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What are the requirements to have the change your background feature enabled in Microsoft Teams?
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/change-your-background-for-a-teams-meeting-f77a2381-443a-499d-825e-509a140f4780 mentions:

Note: If you don't see this option in the menu, the feature might not be available on your device yet.

What are the requirements to have the change your background feature enabled in Microsoft Teams on Android? I have a Samsung Galaxy S9 with Android and I don't see the feature.

As of late March 2021, Microsoft Teams for Android doesn't have "blur background".
However, per MSPowerUser.com - Background blur is coming to Microsoft Teams for Android which has a link in the article to a support forum, such a feature is pending/planned, but with no definitive timeline.

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/galaxy-s21-features-to-enable claims one can change the background on a meeting in MS Teams on Android with a Samsung Galaxy S21:

Galaxy S21 features: Video effects. With the Galaxy S21, Samsung has introduced a new feature for video calls. Simply called Video Call Effects, it lets you add blur, a solid color, or an image to your background while on a chat. In this age of social distancing, Video Call Effects spice up your video calls.

https://redd.it/p726we claims that MS Teams the virtual  background option with Xiaomi Pocophone F1.


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Run Workspace One Hub on a Non-Root version of Android VM on Android Phone?
I want to run VMWare's Workspace One Hub inside of a virtual machine on my Android (Pixel 5) device.
I have tried Parallel Spaces and VMOS and I can install Hub fine but when I try to set up my account, Hub says the account cannot be set up with a rooted device.
How can I turn off root in my virtual machines so Hub can set up my account fine?

For an MDM software like Workspace One "root" just means the OS is not genuine (usually tested using Google SafetyNet).

Any way to trick it with an emulator? Or would my best bet be to remote access a phone?

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Unlock phone with adb without text or keyevent input
Is there a way to unlock an Android phone with adb using adb shell without a keyevent input?

That is screen mirroring, not an Android shell command

android has smart lock feature. never used but afair it can unlock device. if you authorize the right trigger which can be activated by adb commands, it might work. maybe there is partially solution on android enthusiasts already, do a research

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


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I recovered some encrypted pictures, but I can't decrypt them
My girlfriend lost all the pictures from our holidays. She has a Samsung Galaxy A70. She had an external encrypted SD card on it. I managed to recover the lost pictures, but they are encrypted. Do you have any idea what I can do?
I've tried putting back the pictures, and then decrypting the SD but it doesn't work.

"I managed to recover the lost pictures, but they are encrypted" please elaborate

Thanks, of course. The phone simply deleted all the images from the SD starting January 1st. I recovered the files with Diskdrill. I can see the date and time when the picture was taken but can't open them.

adoptable-storage can be FDE or FBE

The encryption was the one that Android uses on the SD card.

sorry that is too broad. don't know what you have done, but most likely it's pointless

Cool, thanks. I have no idea which one of them I'll check that and edit the post. Thanks again.

This is one reason why I recommend not encrypting data unless you have a reason to do so.

@RockPaperLz-MaskitorCasket this is no different from the cases where a hard drive of a PC ends up corrupting very badly. The solution is regular and encrypted backups for both cases. It is not easy to do if one cannot afford additional offline/online storage, but it is reliable.


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How can I direct all network traffic on my devices to 127.0.0.1 with a specified local port on an ssh that I setup on a separate android using termux?
So far, I have only been able to do the following steps:
Install openssh on termux.
pkg install openssh

Then I turned on hotspot on my phone.
Then I found the phone's IP address using ifconfig which was 192.168.126.176 and user name by whoami which was u0_a195 on termux.
I setup the password on termux by typing passwd.
Then I ran sshd -dD on termux.
Then I connected my Windows 10 PC WiFi to the hotspot and opened CMD.
ssh -D 8123 -fqgN u0_a195@192.168.126.176 -p 8022

I typed up the password that I already setup to ssh in.
From here nothing else happens on the CMD
In termux, it said accepted password for u0_a195 from 192.168.126.69 port 60353 ssh2
Then I go to settings on windows10 global proxy settings and select manual proxy.
I set it up as 127.0.0.1:8123
I then tried to connect to the internet on the PC but it didn't work.
What am I doing wrong?

Network troubleshooting goes in steps. First do ping 1.1.1.1 from Termux. Then login to ssh shell from Windows and ping again. If both work then problem is on your Windows side.

SSH port forwarding is for forwarding TCP connection(s). A forwarded TCP connection is not a proxy. You need to install and run a proxy on your phone, otherwise you can't use it as proxy. An HTTP proxy uses special commands that only a proxy understands, therefore you can not simply format a TCP connection. Please see also this very similar question: https://android.stackexchange.com/q/234655/2241

thank you I got it to work by setting up a shadowsocks server on my phone and connecting to that server from my PC and setting the PC's global proxy to localhost:(shadowsocks port).


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internal storage showing up as 0MB
I have a Redmi Note 7 (lavender)
As I was updating between custom ROM versions (Android 11) and the stock ROM (MIUI), I messed up a few things and ended up with broken encryption. The internal storage is showing up as 0MB, possibly due to this. I know the password, and when I enter it into TWRP's password scren, it shows it as being successful, but I'm getting the error: Unable to mount storage
Any ideas on how to fix this?

Your device was shipped with Android 9 which means that it is by default encrypted using the hardware security module. This module contains the key required for decrypting the data, therefore off-device encryption is impossible, sorry.

https://android.stackexchange.com/q/230892 most likely hopeless your only chance is TWRP

@Robert So how do I decrypt it within the device, then?

I don't know how to do this manually. Have you tried to install and use a recovery ROM with decryption feature (mostly TWRP should be able to decrypt the user data partition)?

@Robert TWRP  can decrypt it but the main problem is the password. The 3x3 pattern lock I had can be converted numerically, but there are conflicting sources on how Android arranges those numbers. If it's 123456789 you can easily draw the pattern, but if it's not then I have to figure it out. Is there a tool out there that would brute-force this? I assume with only 9 digits, even if you include 0, it's not that difficult?

https://twrp.me/faq/openrecoveryscript.html

@alecxs I saw it, but it's kinda greek to me. Not the best with this stuff, since it's probably a mounting issue

don't be lazy and read, nobody else will solve your issue. if you think its mounting issue you would see Data successfully decrypted, new block device: '/dev/block/dm-0' in recovery.log (and solution to mount read-only as descripted in links). but its more likely you are facing version binding (like JackSlater)

@alecxs I'm not being lazy. The particular question you linked has a different issue than the one I'm facing, as it seems he can't enter his password/pin to begin with. Also, it appears he's brute-forcing it anyway. In my case, I already know the password now, so it wouldn't be of help.

@alecxs I found the crypto footer but I'm confused which flags I need to look for

@alecxs Here's my thread, maybe you can help: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/how-to-recover-data-from-image.4247673/

@alecxs There must have been a misunderstanding, sorry. I've updated it with the footer.

@alecxs Thanks. I've uploaded the crypto footer file on XDA in the OP.

what does hexdump/xxd say about dm-0? is it decrypted, can you see ext4/f2fs super magic?

Depends on the type of encryption, if it's only 9 bits, it wouldn't take long to crack the encryption with the right tools, but to be honest, unless it's some REALLY valuable data, just format it. If you messed up the encryption though, it could have some bad sectors I wouldn't trust it for any data handling tasks.

Remember: You don't need to decrypt it using TWRP, just format it on a PC with an SD card reader, format it while being booted into android, and there ya go, you have a new SD card ready to go.

What do you mean? Doesn't that erase it? I suppose there's a way to decrypt it from my PC, no?

guess he is talking about MicroSD Card (and of course formatting will delete all data on it)


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Is a specific charger needed to utilize 25W charging?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S10 5G. Is it important for the charger and cable to have certain specifications to utilize the 25W charging capability?

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/177788

Yes and it's usually the OEM supplied / recommended charger. Reasons:
For fast charging, the charger, cable and charging algorithm running inside the Phone need to be able to negotiate the right power (voltage & current) levels to charge the phone as designed. If any of these is not as per design, you won't get the fast charge as advertised.

Charger: I don't know if your device supports Qualcomm or Exynos chip. If it is former, Qualcomm fast charger is backward compatible so any other Qualcomm charger would work but not fast charge. AFAIK, Exynos chip doesn't support this (Related what happens if you plug a non QC 2.0 device into a QC 2.0 charger?)

USB cable needs to be of right capacity as explained here, else you may not get the right charging speed.

TL:DR Go with OEM recommended charger and cable if you want fast charging.

By not backwards compatible for Exynos, do you mean it will not fast charge if QC 3.0 is used on a QC 2.0 device whereas it will for Snapdragon?

As a policy Qualcomm declares this not Exynos (at least I never came across). // I haven't used Exynos phones for a long while but IIRC, it doesn't


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Something is copied to my clipboard that I didn't save there?
I'm running Android version 10 on a Galaxy A51. I'm fairly sure that nobody had physical access to it because it was in my pocket.
The link itself is the phrase "look at this cutie" and a twitter link. Any help would be appreciated.

Every app can have read/write access to clipboard without user interaction. There's an AppOp permission named WRITE_CLIPBOARD which governs this access. There's also a timestamp associated with the permission. So you can check that using ADB to find out which apps accessed the clipboard in last few hours or a day. If not comfortable with CLI, you can find my app helpful: https://github.com/mirfatif/PermissionManagerX. Search for WRITE_CLIPBOARD&:TIME in the app.


