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Deleting Hardware files leads sometimes to brick the phone
I started recently to look up for a way to permanently disable my wifi, bluetooth, NFS, Network and GPS. Unfortunately I didnt find a proper method to do that. There was the option to physically break the hardwares, but I didnt want to risk that, if I get something wrong there I wouldnt have a 2nd chance. Except of that, there was only some ways to disable the wifi but it was easy to re-enable it again.
Anyways I figured out, that I need to root my device in order to remove hardware files, but the problem is I dont know WHICH files would be okay to remove.
I'm using a samsung galaxy s8 with Android 9 Pie
Till now I rooted my device twice and deleted hardware files,
the first time I deleted wifi hardware files from the system/etc/permissions folder. That lead to brick my phone.
The second time I deleted hardware files of bluetooth and nfc from:
system/lib
system/lib64
system/vendor/etc/init
system/vendor/etc
system/vendor/lib64
system/vendor/permessions
surprisingly it worked, I totally disabled bluetooth and nfc.
Then I wanted to proceed to remove gps (I figured out S8 aint using gps but gnss) so I removed the gnss files and folders. But this time, it bricked my phone, so I had to reinstall the samsung firmware again and now I rooted my device again.
Before I start trying again, I would like to ask you, if any of you have some knowledge about this and if there is any no-go files, which I should never remove or smth.
I dont really just want to try out over and over, it is taking much time to do all this... I hope somebody can help me out.
Additionally, do any of you know how the network hardware is called? basically the hardware which lets you call people or just the hardware which connects to a network provider.

The reason why I want to do this shouldnt be important right? but if you want to know why:
I want to keep my privacy. I want to be able to connect to the internet only via ethernet cable and also I want to use my device more as a map to plan routes, camera, calc etc.
ALOT of other people want to do this too, but nobody (after searching for over 20 hours) had the right solution. Every way I found, it was possible to reenable it easily.
Thank you for taking your time and reading my issue! I hope you can help!!
I will give an update about this anyways!

There are various dependencies between the drivers, services, and so on. Just deleting everything is not a good solution as Android is very complex and references to services are scattered among the whole system. The correct way would be to develop an own custom ROM. Then you could disable those features before building the ROM and leave out drivers, services and other parts you don't want. Note that question on ROM development are off-topic here.

I see, thank you for the tip. I will try to learn how to do that.

An even easier and safer approach is to disable the HAL native service related to the functionality you want to disable. Android doesn't interact with the hardware directly but depends on vendor provided HALs (binary blobs) which mostly run as native init services. You can simply run stop or setprop ctl.stop to stop a service and then test if the feature still works. If it doesn't you can edit the related .rc file to disable the service permanently. In case of legacy HALs, though, you need to delete (or just rename) the files. Because they are shared libraries, not executable files.

why not just run automation app for toggle airplane mode

I'm using a samsung galaxy s8 with Android 9 Pie
Model: SM-G950F
Update:

I found a way to disable the following hardware:
(disclaimer: there is probably tons of methods to permanently disable hardware, but this is how it worked for me)
Ofc you need to root you device, I used TWRP as boot loader.
MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR DEVICE
you could loose your data forever!! and dont do the same mistake I did, not backing up the contacts.
Contacts are NOT in the internal storage, therefore you need to do a back up while rooted!!!
Tip: every file you edit or delete, make a backup of the original one and name it differently. If your android bricked, then you can use TWRP and delete the modified file and rename the backup again to the original name. This would help you to prevent wasting much time.
Bluetooth:
Delete the following file:
/system/vendor/lib64/hw/android.hardware.bluetooth@1.0-impl.so
WiFi:
Delete the following file:
/system/vendor/lib64/vendor.samsung.frameworks.ucm.wifi@1.0.so
GPS:
Delete the following file:
/system/vendor/etc/gnss/gps.xml
Some files I just edited them, these are permissions file, if you delete them completely, android wont work anymore.
You need to delete everything between <permissions></permissions>
You can edit the files using text editor
GPS:
Edit the following file:
/system/vendor/etc/permissions/android.hardware.location.gps.xml
NFC:
Edit the following file:
/system/vendor/etc/permissions/android.hardware.nfc.xml
Telephony:
I tried to dial emergency numbers, which should be actually possible with or without a sim card, but it didnt work.
Edit the following file:
/system/vendor/etc/permissions/android.hardware.telephony.gsm.xml
And that's it, now just restart your android and it should work with no problems.
I would recommend to download everything you want to have on your phone, before you get rid of wifi.
WARNING:
Most google applications like google map wont work, after you get rid of the gnss/gps. Google doesnt like it, if you turn off your location lol
The network data (LTE, 4G ...etc) is not tested and I am not sure if it is even disabled, I have the feeling that Telephony is not the same. I dont use a sim card anyways, so yeah. But if I found out a solution for that too, I will post it here for sure!
have fun!!


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Is it normal for an Android OS upgrade to change bitness on an upgrade?
I support an Android app, that uses native files. (multiple APKs)
Some app setup is done on first startup, (which is different for 32bit + 64bit).
Recently I dealt with a bug report, caused by a users OS being upgraded from Android 7.1 to android 8.1. Surprisingly to me, the OS changed from 32bit to 64bit. I don't have direct contact with the user, so I don't know if this was the user manually upgrading the OS on a rooted device, or a standard OS upgrade.
Is this a normal thing that can happen for non rooted devices?

I don't think that should happen but isn't technically impossible. Some details in my answer to Could a 64-bit hardware device run a 32-bit Android version?

I was wrong about what was happening.
I was using a C#/Xamarin call to determine the OS bitness : "Environment.OSVersion.VersionString"
Which I mistakenly believed would tell me the os bitness rather than process bitness.
(I was already using IntPtr.Size to determine process bitness)

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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How to delete from device(s) all pictures already deleted in google photo?
I always shoot lots of pictures, and then delete the "bad" ones.
I've been deleting them with Google Photo for years, assuming that the deleted files were deleted from the device memory too.  They are not.  Google photo does not show them nor keep them in the cloud, but all (good&bad) picture files are still there, in the device memory stick.
Deleting is hard work!  I don't wanna redo it again picture by picture...
I need an automatic way to tell Google Photo to identify all pictures previously deleted in the cloud, and delete them in my device(s) too.
Needless to say, google help does not help.
E.g. Google Photo has a button "Free up XXX MB" that does the opposite of what I want: it promises to purge all pictures that are already safely backed up in the cloud.  I.e. those I want to keep in my device too...!
The only way around I could figure out so far is to delete all pictures from my device(s), and then download the good ones back from the cloud.  This looks quite risky and cumbersome.  Anybody has a cooler idea how to proceed?

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


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No spell checker is showing (English)
I'm using this phone: https://www.infinixmobility.com/smartphone/smart-5/specs
But I don't see any spell checker in it.
In Settings > System > Languages & input > Spell checker,
It should show Google Spell Checker here I guess.

That's why, it's not showing red underline with the misspelled word.

The blue underline is from Gboard I think. But why there is no spell checker?
Is it a bug? Looking for help. Thanks in advance.


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Formatted my sd card as internal storage in my Xiamoi phone. but still getting no enough space message when installing apps
I have a Xiamoi note 8 phone running android 9. It has 32gb internal storage and I used most of it, so I decided to buy an sd card to use as internal storage.
I went in settings chose the format as internal storage option. It then asked me to move data to the new internal storage, I clicked yes then after it finished I restarted my phone and It still was giving the low on storage message.
when I open the file manager it shows the phone's data split evenly between the sd card and the storage.
when I open the settings and go to storage it only shows the phone's original 32gb.
I searched a lot but couldn't find a solid solution for this problem.

How to free Internal Storage by moving data or using symlink / bind-mount with Adoptable Storage?

https://android.stackexchange.com/a/43522


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Home button reopens the app instead of showing the launcher
I am using a Samsung Galaxy A41 (Android 10, One UI 2.5) , and I am experiencing a strange behaviour: sometimes when I press the home button, instead of going to the launcher, the current app reopens itself.
As far as I remember, the problem started after installing Niagara Launcher and Sesame; I was actually convinced that the problem was in the launcher itself, but after uninstalling both the launcher (moving back to Nova Launcher) and Sesame, the problem still happens.
I have not found any pattern for it: it happens with different apps, and randomly. I've tried to change the navbar (buttons vs gestures), remove accessibility permissions to apps.


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Apps go portrait and then landscape unexpectedly
When I updated my Motorola Moto G9 Plus to Android 10, when going landscape watching videos or playing videogames (after some minutes, repeatedly) go portrait and after 1 to 3 seconds return to landscape, I thought was just my phone, but my wife's phone (Motorola Moto G8 Plus) also have this glitch/bug
How can I fix that?
This was not happening with Android 9.

wasted bounty, for absolutely nothing.

Well, I believe the easiest way for you to avoid that would be to disable auto-rotate in your phone.
The automatic rotation tool is very sensitive, based on accelerometer, and some users complain that Motorola's is not so good. You may try also to calibrate it using an app like Accelerometer Calibration Free or maybe following the tips on this tutorial.

When a forced "landscape" app is open, there is no way that autorotate can do anything. So it is not the problem

And how does the calibration app I suggested worked for you?

Didn't work at all. Everything goes the same, is not a problem of motorola accelerometer, is a problem of android, android 9 does not glitch.

Android 9 goes perfectly fine, I wish I could downgrade my phone. Though Android 10 were better and this thing happened, even if I am portrait like Chrome or Facebook, happens the same, even if I am not doing anything, glitch happens.

Is there a possibility of your phone being too overloaded and causing the system to be responding the accelerometer changes too slowly? Its a guess, but...

Accelerometer works as expected, if I put my phone horizontally it goes landscape, and vertically it goes portrait, is not a fault of accelerometer. I am pretty sure is a fault of OS, that because (saying again) in Android 9 neved had this problem, and I was using the same apps and games.

