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Getting lost chrome android data back
My mom uses my android phone sometimes, and I guess yesterday or the day before she had reset one or more of my apps, including chrome, since all my open tabs and history is gone. I was not syncing my data and I'm desperately trying to get that data back (open tabs, history etc.). Is there anyway I can recover that data? I would be forever indebted if you can help me out! It feels like a hopeless situation, but I had about 80 tabs open that I lost, and I'd like to get them back!
She also used chrome yesterday and today, and all that shows up in history is that data.
Edit: I now actually think she hasn't reset chrome, after checking in settings chrome is latest version and it also shows a lot of data there, as well as cache. I'm not sure what happened to my tabs and history, but if it could be recovered by adb, can you help me out?

Were you signed into your Google Account before the reset/clear?

@MorrisonChang I wasn't logged in chrome.

If it was not synchronized to the google, and your phone was not rooted, you are probably out of luck. If it was synced, then the focus would be to get the data form the google. If it was rooted, you are still likely out of luck, but you might recover some data on the block-level, in binary fragments (it is hard).

@peterh-ReinstateMonica Can I use adb to get that data?

I would still check the Google account that you used for the Google Play Store for browser history just in case. If you didn't sign into Google Play Store, yeah not much hope.

@MorrisonChang I am signed into Play Store, but I'm not signed in chrome, history was not syncing.

@Adventurer If it was not rooted, then probably not. The problem is that is was probably not simply hidden, but re-initialized.

@peterh-ReinstateMonica I think in chrome desktop, last session's tab list can be recovered... I was thinking of something like that for android too.

@peterh-ReinstateMonica If the app was not actually reset, then that list might still not be re-initialized, right?


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App doesn't show on emulator playstore

I've installed the SDK + emulator with both Android 11 and 8 images (separate AVDs).

The app that I'm interested in running isn't showing in the playstore but it shows just fine on my physical phone:
bank app
How is it possible for it not to show on emulator playstore?.

I've downloaded the apk from apk-pure and sideloaded into the emulator. The app starts (flash screen) and then crashes. Any way to decipher why?.

Thanks

It is probably not in the play store because google thinks on some reason that it is incompatible with your (virtual) device. Maybe the developers of the app try to avoid its installation in an emulator, on security reasons. How about downloading the app from https://apkmirror.com and then trying to install it by adb?

Thanks - as I've mentioned in the 2nd bullet I've already tried that.

The Play Store enabled emulator images are x86 images so they can be executed faster on an Intel/AMD CPU. Physical smartphones at the moment all use ARM CPUs (armv8a 64 bit to be precise).
If an app uses CPU specific native libraries it needs to include one version them for each CPU architecture it plans to support. Therefore if the app you want to install in the emulator only has native libraries for ARM then it can not be executed on an x86 emulator and thus will not be shown in Play Store.
Additionally when publishing an app in Play Store one can very flexible exclude or include certain device type(s).
As your app can be installed via side loading it seems to at least contain something for the x86 platform but detecting an emulator in an app and then let the app crash is simple. Besides that t!here are a lot of ways to detect an emulator. If an app developer does not want an app to be executed on an emulator it can get pretty hard and requires reverse engineering and code manipulation skills and many hours to make it run.
Especially financial apps disallow execution on an emulator as this is a common way for hackers to investigate such an app for attacking the bank, the app and their customers. Some banking apps even refuse to work on custom ROMs or rooted devices.

Thanks. No malicious intentions here. I just don't feel safe using mobile banking apps with all the Android security issues. Is there an ARM emulator which runs on x86, that is, something which fully emulates the ARM environment, something like a virtualbox? I've tried Android VB and the app still wouldn't run.

@jzz11 The main problem is that there are about 50 ways how to identify an emulator. And there is no emulator available that "patches" them all. Furthermore if the app performs a Google SafetyCheck it is even getting more complicated as the emulator image has to registered at Google as Google Android compliant device. Therefore as you don't know exactly what the banking app checks you can only try out every available emulator and install the banking app via side-loading and check if it works.

Thanks. Besides the Android SDK emulator, which it didn't work with, what would be the next 2nd best emulator to try?. I prefer something which runs on Linux, but I also have Windows if that's imperative.

@jzz11Most emulators are designed for gaming. An interesting article from the "reverse perspective" is this. It also names a few emulators.

Thanks. An interesting read.

A lot of 32bit, and also a lot of 64 bit ARM cpus exist. There are many x86 and amd64 androids, too, although probably more emulators/hack-machines than real devices. Probably some MIPS-based architectures also exist. Afaik if there is no machine-dependent code in an app, it can run anywhere (dalvik is platform-independent).

Apps likely have some descriptor files, somewhere in the apk, similar to the MANIFEST.MF in the Java world. Probably it describes, where the app can run. If it is so (any good Android developer can say it), then modifying this manifest in the apk makes probably some checksums/signatures invalid, but results that the app can be installed and started everywhere.

@peterh-ReinstateMonica In Android apps ther is the AndroidManifest.xml which defines some hardware requirements (e.g. required features). But other requirements are implicitly defined by the the native libraries that exist. But modifying those files make the app "uninstallable" as it invalidates the signature. Therefore you always have to resign the app with an own certificate. But in this case the app can be installed but crashes at start-up thus all what you say is not helpful as it has no effect on the crash.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Turn on adb network mode on device without USB connection
I am debugging an app using a phone-PC combination which has USB issues.  I can successfully establish a wifi connection using 'adb tcpip 555' then 'adb connect 1.2.3.4'
However, sometimes I can't even make the first USB connection to enable the debug listener on the phone.  Is it possible to put the phone adb into listening mode (on wifi) without a USB connection?

Do you have a rooted device or Android 11?

Not rooted, android 8.1

try various apps from google play

Related: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/216474/218526

@irfan -that described how to start TCPIP listening, but still requires an initial USB connection (as described in that post)

Yes that's the point. The answer explains the limitations; why it's not usually possible to achieve what you are looking for.

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


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Factory reset Huawei mate 20lite doesn´t work
I have a Huawei mate 20 lite, ago a time a switch the screen for a generic screen, actually the new generic screen works fine I never get an error with the touch, the problem is that ago a time I forgot my pin code and I remember that I can use it by Factory reset and then put my google account and use my phone, then when I enter to factory reset the phone request to me touch yes and then my screen don´t works
I try use a OTG and Keyboard, but it fails, any suggestion was very helpul at this moment.

use the volume buttons not touchscreen

I prove that , but doesn't works

https://www.hardreset.info/devices/huawei/huawei-mate-20-lite/recovery-mode

Right, I believe that I need do a downgrade , but I don't know about what software I should use for it.

Because my phone have Android 9 and the recovery interface was upgrade

or maybe re-connect your volume flex cable


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How to forward portsbon a USB tethered connection?
I'm using a USB tethered connection from my phone to my PC, I'd like to know if there's any way I can forward ports through this tethered connection, so that I'm able to play games that uses peer-to-peer.
Keep in mind I have Android v7.x.x and Windows 7.

If I understand you correctly you want to open up a port on your mobile connection to allow incoming connections, correct? Unfortunately nearly every mobile network provider uses carrier-grande-NAT (CG-NAT) which means you don't get a public IP and thus can not open any ports. A public IPv4 address usually requires a special business data-plan, or a mobile network provider that provides you a public IPv6 address but that would require that the game is also IPv6 ready.

How can I check whether I have a public IPv4/6 public address?

You can check your public IPs using certain web-sites and services like https://whatsmyip.com and compare it to your local IP. Alternatively there are apps that query the public IP and show it in the app. E.g. this app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.webprovider.whatismyipaddress

Cool, thanks so much for your help.

Okay so whatsmyip.com Is giving me two Ip addresses namely a public ipv4 address and a LAN IP address and they're different from each other.                                                                      So another question is: How do I forward ports? Do I do it through my phone or through my PC? And which address (Public ipv4 or LAN IP) must I use to do so? Should I forward ports through my android phone using an app like Fwd or Port Knocker, and if so how? And which app is best to use for port forwarding on android?

If you open the web page directly on your phone with only mobile data activated and you are getting different IPs then you don't have a public IP. Thus opening or forwarding ports is useless as a CG-NET is used (see my first comment).


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Using Android phone to control a raspberry pi nintendo 64 emulator
Say I make a nintendo 64 emulator on a raspberry pi 4, and I want to use my phone as a wireless controller ether over bluetooth or WiFi.
I doubt that any Android software would have support for linux, let alone support an N64 emulator.
So what would be the best course of action here, make a python translator that catches the signal sent by the phone, reads it, then simulates button presses on the raspberry? If anyone has a better solution, please let me know!

Use your favorite search engine for "android N64 emulators". As results exist, someone has done it (but probably depends on how powerful is your phone). 2. Sending & capture signals from a Android device will add latency, but there are apps out there to emulate bluetooth/wifi controller - again use search. 3. You may have a better fit at Raspberry Pi Stack Exchange for specific RPi questions.

@Morrison Chang I've done some googling, I'm just looking for an android controller app that has at least basic linux support, and I can't exactly emulate n64 from a phone and then stream it to my tv, that's complicating a simple problem. I don't mind the latency, and I'm not asking questions about a raspi.

You should identify make/model/OS version of what phone(s) you have. If you want to use a Android device as a wireless controller, one options is to use a custom ROM to make your device a Bluetooth HID (Human Interface Device) which can connect to RPi4. Another might be to use VNC to connect with RPi. Personally I would just get a RPi/RetroPie supported gamepad for the tactile feel over a glass screen (and documentation).

