write) your phonebook can be a good start to eliminate unnecessary apps there.
OS: Android 7.1.1 and Oreo
Phone: Oneplus 3T

There are several places explaining app permissions and their possible implications, or helping you find "privacy friendly" apps. One example for that is my own Android site¹:

the permission overview lists permissions and tries to shed some light on what they are intended for, and how they might potentially be abused
the app listings show the number of requested permissions next to each app name, and draw a red frame around that number if there could be any risk. Additionally, "monitor icons" show if an app contains trackers like ads or analytics modules (one monitor item per module detected²). Clicking the app name (Javascript required for that part) reveals details – including what I call "concerns" (combinations of permissions which might raise concerns).
being part of the app listings, the Permission Checker list shows you a few candidates you can use to check apps you've already installed on your device. They give different details on the permissions used and their explanations. Ad-Modules and Privacy Checker again give you details on what modules are used, what they are for, and sometimes also some background on the networks behind them (and their "trustworthiness").
the app search lets you search apps by categories and permissions – to eg. find dialer apps without Internet access, or inventory apps with NFC; you decide the combination. It also lets you filter out (or restrict to) paid apps, and more. Note it of course is restricted to apps listed on the site – which currently covers about 14k apps available on Google Play, F-Droid, my repo, Aptoide and/or the Xposed repo.
the article section gives useful background on things like above mentioned "tracker modules" and other privacy related issues.

Disclosure again in bold: that site is owned by me, was built by me, and still is maintained by me. Which somehow makes it a one-man show. I try my best to keep it up-to-date (applists update themselves automatically) and bring in new/fresh content, but I have my limits :)

Last but not least a general hint: to ensure as best as possible you only get "clean apps", use F-Droid as your app source whenever possible. They have very strict rules to ensure the quality (one reason their collection is not that big). My own F-Droid repo doesn't reach that level (always check with its web browser interface for details the F-Droid client app does not show here) – it's rather intended as a "stepping stone" for projects not (yet) meeting the F-Droid criteria fully.

¹ originally setup to redirect the off-topic "is there an app…" questions here with a useful hint
² a feature provided thanks to AppBrain who granted me access to their data

Is there any tool that does not require much permissions to do these checkups?

Depends on your ROM. LineageOS has a Privacy Guard built-in that can do that, for example. If your ROM doesn't feature such a thing, see my 2nd and 3rd bullet point again (and follow their links).


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Will engraving the back of my Galaxy S8 interfere with the waterproof-ness?
I am thinking about laser-engraving a large logo on on the back of my Galaxy S8. The image I have in mind is about 40x40mm and will be centered vertically between the SAMSUNG and the lower CE and IMEI markings, and centered horizontally.
Will this in any way break the ability to withstand water, like when I wipe the phone with a wet cloth or when it gets rained on?
I am aware that this will obviously void the warranty, and that there is a risk of breaking the device.

This might be off-topic. I didn't see a tag for external modifications, but I think this Stack Exchange is the one best suited for my question.

Off-topic quite certainly. As for the question itself, the only problem I can think of is the glass breaking from where you engraved under high pressure, but I don't think the phone is built to withstand water with that depth/pressure in the first place.

I don't see why this would be off-topic. I think it's a really interesting question and a welcome change from the sea of "I broke my phone" questions.

@DanHulme well, this is more of a physics/material engineering question than an Android question...

@DanHulme it is a question of deliberately planning on breaking my phone in a controlled way.


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Hide call logs across user profiles
I've created two user profiles on my android phone. One Main and the other one(let's call it Child) is a separate user(NOT the default Guest). But whenever I switch between users, the call logs can be seen which were made from the other profile, ie. calls made from the Main profile can be seen in the Child profile and vice-versa. I don't want to share my call logs across profiles. I searched for some viable switch or option to disable this in settings, but couldn't find any. Googling with the post's title along with android tag results in some log hiding apps which is not what I'm looking for! How can this be disabled natively from android options/settings itself? Or can it be done via some root 'tweak' if the rom is rooted as in my case.
Android OS - Nougat v7.1.2
Root Status - Rooted

Then the whole point of multi-user seems void to me. For eg, in windows users documents/pictures/videos/music are not shared across profiles. Unless a person fiddles around in Users folder and have necessary permissions to do so. So in my mind, I'm looking at multi-user as same as in windows. Apart from 3rd party apps, the default apps(messages/phone/gallery) should have separate space, IMHO

That seems to be the design- see source quoted in my answer

Access user profile and tap on More Settings (the second one in orange is child profile with Bom as name)

You will see yourself and child profile as below

Tap the cog icon on right and disable
Turn on phone calls and SMS
That's it.
If you enable, it gives you a warning that your calls and SMS would be shared as shown

Tested on stock 7.1.2
But the drawback is that child user can't use the phone or SMS
This is the designed behaviour

By default, only the primary user has full access to phone calls and texts. The secondary user may receive inbound calls but cannot send or receive texts. The primary user must enable these functions for others.
Note: To enable or disable the phone and SMS functions for a secondary user, go to Settings > Users, select the user, and switch the Allow phone calls and SMS setting to off

While it is not explicitly mentioned that secondary user will see call logs of primary user and vice versa, once the primary user enables then everything is accessible to secondary user (remember default is not to allow , if you do, there is a price to be paid )


text:
Google Calendar won't sync (Android 7)
I bought my phone originally in China so I installed all the Google Services later.
Now I have some problems left:

When I'm searching for my location on Maps it doesn't really work

But more important for me:

My Google Calendar won't sync (and apparently neither my contacts), look at the screenshot - this was after I pressed sync and everything else synced:

Anyone an idea what I should look at in order to find out why after pressing sync those two didn't sync and what I could do about it?


text:
google maps wrong navigation starting point
I have a problem with Google maps.
Starting navigation on the app shows a grey point as a starting point. And a blue dot as my location, which is not the starting point. Just random point nearby (for this case last place i was search) or my home location (which is on other country).

(click image for larger variant)
I tried to clean cache ,delete the app and resetup the account. No nothing helps.
Setup other account fixed the problem but its not my account so i can use it. (Meaning that its no device problem).
Did any one have something like this before ? or maybe any solution ?

What location features do you have enabled? GPS and network?

High accuracy, GPS abd network. if i press the my location button the position is right...

Fixed !
The problem was that i setup my account on other device (Nexus 7 - 2012 ) and this what makes the navigation problem. Removing it in the security settings fixed the bug..
Here is the link for removing your account on installed devices :
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6264236?hl=en


text:
Locked phone connected to the net with blocked SIM
I got my phone stollen today. I contacted my phone company and blocked the SIM card. I tested it by trying to call the phone and was denied.
However, using Whatsapp and K9 (with gmail), I could see that the phone was connected to the net a few hours later. Should I assume that the robber somehow managed to get passed the locking pattern? Or are there any other way to do it?
Note, the phone was only connecting to known WiFi, and not to open one.

