text:
recover/restore deleted photos Android
ten days ago I deleted some photos (also from the trash). Is there even the slightest chance that they can be recovered, even forensically?
Or Trim/garbage collection have already done their job?
I'm not a great expert but as soon as you delete something trim is already working in the background, you should turn off your phone immediately to have even the slightest chance with chip-off, ten days is a long time.
(regardless of whether my phone is Oreo with FDE by default, let's just talk about trim)
thanks

there is a slight chance if really FDE encrypted. I remember that there was an issue with discard not executing immediately trim on /data. create raw partition image of userdata+metadata partition for backup with low level tool (edl or brom mode) then root phone and try extundelete.


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All Internet apps in grayscale
All Internet apps (chrome, Facebook, Gmail, YouTube) are only showing in grayscale. System settings don't seem to be the problem and all other apps show color.
Moto G5 power
Android v13

Are you talking about the app icons or the apps itself? If it is the first you may have enabled the aggressive battery saver which blocks most apps and disables them.

@Robert the apps themselves

This seems to be something to do with Digital Wellbeing, but since I can't get that to turn on, here's a Reddit thread that seems very relevant.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Xperia XZ1 - impossible to access bootloader after factory reset
I have this Xperia XZ1 which I unlocked the bootloader in the past to install custom Lineage through TWRP. As the distro wasn't working correctly with my carrier I reseted it to an official one.
Recently I did a factory reset and now, when I try to access the bootloader, for example to access TWRP to install Lineage, it seems there isn't any recovery boot available anymore.
When I start with power button + volume up, I get 3 vibrations and then nothing happens. When I start with power button + volume down it keeps restarting. When I access flash mode, through volume up + usb cable, I get the blue led but from there I can not do much with fastboot, trying to upload twrp results in nothing happening terminal wise.
Any idea where the recovery mode is or how to access it ? It feels the recovery mode disappeared from the phone.

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


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Why do phones have default limited user rights (not rooted)?

Possible Duplicate:
I've rooted my phone.  Now what?  What do I gain from rooting?
What does “to root a phone” mean?

I just spent half a day finding a rooting guide for Nexus S and I was wondering why root accounts aren't available on Android phones from the beginning? Being derived from Linux, why isn't it like on Linux with the root account and other accounts?
I am thinking maybe malware protection, but there are malicious software that can do harm without root account right? What are the major benefits?

edit your title because it contradicts your question, bad tagging too. Having devices not give you Super User permissions basically helps novices from accidentally misusing important files, directories or system resources thus potentially damaging their devices, gives the rom makers a place to store their own applications and content without worrying users may delete them (see, bloatware), prevents you from flashing roms or do other things that legally may void your warranty etc..

It is "like on linux". The root account and other accounts are always there, you just don't have access to them.

@RichardBorcsik Actually you can't just replace a vanilla linux kernel in an android distro. Making it a major fork at the very least. In that sense it is fair to say android is derived from linux, i.e. it is an androidified linux.

why root accounts aren't available on Android phones from the beginning?

Standard android apps are subject to Android permission system, which requires apps to declare the permission they require in a Manifest file. An app that have root access can easily circumvent around this permission system.

Being derived from Linux, why isn't it like on Linux with the root account and other accounts?

It is just like Linux. Even in desktop Linux distros, notably Ubuntu, the standard root account is disabled by inaccessible password.

I am thinking maybe malware protection, but there are malicious software that can do harm without root account right?

Yes, for example, there are malware apps that can send your contact lists to a shady server in a third world country. In a phone without root, these malicious apps will have to declare the permission to read your contact database in the Manifest, which is read and displayed before installing an app, giving you the chance to cancel installation. In rooted phones, it is possible for an app to read your contact database without explicitly declaring it in the Manifest, by asking for root permission instead. There are many other potential security breaches that can simply be avoided or minimized by disabling root access.
Also, in some systems, root can modify system files; modifying system files can make it impossible to completely revert to factory default (because those modifications would persist after the revert). Without root, one would have to use the bootloader to flash system file; greatly reducing the risk of malicious apps installing itself in a way that will persist over a factory reset.
Shipping phones without root also reduces the cost of customer support, as the number of ways that a customer may shoot him/herself in the foot are greatly reduced.
"With great power comes great responsibility", The sudo Lecture, also Ben Parker.

the standard root account is disabled by inaccessible password. Not really. The "owner" (first user created) can easily access it using sudo su - (especially on Ubuntu, yes). If afterwards he calls passwd, he can even login using root and the password he assigned. So exactly this one of the points where Android differs from Linux.

@Izzy: in Unix/Linux terminology, a "disabled" account is an account that is set to an unusable password. You're correct to say that other users accounts can still run setuid executable to a "disabled" account to effectively gain their privilege. However, this is not really a point of difference between Linux and Android, because both OS behave the same in this respect. Instead, the major difference is that neither su nor sudo is preinstalled in Android.

OK, I won't split hairs on that -- put that way, you are 100% correct: without a working su/sudo, one cannot gain su privileges -- and stock Android comes without them.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


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Rooting Motorolla X2 adb shell problem
i tried this tutorial and in step 1 i followed method 2. I try step 3, and when i try
adb shell it works fine. but the line after,
sh /sdcard/motoroot-step1.sh, I get
sh: Can't open /sdcard/motoroot-step1.sh
Why is this happening?

I guess it worked after you switched off usb mass storage? please do let us know how you got on :)

You cannot execute either binary or shell script that resides on the external sdcard due to the execute permission bit being blocked.
Either move the script temporarily to a location other than sdcard (if you're not rooted - you're in a bit of a spot there...)
After reading the posting on xda, it would appear that something is amiss, notify the developer of that forum and post it there and see what response you get :)
Edit: You have that external sdcard treated as mass-storage device. Turn that off and see what happens (Had to read all of the thread and some one posted - see #18 there!)

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


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does Cyanogenmod 7.2 Madteam release 16/6 on Vodafone 858 support USB host?
I've a Huawei u8160 which is running Cyanogenmod 7.2.
I saw in the change log that it has better support for USB mouse and keyboard and it was written beside it COMMON.
Quoted from the Cyanogenmod github CHANGELOG.mkdn:

...
Common: Better support for mouse and usb keyboards - Emilio Lopez, Tanguy Pruvot
...

So I was wondering if it supports USB host so I can connect it with a USB mouse and keyboard ?

Can you clarify the title as its misleading and confusing?

Also, can you include the link to where you saw this change log? (Have an account with Madteam and see no reference to CM 7.2?)

The change log is in the settings and I mean that the release of Cyanogenmod is released on 16/6/2012 and there was an error in the title I'll fix it .

The Common: Better support for mouse and usb keyboards found at the changelog refers to all devices supported, meaning that there was an overall improvement on the USB support for mouse and keyboard devices.
But take into account that the words "better support" means that there was an improvement, but it may still be buggy on certain devices under specific situations.
As a side note:
To your particular case, you are referring that you have a Huawei U8160, but on the changelog, the support goes for Huawei U8150. So, it may not be fully supported with or device.

Relevant Links:
The changelog can be found at: github - CyanogenMod
CyanogenMod Forums: CyanogenMod 7.2 Released! (2012-Jun-16)
Wikipedia: List of devices supported by CyanogenMod

You can try because the chipset is the same.

I would say, go for it and try it out and report back here. :)
What the wording 'Common' means is this, common to all devices regardless of platform. Its a CM thing in documenting the changes made.
If there was a specific device in there it would be highlighted, for example, 'OMAP Common' refers to those devices that has ARMv7 media processing embedded on the chip or SoC, by Texas Instruments (generally found in high end devices)


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Can I root my stock-Gingerbread Captivate without flashing a new kernel?
I updated my AT&T Captivate to the stock Gingerbread a few weeks ago, and I've had nothing but problems since -- hangs, lockups, and that constant TetheringManager crash.  I'm about to do a factory reset, but I'd really like to be able to back it up properly first, which of course requires root.
I've done a little research, and SuperOneClick definitely does not work in my situation.  I've seen some people refer to flashing a new kernel, but a) I've never done it, b) it sounds a bit scary, and c) I don't need anything else out of a custom kernel, other than root access.  Is that my only way forward in this situation?
(I found this similar question, but people seem to have ignored the "how do I root" part once they figured out that the OP didn't need to in the first place)

Unfortunately for us (not so much for manufacturers and carriers,) Gingerbread closed the exploits that were previously being used to gain root privileges on older Android OS versions.  This means that tools like SuperOneClick and similar will no longer work.  The only way to get root on Samsung devices with Gingerbread is to flash a pre-rooted image onto the phone with a tool like Odin or Heimdal.
Forums like XDA-Developers and Rootzwiki contain detailed instructions for flashing such an image (kernel only, full stock system, or a completely custom ROM.)


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Display data usage by application

Possible Duplicate:
How to monitor the amount of data traffic?

Is there a way I can monitor how much data all the individual apps use? All the traffic monitors I have found only show the total amount.

That question only asks about total data usage.

It doesn't state that explicitly anywhere, and several of the answers track per app data usage.

There's a program on Google Play called Network TrafficStats Lite that does this in most Android versions.  If your phone happens to be compatible to Ice Cream Sandwich, consider upgrading as this feature is built in.


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During a Google+ Instant Upload, is it all or nothing?
I'm in the middle of an "Upload All" but I don't see anything online yet? Is it an all or nothing upload? My upload keeps getting stuck on the next to last item. It would be nice if I could see the first 356 of 358 items while the last 2 items are uploaded (or not).

It should show your pictures as they are added (AKA not all-or-nothing). I'd try rebooting your device, also check if maybe your battery level is low (under I think 20% it doesn't upload, similar to dropbox)


text:
what is a bootloader unlocked phone?
What is a bootloader unlocked phone?
How we can make use of it while creating or flashing ROMs?
What are advantages of unlocked bootloaders over locked bootloaders?
Why does not any OEM generally make bootloader unlocked phones?
I am pretty naive in this topic. Thanks in advance.

