text:
Nexus 5X: bootloop after restoring NANDroid backup via TWRP
I was using LG Nexus 5X with Lineage OS 14.1 for a long time. I wanted to switch to stock Oreo ROM to see how it is.
I made a backup of the following items (Lineage OS 14.1) using TWRP:

Boot
System Image
Data
System
Vendor
Vendor Image

and copied them to my PC. After that I downloaded:
8.1.0 (OPM7.181205.001, Dec 2018)
which is a factory image from Google website and executed "flash-all.bat" to install the stock ROM on the phone. The stock ROM worked good. Afterwards I wanted to restore Lineage OS from my backup. So I installed TWRP "twrp-3.2.3-0-bullhead.img", wiped the phone and restored all the items listed above.
After everything was completed, I rebooted the phone and there was a boot loop at Lineage OS logo. I downloaded an older factory image:
7.1.2 (N2G48C, Aug 2017)
and installed it with "flash-all.bat". It worked, the phone booted. Then again I installed TWRP "twrp-3.2.3-0-bullhead.img", wiped everything and restored all the items from Lineage OS. After it was done the device wouldn't boot. Boot loop at Lineage OS logo again. I tried with older TWRP "twrp-3.2.2-0-bullhead.img" but nothing has changed.
Is there any way I can restore the old Lineage OS 14.1 from the backup I made? I'm not an expert, I follow guides on the web, if you have any comments or questions please state them clearly. If you have an idea how to fix the boot loop, please write your thoughts with steps which I could follow.
Many thanks.

A few things I noticed right off the bat. You backed up the system and system.img. Same issue with vendor and vendor.img There is no need to do both and can cause issue. The device will signature check blocks of data on the system partition during boot at the block level. The usage of dm-verity prevents TWRP from being able to successfully restore a normal system backup. To avoid dm-verity bring down the hammer TWRP introduced the system.img which is a close enough to bit perfect that dm-verity does abort the boot process. Those two things are enough to cause your bootloop.

@BoLawson: I have a similar issue: I installed Lineage OS 15.1, used it, created a backup, using it a bit more, and then I wanted to go back to the TWRP backup I had created. But as with the OP that results in a boot loop. Unfortunately I don't understand what you're trying to say with regards to dm-verity, is there anything that can be done apart from a fresh install of the whole system?

For more information on dm-verity and what it means for TWRP backups, have a look at the article What should I back up in TWRP


text:
Is it possible to use Android Emulator to pass identity confirmation via Android Device?
My google account is requiring I confirm my identity using an Android device, but I have no android devices.  I had logged in with one over 4 years ago, but no longer have any (switched to IOS for work).  I do have some Windows VMs and thought to possibly run the Android Emulator to simulate an Android device, but had thought from past experience that Google Play Services wouldn't run through the emulator, so likely many of these types of features wouldn't work.
Thoughts on how to get past it without having to buy a $50 TracPhone, which just seems like simple extortion?  I see no google-groups or other means of contacting google-account-services support.

I am un-sure if it would work but this is a Google play system image with an android emulator: https://androidstudio.googleblog.com/2017/04/google-play-system-images-android.html?m=1

UPDATE
I likely won't install the ADK and Emulator as I was able to resolve the issue without it.  The solution to the problem was to acknowledge all recent logins into my account.  The reason it wanted extra verification was that I had already passed 2FA, but since that login was not acknowledged (via my recover email), it took all 2FA as "tainted".  This is why it wouldn't allow me to verify via recovery phone number.  To solve this issue, this is the procedure I did.

Log into the account
Click on the user icon on the top right of GMail and select Google Account
From the Account page click Security
Look for a "Secure Account" link under first main heading for Security.  You may see an open lock with an exclamation mark.
Try to resolve all the name security issues listed.

Alternatively you may likely just look for security alerts listed in your "Recovery Email" account

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Will "deleting" an icon from the home-screen only delete the icon, or also uninstall the app?
I want to remove the icon for McAfee Security, without uninstalling the application.

I long-press and drag the McAfee icon, but there's only "delete" option at the top of the screen:

Then, there's a prompt:

I am not getting separate options:

remove icon
uninstall app

I can't tell if its going to delete the icon/shortcut only, or also uninstall the application.
Will "deleting" an icon from the home-screen uninstall the associated app?

It's been a while, but it'd be better if you could also [edit] & mention the device model, Android version, and whether this is a stock/3rd-party home screen since Firelord's answer is a big possibility due to the "many flavors" of Android.

Deleting an icon usually only removes the icon, not the app itself. However, if your launcher's home screen is merged with app drawer of the launcher, then it is likely it would delete the app. In the former case, launchers know that it is just the icon that is to be removed, so no user approval in the form of dialog is required.
I suggest you try to find it out on your own what actually would happen. Install a fairly harmless app, such as this one, and try to remove its icon. You would have your answer right away.

The link was the first one that I found when looking for open source apps. One can install just about any app for the sake of testing.

If it is in home screen and you remove the icon, it won't uninstall the application. It is just a mere shortcut for the app. But if you delete the application then it will be uninstalled from your phone.

IF you look at the screen capture I posted you will see that there are not two options: remove and delete. After long-pressing the icon there is only ONE option, which is delete.

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


text:
What are the differences between these adb and fastboot packages?
In my Bash shell, I have the packages: adb vs android-tools-adb as well as fastboot vs android-tools-fastboot.
For reference I am trying to root my device, and later use these tools to learn about how Android works etc.
What are the differences between the packages? Is each one a subset of the other?

May I recommend you a look into their corresponding tag-wikis: adb and fastboot? That should already answer your question.

I looked at those, but there is no reference to the respective packages.

So you know the difference between adb and fastboot? I'd say the respective packages should match that – that the tools-adb package provides adb and the tools-fastboot package provides fastboot, and not vice versa. But reading your question again I just now realize: that's not what you're asking! What distri are you on?

I am using the Ubuntu app from the Microsoft store.

Thanks for self-answering! Glad to see the mystery solved :)

The shorter named packages, adb and fastboot are part of android-platform-system-core, and are minimal versions. Likewise, their longer named counterparts belong to android-tools, and are the full versions. apt show <package name> doesn't say much about their differences, except that the adb will break android-tools-adb. The same goes for fastboot.
This is the homepage for the longer named versions, but it makes no mention of fastboot.
The shorter versions' homepage is here.


text:
Display a portrait-mode app on a horizontal rotatable screen
I need to display a portrait-mode app from my Samsung Galaxy S9 on a horizontal PC screen. The PC screen is able to rotate to portrait mode, but the problem is that the image rotates with it. The image is always displayed horizontally in regards to the PC screen. This means that when the PC screen is horizontal, the image is displayed in portrait mode in the middle of the screen, covering only a small "pillar".

When I rotate the PC screen to portrait mode, the image rotates with it, leaving the same "pillar" covered (though now rotated 90°).

What I need is for the image to be displayed in portrait mode while the screen is in portrait mode (meaning the image is rotated -90° when the screen is horizontal, making it utilize the entirety of the screen).
I've contacted Samsung, and they say there are no settings on the phone that allows me to do this, so I'm looking for an alternative solution, such as an app or other third-party clients. I've also read somewhere that I have to root my phone (and change some codes?) in order to achieve this, but that seems way too advanced for me. Alternatively, I could use my old Huawei P9, if that helps.

A quick Google suggests the use of an app like ‘Rotation | Orientation Manager’ by Pranav Pandey from the Google Play Store.  This app supposedly allows a user to override the sensor/UI of the given tablet/Android phone.  I will keep looking to see if there's a way to do it without an app if you like...

Using Miracast or an HDMI cable, the content will always be displayed as it is on your smartphone > I suggest trying this app on your phone to rotate the image and then adjust the image on your monitor as per your needs.
Rotation Control
Activate Guard Mode (shield icon) and choose the desired angle.


text:
How to get reliable download for old Android Samsung?
What is reliable?  I need reliable Android, to install "from zero", cleaning all the old firmware of the old smartphone.... So, the first and main step is to download a reliable and complete set of firmware files: where the reliable domains if there are no "official source"?  Where the reliable tools to help in the (ideally simple and plug-and-play) installation process?  Where the reliable community (suppose here!) to help to select what is reliable?
COMMENTS

Rationale
As Wikipedia noticed as Mobile Malware,

As wireless phones and PDA networks have become more and more common and have grown in complexity, it has become increasingly difficult to ensure their safety and security against electronic attacks in the form of viruses or other malware.

And, in nowadays, the most commom and danger type of attack is against  old-Android (with discontinuing support), malware that install itself  in the Android operating system, so infects the so-called firmware.
The only two 100% reliable way to avoid after detected contamination is to pay for a new smartphone or to reinstall all firmware... The the only cheap option is to reinstall by yourself (supposing that to pay for reliable certificated service  is the cost of the old smartphone).
The old or infected Android must be replaced by a
new reliable Android operating system.... The so-called "firmware flash process".

There are no direict  solution to the problem... So, the best that we can do is to votate....  This question is a voting pull about the main options: ...after a lot of research I discovered that there is no magic, no easy and super-reliable  way to reinstall all firmware by myself, but there are two (or perhaps more) main options. Please post your answer as Wiki.
Illustrative example and  scenario
Even for generic answers, to avoid long and abstract discussions we can use a typical smarthphone as reference. Suppose a Samsung Galaxy S-III GT I9300.
In this device, after hard reset, there are options for 1. reboot system, ..., 3. apply update from external storage, 4. wipe data/factory reset,  ...
Suppose that I used the options 4 and 1, but the virus persist. Now I need to use option 3, but the main problem is "where the reliable Samsung  S-III downloads"?, there are no  official download in the official domains like samsung.com  or android.com...

Firmware should be signed - therefore you should be to verify the authenticity of an image somehow. However I don't know much about Samsung firmware images as Samsung uses their proprietary firmware update system.

