text:
My real device has an IMEI of 012345678912345 - why?
I recently found one of my old Android devices (Orbo Jr. w/Rockchip ZX-2926D, Android 4.4.2), charged it, and turned it on. After exploring the settings, I found it had an IMEI number of 012345678912345 - definitely not unique. After some research, it seemed to belong to Android-x86 devices with tons of hints to Virtualbox and QEMU in its system file names.
Looking up the number on imei.info ends up with "Invalid number".
I would dial *#07# on its Phone, but there is no phone. Although (about every 6 months or more), it gets malware calling itself "Phone".
It has been factory reset twice before looking at the IMEI number.
I found how to (semi) change it here, but am having an issue getting it to root (even if I wanted to use it, I couldn't). Towelroot says "your device is not supported", and KingRoot says "Rooting error".
Why does this device has an invalid IMEI?

Wow, that's a bogus IMEI and a HALF. Probably down to it being a Chinese offbrand? A Rogue "Phone" app would be related too, at a guess.


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Older Exchange calendar disappear in Android Calendar, but not in Apple Calendar
I have an Exchange account for my email and calendar, which I use on my Mac in the default Calendar desktop app, and on my phone in the Android Calendar app. On the phone, older items (last week and older) disappear, on the Mac they stay, so it looks like this is not an Exchange problem.
I want to see my old appointments on the phone, back to the first appointment ever. It's just text, so it can't be that much.
Why do these older items disappear and how can I bring them back?

Open system settings
Goto Users and accounts
Click on the exchange account
Click on Account settings
Click on the settings button next to the account name

Now you see all settings for this account.

Scroll down
Click on "past items synchronisation"
Change this to all past items
Click the back button till you're out of the settings

NB: I translated "past items synchronisation", so the actual English name for this might be different, but I think it's clear what I mean. If you have the correct naming, then please comment here.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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What is creating these gibberish files on my SD card?
I recently took my SD card out of my tablet, and put it into my laptop. However, there were gibberish files everywhere on the SD card. A few of them:

In the Alarms folder, there were two files: .fgbnm_uyivfqwpo.txt and .fgbnm_uyivfqwpo11.txt. They both contained nothing but the stirng rAa7m3BIebYuaNAiY2vVfbUMRvRym7Ym#1527480871.
In the DCIM folder, there were .redghj_jklqwpo.hgk and .redghj_jklqwpo11.hgk. They contained the same data as the files above.
In the Documents folder, there were iiy_pol_gthqwpo.mp3 and iiy_pol_gthqwpo11.mp3. They also contained the same data, and Windows Media Player encountered an error when playing it.
In the Downloads folder, there were .ertyui_opikqwpo.ziip, .ertyui_opikqwpo11.ziip, .y_androidqwpo.ziip, and .y_androidqwpo11.ziip. If I opened them as a .zip file, I got "Please insert the last disk of the multi-disk set" on all 4 files.
The Movies folder contained dgdf_configqwpo.con and dgdf_configqwpo11.con.
The Ringtones folder contained .ewsdf_oplkqwpo.kjl and .ewsdf_oplkqwpo11.kjl.

The only things in common between all these files is the contents (rAa7m3BIebYuaNAiY2vVfbUMRvRym7Ym#1527480871) and the ending before the file extension (wpo and wpo11).
Searching the files found this question (it's in French!) that just says they can be deleted.
What app is creating these files? Whatever it is I want to remove it immediately.

Did u recently install the app clean master???

No. I've too many bad things about it to install it.

Here is the answer to your problem: These files come from installing applications from developers Cheetah Mobile. Delete the Cheetah Mobile app that you have installed and then delete these bogus files. Problem solved!

I had WhatsCall (Cheetah Mobile Cloud) installed, so I will see if uninstalling it fixes the problem.

I was worried too, googled and came to this thread. I uninstalled Photo Grid app developed by Cheetah then solved! Thanks Alfredo!

It actually helped! They didn't start showing up until a recent update. Perhaps it was a device or advertising ID, and the developers spammed it all over the SD card to stop it from getting deleted.

@Zackary that's it on the nail, tbh. Shame really, I used to love these guys. How the mighty have fallen....

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


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How to open web links in external browser like Chrome from Reddit?
I have a habit of using an external browser for web links to generally read articles, but wherever I click on any link it opens up in the internal browser which prevents me from using Reddit otherwise at the same time in my Android smartphone. How do I open web links from Reddit in an external browser like Google Chrome in my Android smartphone?
P.S. I am using official Reddit app for Android. Reddit for Android has its own browser to load web links. Is there any way to get rid of that and open web links in any external browser like Chrome?

Which app are you using to view Reddit? For instance, I use BaconReader, and it has a setting that specifies whether to use the internal or external browser.

I am using the official Reddit app.

If you find the default browser in Settings -> Apps and tap on it, under App info you'll see the heading Open by default: tap on it and then press CLEAR DEFAULTS. Now in all apps you'll be prompted for which browser to use, with the default browser offering the choices of USE ONCE or USE ALWAYS, which will remove the prompt again on future links.

Your method worked, @AFH but it turn out the case is different. Reddit for Android has its own browse to load web links. Is there any way to get rid of that and open web links in any external browser like Chrome, as I mentioned in my question?

Sorry, I assumed all apps would be similar. I have no experience of Reddit.

No problem, I think there is no option for such, instead of finding something in Reddit settings or using a totally third party app.


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How to delete 0-byte files in the root directory of internal storage without root access?
This is the same to this question:
Can't delete file in download folder
But for me, the answer is not clear, as per the OP's answer 'he turned on the SD Maid app' but did not state what option in SD Maid resolved the issue. The OP stated as well 'he deleted the whole directory' but not specified if using SD Maid or PC.
We have the same scenario where I redownloaded the same file, and after copying it to the exact location where I'm having an issue, it made two identical files and what I tried so far:

Highlighted both items and deleted them using SD Maid, it says success but after a refresh, it retains the other file with 0 bytes.
Connected my phone to PC as MTP and tried to delete it from there. What I noticed is it only shows one file, unlike looking in any Android file manager. It says success but checking it again on the phone it retains still the file with 0 bytes.
Tried apps in Play Store that says secure delete that uses a different algorithm but still, after it says yes, the same scenario occurs above.
Perform wipe cache partition in the stock recovery.
Clear data and cache of stock file manager.

I know my last resort would be a complete factory reset, but is there any other way?

I installed the SD Maid app despite knowing that it didn't delete the problematic file. But at last, I removed the whole folder with the app, and it finally worked. Then I tried to delete the folder by the file explorer of my phone, and everything except the problematic file got deleted. Then I deleted the folder (with the 0b file in it) with SD Maid.
Note that before doing this, I've also tried using force delete on Windows Explorer and ADB Shell, but none worked.

Hi, though this question is almost a year already. Yea, that method works if the 0 byte file is inside a folder. But in my case it's in the root of the storage,  it's not inside any folder. I just resolved it by doing factory reset, though it was not my preferred method.

I found a pretty easy fix:
Deleting storage and cache from the system app "media storage" and then restarting made the 0 byte files disappear for me


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Recover phone data from encrypted Android phone with broken screen (still being online)
my phone's touchscreen (OnePlus 3) got broken entirely yesterday (black, unresponsive, cracked => total damage!). Considering investing in a screen repair I'd really would like to know if there's any possibility for me to access my data partition. Connecting my phone under Ubuntu adb shell does not find any devices, since I could not unlock the device's display I guess. Is there any (Linux) way to do that?
best
Andi


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How to disable Data Usage Cycle's autoreset
I'm using a prepaid card and there's no billing cycle.
How can I disable the data usage tracker from auto-resetting?

As of Android Oreo you cannot disable the billing cycle from the Settings. However, there is an application, which monitors all the data you use, but unfortunately, recently it became Samsung exclusive. I'm talking about Samsung Max (previously known as Opera Max). I've tried other apps for mobile data monitoring, but only this one could show a custom cycle. If you don't own a Samsung you can try the Play Store for apps, which also offer the monitoring you're looking for, and share your results here :)

I'm using official Pixel 2. Any idea what's a good solution? Assumption of cycles is a pretty tard move really.

@Pacerier I'm with the Pixel XL and this app does pretty good job for tracking the data usage. It has the options to display data for all time or since interface start up, which I think is what you're looking for.


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Opening WhatsApp Web on phones doesn't show QR code and redirects to the homepage instead
When I open https://web.whatsapp.com on Android phones, there's no QR code to be scanned nor it shows any messages, but instead, it automatically redirects to https://www.whatsapp.com.

How to make WhatsApp Web shows the QR code on Android phones?

https://web.whatsapp.com/ website is only for laptop or desktop users so that they can use WhatsApp on their laptop or desktop. If you visit this website from your smartphone, it will redirect you to their official website of WhatsApp.

To use WhatsApp Web on Android (which is very handy and widely used):
close all Chrome tabs, open a new incognito window, check the Desktop site version from the menu if not checked, open https://web.whatsapp.com/, et voila: the QR code.
The important thing is to open a new tab when you exit from incognito, Chrome deletes all of the cookies! And at the base, there is a problem with cookies.

I use Firefox Browser with User Agent Switcher extension when opening https://web.whatsapp.com/. Furthermore, I select "Request Desktop site" and it works.


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How to turn off Android corner page curl?
I'm having an Android page curl issue.
I've read up on it and a lot of people say it's a clean master app.. but I don't have that app, or omniswipe.. or and of the other apps mentioned... My phone died earlier today, and when I turned it on the curl was suddenly there... Idk where it came from or how to get rid of it. Because it's sapping my battery, I can see the difference, and it frankly really annoying. Ive even had to move all my app up to the top of the pages just so I don't inadvertently swipe the tiniest bit and that curl pops up....
Please help.

