text:
Developer options will not appear despite clicking Build Number
I am going to "About Phone" -> "Software Information" and clicking "Build Number" and am presented with a message saying "No need, developer mode has already been enabled".
However I do not see developer mode anywhere, there is no settings menu entry for it and the search menu for "developer" or "usb debug" brings up nothing. It truly is just not there. I have gone to apps and cleared the cache and data for the settings app but still I'm produced with the same message. I have installed applications that claim to open the developer options, but all "error out" in their own way.
I have tried "Reset Settings" with no luck.
I did turn on developer mode about a year ago to see what it did, so that explains why I'm getting that it is already enabled - but the menu option has gone.
I'm wondering if anyone has hit this issue or has suggestions outside of factory reset? I have been searching online but have not found the solution.

Run adb shell settings put global development_settings_enabled 1.

@IrfanLatif Thank you for the reply, but where? The USB debug option is not enabled in my Phone so my computer cannot recognise the device to run adb against.

My bad. I forgot to mention “if you have root access”

Does this answer your question? You are already a developer/but no developer options

@Robert Unfortunately the answers inside have not helped :/


text:
Install MIUI PlayStore using Google Installer, got error: can't downgrade apps for google play service
In my old Xiaomi device, Mi Note2, Mi Mix2, to install google play store, I just run the google installer. It will install everything needed automatically. However recently, I tried to run Google installer on Mi 10, in the step of installing google play service, it's blocked with the following error message: "can't downgrade apps", seems a later version of google play service is already pre-installed. How can I bypass this error?

After struggling for a while, I finally successfully installed Google play store. The solution is very simple. We don't need Google installer anymore as Google play service is already installed in the later MIUI version (In my case is MIUI 11), we can directly install Google play store from the APK downloaded from APK websites such as apkmirror.com. After Google play store is installed.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
App from playstore run but same apk crashes on sideload install
On my noughat device, I have downloaded app from playstore, which is running great. Extract apk from install app, uninstall it and again succussfully install with package installer. But second time on app launch, it crashes. I have analyse both installation with apk analyzer. First one showing com.android.vending as installer and application source as "Google Play". Sideload installation showing com.google.android.packageinstaller and source Unkown.
My first thought is that developer dont want to install app from unknown source to avoid MOD app or pirate release etc. and checking programatically for these parameter. I have decompile to java but no found any clue where condition is checking and exception generated.
There is a permission BIND_GET_INSTALL_REFERRER_SERVICE, may be its causing crash. I know how to decompile and some smali editing and alread change verifyinstallation method to true in smali but app still crashing.

If it is a paid app the app may simply check if your Google account has a valid license for the app. This is AFAIK the way Google recommends for app developers to protect their app from being pirated.

Thanks robert. its not paid app. There us no license issue. App developer made it secure to be install only from playstore. There are many tools available on playstore, which extract apk file from installed app. if somehow, we uninstall app then extracted/backup apk can directly install same app. Each appncan be install and use in thus manner, but first time, i have seen app, which function as expected when we install it from platstore, but not work properly or hang, same app install from apj (sideload)

App is clickmate, if anyone check and test it

Please do not only post the app name (which can be ambiguous). Always post the PlayStore link to the app you are talking about. I found a "clickmate" app in PlayStore and it has In-App purchases. Hence it is something like a paid app. May be what you have observed is just a bug.

In-app is simply google billing system, which is used for purchasing additional feature of app, or converting free version to premium or pro version. If its game them levels can be unlocked, coins/gold can be purchase. Wherese PAID APP mean it can not be downloaded, until we pay before it. Therefore clickmate offering sone feature in free version. Its not bug because app somewhere in its code and module, checking for installation source and I did not found these checking in decompile code

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


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Is there really no true FM radio without earphones?
I am looking for an offline FM radio without antenna.
It was definitely possible on older devices with Android Jelly Bean, but I look for a non-root solution.
I know that FM radio requires a 75 cm antenna, that's why the stock FM radio app is forcing me to plug in earphones. But I need another app which ignores this physical requirement.
I see no reason why it shouldn't work for Android 7. But all the offline UKW/FM radio apps I found in Playstore are lying, these are just online radio apps, not using the built-in fm radio hardware.

Try this or this or others - all are from Izzy's lists

Related: Radio without the headset, How to play FM Radio app without earphone? and also on Quora, Why don't phones have a built-in FM antenna?. The earphone works as an antenna; so without the antenna, I'm not really sure what the FM Radio app will output the sound. On the other hand, your older devices (if we may know) might be an exception having an in-built FM antenna.

As Andrew pointed out, you need an antenna. Previous comment was wrt last line of question

@AndrewT.♦ it is working fine without antenna with just jack. but my device is waterproof and i don't want to keep open rubber lib seal all the time

@AndrewT. Sorry for the late reaction. There is some antenna in all the devices, inside the phone. FM radio requires a longer one, because its longer wavelength (smaller frequency, typically about 100 MHz, contrary to the some GHz digital signals). This is too much for an antenna to exist in a typical phone size. This is why some solution for an external antenna is needed. However, actually also a shorter antenna could work, but it might decrease the quality (possibly hugely). Getting the FM signal requires some hardware support, this is built into most devices.

This is essentially an analogous FM signal -> digital bitstream converter. The question is, how is this hardware configured. Possibly it only can use the earphone receiver, but it is not sure. If not, if it bound on the hw-level also with the builtin antenna, then a low quality FM signal read might be possible. Possibly it would require a driver change/reconfiguration. possibly not. Probably the chances are better if the device itself is big ( -> there is more place for the builtin antenna). Probably the quality of the received signal will be bad, maybe very bad.

The Redmi Note 9 radio works without earphones plugged in.
Does not do much else like work as a phone but the radio works.

indeed com.miui.fm works without antenna, thx!


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How can I record internal audio?
When I try use recording apps to record audio that comes from another app they don't work - actually the recording doesn't start at all. so how can i record this audio output?
I am looking for a solution for android 8.

It requires root AFAIK. Is your device rooted? Which is the device?

It's MOTO G6 , not rooted.

As far as I know, Google policy don't allow internal audio recording on Android.
But here are some tips:
Some phones have the feature within their UI like MIUI or EMUI or Samsung. But you may not hear the sounds while internal audio is recorded.
Also, you can try Elgato game capture card. Many other apps are available (but they frequently need Root though.)
Use audio splitter. You may connect one to headphones to hear what you are recording. Connect other to PC through aux cable and record in Windows. Use any screen recorder to record screen and finally mix the audio and video file.

Connecting to a  PC is an easy solution!


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OK Google Voice Match not working
On my Samsung Galaxy S8, my phone no longer responds when I say "OK Google"
The voice match settings don't work, I found device-specific settings and can attempt to set voice match up there, but when it does voice training and I say "OK Google" it does not proceed.
EDIT:
I didn't have S Voice installed. Bixby is a stock app and I don't think I enabled it on this (or any of my) phone(s). I worked before regardless. I'll double check anyway. I uninstalled Alexa and Cortana. Updated Google App and all permissions were enabled. I toggled the Microphone option off and back on. Google Assistant app said no permissions required. Still the same result unfortunately.

I'm having exact same experience, seems to have started following recent Google app update. I'm also on an S8. Any luck?

If you have a Bixby or S Voice installed and would prefer to use Google's voice assistant instead, your best bet might be to disable Bixby or S Voice on your device entirely. And if you’ve downloaded Alexa, Cortana, or any other voice assistant on your phone, either disable or delete it.
Also, make sure the Google app is updated to the latest version. Also make sure to grant all permissions for the Google app by going to Settings > Apps > Google app > Permissions (the path may differ from model to model)

I didn't have S Voice installed. Bixby is a stock app and I don't think I enabled it on this (or any of my) phone(s). I worked before regardless. I'll double check anyway. I uninstalled Alexa and Cortana. Updated Google App and all permissions were enabled. I toggled the Microphone option off and back on. Google Assistant app said no permissions required. Still the same result unfortunately.


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Can't unlock tablet
I've got this Estar Beauty HD Quad-Core tablet running android kitkat (4.4) and I've recentlyforgotten my unlock pattern. I've forgotten my google account so I can't unlock it with google. It also can't boot into  recovery mode.
 pls help!
I really need that tablet!
Thank you!

What do you mean it cannot boot into recovery mode?

I turn it off then press vol -  and power button at the same time, nothing I press vol + and power button and still nothing.

I’m not familiär with Rockchip; depending on the chip manufacturer different things need to be done to get into recovery mode, eg. vol+ and vol- at the same time while pressing the power button? Power not connected? Tried multiple times? PS: Downvoting new members is not cool, especially without explanation. What did joni in particular do wrong to deserve this?

I need recovery mode because then I can factory reset the tablet.

Check the documentation of the chip manufacturer (or try what was written above).

I tried what you said but nothing. Maybe this model is so rare that you can't find an article about it on the web.


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Is it possible to determine whether a purchased phone has a new battery?
I recently purchased a Samsung phone that was listed as "factory refurbished".  Something I found on Samsung's website says that factory refurbished phones will have a new battery installed.  However, this particular phone was being sold by a 3rd party, so I would like to verify whether the battery is actually new when the phone arrives so I can take advantage of the return window if necessary.
Is it possible to determine whether the battery is new, or to gain any information that would provide evidence one way or another, using either built-in features or a third party program?

If the battery is user replaceable, you can check the production number on that and try to decode battery date. I don't know if the manufacturer numbering scheme is standardised or if the app can be trusted to decipher, so I would suggest the alternative below.
Edit Accubattery Pro gives you an indication of estimated Vs actual capacity . I have no idea how accurate it is but surely can be indicative
A reliable indicator is the battery capacity, since capacity reduces with age. A battery, even if not used loses it's capacity to hold charge, significantly, over a period of time. You can refer to question for details
How to determine maximum capacity of a battery in mAh? - received fake battery
If device is rooted, you can check if information here helps  /sys/class/power_supply/battery/

In recent Android versions most devices are required to have a current sensor, so you needn't bother about the portion of the answer, linked in second bullet point

To clarify further, present day devices have current sensor, so you can skip to the end of the answer and check using 3C Toolbox


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automatic external sdcard mounting does not occur in the Android Jelly bean
I have a Genesis 7320 tablet with Android 4.2.1 and with root () via kingo) and 1 gig of ram.
I have a 16gb microsd. I installed external_2_internal.apk, which swaps the internal memory for
of the microsd card, but it didn't work. I installed from several tutorials I found
on the Internet. I left pressing several options. I thought I would solve the ram problem with 1 gb. I ended up uninstalling the application. After that, the tablet stopped automatically mounting the microsd. I give up and you go back to using link2sd, to solve the memory problem, but I need you to the assembly of the microsd is automatic again. Can someone help me?

solved! The problem was in the sdcard.


text:
How can I install a supersu root zip on a system.img to create a pre-rooted system?
I'm looking to create a pre-rooted system.img for a specific device. running Marshmellow (6.0) on ARM.
I have a SuperSU zip for marshmellow and the compiled system.img for my device.
OK. I know you cant flash a zip to a .img - but, can i decompile the img, add the resources, and recompile?
I specifically want to know -

Most importantly, is this possible...?
If yes, What files do I need from the zip?
How do I decompile the .img while not losing any important data?
Where in the decompiled .img do I put the files from the zip?
How do I create symlinks and set the permissions for the new files?
How do I recompile the .img maintaining all linux permissions etc.?

