text:
Using an Android phone as a cordless headset
I know there are some cordless phones which allow adding Android phones as additional headsets (e.g. http://shop.panasonic.com/shop/model/KX-PRW130W or http://shop.panasonic.com/shop/model/KX-PRX120W). These devices include both a headset and a base receiver. I already have an Android phones, so I only need to a device to transmit calls to my cell phone via WiFi (the base). Is there such device available?

I know of several apps connecting to the router (which often is a combo of WiFi and telephony router), basically registering as a "landline cordless phone" using VoIP. Is it that what you're asking for? If so, there must be support from both ends (i.e. your "phone box" must support it, and have a matching app – or your "phone box" offers a standard SIP protocol where you can use any SIP app with).

@Izzy No, The question is not related to VoIP in any way. Please the linked page.

In the links you provided in your question, are the devices that are required.  They have that feature built into the hardware.


text:
How to keep an app running?
I have installed a talking clock app (named "Tell Me The Time") that say the current time every quarter hour. However I does not stay active and I have reopen it occasionally. At the same time, another similar app does not have this issue and remain active in the background. How to keep an app active (running) in the background (24/7)?
The issue is also more serious in using Torrent clients (they actually are useless in android).

It depends on how the app has been developed. Generally, android service needs to be running if you want the application to remain active in the background. But, if services are not used, then as soon as the activity disappears or destroys, behaviour is no longer observed.

An alarm would be better, and less draining to the battery.

As I mentioned in my answer, 'service' is the key factor. An alarm can be set on by using trigger actions. But, if not embedded in service, it will not work as soon as the user leaves the activity, Better to focus on using 'services'. This will ensure that the app will work even in the background.

So do you mean that it's impossible to keep an app running?

By keeping screen On continuously might serve the purpose, but its not practically feasible (battery constraints).

To my knowledge, you cannot properly ensure that without being the developer of the application (and even then there is no guarantee).
You need to know that the Android system is geared towards killing applications in the background as the device runs out of memory. The general rule-of-thumb is, that inactive apps are killed in favor of currently active ones if memory is low. I am sure as a developer, you can circumvent this to an extend with workarounds like trying to keep your app running in the background and bring it to the front regularly, restart it at fixed intervals or something similar.
But as a user being given an arbitrary application,  this sounds almost impossible.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Changing   layout of hardware keyboard
How I can change a layout or add a new layout to physical keyboard of  Xperia mini pro phone?
I want for example remap ? to ''ə'' and shift ? to ''Ə'', or س to ی in Persian layout or even add new layout (Persian 2 layout).
You can find build-in layout here, actually I want to add a new layout to them.

Can you be more specific by what you mean by "layout"? Are you wanting to re-bind keys?

@Reza, are you rooted?

@jlehenbauer Yes, my device is rooted

@Reza Perfect! i'm actually doing this right now to my phone. i'll type it up for you!

Any purpose of photo?

@SachinShekhar It's for showing what is a physical keyboard, for those that never see one! ;)

First, obtain the following:

Android device with root access
adb on your computer

you can do without this, but that just means a lot of time copying files back and forth to your phone and moving them with something like Root Explorer

text editor

Now,

Plug your phone in to your computer and navigate to the /system/usr/keylayout/ folder, using adb or a Terminal Emulator
Pull the file for your keylayout. Mine was called qwerty.kl and looked like this:

key 399   GRAVE
key 2     1
key 3     2
key 4     3
key 5     4
key 6     5
key 7     6
key 8     7
key 9     8
key 10    9
key 11    0
key 158   BACK              WAKE_DROPPED
key 230   SOFT_RIGHT        WAKE
key 60    SOFT_RIGHT        WAKE
key 107   ENDCALL           WAKE_DROPPED
key 62    ENDCALL           WAKE_DROPPED
key 229   MENU              WAKE_DROPPED
key 139   MENU              WAKE_DROPPED
key 59    MENU              WAKE_DROPPED
key 127   SEARCH            WAKE_DROPPED
key 217   SEARCH            WAKE_DROPPED
key 228   POUND
key 227   STAR
key 231   CALL              WAKE_DROPPED
key 61    CALL              WAKE_DROPPED
key 232   DPAD_CENTER       WAKE_DROPPED
key 108   DPAD_DOWN         WAKE_DROPPED
key 103   DPAD_UP           WAKE_DROPPED
key 102   HOME              WAKE
key 105   DPAD_LEFT         WAKE_DROPPED
key 106   DPAD_RIGHT        WAKE_DROPPED
key 115   VOLUME_UP         WAKE
key 114   VOLUME_DOWN       WAKE
key 116   POWER             WAKE
key 212   CAMERA

key 16    Q
key 17    W
key 18    E
key 19    R
key 20    T
key 21    Y
key 22    U
key 23    I
key 24    O
key 25    P
key 26    LEFT_BRACKET
key 27    RIGHT_BRACKET
key 43    BACKSLASH

key 30    A
key 31    S
key 32    D
key 33    F
key 34    G
key 35    H
key 36    J
key 37    K
key 38    L
key 39    SEMICOLON
key 40    APOSTROPHE
key 14    DEL

key 44    Z
key 45    X
key 46    C
key 47    V
key 48    B
key 49    N
key 50    M
key 51    COMMA
key 52    PERIOD
key 53    SLASH
key 28    ENTER

key 56    ALT_LEFT
key 100   ALT_RIGHT
key 42    SHIFT_LEFT
key 54    SHIFT_RIGHT
key 15    TAB
key 57    SPACE
key 150   EXPLORER
key 155   ENVELOPE

key 12    MINUS
key 13    EQUALS
key 215   AT

# On an AT keyboard: ESC, F10
key 1     BACK              WAKE_DROPPED
key 68    MENU              WAKE_DROPPED

Now, play with the file!

To change L to M, key 38    L->key 38   M
Obviously, key ### maps to certain keys. This can be tedious, as you mostly have to guess and check the key numbers.
Here is what I've found so far for mine, hopefully it helps:

The next part is the mapping. Simply put the character or command, such as HOME after the key number.
The last part (WAKE/WAKE_DROPPED) determines if the key wakes the screen. WAKE=wake the screen WAKE_DROPPED=don't wake screen.
Now get it like you want it, and enjoy!
This will work with English-based keyboards, after that it's a little more guess and check, because you will need to know the foreign character that corresponds to the English character that corresponds to the key #.

@Thanks, It seems that these files just can be used to map physical keys to some predefined names, How I can map shift+space to "@" sign, or "?" to 'ə' letter? Where layout files for various languages are placed? How we can add a new languages to language list?

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


text:
How can I merge duplicated contacts that are different only in one letter?
I use "Contact Remover Plus" to merge duplicated contacts. But I want also merge contacts that their names are different just in a letter.
How can I merge these duplicated contacts? I am looking for a automatic solution.

@RyanConrad Google Contact web app do not merge contacts that are different in name!

no, but it is still the easiest to edit them if needed. And, for the record, if the contacts have things like the same email (and maybe even phone number) it can merge them. I have had it merge people that I did not want merged because the email addresses were the same.

"Is there an app for X?" questions are off-topic on Android
Enthusiasts. That's why I have edited your question to ask for a solution instead of an app.

possible duplicate of How do I merge contacts based on phone numbers?

I don't think that this is a duplicate, it may produces the same answers but the constraints are different.

Google Contacts is your best option. It will merge contacts with different names if things like their email addresses are the same. Also, if for some reason, it doesn't detect the contacts that should be merged, you can select multiple contacts manually and click on Merge Contacts from the more actions menu.

I definitely second Ryan. It's best to use the web tool for this task (it has 'revert' too).

Use latest version of MyPhoneExplorer (www.fjsoft.at). It is compatible with nearly any android phone. connect your phone with Bluetooth or USB to PC. Sync your contacts with the software, then you are able to easily merge your contacts by selecting some of them and right-click -> Merge Contacts.
Note, this requires installation of a client on your Windows desktop (no Mac or Linux available)


text:
Which hardware sensors are supported by Android?
Which hardware sensors are supported by Android? Are there any imaginable sensors that may be planned to be supported in the future?
For every sensor:

How is the sensor useful?
Which devices currently have it? (Only for new sensors)
What do notable apps use the sensor?

Here is a list of currently supported hardware sensors:
Environment Sensors

ambient humidity
illuminance
ambient pressure
ambient temperature
Device temperature

Motion sensors

accelerometer
gyroscope

Position sensors

geomagnetic field sensor
the proximity sensor

The orientation sensor is software-based and derives its data from the
  accelerometer and the geomagnetic field sensor.

"Please introduce one sensor per answer." Yeah, please don't to that. This site works best when there is the possibility of one, single, correct answer.

@AlEverett This question was intended to become a community question, please vote to reopen it.

"closed as not constructive" Wow! not constructive!! At least it can act as a references.

I'm with @PHPst--it's shocking that a question like this is considered not constructive for this site, especially considering the good quality of the one answer it did receive.

