text:
Reformat SD Card from internal to portable
Device: Redmi Note 11
I formatted a SanDisk SD card as internal, using the Android's native file app (com.google.android.documentsui) but now I can't see the card anywhere.
However when inserted, the phone storage info shows available space of the SD Card.
How do I make this SD card as portable again?

It may be obvious but the solution to this problem is — delete all the partitions of the SD card and then format it to FAT or exFAT (preferably). For this you would most certainly require a PC/Laptop.
Formatting without deleting the partitions won't help.


text:
How to customise Android or LineageOS build and add own drivers
I am trying to build kinda car computer for my own use. As hardware I am using a Raspberry Pi CM4.
There is an awesome build by KonstaKANG of LineageOS for Raspberry Pi and it generally is working ok.
There is also an Automotive version of Android (haven't tried it yet) and an other similar more or less successful approaches.
My problem is that I'd like to use an LTE modem (Sierra Wireless MC7700 miniPCI with an USB adapter) and none of those distros do support it by default.
Am I correct in my assumption that USB at Android isn't working the way it does work on Linux/MacOS/Windows and each device needs to be explicitly supported by the particular Android build.
If so, how can I add own driver and do I need to add it to my custom build or can I compile those drivers for a running instance?
Any help would be appreciated.
Regards,
Radek

Related: Bootloader/BIOS, flashing ROM and correlated risks. Why Android devices are more brickable than PCs? Creating a driver is non-trivial. If you are still curious about details, you should be aware of the Android Open Source site, along with sections of documentation like Architecture

Thanks @MorrisonChang. Will check it first. Just to be clear: is my assumption correct that Android do not cary such drivers by default?

All the Android versions you use are custom ROMs, so what drivers are included or not is unknown to us. Note that if you want to use the LTE modem with the default Android cellular system there is besides the driver also the radio interface layer which has to be adapted. IMHO if you are using an Raspberry I wouldn't use a non-official Android version, instead use Raspbian OS. The long term support of Raspbian OS is   extraordinary good, so no need to use Android.

Honestly more research is required since the Sierra Wireless site does seem to have a Android RIL page, limited to Android 10, however documentation is behind a login and whatever Sierra's license requires.

Raspbian OS is not an option because I need to have Waze installed and it forces Android. The license isn't a big issue because it is definitely for my personal use. Thanks for all answers so far. I was also considering to use pure Android. Need to configure some machine for it because my Mac has not enough RAM

Please note that ROM development is off-topic, though I feel some questions on the body are not necessarily development questions but may still need small rewritings so that they can apply more to end-users rather than developers.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Rooted Pixel 6 CPU DVFS control without userspace governor
So I recently rooted my Pixel 6 (Android 13) using Magisk and tried to control the CPU frequency, but it did not have userspace CPU governor. I tried to set scaling_setspeed in /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ with no luck. Also tried setting scaling_max_freq and scaling_min_freq using the maximum frequency and scaling_governor as performance mode, but when workloads start, the frequency would drop. Is there a way to set and fix the frequency without installing userspace CPU governor?
It was to my understanding that performance mode would keep the CPU at max frequency, but even then, that was not the case.

Are you aware that your CPU has three different core types, each with an own max frequency (2x2.80 GHz Cortex-X1, 2x2.25 GHz Cortex-A76, 4x1.80 GHz Cortex-A55). Not sure how the cpu governor handles environments with different CPU cores.

Yeah, it's to my understanding that each core cluster can run it's own CPU governor. For example, I have the A55 clusters as performance, A76 as powersave, and X1 as sched_pixel

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


text:
Is there any way to hide mobile carrier from applications?
I have 2 applications that refuse to work (fully or at all) if I insert a SIM card in a smartphone.
Disabling mobile data and geolocation (which is not allowed by default anyway) doesn't change anything. And what surprised me the most — these apps don't check your location or anything (VPN + location mocking also don't do anything), they just check your SIM card and that's all. In other words, I have to pop out SD+SIM tray every time for them to work as expected. (Well, actually, I think some IPs are not available from my country, therefore I have to use VPN sometimes too, but for the most part they work without it.)
I was wondering if there is any way to prevent them from looking up SIM card carrier or just mocking it with another name (like geolocation).
Note: my phone is not rooted and its Android version is 12.

Select one one of these apps -> clear data of that app -> revoke or make sure to NOT grant "Phone" permission and "Device ID & call Information" -> check if the app is still able to detect SIM card presence.

@Firelord, the thing is only one has a "Phone" permission and that's it. The other one has only "Location" which was always disabled. Which backs up my surprise about how my SIM card info is transparent to all apps. Maybe I'll search for an Android API regarding SIM card.


text:
How can I choose which media player to use when continuing playback via headphone or Google Assistant?
I've got several apps to playback stuff on my Android device (Google News, Spotify, Audible). Usually, all these media players stick to the notification menu / quick settings.
When pausing playback either via Google Assistant voice command or button on my Pixel Buds and then resuming, most of the time, the most recently used media player continues to playback.
However, sometimes (and then in situations in which I am unable to operate my phone by hand), the wrong player continues, e.g. the morning news plays while I was already listening to a podcast on Spotify, etc.
How can I force Android to always continue the media player I listened to most recently?
Alternatively, is there a voice command to select a specific player?


text:
How can I create a home screen bookmark that opens to the correct page in the LinkedIn app?
I have saved a bookmark to https://www.linkedin.com/my-items/saved-posts/ to my Android home screen.
Clicking the icon opens that page in Brave.
How can I instead create a home screen bookmark that opens to the correct page in the LinkedIn app?
UPDATE:

Given that these are my settings, and especially confused that it doesn't already work properly.

Which phone model and Android version is your question about? AFAIR Google had changed the link open behavior a few times with each Android version.

@Robert Google Pixel 3 with Android 12. Thanks.

The Linkedin app registers for URL schemes like, so if the URL doesn't work you can try to build URLs and replace https://www.linkedin.com with one of those below:

linkedin://thirdparty
linkedin://you
linkedin://profile
linkedin://jobs
linkedin://oneclicklogin

For regular URLs the there are hundred of possible paths defined in AndroidManifest.xml of LinkedIn app. The base URL can be like in your example https://www.linkedin.com:
As the full path list is too long for this answer I focus on entries that include the term saved and post:

/my-items/saved-posts
/my-items/saved-posts/
/comm/my-items/saved-posts

So the URL you tried is registered by the LinkedIn app. If it does not work this can have two reasons:

The used web browser does not query Android if the URL is assigned to an app and just opens itself and displays the URL. Try a different web browser. Or try an app that allows to open URLs using Intents.

You have permanently assigned the web browser to that URL type so Android does no longer ask where to open the URL. AFAIR the assignment can be reset in app settings.

Thanks! Visiting https://www.linkedin.com/my-items/saved-posts/ in Brave or Chrome does not open the LinkedIn app. Visiting that URL by pasting it into the Google search bar at the bottom of my home screen does open the correct page on the LinkedIn app. Interesting. So I need to figure out why Brave's bookmark (which I saved to the home screen where I want it) still just opens it within Brave.

I added a screenshot above.

@Ryan That screen shot just shows that the Linkedin app is allowed to open URLs, but it doesn't tell you if it is selected to open certain links.


text:
Can't boot with OSS kernel
When booting with self-compiled kernel, this error appears in console-ramoops:
[   36.154875]  (6)[5679:idmap2]WARNING: CPU: 6 PID: 5679 at fs/buffer.c:1154 __ext4_handle_dirty_super+0x50/0x1a8
[   36.154878]  (6)[5679:idmap2]Modules linked in: wlan_drv_gen4m ffffff85abf31000           (null) 2428928 0 (O) wmt_chrdev_wifi ffffff85a91b6000           (null) 32768 0 (O) gps_drv ffffff85a918e000           (null) 126976 0 (O) fmradio_drv ffffff85a9131000           (null) 299008 0 (O) bt_drv ffffff85a911e000           (null) 49152 0 (O) wmt_drv ffffff85a8f8c000           (null) 1376256 0 (O) fpsgo ffffff85a8ec0000           (null) 815104 0 (PO)
[   36.154894] -(6)[5679:idmap2]CPU: 6 PID: 5679 Comm: idmap2 Tainted: P S      W  O    4.14.186-perf-g7df73a1af183 #1

The full error file is at https://pastebin.com/LKUK9yvx
And the kernel itself is at https://github.com/camellian-devs/kernel_xiaomi_camellia


text:
How can one robustly and automatically configure Orbot through ADB?
Context
Whilst automating a calendar setup over tor, and I was looking for an open source, and more robust way to automatically configure Orbot to:
0. Allow the Connection request (prompt: ok)

Select the Davx5 application to be "torified".
Start the Orbot service.

My current approach is to use simulated keypresses, as described here. However, if a call comes in, or messages popup, this may lead to unintended effects.
Approaches
So I thought of three options:
0. Determine where the Orbot app settings are stored on the phone and modify those.

Pre-configure a build with the intended settings.
Write a termux script that performs the Orbot configuration settings.

However, the pre-compilation is somewhat involved, especially to do on arbitrary pc's that just want the calendar, and if I do it myself (once), users have to rely on my compiled file, which I prefer to avoid.
Furthermore, I did not yet find if/where the Orbot app settings/configurations are stored on a device, and whether this location is the same for each device/automatically retrievable.
Question
How can one robustly and automatically configure Orbot through ADB?
Notes
The device is rooted.

Have you tried to discuss this with the Orbot developers? Usually there is a mailing list, news group, Slack/IRC or whatever channel where you can contact the developers. May be they have a better idea or add a new feature.


text:
Disk size of Android Studio emulator increases over time
I installed the emulator Pixel 2 API 33 on my Android Studio. Initially it consumed about 8GB of my disk space, but it now emerges to 10GB. I reckon it will grow larger in the future.
Why does that happen? Is there any way I can take back some memory or prevent this from happening again in the future?
Thanks!

@Robert It's disk memory. When remove the emulator and reinstall the latest image (aka. tiramisu one), it now costs only 513MB

Emulator disk images often only store sectors of the disk that are used. Over time different sectors are used so the mage grows. Some emulator can reclaim and reuse sectors that were used but the got free by deleting files inside the emulator. You should monitor the partition usage of the emulator images, e.g. in adb shell execute df -h to see the different partitions and how much space they have free/used.

