text:
How can I keep an app running when Extreme Battery Saver is on?
I'm using a Google Pixel 5 with Android 13 Beta. It has an Extreme Battery Saver mode which the system will ask me to turn on if the battery level goes under 10%. After it is enabled, most apps will be paused, except for a few essential apps: Messages, Phone, Clock, etc.
When I tap on a paused app's icon, for example, YouTube Music, it will show the prompt:

App paused by Extreme Battery Saver
Keeping [app's name] paused extends your device's battery life.
You can unpause it temporarily or set essential apps to always work in Settings.
Unpause temporarily OK

I tried to change the option to Unrestricted in Settings > Apps > All Apps > YouTube Music > Battery > Optimized, but it doesn't give the desired effect.
What is the right thing to do to allow custom apps to always work in Settings?

Instead, use the path Settings> Battery Saver> Extreme Battery Saver> Essential Apps and check the box next to the app you want unrestricted.
To use an app while Extreme Battery Saver is on, tap the app that is paused, on the message that shows, tap Unpause temporarily. After a few minutes, you’ll get a notification to pause.
To let the app pause again, do nothing or swipe away the notification.
To stay unpaused longer, tap Wait until.
You can also go into Extreme Battery Saver, tap essential apps, and select that app to be unrestricted when the battery saver is on.


text:
Privacy of in-app purchases: how much user data does the app developer get?
When a you do an in-app purchase like buying a feature or subscription the the app and the developer is getting data on your purchase.
I searched a bit the Google documentation but I wasn't able to determine what user-data from the used Google-account used by the purchase is made accessible to the app and it's developer.
Technically it should be possible to implement this whole process in a way that the app and it's developer does not get access to any user-related data like Google account e-mail, user name or similar data. The app and it's developer should only get the data what item/subscription you have bought and may be a random user-id only Google can relate to your account.
Is there any official documentation available about the privacy of in-app purchases like what user-related data is shared with the app and it's developer?

I'm no developer, and have not used Google Play's services since ages. That said, it appears that during billing developer gets obfuscated account and profile id. But than, there is this API which pretty much leaks many sensitive info about the user. See https://developers.google.com/android-publisher/api-ref/rest/v3/purchases.subscriptions
Does this make any sense? I can't piece the two things together.

There's a self-deleted Q&A posted in 2018 about a similar topic: What personal information is shared from the Play Store to an Android Developer?

@Firelord The first link was really valuable. If I understand it correctly the app and it's developer don't get any information about your Google account at all. It works the other way, the app provides an (obfuscated) account/profile id. This means if the app developers was careless Google may get the account name or email of the app account  but not the other way around.

The second link seems to be related to a more general API, mainly designed for web services. This API provides detailed user information (name, e-mail, ...) to the developer using this API. Luckily all those privacy related fields are marked according to the description as "Subscribe with Google" only. Not sure if this service is available outside of the US (never heard of it). What I read it seems to be dedicated to website paywalls, especially for newspapers and similar sites who want to collect micro-payment for access e.g. to an article.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How to set custom text notification sounds with a Samsung Galaxy S22?
I just purchased a Samsung Galaxy S22. It runs Android 12 and One UI 4.1.
What I am trying to do is use a custom notification sound for my text messages (Google Messages). I want a custom sound for one specific person and another for everyone else. I had this previously on my Galaxy S8.
Unfortunately this does not work for me. I have added the sounds I wish to use to my phone's storage. This includes custom ringtones. Those do work as I am able to select them when choosing a ringtone. I can see them in my list of available ringtones.  But the sounds I have added for notifications do not appear in the list of available notification sounds.
I have tried placing them in the following locations:

/root/sdcard/Notifications
/root/sdcard/Ringtones
/root/sdcard/Android/media
/root/sdcard/Android/media/Notifications

It's this still possible to do? If so, what am I missing?

Can someone with enough reputation create the samsung-galaxy-s-22 tag for me, please?

Turns out what I was missing is that the format of the file must be MP3. Mine were .wav files which worked on the older OS but not in the newer OS.

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


text:
How did my work profile get on my phone?
This is a personal device.  Its never been tied to any employer. I've only had it around 6 months, purchased through carrier website, outright/ unlocked. I'm absolutely lost and I cannot uninstall. It just tells me I can't preform that and to contact my admim.

Could you check the Account settings and see if there's any account registered to the work profile? Otherwise, are you using an app (e.g. Island) to create parallel space (using work profile) for installing same apps on the same device?


text:
Samsung Galaxy J3 2017 SM-J330FN nandroid backup
I installed: Samsung_USB_Driver_v1.7.23.0, opened: odin3_v3.14.4 and started Odin 3. In AP I uploaded the file: twrp3.1.1-1_J330. I booted my Samsung Galaxy J3 2017 SM-J330FN in download mode; I connected it to the PC via the data cable and clicked START in Odin 3. The smartphone restarted in mode: TWRP. I tried to backup the system to SD card with TWRP, but every now and then it gave me errors and in the end it appeared: Backup Failed. Where is the mistake? Can someone help me?
Thanks

you should read recovery.log for reason


text:
Color os: Phone corrupted after update
I just updated my oppo find x2 neo from android 11 to 12. However the phone tries to power on a few times, and then goes to recovery mode. Online update does not work (it says "no updates found.")
Is there a way of fixing this without losing all my data?

There is no way to fix it. You have to factory reset :(

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.


text:
Why can't I move anything to my adopted storage SD card?
I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite WiFi (gta4xlwifi) running Lineage OS 19, rooted with Magisk. I have just inserted a brand new 256GB SD Card and formatted it as adoptable storage. The SD card is nearly empty (i.e. lack of free space is not an issue). When I set it up, it showed me the following screen that was supposed to allow me to copy all my files to the SD card, which is exactly what I wanted to do:

So, I tapped the "Move content" button, and... nothing happened. The button flashed a bit, indicating that my tap was registered, but the device just remained at this screen and as far as I can tell, no files were moved. Similarly, I went into the app list in Settings and tried to change the storage location  of one of my apps, which took me to a screen similar to the one above with a "Move" button. Again, tapping this button registered the tap but did nothing and simply remained on the screen.
Notably, I actually can forcibly move apps to the adopted storage using Titanium Backup's "Move to Adopted storage" option under special features. However, Titanium Backup doesn't have any way for me to move my non-app-associated files (i.e. the 39.44 GB in the above screenshot), so this doesn't get me what I want.
So, it seems like my tablet has allowed me to set up adopted storage and then staunchly refused to move anything onto it (except via Titanium Backup). Am I missing something? Is there something I have to do to make the "Move content" button actually work? How can I convince Android to let me actually use my SD card to store files?

Samsung usually won't provide adoptable-storage at all, might be LineageOS developers haven't properly enabled that feature? 'adb shell pm set-install-location 2' and install new app. check which disk space has changed with df

@alecxs Interesting, so maybe there's some hardware limitation or quirk that Lineage OS doesn't know about? As for installing apps, like I said, I can force move them with Titanium Backup, so I don't care as much about a solution for that as I do about moving everything else.

you can figure it out by installing new app


text:
My phone's system keeps breaking and eventually stops booting
I own a Xiaomi Redmi 4X which has a really strange problem. The phone keeps restarting at random over a few hours until it enters on a bootloop, and eventually can't boot to the system anymore (the loop stops, it straight up doesn't boot at this stage and only shows the loading screen)
I've tried everything, from doing a factory reset to unlocking and flashing the stock rom, as well as custom roms that I checked were compatible with my device, but no matter what I do it always ends the same way even if it looks like it got fixed (usually about a week without restarts and after that the phone straight up refuses to boot, with the animation even freezing in some instances)
Doing a clean flash allows me to use the phone again for a few days, but as I said, it eventually breaks again without me doing anything to the system. I know it has to be something happening to the configuration of the device because I can access recovery and fastboot just fine and dirty flashing doesn't mitigate the problem at all, however I have a hunch that it may be a hardware problem, because sometimes the phone restarts itself several times when it reaches 80% charge and has been turned off (sometimes when it is on too, but is somewhat inconsistent). Can anyone help me and give me some direction on what to do?

This device probably reached wear estimation for eMMC flash memory (eMMC wear-out). Backup your data that device will reach end of its life soon.


text:
Ethernet Calling on Android
We've been using iPhones for as long as they've been out, but they've recently began blocking features that we use.  We're looking for a change.  Can you make calls and/or text via ethernet connection on an Android?

I assume you are referring to "Wifi Calling" and "SMS over Wifi". In that scenario "Wifi" means just any IP based network connection, so if you would use an USB Ethernet adapter (and a device that supports it) it should also work using Ethernet. Of course the device and your mobile network provider have to support both features.


text:
How to sign in with google on an app under a restricted user on a tablet
We have a tablet for our four year old. We created a restricted user for him to limit his access but are running into an issue. We downloaded Duolingo ABC and I granted access to the restricted user. When we open the app it asks us to sign in with our Google account. This works fine for a non-restricted user, but when we try on his restricted account it errors out. Is there anyway to log into an app via Google from a restricted account on a tablet?


text:
How to transfer files from semibricked android via adb
I have a OnePlus Nord and recently updated to android 12 after a few days my phone screen became suddenly black and phone is vibrating on its own. I tried restarting it but it turns on but shows black screen and is still vibrating. I do not wish to format it as it contains many important data and I forgot to take backup while updating. But due to luck and software bug it has adb enabled and it doesn't require confirmation even though I had never enabled developer options. So I tried copying files from storage/emulated/0/ but it is empty so I switched to /data and when I type ls it shows permission denied is there a way to access it without formatting the device and safely copying all the data to pc

/data is only accessible on rooted devices. You can try to create a backup using adb backup but Google has deprecated this way for Android 12 apps so a lot of apps will be missing in the created backup (check using Android Backup Extractor abe).

one can't backup anything until decrypted with lock screen credentials


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Can't unlock my Acer B3-A30 tablet's bootloader
So I have an Acer Acer B3-A30 tablet, which is stuck on the Acer logo.
I'm trying to unlock it's bootloader (with fastboot mode), so I can reflash it (with a stock rom), but it just shows an error saying "Failed to unlock bootloader."
I've checked both of the commands fastboot oem unlock and fastboot flashing unlock, but they just don't want to work. I haven't installed root or any system modifications, this is my first time ever doing so.
It would be even better, if someone told me how to fix it without bootloader unlocking and these other stuff.

fastboot flashing get_unlock_ability = 1?