AFAIK, these are sensors which Android supports:
- Accelerometer
Measures amount of acceleration which the gravity applies to the device, in 3 dimension. Therefore, the device can detect exactly in which position against the earth it is. Its usefulness is very wide, but mostly in games.
Almost all of Android phones have this sensor.
- Gyro
This one is very related to accelerometer and according to Wikipedia:
"The integration of the gyroscope has allowed for more accurate recognition of movement within a 3D space than the previous lone accelerometer within a number of smartphones. Gyroscopes in consumer electronics are usually called Accelerometers (Acceleration sensors) and come in 3-axis, 6-axis, etc."
Not all of Android phones have this sensor, but most of newer ones have.
Full List of Android phones with Gyro sensor
- Compass
This one almost works like a normal real compass, but very very tiny! It allows device to detect in which position it is against the poles of earth. So, apps using this sensor can show you the angle which you have hold the phone comparing to the North, South, East or West. It's main usage is in apps to find your way, in companion with GPS, or for example finding Qibla for Muslims, or any other interested direction which you may need.
List of Android phones with Compass
- Orientation
I Think this one is not a real sensor, but a side usage of Accelerometer. Orientation detection is most used for Android UI and most apps to detect portrait or landscape position of the phone, to rotate the UI accordingly. Almost all of Android phones have this feature.
- Pressure (Barometer)
This one is relatively a new sensor, which detects pressure of air in area which device is in, just like a barometer. It's main usage is to detect altitude of current location of device from sea level. This helps GPS to be faster and more accurate because one of 3 main values (Latitude, Longitude, and Altitude) that are detected by GPS, can be faster detected by barometer. So, GPS would work faster in companion with barometer sensor.
List of Android phones with Barometer sensor
- Proximity
This sensor is mostly located beside earphone in top of front face of the phone. It can be seen easily if you put the phone under bright light (unlike above sensors which are inside the phone and not visible). Its main usage is to turn-off screen, when you are calling and phone is near your head. Android turns off the screen, so it prevents accidental touch of screen when you are not supposed to, and also, it reduces battery consumption in calls. Some apps also use this sensor to control phone by your hand gestures, because this sensor has 2 state, On and Off. On for when something is near it (about 1 cm) and Off for when nothing is near. Most Android phones have this sensor.
List of Android phones with Proximity sensor
- Ambient Light
This sensor, as obvious from its name, measures ambient light in environment where the phone is in. Its value is a number between 0..255 (darkest to brightest) and is mainly used by Android internal system to automatically adjust brightness of screen to be properly readable under bright light of the sun, and also in a dark room. Not all Android phones have this sensor, and no usage except adjustment of screen brightness can be considered for it. I couldn't find a list of phones with this sensor, but almost all if high-end Android phones have this sensor. Its favorite location to sit down in your phone, if ever exist, is near earphone at top of front panel, and looks like a tiny and dark front camera placeholder.

That's a lot of good, useful information. Where did you find it all?

Out of curiosity, is there a particular reason why you decided to make this community wiki? You took the time to write this all up, you're certainly free to gain the rep from it (and anyone can suggest edits nowadays).

@AlEverett I found this info deep inside my brain :) It's all from my experience and previous knowledge about these sensors.

Nicely done. I'm also curious why you made this Community Wiki.

@eldarerathis Yes, you are right. I took time to write this (but it was joyful, as English is not my first language!). But I thought it has been like a wiki, so I checked the Community Wiki! BTW, if you, as a moderator, can change this back to a normal answer, please do this, because I can't! If not, no problem, I would like to write and share answers about phones, Specially Android phones.

@AlEverett thanks, please read above comment :)

Yep, moderators can change community wiki status. I certainly appreciate that you wanted to make this collaborative, but wanted to make sure you get due credit (and make sure you're aware that suggested edits allow pretty much anyone to edit a post; community wiki functionality predates suggested edits).

@eldarerathis thanks, I really didn't know what a community wiki means on this site! However I would like to make wikis and share valuable and editable info with other users, but about this post, I prefer it to be known as my answer to the question.

You may find these links informative: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/11740/what-are-community-wiki-posts http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/108136/what-is-community-wiki-for

Thanks for your good answer. What about Temperature Sensor and Magnetic Field?

@Reza Sorry, I don't have any notable knowledge about Temperature sensor, and I think magnetic field is not a sensor, but readings from compass sensor.

I find it strange that the mods would suggest that this answer not be a community wiki since they closed the question as "not constructive" and nobody else can add answers to it when new sensors are added.


text:
Trying to get TWRP working, healthd is not present in stock ROM
I'm a TWRP maintainer for the SM-T110 (Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Lite), and I'm trying to fix some issues I get while booting up TWRP. The device halts for a while during boot time, and then TWRP starts. Here are the logs that are related with the issue.
I tried getting the healthd binary from the stock TouchWiz firmware, but it is not present in /sbin/healthd where it should be. I've also done an entire find search, and no file named healthd is present. I am stuck on how to fix this. Any help would be much appreciated!

The issue was solved by using SM-T210's /sbin/healthd file instead. The two share the same SoC and the kernels were quite similar so it worked perfectly.

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


text:
One-time-only alarms?
I would like a way to set one-time-only alarms, that is, alarms that would self delete after being dismissed.
It seems there's no way to do that with the native Clock app by Google (I'm using a Pixel phone). Is there?
Alternatively, do you know any apps on Google Play that have that feature?

Alternatively, you could set an appointment in Calendar and name it junk. Allow it to go off. And at some future time search for all the junk alarms that you have set and delete them.

Why do you need it to be removed? I use one-time only alarms - reusing the same one over and over, adjusting it the way I like.

I currently employ manual alternatives such as these, but it's more clicks. I often setup alarms that I need only once, just for preference, so I figured I would look up a way to do this more easely.

With the Google Clock app, the alternative is to set an alarm with Google Assistant.
Saying "Set an alarm at [hour] [minutes]" will set a one-time alarm, and it will be automatically removed after dismissing it.

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


text:
Google Play does not download application when VPN connection is active
I use OpenVPN Connect. When VPN connection is active Google Play can show pages, pictures, video, but does not download the application: "pending...".
To begin download I need to disable VPN, then it works. Tell me how to research a problem and make GPlay work over VPN?

If all other apps work fine, then VPN client app or the VPN server must be blocking the connections to Google servers.

I have tried different servers and different VPN provides including VPS hostings. Almost all of them cannot download APKs. I am pretty sure Google intentionally is protecting APKs from being downloaded through VPN.

After all, I found Aurora Store. It is like Google's Play Store, but has some cool features like anonymous apk download, sharing, version selection, etc.

"Since VPNs basically spoof your location, it may lead Google Play Store to think you aren’t in the country where you should be according to your device, and it can pause your downloads.
If that’s the case, there really isn’t much you need to do to fix the issue. All you need to do is disable the VPN app on your phone and you should be good to go." Source
It is my experience that google play store DOES block your downloads if you are using VPN. (in my case openvpn)
What you can do:

disconnect your VPN (you do not need to disable your app, only disconnect while you are downloading)
turn off mobile data (even if you are connected currently via WIFI, this can help too)

Sure, Gigle used to block downloading APKs through VPN. I do not want to disable VPN! That is not even considered as any usable solution. I appreciate your port but it is not an answer. I definitely know that it works without vpn as you can see in my question. Suggesting to disable vpn sounds strange - this is obvious anti-solution. ;(

You have to disable only while downloading, after that you can enable it. In openVPN it is only one click to switch off, after that you can click one more and the VPN will be active again.
Personally i would not trust any 3rd party site to install my APKs, what is the point to use VPN if you let the trojan horse into your house?

I know. I used to do so. But once you disable VPN and "kill switch" your location, family (who goes to internet from same IP), and too much other information are gathered in a moment by gigle. Disabling VPN is not a solution.


text:
How to get Android Phone storage as a drive path in Windows PC
I am using MI Note 5 Pro android version 9.0 and Windows 10 Basic.
On USB plugging('File Transfer' selected), I can only access files from Phone by normal copy paste(ctrl-c/v) but cannot access full file path from Phone because there is no drive letter assigned.

where disk is sd card.
I am getting files path as "This PC\Redmi Note 5 Pro\Internal shared storage" but want something like "P:\Redmi Note 5 Pro\Internal shared storage" How to get it without rooting phone?
Purpose: I want to backup my phone data to PC periodically using "Areca backup" open source utility which creates incremental backup. Note: I will not be writing any data to Phone but will only need to read it for copy operation.

Does this answer your question? Setting up an Android device as file server

Software like MTPdrive directly mounts a device with a drive letter.

I have MPTDrive and it is very difficult to get a stable connection. And if you do manage to get the phone to be recognized by the app (even though Windows sees it fine), when I try to use it to back up my phone SD card, it drops the connection mid-way through the backup and I'm back to not being able to connect the phone to the app.

Hi Ezriderz, I am not using any app on windows PC. Procedure is like- connect phone using usb wire, a popup will appear in Android phone to file transfer, do nothing, etc. Select file transfer. Then you will be able to open internal storage or sd card drive from my computer just like default c/d drive you have. Then I use freefilesync app with keeping phone paths as mtp: prefix. The one mentioned in answer do create some problems with ftp incompatible files so i am no longer using that solution.

MTP the protocol used for accessing the phone is not implemented as file-system on plain Windows thus you don't get a drive letter without third party software. Additionally MTP is a pretty unstable, ineffective and slow file-system which makes it not a good choice for backup.
But be aware that the files you can access via MTP are just the tip of the ice berg, making a backup of those data will not allow you to restore your phone (except for some apps that explicitly place their files on shared storage section).
If you still want to backup the data you should enable Android Debug Bridge (adb) and use adb-sync go copy the data to your PC. From there you can then make a backup.

