text:
What is the differences between RR images ARM / A64 / ARM64 / system?
When downloading Resurrection Remix GSI images, there are a lot of options to choose from, namely:

A64
ARM64
ARM
system

ARM64 is self-explanatory. ARM could probably 32-bit version for armv7 CPU. What is the other 2? I cannot find any explanation anywhere on their website.

Sorry that no one has answered this question. I'm answering this question so people may come across it like myself.
A64 is the short hand for arm32_64binder. It is basically 32bit for armv8 CPUs which are capable of 64bit. The software is 32bit with a 64bit binder for 64bit capable hardware. An example of a phone running an A64 firmware is the Galaxy A6 2018. It is running an Exynos 7870 that has support for 64bit but the software installed is 32bit.
"system" is not an arch it's just a name added to some GSIs for whatever reason.
Hope that answer your question, I tried to make it as simple as possible. If you are installing GSIs and you want to know what type of GSI to choose then install an app called "Treble Info" from the play store.

I'm having that device right now :) The hardware is 64bit and I want to run 64bit software on it but it said not possible because OS is 32bit


text:
How to connect 2 Bluetooth audio headsets to an Android phone?
How can two people listen to audio on an Android phone over Bluetooth?  I.e. they have two Bluetooth headsets and want to pair both at the same time?

As in most things, it depends. In this case, since you do not state your device, I will demonstrate from mine, a Samsung 8, running Android 9 (One UI). It explicitly allows dual Bluetooth through settings. If this is your device, click through to it at
Settings > Connections > Bluetooth > Advanced > Dual Audio > ON
The setting allows sound to two different Bluetooth devices.
If your device is different, look for the capability along a similar setting path.

It seems available on Samsung S** devices but not on A** devices: https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/galaxy-a-series/galaxy-a8-2018-dual-audio/td-p/1009922
Is there another option?

Most Android phones do not have the feature that allows more than one device to connect concurrently, but it's probably possible to send audio to two Bluetooth devices with extra hardware.
If your phone has an audio jack, that signal can be split into two using an adapter.  That would then have two wired headphones working. You could probably buy the wired splitter for $10 or so.
If your phone has an audio jack and would like to connect two Bluetooth devices, you can buy a multi-point Bluetooth Transmitter, also called Bluetooth transmitter splitter sender, which allows two devices to pair with it, and you connect the transmitter to the audio out jack of the phone. eBay has them for under $20.
If your phone doesn't have an audio jack,  There are many small, rechargeable Bluetooth receivers that can receive audio from your phone. They output on an audio jack, and you could proceed as above. If you need just audio, it would probably be fine, but if you want audio synced with a video you're watching, there would probably be a latency issue with receiving and retransmitting the signal.
It's possible that some company has produced or will produce a single device that offers two Bluetooth connection points for a reasonable price, and that might even address the latency problem.

Apart from soldering 1 Bluetooth receiver output to two Bluetooth transmitter inputs, I cannot see a way to do it with the current Android Bluetooth setup. It only allows one device paired at a time. Could be an interesting hardware project if you are into that kind of thing.
Your phone connects to the Bluetooth receiver, while your two Bluetooth headsets each connects to one of the transmitters.

https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/12281/send-audio-to-two-a2dp-bluetooth-devices-simultaneously?rq=1              According to this, you either need a Samsung S8 or newer or Bluetooth 5...

If budget is not a constraint, and you just want to connect multiple headsets in a fixed location, check out the Plantronics Savi 7xx or 8xxx line of headsets.  They are intended to allow monitoring of telemarketing calls, but we use it when my wife and I want to talk on the same mobile phone call.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Why can't WhatsApp write to bind mounts?
I moved all the data of WhatsApp to /mnt/media_rw/6333-6461/WhatsApp, where 6333-6461 is my external SD card. I opened WhatsApp to find that I could not open any previously downloaded data. This is expected.
Now, I executed the following commands in Termux:
$ su
# mount -o bind /mnt/runtime/write/6333-6461/WhatsApp /mnt/runtime/write/emulated/0/WhatsApp

When I opened WhatsApp, I could see all the data that I had previously downloaded. But now I cannot send or receive anything - all sending fails, camera access from WhatsApp fails, and downloading fails.
Evidently WhatsApp is not being able to write onto the bind mount. Any solution to the problem?
My phone, a Samsung Galaxy On7, Android 6.0.1, is rooted with Magisk 20.1 and running stock ROM.

What are the permissions of the WhatsApp folder?

mount -o bind /storage/6333-6461/WhatsApp /storage/emulated/0/6333-6461/WhatsApp

@alecxs I have tried that; WhatsApp cannot even read previously downloaded data, let aside write data.

must be written for older android days when external sd was just named sdcard1, so don't know for sure it works. i just created a empty file .sdcard1 in the WhatsApp folder to let the script know sdcard1 should be bind mounted http://www.mediafire.com/file/l6fz52s6n1cgbjh/whatsapp2sd.zip i was wrong it wasn't /storage and i believe it only worked on early stage (as init.d script)

mount -o bind /mnt/media_rw/6333-6461/WhatsApp /data/media/0/WhatsApp

@alecxs Unfortunately that mounting too doesn't work. I have tried these permutations previously. Samsung binds the WhatsApp folders to libunionfs instead of any specific directory. I don't know how to achieve this through bash.

forgot to mention i set namespace global https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/203951

Why can't WhatsApp write to bind mounts?
# mount -o bind /mnt/runtime/write/6333-6461/WhatsApp /mnt/runtime/write/emulated/0/WhatsApp

Apps cannot directly access /mnt/runtime/write/6333-6461 or /mnt/runtime/write/emulated/0/ because /mnt/runtime is only traverse-able by root. Apps access /storage/emulated/0 or /sdcard (symlink to the former) which is bind-mounted to /mnt/runtime/write/emulated/0/ for apps with WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission. External SD card is accessible at /storage/6333-6461 in the same way.
When /mnt/runtime/write/6333-6461/WhatsApp is bind-mounted at /mnt/runtime/write/emulated/0/WhatsApp, WhatsApp will actually try to write to external SD card which is not allowed at least since Android 4.4. This is controlled by using permissions READ|WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE / READ|WRITE_MEDIA_STORAGE, GID everybody (9997) / media_rw (1023) and mount namespaces. See details in How to move files to external SD card?.

Any solution to the problem?

There are some workarounds to set required permissions using FUSE or sdcardfs when bind mounting external directories. For details see How to bind mount a folder inside /sdcard with correct permissions?

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


text:
How to change location of AVD (Android Virtual Devices) files to external SSD?
I have limited SSD on my Mac.
I have an external SSD.
I would like to store multiple virtual devices, far beyond the capacity of the Mac internal storage.
How to configure location of AVD?
Attempt 1
I tried using: https://stackoverflow.com/a/30614524/775359
ln -s /Volumes/1TB/.android .android
The files are stored on SSD but when I try to launch, it keep bouncing in the dock

Attempt 2
https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line/variables.html

ANDROID_AVD_HOME: Sets the path to the directory that contains all AVD-specific files, which mostly consist of very large disk images. The default location is $ANDROID_EMULATOR_HOME/avd/. You might want to specify a new location if the default location is low on disk space.

This should be exactly what I need, trying this solution again:
export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT="/Volumes/1TB/Android/"
export ANDROID_EMULATOR_HOME="/Volumes/1TB/emulator/"
export ANDROID_AVD_HOME="/Volumes/1TB/emulator/avd/"

23 seconds video: https://youtu.be/8bPv85RnzP4
Attempt 3
Formatted and partitioned the external SSD.

It doesn't start, see the split-second popup

Handy answer to go nuclear: https://stackoverflow.com/a/45669617/775359
rm -Rf /Applications/Android\ Studio.app
rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/AndroidStudio*
rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.google.android.studio.plist
rm -Rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/AndroidStudio*
rm -Rf ~/Library/Logs/AndroidStudio*
rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/AndroidStudio*
rm -Rf ~/AndroidStudioProjects
rm -Rf ~/.gradle
rm -Rf ~/.android
rm -Rf ~/Library/Android*

Move your SDK to SSD and update SDK path in your projects local.properties file.

@VatishSharma I tried and discovered some troubles with such an approach. 1⃣ I can run AVD in isolation from any project 2⃣ the local.properties says explicitly: Do not modify this file -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE ERASED! ➡ i tried anyway but the duplicate of existing device or a new AVD lands in the old location /Users/ms/.android/avd/demo_test_try.avd

I am not sure how it can be fixed but I have some suggestions: 1. Instead of export * in Attempt2, try adding export ANDROID_HOME=<Path to Android SDK> 2. Trying changing the Android SDK path in Android Studio Settings. 3. Move the SDK from the location Android Studio is currently using to another location and then Android Studio will give an error saying to configure the SDK.

1) There is a solution here: Move Android Studio Virtual Devices to Another Hard Drive on a Mac
. I will outline it later.
2.A) I am using Linux but my emulator is found under the Android SDK folder:/mnt/DATA/Android/Sdk/emulator (ON MY NVME M.2 BOOTABLE SSD) and my AVDs are located in /mnt/DATA1/.android/avd (on my 2ND SSD) and are accessible to Android Studio and the AVD Manager through the Symbolic Link to /mnt/DATA1/.android/avd stored in my ~/.android folder  (ALSO ON MY NVME M.2 BOOTABLE SSD).
2.B) I copied the avd Folder from ~/.android to my Prefered Location, renamed he UNWANTED avd Folder avd.OLD (just in case), created a symbolic link to the desired avd folder, and copied the symbolic link to the ~/.android directory with the name avd.
2.C) I also ensured the Paths in the ini files point to the Physical location of the AVDs. for example: path=/mnt/DATA1/.android/avd/3.2_HVGA_slider_ADP1_API_29.avd


text:
easy (command line) way to transfer a folder of photos from Android phone to Linux Debian desktop
I have a RedMi note 7 phone model M1901F7G, running Android 9PKQ1.180904.001; I don't want to root my new phone (it is a gift from my wife, and I don't want risking bricking it).
I am an expert Linux user (since 1993) and developer (e.g. of bismon), preferring command line things.
The album on the phone contains a captchas subdirectory.
The phone is USB plugged to my Debian/Sid AMD2970WX desktop (I have sudo access to it). Kernel 5.3. X399 chipset. MSI X399 GAMING PRO CARBON  motherboard.
What is the detailed and quickest procedure to transfer the more than hundred JPEG files from the captchas/ subdirectory on the phone to the $HOME/Pictures/ subdirectory on the Debian desktop? I will do that occasionally (once a week perhaps), from home, using USB3 cable. But I want to avoid 500 clicks on phone or desktop.
I am able to transfer each individual photos (in about 5 clicks). I want to transfer a hundred of them.
I don't exactly understand the "USB debug mode". Please name free (as in beer) Android applications related that, or finger actions to enable it. I believe it is in the settings menu.
Of course I do like starting gmtp on Debian. I don't want an alternative to MTP. I just need to learn how to use it (and likewise for adb).
Bear in mind that I am not familiar with Android in practice, and that my sight is not very good (since I am 60 years old - had cataract surgery), and that I am not a native English speaker. But Unix commands, I could teach them even with moderate fever (since my first Unix was SunOS3.2 on Sun3/160 workstation at work around 1987, and I was given root and physical access to it). First Linux was Slackware, 0.99.12 kernel, around 1993 (on dozens of floppy disks, i486 motherboard). Getting X11 running at that time required kernel recompilation for the graphics card.
Take into account that (perhaps by mistake) I configured my phone in French. I cannot identify an Settings -> USB debug or Settings -> Developper Debug thing. Maybe I should by some app, but which one?

