text:
Read GPS location from command line via SSH
I am wondering if there's a way to read the current GPS coordinates via SSH using SSHelper as SSH server.
I came accross some similar threads:

How to detect GPS status through adb shell?
A way to get location coordinates from command line
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31707981/adb-shell-get-live-gps-location-not-last-known-location
Viewing the GPS-location of an Android Device?

I managed to run the SSH server and connect to it. So far, I have tried to run the dumpsys location command over ssh, which gives me the following:
Permission Denial: can't dump LocationManagerService from from pid=27381, uid=10192 due to missing android.permission.DUMP permission

Does that command only work with adb? If yes, is there another way of retrieving GPS coordinates over ssh, i.e. using some shell commands?
I don't have root, and I'm not an app developer. Thanks!

Ah, sorry! you are running the command from SSHHelper app, and to do this your APK should have the permission DUMP of course, which is not possible without root in your case, have you tried Command line from your PC, I have no issue with non-root devices using "adb shell dumpsys location | find "Last Known Locations"

Ah okay, so the DUMP permission is only possible for system apps or apps signed with the platform key, right? So the SSHelper app can't have it, unless i root my phone and move it to the system partition, is that correct? In that case, I wonder if there are other ways of retrieving GPS data via SSH in non-root environments. Since I want to use SSH as a wireless protocol, adb via USB is not an option for me in this case.

While I found no solution using SSHelper, it is indeed possible using Termux and the Termux-API. No root is required.
After installing the Termux app, one has to install the Termux-packages openssh and termux-api:
$ pkg install openssh
$ pkg install termux-api

I also had to install the Termux-API app from Playstore or F-Droid to get it working.
The sshd config can be edited as desired and can be found at $PREFIX/etc/ssh/sshd_config.
Set a password for SSH authentication (or, alternatively and even better, public key authentication with ssh-keygen and ssh-copy-id):
$ passwd

Next, start the ssh server:
$ sshd

To stop the server:
$ pkill sshd

In my case it's on port 8022 per default. One should now have access to the Termux-API commands via ssh. termux-location retrieves GPS data as JSON. For example:
$ ssh u0_a202@192.168.0.7 -p 8022 termux-location
{
   "latitude": xx.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
   "longitude": yy.yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy,
   "altitude": zzz.zzzzzzzzzzzz,
   "accuracy": 64.31999969482422,
   "vertical_accuracy": 192.0,
   "bearing": 301.9921875,
   "speed": 0.4399999976158142,
   "elapsedMs": 8,
   "provider": "gps"
}

Sources:
https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Remote_Access
https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Termux:API
https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Termux-location


text:
How to stream an encrypted backup of the entire device to remote host?
I have an Android device that has no free space and no SD-card that I can replace (thanks to OnePlus policy). I also have no free space on PC to accommodate the backup so I wanted to upload it to the cloud. I have SSH and root access to the device. I also have a remote FTP server space (that I not trust, though).
I would like to make a password protected tar or zip file and upload it there. I'm not sure if a zip of / is sufficient for backup purposes.
The problem is there is no free space left on the device so I need to create the zip file on the fly and "stream" it to the backup server (it's SFTP on port 30).
I checked that the SSH, rsync and zip commands are available but I'm not sure how to do a full backup, encrypted zip compression and SFTP upload without writing to the disk.
How can I combine commands to do that while connected to the device over SSH?

I feel this lack of space everywhere may be a common situation...

usually backup of /data is enough, but make sure to preserve selinux context too (besides uid/gid and permissions)

We have authenticated login, encrypted archive, rsync and multiple transport protocols (including HTTP, WebDAV, FTP and SSH/SFTP) in one tool: rclone. It supports local filesystem and a number of cloud storage. Additionally it does have all of the four mentioned servers builtin. It means that all you need on both sides is rclone. No root access is necessary either. If you want to mount remote directory (using rclone mount), however, that requires FUSE support and root access on Android.
rclone does have builtin encryption i.e. files on remote will be created encrypted. Also there are multiple authentication methods supported including username/password and RSA keys (with SFTP), but those are usually unnecessary when encryption is already there.
A simple use case:
On server:
Run minimal SSH server if not already running:
~$ mkdir -p BackupDir/Encrypted
~$ rclone serve sftp --user <username> --pass <password> --addr :2222 BackupDir

On phone:
Create obscure password:
~$ rclone obscure <password>

Create configuration file (use rclone config for simple steps):
# rclone.conf

[PLAIN_TARGET]
type = sftp
host = <server_ip>
port = 2222
user = <username>
pass = <obscure_password>
#key_file = /path/to/.ssh/id_rsa

[CRYPT_TARGET]
type = crypt
remote = PLAIN_TARGET:/Encrypted
filename_encryption = standard
directory_name_encryption = true
password = <obscure_password>

Copy test file to server without and with encryption:
~$ echo Hi >test_file
~$ rclone --config rclone.conf sync test_file PLAIN_TARGET:/
~$ rclone --config rclone.conf sync test_file CRYPT_TARGET:/

SFTP supports modification timestamps, WebDAV and FTP both don't. However symlinks cannot be transferred as symlinks, those are either ignored or original file is copied or .rclonelink file is created. A way to copy symlinks and all metadata including timestamps, extended attributes (like SELinux labels), and ACLs is to throw tar stream at rclone rcat:
~$ tar --xattrs -cpvzf - test_file | rclone rcat CRYPT_TARGET:/test_file.tgz

Similarly you can get back the file using rclone cat. This will also largely reduce transfer time (even up to less than half) particularly if you have large number of small-sized files. Adding reasonable compression to tar may even reduce space usage and time, but high compression can go wrong too. However this way incremental sync won't work and you need to untar to use files on remote. It's also possible (by some scripting) to find only changed files first by running rclone check or by passing option --dry-run to rclone sync command and then add those files to tar archive.

I'm not sure if a zip of / is sufficient for backup purposes.

On Android rootfs / contains a number of directories and mount points - pseudo filesystems like sysfs, procfs and read-only filesystems like system and vendor partitions - which cannot be or don't need to be backed up. User settings, apps data and personal data is stored in /data partition. For details see Android Partitions and Filesystems and How disk space is used on Android device?.
So you can backup selected directories from /data or the whole partition at maximum. However, as mentioned by @alecxs in comment, if you intend to restore apps data (in /data/data), you'll have to minutely take care of files metadata - in particular UIDs/GIDs and SELinux contexts.
Say you want to backup whole /data partition, do:
~# tar --xattrs -cpvzf - /data | rclone -P rcat PLAIN_TARGET:/data.tgz

For ideas on how to dump complete partitions (block devices), see How to recover a deleted file from /data partition?

Thanks for the tip. Didn't know the program. I wanted to do a backup in such a way that I could restore both rom, apps and internal memory card.

ROM is on /system, /vendor and boot partitions, apps and internal SD card are on /data. You can backup all of those using rclone without any constraint.

busybox tar does not support --xattrs tar binary from https://opengapps.org is required. only --selinux flag will handle RHT.security. so better use both flags (for higher compatibility) at least on gnu tar selinux flag is mandatory for proper restoring

@alecxs right..

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Is it possible to install a Wear OS apk from an Android phone?
I develop Wear OS apps and watchfaces at home with Android Studio, then use adb to install them to a physical watch.
I'm currently on a trip, and connected to my home development machine (via my travel Android tablet and Teamviewer) so I can continue development -- but since I'm not on my home WiFi, I can't use adb to transfer the apk.
Is there any way to do this? I can get the compiled apk onto my phone via gmail or gdrive, but don't know of any way to move it to my watch.
Any ideas?

Can't you use an USB cable?

This question is off-topic on Android Enthusiasts, because it is a development question.

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


text:
How do I change the call from my left earphone to right?
How do I change the call from my left earphone to my right one? I have trouble hearing in my left ear so I would prefer for the person whose on call for their voice to be coming from my right earphone, my phone is a Samsung s7

Are you sure both ears of your headset are correctly working? Because I would think that the sound would come from both sides at the same time. At least that is the case when I'm using a headset or something like that.

Go to Settings --> Accessibility. Then tap Hearing. Towards the bottom, you will find an option for Mono Output, switch that ON. Then you can drop the earphone from one ear.
There is also a left-right sound balance. You can shift the slider to the ear you prefer.
Here is a guide to using the hearing accessibility settings on your phone:
https://www.androidcentral.com/how-use-hearing-accessibility-options-galaxy-s7


text:
Restart adbd as shell user on a non-rooted device without rebooting after the "setprop" operation
The setprop service.adb.tcp.port 5555 worked on my non-rooted device, now I need to restart adbd as the shell user :
$ adb shell
shell@android:/ $ getprop ro.build.version.release
4.1.2
shell@android:/ $ getprop service.adb.tcp.port

shell@android:/ $ setprop service.adb.tcp.port 5555
shell@android:/ $ getprop service.adb.tcp.port
5555

I tried this to restart adbd, but the PID of adbd didn't change :
shell@android:/ $ ps -C adbd
USER     PID   PPID  VSIZE  RSS     WCHAN    PC         NAME
shell     161   1     4724   308   ffffffff 00000000 S /sbin/adbd
shell@android:/ $ stop adbd
shell@android:/ $ start adbd
shell@android:/ $ ps -C adbd
USER     PID   PPID  VSIZE  RSS     WCHAN    PC         NAME
shell     161   1     4724   308   ffffffff 00000000 S /sbin/adbd
shell@android:/ $ exit
$ adb connect 192.168.2.27
failed to connect to '192.168.2.27:5555': Connection refused

Then I sent a SIGHUP to try and trigger a adbd restart, but all it did was to kill adbd and now I cannot connect via USB anymore :
shell@android:/ $ kill -SIGHUP 161
$ adb shell
error: device offline

So now I HAVE to reboot in order start adbd which I've accidentally killed.
After reboot I also tried setprop ctl.restart adbd but it didn't work :
shell@android:/ $ ps -C adbd
USER     PID   PPID  VSIZE  RSS     WCHAN    PC         NAME
shell     176   1     4720   300   ffffffff 00000000 S /sbin/adbd
shell@android:/ $ getprop ctl.restart

shell@android:/ $ setprop ctl.restart adbd
shell@android:/ $ getprop ctl.restart

shell@android:/ $ ps -C adbd
USER     PID   PPID  VSIZE  RSS     WCHAN    PC         NAME
shell     176   1     4720   300   ffffffff 00000000 S /sbin/adbd
shell@android:/ $

Can you help me restart adbd on my non-rooted device without reboot ?