Well, that's why I though your cell could be overloaded. You said you had this issue with videos and games - they are pretty demanding on phone's resources, and a new OS most of the times requires better hardware. I do have a Moto G8 power with Android 10, and I don't see this kind of issue - I am aware, however, that my device is not a high end one, so I keep it without demanding apps. If the cell is overloaded, the system might take more time to respond, causing glitches. It is, as I said, a guess, since I don't reproduce this issue...

YouTube, WhatsApp, are demanding apps?

Glitch happens with any app, does not matter if its just a simple text editor, or image viewer, anything.


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How to avoid reformatting external sd card when "Issue with SD card" pops up again?
The comments in Does “How will you use this SD card?” wipe data?
 indicate that the second option in the dialog "Issue with SD card - Tap to fix", which is "Use for portable storage", will also format the external SD card.
My external SD card works without issue from the recovery and I can also mount it after boot from the terminal, but the system does not make it visible e.g. to the file manager app.
I have reinstalled lineageOS recently and until the fourth or so reboot the SD card was working flawlessly and I already used it with the apps that now no longer see it. At the moment, the phone takes long to start with the external SD inserted, and often crashes after unlocking.
How can I avoid reformatting it but still get a behaviour where it works normally and there is no such "issue with SD card" notification?
I have had this issue in the past as well, on different devices, running a different version of (stock) android, with a different SD card. Oftentimes, a reboot or a reinsert of the card would fix it temporarily. But what is going on and how do I actually fix, or at least circumvent, it?

fsck works surprisingly well. At least if you have root. Not sure if that's required but I'd guess so.
I have outlined my process in this answer and mostly wrote this question so that future visitors have it easier to find this solution with the phrasing as I used here. The relevant parts again:

Figure out what your filesystem type is.
I did that from the recovery terminal using mount and blkid because then there aren't so many other block devices around (e.g. all the magisk devices). My device was called /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 and of type exfat.
Make sure the partition is not mounted. umount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 should do the trick. Or boot to the system and since android detects an issue it does not mount it automatically. It looks to me like the available fsck is actually slightly different, at least in my case.
Run the relevant command for your filesystem type. Use tab completion to see your options. My command was fsck.exfat /dev/block/mmcblk0p1. Depending on your fsck you can also provide it with the -y flag to auto-fix everything without asking you every time.

I have re-encountered this issue and fsck did not help me this time... It turns out that you can also turn off the device, remove the sdcard, mount it on your windows computer, and run chkdsk H: /F to find and fix more errors. (H: is your sdcard (adapt accordingly), /F makes it fix errors instead of only reporting them).


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Will the app still be on my old device?
So recently a favorite app of mine has been taken down from Google Play Store. But even though the app is no longer available on Play Store, it is still on my phone and tablet (both from Samsung company) and works perfectly fine on both of my devices. Also, when I go to 'My Apps and Games', I still see the app on 'Library' and 'Installed' options.
I'm aware that in order for my favorite app to function properly, I must ignore software updates on my devices. Hence, I've been ignoring software update notifications ever since.
But what I really want to know is that, will I be able to install the app from 'Library' on a new device from Samsung or any other company even when it is no longer in Play Store? Or doing so will cause the app to malfunction across all my devices? Will the app still be safe on my old devices?

If an app developer removed the app from Google Play Store this does not change anything for device which have the app already installed. Google only discards apps from devices if the app is known to behaving malicious (and may be if the app is violating some Google [business] rules, but I am not sure about that). Therefore your favorite app will stay on your old device unless you device to delete it.
On a device you won't be able to install the app anymore. Therefore if you want to continue using the app on a new phone you have to extract it's APK(s) from the old device and install it/them on the new phone.
If you want to keep your favorite app I strongly recommend to you to backup the app now. However it may happen that the app is not compatible with the newer Android version of a new device or the CPU architectures supported by your new device (ABIs). In such a case you have to let the app go.
To backup an app I recommend to you not only backup the app but also the app data (if the app allows to do so). This can be done on a non-rooted device using Android Debug Bridge (ADB) using the command adb backup. See various posts here on Stackexchange on that topic.
The app APK itself can be retrieved by various file explorer tools. Extract the APK and save it to a secure location e.g. on your PC and/or an external flash drive.

Thanks a lot. So did you mean if the app is not compatible with the new Android version, it will go away from even my old devices?

@CS2020 May be? But that is usually a theoretical question because devices that get Android updates are usually not modified in a way that would make old apps totally incompatible so that Play Store would filter them. Such apps will just stop working after the device received a major Android version update. Normal apps that are maintained would be updated by the developer via Play Store so that it works again. But again an app will not be removed.

I've purchased several apps over the years that no longer show up when searching for them on the play store but I could always reinstall them on a new device from the Google Play library. Some no longer worked but others still work fine.
Those that I can reinstall are listed in the library even on devices, where I have not yet installed them (even a game from about 10 years ago, that has not been available for purchase in a long time).
I can't say for sure that it'll be the same for your app, but if you have another device where it is not installed you could check if it shows up (not sure if it shows up in a browser when logged into Google Play). So there is at least a good chance, you'll be able to reinstall it from Google Play, I would stil go with the other answer and make a back up to make sure though.


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How do I keep a .pdf open/quickly accessible
When I open a .pdf, such as a longer article, I'd like to keep it open, in the sense that it's available in the recent apps list. How do I do that?
The problem in more detail: say I open article.pdf with the default drive .pdf viewer. I read a part of the article, and then do something else on my phone. Later, maybe the next day, I'd like to continue reading where I left off. However, by this time the pdf viewer has dropped out of the recent apps list, and then only obvious way to find the file again is go find article.pdf from the downloads folder and open it again. In the worst case, the viewer has forgotten where I left off and I need to scroll through the file to find the right place to continue.

You could try pinning the app on the recent apps list if your device/OS supports it. However, the Android system may kill the app at any moment when it's in the background. The feasible solution is to use other PDF reader apps that support remembering last position (I haven't researched any).

@andrewt I'm in Android 10, and the only pinning I can find is screen pinning, which pins the app to the screen, instead of pinning it to the recent apps list. Is there some other pinning which I'm missing?

as suggested, install any ebook reader


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Printing from android device using a usb printer without using third party print server
I would like to use a Brother HL-L2300D printer (USB printer) to print from my phone and tablet in my home network for convenience without the document going through a third party server or first turning on a PC. Right now I have connected the printer via USB to my router a FritzBox 7530.

I tried printing a test page with the app PrintBot (not yet purchased), which did work but I'm not so sure whether such an app ends up sending the documents to a server in order to process it to be able to print it, which I do not want for privacy reasons.
I also tried Let's Print Droid  but it does not work (probably because it seems to have no driver for low end Brother printers?).
I would prefer an open source app or at least an app that does not send the documents I'm printing (paid is fine) to a third party server.
If it really is not possible to print with this printer from an android device without a print server first processing the document I'll either just continue to turn on my PC every time when I need to print (when it's not already on anyway, obviously) something or buy a Raspberry Pi and run my own local print server.


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How to completely backup every single piece of data on samsung s9
I want to do a full backup of my phone but backing up via the cloud doesn't backup everything and backing up via sd card doesn't backup everything either. If you tried to backup via any of these options, the screen will give you a small link containing the things that it won't backup. However, the items excluded from backup are different. Do you think if I tried to backup via both options it will cover everything on my phone? Or is there another way to achieve this?

What you want may be impossible depending on your used apps. If an app uses the Android keystone the keys are bound to your CPU and can't be extracted from the device even on a rooted device. Furthermore apps can disallow backup that makes backup again impossible (can be bypassed on rooted devices).

that is always the hen-egg-dilemma when it comes to rooting. try samsung kies or samsung smart switch


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Prevent Wifi and mobile broadband from being turned off when phone is locked
On my old android 10 phone (an LG) if I pull down the shade when the phone is locked and try to turn off wifi or mobile broadband, it asks me for my password.  My new phone doesn't do that.  Is that a setting somewhere? or do the manufacturers change that for you?
--
Actually my old phone also doesn't let me power it off without the code.

Preventing data connectivity change from lock screen might be a security feature implemented by your LG vendor (Xiaomi does that too).


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Can't format my SD Card in my Android
I'm having this weird issue that I can't find any solutions online. A few days ago my SD card was showing that it was corrupted and I had to format it to get it to work, losing all my data (which was fine). It worked well after formatting (I formatted it on my phone itself). Today it began to show as 'Corrupted' again. Every time I try to format it shows this java.util.concurrent. TimeoutException: Thread Binder:2980_4 gave up waiting for partitionPublic after 180000ms error.
Can anyone help me fix this? It's a Samsung 16GB card and I've been using it for almost 2 years without any issues until now. Also my phone's a Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime. OS: Oreo 8.1

if not a loose tray causes this, card is probably end of life (emmc wear-out)

The tray is fine. So are you sure the card is unusable now?

Got similar problem a few days ago after upgrading to LineageOS 17.1.
Best option to be sure if your card is corrupted or not : Put it in your PC (Windows, Mac or Linux, doesn't matter) and try to format it. If it fails from computer, consider SD card is corrupted.
If you do not have a computer or an SD card tray in your computer, try to root your phone and format the card using Aparted app (available from Play Store, but requires root)
Good luck with this

Thanks for the detailed reply bro!. I'll let you know when I can get this done.


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Error 403 and 192 on Google Play
When I try to install an application with Google Play I always get errors 403 and 192. It only happens when I try to install new apps, these errors do not appear when updating apps.
I have already deleted data from Google Play and Google Play Services, I have even logged out of all my Google accounts but I still can't install new apps. What should I do? I use Huawei Nova 3i from China, and Google Play worked perfectly until a few months ago.

guess your country is blocked

@alecxs I bought the phone from China, but I'm using it overseas

another guess: your device is suffering google huawei ban

https://www.hardreset.info/devices/huawei/huawei-nova-3i/faq/tips-tricks/google-play-errors


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Missing OEM unlock toggle on Samsung Galaxy S9
I've found numerous guides online on how to fix the missing OEM unlock toggle on Samsung Galaxy S9 (SM-G960U) running Android 10. I've been able to follow all steps except for the last one before rebooting the phone. And that step is going into software update and unchecking download updates automatically and checking download updates manually. The problem is that those options don't exist!
I can only tap on Check for updates and there's a grayed-out option that says Continue update. I don't know if this is true, but I think it's the same as going into developer options and switching off auto-update system, which I was able to do.
Either way, I still wasn't able to fix the missing button, even after following this guide I was just talking about. I've seen other guides and they talk about the same thing that this one does.
Can someone help me unlock my OEM unlock button, please?