Hi @Robert, thanks.  About you named "signed", I am supposing that is a standard checksum... There are a simple and open "check procedure?". About "firmware image", supposing that it is the analog of the ISO image of a Linux distribution...

No I am talking about a cryptographic signature. That signature is required for installing/booting the firmware unless you have unlocked the bootloader of your device.

@Robert, thanks. Well, it is not trivial (!)... My conclusion is that I need the two things: 1. a reliable firmware-download; and, to the cryptographic signature, etc. an reliable  "pre-boot installer" (the name seems TWRP), so  reliable TWRP-download.

TWRP is only for installing custom firmware images. I don't think it can be used for installing an original Samsung firmware image. If you are going for a custom ROM you can use a Lineage OS version. Original LineageOS builds are IMHO the most trustworthy custom ROM you can find. The only available build for your device is Android 7.1. Even if it is a nightly build LineageOS is usually pretty stable. – Robert 2 mins ago    edit

Thanks @Robert, yes, I agree, LineageOS seems the most trustworthy, so, I am installing it (!).  I edited the question explaining: you can "vote" and/or edit (all are Wiki) your opinion in the answers.

Use a transparent source
Open-source is transparent, so it is reliable when there are a big community with many eyes   inspecting.  http://lineageos.org  and Heimdall are the most (positivally) cited,

Reliable download of an open firmware... E.g. from https://download.lineageos.org/i9300   (open sources  at Git/android_device_samsung_i9300) resulting e.g. lineage-14.1-20190117-nightly-i9300-signed.zip
Reliable download of an open TWRP... E.g. from https://dl.twrp.me/i9300/  (open sources  at Git/android_bootable_recovery)
Confirm sha256 of the firmware, E.g. by the Linux command sha256sum lineage-14.1-20190117-nightly-i9300-signed.zip and comparing with lineageFile.zip's sha256
Reliable install of Heimdall.E.g. at reliable UBUNTU installation use sudo apt install heimdall-flash check version with the command heimdall version. PS: it is the last from gitlab.com/BenjaminDobell/Heimdall
Follow the instructions to install firmware in your smartphone using Heimdall. E.g. https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/i9300/install

Closed/commertial most cited
Hum... This is (seem after some research)  the most cited mode, but all is "dark and closed", and commertial — even when seems free, with nothing to pay, you "pay" signing up and seeing a lot of advertising before to see some useful information.

Find your device... E.g. sammobile.com/firmwares/galaxy-s-/GT-I9300 (a page with some advertising)
Donate some personal data to sammobile.com database, to create your login(a lot of more advertising)
Download the "no-community open homologation" files... Perhaps you must to pay for download updated files.
Download non-open (no-community open homologation) software to manage the process, Odin. Example (where the checksums? can I confirm checksums with community?)
Run Odim using the files.


text:
Leagoo T10 (Android 6.0). Unable to connect to USB device
I have a Leagoo T10 phone running Android 6.0.  I am unable to connect to a USB thumb drive using a USB type C OTG adapter.  I am also unable to connect to my Canon SLR camera using the DSLR Connect app (the camera and app works using another phone using a later version of Android).
There is no option on this phone under Settings -> Storage to connect to a USB device that I can see.
I've tried turning on USB debugging, and changing the USB configuration to MTP.  No joy.
The OTG device is working - I'm able to connect the phone to my DJI Osmo Pocket with it.  The USB thumb drive is also working.
When I open op OTG Disk Explorer, I get the message "Cannot mount the USB Drive.  No device found".
The specs of this phone state that OTG is supported.
I've tried everything that I know to get this working.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

What format is the thumb drive? I have had the best luck with OTG using a file explorer like solid explorer (plug-in), FX explorer, or whatever other ones there are.

No luck.  USB does not show up in either of these apps.  File format is FAT32.  I think that there should be an option on my phone to connect to USB storage, but I can't find it.  I managed to work it out on my other phone (Sony Z5 Compact).  I've just ruin the USB OTG Checker app - and it says that my device is USB OTG compatible.

Since the DJI Osmo Pocket works with the devices OTG. The first probable cause that I can think of is the devices host power output might not be enough to power the thumb drive or camera. It is supposed be have an output of 5v but not all OEM follow protocol. The next thing I would check is the presence of /system/etc/permissions android.hardware.usb.host to make sure it has the permission android.hardware.usb.host and handheld_core_hardware.xml has the feature android.hardware.usb.host. however, without root you can only verify if its not present you will not be able to edit or add.


text:
Open DJVU files on Android (set default app)
I have an android phone. I have two apps on the phone, both are able to open djvu files (FBReader & EBookDroid). But when I'm trying to open a djvu file in "my file", the android system says that it is unable to find an application toopen the file.
How I could set a default application to open djvu files?

This is usually a problem with bare-bones file managers. Switching to a more feature rich file manager should solve it.
Head to Play Store and try a famous file manager. I can recommend Solid Explorer because I own it and use it, and it gives the option of assigning an app for a file type (subject to mime-type limitations).


text:
Prompt for filename for screenshot
I have an S7 with Android 8 and Samsung Experience 9
Is there a way to be prompted for a filename when you take a screenshot?
Thanks

The Android built in screenshot function does not support to specify the filename.
One alternative way for triggering a screenshot would be to use adb shell via USB or Wifi from a connected PC. On the shell you can execute screencap /sdcard/screenshot1.png and therefore specify the filename.


text:
Install Google Phone dialer on other phones
As you know Google Pixels and Nexuses are using Phone application as default dialer. and other phones can't install it.
even if we get different versions of it from ApkMirror, it does not install on phone!
I tested it on Huawei Nova

https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/205419/how-do-i-install-google-pixel-launcher-on-htc-u-ultra/205457#205457 please go through my answer, its about pixel launcher, similarly try with Google dialer app

So it means that can not install Phone app?      But why I could install Messages and Contacts from Google product.


text:
Why can't Tasker manage battery mode on my rooted Pixel?
I've been using Tasker to mute my phone at work. I recently added some nested tasks to enable and disable battery saver mode when I arrive and leave. However, it doesn't seem to have permission.
The phone is stock rooted Oreo on the October 2018 security patch release. Tasker is up to date.
I first see a notification:

Missing Permissions
Tasker needs the following permission(s) for the funcationality you  have configured:
Write Secure Settings

Tapping the notification, I then get a modal:

Missing Permissions
Tasker needs to have permission to write secure settings to use this action. Want to learn how to grant it?
NO OK

Then another:

Use Root
Since your device is rooted you can automatically grant this permission. Do it now?
NO OK

Opting for the affirmative results in a toast notification:

Tasker has been denied superuser permissions.

The battery mode never gets changed. Thanks for any assistance.

Strange result this! but have you tried to grant Tasker the 'write secure settings'permission manually with adb? i.e adb shell pm grant net.dinglisch.android.taskerm android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS

As it was confirmed in the comments, Tasker was denied superuser access in the Magisk app. Tasker can enable battery saver.
If anyone wants a command-line solution, try this:
Code -> Run Shell -> Command: settings put global low_power 1 -> tick Root.
Replace 1 with 0 to disable battery saver via command-line.
Tested on OnePlus 6 running Android 8.1.

If you use the Magisk app, add superuser permissions at Menu > Superuser > Tasker = ON.
That worked for me on Resurrection Remix OS with Android 9.


text:
How can I find preinstalled apps via adb?
Is there a way to find for example a preinstalled WhatsApp?
So before I delete WhatsApp I can check if for example Samsung has a pre-version installed on the device (and so I can’t fully remove it)?
With the normal „path“-command I got the actual WhatsApp path! But the Preinstalled WhatsApp-Path must be somewhere different!
Greetings
Dossy

adb shell pm list packages com.whatsapp
adb shell cmd package list packages com.whatsapp   # works on Android Nougat and above

Any of those commands would show whether WhatsApp is installed or not.
To know where the APK is installed, run:
adb shell pm path com.whatsapp

To get all the paths where both user installed APK and inbuilt APK is, run:
adb shell dumpsys package com.whatsapp

Look under the category 'Packages:' and 'Hidden system packages:'. The line with ResourcePath shows the path of the APK.
If your intention is merely to ascertain the existence of that app, then using adb is an overkill. An app can easily achieve the required objective. See my answer here for that.


text:
Coolpad 3622a. No USB recognition on PC
I had an earlier cool pad a few years ago and it wouldn't show up either.its a metro pcs.that has been factory reset stops at the Google pre owner login. I used the keyboard work around got into phone went on web and none of the you tubes FRP were exactly helpful. It let me rename startup apk  and of course it stops at the metro logo on boot now considered adb. Called metro they don't have any info on that imei #. I was only requesting old phone number because the sim I put in it was receiving calls (and with previous workaround could dial out). But no recognition from USB?

I could jell5 bypass FRP if I had the phone on hand. Which Android  version is that device?

FRP locks everything. Don't expect your device to be detected while FRP is enabled! By the way, you need to enabled USB debugging in the developer options to get ADB work which is locked as well.
So just keep trying to find a suitable method to bypass the lock on your device since Google actively patchs loop hole so none of the methods found on YouTube videos works anymore.


text:
How to install an unsafe APK after allowing Play Protect to block it?
I was just wondering, when installing an APK from an unknown source and you click OK to allow Play Protect to block it, is there a way of installing that app without fully disabling Play Protect?
When trying to install the same app after allowing the block, it shows App not installed.

Did you try "Install anyway (unsafe)"?