Disable and enable USB Debugging in Developer Options.

@IrfanLatif Great, just what I needed :) ! Can this also be done via a command line ?

settings put global adb_enabled 0 and settings put global adb_enabled 1. setprop ctl.restart adbd should also work. Tag shows you are on JB where SELinux should not be a problem.

@IrfanLatif As you surely expected, the settings put global adb_enabled 0 command got me disconnect before the next settings put global adb_enabled 1 command got executed

@IrfanLatif Yes it does but I found this 14 minutes ago :) See my own answer at the bottom.

In the specific context of setting the adb tcp/ip port, the adb tcpip 5555 command does restart the adbd service.
As one can see the PID of adbd is changed after the adb tcpip command :
$ adb shell ps | egrep -w "adbd|PID"
USER     PID   PPID  VSIZE  RSS     WCHAN    PC         NAME
shell     3675  1     4720   300   ffffffff 00000000 S /sbin/adbd
$ adb tcpip 5555
restarting in TCP mode port: 5555
$ adb shell ps | egrep -w "adbd|PID"
USER     PID   PPID  VSIZE  RSS     WCHAN    PC         NAME
shell     3800  1     4720   300   ffffffff 00000000 S /sbin/adbd


text:
What is an easy way to quickly transfer content (text, image, small files) between my galaxy note 10 and windows 10?
Very often I'd like to quickly transfer a bit of text that I have in the clipboard of my pc (windows10) or an image to my phone (galaxy note 10). Is there a way to do this in a convenient way - wirelessly?
PS: currently I use the windows telegram app with an extra second telegram account for my pc to transfer such little temporary data from my pc to my cellphone and the other way around.

Partially answered here:https://android.stackexchange.com/q/73005/96277

On my rooted phone I have setup SSH server which runs as a service with WiFi. Whenever my phone and PC (Windows/Linux) are connected to same WiFi network (even if IPs are assigned dynamically), /sdcard is mounted as (SSHFS) drive on PC. Not even a single tap needed on both sides, except if connection hangs sometimes.

There are some apps, but i personally prefer to use Opera on pc and Opera touch in smartphone. With "My Flow" you can paste things there between phone/pc. Just scan the qr code once and your phone will sync with pc.


text:
Netflix app on Smart TV with android
I just bought a cheap Polaroid smart Tv that comes with Android OS.
The specs are the following:

OS: SmartTV OS
CPU: Cortex-A53 4Core(64 bit) 1.5GHz (DVFS)
GPU: Mali450MP 5 Core 750Mhz(DVFS)
Android version: android 7.1.2
ROM version: CV950XH_C42_SmartTV-V20190620

The Netflix app that comes with it is very old, Is there a website I can download a compatible Netflix .APK that I can install onto this Smart TV?

I assume there it is running on Android TV but doesn't have Play Store installed? Because otherwise, the Play Store will install the latest & most compatible APK for your system. On the other hand, APKMirror lists the existing APK for "Netflix (Android TV)". You can try to download and install it, and see if it works or not...

Tried this but I cannot install these packages.


text:
How can I view the mobile data usage for each application for a given day?
How can I view the mobile data usage for each application for a given day?

I use Android 9 on Samsung Galaxy S9.

You can achieve that using a third-party data usage application like 3G Watchdog
With 3G Watchdog you can have finer breakdown of data usage down to individuals application with options to view data usage per period including real time, day, week or month.


text:
How to use the phone's speakers and microphone during calls, but use the headset for all other sounds?
When making calls I prefer using the phone itself instead of my headset. Is it possible to configure Android to do so? I'm using a rooted phone with Android 9.0 if it matters.
There are solutions online for how to disable the headset microphone, but not for disabling the speakers of the headset as well during calls.


text:
How to find out which programming language the app is built?
I have to find out which programming language the app is built on.
How to detect it? Are there clear indicators for those languages?

You can be pretty sure, but you first have to know all the technologies that can output Android APK.
If you know, export the app as an APK and extract it with any zip tool. Then check its content:

If you see 1 class and /assets full of HTML content, then it's likely Phonegap / Cordova
If you see folders named like Appcelerator or Titanium, then it's Titanium Appcelerator
If you see something like a normal Android native structure, then decompile the APK using some online tool. When you do that, you'll be able to see if they used Java only or C++ (if you see a lot of .so files)
If you recognize Kotlin language, then it's Kotlin. You'll see that the code isn't Java
For other technologies, I am not sure but I'm pretty sure there must be something that identifies it.


text:
How can I see (and change) what sensitive notifications are?
Android Help says:

Control how notifications show on your lock screen
[...]
Option 4: Hide sensitive content from notifications on your lock screen

Open your phone's Settings app.
Tap App & notifications and then Notifications.
Under "Lock screen," turn off Sensitive notifications.

However, I cannot find any information on what is actually considered a sensitive notification.
So, how can I see (and possibly change) what sensitive notifications are?

The notification's sensitivity (visibility) is set by the developer, but can be overridden (to some extent) by the user.
There are 3 types of notification's lock screen visibility:

Public: not sensitive, the full content is always shown on the lock screen
Secret: never shown on the lock screen
Private: sensitive, only the basic info (title and short content) is shown, but the full content is hidden

By default, all notifications are private (sensitive) unless overridden by the developer.
Changing the "On the lock screen" setting affects all notifications:

Don't show notifications at all: all notifications are treated as secret
Show all notification content: all notifications are treated as public
Hide sensitive notification content: all notifications are treated as private, except for public notifications.

The user can also control per-app notification visibility, either from the app itself or from the Android system (general setting on Android 7.1 and below, or more fine-grained using notification channels on Android 8.0 and above).
Though, based on self-experiment, it's impossible to override per-app notification visibility to higher visibility than the general lock screen's setting. (e.g. when the lock screen is set to "Don't show", setting per-app to "Hide sensitive notification" does not work and instead will not show any notifications).

Need further testing/confirmation: whether visibility overridden by the developer will trump the lock screen's setting and per-app notification setting or not (e.g. public notifications still show on "Don't show"). That said, this answer might lack conclusive evidence. Feedback is really appreciated, and anyone is free to post a better conclusive answer instead.


text:
Does Android store information about previous SIM cards?
Does Android store any info about previous SIM cards that have been inserted into the phone?
Can the current mobile operator access this info?
Can the current mobile operator get my GPS location when I'm abroad or after I return?
Is it information stored anywhere?

As far as I know the Android device itself doe snot store old locations, however if you have enabled localization via Wifi the device communicates with Google and checks the reachable Wifi networks and their location. Additionally your network operator knows your position most likely in case the phone was not in Airplane mode (because of the cell towers you were connected while abroad).

@Robert what about sim cards?
So if I turn that off and pull sim cards out my current carrier can't track anything?


text:
How to boot if the graphics chip is damaged and the screen is permanently blank?
My ASUS Zenphone Selfie Pro 4 graphics chip burned and the screen is green at boot, becoming blank after a while.
Since I cannot see what is being 'shown' on the screen, how can I make the cellphone connect to wi-fi?
I guess the boot process is halted at the gesture request screen.

I succeeded to boot by guessing the moment to enter the security gesture.
Pressing the power button for 10s flashes green on the screen.
If the touch doesn't respond, pressing again for 10s flashes again, and the gesture must be done timely.


text:
S-Pen only (touch screen disabled)?
I take hand written notes on my Samsung Tablet S3, as well as my Samsung Note 8 phone, using the S Pen.  Both are on Android 9.  Palm rejection and other accidental touches are mostly rejected, but not perfectly.
I would like to have a way to turn off the capacitive touch screen (that registers finger touches) but leave the S Pen detection on.  In this state, the tablet or phone would respond to the S Pen only, and ignore all other screen touches.
I know there are apps that can perform this feature, but they mostly come with unacceptably broad permissions, including full access to the network, reading contents on the device, etc.  This seems like something that should be built into the OS, but I have not found it.
I should add that I own a paid version of Tasker, but am not very good at programming it, in case someone has a good solution for Tasker.
Any advice or hacks?


text:
Playing a video in MX Player Pro turns the phone's brightness to extremes. What is the cause?
Used MX Player Pro for years on my S6, S8 but on my new Note 9 every time I try to play a video the brightness of the whole phone screen goes to extreme brightness that I have to turn the phone fully away to close the app.
What is the cause & fix? Note 9 is a year old phone so I thought any issues would be fixed by now.

Possibly related/duplicate: Why does video screen get brighter and how to prevent it?: MX Player has a setting to override screen brightness while playing a video.