Check out Fairphone - that is pure unlocked handset, there's another IIRC, NeoRunner, and also, as per Google IO 2013, Samsung Galaxy S4 will be unbranded as Google nexus (?) that will be unlocked.

Every Android phone has a bootloader that instructs the operating system kernel to boot normally. But you need to understand one thing here that as Android OS is an open source OS and is available on a variety of different hardware, every manufacturer has their own version of bootloader specific for the hardware present in its environment. (...) A bootloader is usually locked on an Android device because although it’s an open source OS, still the manufacturers want you to stick to their Android OS version specifically designed for the device. In order to apply this concept, manufacturers lock the bootloader.

(Source)
Essentially, the advantages of having an unlocked bootloader for your device is that the manufacturer of that device has granted you the right to modify the operating system (Android) present on the device.
It's interesting to note that the term "unlocked" bootloader would seem absurd if we were talking about a PC; the freedom to boot any OS you want has always been taken for granted on that platform, but because locked bootloaders are so common in the mobile world for many different reasons, it has become something odd for the bootloader to be "unlocked".
The reason that bootloaders are locked on some devices are fairly obvious: the manufacturer of the device wants to be in control of what software is running on it. Since devices are often locked and tied to a contract, having control of what code runs on the device is essential. It's also a question of support; if you were the manufacturer, you wouldn't want to handle support calls from people all over the world who had accidentally bricked their phones by flashing corrupt software onto their devices. In a sense, locked bootloaders protect (some) users from themselves. Depending on your point of view, this can be good or bad. For a corporate customer buying devices for employees, access to the bootloader probably would not be high on the wish list.
Please let me know if there's anything in this answer that is unclear and I will try to elaborate.

I also want to know that when a new phone launches, some developers try to root it by finding some flaw in hardware or drivers something. When they succeed, its like a big news. How its related to unlocking the bootloader? In PC if they have unlocked bootloaders by default why cant we easily install Macintosh easily (need to use Hackintosh), OS is locked here?

Yes, sometimes reverse engineering is used to find ways to open bootloaders that were not created to be unlockable. Jailbreaking iPhones is a good example of this. It's big news because it usually takes a lot of work and some pretty smart people to do it. The reason you cannot run OSX on your PC is different; OSX is made for macs, the only reason it doesn't run (or runs badly) on your PC is that Apple never bothered to make it work there. It does work on some PC:s obviously (the one you call Hackintoshes), and technically Macs are PCs ;)

I am sorry the comment thread is turning to discussion but its helping clearing my doubts.So while rooting phones or unlocking bootloader how is it possible that hardware breaks(bricks) its just a software process right? Ideally any software operation should not break hardware permanently!

I think the best explanation would be this: Flashing your BIOS with a bunch of junk (say, only zeroes) is a "software process". However, you just erased the software that helps the most basic functions of your PC start and function! Your OS will not even start. Technically, the hardware isn't "broken", you just need another way to write a working BIOS to wherever it's stored, which isn't easy. The same way a USB isn't "broken" if everything is deleted from it; it's just that this special "USB stick" isn't exactly easy to read and write from when you messed it up.

If you "brick" your device, its hardware is still fine -- it's the software part that's broken then. A real "hard brick" (which means there's no way to recover from) is quite unusual -- but imagine you flash your PC's BIOS with something completely broken. You didn't damage any hardware -- but still the PC wouldn't boot up as it no longer knows how to address its hardware. That's about what "bricking" means. Even to flash a new ROM, you will need a basic system running to do the job; break that, and you have a "brick".

I don't mean to derail this comment thread further, but I just want to point out that a "soft" vs "hard" brick really depends on your point of view. I would call a bricking that requires the BIOS to be reflashed with extra equipment and the phone to be opened to be a "hard" brick -- otherwise, replacing resistors could be a soft brick too :)


text:
Unable to free up space on internal storage, removing cache & apps has no effect
new to Android Stack Exchange. - Average Android user.
I have a storage problem on my phone. When I try to install an app via Play Store it says there isn't enough free space available, e.g. it is 45mb short. Play Store then offers an option to uninstall other apps to clear up space. So, I select a large app (of e.g. 130mb) and allow PlayStore to uninstall it. It then removes the selected up succefully. However, after doing so it still fails on installing the newly selected app, claiming again it is short on free space (still claiming to be 45mb short).
This has caused a situation in which I have deleted pretty much all my apps but Play Store still refuses to install any new app or any update because it claims to be short on space.
When I go to Settings-> Storage and USB-> Internal Storage it reports that 4.09GB out of 4.54GB is used. However, in the details below it only reports that 2.39GB is used for Apps and 5.33MB is used for cache (which I've cleared many times allready, hoping it would solve the problem). But this means that I am unable to diagnose where 4.09GB-2.39GB-5.33MB = 1.7GB of disk space is apparently being used for...
I tried connecting my phone to my laptop via USB, in order to be able to browse the internal memory but somehow when I use MTP I am only able to browse my phone's SD-storage via my laptop. The internal storage directories simply do not show up and I am left clueless on how to get any access to them..
I am looking for any insights or any tips on how to further diagnose what the problem might be..

Phone details:
Moto G3
Android 6.0.1
  Kernel: 3.10.49-g2e9678a


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Losing adb connection after adb root
Hello Android Enthusiasts, I am unsure about the effects of the adb root command on the connection to the device and I would be glad if somebody could clarify the expected behavior.
Sometimes after executing adb root the connection seems to be completely lost to the device because I get a device <ip> not found error if I try to execute a command afterwards. I could also confirm this with adb devices.
Since this behavior does not always occur after executing adb root I am unsure if this is a bug in my (not-latest) adb version or if I always should connect to the device again before continuing my work.
Thank you very much for your help!
Additional informations:

Connection: ADB over USB
Host-OS: Ubuntu 22.04
Host-ADB: Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.41 Version 28.0.2-debian
Device-OS: Android 13
Device-ADB: Android Debug Bridge Daemon version 1.0.41

Are you using ADB over USB, or via Wi-Fi? What operating system are you running ADB on? What Android version, and which Android device?

@JohnDallman I added more details about the devices and software versions.

My guess is that restarting the on-device adb daemon failed (check logcat via app e.g. termux) and thus you lose adb connection. May be the adbd does not allow to be executed with rot permissions. I am surprised that adb root worked at all. Normally adb refuses to execute this command. May be the adbd version in your ROM is defect. Is this a self-compiled AOSP ROM you use?

@Robert Thank you for the suggestion. I will try this once i encounter the error again. Yes it is a self-compiled AOSP for a non-smartphone device.


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Android version 6.0, is there any way to give voice-activation to the pre-installed Voice-Recorder?
The question
Android version 6.0 ( 2016 smartphone, Marshmallow ), is there any way to give voice-activation to the pre-installed Voice-Recorder ?

Or, is it possible to install a more modern version of the pre-installed Voice-Recorder, one that has  voice-activation ?

Or, maybe by using 'Tasker', but maybe it could only have 'Tasker' open the Voice-Recorder whenever it detects voice, rather than the ideal of leaving the Voice-Recorder   open and record only when there is sound present. I don't know anything at all about 'Tasker', and I have almost no skills, and have never installed anything on my phone, by choice.

Manufacturer = Wiko - Model = Sunny ( 2016 ) - Custom build version = Sunny Marshmallow 6.0 ( 22 ) - There's no other information on the phone or packaging giving more exact details of the model, just 'Sunny', purchased 2016

This phone seems to have either the Google-Assistant or one of the versions of it, which I can only access by keeping the 'Home Button' pressed, or more correctly touched, until it comes up, this would possibly be useful to access the microphone for 'Tasker' to then activate the record on the 'Voice-Recorder' ( the 'Voice-Recorder' APP could just be left open in the background, but not recording, to make a custom made voice-activation functionality quicker in it's response time )

Manufacturers do customize their Android, so there is no single "pre-installed Voice-Recorded", though I doubt there is any with voice activation. [tag:automation] apps or Google Assistant Actions Builder (or similar services) might be a way if the voice recorder app allows users to activate recording hands-free. Otherwise, a manually-recorded "touch automation" might be the only way.

It may help to know which manufacturer/model of device you are using. Be aware that manufacturers could with specific hardware, support wake word otherwise in earlier versions of Android, any third-party app could hold a 'wake lock' allowing custom features but draining battery, resulting in Android 6.0 OS introducing doze mode to prevent that. Unless your device/manufacturer had some voice user customization, it is unlikely.

