text:
Manually upgrade Magisk on Samsung Galaxy S10 without losing data
I had a working Samsung Galaxy S10 which was already rooted with Magisk (v20.*). Due to a Magisk update (v24.1), my root got broken... So I need the manual way.
I successfully patched the stock "recovery.img" through the Magisk "Select and Patch a file" method since the "Direct Install" is not working anymore for some reason I don't understand ("Installation Failed. Unable to detect target image"). The official website recommends flashing the "recovery.img" through "fastboot". But then I discovered fastboot is not available for Samsung phones. So I need to use Odin. But Odin is not accepting *.img files.
I do not want to lose my current Android installation because it's very customised. But I need my root back. I searched and searched for days for a working solution to manage this. So this request is my last hope as I can really not find a way to manage this.
How can I safely flash this "magisk_patched" "recovery.img" to my "Samsung S10" without wiping any data? And does this Magisk patched "recovery.img" contain my existing TWRP recovery? Or do I need to reinstall it after the upgrade? I remember when I first rooted my phone, it was quite complicated to do this since the Samsung Galaxy S10 does not have a ramdisk, so the recovery partition is shared with TWRP and the Magisk su.
Does anyone have any good advice on how to manage this without losing my data (and Android 10 installation)? Magisk delivered me a 6.2GB "magisk_patched-24300_8m9cQ.tar" file, but I'm scared to flash it through Odin as I don't want to lose my data on my "512GB SD card" internal storage.
I know this is a complicated situation but any help would be highly appreciated as I really don't know what to do anymore to manage this.

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

After some great help from @alecxs I managed to fix the problem, without losing any data, all the googled tutorials tell to use fastboot, which is not available for Samsung devices, so this is the guide for Samsung S10 users who have a working twrp recovery installed but are unable to preform the automatic update from within the Magisk Manager app. (of course you need adb and developer mode enabled on your phone)

first of all, for just in case, make a backup of all your partitions in twrp, also make a backup of your personal data stored in /sdcard

in twrp, use the following adb commands to get an image from boot, recovery and vbmeta partitions from a terminal window on your computer:
adb pull /dev/block/platform/13d60000.ufs/by-name/boot *:\Magisk\Unpatched\boot.img
adb pull /dev/block/platform/13d60000.ufs/by-name/recovery *:\Magisk\Unpatched\recovery.img
adb pull /dev/block/platform/13d60000.ufs/by-name/vbmeta *:\Magisk\Unpatched\vbmeta.img

make a tar archive of these 3 images (you can use 7zip for this)

boot back into Android, transfer the tar to your phone, start MagiskManager, next to Magisk, tap Install... with Options, be sure Recovery Mode is checked (since Magisk on Samsung S10 starts it deamon trough recovery as there is no ramdisk), tap Next, Select and Patch a File, select the tar, and let Magisc do its Magic.

check the log file, if it says: Magisk patched boot image detected you're good to go...

go find the magisk_patched*.tar in your ~/Download, copy it to your computer, extract the tarred images to a folder on your computer, for example: *:\Magisk\Patched\, remove the '.img' suffix from the three image files as adb can only manage them without the '.img' suffix!

boot back into twrp recovery, connect your phone trough usb and transfer the MagiskPatched images back to your phone trough the following adb commands:
adb push *:\Magisk\Patched\boot /dev/block/platform/13d60000.ufs/by-name/boot
adb push *:\Magisk\Patched\recovery /dev/block/platform/13d60000.ufs/by-name/recovery
adb push *:\Magisk\Patched\vbmeta /dev/block/platform/13d60000.ufs/by-name/vbmeta

now, very important, delete the old Magisk configuration by removing the /data/adb directory, from within twrp terminal: rm -r /data/adb

wipe the cache partition from the twrp gui (advanced wipe)

boot back into Android and start the Magisk Manager app, it will tell you it needs to do some additional configuration and reboot your device... (if this step gives an error you did not succesfully delete the /data/adb folder)

once your device is rebooted, you'll have your root back!

have a good bottle of wine and reconfigure your Magisk settings/modules in Magisk Manager.

enjoy to be the owner of your own device again!

Hey I have the exact same problem. Same phone I also get the "patched boot image detected" when I backed up the "boot.emmc.win" 64mb image with twrp.... So then.... can I flash the that patched boot image with twrp into.... will it be the boot partition and will it work of I remove the old magisk data in twrp? Or am I gonna get a bootloop? That part scares me-i backed up my rom with twrpbut in unsure if its enough


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What's the best approach in Android for disabling all peripheral ports for certain applications?
My company has their own Android tablets created by an OEM partner and we are using custom ROM based on Android 11. The stakeholders have a strange requirement now. They want to allow only our applications (identified by bundle id) to have access to printers and bar code scanners connected to the peripheral ports. Users are allowed to install any application of their choice from the Playstore and they will function normally but when it comes to printing or scanning via peripheral ports, it shouldn't work.
We have full control over the AOSP build and can do whatever we want to ensure above requirements are met. I have no clue where to start and appreciate some help.

How about MDM software

Remove the drivers for any OTHER peripherals from the linux kernel used in your AOSP build..... I don't know how is it done etc refer to the linux documentation as well as AOSP documentation to figure it out

I dont think that will work. Drivers are needed for our own apps to perform printing and scanning.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Android device showing up as two devices (offline and device) in ADB
Connecting my device to my PC and checking for connected device show the same device twice.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot>adb devices
List of devices attached
21e8ed64090d7ece        offline
21e8ed64090d7ece        device

Original screenshot of ADB indicating device as both connected and offline
Running any command results in ADB spitting out an error:
error: more than one device/emulator
What do I do?
Device: Samsung S9 (SM-G960F) (starlte) (Exynos)
Android version: 12 (Arrow OS)
Build number: SQ1D.220205.004

adb kill-server

One of these solutions must work

adb kill-server then trying adb commands again
adb kill-server then turn ON and OFF usb debugging under dev options and trying adb commands again
Possible solution 1 and 2 but do a reboot too
Trying a different USB port in your computer
Trying a different data cable

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


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How should I partition my android device? Should I use gpt or msdos?
so I got myself into a really bad situation and I need to re-partition my device.
I already pushed parted and mkfs to /sbin (following this guide) and made them executable with chmod 777, i just need to know how am i supposed to partition my device
is it similar to a normal linux system (/boot and /, maybe a separate /home partition)?

I doubt you get answer because no one wants responsible for mess up partitions or brick

I genuinly want to help you but I won't since the success rate is like 50%

Android device partitions and filesystems

according to the reddit link this question is solved without repartitioning at all


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Is it possible to turn an Android device into a USB Pendrive on a rooted device through a OTG cable?
I tried using USB Mountr but it turns up as Linux File-CD Usb Gadget Device and it doesn't work for my car's music player. Is it possible to emulate a USB flash drive using an OTG cable?

Does this answer your question? Why can't I see Android storage as a partition on PC?

That seems to be the same Gadget API that caused the problem in my question, I was wondering if it was possible to make Android emulate a general USB flash drive?

Android runs on Linux kernel, and in Linux kernel, USB Gadget API is the only way to make a USB Host act as a USB Device. There's no other general or specific way AFAIK. // "It doesn't work" is a vague description of the problem. You'll get better help from community if you explain your problem and findings in detail. What have you tried so far and what errors did you get?

How I solved a similar situation few years back was by mounting the device after booting to TWRP/custom recovery... That way your device behaves like a USB Pendrive


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Game install and android thing
Why is my Android phone adding these android symbols when ever I install a new game from Google play and can I remove them ?

Bug with Realme UI/ Color OS ... No proper solutions so far...


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Android 10 device won't reach one specific web-site?
My android 10 device is failing to access one particular website.  All others are fine.  This started happening a few weeks ago.
I have contacted my mobile ISP and they say their systems are working ok.
I have contacted the website support, and they say I am not blocked by them.
If I use a VPN, I can actually get to the website from the device.
If I tether to the device from a PC and look at the tcp traffic, I can see that a UDP name server request for the website is repeatedly sent to the device, without reply.
Can anyone suggest a remedy?

Yeah two solutions I am aware of

Cause: improper configuration of IPV6 from ISP
Solution: Go to APN settings and disable IP V6 (set apn protocol to ipv4 from ipv4/v6 and save the current APN)

Cause: DNS issue
Solution: Change DNS settings to Google's DNS or anything else (it's called 'private DNS' in some devices under settings)

APN was already set to IP4 only. 2. Changed DNS setting to private from default automatic. Problem prevails.

Edit: Can now access site directly on mobile device, but tethering access problem remains!

Go to wifi/system settings of client device and tweat dns there too!

I cannot get the client PC to resolve the name no matter what I set the DNS setting on the PC's wifi interface to be (custom private or automatic).  Is it possible that the android hotspot function always uses the ISP's DNS?

Finally got the PC side to work.  But I had to do it through the browser's DNS over HTTPS setting.  All very strange.


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Disable Android Go?
I have a Cricket Icon 2 and it has an Android 10 Go edition. It disabled some of my favorite features like adding widgets or displaying apps over others.
I want to know if there's a way I can disable Android Go?

Android Go is a separate OS for low-end devices that are not powerful enough to run full Google Android OS. Therefore there is no switch to enable the full functionality.

You need root and root explorer.
Go to /vendor and edit the build.prop file.  Find the line ro.config.low_ram=true and change true to false.  Then just reboot your device.  All is ready!

Android Go is a device configuration for low-memory usage. Thus to "disable" Android Go, either turn off the configuration for it or use non-Android Go ROMs instead:

Set ro.config.low_ram to false on the build.prop (need root access, as has been mentioned on MadCreeepyman's answer).
Downgrade to the previous full-fledged Android version
Flash a custom ROM that is not based on Android Go


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What are the icons for bluetooth devices shown in bluetooth scan menu?
In android bluetooth scan menu, the scanned devices are given various icons which specify the type of device that they are reporting themselves to be

What are device types 1 and 2 shown in this picture, and where can I get a list of all possible device types and their icons? Is this icon list specific to a smartphone or is it from the default android?
This screenshot is from Samsung galaxy s7 with android 8.0.0
Edit: or is there any way to probe for this information through adb or something?
Edit2: for anyone interested I downloaded an app called Bluetooth scanner and it shows device 1 as "Unknown". So may be that's just what this icon means.