@Robert Does that mean every time I install a new program on my emulator the disk occupation increases? And if so then when I update (aka, installing a newer version of the app on the VM, does it duplicately occupy my disk?)

If you use more disk space in emulator the image grows. Usually emulators are implemented that way that an image can grow at any time (up to the maximum virtual size it had been created with) but never shrinks. Not sure about Android Emulator/qemu.

You can use a workaround which would freeze the space usage to a given limit, but it would come at the cost of performance and a possible crash/freezing of the emulator when it finds no further space to use. Here's one approach. Create a file and allocate X GBs to it. Mount that file as a loopback (Linux specific) device, format it with a filesystem compatible with your OS, than move all the emulator AVD files into it. Fix references in the shortcuts to this new path, or mount it at the location where those files are expected. Done.

Mine stopped growing at 10 GB


text:
usb-otg, mtp and adb sideload not working in TWRP
I was using LOS17 on my Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 (t813) but I decided to go back to LOS16. So I downloaded the ROM and gapps, put them on a pen drive, rebooted my tablet in recovery mode (running latest TWRP), wiped everything (system, cache, dalvik, internal storage), connected the pendrive through OTG cable but discovered that the ROM file was corrupt, so I downloaded it again but now my tablet is no longer recognising the OTG drive.
So I tried the adb sideload method, no luck: device is not found.
MTP is enabled but PC is not seeing the device.
At this point I'm stuck. What could I do?
I do have a TWRP backup saved just before I installed LOS16 for the first time and it contains three .img files. Can I somehow use these in Download mode?

If all USB modes don't work then there are these possibilities: 1. the USB cable is defect 2. the phone USB port is defect. A defect USB port is not uncommon as the USB plug works like a lever increasing the mechanical force on the USB port and thus on the soldering points that connect the port to the phone mainboard.

I tried a different cable, so I would exclude that. The possibility that the port is defective is still real.

TWRP adb shell work? 'adb push rom.zip /tmp' and install from TWRP menu (or use MicroSD card)

No. adb is not recognising the device. adb devices - No devices found


text:
R1 Joystick Controller as Bluetooth mouse
I have an R1 Bluetooth controller. When I connect this controller to my Android tablet, it is well recognized in Bluetooth but at the functional level, it works like a joystick. That is to say, when I move the joystick, it selects the tabs.
What I would like is that this joystick works like a mouse and they indicate a mouse cursor. Is it possible?

It is a joystick.  Joysticks generally just have a make/break switch, so I think it will not be very successful, even if you could achieve it.  I can't see it being very precise either.
It is possible, but you will need an app that someone has written just for it. I can find many solutions for Windows and Raspberry Pi, but none for Android.

And the reason for the downvote is


text:
Why is the loading of apps and websites sometimes freezing on my Android phone?
I'm using AdAway in VPN mode to block all ads on 3 phones and sometimes apps and sites won't load at all or load slowly. I'm using 4G+ and getting 50 mbps download speed. Phones are Realme Narzo 50 5G and 2 Motorola Moto G50 5G.
All sites and apps sometimes freeze during loading, like every 10
loads there is a freeze or very slow loading.

Your question is lacking detailed information, like what phones are affected and what sites you have encountered to be slow. You should also test if the network speed is the same when disabling AdAway.

Network speed is the same by doing speed test. I updated the question.

If you are trying to stop ads, then some will display as a blank screen and others may just time out - maybe that's what is looking as slowness.


text:
How can I know I can use Viber to message new contact?
I added a new contact and I am trying to understand if the person has Viber installed in his phone.
When i go to my Viber app and press the icon to compose a new message the person in question is not listed as part of the contacts that Viber shows.
When I go to my phone contact list and view the profile, I see a Viber icon.
So now I am confused. Does this mean that the person is using Viber or not?

There are two things

The phone number you have entered must be the same phone number that your contact has used to register Viber

You need to Enable this option

Click on More
Select Settings
Select General
Ensure Show all contacts is ticked

I have checked it on my phone.
More information here
1. Viber
2. itnursery

Does it matter if the other person has me as a contact? Actually he does not have my phone number yet.

No that doesnt matter.

For your point (1) "must be the same phone", isn't that the same as not having viber installed? Or is it for the case of dual sim?

Dual sim or if they change their phone number


text:
Transferring Data between old and new phone
TL;DR: Switching from A70 to Fairphone 4. What is the best way to transfer data/settings?
More context: I need to transfer data between two phones: An Samsung Galaxy A70 (2019) and a Fairphone 4. Both will be running stock and Android 11.
What is the best way to basically mirror or copy my old A70 to the new Fairphone 4?
I used Smartswitch when previously switching but I don't know if on can switch from a Galaxy phone to a NON-Galaxy phone using Smart switch.
Samsung's Websites more or less aggressively markets Smart Switch to be the way to switch to a Galaxy phone from your old potentially NON-Galaxy phone. Of course there is some marketing talk involved in there trying to promote Galaxy Phones.
In this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB3r9O2BACw) another way is showcased but I didn't see this way when switching to and from an Android phone prior.
I am afraid the A70 is going to die soon and I am unsure if my Smart Switch backup on my PC will be sufficient so I am asking this question before the Fairphone 4 even arrived.
Thank you for your help in advance! (and sorry if my English isn't perfect)

I don't know if Smartswitch will work, but in my opinion the best way for migrating data is directly between two phones (direct USB connection).

yeah yeah, but "how". Its not just gonna magically transfer the data yk. And I'd like to keep apps and setting data and such just all in one

The new phone starts with the set-up wizard which includes as data migration tool that can make use of a direct USB connection. At least that is the way it had worked with my Pixel 4a. I would suggest to got to a Fairphone related forum and ask there if such an USB direct transfer is possible with Fairphone 4. Note that a lot of apps can (especially banking/financial related) as they use AndroidKeyStore which contains entries that are by definition bound to the device and thus can not be exported or migrated.

Thanks for the explanation! I did not know that but I do remember getting Logged out of such apps. I will see if the data migration tool is a thing on the fairphone. Maybe it wasn't a thing on my prior Galaxy's because, well Smart Switch. If it isn't, well thats an inconvenience but not the worst.

So, I just received my FP 4 (and my A70 is still alive!) and it does indeed have the data migrating feature. Not the one with the USB-C cable but a wireless version through Google Cloud. I guess that works too just waiting for it to download now!

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.

I am not sure either if you can transfer to a non-Samsung Device.  But the process is as follows
On Old Phone

Log on to the Google Account you want to use.
Go to Settings
Select Accounts (or Account and Backup)
Select Backup (it could be a toggle)
On some phones you will have a selection list, select all
Proceed to Backup

On New Phone

Activate (log into) your Google account with teh backup
Go to Settings
Go to System
Go to Backup
Toggle Backup to Google Drive
Proceed

I have listed one option, there are others there.
From support.fairphone

Also thank you! I will look into this incase the data migration doesn't pop up from itself


text:
Record manual actions and convert them to adb shell am start intents/actions?
Question
Is it possible to record phone inputs and the accompanying intents/actions that are executed within an app, and to reproduce them automatically with adb shell?
Context
I was looking into the output of the:
adb shell "dumpsys package | grep -i 'org.torproject.android'"

Command, which is:
9a8407 org.torproject.android/.OrbotMainActivity
      org.torproject.android.REQUEST_V3_ONION_SERVICE:
        9a8407 org.torproject.android/.OrbotMainActivity
        9a8407 org.torproject.android/.OrbotMainActivity
        da9ed3a org.torproject.android/.core.OnBootReceiver
      org.torproject.android.intent.action.START:
        9f74748 org.torproject.android/.service.StartTorReceiver
        da9ed3a org.torproject.android/.core.OnBootReceiver
        da9ed3a org.torproject.android/.core.OnBootReceiver
        da9ed3a org.torproject.android/.core.OnBootReceiver
        da9ed3a org.torproject.android/.core.OnBootReceiver
        90dcf08 org.torproject.android/.service.OrbotService
  org.torproject.android/.ui.v3onionservice.OnionServiceContentProvider:
    Provider{8d5ddf org.torproject.android/.ui.v3onionservice.OnionServiceContentProvider}
  org.torproject.android/.ui.v3onionservice.clientauth.ClientAuthContentProvider:
    Provider{8dce92e org.torproject.android/.ui.v3onionservice.clientauth.ClientAuthContentProvider}
  [org.torproject.android.ui.v3onionservice.clientauth]:
    Provider{8dce92e org.torproject.android/.ui.v3onionservice.clientauth.ClientAuthContentProvider}
      applicationInfo=ApplicationInfo{11b6e8d org.torproject.android}
  [org.torproject.android.ui.v3onionservice]:
    Provider{8d5ddf org.torproject.android/.ui.v3onionservice.OnionServiceContentProvider}
      applicationInfo=ApplicationInfo{11b6e8d org.torproject.android}
  [org.torproject.android]
  Package [org.torproject.android] (650fe6a):
    pkg=Package{dfccf5b org.torproject.android}
    codePath=/data/app/org.torproject.android-SQmMOFFMA1-foIkNqQbMDQ==
    resourcePath=/data/app/org.torproject.android-SQmMOFFMA1-foIkNqQbMDQ==
    legacyNativeLibraryDir=/data/app/org.torproject.android-SQmMOFFMA1-foIkNqQbMDQ==/lib
    applicationInfo=ApplicationInfo{11b6e8d org.torproject.android}
    dataDir=/data/user/0/org.torproject.android
    org.torproject.android/.service.OrbotService: android.permission.BIND_VPN_SERVICE
  [org.torproject.android]
    path: /data/app/org.torproject.android-SQmMOFFMA1-foIkNqQbMDQ==/base.apk
  [org.torproject.android]

And I was analysing that to try to find the right command to start an app and press a button inside that app with:
adb shell am start -a org.torproject.android.intent.action.START -n org.torproject.android/.service.OrbotService

Which returned error:

Starting: Intent { act=org.torproject.android.intent.action.START cmp=org.torproject.android/.service.OrbotService }

Error type 3

Error: Activity class {org.torproject.android/org.torproject.android.service.OrbotService} does not exist.