Manufacturer = Wiko - Model = Sunny ( 2016 ) - Custom build version = Sunny Marshmallow 6.0 ( 22 )  - There's no other information on the phone or packaging giving more exact details of the model, just 'Sunny', purchased 2016

This phone seems to have either the Google-Assistant or one of the versions of it, which I can only access by keeping the 'Home Button' pressed, or more correctly touched, until it comes up, this would possibly be useful to access the microphone for 'Tasker' to then activate the record on the 'Voice-Recorder' ( the 'Voice-Recorder' APP could just be left open in the background, but not recording, to make a custom made voice-activation functionality quicker in it's response time )


text:
Home Button wrongly registers long press on Galaxy S7 (specifically in messenger app)
So this is happening for the last 2 weeks. Whenever I (short) press the home button on my Galaxy S7 (on Android 8.0.0) specifically in the (facebook) messenger app it registers as a long click (opening the google assistant until i disabled it). I'm not sure if it is a messenger problem since Im sure I had this happen in the playstore app as well but cant replicate it right now (so right now its only happening in messenger app). I played around with the Tasker and Automate apps around the time this started happening, but I have also uninstalled them around that time. Might just be a coincidence. I have tried reinstalling the messenger app but that didnt help.
Does anyone have any idea what could cause this or at least give me some pointers on how I might troubleshoot it?
Edit: definitely happens in other apps as well but still mostly in messenger


text:
TWRP Black Screen on Samsung Galaxy A9 2018
I want to install TWRP on my Samsung Galaxy A9 2018 (SM-A920F). The problem is that every time I install it, I can't boot into TWRP. It is just a Black Screen, and then it reboots into the system.
I tried OrangeFox Recovery too, but the same result. This started happening after I accidentally upgraded my Bootloader. Before that, TWRP was working.
Is there any way where I can view the logs of the Custom Recovery?
Edit:

How was it accidental: I was trying to completely reflash my Stock firmware after installing LineageOS 20, I was able to flash it successfully, but upon rebooting I had a "Secure Check Fail: Modem" error and I tried many ways to solve it, but was unsuccessful. I did some research and thought that my Bootloader was updated, but somehow was able to flash an old Firmware binary. So I flashed a Combination Firmware (Binary 3) for my phone and that way I thought I would be able to solve the error. Turns out that my Bootloader wasn't updated before (It was Binary 1), but my "Modem" file in the "CP" tar has been outdated and it couldn't be accepted.
Version of Android: I have always been a fan of the first Android version presented for that phone, which is 8.0. I updated it to Pie once, but I downgraded it to 8.0. My current Bootloader doesn't accept the 8.0 Firmware binary, but I removed the Signature in the Firmware and was able to downgrade again to 8.0 without any problems, Android 8.0 is working very good, even with my custom KernelSU Kernel.
TWRP: The TWRP I'm trying to install is the one that was working before on the same Firmware I'm right now. It is a TWRP compiled by myself, sadly I lost the device tree. I have one in my Github, but it hasn't been compiled. I'm able to provide a TWRP image, if anyone needs it.

Please provide more information, such as how was it accidental?  At what point did you stop it?  Is it partially upgraded?  What were you upgrading from and to what?

Hey, thanks for the response. I provided more information.


text:
Pixel 8 'OEM unlock' greyed out
The phone is a brand new phone that was provided by my carrier in Canada (Telus). The phone is carrier unlocked. I verified this by putting a non Telus sim into it and making a call.
Once the "Developer Options" menu is enabled, the "OEM unlock" is greyed out, I tried the following in all kinds of order:

factory reset... many times
all software updates
connection to the internet (via wifi)
Using android recovery I performed a factory data reset in the erase Wipe data/factory reset option
enabled "USB debugging" in developer options
I asked chat GPT and tried all the options that were technically possible.

When I look on the "Fastboot Mode" screen, the device state is locked.
I called my phone provider, and the technical support is trying to help, but I don't see that working out. Does anyone know of a secret menu that allows the enabling of this setting? What can I do?

If you are able to use another SIM, then why does it matter what that setting is shown as.

@RohitGupta To install a new Operating system

Carrier provided devices are often branded or otherwise limited, therefore a disabled OEM unlock option is possible.

@Robert It is possible, and in this case the reality. At the same time, I am sure that it is possible to enable it. I am hoping someone here knows how.

Not all Pixel devices are unlockable, this is a question which software is installed. We had for example refurbished Pixel 4 that are were impossible to unlock: Pixel 4 OEM unlock impossible?

You can try telus virtual assistant to determine what the problem is

@Robert I agree with you. The community may not know how to unlock certain hardware/software combinations. I am also sure that the manufacturer can unlock whatever they built.

@beeshyams The phone is unlocked, as in I can use any provider. But the boot-loader is locked. The virtual assistant won't be much use. Thanks for trying though.

It's a known issue that carrier-branded and Google's own refurbished Pixel phones are not unlockable.

@AndrewT. If I understand correctly, you are saying "it's not possible for the community to do this. As in we haven't yet found the means of how to do this". am I understanding you correctly?

I guess what I meant is, "there are many attempts, but no one is certain (basically hit-or-miss)". I found a Reddit thread mentioning to factory reset and insert the carrier SIM and it worked for some of them. You may want to search on XDA Forums and find many other attempts (I can't link one by one).

@AndrewT. I saw that one as well and tried it too. it didn't work. I tried everything I could find for the last few days.

If you want to do something the device manufacturer doesn't want you have to hack the system to bypass the security. Thus you need an exploit and exploits don't appear you you whish. Therefore in a few months or years the device may be unlockable if a root exploit is found that allows to bypass you the OEM unlock security or directly unlock the bootloader. That is the old way of Android rooting before devuces with unlockable bootloader became available.

The option is now available to me to toggle! it is no longer greyed out.
A bit about the circumstances of my case:

Phone was provided by Telus in Canada.
The phone was brand new, unboxed by me. I tried everything in the question for 2 days after unboxing. Then I left it on my desk to just sit there and I never played with it, I didn't charge it, hell, I didn't even look at it for about 7 to 10 days.
Over the first few days, I never used the phone and I never put a sim in it longer than 5 minutes.
I got nowhere with Telus tech support. I explained to Telus tech support, and 2nd level support until I was blue in the face that:

Carrier variants of Pixels use the same stock OS and firmware with a non-zero carrier id flashed onto the persist partition in the factory. The carrier id activates carrier-specific configuration in the stock OS including disabling carrier and bootloader unlocking. The carrier may be able to remotely disable this, but their support staff may not be aware and they probably won't do it. Get a carrier agnostic device to avoid the risk and potential hassle. from https://grapheneos.org/install/web#prerequisites

I put this whole mess on ice as I got busy with other stuff. Since the phone was brand new it wasn't fully charged, and since the phone was left laying around my desk, it powered off as the battery ran out. From the time I opened the phone to now it has been about a week or 10 days or so.
Right now I plugged in the power, and the OEM unlock was still greyed out. I connected it to wifi (as I did a factory reset so many times that the wifi credentials were not in the phone). Then I did a restart of the phone... you know, just a power cycle, and BOOM!!!! OEM unlock was no longer greyed out, and I was able to toggle it.
My best guess is that the following played a role in this "miracle":

when I powered the phone on I connected to wifi, and did an update.
I had Telus perform a carrier unlock on their side.
Developer mode was always enabled.
I reconnected wifi after 7 to 10 days, and did a restart. I believe the phone connected to a google server, and allowed this option to become available.

Looks like you just have to connect to the internet, make sure the unit is carrier unlocked, and then wait.
Good luck to everyone with this issue, hope this helps.


text:
Methods for Transferring Incoming Calls and SMS from Android to iPhone
First of all, hello friends. My issue is briefly as follows: I want to transfer incoming calls to an Android device to an iPhone. I have two phones, one Android and one iPhone. What I want to do is instantly transfer incoming calls and SMS from the Android device to the iPhone and be able to make calls from the iPhone through the Android device. What I want is something that the devices already support (like Android Auto or CarPlay). I have several different methods in mind, but I haven't found an app or a method that can do what I mentioned. It could be done using one of these methods:

Incoming calls to the Android device can be transferred to the iPhone via Bluetooth.
If we use the Android device only as a tether and connect from the iPhone via Wi-Fi, I can make and receive calls and SMS over Wi-Fi (presumably VoIP) even when the iPhone is not registered. I can do this by getting a twin SIM card, but when the Android device connects to the phone network, the iPhone becomes inactive, meaning it only needs to connect to the network for internet like a mobile Wi-Fi.
The simplest solution, which I can't find, is to transfer incoming calls and SMS to my iPhone via a third-party application.
This request may seem strange to you, but unfortunately, if you don't register the device in Turkey (which costs approximately 1000 USD), you can only use the device with your SIM card for 8 months of the year.


text:
What volume setting do the Twitter and Facebook apps obey?
I asked a question about silencing only certain sounds and decided to go with the AudioManager widget, which is working quite well. My main uses are to silence everything but alarms and the ringer when I'm sleeping and everything when I'm in class. However, if I get a notification from Facebook or Twitter (both the official apps by Facebook and Twitter, respectively) at night, they still go off, which makes me think that these apps either use the ringer volume (instead of the alert volume) or some volume that AudioManager doesn't have control over.
The volume controls provided by AudioManager are Alarm Volume, Music Volume, Alerts Volume, Ringer Volume, System Volume, and Voice call Volume. Alarm volume is always 7/7, music volume is where ever it was last time I listened to music (in the car, I have it 15/15, and usually 8/15 when I'm listening with earbuds), alerts is 7/7 during the day and 0/7 at night, ringer is always 7/7, system is 7/7 during the day and 0/7 at night, and voice call volume is 3/5.
So, my questions:
(1) What volume do these apps actually use for notifications?
(2) Is there an easy way (without having to open both apps and turn off notifications at night, then turn them back on) to silence these notifications? This includes possibly switching away from AudioManager to another free application.

@Alex: I'm getting the same thing on Cyanogen 6.1 now and the stock HTC Incredible ROM when I asked this question. I suppose I should contact Twitter and Facebook or file a bug report/feature request.

Quick Settings has a separate "Notification Volume" which for me controls all of my apps notifications (although I have FB and Twitter notification off at the source).  Another app I use is Quick Profiles for fast switching between preset profiles.  This app also can control the "Notification Volume".  I have a specific profile set for when I sleep that turns off all notifications.  Another thing you could do is turn off AutoSync at night which is a toggle on the stock Power Widget.  That way you'd still get calls and texts but it would update any of your email or apps.
For the record, Quick Settings can control the following volume levels:

Ringer Volume
Notification Volume
Media Volume
Alarm Volume
Voice Call Volume
System Volume

as well as the Master Volume.

I was just testing. It seems like every app I have, except for Twitter and Facebook, obeys Alert/Notification volume settings. Twitter and Facebook appear to, like Bryan says, use the Ringer volume. I've never developed an Android application, but I would suspect this is a problem with the Twitter and Facebook apps.

That is strange that they'd do it that way.  That being said, I'd say you best bet would be to toggle the AutoSync before you go to bed.

