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How can I make an Android app "forget" that it installed on my phone before?
Some apps, like Facebook, LinkedIn, Tinder, etc., seem to have a mechanism to remember which Android phone installed their app. So if a user is banned on these apps, the next time somebody creates an account on the same Android phone, that account is flagged or even banned automatically.
What is the way to make sure the app forgets that my Android phone was used previously with a banned account? I tried to clear the cache and delete app data, then uninstall the re-install the app, but it still remembers! I tried it on different IP addresses, but the same issue is there.
Does the app have access to the IMEI of the phone!??
I am on Android v10.

you said u tried clearing cache. Did u clear its data? (when u open storage of the app in settings there are 2 options clear data & clear cache). If yes then try parallel space and tell if that works..

@Aayush yes i said i deleted the app data. and no parallel space had the same problem.

You are somewhat giving the impression that you aren't clear on the distinction between an app that provides an interface for a service, and the service itself.

@Acccumulation but the service should ban (if it so wishes) an user, not a device. I'd totally expect to be able to log in using a different account if mine was banned, regardless of the device I'm using. It would be totally legitimate if multiple people are using the same device (more common with a computer, but can definitely happen on a phone too).

tl:dr; addressing OP's question - sorry, no way AFAIK. From Android 10 onwards normal apps can't access IMEI number.
Revised answer with additional inputs from Izzy (thanks)
How do apps (Google or third party) identify you?
Apps identify a device using:

Some or all of device identifiers, mainly Android ID, GSF Android ID, build serial number, and advertising ID. I know of one paid app which tracks IMEI too (before Android 10). It depends on the developer as to how badly they want to identify you and prevent installation of apps. See this excellent write up by Izzy (a moderator here) for more details Android Identifiers: How Android devices and their users are identified. It is rare that an app depends only on one type of identification. I have observed over the last three years that shopping , banking, social media & social media related apps are particularly nasty and use every trick in the book.

In addition to this apps come packaged with trackers and loggers (all utilities which are used to log user activity on an app or logcat in general), which identify the user and their browsing patterns , in addition to fingerprinting user by device identification. These can be used for benign purposes in theory but in practice can extend to key logging features that can track what you type. Have a look at Staggering variety of clandestine trackers found in popular Android apps.

What happens to this data?
Those identifiers are stored on third-party servers (analytics companies and other "big data collectors" such as Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc.) – so once collected, there's no chance you can delete that. Some offer an opportunity to sign out, but there is no way you can have that data deleted. Even if it is legally possible under GDPR (which I doubt), it is not a trivial task to get this implemented across hundreds of trackers/loggers.
How can I prevent from being tracked/ identified?
Root is a must for full control over this menace (see rooting) That's the unfortunate part. Without root you can only choose apps with care and probably try some hacks which in the long run aren't effective or at best partially useful.

Choose the apps you want to install with care: Up to a degree, apps like TrackerControl or Warden can help. Ideally, you avoid apps including trackers; Exodus Privacy is a good helper for that – and Izzy's app listings use such services to "mark" apps, making it easier for you to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Feed them faked information: This approach is better than denying permissions because it doesn't result in malfunctioning apps or apps that crash. Highly recommend you to use XPrivacyLua being the most effective broad spectrum measure. This requires EdXposed to be installed from Android 8 and above (see the restrictions section to see what can be faked). If you are on earlier versions Xprivacy by the same developer does the job with Xposed. Even XPrivacyLua can't help in instances when the app code is obfuscated.
The Warden app mentioned above can also "nuke" your device, making it free
from trackers and loggers. It also gives you flexibility to tackle apps on individual basis. The Warden App Manager uses a static list of trackers and loggers compiled by French non-profit Exodus Privacy.

While Android has been showing greater concern for privacy and PII information over the last few versions, this problem is not significantly mitigated even in Android 11 (no prizes for guessing why. Google is probably the biggest data aggregator).

I don't know exactly how each app implements this but I wold assume that they use the ANDROID_ID. Each app gets an ID that does not change.
ANDROID_ID is a random number generated on first boot after factory reset.
On old devices all apps (with the appropriate permission) can get access to this ID. The ID is the same for all apps.
On modern devices each app gets an app-unique ID that is derived from the ANDROID_ID.
This means the ID the app sees does not change no matter how often you(un)install the app.
Only if the ANDROID_ID changes the app will see a new ID. Therefore you can perform a factory reset, that force creation a new ANDROID_ID. As far as I remember restoring a backup should also restore the old ANDROID_ID.
On rooted devices you can directly manipulate the system wide respectively the app-specific ANDROID_ID:

How to get app specific ANDROID_ID on Android Oreo?

Thanks. So how can I check whether an app gets permission to access ANDROID_ID or not and can I deny it?

You can't prohibit that an app accesses this ID.

"generated on first boot after factory reset" does that mean that doing a full factory reset on the phone will generate a new ID? Sure, it means reinstalling everything on the phone & reconfiguring it all, but if the OP is that desperate to reinstall an app that bans, that should do the trick, right?

@FreeMan As beeshyams pointed out in his post there are other identifier that can be used, too. Vut a factory reset should work as long as the apps don't get access to info from SIM card or the phone hardware (IMEI). Also keep in mind that apps from the same company (or affiliated companies) might work together which means restoring the data of one app might "restore" the link to the old ID.

This falls into the "worth a try, but not guaranteed" category, then...

You might need to use a completely different Google account to sign into your phone. It would be interesting to see if a friend is able to log in to their account using your phone; but before risking getting their account banned keep reading.
If the problem revolves around creating a new account using your phone's app and having that account banned then you should try using a different device such as a computer or a display phone at the store to create a new account and then log into that account on your phone.
It would be a little short-sighted for a company to ban a device outright because if you sell it then you would have to disclose to the buyer which apps are banned on the device which in turn devalues your device.


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New Samsung S6 tablet stuck on Samsung logo?
I have bought 20 Samsung s6 and after every 4 of them got stuck on Samsung logo, I keep them on charging for 2 days. Nothing work for me.

Are you sure the devices are genuine? May be you bought some fake devices that can only show the Samsung logo. Have you tried pressing the power button for 10-60 seconds to force a reboot?

@Robert yes I have tried that, and I bought these devices from authentic manufactures in my country. out of 20 devices 15 are working fine.

Since 5 of the Samsung tablets you received are working differently than the other 15 tablets, it's clear that either:

Samsung has sold you a bunch of defective tablets.
You received at least some counterfeit tablets.

In the comments, you mentioned that you believe you purchased them from a reliable source.  If they are genuine, your experience indicates Samsung has a quality control issue... perhaps a serious one.
Return the tablets for replacements or insist on a full refund.
Note that I've purchased multiple Samsung Android products with serious problems, and trying to get support from Samsung was time consuming and a huge hassle. I now try to avoid Android devices made by Samsung.

If they're new, I'd return them for an exchange.  (And make sure you're not getting cheap fake copies of Samsungs.)

Thanks so much, I actually return those tablets back to Samsung, and now they return me back and they are working fine.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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What can i do to get my cloned WhatsApp to show messages with names from my contacts (address book) in a Huawei 40P lite smart phone?
I transferred my phone contacts from my old Samsung phone into a new Huawei 40P lite. The phone doesnt come with pre-installed WhatsApp. I then cloned WhatsApp from the old Samsung phone. The address book is showng pretty well but the names in my contacts havent synched with the WhatsApp. What should i do to activatte the address book (contacts) so that the WhatsApp messages should be showing the names of the people in my contacts list.

Try these steps?
https://drfone.wondershare.com/whatsapp/whatsapp-not-showing-contact-names.html

Turn on your contact permissions
Refresh WhatsApp Contact List
Reset WhatsApp Sync

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


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Two photos disappeared from my Gallery
Yesterday I noticed that two specific photos I wanted to preserve disappeared, I remember I didn't delete them because I didn't find them in the trash bin, nor did I delete them from the trash bin itself because it was the first time I checked there.
What is it due to? How can I retrieve them? (Out of 500 photos I have, those two got deleted, arghh)
I'm 100% sure I didn't delete them, furthermore I took these pictures less than 30 days ago, so even if I deleted them, I'd have found them in the trash folder, and I haven't.

It is possible that the camera APP had an internal problem when try to save these photos.

What do you mean by that? Do you mean that Camera didn't save these photos directly on the spot and weren't save from the get-go? I mean, I saw them saved and even visualised them in the gallery, but then suddenly disappeared and I'm unable to retrieve them for the moment, I've tried to see solutions across web and YT but nothing. It's not that I take pictures and do not get saved, it's peculiar for these two photos.

Thanks for the info @abdul. Please, could you share with us more information about the device that you are using, the gallery app, and if you are using SD Card?

You can try recovering those using deleted photo recovery deleted file recovery apps available on Play Store

You can try using a File Manager app and  look for your photo in one of the following folders:
For photos you took by your phone:
DCIM
For images you received by WhatsApp:
WhatsApp > Media > WhatsApp Images


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Gmail notification remains on lock screen after email has been read/deleted on another device
I recently switch from iOS to Android (Google Pixel 4XL). One problem that I can't figure out:

When I receive an email, I get a notification on my device's lock screen. Good.

If I read (and/or delete) said email on another device, the above notification remains (until I unlock my phone)

Is this just a deficiency in Android vs iOS, or is something not working correctly?
Thank you!

The Google push notification system is not a "real-time system". For saving battery communication to/from Google is delayed so that lock screen messages may become outdated. Unlocking the device forces a refresh.

I agree with @Robert. Exclude Gmail from battery optimization, it may help

I just gave this a try. Unfortunately doesn't change anything... Are you both seeing the same behavior though? Thanks for the responses.


