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Blackview BV9900 - Cannot Unlock Bootloader, Stuck In Fastboot Mode
I've been trying to follow multiple potential guides.
The latest one I've tried is this one.
Everything works fine, downloading the Android Platform Tools (adb, fastboot, etc), downloading + updating the USB drivers, etc.
However, the problem starts at trying to boot the phone into fastboot.
Trying to turn the phone off and pressing "Power" + "Volume Up" produces no result.
When connected via USB, you can see the red light flash for a moment, every ~5 sec, but nothing happens.
Trying to run adb reboot bootloader does reboot the phone, but then it gets stuck at a screen with a single FASTBOOT mode... writing on the bottom, and the Windows keeps making a "device connected" / "device disconnected" sound in a 5 second cycle.
Trying to run any fastboot command at this point just produces < waiting for any devices >.
it should be noted that:

adb devices does recognize the device (already authorized).
I can reach "Factory Mode" (the one with version information and lots of tests) via "Power" + "Volume Up" from a shut-down phone.

Often you need to manually install the fastboot driver in Windows, so check device manager which device is always disappearing/reappearing.

I already installed that driver.
And this problem feels like a phone one, as if it's "stuck" or something, especially considering I get different results when using adb reboot bootloader and trying to use the PWR + VolDown buttons.


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How to only route one app's traffic through the VPN?
How to route only chosen app's traffic through the VPN and make sure it doesn't connect outside of the VPN? There are two use cases:

Apps not available in my country (for example Pandora) which I would like to use nonetheless and not accidentally burn/flag my account by revealing the real connection source.

Similar but for a browser. I would like to have a dedicated browser (maybe Brave) for connecting to some sites. Kinda like Tor Browser but without the hassle, slowness, and suspicion associated with Tor.

I do this successfully on the desktop by running a Mullvad VPN but only routing 10.0.0.0/8 through it and setting the browser to use the SOCKS5 proxy. This neatly routes only that browser's traffic through Mullvad while at the same time simply failing (kill switch) when the VPN is not active.
On Android, Mullvad app supports "split tunneling" which does the inverse of what I want. It allows to choose apps which are not routed through the VPN while all others are.

Web Browser is simple: there are multiple web browsers like Opera available with built in VPN just for the browser itself.

@Robert This is kinda like the Tor browser. I would prefer an arbitrary VPN and Mullvad in particular currently.

Then just use a VPN app that supports "per app VPN" with app whitelisting (in difference to app blacklisting done by Mullvad).

@Robert which apps offer that mode?

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts. Looks like there are similar questions already: How to VPN only a single application?. Does it help?

@DamnTerminal Sorry I don't know, just use the correct name of the Android feature to search for it or open a question on our sister site Software recommendations as asking for app recommendations is off-topic here.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Data Recovery from old Samsung Galaxy S2 GT-I9100
Hi to all Android Enthusiasts!
I have recently found one of my very first android phones, with many fond memories saved onto it.
Now I can not access the phones data any more since I entered my pattern wrong to many times back in the day.
Now even if I enter my current google credentials for the account I used during those times, the phone doesn't want to aknowledge that. I have double-checked several times it the password I entered was correct.
Since I don't seem to be able to access my phone via normal means, I was curious if there is a way to recover my data another way? I don't mind if the phone becomes unusable afterwards as well.
I have only very limited knowledge of android and all its abilities but I seem to remember reading about these older phones storage being easier to access than newer ones.
Is there anyone who could think of a way for me to recover my data?
Even if anyone has an idea why my phone asks me for my google login but doesn't accept it would be helpful.
I would really appreciate any help since those are a lot of memories that would be lost forever.

Your old phone should run Android 4 or 4.1 and as far as I know Google has stopped supporting those versions in Play Services (those old Android versions only support outdated and insecure TLS versions that can be one reason). This could be the reason the phone does not accept your credentials, it tries to check them online but the connection fails.

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


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Fastboot not dectecting device mac
I'm trying to flash TWRP on my Samsung but during the flashing process, fastboot can't detect my device. I've looked around forever and can't find anything to help me.
My mac OS is Ventura and my phone i'm using is the: Samsung Galaxy S10+ (SM-G975F)

Had terrible luck with this too years ago. Have you tried using a VM, or running Linux/Windows directly which would likely be more successful?


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FRP bypass without PC for Samsung Galaxy a10e
I have a Samsung Galaxy a10e sm-s102dl and I can't bypass FRP. I don't have access to a computer.  Is there a way to bypass FRP without a computer?


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How can I unlock the lock screen of my RealMe 9 Pro Plus without formatting device, or retrieve just the storage?
I haven't been able to unlock my Realme 9 Pro Plus phone with the passwords that I remember. And I'm not sure what to do next.
I have always found it a bugging issue when my Realme phone asks me to enter my lock screen password every 72 hours so I don't forget it. I mostly use my fingerprint unlock, but when the mentioned message comes up, I have to enter my password every time.
Although it's a measure to prevent someone from forgetting passwords, unfortunately it became the reason I'm locked out of my phone. I have always put it right, over many months, but this time its not right.
My phone storage is sort of precious to me, about 126-127 GB out of 128 GB is at use, contains lots of media and other things that I made over life. (Including, being transferred from other old Realme phone, so its data of over 2 years I suppose.) I want the data to be safe.
I do not have expert tech repair offices here. Most know how to format/hard reset a phone when screenlock cant be bypassed. But I remember seeing a video on Instagram where some professional did some storage retrieval on a broken phone's encrypted storage, or something of that sort, and I'm even willing to keep the phone for years, locked, in hope someday I'll get to unlock it thru somebody, or storage retrieved.
With that said, I'm willing to do necessary steps to retrieve storage or unlock the phone, as much as I can.
Please do note that USB debugging is not enabled. I would have always kept it enabled for my convenience, but this phone sends a notification every 2-3 days I guess, saying Dev options is turned on and suggests to turn off. It bugged me every now and then as a regular user and hence I turned USB debugging off when it was no longer of use.
Please guide me what I should do. I'm also willing to root the phone if needed. And as I said I'm not willing to lose data on it. Any help is appreciated.
Thank you.

Have you rebooted the phone? Because if yes your "enemy" is not the lock screen but the device encryption. After every reboot the entered lock screen password is transmitted to the Android Gatekeeper which uses it to provide the user data encryption key. Without that key the data remains encrypted and to my knowledge there is no way to get the key but through Gatekeeper (which means no password means no data). Even if you have had enabled adb, then access to user data would have been blocked in such a case.

Oh, I understand. Although, the locked phone issue had been since two weeks or so, and the phone has been rebooted multiple times..

Then the only way to get your data is entering the correct PIN/password.


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How to recover deleted videos under this file .do0mo7bi1le1

How can i recover videos in this file.

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.


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How to hide Termux notifications without breaking functionality?
My Pixel 7 (Android 14) has a persistent ssh server set up, but Termux shows a "wake lock held" notification, which is very annoying. Is it possible to hide notifications so that they exist and work but are not displayed in the notification area?

That depends on the definition of "exist and work". As far as I know it will still hold the wakelock if the notification is hidden, as the notification is only a nicety. If it's hidden though it won't be possible to tap it to open the app.
It should be possible to press and hold the notification to get options for the apps notifications, then choose which notifications you want to disable or just disable everything. And then can be enabled again via App Info -> App Notifications.
Phantom Process Killer may be the actual cause of the app getting killed. There is a plethora of notes about how it works and how to disable it on different versions of Android 12+ "at your own risk" in this project on GitHub. The links at the top that point to Termux GitHub Issues and Google Issue Tracker go into some technical discussions about it.
Most Android 13+ devices should have an option to disable this via Settings -> Developer Options -> Disable child process restrictions as per this Reddit thread, noting in a comment that it's not included by Samsung, Oppo, and Xiaomi. It was originally added in Android 12L, but that was targeted for folding devices, large screens, and tablets.

I already tried disable notifications from Termux and it stops sshd. Termux uses this notification for wake lock, because otherwise the system will kill Termux background processes.

I tried it again and it still doesn't work. I need to open Termux and write sshd, after which the ssd is able to respond to commands again

"exist and work" means that the notification still forces the system not to kill the background process

I see this as some kind of launcher widget or button in quick settings to keep access to Termux sessions. Anything, anywhere, but not in the notification area

I'm sorry; if I'd just looked a little further I would've found this info about Phantom Process Killer already. According to the discussion in Google Issue Tracker Termux does run as a foreground service but uses background processes, which the Phantom Process Killer can screw with. Another fix nobody would've wanted that destroyed functionality that is wanted, lol.


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Setting Date on Android device works from settings menu but requires root access via ADB (which I do not have)
If not set to automatic, the date and time of the Pico G2 4K headset is never correct. I'm attempting to set it manually via the command line like this:
adb shell "toybox date 110309162023.14"

and finding that root access is required, however when I enter the developer settings menu in the headset, I can change the date and time with no issue. Is there something I'm missing or a different command I should be trying?
I've tried searching the Pico XR documentation, as well as issuing similar commands like adb shell toolbox date <datestring> and adb shell date <datestring> as well as searching Stack Overflow for similar questions. So far nothing has worked.
Thanks in advance for any guidance with this!

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange. Possible duplicate: Can't set date via shell

Welcome Dave! Does the possible duplicate that Andrew provided answer your question?  It appears that root is required.  It's certainly not the desired answer, but appears to be the correct answer.  It appears you are doing everything correctly, but the task unfortunately requires root.


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How to prevent Samsung wallet from intercepting digital key setup, and do it in Google wallet instead
I use Google wallet for payments on my s23 ultra. I would like to add a digital car key, but the Samsung wallet app keeps hijacking the setup process. The Samsung wallet app is not even installed. How do I get it to stop interrupting and allow Google wallet to handle the key registration?

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts. "The Samsung wallet app is not even installed." on my Samsung M12 (and I believe on other Samsung devices), Samsung Pay/Wallet is a built-in/system app. Couldn't you find it, even on Settings - Apps?

@AndrewT. Thank you :) If I uninstall the app, then no, it does not appear, but interestingly, 'Samsung Wallet Digital Key' does appear, and cannot be uninstalled or disabled.


