text:
Process "irq/288-wcd9xxx" draining battery, how to stop it?
I'm using a Fairphone 2 with Fairphone open OS, under Android 7, (build-number: fp2_sibon-userdebug 7.1.2 19.11.2 sibon-24df0be9), up to date. My battery loses systematically 50% to 90% overnight, and after having tried all sorts of things to stop it, my brother checked in a terminal (using Termux) with the top command which processes were using the CPU. A process named irq/288-wcd9xxx uses 15-20% of the CPU permanently, which could explain why my battery simply dies in 12 hours. Here's a screenshot of what I get.

As kill or kill -9 has absolutely no effect on it (it seems to work when running the command, but the process is still there afterwards), does anyone have any idea about what it is, and how to kill it, or stop it?
EDIT:
Thank you Irfan Latif for your detailed answer, my brother and me started having a look into this, and for the moment, not much improvement:
The command grep -rI $(readlink /proc/$(pgrep -f irq/288-wcd9xxx)/exe) /*/etc/init/ /init.*.rc indeed doesn't yield any output, and ppid is 2, so as you thought, it appears to be a kernel thread.
(We still had a look at the getprop | grep init.svc. list, and tried stopping audiod just to see, but it didn't change anything.)
As this phone is a Fairphone (modular phone), we can remove the suspect hardware and reboot to see if it changes anything (suggestion by this fairphone thread I posted too, actually already saying it's a "kernel process", hadn't understood the implications: It's hardware interrupts coming from the audio codec).
But removing hardware didn't appear to change anything either, maybe swapping will work (my brother has the same phone ‒with a different android version‒, we'll try next time we meet), but at this stage we doubt it.
Last, we will try soon your suggestions to control the CPU usage of the process, maybe it will be a temporary fix, but this now seems to my brother to need a full system re-installation, as from the moment we did the installation (the standard fairphone open OS install), the battery always appeared to be excessively draining.
P.S. Another process, irq/195-ngd_sli, seems to be eating up as well 5 to 7% permanently. We hadn't paid much attention to it, but it seems now just as abnormal; we'll dig this too.

irq looks something about hardware interrupts and wcd9xxx is a series of Qualcomm Aqstic audio codecs. So apparently irq/288-wcd9xxx process is running to support audio functionality on your device. The executable must be closed source binary blob, so there's nothing you can do to fix it, except (if already fixed by somebody, or) upgrading / downgrading the ROM or stopping the service.

As kill or kill -9 has absolutely no effect on it (it seems to work when running the command, but the process is still there afterwards), does anyone have any idea about what it is, and how to kill it, or stop it?

The process must be running as a native service defined by hardware / SoC vendor in some init's .rc file. So it will keep on restarting if killed. In order to properly stop the service you need to find its name. First get executable path from PID and then find service by searching through all .rc files:
~# grep -rI $(readlink /proc/$(pgrep -f irq/288-wcd9xxx)/exe) /*/etc/init/ /init.*.rc

You can confirm the same service name by looking at running status in getprop | grep init.svc. command. To stop the service use any of these commands:
~# stop <service_name>
~# setprop ctl.stop <service_name>

This needs to be repeated on every reboot. Or you may edit the related .rc file to remove the service.
If it results in something not working, another possibility is to try controlling its CPU usage by applying some limitation e.g. cgroups (if kernel supports).
EDIT:
I just noticed that a file name cannot have a slash (/). So irq/288-wcd9xxx must be a kernel thread for interrupt handling. It's not evident but you can check its parent PID (ppid must be 2) and also no memory allocation (0K) indicates that it's not a userspace process. So the problem is with your audio hardware or in-kernel driver (see this answer). In latter case again an updated kernel from OEM would fix the problem.
A workaround can be to control CPU usage of real-time process using chrt: chrt -r -p 1 $(pgrep -f irq/288-wcd9xxx) or chrt -f -p 1 $(pgrep -f irq/288-wcd9xxx) or renice or cgroups (if kernel supports): cpu or cpuset.


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Moving WhatsApp to new phone without changing number
Not sure if this has been asked before. I would like to move my WhatsApp installation and chats to my new phone and I would like to keep the same number associated with it, but I don't want to move the SIM with the old number into the new phone.
Everything I have read online about moving WhatsApp to new phone seems to apply only to one of two options, taking the old SIM into the new phone, or changing the number on the account to match the SIM in the new phone.
I know this is possible because I have seen French people using WhatsApp with their old French number from years back, but when I call them on their local number, that rings the phone on which the installation sits (not dual SIM)

Bro, it's actually easy! You don't need to remove your old sim and fit into your new phone. I have added the steps for you
First Backup all the data and chat history to google drive from the chats section in settings in whatsapp.

Whatsapp>>:>>Settings>>Chats>>Chat Backup

Second After backing up all the data install whatsapp on the new phone. Then verify your old phone number by getting the otp on your old phone and you will get a option for restoring your data from Google drive.
=>After restoring the data you will get most of the messages back on your new phone!
Yes, I have written "most of the" not "all of the". It's because not all your data gets backed-up. The data which you have downloaded on the old phone will normally gets backed-up with the chat.
To back up all the data I will recommend first downloading all the things and stuffs which you have received from others and then start backing up in your old phone!
(Or) alternatively there are many applications which can do all these things without any sort of manual uploading and downloading. You can search for them on the web and playstore (or appstore)!

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Got serious problem with my J530F need quick help
i've got really hard problem with my j5 which is probably totally bricked. But. there is but, i can access recovery mode and connect it to the ADB, but still, aint that easy. While trying to flash new ROM, im getting up to 40 % and its shows "e:signature verification failed" after that it gets to 92% and stops. Total xfer: 2.00x on phone it shows as "E:failed to find /misc partition".
I've been trying literally everything.
Weird thing, cannot open adb shell, "error:closed" been trying killing server, starting server etc.
Most weird thing is J5 CANNOT ACCESS THE "DOWNLOAD MODE" which is the biggest problem in my case.
apart from that, i've got no TWRP or CMW installd, only stock recovery mode, whatever option im trying to get into, always gets same info "E:Failed to find /misc partition".
what else... I've been trying to make SD card as bootable device with android on it, if you've got any ideas about that, im happy to hear.
been trying several rooms, stock, lineage, other customs.
Tried several versions of adb..
sometimes adb shows info "deamon not started" which after i've got communicate that deamon started succesfully and transfered to port 500 something.
Please guys, help me with that. I've wasted about 60 over hours now  getting sick.

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


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How to record calls and store on a central server?
Not sure if this should be asked on Software Recs Stack or not, but here goes nothing....
One of my coworkers needs to record calls whenever a call comes through on his premise cell phone. The issue is not recording the calls, instead, the issue comes from actually storing the calls, as the phone that is being used does not have a lot of onboard storage (i.e. has 8GB total storage).
Is there an app or some sort of configuration that we can use to store the recorded calls onto a central server, which has a lot of space? Or at the very least on a very large SD Card (i.e 64GB)?
As you would imagine, the premise cell phone deals with a lot of incoming and outgoing calls, so space is a critical concern.
Thanks for viewing!

Saving to external SD card is simple if the recording app supports. For online backup use any sync app with any cloud storage you want. With root access you can run rclone as a background service or scheduled job.

I'm not sure, but I think YouMail (https://www.youmail.com) could possibly have this functionality.


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A cat randomly appears and disapears from the Google Search bar. What is this?
It looks like the Cheshire cat but I was unable to find anything on the internet about it.
This is a Pixel 2 phone with stock android.

It's a doodle from Google related to Sir John Tenniel's 200th birthday. This is a feature for Google search app widget which you can also disable in Google app settings. You can read about the feature here.


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Fastboot connection problem
I am trying to install Lineage OS 16.0 on my Moto 4X. I unlocked the OEM bootloader. But when I enter the command 'fastboot reboot bootloader' it shows
'< waiting for any device >'. There it stays until I break.
The next day it suddenly worked and I booted TWRP, install Lineage OS, G-Apps 9.0 micro and started the phone following the instructions at https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/payton/install.
Lineage seem to work fine, but the G-Apps are nowhere to be found. I remember during the installation there was an error like 'can't access date/media., such a Directory does not exist' but it worked, or I thought that it did. I wanted to reinstall it all. Now I have the same problem again.
C:\adb>adb devices
List of devices attached
ZY224KGGGC      device

C:\adb>fastboot reboot bootloader
< waiting for any device >

USB debugging is enabled, the drivers on the PC are the newest from the Motorola website.
I used every USB port on my PC.
I tried my PC and two other laptops, all Windows 10.
Also I tried CMD, Powershell, and GIT-Bash for the commands. It’s always the same response. So I don't know what to do right now.
Does someone know where that problem came from?

You are mixing up adb and fastboot.
When a device is booted and visible via adb it can't be accessed via fastboot (and the other way around). Fastboot is only active while the bootloader is active.
Hence if your device is visible via adb devices you have to access it via adb.
If you want to switch to fastboot mode have to boot boot to bootloader mode by executing adb reboot bootloader.
Then you can use fastboot.

thanks for the answer.


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How to flash Official ROM on SAMSUNG GALAXY S6 EDGE
I was offered a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge a few months ago and I discovered over time that applications installed themselves on my phone and performed operations in the background and my ins such as activate the microphone , play music or send sms. I tried several factory values reset but nothing changes, each time I have the internet connection activated they reinstall completely. This has the effect of heating my phone and reducing the life of the battery.
So I decided to flash my phone with an Official ROM that I did on SamMobile But when I launched the flash with Odin and my phone in download mode the operation failed!
I haven't been able to solve this problem for months already that's why I come here to ask for your help.
when the flash fails, my phone displays the error "SECURE CHECK FAIL: (BOOTLOADER)
I would like to make some clarifications:
- my phone is an SM-G925F (This is what is written behind it is also what is displayed in the settings)
- In download mode I rather see Product: name SM-G925L
- in the developer option, I don't find the "Unlock OEM" button
- When I click on "Software update" in my phone, nothing happens
- I don't know if it's important to specify it but I live in Cameroon
I need help please!