Edit: Whatsapp, use tickles to indicate when a message was received. And K9 is a mail client. I could see on my gmail account, that the last IMAP sync (probably automatic) was made hours after the phone was stollen. The combination of those means that somehow the phone was on-line.
I used my phone with my home WLAN. And a few others. But the phone was not actively looking for WiFi to connect to. So it should not automatically connect to an open WiFi.

blocked the SIM card You may also inform the IMEI number(s) of the device to the network company so that the robber cannot use any other SIM in it. // I could see that the phone was connected to the net a few hours later. Can you please how you saw that by editing your question? What is K9? // Note, the phone was only connecting to known WiFi You mean, your phone connected to your own/any other saved WiFi network after being stolen?

There is another possibility like they changed and used their own SIM card with mobile data (which is unlikely, but still possible).

@GokulNC, I edited in some details. I hope that covers your questions?

@AndrewT., yeah, that would probably work... I have no idea about the profesionalism of the robber, so no option could be discarded...


text:
`adb shell wm overscan` makes apps leave blank spaces on top
I've been following the instructions given here. Basically I just ran:
adb shell wm overscan 0,320,0,0

to fix a broken touchscreen issue on my Sony Z3 Xperia Compact with Android 6.0.1
Now some apps (e.g. Play store, the default Xperia Launcher and Spotify) seem to now reserve additional space where they don't place things. To illustrate my point, I attach a screenshot:

The black top third is what I wanted to have (because that's where the touchscreen doesn't respond). The middle third is what is added which I don't need. I'd rather use this space for the app I'm running, which is now entirely squeezed into the bottom third. As I said, this only applies to some apps.
Edit 1 I found some apps where this sometimes happens and sometimes not. This seems to be related to whether or they are trying to show a menu bar on top.
Edit 2 Gmail and google's Inbox have the same issue. Inbox even crashes.

Duplicate of: https://android.stackexchange.com/q/148993/218526


text:
Getting "OK Google" to play music from non-downloaded songs in Google Play Music Library?
I have many songs uploaded to my Music library on Google Play Music, but don't download more than a few of them to my Google Pixel.
When I say "Ok Google, play _____", my phone will instead try to play a related station from the app, before stopping and saying that option is for subscribers only, of which I am not. Is there a way to get the Pixel to directly stream it from my Music Library where I've uploaded my owned music via voice command, and not the music station in the app?

I don't Subscribe either and I'm having the same issue. It started about a month ago. Before that OK Google would do exactly as NFG requests:
Me: OK Google, Play Foo Fighters Run
Pixel: Playing Foo Fighters Run
Play Music app opens and Foo Fighters Run plays


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mtklog folder and how to read logs in it
Ok, so, I have folder called mtklog in which are few folders named like "db.fatal.00.HW_Reboot" inside there are 2 files ZZ_INTERNAL and db.fatal.00.HW_Reboot.dbg it seems like .dbg file is some archive and it have logs in it but when I try to read those logs it asks for password, how figure out what is password? Just to say those .dbg files are created at time when I try to fastboot boot something and it ends up failing so I need to see those logs to figure out what is wrong.


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"App not installed" when trying to install APK
I'm trying to install an apk file on my device, and I'm able to press the Install button, but after a few seconds, I keep receiving this error:

App not installed.

What is the root cause of this issue and how can I fix it?
I know this StackOverflow question is related, but that question deals more with the development aspect than the consumer installation aspect of the error.

The answer is available in this link

Also related: Application installation fails in play store // What's the cause of “Application not installed” error? // APK won't install // … Pointer: We have a nice search function here at our site (link gives you 28 related questions which have answers).

@BinaraMedawatta that's not the answer that worked for me. This is a different error.

@iBug as I replied to the other commenters, all of the linked questions refer to a different error message, which is not the one I'm receiving. Thus, none of those answers are sufficient to answer my question.

Anyway, could you tell the source of the APK? There's a possibility that the APK is corrupted, etc (as pointed on Izzy's comment). Also, it'd be helpful if you could paste the LogCat when it happens.

I figured it out myself. The issue was that I had another version of the same application I was trying to install already on my device. After deleting it, the installation worked fine.

I had the same problem. To give more details: I was able to figure this out via adb logcat on the computer: the message was "PackageManager: Package com.zulipmobile signatures do not match previously installed version; ignoring!". Specifically, I had installed the application (Zulip) from F-Droid, and what I was trying to install was the APK released from github. It's a pity that the message shown on Android is just "App not installed" without any other explanation...


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Can't move apps to SD Card on Huawei
I own a P9 Lite(EMUI 5.0, Android 7.0) and when I'm trying to move an app to my SD Card there is no option, but on someone's P8 Lite with Android 6.0 this option is available, how can I fix this thing and move apps on the SD Card + Data

According to Huawei support, starting with EMUI 5.0 (Android 7.0 Nougat), moving apps to SD Card is no longer supported. Period. Really bad decision if you ask me.
Updated 3/18/2018:
Posed the question again on https://www.facebook.com/usahonor in the 'Flagship' question box and got the answer was that it is as of EMUI 4.1 that apps on SD card are no longer supported. Worse than I initially thought!
Huawei/Honor shooting themselves in the foot it seems...

Updated comments below

Source IS (Huawei support) in original post! Update post shows link: https://www.facebook.com/usahonor

You can try the following method proposed by pruther69 here and this method  should allow app data to be saved to the SD Card:

On your Huawei device navigate to Settings ➡ Apps ➡ Advanced (bottom of screen) ➡ App Permissions ➡ Storage
Select respective application from list (this should then allow data for that app to be saved to the SD Card)

To transfer data from internal memory to SD card:

Go to Tools ➡ Files ➡ Local (top right)  ➡ Internal storage and/or SD Card.
Options should now be available to navigate and move files from one to the other.

Credits

Huawei P9 Lite - Transferring app data to SD Card

Yes I just've seen the post, i'll do this asap and let you know.

This option is missing on my sister's Huawei P9 Lite running Android 7.0 and the other answer says Huawei says it's not supported. Please don't post answers you haven't verified.


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TWRP boot loop on Z00T
The last LineageOS OTA caused a TWRP boot loop.
I can get to fastboot with the volume keys.
I can use ./adb shell briefly before reboot.
./fastboot erase cache
./fastboot flash recovery twrp-3.1.1-0-Z00T.img

did not resolve the issue.
What can be done to get this device booted?

On Ubuntu 18.04
sudo apt install android-sdk-platform-tools-common fastboot
fastboot continue

Got me back to LineageOS.
It also seems to have fixed TWRP.


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Is BLE 5.0 impemented on Nougat version

Is BLE 5.0 features accessible from Android Nougat phones ? if not how will be the connection of phones with Ble 4.0/ble 4.2 with BLE 5.0 before Android Upgradation ?

Bluetooth 5.0 wasn't a standard before Android 8.0, depending on the features you are looking for, there is always interoperability between 5.0 and 4.x BLE devices.

So once Android 8.0 is out , for accessing features of BLE 5.0 we have modify on the Android application side or  can we use the already existing callbacks for BLE


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Bootloop and inaccessible to fastboot /adb
So I wished to flash TWRP on my Gionee A1 (Nougat) and it couldn't mount my system partitions and reboots recovery repeatedly.
Reading somewhere cwm solves this, I did a grave mistake of flashing CWM of another device model onto mine (as I couldn't find one for mine)
After flashing, the phone is in bootloop and I can't access recovery/fastboot. Tried many methods but in vain. Pls help.