@alecxs this is what i got : fastboot: usage: unknown 'flashing' command get_unlock_ability

https://github.com/bkerler/mtkclient#unlock-bootloader

@alecxs
"you need to enable usb-debugging via Settings/About phone/Version, Tap 7x on build number
Go to Settings/Additional settings/Developer options, enable "OEM unlock" and "USB Debugging"
"
I can't boot the device to enable those.

@alecxs It keeps displaying "Handshake failed, retrying..."

@alecxs the only thing i need is to somehow enable oem unlock without dev settings and i can do the rest by my self

@alecxs I figured out how to use it, but it's stuck at "DALegacy - Reconnecting to preloader"

@alecxs shows this : "Done |--------------------------------------------------| 0.0% Read (Sector 0x0 of 0x200) 0.00 MB/sDA_handler
DA_handler - [LIB]: ←[31mUnknown seccfg partition header. Aborting unlock.←[0m"

so it connected, but this tool won't unlock. your goal is flashing stock ROM, can be done from SP Flash Tool or mtkclient (on locked bootloader)

@alecxs When selecting the scatter.txt file, it displays an error.

make sure the scatter file is for your device. delete the checksum from scatter file

@alexcs I found the original rom, but it still doesn't want to flash it.

flash from mtkclient

@alexcs Preloader - [LIB]: ←[31mError on DA_Send cmd←[0m

https://github.com/bkerler/mtkclient/issues/140

@alexcs what to do with that?


text:
Is there a way to transfer many files at once to my SD card through an USB port?
I've been having some trouble transferring files to my SD card on my phone through my USB cable because they start getting corrupted after some point.
After some research, it seems like USB doesn't deal well with many files transferring at once. Since I have way too many files (about 7000) to transfer, it is unviable for me to copy them in small batches.
So I am looking for a way to transfer them all through my cable in one go without corrupting them.
Is there any way to do this? Maybe a program that transfers the files one by one automatically for me?

why through usb? copy folders with total commander

hmmm... how does total commander work?
I am trying through usb since it is the only appendage i have to connect my pc to my phone for file transferring purposes

You don't tell use what OS or tool you use on PC side. If you just copy files via USB you are using MTP protocol which is a very primitive and unreliable protocol. For large file transfers I would recommend to enable Android Debug bridge on the phone and use adb from Android SDK.

I've tried adb push to transfer my files, but it ended on lots of corrupted files even still... I thought that adb could be having the same problems as the simple windows copy paste, can that even be the case? There is a high possibility my SD card is simply corrupted, although after the point my files get corrupted if I try pasting a few files they work just fine.

I misunderstood. I thought you want transfer files to SD card on phone (to prevent getting corrupted). There was no mention about we're dealing with files on PC. you may try winadb-sync

I see. I'll try that, but I am thinking now my sd card really is corrupted. In any case, I think that could be helpful, so I'll try it out another time. Thanks!


text:
How can I prevent an app from interrupting audio playback of some other app?
I am using Duolingo to practice Japanese, and I'd be able to practice a lot more if I could actually do this while listening to music. Right now, when you get to the next question, it turns down the volume for all other apps, reads the question, and restores the volume again. This is annoying enough that it makes listening to music while practicing practically impossible for me.
Preferably I'd like to mute Duolingo altogether, but I'd settle for it not lowering the volume for other apps (NewPipe is what I usually use to listen to music, and which I want to keep playing at the same volume).
I saw this other question: how to have two applications play sound simultaneously?, from six years ago, which seems somewhat related, but which doesn't apply to NewPipe, and probably wouldn't apply anymore anyways, given the age of the question.
How can I achieve this? (I have a rooted phone, which might help, IDK).

Does this answer your question? How to have two applications play sound simultaneously?

You can set TAKE_AUDIO_FOCUS permission of that app to ignore:
appops set <PKG_NAME> TAKE_AUDIO_FOCUS ignore

Using Permission Manager X (PMX) this can be done conveniently for any app:

Disclosure: I'm the author of PMX.

If you have a Samsung phone then Sound Assistant has a Multi Sound option that can allow specific applications to be able to play audio at the same time as other applications.

Once you toggle it on then you will be able to select apps that can play audio regardless of whether another application is playing.

Note: AFAIK I think this feature is only available on Android >=10

MIUI 12 also adds a similar option

It's not the best solution but if you use YouTube music, y-music (which integrates with youtube music) has the option to ignore audio focus and so can play uninterrupted in the background with duolingo, which worked really well for me :)


text:
Restore deleted Calendar Storage app
The Calendar Storage app is missing and it's preventing me from using the stock calendar app or any custom calendar app. I've tried re-installing the stock calendar from apkmirror.com, but it immediatly closes when I try to open it. When I try to open Business Calendar for the first time, it asks for permission to access my calendar and then says:

"Calendar Storage disable
Your calendars and events can't be displayed because Calenda storage has been disabled on your device.
Turn Calendar storage back on in Settings to use this app."

There is an "Enable in Settings" button which takes me to an App Info page for Calendar Storage. However, the Permissions section is grayed out and it claims to not be disabled. Also, Calendar Storage isn't listed in Settings > Apps like it is on my other Android phone.
I probably accidently deleted it while de-bloating the phone with the "Uninstall System Apps" app. I intended to remove the stock calendar since I wanted to use business calendar instead. I'm running Lineage OS 19 (Android version 12) and am rooted. I'm hoping to avoid re-installing to fix this issue. I realize the calendar data is probably unrecoverable, but that isn't important.
I've tried finding APKs for Calendar Storage and installing them, but haven't found one that worked yet:
https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/lineageos/calendar-storage-2/calendar-storage-2-11-release/calendar-storage-11-2-android-apk-download/download/
This one is labeled for Android 11+, but fails to install with, "App not installed as package appears to be invalid".
When I try to install it with APK Mirror Installer, it fails with "The new package has an older version code than the currently installed package".
I've also tried using Titanium Backup to backup an older phone's (Lineage OS, Android 9) Calendar Storage app and restore it on the new phone, but the restore process hangs indefinitely.
Besides the question of how to fix this problem, I'm wondering if anyone with Lineage OS 19 could send the current version of the Calendar Storage APK, as I can't seem to find a copy online.
Phone Information: Google Pixel 3a XL
ROM:Lineage 19.1 2022-05-07 Bonito.
Installed using lineage-19.1-20220507-recovery-bonito.img (source)
Android 12.1

So you are using LineageOS + root and using root permissions you have deleted an important APK that is now missing, correct? Because otherwise this would be a defect of the sued ROM. Unfortunately you don't tell any details about phone model, used Android version and used ROM (official, unofficial -> what ROM?).

Yes, that is correct. I don't believe this is a defect of the ROM. I can't say be 100% certain when Calendar Storage disappeared or if it was ever there, but the most likely explanation is that I deleted it when deleting the Lineage stock calendar. I added phone and ROM information to my question.


text:
How do I get the temperature of my phone via ADB?
At work, I run lots of automated software testing on Android phones. They stay permanently plugged into a development machine, and are given jobs to run via ADB. I'd very much like to be able to monitor their temperatures, and doing so via ADB would be the easy way.

This is simple, on Android 10 or later, once you find out how.
adb shell dumpsys thermalservice
On my Samsung A52 5G with Android 12, this produces, with values apparently in Celsius.
IsStatusOverride: false
ThermalEventListeners:
        callbacks: 1
        killed: false
        broadcasts count: -1
ThermalStatusListeners:
        callbacks: 4
        killed: false
        broadcasts count: -1
Thermal Status: 0
Cached temperatures:
        Temperature{mValue=0.0, mType=2, mName=SUBBAT, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=0.0, mType=2, mName=SUBBATRAW, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=25.6, mType=0, mName=AP, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=25.7, mType=5, mName=PA, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=23.8, mType=2, mName=BAT, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=24.7, mType=3, mName=LRB, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=24.7, mType=3, mName=LRF, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=24.7, mType=3, mName=LRP, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=0.0, mType=4, mName=USB, mStatus=0}
HAL Ready: true
HAL connection:
        ThermalHAL 2.0 connected: yes
Current temperatures from HAL:
        Temperature{mValue=25.6, mType=0, mName=AP, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=23.8, mType=2, mName=BAT, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=24.7, mType=3, mName=LRB, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=24.7, mType=3, mName=LRF, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=24.7, mType=3, mName=LRP, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=25.7, mType=5, mName=PA, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=0.0, mType=2, mName=SUBBAT, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=0.0, mType=2, mName=SUBBATRAW, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=0.0, mType=4, mName=USB, mStatus=0}
Current cooling devices from HAL:
Temperature static thresholds from HAL:

A Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite with Android 11 has (trimmed down):
Current temperatures from HAL:
        Temperature{mValue=29.1, mType=0, mName=CPU, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=29.1, mType=1, mName=GPU, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=24.0, mType=2, mName=BATTERY, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=26.0, mType=3, mName=SKIN, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=25.0, mType=5, mName=POWER_AMPLIFIER, mStatus=0}
        Temperature{mValue=29.1, mType=9, mName=NPU, mStatus=0}

My very cheap Chinese Android 10 tablet says:
IsStatusOverride: false
ThermalEventListeners:
        callbacks: 1
        killed: false
        broadcasts count: -1
ThermalStatusListeners:
        callbacks: 2
        killed: false
        broadcasts count: -1
Thermal Status: 0
Cached temperatures:
        Temperature{mValue=30.8, mType=3, mName=test temperature sensor, mStatus=0}
HAL Ready: true
HAL connection:
        ThermalHAL 2.0 connected: yes
Current temperatures from HAL:
        Temperature{mValue=30.8, mType=3, mName=test temperature sensor, mStatus=0}
Current cooling devices from HAL:
        CoolingDevice{mValue=100, mType=0, mName=test cooling device}

That's probably the default configuration in Android 10.
The underlying Android service for this is a bit complicated. It says that HAL 2.0 appeared at Android 10, and previous versions only had HAL 1.0. I've tried two Android 9 devices and a single Android 8.1, and dumpsys thermalservice didn't produce any output on any of them.
I have only figured out parts of the mName values so far. It seems clear that the names vary between manufacturers, but the mType values seem to be consistent.