Have you tried adb pull /sdcard/captchas/ from $HOME/Pictures/ in terminal?

No. That should work? Will try from home, am still at work

Yes it should work.

Make that a proper answer please. I will accept it in a few hours

Possible duplicate of Is there a viable alternative to MTP for file transfer?

Possible methods I can remember I have tried: MTP, UMS, ADB, HTTP/WebDAV, FTP, SCP/SFTP/SSHFS, NFS, CIFS, rsync, rclone. Over USB cable, WiFi, rndis / hotspot, Mobile Data. Some methods require root access.

Android Debug Bridge (ADB) mode is a toggle switch in Developer Options in Settings app. When you turn that ON, adbd daemon (somewhat like sshd) starts on Android which lets you have a remote shell access over USB or WiFi. So adb pull|push is somewhat like scp.

@IrfanLatif: your comments should be an answer!

@BasileStarynkevitch sir this question is a general topic in Android world, very much discussed on forums including this community. I don't like the idea to repeat things unnecessarily. If you ask a specific thing I'm available to explain and help.

Isn't my question extremely specific? What details are missing?

@BasileStarynkevitch well actually it's hard to tell what's missing. You may know better what you actually want to achieve and with what option you feel comfortable. But as I mentioned in previous comment, there are a dozen options you can go with through CLI as well as GUI. Some have constraints, some have scalability issues, some require unnecessary hassle etc. It depends on the exact use case if you want a permanent setup or just one time use. And if you need that on the go or only at home. Authentication, encryption, speed and so on.

this app will bring you to developer options, but you still need to enable usb debugging (Débogage USB) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.androidstudio.developeroptions

To pull a folder from the sd card, you can use adb tools using following commands in terminal:
cd $HOME/Pictures/
adb pull /sdcard/captchas/

It will pull all the files from /sdcard/captchas/ to your Pictures directory.

But what exact magic should be done on the phone itself? I think I have to enable some USB thing. I sometimes am able to do that. But I don't understand why and how? For a phone which runs a Linux kernel, this is shameful

Ok, but better improve your answer. And I am not entirely sure to understand "debugging mode" (in my brain, it is gdb)

Does not work at home.

Check this to enable usb debugging mode: https://www.thecustomdroid.com/enable-developer-options-usb-debugging-android-pie/

I don't know your model of phone but for the new phone of my wife ( Samsung A70 ), the connexion was not possible any more through USB 2 and i find a new link with USB type C
---->https://www.samsung.com/fr/mobile-accessories/micro-usb-connector-gn930/
I just mount/open the DCMI folder to find  all the pictures.....
Hope this help ;O>)

On my new Pixel 5a phone, the USB connection didn't work. So I looked for an FTP client (since my Linux box has an FTP server).
I made sure to forcibly assign an IP address to my phone so I could open the FTP port just for that one device.
I settle on using PowerFTP, but I don't have any recommendation (I did not test anything else, this one works, it's a bit like FileZilla, so easy enough).
The USB method was better (which worked on my old phone), but on my new phone, it's asking for some things that are not going to happen, so instead I use the FTP client.
I think Google prioritize their Google Drive. Maybe in an attempt to get you to go over your limit on start paying a monthly fee. On my end, I don't leave much on my Google Drive at all. Plus, the whole interface is killing me. The FTP is much more straight forward and I don't need the extra step of uploading to the Internet to download back to a local computer (what kind of madness is that?!) especially for large video files...


text:
Bricked Honor 9 - No Os, No recovery
I messed up with everything. The only thing that works it's fastboot, I can still flash .img but when I reboot it get stucked on bootloader and can't enter neither recovery or system(Just erecovery but that's pretty useless).
I've tried flashing twrp or stock recovery, even tried to flash kernel/ramdisk and system image from stock rom but the result is the same: I always get "OKAY", or "flashed successfully" but gets stucked then.
I took the images I've been trying to flash from Firmware Finder:
STF-L09SC432B372 (8.0.0.372) FullOta-MF
STF-L09C10B370 (8.0.0.370) FullOta-MF
STF-LGRP2-OVS 9.1.0.215 FullOta-MF

If you can help me I would really aprecciate it. Thanks in advance.
p.s. bootloader and frp unlocked

Have you tried flashing the stock ROM?

Yes, same. Could it be the bootloader itself?

update your post with output of flashing/ which partitions flashed, and which rom/ recovery used (source?)


text:
Change vibration pattern
So there is this thing that has annoyed me since my Samsung Galaxy S8. The default vibration pattern for notifications (when on vibrate mode) seems to be two short vibrations.
This is driving me nuts as I always have my smartphone on vibrate but I want it to only vibrate once, one short "bing" kind of vibration.
I tried several apps which allow you to control the vibration pattern, but they all seem to work only if not in vibrate mode or for older types of OS (< 8). Mind you that this is pretty much only about WhatsApp, as I don't receive many messages via SMS or anything else. Changing the pattern in WhatsApp does nothing (it keeps vibrating literally exactly the same), external Apps do something sometimes (sometimes 3 vibrations, sometimes 1, most often still 2, and nothing is really reproducible). Finally, Android itself does not really give you any control over vibrations unless I miss something.
I even had a look at the source code which (if I understand correctly) hardcodes the vibration pattern fallback for vibrate mode and does not allow any changes.
I know that it sounds really stupid but this is such a big grind for me, that I even consider switching the OS, as it drives me insane. So if anybody has any help it would be much appreciated.
If relevant, the device is an Essential Phone running Android 10. There is no "Sounds and Vibrations" setting, there is only a "Sound" setting which allows me to change the call and notification sounds but not the patterns.

Added the device model and Android version because each manufacturer can customize their own Android, as shown on the answer for Samsung devices.

Go to Settings --> Sounds and Vibrations. There is an option "Vibration Pattern". Change that to "Basic Call".
As pointed out in a comment to this answer, probably this setting is available only in Samsung phones. I haven't checked devices from other manufacturers.

I would, but there is no "Sounds and Vibrations" setting, there is only a "Sound" setting which allows me to change the call and notification sounds but not the patterns. (This is on Essential Phone with Android 10)


text:
What happens if I ignore the warning: "If you deny this permission, basic features of your device may no longer function as intended"?
If I go into the permissions settings for the Google app and change the Location permission from "Allow all the time" to "Allow only while using the app" or "Deny," I am presented with a warning: "If you deny this permission, basic features of your device may no longer function as intended."
I am inclined to give it a try anyway, but what might happen? It seems like "Allow only while using the app" should not be very impactful? What is Google trying to warn me about when they say that "basic features of your device may no longer function as intended." Or are they just trying to scare me into not changing the permission (so they can keep their watchful eyes on me)?

May be by "basic features" Google refers to the Google assistant?

While revoking a runtime manifest permission requested by an app, the system warning: “If you deny this permission, basic features of your device may no longer function as intended.” is displayed by PackageInstaller if the permission was GRANTED_BY_DEFAULT:
~$ pm dump packages | grep -E 'Package |GRANTED_BY_DEFAULT' | grep -B1 android.permission

All runtime requested permissions are granted by default during grantDefaultPermissions on first boot or on new user/profile creation in three cases generally as referred in official documentation, so that “the device is usable out-of-the-box”:

If the app is a privileged system app (i.e. installed in /system/priv-app/) e.g. Settings and Google Play Services. Or the app is a system component (i.e. UID is less than 10000) e.g. SIM Toolkit and FM Radio. Some apps may fulfill both criteria e.g. Shell (com.android.shell, UID: 2000).
If the app provides some core OS functionality:

Apps must prompt users to grant application permissions at runtime. Limited exceptions may be granted to default applications and handlers that provide basic device functionality fundamental to the expected operation of the device.

Some of these apps necessarily have to be privileged or system component apps e.g. Location Provider. Others can also be non-system apps (even installed in /system/app) e.g. stock Messaging and Calendar, or third-party apps (installed in /data/app) e.g. user installed SMS and dialer apps.
If ROM developer explicitly creates an exception for some app(s).

However SYSTEM_FIXED runtime permissions (set for privileged/system apps) cannot be revoked.

What is Google trying to warn me about when they say that "basic features of your device may no longer function as intended."

Revoking location permission would not let the app (and its dependent apps if any) access location. Nothing else should happen.

Or are they just trying to scare me into not changing the permission (so they can keep their watchful eyes on me)?

Play Services are privileged, they won't work if you try to completely stop them keeping eyes on you.

It seems like "Allow only while using the app" should not be very impactful?

“Allow only while using the app” is not a normal manifest permission. It's appops which lets you set location operations to foreground so that Google app won't use location in background. You can also do that from commadline:
~$ appops set com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox COARSE_LOCATION foreground
~$ appops set com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox FINE_LOCATION foreground

RELATED:

Android Marshmallow, "dangerous" protection level and system components/apps

Thanks for the response. I have had the Google app set to "allow only while using the app" for a few days. I don't always see the temperature/weather icon on my home screen now, but otherwise I have not experienced any problems.


text:
How can I view a TLS 1.2 only website on an outdated tablet?
I have a tablet from 2011 (Prestigio MultiPad PMP3384B) with Android 2.3 which I use occasionally. I’ve experienced recently that I cannot view some webpages (https://www.nytimes.com/, for example) as they force using HTTPS (even if they provide public information mostly…). Presumably, it’s caused by a TLS version the device does not know.