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Unable to play some multimedia
I have a P30 lite. When trying to play a video from YouTube (app and web), the video open, but just keeps spinning, and eventually it just freezes. I've tried both with a without WiFi.
I am unable to play videos saved on my device, and neither am I able to play videos sent to me on whatapp, nor audio clips. I am able to play voice notes though.
I've restarted my device, and I've tried logging out of YouTube, reinstalling YouTube as well as trying to use an incognito tab in chrome.
Bar reinstalling my phone, what can I attempt to fix this?

apps depend on google play services. google releases broken updates sometimes. wait for the next release

After two days, the media started working again. It's very possibly that (as @alecxs said), there was an update done in the background that broke something, and then another one that fixed it.
Unfortunately I am unable to give a concrete solution as to how to fix this issue if this happens with anyone else.


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Kingo Root fails and gives error code 0x11f116 (Xiaomi Redmi Note 9)
I unlocked bootloader on my Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 and tried to Root it with Kingo Root mobile and desktop. Both keep failing and mobile gives error code 0x11f116. Now mobile version crashes when lauching. I couldn't find any information about that code, so can anyone help?

https://android.stackexchange.com/tags/systemless-root/info

https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/issues/3985#issuecomment-792006688

Ok, it helped, thx.


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Timer stops without a sound (not every time)
I want understand such a situation. Timer in the standard watch application used to behave unstable. The situation was such that when I started the timer for the first time (after last turning on the phone), the timer sound wasnt not working at the end of time (only silent notification on the top). Another situation was that the sound was sounding for one second and then suddenly stopped. It was exactly the next time after the silent case. And after that the sound could work properly.
It seems to me that clearing the cache and application data helped to solve the problem. But why did this happen? I can well expect this to happen again in the future. The only option I changed was turning off the vibration in timer settings.
My phone is LG Spirit 4G LTE (LG-H440n), Android 6.0, timer sound: "Timer"
Phone wasn't in the silent mode,
All volume sliders were up,
No task killer
...It happened again. In the same way


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Trying to unlock & access a password locked Android cell phone that has screen damage on a small section so I can't input the last # of password
I've tried going around the password with some of those programs they have advertised, where they claim it will eliminate the password requirement and get you right into your Android device. What I don't quite understand is what were they thinking of when in the procedures, one of the steps will involve changing the settings in the locked Android (e.g. Debugging must be on, or load this program onto the locked Android....)  Did someone actually go through some of these processes before releasing program? I mean, how are you supposed to get into the settings of a phone you're locked out of, or let alone, load a program or app onto the android you're trying to unlock? I wanna see that happen.
So anyway, I have an android cell phone, I dropped it, screen cracked and part of the screen has no capacity to input anything, it's like a dead area; screen works there, but no touch entry.
Is there any way of eliminating the passcode step, get into it, and load it up with mirror app to view and control the device? And, getting another device to recognize the locked device via USB wire connect.

Please check out the broken screen Wiki page. BTW: Posting a question that mainly consists of a rant is not very attractive for people who may post answers. In any way you should know that the Internet is full of crap and sharper who trying to get your money or data.

I don't know which programs you're talking about, but there's a grain of truth that if the device already has its USB Debugging enabled, then the program can possibly push and run the file to the Android device, even if the device is still locked behind the lockscreen.

as you already figured out all the progams advertising impossible thing. you simply can't by-pass screen lock

connect mouse via usb-otg adapter, unlock screen, connect bluethooth mouse/keyboard, connect pc via usb, enable usb-debugging and use scrcpy for remote control

or enable screen rotation, maybe no bluetooth required

Things I have done:

Remote into the device
Connect a peripheral input device
Use ADB to send inputs (added bonus of being scriptable and/or AHK/Rainmeter combo)
Use the accessibility tools Assistant Menu or Universal Switches
Screen casting
Specific to Samsung Note series: the phone screen uses two separate touch digitizers.  If one is broken (e.g., touch), the other (in this case the magnetic induction digitizer) may still be functioning.


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Memory card is not visible
I was zipping a file on the memory card, but the process of zipping hangs, then the whole Android phone hangs, and I had to remove the battery. Now the memory card is not visible, I tried it on any other phone and there is the same problem.

Have you initialized the SD-card as portable storage or internal storage? If you have initialized it as portable storage try to read the card in an USB SD-card reader on a PC. If that does not work most likely the SD-card is defect and has to be replaced.

@Robert  An error while zipping the file appears to cause the memory card to be unrecognizable to any device. "If that does not work most likely the SD-card is defect and has to be replaced" It's hard to believe, but it seems like it just happened.

It is hard to believe because you have reversed cause and effect. The SD-card broke, therefore the ZIP operation hung (card does not answer on commands from phone), not the other way around. But as I wrote this is just a guess. The only reliable way to prove it is using a PC + USB SD-Card reader. Try to read the card and if this works try re-partition and re-format the SD-card.


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Android X86 Stuck on detecting android x86 on VMWARE with AMD CPU
If there's a link to a fix in another thread please tell me, but for now here's my problem
I want to use Instagram on an android emulator to upload reels since my phone is dead and I'm under lockdown, Neither any of the Advertised emulators work, I tried Nox,Memu,Bluestacks and LDPlayer and all of them when I install instagram the app stop working.
So back to the point;
I installed VMWare and download an android X86 VMDK and iso image, both doesn't boot, The iso one restarts on detecting android x86 and vmdk one gets stuck on detecting android x86, I tried Virtual box, same result.
How do I fix it?
Specs: Amd Athlon II x45,4GB Ram,Nvidia GT 220

So the Instagram web site isn't sufficient for you? Regarding Andorid-x86 we had a number of questions about that emulator and they all mention that the x86/32bit variant does not boot/work. Only the 64bit version seems to work.

I want to upload reels and photos, which is something you can't do anymore on instagram website

Which Instagram app version do you try to install? Make sure you are using the x86 version https://apkpure.com/de/instagram/com.instagram.android/variant/179.0.0.31.132-APK besides that I would recommend Genymotion or the standard emulator from Android SDK.

Genymotion gives an error when booting, I tried it

Then your CPU most likely misses the required virtualization features or those features are disabled in BIOS. In any way your PC lacks the minimum requirements regarding RAM. An recent Android emulator typically requires 2-4GB RAM for itself.


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Nextbit robin not responding to my touch, instead tapping random places
I have a nextbit robin, but whenever I turn it on, things get selected. It's random where things are being selected for the most part, but it has been opening and selecting stuff in the bottom right corner quite a bit. I thought I saw something about "System UI not responding", but I'm not too sure. The top and bottom part are orange, otherwise nothing changed visually. Restarting the phone hasn't helped, and even in sleep mode it keeps doing stuff like turning on and off the flashlight. I did take it apart a few months ago to replace the battery, and the volume couldn't be redone. Not sure if that has anything to do with it, though

This is called "ghost touch" and is usually related to power/voltage issues (see related question), so the battery replacement might be a factor (is the spec the same as the stock battery for Nextbit Robin?).


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Recover data from Samsung Galaxy A40 after factory reset
I’m trying to recover data (especially the contacts and photos) from a Samsung Galaxy A40 that was recently factory reset. Syncing data to the Google account was disabled, so that route wasn’t successful.
I tried to get an image of the internal flash. However, with adb shell, I can’t access /dev/block/mmcblk0 because of missing permissions.
I didn’t find anything particular helpful in the stock recovery. Running a custom recovery seems to require unlocking the bootloader. However that potentially opens security holes. Will that further wipe the data?
Do you have any other ideas how to recover the contacts and photos from the device?

Are you aware that recent Android devices are by default encrypted and a factory rest usually erases the used key? Thus even if you would manage to read the flash block device you will find just undecryptable garbage.

after factory reset there is nothing to recover anymore, you can therefore safely unlock bootloader now (if you still want)


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What would presently be the best way (if any) to emulate older versions, like Android 2.0 Éclair, on a PC or mac?
I'm not experienced in android development, so I was hoping for a straightforward way of just testing apks designed for 2.3 for example. I'm not sure if Genymotion offers virtual devices for versions below 4.4. I did find one called YouWave that looked interesting, but I am still curious as to what would be the best option. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Warning: performance on older pre-HAXM emulators was slow
My experience at the time: Android AVD not showing anything. only “ANDROID” in the middle of the screen
Do realize that any Google Services like Google Maps or even cloud based notifications for those older APIs probably don't work anymore.
If you need performance, sadly old hardware is your best bet as emulators had to do ARM to x86 translation in addition to mainly software based rendering.
If you are still serious about finding an old emulator see: Where can I download an older version of the Android SDK?
You will have to download the entire package and install the full legacy SDK.
Should you go down the legacy SDK path, please use a small screen size (640x480 or 800x480) as rendering fewer pixels helped performance.


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Make Chrome tell the user that it is downloading
When I click a link to download a file (example), the file gets downloaded without any toast, popup or any indication (except in notification panel) . If I refresh the page again, it asks me if I want to download again as in screen shot below

Chrome :89.0.4389.90 (latest on Play Store, but same behavior noticed on earlier versions too)
Device : Pixel 4a, Android 11, November update (also saw the same behavior on One Plus 7, Android 10)
How can I make Chrome tell me that it's downloading the first time? (including rooted means as a last resort).
I can check the notification panel or downloads but that is an unnecessary step. Similarly, I don't want to create an automated pop up.
I checked settings and flags (Chrome://flags) but couldn't find any way to change this  behavior

This happens because you have set "Ask where to save files" to Off. If you set it to On, the dialog box to "Choose where to download" will be shown. That will be the indication that it is about to download the file (not downloading unfortunately).