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How to completely protect Google Drive app on Android?
I am using Secure Folder on my Samsung for some of my apps, and I installed Google Drive too. But I am also logged in to my Google account outside of the Secure Folder - for backups and the Photos app - I don't need to have my photos in Secure Folder.
But what's the point of having this if anyone who has access to my phone can simply install Google Drive and will automatically be logged in? How to prevent it, I mean after installing the app it would ask for credentials.

Google uses single-sign-on system, so once the Google account is on your phone all Google apps have access to it and thus to the data of the account. The only workaround is to work with multiple Google accounts.

Robert is correct.  The other alternative is to use a software/service provider (one besides Google) that implements a more useful security model.

Sure, I get it. But is there some other workaround because I want to use google with single account? Is prohibiting installing drive application possible?

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange. I guess an alternative solution is to install an "app locker" app to password-protect the Google Drive app.


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Clearing an app's *cache* and not the app's *data* via pm (or other CLI utility)?
I'm running Android 13 in a rooted environment, and I want to use pm or some other Android command-line utility to clear an app's cache.  If I do pm clear package.name, it clears the app's data, and that's not what I want ... I only want cache clearing with the app's data remaining intact.
This needs to be a command-line utility, because I want to run it within a Tasker task. It could also be a shell script that runs multiple CLI commands.
I know that I can do pm trim-caches [... args ...] to clear all caches of all apps, but that's not what I want, either. I want to clear the cache of one and only one app at a time.
Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

OOPS! I originally overlooked the answer when checking the pm help text.
All I have to do is pm clear --cache-only package.name.

this command is not work, it will still clear UserData.

This command only clears the cache on my Android 13 device, and UserData is left intact.


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Is there a way to enable ADB from the phone's terminal
I'm stuck at trying to install LineageOS on my Pixel: unfortunately adb cannot see my phone and I have flashed the bootloader and wiped the previous system.
How can I activate USB debugging programmatically? I can access the phone filesystem as root from the Recovery ROM.

What do you want to do with adb access? Assuming you have unless died the bootloader for installing Lineage OS all your data is wiped. In my opinion you should better try to get the phone back in a "stock state" to see if it still works as expected and retry installing Lineage OS. Pixel stock images that can be installed via fastboot are provided by Google. Once you have a working system you can copy LineageOS zip file to sdcard shared storage and retry LineageOS install from recovery without needing adb.

@Robert Yes I thought of doing smthg like that indeed. What's the process to install stock ROM ? I got a OTA zip at google for my taimen. Is it the possible to install it with fastboot ? How ?

With an unlocked bootloader I would recommend the non-OTA package as it directly installs via fastboot. Or you try the web-installer. But always make sure there is no USB hub between your computer and the phone, even not dockingstation. To my experience with something in between the USB connection flashing will fail at a high chance.


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Why does my Nokia 2.2 screen light keep coming on even in my pocket?
I have Nokia 2.2 updated to Android 11. Why does its screen light keep coming on even in my pocket?
I have turned off "tap to wake" and it comes on when I even touch the phone.


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Why is this app getting installed with a space before the app name?
Earlier today, I noticed something strange. Google Classroom isn't following the alphabetical arrangement of apps in my app drawer.

I swear this weird issue only appeared today, and I don't recall doing anything that might have caused it. I've tried different launchers and it's the same thing—either the app is at the beginning or at the end of the list of apps.
I installed a package manager app and I think I've figured out why this is happening. It appears that the app is getting installed with (a) space character(s) before the actual app name.

As to why this is happening, I have no idea. I've tried almost everything (uninstalling and reinstalling, installing a previous version of the app, etc.) bar a factory reset, but the issue persists. Can anyone help me out?
My phone is a Samsung Galaxy S23 running Android 14 (One UI 6).

The app name is by default stored in the (language specific) resources of the app. Most likely the space at the beginning is a bug for your language.

Wow. I changed my language from English (United States) to English (Philippines) recently and never noticed the change in app order happening. I switched back to English (United States) and the problem is fixed. Thank you so much, @Robert. Now, to make a bug report to Samsung.

As this solves the issue: does one of you two mind writing up an answer? :)

Why a bug report to Samsung? The app is from Google, therefore Google has defined the app name and your phone just displays the name as defined by the app. And a space is ASCII code 20 and therefore sorted before ASCII  c code 67.

I see. Thanks for the clarification. Can you copy your initial reply as an answer?

Apparently, this is a bug with the system language of my phone. Setting it to English (United States) fixed the problem for me. Thanks to Robert for the solution.


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WiFi doesn't want to turn on on Xiaomi Mi 10i
My Xiaomi Mi 10i was glitching and I sent it for repair, but unfortunately, after repair, the WiFi doesn't want to turn on (it just turns off from the settings toggle and doesn't turn on from notifications).
After a few days, it automatically fixed itself, but then I had it factory reinstalled (because I thought it would have spyware from the repair shop) and now it doesn't work anymore.
Bluetooth and cellular data have no problem in working.
I wish someone could help me with this.

Do you mean factory reset, or did you do something more?

Welcome to the Q&A site Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange. I'm afraid the problem is actually with the physical hardware component and thus there's nothing this community can do. Perhaps viewing the logcat and checking if there are consistent errors when toggling the WiFi on may help in debugging the issue further. Otherwise, flashing the stock ROM might be the last choice.


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Google account history shows up at the same hour
Why is all the app activity on Google account history showing up at the same hour?
Activity from a Samsung Galaxy A21 shows, for example, Gallery, Messages, social media apps, Weather app, and whatever else at 3:57 PM.
Why? And is there anything I can do? Thank you.


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Mount ISO file in Android
I am trying to install SPEC CPU2017 benchmarks on an Android development board. SPEC comes with an ISO file. You're supposed to mount the ISO and run the install.sh script inside it. Otherwise, you get the following error.

Can't find the top of your CPU2017 tree!  Please change to the benchmark directory and run this program (./install.sh) again!

Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to mount the file in Android. I've tried the commands in this answer without any luck.
When I run mount -t iso9660 cpu2017-1.1.7.iso mountpoint -o ro,loop, I get the following message:

mount: 'cpu2017-1.1.7.iso'->'mountpoint': No such file or directory

I checked the kernel config and I've found that the CONFIG_ISO9660_FS options isn't set.
What are my options? Is it possible to mount the ISO? Is there any other way to install the SPEC CPU2017 benchmark suite?

A lot of tools can handle iso files like archives e.g. 7zip.

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts. I guess the first question is whether Android (not Linux) is supported or not, and it seems it's not that simple. I found How to run SPEC CPU 2017 on ARM platforms? that refers to SPECInt 2017 scores for ARM Cores (a76, a72, a57etc). Though, I don't think I can comment further about the process nor the result.

It certainly doesn't seem straightforward. Before running them though, I have to figure out how to install the SPEC benchmarks.

@vic You can try busybox which provides the mount command. But you cannot simply run any Linux program on Android. Many things are missing on Android or are different. Even if you can mount the iso you won't be able to install it because the system partition is read-only for example. So better give it up early instead of wasting time.

Does this answer your question? Is it possible to mount .iso files (virtual optical drive) on Android?

I've included in my original post that trying these commands does not work.

Related: Can't mount ISO in Android

Frame challenge: mounting the ISO on Android won't get you anywhere.
I took a look at the FAQ for SPEC CPU®2017, which makes it clear that the ISO contains source code, and you have to build the benchmark programs yourself. To do that, you need compilers and a linker, and apparently a Perl interpreter to run the benchmark suite. None of those programs are normally present on an Android device: this benchmark suite is meant for desktop or server computers, with software development tools installed.
Running these benchmarks will be a fair amount of work
If you want to run these benchmarks on Android, you'll need to do some work with build systems. Possibly quite a lot of work. You'll need to start by installing the benchmarks on a machine that you can use for Android development (Windows, Linux or Mac), and then build and run the benchmarks on that system to get the hang of working with them. Once you have done that, you can install the Android NDK and figure out how to build the benchmarks for Android. There are two obvious routes:

Adapt the makefiles that SPEC provide to work with the NDK compiler, linker, and so on. This is the route that I'd take, but I'm used to working with the Android command line in the ADB shell. That should let you build the individual programs. You'll need a Perl system to run the runcpu wrapper, or it may be easier to do that on your build machine and have it run the programs via adb shell.

Install the Android SDK as well as the NDK, and write an Android app that runs the benchmarks and presents their results. This is more work, but it gets you an Android app. However, you can't distribute that app without breaching SPEC's copyright on their benchmark source.

Look into SPEC's benchmarks for embedded computing
SPEC has recently added an Embedded Group which produces "industry-standard benchmarks for the hardware and software used in autonomous driving, mobile imaging, the Internet of Things, mobile devices, and many other applications."
These may well be easier to run on Android.


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Brave browser does not automatically load newest version of page
Almost every time I open a site, it loads the previously viewed version, not the latest one. A news site might load the news from 2 days ago instead of today's most recent news. I have to manually reload the site.
Chrome and DuckDuckGo don't have this problem, but I prefer Brave's privacy.
Once in a while it will refresh on its own. No rhyme or reason I can see.
How can I fix this?
Thanks for your help!

In your browser URL type: brave://settings/clearBrowserData, and clear all the cache. Make sure you select all time

Clearing the cache will do it.

Press 3 dots at the bottom right
Press History
Press Clear Browsing Data
Ensure that Cached Images and Files is ticked.  You can untick other items if you want.
Press Clear Data


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How to restore SMS from Google One backup
My Google Pixel 5a suddenly stopped working and I bought a Moto G84 as a replacement. I used the "without device" restore which reinstalled my apps but I don't have any of my SMS messages.
Is there a way to restore that too? On the Google One app, it says my device backup has 131 MB of SMS & MMS messages.

AFAIK, the backup can only be restored during the Setup Wizard. Possibly related: How to re-enable first-time setup at next boot?


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Can we mod android phones using custom bootloader, firmware for MSM8909 Snapdragon 210
Can we mod android phones using custom  bootloader (sbl  secondary bootloader)  , firmware for MSM8909 Snapdragon 210 (phone is zte835). Deleting all factory firmware, bootloader and using custom bootloader and Roms.
I deleted sbl boot files while using qfil and magisk. Phone doesn't turn, it got hard bricked . Bootloader files are corrupted .