One potential reason for the error message could be that you are trying to flash the wrong firmware image (which has the wrong signature what makes the signature/security check to fail). Sometimes there are multiple versions of the same phone available e.g. for different countries. Make sure you have the correct firmware (may be you have to try different versions out). Based on other discussions the model number shown in download mode is the correct model number, the other model name is manipulated.

If the model number displayed in download mode is correct, why is it different from the one written on the back of the phone? Which ROM should I try now? the SM-G925L or another variant of the SM-G925F?

May be the SM-G925L version was cheaper or better available (version for Latin America, India, Australia) and the it got re-flashed with the global firmware of SM-G925F. I am also not sure if the SM-G925F on the backside is genuine. The Bootloader is the only think you can't forge that easily, hence it stills shows the original model number (and this is the firmware you have to use or you could try to flash the international version skipping the botloader).

you must flash SM-G925L of course. if not available on sammobile or updato, flash SM-G925F with modded odin

It might be worth mentioning that, if using Windows, there's a tool called "Frija" which you can use to download firmware directly from Samsung's servers.

I flashed an SM-G925L and it worked except that the SM-G925L that I found on SamMobile was all designed for South Korea and for LG U+ So every time I turn on my samsung a beautiful LG logo is displayed but everything works correctly and I got rid of malware!

It looks like you Galaxy S6 Edge may have been rooted as I see current binary and system status are indicated as custom and that would explain not being able to OTA update.  I also know that some unlocked refurbished phone replace motherboards as long as the hardware fits.  Its my understanding that what is displayed in the download mode, i,n this case "G925L", will be the correct variant when choosing the proper firmware.
  I've rooted every Samsung I have ever owned and have never had the issues you described prior to factory reset.  It is my humble option that your phone may have been compromise  and suggest your change all your password accounts.  It would be easier is you did this after a successful boot rather than before as you'll face Google FRP lock.   Good luck


text:
SMS starts with "ACTA" sent without my consent
On 26-Feb-2020 at 4.24 PM IST, an unknown SMS has been sent from my Redmi 7A Android phone without my consent to a completely unknown number. It starts with "ACTA" and then contains some encoded data. It's all either encrypted or garbage. I have no clue what this is and I can not infer anything from this.

All apps before installation are scanned by a built-in security check. I have run a security scan on my phone and nothing suspicious was found except needing to update MIUI.  No app was installed on that day and I do not download any unknown apk's from unknown sites. All apps have always been installed from Google Play Store.
The number does not exist in my contact list and has never ever been dialed from or any call received on this phone. TrueCaller site reports that number as a spam number from India.
Could someone explain this?

Possibly some kind of account login verification.

It could be Smsc number of your carrier. Check in your SMS app settings to see Smsc number

Are you using iMobile by ICICI Bank? Found a forum thread mentioning about sending "ACTA" SMS. Another article is about an SMS sender malware, though it's really unclear what it is from.

First of all thank you all for your inputs. This helped me to start looking in right direction. I first called my carrier and they informed me that the number does not belong to them. I have 2 different banking applications that allow me to access my bank account details thru respective apps. I then called ICICI Bank customer care and the representative has confirmed that this number belongs to their iMobile servers and the message is some kind of legit verification message required by the app to function properly. To be continued...

Earlier I must have clicked 'Allow this app to send SMS' so the whole process happened automatically. I am relived that there's no spam or some kind of hacking attempt. @Andrew T, you may like to formulate an answer and I will accept it. Thank you all for your inputs.

According to quick research, the "ACTA" SMS is used by ICICI Bank for a verification/activation message on their mobile apps (e.g. iMobile).
From Mi Community - Unable to activate icici i-mobile app on my POCOFONE F1,

Post #10
Solved after the solution given by the online imobile team.
During the activation process,  you get some random text message (ACTA *** which need to be sent for verification) , you copy the entire text and send the same to 9215676766 instead of +91222208888 (icici server number which is usually busy).
This sms need to be sent within 90 seconds and jump back to imobile app and proceed with the activation by setting 4 digit pin and grid value verification. [...]
(Emphasis added)

Also, thanks to the OP's confirmation on the comment thread,

I then called ICICI Bank customer care and the representative has confirmed that this number (ed. +9184220...) belongs to their iMobile servers and the message is some kind of legit verification message required by the app to function properly. Earlier I must have clicked 'Allow this app to send SMS' so the whole process happened automatically.


text:
Will phone of global market will have better coverage than others?
I have LG V20 (H990DS), it's global market's phone. Also there are AT&T, Sprint, Verizon. And I noticed that all models have different frequency bands. Is that mean that my phone will work better around the world and others are fixed to certain regions? If yes, other phones can be unlocked by rooting or something like that to work the same as "Global" phone?

.... my phone will work better around the world and others are fixed to certain regions?

In theory, yes. That's the purpose of a global phone (also called international phone)

....other phones can be unlocked by rooting or something like that to work the same as "Global" phone?

No, since it requires changes at hardware (modem) and corresponding drivers. You can't change hardware by rooting

Thank you for the clear answer, I noticed that H990DS has 16 4G bands and H990N (of Hong Kong) has 15. Does it mean that 4G will work in higher coverage in China on H990N than my H990DS?

Maybe is better to count how many bands phone supports and check if it works in native country. European variant with 17 bands would probably be even better than global with 16.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

@beeshyams It could be useful to keep in mind that some OEMs (e.g. Samsung) allow for carriers to only preload some apps, instead of locking the device altogether - in that case, the phone might be usable internationally.

@DeathMaskSalesman- Thanks, yes, useful. I wasn't aware


text:
Deleting files from "My Files" folder
If I delete files from the "My Files" folder on a Samsung Galaxy S8, are the files permanently deleted?? My phone's internal memory says it is low and that I need to delete files from my files folder.

"My files" is a built-in file manager and explorer. Any files deleted using that are permanently deleted
As pointed out in comments by Arctiic, it appears some files get restored even after deletion. I wasn't aware of this

Thank you beeshyams.

You are welcome to Android Enthusiasts. Since you are new and don't yet have the reputation to up vote, you can tick the green arrow next to the answer to indicate that you have "accepted" it. There is absolutely no compulsion to accept my answer.

See this to  better understand what it means to accept an answer

That's not necessarily true though, some files in secured directories will get restored on reboot even if deleted, and can't be easily removed persistently without root.

@Arctiic Restore is user triggered isn't it? It is not automatic. That's what I recollect. Please correct me if I am wrong

@beeshyams Apologies for the confusion, I wasn't referring to the restore function (ADB or settings toggle), but rather just the more ubiquitous usage of the term.  I don't actually know how the restoration is actioned, only that certain files, e.g. for my Samsung Note 8, /SD Card/Samsung/Music/Over_the_Horizon.mp3 will appear again on it's own after deleting it.  My guess is it's a symlink of some sort or the file is on some sort of system whitelist somewheie, thus it reappears regardless of user interventions.

@Arctiic Thanks. Included in solution. Feel free to improve. Thanks

@Arctiic the mentioned .mp3 file is Samsung's ringtone. It must be in /system/media or some other read-only filesystem, simply copied to external storage on reboot. Deleted files are never restored this way.


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List of Android OS services/system apps with dependencies?
Is there a list of Android OS services/system apps including dependencies, similar to what can be displayed and configured in Windows using msconfig.exe? Researching every single one individually is just cumbersome, there must be a list of some sort for developers somewhere.
This map kind of gives an impression, but most apps/services listed in my device are not shown and I'm not sure if the graph edges represent dependencies or just exchange of information.
NOTE: The device in question is not rooted yet.

I assume you are talking about rooted devices that is an important fact and have to be mentioned in your question please edit it and refine your question.

On rooted device: getprop | grep running shows running native services handled by init (like those shown under msconfig's Services tab). dumpsys -l and service list return Java system services. dumpsys activity services | grep app= | grep -v app=null returns Java app services. ps --ppid $(pgrep zygote) returns all running app processes (system and user). What's your exact purpose to get all this information?

In fact, I'm referring to stock devices without root. With new devices, I usually try to turn off all services that are not required for my purposes in order to cut down power consumption. This often disables a desired app or UI/device function and it's usually very time consuming to find out which service is responsible. Luckily, I did not have to deal with many dependencies so far (as is the case with Windows services), but disclosure of the function and purposes of all running services would safe a lot of time


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how to fix ioctl permissions denied error?
I searched in lots of websites/forums but did not find a solution for this problem, and this site is last chance, this is problem:
This problem have several other users too.
my phone is Galaxy S7 Edge , exynos, Oreo 8.0 (Stock ROM), rooted with magisk latest version.
root works well in other applications.
In pentesting applications like csploit, Network Spoofer, WifiKill and others  root works well(grants permission)  but when start using options of app(for example, arp spoofing, network sniffer, MITM, etc) drops same error:
[ERROR] Unable to retrieve local hardware address libnet ( ioctl: Permission denied )
what to do? Can this issue fixed? or exactly which permission is it?
Also one interesting thing, when I installed old version of WifiKill app it worked - killed wifi connection.

If old version works it indicates that the problem is with the new version of app(s), probably with latest release of libnet since all apps are  based on it. So the only one who can help you with this is the app developer. For us [ERROR] Unable to retrieve local hardware address libnet ( ioctl: Permission denied ) is not enough to figure out why libnet was unable to get MAC address and which ioctl failed. More logs are required. If command-line execution is possible get strace output.

I do not know well commands, but I found this app CatLog and recorded logs, maybe its what is needed for this situation? I cut several lines about application(network spoofer).