Somehow missed in RetroPie - Virtual Gamepad and/or Mobile Gamepad which uses the mobile browser/Chrome browser as a gamepad. Don't know how well that works, but is an option.

The chrome browser controller seems promising, thanks!

Android 9 added support for the Bluetooth HID Device Profile which can be used to make a Android device behave like a HID gamepad:
https://developer.android.com/reference/android/bluetooth/BluetoothHidDevice
The Bluetooth HID profile isn't available on all devices, you can use the Bluetooth HID Profile Tester app to see if it's supported:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rdapps.bluetoothhidtester&hl=en_US&gl=US
I've had some luck using ginkage's GamePad app:
https://github.com/ginkage/GamePad


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Turn off google contacts sync in Redmi Note 5 Pro
I have multiple accounts in my redmi note 5 pro and the contact names are getting changed due to same contacts in multiple accounts. I want to stop syncing contacts in one of them. How do I do so?

I don't use multiple Google accounts but when I open Android Settings -> Accounts -> Google account x -> Accountsynchronization I can specify what should be synced. This should allow you to disable contacs sync selectively on some Google accounts.


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Signature of two different apps are being compared inside the code of an app
For a particular Mobile App, I am trying to understand the client-side code of an apk by decompiling the apk using Jadx-GUI. While I was going through the code, I found out interesting code snippet (shown in the image). Signature of the existing app is being compared with that of the app named "Android".

I observed this type of comparison in more than one app. I fetched the certificate details and found out that they both are different and the certificates are self-signed (they are not using Google Play Signing)
So, my question is Why are the developers comparing the signature of two different apps? Under what scenarios is this type of signature verification useful?

Please do not post code as image. Just copy the code and paste it formatted as code. As far as I know APK signatures are always self-signed even those signed by Google  (I remember there was a question on that topic in 2020 here or on stackoverflow.com but I cant find it anymore).

The code snippet does not compares the own app signature to an ordinary app, instead it compares it to the package android better known as "Android System".
"Android System" as the name indicates is a system app signed with the ROM's system signing key. Therefore the code snippet you found compares if the the app specified by it's package name in parameter str was signed by the system key.
I would assume that the app that contains this code first gets the list of all installed packages and then calls this method for each installed package name.
In the end this would allow to identify all apps that have system permissions. What can not be determined by the code is why this list is generated. It could be for security reason to check if there are "strange apps" with system permission or alternatively building the system apps list could be the first step on an app that tries to attack the system by trying to find vulnerabilities in system apps.


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Gmail Nested labels on android
I use nested labels on my laptop for organizing  email since it reduces the number of labels I see.
But on my android phone the nesting doesn't  appear to work.
Example
"HOA" as main label and "HOA/docs" as the sublabel. The label is the same of both laptop and phone, but they do not nest on my phone.
Am I missing some setting on my phone or is it just something  that a phone cannot.

I use gmail by an imap client (openmail). There it works well, the problem is only the assignment of the imap folders to the gmail labels.


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Where are notes stored on Xiaomi Pocophone F1? (kind of an emergency)
I have managed to transfer my old phone's storage (Xiaomi Pocophone F1) to my PC right before its screen died (the whole directory) and I have recently bought a Xiaomi Pocophone X3. I have managed to transfer some files from the PC to it (and it worked) and I want to transfer the notes of the older phone to the new phone.
Does anyone know where are the notes stored on the Xiaomi Pocophone F1? It would really help me guys.
Package name of the notes app: com.miui.notes.Application

When talking about specific apps like "Notes" please provide it's package package name or the link to Google Play so that we know about what app you are talking about. Because there are dozens of apps with the name "Notes" available.

hi sorry for not being specific i dont know much about this topic... it is the notes app which came with the phone system it's not on Google Play. how could I find the specifications you need?

check micloud

i was too stupid to back it up... IMO my notes exist only on my computer and on my old phone. The problem is that my old phone can't be used and that I don't know where the notes are stored on my computer.

Then most likely you are talking about this app. Package name of the app should be com.miui.notes.Application.

thanks I'll add it to the post

Then most likely the data is stored in /data/data/com.miui.notes.Application – but you cannot access that except using root powers. With some luck it was using "external storage" and thus had them on the SD card (aka "shared storage") in Android/data/com.miui.notes.Application which you can access.

alecxs, could you simplify what you commented i dont know much about this topic...

izzy, the folder Android/data/com.miui.notes.Application does exist but it's empty

simplified: if your poco f1 still exist you can mirror the screen to pc via usb cable and read your notes

akecxs it does exist but its screen is dead will it still work?

i mean i cant allow usb debugging because my screen is done plus i cant open my phone since it requires a password (i know it but i cant type it)

unfortunately it doesn't work without touchscreen :( It should be possible to connect bluetooth keyboard, but with physical keyboard it's impossible. You can however try to tap blind (hopefully touch input is still working) https://www.mediafire.com/file/aiu6pz6qhfvy0ap

alecxs, i guess i will have to live on without these notes, they were important to me but not crucial. i guess i will sometime get the screen fixed and look through the old notes. anyway, thank you for the help i appreciate it.


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Is it possible that I unrooted my device after changing the build.prop?
I had rooted my device, I have Titanium Backup, Superuser, and ES File Explorer.
I changed the android version, phone model and sdk version in the build.prop file. Now I can't open any app other than Titanium Backup, which tells me it wasn't granted superuser permissions, and that I should check if my ROM is rooted.
When I access the files through my computer with Android Studio, I can see the root files.
Is my phone not rooted anymore or is Superuser just not working properly due to the build.prop change?

Most likely your changes (e.g. the Android version) broke something in a component of Android which is used by Superuser and other apps.

You could restore the original build.prop using the root powers of the custom recovery installed – of course provided there are such things as "backup" and "custom recovery"…

So yeah, it turns out my device was always rooted. As Robert said, I probably broke something that SuperSU used.
If anyone finds this helpful, I got it back to normal through recovery, like Izzy said.
I had previously backed up the build.prop file to my SDcard, so I created a zip file with build.prop and a meta-inf folder that I found in a custom ROM (I actually found it in this question from the XDA forum https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/copy-build-prop-with-flashable-zip.2986827/
However, this https://www.reddit.com/r/FirmwareDevelopment/comments/1iut7m/howto_understanding_the_metainf_folder_for/ says you can get it from any custom ROM). Flashed the zip file through CWM recovery and after rebooting, my phone was acting like nothing ever happened c:
*If you didn't backup build.prop, I'm sure there's ways to retrieve it through ADB, pretty sure you can copy it and paste it somewhere. Either way, you can still see the content of the file in Android Studio, and I'm guessing Eclipse and other programs I don't know of; and I'm a n00b, but I'm pretty sure you can make a brand new build.prop by copying the contents of the existing one on a text editor, of course changing what you had previously modified, hence leaving it the way it was before you messed it up.


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Backup all installed APK's from phone using ADB
I have done many reinstalls of my OS on my Android phone in the last few months for various reasons. Every time, the biggest hassle is manually searching, downloading and installing all the apps I had in my previous installation.
I use a degoogled custom rom, downloading apps from F-Droid and Aurora Store, so no Google solutions are acceptable.
What I want, is to have a way to keep on my computer a copy of all the apks of the installed apps of my phone, and have it automatically updated too, so that when the time comes to reformat my phone and install everything all over, I will be able to simply adb install all of the apks in no time, instead of doing it all manually and waiting for them to also be downloaded. Any suggestions for how I can make that happen with existing programs, preferably open source?

If you know abd you can simply create a full backup of all non-system apps: adb backup -f all -all -apk -nosystem. Then unpack using the created backup via Android backup Extractor (abe), get the APK files and delete the other file(s).

as you mentioned custom rom, Migrate is the first choice for free backup solution. Titanium Backup has option for scheduled backup

@Robert This only backs up a few of the installed apps.

@alecxs This seems interesting. Is it open source by chance?

nope, but ask the author in telegram group

If it's just the APK files, you could use the getapk script provided in the tools/ directory of my little helper Adebar, calling it e.g. with getapk user to retrieve all user-installed apps. You won't be interested in system apps, but for completeness:
$ getapk

getapk
Extracting APK files from a connected device.
getapk lets you extract a single app's APK, or that of all user apps,
all system apps, or all apps altogether – depending on what parameter
you passed it.

Syntax: /mnt/av/src/git/adebar/tools/getapk <package_name> | user | system | all

This requires ADB being available on your computer. Should you not have that yet, you might wish to take a look at Is there a minimal installation of ADB? here at our site. You don't write what OS you are on; getapk is a Bash script (as Adebar is a Bash tool), so it works best on Linux, was reported working fine on MAcOS, and also in Cygwin.
To have that automated, you could create a cron job (Linux/Mac; no idea how that works on Windows but AFAIK there's something like a "Scheduler" you could probably use). APKs will be named <packageName>.apk (e.g. org.fdroid.fdroid.apk) once retrieved, so always retrieving them to the same directory (i.e. calling the script while inside that directory) should take care that you have always the latest versions in there and no more. Though it wouldn't delete APKs of apps you've uninstalled later ;)

Nice that you already have a complete script for that. I noticed that the script was last changed 2 years ago. Is your script already capable of saving split APKs (where each app consists of multiple APK files on the device)?

Seems to work for most apps installed. But for many I get a failed to stat remote object error. Searching around I found it might be possible to overcome it with root, but I'd rather not root because Magisk was the cause for many of the last rom reinstalls. Do you have a solution for that? Tried on Linux Mint 20.