I assume the syntax is almost correct based on analogue commands in other sources, but that a lack of understanding leads to incorrect commands.
Based on the syntax overlap between the am start command, and the dumpsys command, I would expect the adb shell am start commands can be generated automatically based on a set of intents/actions. I assume it is possible to record the intents/actions that are generated by a user by means of input. Such an automation would save quite some time learning how these intents are specified per app. Hence the question.
The closest I got so far was:
adb logcat | fgrep -i intent

However, I was not yet able to parse the logs and retrieve the relevant intents from there.

You need to use am startservice to start a Service. am start starts Activity.

Not sure what you want to achieve but it will fail immediately if you encounter an activity that is not exported (as you can not start it via adb). And AFAIK button presses are not possible using adb. If you want to automate an app, there are other possibilities like MonkeyRunner (just as a technology example).


text:
How do I fix bluetooth audio not working for only some apps
I have a pair of Sony bluetooth headphones and they work perfectly with my phone (Moto G30) for Spotify and YouTube, however audio does not play through them for some other apps (BaconReader and Polytopia to name two).
When I have one of these apps open and I turn the volume up, the audio pop up shows the master value turning up but the app in question's audio slider is still stuck at the bottom. If I manually try to slide it up it just jumps back to the bottom.
This doesn't happen with my wired earphones and I do not have another Bluetooth headset to test on.
I have "forgotten" the headphones and repaired them to no avail. Restarting my phone doesn't help. Killing the apps and starting them again doesn't help.
Anything else I can try?

Double-check the app permissions...

Try switching to SBC codec

@keshlam nothing wrong with app permissions I'm afraid.

@karthiknair I gotta be honest I don't know what that is.

@TeddyTedTed go to Bluetooth settings on your phone. Locate your headset that is connected and you must see a settings clog icon for that headset, tap on it. Within the options enlisted in that menu you just tapped, you must see a toggle called AAC/aptx/HD audio. Turn that off


text:
extract data from phone with oem unlocked and usb debugging enabled password?
My huawei mate 20 lite phone was stolen in afu state, there is a pin code on the screen, but usb debugging is on and I removed the oem lock, in this case, can my data on the phone be accessed?

depends on lock screen is easy to guess. without pin code, no data can decrypted. guesswork: no (not sure about that bug though) https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/249450/how-recover-photos-from-a-locked-android-smartphone?noredirect=1#comment335751_249450 usually first thing thief does is power off and factory reset (to avoid beeing tracked)

i think this was done by someone i know to access my data, because oem lock is unlocked and usb debugging is active in safe mode, is there no chance to install root file or delete pin directory with command?

deleting locksettings.db (even in afu state) will destroy encryption, that's no option. of course - if you disabled encryption then all it needs is boot into TWRP recovery and do anything with your data

https://security.stackexchange.com/q/196230

https://android.stackexchange.com/q/143878

@alecxs what do you mean if I disabled encryption? I did not its alredy have a pin code but just oem unlocked and usb debugging enabled

@alecxs If it is reset to factory settings, the data will be lost. Even if it does, it can only access my encrypted data. Am I missing something

no. you are right. it was only a question about encryption state of device before theft. if you are sure it was encrypted - no worry about offline attacks

@alecxs So, if OEM unlocking and usb debugging are turned on, is it possible to switch to safe mode and remove my password or make a copy of my data with the help of command line or sd card with rom loaded without data loss? I read that it is possible to bypass the screen pin code with the sim card trick, is it possible to access my data?

@Firelord Could you help me about this problem bro pls?

remote erase your device https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager


text:
Is there any way to test the ability to access websites on different network connections without turning network connections on and off?
Is there any way to test the ability to access websites on different network connections without turning network connections on and off?
For example.. Suppose you have a smartphone with 2 mobile sim cards and one WiFi.  So, three network connections.
Accessing a website in chrome doesn't work.
I want to know for each network connection, whether it can access a website.
I don't want to turn off any network connections in my diagnosis to find out.
I want to be able to diagnose by specifying particular network connections to try for accessing a website.
Is there a way to do that?

You should specify if the device is rooted or not.

@MorrisonChang It's an OPPO A9  not rooted, i'm not sure how one would root it. If it is possible to root it then I might. I'd be interested for a solution on phones that are rooted and on phones that are not. I think both would be useful to people


text:
Pixel 3a XL Requires SIM Card Removed/Reinserted to Power On
My wife has a Pixel 3a XL, and in the last 2 weeks it has shut down unexpectedly 3 times, refusing to power back on. The battery is charged, and connecting it to any charger makes no difference. Holding the power button for 30 seconds fails also.
The only thing that has fixed it all 3 times is by removing the SIM card and reinserting it. Then pressing the power button, the phone would magically boot up like there was never an issue.
The 2nd time this happened, which was just two days ago, I tried powering it back on with the SIM card removed before reinserting it, yet it would still NOT power on. But as soon as I put the SIM back into the phone, pressed the power button, it powered back on.
I'm thinking the issue is with the SIM card, but then after this test, shouldn't the phone have powered on with the SIM card removed, if it was the SIM card?
This is very confusing to me. Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?


text:
Pixel 3 XL Verizon unlock bootloader. OEM not highlighted in developer
My Pixel 3 XL was using OS 11 Verizon. Without asking, it updated to OS 12.
Ever since my system app keeps crashing, it will not stay connected to the internet and overall, ruined the phone. Being Verizon I can't unlock the bootloader either. I need help. I can sideload or adb/fastboot but I want to install Custom ROM.

If I remember correctly all Verizon devices are locked forever as Verizon disables unlocking for all their devices. If you plan to root the device never buy a Verizon phone.

I am sorry to say there is no other workaround than factory reset


text:
Proof that mobile data was disabled
I have a (rooted) smartphone running Android 7.1.2 and need to prove that over a certain period of time in the recent past (period of a few weeks within the last month), mobile data was disabled and roaming was disabled.
If I could extract from the phone a log of exactly when mobile data / roaming were enabled and when they were disabled, this would already be sufficient proof.
Is such a log available anywhere and is there any way to retrieve it?

Android has no persistent logs. Only logcat exists but depending on it's configured buffer size and the number of messages per minute old entries are overwritten after some minutes up to several days.

A similar question: Is it possible to somehow understand from the logs what happened to the phone a month ago? Are there such logs?

The Android UI has a panel which shows a graph of mobile data usage and displays the total mobile data usage over a period whose duration is one month and whose beginning date is configurable. This, at least, is some information which my smartphone knows. Unfortunately the graph is too imprecise, I would like to access the actual underlying numerical data, this would already be something useful.

Another problem is that VoLTE uses a data connection for LTE  and 5G phone/voice transmissions (otherwise the phone has to fall back to 2G or 3G). More details here: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/248997/mobile-data-disabled-but-data-is-still-using-mobile-data/249081#249081

I do not have enough reputation to comment there, so let me ask here: are you saying that when mobile data is disabled, it is normal for a smartphone to transfer a little bit of data every now and then because of VoLTE even if not a single call is ever emitted or received? If this is so, is it normal for a service provider to charge for data roaming costs for such data transmission even when calls are neither emitted nor received and both mobile data and roaming are disabled?

Yes, you are correct. I don't know if the fault is on device or on MNO side (or on both?) but you can get charged for mobile data just because of VoLTE. I have a data plan with 500MB free so this problem occurred last time when I was abroad where I had to use roaming (where my data plan has no free volume). I directly got charged for a few KB every day, but when talking to my MNO I got the money back.

Thanks very much for your useful comments. Just for the record, I am still interested in my original question, especially in extracting from the phone the history of data usage (which at least per day is recorded in some log somewhere since data usage can be displayed as a graph).

Try adb logcat or adb logcat -b events or adb logcat -b radio and enable/disable mobile data. May be you find an entry shows you when data usage was enabled or disabled. Especially the latter could contain this information. But as every phone has a different RIL it is unforeseeable what data you get.


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Motorola stuck in Android Recovery - trying to recover photos/documents - tagged posts don't seem to be a match
My daughter's Motorola One Vision is stuck in Android Recovery mode. I have read the recovery TAG posts but can't find one that exactly matches my scenario.
The phone came with Android version 9, but may have been upgraded to version 10 at some point. It has an SD card slot that is currently not being used. She has recovered some data to a new phone from Google backup, but had previously turned off Google photo backup at some stage (presumably due to storage issues) so her most recent photos/documents are missing. I do not believe that the Motorola One Vision had been rooted, or had USB debugging or developer options turned on. The options under Android Recovery are :
Reboot system now
Reboot to bootloader
Apply update from ADB
Apply update from SD card
Wipe data/factory reset
Mount /system
View recovery logs
Run graphics test
Run locale test
Power off

As a test, I can 'see' the phone if I run adb sideload on my PC with the phone attached via a USB cable i.e. I can see that a device is attached.
I am aware that android security was upgraded from version 8.0 onwards, however I was wondering if the phone was factory reset, and then she logged into her Google account again on the phone, would this restore the original data encryption key and therefore make some of the files recoverable by a recovery program or is there any other way of recovering files from the phone?

The data encryption key never leaves the device, so performing a factory reset ultimately erases it and all data it was used to encrypt are no longer readable. The stock recovery ROM  has no option for accessing user data nor creating a backup.

@Robert, thanks for the info., even if it wasn't good news :-( Is there any way I can load an alternative recovery ROM without destroying the data encryption key ?

@alecxs - no, I was looking for the wipe cache option, but it isn't there on this recovery version :-(

Installing a different recovery ROM requires unlocking the bootloader which erases all data.

Edit: Unfortunately this requires an unlocked bootloader, which cannot be achieved without erasing the data
As mentioned in the comments, the stock recovery doesn't provide a way to access your files. Your best bet might be to install the TWRP custom recovery (Official TWRP for the Motorola One Vision).
Since you have ADB installed, you likely already have the fastboot command available. You can directly boot into TWRP without overwriting anything with the fastboot boot command - see the instructions linked above for more info.
TWRP will allow you to get the data off of your phone by commenting it to a PC with USB, using the MTP protocol. (That's a lot of abbreviations!) On my computer, phones are recognised as soon as they boot into TWRP and I could access them with my file manager.

Installing a different recovery ROM requires an unlocked bootloader. If the bootloader is not yet unlocked then unlocking it erases all data. So for data recovery this is for devices with locked bootloader not an option

My bad - I hadn't considered that


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Cast Android screen to PC monitor
I want to cast my android screen to pc monitor that doesn't have HDMI,only DVI and VGA.Is it possible to do this by using this
adapter and miracast device with HDMI?