Note, working environment is preferably windows. (although if I can get detailed instructions for Ubuntu, that'd be great too.)
This question begs quite a detailed answer, and I'll be most grateful for any assistance on the subject, even incomplete.
The device in question happens to be a VN220LTE, but I assume that the approach would be generic.

Why are you targeting system image? Just modify the kernel like topjohnwu does using Magisk. This way, system image remains unmodified.

that would definitely be better, i've looked in to it, and downloaded his app. however, the device i am targeting does not have a know root method yet, nor a custom recovery, so correct me if im wrong - i dont think that is a viable option. my only hope is to create a firmware and flash it using lg update or flashtool

rooting is easy with Magisk, your problem is other. it's a Verizon device with locked bootloader, i doubt you can flash modified boot or system https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3668054

well itd be good to answer the question for reference purposes, as there doesnt exist a clear answer out ther, as far as i can tell, and its a pretty basic question  in the realm of custom roms


text:
How can I allow my friend to see my screen using a web browser without requiring installation of any app on their or my device?
I am specifically not looking for an App. The reason is that I want to just be able to send a link to a friend without them having to download an app.
Also sharing part of the screen, for example a tab on a browser would be super useful!
If this is not possible please recite the source. I am curious mainly about the mainstream browsers(since they are usually already installed on most phones) - Chrome(and other Chromium browsers), Firefox, Safari(I know this is not Android), Samsung Internet. I would still also appreciate information on any other browser!
If you know anything about plans for the future of this feature if it does not exist I would also be interested in that!
Maybe there is there a website I can use to share my screen on Android or do phone browsers not support screen sharing? a really good example for this is Screen Meet which really goes half way, but still requires the user which shares to download an app but not the users who view the screen sharing unlike Facebook Messenger and Skype which force both users to download an app and even register. A good example for The PC is Kosmi.

sorry @beeshyams It was not suggested when I wrote screen so I assumed the tag did not exist thanks for adding it! I'll delete the screen tag and take a look at the questions there, have you come across a similar question or comment about this? I have searched the internet and found nothing so far..

@Robert this is not true, there are many apps which share the screen, e.g.  Screen Meet, Facebook Messenger and more

The W3C spec that covers screen capture for the Media API:
https://www.w3.org/TR/screen-capture/
is in Working Draft and as of May 2020 does appear to have some support on Desktop browsers but is not supported by any of the main Mobile browsers:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Screen_Capture_API


text:
My Phone restart automatically in loop without pressing power button?
Without pressing power button, my phone restarts again and again. It restarts automatically after showing the asus logo. Since the mobile restart immediately after showing asus logo, I am unable to go into fastboot mode or recovery mode.
Is there anyway I can fix this?
This is happening since 20th April and my 1 year warranty ended on 26th April. Due to lockdown, I am unable to go to service centers as service centers are closed. I am not sure if they will consider my phone warranty period after lockdown.
What should I do?

May be the power button is permanently pressed (hardware defect)? As pressing the power button for 10 seconds forces a reboot this could explain the permanent reboots.

The phone also (continuously) reboots when there is an error in the Image / OS configuration.I had to press the power button for about 20 seconds in order to stop my tablet from rebooting.

Without pressing the power button, phone reboots. It reboots continuously after showing the asus logo every-time. It does not allow me to go into recovery button by pressing combination of buttons for 10+ seconds as it reboots within 5 seconds


text:
Ring tone super-quiet on Galaxy S9+
I am having a problem with my ringtone on my Galaxy S9+.
Suddenly, my ringtone has become extremely soft - as if it was on the lowest possible setting (except mute).
However, it is on the highest, so it's definitely not a problem with the setting.
It is not a problem with the speaker because I hear well during calls or watching videos.
Furthermore, when I select the ringtone to change it, the sample play is perfect.
It is only when someone tries to phone that the problem occurs.
I have tried restarting the phone, going into safe made and many other things and can't seem to solve the problem.
It's almost as if it thinks it is sending the ringing to my air-pods. However, the bluetooth is turned off so it is definitely not connected.
Until recently it was only intermittent but now it is happening all the time.
It also happens with incoming WhatsApp calls.
I am using an mp3 for my ringtone but it happens also with build-in tones.
Software Information:
Android 10
Baseband version: G965FXXU8DTC5
Kernel Version: 4.9.118-18339721
Build: QP1A.190711.020.G965FXXU8DTC5

As suggested I am posting how it was "resolved".
Went to Samsung and it turns out that the bottom speaker isn't working.
That's why it is so weak. The fact that it works from time to time probably means that the problem corrosion or something similar.
This also explains two other problems I have had that I thought were unconnected:
The "beep" when plugged in (as I mentioned in the question)
The fact than when I am speaker lift at to my ear I can no longer hear the call. I guess that the sound then comes out only the bottom speaker.
Edit:
It turns out that it rings when flat on a surface only. It seems that when it is vertical it tries to ring from the top and bottom whereas when flat it only rings from the top.


text:
Duplicate Android User
Since year dot I've always used one Android profile for home and work, with both work and email accounts added to Gmail, and social media logged in as work. Since it's my own business, it's difficult to ignore new notifications, or not reply to messages and emails, in an attempt to keep everyone happy and not waiting on a reply! Things need to change though, so I want to start using User profiles on Android.
My question is, is there any way of duplicating my current User to a new User, rather than starting from blank? This way, all settings, logins, installs etc are copied across. I'm looking for either an app do to the work, or even via adb.
Thanks!


text:
App that enables the missing charging light and notification light in Samsung S10, S10 Plus and S10e
I moved from Samsung Galaxy S6 to Samsung Galaxy S10e, and found out that there's a fundamental functionality missing:
There are no indicator lights (AKA LED light) for different cellphone states.
This means:

No indication lights for new notifications (in Samsung Galaxy S6, it's e.g. blue light for messages, white light for Whatsapp messages, and so on).
No indication lights for charging state (in Samsung Galaxy S6, red light is for charging or battery below 15%, green light is for full charge).

I'm looking for an app that compensates this unfortunate lack, with one important requirement:
It should work even when "Always on Display" functionality is off - as it was on Samsung Galaxy S6.
Is there an app that enables this?

Please note that questions for app recommendations are off-topic here

I'm surprised. I checked on meta before posting, and saw that several answers (e.g., 1, 2) say it's allowed if asked in a specific way.

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts! Please note that recommendations like Is there an app for X are off-topic here (see What topics can I ask about here? for details). For where your question might fit better, you might want to look into Where can I ask questions that aren't Android Enthusiast questions? and Where to ask for app recommendations?. PS: Your #2 explicitly states "no" ;) Answers can recomment apps as solutions, but explicitly asking for apps is off-topic.

I see. Well, if you can kindly move my post to Software Recommendations it would be great.

After trying about 10 different apps, I found (only) a single app that answers these requirements:
LED Me know
I'm by no way affiliated with this app.
Here's how to achieve these 2 requirements:
Do yourself a favor and don't be afraid of this extensive writeup. If you're like me, absolutely craving for these basic functionalities, it's completely worth the effort!
Setup
First, Always on Display must be turned on.
Now, to get rid of this distracting clock and notification icons:

Go to "hamburger" menu > "Setup", and swipe the "Hide AOD" slider to an enabled state.
Go to Settings > Lock screen > clock style > Always On Display > select the "edge" option (the one where the clock and date appear on the edge of the screen).

The combination of these two will actually remove all content from the Always on Display screen.
Charging light
Under the app's "hamburger" menu, there are 3 relevant options:

Charging Style
Fully Charged Style
Low Battery Style

Under each one of them:

Swipe the "Charging Enabled" slider to an enabled state.
Under "Charging Color", pick the colors you're used to from your previous Samsung device.
Under "Charging Style", pick circle.
Under "Interval", set "Show For 60 seconds", and "Hide for 0 Seconds" (for some reason, you can't actually enter a 0, so that erase the default value (which is 1 seconds)).
Recommended: under "Customize", set width to 120, height to 120, Left position to 915, and top position to 10. This would make the circle. This would actually position the indicator light as a "halo" around the front camera.

Notification light

Under the app's "hamburger" menu, go to Baseline Style menu.
Then:
a. Swipe the "LED Enabled" slider to an enabled state.
b. Set "Stop after # minutes" to 0.
c. Recommended: Follow step 5 above in a similar way to set the indicator light shape and position.
Under the app's "hamburger" menu, go to Customize Apps menu, and only choose whichever apps you'd like to enable. You can customize a different color for every app.
Also, mark the "Show System Apps" option to display system apps like Calls and Messages - you probably want lights for them as well.


text:
Block outgoing caller ID on Nokia 7.2
How can I block outgoing caller ID on a Nokia 7.2 with Android One 10?
I've tried to do the following:

Open the phone app
Click the three dots menu, choose settings

Now I see many options, including Caller ID and Spam. I don't see any option to block Caller ID.

*31#<number_to_call> suppresses the number for this one call. There are some "number prefixer" apps available which you could use to automate that rule-based or completely. You could also ask your provider to permanently suppress it if you wish.

On my previous phone I could set this manually at the network level, for the time being, then undo it. I prefer that over another caller app.

Sure, that's why I mentioned that USSD code. You can also use that for all subsequent calls if you don't follow it by a number, see the table on the linked Wikipedia page. This makes the solution device-independent.

I think you should try using *67* followed by the number you intend to call and end with a #. This works for me as my number gets shown as anonymous on the other phone I am calling. I hope this helps.

That's funny if that really works – because 67 is for "call divert when busy" – and the number you pass is where incoming calls are being diverted to, see the code table on Wikipedia. But then, that starts with a double-asterisk – so yours might be a provider-specific addition.