Further details, tried this on Pocophone F1, LineageOS 17.1. Examples of apps where this happened are Youtube and Shazam.

@Robert feel free to build on it. I happily accept pull requests with improvements. And no, I haven't tried it with split APKs – hints are welcome, too. I guess the failed to stat could be such cases. The current logic is rather a "simple approach" which definitely can be improved…

@NoobDoob I don't have Shazam, and the YT app is pulled fine from the test device having it. But I just fixed the mv: cannot stat 'base.apk' error. Will see if I can reproduce (and fix) the other one. Oh: you did call it with the user parameter, not all – you just want to backup user apps, not those the ROM ships with, right? The full error message reads: failed to stat remote object '{path}': Permission denied and in my test was only on some system apps. I'd yet need to find a split APK to test that. Edit: found one, indeed same error (just without the "permission denied").

OK, there you go – grab the update which now handles split-apks as well! They will be placed into a subdir using tha packageName and keeping the original names for the APKs, so should the dev decide to change their names or numbers, you might need to "clean up" manually yourself (e.g. deleting files older than X).

All works now. Now it would be nice to have a script install them too, handling split apk's too, for the reinstall phase. I'd be happy to make one and PR to your project if you don't have time to put on it. My main problem is solved with this nonetheless.

Would you have a problem with pasting the entirety of your script's code in your answer for the completeness of this thread?

@NoobDoob "have a script install them too" => on its way: https://codeberg.org/izzy/Adebar/pulls/53 – and copy-pasting the entire script would quite blow up the answer. It's open-source and can be viewed in its repo.

@Izzy I am the one who did the pull request, I did not mention it because I thought you realized it! I did not have time to work on it today, tomorrow I will most likely finish it.

I assumed as much but wasn't sure. The note might be helpful for others, too – and I might include some facts from the comments with an update to the answer later, before cleaning up. Thanks again – and yes, at your convenience, no need to hurry ;)

getapk still works a treat in 2023 on a fully updated Android 13 device without root.


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Importing group associations _only_
(Following question to this one)
Suppose I have an .xls or .csv file with associations of contact names to groups (or firstname, middlename, lastname to group).
I want to import these associations  - applied to existing contacts; I don't want to create new skeleton contacts based on these associations. Is this possible? If so, how?

The SA Contacts Lite application, which can import and export contacts more generally, can be used specifically for this purpose:

Download & install SA Contacts Lite application; it is available on places where you don't need an account, e.g. via APKPure.com.
Remove all columns from your the file except for the names/name components and the group associations (i.e. remove all the columns you don't want to import)
Save the whittled-down file to the root of your phone's storage hierarchy
In SA Contacts Lite, click Import.
Choose SD Card as the location in which to search for the import file (or someplace else, if you put your file on Box/DropBox/Google Drive and have that configured in SA Contacts Lite; I didn't do this); press Next.
Select the .xls file in the dialog which comes up; press Next.

That's basically it. Your existing contacts will now also have the group associations.
Notes:

I've tried this with an Excel file: .xls, not .xlsx. Not sure if it also works with .csv files.


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Obtain log of when audio starts and stops
In Android 11, at least in the version Google uses for their phones, all audio apps can be controlled with media buttons you see if you pull down the notifications/top/task/whatever bar.
My question is: How can I get a log of when I stop and start audio from the top bar media buttons?
The log needs to include timestamps, so I can see how long something has played for. It would preferably also include some information about what was being played, such as the title of the track or podcast. It also need to always go at least one week back in time, which seemingly rules out using logcat the standard way.
Any way of doing it would be okay. For example:

An app that can monitor audio plackback on the phone.
Getting system logs through ADB.
"System traces"?

As far as I can tell, Android destroys logs from before that last reboot, but I might be wrong about this. The log I get by running adb logcat gives me the information I need. It seems I am only able to get logs since the last reboot though. If I can access old logs, that would be a solution to the problem and you would get the bounty for helping me achieve this.
If there is a way to know when I start and stop playing audio from within an app, I would also accept an answer that lets me get this information. I don't mind if the information comes from the media buttons or not, I just want to know when audio starts and stops playing on the device.

Try this https://android.stackexchange.com/a/232252/131553

Thanks for the reply. I think this app does something different from what I want though. It looks like it just records screen time. I usually don't start the app but control the playback through the media controls in the notification bar. And of course I don't have my screen on while listening to a podcast.

If "audio player" is an app, I think AppOps can be used to achieve what you want. But it requires elevated privileges, root or at least ADB.

I edited the question to clarify what I meant by AudioPlayer. I checked out AppOps but it seems to only have to do with permissions.

Based on Android Developers, the media controls on Android 11's notification is using MediaSession and MediaRouter2 APIs, though I haven't tested if using such API will create a log in the logcat or not.

Those "media control notification" that include the buttons belong to the app that plays the music. Therefore on an unrooted device other apps don't have options to access or monitor the buttons and the music state. Therefore you have to use an player app that internally writes the log you want or you have to modify your favorite music player in a way that it creates the desired log. For unrooted devices I don't see other options.

@user.S the first line here: "App-ops are used for two purposes: Access control and tracking". This does exactly what you are looking for. I don't know of an app but it's not impossible to make one. But again, it requires elevated privileges.

@ AndrewT., @Robert, thanks, it annoyed me that I wasn't sure what the thing I'm talking about is. I know that I can get a lot of information from logcat so if I can keep the log from getting destroyed, that's enough. The log exists, my only problem is that it is cut off at the last reboot.
This is for personal use so the method doesn't have to be perfect and requiring root is okay even if not my preferred solution. I can find what log messages are associated with pressing play and pause by myself. It is okay even if it comes from the apps themselves.

@IrfanLatif, okay, well that sounds more useful. I found a couple of apps that deal with AppOps but one is unavailable for my device and the other's tracking functionality wasn't working.

@user.S Unfortunately logcat is totally out of scope for your use case. See this question on details how logcat works. Depending on the device, the logcat buffer size and the logcat traffic frequency it can happen that logcat overwrites events just a few seconds old.

@IrfanLatif App-ops looks interesting but by the description it seems to track only permission relevant actions such as RECORD_AUDIO. Other audio related events are not mentioned. Do you have practical experience with that part of Android? From my perspective this seems to be the predecessor of the current "dynamic permission request" system of Android.

@Robert there are also PLAY_AUDIO and TAKE_AUDIO_FOCUS ops: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/refs/tags/android-11.0.0_r1/core/java/android/app/AppOpsManager.java#887. Might be one of them or some other op is necessarily invoked when an app plays media. But I'm not sure about it. I do have experience with Access Control part (PMX is based on it) but not much with the Tracking part.

@Robert, Ah okay, a few seconds won't be enough. I've tried a few apps that claim to capture system logs and save them to a file but none of them seem to work. The optimal thing might be an app that monitors the logs and saves lines that match a pattern.

@user.S Logcat access from within an app was removed in Android 4.4 (or 4.2 - not 100% sure about the version). Since that time you need root permissions to access logcat.

I know it's restricted but the apps claim that I can work around that with adb. This one for example: https://f-droid.org/packages/com.tortel.syslog/


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Would I be able to install Brave and Proton Mail on GrapheneOS?
I'm thinking about picking up a Google Pixel 4 and installing GrapheneOS.
Would I be able to install apps like ProtonMail and Brave somehow?

Do you have a reason to believe that you won't be? GrapheneOS does allow users to install apps from third-party repositories which in simple words means that it does allow installing apps from unknown sources. https://grapheneos.org/faq#bundled-apps

You've probably already found the answer in the last two and a half years, but yes you can install any android apps on GrapheneOS. You could always side-load any app or install from sources like fdroid or the aurora store, but now you can also install the Sandboxed Google Play Services and use the play store as you would on stock android.


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Is it possible for a phone to still be compromised/infected by malware or spyware even after a factory reset?
If yes then how can one ensure that its %100 wiped clean?
Android 7 | rooted
EDIT: Same question but how about when rom is flashed
?

Yes, it's entirely possible if

the malware/Trojan resides and or modifies /system partition (search would show it's not uncommon) .

Thanks to Firelord who pointed out another possibility of

cases where an update to system introduced a persistent system level malware (usually a spyware, adware type), or one or two system apps (usually system update apps) acted like a malware right from the time a user started using the device. (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 as examples)

By doing a factory-reset, you are only removing user installed apps and data. The only solution for the first case is to install stock ROM (if you are on stock) or install a custom ROM by clean flash (usually, OEMs /custom ROM providers give detailed instructions on this). By installing a ROM, the /system is wiped clean and installed, getting rid of the trouble.
If you are a victim of the second case, there isn't much you can do unless you find another ROM for your device.
Of course, you need to review your apps and make sure you don't install from unverified sources and take precautions to not get into this situation again.

Thanks for answering! Is it possible to flash rom through TWRP? If yes, is that considered clean?

Yes. It is possible depending on the ROM. You will need to wipe /system  in addition to /data  to flash but follow instructions provided by the ROM chef

Where do I find the "rom chef" instructions for my rom? (Moto C Plus xt1723).

Xda and other sources like OEM instructions

So is this a wipe clean (which includes deleting /system and /data) AND THEN install/flash rom?