On the contrary, https://www.google.com loads and http://www.google.com also works well (no redirection).

I checked the TLS version supported by www.nytimes.com (by following the article How to check what SSL/TLS versions are available for a website?):
$ nmap --script ssl-enum-ciphers -p 443 www.nytimes.com | grep TLSv
|   TLSv1.2:

The output for Google is:
$ nmap --script ssl-enum-ciphers -p 443 www.google.com | grep TLSv
|   TLSv1.0:
|   TLSv1.1:
|   TLSv1.2:

What I’ve also tried:

I’ve found the article Working with TLS 1.2 on Android 4.4 and Lower but the solution only supports Android 4.1 and newer.
I’ve checked Connect to an https service using an http-only client but the solutions don’t seem to be applicable on a tablet It could be achieved with a PC in LAN but I’d prefer solutions not requiring other LAN devices.

Is there any way to view TLS 1.2 only websites on such a device?

Have you looked to see if there's any opensource firmware available for the tablet?  If not, it shouldn't be utilized for internet access or be connected to any kind of network due to being a massive security risk (it's missing 9yrs of security patches).

Alternatively, does the tablet allow installing custom HTTPS CA certificates (some manufacturers disallow this)? I was looking into making a Squid proxy that would intercept TLS, for my Win9x VMs.

@JW0914 Of course, I’m not going to use it for online banking, just viewing public webpages… I have found some forum topic regarding the alternative firmware but as it’s closed source and anonymous, it could be a security risk, too.

@grawity A proxy server intercepting TLS (and possibly converting it to HTTP as Connect to an https service using an http-only client suggests) would help but I’d prefer being able to view the web without turning on the PC (in another room).

@Melebius I know this doesn't address your question, but I believe the following important to stress: That device makes any network it's connected to vulnerable, so if it's on your LAN, you're taking a significant risk.  Android 2.3 is as bad as running WinXP on a PC and using it for internet access - it's ill-advised due to the hundreds of known security exploits and it's likely vulnerable to all known forms of ransomware.   If you must use the tablet, please don't store data on it & put it on its own vLAN (prevent it from accessing any other device and any other device from accessing it).

You can use Opera Mini, which still supports Android 2.3 and uses its servers to compress data.


text:
How can I know the hostname of an Android phone for use in SSH connection?
When setting up public key authentication on SimpleSSHD server on my Android phone, by http://www.galexander.org/software/simplesshd/

Quick start

Install SimpleSSHD.
On any computer which will connect to your Android device, set the port to 2222.  With OpenSSH, this can be done by putting these lines in ~/.ssh/config:
Host myphone
Port 2222

Launch SimpleSSHD, and in Settings enable "Start on Boot", then manually start it for the first time.
Create authorized_keys in the home directory (do not use ssh-copy-id)
Optionally make .profile

how can I find out the hostname myphone for my android phone?
My phone is assigned different IP addresses from time to time. For example, I can move my laptop and phone to different LANs, and my phone can reconnect to the same LAN.
Some attempts from my laptop:
First attempt (fail):
$ ssh -p 2222 192.168.1.87
user@C6730:/data/data/org.galexander.sshd/files $ hostname
sh: hostname: not found

Second attempt (fail):
user@C6730:/data/data/org.galexander.sshd/files $ ^D
Connection to 192.168.1.87 closed.
t@ocean:/home/t$ ssh -p 2222 C6730
ssh: Could not resolve hostname c6730: No address associated with hostname

Third attempt (succeed with some luck by guessing):
I find all the hosts in the LAN by  sudo nmap -sP 192.168.1.0/24, and guess which host in the output is most likely the phone. it is something like android-c0f659b6548c28b2 (not the real host name)

Will android-c0f659b6548c28b2 change under some cases, for example, when the phone is restarted, moved to a different LAN, assigned a different IP address, ...?
Does anyone know what c0f659b6548c28b2 means? It is not the Mac address of the phone.
Can I customize the hostname of the Android phone?

Thanks.

A related question: How to set friendly network name of android computer?

Possible duplicate of How do I change the name of my Android device?

Related: How to ping a local network host by hostname?


text:
music is stuttering
So I have a zte z557bl running android 7.1.1 and ive been using google play music, but every time I would open a app, open the notification bar, lock my phone or go to the home screen, it would stop the music for a second and them the volume would change, or it would lag the music. does anyone know why its doing this?

Have you tried to use a different music player? Did the issue persist?

@Firelord yes i have, i've used the default music player, as well as spotify.

but the problem still exists


text:
Samsung tablet blocked
Bonjour,
Tout à l'heure j'ai ressortis ma tablette samsung a6 pour tester une nouvelle fonctionnalité de steam. En voulant l'allumer, j'ai eu un écran bleu avec écris "downloading". J'ai vu sur plusieurs forum qu'il fallait la mettre en mode recovery jusqu'au redémarrage de l'appareil, ce que j'ai fait. Seulement, j'ai malencontreusement relâché les boutons. Ce qui fait que mon appareil est bloqué, je n'arrive pas à le redémarrer. Est-ce un problème de chargeur? Ou un problème de l'appareil ?
Merci de m'aider,
Ziscko.
Hello !
I try to retart my tablet samsung a6, but a blue screen apears with "downlading".
I learn in others forums that i have to restar my tablet in recovery mode, but i failed it and sneeze at bad moment: i didn't recovery mode until restaring.
Sorry for ma very bad english..
Can somebody help me ?
Translated using Google Translate:
Hello, Just now I came out my Samsung A6 tablet to test a new feature of steam. Wanting to turn it on, I had a blue screen with "downloading". I saw on several forums that it was necessary to put in recovery mode until restarting the device, which I did. Only, I accidentally released the buttons. What makes my device is blocked, I can not restart it. Is it a charger problem? Or a problem of the device? Thanks for helping me, Ziscko.

download mode is to install firmware or custom recovery. It's accessible VIA pressing power button and vol- button at the same time do if it boots all time to download maybe your vol- button is broken. Also if you want to enter recovery turn device off by holding power button or power+vol- buttons and when it's turned off hold vol+ and power to enter recovery. At recovery you should see "reboot to system option.


text:
Modify the Chinese date localization in the quick settings of Flyme 8.0.0.0A Stable (SystemUI.apk modification)
I translated the firmware Flyme 8.0.0.0A Stable (RU & UA) for Meizu Note 9 and Meizu 8X, but I can’t kill the Chinese in the quick settings:

The fact is that China’s events are taking place there - the usual date, for example, if you translate from Chinese “己亥 年 十月 廿六” - “October 26.”
Who can help remove this problem from the quick settings? Or at least tell me where to look in SystemUI.apk, I suspect that somewhere in the Smali code. Thanks.

That setting depends on the locale. If you simply translated parts of the UI but didn't setup a proper locale it will keep the Chinese text for data. I'm also using the Chinese ROM and an app to add the intended locale and the date shows up in the locale's language.

Thanks, but of course I apply localization through morlocal2, because I add to SystemUI.apk folders: "/res/values_ru" and "/res/values_uk", files in folder "/res/values" I do not change. English is the default lang. The hieroglyphs that are shown in the screenshot do not change due to a change in localization, it is written in the smal code itself, or there it is registered for parsing this from a Chinese site, there are some dates that are not current yet.

I think that you are doing the same stuff as I do. I have Meizu 16Xs (Same CPU as Note 9) and I'm trying to actually mod the Flyme 8.20.1.7 Beta (Chinese firmware)- which is by the way IMHO more stable, at least for my device, than 8.0.0.0A. What I found out is that you can in some way partially "convert" the "Chinese" version of firmware to the "Global" by changing the single parameter in /system/build.prop file.
This is the original setting:
ro.product.locale=zh-CN
Try to change it to:
ro.product.locale=en-US
After restarting your device, this will give you the "Global look", which means:

In the quick settings on the top-right, there won't be a "notification setting" icon anymore, but will be changed to "cog-wheel" -> which means it's linked to the "Settings"
In the top left (where you are now seeing the Chinese characters), you will see network carrier info and the current date
You will be able to change the "Region" from the Settings->Language and Time
This also unfortunately will disable some options of the Chinese ROM, which means:

No Dark (night) mode (doesn't work even if found by app "QuickShortcutMaker" and tried to turn it on)
No advanced notification settings available (you won't be able to set the priority of notifications anymore)
No Driving mode
The Aicy link will disappear from the settings menu (this, I don't know why, will stay disappear also after changing the setting back to the zh-CN, and will remain like this until you do the "factory reset", but other mentioned stuff will return back after changing to zh-CN...)
The Digital Health link won't work
The Chinese theme app won't work (can be partially solved by using the CustomizeCenter.apk from the Global firmware, but there will be only wallpapers loaded then, no themes) as I found out, that theme app's functionality relies on the setting zh-CN or en-US.
You won't be able to change the lock screen wallpaper by swiping to the right on the lock screen anymore
And I think there are also some other things, but I won't be listing everything

For the above-mentioned reasons, I'm rather staying with the option zh-CN (as I would like to use these options, which are disabled in the "Global" ROM) and I'm trying to ignore the above-mentioned Chinese characters in the quick settings.
But what I can tell you (hopefully might help) is that I found out what these characters actually probably are: it's probably the Chinese "Lunar Calendar", because, when you go to the settings -> Notification & status bar, there is an option "Lockscreen Lunar Calendar" which you can enable and disable. When you enable it, the same Chinese characters that are shown in the quick settings will be shown on the lock screen.


text:
How can I find out which devices allow installations of up to date custom ROMs easily?
When I purchase an Android phone, I prefer to install a custom ROM on it, instead of using the manufacturer's version of Android. Is there a way for me to quickly figure out if a given phone supports custom ROMs or not? Ideally I want a way to list down every phone that supports custom ROMs by date and price, so that I could quickly figure out which are the latest/cheapest phones that fulfill my requirements.

Unfortunately, pretty much no. XDA-Developers is a good starting point, but there are still many phones that are region-specific and/or too unpopular to have a place there, and as such you can't have an exhaustive list of phones, let alone one with price (which varies greatly) and release date (which means that such list has to be human-maintained all the time).