Similar to this question: https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/other-smartphones/bluetooth-decice-symbols/td-p/769777 Also the icons match my Samsung S9/Android 10 but not my Google Pixel 2. Just a guess (2) appears be headphones (headphone case?) as for (1) some other bluetooth pairing - e.g. my Google Daydream controller.

@MorrisonChang is the list of icons and their meanings for android default/google pixel available anywhere?

From my best searching, you can find a list of what devices would be possible in the Android documentation. It provides both a list of the major device categories and a more detailed listing of all possible devices. I'd imagine it's up to each device to report what it is.
I couldn't find a good reference for each image and these constants.
If you happen to be on Linux, you can use something like bluez-tools to see a device's icon from you command-line:
List devices known to your adapter.
bt-device -l

Added devices:
my-phone (A1:A1:A1:A1:A1:A1)
...
AB-AB-AB-AB-AB-AB (AB:AB:AB:AB:AB:AB)

Take the address of my-phone and pull up its data, here's a snippet from my phone's:
bt-device -i A1:A1:A1:A1:A1:A1

[A1:A1:A1:A1:A1:A1]
Name: my-phone
Icon: phone <- Used to pick an icon
Paired: 1
Trusted: 1
...

Here's the icon from a pair of wireless headphones I have:
bt-device -i ...

Name: Indy
Icon: audio-headset


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How can I change the flashlight intensity on my Pixel 6?
I wonder how I can change the flashlight intensity on my Google Pixel 6.

With root you should have access to pseudo files with paths like led:flash_0/max_brightness, led:torch_0/max_brightness and/or torch-light0/max_brightness in /sys/class/leds/. Change values inside them and test. Scale is usually 0-255 or 1-1000. Some custom ROM and root apps have GUI settings for the same.

Flash Android 13 Developer Preview on your device. “getTorchStrengthLevel” and “turnOnTorchWithStrengthLevel” is only available from Android 13.

If you have Android 13 installed there are two apps I know that support flashlight dimming functionality:

FlashDim (developed by myself :D )
Tiramisu Flashlight


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Notification icon that looks like a pointed ticket with a smiley face on it on Samsung Galaxy Note 9
I have Samsung Galaxy Note 9. Besides the Wi-Fi icon, there is a notification icon that looks like a pointed ticket with a smiley face on it. When I pull down the notification bar, it disappears.

What is this icon?


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How do I make mounts in /data/local/ visible to other apps?
I've seen Why (bind) mounts in /storage/emulated/0 are not visible in apps? but I don't understand how to apply the method to /data/local/

kindly explain background for /data/local why not use /mnt/media_rw + /storage like usual, and what android version we are talking about

And what rooting solution are you using? Have you turned off the isolated mount namespaces?

I have a chroot in /data/local/ and am mounting an image in the chroot itself using Termux with magisk su

@IrfanLatif Thanks, that was the solution, how do I mark the url as the answer?

Welcome to a Q&A site Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange. Just want to let you know that comments and links cannot be marked as an answer. Since Irfan's link helped you, it's assumed that this issue is similar/same to that question since the answer explains why and how to solve it and applies to both situation.


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Unable to download/share pdf files: Where to reset permissions for PDF files?
Very newbie here when it comes to Android.
Using Xiaomi Phone, MIUI Global, 12.5.10
Android: 11 RKQ1.20
While downloading PDF files from whatsapp or Sharing PDF files, i'm getting below error. The Error comes in ALL apps with slightly different error messages, but basically PDF formats get this and no other formats (like docx/jpeg/png all work good)
Many apps like Acrobat Reader reports error like: (Very similar to this link)
"Opening pdf file Error: This file could not be accessed Check the location or the network and try again"

I had a look using adb tools and did a pm list permissions all looks ok, but i'm not an expert but it seems more related to "temporary" caching/file-write to the disk. this is because if I put a PDF file in a directory, then open using any tools, it works perfectly. But if I try to download/share file from another app (like whatsapp/email) then it throws error.
I couldn't find any file assocations/app for PDF nor any place where a file permission is denied for the apps in question (eg Whatsapp/email/acrobat reader). My guess is it is to do with writing temporarily into internal storage
Any help/ideas on how to fix this would be appreciated


text:
Redmi Note 9 Pro Stuck in boot loop
about 2 days ago my phone completely died (battery) so i plugged it in overnight. when i tried powering it on in the morning it was getting stuck on the MIUI animation, just after the powered by android screen. after multiple attempts to restart it by long pressing the power button it entered the boot menu to try a reboot from there... no Joy. so i then tried wiping the data to see if that would help. it gets to about 3% and then the phone reboots again getting stuck in the same place.
I have tried following the instructions here but am getting
no permissions (missing udev rules? user is in the plugdev group); see [http://developer.android.com/tools/device.html]    fastboot
I then tried using the Mi Unlock tool but the device is not showing up in that when I plug it in.
Ive read somewhere then that i need some developer settings set in the developer options but i honestly don't remember if I ever even unlocked them on this phone as i dont do any android development any more but I may have them turned on.
when the phone is plugged in i can see it in device manager as Android with a yellow warning triangle visible.
I could really do, any old devices i have to tide me over have laughably short battery lifes so could really do with getting this sorted.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
NOTE
I followed the above gist on my linux machiene as that is where i had the android dev stuff installed and the Mi Unlock on my windows pc which does not have any android dev tools installed

this question needs more focused to single problem. do you want to fix boot loop, factory reset device or unlock bootloader

@alecxs my only concern is getting my phone working again, so whatever is the easiest means to achieve that.

check bootloader unlock is allowed fastboot flashing get_unlock_ability and unlock with XiaoMiTool v2 (linux build) or set get_unlock_ability 1 manually with edl.py (patched firehose loader and EDL cable required). or flash stock ROM on locked bootloader

@alecxs can you explain 'flash stock ROM on locked bootloader'
I have tried installing the google ABD driver via the android studio sdk manage but this made no difference and the device is still not recognized by the miflash_unlock tool. i have been looking around a lot for miui fast boot drivers and any thing that I've found that might be useful but all I seem to find is questionable looking websites

@alecxs when i say makes no difference, yes windows as thats where i said i had the issue with the driver (yellow triangle), yes the device is on the fastboot screen with the bunny. yes i did install the Get the Google USB Driver via android studio sdk manager as i mentioned in my last comment.
fastboot flashing get_unlock_ability is returning 0.
next break i get i will clean up the comments and refactor the question

okay so you can't use Mi Unlock tool then. try to switch into EDL mode from fastboot (other methods such as deep flash cable or test point exist). if succeed, for windows install Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008 Driver (yellow triangle). Your drivers are ready for Xiaomi MI Flash Tool now, it can flash in fastboot or EDL mode (alternatives: QPST/QFIL)

While I don't have the solution for this issue, AFAIK, the Google USB driver should only be applicable for Google devices (Nexus & Pixel series). For other manufacturers, OEM USB drivers may be a more appropriate resource.


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Hide "VPN Active" persisting notification in Android 12
I use VPN 24*7. Earlier I used to be able to hide "VPN active" notification but since I upgraded to Android 12, the option is not there anymore.
What should I do to hide the notification?

Which notification did you mean? I just checked on Pixel 3a, Android 12, and there's no "VPN active" notification. Is it on the quick setting panel ("This device is connected to "[name of the VPN app]"), or on the notification panel which is usually a notification by the app? Could you mention the device model and/or post a screenshot?

Perhaps, you can tap & hold to use the notification controls by turning off notifications from certain apps, or tap the settings button for advanced options.

Tip: You can also hide the VPN icon on the status bar with third-party apps with advanced adb tool.

Turn on developer options and switch on demo mode :)

I think you can't remove it anymore in android 12.
Some models let you remove the notification over a system menu.
On my oppo there is a hack:
Download a PDF on edge (maybe it works also with chrome).
Then press on "remove all notifications"
This removes it until the next start.

The OP seems to ask about VPN-app's own custom-notification,
I mean, because newer Android versions no longer show such notification.
You can only get rid of said custom-notification,
by removing notification permission of said app.
Another option would be asking their developers (or customer support) for such feature.
It's little hard, but said developers can remove notification,
by starting their VpnService in a separate process, like:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/38496939/8740349


text:
How to find hidden malware on Android?
Today, while watching a YouTube video on my Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G, the left half of the video portion was covered with a pinkish/orangish screen with the words "MICROWAVE SPY CAMERA 1.XXXX" (where xxxx was 4 digits that I don't remember).   After about 20 seconds, I clicked the next video and the exact same thing occurred.   I then clicked back to the previous video and the video didn't have this "notice".   Then I returned to the new video and it was no longer there either!
I played one more completely different video and it wasn't on it either.
I tried to look in the developer options for how to see active programs running and it listed about 20, but nothing that stood out as suspicious.
I just now put the phone in airplane mode.
How can I  inspect my phone for evidence of this "screen notice"?
Maybe some kind of cache files containing the "screen notice" or whatever?
Is there a way to get a dump of ALL processes running before it's too late and it terminates, or the cache gets deleted?

Did you watch the YouTube videos on the browser or on the app? This looks like a "screen overlay", and apps need permission called "display over other apps" to behave like this, so you may check which apps have this permission enabled by going into Settings - Apps - Special app access - Display over other apps (steps may be different depending on the device model).

Thank you for responding.  I was watching it thru the App. Side note may not be related...but I was doing something earlier (not sure how much earlier) but something gave an option to save to the Sim card, and I didnt mean to do that but I selected that option.   I remember thinking that I never saw that option before.

Yeah, I dont think this was an Intentional overlay.   Seems like it was just a fluke moment where it revealed itself on 2 separate videos accidentally.   I have gotten some strange phone calls and a few odd Telegram messages in the last 2 months .  I just read about the Pegasus virus/trojan.   You know of this ?   Think that may be related to the "Screen overlay"

Ok, so in developer options the setting for allowing Overlay screens was not enabled.  I did find a System Tracing option in there.  So I turned it on to run for 8 hours 5GB max file set.  Now how to I inspect that file.  The option for "View trace files" I pressed but the "Open with" options shown are only 4 choices: ZArchiver, My Cloud, Report and Run, and Talking Spanish.  So yeah, not a good bunch of choices to open this file.   Any ideas???


