text:
disconnected phone while installing ROM
I recently tried to install a custom ROM in my samsung j6+ but halfway through it my PC turned off.
Then the problem starts i decided to reboot my phone but it shows this error "No command" " #Reboot recovery cause is [[check_bootmode]RebootRecoveryWithKey]#
Block-based OTA
Supported API: 3
# MANUAL MODE v1.0.0#
E:Failed to mount / cache: Invalid argument

The error message keeps appearing for just a fraction of a second then disappear and appear again
I tried to go to recovery mode but no luck i cant get to it
I drained the battery to turn off the device then go download mode but after get to it, it also keep restarting
help me please. thank you

common reason for unexpected reboot is power button stuck, is wet or short circuited
another reason might be loose usb jack, dirty pins or broken cable, or the battery itself is dead/not charging
watch video how to dissassemble, carefully remove back cover (or let service center open housing). replace battery, usb jack or power button. in case you know power button stuck, disconnect flex cable while in download mode.
once device can hold the download mode for at least ~ 5 minutes, download stock ROM according to your phone model and CSC from updato, samfirm, frija or samloader. charge your phone battery for at least 2 hours. make sure using stable PC and prepare Odin for flashing. connect your phone in download mode and immediately start flashing


text:
i cant go to recovery mode NO Command error, Boot-loop
I recently tried to install a custom ROM in my samsung j6+ but halfway through it my PC turned off(disconnected while flashing).
Then the problem starts i decided to reboot my phone but it shows this message
"No command" " #Reboot recovery cause is [[check_bootmode]RebootRecoveryWithKey]#
Block-based OTA
Supported API: 3
MANUAL MODE v1.0.0#
E:Failed to mount / cache: Invalid argument
The error message keeps appearing for just a fraction of a second then disappear and appear again
I tried to go to recovery mode but no luck i cant get to it
I drained the battery to turn off the device then go download mode but after get to it, it also keep restarting
Please help me thanks so much

Does this answer your question? What does the "no command" screen mean? (Trying to execute hard reset Recovery)

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Home screen wallpaper blurs on Samsung Galaxy S20+
On my Samsung Galaxy S20+, the wallpaper is blurred on my home screen but not on the lock screen.
I saw a similar post to this saying to change your lock and home screen wallpaper to different wallpapers, I have tried changing the wallpaper to something not blurry and it still does not work.
How to prevent blur home screen wallpaper?

There are 2 similar questions related to blurry wallpaper on Samsung: Use "static" live wallpaper, Set home screen wallpaper, or disable blur effect

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


text:
MediaTek K80 is stuck , computer store tells me the firmware chip is corrupted
To start with I did a factory reset to wipe out my files and apps before giving my tablet to my niece.
After the reset the tablet is stuck at the screen with the android guy in the corner and MEDIATEK across the screen. it will not boot any further. I took the tablet to a repair store and 3 days later he tells me the chip is corrupted and he cant(be bothered?) do anything because its a Chinese clone?
I have researched many sites but cannot find a scatter file or rom image etc.. the following is  what I have found inside my tablet:
On a stickered chip:
E960 V1.2 YK18091021
6580A/WA/1+16/3G/B15
GXQ 2018/09/26
DL_BT_MM_QC_

ALSO, TAKEN FROM "ABOUT TABLET" :
Android Version:7.0
Android Security Patch level: 1Feb.2016
Baseband version:  MOLY.WR8.W1449.MD.WG.MP.V23, 2017/05/16  17:00
Kernel version:
3.18.19
c@c-S2600JF #2
ThuOct11 17:29:47 cst 2018
Build Number:
MRA58K test-keys
Custom Build version:
E960v1.1_HJC_03_3G_HBOE_FL_WXGA_bigbattery_4_64

I am completely lost and would really appreciate any help possible.
Thank you in advance,
John Sweeney

No offense, but these are disposable devices... Unless you can find the original firmware image, which is literally impossible on most of these devices, and you have a JTAG programming tool ($100-$350) it's probably a lost cause, I would go into recover and attempt a factory reset again, twice to make sure. But the tech is probably right, its not worth attempting to repair. The other kicker here is in the info, notice "test-keys" in the build number? That means it likely wan't an authorized use of Android either, common among these generic tablets.

Because the device is may be considered disposable (which is probley 80% of all electronics today) but that doesn't mean one can't try to fix it or at least learn something new.   Test-Keys  appeared after the factory reset because I think I hit the wrong command key the 1st time ... they were all in chinese....

"Test-keys" is based on how the software is built or compiled, not anything you did... You don't have what most legitimate Android devices would have production keys, in other words they never went so far as to sign (digitally) their own build. Again, you need the full ROM image to repair this, or in your case the scatter file (essentially the full rom image) used by MediaTek devices. You can try the stuff listed below, but it is unlikely this device will every be recoverable.

create your own scatter file with WwR MTK. preloader works 100% even on dead device without battery https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2XWTAYmNUo

hold power button ~ 10-30 sec to power down. when powered off, hold Vol up + Power to enter recovery menu, select "reboot to bootloader" to enter fastboot mode

this firmware might work on your device also. but do not flash preloader. make sure you have backup. do a readback (full ROM dump) first https://tunisia-firmwares.com/duoduogo-tablet

The kernel version 3.18.19 is correlative with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, which also correlates with Security Patch level. The ROM is built userdebug test-keys so this is most likely (ported) custom ROM.
Looking for baseband version there are lot of different 'brands' for several phones or tablets, which is unusual.
What they have in common these are low-budget devices running entry-level MT6580 processor with serial number 0123456789ABCDEF in fastboot mode.
Indeed this looks like a typical chinese clone device often with fake android version and/or fake hardware specs (see #40386).
Nevertheless factory reset will not have such negative impact, only cache + userdata partition is formatted which does not harm the firmware/ROM.
The best source for 'stock' ROM is your device itself. Do a read back with SP Flash Tool and create your own scatter file with WwR MTK

check that device has unlocked bootloader and/or adb root access in recovery mode. download platform-tools and enter recovery/bootloader mode with volume keys
in bootloader mode factory reset by formatting cache + userdata from fastboot
fastboot devices
fastboot oem unlock
fastboot format cache
fastboot format userdata

in recovery mode formatting cache + userdata from adb shell with mke2fs (where mmcblkp1p99 is placeholder for partition number of the block device)
adb devices
adb shell ls -l /dev/block/*/*/*/by-name
adb shell mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblkp1p99

Reboot your device and wait a long time. device is encrypted on first boot, that might take up to 15 minutes

Thank you .... Looks like I have a lot more learning to do but when I do I will try the above  directions.  I have all ready tried using the sp flash tool but it tells me to load a scatter file. which I dont have, and the tablet is frozen on android screen.. anyways will keep trying to figure it out...


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Stop the phone from disconnecting Discord calls
My phone is an LG K40+. Sometimes when I'm on a call on Discord, it'll disconnect from the call. I'm connected via WiFi and the quality is fine, so I don't think it's an internet issue.
Is there any way to prevent this behavior?

Try disabling battery optimisation for Discord only, eventually that will work.


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Determine Android version on a device that is stuck on lock screen and with FRP
On my Motorola Moto E6 (XT2005-5) that is locked with a PIN I don't have and also with FRP, does "surfna9" mean it is Android 9? If not, where do I look without the PIN to know what version is installed?

According to some online database the xt2005-5 was shipped with Android 9. If it has received an update to Android 10 I don't know.

you can read properties via fastboot commands in fastboot mode: 'fastboot getvar ro.build.fingerprint' 'fastboot getvar ro.build.version.full' 'fastboot getvar version-baseband' 'fastboot getvar kernel.version'

fastboot getvar all is another quick way to see all available variables on your device. I am assuming FRP prevents you from getting to recovery since that is where data can be reset. My Android version was shown there.


text:
Google Play Services has stopped
On my Samsung Galaxy A6 I keep getting the message 'Google Play Services has stopped' Whatever I try to do this message keeps appearing and I cannot get rid of it. I did manage to get into the app, but on trying to uninstall updates got the message 'Uninstall unsuccessful' At the moment this device is totally unusable. 'Send Feedback' does not work. I am unable to access the cache to clear it, so none of the fixes I have seen in previous posts seem to be available. HELP please!!

try to enable usb-debugging. once adb connection established you can get control over packages via package manager


text:
How to fix emojis showing gibberish on incoming SMS messages Google Fi service
Yesterday for no apparent reasons I started to see text like this in the body of the text if the sender had both text and emojis:
hi you smell like poo!
~9weuaisigjei3

When I expected to see:
hi you smell like poo!

Now if they send only emojis I would see this:

~06WjjgASrCDcGQg

In any case it's annoying.  How can I fix this?

I got on chat with Google FI Support who walked me through through these fixes.

Goto Settings>Apps>GoogleFi>Storage and tap Clear Data
Open Google FI app and complete setup.
If this recurs make sure to contact support to make sure your network is fixed.


text:
How to unlock with face recognition for multiple users?
We are using our tablet together with my wife. I have added another user profile to the Android tablet (Samsung Tab A7, Android 10). I have switched to her account and we added her face for the recognition.
Question: is there a way to directly unlock the device with either of our faces? Otherwise the experience is awful. I need to turn on the device, click on the profile icon on the top right, catch the correct user in 1 second (otherwise screen turns off), then do the face recognition.

Upvoted.  That is awful OOBE/UX.

AFAIK, Android doesn't offer an integrated lock screen. There have been questions asked in the past about unlocking an existing user so long as the corresponding correct PIN/Password/Pattern was entered. The solutions are absent for them too.


text:
Should I change the battery of my Samsung A7 (2018)?
My phone shut off completely a few hours ago. It was at 20% and somehow it jumped to 0% and shut off. I didn't know what happened so I just put it to charge.
I had this phone for 2 years, if not 3. I've been using it everyday, nearly all day. For like 5-6 months I've been using it till it was at 20% percent and charge it till it was 90% ( I never used it till it was 0%). But in the first 2 years I used to let it charge overnight. I stopped doing this since July 2020( I think).
I tried my best to not use too much battery, I closed background apps, limited my brightness and leave it alone when it heated up( it started happening quite often for the last few months, but not that much).
It does charge normally.
I read an article about this kind of thing and what to do, and one of them was to do a factory reset. I don't want to do that.
Should I change the battery? I had this phone for like 3 years, I think I should change the battery.