So my question is how do you install it when you dont click that

You can try sideloading via adb.


text:
Galaxy S7 - How to back up stored email mailboxes with ADB?
I've been through several threads on Stack Exchange / XDA to find a solution that yet eludes me for the following task :
As we all know, when we create an email account with our Android device and use the default email app, in my case Samsung Email, the synchronized emails are stored on our phone, in my case (rooted Samsung Galaxy S7 edge - Android 7.0), in this location: /data/data/com.samsung.android.email.provider/ with folders : App Cache App Databases
The idea, from what I have read, is to back up all those folders and the databases stored within them with ADB and then use SQLite tools to convert the databases into usable/readable information.
The problems I have encountered until now:

when I use ADB backup function, the stored backup is less than 1kb size, meaning the backup didn't work, this can be the result of the wrong app name or no Allow_Backup Flag on that app (system app)
I have used several tools to get the exact name of the app, in my case com.samsung.android.email.provider or com.samsung.android.email.provider-1 but still no result
I have tried to use the backup -all command, and that's how I realized some apps were not backed up in the resulting file, including the email app for my device.
I have read that in order to backup an app, it needs to have the ALLOW_BACKUP flag, and the app (system app) does not have that flag

What do you think? what should I do from here?
(Important: the idea is to extract/backup the whole mailboxes and be able to access the contents of these mailboxes on a Windows/Mac mail client. I have no use for the 'export email to file (.eml)' available in the Samsung app, as that would require to do it for each email one by one).
Sources:

Android email Extraction
How to backup with ADB
Backup problems
Backup FLAG info
SQLite database use

Why don't you copy those files & folders to another folder of your choice, then use sqlite to open the databases?

What you want to do is simply impossible. The app Samsung Email (com.samsung.android.email.provider) contains the entry android:allowBackup="false" in its AndroidManifest.xml.
This entry totally disables ADB backup for all of its app data. Whatever you do, the adb backup will therefore never contain the email data.
If the app has no integrated bulk backup/export function for the whole mailbox, you can not gain access to its app data unless you have a rooted device or you use a root exploit.

Please view Source N_1 = it can be done. If not done that way, maybe the solutions are : 1- Edit the app flag to allow Backup. I know this can be done in general, but can it be done with system apps ? Since Samsung Email is not a default android app, maybe this can be done? 2- work with the files in Cache and Database and reverse / decode them (reverse java) back to emails ?

@At0mX The article is 4 years old. May be at that time Samsung Mail did not not yet had the allowBackup="false" entry. According to the versions available on apkpure.com Samsung Mail from 2017 already had this entry.


text:
How to setup an alarm with no dismiss, no snooze and only one time media play?
Is there a way to set an alarm or a notification that plays just one custom sound once on weekdays only and requires no snoozing or dismissing?
Following are the apps I've tried and the details of the problems I have with them:

Simplest Reminder - no custom sounds for individual alarms, shows a notification
Androids built in alarm clock - you must press snooze or dismiss it
Alarm and Pill Reminder - shows a notification (but doesn't interupt)

Try an automation app, such as Tasker or MacroDroid.

Alarm Clock Xtreme has several options for how to dismiss and snooze alarms. Snooze can be disabled altogether, and dismissal can be set to automatic after ringing for a specified amount of time, the shortest being 1 second and the longest being 90 minutes. The default is to never auto dismiss. One manual dismiss method needs to be set as well, and the automatic dismissal happens if you don't manually dismiss before the limit is reached.
You can also set the alarm sound individually for each alarm, and if you set the auto dismiss limit as closely as possible to the length of you sound of choice, you'll essentially get an alarm that plays your selected sound once, then stops.
Alarms can be set to repeat on specific days.
I'm not in any way affilliated with AVG Labs, I'm just a happy user.
I'm using the paid version of the app, and some features described here may not be available in the free version.


text:
I see incorrect photo when accessing Android via USB
I see incorrect photo when accessing Android via USB. It's different from the one, I see in telephone itself. If I copy this photo to desktop, I get wrong image. If I move photo to desktop, I loose data.
This completely compromises USB access to Android.
Is it possible to avoid such situations by 100%?

There is a known bug in Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) in combination with Windows 10 that can lead to data loss. It is known since mid 2017, may be your device is affected. Regarding the files the easiest workaround is to reboot your phone.

Didn't know about this - MTP is a complete disaster of a protocol. I don't know why more phones don't just display as mass storage.


text:
Setup Android for kids?
How to setup Android so that the phone app is completely usable without a pin, but all others apps need unlocking

First of all, question is very nice.
You can do whatever you want for your kids simply by creating another account like a Guest.

But, Google already launched their app called "Google Family
  Links". Here you can control whatever apps you want your kids to
  use and also how long they've access to the apps. You also track their
  usage by your phone and can lock (Blocking them from more usage) the
  phone.

Unfortunately Google family doesn't work across countries and in some countries

Don't worry about it. You still should use it without any hestitance. You've to donload it from third party websites like APKMirror. And once you install it. Boom! You're ready to go!


text:
How to block Criteo popups ads?
I have a samsung s6 with android 7.0 and recently I have get some popup ads showing up in full screen mode when entering an app on my phone.
I tried to delete recently installed apps but the problem didn't go away.
I also tried adguard, malwarbytes and avast , adblock but none of them solved the problem.
When I enter the app info it says it is from Criteo.
I tried to block the ads from chrome browser and from google settings there is no way to disable those ads.
Can someone please help as I was not having this issue in the past.
I am open for any suggestion
Thanks

Yeah, you caught a good one. Use s file explorer and search your stystem for a package named: com.criteo.events. This company is also pretty good at hiding themselves and on some projects regenerating them selves. Not only do they send unwanted advertisements they also collect target user information. I would flash factory firmware with odin I would reset your Google advertising Id too. These guys will also try to target other devices connected to your e-mail account. I noticed this comment from their git:  "Set the email address of the user that can be then used for cross device retargeting."

@BoLawson I used my phone file explorer but also from the computer to look inside Phone\Android\data but couldn't find criteo there :( Is there anywhere I can know which package should be deleted there that could be associated with criteo. thaanks

The wrapper default location and it will not be in the area's that certain files are supposed to go. The absolute path is not documented in the source code. In fact it takes steps to mask/hide its location setting up symlinks so that its absolute path is not discovered. Its not an apk but a script that starts Gradle build which represents one or more projects. A project represents a library JAR or a web application or it might represent a ZIP that assembled from the JARs produced by other projects. How are you with a shell command line? Its not impossible to trace it but extremely difficult

It would be easier just to flash a official factory firmware through odin. Destroy the environment a start over so to speak. Its crazy I have Never actually seen one of these in a real world device. Here is documentation on the gradle wrapper to give you an idea of what this is: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/gradle/gradle_build_script.htm

@BoLawson I'm a software developer but not in mobile or web app. So I would go with the first option since I don't want to loose my data. I'm also interested in finding it out LOL , Only if this malware was in my windows 7 I would track it :p I've never formatted my laptop since 2014 :D for shell I'm ok with it since I used bash from linux in the past . thanks for your precious help


text:
Is GetApk Market application trustful?
Is "GetApk Market" application trustful or malicious? Will it affect one's smartphone or tablet?
I have checked via VirusTotal & it mostly detected as Android.Riskware.Downloader:

Can anyone please help me out by confirming that, is it malicious for the tablet or not? Should I install it on the tablet?

A "score" of 11/59 from an 9 years old apk file is not inspiring confidence. If you only want to get the APK files from installed apps there are numerous alternatives from apps with a better reputation.

Do you want a TOTAL STRANGER, someone you've never met, and cannot verify the trustworthiness of, to say "YES INSTALL IT" to make you feel safe? Sure, I'll do that for you. R-r-r-i-i-i-ght.

GetAPK seems to specialize in warez. It takes pride in hosting paid Apps from Play Store for free. Putting aside the blatant violation of intellectual property rights for the moment, paid Apps for free are infamously known to infiltrate the user's device as a malware.
It would be unwise to proceed installing such app even if Virustotal doesn't show anything suspicious. However, curiosity sometimes cannot be put to rest, so if you want to test this app, I suggest you try it in a virtual machine in a PC using Android-x86 or the likes of it.
You can also use a disposable Android device and see how well the app is behaving. Even than, that could only increase your confidence slightly. The risk would always linger as long as you continue to use such an app.
In short, if you plan to install paid Apps for free whether directly or via a market, be prepared to have your data (assume everything that rests or is loaded in the phone) misused and taken hostage.

What about those kinds of apps (from getapk market) which don't want extra permission ? If they don't want permission of storage or something, is there any possibility to be misused of data or taken as hostage ?

You seriously mis-understand the point here. GetAPK can itself compromise your system. It is best to avoid it at first place. It is not worth the risk.


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OnePlus 5 Black Screen after Pie
My OnePlus 5 after the Pie OTA update wont show the screen. after rebooting, it only shows the 'android' logo and then the screen goes completely blank(black). I can sense that the phone is turning on and working since I can feel the vibrations on the lock screen and random apps opening. I tried going to the recovery but even the recovery is blank but I can feel the touch vibrations.
Please Help!

I sucessfully upgraded my One Plus 5 T to Anroid 9 last night and this morning it was just a black screen and I could do nothing. I knew it wasn't the battery as it was on charge for the upgrade. I got it to work again by holding the volume down key and the power key for 10 seconds then it rebooted and my phone is alive again.
EDIT: Since posting this I have realised that once the phone locks again I can't unlock it! :(


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Increase multi-touch points on Android
Is it possible to change the number of touches in Android 6.0 without root? The default is 2, but I need 3 or 4.

Each phone's touch screen has a limited amount of touchpoints. As far as I know, nowadays all the smartphone has a maximum of 10 multi-touch points. Whereas, the older phones will give you almost 5 multi-touch points. I think there is a mistake in counting your multi-touch points. I hope your phone has a minimum of 5 multi-touch points.
Unfortunately, there's no way to increase or decrease multi-touch points no matter your phone is rooted or not. Nothing can help.
It's the hardware that has a limit and it's controlled by software. And software has to obey the instructions using the limited ability of hardware.