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Strange touchscreen problems on Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
I'm having a strange touchscreen issue with an Xperia Z1 Compact. It's generally working fine with no obvious physical damage. Awhile back it was triggering random touch events. I eventually peeled off the factory-installed screen protection film and that problem went away - but there is a region of the screen that still has very strange problems: most but not all software buttons work - so typing works fine, but some buttons in the same region can't be pressed. For example, after I did a full OS-reflash, there was a welcome screen to SMS/Messaging which I couldn't dismiss. I thought perhaps messaging was crashing, but I later plugged in a mouse and was able to click on the button. Now messaging works fine. It was a large button in the same region of the screen as the keyboard (which works fine) so I don't understand why I couldn't press it.
Similarly, when I swipe, if I cross this region it is often interpreted as a button press - I suspect the swipe is "noisy" and is getting interpreted as button presses. But, as a very weird example, if I swipe left and right on the home screen in this region, the background will move but not the contents (app-icons/widgets). Normally both drag together - which is also the case if I use a mouse (this is possibly correct behavior - to alter the background region, although still odd that the mouse behaves differently). It's almost as if there are 2 different aspects to the touch-interface and one is damaged in this region.
The only setting I can find is under language inputs I can adjust pointer speed but this doesn't seem to have much effect.
Anyway, will keep using the phone for now with some frustrations but just curious if anyone has any explanation, similar problems, and possible solutions. Thanks.

Use one or more touchscreen test app if you have non-working areas or if there is a displacement between your touch on the screen and where it is detected. The latter may be a problem if you can't touch buttons that are small.

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried a few apps - those that "map / repair" problem areas seem useless. I found one that leaves dots as pressed - it clearly shows a damaged horizontal region. Explains why swiping up/down is such a pain. Still find it odd that I can swipe left/right everywhere and use the keyboard which is smack in the middle of that region but often can't press fairly large buttons. Maybe some operations average the finger over a larger region and estimate location while others require an exact press. Just a guess. Looks like only solution is hardware replacement. Thanks.


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`fastboot oem unlock` results in unknown command (Alcatel 1s)
I have an old Alcatel 1s (5024d) with Android 9 and I wanted to try my hand at rooting it. I've been following a tutorial that's supposed to let me flash a boot.img patched by Magisk Manager.
I've enabled USB debugging and OEM unlocking in the developer options, installed the necessary drivers, and have downloaded the official platform-tools to be able to use adb and fastboot. Additionally, I also have the original cable that came with my phone.
I have zero problems finding my device with and adb with fastboot, but when I try to use fastboot oem unlock (when my phone is in fastboot mode and connected to my PC), it just shows
FAILED (remote: 'unknown cmd.')
fastboot: error: Command failed

I have also tried fastboot flashing unlock, but that shows
FAILED (remote: 'Not implemet.')
fastboot: error: Command failed

There's frustratingly little information about rooting this 1s version, so I'd be grateful for any advice on how to unlock the bootloader.

Try 1. Changing the cable 2. Port

@beeshyams I tried that, but nothing changed.

Try  fastboot flashing unlock_critical, some devices need that. Not sure about your device

Above should be after fastboot flashing unlock

See the second last post here https://forum.xda-developers.com/alcatel-1/help/alcatel-1s-2019-5024d-root-t4104295/amp/

Tried them both, but nothing seems to be working. My boot.img actually comes from this post and it was one of the first things I tried.

Your best bet would be XDA- it's not a very popular device , so unless someone has it here, you may not get help. All the best

https://www.droidwin.com/fix-failed-remote-unknown-command-error/#Check_the_OEM_Unlock_Toggle

Minimal ADB Fastboot
For Alcatel 1S (5420J), the following commands unlock the bootloader:
adb devices
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot devices
fastboot oem unlock


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Some apps only work on wifi
I have a few apps on my phone that for some reason only work on wifi. It is an email client and a public transportation app.
I tried reinstalling the apps, clear cache and data, clear cache, and data on Google Play Services, resetting network settings but nothing seems to work. Is there any way I can make them work on mobile data as well?
EDIT
As suggested, I'm including a few more details. The affected apps are Microsoft Outlook and InfoTB.
I am Romanian, my carrier is Vodafone, my phone is a Samsung Galaxy 10e running on Android 10.

Without knowing anything more specific, mobile providers can block some links or protocols for whatever reasons. Using VPN on the mobile might work, but YMMV.

I added the details you guys asked.


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Adding custom thumbnail previews
I am considering buying a tablet with Android, in order to navigate a particular kind of files. These files have .pes extension, and they are special files for embroidery machines, they contain the "instructions" to create particular images for the machine itself. The aim is to navigate those files using a file explorer app, for the customers of our shop: we would like to give a preview of the images in our catalogue before embroidering them. Obviously, thumbnail previews will be really useful, with no need to open every single image. But I am not able to find a single app which can provide a preview for "special" files, which are not jpeg, png, and similar.
Is there a way to customize or add the type of files for which the thumbnail previews are possible?

Explicitly asking for app recommendation is off topic here. Since PES isn't a standard image file, normal gallery apps (which show thumbnails) won't be able to handle the format. If none of the existing embroidery viewer apps fulfill your needs, you can get a simple app developed according to your requirements.

There IS a way of creating the picture files (which is what you want - a thumbnail is a small version of a picture file), but not the way you want to do it.  You'll have to use the .pes file to create the embroidery, using an embroidery machine, then take a picture of it.  (There's no way of "creating a thumbnail" from a list of instructions for an embroidery machine.)


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How to make saved images to retain saved in Whatsapp?
After some time all images in my Whatsapp look in the following way

i.e. as if I never downloaded them. Although I did.
How to make it keep images once downloaded?

You download an image from WhatsApp, the same image still exists in /sdcard/WhatsApp/Media/WhatsApp Images/, and WhatsApp shows like it's not downloaded? Android version and ROM?

What's your os? android version? Sometimes (in rare cases tho) there is autodelete function enabled in some roms by default. AND do you use any 3rd party app to free up storage?

Did you possibly move them to an sd card or something to save space?

Open a file manager app and go to folder
WhatsApp > Media > WhatsApp Images
and check if your images are still in that folder. If not, you can try downloading them from WhatsApp again, refresh the folder, and see if they appear there.


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Samsung Galaxy unlocking software
This is a followup question for this post and that one. Currently I'm trying iMyFone software to remove the screen lock for my cousin's Samsung Galaxy A8. The problem is Galaxy A8 is not among the options available:

Sometimes, devices are categorized in compatible families. I wonder if any of the listed devices above is compatible enough with Galaxy A8. Which device I can possibly choose to safely try to unlock Galaxy A8?
UPDATE
Downloaded and installed Dr.Fone, but seems like it has the same device list.

I know, the listed devices are all old ones. But I just thought they might be compatible with Galaxy A8 ...

please forget all of these wonderful software, nothing can work on recent devices. use official methods like find my mobile or find my device

if you want to preserve userdata this is the only (inofficial) 'working' method but is very time consuming

i don't know why xda-developers is promoting iMyFone (probably because it's a sponsor) but this software looks like a scam. it claims to work on android 10 which can't be true. due the fact the login credentials are part of encryption, this would destroy all data (even in case it would be possible to erase screenlock)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/j9xazm/you_cant_cancel_your_imyfone_subscription_nor

@alecxs Thanks! Uninstalled iMyFone! =)


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On Pixel 5 phones, how to re-order home screen pages?
On Pixel 5 phones, how to re-order home screen pages? For example, my home screen have 5 pages, and I want to swap the 4th page and 3rd page. How to do it? My Pixel 5 phone is using the default system softwares if that matters.

not sure if Pixel phones are different functionally from Samsungs, but holding your finger on a blank place on your screen should make the entire page movable, allowing you to insert it wherever you want between other pages of apps


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Use an Android tablet for drawing on PC while seeing only a zoomed in portion of the entire screen
I'm looking for a way to utilize my 10" Samsung tablet as a drawing display tablet for use with arbitrary Windows 10 apps (like Photoshop, any pixel art tools, basically without hard limitations) with support for only seeing a zoomed in fragment of the screen, while the screen still shows everything without cropping/reducing the resolution only to what the tablet can show.
Because my desktop monitor's resolution is 3840x2160px at 48" and the tablet is 1920x1200px at 10", I would like to be able to match up the scale and visible region on the tablet to that on the monitor, with a pinch-to-zoom gesture on the fly, so I can only work on a part of the screen at a time. Seeing the contents of the entire monitor on the tablet or having to lower monitor resolution to match the tablet's is not very usable for drawing. With Teamviewer, I can't figure out how to use it to draw at all - it translates all touches into drag motions for Photoshop, and it only shows the entire visible screen, without the ability to zoom in on a small part.
I don't have any special touch pens for the Samsung tablet, and it this model does not have any special pen support. So I guess I'm looking to translate all touch as mouse clicks to PC.
Is there a modern piece of software for Windows 10 and/or an Android app to make this work?

I've seen similar questions but they're either severely outdated, like from 2013 and the app isn't there anymore or doesn't support modern Android versions, or extremely slow or doesn't work for drawing (like Teamviewer). Also, I can't tell if this is an appropriate question of if I should try Softwarerecs.SE


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How do I root a phone without losing any data?
I don't care if my phone trips the knox counter, I couldn't care any less if samsung knows I tried to root my phone but I'm tired of looking at videos on YouTube that say "This method works without any app and data loss", I used CFAutoroot and that erased my device. You all know how to root a phone teach me, I want to be able to keep my apps and data not lose any apps while rooting my phone. I was able to root only one phone with Android KitKat, without losing any apps except for Google Chrome, I want to root a phone with no app loss.