Please attach your phone to adb installed pc using usb cable. Find terminal or command prompt. And run the following command 'adb reboot recovery'


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Can't uses keyboard in setup
I'm trying to setup a LG LS665 and I can't put my internet password in or anything that requires text entry. I think i might have deleted the default lg keyboard. Anything i can do to fix it? Is it possible to install an apk from my pc without any interaction from my phone?

If you already have a Google account set up, and the device connected to the Internet, you can simply visit the Google Play Store using a browser on your PC, log in, find a keyboard app, and click the button to install it on your device (it will then be pushed).
As I somehow doubt that the requirements for that are met (or you wouldn't ask about setup), a second variant would be to download the .apk file of a keyboard app and use e.g. adb install to get it installed. Problem: for this you need to have usb-debugging enabled on the device. Not sure if you can achieve that.
Last resort would be to "flash" a keyboard app via a special update.zip in recovery. But that would require a custom recovery, and the update.zip must be created (there are posts on that here on this site as well). Some custom recoveries also offer ADB access (e.g. twrp has that built-in), so you could try the adb install approach with them. However, I cannot tell if there is any (or which) custom recovery available for your device.
Very last resort: flash the entire firmware again – the keyboard app should be part of it.


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how to sign Android device out of Google account temporarily
How can I - from my Android device - temporarily sign the device out of a Google account?  I'm running Android 6.0.1 on a Galaxy Note 4.
If I go to Settings > Accounts > Google > tap specific account > three dots menu - there is a "Remove Account" option.  But I don't want to remove the account from the device, I just want to sign out of the account temporarily, and sign back in later.  I suspect that "remove account" does a lot more than just signing out of the account.
I can do it from my PC - myaccount.google.com > "device activity & security events" > "review devices" > click specific device > Account Access: REMOVE button.  This  does not remove the account from the device.  It just signs the device out of the Google account.  It takes one tap to sign the device back into the Google Account.

may I ask why? if you can, depending on why, you may be able to make a new user and then do whatever under that user. or, you can add another account and tell Google apps to use the other account

Wild guessing: You could try to "logout" via the GMail app (or the Playstore app), which uses the same account. Not sure whether that logs out the entire device or just the single app – but I'd suspect the former (after all, if signed in once from "anywhere", GMail doesn't ask for credentials). No promise, but worth a try.

@pcs3rd my main concern is to log out of Google Maps location sharing for awhile - I thought I had turned off location sharing but somehow it got reactivated without me doing it intentionally - so I was thinking a sure way to preventhat from happening would be to log out of the Google account altogether.

In android removing the account is equivalent to that of logging out in PC. As lots of data is being synced from your google accounts to your phone therefore if you remove the account from your phone the data which is already synced won't be affected, But you won't be able to use any google related services in your phone.
Apart from that there won't be any problem.

Hi @Biman, I started to give it a try, but when I tapped "Remove Account" in the three dots menu, I got this message - "Removing the account will delete all of its messages, contacts, and other data from the phone. Continue?"  That's what I was afraid of!  If I do "Remove Device" from a PC, that doesn't happen.  It sounds like if I "Remove Account" from the phone, when I add the account back to the phone all of its data would have to be re-synced.


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Deleted System Dialer app
I have a CUSTOM rom. I deleted system Dialer app. Is it possible to recover it, or fix it? I can't get calls, can't make calls, but I can write & receive messages. Other dialers don't work and it says "this device does not support this function"

Reinstall the ROM. You probably still have the ZIP file on your device.

Is it possible to fix it without reinstalling?

You can probably just copy the required files and folders from the ZIP and fix their permissions, but reflashing is still the easiest solution (you don't lose your data, by the way, only if you choose to wipe /data/).

You should be able to just dirty flash the ROM... Meaning flash it and do not wipe anything. May have to reflash Gapps as well.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.dialer&hl=en
Does this kind of dialer also dowsn't work??
If it doesn't, the your only choice is to dirty flash your current rom from rcovery


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Android and/or Whatsapp degrading photos
My friend asked me about a problem on her Android phone with Whatsapp.
Phone is Huawei, Y330-U01; Android 4.2.2.
No apps related to Cloud (see comments below) except latest versions of Google Drive and Huawei backup.
People send her pictures and they look fine the first time, but if she tries to open them the second time, they are "blurred" (her words).  She showed me one, and what is happening is that they have been degraded to something like twenty or thirty pixels wide!  Like TV stations do when nudity is on the screen--only far worse, like a whole person three blocks wide!
And videos that play the first time only, the second time cannot play at all.
I suspected some function was degrading them to save storage space, but the internal storage has almost a gigabyte available, and there is an SD card with almost four GB.
She had a lot of updates pending, but neither Whatsapp nor the O.S. were on the list.
What might be the cause and how to fix?

Device name and model? I'm asking this because there are some devices like Nextbit Robin that backs up photos to cloud and deletes them from the device automatically. Or is there any such cloud app installed?

Don't know model; four-year-old Huawei.  Don't know about cloud.  I will ask if I see her again.

Or do you think this maybe the reason? https://lifehacker.com/google-photos-can-now-free-up-space-on-your-phone-1743304827

No, they are not being deleted nor “degraded to high quality.”  They are being degraded to such a low quality that they can’t be recognized.  Also, the article says “will let you.’  Nothing is “letting‘ her do it, it is doing it without asking her.


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How to keep iptables changes on android after reboot?
If I do any changes to iptables on Android (my phone is running CyanogenMod 11 -
 Android 4.4.3), then these changes are lost after phone reboot.
What should I do to keep them saved?


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Disable always on lock screen on the pixel 2
How can one disable always on lock screen on the pixel 2?

It would be much better if you elaborate problem in few more words like what exactly you mean by always on lock screen and also if you could add a screenshot ☺

I assume you are talking about Ambient display. If so, you can go to:
Settings -> Display -> Advanced -> Ambient display -> Toggle "Always on"


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How to enter IP address with port into Google Chrome for android?
When I type IP address and port (eg.: 192.168.0.9:15672) on android google chrome 60, I am redirected to google search on that IP address and port.
I want to access that as URL, not as google search. How to do that?

To use specific ports in Chrome for Android (and most mobile browsers), you must include the transport protocol as well..
For example (IP addresses are as an example, not valid just news.com):
64.38.232.185:18081 <- will result in a search
http://64.38.232.185:18081 <- will initiate hypertext transfer protocol on port 18081
64.38.232.185:58443 <- will result in a search
https://64.38.232.185:58443 <- will initiate a secure http connection on port 58443
Without specifying the transport protocol, most mobile browsers don't assume, although some browsers do assume common alternative port usage like 8080 or 8443.
So basically, type the full url including specifying the transport protocol prefix (http:// https://) and not just the IP address and port.


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Is a PIN reducing the security of a fingerprint based encryption?
Many smartphones and programs are using fingerprint's to secure the phone or encrypt data. In many cases, those programs want a PIN as backup authentification method.
A PIN just got 10000 possible combinations, while a fingerprint got many more. So an encryption isn't safe if there is a backup pin, is it?
The same question for a phone lock-screen: If there's a 4-digit PIN, people could just bruteforce this pin instead of bruteforcing million of fingerprints, couldn't they?