Nevermind, I finally figured it out. It was in my Antivirus Free app. The app that came already installed on my phone. Lazy swipe was a feature added in the settings.
Just turn it off~
I at least hope that this helps someone else~


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Configuring USB tethering manually with root
I've exhausted the documented methods of programmatically enabling USB tethering:

The service method doesn't work on my phone (Samsung Note 4). It seems to be some sort of protected API, and poking it from adb has no effect.
The shell input method is not applicable, as it requires that the device is unlocked, and there doesn't seem to be a way to programmatically and non-destructively unlock a device locked with a fingerprint.

So, I'm looking into achieving this goal "the hard way", i.e. do everything that the Android userspace does when you tap the USB tether checkbox.
As far as I can tell, this involves the following steps (most of which would be similar to how you'd do it on a Linux machine):

Establish an IP connection to the host computer through USB. This involves putting USB in rndis mode, setting up routes, assigning an IP, etc.
I've already figured out how to achieve this and posted the answer here.
Launch a dnsmasq instance, to assign an IP to the connected PC via DHCP, and forward DNS requests.
This step shouldn't be necessary if you don't need DNS server detection and assign static IPs on the USB interfaces yourself.
Enable IP forwarding (/proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward).
Set up iptables to enable forwarding/masquerading.
Update routing tables for traffic accounting.

I managed to write a bunch of scripts which replicate exactly the visible effects (described above) as performed by the Android OS when enabling USB tethering through its UI. To create the scripts, I recorded the system state (iptables -S, ip route show table all) with and without tethering, then converted the differences into shell commands to apply the changes to the system. However, my replicas are still not enough; some part of the system remains unconfigured which prevents traffic from going through.
Does anyone have a clue as to what I might be missing, or how I can narrow down / debug the problem?

A buddy let me know that there is more than one sysctl setting for forwarding (a global one and one per interface, then more for IPv6).
On my phone, the relevant settings are:
vars=(
    net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects=0
    net.ipv4.conf.all.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.default.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.ip6tnl0.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.lo.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.p2p0.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.rmnet0.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.rmnet1.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.rmnet2.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.rmnet3.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.rmnet4.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.rndis0.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.sit0.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.wlan0.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
    net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.all.proxy_ndp=2
    net.ipv6.conf.default.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.ip6tnl0.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.lo.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.p2p0.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.rmnet0.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.rmnet1.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.rmnet2.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.rmnet3.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.rmnet4.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.rndis0.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.sit0.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.wlan0.forwarding=2
) ; sysctl "${vars[@]}"

With these and the other ones, forwarding and tethering works!


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Setting/finding Android 7 encryption password
With some hassle I updated the 2016 firmware on my Lenovo P2 to Android 7 (I think my carrier decided that their own app was more important than security updates).
Now that I wanted to put the TWRP recovery onto the phone instead of the stock one, I find out that the phone is encrypted, which it wasn't before. I have not asked for it (it appears Google does this by default now for Android 7) and I have never entered a password explicitly for encryption.
However, TWRP asks for a password for decryption purposes, I believe.
I use fingerprint/PIN as screen lock. This answer and others suggest it should be the PIN, however while that works fine for a normal startup of the phone, that doesn't work in TWRP.
How would I find or set the right password to use (doubting there is a default password!)?

See https://android.stackexchange.com/a/230055

It turns out that there either is a bug in TWRP in that it won't accept a blank password (or that there is a default password in Android 7).
In either case, if I set the password under
Settings -> Security -> Screen lock -> [PIN] -> Password -> Require password to start device

(which I have never set before), then this password can be used in TWRP and must then also be used to unlock the phone instead of the PIN.

Sorry but that didn't work.

There’s also a default password, often even “default_password”, but some manufacturers use a different one or even a completely different mechanism, so that the above doesn’t work and TWRP cannot decrypt.


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How to fetch tracked data from *mi Fit* Android app?
I have a fitness tracker band from mi (Xaomi). It has an Android app associated with it on my phone called mi Fit. Now, I want to know how to fetch all or some of the tracked data i.e sleep quality, steps taken, calories burned, distance covered etc. into a file that could be read by Windows or Android programs to create a graph out of it. If not, then is there any way to just combine and fetch the data?

If it is acceptable for you to use a separate app to collect this data, take a look at GadgetBridge (available on F-Droid). That's an open source app supporting many gadgets, a.o. Pebbles and Mi-Bands. It allows you to export the collected data (see e.g. here). Since v0.24 you can even set it up to do so automatically/periodically.


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Can you test apps on a google locked phone?
I'm an Android developer and I'm looking for a test phone, since I don't want my main phone plugged in and charging all day. I noticed that there are many "Google Locked" android phones for sale on eBay for very cheap.  Can you test apps on a google locked phone? I don't care about connecting to wifi, mobile data, etc.  I just need to be able to plug-in via USB and run my app on the phone to see how my app looks at a different resolution, performance, etc.

No... Assuming by "Google Locked" you mean it has an enforced Factory Reset Protection which requires the previous owner's (or last active) Google account credentials. When this is active you cannot get to the launcher or perform any actions on the device until it is "unlocked" using the proper Google credentials. It is "locked", is essentially a non-functional device, and you cannot get past the Google Credentials screen in any way.
Some further information that might be applicable in our FRP base question, How to bypass “Verify your account” (Factory Reset Protection)


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How to bypass an app's ability to know is being run on an emulator rather than a real device.
I would like to install an app called entrust (from the play store) and be able to use it. My last try was to use an emulator called "Genymotion", but the app can detect that the app is being run on an emulator because I get this error:
"Error: Manual Activation is not supported on an unsecured device."

which I don't get if I'm running the app on a real device. Are there any ideas about how can I bypass this check and be able to run it using an emulator?
Thank you!

Have you tried Android-x86? You could install the ISO using Virtualbox.

In general there are three ways to bypass an emulator check:

Modify the app and remove the emulator check.
Modify the emulator so that it pretends to be a real device.
Modify the system calls the app does for detecting it is running on an emulator

As you can see all three ways are not that simple, however the third way may be the easiest as there are some tools that can help you.
Back to option 1 - it requires a lot of development skills to decompile the app (e.g. using apktool to decompile it to Smali code), identify the emulator checks (and to bypass app integrity checks that may exist).
Option 2 is even harder as it requires you to patch and recompile the Android emulator (which is available as source code).
Therefore from my point of view only option 3 is realistic for you. However it still may require some Java development.
You can install the XPosed framework onto your emulator. It allows to modify system calls the app uses for identifying that it is running on an emulator.
There are a some existing XPosed modules for hiding that a device is rooted or that it is running on an emulator. If you are luck there is an existing module working out-of-the box, letting you run your app on an emulator.

surprised to know there isn't an emulator out there yet that the app cannot tell. Supposedly, an emulator should be able to make it a virtual device, so the app shouldn't be able to tell

The app needs a closed boot loader and doesn't allow root. The app doesn't know anything about the emulator.

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

boot-loader state is only relevant if the app uses Google SafetyNet verification. And as an emulator never will get an Google Android certification by Google it will always fail the "CTS profile".

Depending on how the emulator is built, an app can certainly detect if it's running on an emulator or not.


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Solved a known bug, users option disappeared from settings
I have a Asus zenfone 2 running official android m. I had the same problem as the guy in this thread:
Home Screen and Recent Apps buttons don't work
Before I could fix it, I tried the guest mode method. I pressed on the guest mode icon in the quick settings, it switched to guest mode, stayed there for about 5 seconds, then automatically switched back to my own profile and suddenly the users icon disappeared from the quick settings tray and the users option disappeared from the settings page. No more possible ways to switch users or enter guest mode.
I solved the main problem using the nova launcher method, but my phone didn't have the setup wizard test activity, instead I managed to fix it with the Asus setup, not the stock Android one.
It fixed everything, but the users setting is still missing. I've ran the check max-users command in the terminal and it said 1. Phone isn't rooted so I can't change that. Is there any way for me to get back the users or guest mode option without rooting?

Yes, by flashing stock ROM (firmware). Everything will be fixed that way

I know, but looking for a way to do it without flashing.

That would mean to install it as system app, meaning you'll need to root your device then install the app, give it all permissions. Should work, may be


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Apps not getting downloaded
When I am installing my apps from Playstore its not getting installed and the previous apps which are already installed or not getting updated I brought a new mobile from a store recently but I am facing this issue:

Try to reset your Google Play Store and then try to download it....

Disconnect from Wifi then reconnect.

Check your network speed, 4g is better option, many times it is observed that on low data connection playstore makes trouble to download apps...
I can help further if you have mentioned your device name and model

It could be one of these problems

Slow Internet connection
-**it's seems unlikely, you have 4G connection **
Cache of Google playstore
**remove cache and data from Google playstore **


text:
Phone, Contacts, Camera and Messages icons are missing
Galaxy J3 - Phone, Contacts, Camera and Messages icons are missing.  I tried following the directions someone else had posted; but, my application manager does not have a GENERAL TAB nor is there a TURNED OFF list.  Thanks!

Please check in Settings->Applications->Eg. Phone. Check whether they are disabled or not. if they are disabled, their icons are no longer seen on app launcher, until you enable them. Otherwise, you will be in power saving mode settings that were available on samsung devices.

Where are those icons missing from? Just from the home screen? Or from the app drawer as well? Can you still find them in Settings › Apps? We need some more details to be able to give you the correct advice.

Try factory reset, it should solve the problem

Or by a new phone that still has those icons. Sorry, but that's a very low-quality answer. You don't even know what the problem is. Maybe Joanne simply has deleted the icons from the launcher (homescreen)? Then why factory-reset? Sure one can kill a fly with atomics, but there are cleaner ways.


text:
Android Studio 3 in Ubuntu 17.04 not see Nexus 7 in connected devices to run the App with
I'm using Android Studio 3.1.1 in Ubuntu 17.04 and a Nexus 7.
Android Studio not see the device in the list of the "connected devices" in the window to run the App:

The device is already activated as Debug USB with MTP USB type, and I already choose "Ok" for every prompt asking to allow the USB connection with the PC.
It is showed in the media connected to ubuntu, but clicking on it appear this error:

I already tried all guides founded on the Web but without success.
I already installed:

android-tools-*
adb
mtpfs
go-mtpfs

The Nexus 7 has Android 5.1.1
Note: I can use my Samsung Galaxy S5 Neo connected with Android Studio to run the App, without any problem.
How can I make it work with the Nexus 7?
Thanks a lot!