1) App notifications use the Ringer volume for how loud the notification is played.
2) You could use an application like Locale or Tasker to automatically silence your Ringer volume during the night.  Then you could create exceptions if you need for certain people to be able to call you during the night.

The GMail and Google Voice apps don't obey 1 (they appear to follow the Alerts volume, and not the ringer, since I've gotten emails with the ringer on and Alerts off and no notification sound) so it's not all apps. And I don't just want certain people to be able to call me - if I'm getting a phone call, I would like to assume that it might be important, even if I don't know the number. If this is indeed the case, I suppose individually muting applications (or looking into creating an app that manages the notification settings of other apps) might be the way to go.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/


text:
How to use an android phone as a wireless webcam?

Possible Duplicate:
Can I turn my Android device into a webcam?

Is it possible? It is possible with nokia symbian phone using an Motvik's app wwigo. I am wondering whether a similar app exists for android.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/


text:
How do I sign out of the GitHub app on Android?
I think I've looked everywhere but I don't see how to sign out of the GitHub app on Android. Any ideas?

Can you give me the link to the GitHub app you're referring to? I can find around 20 on the Play store.

Oddly, the app I'm using seems to have disappeared from Android Play. Maybe GitHub withdrew it.

Try accessing the Authorized applications setting on the browser, then check if you can revoke the authorization.

try cleaning app data from settings, then reboot. beware, it is going to open like the first time you opened it. don't recommend it if you have any data  saved on the app.

I tried that but wasn't logged out. Given that the app seems to have been withdrawn from the Play store, it is likely there's no way to logout.


text:
Is there a standard way to identify if a mobile application is native or hybrid by looking at the apk file?
I'm a beginner learning mobile appsec. I just wanted to know if there is a standard way to identify if a mobile application is native or hybrid by looking at the apk file?

If it uses native code, then it should have references to System.load() or System.loadLibrary(). But ...
It could also just execute something native with Runtime or ProcessBuilder, or use DexClassLoader to load a dex/jar which then performs this. But ...
Unfortunately, this could also be worked around, since Java could use reflection to hide any of the mentioned class/method names from static analysis.

Thanks domen.. I remember googling about this, where I read, if the application code contains 'webView' keyword then it could be a Hybrid application?? I don't know if its really that way.. Your inputs pls...

I don't understand the question. You read that apps containing WebView load native code? There's no obvious relation. Of course if you dig deep enough, you eventually come to native code, but that holds for many things (anything with system calls at least).

I think there's a misunderstanding about the meaning of "native" here. If I interpret the OP's intent correctly, it's about an app written in "native" Java/Kotlin vs hybrid framework such as React Native, Ionic, Mobile Angular UI, jQuery Mobile, PhoneGap (which are JavaScript-based, hence some of them need WebView to work), but also Flutter and Xamarin,


text:
Force browser to use only mobile data regardless of WiFi is connected?
Is it possible to force any Android internet browser to use only mobile data regardless of whether WiFi is connected or not?
My situation: I have a tablet with Android 5.0.1 and mobile data enabled. I have also a little mobile printer - Canon Pixma IP110. I have to travel and print invoices for my customers anywhere. I am connecting to the printer's access point (the internet is not available of course) but I need to keep the web application open where I print the invoices from, that's why I need force my browser to use only mobile data and not use the printer's access point.

Simply NO
Because it is not a feature comes with the browser.
It is a general feature.
When the device is connected to Wi-Fi, the device automatically disconnect from mobile data even if the data is turned on


text:
My apps keep crashing
I have an LG Spirit.
Sometimes my apps keep crashing for no apparent reason. This all started when I first downloaded Fire Emblem Heroes from the Google Play Store. Now some apps that used to run smoothly crash constantly. There are apps I can't even open now, even though I used them before with no problems.

It seems Fire Emblem Heroes might be consuming a lot of resources (RAM, CPU) in addition I suspect it has one or a few processes running in the background.
I'd suggest you completely disable Fire Emblem Heroes from auto starting, manage ram by hibernating the app after using it. You can put the app on the exclusion list of allowed app when screen is off, if your ROM supports that.
For instance I use Start up manager to prevent a named app from automatically running during start up, and Power manager to restrict background power intensive app from running (both built-in)
If your ROM doesn't include these features you may consider installing Greenify, and clearing cached data regularly


text:
Disable expanded notifications in Android v6
Is it possible to disable expanded notifications in Android v6? I can't even "collapse" them with two fingers. They start to collapse but go back to "expanded" when let go. Looking to prohibit expansion by default. Don't mind it being expandable manually but not by default without touching it.


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How to turn Gmail notifications back on after uninstalling Google Inbox?
I already use the Android Gmail app. I installed Google Inbox and was receiving double notifications. Inbox offered to stop receiving Gmail app notifications. I agreed to this.
Then, I no longer wanted Google Inbox so I uninstalled it. Gmail notifications did not turn back on. I checked settings, apps, Gmail, notifications checkbox (yes), but still no Gmail notifications.

So all of the above options definitely work. However, this is the only thing that worked for me.
Go to Settings > Apps > click the top-right corner and select "Special access" > Optimize battery usage > then where it says "Optimized apps", click that and select "All apps". Scroll down until you find Gmail and make sure it is turned OFF.
As soon as I shut mine off, I instantly received at least 20 emails on both of my Gmail accounts. Hope this helps somebody.

Settings - Accounts - select Google - make sure sync for Gmail is turned on.

Go to settings > account@gmail.com > Notificatons > select All

For android 7.0

Go to "Settings" icon in the top right corner.
Select "Notifications".
Click on the Gmail icon.
Click on the Info icon (looks like i).
Click on your account (most likely your email address).
Click on "Notifications" and select "All"


text:
"There was a problem communicating with Google server. Try again later."

I am unable to login to Google Play Store after I formatted my phone just because of slowness. The error is

There was a problem communicating with Google server. Try again later.

Please help.

I've downloaded play store from apk mirror.
And that's worked.
thanks to team.


text:
What would happen if I deleted all my data used by Google Play Services?
Unfortunately my phone has a total space of 5.52GB with no place for extra storage ... Sad, I know.. However my phone is constantly rejecting texts and won't keep an app open for more than 2 minutes without crashing. I clear my cached data almost every ten minutes. My phone isn't full by any means. I only have Facebook and Snapchat as apps and only 168MB of pictures and videos.
So I decided to dig a little deeper to figure out where all my storage is and under my Google Play services it says I have 3.9GB just there! What I'm wondering is what exactly Google Play Services entails. For example, what would I be losing if I cleared all of its data? Would I lose pictures and apps?

Where is data of Google Play Services located in device? Can I safely delete it?

Just sharing my personal experience. I had cleared data of my Google Play Services in at least 3 separate occasions on the same phone and signed in again each time with the same Google account, and nothing went wrong noticeably. But I still can't promise you it's safe.

Google Play services offers APIs to other apps. Data used by Play services is mostly cached data for these APIs, duplicated data of Android wear apps synched with your phone and some kind of search index. If you delete this data, chances are Google Play services will just recreate it, although 3.9 GB is really much (mine only use 300 MB). But you won't delete any of your personal data by deleting Play services data.

Exactly. Chances are that you'll have to log in your Google account, but that's that.

I'd double-check that, @DeathMaskSalesman – these data might include the GSF android_id of the device, which is e.g. used for Cloud Messaging (GCM). Apps using GCM take that to register their interest. So if it's deleted and a new one created, those apps might stop receiving GCM notifications. Vaguely remember a warning from AOSP devs towards this. So clear its cache – yes, no issues with that. But its data? Not sure of possible side-effects.

Here is it: Google engineer explains why you shouldn’t clear Google Services Framework data: This will then invalidate tokens used by any app that uses GCM, which includes almost all Google apps and a number of third party apps. […] Other apps will simply cease to get GCM-push notifications until they get a new GCM ID, which might take a while. Sure, these issues might not be a huge deal, but you will probably end up having to factory reset your device in order to fix them.

@Izzy But aren't Google Play Services and Google Services Framework two separate packages? I had cleared data of my Play Services in at least 3 separate occasions on the same phone and signed in again each time with the same Google account, and nothing went wrong noticeably.

@NVZ Oops – you might be right at that, and I might have confused the two (I'm no longer using GApps but microG). Thanks for bringing that up! So take my comment as "be careful do not confuse the two like Izzy did" :)

I just cleared all data used by Google Play services and my phone abruptly crashed. I rebooted it but it starts hanging for 2-5 secs every 10 secs or so. Most of my apps won't open and I get an "unfortunately stopped" message everytime I wait for it to open. However, all my datas ie. photos. music. videos etc. are intact. My phone is now unusable and I totally regret doing it.
However, I've found a solution. I cleared the cache of both Google Play services AND Google Play Store and it repaired itself automatically. (You'll need wifi for this to work tho.) Within a minute or two, it will fully restore itself back to normal.

Same thing happened to me. I cleared the data and the phone kept crashing every 10 seconds or so. However, clearing cache didn't work for me. I had to logout of my google account and login again.

I cleared all data and nothing bad seems to have happened. My phone did hang for a few minutes while it was deleting the 2 GB of data though.

Here's what the Google Help forum suggests:

Make sure you have an Internet or mobile data connection. Then, restart your device.
Update the date and time on your device.
Clear cache data for the Google Play Store app and Google Play Services (Go to Settings > Apps or Application Manager > Google Play Services > Clear cache > OK).
Uninstall and reinstall the Play Store updates. (Go to Settings > Apps or Application Manager > Google Play Store app > Uninstall Updates > OK). As long as you have a strong Internet connection (Wi-Fi or mobile data), your Play Store app will update to the latest version within a few minutes.
Install system updates. To do this, try the steps listed below:

Open your device's main Settings app.
Select About or System updates (depending on your device, this may be different).
If an update is available, follow the on-screen instructions to install it on your device.
Try your download again

Restart your device.

If the issue still persists after having tried the above, the same place recommends removing and re-adding your Google account.