It could be that way or installing itself cleans. Read the instructions. Your question has been answered as asked. If you have doubts on the exact process even after reading it up, please ask a separate question


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Android Recovery is loaded instead of TWRP after flashing TWRP with Odin
There was this question here the solution to which was to boot into TWRP before booting android, so that TWRP isn't replaced by Android Recovery. I can press UP+Home+Power and go into recovery - I've not had an issue with that. But the trouble is that rather than showing TWRP it shows an android logo and it says it "updates the system" and then what comes up is Android Recovery instead of TWRP.
I'm using samsung's SM-g532g (galaxy j2 prime). It does not have an official TWRP apparently, so I'm trying the TWRP that this site suggested. I've tried it many ways: I've booted into recovery right after flashing TWRP, removed and replugged the battery and then booted into recovery, etc.

apparently TWRP is still replaced with stock recovery, or partition isn't covered by bootloader at all. you might flash some kernel fix to enable recovery from partition instead from ramdisk. see example extract_elf_ramdisk for Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact https://android.stackexchange.com/q/230682

btw this is first samsung device with mediatek chipset i have ever seen, can you confirm it is not exynos or qualcomm? on mediatek devices you can use SP Flash Tool

@alecxs I think it is mediatek... Is using SP Flash Tool safe? I'm trying to backup my app data... Does SP Flash Tool wipe that data? I'm new to rooting, but I know Odin at least keeps that data safe.

SP Flash Tool is not safe, that's why the first thing you should do is full ROM dump and create your own scatter file based on current partition layout. for this i recommend 2nd Tool WwR MTK https://android.stackexchange.com/q/203283 https://android.stackexchange.com/q/220584

regarding your doubts, once you have scatter file you can flash (or read back) each single partition on it's own. that will allow you to patch boot.img with Magisk Manager (no TWRP needed)

@alecxs But patching boot.img means my device then wipes data, right? I don't want to lose my data...

https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/sp-flash-tool-tutorial-to-install-twrp-custom-recovery-in-lenovo-k3-note.3346041/ also says that Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow needs a patched boot image for flashing custom recoveries with SP Flash Tool (and I think with Odin too).

@alecxs I think I would ask a silly question :) Do I have to unlock the bootloader in the process?

sure, as for all modifications. but on ancient samsung devices this is already done by toggle OEM unlocking in developer options, afaik no extra unlocking step required (no vaultkeeper)

if SP Flash Tool is too complicated try mtk-su bootless root method (risky on locked bootloader)

My device has dm-verity, does mtk-su work safely in this case? The link https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/amazing-temp-root-for-mediatek-armv8-2020-08-24.3922213/ says:  WARNING If you have a device with Android 6 or higher, it likely has dm-verity enabled. On such a device one does not simply remount the system partition as read/write. The remount command will probably fail. But if you succeed in forcing it somehow it will trigger dm-verity, which will result in a very bad day. Your device will become inoperable until you restore the stock system partition.

magisk will by-pass dm-verity so flashing magisk_patched.img from mtk-su will work. also magisk is systemless-root (and afaik bootless-root has additional protections against modifying system)


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I'm trying to factory reset a phone. How do I erase "downloaded SIMs"?
I have Google Pixel. When trying to factory reset it, it says "downloaded SIMs may remain on the device".
What does that mean? How do I erase these data?

The "downloaded SIMs" here refers to embedded-SIMs (eSIMs).
According to the AOSP source code, looks like the error message happens when the Factory Data Reset fails to erase eSIM data.

<!-- Factory data reset erase eSIM failure text [CHAR LIMIT=none] -->
<string name="fdr_esim_failure_text">Please reboot the device and try again. If you continue factory reset, the downloaded SIMs may remain on the device.</string>

To erase eSIM data, try resetting the network settings first. For Google Pixel series,

Tip: To reset all your network settings, in your phone’s Settings app, tap System  Advanced  Reset options  Reset Wi-Fi, mobile & Bluetooth.

Otherwise, to retain eSIM data through the Factory Data Reset, it should be possible to just continue the process when prompted.


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Truecaller reads new SMS sometimes even without having SMS permission
I use Redmi 9 Prime. On that, I use the Truecaller app. I want to use Truecaller only for calls and strictly not for SMS. So I never give SMS read permission to the Treucaller app.

But still, sometimes Truecaller read new personal SMS. Till now did not see any service or OTP SMS in Truecaller. Don't know how come.
What can be the reason or source for getting this possible? How can I stop Truecaller from strictly touching my SMS?

Does it read any SMS or specific SMS (like an OTP)? In the latter case, see https://android.stackexchange.com/q/201599/96277

@Firelord I have updated question, Thank you

During app installation from Play Store, you may have given permission. Without it, the app will not install. Uninstall and reinstall Truecaller.
Which app is the default SMS app?
Open app / clear cache and storage. Force stop the app. Restart mobile. Again check permission status.
The last option is to start mobile in recovery mode and clear the cache partition.

Had the same problem with one of my phones.
I had to do a clean install - i.e. before uninstalling, force kill > clean cache > clear storage and uninstall the app. Then while reinstalling, only provide access to call, call logs, and contacts. When launching, it will ask for SMS permission > deny > and then most important is to select 'never ask again'.
This way, SMS is fully blocked from the intrusive app. It may occasionally ask, but the permission prompt will not come up from Android.


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Files corrupted when moved from internal memory
I've been using an LG Q60 since May. Occasionally spot a few pics and videos that won't play. Assume corrupted.
Updated it to Android 10 last week and since then I can't transfer files from the phone's internal storage to the sd card. All files are corrupted during the move. Compressing files with winrar fails too.
Can anybody advise on a fix?

How to you perform the file operations (what program, command, or whatever)?

I use file manager

The built-in file manager or a third party app from Play Store?

Both the built in and third party apps

guess your MicroSD Card is corrupt. buy new one and try again


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Telegram account
I recently lost my Android phone. What I want to know is if I permanently delete my telegram account are there still videos and photos viewable on my phone. I never used the save to gallery option but I heard somewhere that the media files are still there.
Thanks.

you can erase your device from https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager (btw use threema or signal only)

Deleting your Telegram account will not uninstall the Telegram application on your lost phone. So, depending on how you protected the access to your phone, your media files received or sent using Telegram can still be accessible.
As a side note (because the original question was asked on security.stackexchange.com), be advised that the security of Telegram is dubious at best. If this issue is important for you, you could use this incident as an opportunity to switch to a more secure messaging app.

why is telegram security dubious?

@yeah_well Because its custom protocol is full of quirks that have no real purpose (and included at first a backdoor). Even though it has been improved, we cannot trust that the developers know what they are doing. The encryption is deactivated by default (for no reason) and not possible for group chats. People are thus mislead in thinking that their conversation's confidentiality is ensured. It has not been subjected to public audits (unlike Signal or Wire). Its security depends on its servers and the goodwill of their owner.


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How to record both sides in WhatsApp voice call recording?
I recorded an interview over my last WhatsApp audio call. But when I played back, only my voice was recorded. Is there any way I can get the voice call record? I can't find the call folder in my WhatsApp files. I have a Redmi note 8.

How was it recorded? As far as I know (I might be wrong), it is not possible to record calls via WhatsApp itself. Did you use a third-party app to do it?


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How can we trick an android device that the device does not get our real location?
Is it possible to make the Android Operating System  receive false location data or not receive any data about our geolocation at all. And how we can do it in the  maximal clean way so that the third-party applications that are installed on the phone could't even suspect about it?

The phone has a GPS sensor and the OS can read the values from this sensor. Thus, the OS knows your real position.
However, the apps have no access to the direct OS reading - they can only ask the OS to give them the position. And the OS has builtin support to give them fake results.
To do that, do the following steps:

Enable developer mode (as described here).
In the developer mode, enable "Allow mock locations". This allows for apps to override the GPS sensor input by a fake position provided by them.
Install any app with exactly this feature, like Fake GPS Location.

It works a little bit differently on some phones, for example on my Moto G8 there is no "Allow mock locations" option in the developer mode. In most cases, it is possible even on them, but a little bit differently.
Extension: apps can know if it you did these, but they have probably no way to know, if the actual position they've got is mocked. Probably it can be prevented only by rooting the phone. Thanks @Robert for the info.

Note that apps can query if mocked locations are allowed and thus "know" that the location they get is "untrusted".

@Robert Wow, that is sad. I think, only rooting can really hide it.

In this case, can the third- party Applications find out that the received location datas are fake? And can we do anything to fix  this issue ?

@MariaWilson If I understand Robert's answer well, the apps can only check, if such location mocking is allowed (did you walked over the list in the answer). They have still no way to know, if the location is mocked or not.

@Robert Is it possible to revoke this permission from the apps without rooting? Maybe by some access control finetuning?

@peterh-ReinstateMonica What permission do you talk about? A lot info about mocking detection can be found here: https://www.klaasnotfound.com/2016/05/27/location-on-android-stop-mocking-me

@peterh-ReinstateMonica  Yes i did.I tested it and it worked. But i have a question .