@Andrew T. Saw that linked one before posting.Unrelated as my issue turns not just the video bright but the whole phone screen clock & all. In 2019 on my Samsung Note 9 none of it those solutions linked to apply.


text:
Xperia xa2 restart loop
I have purchased Sony Xperia XA2 from UK. Initially had this problem of the phone in restart loop mode when I memory is more than 95%.for this once it gets started I immediately delete all large files.
Now since yesterday the phone is not moving past the Xperia logo ,it keeps restarting.
Sony service center advised that cannot touch the phone as this was purchased in UK so can't repair it in India.
Anyone here can you please help me to fix this issue. I have 1000s of kids photos and videos I can't lose it as I didn't back up it.
Thanks much in advance.


text:
How to pull data from internal memory on an unrooted phone?
Yesterday, I suddenly discovered that I had lost all the user files on the internal memory of my android phone. All my photos, my music, my PDFs, audio recordings, everything. I will explain the events leading up to this in a separate paragraph below.
I have a Lava Z90 phone and I do not use an external SD card, so I must work with my phone to recover all data. I've been googling and following stuff I get from the internet(including Stack Overflow). Here's what I have done so far.

Tried using photo recovery apps available on Play Store. None of them worked.
Decided to go more technical. Enabled USB Debugging and OEM Unlocking from Developer options in my phone. Then I used ADB pull command, pull /dev/block/mmcblk0 /home/data.img to try create an image of the entire internal storage so I can analyse it using PhotoRec. It says pull: not found
I assumed this is because my phone isn't rooted?  I tried to root it with the KingoRoot apk but that didn't work. I have Ubuntu on my PC and there is not KingoRoot for Ubuntu. My next step would be to use Wine to run KingoRoot on my machine and try to root my phone that way.

I have the following questions:

How can I create an image, a data dump of my entire internal storage that i can later analyse for my data?
Can I do it with an unrooted phone? If not, how can I root my phone with ADB?
Am I going about this right? Is there a better, easier way to recover data that I should use instead?

Thank you very much.
How I lost my data
I recently uninstalled the TikTok app from my phone. Yesterday I connected my phone to my PC over mtp and found that there were certain leftover folders on the internal memory. One was a folder with Chinese name, one was a folder called ByteDance and one folder called Thumbnails. I assumed that the first two were leftovers from the TikTok app and the third was mere thumbnails. So I deleted them to save space. Nothing happened that day, except that I couldn't access any of my WhatsApp images through WhatsApp(they were still accessible through the gallery). However, when I woke up the next morning, all my data on the internal memory was gone. I still have contacts my messages and my settings, just that everything that was accessible through the file explorer has disappeared.

Does the free space indicate that all files are deleted (just to make sure)? // pull isn't a command, you need to do adb pull. // Rooting with apps doesn't always work, neither it's a recommended method. See this: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/205707/218526 // All of your three questions are answered in the linked question.

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

Irfan Latif, there is free space shown in the file manager. I think that means they were deleted. I am running the pull command inside the shell, which I first type adb shell, and then run all subsequent commands inside of that.

pull is implemented inside adb, not a separate binary. See usage in linked answer.

Alright, I fiddled around and ran adb pull /dev/block/mmcblk0 /home mmc.img instead. It says, remote object '/dev/block/mmcblk0' does not exist. I either need to figure out where the phone is mounted or a way to mount this mtp device as a normal drive so regular backup applications can take care of it.

it can be /dev/block/sda13 or something, check with ls -l $(find /dev/block -name userdata)

for Mediatek devices do following:
if your device is encrypted

get a temp root shell with mtk-su
dump your decrypted userdata partition /dev/block/dm-0
(this will take ~25 GB/h)
sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb extundelete testdisk
adb push mtk-su /data/local/tmp/
adb shell chmod 0755 /data/local/tmp/mtk-su
adb shell /data/local/tmp/mtk-su -c "cat /dev/block/dm-0 2> /dev/null" > userdata.img

if your device is not encrypted

switch off device, remove battery (if possible)
install VCOM preloader drivers (Windows)
find a scatter file for your ROM
download SP Flash Tool (Windows)
do a read back of userdata partition (SP Flash Tool)

once you have a ext4 disk image of userdata:

open userdata.img with testdisk (linux)
copy deleted files, or
scan the whole userdata.img with extundelete (linux)
testdisk userdata.img

[Proceed ]
  [None   ] Non partitioned media
  [ Advanced ] Filesystem Utils
  (press Enter 3x times)
  [  List  ] List and copy files
  (deleted files are colored red)
  a to select all files
  Shift + C to copy the selected files
  (select destination folder)
  C when the destination is correct

extundelete userdata.img --restore-all

(check folder ~/RECOVERED_FILES/media/0/)

if you don't have scatter file create your own https://forum.hovatek.com/thread-21970.html

turns out adb exec-out for linux only works with busybox dd and dos2unix while adb shell works for linux only. no success for windows, yet. funny thing is cat and dd produces different output for built-in (toybox/toolbox) and busybox variant https://pastebin.com/Z5ptLhqM


text:
How can I disable the confirmation pop-up when uninstalling an app?
I have multiple apps that I want to uninstall but it becomes really tedious having to sit and watch as each individual one uninstalls and confirm deletion one at a time.
I have a Samsung a50

Use command-line instead. Confirmation is not asked from there.


text:
WhatsApp not prompting to restore from Google Drive backup
Transferring WhatsApp from a Samsung S7 to a Samsung 10e.
Backedup to Google Drive as per instructions, 174mb of backup exists
Setup WhatsApp on the new phone (same number, SIM swapped over etc) and it doesn't prompt me to restore the backup.
Backup exists, I can see details if I go to Settings>Chats>Chat Backup, but I can't see any way to make it use that backup.  (I'm assuming if I click Backup, it will backup current state, not restore??)
How do I get it to use the backup it knows exists?

Late to the party, but just experienced this on my own: I have to grant whatever permission that Whatsapp has asked for. Denying even one of them will lead to not showing the prompt.

I'm so glad you still shared about your experience: I've had the same issue today and not granting all permissions was what caused it for me too. Thank you so much. The fix then was to uninstall WhatsApp, reinstall it, grant everything and get prompted this time, restore, deny everything again.

Same case here; What an unfortunate bug

I'm assuming if I click Backup, it will backup current state, not restore??

Yes, don't tap backup. You will lose your entire backed up data. Also disable auto backup until the problem is solved.
Try reinstalling the app. This often helps.


text:
Battery drains when phone is turned off
I have a used Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini GT-I8190. When I shut down the phone the battery still drains. The longer I leave the battery in the shut down phone the more charge it looses. Typically the battery looses between 1% and 2% charge per hour when inside the shut down phone. After a few days without turning the fully charged phone on the battery is completely dead so that I cannot turn on the phone again without charging first.
I don't know the previous owner and cannot ask them if they had the same problem.
Things I tried so far:

Tried to spin the battery on a table to see if the battery is bloated. The battery did not spin at all. Its completely flat on both sides.
Removed the fully charged battery from the phone, let it sit outside for a few days, put it back in, turned on the phone to read the battery level: The battery was still full – so the battery shouldn't be the problem.
Bought a new battery from another vendor anyways and did the same tests as before.
Factory reset (multiple times)
Update to the latest available OS (Android 4.1.2) provided by the vendor.
Update to the latest available custom ROM (Lineage OS 14.1 / Android 7.1.2).
After the factory resets and after flashing I did not install or customize anything apart from the following things. Of course, they had no effect since the phone was turned off — I read about these things in some forums and tried them anyway.

Only on the vendor's OS: Stop the pre-installed Mail service (even though I didn't sign into anything).
Turn off everything (Wifi, GPS, ...)
Enable (extreme) power save mode

Neither did I insert a SIM card nor an SD card into the phone, so these two can also be ruled out as the culprit.
Question
Why does the battery drain when the phone is shut down?
Can I do anything about this?

Just curious: If the phone is OFF, would the ROM make any difference?

If it really was OFF, then no. But I suspected that the ROM controlled the shutdown process and may have messed things up there. I once had such a problem on a laptop. After an update of the intel ME, shutting down the laptop resulted in the fans spinning at full speed and the laptop getting hot.

This is not a definitive answer but most likely cause IMO based on my experience with a Note 2 exhibiting similar symptoms.
You did a thorough job of investigating the causes and this pretty much rules out wakelock as the common culprit in such cases.
That leaves with one possibility - hardware. Something in the hardware is causing electrical drain. This needs to be investigated by competent people. In my case, it was rainwater seeping through ear phone port that corroded the motherboard. Cleaning with alcohol and drying reduced the drain but not significantly as the corrosion was deep.
The cost of investigating and replacing hardware is significant and in your case, you are not the first owner, so it may not be worth it. My suggestion would be to use it as it is for as long as you can.


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Paid app accidentally deleted and now can't re-download: says I "already own" the app
I paid for and downloaded an app from the Play Store. Afterwards, I accidentally deleted this app with Titanium Backup instead of a different app that I intended to delete instead.
Now, when I go to Play Store, it shows the deleted app as installable, and I try to install it again. It prompts me for payment info, which I enter, even though I paid for it once before (I don't mind paying twice, if I have to). But then, Google rejects my installation attempt and says that I "already own" the app.
I'm stuck, because now I can't re-download or re-install the app. How can I tell Google that I want them to either (1) accept my second payment and let me install the app again, or (2) make the APK available to me again because I already paid for it?
To be clear, I am quite willing to make a second payment. This is not about the money. I just want to re-install the app that I accidentally deleted.