@ReddyLutonadio Thanks, I noticed this but as you rightly pointed out , looking for "downloading" indication


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Does "Visited <name of app>" shown on Google's My Activity mean that the app has been installed?
My minor child has 'visited <name of app>' in her Google's My Activity from the Google Play Store multiple times. Does this mean she has/had the app?
She recently got a new phone and was setting it up from her old phone.
This is the actual activity:

Google Play Store
Visited Reddit
Mar 12, 2019, 5:52:48 PM EDT
Google Play Store
Visited Plenty of Fish Free Dating App
Mar 12, 2019, 5:52:48 PM EDT
Google Play Store
Visited Plenty of Fish Free Dating App
Mar 12, 2019, 5:52:37 PM EDT
Google Play Store
Visited Twitter
Mar 12, 2019, 5:52:25 PM EDT

Angelica, it looks like your child is repeatedly looking at apps that are intended for adults and that often involve interacting with them online and/or in person.  It's just my opinion, but that seems quite concerning.  I'm not comfortable suggesting any specific advice on the topic, but you might find helpful advice from a licensed family therapist or psychologist.  There's also Parenting SE (https://parenting.stackexchange.com/), but I don't think most of the people there have any specific training, expertise, or credentialing.

No, Google's My Activity showing "Visited <name of app>" on Google Play Store doesn't mean that the app has been installed. It literally just means that the app detail has been seen on the Google Play Store app, regardless if it's installed or not. In fact, My Activity doesn't even add any entry for app installation, so there's no way to know if an app is installed from there.
Alternative ways to know are:

Searching for "Used <name of app>" in My Activity instead
Browsing Google Play Store's My Apps. It lists apps that have been installed at one time unless the entry has been manually removed by the user from the Play Store app

Based on what you wrote, it sounds like - at the least - the child clicked on the dating app and Google showed a full description of it.  Whether or not the child installed the app or visited their website requires more investigation by the parent(s).  What's really lacking, in my opinion, is that Google shouldn't even be offering age-inappropriate apps to children.  Does Google have a good way to prevent that from happening?

A note to Angelica: To my knowledge, anyone with control of their own Google account can delete all data from that portion of Google's account logs (whether or not they truly delete it, or just hide it from you, I doubt anyone outside of Google really knows).  So although it may be useful for you to know when something is shown there, the absence of data is not indicative of an absence of activity.  Andrew or someone else can likely either confirm this, or correct any errors in my conclusions.


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Recovering bricked Pixel 2 with drained battery
Bit of a weird setup but I have a Pixel 2 phone with offline charging disabled.
Today I wanted to restore the factory image so I booted the phone into TWRP, wiped all the partitions. I then got distracted and the battery drained.
Because I have disabled offline charging the battery won't charge now that the phone is off and the phone won't boot because it doesn't have enough power to switch on.
I have tried starting the phone into recovery but it seems like there is not enough juice even for this. The red LED on top flashes a couple of times but the screen stays black.
Any ideas how I can recover?
One idea I had was to open the phone and put a charged battery from another pixel in it but this involves taking apart two phones which is a bit drastic.

Does it charge in fastboot mode?

Unfortunately I can't get into the bootloader to try,

I have removed the battery from the pixel but I'm having trouble charging it because the battery voltage is 3.85v and all the standard lion/lipo chargers are configured for 3.7v. I have purchased another battery from eBay so I'm hoping it comes with a little bit of charge in it.

voltage is not the critical value, stable current is the important criterion. li-ion chargers are constant current sources https://makingcircuits.com/blog/how-to-charge-a-li-ion-battery-correctly-and-safely


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How do I hard reset/factory reset my Supersonic SC-74JB 7-inch tablet with no physical volume button on?
I forgot the security password to get into my Supersonic (SC-74JB) 7-inch tablet that you need after you turn on the tablet. It doesn't have a physical volume button.
How do I hard reset/factory reset it?

If you have enabled usb debugging, in ADB shell type reboot recovery to boot to your recovery.


text:
How to stop installed apps accessing the unique hardware identifiers for the device?
I understand that Unique hardware IDs such SSAID, IMEI, serial number, and Advertising ID are accessible by installed applications on Android phones and that enterprises and certain governments make use of these IDs (via the installed apps) for purposes of location tracking, profile building, data collection, targeted advertising, and sometimes surveillance/spying. Aside from obvious privacy and freedom issues with the above, I understand that the data generated from this is also potentially inaccurate where a phone changes owner or in the case of any phone which is running more than one profile/account, eg. in a family where more than one person uses the same phone. https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/android-device-identifiers/31755/
How can applications installed on android devices be prevented accessing all these unique hardware IDs (SSAID, IMEI, serial number, Advertising ID, etc.)?  I see nothing specific regarding them in the full list of modifiable permissions for apps, which I am currently looking at using using 3C Toolbox.
Note:
i) I don't care if this means my phone is harder to trace/block if it gets stolen.
ii) IMEI modification/spoofing is not the topic of this question.

Root your Phone and use XPrivacyLua // It works for most part on Android 11 too

Does this answer your question? Does an adblocker defeat the tracking part of the ad module, or just the display of ads?//Question is not duplicate but the answers cover what you ate looking for IMO

It partly answers it I'd say. It doesn't go into full details about how to block app access to all the phone's identifiers, which would presumably end up being pretty much a course in coding for Android, but it does mention most of them, and suggests software that is the best option for it currently, in their opinion.


text:
How does a incoming call show my location?
I got a spam call on my mobile recently and while the phone was ringing, on the screen I can see my location displayed along with incoming person's name.
Why my phone was showing my own location for this particular call?
Does it mean that my phone is compromised or something?
Edit:
Just before the call, I was having a call with a scammer who was trying to trick me to enter my bank details through a phishing site (which I entered some random numbers, but correct phone number)

When many phones receive incoming calls, they display the incoming number as well as an approximate location of the incoming call, usually based on a table lookup for the country code / area code / prefix of the Caller ID of the incoming call.
The Caller ID data is easy to forge, so often scammers set it to match whatever location they are calling (by matching your country code / area code / prefix).  This way, when they call, it looks like a local call, and they believe you are more likely to pick up the phone.  But, in reality, they can be calling from anywhere in the world.
When they set their Caller ID to match the country code / area code / prefix of your phone number, your approximate location will appear on your screen because that is simply the location associated with that Caller ID data.
The best way I have found to circumvent their tactics is to get a phone number with a completely different country code / area code / prefix from where you live or typically travel and different from any of your close contacts.  That way, when an incoming call uses Caller ID data that is similar to yours, you quickly know it is most likely a scammer.

Most cell phone towers know and publish their exact location. If your phone is now in an area with multiple cell phone towers in reception range it is a simple mathematical task to triangulate your position based on the phone tower locations and the signal strength to each cell tower.
The more towers there are in reception range and the smaller the signal covering area of each cell phone tower is, the better the calculated location.
As modern 4G and 5G cells in city areas are getting smaller and smaller the calculated location can be very accurate nowadays.


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Creating a line break using Gboard on Signal and other apps
I want to be able to create a line break while using Gboard on Google Pixel 3X.  This will allow me to start a new paragraph while using Signal or another app.
Any ideas here?

I don't think that this has something to do with the used keyboard. Signal and other messenger apps simply have configured that the return key sends the message. Therefore I would assume that the messenger app itself has to support entering line breaks.

Some good virtual keyboard apps have an option where you can specify whether enter will send a message or insert a line break.  I don't use Gboard, so I don't know if it is one of those good apps, but you may want to look at its settings to check.

Goto Signal -> Settings -> Chats
Disable "Enter key sends"


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Prompted to enter new password for Gmail on Android for no apparent reason
In just one of multiple Gmail accounts on my cell phone, I noticed that an outgoing email sent while away from home (probably over 4G) got stuck on the Outbox without being sent. At first I attributed it to cell phone data coverage issues in the area I was in, but even after connecting to WIFI it didn't send.
When I tried to sort out what was going on with that account, it prompted me to verify it, and didn't recognize the password, having to enter a new one after typing the one that I thought was still valid to verify my ownership of the account. After that everything was good until it happened again twelve hours later (and again, everything went back to normal after changing the password, which at this point, I have changed multiple times from a PC to try and avoid being tracked).
None of the interfaces seemed out of the ordinary within standard routines within Google. The other email accounts worked without a glitch on the same phone.
I don't use 2-step verification for this particular account.
I looked for any POP or forwarding, or other sharing settings that could show that the account was compromised, but everything was fine. And I looked under the account activity, and all the changed password events were done by me.
There was only one thing unexpected under the Access tab: an address from out-of-state that I couldn't reverse ID:

Mobile United States (PA) (2600:1002:b117:ccd7:e506:e318:fc5c:a2cf)

I don't recognize this address, but it doesn't show like there was any password change done by this address, and there were no emails sent or received during that time. Critically, I did not received any notification of an unrecognized new device logging on to my account, and all the devices listed as having accessed my account are mine (under a separate tab in the Settings - not in the list of recent activity, where this IP address appear). In terms of the time, I could have accessed the account from my phone, and only from my phone, which appears elsewhere but not in that entry. One option is that the IP address changes when not using the home network WIFI - so it was possibly my activity using cell data. But that doesn't explain why I was prompted to enter a new password.
I checked my android for malware with no returned flags.
What could be going on? If the account was compromised, how can I prove it, and how can I find out what sort of access the intruder could have gained? And are the steps I took good enough?

I have all but confirmed through toggling my cell phone from Wi-Fi to 4G that the long address is indeed the network IP address (Verizon service) that my phone used to access my Gmail address when I was in transit (outside the Wi-Fi boundaries).
Although this is a partial reply to the question, and in truth I still can't figure out why I was prompted to enter a different password, there has been zero strange activity that I could detect, or that Google recorded on any tracking or notification system.
So what did I learn:

Cell tower IP addresses may not match the State you are connecting from under the Last account activity at the bottom of the Inbox on the Gmail display on a laptop.
Confirm this by going to Settings on Android, selecting System, About phone, Network, and watching the IP address change as the phone is switched from Wi-Fi to 4G.
On Android, go to Manage your Google Account under Settings, then Security, and check Recent security activity to make sure any password changes were legit, and there were no new devices signed in. Also check Your devices under the same tab to make sure all devices are recognized.
If not your phone (for 2-step verification) it is at least worthwhile to link the account to some other Google account, since the absence of notifications as to any attempt at logging onto the account by an unrecognized device is reassuring.