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TWRP seems to be corrupt or not working for Infinix X5515F
I was trying to install TWRP recovery to my Infinix X5515F (Smart 2). I followed these steps:

enabled OEM unlock and USB debugging
connected to a computer
logged into adb and sent adb reboot bootloader
send fastboot erase recovery
flashed this file using fastboot flash recovery <filename.img>
tried to boot directly from the image using fastboot boot <filename.img> (after a while without any response, it performed a normal boot to the system, not to recovery)

Then I tried to reboot to recovery by these methods:

pressing and holding the Volume Up and Power buttons until the Infinix boot logo appears (after releasing all the buttons it shut down without showing anything, booted again, and performed a normal boot)
send adb reboot recovery (it boots to system recovery, not to TWRP)

What is the problem? Is this image corrupt or not right? If it is, can you provide any image for X5515F (not for X5515)?

what was the output of 'fastboot flash recovery <filename.img>' did it flash successfully?

yes it did.and boot command too

try PitchBlack Recovery for X5515

no i wanted to install a custom rom.

will this recovery work for X5515F

can you provide a vmbeta image

if you refer to 'empty' vbmeta you can generate one yourself with python (or try this trick) Android Verified Boot and generation of vbmeta image

You dont need vbmeta for this device since it is android 8. I searched online and it seems it has mediatek processor. Its been two years now and no one seems to answer here. Please double check if the bootloader is unlocked, this is required for installing custom roms and rooting devices...
Enter the fastboot oem device-info command and run it. It should list some device data, including the bootloader information.
Look for Device Unlocked from the info.
If it says true next to it, it means that your device is unlocked. If it says false, it means that that it’s still locked.
Once you really confirmed that it was unlocked then you can go and try porting twrp to your stock rom recovery.img. Proceed at your own risk. Please double check the model of the stock rom since it may confuse you and you will end up bricking your phone
You should only tweak the recovery partition of this phone don't touch any other things. If it happens that the device is not opening after flashing wrong recovery.img. You can try mtkclient and use the command python mtk e recovery


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My SD card got damaged
iam unable to format it not use it. i need an app that will help me recover my data please anyone can share light to this.
Thanks in anticipation

Interesting - since when does the community bot close questions? Especially as the question does not contain any indicator regarding "internal memory" at all?

@Robert I suspect, if there are no close votes, but a lot of close flags arrives, then the community bot does the task. But I am not sure - it might worth some digging or a question on the MSE.

@Robert There is also a change in the question closing system. It is a recent development. If a close review is started (either by a close vote, or by a close flag), then the OP gets a message asking him if he gets the answer in the orig candidate. If he clicks yes, then maybe also Community bot does the closure.

@Robert someone flagged the question as a duplicate and the OP agreed with it.


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Why am I getting this error message "Error: Unknown option: --user"
I have a Samsung T520, KitKat 4.4.2
I have not rooted my tab...I am trying to use adb commands to uninstall bloatware but I am getting the following error:
Error: Unknown option: --user
Anyone know why this is happening? I have had no issue using this command on other devices.
The command I used was for example
pm uninstall --user 0 com.android.email

Because the device is running an old Android version, and multi-user was just introduced with Android 5 (Lollipop) – except for a few tablets which had it earlier? Can you add another user to your device? If not, then it's this.

Your pm command doesn't take that flag/argument, hence the error. https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/refs/tags/android-4.4.2_r1/cmds/pm/src/com/android/commands/pm/Pm.java#1519 // It would be nice if somebody explains what is going on here https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/refs/tags/android-4.4.2_r1/cmds/pm/src/com/android/commands/pm/Pm.java#1093 I think that running pm uninstall command would delete the package for all users in Android 4.4.2


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Samsung Galaxy M11 and Samsung Galaxy M01s not able to install 64bit apps from google play store even while having 64bit chipsets
Samsung Galaxy M11 has a Qualcomm SDM450 Snapdragon 450 chipset while the Samsung Galaxy M01s has a Mediatek MT6762 Helio P22 chipset. Going to their websites, on Qualcomm and Mediatek respectively, shows that they both support 64bit. However as mentioned in the title, the two phones are unable to install 64bit apps from the Google Play Store. I am suspecting that the reason for this is because their OSs might be 32bit. (I can't check personally because someone else has the phones and I am trying to solve a problem for them.) If that is the case, is it wise to flash a 64bit OS to the phones to be able to run 64bit apps?
Below are the links to the chipset specs on their respective websites:
https://www.qualcomm.com/products/snapdragon-450-mobile-platform
https://www.mediatek.com/products/smartphones/mediatek-helio-p22

Are you sure the installation fails because of the device not supporting 64bit apps? There are other reasons why an installation may fail. Please tell us what apps you have tried to install (best with link to PlayStore), how you tried to install them and what error you got.


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ADB installs apps for all users. How to force it to install to main user only?
I have a LineageOS 17.1 system on Pocophone F1, unrooted. When I install an apk through USB using adb, adb not run as root, the app is installed both on my main admin user and on a secondary user on my phone. How do I force adb to only install the app for my main user only?

Mention the specific user as an argument for which the package is to be installed. Example:
adb install --user USER_ID YOUR_APK
adb shell pm install --user USER_ID YOUR_APK    # alternative command

USER_ID for main/primary user is always 0.
Sidenote: in case of difficulty with an adb command, simply enter adb as the sole command. It would list help section.

Note to see what the UID of a user is, use adb shell pm list users


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How to answer whatsapp audio calls with bluetooth headset?
I'm trying to use a headset based on Bluetooth to answer whatsapp calls, but even when I can answer normal calls, it wont work on the headset.
Is there a option to enable it on android phones?

I use it without any issues. First try with another BT set. They're isn't anything to be done on Android side


text:
Could Static Electricity interfere with HP Pavilion Active Pen?
My HP Active Pen worked for two months with my new HP Pavilion x360.  They are sold together.  Then it stopped.  I changed batteries and it worked again, for a day or two.  Then it stopped.  Changed batteries again, but it would not work.  Put it aside a few days, now it works again.  I am wondering if placing it on the end table by the couch with my cell phone, my cell phone QI charger, or possible drips from drinking glasses could have short-circuited it.  Also, there is a lot of static in the house this year,  Every time I pet the cat, he backs up from the static.  Could that interfere with how the pen works?  This pen does not use bluetooth, only a single AAAA battery.
Can anyone explain this to me?


text:
Is it possible to find out what apps created a given file/folder?
I want to keep track of the application that created the folder.
I use an Android phone.
And some apps automatically creates unnecessary folders in the root directory of my phone.
I want to know where they come from.(The photo below is an example.)
I can delete that folder but it will be recreated within few minutes.
Are there any apps or adb commands that can monitor whether a folder or file is being edited?
Or, is there a way to block the creation of a folder with the same name?

I have read all of the guides but may still be wrong. Please tell me if this is a duplicate question. I apologize if this is a bad question.
I want to catch the culprit!

Hello. Try the answer for the linked question. https://android.stackexchange.com/q/214229/96277

Some of them are standard Android folders: Alarms, DCIM, Documents, Downloads, Movies, Music, Notifications, Pictures, Podcasts, Ringtones, Screenshots.

@Firelord Thank you! That's exactly what I want.
But my phone doesn't have root privileges, so I have to find another way
(-> I will try to root my spare phone and install all my whole apps.)


text:
How to emulate any android version in linux?
i was trying to emulate Android 5.0 (LRX21T) in linux, i downloaded the rom but i didn't find any good emulator, there is anyone that supports any version of android ? is that possible ?

What's wrong with the official emulator from Android SDK? Emulator images for Android 5 are still available in Android SDK/AVD manager.

There are few things you can try.
Anbox:
Anbox is a wine-like android compatibility layer for Linux. It is not an emulator.It is based on android marshmallow I think.
Geny Motion:
Geny Motion is an android emulator with a cross-platform compatibility. You can install any android version you want.
Android x86
It is a project aims to port android to x86 processors. You can install it as a standalone OS. There are various distros available for this project such like RemixOS(discontinued),Phoenix OS, Prime OS, Bliss OS etc
Android studio Android Emulator
If your purpose is programming you better install the emulator provided with android studio.


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Can an app installed from the Google Playstore install another app with different permissions?
I installed an app for custom notifications from the Playstore. The app requires sensitive permissions (camera, contacts, and storage), but has no network access. When I selected a setting the app said I needed to install another app and then my phone displayed a window prompt asking if I will install an app from an untrusted source. My concern is if this app could be spyware with internet access to steal my data. Is this possible if the main app has no network access and no downloading permissions?
I contacted the developer and they told me that particular setting requires an "older API level" that is not possible for main apps to have. I am not knowledgeable enough to know if this is a valid reason.

There is relationship between the permissions of the app that installs an app and the app that is installed. For publishing apps on Google Play Store Google enforces that the "targetSDK" is the latest API versions which disables certain compatibility settings that would get active if the targetSDK would be lower. Therefore the "older API level" could be a valid reason for side-loading an app.

It's not common but it's not unusual either. I use this MacroDroid automation app. It requires a helper app that can't be published on Play Store and therefore developer provides a link to download, with this explanation:

In order to toggle Wifi on devices running Android 10+ a new helper file is now required. This helper file is built against an older target SDK allowing it to still invoke the Wifi functionality. It cannot appear on the Play Store since they no longer allow apps built against older SDKs to be uploaded.

When a WiFi toggle action is triggered, the installed app (from Play Store) sends an intent to this helper app, thereby circumventing Android 10+ restrictions. So it's a win - win for all because the app functionality is not degraded.
So, if you trust the developer and are sure you need that additional app, you can go ahead. As an added precaution, download the apk and examine it's permissions before installing (Mixplorer does that).

Thanks for the answer, but I don't know if I trust the developer and if I need the additional app. The app I'm using doesn't ask me to visit a website (maybe the button is a hyperlink to a website?) The developer's first language isn't English so I may have misunderstood, but they said the second app is already downloaded with the main app.

In that case don't use that app, find an alternative. There is no point in having an app on your phone if you don't trust//There are apps that install a second app straight away, I can think of helper app in the same automation app. It is installed straight away but if you need Wi-Fi toggle you need to replace the original helper app with this

Thank you I ended up not installing it.