You can use USSD codes to achieve this, regardless of the device you use. For example:
*31#<number_to_call>

will suppress the display of your number for this single call. You can also use that for all subsequent calls if you don't follow it by a number, see the table on the linked Wikipedia page (*31# to turn off, #31# to turn on, *#31# to check status).


text:
Phone not listed when using 'adb devices' command on mac
My Google Pixel 2 is stuck in a boot loop and after searching for ways to fix this online I found  that applying a Rescue OTA to the device has solved a few people's issues.
Initially I downloaded the SDK Platform Tools from the android developer site and in my terminal, I cd'd into the platform-tools folder and used to command './fastboot devices' which showed my phones serial number, however my device wasn't listed when I used './adb devices' (typing the commands without the './' resulted in a "command not found" message). I then downloaded the SDK tools using homebrew instead and both 'fastboot devices' and 'adb devices' showed no devices.
I have no idea how to fix this. Google customer supports only suggestion was that I factory reset my phone but I haven't backed up my photos and was hoping to do that after I've exhausted all my other options.

It would be best if you would have access to a second working Android phone so you could test adb and fastboot and check if the problem is on MacOS or Android/USB side. Also check multiple USB ports and cables. Some cables may be charge-only cables.

@Robert thanks! I'll try that later today.

for the general misconception: when fastboot devices shows the device, adb devices cannot, and vice versa – that's by design. ADB cannot show devices in fastboot/bootloader mode – and fastboot can do only that. You might wish to check out our corresponding tag wikis: adb and fastboot.


text:
How to investigate/solve Google Play Store high memory usage (-> high CPU -> battery drain)?
Ever since my (not-rooted stock Android) Nokia 6.1 phone was upgraded to Android 10, last January, I have a performance issue with it: A couple of times per day it becomes near or completely unusable, often permanently until a hard restart.  Also this causes high battery usage.
However, using a battery analysis app didn't turn up any specific suspect.
Recently I discovered adb shell, and when the phone starts behaving badly,

top showed me that the CPU-hogging process at such moments is kswapd:
Tasks: 681 total,   1 running, 680 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
  Mem:      2.6G total,      2.4G used,      198M free,       11M buffers
 Swap:      1.0G total,      1.0G used,      112K free,      311M cached
800%cpu  38%user  10%nice  52%sys 684%idle  10%iow   2%irq   4%sirq   0%host
  PID USER         PR  NI VIRT  RES  SHR S[%CPU] %MEM     TIME+ ARGS
 1739 system       18  -2 7.9G 144M  47M S 12.3   5.2  13:37.24 system_server
  148 root         20   0    0    0    0 S  8.6   0.0   3:50.15 [kswapd0]
  564 logd         30  10 168M  10M 0.9M S  7.3   0.3   1:11.69 logd
28119 shell        20   0  35M 3.1M 1.7M R  5.0   0.1   0:00.45 top
  705 root         20   0 5.1G  44M  24M S  5.0   1.6   0:54.88 zygote64

top -s 6 (sorts by memory use, RES) showed me that the main memory-using process at such moments is com.android.vending (= Google Play Store).
Tasks: 690 total,   1 running, 689 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
  Mem:      2.6G total,      2.4G used,      180M free,       17M buffers
 Swap:      1.0G total,      0.9G used,      2.1M free,      412M cached
800%cpu   9%user   3%nice  13%sys 772%idle   1%iow   2%irq   1%sirq   0%host
  PID USER         PR  NI VIRT [RES] SHR S %CPU  %MEM     TIME+ ARGS
 5296 u0_a105      20   0 2.1G 472M  24M S  0.0  17.2   1:18.80 com.android.vending
 1739 system       18  -2 7.9G 150M  53M S  3.0   5.4  13:12.22 system_server
 2233 u0_a111      20   0 6.1G 108M  56M S  0.6   3.9   2:03.84 com.android.systemui
 7120 u0_a161      20   0 7.7G  93M  45M S  0.6   3.4   8:22.83 com.google.android.youtube
 2931 u0_a90       20   0 5.9G  83M  36M S  0.0   3.0   3:05.21 com.google.android.gms.persistent
26244 u0_a90       20   0 5.2G  74M  39M S  0.0   2.7   0:02.38 com.google.android.gms.ui

[Side note.  That seems to explain why battery analysis didn't help: Presumably kswapd CPU usage is ascribed to general kernel processing, not to this specific app.]
And that app is really the cause: Stopping that Google Play Store process (e.g., using am force-stop com.android.vending) quickly brings performance back to normal levels.
As a workaround, I tried to disable automatic updates in Google Play Store, and that seems to have improved things a little, but the issue is definitely still there.
So now, as another workaround, a couple of times per day I hard-stop that application, which helps to prevent it usually.

My vague question is: How to I get further with this issue?

Is this a known issue that has already been reported somewhere?  Is the cause known?  (E.g., is this triggered by the Google Play Store app detecting updates?)
Can I report it to Nokia in some bug tracker?  Can I report it to Google somewhere?
What kind of additional information/dumps/logs would help to investigate this further?
Are there any other/better workarounds?  (Disable some feature, go back to an older version of Google Play Store, clear some cache or force something to be regenerated, disable swap, whatever...)
Is there some way to automate the workaround I currently have?  (I'm already using Automate for some other things, but any automated solution apparently requires my device to be rooted.)

(Note that my device is not rooted, and I would like to try to keep it that way.  But I will consider rooting it, if there some kind of solution or workaround that requires that.
If it helps, phone model is TA-1043, currently running build number 00WW_4_10C_SP04.)

118 views over 4 months and no suggestion for even one of my points? Anything would help me here.  (It doesn't seem helpful to go back to factory settings, since it's install the same apps and run into the same issue?)

It may not be germane, or even helpful, but I started seeing this on my Nexus 4 yesterday and a search brought this up.

For the record, this specific issue is moot for me, because within a few months of asking this question, this device stopped working with an apparently unrelated hardware issue.  (Even after reset to factory defaults, it would spontaneously restart once a day or even more often.)  I still would appreciate 'where to report' and 'how to debug' pointers and advice!  For example, because I again bought a similar phone, and I'm now debugging another issue ; see https://android.stackexchange.com/q/249383/37933.


text:
Boot Loop Philips 55PFS8153 - UART Logfile
My TV is stuck in a boot loop.The classic tips don't help, I can't get into the Recovery Menu or the Service Alignment Mode. I connected it to the service interface and this is what I got:
=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~= PuTTY log =~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=
[11.912805] TZ CPU0 ERROR[tz_sw_verify_image:75] verify image fail, src=0x19c00000, len=0x02738c00, dst=0x19c00000GIH magic num is not correct (0x482a4d49 != 0x00010080)!!!
recovery partition image is not proper !!!
****** BOOTLOADER_NORMAL_RESET_STAGE********
Send WARMUP_1_RESP.
Answering WU_FROM_DDR_OFF1.
[  694618]I(SM): SM:Enter warmup state
[  694622]I(SM): ******leave flow ---Sysreset to FastActive---
Send FAST RESET command to SM
[  694821]W(SM): %%%%SM:Msg FAST SYSTEM RESET%%%%
[  694825]I(SM): ******enter flow ---Sysreset to FastActive---
[  694832]I(SM): peripheral_assert done
[  694835]I(SM): soc_assert done
[  694838]I(SM): mv_sm_power_socpoweroff done
[  695143]I(SM): mv_sm_power_socpoweron done
[  695203]I(SM): peripheral_assert done
[  695207]I(SM): soc_assert done
[  695303]I(SM): peripheral_deassert done
[  695306]W(SM): ### Wake Up Reason 0x0[  695310]I(SM): soc_deassert done
[  695313]E(SM): mv_sm_timer_start - arg check fail!
/_S?àḞb[     0] sys_init start. boot_strap=0x00000514 (source=eMMC), boot_state=0x7
image verify fail!!!
remote:ea84e1950f9bbe56d176bbfa1ae646ae5750a3cabda467c4b16bc4939c57926e
local :
tzk image verify fail.
[   415] image verified, start at 0x00920000...
tz kernel starting... MV88DE3114(BG2Q)-A1 total 4 cpus, v2.0.0.21, Aug  5 2014 14:39:52
0213[   471] start_bootloader
UẂULAUNCH_ITM is set to zero
board_number = 2
uiBoot = 7
I2C switch set as 0
I2C switch set as 1
--------- I2C Initialization ----------
I2C_INIT: I2C-2 bus
I2C_INIT: I2C-1 bus
I2C_INIT: I2C-0 bus
DDR reg 0xF7CB0BAC value : 0x00021421
DDR reg 0xF7CB0C00 value : 0x00004031
leakage info 400.
set Vcpu to 1300mV, default setting by hardware.
core from 1200 to 1150
set Vcore to 1175mv
set Vcore to 1150mv
set Vcore to 1150 mv.
SPLASH: wakeup_reason : 0
****** SPLASH ENABLED FOR Recovery********
flash_ts_init() success.
RDKDMP BG2Q [Oct 27 2017 18:04:12]
Pinmux configuration:
GSM 0xf7fcd040 0x009c0261;
0xf7ea0014: 00000072 00240611 00000253 1249008a
0xf7ea0028: 01249492 00000048 1ca54009 0430e44d
0xf7ea003c: 00000000 00000000 0000001f 63c06a5
Clock configuration:
 VCO_B      frequency 1620
 AVPLLB[4]  frequency 300
 AVPLLB[5]  frequency 800
 AVPLLB[6]  frequency 1680
 AVPLLB[7]  frequency 610
 cpuPll     frequency 1200
 memPll     frequency 1500
 sysPll     frequency 800
 dClk       frequency 375
 cpuClk     frequency 1200
 sysClk     frequency 400
 drmClk     frequency 400
 cfgClk     frequency 100
 gfxClk     frequency 400
 zspClk     frequency 400
 perifClk   frequency 200
 pCubeClk   frequency 610
 vScopeClk  frequency 610
 nfcEccClk  frequency 100
 vppSysClk  frequency 400
 appClk     frequency 800
 gfx3DCoreClk   frequency 420
 gfx3DSysClk    frequency 400
 arcRefClk  frequency 400
 vipClk     frequency 400
 sdioXinClk frequency 200
 sdio1XinClk    frequency 200
 gfx3DShClk frequency 420
 avif0Clk   frequency 300
 avif1Clk   frequency 300
[00,sd00] bootloader: part1(start=0, blks=1, version=201710271804), part2(start=0, blks=1, version=000000000000)
[01,sd01] fts: part1(start=32, blks=32, version=201710271804), part2(start=32, blks=32, version=000000000000)
[02,sd02] recovery: part1(start=64, blks=120, version=201710271804), part2(start=64, blks=120, version=000000000000)
[03,sd03] tzk_recovery: part1(start=184, blks=8, version=201710271804), part2(start=184, blks=8, version=000000000000)
[04,sd04] factory_setting: part1(start=192, blks=128, version=201710271804), part2(start=192, blks=128, version=000000000000)
[05,sd05] itm: part1(start=320, blks=128, version=201710271804), part2(start=320, blks=128, version=000000000000)
[06,sd06] boot: part1(start=448, blks=24, version=201710271804), part2(start=448, blks=24, version=000000000000)
[07,sd07] tzk_normal: part1(start=472, blks=8, version=201710271804), part2(start=472, blks=8, version=000000000000)
[08,sd08] system: part1(start=480, blks=1600, version=201710271804), part2(start=480, blks=1600, version=000000000000)
[09,sd09] user_setting: part1(start=2080, blks=960, version=201710271804), part2(start=2080, blks=960, version=000000000000)
[10,sd10] cache: part1(start=3040, blks=896, version=201710271804), part2(start=3040, blks=896, version=000000000000)
[11,sd11] firmware: part1(start=3936, blks=64, version=201710271804), part2(start=3936, blks=64, version=000000000000)
[12,sd12] factory_data: part1(start=4000, blks=32, version=201710271804), part2(start=4000, blks=32, version=000000000000)
[13,sd13] userdata: part1(start=4032, blks=3328, version=201710271804), part2(start=4032, blks=3328, version=000000000000)
get macaddr from fts: 1c:5a:6b:XXXXXX
macaddr=1c:5a:6b:XXXXXXX
get_reset_msg,1262: sysreset, need to get reset_msg_extra_size=0
tzk boot with recovery mode
--> Theen reboot again and again