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How to reset an Android tablet?
I got an Android tablet that my dad bought short before he passed away.. I'm trying to reset it to factory settings, because we do not know the PIN for it. By using volume up + power button it boots to a menu in Chinese. Using Google lens to translate I chose clear eMMC and after it restarted it looked like it worked, but after choosing the language settings and so on it got to the screen which say "This phone was reset to factory settings. To access it please use previous PIN." I tried to use Google account instead, but this got me back to the PIN as of course it's not the same account as my dad registered with. So I'm running circles here.
Could anyone help? It's a Lenovo TB-X606X

It sounds for security reasons you will be unable to reset the device without the pin.

Mediatek MT6762 SoC try bootloader unlock with mtkclient (or figure out FRP partition and erase it)


text:
Recover data from /Android folder - Android 11
I have OnePlus8 Pro with Android 11. As you all know, with latest Android changes, now the WhatsApp media/documents/status data is put in /sdcard/Android/media/com.whatsapp.com
I uninstalled the app, and I dont know if I deleted it or uninstallation did, but I lost all the whatsapp media content. I later installed WhatsApp thinking I would get the media back but the folder is fresh with barely any data.
Is there any way to recover this data using ADB commands or some linux thing?

on stock android devices /sdcard is part of Internal Storage and therefore encrypted. once deleted, FBE(+metadata) encrypted files aren't recoverable. But some media can be downloaded again (afaik last 4 weeks at least)

HI @alecxs, thanks for replying. The above post suggest that I dump userdata partition onto an image and then fetch data from there.
I tried to do this cat: /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata: Permission denied but getting permission error. My device is not rooted, could you please help me how to move forward. Again, thank you so much for your help.

the above post covers some links with exceptions such as TRIM DISCARD ERASE F2FS FBE where data recovery is impossible. furthermore it requires raw access (such as EDL or root)


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For RealVNC viewer for android is it possible to have the cursor go to where you touch?
I'am using RealVNC viewer android to control my computer but I would like to make a left click where I touch with my finger.
Dragging the cursor around is tiring when you have to make a lot of clicks...

I use AVNC, an open source application for VNC connections available on F-Droid and it does exactly what you're looking for, clicking the screen performs a left click on the clicked position

Thanks, it helped. When I used RealVNC, sometimes the colour was weird (with stripes of different colours), the workaround I found was to set the image quality to high. In AVNC I didn't find this feature but (for now) the colour quality is fine as it is


text:
Low-latency screenshot from Android emulator
I'd like to grab the screen 10 times a second to feed it into a computer vision model.
Running screencap in a loop in adb shell is too slow.
Other answers have suggested reading from /dev/graphics/fb0, but my emulator does not have this file.
Ideas for how to do this?

As it is an emulator wouldn't it be simpler to directly capture the screen on host side?

Yeah, that could work. Ideally I'd like something I can run both on an emulated device and on a real device connected through USB.

But your title clearly limits the question to emulators. For real devices check out scrcpy

Does this answer your question? screenrecord not working in emulator


text:
Notification bar content and scroll down
When I swipe the notification bar down, I get a bunch of "items", roughly one for each notification (email, weather, news &c). How are these items called? How do I control their verbosity?
Specifically, the "item" corresponding to Google Podcasts used to be "big" and contain the control buttons (stop, ff &c) and now I need to touch a tiny down arrow to get those buttons. How do I get back the whole thing?

Technically, the "item" is called "notification" on the official Android Developer guide. But since you mentioned the control button, perhaps you might also be referring to media controls.

Hello. Can you post a screenshot and circle the things you are asking about? That would bring clarity.

If I'm not wrong, you want all those buttons etc of those notifications to be available without clicking an extra tiny down arrow. You can maybe change the app's notification priorities under notification settings. See if that works.
If it doesn't there's nothing much you can do. Its a decision made to make a more compact User Interface as far as I know.

no, the app's notification settings do not help.

do you know what the name of those items / buttons is?


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Why does USB Mountr cause two drives to appear?
When I mount an image in USB Mountr on Android 6 and use an OTG cable to connect the device to a Windows PC, two devices appear and two drives appear in File Explorer with the first one non-functional and the second being the image. Why does this happen and how can I prevent this?


text:
My Android 12 can resolve hostnames but can't connect directly to IP adress?
I'm facing a weird behavior when using mobile data.
My Sony Xperia 5 mark II on Android 12 with Magisk root can connect to the Internet if I connect to the URL. However if I try to connect directly to the IP address, it doesn't work (network unreachable according to my web browser).
This seems to be system-wide:
For instance I can ping google.com but I can't ping 8.8.8.8 (or whatever IP is behind google.com).
I can also connect to my own VPN server using Wireguard if I set the "host server" with my own .fr domain but not with my VPN server's IP.
I don't unterstand at all this issue. I tried cleaning arp table, DNS cache,...
When I disable Magisk the issue isn't solved either.
I don't especially know when it started...
Do you have any clue ?
Thanks

IPv6

What error does ping show? Did you check routing table?

Okay problem solved.
Default APN for my carrier (Orange France) was uneditable and allowed only IPV6 connection.
Orange's APN settings shown on their site mentioned IPV4 only which wasn't working at all.
Adding an APN with IPV4/IPV6 stacking is the way to go.
Thanks for your help.


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How to disable dialog and other accesses for another app, optionally with root
I'm looking for a way to prevent a certain app from showing any dialogs, on a rooted commercial device running android 11 or 10. Further, I'm also interested in intercepting its location data requests and return a dummy.
The first thing that comes to my mind is to disassemble the app, dig & modify the relevant pieces, pack and reinstall. However, this complicates future updates. I think with root permission, I should be able to intercept the system service call, aka tell the daemon to do nothing or something else when requested (not sure if this is the right naming; I come from desktop/server linux). If the described functionality is possible to implement, I wonder if it's going to be custom module for the system, a modified system service daemon, or an app runing with sudo?
Any suggestion in general is greatly appreciated. I'm digging around in the documentations and too lost to figure out if some or all of the ideas are actually implausible. Thank you.

"I think with root permission, I should be able to intercept the system service call". Theoretically yes. You can use Xposed to hook into system APIs. But it's not very simple. You'll need to write an app which interacts with Xposed and takes control of the callbacks for the required APIs (related to AlertDialog in your case).

@IrfanLatif Thank you, this is very helpful. I have a related question: would it be easier to implement the app, if I choose to intercept/disable all dialogs, instead of dialogs from that one app in question? I imagine the latter requires checking with some app identifiers, but I'm hopping that the former might be a simple toggling (e.g. like systemd disable dialog to drop the service, or altering a magical global variable).

No. In Android there's no system-wide service to manage dialogs. A Dialog is a component of the App's UI (Activity, to be more precise), and every app creates its Dialogs on its own. There's a possibility that some apps create their own dialogs, not using system APIs. You can't control them anyway. But mostly developers prefer to use framework APIs, which you can try to intercept. But even then, apps are highly likely to crash. That's why it's not simple, as I said.

By the way your query sounds more like development-oriented which is off-topic here.

@IrfanLatif Thank you so much, I'll stop here. Now I have a much better idea about what docs to look out for. If you post the comments as an answer I'm more than willing to accept it.


text:
RAM usage per app on Android?
Is there a way to tell the RAM usage per app on Android?
That's a basic feature on all Linux distros but I haven't been able to find that for Android. Only the total usage.

Does this answer your question? Android system RAM usage

You can try WhatsRunning. Disclosure: I'm the author of the app.


text:
How do I change the AndroidID?
My Android ID has changed since a factory reset. Now some apps/services don't work. Besides using Titanium Backup, how can I restore/change back to the previous Android ID? I already know what the ID is.
Android 7 | Rooted

Last time I checked there were a few apps in Play Store that can change the Android ID on rooted devices.

http://play.google.com/store/search?q=device+id

May help: Where is the "android_id" stored and when does it change? and Is it possible to change Android ID without root access nor factory reset?

For those who may not know this:
Android ID is an unique ID to each device. It is used to identify your device for market downloads, specific gaming applications that needs to identify your device (so that they know it's a device that was used to pay for the application) and such.
If you don’t have a rooted device, then it would be a little difficult to change the device ID. You’ll have to fully format your device data to change your Android phone’s device ID. As the device ID is generated when you first set up the device, resetting the phone will change the Android device ID automatically.
If you have a rooted device, then changing the device ID is just a two-tap process. You can use any reliable Android device ID changer app and it will change the device ID with a random one with just two taps.
the app I used before is "Device ID Changer by Silver Lab" but it's no longer available in google play but you can find it by searching in google.
the package name is: com.silverlab.app.deviceidchanger.free
hope it helps.

The OP doesn't want a random id.  They want to revert to a previous id.


text:
Google Meet Screen Share on Huwawei T8 Not Working even w/ Storage & Microphone Permissions
asking for a friend. She has Android running on a tablet Huwawei T8 which has Quick App Center installed for Google Meet. It works perfectly fine for google meet meetings and it can view screen shares from other devices. The only problem is that if it is the Host and attempts doing the Screen Sharing, it will not work. Pressing Screen Share will do nothing with no error messages. I've done some googling and found out that you definitely have to give Quick App Center the Storage and Microphone Permissions, but despite giving it ALL permissions (i.e Camera, Location, Calendar, etc) in the Privacy Settings it is still not working with NO error messages. So we are in the dark. Any ideas what we are missing?

If I'm not mistaken, from this article, looks like this Google Meet is actually a web-based version contained inside an app, not a native app?

thank you for your help! yeah you're right it looks like its a wrapper app


text:
2nd display repeatedly loses connection when adb bridge is runnning
I am currently working on a project which includes smartphone instrumentation via FRIDA, which requires me to attach to the device via adb. Somehow, once the adb bridge is online my 2nd display keeps losing the connection, which results in the screen to turn of for 2-3 seconds every 10-15 seconds which is quite annoying. I am working on a laptop with Ubuntu 20.04 and have two external displays attached to it. Any help is appreciated.