As of now, I played around with my phone and found out the reboot to bootloader option in the menu after starting the phone with power key + volume up + Bixby key. I didn't know what that was going to do but when I selected that, a light blue screen came on and said downloading... do not turn off target. There's an option to cancel it, but I want to see what happens.
Maybe I didn't have a bootloader at all? (sounds crazy because I need a bootloader to start my phone, so maybe it's downloading something else?). In either case, I'll keep this question posted with any new info.

guess U models are not unlockable. what is your chipset, csc, bootloader version

How do I check any of those things? I can't find it in about phone

I've backed up my data via SD Card and cloud. Is that going to help at all? BTW I think the csc code is ATT

https://android.stackexchange.com/q/232732

So my bootloader version is 190711 because it's the 5th digit from the build number (or 1 if that's the only digit you're looking for)

carrier-branded phones sold by Verizon or AT&T will not have an unlockable bootloader

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

Regarding the 7-day wait mentioned in millertime90's answer, that is completely untrue. I've had mine for over 2 months, and never showed the OEM unlock. I did hear though that one certain version allows it but the G960U cannot.
Also, that blue screen is called "Download Mode". It's used for when using Odin or other tools to reflash/flash images to your device.

Welcome to a Q&A site Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange. We appreciate everyone's contribution, though please understand that unlike most forums, we prefer to have less chatty conversations. Also, please note that we might have to moderate every post to keep them under the policy, either by editing or deleting them. I hope we can work together contributing here while also following the norms. Thanks for your understanding :)

You have to wait 7 days after enabling developer mode, and OEM with show up

Hello. Where did you read this, or on which Android device did you test this?

AFAIK, this applies to Xiaomi devices, but I don't think Samsung has this policy.


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Is there a way to unlock stock miui phone after forgetting password?
I have stock xiaomi mi 8 without any additions. I changed my password, and after 3 days of not typing it, I realized that I forgot the new password. I know some words etc, which are there, but I can not guess it.
Is there any way how to make backup? Through the xiaomi mi, or some other service? I thought that it is possible through google, but not anymore. Kinda bummer.
I did not know that security on android moved so much. :-)
Is there any way to save the data and guess the password on some, I don't know, emulator/etc?

no, there is no way to by-pass (besides bruteforcing). check micloud or https://photos.google.com or drive.google.com for backups, or try to remember screen lock, not much you can do. make sure you remember your mi account + google account + passwords before doing factory reset, you will need both to unlock FRP afterwards. you can double check from https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager

So that's why all the people have stupid swipe screen locks  I know mi account, etc, I know that I can just wipe the data, but I think that I have the also something recent what I don't wanna lose. Isn't there some way with adb/fastboot/fastboot some ROM from SD card? Or how do you bruteforce it? I am sure that I could put together some words and numbers into some kind of cracker to guess the password but I don't know how. But as you say about frp and other anti theft tools I guess there is no other way.

OTG adapter connected with Teensy might work. But you are facing two problems. battery can not charged in OTG mode therefore you need some smart code to resume brute force. timeout is increased up to 1 day on wrong attempts

first link claims there is a trick to by-pass gatekeeper timeout via emergency dialer (Oppo device) but i doubt this is true... https://android.stackexchange.com/search?q=brute+force&tab=newest

there is a hint in this thread how to get EDL authorized. assuming you achieve read/write access in EDL mode there is an (old) exploit example how to flash TWRP on locked bootloader which might work on other devices, too. assuming your device is encrypted with FDE default_password TWRP will decrypt your userdata partition without knowing lock screen password. in that case you can backup your data or even reset screen lock

As you pointed out that "old" exploit. Isn't there something like kali linux pack of tools tinkering with mobile phones? I'm lost in all the acronyms :D EDL (okay Emergency Download Mode), DFE. But without changing the recovery mode, I think any method is useles. Fastboot is good just for wiping the phone, but with locked bootloader - nothing. And the xiaomi recovery 3.0 can help me just with wiping the phone. Connecting to mi assistant isn't connecting phone. Don't know why there is the option for connecting :D

Regarding the OPPO brute force, I don't have pin, I have text password.

FDE = full-disk encryption - nearly all Xiaomi devices are still encrypted with 'default_password' so TWRP decryption is the easiest task. biggest two challenges are to figure out if splash screen hack is still unpatched in aboot + EDL authorization. if you're seriously interested you should start with the latter one https://android.stackexchange.com/q/226838

I wanted to develop on android, system grew to big proportions xD ...  I'm interested, but I gave up. I found some backup and realized that i'd lose maybe just some weeks of photos. But I guess I gave up right before the end :X Thank you for the link and the effort! I'll definitely tinker with it and try the to get into EDL. If it will work flawlessly I'll beat into the wall that I'm lazy quitter in front of the silver plate. At the weekend I'll add comment. .. Curious what they have in NSA.


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Script to act as keyboard for android device
TLDR: I need to create a keyboard interface to android, does this already exist? or am I going about this the wrong way?
I'm running tests from my computer that require me to interact with an android device. What I would like to do is write an application that runs on my testing computer that can talk to my android devices as a mock keyboard. Right now my testing methods are, my desktop app runs, returns a string of text, I type string of text into application on android device, android devices does its thing (posts modified text to cloud datastore), desktop app gets value from datastore, and repeats.
I would really like to take the manual step out of the testing procedure. I had some ideas on how to control the android device's keyboard using an arduino with the keyboard library, but I would think I could do this with a just a usb between the testing computer and android device. I've looked around online but most forms I'm finding are talking about using an android as a keyboard for a pc (which is the opposite of what I need).

As Android already has resources for UI testing you might want to start there. You can also use the adb command from a PC to inject input events

You can simulate text input from a keyboard via adb input text "qwerty"

Thanks both of these suggestions work


text:
Android pie 9 music stop when minimize
I am using android mobile having android pie 9. When I play music and minimize app, it stop music. Even when I am use other option music stop playing. I want that music play in background when I use mobile.

Which app are you using?

It is default app on android pie 9 on nokia 2.2. It can play mp4. When I tap on music file it use file apps.

As per the question, it doesn't look like the phone's default music player supports background play feature. You can use third-party apps like VLC Media Player to play music in the background (when minimized).

Yes it works with vlc player. But I want to know is there is setting for background music play on default player on android pie 9.


text:
How to check if a new Android phone/tablet has got no factory reset yet?
I would like to buy a factory-new tablet (Galaxy Tab S6) so I would like to check if the device has ever turned on (since the production date) and also how to make sure no factory reset has done yet.

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

You can use ##786#. You can check RTN status of mobile. But you need to access hidden menu then you can use this code.
You can find uptime of mobile Go to setting / about phone / uptime. Compare it with date of purchase.

Uptime is Uptime since boot, not reset.

When reset uptime start from beginning and if you compare it with date of purchase. You can find mismatch.

@alecxs, It will not reveal date of firstboot/ factory reset. When you factory reset mobile, uptime will start from 0. Now you have factory reset 1 month ago and you purchase mobile 2 year ago. When you compare it will mismatch. And you find when was factory reset mobile.

You are rite. Every boot uptime change.


text:
I cant find firmware for RCA Tab voyager android go edition
In my tab's recent update it does run to problem the first thing I got was the tab never opens to the main screen(ui) it just stacked to manufacture logo page then after a week instead of stacking it start showing this kind of error
the thing I planned to do was flashing it unfortunetlly I cant find the same firmware as in my tab I searched and got http://gofirmware.com/post/rca-voyager-rct6873w42bmf8 still it doesn't work the download button is full of redirection instead of providing download link.
So finally, the idea it came to my mind was to download and flash the nearest version and model possible from android MTK then I selected rct6873w42m f7 which has the nearest android v(7.0) .
however the problem are still there while flashing

I have tried: rebooting, repluging usb, removing batteries but none of it work
it kinda showing the version are not meting
what should i do now?
models:

android v : android go edition with v8.1 (oreo)

tab model/v: RCA voyager model

rct6873w42bmf8; from the boot page

rct6873w42; from the back of the tab

your device has problem with cache + para partitions. no need to flash another ROM, no ROM will work without these partitions. "wipe cache partition" might recreate cache partition, did you try?

@alecxs actually yeah , but no luck! heres the log https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/dBhK4LKEy1qW#/

recommend to double check scatter file matches partition sizes from fastboot getvar all, then flash cache partition only

the best source for stock ROM is your device. do a read back https://android.stackexchange.com/q/220584 https://android.stackexchange.com/q/203283


text:
Your device isn't compatible with this version - Play Store
I am the developer of an app, I have published the APK to the Play Store's Internal Testing channel. I added the Google account of test device B to the email list. For some reason, it shows 'your device isn't compatible with this version' when I try to install my app from the Play Store. I can sideload the APK generated by Android Studio without any problems...
I can install the app from the Play Store on my Galaxy Note 20 Ultra (test device A) but not on my Zebra TC26. Even though the device catalog in the Google Play Console shows the device is compatible with my app.
What's going on here?

If you can side-load the app the problem must be on Play Store/Play Console side which makes your question an Android development/deployment question which is unfortunately considered off-topic here as we concentrate on Android from a user perspective.

Thanks, will post it on Stackoverflow instead

Have asked this question on the appropriate site https://stackoverflow.com/questions/66208902/your-device-isnt-compatible-with-this-version-play-store


text:
How to reopen 1000 synced Opera Tabs from a different device?
Last time, I could simply copy the appstate.bin file to the new device, as described in this Q&A. But this time, either my backup is too old or something else changed. Copying that file has no visible effect.
However, I have synced my open tabs to Opera's servers. On my freshly reinstalled phone, I can still see the "tabs open on a different device" which is that same phone pre-reinstall. I can also view the list of open tabs on www.sync.opera.com/tabs.
How can I get all of them open on my phone again? I don't want to manually choose each one until the 1811 tabs are opened. It is also possible for me to view the same list in opera on desktop under opera://activity.
I have root access on my phone.