As Irfan and Andy have already said. A custom ROM is just a ROM that is from a third party and has now been developed to boot on your device.
A quick look is every android can boot a custom ROM but getting a ROM that is bug free, that is, if it can at all boot on your device.
Booting a ROM on a phone requires an appropriate boot image containing a kernel that can work on your phone and correspond to hardware files and software apps in the system.
A few years ago before the dawn of android 8, porting a ROM used to need one to port a boot image of the custom ROM by the kernel of the stock boot image, considering the system space and partitions to write boot and system images to respectively, and also maintaining vendor data so as to support the hardware devices like cameras and speakers a phone has.
This made Google to think about a way to make any theoretical system to be compatible with the residing hardware. This made google to isolate vendor data to an independent partition as from Android 8 Go and above.
This made the deletion of or replacement of system files not to render phone's hardware unusable. They introduced Project Treble - a project aimed at developing universal ROMs for Project Treble supported devices.
This only requires flashing of the system partition without touching any other partition. This means a kind of universal boot image is already existing in Project Treble devices and all Treble ROMs have a universal  Build Properties file.
One has to unlock the bootloader of the device and then flash a sparse system image from fastboot and the phone seamlessly works
So my recommendation is any device running Android 8 Go and above. All devices succeeding Android 8 have native support for Project Treble ROMs - the easiest way to run custom ROMs on phone
Don't even think about manual porting it can be mostly disappointing. Read about Project Treble and you'll be amazed

Sure, but not every phone supports unlocking the bootloader as far as I understand?

@JonathanReezSupportsMonica many have the settings hidden. In developer options that requires to activate the setting first. But bootloader unlock in most devices like the MTK based is a basic element. Maybe you should say not all phones have fastboot mode, but bootloader unlock is found in most devices. Like Samsung. Bootloader unlock works primarily for ODIN to side load third party system images unlike the official locked one that only flashes in factory signed images


text:
Why is Google Play Music the only app that produces a "Browse" button on my car stereo?
If I connect my phone via Bluetooth to my car (2016 Toyota Corolla), and then play music using the Google Play Music app, the car shows a Browse button, which allows me to navigate through artists and albums with the car's buttons:

If I install another app, it doesn't show the Browse button on the car stereo.
Apps that produce a Browse button:

Google Play Music ☠ (RIP)

Apps that do not produce a Browse button:

AIMP
BlackPlayer
Canaree
FPlay (found by searching for "AVRCP")
JetAudio (found by searching for "AVRCP")
kure
MediaMonkey
Music [com.maxfour.music]
Music [com.android.music stock]
Music Player Go
Musicolet
Nyx
Odyssey
Omnia
Oto
Phonograph

Vinyl

Pretty Good
Pulsar
Retro

Metro

Samba Player (found by searching for "AVRCP")
Shuttle

Shuttle+

Simple Music Player [com.simplemobiletools.musicplayer]
Timber
Vanilla
VLC
YouTube Music

Is there some Bluetooth feature that needs to be supported by an app in order for this button to show up?  What is the feature's name?  How do I find apps that have it?
This is especially important now that Google has killed off Google Play Music and replaced it with YouTube Music, which does not provide this Browse button on a Bluetooth connection.
If I knew what this function was called, I could try to pester Google, or the third-party app developers, and ask them to add support for it.

The Bluetooth snoop log with the other players shows that the players do not support browsing as part of the GetFolderItems request on AVRCP.That is the reason why browsing is not working with other players.
It shows that browsing support is advertised only with GPM and the player is marked as BluetoothPlayer and not GPM in the snoop log.

So it's not a matter of supporting a specific AVRCP version in the app, but supporting the GetFolderItems request?

Does the stereo try to GetFolderItems and then the app rejects it?  Is there an error message I can send to the app developers to help them find what to support?

You need both AVRCP version > or equal to 1.4 and at the same time the app/player should support browsing.The app/player on the phone responds to the GetFolderItems request with the details of the player and what features it supports.

Do you know of any apps that support it?

Samsung Music seems to be supporting browsing, but it is not consistent

Samsung Music works!!!!

This "browse" feature is probably part of "Audio/Video Remote Control Profile" aka AVRCP. AVRCP has different versions with different feature sets. Browsing of playlists was introduced in version AVRCP 1.4 and improved in version 1.5, according to wikipedia.
This bluetooth profile must be supported (in the correct version) by the the car stereo, the mobile phone as well as the app.

I searched for apps that mention "AVRCP" but even those don't work.  I learned that there's a Bluetooth debugging ability in Developer mode, so maybe I can snoop that and see what difference in messages are being transferred.  I don't know anything about Bluetooth though

I was going to try to snoop Bluetooth and see what GPM is doing, but Google has disabled GPM to try to force us to use the inferior YouTube Music.  >:(

In Developer Options you can select AVRCP 1.4, 1.5, 1.6.  Default was apparently 1.4 and the button still existed in that case, so this seems right, and the playlist browsing is supported by the phone and the car, but not the app.

I'm going through this AVRCP nightmare last months. The result and my experience is, there must be an Android 8 on the phone (introducing 1.4 AVRCP in this version), but with Android 10 the browsing not working again (Samsung Galaxy A20e). So I search and find a phone with Android 9 (Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T) and using it with the JetAudio HD Music Player Plus in my 2017 Opel Insignia Grand Sport, the Bluetooth music playing work like a charm with browsing, shuffle play etc. and it work with good and strong volume too.

There may be the following solutions, from Android Authority:

Problem #3 – Tracks missing on phone but available on web player
  In the Settings menu, go to Apps or Application Manager, search for Google Play Music. Then tap on “Storage” and then press “Clear
  Cache.” On some devices, you may find this under the “Storage and USB”
  section in the Settings menu. Restart the device, then open the Play
  Music app and all your music should now be available.
Problem #4 – Songs not uploading
Also, make sure that the audio you are trying to upload on Google Music is of a supported format. Supported formats include MP3, AAC
  (.m4a), WMA, FLAC, OGG, ALAC (.m4a), and DRM protected AAC (.m4p).
  Some music file types like WAV are not supported. ... If songs aren’t
  uploading, make sure that the library isn’t full. Currently, you can
  upload up to 50,000 songs to your library. If you have gone past that,
  your only option will be to delete some other tracks to make room for
  new ones.

Hope this helps you!

Sorry, clearing the cache or erasing all storage of Google Play Music does not help it recognize the files.  They are mp3 and can be played by the app, but do not show up in the library.  I do not have more than 50,000 files.


text:
How do I totally disable my phone?
I've bought a very cheap Android 8.1 tablet (which has 2 sim slots) just to play about with.  As it's cheap, the battery isn't wonderful and it has a very short life before it needs recharging.  The main culprit is "Phone Idle" which uses a vast amount of CPU time, whether I have sims installed or not.  I don't actually want to use the phone at all, just the tablet features;  is there any way of completely disabling the phone functions ?

Can you become root? Then you should be able to disable this system process.

Try turning on airplane mode and turn on wifi.


text:
Where do Android apps save their working state?
Where do apps store their working state?
Occasionally an app will crash, or I'll get the Android message that X app has stopped responding ("Do you wish to close?"). In either of those cases, after the app has crashed/closed, if I then switch back to the app via the switcher, the app's state is restored right in the middle of where it was previously, as if it had never closed.
However, if I were to close the app myself, such as closing it from the app-switcher view, or the phone rebooted, the app will start fresh, with no state saved/restored whatsoever.
I'm wondering if there's a way to manually save an app's working state, so you could restore the state manually within the app when you want, without the assistance of the "App isn't responding, do you want to close?"


text:
How do i check my Wireless earbuds Battery?
Okay, So I don't really know What's the appropriate section of StackExchange to post this question, But I'd like recommendations on that.
So i'm using new wireless earbuds that I bought earlier this week, And when i pair them to another phone (A Samsung Galaxy S10+ in this case) It seems to show battery information under the Bluetooth device's name. e.g(Battery : 100%)
Although, when i use the earbuds with my tablet (An extremely laggy and weak Lenovo tablet) It seems to show nothing under the Device's name... What can i do to make it show the Battery information? where can i get battery information about my Xiaomi earbuds?

According to this blog post battery status of Bluetooth devices is only showing on devices running Android 8.1 or higher. Older system requires an app like BatOn to show the info.

I have found the answer to this question, As User @Robert commented on my post, And i installed BatOn And now the battery usage shows up. Thank you!.


text:
Kindle Stuck on Lock Screen
Somebody gave me a Kindle - it is an older model (only has one external button - the power button), but it is stuck on the lock screen and there is no way to get past it.
Things I've tried:

Holding the power button for 20 seconds to reset it
Holding the power button for 40 seconds to reset it
Using two fingers to try to swipe the screen (in case voice mode is activated)
double-tapping the lock button
charging it and then trying the 20-second reset

If I hold the power button for just a few seconds, the screen darkens and if asks me if I want to Shut Down or Cancel.  But tapping the buttons don't do anything - as if the screen won't detect taps anymore - I'm thinking it is a hardware issue.  However, on the lock screen, if I tap the lock button, it's background does shift transparency, so it's detecting something.
Any other ideas for this?  The tablet is too old to bother with Amazon Support, and I don't know anything more about it except that I can't get past the lock screen.  It powers on and off just fine, though.
[update]
Well, it's been quite a few days since my posting, and noone has any suggestions.  I don't know what to do except to try taking it apart and check to see if some cable is loose.


text:
How does Package Disabler app work?
There are two apps that can disable system apps (bloatware) from Samsung and LG devices. Those do not need root or any special permission. Can anyone explain how this works?

There is a difference between disabling and removing bloatwares. Disabling can be done without root, but removing them can be done with root only.
The app for LG that you mentioned changes device ownership permissions. It asks you to make itself the device owner. Quoting this site,

A Device Owner is an application that runs as a device administrator on your Android 5.0+ device. The Device Owner app can use the programming methods in the DevicePolicyManager class to take control of the configuration, security and other applications on the device. A device can have only one Device Owner. No other applications can utilize the methods in that class to control the device.

As a device owner, the app can modify the partitions that cannot be otherwise accessed without root. Basically you can consider this a restricted root access (restricted because root permissions have many more privileges compared to device ownership).
Remember that making any app a device owner is kind of playing with your phone's security, so don't do that unless you trust the app fully. In root, you have an option to deny root access. Here, you won't even know what the app is doing under cover, and it might be late before you actually remove it.