The battery level is more an assumption not an exact value. That a device shuts down at 20% may happen if the assumptions on the remaining battery are not correct. Was it directly off or did the device properly performed a shutdown? Regarding the question if you should replace the battery the overall run time between two charges is more important. If that is enough from your perspective you can still use the current battery.

If you mean shut down by the 'power off' button, I didn't do that. The device on its own did that. And I did check, it was 20%. I just put the phone down and it shut off completely and when I tried to power it on, it showed me 0% and powered off again.

No I was asking if the phone was performing it's shut down sequence like a PC or if it was just off like a computer in a power outage. But if you have not seen the display when it happened you don't know which one happened. The problem is if it just goes off you lose data or some data may be written in a wrong way which can lead to problems. This is the reason I was asking.

There isn't any data lost, or written in the wrong way ( I don't think so). Everything is in its place, just how it was before. About the charging part, it does charge pretty good with one charger. But if I use a different one (similar to the first one) it charges very slow or not at all.

Assuming your battery is bad and therefore this power off scenarios happen more and more often, then with each power loss there is a small chance that something goes wrong. Therefore you should monitor your phone if this was a single event or if it happens frequently. If the latter happens it is time for a new battery.

So you're saying I should wait and see if it happens again?

professional repair service is recommended because there is high risk of breaking back cover https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p40OLb9_uAE

Try other battery. If phone work properly than you can change battery.
Use code *#*#4636#*#*. go to battery information. If health is not good. Change the battery.

Have you or somebody else ever encountered a device with a battery state not "Good"?

It doesn't work for me

@Leyla Justo make it sure: you must enter this code in the phone app, on the numeric keypad, as if you were trying to call someone by entering their number manually. Also: charge your phone to full, then use it normally until the battery is empty and it turns off again. Do this once or twice (or 3 times). This will re-calibrate the charge monitor. If this helps, then the problem is solved.


text:
Migrating from broken iOS device, from iCloud Back-up
This webpage below explains how to migrate from an iOS device to Android. My problem is that the iOS device doesn't work anymore. Therefore it is not possible to use the procedure explained there. The data on the iPhone is backed up in iCloud. How can we migrate to android from an iCloud backup (for free)? How can i copy the data on iCloud to my Google Drive and then to my new Android phone?
https://www.android.com/switch/
edit: I tried to use the app "MobileTrans" but it doesn't accept the iCloud Password.


text:
How to solve problem in APK Tools
I'm trying to decompile an apk with the apk tools and I'm not getting it. When I run apktool -d myapp.apk it displays this error to me:
 Exception in thread "main" brut.androlib.AndrolibException: Invalid chunk type: expected=0x00000200, got=0x00000203
    at brut.androlib.res.decoder.ARSCDecoder.checkChunkType(ARSCDecoder.java:542)
    at brut.androlib.res.decoder.ARSCDecoder.readTablePackage(ARSCDecoder.java:88)
    at brut.androlib.res.decoder.ARSCDecoder.readTableHeader(ARSCDecoder.java:82)
    at brut.androlib.res.decoder.ARSCDecoder.decode(ARSCDecoder.java:48)
    at brut.androlib.res.AndrolibResources.getResPackagesFromApk(AndrolibResources.java:786)
    at brut.androlib.res.AndrolibResources.loadMainPkg(AndrolibResources.java:67)
    at brut.androlib.res.AndrolibResources.getResTable(AndrolibResources.java:59)
    at brut.androlib.Androlib.getResTable(Androlib.java:66)
    at brut.androlib.ApkDecoder.setTargetSdkVersion(ApkDecoder.java:236)
    at brut.androlib.ApkDecoder.decode(ApkDecoder.java:118)
    at brut.apktool.Main.cmdDecode(Main.java:170)
    at brut.apktool.Main.main(Main.java:76)

Can anyone help me with that? I would offer more reward does not yet

Known issue with APK Tools: Issue #2099 Invalid chunk type

Thanks, i resolved with `apktool d -f -r netflix.apk (my apk test).

@Dakota -f -r may not be the best way. Now, you can build from the latest source.

Please use Apktool v2.5.1-0a7b84-SNAPSHOT to decompile the apk.
This will be fixed in v2.5.1, which is not released yet to the public
here is the link https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RmHwBD4DnDHt6RIN1Ua2gHE6F8sPqJ0O/view?usp=sharing

Based on the comment, looks like this will be fixed in v2.5.1, which is not released yet to the public. That said, I got access denied to Google Drive (though, why is it on Google Drive?).

Hi Andrew - Please check the link again. It should work. It is on google drive as I found it earlier somewhere to decompile an apk , can't locate that place on the internet. I have it on my c://windows location.

Here is my powerful tool  Decompiles almost every apk!
https://github.com/kikfox/kikfox

If you might be a bit suspicious of using a jar from

a not-so-well-known fork of apktool (kikfox) ; or
a Google Drive link

You may be pleased to know that you can build it yourself rather easily from the official APKtool github site, following the easy-to-follow official instructions. It just takes a few minutes.
I tried with an apk that had been giving this error.
Using apktool_2.5.0.jar (the most recent release, Dec 2020), from Apktool release site, the error was seen.
Building apktool from the source, and trying on the same apk, it worked perfectly without the error.


text:
Bluetooth periodically switches off
The Bluetooth on my Android phone periodically switches off.
This is a problem because I've attached a "Tile" to my keys. To find my keys using my phone, and my phone using my keys. And after the Bluetooth switches off, this doesn't work.

phone: Xiaomi Max 2
Android version: 7.1.1
MIUI version: 11.0.2.0

The best advice I've gleaned from the internet so far has been to give the "Bluetooth Share" app all the permissions it needs. This seems to have lengthened the time it takes before the Bluetooth switches off.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Do you like to keep your Bluetooth (BT) always on? If yes, the workaround for your problem is to use an automation app that can enable BT whenever it detects that BT was switched off. Otherwise, you would want to list apps which have BT permission in your device and use trial and error by removing BT change permission on each one of them and see if that solves the issue. A technical option is to use logcat but I am not sure how much it would help.

@Firelord Awesome idea... it didn't occur to me that such an automation app existed... if you know of any please share... otherwise I'm going to google around and find something regardless... Thanks.

You can use MacroDroid. It is easy to use and the first run would guide you how to use it. Trigger: Bluetooth Off, Action: Bluetooth On, Constraint: None. Make sure to exempt MacroDroid from Battery optimization.

I would assume the BT app is getting killed. This is because of the aggressive battery saving by Xiomi: https://dontkillmyapp.com/xiaomi

@Robert Thanks!

Just an update. I'm using an app called "Bluetooth Always On", and it works.


text:
How to run 64 bit apps on a 32 bit Android smartphone without root access?
I know it's difficult or rather almost impossible to change a 32 bit to 64 bit with or without root but is it possible to run 64 bit apps on a 32 bit Android smartphone without root access ?
I am using Samsung Galaxy J5 Prime.

Theoretically it is possible but in the end it is like manually installing a different custom ROM. The main problem is that you need a 64bit kernel and therefore for all components in your phone you need 64bit drivers. Drivers for phone components are mostly not open source which makes it difficult to get them. And as your device has a 32bit ROM installed it's current kernel is 32bit, hence it can't be reused. Even if you would find a 64bit ROM for your device most likely the apps/games you want to run would still not work because your phone has only 2GB RAM and 64bit phone usually have more.

Android apps aren't 32-bit or 64-bit. But they may contain arch-specific native libraries/executables. Details here. In this case the app usually contains the native binaries for multiple architectures, and as they state: "Starting August 1, 2019, your apps published on Google Play will need to support 64-bit architectures". So you need to be specific which app you are talking about. Generally you cannot run 64-bit code on 32-bit hardware.


text:
Is it possible to fix Samsung XCover Pro lock/unlock?
The Samsung XCover Pro advertises a large XCover and Top keys that can be used to wake the device and launch apps with one press. Both have a setting called "Use while screen locked". With that setting enabled, and a PIN and/or fingerprint enabled to unlock the screen, I am unable to wake the device or launch apps from a locked screen as advertised. If the screen is off, pressing the buttons does nothing at all. If the screen is on, I have to enter my PIN first before any app will open, including apps that shouldn't need a PIN, like the camera. Even turning on the screen is a pain. There are two options: 1) Find the impossibly small, recessed wake button on the side, and press it, or 2) Enable "Lift to wake", which makes the phone think you are constantly scanning an invalid fingerprint, so the screen stays on, draining the battery and automatically disabling biometric unlocking.
I just want my Samsung XCover Pro to work as advertised. Has anyone found a solution to this?


text:
realme X50 5G - Restarting Each Night At ~3:00 AM
I'm currently using a realme X50 5G (European Edition) to tether my internet.
I've come across an annoying issue where each night at around 3:00 AM the phone seems to restart or do something that means USB tethering gets disabled.
The phone won't automatically USB tether, even with the developer settings set to do USB tethering by default.
I've also tried using Automate to both automatically tether when USB is connected (which works) and also to try and turn tethering on at 3:10 AM. That last one doesn't seem to work, I feel like the phone needs unlocking (even though I disabled the lock) before it works. Automate is allowed to start up and run in the background etc.
Yes, I've checked that auto restarting isn't enabled etc.
Please help!