Flashing custom ROMs is not a problem. There are several guides on it specific to your device model. But flashing custom android bootloader is not possible on production devices because it is protected by secure boot which is permanently enabled in production SoCs by blowing the eFuse in the factory. Primary bootloader in Qualcomm Snapdragon SoCs is an immutable image which is burned on the CPU die in the factory. This is where infamous Qualcomm's EDL mode resides. As it can't be tampered with, by design it will enforce secure boot up to android bootloader. A hard-bricked device can still boot to EDL mode. You have to flash the factory image to restore images of all partitions.

When you flash a factory image from EDL mode, it flashes extensible bootloader, android bootloader and all other android partitions. Your question is not specific to your device. If you need help, ask a different question on how to flash a factory image to your device model using EDL mode.

There's not enough information. It depends on your device model.

Model is given as zte835 maven

XDA can help you on this.

People don't log into xda now a days , are you sure it flashes extensible bootloader, android bootloader and all other android partitions when in edl mode.


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How to update libssl.so on very old devices?
I tried asking this on xdaforums but did not get a useful answer so I thought I would try here.
I've got some very old devices (used as wifi-only) that are starting to have issues connecting to (some but not all) modern websites. One runs FroYo, another Ice Cream Sandwich. They are both rooted and I have ADB working on both of them. Some of the sites in question are using very little javascript, so even the old browsers that can be installed on them used to connect okay until VERY recently. I have succeeded in updating the root certs on both of these, which has helped with some web sites, but not all. The troublesome change seems related to certificate updates on some of the websites. Where they used to be using TLS1.1 and certs based on SHA1, they have changed to TLS 1.3 and SHA256, which these old devices don't support.
I should add that this is not just about browsers. There are similar issues with other apps like email, VoIP callling, XMPP clients, weather apps, pretty much anything that needs network access. There are also issues connecting to certain specific (but not all) wifi networks, I suspect a similar cause for this too.
So, I want to update the version of libssl.so used on these devices. I have found some instructions on how to compile this, which looks like it will be an adventure unto itself (and maybe a separate topic for further questions).
One helpful detail about devices this old, they do not yet use dm-verity, so at least I will not need to bother about dealing with that.
Before I get too far down the compilation rabbit hole, assuming I manage to get it compiled correctly, is it really as simple as just dropping the replacement files into /system/lib ? Do I also need to update libcrypt.so at the same time? Or are there other items I would also need to update? Has anyone done this before, short of rebuilding the entire ROM?

Older versions of libssl are not API compatible to newer versions, which means that you cannot simply replace libssl. The actual applications must be compiled against the new lib and maybe changes are needed in the applications too.

Your main problem is most likely not libssl but Chrome respectively the WebView component which I think is no longer updated for these old Android versions. As far as I know Chrome and WebView contain their won SSL/TLS stack and don't make use of libssl from Android. Only apps that open a TLS connection by Java/Kotlin (DEX) code make use of Android libssl.

The Google recommended way handling TLS issues on older devices (I think 4.0+ is at least supported) is using a special crypto provider that comes with Google Play Services.  Apps can enable this if necessary by one code line. For details see e.g. https://code.mendhak.com/tls-13-old-android-devices/ and https://developers.google.com/android/reference/com/google/android/gms/security/ProviderInstaller

@Steffen - That wasn't what I wanted to hear... but then life is like that sometimes.  :-( Thanks for the clarification, anyway.

@Robert - I have tried looking on apkpure.com and apkmirror.com for old versions of both Chrome and WebView. There is Chrome 42 that could work for the IceCreamSandwich tablet, but nothing suitable for the FroYo device. The only WebView versions I could find all need at least Lollipop. The other problem is that the FroYo device is so old it does not use the ARMv7a instruction set, only ARMv6, and I could not find any of these things in that variant.

The article about the conscrypt provider seemed promising, saying it could work all the way back to FroYo... but then the app he posted on F-Droid requires at least 4.1 Jellybean, so I don't see how to use it, even assuming other apps were compiled with it in mind.

While the question title might be an XY-problem, I'm honestly curious if the TLS stack can be upgraded by end-users without resorting to a custom ROM/Android update.

An alternative solution might be to proxy the modern sites on a PC/local server so that the older browsers can access them, see: Proxy (or other solution) that can allow vintage browsers (before HTTPS era - with no or weak SSL/TLS support) to connect with HTTPS websites?

@Morrison - I've been tinkering with a proxy for my old XP desktop having similar issues, in that case it is a locally run proxy (one of the ones described at https://msfn.org/board/topic/183352-proxhttpsproxy-and-httpsproxy-in-windows-xp-for-future-use/ ). Do you (or anyone else) know of something like that to run on old androids? I would want it to run on the old devices so it could be helpful when I am not at home.

@ILikeOldStuff I really wouldn't be running old (Froyo released in 2010) devices outside. While you may want to keep things around, legacy bugs like Stagefright may exist in those versions. Additionally modern sites are using modern HTML/CSS which require modern webkit engines which now run on multi core CPUs. Proxy PC is doing heavy lifting. More FYI, Project Crosswalk existed for consistent webkit on 2.x-4.x hw. You'll have to find docs on archive.org as site is gone and web standards change.

@Morrison - For my specific use case(s), Stagefright is actually a non-issue. Its main transmission vector is MMS, Bluetooth and possibly videos, and none of those apply to these two devices.  Neither device has EVER had any phone number or cellular carrier account, so there is no path for MMS to be delivered through.  A wifi-only device (one of which does not even have any cellular nor bluetooth radio hardware) simply can't receive those things, and I uninstalled YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc many years ago.

Since I don't put any private data on these devices, there is simply nothing to steal, thus very little risk. They each have a dedicated email account (NOT from google) that is not shared with anything else, and the VoIP passwords are device specific too, so even losing these is little more than an inconvenience since I would simply use my desktop (which can use an assortment of passwords which the devices do not have) to cancel those device passwords. And no, I do not do any internet banking on these devices (or any other android no matter how new) so malware can't steal what isn't there.

The few websites I want to work also have very little javascript, so that is less of a problem, also changing browsers can help too. The biggest hurdle is lack of support for modern encryption prevents connections from happening.
Thanks for the Crosswalk link, there is a lot of stuff there and will take me a while to digest it.


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As a regular user, how do I revoke QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES granted to an app?
My phone is Android 11. One app asked to scan my installed apps, and I accidentally tapped OK. Now the app no longer asks for this permission.
I believe the granted permission is QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES. I go to App info screen -> Permissions. It only shows a limited number of permissions, such as Contacts, Storage, and Location.
I know Android has hundreds of permissions. The permissions on the App info screen are definitely incomplete.
How do I revoke QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES?
Also, in case I guess wrong, and my malicious app requested a different permission than QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES, is there a screen showing ALL hundred permissions?

"How do I revoke QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES?" QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES has normal protection level. It's not revocable. // "is there a screen showing ALL hundred permissions?" You can try my app Permission Manager X.

@IrfanLatif Thank you. Your Permission Manager X works perfectly!


text:
How to see the default gateway of mobile network?
Android version 13
One UI Core version 5.1
Model code SM-A045FZKGXID
Kernel version 4.19.191-26097594-abA045FXXU3cWG1
The following is a history of my useless attempts, which raised more questions than I was looking for. :)
The question seems so dumb I fear I am asking in the wrong community, never the less I have been struggling the whole day to find the answer to this. After hours of googling and ChatGPT I randomly found my IP address, instead of being among network-related settings, was among "status information" (why?)
I must tell you that I have no experience on Android devices whatsoever but I am a Linux enthusiast and therefore thought about checking the network configuration files in /etc, I downloaded a terminal and then another but I couldn't go anywhere: almost all commands are unusable. I understood that Android did some kind of restriction on the file system, even reading files is a hassle. ip and netstat yielded errors.
I decided to unlock the "developer options", connect my phone to the PC, and try to navigate it from there. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the root folder / all I could find was 'Internal Storage' with its DCIM, Documents... subfolders.
I read that through some apps, the default gateway can be obtained. I think though that if apps can do it I should be able to do it as well, or at least understand how.
I thank you for your time and understanding, any explanation concerning any matter I exposed above is appreciated, even if not directly answering my question, I am keen to learn and expand my knowledge.

Android bases on Linux, but it is not like a common Linux distro. If you want an environment that is more like Linux install Termux from FDroid store (not the outdated Play Store version).

I thought Termux was a terminal, how can a terminal change my platform? shouldn't only offer a way to interact with the underlying environment?

Termux contains a package manager to install common Linux tools compiled for Android and arm[64]. Of course everything is running in the context of the app user, so all commands which require root or direct device access will not work.

What have you tried the whole day? Did you check the output of dumpsys connectivity | grep CONNECTED and ip route?

dumpsys and ip are both yielding permission denied errors.
su outputs: inaccessible or not found.
I fear termux is not going to work either, since the files that hold the network informations are non readable.

You'll probably find this easier if you turn on USB debugging and work in the ADB shell from a computer. I came to Android from Linux, and find this a more familiar environment than termux.
However, the ADB shell environment is not normal Linux, although it is Linux-like. The shell is different (mksh), the command-line tools are provided by toybox, and the filesystem layout is very different. You can run netstat and ip, though.

I use a 3rd party app called FING to do a network scan and then I usually find the router/access point IP.
Alternatively (but this doesn't always show up):
Settings -> Connections -> Wi-Fi -> find the network you want and click the Gears button to the right of it. Now there may be a button that shows up called Manage Router

If it shows up, you can click on it and it will open a webpage to the IP address (management page) of your router (default gateway in most home-routers)

I am looking for my isp gateway for mobile connection, not wifi. I will look into FING tho, thanks.


text:
Modify PWA link in firefox for android
I 'installed' a page as a PWA with Firefox for Android; however, the entrypoint url specified in the page's manifest is not the url I want to open. In my example, Instagram, it opens instagram.com, but I want instagram.com?variant=following and not the useless recommended page. Therefore, my question is: Is there any easy way to modify this link on my home screen (or, alternatively, tell firefox about this before the link is created)? There are two solutions I can think of, both of which seem suboptimal:

Don't install as a PWA, but as a link to the website: This is supposed to work if you click install when the page (and thus the manifest) wasn't able to load (eg. airplane mode) (haven't tried this though) - the page would open as a tab in firefox instead of a separate activity though
Somehow man-in-the-middle myself with an https proxy and rewrite the manifest before installing the PWA - this might work but seems like a lot of work.

