text:
How to fix context manually or with a tool?
I've installed the new version of MIUI 14 from the MIUI 13 on my Xiaomi device mi 10 ultra, cas codename, after that i receive a system alert about battery and performance application, the issues are about context, here the log:
java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'android.content.pm.PackageManager android.content.Context.getPackageManager()' on a null object reference
    at com.miui.powerkeeper.utils.PackageUtil.getPackageNameByUid(Unknown Source:0)
    at com.miui.powerkeeper.millet.MilletUidObserver.getPkgNameByUid(Unknown Source:20)
    at com.miui.powerkeeper.millet.MilletUtils.setPkgData(Unknown Source:7)
    at com.miui.powerkeeper.controller.FrozenAppController$AppStateFrozenControl.frozenAppLater(Unknown Source:57)
    at com.miui.powerkeeper.controller.FrozenAppController$AppStateFrozenControl.handleEvent(Unknown Source:83)
    at com.miui.powerkeeper.controller.FrozenAppController$AppStateFrozenControl.frozenAppNow(Unknown Source:183)
    at com.miui.powerkeeper.controller.FrozenAppController$AppStateFrozenControl.handleEvent(Unknown Source:262)
    at com.miui.powerkeeper.controller.FrozenAppController$8.run(Unknown Source:20)
    at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Unknown Source:2)
    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Unknown Source:4)
    at android.os.Looper.loopOnce(Unknown Source:182)
    at android.os.Looper.loop(Unknown Source:82)
    at android.os.HandlerThread.run(Unknown Source:28)

So my question is how to fix this context system error manually using chcon or restorecon or any other method?

This is a bug of an app that is part of your system. You can not change such apps. What you can try is to clear app data of the affected [system] app (e.g. if the app data does not match the new app version). If that does not help consider it a bug, report it to
Xiaomi and hope that it will be fixed with the next update.

I've try to check in settings>applications but i can't find the app to clear the cache as you tell..... any suggestion where to find it for clearing the cache?

The error is about Android App Context, not Security Context. Only the developers of the app (com.miui.powerkeeper) can fix the bug.

Thank you @Robert for your hint i've solved the problem, the alert window with the mentioned bugs is not popping up anymore, the path to solve the problem was: settings>applications, tap the three dots up right on the screen corner> show all application>battery and performance application>clear all data.


text:
Android 11 ADB change preferred network mode
Situation
I am trying to change the preferred network mode of two Android devices using ADB through the following commands.
Both phones run Android 11 API 30 and are rooted.
The entries in question were determined through settings_global.xml while change it manually via the UI.
The modes in question can be found here: cs.android.com.
I want it to run via ADB.
Device Input
Here for the first device:
adb shell settings put global preferred_network_mode 32,20
adb shell settings put global preferred_network_mode19 32
adb shell stop ril-daemon
adb shell start ril-daemon
adb shell settings put global airplane_mode_on 1
adb shell am broadcast -a android.intent.action.AIRPLANE_MODE --ez state true
adb shell settings put global airplane_mode_on 0
adb shell am broadcast -a android.intent.action.AIRPLANE_MODE --ez state false

This works out fine. I can control the RAT Technology as intended.
Here for the second device:
adb shell settings put global preferred_network_mode 32
adb shell settings put global preferred_network_mode11 32
adb shell stop ril-daemon
adb shell start ril-daemon
adb shell settings put global airplane_mode_on 1
adb shell am broadcast -a android.intent.action.AIRPLANE_MODE --ez state true
adb shell settings put global airplane_mode_on 0
adb shell am broadcast -a android.intent.action.AIRPLANE_MODE --ez state false

The entries do show up if called by using adb shell settings list global, in the settings_global.xml and also in the UI but the modem is just not bothered by this.
Questions

Why are there that many different preferred_network_mode entries (up to twenty) and in what do they differ?
Is there a way to force a re-read of settings_global.xml (after it was adjusted) or the global settings?
Do I need to change the procedure for the latter phone? (different action call?) If so, to what?

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Valid sim card occasionally not being detected
My android (TLC 767w) Will occasionally lose all network access, reporting an error that sim card could not be detected and giving an annoying ping every minute or so at me.  I've always been able to get the phone to detect the sim card eventually, but I'm worried it may be a problem that will grow worse or strand me at an inconvenient time without access.   So far the issues have only happened when roaming out of my home state.  I couldn't imagine why my physical location would matter for detecting the sim card and so presumed the fact that it always happened out of state was a fluke, but the last two times in particular seemed suspiciously (in)convenient timing if location didn't matter so not sure what to think now.
I've tried looking up causes for sim card errors and none of them seemed to help.  I checking and cleaning the physical sim card, not really sure how much that would help.  I've tried changing network status, resetting network and connecting to one manually etc without help.  I hadn't made any noticeable changes to third party apps around the time the error appeared so I don't think that is the cause of the problem.
A bit more detail on each time this happened.

First time was many states away.  Issue persisted for days and after I returned home, which was when I realized it was a sim card issue and not just being out of network.  A reboot immediately fixed it but only after it stayed broken after I went home.
(I tweaked some network settings trying to figure out cause of networking issue this first time, not sure if that matters)

Second time reboot fixed the problem while still many states away.

Third time an 1.5 hr north of my home.  The 'reboot' option didn't fix it, but shutting down phone, waiting a few minutes for all capacitors to drain, and then rebooting did.

Fourth and fifth times a month later on same trip as third time.  Lost network connection at roughly the same point in the drive.  Repeated reboots of any type didn't fix it, but the network did seem to come back on its own eventually as I drove back towards my home state without a reboot.  This seemed really odd, it stayed broken for hours away from my home and fixed itself only as I approached home...

It may or may not have happened one other time very close to my home.  I lost network connection where I know I should have had it, but never got the error message about being unable to detect the sim card.  I probably should have waited longer to see if the error showed up (it always seems to take a bit for the error to be reported, I waited as long as it usually took for the error to appear at least) but I was in a hurry so rebooted the phone and network connection came back.

So yeah not sure what to do next.  I'm trying to figure out the likely causes, if I can do anything to minimize the problem and/or if I should expect it to grow worse over time, and rather a replacement of my android is likely to help or be necessary.

How old is the used SIM card? Ich you look at the contact pads of the sim card are there deep scratches visible that could prevent electrical contact?

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


text:
Data transmitted via ADB makes emulator stopping
Recently, I was running the Visual Studio Android emulator and TCPView, and I saw that the emulator keeps stopping.

When I click "Wait", then some data is sent via adb to the emulator and the same amount of data comes back via adb on another connection.
When I click "Stop app", then data is transmitted without stopping.

Then I stopped the VM and reset it where it started from the beginning.


text:
Chromium randomly cannot load pages
I have a Realme 1 with Android 9. No matter what Chromium I use, sometimes the pages don't load, the loading bar being a bit filled. This happens randomly. It even happens with about:blank. I have faced this problem for years with Bromite, Kiwi Browser, Brave etc. The Webview browsers do not have this problem. I do not have Chrome installed.

Whats your phone specification ?

@RohitGupta the post has mentioned "Realme 1 with Android 9", so I'm not sure what information you want to know more about without mentioning it specifically...

@RohitGupta 4GB RAM 64GB Storage. More info at: https://m.gsmarena.com/realme_1-9200.php if you want to be more specific.


text:
Mounting an extra partition as a fake external SD card
Nowadays phones don't have SD cards anymore, but some have a ton of storage. So, I was thinking of creating a fake external SD card using an extra partition to be able to store all of your zip flashable files, pictures, and music and have it stay when you inevitably format user data when flashing a ROM or whatever.
My question is: How to properly mount a partition as an SD card so that Android thinks you have an external SD? (you see it in a file manager, can store pictures on it directly, etc.)
What I've done already :

I have created an extra partition on my OnePlus 6 with parted, it's sda17
I have successfully mounted this partition to be able to use it normally
(mount -t ext4 -o rw /dev/block/sda17 /external_sd)
This command allows you to navigate to /external_sd and see your files, but Android doesn't think that you have an external SD card.

I'm thinking of using a Magisk module to mount everything properly at every boot (if this is even possible)

Its not true that phones dont have sdcards anymore.  I still have them in the latest Samsung phones.  Whats the purpose in making internal storage into sdcard ?  It makes no sense to me.  For me, the main advantage of an sdcard is that you can just transfer it to your new phone. How will this help ?

Every time you flash a custom rom the entire userdata partition is formatted (for a clean flash). If i were to buy a Redmi note 12 turbo with 1TB of storage, I'd like to allocate some of that space to have some form of permanent storage for photos, music, etc... Having it be a fake sd card would just allow apps to recognise it (if it's a directory in the root of the filesystem you can only access it with a rooted explorer, or termux).
Also you are right, there are new samsung phones with sd cards, but none are good. They are less powerful that my 150€ Poco X3 Pro with less features.

Its just not possible and even if it was you would need root, jbrim**** is right also, every time you factory reset it'll wipe ALL user data including newly created partions....

Of course you need root to do that kind of black magic ;) ! Keep in mind I've already gotten an extra partition mounted and I have file on it on my test phone. It's already useful to store my app bakcups and zips for TWRP and Magisk as a permanent storage, so that part is confirmed. Really what I don't know is if "fooling android into displaying that partition as if it were an sdcard" is possible.


text:
How can I make sure Bluetooth is working every morning?
I use Google Clock & Spotify as my morning alarm, with OnePlus 11 connected to my Marantz NR1200 stereo receiver.
When this works, the alarm sounds and plays. It has worked about 4 out of 5 times. But, because there is a sound delay of about 1 second between the phone speaker and the main speakers, I usually set the alarm volume on the phone very low, and to get a sufficient volume on the main speakers, I have to set the media volume on my phone at around max. The volume on my Marantz is also tied to my phone media volume, so it's set at 72.
This is kind of scary though, as sometimes if I accidentally play music from the phone or have any other media sound, this plays extremely loud on my main speakers. The alarm sound is okay, I guess because the low alarm volume and high media volume balances this out.
So, every night, I have to make sure the media volume is max, the alarm volume is low, and silent mode on the phone is activated (so as to not be shocked awake by a notification)... so, not optimal.
The real problem is when Bluetooth doesn't sound at all. It has happened about 3 times since I got the Marantz. When it happens, the alarm plays from the phone at a low volume, but nothing from the main speakers. The phone is connected via BT to the Marantz as shown in the display of the receiver, and also in the BT menu of the phone.
This makes my morning filled with some anxiety, because I am so used to waking up to music and I need this to keep working, or I might have to change receiver.
I have considered putting in the old solution from my previous receiver; a phono cable in the back of Marantz to a minijack on my phone; but having tried that the sound was awful in comparison, and because of the high volume, I could hear the speakers static constantly.
So I was hoping anyone could help me remedy this situation. I don't have enough know-how to even begin to troubleshoot this.
Any helpers?

