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Offline Maps don't automatically update on Google Maps
TL;DR: Why don't offline maps download automatically via WiFi for me?
Long version: I have a Xiomi Redmi 4, with no data plan. I use wifi to download an offline map in Google Maps. I only have one map, and I use it extensively (daily). I also connect to a wifi network for a few minutes each day -- long enough to download all the other apps updates, etc.
According to this Google documentation, the offline map should update automatically:

Offline maps that you downloaded on your phone or tablet need to be updated at least every 30 days. When your offline maps expire in 15 days or less, Google Maps will try to update the area automatically when you're connected to Wi-Fi.

I've been using the same map for at least six months, and it never once updated automatically. Am I doing something wrong?
I read through some of this Google support thread, and it seems like it works for other people.

On my devices the maps do not update automatically. You get a expiration notification which allows you to update it with ~2 clicks.

I don't get automatic updates and I don't get notifications either. I just start searching for an address and notice I don't get any suggestions, and the map looks blank grey.

Have you disabled notifications for the Google Maps app?

@Robert no, I haven't. Even stranger, when I check App Notifications under Settings, Google Maps doesn't even show up.

I can't locate that question on this site but the solution was to increase the offline map area

Here it is https://android.stackexchange.com/q/195768/131553


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Can't adopt micro-sd card on Moto Z2 Force
I have a new Moto Z2 Force, bought for the Qualcom Snapdragon 835 and the 6GB RAM, running Nougat 7.1.1. I also have a new Samsung 224GB U3 micro-SD card for it. That operates nicely as an exchangeable card.
I can't find a way to format the card as internal storage, or otherwise adopt it into the device's own storage. Searching for information about this, I'm finding a lot of postings on various forums that advise against adopting a card, because it often gives trouble.
Is adopting a large card as internal storage considered bad practice nowadays?

It's always been considered "bad practice"... It is just a crutch for phones with low storage space. SD cards fail, it happens, and when it does it's catastrophic when used as adopted storage. The write cycles done when it is adopted storage cause it fail, usually sooner than expected and without warning. If you don't absolutely need the "internal" storage space, don't do it.

Agree with @acejavelin. You can read more on the wiki and questions on it to understand why

I mean on the tag added to your question

Moto removed the adoptable storage feature from their devices. It's not bad practice; I definitely like it. As for bad practice, I think it's a good thing, but it definitely requires more mindful usage of your device, which a lot of folks aren't used to.

Use a high endurance microSD card! Make routine backups, because everything has a risk of breaking. Statistically, there is a higher risk of gravitational accident [drop], aqueous accident [get wet], or velocity accident [vehicle crash] damaging your phone and causing loss of data, than the risk of a high endurance microSD card losing data.
Samsung has 2x higher endurance than SanDisk, circa 2019.
For ultra high reliability, use industrial grade SLC microSD card. It will outlast the consumer grade MLC/TLC/QLC flash circuits in your phone.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Distorted text rendering in Chrome
About a week or two ago I started having font rendering issues in Chrome on my Note 4 (SM-N910V). It's not always, but frequent enough that it's driving me crazy. I have cleared the cache, uninstalled/reinstalled Chrome and still the same issue. When it happens, it's like only part of the text characters are displayed or even complete words are missing, but they're still there because if I highlight and select the blank areas around the partial displayed text, the remaining text will usually finally display. Sometimes they will correct themselves if I scroll down a few. Also, sometimes the text on a page may render perfectly and appear fine, and then while I'm reading it, suddenly just change to the distorted text as I mentioned above. It seems to be specific to Chrome and Chrome Beta, because I installed Firefox, and so far, no issue with text rendering in Firefox. I hope someone more knowledgeable than me can explain what is happening.
I have pictures which should help a lot.
1st pic shows the text at its worst, 2nd shows after I select a word and how it clears up the text in that section, 3rd shows when I select more than one word, how the remaining text area corrects itself also. Then an extra one for another example.

I'm having that exact issue on my Samsung Note 4 as well. It started after the latest update. Tried uninstalling updates, to no avail. Would greatly appreciate some suggestions, as this is driving me crazy.

Chrome Beta 71.0.3578.55 fixes the issue!! So far no more text rendering problems! Now I'm scared they'll break it again in a future update

Had the same problem with Chrome on Samsung Note 4.
My chrome was 71.0.3538.80 and it behaved like you've described.
I've installed Chrome Beta 71.0.3578.55 and it renders correctly so far.

Chrome Beta 71.0.3578.55 fixed the issue for me also!! So far no more text rendering problems! Now I'm scared they'll break it again in a future update. I'm keeping Firefox on standby

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


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Dodgy App ripping me off?
I am suspicious about the following:

My data usage tripled last month.
I have found an app which I don't recognize.
I have received multimedia messages from someone who denies sending any.

Is it possible that I could have been sent some sort of virus in a multimedia message which has installed the app (BestDeals), which then uses my data allowance to rip me off?
I have uninstalled other apps, but it doesn't seem to be possible for apps like this. How might I uninstall it?

Go to settings>mobile data and see which apps uses the data most

Most shady apps pull you into setting them as a device administrator. Device admin apps have additional access to your device and cannot be removed unless you remove them from the Device Admin list.
To manage device administrators:
Go to Settings > Security > Device admin apps (or a similar entry) and remove admin access from all the apps. Or at least from apps which you do not recognize.
Once an app is off device admin list, it can be removed off just like any other app.
You can also check for the amount of data consumed by an app by checking the data usage stats. That'll help you better understand the culprit app.

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


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Moto e2 doesn't recognise mobile network, what can I do?
My wife has recently switched mobile operator and now can't get mobile data. Phone calls and text are OK. WiFi is OK.
Going to Settings -> More -> Mobile Networks -> Network Operators shows a list of possible networks (The usual UK ones: EE, Vodafone etc) but not the one she's with. We've been through the APN settings and they are identical to the settings on my phone, which works.
If we turn the phone off and on again, or switch it into airplane mode and back again we get the following message:

You have lost data connectivity because you left your home network with data roaming turned off.

I have no idea what this message means.
The operator piggybacks on EE and the name at the top left says "EE - plusnet", but there is an "R" over the mobile signal strength indicator - which we've worked out means "roaming".
I'm also with Plusnet and if we swap sims hers works properly in my phone but mine still shows the "R". This make me think it's something wrong with the phone itself.
The phone is a Moto E2 on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. It had no problem with mobile data on the previous carrier (giff-gaff).
We haven't tried a factory reset of the phone yet.
Other than that, is there anything we can do to get the phone to recognise the correct network?

See if this helps https://android.stackexchange.com/a/189727/131553

From phone info tab( after foaling the code) try enable data

@beeshyams I'll look into that, but I think the problem is that our network doesn't appear in that list.


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How to prioritize a 802.11ac over 802.11n?
I have (at the office and at home) WiFi APs which serve 802.11n and 802.11ac over the same SSID.
My Galaxy S9+ never connects to the 5 GHz network on these SSIDs. I thought that this may be because the signal strength which is too low on the 5 GHz network and the 2 GHz looks more promising.
I created a 802.11ac-only SSID and connected my phone and tested for bandwidth which was ~90 Mbps, even in the most remote part of my home.
This probably means that the algorithm which selects the standard to use is less than optimal and I would like to help it by prioritizing the 802.11ac signal on a dual-standard SSID. Is this something which is configurable a way or another on Android (specifically Oreo on an S9+)?

This is a function of the router, as the answer below states it is not controlled by the phone. If you want the phone to "control" this, you could need to have a unique SSID for each network type you would connect to (or at least a unique one for 802.11ac). Or if you device is cable, to limit the phone to only use 802.11ac by disabling other bands (not likely in modern devices).

When the SSID is shared, the access point is responsible for band steering.

Dual band operation with Band Steering detects clients capable of 5
  GHz operation and steers them to that frequency which leaves the more
  crowded 2.4 GHz band available for legacy clients.
  — Source

Enable band steering in your WiFi controller.


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What do the 2 triangles beside the WiFi icon mean?
I'm running Oreo 8.1.0 on a Xiaomi A1. In the status bar, I see the following three similar icons beside the WiFi icon, never more than one of them at a time:

One of them is a solid equilateral triangle, with a vertex at the top, occupying the top half of the status bar.

One is a solid equilateral triangle, with a vertex at the bottom, occupying the bottom half of the status bar.

And the third is the combination of the other two.

I can't find any info about all of them by searching online, nor at Material Design's Icons.
What do they mean?

I guess you think on up/down arrows next to the WiFi signal indicator. They are called network activity arrows/indicators.
Those arrows are showing when there is network activity. Arrow pointing up means you are uploading data (doesn't necessarily mean that you are uploading a file but rather that there is network activity, when you search something on Google you need to send data first - request to be able to receive) and an arrow pointing down means that phone is receiving data via the internet. They can appear separately or both at the same time.
They also appear next to cellular signal strength if cellular data is active. Sometimes arrows are inside of WiFi/cellular icon, it really depends on the device manufacturer.


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Other apps can't see PDF printed by Chrome
I'm using a Samsung Galaxy J3 with Android 7.  Here's what I did to print the PDF from Chrome:

Open Google Chrome app and go to a website I want to save
Go to : Menu, Share ..., Print.  (It defaults to Save as PDF and shows the preview.)
Click the yellow circle to Save PDF.  (It goes to "Save to", showing My Files > Internal Storage)
Click into the Download folder.
Click "DONE"

Just to be sure, repeat steps 1-4 and see that the file is now in the Download folder.  But now,

Open My Files app
Click "Downloads".  The file doesn't show up.  Same problem in other apps.

How can I open the printed PDF from other apps?

Does the app you are using have permissions granted to read? I suppose so, you can try alternate pdf reader app to check if it is an issue with your app

I think you got two folders there - Download and Downloads.


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Allow an app to override Do Not Disturb in Oreo
In Nougat, there used to be a per-app option to control which apps could override Do Not Disturb. In Oreo, I only see the Low/Medium/High/Urgent options, none of which say that they override Do Not Disturb. Is there still a way to do this for Oreo apps? If so, how?