AP = Application Processor - maybe the SoC, or the CPU? mType 0.
BAT = BATTERY = Battery. mType 2, which makes it very plausible that SUBBAT and SUBBATRAW are battery-related, as the names suggest.
CPU = CPU. mType 0.
GPU = GPU. mType 1.
NPU = Neural Processing Unit? mType 9.
PA = Power Amplifier. mType 5.
SKIN = Device case, presumably. mType 3. That suggests that LRB, LRF and LRP on the Samsung are something to do with the case or buttons, and that the sole sensor on the cheap tablet is monitoring the case.
USB = Universal Serial Bus, presumably. mType 4.

Source for some of those.
The mStatus values are the power throttling status, from 0 (no throttling) to 6 (shut down due to heat).
Evaluating the results
Rather than trying to decide on temperature limits myself, the best way seems to be to parse the output for "Temperature{ ... }" lines, and if any of them have mStatus values greater than zero, treat the device as overheating and stop giving it work for a while. That delegates the decision to the device manufacturer, who will inevitably know more than me about the thermal behaviour of their designs.


text:
Is my processor really what it should be?
So I was wondering, I just got Iqoo (a Vivo brand) phone and it is supposed to have processor Snapdragon 778g. And now when I go to Settings>About Phone, I see the correct processor name. Ok? But the issue is that when I check my hardware info through any other third party app (and believe me, I have tried multiple apps) then name of the processor that I see is completely different..... Is this normal? For phones to have a different processor?? I need some guidance, so please help. Also check the attached images......
The info on GPU is as follows-
Vendor:
Qualcomm
Renderer:
Adreno (TM) 642L
Maximum Frequency:
550 MHz
Gracias

Mobile CPU names is complicated as they are really System on a Chip (SoC) and have lots of variations. It may help to list the Graphics Processor Unit (GPU) that is identified.  Should you edit your post, please consider writing out the info as screenshots are not searchable.

Where did you buy the phone? If it is a forged phone common system info apps as well as the phone info dialog will not show real phone data. Install Termux app  instead and execute cat /proc/cpuinfo (alternatively you can also execute this command via Android Debug Bridge.

Hardware        : Qualcomm Technologies, Inc SM8350
$

Same name even after executing commang that u shared. Btw I got the phone from amazon

Then I don't see a problem. BTW: There are more than 40 devices by Vivo named "Iqoo" so your definition of what your phone is is may be just a bit unprecise or at least you have not mentioned the full name of your phone (which is bad for such a question).

My bad. This really is my very first question on this forum. I am new to this asking questions business. My phone is Iqoo Z6 Pro. 8gb ram variant+4 GB vram.

Also one last question, should I be happy? Bcoz I googled and found out that the processor that other app are showing in my phone is actually sdg 888 which is pretty awesome processor

Or will the 888 chip in my phone (if there) will be a faulty product and thus sold as snap 778?

Well, this is strange. The SM8350 is the Snapdragon 888, and the Snapdragon 778 is an SM7325, according to Qualcomm. This really should not be an 888 being sold as an 778, because they have different cores and the 888 uses much more power. Try installing AIDA64 from the Play Store (it's free with advertising, and usually reliable) and see what it says?

John bro I am even more confused now. Even In the app u recommended, it still shows Snapdragon 888. But the GPU that my phone has is that of 778g. I am just going to call this a blessing in disguise and stop thinkin bout it.

https://pin.it/6SlFOxg


text:
Does Android Lolipop 5.1 get encrypted by itself upon first boot?
My doubts are,

Would an android device shipped with Lollipop 5.0 get encrypted itself upon first boot? I saw a lot of blogs saying Lolipop does not come with default encryption but in the official link it says that devices get encrypted by default upon first boot — too many confusing blog articles. What is the difference between default encryption and encryption on first boot?

Most blogs say we have to manually encrypt the Device but I don't understand — if it's already encrypted upon first boot, then why encrypt again manually? What is the advantage?

As far as I remember Google had introduced automatic encryption with Android 5 and applied it in the Nexus phones. But nearly no other manufacturer had taken over the encryption feature at that time. Therefore most likely your phone is not encrypted. You can check that in Android settings -> Security if encryption is enabled. If it is enabled you should also see on every reboot the pre-boot password entering dialog asking for the device password.

@Robert official documentation says " Upon first boot, the device creates a randomly generated 128-bit master key and then hashes it with a default password and stored salt. The default password is: "default_password" However, the resultant hash is also signed through a TEE (such as TrustZone), which uses a hash of the signature to encrypt the master key."

The documentation may state that but only if that feature is mandatory for Google Android all phones had it implementad. For example a CPU with TEE was AFAIK not a requirement at that time so most manufactures were using a CPU without. That contradicts your documentation - what now?

@Robert thanks man.Understood

Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7 LTE SM-T555 (shipped with Android 5) latest stock ROM (Android 7) still unencrypted (I own) - it really depends on how accurate OEMs maintain it. 1. What is the difference between default encryption and encryption on first boot? - nothing. 2. why encrypt again manually? - secure start-up

if device does not boot, for further analysis download stock ROM (off device or www) and have a look in fstab (or just mention your device model so we can maybe help out)


text:
Can I make Google Play show me ALL reviews for an app?
Google Play on the phone has for long been showing me reviews for the country I reside, which many times aren't really helpful, or sometimes there is simply no review at all to show, for my country.
I used to have a workaround which is to go on the browser, and there it was showing me all reviews.
However, just recently, they completely updated the Google Play interface on the browser too, and the Reviews now appear to behave the same way as in the phone app.
I can't really understand what's the problem or showing ALL reviews, even if they prioritized my country's reviews and show the rest after, but no... they have to completely HIDE many reviews that could be helpful to me...
Is there a way I can force showing all reviews for an app?

On the browser, you still can target specific language for reviews by appending to the url in address bar "&hl=" like "&hl=en" for instance
Update :
If that doesn't work try "gl" instead of "hl" , as detailed there: stackoverflow.com/a/38178785/2488565

Thanks. I already have Google Play in English by default, but I no longer see reviews that aren't from my country. I added that parameter at the end of the URL, and no change.

You could try "gl" instead of "hl" , as detailed there:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/38178785/2488565

aaahhh, that one seems to work! Finally I can see useful reviews on the apps, before I install them (or to understand why some didn't work when I installed). This change just keeps proving to be so ridiculous and inconvenient... thanks!

If you update your Answer above, I can mark it as the Accepted Answer.

Thank you! It really helped my.
I had hl paramete set to my country. And nobody is using this app here.
Setting it to hl=en  solved the issue!

No, you can't. Google's policy changed from Nov 21 and AFAIK, there isn't a workaround (VPN doesn't help). Reviews are shown depending on the place you registered (see last section of answer)
Making Ratings and Reviews better for users and developers gives the logic:

We’ve heard from both Play Store users and developers that ratings and reviews could be more helpful. This is especially true when ratings from one area unfairly impact another — like when a bug that only impacted a single country negatively affects the app’s rating everywhere; or when positive improvements in a tablet experience are overlooked because of the number of users on phones. So we’re starting a multi-quarter program of improvements to make ratings more personalized and indicative of the experience each individual user can expect, and to make them easier to navigate and use for developers

(Emphasis supplied)

That’s why, starting in November 2021, we’re going to change the ratings that individual users see based on where they’re registered, and later in the year what device they’re using.

Ways to overcome this limitation, I can think of a) developer gives you access to developer play console b) Using sensor tower or some such service and paying for it. Both are not options for an average user

Open an incognito or private tab and view the store without signing in. On my Android phone this works in Firefox but not Edge or Chrome; on my PC it works in any browser.


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How to create a 6Ghz hotspot on a rooted Android?
Newer phones now have WiFi 6E, so is it possible to create a 6Ghz hotspot?
I have a rooted Pixel 6 and a laptop, they both have WiFi 6E, so is there any way to create a 6Ghz hotspot?

A user does not create hotspot. Their system does. They only toggle a setting. In other words, a user is most of the time limited to what their device vendor offered in Settings app. So, which Android device and Android version are you using? What hotspot settings does it offer? Is the device rooted? As of now, the question is too broad to be answerable.

Also, other devices in your vicinity would probably be using legacy 2.4GHz, let alone 5GHz. So a hotspot on a  6GHz alone won't really be useful.

Newer laptops do have wifi 6e, and yes, I have a rooted device.

Related for 5Ghz: How to create 5Ghz hotspot on a rooted Android that doesn't give built in 5Ghz option?

If your system cannot set a native 6Ghz hotspot, VPN Hotspot is supposed to be able to do exactly that. It requires root and possibly an extra Magisk module. I don't have a routable phone so I can't test it myself.