If you've already tried everything, then we can't suggest anything new. If you want some helpful suggestions, tell us exactly what you've tried already.

Tell me please something that can help me to solve that problem. Maybe I havn't found the correct solution yet...


text:
What is the play sound item is touched setting?
I was looking in settings, and I saw a weird setting option. In "sounds and vibrations " under settings there something know as

Play a sound when certain items are touched on the screen

Now my question is, how is this useful, what is this, and what items triger this sound?
Im using a Samsung J3 2016 with android 7.1.1
Sorry if I have mistakes, im using mobile.

This option serves as sound feedback when tapping on your screen, for instance on your keyboard, or (usually) when navigating menus/options in the Settings app.
(My opinion : while useful, be wary of not activating that option in public places/transports, as it's usually very irritating for other people to hear your tapping feedback)


text:
Is there a way to see when the last time an uninstalled app was installed?
Here's the situation, I'm trying to work things out with an ex, but her friend saw me on Bumble and told her. I haven't used the app since before her and I started dating, but I must have just deleted the app without ever deleting my profile. It's been uninstalled for well over a year. Is there a way to see the last time an uninstalled app was installed so I can show her that I have not been using it?
Thanks!

The information you're seeking is located inside the library.db which is located at /data/data/com.android.vending/databases. It is part of Google Play Store app's data.
Note: I presupposed that the app was installed via Play Store, as otherwise, this solution is of no use.
For an unrooted Android

Use adb to pull data of com.android.vending (Google Play Store)
  adb backup com.android.vending

convert the backup into tar file using Android Backup Extractor (ABE) or other means you know of.
(ABE needs Java Runtime Environment and has README.txt for usage). ABE would unpack the .ab file into a .tar which you can then extract using an archiver like Ark, 7zip, WinRAR.)

Locate the library.db under databases directory and use an Sqlite viewer software (such as DB Browser for SQLite) to open that file.

Search for the package name of your uninstalled app (com.bumble.app in OP's case) under the doc_id column, and note down the corresponding timestamp in the purchase_time column in that same entry. That is a unix timestamp. Furthermore, a free app is also considered purchased (for zero amount) in this table, so do not be confused by the column name.

Use a site like Epoch Converter to convert the timestamp into human readable form.

For a rooted Android
You can use an SQlite viewer app to view that database. I used MyAndroidTools (not available on Play Store anymore) for testing purposes.

The backup.ab that the first command created for me was only 47 bytes large and hence useless. Did something in Android change that broke this procedure or this particular to my phone?

@MrArsGravis I do not know the exact reason why adb backup failed to work. I don't use Google Play anymore so I can't test my own answer either. A couple of issues related to adb backup created X bytes backup can be found under the search query here. You could also ask a new question if none of them addresses your problem.


text:
How can I view the list of available conference rooms in Microsoft Outlook for Android?
How can I view the list of available conference rooms in Microsoft Outlook for Android?
For example, on the Microsoft Outlook web interface, one can view the list of available conference rooms:

I haven't found any answer so far.

I am still interested if someone has any idea.

As of December 2018, the room finder is not yet implemented on Outlook for Android.
The following article Compare Outlook for PC, Outlook on the web, and Outlook for iOS & Android lists the features available on different versions of Outlook. Meeting room finder feature is listed as No (meaning not available) on  both Android and iOS but available on Outlook for PC and Outlook on the web.


text:
How to set CPU frequency as early as possible?
What I mean by this question is the sequence of execution of scripts at boot time.
Suppose I have this line of script:
echo 307000 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq

I want this line of script to be executed as soon as possible (even before android shell is loaded). Where is the best place to put it? (init.d?)


text:
Other methods to unbrick LG X210 from other identical phone?
Recently I accidentally formatted my preloader on my LG X210 smartphone, which is an MTK device (MT6580).
Because of this my phone doesn't react when I press the power button, and the screen remains black when plugging it in to charge etc. I guess that's what they call hard-bricking a phone. (and yes, I checked that my battery was still 80% full)
Because it's an MTK device it is still possible to flash the stock ROM by going into meta mode (first install the necessary drivers and then remove battery from phone, keep volume up pressed in and simultaneously insert USB cable connected to computer). I used the flash tool (SP_Flash_Tool_v5.1532_Win) to first format the rom:

Then I downloaded the stock ROM (MT6580__lge__LG-X210__m13g__5.1__ALPS.L1.MP6.V2.19_ARIMA6580.WE.L_P42), which looks like this when extracted:

So all I still had to do was:

Flash only the preloader
Then unplug the phone /plug back in again
Finally flash the rest (see picture:)

I searched online and this method seemed to work for a lot of users; i.e. they would then unplug their phone and the device would be able to power up etc.
However, in my case it still doesn't... I am very sure that this is the correct stock ROM that I used.
Does anyone know what else I could try to do?
Note that I have a second identical LG X210 phone which is still working fine (but it's not mine) - perhaps there is a way to dump the rom and restore it in my phone? (assuming the stock rom itself has a fault in its preloader)

Does the phone get detected in the device manager? You can unbrick it with SP Flashtool

Yes the device gets detected in the device manager, and the screenshots are made in SP Flashtool; but I seem to think that the stock rom is incorrect: even if I flash the preloader with SP Flash tool, the device won't interact at all if I normally charge it or keep the power button pressed in. I have a second phone though - but I don't know how to extract the preloader from it

You'll need to know the address and length of the preloader. Or check for Tools such as Miracle Box (paid) or NCK Box (paid), or their cracked version which may be harmful to your computer for viruses ( some are false positive alerts though)

The ReadBack tab on SP Flashtool is for dumbing then you cab flash it back

Perhaps this YouTube video may help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3TmXtOA0IA.
My i-mobile i-STYLE 712 (MT6580) did react only to show the battery, but after you plug it in, it asks for a signal for 1 or 2 seconds only. In the first two seconds, you have to send the correct signal to hold it in the USB contact. You can't see it, but you can prove it with usbdeview-x64.zip for example. Then you need SP_Flash_Tool_v5.1804_Win.zip and the MTK USB drivers.
It was dead, but I got it back to work. The links in the YouTube video may be outdated but the information was very helpful for me, I did try to flash a custom TWRP, but it wasn't for this device and kill the preloader too.


text:
android 8.1 plays random music sporadically and stops after 10 seconds or so
I have an android phone that runs 8.1 and sporadically it will run some random music that I don't know of. It then stops on its own after a few seconds. My browser is turned off, and the phone is on vibrate. Checking the running processes in developer mode does not reveal anything suspicious. I also did not install any shady apps. What can I do to pinpoint the problem?

have you checked the adb logcat output for messages at the time the music was played?

@Robert Can I do this directly on the phone?

No. adb will only see all entries when accessing it from a PC.

Is it linked to notifications? Do you see any in notifications panel when this happens.?

If you have installed apps such as UC Browser and similar apps runs on background and plays audio on background. Just check your running apps and kill 3rd party app one by one to know which app is causing this issue. Another way is go to play store -> My apps -> Library and uninstall recently installed app to solve this issue.

The weird thing is, there were no recent apps installed. The issue is very sporadic, too, so it's hard to pin down if an app is causing it.


text:
Linux kernel 4.4 Android devices
I am trying to find out what all devices are running linux kernel 4.4+ and having a hard time finding all. Till now I could only find Sony Xperia devices running kernel 4.4.
The reason I was trying to get a 4.4 linux device is I am having a hard time compiling kernels based on 3.1x on my ubuntu linux 4.15 so I thought it would be nice to have a linux 4.4 device in that respect. I was trying to compile perf tool for linux right now.

Not even Oreo is on Linux kernel 4, so I doubt anything is

A bunch of SDM835/845 devices already got 4.x, either on stock on on custom ROM. Sammy S9 got 4.4, Xiaomi Mi 6 / Mix 2 got 4.4, Mix 2S even got 4.9. Still, I believe finding a comprehensive list of it is considered off-topic (and I voted as such).


text:
How to delete a file once it is created by an app?
This question applies to any file created by an app, but this is the description of my problem.
I have an app installed in my phone that creates a .nomedia file in the root of my storage every time a specific action happens in the app. This causes all media files on my phone not to appear in gallery applications because the media scanner ignores everything.
I have contacted the app but they still did not have managed to solve that problem. What I want to know then is if there is a way to immediately delete the .nomedia file as soon as it is created by the app.

Remove that app, simply

That does not provide an answer to my question.

that's probably why I choosed to comment instead ;)

I need to use the app, so deleting it is not possible.

This should be a bug or something with your app. an App shouldn't create a .nomedia file inside system media folders. May be it is not configured properly to use its own folder

Yes, this certainly is a bug. But while they not fix it I am trying to avoid having to delete the file manually every time it is created.

Apps like Tasker can watch a certain directory for changes and execute a command if a change occurs.

@Robert I ended up using Tasker as you mentioned. If possible, please create an answer so that I can accept it. Thank you.

Monitoring a directory for a newly created or modified file is a simple task for an app as Android provides an API for doing so.
Therefore a lot of apps include file monitoring capabilities, such as Automate or Tasker. In these apps you can monitor the file as add a trigger to delete the file that will be executed immediately when the file is created.


text:
Google maps makes no sound when interupting music etc
Was there an update to google maps recently that affected this? I made no changes to my phone, and before when I was listening to a podcast using VLC or Samsung Music, google maps voice would just mute the audio and play over it. Now it still mutes the audio but just doesn't give directions, and then my music just picks up afterwards.


text:
How to change pin on android?
I have the Blackview BV8000 Pro.
Today, suddenly the pin stopped working and I can not access my phone anymore.
When restarting the Phone (without a sim card), it asks for the pin twice.
The first time, it tells me it has to know the pin to boot the device;
I enter the pin and the device boots. -> pin is correct.
Then when it gets to the normal login screen, it asks again for the pin - this time it tells me the pin is wrong.
(When a simcard is in my phone, it asks first for the pin - than boots, than asks for the sim pin, confirms that, and then asks again for the pin on the logon screen- which doesnt work anymore.
What can I do to connect to my data?
The PIN is obviously the right one, since my phone can still boot with that one. And friends who know my pin can confirm that its the correct one.
(None of my friends could access my pin in the last few hours).
What can I do? (Besides hard reset it)

Only thing I can recommend is going to https://android.com/find and see if you can forcibly change your phone's PIN.