The adapter should not be a problem as HDMI (the old versions) and DVI are identical on protocol level. But before buying a Miracast adapter I would make sure your phone really has this option. An easier way may be to use scrcpy over ADB/USB and a connected PC.

I already have a Miracast adapter and also my phone has the option to cast,what i don't have is the HDMI - DVI adapter.I already cast my Android to TV.

The adaptor should work fine

I hope it will.

It doesn't work


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My mobile carrier is upgrading their network; must I replace my phone?
My mobile carrier is upgrading their network from 3G to LTE. I'm using a LG V20 phone, model LG-H915 to be precise. So far, I have been contacted twice by them, claiming that my phone and SIM card should be replaced because of this. They have even offered me a new phone, but I have declined since the model they offered is a cheap one.
There are good reasons to change for a new device, that's true. For one thing, my current phone is running Android 8, which is, well, very outdated to put it mildly. The battery, which is the original one as I never replaced it, seems to be draining a bit faster as well, but it's hard to tell.
However, I'm not sure about the network thing. I did a bit of research, and as far as I understand, the V20 does support LTE, so I should be fine with the new network. In fact, when I activate mobile data (I usually keep it deactivated unless I actually need it), I see a LTE logo appears, and if I check in the phone's settings, it actually says that the network is indeed LTE.
From Settings->Network->Mobile Networks :

From Settings->General->About Phone->Network :

So, do I understand this correctly and in fact do not actually need to change phone (well, not because of the LTE network, anyway)? Or is my mobile carrier correct about this?

Do you use the phone for voice calls? If the phone doesn't support Voice over LTE (VoLTE) then it will be unable to make emergency calls (possible government regulation) when the old 3G network is removed. Their attempts to change your phone may be for liability reasons.

phone calls have fallback to GSM

Your device supports LTE, but not VoLTE (Voice over LTE) => It will fall back to a 3G network whenever you send/recieve a phone call => once your Telecom operator shuts down HSPA/HSPA+ networks aka 3G, your phones loses the ability to process phone calls, including emergency calls.
So yes, you must replace your phone.

Thanks for the answer. This is pretty much was I was being told by the sales rep, minus the actual technical terms. VoLTE was the bit of info I was missing. Now it makes sense.

phone calls have fallback to GSM. wait for it and report back


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Two Android System apps after AVG/Avast flagged it as false positive. Normal?
I have a Samsung s22. Yesterday AVG flagged an "Android system" app as malware with no ability to disable it. Appears it happened to many people. AVG looked into it and declared it to be a false positive on their end (https://support.avg.com/answers?id=9065p000000kHo1).
However, I'm still a bit confused about why there are two Android system apps showing? Is this normal? (One spelled "Android System" and one "Android system"). Android system one has no option to disable it and is only 168kb in size.
Thank you all

A name like "Android System" can belong to any app including third party and malware. So the name is pretty useless. Instead look at the package name and search in Google for it. The "Android System" app that belongs to Android has the package name android.

Thanks Robert. How can I find the package name?

Figured it out. The package name is com.google.android.adservices.api

@PaulM111 from the official Android Developer site, this is a new module introduced in Android 13.

not sure about S22 but system apps can replaced with malicious updates on same pkgname. you can try uninstall update from adb to ensure it's the stock version, then scan again https://www.xda-developers.com/android-oem-key-leak-samsung-lg-mediatek

Thanks, got rid of it using adb


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Outlook Notification sound only plays if Outlook is closed, but also arrives 30 min delayed
I am using Outlook on an Android phone. When I send an email to the phone:

If Outlook is closed, the email will arrive up to 30 minutes later, accompanied by a Notification sound

If Outlook is open, the email will arrive instantly, but WITHOUT any Notification sound

Is there a way to get my emails instantly, but also accompanied by a Notification sound? I am able to get this result on my desktop and laptop, just not working on my phone.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-do-i-change-mail-or-calendar-sounds-c894c2b7-f841-4ca5-a691-af595eb9f669

How do I change mail or calendar sounds?
To change mail or calendar sounds, tap Settings at the bottom right
corner. Under Mail or Calendar tap Notifications, tap Sound, and then
select the desired sound for Mail Notifications or Calendar
Notifications.
To turn off sounds, tap Sound, and then select Off.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/why-don-t-i-get-new-message-notifications-8f1b83d5-c3ac-409f-9dbb-83668d1b01b2

Why don't I get new message notifications?
By default, notifications will only appear for new messages in the
Focused Inbox. If you want to be notified of all new messages:
Within our app, tap Settings.
Under Mail, tap Notifications.
Change Mail Notifications per account to All, Focused Inbox Only, or
None.
You may also need to change your setting in the Android System for
Notifications. This is different for each device, but please check
that your system settings allow for Outlook to receive notifications.


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Using "locksettings" to manage a 4x4 lock pattern?
I'm running Android 11 on a Pixel 5.
I know about the locksettings --set-pattern ... shell command, but that command only seems to work in a 3x3 pattern space. For example, if the pattern is to start at the upper left and in a clockwise direction to touch each corner of a 3x3 lock-pattern square, I can set that pattern lock as follows (because the pattern dots are numbered 1 through 9) ...
locksettings --set-pattern 1397

However, my ROM also offers the option of 4x4, 5x5, and 6x6 pattern spaces (dots numbered 1 through 16 for 4x4, and 1 through 25 for 5x5, and 1 through 36 for 6x6). If I want to do the same clockwise traversal to the corners in a 4x4 pattern space, the numbers would be 1, 4, 16, 13. However, I don't know a way to specify these 4 numeric values to the locksettings --set-pattern ... command.
Is there any way to use locksettings --set-pattern ... in a 4x4, 5x5, or 6x6 pattern space?
If not, is there any way to run some other shell command(s) under Android 11 to set a lock pattern in a 4x4, 5x5, or 6x6 pattern space?
Thank you very much in advance.

not sure I got the question https://blog.alxu.ca/unlocking-large-pattern-encryption-in-twrp.html

@alecxs that looks like a possible answer, though it seems only for TWRP.

On the other hand, looks like AOSP hardcoded the pattern only for 3x3, so for custom implementation, it needs to be checked with the ROM maker whether they also support/modify this part or not.

Yes, and thank you, @AndrewT. I want this to run via adb for a running ROM, not for TWRP.  And my ROM (crDroid) supports 4x4, 5x5, and 6x6 in addition to 3x3, but the "locksettings" utility that comes with my ROM only seems to support 3x3. So, I'll check with the crDroid developers about this.

@alecxs - OK, so does this mean that I can use this method via ADB in a running ROM to set the lock pattern, in place of using "locksettings set-pattern"? If so, I just need to figure out how to somehow build the method as a stand-alone executable which can then be installed on my device.

Thank you, but that doesn't work on my device ...
130|redfin:/ # locksettings set-pattern '159=>?@<84'
Error while executing command: set-pattern
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Credential can't be null or empty
... followed by a stack trace

Yes, it works with 1397, whether quotes are present or not. The way the shell works, the presence or absence of quotes around "1397" is irrelevant. Quotes only matter when passing spaces or special characters as part of a command-line argument. I'll try "set-password" a little later today and post my results here.

I'm not using backtick. When I write "quote", I specifically mean a quote character, not a backtick character. Anyway, locksettings set-password 1397 and locksettings set-password "1397" and locksettings set-password '1397' all work for me, which is not surprising, since the shell sends the same arguments to the command in all three cases.

And yes, sending 1397 in the 3x3 world is indeed what's needed for the 4 corners of the square when traversed clockwise. And it indeed seems like a dead end for me with crdroid ... at least when using "locksettings". But could there perhaps be another way to accomplish what I want? ... perhaps by using sqlite3 and modifying some sort of system database?

On my device, 1397 works for me as a pattern unlock on a 3x3 screen. In any case, I want 4x4, and I want to be able to enable/disable it via the "locksettings" utility. And I now realize that I'm probably out of luck on my device.


text:
Does native Android have a backup solution similar to iOS?
Does native (i.e. unrooted, non-unlocked, non-jailsomehowbroken) Android (later versions of it) have a backup solution similar to iOS (what used to be called iTunes backup, whatever it's called now) ?
That is allowing to essentially "clone" the phone/tablet across to another physical device. i.e. one simply cannot tell the difference when opening the cloned device, everything is the same on it, without having to re-login to all cloud apps, reconfigure things etc.
And before you go "With Android, it depends on OEM" -- well, OEMs base their derivative OS on Android anyway, hence the question mentioning "native" Android solution.
Note: ADB is great but is NOT equivalent nor similar to iOS backup, where "everything" is backed up (including sensitive data like keychain and health data, when password-enabled encryption is on) and that same "everything" is restorable to another iOS device. And no, please do not start iOS vs Android war in comments or answers, it's not the purpose of the question. The purpose is to find the answer to the above question.

Answer: No

The android backup will transfer most data, but not all.  Any paid for apps require installation.  And in general, logins are not preserved.

Well, TL,DR Version is no.

Android as "native" AOSP has ADB Backup, which is far away from being complete and thus similar to iOS solution.

Android as Google requires it by Vendors to be implemented (with Google Play Services) include the Google proprietary Backup Solution to backup to Google Drive with Google One. This is vendor-agnostic, so i have seen this on every smartphone yet. This also saves things you would expect to be saved, like settings, Apps, personal Data and Files and most important App-Data. But with App-Data there is a culprit: the developer of the App can specify, which data is to be included. So there can be cases, where the developer doesn't specify this for certain data (for whatever reason) and it doesn't get backuped.

Vendors implement their own backup solution. Samsung e.g. does this, but based on what i experienced in the past those apps or integrated solutions are also not complete. They are limited what the system allows those apps by APIs.