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Cannot keep slack app disabled
I have a galaxy 20 ultra and I have repeatedly force-stopped the slack app, but it keep restarting on its own.  I believe this is happening to some other apps, but I can't recall the others at the moment.  Is there something I'm missing here to keep a force-stopped app stopped??

Apps can start automatically on certain times or events. Android is not like other OS used on desktops. If you want to keep an app quiet you should check it's options if there is for example a setting for defining work and non-work hours. Alternatively you could try to enable battery optimization for slack app, that should keep it closed while in background.

Slack either uses play services APIs or wakelocks to restart itself. If you're rooted, you've got solutions such as the 'super freeze' app, otherwise practically nothing (There exists apps that doesn't require root and does force stop apps automatically after every wakeup but practically since the app  restarts itself after a while, you would end up getting even more battery drain)


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Google Maps navigation stopped playing guidance
I used Google Maps navigation for times without any problem, on several different devices; currently I'm using a Google Pixel 3a, and it first worked properly too.
But suddenly, it began to cut EACH guidance phrase before the end, like in this example (freely translated from French):

In 200 meters, at the roundabout, take the (silent here)

This happened systematically during some days, after which it started working properly again.
But it started again cutting phrases some other days later!
This has occurred during months: working - not working - working - not working...
Till it totally stopped talking: visually the navigation process works fine, but now the device never says anything at all.
Obviously I controlled my configuration, which is correctly set to have the guidance playing.
Important precision: very strangely, this happens for car guidance, but pedestrian one talks normally!
I tried following numerous help pages from the net, without success: they all address either configuration settings or device malfunction, so the proposed solution always concerns a general problem (affecting any sound usage, at least inside of Google Maps), while my problem clearly happens for only certain parts.

TL;DR
Depending on which car (in fact, which software bundled in the car) the device is connected to, the problem may happen or not.
When it happens, the solution is to disconnect the device from the car: then the guidance normally plays again.
Detailed explanation
After a lot of tests, I finally discovered that all works fine as long as the device is not connected to the car.
(BTW this explains why it works fine when in pedestrian mode)
A posteriori I also understood why it suddenly started to fail, when I realized that it happened after exchanging my Volvo XC60 for a Volvo V70.
The previous one was a most recent model, and it clearly appears that the bundled software is not exactly the same version.
I guess that something special in the new one (new for me, but older in time) is responsible to cause (may be indirectly) the activation of a certain configuration option (either at the device or app level).
But despite a lot of investigations I couldn't discover which one: all options I could think of seam to remain unchanged when connecting/disconnecting.
Does somebody have any idea about what might be concerned here?
So my current solution (not the ideal one, indeed) is simply to disconnect the device when I want to use Google Maps navigation.
I resign myself to not being able to use the phone during this time.
BTW if you wonder why I prefer to use Google navigation system rather than the car-bundled one, it simply comes from the obvious enormous difference at the "enter address" level: Google Maps seam to know any little locality or suburb name, as well as numerous little shops, curiosity points, and so on.
While the car-bundled navigation system (at least the ones I know) labouriously claim for town, street, number... and doesn't know anything else.
Last point: what remains totally unexplained is why, starting to fail, the guidance system was not immediately silent, but began only cutting the end of each sentence...

This additional information should be edited into the question, not posted as an answer as it doesn't answer the question.

@Chenmunka: I don't understand. Why do you think it's not an answer? My question asked for an explanation about the cause of the problem and a solution to solve it: don't those two responses belong to my answer?


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Regarding a data recovery app from a play store
I used one of the free data recovery app from the play store named Photo recovery app by HappyAppsFree on my old Samsung Galaxy S3 which I used after 2 years. I am worried as the privacy policies mentioned were not clear enough to figure out if my recovered data is also saved somewhere on the server side where developer can access it? I also tried to contact the developer on the given email address but no response. It's almost one year now that developer also updated the app but never responded to such questions.
My question is are such apps allowed to save the user's sensitive data we stored using their apps? The images recovered were of very poor quality.
Phone used was Samsung galaxy s3(most probably the old android version)
App used : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.photo.recovery.deleted.video.recovery.recoverdeleted.photo

Your question is a bit too general and thus will be difficult to answer. You should better edit it and include more details like used Phone and Android version as well as the used recovery app.

"Can ... ?" the answer is almost always yes, also known as malware.

Thanks for your reply. So this is the app available on the play store https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.photo.recovery.deleted.video.recovery.recoverdeleted.photo
The phone was galaxy s3

Please read https://android.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-ask One of the main problems of your question is that it is unclear what you expect as answer. Andrew's comment is the actual answer to your question but I assume this is not your actual question. So please take one step back and think about what you really want to ask and then re-edit your question.

Thanks, I have explained the whole situation, I hope now I am able to ask my concern properly

“My question is are such apps allowed to save the user's sensitive data”. Well “allowed” doesn't matter. Theft and robbery is nowhere allowed, but it happens. That's why owners are supposed to take protective measures. You are the device owner. You installed the app and allowed it to access your data. Now only the app developer can tell if they stole your private data or not. // You might be interested in Play Store User Data Policy.

Thanks for your reply. If we delete the data using delete button of the app, can that data is still visible to the developer? Also, app states it performs read only operation, does that mean it is not writing anywhere?


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Spotify can't be restarted from Bluetooth
I'm listening to Spotify with a BT headset, and once I remove the headset from my ears, it pauses the playback automatically. After a couple of hours, Spotify disappears from available players, and if I put the headphones back, it can't restart the playback.
When Spotify goes inactive, I got this in logcat:
AvrcpMediaPlayerList: onActiveSessionsChanged: number of controllers: 1

Note: I have another player so in case there is also Spotify, it should be 2.
I have to unlock the phone and start the playback manually.
Is this a bug? Has anyone found any solution?

I'm not really familiar with Bluetooth AVRCP and multiple media players, but an app might have been killed by the system if it's not active/used for a couple of hours to preserve the memory. So, it's still unclear if it's a bug or expected.

I have turned off all battery optimizations, but thats likely the case. Although my phone has more then 10GB RAM :D


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How to distinguish between SIM cards in a Dual SIM phone?
The Dual SIM management interface at least under Android 10 is badly designed. With two SIMs inserted, esp. when they are of the same mobile operator, I struggle with quickly determining which status bar icon or SIM card list entry refers to which SIM card.
What best practices are available to help deal with this situation?

By "badly designed", I refer to these issues:

The SIM card list in Android settings and the SIM icon list in the Android status bar do not make clear by which criterion they are ordered. They do not make any reference to the concept of a "first" and "second" SIM card, so it is not even clear if there is such a concept at all in Android.

The freetext "SIM names" that one can assign to SIM cards in Android do not make clear if they are names for SIM cards or SIM card slots.

At least for some SIM cards, the SIM info screen of Android does not list any information. Neither the card's phone number, nor the SIM card ID (a long number printed on the card), nor any other ID.

When one connection type abbreviation ("4G", "3G" etc.) is written between the two signal strength indicator icons in the status bar, it is unclear if SIM1 (left icon) or SIM2 (right icon) has the active data connection. Of course, one could remember that the connection type always refers to the icon following it, but one will also forget again …

On top, the layout of the SIM tray on some phones (e.g. Galaxy Note 9) is counterintuitive as the first SIM card is at the bottom, while in the Android UI, the first SIM card is always listed at the top. The tray has "SIM1" and "SIM2" written on it, but this is very small and easy to overlook.

AFAICT, the "Sim Names" in the settings is actually a name per subscription, which is neither SIM nor slot

The following process for installing and naming SIM cards in a Dual SIM phone helped me to identify SIMs clearly and quickly at all times. This refers to a use case when you want to use one SIM for mobile data and the other for phone calls. You may have to adapt that to your use case.

Place your data SIM into the SIM 1 slot. Insert the SIM tray into the phone.
Give your data SIM a SIM name "SIM1 Network-Name Data" in the Android settings. Obviously, change "Network-Name" to the name of your network operator, such as "O2" or "T-Mobile".
Place your phone SIM into the SIM 2 slot. Insert the SIM tray into the phone.
Give your phone SIM a SIM name "SIM2 Network-Name Phone" in the Android settings.

Why and how this helps
By inserting and naming one SIM card after the other in a two-step process, it becomes easy to identify which of the two SIM cards is which in Android, even if both SIM cards are for the same mobile network.
After naming SIM cards, you can in principle swap them in the SIM tray. The SIM names refer to the SIM cards and not the SIM slots, so swapping cards will change the icon position and position in the SIM card list, but will have no effect on the SIM card configurations. So after the initial setup, it would be easiest to always and only identify your SIM card by name in Android, forgetting about which card is in which slot. However, that is not recommendable because there is one exception that requires us to know which SIM card is SIM 1 and which is SIM 2: the signal strength icons in the status bar only use positions (SIM 1 left, SIM 2 right), not SIM names. Due to this, it is best to simply include the SIM number at the start of your SIM name (e.g. "SIM1 O2"). That also makes it clear that SIMs are ordered by SIM number in the SIM list, which is otherwise not obvious.
In addition, it is best to put the SIM used for data connections into the SIM 1 slot. This is because otherwise you'll be confused when trying to figure out to which SIM a single connection type identifier ("4G", "3G" etc.) refers when it appears in between the two signal strength icons in the status bar. The connection type identifier always refers to the icon following it, but you will forget that. Placing the data SIM into the SIM 1 slot makes it unnecessary to remember this, as the connection type identifier icon will then appear before the first icon, evidently referring to that first icon and not the second.
In addition, it can be a good idea to include the ending digits of the SIM card numbers in the Android SIM names, for example "SIM1 O2 Data #…5481. That makes it possible to make sure the SIM cards are in the trays they should be, even if both come from the same network operator. It also tells you which physical SIM card is meant for which use, without having to consult other notes in or out of the phone.