This seems a strange issue since I didn't realize ADB may affect other devices. Also, just want to let you know that we also have a sister site [ubuntu.se] for a community with Ubuntu experts since while this question looks on-topic on this site, I'm afraid the issue may be related more to Ubuntu (e.g. drivers conflict?), not Android.

Thanks for the hint Andrew. I'll post the question there.


text:
How to reimport exported WhatsApp chats? [iPhone to Android migration]
My friend recently made the decision to switch to Android from iOS. Since she's not particularly tech-savvy, I'm tasked with migrating her WhatsApp data from her iPhone 7 to her new Redmi Note 11T 5G (MIUI 12.5.2, based on Android 11) phone.
I've tried a couple of apps that promise very straight-forward WhatsApp chat transfers between iOS and Android through a PC, but the three apps I tried were ridiculously slow, and just randomly failed mid-way after several hours of progress. However, I must note that I did find a couple of chats from 2021, which would've come only through the transfer. But surely, something was wrong if only a couple of chats, that too from 2021, were transferred over several hours.
Then I came across this guide which suggests exporting the individual chats from the iPhone, and send it by email to the new Android device. I downloaded the exported chats on the new phone before installing WhatsApp on it. I also made sure the Google Drive backups don't exist. When WhatsApp goes through the setup process however, it can't detect backups in the Google drive at the restore backups screen, and only gives me the option to skip. And when I press skip, it goes straight to the main chats page, and doesn't recognise the exported chats. Should I move these chats to a specific location? Is there a better way to move WhatsApp chats from iOS to Android?

The "Backup found" page shown in the image on the aforementioned guide never happened.

I'm sorry to say that the article is wrong since it never works like that (as mentioned by the 2nd commenter on that article). WhatsApp on Android can only restore from specific database format on the internal storage or WhatsApp app backup on Google Drive. Please check the linked question Transfer WhatsApp chat from iPhone to Android for the solutions.

@AndrewT. Ah shucks. I did see the linked question, but since the accepted answer suggested third-party apps and also the export-import method, and the neither worked well in my situation, I thought I'll ask about it. Thanks for the help though - much appreciated. :)


text:
How to use Alcatel Download Mode
I found this mode on my onetouch 9022x tablet but I don't know how to use it. Are there any tutorial how to use it?

MSM8909 or MT8127 or do you mean fastboot mode? https://androidmtk.com/alcatel-mobile-upgrade-tool

I mean fastboot mode

there is not much you can do from fastboot. you can unlock bootloader, flash or format partitions, and maybe some oem commands like charging behavior

I want to try install linux so I need to unlock bootloader but I don't know how to do it

you can't install linux. except someone has built linux especially for onetouch 9022x (link)? but still it will destroy your tablet if you don't know it's qualcomm or mediatek

I'll try to make my linux

do you know any phone model that runs linux? can you name the distribution please?

pinephone

pinephone is a special hardware allow booting from SD Card. it's especially made for this purpose. It comes with it's own bootloader. It's like you code your own BIOS from scratch. original release was with Ubuntu Touch which was a linux-look-like on top of android kernel supported quite few devices (I tested on Nexus 4) can't speak for Pine but surely it will never run on your Alcatel, because it only runs on Allwinner SoC

authors: Дмитрий Сафронов


text:
What is an FLR file?
When I was going through files in an app, I found some files with .flr extension. I found these files in the asset directory.
When I did some research, I find out that it's associated with some animation in Flutter. When I opened it with a text editor, it was some gibberish beginning with FLARE.
How can I view that animation?

I decompiled the app using apktool

Have you read the documentation of the Flare  project or the successor Rive? Those projects can be found easily using the keywords you provided.


text:
cmd overlay enable <package name> resets to it's previous state after reboot
I'm trying to switch between gestural and threebutton navigation using
cmd overlay enable com.android.internal.systemui.navbar.gestural
and
cmd overlay enable com.android.internal.systemui.navbar.threebutton
or via system-->gestures-->system navigation and then selecting gesture navigation and 3-button navigation.
I checked the changes using -
cmd overlay list --user current  and I was able to see the exact changes made.
But when i reboot my android device, it just reverts back to the previous selected navigation; rarely (after 5-6 tries) the changes made remain after reboot.
Example: If my present selection is threebutton and I change it to gestural, then after reboot it goes back to threebutton or sometimes (after 5-6 tries and reboots), it stays as gestural.
How do i keep the changes permanent even after reboot??

Hello. Which Android device are you using?

@Firelord: Hi, It's a custom ROM with android 11.


text:
Pixel keeps changing time (losing 1 hour at random)
I have a Pixel 4 phone running Android 11. For the past 3 days, I've started having a strange problem where the time on my phone changes to be 1 hour earlier. I'm physically located in Denver, CO, USA, which is solidly in the mountain time zone (eg not by a zone boundary).
Just this morning, the following happened:

7:00 AM - phone time is correct, phone alarm goes off (scheduled).
8:00 AM - phone alarm goes off again -- phone shows 7:00 AM as the time.
8:04 AM - phone corrects itself, time goes back to the correct time.

Yesterday something similar happened:

7:00 AM - phone alarm goes off ... phone thinks that it's 6:00 AM
7:30 AM - phone still thinks it's 6:30 AM
7:32 AM - phone corrects itself, time goes back to the correct time; notifies me about the missed 7AM alarm.

In grid form:

Day
Actual Time
Phone Time
Comment

Today
7:00 AM
7:00 AM
Scheduled alarm (7AM)

Today
8:00 AM
7:00 AM
Scheduled alarm (7AM)

Today
8:04 AM
8:04 AM
Spontaneous correction

Yesterday
7:00 AM
6:00 AM
Scheduled alarm (6AM)

Yesterday
7:30 AM
6:30 AM
Checked phone, incorrect time still shown

Yesterday
7:32 AM
7:32 AM
Spontaneous correction; alerted to missed alarm

I don't know if it happens at other times of day, or only between 6:00-8:00 AM; that just happens to be when I actively look at my phone or (sync'd) smart-watch, or have alarms that go off at those times.
During today's hiccup (at 8:00 AM when it thought it was 7:00 AM), I checked the settings and it shows that it flipped from the correct daylight savings time zone to the incorrect one -- it it was using Mountain Standard Time instead of Mountain Daylight Time. I have it set to use the network-provided time and time-zone.
This is a screenshot of the 'date & time' settings that I took at 8:02 AM Mountain Daylight Time (7:02 AM Mountain Standard Time according to my phone):

How do I get this to stop happening? I'd like to avoid turning off the time sync because the other devices I do this on suffer from clock drift and it's a hassle to deal with.

As Android can make use of multiple time sources like the cellular network and an NTP service it is not clear where the problems come from. The time sync documentation of Android may contain some interesting commands you could try to find out more: https://source.android.com/devices/tech/connect/time-source

I'm not actually using mobile data. The phone has been on wifi only the whole time (Google Fiber). I'll review the document though, thanks.

Possibly related issue since Android 9: Time zone keeps changing wildly

I looked at that question, but the two bug tracker issues are closed as either obsolete or infeasible, and it was against an older Android version.

The time sync in cellular network is as far as I know independent of mobile data. The cell tower send the time as part of the GSM protocol.

Capitalizing on the comment of @Robert, can you localize the problem to a particular location in your house/building? Can two cell towers be competing for connection at that location, and, if found to be consistently localized, can mean one of the towers is incorrectly set for DST?

It could be a localization issue with a cell tower; the tall buildings play havoc on my connectivity and it could be bouncing me between towers even though I'm not physically moving. My phone just swapped back to standard time again, and I haven't moved between when I posted the question and now. Rebooting the phone forced it back onto daylight time, but I'm not sure how long that'll "stick".

... and less than 30 minutes later we're back on the wrong time zone. >_<


text:
Install software on Android tablets automatically
Our company purchased 100's of Samsung Tablets.
We need to install Samsung KNOX on all of them.
Right now, we need to power on every device and manually connect to WiFi and download Knox.
I'm wondering if there's any alternative where we can just connect it to a computer and have some software on  the computer that will connect to the tablet and take care of the all the setup steps.

How about mobile device management (MDM) Software?

You have to purchase special zero touch enrollment devices, then you can manage them: Android zero touch device enrollment. Regular devices have to be set-up manually.

@alecxs MDM first needs to be installed on the device. I don't know if there's any hardware/software out there that will allow us to plug the device into a terminal and have the MDM automatically installed


text:
Prevention of Android devices being hacked
I keep seeing media articles saying that smart phones etc are being hacked, particularly by NSO Pegasus. I would like to know how this is done. I'm particularly interested in how to protect against it. I have Android 9.0 devices.
PS Apologies if this is off topic. If so, please post a comment stating where this question should be posted?

1.) Discussion questions fit poorly for StackOverflow sites as specific questions are preferred. As your question has a comment to a long blog post, all of the ways Android has been compromised  in the past would be too long. 2) Don't be a target for nation state class device hacking tools as well as using common sense when download apps 3) To check your own status, assuming you are using a desktop browser, click on your name or the icon associated with your name in the upper right of the top bar next to search.

Relevant: How do I protect myself from Pegasus and alike malwares? -- my own question at [Security.se].

Does this answer your question? How can I check if my Android device is infected with Pegasus Spyware?

consider two facts 1) google and OEMs will always have own backdoors in propritary blobs for baseband/modem etc - you are already hacked at moment of using smartphone 2) You are not a person of interest, and "nothing is eaten as hot as it is cooked" (why should someone hack you if you already share your privacy on instagram, facebook, etc for free?) fun fact


text:
how to stop google's phone app of being auto allowed to display over the apps?
i have a poco x3 nfc with arrowsOs android 11. I use google's vanilla phone app as my default phone app. I don't want to have a bubble when minimizing my phone app. for this, i go to app info > display over the other apps and disable it. but for some reason after some time (absurdly random periods, from seconds to hours) the app always returns to be allowed to display over the other apps. i would like to understand if this is mandatory or if it's optional, how can i disable it

Most probably you can't. GMS has extra privileges that normal user apps don't have. They don't compromise on it. And they are capable of regaining the permissions denied by the user. Privacy preachings and user friendliness is only for others, not for Google itself. They totally take control of your device.