Hi, Thanks for answering. I actually need a way to keep copy of files to my PC like documents, images, etc lying in phone here and there and don't care about full backup having app settings too. So basically an easier way to copy paste phone's filemanager contents.

@PalashBansal Then adb-sync would be perfect for you. Also having ADB enabled is always a good preparation in case the phone display breaks. In such a case ADB allows to backup the files even if the display is broken. MTP however needs an unlocked device which requires a working display.

AndroidDrive does this.
If you're looking to transfer files from the phone, its very buggy in that regard though.

Why recommend it if its buggy?

Because, perhaps someone can fix it. The source code is available.


text:
My Galaxy A71 photos aren't being picked up in Google Photos
I've got a relatively new Galaxy A71. With all my previous Android phones, my camera photos automatically got picked up in Google Photos. This phone, for some reason, doesn't work that way; if I want my photos to upload to Google, I have to select and share them manually. Inside Google Photos itself, in the section to select "Device folders", it tells me "Your camera folder is automatically backed up." But, fact: it's not.
How do I fix this?

Open Google Photos app and turn on backup by tapping on the profile icon on top right (if you havent already)
then somewhere in google photos settings, there's an option which default sets  your device to backup only on wifi : choose that to be allowed while on mobile data too.
i hope this helps

Hm, I had it set only for WiFi. Let's see if that helps.

Well, whaddaya know. That worked! Thank you!

@ShaulBehr My pleasure


text:
Is it reasonably safe to use PIN code for encryption?
On the Android 4.0 (Samsung Galaxy Nexus) there is a posibilty to encrypt the phone.
I found this about the encryption on Android 3.0, is the same algorithms used in Android 4? http://source.android.com/tech/encryption/android_crypto_implementation.html
My main question concerns the use of a PIN code to decrypt your phone.
Why am I forced to use the same password to unlock my screen and to decrypt my phone?
This restriction will only allow me to use a password of low complexity (like a PIN number) since it would be to hard to write in i.e. 17 characters to unlock my phone for a simple phone call.
Brute force attempts against the screen unlock could be prevented i.e. by a force reboot every 5 tries. So there is not any need for a very strong password there, a PIN might be good enough.
This type of protection can not be used on the disc, thus there is a greater need for stronger passwords here.
(It doesn't help much that the entropi of passwords have increased since there will be very few users with a complex password, so an attacker could simply try most passwords with low complexity).
What is the reasoning behind being forced to use the same password for both features?

I says you must use a lockscreen PIN or password. The password can be up to 17 characters long and can contain any letters, numbers or symbols (based on a quick test). That's much more entropy. Of course it would be more secure with no maximum limit, but still.

Yes, but if I use the password I would need to use that to simply unlock my screen. Not very handy to type in 17 characters to give a quick call. Thus most users will make due with the PIN numbers and that would be the first thing an attacker would try.
A better approache would perhaps be to allow passphrases for the disk encryption and allow simple PIN numbers on the lock screen. To avoid bruteforce attempts on the lockscreen there could be a force reboot after 3 failed attempts resulting in a request for the password.

It sounds like what you're looking for just doesn't exist, then.

Well, I am looking for an answer to whether there is some reasoning behind this. If anyone one knows a way around this.
If not, where is a good place to turn to drop a feature request. The google android team or Samsung (running clean install of Android 4.0.1)?

I don't know that anyone other than Google could tell you the reasoning, unfortunately. You could try the Android bug tracker to file a feature request, probably. This seems like a sensible thing to file there.

well, the current behaviour for unlocking the screen (on android gingerbread 2.3.6) is that every five tries it makes you wait 30 seconds. It would kinda put off any brute-force attack, don't you think?

Yes, against login attempt on the unlock screen, but not against decrypting the harddrive. That is what I am trying to say, the screen unlock doesn't need to be as long as the harddrive encryption (which needs to be much longer than 4 numbers) and thus one shouldn't be forced to use the same for both.

I think I have found the solution. Check this link. It's a hack and it requires a phone to be rooted, but it does allow you to use alphanumeric password for encryption and PIN for screen unlock.

You're asking in the wrong place, this is a question for [security.se]. Most of the Android expert here would not be qualified to answer or make an informed vote to the answers on this question.

@lie_ryan Well, the question I was looking for was rather a android-y/software-dev reason why they would share password for the different tasks.
I know that it is unsafe to use 4 digits as a disc encryption password.

@Christopher: but you're basing your decision on incorrect premise, the on-disk encryption was 128-bit AES, not the 4 digit PIN. Determining whether this scheme is secure or inherently faulty, is not the expertise of Android.SE.

@LieRyan They still share password undependant of the encryption scheme used for the disc encryption. The problem is that users will not choose a long passphrase if they also need to use the same long passphrase to simply unlock the screen. Which I am -very- convinced is unsafe.
So what can the reason be that the user is forced to use the same passcode for both features? Some limitation in the OS?

@Christopher: There is no limitation on what can be done with software. You should ask security question at [security.se]. It could be that it turns out that using different keys would not actually be more secure, or it could simply be an oversight or practical tradeoff. Either way, you'll get much better answers there instead of here. As I see it here, there are 5 mediocre answers; GAThrawn's answer comes closest to being the most informed answer, but it isn't a complete answer.

You can use this command on a root shell to change the encryption password:
su -c vdc cryptfs changepw <new_password>

Where <new_password> should be replaced by your password.
Source: http://nelenkov.blogspot.be/2012/08/changing-androids-disk-encryption.html

By using a password/phrase vs four digit pin, you are increasing the security of your device.  The trick of it is, even by having a four character password, you've just increased your security for two reasons:

You've increased the available characters.
You've taken away the attackers knowledge of your pw length.

If an attacker knows your password is 14 characters, it is more secure than a four or eight character password, but typical statistics use ranges (1-4, 1-8, 1-14) and not the reality (which would be simply calculating one length's available combinations).
Currently, it is simply WAY TO EASY to access your phone's data.  Your grandmother has the capability of doing so (No offense to you or your family :P).  So, while you're right that there are limitations of this encryption, the 'broken' version works A LOT better than non-encrypted data currently practiced.
It is up to you to judge how sensitive and private your data is, as well as how much of a target you are for such data to be stolen.  Choosing an appropriate password is your responsibility once you've assessed these risk.

Yes, but I feel like it would be a simple solution to the problem to have different passwords for unlocking screen and for decrypting the device (as I mentioned here http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/17086/is-it-reasonably-safe-to-use-pin-code-for-encryption/19754?iemail=1#comment20004_17086) since they are used in different senarios and need to have different attributes.

If you're trying to crack the disk encryption, independent of the rest of the device in a scenario where you have a powered off device, or just the memory chips, then this is a different attack vector than that used on a powered-on password protected device where the decryption key may be held in memory (leading to vulnerabilities used by things like the Firewire encryption key stealers prevalent on PCs using older FDE encryption software and not a TPM-type module), or the unlock screen could be brute-forced (or have its own vulnerabilities).
If you're attacking the disk directly then in this case you're not attacking the 4-digit PIN or user password that's encrypting the device, what you're attacking is the 128 bit AES key:

The master key is a 128 bit number created by reading from
  /dev/urandom. It is encrypted with a hash of the user password created
  with the PBKDF2 function from the SSL library. The footer also
  contains a random salt (also read from /dev/urandom) used to add
  entropy to the hash from PBKDF2, and prevent rainbow table attacks on
  the password.

From point 4 under "Enabling encryption on the device" of the Notes on the implementation of encryption in Android 3.0 that you linked to.
(was going to be a comment but ended up far too long)

Thank you for this nice comment!
One thing though; am I not looking for the user password (which most probably will be a 4 digit pin, because you are forced to share key with screen unlock and anything else will be a hassle to type in to make a phone call) to decrypt the 128 bit AES key? (instead of searching for the key directly). If I hash all 10000 pins with the PBKDF2 function + salt, isn't there just 10000 decryption attempts for me to try then?

@Melpomene The "rainbow table attack" that they talk about is where you pre-encrypt all 10,000 combinations to see what they look like encrypted and then just compare what's on disk to what's in your rainbow table. The "random salt" is what's used to help prevent this by creating far more than 10,000 combinations that you'll have to guess through (unless you manage to work out the "salt" first).

A rainbow is a smart way of storing encrypted passwords yes. And if a salt is used it would probably need to be specially constructed just for cracking passwords with that salt. This is not a very hard operation when there are only 10,000 passwords to choose from. Note that the Salt is always considered known to the attacker (since it seems to be read from /dev/urandom in the docs this is most likley stored either in clear text or encrypted with the user password). Either way the the user password is the weak link.

But I wouldn't even need to construct a rainbowtable since storing (or calculating) 10,000 hashes is not that hard on my memory (processor).

Using a key derivation function like PBKDF2 does seem like good news, but a typical 4 digit pin is still only 10000 possible combinations.

To clear up some confusion: the salt is stored unencrypted in a 16KB footer of the encrypted partition. http://nelenkov.blogspot.be/2012/08/changing-androids-disk-encryption.html

One possible solution for this is to use whispercore, but it requires you to root your device.
I have also filled a feature request at the android project page.