Welcome to the community ☺

A backup plan is always necessary in case the fingerprint sensor doesn't recognize fingerprints or gets broken or something that it doesn't function as expected
Coming to app locking system, it totally depends on the app lock system if it has limit of trying PINS then you should be safe but if it doesn't YES it can be bruteforced if there's no limit on no. of wrong attempts
Coming to Androids PIN lock feature, it doesn't have limit of only 4 digit PINS so you can make it more secure by making large complex PIN
Assuming 4 digit PIN, AFAIK Android wouldn't allow you to attempt 10000 wrong PINS infact it will allow only few and then will lock up itself

A PIN just got 10000 possible combinations, while a fingerprint got many more.
If there's a 4-digit PIN, people could just bruteforce this pin instead of bruteforcing million of fingerprints, couldn't they?
Biometric lock is weak, hence insecure - it's only for user's convenience.
PIN can be generated from set of 10 numbers - it can be with or w/o repetition.
Password (on factory Android) can be generated from ASCII charset, including numbers, without control chars - c < 32 || c > 127, thus having 94 printable chars.
Again, minimum lock screen length is 4 && maximum lock screen length is 16 (on factory Android).
Also, default password policy is PASSWORD_POLICY_UNSPECIFIED (on factory Android).
With that said, factory (AOSP) Android has low security margin; it is only on user to define password with complex quality thus to mitigate online attacks (bruteforce).
Off course, you can change policies with DPM (DevicePolicyManager) application or build custom ROM.
Regarding your q about bruteforcing, I suggest to read this


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"anazon.ca" download pending
My phone frequently shows a Chrome notification for "anazon.ca" with "Download pending ...". This appears frequently with a current time-stamp, even when WiFi and data is turned off.
I tried rebooting my phone, to no avail; pressing and holding on the notification just takes me to generic Chrome settings; clicking on it takes me to the download list, which doesn't show anything from anazon.ca.
I spent some time querying for "anazon.ca" and didn't find anything.
I have never browsed to Amazon on that phone.
What exactly is this (virus? trojan? harmless?) and how can I get rid of it?

Welcome to community
I would suggest to clear data of download manager or chrome or both
I have faced such situation few times in past
But make sure you first backup Chrome settings and also try clearing first download managers data and if it doesn't work then clear chrome so that if only after clearing download manager's data your problem is solved you will have chrome settings as it is


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Can Truecaller get caller ID on 2G connection?
Truecaller emphasizes that it requires 3G/WiFi connection in order to tell caller ID. Does this mean that if I'm in an area where only 2G is available and no WiFi is available, Truecaller cannot get a caller ID for me?

People install the Truecaller app.
The app uploads all your contacts' names, mobile numbers, photos, and other details to its server.
The app queries its server with the number which is calling you and gets the person's name and displays it.

So, Truecaller needs internet access to function whether through the WiFi/GSM/GPRS/EDGE, etc. network. So, when you are in a location with only 2G and no WiFi, Truecaller cannot get a caller ID.

AFAIK, 2G also provides mobile data, are you sure it can't get a caller ID?


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Google Assistant opens music settings instead of spotify
I'm trying to set up my Google Assistant to play some Spotify music. I've linked Spotify in the settings, and when I say a command like 'OK Google, Play Some Music' it responds 'OK, Playing music on Spotify', but it won't actually start Spotify app, it just opens the Music settings.
It does display a link to open Spotify app if I manually select it, but surely it should open Spotify itself?

You can see it recognises my command. But then it opens this Settings screen instead:

Incidentally, I can just ask it to 'OK Google, open Spotify' and it will open it that way, but it won't if I ask it to play any music.
Is there a setting somewhere that I'm missing?
This is on an S8+ so it's pretty up to date.

I don't exactly have a proper solution to this, but I had the same exact problem. And it was fixed by restarting my phone (Pixel). So that might be worth a try.

Well what do you know - that sorted it. Now I feel like an idiot for not trying the most obvious solution first - turn it off and turn it back on again!


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Wileyfox Swift won't boot, identifies as QHSUSB_BULK
My most reliable device until now, this morning suddenly remained black: the screen didn't turn on. Long-pressing the power button didn't yield any reaction – nor did removing the battery (and SIM plus µSD card) for half an hour. Battery is at least half full, and the reaction is the same with a power cable connected. As at the other end of that cable currently is a Windows machine (not mine, so I cannot install anything on it), surprisingly that one was instantly searching for drivers – and the device identified is named QHSUSB_BULK. So something must be still working there.
Any idea what's going wrong there and how to fix it? As I wrote, that Windows machine isn't mine – so if a computer must be involved, it should work on Linux.
What I tried without success:

long pressing power button to provoke a restart/boot
at the same time, holding either vol-up or vol-down to see if it at least boots into fastboot/recovery. Nada.
pluggin into USB (just in case the battery suddenly discharged). Not even the LED lit up (which it normally does, indicating the device is charging)
removed battery, microSD and SIM for about half an hour, put it back – no change.
searched the web for possible solutions; only found that QHSUSB_BULK mentioned with solutions on some Nexus and/or LG devices, involving the install of very (LG) specific Windows software (not possible for me, and won't help anyway as in my case it's no Nexus or other LG device). Reading between those lines, it seems to indicate trouble with the bootloader. Confirmed by other findings of the problem (without solutions) involving devices from Huawei and a Moto G with a solution again not applicable to my case (similar thing for a Oneplus). Found one mention of the Wileyfox Swift on a Russian forum (4PDA) mentioning some special software (QFIL) again but no details, quote: "it is possible to try to flash through QFIL. In a personalized reply."

Device is a Wileyfox Swift (1st gen), still running its original CyanogenOS 12.1 (Android 5.1.1). Bought in 2015, so AFAIK warranty just run out (hm, suspicious).

Note: After having posted the question I've reached out to Wileyfox support. Surprisingly I already got an answer about an hour ago, asking me to send in the device for them to check directly. Need to check warranty state etc. first of course. Will update details / answer the question as soon as I've obtained sufficient information.

As you've already searched for QHSUSB_BULK, I take it for granted that you know your phone is bricked, and its bootloader has been damaged. That identifier stands for the Qualcomm 9008 emergency mode, which is used for flashing firmware.

@DeathMaskSalesman thanks for confirmation – and yes, that was my (temporary) conclusion. But as you write (which again confirms my findings) it's "used for flashing firmware", I was hoping to be shown a way to do so and, in that process, fix the bootloader. // What I completely fail to grasp is how the bootloader got damaged tonight. I didn't fiddle with it – the device still has its original firmware and all. Last "flashing stuff" was done more than a year ago (TWRP), and there have been several boots since.

cough time-bomb cough. Aside from the speculation, I'll suggest you to search for xda qfil, as the flashing procedure is the same for every phone in such condition. The catch is, that many malware disguised as Qualcomm tools is around, so tread carefully. I'll see if I can dig up something, but I'm not familiar with the toolkit either.