Do you have other BT devices?

No, just the receiver and my phone


text:
SD card internal storage - photos not showing in Photos - how do I format/unmount safely to not lose WhatsApp history?
The storage on my Android 11 phone (Fairphone 3) was running out so I mounted a Lexar micro SD card to increase storage. I now realise this was a mistake but not knowing any better I formatted it as internal storage as that is essentially what I needed.
Now any photos I take will not show up in Gallery, Photos or Drive and neither can I see them on the SD card - so they're essentially not being taken. Taking a picture within Whatsapp is possible but then impossible to send because the file format isn't "valid". (And when I manually eject the card, the camera won't work at all.)
I've come as far as thinking I need to format the SD card to portable to fix this? Essentially I want to undo ever putting it in there, I'd rather take low storage.
BUT while there are no major picture or document files on the card, I noticed the WhatsApp Databases and Backup files and I'm worried that formatting will wipe my WhatsApp account. It's also backing up to Drive but when I try and do a manual back-up without the SD card in (thinking I can then uninstal/reinstal Whatsapp and load the most recent Drive backup after formatting + losing the SD storage) it tells me "Backup skipped because internal storage not available".
So could someone please confirm:

Do I need to FORMAT my SD card to fix the Photos issue?
Will I lose my WhatsApp chats if I format because it deletes the Databases?
If so, is the only way to save it to secure a Drive backup, format the SD card, then uninstal/reinstal WhatsApp and load the Drive backup?

Thanks!!
TL;DR how do I get out of an internal formatted SD storage situation without losing my WhatsApp history?

Going from internal to external is going to erase all, best bet would be transfer whatsapp app, and data to a pc or other storage device, then revert to external by wiping card....
Is whatsapp on external card for sure, if it is just backup the data, if its on internal alone then you should be ok with formatting sd as is...
To check this use a file explorer to check SD and internal contents


text:
Is it possible to disable the clipboard service?
I would like to replace the native clipboard functionality with a third-party app and I want to disable the stock clipboard to prevent myself from accidentally storing things there out of habit. Is there a way to disable the clipboard service on an unrooted device running Android 10?

As a general rule, you can't disable any stock feature unless it is an app & clipboard isn't an app//If you root your device, there may  be ways to disable it or flash a custom ROM that let's you do this

@beeshyams Ok, that's what I figured, but I was hoping there was a trick or something. My issue is that the clipboard is shared across different profiles on my phone and I want it to be separated.

AFAIK, it's not possible//adding your motive to the question by [edit]ing may help getting solutions


text:
How to control the media and ringtone volumes separately?
In my Galaxy S20, whenever I turn down the volume for an application, it also turns down the ringtone volume too, which means I'm missing calls if I forget to put the volume back up.
In my previous phone, when I would change the volume from within an application, that will change the "media", while if I was changing it from the home screen, that would change the "ringtone" volume. But now it seems if I change it from anywhere it changes both volumes.
Any idea how to make it work like before? I can't seem to find any option for this

For Samsung devices, have you checked the settings for "Use Volume keys for media" from Settings - Sounds and vibration - Volume? However, I'm not sure if there's a built-in/visual setting to revert to the previous behavior.

If you just need to change media, system, ringtone, or notification. Just hit one of the volume keys, then when you see volume pop-up, should be a down arrow, just click that...


text:
Help in identifying Notification icon
Can anyone help me identifying the attached notification icons other than the alarm symbol?
-Ben

Welcome to the Q&A site Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange. If you're the device owner, please try the following method. Otherwise, since there are millions of Android apps and more for notification icons, the community can't help anymore in identifying a specific icon of an app.


text:
How to reset a parent-managed kid's phone?
My daughter has changed her lock screen password. Didn't write it down. And had forgotten it. And so her phone is locked.
What I observe is:

After restart, she's been asked a code. I can't find anyway to reset that code.

Her phone is connected to the web. I can see today's date on the Family Link page for her account.

I cannot find a way to switch from user on her phone (i.e. logging with my own account)

Stopping and Restarting the device is not possible. The phone remains on that lock screen. Only a hard-shutdown is possible (Volume up/Volume down/Power during a few seconds).

The phone doesn't ring when I ask it to ring from the Family Link page.

I tried various ways to connect to the phone :

The procedures with Find My Device don't work, because :

When I connect to Google with my own account, I cannot switch to her account, and hence don't see her phone as candidate phone to work on.
When I connect with her account, she has no rights to use that application.

The Family Link page provides a 6-digits code that changes every hour supposedly providing access to the phone. It doesn't. The phone keeps saying invalid password.

The Family Link page lets define a new lock screen password. Defining a new password doesn't help despite a hard restart of the phone.

What are my options now ? A hard reset of the phone is acceptable. But even that I don't succeed to do.

PS: The phone is a Samsung A03

If you reboot the phone the phone is in a partially locked state. Is is caused by the file encryption (the phone uses File Based Encryption) which is unable to decrypt personal user data stored on the phone without entering the lock screen PIN at least one time. So at the moment only general device configuration like Wifi passwords are accessible. Not sure if there is a way to recover the phone without performing a factory reset.

A03 is MediaTek SoC so low level access is available for erasing FRP

@alecxs I'm afraid that I don't understand your answer. Could you translate it in more "end-user" language ? Thanks.

just a hint not an answer. unfortunately, not for "end-user"

Turn phone off. If android turn back on holding down volume up and power button until you see startup logo,
if it boots all the way then you did something wrong....
if yours is version 8 or lower should go straight to the recovery mode, from ther you can do factory reset.....
if higher than 8 then while in recovery you have to do an extra step, but sadly everytime i do it i get it by accident....
Hope this helps


text:
How can I find CID from ADB shell?
I need to know the CID of an HTC 10 but,
adb shell getprop ro.cid

is unresponsive. Also
$ fastboot devices
FA**********     fastboot
$ fastboot oem readcid
FAILED (remote: 'unknown command')
fastboot: error: Command failed

Also, grep -ril cid is unsuccessful on root.
How can I get the CID info on my Android device?

It's possible to get cid info with following command.
adb shell getprop|grep cid
$adb shell getprop|grep cid
[ro.boot.cid]: [HTC__M27]

Why not simply adb shell getprop ro.boot.cid?

Generally, getprobe ro.* commands are not efficient in my scenario.


text:
ADB accessing shell /data/data/com.<specified_app>
I tried this ADB command:
adb shell
cd /data/data/com.whatsapp

I want retrieve Whatsapp key file without root but I still get permission denied. Any idea how can I get read access of com.whatsapp directory?

You need a rooted phone. Then you can execute su  and you will be able to access all directories within /data/data/

you can uninstall WhatsApp with special adb flag so the app data remains on phone. after reboot, you can downgrade to older WhatsApp version that allows adb backup without root. there used to be a script for doing these steps automatized. read over here. another post suggest the key itself is hidden in .nomedia file (cannot proof that I don't have WhatsApp)

Yea sadly the /data/data folders are only accessible with root... you might be able to use a virtual root android to do this but wouldn't hold my breath... (requires pc)

To the moderator that declined my flag, do you seriously think that this should not be a comment.  There is no concrete answer here - its speculation.


text:
Chromecast Google TV: rotate output to display with default portrait mode
I recently bought a Waveshare display to connect my Raspberry Pi (RPI) to it for showing Home Assistant info. The display also has a second HDMI port which I would like to use to connect my Chromecast Google TV.
However, the default resolution (EDID data) is 1080x1920, so by default a portrait mode display. In my RPI, I can rotate the screen to 1920x1080. But I'm still looking for a solution for rotating also the Chromecast GGTV.
I already tried to install a "screenrotation" app, but nothing happened. I also tried to connect to the screen through adb and run some commands, but not the result I was hoping for (I got a message that the Chromecast did not support that resolution).
Today I found on the internet an EDID emulator. Could this be a solution? These are the EDID timing parameters of the display:
Pixel Clock  H Addressable  H Blanking  V Addressable  V Blanking  H Front Porch  H Sync Width  V Front Porch  V Sync Width  H Image Size  V Image Size  H Border  V Border
141.12       1080           120         1920           40          40             20            2              5             1080          1920          0         0

Any idea how to solve my problem (if there is a solution)?
Link to my display settings: https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/21.5inch_FHD_Monitor


text:
Where is the su policy defined in Andriod SELinux Policy?
Where the su policy is defined in the  SELinux policy and see what makes it different to other policies?

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.

What is "su policy"?


text:
How to get the phone production date via ADB?
How can I get programmatically when the phone was manufactured?
Is there any framework, instrumentation or toolset like Windows WMIC that allows unequivocally get hardware parameters of the device?
I found this question but it is old, related to Motorola and has no answers, that is why I decided to ask a new one. I am seeking solution for Samsung phone, but vendor-agnostic way will be way better.
I know about IMEI way of checking the production date, but I want something more accurate that can be a double check.
Thanks.

[SO] answers indicate that it's not possible to get the production date

For Samsung phones, this claims to give more info https://sndeep.info/en

Between the IMEI dates and the date when your phone appeared on geekbench example could give you an approximate time window as a reasonable guess

**Have you ever wanted to know the When the phone was manufactured?** - Samsung specific. I used this app a lot on Note 2 and found it good. IIRC it had device specific USSD codes and shortcuts to trigger them

Sadly, on Verizon Samsung phones all the USSD codes are stripped down, neither works

@beeshyams good app, and its output matched with what sndeep.info showed, but it is not free, this is its con. I can obtain the same info on multiple IMEI and serial checkers

I paid for the app and if you can find a way to share your serial number I can try checking for production date.