If you have remote wipe enabled (assuming it still works with encrypted device), the PIN may not secure your device forever, but it may do so long enough to give you time to wipe your device.

The problem is that a short PIN can only secure the device when it is on. Therefore switching a stolen device off prevents the device from being wiped and additionally the PIN can be broken in an offline brute-force attack. Hence a short PIN doesn't help you in this situation.

@Robert, I'm not too familiar with how remote wipe works.  If it's done via Exchange, does the phone have to be on the same moment the remote wipe command is issued?  My thought is that if I can issue a remote wipe within 30 minutes or so of losing my phone that's good enough for me, but I don't have any financial data, my main concern is my GMail work email.

The phone has to be on and on-line some time after you have issued the remote wipe command. If the phone has been switched off (and stays off) the wipe command is useless.


text:
What's the meaning of signal strength colors in battery usage screens?
The battery usage screen has an indicator for "Signal strength" that, instead of being blue/black like WiFi, has many colors: green, gray, yellow. What's their meaning?

Could be related: What does it mean when the connectivity icons in the status bar go white in Gingerbread?

For easier reference:

Source: XDA

I assume that you mean on the graph you get if you go to Settings -> About Phone -> Battery Use and tap the graph at the top? I have a signal strength line there, under the battery level graph that has many colours in it that's labelled "Phone Signal" on my device.
(full size)
The reason it's there is that your signal strength can have a big effect on your battery life. If you have a good, strong signal from a nearby phone mast then your phone will run it's antenna in a low-power mode, whereas when it has a bad, weak signal it will turn up its transmitter into a full-power mode to help ensure that your communication gets out. As an extreme example I know that if I forget to switch my phone into Airplane Mode before putting it in the metal lockers at my sports centre, then I often come back to only a quarter or less of battery charge left.
I can't find an official reference for what the colours mean, the feature was introduced in Gingerbread but the official Gingerbread manual barely mentions the graph and that screen beyond telling you that it exists (p.48 of the 2.3.4 manual linked), from personal experience I know that Red is a bad/no signal, but other than green being a good signal, I don't know the significance of the other colours.
Some internet forum posters suggest these meanings for the signal strength graph, which seems to match up with what I see:
Red = No data signal (or possibly no signal at all)
Grey = No or minimal (2G/EDGE) data connection
Olive Green = 3G/4G connection with light data usage
Bright Green = 3G/4G heavy data usage (streaming media, etc)
Yellow = No consensus on what this means, but it only seems to show up as a very narrow sliver, and generally only when the connection seems to be changing state (eg from data network to wifi)
This seems to agree with what I see on my phone, that while wifi is on and connected to an access point (so any data should be going through wifi and not the phone network) I only have grey, olive or red in the signal strength, whilst when wifi is off I get the greens in addition.
There is also the indicator in the Android status bar that is normally green, but changes to yellow and then red when it is extremely low, the main battery usage graph follows these three colours with what looks like the same thresholds, but that one doesn't sound like what's confusing you.

I doubt it's 3g/4g. I've got bright green here as well on a device restricted to 2g ;)

i know this might be a late reply, but, i switch off the "Mobile Data" during night, but it still shows green color in the battery usage. How is that happening?

@R4chi7 see my answer. It has nothing to do with data, it's just about just plain cell signal strength.

Black/transparent: Power off
Red: Phone is trying to find a signal
Yellow: Signal strength 0 (min)
Dirty yellow: Signal strength 1
Even more dirty yellow: Signal strength 2
Somewhat yellowish gray: Signal strength 3
Green: Signal strength 4 (max)

Source please :)


text:
images blurry in stock browser
How do I disable the automatic zoom-in in stock browser? It makes the images very blurry and eye strain. What I want is small but sharp (which is what opera does)

in ICS 4.0.4: Open stock browser, click Menu, click Settings, from the list, got to Advanced section, about middle of page, click on Default Zoom and select Medium.
in other versions, if available, it is somewhere near that!

-1 It is already set as that.


text:
Xperia ArcS how to install cyanogen
I have an Xperia Arc S (LT18i). How do I install Cyanogen Mod on it?

Is that for the CM9 RC1 that was released yesterday? :D
There's two things you need to do:

Remove the simlock first! (Flashing a ROM with simlock on could spell disaster)
Unlock the bootloader to enable you to run custom roms.

As for the way things are, there's no true CWM recovery for the Sony due to the inherent nature of how Sony does it (Its different!) - when you unlock the bootloader, you're also unlocking recovery BUT, the boot and recovery are residing on the one partition so do not try flash CWM into it otherwise BAM, goodbye!
There is an app on the market, for a CWM which is not a real CWM (it dumps its binaries into the /system directory) which by the way, must remind you need root for this!
You will need se1tool (IIRC) to flash the latest ROM, you could also check out the FreeXperia project for information on this, FreeXperia is by jerpelea, which is now what you're seeing, as CM9.

How do I remove simlock? I am new to Android and don’t understand anything you have written

Basically you need the se1tool, adb drivers, and the cable, to be honest, its an overload for a new person like you coming to Android, hence *it would be best to ask someone in your local area to do this for you. * The answer I've posted is a run-down of what's needed to be done in order to go ahead and install a custom ROM :)

I'll check it out for you and get back to you shortly :)

Since you stated Poland, I guess this will be of information to you http://www.elektroda.pl/rtvforum/topic2302148.html

How do I check if the phone really has simlock? I don’t have any foreign network simcards at hand…

It shows all 0s in service menu>service info>sim lock, does that mean it is unlocked?

I would think so, have xperia mini here... :)

I just checked and it isn’t simlocked.

That's great to hear, so that's one off the list above :) \o/

I followed the instructions on the Cyanogen site and they, unsurprisingly, worked. I did not install the 9.0 rc.


text:
How to suppress these “Application needs installed” notifications from Google Maps?
Since the last Google Maps update, it periodically shows an “Application needs installed: Request of install from Google Maps” airpush notification begging me to install Google Play services.
I do not want it installed, since i do not have enough disk space on my phone, and Maps seem to function normally (aside from the usual graphics glitches) without Play Services installed. I do not use other Google apps aside from Maps.
How to get rid of these notifications?
If relevant, i am using Android 4.1.2 (Cyanogenmod unofficial) on Sony Arc S.

What I recommend you do is, if you're on Android 5.0 or up, there is a simple to use notification manager, where you can block apps notifications. Go in and block the Maps, then enjoy.
Otherwise, I will recommend you forget using Maps app on your phone, and use the Maps in the browser instead (Chrome is your best bet). Since maps is the only Google app you use on your phone, it definitely wouldn't make sense to grab play services, aside your not enough disk space issue. So go ahead and enjoy the Maps app in the browser. It works flawlessly too, and might give you better results and speed compared to a Maps app running without Play services.

-1 but only because of a factual error. I am using Android 4.1 but there is indeed an option to disable notifications from individual apps! Will upvote if you correct your answer. Thanks!

Also: Can’t install Chrome because not enough space! Also need Maps app for navigation.

Don't you think it would have been best on your part to mention you need the app for Navigation in your actual question? And if there's option to disable notifications from individual apps, what have you done, and did it work or not? You leave holes in your question, and one's who try to help, you vote them down, really? Where did I make the factual error?

I found that option only because you mentioned it. Yes, it did help.

@kinokijuf What option did you find? I'm confused.

To mute notifications from a specific app. See link.

The only way possible is to root your phone and install Xposed Framework.
It has a module, This App Will Run Without Google Play Services, which makes Play Services installation not compulsory for certain apps (including Maps); it's compatible with Android 2.3 – 5.0.


text:
Can I enable OK Google in my Nexus 5 even when phone is locked?
I actually like OK Google, and would like to have it available even when the phone is locked / screen is off. Anyway to do that?
Thanks! :)

For this to work, your Nexus 5 will need the "always listening" mode.  It's not supported on this handset officially, but there are community developers working on enabling this feature.  As of this writing, the development is still in a (semi-)working proof of concept stage.


text:
Direct file access on tablet from LAN, as opposed to having to download files first
I am attempting to construct a LAN/WLAN to which computers, smartphones and tablet are connected. I would like to be able to access all these devices from from any device via some file manager and open these files locally 'on the fly' as opposed to having to download the files completely before I can open them.
I have done so with desktops and laptops on which either Windows or Ubuntu were installed. 'On the fly' file access works like a charm by means of Windows Explorer or Nautilus using Samba. I now want the same for smartphones and tablets.
I have attempted to do so by means of Samba again. But I do not know how to solve a few problems.
1) When using 'Samba Filesharing for Android' I can only seem to access data on the tablet/smartphone from the desktop/laptop, but not the other way around.
2) When using 'AndSMB' I can not directly open files on the other devices. I have to completely download them first.
I can't seem to find software for the Android smartphones and tablets that works as simple and effective as Windows Explorer or Nautilus, where you can open files locally without having to download them completely first, and do this from any device to any other device on the LAN.

Set up FTP server and/or Samba server on Android.
Example: ES File Explorer app provides such features.