This is really not an answer to a "what would happen if" question by any stretch.

Well, I'd consider the question also rather a XY problem – the real question IMHO is to free storage, which is what my answer addresses, concerning the mentioned "space eater".


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Google Voice - Separate ringtone but maintain caller ID?
I suspect I know the answer to this question, but I wanted to quadruple check here just in case...
Is there any way to set a phone to have a different ringtone based on what number was dialed?  I want to know if someone called my GV number or my cell number.  However, I do not want to set the GV caller ID to display my GV number.  I know this would work, but I'm trying to get my cake and eat it too here...
Is it possible?

No, unfortunately you can't have your cake and eat it too. At least not by just using the native dialer. Android will only choose a ringtone based on caller id.
There is the option of setting up SIP Droid or GrooveIP for the sole purpose of ringing for an incoming call. You could continue to forward GV to your cell as well as the second number picked up by those apps, and you would simply know they are calling your GV number because that app is ringing. A bit hacky, as you have two apps ringing (native dialer and the second app you chose), but it is an option. I think they can be set up to reject a call after a few seconds, so you would note that they rang for a couple seconds, then pick up the native dialer knowing it is coming via GV.
If you have a good enough connection, you could disable forwarding GV to your cell and instead only forward to your Chat client (which is used by GrooveIP or SIP Droid). Then you would set that program to make a different ringtone, and you would have the person's correct caller ID. But it means your call goes over data, which can be less reliable.


text:
Mediaserver using excessive CPU time and battery
I've got a Nexus 4 on OS version 4.2.1 that suddenly started to drain it's battery very quickly. When looking in the battery usage I see "Mediaserver"eating 60% of the battery over time, with several minutes of CPU time logged and several hours of Keep Awake time. Typically the screen, phone idle or other services eat up the majority of battery life.
I tried closing all apps and charging it up, and sure enough overnight it still drained significant battery, again Mediaserver was the culprit as reported in the Battery usage chart; it had kept the device awake all night and drained 10% of my battery despite zero use. I haven't added a large number of files and I'm not playing music/etc so Mediaserver shouldn't be doing very much on the drive.
How can I stop Mediaserver from eating my battery life like this?

Killing all running apps didn't solve the problem, nor did disabling the automatic sync for Google account items like videos/photos (which I heard suggested for a similar battery issue).
What did work was simply rebooting the device by holding the power button and picking shut down. After rebooting Mediaserver no longer appears to use much of my battery in the usage chart and my charge lasts like it always did. So if you get the same issue, just reboot.

Funny -- that was exactly what I just wanted to recommend. It's the only way to get rid of "sticking wakelocks" I know of (those cases happen when apps request a wakelock and forget to release it lateron).

@Izzy that must have been what happened. I'm not sure technically what happened, but wanted to share the solution in case it's a common problem on 4.2.1 or something.

That's something common to most/all Android versions (not especially with mediaserver, but with many services). Also, badly designed apps add to this. For details, you might look into the question How to deal with (orphaned) WakeLocks? and its answers.

Reboot, reboot, reboot. Is there a less annoying way to solve this? I hate rebooting. Can't I just kill that mediaserver?

The Mediaserver process scans your device for media files to add to your library. However, the 2012/12/12 (perhaps some more) gapps version is broken and gets stuck in an infinite loop on unfamiliar files on your phone. This directly translates to battery drain and is bad for the lifetime of your battery and other phone components. When running your phone for the first time or when starting media applications, the Mediaserver is invoked and will commence the horror.
How to fix:

Reboot phone and do not start a media application.
Put a .nomedia file on your SD card root to prevent library search, thus preventing Mediaserver from getting stuck. This means no media library!
Wait for the glorious Google to fix this anomaly.
Downgrade your Android firmware + gapps to a version which lacks this bug.
Use an iPhone/Windows Phone
Modify the gapps (Mediaserver.apk) to support all kinds of files normally. (advanced + time consuming)

Downvote because of recommending iPhone/Windows Phone. Btw, that's not a fix, the bug will still be there.

.nomedia file in root folder does not work.  On a Nexus 7 with Android 4.3.  There is no physical SD card but I put the .nomedia file in the SDCard folder root, and it has not stopped mediascanner from running.  I am assuming it is supposed to be applied recursively and does not need to be placed in every subfolder?  Should I place one even higher than SDCard, like in system root perhaps?

I think I may have figured out the cause and a makeshift solution for this bug, at least one that (finally) works for me, and that I have not seen mentioned often elsewhere.
On my tablet (Nexus 7 2nd gen), I had seen the mediaserver bug very often and practically given up trying to solve it.
However, on my phone (I9505G aka SGS4 GPe), I hadn't seen the bug once.  Both devices were running 100% stock Android 4.3.  Then one day I noticed the bug rearing its ugly head on my phone too.  I hadn't copied ANY new files to the device recently, so that threw any theories about "corrupt media files" out the window.  I racked my brains and realized the only thing I'd done differently in the past 24 hours was played a game (Rayman Jungle Run) on the phone, which I usually only use for calls, emails, and e-books.  On my tablet however, I play Rayman Jungle Run often.
So, I just ran this sequence of tests on both my phone and tablet, with the same results.

Full charge. Fresh boot. Run for several hours. RESULT: No mediaserver drain.
Launch Rayman, play for 1 minute.  Return to home screen but do not force close the app. Wait a little while. RESULT: Mediaserver drain begins.
Force close the Rayman app (I used an Elixir shortcut to do this, but using the apps menu should work fine). Wait a couple hours. RESULT: Mediaserver drain has stopped!

I did a lot of searches on the web and only found one other reference to similar phenomenon, and that post referenced the Rayman game as well as another game called Super Hexagon or something.  The apparent lesson here is that certain apps have the ability to trigger the mediaserver bug.  In my case at least, it has nothing to do with what media files I have on the device, or what Google services I allow/prevent running (these are both things I see frequently quoted as supposed solutions).
I would also hypothesize that if you have an app which triggers the mediaserver drain, and this app autoruns at startup or any periodic time intervals, then the only surefire solution in that case would be to uninstall the app, unfortunately.  This could explain why some people do not find that rebooting helps... if the offending app runs at startup, of course the drain will begin right away also.

This very thing happened me last night. Rayman Fiesta Run, exited out with home button, lost 40% battery overnight to media server. Thanks for this!

@RossC Awesome, glad it helped you.  I just installed Fiesta Run too and was disappointed to see that they still haven't fixed this bug (not sure whether the OS or app is at fault, but I know the app could fix it by forcing itself to close or at least including an option).  I keep forgetting to kill the app after playing a session and remembering hours later when I see how low my battery is getting.

Just kill the media server process. I created a shortcut which runs a command line and kills it
kill pidof /system/bin/mediaserver

or on other devices,
kill mediaserver

I had the very same problem with Android 4.1.2. tablet. Tried everything found on several forums, and the result was - nothing worked. Mediaserver kept draining my battery.
Intuitively, I tried two things:
1. Unmounted SD card where I keep all sorts of media files.
2. Deleted downloaded PICTURES from "download" folder.
Result = problem SOLVED.
Then remounted the SD card - battery life still normal!
Conclusion: bloody mediaserver keeps scanning the downloaded pictures and drains the battery.
Simplicity is always the answer!

For me, rebooting the Nexus 4 several times didn't help. The first time I started using the mobile phone, I logged in without the Google account. So, I did factory reset and made sure I logged-in with the Google account. This seems to have fixed the issue.


text:
How to choose which joined contact to use for contact image?
Okay, I'm running a Galaxy S III with the TouchWiz ROM.
I knew how to do this in AOSP ROMs, but cannot find it in the Samsung people app.
If I have an aggregate contact with numerous joined contacts, and more than one of the joined contacts have photos, how do I specify which joined contact's photo should be the photo for the master/aggregate contact?

Okay; I finally figured this out!

Go to the people app
Click on a contact to see the contact detail
Bring up the menu
Click Mark as default
Choose default picture, email, phone, etc.


text:
why "ls -al" does not show file size info in /dev/socket directory?
In /dev/socket directory, if runs "ls -al" in adb, there is no file size information.  I would like to know why there is no such information, in the condition that in other directories can show file size information?
Thanks.

Sockets and pipes represent Unix' way of inter process communication, and a communication channel has no point in having a size. Sockets are thus not seekable as in go to position x in the file.
Linux (which Android makes use of) has 7 file types:

Regular Files
Directories
Character  Device Files
Block Device Files
Local Domain Sockets
Named Pipes
Symbolic Links

See more here


text:
How to hide (to my carrier) the use of VoIP?
I plan to use Voice over IP with my android phone (Android 2.3 via Skype, Fring, JaJah, Line2 etc.). As I've read that my carrier is filtering VoIP protocols, I wondered if there are some protocol wrappers available as a workaround of packet/protocol filters? Thank you for any suggestions.

Carriers are able to detect data packets belonging to VoIP applications and block the calls. I guess they are doing this either at the level of communication protocols ((Deep) Packet Inspection) and/or port blocking.