It doesn't give the manufacturing date on my Pixel 6a but from app description it should give for Samsung based on Serial number

Grabbing the exact manufacturing date of a phone programmatically is not a straightforward task, and there is no standard framework or API in Android that provides this information aka  manufacturing date is not a an  exposed parameter in the device's hardware or software.
IMEI way you mentioned is one of the methods to get an approximate manufacturing date, but it's not always accurate,
The closest I have come to getting this info consistently on all Android versions  is this  ( build.prop metadata )
stat -c %y /system/build.prop
2020-12-31 20:30:00

On some Android devices this date maybe  stored in specific files  depending on   propriety flavor of Android used  ( e.g. MIUI or colors Android ) and Android version. Below  are just some pointer approaches to  dig it out , rummaging through usual places.
find /sys/fs/pstore/ /var/log/ /data/logs/  <your  other paths>   -type f -exec cat {} \; | grep -E "First boot|Installation date"'

 { cat /proc/kmsg /sys/fs/pstore/dmesg-ramoops-0; logcat ; } | grep -i -E "First boot|Installation date"

first, the build.prop metadata gives incorrect results, as this file frequently modified by enthusiasts on rooted devices. This confirmed by my tests, I ran this command on my Xiaomi Mi11i with custom ROM Xiaomi.eu and it returned 2008. But this phone was released in May 2021

second, executing commands in subshell {} is not supported by adb shell, so your commands are unusable

@sun not so . I don t want the modified time. I get the creation time which remains unchanged. Yes I am rooted. Yes I did modify my prop and yes that date remained the same. Its a kind of hack situation you need to see proof in the  output date that you see as pudding

@sun all my command  work in adb shell. MOF I tested em there . But I wasnt able to find any data on my phone and didnt sweat it. So I just threw in the commands if you wanna try that approach . It sounds like you critique answers too much without seeing if they work in your env.

@sun Your poss right on that metdata. I didnt read your 1st comment.  Lets see if I can  dig up another hack. One thing clear as Niagara is - officially your going to be nay ed - you have to  find a hack that works

Of course I did the tests and tried applying the commands before writing the comment, this and this. Maybe the subshell works in the second command, not sure, maybe this is permissions error, but the first syntax with find is obviously wrong. <your  other paths> is not an answer for SE, I should not need to guess the answer from the thousands possible options

that is why I've thrown that as an approach..something  that can be built  upon . I test both on adb su prompt work well  but no luck getting the date

It can be difficult and occasionally impossible to determine a phone's exact manufacturing date programmatically, especially on Android devices because of privacy and security constraints.
The manufacturing date of a phone is not directly accessible via a standard Android API or framework.
Using the Build class, you can get the build time as shown below:
val buildTime = Build.TIME

Remember that this represents the time at which the firmware was created, not the date the device was manufactured.

Note that even if the phone has never received any update the firmware build date may be far away from the hardware production date, as the firmware can be way older than the hardware. As the question is about a Galaxy S21 which receives regular [security] updates, the firmware build date will be totally different than the hardware production date.

Thats because its from chatgpt

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


text:
How to get the phone total uptime?
To describe the issue better I need to define the word "total uptime". We all know what the uptime is: a number of hours since the last reboot i.e. the amount of time when the phone was on. I want to know the same number but throughout the entire device lifetime, I want to know how many hours (days, weeks) the phone was powered on since the production date.
Is there any programmatic way to obtain this info via ADB or any other toolset? Can a battery health be an estimator? Does it have any measurable metrics of wear?
I am interested in all ways, both for rooted phones and not. My device is Samsung S21, but I'm interested for generic way which will work for all vendors.

I don't think that there is a way to detect the whole life uptime of a phone: the common uptime is easy to get/calculate because you only need RAM to calculate it or even better use the CPU counter (not sure if RAM CPUs contain such a counter). However for the total uptime you need persistent storage to save the states, otherwise the state would be lost after a power off or reboot. Most chips don't contain flash storage which reduces the chance that the total uptime is somewhere recorded. The best chance would be the flash storage system itself.

But in difference to SSDs in PCs which collect a lot of usage data you can get via S.M.A.R.T API the flash storage of phones is a bit more simpler so I don't know what data is collected and if there is a possibility at all to retrieve them if they are collected.

I kind of remember this question has been asked before (or perhaps I mistook it with "first-time boot/power on"), but somehow I can't find it, and AFAIR there was no satisfying answers (if any).

Ambiguous dupe of How to know how long my smartphone is running, though the accepted answer is about "uptime since boot".

@AndrewT. yes, the abovementioned question is about regular since-last-boot uptime, not the total lifecycle one.


text:
Disable reset in settings
I have a Samsung Galaxy S9. I want to modify the Android to remove all applications and leave only the GPS. I managed to do it with adb, but when we reset the phone, everything comes back.
I would like to remove the reset option in the settings, but I don't know how.
I tried
adb shell pm disable com.android.settings.Settings$ResetDashboardFragmentActivity

but it doesn't work.

What do mean all applications?  Does this include pre installed ones.

adb shell pm disable does not uninstall but simply disables an installed app. And the information about which app is disabled is stored in your user data partition.
If you perform a factory reset the user data partition is reset to it's original state which effectively removes the information about disabled apps. This is by design on the Android system.
If an app can not be fully uninstalled it is a system or pre-installed app that is located on the system partition. And the system partition is read-only so you can not change it on an unrooted phone.
Only if you root your device and/or install a custom ROM you can uninstall and permanently uninstall pre-installed and system apps.


text:
Disable MIUI automatic updates setting on each reboot
I have a Xiaomi Redmi smartphone, and looking for a way to perform the following task on each boot or every day:

Settings - System app updates - Settings - Automatic updates - Disable automatic updates

MIUI does turn system app updates back on, quite frequently. My banking application doesn't like rooting, and I'd like to avoid the hassle anyways.
The application I am looking for would be the MIUI/Android equivalent of "O&O ShutUp10++" for Windows. This application disables Windows Updates every time the OS decides to turn it back on.
Please let me know if you can find a way to do it.

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


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Confusion about android version on Samsung phone
I have for a lot of years been playing this game, 'Wordz', on my Samsung A21S, but suddenly it did not work properly.
I removed it and wanted to reinstall, but now it says it does not work on my device(?)
I love this game, and I seriously think about getting a new phone, also since I believe other apps may stop working in the future (old phone).
So, of course I'd like to check the version needed for this app to work, and there the confusion starts.
On Play.google.com it says it need Android 4.0.3 and up.
My phone says it has Android version 12.
Something doesn't fit here, but I don't get it. I must look at the wrong numbers somehow, but I can not find out what to look for.
Can someone clarify this for me?
Pictures instead of a thousand words:
Play.google.com:

Settings, Samsung A21S:

Version 4.0.50 is the version of the App itself. You can not install this app because it is too old (released May 2020). Since a few years Google requires apps to be updated about every 1-2 years, otherwise the app will not be available to new users on new devices: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/11926878

Robert's comment is likely correct regarding the app being "too old". That said, you may find and try the APK for installation from somewhere else.

@Robert so it's not my phone but the app that's too old?
If I get this correct, a new phone would not solve it, it's Fugo that need to update the app (which is unlikely), and then it would be available to me again?

@Andrew thanks for the advice, I'm not very experienced in this, but it sounds - risky. Am I not right about that?

Yes, the app is too old and the developer needs to update it, but it's Play Store that blocks the installation, not the device (yet, until Android 14). As for APK, it may be risky depending on the source, but that's the only alternative. (Btw, it seems you forgot to @ping the commenters, thus we didn't get notified. I edited and fixed your previous comments)

@MadsAggerholm Do you use the same Google account on the old phone and the new phone? If you have the old phone with the app installed you can extract the APK file transfer it to the new phone and then install it manually on the new phone. This would would reduce the risk down to zero. I know that the open source Amaze file manager can extract apps https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amaze.filemanager

@AndrewT. Thanks! I didn't know you should/could /@ping the commenters. I hope I have done it right this time(?)

@Robert, unfortunately I do no longer have my old-old phones, this is already an old phone... :-)

Clear Google Play’s cache and data
Open the Settings app.
Apps & notifications > Sell all apps > Google Play Store.
Storage > Clear data > Clear cache.
Try downloading or opening the app again.

I am confused, what is this an answer to


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WhatsApp chats are not sorted chronologically
I'm using Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. Starting today, my WhatsApp chats are not sorted chronologically. When a new message comes in, it's supposed to display at the top of the chat list, but that's not happening.
The only solution I've found so far is to force-stop the app, and then the chats are sorted correctly. However, if I receive a new message after that, it won't sort automatically again
Could you please let me know if this issue has been sorted out? If yes, please share the trick with me.

Welcome to a Q&A site Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange. We have a similar question WhatsApp chat not sorted chronologically after a message delete but it's quite old (Dec 2022)

Is this for all chats or just a few?  Is it for group chats and personal chats?

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.

Hi @RohitGupta, Ys its applicable for all chats.  Suppose someone had sent a message two weeks ago, and today, if he sends another message, his name is supposed to come to the top, but it's not happening.


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Android image unpack
How to extract files from vendor_a.img partition inside super.img ?
Super.img file is sparse image and I use simg2img to convert it into raw image, then extract all partition inside.
After checked those partition with commande in linux it's type is data not (ext4 ,ext2, ext3 or erofs)

Do my question is how to extract vendor_a.img partition with data type?
Thanks for advance.