On stock Oreo 8.0 (MiA1)
Settings → Apps and notifications  →App Info  → Choose app (not all apps have this permission)  →App Notification  → Enable override

It looks like that's only there for legacy apps, not ones that target Oreo and use its new notification channels.

Is that so? Can you quote an example app?

Chrome is one such app. I see "Allow notification dot" and then a bunch of categories, none of which contain that option.

+1. I see your point. Maybe you should ask a separate question( using this as reference) to ask how it can be done for such apps. I have no answer

If your device is rooted, gravity box xposed module offers notification control that can do this


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Lenovo Tab 4 10 Plus connect to wired network
I have bought Lenovo Tab 4 10 Plus unit recently. It replaced my laptop perfectly but one, I need to connect to a server on a local closed wired network. I tried to connect using a USB C Hub with Ethernet port. The hub can support usb flash disk but not with ethernet.
I contacted Lenovo support, they said it does not support ethernet and the USB is a USB 2.0 only for data and charging.
Any idea on how can I connect to a local closed wired network? Its okay to purchase a small device that can easy to bring.
TIA
Daniel

Purchase a small wireless access point and connect that to LAN, then connect wirelessly to the WAP.


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Is there any benefit to wiping Dalvik Cache after rooting my phone?
Every time I do an OS update, it removes the root so I need to re-root my phone using TWRP. TWRP gives me the option to wipe the Dalvik Cache after flashing any sort of item. I understand that there is a good reason to wipe Dalvik after flashing a ROM. However, if all I did was an OTA update to my OS and flashed Magisk to root my phone, is there any benefit to wiping Dalvik cache?

As you mentioned you're using Magisk for root, I'm assuming you're running on Android 5 or up.
The answer would be no. You can safely ignore the "Wipe Dalvik Cache" after OTA updating and re-rooting.
Dalvik cache is compiled binary code (optimized DEX) for your installed applications, so it usually makes sense to wipe them if you removed/replaced your apps in recovery, or modified the ART runtime (like installing Xposed Framework). The odex files for system apps usually come with the system image and does not reside in the user dalvik-cache directory. Therefore there's no need to wipe cache if you root your phone or flash a new recovery, but recommended if anything related to application runtime has changed (e.g. Xposed).

That's right, I have Android 8.1

So wiping it after installing a kernel is pointless?

@beeshyams With my expertise in Android, I'd say it's pointless as long as ART (or every Java thing) is left intact.

It's worth mentioning that the Dalvik cache is automatically pruned at startup, so, even if you removed an app from recovery, purging it would probably be just a waste of time.


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Is there a way to stop Android from creating folders on the SD card such as "Android" and "Download"?
In the SD card of an Android device, some folders such as "Android" and "Download" are always automatically created.
Is there any to stop it?

Without tricks, the answer is No.
These "Shell Directories" are hard-coded into Android and get created automatically if any of them is found missing. You cannot prevent this behavior from happening, but there are workarounds that makes the directory creation fail, by putting a file with the same name in the same place.
See Why do Android create "Shell Folders" automatically? Can I change the shell folders?


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My Samsung tablel 1 is not restarting?
It stop working in process of restarting where android symbol is coming. So what should I have to do for resolve this issue?

Ugh...I have been researching this problem too my friends. I have the galaxy tab 7.0 and it has that stupid market instead of play store. While reading, i noticed this happens quite a bit. From what i have seen a hard reset doesn't always do the trick, good luck, sorry i couldnt be more help. I am interested in this solution myself.


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Can't format SD-Card as internal storage - Meta / Expand Android
I have a Xiaomi A1 with Android on it and I use my Samsung MicroSD  Card Evo+ 128 GB, as an internal storage. For no reason, it's stopped working and asking me to format it. The issue is, the device and even my laptop with Linux or Mac can't format it. I can't use it.
I tried to do it with GParted (See screenshot below)
This is what I get when I run : sudo fdisk -l

    Disk /dev/sdc: 119,8 GiB, 128579534848 bytes, 251131904 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 5875CF08-49DC-47BC-BEBF-A19D422163EA

Device     Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sdc1   2048     34815     32768    16M unknown
/dev/sdc2  34816 251131870 251097055 119,7G unknown

Screenshot GParted about the SD Card
I tried to follow the path of this person but in vain : Decrypting Android M adopted storage
Edit : First of all, thank you @DanHulme for your quick reply.
When I try to format it with my Android phone (whether as an internal or external storage), it gets stuck on 20% formatting then I get this message : command '16' volume partition disk:179,64 private' failed with null
Any help would be very appreciated.
Thank you for your time,

command '16' volume partition disk:179,64 private' failed with null
Figure 16 may be replaced by 8, 12, 18 and others, so does 179,0 appearing in the message. So, the general problem is that they're unable to format an SD card due to volume partition disk failed with null.
The reason why does "volume partition disk failed with null" error appear and Android phone owners not being able to format the micro SD card on their phone is most probably because the card is partially damaged or corrupted, and it needs to be fixed in order to make the phone read or recognize the card.
Short and Simple fix:
You put your SD card into a Windows computer and used file explorer to format it as FAT32 you could put it back into your phone, it should work.
For more details and data recovery visit: https://www.easeus.com/resource/volume-partition-disk-failed-with-null.html

Hi, @Aashish, thanks for your answer. Unfortunately it's not as simple as you think. On Windows OS 10, my USB Drive is seen as two separate partitions. The process of formatting isn't working as we could think : Windows could not format the disk . That's why I went to Linux OS to get more advanced tools. Any thoughts ?


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LineageOS Linux Kernel version
I use LineageOS 14.1 on i9305 and have been pondering updating to 15.1 since it's decently mature now.
Recently I was looking into the Linux Kernel versions that Android uses.
Refer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_version_history
The questions I have are:
1) My ROM on my S3 shows Kernel version 3.0.101-lineage-gb7ffe7f. So is this actually Linux Kernal v3? Now shouldn't Android N run on Kernel 4.4.1 or is an older kernel version just expected on older phones for compatibility.
Thanks for clarifying.

The AOSP version of Android N runs on Linux 4.4, but that doesn't necessarily mean any derivated ROMs must also run on that kernel.

Device maintainer may port over new kernel for old devices, but AFAIK often the kernel version stays around what the manufacturer uses on their stock ROMs so as to avoid that hard work.

For you as user it doesn't really matter if ROM is functional just use it

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


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Google Photos backs up only cover photo from burst mode photos
When I take picture on my Moto G5 Plus, I long press in my Camera app to get multiple photos. From what I have read, it is called burst mode. The photos are stored in the /storage/emulated/0/DCIM/Camera folder. The naming convention of the image files goes something like this.
Cover photo - IMG_YYYYMMDD_<SOME NUMBER>_BURST000_COVER.jpg
Other photos - IMG_YYYYMMDD_<SOME NUMBER>_BURST011.jpg
But when the photos are backed up by Google Photos, only the cover photo gets backed up. I lost quite a few photos this way because I thought the auto backup will backup everything.
I cannot find any setting that can backup all the photos along with cover photo also. Is there any setting for this?
Update 1:
I have auto backup enabled.
Update 2:
Added details for image file naming convention and folder details.

Follow below step

Open the Google Photos app.
On top left side click three line button.
Goto Setting.
Tap on Backup & Sync.
Now tap on Back up device folders.

Select the folders you want a backup.

The main photo and other photo gets saved in the same folder. But it seems Google only saves main photo.

I think the google photos app choose the best shot form multiple photos.

@RahulChokshi, step 5 is missing. what version you used?


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Merge/Copy linked contacts
I hope this is the right place to ask my question.
On my android phone I have my contacts synchronized with NextCloud (CardDAV). Now, many contacts are linked/connected with other (same) contacts from social networks, providing more data. So far, so good.
As I would like to have a "unique exhaustive" contacts list that I also use on other devices (PC, online, or maybe another phone), I would like to merge/copy the additional data from the linked contacts into my existing contacts lists (which is then synchronized with my cloud/cardDAV).
So, the questions are: - is there any easy way to do this? - without giving my contacts to google or any other shady app? - preferrably with the option to chose on which data "wins" (like, own nextcloud contacts always win facebook data)
Thanks for any advice!


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How to setup navigation gestures in Android Oreo?
In my previous RedMi phone, I could swipe from the left to move back, swipe from bottom to go to the home screen, and swipe and hold from the bottom to get to the multitasking view.
However, in my latest Asus pure Oreo phone, I can't seem to find such a setting. Is there a way to enable it?

Not a part of Android natively. Some launchers /apps/mods can do this

@beeshyams Right...

Note that this gesture navigation functionality is not a part of Android Oreo natively. Some launches/apps/mods could do this, but not natively.
(Based on the comments)


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how to recover password android with permission denied?
I get the following message:
adb: error: failed to copy '/data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf' to '.\wpa_suppl
icant.conf': remote Permission denied

I can not copy nothing from my android to recover my password of mi wifi

Your device must be rooted to view the wpa_supplicant.conf file... Otherwise just log into the router and look what it is.

You would need root access to access that sensitive file. If you don't have root access, then all efforts with adb would be futile. That file and the directory is owned by user wifi and group wifi, and because adb (user 2000) is neither a member of group wifi, nor that file has read permission for others (users), you're at loss here.


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Workaround with root for inability to set file timestamps
A bug or unfortunate design choice in Android since forever ago prevents non-root users from setting file timestamps to times other than the present.
Apparently this issue has been fixed and the fix is rumoured to have found its way into 8.0 Oreo.  However, I don't have that version of Android (yet).  Anyway, it sounds like it only works for certain apps.
For a different issue, that of write access to the external SD card, there is a workaround that allows this permission to be granted to individual apps provided the phone has been rooted.
Is there a way to allow an app to modify file timestamps on a rooted phone, perhaps by adding a permission to the appropriate section of packages.xml?  Having to copy files over as root is quite cumbersome and insecure.