You could use a VPN to "mask" all your traffic. This way your provider would still be able to count the amount of data transfered -- but he would no longer be able to see its contents.
VPN requires a client (which comes already integrated with recent Android versions -- but additionally, there are a lot of apps available for this on the Google Playstore) and a server. The latter you can establish on your own hardware (software is available for most operating systems -- even some routers have this capability built-in). Alternatively, there are providers available offering VPN as a service.
The TechRepublic has a quite detailed article on this topic: Securely connect your Android smartphone via VPN. It describes what can be done this way, and also includes the necessary steps to set up everything. So if this approach sounds good to you, follow the link for more details.
Other good sources can surely be found following the vpn tag here on ASE.


text:
[Nokia 3]adb reboot bootloader failed
I have Nokia 3 Android 7.1.1 connected to PC Windows 8.
Problem is:
C:\>adb reboot bootloader
reboot failed: -1

Reason to do it is to flash/root in future.
Other commands ok:
C:\>adb devices -l
List of devices attached
NE1GAM0760502899       device product:TA-1032_00WW model:TA_1032 device:NE1 transport_id:11
C:\>adb reboot
[...really reboot as expected]
C:\>adb reboot recovery
[...really reboot to recovery]
C:\>adb --version
Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.39
Version 0.0.1-4500957
Installed as C:\Users\nobody\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\platform-tools\adb.exe
C:\>adb -t 11 reboot bootloader
reboot failed: -1

C:\>adb shell getprop
...
[ro.build.date.utc]: [1511256803]
[ro.build.description]: [TA-1032_00WW-user 7.1.1 NMF26O 00WW_2_15H release-keys]
[ro.build.display.id]: [00WW_2_15H]
[ro.build.flavor]: [NE1_00WW_FIH-user]
[ro.build.host]: [NJ-SW-UBUNTU-S7]
[ro.build.id]: [NMF26O]
[ro.build.product]: [NE1]
[ro.build.tags]: [release-keys]
[ro.build.type]: [user]
[ro.build.user]: [foxconn2]
[ro.build.version.incremental]: [00WW_2_15H]
[ro.build.version.preview_sdk]: [0]
[ro.build.version.release]: [7.1.1]
[ro.build.version.sdk]: [25]
[ro.build.version.security_patch]: [2017-12-01]
...

What's wrong?
I can reboot to fastboot manually from recovery menu ok.

Some devices don't support adb reboot bootloader command such as Samsung devices, may be it's the case for yours too? If you want to boot into the bootloader, first boot in the recovery then reboot to fastboot from the recovery as you already do.

Have you turned on OEM unlock option in Developer Settings?

@harpratap , Yes.


text:
How to uninstall Button Savior (non root) from Samsung Galaxy Note 4
I asked this question here and somebody suggested to me that I should asked here.
A friend of mine installed an app called Button Savior (non root) from google play and then decided to uninstall it for whatever reason, but he was not able to uninstall it from his phone, he then asked me to help him to uninstall it from his phone. I searched in google for how to do it, and I found this link.
On this link it was suggested that I first should remove the app from the device administrators list (settings - security - device administrators) and then and uninstall it and if this fails then I should reboot the phone into safe mode and repeat the process. I tried both methods but when I try to remove the app from the device administrators list the setting crash and I got an error message "unfortunately setting has stopped working".
Any suggestions to resolve this issue ?

I would suggest trying to uninstall via adb. You'll need the following if you don't already:

ADB
Enable Developer options
After that, proceed as follows:

Find the package name of the application on your phone that you want to uninstall. The easiest way is to use Package Name Viewer, or in your Settings under Applications.
Enable Debugging mode through Settings -> System -> Developer options -> USB debugging
Connect your phone to your PC
Right click on an empty area in the Fastboot folder while holding the shift key, and click on “Open Command Window Here”.
Now in command window type the following command: adb uninstall packagename where packagename is the name you found earlier (usually looks like com.packagename.anotherthing)
As soon as you hit the Enter key, it will uninstall the App and show you Success in the command window.

There is an easier way. Go to Play Store and search for the app. When the app is found, you will have two options - open or uninstall..


text:
How to access files of Samsung M21 stuck in boot loop
I have a Samsung M21 that apparently has become stuck in a boot loop (thought actually I do not see whether it is "looping" or simply stuck in the logo screen). This could be related to a lack of space in the internal memory since it was quite full and the symptoms it seems to match some similar posts, but I would be surprised as I never got the typical warning for lack of space.
The only thing I want is to access the files that are in the internal memory, mainly photos/videos. I don't care whether I need to rip it apart to extract the internal sd card or memory chip, but since the disassembly videos I've found apparently show that the memory chip is soldered (though not sure about that), I am trying less invasive solutions.
First thing I tried was entering in the recovery menu. Wiped the cache partition but did not solve the boot problem. Then I tried selecting the option Apply update from ADB to see whether this would allow me to enter the filesystem via ADB, but apparently this does not grant me permission: all commands like adb backup or adb shell or adb pull resulted in similar errors like adb: unable to connect for backup: closed, error: closed, or adb: error: connect failed: closed. This I did it from an Ubuntu 22.04 system.
*Edit: adb devices -l gives
[edited serial no.]        sideload usb:3-3 product:m21nsxx model:SM_M215F device:m21 transport_id:4
After reading more, I am wondering whether the "Download mode" and this Odin program, which is the first time I hear about, would allow me to access the files. Has anyone any suggestion or experience with this kind of issue?
A second problem is that every time I try, entering in recovery mode becomes a complete pain. Since forcing the reboot with Power + VolDown very quickly makes the logo screen appear again, there is barely any time to enter the Power + VolUp combination. The times I made, I am not sure of whether it was pure chance. Is there any ideal procedure for this?
Finally, in case that I must dismantle the thing, does anyone know which kind of adapter or material must I find for getting the memory chip and connecting it to a computer?
Thanks in advance!

"Apply update from ADB" is an alias for "ad sideload" a special adb mode which only allows to install OTA system updates. Extracting the flash memory chip (if it is a separate chip at all) is a waste of time as the data is encrypted in a way that it can not be decrypted outside of the device. If the phone uses File Based Encryption and the root cause is lack of free space o user data partition it may be theoretically possible to delete some files after directly accessing the flash chip, but (de)soldering flash chips is AFAIK extremely difficult and requires expensive hardware.

Thanks! AFAIK the files are not encrypted, the method I used for the last backup was accessing from Ubuntu via USB cable, locating the mounting point, and then rsync the whole filesystem. However the physical option is indeed the very last resort. I am still astonished that there is apparently no way to simply mount it and access it from the external device.

An Android device released in 2020 is always encrypted by default even if you have not (tried) to enable encryption and have no lock screen PIN/password/pattern.

Then I guess that whatever I do must be thorough the device' system. I understand that the options "Apply update from ADB" and "Apply update from SD" can be used for updating the OS without losing the data in the phone (i.e. they are regular updates and NOT factory resets). Is there an option that I can use that to restore the system? Maybe trying a lighter OS version would be useful if the problem is lack of free space?

If you would install an OS without proper Samsung signature (assuming that you already have enabled OEM unlock in developer settings while the phone was still usable) this will  trigger a factory reset erasing all your data without any chance to recover a single byte. I have read that some Samsung signed "backdoor-images" were leaked some years ago, but I am not sure if they work in general and for your phone in detail. Never used them.

It seems that I am quite screwed then. The last thing I am looking is these programas like Droidkit and similar, that claim they can recover data from bricked phones, or repair the system etc. However it seems they require a subscription, and I am not sure they are legit. Plus, I suspect they would not work if the system is already rooted. Some experiences?
Also: the Android version is 10/QP1A.190711.020, FWIW.


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Company Samsung Galaxy - how to check if I have proxy or VPN enabled?
I have the company owned Samsung Galaxy. I probably have MDM software on my phone - I see I have Knox 3.3 version, TIMA 3.3.0 and there apps: "Knox Analytics Uploader, "Knox Enrollment Service", "KnoxVpnPacProcessor", "Enterprise Sim Pin Service", WlanTest, "MDMapp". It is likely that administrators also use the Intune environment.
From what I've read, MDMs don't have the access to things like downloaded files or internet history unless they connect the user through a VPN or proxy, is this true?
In my case in the phone's settings under connections there's stance "No VPNs". Also there's "none" in proxy connection settings.
My question is, can I be signed up to a corporate proxy or VPN without knowing it (not having the infomation about it in the phone settings I mentioned)?
I would be very grateful for information from people who know about this. Thanks!

Unless the company performs HTTPS inspection using a proxy or a VPN the admins may only see the host names you connect to.  You can check if HTTPS interception is used by comparing the root CA certificate used e.g. by this site on your phone and on a second device that is not managed by your company. Open in Chrome the site info and there connection info. Compare the shown public key data.

Thanks for your reply! Unfortunately, to be honest, I didn't understand much - what I meant was exactly whether the company can use a proxy or VPN in such a way that I don't see it in the settings
also, from what I've read, MDM does not provide access to Host names - based on this for example https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/intune/user-help/what-info-can-your-company-see-when-you-enroll-your-device-in-intune


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Missing character in Android's keyboard layout for Hebrew
I type in both English and in Hebrew on a Windows 10 PC and on Android. The latter device is a Pixel 4a(5G), running Android 11.