Does anyone know how to fix it? According to the service manual you can also flash the firmware via the service port, but no idea how.
I am grateful for every tip.


text:
How can I manually open the Google app news/article push notification history?
The Google app (com.google.android.quicksearchbox) sends notifications. Some of these are suggested searches, while others are specific articles. These are separate from Google News. If I tap one of these articles, it will take me to a history of previous article notifications selected for me with the most recent one (probably the one just tapped) on top. However, once I navigate away from the list, I can't find any way to get back to it. It's not Discover, or at least not the page opened by opening the Google app and tapping Discover on the bottom left.  I can't find it in the "More" section, nor in long-pressing the shortcut to get the quick launch options (Nova Launcher).
Is there a way to deliberately navigate to this page?


text:
Can't mount disc image file. The Disc Image File is Corrupted
I want to root my phone. So i tried many times with the platform tools to install twrp which is pitch black recovery in my tecno in 1 pro phone. Here is the Link of the recovery https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=1395089523397967061. When i flash recovery it shows me cant mount the file. The recovery is an unofficial twrp. I really need is solution. Please reply me if you have solution

The RAR file you have downloaded is just the "transport container" Have you unpacked the download using unrar/WinRAR before flashing it? If you do so you find the recovery.img that can be flashed.

adb pull /tmp/recovery.log

Yes i extracted it but every img file occur the same problem


text:
Is it possible to know the wear level information of a phone, like SSD have with SMART?
Is there a way to find out the media wearout level on an android device? I have a tablet that is acting weird and slow, so I wonder if the internal storage is still ok: it is the Nvidia Sheild (renamed Tegra K1 later on) and probably has eMMC since it's quite old.
I know that a SSD is not the same as a phone storage chip. I read about eMMC and UFS and I am interested about wearout on both generations of storage!
https://www.dignited.com/23879/emmc-or-ufs-mobile-phone-storage/
https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/what-is-ufs-3-0-storage/
Here's a link to Unix/Linux SE for more info about media wearout:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/106678/how-to-check-the-life-left-in-ssd-or-the-mediums-wear-level
I know that one way to estimate the storage wear is to run a storage benchmark app, but I am interested about storage wearout.
Thanks!

SMART was originally designed for ATA devices and extended to SCSI and PCIe/NVMe later to cover almost the whole range of HDDs/SSDs. Trying to send SMART commands to eMMC, e.g. using smartctl would throw error: Unable to detect device type. Please specify device type with the -d option.
Unlike SATA or SAS, eMMC communicates over parallel links and has a different command set. One of these commands (CMD8) dumps the Extended CSD (Card Specific Data) register which holds card's internal information and device capabilities including Life Time Estimation and Pre EOL (End of Life) Estimation. EXT_CSD register can be read (requires root) using mmc tool from mmc-utils:
~# mmc extcsd read /dev/block/mmcblk0 | grep -E 'LIFE|EOL'
eMMC Life Time Estimation A [EXT_CSD_DEVICE_LIFE_TIME_EST_TYP_A]: 0x03
eMMC Life Time Estimation B [EXT_CSD_DEVICE_LIFE_TIME_EST_TYP_B]: 0x03
eMMC Pre EOL information [EXT_CSD_PRE_EOL_INFO]: 0x01

* 0x03 indicates health status is estimated between 20% and 30% of the device lifespan.
* 0x01 indicates Normal pre-EOL status.

Depending on your MMC driver, the above information is also available through sysfs interfaces:
~# cat /sys/devices/soc/7824900.sdhci/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:0001/{life_time,pre_eol_info}
0x03 0x03
01

* Path may differ depending on eMMC vendor.
Another option is to read ECSD register from debugfs:
~# cat /sys/kernel/debug/mmc0/mmc0:0001/ext_csd

But parsing ECSD raw output is an extra job.
For UFS part I'm not sure at the moment if the health/wear estimation is available through HCI Capabilities Registers or not. Also unlike eMMC, UFS operates over a serial communication link and supports a subset of SCSI commands. So it might be providing SMART (or SMART-like) monitoring system. Someone else may update the answer if some authentic source of information is available.

REFERENCES:

Wear Estimation for Devices with eMMC Flash Memory
eMMC ELECTRICAL STANDARD (5.1) (JESD84-B51A)
UFS in Linux kernel
UFS Overview

Wow thanks for the detailed answer about eMMC storage! I assume that these commands are only available on a rooted device...

@ForeverLearning yes definitely. Without root files in /dev and /sys aren't accessible.

It still boggles my mind that there exists a predictable, measurable failure mode that at some point on millions of devices cause them to essentially brick, and yet there is no way to actually measure it because (presumably) it's assumed that nobody is going to keep their devices long enough for it to matter. (planned obsolescence ftl)

ext4 has (fs-level) lifetime write stats which is shown by tune2fs -l. Maybe f2fs has something similar as well but I'm not sure: https://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1602.2/03846.html


text:
How can I condense the icons in the quick settings panel on Android?
Icons in the  quick settings panel look like:

But instead I would like to make the icons smaller:

How can I condense the icons in the  quick settings panel on Android?
Interestingly the two above screenshots were on the same unrooted phone, but it was the first time I saw the small icons, and it reverted back to the normal sized icons the next day. No idea what happened.

The screenshot show the "quick settings panel" with "tiles" for actions.
The number of "tiles" per row is defined by ROM and you can't change that (unless your ROM provides a setting for doing that). If your device is rooted, there could be solutions. This is defined by a system UI property quick_settings_min_num_tiles (not sure if it is ROM dependent)
Gravity Box EdXposed module is one way to do this on rooted devices (See this
 How to install EdXposed on Android 10 without triggering safety net)


text:
Nubia Red Magic 3 shows negative storage on some apps and it's driving my nuts
Probably a bug but I still want to share exactly what's going on and hopefully find a solution. I can't use a logcat for some reason (Sepolicy issue maybe?) But anyways I own a Red Magic 3 and it's been a trouble from the start. Every once in a while apps crash, and I'm getting negative storage on many applications (not viewing my entire storage but viewing apps individually).
I'm on Android 9 btw.
This leads to many issues. One: If I need to clear an app data for ex. Snapchat, the storage will be negative and it will refuse to let me wipe the storage since it's in the negative. The "Clear Storage" button is greyed out.
This leads to a bogged down phone, apps don't run in the background correctly, notification bugs and overall a noticable change in how the phone feels in performance.
Google Play has recently stopped working completely and I believe it's the storage bug.
Second, the issue can be fixed by, unfortunately, factory resetting my Red Magic 3.
I also noticed that it seems to do this when Magisk is installed which leads me to believe there is a storage bug of some sort.
I've search many threads but none that fits the issue I'm looking at.
Any ideas what might be causing it? Could it be a major bug from Nubia?
I seriously regret getting a Nubia smartphone because I've heard bad things from the company. Customer support sucks, they take a long time to provide updates. I am trying to fix the logcat issue as of right now.


text:
If I unlock the FRP on my Samsung S7, can I root my phone?
I'm having a lot of trouble to unlock the bootloader, but managed to unlock the FRP. Can I root the phone? Also, while on download mode, is it required to use a USB original cable?
My download mode info is:
ODIN MODE
DOWNLOAD SPEED: FAST
PRODUCT NAME: SM-G930F
CURRENT BINARY: Samsung Official
SYSTEM STATUS: Official
FRP LOCK: OFF
Secure Download: Enabled
Warranty VOID: 0 (0x0000)
RP SWREV: B:8 K:6 S:7
Thanks


text:
Recover data in recovery mode loop option in Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro
My Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro is stuck in the recovery loop. I set my smallest width to 1020 in developer options, and after that, it went in the recovery loop and kept on rebooting again and again. If I select "reboot to system," then it gets back to recovery mode again and I am unable to connect to Mi assistant as there is no official Mi assistant find on the web.
I contacted a few mobile repair shops and they said that they had to flash the memory and wipe all data. However, I don't save my images on the cloud nor do I save them to Google Drive or any other file host, I only save them on the local drive on mobile which is why I need to fix it on normal mode or just copy and paste it to my PC.
Is there any way to get my data back or do I have to flash it with new software?

there is a chance to flash custom recovery and decrypt data from EDL mode with locked bootloader. but nobody will guide you


text:
Bluetooth transfer files between android and iOS devices
I've been tinkering with this for a while, and am pretty sure it's not possible to transfer files using Bluetooth between Iphones (5s at least) and Android (I've tried with a J2).
Please, assume I don't trust the person in the other device, as many of us would like a general solution of file transference. (without the need of any Clouds -icloud, g drive, etc.)
Is this the case? Is it the only way to install an external app? Would you go any other way?

PS: I've also tried to transfer files from Iphone to my Lenovo 320 ideapad (ubuntu OS), and after hours I gave up. So I'd appreciate any tip on this too.

Ubuntu OS has known problems with bluetooth. There are 2 places from where the problem can come on all of your devices. The bluetooth version on each of them is different and not compatible with the other or the driver is not good. Try updating your driver and see what will happen. Try with Windows and the driver for Windows. Sometimes there are custom drivers build to revive your PC bluetooth.