Thanks again, @DeathMaskSalesman – I'll check that and report back. But if my warranty is still up, I might be better of accepting Wileyfox' offer of sending the device in; at least, if they break it they know how to replace it :) Funny thing with "canned blocks": They suggested I should back up everything before sending it in. Wish they'd explained how to do that with the device not even booting up :)

That's support for you. If your warranty is still up, then relay the responsibility to them. Otherwise, this seems like an interesting starting point.

I've got no Windows (except those for light and fresh air), so I cannot follow that procedure. But WTF: Holding VolUp and VolDown while plugging in USB bricks the device? No shit? Who had that brilliant idea? You know how easily that could happen. Though it could come in handy for a device refresh a month before warranty ends… (no speculations: I didn't do that. Didn't even know before I read that XDA post you've linked)

To be honest, I don't know whether you did it on purpose or not, and it's not my job to know #D. Anyways, I had to install Windows 7 specifically for having Odin communicate to a SM-A520F, so I sort of know what you're implying.

We received your device and were also not able to get it back into normal boot, so we changed the PCB (mainboard). Your device will be returned today.
Though we strongly want to advice you to accepted the FOTA update to Android 7, as CyanogenOS (we flashed the latest CyanogenOS, Android 6 version, namely ZNH2KAS7EB on your device) is no longer supported and you are running an Android version with security patches from 2016. With this software, your device is vulnerable for several security issues like the Kracken WiFi (patch is coming) and the Blueborn Bluetooth (patch already available) vulnerabilities.
But besides that, some recently updated applications (Facebook, Spotify, Instagram) from the PlayStore are conflicting with CyanogenOS and causing the phone to freeze/crash and eventually the phone will get in a bootloop where you won't be able to get out of, unless you manually flash your device to Android 7 through the recovery.
If you decide to not accept the update to Android 7, we can no longer help you in the future in case of warranty claims.
With regards,
Team Wileyfox

Thanks a lot for the detailed feedback! The apps you've named are of no concern to me (I'd rather remove them than using them) and I'm aware of the security issues you've named (BT is turned off permanently anyway, and WiFi only used in "restricted environment" – same for most of the other CVEs you didn't name explicitly). As soon as the underlying "stuff" keeping me from N is solved, I'll of course update. Thanks for your great support and for Wileyfixing my device!

@Izzy How time flies. Wileyfox is reported to be on bankruptcy (Feb 2018).

@iBug yeah, I heard. Sad. All just looked that promising. Let's cross fingers and wish them the best – not all lost yet!


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How is the default launcher set after a factory reset
I would like to know how is the default launcher set after a factory reset. What files are in charge of telling the OS, for example, that the Touchwiz app is the default launcher for Samsung devices.
I do not want to replace the launcher, that is something I already know how to do. This is a very specific question regarding how the os works. I am interested in doing a system update via recovery and changing the files that tell the OS which app is the default launcher, in order to tell it that my newly flashed app (flashed in system partition) is.
I look forward to your response. Thanks in advance.
EDIT:
As stated, Samsung is just a given example but it is one of an endless list. This is an os general-behaviour related question not manufacturer specific.

Umm, most cases there's only one launcher so it's naturally set as default?

@AndyYan OP is talking Samsung. They often duplicate things. Wouldn't wonder if they had the stock (AOSP) launcher as well, while making their TouchWiz one the default. I vaguely remember having seen that on a device: installed Apex and of course got asked to chose – but out of 3 instead of 2 launchers (AOSP, manufacturers, Apex). Apex was the only user-installed launcher; still, no choice had to be made before installing it.

I don't believe there's ever any AOSP launcher built into Sammy devices I owned, but now that you mentioned it, I do remember there's a "Simple Home" or something named like that which is a very simplistic launcher for grannies and such.

If a ROM has multiple launchers, and one is not set by default in the default factory configuration, then after the Setup Wizard completes and the device attempts to go to the desktop, a pop-up appears asking you to select the Home application and it will give you an option to "Always do this".
You can select a launcher here, but until you select "Always do this" (or similar text) this pop-up selection window will appear every time the Home button is pressed.
This is common in custom ROMs which have multiple launchers pre-installed.

when you say "and one is not set by default in the default factory configuration"  you mean that it actually can be configured. What files do I need to set a particular factory configuration? Do you know?

@Storo I don't know that, that is outside of the scope of Android Enthusiasts as it is a question regarding development. It is possible though, as Samsungs do not do that, although most custom ROMs with more than one launcher pre-loaded force you to manually make a selection.

@Storo if that is the thing than yes but you will have to unpack file where settings are saved

@ЈеднорукиКрстивоје Great, I have no problem in doing that, I am just asking which are the files in the /system partition or whatever where I have to modify.

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


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Samsung galaxy S5 display and touch not working
my samsung galaxy S5 android 6.0.1 not starting. only task manager touch key light keeps always on. but touch not working. and display not working. can anyone suggest me a solution for this issue.
What i have already Tried :

Remove battery and insert it again, but not succeed.
start device by pressing volume down and power key but not succeed.


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Searching contacts on Android
On Android v7

click Phone
click the Contacts icon (two human silhouettes)
click [Create new contact]
create new contact

Contact is added and shows up in the list. It also shows in the Google Contacts Web UI on a desktop as well as in Gmail.
However, searching for this contact from the Phone app fails to find it.
The Contacts app is able to find it just fine, just not the Phone app. I installed two other third-party contact searching apps and they find it just fine. It's only the Phone app that has trouble.

Stupid assumption maybe – but does that new contact have a phone number entered? If not, the phone app might ignore it as it has no use for it anyway (you cannot call someone who has no number).

Wow, Izzy, that was not a stupid assumption at all, man. That was exactly the issue. Thanks, man!


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Error message on Maps "route not found"
I have a Samsung S6 with Nougat 7.0.
Today, I can't navigate because I got the message "route not found".
This happened when I entered the destination with voice or by using my home address.
Then, I closed Maps and with "OK Google" I had my route.
Can someone please help me understand what happened and what can be done?

Do you have Location Services switched on?

Settings
Location
Tap the Location switch
Make sure Mode is High Accuracy

https://www.bestusefultips.com/use-location-services-on-android-nougat-7-0-7-1/

,thank you for your answer.I checked and Mode is on "High Accurancy".

If you have  Location Services switched on and it still doesn't work, then I suggest you

close the Google Maps app and re-launch it.
sign out and sign back in to Google Maps with the same Google Account.
clear App data:
Open your device's Settings app (not the Google Settings app).
Touch Apps.
Select Google Maps in the list.
Touch Clear data.

uninstall and re-install the Google Maps app on your Android device.


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JIO VoLTE is not working with Moto G5 plus
I am trying from so many days to enable VoLTE on MOTO G5 PLUS but VoLTE is not working in any of the SIM slots. The current Android version is Nougat.
Can somebody help me how can I enable VoLTE option on my phone? It is really frustrating that I need to use some third party app to make a call on 4G network.

Did it worked previously or it never worked from beginning and make sure that enhanced 4g LTE mode is turned on, even i had this issue twice in past and it was solved automatically after few days

This could pe possible if VoLTE or HD calling is not enabled under sim card settings.
Make sure you have turned it on.
It might be possible that your current network didn't working properly on VoLTE.