Try forgot password and enter your email and password that is connected as play store id they will unlock it and sends the password on your gmail as recovery or as reset it.


text:
Mount encrypted emulated avd userdata-qemu.img.qcow2
I'm trying to make a backup of my AVD. To speed things up, I like to make incremental backups. Backing up the *.img.qcow2 file(s) is inefficient. I'd like to be able to mount the filesystem that resides on the virtual block device and then back up its contents.
My device is an emulated Nexus 5X running the Android Oreo 8.1 x86 system image with Google services and Play Store. There is no option not to full-disk encrypt the userdata partition. Using adbfs is buggy on recent Android versions, not to mention terribly slow.
cryptsetup appears not to know what to do with the block device. Perhaps there's some sort of magic invocation that will expose the underlying ext4 filesystem for me?
$ file userdata.img
userdata.img: Linux rev 1.0 ext4 filesystem data, UUID=XXXXXX, volume name "data" (extents) (large files)
$ file userdata-qemu.img
userdata-qemu.img: Linux rev 1.0 ext4 filesystem data, UUID=XXXXXX (extents) (large files)
$ file userdata-qemu.img.qcow2
userdata-qemu.img.qcow2: QEMU QCOW Image (v3), has backing file (path userdata-qemu.img), XXXXXX bytes

# qemu-nbd --format qcow2 --connect=/dev/nbd0 userdata-qemu.img.qcow2
# mount -t ext4 /dev/nbd0 /mnt/phone
mount: /mnt/phone: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/nbd0, missing codepage or helper program, or other error.

I think I remember hearing something about it being encrypted....

Kamil (aka. v3l0c1r4pt0r) made a good guide for this: https://re-ws.pl/2019/07/mounting-encrypted-android-emulator-image/ Does it work for you?


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Is it possible to recover files from Nexus 5 stuck in boot loop?
I have a Nexus 5 that starts up, says "Optimizing apps" and then reboots and repeats this endlessly. I just want to recover my files from the phone. Is there any way to accomplish this through Recovery mode, maybe by mounting the data folder? The only option I have for mounting is "Mount /system" but this doesn't seem to do anything.

Guess the same procedure as for a Nexus 7 stuck in a boot loop should apply?

@Izzy it says in the answer that it wipes the data, so I don't think that will help me

It says it wipes data if you not yet have unlocked your bootloader. Have you?


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How to use Glase on a rooted Android device?
How can I use the Tap and Pay payment app Glase (formerly SEQR) on a device which has been rooted using Magisk?

Step 0. Clean/uninstall everything Glase/SEQR, in other words - start over.
Step 1. Install Glase from Play Store but don't open it!
Step 2. Open Magisk Manager, hit "Tap to start SafetyNet check". Allow download of non-OSS if asked for. If Magisk notifies you that it has been repackaged and the check cannot be performed, you'll have to use a third-party app to check for SafetyNet Status.
Step 3. Ensure both basicIntegrity and ctsProfile are true. If not, ensure Magisk Hide is enabled by toggling its setting inside Magisk Manager settings, under Magisk. On Huawei devices on stock ROM you have to flash a specific "patch" zip file via TWRP recovery. If even after enabling Magisk Hide ctsProfile and/or basicIntegrity are false, please reboot your device, and - if it still doesn't work - reinstall stock firmware/ROM and start over. Please note that on some custom ROMs you'll have to use the "Props" Magisk Module to enable Magisk Hide.
Step 4. Go into Magisk Hide from the Magisk Manager menu and select/mark your Glase or SEQR app as enabled. You should see an orange ticked (✓) tick box next to it.
Step 5. Now go into Magisk Manager settings and select the "Hide Magisk Manager" entry from "General" menu. If you don't see it, and instead have "Restore Magisk Manager", it means you have done this already and you can go to the next step.
Step 6. Now open your Glase/SEQR app and follow the on-screen instructions to set it up.
Note: the "Tap and Pay Activation" procedure is sometimes buggy, regardless if you're rooted or not. Please allow up to 2 minutes for Glase to send you an "Activated" notification. If you don't get one, please delete app data of Glase, re-sign in with your account and attempt "Tap and Pay Activation" again


text:
How to make mobile device powerful as PC/server?
Can we somehow connect mobile device with our pc and use pc's ram, cpu etc. on connected mobile device or is there maybe a powerful external ram and processors for mobile devices?

even if, that would be bollocks. Network connected storage is already slower than local storage, for RAM this would be pretty useless. Distributed Computing is something different and not along your lines (nor would it fit this site well).

Ya never know @Izzy, whack it against the side enough and you won't need to visit downloadmoreram.com.     In all seriousness, no. Unless voodoo magic exists now, the most your getting from a extension is whatever your phone handles over USB (spoiler, that isn't much at all) hell, I'm pretty sure I asked something similar a while back...

Yes, @DanBrown – if you downloaded more RAM that's available locally, isn't it? #D

Of course it is, @Izzy :D

What are you trying to achieve?

Let us understand what  RAM which is more commonly called Primary Memory in academics actually is. While you are computing in your processor those fast additions and substractions you need to store your inputs and outputs some where for that purpose processors have very small memory bank called registers which are along with processors and are quite fast but your inputs usually come from your storage i.e., a flash drive or a hard disk or something. First thing you need to know about these hard or even flash  drives is they are very slow compared to your RAM which is nano seconds while your storage deals in microseconds.
Now bringing your memory in to RAM and computing in ram is helpful because all the memory operations now take nanoseconds. Now let us assume a remote RAM which is connected over WiFi may be. If you have 100Mbps connection to your RAM it takes 10 nano seconds for a single bit to get to your network port. Now you have to transfer it to your cache without loading it into any of the higher memory such as drives including ram, how do you plan to do that? I leave it here for you to brainstorm on these questions. A good exercise will be to look all the memory speed, device a design for your Remote RAM and calculate the latancies you might get and is it feasible to have those latancies at low level such as do a bit operation.
EDIT : Note the memory heirarchy include L1, L2 and L3 caches and Primary Memory. Things get interesting once you know about TLB's and stuff keeps digging.

Who calls RAM primary memory? I have a computer science degree and I've been in the industry 15 years, and I've never heard it called that. Maybe it was a term in the early days of computing, but I don't think you can say it's more commonly called that.

Yes you are correct Main memory is more apt. I was taught with Primary memory terminology in my class, though Main memory is the common word we use as well. But main point is to change terminology from RAM to memory as it is more easy understand then.


text:
Google authenticator remove and install back in same phone(time corrention)
If i uninstall g.authenticator from my phone and then install it again i lose the tokens for the sites i have?
Can anyone tell me about backup codes?those codes are only to access my google account again right?
How can disable the ayth authentiacation in all the sites ,if cant access google authenticator

anyone can help guys

If you uninstall your Google Auth you’ll lose all your tokens. Some services offer backup codes and these codes are valid only for this services. For example, Google offers backup codes, so if you lose your token you can use these backup codes to restore an access only to your Google account. If you lose the token and don’t have a backup code you should contact the support team of service you protect with 2FA. They will help you to restore an access to your account.
Tip: in the process of token enrolment save the QR code and keep it in a SAFE place. Then if you lose your phone you’ll be able to restore your token on a new device.
Another solution is a hardware token that can be used as a backup. For example, Protectimus (the company I work for) offers reprogrammable tokens Protectimus Slim NFC. They can be used as backup tokens (1 token can store 1 seed and can be reprogrammed an unlimited number of times).


text:
How to download a list of all members of WhatsApp group?
I participate in a WhatsApp group and would like to know if it is possible to download a TXT list from all members of this group.


text:
How can I block ringing of incoming calls of unknown numbers?
I would like to make sure that phone calls from unknown numbers never cause my phone to make any noise. I'm OK with it showing in my call log, but I don't want to be disturbed by someone who isn't in my phone book. How can I do this?

Related: How can I send incoming calls from unknown numbers directly to voicemail?

Samsung phones
Samsung's website has this article: How do I block unknown or hidden numbers from calling me?
Here's how you enable this feature:

Open your phone app.
Tap the three dots icon, or the "more" icon.
Tap "Settings"
Tap "Call rejection" or "call blocking" (you can skip this step on some phones)
Tap "Block numbers" or "Auto reject list" or "Block list"
Enable "Block unknown callers" or "Block anonymous calls" or "Unknown"

I'm not sure what exactly happens when someone who is blocked calls you. Does their call still show up in the call log? Can they tell that they have been blocked, or does it look like I just didn't pick up? I'll edit this answer once I've tested it out.


text:
Make Android open a page at a specific time every morning
I want to login to a site for 50 consecutive days. For this, I will have to visit their homepage for 50 days.
Is there anything that can be used to do this?

Using Macrodroid:

Add Day/Time trigger, then select Monday to Sunday and input the time.
Select the Open Website / HTTP GET action, then enter the webpage that should be opened.
Select Set Variable action. Choose "New variable", give it a name and select Integer.
On the Constraints tab, select Macroid Variable, select the variable create during step 4, select "<", and set Value to 51.
Give your macro a name, save it. It will look like the image below:

The macro will trigger daily at the exact time you entered opening the desired webpage for 50 consecutive days.
Disclaimer: I am not related to Macrodroid developer(s).