Do you know how the samsung app works? It seems to not require the device owner permission (but device admin).


text:
Keeping control of alarms and notifications
Often alarms and timers doesn't make a sound.  Other times unexpected sounds in the middle of the night.  Often they are "in the background" so I have to find the app making it before I can stop it.
So how can I have good control of upcoming alarms, notifications and how they will appear?  How can I be sure they are easy to stop?
(I assume this must be about interaction between OS and app, so I need some way to check if apps confirms to standards)
Pixel with latest Android, Wear OS (And Google/Chrome on Windows)

There must be a setting "Do Not Disturb". Switch that ON and set it to "Alarms only". That should forbid all apps from making sounds until you disable DND. This will prevent unexpected sounds in the middle of the night.

That's 1/3 o the problem - and only if "Alarms" are well defined.


text:
How to set a non-default system sound in Pixel 4 Clock?
I replaced my Pixel 2 XL with a Pixel 4 XL (both Android 10), and when I try to set an individual alarm’s sound the only choices are:

the default system alarm sound
a custom sound from my drive (via + Add new)
the music sounds (Youtube, Pandora, etc.)

When I go to Settings -> Sounds and Alarms, I can use the ‘Sounds’ app to select from a large number of system sounds.
How can I have the same selection of system sounds I see in Sounds and Alarms in the Clock app? I do not recall this ever being an issue on my Pixel 2 XL.
Things I have tried:

resetting the Clock storage + cache
changing the default alarm

After a recent Google Clock update from the Play store the system notification tones are available again. The change list mentions 'bug fixes' without specifics.
The 'Sounds' app is still not accessible from the Clock app, but this is good enough for my purposes.


text:
Android Studio Emulator with both the Google Play Store and Root?
https://developer.android.com/studio/run/managing-avds#system-image says

To ensure app security and a consistent experience with physical devices, system images with the Google Play Store included are signed with a release key, which means that you cannot get elevated privileges (root) with these images. If you require elevated privileges (root) to aid with your app troubleshooting, you can use the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) system images that do not include Google apps or services.

But what if I wanted both root AND Google services? how could I do that?
Thanks!

magisk's author topjohnwu says it's doable: https://twitter.com/topjohnwu/status/1070241061010857984 and there is also this file in the magisk's repo: https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/blob/master/scripts/emulator.sh
also see
https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/issues/732#issuecomment-446542064

Both solutions work with Play Store system images: MagiskOnEmulator, Official Magisk AVD scripts

First go here:
https://opengapps.org
I selected this option:

Platform
Android
Variant

x86
6
pico

but newer Android should work as well. Then open Android Studio. On "Select
Hardware" screen, select a device without "Play Store" icon.
With Google APIs
On "System Image" screen, I selected this option:

API Level
ABI
Target

24
x86
Android 7 Google APIs

but newer APIs should work as well. You should only need one file from the Zip
archive:
Core\vending-x86.tar.lz

Inside this will be another file:
vending-x86\nodpi\priv-app\Phonesky\Phonesky.apk

Now, start the device:
emulator -list-avds
emulator -avd Pixel_3a_XL_API_24 -writable-system

Next, install Google Play Store. Note that you cannot use the normal method of
drag APK to device screen, or you will get one of these errors:
The APK failed to install.
 Error: Could not parse error string

The APK failed to install.
 Error: INSTALL_FAILED_UPDATE_INCOMPATIBLE:
Package com.android.vending signatures do not match the previously installed
version; ignoring!

The APK failed to install.
 Error: INSTALL_PARSE_FAILED_NO_CERTIFICATES:
Failed to collect certificates from /data/app/vmdl1047870024.tmp/base.apk:
META-INF/BNDLTOOL.SF indicates /data/app/vmdl1047870024.tmp/base.apk is signed
using APK Signature Scheme v2, but no such signature was found. Signature
stripped?

Install like this:
adb root
adb remount
adb push Phonesky.apk /system/priv-app
adb reboot

After reboot, you should then be able to start Google Play Store as normal.
Without Google APIs
Using the method above with Google APIs image, you still get some apps such as
YouTube. If you want to install different version of one of these apps, use
this method. On "System Image" screen, I selected this option:

API Level
ABI
Target

24
x86
Android 7

but newer APIs should work as well. You need these files from the Zip archive:
Core\gmscore-x86.tar.lz
Core\vending-x86.tar.lz

Then extract these from the above files:
gmscore-x86\nodpi\priv-app\PrebuiltGmsCore\PrebuiltGmsCore.apk
vending-x86\nodpi\priv-app\Phonesky\Phonesky.apk

Use the same method above to install the APKs. After reboot, you should then be
able to install YouTube or whatever app. Note that unlike above, you dont
actually need to run the Google Play setup or even start the Google Play app at
the end.
External links
https://github.com/89z/googleplay/blob/f98b78a7/docs/play-store.md

Does doing this make the emulator rooted? Or in other words, apps that need root access can run on the emulator?

adb root provides root access only to the shell for commandline use, not to the apps. Testing root apps requires rooting the emulator anyways - be it the Play Store image or not.

@Zombo please calm down. And reread Andrew's comment. I don't "disagree" with your answer. It's just a partial solution to the rooting problem. For many users root is required to test apps, not just to issue commands. Your use case seems to be very limited.

I appreciate everyone including your contribution, but at this point, looks like we don't know what the asker's real use case is without clarifying (and I'm afraid they don't seem to visit this site anymore). It just seems that the other answer, Irfan, and I were thinking about having a rooted emulator (i.e. access to su) for testing apps/commands that require root access from the emulator/device directly...

please revise your answer and outline if/how google play services is included that way (only read about vending but gms not mentioned anywhere)

Did not work for me : on Android 11.0 google api image - Emulator gets stuck on boot after installing Phonesky.apk

I think thing the best course of action would be to download and install a third-party Android Emulator. If you are on Windows, I would recommend  Bluestacks. As it can be easily rooted with this tutorial  here. If you need any help, feel free to reply to this message.
Hope this helps you out!
Red Prez

what do you recommend for linux?


text:
Root integrity check on Infocus Epic 1 says "System Check FAIL!!"
When I did a root integrity check on my InFocus Epic 1 from recovery mode, it shows too many errors and at the end it says:

Error:found 432 new files.
Error:found 63 lost files.
Error:found 15 modified files.
System check FAIL!!

What should I do now?

What is root integrity check?

@IrfanLatif Root Integrity Check AFAIK, is an option available in some devices recovery mode which lets you verify the integrity of some system files and whether they've been modified by a third person (Ex:root) or not.

Similar issue on Asus Forum: ROOT integrity - myth: "*So user's Dont even bother to check root integrity  via recovery.
Root integrity check will fail because recovery is not able to "locate/find" some pre defined files which should be there but there isn't.
Reason behind not able to locate those file are because they are either replaced by new files or are obsolete now [...] and they are  removed but unfortunately the recovery isn't updated yet with new stuff.
So yes there is nothing to worry about security of  your devices.*"

My reply is built on my assumption that the OP want to ask about his device's root status, and if it's been altered or not

Check Selinux Status:
Selinux defines which process can access a given resource on your device. AFAIK, all Android device manufacturers companies ship their devices with Selinux Enforcing (Default), in some custom ROMs you may find Selinux Permissive or Selinux Disabled, in those cases system will grant any permission requested by any app.

To verify Selinux status, type the following on your command line:
adb shell getenforce

Possible Output values:

Enforcing
Permissive
Disabled

Default Value (general consumer products):

Enforcing

Check ROM/Firmware signing keys:
Check if you have a ROM/Firmware signed with release-keys or test-keys.
The main difference is that test-keys are available for Public and everyone know them, but release-keys are kept secret by the person who signed the ROM/Firmware, hence those ROMs signed with release-keys are more secure than ROMs signed with test-keys.

To verify your signature, type the following on your command line:
adb shell getprop ro.build.fingerprint

test-keys
release-keys

Default Value (general consumer products):

release-keys

Example (general consumer products):

samsung/dreamqltevl/dreamqltecan:9/PPR1.180610.011/G950WVLS6CSG1:user/release-keys

Check ROM/Firmware build type:
Check if you have a Production built ROM (or not: maybe a debugging version)

To verify your build, type the following on your command line:
adb shell getprop ro.build.fingerprint

user Build:       It has a limited access; no su binary and used for production.
userdebug Build:  It's similar to user build but it has su binary, thus it's root access and debugging capability; it's used to debug technical issues, and it's a bit slower than user build in performance
eng Build:        It's a development build with lot of debugging tools, and generally it's the lowest in performance compared to other builds, not used for production.

Default Value (general consumer products):

user

Example (general consumer products):

samsung/dreamqltevl/dreamqltecan:9/PPR1.180610.011/G950WVLS6CSG1:user/release-keys

Check if your device is Encrypted:

To verify your device encryption, type the following on your command line:
adb shell getprop ro.crypto.state

Possible Output values:

Encrypted
Unencrypted

Default Value (general consumer products):

Encrypted

Check dm-verity Status:
Verity is used to check the integrity of your device, and device manufacturers using verified boot have a their methods for verifying the integrity of the kernel with an unchangeable key which is burned on the device at factory level.

To verify if you're able to change dm-verity status, type the following on your command line:
adb enable-verity

Possible Output values:

Enabled
Disabled

Default Value (general consumer products):

Enabled

Example (general consumer products):

enable-verity only works for userdebug builds
  verity cannot be disabled/enabled - USER build

Check Security Level Patch Date:
Security Patch Level is another layer of security, to protect users from latest CVEs and exploits, Google works with partners and the public to provide patches for any Android devices to receive security updates at least once every 90 days.

To verify Security Patch Level date, type the following on your command line:
adb shell getprop ro.build.version.security_patch

You may also check SafetyNet CTS Test, but it may be bypassed by Magisk Systemless root.

If your device has it's default values with a user build signed with release-keys then you should not be worried about root integrity check.

+1 nice details. But you may consider improving it further, some pieces of the puzzle are missing. A device can be rooted even if SELinux is enforcing, ROM build is user and signed with release keys, dm-verity and encryption are enabled. Also it's very easy to alter ro.build.fingerprint and ro.build.version.security_patch on rooted devices.

@IrfanLatif I will improve it with more details ASAP!


text:
fastboot boot TWRP.img Not working
I'm trying to just boot the TWRP image for my OnePlus 5t to then install a custom ROM. So I typed fastboot boot "C:\Users\Elias\Downloads\twrp-3.3.1-0-dumpling.img" and it seemed to work and I got the output:
Downloading 'boot.img'                             OKAY [  0.808s]
booting                                            OKAY [ 10.119s]
Finished. Total time: 10.992s

But the device just shows the text: "Fastboot Mode" and doesn't do anything.
I now read on this forum that they somehow removed it but it would still be possible with: fastboot -c "lge.kcal=0|0|0|x" boot customrecovery.img
 but this flag doesn't seem to exist.
The output is:
C:\platform-tools\fastboot.exe: unknown option -- c

My goal is just to install a custom ROM without actually flashing anything except the ROM. So if somebody knows a different way, it would be welcome as well.