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Cant remove Google Chrome notifications
I got notifications saying "waiting for network" when I tried to download a video file.
How do I get rid of those notifications without restarting the device?
They seem to be unclearable. Why?
Is there a notification removal app that I can use?

Have you checked the Download page from the Chrome itself if there are pending downloads?

I managed to cancel the downloads. Still I am seeking for an app that can clear any type of notifications.


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Compile apps from GitHub source on device via Termux or apps?
Are there any ways to compile APKs on the device from GitHub source, like "APK builder" by heagoo? Termux method would be nice too if anyone knows.
I have tried the sdrausty.github.io method, but I believe that's more for his pre-configured APKs. I want something more universal.
Specifically, I'm looking to build this app: https://github.com/ukanth/afwall

Yes, it's possible in a universal way. See https://timeout.userpage.fu-berlin.de/apkbuilder. It's a toolchain as a Bash-script.

any app's ... that can compile apks on device from github source?

The command ~/buildAPKs/build.github.bash can build nearly an unlimited number of APKs which are available at GitHub today and is available at https://github.com/BuildAPKs/buildAPKs.
This BASH script uses aapt, ecj, dx and apksigner in Termux and Termux PRoot to make APKs on device and runs in Amazon, Android, Arch Linux, Debian, Chromebook, Ubuntu and Windows.
The https://github.com/BuildAPKs/db.BuildAPKs repository has build results for a few of the accounts at GitHub.  For example, the B10NAMES file has GitHub login names that built at least 10 APKs on device in Termux.

Specifically, I'm looking to build this app: https://github.com/ukanth/afwall

$ ~/buildAPKs/build.github.bash https://github.com/ukanth/
build.github.bash: Beginning BuildAPKs with build.github.bash https://github.com/ukanth/:
.
.
.
Results for ukanth:
com.ukanth.simplebatterytemp.apk
com.andraskindler.quickscroll.apk
com.stericson.RootShell.apk

The app afwall does not build on the fly with BuildAPKs at present.  Three of ukanth's apps do build on device in Termux on Android out of box.  With modifications to this script, afwall should also build on device today.


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What does nl="true" mean in the package-restrictions.xml file?
When you disable an app using the following command:
$ pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.videos

the three attributes will be added to the /data/system/users/0/package-restrictions.xml file:
<pkg name="com.google.android.videos" inst="false" stopped="true" nl="true" />

I know what inst="false" and stopped="true" mean, but what does nl="true" mean?

nl implies "not launched". From what I could understand it is used with respect to the state of a component and shows whether the component had ever been started by Android itself. You can check the following links to reach this conclusion:

PackageUserState.java
PackageSettingsBase.java
Settings.java


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How can I play a video in the earpiece with VLC?
By default, videos play in speaker with VLC. How can I play a video in the earpiece with VLC?
I don't see any option:

This answer may not be 100% because you asked about VLC, however Stealth Audio Player is able to play audios (& audio from videos)  via the earpiece.

Usually, there are two ways of playing music on Android device. You can either use your headphones or a speaker. But how about a third option?
The purpose of this app is to enable the users to listen to something when they do not have earphones and they don't want to use speakers.

This is useful not just for usual audio files, but also for podcasts, and comes in handy for when you forgot to bring headphones and do not want to disturb those around you. Stealth Audio Player enables you to make good use of the tiny speaker to listen things which should not play from the main big speaker.

Be aware that it hasn't as many options as VLC and other players.

NOTE: This is not a full fledged music player.

Disclaimer: I am not related to the app's developer(s).


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Can't boot into recovery or TWRP
Long story short, I was trying to get TWRP on my Moto G6 but am unable to boot in any way.
fastboot boot twrp.img

Results in the phone hanging with the Motorola logo. I'm guessing that this is relating to me flashing the recovery before-hand instead of booting it first. I'm not sure, I'm new to this.
When I try to boot into recovery from fastboot it presents me with the fastboot screen once more saying "Start Up Failed" with an error "Failed to pass validaton [sic], backup to fastboot".
For the record, the normal mode boots up fine, but I don't really care for the phone if I can't get TWRP running on it.

Is your bootloader locked?

Tried booting to recovery using ADB commands? adb reboot recovery?


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Bluetooth tethering from Samsung Galaxy 8 used to worked great
I have a Samsung Galaxy 8. I use it a lot to tether my Samsung tablet which hasn't pushed an update in a long time. I found that bluetooth tethering saved my phone battery far better than wifi hotspotting. My data speeds were fine for me with blutooth.
The latest update that Samsung or Cspire pushed to my phone ruined that! Now the tablet will not stay connected to the phone by bluetooth for longer than a minute, only wifi. However bluetooth still works fine with my vehicle connection. I still feel it's a phone issue since it happened right after the update. What can I do? I'm technology challenged! Thanks for suggestions!

What is Galaxy 8?


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How can I identify which app in a certain category is installed on an Android device, to install it on another?
I bought my old Android phone on a trip to China so some apps came from Chinese app stores and some came from Google's after I came back.
For apps that fit in a certain category, such as currency converters, how can I identify with certainty which exact such app is on a phone. By looking around the app and in the phone's preferences and settings, I can only find the name, which is pretty generic, and a version number.
Is there some kind of more unique identifier, some kind of ID, or some kind of link that's somewhere on all Android phones that will truly identify each app?

Android uses package name as a unique identifier, View app's full package name? might help.

That does look helpful! Too bad they all seem to require an app or attaching hardware...


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How to check what file formats Google Docs app supports?
I went to All apps in the Settings app, and then when looking at one, for example, Google Documents, I was gonna disable it but I got to looking at the information on the app. It says, some defaults set. Now, I do let some family members use my phone. I don't use Google Documents, never have.
My question is how I can know which apps are using Google documents as a default?

Now I have to check why Google Docs is a synonym of Google Drive tag.

Google Docs app can handle a large number of office text format files (.e.g MS Word .doc .docx .rtf ...).
If you try to open such a file format using an app that can't read those format itself it sends the document to another app that supports this format. Which app is used is not app-specific, the association is saved for each document type system wide. Therefore there is no such thing like a setting for apps that are "using google documents as a default".
You can see see and mange the file associations in the system settings.
Also any app can make use of Google Docs, e.g. a mail program that uses an external program to view attachments. Therefore there is no way to detect apps that can make use of Google Docs. Therefore theoretically any installed app can make use for Google Docs. To narrow it down you can say that any app that handle files (from file-system, mail, chat, file sharing, ...) can make use of Google Docs.

Um ok thanks im stupid lol. I want to down load my archive data from my google account but i cant never can figure out how to open up all the different formats they use for all the data when downloaded...any way i can get some insight on this. And can i do this by my phone and not a desktop?


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USB MTP/PTP/Tethering/Midi Not Working
I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 T235Y LTE 7.0". I have ported and flashed rom and it went wrong. Then I flashed stock rom. Now it's not detecting usb on pc (not showing usb options in tablet like mtp/ptp selection) and only charging device. Also when I turned off the device and put into charge offline charging animation isn't showing. Twrp recovery usb also not working. Usb works only when in odin download mode. Please help me to fix this !!

defective USB cable/connector? Or you're missing Samsung USB drivers (MTP drivers).? If on Windows, check what is shown in Device Manager

Usb cable is branded one and it's working with other devices. I have checked my tablet pc with several cables also. No damage with the usb connector port.

There may be init.usb.rc / any file intergrated with usb connection missing / damaged

hum... not sure about init.usb.rc... but try this: Open the dealer, dial *#0808# then select MTP/ADB, reboot. If not working, you should try flashing ''rapair" firmware, the one with 4 files

I tried all long ago! nothing worked


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One Plus 5 does not appears in ADB
I wish to install an another OS on my OnePlus 5 phone. At least try...
So I follow the various guides on the web, valid developer options, click on "unlock OEM" and "USB debugging". OK. I also install adb as well as android udev rules on my linux desktop. The phone itself is on android 9.
Then when I plug in a USB cable (from the manufacturer), I can get some notifications in dmesg only. Not in lsusb.
So far I can see (in dmesg) the phone plugged in usb only when it's on usb tethering.
And I can never see it in the adb devices list. Nor can I see any prompt on the phone asking me to validate my computer RSA fingerprint.
Someone got a suggestion ?

Just bought a brand new cable. Phone is recognized by the computer and install' is done in the minute.


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Is Qualcomm safe to keep on phone or is it a security threat?
I have a lot of stuff downloaded on my phone like com.qualcomm.qti.simsettings, all starting with Qualcomm.
Should these be on my phone? What little I did read it said security threat. Should I delete all these?

if these apps were downloaded instead of being installed by the OEM then this is a real security threat and you shoulf remove them

Yes. They are completely safe to have.
In fact, they are helper programs for Qualcomm parts, for example the SoC, the modem, or another chip in the phone.
Do not try to remove or disable them - your phone will sooner or later run into random issues.


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Can a malware compromise safe-mode of non-rooted device?
Was there any known malware running on Android (let's say since Nougat) which can compromise non-rooted Android device in a way that the malware is active also in the safe mode?
So when booting non-rooted into the safe mode, the malware is still running. Was there such a malware in the wild?