So this isn't really a fix, but it's a work-around that seems to stop the device from restarting in the early morning.
I'm using the "Automate" app to keep the CPU and screen alive. There are community flows that do just this if you search, or you can easily make it yourself.
What I don't know that I'll test tonight is if I can let the screen turn off, but keep the CPU awake. I'll report back how that goes as I'd rather not keep the screen on, even if it's super dim.


text:
Samsung phone with PRELOADED Google items - "Google Play Services keeps stopping" popping up on phone. Have used help centre!
Tried all ways within Google Help Centre to correct this problem.  Google Play Services now shows "Disabled" and "Force Stop" buttons now both greyed out and cannot rectify this latest problem.  Also Google Play Store App will not open at all to show available app.  I don't want to lose any information from my Samsung phone, so I have loaded photos to computer and made a written list of my contacts.
Any help please to rectify the problems with Google on my phone.

Thank you but no longer require assistance. Have been advised to delete Google Account and reinstate.

Hi, looks like you've found the solution by yourself, which is great! Consider post it as a proper answer since self-answering is not only allowed, but even encouraged!. Thanks!


text:
What are the files in the phoneypot directory?
I am running LineageOS 17.1 Lavender. Can anyone tell me the purpose of the files located in the /phoneypot directory in my Android device?

I had an app called Haven installed on my system, and it turns out that phoneypot directory is created and used by this app. Thanks to @beeshyams for the answer to my query.


text:
Make system app remain uninstalled/disabled permanently
I already know that I can uninstall an android system app using adb pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.package.name, which is quite useful but not enough.
There are some system apps that I have to continuously uninstall and reinstall for several reasons, and connecting my smartphone to the pc every time is something I would gladly avoid.
Is there any method (possibly apart from rooting my device) to prevent a disabled/uninstalled system app from being reinstalled?
Thanks in advance

EDIT:
As suggested by @Robert:

Model name: Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro
Android version: 10 (Q)
MIUI version: 12.0.4
Package name: com.google.android.youtube (mainly)

Can you please edit your question and add more details like your phone model, the installed Android version and the exact package names of the system app(s) you are talking about. Also some more information would be good on what occasions the apps are getting reactivated.

@Robert I updated my question

The Youtube app is most likely updated by Google Play Store. On modern devices Play Store updates Google  apps even if you have not registered with a Google account. If you have already disable auto update in Google Play Store settings I don't know if there are other options to prevent such an update besides deleting the app with root permissions.

@Robert the fact is that I don't just want to restore factory settings and prevent update... I want to be able to completely uninstall the application as I do using adb

There is no such option. The solution is customer specific. On some phones the app stays disabled, on others it gets reactivated, because the OS decides its necessary. Its possible that some setting or some other app makes the disabled one necessary, which leads to its re-activation.

Thanks for your response... I updated my question with my phone specs. If it helps to solve the problem, let me know

The only way it can help is if one of us has the phone and can play with it. To debug the issue is not easy. People often don't understand how hard it is to find a problem and its solution, it takes countless hours sometimes. This package should be disabled from the play store, perhaps it has some permission or device administrator options that need to go first. Try from the play store or the system app safe removal app from the store.


text:
Possible to view history of apps LOOKED at on Google Play?
I was wondering, is it possible to view a history of apps I looked at on Google Play, but didn't necessarily download?
I went down a lengthy rabbit hole of suggested apps and then my Play Store app suddenly crashed...
I am hoping against all hope there might be a general viewing history. I am already aware of how to see a list of currently installed apps, and a list of apps I have (ever) downloaded.
If no such list/history exists or can be cleverly made, perhaps I shall lookup apps through the browser in the future, since surely I would be able to see a history as it would appear like any other webpage visited I would think. However this would certainly be less convenient and would lack the other features and benefits that are a part of the actual app.
Anyways, thanks for your insight and your time.
Barrage

Doesn't seem so. I can only find the "recent searches" and the list of recent actions (such as posted reviews).

https://myactivity.google.com

There is no option and actually from my experience, spending countless hours on finding a solution for such a minor problem is not good. It only brings headaches.

This does not provide an answer to the question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post. - From Review

How did you decide that this is a critique or a request for clarification if I may ask?

That's the standard verbiage provided by StackExchange.  I didn't write it. :)

I understand. Its not a critique, its not for clarification also. Actually the point was that certainly there is no option and actually from my experience, spending countless hours on finding a solution for such a minor problem is not good. It only brings headaches.

Neither the Play Store app, nor the Google Takeout offers this data.
It is in the interests of Google to keep a track of visited/seen apps by a user so as to customize its recommendations to that user, but the data collected is not available to the user. You might want to create a support request in the Google Play Community to get this data, but my guess is that you are likely to see no useful response there. Good luck.
Furthermore, and this is just a wild recommendation, if you are a EU citizen you might be able to get a hold of this data if you formally request it. See What personal data and information can an individual access on request?.


text:
How to delete recovery mode
Which files I need to delete from the system of a rooted device to delete completely the recovery mode, and in which folder I can find them?
Ty

block odin download mode
https://ge0n0sis.github.io/posts/2016/05/how-to-lock-the-samsung-download-mode-using-an-undocumented-feature-of-aboot happy bricking
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3775903


text:
Switch off the backlight of the LED screen of the android phone, while using it as a webcam via iVCam
I have upcoming exams which shall be remotely monitored through webcam. Now the thing is that I do not have an actual webcam and I have decided to use my android phone as a webcam via iVCam (using USB, I do not have Wifi Adapter in my PC).
Now the thing is that, I use internet via USB tethering through the same phone. The exam shall be quite long and, during the entire time of using the android phone as a webcam, the LED screen backlight keeps glowing and I am afraid, the rate at which the phone charges it self through the USB of the PC, it discharges itself at a faster rate if I use it as a USB modem and webcam together.
So before the exam exam ends, I might run out of charge on my phone battery. So could you please suggest me some method so that I can somehow turn the backlight off while using it as a webcam to save the power?

You can simply disable the auto-brightness and change the brightness to the minimal level. The power usage of an LCD screen at minimum brightness should not add much current.

My LCD brightness is already set to minimum, but still within a period of time, there is net effect of discharge by a certain percentage and within 1 hr or so, the battery runs out completely.

What about using WiFi tethering instead of USB tethering? Then the USB port would be free for connecting a charger with a higher current.

Simply locking the phone should work. You can try DroidCam too.

I do not have wifi adapter on my desktop. So only USB is the option @Robert

Does DroidCam support usb interface? @CFCBazarcom

USB Wifi adapters are very cheap therefore not having one is not really an obstacle.

Yes DroidCam supports USB connection also. The problem is that the drivers or the phone does not always connect the USB debugging good and the USB connection does not work. When you connect through a USB, the USB debugging on your phone must be allowed and you must select on the notification "Allow USB debugging for this computer", select always allow for this computer. The drivers must be installed, if you have a problem restart your computer.


text:
How to determine the boot order of auto-starting apps?
Some apps boot and run in the background when an Android phone boots. WeChat is one example. It starts automatically so that the user can receive messages in real time. My question is how to view and change the boot order of all auto-starting apps. Or else is it random?
The motivation for asking is that I installed Xposed and wanted to change some information of my phone. But unfortunately WeChat sometimes boots before Xposed and thus bypasses the Xposed hooks. I tried very hard to solve this, but to no avail. So any suggestions?

If Xposed is installed then the initial Dalvik VM instance "Zygote" is altered in the boot process. Every app that is started forks the Zygote process and thus includes Xposed. This is my understanding of how Xposed works. Therefore it should be impossible for an app to start before Xposed. May be this is a timing problem in the boot process? What device do you use and how have you installed Xposed?

Andoid fires ACTION_BOOT_COMPLETED broadcast once system_server is fully up on boot. Any app with android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED can receive the broadcast and start a service or whatever. There's no boot order that Android defines. // As Robert said, Xposed replaces core framework libraries in /system. So whenever zygote forks an app, it's loaded with modded libraries.

The only exception is that if you are using Magisk to bind mount Xposed modded files (and not actually replacing them in filesystem) and bind mount is delayed on boot so that an app is started before that. But this should not happen technically since Magisk is loaded very early in boot process.

you can exec ps -A | grep com.tencent.mm, pid is start order
but Wechat isnot impossible to boot up before Xposed


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Why is suggested to OEM unlock when LinageOS can be installed without it
I have a "LENOVO Tab 2 A10-30" which got frozen after the update in the startup loop - did not start after displaying the Lenovo logo.
I decided to reinstall it with the LineageOS, and for that I needed (according the articles) to do oem unlock.
According articles I should get the OEM unlock key from settings or allow it in the settings - which I can't access as the device won't boot up.
So I tried bunch of commands from the commandline (ubuntu 20.04), I could not OEM unlock, but I was able to install LineageOS just fine.
My question is - how come that it worked, even though it should not be able to unlock the OEM? What happened there?
Started device with holding vol up:
$ adb devices
List of devices attached
0123456789ABCDEF    sideload

Then I am not sure now what I selected in the menu, but then I went:
$ fastboot devices
84afc61e    fastboot

$ fastboot oem unlock
...
FAILED (remote: oem unlock is not allowed)
finished. total time: 0.002s

$ fastboot oem unlock-go
...
FAILED (remote: oem unlock is not allowed)
finished. total time: 0.002s

$ fastboot oem get_unlock_data
...
FAILED (remote: unknown command)
finished. total time: 0.002s

fastboot oem device-info
...
(bootloader)    Device tampered: false
(bootloader)    Device unlocked: false
(bootloader)    Device critical unlocked: true
(bootloader)    Charger screen enabled: true
(bootloader)    Display panel:
OKAY [  0.007s]
finished. total time: 0.007s

But I tried to flash in the TWRP recovery image anyhow:
$ fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
target reported max download size of 262144000 bytes
sending 'recovery' (11700 KB)...
OKAY [  0.446s]
writing 'recovery'...
OKAY [  0.947s]
finished. total time: 1.393s

$ fastboot boot recovery.img
downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [  0.449s]
booting...
OKAY [  0.023s]
finished. total time: 0.471s

After that, with volume up on boot I got in to TWRP menu; where I installed gaps and LineageOS zips, and after reboot it was just there.
My research links:

https://www.getdroidtips.com/unlock-bootloader-via-fastboot-on-android/
https://www.howtogeek.com/239798/how-to-unlock-your-android-phones-bootloader-the-official-way/
https://www.theworldsbestandworst.com/2020/08/how-to-use-adb-sideload-to-install-roms-updates-restore/
https://www.hardreset.info/devices/lenovo/lenovo-tab-2-a10-30/faq/faq/bootloader-moto-unlock-lenovo-motorola-root/
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/flash-custom-rom-lineage-os-lenovo-tab-2-tb2-x30l.4175085/

your bootloader is already unlocked (fastboot flash works only on unlocked bootloader)

The official way does not always work, if your phone and flashing are ok, don't touch them is the idea.
Official way to unlock a bootloader, its different for different phones, but it I post a general overview:

Back Up Anything You Want to Keep
Use Android SDK or the light verision of the SDK called platform tools and the IMEI of your phone to get an unlock key for the bootloder. The unlock key or the procedure to get it can be found on your manufacturer's site.
Go to fastboot mode and enter:
fastboot oem unlock UNLOCK_KEY

Read more here:
This is for Sony devices.
Unlocking a locked bootloader will wipe all user data (but not the ROM) from the device. This is a security mechanism, so you can't get at the data on a phone by installing your own ROM on it.
Its locked for security reasons, because it controls all the hardware, independantly from the operating system.
You can read more about bootloaders here.