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Stuck on Mi Flash for an hour now
Hi, I'm stuck on the following line in Miflash for over an hour now:
[20:58:19 3825d80]:MiFlash 2018.5.28.0
[20:58:19 3825d80]:Thread id:12 Thread name:3825d80
[20:58:19 3825d80]:image path:D:\Downloads\root20032021\cepheus_eea_global_images_V12.0.4.0.QFAEUXM_20210115.0000.00_10.0_eea
[20:58:19 3825d80]:env android path:"D:\Downloads\root20032021\MiFlash20180528\Source\ThirdParty\Google\Android"
[20:58:19 3825d80]:script :D:\Downloads\root20032021\cepheus_eea_global_images_V12.0.4.0.QFAEUXM_20210115.0000.00_10.0_eea\flash_all.bat
[20:58:19 3825d80]:Physical Memory Usage:3317760 Byte
[20:58:19 3825d80]:start process id 4372 name cmd
[20:58:20 3825d80]:info:$set CURRENT_ANTI_VER=1
[20:58:20 3825d80]:info:$for /F "tokens=2 delims=: " %i in ('fastboot -s 3825d80 getvar anti 2>&1 | findstr /r /c:"anti:"') do (set version=%i )
Is it safe to unplug the device and try again?

the script hangs on reading info via fastboot. is the rabbit on your phone?


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How to restore screen to normal size after turning off the MIUI optimization?
My phone is Xiaomi Redmi Note 9, how can I restore the screen size of my phone after turning off the MIUI optimization even if I turned it back on? Before i have small screen size and small fonts 'coz it's what i prefer and now they got bigger. Please help i don't know what to do.

You need to go to Additional Settings > Accessibility > Vision > Display (or simply search for Display size) and change that setting if you have it to on and off, for example I had it on XS but it showed bigger, so I put it on S, saved it, then put it back on XS and it's back as it used to be.


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Can't format SD card as internal storage
Today I installed my first custom ROM (Lineage OS 17.1, official page) on my old Motorola phone (Moto G3 Turbo edition, XT1516). Everything great until I wanted to format my SD card as internal storage, you know, that kind of format android uses that doesn't allow you to view its contents if you plug it on a PC. Well... at the moment to configure it, it asks me if I want to format the SD card, if I select format SD card it formats as portable storage as default (screenshots in Spanish).

And to get that menu again I need to remove the SD card from the phone, erase the partition and try again. I can exit that pop up menu touching another part of the screen. This time it shows me two options, first, additional storage (Almacenamiento adicional in Spanish) which is only for apps, etc and to use it only on the phone, the second one is portable storage, the one I don't want. The problem is the first option is disabled!!, what am I doing wrong? If I insert the SD card already formatted as FAT32 the configuration menu doesn't appear and uses it as portable storage.

It seems that they disabled that function for the Motorola phones. But I found a way to force it using ADB commands. Here are two links with instructions to do so if someone faces the same situation as me.
How to turn a portable SD card into internal storage via ADB command?

How to Easily Make MicroSD Card Become Internal Memory Without Root – No More Insufficient Storage

There is a reason so many OEM's disable adopted storage, because it's terrible and invites data loss.


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sftp to lineage
In lineage 17.1 I installed the app SSH server (by Banana Studio, from Play store).
When starting and accessing by my PC (smartphone and PC are in WiFi) via sftp -P 2222 myuser@192.168.0.7 I see no files there, but there are photos in the smartphone folder /storage/emulated/0/DCIM/Camera.
When doing cd storage the connection is closed. My PC has ubuntu 18.04.

Could you mention which "ssh server" app? I found multiple apps with the same name but different capitalization: Ssh server and SSH Server.

@Andrew T. SSH Server by Banana Studio. (But I do not have to stick to this one.)

cd storage is not a valid command. You should do cd /storage/emulated/0. But that would work only if your SSH server app has Storage permission granted.

@Irfan Latif When I do cd /storage/emulated/0 then it says "Connection closed" and exits. I cannot see whether SSH server app has the permissions.

Use OpenSSH on Termux: https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Remote_Access#OpenSSH

@Irfan Latif After installing termux, starting sftp and executing get * it says remote readdir("/storage/emulated/0"): Permission denied.

Grant Storage permission as already said.

OK, that works. I have not knewn how to. But it's just going to Settings -> Apps -> Termux -> Permissions) and granting (i e. checking the box).

Comment of @Irfan Latif solved the problem. Going to Settings -> Apps -> Termux -> Permissions) and granting (i e. checking the box).


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Help using RDP via a tether
I run a PC which controls my astronomical telescope equipment, it works off batteries as there is no mains power at the site. There is mobile service at the site and I've successfully tethered my phone to the windows 10 PC via a USB cable tether, so I can get internet access using a browser on the PC.
I would like to use my PC at home to control the remote PC via its phone tether and I usually use Microsoft's Remote Desktop software to do this when connecting to PCs on a LAN or over the internet, but I can't seem to find the tethered PC's connection credentials. I'm probably missing something I guess.
I've searched for solutions on the internet such as ' how to rdp to a phone tethered PC', but not had any luck with that.
Could anyone explain how to use the remote desktop client to login to my tethered PC?
Many thanks for help.

The main problem of RDP is that you need a public IP address for directly establishing the RDP connection on port 3389.
In your case there are two obstacles which make it next to impossible:

Nearly all mobile data plans do not grant you a public IP address. Instead you are getting a private IP address from a carrier internal network. To access servers on the Internet this network uses carrier-grade-NAT (NAT on carrier side, this implies that you can not configure a port mapping as you can do on DSL home routers which also do NAT).
The main reason for most carriers (nowadays) is that they don't have enough public IPv4 addresses to assign every device an own. And mobile networks providing IPv6 services (und may be a public IPv6 address) may exists but I have not yet encounter one.
Some carriers allows communication within this private network, in such a case you could use a second cell phone for the RDP client and then connect to the carrier network internal IP address of RDP server. The problem is how to get this IP - regular dynDNS clients I know only give you the public IP.

For tethering the phone acts as NAT router, therefore even if you would manage to get direct access to the IP of the cell phone attached to the RDP server you would still need to forward the RDP port from the phone to the PC.

Sidenote: Vodafone provides IPv6 addresses in India, but I don't know if they are public addresses too. https://m.economictimes.com/industry/telecom/telecom-news/india-becomes-largest-ipv6-subscriber-seeks-self-reliance-in-internet-domain/articleshow/80675448.cms

Thank you for this detailed explanation I thought this might be the case (i.e. not workable) as I've done a fair bit of research. For anyone wanting to do this control of a pc which has a tethered connection, it can be done with Teamviewer (and probably other lookalikes), but it's not RDP.

@paulK Yes, Teamviewer and similar remote tools are an alternative. They work because they use a central server all remote controllable PCs and all clients connect to. The traffic is then routed through this central server.


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Some App keeps crashing / can't enter the settings
I have a Pixel 3 XL running Android 11 security update March 5th 2021
I get constant popups that flash for a sec saying app stopped working and goes away, I can't tell which app it is.
Other things I noticed,
The google news feed (swipe left) is gone.  I tried to go to the home settings and toggle it back on and off and it doesn't come back.  But also in the home settings if I click At a Glance it sends me to a setting screen and then kicks me back out.
The app called Google (not chrome) does not open, if I go to the settings for that app and try to clear storage, a screen pops up called Google Search Settings but then kicks me back out to the previous screen
I did a clear storage on Pixel Launcher and I wiped out my home screen, but what ever the app is it keeps crashing.
How can I determine what app is causing the issue?

So it was actually the app called Google.  Now why you can't uninstall it from your phone, by dragging it to the top, you can go to the app info page and on the bottom of the page is a link that says installed from the Play Store.  If you click that it will take you to the play store app page.  From there I was able to uninstall and reinstall the app.  Now google search voice and news are working again.


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How to separate settings for each user with Android's multi-user?
I had to use one android device for a while with multiple people, so I adopted the multi-user function. This seems to work at first because it separates video and audio files for each user.
However, changes to some settings (private DNS settings) also affect other users' settings. For this reason, it takes time and effort to correct these settings by yourself each time the user is switched.
How can I avoid such configuration interference? I'm using Xperia 10 II.


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How to fix bootloop (C5 PRO SM-C5010)but saving USERDATA
my device C5 pro (SM-C5010), Android 8, Fully STOCK ,knox not tripped, firmware: dont know exactly as i am on bootloop but it is Hong Kong.
PROBLEM: I remove cache memory from recovery but then it didn't start , it is in continuous restart bootloop. In recovery it is also giving error "dm-verity verification failed".
now i want my imp data safe/backup(including secure folder)as it contains my 7 years of data.. Please someone help what should i do to save userdata as well as keep knox un-touched..
I tried many softwares like dr fone fonLab etc etc , drained its battery completely then charged, alot of Google searches, but bootloop is not fixing neither I get any solution.

find exact ROM version your device currently is running. download files and flash with Odin3. make sure to use HOME_CSC (instead CSC) do not flash PIT/bootloader or anything that will trigger re-partitioning. i recommend to test on another unimportant device first, until you figured out how exactly to protect userdata while flashing. heimdall may work better


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How can I dump the fscrypt per-file nonce by getfattr command?
According to document of kernel about fscrypt: Filesystem-level encryption (fscrypt):

Per-file encryption keys
Since each master key can protect many files, it is necessary to “tweak” the encryption of each file so that the same plaintext in two files doesn’t map to the same ciphertext, or vice versa. In most cases, fscrypt does this by deriving per-file keys. When a new encrypted inode (regular file, directory, or symlink) is created, fscrypt randomly generates a 16-byte nonce and stores it in the inode’s encryption xattr. Then, it uses a KDF (as described in Key derivation function) to derive the file’s key from the master key and nonce.