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How can I tell what has happened on my phone? Like a log
I'm looking to find out if there is a way to log activities on my phone, like something that tells you something was uploaded, downloaded, installed, SMS sent, number called, etc., anytime the phone is on. I keep falling asleep at odd times, and when I wake up, my phone is in a different space, like I have my screen turned to never shut off but it will be off. I'm always doing something on my phone when I fall asleep, but it's never near me and I.
Being told that I put it somewhere, I never feel tired when I fall asleep, I guess I just pass out somehow. Anyway, when I wake up 4 to 6 hours later, I have been checking my digital well-being to find out what was opened hourly on my phone, and there are apps that have been opened several times during the time when I was sleeping. I need to know what happens in these apps i.e., did they read messages, download or screenshot something, send a file, make a call, send a text? They are doing something and may even have installed something on my phone, but I doubt that if they believe they have consistent access to it.
I hoped to catch what they were doing by using a screen recorder all day so it would catch anything that happens in case I passed out again, as it's almost a nightly occurrence by now. But when I woke up, this time everything was deleted, even from the first screen recording to the last four of the day. And yes, I'm certain the screen recorder was running because I waited to start it until a webinar came on I needed to watch.
Something is going on with me I'm sure what, but I don't have anyone in my corner and don't want to sound paranoid because I'm pretty rational, but if it doesn't make sense then it doesn't make sense. I need help quickly. Anything that can help protect me? I use pattern lock and factory ROM. Nothing unoriginal on a Moto 5G Stylus which is up to date, but I am more interested in counter-surveillance strategies. I feel like it's very important to know what they are doing while I "pass out".
Maybe there is something like a keylogger or something but for files and pictures. The reason for my concern is I deal with people's private information on a daily basis and I have in the past used this phone to transfer or edit a file, sending it back to my secure tablet before I was aware of this issue, but I don't know how long this has been going on. I've been passing out like this sporadically for a few weeks at a time for the past couple of years. Thanks for your help, anything is appreciated very much.

Welcome to a Q&A site Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange. We have at least a canonical Q&A about logging on How can I view and examine the Android log?. Hopefully, you might find that helpful while waiting for further suggestions.


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How can Phones such as Oppo be vulnerable to Privilege escalation exploits
Oppo (to my knowledge) makes it basically impossible to root, due to locking the boot loader and removing fast boot. So I'm wondering if this changes anything in regards to Privilege escalation exploits, whether they still work exactly the same or if they don't work at all. It might sound stupid, but I ask because if I can't gain root access to my own device, how can other malicious applications, programs and scripts do so.
(Assuming the Oppo phone in question uses up-to-date security updates)
Also I'm specifically talking about Privilege escalation exploits that can root a phone

Exploits are not necessarily always related to rooting. They could be be at lower levels like chip level, progressing to framework, exploits in pre-installed apps and back doors in user installed apps// I think you will get better answers at Security SE

@beeshyams I'm using rooting because I've done some research into mobile spyware, and so far I've seen that gaining root access is a consistent step some of these spywares, I will now look into other exploit types though! Thanks

somewhat related

@beeshyams do Zero-click versions of Root apps exist? I'm the type to keep my installation sources to the playstore and don't click on/auto block spam, so I doubt user interaction would be a factor

I am not knowledgeable but I wouldn't be surprised if they did especially in the past

@beeshyams fair enough, it's just a lot of the spyware I've been researching this spyware, supposedly dangerous government spyware but requires you to install an app via clicking a link, which seems like an only an idiot would click it

I recalled Pegasus which is a zero-click and obviously costs $$$$$$$$$$$$ and not for sale to non-governmental agencies// anyway, I guess we are going off-topic

@beeshyams yeah that's scary, but it's funny that Pegasus was so invasive that even my country's government didn't use it (for the record, they use FINSPY). But still I don't think government should go around using exploits like these (though I think it's mainly China, Russia and the US)

A locked bootloader and non-existent fastboot and most important Android Verified Boot (vnmeta), which cryptographically verifies the content of the system partition, make it extreme hard to root the device, respectively infect the device in a way that would survive a factory reset.
However this has absolutely no effect on privilege escalation exploits. It only makes it harder to use the gained privileges to create a persitent infection.
Privilege escalation exploits are executed at run-time, the bootloader state is not relevant for such an attack. If such an attack is successful in a worst case get an attacker root permissions and/or bypass SeLinux restrictions.
Using those elevated permissions the attacker could then try to make the attack persistent in a way that it survives a reboot. Or the permissions could be used to spy and/or manipulate on the system and other installed/running apps.

Thanks for the response, sort of off topic, but would it be possible for a exploit to activate and execute it's payload with no user interaction? I constantly reboot my device so persistent infection isn't a problem

@Maddox That depends on the attacked app/system component and the used exploit (or more often the combination of exploits that are used). In history there were attacks that were triggered by the reception of a MMS or a message in a messenger. And even if you reboot your phone with elevated privileges you could simply install an app start starts after boot and re-executes the exploit.

Yeah, I heard about those MMS attacks through WhatsApp and messenger, they're nasty and certain scary. But I don't think I'll see that in the wild, and since asking the question, I've come to the conclusion that there are 0 root apps

Related to your comment "One-click" root apps don't work anymore. Why not?


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How to backup/restore specific apps for new phone?
I'm switching from OnePlus 6 to Nothing Phone and just want to backup some (from some apps not all apps) app data without root access. What are my options?
I've read several articles but their mentioning outdated methods, root methods or just .apk backup methods without app data.

AFAIK whne migrating to a new phone there is no way for a selective backup(restore. adb backup doesn't work anymore on recent phone for non-outdated apps. This leaves you to backup/restore via cloud or direct USB connection between old & new phone. IMHO the best option is the USB cable.

This has never been very successful for me.  Available methods are

For me its Samsung Smartswitch,
There is OnePlus Switch
Otherwise Android Backup and Restore
Helium Backup
Titanium Backup

You install them on both devices, some work with wifi, some with cable, others either way. The following is based on Samsung Smartswitch but I believe its the same with the OnePlus and Android toosl.  I have not tried Helium or Titanium Backups.

It copies all apps (that are free) and their data.
It does not copy paid apps or their data or both.  I can understand this, otherwise it could be used to make copies of them with payment record intact
You have to re-register the paid-up apps again.  Some recognise that they were paid for before, others do not.
You have to re-register apps such as banking apps and authentication apps.


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What determines the audio source android resumes?
I'm looking for information on what criteria is used when android resumes an audio source.  The more technical the better.
I would have assumed it was whatever the last playing source was, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It doesn't even seem to be the last source that that device had active.  For example I was listening to an audio book in the car, but the next time I get back in it resumes a podcast.
It really seems almost random.
Thank you.

Audio focus request should help I guess// Obtain a log cat and search for apps that get audio focus - maybe that will give some pointers. This is my understanding as a non-developer

It's not about Android but the app you are using for audio playback.

Possible related/dupe? What determines which application acts to a Bluetooth AVRCP command?


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"Unspecified error" when using external SD as root for KSWEB web server
After installing KSWEB web server on an Android tablet, everything worked fine out of the box.
The problem started when I realized I needed the web server root to be in an external SD card as there was not enough free space left in the internal storage. By default, the host configuration file points docroot to /storage/emulated/0/htdocs (port 8000); this is somewhere in the internal storage and works perfectly.
The path of the folder I want to use as the website root is /storage/826C-1AEF/htdocs (I got this address from the folder's properties); however, when I point the Apache server to this location, it finds it but I get an "unspecified error" which prevents the Apache service from starting.
I understand emulated/0 is some kind of link effectively pointing at the htdocs folder, located in internal storage; there is obviously an error in the way I specify the new path to external storage; is there a different "emulate" for external storage, for it certainly didn't like the direct path?
Can anyone see my mistake?

KSWeb bases on apache, which is a native application. As far as I know on unrooted devices an external card is only accessible using the Android Java API, not via standard C file API.


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How to backup WhatsApp chats including voice notes
There are plenty of questions addressing WhatsApp backups but none seem to work for me.
Even trying the built in options isn't working at all. Using export chat without media only goes back to February and seems to top out at 40379 messages.
Exporting with media is even worse. It ignores almost every message and media file and only does the last 600 texts.
How on earth do I actually back up a complete chat?


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How to check if used Samsung Galaxy S23 has original bootloader, firmware, and software?
I bought a used Samsung Galaxy S23 from a large online seller. How can I check that all the software and firmware is original and not tampered with?
I already did a factory reset from the settings menu. I'm wondering if there's a way to check the bootloader, firmware and other important systems.
I tried rebooting into Download-mode (phone off, hold both volume buttons and plug in USB power), and the Knox status says KG STATUS: CHECKING(00). It never updates away from "CHECKING".
Note that I don't have a SIM card yet. The phone was sold as originally Verizon locked but is now unlocked.

This app was considered good...IDK currently how it performs

Search for Safetynet checker on Google Play, download it then run the check. If the results were good then it's very likely that you have a stock/original system image from device manufacturer.


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I'm on a vortex android 13 phone and the developer app disappeared on me. How do I get it back
I'm on a vortex android 13 phone and I just got the developer installed and I'm not sure what happened but all of a sudden the developer disappeared and when I went to install it again it won't let me. I tap on on the right area and nothing happens now. Nothing at all happens when I tap the build number.i need help to find it and to get it back without doing a factory reset because I have a lot of data on my phone that I really want to keep. Help me someone please.

Welcome to a Q&A site Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange. By "vortex android 13 phone", did you mean Vortex Cellular? That said, developer options are not usually "installed", but only "enabled" by tapping the build number 7 times. Could you explain how did you install it before?


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Resize screen to avoid dead zone - problem with adb
Asking a question because it seems that nobody has got the same problem after resizing it's screen using adb because of a dead zone on my phone over the status bar. I've basically followed the steps explained in this question, but after doing the overscan command, some apps seem to double the overscan for some reason, as you can see in the 2 pictures attached (one with a top overscan of 20, the other with an overscan of 50, to show how the status bar gets lower, but the space between it and the app gets bigger too).
For this reason, I'd like to know if there is a way to make that space between the status bar and the apps disappear but still maintain the overscan function. I've seen that I could resize the phone with the "size" command, but it also shortens the bottom part, which doesn't need to be shorten since it works perfectly. It only is an esthetic problem because the overscan function works perfectly, but I still would like to fix it. Thank you!
This would be the 20 overscan
And this would be the 50 overscan

Please mention Android version in your question// overscan is depreciated but other solutions may work


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What has happened with text emoticons in Google Keyboard
tl;dr Despite my settings and my movements (using text-only emoticons) Google Keyboard in my phone (realme GT 5G) keeps "throwing" graphical emoticons at me everywhere.
Is this a bug (introduced in Android 13, to which my phone was updated to yesterday) or Google policy to make using text-only emoticons as hard as possible? Is there anything I can do about this?