Seeing the number, I'm reconsidering whether I should even bother, since I will probably never look at most of those again. But I'm still curious if there is an easy way of restoring those.
The official opera forums don't sound like that feature exists.

When I right-click > save as on the opera sync website, I get the full list in a single line of html (without newlines).
Each (I hope) entry is set up like this:

 Solved: Bluetooth volume defaults to maximum on each new connection | Android Development and Hacking
 https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-5/help/bluetooth-volume-defaults-to-maximum-t3641676/amp/

So if we knew how to automatically open the tabs on the phone given the URLs, extracting them should not be too hard.


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Is it possible to change Android ID without root access nor factory reset?
I have an Android 10 phone (OnePlus 5) and I want to change the Android ID (I think this is what apps use to identify you sometimes). I read that either I can do a factory reset or root my phone, both of which probably involve wiping the data clean which I want to avoid, and rooting looks complicated.
But I read that it's possible to change the Android ID by just using some command line tools, is it possible?

How do you know that changing this ID is what you need? Typically modern apps are not allowed to use the device id anymore. Instead the advertising id is often used which can be reset in Android Google settings. See https://source.android.com/devices/tech/config/immutable-device-ids

@Robert, maybe I mistermed. I thought modern apps are not allowed to use the IMEI number anymore. By "device ID" in my post I meant the "Android ID", which I believe they are allowed to use. I did not know about advertising ID.. will check

Sorry, the links was only about the static IDs, not covering ANDROID_ID. This is the correct link: https://developer.android.com/about/versions/oreo/android-8.0-changes#privacy-all

@Robert I don't believe advertising ID Is what I need since the issue occurs on different Google accounts on my phone (I assume advertising ID is different for different Google accounts). So I think it uses Android ID.

AFAIK you cannot change Android ID without root or without performing a factory reset.
For my own and future visitors' reference, I'll explain what you asked in the comment:

Would a factory reset also lead to a different app-specific ID?

Android documentation is not very clear about this:

"The value may change if a factory reset is performed on the device or if an APK signing key changes."

As I explained in my answer to Where is the "android_id" stored and when does it change?, since Android 8 every app gets a unique Android ID which is saved in file:
/data/system/users/<User_ID>/settings_ssaid.xml

Since the file is not accessible without root, it's not possible to change the ID for a specific app.
Android 11 source code shows that the app-specific Android ID is generated based on two parameters: a random ID generated on first use to identify a user ID (in multi-users or work profiles), and the app's signing key.
Since the user ID is randomized after a factory reset, the app-specific Android ID should also change.
Without root and factory reset the only thing we can change is the package's signing keys, which may not always be very feasible and requires some good hacking skills.
With root access you can edit the file mentioned above. It contains the user ID as well as the app-specific Android IDs. Simply changing the Android ID will do the trick.
But if you reinstall or update the app the original Android ID (created by Android OS) will come back (since the randomly generated user ID and the package's signing key isn't changed). So you need to edit the file again. Or you can remove the user ID as well from the file (the line with name="userkey") which makes the changes permanent.
After making changes to the file, a reboot might be required if Android framework is caching the values somewhere.

If the ANDROID_ID of only one app should be changed apps like "Parallel Space" may be an additional root-less option, too. As the app then runs within Parallel Space the signature key is different and the app is seeing a different ANDROID_ID. However some apps have counter-measures against apps like Parallel Space.

Or you can remove the user ID as well from the file (the line with name="userkey") which makes the changes permanent.

Does this have no adverse effects?

@Robert Parallel Space modifies apps or it uses some sort of virtualization engine? I'm not sure about that. However apps running in a work profile or secondary user (like with Shelter, Island, Second Space, Dual Apps etc.) have always different ANDROID_ID because the user ID is different, though signing key remains the same.

@StopUsingFacebook the only adverse effect is that all apps running under that user may get a new Android ID.

@IrfanLatif Would AndroidID change when the OS has been updated? For example from Android 11 to Android 13? Thanks


text:
How to determine which app or service is frequently writing to storage and causing lagging?
When I turn on the screen on a sleeping (but not powered off) high-end Samsung Android 7 Nougat device, the device is often very unresponsive (lagging) for 20-200 seconds.
Using the excellent Simple System Monitor (SSM), I can see that it's not a CPU or RAM issue.  There also is only minimal network activity during this time.  The issue appears to be something writing to internal storage.  In all the SSM graphs, it's the only graph that shows a high level of activity during the unresponsive period.
How can I determine which process is performing all that writing to internal storage ?  The device is not rooted, nor does it have external storage.

I don't think non-rooted Android would get you anywhere. See https://android.stackexchange.com/q/214229/96277

I/O overhead is usually not the reason of lagging on devices using flash storage. On Android devices it's mostly a bug in the display HAL or the foreground app (be it a user app or the OS itself; the SystemUI app) which blocks the main UI thread. Logcat can be more helpful in this case. Otherwise tracing apps activities isn't possible without root as Firelord mentioned.

@IrfanLatif Thanks. I notice it the most if I launch Google Play store shortly after turning on the device.  Any tips to resolve that particular issue (besides never use Google Play apps... which is tempting!)?

As I said, logcat is the first thing you should see to figure out what's going on in the background when the UI hangs. That may lead to a conclusion, and possibly the solution.

@IrfanLatif Thanks... I'll capture some logs and take a look.  Do you have a favorite logcat app?  I haven't needed to logcat in so long that I can't recall what I previously used.

No sorry. I never used an app to get logcat.


text:
How to Transfer Files Into Chromecast with Google TV?
The new Chromecast with Google TV has a few gigs of free storage space but I can't figure out how to place files in there? There does not seem to be an obvious way to do that but it lets people install VLC which, of course does not find anything,
How do I load media files onto the Chromecast with Google TV? If there is anything to do so that they are visible to the installed VLC, that would be good to know too.
NOTE: Posted this a few days ago on StackOverflow that has some Chromecast related questions but there were no answers. I will delete one of the two questions when there are answers on one.

Have you tried one of the file-explorer apps that also contain a server/web-ui (needs to be enabled separately in the app)?

Didn't know that existed but I understand the concept, so I'll try to find one.


text:
Other than advertising ID and Android_ID, what other identifiers could an app use from the Android system to identify me?
Ignoring information I supply the app (such as my email address or phone number), what other identifiers could an app use to identify a user?
I'm referring to a modern app running on Android 10.

See Device Identifiers and Identifying App Installations and Best practices for unique identifiers and Remember your user

and What's the best way to uniquely identify Android users? and Generating Device-Specific Serial Number and Is there a unique Android device ID? and Uniquely Identify an Android Handset and How to get unique device hardware id in Android?


text:
Can I change Gmail attachment download location on android phone?
Basically on my Huawei Mate 20 I am using Gmail. When I get an e-mail with an attachment and download it, it always goes to the "Downloads" folder. But I want to be able to choose the location each time I download an attachment. Is it possible?

Not the gmail app is only mail client. I use "open mail", there you can choose, where do you want to download the attachment, although it is an app-wide setting and still you can not choose every time.

No, the Gmail app doesn't have this feature of choosing download location. Instead of using the Gmail app, open the website on google chrome. In Google Chrome's settings, go to Advanced Settings section and click on Downloads. There, you can choose to ask the download location for each file or change the download location for all files.

I have this already setup in chrome on my phone but Gmail does not ask me anyway


text:
How to encrypt deleted data on Android 10
I'm running a custom ROM (MIUI xiaomi.eu 12.0.2/Android 10QKQ1.90910.002) and my phone is rooted. I want to encrypt my old deleted data (photos and videos) so that they can't ever be recovered after selling my phone because right now I can recover them using apps like diskdigger.

Just write a large random file to cover the whole disk then delete it. That will stop Diskdigger from getting the deleted data (it might be possible for  very advanced and very costly/destructive hardware attacks to get tiny fragments of data, but its not a threat unless someone is specifically targetting you and has losfs of money to throw at it)

Also, are you sure you cant just lock and unlock the bootloader? All Android phones Ive ysed for many years have FDE - in which case, removing the enncryption header wipes the data partition irrecoverably.  Locking and unlocking the bootloader normally wipes this.

I have already tried the method of writing large files then deleting them and it doesn't work, unfortunately. I will try to lock the bootloader and see if it works.

do not try to lock bootloader on rooted device, especially on xiaomi devices that is bad idea (you remember the hassle unlocking bootloader?) just flash stock ROM and boot once - that will encrypt the whole userdata partition. you can run adb shell dd if=/dev/urandom of=/data/local/tmp/bigfile until low storage warning appears, then just do factory reset

Run blkdicard on block device of userdata partition in recovery mode before flashing a new ROM. More details: How to make a complete factory reset, without anyone being able to retrieve my data?

@IrfanLatif How do you run blkdiscard on android? If I understood correctly, it's a command that you can run on Linux using the command line.