That doesn't make sense at all. Bootloader unlocking is not hit and trial. If the functionality is there to provide lock/unlock support, it should always work (short of a bug that may cause a problem).

If you think that all the phones produced today make sense, its not so. I have tried it with both options and I have successfully installed with both options, despite that OEM unlocking was required and I recommend to use the official way of unlocking your bootloader. I am also following stack exchange's rulles of not including unnecessary information(including Hi and goodbye) and make things as simple as possible.

I downvoted this answer... If you can provide some peer supported documentation for this, I will change my vote, but this seems like a terrible answer.

although the question is only about "what happened" - if you at least descripe official way of unlocking bootloader including all steps (LineageOS) so that
MiroJanosik can solve his issue "fastboot oem unlock
FAILED (remote: oem unlock is not allowed)" - and maybe explanation why "fastboot oem get_unlock_data
FAILED (remote: unknown command)" not working - we will upvote as useful answer :)


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Chromebook arm64 Translations
I am trying to run an application on a chromebook and this application only supports arm64. Here it says that arm64 has very poor translations. My chromebook is in developer mode and I was wondering if there is another way to provide chrome os with a complete set of arm64 translations.

Unfortunately the linked page does not describe why some Chromebooks support arm64 translation and others don't. But even if it is a restriction by the used software and not a hardware limitation we are talking about ChromeOS not a Linux or Windows system that can fully modify as you want. If your Chromebook does not support arm64 support I don't think there is much you can do about it.

I'm a bit unsure about the topicality of this question. On one hand, the question is about running Android app, but on the other hand, it's more of asking to modify Chrome OS, which is not about Android at all. Note that questions about Chrome OS may have more chance to be answered on [su] or [unix.se] (reference: Are Android apps running on Chrome OS on topic?)


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Configure sleep mode for a Progessive Web App (PWA)?
First of all I do not know the difference between "sleep mode" and "standby", so I am most likely using the wrong term in the following problem description:
I build myself a little PWA that tracks my routes with OpenLayers. It works fine so far, but at some point the recording of a track is interrupted. I assume this is due to the automatic sleep mode, which "turns off" Chrome and probably therefore also "navigator.geolocation".
Is there any chance to let my PWA and navigator.geolocation continue doing their work when Android is in sleep mode? And if so, is there any way to activate that setting via the PWA and without going into "Settings -> ... -> ..." (if that is at all an option)?
Thank you!
PS: The gis.stackexchange.com community recommended me to ask this question here.
PPS: A "PWA" ("Progressive Web App"), in short, is nothing else but a web application that looks and behaves like a "real" app. Even though it is run in a browser (in my case I only focus on Chrome), it can be used offline via service workers, the UI does not show the browser's address bar and some things more. By using all the modern browser APIs it is possible to create an app without having to go through the app store (even though a PWA could be registered as an app in the app store, too).

AFAIK, a PWA relies on a web browser and is subjected to the same constraints the browser is. Since I don't know about this see if you can ask the user to exempt your app (the browser technically) from battery optimization. Native apps can ask the user this way. I might be wholly wrong on the subject but this is my opinion given my experience with PWAs based on end-user specific interaction with them.

As it turns out, there is a Web API, "Screen Wake Lock API":
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Screen_Wake_Lock_API


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How to transfer files from PC to Android via wifi without special software?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_11 came out in late 2020, when most home networks use wifi.
After searching for hours, I have been unable to find a built-in way of transferring files from my Windows PC to my Android Pixel (and ideally the reverse too) without downloading a special app from the Play store.
This is shocking to me.
Is it really the case that Android doesn't natively support wifi file transfer?
[I'd rather not need to search for (and decide whether I trust) a third-party app. And I'd certainly rather not use a physical cable for file transfers like it's 1990.]

There's nothing like "native wifi file transfer" exists. You need to have a file transfer protocol. Windows natively supports SMB/CIFS over network, Linux does NFS. Android's native way is MTP (over USB) or ADB (over USB or network). Or simply use some other open-source protocol like FTP/SFTP or one of the many proprietary protocols file transfer apps use. Depending on your choice you need to use proper server and/or client software on both sides. In case of Windows a simple file explorer Android app with CIFS support will serve your need. You may try MiXplorer.

The only built-in file-exchange system I know if file transfer via Bluetooth (which is limited regarding the supported file types). Smartphones are not designed to exchange data in local networks - a large number of smartphone users don't even have a local PC they could sync something to. Instead smartphones are focused on syncing itself with cloud services like GDrive.

adb over wifi is native since android 11. platform-tools required on PC. transfer with adb push/pull


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Why do apps stop supporting older Android versions after some time?
My mother had a shopping app on her old smartphone which runs Android v6. Recently I noticed that the app on her phone was no longer supported. I've seen such things happen on old phones generally with many apps. I just wanted to know, why do companies drop their support to older OS versions after few years? Does it cost them a lot to continue the support to older OS versions as well? Does it require a whole team to be hired to just keep managing the support for older OS? Just being curious about this. Thanks.

you can install old app version from apk mirror

"Does it cost them a lot to continue the support to older OS versions as well?" - Yes, it costs money. The developer has decided that their Android v6 user-base is so small that dropping support would not affect their usage stats in any noticeable way.

Could you look at that the other way round, and consider how much effort should be put into making new versions of Android support old(er) apps?

you can go to xda to see if there's a custom build of a newer Android version for your phone

Supporting something old costs money and limits time and effort that can be invested into improvements without having any real benefits from it so people tend to drop support if the user base falls below the point of being worth keeping support. Besides that, the changes in Android versions are usually requiring changing how things work, so you need double the work - once to make the old version work, and for every new version possible the same thing but just in a different way - all that costs a lot of money just to maintain without any additional improvements or investments.

We live in a throwaway world

It's been about 10 years since I retired, but the last few years of my career I worked on smartphone apps, on a couple of different OSes.  I can tell you that one difficult problem with developing complex apps was that the OS would change the details of its features quite often, so that you'd have to spend several weeks about every 6 months upgrading things.  And you had no way of knowing if a change to the OS affected one version different from a later one.  It was easier to just drop support of old OS versions, rather than have to test them.

There are two ways to support old Android versions:

Build one app that makes use of compatibility patches to supports old Android versions (down to a specific version) but also support all modern Android versions.

Build two or more apps each for a set of Android versions.

The second option is of course very costly as you have to develop maintain each app app version independently (or at least large parts of the app). This way is often not used or only if the app has been completely rewritten for new devices and for old devices the old version remains with minimal to no support.
Therefore the common way is option 1 – one app that has all compatibility fixes included. The main problem is that newer Android versions include interesting new features that are not (fully) available using the compatibility system Google provides. Therefore if you want to make use of them and the functionality is not optional in your app, app developers may decide to drop support of older Android versions in favor if being able to use new features of new Android versions. Decreasing the number of supported Android versions simplifies the app as old workarounds can be removed and don't have to be maintained anymore. And of course it removes the necessity to test the app on such old devices which can be a problem if you want to test your app on physical devices (not emulators) as old devices break and are more and more difficult to get.

In addition, Support of anything has costs.  If I have create a new app and a new version of Android comes up, I now need to run tests to make sure that the app (and any changes I make) run on two versions.  When a third version comes out, I need to run tests on three versions - and so on.  If I say I support an older version, but I don't actively support that old version and old version users notice a bug, I'll get dinged in reviews. It just costs more to support more versions.

Also, if you can't support newer features on older platforms, then you will be getting reviews from people who can't enjoy those newer features. They may even complain in the reviews about their absence.

Option 3: Provide parallel implementations inside the app for features that require APIs that are either not available in oldest supported Android version or have been deprecated in new Android versions. Another point is that to actively support vintage Android versions, you need a collection of vintage phones. If you don't already have them or they break, buying them is going to be difficult.

"if you want to test your app on physical devices (not emulators)" — emulators for older Android versions also provide worse emulation. More things that work on emulator which then break on a physical device or vice versa. I've a gut feeling that older OS versions are also tinkered with more by vendors, so you get further away from a vanilla Android that with newer OS versions.

It’s possibly worth noting that this is no different from any other platform. All major software eventually stops supporting old platforms, it just comes down to when they stop supporting specific versions.