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How do I improve audio quality when calling with 3rd party apps? (e.g. Messenger, Discord, Zoom, etc.)
When I use apps like Discord, Facebook Messenger, Zoom, and Google Meets to call people, it compresses the audio like it would in a normal phone call, even though using those same apps from the desktop give much better audio.
How do I go about making this audio sound better and not so compressed?
I'm using a Pixel 3 XL and am on AT&T (although most of the calls happen over Wi-Fi so I don't see how that matters).

Facebook messenger, Google Duo and other messaging app call use internet connection. Many internet service provider restrict bandwidth for such call. Using 5G network can improve your call quality.
You can use Lease line for internet connection. Such connection does not have any speed limit. You need Lease line on both side then you can get good call quality.
Also update your app to latest version.

OP says they have no issues on Desktop, so ISP can't be the issue, unless by ISP you meant telecom service provider (which also provides internet to their users). 4G is not a weak technology for internet calling, so I don't see why you would recommend 5G as a magical solution that would solve the issue over 4G.

Anyone has any solution other than what I said. If Yes than provide solution. At&t has 4G LTE and he is not getting quality.

I'm using my phone over the same wifi that I'm using on desktop. The cell provider has little to do with my internet connection in this scenario


text:
My storage keeps increasing drastically despite not downloading anything and freeing up lots of space (4GB>200mb??)
I am using a Huawei P10 Lite.
This is absolutely insane and I desperately need a solution, I can't even begin to imagine what's causing this.
I've been getting the whole "storage space running out" message for a while now, so yesterday I went ahead and I ported 4GB worth of space to my SD card, leaving tons of free local space on my phone. The message dissappeared after this.
And yet today I suddenly get the same "storage space running out" message, I go look up the amount of storage I have in settings, and suddenly it says there's only 400mb left, and a few hours later now there's only 200mb left. How is this possible?? I freed up 4GB and now suddenly there's only 200mb left?? Something's very wrong here.
I DID NOT DOWNLOAD A SINGLE THING IN THIS TIME PERIOD, NOT ONE THING
Some things worth mentioning:
-I have auto-updates off, so that's not the issue here
-When I check my local folders it all amounts to about 5GB, not even close to 32GB which is the total internal storage of my phone
-I already uninstalled updates of built-in apps I don't use, it didn't change this problem
-I use Clean Master to delete cache and free up space, but it keeps increasing more and more regardless
-Due to certain circumstances I cannot do a factory reset right now and need a different solution
If there is any other information you need please don't hesitate to ask
This is a massive problem for me and I am desperate for any solution or just fidning the culprit behind this for that matter... thank you all very much for your attention.

Identify what's eating your space and try to recover. See this Q&A for both

moving stuff out of Android folder is pointless as everything will just recreated inside origin location, android doesn't know about your external MicroSD Card. if you think some app caused this, check your data usage statistics you will figure out which app. clear data of this app.

Some apps can create extremely large log files even from just running in background (usually if the developer for git to disable the verbose mode from development).


text:
How to make specific app connect only when VPN active and make it's traffic only go with VPN tunnel
I use VPN for some apps that's banned my country, but when the VPN stop sometimes that apps keep working in background so the servers discover my real country based ip then they block my account.. I need to know if i can find some way that prevent the app making background connection while the VPN tunnel not active.

Is your device rooted?

If your device is rooted you can use Afwall+. It allows blocking apps on mobile data, wifi, vpn, tor, etc. Disallow your apps on everything except the vpn in it. You have to enable vpn related setting in AFWall+ settings first.

Thanks for your useful advice


text:
How to disable "banner" notifications on Android 11?
I would like to disable "banner" notifications globally or on a per app basis, including for applications that don't internally provide a disable method.
By banner notifications, I mean like in the following example:

Note that when googling, there is a great deal of terminology confusion around "banner," "pop-up," "pop-down," "pop-head," and "bubble" notifications. On this website, every answer I found dealt with "bubble" notifications, which look like this:

My phone is a pixel 4a. My android version is 11.
How can I disable banner notifications?

Possibly a dupe of Disable heads-up notifications or its linked questions.

Correct, though I believe my question gives more information, and, that question hasn't accepted an answer yet. In any case, https://android.stackexchange.com/a/230547/126090 was a solution that worked for me.


text:
Is there an application or a method to test the positioning on Android only by wi-fi access points?
I need to test positioning  only by wi-fi access points.But when I turn on geolocation on my Android device the position is calculated by GPS+ GSM + Wi-fi. My device  doesn't   give the option to save it and only determine by the wi-fi networks.
So is there some way or application that will give such an opportunity to use only Wi-Fi  access points for positioning?

Use an app that only requests permission to get "coarse location", then activate Air Plane mode and reactivate Wifi. Then GPS and mobile network/Bluetooth triangulation is disabled and only Wifi is left to get the position.

Can it work with Google maps? And do you know  such apps that  only request "coarse location".. can you suggest any?

Depending on the Android versions and models, there is a Location settings to choose "Location mode". On Nexus 5 (Lineage OS 14.1/Android 7.1.2), it's possible to choose "Battery saving" that only uses Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular network. On Pixel 3a (Android 11) though, there's only an option to enable Wi-Fi scanning without turning off GPS.

As you speak of "testing": Would it suffice to see where which location provider does position you? Then take a look at SatStat, which can show you the position for each location provider separately (see the 4th and 5th screenshot on the linked page).

@Izzy I need to test  what geolocation datas are getting our device and approprietly the third party apps

Isn't that exactly what SatStat shows in those screenshots? Or are you rather asking of testing it directly with your apps?


text:
Switch from Wifi to mobile data while roaming
We use international SIM cards in our our standard Android phones (SAMSUNG XCover4s). When they opperate in a weak Wifi environment, we would like them to be supported by the mobile data connection or even switch to the mobile data connection (even though its on roaming), so my question is:
Is there a way to activate the "Switch to mobile data" option in the "intellegent Wifi" option of Android (10), when the device is roaming?
We have full access to the devices. Android Version 10.
Thanks for any help/hint.
Unfortunately I only have the screenshot in German:

According to the gsmarena database this device only has Android 9/10, "current" would be Android 11. So which version do you really have?

Automate app from Llama labs has a feature to detect if the phone is in roaming. There is also the option to check signal strength of Wifi. You can use them to turn wifi off or on. But you have to always have mobile data enabled because Automate app cannot toggle mobile data without root access.

True, Robert, it is Android 10. I updated the description.
@Firelord: Thanks for pointing me to that app - it looks promising. Our issue is that the wifi is availiable (wifi strength is good) put the internet connection is slow/bad. I just did update the description of my question. I will try the "Network throughput" and "ping" block. Thanks


text:
use selected photo or video as camera
Some applications do not allow you to choose an application such as fake camera to take photos (such as verification app), they only allow you to use the default camera of the smartphone. Is there a way to set photos or videos as the default camera? so that any app that has the use of the camera only see the photo I selected? the phone model is indifferent, please tell me the most suitable.
Thanks for your suggestions :)

Related (but no answers yet): Creating 'fake' microphone and camera inputs on an Android mobile, How to emulate camera input in Android?


text:
How to eliminate all not chat-related from the Facebook Messenger?
I do not want to see anything from the facebook what is not chat-related, like:

the integrated facebook browser (yes, it is not a joke)
popups of my pals currently logged in
excerpts of their facebook posts
many-level influence of my phone GUI (like flooding of my sharing possibilities by my messenger contacts)

My goal is to entirely eliminate facebook from my life, except the messenger chat and video calls, because I can talk with some people only there.
The best would be an opensource app which knows the facebook messenger protocol, and serves exactly this purpose. Alternatively, not opensource apps, or the tunings/settings of the currently available apps would also do.

Meta post about the topicality of borderline software recommendation questions.


text:
System storage taking up loads of space after adopting SD card
I recently adopted an SD card to my Xiaomi Redmi 7. Before I adopted the 64GB card, I was using around 8GB. Now my file manager says I am only using 2%, and under internal storage in settings I have 60GB of internal storage free. But under storage in settings, it says system storage is using 55GB and I only have 500MB free. I'm also getting the old notifications saying my storage is running out.

I'm not sure I understand the difference between internal and system storage, but I definitely can't see how system storage is using 55GB when it previously was happy with 7.
If anyone can help I would be most grateful.

Does this answer your question? How disk space is used on Android device?

Hi, thanks, but this question is about how the space is used up by apps, it is the system storage that appears to be using 55gb on my phone.

Does this answer your question? “System” using 342GB storage?

May be your system has a "display bug" and therefore shows the sd-card as occupied because the space is used by the adopted storage partition. May be other apps like DiscInfo  can solve this riddle.

Thanks, I'll have a look into that.

This has maybe confused me a bit more, diskinfo doesn't seem to recognise the sd card at all and says I have used 7.5gb of 8gb of data space. Which maybe is a clue to what's going on.....