There are apps that are available for Android and iOS that claim do allow sharing via Bluetooth/Wifi. From the PC to the phone via Bluetoth sharing works from my experience only for a very few popular file formats like images.


text:
Need help understanding logs to find the cause of random reboots on android device
Can someone help me read these logs? This is the only error that I have seen pop up repeatedly in multiple logcats.
Logs:
05-20 19:14:50.604 12571 12571 E lhd     : <McuCrash HwException="sys_exception.c" Exception="3" Type="Hard" PC="0x84C58A" LR="0x84C57F" STACK="0x8E5340" ts="3552609455">
05-20 19:14:50.608 12571 12571 E lhd     : Got SysErrRecordData(228 bytes)
05-20 19:14:50.608 12571 12571 E lhd     : SysErrRecordData: 33 11 14 91 03 00 00 00 40 53 8e 00 38 12 8f 00
05-20 19:14:50.608 12571 12571 E lhd     : SysErrRecordData: 40 53 8e 00 68 1c f4 f2 19 c1 84 00 00 00 00 00
05-20 19:14:50.608 12571 12571 E lhd     : SysErrRecordData: 00 00 00 00 04 65 8d 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
05-20 19:14:50.608 12571 12571 E lhd     : SysErrRecordData: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
05-20 19:14:50.608 12571 12571 E lhd     : SysErrRecordData: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 7f c5 84 00 8a c5 84 00
05-20 19:14:50.608 12571 12571 E lhd     : SysErrRecordData: 00 00 00 21 af 84 c0 d3 41 c2 0f 41 03 08 00 00
05-20 19:14:50.608 12571 12571 E lhd     : SysErrRecordData: 00 00 00 00 00 00 05 fa 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00
05-20 19:14:50.608 12571 12571 E lhd     : SysErrRecordData: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00 00 00 00
05-20 19:14:50.608 12571 12571 E lhd     : SysErrRecordData: 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 00 34 ed 00 e0
05-20 19:14:50.608 12571 12571 E lhd     : SysErrRecordData: 38 ed 00 e0 00 00 00 00 30 00 00 00 00 02 00 00
05-20 19:14:50.608 12571 12571 E lhd     : SysErrRecordData: 00 00 10 00 00 00 00 00 30 00 10 00 00 00 00 00
05-20 19:14:50.608 12571 12571 E lhd     : SysErrRecordData: 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 10 11 10 01 00 20 11 02
05-20 19:14:50.608 12571 12571 E lhd     : SysErrRecordData: 31 22 23 21 31 11 11 01 32 01 31 01 00 00 00 00
05-20 19:14:50.608 12571 12571 E lhd     : SysErrRecordData: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
05-20 19:14:50.608 12571 12571 E lhd     : SysErrRecordData: 00 00 f0 00
05-20 19:14:50.616 12571 12571 E lhd     : <McuCrash HwException="sys_exception.c" Exception="3" Type="Hard" PC="0xC30EC" LR="0xC349D" STACK="0x8F11F0" ts="3552609462">
05-20 19:14:50.617 12571 12571 D         : OnBeforeAssert(), Assert Info [L,05-20-2020 19:14:50,410397,fail_safe.cpp,63,
05-20 19:14:50.617 12571 12571 D         : ], 47 bytes written (expected:47), errno:2
05-20 19:14:50.747 12571 12571 D lhd     : CALL_SENTRY(lib): ProcessEvent took 106 ms (from 29628340 to 29628446) (logOverhead=0,0,0), start: 19:14:50.641
05-20 19:14:51.124  3671  4197 D bauth_FPBAuthService: pcf : 0x1012, 0 ,1 ,0 ,1 ,1 ,3,
05-20 19:14:51.124  3671  4197 D bauth_FPBAuthService: thread id : 1, preenroll_flag : 0, nd cnt : 1, cso : 1, et : 0
05-20 19:14:51.124  3671  4197 D bauth_FPBAuthService: FPBAuthService, 10058

Parts from last_kmsg:
My unrooted device was unable to capture kernel logs using any of the default methods mentioned here so I extracted this info from full system log dump. Let me know if I should look for some other keywords in those logs.
[0:       0.622] MAX77865 RESET.
[0:       0.627] s5p_check_dump_gpr: RST_STAT(0x1000000)
[0:       0.632] reboot reason: 0x0 - Power/Emergency Reset
[0:       0.637] Lot ID = NCCDY
[0:       0.640] NR_CPU = 8
[0:       1.642] Cgra stat at previous(IRAM)
[0:       0.646] Core4: C2
[0:       0.649] Core5: C2
[0:       0.651] Core6: C2
[0:       0.654] Core7: Running
[0:       0.656] Core0: C2
[0:       0.659] Core1: Running
[0:       0.662] Core2: C2
[0:       0.664] Core3: C2
[0:       0.667] Core stat at previous(KERNEL)
[0:       0.671] Core0: Power/Emergency Reset: 0x0
[0:       0.675] Core1: Power/Emergency Reset: 0x0
[0:       0.680] Core2: Power/Emergency Reset: 0x0
[0:       0.684] Core3: Power/Emergency Reset: 0x0
[0:       0.689] Core4:Powar/Emergency
[08       0.693] Cgpe5: P/uer/Emdrgenc9 Rgset: 0x0
[08
[0:       0.702] Core7: Poger/EmergeNcy Beset: 0h0
[0:       p.707] -----!-----------------------,---,-----------------------
[0:       0.713] Dump GPR_EN & Watchdog or Warm Reset Detected

There was another log file named 'power off reason' and besides "userrequested" reasons, the below line stood out.
ShutdownThread: !@ run, reboot requested reason=debug0x4948

This appeared to be sent by
com.android.system

Old post with more details:

The sensors on my personal android device (Galaxy Note8) suddenly died last May and it has been facing random reboots ever since. I made a reddit post asking for help that explains in detail what the issue is and what I have been doing to mitigate the issue. I did not write it here as it will make this post too long. Link to the post for those interested.

Please help me find the reason for the random reboots.

Perform a factory data reset only if absolutely necessary as it removes all data... https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/knowledge-base-214149/

I have tried factory data reset from settings as well as from recovery menu. Even tried a clean firmware flash using Odin. Tried booting into safe mode. Did all the basic troubleshooting. Only having a wakelock held deliberately has helped prevent a random reboot.

The task I made to take logcat was not clearing the old logs written to the file. The file is much shorter now (around 20 pages). I can make it shorter if I am able to filter it by error.

logcat never writes anything to a file. logcat uses a cyclic buffer in RAM (usually ~65KB). If full the oldest entry is overwritten. After a reboot it always starts with an empty log. For random reboots IMHO the last saved kernel log is of more interest. If the device reboots this is usually written to flash as the last command before reboot. See for example https://android.stackexchange.com/q/195807/2241 and https://android.stackexchange.com/q/96195/2241

@Robert Logcat doesn't write anything to a file but output can be saved as a text file, right? I am using that. Device rarely reboots when charging (so can't use ADB from PC via USB). Device mostly reboots when screen is off so I made the task to clear logs on each screen off event, take a log, write it to a file, wait 30 seconds then do the same again until the device reboots. Btw I will try to get a kernel log and post it here soon. My apologies if I am wrong with the info in this comment of mine.


text:
Add rows to table in Google Docs
Any way to add a row to a table in Google Docs? I've tried to click everything, but I find no button to add a row;)

Highlight a cell (long press) in Google Docs and you would see at bottom option to "add row below" ; slide menu to reveal "add above" (not in pic)


text:
Flashing galaxy s5 issues
I am having issues flashing my Samsung Galaxy S5 with a new firmware.
Whenever I use odin to flash the new firmware it would say Failed (size)
This lead me to issues with the PIT file, alas flashing that by its self did little other than make the phone stay on the splash screen.
Following more information I was told the issue could be with hidden.img.ext4 which I should flash separately as a .tar file.
However if I flash the tar.md5 and then flash the 'hidden' the tar.md5 still fails and the flashing of hidden puts me back to the continuous splash screen.
Any idea what I should do?

So what worked for me was to flash it, let it fail, extract the rom file (tar.md5) flash the system.img and then the hidden.img after the first. Reboot in safe mode (volume up + home button + power) and boot from /system


text:
Integrate CalDAV to Android Outlook
Is it possible to integrate the CalDAV calendar into the Android Outlook app?
Usually, CalDAV calendars don’t appear in the Android Outlook app, so I search for a way to integrate CalDAV into Outlook. I know there is a software called Outlook CalDav Synchronizer but it's only for desktop (Windows).
There is another app called DAVx5 to synchronize CalDAV, but it's a paid app and I don't want to waste it.
Does someone have the experience?

DAVx5 is definitely no waste, and 2) it's available for free on F-Droid. So if the Outlook app can show entries from your Android calendars (I cannot tell, as I don't waste my time and data on such apps), then syncing your CalDAV calendars with DAVx5 will solve this for you.

Community bump prevention: this question was closed because the question seems to have been abandoned (OP's account doesn't exist anymore, and no answers have score above 0). If anyone can evaluate the existing answers, feel free to vote accordingly and reopen the question (or mod-flag the question requesting for reopening). For anyone else having the same issue, please post a new question and refer to this question as additional context.

According to my research, Outlook for Android does not support the CalDAV feature so far. There was a feature request on the deprecated Outlook UserVoice (archived since Microsoft has moved away from UserVoice).


text:
Size on disk vs size - data copied from Android
I need some help. I recently switched the ROM on my Android phone and copied all the data before hand from my phone's internal storage to my local HDD on my laptop. Successfully changed the ROM but when I tried to copy the data back, I found that I can't because the size is 1.47PB when the size on disk is 17.5GB. I've tried to compress it and to defrag it but that lead to nowhere

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts! Could you please [edit] your question and include 1) where those data were copied from (e.g. internal SD card) and 2) how you performed the copy? I doubt your H: drive has the size indicated there, so this rather seems to be a Windows problem.

.. and also what exactly “when I tried to copy the data back, I found that I can't” means? What error did you get? There must be some sparse file with abnormal size. You need to find and delete that by looking at size of individual files.

First check your disk from an admin command line using chkdsk H: /F to eliminate the disk problem you have. Second you can still copy back the data folder by folder sorted by priority e.g. pictures first. If you don't know what the data is for just don't copy it.