Ideally, I'd just modify the home screen entry and change the URL there.
Versions:
Android 14 / Pixel 7 (not rooted)
Firefox 119.1.1

by "install" you mean the function "Add to Home Screen"?

@Robert yes and no - for websites that have a PWA manifest, this button changes to install, and it then doesnt open as a tab but as its own thing

You cant change the workings of the PWA.  It is basically a whole application in javascript.

@RohitGupta i mean a PWA is literally just a website with an additional json file that defines an entrypoint url, so if i can change that url somehow i literally can

Sorry, my PWAs are not that.  They are full applications, resistant to tampering.


text:
How can I rollback an app from F-droid without loosing settings?
My question follows the discussion under link How to get an older version of an app from F-Droid?
but the moderator unfortunately does not allow to ask for additional details in the same thread. So my question is the following:
I have installed a newer version of an app in F-droid to find out it becomes unusable because of bugs. Naturally I want to revert to the previous version. I pertinently know the older version can be seen in the versions section at the bottom. But I cannot install any of them unless I uninstall the current version of the app. This unfortunately results in loosing all settings.
How can I rollback an app from F-droid without loosing settings?

The answer is more or less the same as described here Re-install app without losing personal data As long as the formerly installed app and the older version are signed by the same key you can reinstall the older version after uninstalling the newer version via adb as described in the linked answer.

Note that the way described Love will only work if the old app version is capable of using the data from the new version. If the app author has changed the data format between both versions the may may not be able to load your data or even simply crash at start-up.

Thanks. It answers my question, although I was hoping F-droid or other package manager would have this very natural feature.

That is not possible because Android has to my knowledge no API for doing so. As an app you can only trigger an app installation.


text:
modify apk content
Do you know if it possible to edit compiled code in apk package?
I tried followed steps:

Unpack xapk file by command: unzip my-app.xapk (I have there multiple apk and I need to modify one of them, due to bug fixing...)
Unpack one of the apk: apktool d my-component.apk
Modify one of the smali files
Build apk: apktool b ./my-component -o ./my-component.apk
generate cert: keytool -genkey -v -keystore my-release-key.jks -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000 -alias my-alias
sign all unpacked from xapk files:
find ./ -name "*.apk" -exec apksigner sign --ks my-release-key.jks --ks-pass pass:123456 --out {} {} \;
install all component: adb install-multiple -r my-component.apk  another-component.apk....

After all these steps my application works partially and I got some errors in logcat:
ArtManagerService: Failed to prepare profile for my-package:/data/app/~~SeVk-WOasdas3A-hIPw==/my-component-TwgvYqasd_uL4r2tgdBZ-og==/base.apk

An .apk is a zip file, just a bit stricter.  Theoretically you could change anything in it.  But if the code is actually compiled, then it is an amazing amount of effort.
There is an article on wikihow that tells you more about how to modify an apk file.


text:
Access to folders that require root
I'm trying to find my deleted notes in xiaomi phone(i'm still hope :( ) since May. But i coulndt done it yet with adb. Therefore i'm going to do last decision:''Rooting my phone to access folders'' But i dont know that will files gonna delete after root my phone. Are they deleted or not. A man named Andrew said to me that no documents delete completely. I really thanks to him i hope so thats why i'm trying since May. I really want my notes back. Would d2d transfer would help or is root my last chance i want to know thank you.

Rooting your phone usually requires unlocking your bootloader which will execute a factory reset. A factory will delete everything including your encryption required for decryption all your user data, so without that key data recovery absolutely impossible.

@Robert so there is nothing we can do?

@Robert I remember you said something about d2d transfer few months ago. If i need a  device which is rooted, i can transfer all the data without root my phone?

Assuming the app uses a database file for storing the notes (and the db file also includes the deleted notes) and the app does not disallow backup, migrating the phone via USB to a new rooted device could work.

@robert Does that new device need big memory and miui ? Because my phone has miui

Your question is very general, therefore you get answers like one from Rohan. You should have linked your old question about adb backup and which mentions the path where the files are located, because knowing the path eliminates the possibility to recover data from a different app.

Regarding device2device transfer: As the notes app is AFAIK a xiaomi  system app I would say you need another xiaomi device with a compatible notes app. The USB based transfer as I know it is only available if the target phone has been factory reset. But the whole process is often a bit intransparent, so you never know what data is copied and which not (and why). But I never had the case of moving a system app, so I can not help you with real experience...

Sp you're saying i cannot know without try yep?

@Robert i bought a new xiaomi phone (it's miui version is lower than mine btw) but Xiaomi doesnt have d2d app. Do you have suggest for app

Normally you don't need a special app. First you complete the initial set-up wizard. On some devices this wizard has a possibility to take-over data from a previous device via USB. If not then some time later a notification should appear to "complete device set-up" in that you should have the option for USB transfer. Use an USB-C cable and directly connect phones and hope for the best.

@Robert Thanks man if it works i really dont know how to thank you and some people in here. Same if it wont work i dont care you guys always helping me.


text:
How can I configure Android so that Chrome doesn't stop uploading when Chrome doesn't have the focus?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra running Android 13. I am uploading a large video to YouTube via https://www.youtube.com/upload and not the Android YouTube application. I notice that when Chrome doesn't have the focus for a few minutes, it pauses the upload. I have to switch back to Chrome so that it continues the upload. However, I have other things to do on my phone outside Chrome.
How can I configure Android so that when Chrome doesn't stop uploading when it doesn't have the focus?

How can I configure Android so that when Chrome doesn't stop uploading when it doesn't have the focus?

It seems that keeping the phone on charge seems to mitigate that issue. I've tested that behavior when uploading a large file to https://archive.org/upload/ and the behavior seems rather consistent: Chrome doesn't stop uploading when it doesn't have the focus if the phone is on charge, while Chrome does stop uploading when it doesn't have the focus if the phone is not on charge. I'm not sure if that behavior always happens, but it seems to often happens.
Note that this is a behavior specific to Chrome, as some other apps such as utorrent continue uploading when it doesn't have the focus even when the phone is not on charge.


text:
Chrome bookmarks desktop (embedded in Chrome)
I was wondering whether within Chrome it is possible to create a set of bookmarks via web site icons that get placed on a special, scroll-bar and screens enabled, bookmarks page.
That way, WITHIN CHROME, there would be a special page within Chrome, that looked like the Android desktop where all the apps are placed, except that this would be within the web browser.
I think, with this strategy, web site clutter on the desktop, would be avoided.
At the same time, the user would browse the web more... because, besides bookmarks on the bookmarks page, they would have access to their own mini-desktop from within Chrome.
As an application, one could place an icon for each social network website, that the user, used, on this page (even rearranging and moving icons around the Chrome screens).
Of course, the HTML, and the Chrome options menu would need to support placing these bookmarks via special icons on the Chrome desktop bookmark page.
Is this available in Chrome?
If not, then then will this be implemented?
When will this feature be available?
Thanks.


text:
Persistent event notifications from Samsung Calendar
Similar to this post, but in my case it's for the Samsung Calendar app.
I have recurring events that used to generate persistent top-of-the-screen notifications.
E.g. 'every Thursday, from 11 to 12 - do X and Y, reminder on time (i.e. at 11)'.
--> every Thursday a notification would appear at 11, and stay there permanently, only disappearing when I manually dismissed it.
No longer the case: now the notification appears but then disappears as soon as the event 'end time' is reached (in this example, at 12).
That means that if I don't look at my phone exactly between 11 and 12, I will miss the notification and probably not do X and Y.
[Not a theory, BTW, e.g. I forgot to put in a tax payment; luckily I was reminded by someone.]
I looked this up on the web, of course, and I found a few similar cases, but no actual solutions, only complicated and cumbersome workarounds (hence my asking here).
To be clear, my goal here is to understand if there are any settings I can change to make the notifications behave like they used to.
Stopping using Samsung Calendar would not be an option.
Any ideas? Suggestions?

PS, for clarity:

I know I can make events last longer so the notification does not disappear after 1 h, but how long should they be? Days? Weeks? The whole point of having persistent notifications is to have them shown to you as reminders of an action that is due; and then you take that action in your own time. Any fixed persistence time can cause you to not take the action and then forget.
I know I can make tasks in Samsung Calendar (which are indeed like reminders of things to do, with no specified duration) instead of events (which require a fixed start and end time), but 1) I used events before because they worked, so now I have a long list of them, synced everywhere; 2) Samsung tasks cannot be set as recurring, and that's the whole point of most of my reminders (things that I need to do at specific intervals in time).
I know there are other apps that handle calendars, like Google Calendar, but 1) in my search for solutions I actually found several posts complaining about the exact same issue with that one; 2) as explained, I have a lot of Samsung Calendar events already made, which I wouldn't really fancy rewriting into another app; 3) I have already set up my Samsung account to back up my calendars and other stuff, which I would no longer benefit from if I did that.

Perhaps you can write to Samsung and ask if they can support the functionality you are looking for in the settings.