02-29 02:11:49.571 V/android-netspoof(10524): cout: Current Wifi IP: 192.168.0.100
02-29 02:11:49.571 V/android-netspoof(10524): cout: Current subnet: 192.168.0.0
02-29 02:11:49.571 V/android-netspoof(10524): cout: Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
02-29 02:11:49.571 V/android-netspoof(10524): cout: Enabling ip_forward

02-29 02:11:49.572 V/android-netspoof(10524): cout: Starting ARP Spoofing
02-29 02:11:49.572 V/android-netspoof(10524): cout: arpspoof -i wlan0 -t 192.168.0.102 192.168.0.1
02-29 02:11:49.572 V/android-netspoof(10524): cout: iptables -P FORWARD ACCEPT
02-29 02:11:49.572 V/android-netspoof(10524): cout: iptables -I natctrl_FORWARD -j RETURN
02-29 02:11:49.572 V/android-netspoof(10524): cout: iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -j MASQUERADE
02-29 02:11:49.572 V/android-netspoof(10524): cout: iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 3128

02-29 02:11:49.572 V/android-netspoof(10524): cout: dSploit ArpSpoofer.
02-29 02:11:49.572 V/android-netspoof(10524): cout:
02-29 02:11:49.573 V/android-netspoof(10524): cout: [ERROR] Unable to retrieve local hardware address libnet ( ioctl: Permission denied ).

finally, I solved this problem , it needed permissive selinux mode, so I installed custom kernel on my phone and everything works perfect.


text:
Why are certain functions permissible while others are not (from a security standpoint)?
You would think there must be some sort of logical convention or decision-making that leads to what is or is not permissible, followed by sanity checks against each functions' interactions for homogeniety; however, it feels like this isn't the case.  Take for example: the end user is able to read incoming SMS (if so configured) but not able to send outbound replies when in lock screen.  However, when connected to Android Auto, by default receiving an inbound SMS will trigger an automatic preset outbound reply, regardless of the device's lockstate, and is permitted to read the inbound SMS via TTS regardless of the preview configuration.  Why is there an assumption that the outbound transmission is any more or less secure in one case as opposed to the other, etc?


text:
Bootloop after installing GApps in Lineage OS
I installed Lineage OS 16.0 on my Moto x4 using TWRP. I reboot and installed GApps. While installing there were no errors. But then after restart the Phone it stays in start sequence and after ca. 10 min it goes back to TWRP. When I only install Lineage OS it works fine, but without GApps.
So I tried a few variations of combine these versions:
TWRP: twrp-3.3.1-0-payton, twrp-3.3.0-1-payton
Lineage OS: lineage-16.0-20200219-nightly-payton-signed, lineage-16.0-20200223-nightly-payton-signed
GApps: open_gapps-arm64-9.0-pico-2020019, open_gapps-arm64-9.0-pico-2020028, open_gapps-arm64-9.0-pico-20191017
Can you please help me? Did someone know what I am missing or doing wrong?
Edit:
I found that I start in Slot A and installed Lineage there, but after reboot I am in Slot B but installing GApps works without shown error beside that main problem. When I go back to slot A and install GApps there it breaks with error code 64.

check if /system_root/system/build.prop is existing file, gapps fails to detect system-as-root when build.prop is symlink

Any chance that you can capture logcat output during bootup process and add it to your post for diagnosis?

Whenever I used LineageOS 16 I had to use the "other" recommended GApps package by LineageOS.
The so called "MindTheGapps" package.
See here: https://wiki.lineageos.org/gapps.html
MindTheGapps link: http://downloads.codefi.re/jdcteam/javelinanddart/gapps
Mirror: http://downloads.codefi.re/jdcteam/javelinanddart/gapps
I realize they list OpenGApps there as well but for me, only MindTheGapps worked fine.
Ps.: LOS 17 never had this issue on the other hand. The phone I was using is a OnePlus 7 Pro.

Do MindTheGapps also have different packages (nano, pico, ...) like OpenGapps?

So I tried the link you gave me, but I have still the same problem.

And I couldn't find LOS 17 for the Moto X4


text:
How to permanently disable mobile data on a rooted Android device?
Hi guys I was hoping for some guidance on disabling my mobile data on my rooted Android. I've tried locating a file do delete with ES explorer, but I'm honestly unsure if there is such a separate file to disable the data and keep my call function on. Any help at all would be much appreciated. Thanks.

I would use your phone's test page to disable it... It's like disabling an adapter on a computer are its devices software it will still look like it's on but you can change your way you speak to your tower from like 5 seconds 10 seconds 30 seconds and disabled or immediate. I use phone dialer to pull up the test page *#*#4636#*#*


text:
some websites having url start with http instead of https are not working in my android tab having version kitkat(4.4.2)
Basically I am using biometric android device tab(photo attached) having android version kitkat(4.4.2) I have android app which is basically used for thumb verification. The app is working perfectly fine on wifi but when I am using data connection It's not able to access the service url. Then I tried to check the browser to verify that internet is working or not than I found that internet is also working fine on data connection then I tried different url's and found that the url's start http instead of https are not working on data connection but on wifi and all the urls having https are working fine and my service url which is being used by my app is also start with http that's why its not able to access the url. I tried a lot of solutions like:

Resetting the android tab
Clearing the browser cache and history (Although it has nothing to do with my app)

And one more thing all of the urls not matter http or https are working fine on wifi. Picture attached of my device and of the error I am getting while accessing the url start with http.
Also the same network SIM is allowing all types of URL's in other Android phones, so port 80 is definitely not blocked by MNO.

https://android.stackexchange.com/q/220188

But the same network sim is allowing all type of url's in other android phone.

can you ping websites from wifi and then access it's ip address from sim?


text:
Where can I setup a persistent directory on my Android phone with a symlink-compatible filesystem?
I want to setup a directory on an Android phone which provides a similar experience to a traditional Linux command line.
Normally I would work from my home directory but HOME in this case resolves /sdcard and is mounted as sdcardfs which is an emulated filesystem that does not support traditional features such as symbolic links:

Now /sdcard is not a real but emulated storage which represents a
  FAT/vFAT/FAT32 filesystem (for backward compatibility and permission
  management) which doesn't support symlinks (and other things including
  *NIX permissions and ioctls like FS_IOC_FIEMAP). So the Option 1 and 3 of yours won't work whether you create symlink directly on emulated
  storage or try to emulate the symlink already created on ext4.

Source: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/203989
If I can't use /sdcard as a traditional filesystem then where else can I go for safe and persistent storage where I can use *NIX features that I am used to such as symbolic links, hard links, ioctls, ACLs, etc.?
Please note that I am not looking for alternatives for these features such as using mount as a replacement for links. The issue I have is that I don't know what is considered safe and persistent for storage on this device.
As an example of the problem I am facing, I tried creating a directory in /mnt, which provided the necessary features, but this directory was not persistent after the device was rebooted.
My phone is rooted and I am using aftermarket firmware.

Every app can create symlinks in its private storage (which is ext4 or f2fs) but private storage isn't accessible to other apps. And actually that's why Android uses an emulated permission-less filesystem. On normal *NIX systems storage isn't shared among multiple users, every UID owns its unique home directory. // On rooted phones you can share some directory in /data with root-enabled apps. A subdirectory in /data/local/tmp/ can also be shared by apps but SELinux policy on mostly devices doesn't allow this. On Android 10+ apps have even restricted filesystem access in shared storage.

for rooted devices /data/media/0 is another way to access /sdcard (with wanted file system type)

@IrfanLatif Didn't Google postpone their new restrictions to 11+ following developers' backlash?

@alecxs It should be noted that every file under /data/media/0 needs to be owned by a specific user and group, or issues might arise in /sdcard and similar mount points.

@Grimoire doesn't matter, symlink only work from /data/media/0 which requires root access. btw uid:gid is all the same (1023:1023) and android does chown this automatically on boot since oreo

@alecxs /data/media/0 exists but is empty on my device (accessed as root). It is running Android 7.1.2.

disable namespace separation (set namespaces to global)


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Where are my commented documents in Adobe Acrobat Reader android actually synced?
I checked my original PDF after adding a comment in Adobe Acrobat Reader and it did not had the comments. I opened the PDF through RECENT in the app and the comments were there! So where are they actually syncing. I finally uploaded it to my Document Cloud to sync but there must be a local storage location? If not can I sync my Documents locally?

@Aditya Use a root capable fileexplorer app and check the directory /data/data/com.adobe.reader plus subdirectories

@Robert Thanks. Found it in /data/data/com.adobe.reader/files/Downloads

I would assume Acrobat reader stores them in the app-private directory. The documents are there saved securely so that other apps can't access them. Unfortunately this also applies to the the user, so that you can't access the file on a non-rooted device.
If your device is rooted you can check the directory /data/data/com.adobe.reader which is the app-private directory of the Adobe Acrobat reader app.
Also check it's subdirectories. Most likely you will find the saved PDF file there.


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Using USB NFC reader as native from Android Emulator
I'm testing an Android app that uses NFC. However, my actual testing phone does not have NFC capabilities built-in. What I do have is a USB NFC reader for Windows. Is there a way I can open my app on Android Emulator and link the emulated NFC to my USB NFC reader?

Unlikely, see: NFC tag emulation for Android virtual device (AVD)


text:
How to avoid disabling internet and GPS?
My friend have installed an app to watch the location of the children, BUT this app is useless if the kid can disable 4G internet and GPS. How to avoid disabling internet and GPS? Or is there some app to help on this matter?

Has your friend considered using a kiosk app solution? Kiosk  solutions usually lock down the device leaving only those settings, quick settings and the apps the administrator (such as, a parent) wants the intended user to use.

You can try this kiosk app which specifically claims to prevent access to wifi etc. It's well rated with good reviews - that's the reason for suggesting it. I have not tried

If you have root access or adb on that device you could use an device automation tool like MacroDroid and make it re-enable the gps and 4g if it is turned off
Triggers would be gps disabled and mobile service status -> diabled
and Actions would be location mode -> high accuracy and mobile data -> on
If you also want to lock wifi then add trigger: wifi state changed -> disabled and action wifi configure -> turn on
In end enable password protection in the settings to prevent anyone to disable the macro


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Is there a way to reset my Android Google sync data?
I've been using Android since the days of Froyo (Android 2.2). My data would get synced normally using Android's Google sync feature.
I am not sure whether there has been of fundamental change in the way Google sync in Android since those days.  But I notice that my sync doesn't work properly.
Specifically:

Contact sync:  restores only half of my contacts whenever I change phones. If I manually export/import contacts then it deletes half of my list on the next sync.  It just refuses to update the existing contact list present on the cloud.