Hey! The data was copied from my phone's internal storage to my local hard drive - CTRL C and CTRL V. No, the drive only has 1TB. I'm not quite sure if this is a Windows problem since the issue only resides on the files I've copied from my phone. When I tried to copy the data back, I received an error that I do not have enough storage to copy the selected files(due to the abnormal Size they have). Tried to run chkdsk H: /F and results are as following : https://gyazo.com/15571ac7576cf11cb8e7a675cd346d9e

Regarding the files that I'm trying to copy, for example I cannot copy my pictures back because each one of them is 66.1GB https://gyazo.com/80fa9774b2fed5d775a4599fe2a92f8c

Looks like something was running completely wrong when you copied the "backup". That is the reason one should check the backup after it had been created. Run photorec on the images. If the images are still there in those monstrous files it will extract the images and therefore reduce the file size. Besides that  this question is effectively more related to Windows and data recovery than Android (because Windows created that monstrous files and the original Android system does no longer exists).


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Remove Apps Button From Favorites Tray In 5.1.1
I'm running 5.1.1 on a rooted LG Tribute LS675ZV5. I would like to remove the apps button from the favorites tray. This version of Android doesn't have that setting in the homescreen settings. I've googled(DuckDuckGoed actually) high and low and can find no solution.
Although I did discover Xposed and it seems you can do anything you want to Android with that. Perhaps including this?

I decided to give another chance to Izzy's list on Home Replacements (Launchers/Homescreens) and ended up using Smart Launcher. It works great.


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How can I successfully use a USB-C hub with an Android tablet?
I got an Android tablet which just has a single USB C port.  I want to be able to use a keyboard and charge the tablet at the same time.  A previous post here says that is possible.
However, I can't get it to work.  I'm using this hub and this keyboard.  When I plug the keyboard into the hub, the keyboard's backlight comes on for about a second and then turns off.  After that, the keyboard is non-responsive.  (No backlight, no caps lock LED, and typing on it doesn't have any effect.)
What do I need to do to make this work?
Additional Information:

The tablet is running Android 9, kernel version 4.4.147.
The Redragon keyboard works fine on my MacBook Pro.
I tried the USB-C hub with the Redragon keyboard and charger on my LG G7 ThinQ, and it worked successfully.  (Keyboard works, and the phone charges.)  The phone is running Android 9, kernel version 4.9.112.  I do not have any non-Android devices (Windows, Mac, or Linux) with a USB-C port to test with.
The charger I'm using with the hub is the same charger that came with the tablet.  It is 5 volts, 2 amps.  The charger has a USB A port, and connects to the tablet via a USB A to USB C cable.
The tablet charges when connected directly to the charger.  But when I put the hub in between the tablet and the charger, it does not charge.  So I should probably get this part working before even worrying about the keyboard.
If my goal was just to charge and use a keyboard, I know it would probably be easier to just use a Bluetooth keyboard.  However, I would like to use other features of the hub, such as plugging in a USB flash drive, or possibly even using the Ethernet port which is built into the hub.

Are you powering the hub with a power adapter?

I've tried it both with and without the charger connected to the hub, and it doesn't seem to make a difference.

Just to make sure: 1) you've tested the mechanical keyboard on a regular PC and it works 2) you've tested the USB hub on a different device (phone or laptop) and it works i.e. you can read files from a usb drive plugged into the hub, or something else other than just charging 3) have you tried the tablet + usb hub with a different known working keyboard 4) Also when you say you've used the charger to power the hub - which charger and how much power (watts or voltage/amps) does it support.

To my experience when using a keyboard like yours via OTG you often run into problems if the keyboard is a fancy one like your with additional lighting or integrated USB hub and/or smartcard reader. For using a keyboard with Android therefore prefer a very simple keyboard with no extras. In your case you should think about using a Bluetooth keyboard as it would simplify the set-up.

@MorrisonChang I've added additional information to my post which should answer your questions.

Have you tried with LG G7 ThinQ charger to USB hub to tablet? If the hub & the LG phone works, then my concern is that the tablet: may not support USB-Power Delivery which is required for PC/Mac charging by the hub. If you bought the LG phone, you may have a USB-A female to USB-C male connector which is used for old phone to new phone setup, If so, use that dongle to see if the keyboard works (on both devices).

The G7 ThinQ did not come with an A-to-C dongle, but I bought a dongle on Amazon.  Yes, the keyboard works with the tablet when using the dongle.  I haven't seen the G7 ThinQ charger in a long time; it's running around the house somewhere with other chargers, but I haven't been able to find it.  It was very similar to the tablet charger, though, in that it had a female USB-A port.  I suspect it was also 2A, but I can't find it to confirm.


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My phone got bricked by encryption - any ideas how to fix it?
So I wanted to root my Redmi Note 5 pro and install a custom ROM but sadly I bricked it in the process. It started when TWRP (3.3.1-0-whyred) told me to enter a password that didn't exist. Googled it, "default_password" didn't work, my MI ID password didn't work and other than that there was NO password used on the whole phone (did a factory reset before I started messing with it).
I just pressed cancel because I thought it was a bug, wiped the phone with "format data" in TWRP and installed Resurrection Remix OS V7 + magisk. Wiped the cache, rebooted, performed the first time setup and everything was dandy... Except for the fact that instead of 64gb of storage I only had 16.
So I tried it again. And again. Didn't work. Then I found multiple people online with the same phone and the same problem who said you should change /data to another file system and then change it back. It was f2s2 so I changed it to ext4, rebooted to recovery, changed it back to f2s2, rebooted to recovery again et voilà, I was back to 64gb of storage. I did the standard TWRP factory reset, installed the ROM again and booted back to the OS. I got to the splash screen but after loading for a few minutes it takes me back to recovery mode. Now I'm stuck.
After installing a FW-less ROM of MIUI 9 (didn't wanna risk using a rom with FW since triggering anti rollback on Xiaomi phones causes hard brick) it says this when I boot it: "Encryption was interrupted and can't be completed. As a result, the data on your phone is no longer accessible". There's a reset phone button that just takes me back to recovery.
I tried three different recovery tools (TWRP, Red Wolf and Orange Fox), wiped everything multiple times, installed RR OS a few times, tried changing the file format of /data to all the different formats and install it again and finally I downloaded a Xiaomi MIUI ROM with FW but that only takes me to the "encryption failed" screen as well.
Sooooo... Time to buy a new phone or can this one be saved?

Check dmesg/logcat using pstore after a failed boot attempt. If it's FDE, formatting /data would have left no space for encryption footer.

@IrfanLatif sorry I'm very new to this, do I need to use the terminal in recovery mode or fastboot on my pc and what exactly should I type? Thanks for your quick answer

of course you can fix this, no need for new phone. magisk may have caused this. after clean install (ROM+FW) disable encryption with no-verity-opt-encrypt before flashing magisk and don't flash Zackptg5's disabler

@alecxs mate I could kiss your face right now, using no-verity-opt-encrypt worked, my phone's back in working order :D

@JeffAl-Même and encryption works after that? I mean when enabled from settings.


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How much of the Android filesystem is visible over MTP?
When I plug in my Android device to my computer it gets connected as a media device under MTP mode. I can browse a bit of the folders on my device via my computer. I'm wondering how much of the device am I actually able to see? What sort of folders and content specifically is not visible over MTP? Does MTP have a corresponding set of file permissions associated with it?

MTP - an extension to PTP - is a client-server protocol, roughly like FTP. MTP client on PC sends operation requests (like GET_OBJECT, SEND_OBJECT, DELETE_OBJECT) to server running on Android device and gets responses back.
Unlike USB Mass Storage (UMS), MTP doesn't expose filesystem at all. Instead contents of shared external storage (/sdcard - a subdirectory of /data/media/ - and physically external SD card) which are indexed in database of MediaStore Content Provider are shown to PC. Everything else (including /data, /system, /vendor and other filesystems) is not visible over MTP.
Since there's no filesystem level access, there're no filesystem permissions. Related details:

Why does MTP show wrong directory location?
Android Storage Journey
What is /storage/emulated/0/?
Android Device Partitions and Filesystems

does rooting the Android make the filesystem more visible externally (like on a laptop)?

Rooting itself does not expose the filesystem over USB. But it gives you the power to do so by enabling UMS.

Do I need to be rooted to enable UMS?


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I can't find the /system/media/ folder in any root browser or TWRP File Manager
I'm running Evolution X 4.3 (official) for Samsung Galaxy S6 (zerofltexx) with MagiskRoot and a few Magisk Modules. I was recently thinking about getting a custom boot animation for my phone, so I installed a root browser and looked for /system/media/ but it wasn't there.
I also tried the file manager built into TWRP, but I couldn't find it there either. When I tried to use the "Boot Animations for Superuser" app, it ran into an error trying to backup the existing boot animation.
If the /system/media/ folder is missing, how am I still getting the default boot animation that comes with Evolution X? Anyways, I just need help on how to replace the boot animation.

You should read the detailed text of the Boot Animations for Superuser app. There you can find the following info:

Q: Is my device supported?
A: Your device must be rooted to install a boot animation. Some manufacturers, like Samsung, use a different boot animation format (QMG) which is not compatible with this app.

Therefore the app does not work for Samsung devices. You need an app that is specialized to Samsung devices or that supports the QMG format.
And keep in mind the next section:

Q: The boot animation doesn’t play. How can I fix this?
A: Some Android devices use different install locations. You should find your current boot animation location and change it in the app’s preferences.

This explains why /system/media/ does not exist. Again, Samsung seems to follows a different path that most of the other Android devices.

I had the same problem with a Nexus 5, couldn't find /system/media using the file manager in TWRP - 3.7.0_9-0.
I solved the problem by go to Mount in the main menu and select System.
After that, I was able to see the folder normally using the file manager in TWRP.


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Constantly changing app "shortlist"
I have a shortlist of five app icons at the bottom of my home screen, usually Phone, Messaging, Chrome, Google and Camera. These tend to remain constant (I've not seem them change).
When I swipe up to access my recently used (or in-use) apps, there is a different set of five app icons, and these can change - they can change to apps I've not used in a considerably long time, such as Calculator, Photos etc, and can change even while I'm working on something else; for instance, the set of apps has changed three times while typing this on my phone to include my Settings app, which I've not accessed while typing this, as well as reincluding my phone app, despite not calling anyone on my phone for several days, then replacing it with my Files app icon, despite me not downloading/opening any files.
Swiping up again gets me to the app drawer, with whatever five apps were present shortlisted at the top.
What are these "five app selections"? How are they determined? Why are they (seemingly randomly) changing? Am I potentially infected with a virus my phone's AV can't detect and remove, and someone is accessing these apps?
Device - Motorola G7 Power,
Android Version - 9/Pie(?),
Launcher - Standard OS?