I have added an image from drives. It shows the data filling up the 8gb as it did before I adopted the sd card, you can also see the almost empty as card. Perhaps I was confused, but I thought adopting the sd card would prevent this, I can't really see now what the benefit of adopting it was.

see accepted answer from Ghostkeeper (2nd link)

I have looked at that one now, the thing is, when I go to settings>storage> there is no sd card anymore since adopting, only non system storage and system storage, and cleaner, and not 3 dots in the corner, no way of going anywhere other then using the cleaner. new pic added.


text:
SM-T350 Micro-USB port charging but not transmitting files
My belief is that my SM-T350 (Samsung Galaxy A 8.0 from 2015) has a corrupted port which can only charge, not transfer files. Is that possible? Has anyone found any fixes short of taking the device apart and replacing the micro-usb port? Have I done anything wrong on the software side (see info below)?
Info:
I recently bought the SM-T350 off ebay as a cheap tablet to install ROMS, root, and generally do things on that I can't do with my daily driver phone. When I went to flash TWRP from my computer (Ubuntu 20.10), I found that the device was not recognized by adb. Specifically, running:
adb devices

returns the output:
List of devices attached

implying that no devices are attached, even though the SM-T350 is in the MTP mode in developer settings and USB debugging is enabled.
Seeing this, I figured that I'd run into the age-old problem of a cable which only charges and doesn't transfer data. It had been the cable from the box, so I tried connecting with a different cable (which I know to work both transferring data and charging). adb devices still didn't recognize it, so I know something is either wrong with my computer or the tablet at this point.
To eliminate variables, I borrowed my nephew's tablet (coincidentally, a Samsung Galaxy A 8.0 from 2019) and hooked it up (with the working cable, to the same computer) to see if adb devices registered anything. Sure enough, it outputted:
List of devices attached
R9WMA0N3LCJ device

My nephew's tablet (the 2019 one) also was recognized by Ubuntu as a removeable filesystem, whereas no such thing happened for my SM-T350. This is why I believe that the problem lies in the port's file transfer capability.

did you change your usb cable. Some usb cables are specially made for charging your device that can't help you with FTP.

I tried to touch on this in the post, but maybe it wasn't clear. I tested the same usb cable with a different device, and file transfer (and adb) worked correctly.

try switching mtp to ftp if available. still if it don't work it might be a hardware issue.

have you restarted your computer after installing adb it could be an issue too. because adb installs it's driver to kernel machine requires a reboot to load those drivers. So reboot your computer and try to detect your using adb devices.if it still doesn't work try switching mtp to ftp if available. still if it don't work it might be a hardware issue. It too have an SMT-350 1.5 gtwifi tablet which have custom rom installed and working with adb too.

I installed adb many moons ago, so I don't think rebooting is the issue. I've tried killing and restarting the adb daemon too; no dice. FTP isn't available in the device settings. I'm thinking it's a hardware issue right now as well.

yes, physical issue is absolutely possible. imagine some dirt on data pins would block any rx/tx but voltage is still available. try to clean with toothbrush and alcohol (nail polish remover). btw he meant PTP (not FTP)

PTP is available, I think. Will report back later today.

@alecxs the issue is that one of the data pins has been bent upward out of its slot. Three of the data pins are still in place. Any ideas on how i could bend it back down?

if you can find such flex cable with right board according to your device model it will be DIY replaceable. otherwise soldering required you should give to professional repair shop

okay, thanks for your help!


text:
Purple line of Samsung galaxy s7
I have a Samsung galaxy s7 in gold. It has been stepped on. Now, there is purple bleeding on the left side with a few pale purple around the screen. I can’t enter my phone because I has a pattern passcode. I won’t let me touch the left area. I think the internal has been damaged but I am not sure. I can’t go and fix it during a pandemic. Can I be helped?

If you have an OTG cable/adapter and a mouse lying around or if you can manage to get a hold of them (a friend, online delivery, etc.), you should be able to unlock your phone using a mouse and also operate it at least for making some online backups.


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Problem creating a reminder with date/time in title
Using Android 9 on a Pixel 2, I can recreate this problem reliably.
Let's say currently it is January 20. I prompt Google Assistant to start making a reminder for a certain date and time, such as:
"Remind me on February 8th at 6 pm",
to which it replies:
"Okay, what's the reminder?"
If I then want to the reminder text to say something like:
"Appointment tomorrow at noon",
Google will interpret that as a new reminder set for January 21 at noon, instead of a reminder on February 8th at 6 pm saying "Appointment tomorrow at noon".
This seems like a mistake, especially since Google specifically saved the date and time of the original request and prompted me just for the reminder text.
Has anyone found a solution to this? Many thanks.

This seems to be insurmountable.  People often want reminders of an event that will occur some time in the future.  You cannot put a time in the title without it being interpreted by Google Assistant as the time for the reminder.  Having to manually edit these makes the feature much less useful.  Perhaps a keyword before a time in the title is necessary.


text:
How to actually delete SMS/MMS messages using third-party SMS applications like Pulse SMS?
A while back, I switched from Samsung's default SMS app (Samsung Messages) to Pulse SMS.
For many months, I've been using Pulse SMS to delete old SMS and MMS messages.  After deleting almost all MMS messages and thousands of SMS messages, I backed up Android's SMS/MMS database using Epistolaire.  Much to my surprise, the backup was over 500GB.
Given that SMS messages are tiny, I immediately knew something was wrong.  So I loaded up Samsung's default SMS app, and sure enough, every one of my supposedly-deleted SMS and MMS messages are still technically on the Android device (even though thousands of them had supposedly been deleted by the Pulse SMS app).
Besides going through tens of thousands of SMS and MMS messages again, how can I remove all the supposedly-deleted SMS/MMS messages from Android without removing the thousands of messages I want to keep?
Also, how do I prevent this mess from happening in the future?

i know Textra deals with mmssms.db and keep it syncronized. for Windows i recommend MyPhoneExplorer it has a nice gui to filter + delete on keywords (like e-mail program)


text:
Custom rom can I trust? Can I install pure android instead?
I have a "galaxy tab E" device, it is old in years, but it is quite new because I don't use it very often.
The problem is, it has android 4.4.4.
I notice it has a custom rom to install android 7.1.2 Nougat (see this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmRtueImtlw) It is a rom made by lineage.
First question, can I trust this rom?
Is there a way to install pure android (7.1.2) from google instead? If I download android from google and install it using odin will it work?
Thanks a lot.

Does this answer your question? Where to get old LineageOS ROMs?

The main question is it an original LineageOS ROM (built and released by LineageOS) or is it a LineageOS based custom ROM. The latter can contain any modification and thus is less trustable than an original build. An original LineageOS ROM should contain a cryptographic signature by LineageOS and therefore it can be verified.

"Is there a way to install pure android (7.1.2) from google instead?" if by "Google", it's "Google, the company", no, because Google doesn't provide ROM for non-Google devices, just like other manufacturers. If it's "Google, the search engine", plausibly, since ROMs on popular forum like XDA usually get some review and feedback from their users directly on there.

In the rom zip file it is named as lineage-14.1-20180419-UNOFFICIAL-gtel3g, so, yeah, I think it is not a original lineage rom.


text:
Verifying a (custom) ROM signature
Android ROMs and also Android custom ROMs are typically cryptographically signed.
Most users will only recognize this if they try to install a ROM and the signature verification on-device fails.
For verifying authenticity of a ROM it can makes sense to verify the signature offline, before installing the ROM and e.g. compare the used signature certificate if it is the one expected, e.g. if the ROM is a genuine ROM build by LineageOS.
What command do you have to execute for verifying the signature of a ROM (e.g. if you have the ZIP file) on a PC?

In order to verify the signature of a ROM ZIP file on a PC, two things are required:

The public key from the ROM creator (can be extracted from /system/etc/security/otacerts.zip if the creator is the same e.g. in case of updating stock ROM).
A tool to extract the certificate from the comment (footer) of the ZIP file and verify its signature key against the ROM developer's public key.

There are multiple tools available to perform the second step, including the one officially provided by LineageOS:
update_verifier.py <pubkey> /path/to/zip_file

DETAILS
I had a vague notion that custom ROM ZIP files contain the standard JAR signatures block (which is also the case with APK signature scheme v1). So the standard jarsigner -verify command could be used to verify the integrity of a self-signed JAR/ZIP file (that it hasn't been tempered with since created), though not the authenticity of the source (which requires the root certificate, as is the case with AVB).
But a deeper look into TWRP source code indicates that it's using the same signature verification mechanism used in stock recovery for OTA ZIP file verification (source code here) i.e. verifying the authority of the ZIP file's creator against prebuilt public keys stored in /res/keys/. signapk.jar is used at the time of compilation to sign both APKs (apksigner is called) and OTA ZIP files. The same tool adds the "signed by SignApk" message you noticed in ZIP file.
So the /res/keys/ directory in recovery must contain the public keys from all ROM creators in order to verify their ZIP files, which doesn't seem practical.  Stock recovery contains only OEM's public key(s) while custom recovery most probably contains test keys from the official SDK. And that's why we often face the infamous "ZIP signature verification failed" message for ROMs and other flashable ZIP files.
On non-A/B devices the OTA package (if not manually downloaded by the user) is also verified before booting to recovery mode. In this case prebuilt keys from otacerts.zip are used for verification (source code here). But with A/B updates recovery is not involved at all (/res/keys/ no more exists since Android 10) and package might not be verified even once (if doing "streaming updates", some more details in this answer).
So keeping these points in view, the verification mechanism used in recovery doesn't seem to be of much importance. In order to verify the authenticity of a ROM, better would be to simply do a checksum verification of the downloaded file if possible, like LineageOS provides SHA256 hashes with their downloadable ZIP files.

Thanks for your extensive answer. When writing the question I had for example in mind to verify an original LineageOS ROM downloaded not from LineageOS (e.g. because the download has already been removed). To verify such an ROM is easy now. It is also good to know that the ZIP file itself is signed, which means that after installation the complete ROM can no longer be verified (by the bootloader or by a human).


text:
Custom vibration patterns for notification types
I'd like to set different vibration patters for different notification types.
For example something like: 2 short buzzes for a private Whatsapp message, 2 long ones for a group message, long and short for calendar, etc. I can set custom sounds for each of these in settings, but vibrations can only be turned on or off. Is there some way to add custom vibration functionality to this?
To be clear I'm not looking for contact specific vibrations, though it would be a nice addition.
I'm using a rooted device running lineage 17.1 btw.