Maybe your asking the wrong question... Why do the timestamps on these particular files make a difference, and why are you trying to change them?

Because the system-level inability to set file timestamps affects every app and every file operation on the system, with the result that copying files or moving files from one volume to another changes their last-modified timestamp, fouling up workflows which depend on those timestamps. I don't want to change them; I just want them to remain unchanged.

I guess I have uses Android for years and been on multiple ROM development teams, and this has never come up. What real world application would this effect?

Any operation that uses timestamps. File synchronisation, for example. There are a number of use cases mentioned in the comments on the issue pages I've linked to.


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Google Maps' location history is not accurate. Can High Accuracy option cause it?
My Samsung Galaxy S8's location services is set to "High Accuracy". When I look at the "History" in Google Maps, it doesn't show some stops I made from point A to B, but it claims that the car is moving. However, I also have a GPS tracking device which is always accurate.
Can enabling "High Accuracy" which mixes GPS and Wi-Fi hotspots indeed cause inaccuracy?

The Google Maps history is normal... at least since Android 7.0, the deep sleep function can cause this on occasion (my guess, but I have seen this too on a various devices, all 7.0 or newer). But what do you mean by Google Location is not "accurate"? Is it off by 10m, 100m, 100km?

Missing out places like that is nothing to do with location accuracy and everything to do with battery life. Every time the phone has to start up a process, get a location fix, and record that position in some database or send it to the cloud, it's running your battery down a teensy bit. This might be OK for an app like Strava where users run it deliberately, and are willing to spend some battery life on getting accurate results, but it's not OK for something that's always running in the background.
For this reason, your location history doesn't actually update very often, so it's very common for arrival or departure times to be inaccurate, or even for it to miss a short visit entirely.
Changing location mode won't affect this. One solution if it's really important to have a good GPS log is to use an app specifically for this purpose. It will run down your battery if you run it for a long period. Another option is to use a dedicated handheld GPS. As a purpose-specific device, it's optimized for just this task, and doesn't have to wake up your whole phone just to record a position.


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How do I get rid of boot screen on unrooted phone?
I have an old Samsung galaxy a5 2016 (sm-a510f). I had previously rooted it and installed a custom ROM called the Google Product Rom along which came a boot animation that flashed the google logo before actually going into the animation. Now I have decided to unroot the phone and flash the stock firmware, I have managed to do everything including getting rid of the boot animation. But when I boot up the phone it still flashes the Google logo before going on to play the Samsung boot animation. How do I get rid of it without having to re-root my phone? If there is no way and I have to root my phone again! How do I achieve this on a rooted device?

Have you also flashed the boot-loader? You may now have a custom boot-loader with a stock ROM installed.

@Robert how exactly do I achieve that?


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Can't update Uber app
I installed uber app from play store. But when i try to update it then it cant update and it shows error.

Are you able to update other apps? Tried removing and reinstalling the uber app?

Yes. I can update other apps. But uber can't update.

Follow below Step:

Go to Setting
Tap on Applications
Find the Uber app on a downloaded app
Tap on Uber app
Clear caches files and clear data storage.
Now open Play Store
Find Uber app, let see UPDATE button is visible


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My phone is stuck on booting loop
I have a Samsung Galaxy Young. Yesterday it suddenly switched off and is turning on but stuck on a lopp. I can not boot into recovery mode it has stuck in some kind of loop. Please help me I have tried flashing the stock ROM but it does not help. Even when I plugin the charger it shows same loop. This is a video of the loop I have recorded:
Video
My phone is samsung galaxy young GT-S6312. It is running on android 4.1.2 Jellybean.
Please somebody tell me what is the problem and what probably is the solution.

From your description I get fact that the device can be turned on but it does not boot up. "not turning on" usually means it is completely dead (no reaction pressing the power button).

Maybe you flashed the wrong stock rom. It happens. Try again.

https://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/galaxy-young/GT-S6312/ refer to this link

Maybe yor stockROM has failed in retrieving your phone because of some errors in it. It would be better if you download it again from the internet or just find the 4 files for your device and the pit file then flash them.
The 4 files are not available in all countries so if you find it is not in your country just flash it and then flash the single md5 that too will solve your problem.

It looks like your bootloader or recovery has been messed up. Were you trying to flash anything while this happened?
Best way to fix this is to get the phone in "Download Mode," then flash a new bootloader or recovery. To enter into download mode, press and hold the volume down, home and power buttons together until you enter the download mode. From there, you can flash a new recovery image over. Make sure the recovery image is specific to your phone model.

I already mentioned that flashing stock ROM using does not solve my problem then why this answer?

@MEDLEY There are 3 parts to your phone: the bootloader, the recovery and the Android system (often called a ROM). If your bootloader or recovery are messed up, your phone will not boot. Flashing another ROM will not fix your bootloader or your recovery, those are separate things.

I did not flash other ROM. I flashed the stock ROM for my device using odin3. It contains all parts of the OS for my phone.


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Chrome taking up lots of space on my Android device
I have an OnePlus 5T running Oxygen 5.1.4 (which is based on Android Oreo 8.1.6). According to the app DiskUsage, Google Chrome is using almost 15 GB of data.
(Click image to enlarge it)

Apart from this insane amount of space (which no app should ever use), I've been trying to figure out a way to backup the data (and remove the data I don't want). But I don't see a way of doing this without unlocking the bootloader and possibly flash the ROM.  I've enabled developer mode, I've tried backing up using the ADB drivers, but Chrome don't seem to let me backup it's app data.
Specifically asking to backup Chrome using adb backup -noapk -f Chrome.ab com.android.chrome only leaves a 1 kB .ab backup file.
But clearly the app data is there – and even DiskUsage can see it – and the device is not rooted.
So to summarize:
1. Is there a way for me to see the app data of installed apps, without having to root the device?
2. Is there a way to backup Chrome, only so that important stuff is backed up (open tabs, the state of each tab, history, saved passwords, browser settings, etc) and neglecting god knows what Chrome uses the space for. I'd imagine these would be stored in SQLite3-databases under /data/data/com.android.chrome/, but as I'm unable to access the files I cannot know for sure.

This is one of many reasons why I never recommend anyone use Google's Chrome web browser.  I wish Android device manufacturers would stop including it in the ROMs, as it is a big waste of precious non-volatile memory.


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Launcher 3 and it Purpose
What does a launcher3 do?  and why would you want to  Launch another one on your phone?
and what does it mean that on Google when it states that you have used launcher 3?

Launcher3 is a home screen app that allows you to launch apps. You always use it. You may want to use another launcher if you hate the default layout of your home screen


text:
"Webpage not available" for some webpages but not all
I can not access all webpages on my phone. While some are working fine, others simply show "Webpage not available".
This appears to be independent of the webbrowser. It's always the same webpages that won't work and they won't work with neither mBrowser nor Tint Browser and I have also experienced this on my mother's smartphone with the default browser.
This is not a matter of misspelling or being temporarily not available: I have been experiencing this for months now (not always - there were times when I was able to access those pages) and the webpages are reliably accessible from a computer.
This happens both when I am entering the URL manually as well as when clicking on a link from google.
Removing the battery or clearing Tint Browser's cache did not help.
some pages that are not accessible:

https://wiki.archlinux.org
https://github.com
https://jisho.org

some pages that are accessible:

google
leo.org
wikipedia.org

I am using Android 4.0.4 (CyanogenMod 9.1.0), mBrowser 12.0, Tint Browser 1.8 (10). My mother's phone was a Sony Experia with the preinstalled OS but I can't check the Android version because it got lost.

Let's check the supported HTTPS protocol versions of the sites you mentioned.

https://wiki.archlinux.org -> only TLS 1.2
https://github.com -> only TLS 1.2
https://jisho.org -> only TLS 1.2
https://google.com -> TLS 1.0 TLS 1.1 TLS 1.2
https://leo.org -> TLS 1.0 TLS 1.1 TLS 1.2
https://wikipedia.org  -> TLS 1.0 TLS 1.1 TLS 1.2

Do you see the pattern? From my perspective I would assume that the used browsers use the old outdated web engine of your OS which does not support TLS 1.2.
My suggestion would be to install the Chrome app and use it (and may be even set it as default browser engine - was this already possible on Android 4.0?).
Chrome includes the latest SSL/TLS libraries with TLS 1.2 support furthermore it is not affected by dozens of security vulnerabilities which your outdated integrated web engine suffers from.


text:
How can I cast only my android screen to my tv
I have a Chromecast and I want to cast my android screen to my tv (mainly youtube) but not the audio, I looked online to find any answers and I found that I have to double broadcast I did it once (I assume) and could not replicate it I also cant google a guide to doing this because I just find other things that I am not looking for. So, how can I do this?
Thanks in advance!

Make sure both devices are on same network, open Youtube app on the android device and choose cat option (icon) it will detect nearby devices and select your TV

But thats just normal casting... It will cast both sound and sound

Video and sound***


text:
How to format an SD card as adoptable storage on Android 5?
I have ZTE phone:

Model z828
Fcc id srq-z828 IC 5200E-Z828
H/W U06A
DATE 03/2017

and have inserted and mounted a 32 GB SD storage chip.  However, cannot seem to get an option to use adoptable storage.
In settings, storage I see options to unmount or format the SD card -- but no option to adopt.
Operating System version number:  5.1.1

Your model ships originally with Android 5.1. Adoptable storage was introduced in Android 6.0 .
So even if you update to Android 6, is probably that you wont have the option.
Also some manufacturers, dont allow this option, so if the option doesnt appear, or the option to move apps to the sd card doesnt appear, the option is not available.
It happened to me on a Galaxy J5 2015 with Android 5.1 that got the Android 6.0 update, and still doesnt work.
Hope it helps.

@Thufir So is my answer helpful?

I think that I need to update the OS.  Perhaps there's a third party, as I doubt ZTE does updates.  If I can get to Android 6, or similar, it might fix a few problems.  Portable storage being the most important.


text:
How to give permission to record video in DU Recorder app?
Can someone tell me how can I enable this permission that is being asked in the screenshot below?