Thanks, good idea! I am used to think that big corporations don't listen to their customers, and here they intentionally changed the behaviour of an app (for the worse IMO). It happened with Google Maps as well. At some point they removed the compass from the navigation view. I and other users wrote about it in a Google forum. There was no response, nothing happened for several months, maybe close to year iirc, and then all of a sudden the compass came back with one update. Maybe one has to hope that the same happens here :/


text:
adb uiautomator get all of the scrollable content
When getting the current UI elements displayed on the screen using adb exec-out uiautomator dump, only the visible elements are included in the xml. I want to get all of the elements that are present in the scrollable view.
Is there a way to get all of the content in the current Activity instead of only what is visible in the screen using adb uiautomator?
For example in this image:

When the UI is dumped, only elements till end of the first paragraph ("adipiscing commodo") are extracted.
If I scroll down and dump the UI again in this state:

The content of second paragraph is also added in the UI dump.
How to get all of the content present in the current Activity?
Additional finding:
I can get of all text in the chat in the  Google Message app, even the messages not currently visible. Maybe it is a webpage thing. But also cannot get all the elements on the store page of an app in the PlayStore.


text:
Whatsapp: is there any possibility to turn off internet for a specific contact only?
I know there is an option to turn off internet access for entire whatsapp but i was wondering if there is a way to disable access for a specific chat completely?
What i am trying to accomplish by doing this? I am trying to modify contact details such as phone number without letting whatsapp to get refreshed or anything.

if there is a way to disable access for a specific chat completely?

Not directly. Maybe try blocking the contact temporarily when you update their details?

What i am trying to accomplish by doing this? I am trying to modify contact details such as phone number without letting whatsapp to get refreshed or anything.

Currently not aware of a direct workaround for this. But can only suggest the workaround now.


text:
How can one set a screen timeout longer than 10 minutes on Android 13 with a Samsung Galaxy S23?
I don't see any options in the developer options. The Caffeine application doesn't keep the screen on. How can one set a screen timeout longer than 10 minutes on Android 13 with a Samsung Galaxy S23?

By default, 10 minutes is the maximum:

The Caffeine application has an infinite setting but that doesn't work:

Have you checked developer settings? I have seen devices that had an option to disable screen timeout. Be aware that an increased timeout can destroy your OLED screen  (ghost images).


text:
How do I trust a certificate on android 11 device?
I want to setup this app called Http Toolkit and for some reason I have the warning "System Trust Disabled". My android 11 device is rooted using ksu . How do I trust a certificate on android device?

You need a rooted device or you have to modify the app. Which app do you want to intercept traffic of?

One solution on a rooted device: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/210140/2241 A more extensive description you can find in this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/62731432/150978


text:
Screen lock password forgotten on Autel MaxiCheck MX808
I have an Android device as following:

Manufacturer: Autel
Model: MaxiCheck MX808 Automotive scanner tablet
Firmware Version: 1.0

I forgot the screen lock password.
I communicated with Autel Tech Support on http://www.autel.com/ and they sent me a flash file and steps on how to flash, but I did not succeed. While I started ADB.exe, I got "Error unauthorized device".
So please assist in resolving the issue.
Ok steps I got from the support as follows
MK Format Device Compulsively
Set up Computer Circumstances

Install RK driver - Open the folder RK_DriverAssitant, run Driverintall.exe, following the on-screen prompts to install the driver.
Install Google-USB driver Some computers may need to install this driver. Open the folder Google-USB_driver; If your computer OS is 32-bit, run DPInst32.exe and if your computer OS is 64-bit, run DPInst64.exe. If you have already installed this driver before, please go directly to next step.

Reflash the Device
Attention：This procedure will format your device and will delete the data on your device.

Run Reflashing ToolOpen the folder AndroidTool_Release_v2.1, run AndroidTool.exe, the reflashing window will be displayed as shown in the figure below.
Turn Your Device into Reflashing Mode Connect your device to computer with USB cable and wait until the computer recognizes the device. You can check the connection status via Device Manager on your computer. As it is shown in the red mark on the figure below, the device was already recognized by the computer.
Ready to reflash:
Double click on the script named
reboot to loader.bat

With best regards

Seems like adb is only used to reboot the device into "reflashing mode". Most likely this mode is bootloader mode. Usually you can get into bootloader mode by holding the volume down hardware key while booting. But I guess, that that Autel device has no volume hardware keys, right?
May be Autel expects the device to be not locked, so you can accept the adb unauthorized dialog.
An alternative way would be that Autel provides the files adbkey and adbkey.pub. You can try to examine the provided installers if they contain such files. If they exist then Autel has some pre-installed authorized adb keys on the device. Then you only have to copy them into the .android directory in the user home folder C:\Users\%username%\.android


text:
How to make device on Wi-Fi hotspot discoverable to USB tethering connected PC?
My goal is to make the device (Quest 2) on 192.168.254.x (Wi-Fi hotspot) discoverable to my PC on 192.168.96.x (USB Tethering), because I want to set up ALVR and make my Quest 2 and my PC on different subnets talk to each other.
Right now, I'm testing with laptop - rooted phone with Termux - PC configuration. I tried ip route add 192.168.254.13 via 192.168.96.20 command,
where 192.168.254.13 is my Laptop with Ubuntu and 192.168.96.20 is my PC with Windows 11. My PC does not respond to pings from my laptop, but the laptop does ping the gateway which is 192.168.96.19, and is getting responses.
I'm probably doing something wrong, but can't figure out what exactly. I don't have much network knowledge and I have a basic Linux understanding, so any answer/tutorial will be appreciated.
I don't need any internet access when on Quest, but I would still want internet on my PC.


text:
Quick Settings Menu has only 3 icons when extended, is there a way to make it 3 by 3?
On my Nokia C20 which runs Android Go 11 when I pull down the quick settings menu there is only 3 items on it, and I cant find a way to change it.
Is there any way I can fix that?

In some Android versions a seconds row appears if you pull down the menu a second time. Not sure in which Android version this was added (or is it a manufacturer modification?) and if it is also available on Android Go.

Have you tried pressing the gear icon?  It works on my Android.


text:
Android TV 11 change mouse cursor size
Hi am using Android TV for TCL brand. The Android TV OS version is 11.
TV+ OS version: v5.2.0
The mouse cursor size is too large.
Can anyone tell me how to reduce its size.
I dont see the option in Accessibility menu or in Developer Options menu as found on web search.
Is there any other way the cursor size can be modified?


text:
How to use external webcamera in video call?
I connected an external webcam to my Android phone, and it works well with apps like "USB Camera." However, I'm having trouble finding a video call app that supports external webcams.
I noticed that bjoster had a similar issue in a thread about 5 years ago, but since it's been a while, I decided to create a new thread. You can check out the previous discussion here: How to use external OTG webcam for video calls/conference/talks?
Has anyone managed to get it to work? If so, which app did you use?
I've already tried the following apps without success:
Teams
Skype
WhatsApp
Messenger
Google Meet
Zoom

I also attempted Webex, but it seems that only the old "Webex Meet" (or Meeting) app supports an external webcam. Unfortunately, I can't create a new meeting in the old app since I'm on the "new" Webex plan. Additionally, I can only get it to work using my webcam at work, not the one at home that I would prefer to use. The new Webex app lacks the external webcam feature.
Another potential solution could be using an app like "USB Camera" and sharing my phone screen in a video calling app. However, it's a bit complicated, unreliable, and, most importantly, there's a noticeable lag.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.


text:
ADB Explorer keeps crashing when I try to transfer files
I'm using ADB Explorer to transfer large quantities of pictures and videos from my phone to my computer, via USB. I use the "pull" command to bring a batch of 28 files at a time from my phone over to a folder on my computer, and then delete the 28 files. However, every other command causes ADB Explorer to crash. If I pull the files, it'll crash when I delete them. At which point, I start ADB Explorer again, go to the 28 files I was trying to delete, and then successfully delete them. Then, when I try to pull another batch of 28, ADB Explorer crashes again.
If my process seems strange it is only because it's an adaptation to how often things crash when I'm transferring files.
If it helps: I'm using a Pixel 4a and a Windows 11 computer.
I've tried adjusting various settings (but not all of them because I'm worried about messing something up) on ADB Explorer, to no avail. I've also tried running as an administrator.

Also posted on GitHub Issues in case it's a bug in the app and the community here can't solve it.


text:
How to delete miscoded file in Android
I transferred two files from a Windows device to an Android device via xftp.
The names of these two files appear as garbled characters on my Android device, for example, �������ѹ�͵���Ĺ�ϵ.ts
Files can be opened but cannot be deleted or otherwise operated on. For example, one of them is .docx file, I can be opened with Microsoft 365(Office)
But when I try to delete it, I get a message that No such file or directory

The file was transferred via xftp (I don't seem to have changed the default encoding Settings), and the original name of the file was Chinese.

More information about the file
~/storage/downloads $ ls -il
total 189320
320255 -rw-rw---- 1 root everybody         0 Aug  4 13:05 ''$'\241\266''ˮ䰴'$'\253\241\267''.docx'
449669 -rw-rw---- 1 root everybody 193668200 Aug 17 19:07 ''$'\265\347\301\367\323\353\265\347''ѹ'$'\272''͵'$'\347\327\350\265''Ĺ'$'\330''ϵ.ts'
~/storage/downloads $

Device version

Samsung SM-A5260 (Galaxy A52 5G)
Hardware version: REV0.4
One UI version: 5.1
Android version: 13

Try

I tried to delete the file using the file manager, but I could not find the two files in the system default file manager. I could find the two files in other file managers but there was an error when performing the deletion.

I tried to empty the folder (keep only these two files in it), show two items in the folder in the system default file manager, but it appears empty after opening the folder (even if Show hidden files is checked)

I try to use termux perform operations, and when I enter rm �������ѹ�͵���Ĺ�ϵ.ts, it returns rm: cannot remove '�������ѹ�͵���Ĺ�ϵ.ts': No such file or directory

I also try to use the adb shell executive rm �������ѹ�͵���Ĺ�ϵ.ts still get the same results

When I try to delete the entire directory rm ./Download -r, the terminal returns

rm: ��ˮ䰴���.docx: No such file or directory
rm: �������ѹ�͵���Ĺ�ϵ.ts: No such file or directory

Commands such as' rm *.docx 'are invalid

Eventually I tried it

$ ls -i
320255 \241\266ˮ䰴\253\241\267.docx  449669 \265\347\301\367\323\353\265\347ѹ\272͵\347\327\350\265Ĺ\330ϵ.ts
$ find -inum 320255 -delete
$ ls
\241\266ˮ䰴\253\241\267.docx  \265\347\301\367\323\353\265\347ѹ\272͵\347\327\350\265Ĺ\330ϵ.ts

Although there is no error message when executed, the file still exists after ls again.