I really haven't used macrodroid that much, but your answer is very comprehensive +1

@xavier_fakerat Thanks. I wish I knew how to perform the same with other apps to post them also.


text:
Can I install Android app without all required app permissions?
For many apps on Google play such as Facebook I would like to install them, but I would not provide all the access they require while installing. For instance, I would not like to provide the access to Contacts. Is this possible?
I am targeting the Android versions 6 and later.
I know how to revoke the permissions later time, but installation time, Facebook prompts me with the big accept list, that at that time I cannot disable.
The needs access to dialog pops just after I press the install button.

If an app targets Android 6 or higher, most of the permissions listed in your screenshot will have to be approved (or denied) by the user at runtime – i.e. when you're using the app. There are several permissions not falling into this category, as Google defined them as "normal" (and only "dangerous" permissions are considered worthwhile to be presented to the user). So you e.g. will never be asked for Internet access (if you denied, Google couldn't show ads).

OTOH one of course could argue: if you're concerned about your privacy, Facebook is the wrong place to go in general :) And of course again, if you don't trust an app, watch out for alternatives. Best at F-Droid where you can trust every app.

I would like to switch on "runtime permissions" model somehow. At the moment "needs access to" dialog forces me to Accept on all. I am still not sure if there is some setting where I can manage the accept.

@lzzy, btw, I am on Android 7.1 I believe if this helps.

You can't "switch that on": either the app targets Android <6 (then it's off), or the app targets Android 6+ (and its on). All up to the dev. For older apps, you can just "revoke" permissions afterwards, if your ROM allows. Again rudimentary this is possible via Settings › Apps (either by a global "permissions" tab, or via a "permissions" button on each app's details page).

@lzzy, I would switch that off if possible. My question was how to suppers need access to dialog if possible.

All up to the dev.  Can you clarify this. Are you saying that this depends on the device?

 For older apps, you can just "revoke" permissions afterwards, if your ROM allows.  Yes. I can do that from Settings > Apps, I can confirm that. I can control the access permissions for any app, not just for some older apps.

@prosti your question didn't say you just want to suppress the dialog (which is a bad idea anyway; I'd rather want to have it complete again). You wrote you want to install an app without the listed permissions – and that's what my answer matches. And it's up to the dev what permissions the app requires, as well as what Android version (and thus permission model) he compiles it for. And yes, you can control some permissions via Settings but not all (e.g. no Internet).

@lzzy, the dialog we are talking about is not providing the option to accept or deny a service installation time. You must accept all in bulk. I would not say this is good or bad, but how you would install that app without suppressing this dialog? I guess I need to ask another question :)

Created https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/196664/is-it-possible-to-suppres-the-bulk-access-dialog

@Izzy "Best at  where you can trust every app."  Come on now, you know better than to make a blanket statement like that.  FDroid is a reputable marketplace, and lots of transparency, but there's no way anyone can guarantee any app marketplace to that degree.

@YetAnotherRandomUser name a better place. But agreed, healthy scepticism never hurts. Though, it's still more true than "only install from Playstore because that's the {only} safe place" (whether with or without the "only"). From a privacy standpoint, Playstore is a nightmare.

no that is not possible at that time because they are preset conditions in the android manifest which need to be fulfilled before downloading the app on your device

Wver heard about "runtime permissions"? If an app targets Android 6 or higher, e.g. access to the Camera, Photos/Media/Files, Contacts, Calendars etc. will have to be approved (or denied) by the user when the app runs.

Thanks for the comment @jainil looks like you are right but I will check for more feedback on another answer.

@prosti that's only true for Android 5 and below, as I've pointed out.


text:
Changing volume capacity
I have an Android tablet in my car, and the volume it's volume is in the range on 0-30.
It is very low since the last tablet (not an android tablet) had a range of 0-60.
How can I raise the maximum volume to 60? Will I have to root the device?

Maybe you can with root, but if understood correctly I think you're wrong in the basic of your question: A device has a maximum volume (which can or cannot be achieved regularly[1]) and the possible range is being split into a numbers range that will allow you to choose.
In your case, if you'll root and be able to change the range, it will do one of the following:

Set every 1 current unit to two new units (like jumping in 0.5 each time).
Split the volume control in another way so that it's not distributed evenly.

[1] Maybe it will be possible with root to increase the maximum volume by reducing the sound quality - but that's not what your question asks.


text:
How to enable Do Not Disturb for 1 SIM only in a Dual SIM phone?
I have a rooted OnePlus 2 running LineageOS 14 latest.
How can I enable the Do Not Disturb feature for just my personal SIM card, without also enabling it for my work SIM card? Specifically, I'd like to be able to have my personal SIM on Priority mode, if possible, which allows starred/favourited contacts to still ring.
I plan to upgrade to LineageOS 15 soon, but I can do this right away if it is a prerequisite.

Related Method to block calls on dual SIM and block notifications from some apps (scheduled)

Method one
Disbable the notification tone and the ringtone for the simcard that you do not want to use. Just go yo sounds and set it to none for sim 1 or two.
Method 2:
This is a tricky one since there is no default method that i can find to do this, but if you have used tasker before and your phone is rooted then there should be a plugin or a method to do this.
Tasker on Playstore
Goodluck mate


text:
Location of files: Main Storage versus SD card
I'm trying to figure out what is stored where on my Android phone (an unrooted Samsung Galaxy S8 with an SD card).
I can examine the phone's contents either via any of the several file manager apps I've installed, or by mounting the entire phone as a network drive on my Windows 10 machine.
My File Manager App shows me the contents of "Main Storage" and the contents of "SD Card".
The contents of "Main Storage" show up on the network drive in a directory called /sdcard.  The contents of "SD Card" show up on the network drive in a directory called /storage/0000-0000 .
This is very odd, since the directory called "/sdcard" on the network drive is the opposite of the directory called "SD Card" in the File Manager app.
The File Manager app shows 57 gigs total in "Main Storage" and 256 gigs in "SD Card".  This suggests to me that the former is the phone's built-in memory and the latter is the actual SD card.  But I'm thrown for a loop by the fact that the former is called "/sdcard" and the latter is called "storage/0000-0000", which seems backward.
I could, of course, pull the SD card out of the phone and examine its contents directly on another device, but I'm squeamish about handling the card.  And no matter what I learned, I'd still be curious about the odd naming conventions.
So:
Question 1:  What's going on?  What's in which directory?
Question 2:  If I want to back up all of the data (but not the system files or software) on my phone, does it suffice to make copies of /sdcard and /storage/0000-0000, or are there other places data might be stored?
Additional Info:  The App X-plore confirms the odd naming, in that it shows me two directories, one named both "Phone Memory" and /sdcard (it shows the former in bold and the latter in roman, both labeling the same directory) and another named both "SD card" and /storage/0000-0000.

What's in which directory?
/sdcard is the so-called "internal SD card" (internal-sd, on "internal storage" and not physically removable without breaking the device, hence also referenced as "Main Storage" in your case), while /storage/<card_id> is the physically removable external-sd.
are there other places data might be stored?
There are. Without root, you e.g. won't have access to where your apps store their data (/data/data/*). To perform a real full backup, you'd need a custom recovery like twrp to perform a nandroid backup. The closest you can come to that is adb backup – but even an "adb full backup" is incomplete (especially as apps can "opt-out" of that, so they won't be backed up by adb backup).


text:
How can I see what calls were automatically rejected with the "only receive calls from contacts" option?
I've been expecting a call back about a job and I just realized I've had my phone on only receive calls from contacts. Is there any way to recover those past calls or see if someone else has called me?

Do they not show up as rejected calls in the call history list in your phone app?

You could contact your phone provider and ask for a list of all received calls in a given time period.
Since your contact list is on your phone, it means your phone still gets the call, checks if the caller is in your contact, and rings if it's in, or disregards it otherwise.
There might be a log somewhere, but checking with your provider may be easier and/or quicker.


text:
Xiaomi Mi A1 How to change the screen lock code NOT the sim lock code
The title says it all.
It seems there is no way to change the screen lock code for this phone.
I am not looking to change the sim lock.

I am not on stock ROM on that device but as I recall Settings → Security ( and location?) → Device Security → Screen Lock.
You need to enter your PIN to change screen lock


text:
"error: neither -p product specified nor ANDROID_PRODUCT_OUT set" when trying to `fastboot flashall -w` on Nexus 7
I am trying to flash the latest 6.0.1 build onto my Nexus 7 tab.
I picked MOB30X build from here
naveen@gandalf:~$ fastboot devices
015d2a4ffd181016    fastboot

But, when I do
naveen@gandalf:~$ fastboot flashall -w
error: neither -p product specified nor ANDROID_PRODUCT_OUT set

What is this product about?
Further,
Looking like the build comes with a nice installation file flash-all.sh
While running
fastboot -w update image-razor-mob30x.zip

I'm again hitting this error

checking product...
FAILED

Here's the complete log file
naveen@gandalf:~/Playground/android/razor-mob30x$ sudo fastboot -w update image-razor-mob30x.zip
[sudo] password for naveen:
archive does not contain 'boot.sig'
archive does not contain 'recovery.sig'
archive does not contain 'system.sig'
archive does not contain 'vendor.img'
Creating filesystem with parameters:
    Size: 30550261760
    Block size: 4096
    Blocks per group: 32768
    Inodes per group: 8192
    Inode size: 256
    Journal blocks: 32768
    Label:
    Blocks: 7458560
    Block groups: 228
    Reserved block group size: 1024
Created filesystem with 11/1867776 inodes and 161260/7458560 blocks
Creating filesystem with parameters:
    Size: 464519168
    Block size: 4096
    Blocks per group: 32768
    Inodes per group: 7088
    Inode size: 256
    Journal blocks: 1772
    Label:
    Blocks: 113408
    Block groups: 4
    Reserved block group size: 31
Created filesystem with 11/28352 inodes and 3654/113408 blocks
--------------------------------------------
Bootloader Version...: 4.23
Baseband Version.....: N/A
Serial Number........: 015d2a4ffd181016
--------------------------------------------
checking product...
FAILED

Device product is 'grouper'.
Update requires 'flo'.

finished. total time: 0.157s

fastboot flashall is AFAIR not the correct command to flash a factory ROM. You have to directly execute flash-all.bat / flash-all.sh without fastboot.