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How to create 5Ghz hotspot on a rooted Android that doesn't give built in 5Ghz option?
My Galaxy S8 did have a 5Ghz option on the stock rom, but Lineage OS 19.1 based on Android 12 doesn't have the option to host a 5Ghz hotspot.

Related for 6GHz: How to create a 6Ghz hotspot on a rooted Android?


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How to make incoming text messages remind me every 2 minutes?
Most notifications I get from my Android are not urgent. But Text messages (SMS) probably are.
I would like my phone to not stop notifying me about Text messages until I finally acknowledge it.
How can I do this?
I'm running the latest "Pixel Experience" mod on a Pixel 4A.
I'm willing to use any app that can do this for me.
Thanks.

Replace Your SMS Ringtone with a long one - It is a better approach than an infinity loop that may drain out the battery.

You could use an app like Missed Notifications Reminder (F-Droid / Google Play) to achieve this, which "allows to monitor notifications from any applications which are important for You and perform sound reminder periodically" (taken from the app's description). I have not tried it myself, so no guarantees how well it works – but going by it's description it should do exactly what you want.


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Why have all Android TV remote apps stopped working?
As on date, nothing on play store can detect my Kogan TV running stock Android TV 9. The Google TV app is supposed to have a remote now, but it isn't shown for me. The system Android TV remote service on my TV is version 5.1+ (supposedly you need it to be > version 5).
None of the other remote apps can detect the TV over WiFi or Bluetooth - I see review ratings of 2 and 3 all over the place with the same complaint. Is there a fix or a working app or has Google intercoursed everybody as usual with one of their updates, given they apparently retired their standalone remote app for bundling it with the stupid Google TV app, which is bloatware if all you want is a remote (assuming the feature is available, which is isn't for me)?
If at all relevant, I'm using an ASUS ROG phone 5 with Android 12.

This problem comes from an update of Android TV Remote Service. In this update they modified the whole communication protocol.
Here is my app, that works even with this update: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dev.niamor.androidtvremote
If you need, you can contact me by email directly from the app.
Thank you.

This was one of the apps I tried - fails to detect the TV over the same network and doesn't seem to let you manually specify the TV's address. The TV is connected to the router via LAN cable and successfully pings from my phone.

I have found that the reason the remote tv apps are not working is an update to the android remote tv service on the android tv device. Users are finding that uninstalling the update on the TV device and turning off auto updates seems to solve the problem.


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What to do if malware not gone after complete factory reset?
I have a virus in my Samsung galaxy s21a, and even after a complete factory reset phone doesn't recover. What would be other solutions to fix it?

For Samsung there are PC based tools available which can download an original ROM: https://www.xda-developers.com/download-samsung-software-updates-samsung-firmware-downloader/ Such a downloaded ROM should be installable via Odin/Heimdall to reset the system partition.

What virus/malware survives a factory reset on a device without root access? (Legitimate question, not being snark)


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How to disable the "verified links" feature?
With Android 12, Google introduced the verified links feature that requires apps to verify ownership of domains for which they want to handle links. (Handling links refers to the behavior where when you tap a link to the Wikipedia website it will instead open the Wikipedia app.)
This means that third party apps (e.g. third party Reddit or Wikipedia readers) can't "hijack" links anymore, which I however do desire as I trust these applications and want to use them instead of the "blessed" official apps.
Websites are in control of my device's actions. How can I restore the previous behaviour of the Android system trusting all installed applications and asking me which apps I prefer to open URLs in rather than a website?
I am open to FOSS apps, Magisk modules and even patches to the AOSP to disable this anti-feature.

Not FOSS apps, but covered on XDA: This app lets you take back control over how Android 12 opens links

I am probably misunderstanding, but https://developer.android.com/training/app-links/verify-site-associations#unverified-apps suggests to me that there is a way for the user to still choose what opens the links?

Yes, by manually adding each and every URL to the app's whitelist which is tedious in many cases as websites often have many sub-domains and mirrors. You're also no longer able to allow multiple apps to open a URL and choose between them which is an indispensable feature of the old behaviour for many.

@Atemu I tried my best with the edit to respect the spirit of the question. Glad to see you were able to build upon that. Anyway, to be fair, if I am a website owner and I link to a domain, I don't expect a "man in the middle" to be able to "hijack" that link. To give an example, let's say I am on "mybank.com" and click the link "internetbanking.mybank.com", then nothing should be able to get 'in between' that expect the app of the bank. I got a bit pissed at Google when I thought they didn't allow explicit handling of links, but as it turns out they did... this feature really does make sense.

Yeah, the original wording was a representation of my anger of Google entirely breaking my workflow with no viable alternative. Your edit was completely justified. I can see your point and it really is a security hole but I generally don't install applications on my phone that I don't trust. It could've been much better solved by showing the "Open with" dialog with the option to use the hijacking app or continue your web browser with "Just once" and "Always" buttons just like before. Instead we got a typical Google solution: "Ask the cloud!"...

A good FOSS solution I have found is https://github.com/tasomaniac/OpenLinkWith.
You need to enable its (more or less) experimental browser mode under "App Features" -> "Set as Browser" and set the app as the default browser.
It then acts very similar to how the old link opening dialog used to work and looks similar aswell:

(This is indeed the app's dialog, not the OS'!)


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Problems booting into recovery magisk (Android 12)
I rooted my Samsung Note 10 running Android 12/One UI 4.1 using Magisk in recovery mode a few weeks ago, however since then I have only managed to successfully boot with Magisk once. I have tried many different timings of holding the power button and volume up button simultaneously to no avail.
What I've been told is that the timing is to wait for the last warning splash screen and then let go, so I tried that a few times and it didn't work.
The one time it did work I held the buttons until the SAMSUNG logo splash screen (after the warnings) when the phone vibrates, then it shows something along the lines of
[PDP]
back-up: fail
setup-wizard: success

but when I go to the Magisk app it shows N/A in the installed field and the su command in terminal doesn't work.
I'm trying to find out if there's a way to reliably boot into Magisk or if there's anything I'm doing wrong.
Thank you for your help <3

what happens when you type su in terminal

@alecxs nothing, said it's an unknown command. i managed to reliably boot to recovery using adb (adb reboot recovery) so i've been using that to get into root lately

I have the same issue, but I was never able to get the root to work. By any chance, were you able to solve it?


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Media Storage app taking too much space
I have been using Vivo Iqoo Z6 Pro with 8GB base RAM and 128GB storage for about a week now. This app called Media Storage used to take up almost no space on my phone. And just four days ago, I noticed that the app had taken about 5GB of space. I wasn't so sure then, so I waited a bit more. And today, the same system app has taken up more than 10GB of my space. I don't know what to do. I can't even reset it.

 .

I connected my phone to my laptop and cleared the media module folder through ADB (adb shell pm clear com.google.android.providers.media.module), but still, the app shows no signs of taking less storage.
How do I clear the app data? Please help. Btw my media files and photos take up different storage, they have nothing to do with this.

Please include exactly the command(s) you have performed via adb.

adb shell pm clear com.google.android.providers.media.module


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Boot into recovery without Volume Key
My Android 9 Phone is stuck in bootloop. It is rooted.
My phone Vol Down Key is broken.
Is there a way to boot into recovery without using vol button.
(similar questions only had device specific queries or working phones to use adb or apps)

vol up key - fastboot oem reboot recovery or fastboot boot recovery.img

its emui - huawei - does not support reboot to recovery from fastboot


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Force an app to be able to auto-rotate in Android 12
I have some apps, like Spotify for example, which for some inexplicable reason do not allow me to rotate some activities (like the player) into landscape.
I am looking for an app or method that can force these apps to follow my device rotation despite that.
Up until Android 12, I used to use rotation manager for this purpose. It wasn't perfect but it did the job.
It no longer seems to function however: Turning on "Forced Auto" still works but it now prevents touches from being registered in any other app which is obviously bad and unusable.
(I have a feeling this might be a new security "feature".)

"prevents touches from being registered in any other app" that looks like a bug with apps that have "draw over other apps" permission. Anyway, have you tried other rotation manager apps? Do they show the same issue?

Tap 'n' turn does not exhibit this behaviour. The app did not have this issue before Android 12 however. What could have caused rotation manager's implementation to fail but not Tap 'n' Turn's?

Apps that can draw over other apps, can also intercept touch, but it has been like that for a very long time, so I don't think it's an Android 12 issue. That possibly leaves with how the overlay is drawn over the apps, which might change accidentally due to an Android update. Need to check and debug the app's source code to be sure though, since looks like the app hasn't been updated since 2014.

I achieved what I personally want (always SCREEN_ORIENTATION_UNSPECIFIED) using a crude patch to android_frameworks/base:
https://github.com/Atemu/robot-config/blob/282f7bbf6477dc4c6677ece77d528eff5b833d86/0001-always-have-screenOrientation-SCREEN_ORIENTATION_UNS.patch
I'm not 100% sure all of these hunks are necessary or even complete but what it's supposed to do is stub any write access to an activity's in-code representation of its screenOrientation preference such that it's always on the default SCREEN_ORIENTATION_UNSPECIFIED.


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Remotely Enable USB Debugging on my Samsung S8+ when the screen is dead
My Samsung S8+ recently had its screen die. I am trying to use Vysor to mirror the screen onto my laptop, but I cannot turn on USB Debugging due to the dead screen.
Is there a way to remotely enable USB Debugging? Or is there a way to bypass the requirement altogether?

The S8 may be old enough to support an external screen connected via MHL adapter so that you can connect to to an external monitor or TV. Alternatively Android phones can be controlled via USB mouse or keyboard. If you manage to add blindly an Bluetooth keyboard you can acknowledge the adb dialog that pops up when you try to use adb from a connected PC.