The Android SDK (software development kit) sets a minimum version of Android that it supports, as explained by another Q and A:
https://stackoverflow.com/q/24441178/1836461
https://stackoverflow.com/a/61087797/1836461
Developers/companies (referred to as just "developer" from now on) can choose to support older version, but it gets hard to maintain that code. Speaking as a developer, it can be difficult to remember what settings or commands mean to different versions of an OS. Some of these differences are even deprecated (disapproved of) or completely removed from the newer SDKs, which makes it difficult or impossible to maintain backwards compatibility. And sometimes it's removed because of good reasons, usually meaning that it has significant security issues.
And just because the app is dropped, it doesn't mean that there isn't a newer version available. Some companies may rewrite their software completely (for various reasons including getting rid of large amounts of unnecessary legacy code), then post it as a separate app, leaving the previous version available as their idea of backwards compatibility.
In fact, most non-mobile software development is done like this. The old version is still available somewhere when a new version is released. Mobile stores like Google and Apple don't have an easy way for a user to get older versions, even though the developer can still see those old versions.
Other reasons
A company may also decide that their method of communication (protocols) need to be updated to newer specifications that aren't available in old versions of the SDK. If you have an app written in an old SDK that works with old phones, but you need/decide to upgrade those protocols to a security version the old version just doesn't support, you may have to remove some backwards compatibility to get access to the newer standards in a newer SDK. And if you're going to completely rewrite an app, it makes more sense to do it in the latest SDK, rather than one that'll be completely out dated again in 1-2 years.
Even just rewriting an app to clean it up, remove unnecessary functionality, redo the user interface/user experience (UI/UX), or 100 other reasons, using the most recent SDK also makes the most sense.
The Answer I linked to above talks about 25% of Twitter users being ignored because of platform changes due to an upgraded app. Well, those 25% are the older phones that will likely be the fastest shrinking group of phones around. They will eventually be broken, dropped, the battery ruined with no replacements available, or a 1000 other reasons, including other apps ceasing to support them. I'm not saying it's a good move to remove that many users from using your app all at once, but evidently they thought they could survive it.
Parallel example
In the desktop browser market, Chrome is the vast leader in usage.
https://netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers
As Internet Explorer (IE), Edge, Gecko, Firefox, Safari, and others have fallen out of use, developers stop doing as much cross-browser compatibility. As someone who's done that as well, it's a total PITA, especially when a requirement is pixel perfect compatibility, which is pretty much impossible. I have 5 browsers installed because of this reason, yet I only use 1 for browsing.
Some companies will insist on supporting IE and Edge, because "it's installed as the default on computers and most of our users don't know to install something else". It doesn't matter how few people actually use IE or Edge, because "the statistics are taken from sites where most users are devs or higher level computer users". But the reality is that the majority of browsers aren't worth the time to support. People don't support Netscape Navigator anymore, even if there is someone still running Win 3.11 for Workgroups, Win 98SE, or Mac OS 8.5.
Conclusion
What I'm saying saying is at some point, you have to draw a line as to what you're going to support, as older versions cease to be useful or usable by both the user and the developer.
Spending time, money, and effort on old versions that aren't heavily used isn't usually a good use of resources.
Sometimes this is strictly a "make more money" ideal, in that the developer wants to force you to buy the new version, but that's not always the case. It makes more sense to developers to spend more time on new features and relevant bugs in a new version than new features and bugs in the old version.

I think your browser example is a bit too extreme. Netscape isn't supported because its EOL was 2008. Edge/FF/Safari/etc are still actively developed. According to your first link, Edge has a marketshare of 11.4% (and a constant upwards trend). Firefox has 6.5%. That's still pretty significant. Chrome has 68%, so if you only support Chrome, you exclude 32% of users. Your second link has very different percentages (safari rises to a significant 19%), but shows the same problem (only supporting Chrome excludes 37% of users).

To get back to Android, only supporting Chrome would be akin to only supporting above Oreo. Oreo is still not EOL and has a marketshare of above 15%. Deciding not to support it would be an odd decision which imho justifies questioning why that is. Marshmallow (OPs example) also still has significant usage (around 6%), but it was EOL in 2017. Not having security updates for 3+ years would imho be a good example of a valid reason to drop support.

There is more money in forcing users to upgrade to newer versions of Android, which in turn requires buying new hardware to run the newer version of Android.
To make this happen, the developers of Android change the programming APIs little by little as new versions come out. New ways of doing things are added, and old ways of doing things are removed over time. Bugs in the APIs that older software depended on are fixed, and no effort is put in to maintaining the old behavior to maintain compatibility.
Doing this forces app makers to constantly maintain their software and release newer versions of it with minor changes. It costs more money to tweak the software so that it works on older versions of Android as well as the latest release at the same time. To maintain compatibility across major versions differences of Android, multiple versions of the app may have to be maintained and distributed separately. This would become quite costly, and since most everyone has a newer device, the market to justify the extra expense just isn't there.
Microsoft's traditional approach has been to go to great lengths to maintain compatibility with older software. Large numbers of applications were tested on their next version of Windows prior to release, and many tweaks were done to ensure compatibility. Because of this, software developers can just make one version of the software that works on an older version of Windows, and it will work on the newer versions as well. With the release of Windows Vista Microsoft began to move away from this business strategy, and is now developing Windows 10 in a way that more resembles Android, but Windows compatibility with older software is still better than the mobile operating systems and even Mac OS X.

Judging from the Android documentation, Android also goes to great lengths to maintain compatibility. Although, in some respects, that seems to be changing now, in the interests of “privacy”.

Microsoft maintained backwards compatibility because their bread and butter market at the time was government+businesses who are notoriously sensitive to the price of upgrading software. Android's primary market is home users who would rather have new features and forget about the old stuff.

TL;DR answer:
Because programming for each version of Android is slightly different and thus supporting each of them costs extra money. When a particular version is generating less profit than necessary to justify maintaining it, the support is dropped.

That calculation is oversimplistic, though. It could very well be the case, that only the fact that an app is available for a platfrom that is not financially viable in itself is the reason that the other platforms are viable, especially if they interact. - Removing support for a financially unviable platform may get other users to stop using the app, making more platforms unprofitable, and so on...

@I'mwithMonica Well, it's a TL;DR answer ;) My intention was to post a brief answer that gives a reader the general idea of the situation, without diving into details.

The other answers are great, and they respond to the question directly; let us try a slightly different approach.
Why do people still have phones running such old versions of Android in the first place? Usually it is because their manufacturers no longer support those models. Why not? Surely part of the reason is that the Android developers no longer support old versions of Android.
So not only is it inherently costly to develop apps for old versions of Android, such developers would have to put up with a platform full of known bugs that will definitely not be fixed. Who wants to do that?
Maybe developers will put up with it for a while, if their users demand it. But when there are not many users using an old Android version anymore, it is likely to be dropped.
The issues discussed here and in the other answers also explain why some websites only support the “latest versions” of the major web browsers.

I work on software (math libraries) for quite a few platforms, including Android. I can describe our decision-making process for Android version support. It is not entirely typical, because we only produce native code, and don't touch Java or Kotlin.
We started on Android in early 2018 (so we were late-comers) because an existing customer who used other platforms wanted Android. They wanted to offer apps that dealt with data from their Windows products.
After some exploration and prototyping, we did an implementation, and shipped it in early 2019. The minimum Android version that the customer wanted support for was 5.0, and they only wanted 64-bit native code. Not needing to produce 32-bit native code was welcome, since the software has a lot of automated testing, and avoiding the need to test both 32-bit and 64-bit versions was welcome.
The main problem with needing to prepare in 2018 to support Android 5.0 was getting a 5.x device, since they were getting hard to find. We considered it obligatory to have a device on the oldest (or nearly so) version that we supported, so that we could reproduce version-specific bugs if they happened. If you try hard to ensure things like that won't be a problem, they usually don't happen at all.
We got an Amazon Kindle Fire with an OS based on 5.1, and found some incompatibilities with the 7.0 that we were using on new devices for the main testing. By early 2019 we were in production, testing on 5.1 and 7.0, and claiming support for 5.0 onwards. The newest released Android at the time was 9.x, but 8.x was the newest with any market share.
Android devices don't last forever, especially if they aren't being used regularly. Leaving them unused and unplugged for months is a bad idea, because sometimes they won't wake up again. To make sure that your software works on newer versions of Android, you need to test it on them, and you also need to preserve some devices on old versions, so that you can reproduce customer bugs. The simplest way to do this is to buy new test devices, approximately annually.
At that point, dropping support for older versions of Android was a good idea, because it enabled us to trim what would otherwise be an endlessly growing collection of old devices.
In mid-2020, we updated to a newer NDK, to get a newer C++ compiler, and made Android 7 our minimum supported version. Android 10 was the newest version in circulation, but we'd got some nice fast test 'phones  with 9.0, and settled for that.
At the end of June 2022, I changed to Android 9 as the minimum supported. Android 12 was then the current version, and 13 was approaching release. The native code environment doesn't change nearly as fast as the app presentation layer, so updating every two years should be OK.
As of June 2022, according to the data at GlobalStats Statcounter, I'll be compatible with just over 82% of the worldwide Android market, heavily biased towards newer and faster devices. (88.6% of the North American market, 87% of the European market) My ISV customers (my employers don't sell end-user apps) are happy with this.
Update: GlobalStats Statcounter was unreliable for May and June 2023 but seems self-consistent again as of July. This was due to privacy changes in Google Chrome. GlobalStats compile their figures from web browsers that visit a wide range of websites, and updates to Chrome meant that the user-agent strings defaulted to Android 10, irrespective of the actual Android version. There are ways of getting the actual version, but they don't work for devices where the manufacturer has not implemented getHighEntropyValues(). That meant Android 10 was overrepresented.

The answers given thus far are factual, but I question the principles behind them, and would like to briefly address the question of "why..." in a deeper sense.
It makes sense that developers would upgrade apps and release new versions -- but in my opinion the release of new versions should not require retirement of older versions.  Simply identify them as "unsupported" and let them remain available for those users who cannot run the new version.  (Personally, I blame Microsoft for inventing, and making seem "natural," the "forced upgrade" business model in the computing industry...)
Actually, I also take issue with the very idea of "dropping support" at all.  One can never be certain that nobody is still using something; I myself am just now getting around to looking at, and trying, some CD-ROM games for Windows 98... (Fortunately, I have never found it necessary to contact Microsoft for support, but somebody else out there may wish to.)  Personally, as a software developer, I continue to support everything I've ever written, and have in fact taken support calls well into the 2000s for software I wrote (by which I mean parts of the turnkey host computer for a commercial product) between 1988 and 1997.  In effect, this means supporting everything, forever.  I reject the claim that this will cost any significant amount of money, because the number of users making demands on that support will decrease (probably inverse-exponentially, but never to zero, mathematically) and require less and less expenditure as time goes on.