Today I have noticed a very weird behavior of my Google Keyboard. Somebody or something is trying to force me to use graphical emoticons (which I personally hate) and to make using text ones (which I favor) as hard as possible.
First of all, even though I am using text-only emoticons, each time I long-press emoticons button to open emoticons bar, I see the graphic ones:

In other words the above screenshots shows that Google Keyboard claims that it shows me recently used emoticons (the clock icon checked), but this turns out to be not true. Because all the time I see emoticons that I haven't been using for ages (some of them -- never).
Being force to switch to text tab each time I want to paste a text emoticon sounds like a madness.
Second of all, I have checked a configuration switch to have additional bar with recently used emoticons shown directly in keyboard. And, again, I am all the time presented with graphical emoticons only. That I was supposedly used recently. Even though (as you can clearly see below) I am again using text-only emoticons.

My phone was updated to Android 13 yesterday and I have noticed this weird (to me) behaviour this morning. Could these two things stand in common?
Can someone replicate the above described problem? Is this a bug or some recent "change in policy"? Maybe someone at Google or Android dev team hates text-only emoticons? And they've decided to make using them as hard as possible.


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Is there a way to force Google Podcast App to play podcasts in chronological order?
Looking for a way to autonomously play podcasts in the order they were recorded using Google Podcast Application.
But, irritatingly, Google Podcast always plays the latest (newest) episodes.  Even if it was already played (specifically, Google Podcast always plays the last few minutes of the latest previously listened to podcast).
This might be OK for news, but if you are trying to learn something, it may be all you can do from throwing your Android out the car window.

Anyways, I've been binging a several years old pod-cast (Ologies) driving to work and finally had enough frustrations trying to listen to episodes in order.  It's nuts!  Practically everything is hands free ... except for this order problem. (comment edited by a moderator)

OMGoodness, there are 100s of Ologies podcasts.  I was really hoping for a "do this one thing" solution. (I assume, for Ologies, I would have to do this 100s of times to play podcasts in order.) Thank you for your suggestion, but I'd like to hold out a bit more before asking you to turn this into an answer and accepting it.

This is interesting - I jumped back into Google Podcasts and selected an old podcast with an episode from 2022, and after it finished it moved automatically to the next released in chronological order.

Caveats

I don't use podcast apps or listen to podcasts but I was intrigued by the poor UX feature to investigate.

Solutions proposed have undergone limited testing, yet posting it as an answer since it has an alternative app suggestion too.

Google Podcast app

Going by the Google community help How to organise queue in Google podcasts since update (on Android)? of 2021, it appears that ordering podcasts was an existing feature but was removed after an app update. Two solutions have been proposed as working solutions:

Manually arranging podcasts

If you click the green checkmark on an episode in the queue, then select "Play Next", it will move the episode to the top of the queue.  It also remembers this new order.  Inexplicably, you can now sort that episode into any position, and it will remember.  Repeat this process for every episode in the queue, and you will be able to rearrange the episodes freely, and the app will retain the new order.  The worst part is that you have to do this every time you add an episode to the queue (you only have to do it for the added episode) if you want to change the position of the new episode.

One needs to use = on the left to order

Using a PC to manually arrange podcasts

User jlehenbauer commented

I jumped back into Google Podcasts and selected an old podcast with an episode from 2022, and after it finished it moved automatically to the next released in chronological order (not tested by me)

Since the OP listens to a channel (Ologies) having 100s of podcasts, these solutions are not optimal

Therefore, an alternative app solution is proposed below (I am not affiliated with it)
Podcast Guru

Select "Ologies Channel"

On opening the podcast sub-topic list , by default it shows newest first

Click on the arrow buttons to reverse order to show oldest first

Additional features that would help OP

Create a home screen shortcut to a podcast.
"Hide completed" or "Mark all completed"
Play chronologically, without the last few minutes of previous podcast being played

Thanks for putting this answer together.  I'm going to try the suggestions and if that doesn't work out the alternative Podcast Application.  Thanks.

Please feel free to edit the answer to improve it. A user's perspective matters much more


text:
how to playback same mp3/audio file in a loop with reduced playback speed
I have downloaded a bunch of audio files. Sometimes I need to play an individual file in a loop several times, with a slower speed, e.g. 0.8. At the moment I use Google Files, I open Downloads folder, I double click on a file to play and then I can change speed to 0.8 or 0.5 from the three dot menu. However if I fail to restart file fast, the player jumps to the next audio file.
I imagine that creating a separate subfolder for each file may help, but wonder are there any better solutions? I tried a couple of random audio players but did not find features I want.


text:
Galaxy S20FE not charging when >40 C
My phone updated yesterday and now it charges only up to 60% and then stops when temperature reaches 42C (it still shows "charging" label but without remaining time). If I manage to drop its temperature below 40C, it continues charging. Does anyone else experience this? Any ideas how to fix it?

That is as far as I know a common behavior of mobile devices. lithium batteries wear out  with an increased rate if the temperature is getting too high. High end phones like yours have a very fast and power consuming CPU which creates additional heat and the temperature charge protection exist to prevent "self destruction". If you charge your device, place it in a cool environment and don't use it and/or point  a fan on it.

It was lying plugged in for hours and only got to 63%. My environment temperature is 21 C. How is it normal behavior?

Is it possible that you have accidentally installed an app that misuses your phone when it is charging? That would explain the high temperature. Alternatively it could also be a hardware defect like a bad temperature sensor, therefore it would be interesting if the phone feels hotter than usual.

You can look up the battery usage. Find out whats draining it so fast

To rule out app misbehaving try charging in safe mode


text:
How to force Android to tell the browser about real physical resolution?
Samsung Flow allows users of Samsung phones to use the external display, eg. laptop as larger display and also with physical keyboard.
However, the browser is still in mobile mode (big UI and big font on low resolution).
I've activated the view as desktop in browser and the websites are displayed as in desktop, but the Android OS is still reporting to browser (or browser itself) the virtual resolution which is altered by DPI. Thus the web pages are limited at around 800px to 900px (width). This can be seen when opening mobile browser at whatismyresolution.com.
How to force the browser to use physical resolution in its desktop mode? I've tried all mobile browsers but no such option in their Settings.

Change the browsers user agent to something other than a mobile browser

that agent value is reported to server side, doesn't affect the resolution that browser is using

You are mistaken. In Edge on the desktop you can change the user agent and make it appear your on a mobile device part of that configuration is also choosing the resolution of the device.

but also the font, its size if not reducible

The font size setting in Android Settings can change the font size and apps will follow but it is still not enough to use the physical resolution
In order to use physical resolution on the phone that browser will report physical resolution to the JavaScript inside the pages:

The font size in default Android Settings is not enough, it's just app UI
Steps

Enable Developer Settings, press 7 times on something in Android Settings of that kind of stuff

Go inside Developer Settings, set "Minimum width" to the smaller size of the dimensions, eg. full HD is 1920x1080, set it to 1080

BUT BE AWARE: DON'T PUT THAT "Minimum width" TOO BIG, ALL UI IN ANDROID WILL BE TOO SMALL TO PRESS WITH FINGER TO CHANGE IT BACK.


text:
Auto delete pic/vids from phone when deleted from Google Photos web
You take 10 photos and only one is good. But in Google Photos, all 10 are automatically uploaded. I don't want to maintain two places: my phone and the Google Photos Cloud.
How can I make it so that I only check Google Photos and the pictures or videos that I delete there are also automatically deleted from my smartphone (and without prompting)?

You can use folder sync app which let's you do bidirectional sync or in one direction. But, I don't know how to make folder sync see the folder where your photos are saved. You can create a separate folder where your photos are saved on any cloud including Drive // big caveat - uploading photos won't be as fast as it is with a Google photos. If you can live with that folder sync is a great option//Google system is not a true sync and creates problems like you face//You can use folder sync with any other cloud storage you own too

Based on quick testing, you have to also delete them from the Trash so that the files will be deleted physically, but this is after the Google Photos app is opened to sync the update from the cloud. However, I'm not sure if there's an option to disable the prompt or not.


text:
How to mount AFP/SMB drive to Nox Player?
I use the latest version of Nox Player (android emulator) on Mac OS Catalina.
I would like to mount my AFP or SMB drive to Nox Player.
I've connected to Nox Player thru ADB:
adb connect 127.0.0.1:62001

Now I am trying to mount the drive:
 mount -t afp afp://login:pass@192.168.1.5/photo /sdcard/DCIM

(/sdcard/DCIM folder exists)
But it returns the error No such device. I tried to su before executing the command. I tried to mount to another folder (/mnt/sdcard/xyz, /storage/self/primary/DCIM), but it doesn't help.
The command given above works well if executed directly on my Mac. I've tried to ping 192.168.1.5 from Nox player and it works well. I've tried to open the same storage within Nox Player built-in Amaze file browser as SMB share and it also works.
I've read How to mount NFS on Android with correct permissions?, but it is not quite clear for me what else could be tried.
What should I try?

I don't think that Android contains the necessary drivers for AFP or SMB protocol as these are not needed by regular Android devices.

@Robert, looks like the missing drivers/modules could be added manually, but the question is where to take them for Nox Player or how to compile it.
What is about other protocols? Can I try to use NFS or something else?


text:
/system/sbin in $PATH variable, but the folder doesn't exist?
I have a Chainfire-rooted Samsung Galaxy J5 with Android 7.1. The $PATH variable is
/su/bin:/sbin:/vendor/bin:/system/sbin:/system/bin:/su/xbin:/system/xbin

But /system/sbin appears not to exist at all.
Why is this? Is it normal? Could the manual creation (and planned use) of this folder cause problems? (I run into huge ones, but not sure this was the cause.)

(I probably have made several mistakes, and I will post my questions one-by-one to avoid confusion. This is the first.)

You can put any directory on PATH. They don't necessarily need to exist. init sets the default PATH on boot. /system/sbin was removed in Android 11. Related: How to modify environment variables like PATH at startup?