If you have root access, make Google Dialer a user app. Currently it is in system/priv-app.


text:
Why does the use of symlinks in /system gradually erode available space?
I am working on a routine for swapping dictionaries on an e-reader (Nook Simple Touch--Android 2.1). I've got the shell commands nailed down and have constructed an app using Tasker. It all works great except that after a few dictionary changes the amount of available space in /system (where the dictionary databases are) decreases to the point that the stock dictionaries cannot be restored to their original place.
I start by moving the stock databases from their default location to a directory where all the dictionaries will be stored. One option is in /data/media and the other on the sdcard. Both appear to work fine. Once those are out of the way, symlinks are created to replace them, referring to databases in the dictionary storage directories. This is the general sequence in terms of shell commands:
adb shell ln -s "'/data/media/B&N Downloads/Dictionary/en-de.db'" /system/media/reference/basewords.db
adb shell ln -s "'/data/media/B&N Downloads/Dictionary/inflect-de.db'" /system/media/reference/inflectedwords.db

or, for the /sdcard storage option:
adb shell ln -s "/sdcard/Dictionary/en-de.db" /system/media/reference/basewords.db
adb shell ln -s "/sdcard/Dictionary/inflect-de.db" /system/media/reference/inflectedwords.db

These changes require a reboot to take effect.
To remove the symlinks in preparation for a different dictionary or before restoring the stock dictionary to its proper place:
adb shell rm /system/media/reference/basewords.db
adb shell rm /system/media/reference/inflectedwords.db

As I say, it all works fine except for the disappearance of available space in /system to the eventual point that you cannot restore the original dictionary.
Before doing any of this stuff I typically have about 80% of /system used. There should be about 55 mb still available (that's with the stock dictionaries in place). But after several dictionary swaps I show about 89% full and down to around 30 mb available. Restoration of the stock dictionaries requires about 57 mb available space.
I've looked through /system trying to find something "new" that is taking up space but have not been able to find anything.
I've never seen this issue addressed anywhere. I'd be grateful for some input.

you are probably wasting inodes or left file system dirty. /system is read-only partition reserved for ROM only, no userspace files (or symlinks) must saved there. userdata partition is mounted /data

Thanks to the comment from alecxs and additional research in that vein, I have arrived at a solution for at least my instance.
It is stated elsewhere that removing files which are being used by running processes will cause a loss of available inodes. Although I can't claim to understand all the inode nuances, this made me look at the background processes on the e-reader. One, com.bn.nook.reader.activites, has its tendrils in the dictionary. I therefore tried:
adb shell pidof com.bn.nook.reader.activities
This returns a four-digit number which I use as:
adb shell kill [pid]
Then I proceed to do my operations with the database files, including moving, deleting, creating symlinks, deleting symlinks, restoring the original files, etc.
It all works with only the expected changes in /system available space at each juncture. No data appears to be lost by killing the background process and the reader function starts up right away when a book is accessed with the new dictionary immediately accessible, no reboot required (a bonus).
So before every change from the Dictionary Management app I just get the pid and kill the background process. Works like a charm!
Thanks again, alecxs!


text:
Handcent Next SMS just flagged by Play Protect -- what's going on?
I've been using Handcent Next SMS app for many years. A few moments ago, the Playstore's Play Protect just disabled the app on my phone saying the following:

This app is fake. It tries to take over your device or steal your data.

The webpage for the app comes up blank now:

To my knowledge, 10,000s of people have been using this app for many years.
Did something just change?
Anybody have more information about this sudden change/situation??

not the first time and not unusual

Note to visitors: Welcome to a Q&A site Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange. Unlike traditional discussion forums, "answers" should only be used to answer the question/explain the situation. While we understand your confusion, please refrain from posting an answer when you have the same issue and only want to inquire about it further. Note that this issue is purely between Handcent and Google. As a community of Android users who don't have any affiliation with them, we do not have access to the matter and can only wait for further official information. Thanks for your understanding.

@AndrewT. Understandable. Where would I keep a look out for such info?

@theforestecologist mostly the Android news outlets, Android forums, or directly contacting the customer support of Handcent.

Related on Reddit: Next SMS removed from google play?, Handcent/nextSMS removed from Play Store?, Play store telling me to remove Next SMS, cited as harmful and "trying to take over my phone". Anyone else seen this?.

The Handcent Next SMS app was flagged by Play Protect and taken down from the Play Store on March 26 due to embedding a malicious 3rd-party library and returned on March 30 with an updated, clean version.

Timeline
On March 26, according user223149 while attempting to reply to this question,

Got this answer from support:

Our app Handcent Next SMS has been misidentified as malware by Google, we are in talks with Google to get our app back to play store. [...]

Around 1 hour later, this was later confirmed on the official Handcent website, Twitter account, and Facebook Page,

Our app Handcent Next SMS has been misidentified as malware by Google, we are in talks with Google to get our app back to play store. [...]

User 'WildBSinTX' on Reddit sent an email to Handcent support and got a reply,

I got a reply this morning with an explanation and an attachment with v9.9.9.
*Security patch to fix a potential threat
*Other fixes to make sure it's in a good safe state
I installed it, and so far, so good.
[...]

Meanwhile, on March 28, Handcent posted an update to the same channels.
Official site

We have resolved the issue, together with Google. The app will return to the play store soon. [...]

Twitter

We have resolved the issue, together with Google. It usually takes one day or two. [...]. It’s safer and good to go now.

Facebook

We have resolved the issue, together with Google. The app will return to the play store soon. It usually takes one day or two. [...]. It’s safer and good to go now.

On March 30, the app was back on the Play Store with v9.9.9.1.
The official site also mentions,

We are pleased to announce that Handcent Next SMS is back to the Google Play . [...]

Handcent also followed up on their social media on March 31.
Twitter

Next SMS is now back on the play store, you could go to the play store and install it. [...]

Facebook

Next SMS is now back on the play store, you could go to the play store and install it. [...]

Those who sent an email might also receive a follow-up reply mentioning the app version on the Play Store,

Next SMS is now back on the play store, you could go to the play store and install it 9.9.9.1. [...]

Cause
I decided to send an email to Handcent Support and received the v9.9.9 APK file, then also downloaded the APK for v9.9.9.1 after it was published on the Play Store. After decompiling and comparing the content with v9.9.8.6 and v9.9.8.5, one noticeable thing is the removal of coelib.c.couluslibrary since v9.9.9 (including v9.9.9.1 from the Play Store).
AppCensus published a blog article written by Joel Reardon on April 6, titled The Curious Case of Coulus Coelib. It explained what and how this library worked in detail. Quoting a relevant part about this specific incident,

Disclosure
The following table are the apps that we confirmed communicating with mobile.measurelib.com. We reported this issue to Google on October 20th, 2021 along with this list of apps. They investigated it and removed these and other apps containing the SDK from the Play Store. [...]

App Name
Privacy Policy
Installations
phone
email
IMEI
GPS
router SSID
router MAC

[...]
[...]
[...]
[...]
[...]
[...]
[...]
[...]
[...]

Handcent Next SMS-Text w/ MMS
link
1 million+
no
yes
yes
no
yes
yes

[...]
[...]
[...]
[...]
[...]
[...]
[...]
[...]
[...]

(Emphasis added)
An article from Android Police published on April 7, titled Google crackdown kicks a bunch of data-stealing malware off the Play Store also stated,

Still, there is some hope for those who have lost income streams from Google's ban. The company may allow some apps to return — as long as they delete the Measurement Systems code. The first few are in fact already back.

Since I did not uninstall the app after the high-risk warning, I was able to go to Play Protect and enable the app. Then I went into settings for the app and changed the permissions to allow for usage of apps that aren't on the Play Store. I also changed the setting where Play Protect wouldn't scan Handcent. Once I restarted, everything was back.


text:
What is Android wakelock UPDATE_BITMAP?
On my phone, the biggest wakelock offender is "Android System" wakelock UPDATE_BITMAP. It is held for about 30 minutes per day.
Any idea what that may be? I do not use any background.

Do you use a live/moving wallpaper app or some kind of wallpaper changer app?

I do not use wallpaper at all. I change wallpaper on lockscreen programatically, but it takes fraction of second. It looks like applications may draw even when the phone is locked and screen off...


text:
Copy photos to new Samsung Galaxy S22 and maintain time/date stamps
I just got a new Samsung Galaxy S22 running Android 12. I'm moving the photos from the microSD card in the Samsung Galaxy S10e (of course they removed the SD card slot in the S22) to the S22.
I did it first using SmartSwitch, but it changed all the Modified dates to today. So, then I tried zipping the files, moving the zip to the S22, and unzipping it using the Files app from Google. Again, it changed the dates to today even though inside the zip file the dates were all correct.
Any ideas here on how to maintain time/date stamps?

https://siongui.github.io/2021/11/15/copy-file-to-android-preserve-timestamp/

https://appuals.com/how-to-transfer-photos-between-android-devices-without-losing-timestamps/

adb pull -a / adb push -sync flags should preserve file timestamp, but I recommend adb exec-out tar

Does this answer your question? ADB pull stops after first error


text:
Enable Display Over Other Apps Android 10-11 Go Edition (Nokia 1.4) when "feature is disabled because it slows down the phone"?
I have a Nokia 1.4 (TA-1322) running on Android 11 Go Edition. I have some apps which need to display over other apps, but whenever I try to enable it in settings, I see this message:

Feature not available
This feature has been turned off because it slows down your phone.

SCREENSHOTS

Image 1
Image 2

Please help me because I really need this feature, or maybe a workaround.
Any help will be appreciated.

Here are some potential solutions.
[Edit]: Non PC Solution added below!
PC METHOD
Requirements

PC/Mac with ADB installed on it. Check here for ADB installation instructions.
Package name for app (i.e com.android.testapp)
USB or for connecting to PC or Mac.
Obviously the phone.