Well, I figured it out ...

Go to https://play.google.com/apps
Log in with the same credentials that are used on my device
A list of all my installed apps is shown. Find the deleted app and click on its icon
An "Installed" button shows up. Click on that button
A window pops up with an "Install" and "Cancel" button. Click on the "Install" button.

This caused my device to start downloading and installing the app. Now it has been successfully re-installed.
Problem solved!
PS: It would be nice if Google allowed us to perform this same function from the Play Store app on our devices, so we don't have to go to a browser and access https://play.google.com/apps.

Under normal circumstances you should be able to reinstall the app as any other. My guess is titanium "deleting" it didn't uninstall it correct

Yes, that's exactly what happened. Anyway, I'm glad that this option is available for cases such as this one.


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How to root Tecno WX3P?
I have Tecno WX3P phone. I would like to change the font of my phone but it just won't do so. I'm told that for me to be able to change its font I should root it. But I don't know how to root my phone.
How to root Tecno WX3P?

Duplicate of How do I root my Android device?. xda is more appropriate place for rooting guides.

The following description is rather generic. It should just give you the right key words to use a search engine to find the matching information. This link using the MediaTek specific SP flash tool looks promising: wx3 (The SP tool is a MediaTek world specific way to flash images to a phone)
Classical approach

Install the Android SDK or something where the adb cmd line tool is included
Go to the settings -> About / Info -> Search for "Build number" (maybe buried in sub menus like software information)

Tap it 7 times to enable the developer options

Go to the settings -> Developer options
Enable developer mode

Enable USB debugging
Enable OEM unlocking

Boot into fastboot adb reboot fastboot
Unlock phone fastboot oem unlock ... (Here there might be some other steps necessary like entering some special code e.g. some kind of fastbooet oem <oem specific command> -> entering it to the OEM web page -> fastboot flash <some binary>)
Install a custom recovery like TWRP (there are different versions for each device, for you problem this one might work: TWRP X3)

Note that TWRP does not currently work with Android 10 (status Dec. 2019). The way partitions are working and the mounting of /system has changed.

Download SuperSU (not all version are working, also newer releases ) and install SuperSU to get su (and so root access) from within TWRP

Newer Approach

Do the same like above and stop before installing TWRP. Maybe you do not need to install it, but just run it once with fastboot boot twrp <device specific name>.img to use it for installing the Magisk zip.
Use Magisk

Get the zip from downloads
There are easy ways like directly booting this with fastboot, sometimes a "build image patching" is required (e.g. under Android 10)


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Hide button xciptv activity_categories
I have been tryin to remove or hide buttons on android app xciptv but can't seem to make them go away.  I have set the visibility of the app to "gone" but they are still visible.  I can maneuver the buttons into different locations but never hide.
Please help

Umm... how did you set the visibility of the app to "gone"? And how did you know the ID of the button? Were you tinkering with its source code or something?

I went into the res/layout/activity_categories file and located the name of the button via the name of the .png file and changed the visibility from visible to gone


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How can I make the keypad appear during a phone call?
I recently noticed that, during a phone call, the dial "keypad" does not appear. This is particularly a problem when retrieving voicemail, because without the keypad, I can't give the command to play messages, delete, etc.
I am running Android 8.1.0 on a Nexus 6P device. The built-in Phone app is version 42.0.28425632.
I access voicemail using the built-in Phone app. When dialing phone calls, the keypad appears, and I can dial the target number with no problem. During the call, there is a screen with icons labelled: Mute, Keypad, Speaker, Add call, and Hold. The Keypad icon is highlighted with a grey circle, but there is no keypad visible. If I tap the Keypad icon, the highlighting disappears, and no keypad appears. If I tap the Keypad icon again, the highlighting reappears, and still no keypad appears.
How can I repair my settings or my phone app so that the dialing keypad appears during calls?

This seems to be a known bug in the Phone app. It is tracked as issue 145767690 on the Android issue tracker. It is reported as broken on Phone App versions 42.0.281997267, and 42.0.284275632, but fixed on Phone App version 42.0.285321512 released on 13. December, 2019.
On 25. December, 2019, the Android team replied to this issue:

We have tested the issue on version Android 8.1.0 and App version 42.0.285321512 using devices Nexus 6P & Nexus 5X but we are unable to reproduce the issue.

I am the question asker, and I was experiencing this problem. Uninstalling the latest Phone app reverted to the factory Phone app. This worked around the problem for me. Installing the latest Phone app from the Google Store on 29. December, 2019 gave me version 42.0.285321512. This app no longer has the problem. It displays a keypad during the call.

This is a known bug. See Google Dialer bug breaks the dialpad during calls. That’s a problem
You would need to wait for a fix or from app settings, roll back the updates to the app

This may help you in rolling back.


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How to update Huawei P20 to Android 9
I have recently bought a Huawei P20, but it cannot be updated to Android 9.
However, my old P10 has already been updated to Android 9 many months ago.
So how can the P20 be updated?

Problem solved: It was necessary to insert a SIM card. (I had tried it only with WLAN without SIM).


text:
How to bind-mount "data" and "obb" folders from external SD card in "/sdcard/Android"?
Can someone help me mount my Android/data and Android/obb in my internal storage from my portable storage? I'm on a Pie ROM.
I found this: How to bind mount a folder inside /sdcard with correct permissions? but I don't know what should I do.
When I type:
ls -dZ /sdcard

I get
u:object_r:rootfs:s0 /sdcard

Sub-directories in /sdcard/Android/data or /sdcard/Android/obb (called apps' private directories on primary external storage) have synthesized permissions based on directory structure. While public directories on the rest of the /sdcard have fixed permissions. See details in Android's Storage Journey and What is /storage/emulated/0/?.
My answer to your linked question: How to bind mount a folder inside /sdcard with correct permissions? addresses the latter case i.e. bind mounting public directories which are shared with all apps. But private directories cannot be bind-mounted from external storage with fixed permissions. However using the same approach you can bind-mount every app's private directory separately.
Let's take example of Termux app. Its private directories (Android/data/com.termux and Android/obb/com.termux) are owned by the UID of Termux app assigned at the time of installation. Common ways to get UID value is to read from /data/system/packages.list or do ls -ld /sdcard/Android/data/com.termux or using stat command. A simple approach is to bind-mount the directory as world-writable so that every app can write to it. But it's not a good idea to set such open permissions. So we go the Android's way; bind-mount a directory from external SD card using FUSE:
~# bindfs -u $(stat -c %u /sdcard/Android/data/com.termux) -g 9997 -p a-rwx,ug+rw,ug+X /mnt/media_rw/[UUID]/Android/data/com.termux /mnt/runtime/write/emulated/0/Android/data/com.termux

For further mount options and details see the above linked answer.
Replace /mnt/media_rw/[UUID] with /mnt/expand/[UUID]/media/0 if SD card is formatted as Adoptable Storage but data is not migrated.
In the same way obb directories can be bind-mounted.
If your device supports sdcardfs, the same mount should propagate to default and read emulated VIEWS as well. Otherwise if your device is older you can bind-mount the same way to other VIEWS.
Some apps by default prefer writing private data to secondary external storage (i.e. external SD card), so you don't need to bind-mount their data or obb directories.

when i use the code i get "Not a valid user ID: 10187" , i found the same user id in "ls -n /sdcard/Android/obb"

@mahanr please go through the linked answer once, I don't want to copy paste everything. You need to touch files /etc/passwd and /etc/group.

@mahanr as per the new change to bindfs, /etc/passwd and /etc/group is no more necessary. I'm adding the link to new binary in linked answer.

Can I mount whole obb folder?

@Jtnqr I can't think of a reason for it to not work. Just take care of the ownership, mode and SELinux context properly.

Should I use the command above then? or this https://android.stackexchange.com/a/217936/218526 ?

@Jtnqr neither. You need to adapt the command according to your requirements.


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How to see Android OS System log file?
After leaving my Samsung Galaxy A-30 phone (with Android 9) for a few hours unbelievably I understood all of my internal storage is cleaned! I don't remember that I have installed any suspicious app but I just attached a USB flash to my phone for some data transferring last day.
Now I just want to know what happened to my phone's internal storage data, is there any system log file for Android 9? How can I find if an app with storage permission has done this?

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts! For a starter, please take a look at our logging tag wiki and follow up to How can I view and examine the Android log?.

You can try to find it with adb logcat


text:
Add a friend in Line by username without ID or phone number
In the Line app, Is it possible to search for friends by their username without ID or phone number?

There is no such functionality due to privacy reasons. Your only options are ID, QR Code or phone number.


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How to find my own mobile number on Huawei P30 Pro?
Is there any way to find the number of my SIMs? I tried to find it on the "about" page of the phone, but it's not there.
Any suggestion?
Android version = 9

I don't think there's a way if the SIM card doesn't store its phone number. Contact your provider's support instead.

Huawei P30 EMUI 11:
Settings → Mobile Network → SIM menagement.
Here you will see a list of your SIM cards and their phone numbers.


text:
My Google account was deleted, how do I sign into phone with that account
I am giving away one of my older android phones that was signed into one of my older Google accounts. The thing is that that account was deleted and I can't sign back into the phone, does anyone know how to fix this/bypass this?

Google says you may still be able to reopen the account:
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6236295?hl=en


text:
Connect Android device to Wifi for internet and ethernet simultaneously
I have a Samsung tablet where I want to use wifi for internet connection and ethernet to communicate to other network devices connected to it such as Field Bus Coupler etc simultaneously.
Right now once I connected LAN with android device it disconnected from wifi.