The image attached to this question shows two Keyboards. The top one is a J.Burrows KB200 Bluetooth keyboard - a physical keyboard. Superimposed over it, in red characters, is a representation of a Hebrew-language keyboard layout. It represents the key-mapping you get in Microsoft Windows, when the input language is switched to Hebrew by selecting that setting on the language bar. That Bluetooth keyboard is compatible with both OS's mentioned above and can be paired with both devices.
(Note that the red letters on the top row should be ignored. The crucial characters on that row are the diacritics attached to the letters. The letters are there only to show the positions of the diacritics relative to the letters they are attached to. The same applies to the rightmost key on the next row down.)
The bottom keyboard is a screenshot of a virtual keyboard - Microsoft's OSK keyboard for Windows, showing its keyboard layout when the input language is switched to Hebrew on the language bar. This mapping has become a de-facto standard.
In Hebrew script, all letters of the alphabet are consonants. There are also 14 vowels, which are represented by diacritics that go below, above, or in the letters they are attached to. In Windows, you add diacritics to Hebrew letters in a word processor (e.g. Word) that supports it as follows: Turn on CapsLock, position the cursor immediately to the left of the letter you want to add the diacritic to, then type the relevant key while holding down the shift key. To resume Hebrew alphabetic typing, you must turn off CapsLock.
In the Windows keyboard layout for Hebrew, there are 14 keys for typing those vowels. On the J.Burrows keyboard, the keys for the first 13 vowels are the 13 leftmost keys on the number row (row 2), i.e. all the keys on row 2 except the Delete key at the far right. On the Microsoft OSK keyboard, those 13 keys are the 13 middle keys on the number row (row 1), i.e. all the keys on row 1 except the Esc key at the far left and the Backspace key at the far right.
The 14th vowel, called "Qubuts," should be mapped to the key inscribed with "\" and "|" (lowercase and uppercase.) (Remember this one. It will be important for later.) On the J.Burrows keyboard, that key is the rightmost key on row 3, and on the Microsoft OSK keyboard, when the input language is set to Hebrew, it is the key on row 3 immediately to the left of the Enter key.
At first, after connecting a new keyboard to an Android device, you will only be able to use it to type in the system's default input language. To use it with your desired input language(s), you must tell Android which language(s) you want to type in with that keyboard. That configures Android to use its keyboard layout(s) for your language(s) to interpret input it detects from that keyboard. (A keyboard-layout maps keys on a keyboard to characters in a language.) For that reason, whenever you connect a new physical keyboard, Android prompts you to set up keyboard layouts for it.  If you miss the prompt, the path, on Android 11, to the relevant menu in the Settings is: Settings > System > Languages & Input > Physical keyboard. The physical keyboard must be connected and switched on for this to be shown.
At that point, you have the option to switch on "Use on-screen keyboard," which keeps the virtual keyboard displayed even when you are using the physical keyboard. That is an optional setting, but to be able to switch languages on the physical keyboard, you must tap here on "Set up keyboard layouts," and then select the languages you want to use from a list of languages. (In my case, I select English (U.S.) and Hebrew.)

Note: in Android 14 (and perhaps also in 12 and 13), you may not find "Hebrew" in the alphabetical list of language names among those starting with "H." It will be shown in Hebrew as "עברית" probably at the end of the list.
After selecting your desired language(s), tap the left arrow at the top of the list to back out of that menu. At that point, Android presents you with a dialog box in which you can choose the language you wish to use for now. Do that, and note what it tells you about how to switch between languages. In the example shown above, it says, "to switch, press Control-Spacebar." Then continue backing out until you have completely exited the settings menu.
The pairing and the selection of keyboard layouts only needs to be done once. Subsequent usage of the keyboard only requires that you switch on the keyboard and switch on Bluetooth on the Android device.
When using a physical keyboard on Android, the method of typing Hebrew vowels is the same as the one used in Windows, described above.
Likewise, in all respects except one, the Android keyboard layout for Hebrew is the same as the Microsoft one. The sole exception is that the 14th vowel, called "Qubuts" (Unicode Character U+05BB) is completely missing from the Android layout. That vowel is shown here בֻ beneath the letter ב. Bearing in mind that, as mentioned above, the Microsoft keyboard layout has become a de-facto standard, and looking at the Microsoft OSK keyboard, you can see how, for a designer of a keyboard layout who is using the Microsoft layout as a guide, it is easy to overlook that character, because of its very unobtrusive position on the Microsoft OSK keyboard and also because it is similar in shape to a backslash (\), which is the unshifted character on that key. I have tried every combination of keystrokes I can think of and I can find no way to type it on Android, which convinces me that it has been erroneously omitted from Android's keyboard layout for Hebrew.
This omission is very frustrating for a person typing in Hebrew. It is like trying to type in English on a keyboard with no comma on it, or a keyboard with no letter "u" on it.
I'd like to know if those keyboard layouts that you are required to select from when connecting a new keyboard are native to Android or if they are supplied by Google, and how to notify the relevant people of this bug. Also, are those layouts editable without rooting the phone? If so, it might be possible to overcome the problem. If anyone has a solution, I'd be glad to hear it.
UPDATE:
I now have proof positive that what I observed using the J.Burrows keyboard is not hardware specific. I connected a USB-wired keyboard to my Android phone using an OTG-style adapter (USB-C, male to USB-2, female). The keyboard is a standard, 104-key, Dell, SK-8115. The phone recognised it as a keyboard and it worked immediately, but if I wanted anything other than the default keyboard layout and input language, I had to set up keyboard layouts, as described above, choosing the languages I wanted to use. Then, when I switched the input language to Hebrew by pressing Ctrl-Space, I could type 13 out of the set of 14 diacritics used as Hebrew vowels, but not the Qubuts character. The same keyboard attached to a PC can type a Qubuts, using the expected key as expected in Windows (the method described above.) The Android Qubuts bug is very real - at least in Android 11.
UPDATE 2:
Today I had the opportunity to test for this bug on a friend's Pixel 8a running Android 14 and I can confirm that this bug also exists in Android 14. The results of my testing on that phone were identical to what I reported above.
HOW TO REPLICATE THIS BUG:
This is how you can test whether your device or version of Android is affected by this bug, regardless of whether you can read Hebrew or not. The process for connecting the keyboard and setting up the required keyboard layouts is detailed above (note what was mentioned there about where to find Hebrew in the list), but I will recap here just what to type to replicate this bug:
(a) If the physical keyboard is not currently typing in Hebrew, switch to Hebrew input, usually by typing Ctrl+Space on the physical keyboard.
(b) type C [space] C. You should see: ב ב. Then place the cursor immediately to the left of one of those two Hebrew letters.
(c) Turn on CapsLock, then, while holding down Shift, press 6 on the top number-row.
It should now show as בֶ , proving that the method for typing diacritics works.
(d) Turn off CapsLock and move the cursor to the immediate left of the second of those two Hebrew letters.
(e) Now repeat step (c), but instead of pressing 6, press the key with \ and | on it.
(f) You will either see בֻ or |ב . If the latter, you have replicated the bug.
Available here is a PDF, no longer essential to this question, but containing a description of the problem, plus more information, with illustrations, about using multiple input languages on both Windows and Android and on typing diacritics. It is also easier to read.
UPDATE 3 A possible workaround:
This is not really an answer; it can't fix the bug in Android's stock keyboard layout for Hebrew. Nor is it, of itself, a workaround, but it could pave the path to one, if only I had the expertise to make use of it. Perhaps someone who does may step in to help ...
Thank you Morrison Chang for pointing me to this related question asked here in 2019, which led me to this question, asked in 2013, to which there were a few answers linking to apps or resources no longer available, so they were dead-ends, but one answer by nymabatur of May 3 2021 points to this app by Calin-Darie on the Google Play store:
More Physical Keyboard Layouts. I installed it. (There is no icon and it does nothing except add a bunch of keyboard layouts to Android's stock layouts.) One of the layouts it contains is a Hebrew one. It shows up in Android's layout list as "Hebrew (standard)" with the subtitle "Extra keyboard layouts" beneath it. It doesn't help with this problem; in fact, it makes it worse. Not only can't you type a Qubuts when that layout is selected, you also can't type any of the other 13 Hebrew-diacritics (U+05B0 - U+05BA, and U+05BC) - at least not in the manner that Windows users and users of Android's stock Hebrew layout are accustomed to typing them. So I don't know what standard Calin's layout follows, but it's certainly not the Microsoft one that, as I mentioned above, has become a de-facto standard - also followed by Android, save for the omission of the Qubuts vowel.
But it does hold some promise of a solution. Firstly, it is an open-source app, residing here on Git Hub. Also, here, under "issues" luigge asks if there is a way to create a custom layout to use with the app. To that, jidhub replies that that is exactly what his fork does.
I don't know if what jidhub has created is installable on an Android device as an app, even if it has to be sideloaded, or how to insert a custom layout in it. I have zero experience or knowledge in creating keyboard layouts, but it seems to me that if someone more savvy in this area were to approach such a task as follows, it should not be too difficult to create a workaround for this bug.
If a developer started with a copy of Android's stock Hebrew layout, which, aside from the missing Qubuts, is quite a satisfactory one, and then added just one more character - the Qubuts, of course - mapped to the "\ |" key, but with the proviso that it should only produce a Qubuts when both CapsLock and Shift are on, and the developer can add that custom layout to jidhub's fork of Calin's project and turn it into an app, that would be exactly what is needed as a workaround for this bug.
This may be of some help. (thank you again Morrison Chang for the link), but I'm not sufficiently knowledgeable in this area to make good use of it myself.

A detail worth adding: Is the Android 11 on the device the version that came with it? The device is upgradable to later versions, as far as Android 14, according to Wikipedia.

@Andrew T. The title is now clearer. I got the J.B kbd bcs: 1) ALL typing on a physical kbd is easier, faster & less error prone than on a small, virtual kbd, and 2) bcs I made it a dual-language kbd by adding the Hebrew letters to the key caps with a red permanent-marker pen! On Windows, the relevant key is functioning & types a Qubuts, just not on Android, so the hardware is OK, it's just that Qubuts is missing from Android's kbd layout for Hebrew, so I can't type it on Android. John D: There are things I could lose by upgrading and still not fix this If Android 14 has the same bug.

@Moongazer As both devices tested were Pixel devices you were probably using G-Board (Google's Keyboard), correct?. Have you tried other soft keyboards which can remap bluetooth/physical keyboards, i.e. something like AnySoftKeyboard (available on Google Play Store & F-Droid) with its Hebrew language pack. Otherwise there may be other soft-keyboard apps that handle the remapping of 'Qubuts' correctly.

@Morrison Chang. Yes, I use Gboard + several others, one of which is Hebrew Nikud Keyboard, which supports adding Hebrew-vowel diacritics, including Qubuts. But the aim is to do so with a physical kbd. I tried this: Installed AnySoftKeyboard + its Hebrew pack. Used it a bit. Connected the bluetooth kbd, and, under Physical Keyboard, went to "Set up keybd layouts," removed the Android Hebrew layout, then added it again. Still can't type a Qubuts on it. Will keep trying. I plan to file it as a bug at source.android.com/docs/setup/contribute/report-bugs. Any idea under what component to file it?