There are different versions of fastboot.exe available.
One old version I have has the command line option -c as
-c <cmdline>               override kernel commandline

The recent versions for Android SDK (v29.0.5-5949299) does not has the -c option. Instead it has the option --cmdline which seem to the the exactly same thing:
--cmdline CMDLINE          Override kernel command line.

Therefore you may succeed changing the command-line to
fastboot --cmdline "lge.kcal=0|0|0|x" boot customrecovery.img

the command works but sadly now I'm again just getting to the logo screen (the text saying fastboot mode), any idea?

@Elias Have you tried the older versions? Also have you read the XDA support thread on TWRP for the OnePlus 5T? https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-5t/development/recovery-twrp-oneplus-5t-t3715834

I've skipped through the thread and, correct me if I'm wrong, something about decrypting the data is not working? I'm now trying out a few older builds and see if I get one to work. Do you know if there is any log I could check? So I know what the problem actually is? Also, do you know what --cmdline "lge.kcal=0|0|0|x" does? maybe post a refference link? would be really nice of you :)

I have now tried the versions: 3.3.0-0, 3.2.3-1 and, the latest 3.3.1-0 which are all not working.

@Elias Using the kernel command line you can pass options to specific drivers. lge.kcal seems to be a part of the display driver system. Depending on the boot progress and the recovery it may be possible that you can get boot messages via adb.

I tried adb, to be specific I tried logcat but it only says waiting for device. Well, maybe I just have to flash TWRP. Thank you for your time anyways :)

Btw, flashing TWRP and lineageOS worked perfectly fine. Just, lineageOS didn't want to boot with the error: failed to start system service and then every service dying. So I'm back to stock... well.. a day of my life I never get back (It still was quiet fun)


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Remap Bluetooth Headset's media key [Android 9]
Setup:

OnePlus 5t, Android 9.0, not rooted
Bluetooth 5.0 headset with one media button

A single tab on the media button starts the Google Voice Control / Assistant, there is no way to change a tab on the button to play/pause for example -  on the headset's side.
The only software solution to disable Google Voice popping up always when I press the button was to disable the Google-App completely. But this stops the media-button from working completely.
After hours of trying, searching nothing worked for me.
My goal is to archive that a tab leads to play/pause music.

If the headset manufacturer offers an app for configuring the headset you should check it out if it offers a way to reconfigure the button.

@Robert unfortunately this is not the case

I solved my issue by using a app called AutoVoice in combination with Tasker.
In Android Settings, Apps, Default Apps, Assist & Voice Input I selected AutoVoice.
In Tasker I created a Profile which is a Event triggered by Plugins > AutoVoice > AutoVoice BT Pressed and the connected Task contains only Media Control, Switch Pause, Simulate Media Key is activated and I selected a music app as App, in my case Spotify.
This works just fine.
Let me know if you have the same problem and have issues with my solution.

The solution for me was to use MacroDroid:

Add Trigger - User Input - Volume Button Pressed - (Select the method) - (Select "Volume Up" or "Volume Down") - Retain Previous Volume
Add Action - Media - Control Media - (Select Media Control Type) - (Select "Next" or "Previous")
Add Constraint - Connectivity - Bluetooth State - Device Connected - (Select Device Connected)

On top of that, you can add a macro to turn off Bluetooth when you turn off your Bluetooth headphones
Works with a locked screen without root, but for some reason, only the next track works properly. Physical volume up and down (on phone) works just fine but it's enough for me. If you want to change the volume, just pause the music and the volume buttons will work as intended.

I am an idiot. Just discovered if you double tap the left earbud it rewinds and right earbud fast forwards. These are Axloie $35 earbuds. Surprised. Haven't seen mention to this in the documentation.


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Bug in Asus Zenfone max pro m2
I've found a serious privacy bug in system app of stock android 9.0 of Asus Zenfone Max pro m2. The problem is I am confused about where to file this bug? Should I go for Report bugs: Android or should I use ZenUI forums?

Since it is stock Android, it would be appropriate  posting as directed in the link you included in the question. Make sure it's not already reported. If it is, you can either star (you would get mail updates) or  add if your observations add more information
In addition, report on Asus official forums too, since you say it is a serious bug.

Thank you. I'll add it to the official ZenUI forums too.


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Missig remove option
When I list the attached devices on my Google account in the security option and click to expand the device I wish to remove, then click on the 3 dots in the upper right hand corner, there is no option there to remove the device. Any suggestions as to how I can remove the device.
Thanks

Previously it was removing access of the google account from the device and now also its doing the same. To remove account access in a specific device, just click on the 3 dots as mentioned above and click sign out.
You can also view your devices from this link https://mydevices.google.com

That path actually does work, though differently than you intend. It REALLY incentivises you to find the actual path to Google's Security Checkup, of which 'Devices' is a part. Get to Google's Security Checkup here: https://myaccount.google.com/security-checkup


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Can a System-App read the data of other apps on Android 9?
I want to know if a system-app is able to read the data of other apps (the data stored in /data/data.) on Android 9.
Thanks!

welcome to Android Entusiasts site, and while you are surfing on the site don't forget to check: https://android.stackexchange.com/tour for more details about questions and answers!

Yes! System Apps with the protection level signature (the System APK must be signed with the same key used to sign the ROM/Firmware), can read/write/execute/delete all data stored on  /data/data or other folders on the device.
Note that third party apps (OEM custom apps) found on system/priv-app with protection level signatureOrSystem (Deprecated in Android 6.0). may not be able to do this unless they have signature protection level which means signed with the same key as the ROM/Firmware.
Examples: I've seen some chinese manufactures with their built-in data clone solutions which can make a backup to the whole APK and it's data in another phone, and IMO, this is a security risk which should not exist at all on android devices.
EDIT 1: As i've mentioned before let's take a look at an Android APK which is able to copy other APKs data/data folders, it's called Amiclone "com.gionee.dataghost" from the Chinese smartphone manufacturer Gionee (which BTW, faced bankruptcy and liquidation on 2018)

We have the following information, from version 2.1.0w_pub build 20100022

Permissions:
android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION
android.permission.ACCESS_MTK_MMHW
android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE
android.permission.ACCESS_SUPERUSER
android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE
android.permission.BLUETOOTH
android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN
android.permission.CHANGE_NETWORK_STATE
android.permission.CHANGE_WIFI_STATE
android.permission.GET_TASKS
android.permission.INSTALL_PACKAGES
android.permission.INTERNET
android.permission.KILL_BACKGROUND_PROCESSES
android.permission.MANAGE_DOCUMENTS
android.permission.MODIFY_PHONE_STATE
android.permission.MOUNT_FORMAT_FILESYSTEMS
android.permission.MOUNT_UNMOUNT_FILESYSTEMS
android.permission.READ_CALENDAR
android.permission.READ_CALL_LOG
android.permission.READ_CONTACTS
android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
android.permission.READ_LOGS
android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE
android.permission.READ_SMS
android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED
android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO
android.permission.UPDATE_APP_OPS_STATS
android.permission.WAKE_LOCK
android.permission.WRITE_CALENDAR
android.permission.WRITE_CALL_LOG
android.permission.WRITE_CONTACTS
android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
android.permission.WRITE_MEDIA_STORAGE
android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS
android.permission.WRITE_SETTINGS
android.permission.WRITE_SMS
com.gionee.youju.statistics.permission.READ_PROVIDER
com.gionee.youju.statistics.permission.WRITE_PROVIDER

Signature:
Number of signers: 1
Signer #1 certificate DN: EMAILADDRESS=gionee@gionee.com, CN=Gionee, OU=Gionee, O=Gionee, L=ShenZhen, ST=GuangDong, C=CN
Signer #1 certificate SHA-256 digest: c2d992c8a4cda2eed55f69357d6759937878e9a0f0b629524e88aa81ed65f802
Signer #1 certificate SHA-1 digest: 1bb8b4f46eafc2a06a46ba68fd8de543a5c65cbd
Signer #1 certificate MD5 digest: b49792a5687b641492e10a29152f7454
Signer #1 key algorithm: RSA
Signer #1 key size (bits): 2048
Signer #1 public key SHA-256 digest: 858b75200e11e0e62f6377b0b56beb728085823bddc31669d8348ee28b651815
Signer #1 public key SHA-1 digest: c780dfb20637a7cedcaf78298ec1bfcb7b069da1
Signer #1 public key MD5 digest: ceb817433cbe5a6a3c42cc7a562617ab

Also, this APK has a built-in busybox binary, and it's able to dump the whole user data from /data/data folders while transferring Apps from a Gionee device t o another.
Conclusion:
Yes,  a system APK can copy other Apps and their data, but it's not only about signature as @Irfan has pointed out in his comment, there are permissions of different levels (some of them require signature level protection) etc...
But, as Android Enthusiasts replies are generally for end-users, the full details are not required to answer a question.

No they can't. It's not only about signatures.


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Is there a way to root an Android phone without unlocking the bootloader?
I've tried almost any method to root my ASUS ZenFone Live, but no one seems to work. Also I only need root, no unlocked bootloader (don't want to wipe data) or custom recovery (not essential ATM).

This can be marked a duplicate of questions like this, but it's a  device-specific question. It cannot be answered in a generic way, should be “How to root XYZ Android device without unlocking bootloader?”
Simple answer is: It should not be possible to root Android devices without unlocking bootloader, but is possible for some devices due to security vulnerabilities or bad security implementations.
Android's security model recommends OEMs/SoC vendors implement a Chain of Trust which must have a hardware-backed root of trust - a cryptographic key. On boot every software component verifies the integrity of the next component before loading it in memory. This chain of trust starts with BootROM (the very first executable code which runs on Power ON) and ends at /system and /vendor partitions. Everything in between - bootloaders, Device Tree, Linux kernel and Android OS code - is verified to be unaltered.
Since Android by-design won't allow any app (system or user) to run with root privileges, we have to modify critical parts like boot.img (which contains kernel) and/or system.img (which contains Android OS/ROM) in order to gain root access. Modifying such components means they are no more signed with OEM's private keys and hence cannot be verified by bootloader. So we have to unlock bootloader to break the chain of trust so that it just ignores the unverifiable state of OS. Unlocking bootloader is usually accompanied by flashing custom recovery because it makes other modifications easy.
That said, if there are flaws in implementation of Verified Boot or if there are hacks to elevate privileges from within running OS, it becomes possible to gain root privileges without unlocking bootloader. But that's very device-specific, not applicable to other devices. Power users who want to root their devices prefer to go for devices with unlockable bootloaders, rather looking for exploits and vulnerabilities which may also get fixed over time.
Note that some new devices which implement Android Verified Boot (AVB or VB 2) support user-settable root of trust i.e. injecting a new key for signing and verifying process. Such devices can be locked after flashing a (possibly rooted) custom ROM. However unlocking bootloader is necessarily required in the first place.