Just unzipped and went through flash-all.sh. Looking like that's what is needed. Running it now.

I was not able to see any output for flash-all for almost 30 mins. I aborted the execution and ran the first command. "fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-flo-flo-04.08.img". Now seeing the message "< waiting for device >"

Finally got past this when I ran with "sudo". Now seeing "signature mismatch" while flashing bootloader. sha256sum seems to be fine. This is something else.

Signature mismatch seems to be OK. The older bootloader should be able to handle the flashing/installation. I'm seeing an error again. "checking product... FAILED" Will attach the complete log to this post.

The bottom of your log states an issue with devices variant: "Device product is 'grouper'. Update requires 'flo'". You may have downloaded the wrong firmware.

So... according to the Driver Binaries, "grouper" is Nexus 7 (Wi-Fi) while "flo" is Nexus 7 [2013] (Wi-Fi)..?

You need to set ANDROID_PRODUCT_OUT in /etc/environment.
You may have a folder with boot.img and system.img etc. in, this is the right folder.
Example:
ANDROID_PRODUCT_OUT=/path/to/folder/with/images/

After that, you can call sudo fastboot flashall -w.
It also works for self-builds.

fastboot is trying to play it safe, and make sure you're not flashing from the wrong location. The easy way is just to export ANDROID_PRODUCT_OUT=./, and run fastboot (or fastboot script) in the same directory as your firmware images.

Marking Andrew / Robybyte's answer as it is a little more descriptive for the readers. I understand you were saying the same thing. Got past it! Phewww!


text:
Who is responsible for locking the bootloader?
I was wondering who is in charge of the locking of bootloaders.
I recently chatted with a representative from LG-UK enquiring about the unlocking of bootloaders. I was told that I need to speak to Google about why the bootloader is locked. I suspect this information to be false but just to be sure I wanted to ask on here if anyone knows who is actually responsible for the locking of bootloaders?

I think the LG rep was just trying to get rid of you. Bootloader locking is an important security feature. It prevents a thief getting past the lockscreen by just flashing a custom ROM to circumvent the PIN or password. It's a core part of Android but the phone manufacturer has to make it work by signing their system images with their private key and storing the public key in the phone's bootloader.

The OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) or Carriers like verizon, AT&T, etc Lock Bootloaders, Google Devices Like Pixel come with unlockable bootloaders via Fastboot.


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Bluetooth Keyboard + Facebook Messenger loses focus constantly
With a Galaxy Note 8, Android version 8, latest of Facebook Messenger. I am trying to use my Keyboard K780 in Messenger and the focus is lost constantly after typing one letter.
The only way I got it working is by putting focus in the textbox on Android, switch to another computer (F1), switch back to Android (F2) then the focus stays in the box.
Not quite the best experience to start typing on Android. Any clues? settings?

What do you mean by "switch to another computer"? Is this some feature of the keyboard?

@DanHulme yes it is. They keyboard can switch to another bluetooth by the press of a key, which is neat. But Messenger doesn't seem to support this bluetooth keyboard properly.

Settings
General Management
Language and Input
Physical Keyboard
TURN OFF -> Show on-screen keyboard
Show the on-screen keyboard while a physical keyboard is being used.

Make sure your keyboard is ON and paired.
Go to

SETTINGS
GENERAL MANAGEMENT
PHYSICAL KEYBOARD K780 KEYBOARD
Turn OFF the SHOW THE ON-SCREEN KEYBOARD option

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

When the text box is at the bottom of the screen press and hold in the text box until "Auto Fill" appears. You can then enter text from the keyboard.


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Trying to boot into TWRP using fastboot gives the error FAILED (remote: unknown command)
Using Razer phone on Android version 7.1.1. Bootloader unlocked.
This is how I go:

Enter bootloader.
Type fastboot boot twrp.img
Get following error:

C:\Users\SSD\Desktop\PATH\platform-tools>fastboot boot twrp.img
Downloading 'boot.img'                             OKAY [  0.649s]
booting                                            FAILED (remote: unknown command)
Finished. Total time: 0.659s

From what I've seen on XDA and Reddit, it seems Razer indeed disabled "fastboot boot" altogether. No way round.

But it fastboot boot worked when I was using the android 8.1 image

So? With a major Android version upgrade most OEMs would also update the bootloader partition. I won't be surprised if certain BL commands were enabled/disabled in the process (though the reasoning behind which is out of my speculation).

I already tried the instructions at the twrp website (https://twrp.me/razer/razerphone.html). It gives a similar error, that "remote: partition not found" and refuses to switch to slot b even after saying the slot was successfully switched.


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Prefer 5GHz over 2.4Ghz without disabling 2.4Ghz
I have a DualBand WiFi router, and a DualBand WiFi repeater. Both use the same SSID, both have 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands enabled. But my Android devices mostly connect the 2.4GHz band – even if I stand next to the router or repeater, and thus the 5GHz signal is quite strong.
I want them to prefer the 5GHz band if available (and strong enough), but use the 2.4GHz otherwise.

using different SSIDs for each band is not an option
fixing the device to 5GHz is out of question, as then they'd never use 2.4GHz even it its the only one available. Furthermore, not all devices have that option (usually found in Settings › WiFi › (tap the 3-dot overflow menu) › Advanced if available).

Router as well as repeater have "band steering" enabled, so it doesn't look like there's something to force it from that end¹.
So is there anything that could be done on the Android devices? Most of them are rooted (and the one that's not is using 5GHz most of the time), Xposed is available as well if it helps. Modifying wpa_supplicant is acceptable though not the preferred way, as is using a 3rd party app².
So any suggestions?

¹ in case it's relevant: Fritz!Box 7390 and a Fritz repeater 1160
² which then preferably comes via F-Droid. Apps with Google dependencies (Firebase, Analytics, License check etc.) are not acceptable.

PS: if you wonder what band-steering is and how it is supposed to work, this is an interesting article on this topic.

You can take advantage of  the experimental "prefer 5 GHz" feature from WiFi band – or Smart WiFi Selector, which offers that as well:

WiFi Band / Smart WiFi Selector (source: Google Play; click images for larger variants)
Unfortunately, WiFi Band comes with AdMob and Firebase, thus not fully meeting the requirements.

Disclaimer ahead!
I haven't really tested all these applications, so I'm not sure if they fall into the acceptable criteria (firebase, google dependencies etc) besides my device comes with this feature already:
Acknowledgements: How to change from 5GHZ to 2.5GHZ frequency on Android N

In terms of potential 3rd party apps, the closest I have come across is WIFi 5, which is dated , but offers such functionality. It specifies the signal level to switch to a 5Ghz access point and displays a notification showing the available bands.

WiFi 5 was last update 2012, unlisted from Playstore in 12/2017, and thus is only available via ApkPure currently. Not sure whether to trust that site.

PS: "Wifi 5" was unpublished from Playstore in 12/2017, so it's probably no longer maintained. Last version is v1.45 from 2012 (and yes, that's the very same APKPure dates 2015), so I'm not sure how well it works on recent Android versions; APIs might have changed since Gingerbread. // PS: Tried it, doesn't do a thing on Android 6.

Smart WiFi Selector promises that. Just tried it, boosting the 5GHz preference to its strongest value. No dice, device still sits on the 2.4GHz. But I had to re-enter the wifi password twice now. Nasty. // PS: Emtpy promise. Didn't do a thing on the test device, it still connects the 2.4GHz only. Not sure whether the app simply doesn't work, or my test device doesn't like it – as it's already the second one without any effect.

Forget my test device. Who'd thought my Wileyfox Swift (2016) was 2.4GHz only, while my LG P880 (2013) connects 5Ghz as well (and without being fooled to it)? Now I need to figure which of the other devices have the same reason… And no, please keep the answer (I've already upvoted it). You got it started, I just jumped at your triggers :) Though you might wish to remove the MIUI part: that's not fitting "prefer 5GHz over 2.4", but "force it to 5GHz only", and thus not meeting the Q's requirements (contradicitng bullet-point #2), which makes it misleading.

Wifiband doesn’t work on a Samsung Android 11, unfortunately ☹ I have the same problem: the 2.4 GHz band at home is oversaturated, 5 GHz is fine, but I need to be able to connect to 2.4 GHz networks as well, and the vendor ROM doesn’t even show the advanced option everyone writes about. This is a work device (not mine), so Playstore is okay, data-selling and payment aren’t.

Increase beacon interval (at least double it) in your router settings for 2.4 GHz network and all your dual band devices will discover and, as a result, connect to 5 GHz network. 'Beacon interval' defines how often (in milliseconds) the beacon is broadcast by the router and used by clients to discover access points. It will have no negative impact on speed or stability, it only makes your 2.4 GHz access point discovered later than 5 GHz.

Thanks! Mind to explain what that means, and where to do that? If at the router: would it have negative impact on "2.4 GHz only" devices?

Thanks, that's certainly helpful now – +1 for you! And reading your update I vaguely remember something along that road. I just gave up finally when discovering the real issue was the device in question not even supports the 5 GHz band – so not much to do about that (it's still my main driver btw – and all 5 GHz capable devices use 5 GHz fine with my router).


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bluetooth and wired headphones at the same time
When travelling, sometimes my girlfriend and I like to watch tv shows or movies together on my phone.
I have bluetooth headphones and she has wired.  Only one set of headphones can get the audio at the moment.
Does anyone know of a way to get android to put the audio out on both the 3.5 jack and the bluetooth headphones at the same time?


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Remove "recently opened apps" from Apps & notifications
Using Android 8.1:

Tap Settings.
Tap Apps & notifications.

This displays a list of "Recently opened apps."
I would like to prevent the phone from storing, tracking, or otherwise remembering any app that has been opened. Ideally, without having to install yet another app. Rooting the phone is okay. Clearing the list is a work-around, but not a long-term solution.
How do you remove the "Recently opened apps" list from the Apps & notifications screen?