Step 1: Enable USB Debugging on Android Phone

Open Settings on your android phone..
Navigate to About Phone
Click Build Number several times until developer settings are unlocked. Usually a toast is displayed showing "You are now a developer".
Now navigate to Developer Options. (Which are now unlocked in your settings)
Scroll to USB Debugging option and enable it.

Step 2: Connect Android Phone to ADB

Open PC/Mac with ADB installed. Check here for ADB installation instructions.
Connect Android Phone to PC/Mac via USB cable.
Click the notification popup on Android Phone and select File Transfer.
Open Commmand Prompt/Terminal in the ADB folder on PC/Mac (Skip if ADB is installed system wide)
Run command adb devices for a list of connected devices. The connected device should be available under list of devices! i.e

 $ adb devices
List of attached devices
xxxxxxxx            device
 $

Step 3: Determine Android App Package Name
There are many ways to determine the package name of the android app whose permissions are to be enabled, including some below;

Making a google search :).
Using third party apps i.e Package Name Viewer.
Checking the folder on Android phone Android/data etc.

Package name may appear like com.android.testapp
Step 4: Enable Permissions
Finally, to enable Display Over Other Apps permission for the application, type below command carefully into the Command Prompt/Terminal;
Note: Replace <package name> with package name of your application!
adb shell pm grant <package name> android.permission.SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW

OR
adb -d shell appops set <package name> SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW allow

Now return to your phone settings and check the permissions for the app, they should be granted.
NON PC METHOD
Requirements

Shizuku app (Download from here).
App Ops (Download from here).
Obviously the phone :).

Step 1: Install App Requirements

Download and install Shizuku app and App Ops from Playstore or from below links;

Shizuku
App Ops

Step 2: Start Shizuku App

Open Start Shizuku by following the instructions here.

I recommend Start using wireless debugging method for those who don't want to use PC or root.
Step 3: Open App Ops and Grant Permission

Now open App Ops.
You will receive a prompt to chose a working mode, click on Shizuku then Continue and allow shizuku access from popup dialog.
If Shizuku is running, and permission granted to App Ops successfully--
A list of installed apps will be shown.
Click on the app whose permissions are to be modified and--
Under Other, you will see Display Over Other Apps permission.
Click and Grant/Allow.

Enjoy diplaying windows in Other Apps.
Note: I have tested these solutions on Nokia 1.4 and they worked successfully, no guarantee for other phones!

Appreciate the self-answer, does this mean that permission restrictions such as this can be bypassed even on Android Go? If that's the case, then that's really good to know since it might be applicable to other cases!

@AndrewT. Yes actually...this approach was tested on Nokia 1.4 running Android 11 Go edition...and maybe applicable to other cases.


text:
Handcent Next SMS removed - will it be back? I have info but no rep
Got this answer from support, but I can't post it as an answer or in comments because I'm a nobody with no reputation:

Our app Handcent Next SMS has been misidentified as malware by Google,
we are in talks with Google to get our app back to play store. In the
meantime, please keep our app and do not uninstall. You should still
have all your data when it returns to normal. You can use the stock
app for now. Don't worry, we are trying our best to restore our
service.

Hi, I've removed the protection on that question for now. Feel free to repost the answer. Thanks.

Sorry, due to the overwhelming amount of low-quality non-answers to that question, it has to be protected again. Let me repost your contribution with credit. Sorry for the trouble and thanks for your contribution.

thx - a frustrating position to be unable to ask, answer, or even vote! No chance to get out of the reputationless dungeon...


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How can I remove an app icon located in the lower row in my Pixel 6's home screen?
How can I remove an app icon located in the lower row in my Pixel 6's home screen?
Example:

As Morrison Chang commented, one can tap and hold the icon and drag off/upward from the "shortcut bar", which sometimes reveals a "remove" option. The "remove" option doesn't work for me, but if one can tap and hold the icon a second time, it then reveals a "Don't suggest app" option, which worked for me.
Demo: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Zg0OCC0ocQQ
"Don't suggest app" option:

To undo it: Press and hold the home screen, then choose home settings, then suggestions, then blocked apps  (source).


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Need to close AlertDialog using Adb
i use to run some ussd code using adb android.intent.action.CALL and after read the response i need to close the AlertDialog to run another ussd command and so on .
i tried keyevent but is no good , sometimes it click somewhere in phone and open other apps ..
in logcat i found these intent and classes and i want a good way like kill process or force stop to close that dialog using ADB.
com.android.contacts;  [ ClassName: android.widget.TextView ]
com.android.contacts/com.android.contacts.activities.DialtactsActivity
com.android.phone.MMIDialogActivity

(without root if possible)

What about using back button or home button keyevent?

it doesn't close the AlertDialog , (also i don't want use touch screen x and y)

I think Firelord was talking about key events like they are generated by USB/Bluetooth hardware keyboards, not touch events.


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Stop videos from readjusting phone volume on play
Samsung Galaxy S10e
If the volume is set to vibrate (all the way down), then a video is started, the video will automatically bring the volume back up to about 70%. How can this behavior be disabled? I would like to watch videos on mute without getting a blast of noise at the first second while I scramble to get the volume back down again.

Use a different video player app? Nobody forces you to use the one that is installed by default.

I wasn't aware that a single media player is in charge of running videos across all apps? If this is the case, how can I find out the name of this player? I'm new to Android.

On Android, there are separate volume channels for ringtone+notification, media, alarm. etc. When you set the volume to vibrate, most likely it only sets ringtone+notification to vibrate but doesn't change other volume channels. You possibly need to manually adjust the volume for media to 0 too.

Perfect, that's what I was looking for. Thanks @AndrewT.

@A__ No Android has no central video player. And you never mentioned in your question that you are talking about multiple apps. An answer can only be as good as the question...

You're right Robert, I wasn't aware that would be assumed. It's my fault. Thanks anyway.

On Android, there are separate volume channels for ringtone + notification, media, alarm. etc.

Media volume: Music, videos, games, other media
Call volume: Volume of the other person during a call
Ring volume: Phone calls, notifications
Alarm volume

When you set the volume to vibrate, most likely it only sets ringtone + notification to vibrate but doesn't change other volume channels. This is because pressing the volume up/down button will only change the volume for the active audio stream.

By default, pressing the volume control modifies the volume of the active audio stream. If your app isn't currently playing anything, hitting the volume keys adjusts the music volume (or the ringer volume before Android 9).

To watch the video on mute, you need to manually adjust the volume for media to 0 too.


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How to set or change a phone number programmatically?
I know how to get or read a phone number. But how to set or change one?
I want to change it in such a way that other application installed on my phone would read it as a custom number that I had set.
Is there any way to do it?

The phone number can not be set. On rooted devices you may take the number apps can get but the actual phone number can not be changed as it is managed by the SIM card, a mini computer on its own you don't have access to.

@Robert re-read my question

It doesn't matter how often I read your question, it stays the same. May be your understanding of a custom number is different than mine but you can not set a custom number in Android so it is not easy to understand what you want. You should consider updating your question and describe in detail what you are trying to do. Also please add details about the used phone, Android version and if the phone is rooted.

@Robert. No. I'm right, you're wrong.

It doesn't matter who is right or wrong. If the users on this site don't understand what you want to do won't get an answer...

@Robert. No. I'm right, you're wrong


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Use mouse on second screen
I am toying with making a multi-screen Android 11 device. I managed to start a different app on each screen, using am start -n <activity name> --display <display id>. Also, I found a launcher, which is capable of starting apps on a screen of my choice.
But only one of the screens is a touch screen, and I am trying to use a mouse for the other (or preferably both) screens. Sadly, the mouse is limited to the first screen, which is also the touch screen. So I have two input devices on the first screen, and none on the second one.
How do I assign the mouse to the second screen? Is there any way to use the mouse on both screens?

After a lot of trial-and-error, the following worked for me on Android 13 on FairPhone 4:

put device in landscape mode
open list of recently opened apps
open window options of any app
select Split window to right

The window disappeared, but my USB mouse was moved to the secondary screen with Desktop mode.


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How to create system users on Androidx86?
I am trying to create system users on an Android x86 virtual machine, but the binaries adduser and addgroup don't exist (neither useradd or usermod). I installed BusyBox to get access to these utilities but when trying to run addgroup to create a new system group I get error addgroup: /etc/group: No such file or directory. When trying to run adduser with an existing system group I get error adduser: unknown group net_bt_admin.
The only way to create users I found so far is through pm create-user, but these are android level users, how can I create users quivalent to shell or system default users?

android "misuses" uid's for it's app restrictions, there exist no "users" and one must not mess up file permissions. pm create-user is for creating profiles

Also related: this and this.


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USB Host/UVC Camera: specific camera detected as a unknown vendor / product ID
I have an application that records video from USB cameras mounted on microscopes in remote places in Africa. It is working fine from Android 4 to 12. We have a handful of camera models and the problem is that our latest camera (already deployed dozens of them) fail on Android 9 and 10.
What is really strange is that if I open OTG Guru on those devices with that cameras, I am seeing an unknown device, with an unknown vendor and product ID, without any function inside (expecting video functions):

The same camera connected to the same tablet model but with Android 8.1 gives:

I have seen reports that it was due to a targetSdk of 28+. So I updated my app to 27 with no difference. I also downloaded an older version of OTG Guru that had targetSdk 26 and got the same result.
Now, one might think that this camera is not usable on Android 9 or 10, but several apps in the Play Store are able to use it just fine like this USB Camera app or this OTG viewer
I tried to inspect the Manifest of those apps to see if my app was missing a permission but that doesn't look like it. And if that was the case, the other cameras wouldn't work. And all 3 others that I tested work just fine and are detected normally by OTG Guru...
I tried with several USB-C to USB-A adapters and a USB-C HUB. When the latter is not externally powered, the camera is not detected at all and if I give it power, it appears exactly as shown above.
I also disabled the Android USB debugging to see if it was interfering but it didn't.

If it works in one app but not in the other it is a problem of your code. I recommend to decompile some of the working apps to see what they do different. You can also create a question of https://stackoverflow.com posting relevant source code parts of your app and ask for help how to access USB camera on modern devices. Therefore voted to close the question here.