I also try find./ -inum 320255 -print -exec rm {} \\; or other similar instructions. I get the same result (no errors but the file still exists)

I also tried to change the encoding of the terminal but without success.

Did you manage to resolve this issue?

I have the same problem with a . webm file. I proved this:
rm -i *.webm

And worked!
So try this
rm -i *.ts
rm -i *.docx

I think this happened because there are characters not fully recognized by the terminal.
Hope it helps!

I think you're hitting problems because you have single-quote characters as part of the filenames. First, make sure you have only the two problematic files in the directory, cd there in the ADB shell, do an ls -A to make sure there isn't anything else in the directory, and then do
rm -i *

That will prompt you to confirm each deletion, and may well do the job.

The problem is that the * is expanded by the shell not by the rm command, thus most likely it will cause the same problems.

I tried to execute it, but it still gave me an error:
a52xq:/storage/self/primary/Download $ rm -i *
rm ��ˮ䰴���.docx (y/N):y
rm: ��ˮ䰴���.docx: No such file or directory
rm �������ѹ�͵���Ĺ�ϵ.ts (y/N):y
rm: �������ѹ�͵���Ĺ�ϵ.ts: No such file or directory

Here's a different answer. Again, make sure you have only the two problematic files in the directory, cd there in the ADB shell, and do an ls -A to make sure there isn't anything else in the directory. Then try this:
ls -b

That should get you the files' names with fully-escaped characters. If that seems to work, try this:
rm -i $(ls -b)

Unfortunately, it still gives an error: a52xq:/storage/self/primary/Download $ ls -a
\241\266ˮ䰴\253\241\267.docx   \265\347\301\367\323\353\265\347ѹ\272͵\347\327\350\265Ĺ\330ϵ.ts
a52xq:/storage/self/primary/Download $ ls -b
\241\266ˮ䰴\253\241\267.docx  \265\347\301\367\323\353\265\347ѹ\272͵\347\327\350\265Ĺ\330ϵ.ts
a52xq:/storage/self/primary/Download $ rm -i $(ls -b)
rm: \241\266ˮ䰴\253\241\267.docx: No such file or directory
rm: \265\347\301\367\323\353\265\347ѹ\272͵\347\327\350\265Ĺ\330ϵ.ts: No such file or directory


text:
How to restore Contacts from a filesystem backup?
I make filesystem backups of /data/ and am trying to restore my contacts.
Contacts appear to be stored in /data/data/user_de/0/com.android.providers.contacts/, specifically its database/contacts2.db.
Manually restoring this directory however does not appear to work.
The data is 1:1 the same but, upon opening the contacts app, all contacts are wiped from the db.
How can I restore contacts from a filesystem backup such that they're not wiped by Android?

In order to restore contacts (and other providers for that matter it seems), you must restore all content com.android.provider.* directories under both /data/data/ and /data/user_de/0/.
When I do that, all my contacts are in the contacts app as they should be.
SMS messages, call history etc. are also restored.
(It is possible there is a specific subset of directories that are sufficient aswell but I didn't pursue this further as you'd usually want SMS etc. to also be restored, so might as well restore all content providers.)


text:
Using S-pen (Samsung stylus pen) to annotate books in Amazon Kindle App
I have an Samsung Galaxy Note S22 Ultra and a Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE. My goal is to annotate E-books from Amazon with my S-Pen. Can I do that on these devices?
Unfortunately, I do not see any possibilities to do so in the official Amazon Kindle App.
Please help if you know how to do it. Are there any alternative apps that will let me annotate E-books?

Amazon Kindle does allow for highlighting sentences and also adding a "note", usually in text form. What about, taking a screenshot and then opening it in a paint app to draw over?

I would like to annotate mathematics books with my handwritten remarks, as a student, and also to fill in spaces in a language study textbook by hand, so taking screenshots and using an alternative viewer for the annotation is too time consuming and also for later documentation of study efforts rather impractical.

And another e-book reader won't work because the books are presumably purchased via Amazon?

@AP that is exactly the case.

There is a new kindle version called kindle scribe, but I would like to avoid purchasing another device, since I am a collector of antiques, not of modern electronic devices. Amazon may consider an obvious fix for their android kindle app.


text:
What's this "S" notification meant for?

Attached screen shot of mobile notifications. Need to know what's S notification?


text:
Android Accessibility Suite Doesn't Remember App Settings
Okay so, I have a Unihertz Jelly Star running Android 13.
Because it has such a small screen, I'd like the ability to quickly toggle auto rotation. If I could add it as one of the functions on the reprogrammable shortcut button that would be ideal, but I can't find a way to easily do that. So I went with the next best thing I could find.
I installed Button Remapper from the play store. This works well enough. I can set it to toggle rotation with a double tap of one of the volume buttons or a tap-and-hold of the app switcher button, easy peasy. There's just one little caveat. Android Accessibility Suite doesn't remember the settings. If the phone is sitting idle, or I'm on it and haven't used the toggle for a little bit, the Accessibility Suite settings to enable Button Remapper to make changes switches itself off.
I've switched both Button Remapper and Android Accessibility Suite to 'Unrestricted' under battery usage. Button Remapper initially had 'Pause App Activity if Unused' enabled by default, so I switched that off. It has made no difference whatsoever. Currently I have the accessibility shortcut to enable it by holding both volume buttons, so when it disables itself, I can quickly turn it back on again. But at that point I might as well just use the auto rotation toggle in the notification pull shade. I just want a quick, easy hardware (nothing obstructing the screen) toggle I can use from anywhere that I can just set and forget.
Is there something I'm overlooking here? Or am I just SOL & just need to bite the bullet and go back to using the damn notification pullshade toggle?
Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated <3

Seeing there's another issue of files suddenly disappear after being downloaded on Unihertz Jelly Star?, I'm afraid they implemented something on the OS/system-level that reverted many things...


text:
How connect faster in XMPP Video Calls?
It takes 10 to 30 seconds to establish a connection, when I call another user for a video call via XMPP. I tried different devices. clients and servers.
As soon as the connection is settled, I see no limitations in the video conference and the video streams at full resolution.
My last test was with GrapheneOS on a Pixel 6a and Conversation as client both in the same Wireless LAN and the Users had accounts on the same server.
How can I find out the cause for the long delay?
How can I make it faster?

Have you checked if direct communication between Wifi clients is allowed? Some routers, especially in open Wifis or guest networks block direct client-to-client traffic. For getting more details I would recommend to make a Pcap/Wireshark capture of a traffic of the clients. If the delay is caused by some network timeouts then you may see that in the network capture.

@Robert yes, the connection is perfect. I also tried it with different devices and in different networks. It seems to me that the first handshake takes very long.


text:
Downgrade an apk with different signature, without root
I'm trying to do the following things to an Android app without root access:

De-compile the apk with adb d xxx.apk (done)
Modify some files in /res/xml/ (done)
Re-build the apk with adb b xxx (done)
Sign the apk (keytool + zipalign + apksigner)
Downgrade with adb push xxx.apk /data/local/tmp/ & adb shell pm install -r -d /data/local/tmp/xxx.apk

I'm able to sign the apk with my own keypair, but I don't want to uninstall & re-install the apk to install the modified version -- I want to downgrade the original app to preserve the data.
However, step 5 produces:
Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_UPDATE_INCOMPATIBLE: Existing package xxx signatures do not match newer version; ignoring!]

It seems like downgrade app's old & new version must have the same signature. Is there anyway to bypass this check, or solve this situation?
I read this question: How do I force reinstallation of an apk with different signature on rooted Android?
... but it requires root access.

Related: Does adb install do APK signature verification?. You are trying to circumvent the security model on Android so root access is generally a starting point.

@MorrisonChang Thank you for your reply (and previous reply ;) ). I do understand the situation, but I've used some commercial software (e.g., Cellebrite UFED) which are able to do the exact thing without root (Cellebrite UFED Apk Downgrade), and so I'm curious about how it could do this. There should be a way (either "legitimate" or "illegitimate" -- e.g. security vulnerability) to do so...?

I watched the video for "Cellebrite UFED Apk Downgrade" and they called it a 'last resort option' for Android 12 forensics. My guess is that they are doing an APK backup and then using a older publisher signed APK which has some vulnerability to extract the data. I would also not rule out root access vulnerabilities. If you do want to find such 'vulnerabilities' that would depend on the device/ROM version and unlikely to be public for recent devices due to the security implications via governments/corporate espionage/forensics companies.

Ah.. so they save a list of supported apps which had a vulnerable old official version, and downgrade to that. This makes sense, since I actually tried Cellebrite apk downgrade on my own device, which is running the newest android os build on Samsung S22U, which should not have any os/hardware/kernel level vulnerability.

Per my link in the comments on @Izzy answer indicate the adb backup is deprecated on Android 12 although it is unclear if that is just on PC side or also on device side as well, so a modified adb server may work for data backup. Generally the more recent the version of Android the more hardened it has become.