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How to get rid of prompt notification when "automatically" turning on Wi-Fi?
On my Galaxy s9, I have the setting "turn on Wi-Fi automatically" enabled. When I enter a known network, I get a notification where I am prompted if I want to connect to that network or not.
How is that automatic? Can I instead silently connect/disconnect to known Wi-Fi:s?

Are the Wifis that you get an the prompt for encrypted or unencrypted?

Encrypted. WPA2 PSK is what I read in the information of the last encountered access point.

I'd understand that for "unknown networks" (which my now deleted answer was targeting), but agree for known networks it should connect automatically. But no idea what Samsung is doing there.


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Xbox One S controller only vibrates and doesn't work when connected to Android using OTG
I just bought an Xbox One S controller (with 3.5mm jack and Bluetooth support). Whenever it's connected to a power source, it vibrates for half a second. It plays perfectly on my Windows 10 PC and my friend's Xbox console, both wireless and wired.
However, when it connects to my Android phone with an OTG cable, it only vibrates like when it's connected to a regular power source. The Xbox logo does not light up. My other two Xbox One controller (no 3.5mm jack or BT) works well with my phone so it's likely not my phone's fault.
What could be the cause for this XB1S controller to not recognize my phone? Is there any way to make it?

Android doesn’t have the necessary drivers


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How to set two different sound levels for two different sounds played simultaneously from two applications?
I'm using Poweramp Music Player (in the background) to play music, and MX Player (in the foreground) to play videos (video lectures). What I'm looking for is to play music in the background with a specific (low) sound level (or volume level) while playing videos in the foreground on MX Player with another (higher) sound level. I'm able to play two sounds simultaneously by disabling Permanent Audio Focus Change (in Audio Focus ← Audio in Poweramp, hinted by this question) but without being able to set two different sound levels for the two sounds (The sound from Poweramp and the other one from MX Player) as there is only one generic sound level for everything on the media stream that all apps abide to.
How could I set different sound levels for two simultaneously played sounds from two different applications?
Suggestions tried but unsuccessful:

I've tried App Volume Control, but it says:

It's not possible to have a background app and a foreground app with different volumes, this is an Android limitation.

Device Info:
ROM: Android v6.0.1 (Rooted with Xposed installed)

This might help, although I haven't tested it myself. https://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/set-different-volume-levels-for-each-app-on-your-androi-1756332280

@Frank12 I've tried App Volume Control, but it says:
It's not possible to have a background app and a foreground app with different volumes, this is an Android limitation.


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Notification bar too dim on Galaxy S7 with Oreo
Last night my Galaxy S7 got an update that included upgrading to Oreo. I don't know whether the problem is specifically because of Oreo or if there was something else in the update that caused the change, but the notification bar at the top of my home screen is now uncomfortably dim:

There's also a larger version if it's tough to see. It might not look that bad, but it's clear that there's a difference between the grey used by the notification bar and the white in the text and background of the Gmail app and with my eyes looking at my phone's screen that difference is a big deal. The same grey seems to persist in most apps, though apps with a white background instead show a darker grey. Is there a way for me to make those icons white instead?

I have the same problem and haven't been able to find a solution so far. I ended up changing my background image so that the status bar text was more visible.


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Does the Samsung Galaxy S7 Universal Unlocked Model (SM-G930UZKAXAA) Have FM Radio?
Does anyone know if the SM-G930UZKAXAA model of the Galaxy S7 has FM radio or not? I've read one review saying that it doesn't, but the review was quite old and the S7 was supposed to have its FM radio capabilities unlocked via an OTA firmware update.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s7/help/s7-fm-radio-t3321273/page9

The link was interesting, but didn't address the specific model I mentioned.

The answer seems to be no; looks like only carrier-specific phones got the update. https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS7/comments/4snz1o/does_the_930u_unlocked_model_have_fm_radio/


text:
How to trigger task when Play/Pause button is pressed on Podcast Addict widget or notification?
I would like to trigger a task when the Play/Pause button is pressed on the Podcast Addict widget or notification on lock screen.
I've tried using Receive Intent but that's not working (possibly because the intent itself isn't broadcast).

You can't do it this way. Buttons on widgets are signalled via intents, that's true, but the intent is delivered only to the app that owns the widget - in this case, Podcast Addict.
Instead, you should create a button widget through Tasker, and have it trigger a profile which does the other stuff you want and sends the same intent to Podcast Addict that its own widget would send.


text:
How to skip the upgrade to Oreo
My Galaxy S7 downloaded the Oreo upgrade, and now a notification persists in my status bar and every now and then it pops up asking me to upgrade. I don't want to upgrade. Is there a way to skip upgrading without rooting or factory reset?
I tried deleting cache and disabling the software upgrade app but it didn't work, and there's no option to disable the app.

If any settings available to disable background data of Software update app?

No :-/ even the existing settings are disabled

I have the same problem on a German Samsung phone: https://imgur.com/a/fvx0WDz

I solved the issue by buying Package Installer and disabling the Software Update app.


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Need to recover data from Microd SD card which was undetectable and used as internal storage on mobile
I was using my MicroSD card as internal storage on android marshmellow and suddenly my device stopped detecting the Card. Removed it from Device mad connected to PC but it only asks to format the drive. I need to recover data from this Card. i tried chkdsk but it says cannot format RAW disk.

If your device is not rooted, contents of that card is lost. For details, check with our adoptable-storage tag-wiki. Short hint: The card is encrypted, the encryption key saved to internal storage where only root can access it. You need the key to decrypt the card.

Helo,
I am replying here since this is a more recent question for corrupted internal sd cards.
If the phone recognises the card after a fresh boot and only ejects it after a while this may work for you.
My Android 7 Moto X Play is using a class 10 Sandisk Extreme 32GB as Internal Storage.
After a while the phone started ejecting the card and once that happened it needed a reboot since vital data is on the card at all times in the "Internal Storage" mode.
My goal was to recover all photos and videos and use the card as External Storage after that.
What happens is this:

Android does not know how to fix or ignore corrupted files on the card. Or it does not want to.
eventually a file on the card gets corrupted
when Android tries to access one of the corrupted files if fails and ejects the card
Android cannot work with the card ejected

My solution:

minimise the OS read/write activity by keeping it in standby
use adb pull to copy the images and videos by keeping a text file with the list of files still to be copied (I used some linux cat and grep being on OSX)
when adb pull fails at a file remove the file from the list files to be copied so it does not fail the next time
after fail reboot phone and run adb again on the trimmed list
enjoy 1 year worth of family memories :-)

This worked because from ~700 files only one was corrupted and the OS in standby did not try to access any other corrupted files while I was doing the adb pull. It may work for you if the files are important and you're willing to give it a try.
PS: nothing else worked since the phone was not rooted. Rooting it and keeping a copy of the encryption key for the sd card would be an idea but I am going back to external storage.


text:
What Android version promises changes with regards to fast security patches?
I've heard that an upcoming, or recent version of Android has separated the OS from the hardware specific parts, promising much faster security and minor updates for the user.
What version is this?  And are the changes so significant that a buyer should consider waiting until that version is available in phones?

From what you described you probably meant Project Treble.

The Android 8.0 release includes Project Treble, a major re-architect of the Android OS framework designed to make it easier, faster, and less costly for manufacturers to update devices to a new version of Android. Treble is for all new devices launching with Android 8.0 and beyond.

Per the above quote, any device shipping with Android 8.0 or above (Oreo) must support Treble. However, devices shipping with a lower Android version and subsequently updated to Oreo are not mandated to support Treble.
As the launch of Android P draws near, almost all newly released devices ship with Oreo, so you don't have to take the factor into consideration; however, if you're eyeing older devices, then be sure to research whether it ships with Oreo, and if not, whether it supports Treble after updating to Oreo.
As for how significant Treble is, personally I'd say not so much. Just because it's easier to do doesn't mean that manufacturers are inclined to do it, especially for lower-end devices that don't bring forth good margin. Also, manufacturers still have to take care of their own skins and additions; carriers still take their time to review updates (and add bloat?) before pushing them out.


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S Note 4 - How Many Books
How can I tell my number of uploads in Google Play Books?
I have a bunch of books in my Google books.  It seems like I cannot add any more unless I delete some.  I found out that the limit is 1000 but I cannot figure out how to find how many I have already uploaded on to Google Books.

Visit the Google Dashboard, which details ALL data usage of your account. It includes a rundown about your Gmail converations, your synched Contacts, your connected Android Devices, usage and storage of Google Drive, Calendar, Photos, etc., in addition to the target of your question, how many books are in your Google Books.


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unable to remove previously synced google account
I did a factory reset on my ZTE Grand X view 2 phone and forgot to remove my account before resetting it. Then, it was asking me for previously synced google account in order to unlock the phone. I typed my Gmail but it is saying that my google account is not correct and wouldn't unlock the phone.
Then, I did some search online to bypass the google account and successfully achieved it by using the talkback and quick shortcut maker method. Now, that I have bypassed the google account the device is unlocked but I'm unable to use the google apps because it still asks me to enter the previously synced id. If I restart or power off the device, it locks the device again and asks for previously synced google account.
I have tried to factory reset the device from the settings and that also locks the device again.
Any suggestions on how can I remove the previously synced account after I have bypassed it and unlocked the device?


text:
2 mobile, 2 sim, 2whatsapp account
I have 2 mobile old lenevo with Vodafone sim
 A6000 and new MI note4 with Jio sim.
Both mobile is having different WhatsApp account. I want to use old mobile WhatsApp account with new mobile and vice-versa. Now if I want to exchange my sim card what should I do? WhatsApp is not having logout option.
Once I uninstalled WhatsApp exchanged sim and again reinstalled WhatsApp. But it's not performing well. Groups appears in old Lenovo mobile and individual friends appears in new MI note 4.

Mobile number changing in WhatsApp :

Open WhatsApp > goto Settings > Account > Change number.
[ currently, backup both your whatsapp accounts to google drive. Then change number on both phones or clear data on phone. Again open whatsapp, and set the things, restore from backup. Now, you can have all the chats and groups from lenovo to mi device and all items to mi to old device.]