It simply disconnects. Without root is there any possibility?

How to make Ethernet work on Android over OTG?

I am working on a solution in
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/63499840/android-9-ethernet-and-wifi-simulataneously I hope this is still relevant to you... did you find a solution yet?


text:
How can i relock bootloader of infinix smart 2 with or without data loss?
How can i relock bootloader of infinix smart 2 with or without data loss? i haven't install twrp and root device.

If you are sure that you have not made any modifications to the device, then the usual oem lock command should be all that you need to do:
fastboot oem lock-go

After that confirm the lock on the phone and you will be good to go.

You should not lose any Data Re-locking the bootloader of an uncompromised system. It is only when the bootloader is Un-locked does the data loss occurr. A little insight into bootloaders is that it is an actual security function of the bootloaders to eject the possible compromised files if checks fail.
The bootloader will verify that everything is good to go if not then the bootloader has the option to essentially factory reset your device by Un-locking to dispose of what it believes to be non-native binaries or files. The  bootloader Re-locks and starts to verify and attempt to boot again.


text:
How to calculate/verify SHA-256-Digest from META-INF/*.SF file?
I'm trying to manually verify an APK file in the way Android would do when such file is installed in some old system (<7). I have one problem I can't really solve.
They say the following:

As you can see, the signature file contains digest entries for the
  archive's files that look similar to the digest-value entries in the
  manifest. However, while the digest values in the manifest are
  computed from the files themselves, the digest values in the signature
  file are computed from the corresponding entries in the manifest.

So in this case, we have an example entry from the META-INF/MANIFEST.MF file, which is the following one:
Name: FingerprintProtocol.proto
SHA-256-Digest: WQ9R/MGV5m9Dye4Jtl3MiLRmX2RPoEPeinb3me7wnAU=

Now we take the corresponding entry from the META-INF/*.SF file, which looks like this:
Name: FingerprintProtocol.proto
SHA-256-Digest: fWL5eppUj0x6UVdPqHusFkpDbXpq7P0sqchfublqEnA=

The question is: How was fWL5eppUj0x6UVdPqHusFkpDbXpq7P0sqchfublqEnA calculated?

You are trying to verify the APK using the old and outdated JAR signature (aka APK signature scheme v1). This type of signature is outdated for Android as there are some attack scenarios in which a file exists multiple times inside the APK/ZIP file.
Therefore when verifying a APK files you should better rely on the APK signature scheme v2/v3 if present in the APK file.
The current verification process is documented here: APK signature verification process
The Android SDK comes with a tool called apksigner.jar (can also be used as library in own Java programs) that allows to to verify an APK files using the most recent available method.
For more details on apksigner and how to use it see this answer:
https://android.stackexchange.com/a/218161/2241

It looks like the section includes some white spaces and not only the text. The whole code that should be hashed is the following:


text:
How Do I Get the Phone to Automatically Open My Gate for Package Delivery?
The intercom dials my number and the phone needs to press '9' to open the gate (the call disconnects when it does). I want it to do this by itself any time someone uses the intercom (I can't answer when I sleep or am driving or on silent etc.).

As far as I know from my friends and relatives whom live in gated communities. It depends on how old the intercom system is. The older communities have to use the hardwired phone lines to be able to be used with the communities exterior info-com system.
However, the newer communities do have the ability to through the communities network to connect your android device to the communities info-com system.
This though is just through again my families and friends personal experience.

This question has nothing to do with the intercom system. This is a question about a phone.


text:
How to enable debugging in ASUS Zenfone Selfie Pro 4 without seeing the screen (touch works BTW)?
[The similar questions are related to other devices and I don't intend to do factory reset.]
I cannot see what is being 'shown' on the screen, only interact through fastboot or randomly touching the screen.
The wifi is also working.
If I could enable debugging, I could use scrcpy to see and interact using mouse on a linux computer.
I suppose I can use fastboot to root/unlock/install apps. But I have no experience doing that. The only command I succeeded was this:
fastboot -s H7AZCY5468078HN oem device-info
...
(bootloader)    Device tampered: false
(bootloader)    Device unlocked: false
(bootloader)    Device critical unlocked: false
(bootloader)    Charger screen enabled: false
(bootloader)    Display panel:
(bootloader)    Sysconf ssn: H7AZCY5468078HN
(bootloader)    Sysconf adb enable: 0
(bootloader)    Sysconf reboot reason: 0
(bootloader)    Sysconf isn: N0CZ1738MB0033372
OKAY [  0.110s]
finished. total time: 0.110s

Also, touch-guessing until enabling debug seems impossible in practice.
ps.
My ASUS Zenfone Selfie Pro 4 graphics chip burned and the screen is completely blank after boot.

https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/159551
you can't use fastboot this will factory reset
https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/212832

Duplicate of Enable ADB and/or change USB connection mode on Galaxy S7 w/ broken screen and Is there a way to enable USB debugging from fastboot?.

i am not sure where you have information that graphic chip is burned, but anyway i would try to connect a TV with USB MHL/HDMI adapter

When the screen is on, it is very hot (untouchable) at the top left corner, and a blue spot appeared there due to heat. It can be something after the graphics chip as well, since this kind of device is usually a SoC.


text:
What is the standard operational battery temperature for the Note 9?
Bought the phone a week ago & today it seems to be running slightly warm just surfing sites in Chrome. Downloaded a battery app and see that the battery temp is at 32 degrees Celsius constantly right now for the last 2 hrs. Is this normal?

OEMs hardly provide such data to decide if it is normal or not. Not surprisingly, user manual of your device is quiet on this point.
This post on SE. Electronics (talks of Samsung), puts maximum safe temperature as 45°C.
However, temperature has a bearing on the battery performance. See this for details. At 32°C it results in 80% of optimum battery capacity.
I would consider based on my observations, that this perfectly fine, though Samsung phones have been reported to have  fast charging problems with a low temperature error, which doesn't seem to be your problem.

what battery temp number would be a concern and definitely needs repair? strangely enough playing mc5 game for an hour for a whole week with no warm back cover. only today it ran warmer though i ran the exact same apps etc

45°C. See edit to answer

good links. i think only once have i had a phone get too hot to even hold: it was my S8 uploading 20GB of files to my new phone. any way to keep heat down while uploading files?

No. For the simple reason that power is drawn heavily while uploading that leads to high battery temperature. Power drawn varies with device but you can get an idea from Izzy's answer here

next time i need to use an app that has a pause feature while uploading so the phone can take a break. was using Send Anywhere.


text:
Is the .ttf format on Android the standard ttf format?
I have an quite old smartwatch (LG W100) with only Android Wear 1.5.0 (Marshmallow) on it. Because my phone is a lot newer, I wanted to replace the NotoColorEmoji.ttf with a newer version from the Google website.
But when I replaced the file in the /system/fonts folder, no Emojis at all were displayed anymore.
When instead I took the ttf file from my Phone and put it on the watch it worked.
So what is the actual difference between those file?


text:
How to remove someone else's Google account from the Pixel 3a?
So my friend has his partner's Google Pixel 3a with him. She did factory reset and gave it to him before leaving for a semester abroad. She forgot to remove her Google account before performing the reset though.
The phone runs on Android 9. Now when my friend tries to set up the device, he is asked to log in to an account which was associated with this particular device beforehand. Since he doesn't know the password of his partner's account, he is unable to use the device as his own.
Is there a way to fix this without having to ask the password?

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

He can't remove it without the password. But his partner can, by accessing the Google account and deleting the phone from the list of devices active on that account. This link will take the original account holder to the appropriate page:
https://myaccount.google.com/device-activity?utm_source=google-account&utm_medium=web


text:
Can someone receive my calls on viber even I deleted the application, I called by mistake
Had called someone on viber by mistake, how can I let him not receiving the calls notification, I already blocked him; should I delete theapplication? Tour assistance is needed please

i am not sure what you asking. you need to unregister before deleting

from my understanding you already called, so the call notification is already happen?

https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/time-travel

If you already called the person there is no way to delete the notification.


text:
How to remove Google Account after factory reset
I have been given a Huawei smartphone that needed a new screen, which I've just had replaced. I now want to sell the phone.
Am I forced to enter the Google account of the previous owner in order to complete the start up process after a factory reset?
Can I then delete the old Google account ready for the new owner?

If you have done a factory reset without removing the Google account first, then you have triggered FRP.
Although it is not nice, there are some tutorials on YouTube or WWW which work on some phones and help in bypassing the FRP. If that doesn't work, the Huawei customer service should have the tools to erase the FRP/persist partition and remove the requirement to add the previous owner's Google account.
Lastly, it is better to ask the previous owner to just come over and login once using his account. You can then remove his account and issue a fresh factory reset. Now it will be ready for resale.

Yes, I think this is the way forward, thanks!

If you have executed the factory reset properly then the phone is not asking you for a Google Account of the previous owner, it is asking you to provide your Google Account so you can best use features offered by the Android phone. If you don't have an account yet you can also create it with your phone directly providing that you have internet access.

properly means? enabled OEM unlocking in developer options and/or removed google account before reset?

I don't think this is true. Android remembers the owning user account even after factory reset. The account should be removed by the account owner, either through logging on, or by accessing the account on another device and removing it from the list of active devices on the account.


text:
Adjust/personalize auto-correction on Android
Using a Moto G Play with Android 7.1.1 installed. Whenever I type the word ie. (that is), this is auto-corrected to one of:
or.
IE.