Look no further than the one-click root apps as an example. They exploit a vulnerability (usually on phones no longer updated or supported by their vendors) in the Android to gain elevated privilege to install a persistent piece of software, which usually is a system app in the form of a root access manager, but can also add daemons and other files wherever they deem fit.
When the device boots into safe mode only the system apps are available for the user to use, which also includes that superuser manager app in the aforesaid example. If an app installed a system app malware, then it would be booted even in safe mode.
Do note that it is not necessary that an app explicitly exploits a vulnerability to install a malware. Some vendors exploits their users' trust by turning factory shipped system level app into a malware, usually done by shipping a security or Android update to the devices. Some vendors even ship such hidden malwares from the very beginning. This is usually observed in low-end devices, but not limited to them.
We have many questions covering a number of Android versions and devices. Just search for the terms such as "malware", "system", "persistent", "factory reset" individually or in combination. Some examples of system level malware:

Some malware remains after factory reset
How to remove a persistent malware that downloads unwanted apps?
How to know what triggered an apk installation
Persistent malware despite factory resets
How can I uninstall this app which keeps getting reinstalled?
Remove preinstalled malicious software from smartphone
How do I fix malware installed automatically in the /system directory?

Thanks for all the information. Please what apps are one-click root apps from your first sentence? And how can I recognize superuser manager apps in non-rooted phone? (In this case, it is Note8.)

Here you can find some examples of the one-click root apps. Please note that I used one-click root app as an example only because they are popular apps which deliberately employ exploit to gain root access. Furthermore, I mentioned superuser manager apps in context of one-click root app only. An actual malware would definitely avoid installing such a manager which can work against itself

Oh. (I am new to Android.) So can theoretically any PlayStore app be able to exploit a vulnerability and install a malware? Is the anti-virus software guarding installations the best achievable software preventive protection? Is an anti-virus also able to scan system space, typically invisible in non-rooted phone?

An antivirus app, unless being a device administrator or a system app, wouldn't have any greater access than any non-system app has, such as WhatsApp. If a non-root app can read system partition, than so can your antivirus. Otherwise, both would fail.  Furthermore, they rely on proven heuristics and databases, and given the limited access they have in the system they can't really protect the system to the level they can in Windows.

Theoretically yes, any app can exploit, but I would be far-fetching this too much. Android employs various safeguards to prevent privilege escalations. Bypassing them is incredibly tough nowadays, though not impossible. You would have better luck in this area if you look for vulnerabilities yourself to gain understanding and confidence in my words. Try this: https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=android


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I've accidentally given permission to message app to receive and send text messages
This is because my messages won't send on my new Huawei y6 2018. I'm trying to rectify this but how is the question. Cheers Kevin

You should be able to revoke that permission from that app by going into Settings app, into All apps or something similar that shows installed apps list, use a toggle if system apps are not shown by default (usually from a three dot line in the top section, towards right and below status bar on the screen). Click on the entry of your message app, go into Permissions option and toggle the permissions you want.
You can alternatively clear data of that app. Clearing data revokes all the permission ever enabled for an app. It however would also delete all your custom settings and preferences.
Furthermore, your phone may also have a feature to enable or disable permissions separately. You should browse the Settings app for it.

Thanks for that but huawei y6 2018 only allowed me to turn off sms. As a result text was not working at all. I contacted tesco.ie and they said to take out sim card and re insert it. This I did and hey presto text is working OK. Still wondering about the permission I gave to message app. I don't know much about the technical end of phones..


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Get suggestions on misspelled words in spell check (when have the squiggly red line)
I get a red squiggly line under my misspelled words but when I touch on the line I get a menu with only the 2 choices of adding to the dictionary and to delete.
How can I get it to give me some options of correct spelling? I remember once before having this problem and I found a solution online. but now for the life of me I can't remember the solution and I cant seem to find it again online.


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Cannot transfer files to cell after enabling USB debugging
I enabled USB debugging now I can't transfer any file to my cell after this.
I tried disabling it but once I disable and close settings it enables itself again automatically.
I connected my cell with USB port to my PC and it shows the message that it's connect and even the icon but if I open the icon to transfer file by copying or cutting , I don't see any desirable file in my cell in which I have to place the file.
What to do now?
Help me on disabling USB debugging please.
Also help me on transferring files during USB debugging enabled and disabled both.
Cell: Moto E4

You need to either enable MTP or PTP to be able to transfert files. Otherwise you'll need to use ADB to push files

I am tapping on MTP and PTP as well but nothing happens ever since I enabled USB debugging.

Try this: open the dialer then dial *#0808#, this will open a menu then select MTP+ADB

Okay so I tried this and an incomplete message pops up after I dial this whichh says "Service is curre" just this.
However, now I'm able to transfer files though. Don't know how this happened but thanks.
Anyway can you also help me on disabling USB debugging? It's still pops up everytime I connect my cell to PC.

Go to developers option in settings

I already did that but it came again turned itself on but anyway I just factory reset my cell so no worries anyway.


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Is there a location tracker installed to my Android phone?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S7 phone running stock Android 7.0. It's not rooted. I've left my phone unattended for 10 hours. I don't have a PIN code or any other security measure to unlock the phone, anyone can unlock it with a swipe.
How can I easily figure out if someone (possibly with physical access) has installed a location tracker or some similar unwanted app to my phone? Let's suppose the attacker is not working for Google, Facebook or Samsung, but may also have access to my Google or Facebook account (e.g. by stealing or guessing my password -- I don't have two-factor authentication enabled).
Please note that in this question I'm not looking for advice for protecting my phones and my accounts, I only want to learn about the presence of location trackers and other similar unwanted apps on my phone.

If the device came into possession of an unauthorized person than you should be more concerned whether the device's software integrity is intact or not. Although Android since Nougat informs the user if boot process is compromised (only when booting the device), one can employ a minimal cross-check on their own.
Some root checker apps attempts to ensure that the software is intact (includes bootloader, kernel and system partition). You can use them to get the state of integrity. Once you are confident here, find out which apps were recently installed. You can use adb to explore the dump of package service (adb shell dumpsys package) or try an app based solution such as Applications Info. It can show the apps by installation date.
This could single out an app for you. If you find a phishy app, then check out its permissions, location usage, battery usage and data (internet) usage.

That said, if you don't find anything convincing and still remain convinced your device is tampered with and could prove your hunch to yourself with evidence (such as high battery consumption suddenly; location icon toggling in status bar, or anything that is weird or incompatible with your daily routine and usage), than I'm afraid I don't have a single source to help out.
Based on your evidences or observations, you would have to figure this out on your own. As an example, for sudden high battery consumption, you can check with Battery usage history in Settings app. Same goes for Location and data usage. Android shows the usage app-wise.
You can also search into detailed usage output of battery, location, data usage and many more important services through dumpsys utility, which requires adb usage.

I would probably start by accessing the system settings and scrolling to the bottom looking for an item called (Developer Options). If it appears in the settings and you are not a tech guru then I would start with a BIG red flag there due to the developer options menu is hidden; it takes activation to find. Someone would have had to tamper with it to open it. If so, I would open it and scroll down to an option called Unknown sources (it may be found on under the Security option depending on your Android version) and disable that no need to continue to allow outside illegal apps to be bootstrapped installed to your device.
Then, I would head over to one of these sites as I work in cyber-Security you can of course use the National Government Vulnerability Databases as well as use the Android Developer Website if you are looking for research insight or professionals in the field.
As far as searching your phone for an unwanted tracker. I would start with opening up your phones security settings and start with permissions and see what apps dont look familiar to you honestly if you dont recognize it, I would disable it temporarily most system services are prevented without root from disabling. But should you lose access to an app or the network, then just return to this menu and re-enable the last service you changed.


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Bad voice quality on phone calls, good with WhatsApp
I have two Samsung Galaxy S5 minis, one of which has the following problem:
The voice quality is really bad on phone calls to other people (muffled sound, chopped, extra noise/interference, echo).
I suspect it has nothing to do with the network strength, as the voice quality of the other device is very good in the same spots.
To rule out hardware issues, I called other people via WhatsApp. Everything is just fine there. Also voice notes on WhatsApp do not show any problems. So I would suspect that the microphone is ok.
I must admit that I did not try to reset the phone yet (factory reset), as I would not like to spend the time on reconfiguring everything to my needs - just to find out the problem persist.
So is there anything I can do before trying a factory reset or even send the phone in for inspection? Is there any setting that I can change? I removed some of the preinstalled apps, could this be an issue? Or is there another caller/phone app that I can try?

I tried a factory reset to resolve the problem, but it did not help.
Also I send in the phone to the sellers technical service. They wanted more money for repairing the phone than the phone is worth.
However, there were suggestions on the internet stating that sending the device to Samsung could help. Even if they would not repair the device, it could help resolve the problem. However, it turned out that my phone had still warranty, so they repaired it for no cost! Now everything is working fine!


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Family Link not available on OnePlus One?
My son is using an old OnePlus One, and I wanted to install Google's family link on it. The browser finds it but the play store doesn't, and when I click it in the browser (and go into the play store) I get a message "Item not found".
Because the OnePlus One's software has not been upgraded for ages I tried to solve it by installing Lineage OS together with the play store (via OpenGapps nano) but for family link I still get the same message.
Is this a software issue that can be resolved? Or is family link not supported for all handsets (including the OnePlus One)?

Which Android version is the OnePlus One? OR the LineageOS version you put on it?

At the moment it's LineageOS 15, so the one based on Android 8. Happy to upgrade but not sure that that would help?

As per https://families.google.com/familylink/device-compatibility/ the child version of Google Family link requires mostly Android Version 7.0 and newer, with a few exceptions.

Accepted, although the LineageOS that I use is based on Android 8. There is no technical reason not to accept that.


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How is it possible to listen to FM radio while a phone is on airplane mode?
My phone was on airplane mode, i forgot to turn it off then i decided to listen to Fm radio. It worked really well. I still wonder how airplane mode works. Shouldn't it be disabled first cause i just read that some wireless devices work while  on airplane mode.

Air plane mode disables all transmitters as these are creating the strongest radio waves that exit your Smartphone.
For some services like mobile network, WiFi and Bluetooth disabling only the transmitter without also disabling the receiver does not make sense, therefore both services are completely disabled.
The fm receiver however only receives the fm frequency and therefore does not have to be disabled in air plane mode. The same holds for GPS.
Note: Even disabling all explicit transmitters of a Smartphone some implicit transmitters of radio waves may still be active, e.g. the CPU and other electronic components can emit radio waves. However those radio waves are a lot weaker than e.g. a WiFi signal.