Yes. Android runs on Linux kernel. You can run the same commands on Android too, though not all work. TWRP provides a built-in terminal plus adb shell to execute commands.

blkdiscard is a busybox applet

You cannot encrypt data which has been deleted. As Tetsujin mentioned, you are meant to encrypt the data beforehand. You can then discard the encryption key.
What you want to accomplish, then—ensure that cleartext deleted data be unrecoverable—is inherently difficult. It's not trivial to hide these things from experienced forensic laboratories.
That said, unless you are trying to protect your data against an adversary such as a nation state, there are steps you can take. Re-encrypt your phone now and, after ensuring that data encryption is enable, initiate a full wipe. This should render apps like DiskDigger ineffective.


text:
How to handle hidden files and folders (which begin with a period/dot) when backing up Android to a Windows NTFS volume?
Over on Superuser, I asked about whether or not it's okay to have filenames and/or folder names that begin with a period (dot) on a Windows NTFS volume.
The immediate response I received was to avoid doing this.  Update: The author of that answer graciously changed his answer, and is now indicating that it is no problem.  So I think my question is now moot, but I'll leave it up for a few days to see if there are any more updates or commentary here.
What's an effective way to backup Android hidden files and folders (which begin with a period) onto a Windows NTFS volume?
The person answering my question on Superuser recommended renaming the files on Android, if possible.  Well, that's certainly possible.  It involves these steps:

Finding every file/folder that begins with a period
Making a copy of each file/folder found
Renaming each file/folder copied to a unique name that does not begin with a period
Backing up the copies (most likely via FTP)
Deleting all the copies

Ugh.  Is there a better way to accomplish this task?  And if not, is there a way to automate all this work?

I am sorry but the answer you got is nonsense. Windows does not care if a file starts with a dot. File extensions are nowadays just a visual gimmick. Just select in Windows Explorer to show all file extensions. Besides that creating a backup to a tar file on device is still a good idea as it improves backup speed. Just search this site for adb exec-out tar.

@Robert Thanks Robert.  What about transferring Android folders that each begin with a period to a Windows NTFS volume?  Is that okay?  Regarding creating a tar on Android, I considered that, but I have over 20GB to backup with only 800MB free! ;)

Agreed with Robert. Windows or NTFS have no problem with an extension-only files or folders except if they conflict with Windows reserved file names. // You can stream 20GB tar archive directly to PC without saving on Android.

@IrfanLatif Thanks Irfan.  I hope to hear back from Robert as well regarding the folders (as opposed to files).  //  I had no idea you could stream tar files from Android without saving them first.  Wow... that's spiffy.  I'm going to do some searching on that... if you know of a good QA or link for that topic, I'll read it for sure.

@RockPaperLz-MaskitorCasket If you want to make a backup use adb. Do not use MTP if you want a reliable copy operation this my recommendation. MTP is buggy and slow. Try adb or for example adb-sync for reliable file copy.

https://android.stackexchange.com/q/226573

@Robert I concur about MTP!  Buggy and slow!  I typically use FTP, but I'll have to take a second look at adb for backups.  I like FTP because my backup program supports it, so I can perform incremental backups based on what I've already backup up, instead of having to backup everything from scratch.  Can adb do anything like that?  Also, do you concur with Irfan that it's fine to have folders in NTFS (on Windows) that begin with a period?

Third-party libre software out there can provide support for creating and mounting a file as an EXT4 drive in Windows. You can create a reasonable size file for EXT4 partition to hold free space and use that to move content between it and the Android.

@Firelord Interesting.  If I post a question on Software Recommendations SE for such software, do you think you could provide a recommendation?

afaik sdcardfs already take care about fat compatible file names itself, no need for ext4 on windows. you simply can't create incompatible file names within /storage/emulated/0


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How to link chrome html files together on android
I have multiple chrome html files on PC that are all linked together.
For example, there is a table of contents and if I click A it will then open the html file for A and this can be then used to go back to the table of contents or I can go to B).
However, putting all these files together on mobile (SAMSUNG S8+ Updated up to date) does not allow them to be connected no matter which web browser or html viewing application I try to use (Clicking to go to another page just gives an error saying the other html file cannot be found). Additionally, the images part of the html document do not seem to load on mobile despite being in the same folder still.
I am wondering if there is a way to have all of these files linked on android as it does on PC.

Edit:
As being said by @Robert, it probably is the default behavior of Google Chrome.

in this case I assume it is simply that Google has disabled the file:// protocol by default as it made it possible to browser and download files from the app-private directories. Not sure when this limitation was introduced.

Because, an app have access to its app-private user data, which is obviously not secure.

Original Post:
AFAIK on the latest Android, apps no longer can access internal storage. Which is Chrome will say access denied. Even if you try to open it by yourself with html viewer, it can only access just what you open excluding other files that linked.
Try to use HTTP server. Here's some option to install on Android

Use Termux and install Apache HTTP server. in this one, you have more control, because Termux will act as Linux environment. but quite not user-friendly to setup.
Spck Code Editor. It is not an http server. It's a code editor based on Monaco Editor (I guess), the same that used on VSCode (but don't expect to have full compatibility with VSCode, because it just the syntax hightlighting and the autocomplete thing). But, it also have built in support to preview HTML.
AWebServer, a wrapper for Apache HTTP Server and PHP.
KSWeb, a wrapper for Lighttpd, Apache HTTP Server, and NGINX for Android.

I assume you are referring to the "Scoped Storage in Android 11". But in this case I assume it is simply that Google has disabled the file:// protocol by default as it made it possible to browser and download files from the app-private directories. Not sure when this limitation was introduced.


text:
Are these files safe to delete on Android?
Whilst I was deleting files on my Android to clear up some space; I came across two strange files. One was PubmetricinstalledList and the other was PubmetricmoreApps. The first file contained two separate files which were a .str file and a .tss file. The second file had many folders with all titled with three number ranging from 500 to 900 and inside of them were folders with more random numbers, and inside those folders were two files which were a .ibm file and an .jsn file.
Does anyone know what these files are, and if so are they safe to delete? Sorry for my bad explanation I am mostly curious on what these files are since I couldn't find anything online about them. Thanks!

All files under /sdcard aka Internal Storage are fully disposable without a risk to system stability.


text:
How to know if mediatek vcom drivers is installed on my pc
I've just installed mediatek vcom driver on my pc, to use it in flashing mediatek based firmwares. But is there any way I can know if it truly installed on my pc without plugging a mediatek phone for recognition, maybe through control panel or device manager or somewhere else please.

it's not the driver that will installed, it's the device that will installed with correct drivers


text:
How can I transfer tab data from the Chrome App to another phone - including back and forward data?
So my nexus 6p is getting on in years, and I'd like to back up my chrome tabs onto another phone. I'm aware there's a sync function, but that:

Does not cover the back and forward data from each tab, and
Does not seem to go past a few dozen tabs - I have around 1000+ tabs
open.

Is there anything I can do to move or transfer the data, or should I just get to searching through each tab and copy-pasting them? Also, the phone isn't currently rooted from what I recall - I'm willing to try it but I've been told that may be counterproductive and likely wipe the data. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I would assume the the developers of web browser never imagined that people could use their app this way therefore all the available sync options don't match your requirements. Typically tabs are nothing persistent, they are of temporary nature. BTW: Is a web browser really useful with 1000 tabs open? How do you navigate between them?


text:
Screen becomes black during a call
I am also having this frustrating issue where, during any call dialed or incoming, the screen would completely go blank. Pressing the power button also doesn't do anything.
I have a newly purchased Nokia 5.3 and it was updated from android one to Android 10. The problem occurred one week after! Any help please! Noting that I’m not an Android expert!

The screen should only go black if you come close to the display (e.g. with your face). There should a proximity sensor which emits invisible light and your skin reflects it which is then detected by a special sensor. May be this proximity sensor is defect or do you use a special case that covers this sensor?

@Robert That's exactly what I thought at first too, but the OP states that pressing the power button doesn't help.


text:
Will play services run on a dual-boot device with 2 roms once I boot into a rom without play services installed?
I have an OnePlus5 device with installed lineageOs. Because of my company's and software development needs I need to run apps that require play services. But I do not want to run all over the time.
Therefore I thought to dualboot the OnePlus 5 with the stock rom thewrefore there will be 2 roms in my device:

The stock one with play services where apps will run.
The lineageOS one that wi will use personally wiuthout playservices.

But once I boot into lineageOS would result running the playservices as well?

I am thinking to keep them seperated therefore with seperate userdata.

Typically company rules disallow custom or modified ROMs, and such a dual-boot is only possible with heavily modified ROMs.

Well in my company that's not an issue.

Your question isn't clear how you will be achieving dual boot. Simply, if the /system/app and /data/app you are booting from do not contain Play Services (the GMS suite), they won't run. Otherwise they will.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3725636


text:
Repeating error on logcat: "FingerGoodix: Useless INT"
I have a problem with a fingerprint scanner. It doesn't work no matter what firmware I use. I flashed different fixes but it didn't help. I captured a log and found these repetitive lines:
02-10 14:23:33.666  2432  2432 D FingerGoodix: Enter sig_handler ------<<<<<< ret = 0
02-10 14:23:33.667  2432  2432 D FingerGoodix: sig_handler 0x0126 = 0x0
02-10 14:23:33.667  2432  2432 D FingerGoodix: Useless INT
02-10 14:23:33.667  2432  2432 D FingerGoodix: Exit sig_handler ------>>>>>>

(Full log on https://paste.nomagic.uk/?9b40ef80e8a1caf8#8P3KTywk1M2Nw7hVEVe4uJT2uJJ9GPiZ3dUMFGVASMC9)
The fingerprint sensor worked with the original firmware, but when I flashed unofficial firmware and then tried to flash the original, it ceased to work.
So, can anyone explain what's wrong with it? I tried to google the error but didn't find anything useful.

ask your LineageOS maintainer to fix fingerprint sensor or flash complete stock firmware (including modem etc)

Thanks for the answer, unfortunately, the device has no official support anymore, and I flashed complete stock firmware through fastboot, didn't help.

get a list of partitions and compare which one is missing in 'complete' stock firmware

Thank you again, I'll try this approach.


text:
Where to find webview-command-line for retrieving netlogs
I need to get netlogs for the Android webview used by my application.
The chromium describes few steps to do so. It required userdebug build for which I am using emulator.
But the commandline flags need to set using webview-command-line . The path /data/local/tmp/webview-command-line doesn't exists.
There is nothing inside. /data/local/tmp folder.
Can someone please guide me to how set the commandline flags.
Regards

Launch WebView DevTools by running: adb shell am start -a com.android.webview.SHOW_DEV_UI and enable webview-verbose-logging flag. But I think this flag won't be available on final user builds.