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Lenovo Tab P11 erased recovery mode, need to hard reset with computer
I erased recovery_a and recovery_b, Unnofficial TWRP doesn't work. need a recovery that works. Won't boot into twrp and need a hard reset. Can't access OS but fastboot works.
HELP!

I would use the internal name of the tablet (for Lenovo usually something like TB?????) and check if you can find a download of the original recovery.

I found an unofficial TWRP Recovery image, but I have already tried to flash it.

stock recovery is restored automatically. depending on what you mean with "can't access OS" it may required to flash stock ROM

Recovery has been erased and userdata has been erased. can't access OS

I can access fastboot and test modes. Recovery mode has been erased via computer command and The actual Android system cannot boot.

fastboot: error: Cannot generate image for userdata

How do I flash stock ROM of Lenovo J606F? What commands and what image file?

booted to fastboot and ran fastboot format:ext4 userdata in cmd. But then I powered it on and it rebooted into FFBM Mode.

I don't know what FFBM mode is but guess you can leave it by vol + pwr combination for fastboot mode. stock ROM can downloaded here

from what I have read I think FFBM mode is Qualcomm DIAG 901D mode used for NV_items_reader_writer (yet another flash method) but LMSA is afaik official flash tool

If you find yourself in a situation where you follow the guide at https://unofficialtwrp.com/twrp-3-4-2-root-lenovo-tb-j606f/
only to find your Lenovo Android Device in a fastboot-only state, please use Lenovo rescue and smart assistant to flash stock recovery and the stock Android image to factory reset the tablet.
You can download it at
https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/ds101291


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Converting long-scrolling screenshot to PDF on Android without white background
Suppose I have a long-scrolling screenshot that I took with a phone, and when I convert it using those apps, it looks like the screenshot is just put on the regular-size white background page as you can see below.

I know there are lots of Android apps that are able to convert images to PDF, but the problem is all of them, mostly, include a white background. I've tried the online version as well, but still the same.
I know this is possible because I used an app called Xodo, it only converts the first image without background, but the page from 2 to the end has a white background around it.
Do you know if there's an app that could do that or another way, so it's just the screenshot being the page, with no white background included?

The white background appers because the image you're converting is a long screenshot (small width, large height) and cannot fit a page. You'll have to cut the image into pieces and then they will appear as pages. Take a look at this answer, you can use ImageMagick within the Termux Android app. For example, you can type ./convert long_screenshot.jpg -crop 1x5@ +repage pages.jpg.


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VLC for Android: No connection to local network
All of a sudden, my VLC for Android app just up and stopped showing the local LAN network shares which are Samba running on a Xubuntu 20.04 host.  I have no clue to what caused this. I have verified that the share is indeed shared via this on that Linux host that has the samba service activated:
$ smbclient -L wilddog
Enter WORKGROUP\XXXX's password:

    Sharename       Type      Comment
    ---------       ----      -------
    samba_share     Disk      Shared Folder
    print$          Disk      Printer Drivers
    IPC$            IPC       IPC Service (XXXXX server (Samba, Ubuntu))
    testprinter     Printer
SMB1 disabled -- no workgroup available
$

From the VLC For Android app, all I see now is this:

EDIT: I have rebooted both the phone, and the Linux server, to no avail.  I've also restarted the samba server on the Linux server, also to no avail.
What do I need to do to diagnose this?

Have you checked the Samba log files on the server?

Ah. Yes. That.  I checked it, and no such connection from the IP address of my phone. So that leads me back to figuring out why the phone itself is not able to see that local network. Thank you very much. I'll self-answer this question with the details.

Robert's comment clued me into the fact that  the phone itself had somehow gotten into a mode whereby the main WiFI icon that is displayed on the phone did not reflect the connection status as it should have IMO. No indication about which WiFI it was connected to was available, until which time that I long-pressed onto that icon, and saw that it listed WiFI networks, but was not connected. Once I connected to my WiFI network, I was able to then see the SMB shares in the VLC app. See annotated screenshot below:


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How can I disable remote wipe, in a way that can't be remotely re-enabled?
I don't want my Android phone to be remotely wipeable. I have this setting disabled on my phone, and the device administrator for Find My Device is disabled. However, https://android.com/find has an "Enable lock and erase" button that will remotely change these settings back, which seems to defeat the purpose of having them in the first place. How can I actually turn these off in a way that can't be remotely turned back on?

Have you tested that Find My Device can reenable wiping remotely or is it just a guess?

@Robert I've previously tested that it actually does change the settings I mentioned, but I haven't tried actually doing the wipe.


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Android 8.0.0: can not enable developer options for USB debugging?
Android 8.0.0: can not enable developer options for USB debugging?
When I tap the "Developer Options", says:
Turn on Developer options first.

About Phone > Software Information >  Build number.
Tap the build number, says:
Developer mode has already been turned on.

Samsung Galaxy S7.

If you search this site for the error message you will find identical questions with answers how to bypass this problem.

Searched this site. if you could provide me the link, it would be great. thanks.

Does this answer your question? Android : Can't access developer option after enable the developer mode


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How to back up encrypted /data atomically in Android 12?
I accidentally upgraded my phone to Android 12 instead of a newer Android 11 and, to my dismay, it seems encryption was changed in a way that makes TWRP unable to decrypt my /data.
For backups, I ran borgbackup on /data from TWRP and would like to continue doing so. This strategy relied on TWRP being able to decrypt /data however.
Is there another way to get:

Decrypted /data
No active processes modifying /data (ideally have it readonly)
Shell access
A writable rootfs where I can create a subdirectory to mount a tmpfs on

I tried using Magisk to mount -o remount,ro /data in a running system but that didn't work: mount: '/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata'->'/data': Device or resource busy

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=balti.migrate

Is that an answer? If so, post it as one. Also, does that even fit in here? Is its backup mechanism atomic?

TWRP does not support Samsung encryption, just left a link for alternative backup method

With 3.7.0, TWRP now supports Android 12's decryption, so that fixes that.
Should something like this happen again in the future, Shut down the Android OS partially into a "recovery mode"/recovery runlevel could also be used to back up data without any process writing but I haven't tried to make that work with my special setup yet.


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Shut down the Android OS partially into a "recovery mode"/recovery runlevel
Android fundamentally still is a Linux system which have runlevels/targets intended for recovery purposes.
Is it possible to stop the Android OS far enough so that Apps, the UI and most system services aren't running anymore but I still have adb access?

This is a possible solution to https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/246840/how-to-back-up-encrypted-data-atomically-in-android-12 but I feel it's worth its own question.

Android uses Linux kernel but userspace is entirely different than common Linux distros. There are no init runlevels or targets. Recovery is a complete operating system in itself, having its own kernel and init. Related: How to quickly understand the Android UI. adbd is an init service which can run independent of the UI. But it can be tricky.

In a related discussion, a Reddit user pointed out to me that the stop and start commands offer a functionality like this.
stop brings most of the Android system down, including apps, services etc. but not ADB.
start starts the Android system again from the boot animation.


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Manually decrypt data from recovery-mode?
AFAICT, Android builds upon Linux' standard fscrypt as implemented in ext4 and f2fs.
I know my pattern and have access to a shell with any Linux program in it.
How can I decrypt /data manually, without the Android OS running? (i.e. from Lineage Recovery)
If that's not feasible, why?

This is a possible solution to https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/246840/how-to-back-up-encrypted-data-atomically-in-android-12 but I feel it's worth its own question.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/3894561


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How do I make my headset button resume podcast player instead of music player?
I am using Samsung Galaxy A10e on Android 11. I have AIMP music player and Free Offline Podcast Player FM installed. I am also using the Groove "onn. Wireless Neckband" headset.
I have just installed Bluetooth connect & Play, but it does not do this. I even force-stopped the music player in the apps menu, but no change.
How do I make my headset button resume the podcast player instead of the music player?


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Backing up a partition to desktop with adb and pv
I had once found a fast method to backup device partitions to a computer using adb and pv (provided by a TWRP temporary boot image). pv ran on the Android device and was called using adb, specifically, I think, using adb exec-out. cat might have been involved. dd was not used, I'm 85% sure of that, because I need/needed to see the copy progress.
I am unable to find it now. What was it?

Isn't pv a tool uses for monitoring progress, how can you backup a partition using that tool? Also if you intend to pipe the data from Android to the host PC using adb shell you will recognize that this will change the transferred data (net lines). Better use adb exec-out.

See "CREATING PARTITION DUMP" heading in this answer: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/208114/218526

@Robert "Monitoring progress" is vague. I've mostly seen pv $A $B to copy one partition to another or to a file while displaying the operation's progress, which I need to see to know that a copy operation hasn't stalled. I probably did use adb exec-out instead of adb shell.

@IrfanLatif Your linked answer uses dd which is inefficient and does not display the progress.

@Melab I've just counted. I described 7 methods there to create a partition dump. Seems like you are in a hurry. So what you can do is open the linked answer, press Ctrl + F in your browser, and type " pv " without quotation marks. The search results will quickly lead you to 2 commands in which I've used pv. None of the both uses dd. // Btw I hope you are aware of dd status=progress .... If not, please read here. Also see pv to correct your understanding of how it works.

'adb pull -p /dev/block/dm-0' will give you progress bar


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Recover deleted file on phone using FBE
Suppose we have a phone that:

Runs Android 10.
Uses file-based encryption.

Suppose one of the files is deleted, but the phone is immediately turned off so as to prevent the deleted file from being overwritten. Can the file be recovered and decrypted? What if the phone runs on Android 9?

Each file in FBE is encrypted by a different random crypto key that is stored encrypted by a different key into flash memory. I don't know how many data traces are left in file-system after deleting a file but even if we assume you would be able to fully recover the encrypted file data and th encrypted file key you would still need to decrypt the key which itself is derived multiple times from keys of a higher rank. And everything depends on a key stored protected in the CPU protected Trusted Execution Environment of your system. To my knowledge this should be next to impossible.