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Is it possible to flash a custom ROM without a custom recovery image?
For a non-rooted device, almost all articles/forum posts I've read say that in order to flash a custom ROM you first need to flash (or boot) a custom recovery image like TWRP.
I'm not sure I understand why. If the bootloader is unlocked, shouldn't it be possible to manually flash images that make up the custom ROM to the required partitions with fastboot flash <partition> [ <xxxx.img> ], and leave the stock recovery untouched.
I realize that this may be difficult and that there is no benefit in doing it this way, but I'm curious to know whether or not it is possible, and if not, why?

If you can make a fastboot compatible image for your custom ROM or can find one on the internet, than you can flash it via fastboot too. It is a matter of availability of images only. Recovery flashable images are convenient and more flexible though.

Note: fastboot has size limit. depending on ROM and fastboot version one must split system.img into system.img_sparsechunk.0 files manually or via argument

This question isn't as straightforward as it seems. The answer really depends on the contents of the custom ROM zip (assuming it comes in zip format) that you're trying to flash.
Most custom ROMs are not provided as image files. While almost all custom ROM zips include a boot.img which includes the kernel and is fastboot flashable, the system portion is where you run into an issue without a custom recovery. Stock-based custom ROMs typically include system files in a folder, which a custom recovery (like TWRP) will then extract to the system partition of the device. There is no way to complete that operation via fastboot. In order to flash such a system using fastboot, you would have to create an empty image based on the size of your system partition, format it using the expected filesystem for your device, loop mount it to a folder (if using a Linux system - in Windows you may have trouble finding a tool to do this, though OSFMount may work), and then copy the contents to that folder, so that they are included in the image. Once you unmount the image, you'll have a raw system image of the custom ROM that is flashable via fastboot. See an example of this process described here.
For AOSP-based custom ROMs, system files are typically included as a block-based full OTA dat (or dat.br) file. These can also be converted into an image file, using a tool like sdat2img for a dat file, and the same tool for a dat.br file, after using the Brotli tool to decompress it.
As you can see, while it is possible to flash a custom ROM without a custom recovery, it's certainly simpler to use one, especially since most custom ROM zips are built with the expectation that a custom recovery is how it will be installed.

Yes it is possible to flash images via Fastboot ?
With an unlocked bootloader you should be able to flash some partitions without overwriting the stock recovery, however each system usually requires a unique recovery to handle factory resets etc..
I have had issue's in the past with Maximum flash size, it wouldn't let me use Fastboot because my system.IMG file was too large to send via Fastboot.. That then required splitting the image into smaller files and flashing the smaller files.
You don't specifically need a custom recovery, however it makes everything a lot easier... For example, most custom firmware requires you to do a full backup of your device prior to installing, you need a custom recovery or rooted device to be able to make a full backup...
Why do they say " Use a custom recovery " ... Well this is probably determined by the firmware creator, they've most likely built everything into a single Flashable Zip file, using Fastboot won't work because the zip file contains more than just .IMG files, usually a ZIP firmware will have a folder called system, the system folder is copied to your device by the recovery, not flashed  .. each firmware usually contains 3 parts ( boot.IMG, System folder, additional files)... However some firmware's contain a complete system.IMG file instead of a folder.. These files can be pulled from the firmware and flashed via Fastboot, however Fastboot can not flash folders ( only a custom recovery can do that )
... I'm starting to get lost here...

Very helpful. However I'm kind of confused about this part "For example, most custom firmware requires you to do a full backup of your device prior to installing". Are you saying that you actually do need to first install a custom recovery to install these custom firmwares? Or does using fastboot allow you to bypass this requirement?

You do need a custom recovery for some firmware's to install.


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How to extract a compressed TWRP backup?
There are a couple questions concerning how to extract a TWRP backup in this community, but none of them is really useful. All I found out is that the files like data.ext4.win000 are the tar archives, and I should be able to extract them via the following commands:
$ cat data.ext4.win??? | tar xvf -
$ cat data.ext4.win??? | tar xzvf -

Yes, that's true, when I type one of the commands above in a terminal, I can see that the process of extracting files has begun. But when it finishes, I can also see this message at the end: `
tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors

Looking through the lines leads me to this:
tar: Malformed extended header: missing equal sign

I can find many of those messages in the tar log, but when I check the size of the extracted dir, I can see this:
$ du -sh data/
1.6G    data

$ ls -hal data.ext4.win???
-rw-r--r-- 1 morfik morfik 929M 2019-01-28 01:48:28 data.ext4.win000
-rw-r--r-- 1 morfik morfik 945M 2019-01-28 01:49:47 data.ext4.win001
-rw-r--r-- 1 morfik morfik 549M 2019-01-28 01:50:23 data.ext4.win002

So it looks like it extracted only the fist tar file. I don't know whether any of the files in the archive was damaged during the process.
Are there any linux tools that would extract this backup in some easy automated way?

It's not a "paged tar", but each file is a TAR itself.
All you need to do is tar xzf on each file.

What about the errors? Can they be safely ignored? Why do they appear? The archive isn't damaged in any way.

@MikhailMorfikov Yes, those functions can be safely ignored if you untar each file.


text:
OTA stock firmware zip
I have a bricked TV Box MeCool HM8 and I need to restore it to factory settings
,unfortunately I have the stock firmwave in zip format and need to convert it in image format to be able to use an sd card for recovery.. Any help, advice , would be appreciated..thank you.
regards.
Guitsy

I thought you were able to load ZIP files from recovery menu. What makes you think you need an Image file?

I cannot get to the recovery menu ,the box is not responding ,just the dreaded red light is showing ..


text:
adb error type 3 Activity class {com.android.launcher3/com.android.launcher3.WallpaperCropActivity} does not exist
I tried to change my wallpaper via adb. As I'm new to Android and don't know much about its activities, launcher etc. I don't know where my mistake is. I have found following adb command:
adb shell am start -d file:///sdcard/Download/test1.jpg -a android.service.wallpaper.CROP_AND_SET_WALLPAPER -f 0x1 com.android.launcher3/.WallpaperCropActivity

I'm getting the following error:
Error type 3
Error: Activity class {com.android.launcher3/com.android.launcher3.WallpaperCropActivity} does not exist.

I tried another command which shows a message on the device screen:
Picture couldn't load as wallpaper

adb command which shows the message:
adb shell am start -a android.service.wallpaper.CROP_AND_SET_WALLPAPER -c android.intent.category.DEFAULT -d file:///sdcard/Download/$bild -t 'image/' -e mimeType 'image/'

The devices OS is Android 8.1.
Does anyone know how to change the wallpaper (Home- and Lockscreen) of an Android device with adb?

What device is it? Which launcher are you using? Is the Android rooted? And, can I know why you are resorting to adb for this?

@Firelord I think it‘s Launcher3. The Device is not rooted. I want to set some settings for those devices. I have to do these „default settings“ very often. A part of our default settings is a special background. So I thought i could create a Script which sets the picture that I want as background.


text:
add yahoo mail to android phone having two step verification active?
Any help?
I want to get rid of the lousy Yahoo app on android. it has a lot of problems regarding notifications..
But when I try to add yahoo account in the Android-Email app, it says:
Login failed:
Possible reasons: Two-step verification is enabled for your Yahoo email. Login to .... disable it...
:(

Try the web interface instead of the app to regain access. It should give you some other way to gain access in absence of two factor authentication.

Do you actually have two-step verification turned on for yahoo?

yes i do have it on

Like most other 2FA implementations, Yahoo also supports "App Passwords" for apps and APIs which do not have a proper login system to authorize the 2-factor login.
These are static passwords which work as if there's no 2FA implemented at all. Be sure to never share such password with anybody as it bypasses the 2FA.
Yahoo has detailed steps to generate the App Passwords. So, follow the steps to get started:

Sign in and go to your Account security page.
Click Generate app password or Manage app passwords.
Select your app from the drop-down menu and click Generate.
Follow the instructions below the password.
Click Done.
Use this app password and your email address to sign in to your email app.

For more details, visit the Yahoo website - https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN15241.html

Use Outlook, it works with two-step verification.

You've tried it with Yahoo's two-step verification? The fact that it works with MS two-step doesn't mean it works with Yahoo two-step.


text:
How should I enter organizational units into my contacts?
The (Android) contacts system is modeled to contain individual people's contact info: There's a name, a last name, an organization/company the person is in, address etc.
However, we also need to keep the contact information for organizations, or departments/units within organization. For example: The customer support line of a branch of company.
What's the right way to have this information in your contacts?
One thing you can do is  just divide the information somehow between a pseudo-name and the overall company info. This is already crooked, semantically, since you'll have a name that's not a name; but its even more untenable, because the company name is critical, while not being displayed or being shown in small print when a call is incoming or when browsing the contacts.
What I actually do is shove everything into the name somehow, and use the most recognizable company name to start my "name".
Are there other options I'm missing?


text:
How to deal with the "com.qualcomm.qtil.aptxui has stopped" error message?
I have Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 android phone. Whenever I connect my bluetooth headphones and start playing music, I receive an error message saying "com.qualcomm.qtil.aptxui has stopped". The only option is to dismiss the error message and everything works fine then. What does the error message mean? How can I avoid it?

Same problem here, but I realized that it doesn't happen to any bluetooth device, but only to a few.ones, maybe those that are bluetooth 4.x. It's annoying, though.

Same problem here with zb631kl (Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2). No solution yet.