It says that the nonce is stored in xattr. But I can not dump them by getfattr command with dump parameter.
How can I get the nonces?

tar --xattrs the file and check with hex editor

thanks @alecxs , There is no tar and other utilities can be used on my device. I have to build a special executable for it. Is there any other more direct way?

gnu tar binary you can find prebuilt in open gapps. there is easier way but requires lsattr (maybe as busybox applet)


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Toggle between dark and light theme in Google Maps
Can we toggle between light and dark theme in Maps?
Maps has shown a message after a new update asking to choose between dark and light theme. After selection (dark, which was illegibly dark under daylight and especially sunlight, or maybe it's my presbyopia) the way to switch out of that without changing the whole system theme was to uninstall (downgrade) the app, update it and then chose the light theme when aforementioned message popped up again. My system theme is dark, and I want it that way, but I don't want dark for Maps, except maybe when it's really dark outside.
Maps 10.62.1
Android 10

You can change it from settings (to access settings, tap on the icon with user initial/user profile icon, next to microphone), then theme, wherein the same dialogue pops up, that you had initially to choose a theme.

Tested on Android 10 & 11, Maps version 10.62.1


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Open Wifi QR code on Android 8
I have an old Wileyfox 2x with Android 8.1 on it.
When I try to open a 'WiFi QR code', instead of creating a new WiFi connection, the pseudo-URL is just opened in a browser window.
Is this even possible on Android 8, and if so, do I maybe need another scanner app? I'm using Firefox's built-in scanner now, but perhaps that only supports http links?
If it's not supported by Android natively, are there other ways of opening such a code? Could this be done by an app?

Does this answer your question?: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/215776/what-versions-of-android-lets-you-share-saved-wifi-using-qr-code

@rockpaperlz-mask-it-or-casket I had found that question, but it isn't clear to me if it's about opening a QR code, or generating one.

How QR will be handled depends on the app, so there's a big possibility that Firefox's built-in scanner only supports for browsing. Try another app like Barcode Scanner which is possibly one of the most popular barcode scanner apps for general purpose on Android.

@andrewt Thanks, that app works perfect, the Wifi connection is made and the AP's login page is opened. Out of curiosity I'd still like to know if this is something completely done by the scanner app, or that some level of support from Android is required.

In addition to the barcode/QR code scanner that Andrew mentioned, if you're interested in an open-source solution, you can also try the excellent SecScanQR: https://f-droid.org/packages/de.t_dankworth.secscanqr/   I have not tested it for this particular use, but if you try it for this purpose, let us know if it works!

@RockPaperLz-MaskitorCasket I tried seqscanqr, but it doesn't support this particular kind of action. It shows a textual representation of the WIFI: pseudo URL but does not provide an option to connect to the network. BTW Barcode Scanner is open source too (Apache 2 license), but does not seem to be actively developed anymore.

@Berend Thank you so very much for the update.  It's much appreciated!

For completeness sake, here's my own answer, thanks to @andrew-t.
It looks as though parsing a Wifi QR code is not something provided by Android, at least not in version 8.1.
The Barcode Scanner app does recognize the type of QR code, and opens the login page for the Access Point.


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How do I completely mute the sound in phone calls?
I don't mean I want to mute the ringtone, and I don't mean I want to mute my own microphone. I want to mute the sound of the other person on the call.
When I use the volume control during a call, I can put the slider all the way down to zero but the call is still audible - either the slider only acts on the ringtone, or the slider is capped at a minimum (non-zero) volume level. How do I make the call completely silent?
(For context: I make calls using a relay service, where I type, and a remote assistant speaks and types the response back to me. This service involves making the call on my phone, so I still get the sound of the people talking - I want to silence this.)

All phones should have TTY/TTD modes.  Would either of these modes help in this situation?  I realize that you aren't using a TTY machine, but I wonder if a TTY/TTD mode would help.

I just want to say that this seems to be a common question and it's weird that there's still no simple solution. Another situation when you really need this is when you're in a conference call from two devices simultaneously. Then you'll have echo unless you have the audio output muted on one of the devices (same for input).

Posting an answer that took me too long to find.
Settings > Accessibility > Hearing Enhancements > Mute all sounds

Looks like this is Samsung's customization. Google Pixel doesn't have Hearing Enhancements in Accessibility. Otherwise, could you mention the device model and Android version for completeness?

Indeed there is a minimum output volume for the audio coming from the call.
There might be a hidden settings, although it might be difficult to find or to apply to some phone models or Android verions.
There is also an option that is probably applicable to all phones: you can plug any headphones using the audio jack (assuming your phone has an audio jack, which perhaps all Android phones still have).  This redirects the audio to the headphones, and if you don't wear the headphones you will not hear it.  Which is what you were asking for, isn't it?
Notice: if you plug a headset (headphones with included microphone), your phone will most certainly use the headset's microphone, which may or may not be what you want.  If you plug headphones (without microphone) your phone will continue to use its internal microphone.


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Cannot find apps
I have the Samsung Galaxy S21 5G. So far, it has been great, however, this morning, I noticed my "games" folder has disappeared from my homescreen. I assumed I had accidentally deleted it while in my pocket or something. However, when I swipe up to look at installed apps, I cannot see them anywhere, and they aren't the only apps that have gone missing. If I search for them in the search bar, they appear and I can open them, but there are no icons anywhere. They appear on the apps list in the settings, and they appear as installed in the play store. So where are the icons?!

Seems to be an issue with your launcher. Try rto reset it (clear data & cache), or install another to check if you the apps will become visible again.

@ReddyLutonadio which launcher? and where do I find the reset options?

And I can launch the apps fine if I search for them, so I wouldn't think it is the launcher

@Curious if your app launcher doesn't show the apps  out of a sudden but only shows them when searched for, then it means either the launcher offers app hiding feature and you somehow activated it and got those apps hid from launcher, or the launcher has a bug where it doesn't show some app icons at all. Try installing an another launcher app, such as Nova launcher, and see if the issue persists. Otherwise, clear data for your default launcher app. To know about it, see https://android.stackexchange.com/q/208963/96277

@Firelord I don't even know what the launcher is. The apps were showing fine up until today where they are now gone. So how do I clear the data and cache of this launcher? If I go to settings>apps, then it just gives me a list of apps

Samsung's default launcher is One UI Home. I must be listed among your apps when you go to Settings Apps. In case it is not listed, click the 3-dot menu and select Show system apps.

@ReddyLutonadio I have found One UI Home, if I go to One UI Home settings > Hide apps, then the ones I am looking for don't even show up as an option?

@ReddyLutonadio I have found where the icons are... They have gone to the game launcher. No idea how to stop that happening?

I don't know how the game launcher works as I don't own recent Samsung phones, so I can't advise on "how to stop that happening". Maybe if it is possible, you can disable if you never use it. Also try to place the apps ' shortcuts that disappeared back by using the drawer and placing them on your home screen


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Backup of Music Playlists
I’m trying to make a backup of my music playlists, that I've created using the Samsung Music app on my Samsung Galaxy A6 (Andriod 10).
So far I’ve not been able to locate where these playlists are stored, and neither a way to extract them.
Most forum questions about this problem either hold old outdated answers, or none at all.
Does anyone know a way to extract Music Playlists (preferably as a text file)? Or by using some app for it?
Regards

I still don’t know where the files are stored, but for others with same wish for text file-backups, the app: "Playlist Manager" can do the job.
It basically has a "Share A Playlist" function which allows you to share in text format.

see my answer below, I found out where the exported playlist files are stored: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/247531/81963

I have been using Playlist Backup on older Androids, and it works well. It creates a text file for any playlist backedup and can be found in the "PlaylistBackup" directory. Please confirm if it works on newer phones.

"Manage Playlists"
in Settings of "Samsung Music" offers the ability to export and import playlists (text files, more details below).

The availability of this feature  seems to be dependent on the Android version. My old Samsung phone has Android 10, the new one has Android 12 (Android 13 now).
Both have the same Samsung Music App V 16.2.27.5 installed. Higher versions also have this functionality.
Only on the Android 12+13 phone I could find

Samsung Music: ... 》 Settings 》Manage Playlists 》Export My Playlists

and

Samsung Music: ... 》Settings 》Manage Playlists 》Import Playlists

Hint: Settings can be found in the three dots menu (...) on the upper right corner of the Samsung Music App.
The playlists are stored in *.m3uformat in the internal memory, directory Music. This is an editable text format.

How to backup / restore Playlists:

Use case I: New phoneI was able to transfer the playlists from the old to the new phone by using Samsung Smartswitch. Just ensure the music is on the target phone before running the Smartswitch (use TotalCommander with WiFi plugin etc to copy it). Also important: After copying, run Samsung Music App and give it the time to discover the music on your target phone. Then finally, run SmartSwitch on both phones to transfer apps + settings.

Use case II: Same phone, new SD cardRecently got a bigger micro SD card and transferred the files via PC using a card reader.
I figured out that you can back up all your playlists as described before.
Then, shutdown the smartphone and swap the SD cards (insert the new one with all the files in the same folders on it).
Boot the smartphone, then go to ... 》Settings 》Manage Playlists 》Import Playlists and import all playlists backed up to internal disc earlier.
After that you will see the old playlists with 0 files as well as new ones with the correct file references in it.
Seems the Music App fixes the card ID in the playlists when you import them on the fly.
You may now delete the old playlists with 0 files in them.