Works great! phone/tablet->desktop/laptop file transfer with FTP and desktop/laptop->phone/tablet file transfer with Samba.


text:
Android App Lock AND see the notification
When using app lock, the notification from the locked apps show as "1 new message"  (and not the content)
This forces me to open the notification/app to see the content of the notification.
if its a messaging app or email app, it forces me to open/read the message/email
Is there a way to keep the app lock behind finger/face, but still show the content of the notifications?
OnePlus
Android 14
Oxygen OS 14

Also a related problem.  Some e-commerce app may send you something like "see the latest sales at 50% discount"   but since you don't see the content,  you click on it,  and it sends you directly to the list of items on sales,  and you don't get a chance to read the real content of the push.

Please don't use comments to add additional info to your question. Simply edit the question. Comments is for discussion with other users. BTW. Your description is not quite clear but I would assume you are talking about lock screen, correct? In Android settings you can chose if notifications are shown fully or without details.

You can change this on my Android, have a look at your phone settings.

Settings
Notifications
Lock Screen Notification
Select Show Content


text:
How can I disable the "Include surrounding text" setting, once enabled?
Chrome has for the last year and a half had a bug where the "Mark text to search" feature breaks if you enable "Include surrounding text". You can read more about the bug here, but the thing I would like to know is how to work around it by simple disabling the "Include surrounding text" option/flag. I have not been able to find it.

In the Chrome app, from the overflow (3 vertical dots) menu, select Settings.
Select Google services.
Tap Touch to Search.
Tap Include surrounding text in Google searches.


text:
How to use a small balance in Google Play store
I need to change the country of my Google account. However, since there is less than a Euro on my balance I cannot to do so unless I make my Google balance zero.
I cannot split a payment between my credit card and the Google balance. I also cannot add a custom amount to my balance to buy a service.
Does anybody have a solution?

Just be aware that you can only change the country once a year (unless that policy has changed recently).  So, the question is, WHY do you want to change the country?  What problem are you trying to solve?

Good point! I cannot use the food delivery apps in the current country. However, you are right if someone has to move to another place sooner than one year it is going to be problematic.

I don't know how to get your balance directly to zero, but do you know that Amazon allows to buy Google vouchers at any value you want?
You can simply enter the amount of euro and cent so if you want to buy something you could load the missing amount and then buy it. Afterwards the balance would be zero.


text:
How can I see the transfer speed when transferring files with Bluetooth?
I transfer files with  Bluetooth between a Google Pixel 6 and a Samsung Galaxy A8+. How can I see the transfer speed when transferring files with  Bluetooth?

Short Answer: You can not see speed when transferring files via bluetooth.
Long Answer:
Android OS by default does not have an interface for Bluetooth transfer speed or show it during the data transfer. In most cases only transfer progress will be available.
Bluetooth Broadcast Receiver only exposes RSSI or link quality and you need to do your own calculation of speed for each RSSI range.


text:
How can I configure Android so that the phone rings when I receive a phone call while in "do not disturb" mode?
I tried to check allow all notifications:

However, after saving it, it gets unchecked again. It works fine for other applications.
How can I configure Android so that the phone rings when I receive a phone call while in "do not disturb" mode?
I use a Google Pixel 6.

On Pixel 3a Android 12, in the DnD settings, there's a setting for interrupts, and one of them is "People". Inside it, there's "Calls" with "Anyone" as an option. Does that work?

@AndrewT. thanks, perfect, still there in pixel 6. Can you post your comment as an answer? I can add the screenshot.

As Andrew T. commented, go to the Do No Disturb settings and change the people option:

Then call option:

Then one can select who may disturb:


text:
How to retrieve my voicemail messages to audio files?
I want to download a backup of my voicemail messages to mp3 (or any other audio format), but I don't know how to do so.
My scenario is the following:
I received several voicemail messages during the last few months, and now I want to download them for a personal backup.
My voicemail app (built-in from the factory. Samsung galaxy A10) gives me the option to listen to these audios but does not give any option to download/archive/save/forward to these messages.
On my carrier website (Orange in France), I'm able to retrieve (and download) only the last 15 days' messages. They keep the listened messages just for 14 days (30 days for the not listened ones).
I've tried to use third-party apps to download my messages (e.g., "voicemail saver" that is paid and "visual voice mail & missed call alert" that is free), but none of these apps worked to recover these messages.
My question is: since I can listen to these messages, I'm sure they are stored somewhere. So how can I retrieve them?

I assume the apps you have tried are working like call recorders, but as far as I know call recording no longer works on recent Android versions. On modern mobile networks everything is IP as well, but I don't think you can use that interface to access the voice messages this way, as this interface is not public and thus not accessible for you.
The only way to directly download those message is the web interface of your mobile network provider, but as you told us this way does not work.
As you have still access to the voicemail messages via phone the following two options are available:

Use your SIM card in an older Android phone (best Android 7 or older) and try a working call recorder app or one of your voicemail saver apps. On those older Android versions they should work.
Play back the voicemail on your phone and place a microphone next to the speaker to record it. The microphone can belong to a second smartphone, a PC or any different other (digital) recording device.

I'll probably go through the second option, but I'll also give a try to the first one. I didn't know these messages were directly related to the SIM card. I thought that they were stored in the built-in voicemail app

Can recording work if the device is rooted?

@RockPaperLz-MaskitorCasket If the call recorder supports using root for recording it should work. or you directly use the appropriate Magisk module: https://www.xda-developers.com/basic-call-recorder-magisk-module/

Thank you Robert.

Could you physically save them in a analogous manner?
You know, record them with another device whilst playing them from your phone.


text:
Can android 11 take 2 wired USB controllers
I have an Android 11 box (Android TV Box 11.0, 4GB 64GB Decodificador Android Box, Amlogic S905W2 Smart TV Box"), and am trying Retroarch.
For controller 1, I have a Power A Liquid Metal XBox One controller.
Works fine so far.
But no matter what I configure as Input 2, the 2nd controller stills controls player 1.
I tried several controllers for Input 2, and it's always the same thing.  I tried a Wired Rock Candy Switch controller,  BlueTooth Atgames Legends Mini, and I also tried using a second Power A Liquid metal Xbox One controller.
No matter what I do, it seems to think that both controllers are the same controller.  (both control player 1).
What I noticed that's weird is that since it thinks both controllers are the same, and I mapped both  Input 1 and Input 2 to it, when I'm in certain menu screens, when I hit down, it registers twice.  I'm guessing because it thinks both players hit down.
I tried both SNES9x and Final Burn Neo.  The problem seems to be at the Android level (before getting to Retroarch).
Is it normal to have an Android 11 device only accept one controller?  Or is it possible that it's a problem with my device specifically?

Update.  I tried connecting a new controller via Bluetooth: Ipega 9087s.  Same problem.  But one thing I just noticed is that in Retroarch, when I set the inputs, it lists both controller's "device index" as "virtual".  It shows "Virtual" for both controllers.  This does not happen when I use Retroarch in my FireHD10 tablet.  Same controller, the "Device Index" actually shows the name of the controller (Ipega 9087).  Is this a clue?

This is the bug [Android 11 DP/Beta] Bluetooth Gamepads Aren't Reported as Source of Input Events".
A workaround is described in a reddit post by /u/SuttonX:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidGaming/comments/kb8mzw/accessibility_services_block_controllers_android/

If you don't want to get Tasker, you could just manually go in to your phone settings and turn off all your Accessibility Services permanently.

Thank you!  I was starting to think my device had a defect!  I just wanted to note, in that bug report, the person wrote "Bluetooth gamepads", but it turns out to also affect USB gamepads.  Thanks again, this was driving me nuts!


text:
Will CyanogenMod run on the HTC ChaCha, and is it stable?
Has anyone tried to install CyanogenMod on the HTC ChaCha? What is the level of compatibility I should expect from it with with CyanogenMod?

I didn't realize ChaCha has been rooted already.

You cannot just install CyanogenMod on any rooted device. It has to be one of the supported devices. There a lot of differences between builds of android and cyanogenmod for each device. They have different chipsets, gps, cameras, etc. They are always looking for other people to help support new devices though.

We are working on SuperOSR, discussion here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=18609103#post18609103
A full list of Cyanogen and other alternatives here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1698206
All ChaCha ROMs seem to have some bugs but otherwise quite stable. You could also take the latest official ROM and remove stuff you don't use. There are some already prepared, but you can also do such modifications yourself. Make sure to learn to use backup & restore before you start :)

authors: ป๋าา' โอม ฯ.


text:
Will adb restore increment the custom binary flash counter?
With adb backup an archive of all apps and their data can be retrieved from the phone. I could not find any clear information which exact files and partitions are accessed during the process. If it modifies /system, could this affect custom flash counter found on most Samsung devices, when adb restore is applied?

Why should it do that? adb restore is not flashing anything, it's simply unpacking files from the specified backup archive.

I do not know what exactly are the contents of the backup and what parts of the android system are affected. I hope my edit clarifies this.


text:
Sharing a directory tree problem from windows to android es explorer
There are several child folders in parent folder on windows 8.
Times ago I shared some child folders and accessed them from android es explorer without problems. Then I removed all child folders shares and instead shared their parent folder.
During the parent folder sharing the window appeared listing some of the previous child shares and asking "some of the folders were previously shared. you can replace their current settings with the same setting you just applied to the folder you shared".
If I click change settings after processing for a while it ends up with "folder can not be shared". Despite the message it is shared but access to those children is forbidden, they are not visible.