@MorrisonChang To my knowledge the adb backup restrictions exist on Android 12 on device side and are triggered by the app targetSDK version: See my answer on that topic: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/231237/2241


text:
Issue in Lineage OS 20 : OmxStore: omx common prefix: no nodes
I am not able to screen record in lineage 20 and i am getting error with OpenMax component. Omx (OpenMAX) Component Node not initiating that's why not getting "OMX" as an omx common prefix and also not creating Component instance for video encoding.
Please check attach logs below.
D GoldfishOMXPlugin: called createOMXPlugin for Goldfish
D GoldfishOMXPlugin: useOmxCodecs 54 found prop debug.stagefright.ccodec val 0
D GoldfishOMXPlugin: useAndroidGoldfishComponentInstance 85 found prop ro.boot.qemu.hwcodec.vpxdec val 2
D GoldfishOMXPlugin: found and use kComponents[i].name OMX.android.goldfish.vp8.decoder
D GoldfishOMXPlugin: useAndroidGoldfishComponentInstance 85 found prop ro.boot.qemu.hwcodec.vpxdec val 2
D GoldfishOMXPlugin: found and use kComponents[i].name OMX.android.goldfish.vp9.decoder
D GoldfishOMXPlugin: useAndroidGoldfishComponentInstance 85 found prop ro.boot.qemu.hwcodec.avcdec val 2
D GoldfishOMXPlugin: found and use kComponents[i].name OMX.android.goldfish.h264.decoder
D GoldfishOMXPlugin: enumerate OMX.android.goldfish.vp8.decoder component
D GoldfishOMXPlugin: enumerate OMX.android.goldfish.vp9.decoder component
D GoldfishOMXPlugin: enumerate OMX.android.goldfish.h264.decoder component
I SoftOMXPlugin: createOMXPlugin
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: parsing /vendor/etc/media_codecs.xml...
I servicemanager: Found android.hardware.radio.data.IRadioData/slot1 in device VINTF manifest.
I servicemanager: Found android.hardware.radio.messaging.IRadioMessaging/slot1 in device VINTF manifest.
I servicemanager: Found android.hardware.radio.modem.IRadioModem/slot1 in device VINTF manifest.
I servicemanager: Found android.hardware.radio.network.IRadioNetwork/slot1 in device VINTF manifest.
I servicemanager: Found android.hardware.radio.sim.IRadioSim/slot1 in device VINTF manifest.
I servicemanager: Found android.hardware.radio.voice.IRadioVoice/slot1 in device VINTF manifest.
I servicemanager: Found android.hardware.radio.config.IRadioConfig/default in device VINTF manifest.
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: Ignoring unrecognized tag <MediaCodec> at line 85 of /vendor/etc/media_codecs.xml
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: Ignoring unrecognized tag <MediaCodec> at line 88 of /vendor/etc/media_codecs.xml
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: Ignoring unrecognized tag <MediaCodec> at line 91 of /vendor/etc/media_codecs.xml
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: Ignoring unrecognized tag <MediaCodec> at line 95 of /vendor/etc/media_codecs.xml
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: Ignoring unrecognized tag <MediaCodec> at line 98 of /vendor/etc/media_codecs.xml
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: Ignoring unrecognized tag <MediaCodec> at line 101 of /vendor/etc/media_codecs.xml
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: Ignoring unrecognized tag <MediaCodec> at line 104 of /vendor/etc/media_codecs.xml
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: parsing /vendor/etc/media_codecs_google_audio.xml...
I bt_vhci_forwarder: ignore 0xff packet
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: parsing /vendor/etc/media_codecs_google_telephony.xml...
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: parsing /vendor/etc/media_codecs_google_video.xml...
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: parsing /vendor/etc/media_codecs_performance.xml...
I MediaCodecsXmlParser: Did not find media_codecs_shaping.xml in search path
I HidlServiceManagement: Registered android.hardware.media.omx@1.0::IOmx/default
I HidlServiceManagement: Removing namespace from process name android.hardware.media.omx@1.0-service to omx@1.0-service.
I android.hardware.media.omx@1.0-service: IOmx HAL service created.
I OmxStore: omx common prefix: no nodes
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: parsing /vendor/etc/media_codecs.xml...
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: Ignoring unrecognized tag <MediaCodec> at line 85 of /vendor/etc/media_codecs.xml
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: Ignoring unrecognized tag <MediaCodec> at line 88 of /vendor/etc/media_codecs.xml
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: Ignoring unrecognized tag <MediaCodec> at line 91 of /vendor/etc/media_codecs.xml
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: Ignoring unrecognized tag <MediaCodec> at line 95 of /vendor/etc/media_codecs.xml
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: Ignoring unrecognized tag <MediaCodec> at line 98 of /vendor/etc/media_codecs.xml
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: Ignoring unrecognized tag <MediaCodec> at line 101 of /vendor/etc/media_codecs.xml
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: Ignoring unrecognized tag <MediaCodec> at line 104 of /vendor/etc/media_codecs.xml
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: parsing /vendor/etc/media_codecs_google_audio.xml...
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: parsing /vendor/etc/media_codecs_google_telephony.xml...
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: parsing /vendor/etc/media_codecs_google_video.xml...
D MediaCodecsXmlParser: parsing /vendor/etc/media_codecs_performance.xml...
I MediaCodecsXmlParser: Did not find media_codecs_shaping.xml in search path
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.aac.decoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.amrnb.decoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.amrwb.decoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.flac.decoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.g711.alaw.decoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.g711.mlaw.decoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.gsm.decoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.mp3.decoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.opus.decoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.raw.decoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.vorbis.decoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.aac.encoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.amrnb.encoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.amrwb.encoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.flac.encoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.android.goldfish.h264.decoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.h264.decoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.h263.decoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.hevc.decoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.mpeg4.decoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.android.goldfish.vp8.decoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.vp8.decoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.android.goldfish.vp9.decoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.vp9.decoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.h264.encoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.h263.encoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.mpeg4.encoder] not found in IOmx
I OmxStore: node [OMX.google.vp8.encoder] not found in IOmx

Anyone have any solution for this, Please provide.
I am debugging and checking but not found proper solution.

Also posted on Stack Overflow: https://stackoverflow.com/q/77513893/2821954

Could you [edit] and mention how you are trying to record the screen and the device model? Have you searched if this is perhaps a known issue of this OS build?


text:
Getting /sbin/sh: parted: not found error
So I am trying to resize my system partition on my Huawei P10 because the ROM I want to use is bigger than the current partition. I pushed gdisk and parted with ADB, but for some reason I can't run it in shell even though it's clearly there. See image attached

EDIT: I just had to copy the file into sbin, but now I get a permission denied error

Seems like Android is the first Linux system you are working with. On Linux files can only be executed if they have the eXecutable bit set your the own, the owner-group or other. Use chmod to set.

Possibly related/duplicate: How to run "parted" command in terminal emulator on my android smartphone


text:
Lenovo tablet stuck on a screen with Chinese letters
My Lenovo tablet, the new version, was dead and so I turned on my tablet accidentally using the volume button. When it turned on, I saw a bunch of Chinese-looking letters and I accidentally pressed an option, but now it’s stuck like that. I don’t know what to do, it won’t let me turn on or off. Volume button or anything won’t help.
I did a Google scan to translate what it says and it means “Speaker resistance correction.” I don’t know what to do.
Is it just going to be stuck like that?

Normally the last menu entry is "Exit" or something like that. You can also try to press and hold power for up to one minute.

Possibly related/duplicate: Strange chinese menu on Lenovo IdeaTab S6000


text:
android wifi hotspot custom ip not working
if i add a ip address on my wifi hotspot interface with ip a add 192.168.20.1/24 dev wlan1 (in a root shell), i then can't ping it (or connect to it in any way) from my laptop that is in the same hotspot network with ip 192.168.20.20.
with tcpdump on the phone i see, the icmp requests coming in from 192.168.20.20 to 192.168.20.1, but they are just ignored by the phone.
This led me to believe that it has to do with some kind of firewall so i tried on my phone:

iptables -I INPUT -i wlan1 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I OUTPUT -o wlan1 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I FORWARD -i wlan1 -o wlan1 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -d 192.168.20.1 -j ACCEPT

But no luck.
Does anyone have any idea, what makes android just ignore traffic destined for ips added with the ip command?
(phone: Fairphone4 with Lineageos 20-20230625-NIGHTLY-FP4, android-version: 13)


text:
Auto voice reply when someone calls you?
I'm looking for a way to have something reply instantly when the number gets called. Hopefully, the reply will be randomized based on 10< available replies, but any starting point is fine.
I'd rather it be compatible with Messenger and/or Viber, but I understand that it's a hard sell. Also, I've seen Google Voice, but I'm not sure if it can work in this instance? If it could, please help show how


text:
How to increase microphone level?
I just installed a custom ROM and everything is working fine except my microphone is very quiet in audio recording and voice messages.
Works fine on calls.
I've read on XDA that it can be fixed by editing mixer_paths.xml but I don't know which strings to edit.
Any help appreciated.


text:
Is there any way to disable these suggestions in Google Keep?
On my Android, Google Keep suggesting some items on checklists.

On my web browser for PC, I was able to disable these with a Ublock filter. However, on the Android app obviously, that won't work.
Is there any way to disable these suggestions in Google Keep?

According to Google Support - Don't Suggest Shopping List Items,

There is no native method to prevent Google Keep from suggesting shopping list items. [...]. In order to solve my problem, I had to work around it. Here are my steps for Android 13:

Go to Google Assistant settings.
Go to Notes & Lists
Go to "Select your notes & lists provider."
From the app selection, choose an app that is not currently installed on your phone.

Now that Keep is no longer your phone's notes and lists provider, checklists behave as checklists - only.

I believe I did that already, but when trying to check again I get a "403" error when opening Notes & Lists.  That was last night.   I tried it again right now and same thing.  Google sucks!


text:
Is there a way to route notification to the phone speaker when connected to a Bluetooth speaker?
I often listen to music/radio on my Bluetooth speaker.  Everytime a message is received the music mutes and I hear a very loud notification sound.  I would like the music to continue and the notification sound to play on the phone's speakers.
Is there a way to achieve this?

No, there isn't, AFAIK.


text:
My camera app keeps replacing pictures I took on my Samsung Note 22 Ultra
I have a very weird and extremely annoying problem with the camera app on my Samsung Note 22 Ultra.
When I take pictures with my camera app, it first shows the correct picture that I want to take when I press the camera shutter button. However, after a few seconds of showing that picture, it changes to a picture taken a few moments later, deleting the original picture.
So my question is, what might be the issue of this and if I have some weird setting turned on? It is evident that the camera takes the initial picture that I want (as it is displayed on my screen for a few seconds), but then I have no idea why it switches to another picture and the original picture is lost. This happens when I take pictures of moving subjects.
Thank you for any suggestions.

I remember that some camera apps have AI features where the app takes multiple pictures when triggered and then chose then uses AI to chose the "best" one of the series. Alternatively you could try to simply delete app data of the camera app. That will reset the camera app to (hopefully) safe default settings.

Is it possible that what you call the "preview" function is actually a "naming" function, in which you can substitute with a meaningful name? Possibly it is substituting a previous picture's name from a list because an errant thumb or finger triggered it?