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How to make my Android device forget a PC?
I am running Android 10 on Realme 2 Pro.
So, I am having a lot of trouble connecting this device via USB for file transfer.
I don't know what's the problem. I have tried enabling and disabling USB debugging.
One thing I recollect is that one day I connected it to a charging brick which it recognised as a USB connection instead of AC and I clicked on file transfer.
Since then and before, I haven't been able to connect my device via USB. One day it connected to somebody's PC and that gave me the idea if the Android can forget previous PC, it might work. Is there any solution?

There are two possibilities to forget the connection setting:
USB Charging/MTP
You can change the default behavior your phone uses when connected via USB in the Android settings app.
As far as I know by default there is no entry in the settings list to configure the default USB mode, however if you use the settings search field and search for usb you should get an entry named USB settings
Note that this setting is disabled by default unless your device is connected via USB to a second device (PC, power bank, ...).
Android Debug Bridge (USB debugging)
The option to "forget all PCs" that were authorized to use adb is in the Developer Options right below the entry for enabling/disabling adb. It is called
Revoke USB debugging authorizations

I did both of those. Still not working. Anything else I can do maybe?

@Mehul I assume you have already rebooted your device since that time. The only thing left is check the USB cable, may be you are using a defect cable.

I have already rebooted and also tried another USB cable. Is it possible that I damaged my USB port? @Robert


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Any easy and free way to install One app Two times in Android
I have seen some other way such as using Pro editor apk. or using root, but I want any other way which is free to install One app two time in my android device.
Thankyou Your answers and comments are highly appreciated.

Apps are developer's intellectual property. Modifying them without developer's consent is unethical and possibly illegal too. You can install multiple instances of the same app using Android's user profiles feature.

Thanks for your comment. but i cant find Android's User Profile feature on my device. I think something is related to device owner. (I have Samsung A5 with Android 10)

You have to create profiles. Try Shelter app. It's open source and free. I've no affiliation. Btw decompiling an app and recompiling after some modifications isn't usually a very tough task if you've some knowledge of Android development (which is off topic here).

Thanks brother its work. Please answer this into the Answer section so i can accept your answer.

You are welcome. How about self answering? It's encouraged here. But don't forget to edit your question to reflect what's being answered was asked in the question.

I solved it using Shelter App. Shelter App created Work Profile on my Android 10.
Shelter is useful for creating an isolated space and utilizing the work profile feature on Android. And in that room, we can install or clone applications.


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How to decrypt Island / Work profile and Parallel Apps user in TWRP?
TWRP 3.4.0.0 release introduced multiuser decryption which means no more error 255 or other multiuser backup errors on devices with multiple users setup. The problem is, TWRP requires all the users to be decrypted in order for the backup to be successful. But, I can't seem to decrypt Island / Work profile user (user 11) and Parallel apps user (user 999) in my OnePlus 6 running Android 10.
Note: Parallel apps user is specific to OnePlus devices.
Here's what happens when I enter my PIN in TWRP on boot or through command-line:

Attempting to decrypt data partition or user data via command line.
Attempting to decrypt FBE for user 0...
User 0 Decrypted Successfully
Attempting to decrypt FBE for user 10...
Failed to decrypt user 10
Attempting to decrypt FBE for user 11...
Failed to decrypt user 11
Attempting to decrypt FBE for user 999...
Failed to decrypt user 999
Data successfully decrypted
Updating partition details...
...done

I can explicitly decrypt secondary user 10, so no problem there, but I am unable to do that for Work Profile / Island user and Parallel Apps user (user 999).
Doing twrp decrypt MY_PIN_FOR_USER_0 999 doesn't work. Running locksettings verify --user 11 and locksettings verify --user 11 gives me
Profile uses unified challenge

So, how do I decrypt these user accounts so that I can make TWRP backups?
I am unable to put the answer to this question to my use. What is a "synthetic password" and how is it used by Android?

Edit: From the TWRP issue tracking link shared by alexcs, the solution for work profile is to separate its lockscreen credentials from the primary/main user. This seems to work so far. However, it doesn't not work for decrypting parallel apps user (999).

Note: this solution is tested on Android 10 (OxygenOS 10.3.2) in OnePlus 6 with TWRP 3.4.0.3.
The idea for things to work smoothly in TWRP is that your main user must not have any lock screen security/credential for the purpose of taking backup in TWRP. This way, TWRP can automatically decrypt main user, work profile user and also the Parallel Apps user.
Follow these steps:

Setup a Screen Lock to PIN/Password/Pattern for your main user/profile, if you don't have it already.
In Settings → Security & lock screen, enable/tick Use one lock for Work Profile. This means that neither Android system, nor your work profile apps would ask for additional credentials to be used.
Set Screen Lock for your main user/profile to None. That is, remove lock screen security.

Now, boot into TWRP. TWRP would automatically decrypt your main user account (user 0), your work profile account, and also the Parallel Apps user (user 999). If you have setup a secondary user account, you can easily decrypt it with the command:
twrp decrypt CREDENTIALS SECONDARY_USER_ID

Alternatively, in TWRP, go to Advanced → Decrypt User → select your secondary user → enter its credentials.


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My Pixel C tablet doesn't respond to the unlock pattern and the recommend action to debrick it doesn't work
I have had this Pixel C for about 3 years, possibly more.
Two days ago it stopped responding to the unlock pattern.  This seems to be a fairly irregular thing on Google devices and never fixed.  The recommended course of action is to do a factory reset.
However when I start the device with volume down and power the only options I see are:

Restart this device

Does as expected.

Switch to fastboot mode

Goes to a screen stating "Waiting for fastboot command...."

Reboot in Android Recovery

Reboots and shows the dead android with "No command" below it.

Turn off this device

Does as expected

Switch to USB recovery

Shows a page stating "For more information on USB recovery, please visit: g.co/c-recovery.  That page tells you to open up Settings - I can't unlock the device so I can't do that. If I could unlock the device I wouldn't need to do this!

The additional information is:
PRODUCT NAME: GOOGLE Smaug
HW VERSION: 5
BOOTLOADER VERSION: Google_Smaug.7900.139.0
LOCK STATE: Locked
How do I debrick my tablet?

Just in case anyone else comes this way searching for an answer, I did get one on the XDA forums.
The solution is to start the device with volume down and power pressed.  This brings you to the menu I described in my original post.
Select the Reboot in Android recovery option.  Once you get the dead android logo hold power then press and release volume up, then release power.
That will bring up another menu which allows you to do a factory reset.
Once that is done you can restore your tablet.


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Clone Device To Multiple Devices
I have to set up and configure a thousand devices that use Android Go 8.1.
Every device is the same brand and same model.
I have to install two third-party APKs that get thrown a warning by Play Protect. I also have to configure certain settings, Pass Code, disabling background mobile data for certain apps....Notification settings and so forth. Everything on every phone needs to be precisely the same, down to the pass code, and down to the GMail address the device is logged in with.
I have no experience in Rooting. I need some advice on how I would achieve this in the fastest way possible. The device is a generic Hisense U605 with 1GB RAM and 8GB internal storage.

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts! For starters, please see: Bulk Android Device Provisioning // Clone and distribute Android 4 device with preloaded applications // Clone Android device including the content of SD card. As every device is the same brand and model, you could eg use the "Nandroid approach" – but that would require you to unlock the bootloader and install a custom recovery (eg [tag:twrp]). I'm not sure if you'd be fine with that.

Hopefully your devices are bought with zero-touch enrollment support: https://developers.google.com/zero-touch Otherwise it will be a lot of manual work...


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What is the support timeline for Google Play System Updates (GPSU) from Project Mainline?
Since Android 9 more and more core components can be updated by Google by the Google Play System Updates (GPSU) that come from Project Mainline (https://www.xda-developers.com/android-project-mainline-modules-explanation/)
Do you know how long Google will provides these updates? I hope that there will be updates even after the phone manufactures have stopped providing the "normal" android (security) updates. If this is the case the updates of the phone manufactures would be less important since you get important updates directly from Google.

Though Google has successfully trapped a majority of OEMs in contracts and agreements, still Google Play Services isn't a necessary component of every Android device. “End-user devices can receive updates to these modularized system components from the Google Play Store infrastructure or through a partner-provided over-the-air (OTA) mechanism”. Secondly the updates received from Google are just related to AOSP framework. No major (like version) upgrade or critical fixes to vendor code (which are sometimes even more critical than AOSP code fixes) aren't possible without OEM's involvement.

I would assume that even Google does not know at the moment how log they will provide updates. This mainly depends on how many new major Android versions will use this modular system without changes. If for example the modules now described are still used by Android 13 or 14 you have a high chance for also getting updates for older devices. But if Google decides to not only add new modules but also change existing modules (split, or somehow change) then I would assume that updates for those modules won't exceed the 3 years period.

AFAIK, timeliness are not mentioned anywhere for the simple reason that this WIP and not yet matured. It's a part of slew of measures taken by Google over the last two or three years and even measures like Treble aren't fully adopted //Google itself takes it's own time with some measures. For instance, scoped storage was introduced in Android 5 but become a reality in Android 10. Points made by @IrfanLatif and Robert are very valid


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Stylo6 Android 10 no cast
I see no generic option to cast in either my pull down tray or in settings > connected devices, as no screen share available.
Is my only option to download an app from Google play?


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Getting rid of one of the second keyboard dropdown suggestion list
I just got the google Pixel 4a 5g. See the screenshot: there are 2 suggestions lists: the horizontal one just above the keyboard (where it says "GIF") and this black dropdown. I find it pretty ugly and in the way of the other suggestion list, is there a way to deactivate that dropdown?

From settings go to text correction and disable "suggestion strip"

using help from @beeshyams, it was under System -> Language > Tools -> disable spelling check
The suggestion strip (under System -> keyboards) is the horizontal bar that I wanted to keep.