The auto-correction selected appears to be random (perhaps based on context). I would like to tell my phone to NOT auto-correct ie under any circumstances. If I meant to type or and accidentally typed ie...that one is on me!
Is there any way to adjust auto-correction by manually entering personalised phrases (such as into a dictionary)? I don't want to turn auto-correct off entirely.

Unrelated to the question, but the correct term is 'i.e.' (with period between 'i' and 'e')

Add the word to your personal dictionary.If you are using Gboard:

Go to its settings then Dictionary.
Click on Personal dictionary
Select a language or All languages if you want to add the word for every language.
Click the + button.
On "Type a word", enter ie.. Press the arrow to go back to the previous screen. (You can enter a shortcut for the word if you want but with your word being so short I don't think it is necessary).

For now on ie. will appear when you type and will not be auto-corrected.

This may be the answer, but attempting to add personalised terms crashes settings on my phone and does not update the dictionary.


text:
Nothing happens when attempting any function of Droid Explorer, getting "Input string was not in a correct format" error instead
When attempting to use the restore existing backup or basically any function of Droid Explorer, nothing happens.
When I click on Droid Explorer from the menu created, this is what I get.

Input string was not in a correct format.

It doesn't appear to be working in any means.

your device is not rooted

My LG Nexus 5 is rooted. So, it isn't that. The only APP I have listed with root access under SU is titanium backup, so I have to assume it has been rooted properly.

enable usb-debugging, download platform_tools, run adb shell, then su and grant permission. then try again Droid Explorer

Does this answer your question? Droid Explorer - Input string was not in a correct format

It seems to have made some progress. I did as you suggested with the adb shell, and also what was in the link you gave, where I deleted that folder android-44W and just installed what the sdk manager had for an update for the build-tools and updates of what i already had. The error has changed though:  it now says "could not find a part of the path" and points to c:\programdata\droidexplorer\assets I cannot post the exact screen cap of it here. it seems to be looking for a [default].png in that folder to move forward. that folder doesn't seem to exist on my system.

sorry i am not willing to install Android SDK and cannot test, so best is to wait for other answers. maybe you shouldn't have deleted the folder but renamed instead. or maybe use a more maintained tool like MyPhoneExplorer

it is ok. i appreciate your help. i can live without the backup being restored, it was just game data i was trying to get, nothing i consider important. thank you though. it was worth a shot.


text:
Should I be worried about this strange notification from Delta?
I got a notification from the Fly Delta app that just says "test". The icon appears to be missing. Should I be concerned about this? I've uninstalled the Delta app, but I'm unsure if I need to do more.
This is, to the best of my knowledge, the official Delta Airlines app installed from the Play Store.

This might just be some Delta engineer trying something out, and maybe mistakenly pushing it to customer devices, but I don't know how to find out if it is legitimate testing or a potential sign of some exploit.

A Twitter search suggests that a lot of people got the same message. It appears to be an error at Delta. What I don't know is whether there's any way to confirm that a particular message came from the app vs spoofed it in some way.

It's possible to check the sender by using a built-in/3rd-party notification log.


text:
Fast WRITE speed or fast READ speed?
To move and use apps on its SD Card my droid suggests I use a "fast" SD card. https://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/sd-memory-card-faq/fastest-memory-card/ Ranks SD Cards by WRITE Speed and READ Speed. Interestingly, the same chips seldom appear in both lists.
If I want to use my SD Card to store and run apps, is fast WRITE speed or is fast READ speed the most important quality to look for.

Read speeds are always higher than write speeds because of the overhead involved with writing to flash memory. So use an application grade card with high write speeds.

Camera benchmarks are not relevant if you want to move apps onto the sd-card. For apps random access reading and writing operations per second are more important than bulk read/write speed. If you want a fast sd-card for apps check sd-card with the "Application Performance Class 2" (A2) rating.

You should consider the R/W together. Both make differences. However, for the apps, they usually do read and pull the files into memory (RAM) and make use. Write will only be done where something changes or the app's job is to modify the files. Else there will be very less write happening during app's operations. The write will be more used when installing new apps to the SD card.
So, for most apps, the read will make more difference. Generally, an SD card with higher write speed will also have higher read speeds. In the end, the memory will still be slower than the inbuilt EMMC/UFS in most of the phones. So, some performance drop should still happen.


text:
How do I troubleshoot mounting my phone?
❄ I have a  Moto G6, running Android 9 (specifically PPSS29.118.15.11.2, Security Patch Level Oct 1,2019)❄ and when I connect it via USB I have an option (under USB Preferences) to "Use USB for ... File Transfer" which is selected.
The "Use USB for" options that I see are these:

File Transfer
USB Tethering
MIDI
PTP
No data transfer

With "File Transfer" selected, the phone appears as an external drive on my desktop (Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS) but I can't move anything on or off it and the mounted drive shows no directories and my desktop properties say that "Permissions could not be determined".
I installed mtp-tools as suggested in answer to phone mounts as media device not usb storage but that didn't change anything.
I'm not even sure what "MIDI" is for, but with MIDI selected, I don't even see my phone mounted as a drive.
If I select "Use USB for ... PTP" I can mount the DCIM and Pictures directories. I was able to drop an MP3 into my Pictures directory and then use the Files app to move it to the Music directory, but that's a poor substitute for actually mounting it and moving files back and forth. It does confirm that the issue isn't the cable (as in this 2013 question: How do I mount my phone?)
I read through two questions that were solved by enabling USB Debugging: How to get USB file transfer working on Oreo 8.1? and Android Pie only showing two folders to Android File Transfer but that didn't work for me. (Note, in 9.0 you have to find your Build in the System Settings and tap it 7 times to even access developer settings. From there you can enable USB Debugging).
Any new and different tips for mounting my Android 9.0 so I can transfer files to and from it?

If you have the PTP option you should also have the MPT one, don't you?. The latter is for accessing everything else but the DCIM folder.

I believe that the "File Transfer" option is MPT. But I updated to list the options that I see.

Maybe, maybe not... Any current Android should work with MTP/PTP (last time I saw the former method - mass storage device - available was in an old tablet running 4.4.4) but it's possible that for some weird reason Motorola decided to use it partially and enabled the old way as well, I don't know. Anyway, it should work as well in any desktop OS.

"File Transfer" is MTP which is handled by GVfs on Ubuntu. Make sure relevant packages are installed. Or you may mount it as drive using mtpfs. Another option to mount as drive is adbfs which uses adb. MTP has always been buggy, so better try not wasting time with it. Go with one of many other available options.

@IrfanLatif can you expand on those options? I just confirmed that gvfs is definitely installed, so that's not the issue.

"Permissions could not be determined" can be due to improper or missing udev rules. See this: https://askubuntu.com/q/87667/782461. MTP bugs and alternatives are already widely discussed topics. E.g. see this: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/209119/218526 and this: https://android.stackexchange.com/q/91900/218526


text:
Are these app permissions normal?
Can it be used to steal personal data or intercept/view online activity?

Apps with Storage permission (Read the contents of SD card) can read all of your personal data in /sdcard i.e. photos, documents, music , downloaded data etc.

@IrfanLatif what about viewing online activity?

Depends on you. This app well required Storage permission for Download files for your app new levels but if you think if i get permission and your (personal & private)data leak then you can not do to access permission.
they well risky for you.

Nope
Beware check if you're phone
Can manage to shout down and start upp
According to you're settings
If it won't start then you're not alone


text:
Lenovo IdeaTab showing a screen with Chinese characters
I'm using a Lenovo IdeaTab S6000. As I was watching videos, suddenly my tablet turned off. The buttons did not work and I was unable to restore it or turned it on. On the display, there were exposed these Chinese characters as they were changing with the abbreviations WIFI, GPS and MMC.

What is this screen? Is this a virus? How to fix this?

That looks like a boot-loader menu for a factory reset but in Chinese.

It doesn't look like the bootloader or recovery menu (screenshots). You may have entered some secret factory menu.

That is the factory self-diagnosis and test menu. It is designed for usage before shipment, therefore it is in Chinese). You can use Google translate on a second phone to translate the entries.


text:
recover smartphone after factory reset
Last friday, my Samsung smartphone somehow performed a factory reset. I do not know why (it fell on the ground, or my son triggered something, but that does not matter now).
I noticed it when during booting, I saw the samsung letters and after that the 'let's get started' screen where I had to choose a language to setup the phone.
I lost everything that was on my smartphone including some pictures. Most stupid of course, but I know I setup google photos to automatically backup my photos. However, when I checked google online, not 1 image was there so, I lost everything that was on my smartphone. I can live with that for most of the pictures but some I would like to get back somehow.
I tried to recover my data using several apps on my computer.
dr fone for android, fonelab for android, easeus data recovery.
Dr Fone took some time before completing with saying nothing could be found because I do not have root access on my samsung smartphone.
I already looked into rooting the phone but as far as I could read, rooting would cause a data wipe which I do not.
Is there any chance / method to recover data from my phone and how should I do that? The device is a Samsung A6 SM-A600FN (2018).

Sorry for your loss but there's no way to recover deleted data without root access. Even with root access, after factory reset, chances aren't very high. Related: How to make a complete factory reset, without anyone being able to retrieve my data? You may contact some professional service but consider factors explained here: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/216410/218526

As Irfan says, your data is most likely gone now. It's also worth pointing out that an auto wipe can often be triggered by incorrectly entering the passcode 10 times in a row.

The trigger for auto wipe, is that a standard setting or does it have to be set by the user when configuring the phone? The auto wipe is the only reason I can come up with for this factory reset to occur.  But I have not set that when I configured my phone.