The problem with this admirable position is the availability of development tools and test hardware. What development tools did you use in 1988, and can you still run them? What operating system(s) did your 1988 products run on, and can you still run those?


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Google Pixel Digital Wellbeing - How does it measure the usage of the applications?
I noticed that many applications are logged as part of today usage in Digital Wellbeing dashboard app, even though I have never opened those app for today (for example).
I read google documentation and it doesn't really describe the details.
My concern is

Do those applications automatically running on background even though user doesn't use them? (or)

It is because of how google measure the activity?

Has anyone experience these before?

From my understanding the app measurement only considers if the app is in foreground and the screen is on. The main purpose seems to be to make it visible to you how many hours you spend using an app, so that it is detectable if you are addict to Facebook, Instagram, or a specific game.

@Robert, yes. That's how I understand. However I kept seeing apps which I didn't even open or use with very high usage hours. that's why I got confused and wondering daily usage dashboard statistics are incorrect or not.

Other apps you see may be those from which you got notifications-see this section Find out how much time you spend in apps


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How can I get as much data as possible off a phone with broken USB?
I have a BV7000pro running Marshmallow (according to the specs - it's off now for a good reason that will become clear soon).  It stopped charging after a period of very poor battery life, so I bought a replacement battery.  It still doesn't charge, doesn't show a charging LED and, despite having previously enabled developer mode, and checked just now, it doesn't show up when I run adb devices from the terminal.  It does turn on, but I only have about 70% of one charge, which is why I'm keeping the battery disconnected for the time being.
Although it's only my spare handset, I have data I'd like to get off before it's completely dead.  I can put in an SD card, and it's on WiFi.  I think it's mainly app data, though there are some photos (most were on an SD card but the stock  camera app sometimes switched to internal storage).
Google's backup appears to only be any use to restore to the same phone, so that's not much use, though it's present in my GDrive. (If I can download this an extract stuff from it I'd be interested to hear, but that's not the focus of the question).  Edit: I was apparently wrong and it could restore to a newer phone - but I don't have one I can overwrite; my newer phone is my main phone
BTW I'm also considering buying a replacement USB board on AliExpress, but I'm not sure if it's just a case of throwing good money after bad given that it's a battered old backup phone. It's no longer waterproof after falling off my bike too many times, which also led to me replacing the screen myself. At least it's easy to work on.
So, with no USB connection and one charge in the battery, how can I extract as much data as possible from my handset?  It's not rooted,and I already have one or two file manager apps on there (at least the free version of file commander).

Please do not use comments to extend your question. You can edit your question at any time and add more information. I did this for you this time...

Google Drive backup should be restorable as long as the device to restore to has the same or a higher Android version. As far as I remember GDrive backup on Android 6 was limited to apps and their app-data that explicitly requested it and it is limited to 5, 15 or 25 MB per app (not sure which value is effective in your case). In any way I would try to start copying all files you can reach via USB to a PC.

@Robert I felt the comment was background rather than adding anything to the question.  I'll delete it (on second thoughts, I left it in the Q, but in the middle)

@Robert on the more technical comments: I'd expect restoring a backup to a newer phone to overwrite what's on that phone - not an option as the only other phone I have is my main device.  And you suggest copying what I can via USB, but the whole point of the question is that USB is broken.

Sorry, I missed that part because you only mention it in the title. Please do misuse the title for providing important info A title is there for summarizing the questions, it is not the first line of the questions. With a  broken USB you can still use one of the file-explorer or FTP/HTTP server apps that can provide the /sdcard section via FTP or HTTP. So effectively you can get all the files you would have access to via USB. See for example this FTP server app: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/be.ppareit.swiftp_free/

@Robert it wasn't only in the title - the last paragraph starts, and started, "So, with no USB connection and one charge in the battery..."

...but that looks like it might be a good answer - thoguh I don't know if it offers as much as adb backup

For adb backup you require a wireless adb connection which usually requires an USB connection to activate the adb Wfif connection. If you manage to get adb to work over Wifi without USB connection you should backup all apps via adb just to be sure.

@Robert yes, I'm used to running adb over loopback (faked as WiFi) to allow Tasker to control aeroplane mode on my new phone; I'd assumed that adb backup was impossible without USB, but also think that it can grab more than copying files


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Find WhatsApp photo's sender in Gallery
I lost my mobile so I lost all numbers. I really need to find my best friend's number. I have a photo on my hard disk which he had sent me through WhatsApp before.
Can I find his number through its details? How can I find the WhatsApp photo's sender in the gallery by its details?

you cannot find the sender details from the photo. There's no EXIF data added to the photo which can track its sender. So, that's the answer to your question.
Next, you do have other ways by which you can likely find the number:

If you sync contacts to any cloud service (such as Google contacts), you can check there and find out the number.
If you backup WhatsApp to your Google Drive, then you can install WhatsApp on another phone using the same phone number and then restore the backup from Google Drive. The backup will also bring in your old chats and hence the phone number.
Install WhatsApp on your phone and wait for your friend to message you. You'll get the number.


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Needing help to find a Custom ROM
I've had my "Moto G8 Power Lite" for a few months, and I am craving to customise. But I cant find any custom ROMs, even after hours of searching.
I found this - Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?, (and others)
But none of the linked websites have my device.
If anyone can help, I would be extremely grateful.
I like the idea of "Pixel Experience" AND "POSP ROM"
https://download.pixelexperience.org/ - https://potatoproject.co/
Device info
Motorola Moto G8 Power Lite (XT2055-1)
Apparently the codename is "Blackjack".
Custom ROM must be at least android 9, though I currently have android 10
I will be extremely grateful for any help.

After researching a little bit, I'm afraid there's no one who has successfully created a custom ROM for this device, or even a custom recovery. The closest thing I found is this thread on XDA Forum asking about rooting but not so much progress.

@AndrewT. Yeah, Lenovo shutdown the ability to unlock the bootloader on Moto devices starting with the G 6 or 7 series (2017~2018) and all newer devices, so there is little development on custom ROMs or rooting on Moto devices anymore which were very popular in the modding community in the past. I believe the G5 was the last device that could have it's bootloader unlocked (officially).


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Does Samsung Galaxy S10 run Android version 12?
I'm reading about the Samsung Galaxy S10 here. It says The S10 range ships with Android 9.0 "Pie". I made an app and a user is reporting a bug on it with the S10.
What I Want To Know: If the S10 ships with Android 9.0, does that mean that these phones will always have 9.0 only, or would they get updated to later versions of Android? If so, what's the highest version they run?

As mentioned on the Wikipedia link, "An official list released by Samsung on December 2, 2020, further confirmed that all S10 models would be receiving the Android 11 upgrade with One UI 3.", so they may be able to upgrade to Android 11. However, while it's mentioned that newer Samsung devices will receive "at least three major Android updates", we can't really predict the future whether it will really receive Android 12 or not.

@AndrewT. Do you want to post this as a reply so I can accept?

Android 12 has not been released yet, therefore if an user has it installed this can only be a preview release or more likely an unlocked device with an Android 12 preview generic image.


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I cannot enter a new email to log in to Google again
I quite recently changed both my mail adress any my password for my google account. When I now try to use my phone (any Google services) I get a screen: Verify that it's you (You were signed out of your Google Account. Sign in again to continue.)
When I hit next a new screen comes up: Sign in with your Google Account
Then there is a text field that says Email or phone. However in this very text field my old email that used to be associated to my account is written there. When I tap that field nothing happens. I cannot edit / clear that field I can only use my old email. When I hit "forgot email?" it leads to account recovery. If i hit next it says "Couldn't find your Google Account" (fair enough I changed my email...)
What can I do, I tried restarting my phone, resetting Google Play and Google Play services in the app settings.
I do not have any issues loging in with my computer, only smartphone wise that weird phenomenon occurs. Thanks in advance for any help!

settings - accounts - google - remove

You can remove the Google account from your phone by going to the settings > Accounts menu. There may be some differences in the name or location of the settings entry based on which company made your phone, but it should be something like that.
You can then add your new email/password combo to login to your modified Google account and everything should be fine. The associated accounts are not stored within the data of individual apps (like Play Store or YouTube) and that is why clearing their data does not make a difference.


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Is it possible to set an unlimited number of Call Logs and SMS on Samsung Galaxy A10?
I have a backup using SMS Backup & Restore for a long time. But, the number of Call Logs stopped at 2000 and didn't increase. I thought it was a limit of the free version, but I found it on the official site:

The app does not have any restrictions on the number of call logs it backs up, however, most phones only keep a limited number of calls (500 or 1000 or 2000) in memory and the app can only backup those call logs.

So, it is related to my mobile - Samsung Galaxy A10 - Android 10 (One UI 2)
Is it possible to set it to unlimited or at least rapidly increase? Call Logs. Of course, SMS also (SMS still increases (555), so the exact maximum number I don't know).


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Device in fastboot mode not recognized at all as USB device
My LG G5 does not get recognized as an USB Device at all when it is connected to the PC in fastboot mode.
While it is recognized just fine as an adb device, after rebooting into fastboot mode via
adb reboot bootloader it is not recognized as an USB Device in Windows (The device manager does not show any device with wrong drivers and does not react to replugging the device). I also tried it on a different machine with the same results.
Ubuntu also does not recognize the device at all, lsusb does not output the device anywhere. It also does get recognized as an adb device when booted up normally.
I installed the necessary (I tried LG and Google) drivers and tried different USB ports (2.0 and 3.0) and cables. The phone just is not noticed as an usb device at all when in fastboot mode.
Could this be due to a broken usb port? Which seems odd because the phone is recognized when not in fastboot mode.
What else could cause this weird behaviour?
Thank You

fastboot disabled from LG?