Have you tried to just create the file /data/local/tmp/webview-command-line and place the command-line options in it? See here: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/HEAD/android_webview/docs/commandline-flags.md


text:
Disable avb/dm-verity manually on super partition
my doogee s96, with the TWRP no more able to boot, probably due to the dm-verity check.
I tried several things, install Magisk or patching boot.img, but I always failed. The phone starts and suddendly swicth to TWRP without launching Android.
With the suggestion of @alecxs I pulled the super partition through adb and umpacked with lpunpack.
The idea is to manually disable the avb/dm-verity control.
Now I have product.img + system.img + vendor.img.
I can open them with 7z and, for instance, i found many lines on /vendor.img/etc/fstab.mt6785 using avb:
system /system ext4 ro wait,,avb=vbmeta_system,logical,first_stage_mount,avb_keys=/avb/q-gsi.avbpubkey:/avb/r-gsi.avbpubkey:/avb/s-gsi.avbpubkey
vendor /vendor ext4 ro wait,,avb,logical,first_stage_mount
product /product ext4 ro wait,,avb,logical,first_stage_mount

or the system.img/init.rc with the line
exec -- /system/bin/fsverity_init

and system.img/system/bin/fsverity_init:
# Enforce fsverity signature checking
echo 1 > /proc/sys/fs/verity/require_signatures

# Load all keys
for cert in /product/etc/security/fsverity/*.der; do
  /system/bin/mini-keyctl padd asymmetric fsv_product .fs-verity < "$cert" ||
    log -p e -t fsverity_init "Failed to load $cert"
done

# Prevent future key links to .fs-verity keyring
/system/bin/mini-keyctl restrict_keyring .fs-verity ||
  log -p e -t fsverity_init "Failed to restrict .fs-verity keyring"

The question is:
Is it possible to manually edit the imgs, repack the super and adb push it to make my phone start again?
What should I do?
Thank you in advance!
State of the art:
from adb i pulled the superpartition from the device
adb pull /dev/block/platform/bootdevice/by-name/super super.img
i extracted it with lpunpack in two folders:
./otatools/bin/lpunpack --slot=0 ./super.img ./superA/

mounted and enlarged the partition + edited the fstab.mt6785
sudo mount -t ext4 -o loop,rw,noexec,noatime vendor.img /mnt/vendor
sudo dd if=./vendor.img bs=1MiB of=./vendor.img conv=notrunc oflag=append count=5 #to add 5MB
sudo losetup | grep vendor #get the right loop device, in my case loop25
sudo losetup -c /dev/loop25
sudo resize2fs /dev/loop25
sudo vim /mnt/vendor/etc/fstab.mt6785 #removed the avb options in vendor, system and product
sudo umount /mnt/vendor

Following this guide, I built a new super.new.img:
$e2fsck -yf vendor.img
$resize2fs -M vendor.img
$e2fsck -yf vendor.img
$stat -c '%n %s' *
super.img 3758096384
product.img 1596944384
system.img 1128718336
vendor.img 544976896

$../otatools/bin/lpmake --metadata-size 65536 --super-name super --metadata-slots 1 --device super:3758096384 --group main:3270639616 --partition system:readonly:1128718336:main --image system=./system.img --partition vendor:readonly:544976896:main --image vendor=./vendor.img --partition product:readonly:1596944384:main --image product=./product.img --sparse --output ./super.new.img
lpmake I 02-17 12:18:27 2646704 2646704 builder.cpp:1012] [liblp]Partition system will resize from 0 bytes to 1128718336 bytes
lpmake I 02-17 12:18:27 2646704 2646704 builder.cpp:1012] [liblp]Partition vendor will resize from 0 bytes to 544976896 bytes
lpmake I 02-17 12:18:27 2646704 2646704 builder.cpp:1012] [liblp]Partition product will resize from 0 bytes to 1596944384 bytes
Invalid sparse file format at header magic
Invalid sparse file format at header magic
Invalid sparse file format at header magic

even though the size of super.new.img is not the same of super.img (is it normal??)
$stat -c '%n %s' super.new.img
super.new.img **3248851200**

when I flash it with adb the phone goes straight to the recovery without booting android. Please note that 3248851200 is not divisible by 512, which is a requirement of lpmake....
Any suggestion?

Does this answer your question? How to disable dm-verity on Android with "user" build type ROM?

https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/119624

edited the first post to add the state of the art.

I built the new super file but it doesn't work.@alecxs any idea?

@alecxs if the dm-verity implementation depends on vold flag: verify= in fstab, and the fstab entry for super partition is in the DTB, you definitely need to modify the DTB; be it a separate partition or appended to the kernel blob. I've no personal experience with super partition though.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/script-mount-system-as-read-write-android-10.4240703


text:
How to enable ajax access to local files in any Android browser?
On Desktop, some browsers provide an option to enable ajax access to local files. For Chrome, it's the command line option "--allow-file-access-from-files". For Firefox, it's the config variable security.fileuri.strict_origin_policy. By enabling ajax access to local files, we can use javascript to load local files dynamically, which is essential for developing no-backend web apps.
Is there an equivalent way to enable ajax access to local files in any Android browser?

The browsers are independent softwares, it depends on them, what do they allow. I think it is impossible to make it generally. The browser process has access to the files, and it depends on it, what is it doing to file:/// URLs. They typically forbid it on good reasons (to prevent websites to upload your local files to them behind your back).

What could maybe work: starting a webserver on a local port, which does a static file service. For example, the app would run in html/js/css on file:///<path, and the webserver would share the app working directory on http://localhost:8080. Then the app would be able to access the local file on <script src="http://127.0.0.1/path"></script>". You need to tune the webserver to embed the served files into JSON.


text:
USB OTG flash drive as internal storage?
I happen to have a USB and an OTG that I got from a friend and I'm now low on storage due to apps size increasing because of updates.... SD cards costs a fortune in my place so I don't plan on buying one....
But is it possible to use USB Flashdrive as internal storage so I can move my apps to it?

Formatting an external OTG drive as internal is a very bad idea as you would not be able to remove this drive afterwards. Therefore you would have to leave the OTG drive attached forever. This also means that you would not be able to USB for charging (only if you would shut-down the device and charge it off state).

okay lets just say not really as internal but just to work like an sd card, or are they the same thing as u mentioned?

because of the physical unhandy situation guess there is some software limitation preventing this already, so only using as external storage is allowed


text:
Unlocking capability of a locked Samsung Galaxy J3 Emerge phone only for medical purpose
I have just been given a very special type of a phone and I want to know what I can do with it. Let me explain my situation:
I just got a Medtronic pain pump installed via surgery and after I was given a Samsung Galaxy J3 Emerge phone to control it. When they gave it to me, they just said it is to control the pump and nothing else could be done with it. Yeah I do not believe that.
I researched the phone and found that it is a Samsung Galaxy J3 Emerge that runs Android 7.0. The phone looks like it is capable of everything a normal phone can do so I ordered it a case.
Medtronic has basically taken all the apps off the phone like internet browsing, Google Play Store, app to make phone calls, and a texting app. They then installed all of their apps like one to control the pain pump, a web browser the doctor can use in his office, and a user manual for the pump.
I connected it to my Wi-Fi already. What I want to know is, how do I put a web browser, the Google Play Store, and all the regular apps back on it?
I do not want to delete or mess up the pain pump controls but I want to try to use this phone like a regular phone and unlock its full potential.

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts. Sorry but we don't know how Medtronic locked this device. Furthermore most unlocking methods involves factory reset. Kindly understand we won't help without more information.

DO NOT USE THE DEVICE FOR ANYTHING BUT WHAT MEDTRONIC SET IT UP FOR as ANY or all additional software (apps) often co-use code and you May open the MEDTRONIC Controller up to a plethora of vulnerabilities thus causing pain pump management System (galaxy phone) to received improper direction which may lead to over or under medicating.


text:
Replacing Android OS on Android phone with Linux OS
I'd like to entirely replace Android on my phone, which I plan to eventually root.
I've learned so far that Linux Deploy can be used to run a full Linux distro alongside the Android OS, but really I want to replace Android OS.
I'm willing to put Mobian (mobian-project.org) on there or just pure Debian.
Is this possible yet in 2021?

Does this answer your question? How to boot Ubuntu persistent live USB on Android?

Ubuntu Touch from UBPorts is basically at a daily driver state if you have the right hardware.
I've run it on a Pixel 3a as a "weekend driver" and the performance is impressive, especially considering where this project was started in December 2022.

Short answer: NO.
Reasons:

Hardware drivers are proprietary
Building them without the source is extremely difficult
Requires a lot of expertise and time
Not possible unless you have low-level access to your device hardware (Meaning being able to flash without fastboot or EDL)

So yeah, stick to the answer that, NO, you can't replace Android entirely with Linux.
Something you can do is:
You can of course try using other AOSP-based OS like Lineage OS which are built on AOSP, so it is compatible with the default kernel for your device (This is also only possible if it is already built for your device)
If you want to run Linux alongside Android, there are a few ways:

As you said, you can use Linux Deploy. (I have personally not used this)
Or you can use PRoot with Termux which is a user-space implementation of chroot thus you can a virtualized Linux environment (similar to using chroot) but without the need for a rooted device. You can either use PRoot with scripts created by others via AnLinux or Andronix.
Or you could always learn how it works and manually set it up :>

And no, as time goes on, things won't change. You won't be able to install Linux on an Android device. This is not due to hardware incapability but rather it is how the smartphone industry works.

I could be entirely wrong, but here I go.
With postmarketOS and in recent years, people have worked hard to bring Linux to phones. One of the examples is OnePlus 6 - one maintainer worked hard to get it running. But here we are. It's not yet really in a daily-driving state where one can replace it, but for example, calling works.
So to answer your question, you could but would you be happy with this yet buggy state of Linux?

You could improve your answer by adding a link to the mentioned Linux for OnePlus 6 and also include more details on the problems of this release why it has to be considered not read for a daily use.