Android Custom Roms are increasingly using an open-source App called Seedvault as their backup/restore solution. By compiling and including it in the system, it can handle backups the same way the Google solution handles it. But the drawback with developers excluding their apps for Backups still exists here.


text:
Change SD card back to normal storage
I was cleaning up some files on my phone and saw that I have the SD card set as internal storage. As I understand it, this means that the SD card is considered part of the Android filesystem.
This SD card had a problem a few months ago and I had to reformat it, losing the data on it at the time. For this reason I would prefer that it be treated as a normal SD storage device.
Can I convert it back to normal storage, even if it has some apps installed onto the SD card? Will I lose the app data?

try this (untested)


text:
Connect laptop's webcam with new Genymotion
I noticed that the new version of Genymotion 3.3.x doesn't have anymore the (very useful) webcam activation feature. As I would just need that and I have no need to use more advanced features, is there a way to attach the webcam to the emulated android device maybe using adb?
Thanks a lot!

The ability to connect a webcam is now a paying feature:

New “media injection” widget, replacing the old “camera” widget. This
enables you to feed images, videos and audio files as well as any
detected camera to the virtual device microphone and cameras. Only
available with a paying license.

https://www.genymotion.com/blog/release-note/genymotion-desktop-3-3-0-beta-1/

Yup I'm aware of that but I thought that the widget was "just" a gui to simplify some "lower level" functionality which could be achieved otherwise. After all, is the "media injection widget" being available only for a payment, it doesn't exclude that I could be able to let the emulated device see the camera otherwise? Or am I wrong on that? (I'm a bit reluctant to pay because I wouldn't need the whole functionality but just the old camera redirection)

@rubiker The text clearly states that feeding vide stream into Genymotion is now a paying feature. If the functionality would still be available using a workaround in the free license I assume this would be a bug that would be fixed soon by Genymotion.


text:
Video only playing in MX player
I have downloaded a video (~400MB) in MP4. It only plays on MX player, and when I try to play it from the Files app or from PC, it instead shows a 9-second clip of (play in MX player).
What kind of programmable video container is this? How to play it with other players?

There is a discussion about such videos of reddit without result.

It would be better if you provide the link from where you downloaded this video, or at least share this video with us.

Related/similar situation with a different app: Why downloaded videos by VidMate can only be played using PLAYit? (but not answered yet)


text:
How can I get notified when a device connects to my Wi-Fi hotspot on Google Pixel 6?
I wonder how I can get notified when a device connects to my Wi-Fi hotspot on Google Pixel 6. I use Android 12.

You need a manual solution like this or this which is not possible without root.

Unfortunately, stock Android doesn't provide such info unlike non-Google OEM skins of Android.

Which non-Google OEM skins provide this info than?


text:
Chrome desktop lets you force a password suggestion. Does Android Chrome support this too?
The frustrating problem of Chrome sometimes not automatically suggesting passwords (more an issue with the individual sites than Chrome I think) got a nice fix a while back.
On the desktop, I can right-click on the password text input and select "Suggest Password...":

But I'm on my phone a lot and would like to not have to open my laptop to register for a site. Is this supported on Android Chrome?

"Suggest strong password" is available on Chrome for Android as explained here:
When you want to generate a secure password:

Turn on sync in Chrome.
Go to a website and sign up for an account.
Tap on the password text box.
Tap Suggest strong password.

If you don't see this option, tap Password Save your password and then
Suggest strong password.

You'll see a preview of the password. To confirm, tap Use password.
Finish signing up for your account. Your password is automatically saved to Chrome.

However, there is an issue with newer versions of Chrome that does not allow the suggestion to appear as testified here or here by many. As suggested on those links, removing the Chrome updates allows the suggestion message to appear.
On the left, when I uninstalled Chrome updates, on the right Chrome's latest version

Suggested pasword on old version

You can also try to change your autofill service as suggested on one of the posted links.
Or you just wait for future versions to fix the issue.

Is there an open bug tracker for this?

@user1028270 I am not sure if a bug tracker was opened for this issue or not.


text:
Find out what link an app shortcut is pointing to (not web shortcuts)
Some apps are able to put a shortcut icon to the homescreen for one of their inner screens.

How can I detect what link that shortcut is pointing to?
And is it possible to add custom shortcuts with different icons?

How can I detect what link that shortcut is pointing to?

If you've root access then browse to the data directory of the default launcher. Browse through its files and use trial and error to figure out where home screen shortcuts are stored by the launcher app. For instance, in Nova Launcher home screen shortcuts are saved in a database named launcher.db. This file has a table named favorites which contains the information about the shortcuts including the intents needed to run an app (or a specific activity/target in it).
Once you've found the file holding the information you can look into it to see what intent it is using for the shortcut.

And is it possible to add custom shortcuts with different icons?

Yes, it is easy. There might be apps in the Play Store to let you create shortcut for anything. However, I only know of Tasker automation app though. In it you can setup a Task which should contain the logic and actions that should be executed once the user (yourself) tap on the shortcut on the home screen. After setting up the Task, go to your home screen, figure out how to add widgets on it, choose Tasker 1x1 widget, and choose the recently created Task in the list shown to you.
As for using a custom icon, there are two ways to go about this. Either select a custom icon when creating the Task and that icon would be used as the shortcut icon. Alternatively, use a home launcher which allows changing icons for shortcuts (Nova Launcher allows that).

Thanks. Are there any other solutions for non-rooted devices? e.g. Samsung?

@AhmadBehzadi perhaps the alternative is by getting the APK file (through any methods) and inspecting the Android Manifest file.

@AhmadBehzadi you can try the approach suggested by Andrew T. To figure out the activity or the target embedded in the shortcut you can also use [tag:logcat] to see what intent is launched when the user taps on the shortcut. This does not require root access. None of these approaches are user-friendly though.


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How to fix a bootloop caused by accidental "fix contexts" from TWRP?
I am using TWRP recovery on my Redmi Note 10 Pro device for a long time, but recently while using TWRP recovery, I mistakenly clicked on 'fix contexts' option and now my phone is stuck in a bootloop.
I showed it to the nearest Xiaomi service center but they don't know how to fix the bootloop caused by the change in contexts. I don't have another phone and my phone is in bootloop for almost 8 days. I tried everything like installing stock Xiaomi ROM but nothing is working in this case.
Please tell me how I can get out of this problem.

your question is missing important detail: what do you want? I am pretty sure it's easy task for service center to flash stock ROM and factory reset device. but I get the feeling it's not what you're trying to ask for

make sure download correct ROM your device is sweet or chopin. do not install eea/global ROM on china device

See What does TWRP "Fix Contexts" do? and this comment.


text:
Download file from Android shell
I am making a shell script for Android to run on ADB, however, the script should download a file. Commands like wget and curl aren't available in /system/bin. Here are a few possibble solutions that I thought of, each with its cons:

Rooting and installing BusyBox (my target systems are rootless)
Downloading file in computer using wget or curl then transferring the file to Android with adb push (the script should be ran on Android, not the computer connected to it)
Downloading wget or curl in Android (how can I download a binary without them in first place???)
Termux (nope, my script sets some settings in Android which Termux can't)

Is it even possile? If yes, how?

Why don't you just include an HTTP library in your command-line program and download the file yourself? You are developing a command-line program not a shell script.

I am developing a shell script. I will make edits to clarify

Put your busybox or wget or curl binary in /data/local/tmp/ and execute from there. Simple.

You have two options.

Install Termux, which supports curl.

Use your option number 2. adb push simply copies the file (unlike adb install, which looks for an apk file and tries to install it on the device).

Since you say that you are writing a shell script, you will have to install an Android terminal and (presumably) a Linux environment anyway.
You say "my script sets some settings in Android which Termux can't." If you need root access for an app, you may get what you need using Magisk.


text:
Google Play balance expiration date format
I have a Google play balance of 30 eur, which is said to expire on 9/1/2023. My preferred language on Google account is set to English (United States), but my real-life region is in Europe, and uses a date format of D/M/YYYY.

How can I be sure which date format is used for the expiration date above, i.e., will it expire tomorrow (9th of January) or in several months (1st of September)?
Note that the gift card was redeemed around 1st of September 2022. (not sure the exact date, but it is possible that it is indeed the 1st), so if the expiration date was 1 year exactly, it would make sense that the date format above is M/D/YYYY

Not sure if this helps, but there may be hl and gl parameters on the URL. hl is for page language (including date format) and gl is for geolocation (including currency format). Changing their values may help to disambiguate.

How to add to and check your Google Play balance has one of those params, but the Check your Play balance link doesn't: https://play.google.com/store/paymentmethods?pli=1. I also tried looking through some requests in dev tools, but they seem too hard to understand

Note that the gift card was redeemed around 1st of September 2022. (not sure the exact date, but it is possible that it is indeed the 1st), so if the expiration date was 1 year exactly, it would make sense that the date format above is M/D/YYYY

Gift cards don't expire as stated on Google Play Gift Card® And Prepaid Play Balance Terms Of Service

No Fees or Expiration. No fees or expiration dates apply to this Gift Card or Credit.

However, opinion rewards do expire as stated on Redeem rewards:

Do my credits expire?
Yes. Google Play credits received expire one year from date of credit per the Google Opinion Rewards Terms of Service

Based on what you said about gift card in September, I am assuming that it wasn't normal gift card but opinion rewards that you collect back in then. If I am correct, then the date is September, not January. Also the fact that the 9 is single digit instead of double, make me think that it is the month (not the date) in the M/D/yyyy or M/DD/yyyy formats. If I am wrong, only a few hours left and I will have to delete this answer (and your balance goes).

It was indeed a special "gift card". Got it from a Samsung stand on a festival. I managed to find a good use of those 30, with only 0.03€ left, so we'll see if it's removed within a day. If not, I'll accept your answer.

@PajLe Let wait until California officially reaches 09 January 2023 :)


text:
Redmi 9A stuck at logo bootloop, can't access fastboot
I was trying to flash the fresh port of Ubuntu Touch to my Redmi 9A, an error occurred in the middle of the installation and now I'm stuck at the Redmi logo bootloop and can't access fastboot. ADB also doesn't recognize the phone anymore. How would I go on about flashing/accessing fastboot? The bootloader was unlocked with the official MI Unlock Tool, no problems. Also I don't care about recovering any files whatsoever since it's all backed up. Any input would be much appreciated!
I've got a Linux and a Windows machine if it makes a difference for the software needed to proceed.


text:
Remove/Change Android password
A friend gave me an old Android tablet (Medion Junior Tab S7322) which dates back into the Android 4.4 days and asked if I can get access to his pictures on the internal storage because she forgot her password she had set up a bunch of years ago.
I started researching how something like that can be done and now I ended up here, asking if someone knows any method to "break-in" or recover data from the internal memory since all other methods/attempts were either not viable or have failed, due to Androids security restrictions.
There is no linked Google account, no pattern lock, and debug mode is off.
Though I assume this device has a JTAG connector on the mainboard, which I couldn't verify yet, since I don't want to open the device till all other methods have been exhausted.