Application data doesn't get transferred. I've seen other people changing their phones and I've seen that Google sync essentially restores their installed apps and then restores the data contained within them. In my case it restores apps that I used to have on my Froyo phone. And it doesn't restore any app data.

Is there a way I could reset all the data on my cloud sync so that Google sync can start doing a fresh start?

Does this answer your question? How can I delete synchronized Google data? (contacts, app data etc)

Also see this https://android.stackexchange.com/a/154293/131553


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how to remove pattern lock in a rooted android phone?
My Xperia is Running on RR-16 OS I have added 6x6 pattern unlock, it's been months I touched it so I forgot the password
is there any way to remove the pattern lock through ADB, I also have TWRP recovery installed in it so, is it possible to delete the file containing the passwords data
Thanks in advance

only if TWRP is able to decrypt without pattern it is safe to delete locksettings.db (FDE) otherwise make a backup of /data/system and try to set new pin from https://google.com/android/devicemanager

@beeshyams unfortunately i don't know how to modify locksettings.db because afaik db-wal and db-shm files will detect modifications and destroy the whole database

outdated! just for reference https://stackoverflow.com/q/22142940


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OneDrive app says spreadsheet is corrupted
I have a spreadsheet in my OneDrive storage. Using the OneDrive app on a Samsung TabA tablet I can see the file, but if I try to open it it says the file is corrupted.
However, if I open OneDrive in a browser on the tablet I can look at the spreadsheet normally, so there's nothing wrong with the file on OneDrive.
Does anyone know if the OneDrive app has issues with certain Office documents? This particular spreadsheet has 168 worksheets - could that be a problem for the app?

See here for restrictions on file name

Thanks for suggestions. I can confirm it is definitely a legitimate filename, and doesn't contain any restricted characters. It does contain spaces, but that also applies to other Office files which open normally with the app.


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Update external installed app from Play Store
Some days ago, I installed an app downloading it directly from the enterprise server. Today, an update was uploaded to the Play Store, but there, I can not see the update button to automatically update the app, I just can open it or uninstall it.
The app is signed with the same certificate and has a newer version code. It is programmed with ionic but I do not thing that matters.
I need a solution to install an app from outside Play Store, while keeping Play Store updating it.
Thanks in advance.

Are side-loaded versions just newer from those in PlayStore or are these versions internal versions that are never released on PlayStore? Because I stil don't see the advantage of side-loading an app when it can be installed from PlayStore as well.

As @Robert rightly said, they could be internal or beta or yet to be submitted to Play Store or submitted but awaiting Play Store approval. Best is to ask the developers citing your concerns

And yet another possibility which I noticed happens sometimes - update button doesn't show. Click back to exit and try again. After a few attempts, it may show

Have you ever once updated the app from the Play Store? If you uninstall the app, can you actually fresh install the newer version from the Play Store?

@Robert The app is uploaded with the same code version to the enterprise server and to the Play Store. I can see that I have the 1.2.0 versions installed while Play Store is showing that the latest version is 1.3.3. The advantage is to install the app on a smartphone without Play Store account, and then, bind the account and automatically get updates.

@beeshyams I will try that. Thanks.

@AndrewT. Yep, I do not have any problem when I install the app firstly from the Play Store, but I need the first installation to be made from the outside.

@camgt The displayed version string is meaningless - it is just displayed but not used by PlaySTore. I am talking about the versionCode in the ´AndroidManifest.xml`. This is the relevant version number.

@Robert Yes, the versionCode is also newer. From 10200 to 10303 specifically.


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Can I root Android by booting from an SD card?
Digging for that, I found various resources on the net to boot Android from SD cards. Doing that would make possible many things that are generally unavailable on phones.
For example, it would be possible to dump the whole content of the flash or get to root without the need to reformat some partitions. Effectively, it would be like unlocking PCs by a boot pen drive.
Is it possible? Can I simply burn a firmware image into an SD card and then boot my Android phone with it?
This question already gives some insight into repairing a specific model with SD card booting, but it has little to say about SD card booting in general. It does not answer my question.

A locked bootloader only executes an system/kernel image that has been signed by the manufacturer. Therefore even if your device would support boot from SD (most device AFAIK do not support this) the software still would have to be the original manufacturer image.

@Robert Thanks, it helps a lot! So, I need to switch to a new bootloader, like TWRP?

@peterh No, TWRP is a recovery ROM. The bootloader is loaded before either the recovery or the system OS is loaded. To "update" the bootloader you have to unlock it (if it is possible on your device) and this is the step that erases the device. Unlocking the bootloader is usually the first step for rooting.

Booting from SDCard cannot be answered in general. It's a device specific thing. I have been able to boot a few devices from SD card but it's not possible by simply burning a firmware image. You need to create an exact image of internal eMMC/UFS chip on SD card. SoC, bootloaders, TZ, modem etc. related partitions are still read from internal storage (because those have hard coded paths in firmware). All you can do is to modify post-kernel (init's) configuration to start booting from partitions on SD card. But from your question it's not clear what benefit you want to have by doing this.

Also some devices (at least some from Samsung, or all, not sure) allow booting from SD card for some recovery purpose. SoCs on development boards almost always allow this. So do some MTK devices. But I haven't got a chance to use any such Android device so far. I've made successful attempts only with Qualcomm devices. And technically it's not "completely booting from SD card". If something at pre-kernel stage (like a bootloader) breaks, device won't boot (unless recovered, if possible). And everything that loads before Linux kernel is signed and cannot be modified, as Robert said.


text:
How does Google Tasks open an email in the Gmail app?
There is another question that asks How to open gmail message links in Gmail Android app?.  I don't know how to how to answer the question, but I know of an app that can do this: Google Tasks.
These steps show how to open an email in the Gmail app from Google Tasks.

Open an email in Gmail
Select "Add to Tasks"
Open Google Tasks in Android
Locate the task that was created in step 2
Locate the button on that task with a picture of an envelope
Tap that button
Observe that the corresponding email is opened in the Gmail app

How does Google Tasks open an email in the Gmail app?  Is it possible to do this in custom app (as the linked question asks) or is Google achieving this behavior in Google Tasks using a private API?

It is a part of GSuite and therefore logical to assume internal integration with proprietary means. See for example integration of tasks and calendar without the tasks app being installed!


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How to disable an activity containing a special character?
What is the correct way to disable the activity:
com.android.settings/.Settings$SystemDashboardActivity

When I try to disable it via pm disable command it disables the whole Settings activity and not the specific activity SystemDashboardActivity.
Note: I have a rooted device.

You need to escape the dollar character. Otherwise, the shell would interpret  anything after $ as the variable name. Since $SystemDashboardActivity as a variable is not set, your command is effectively interpreted as:
pm disable com.android.settings/.Settings

That naturally would disable the parent (.Settings) component.
Escape $ by prefixing it with \ so as to prevent unwanted interpretation from shell.  Your command should look like this:
pm disable com.android.settings/.Settings\$SystemDashboardActivity

Tested on Android 9.0 running on OnePlus 6. Make sure to run the command as root.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.


text:
save bricked xt1527 with disabled usb debugging
I have a surnia xt1527 which was bricked because of some mistakes I made when trying to make a factory reset (I don't remember what I did because it was a while ago). The device has usb debugging disabled and hence I can't use adb tools. I also can't flash the stock firmware or a custom recovery from an sd card because the recovery won't let me access the sd card. Is there anything I can do to save the phone even though usb debugging is disabled? thanks

Have you tried this: Restore Moto E (2015) Stock Firmware

@Robert yes and I get preflash validation failed error when I run flash partition gpt.bin

GPT is the partition table. if validation fails you probably try to flash mismatching partition layout

@alecxs I get preflash validation failed almost everywhere, not only with gpt but also with the recovery, bootloader and the system.img_sparsechunk files also, I don't know why :( I'm trying to flash 6.0 which is the latest version so it's not a problem of downgrading

fastboot flash works only when bootloader is unlocked (i don't know for mfastboot) you should try QPST

@alecxs but qpst needs usb debugging doesn't it?

no. it uses EDL mode

@alecxs ok i'm trying to use it but the program doesn't recognize my phone, i've been trying to save this phone for ever I don't think what else to do haha, thanks for answering


text:
Can a user create a "work profile" for an enterprise account?
So I added a work related Google for enterprise account but it's now showing up along side my personal accounts. I know there is a way that the enterprise admin (which is not me) can force the account to be separated from my personal accounts (different gmail/calendar/drive apps, separate file spaces, restrictions on transferring data, etc.), but they seemed to have not elected to do that.
Is there any way I can cause that to happen without having to involve them?

Note: I've found the option for adding multiple users, but that's not what I'm looking for as that seems to be a only-one-is-logged-in-at-a-time thing where as the thing I've used before has only one session just with duplication and isolation of the apps.

You can isolate workplace from personal data by using Shelter

Work Profile Device Policy can only be changed by admin. It nullifies the purpose if modifications are possible otherwise.

@IrfanLatif Does it mean isolating by shelter won't work? I haven't used Shelter in such a situation but see no reason why it shouldn't work

@beeshyams it looks like OP has already a DPC app installed by some admin. So it depends on the existing policy if it allows installing another DPC app (Shelter) to create multiple profiles or not. This may happen possibly (I'm not sure though) but I haven't seen a practical case so far. Usually only one Work Profile app can be installed at a time.