You're right Robert, my bad, ill edit this once ill be home.


text:
Whenever I tap the empty space below the spacebar, while using Chrome, the keyboard closes unexpectedly
Ok, so this has to be the most annoying thing for me about Android phones. If you look at my screenshot, I've circled the empty space below the keyboard. I am ALWAYS accidentally tapping this empty space, and when I do this... it acts as if I had tapped the little downward arrow to the left of that empty space!!! I'll be typing in some search terms in Chrome, only to accidentally tap the empty space, and there goes everything I was typing. Poof. It's INCREDIBLY annoying, and I just might buy an iPhone if I have to continue to endure this. It is SO easy to accidentally hit that empty space.
It happens with both Gboard and the stock keyboard, and swiftkey. It seems as though this is an intentional feature.
Is there anyway to completely disable that little downward arrow?

I have experienced this on Android as well.  Many virtual keyboard apps have a resize/reposition feature.  I was able to fix this issue by using this feature to manually move the keyboard to the bottom of the screen.
The location of the feature varies for each keyboard app, but it's typically available via its Settings UI.


text:
Empty ramdisk in boot.img
I have a copy of the boot.img from my HTC M8 one.
I unpacked it and discovered that it is mostly empty directories and one binary "init" file. I was hoping to find an init.rc in there.
Any ideas?
:/tmp/ramdisk$ cpio -idv < ramdisk.cpio
apex
debug_ramdisk
dev
init
mnt
proc
sys
2690 blocks

:/tmp/ramdisk$ find
.
./init
./mnt
./ramdisk.cpio
./proc
./debug_ramdisk
./dev
./sys
./apex

system-as-root device - init is on system

Thanks that's interesting and makes sense!


text:
How to find out which app icons disappear after updating?
It happened a few times already that after updating my apps, I notice a gap on my homescreen where an app icon is missing (normally I have it completely filled so a single missing icon is easily noticed).
Is there a way to find out what happened to the app, and more importantly, which app it was? It's hard to keep track of all the stuff I have installed, but the apps I have on my homescreen are normally at least somewhat essential so I'd like to make sure I'm not missing anything important without knowing.

If you update the apps manually, consider taking a screenshot of your homescreen before updating.

@Ak. Sure, would make sense, I'd just prefer some sort of log or whatever where I can see what happened.

Upvoted.  I've seen this happen too.  I think it's a longstanding bug in either Android, the Google Play store, or the launcher.


text:
Is there a way to download and use an app from Google play store with the creators of the app getting any information about me?
Basically without the app knowing anything about my Google account and consequently anything else other than the information I directly provide it.
Is there a way to achieve that?
Phone is rooted.

Unless you perform an "sign in with Google" within the app and you don't purchase something within the app and pay via Play Store the app is not linked to your Google account at all.

Ah OK. But what info can it pull?

If you sign-in with Google within the app Google shows you what data the app want to access.

Your question is very broad. There are a number of ways an app can collect and send your information over internet. Two most common cases are 1) the app collecting and sending the info itself. This can be simply prevented by using a firewall. 2) App using Google Play Services APIs e.g. (Firebase for push notifications, ads or analytics etc.). In this case you need to isolate your app from the Google account.


text:
How can I install and use apps on my phone with neither of them knowing about the other?
For example I want to install app Y on my phone, but I don't want my Google account (which I'm using to use my Android) to know that I'm using the app or any information that I enter in it...and I also don't want the app to be able to pull any info from my Google and know anything other than what I directly feed it. Basically both of them living in parallel dimensions completely oblivious to one another.
How can I achieve this?
Android 7 | Moto C Plus | Rooted

This question can not be answered for generic Android apps as it depends on which services (e.g. from Google) the app uses. Therefore please reformulate the question so that is targets one app (including app name and link to the Play Store). And it may also depend son the Android version on your device. Therefore please include details about your device name, manufacturer and Android version.

Just edited the post. I'm not thinking of a particular app atm. If it is dependant on the app, what are the determining factors?

There are two options: 1) install the app in a different user account / work profile 2) block the specific APIs (e.g. the ability to get accounts on the device) through permission restrictions or even better using some framework mod like XPrivacyLua. In former case you may find my app helpful: https://github.com/mirfatif/PermissionManagerX

you could recompile apk so google play can not associate certificates with official app anymore. not sure this is sufficient as it is still same pkgname (can be changed with Magisk hide)

Installing packages like vim and python in Termux doesn't show up anywhere else on the android system. Getting a graphical interface though will be a huge pain. The way I know it, Linux works by looking at the /bin/ folder for binaries and installed apps so if you could install an app in for example <internal storage(i don't know the exact path)>/Downloads folder, google would possibly not find it. How you would run it though I don't know, unfortunately. Though I know this definitely works in Linux, I'm not sure if it will work on Android. Just added my 2 cents hoping it might help you.

Thank You @alecxs. Your comment provided a lot of insight and knowledge. I shall delete my comment if it is completely off track.


text:
WhatsApp crashes on chat with business accounts
When I start a conversation against a business account, WhatsApp crashes.
I can briefly see the profile picture of the contact, but it crashes before I can start writing anything.
I can see the contact's information, like address and map location, but no chat.
Tried even wiping data.

Best to report it as a bug. If wiping data doesn't solve the problem (and assuming you are running the latest available version) that it is a bug and can only be resolved by developers of Whatsapp.

Yeah. And it's a long-been-there bug. Second or third time this happens to me. If I'm not mistaken, happenned even after wiping the phone. Funny nobody elese reports anything similar.

It's happening again. My brother changed his account to business. Started right away. Now it's a big problem. Must be related to this phone specifically, because no one else is reporting this problem. Uninstalling and reconfiguring it without the backups didn't work.

It was a bug caused by WA Tweaker xposed module
More specifically, when the user chooses to hide the Video or Audio call button
The bug was fixed on the latest release (V 1.6.2, 160106028armeabi-v7a)

Whether this will become obsolete or not, it's great to know about the bug though, and we don't know if anyone else outside there also has the same issue or not (and haven't updated yet). I'd suggest mentioning the specific version and/or release date that fixed this issue instead.

Changes made to the answer to include the details.  I had the idea of deleting it because, in my mind, for this app specifically, I don't think anyone will stick to the old version, as they probably seize to work when Whatsapp updates itself.


text:
Cant delete system files on rooted phone
I'm using zarchiver as a file managing app on my rooted phone... I cant delete some specific app folders in
/system/app              even though I remounted it as rewritable.... in rewritable it will show delete option but when you choose it it wont actually delete it....
context: I want to delete some APK folder of some bloat wares like google or You tube app

Deleting a system app from system partition will not regain any storage on your user data partition. Therefore you can simply disable the system app: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/182123/2241

Based on the description ZArchiver does not seem to be able to use root permissions, hence it can not delete a system app. An app have to be explicitly developed to use root permissions.

Link2SD is also good app manager, can freeze apps etc (without actually having 2nd SD Card partition)

hmmm actually my main purpose on rooting it is to actually remove unnecessary files to free more storage... any tips on where are those useless files and how to delete them

ZArchiver can use root permissions. its just that it seems to fail to use that granted root permission


text:
How do I delete a word from auto-correct?
So I'm trying to remove this impropriate word. Not gonna show you the word because it's impropriate. I tried many tricks, I tried long pressing and it didn't do anything and I tried to clear the google keyboard's data but I have a different phone so it doesn't work. The device I'm using is
a Vivo phone, the model number's 1811. Do anyone know how to remove words from the auto-correct? This is all the information I got.
Update,
It turns out I don't have GBoard so I downloaded it. I've been using my default keyboard the whole time. Sorry about my mistake.

Auto-correct is a feature of the used keyboard app. Which keyboard app do you use?

@Robert The question says "Clear Google Keyboard's data" so it should be gboard

@SrinivasV In the question you can read that "Clear Google Keyboard's data" is what did not work, therefore Google's keyboard app GBoard is installed, but it seems not to be the active keyboard.


text:
Is data recovery possible in encrypted phone?
I need a suggestion!
Tomorrow I am giving my phone to service centre for repairing my broken camera. I am feared that whether they can access my files or not?
My phone is on android 10 out of the box and it is encrypted by default. I am going to reset my phone before giving it to the service centre. Is it possible to recover data on a encrypted phone?

if your bootloader is locked a simple lock screen pin/password (min 5 digits) is already enough. no need to factory reset. nevertheless factory reset will wipe encryption key(s) therefore recovery is impossible

@alecxs But a locked device would make it difficult for the service to test the replaced camera, or do they have signed boot images for hardware testing that can be loaded on-the-fly like fastboot boot img?

@Robert true, in that case factory reset is recommended. Although on some devices you can access camera on lock screen. i doubt service center has special access, except for the manufacturer itself maybe

@10E_13_ Bipin remove all google accounts before factory reset (to avoid FRP lock)


text:
How to install a post-market operating system on a Samsung Galaxy S7 with a broken screen that has "OEM unlock" still disabled?
I want to use my old Samsung Galaxy S7 (with a broken screen) as a headless device in my home network.
(Rationale - for the curious readers: Even with a broken screen it could possibly become a Bluetooth audio receiver (A2DP sink) or a CCTV-like device. And with its multiple CPU cores, I could even make it part of my home Kubernetes cluster to crunch some CPU-intensive tasks. This way it can remain of service in its afterlife.)
To prepare the device, I would either like to install PostmarketOS or Lineage OS on it. The installation procedures for both operating systems require installing/flashing TWRP onto the recovery partition. (Installation guides: Lineage OS; PostmarketOS)
Unfortunately, the device has most likely never been OEM unlocked before the screen broke. Based on my reading so far, this seems to be a pre-requisite for any kind of image flashing. At least, this is the most likely reason to me why all my flashing attempts failed. (See below what I've tried.)
Since the screen is broken, I cannot enable "OEM unlock" via the normal user interface-based procedure.
Now my questions are:

Is "OEM unlock" being enabled a pre-requisite for flashing custom images onto my Samsung mobile device?
How do I enable "OEM unlock" without having access to the device's screen?

Since I'm not too attached to the device, I'm really willing to go far in experimentation. Any data on the device has most likely become inaccessible in my previous flashing attempts already (I cannot check with a broken screen), so keeping data is not a concern. I'm also willing to cut an USB cable open to solder myself an USB/UART connector cable if necessary.