Where do you get that message: on your Windows machine, or in ES File Explorer?

windows while sharing

I re-clicked every child manually from explorer to stop sharing just to make sure. now just one child gets problem to be shared. I share parent and it fails to be shared

Just disconnect your tablet completely from WiFi while editing the shares (you probably cannot modify a share that is in use). If the problems still persist, here is the wrong place to ask, as that's rather a Windows issue then (check [SU] or Server Fault instead then – but make sure to read their help pages where it's best fitting, and don't cross-post on both ;)).

authors: Жекуня Ломовацкий


text:
Hotspot and Position automatically toggles off
I'm on a POCO phone M4 pro 5G, running MIUI Global 12.5.8 Android 11 RP1A 200720.01
Sometime I face this annoying problem which apparently no-one experencied on the internet.
If I'm sharing my connection via WI-FI Hotspot, at a point it may stop working as the button turns off. This may happen once or twice every week randomly (not linked to battery saving mode).
Once the hotspot button toggled off, I coudn't get toggle it on again not even by restarting my phone. As soon as I touch it, it toggles off again. This problem may go away by itselfs in a matter of minutes or hours.
I've never notice before but tonight this thing happenend and I got an error saying my GPS wasn't on anymore. When checking the position button it was toggled off as the hotspot one. I coundn't get back neither of them.
After 30 mins without any restart they started to work again.
What could be the problem... and the solution?
Thanks

When the issue occurs, have you tried to access adb logcat to see if any relevant messages appear? Also does the device feel excessively warm, i.e. thermal throttle?

@MorrisonChang Actually I didn't. I don't have any clue about that.

I'm afraid that's a hardware defect

Are you stationary when this occurring or moving around from one hotspot area to another?

There are several things to try such as:
Enabling and disabling Airplane mode to refresh your connections.
Change your AP Band from 2.4GHz to 5GHz or vice versa.
Do you have an option in your phone to turn off your Hotspot automatically, which may be affecting you if your devices/apps are slow to respond.  If so go into Settings,Wi-Fi & Network > Hotspot & tethering > Wi-Fi hotspot and then disable "Turn off Hotspot Automatically"
I personally tend to wonder if your problem is related to 5G, do you have access to a 4G sim to test in your device to see if it makes any difference.


text:
How to select ASCII characters, using a Samsung keyboard?
On my computer, I regularly type French, German and other characters, using their ASCII code, such as:

± : ASCII code 177
Ç : ASCII code 199
œ : ASCII code 156
ß : ASCII code 223

On a computer, this is fairly simple, using the following keyboard shortcuts:Alt+0177, Alt+0199, Alt+0156 and Alt+0223.
How can I type those characters on a Samsung Galaxy smartphone, using the standard Samsung keyboard?

No idea about the Samsung keyboard but you can customize AnySoftKeyboard according to your needs. I did the same to add multiple Unicode characters which I use quite often.

On Samsung, you need to hold down the character associated with it. For example, if you want to input Ç on the keyboard, hold down the regular c, and a display of special variants of c will be shown. Guide your finger to the special character while holding the screen and let go when it highlights the character or when your finger is touching it.
Boom, you have your character. As for characters like ß which are on their own and aren't special variants like Ç, use the letter that sounds like it. ß is pronounced like "sh" or "ss", so hold s and select ß.

I've managed typing the "Ç", the "ß" and the "œ" by holding the keys 'C', 's' and 'o' down, but do you know how to type '±'?

@Dominique You do the same with the + symbol. As I said, variants of a letter or the phonetic sound of a letter usually match the corresponding location of the symbol. C leads to Ç, and so forth. In this case, it's the + symbol. This is on my samsung, so it's not the same version but the keyboards do seem to be synchronized across versions.

When keeping the "+" pressed, no extra characters are shown. I have Samsung keyboard version 3.5.45.2, it mentions that the latest version is already installed.


text:
Is there a way to change the voice of the workout guide in Samsung Health?
It was a British lady with a lovely voice, and now it’s a US-American lady with a voice that frankly doesn’t appeal to me. I don’t see a way to change it, though. The phone’s language is set to British English.

You have to install the voice package to the app and choose it.  For example, if I Google search "Samsung TTS" I get a result for Samsung TTS Australian English Default voice 1 that I can install via the galaxy store. It's then just a matter of going to Settings, Controls, Language and input, Text-to-Speech options... then choose the voice you want.
Your probably after the Samsung TTS UK English Default voice 1

This worked! Thank you! I'm surprised the new phone came with fewer voice packages than the previous one; no packages were ever downloaded on the previous one!


text:
How to update OTA?
Am using samsung galaxy y phone. I rooted it and installed Jelly Blast ROM in it. Also i changed the kernel . Now the problem is i can't be able to able to update my OTA even though a current update is available. My ROM is JELLYBLAST V3 and version is 3.0.0. Please help me hot to update it correctly.

Over-the-air (OTA) updates from your carrier or manufacturer cannot be directly applied on a device that has a custom ROM installed.  This is due to many possible incompatibilities between the stock firmware and whatever code base the custom ROM is using.  Therefore, most (if not all) custom ROMs intentionally disable any OTA checks that usually come standard with stock firmwares.
That said, some custom ROMs (e.g. CyanogenMod ROM) have developed their own OTA services. These are usually pull (i.e. phone checks for available update periodically) as opposed to push (manufacturer sends a message to phone to go out and download an update,) but generally work fairly well.  You should contact your ROM's developers to see if such a feature is available for you.
Alternatively, you can try to return your phone to its stock firmware, and then you'll be able to accept the carrier/manufacturer OTA update.

..Thanks a lot.Could you please tell me whether i can update my ROM manually ? Tell me some sites where i can get such updates ?


text:
How do I change the default search app in MIUI?
I'm running MIUI 11.20.90 on my HTC Incredible. I recently updated the Google Search app via the Android Market and now the default search app has changed from Google Search to MIUI's built-in Sidekick search app. To be clear, this is only when single-pressing the hw search button; long-pressing the search button brings up Voice Search (as desired) and the default setting for that action is still configurable. I really prefer Google over Sidekick and would like to change it back.
I tried resetting the default search app but can't - under the Google Search app's properties "Launch by Default" says "No defaults set" and the "clear defaults" button is grayed out. I can't find the Sidekick app in the applications list.
I also tried to uninstall/reinstall Google Search but the market only allows me to revert from the update with the message "Do you want to uninstall all updates to this Android system app?" When trying to uninstall Google Search in the OS I get the error "Unable to remove system application."
I think it's silly to have the Google Search bar/widget taking up homescreen real estate when I have a dedicated hw search button, so I'd really like to find a way to get the default corrected.

This in terminal app and restart afterwards did the job for me:
su
mount -o rw,remount /system
cp /data/app/com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox-1.apk /system/app/QuickSearchBox.apk

Found the answer here.

This was easy and exactly what I needed. Thanks so much!

I have couple of additions to the solution dhill provided here. After opening terminal, we need open shell on device with command adb shell. For replacing builtin search, we must replace folder with command cp -r source destination. So, the complete script is:

adb shell
mount -o rw,remount /system
cp -r /data/app/com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox-1 /system/app/QuickSearchBox
reboot

Unfortunately, after system update I must repeat those commands.

There is a problem here. Unless adb deamon is already running in root mode on the device, all of your commands after adb shell would and should fail because  the second and fourth command requires root access, which you've not provided anywhere.


text:
Why does temperature disappear from At A Glance and the lock screen?
It disappeared out of the blue a few weeks ago. I searched the web and did a trick to make it reappear. It was shown for weeks and then suddenly disappeared again a few days ago.
What causes this, a bug?

While reporting bugs like this, mentioning your Device Model and Android build would be beneficial for the community to help answer the question properly
I've also faced this.
This is a known issue in Google App's Beta versions.
Temporary solution : add one more At a Glance Widget and if you see weather on existing widget , remove the newly added widget.
Permanent workaround:

Remove the At a Glance widget .
Unroll from beta and wait a few minutes patiently.
Clear data and cache of Google app and add the widget back .

( Incase the widget is not removable for your device, just try step 2 and 3 )

I'm not using a beta version of Android.

@DamnVegetables im speaking about the beta version of Google App... Go to playstore and verify whether you're running Google App (beta)


text:
Gapps stuck at "Mounting partitions" while installing via TWRP
I'm trying to install LineageOS on my Moto E4. I've been able to successfully sideload the custom ROM and boot into Lineage, but I can't install Gapps. Specifically, after sideloading LOS, I sideload the Gapps ROM. It gets to the message "Mounting partitions" and hangs there.

check recovery.log

I don't know the precise reason why, but it was because I was booted into TWRP through fastboot instead of from a flashed recovery partition. After flashing recovery and booting there, the Gapps install completed without issue.


text:
`UPDATE.APP` file in Huawei firmwares
I found an UPDATE.APP file inside of TRT-LX2 firmware ZIP (ROM), but I want to know what does the file do? What does it contain?