As an Android app developer, I believe that is not possible unless the app itself implements something like that. You do not have any system settings for this feature.

@WrichikBasu I was afraid that would be the answer. Sad since it seems like such an obvious feature to have.


text:
ADB screen record command to mirror Android screen to PC via USB
I am trying to mirror android device screen though ADB commands from the command prompt for quite a long time. Recently I saw a post in stackoverflow with the following command which mirrors the screen when executed in the command prompt.
adb exec-out screenrecord --output-format=h264 --size 540x960 - | ffplay -framerate 60 -framedrop -bufsize 16M -
From what I have read is that this commands stores the Frame buffer somewhere in a file, and my question is where is this file stored and how can I access this file(Frame buffer) in a desktop application for example written in C#.
Any help or hint will be greatly appreciated.

Do you know scrcpy? From my perspective this project is what you want to build.

To know where the file is stored (if any) then you can use Process Monitor (on Windows) to see where this file is created.


text:
Cryptfs : Unexpected value for crypto key location
Phone: Samsung S9 Plus, 256Gb
OS: Lineage OS 17.1 (Android 10)
ROOT: TWRP 3.5

I installed Lineage OS 17.1 on a Samsung S9+. It's been working fine so far. However, when I encrypt the OS from the security menu, right after the screen goes black with the green android-like logo, the phone quickly reboots back to the non encrypted OS. Going again through the process does not help.
logcat shows:
--------- beginning of main
01-20 19:17:52.959 4019 4129 D vold : fdeEnable(3, *, 0)
01-20 19:17:52.960 4019 4129 D vold : !fscrypt_is_native, spawning fdeEnableInternal
01-20 19:17:52.960 4019 403 E Cryptfs : Unexpected value for crypto key location
01-20 19:17:52.961 4019 403 E Cryptfs : Cannot get size of block device
01-20 19:17:53.067 4019 403 W vold : Found symlink /proc/29802/cwd referencing /data/misc/keystore
01-20 19:17:53.067 4019 403 W vold : Found symlink /proc/29803/fd/7 referencing /data/vendor/gps/.lhd.lock
01-20 19:17:53.068 4019 403 W vold : Found symlink /proc/29803/fd/12 referencing /data/vendor/gps/.pipe.gpsd_to_lhd.to_server
01-20 19:17:53.068 4019 403 W vold : Found symlink /proc/29803/fd/14 referencing /data/vendor/gps/.pipe.gpsd_to_lhd.to_client
01-20 19:17:53.069 4019 403 W vold : Found symlink /proc/29804/fd/7 referencing /data/vendor/gps/.gpsd.lock
...
...
01-20 19:17:53.217 4019 403 W vold : Sending Killed to 32740
01-20 19:17:53.218 4019 403 W vold : Sending Killed to 32509
01-20 19:17:53.218 4019 403 W vold : Sending Killed to 32383
...
...
01-20 19:17:53.221 4019 403 E Cryptfs : Unexpected value for crypto key location
01-20 19:17:53.221 4019 403 E Cryptfs : Cannot get size of block device
--------- beginning of crash

I tried the steps given here on /data (/dev/block/sda25), but it did not do it for me either.

Any idea on how I can debug further Cryptfs : Unexpected value for crypto key location?
Is there a way to encrypt /data via the command line if this keeps failing?

Just for clarification: The OS is never encrypted, just the data on the user data partition is encrypted (should be FBE - File-Based Encryption if I am not mistaken).

this device is encrypted with FDE full-disk-encryption. depending on how you installed Magisk the forceencrypt= flag is gone. that's what the "crypto key location" refer. edit your fstab and restore encryptable= flag that might help to use Samsung encryption in boot mode. but TWRP is most likely not able to decrypt anyway, so there is no benefit of having TWRP
btw this is a well known Magisk Bug and topjohnwu decided to ignore my fix

Thanks @alecxs, Magisk was installed throught TWRP, after LineageOS. /system/etc/fstab only has reference to the swap at this point. From what you're saying, encrypting book doesn't make much sense, is that right? Lastly, for learning purposes, how can I verify for myself that the device is encrypted with FDE?

afaik the file should located /vendor/etc/fstab.* should be something like /dev/block/platform/11120000.ufs/by-name/USERDATA /data ext4 wait,check,encryptable=footer and you can check with getprop ro.crypto.type

I had the wrong fstab... This is the vendor one: https://pastebin.com/raw/nimAc6vr, FYI.

you can just add the missing flag. when dealing with system files make sure to preserve owner+ permissions+ secontext (ls -lnZ) and keep correct line ending LF (not CRLF)

I see. getprop ro.crypto.type returns nil, and getprop | grep crypto returns:
[ro.crypto.fuse_sdcard]: [true], [ro.crypto.state]: [unsupported], and [ro.security.fips_scrypto.ver]: [2.2]

It does not look encrypted from the looks of it.

I've replaced =footer with encypted=footer in the fstab for USERDATA. Now, getprop | grep crypto returns: [ro.crypto.fuse_sdcard]: [true], [ro.crypto.state]: [unencrypted], [ro.security.fips_scrypto.ver]: [2.2], [vold.encrypt_progress]: [error_not_encrypted]. Am I on the right track here...? Should I run the encryption manually or something?

encryptable= is the proper flag (not encrypted=) and you must encrypt from security menu afterwards. if still not working follow your link to free space for crypto-footer

Let us continue this discussion in chat.


text:
Which filesystem should I use on my USB stick to have interoperability with Android and Windows?
I wish to use a USB stick with both my Android device and my Windows 10 PC.
My requirements are:

No file size limitation
No root required on the Android device
The filesystem should be natively supported by the Android device

My Android device is a Samsung Galaxy S10. I would like a solution that would work with all modern Android devices, but I don't mind if I'm limited to the Samsung.
Which filesystem should I use?

Does this answer your question? How to read ext4 filesystem without mounting on a non-rooted device?

I would try if your Android device supports exFAT reading and writing (AOSP does not support it but most mid- to high-end device do support it). If it does support exFAT this would be my preferred file-system.

@alecxs It's FAT that has the 4 GB limit. exFAT does not and allows file size of more than 4 GB.

@alecxs exFAT has a file size limit of 16 Exabytes. The only disadvantage of exFAT (besides that it is not yet supported by every device) is that the clusters are getting relatively big which makes it not a good choice for storing many small files.

Android support for exFAT is also topic in Since which Android version is exFat supported?

@alecxs no (more chars)

@Robert Thank you, exFAT works and meets my requirements. If you add an answer I will gladly accept and upvote.

so the Paragon NTFS plugin did not work on your samsung?

Based on your requirements there are not many file-systems left: ext3/ext4 or exFAT both are file-systems that are natively supported nearly all Android devices.
My recommendation as file-system to use is exFAT as long as you don't want to store a large number of small files.
partitions size to cluster size:

7 MB–256 MB -> cluster size 4 KB
256 MB–32 GB -> cluster size 32 KB
32 GB–256 TB -> cluster size 128 KB

The other option ext3/ext4 may cause problems if you ever want to connect the USB-stick to an Windows PC as Windows does not support it.
exFAT has no relevant maximum file-size (the file size limit of exFAT is 16 Exabytes and therefore larger than the largest disc for the next decades)
Regarding the exFAT support Android should support this file-system if it has an SD-card slot and supported SD-card with 64 GB and beyond.
To my experience the exFAT read support usually works, but the write support can be buggy on some devices (permission problem). Therefore the only way is to format an USB-stick with exFAT and test it on the devices you want to use it.
For more details see also this question and it's answers: Since which Android version is exFat supported?

There isn't a solution that meets all of your criteria.  Which criteria is your priority and where can you compromise?
If you want read-write support on both Android and Windows, you'll need to use FAT32 and format it in Windows.  This will limit file size to 4 GiB.
If you need file sizes greater than 4 GiB, you can use ext3, which supports file sizes up to 2-16 TiB depending on block size.  You won't have reliable write access on Windows, but there are good tools/drivers for read-only access.
In my experience, this is going to bite you eventually.  Something will get corrupted if you have two different platforms writing to the same filesystem.  The most reliable way to get cross-OS storage is via network-attached or cloud storage.


text:
Is it possible to use WhatsApp Web without scanning the QR code?
I have a camera issue in my phone that it is not able to scan the QR code. Is there any other way to use WhatsApp Web without the QR code, like using OTP?

https://www.timesnownews.com/technology-science/article/login-to-whatsapp-web-without-scanning-qr-code-heres-how/566750

Unfortunately, the only way is to migrate WhatsApp to a device that does have a relevant camera.
But as the article in the question's first comment mentions, you can emulate such a device and thus use WhatsApp directly in your computer (i.e. run Android in your computer). It'll be slow and unfriendly though.
If it's any consolation, WhatsApp plans to support Desktop computers independently.[1]
Hopefully it'd be unlike Telegram which requires another device to log you in.[2]


text:
LG5 call interrupted with cheek touching "hold"
LG G5 accidentally touching "Hold" button with cheek during phone calls, thereby unintentionally put the call on "hold".
How to prevent this from happening?

Most Dialer apps use the proximity sensor to turn off the screen while it's on call to prevent accidental touch. So, either 1) the Dialer app you're using doesn't support this, or 2) the proximity sensor is not working properly. Try installing 3rd-party Dialer app or sensor checking app.