@Robert I am showing that OTG Guru and all other OTG apps that simply list the USB devices reported by Android give a weird VID/PID result on a specific camera on Android 9 and 10. There is not a line of my code involved here. My code gives the same results as widely used OTG apps. I don't mind questioning my code but I'm basically listing devices and getting one that doesn't make sense, without any interface. So I'm looking for a clue as to what the difference might be.

Have you tried if it is a power issue? Use an active USB hub between phone and camera. If the camera is low on power this could have strange effects on the USB protocol.

@Robert Yes, I should have mentioned it. I tried with a trusted USB-C HUB with a good power supply. Without power, it doesn't see the device at all and with power, it sees the weird VID/PID. I also tried with 3 different USB-C to USB-A adapters and put USB amp-meter (it's barely taking power when not actively recording). I also suspected the USB debugging feature of Android to interfere but that didn't change anything. Good suggestions though


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How can I convert an apk file into an ultra-zip apk without affecting the executability of the android app?
I found out that when I zip the apk with ultra level zip compressor, the file size was effectively reduced. Why didnot developer let that compressed version out like js.minify? How to convert those apk file to ultra zip apk file?

See: Reducing APK size by re-zipping its content

@MorrisonChang As all modern apps have a APK signature v2 recompressing is a bad idea as it destroys the v2 signature which invalidates the whole signature. So all devices capable checking a v2 signature (Android 6+?) will reject such an APK.

@Robert Thanks for correction, forgot about the v2 changes and didn't realize that Android is now up to v4 signatures: https://source.android.com/security/apksigning/v4

APK files are usually only compressed using the compression setting "fast" (fastest (de)compression, only small space gained by compression). As far as I know this is for historical reasons.
The first Android device were pretty slow and app installation time was already talking a lot of time. Therefore I assume Google decided to build all the Android developer tools in a way that the compression is focused of maximum speed and not on APK minimum size. As Google does not really have to care about size of cloud storage or bandwidth of network traffic this was the best solution.
For that reason most Android build tools still only use the fast compression.
Modern APK files e.g. generated by Google use a higher compression so the gain should be not that high anymore. But this depends on the app and who you got the APK file.
Furthermore there are certain APK options which enforce that all the native libraries (.so files) have to stay unencrypted, if the app declares  android:extractNativeLibs="false. Effectively this will save space in the end as the native libraries are not extracted from the APK file, instead they are directly used within the APK file, which means you only need to save it once on your device instead of two times (one time compressed in the APK, one time extracted).
There are articles that describe how to recompress an APK file. Please be aware that these articles are very old and do no longer work with recent APK fiels and devices. This is because of the APK signature v2 and v3 that do not only sign the decompressed content of the APK file (as v1 did) but instead they sign the APK file as a whole. So any modification to the APK file even if it does not affect the content (like adding a ZIP comment) will destroy the contained APK v2/v3 signature. As the v1 signature contains the info that there is a v2 signature all devices capable of checking a v2 signature will also reject such a modified APK file.
Conclusion: On some APK file you could save some additional space by recompressing them but in nearly all cases it will today destroy the APK signature so it is not really an option.


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File attributes on Android (Linux): Any way to make a file fully writable but not deleteable?
I tried chattr with the +a (+i is even more restrictive), but it immediately caused app panic aka "app has stopped". What I want to do is make a file & folder undeletable.
You can perform any kind of rw function (add a.k.a. append, delete some data inside, update) but rm file/folder (file deletion) is not allowed until that attribute is reset so that the app continues to run as normal.
Is that possible or asking for too much? Pardon my lack of surf searching. I'd imagine this to be in the wish list of many so it won't harm framing this languishing wish as a question.

chattr +a is what you are looking for. But then the file must always be opened with O_APPEND flag. Obviously you cannot force existing apps and programs to do so. Other options are ACLs and SELinux. The latter provides very fine-grained control (over read, write, append, unlink, rename etc.). But each option has its own pros and cons.

By the way a and i attributes are called Linux filesystem attributes, not extended attributes.

@Irfan Yes +a is what I meant. I mentioned - as in option ( - ) a. For the latter as with other situations - found out that I likely have to recompile kernel with newer rules. If its possible to  simply modify  SePolicy on Android without recompile. If so citing some e.g.'s would be helpful

You don't need to use any fancy ACLs or attributes for this. Just make the file writable and the directory that it's in read-only. This works because deleting a file only checks for write permission on the parent directory, and completely ignores permissions on the file itself.

If I do that it cannot create new files in that dir. I  am talking of an app in android


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How to install microg after LineageOS 18 upgrade
I understand the title sounds very basic. But I could not think of a way to describe my question in a short title. My question sort of comes in two parts. 1. Do I actually need to install microg and 2. Now that I have upgraded from LineageOS 17 with microg to LineageOS 18 without microg (by mistake), are there any gotchya's and clarify some instructions from microg's official instructions.
Device is OnePlus 7 Pro, in case it matters. My particular case is, I recently upgraded from LOS 17 with microg to LOS 18 without microg by mistake. What I mean by that is, I'm still very green when it comes to flashing ROM's and other android development. I was more nervous about bricking my phone, I was following Lineage's upgrade instructions to the tee. Here is my mistake. I used Lineage's upgrade instructions link to the img to download and flash, and not microg's img download like I should have.
At first, I honestly didn't notice the difference at all. Microg's settings app was still installed, most apps seemed to work. They popped up a warning or notification about not being able to work without google play services, but allowed me to hit "Ok" and continue to use the app.
Just the other day, Lineage pushed out an OTA update, and I updated, then that changed. Now I can't use those apps at all anymore at all. They instantly close. So I went to searching for my issue, and basically it lead me to realize, I installed the LOS without microg. So I read their instructions to get an idea of what I should have done. Now I have questions.
Question 1: The symptoms I'm describing, I do actually need to re-flash the microg img even though I have the microg settings app installed. Correct? I think the answer is "Yes". I just want to see if anyone can confirm this or tell me maybe another or better way, since I'm dealing with a non-typical issue.
Question 2: If question 1 is "Yes" and I do need to re-flash with the microg lineage img. Then it's really a series of questions clarifying microg's installation instructions. Because I'm a newbie and don't understand everything as a more experienced android dev would.

Do I or should I uninstall the microg settings app first?
Since I just OTA updated, I think according to microg's install instructions, I need to wait for another release before trying to flash the microg lineage img, correct? Or would rolling back a version be a better option?
In their "Migration from LineageOS" section, I noticed that they mentioned "...you can't directely flash our ROM on top of the official LineageOS while keeping your data...". So I can't keep my personal data, or installed apps, pictures, music, etc? Is this correct? If so, is there any way to back it up, and re-install after I re-flash the microg img?
In their install docs, they also say "If you have installed unofficial builds of", and in that list, I think I have almost all of them. But I don't think they are "unofficial". F-Droid should be from their github, and all the rest I think were installed from my last microg installation prior to the upgrade I just made. I honestly don't know if they technically still installed or not given my apps crashing which need google play services. As I mentioned the microg settings app is still there. I don't even know how to verify this. I will say, after having these troubles and poking around, I have noticed that they mention in the "Post-install" section that by default MozillaNlpBackend and NominatimNlpBackend are both plugins which are installed by default. And "If you want to use these plugins, go to microG Settings -> UnifiedNlp Settings, configure and enable both". Even though I have the mocroG settings app installed. That "UnifiedNlp Settings" is just not there in mine.

So what do you guys think? Does it sound like this is my issue? That I don't have microg installed even though the settings app is there? And are there any special things I need to do before trying to re-flash the microg lineage img?

"is there any way to back it up" - main purpose of TWRP

Official LineageOS images are as far as I know always free of Google services because of license restrictions.

I just fixed/solved my problem/question(s). I wanted to follow up and answer my question in case it helps anyone else who comes across a similar situation. I will answer it in the manner I asked it. Then describe my exact steps.

Do I actually need to install microg? Yes
Now that I have upgraded from LineageOS 17 with microg to LineageOS 18 without microg (by mistake), are there any gotchya's and clarify some instructions from microg's official instructions? No

Do I or should I uninstall the microg settings app first? No
Do I need to wait for another release before trying to flash the microg lineage img? I'm not sure, but I did, and things worked flawlessly.
Do I need to backup my personal data? No
The NominatedNLP, I am still able to turn on, but I still seem to not be able to turn on the Mozilla Location Service. I might have to keep tinkering with this.

What I ended up doing?

Waited for a new microG of LineageOS release. (Don't know if this is needed, it's just what I did)
Connected my Android with adb and sideloaded the zip, just as official instructions outline.

Once it rebooted, all things that required Google services are now working, and as far as I can tell, all apps are working just as expected, I'm able to make phone calls, no personal data is lost.
I hope this helps someone else.


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Is it possible to convert internal storage to RAM without Root?
There is this apk called SWAP no Root. The developer claims that this app can convert the internal storage up to 5GB to RAM without root. I read this discussion that I need root to be able to do that. Is that even possible? Or is it just hoax? Since it's an apk, I'm assuming it doesn't involve PC to proceed. I'm not familiar with swap, though.

Using swap is not equivalent to "convert the internal storage to RAM" // 2. Using a file as swap without root is nothing more than a joke. // 3. Even with root, using internal storage for swap isn't a good idea. Go for ZRAM if possible. More explanation here.

I am sure that the storage memory will not be as fast as the main memory. So, even if you can do this, the device will become more unusable than now. Its better to remove some apps or configure some of them to be inactive, when not in use.

"In reality, there is at least one app that I know of that allows you to create zram and swap basically without limits or whatever your device allows you to do, called Ultra Ram Swapper. Although it requires root permissions, you can find an old patched version without the need for superuser on several YouTube channels

The OP said without root.


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Sync audio time using microphone [Android root/noroot]
My TV(not a smart TV) speaker is playing an audio, I had the same audio in my android phone(rooted). How to sync both audios without any external/wireless connection, and with the help of syncing using android phone's microphone. so that after syncing i can reduce TV volume and hear audio from my android (using headphones or phone speaker)

I didn't gave them a try, but might be worth a look: there are some apps promising a solution for this, like SnapCast and AmpMe. With some luck they solve your issue (if so, be welcome to answer your own question with some details on how they worked out). Best luck!