I've recently gotten into the same issue regarding my Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1. It turns out that I discovered an option, right inside Bluetooth device settings, that disables aptX HD Audio, so it won't keep stopping. Make sure to keep "Media audio" checked whilst unchecking the problematic "HD Audio". It worked for me, as I stopped receiving the stop error.


text:
How to stop uncorrect counting of my steps on Huawei Health app?
I have Huawei Mate 9 with Huawei health app preloaded. I travel most of the time by trains. I noticed the Huawei health recogizes any shaking in the train as steps while I am just standing or sitting. That's why I quickly reach 10,000 steps which are not real steps and the burned calories are not real in return.
How do I stop my phone from identifying shaking in public transport as real steps while I am standing still. Do I have something wrong with my device?

I'm not sure what all sensor data is being used by the app, but most would rely on the input of the accelerometer. And as such it is all based on its algorithm as to what kind of moments it identifies as steps.
While it is hard, the sensor on the device can be giving out wrong values. But I'd still suspect that the companion app is not able to differentiate between steps and the shaking of hands due to you being on the train. It's quite tricky for it too. I'd probably just turn off the app while in the train. We can't expect a very good amount of accuracy from an app which isn't reading anything from the body.
They can probably improve it by using GPS data and other sensor data to understand if the person was actually moving at the natural pace.

(I know this is an old thread but this is still a big issue with a lot of phones models and ppl might still find this universal solution useful)
Rootmode method
I disabled Samsung Step Counter sensor and Step Counter Detector sensor in android 10 by doing the following:

Uninstall Huawei Health application.
Activate Developer Options: go to Settings > System > About phone>Tap Software info > Build number>Tap Build number 7 times
Enable the Sensor Toggle: to do this go to developer options find and tap "Quick settings developer tiles." enable/toggle "Sensors Off" button, it will turn off your compass, proximity sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, and any other sensors.
Note: on this step in Lineage OS 17.1 the Sensors off option only added this button/icon in android status bar (near wifi button/bluetooth button/etc) so you still have to tap on it to deactivate sensors.
Once all sensors are off you need to edit your build.prop file (either install a tool like BuildProp Editor- you need root mode, or use file explorer with a built-in text editor).
The 2 lines that I've added in my build.prop file are:
Code:
ro.qc.sdk.sensors.stepdetector=false
ro.qc.sdk.sensors.stepcounter=false
5.Restart phone. Install Huawei Health
Enable back sensors by taping the Sensors Off button in your android status bar. Additionally you can repeat step 3 to remove the sensors button from your status bar.
Open Health and check if the small ! exclamation sign from main window is gone or at least if it doesn't display your steps counter from phone.

PS
I had to do this on one of my phones because Huawei app was restarting the phone randomly. It took me a while to find the culprit and apply this solution.
Since then I tested this method on various other phones I own and it worked on all.
For non rooted phones use adb method ("adb pull /system/build.prop") to edit and upload the build.prop file. For more details on how to use adb pull and push commands google search, there are some nice tutorials out there and I don't want to copy/paste someone else's work.
Trying to to this without respecting the steps will result in failure.


text:
Why does Android Device Manager not changes my password?
I have an Android phone with password, but I don't remember it. I have access to the phone through Android Device Manager. I tried to change the password with it, but when I set the new password, Android Device Manager says:

The phone has a password, the password you just entered will not be used

How can I change the password? I have not logged in with Samsung and adb does not recognize the device.

I solved the issue by installing ClockworkMod, and Aroma file manager with a sdcard, then I removed the next files:

password.keypattern.key
locksettings.db
locksettings.db-shm
locksettings.db-wal

Useful links:
HOW TO: Install ClockworkMod Recovery 6 on Galaxy S5 G900F
Remove /Bypass Lockscreen With Recovery


text:
Enable Developer options in Kindle Fire Second Generation
I have a kindle fire second generation with 10.5.1 OS installed. I'm trying to enable developer options but tapping the serial number seven times does nothing. What should I do?

I hope you found this

Of course. It is missing most of those buttons.


text:
WhatsApp notifications make phone unusable!
When I get am SMS text message I get a small notification at the top of the screen. However when I get a WhatsApp message the notification takes over the entire screen. If I get a flurry of messages my phone is basically unusable for a while, which is annoying if I'm trying to do something else.
I don't want to turn off WhatsApp notifications completely I just want them to be less prominent. Is this possible? I have a Pixel 3 so I'm running stock Android.

WhatsApp settings > Notifications > disable 'Use high priority notifications'

Open WhatsApp settings->notification->turn off pop up notification for both group and message notifications


text:
Why doesn't my downloaded file appear in the Download folder?
I've downloaded a Powerpoint presentation of the Facebook mobile app and when I go to the downloads folder and search up the name of the file, it doesn't appear. It just says "No results found. I use a Samsung A6.

What happens when you click on  the notification? It should open the file, then you could check the file location on the your PowerPoint associated app. Or check the settings of Facebook if the download location is the Download folder

If you are able to open the downloaded file(s) for example with adobe acrobat reader for PDF files, you can check the details/information about them from the app and obtain the info on their location(s).

I came here with the same issue. Facebook downloaded a pdf, I can open it in Adobe reader. wanted to share it but it's not in my download folder and reader has no details option and a search for the file results in nothing (at least from my downloads folder)


text:
jpeg don't pass on mac
android 5,1 on soyes 6,1, photos on SD card (FAT32), not on the phone storage;
when connected the jpeg don't open on mac's aperçu, announce corrupted (missing meta dates); on the phone (android) it appears normally.
what's wrong ?

Try sending the image by e-mail to yourself and then open it on your mac. Not sure why it would fix it, but it might...

thanks for your idea, already tried without success...

Problem solved...:
I started directly using the phone choosing SD for memory, including of course photos.
And that problem came out. Untill I changed tothe phone memory, then photos are normally available on mac. Going back then using again SD as memory, the problem is gone, photos available also on mac. It looks like it was necessary to start photographing at leaast once with phone memory, BEFORE switching to SD memory. Now it works.
Hope this will be usefull to other soyes users...
Bertrand Chevalley

Sounds strange (I think there was probably something else going on here that prevented the photos from the SD card working initially), but glad you got it working!


text:
Where can I find the default /system/lib for Lollipop
I have a rooted Alcatel 5017 A and I wanna check the libraries on the system (I think I got hacked) can anyone show me the default content of system/lib for this phone? Thank you all!
Also, I would like to decompile some system process in order to check if their code had been changed, if anyone knows how to reverse engineer the com.google... processes I would love that

Flashing stock ROM or Factory Firmware looks more feasible option than looking for default libraries of a specific device and reverse engineering its binaries.

can you give a quick hint on what it means to flash stock rom ? The internet only have tutorials but no explanation

See this and this. Flashing ROM means installing a fresh copy of Android OS.


text:
How do I sync contact lists from outlook.com / Office365 into my Android contacts?
I am successfully syncing my outlook.com and Office365 contacts into my Android contacts (Samsung S9), but I cannot see the contact lists in either account.
How do I sync the contact lists? I would like to use them both from Messages and from Outlook.
Thanks.

Microsoft has a poor implementation of contacts sync and I was never satisfied with it. After hitting my head against a wall for several years, waiting for Microsoft to improve the sync, I've just made the switch to Google Contacts.
Not something that I prefer, but there's no way to have your contact lists or folders synced using any of the official apps. And I have not tried much to rely on a 3rd party app for this purpose.


text:
Recover non-sent Voice Note on WhatsApp
I need to recover a non-sent audio on WhatsApp. I was keeping my phone hidden so the person threatening me wouldn't know I was recording and when I took my phone off my pocket, I accidentally clicked on "cancel". Is there anyway to recover it from WhatsApp database or Android?


text:
Files stealing from device or onedrive
I have word files on onedrive and i use word for android to edit theme.
I want to know if the are secure. Can other applications acces themes ?
Can appliaction that have storage permession steall my files from the device ? Send theme to the web ?
Thank you

Yes... all the application needs is storage and internet permissions to do that, I've made several proof-of-concept apps to highlight this... Currently Androids first line of defence is On-Demand permission acceptance....

You can hypothetically clone an entire device partition also....

Yes you can hypothetically copy or clone files using some simple command like cp or dd
It's almost ridiculous... I use my Android for distribution of my personal copyrighted applications, I am honestly worried about the lack of care taken to protect data .. The Google Play Protect feature seems to illegally sample my applications and copy the copyright protected package names...
I believe the only thing you can do is to include a copyright statement in each file, this will mean that any copying will result in a breach of the copyright act...
The law is the only thing stopping people from doing this, however it is touch and go ( You accept the permission, therefore you give them the right )
It's all a bit strange with Android, because they aren't the owners of Java & Linux, they use Open Source software to build android, so therefore Android "Has" to be an open sourced project...
When it comes to advanced data miners ... They've got everything... Facebook, EBay, Google, etc... All send your data to the Axiom network ( Data Mining Center )   and therefore your Purchases, Online search history, SD card data, contacts, social behaviors etc... are all available to anyone willing to pay for it....
These days, nobody has privacy... It's all part of the Data mining and protection.
You are more likely to have protection by including your copyright statement, it's as simple as ...

Copyright © "Your identity" 2019. All Rights Reserved.

ok. that's terrifying.


text:
How to stop ads redirecting to Google Play store?
I have a similar problem to
How can I stop being redirected to the App Store/Google Store by dodgy ad-scripts?
however the solution provided there doesn't work:
I'm opening in-app ads on purpose for in-app rewards (freemium game), and some of them open the Play store after they finish playing. I want to continue seeing these ads, so I can't just block them, and redirecting to a web browser changes virtually nothing on the problem. Can I prevent those ads from sending me to the store?
I'm using an older Samsung Android, 4.4.4 according to the device.
I think a redirect tag would fit this question as well, but it doesn't exist.

I ended up installing Firefox to use as my web browser and my problem was solved.
The phone started asking which app to open the links in instead of opening the store directly.