Actually, the issue is that there is no Work Profile Device Policy at all. And I don't really care how it's configured as long as it is. -- Enabling it in the first place is the one things that a non-admin could do that wouldn't nullify the purpose. Maybe I'm just viewing it from the other side; I want to use a Device Policy to isolate the non-work stuff from the work stuff.


text:
How to monitor device with excessive wifi usage
My younger sister has an Amazon Kindle Fire 10", and according to xfinity it uses more data than the entire rest of the household combined. This morning I opened the xfi app, and found that this trend is continuing with 7 hours of network activity by noon, however, her tablet "freetime" doesn't allow her to use the tablet till four in the afternoon!
What I am wondering is, what is the best way to scan/monitor/check for, foul play or a malfunctioning app? If Xfinity is to be believed, this "glitch" has used over 400 GB of network data in 10 days! (I am a power-user and am ready to use-and-abuse all my developer rights to figure this out)

Shut down the tablet and you will see if the tablet is really the cause. If the traffic continues while the tablet is off another device is causing it. In this case you should change the WiFi password in the router to something long and complex.

you can check which app causes this. for me it was email. i had to clear data from app settings to fix this https://android.stackexchange.com/q/211929


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How to sync times of two devices with Android NTP?
We have 2 android devices running same application that users see their GUI. Time synchronization is curicial for us. To make them have same time we have the settings as below.
Use these commands in boot and after every 5 minutes but it seems after 8 9 hours of uptime two android devices have different times with respect to their seconds. ex:
busybox watch -n 1 date
DEVICE 1: (Android 6 Marshmallow) 2020-03-10 09:16:33
DEVICE 2: (Android 6 Marshmallow) 2020-03-10 09:16:38

settings put global ntp_server pool.ntp.org
settings put global auto_time 0
settings put global auto_time 1

After that we also tried below commands but not worked
settings put global ntp_polling_interval 10
settings put global ntp_pollinginterval 10
settings put global ntppollinginterval 10

Any suggestions?

Are the devices rooted? AFAIK "fine adjusting" (i.e. to less than 30s) is only possible with rooted devices / system applications. Not sure if that still applies: Take e.g. a look at Atomic Clock, which doesn't mention root as requirement in its description.

so there isnt any methods to force ntp sync time in android, like in linux ntpdate?

https://github.com/wlach/ntpclient-android what about this?

When I last checked, correcting the system time in intervals smaller than 30s (like fixing it by 2.3s) was not possible without root powers. No idea if that changed meanwhile, as I saw some apps not mentioning root requirements (or if their authors just missed to point that out).

FWIW Atomic clock is just a clock (it doesn't sync) and ntpclient-android doesn't work on newer versions of Android


text:
How to mount system under super partion?
Google has recently changed the way to mount system and introduced Dynamic Partitions. Previously in a rooted adb shell, I used to run mount -o rw,remount /system to mount system in read-write mode. They introduced a new super.img that contains system, vendor, odm, product, etc.
I have a simple question: How can I mount a system from a rooted adb shell in recovery?
After reading the Implementing Dynamic Partitions guide it looks like I have to

create system partition dynamically
need an entry somewhere where mount point exists
mount the system after the above steps.

I don't know how I can do the first step. As the information on the mounting location is inside super.img meta-data and I am unable to read it.
Anyone can put some more light here?

https://android.stackexchange.com/q/220892

@alecxs any link to modify system system-less way but without using Magisk? I just want to add chmod 777 /dev/diag in init.rc? I read Magisk code but it uses prebuilt-binary so not able to figure out how exactly it patches init.

Moreover, I have tried to unpack ramdisk and modify recovery init.rc but that didn't work. boot.img doesn't have init.rc strange!

I mean on a non-system-as-root device. Seeing the same content as https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/221180/unable-to-unpack-android-10-boot-img-properly here..

On devices with enough disk space one can convert ext4-dedup dynamic partition into r/w system partition.
This can be done

offline on linux computer using (official) Dynamic Partition Tools lpunpack and lpmake for which precompiled binaries are available from (unofficial) OTA Tools
offline on device from TWRP recovery with 3rd party tool super image dumper for which precompiled binaries can be downloaded from XDA super image tools
online on device via 3rd party bash script SystemRW running entirely from /data/local/tmp


text:
Connect/Disconnect To Specific USB Device With One Button
I have multiple speakers I connect to via USB and the one I use the most never shows on the "Previous" list no matter what I name it. So it's always multiple steps to connect.
Is there any app where I can create a single button to Connect/Disconnect To Specific USB Device?
Pixel 2XL

What steps do you perform for connecting the USB speakers?

Pull Down > Long press USB > Click on see all under Previously connected devices > long-press on the desired device


text:
How to factory reset a SAMSUNG tablet using Odin without tripping KNOX
Almost all of the questions I've asked here are related to the same topic, which is: I've forgot my unlock screen pattern and I am unable to factory reset my tablet to gain access to the tablet again (I don't need the data, I just need to access my tablet).
Here was my first question: Bypass Samsung Knox factory reset protection - and there I've mentioned that SAMSUNG Knox prevents factory resetting the device by all the ways possible (also it disables USB debugging by all the ways possible).
So another idea came to my mind, that idea is to flash an ADB enable file on the tablet so I can perform a factory reset through adb, but I was worried if this would trip the KNOX 0x0 counter to 0x1 or no, so I've asked about it here Will flashing "ADB enable" trigger Knox warranty bit? and it was answered that it would trip KNOX :/
So I was wondering if its possible to perform a factory reset using ODIN without modifying the boot.img as this will trip KNOX I guess.
I am a student and I received this tablet from my school and I shouldn't trip KNOX because they manage it through the KNOX products, also I shouldn't lose the warranty of it.
The nearest Samsung service center to me is very far (really far).
I wish there could be a way to achieve a factory reset :/
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
EDIT: The guys on Reddit say that flashing the official ROM shouldn't trip the KNOX counter here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/samsung/comments/69mxbj/can_i_flash_a_official_samsung_firmware_via_odin/
https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS9/comments/997utz/flash_an_official_rom_with_odin_without_tripping/

and on SamMobile.com forums:

https://www.sammobile.com/forum/threads/28285-Does-flashing-stock-firmware-to-a-different-region-trip-Knox?p=125996&viewfull=1#post125996
https://www.sammobile.com/forum/threads/44838-S8-does-flashing-different-CSC-trip-knox?p=218882&viewfull=1#post218882
https://www.sammobile.com/forum/threads/38344-Tripped-Knox-using-stock-firmware-what-did-i-do-wrong?p=191518&viewfull=1#post191518

can someone experienced confirm this? I would be in a serious trouble if I tripped the KNOX counter and I will have to pay a high fine.
EDIT: Also, if flashing the official ROM from SamMobile.com doesn't trip KNOX and I flashed it, will it remove the auto enrollment setup by my school (Knox Mobile Enrollment)?


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Advise for migrating from Android 6.0?
I have an old Lenovo T3-850F that has fallen out of support; and I thought that maybe I should migrate it to a new device with a higher version.
What do I need to do to do this properly and not loose the things I've bought from the Google Play Store / Amazon Kindle, etc?

If your concern is only paid apps from Play Store and Kindle, there is nothing to worry as long as you sign in on the new device with the same Google credentials. You can download again those apps and use them

Additionally back up your apps to Google, so that transition is easier. Note that all apps may not be backed up and therefore not restored


text:
Can I change app-specific sound files?
Specifically, I'm using Zello and want to change the notification sounds to make them work better with my bluetooth headset, but potential answers probably will be applicable in many cases.
Using Dexplorer, I was able to locate the specific *.wav file inside the internal folder structure of the app. Dexplorer however doesn't seem to offer an option to replace these files. Is there any way I can achieve this, meaning replacing the current *.wav file with a file of my choice?

Dexplorer opens installed APK file and displays info from APK. This is internal application resources, build when autor compiles APK.
To replace specific resources you must decompile APK file, repleace files and compile (build) again.
On new build you must sign APK file with your own certificate (you may generate it). Only author have original keystore to build signed APK file.
App author probably won't provide his application signing key.

Ah so it's different to a Windows PC where all the files are organized in folders. Actually had no idea what exactly an app is. But as it's a single encrypted file, it is by definition impossible to change any of its internal working without the key. Did I understand this correctly? Or are there any possible workarounds?

Yes, is single zip file (APK) signed by author certificate.


text:
how do i flash gapps onto aosp android 10 without custom rom, and how do i fix my ussd and call function not working?
i recently managed to flash gsi using fastboot instruction:
fastboot flash system system-quack-arm-aonly-vanilla.img
from
https://github.com/phhusson/treble_experimentations/releases/tag/v213
they don't have twrp for my device so i had to use fastboot.
i wanted to know
how do i flash the gapps img. file (or how can i get gapps?)
and how do i fix ussd and phone calling function which does not work?
everything else works perfectly


text:
How to really disable the screen when the phone is on my ear?
I have a Sony Xperia with Android 8.0.0 Oreo.
When I speak on the phone, I first turn off the screen with the side button, then put the phone on my ear.
When the phone is on my ear, the screen often turn on and my fingers or my cheek or whatever touch the screen and do not-so-funny things.
How can I force the screen to remain off, or the touch-screen off until I use the side button again to turn it on?
edit: no "double tap to wake" option on this phone

Sony Xperia has a gesture called "Double Tap to Wake" which may be interpreting your ear touch in that fashion. See if your setting is enabled and try again when disabled.

It seems to be an issue with proximity sensor malfunctioning. Instead of forcing the screen to be off, you can try :

There are many apps on Play Store, search for "Proximity Sensor". Proximity Service seems to be a good choice. It has a good rating, has been updated last month and doesn't have any trackers (no privacy issues). If this doesn't work, try other apps.
You may want to go the automation route as explained here Screen turns off during call due to problem with proximity sensor - Xperia Z3 compact (case there is opposite of yours, so it needs to be tweaked)
Per this blog (though for a different model of Xperia) , you can test and reset proximity sensor by dialing *#*#7378423#*#*


text:
How to access files transferred to device using SimpleSSHD?
I am using SimpleSSHD and doing scp to transfer files from my computer to my Redmi phone.
My question is that after I have copied files to data/user/0/org.galexander.sshd/files, how do I access them, such as with a File Manager?

Don't copy files to /data/user/0/org.galexander.ssh but to external shared storage /sdcard. See similar question for Termux: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/218374/218526

@dhvcc, are you ok with my edit of your question if so please roll back to that revision. It's more straight forward and will be better indexed.  https://android.stackexchange.com/revisions/221967/3

@EvanCarroll hello Evan, I felt that your edit went beyond than fixing the question so I rolled back and made minor fixes. If OP reverts to your version of edit, I would be fine with that. :-)

@Firelord I know, I (respectfully) disagree with you. The op was clearly confused, having my answer chosen should greenlight me to clarify that. There is no reason to have a muddy question preserved on this site in perpetuity. We can do better for those searching for this, and for those that find it.