Are there any tools that can remove/change the password on a tablet via USB connection, ignoring all of the security locks by exploiting known vulnerabilities on the tablet model/ Android 4.4?

Can you maybe brute-force the password, since my friend mentioned it probably wasn't too secure.

you can use rkDumper or similar

device is not encrypted, plain dump of mtd partition is sufficient, can be read offline on linux PC. no need to bruteforce, just delete locksettings.db

How do you access the partition when the device is preventing you to connect to it? Don't you have to enable file transfer first (as you might see, I am a noob with Android devices ;)

I have no recovery tools such as TWRP (i believe it's called) / others installed on the tablet. Debug mode is also off, so I assume ADB won't work either?

RockChip devices come with rockusb mode. from what I have read rkDumper should work in fastboot mode. read here about drivers. you can also ask in xda thread. you want userdata partition

this is example how it looks like https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/tool-rkdumper-utility-for-backup-firmware-of-rockchips-devices.2915363/post-82857089

once you have dump, it should be possible to port CWM clockworkmod recovery for this device (from RK30GENERIC_CWM.zip) then you can boot Aroma file manager and delete locksettings.db from CWM recovery


text:
Use Macintosh layout for external physical keyboard?
I'd like to connect a German Macintosh keyboard to my Android device. It uses swapped signals for °/^ and </> as well as different positions for [, ], {, } and @. It also has a bunch of special characters, but I don't consider those of high priority.
I tested More Physical Keyboard Layouts, but it doesn't feature Macintosh layouts (yet). I also saw the External Keyboard Helper Pro that allows to define a custom layout, but it requires a Google Account to buy it from the Play Store, but I need a solution that works with AOSP.
(Free apps on the Play Store are fine, because I can download those anonymously using the Aurora Store.)

If remapping some keys is enough for you take a look at ExKeyMo. Disclaimer: I'm the developer. It can build an app with your custom layout built-in.
UPDATE:
ExKeyMo has two modes Simple one to remap keys and Complex one to enter custom Key Character Map file. Also there is ExKeyMo's Docs page.
UPDATE:
ExKeyMo web app is not available on Heroku anymore. You'll have to run it locally. See the project's page on GitHub.

It's not a bad take, but it won't work. For instance, the @ sign is on L instead of Q using the alt/opt modifier, but I cannot swap L with Q for obvious reasons. Your solution only supports single stroke remaps, I'd need to map from shortcuts to alternative shortcuts involving multiple keys.

@MartinBraun ExKeyMo has complex remapping. Just enter content of your custom Key Character Map file in the ExKeyMo's form and click Download to get an app with your layout built-in. Don't forget to check ExKeyMo's docs. I will edit my answer to provide more info.


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Swissonic UA-2x2 audio interface with Android 11 on Samsung Galaxy S6 Lite
I want to use a Swissonic UA-2x2 audio interface with my Android 11 on Samsung Galaxy S6 Lite to record guitar with an app called Loopify. However, it does not work if I connect everything. I can manage to capture the guitar signal with another app called n-Track (a kind of DAW for Android).
On my Android smartphone (same Android version) it works with Loopify and the audio interface with no problems - plug and play.
Can I change something about the tablet settings so that it also works with the Loopify app?


text:
Mirror screen (+ sound preferably) to TV via USB-C/HDMI (Xiaomi in particular)
I did a web search and found only casting via Wi-Fi and/or cast to PC by installing some app on the PC.
Is there any way to mirror the screen to the TV from USB-C to HDMI (I have an adapter) of the TV? In particular, I'm interested in a solution for Xiaomi and TV that does not have Wi-Fi. Xiaomi screen casting in setting looks like it works only via Wi-Fi. If it's an app, preferably open source, or at least no registration and minimum of ads.

AFAIK USB2HDMI converters as they are typically used on PCs don't work as they work as a graphic adapter via USB. That requires drivers usually not included on Android. If you want to output display signal via USB-C check if your phone supported USB-C alternate display mode e.g. DisplayPort or HDMI. Usually this is a feature available in high-end Android phones.

@Robert, can't application doing mirroring contain the code for the conversion (same as said drivers have)?

Please note that questions directly asking for app recommendations are off-topic. Instead, we prefer the asker to just state the underlying problem that they want to solve and not put any restrictions for apps-only. Otherwise, you might be interested in our sister site, Software Recommendations Stack Exchange instead.

Drivers can not be installed on Android. Your kernel contains them or not. Could be possible but running everything in user land but Android apps don't have the permission to capture the screen of all other apps. Some apps are event blocked for security reasons. And of course an app would be running way slower than a kernel driver.


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Parental control impossible to uninstall on Samsung device
I have a Samsung device. My friend and I were trying out the parental control feature. Even after stopping supervision, it's impossible to uninstall the parental control app and remove its restrictions
Here are some deets:

I've already tried age verification
Already stopped the supervision on my friend's phone
Tried clearing the cache and storage of all Google apps
Removed myself from the family through Play Store
Tried resetting all settings, but factory reset is disabled
Tried disabling parental control as a device admin, it is greyed out
Unable to boot into safe mode
Can't enable developer mode (so no ADB)
Security certificate section is disabled
Deleting my Google account is not at all an option, it's my primary account
Tried changing the password of my Google account, and tried to force log out and reset using the Find My Device feature. That didn't work (it says no device registered)
Tried transferring the app (Family Link) to the SD card, and removing the SD card. Didn't help, it still has restrictions
Unable to reset the phone through Samsung Find My Device and through Google Find My Phone (both say my phone is not registered)
On my friend's phone, it says open parental control (by going to Google in Settings) and set it up again to start supervision.
Another question with a similar problem
What to do when "Stop Supervision" does not stop supervision in Google Family Link. As mentioned in the answer, I tried waiting, and it's been more than 24 hours, nothing has happened, the issue still persists
Tried meddling with my birthday in my Google account, but at some point, it asked me to verify my age through a card, which I did. And the age got verified.
Tried to install the beta version of Family Link, by signing up through Google Play Store,  hopping the beta has resolved the issue, but it didn't help
Tried restarting my phone several times, but to no avail
Tried hard resetting (through the recovery menu), but the phone won’t go into recovery, it vibrates at a point where it was supposed to go into the recovery menu, and boots normally and the phone turns on

My problem is my phone has become laggy and I'm not able to add Google accounts. Unable to reset my phone. Please help in removing the app Family Link.

Managed to solve my problem.
Start by backing up your phone and then perform a hard reset.
Procedure:

Once you have backed up your data, shut down your phone
Connect the phone to a computer, it should start charging your phone
Now hold the volume up and power button
After a couple of retries, the recovery menu will appear after the Samsung logo appears

The key is to keep retrying the procedure from step 4 until you get it


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Android 13 - What happens to photos in OneDrive/Google Photos that were backed up once you delete a photo from your storage?
I'm on android 13 with the Samsung a32 5g.
If I delete a photo on my phone that was synced to OneDrive or Google Photos backup and sync again, will that photo automatically get deleted after 30 days, or will the backup stay indefinitely?
I know deleting files on PC and resyncing removes them from OneDrive, so I'm wondering if the same goes for mobile and what happens for Google Photos.

OneDrive is not Google Photos... The two behave very differently. I can't speak to OneDrive (don't use it at all) but Google Photos is essentially a photo archiving service, if you delete a picture from your phone, it will continue to be in the GP archive, UNLESS you delete it with Google Photo, and in which case it specifically tells you "Delete from your account and all devices linked to it", or something to that effect... If you factory reset your phone, or delete the files with a file manager from the camera's photo directory for example, the files will still exist in GP.

I don't know about OneDrive, but for Google Photos, if the photos are deleted from outside the Photos app, then they will stay indefinitely (as mentioned in my previous answer, only files on the device that are deleted after 30 60 days). If it's from the Photos app, then there are 2 types of deletions: "Delete" (the trash can icon, delete from both device and backup), and "Delete from device" (the crossed phone icon, delete only from the device, backup stays indefinitely)

@AndrewT. Thank you, so for sure Google Drive photos stay after being deleted on just the phone device, but as for OneDrive I'm not sure but could function the same way.


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Forwarding bluetooth remote input through a phone to a PC
I have a bluetooth remote which I can pair with my android phone.
I know it's not really possible to turn a phone into a bluetooth dongle, but is there any way I can forward the input the phone receives from the remote to a PC (e.g. remote's cursor keys) via an app or maybe by using adb?