"I tried everything" ? We don't know what you tried. Please let us know so as to avoid redundant answers.

Go to Settings, Apps, and then find your app. Inside there should be a list of permissions. Enable the ones that are disabled.

I tried but there no such a thing on my phone! My phone is Huawei P8 Lite!!

@Adem Go to Settings - Apps & Notifications - Apps, then find the app in question that is trying to record video and tap on it, then select Permissions and make sure they are all enabled.

Disable "Display over apps" for the DU Recorder app from the phone settings. That worked for me.


text:
Upgrade the OS from 5.x to 6.x
How can I upgrade from 5.1.1 to 6.x in order to utilize adoptable storage?

What is your device? (Also, if you haven't gotten a system update through your device vendor, you probably won't get one (see Is it possible to upgrade the android OS on all phones).

You can check a custom ROM like Lineage OS.


text:
I have 2 s7 from market but systems are messed up
Can someone link me where I can download the Android latest system  os file to download to SD  card so I can reinstall phone os system from phone update boot screen thanks I got 2 x s7 but there got some dodgy apps installed to system that can't be uninstalled cheers

Well, there's 2 things to consider:

it would be simpler to uninstall those troublesome apps. I believe you tried uninstalling those apps as a "regular user." If those apps have been marked as "system apps," you will need "root privileges" to uninstall them. First you will need to "root" your phone, and there are different ways to do that. Once that's done, you can find an app that uninstalls "bloatware" and/or "system apps." That route has always worked for me.
if you really want to reinstall Android to have a clean slate, what you are looking for is called a ROM. There are many out there, and it needs to have been made specifically for your phone. Some are just plain Android, some have a "design philosophy" or a "purpose." Once you figure out how to flash a new ROM, you can go and try different ones until you find one you like.


text:
Can I force clients of my phone's Wi-Fi hotspot to use my DNS?
My phone is a Mi A1 with Oreo 8.1. It is not rooted.
I am offering WiFi using hotpsot .
I discovered that devices connected to my hotspot do not inherit the DNS server from my hotspot.
Questions: is there a way to push DNS to clients connected to my hotspot?
I have two custom DNS, self made, with public IP. And I would like that people using my wifi could use these DNS.

I modified my question to remove all references to vpn at all. The question is not how to share vpn but how to force the use of my device's DNS servers. Sorry if too much context has dirocted away from main problem

I don't have a problem with them in general. In some contexts, they can be concise and simple to understand. It's just not the style on most SE sites, because the site automatically adds your first one or two tags to the page title anyway.

Since you were earlier talking of VPN , this app may be of interest to you. Not tested by me

Well. I asked for a way to force use of my DNS. This app do not do this.

No you can't. Each connecting client identifies using its own IP address BEFORE being granted internet access, This means that it does not need to clone address or servers after connection, it can continue sending and receiving packets along its establish (independent) route, identifying as it's own device.


text:
Overwritten Recovery Partition on Moto G Falcon
My 2013 Moto G (falcon) was running Lineage fine, but I decided to 'fix it'!
OK - I wanted to try another build, but in flashing I've overwritten TWRP on the recovery partition, so I can't do anything now. I've got ADB installed on my Linux laptop.
I'd be grateful for any ideas, please.
Jim

You just need to boot into fastboot mode and use fastboot to flash TWRP again, the same way you did the first time you installed TWRP. What's the problem?

You have two options to restore TWRP to the recovery partition.
The first option, and probably the most common, is to reflash it with fastboot.
First, make sure you have fastboot installed (adb does nothing here), and then download the latest TWRP image file for your device from the official site: https://twrp.me/motorola/motorolamotog2013.html
The file you are looking for is twrp-3.2.3-0-falcon.img and place it in a known location.
Now shutdown the device completely, and hold POWER and VOL DN to start the bootloader, then a USB cable from your phone to the computer.
Open a terminal window, and navigate to the directory containing the TWRP image file, and enter the following command:
sudo fastboot flash recovery twrp-3.2.3-0-falcon.img
Enter your password, then wait for the process to complete, and use the volume keys to select Start Recovery, and press Power to start TWRP.
The other option if you have a bootable, rooted device, is to install the official TWRP app, and install it from there.

Great - it did the trick. I promise to be more careful from now on! Thanks again. Jim

@JimFord Awesome! Please upvote and mark the answer as accepted so the question can be closed.


text:
After Pie upgrade, lock screen is not hiding all sensitive content
I recently upgraded my Pixel 2 from Android Oreo to Pie. I have "Security & location" -> "Lock screen preferences" set to "Hide sensitive content".
Ever since the upgrade, when I receive an email while my phone is locked, in addition to the email notification icon, it also displays my email address under it for a short while (Maybe 60 seconds.) Even after it goes away, if I double tap the screen or press the power button, it shows my email address again on the screen; note the phone is still locked at this point. (I'm fairly certain that) prior to the upgrade only the email icon was shown without also displaying my email address while the phone is locked.
I am using the standard Gmail app with multiple email addresses configured. I consider my email address(es) to be sensitive information and don't want them to be displayed on my locked phone.
Is this a new bug (or strange feature), or is it configurable? Or am I completely mistaken and it's always been this way?

It is not a bug, your email address is showing due to multiple email configurations u have made. However your point is valid that your email address is a sensitive information, u can try sending feedback to google by reviewing Gmail on Playstore.

I had multiple emails configured before the update too, and AFAIK it didn't start displaying the email until after the upgrade...

i experienced email shown in sensitive content on all my devices, they have android M, O and P.

Interesting - it's possible it's always been like that, though I'm surprised I never noticed until now.

i never had sensitive info hidden, i saw ur question and checked..


text:
How to run GNU utilities without root?
Is there any way to use GNU utilities like GNU's sed, find, bash, and awk WITHOUT root? Android's utilities that are provided by toolbox and the BusyBox applets provided by one particular application I have installed lack the kind of features necessary for them to be fully functional.
One problem I have in particular is that I have no way of converting characters that hinder processing data in a Unix environment (such as linefeeds and nulls) into their respective escape codes (i.e., a linefeed becomes \n, a null becomes \x00 or \0, etc.).
I am running Android 4.4.

Get or compile static binaries of utilities you need. Set a custom PATH to these binaries in any Terminal app and use

Try out Termux! (Note: I'm not affliated with it or its author)
Termux provides a full set of common Linux CLI tools like GNU coreutils, binutils, and popular software like imagemagick, ffmpeg, as well as development environment like Clang, Python and Ruby. Other nice gadgets also include Vim, Emacs, tmux, htop, etc.
All available without root.

Image from Google Play details page

I cannot install it. The Play Store says it is not compatible with the available version. I did say I am running Android 4.4.

@Melab Then I don't know any other alternatives. Maybe get another device that runs 5.0+?


text:
which version of blustacks have instance?
i want to run 5 number of bluestacks on VPS
which version of bluestacks have instance feature and run in VPS and no   graphics required to run?

BlueStacks 3 supports multiple instances, you can follow the below link to see steps:
https://support.bluestacks.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003172406-Introducing-BlueStacks-3-multiple-instances


text:
apps close automatically while using and back button stops to work meanwhile
I have a problem with Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime Plus that apps are automatically close while using and back button stops to work meanwhile

Try finding out, how many apps currently running when this problem occurs, as this problem can occur when an application is taking too much processing or your temporary memory is full. Try clearing apps from background by hitting the left most button below the screen.


text:
Toast message: Failed to init Google DNS, switch to host IP method
Recently, after unlocking my phone screen (Samsung J7 Pro - J730, stock ROM, Android 7 Nougat), I usually receive a toast notification saying: "Failed to init Google DNS, switch to host IP method". I can guess that the toast is made after a network change (from WiFi to 3G and vice versa) because that's how it usually happens, like when I go home and the phone catches the WiFi signal. Maybe the "Google DNS" refers to the 8.8.8.8 public DNS server owned by Google.
Problem is: (1) I don't modify the network configuration at all. My IP is set to DHCP, not static and not manually configurated. And (2) it even happens on 3G network, which I cannot configure the DNS in anyway.
I have looked for the toast message everywhere and I could not find any reference at all.
My questions are:

What is the source of this toast? Have any of you encountered this as well?

Is this a security concern (location tracking, hacking attempts, surveillance, etc.)? Should I be worried about this at all?

Thank you!

For identifying source of this Notification try this app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evanhe.nhfree

Thanks to beeshyams' suggestion, I downloaded the app Notification History and found out that the toast comes from a forum's app. It looks like there are no security concerns for now.


text:
How to update Flipkart Digiflip Pro XT911 to latest version of android
I have Flipkart Digiflip Pro XT911 Tab, which have old version of android like Marshmlow, Now I am looking for a way to update it to latest android version, How can I do that.
Thank you

Actually that post is generic, for all devices. Here I am asking about specific device. So I don't see any duplicate.

It is a canonical question for this very purpose


text:
How to really completely disable automated mail syncs?
My Huawei P8 should only ever sync mails whenever I open the mail app and manually ask for it. This is for mental hygiene to keep my spare time free of any unwanted distractions.
So I've disabled any sync schedule in the account settings of the mail app:

I have to keep the "Sync email" switch on as otherwhise sync wouldn't work at all anymore.
I'd expect that there's no automatic sync at all anymore. But still it happens every 1 or 2 weeks that I get a notification on my home screen even though I did not touch the mail app:

That's quite annoying. How can I really disable automated sync and make it only check for new mails when I want it?
It shouldn't be related but I've "secured" the mail app with the built in "App lock" feature with a PIN.

Phone model: HUAWEI GRA-L09
Build number GRA-L09C432B520
EMUI version: 4.0.3
Android version: 6.0
Mail account: IMAP on custom server

I ran into the exactly same problem years ago.
I "fixed" it by ignoring the default mail app and using a third party mail app (AquaMail).
Anyway the default mail app is usually no longer included on new devices (Google stopped development). Therefore earlier or later you have to move to a different mail app.


text:
How can I set up canned response in Android Messages app?
Is there a way to configure Android Messages with a list of custom templates? For instance:

"I'm away right now."
"Thank you for contacting us. We will get back to you soon"
...