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Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G - cellebrite mobile forensics data extractions - locked with pattern
I've got a locked Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G (running the latest android 10 and patches)
The phone is locked with a pattern (unknown)
What are my chances of any data extraction with cellebrite or other forensics tools while I can not unlock the phone?
Also how secure is Knox efuse? will it damage the phone/data when an untrusted bootloader is detected?

The chance that you meet meet here someone who has (access to) a Cellebrite system and can answer your question is very low as these are expensive professional systems. Why don't you ask Cellebrite? They should know what is possible.

chances: zero knox: impossible


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Does the Samsung Galaxy A30 support HDMI and/or MHL?
Dad's phone is a Samsung Galaxy A30. We've got several TVs and monitors but none are smart TVs or capable of screencasting. But some have HDMI.
I have a USB C to HDMI adaptor that works with my M1 MacBook Air that I expected would work with the A30 too but it did not.
Most info about Samsung's HDMI / MHL support I can find is about how Samsung's older micro USB version was nonstandard, having a different number of pins. But there's a lot less info about the newer ones that have USB C.
I can find sites trying to sell aftermarket cables and adaptors for this phone but I don't trust them. So far none of the pages on the A30's specs I can find specifically state that HDMI or MHL is either supported or not supported, it's just not in the list.

No, as you can see from the site dedicated to listing MHL devices

Besides, OEMs won't neglect mentioning any point that can drive sales, so if it's not mentioned by them, it's safe to assume it doesn't

On devices with USB-C a DisplayPort Alt Mode is more likely than an HDMI Alt Mode. The latter was defined years after the Displayport version and is not much used. On Samsung devices search for the "Dex" mode to see which devices support an external display. For (wrireless) screen casting to dumb TVs you can use a Google Chromecast dongle.


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Where does APKMirror.com get its apks?
APKMirror.com hosts complete split apks, containing not just the base.apk but also many languages/multiple architecture support/vr apks etc. Take for example the contents of this chrome split apk:
https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/chrome/chrome-88-0-4324-93-release/google-chrome-fast-secure-88-0-4324-93-5-android-apk-download/
.
├── autofill_assistant.apk
├── autofill_assistant.config.en.apk
├── autofill_assistant.config.ja.apk
├── base.apk
├── cablev2_authenticator.apk
├── chime.apk
├── chime.config.en.apk
├── config.ar.apk
├── config.de.apk
├── config.en.apk
├── config.es.apk
├── config.fr.apk
├── config.hi.apk
├── config.in.apk
├── config.it.apk
├── config.ja.apk
├── config.ms.apk
├── config.nl.apk
├── config.pt.apk
├── config.ru.apk
├── config.th.apk
├── config.zh.apk
├── dev_ui.apk
├── extra_icu.apk
├── image_editor.apk
├── image_editor.config.en.apk
├── stack_unwinder.apk
├── test_dummy.apk
├── vr.apk
├── vr.config.en.apk
└── vr.config.ru.apk

Where are they sourcing these from?

ApkMirror.com just accepts APK uploads from users. Anybody can extract APK files from their device and upload them to APKMirror.com. However it is not guaranteed that every upload is published. For ensuring security of uploading APK files each upload is automatically checked regarding it's cryptographic signature if it matches the signer of other versions of the same app.
The APKMirror community has set-up some rules about what APKs are getting provided for download and which not. For more details see their FAQ.
Therefore to answer your question the uploaded APK files can originate for any source. Some are extracted from devices (e.g. originally downloaded via Google Play Store), or the APK files are extracted from alternative app stores, web-sites.
In case of complete split APK bundles most likely they have been downloaded by PC based tools from Google Play Store (e.g. Raccoon4) and then uploaded to APKMirror.com. This can work because the Play Store protocol just provides links to all split files and the download client decides which parts to download.

Actually, the easiest solution for uploading bundles is by using ML Manager http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/javier-santos-v/ml-manager-apk-extractor, which has apkmirror.com upload integration built in. It makes it super easy to upload both APKs and split APK bundles.


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Device Mac Randomization Android 11
Does anyone know if there is a method to disable device mac randomization on a Samsung note 10,
The devices in question also have Android 11 which could be the problem,
This is not MAC Randomisation for WiFi, it is physical device MAC,
Currently this changes after every reboot of the system.
There does not seem to be a single mention of this issue anywhere that I can find but is causing an issue that needs a resolution one way or the other,
This causes a program that is essential to our business to not allow a registration to our services.
Thankyou in advance!
Cheers

How do you check the MAC address? From within an app or on network level (e.g. in a log of an WiFi access point)? If it is an app then you simply see a random number that has nothing to do with the actual MAC. On Android 11 apps simply can't acceess the MAC anymore.

Hi Robert, thankyou for responding! Well I suppose that answers my question, its strange though, when there is a MAC address through Wifi it can be static with randomisation switched off, this works perfectly fine, It just randomises persistently if there is no wifi enabled.

You still have not answered my question if you see the MAC from within an app or on network level. For Android 11 the MAC on network level should be the same as long as you connect to the same WiFi but you will only see that on network level from the "outside" of your phone.


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Android phone slowly charging message
I purchased a TCL 10L phone two days ago. To my surprise when I plugged it, the phone said "Fast Charging" and it charged very fast. People on YouTube say that it does not support fast charging. Anyway, on next day, when I emptied the battery, I plugged the charger in. It said something like slowly charging. I panicked and I removed the plug and plugged it back in. It said fast charging like the first time and is currently charging.
I am worried. Is the device displaying the slowly charging message normal? I have 1 day left to replace the device if there are any issues. Though, I am not sure if this is normal or not. The device does not have any faults so far. So, I would risk getting a new device with the same issue and more issues. The port is USB-C if that matters.
Regards and thanks.
Edit: I unplugged the charger at 97%. Then, replugged it. Now, it says "Charging" only. I tried unplugging/replugging two times and still "Charging" no more fast charging at 97%.

All usb c phones are considered fast charging.

Your specs says it has a quick charging battery>>>https://www.ubergizmo.com/products/lang/en_us/devices/tcl-10l/

Thank you for the replies. Though, according to popular sites only the Pro version supports that. https://www.xda-developers.com/tcl-10l-tcl-10-pro-review/ https://www.androidauthority.com/tcl-10-pro-review-1118085/

Dont believe everything you read.

In my experience, this could easily be an issue with the charger itself.  Try a different cable, try a different base, if it still happens, you know it's something going on with the phone itself

Related: my answer to Android phone “charging slowly”: How to make it faster that explains how Android shows the message.

Thanks for the information, Andrew T. Though, it does not help me much because this is a brand new phone. Only got it 2-3d ago now. I appreciate it, though.

"Slow charging" usually means that the phone wasn't able to confirm that the power source is capable of providing more voltage than the original USB spec allows. This usually happens when the phone is connected to a computer or the cable didn't go all the way in and USB data lines don't contact well. If it doesn't happen too often then it's normal.

Thanks for the info. I am using the charger that came with the phone. This is my second charge using the same charger. I am worried. Did you experience this firsthand? I only have one more day and I am into the normal warranty where they repair the phone instead of replacing it.

@jamana Yes. My current phone sometimes does it with one particular USB type C cable I have. Reversing the cable fixes it. That same phone works fine with other cables and that cable works fine with other phones. Phones check for fast charging capabilities using USB data lines. If these don't make good contact the phone may assume that the power source doesn't support fast charging. Unfortunately I can't say anything about your phone and charger pair. You can try plugging it in for a minute for a few times, in both positions of the cable, and see if it works reliably.

Thanks for the information, @gronostaj. Is your phone new or semi new, though. I have tried unplugging and replugging the phone several times and it kept saying "Fast Charging" I have tried this 10 times in like 3 minutes. Though, on two of the tries, the phone said "Slow Charging" for just 1/3 of a second and switched to "Fast Charging" right away. At 97%, the I unplugged and replugged the phone 3-4 times and it said "Charging" not "Fast Charging" I do not know if this is normal or not.

@jamana Slow charging for just a moment, then switching to fast charging is not abnormal. The circuitry sometimes needs a moment to detect charger type. The "regular" charging at 97% kind of makes sense, but I can't tell for sure if it's intentional design or the phone misbehaving in your case.

I wanted to let you know that I unplugged the phone at around 30% and replugged it and it displayed "Fast Charging" on my three attempts. On one attempt it displayed "Charging" for a fraction of a second and switched to "Fast Charging" I have noticed that the phone displays "Fast Charging" at 98% if I kept it charging from a low level (30% in my case). Though, when I unplugged and replugged it at 98% it said "Charging" only. I have tried this around three times and it always said "Charging" So, there is indeed a pattern. I decided to keep the phone. Thanks again for the information.


text:
Infinix Hot 8 bricked. No OS, No recovery
I think I bricked my Infinix Hot 8 X650C. I have no OS installed and no Recovery Mode installed. Also, fastboot and adb can't recognise my device on PC.
What to do?

Your phone is a Mediatek based phone. Often these phones are flashed when switched off using a special software. Check xda developer forum and this site for Mediatek flashing.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/infinix-hot-8-x650c-root-twrp-un-bricking-custom-rom.3986799

Download the stock rom for your device model. Since this has Mediatek chipset, please learn a little bit about mtkclient(i highly recommend this for MediaTek processors).


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Why do Play Store apps show in Galaxy store?
More recently I noticed something weird on my Samsung Galaxy S9 in the Galaxy Store. I have never used it for any apps other than the Samsung exclusive ones, but yet it shows me updates for some apps that are not from Samsung. For example the DJI Fly app, or the Zoom meetings app or the Discord app. App info for all theses apps say, they were downloaded from Google Play Store, but yet the Samsung Store claims it has updates for these Apps.
Is that normal? If I press update there do I suddenly get these Apps from the Galaxy store and am dependent on when they allow an update to the app?