Have you checked if the Enhanced 4G LTE Mode option in the Mobile Network option in the Settings is enabled? If it is not enabled, then you need to check this option, then it will work fine.
If you do not find an option such as Enhanced VoLTE, then try to change the SIM card to a different slot (it will be better if Jio SIM is in the first slot) and restart the phone and check again if such an option appears. If you do not find the option again, then try to clear the cache partition the method is seen here in the link here.
If you still do not find any solution, then you can finally try the solution below. First, you need to have ADB drivers installed on your PC and you need to enable developer options and debug mode on the phone. Then try using the following commands as below in command prompt (cmd if you using Windows system) or Terminal (if you are using Ubuntu)

adb reboot bootloader (useful to start bootloader of the phone)
fastboot erase modemst1
fastboot erase modemst2
Press the lock key to start the phone from bootloader mode

You haven't mentioned how to reflash those partitions after erasing.

@Gokul NC as the command only remove EFS partition in the phone and on reboot the phone the EFS partition will automatically generate so I didn't need to reflash it for this phone but still for more information you can read one good article here https://nerdschalk.com/fix-empty-imei-corrupted-efs-no-sim-unknown-baseband-wifibluetooth-issues-restoring-twrp-backup/


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Screen does not ligh up on incoming call
Xperia Z5 Dual with Android 7.1.1
Sometimes when the device is receiving a phone call (Messenger and Whatsapp work fine), the screen does not light up and I am unable to pick up the call.
Does anyone know what the problem might be?

Custom or stock ROM? Maybe try to re-calibrate proximity sensor

@ЈеднорукиКрстивоје curious: what does the proximity sensor have to do with the screen turning on on incoming calls? Viktor wouldn't notice that if the phone were at his ear, so most likely it is not. The sensor should just "toggle" the display while in-call, AFAIR, not when signaling an incoming call (end of second paragraph in the question).

@Izzy Yes I know that, you are completely right. But I had some bug where my phone won't wake up the screen but sound play and I can't answer call it was because proximity sensor was stuck on "near". But that was lg phone which proximity sensor was used not to unlock phone via knock on while in pocket. I' m not sure how proximity sensor works with other phones.

@ЈеднорукиКрстивоје Ah, I see – yes, special circumstances. Thanks for the background details! Cannot hurt checking, sure :)

Try re-calibrating your proximity sensor.
You can also try wiping the top of screen, around the sensor location. Any coating can sometimes interfere with the normal operation of the sensor.

That was already recommended in a comment – and asked how it is related. AFAIK the proximity sensor is not involved at all for the display to turn on when an incoming call is detected.

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


text:
What version of Android Wear is on Motorola Moto Sport?
What version of Android Wear is on Motorola Moto Sport? I look lots of old news about plans to issue, but didn't googled any confirmation.

Currently it's Android Wear 2.0.
According to news on Lenovo website, the Moto 360 Sport was in-line to receive this update (which was available sometime around September 2017)
One reddit user also confirmed to have received the update (Android Wear 2.0). So chances are that you can now download this update (if you haven't already) also if you want to.


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Leaking internal storage
I have a Motorola Moto X Play with 16GB of internal storage and and additional micro SD card (64 GB), formatted as extended internal storage. I am trying to free up the internal storage, so I went through a manual excercise to move Apps to the SD card. However, the internal storage I should have freed is leaked in some way.
In Storage & USB / Internal Storage I have 10.32GB used out of 11.00GB, Apps take 5.54GB, other stuff <50MB. Where is my missing 5GB? How can I recover it?
What I am missing is the ~5GB of internal storage that is not used by Apps and not attributed to anything on Storage & USB / Internal Storage – I'm not speaking of the difference between 16GB (device nominal size) and 11 GB (total internal storage), which certainly is used by other partitions like /system.
The phone is not rooted.

@Izzy, The 5GB reserved for system you are thinking about is the difference between 16GB (device nominal size) and 11 GB (total internal storage). What I am missing is the ~5GB of internal storage that is not used by Apps and not attributed to anything on Storage & USB / Internal Storage.

Ah, OK – your description is a bit ambiguous then. Let's integrate that into the question itself (before it confuses others as well) and cleanup comments then. // My Edit OK with you? And maybe you could integrate some screenshot(s) of the storage screen for "visuals"?

What comes to mind then are Caches and Logs (for the latter, especially "Tombstones", which can take up quite some space). Caches can easily be cleared (eg. via recovery), so you could give that a try. Tombstones are more difficult, especially on a non-rooted device (check the link to our search; AFAIR there was some service menu for that; to simply see if it's worse a "closer look" in your case, check the end of my answer here).

Definitely /data takes is the partition that I am about, but `cd /data/tombstones' gives me access denied :(. Is rooting a phone complicated/dangerous? Maybe I should just get it done and clean it properly...

Very much depends on the device. Take a look at our rooting tag-wiki for an overview.


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Factory Reset an Android 7 Nexus 5x Phone with No Root or Unlocked bootloader
I just purchased a nexus 5x on ebay and there is a PIN on the phone and I need to factory reset this. I am able to get to the black screen mode on bootup using volume down and power button. Fastboot command detects it, but fastboot erase userdata fails as it throws and error saying: "device is locked".
How can I factory reset and Android 7 Nexus 5x Phone with a locked bootloader?

A master reset will erase all data stored on the device.
This type of reset should only be used as a last resort after all other troubleshooting steps have been exhausted. It is highly recommended that you complete a backup of the device information and disable Device Protection before proceeding with the steps in this tutorial.
With the device turned off, press and hold the Volume down key.
Note: If Device Protection is not disabled, the login credentials for the Google account currently associated with the device will be needed to set up the device after the reset.
With the Volume down key held down, press and hold the Power key.
Release both keys when the Android screen appears.
Use the Volume keys to scroll to Recovery mode.
Press the Power key to select Recovery mode.
When the No command message appears, press and hold the Power key.
While holding the Power key, press and release the Volume Up key.
Note: Release the Power key when the Android Recovery screen appears.
Press the Volume down key to scroll to Wipe data/factory reset.
With Wipe data/factory reset highlighted, press the Power key.
Press the Volume down key to scroll to Yes, then press the Power key.
Once the wipe is complete, with Reboot system now highlighted, press the Power key.
The device will restart.


text:
Samsung J7 (2017): How to turn on typing suggestions yet keep autoreplace disabled?
Not sure if I'm using the right terms here. By typing suggestions I mean the horizontal word bar that stays right above my keyboard and suggests which words I may be trying to type. And by autoreplace I mean that when I mistype a word and press space, the keyboard auto-replaces my word with what it thinks I meant.
My device appears to bundle both options into one, which either on or off:

This worked as I want it OOTB in my old Samsung J3 (2016).

I just installed Gboard and it works the way I want.


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Galaxy S5 lock screen
A series of letters and numbers have shown up beneath the date on the lock screen of my Galaxy S5.  What are they and how do I get rid of them?

Could you add a screenshot?

Wait what? This is supposed to be here since you setup the some of the secure lock probably pin, so it's there to enter the pin. How do you unlock the phone if you don't know the use of buttons?