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How to prevent Samsung Pay from launching on Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge without adding an account and without rooting the phone?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge phone. Recently, due to nothing that I've done to it (maybe an OS update?), it now has "bar" at the bottom that acts upon an upward swipe operation that brings up the Samsung Pay app. I never use Samsung Pay, and never want to use it, so I want that to stop being used as the upward swipe gesture.  I've searched on the web and everything leads to having to go into Settings under Samsung Pay, but each time I do, it puts up a login wall whereby I have to sign into a Samsung account. I do not want to have to add an account to disable the swipe gesture, as I certainly don't want to allow Samsung to mine my email address.
Is there anyway to just disable it completely, or somehow prevent the upward swipe to launch Samsung Pay, and just do what it used to do before "they" made this Samsung Pay be associated with that upward swipe gesture, and all without rooting the phone?

Current half-baked solution: I was able to go into the phones settings, under Apps, and select Samsung Pay, and then click Force Stop. That caused it to disappear.  Is that the way? Restarting the phone did not cause the bar at the bottom to show up again, so this might be the solution, but not certain it will be if a new system update occurs and re-enables the Samsung Pay again.


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What determines the graphics of a device?
I do play a lot of games and most games settings have options to either set your graphics to low, average or high. So I'm really curious to find out what exactly determines the graphics of a phone so that I can set my game graphics according to what will work perfect.

The major hardware elements that determine what graphics quality you can choose are:

Graphics chip built into your main CPU. The faster it is and the more parallel computation cores it has the more calculations per second can be done
The maximum RAM of your device
The display resolution. The higher the resolution the more pixel have to be calculated -> the longer the calculation of each display frame takes -> the less frames per second can be displayed

Okay, what do you suggest for a   6.52 inch IPS Infinity-V Display, 720 x 1600 pixels, 20:9 aspect ratio (~269 ppi)Android 9.0 (Pie); HIOS 5.5 with 4GB RAM
Octa-core Mediatek MT6762 Helio P22 (12 nm)
64GB Built-in Storage with Memory Card

@Chinez MT6762 is a mid-class chip from 2018, hence I would assume you should choose mode average or low. Just test it out, start with the higher mode and if it stutters too much or the phone is getting too hot use the low mode. For older games with very simple graphics the high mode my be also usable, but that is game specific.


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Will installing the stock screen recording app from a different model still record internal audio?
My LGV30 phone running on Android 9 has a built-in screen recorder, but it displays an on-screen timer that can't be removed. On newer models (LGV40, LGV50) running on Android 10/11 this timer can be toggled off. I know apps downloaded from the Google Playstore can't record internal sound on Android 9. Before I download apk files from untrusted sources, I wanted to verify if installing the new version will still record internal audio or would it require root permission?

try if these apps work.. https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-record-internal-audio-in-Android-9-without-earphones-and-without-rooting and https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/general/guide-how-to-record-internal-audio-t3848927

@Aayush Thanks for the links. I tried the app from the second link but it requires root to record internal audio only. Basically all I want to know is if downloading an APK made by LG on my LG phone will update my current LG recording app which has internal audio recording, or will it be installed as a second app with no root access?


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TWRP for new 2020 Samsung device
I wanted to buy a new phone, but one that I could install TWRP on. I searched and found that the Galaxy A01 CORE is cheap and good and I almost bought it.  I tried to search for TWRP for the device unsuccessfully.
I have not found any guide or website that explains how to install TWRP on this device. Is it because it's new and only came out on 6/8/20?
The question is basically about new phones and TWRP, since the phone came out it has been about 4 months, how long does it take until a version of TWRP is released that is suitable for the phone? If I want a phone with TWRP I will always have to buy an old one? Because new phones are always released every year, and the problem is that stores are no longer selling phones from 2019, so what can be done?
Is there some way to install TWRP on Galaxy A01 Core?

for this device you probably won't get source code. but you can port TWRP recovery from another MT6739 device (BLU Vivo ONE or
K-touch i9)

TWRP is not released by OEMs. It is developed independently by volunteers after the device is marketed and it's kernel and ROM sources are released  (they are legally obliged under GPLv2.0) .

Not all devices have TWRP because they are not suitable for development for technical reasons like bootloader can't be unlocked, SoC not suitable, OEM releasing source late etc. Also, developers make TWRP for devices that are popular and suitable for development. OEMs at times give out free devices to developers to make their devices popular.

If you are keen on buying a device that has TWRP support, keep a tab on the device forums on XDA
and based on the TWRP /kernel /ROM support from developer community, take a decision to buy or not.

This site doesn't give buying recommendations. If you can't find the device in stores, look for alternatives like on line sites etc. Google is your friend.

Or else, learn how to develop (this site doesn't support questions on that) and make your own TWRP. Note that TWRP is specific to the device & device variant (Samsung makes several variants for the same model) and you can't use TWRP meant for some other device, irrespective of similarities in devices.

Ty man! You know how I can find out if the OEM released the source version of my device or is it late?

Again your best bet would be device forums on XDA and some other sites like Android authority etc. I am not keeping track of Samsung devices

Even though this site does not give recommendations for specific phones, maybe you know which company is usually easier to put TWRP on? Because I heard that Samsung and Google for example have an open bootloader, so you do not need to unlock bootloader?

For all modern devices, you need to unlock bootloader to root your device and install TWRP.. You can start off by reading tag wiki of rooting, bootloader, Unlocking to get basic understanding //Google devices need to be unlocked //Not sure about Samsung devices //Just because they can be unlocked, does not mean you have TWRP

My current device is Pixel 4a which can be unlocked and rooted but no TWRP //Read the tag wiki of TWRP (you tagged that to question) and decide what exactly you want, why, your budget and look for popular devices //Welcome to Android Enthusiasts SE :)


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File system of Android 10 running devices
I have a samsung A30 cellphone that runs Android 10 and I basically need to recover my deleted files. In order to do that, I need to know the filesystem because forensic tools require such information. I made a small research, but I couldn't find any information on Android 10 OS's file system. So what I am asking is what file system does Android 10 have and do file systems depend on Android versions? Any help will be appreciated.

I think this would help you https://android.stackexchange.com/q/208106/131553

if your device is rooted it's ext4 otherwise it's encrypted (and recovery pointless)

Thank you both @beeshyams and alecxs. I will try to root my device now and lets see how it goes.

let me clarify: you can not recover files because your device is encrypted. once the encryption keys are wiped, data is unrecoverable. this is true for FDE full-disk-encryption on factory reset, and for FBE file-based-encryption on deleted files. be aware rooting involves factory reset (see step 4). no hope, sorry

@alecxs so you say it is impossible to recover an unrooted android mobile phone, right? Recovering a wiped (factory-reset) cell phone is possible only on rooted devices.

it doesn't matter if device is locked/unlocked rooted/unrooted. if it is encrypted it is not possible to recover files. it depends on the encryption key - if the key is wiped it is impossible to decrypt. furthermore even unencrypted device still faces problem with TRIM and discard (the link explains this)

furthermore samsung encryption is little bit different and TWRP doesn't support samsung encryption. the only way would be to flash magisk_patched.tar on locked bootloader (AVBv1 only) but it's exynos chipset with no EDL mode and no way to flash except modded odin. but you must find the setting not to factory reset on flashing (which is most likely not available, at least i don't know). but samsung has additional protections against rooting and you will most likely end up bricked and lose all data

according to this TWRP the Samsung Galaxy A30 SM-A305F is shipped with Android 9.0 (Pie) FDE full-disk-encryption
BoardConfig.mk
# Filesystem
TARGET_USERIMAGES_USE_EXT4 := true
TARGET_USERIMAGES_USE_F2FS := true

The file system type depends on ROM and can be F2FS or EXT4


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Taking pictures/videos from both front and rear camera simultaneously?
There are apps that can do this but they are not  exactly Bothie. The app allows the user to first take a picture from rear camera and then from the front camera (but not simultaneously). Nokia first came up with this idea in 2017.
More about Bothie
I am just wondering if this is a hardware feature or software. I can handle the software issue(with root) i think. And if this is not possible then can you please explain why and how it works (totally optional)?
Because if this is possible then people will be able to take videos from both cameras (poor cameraman will also be included in the clip).. and that would be pretty cool IMO =)
Every little opinion or googling is accepted. Thanks in advance : )

This is what I could gather from answers on Stack Overflow. I have no development background, so corrections are welcome.

Camera could have only have one object as mentioned here. But this was depreciated from Android 5.0. So, devices running KitKat and below, cannot have this feature.

It seemed to be possible on some devices to open both front and rear camera as mentioned here. However, it is not possible on all devices due to hardware & Software restrictions (see comments)

The Android camera APIs generally allow multiple cameras to be used at the same time, but most devices do not have enough hardware resources to support that in practice - for example, there's often only one camera image processor shared by both cameras.

The link in your question is the best I could find for a clear explanation.Nokia, Samsung, LG seem to have started this trend on some of their devices. Such devices either need Dual Camera Mode or Dual Sight Mode. There wasn't much I could find about these OEM specific technologies. The Frontback Camera app mentioned in the link, works on Pixel 4a Android 11. Note that the pictures were very grainy and not worth the result IMO.

OP tried apps mentioned here and they didn't work.
This  leads me to conclude that it is both a hardware & Software feature and apps can be poor substitute. I doubt if trying on other devices would show better results. Neither have I come across any rooted or Xposed modules that can do this, so it is best to buy the devices that support this natively, if you want this feature badly.

I was also searching a dual camera for my vlog but could find nowhere.
However, I want to give you some good news. Such camera is possible and I had found it on POCO X3 NFC MIUI camera. My friend uses this phone and dual camera works at a same time. I wasn't able to transfer that app through shareMe app, so I couldn't use that app for my mobile.
I thoroughly searched on google and haven't found anyone.
If you have found, do let me know.