Technically by how an app has been installed (which store, via web browser, any other app or via adb) is just a data flag once that app has been installed.
If an app is available in two stores at the same time with identical signed versions there should not be a problem even switching the stores randomly.
Problems can only arise if the app to be updated has a different versionCode (e.g. a fixed offset) in one store.
The versionCode is a number internally by Android to prevent users from downgrading an installed app. App updates can only be installed if the app signature is created by the same developer and the versionCode is greater than the installed app version.
I have seen developers that have different variants of one app (for different devices, platforms, CPU types...) where each app variant has a different versionCode.
For example the one app variant has versionCode 0x2000234 and a second variant has the versionCode 0x1000234.
Both app variants show same version string to the user but internally looking at the versionCode they are totally different.
It may now happen that if the app in the store A has the versionCode 0x2000234 and the same app of a slightly different variant has the versionCode 0x1000234 in store B.
In such a case you could install the app from store A as update of the app in store B but not the other way around.


text:
Is there a way to root a Samsung Galaxy S4 running LineageOS 17.1?
Following the "Samsung (System-as-root)"* instructions, I cannot get Magisk to patch lineage-17.1-20210304-nightly-jfltexx-signed.zip for a Samsung Galaxy S4 (SGH-M919). Magisk throws an "unsupported/unknown image format" error.
*since Magik says SAR=yes
Is there a way to root a Samsung Galaxy S4 running LineageOS 17.1?
cf. "root on 17.1?" r/LineageOS

It seems to be a Magisk 22.0 bug (issue #3949).
Rebooting into download mode (Home + Volume Down + Power) and running

heimdall flash --RECOVERY Magisk-v21.4.zip

rooted it!

I wasn't even aware Magisk could patch LineageOS zips! Usually I extract the boot partition image (from recovery), patch it from Magisk, and re-flash it.


text:
Why can't I select some image files on some apps, while the Gallery app can?
I have a Xiaomi device on Android 8.0 Oreo. I was editing some pictures in an application and sometimes the picture that I want to edit doesn't appear on the editing app, but there's in the gallery.
Why and how to fix this?

gallery requires media scanner for refresh which is sometimes buggy or only running on boot. media scanner excludes all directories containing .nomedia file. of course apps require storage permissions for this

Photo app can find photos stored on device memory. It support some file extension like png, jpg. If file extension is not supported then it will not appear in photo apps.
You can update apps and also reset it.

The extension is jpg but it still can't appear

You can move that file to DCIM  folder then I think it will work. All photo app can read DCIM folder.


text:
Why can't I download a .gif attached to an email in the Gmail app?
Example:

"Save" is greyed out.
Using Android 10 and Samsung Galaxy S9.

I am sorry but your question has too many (confusing) screen shots and too little description. Please describe in details what you want to do and what app(s) you are using.

This behavior seems to be a bug: the "save" is not greyed out at first, when it does become greyed out after clicking on "save". And strangely,  the "download again" is also greyed out even after clicking on save. Also the user interface seems to use the terms save and download interchangeably, which gives an inconsistent user interface.


text:
How do I turn off screen turnoff during call?
Even though thr light sensor still works as Ive checked, it turns of screen automatically no matter how lighted the area is and i can only reuse the screen once the call is over. I've followed other directions to check call settings, but i couldn’t find any settings to modify that there. Is there any other ways to disable this?
To reiterate, I'm running Android 10 on Realme 7i.

If you speak about "light sensor" do you mean the proximity sensor or the brightness sensor? The latter just measures the environment light, the first emits a short light signal and checks if it is reflected by something next to the screen/sensor.

The screen off feature in phone apps use the proximity sensor rather than the luminosity sensor. I am saying this because my device doesn't have a luminosity sensor, but the screen turns off as soon as I bring it near my face during a call.
To answer your question: There is no Android system setting for this as far as I know. It is completely up to the phone app whether it will turn off the screen. If the caller app that you are using does not give you an option to keep the screen on, your only option is to try other apps that have this feature.


text:
How to view pages saved on storage (or disk)
I have a very simple html page that I saved on my disk on my computer. It only contains a link to an image, saved in the same folder with that html page.
I can view it without any problems on my computer.
But when I copy the page (and the image) on my phone in a folder, I can't properly view the page. I am using Chrome on the phone.
I know the phone does not have a hard disk, it just has flash memory used as storage, as computers use disks. But "disk" sounds more clear like storage memory (to me).
My page is named "page.htm" and the image it is named "mypic.jpg"
the page only contains this code:

It works very well on the computer but it doesn't work on the phone.
It looks like the browser simply can't understand links to local files, stored on the phone storage. It doesn't matter the images are in the same folder with the html page. It still doesn't understand where the image is.
Is there any fix for this?

Save the page again in a single HTML file with SingleFile extension, and than open that page in Chrome on Android. It should work.

Chrome on Windows can save it in a single file without the need of any extension. The file ends in ".mhtml". I can open with Microsoft Edge but Chrome doesn't recognize it. Do I have to instal SingleFile for Chrome to recognize such files?

What is the reason for Android to put such a heavy restriction? I have books written in HTML. They have hundreds of pages, the pages link to other pages and they link to the images they display. Why Android can't offer such a basic feature? Do I have to install Linux on Android in order to be able to view basic html files with images?

Related https://android.stackexchange.com/q/218492/131553


text:
Experiencing problem with S6 Memo, with memos self duplicating by the hundreds. How do I stop the duplications?
Experiencing problem with S6 Memo, with memos self duplicating by the hundreds.  How do I stop the duplications and is there an efficient to delete the duplicates ?

I personally don't recommend using Samsung's Memo app at all unless they have improved it since I tested it.  When I tested it, Samsung's Memo app had no export functionality.


text:
Android internals: Hide apps from launcher
Android TV box does not show installed app. No matter what Launcher i try the app icon remain invisible. The app can opened from settings.
Is there a blacklist or some database where android does control this for every launcher?

https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/q/78465

Related/possible dupe? Sideload non-'Android TV' app to show on the home screen which is related to android.intent.category.LEANBACK_LAUNCHER.

@AndrewT. built shortcut with Launcher Builder - unfortunately even this apk is not visible in app drawer. tried different launchers like chainfire's sideload launcher. there must be something in the android core itself. btw the desired app is for android tv (double checked android.software.leanback in AndroidManifest.xml)


text:
Access Smartphone from PC with defect screen
After I dropped my Google Pixel 3a the screen just stays black. However when I connect it to my Laptop I can see in the hardware manager that an "MPT media device" is connected.
Is there any way to unlock my smartphone in order to transfer files?

What lock screen do you use? Pattern, PIN or password?

@Robert I am using a PIN

A PIN is good because then you can unlock your phone using a simple USB keyboard attached via USB OTG.


text:
Why does LineageOS 17.1 on Android maintain 2 mac addresses?
I understand that LineageOS randomizes the phones wifi mac address - and thats fine.
But on analysis of the traffic from the phone, it seems to have 2 mac addresses simultaneously, and both are on the network. Only one of these is the reported 'wifi' mac address. I find this a little concerning.
Example:
192.168.1.14 - 3a:63:18:87:a4:f2 (Reported Wifi MAC in Lineage)
192.168.1.44 - da:d2:e4:56:10:94

Does anyone know what this second virtual interface is and why its there?
Hardware: Moto G7 plus
Version: Lineage_lake

I don't think this is specific to Lineage OS, but more of Android's privacy using MAC randomization


text:
What is a SLOCK file and how I can get it (Huawei Bootloader)
I found this post on the XDA Forum (https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/unlock-bootloader-for-free.4054619/) to unlock the bootloader of phones that have Kirin 970/710 and lower and with EMUI 8.0 with June patch. I have everything for unlocking it but they stopped giving the SLOCK file indefinitely (at least for now).

The SLOCK service has been permanently terminated.
Our TPM has stopped functioning completely because it reached it's lifespan and Huawei's root certificate is now expired.
Thanks for being here for these 4 years we've been collaborating with you on issuing SLOCKs.

I would like to know what's a SLOCK file and how I can get it (or unlocking the bootloader anyway). If someone knows how I can unlock my bootloader (PRA-LX1C02) (I'm aware of DC-Unlocker and other paid services but I don't want to spend money) or the SLOCK file let me know.
Thanks in advance for everyone that replies!
P.S: A good Custom ROM with Android 10/11? Thanks

just spend that 4,- bucks on dc unlocker you have nothing to lose

https://hcu-client.com/read-bootloader-code-huawei-phone

@alecxs sorry I don't want to pay for a code

Does this answer your question? Unlocking the bootloader Huawei P8 Lite 2017 (PRA-LX1(C02)

@alecxs no since no one gave me a clue or direction for unlocking it for free


text:
How to add a word to the Voice Typing recognition list?
I need to frequently say the word "olivette". I added it to my keyboard dictionary. Voice Typing ALWAYS interprets it as "all of that". It doesn't learn from my correcting it.
A Google search reveals ways you USED to be able to add words to your phone's recognition list. Other services let you (e.g. dragon).
How do you do it on Android 8.0  and later? (I'm using a motorola z-play)

With Gboard, there's currently no option to add a word to the Voice Typing recognition list. That's indeed one upside of using Dragon.


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Firefox Android with password storage
Can you suggest a good solution how I can store my passwords secure with Firefox for Android? Firefox sync has no "cloud storage" which means I have no cloud backup. Keepass2Android with Autofill has a bad user experience. The Autofill pop always needs a long press, password storage unlock (as my device permanently kills the app) and needs to much clicks in general. Sometimes the popup is not even opening on my device. Any good alternatives?

What do you mean by Firefox sync has no "cloud storage"? Firefox sync can use a private Firefox Sync server but you don't have to. You can just use the one provided by Mozilla.

Mozilla itself warns form using Firefox sync as a backup or storage solution. Google on the other hand advertises its cloud services a reliable storage.

This is just about reliability if you only use Firefox sync. For backup simply sync the data to a PC and then backup the Firefox user data to different backup types. If something goes wrong you can go offline, restore the backup and reestablish Firefox sync.