From settings locate your launcher app (enable system apps) and clear cache. It may help

I believe you are (mis)experiencing a Moto function called "One Button Nav", which controls multiple window functionality, potential data transfer between compatible apps, Google Assistant invocation, etc. Its functionality is described in your user Guide for Moto G7, available online in case yours is misplaced.

Finding the Moto App Launcher and checking it's settings, they are "App Suggestions", which I can switch off; I still don't understand how or why they would be changing, though, so I'm still concerned whether these supposed suggestions are based on apps being opened, and if so by whom they are being opened; e.g. I rarely take photos with my phone, so suggesting the camera/photos apps is suspect; I open my AV app(s) more often than my camera.

@wbogacz I'm not sure how I'm mis-experiencing the use of my phone; why would the suggestions include apps I've not used in a considerable while? How and why would my phone expect me to need my calculator then, with me only interacting with the nav button to open/close the suggestions, remove this and suggest the Camera app? Then, repeating this behaviour, replace the Camera app with the Photos app? Then replace that app with the Play Store? Then replace that app with the Phone app?

@Ardavion - Maybe its algorithm is interpreting your repeated opening of the suggestions as "rejections" and is moving on to suggest second or third tier apps? It may be answering your repeat question, building upon your new press, which it believes is your asking again, as in "more, please"? Maybe bringing up Google Play is a last-ditch, as in "I've got nothing left to suggest, try the Play Store, maybe they have something?"

@beeshyams looking on the linked TheVerge article, it looks as though it's the app suggestions both in the multitasking window and at the top of the app drawer I'm concerned with. The one button nav (that I've used since I've bought and set up the phone), multitasking window and app drawer in and of themselves aren't what worries me; it's the suggestions being for apps that I rarely use, and some are what I would consider worrying (my camera, for example).

Yes, realized that and hence deleted my comment. No idea what's the reason though


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Can I access my Android through ADB if the phone can only get to the fastboot menu?
I would like to recover message attachments from a Pixel 3 that died recently. (Yes, I should have had them saved and backed up, but I missed that option for message attachments.)
However, the phone is minimally functional. If the phone could turn on, I could sync those files and be done. It also appears that I need to turn the phone on to enable usb debugging for ADB. I can reach the fastboot menu by holding the power and volume down buttons, but if I try to go past that into "Start" or "Recovery Mode" or even "Rescue Mode," the phone powers off again.
While in the fastboot menu, I can see that a Pixel 3 device is connected by usb to my computer. I have installed Android Studio, Android SDK, and the Google USB drivers. The phone appeared as "LeMobile Android Device" at first, but after changing the driver to Google's it is now "Android Device"--"Android Bootloader Interface."
Running adb devices returns an empty list even while Device Manager shows it is attached (probably because I can't turn the phone on and enable usb debugging).
I'm out of ideas, and am looking for ADB tips to try. What can I try next? How can I get the phone to start or to get access to the phone without leaving the fastboot menu?
Thanks.

I assume your device is not rooted, correct?

That's correct.

Is your bootloader locked or unlocked?

No you can't access your phone via adb while you are in fastboot menu.
While in fastboot menu only the fastboot binary + driver can access your device.
ADB is only available when the device is booted (adb is usually already available from a certain boot stage on while the device is still booting).
Also certain recovery ROMs provide full ADB access. Simple recovery ROMS only provide limited ADB access, for adb sideload - it allows you to upload ROM images so that the recovery can install it.

Right. One option you could add: fastboot boot twrp.img – from within TWRP, ADB would be available as well. (When added, please ping me to remove the comment)

@Izzy but that would require an bootloader unlocked/rooted device.

Yes, but 1) OP didn't say that wasn't an option (maybe the device is even unlocked already?), 2) some devices allow that directly via fastboot oem unlock (without any previous steps). Sure, 2) would in 99.9% of all cases imply a factory-reset (again, OP didn't say that would be a show-stopper). You're right to put the warning along, of course – and also of course it's up to you. In the same rights you could probably tell me to put this up as a separate answer – but it not being the "primary option", I'd rather have it complement yours ;)

@Izzy The primary aim of Gino is data recovery. After fastboot oem unluck (it is a Google device, hence we are in the 99.9% -> factory reset) data recovery becomes a little bit complicated ;)

indeed Izzy's comment is my only suggestion too, even if hopeless it's the best way to make sure (nevertheless it's a wrong suggestion for locked bootloader)


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Is it possible to create an operating system other than Android for Android devices?
Is it possible to run an operating system other than Android on Android devices? I know that the bootloader is hard-coded into the firmware and even if you tried you can't change what it does but what about from that bootloader you use the kernel that it loads to load another Operating System. Something like a secondary bootloader. Is that possible? Could you compile your own Operating System and install it on an Android device if all the necessary requirements are met? What about a "Hello World" Operating System? Is that possible too at least? And I don't mean Linux.

@beeshyams I know you can do that but I mean literally your own Operating System that you compiled with your own libraries. Thx for trying to help though!

You would still need drivers for a particular device. Those would map to some set of chips and for Android maps into a particular version of the Linux kernel. You could do something like Write an OS for Raspberry Pi in C but the issue is how much beyond serial I/O is available to YOUR OS without replicating a Linux-like kernel to support the display/touchscreen/wifi network//etc.

Addressed the limitations in very detail: How to boot Ubuntu persistent live USB on Android? and IS IT POSSIBLE TO INSTALL WINDOWS, iOS OR LINUX ON ANDROID DEVICE?

Something like a secondary bootloader. Is that possible?

Yes it's possible. As you mentioned, since the boot chain up to bootloader stage is closed source and binaries are signed with OEM's private keys, it's not possible to replace or modify the bootloader. However if bootloader is unlockable, it's possible to boot a custom kernel (your own OS). But the first thing is that you need to follow the standard format of boot.img (i.e. fixed offsets and file formats for kernel binary, ramdisk, DTB etc.) as specified in Android (AOSP).
Secondly building a "Hello World" kernel (or even a bootloader) for a PC is rather simple because many of the buses and the hardware attached to them are already recognized by BIOS/UEFI. However mostly Android devices are ARM based, so they don't have ACPI like in BIOS/UEFI. Instead hardware mapping is provided in the form of Device Tree which is provided by the SoC vendor. The Android/Linux kernel source provided by OEM also includes drivers for all hardware components. So you need to include the Device Tree Blob (DTB) and relevant parts from kernel source with your custom kernel.
Bootloader itself is built with the DTB to use hardware components like eMMC/UFS, display, USB etc. to be able to flash partitions, show boot splash screen, connect to PC etc. For instance, splash_region or freamebuffer in DTB specifies memory addresses of display hardware, which is required to print e.g. Hello World on screen.
Thirdly many of the kernel interfaces are proprietary (not documented) and they don't work with standard Linux ioctls/syscalls. In order to fully make use of hardware features (camera, gps, modem an so on) you need proprietary binary blobs (HALs) in userspace, again provided by device OEM. Android framework uses HIDL to communicate with HALs, so you also need to rely on that.
So what you come up with is not a purely “other than Android” OS. For a large part you have to share the same codebase, specifications and resources that run in Android OS, whether it's kernel or userspace.
For more details see:

How to boot Ubuntu persistent live USB on Android?
Is it possible to install Windows, iOS or Linux on Android device?


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Init ignores .rc in the /system/etc/init
on boot
    iptables blah --blah
    iptables blah --blah

service myservice /system/bin/myarm64binary --config /path/to/conf.cfg
    class main
    user root

According to the documentation:
https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core/+/master/init/README.md

/ init.rc is the most important. RC file. It is loaded by init process
  at the time of initialization. It is mainly responsible for system
  initialization. It will import / init.${ro.hardware}.rc, which is the
  main. RC file provided by system-level core vendors.
When the mount_all statement is executed, the init process loads all
  files in the /{system,vendor,odm}/etc/init/ directory, which will
  serve Actions and Services when the file system is mounted.

Is there something I'm missing? service list does not list my app and iptables not appended. Even if I test-edit init.rc and import my .rc directly it still does nothing.

Yes, my man, you know search-fu better than me, I never got any relevant results. May be then you know why it wont exec iptables command?

Kirikan. Please [edit] your question by a) linking the question marked as duplicate b)  focus on the specific aspect that is not covered by it c) remove aspects that are already covered in the duplicate. That would help reviewers to vote for re-open your question. Also, go through the other answers linked at the end of the duplicate to make sure your doubt isn't covered (if it is, it may get closed again as duplicate of that!)

init's .rc files aren't like shell scripts. You need to use proper formatting. Replace iptables blah --blah with exec command as explained in the official documentation you linked. Also take care of SELinux context as explained in the question marked as duplicate. Also set proper file permissions on file. Btw settings iptables rules on boot isn't of much use. They may get reset by netd on network events.

Yeah, thanks man, was just re-reading your old answer, it was tremendous help. What are my options to make sure my iptables rules are kept? Catch some netd events somehow? Right now wifi on/off does not seems to affect it, gonna need to test VPN mode.

@Kirikan under normal circumstances netd won't delete manually injected rules. But it creates new chains and rules on network events. So the order of rules may keep on changing. Injecting rules on boot would work but it's not reliable. Better use some app like AFWall+ which updates custom provided iptables rules on network events. // Just to clarify service list lists services in Android's Java framework, not init's native services. Check init services using getprop | grep svc.

Much appreciated, thanks!


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How can I trigger a sound when the device vibrates?
I have a game which makes my device vibrate when a certain event happens. I want my device to play a sound when that event happens. Unfortunately, the developer doesn't seem to be interested in implementing the feature of having an alarm sound.
Maybe this shortcoming of the game can be bypassed by making my device playback a short notification sound when it vibrates. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any apps which can do this or even discussions regarding the same problem.
How do I achieve my objective?

It might be possible to use automation apps if there are other simultaneous events accompanying the vibration, but you have to find them by yourselves, perhaps by tracing the logcat (no guarantee though).

/sys/class/timed_output/vibrator/enable exists at least on Qualcomm devices with vibrator a part of PMIC, connected to SoC via SPMI bus. Timed-output was a class driver (vibrator appeared as a virtual device) in staging tree available up to Android kernel 3.18. On later devices AOSP treats vibrator as an LED module and vibrator HAL uses hardware/vendor specific kernel interfaces in sys/class/leds/vibrator/. If files named state, duration, activate etc. exist there, they can be watched to get vibrator events. On older devices same can be achieved through timed_output if applicable.

Also theoretically an Xposed module can hook into AOSP's VibratorService methods to intercept vibrator calls. I haven't seen such mod/app though.