@DutchArjo that's not a standard settings on stock Android but OEMs can configure their ROMs to add such features on their devices. Also on managed devices this can be a part of policy. Apps (user or system) with admin rights can also do that.

I suspect my employer made this a setting then. I will check with them if this is the case. Doesn't help me with getting my files back, but might explain to me how this could happen.

check your clouds https://photos.google.com or https://drive.google.com/drive/backups maybe there is something left. your history may helpful too https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity

I did, there was nothing there. I had a phone backup from the evening before so some files are recovered, but I do not care about these files. I hoped google photos had backupped but did not backup anything. I have now reset my phone and configured it again.

completely surprised: my phone is reconfigured, I opened google photos to enable backup, and suddenly I have all my photos back...


text:
How to turn off incoming text message notification vibration off in Android 10?
I would like to turn off vibrations for incoming message on Google Pixel 1, default SMS app, and I can't find a way to do this.
I searched several places, mostly messages app settings and general phone notifications settings (which anyway redirects me to the first one). There is no general setting under notifications there and I can't see anything about vibrations.
It seems this app does not provide a way to control vibrations, and there is no system option to forbid them, but it seems hard to believe.

I know I can turn all vibrations off (https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/52416/turn-off-vibration-notification-for-all-apps-at-once), but I wonder if it's possible only for this app.


text:
Prevent app to changing screen timeout
Some apps even disable screen timeout completely (although it's still says 30 seconds on the settings menu)
How to stop that ?
Not to forbid globally, as there are some apps that I DO control the timeout via tasker. But only for that app

Do you keep battery saver enabled? That causes the screen timeout to default to 30 seconds no matter how many times you change it.

I don't know yet if 3rd-party apps can change screen timeout without root access, but apps can indeed keep the screen awake. Not sure about the solution yet, but Android Developer documentation explains it further. Also, possibly related: How to modify possible values screen timeout on rooted devices?, including an answer that mentions per-app setting.

Battery saver is off. The problem is apps telling the screen to stay ON, instead of obeying the system timeout.

That solution you don't know yet is everything that we need :cry: Guess the third party app is the patch, then. PerApp is the recommended one from your links. Needs root only to control the CPU, says there.


text:
How to get 2nd IMEI number using adb?
I am currently using this command adb shell "service call iphonesubinfo 1" to get IMEI number, but it only returns 1st one.
Does anyone know how I can get the 2nd IMEI number?

Which code to use with service call depends on Android release. On Android 9 IPhoneSubInfo method 1 returns first IMEI while methods 3 and 4 return both IMEIs:
~$ service call iphonesubinfo 3 i32 1 | grep -oE '[0-9a-f]{8} ' | while read hex; do echo -ne "\u${hex:4:4}\u${hex:0:4}"; done; echo
~$ service call iphonesubinfo 3 i32 2 | grep -oE '[0-9a-f]{8} ' | while read hex; do echo -ne "\u${hex:4:4}\u${hex:0:4}"; done; echo

Related: How to check IMSI/ICCID on MIUI10?


text:
how to disable gmail notification sound samsung a50s
I have a Samsung A50s. It is making some sound each time an email arrives in inbox. I am not able to find out how to disable these sounds?
How can I do this?

Swipe down from the screen so you see the notification in your notification center. Then, hold down on the notification so that it expands. You can edit the notification settings there. Change the priority so that the sound does not occur anymore (if I'm not mistaken, medium or low priority disables the sound)
https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/xScreenshot_20180228-111409.png.pagespeed.gp+jp+jw+pj+ws+js+rj+rp+rw+ri+cp+md.ic.jxvpjJzLUN.png
The show silently switch would help here.


text:
How to avoid WiFi disconnection if Google cannot be pinged?
Say I have blocked google and the sorts with my router. Now Android thinks that the wifi has no connection because it can't ping google and uses my mobile data instead although the WiFi is perfectly fine.
How can I tell my phone to ping some other server in order to check the connection? (root is an option).

You can either disable captive portal detection:
adb shell 'settings put global captive_portal_detection_enabled 0'
adb shell 'settings put global captive_portal_mode 0'

(set to 1 to re-enable), or set a different server. I use e.g.:
adb shell 'settings put global captive_portal_http_url "http://captiveportal.kuketz.de"'
adb shell 'settings put global captive_portal_https_url "https://captiveportal.kuketz.de"'
adb shell 'settings put global captive_portal_fallback_url "http://captiveportal.kuketz.de"'
adb shell 'settings put global captive_portal_other_fallback_urls "http://captiveportal.kuketz.de"'

This works fine for me on Android 8 (Oreo). For more details (and other Android versions), you can e.g. refer to Captive Portal parameters.
(As for the URLs I use: Mike Kuketz is a security expert in Germany, with focus on privacy. I know him personally and fully trust him. You could also setup your own captive portal server – it's not that hard, but goes a bit beyond our site. See above linked Wikipedia article for details on that if you're interested.)


text:
com.android.incallui: not syncing the contacts
I have xaiomi redmi 7S.
I have seen the application used for calling is com.android.incallui
I added some contacts to it. But they are not syncing to the google account.

That app doesn't store contacts. Contacts Storage does. As for sync, have you enabled sync for contacts under Settings > Accounts >your account? Make sure to do "sync now" as well.

Understanding Contacts in Android is a very easy thing if you have been using android for a couple of time. The OS manages contacts by working with a few apps. Some which are physical and some which are non physical on the App Drawer.
We have Contacts Storage, a core app that is used to manage a contact database in the system. By adding, deleting and editing Contacts as commanded by Contact User Apps
We have Contacts Provider which queries names of Contacts from the Contacts Storage app or any other Contact Repository. Sometimes this app can Cache Contacts so as to real-timely process Call and Message identification rapidly
We have the Contacts App that can be seen in the application drawer that is used to present the Contacts database alongside with formal editing ways a human can understand instead of the traditional query languages
What's funny, none of these apps is responsible for synchronization of Contacts to Google or anywhere. This is where we have wrapper apps that work across the system and Google to ensure that a well maintained active sync exists
We then have Google Contacts Sync which synchronizes them from the Contacts app and transports them to Google servers and also restores them upon Mail login on a new device. As long as all those apps exist. Contact services work well.
You should note that Phone Services are also Closely related to Contact Services. This is where we find Phone Storage which maintains a call log database. Telephony Provider which offers the native calling service, Phone which shows you calls and gives you options to do on a number and also maintain a physical call history, and Calling Framework (in-Call UI) which themes the calling screen.
Note com.android.incallui is not responsible for any synchronization of Contacts to Google
Back to the topic. If you don't see any synchronization to google, ensure Contacts sync setting is active, ensure power saving is off to help in freeing background services like sync and to be sure, force a 'sync now'
if you don't see a name of a person in a call whose name exists in Contacts even though I'm sure com.android.incallui (Phone) should be having such access by default. Only a few phones don't treat it so and if you find it needs manual permission confirmation try to allow permissions from app settings and if none of those works wrap issues up and  reset the device and you'll start over again


text:
How can I transfer all carrier settings from an existing phone to a new phone?
I have been provided a device for a telephone carrier that cannot be joined automatically. When the Sim is inserted into another phone, it cannot find/connect to the network. Due to the nature of the network I am on, and given I was supplied the phone from the telephone carrier, I believe its customized in some way.
I want to use this network and sim card, but on a better phone (Razer Phone 2).
Is there some mechanism I can use to transfer all settings from one phone to the other, including whatever secret settings the carrier may have setup prior to handing out the devices?

Dial *#*#*4636#*#* and in the phone menu see under carrier related information.

*#*#4636#*#* does nothing on this phone. When entered, it simply disappears and the menu that should appear, doesn't show up.

You should be able to go to settings, find your settings for you sim (APN) settings and from there be able to copy these settings to your new phone.
I am assuming your current device is an android device. On my phone (OPO5T) I can simply go to settings->Wi-Fi & internet->SIM & network->(My sim card)->Access Point Names.

This does not result in successful connection to the carrier. There appears to be some other setup / information that is beyond that controlled in the APN settings that permits connection.

@Predominant what carrier are you using? also make sure the APN settings are correct, you can always double check, you could also check the carriers website for APN settings.

I cannot say the carrier I am using. The provided phone has some configuration beyond simple APN settings, and that is the information I wish to discover, or simply transfer to another phone.

On my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge to do all these things I would simply go to Connections ->Mobile Network->Access Point Names->Select your carrier-> click on the 3 vertical dots and a dialogue box is opened->Click Save ->email the settings->open your new mobile and access your email->copy all the settings and paste it on your Razor Phone 2 APN(Access Point Name)
I hope this helps you! :)

Razer phone 2 will not work on Verizon CDMA/LTE
Many Prepaid Carriers will not let you use unlocked phones.
You have to verify it on their site: Looking for a "Bring your own phone" option.
Pending that checks out

Insert Card
Settings - Connections -> find "Mobile settings --> APN/Access point names"
Top right [New]
You have to fill in these blanks: You will have to google "LTE APN settings ATT/Tmo/etc.."

I'm not using Verizon.


text:
Should warnings about not charging your phone at airport/public usb ports be taken seriously?
There are many articles on the internet saying that charging at the usb ports available at the airport and public places can cause your phone to get hacked.
Is there any any truth behind this?
If it is dangerous then why? Are those usb ports connected to some computer? But even if they are, isn't a phone unavailable to computers to that which it is connected to and you need to provide authorization for data transfer to take place?