And to my knowledge there is no difference between FBE in Android 9 and 10.

There's this answer about "recovering" the key for FBE, but I don't know if it may work as described.


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Why are Android ELF files different?
When I try to run a x64 ELF file which was build for Android on my desktop PC I get a "file not found" error.
I think that's normal because Android ELF files aren't compatible to normal ELF files.
What is the reason behind this?

The standard libraries on Android are a bit different. Have you checked the linked libraries of the executable via ldd?

Build a statically linked program and it'll work on both sides. For dynamically linked binaries/libraries a linker is required which links and loads the libraries required by the executed program. Linker path is hard-coded in the program. It is /system/bin/linker in case of Android (when built with NDK), while something like /lib/ld.so in case of common Linux distros (when built with GCC etc.). So execution won't start at all.

The ELF file format is the same. The difference is the file paths embedded in the ELF file.
ELF is a very general format, which can encode many things about the contents of a file. Linux, Android, and many other operating systems use ELF format for executables and libraries but that does not make them compatible. It's like having directions for different journeys by road. They're all written in the same language (corresponding to ELF) but trying to follow directions for getting to Koln from Stuttgart when you're starting in Frankfurt won't work.
As per the comments, if you build a completely statically linked executable for x86-64 it may well work both in the Android emulator and on your Linux desktop. However, most programs need to use system libraries, and the linker embeds the names of those libraries, and the path to the run-time linker in your ELF executables.
Although Android uses a Linux kernel, the system libraries and run-time linker are completely different from Linux. Android uses the Bionic library, and most Linuxes use glibc. This was deliberate: Android was originally designed for fairly slow devices without much RAM, and needed a library that didn't take up much space and ran quickly. Glibc could assume more powerful hardware.
The Android run-time linker is /system/bin/linker (or /system/bin/linker64 for 64-bit code). The Linux run-time linker is usually /lib/ld.so (or /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 for 64-bit code). Obviously, these are different paths, and each only exists on the relevant operating system. The "file not found" error you get when running an Android ELF file on Linux is a complaint that /system/bin/linker64 doesn't exist on your Linux system.


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Disable vibration per app/Globally No Root
I would like to disable vibration for specific app or Globally. There is app for sound "App Volume Control Pro" that can do it for sound without root. Is there any app that can do that for vibration?

You can do that by setting VIBRATE AppOp permission of the app from allow to ignore. Please see my answer to How to determine which app is causing vibration?

No Root is the key.

Noted. You don't necessarily need root to set an AppOp permission. ADB privileges suffice.

Yes this is the answer xD.

Is there a command for sound/notifications?


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Legacy Android 4.0 CA-Certificates Update
I have two legacy Android 4.0 Garmin Monterra devices. It's not possible anymore to open the Google Play Store or some websites. When I open most of the websites with Chrome, I receive an SSL error 107. Some websites with HTTPS or HTTP are possible to open. I'm guessing that there is an issue with the CA certificates.
I found this solution Update trusted SSL root certs in AOSP, but it's not possible to copy the certificates to the devices. I tried the ADB-Shell but without any success (permission issue).
Is there any solution to update expired certificates? Is it possible to convert the ca-certificates from the .0 file format to any other possible format and to import over the SD certificate import from Android 4.0?

Why don't you use the UI to import the certificate. But even with working certificates you may encounter problems as Android 4.0 does only support TLS 1.0 but most servers now require TLS 1.1 or even TLS 1.2.

I tried the UI to import the certificates but I got always the message that "no certificates found on sd card"

In what format had you placed the certificates on the SD-card section, .cer/.crt (DER encoded) as .pem or as .p12?

Exported from Chrome (Windows), it should be .cer format (DER encoded). Is a special directoy required on the sd card?

I spent a fair amount of time trying to work around the TLS limitations of Android 4.0.4 and in the process, found an install path that has given me access to the Play Store on Monterra. I was even able to download a few apps on the Monterra via the Play Store. I already had success using ADB to sideload any APKs that I wanted, but I was not going to be happy until I could log in to all things Google.
Not sure if this matters but I have Opera Mini installed before starting all of this...
The first step was to go through the app settings and clear cache > clear data > disable each Google entity. I disabled everything including the keyboard (actually, I think I left Google Maps enabled). Next, I went through and did the following in this exact order and with these specific APK versions:

Reenable Google Account Manager in App settings. Then use ADB to reinstall with the -r flag
adb install -r "com.google.android.gsf.login_4.4-927798-19_minAPI8(nodpi)_apkmirror.com.apk"

Reenable Google Services Framework. Use ADB to reinstall with the -r flag
adb install -r "com.google.android.gsf_4.0.1-228551-14_minAPI14(nodpi)_apkmirror.com.apk"

Reenable Google Play Services. Use ADB to reinstall with the -r flag
adb install -r "com.google.android.gms_14.8.49_(000302-231258850)-14849001_minAPI14(armeabi-v7a)(160dpi)_apkmirror.com.apk"

Reenable Google Play Store. Use ADB to reinstall with the -r flag
adb install -r "com.android.vending_9.8.31-all_0_PR_195868990-80983100_minAPI14(armeabi,armeabi-v7a,mips,mips64,x86,x86_64)(240,320,480dpi)_apkmirror.com.apk"

The above is what I had documented. The following can be accredited to my best attempt at recollection. I think I opened the Play Store and was prompted with the usual login request. I expected it to fail, but to my surprise, it authenticated me and gave me a list of antiquated apps. One of which was Puzzle Block which was installed without a hitch! I honestly do not know why it is working... somehow it is hitting a repo with compatible apps. Feeling confident I proceeded to reinstall Chrome:

Reenable Google Chrome. Use ADB to reinstall with the -r flag
adb install -r com.android.chrome-42.0.2311.111-2311111-minAPI14.apk

I uninstalled Opera Mini since it was not performing as well as Chrome v42...
It's worth noting that any APKs you load, especially the ones I listed, need to be API version 14. Others may work, but my initial attempt at this failed and I think it failed because one of the APKs I loaded was version 15.


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How to remotely access full file system on Android for backup?
I have always used SFTP servers on my Android devices, with sync scripts run on my server daily to perform backups. I also transfer files to and from the devices this way.
With each version of Android, it becomes increasingly challenging. I now have a Samsung Tab7 FE with Android 11. I have spent hours buying and trying FTP servers, and none are working. Some only allow access to /storage/emulated/0, and the physical (external) sd-card is completely unavailable. After reading about Storage Access Framework (SAF), I found the Primitive ftpd from F-droid says it supports SAF, but it can only access new folders created by the Primitive sftpd app, and not the full file system.
What are workable approaches to provide filesystem access on Android over Wi-Fi, to enable unattended automatic backup and file transfer?
Edit - I am aware of ADB approaches, but as far as I know they are not unattended and automatic. I want to leave the tablet idle, connected to Wi-Fi, and have my script backup the tablet unattended at 2am.

Related: How to backup apps and data on non-rooted Android without needing a PC?

What OS are you running on your computer? Maybe ADB over WiFi in conjunction with adbfs-rootless would be an option (I use that here, though via USB, to access my devices)?

there should be entry in developer options for legacy storage

What I don't understand if you're going to have unattended full backup it requires rooted device - therefore why bother with SAF? use your power of su https://android.stackexchange.com/q/245392


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How to make file executable and belong to my user on Android (rooted phone)
I've put an executable into my /sdcard folder, and here it is:
-rw-rw---- 1 root everybody   4128608 2022-05-28 18:46 hello_world

it belongs to root. I tried
citrus:/sdcard $ chown citrus:citrus hello_world
chown: bad user 'citrus'

su and then chmod +x hello_world but nothing changes.
How can I make this executable and belong to a normal user, whoever this mioght be.
Android 11 Poco M3

Move your binary to /data/local/tmp/ and set permissions there. For chown and chmod read this. For understanding users concept on Android read the second paragraph here. For more details see this and this.


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How to connect keyboard and mouse on AndroidTV so that it works with Cast (Screen Mirroring) on my phone
Recently, I have been looking for ways to cast my phone screen to AndroidTV. I found a way with Android's built-in thing for screen casting and all worked well.
Now, since I'm not a fan of the idea of looking for Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, I am interested to know if it's possible to attach a mouse and a keyboard to the AndroidTV (where the screen is being casted from the phone) and for it to work on my phone.
Cause the AndroidTV has USB ports, I want my phone screen shown on the TV but it doesn't make much sense if I have to look at my phone for everything.

Do you use the Chrome cast functionality which simply forwards the playlist to the cast target or do you simply cast the visible screen of your phone?

I just use Cast and this thing called Screen Mirroring on my AndroidTV. So far, it's making my screen visible on TV, but I have no options to use a mouse attached to the USB port of my TV or anything like that. Surprisingly though, when I play sound on my phone, it is heard with the TV's speakers

As the name implies casting was developed to "redirect" videos from the small smartphone screen to the TV. Therefore display and sound to the TV works. The opposite direction is not possible, I assume because of security problems, because otherwise you would never know if it is safe to connect to a TV or not. If you want to fully remote control a phone then you have to use appropriate remote control software like like TeamViewer.