WhatsApp Logout:

Only web version of Whatsapp has logout option. In android, you need to clear data before uninstalling Whatsapp. Also, delete whatsapp folder from internal storage.

Backup: :
You have option to backup your current whatsapp data using google drive. Goto whatsapp settings > chats > chat backup. Set email account in google drive settings and tap on backup.


text:
Is it possible to estimate the ideal number of CPU cores for Android phones?
I'm thinking that with the way we typically use Android phones, run a single app at a time, fewer faster CPU cores are better than many smaller (slower) cores.
Does Android really benefit that much from the current octa-core phones?  How long before we see 16-core Android phones, and will that actually be useful in a phone?
I keep thinking that 4 fast cores, or 2 very fast cores, seem ideal for the kind of things we do with Android phones.  Is it possible to determine some ideal number of cores, or at what point it simply does not make sense to add more cores?

Even though you think you're only running a single app at a time, that doesn't mean only a single thread is running. Getting the UI from that app onto the screen is actually done by a second process, called Surface Flinger. Even within that one app you're using, there are probably multiple threads: one drawing the UI and responding to your input, another communicating with a server, and perhaps another doing whatever slow computation the app needs to do. Having multiple threads allows the UI to remain responsive while performing these slow tasks. On top of that, other apps run in the background sometimes: WhatsApp is listening for new messages, Gmail is checking for new mail, Google Now is checking updated stock prices, Google Play is downloading an app update, etc.
All in all, there's no single ideal number of CPU cores that suits every situation. A lot of the drive towards increasing number of cores on phones is marketing, just like the clock speed wars on PCs 10 years ago. But there's an extra factor that makes it worthwhile having these huge numbers of cores: dark silicon.
The silicon area on the phone's system-on-chip that's taken up by a single CPU core has got smaller and smaller over the years. Most of the space is taken up by RAM, and even the GPU is several times larger than the whole CPU. It doesn't cost much to just put more CPU cores in the silicon. Most of the time, if your phone isn't doing very much, those extra cores can be turned off to save power. But then when you want to play a mobile game, or run a Snapchat filter, or anything compute-intensive that wants to run several threads, those extra cores can be powered up for a burst of speed.
So really, the ideal number of cores is lots. Even if some people never run the kind of workload that benefits from lots of cores, there's almost zero cost to having unused cores, and there's a huge benefit for some workloads.

big.LITTLE is a special case of turning off CPUs, which I believe we will see a lot more - for the same reason. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_big.LITTLE

Raspberry Pi uses a 4 core 1.2Ghz unit that is considered slow and old for a phone today, but Android runs great on it. I think Android as an OS isn't CPU bound.

I do not really see this coming forward and for a little while I do not think we will see high-end smartphones with more than 8 cores. Remember also that only 4 of them are used in the situation depending how heavy the task is. You cannot really determine how many cores you will need at a specific time. It all depends how the application is written. Does it do few concurrent tasks in the same time? The design that we can see currently in the smartphone world allows you to run multiple applications i the same time without loosing much performance.

"I do not think we will see high-end smartphones with more than 8 cores": They are already on the market for at least a year – e.g. the Elephone S7/S8, Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, Meizu Pro 6, Doogee F7 and some more. Also, can you back your statement that only 4 of them are active simultaneously? That very much depends on the design and how the ROM/OS implements it.


text:
message saying "disable harmful apps Galaxy apps can damage your device"
I got this message on my Samsung Galaxy trend Plus but not sure what to do. Not very tech savvy anyone got any advice?
thank you

Galaxy Apps is Samsung's Appstore for its own software, which are usually variants of apps produced and distributed by Google through Google Play Store. There is generally a complement app for every Google App. Galaxy Apps, the Appstore frontend, is not unsafe, but it can be a propaganda spread by other appstores and virus checkers to dissuade you from downloading and using Samsung APKs there. The official opinion is that ANY APKs distributed through any appstore than Google's Play Store can be unsafe, and as a consequence, to install Galaxy Apps distributed APKs demands the permission "Install unknown/outside apps". Something is warning you about this setting; accept the warning under this understanding or remove whatever checking is in place.
EDIT: as of my Samsung Galaxy S8, or possibly earlier, Galaxy Apps CANNOT be disabled, so while whatever is possibly reporting a false safety warning, it may also be hinting that the app may be unsafe but can be corrected with a more current update?


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Clear/Wipe Samsung with broken screen and Stock ROM
I have a broken Samsung Note II GT-N7100 and want to wipe it before dumping it. The point is: The Screen is broken and I can't see anything on the screen. I'm not sure whether USB debugging is turned on, so I guess it's not.
It's running some Stock 4.4 ROM and I can see it show up in the Windows Explorer. When I tried accessing it with ADB Shell, it was not possible.
I thought whether there might be an ability to see the screen mirrored when connected with adb on the PC, but have no idea whether such a feature exists.
Any Ideas how to get to wipe this ol'guys' memory?

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts! Visit our broken-screen tag-wiki – and follow up to e.g. Securely wiping a phone with a broken screen / How do I erase all the data on Galaxy S4 if the screen is broken?

Thanks. As it is really old and has no wifi connection saved, the play store option from link 2 doesn't work. I tried my best with ADB, but get no connection. I investigated a bit further and found 2 promising tools to try out once I get ADB running:
http://marian.schedenig.name/2014/07/03/remote-control-your-android-phone-through-adb/ and http://www.vysor.io/


text:
Is it possible to backup android app favorites
I've a Samsung Galaxy Note 4. I would like to flash a new Firmware but I've installed many apps.
Is there any app which can help me to keep my apps favorites and settings so that I can recover all the settings et favorites after reinstall?

Is your device rooted?

Non,it isn't rooted


text:
Android 6 - cannot enter recovery mode
I'm hoping someone can save my sanity here.... I'm trying to install a new firmware on my daughter's old Android device - a wonderful Doogee X5 Pro. I really want to install some new firmware as this device is one of those that's sold on Amazon that after a week or two of every factory reset gets unwanted adverts popping up all the time.
When I hold volume down & power I get to a "factory menu" but the recovery option isn't there. When I hold volume up & power there is a recovery option but all I get is the android on his back and the phrase "no instruction". I have finally managed to get that ADB stuff installed but that tells me the server version doesn't match the client...
I have tried SP Flash thing but I found the whole process very confusing and it didn't work. I've tried a couple of rooting programmes off the internet but they both failed.
I have a little recovery file ready that if I can get to it via recovery will root the device and allow me to install what ever I want. I have two firmwares ready to rock & roll....
So if anyone knows how I can get the recovery option back on the factory screen or resolve the issue in ADB I'd be very, very grateful. Or point me in the direction of a website with instructions on either.
Apologies if this sort of thing has been posted many times before.
Thanks,
Ross


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How to share/stream an android tv screen to another device
Is that even possible? unfortunately most answers google gives me are about sharing a device content to a TV. I need to stream my TV's content to other devices, such that the content my TV is showing can be watched remotely (Something like sharing game content through twitch)

You mean to share the just the screen, or the media you have stored on your android tv?

just the screen, whatever is actually displayed on the screen


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Multiple db.crypt12 databases in the whatsApp Databases folder
I'm trying to reduce space eaten by the whats-app application on my phone & PC
I see Multiple db.crypt12 databases in the whats-app Databases folder
This is probably due to me copying the app folders to my PC over the years for backup..
Is it possible to remove the least used once?
is it correct that whats-app is using only one of the databases?

These are just database backups. WhatsApp generates a backup and stores it to the WhatsApp folder on your storage. See the WhatsApp FAQ:

Your phone will store up to the last seven days worth of local backup    files.
Local backups will be automatically created every day at 2:00    AM and saved as a file in your phone.

Thereafter, if you have enabled backup to cloud, WhatsApp will also upload a copy of this backup to the Google Drive. If at some point you need to re-install WhatsApp, the app will restore your messages and data from these backup files.
Now coming to the list of databases that you see, notice the date in each of the database files, except the first. Every night when a new backup is generated, it is saved as msgstore.db.crypt12. The backup from the last day is renamed with a date in the name.
WhatsApp keeps a backup of 7 days + the current main backup. It keeps on deleting the older backup files as new ones are generated every night.
You can delete them all and that will have no issues on the functionality of your WhatsApp app. That said, it is kinda useless to delete as new ones will again be generated every night and within a week you'll once again have these 7 files saved in your phone's storage.
And as of now, WhatsApp does not give you an option to choose how many backup files to keep.

so 8 copies. That's why whatsapp horde those files

You may have a maintenance applications that automatically deletes every night all those backup files.
I'm using Dropsync, which allows to specify well defined sync rules with Dropbox. I set one that uploads the backups to Dropbox, and then delete them from my phone. Saving ~1 Go.


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Changing/reverting Samsung's "Recent tabs" color theme to Nougat (based on app's theme) on Oreo device
On Samsung devices running on Android 7.0 Nougat, the recent tabs have different colors based on the apps' theme. On Android 8.0 Oreo, they are all the same color.

I want to find a way to revert to the Nougat version. I plan to install Magisk, but rootless solutions are preferred.

I remember this same exact question a few days ago, but cannot find it to reference it as a duplicate. Did you delete, and re-submit this to place it at the top of the queue?

Related: How to get back colored app headers in recent apps list? (with an informative answer, but not the fix)


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Write to SD card to android in Windows 10

Im trying to put some music on my SD card but i've left my micro sdcard reader at home. I do have my charger cable. I can see the files of the sd card on my laptop. But I can't write my music from my laptop to the SD card. Is there a way to enable write permissions of the SD card?
Thanks for thinking with me!

My phone is the Samsung Galaxy J5 2016 (Android 7.1.1)

Have you tried using a file explorer?

It should just work. The SD card should be writeable by the MTP drivers installed on your PC.
Can you please upload a screenshot of the error that appears when you try to paste your music files? Do try creating a new folder and pasting inside it.