Don't ever copy files out of /sdcard/, for this task you should leave the files where they are. In order to copy files using SimpleSSHD, simply connect and copy: assuming you've left the default port of 2222 you can do this,
SCP File Transfer
host=192.168.1.228
scp -r "scp://root@${host}:2222//sdcard/DCIM/OpenCamera" .

RSYNC over SSH File Transfer
host=192.168.1.228
rsync --progress -ave 'ssh -p 2222' "root@${host}:/sdcard/DCIM/OpenCamera" .

On my phone the mountpoint of the external SD card is not /sdcard/, but /storage/XXXX-XXXX/.
e.g.:
HWVNS-H:/data/data/org.galexander.sshd/files $ ls -la /storage/C42F-10F5/
total 480
drwxrwx---   16 root     everybod     32768 Jan  1  1970 .
drwxr-xr-x    5 root     root           100 Feb 25 08:56 ..
drwxrwx---    5 root     everybod     32768 Dec 22  2020 Android
drwxrwx---    4 root     everybod     32768 Nov 22 16:36 DCIM
...

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.

That looks like a path to an external SD card, not the internal storage.

yes, i was talking about my external SD card path. edited above. My phone's android mounts my external SD card to above specified path. i thought /sdcard always means external SD card?


text:
Enter EDL mode in Motorola devices
I have a bricked Motorola Moto E (2nd gen) XT1527 which throws a preflash validation failed error whenever I try to flash any of the files included in the stock firmware. Some guy told me to enter EDL mode, and I would prefer not to disassemble the device.
Searching through the internet, I found a way to enter EDL mode with a modified fastboot.exe, but it seems to work only for Xiaomi devices.
Is there some way to do this in Motorola devices? USB debugging and OEM unlock are disabled, and the bootloader is locked.

These days no new phone will allow you to trigger EDL via key combos or a custom fastboot. Not even Xiaomi. Disassembly will be your only way to enter EDL.

@singhnsk do you know where can I find the pins in order to access edl mode in moto devices? I have dissasembled the phone but can't find them and every tutorial I find is for xiaomi devices. Do you know how the pins look like?

You can always make an EDL cable.  Simply take a usb cable you want, take the top layer off to expose the wires.  Usually they are color coded, and if so, strip the black and green cables, but keep them separated.  Use a PUSH switch between the green and black cable, so when pressed, it will SHORT the black and green cables, thus throwing the device into EDL mode.
To activate EDL mode, some devices use different method.  Power the device off, plug the cable into the phone computer.
Method 1
plug the cable into the phone and when the battery status shows, press the button.  The device should reboot.  Most devices will blink the led red when in EDL mode.
method 2
press the button to short the cables and keep it pressed while you connect the phone.  The phone should start EDL mode and blink the led.
Hope that helps.


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How to add a simple file on /system without actually modifying it but with using kernel sources?
From the time system-as-root came, developers have rooted different devices by patching the Magisk su binaries in the kernel. I want to understand how exactly they have done this so to start from basics, I want to test creating a file on the /system but with kernel sources.
I have already built a permissive kernel. I am not able to figure out where to start doing what?
Anyone can guide me in this?

"by patching the Magisk su binaries in the kernel". How an su binary can be in the kernel? su is a userspace tool which communicates to kernel through syscalls for privileges elevation. I think there's some problem with your understanding. Do you mean boot.img by saying kernel? If so, Magisk always patched boot.img since early days, even before SAR.

I think I didn't understand the concept of a custom kernel for system-less rooting. In system-as-root devices, peoples have rooted it without touching the system. As there is no ramdisk in the boot.img so I thought they have customized the kernel to overwrite the required things on the system when device boot. But if su is not in the kernel then how they patched it without modifying the system and boot.img. Please clear my doubts, I shall be very thankful to you.

Rooting a device without touching /system (system-less root) existed even before system-as-root was introduced. System-less root was adopted at some later stage by SuperSU but Magisk has always been system-less. Rooting by modifying /system was never officially supported (AFAIK), though it works. How system-less rooting works on non-SAR and SAR devices is partially explained (at least basic concepts) in my answers to How Magisk works? and How to disable dm-verity?.


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Magisk will fail Safety-Net hereafter. Why?
Recently, Google made security changes which make sure safety-net fails check when Magisk is installed.
This was Tweeted by John Wu (Magisk developer) , here and here. Some excerpts:

So here we go, after years of fun messing around using Magisk, it seems that Google FINALLY decided to "fix" SafetyNet to something useful, and that is to use key attestation to verify device status (after 3 years since introduced to Android's platform!)
Let's face it. Fun is over guys.

(Emphasis added)
Edit: From Github

Disable MagiskHide by default
Since SafetyNet CTS is impossible to achieve, leaving MagiskHide on
  by default no longer serves a purpose.
For more details regarding the latest SafetyNet changes, please check:
  https://twitter.com/topjohnwu/status/1237656703929180160
https://twitter.com/topjohnwu/status/1237830555523149824
MagiskHide's functionality will continue to exist within the Magisk
  project as it is still extremely effective to hide modifications in
  userspace (including SafetyNet's basicIntegrity check).
Future MagiskHide improvements may come, but since the holy grail
  has been taken, any form of improvement is now a very low priority

It looks to me that Google could/should have implemented this earlier but didn't and the CTS check being done from within Magisk wasn't comprehensive.
Please demystify this in simple terms (to the extent possible) for folks who don't understand the innards of Android (like me).

If I get it correctly from the tweets the bootloader unlocked state is now determined by code that runs in the TEE, a security part available in most ARM CPUs that is hardened against manipulation. Also the code executed in it can't be changed. This code checks somehow the bootloader state and prepares the signed data sent to Google. The Google server then decides if or if not your devices passes the check.

@Robert Yes, but am trying to understand more in terms of why now Vs earlier when apparently mechanism was in place. Plus, CTS check earlier was also being done by a server I thought but it seems to be Google. As said, simplify for dummies!

From my understanding the main problem is that the boot loader check has been moved into the TEE and that it can only performed there (before it was executed outside of TEE?). TEE is like a separate OS, we don't have root to and it is running only signed code. Hence you can't modify or manipulate the check. You can only decide not to run it.

Somehow this isnt true yet. Am on Android 10, 5 March Security Update, Magisk and EdXposed installed. And safetyNet still pass.

@OtnielYoreiza yes, it has been reported that older Android versions are not yet affected in some cases. I am little surprised in your case. Have you tried to install some app that doesn't work if Safety Net is broken - to double check (Magisk check is sometimes faulty)

This is the latest (as on 30 August 21) on safety net.
What are the changes in Magisk?

John Wu (Magisk Developer) posted updates today, which clarifies the reasons.
Earlier, SafetyNet API wasn't fully / correctly implemented, the way it was meant to be :

Key Attestation

From what we've seen so far, key attestation doesn't seem to be fully enforced yet, as devices with incompatible, potentially buggy(?) keymaster implementations (e.g. some OnePlus devices) that result in attest key cmd failures still pass SafetyNet regardless.

Attestation was done locally

bootloader reports the device status via kernel cmdlines, and init will reflect them in properties, and apparently SafetyNet was using those values. All those stuff is in userspace, so Magisk can simply manipulate it

Now, with the Feature Preview: SafetyNet Attestation API evaluationType, there will be two types of evaluation, BASIC and HARDWARE_BACKED for a complete evaluation with remote validation (as against local) :

HARDWARE_BACKED - When we use the available hardware-backed security features of the remote device (e.g. hardware-backed key attestation) to influence our evaluation.

We’re currently evaluating and adjusting the eligibility criteria for devices where we will rely on hardware-backed security features.

Can this new system be hacked?
Looks very unlikely

Even if we force validation to use BASIC method, it won't be hidden

IMO it is theoretically possible to alter control flow in SafetyNet's code to force it to always use BASIC evaluation by using some hooking framework like Xposed, however these kind of code injection is basically impossible to hide (memory space analysis).

HARDWARE_BACKED is serious stuff and unlikely to be cracked since it involves TEE or hardware changes leading to cryptographic compromise (Robert also pointed out in comments)

To hack this thing, you have to either find a vulnerability in TEE firmware (which will be patched ASAP once found) or hardware (less likely to happen) to break the cryptography.

Breaking TEE won't be easy, which is why many security researchers are actively working on it.

(Emphasis added in all quotes)
How to check if Google has implemented hardware Attestation for my device?
Edit Magisk canary has been updated to show evaluation status and once the API is implemented, you will see more details (failing SafetyNet). Or, follow instructions on this XDA post to check attestation method using logcat

For more information see SafetyNet's hardware attestation will make hiding root in Magisk really hard

Edited on 16 December 20
And the final nail in the coffin for  fooling safety net detection
Johnwu in

tweet says

HW based evaluation is impractical to "hack" (except tricks to make it fallback to basic), and I lost all interest in improving the current way of hiding.

Another tweet of 13 Dec 2020

If passing SafetyNet is the only use of Magisk for you, then yeah, bye Face with rolling eyes
( in response to So... magisk is completely useless right now?...)

If I have a device with unlocked bootloader, but not yet rooted (meaning boot partition is stock), will my device still fail the HARDWARE_BACKED attestation check? It'd be great if you could edit your answer to include that.

@Gokul NC Of course not! Unless your device is not CTS cleared, which won't be the case unless you have a very cheap device

Okay. I have another doubt; apologies for my ignorance. Say my device has failed the SafetyNet HARDWARE_BACKED check. Now, my bank application is trying to invoke the SafetyNet Attestation API using a method that it has. What if I write a Xposed hook to intercept my bank app's method which is responsible for calling the attestation check API, and alter the codepath of the method to make the app bypass calling the SafetyNet Attestation API itself?

Impossible for Xposed. TEE runs its own code in a totally isolated manner (see the link of TEE). Other way of possibly altering hardware which Xposed can't or not possible in almost any way. That's why Topjohnwu says To hack this thing, you have to either find a vulnerability in TEE firmware (which will be patched ASAP once found) or hardware (less likely to happen) to break the cryptography. Same thing is pointed out in the XDA article linked at the end of answer

@GokulNC Yes, it will fail the check. This is because all hardware backed implementations are required to report whether or not verified boot is enabled, and it must be disabled for an unlocked bootloader. Therefore the check will fail even if your ROM is clean.