Note: In most cases this works fine, but I found that in a few cases the exported playlist cannot be reimported, possibly due to lame programming in the code of the music app. In those cases import ends up with an error (0 files imported).

This explains the built in tools to back up and restore playlists.

It also describes the folder used.


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Add more clock speeds
I know that the phone's kernel contains the clock speeds but is there a way to add your own clock speeds?
What do I have to do to edit the kernel, where is the the clock speed data stored?

On most customROMs with root permissions you can configure the CPU governator which controls the clock speed for the different scenarios (idle, load and everything in between).

@robert but how to I add new clock speeds to the kernel?

As far as I know you need a rooted device and your ROM has to support CPU genvernator (not sure if this is the case for regular ROMs from Android manufactures). Please see for example this page: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/changing-cpu-governor-with-adb.4193163/


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Tablet Homescreen Widgets for Specific Webpages
I'm looking for a way to make a custom shortcut on the home screen to open a specific browser to a specific site.  As a hypothetical example, I want to create a shortcut to birdwatch.com/watchnow with the birdwatch.com logo as the shortcut with a custom size and design.
I know how to launch specific apps as a custom widget with KWGT but I am unsure how to launch specific webpages.
I also know how to do it from within a browser but that leaves just a small 1x1 regular shortcut on the screen.
Does anybody know of a solution?

Typically within each web browser there is a function to create an "desktop icon". Have you tried that?

Yes, but that will only leave a little 1x1 shortcut I cannot customize.  I'm wanting to make a custom-sized widget link with text or an image as the shortcut.
I'm sort of stuck with it working halfway on both sides.  I can get the link working from a browser shortcut or a fancy link that doesn't go where I want with a widget.

That you can't customize the link is the fault of the web browser which created it. There are apps that can be used alternatively https://play.google.com/store/search?q=web%20link%20icon%20creator%20launcher&c=apps


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How can I make my android turn the screen on and unlock when I touch the screen?
I want to mount an android tablet on the wall, and want it to turn the screen off when not in use, but turn back on whenever you tap the screen (similar to waking up a computer while jiggling the mouse). Is there any way to accomplish this?

On some devices there is an option to "wake up on double tap the screen". I have seen this on multiple Lenovo devices. Not sure if other manufacturer have similar options.

Turning the screen on when touched would require kernel level support. The workaround would be to check if your device supports turning the screen brightness to 0 (or so dim that you can accept it just as dark) nits. Try some apps from Play Store to see which app is successful in fully turning down the brightness. The first part, turning the screen off when not in use can be done using an automation app. Try  with Automate (Llama), MacroDroid or Tasker automation app.


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Galaxy S9: Most apps keep stopping
Galaxy S9: All day, most apps that I open will stop and immediately close. Apps running i the background repeatedly give the message "(app) keeps stopping".
I've removed the SD card, and started it in Safe Mode. I also wiped the cache partition and cleared the Chrome cache.
I'm using 57.1 GB out of 74, and memory shows 2.3 GB out of 4 used.

Uninstall Android System Webview on the play store. I just did this and it fixed the issue.

That did it, thanks! I guess this was a known issue! In fact, Play Store says Webview was updated on my phone today -- and it had a lot of 1-star reviews yesterday!

+1, this did the trick on a Samsung Galaxy A5. How did you find out about this?


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How to recover data from image?
I have an encrypted complete .img of the userdata partition.
What tools or steps can I take, with the assistance of my phone, to decrypt this image?
It is my understanding that decrypting it without the phone is usually not possible. Given that I do have the phone however, what can I do?

https://android.stackexchange.com/q/234692


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com.google.android.trichromelibrary causes many Android apps to crash
Recently, apps that are fine an hour ago now crash when I open them. The crash report message seems to be caused by a null pointer exception (NPE) in com.google.android.trichromelibrary.
Apps affected for me:

Gmail
Dashlane

Is it just me, or is there actually something wrong with the library? How can I fix these affected apps?
Crash report:
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Build fingerprint: 'Xiaomi/polaris/polaris:10/QKQ1.190828.002/20.9.4:user/release-keys'
Revision: '0'
ABI: 'arm64'
Timestamp: ...
pid: ..., tid: ..., name: com.dashlane >>> com.dashlane <<<
uid: ...
signal 11 (SIGSEGV), code 1 (SEGV_MAPERR), fault addr 0x0
Cause: null pointer dereference

    ...

backtrace:
    #00 pc 00000000038621f0 /data/app/
com.google.android.trichromelibrary 438909034-YaxP9ttrIDcQBfleP5vm7Q==/base.apk!
libmonochrome_64.so (offset 0x646000) (BuildId: ... )

(click here for the screenshot of the bug report)

This library is an integral part of Chrome and therefore shouldn't be the cause. However try uninstalling updates to Chrome and web view to see if crashes stop //If they don't the problem could be with those apps like Gmail and uninstall their updates to cleck

Follow-up by Google regarding the issue: Google explains why WebView crashed Android apps last month and upcoming mitigations

It was a WebView issue and it has been fixed as mentioned here:
https://www.google.com/appsstatus#hl=en&v=issue&sid=1&iid=aa75515d184a2423be444d676b7ebf45

Updating Android System WebView and Google Chrome via Google Play
should now resolve the issue for all users.

Navigate to Play Store app
Search for Android System WebView (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.webview)
Select the "Update" option
Repeat these steps for Google Chrome (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.android.chrome)

For more information about updating Android apps please see:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/113412

This assumes you can get WebView to update itself. I've tried several times and it just spins and says it's "pending" :( I "uninstalled" it (updates, that it) and all my crashing apps went back to working fine, but it still won't update itself. Maybe tomorrow...

@FreeMan you can sideload an update for an app. Download the newest apk (using Raccoon or APKMirror.com) and install it. That's it. If the APK carries the same signature the installed app it would install (confirming that the downloaded apk is indeed genuine and not compromised by a third-party), otherwise, the installation would fail.

This answer assume the user has registered an account with Google. It would be better to provide instructions on how to get the APK from public sources.

Downgrading "Android System WebView" (which seems to be related to the Trichrome Library) solved this problem on my phone.


text:
List devices/computers that have been authorized for ADB USB Debugging
I want to know which devices I have already connected to my computer with my ADB or know which computers I have connected to my phone previously. Either way works for me.
adb devices -l does not show anything important, because it only displays currently attached.
I would prefer a way without root (on phone), but will accept any help.

You can see which devices were authorized by you on your phone to interact with it through  adb. You would need root access though.
Go into the directory /data/misc/adb/. There would be two files:

adb_keys
adb_temp_keys.xml

adb_keys shows the public key of the other device followed by its user@machine name format. The user@machine should tell you which machines or the users from other device tried to interact with your device over adb.

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 root@slackware.aes
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 neon@neon

adb_temp_keys.xml also has the same information as in adb_keys file except that it is formatted in XML and also shows last connection time (in UNIX Epoch format).
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8' standalone='yes' ?>
<adbKey key="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 neon@neon" lastConnection="1616486869211" />
<adbKey key="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 root@slackware.aes" lastConnection="1616487035512" />

Thanks for the answer. Does it work even when the user has pressed the "Revoke usb debugging authorizations" or something like that? Sorry for late reply by the way.

I have not tried this, but I don't think it should have a record of those devices.

Oh. Well anyway I am going to mark this as an answer because atleast it works given that the user hasn't pressed the button. Thank you for the generous help.


text:
I can't downgrade webview nor update it because I'm locked out of play store. What can I do?
My mom's phone (yes, I know what you're thinking :-) suffered from the webview update glitch yesterday.
She thought that for whatever reasons it might have something to do with her credentials, so she set a new password from another device.
I know about the fix for that glitch, but can't do much about it using the recommended methods because now she's locked out of her Google account on her phone. Obviously, trying to update her credentials on her phone must bring webview which doesn't work.
It does sound like some kind of catch 22 that my very limited knowledge can't help me getting out of.
Any help would greatly appreciated, thanks for your attention.

If it is just for Play Store access you can create another Google account on device and this time save and write down user name and password!

Thanks for your reply Robert. Well I can't do any of that because I wouldn't be able to log into that account on the phone because that would bring the webview glitch back.

You can try to install Chrome respectively Android System WebView app (depends on the Android version which one is used for displaying WebViews) manually e.g. from ApkPure.com ApkMirror.com or a similar site. The web browser if not shown as WebView works, only the WebView itself is bugged.

I'm not certain of fully understanding you, do I need to try and bypass webview in favour of chrome ? Chrome is already installed on the phone and it seems to work fine, but how can I use it to log her back into her Google account on the phone ?

Chrome stand-alone works without problems, but if Chrome is used as System WebView component every app that uses it will crash if you have the defect version installed. I had this situation on my device. But this assumes Chrome is used as WebView provider. You can check which app is used as WebView in Android Developer Options (hidden by default).

Thanks Robert. I've enabled developer options, and went to see which app is used as webview provider. It's Chrome, the other option being webview itself but it appears to be disabled and can't be selected.

Then you have to upgrade chrome to the latest version to fix the WebView problem.

It worked, thanks Robert !

I've just done what @Robert wisely advised me to do which is to use an APK app to install the newest copy of Chrome to my mom's phone and thus benefit from the bug free version of webview to update her credentials and regain control of her phone. That's worked a treat.
Thanks Robert :-)


text:
How to find google account of locked phone we found to return it to owner
We found a phone in the park and would like to return it to the owner.

Samsung Galaxy S10
Battery was dead
Charged the phone, its locked by pin code, not registering on network
Took off SIM card and installed to another phone to wait and receive a call from someone/owner
SIM card not registering in the network, looks like it was locked/reissued

Is there any way to find Android or Samsung account tied to this phone, so we can send an email to owner to return it?
Thanks.