Yes an no.
Some years ago this was a very severe security problem, as a lot of devices automatically enabled the MTP mode when connected via USB that allows to access all files in the "sd-card" section. Also some device had ADB enabled by default.
Nowadays MTP and the other file-access protocols provided by Android devices are usually disabled by default and the user is explicitly asked if it should be enabled. And for ADB there is the public key authentication to identify trusted computers.
However this does not mean that there is no risk to use public USB power ports for charging. For example some Samsung devices had an exploit that allowed root access using an exploit in the MTP protocol - and this was possible with disabled MTP and locked screen.
Therefore in my opinion the risk of being attacked by usb ports available at the airport and public places has reduced a but in the last years, however it is still present.
If you want to use those usb ports and be safe you should use an "USB condom" or some equivalent adapter that does makes it physically impossible to transfer data through it (usually those devices don't connect the USB data lines to the device which makes it impossible to transfer data from/to the device).


text:
Found a not-so-locked Moto G5S Plus - need help to unlock & return it
I've been to a concert three weeks ago and found a Moto G5S Plus there.
I've waited for the owner to call - but they didn't.
The phone is not so locked. It has a (stock) screen lock, but it doesn't seem to be encrypted - I can reboot it and the apps start.
All I can see in the lock screen are app notifications, but with their content hidden.
I managed to check that there's a Google Play Services notification stating the Google account of the owner, but I've sent an email there without reply. My guess is they've just created the Google account for the phone, but use a different email address (if they check any, at all).
I see WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Behance, Messages & Uber notifications (there may be some others, I don't recall right now), but with their content hidden.
How can I unlock the phone to be able to access WhatsApp/Messages/Contacts to contact someone who can contact me with the owner?
I've tried calling their service provider, but they weren't able to find the IMEI on their users database. They've suggested me on the phone to try going to an actual store since they may have better info, but I didn't have the chance yet.
The phone doesn't have an SD card - so no luck trying to get something out of there.
There are no Emergency contacts set up.
I can access the camera without unlocking the phone. That allowed me to take a picture to a message stating a way to contact me, just in case there was any cloud backup setup - but I have not been contacted yet.
I was able to connect to a WiFi using the Camera to read a QR code. I wasn't able to connect to a password-protected WiFi network via the WiFi menu, but I could using the QR code. May there be any other QR action that I could exploit to help me?
It's a Movistar phone, from Argentina, if that makes any difference - but I'm expecting any workaround at the phone/OS level.
From the recovery mode, I could get the Android version is 8.1.0/OPS28.65-36-14/63857. It also says motorola/sanders_retail/sanders, if that helps.
I've just found in HIBP that the user e-mail was part of the Canva breach - but I couldn't find the actual leaked data on a really quick Google search.
Connecting via USB, adb devices won't show it. I managed to get fastboot devices to list the phone when I reboot it and stay at the bootloader - but I haven't found how that may help.
I also tried putting a working SIM card in the phone and calling it from another phone. The idea was to use the conference call option to try to access the phone's contact list. Even though the phone said it had cellular signal, the call didn't make it - so it may already be blocked at the telco level.
I'd appreciate any suggestions to try.
(Just in case: I really want to return it back to the owner. If I was trying to keep it for myself, I'd just factory reset it and call it a day. I also don't intend to violate their privacy - just to contact them)

Was worth a try. Thanks for being that thorough; might be worth summing al up for the tag wiki later (or for an answer here we can link to from the tag wiki; I think of the lost-phone tag wiki in this context).

i have done this one times, but it took me days and turned out the girl already buyed a new one. it was a 4 digit pin and she was not so happy that i had bruteforced it

https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3954855

in case you do factory reset https://www.techeligible.com/2019/10/12/bypass-frp-moto-g5s-plus

anyway it's time to set up our own emergency details - everbody who read this, just do it NOW :)

It is possible that some useful contacts are saved in the SIM card, so I suggest you insert that SIM card in an another phone to access those contacts and attempt to contact them.

I feel a bit stupid for having tried everything else but this. It worked. Hopefully "Mum" will help us return the phone.

Just keep it online and make a note on your door/mailbox how one can reach you. Wait for the day the owner located the GPS position. if one can unlock the phone in front of you he/she qualified as verified owner

reboot was basically bad idea, you can't unlock sim pin now owner can not call his own number anymore

It didn't have phone service already by the time it ran out of battery (I forgot to charge it). So I have a SIM but I can't use it. And the show was in a city ~80kms away, so the owner may live on the next door, or in a different province.

can you connect to wifi? sometimes there exist some weird paths from emergency call screen > keyboard search button > talkback > settings (but i really don't know) you could create a guest wlan in your router where you leave a message as bssid name, and connect to this wifi ;) i know you did already send email so this makes less sense https://i.stack.imgur.com/FpNuO.png

I can connect to WiFi, but it hasn't helped so far. I can try setting the SSID to something like "Call me at 555-5555", just in case. I don't think they check their Google account, but it's a nice try

Summary: It sounds like you've done well more than expected of you, and should hand it off to the cell provider or other authorities. Not doing so might risk legal consequences.
How do you normally handle lost property in (I presume) Argentina?
Here in the US, for example, the concert venue often has a "lost and found" where you'd turn it in. And that's the first place the person who lost the phone would look. Beyond that, the cell carrier or the local police station. Again, those are places that someone who lost a phone might contact.
It sounds like you've gone above and beyond trying to find the owner. It's probably to late to give it to the concert venue, so I'd suggest just give it to the carrier (presumably even if they can't locate the owner immediately at the store, they'll hold it for a while and see if the owner contacts them). Which if the IMEI has already been blocked ("blocked at the telco level", as you put it), someone has already contacted them, presumably if you had turned in the phone immediately, it'd already be back with its owner.
I have no idea how naive that all sounds from Argentina; maybe it's obvious there that the store employee would just pocket the phone (I really don't know). But even if that's the case, there is another problem, for you:
I think your current approach risks getting you in trouble. Think of what it'd look like to a cop who for whatever reason doesn't like you: you took the phone from the venue, that looks an awful lot like stealing it. Now you're trying to break into a device you don't own, sounds like hacking... Will the cop believe you about trying to find the owner, or think that's just a story you're making up?

Thanks for the suggestions. I wouldn't call those ideas "silly", but maybe "naive", yes. I've been to lots of concerts here, and I don't know what the official lost&found procedure is - I wouldn't trust giving someone a cellphone, and I probably wouldn't start by checking there if I lost mine. Regarding police, I don't think they would care, either (to help, nor to "prosecute" me). But thanks for the framing, anyway

@derobert nothing personal, just a lot of text basically about - how should i say - morally admonition? in germany police will laugh at you, they won't give back phone to owner. you created more problems (fear) mgarciaisaia wasn't aware before than help breaking the lockscreen ;)

Although this answer doesn't address the question on a technical note, it does make a useful point with respect to the intent of the asker -- to help the owner find their device -- and suggests directions that can be taken. I think the answer does not  warrant a downvote from a user just because the user's country has no sound rules/regulations with respect to lost & found property. For the record I am not criticizing any country. My own country has shitty R&R with respect to lost and found goods.


text:
How to map Apple wireless keyboard keys in Android 10
I'm having trouble using the Return/Enter key on the Apple wireless keyboard (model A1314) while connected via Bluetooth on Android 10 (device: Google Pixel 3).
Specifically, I'd like to use the Fn+Return keystroke to act as the standard Enter key, but it doesn't work --at least not in the Messages app.
Is there a way to map the Return key so that it acts like Enter?

What do you think the difference is between Return and Enter? AFAIK these are synonyms, or did I miss something fabulous and new?

@zx485, they are different in the Apple universe.  The "Enter" label is added to the "Return" key to make non-Mac users feel at home, and the Fn+Return keystroke is supposed to mimic the standard Enter key used elsewhere in computing.


text:
"There was a problem communicating with Google servers, try again later" error
Yet another occurrence of this when setting up a new phone, in this case a OnePlus 5 with the H2OS (Chinese) OS.  I installed the current Oxygen OS official 9.0.9 from XDA, used the OnePlus transfer, and despite many strategies, could not get rid of this error.
I tried:
Wiping the cache, other data in Google Play
Ditto other Google services
turned off WIFI, turned on, etc.
Reboot
Reinstalled Google play
Installed Google APK from APK store
I had seen these elsewhere working for some folks.

Welcome to StackExchange. So, you are trying to self-answer your post? The parts should be separated into distinct 'Q' & 'A' posts, however. Please see Help for the proper context of each. Possibly also the tour.

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts! On SE sites, it's perfectly fine to answer your own question (also see here) – but answers should be posted as answers, not as part of the question-post. Mind [edit]ing that out of your question, and move it to a separate answer? Thanks in advance!

Finally the only thing that worked for me was doing a factory reset.
Hope one of these approaches works for others!
Having more potential solutions in your tool box increases your chances of success.
YMMV  "Good luck, Jim!"

I have come up against this problem today, and have found a solution when everything I found online failed to fix it.
The problem I had was that all Google apps weren't working. Chrome would not load pages, I could not add an account (hung on Checking Info and eventually gave the error "
There was a Problem Communicating with Google Servers"), GMail app would load but would not show emails etc.
I found that the version of Chrome I had was a long way behind. I went into Setting/Apps and disabled Chrome. This basically re-enabled Android System Webview, and at this point I could then re-add an account, Gmail and the Play Store started working.  I could then use Play Store to re-enable and then update Chrome, which then worked too. If you want to, you can then go into Developer Mode and set Chrome back as the Webview Implementation.
I hope this helps someone avoid spending the hours I did on this issue!