Just like beeshyams' answer mentioned, I think this is a customization done on POCO devices, I doubt the app would work on other devices.

@AndrewT. is right.

@AndrewT, I found a few more apps on the play store. You can find it as a dual camera. Basically, this device works with snapdragon mobile. The problem with them is that I couldn't reshape the screen size, and the camera doesn't seem to be so good.

In short, if you want to check if your device is compatible.. Download two 3rd party camera apps.. Grant them the permission.. Split screen and try to open both the camera apps.. If one of the app crashes when you open the second app then there is some hardware restrictions in your device.


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Fasboot Devices not getting attached XIAOMI MI A3
I have the Xiaomi Mi A3 and I'm currently on both phone and PC latest stock update. I am using Windows 10 20H2 and I have tried everything – but still don't get it.
I tried another Mi A3 and it got attached normally. I've tried installing all kind of drivers and different ports, nothing. When suddenly it worked and I installed the stock ROM – but because the stock ROM is kinda laggy and ugly I want to change it. But I can't because I am also on stock recovery and I can't install another recovery because my device isn't recognized in fastboot mode.
My device is recognized in adb mode and in edl mode as well, only not in fastboot.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

you are right. it can be ROM related. but i doubt that is the case here, as you stated you have two similar devices with same ROM, but claim only one device is not detected https://www.getdroidtips.com/what-is-fastbootd-how-to-enable-and-boot


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How many times can an app purchase be refunded on Play Store?
How many times can one purchase an app and refund and continue to do so?
Wouldn't continuous refunds hurt Google ?

Paid apps/games!/in-app purchases can only be refunded once. If you buy the app again, you can't get refund
From Play Store help (see
Refunds & returns → Learn about refunds on Google Play →Google Play refund policies)

Note: You can only return an app or game for a refund once. If you buy it again you will not be able to get a refund. If a refund is issued you will lose access to the item.

(Emphasis added)
Related: If a paid app stops working, can I get my money back?


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One keyboard two languages using Gboard
Consider this, I want to add two languages on one keyboard with Gboard: English and French for QWERTY (English) keyboard. I open the settings but can't add language to the existing keyboard.

(only applicable if multi-languages are enabled)
So to activate it I have to add another keyboard (English)

Now I have French support on the English keyboard and English support on the French keyboard. But I have two keyboards.

What even is the point of this? And is there a way so that I can use only one keyboard (layout) with two languages?

Does this answer help?

@beeshyams. No it didn't, I saw that before but none of the suggestions there resolved my issue. I think GBoard manage the system languages preference (as opposed of before when languages were configured outside of the app). So I guess there is no way to tell GBoard that a language exists without installing a new keyboard uh ? It's a shame bug in my opinion. They should check user preferences based on google general settings and make that option available afterward.

The point is that the multilingual settings are not symmetric. You can enable French on the English keyboard but disable English on the French keyboard if you want. But answering the real question: AFAIK, with Gboard, no you can't. Maybe 3rd-party keyboards apps can (not yet researched), if you're okay with that.

Well I am not ok with that, though I will probably give SwiftKey a try. Again this is not a bug , but a very bad take in design here imo. And I think the reason many people didn't complain is because they usually use one or two keyboards with multi languages enabled so they don't switch often. But in my case I also have asian languages installed and having to press the switch key two times to jump over the "unused keyboard" is very annoying. Again they should give people the freedom to add a dual language on any wanted keyboard without having to install duplicates, this is the most sense.

Edit: I installed SwiftKey and as expected when I installed English and French (both qwerty layout) the two languages merged into one keyboard. I guess I will stick with that for some time.

Despite its popularity, I find Google's Gboard to be very lacking in many areas, as you have noticed as well. It also seems to store a massive amount of unknown data on the device.


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Show SIM Card contacts only
Does anyone know if Android 8 has an option on the Contacts app to show SIM Card contacts only? I'm gonna buy a new phone soon, and I almost forgot about this part. So I wanted to be sure before I decide to buy anything.
The explanation for what you're probably gonna ask is that I don't want the contacts in the phone itself, because if it'll be like my first smartphone, if I had the contacts on it, I'd have killed myself infinite times (the same times I formatted it). Having them on my account is out of question. No mixing contacts. What a mess. Plus having all my Gmail contacts on the Contacts app on which I want ONLY phone contacts. Nope.
An idea a person told me hours ago was to create an account specifically for that. Actually never had thought on that one. Though, I'd still like to have the contacts on my SIM card and see them through it. No copying to the phone, or I'll forget to copy some or create some in the phone without realizing and then when I format it hoping everything is on the SIM, I've just lost some new contacts. No.... So either showing all SIM contacts, or a specific Google account only for phone contacts (which is a bit stupid, but it's the best solution I've got without being able to see SIM contacts directly).
In any case. Does anyone know if the option exists on Android 8? (the phone I'm wanting comes with Oreo) At most I know it exists at least up to Lollipop 5.1, which is the one I have now - OnePlus X, so basically almost AOSP ROM with Google original apps, so Google didn't remove the feature on 5.1. Next I'm gonna buy is a Blackview, which I think it's basically AOSP too, so Samsung phones I'm not sure if they count on this because Samsung mods infinitely their phones.
PS: Because of what I just said, if you answer, please say your phone brand (model too?). Preferably would be phones with ROMs very near to AOSP. I got to know hours ago that Samsung doesn't have the option on Android 9 and 10, but Huawei does on 9 (no idea about other brands/versions).
Thanks in advance!
How I do it in my current phone, as a reference, is (resolution reduced to take less space here):

AFAIK, it doesn't exist. Your friend's suggestion of a new account is good

May be you are asking thew wrong question. The ability to show SIM-contacts only is AFAIK not part of Android, but is a modification by the manufacturer of your device. Hence you should ask specific if the phone model you want to buy has this feature.

Wait, the option is not from Google?? I thought it was Google's decision to include that option or not on the Contacts apps! (Then manufacturers could remove it or not, depending if they wanted or not) All the 3 phones I've had so far (ZTE, Huawei and OnePlus) have had the option there. Then I hear there are phones without it and that they're newer, so I thought it was related to Google dropping that to force us to use an account. If it's manufacturer specific, I'll have to be asking about it to random people who have the phone. Not an awful idea, at least. Could be worse... Thank you.


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Boot a phone with a broken power button
I'm hoping if there are any ways on how should I boot my phone. I've researched multiple ways on booting your phone thru adb but my computer fails to recognize it although I have Samsung Drivers Installed. USB Debugging mode is on since I'm using ADB to install my apps. My phone is Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime Plus.

try to enter download mode with JIG dongle and use the auto-reboot after flash option from Odin

Press the Home button and Volume Down button while plugging in the charger. It should enter Downloading/Recovery mode. Then press the Volume Down button. Your device will power on.


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TWRP restore: backup not seen in different device (same model)
I have 2 pieces of the same device (crackling) and I wanted to clone #1 onto #2. Both are running TWRP 3.4.0.
I ran backup (unencrypted) to SD card on #1. Backup data is stored on the SD card in TWRP/BACKUPS/4400d489/2020-09-03--02-42-32_lineage_crackling-userdebug_9_PQ3A190801002/* (boot.emmc.win, boot.emmc.win.sha2, data.ext4.win000, data.ext4.win000.sha2, ...)
When I run TWRP on #1 again, to test Restore, it says: "Select Package to Restore":
2020-09-03-02-42-32_lineageos_crackling-userdebug_9. [...]

which, upon selection, offers System, Data (excl. storage) and Boot for restoration, as expected.
TWRP on #2 (same SD card inserted) says "Select Package to Restore:"
4400d489

(it is the parent directory... why?) and then offers no partitions to restore.
What is the problem here (SD card is fine)?

The  number 4400d489 corresponds to the device serial number of Device 1.

Since you ruled out problems with SD card, try this. Make a backup of a small partition on the second device on the same card. It will create a folder corresponding to the serial number of device 2. Copy the files from backup of 4400d489 to this folder. I am not sure why in your case this folder was not created but was backed up to
TWRP/BACKUP

Restore the backup on Device 2 (mount all partitions in TWRP) ,making sure you don't back up boot image from Device 1,as that may have device identifier information. Restoring that would create problems.

It's always a good idea to always have a backup stored on your laptop. SD cards can go bad without warning too.


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NFC: Spotify URIs open app, not specified resource
My goal is to program NFC tags in such a way, that Spotify starts playing a specific track/album/playlist.
But after writing a Spotify URI (e.g. spotify:track:6rqhFgbbKwnb9MLmUQDhG6) to my tag, it only opens the app and disregards the resource.
The problem seems to be the way Android handles the tag, because the URI works without any problems when I call it from another app.
A related problem is the way URLs are handled: When I open a Spotify URL like https://open.spotify.com/track/6rqhFgbbKwnb9MLmUQDhG6 from another app, it directly launches Spotify, whereas it would unsuccessfully try to open it with a browser after touching the tag.
It seems like Android only processes the scheme of the URI. Is this correct? If so, is there something that can be done to circumvent this? Why would that be the case?


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Can I mount /data/data/(app_name)/ on external sd card?
Can I mount /data/data/com.termux/ folder on external sd card? My phone is rooted Android 10 and running low of internal storage.
As I read from How to bind mount a folder inside /sdcard with correct permissions? mounting to /sdcard requires permission to mount because /sdcard is emulated from /data/media/0 and /data/data/ is not.
And from Can the Termux environment be put on an external SD card? it can mount /data/data/com.termux/ using ln -s because ext4 support links while fat doesn't.
I don't know how /data/data/ directory works but is it possible to mount /data/data/com.termux/files/home/ directory to external sd card without formatting it as adoptable storage or making ext4 partition?