There was this question once where I asked the OP to check if the stolen phone's SIM card had any useful contacts. It had. Did you check the contacts in the SIM and is it also a dead end?

Now, this would not be possible for everyone to do, but if you ever happen to find a lost item somewhere and if you somehow has a pen and paper or can quickly arrange it, write your contact information (try using Firefox Relay to prevent abuse of email by any random person who might want to send you an email) on it and leave it there. Even though the hope is very feeble a lot many folks try to retrace their path when they have lost something in the hope that their item just might still be lying there. Your paper can give them the right hope.

@Firelord good point, i didnt check any contacts on SIM card, will try to. however, modern phones typically don't keep anything there....

If possible, you can try creating a open access wifi (no password needed) and keep the device in its range. Don't setup any captive portal. See if the device gets automatically connected to it. For howsoever long you can afford to, keep the wifi open so that the owner has the chance to locate the device on their Find my phone web interface. Some routers allow hosting both a protected and open wifi access and limiting access through MAC (just saying if you have a neighbor who might abuse your open wifi).

It's definitely mine... send it to me. ;)  Just kidding, of course, but I wanted to say that I think it's really great that you want to return it to the owner.  A few years ago, I returned a nice phone I found to its owner, and I know it really made their life a lot easier.

Keep mobile charged. Owner may send message or call. Try to restore mobile, it ask for google account. May be you can see email id.
Find IMEI number, contact service center for owner or police station for lost complaint.
Try to backup mobile use adb of usb debugging is on. You can find some contact from mobile.

adb backup won't give anything useful if the device remain encrypted. Also, it would frustrate the user to make sense of backed up data.

Owner can't call or send message since phone can't register in cellular network and apparently can't connect to wifi as well.


text:
How clearing cache solves all your problems?
My phone is Android A30s. I recently have encountered two problems: I couldn't download an application from appstore and I couldn't open the Yahoo app. Both problems I solved by deleting the cache from the respective apps. The question is: how does it work? How deleting the cache resolved these two problems, exactly? Thanks!

Did you read the tag wiki of cache tag you used?

I did now, but it still doesn't explain the mechanisms I'm looking for..

corrupted app data is cleared and the app responds as it should (when you clear cache)//If your doubt is why does app data get corrupt? That's a good question and should be a separately asked

Thank you so much!


text:
When some program crashes, how can I send the feedback to myself?
When a program crashes, I can view the crash info by clicking on send feedback, then preview. However it is sometimes quite inconvenient to go through the error log on the phone and I would instead prefer to view it on my computer. How can I email the feedback to myself, or in some other way view the error log on my computer?

I use Android 10 on unrooted Samsung Galaxy S9.

The common way would be to connect the device via USB, enable ADB and then execute adb logcat which should hopefully show the error if the adb log has not yet overwritten it with new messages.

@Robert thanks, bummer, amazing that there's no way for the user to have a convenient access to the log

May be Google did not had us 0.01% of all Android users in mind that are capable of interpreting an Android app crash log/stack trace ;)

@Robert true but allowing the user to copy paste the error log that they can view in the preview doesn't seem to require that much coding resources :/


text:
My Newly Installled Games Keep Crashing
I have downloaded 3 new games: Idle Slayer, Shadow Hunter and Archero. They are all small games that don't require that much space or graphic processing. I was able to play them for 3 days with no issues whatsoever but out of nowhere they started to crash. I open them, it shows the title screen for a second and it closes entirely on it's own. This problem doesn't happen with any other games or apps I previously had installed. I have a Huawei Mate 20 Lite, it has 25,40 GB of free space out of 64 GB and 4 GB of RAM. I clean up space weekly. I cleared the caches of all the previously mentioned games and it still kept happenning. So I uninstalled Archero and Idle Slayer because I knew I had them connected to Google Games so I wouldn't lose progress. When I reinstalled them they worked but when I closed them and tried to open them up again, they had the same problem of crashing and it's been that way ever since. My phone's not old, it's been 1 and a half years since I've bought it and I haven't installed from nor visited sketchy websites. My software is up to date and it's not a problem of internet, I've checked that angle too. Can someone please shed light on what I can do to resolve this issue? I quite enjoy these games and I worry it'll affect future installments to my phone. Thank you from advance.

Yesterday Google pushed a defect Chrome/WebView update which causes all apps to crash that are trying to display web pages inside the app. See this question for a resolution Android com.google.android.trichromelibrary causes other apps to crash

Oh thank you so much. Updating the Android System WebView from the Google Play Store solved it. I owe you one.


text:
Why is sync feature not working in my phone?

No account is syncing in my android phone since 25 feb 2021.
Already tried

Rebooting
updating all apps
resetting settings only(cannot reset storage)
removing and re adding account.
different internet connections.
tried same google accounts on other android phones, they work  with sync fine.

I can't erase whole data(even after backup), personal reasons.
Phone model : realme 5 pro
Android version : 10
Please help

You should edit your question and give a little more details like used device model, Android version. Have you tried different Internet connections?

Try signing out of your Google account and signing in //Also are the Gmail accounts to which Google accounts are associated with - are these Google accounts all added to the device?

I removed all my google accounts and added just one google account again. Then it synced.  Getting 'access to keep is unauthorised' though. I think it's a separate issue.

I removed all my google accounts and added just one google account again. Then it synced. Getting 'access to keep is unauthorised' though. Also 'authentication is required' error was showing in play store.
Then i followed
www.nextpit.com/how-to-fix-google-play-authentication-is-required-error
Go to Settings > Apps & notifications
Scroll down to Google Play Store, tap it, then tap Storage & cache and then Clear cache.
Do the same for Google Play Services
It worked for me.


text:
Google Drive: Make Folder/All Files in Folder Available Offline
I'm using the Google Drive app on the latest Android system, Android 11. I can make files, specifically PDFs, available offline by long pressing and clicking Make Available Offline. Further, if I select two PDFs, both of which are not yet available offline, then I have this option.
As such, I was able to initially select all files in a folder and pick Make Available Offline.
The issues is that I add to the folder regularly. If I select two files in the folder, one of which is available offline and the other is not, then the Make Available Offline option is not there. Currently I have some ~290 PDFs which are available offline and ~10 which are not. I do want all to be available offline, as I never know when I'll need them. But I don't want to manually go through and add them all.

TL;DR. Is there a way to make all files in a folder, or just simply the folder, available offline?
This needs to work if the folder currently contains a mixture: some available offline already and some not.

I would even accept the following horribly inefficient solution:

remove the 'available offline' property from all files in the folder;

select all files and Make Available Offline.

However, removing the property from all seems just as hard as adding it.


text:
msa keeps stopping
I have recently this message
"msa keeps stopping"

Can someone help me to repair the problem . My phone is a mimax3

There was a buggy update from Chrome. Check the summary/report and see if it's due to com.google.android.trichromelibrary.

After the last update of chrome the bug disappeared


text:
How to cryptographically verify the authenticity and integrity of Android Studio releases (with gpg?)
For a given Android Studio release published by Google, how can I cryptographically verify the authenticity and integrity of the .tar.gz file that I downloaded before I copy it onto a USB drive and attempt to install it on my laptop?
Today I wanted to download Android Studio, but the download page said nothing about how to cryptographically verify the integrity and authenticity of their release after download.
https://developer.android.com/studio#downloads

I expected to see a message on the download page telling me:

The fingerprint of their PGP release signing key,
A link to further documentation, and
Links to [a] a manifest file (eg SHA256SUMS) and [b] a detached signature of that manifest file (eg SHA256SUMS.asc, SHA256SUMS.sig, SHA256SUMS.gpg, etc)

Unfortunately, the only information I found on the download page was how to verify the integrity of the tarball using a SHA-256 checksum found in a table on the same page. Obviously, this checks integrity but not authenticity. And it provides no security because it's not out-of-band from the .tar.gz itself.
How can I preform cryptographic integrity and authenticity verification with Google's Android Studio releases?

As an example of why this matters: The SDK for developing apps is a great target for supply chain attacks, and it happened to Apple's XCode in 2015, successfully infecting >4,000 apps in the Apple Store, affecting hundreds of millions of users https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XcodeGhost

Your example has developers downloading from non-Apple sites. Honestly, if you aren't trusting the download/sums from android.com along with going through the EULA then you are in a worse situation of MITM or DNS spoof for android.com and quite probably your entire network access.  Frankly I'd be more concerned about: Poisoned Projects

MITM isn't the only route. android.com itself could get hacked. Even if the integrity of the page is manipulated for 30 minutes at just the right time by an APT, it could do significant damage to a target. Consider how this was done to the official monero wallet in 2019 https://github.com/monero-project/monero/issues/6151

But MITM or DNS spoofs are certainly a threat for the APTs that craft supply chain attacks. Consider the target of XCodeGhost was mostly Chinese app developers. See also https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/234052/where-can-i-find-a-list-of-all-government-agencies-with-cas-in-pki-root-stores

I submitted a bug report to Android Studio to address this https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/183625556

I notice that google has closed the issue as "won't fix (infeasible)", showing an appalling lack of concern for the most basic of security practices.   Especially outrageous considering that Android Studio is at the root of the supply chain for a large percentage of all the world's running applications!  @MichaelAltfield


text:
Phone apps crashing
My apps won't start up if they do its not long enough to use them. Either they just close as soon as i open them or a message reading (app name) has stopped responding and its even apps that I haven't opened like my Google play will pop up saying it has stopped. I'm not sure what to do I've shutoff and restarted my phone I've uninstalled and reinstalled my apps anf it works for a minute but then it's right back to crashing.  I can't even use google to search it won't allow me to type more than 1 letter and it freezes then closes the app...