Huawei OTA updates are traditionally slow for various reasons. However, Huawei let's users manually update their firmware manually and this is where update.App comes in. It has the boot and system image files.
User downloads the latest firmware from Huawei website, extracts this update.App and flashes it to update the firmware to the latest. See this blog for the steps. This process may vary for your device and it's best to check on XDA forums to be sure.
Broadly speaking this is the  purpose of the update.App, though the process seems to have become more complicated over the years (I owned a Honor 6 phone about 4 years ago)


text:
how to change input method with ime command
I want to know how to change input method using the command line. Any ideas? Sorry for my english.
I have tried this:
C:\Users\admin>adb shell
shell@android:/ $ ime list -a
ime list -a
com.huawei.inputmethod.hwpal/.PinyinIME:
  mId=com.huawei.inputmethod.hwpal/.PinyinIME mSettingsActivityName=com.huawei.i
nputmethod.hwpal.SettingsActivity
  mIsDefaultResId=0x7f080000
  Service:
    priority=0 preferredOrder=0 match=0x108000 specificIndex=-1 isDefault=false
    ServiceInfo:
      name=com.huawei.inputmethod.hwpal.PinyinIME
      packageName=com.huawei.inputmethod.hwpal
      labelRes=0x7f0c0000 nonLocalizedLabel=null icon=0x0
      enabled=true exported=true processName=com.huawei.inputmethod.hwpal
      permission=android.permission.BIND_INPUT_METHOD
      flags=0x0
org.apelikecoder.bulgariankeyboard/.BulgarianIME:
  mId=org.apelikecoder.bulgariankeyboard/.BulgarianIME mSettingsActivityName=org
.apelikecoder.bulgariankeyboard.BulgarianIMESettings
  mIsDefaultResId=0x0
  Service:
    priority=0 preferredOrder=0 match=0x108000 specificIndex=-1 isDefault=false
    ServiceInfo:
      name=org.apelikecoder.bulgariankeyboard.BulgarianIME
      packageName=org.apelikecoder.bulgariankeyboard
      enabled=true exported=true processName=org.apelikecoder.bulgariankeyboard
      permission=android.permission.BIND_INPUT_METHOD
      flags=0x0
com.thihaayekyaw.frozenkeyboard/com.example.android.softkeyboard.SoftKeyboard:
  mId=com.thihaayekyaw.frozenkeyboard/com.example.android.softkeyboard.SoftKeybo
ard mSettingsActivityName=com.example.android.softkeyboard.FKSettings
  mIsDefaultResId=0x0
  Service:
    priority=0 preferredOrder=0 match=0x108000 specificIndex=-1 isDefault=false
    ServiceInfo:
      name=com.example.android.softkeyboard.SoftKeyboard
      packageName=com.thihaayekyaw.frozenkeyboard
      enabled=true exported=true processName=com.thihaayekyaw.frozenkeyboard
      permission=android.permission.BIND_INPUT_METHOD
      flags=0x0
shell@android:/ $ ime enable com.example.android.softkeyboard.SoftKeyboard
ime enable com.example.android.softkeyboard.SoftKeyboard
Error: Unknown id: null
shell@android:/ $

Probably helpful: adb shell ime list commands - Please clarify!

The ID of an IME isn't just the class name. Multiple packages, signed by different developer certificates, might use the same class name. That's especially likely in this case where it's a downloaded example. You need to use both parts of the ID, before and after the /. In this case:
shell@android:/ $ ime enable com.thihaayekyaw.frozenkeyboard/com.example.android.softkeyboard.SoftKeyboard

Note, though, that ime enable doesn't select that input method: it merely allows it to be selected by checking its checkbox in the IME list in Settings → Language and input. To select an IME (i.e. to make it the one that will appear when an EditText is focused) you need to use ime set:
shell@android:/ $ ime set com.thihaayekyaw.frozenkeyboard/com.example.android.softkeyboard.SoftKeyboard


text:
Rejoin the groups i had created on a previous Whatsapp account
I have recently changed my phone number, and so I had to delete my older account on WhatsApp.
Can I rejoin the groups that I had created before deleting the account? Would they still be in existence?

Probably not, now that your account is gone. PS: Whatsapp's approach to easy registering (using the phone no. as id and auth) is fundamentally broken, they have (or at least recently had) very bad security problems and other nasty workarounds/limitations: http://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/general/20971798 (Also, please do not swap SIM cards or phones frequently, or you will no longer be able to pass the verification process. Read this article for more information.)

So they wont be in existence at all? I was under the assumption that the first person i had added to that group would have the admin rights for it.

Oh, I'm not that sure. Would you mind to try it? And post your findings here?

My assumption was correct. The groups are still in existence with the first person added being the new administrator.

Nice find! Would you mind to add this as an answer?

This seems to be completely external to Android.

After some investigation, I found out that the older groups are still in existence and the first person I had added in each of them, when they were created, became the admin of the groups. I had to ask them to add me back to the group.


text:
Something causes my phone to hang and reboot
This problem always happens after I restore my apps from Titanium Backup and move them to the SD card, regardless which ROM. However, I noticed that this problem has something to do with the SD card. Since the logcat is too long, I posted it here:

Logcat #1: http://pastebin.com/5qAEz3n7
Logcat #2: http://pastebin.com/Hd7uXPrc
Logcat #3: http://pastebin.com/Xc6evYsM
Logcat #4: http://pastebin.com/yQFuXdTu

P.S. all these logcats occured during the same session, after that, the phone started becoming slow, hanging, then rebooting.

Actually I don't think this is related to the SD card per se. Some applications just don't handle being placed on SD or being back-upped and restored with Titanium Backup too well. I've experienced trouble with restored apps myself and solved the problems with removing the app and installing a fresh copy from the Market.

In your logcat there is an Exception that appears to be related to some sort music application: E/DatabaseUtils( 3297): android.database.sqlite.SQLiteException: no such column: album_artist: , while compiling: SELECT _id, album, artist, composer, date_added, duration, mime_type, _size, title, track, year, album_id, album_artist FROM audio WHERE ((is_music=1 OR is_podcast=1)  AND (date_added >=?  OR date_modified >=?  )) ORDER BY date_added
So my bet is that it is a music player. Did you restore the default music player with Titanium Backup by any chance?

Could it be you restored system app data from a different ROM?
I/ActivityManager( 3000): Start proc com.google.android.apps.maps:LocationFriendService for broadcast [..] pid=5275 [..]
W/dalvikvm( 5275): threadid=1: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x4001e578)
E/AndroidRuntime( 5275): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
E/AndroidRuntime( 5275): java.lang.NoSuchFieldError:            static:

Similar error quoted in above comments by Paul. This usually happens when you restore system databases from one ROM to another, where the database structur may be different. Apps in this case often force-close, things become laggy.
IMPORTANT: If you want to restore system data to a different ROM with Titanium Backup,

be VERY careful
best only do so for one app/database at a time (to be sure it went OK)
use TB's migration feature (that's an option to be explicitly turned on -- it takes care e.g. not to overwrite databases, but migrate the data into the existing ones)
optional, but often helpful: in the configs troubleshooting section, enforce the systems SQLite engine to be used.
repeat from 1. only if you are sure everything did fine!


text:
Google Play balance expiration date format
I have a Google play balance of 30 eur, which is said to expire on 9/1/2023. My preferred language on Google account is set to English (United States), but my real-life region is in Europe, and uses a date format of D/M/YYYY.

How can I be sure which date format is used for the expiration date above, i.e., will it expire tomorrow (9th of January) or in several months (1st of September)?
Note that the gift card was redeemed around 1st of September 2022. (not sure the exact date, but it is possible that it is indeed the 1st), so if the expiration date was 1 year exactly, it would make sense that the date format above is M/D/YYYY

Not sure if this helps, but there may be hl and gl parameters on the URL. hl is for page language (including date format) and gl is for geolocation (including currency format). Changing their values may help to disambiguate.

How to add to and check your Google Play balance has one of those params, but the Check your Play balance link doesn't: https://play.google.com/store/paymentmethods?pli=1. I also tried looking through some requests in dev tools, but they seem too hard to understand

Note that the gift card was redeemed around 1st of September 2022. (not sure the exact date, but it is possible that it is indeed the 1st), so if the expiration date was 1 year exactly, it would make sense that the date format above is M/D/YYYY

Gift cards don't expire as stated on Google Play Gift Card® And Prepaid Play Balance Terms Of Service

No Fees or Expiration. No fees or expiration dates apply to this Gift Card or Credit.

However, opinion rewards do expire as stated on Redeem rewards:

Do my credits expire?
Yes. Google Play credits received expire one year from date of credit per the Google Opinion Rewards Terms of Service

Based on what you said about gift card in September, I am assuming that it wasn't normal gift card but opinion rewards that you collect back in then. If I am correct, then the date is September, not January. Also the fact that the 9 is single digit instead of double, make me think that it is the month (not the date) in the M/D/yyyy or M/DD/yyyy formats. If I am wrong, only a few hours left and I will have to delete this answer (and your balance goes).

It was indeed a special "gift card". Got it from a Samsung stand on a festival. I managed to find a good use of those 30, with only 0.03€ left, so we'll see if it's removed within a day. If not, I'll accept your answer.