Yes. Create a loop file in SD card and mount it to /data/data/com.termux/files/home.

create a file in MicroSD Card. make sure the file is not too large for fat32 file size limitation
busybox dd if=/dev/zero seek=4294967295 bs=1 count=0 of=/mnt/media_rw/6DE8-1BC6/loop.img

create a file system (confirm with y)
/system/bin/mke2fs -t ext4 /mnt/media_rw/6DE8-1BC6/loop.img

loop mount the file to existing directory
mkdir -p /data/data/com.termux/files/home/ubuntu20-fs
busybox mount /mnt/media_rw/6DE8-1BC6/loop.img /data/data/com.termux/files/home/ubuntu20-fs

UPDATE:
that works only for busybox with largefile support. according to user Jtnqr and user Hmm you may still facing some trouble. the following is exactly the same example like above but with screenshots
* * * stop reading here * * *
only one extra step is copying files/usr into loop file before mounting

create a file in MicroSD Card
ls -la /data/data/com.termux/files
su
mkdir /storage/26B7-11F7/com.termux
cd /storage/26B7-11F7/com.termux
busybox dd if=/dev/zero bs=1M count=4095 of=usr.img

create a file system (confirm with y)
/system/bin/mke2fs -t ext4 usr.img

copy files/usr into loop file before mounting
mkdir -p tmp/usr
busybox mount usr.img tmp/usr

df -h | grep /dev/loop
grep termux /proc/mounts

busybox cp -acv /data/data/com.termux/files/usr tmp
df -h | grep /dev/loop

loop mount the file to existing directory
umount tmp/usr
busybox mount usr.img /data/data/com.termux/files/usr
df -h | grep /dev/loop
exit
ls -la /data/data/com.termux/files/usr

the same can be repeated for other directories. you can loop mount another home.img file into files/home to extend termux storage
reason for splitting into multiple files is fat32 file size limitation < 4 GB

Busybox-1.29.2-YDS-UNIVERSAL.zip

im trying to do the same and if i run busybox dd if=/dev/zero seek=4294967295 bs=1 count=0 of=/mnt/media_rw/26B7-11F7/com.termux/loop.img it gives me dd: /mnt/media_rw/26B7-11F7/com.termux/loop.img: Invalid argument


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Cant' mount loop device
After I format the loop.img (formatted as ext4) I can mount it no problem.
But when I'm trying to remount loop.img from external sdcard to /data/data/com.termux/home/ubuntu20-fs/
always throw invalid argument , I already tried using busybox too.
mount -t ext4 -o loop /dev/block/loop3 /data/data/com.termux/files/home/ubuntu20-fs/
mount: '/dev/block/loop3'->'/data/data/com.termux/files/home/ubuntu20-fs/': Invalid argument

Does anyone know what happened?
image
dmesg | grep avc
Strace of busybox mount with "-t" argument
losetup:
NAME  SIZELIMIT  OFFSET  AUTOCLEAR  RO  BACK-FILE  DIO  LOG-SEC
...
/dev/block/loop3  0  0  0  0  /mnt/media_rw/6DE8-1BC6/loop.img  0  512

blkid | grep loop:
/dev/block/loop3: UUID="0746ba9e-fc09-4a32-8b5f-49aee9096cf7" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4"

@beeshyams IrfanLatif anyone can confirm this behavior android 10? is this a magisk selinux bug maybe?

I don't know if that is the correct logcat or not

@alecxs everything related to mounting filesystems works as expected on Android 10 too. No abnormal behavior. If the issue is related to SELinux, setenforce 0 should fix it. Also dmesg | grep avc should show the related denial log entry. @Jtnqr run mount with strace and share log.

@Jtnqr are you typing commands from termux touchpad, or do you use script, copy & paste or other keyboard?

@alexcs I ran termux using my phone touchscreen, no script. The output I copypaste from termux except strace I'm using the -o argument.

so no invisible chars and no wrong line endings. could it be that file system is unmounted dirty? does it make a difference with -t ext4 -o ro,noexec,noload,noatime

wdym? Is this dirty unmount umount /mnt/ubuntu20-fs?

i mean by any chance the ext4 journal is dirty for unknown reason


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Android 11: Can't see contents of "/sdcard/Android/data" even with root
Using rooted file explorers like Solid Explorer, Mix
Mixplorer, I cannot see content of /sdcard/Android/data
Why? How to overcome?

Though it may be trivial, posting the solution to make it easier for those seeking answers

It's because of restrictions imposed in Android 11. See Storage updates in Android 11. Apps are permitted to see only their folders and not of those of other apps,with these restrictions.

If your explorer is updated for Android 11 and you can't see, you can view the content going the long way root/data/media/0/Android/data. If your explorer supports, add a favorite tab. Alternatively
/sdcard/Android/data.

Use a file explorer that is not updated to Android 11 (SDK 30) and you can view directly as before (This is my assumption, haven't tested)

Edit : I just checked SD Maid app. This app has a file explorer built-in and targets SDK 30. Surprisingly, file explorer of this app can access without any issues. I am guessing that this app has exemptions  given the nature of it's purpose and maybe those exemptions aren't given to file explorers.. From the developer on mail

I did not make specific changes to the Android/data browsing but SD Maid already had fallback logic that automatically determines what permission levels are required to access a path.

Ugh! I didn't expect "root apps" would be affected by that "scoped storage" enforcements. But I wouldn't expect devs of such apps updating the targetSDK unaware of that, either. I have no Android-11 device, but maybe you can check via adb shell with su if root is really (fully) affected?

@Izzy Developers are aware. It's being discussed in their threads on XDA too. So, it's not a problem of root. They must be having their reasons of updating to latest target SDK. I even left a poor review (later amended), he replied on mail, that this is because of Android 11. So Mr. Root is losing some power :( // One would think it is fair that they updated app description to cover this, without users unpleasantly discovering

They're updating because Google forces them. There are deadlines. No new apps are accepted if not targeting SDK starting day X, and no updates starting day Z. That said I wonder: root is root – the highest level in the hierarchy. So who would top that? Strange.

I can't believe it's taken them a decade to implement this. Apps accessing only their own files that they create and manage is the most obvious security enhancement ever.  Second only to assigning permissions to APPS (since apps do things) rather than users. I wish Windows would catch up.  Yay. Flashlight apps will no longer modify my word docs.

@Triynko also Google Photos can't access other App photos, or file managers work properly

@beeshyams Why did you mention the path "root/data/media/0/Android/data" ? Is it the same path?

@androiddeveloper yes.....

@beeshyams I see. So if apps request SAF access to this folder (or one above it), they can overcome the restriction? If so, do you perhaps have the ability to demonstrate it via Github? I've asked about this (here: https://stackoverflow.com/q/65967690/878126) , and I also offered a bounty but nobody got an answer .

@androiddeveloper  Sorry, I don't have understanding to demonstrate. I shared the workaround I found, which was subsequently confirmed by Mixplorer developer in response to my poor rating (revised subsequently) and later saw the same on his XDA thread. You may like to go through the XDA thread or ask the developer to help

How are file browsers supposed to be able to view /sdcard now?

@Melab without root, they can't browse app private folders

@Izzy I just tested using adb shell on Android 12 (Pixel 3a) and Android 13 (Galaxy M12), and I could browse the files there without root access.


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Read data from internal flash of a broken phone
I have a broken phone which doesn't even switch on. I would like to get all the data from the phone, is there a way to remove flash memory from motherboard and read all the data?
My phone was an Asus ZenFone Max M1 Pro, no root privileges, Android 8.0 I think.

As alecxs already pointed out phones that are shipped with Android 5+ are by default encrypted. On modern devices the encryption key is in a special compartment of the CPU, hence desoldering the flash memory is useless as the contained user data is encrypted and can't be read without the original CPU chip it has been encrypted with.

in case you can get device back to life, find prog_ufs_firehose_sdm636_ddr file and test point location for your device, there is a small chance to inject (AVB signed) modified boot/recovery with adb enabled (expert only). in case it reaches at least a boot state where data is successfully decrypted you can adb pull your files

@alecxs in case i can get my device back to life I should also get my data back, am I wrong? Don't need necessarily to flash modified recovery in order to acces the storage. I'm now gonna try to find out the problem in the hardware (if it is there). Trying to connect the phone to a computer, it doesn't give any signs of life

@IrfanLatif thanks, this looks interesting. I'm gonna give a look to this ad well

https://forum.gsmdevelopers.com/romdevelopers/87284-romdevelopers-com-08-feb-2020-updates.html

@alecxs what's that? Tried to give a look but i only found some firmawares and libraries.

@alecxs I didn't know what EDL mode was until now, so i googled it and find some infos. As the acronym suggests EDL enable me to get to the Download Mode of my phone with some kind of privileges. And i also find out that i can enter in EDL mode shorting hardware test points on my phone's motherboard. But i was wondering: do i have more chanches to get my phone on trying to enter EDL since it is sort of a lower level "booting mode"? And in case i manage to switch it on in EDL mode, what could i do to get my data? Flashing new custom boot img (like TWRP)?

I've just disassembled my phone, i'm now gonna try to clean motherboard circuits and trying to replace the battery. I hope that will at least make my phone boot on and then i will try some software alternatives. Thanks @alecxs


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Is there a way to upgrade the OS on an old phone?
I have an old GT-S6310N (aka Samsung Galaxy Young). I don't want to buy a new phone, because they are kinda useless for me. I use my computers for everything I do. I use my phone only a few times a year to navigate with GPS or to call somebody, but even navigation seems to be broken now. A friend asked me to develop a project, which involves a small Android service polling from the background, so I need a phone to test it while developing. She has Android 8, so I thought maybe it is possible to upgrade my phone to that version too. Last time I tried to upgrade the OS was many years ago and as far as I remember even Android 5 was not allowed. I am curious about the whys and if there is a solution to this? Rooting and maybe bricking is something I can risk. I just don't understand that how are these new Android versions not compatible with old phones, when Linux is usually backwards compatible and Android is Linux based... It just depends on the drivers and resources right?