In the Android Messages app, I could then select one of these custom messages when responding to someone, or when contacting someone by SMS for the first time.

@beeshyams I'm talking about the app "Android Messages" by Google https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.messaging&hl=en_US

There isn't a way to set up templates in the Google messaging app. Closest is Smart reply which suggests replies based over time but no where close to templates
You will need to use apps that do this, as claimed (not tested by me) or consider other alternatives


text:
How to make root-created files accessible to normal users?
My device is running Android 8.0, rooted using Magisk as the su manager. I log into it using SimpleSSHD.
I'm trying to do some actions which require root access, and in the process I'm creating some files to be later used by normal users. But for some reason what I'm used to in "classical" Linux distributions doesn't appear to work: root-created files can't be read by normal users, whatever chown/chgrp/chmod actions I try. See the following session:
$ su -c "echo hello > file.txt; chown $(whoami) file.txt; chgrp $(whoami) file.txt; chmod a+r file.txt"
$ cat file.txt
cat: file.txt: Permission denied
$ echo readable > my.txt
$ su -c 'cp -a my.txt my-copy.txt'
$ cat my-copy.txt
cat: my-copy.txt: Permission denied
$ ls -l *.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 u0_a182 u0_a182 6 2018-08-20 15:21 file.txt
-rw------- 1 u0_a182 u0_a182 9 2018-08-20 15:23 my-copy.txt
-rw------- 1 u0_a182 u0_a182 9 2018-08-20 15:22 my.txt
$ whoami
u0_a182

What's happening here? Why are permission bits, owner and group ignored for files I created as root? How to properly change owner to normal user?

Could you please describe how did you set up SSH server on Android phone? Я тоже хочу)

@Suncatcher simply installed SimpleSSHD, and its config is trivial (works out of the box, just be sure to connect via port 2222 instead of the usual 22, and then enter the password it prints in its activity).

Android uses SELinux to manage file access. The files created by root and non-root users differ by SELinux context:
$ ls -lZ *.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 u0_a182 u0_a182 u:object_r:app_data_file:s0           6 2018-08-20 16:01 file.txt
-rw------- 1 u0_a182 u0_a182 u:object_r:app_data_file:s0           9 2018-08-20 16:01 my-copy.txt
-rw------- 1 u0_a182 u0_a182 u:object_r:app_data_file:s0:c512,c768 9 2018-08-20 16:01 my.txt

To make the file really belong to the non-root user, one has to set the correct SELinux context:
$ su -c 'chcon u:object_r:app_data_file:s0:c512,c768 file.txt'
$ cat file.txt
hello


text:
How to stop uploading pictures on Google Photos on Pixel 2?
I've been using Android for 7+ years and now got a Google phone. There are several things I like but one I didn't is that any picture I take on my phone, it is uploaded to my Google Photos account. In the past, I used to create Picasa web albums to share with family.
It is a nice feature in some ways but I've set up albums in Google Photos in the past and now every random picture I take with my phone is uploaded there. I also get a lot of pictures from WhatsApp etc. which I don't want to be merged with Google Photos.
How can I separate phone pictures/albums from Google Photos?

Google Photos shows you a prompt when you first open the app. If you press confirm, it will automatically start uploading your photos to the cloud.
You can manage the setting in your Google Photos app.
Open the app and go to Settings > Back up & sync and turn it off.


text:
Android 9 issues with Pixel
My Pixel phone is upgraded to Android 9.  I am having two different issues.

Voice to Text is not working
Callers cannot hear me on voice calls (callers can hear me on Bluetooth devices)

Anyone else experience this or know how to resolve?

OTA or clean install? Any issues prior to upgrade? Bad microphone (do other things like Assistant work?)?

Seems surely the problem of hardware i.e. microphone. I have Pixel XL, and there are no software compatibility issues that i found yet. Still if u are very much sure, then you can factory reset the phone(it clears all the phone data and fresh start the Android) by going to Settings -> System -> Reset Options -> Erase All Data.
Note: It is recommended by many tech experts to Factory Reset the phone after installing an Android Version update as it clear unused previous OS caches.


text:
What is effecting my Android's sound?
Recently, while listening to music and YouTube the volume level fluctuates.
It goes from...
what I set it to - to 70% lower volume - to back to what I set it to - to 70% lower, on and on and on.
Headphones and Bluetooth both experience the same volume level up/down effect.
I booted in Safe Mode.  I deleted the last recently added apps I installed over the past 6 months. I have no tasker type apps installed.  I use the phone for calls, web and YouTube.
Nothing has fixed this.
The only thing I can think of is the last update I said "OK" too.
What else can I try?
Moto G5 Plus
Android Version/7.0
Android security patch level/1 June 2018
Kernel/3.18.31-perf-gf055b2e-00107-gdc6d2c1

I should add that this phone is a year old and has never had this problem before.

Sorry, I'm a bit confused. From what I understood, sometimes the sound goes up in volume then when you change it it starts a loop, right? When did the issue start? What happened before the issue arose? Have you tried resetting app preferences: Setting > Apps > three dots > Reset apps? Please observe the device for 24 hours and check if the issue persists.

Not quite.  Here is my new normal:  I go to YouTube to watch a video.  I set the volume level for my headphones (or Bluetooth).  In a few seconds the volume suddenly (without me doing anything) drops to almost barely perceivable.  In another 30-40 seconds the volume level will jump right back to where I set it.  This repeats indefinably.


text:
Can I keep all of my Dropbox data on SD card?
Is there any way to configure the Dropbox app so that all Dropbox files, now and future, are available offline on the SD card?

There isn't any way. You can do that by using apps that sync Dropbox to external SD

Thanks. Do you know of such an app, or should I ask at https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/ ?  My idea, though, is that all of my DropBox stuff is available offline, and I think that you have to do that on a per file basis, so it may not be easy, or even possible

I use this paid app which works very well. Free version allows only sync of selected folder and pro entire Dropbox with a host of useful options. If you want give it a try and let me know

Alas see this. Your question is probably a dupe of this and am going to vote for closing. https://android.stackexchange.com/q/26728/131553

I haven't tried folder sync though so not sure if it backs up to SD card. If it doesn't, please clarify so that your question is not closed

I don't want to "partially" synch. I want to have my complete DropBox files available off line. Not just current files, but any added in future. Perhaps I ought to ask at https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/ ?

Your choice. But the app I linked does completely back up to internal or SD. Only drawback is paid app. I use it a lot. Files added are automatically synced

Yes, but the problem is that DropBox does not seem to make files available offline unless you manually fetch them, so I would need an app to do that for me - or have I misunderstood?

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

Check this out.. https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-files-folders/How-to-transfer-Dropbox-files-to-a-USB-or-Disk/td-p/91079

Yes, you can

Specifically, making a file available offline:
Adds the file to your Offline view for easy access (like a bookmark)
Saves the file to your Android device for offline viewing within
Dropbox
Attempts to keep the file as up-to-date as possible and gives you the
option to update the file manually
Ensures that any changes you make to the file while offline will be
synced to your Dropbox account once you have a connection again

I don't want to make a file offline. I want to make all of my DropBox files available offline. Both those which I have today and those which I add in future, and I do not want to have to do it manually for each file.

There was an an unofficial app that did just that. Search the Play Store. It is not allowed to give software recommendations here.


text:
How to prevent merging phone's contacts and Gmail contacts on Pixel 2?
I've been using Android for 7+ years and now got a Google phone. There are several things I like but one thing which annoys me a lot is that all of my phone's contacts are now merged with Gmail contacts.
For my phone contacts, I have prefixes (Dr, Uncle, Aunt etc.) and groups. Both are now messed up. All contacts are sorted alphabetically.
From my Gmail, all people I've ever sent or received emails from, are shown in the phone contacts. I tried to show only phone contacts by deselecting other but it does not work.
How can I only display contacts from my phone's address book with groups and ignoring prefixes/suffixes in sorting order?

See if this works: https://android.stackexchange.com/q/14811/96277


text:
Find Exact Install Date of A FREE App From The PlayStore On A Older Phone
I'm looking to find the instillation date of an app I had on my old phone.
I've tried looking on the play store  here  however it only shows be previous paid purchases.
I've also tried using a android emulator on my pc to view Google Play Games achievements, as it appeared it used to show you the time those achievements are unlocked, however checking it now just shows the achievements and not the times.
EDIT: To clarify the app is no longer installed, hence all answers in the other question are worthless as this is not the same question, as these only answer the question to when the app was installed on the current device, not when they were installed on another phone but are still linked to the account.

See if this is what helps your case than: https://android.stackexchange.com/q/196543/96277

@Firelord thanks but that only works for a phone you still have access to, I'm looking to find it from googles own data.


text:
How google home and our smartphone get connected together to send WiFi password to google home?
As you all know in order to connect our google home devices we use a special google home app on our smartphone. But the questions is , suppose that app know the current WiFi password, how that password gets sent to google home itself when google home has not been connected to any WiFi yet? is it via Bluetooth or something else?

Google home's initial setup is likely similar to the initial setup on a Chromecast device. The Chromecast acts as an access point (i.e. something a WiFi-enabled device can connect too, just like your router). The Google Home app is programmed to search for and connect to this access point. Once connected, the two devices can communicate information between eachother. In fact, when setting up a Chromecast device, a message is displayed in the Google Home app stating that "you may be disconnected from WiFi for a moment".
Google Home probably works in the same way - it acts as an access point, gets paired with the phone and they exchanged information/passwords and then Google Home connects to the WiFi.


text:
Finding hidden data
I have an app that has 4 GB of video data, But I cant find it even with the hidden files showing. I want to move them to my SD card, How do I find them ?

They're probably stored with the app's data, where you can see it only if you have root access. As you don't say which app it is it cannot be said for certain, but probability is high.