Here's what I've already tried:
1. Directly using PostmarketOS's flasher functionality (which uses Heimdall), i.e. without using TWRP
pmbootstrap init
    [I cut the output of the installation wizard]

pmbootstrap install
    [I cut some of the output]
    [17:06:59] (native) format /dev/installp1 (boot, ext2), mount to mountpoint
    [17:06:59] *** (4/4) FILL INSTALL BLOCKDEVICE ***
    [17:06:59] (native) copy rootfs_samsung-herolte to /mnt/install/
    [17:07:07] (native) make sparse rootfs
    [17:07:13] *** FLASHING INFORMATION ***
    [17:07:13] Run the following to flash your installation to the target device:
    [17:07:13] * pmbootstrap flasher flash_rootfs
    [17:07:13]   Flashes the generated rootfs image to your device:
    [17:07:13]   /home/hauke/.local/var/pmbootstrap/chroot_native/home/pmos/rootfs/samsung-herolte.img
    [17:07:13]   (NOTE: This file has a partition table, which contains /boot and / subpartitions. That way we don't need to change the partition layout on your device.)
    [17:07:13] * pmbootstrap flasher flash_kernel
    [17:07:13]   Flashes the kernel + initramfs to your device:
    [17:07:13]   /home/hauke/.local/var/pmbootstrap/chroot_rootfs_samsung-herolte/boot
    [17:07:13] * If the above steps do not work, you can also create symlinks to the generated files with 'pmbootstrap export' and flash outside of pmbootstrap.
    [17:07:13] NOTE: chroot is still active (use 'pmbootstrap shutdown' as necessary)
    [17:07:13] Done

pmbootstrap flasher
    [17:09:09] (native) flash rootfs image
    [17:09:11] (native) install
    < wait for any device >
    Heimdall v1.4.2

    Copyright (c) 2010-2017 Benjamin Dobell, Glass Echidna
    http://www.glassechidna.com.au/

    This software is provided free of charge. Copying and redistribution is
    encouraged.

    If you appreciate this software and you would like to support future
    development please consider donating:
    http://www.glassechidna.com.au/donate/

    Initialising connection...
    Detecting device...
    Claiming interface...
    Setting up interface...

    Initialising protocol...
    Protocol initialisation successful.

    Beginning session...

    Some devices may take up to 2 minutes to respond.
    Please be patient!

    Session begun.

    Downloading device's PIT file...
    PIT file download successful.

    Uploading SYSTEM
    11%
    ERROR: Failed to confirm end of file transfer sequence!
    ERROR: SYSTEM upload failed!

    Ending session...

2. Trying to flash TWRP using Heimdall
heimdall flash --verbose --no-reboot --RECOVERY twrp-3.5.0_9-0-herolte.img
Heimdall v1.4.1

Copyright (c) 2010-2014 Benjamin Dobell, Glass Echidna
http://www.glassechidna.com.au/

This software is provided free of charge. Copying and redistribution is
encouraged.

If you appreciate this software and you would like to support future
development please consider donating:
http://www.glassechidna.com.au/donate/

Initialising connection...
Detecting device...
      Manufacturer: "SAMSUNG"
           Product: "Gadget Serial"

            length: 18
      device class: 2
               S/N: 0
           VID:PID: 04E8:685D
         bcdDevice: 021B
   iMan:iProd:iSer: 1:2:0
          nb confs: 1

interface[0].altsetting[0]: num endpoints = 1
   Class.SubClass.Protocol: 02.02.01
       endpoint[0].address: 83
           max packet size: 0010
          polling interval: 09

interface[1].altsetting[0]: num endpoints = 2
   Class.SubClass.Protocol: 0A.00.00
       endpoint[0].address: 81
           max packet size: 0200
          polling interval: 00
       endpoint[1].address: 02
           max packet size: 0200
          polling interval: 00
Claiming interface...
Setting up interface...

Initialising protocol...
Protocol initialisation successful.

Beginning session...

Some devices may take up to 2 minutes to respond.
Please be patient!

Session begun.

Downloading device's PIT file...
PIT file download successful.

Uploading RECOVERY
0%
2%

[...]

98%

100%
ERROR: Failed to unpack received packet.

ERROR: Failed to confirm end of file transfer sequence!
ERROR: RECOVERY upload failed!

Ending session...
ERROR: libusb error -7 whilst sending bulk transfer. Retrying...
ERROR: libusb error -7 whilst sending bulk transfer. Retrying...
ERROR: libusb error -7 whilst sending bulk transfer. Retrying...
ERROR: libusb error -7 whilst sending bulk transfer. Retrying...
ERROR: libusb error -7 whilst sending bulk transfer. Retrying...
ERROR: libusb error -7 whilst sending bulk transfer.
ERROR: Failed to send end session packet!
Releasing device interface...

3. Trying to flash TWRP via Odin
Output log:
<ID:0/011> Added!!
<ID:0/011> Odin engine v(ID:3.1401)..
<ID:0/011> File analysis..
<ID:0/011> Total Binary size: 43 M
<ID:0/011> SetupConnection..
<ID:0/011> Initialzation..
<ID:0/011> Get PIT for mapping..
<ID:0/011> Firmware update start..
<ID:0/011> NAND Write Start!!
<ID:0/011> SingleDownload.
<ID:0/011> recovery.img
<ID:0/011> FAIL!
<ID:0/011>
<ID:0/011> Complete(Write) operation failed.
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)

I also tried flashing original Samsung firmware onto my device, also using Odin. That resulted in a "success" message, making me believe that my ROM is not fried (yet).

A similar question with a more narrow focus had already been posted back in 2016. Back then, the answer was "there's no public knowledge how to do this". Since the scope of that other question was focused on a way to enable "OEM unlock" through the modification of a file, I have created this new question with broader goal in mind.

https://android.stackexchange.com/q/159551 it would have worked to unlock with usb-otg adapter and external keyboard. unfortunately i see no realistic chance to finish the whole initial setup blind. the only way left is flashing combination firmware with pre-enabled usb-debugging

Oh, there is firmware around that has USB debugging enabled by default? Sorry if this may sound stupid: But where & how to look for finding such firmware?

search for "combination firmware" (although i doubt you will find some according to your bootloader level)


text:
ADB - bypass lock screen
I am using Lineageos 17.1 on the FP3 (the phone is not rooted).
I do know my screen pattern code (it is a 6x6 pattern), but I am not able to enter it correctly, because I disabled that the pattern is shown and that the sequence is visible.
In the recovery mode I can enable adb and I tried to delete the file
adb shell rm /data/system/gesture.key

which worked in the past, but now this file does not exist anymore on Lineageos 17.1.
ADB unfortunately does not work when the screen is locked.
Is there another way to bypass the screen pattern? Doing a factory reset is the last option I want to do. Making the pattern visible should be enough in principle.

bad idea anyway because deleting locksettings will destroy encryption (on encrypted devices)

the bootloader is locked, so I guess I have no chance?

I managed to enter the pattern correctly after almost 70 attempts. There it is written enable adb (I think it is a custom recovery from Lineageos), but I do not think it gives me root access. Does that make sense?

I've had success removing a lock screen with the following sequence of commands:
adb shell settings put secure lockscreen.disabled 1
adb shell mv /data/system/locksettings.db /data/system/locksettings.db.old
adb reboot

Following the device restarting, the lock screen should be gone, with the device booting directly to the home screen.

Note settings put secure does not work in recovery mode

In the question it is mentioned that adb does not work and that the device is not rooted (which should be required for your second command).

@Alsch is it working on android 10?


text:
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite screen turning off in protective case
I have a new Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite with a pen. Also I have a protective book-like case (Aceline Streak STR-008).
The device works fine, except one thing: when I open the case and fold it backwards (I mean flip the front cover backwards behind the back side of the device) - screen gets turned off. It doesn't happen if I just put the tablet onto something. Device doesn't reboot or has any kind of abnormalities with this. When I remove the front surface of the case and let it just hang down freely - the screen turns on.
What can be the reason of this behaviour?

Is the front cover containing a magnet?

@Robert quite possible.

I would assume that this magnet triggers a sensor that is designed to detect the original Samsung cover. If you flip the cover the magnet triggers the sensor and the tablet thinks that the original cover is closed.

@Robert what is interesting is that that cover consists of three connected surfaces and even if only one third of it gets pressed to the back side of a tablet then the screen gets switched off. I wonder, if there is a solution to control those sensors...

Looks like you have a [tag:smart-cover].

@AndrewT. Well, this is an irony I suppose. Cause it behaves quite dumb in my case.


text:
Which files do malware reside in after visiting a malicious site
I've been really on edge about accidently visiting a malicious site in the the past month, so please excuse how badly explained this question may be.
About twenty minutes ago I was visiting a site to help me with something when I was redirected to one of those scam sites which say "You've won a free phone!" Along with two other sites that I did not take the time to check. Imdetiently I left the sites, and went to remove them from my browsing history which seemed to lag a bit while doing so, so I ended up clearing my cache.
My phone began to run alower than usual which from what I've read is a sign of malware installed (?) Currently I haven't seen any new applications installed though I double checked folders and saw one which seemed kinda suspicious which was title ".1VRecord" which had a ton of strange file combination inside. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do to double check for malware or what files they would tend to hide in? Thanks!

Hello. First, calm down. Second, reboot the device and see if the device still lags during usage. Third, clearing cache won't remove history items of your browser. Your history might be long (which browser is it?) so you can clear data of your browser app from Settings app (but do note that it would remove everything from your browser). Fourth, tell us which Android device, Android version, and browser app and its version are you using? Fifth, a myriad of apps abuse internal storage area to store files with bizarre names...

...but that doesn't mean they all are a sign of a malware. Sixth, use this app and use its top bar settings to list apps in the order of installation time. Tell us which app and relevant date time do you see as first entry.

another possible reason google play services sometimes roll-out broken updates

Does this answer your question? Worried about possible malware