@beeshyams Not really. I need an answer to why it does not work out of the box. I mean what is Android 5 missing that makes it incompatible with this phone?

You can upgrade a phone if the OEM does it, which is not possible in your case or by using a custom ROM (again you need to search if one exists for your device to move to Oreo)//Android is not Linux, only the kernel is based on Linux//, You have a device that is pre-Android 5 and you want to upgrade to 8. Lots of things have changed. Encryption for one. See the cdd for changes between 5 and 8. There would be more reasons, these are major ones that occur to me

The reason is explained on Why are there not generic phone OS installers? (and its related questions), and also that Android is not really Linux. The only way to update is to flash a custom ROM (if available) or build/port a new one if it doesn't exist.

@beeshyams I don't see how comparing long documents like these CDD-s help for me. I don't have days to spend on this, I want to have a plan today about how to develop my service and do it in a few days. I am not sure what you mean by encryption. If it is not hardware accelerated (which I guess isn't), then it should not be a real problem.

@AndrewT. Do you think that I could install LinageOS on it? Can you confirm that if I write a service which uses WorkManager, then it won't work on Android 4? I am not sure where I can find compatibility data. For web development I normally do I would just check it on https://caniuse.com/

Never mind, I found it. https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element#ApiLevels https://developer.android.com/topic/libraries/architecture/workmanager

XDA Forums is usually the best for custom ROM dev, though based on a quick sight, I don't find anything higher than Android 5.0.2 on there. Otherwise, you can at least try using Android Emulator to test the app.

@alecxs Okay, then it is more similar to development for embedded devices than for general computers. This explains a lot.

@AndrewT. What kind of emulator do you recommend? I used bluestacks on PC so far, but I am not sure if that is good enough.

I don't have any specific recommendations for emulators as I'm currently using the one from Android SDK. That said, this is getting off-topic, further comments may not be responded.

@alecxs Actually your previous comment responded it, that Android does not contain the drivers for all of the devices and one has to make a custom build with device specific drivers and the vendors are too lazy to do it for old phones. I think for now I'll use an emulator and in the long run I'll build a custom OS for this phone. I wonder if BSDs are compatible with phones, but that is an entirely different topic. Thanks for the help!

that will be a challenge with 768mb RAM and 4gb storage ;)

@alecxs It depends on the DE, for a FreeBSD with CLI it is more than enough. https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/bsdinstall-hardware.html I think the problem would be the CPU architecture and the drivers.

if CLI with VNC is sufficient for you a chroot container mounted from MicroSD Card would do it. there exist apps for that like Linux Deploy. even termux would do it. but that's completely unrelated to android development, not sure what your goal is. the proper way would be building AOSP android go from scratch https://stackoverflow.com/q/55646338

@alecxs No, CLI is not enough, but if that runs, then a lightweight DE would suffice. But I'll rather focus on the service now.


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How to take a screenshot using a keyboard shortcut on an android device?
I find using the power-button + down-volume button extremely cumbersome especially when taking time sensitive screenshots.
Is it possible to do this using a shortcut key on a bluetooth keyboard?

If the timing is crucial I recommend to connect the phone to a PC and enable develop mode + adb on the device. In adb shell you can execute the screencap <filename> command exactly when you need a screen shot.

Download Button Mapper app
decide a key to use to take screenshots(which you don't use usually).
Open the key mapper app and record the key in it(the UI is self explanatory)
Set the function of the key to take screenshots. Done

PS - remember to turn battery optimization off for the app otherwise if the system closes the app then no hardware buttons will work and you'll have to reboot.

There's prtscr button on physical keyboard that you can use to screenshot.


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Open port to all interfaces
I have an old machine with no built-in wifi adapter. I'm using a spare android device to connect this machine to my wifi home network via usb tethering. I'd like to ssh into this machine. The machine's ip address is behind the usb-tethering subnet.
What I tried:
adb reverse tcp:2222 tcp:22

I'm able to ssh from an app running inside the android device (e.g. connectbot) into the machine. But when I try to connect from another device on the home network:
ssh -p2222 <android-device-ip-address>

I get connection refused. nmap reports that all ports in the android device are closed.
How can I open port 2222 to accept connections from outside the android device?


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AnySoftKeyboard: How do I reorder/remove the keys from the long-press option? I am using Alternate (no mic) layout
My ASK keyboard currently looks like this:

There are two parts to this question:

How do I control (easily) what characters show up when I long-press on a key?
How do I re-arrange those options?

Language pack: English QWERTY Latin Keyboard
Layout: Alternate (no mic)

Looks like you need to play around with xml files followed by compiling it and using the APK generated

@beeshyams that sounds like a lot of specialized work.. :|

Yes, unfortunately no settings for it, if that is what you want

@beeshyams thanks man..  so I found out that I need to edit this file: https://github.com/AnySoftKeyboard/AnySoftKeyboard/blob/master/ime/app/src/main/res/xml/ext_kbd_bottom_row_alt.xml one last thing, do you know of a guide or so that can navigate me through how to make an APK with these changes?

No and the same thing was asked on GitHub and nobody has a guide

You need to create a custom keyboard layout. I created a few for my personal use: https://github.com/mirfatif/AnySoftKeyboard

@IrfanLatif figured as much. All the programming I do (which is not much) is exclusively in Python and trying to build my own APK hasn't been very straightforward so far. Android Studio shows a bunch of errors upon opening the project: unmappable character for encoding Cp1252, unclosed character literal, illegal character: '\u2122', not a statement, and such. No idea what to do.


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SAMSUNG A11 hang on logo after flash
Hy to every one. after flashing Samsung A11 SM-A115F with Android Q10 ,Samsung Device struck at logo.
i have try to flash different firmware
first download file from Easy Firmware
and after that try to flash file from SamFirm
need help

problem is with bootloader has downgrade protection, check your screen in download mode for version


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How to run e2fsck on Android, can't get "adb shell" with unmounted partitions?
I can access the Huawei P9 on Win10 with adb, and shell into it, but that is with the phone booted into OS. I want to run a filesystem scan (e2fsck), but need un-mounted partitions for that.
I read a thread where someone was running e2fsck from recovery on his phone using adb shell.
If I boot the phone into recovery using adb, I get Reboot / Factory reset / Wipe Cache on menu, but phone is inaccessible on PC (adb or fastboot). Booting phone into bootloader via adb or directly on phone, also inaccessible via adb or fastboot. Shell seems only to be accessible when Android is booted.
Any ideas?

I know I can't unmount during runtime, so how do I run e2fsck?  Scan @ reboot like other computers? But how? Or how do I shell into phone before boot (before mount)?

You don't need to run filesystem checks manually. Android (vold) runs this automatically on every boot before mounting the filesystem: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/vold/+/refs/tags/android-9.0.0_r1/model/PrivateVolume.cpp#114

@alecxs My problem is more that my old Huawei P9 lite seems to  have problems accessing storage..... Symtoms:  the main screen icons don't always appear on bootup. If they don't appear, I turn off screen, screen on/unlock.  Icons there.  When my son is playing a game on this old phone, game sometimes will crash/disappear. Reloading works.  Crashing is not often.   I think Irfan Latif basically answered my question with the "default scan @ reboot"   BTW I did find e2fsck through adb shell, somewhere like /system/bin/e2fsck.  However naturally no permissions to run it.

How do I mark Irfan Latifs post as Answer?

TWRP is available. for bootloader unlock remove google account, enable OEM unlocking in Developer Options and try 'fastboot oem unlock UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU' (= factory reset). if that code doesn't work you can buy unlock code from dc unlocker

Usually you don't need to run filesystem checks manually. Android runs this on every boot before mounting the filesystem (ref). So is the case with external storage (see this answer). However exceptions may exist:

"Some system images do not have e2fsck for licensing reasons (e.g. recent SDK system images). Detect these and skip the check."

So you can check if /system/bin/e2fsck (or /system/bin/fsck.f2fs, whatever applicable) exits on your device. Or check logcat after some repeated reboots to confirm if filesystem check was run (usually in vold or fs_mgr log).

If I boot the phone into recovery using adb, I get Reboot / Factory reset / Wipe Cache on menu, but phone is inaccessible on PC (through adb or fastboot).

You are booting into stock recovery provided by your OEM. But in order to run commands (including fsck) on adb shell or terminal emulator you need a custom recovery (like TWRP). Note that flashing custom recovery requires unlocking bootloader which is not supported on many devices (including all of the recent Huawei devices).
fastboot protocol is only available in bootloader mode (on supported devices), so not relevant here.
If you are sure that filesystem check is not being run on your device but it's required (due to filesystem errors), you can do a factory reset which recreates the /data filesystem.


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Can't enable notifications for SMS messages with MIUI 12
I'm using a Xiaomi 9 SE phone, with MIUI 12.0.2 (global).
I'm not getting notifications about incoming SMSes! :-(
I tried the general phone settings, under Notifications; the slider toggle for SMSes is enabled, but semi-grayed-out - unlike all other notification toggles.
I tried the SMS app's own notification settings (through the top-right gearwheel menu) - and while that has a bunch of settings, it doesn't seem to have the basic setting for notifying me about incoming SMS messages.
What do I do?
Note: I should stress SMS messages do arrive, and the unread ones are marked as such when I open the SMS app.

Unlikely but check if SMS app is optimized for battery saving

@beeshyams: I don't even see it in the "App battery saver" list of possible apps.

Maybe it's an issue with SMS app? try with some other SMS app

@beeshyams: I'm using the default, built-in one. Can I even switch it?