The app is Linkin Learning

You need root to check. For most cases possible locations are /sdcard/Android/data/[App name]/ or /data/data/[App name]/.


text:
How do I get calendar alerts to display before the event begins?
I use Google Calendar a lot for work. On my PC I get alerts appearing 10 mins before an event starts, which is great.
However, on my Galaxy S7 running Android 7.0, the alerts I get appear anywhere between 15 mins to an hour after the event has started.
Of course I've checked time zones and daylight saving settings both on the phone and the Calendar app (and on the Google Account too), and all is good there.
Would anyone know what I could do to fix this?

Google Calendar allows you to change the reminder time either by each event individually, or by defaults set into specific calendars, but there isn't an item to make sure that reminders happen or are directed to a specific device. Your question clearly indicates a lack of communication, and possibly is related to loss of wifi due to inactivity connection loss; this cannot be overcome by Google Calendar, and isn't its concern.

@wbogacz that not only applies to Google calendar, but to most others as well. But yes, I saw OP asked specifically for that :) Besides, loss of WiFi shouldn't be relevant here once the event has been synchronized. Those alerts are handled locally on the device, and thus should even work in airplane mode.

While the event resides locally, I believe, but do not know, that the event synchronizes before throwing the reminder. This would ascertain that both the host and the device have the latest (if any) changes, and can record the reminder action. No synchronization until later, results in the reminder action thrown late. This is generally not a problem with a PC, whose connection remains open and active continually, generally by security and network rules, so the reminder action is unimpeded.


text:
How can I prevent bogus one-letter empty contacts from appearing in a dual sim phone?
I have a dual SIM phone and my address books keeps getting populated by these empty bogus one-letter contacts that are shown as being read from the second SIM, see picture:[
If I delete them, after some time, they appear again. I had some saved contacts (like 112 aka European 911) from my primary SIM that also appeared in this fashion but after I deleted them from the first SIM, they stopped appearing. However, I cannot deleted those from the second SIM card, because they are not there! I have this confirmed by another user of hte same phone (Gemini PDA) and also by someone who used to own a dual SIM Sony Experia, so it seems like a bug in Android. Any idea what to do about it?

Easiest way might be going to the app's settings and tell it not to show SIM contacts at all.

That seems to work, it was well hidden in the app settings, and it also works for DW contacts that I actually use!

Cool! \o/ Could you please answer your own question then with a short step-by-step guide of what you did? Would help others in a similar situation, especially with that setting so well buried. Thanks in advance!


text:
How to define a preferred Mobile Network?
Here is the situation: I live close to a border between to countries, one being under EU laws, the other being neutral, except when it comes to economical wars.
I have a phone contract in the EU, but I get billed high prices when roaming in the other country. However, in most places where I use my phone, I have access to the EU network where I should not be billed extra at all.
I know how to select manually the Operator's Network GSM network I want from the settings (Select a Network Operator), and this is the degraded solution I normally use. Problem is this takes too much time when it detects a bunch of useless operators networks around.

So I would like to know if there is a way (app, probably), that would make this easy, like "try to use the Operator's Network I know is provided in his very location".
Making it a "quick setting" would be a must, but probably already addressed somewhere else here.

edit:
My phone is not "rooted", so I may not use Xposed features. Using a Macro looks cool, but it would be enough if there was a known shell command to do this. Then I just have to map the command to the macro. Maybe an answer to this?

Related question: Stop auto-selecting cellular network

Related: How to force network operator selection once and for all?

I'm slightly confused. Do you want to change the preferred network type on the fly or the network operator? E.g. GSM, WCDMA (3G), LTE are network types but Verizon, AT&T, Vodafone are network operators. // If you are using a rooted Android, switching to another network type can be reduced to tapping a dedicated quick tile for once through Gravitybox xposed module. Or, you can setup a location based trigger using Tasker or MacroDroid app to change it.

@Firelord, Thanks for this remark. I want to change Operator's Network. Edited question.

TL;DR: you cannot do that, at least not without root.

The reason for this is, due to security concerns, there are no public APIs to do that software-wise.
The preferred network list is defined by the operator (see Preferred Roaming List), so you cannot influence it.
You can, however, enable/disable network roaming in the menu, or if you have root, do it programmatically with Xposed: Roaming Control.
You can also use the hidden Android menu *#*#4636#*#* where you can control how your phone will determine which network type (not operator type) to prefer, still this is in regards to the networks in the preferred list set by the operator.
You still have the option to ask your operator to disable roaming for you, which might be a solution. However, that would require you to ask them to enable it again if you travel elsewhere.
And finally, you can try the macro route via AutoInput.


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Titanium Backup installation error
I was using Titanium Backup previously. It was working fine when I rooted my device before a month. But Because of some problem in my phone I again rooted my device, and now when I install this app, I'm getting error 504.
I tried so many things:
I tried with different internet connection with high speed.
I cleared Google play cache/ services cache clear data etc.
I reset app preferences.
I downloaded apk from apkmiror.
I tried with signed testing APK.
I tried with the edit common files like change app name.

Need to find out what error 504 is. Get in touch with the developer.

I guess you're getting this error from the Playstore app? Then see: Error 504 when downloading apps from Play Store?

@Izzy Thanks for quick reply, but I almost read all the post. Please give me another solution.

@SiXandSeven8ths Can't install the app - this is the error. What should I do? Can you help me buddy?

Nope, sorry. I don't use the Playstore app anymore.

@Izzy O'oo Why Izzy?

I don't like to be tracked by them for everything (guess you've read they even track your location when you turn that off?) – so I kicked them off, installed a custom ROM without installing GApps, and feed most of my needs from F-Droid. Even network location works without that G-spyware (using microG). Playstore hides critical details (like not showing all permissions, not warning of trackers of which I found apps having about 20 of them included) – so that place doesn't look safe to me at all. F-Droid won't permit those trackers, and warns of risks. Much better a place IMHO.

@Izzy Okay. It seems like you're technically strong person. At least, for me find some solution.

If you have a computer available, you could try Raccoon to download the APK and manually installing it (assuming Playstore is at fault). You could also use Yalp Store to install apps from Playstore directly, bypassing the Playstore app.

@Izzy ummm...But I already found the APK from google, so Play store won't come in our picture. But still apk is also unable to install. (Link: https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/titanium-track/titanium-backup/titanium-backup-7-0-0-11-release/titanium-backup-7-0-0-android-apk-download/ )

My bad, missed the APKMirror part – sorry. How did you install it? Right on the device using some file explorer – or via adb install? In the latter case, you might get a more descriptive error message (not just a number). Checking the logs might bring up some hints as well.


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Android phone lost, Data wipe after password change
Here's an urgent situation regarding phone robbery:

My android phone (note 8) gets robbed and as far as i know it has not lost its way to some general person. It was robbed by force, so people handling that can misuse it, so am very concerned.
It all happened in a very unexpected fashion and very fast. In a hurry to secure device, i immediately login to my nearest computer when possible (after 15-20 mins), googled how to clean the lost device and followed the steps. From the very moment it showed these two options:
a. ) Play Sound
b.) Enable secure and erase

I repeatedly click on enable 'secure and erase', google showed an alert that a request to secure and release has been sent.  But i guess robbers would have switched the phone off, so google might not have been able to delete it immediately.

I read that as a first step, i must change my account password. So immediately i changed my account password from the phone.
Meanwhile, i kept trying for secure and erase and searching for other safe options. On searching for how would i confirm if the device have been wiped, i came to find that after 'secure and erase' google supposedly sends an email to ask for further multiple options.

Now here's my concern:

Having already changed the password, when those robbers do turn the phone on, will google would be able to still secure and erase the phone? Or have i hurt my own cause after changing the password immediately.

The emails contain lots of personal information as i have been a heavy user of email on phone and of professional email as well. Also the phone's gallery contains more than 2k photographs of family members and close friends. Am really concerned about this. I know similar question have been asked before but the answers to that arent very clear. So I'll be really greatful if on or more of you can share any further information on this.

The phone will be erased as soon as the phone is connected to some form of internet (either through mobile data or WiFi). Changing the password does not effect this procedure, the device will still be wiped.


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Xiaomi Mi 5C - Horrible Speed
I have a new Xiaomi Mi 5C ordered from AliExpress. When connected to the data network in Denmark, the internet is horribly sluggish. It seems to only be able to connect via Edge. Anybody knows a solution?
Note 1: that the same sim card in another phone provides 3G connectivity.
Note 2: all the settings are such that it should be using 3G when possible (e.g. Preferred Network Type = 3G)
Android Version: 7.1.2.

Only in Denmark, or generally? Because it could be the provider restricted (roaming) connections to that.

Oki, what solved it for me were the following steps for enabling 4G on Xiaomi Mi5C:

dial *#*#1#*#*
in the menu select 'TEL_Assistant'
select 'Telephony' and then 'Radio Access Tec'
choose the '5 MODE' and then 'Save'
reboot/restart the device

did you try changing the network model...is it stuck on edge..after changing the network model go to your network details and make shure your are on the selected network mode


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Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom broken power/volume key - How to boot
I got big problem with my phone (ASUS Zenfone 3 Zoom)
I broke the plug that connect the power/ volume cable so I am not able either turn on the phone or turn to safe mode.
Also the USB debugging mode was not enable so I would appreciate very much could you help me to back up the data and turn on the phone.
I appreciate and thank you very much for your help.
I tried with ADB command but the phone did not seem to be recognized
Thank you so much

plug in your phone.
immediately after plugging in , hold the volume down key until asus splash screen appears.
now connect your phone to pc.
install adb ("sudo apt install adb" is the command in linux).
enter "adb devices" command.check the device is appearing on your terminal.
then give "adb reboot" command.
This worked for my asus phone.Thank you


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WiFi says connected without internet, but works fine
I am connected to a school WiFi network and I am able to access webpages and my apps work fine, but Android says I am connected but have no network. The issue is that Android defaults to mobile data when it claims it isn't connected, which costs me money. I know that I am connected and have internet access, even when mobile data is turned off.
As of now, I have just been turning mobile data off in order to keep Android from defaulting to mobile data on that network.
I'm on a Pixel XL on Android 9.0 pie. The issue has existed since I got the phone (it was on 7.1 Nougat at that time)

Don't know if this is helpful but, there was a similar post addressing the same issue: Android wifi says “Connected, no internet” but internet works just fine

Are you using a firewall app like AFWall?