Thanks. It could be only a coincidence, but I run into troubles just after having created this folder. So I wanted to be sure if this could cause it. (lot of commands, like even "ls" stopped to function: "not found"...etc.)


text:
How to move/delete Toybox executable and its symlinks properly?
Have a Chainfire-rooted Samsung Galaxy J5 with Android 7.1.
Busybox 1.34.1 in /system/xbin, and Toybox (unfortunately) in /system/bin (installed by: "toybox | toybox sed 's/\ /\n/g'| toybox sed '$d'| while read line; do toybox ln -sf /system/bin/toybox /system/bin/$line; done)".
How to move (or delete) them properly?
I did it with Total Commander 'search' for 'toybox' string (as it should be in symlinks?) and then move them (just like in Windows). But I think it was bad, as I run into fs problems. Symlinks were not "really" deleted and the "moved" ones were "converted" into files (of same size, ~273k).

How do I uninstall toybox?.

Thanks for the link! Useful.


text:
How does WhatsApp's View Once work? Does it take internal storage for showing the photos, or are they directly showing it from the server?
For WhatsApp's View Once photos, are the photos saved somewhere in the phone's internal storage? Or are they directly shown from WhatsApp's server? As WhatsApp claimed they are not stored in photos or camera rolls, does it mean that they are saved somewhere else in the file manager?

Very related: WhatsApp view once video - what is the file location in Android file system?. In short, they are saved in the internal storage that only WhatsApp app can access (the app's private directory).

Is it possible for other apps like data recovery app which are available on play store to access it with the permission of manage all file ? My device is upgraded to android 12 @AndrewT.

No. "Manage all files" is kind of a misnomer because it can only manage public files and folders, the same as what the user can see in a file manager app.

So it not possible for the recovery app without root permission to access these file and if the view once photo is somewhere in storage then it is not accessible to any app present on play store  @Andrew T.

Yes, you're correct.

Is it possible for apps on playstore to bypass this android security and access it @Andrew T.

Sorry, you're straying to another topic again. I won't entertain it in this comment thread.


text:
How does WhatsApp's Delete For Everyone work for photos?
In WhatsApp, when the sender deletes a photo for everyone from their side, does it permanently deleted from my phone, or are they still there on my phone? If it was there, are they recoverable by the data recovery app downloaded from Play Store?
The phone is not rooted.

When someone (e.g. an administrator, the sender) deletes a photo for everyone, the respective file on the internal storage will be automatically deleted when the recipients' WhatsApp is online. This is a must for the WhatsApp app to receive the signal from the server in order to delete the file.
Thus, that does not guarantee that no copy of the photo exists anymore. One can set an automatic cloud backup for WhatsApp image folders so that every photo received will be backed up as soon as possible. Otherwise, when the recipient does not have an internet connection and the photo is still there, they can also make a local copy of the file somewhere else, whereas WhatsApp cannot touch the copy in both situations.

I don't touch the "data recovery app" part because I don't have any experience with it, and I'm also kind of skeptical of their performance.

Well I am the recipient and my drive backup is off and I did not make any copy it is just normally gone when I opened the photo and it is not showing in galary  . So my question is that the photo is somewhere in file manager or it is completely gone from my phone ? @Andrew T.

@Zai the file is completely gone. You can check it yourself by browsing to /Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Media/WhatsApp Images using any file manager app.

Yes it was not there but I am confused as I downloaded a recovery app from playstore and scan the phone is it possible that it can extract it from some hidden folder in WhatsApp as there are many hidden folder there some folder which be can browse manually like .status but some are not possible to browse but they are within WhatsApp folder @Andrew T.

@Zai other apps (e.g. data recovery apps) cannot see something that the user cannot see. This is due to the Android security with app sandboxing and basic file permission. That's why I'm skeptical if data recovery apps on Play Store can even recover anything deleted in the first place.

Whether  it is manually deleted or automatically deleted it is good to go or there is any difference between manually deletion and automatically deletion ( Automatically deleted as the database file in WhatsApp deleted automatically after 7 days ) are both action same or automatically deleted are not as good as manually deleted and one more thing if a FILE or PHOTO is automatically deleted in a device with FBE ( Android 12 ) it's encryption key is also Deleted with it or not  @Andrew T.

Sorry, you're straying to another topic again. I won't entertain it in this comment thread.

OK LEAVE The encryption part can you please tell me Manually deleting or automatically deletion are same thing or automatically deleted is not as good as manual deletion @Andrew T.

@Robert through some light on this


text:
About Data safety section in Play store?
In the "Data safety" section of apps in Play Store, when it shows

Data collected: photos and videos

or

Data shared: photos and videos.

What does it mean? Or if some apps do not show it, does it mean no data is collected or shared?

Sorry your question is hard to understand without an example. Could you please pick an example app, link it in your question and best make a screen shot of the data safety section and include it in your question, too.

You might be interested in reading the official documentation Provide information for Google Play's Data safety section.


text:
Actually prevent mobile data use when mobile data is off (Android 13+)
Multiple old questions (here, here, here, and here) document that even when mobile data is switched off, mobile data still gets used as part of 4G voice service. I'm looking for up to date information (e.g. possibly relating to 5G, eSIMs, latest Android version, retirement of 3G, etc.) to see if the following scenario is possible without rooting my phone:

Home SIM active for SMS (but not MMS)
Home SIM active for voice calls (this is not essential to me)
eSIM for ALL mobile data used while travelling

Why am I so keen on this? The ability to receive SMS codes is sometimes needed to verify oneself to a service. (Yes, I know it is not as good as other alternatives.) As of 2023 eSIMs provide very cost effective data service almost anywhere in the world, while international data roaming charges from one's home carrier can be exorbitant (e.g. $10/MB for me). At those rates, tiny amounts of unexpected data use can add up fast.
Doing all of the following is NOT sufficient to avoid use of mobile data:

Turn off mobile data AND turn off data roaming for the home SIM
Send zero text messages and make/receive zero voice calls
Turn off MMS for the home SIM
Turn off "Data during calls"

Questions:

Are any new strategies/settings available or in development?
Does 5G have the same problem as 4G - using data to establish itself on the roaming voice network?
Would setting preferred SMS to my home SIM, but voice calls to a data-only eSIM be possible?
I would consider moving to iPhone: Is this an Android-specific issue?

To my knowledge most 5G networks (not sure about China) are still running in 5G-non-standalone mode which means 5G is effectively just a data booster for 4G but all the management data is transmitted via 4G. It is really a pity that Goggle doesn't manage to fully split voice and data channels so that they can be correctly charged by the MNO (or in your case not charged as there is no traffic).

A simple solution, you are not using the sim  remove it.

@RohitGupta It is difficult to know when SIM card (in this case the "Home SIM) is "unused" if it is used for incoming calls.

@RohitGupta If SMS were never used as part of authentication in any service nor for alerts from my bank, airline, etc., my problems would disappear. Enabling the SIM on the roaming network for even just a moment triggers a whole lot of data traffic. (Physically removing and fully disabling the SIM in settings are equivalent. - no need to fiddle with removing the SIM.)

I think that if you want to receive calls on your normal sim, then you are roaming.  You can't have it both ways.
Suggestion.  Have two sims (or a sim and esim).

First SIM, select a plan that has a phone number and no or low data that stops or slows down when you reach the limit.  Or get one with no data.
Second SIM, get one with data and leave it off until required.

I have used BNESIM to give me data (it came with a limited phone number that I did not use).  You only have to top it up once a year.  They now have esims as well.  I am not associated with it.

I'm not sure we are on the same page. I do want and use SMS roaming with my 'home' SIM precisely because I need that specific number working for authorization. I do have 2 SIMs ('home' plus eSIM for data when travelling). The problem is that Android is allowing some data use on the 'home' SIM. Changing my number or not having mobile data plan in my home country solves nothing for me.


text:
Zygote keeps restarting force-stopped app
I've got Chrome running on a Pixel 4a (Android 11).  If I close the app manually (i.e., swiping with my finger), it closes as expected.  However, if I run am force-stop com.android.chrome from an adb shell, it's restarted a second later by Zygote.  The same thing happens if I send it a SIGKILL.
The browser really is being closed as the new process has a different PID.  Examining /proc/<pid>/status, I see that the parent PID corresponds to the Zygote process.
Why can't I close the app for good with am?

Sounds to me like Android has some sort of app-recovery/restart in case the process was not properly ended (process crash or kill). Have you checked logcat if it contains any details why and how the app restarts?

I see: ActivityTaskManager: START u0 {act=android.intent.action.VIEW dat=http://localhost/... flg=0x10100000 cmp=com.android.chrome/com.google.android.apps.chrome.Main (has extras)} from uid 10215

And which app is the UID 10215? Note that even with swiping, you cannot keep an app stopped forever. See Why do apps run in background?. Disclosure: the link belongs to me.

@IrfanLatif, the UID belongs to com.android.chrome.


text:
ADB command am start - open settings sub-page
On a TC52 ZEBRA, I need the ADB command (am start) to change the settings.
With  am start -n com.android.settings/.Settings command my settings window opens.
But if I want to have a sub-page access (Keyboard settings for example) what adb command I need to use?

This answer  is a bit old but it contains a lot of activity names you need to start a specific settings page. Depending on the Android version on your device the names may have changed, so expect some of them to fail.