Why not? Just install any other SMS app like Textra for example. When you are setting it up, it will prompt you to choose it as "default SMS app" from settings. Do that and test

I had the same issue. What worked for me was clearing the data of the messages app and initializing it all over again.

Well, by now - the messaging app started nagging me about switching to Google Message, so I kind of gave it up anyway :-(


text:
Can files from android internal be recovered after using adoptable storage?
I have lenovo k50a40 which is pretty old. I was using my SD card as internal(adoptable storage). By mistake I took out my SD card with taking any backup and inserted another card. Now old card is not working and I have lost all my files. After trying available methods I came to conclusion that files on old card can't be recovered as its not encrypted.
Now what I'm thinking is, does android used to put all photos directly on SD card or first it goes into internal then its copied to SD card? If it first goes to internal then to SD then removed from internal then I think I can root my device and use a recovery app to recover the photos.

Please read your question again and correct by [edit] - did you mean without backing up (I took out my sd card with taking any backup ) as it is encrypted (files on old card can't be recovered as its not encrypted) // Also added adoptable storage to the question, see it's tag wiki and related questions first// Also explain what methods you tried

Does this answer your question? Can't access my phone memory suddenly after using SD card as internal memory

your only chance to get files back is decrypt MicroSD Card with correct encryption key. as long as you did not discarded the adoptable-storage by forgetting SD Card or factory reset, they key will remain on device.
therefore you can try to root your device.
be aware unlocking bootloader will erase all data.
you have two possible options:

get a temporary root shell with mtk-su, or

root your device (on locked bootloader) with SP Flash Tool and Magisk Manager

once you managed to access /data/misc/vold you can use linux dmsetup to decrypt your MicroSD Card and access the files
for more information refer to the adoptable-storage tag-wiki
How to decrypt Adopted Storage?

if none of the root methods working another (not recommended) option is KingRoot it will work up to Marshmallow

Sorry for delay. Here's what I did. Removed the main card by mistake then inserted another card and made it adoptable. Then I inserted back my main card.
So the decryption key is now removed from my device or is still there?

check the output of df in terminal


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Why does Adaway want to install a self signed certificate?
In the preferences for the ad-blocker Adaway, it has option to "Install self-signed certificate". What exactly does this do and what are the risks involved?

What is the Android version running on your phone? Is your device rooted?

The certificate is usually needed for filtering encrypted traffc

One of the best trends these days is the shift to encrypted Internet traffic, aka Transport Layer Security or TLS, and mobile apps are not the exception, often when testing a mobile app we need/want to see the data being sent from and received on our mobile devices but since most of the apps are using TLS on their network requests we cannot just proxy the traffic and understand the communication between the app and its server.
Adaway uses it to block ads efficiently (which is kinda obvious from the paragraph above :) )


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How to Boot to Recovery mode on a Lenovo tab M8 FHD Tablet?
The questions says it all.
This is what I know.

Pressing & holding the vol+ button while pressing Power - Boots into
fastboot.
Pressing & holding the vol- button while pressing Power -
Boots into download.

The question is how can I boot into Recovery Mode?

No it should be Vol Up + Power like for every Mediatek device (Vol Dn is fastboot=download=bootloader) ask in that thread https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/help/lenovo-tab-m8-fhd-tb-8705f-how-to-root-t4049691?goto=newpost

Vol up + Power brings me into the Download mode. (The screen is blank). This is confirmed from when I rescued my device VIA Lenovo's Smart and Rescue Assistant.

check the chinese factory mode maybe you can reach recovery mode from that menu https://www.devicesfaq.com/en/reset/lenovo-tab-m8-fhd

I'm looking to be able to boot to recovery when the power is off. I @alecxs I've seen the link you supplied but there it gives the same info to hold down power + the vol - or power and the vol +.. As I'm writing this I thought how about trying to hold down both the vol buttons. I will try it and get back here with the results.

To access recovery mode on this device do the following.

Hold down both volume buttons while turning on the device with the power button.
As soon as the device goes on release the power button but continue holding the volume buttons.
Hold the volume buttons till it enters into recovery mode.


text:
Do I need a 'vbmeta' partition to install GSI?
Following the official GSI installation instructions from Google, they say to run fastboot --disable-verification flash vbmeta vbmeta.img.
When I run that, I get the following message:
Rewriting vbmeta struct at offset: 0
Sending 'vbmeta' (4 KB)                            OKAY [  0.010s]
Writing 'vbmeta'                                   FAILED (remote: 'This partition doesn't exist')
fastboot: error: Command failed

Does this mean dm-verity is not in use, and I can ignore this message? Do I need to make a partition? How do I do that?
Right now the GSI image is not booting for me.
I am flashing onto the Blackview BV5500 Pro, if it matters.

Does this answer your question? Android Verified Boot and generation of vbmeta image

MT6739 doesn't have vbmeta partition, the ususal way for disabing avb/dm-verity is patch the boot.img with Magisk Manager. but as you stated you want GSI just flash ROM from TWRP, i don't think that partition is required

(1) @alecxs No, that's about generating a vbmeta image. I have one already, it's included in the GSI download. (2) I'm not using TWRP, I'm using fastboot. (3) Do you have a link showing that MT6739 doesn't use a vbmeta partition? Why do you say that?

you can check from fastboot getvar all

the linked question is linked for reference

have checked TWRP recovery.fstab - it has vbmeta entry (but commented out). find a stock ROM and check scatter file maybe you can find some with vbmeta partition layout - but i recommend to try Magisk first


text:
Not booting into TWRP but instead stock recovery
I installed TWRP with ODIN and used adb reboot bootloader to go into Odin mode.
When I boot into recovery it goes to the stock recovery.
I used this command:- adb reboot recovery to go into recovery.
What went wrong?
I am using sm-g350h.

TWRP is not installed. after flashing you must not boot into android. flash again or install from TWRP app https://android.stackexchange.com/q/214902

should I untick the auto reboot option?

yes untick the auto reboot option and use the buttons vol-up + home + power to enter recovery mode

It did not work.

install from TWRP app

What if my device is not rooted

get current stock ROM version from Frija or Samloader, install Magisk Manager, patch the AP*.tar.md5 file, flash magisk_patched.tar as AP together with BL CP and CSC

How do I patch it?

patch with Magisk Manager. you can also root with SuperSU it comes prepatched


text:
WhatsApp photos getting corrupted after transferring/copying them from original location to external SD card
My WhatsApp media (photos and videos) gets corrupted when I move and copy them from their default location to the external SD card. The photos and videos behave properly for some time before becoming greyed out and unrecoverable. Moreover, it is very puzzling to me that this does not happen with all of the transferred/copied WhatsApp media. While majority of the files get corrupted and unusable, some of the files are good. I have no idea why this is happening. Could anyone shed more light on this issue? I have a Galaxy Grand Prime +.
EDIT 1:
This answer looked useful but it claims a faulty SD card to be the cause. Moreover, my issues seem to be occurring only with WhatsApp media.
EDIT 2:
I took photos from my camera and put them in my SD card and even those photos got corrupted. So the problem is not confined to WhatsApp.

Are the files good before you copy them ? How do you copy them? If the files get corrupted when you copy them have you tried to use a different way to copy them?

@Robert Yes the files are good before I copy them. I select the file while it is in its original location (WhatsApp folder) and move them to the SD card. ...have you tried to use a different way to copy them? Yes. At first, I was simply moving them to the SD card folder. When I was having no luck with preserving the files, I  copied them to the SD card and then deleted them in the original WhatsApp folder. This also did not save my files from getting corrupted.

Please also answer may question how you copy/move the files. Do you use an app, or through a computer connected via USB? If the sd-card is not the problem then the problem must be the way you use for the file operations.

I do not use an app or a USB. The SD card is in my phone. All I do is select the file I want, click on "Move to Album" and then click on the album I created in my SD card. The file then gets transferred to my SD card's album.

@Robert I put photos I took with my camera in my SD card and even those got corrupted. So could the problem be with my SD card?

Most likely yes. In this case the sd-card may be corrupt, partial defect or it may be a fake.

@Robert How can I fully confirm that the defect is in the SD card itself?

https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-check-an-sd-card-for-errorshttps://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-check-an-sd-card-for-errors

@Aayush Thank you for the response but the link is not working.

sorry i pasted the link twice.. here u go : ) https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-check-an-sd-card-for-errors


text:
App to connect camera to gallery image when scanning QR code
Sorry for the not so catchy subject, I don't know how to phrase the question more precisely.
My requirement is: I use an app scanning QR codes directly via camera for a specific purpose. Sometimes it would be good to scan a QR code from an image stored in the gallery instead, but unlike many other apps this one is lacking the capability to browse the gallery for that purpose. The only way to get this working would be to emulate the camera in a way making the app think it is scanning a live image, but actually the user can first select the target image from the gallery.
Is there an app which can do this? I am using A Samsung Galaxy S7 with Android 8 stock firmware, no jailbreak.
Attention: This question is not asking for QR code reader apps in general, please read thoroughly.

Update: The app GalleryCam serves a similar purpose but only works for apps opening the camera with a button where it can hook into in order to display a pop-up menu. My target app is different, it does not work in connection with GalleryCam.

Related: Creating 'fake' microphone and camera inputs on an Android mobile and How to emulate camera input in Android? (To activate Whatsapp Web) (no answers yet though)

Thank you. No answers means that the links are not helpful (yet) in any other way than giving me that warm fuzzy feeling of not being alone with my problem. I do appreciate your effort and your diligence, though.


text:
Changing characters on bluetooth keyboard layout
I have Lenovo m10 with external bluetooth keyboard on which I use my language layout (Croatian). The problem is that it types some characters wrong. For example, it types some characters in capital when it shouldn't.
It looks like this when I type: priČekaj, or when I press Caps lock: PRIčEKAJ.
How can I fix this?
Sorry for bad English and thank you!!!