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Bluetooth speaker failed back to phone speaker when there's a power status change on a GSI ROM
Current Behavior:
When my Bluetooth earphone reports a power change to the phone, the Bluetooth disconnects and falls back to the phone speaker.
The problem
The Bluetooth speaker falls back to the phone speaker when there's a power status change.
Device information
Device: Redmi Note 11T 5G (codename: evergo)
Build Flavor: PixelExperience_Plus_arm64-ab-13.0-20230104-UNOFFICIAL.img.xz
Logs
01-07 21:40:12.443  4947  5548 E bluetooth: packages/modules/Bluetooth/system/bta/dm/bta_dm_pm.cc:1016 bta_dm_pm_btm_status: Received unknown power mode status event:5
01-07 21:40:13.605  4947  5548 I bluetooth: packages/modules/Bluetooth/system/stack/gatt/gatt_api.cc:1410 GATT_Disconnect: conn_id=6
01-07 21:40:13.605  4947  5548 I bluetooth: packages/modules/Bluetooth/system/stack/gatt/gatt_main.cc:328 gatt_update_app_hold_link_status: removed gatt_if=6
01-07 21:40:13.605  4947  5548 I bluetooth: packages/modules/Bluetooth/system/stack/eatt/eatt_impl.h:880 disconnect:  Device: [Bluetooth Addreess here, removed], cid: 0xffff
01-07 21:40:13.605  4947  5548 I bluetooth: packages/modules/Bluetooth/system/stack/gatt/gatt_main.cc:392 gatt_update_app_use_link_flag: GATT fixed channel is no longer useful, start link idle timer for 1 seconds
01-07 21:40:13.605  4947  5548 I bluetooth: packages/modules/Bluetooth/system/stack/gatt/gatt_api.cc:1084 GATT_SetIdleTimeout: idle_timeout=1, status=1, (1-OK 0-not performed)
01-07 21:40:13.606  4947  5548 W bluetooth: packages/modules/Bluetooth/system/stack/gatt/gatt_main.cc:324 gatt_update_app_hold_link_status: attempt to remove non-existing gatt_if=6
01-07 21:40:13.606  4947  5548 I bluetooth: packages/modules/Bluetooth/system/stack/gatt/gatt_main.cc:356 gatt_update_app_use_link_flag: App status is not updated for gatt_if=6
01-07 21:40:14.651  4947  5548 E bluetooth: packages/modules/Bluetooth/system/stack/btm/btm_sco.cc:957 btm_sco_on_disconnected: Unable to find sco connection
01-07 21:40:14.652  4947  5548 I bluetooth: packages/modules/Bluetooth/system/stack/gap/gap_ble.cc:303 client_connect_cback: No active GAP service found for peer:xx:xx:xx:xx:f1:47 callback:Disconnected
01-07 21:40:14.681  1737  1764 W BroadcastQueue: Permission Denial: receiving Intent { act=android.bluetooth.device.action.ACL_DISCONNECTED flg=0x5000010 (has extras) } to com.google.android.apps.wearables.maestro.companion/.connectivity.ClassicBTReceiver requires android.permission.BLUETOOTH_CONNECT due to sender com.android.bluetooth (uid 1002)


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Digital Wellbeing doesn't have timer options: detects mine device as fully-managed
I am using Nusantara ROM (Android 12) and my device is RMX2193. The device isn't managed by an enterprise so I can't understand this
Digital Wellbeing shows App timers aren't available for work apps or fully managed devices
Please note that app timer is no longer a Pixel exclusive feature since the last few years.
See the bottom-most part of the screenshot

What does adb shell dumpsys device_policy show?

Here is the output https://pastebin.com/26RnbrPf

Can you remove Google Play (or whatever name it is using) from the device administrators and see if that app timers issue is resolved?

Find My Device (part of gsf) was the only admin app on my device, I disabled the toggle fot it yet the issue persists. Also, 'Smart Lock (Google)' was a Trust Agent. I disabled that toggle too but to no avail.


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How to find out what application triggered the notification sound?
Something is randomly triggering a notification sound on my phone, but there's no banner, and if I check under "Notifications" in the settings there's nothing there either.
Is there any other way to find out which app it was? I've tried to use adb logcat but there's so much info in there I'm not sure what to look for. Any suggestions?
For info this is a Samsung S9 Galaxy.

After checking the adb shell 'dumpsys audio' I found the log entries related to that ring tone:
01-12 13:33:02:962 new player piid:6415 uid/pid:10277/29559 type:android.media.MediaPlayer attr:AudioAttributes: usage=USAGE_UNKNOWN content=CONTENT_TYPE_UNKNOWN flags=0x800 tags= bundle=null
01-12 13:33:02:983 player piid:6415 new AudioAttributes:AudioAttributes: usage=USAGE_NOTIFICATION_RINGTONE content=CONTENT_TYPE_SONIFICATION flags=0x800 tags= bundle=null
01-12 13:33:02:983 player piid:6415 has OP_PLAY_AUDIO:true in uid:10277
01-12 13:33:03:007 player piid:6415 state:started uid:10277
01-12 13:33:04:955 player piid:6415 state:stopped uid:10277
01-12 13:33:05:751 releasing player piid:6415

However it doesn't give me the name of a specific application. Any idea if it's possible to find, from this, the name of the app? Maybe based on pid?

See if my answer helps: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/217612/96277

Thank you, I tried that but there was nothing for today's date. I also tried less filtering by removing the grep command but nothing obvious came up

There is an answer on that same page which uses adb logcat. See if that brings something up. // When was the last time you observed this sound?

@Firelord, thanks, I found the log entries related to that annoying notification (see updated post), however I'm not sure it gives any useful information. Any ideas?

After getting the UID from the logcat, you can try the answers on How can I find app name by UID?, e.g. adb shell pm list packages --uid 10277 to get the app's package name.

That's brilliant, thanks! It turns out it was com.uniqlo.uk2.catalogue, the Uniqlo app. I'm going to remove it and hopefully that should be it.


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Outlook app shows notifications but corresponding emails are MIA
I've been using the Outlook app on my Android for years. This just started happening a few weeks ago. I often will get emails and see the notifications but when I open the app, they're not there. Sometimes it takes hours until the new emails are visible in the app. So as soon as I dismiss the notification either by swiping it away or by opening the app, I have no hint as to what my new emails are about. At the same time, I know those emails are in my inbox both because I read the notification as well as being able to read them in a browser or Windows app. I've already tried using the app's "reset account" which does nothing to help this. Please advise. Thank you!
Outlook app version 4.2247.1
Samsung Galaxy S9
Phone model number SM-G960U1
Android version 10
One UI version 2.5

First, I went into the phone's app settings and hit "clear cache" for Outlook. It only helped for about an hour.
Then, in the same location, I chose "clear data" for the app. It seems to have solved the problem for now. (Warning: doing so will remove your email account from the app. You'll need to re-add it.) We shall see...


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No internet access whith VPN and Android 12
In my Xiaomi redmi note 10 pro I have two VNP clients: Cisco AnyConnect and OpenVPN.
They were both working fine and I had access to internet even with active VPN connection.
After the upgrade from Android 11 to Android 12, I have no internet access when a VPN connection is open.
Has anyone had the same issue?

There have been some reported cases same as yours.
These methods often got rid of the glitch:

Clear VPN App Storage and Cache
Disable Smart Switch Between WiFi and Mobile Data
Update the VPN App
Reset Network Settings
Reinstall the VPN App

If all of the fore-mentioned methods fail follow this video to grant app ops the ADB permission and then manually grant the VPN permission to the app.
As Drew_pew_pew_pew mentions:

I have the same phone and same crap. I use app ops and shizuku to manually grant vpn apps permission. https://youtu.be/diFi8BJYr3c . Had problems with the wireless method at first. But once you paired and press start in shizuku, I had to go back in dev settings and disable/enable wireless debugging again.

Thread


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ADB Sideload stuck on serving update.zip at 0%
I'm using adb sideload update.zip command, but it is stuck on serving at 0% (Verifying update package ... on phone).
I tried adb usb command, but the error is closed. The device state is sideload.
More details:
I have a Samsung A03s (SM-A037F). Yesterday it suggested an android update. I accepted and after that, the phone was restarting repeatedly stuck in at the  Samsung logo.

I downloaded the latest full update package (Build Number: A037FXXU2CVK7)and platform-tools_r33.0.3 as well.
I also installed the latest Samsung USB driver.
Then I pressed power+volume-up button to enter recovery mode. I selected Apply update from ADB

EDIT 1: I can now do a reset factory, but I need my photos and videos.
EDIT 2: When I use adb logcat , the result is just: - waiting for device - for a long time and nothing else

check current rom A037FXXU2CVK in recovery mode and csc, sw rev: b: in download mode. download proper ROM (not latest) according to the current ROM. extract files and double check HOME_CSC exist. if so, you can flash four files in Odin3 without wiping data (not CSC). if still no luck, flashing single partitions with mtkclient might possible.

Thank you @alecxs . I did what you mentioned at first, but no result. Would you please explain more about flashing single partition?

won't help either. Odin flashed successfully?

Yes, that was successful but did not solve the problem, however thanks again @alecxs

read back userdata partition with mtkclient python3 mtk r userdata userdata.img from pendrive. run fsck userdata.img to repair f2fs file system. if mountable, flash back to userdata partition.

Thank you @alecxs
1- I used python mtk r userdata userdata.img instead of python3 mtk r userdata userdata.img , because python3 makes an error.
2- Using that command, I see Preloader - [LIB]: ←[31mStatus: Handshake failed, retrying...←[0m
So, is there any solutions? Many thanks before.

connect phone when powered off, with both Volume keys pressed. make sure you can see VCOM preloader drivers installed in device manager. btw you need linux for the step after

Thank you again @alecxs . I installed the drivers, but the error has been changes : usb_class - [LIB]: ←[31mCouldn't get device configuration.←[0m

https://github.com/bkerler/mtkclient/issues/211 or use linux. you can boot the ready-to-use re_livedvdV4.iso from pendrive

Have you tried a factory reset?
For A30 the steps are

How to perform a hard reset on Samsung Galaxy A30 via recovery mode?
Follow these steps to perform a hard reset on your Samsung Galaxy A30 and reset your device to factory default settings.

Turn off your smartphone.
Press and hold Volume up + Home + Power buttons simultaneously till the device logo appears.
After the device logo , release Power button but hold the others a few more seconds.
Release all the buttons when Recovery mode screen appears.
Go to Wipe Data / Factory Reset option using Volume Down and press Power button to confirm it.
Go to Yes –Delete All User Data using Volume Down and press Power button to continue.
Recovery screen will appear after formatting process. Then, press the Power button on Reboot System Now to restart.

From factoryreset.net
I am not associated with this site in any way.

If an Android updates goes wrong I assume side loading a full OTA firmware is an attempt to recover the phone without data loss, so I don't think a factory reset is what the OP wants...