Have you tried to trigger tapping with opening settings:
adb shell input tap <x> <y>

Also, for cursor emulation:
adb shell input keyevent <19|20|21|22>

For triggering key:
adb shell input keyevent 66
adb shell input keyevent TAB
adb shell input keyevent ENTER

Then to start settings there's:
adb shell am start -a com.android.settings

To finish there's:
adb shell am force-stop com.android.settings

So, to start:
adb shell am start -a <settings choice>

com.android.settings
com.android.settings.APPLICATION_DEVELOPMENT_SETTINGS
com.android.settings.DISPLAY_SETTINGS
com.android.settings.DOCK_SETTINGS
com.android.settings.QUICK_LAUNCH_SETTINGS
com.android.settings.SOUND_SETTINGS
com.android.settings.TTS_SETTINGS
com.android.settings.VOICE_INPUT_OUTPUT_SETTINGS
android.settings.ACCESSIBILITY_SETTINGS
android.settings.ACCOUNT_SYNC_SETTINGS
android.settings.ACCOUNT_SYNC_SETTINGS_ADD_ACCOUNT
android.settings.ADD_ACCOUNT_SETTINGS
android.settings.AIRPLANE_MODE_SETTINGS
android.settings.APN_SETTINGS
android.settings.APPLICATION_SETTINGS
android.settings.BLUETOOTH_SETTINGS
android.settings.DATA_ROAMING_SETTINGS
android.settings.DATE_SETTINGS
android.settings.DEVICE_INFO_SETTINGS
android.settings.DISPLAY_SETTINGS
android.settings.INPUT_METHOD_SETTINGS
android.settings.INTERNAL_STORAGE_SETTINGS
android.settings.LOCALE_SETTINGS
android.settings.LOCATION_SOURCE_SETTINGS
android.settings.MANAGE_ALL_APPLICATIONS_SETTINGS
android.settings.MANAGE_APPLICATIONS_SETTINGS
android.settings.MEMORY_CARD_SETTINGS
android.settings.PRIVACY_SETTINGS
android.settings.SECURITY_SETTINGS
android.settings.SETTINGS
android.settings.SOUND_SETTINGS
android.settings.SYNC_SETTINGS
android.settings.SYSTEM_UPDATE_SETTINGS
android.settings.USER_DICTIONARY_SETTINGS
android.settings.WIFI_IP_SETTINGS
android.settings.WIFI_SETTINGS
android.settings.WIRELESS_SETTINGS
ACCESSIBILITY_FEEDBACK_SETTINGS
android.net.vpn.SETTINGS
android.search.action.SEARCH_SETTINGS
android.search.action.WEB_SEARCH_SETTINGS


text:
In which countries is location sharing available?
This Google support article makes it clear that location sharing is not available in all countries.

You may get a warning when you open Location sharing. Common causes include:

You're in a country or region where you can’t share your location.

Which is the list of countries where location sharing is (isn't) available? I am looking for official sources from Google.

I don't think this is really an Android question as it is about Google Maps, and although it has an Android application, is an operating system agnostic service that is all managed server-side. This would be a more appropriate question for a Google developer forum, but looking into the Google Developer site, I cannot find any such list as being available to the public.

Besides what @acejavelin said, this may be subject to laws of the country and the agreement Google has with those which is outside the scope of this site

"I am looking for official sources from Google." if the country list cannot be found, then pretty sure Google doesn't want to publicize it. Compare Use the Phone app to record calls where there is also no list of countries, with Country availability for Google Play apps & digital content.

I arrived to this question while trying to find out why location sharing doesn't seem to work in a certain country. The only error message is "check your internet connection", but there is no clear indication that it is disabled on purpose by Google. However, it won't work for as long as having an IP address in that certain country.


text:
Cannot import .ics calendar file into Samsung Calendar
I have an .ics calendar file which I cannot import into my Samsung Calendar.
If I click on it, it opens and I can see all entries. I can then click "Save all to calendar", and it says "Importing...". But after a few seconds, I get a popup saying

Calendar has stopped
Open app again

The same .ics file imports fine into Thunderbird on a PC, and a friend could import it from an email into his iPhone.
My phone is a Samsung Galaxy A6 with Android 8.0.0. The Calendar app is version 4.4.09.1.

Try clearing the cache & storage of app, reboot and then import... May work

@beeshyams: I did reboot and tried again, but it made no difference. Not sure how I can clear the app's cache. Don't see anything like that in Calendar's menu.

From settings go to apps, you may have to turn on "Show system apps" or something like that from the (usually) top right 3 buttons//Find calendar app and delete storage (you will lose all existing calendar entries) so make sure you have a backup and also turn off wifi and data so that your local backup isn't interrupted by calendar sync

If this also doesn't work after deleting app storage, access your calendar app on the web and import the ics file. Then enable data and sync calendar (search in your settings, I am not familiar with Samsung)


text:
Forgot screen lock pin and airplane mode on
Hi i have a Samsung Galaxy A30S.
I added a screen lock pin code and can't remember it.
The airplane mode is activated and I cannot turn it off, cause it's asking for pin number.
I don't want to do a hard or factory reset since I have very important memories of photos and phone numbers in it. Please Help.

There is no way to bypass lock screen PIN.

Its understandable. Everyone automatically assumes Stolen, but sometimes we legitimately just forget after setting an uncommon password or PIN.
Some programs to look into that will help, but are most likely not free by normal channels are Dr. Fone, 4ukey, UnlockGo, PassFab, FonePaw, DroidKit, and try doing a search for "Samsung FRP and PIN Unlock Programs." Samsung is probably the Most common Android Brand, so there are a lot of programs. There are also a lot of "Developer Unlock Programs (All-In-One Tools)" to be found in searching. Only testing will define whether or not they will work with your model (Dr. Fone Is BRANDED Wondershare, one of the better options). Some programs like "Chimera" can get pricey.
You can also search through XDA Forums for tricks on your specific device model.
I know a bypass trick, don't know if it will work with your Samsung model, and unfortunately it would normally require a factory reset unless your Google Assistant is active. I don't know, I've only ever tried after a factory reset, and from the beginning of setting the phone up. I'm also unsure if Assistant works in Airplane mode.
RECOVERY Mode:
Turn Phone off. Then press and hold Volume+, and Press and hold Power until logo screen comes on. Then release, and Recovery Mode with the Hard Factory Reset Option should appear.
(After Factory reset from Recovery Mode)
Normally I would tap on the Vision Settings from startup and activate 'Talk-Back.'
Then exit Talk-Back Menu. Next, swipe on the screen in a reverse L (swipe right and then up) to activate Talk-Back Voice Command. Then say, 'Open Google Assistant.' Google Assistant should open.
(Start Here if you already have access to Google Assistant or if the above worked)
With Assistant activated say 'Open Settings.'
(If the phone is still requiring a PIN, an external PC program is most likely required)
[If the above worked from either starting point, you should now have at least access to all settings not protected by a PIN or FRP Lock, and should be able to disarm Airplane Mode in theory]
The above tricks worked on my OnePlus Nord N200 5G - Android 12. I have yet to test it on my Samsung Galaxy A14 5G - Android 13.
Additionally, I can reach the Home Screen from Settings by going to Home Screen Settings and changing the Home Screen Layout. I don't know why but it grant's me Home Screen access behind a PIN and FRP lock.
Worth a shot. Goodluck, I hope something that I've offered helps in some way.

No-one has mentioned stolen. So why mention it, unless you are a bot. Just curious.

Why is it an issue to you that I mentioned it? Trolling? Just curious.

Folks can say there's no bypass all day, but there are bypass tricks. Technology is not 100% fool-proof. Finding bypass methods is literally how we improve security features in new models.

For instance. On Mediatek phones there's a Shell Tool called MTKClient. Runs in conjunction with Git, Python, and Platform-Tools (adb and fastboot). Designed specifically for Mediatek phones. MTKClient has several FRP and PIN lock bypass codes meant for entire removal of owner identification traces, reseting to original state. The issue is saving the files. This will cause a phone wipe no matter what. I have around 15 different Samsung Programs designed to do the Same thing. All depends on the Model phone and how current it's release. The more current the model, the better security features.

Adb is only useful if you activated debug Mode before getting locked out of the device. Otherwise Adb is useless as it is the operation of the android shell from within. Fastboot is designed for Flashing Firmware after Unlocking OEM/Flashing, which requires the Bootloader to be unlocked. Which require Debug Mode and for the carrier/SIM to be Unlocked by a code given by the phone carrier directly. After a year of service....

I've gone through this with my OnePlus Nord N200 5G. I straight forgot the information. In my search to free my phone, I've found tons of unlock methods.. for other phones. Figured out the bypass tricks I originally posted, but have yet to find a legit unlock for OnePlus. Weaknesses in OS design sure, but no legit unlock full access method with the Google FRP in place. Even after bypass I can't get into Dev Mode with it locked behind a PIN.

Every time I asked how to unlock a smartphone, I've been met with typically no response and outright refusal to give me aid. I've called MetroPCS, but carriers cannot aid in Phone PIN retrieval. Only SIM codes, etc. This question is what sent me down the Android programming road to begin with.The very last option being, send the phone in to the original manufacturer (in my case OnePlus) and have them flash the phone. Costs a fee. But there are always options.

Bypassing the pin of android would be a huge security issue so no methods are known and even if there where OEM would patch it.
Your best chance of keeping your data is by using fastboot or adb... But for that you need developer settings with oem unlocked and usb debbuging. You could pull all your precious data and then factory reset the phone.
If you did not enabled the dev options you'll have to reset the phone unless you exploit a security flaw in your OS but that shouldn't happpen.


text:
Revvl 6 5G - A/B Root??? - W/O recovery.img
I have a Wingtech - Revvl 6 5G [Mediatek-MT6833] that has an A/B boot partition with vbmeta, OEM unlocked, Debug Mode, and Bootloader Unlocked (Via MTKClient). I've tried rooting the easy way with KingRoot, KingoRoot, iRoot, and the sort to no avail. I've tried flashing magiskpatchedboot.img to boot_a by itself, and with the following command to patch vbmeta:
fastboot flash vbmeta --disable-verity --disable-verification vbmeta.img

Each method produces either Bootloop or Freeze on Logo/Loading Screen and requires flashing of the original boot_a/b.img's from the Stock Rom to return to functional order (boot_b.img flash is required even though I didn't replace it).
I've also tried booting a generic non-device specific twrp-recovery.img from the main TWRP website as one has not been crafted for this handset as of yet, and I'm pretty sure that there is no recovery.img for the Revvl 6 5G (Though there is a Recovery Mode). There isn't a recovery.img in the payload dump, nor is there one on the partition list in FastbootEnhance, nor the Stock Rom. I've also tried to boot the magiskpatchedboot.img directly:
C:\Platform-Tools>fastboot boot recovery.img
Sending 'boot.img' (28266 KB)                      OKAY [  0.768s]
Booting                                            FAILED (Status read failed (Too many links))
fastboot: error: Command failed

C:\Platform-Tools>fastboot boot magisk_patched-boot_a.img
Sending 'boot.img' (40960 KB)                      OKAY [  1.092s]
Booting                                            FAILED (Status read failed (Too many links))
fastboot: error: Command failed

Neither worked...
Someone said try it this way:
C:\Platform-Tools>fastboot boot boot magisk_patched-boot_a.img
fastboot: error: cannot load 'boot': No such file or directory

C:\Platform-Tools>fastboot boot boot_a magisk_patched-boot_a.img
fastboot: error: cannot load 'boot_a': No such file or directory

Neither worked..
I'm not sure what to try next. Are there any other rooting methods that I'm not thinking of? I could use assistance.