So basically, it's impossible for any device over Android KitKat to root without losing all your apps or flashing a custom rom. I can't even view my messages or call logs.
My advice, if you really want to root your device, know the consequential results so you should back up your data if you root, and I don't know how


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What is this blue button next to URL in Android Firefox?
The blue document looking icon:

It's reader view for clutter free reading, similar to simplified view on Chrome

Reader View is a Firefox feature that strips away clutter like buttons, ads and background images, and changes the page's text size, contrast and layout for better readability. Reader View settings are easily customizable to fit your reading preferences.

Tap it to reveal a blue circular icon with Aa inscribed, from where you can configure the settings for reader view

(Click to enlarge)

Oh nevermind, it's the Dark button in your lower screenshot


text:
How to emulate a NFC card with an Android phone?
I have installed several "NFC tools" apps, and I am able to read a NFC door card. It seems to be able to duplicate it (when I'll have a blank NFC card) or even write new NFC tags.
But I'd like to do something else:
How to make my Android device act as a NFC tag?
Example: since I can read and get the hexadecimal codes from my NFC door card, I'd like to make my smartphone act as a NFC card, so that, if I forget my door card, my smartphone could serve as a NFC tag.
How to do this?
PS: it is surely possible, because when paying with a smartphone ("contactless payment with phone"), the smartphone acts as a NFC device indeed for another reader (typically the shop credit card reader).

Related/possible duplicate: How to clone an NFC tag (e.g. MIFARE Classic) with an Android device?

The problems seems to be that it's not possible to emulate/modify the sector 0, which is often the UID (identifier).
This question is linked (but probably outdated).

It is possible physically for the phone hardware but there are software problems, payment works but it's provided by google. I read about using phone as nfc tag recently and even if you can make it work card reader expects like logical address from you when you connect and card has it static while android sets new for itself with every connection so you need to somehow set it also to static.


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If I install an aftermarket "Always on Display" app, will it cause excessive battery drain?
I am shopping for a new phone and it seems that my beloved notification LED has fallen out of favor, so I am willing to settle with Always on Display (AoD) as a second best.
I have been reading some and I understand that AoD is linked to AMOLED screens because in those you can "turn on" individual pixels, making it an energy draw small enough for it to be reasonable.
Now, I am browsing through GsmArena and I find that for AMOLED phones, some of them are qualified as having the AoD characteristic yet others do not show it.
Is it just because of some AMOLED phones being shipped without having the software option to use that feature (meaning that it could be added through third party software) or there are some hardware/firmware specs that make AoD unusable (either because it does not work or uses too much energy) if they are not present?
In short, I would like to know if I could add an AoD app to any AMOLED phone without expecting to suffer significant problems.

Apps are available - https://www.xda-developers.com/enable-always-on-display-any-phone/

Yes but also no.
Basically, AoD is purely software. It does not require special hardware (you can even use it on an LCD screen, although it will use significantly more power and does not make much sense). This is why there are plenty apps available that let you keep your screen on.
At the same time I would also answer the question with no, because even though it is purely software, it's not just an "app". If you use one of those AoD apps, they will keep your device awake. All the time. This will use a lot more power compared to a device with AoD out of the box, which still allows the device to go to sleep while keeping the screen on, which saves a lot of energy.
However, depending on the device and how aggressive the power management is, you might not notice much of a difference. On my OnePlus 5, with fairly aggressive energy saving options, an aftermarket AoD app does not use a whole lot of power (about 1% to 2% of the daily power draw - comparable to a couple of minutes of surfing with Google Chrome).

Aftermarket AoD may be even more energy-efficient than built-in AoD
The Samsung Galaxy S7 has an AMOLED screen, and has Always on Display (AoD) functionality built into the firmware.
Wikipedia's "Always on Display" article states that the S7's AoD feature increases power consumption by about 3%. This is because pixels, sensors, and processors all consume energy while the AoD display is visible.
Walter Wolf's answer says that his OnePlus 5's aftermarket AoD app increases power consumption by just 1–2%. Perhaps his app uses fewer CPU or network resources than Samsung's AoD software. This, in turn, may allow Walter's phone to idle more CPU cores or to spend less energy on Internet access.
In conclusion: On an AMOLED phone, aftermarket AoD may be equally energy-efficient, or even more energy-efficient, than manufacturer AoD.
But ambient display is the most energy-efficient of all
The Wikipedia article adds that an "ambient display" solution is even more energy-efficient than AoD, since an "ambient display" is only visible when there are notifications present.


text:
Apps are not allowed by Google to read SMS messages, but why can they read OTP SMS directly?
Termux:API app has a command termux-sms-list to list SMS messages on the Termux terminal. However, the wiki says that it is not supported anymore because of Google.

Usage of this API is no longer allowed by Google and we had to disable it to prevent delisting of Termux:API application from the Google Play.

But still, banking apps that use OTP authentication using SMS can still auto-read the incoming SMS and enter the password without user interaction.
So what makes them different API-wise?

See also: How does an app read an OTP SMS without SMS permission?

Google blocks apps from (mis)using Call Log and/or SMS permissions if they are not the core functionalities of the apps, with some exceptions and alternatives.
SMS (termux-sms-list and termux-sms-send) and Call Log (termux-call-log) are not the main purpose of Termux:API app, thus the developer had to remove the permissions to prevent the app from being removed on the Play Store.
From Play Console Help,

If your app does not require access to Call Log or SMS permissions, you must remove these permissions from your app's manifest. Details on policy compliant alternative implementation are also detailed below.
When should you access these permissions
You should only access Call Log or SMS permissions when your app falls within permitted uses and only to enable your app’s critical core functionality.
Core functionality is defined as the main purpose of the app. This may comprise of a set of core features, which must all be prominently documented and promoted in the app's description. Without the core feature(s), the app is "broken" or rendered unusable.

There are some temporary exceptions that the developer can apply for (detail on the same help page), but in the end, it's up to Google's discretion to allow it or not.
On the other hand, Google also provides an alternative exclusive for reading OTP SMS, called SMS Verification APIs which utilizes Google Play Services. This doesn't require an app to request SMS permission, but the device needs to have Play Services working.
Though, the restriction is mainly limited to the Google Play Store's policy. Apps hosted on alternative markets or self-hosted may ignore this and just use the Android permissions as before without worrying about delisting, though users may feel uncomfortable with such privacy-invasive permissions.

In short, API-wise, the difference is:

Termux:API used Android's permission system, which is restricted by Google Play Store's policy now.
Banking (and other) apps utilize Google Play Service's SMS Verification API, exclusively for reading OTP SMS targeted for their own apps only.

It's perhaps worth noting that in case of SMS verification the app does not and cannot read any of the SMS messages - Play Services service looks for the OTP string, parses it out and passes only the OTP code to the app. It does not forward any other SMS content to the app.

TL;DR Google read the SMS and parses the OTP. The App only communicates with the Google service that only provides the parsed OTP token. This also means that Google API will fail with strange OTP SMSes, although I'm pretty sure it works 99.9% of the time and if it fails it means your SMS has extra data in a weird format that shouldn't be there in a plain OTP SMS message in the first place.


text:
Huawei P9 lite enter bootloader without volume keys and access to system/recovery
About phone: Huawei P9 lite VNS-L21C432B161 (central Europe)
First modifications
A long time ago i unlocked bootloader and successfully rooted the phone. I turned off OEM unlock option in settings after rooting, because someone said i should do so for security. Then came EMUI 5 OTA. It somehow updated itself without me agreeing. Android nougat detected, that the bootloader was unlocked and so it assumed that OEM unlock option was also ENABLED when it really wasn't, making me unable to re-enable the option.
So i used the https://forum.xda-developers.com/huawei-p9lite/how-to/tutorial-rollback-n-to-mm-c432-devices-t3563955432-devices-t3563955" <-- official rollback package and installed stock ROM through dload.
Here is the part where i messed up horribly
Now i wanted to update to android 7 again, but updater wasn't giving it to me and i was unable to flash it through TWRP. I installed the rollback package again through download mode as it said it allows any ROM to be installed, hoping i could then install android 7 through Download mode, which would in turn allowed me to install newer version of TWRP to then install a nougat based custom ROM.
Huawei's Erecovery and download mode
Erecovery: Accessed by pressing volume up during boot for 3 seconds, is supposed to download a working ROM for your phone, is saved in different place than recovery
Downlaod mode
By placing a folder with name 'dload' with supported OS on sd card in a form of UPDATE.APP, download mode installs this version, relocks bootloader and rewrites recovery with a normal one. (Relocking bootloader with custom recovery probably broke it, still doesn't explain why i can't access fastboot or download mode itself at all.)
Now i am stuck at the 'Your device has been unlocked and can't be trusted. Can't access bootloader, phone doesn't seem to be detecting the Power+Volume down combination < not the case in duplicate post. Recovery doesn't boot at all, it just goes straight to the normal boot dialog

Using the Power + VolumeUp + Volume Down combination to enter the download mode yields a slightly different warning but still gets stuck at it as well.