Thank you dear Rohit. As dear Robert mentioned, I really need my data and don't want to do a reset factory. Thank again for editing my question


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Have the latest Android OS versions brought back the longstanding bug that files copied to the phone have the wrong modification time?
Once upon a time, you could plug an Android phone into a computer running one of the three major OS's (Linux, macOS, Windows), and it would present an interface to the computer that looked like a disk drive (USB-Mass Storage Class) containing a FAT32 filesystem.  That made it easy to copy files to or from the phone, edit them in place with any editor running on the computer, or use any other application running on the computer that simply treats the files on the phone as ordinary files.  But Google had a better ideas -- NOT!  Around 2012 they got rid of that interface and replaced it with MTP (Media Transfer Protocol).  That created a whole host of problems, one of which is that when files were copied from the computer to the phone, the timestamp was changed to the current time rather than preserving the timestamp of the source file.  People constantly complained about that, but for years Google seemed uninterested in fixing it.  Then, around 2017, Google finally fixed it by replacing the FUSE-based filesystem implementation running inside the Android OS (FUSE = Filesystem in User Space) with SDCardFS.  There's an excellent explanation of the problem at https://www.xda-developers.com/diving-into-sdcardfs-how-googles-fuse-replacement-will-reduce-io-overhead/.  It explains that the architecture of FUSE-based filesystems means that the process that issues the utime() system call to set the timestamp is running with insufficient permission for that system call to succeed.
It now appears that Google didn't sufficiently vet SDCardFS before incorporating it into the Android OS.  They're now deprecating SDCardFS and replacing it with "a new FUSE implementation".  (See https://source.android.com/docs/core/storage/sdcardfs-deprecate).
I'm concerned that in reverting back to a FUSE-based filesystem, the old timestamp problems will reappear.  I'd like to bring this to the attention of one of Google's Android OS developers to find out if they considered this when they decided to revert to FUSE, and if so, whether or not their new implementation allows the preservation of timestamps of files copied to the phone.  Does anyone here have any idea how to contact those developers?

Perhaps you might be interested in https://source.android.com/docs/setup/contribute/report-bugs: "You can help improve Android by reporting issues and feature requests in the Android Issue Tracker. The Android Issue Tracker contains a list of pending technical tasks across a variety of topics, information relevant to those tasks, and information about progress on those tasks, including which ones might get worked on in the short term." Aside from that, I'm not sure if there's any way to contact the developers directly.

@MBR Did they change the default FS used on SD cards, the FS driver(FUSE), or the USB transfer protocol? What exactly are you asking?

@MBR and which timestamp are you referring to when you say The Timestamp? Most files on most file systems have atleast two timestamps, some filesystems support 3 or even 4 timestamps, but no FS supports every timestamp available.

actually we are not talking about (fat) MicroSD cards but (f2fs) Internal Storage (and he meant mtime)

That said, while this question can be useful to the community, I'm afraid as of current writing the title is unclear about what is the "longstanding bug" (I guess it's "the timestamp still preserved after reverting back to the FUSE-based filesystem"?). Could you [edit] and improve it?

Andrew T.: Thanks for that link.  I'll try posting there.

svin83 - Around 2012 they replaced MSC/FAT32 with MTP.  But the MTP implementation was built on top of FUSE, which caused a permissions problem resulting in the modification timestamps of files copied from the computer to the Android to be wrongly set to the time the copy was done rather than the timestamp of the source file. In 2017, they fixed that problem by replacing the FUSE implementation of MTP with one based on SDcardFS. In 2020 they dropped SDcardFS in favor of an MTP implementation built on a later version of FUSE. I'm hoping that didn't bring the timestamp bug back.

svin83 - This is in a separate comment because including it in my previous response would have put me over Stack Exchange's character limit.
At this point, this no longer has anything to do with actual SD Cards, since modern Android hardware no longer has an SD card slot.  But for historical reasons, some things like SDcardFS and the filesystem mountpoint still mention the SD card in their name, even though it's no longer there.

@svin83 Ever since I first started writing Unix code back in 1980, "the timestamp" has always been shorthand for mtime (time of most recent modification).  That's the one displayed by ls -l.  Although the ls manpage mentions "ctime" and "atime", it doesn't bother to mention "mtime".  It's just assumed.

@Andrew T. - I edited the title to more explicitly describe the bug.  I hope that's better.


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Android Battery Report
Is the Android OS battery breakdown not an exhaustive list of battery drain sources?
I find that it never adds up.
One time, after not restarting the phone for a month, the battery started to drain from 70% to 0% in 8 hours while I slept.
But the battery report did not report the app that cause this drain, everything was just 5% or less. And the total doesn't add up to even  25% of that drain.
Can the battery drain not detect certain sources like stuck background apps or something?
Environment:
Samsung Fold 4 Android 13

On Pixel 3a, Android 12, the Battery usage can also show the system usage, like: Screen, Wi-Fi, Phone idle, Android OS, Android System, etc. Is it not shown on your device? (Perhaps mentioning the device model might also help since manufacturers do customize their Settings menu)

Fold 4, when I check the Battery report, there's no mention of Android OS, System, WiFi.  Those could be not reported or just not incurring a significant enough consumption to be shown.


text:
android automatically download bad apps
as you can see in the following picture

there are apps such as "Solitaire", "Ball Sort", "Count Masters", "Galaxy Attack" and many others that keep automatically downloaded on my android phone after that I remove them.
I already managed to install software such as
Avast Mobile Security
Avira Securty
But they do not block those apps from being automatically downloaded.
Further more, I have a kind of newspaper that constantly reports me fake news about cars, such as Fiat has failed, Schumacher is death and so on.
I am stock of all of this and I would like you to help me fixing this issue.

remove all samsung/google accounts and factory reset phone

Could you mention the device model and Android version? I'd assume this is a Xiaomi device since there's a similar report on Reddit: Strange apps appearing on my phone. If that's the case, then perhaps this might help: How to remove ads in Xiaomi phones with MIUI.

Xiaomi, Redmi Note 9 Pro with a Android 11 installed on it

So yes, read and understand the previous comment and included links. Nothing else to add.


text:
WhatsApp: how to use downloaded sticker collection from messages in Gboard
This question is about how to use a particular feature in WhatsApp.
Someone sent a message on a group in WhatsApp, and the message was a sticker. Clicking onto it gave me a better view of the picture, and three options. I clicked on the first one to download the sticker. Then the sticker onto the WhatsApp group almost seemed to turn into a big emoticon giving a smile with a heart hovering off and to the side, on top (actually, this was just WhatsApp scrolling, a bit below, would be nice if this spurious scrolling were fixed).
But now, I don't know where to go in Gboard to find the sticker collection I downloaded in WhatsApp in this manner.
I think I am confusing WhatsApp stickers with Gboard stickers.
How do I transfer WhatsApp stickers to Gboard, to view the stickers downloaded from WhatsApp?
Or, alternatively, how do I just open the stickers in WhatsApp?
Thank you for your help.
Stickers viewed in Gboard when I click in WhatsApp:

Stickers viewed in Gboard when I browse Gboard stickers:

To open the stickers in WhatsApp, click on the emoticon to the left of the space where you enter messages to be sent.
To open stickers in Gboard, click on the smiley or sticker icon above the keyboard or on the smiley above the comma selected by long pressing, and click on the sticker icon below.
Thanks.


text:
How can I prevent a Pixel 6 from changing focus while recording a video with the native camera application?
For example, if I record a video from behind a window, I tried to put the focus on whatever I'm looking it behind the window, but if something happens on the window while I'm recording, such as rain on the window, Pixel 6 may decide to focus on the window, suddenly and at any time.
How can I prevent a Pixel 6 from changing focus while recording a video with the native camera application? I use Android 12.

Since the question mentioned "the native camera application", I believe this issue affects the Google Camera app and independent of a specific model since it behaves the same on Pixel 3a. AFAIK, the app has auto AF-lock after a few seconds, but I can't find a way to force-lock the focus while recording.

The trouble with Google's camera software in all the Google Pixel phones is that it tries to be too smart and doesn't allow you to do what you actually want.  I guess that's part of Google's "we know what's best for you" corporate mentality.

@AndrewT. thanks, feel free to post it an answer. I've posted an app recommendation question: Video recording app for Pixel 6 that can record in 4K 60 FPS and allow users to disable the autofocus

@RockPaperLz-MaskitorCasket sounds about right :/


text:
Why does the emulator perform so many writes?
I'm using the Android Emulator from IntelliJ on Kubuntu. I noticed in plasma-systemmonitor that qemu-system-x86_64 continuously does on the order of a few MB/s of disk writes even as I'm not using the emulator at all, it's just open. Sometimes it goes below 1 MB/s, sometimes up to a few dozen MB/s.
Is this level of activity normal? I'm starting to wonder if this amount of writes can shorten the life of my SSD if I leave it running all the time. Or could it be another type of writes that are not disk writes? I'm not 100% sure what plasma-systemmonitor measures.
I'm emulating a Pixel 4 with Google Play.

You should check which files those write operations are applied to (e.g. using inotify-tools or similar). May be it is simply some log file which is updated very often but not directly written to disk by the OS.

I'm not sure how to use inotify-tools for this. lsof doesn't show much in terms of files potentially being written to but shows a number of "pipe" and "type=STREAM" lines so maybe it's just interprocess communication.


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Google Assistant not working across languages
I am running Google Assistant on Android 12 on a Realme 8 5G phone.
I have both English and Italian configured as languages in Settings.
When I issue the command "Open Settings" the Settings app opens up.
But, on the other hand, when I issue the "Apri impostazioni" command in Italian which literally translates to "open settings" Google Assistant talks back to me telling me what to do with a set of given instructions on how to open the settings app (it does not open it for me automatically). At the same time, it displays the following text:

"Un attimo" (Just a moment)
"Operazione in corso" (operation being carried out)
"Operazione ancora in corso" (operation still being carried out)
"Ci siamo quasi" (we're almost there)

Google Assistant then stalls, almost as though in a long process (and the settings app never automatically opens up).
This would be important for me, as I am trying to assess the usability of Android, and in particular of Google Assistant, for blind (and visually impaired) users.
Why doesn't the corrisponding command in Italian just open the settings app?
Thanks.


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Can't edit boot commands in VMware for Android x86
I'm attempting to install  Android x86 from https://www.fosshub.com/Android-x86.html following the steps on https://hackmd.io/@StanS/Android-x86, and after getting to the point where I can reboot and boot into the OS, I go to edit the boot command for step 4. I hit e twice, but then I can't change the boot command. It just gives me a line with out the string that I need to edit. on the previous page, it has the string listed, but everything I search for just says it should be there.

You need to type reboot
Or you can watch this tutorial on Youtube
https://youtu.be/nFtNKY1g6Lc?si=HzynNrGjrZaSI414

As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please [edit] to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.


text:
Apps not writing to SD Card
I use a Motorola X4, Android 9. I have been storing app data on my SD card for over 2 years. Several months ago, this capability vanished, and I started getting storage full warnings from Files. The particular apps are Merlin and Oruxmaps. I have tried reformatting the SD card and also tried changing write permissions. Neither worked.
What must I do to restore this capability?