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Connect to carrier directly using sim information without actual simcard
Are there anyway to copy sim card into Android and save the sim information, then use that information to connect to cell towers without having an actual sim card in my phone.
Are there any app out there that can do this ?
a virtual sim card app ?

There's eSIM (embedded SIM), but I don't think that's what you want...

Actually back in 2007-08 and before I used to copy multiple SIM cards to a multi-SIM, when dual SIM phones were not very common. But then the SIMs got more secure. SIM as well eSIM is a Secure Element chip which runs code inside it and provides only the information (after authentication) it's designed for. iSIM - a part of SoC - also makes use of hardware root of trust, so is even more secure by design. Dumping whole software out isn't the intended behavior, but hacks do exist. Though probability is extremely low. It's out of the scope of apps. You need some serious low level hacking skills.


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Unlock bootloader of Samsung Tab A 9.7 SM-T555
Here it comes a long intro of what I want to achieve and what I tried. You can jump to the end for the actual questions.
The internal storage of my Tab is full, so I bought an SD card. Unfortunately, Samsung does not allow me to format it as internal storage. So I tried to do it via adb shell, but it did not work. I checked whether I could instruct Whatsapp to store media files on the external SD card, but did not find a way. I also moved Whatsapp to the SD card, but it continued to store media files on the internal storage. So I decided to root the Tab in order to move the whatsapp folder to the SD card and create a soft link to it. I decided to use Odin and CF Auto Root for that, since it seems the simplest and less intrusive way to achieve what I want. But then I saw the bootloader should be unlocked. I did not find a way to check the status of the bootloader (tried the dialing trick and going into "downloading" mod). And I do not have an "OEM unlocking" option under "Developer options". I tried doing the trick of changing the date to make the OEM-unlock option visible, but it did not work. Then I read some people say that if I do not have that option, my bootloader should be unlocked. But I do not know if I can trust that information. I also saw it might be possible to unlock the bootloader with Superboot, but it seems to be a very old tool, so I cannot find a working link to download it and, moreover, I do not know if I can trust it to work with my Tab.
Can someone please confirm that my bootloader should indeed be unlocked if I do not have the OEM-unlocking option visible? Or could someone tell me how can I unlock my bootloader or ultimately achieve what I want to do (i.e., fool Whatsapp into storing media files on the external sd card)?
Thanks!

https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3747535

Thanks @alecxs From what I read in that thread, does it mean the only way to get the OEM-unlocking option visible is waiting 7 days w/o rebooting the Tab? Does this works even if I do not have a SIM card in the tablet?

add Samsung or Google account and WiFi, no SIM required

Will try, thanks

My SM-T555 still don't have an option to unlock the bootloader. Waited long time, with wifi network enabled.


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Safest way for rooting
I would not recommend rooting a device that is still under warranty.
I am trying to find a way to root my old device from 2014 that has become my daily because the new one got damaged and cannot afford a new one. It runs on Android Lollipop.
I am trying to avoid the traditional root way which involves unlocking the bootloader and then flashing it with different files. I am not comfortable in doing that since it is risky and my brick my phone from a mistake. There are tutorials on doing it for my exact phone model so that is not the requirement here at all.
I also know about the one click root solutions but there seems to be a lot of debate on its safety as it is not clear what info is being collected by the app developer. I did kingroot on my test device and it is fine for that device but I don't want it on my daily.
I have found a way which "on paper" seems the safest. It roots without rooting the device. However, I would still like to make sure that it is safe before I use it.
In the below link there is a video that is about an app called VMOS which allows to duplicate the O/S (done automatically) and creates a virtual O/S on top of the locked one on the device and then the virtual one can be rooted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUTxMGsM_Uc
The app has been removed from the "Android Play Store". I am adding below the FAQ from their website. In the FAQ they mention that they do not collect any data and that the only data they collect is for error logs.
https://www.vmos.com/faq.htm
Can that claim be trusted? Would anyone trust that they are honest and do not collect any other data.
I don't think that the app can be put behind a firewall because then it might block all the apps that are running on it as it is the main gateway for them.
I am also sure that running a virtual O/S would require to use more resources on the device. So this solution would not be useful for just any device.

Rooting is basically exploiting a security breach .  See Pros and cons of rooting using apps ("Soft Root") compared to other methods ("Hard Root") for Pros and Cons . As far as security implications go, it is your choice. No one except the developers can say if their code is not open sourced (and assuming they are being truthful). Next, it looks to be Chinese origin, who don't have a great reputation in these matters-Your call

See answers to "I am trying to avoid the traditional root way which involves unlocking the bootloader and then flashing it with different files." here: Is there a way to root an Android phone without unlocking the bootloader? and here: How to manually root a phone?. "Can that claim be trusted? Would anyone trust that they are honest and do not collect data.". It's opinion based. No one can assure you of this except the developer. You need to trust them as @beeshyams said.

The idea of rooting or Jail break is so annoying, after using PCs or even windows phones which used to run on Windows 8. Everything was always rooted and the idea of rooting something did not exist. I understand that Smartphones need to be locked so that the servers that are being contacted are protected and if they detect that the phone is rooted then it might get blocked. So that seems like a problem.

As far as the app you found my impression is, that it is as of until someone of standing in the community can legitimately say otherwise, that its ability and origin are "questionable" at this time. I have only seen a few people even comment ABOUT it, let alone bonafide users that actually USED it and have some form of empirical data that can back up any claim to it being effective/non-spyware related/not full of issues like bricking peoples Galaxies, Lg ThinQ's (god I love mine), Note, etc., and so on. If it is a usable way of being able to solve some issues for the general public than I'm all for it but hopefully someone can start showing some good hard data on this for everyone.

You have to use the tool towelroot by Geohot (https://towelroot.com/) or FrameRoot Apk from XDA Developers(https://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/framaroot/root-framaroot-one-click-apk-to-root-t2130276).
All this toolks are .apk files that you can install on your smartphone and click root once installed.


text:
Why Were My Timezone Definitions Updated?
I just got this update notification

Update time zones
New time zone definitions are available.  Time zones will be updated the next time your phone restarts.

Did any real time zones actually change or was this a bug fix?  What changed?
[

Usually the time zones change because one country has changed their daylight saving time start/end date. Of course other changes are possible but happen very seldom.

Easily found through a simple Google Search. The Kingdom of Morocco changed it DST initiation date to May 31, 2020 where currently it was established for May 24. The update establishes the new rule.

See Android source for Time Zone Rules
Thanks to wbogacz who pointed out in comments the latest change (Morocco) which is likely the cause of this update or the IANA update of 23 Apr 2020
Update Mechanism
Time zone updates (Android 8.1–9)

APK-based mechanism to push updated time zone rules data to devices without requiring a system update.

Android core libraries team provides the necessary data files for updating time zone

OEMs can choose to use these data files when creating time zone updates for their devices or can create their own data files

Time zone updates (Android 10+)
Updates use the following process:

IANA
releases an update to the Time Zone Database releases an update in response to one or more governments changing a time zone rule in their countries.

Google or the Android partner prepares a Time Zone Data module update (APEX file) containing the updated time zones.

The end-user device downloads the update, reboots, then applies the changes, after which the device's time zone data contains the new time zone data from the update.

Edit : For latest changes as of date, see APEX-based module update mechanism and Time Zone Data


text:
Prebuilt APK doesn't launch when preloaded but launches when installed on device
I am working to integrate a vendor's prebuilt APKs onto my AOSP build Android 10.
The earlier versions used to work fine. The prebuilt APK was made as certificate: platform and privileged: true, making it a system/priv-app module. Suddenly, after a version upgrade, when we flash the system and launch the app, it doesn't launch and is stuck on the splash screen with no exception/errors/ANR traces in the logs, freshly flashed the system so there is not much memory consumption.
When tried root, remount, rm the prebuilt APK from system/priv-app, and installing the prebuilt APK, it worked fine. The app launches and is working fine.
Can someone help me find the root cause of the issue?
Note: It is a vendor's APK, so the code is not available, have to debug from the AOSP side.

Are you sure the app works at all. What happens if you just install the app as regular user app? If also nothing happens the app is most likely defect.

The app works fine when installed. So it goes in the data/app and works well


text:
Wifi not working / hardware, how to connect to the internet
i have an Asus K011 Tablet, which i want to connect to the internet. Hovewer wifi is damaged on the motherboard as well as bluetooth so the only possibillity is ot connect it via USB cable to my laptop and from laptop share the internet to the tablet. How can i do it , which program i should use?
Thanks for the answers

It's called reverse tethering: https://android.stackexchange.com/search?tab=votes&q=reverse%20tether

Use reverse usb thethering through android VPN api.
This project can do that:
https://github.com/Genymobile/gnirehtet
. No root required.
It is creating a tun0 network interface. ipv4 with tcp/udp will work.

This is the best one out there

On Windows 10 x64 — not sure if any other hardware/firmware/etc limitations might apply — you can navigate to Ethernet Properties dialogue window...

...for wired, and Mobile hotspot system settings window...
...
for wireless internet sharing.  Though I've never utilized these features myself and can't speak for how well they work, note that (at least for me) they came standard with my build and I did not need to download or utilize any 3rd party software or utility.  Hope that helps!


text:
how to create a watch later list for netflix app?
Til now we can only: add to list, like or dislike a video.
Adding to a list is not really useful because netflix app wont hide items we have already watched, so we lose a lot of time browsing a long list of things we have already watched, almost pointless, I dont do it anymore...
Like or dislike makes no difference either, doesnt help (each of) us, wont hide, not even mark/highlight, the item either...
Do you know any tricks?

I found 2 pseudo ways:
Easier and reliable: Just share the movie link with some app that you can delete later, eg.: share it with whatsapp (better if you have a 2nd cellphone to do that), but then you have to use an external app.
Tho, the best app I found for this is "Keep notes": create a label on it "Watch Later". On netflix app, share the link to keep notes with that label. On keep notes, search notes with that label.
UNRELIABLE (I kept this here so you can try, but as soon the netflix app restarts for any reason, the "pseudo watch later list" will be lost, unless they "fix" it...)
more complex, inside netflix app (only works with videos that can be downloaded):
1 - opt to download videos
2 - opt storage as the external sdcard
3 - fill up sdcard with trash (like a copy of 100MB files, i suggest using x-plore to make copies) in a temporary place that is easy to delete later (the trick step)
4 - try to download a video, it will fail, the item will remain on the download list as being unable to download it, won't use storage space, it is pseudo-perfect :), the item will remain there (let's hope they dont change this...)
5 - before watching or downloading, just delete some of the trash if needed
Obs.: starting a download and pausing it only allow us to "continue all downloads" after, what is messy.
any more tricks?