Recently there was a buggy update from Chrome that affected apps with WebView. However, it's not clear if the issue you're facing is the same or not. Consider also checking this Q&A.

If the mentioned solution fails to work, ping me. I would reopen your question.


text:
Missing App Data files after One UI 3.0 update on Samsung
After updating my Samsung A50s to the version a507fnxxu5dub6, which is the One UI 3.0 latest update, I noticed that the app files stored in Android/data are all missing

Even the obb files are missing from the default file manager, but when I used a third-party file manager, only the obb files are shown

I already ticked the option to show hidden files to no success, also rebooted the phone, but nothing changed. Tried looking for the patch notes just in case the files had been moved somewhere, but I can't seem to find anything. My apps/games are all working fine so the files are not deleted/removed.
What would be the solution for this? I was planning to share a game including its file, and since the game's folder in the Android/obb does not have its game files, I presumed it must be in the data folder. That's when I noticed the folders are missing

Likely reason https://android.stackexchange.com/q/231481/131553

The files are not missing the app you use for folder browsing is not allowed to see them.

@Robert Is there a way to allow an app the access needed to view the files? I managed to find a file manager that can view it, then copy the file to another destination so that I can share it


text:
How to suppress the welcome note and sign-in form on freshly installed chromium(for android) browser startup
I have created a script for modifying the chromium browser's behavior when it starts. If the browser is freshly installed and if anyone opens it for the first time, the user will get a welcome note and sign-in form, which I want to suppress.
According to my findings, the solution is to replace the /data/data/org.chromium.chrome/shared_prefs/org.chromium.chrome_preferences.xml file with a version that is generated after skipping the welcome note and sign-in form. The script changes the folder's permission successfully, replaces the file, and again changes back the folder's permission.
But when I open the browser after reboot or without rebooting, that file is overwritten again and I still get the welcome note and sign-in form in both cases. But if I manually replace that file through the Android device monitor and reboots the device, it works.
The browser I am using is Chromium v73.0.3674.0 for android.
And here is the script
#!/system/bin/sh
su -c "chmod 777 /data/data/org.chromium.chrome"
su -c "chmod 777 /data/data/org.chromium.chrome/shared_prefs"
su -c "rm -r /data/data/org.chromium.chrome/shared_prefs/*.*"
su -c "cp /mnt/internal_sd/MokiMDM/org.chromium.chrome_preferences.xml /data/data/org.chromium.chrome/shared_prefs/"
su -c "chmod 660 /data/data/org.chromium.chrome/shared_prefs/org.chromium.chrome_preferences.xml"
su -c "chown root:root /data/data/org.chromium.chrome/shared_prefs/org.chromium.chrome_preferences.xml"
su -c "chmod 771 /data/data/org.chromium.chrome/shared_prefs"
su -c "chown root:root /data/data/org.chromium.chrome/shared_prefs"
su -c "chmod 751 /data/data/org.chromium.chrome"
su -c "chown root:root /data/data/org.chromium.chrome"


text:
How to remove "Bing" sign from Microsoft Launcher?
I would like to have my home screen as clean as possible. Is there a way to remove the "Bing" icon from Microsoft Launcher (bottom right corner)?
I've deleted the search widget, fixed the dock in place - nothing helps.
I have:
Android 10.
King Kong Mini 2

That icon is part of the wallpaper and cannot be removed unless you change it to a custom wallpaper.

@JNic, what do you mean by wallpaper? the vulcano? it is custom and the icon is not part of it.

That wallpaper is not a custome wallpaper. @JNic is correct: When you use a wallpaper from Bing, you will see the bing logo (It's actually a button that shows info about the wallpaper). If you select your own image/photo/wallpaper, the bing logo/button will not be show.

The icon is there because the wallpapers from the Microsoft Launcher is being pulled from Bing, so it has a watermark on it. You can't remove it unless you place your own custom wallpaper.

I set a wallpaper as home screen using Microsoft's launcher. That Bing logo was there as usual. I then switched to Nova Launcher. The wallpaper for home screen remained the same but the Bing logo was not there at all. BTW, I didn't pull wallpaper from cloud. I used the default wallpaper Microsoft launcher offered to me.

@Firelord, yeah, the Bign logo even moves with the dock for me when I turned it on and off, but once I used a 3rd party app to change wallpapers - it disappears


text:
Does the sensors work when smartphone is switched off and what can make sensors work incorrect?
We want to track the movement and location of employees based on information from the accelerometer and gyroscope sensors (there are some control points, but their number is very small, mainly tracking is based on sensors).
I want to understand what can affect the operation of the sensors and do they work when the phone is switched off? In order to understand possible ways how employees can outsmart the system.

What state is "switched off" in your opinion: a phone that has been shut down or a phone with a simply switched off screen?

@Robert  phone that has been shut down

If the phone is really shut down then it is irrelevant if the sensors are working or not (typically I would assume that in device off-state the sensors are not powered).
Sensors provide real-time data. If no-one retrieves and saves it the data is lost.
Therefore in device off state no app is running to retrieve the data and thus no data can be collected (assuming the sensors really could work and are getting powered in device off state which I doubt).


text:
A script to get a random file
Dear developers,
I have an issue with my script switching from Android 9 to 10 (devices from a Umidigi S3 Pro to a Umidigi F2).
I have installed Bosybox App on the first and Busybox Magisk module on the latter.
Now the script does not work because the command:
list=(`busybox find "$dirs" -type f -name *.$ext`)

returns an empty array.
This is the complete script:
#!/system/bin/sh
echo
if test "$1" = ""; then
     echo "Randomfile script by Uranya <@uranya7x> v1.4 01.01.2021"
     echo "Usage:"
     echo "sh randomfile.sh <sourcedir> <extension> <destdir>"
     exit 1
fi
dirs=$1
ext=$2
dird=$3'/'
dest=$dird'random'
delim1=""
delim2=""
last='last.txt'
# create filename's array
IFS=$'\n'

list=(`busybox find "$dirs" -type f -name *.$ext`)

# count number of files
num=${#list[@]}
# generate random number in range 1-NUM
let "ran=(${RANDOM} % ${num})+ 1"
echo Random from $num files is $ran
sour=${list[ran]}
sourn=${sour#$dirs}
sourn=${sourn:1:${#sourn}}
date=$(date +"%Y.%m.%d %H:%M")
day=$(date +"%d")
hour=$(date +"%H")
minute=$(date +"%M")
message='---------------------------------------\n'$date' - '$num' >>> '$ran'\n'$delim1$sourn$delim2
if ([ "$day" = "01" ] && [[ "$minute" < "29" ]]) || [ ! -f $dird$last ]; then
    echo >$dird$last $message
else
    sed -i '1i'$message $dird$last
fi
echo $delim1$sourn$delim2
# rename the old file
cp $dest.$ext $dest'_back.'$ext
# copy the file
cat "$sour" >$dest.$ext
echo File copied as $delim1$dest.$ext$delim2

Can you please help me to understand why this happens, and how to fix it?
Thank you very much for your attention!

Having done some tests I have found this:
opening a root privileged terminal and executing
echo find /storage/7BC3-1805/Music/MP3/Abba -type f -name *.mp3
it returns two strings containing the names of files inside that folder, but putting it in my script continues to return an empty array, so the issue is not in the access to the folder, but in the syntax, I guess
(the code find is inside backticks) so it is as: echo find.... *.mp3

what shell you are running the script? android default is mksh (MirBSD korn shell). only bash support arrays, set shebang to something like #!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/bash

@alecxs Thank you for pointing it!

Dear friends,
after a couple of hours debugging the script, finally, I have found the mistake!
The line to be used is:
list=( find "$dirs" -type f -name "*.$ext" )
it is a very subtle difference: the space after and before the parenthesis!
(even, the word busybox is useless)
Oddly in the Busybox app (I have had on my S3 Pro) the spaces are not mandatory, whilst in the Busybox Magisk module those spaces ARE mandatory!
I'm using this script for almost 8 years to have an every day different music for my wake up.
I'm using Tasker to call it just before my alarm get off, so the same file contains every day, a different song.
I have done a change also in the array index that did not began by 0
So, here it is the right script:
#!/system/bin/sh
echo
if test "$1" = ""; then
    echo "Randomfile script by Uranya <@uranya7x> v1.5 (26.03.2021)"
    echo "Usage:"
    echo "sh randomfile.sh <sourcedir> <extension> <destdir>"
    exit 1
fi
dirs=$1
ext=$2
dird=$3'/'
dest=$dird'random'
delim1=""
delim2=""
last='last.txt'
# create filename's array
IFS=$'\n'
list=( `find "$dirs" -type f -name "*.$ext"` )
# count number of files
num=${#list[@]}
# generate random number in range 1-NUM
let "ran=(${RANDOM} % ${num})+ 1"
echo Random from $num files is $ran
sour=${list[$ran-1]}
sourn=${sour#$dirs}
sourn=${sourn:1:${#sourn}}
date=$(date +"%Y.%m.%d %H:%M")
day=$(date +"%d")
hour=$(date +"%H")
minute=$(date +"%M")
message='---------------------------------------\n'$date' - '$num' >>> '$ran'\n'$delim1$sourn$delim2
if ([ "$day" = "01" ] && [[ "$minute" < "29" ]]) || [ ! -f $dird$last ]; then
    echo >$dird$last $message
else
    sed -i '1i'$message $dird$last
fi
echo $delim1$sourn$delim2
# rename the old file
cp $dest.$ext $dest'_back.'$ext
# copy the file
cat "$sour" >$dest.$ext
echo File copied as $delim1$dest.$ext

I hope it will be useful to someone else that loves to be waked up by music.
Peace everywhere!