I think that the only way to fix it may be to dead flash it with stock ROM. I found a program (IDT) for this but it requires a "image xml file" and i don't know where to find it.
Goal: to get to bootloader without using volume keys( it just doesnt work for some reason) and without entering system/recovery/erecovery as these broke as well.
Thanks in advance

Possible duplicate of How to enter in TWRP/recover on Huawei P9 lite with keys?

please descripe "gets stuck" a little more, maybe there is hope. did you try adb connection while in "stucked" twrp? and whats different between download mode and bootloader mode? (i don't own Huawei) pictures would be helpful

@alecxs Edited the question to explain

good luck and don't flash stock ROM completely i am afraid this may re-lock bootloader, and then you're screwed

Nevermind i fixed it. I could access bootloader by pressing on volume down REALLY HARD. For whatever reason, light press and hold was enough for download mode but not enough for bootloader. Now i should be able to flash all the parts individually after extracting the UPDATE.APP. Thanks for help.


text:
Galaxy Note 3 (5.0) crashes when moving apps to SD ~30% of the time; latest crash lost some system settings & home button is now being weird
Got a bit of a hopefully-not-too-interesting one :)
For reasons unknown, my (secondhand) Note 3 seems to have a bit of a tendency to crash when I use the "Move to SD card" button in App info. Doesn't happen every time.
By "crash", I mean that: everything freezes for about 5 seconds (I often notice this and go "...ah, it's gone again"), the screen goes black momentarily, the Samsung bootup animation runs for about a minute, and then it's back at the lockscreen. It doesn't show the Android logo/splashscreen that I see if I perform a device restart, just the Samsung animation.
I'm actually new to Android, so I don't know if I'm witnessing some sort of respring sort of thing or what. In any case the above is what happens.
I knew that something was a bit wonky/flaky, but I just accepted it as "normal" for this device (put it down to "eh, it's an old version of Android") and I figured the reboot-thing it was doing was resolving whatever the issue was.
The app transfer process seems to make the CPU get mildly impressively hot, but I don't expect that this has any impact. (Translation, I hope very very much that this thing was system-integrated properly and I didn't make it legitimately overheat ;))
IIUC, on Android 5, moving apps to the SD card can only be done via App info, manually, on a per-app basis. All AppMgr III can do for me to batch-move apps over is queue up hundreds of App Info windows so I can hit the Move button myself. Each transfer takes about 2 minutes and that's annoying enough, but the semi-continuous reboots meant I had to keep opening AppMgr, reselecting everything, ...
Soooo, I finally finished a script this afternoon (...:D...) that uses ADB to poke around in the package list, figure out what's on internal storage, open the App info window using the ActivityManager, figure out whether a given app is movable (based on whether the Move button is clickable), and if it is, click the Move button to move the app over. (The script also implements a bunch of heuristics to figure out when the phone has "crashed": it's actually accessible via adb shell the entire time, but a bunch of services stop then restart.)
To clarify, this script basically just poked the screen at the right moment so I didn't have to keep staring at the phone. After some final tweaks it happily dug its way down my list of (way too many) games and apps all afternoon. My guess is that the CPU was sitting at a minimum of 60° for a while. :/
I happened to check in on the phone after probably the 4th or 5th move-induced crash, and noticed it was behaving very strangely: the font settings were wrong, some persistent notifications I have open (system monitors) were gone, and the Home button wasn't doing anything.
My launcher configuration was still intact (whew), my phone still knew its lock code and my Wi-Fi's PSK. But things like font settings, keyboard preferences, etc etc were all gone.
Hard-resetting (Power+Home for 30sec), standard restarts, and wiping the cache partition from the recovery options have not restored my Home button's functionality.
What's really weird is that

Pressing Home when the screen is off wakes the device up
Pressing Home repeatedly enables Talkback
Pressing Home twice doesn't do anything
Pressing it once doesn't do anything
Long-pressing doesn't open the recent activity view

Also - the quick-access buttons in the pull-down menu have all reverted back to factory settings, and the Settings and Show-All buttons have stopped working.
My next expected step is backing everything up and doing a full reset.
Just thought I'd share where I'm up to in case anyone has any other ideas.
Thanks for reading!

Have you considered a flash problem,internal or on sd-card? As it happens when you move apps more likely the sd-card than the internal memory is affected. Battery is also often a potential problem, however the "soft reboot with adb connection" you described makes this very unlikely. BTW: This sort of reboot is nothing new, some apps like Magisk/XPosed manager offer it as a feature for a quick reboot.

It may well be an issue with the internal flash... :/ I hope not. In any case I'm glad to be able to say that after playing around with the default launcher for a bit my Home button is now working again: D

OK, the last issue I didn't mention but which was bugging me to no end was that my launcher choice wasn't being kept - on reboot it'd be back at "Android System". The launcher I was trying to pick was still on internal storage (and in fact couldn't be moved), but another launcher I wasn't using had gotten moved over to the SD. Once deleting said unused launcher, things seem to be back to normal :D - so it seems that the crash issue isn't causing external carnage after all.


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Motorola G4 refuses to connect to iPhone's Hotspot
I have an odd situation, I recently purchased an iPhone XS and for some reason, my older Moto G4 cannot connect to the hotspot provided by the new phone.
The situation is odd because other phones, both Android and iOS,  can connect and use the internet from the iPhone XS without any issues. yes I do have a sharing data plan.
The Motorola G4 seems to be working fine as it can connect to other hotspots,  iOS devices, Android devices, and routers from my home and coffee shops, and use their internet without problems.
The Moto G4 can connect to the 2Ghz and 5Ghz networks in my house correctly.
I've hard reset both the Moto G4 and the iPhone phones.
I changed several times the password on the iPhone XS hotspot as well as the phone name. I tried setting passwords with all caps letters, all numbers, all lowercase, 123456789, a mix of both, but it just refuses to connect.
The Moto G4 always says authentication failed, but I am 100% confident that the password is correct.
If I swap the sim cards to use the Moto G4 as a hotspot then, the iPhone XS can connect to the G4 without problems.
My mobile provider is T-Mobile.
The MotoG4 can also get internet from the iPhone using Bluetooth connection but this is a less than an ideal scenario.
I'll appreciate any clues to solve this mystery.
Edit: Additional information from someone with the same problem:
Getting the same problem with iPhone Xs and iPhone 11 as hotspots
Moto E4 getting Authentication Failed, if verbose is enabled in developer mode it goes authentication failure 1-5 before quitting
I have done a Direct Firmware Update on the iPhone Xs with no change. I have factory reset 2 of the Motos and no change.
All devices running the latest OS that auto-update allows.

I have the same problem with a Moto G4 and iPhone 11

The older devices sometimes just do not connect to networks with new Wi-Fi encryption modes. It can be an reason because as you said your Moto G4 connects to other wifi spots.
You can try to change region on your G4.
Or change your encryption method on your iphone.


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Cannot edit mixer_paths_tasha.xml on android 10
I wanted to edit mixer_paths_tasha.xml to change RX0 value from 84 to 95.
 I am currently using havoc 3.0 on oneplus 3.
Havoc os has low call volume bug which can be rectified by above changes.
But ever since I updated to android 10 I am not able to edit the above xml file.
It's location is /system/vendor/etc.
Editing using any root explorer results in error that given file cannot be moved from tmp folder to etc folder.
Please provide a way to edit the file.
It's a read only file system.
Please suggest a way to mount is at write file system

Did you disable dm-verity?

Try to copy the file mixer_gains.xml into your internal storage, edit it and copy it back with twrp recoverys file manager.

That should work. Had the same issue with the latest version of pie...


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dpkg does not work using Termux Ubuntu installation, returns tar errors and exits with error code 1
I have tried to use Termux to install Ubuntu on ChromeOS without developer mode or root priveleges, and was successful up to this point. I accessed an Ubuntu shell from Termux but dpkg returns this error for any package, rendering the system useless:
root@localhost:~# apt install nano
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
  spell
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  nano
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 243 kB of archives.
After this operation, 823 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main i386 nano i386 2.9.3-2 [243 kB]
Fetched 243 kB in 1s (198 kB/s)
debconf: delaying package configuration, since apt-utils is not installed
E: Setting in Start via TCSAFLUSH for stdin failed! - tcsetattr (13: Permission denied)
dpkg-deb: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 wait for tar subprocess failed: Unknown error 512
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/nano_2.9.3-2_i386.deb (--unpack):
 dpkg-deb --control subprocess returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/nano_2.9.3-2_i386.deb
tar: .: Cannot mkdir: No such file or directory
tar: ./conffiles: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: ./control: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: ./md5sums: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: ./postinst: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: ./prerm: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

How exactly did you "access" Ubuntu shell? How did you switch from ChromeOS environment to Ubuntu? Chroot? Namespaces? OverlayFS? How did you run apt without root privileges on Ubuntu?

tcsetattr 13 Permission denied says you don't have write permissions, which means no root or selinux restrictions https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/issues/1359

Try this:
sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt install nano

You can't use apt without superuser (root) privilegies.


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No download link for Adblock Plus
The page https://adblockplus.org/android-about from the Adblock Plus website discusses Adblock Plus for android. It clearly refers to the version that runs in the background and blocks all ads (and is not in the Play store), not any of the browser versions for Android that are available in the Play store.
Clicking the link on that page for ''installation instructions'' takes you to  https://adblockplus.org/en/android-install, which is an almost blank page displaying ''Want an ad blocker for your Android smartphone or tablet?'' and a button which redirects you to the android store (to install a broswer ad blocker).
I can't find any discussion of this online, and everyone seems to be able to download and install the correct version from the Adblock Plus website. Am I supposed to find it somewhere else? Why doesn't Adblock Plus provide it themselves?

Adblock forums says

this product is outdated (not maintained anymore), eventually use adblock browser for android

Also, see this post

see what said an eyeo moderator:
  "Unfortunately at the moment we have no Android developer, therefore solving real issues is kind of difficult."

That's probably why all links on the official site are dead. They haven't bothered to update the home page.
It's not available on F-droid too but alternative stores seem to have it but obviously there won't be any support.

Just in case the reader still wants to install it, APKMirror and possibly other alternative stores have it. However, readers have been warned.

Thanks. They should really update their home page (or at least add a FAQ) so it doesn't confuse and annoy people and require them to find some forum post somewhere.

@Quaternion They should probably just refer to AdAway or similar apps. A browser is definitely not a suitable replacement for a background ad blocker.

@towe I totally agree. However, they probably would rather refer to another one of their own products, even if it is less relevant.


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How to configure android for not turn on the screen at the time of charging connection/disconnetion?
I want to android device not turn on screen when I connect it to charge and when disconnect from charge.
How and where it may configure?

Is your device roorted? I am not aware of a way to do so on an unrooted device. On a rooted device with xposed I heard that it is possible to disable using the Xposed module "Gravity box". Also on certain custom roms the auto screen-on when charging starts/stops can be configured.

Which Android device are you using? Some OEMs give this option under settings (sometimes under Developer Settings).

@Robert device is not rooted

@Firelord OS is Android One 9