Might be related: Galaxy Camera: How Do I use the Best Photo feature?, though I can't say if this feature is still available in the latest Galaxy Camera.


text:
Samsung Galaxy A52s (Android 13) has been playing the default ringtone for the past month twice (sometimes more) a day
My Samsung Galaxy A52s (Android 13) has been playing the default ringtone for the past month twice (sometimes more) a day.
I've tried checking the Nice Catch module that helps keep records of what apps make what sounds but it doesn't show up there. I've also tried checking the permissions manager to see what apps have used the phone app permission they have to trigger the ring, but that also was a dead end.
How to identify the source of the sound?


text:
Any way to force cellular network refresh?
Cellular coverage where I live is very spotty, to the effect I can essentially draw lines on a map and say "on this side, I probably have coverage, while on the other side I almost certainly don't". Naturally, crossing one of these lines (almost always) results in losing coverage.
The inverse, unfortunately, is not true; once I lose coverage, it takes several minutes before I have a cellular connection again, even if I've been in an area that should have coverage.
Switching into and back out of airplane mode almost always gets the connection back sooner.
Now... this actually makes sense. IIUC, trying to get a connection, especially if coverage is poor, takes power, and so to conserve battery, once connectivity is lost, phones implement a delay before trying again. Whereas coming out of airplane mode, the phone obviously hasn't been trying at all, and it would normally be the case that coverage is available and you don't want to wait several minutes before trying to establish a connection. Thus, the 'toggle airplane mode hack' overrides the usual delay between connection attempts.
IIRC it's also possible to fiddle with the network settings in order to make the phone try for a connection more frequently, but I don't want it wasting power if I'm actually sitting somewhere that has poor/no coverage. I also don't like the airplane mode 'trick' because it's slow and disconnects other networks that I might be using.
Is there another way to make an Android phone try to reconnect to cellular service "now"? (If it matters, I have Android 13 with Samsung One UI 5.1.)


text:
How can I import a VCARD file (contact information) via a QR code into Android contacts?
I would like to generate a QR code for my contact information to put on a website or my phone to show people. They should be able to scan it and import it automatically to their phone contacts. All I have found on the internet were solutions converting a VCARD text into a QR code. QR code scanners parse it as a text (scan works) but they are not able to parse it as contact information and pass it on the contacts app to be imported. I wonder how to manage this.
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1
N;CHARSET=utf-8:Doe;John;;;
FN;CHARSET=utf-8:John Doe
ORG;CHARSET=utf-8:Dunder Mifflin
TITLE;CHARSET=utf-8:Manager
URL;WORK:dunder.com
EMAIL;WORK:john@dunder.com
TEL;CELL:+15551122334
ADR;WORK;CHARSET=utf-8:;;;Scranton;;;USA
END:VCARD

Edit: hosting the VCF file with the correct mime type let's you download the file and import it. But this is unnecessarily cumbersome. I think that a direct import from the QR code should be possible.

Might be related: What vCard formats/versions and encodings are supported for import?

Are you open to other formats?  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MeCard_(QR_code) is more compact and works for me.

It was definitely worth a try. Turns out that like a VCard some apps can recognize it while the camera app wasn't but the suggested app can also parse MeCard. Nevertheless, compacted code is of course better, therefore MeCard has a clear advantage.

Just as a clarification for the other answers:
This will depend on the app you use to scan the code - that app must support the VCARD format.
On recent Android versions (since Android 8, I believe) the standard camera app supplied by Google or the manufacturer usually supports QR codes, and also supports the VCARD format - so if you use stock Android, the camera app should work.
If your camera app does not support VCARD QR codes (for example the app in some versions of LineageOS), you can use a dedicated code scanning app which does. Some examples:

QR Scanner (PFA), available in Google Play and also on F-Droid
Barcode Scanner, available on F-Droid

On recent Android versions the camera app has a built-in QR code reader. If you point the camera on the QR code a small text containing the contact name John Doe - as shown in the screenshot (from a Pixel4a running Android 13).
If the user taps on the name a dialog opens that asks what to do with the contact, e.g. adding it to the default address book (Google Contacts).

My lineageos camera app has the integrated QR code scanner as well but it does not offer an option to import into contacts. I downloaded another scanner application, this did not manage either. It is often recognized as "TEXT". There are Android users without Google as well.

@VPNer: Yes, it depends on the app you use. I added a clarifying answer.

I have by chance stumbled upon this app on F-Droid, which can import it.
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.secuso.privacyFriendlyCodeScanner/
It appears that the Vcard and the QR code were fine but LineageOS integrated scanner and another app I tried were not able to recognize a VCard.


text:
Screen capture on Android using Android SDK
I am trying to take a screen capture of my android phone when it plays a video, with native resolution and minimum overhead. But when I use Android Studio's record option as seen below, the recorded video shows frame drops compared to the actual video seen on the device. I guess it's because device is already at high-performance and can't keep up with this request especially that Android Studio is also showing the video here.
Is there a way to do any better? Can we do it directly with Android SDK through CLI maybe that way there will be less overhead and we'll get a better video recording? Or alternatively, any apps could do it?

As always what you trying to record does depend on what hardware you using and what app(s) you are running on the device at the same time (i.e. play a video). So trying to capture a 1:1 video of the screen in 30/60+ fps may not be possible.
A. Using only adb you can follow How to do screen record on android without apps? which while an older answer the Android Developer adb page link is still valid.
B. Similar to Android Studio's screen recording but with more features is scrcpy which is more general screen projection/control tool
C. If you have a device with Android 11 and up you may be able to record directly on the device via a Quick Settings Tile as documented: https://support.google.com/android/answer/9075928

Record your phone screen

Swipe down from the top of your screen.

Tap Screen record .

You might need to swipe right to find it.
If it's not there, tap Edit and drag Screen record to your Quick Settings.

Choose what you want to record and tap Start. The recording begins after the countdown.

You can choose whether to record audio and show touches on the screen before you start.

To stop recording, swipe down from the top of the screen and tap the Screen recorder notification

Oh I didn't notice the phone's screen recorder, option 3. It was good! Tnx.


text:
Why do I keep receiving blank texts from a specific contact that they are NOT sending?
My mom and I have been texting all day and for quite some time I thought my mom was horsing around with me and beating around the bush to tell me something. I noticed though that it kept happening even afterwards during normal conversation. I started to become annoyed and ask her what the heck she kept sending me the blank messages for and HOW because I also had noticed my phone won't even show the send button until I start to type characters not just space. She then thought I was pulling one over on her now. Just imagine the conversation okay. Haha. I took a screenshot to show her and to her surprise , on my phone it shows her sending me umteen blank text messages in-between her real ones. BUT they aren't coming from her nor are they on her phone either. Weird right ? Right.

Are you sure the messages are sent as SMS (not as RCS or using a different messenger?)? Could a problem with the sending SMS app. In case of SMS larger than 160 characters, they have to be split up into multiple SMS, may be the sending SMS app has a defect split algorithm and i the end sends one full SMS and one empty?

We might need to know both your and your mom's device model and SMS operator since they might affect the behavior, e.g. Receiving Chinese blocks of texts in the Messaging app, String of jumbled text is appended to every incoming SMS with Project Fi, Broken OTP SMS on Xiaomi


text:
Location history altering
Is there any telltale signs I could look for while reviewing someone's location timeline to see if it has been modified or altered in any way?


text:
Unable to access High-Power USB device connected via USB OTG
I have a Samsung A52 [SM-A525F/DS] phone, a USB A to type C OTG cable. I wanted to connect my Audio Interface to the phone via the OTG. Audio Interface has 2 USB port, 1 for power and the other for data transfer. The Audio Interface powered from separate power supply. The problem is whenever i tried to connect it to the phone using the OTG cable, my phone always show 2 messages:
The first messages are:

Android System
Charging connected device via USB
Tap for other options.

The second messages are:

Android System
High-power USB device connected
Unable to access this device. Connected device needs external power supply

What have I done wrong here? Is there anything I missed in this step?

You have to believe what the Android is telling you.  The Audio device is trying to suck too much power.  I can see two options

Either you have connected the power cable from the Audio to the Phone
The Audio device is not separating the power received on one plug from the other.

If this is the case, it could damage your phone.
Try using a USB hub to isolate the Audio device

Thank you, sir. I will try get some powered USB Hub and see if this will solve my problems. I will share the results here.


text:
Is it possible to take a screenshot or audio/video recording of a Zoom meeting?
When being invited to join a Zoom meeting on an Android phone, is it possible to take a screenshot or audio/video recording of the meeting, using any other applications installed on the phone?


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How to recreate partitions, like system_a?
I deleted the system_a partition on my Xiaomi device, and when flashing GSI, it says:
E:\platform-tools_r34.0.5-windows\platform-tools>fastboot erase system
Erasing 'system'                                   FAILED (remote: 'Partition doesn't exist')
fastboot: error: Command failed


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In LineageOS, how to remove the redundant navigation bar line?
I flashed NikGApps on LineageOS 20 on my Samsung Tab S6 Lite, with Pixel Launcher replacing Trebuchet. I get double lines in the navigation bar.

The upper larger line seems to come from Google Pixel Launcher and is functional to show quick app drawer. The lower smaller one seems to be a remnant of the Trebuchet launcher and is always there.
Can I get rid of the small line?

I don't think it's a remnant of Trebuchet, but instead the UI framework of Samsung (and other ROMs) when using gesture navigation. The line appears on both of my Samsung and Pixel devices regardless of the home screen.

Thanks for the insight. Is there then some way (like Magisk module) to hide the short line?

As Andrew T. pointed out, the redundant navbar line is from SystemUI and can therefore be removed by installing the Magisk module "Fullscreen/Immersive Gestures (Q-U)" and choose "Fullscreen" mode while installing.


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Samsung Galaxy S I1500 Stuck on boot screen
I have this used Verizon Galaxy S, and one day it locked up on the home screen, and when i rebooted it, it was stuck on the boot screen, is my phone completely cooked or is there a way to fix this?
edit: here's  video https://youtu.be/8E9orCfVaFg

Did it happen once or is still stuck?

Is it stuck on the very first boot screen that appears after powering it on?

Hey! thanks for the questions. Yes, it's still happening, and it doesn't get past the Verizon logo where it keeps playing the boot animation, i'll have to post a video about it so i can show you what's going on.