The on click root tools only worked the the "Android Cretaceous period" (up to ~Android 5). For modern phones with A/B support not having a recovery partition is standard: https://source.android.com/docs/core/architecture/bootloader/recovery-images

Did you see this? Possibly duplicate How do you root a device with Magisk when it doesn't have a custom recovery

Also see "One-click" root apps don't work anymore. Why not?

Does this answer your question? How do you root a device with Magisk when it doesn't have a custom recovery

I actually tried that method first. As it made the most sense. Evert time I, fastboot boot magiskpatchedboot.img it just freezes. And when I fastboot flash boot_a magiskpatchedboot.img, I either go into a bootloop or logo loading screen freezes. Neither works.

Thank you for the knowledge drop. I see I can drop the old one-clicks and stick with platform-tools and mtkclient.

Seeing as I solved my question, I figured I would provide the answer. It took piecing several guides together from XDA forums as well as the Hovatek forums.
I should note this guide is for Android 12. It should still work for Android 13 if the firmware can be obtained.
I am not responsible should anyone brick their device. I personally bricked mine many times, and have had to flash with the original Firmware to repair the damage.
As of current, there is no available Android 13 Rom/Firmware that I can find. Though I have made some requests. I have opened ann issue with the Magisk Github page, working to achieve Root off an Android 13 backup file I made through using MTKClient. At current, it has been unsuccessful but everyone is working on correcting the issue.
Appreciation is expressed to all the techniques acquired by other/original sources.
Here is my path, step for step:

Netork Carrier/SIM Unlock = After my year of service was up, I just tapped Network Unlock, and the SIM Unlocked.

Unlock Developer Mode - Settings >About Phone >Build Number, Tap 7 times and unlock Dev Mode.

Toggle OEM Unlock and Debug Mode in Developer Options.

I then followed the - Hovatek Bootloader Unlock Guide.
-Install Current Adb and Fastboot/Platform-Tools
-Extract to C:/

-Install Medatek Drivers
-Install Git
-Install Python
-Install MTKClient
-to C:/platform-tools
-Install UsbDK from MTKClient Github Page.

Download the Revvl 6 5G - MT6833 - Stock Frimware - Android 12.
-Extract to C:/platform-tools/mtkclient

Open File Explorer to C:/platform-tools, Type cmd in the search bar, and open Command Prompt.

Type: cd mtkclient
-And we are ready to begin.

Next, Type (If you installed Python from the Microsoft store, this step can be skipped):
python setup.py install

Then Type:
pip3 install -r requirements.txt

or
py -3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt (works too)

Run this Command to Wipe User Data (Each MTKClient Commad will require Reconnecting the Device in BRom Mode):
python mtk e metadata,userdata

MTKClient will go into a Ready and Waiting for the Device to Connect State.
Now Power off the phone, and entered BRom Mode by Pressing Volume Down and Power while connecting to the PC.

Next Type:
python mtk xflash seccfg unlock

or
python mtk da seccfg unlock - (This is the One That Worked for Me)

Bootloader is now Unlocked. Disconnect and Reboot by holding Power and Volume Down until the phone restarts.

Magisk v26.3+ is Needed
Extract the boot.a.img from the Stock ROM. Then Push the boot_a.img to the SDCard:
adb push boot_a.img <Path to SDCard>

(Important to use "adb push" as MTP Transfer will corrupt the file).
Also:
adb push magisk_26.3.apk <Path to SDCard>

Install Magisk. Go to settings, and choose Stable Version. Go back and update Magisk. Then tap the top install, select the boot_a.img from the SDCard, and patch. Then pull the magisk_patched_boot.img from the internal download folder using:
adb pull /storage/emulated/0/Download/magisk_patched_boot.img

(MTP Transfer will corrupt the file and bootloop your device, use "adb pull")

Then extract the vbmeta_a.img from the Stock Rom and move it to the platform-tools folder. Next, reboot the device to fastbootd by Typing:
adb reboot fastboot

Now enter:
fastboot devices

And Flash the boot_a partition with the Magisk Patched boot_a.img with this command:
fastboot flash boot_a magisk_patched-boot.img

Then flash and patch the vbmeta partition with this command:
fastboot flash vbmeta_a --disable-verity --disable-verification vbmeta_a.img

Reboot with:
fastboot reboot

Open the Magisk App to check, but the device should have Root now. The App will take further steps to Harden the Root job. Then Tap the first Install again and perform a "Direct Install."

And that's it.

If you by chance Bricked or Bootlooped the device, follow these steps to Fix the Phone.
-First enter this Command to Wipe User Data:
py -3 mtk e metadata,userdata

Then run this command to Flash the Stock Firmware:
python mtk wl <full path to Stock Firmware Folder>

Warning: Remove/Delete the nvram.img and the nvdata.img from the Stock Firmware Folder to preserve the original IMEI number. Flashing these files will erase the IMEI and Baseband. Which will make the Device unable to read Sim Cards.

In mtkclient, use the terminal version, and use the seccfg unlock command which will officially unlock the bootloader and allow you to boot the Magisk-infused boot.img.
You can check after, by using the command fastboot getvar all. Use that command in the bootloader version and it will tell you.
Also, do not forget, if caught in bootloops after flashing a patched boot, you always have to erase userdata. If not, you will inevitably bootloop no matter what you do.
Also, there is no TWRP recovery for this device, I've lobbied for it and also have done most of the device tree if someone wants to edit for errors and finish it. Go to GitHub and search "revvl 6 device tree". I'm sure I'm the only that has worked on it, so it will be the only search result.


text:
How can I disable my phone's magnetic field sensor or stop Android from using its data for `Sensor.TYPE_ROTATION_VECTOR`?
I've noticed that OsmAND's compass is much more accurate when forcing it to use the orientation sensor (Sensor.TYPE_ORIENTATION) instead of the magnetic field sensor (Sensor.TYPE_MAGNETIC_FIELD).
Other (more modern) apps use Sensor.TYPE_ROTATION_VECTOR however and according to the Android documentation, this combines data from the orientation sensors aswell as the magnetic field sensor.
How can I disable the magnetic field sensor entirely or prevent Android from using its data for Sensor.TYPE_ROTATION_VECTOR?

Have you tried to calibrate the magnetic sensor?

Yes I have. It's inaccurate in absolute terms and not even stable relatively. A 90° rotation does not amount to a 90° relative change. Context: https://lemmy.ml/post/2504120


text:
Configure on-demand VPN feature comparable to the iOS on-demand VPN
I have an Android device running one or more apps that need a VPN connection to reach a backend within our corporate network. On iOS devices, there is an on-demand VPN feature where, when the user opens the app, iOS automatically triggers the VPN connection (in the background, without user inaction). We are able to configure this behaviour from our MDM provider portal.
It seems as though the Android platform itself supports this as some MDM platforms have documentation showing how to enable this feature (source). Our MDM provider, however, doesn't. Have put in a feature enhancement request. In the interim, however, is there a way we can configure this behaviour on the device itself?


text:
Counting number of notes in Google Keep
I wonder if there is a way to display the number of notes in Google Keep.
For programmers, this would be similar to a
"SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Table"
in SQL.
Is there a way to digit some special keywords in the search box, to display this?
Thanks.


text:
Bluetooth sharing mechanism on Android
I am using a Realme 8 5G Android 12 phone.
How do I share a contact with other users nearby (on their mobile phones), via the Bluetooth mechanism of the icon on the upper left in the picture below?
What is this mechanism called, and, how does it work?

Thanks.

Sorry, but what is from your perspective in the upper left part of the screenshot? To me the upper left part starts with an empty section and then comes the clock...

Did you mean by using Nearby Share?

Yes, it was helpful to know that that feature was the peer-to-peer (P2P), nearby share. Thank you for the link (this could be useful for sharing apps and files in places with no network coverage). Thanks.


text:
What is the meaning of "G4M" when it comes to chargers?
What does "G4M" mean in "30W Quick Home Charger w Type-C 10ft USB Cable G4M for LG V35 ThinQ, Q7 Plus, G Pad X II 10.1, V50 ThinQ 5G, Stylo 4 Plus, Google Nexus 5X, G8 ThinQ, G7 ThinQ, 5 - Microsoft Surface Go (10")"? I asked the question because I am thinking of buying "Cargador Fast Charge G4M Samsung (25W - Type C - Blanco)". The first link is the only English site that I could find that contains "G4M". Thank you!

Regardless of the markings, I always ask the seller if it will work with my phone, brand and model. I  would guess that G4 is 4th generation. But the way Usb has evolved, nothing is certain.

I can't find any reference or standard for "G4M" from any OEM or "reputable" manufacturer... Could simply be a generic part number or model number from a Chinese manufacturer or something similar, or a mistranslation of something.

Since the results are mostly in Spanish, I have a feeling that this is something specific to Spain, perhaps some kind of certification?


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IMEI Number Missing - Possible NVRAM.img Flashing - CMDLet to Rewrite the IMEI Number? - Or Other Solutions?
I was trying to Root my Revvl 6 5G and I believe that I might have flashed a blank nvram.img in my bootloop recovery. Now my IMEI number is missing, and I get a signature failure anytime I try to sideload a root.zip. Is there an adb shell <command> or python mtk w <command> that can repair a missing IMEI number? Or another possible solution?

Unless you have installed a custom recovery, sideloading is restricted to original firmware images. If you try to load a non-genuine ROM you will get a signature failure.

That makes sense. So the missing IMEI has nothing to do with it. Unfortunately, there is no recovery.img to patch for custom recovery. I achieved root last night with a magisk_patched-boot_a.img.


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How can I easily force a browser refresh without going into settings, clearing all caches?
On my Windows 11 PC Firefox browser, if I want to refresh my webpage and load the new style.css that I uploaded instead of using old cached one, I can do "control- [click on browser page refresh icon]"
On an Android device, with Chrome for example, is there an easy way to force a reload of the webpage and style.css instead of going into Settings and clearing all caches?

Maybe you can look at some of the options posted here.