Hi, while this might be a solution, I'm trying to understand the reasoning. The question is talking about in-app ads, not ads on websites. In-app ads are using web view/native component and it is possible to redirect to Play Store directly, skipping the browser entirely.

@AndrewT. While you're not wrong the solution proposed is in fact similar to what ultimately ended up happening for me, at some point the phone started asking which app to open the links in instead of opening the store directly. Either way, I have since switched devices and stopped experiencing the issue.

@MrRedstoner I see, thanks, looks like it's either "have multiple apps that handle specific links to prompt the user" and/or "reset the default app for handling Play Store links".

Here's a solution for Android:

Turn on the Pin windows feature. (For my phone, it's located in Settings --> Lock screen and security --> Other security settings --> Pin windows.)
When you're about to watch an ad for rewards, pin the app window.
Once the ad ends, it'll try to redirect to google store and fail. Then, you hit the back button, and voila: there's your in-app reward.


text:
Recover Whatsapp Keyfile
I have a backup of my whatsapp database, however i accidently wiped the keyfile from the system partition when i tried to recover my phone that did not boot any more.
Does anyone know if there is any backup of this file somewhere on the internal storage of even in the cloud at whatsapp, or if it is somehow possible to decrypt the database without the file?
Thank you!

It is not possible to decrypt the database without the keyfile, and WhatsApp make a point of not having your messages in the clear (they are encrypted end to end)
So unfortunately you have no chance of getting your data back without that keyfile.


text:
How to find UID of an app installed on Android and use it as a shell user?
I am trying to find a way to determine the user name of the current shell user from within a shell / terminal on an Android device.
The Android environment that I have in /system/bin and /system/xbin does not have the unix user command. Overall, it appears that the concept doesn't quite exist on Android, but at least, on my rooted device, there is a user root and also there are groups such as shell and everybody, based on the permissions of files on the system.
The background is the following:
I want to run an ssh command (I installed a version of OpenSSH also) on the Android that uses a local private key. The key has file permissions and those are required to be restrictive by OpenSSH for good reason (the UNIX group of the file should not have permissions to access the key, only the owner).
Since I know only the user root, I can set the owner of the key to root and run ssh as root. However, I don't really want to run ssh as root.
I am issuing the shell command from within Automate which has that option. Apparently, it's possible to execute the command without root permissions. However, if I add the key file to the ssh command, it can't get access to the file that is accessible only by root. Thus I would like to set the owner in the UNIX file permissions of the key to the shell user used by Automate, but I do not know how to find out who that is.
EDIT:
~# grep automate /data/system/packages.list
com.llamalab.automate 10106 0 /data/user/0/com.llamalab.automate default:targetSdkVersion=24 3002,3003,3001

I assume 10106 is the UID, but is that a static value? If yes, could I add a line to /etc/passwd by using adduser command from busybox or Termux?

Android inherits from Linux the concept of shell, which is the core component of Linux login process. But there is no concept of Linux console login on Android (1) because it boots directly to GUI. However it makes use of Discretionary Access Control (DAC) of Linux kernel which is based on UIDs / GIDs and permission mode. Every installed app is considers as a *NIX user and is assigned a unique UID at install time. See this answer for more details on this.
You can get UID of Automate app from file /data/system/packages.list or by executing id -u from within app:
~# awk '/^com.llamalab.automate/ {print $2}' /data/system/packages.list
10106

Since you want a remote login from local machine using a ssh binary (built from standard Linux source) which is to be executed by Automate app i.e. with UID 10106, the key file must also be owned by UID 10106. The only place on device which is owned by UID 10106 is the directory /data/data/com.llamalab.automate, so this should be set as $HOME for ssh and where the key should be placed under directory .ssh owned by UID/GID 10106:
~# mkdir /data/data/com.llamalab.automate/.ssh
~# ssh-keygen -f /data/data/com.llamalab.automate/.ssh/id_rsa
~# chmod 0700 /data/data/com.llamalab.automate/.ssh
~# chown -R 10106.10106 /data/data/com.llamalab.automate/.ssh

Create file /etc/passwd with a single line: user:x:10106:10106::/data/data/com.llamalab.automate:/system/bin/sh where user is any username of your choice. You can also use adduser:
~# touch /etc/passwd
~# busybox adduser -D -H -h /data/data/com.llamalab.automate -s /system/bin/sh -u 10106 user

Also add -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no to ssh command so that new server is added to known_hosts without user interaction.
However if the ssh binary is built specifically for Android to be used with an app, it must have its $HOME already hard-coded which can't be changed using /etc/passwd. In this case you can try something like ssh -i <path/to/key> -o UserKnownHostsFile=<path/to/known_hosts> <user>@<IP>. Permissions must be set and both paths must be accessible by executing app.
PS:
Please note that UID 10106 must be member of group aid_inet (GID 3003) for ssh to be able to make connections. All apps with android.permission.INTERNET are member of this group. Or you can add a line to /etc/group: internet:x:3003:user. Or using addgroup:
~# touch /etc/group
~# busybox addgroup -g 3003 internet
~# busybox addgroup user internet

However this is useful only for programs which perform login (setgroups()) like su, sshd etc.
For more details on how Android lacks Linux's login mechanism, see this answer.


text:
TWRP decrypt password
TWRP 3.2.3 asks for a decrypt password at startup, which I never set.
Ignoring with 'cancel' leads to the main menu, but then the internal
storage is marked as 0 byte (e.g. when trying to backup), which is not the case.
I understand this is related to default encryption of the data partition
(correct?) by Android (my phone has Android One).
Is there a default password?
The PIN/password used to login into the regular OS do NOT work.
I've seen many answers saying so (e.g.
here or
here
),
it is not true (at least for my version of
Android). I tried with numerical PIN, password, or nothing (each time going
back to factory reset), and nothing worked in TWRP.
I know there are other related questions, but none of the answer provides
details or seem confident enough:
here
here
here
This answer refers to a misterious "disable force encryption"
package, which I've also read about in other posts.
Is it really the way to go? What exactly is that package? And what does it do?
Can I not completely disable encryption in Android OS?

Extra:
I want to mention that I manged to circumvent the problem temporarily, by recreating the data filesystem within TWRP. This of course wipes out your data, but at least afterwards TWRP sees your internal storage and one can do a backup of the system. However, upon reboot the phone gets stuck in the initial loading (white screen with color bar in Android one), so I have to reboot again to the stock recovery and do a reset. Which brings back encryption, and I am back to square 1.

It's a issue with TWRP and the ROM you are using. TWRP is able to decrypt till Android 8.0 but if you're using a ROM above it you'll get this error and after flashing your data partition to ext4 it will let you use that space till ROM boot up and encrypt again. There isn't a solution yet. TWRP releases updated version 3.2.3_1 for few devices only which has this bug fixes.

Android devices with full-disk encryption (FDE), such as yours (usually Android 7–9), may support the forceencrypt fstab flag, which causes the device to encrypt (again) on (first) boot.
Thus, while you can “Format data” in the “Wipe” section in TWRP to have an empty but decrypted “/data”, the OS will encrypt again on next boot.
You must therefore prevent encryption of “/data” from occurring for your use case to work.
Try looking at “Universal DM-Verity, ForceEncrypt, Disk Quota Disabler” [1] or otherwise Magisk [2] [3].


text:
How to create custom shortcut on homescreen with extras parameters?
I would like you create custom separate shortcuts to MPV player for each of my IP cameras around the house.
I can launch MPV to directly play the camera stream using adb
adb shell am start -n is.xyz.mpv/is.xyz.mpv.MPVActivity -e filepath "rtsp://login:password@192.168.2.1:554//Streaming/Channels/1"`

I tried editing sqlite db /data/data/org.lineageos.trebuchet/databases/launcher.db and adding new entry for each shortcut but it didn't work. I'm not 100% sure how to pass extras variable in format like
Intent;action=android.intent.action.MAIN;category=android.intent.category.LAUNCHER;launchFlags=0x10200000;component=is.xyz.mpv/.MPVActivity;s.filepath=rtsp://login:password@192.168.2.1:554//Streaming/Channels/1;end

It seems that you have root access, given that you can edit that database. In that case, why don't you use Tasker app? You can setup a shortcut (as many as you want) with that first command of yours.

@Firelord thanks, that looks like it could achieve what I want, but it seems Tasker is paid app. It is somewhat ridiculous such a basic feature is so hard to achieve - creating shortcuts with arguments is a basic feature that normal desktop OS have built-in for decades.

The app Automate (Llama labs) as well as Terminal Emulator also has a 1x1 widget where you can attach your commands.


text:
How can I install / debug applications on nanopi m4 Android board?
I have a nanopi m4 Android board, usb type c port for charging and data (and debugging maybe), four usb 3.0 ports, Android 8.1
I need to use adb,
what I have tried

use the charging / data port (usb type c) for debugging, the board couldn't boot, it goes through a loop trying to boot, I guess because of not enough delivered power;
looking for the debug over Wifi feature in the Android settings, but I didn't find this option.

Question
What other debugging options do I have?
This might help

I can put an App in SD card and use it
I can host a temporary web server to get the app to the board

Problem Solved
Somebody just figured out how to do it: power the board using two power bins and use the usb-c for debugging.


text:
Android's certain button cannot pressed
Im facing issue cant press certain button (i.e. VPN ok button, chrome agree t&c), as seen in the video
Screen Record (GDrive)
Currently i am using

Ressurection Remix 7.0 (Android Pie/9)
OnePlus X E1003
GApps is stock, but removed certain apps such as pixel/google rom as it may conflict with previous try of installation.
PS: i wil post on rom's xda forum later

Try to clear cache and data of chrome browser, I know that shown is chrome's first open page(without any data), force close chrome and have a try

I already try that, and somehow i could bypass first page. Now, its running normal
Thanks for the answer