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Need some help with fastboot to install twrp on moto g pure
I am trying to root the phone, by following the instructions here. I did unlock OEM and am able to see my device. But can not flash to recovery. So I tried booting twrp first but that does not work for me either. I did see this link and the comment about using the stock boot image. I have not tried that yet since my issue is slightly different. Thanks in advance for any advice. I am doing all this on Fedora platform.
sudo ./fastboot devices
[sudo] password for ****:
####### Motorola Fastboot Interface

sudo ./fastboot boot recovery.img
[sudo] password for *****:
Sending 'boot.img' (42408 KB)                      OKAY [  1.581s]
Booting                                            (bootloader) Command is not support
FAILED (remote: '')
fastboot: error: Command failed
sudo ./fastboot flash /recovery recovery.img
Sending '/recovery' (42408 KB)                     OKAY [  1.676s]
Writing '/recovery'                                (bootloader) Invalid partition name /recovery
FAILED (remote: '')
fastboot: error: Command failed

The partition name is recovery (without slash), not /recovery.

some devices don't have recovery partition. temporary flash twrp into boot partition instead (slot B), switch active slot, boot into twrp, Menu > Advanced > Install Recovery Ramdisk (slot A), don't forget copy slot A > slot B to restore boot.img

beware the link you shared is for Qualcomm (rav). yours is MediaTek SoC (ellis)

@Andrew I tried w/o slash and same result.

@alecxs I tried to boot; the output is in the post. Thank you for info on Media Tek. I did not know that. If I mistyped something, please let me know?

https://developer.android.com/studio/run/device link says to do something with Groupdev if you are using Ubuntu. I have not given that fastboot devices gives me an output.

I doubt you actually have TWRP for your device (code name ellis?) therefore root it by patching boot.img without TWRP

@alecxs thanks. I think the steps are https://android.stackexchange.com/a/212029/374168 . The comment also says Magisk is an option. Do you agree? I can not get over how the errors seem to be due to the wrong command. Am I wrong? I posted a question in the Motorola forum.

@alecxs it looks like even if I root it, with Magisk or a patch I can not flash it a costume rom. According to https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/moto-g-pure-xt2163-4-vs-xt2163-2-lte-bands.4368073/

if bootloader is unlockable you can boot GSI https://www.xda-developers.com/dsu-sideloader-boot-custom-android-gsi

@alecxs wow sounds like exactly what I need. I'll try it. Thank you.


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How can I convert an android rom from 32bit to 64bit?
My phone (Samsung Galaxy A10s) is a little unknown phone and it has few custom roms for it, I want one that is 64bits, arm64 and android 10 or 9, I didn't find any, so I wanted to make one myself, I read a lot and I know how to do most of what I want, but I don't know how to transform the rom into 64bits, my cell phone supports 64bits but it is in 32bits mode, and even though there is no 64bit rom for it, does anyone know a way for me to transform it in 64bit?

If you only have a binary ROM this is impossible. Theoretically if you would have all the sources of the ROM (kernel and all Android parts) you could compile a 64bit ROM from it, but there are two problems: usually you don't have everything in source so pre-compiled parts will still be 32bit so you would have to remove them (-> lose of functionality). Additionally your phone has only 2GB RAM which is in my opinion the main reason for the 32bit builds as 64bit builds require slightly more RAM and RAM is already short on your phone.

flash this TWRP and install 64 bit a/b GSI by phhusson


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Start/Stop Music playing when power is supplied via the USB cable
I'd like to use an old(er) Android phone as a Music Player left always connected in my car. I have an ignition controlled USB socket in the car, and would also connect the 3.5mm jack to the Aux In of the car. Is there a way to set a Music Player (e.g. MediaMonkey) to 'continue' playing when power is supplied to the USB charging cable, and then stop when power is disconnected?
The reason I'd like to do this is because the Infotainment system in my car (Mazda CX-5) is horribly slow to start up, and music on USB memory stick or played over Bluetooth from my phone takes 2-3 minutes to start up (whereas music connected via the Aux-In starts up almost immediately). I have Android Auto and that's even worse!
I've searched this (and other) forums without finding anything that does this simply.
Thanks!

I don't think that there is a music player that directly can start playing when USB is connected. But USB charging starts/stops is a global event which can be received by any app, therefore apps like tasker could be used to listen for this event and then send an command/intent to MediaMonkey to continue playing. Unfortunately MediaMonkey knowledgebase on that topic seems to be non-public. You could also create a post on for this topic https://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/

Thanks Robert. I'm a member over on media monkey, so I'll have alook around/ask on there.

Bixby Routines
If you have a newish Samsung device with bixby routines (found in advanced settings) then you can create a routine that triggers when the device begins charging that can send the OS's "play music" command, open specific apps, and call actions that those app registered with android. You might need to open the app, and then send the OS's "play music" command.
Automation apps
If you don't have a Samsung device, then there are apps that can likely solve your problem. An app called ITTT is a well known automation app that may solve your problem. It can detect when your device begins charging, and it can do one of three things: open an app, send the OS's "play music" command, or integrate with specific services, like Spotify, and use reliable platform specific commands such as playing a shuffled playlist.
If ITTT doesn't work, other automation apps may.

Thanks Grant, will have a play with Bixby as well. I'm making some progress now with Tasker, but it's great to have alternatives!


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Does Android Always-on-Display enable deep sleep or doze mode?
It seems to me as waste of resources if CPU still needs to be turned on while only the display is active for Always-on-display. Or do the new phones have any special provisions for AOD that only GPU is active?


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Forgot password for android device not able to reset it
I recently bought a new phone and forgot about the old one, and now I can't remember the password for the old device. I tried

google findmyphone: didn't work
hard reset: asking for the password
ADB : USB debugging is on but can't accept the pop up

Is there any way I can reset the password of the device?

The password it is asking for after hard reset is the Factory Reset Protection (FRP). It just wants to know your Google password (not the device pin/password). So if you can use Google FindMyPhone you should know the used Google password and be able to unlock the device after factory/hard reset.

@Robert the password asked is 'indeed' the prev lockscreen password, not the Google account password. OEMs these days store lockscreen password on some separate partition => resetting /data and /system doesnt make the phone 'forget' the prev password. Refer my answer for the possible solution

OEMs these days store lockscreen password on some separate partition => resetting /data and /system doesnt make the phone 'forget' the prev password.
But there is a solution that works on most of the devices (the solution is flashing all partitions without formatting the partitions that store imei). Get the firmware flash tool for your device (eg sp flash for mediatek devices, something similar exists for qualcomm devices too).. A googling in the format "how to flash stock firmware on <your device>" would lead you to the right page.
I can't give any specific guide since you haven't mentioned your device model and there exists no generic guide except the outline I mentioned above.

Thanks for the comment, I tried using the qfil flash tool, But could not figure it out how to actually flash it.
I'm using Vivo z1 pro with android 11


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What is the difference between "Corning Gorilla Glass Victus" and "Corning Gorilla Glass Victus Plus"?
What is the difference between "Gorilla Glass Victus" and "Gorilla Glass Victus+"?
Samsung claims their S22 and S22+ and S22U phones have something called

Corning® Gorilla® Glass Victus®+

The problem is, even on Corning.com I can't find any information on Gorilla Glass Victus+, I can only find information about Victus.

From what I have read, Gorilla Glass Victus+ is a stronger, more scratch-resistant, and more durable version of Gorilla Glass Victus. It was the first time that Corning has collaborated with Samsung, getting the new glass, only for those Samsung devices.
The plus version of the glass would start to scratch at the level of 7 on Moh's Hardness Scale, while the plus version would be closer to ceramic, with an 8.


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Badge icons disappear when clearing notification
I have a Samsung Galaxy S22. Overall I'm happy with it, but there is this one annoying feature. After I clear a notification, my badge icon which shows the nunber of unread emails for example disappears too. I'm using Nova Launcher Prime. But I think this is rather a Android / Samsung issue.
I've seen this asked in the past for older phones, but couldn't find any useful answers.
Can this be solved with a 3rd party app?

Possibly related/dupe of Keep showing unread mail notification in Gmail (but not answered yet).

The main problem is because the notification counter reads directly from the notifications tray - even though in the app, you may have unread messages/notifications etc.
It's the way Android handles things in most cases. You can get an app that can log your notification history, to see if you've missed anything.
I've used Nova Launcher on lots of devices (Samsung,LG, Oneplus, Xiaomi) and they all behave this way. I cannot be 100% however, that ALL android phones do this.


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Install a fully functional Audible app on Android older than Android 6.0
I just bought a Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini, featuring Android 5.1. However, I cannot install the "Audible" audiobook app via Google Play (no search results).
I know that this should work, as I have the exact same device (bought earlier) where Audible is running (automatic app updates are switched off)
I tried downloading an older version (Audible-2.16.1) from www.apkmirror.com (not sure if the website is trustworthy) and installed it manually using ADB and USB debugging. The app kind of worked. At least I could log in and see my audiobooks. However, when trying to download any of the books, I get error messages.
I assume that the app tries to connect to the wrong (old) server when downloading.
Does anybody else have similar problems and knows how to get Audible going on older devices?

Audible 3.0.1 (APK Mirror) is the latest version that supports Android 4.1+ before it jumped to requiring a minimum Android version of Android 6.0.

Some additional clarifications to the question:

Since Audible 3.1.0 (March 25, 2021), the minimum Android version jumped to Android 6.0. This affects the app's visibility in the Play Store since incompatible apps will not be shown when searching directly from the app.
The major version jump from 2.x to 3.x possibly indicates a breaking change including on the backend server-side, thus Audible apps before 3.0.0 might not work properly anymore.
Last but not least, APK Mirror is considered trustworthy.


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How is "rooted debugging" allowed on a non-rooted phone?
I just installed Lineage 18.1 (Android 11) on an old phone.
Per the Lineage website, "Lineage is not rooted by default."
However, I am surprised to see the option "rooted debugging" is available in developer options and I can switch it on.
So my question is, how is it possible for me to allow rooted debugging if the phone is in fact not rooted.
What am I not getting?
Thanks!

Possibly related/dupe: if a user debug build comes with adb root access by default, does it contain the su binary?, which linked to a more in-depth technical explanation on What special privileges "/system/xbin/su" does have w.r.t. root access? and Why "adb root" does nothing?.

Are you sure this option has any effect on a non-rooted device? In which section inside developer options do you see this option?