I had a similar issue. I solved it by rebooting the router. You can also just restart the gateway.


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Uninstalling 360 Security
I'm trying to delete 360 Security from my phone ( Samsung J 6 3 ), and it is activated as my device Administrator, when I go to deactivate the device administrative permission it shuts down my settings. How can i get rid of this app?

What happens if you  open the app page in Playstore and try to uninstall?

It asked me to deactivate the app as an administrator.  And that action causes the settings to shut down .

Try to repeat this step in safe mode. You can access safe mode by these steps.

Power off your device by holding down the Power button and then tapping on Power off.
  Power on your device by holding down the Power button. As soon as the Samsung Logo pops up, press and hold down the Volume Down key until your device as rebooted.
  You will now be able to see Safe Mode down the near the bottom left of the screen.
  To exit safe mode just reboot the device.

Hope it helped.

In safe mode the same thing happen it shuts down the setting app.

Funny things happen .I updated the 360 security app and then went back and the device administrator was deactivated .don't ask me why but it seemed to help .Thanks everyone for you answers.


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Turn off Snapchat camera sound in Android
Whenever I take a picture with the front camera on Snapchat on my Xiaomi Mi Max 2, it makes a loud fake camera shutter sound.
I have tried putting the phone on mute/do not disturb and having the ringer volume, alarm volume, and media volume off, and it still makes the sound. I have gone into the camera app settings and turned off the camera sounds, which works for my default camera app (I can take pictures on it with no sound) but it still makes the sound on Snapchat.
Does anyone know how to disable this sound? I'd be surprised if Snapchat made its own camera shutter sound which isn't mutable, surely it just uses the device's settings and sounds, right?

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

Easy solution - just press the moon icon on the top right corner of the screen on Snapchat to turn on Snapchat night mode and leave it on.

If you have Snapchat alpha enabled, turning on flash or night mode will disable the shutter sound.
To enable Snapchat alpha right now in the new update, you have to open the Snapchat map and search Bermuda. You'll find a ghost that can enable alpha mode.

After a lot of struggle, I found a solution. It might not be a permanent one but for now it works. Just download an older version where the sound is not in the app yet.

And which version would that be?

I have removed the link. We don't trust the links from that domain. For others looking for a trustworthy link: you may consider APK Mirror here: https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/snap-inc/snapchat/#description

First of all, Snapchat will access your mobile camera application because it has the permission given by the developers, one thing you can stop this by the following statements.
Go to Setting - Apps - Snapchat - then click on the launch button - then go to running apps - then just choose Snapchat and select stop. By this, you can stop the service of this app.

I don't think this has anything to do with the question, which is about "taking a photo" not "stopping the service of this app".

Go to your Camera app → open Settings, and turn off Camera sound. Because Snapchat uses the Xiaomi's Camera, it inherits this setting.

Snapchat uses the device's camera, but it doesn't use other camera apps, and thus those settings won't be inherited.

Snapchat doesn't directly use Xiaomi camera. It takes a screenshot of what happens on the screen through the camera. It doesn't actually take a 'photo'. I read it in an article. Try comparing Snapchat photos with camera photos with Xiaomi phone. The difference is absurd.
Snapchat doesn't want to make so many configurations for every Android phone that is getting pushed out on the market. Different resolutions, screen ratios, camera, etc., so they made a standard for probably all non-flagship phones I think. I got Mi Mix 1, this one is affected by this standard.

This needs some clarification: Snapchat doesn't use Xiaomi's Camera app, but it certainly uses the device's camera. 3rd-party apps can request an image from image-taking apps (such as Camera apps) or integrate camera API directly to their app. Most dedicated Camera apps take better photos because they're developed for that purpose, while other apps may just take a photo simply for convenience. However, this doesn't answer the question of "how to turn off the camera sound while taking a photo on Snapchat"...

It's because of the rear camera.
Switch it to the front camera on your phone so when your app opens, it shows you on the app screen. And now there's no more sound when you open or close your app, as long as you are using the front camera and always set it back to open the front camera on your phone.

I don't think this has anything to do with the question, which is about "taking a photo" not "opening the app".


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What is the scope of Google Play Protect's scanning?
Even though I don't recommend relying on it (because it is not very effective), I know quite a few people who only use Google Play Protect.

Does Google Play Protect only scan apps installed via the Google Play Store or does it scan all installed apps?
Does it scan APK files on the device that are not installed?

From experience

Does Google Play Protect only scan apps installed via the Google Play Store or does it scan all installed apps?

It checks for all apps installed on the device irrespective of source (barring systemless installs using Magisk). For instance V4A (Viper for Android) flashed through TWRP triggered this warning

Does it scan APK files on the device that are not installed?

No, it does not scan APKs. I was transferring APKs of old versions of apps which I prefer over current version and inadvertently copied Lucky Patcher APK. Since I didn't install it, it passed checks

+1. I agree too. And I want to add that Google Play Protect actually sucks in what it does. I have URet patcher installed too (an alternative to Lucky Patcher in few cases) and Google Play doesn't detect it as a harmful app.

@Firelord Even worse, it doesn't detect Lucky Patcher (vanilla!) on my OnePlus 5/6 in more than half a year.


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How to free up space to install apps?
After installing a 32 GB SD card, having trouble installing apps.  Because the OS is 5.x and not upgradable then adoptable storage isn't an option.
How can I install apps when the system reports insufficient free space?  Every app I've downloaded has been moved to SD card, yet, the prompt is to uninstall these apps.  To reiterate, every app which I'm being prompted to uninstall has already been moved to external storage.
Seems a conundrum.

After resetting to factory default I then installed Disk Analysis for defrag on the system storage.

You don't defrag solid state storage... it just wears on the chip which has limited write cycles. Even when apps are "moved" to external storage, only a portion of that data is actually moved. Before an app can be moved, it must be installed on the internal storage first, that is why the OS is telling you that you have insufficient space. A third party tool is normally not necessary, use Settings - Storage to see what is using space and uninstall, delete, or move the files to free up space.

Also, force stop those system apps which you don't use and uninstall updates for them. They will free up some space

You can move the app to the sd-card, however the OAT files (the ART compiled code that is actually been executed) will still be placed on the user partition. Therefore deleting unused apps is the the best option.

If you have root, just disable internal memory and use SDCard as internal memory. It's a bit hacking stuff but simple. I use a 64GB SDCard as internal memory on an older phone with 16GB eMMC.


text:
Why do I have to uninstall apps twice?
On my LG Aristo, I uninstall an app by dragging it to the uninstall interface at the top.
But then when I go on Google Play I find that the app isn't uninstalled, only disabled. What gives?
I'm not talking about system apps at all. I download an app from the play store and uninstall it.

I believe you are running into a situation where the launcher doesn't know what constitutes a system app.  System apps are those that are pre-installed, or bundled with your particular OS.  These are apps like Clock, Calculator, and whatever else OEMs like LG has decided to install on the device.
When you drag an icon to the "uninstall interface" at the top of your screen, this is your device's launcher app providing a convenient way to call the Action Uninstall Package Intent
Since you can't uninstall system apps normally, the launcher instead issues  an intent that essentially "disables" the app - the next best thing the system can do besides actually uninstall.

I'm not talking about system apps at all. I download an app from the play store and try to uninstall it.


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What does "messages" mean in the Priority Only settings in Do Not Disturb?
In the DND (Do Not Disturb) settings in Android 8.1 there is an option to allow "Priority Only" notifications through. You can set what types of things qualify for priority (e.g., someone calling twice in a 15 minute period).
One of the options there is "Messages" which you can set to anyone, contacts only, starred contacts only or none.
However, what "messages" does this apply to? Is it only from hangouts or the builting messaging app? Is it SMS messages?
For example, I'd like WhatsApp messages from certainly people to come through, but I doubt Android knows how to match up the sending of a message from a third-party messaging to my contacts list?

I checked this about an year ago when I had hangouts installed
All messages (including text) that use GCM were blocked. WhatsApp doesn't use GCM so they will be received

... but the whasapp notification will still be blocked by DND  I guess? Are you saying that "messages" here then refers to messages between GCM and the phone? That seems much too technical and seems unlike they would actually block delivery of the message, DND must be implemented locally on the phone.

No whatsapp notification was not blocked. You can check it. Also, it is reasonable to think that DND acts on contacts stored by Google contacts and not for apps like Whatsapp that have their own contact list

They're is nothing complex with GCM. It is a core component of Google

I don't think you are understanding my point: the behavior of what notifications to block is purely a local decision by the phone. If I tell it to disable all notifications, they are, including whatsapp - whatsapp doesn't have some magic to bypass DND, and anyways it was just an example. My question was specifically about the "messages" category: if I let messages through from "starred contacts", what apps does this apply to? It seems obvious to me it cannot apply to third party apps, GCM or not, because I doubt there is a concept sender for third party notifications.

I get you but whatsapp messages came through and I gave a likely reason (apart from GCM, separate contact list) You can verify and let me know because I am currently without Whatsapp too

If it's just phone contacts, then it's just phone contacts. If it's a Google thing,  as long as you got contacts on your Google account, then that will still go through. Look at it like messenger and phone (SMS) messages.


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How to revert to tabbed overview in Chrome?
I recently updated my Chrome for Android (currently on v68) and noticed that tapping on the box icon (next to address bar) gives a tab list instead of SystemUI type overview that Chrome used to give. See the two images below for comparison.
I know that I can get that same view by swiping downwards from the address bar but I'm habitual of getting it from that box icon.
So what can I do to get back that view from that box without reverting to a previous version of Chrome and without switching to an another browser (unless it is Chrome based)?

You just need to uncheck the "Simplified view for open tabs" box under Settings → Accessibility in Chrome app.