Nothing is working . The problem is,  my TV doesn't have any connection with my phone , means no Bluetooth , no wifi and no hdmi , and i only want my phone to listen the audio of my TV and play same audio that i saved in my android. here audio means any maybe music or a movie audio track.


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How to set screen resolution and density in /system/build.prop?
I want to automate the creation of virtual android devices (using Android x86 and QEMU/KVM on Linux), the device settings includes screen resolution and density. The common way to set these settings is through adb shell wm size and adb shell wm density but it requires the device to be running, while changing /system/build.prop doesn't, I can mount the virtual disk and make changes there.

Since you are open to modifying virtual disk you can edit the file settings_global.xml located under /data/system/users/0/ directory. Among other things, look for these two keys in that file:

display_size_forced
display_density_forced

These keys correspond to wm size WxH and wm density DPI respectively. Change their values to your desirable WidthxHeight and density.
Save it. That's it.


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How to force desktop version of Facebook on Chrome for Android?
Until recently, it was possible to select the "Desktop site" tickbox in Chrome on Android, browse to "www.facebook.com" and get the desktop Facebook site. That has stopped working and I now get the mobile site regardless of the "Desktop site" tickbox setting.
Is there a way to ensure I get the desktop version of Facebook on Chrome on an unrooted phone without affecting other sites in other tabs? If not, can this be done with another browser?

Desktop mode for Facebook (checked on login page only) on Kiwi Browser (Chrome based) is working fine.


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How can I allow incoming calls to only vibrate when I have Do Not Disturb turned on?
Currently, Do Not Disturb fully disables incoming calls, or only shows a silent notification. How can I just make it cause calls to vibrate when I have Do Not Disturb turned on?
My real goal:
I do deep-thinking work as a software developer. I need 4+ hr blocks of time undisturbed so I can do deep work. I'd like to start each work day by turning on "Do Not Disturb" mode for 8 hrs, but I need to still be notified of calls--just via vibrate is all so it's less-intrusive, in case it's a doctor's office, the car repair person fixing my brakes, my wife with an important message, etc.
My phone is Google Pixel 5 with Android 12.

Comprompise: make phone calls less startling by having them vibrate, then slowly raise the ringer volume from 0% to 100% over ~5 seconds
Here is an alternative I just discovered which may meet my need: ie: do not turn "Do Not Disturb" on. Instead, do the following:
(the below was translated from French to English, since my phone is in French, so your wording may differ slightly--leave a comment)
Settings --> Sound & vibration --> Vibration & haptics --> Vibrate for calls --> Vibrate, then progressive ring
With this set, the phone vibrates a couple times when a call comes in, and then slowly raises the volume of the ringer up from 0 to 100% over like 5 seconds. This is so much more gentle and less distressing to my deep-thinking mind while I'm in the middle of something, and it gives me a chance to press a button to ignore the call before it gets loud, rather than startling me out of nowhere enough I lose my train of thought.
It's not quite what I was looking for, but this solution is an okay compromise for now.


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Why is there no option for Bluetooth Dual Audio in Android 11 and are there plans to add it?
It's strange that with most Android devices you can only can output audio to one device connected to via Bluetooth at a time, especially since Dual Audio (output for two audio devices at once) is already possible with Samsung S8 and a few other Samsung devices.
Why hasn't this functionality been added to more or even all Android devices by now?
Are there any plans to add this feature (Dual Audio or audio output to more than 2 devices)? Is there ongoing development of this (maybe via a workaround)?

Dual Audio is a modification of Android by Samsung (may be even covered by patents - who knows?).

I don't think we can't answer this question since I've never ever heard of a leak on development plans (possibly due to NDA), unless the code is already committed to AOSP, or unless Google explained it publicly (but then XDA/Android news outlets would have noticed it before this community).

@AndrewT. We can assume that Android will earlier or later support the new Bluetooth audio standard (presented 2020 together with new new LC3 codec) which will by default support multiple audio streams  (e.g. multiple receiver or even split stream - one stream for left and the other for right ear). But that also requires new Bluetooth chips.

What's even more strange is I can't do this on my Samsung S21, but a S8 can?  Oh I think it either requires Bluetooth 5.0 or it only works with Galaxy Buds products.


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How can i recover my deleted messages
Recover deleted SMS message using Google Backup?
I u Google auto backup service is turned on. Recently I deleted my SMS messages and now I want to recover one particular SMS. Is it possible via Google Backup? If yes, what is the correct way?

Are you certain Google did backup of your messages? Can you see SMS/messages in Google backup options? Normally, SMS apps disallow backups.

Note that Google Backup is also a sync solution, so even if SMS messages also get backed up, deleting them on the device will also delete the one inside the backup.


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Google Apps (YouTube, Play Store e t c) stopped working, tried fixing it and made it worse, not I can't even make a backup to wipe the system
Mi 9 SE, MIUI 12.5 (Android 11)
Ok, so 3 days ago I had an issue where the YouTube app, when started, was loading the feed infinitely, I decided to go to Play Store and update google services, but the Play Store wouldn't load past the triangle logo.
I've downloaded the external apk and tried installing that, no result with "app not installed" message.
Next, I've tried deleting the Google Play Services (com....gms) and installing them again, but they wouldn't show up in the app list.
Next, I tried to flash the MIUI with ADB without wiping the storage, done that successfully but that didn't change anything.
I'm now trying to at least backup my photos via ADB and re-flash the MIUI with a full wipe. But even the com.android.backupconfirm window won't load for me to launch the backup process...
Please help.

Ok, I fixed it =)
pulled out the storage with adb and re-flashed the MIUI
Peace!

Did you figure out what was the problem in the first place?


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Cloud Mobile Stratus C5 Elite stuck in boot loop due to missing/incompatible ROM
I got a phone Cloud Mobile Stratus C5 Elite stuck in boot loop after 2 days. I'm sure it's the ROM that is missing or incompatible and I have no clue which one is supported. It's running Android 11 Go edition, 16 GB, dual-SIM.
It would be very appreciated if someone could help or even if they could point me in the direction to even find out.

ROM missing or incompatible is possible if bootloader was unlocked and the user forced so. If that is the case flash proper ROM from fastboot

http://www.deviceinfohw.ru/devices/item.php?item=565366

Thank you very much on your help but still can't figure this out I go to recovery n the partition cache is missing when resetting it factory it's says open failed  metadata/it's  no such file or directory an cause the bootloop my PC won't recognize it I plug it up.    any advice ?

please add info to your question, not comments. type error messages exactly.

in recovery mode there is maybe option reboot to bootloader. install fastboot drivers and check 'fastboot devices' is working. try to create partition 'fastboot format:ext4 cache'

fastboot + drivers


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Samsung SM-T395 showing phone layouts for many apps after updating to Android 9
A Samsung SM-T395 tablet just upgraded to Android 9.  It seems to now think that the layout is a phone instead of a tablet. It has stopped allowing split screen layouts for some apps.  It is a small tablet, but is there any way to change a setting so it thinks it is a tablet again?

I'm not sure when this feature was added, but you might want to look for an option along the lines of "Display size" - that would control the effective size of display presented to apps.

We found that Android 9 has a 'Screen Zoom' setting. The upgrade set it to 'Medium', but setting it to 'Small' and the layouts worked fine.


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Open keyboard in Android recovery mode
So I am taking the CompTIA A+ certification courses and on one of the sections about radio firmware, they say after placing Update.zip in the root of the SD card to boot into recovery then press Alt+S and let the update finish.
The only way I know how would be to use the up and down volume keys and choose Update from Sd Card then press power.
I could only find the following reference to using Alt+S, it is a guide from the XDA Developers website from 2009:

[GUIDE] Fastboot for Noobs
Fastboot
Things you need:
New SPL - Download
New Radio - Download
Your Current ROM - CyanogenMod 3.6
SD Card Reader
Rooted G1 Phone
Computer
USB Cable
Patience

Install Radio FIRST
Download the Radio Update
Rename it to update.zip
Remove your SD Card from your phone and place it in your SD Card Reader
Put the update.zip at the root of your SDcard (root = not in any folder)
Insert your sdcard back into the phone
Turn off your phone (Hold power and press Power Off)
Hold the Home button and then press the power button (Keep holding power)
You will now enter recovery
Open up your keyboard and press Alt-S
Let it finish the update
When done reboot by pressing Home and Back
You should be able to access your Home screen (If its stuck on the Google G1 screen dont panic, just remove your battery for now)

My question would be: HOW would I open the keyboard in recovery mode? I tried a keyboard connected via OTG cable and could get it to move up and down and select, but Alt+S did nothing.
Now full disclosure, I DID NOT have any Update.zip on my SD card. I was assuming I would get an error. The only device I have available at this time is my Samsung Galaxy S20 and I can't find the right file for my firmware.
Is this process outdated? Does it require that phone be rooted with a custom recovery? Without more info, the first sentence of this post makes no sense. If anyone can shed a light on this would be great.

modern equivalent... try to find right keys ;) Xiaomi Qin F21 Pro Touch

The instruction "boot into recovery then press Alt+S and let the update finish." is strange I have never seen a stock recovery ROM with a possibility to activate an on-screen keyboard. The second problem is that on-screen keyboards usually do not contain an Alt key.
The only explanation is that the instruction does not refer to the on-screen keyboard:
In the early days of Android there were a few phones like the Google G1 (alias HTC Dream) which had built-in hardware keyboard:

It seems like the manual for firmware update was written for such a device as the instruction does only make sense in case there is a hardware keyboard available.
Because of the amazing success of the iPhone and it's pure touch screen based UI Android phones with hardware keyboards were only present before 2010 like the HTC Dream (2008) or Motorola Droid/Milestone "Stone" (2009). Later nearly all Android phones only had a touch screen with on-screen keyboard (with a very few exceptions like the BlackBerry KeyOne (2017) - but those devices were never a commercial success).
As your manual can only work for phones with a hardware keyboard it can be considered historical and no longer relevant. Seems like the people responsible for keeping the question up-to-date have missed this question for a long time.