@GokulNC In response to your first comment, you are right, it looks like it will fail. At least it fails on Pixel 4a as mentioned in my answer here //Things are changing rapidly and now as you can see with the last edit made today, it's pointless to expect to be rooted and pass SafetyNet

It could be bypassed if there was a way to turn off SoC secure boot. A patch to android bootloader which would load the boot image regardless of modification would not fail SafetyNet. But android bootloader cannot be modified in production SoCs. The secure boot is permanently enabled due to blown eFUSE.

There seems to be a new workaround see Xda-Blog post: if Magisk pretends that the android device does not support hardware attestation. Of course this works only if the device claims to be an older device. Thus this is not a long-term workaround.

It appears that Google may have chosen not to enforce this checking, even though it was implemented for a short while (a few days?). At first, the Magisk developer, John Wu, sounded quite pessimistic about it, going even so far as to say that the fun was over.
A few days after the tweets from John Wu that were referenced in the question, however, on March 14, John Wu tweeted again, and this time he said

So apparently CTS is just passing again out of nowhere? Maybe Google is still testing things out?
I'm over it anyways. Google is apparently willing to use key attestation for detection. Since MagiskHide is still there, people can still always use it as usual.

In my own test in late May 2020, with MagiskHide not enabled, SafetyNet failed, but with MagiskHide enabled and targetting my test app, SafetyNet passed, meaning that MagishHide could still defeat SafetyNet. The test was run on a Pixel 3 with android 10.
So, Google may have the capability to detect Magisk, since the boot loader check had been moved into the TEE, but they have somehow stopped doing that, for reasons known only to Google.

Please see answer here for updates

Thanks, I also saw John Wu's tweet today that pointed to https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/safetynet-api-clients/lpDXBNeV7Fg


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How can I restore app data from file folder?
I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S6, not rooted.
I used adb backup before factory reset as well as copying all the files afterwards just in case. I am trying to restore my memos as well as data for a game and adb restore did nothing; I used android backup extractor to take a look inside the .tar and didn't see either folder. I tried copying them through file transfer but that didn't do anything. How can I make them readable by the system?

Some apps disallow backups via adb and to the cloud. In that case you won't find them in the backup file. Please post the exact PlayStore link to the use note app so we can check if it allows or disallows backup.

I can't find it in the Play Store, but looking into it with the app found at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.sisik.apktools shows it disallows it.I do still have the folder in the storage directory, though, which the same tool identified as the source folder for the aforementioned memo app


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Colors "too warm" with P30 pictures
I bought a P30 a month ago and I'm experiencing colors issues with the camera.
The colors are way too warm, if I would take a picture of a white / light yellow potatoe, I would get an intense yellow potatoe picture.
After some research on internet it seems that it was a common problem that has been fixed last year, so is there anything I can do to fix that ?

If it is fixed, maybe it's worth opening the photos on a PC to see if the color saturation is only on phone but not on actual pics

@beeshyams Good idea, didn't think about it as my color calibration does not seem to be bad, but I'll definitely give it a try !


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How can I root my Lenovo Tab 4 10 (TB—X304L)?
I've been trying to root my Lenovo Tablet for past few weeks and I've got no success.
I found out an article in XDA showing how to root it but when I tried I got stuck in the third step which was unlocking the bootloader.
When I typed fastboot oem unlock-go in my laptop and hit enter the adb and fastboot software just kept displaying "waiting for device" and nothing happened.
I have been searching whole internet to find a reliable tutorial because I am a newbie in this rooting thing.
Even One Click Root doesn't have any solution.
And I don't want to have any spywares in my device therefore I don't want to root it through any one click root services (like One click root, King Root, etc)
I apologize if I am missing something.
Any help would be highly appreciated.
Edit:— It seems like the OP of this post faced the same problem. Can anyone tell me how to use the sudo code?
I will try to install the drivers (as pointed out by an answer) and then edit here.

Does fastboot devices show device information?

It does show the device name when I enter fastboot and connect my tab.

Since you say are new to rooting, double checking - OEM unlock and USB debug in developer options done?

Yes, I did click on both of them.

Apart from changing USB slots, and connecting cable, I can't think of anything. Let others contribute // If you are using windows I hope adb is run as admin or system wide

Hey what is a sudo code in fastboot?

That's a different issue. Please wait for other knowledgeable people to help

fastboot oem get_unlock_data https://support.motorola.com/us/en/bootloader

'sudo' is a linux command line prefix for running cmd with root privileges - like running cmd as administrator on windows

I've finally unlocked my bootloader. I tried the sudo command and then usual fastboot oem unlock command and it worked.


text:
Two years of operating system upgrades (Android - one) - how is it implemented?
"Android One phones will receive at least two years of OS upgrades," according to Google.
I interpret this statement as follows.

An Android One phone will receive at least two major version upgrades for Android within two years of the device's launch date. For example, an Android One device that launched with Android 8.0 will eventually receive upgrades for versions 9.0 and 10.0.

Is this interpretation correct? Am I missing details?
To clarify, Android 8.0 was a major release; Android 8.1 was a minor maintenance release.

For example, if you have purchased an android one with Android 7, then you'll surely get android 8.0 and 9.0, also with monthly security updates of total 3 years.

android-one phones are produced by multiple OEMs, so they are not governed by a fixed date of release. But they are mandated to provide two years of OS upgrades and three years of security updates. To remove the confusion of start date and end date, which is your question, see the fine print at the bottom of page you linked which says, OEMs should

"Confirm exact duration of support for phones in your territory with smartphone manufacturer"

This applies both to OS and monthly updates as you can s from Android One Wikipedia
So, you need to check the OEM support for the region to be sure. However, since they are monitored by Google, you can be sure you will get updates as promised.

The general trend is that they release devices into the market before/after the next major update, for example, if Android 8 is to be released in a few months, the phones out of the box come with Android 7 and are supported till update to Android 9. That said, how soon they release the next version is a big variable. Your best bet, would be to follow Counterpoint comparison or technical reviews /XDA

Edit: Post your edit to your question, yes, your interpretation is correct.

The fine print seems to reference the security updates, not the OS upgrades.

It refers to both — OS and monthly updates. This is what Android - one wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_One#cite_ref-one_19-1) says while referring to the fine print Concerning Android operating system (OS) and security updates the official Android One entry page says (in the fine print at the end of it):


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high contrast mode for icons had disappeared
That worked, except now the option in Settings has disappeared and I can't reveal it a anymore.
Android SM_696U0 (Samsung Galaxy S9)
Removed here:

I was snore able to fix this by opening a third-party app that had an "invert colors" toggle.
Flipping that on/off restored default colors across Android.
Vey strange.

Linking which app would help others with same problem

Since this answer mentions "invert colors" (I'm assuming "high contrast mode" is a bit different), then try checking the Accessibility settings. Some devices have "invert colors" on there.


text:
Connecting to own proxy with self-made CA certificate not (properly) working
I have a Squid proxy installed with HTTPS/SSL support. When I install the generated CA certificate in Firefox and set the proxy, everything looks good -- that is, I can see all the HTTP(S) requests the Squid log files. It also works fine when I install the CA certificate in my emulator (Android 9) and set the proxy. Again, see all the requests in the Squid log files, i.e., the requests made by the browser or the apps that use the proxy settings.
However, when I do the exact same steps on a real device (Samsung A30s with Android 9), I have problems. Well, I still see all the requests made by the browser, but not the ones made by apps (and thus they yield connection errors). OK, I still can see the CONNECT request in the logs but no other requests (e.g., GET, POST). So the apps are definitely using the proxy settings. (I know that some apps like Facebook ingore the proxy settings and connect directly to their server; they still work fine, of course).
The odd thing is that everything was working on an old Android 6 phone. Here the same apps where working perfectly fine using the proxy and relying on HTTPS requests. Now I have a newer Android 9.0 phone and all apps so far fail. The apps obviously use the proxy (seeing the CONNECT entries in the logs) but seem to not not use/acknowledge the installed certificate.
Can the newer Android version be an issue? Maybe permissions? Can it be that the newer Samsung phone has some bloatware that requires additional settings or something (the old phone was a OnePlus with an almost stock Android version as far as I know)?

"Apps that target API Level 24 and above no longer trust user or admin-added CAs for secure connections, by default.". API 24 is Android 7. So you need to add them to /system/etc/security/cacerts

@IrfanLatif thanks! Yes, that must be the problem. If I may clarify with you -- sorry, I'm not Android crack and only started looking into this for user study for a research project -- do this only work with rooted phones? All tutorials I found for storing certificates in /system/etc/security/cacerts require su to remount the file system as writable.

Yes definitely. /system can only be modified with root access. dm-verity (Verified Boot) must also be disabled, or you may use bind mounts (see Magisk documentation for details). But please note that the app which are not proxy-aware (as you have mentioned) and those using SSL pinning will still not work with proxy. You need to perform extra steps to make them work. See some more details on using proxy on Android devices in this answer and the links given inside the answer.

Very much appreciated! This SLL pinning is new to me and I have to read up on it, but I've noticed the problem since I got the Twitter app only running if I exclude on the proxy side. I was afraid of such obstacles, of course, since we essentially want to play a man-in-the-middle attacker, although for an IRB approved user study after signed consent :). Our currently last option we are looking into are an app that runs a local VpnService. But the solution I found works far from stable (I might post a separate question).


text:
How can I disable recovery mode?
Is there a way to disable recovery mode so it won't be possible to factory reset your phone?
Basically what I am trying to do, is that it should be impossible to factory reset the phone as there is no recovery partition.
(Example format the recovery partition, or hide the option of factory reset on the recovery menu, build a custom recovery etc.)
P.S.. I was thinking of maybe removing a system app (example package installer) and making it a user app, and therefore when you factory reset the phone it won't start cause the system app is missing, but when I tried that, the phone wouldn't start even without resetting it, as the system needs the system app to start, ( I thought that maybe even though I removed the app from being a system app, the phone would still start as it's still there as a user app, and only after resetting the phone - that the user apps get deleted, the phone won't start as it's missing the app).
Thanks in advance

https://android.stackexchange.com/q/219561

this app can disable recovery (and even download mode) but it's a paid solution for companies only https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.manageengine.mdm.android (source)

@alecxs I don't think it'd be possible - at least on every device - to disable recovery mode by enforcing work profile policy.