Per beeshyams's comment
 the culprit appears to be the flag Accessibility Tab Switcher. However, I also did a fresh install to reproduce the issue with all flags untouched and it was ruled out with that.
Talking about Accessibility as he mentioned, I attempted Safe Mode and found that the issue was gone. Later, I tried to stop all accessibility services under Settings → Accessibility, and using trial and error, found AutoInput to be the culprit causing the overview to flatten out. Stopping its service immediately solved the problem.

Type chrome://flags in address bar, search and disable Accessibility Tab Switcher

I fixed the issue by going to chrome://flags and enabled "Enable horizontal tab switcher"...
Cheers


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How do I add Android user (linux level) to a group?
groupadd and useradd aren't available, so how I can add a user (app's assigned user) to a group?
Also, the file /etc/group does not exist and I couldn't find where Android saves this information. (googling/greping).

Take a look into the file /data/system/packages.list (root required).

This does not tell us what you are trying to achieve through that. Please give us the whole picture.

i want to make genymotion shared directory accessible to a non-root user/app. on a plain linux you just add the user to a specific group. i want to do the same in android

@Bnaya where is the "genymotion shared directory" located and what users/apps you want to allow access for this directory?

I don't have an android phone in front of me, but I imagine you could just edit /etc/group and add the user to a group. Find the group you want to add them to and insert a comma, then the user name.
Example :
sambashare:x:115:sam,sally,yourNewUser

Where the first column is the group name, then the second column is group passwd (leave it an x), groupID and then the users.

cat /etc/group
cat: /etc/group: No such file or directory

I was trying that before, should have mention that in the question


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Bluetooth keyboards is not switching languages properly
I just bought a cheap bluetooth keyboard to use it with my Huawei MediaPad M3 lite (Android 7.0). It works pretty fine but when I tried to change the language it does not work, i.e. it stay on English (US) (and I have Bulgarian too in the virtual keyboard).
Here is how the settings for it looks like:

The problem is that I cannot add additional layout/language to the Gboard. It only allows me to select just one.
Strangely enough, the BT keyboard have a shortcut for switching layout (blue Fn + space) and when pressed the virtual keyboard switches the layout but the BT keyboard still uses English.
I want to be able to add Bulgarian language to physical keyboard. How to do it?
Is this problem solvable in Android 7.0?

I haven't seen that built-in any Android version so far but you can achieve it easily with a 3rd party software "External Keyboard Helper":
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apedroid.hwkeyboardhelper&hl=en_US
It includes support for Bulgarian typewriter and Phonetic layouts.


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Failed to mount /cache (Invalid argument)
I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 G900H.
It had the stock ROM, and is quite old and slow, so I was asked to put something newer on it, and I got LineageOS.
As my previous experiences with Samsung phones, the usual trouble occurred, with USB communications failing for no reason, getting drivers, messing with ADB, etc.
This time however I got to a stump - it simply won't mount the cache partition. I have installed the TRWP of this phone (k3gxx) with Odin, and even tried 3 different versions.
The cache can never be mounted, not to format it nor to actually install the ROM, and since other things were formatted before the recovery got stuck on the cache, the phone is now bricked, as far as I could tell.
Googling only resulted in answers such as "can't mount cache? go into recovery mode, mount cache, and clear it", but I am not sure I can follow the logic of mounting the cache to fix the problem of not being able to mount the cache.
Fastboot of course cannot help, since this is a Samsung phone.
I can freely get into Download and Recovery modes.
Is there anything actually left to do?

I don't have access to said phone right now, but hopefully I will have soon enough. I'll try doing what you wrote then, thanks!

Format the cache partition, that will help you to mount later.

Just go for Wipe menu from TWRP home screen and select cache. It will show same error but format will be completed.
Then select Mount menu from TWRP and select cache. It'll be mounted.


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PDF Print Preview Failure on Android 7
An Android phone with Android 7, trying to use the HP Print Service Plugin (Android 8 was the version that brought in the default print service that makes this obsolete).
Certain PDF files (all from the same sender, it appears) will not render correctly in the print preview dialog (and will not print, either). Instead of lines of text, you only see horizontal grey blocks where text should be. This is similar to how the Facebook website behaves while it's downloading content - showing a placeholder of sorts.
The same PDFs on my Samsung S7 and another random unbranded Android 8 tablet work fine.
Is there anything I might be able to do, or at least an explanation I can give for the issue?
Many thanks in advance.


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Android x86 in VirtualBox: “FATAL: NO BOOTABLE MEDIUM FOUND. SYSTEM HALTED” directly after installation
“FATAL: NO BOOTABLE MEDIUM FOUND. SYSTEM HALTED” appears on Android x86 6.0 rc3, but not on Linux Mint or Windows XP, immediately after installation.
The boot order is correct.What might be wrong?

That was likely a flaw in Android x86 Marshmallow, which has already been patched in Android x86 Nougat, according to my tests.


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Android still uses old ip when resolving hostname
I have a weird problem here.
I use ftp to exchange files between my smartphone (Xperia Z5 compact) and my pc. A while back the pc had a static ip address but now it's assigned one via dhcp. When I try to connect to the pc from the phone by way of the pc's hostname it still uses the old static ip the pc once had.
Any ideas as to what I can do about this?

Are you root? Which FTP server app/program you use? Your PC's old IP must be saved in FTP server's cache. Try resetting server app by clearing data. Or check your /etc/hosts file if an entry is added there.

No, I don't have root access. I use Total Commander's FTP plugin. The problem doesn't only occur with the FTP client. When I use the terminal emulator and ping my pc its hostname only gets "resolved" to its old ip address. /etc/hosts just contains the standard localhost entries.

Clear arp entries

How do I do that on Android?

That command is not found on my phone.

Busybox arp only works on rooted devices, it seems.

At least you can identify the problem without root. 'cat /proc/net/arp' does the same. ARP related problems should be fixed on reboot.

You can  clear arp cache using this command in terminal:
ip -s -s neigh flush all

(or simply ip neigh flush 192.168.xx.0/yy if you know the network range)
While not necessary, you may need to reboot the device, ping the hostname again and see if its resolved to new IP.
Looking from the other side, you can try resetting winsock entries and TCP/IP stack for the PC and see if it solves the issue.

Thanks, the command works, but the problem still remains. I think this may be a router problem.


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Default Outlook sound notification
I have changed the new mail notification in the Outlook app to an Android - but now I'd like to change it back. In the list of Sounds the default Outlook sound isn't listed - where is it hidden?!


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Google Photos and Files Apps on Google Pixel 2 is giving the following error "android.process.media has stopped"
I have read quite a bit about this issue from "clearing caches" to "formatting your phone".... it works for some people and it doesn't for others. Well formatting your phone will work but you lose quite a bit of data and most importantly time!
I have been bugged by this problem for almost over 2 weeks and today I stumbled upon the solution. So I am sharing with you all so you can resolve a long lasting issue.
This is actually a SOLUTION for all experiencing the same problem as the subject header.
Good news: no formatting needed.
1a. Go into File Explorer > Phone Storage (internal) > Downloads > find a file called something like "goo.google.com..."
1b. Deleting everything in your download folder would be ideal but depends on how many files you got in there. There could be multiple files called goo.google.com or something like this.
2. Delete the file or files
3. Close all apps
4. Restart your phone
5. Check
This solution worked for me like a charm and I don't have to format my phone anymore.
Cause: I maybe was downloading a file from chrome which I may have stopped in the middle or something on these lines, i guess.
Maybe more people can shed light on this problem and solution!
Thank you,
Muhammad

Thanks for this suggestion, I tried several onces that suggested stopping some processes and removing cache but they did not work.
I want to downloads as you suggested, removed some files I recently downloaded, checking the date when the problem started (I did not find goo.google.com files).
Reboot and problem seems to be solved for now!


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Check latest added apps in google play store
How do we check latest added apps in google play store? Currently we can only see New Free Releases but that are top new Free apps.
So How to Check latest added apps in google play store?


text:
How do I backup media, game data (internal storage) using TWRP?
It is known that TWRP does not back up /data/media as you can read
here and on other posts on this site, also on TWRP FAQ
How can one bypass this?

There's an app that's just been released (tested on Moto X Play) that bridges the gap between Nandroid and full backup and backs up photos, videos, game data etc, which wasn't possible earlier
Tipatch (Play Store) and quoting from developers XDA thread

Tipatch patches TWRP to backup contents of internal storage (emulated SD card) as part of Data, thus preventing data loss. Internal storage typically includes items such as photos, videos, downloads, game data, and other assorted files.
A side effect is that wiping "Data" will also wipe internal storage. This cannot be fixed.

Programs (instead of using app) for all OS's available on Github
I am not affiliated in any way with the app or developer and wanted to share a tip-off from a friend
Edit: Also now tracker free version available in Izzy's F-droid repo
Edit 2 User alecxs who is a regular contributor here has a universal bind mount enabler, for the same functionality. You can download it from XDA. There is also a Magisk module "TWRP helper" that claims to do the same (not tested by me).

I would follow the idea from https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/general/tutorial-create-internal-storage-backup-t3389172 - that is

Step 1- reboot in recovery
  Step 2-mount all partitions
  Step 3-now open file manager
  Step 4-go to path /data/media
  Step 5-now rename media folder name to xyz
  (now path name is /data/xyz)
  Step 6- now go to backup window
  Step 7- now refresh memory.... u notice that data partition memory is increase (data+internal storage)

and then back up to your preferred location, e.g. external SD card.

Starting from TWRP version 3.4.0+ we can now make backup of Internal Storage straight from menu without any modification
thanks to the developers who finally decided to include that option after a long period of such feature request :)

Can you share where did you get that info? I'm struggling to find any info on it

@CaldeiraG see entry "Internal Storage" in recovery.fstab it is using fsflags="bind"

Ok, I see it but if I updated my TWRP now to the 3.4 version, would it work? I'm running a Redmi 5 Plus (vince)

@CaldeiraG unfortunately the maintainer (from Hubei Wuhan) is busy or not available, but you can add entry in twrp.fstab yourself