This field is intended to display the owner informations: name, phone or email on the lock screen. Perfect if you have lost or misplaced your device. So I would think that you entered those random letters by mistake.
To enable, disable or change, this go to Settings – My device (or **Sound and display section and then tap Lock screen) – Lock screen – Lock screen widgets.** Then at the bottom press Owner information. Here you can enter any information you want, such as your name or email address.
As a note, if your owner info length is more than 33 characters then your owner info will be displayed as a running text on lock screen.

Glad that I helped. Could you, please,  accept this answer to help others in the need find it ?

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


text:
Access raw GPS signal
I have an android phone with GPS. Is there anyway to access the raw GPS signal. I want to export these signals into another platform, say Arduino. The interface between these two would be bluetooth, WiFi, wire, or any other method which would be available. The reason for this is that the GPS signal of the phone is accurate enough for me, rather than spending on GPS units with similar accuracy.
Any idea how to do this?
Thank you.

When you say "raw" GPS signal, do you really just mean you want the lat/long coordinates ?

@CzarMatt Yes, I mean lat/long coordinates. Besides this, is there any other info I can get?

The NMEA data stream that comes out of the GPS module itself also includes the DOP and information on how many satellites are visible. Also, if you'd rather have a stream of locations instead of an NMEA stream, you can use Android's fused locations, which gives good results even when GPS is unavailable. Really, the question is, do you need the phone to look like a discrete GPS module, or can you accept any data format?


text:
Ads appearing throughout the system, apps installing on their own
My grandma has a cheap, 5.1-based Android phone, manufactured by a company named Manta (don't think it's available anywhere outside of Poland, just think your generic cheapest phone company) and has been having problems with ads appearing on the phone and apps installing on their own.
It first happened around a month and a half ago. When you browsed the phone, ads of various apps started appearing - sometimes small banners on the bottom of the screen, sometimes full-screen sized popups overlaying everything. They appeared regardless of the place - on the home screen, on Google Now, over the app drawer, over Chrome, what have you. Also, the phone would sometimes just randomly buzz out of thin air. I tried to clean the phone, used all the highest rated malware killers on the play store, pinpointed that an app disguised as "System upgrade" was an offender - however, all of this to no avail. Despite the malware finders finding some things and allegedly removing them, despite me removing the "System upgrade" (which, as it turns out, was not the only offender), after not longer than an hour, ads started appearing again, various apps started installing on their own without permission and so on. What's worst, the phone started also sending premium SMS'es which upped the bill quite a bit (thankfully we managed to get a refund from the carrier).
So I wiped the phone. Set everything back up again. Everything was cool for a few weeks when suddenly, yesterday grandma told me the same thing started happening. I took the phone home, checked and yep, it did - ads appear throughout the system again, one app installed on its own, I constantly get alerts from the system reading "Installation blocked: This app is fake. It can damage your device and steal your data" that regard my good ole' friend "System upgrade" (well at least this time the system blocked the installation). The phone randomly buzzes again. And on top of that, I randomly get the "Do you want to install X" screen with permissions listed as if I just downloaded something from the play store, though about apps that I (or grandma, for that matter) never downloaded, like PayPal or some supermarket's apps.
How can I fix this? Why does it even keep happening, despite me having wiped the system? I don't really feel like wiping it again without understanding the reasoning would be of much sense right now since it failed me once already. Grandma isn't a heavy user with tons of apps, she only has the ones that came preinstalled on the phone and uses maybe 3 of them (SMS, dialer, Chrome). She's not the type to click anything that pops up mindlessly either, always reads everything carefully and doesn't fall for all the "Your phone has a virus, clean now"/"You won an iPhone" advert crap. I also checked the browsing history to see if she didn't accidentally go to a shady website but not at all - only the news, wikipedia and google searches are there. She doesn't install any apps on her own. The only app we ever installed from outside of what came pre-packaged was the Digital Clock Xperia Widget, which has tens of millions of downloads and an above 4 average so it doesn't seem like it would be a malware gateway.
How can I try to tackle this?

Those are  malwares/adwares. You can fix the issue either by flashing the phone with a cleaning ROM or by manually pulling out those malware but this requires root access and some skills. Removing them has no effect because they are programmed to reinstall themselves afterwards.

A low budget phone from a manufacturer accessible only from Poland? It does seem that the whole Android ROM installed on the device is a front for serving malware. Given that the device is not widespread, one won't be able to find custom ROMs. The bootloader might be locked and there might not be a way to acquire root privileges, which are mandatory in order to remove preinstalled bloatware. I don't see many ways out this one, but to get a better device.

@esQmo_- Thanks. From what I googled, there's no clean ROM available for the device. There seem to be some people that managed to gain root access, though - what would I need to do after rooting the phone? Is there some automated tool I might be able to use then that would take care of the problem?

@DeathMaskSalesman - thank you. Yep, seems like you're right. Googled a bit and many many people seem to have started having such problems around the same time as grandma (no accounts of that were there to read about when I was buying the phone!).


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How to connect new user to hotspot while vpn running?
I'm running marshmallow  (6.0.1) rooted. I run the following commands
iptables -F

iptables -t filter -F FORWARD

iptables -t nat -F POSTROUTING

iptables -t filter -I FORWARD -j ACCEPT

iptables -t nat -I POSTROUTING -j MASQUERADE

ip rule add from 192.168.43.0/24 lookup 61

ip route add default dev tun0 scope link table 61

ip route add 192.168.43.0/24 dev wlan0 scope link table 61

ip route add broadcast 255.255.255.255 dev wlan0 scope link table 61

So I can tether the vpn connection. My problem is once tethered no new client can connect it stays at obtaining iptables address. How can I fix this?

Did you mean "stuck at  obtaining IP address ?

Normally in plain hotspot mode (without VPN setup), clients will get
  an IP address from the phone's DHCP server.
However, when the OpenVPN client is running, by default it is
  redirecting all traffic to the OpenVPN server, meaning any client
  traffic is also being redirected. Hence, the clients aren't talking to
  the phone's DHCP server any more - they are talking to the OpenVPN
  server, and if that doesn't provide an IP address via DCHP then the
  clients connection attempts will "hang".

There are possible workaround to keep tethering functionality on other connecting clients:

Using postrouting and forwarding rules

You can just add just  post-routing  and forwarding rules i.e
iptables -t filter -F FORWARD
iptables -t nat -F POSTROUTING
iptables -t filter -A FORWARD -j ACCEPT
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -j MASQUERADE

(this is the solution I'm using currently),

Setup IP addresses manually

You may need to assign other clients IP manually (static IP
address) to bypass DCHP server.