I found:https://cs.android.com/android/platform/superproject/main/+/main:external/libxkbcommon/test/data/symbols/il?q=SI-1452 which implies support in AOSP (or awareness as it is an external project). You should change your system locale to Israel and/or system language to Hebrew see if you can get the desired results. Otherwise I would submit with reproduction details along with system settings to the 'framework' tag.

@Morrison  Chang: Thank you very much for your advice and the links you sent. One of them led me, eventually, to an Android app on Google's Play Store ("More Physical Keyboard Layouts") that adds more keyboard layouts to Android's stock layouts. One of them is a Hebrew one. It's no use to me, as it makes this problem worse, not better, but it could potentially lead to a workaround. See addition to my question headed "Update 3."

My ref is to "Israeli standard SI-1452 (2013)" also mentioned in Wikipedia article on Hebrew keyboard. Good that you found that fork, you may want to try building the Android app yourself and make changes to the file: https://github.com/jidhub/thumb-external-keyboard-layouts/blob/master/app/src/main/res/raw/keyboard_layout_hebrew_standard.kcm#L367 so that the mapping works for you, since you've discovered there a few interpretations of the mapping. Lots of resources about Android dev online but software development is off-topic here. Good luck.


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How to disable 'Malicious app' warning?
Termux Screenshot

I'm trying to install Ubuntu on my Android 14 OnePlus Pad 2 tablet via Termux app. It's partially installed and viewable via VNC. But 'apt install' or 'apt upgrade' causes a warning popup to be displayed which cancels the operations in background, as shown in the screenshot.

Security Warning "A malicious app attempted to damage your phone
system. We have stopped the app from doing this. We recommend
restarting your phone and uninstalling the app."

I have disabled phantom processes and flags already:
adb devices

adb shell "/system/bin/device_config set_sync_disabled_for_tests persistent"

adb shell "/system/bin/device_config put activity_manager max_phantom_processes 2147483647"

adb shell settings put global settings_enable_monitor_phantom_procs false

But still can't get past the issue
Has anyone faced this?

Also posted on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/1etlbnd/how_to_disable_malicious_app_warning/

There's the same issue posted on XDA Forums but without solution: Oppo Find x7 ultra keeps killing my Linux apps

@AndrewT. Yes. I figured that this is manufacturer specific issue, so posted in r/OnePlus. Now I have justed posted on r/termux. I don't have much hope, but let's see.


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With Google's Family Link, how to grant unlimited access to select apps?
I just have set up Google Family Link parental control. It very nice and seems to work well for the most part.
However, I want to allow some apps (e.g. Wikipedia) without screen time restriction. I have found ways to give app permissions selectively, but not usage restrictions selectively.
How to exclude some select apps from the screen time limit?
Additionally, is there a way to exclude/allow select apps from the device lock? (E.g. I would like to allow to play music even at bedtime, but nothing else)

Have you checked the following link? https://support.google.com/families/answer/7101025?hl=en

@KennethM Yes I have, among other explainers, mostly from google themselves. It's quite clearly written but does not say anything about individual app usage. The usage restrictions seem to apply regardless of what app was used, which I am asking specifically about here.

Your first request is now possible.  Set the app(s) to "Always allow".  (Source.)
Your second request is still impossible.  After bedtime, "Always allowed" apps can no longer be used.  (Source.)  If necessary, consider giving your child an old MP3 or CD player which can play music.  Or, you could simply allow your child to fall asleep without music.

Since you mentioned Wikipedia:
Wikipedia is not censored.  It includes some graphic material relating to sex, and other graphic material relating to violence.  This material includes text, photos, and videos.  Do you really want your child to be able to access this material in the middle of the night?
Please consider blocking Wikipedia on your kid's phone completely.  The kid can still use Wikipedia on a computer in your living room, or in the school library; these are probably safer places to use Wikipedia.

Thanks for the update about "always allow". I consider Wikipedia one of the more curated pages out there, so no, I do not intend to block it at all.


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How do I get a hacker out of my phone?
The other day my phone number was added to my Google account, data was turned on and off. Different things have been happening. I have a LG V35 and it has an LG VPN section and when I check the log. It shows background scripts or whatever being run in my phone. I do not have a VPN. I tried resetting my phone to factory and it didn't work. Please someone help me get this person out of my phone. The other day it said it got one profile.

Its the log from the app itself. I dont think its from some hacker.
What other problems are you having that suggest it is hacker?

My Google phone number being added to my Google account. Me having to toggle my data on and off like somebody battling over a light switch.

imagine i would give you full remote access via USB debugging on my phone. what exactly would you do if you were the "hacker"? btw you would need root access for a backdoor, and for this you need physical access to my device at least once. And why should a 'hacker' switch off internet connection when this is the only way for remote access? You are really not that interesting..

@alecxs agreed. This looks over-consciousness without evidence. Or may be the issues are something else.

My phone is not rooted. I have no VPN. A guy did have physical access to my phone and messed around with developer options and what not. He was telling me how he could hack into people's Wi-Fi and all kinds of shit.

@Chrissorey you shouldn't be that helpless. Device is yours, in your hands, no one can control it better than you. A Factory Reset returns the device to its original state. Any modifications made by user are reversed except if the device was rooted and partitions other than /data and /cache e.g. /system or /vendor were modified. But that doesn't seems to be the case with your device. Another (minor) possibility is to take control of device at kernel or bootloader level e.g. through rootkits. But isn't possible by just making a few changes in Developer Options or so. That needs hacking.

Look through your installed app (in settings). Is there some new weird app you have never seen before and not installed yourself which is labeled as "System-App"? Yes? Your are screwed. Only way to get rid of it is to re-flash the whole ROM. Well you could also root your phone and use one of countless apps/modules to remove System-Apps. But God knows what the virus will do when it gets root access.
I have seen this years ago on a Huawei Mate 1. The app was turning on WiFi and Data permanently to load ads and malware. Factory reset did nothing. Clean flash of a new ROM was the only way.

So basically just get a new phone


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In Google Chrome for Android, how to remove permanently all the visited pages icons - or restore all the removed ones
I want to have a clear new tab page in Chrome so that I don't get suggestions on what to browse. For that reason I pressed each of the icons on it and remove them. However new ones keep appearing all the time.

I looked everywhere in Google and played with the chrome://flags but they keep appearing all the time.
For that reason I would like one of the following options:

make sure I have a clean new tab page with no icons of websites at all. Or in case this is not possible
to revert all the removals so that at least I see the pages I like the most but where removed (I didn't clear my browsing history because I have kept it for years and I'd like to keep it)

Also I've uninstalled the Chrome app but didn't help.

As an alternative, if needed be, you can use Kiwi browser (Chromium based) which doesn't show the visited site icons at all.

I'd like to stick to Google Chrome but if I don't find the way then I'll consider alternatives


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Installing a homebrew/linuxbrew formula on an Android device
How would one go about installing a simple homebrew/linuxbrew formula on an Android device via adb? Specifically, I want to install this formula which contains a cli tool called aamath that translates mathematical formulas into ASCII art. I would want to verify that I can run this tool inside an adb shell session. Then a second step (which I may ask in a future question on this site) would be to write my own APK that invokes this tool.


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How to change the font of only one application?
There's an app called JuiceSSH and it's running perfectly but whenever I change my phone's font it via themes app, JuiceSSH acts weirdly inside the terminal: weird spaces and letters show. My question is how to change the font of this app only to something default, I've tried using APK editor and it always says failed to compile, and I've no idea what should I do. Can anyone please help?
(Running Android 8.1, EMUI 8.2)

What app are you using to change the font? Is it a manufacturer specific app (e.g. Samsung)? What phone?

Why don't you just contact the author of JuiceSSH and ask for a in-app font selection mechanism overriding the default system theme?

I've tried this and no hope, they're not answering and seems like this program is no longer maintained, it's just thrown there on playstore with no support

Apparently it was caused by using a non monospaced font, when I used a monospaced font on system it actually got fixed but still, I'd like to know how to set a default font on an APK.


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Unrooting phone
I bought a new phone from someone the other day and I would like to use it. The only problem is when I was going through it I noticed that they at some point rooted their phone and put some of there own system files and apps into the system. I can't access the root of this device; I have been trying for days now and I don't want to put my information into this phone till I have been able to wipe it clean of the old user's root system data. How can I force reset this phone to wipe not just the local user data but also the system user data they put into?

You will have to reflash it with the factory stock image. The system partition in memory cannot be returned to stock in any other way as in almost all devices there is no way to make to changes to the system without root access. What exact phone make and model do you have and we may be able to assist?

its the lg harmony 2 make is lm-x410cs. i would need someone to tell me how to do this in detail im new to all of this and have been for some time.

there is no official ROM available, so this is just theory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ_8xuuftZw but you can ask previous owner how to get root privileges


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Are lock screen pattern and system start pattern the same?
I have recently bought a Nokia 5 and I am quite new to Android.
I have entered screen lock/and or start lock and entered a pattern. Acutally, I don't know if I did that one or two times but then I was very new to Android.
After some time, I have changed the lock screen pattern. Now I enter that pattern daily many times, but I didn't turn it off for, say, two weeks.
Now, after the installation of an update, the phone restarted and asked for a pattern to start Android. The lock screen pattern did not work.
Since I entered the pattern too many times wrongly, the phone erased all data and I was forced to reinstall everything. Now I have entered a pattern (for lock screen) once again, and upon restarting the phone, the same pattern unlocked the phone.
So the question: Are lock screen pattern and system start pattern always the same or can the be different?

There is only lockscreen pattern that locks the phone for authentication. You don't have a system lockscreen separately. Same applies whether you are using numeric PIN as password based lockscreen.
If your device is encrypted, the pattern or PIN is the basis for encryption of key generated by system

The last word is wrong. The encryption key is generated randomly and is only encrypted again with PIN.

@beeshyams: so basically this means either I have really forgotten that pattern or that was a bug (or malware)

More likely that you would have forgotten. If it was a bug, it would have been widely reported on your device forums