OrangeFox Recovery allows option to lock Recovery with a Pattern or PIN
It will prevent normal youtube users from reseting your phone
but their is a catch people with deep knowledge will flash
Fastboot ROM or Qfil ROM and make device useable again but all data will be lost  .
Best option is to use Phones in which bootloader unlock is not possible because of missing adb and fastboot devices like Honor
Regardless of what you do with some difficulty it is possible to fACTORY reset with proper tools by Government Agencies and then recover deleted data.


text:
Files deleted via mtp still consume space
When I delete a few large files (part of music collection, ~20GB of flac files) during mtp connection (on computer), it disappeared from Android FS, but, according to FS analysis, still consume space.
How to free this space?
FS analysis shows consumed space as "other".
None of visible folders has such big size.
Phone: Samsung Galaxy S10e
MTP driver: gvfs-mtp

still after reboot? for MicroSD cards you can run fsck_msdos -y /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 and delete LOST.DIR afterwards

@alecxs yes, it persists after reboot. And no, it is phone internal storage.

adb push busybox binary to /data/local/tmp and examine occupied space with ./busybox du -cxhd1 /storage/emulated/0


text:
Today, my phone out of nowhere started opening random spam/scam sites. What can I do to make it stop
I have an Huawei mate 10 lite, and today it started randomly opening my browser and showing me scam sites. I have tried some anti-virus apps, but after a full scan they didn't find anything. I also looked at my apps, to see if anything suspicious app was there, but I didn't find any blank app/unknown app. The only thing I don't want to do is to factory reset my phone. Can you help me with my problem?

First thing is to clear the cache of the phone and reboot

find a way to backup important apps, factory reset seems the safest solution

This thread had the answer for me.  It turned out to be the latest QR code scanner.  It said it had ads but did not say it opened them in the default browser randomly.


text:
How does android send files over bluetooth (using "share")?
I'm working on a system that expects to receive a file over bluetooth from an android phone. Of course, I could write an app on the file host and devise my own protocol, but (at least for now) I'd like to use the built-in "share" functionality where one can share to a bluetooth device.
Is there some sort of "start", "this is a file" etc. protocol that android uses before sending a file? I'd like to know if anyone has already gone through this before I just go ahead and dump the binary data to figure out what it's saying (and if I need to acknowledge packets somehow).

I don't know specifically for Android, but since considering it works cross-platform, I'd expect it's already a standard protocol like OBEX.

See Bluetooth File Transfer Profile (FTP), which uses GOEP (IrOBEX), which uses RFCOMM or L2CAP.


text:
Spoofing IMEI numbers
How does someone spoof a IMEI number on a android device? I have read about rooting the phone and stuff like that but can i do it without rooting? Any advice would be appreciated.
Right now i am leaning towards rooting the phone and then corrupting the EFS folder and making a backup of the EFS folder on another Android and restoring the target EFS folder from that backup if i am correct this should copy over the IMEI

Yes, you need root and without root, it's not possible
Xposed module XPrivacyLua is what I use. I have the pro version which IIRC is needed for spoofing. Non pro blocks access. There are many more such Xposed modules, you find in the repo. Play Store has also some apps that claims to do this but I have not tried them because they cannot be as effective as Xposed modules.
What you propose is a cumbersome, may (if you have identical devices) /may not work approach and not worth the effort

Thanks for the detailed answer i will look into the suggested module i am trying to do this on a Samsung Note 10 do you have any information on how i can go about rooting this phone?

Also what do you mean by identical devices? Like the same phone type or what? Sorry just new to all of this

Also i looked into Xposed and i found IMEI Changer App is this legit or do i need to keep looking

If you are new, I suggest reading up [tag:rooting], [tag:EdXposed]. Click on them to read what it is all about and recommended questions. Please don't try anything before you fully understand. You have a Samsung device which is not friendly to such methods

Yeah i have been reading a lot recently and asking questions before i try anything with any Android device but i am also reading up on Samsung and how to properly root the device and stuff like that. One more question i was looking at the IMEI changer apps of Xposed and they all just spoof the IMEI to applications not the cellular network that's what i'm trying to learn how it is done


text:
Finding the location of a lost android device
I've lost a huawei p30 device.let's say somebody took it and formatted it and started using it with other accounts.
Is there any way to track it and find its location?
i have tried the find my phone of google and although it seemed to be somewhere nearby suddenly i lost it and the battery seemed to be around 50%

Does this answer your question? Can an android phone be tracked on find my phone app etc if the sim has been removed and had an factory reset?

The question may not match yours but the answer would tell you why you can't locate your phone anymore


text:
Montoring network traffic on Android phone (for research user study)
For context: We would like to analyze user mobile online (browsing) behavior in a user study. The study has been approved by our university's IRB, participants will have to give informed consent and will receive remuneration. Of course, monitoring network traffic is very intrusive, but we're sincerely not trying to be the bad guys here. For example, we would like to know if people get there information from social media, news sites (and from which one).
Over the last to weeks, I've explored some potential approaches. While I have some basic experiences with Android development, I'm far from an expert. Here is what I've tried and considered -- I would appreciate any feedback to see what I got wrong and/or what I'm missing:
Side note: we cannot expect study participants to root their phones :)

Mock-up browser (simple app with a WebView and rudimentary browser features) or a modified fork of Chrome. Here, on the one hand, I cannot really estimate the required effort for both ideas. And a big issue is that most mobile online use is done through apps that often have their on WebView.
Proxy. I set up a proxy with SSL support, so if the participants change their proxy setting and install our CA certificate, we would see their traffic. However, apps (e.g., Facebook) are not required to use the proxy settings, and since Android 7 (API 24) apps by default do not recognize user-installed certificates. It worked pretty well with an older Android 6.0 phone, but now it's only a limited option. We could still see, for example, that a request to facebook.com was made, but no longer the exact URL.
App Activity Monitoring. Since some apps wouldn't have used the proxy anyway, I tried to at least estimate which app was in the foreground. To do this, I wrote a simple app that periodically checked which app had the highest usage in the last, say, 10 seconds using the UsageStatsManager. This seemed to work reasonably well.
Local on-device VPN. Lastly, I've tried using a local VPN using the VpnService; I found and used example code I found here. On the plus side, even apps that ignore the proxy have to go through that local VPN. However, I face two big problems. Firstly, while it seems to work it's very unstable. Some websites won't load properly and after that, even sites that worked before fail. And secondly, there's no SLL support so I wouldn't be able to see the traffic. I lack the expertise right now to address both issues or even to say if they can be solved.

This is where we currently stand. All opinions are more than welcome.

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts! Please note that this is a site for end users – so it's probably not the best place for your case (it's not exactly off-topic, though, as "end users" also includes "power users" and you didn't exactly ask for development help which would be off-topic). A pointer, though: I'd setup a proxy on a computer, connect the devices via WiFi and define the proxy in WiFi settings. There are proxies for exactly this use case, like Charles Proxy (see e.g. here).

@Izzy Noted, sorry for posting it here! Setting up a proxy is the easy part. The issue is that you can use it only to debug/test your own app up since the app as to accept user-install CA certificates. So for monitoring 3rd-party apps this does not work (anymore).

Strange, MobilSicher is still using it for their testing. But OK; maybe some "power user" has a good approach for you. Best luck!


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How to migrate call logs of 2 phones into a dual sim phone
I have a galaxy note 3 and galaxy note 5, both are single sim devices. I'm now switching to galaxy note 10 plus, a dual sim device. I used smart switch to migrate all data from the old phones, however the messages and call logs always restore to sim 1 in the new phone. That is, the call logs and messages made from sim 2 is restored as sim 1 in the new phone. Is there any way to properly restore the call logs and messages of 2 separate devices onto the new dual sim device

Call logs are common to the Device and not segregated SIM wise. Backup and restore follows the same principles. I am yet to see SIM wise backup and restore

Is it possible to manipulate the calllog.db to achieve this ? @beeshyams

I am not aware sorry


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Recover backed-up linked email account after factory reset
I had previously linked a office 365 account to my gmail app. Due to reasons, this office account got blocked and I no longer have access to it, but I still could see all the emails that had been synced to my phone.
Today I decided to do a factory reset as I had some problems with the phone. I have checked the settings of this office account in the gmail app, and it stated that it was backed up. So I proceeded to do the factory reset. Now I have re-linked my phone to my gmail account, all apps have been reinstalled, but the office 365 account that was supposed to be backed up is no-where to be found.
Is there any way to recover the emails or sync this office account from the backups?

guesswork, backup just stored email login credentials because typically emails are stored on the email server anyway

yeah that is what I though as well... But they should be more clear about it.


text:
Phone shows foreign phone numbers as domestic
I have a Samsung S9+. Sometimes, my phone does show foreign numbers as being calls from abroad (i.e. there's a plus-sign with the country code before the phone number). However, it has happened multiple times that a phone number seems domestic, but is actually international (and, if I call back, I reach somebody entirely different than the one I just talked to).
It seems like the phone has a hard time distinguishing between foreign and some domestic phone numbers.  Sometimes it's kinda obvious (e.g. the phone number has the wrong number of digits). However, other times, there's no way for me to tell that the phone call is actually an international one.
A lot of these international calls are spam calls. Is there a way to work around this issue so that I can always tell if a phone number is a domestic or foreign? I mean, there are certain countries from where there's no reason for anybody there to call me.

You should complain to your Carrier and they should fix it. This spam calling is a part of illegal calling which I think involves VOIP. In India, we are told by SMS to report to certain numbers, such instances.

I dug out an old SMS - While receiving an international call, if an Indian number or no number is displayed on your phone, please inform on the DoT toll free number 1800110420/1963