Exclude hotspot subnet from tunnel

The fix is to identify the subnet used by the hotspot service and
  manually add it to Excluded Networks for the connection. i.e
  192.168.43.0/24.
Now when the tunnel is initiated the hotspot subnet is always excluded from routing through the tunnel regardless of startup
  sequence and tethering always works.

or simply excluding 192.168.43.0/24 (and including  0.0.0.0/0) rules from iptables.
Acknowledgements

Wi-Fi hotspot enabled on host device with OpenVPN connected... connected client devices have no internet


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Galaxy S7 can't reboot. E:failed to mount /system (Invalid argument)
I got a brand new Verizon(unlocked) Galaxy S7 with Marshmallow on it. Tried to upgrade to Nougat using Smart Switch which got stuck at 36% for hours. Had to unplug and plug back back for recovery but in vain (my device didn't show up in Emergency Recovery).
I went into recovery mode and wiped cache and Factory reset but no use. My device refused to boot.
At the top of recovery screen, I see this
Verizon/heroqltevzw/heroqltevzw
7.0/NRD90M/G930VVRU4BQH4

And, at the bottom, below Error:
No Support SINGLE-SKU
dm-verify API: 3
E:failed to mount /system (Invalid argument)

Is there any way to fix it?

The system partition is damaged/corrupted. You should now try flashing with Odin. Download ROM manually from the internet then flash your phone is Download mode.

Glad I helped. I could make it an answer which you can accept, so this will help people on same situation than you were.

This happens because the system partition is damaged/corrupted.
You should now flash the phone with Odin if using Windows computer or Heindal on a Mac.
Download the firmware manually from the internet then flash your phone in Download Mode (Volume down + power button).  Also download Samsung USB drivers (Windows).


text:
How to set the Data Billing Cycle to one day in Nougat?
My ISP provides me with 1GB data per day. So the data billing cycle in Nougat would actually make more sense to me if I could somehow make it show the amount of data I've used in a day and then have it reset for the next day.
I'm using Resurrection Remix ROM 5.8.5.
Is there a way to do this?

Related: Weekly mobile usage

If you don't want to use third party app then you can do this by setting usage cycle reset date to current date and you got the track of you current day's usage also can put limit on usage but you have to change it every day manually.


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Can't chat with Google Assistant while recording screen
I wanted to record some of my conversations with Google Assistant, and I used the AZ Screen Recorder app to record. However, when I start recording and open up Google Assistant, it gives me the "Can't reach Google at the moment" error, although my internet's working fine.
Also tried with the Mobizen app and some other apps, same connectivity error. When I'm not recording the screen, the Assistant works as normal.
Has anybody else experienced this and how should I fix it?

This is because AZ Screen Recorder is using your microphone and Google Assistant uses your microphone to reach your voice.
Go to phone settings, open the app and its permissions, and remove microphone permission from it, and Google Assistant will work perfectly.
The video recorded after that from AZ Screen Recorder will be with no sound (silent video).

Completing the other response:
From architecture perspective, Android restricts the microphone access to only 1 app at a time.
So do not try any other app to make it work, it won't.


text:
Force tablet UI on a non-tablet device?
I own a large screen phone and am wondering if I could make it recognize itself as a tablet, as in:

The navbar should stay at the bottom instead of rotating to the sides
Notification shade doesn't occupy the whole screen width in portrait / doesn't stay in the middle in landscape
Apps that support tablet layout will use it

AFAIK, a sufficiently small DPI (LCD density) value will trigger the change, but naturally I want the UI elements to stay at a visible, comfortable size. There's supposed to be a trigger (an if-else condition?) that calculates whether tablet UI should be activated based on device metrics and the above DPI value, however I don't know where the actual trigger is or how should I change it to make it always say "tablet". I've seen similar things done to Android versions below 5.0 via Xposed modules, but those are quite outdated by now.
The answer could be using Xposed (not preferred but still alright, since I still need to stay on Nougat for a while), modifying SystemUI, or even modifying the Android source code and building (I have the know-how for that) - one just have to tell me where and how.
Any ideas?

I've been told before that apps and web browsers detect the size of the screen in inches. If you can fool that then it should work. I'm posting this as a comment because I have no idea if this is true or how to even research how to do this. I'm very interested in this question so I'm leaving this for someone else to look into.

After some digging I am able to sort out a relatively easy solution for the first and most important requirement, that is, keeping the navbar at the bottom. Requires root (of course - to pull and push files) and basic skill of using apktool.
For pre-compiled ROMs:

Install apktool.
Install your framework-res.apk by executing apktool if /path/to/framework-res.apk.
Decompile your services.jar by executing apktool d /path/to/services.jar.
Go to the decompiled services.jar.out folder and open smali/com/android/server/policy/PhoneWindowManager.smali.
Search for 0x258 and replace the only occurrence of it with 0x0.
Rebuild services.jar (preserve its signature) by executing apktool b -c services.jar.out.
Decompile your SystemUI.apk by executing apktool d /path/to/SystemUI.apk.
Go to the decompiled SystemUI folder, then go to res/layout/.
Remove navigation_layout_rot90.xml.
Make a copy of navigation_layout.xml and rename it to navigation_layout_rot90.xml.
Rebuild SystemUI (preserve its signature) by executing apktool b -c SystemUI.
Push the finished services.jar and SystemUI.apk back to where they were using a method of your choice, set correct permissions, then reboot.

For ROM makers:

Open *build-folder*/frameworks/base/services/core/java/com/android/server/policy/PhoneWindowManager.java.
Search for shortSizeDp < 600 and replace the only occurrence of it with shortSizeDp < 0.
Find the SystemUI layout files in *build-folder*/frameworks/base/packages/SystemUI/res/layout/ and replace, similar to the method for pre-compiled ROMs.
Build the ROM.

Note that the default button layout doesn't look good under landscape mode, but one can always use the built-in navbar tuner in Android 7.0+ to tweak it to his desire.

As of Android 10, this has been simplified to a single boolean config config_navBarCanMove, which can either be set directly in the framework or separately in an overlay (recommended).

You could try changing the DPI via this method:
http://phandroid.com/2016/05/24/how-to-change-dpi-settings-on-android-n-nexus-no-root/

Open the Settings app
Scroll down to About phone
Tap Build number 7 times (you’ll see a prompt counting down taps to
  unlock)
Press back to go back into main Settings menu
Select Developer options which now appears at the bottom of Settings
Scroll down and select Smallest width (under the Drawing category)
Your current DPI setting will be displayed — write that down
  somewhere
Change the value to whatever you like (the bigger the number, the
  smaller the UI)

and then increasing the font/display size to compensate for the changed UI size. https://www.thurrott.com/mobile/android/77447/android-7-0-nougat-tip-customize-display-font-sizes
Settings > Display > Display size
Settings > Display > Font size

As I said, I want all the UI elements to stay at the size they should - that includes navbar buttons, various icons, etc. Increasing font size only introduces cutoff when the element can't fit the font.

Doesn't adjusting the 'display size' affect UI elements?

Didn't notice that, so I just tried it out - unfortunately any tweaks to the Display Size cancels out the Smallest Width filled in Developer Options (these two actually seems to be tied together). Also, same as setting the DPI alone, only a sufficiently small Smallest Width triggers Tablet UI.

You can download the Apex Launcher and in the settings set "Use tablet UI mode" to true. It is possible that this only applies to the homescreen and the like, but I don't know any app to test it, but you could give it a go.

That at best affects home screen (not even the navbar, which frankly is the most important requirement). I use it on a bunch of my old devices (Jelly Bean-era) since they have Tablet UI to match, but yeah this does not bring Tablet UI with it,

Ok my bad, sorry!