@PajLe Let wait until California officially reaches 09 January 2023 :)


text:
What's infected my Android device, and how do I remove it?
This story of images occasionally pops up on opening new links in Chrome. These links are for legitimate websites such as imgur and reddit. When it happens, I'm on mobile data. When I choose the tab, and click the link again,  no pop-up appears.
Here's the relevant portion from chrome://version

Google Chrome 51.0.2704.81 (Official Build) (32-bit)
Revision
  211d45a5b74b06d12bb016f3c4d54095faf2646f-refs/branch-heads/2704@{#696}
OS    Android 6.0.1; E5823 Build/32.2.A.0.224

This is a screenshot of the pop-up:

How do I find out what caused this,  and how do I fix it?
It happened again, this time without clicking a link. I was in reddit, it just popped up.
URL: http://rcknmwcyct.pw/gaz6s9/x1psi.html?model=Xperia%20Z5%20Compact&brand=Sony&ip=86.181.166.144&voluumdata=BASE64dmlkLi4wMDAwMDAwMi01MjQ2LTQwYTItODAwMC0wMDAwMDAwMDAwMDBfX3ZwaWQuLmFlZTQxMDAwLTNmZjgtMTFlNi04NWQyLTZiNmI2ZjViZDYwNV9fY2FpZC4uYjFmNjYxMTMtNjBiNy00OGNmLTk4ZDktZjdkNTU3MGY1NjdiX19ydC4uSEpfX2xpZC4uODVjNzVhMTctZjYxMi00MTBmLWJlZTMtODE1MmU3NmVjMjMxX19vaWQxLi4wNGM0OTMyYS00ZWE5LTQwYzMtYTBmNy0wYWQ4MGE1YTc1YWRfX3JkLi5fX2FpZC4uX19hYi4uX19zaWQuLg#
Here's the pages without the pop-up:

When I try to click back,  I get to this page:

Which is something about appflood security. I haven't managed to teach it down to anything though.

You don't fix it. You ignore it. That's pure click-bait. You'll certainly have a bad situation afterward, that's true. That may be the only thing that's true, except your device brand. The message is delivered to sound highly specific and demanding.  or back out of it without clicking OK. Use RecentApps to force-close the browser session if you have to. Ignore them always.

Clear Chrome's cache and data from the app settings in the system settings app. Start there.

Even after your edit, it still sounds more like the site with the link is making its link look like a reputable site but the link is really to this scam website.

Have you tried uninstalling chrome, and installing it again?

I've since asking, learnt that ads on websites can sometimes run scripts to re-direct your browser. No virus needed.

I'm assuming this only happens in chrome and not any other browser or device. If it does happen on another device then the problem would be that a virus hijacked your router(on WiFi) and changed the DNS settings. Solution logon to your router and change the DNS settings to be automatically picked from your ISP.
You could

Head to settings and disable Javascript. Which disables the redirect link from functioning as long as Javascript is off but is quite hectic since genuine websites will most likely require Javascript  to function.
Check your DNS settings and ensure that it's either set to automatically pick DNS settings from ISP or on a DNS server you know of such as googles DNS servers(8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4)
Root your phone and install Ad Blocker This would prevent the popup links from generating.

I was on data at the time, so not my router. By Java do you mean JavaScript?


text:
Disable wifi signin popup?
When I connect to a hotspot that requires signin, I don't want a popup that fills the entire screen. A simple notification would suffice.
Can this popup be disabled on Android 8?
Samsung Galaxy S9+

Please also give more information on your Android Smartphone, different models may have different options and layout. First, Check your Advanced Wi-Fi Settings if there's an option to disable the popup.

Short answer: it's not possible because this popup come from the SystemUI or from the Framework apk.
It's not come from a file that contain a setting, it's a JAVA runtime code.
Some customs ROMs could integrate it (not sure), but it's not the case of Android stock.


text:
How do you set gboard as the default spell checker in Android v12
I have a Samsung S22 running Android v12 on it. I can't seem to set the default spell checker as GBoard. There does not seem to be an option to change this from Samsung Keyboard to GBoard. The moment I click on Samsung Keyboard, it seems to take me to the settings page for the Samsung Keyboard.

Based on this article from Android Police, it seems you may be able to set Gboard as the default during the installation of the app.
If you've already installed it though, Samsung specifies these steps to change your default keyboard (and therefore spell checking service):
Open the Settings app and select General Management.
From there, select Keyboard list and default, then tap Default keyboard.
There, you should see Gboard listed and be able to select it.


text:
Any way to disable the quick settings panel on the lockscreen on Android 12 and 11?
Is there any way to disable the quick settings panel on the lockscreen on Android 12 and 11?
I want to disable it, just like it used to be on the older Android versions.
If I cannot the disable it, can it be abused if my phone is lost or stolen?

What phone model are you using?

Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G, but I might need this for some other phones I might buy in the future.

I downloaded an app called Cerberus Lockscreen and it did the job. Blocks both the shutdown and pull-down menu.
For older Android versions there is Lockscreen protector app, but it does not block pull-down menu but only shutdown menu.

It depends on the device(s). You can't do it on Pixel 6 for example as the setting to disable quick settings panel is not present in Android 12.
For Samsung devices, you can disable  as indicated here:

On Samsung devices, there’s a separate Lock screen menu so you can find the option in Settings > Lock screen > Secure lock settings. Once you enter your screen lock PIN/password/pattern, look for the Lock network and security setting. By enabling it, you’ll lock Quick Settings access from the lock screen.

For  Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO devices, you can disable it by following the steps shown here:

Go to settings”.
Go to “Notifications and control center”.
Tap “Items show on lock screen after swiping down”.
Disable “Control Center”.

I still have access to the quick settings.

It doesn't work for Poco. I cant disable control centre https://i.sstatic.net/QstI9.jpg


text:
Google prompt won't show up after I flashed my phone
2-Step enabled, and I keeped backup codes.
This is what I did:

Before I flashed my phone, I logout my google account.
Then after I flashed my phone, I logged in google accout from my phone by using backup codes.
In Google - Your devices page I signed out old devices.

But when I checked the Google prompts page, it still showed my old phone(the name is the old one).

And when I tried to log in somewhere, the "Google prompt" didn't pop up. I have to use backup codes or Authenticator.
Is there a way that I can fix this? or just disable "Google prompt"? I'm OK with using Authenticator and backup codes when phone is not available.

Logging out should have stopped the prompts on the old device. Check under logged in devices and log it out manually.
You can check the prompt-supported devices you are logged into right now at Manager your account → Security → Google Prompts → enter your password.
When your new device is considered "trusted" and supports prompts, you'll start receiving prompts on it automatically.
About turning it off: you can't, as far as I know.
Also, see How to disable Google Prompts?  on Google Help.

Well the "Manager your account --> Security --> Google Prompts" page is showed as my screenshot. I now think it may just be google's issue, not my phone's.

:) It will start appearing soon if you have the Gapps and the safety net is passed. You can also check https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/2fa-google-phone-prompt-not-working.4354859/


text:
Outlook app shows notifications but corresponding emails are MIA
I've been using the Outlook app on my Android for years. This just started happening a few weeks ago. I often will get emails and see the notifications but when I open the app, they're not there. Sometimes it takes hours until the new emails are visible in the app. So as soon as I dismiss the notification either by swiping it away or by opening the app, I have no hint as to what my new emails are about. At the same time, I know those emails are in my inbox both because I read the notification as well as being able to read them in a browser or Windows app. I've already tried using the app's "reset account" which does nothing to help this. Please advise. Thank you!
Outlook app version 4.2247.1
Samsung Galaxy S9
Phone model number SM-G960U1
Android version 10
One UI version 2.5

First, I went into the phone's app settings and hit "clear cache" for Outlook. It only helped for about an hour.
Then, in the same location, I chose "clear data" for the app. It seems to have solved the problem for now. (Warning: doing so will remove your email account from the app. You'll need to re-add it.) We shall see...


text:
Cannot restore LineageOS launcher3/trebuchet from backup
I back up my phone by backing up the various state directories under /data/, including the /data/data/ state directory of the launcher. The details aren't important but the backups include all files' metadata, including xattrs and acls. Caches and certain ephemeral or otherwise replaceable files are excluded but for Trebuchet this only affects its cache directory.
When I back up, wipe and restore on Android 14 (LineageOS 21) however, the launcher is still in its default/reset state eventhough the launcher was modified when the backup was taken. This did not use to happen on Android 13 (LineageOS 20).
When I selectively restore the launcher's /data/data/ directory, it is still in the default state.
If I produce some launcher state and move all files under the launcher's /data/data/ directory, it resets as expected. If I then undo the rename, I get back to the state I initially produced.
What is going on? Where else could it be hiding state that is critical to the launcher function?
For reference, these are the state directories under /data that I generally restore:
/app/
/data/
/system/package*
/system/netpolicy.xml
/system/users/0/
/misc_de/0/apexdata/com.android.permission/
/user_de/0/
/misc/apexdata/com.android.wifi
/system/notification_policy.xml
/property/persistent_properties
/user_de/0/org.lineageos.lineagesettings
/misc/profiles/
/system_ce/

As it turns out, deleting the directory and then restoring it again did the trick and the data was restored successfully.
Perhaps one should generally wipe /data/data/ before restoring a backup as system apps will already have run once and may populate e.g. caches with data that doesn't work with the restored data.


text:
Is WiFi RTT Ranging and WiFi Aware compatible when running concurrently in one Android app
I have a Google pixel 5 and I am currently developing both WiFi RTT ranging (ranging from access point, see WiFi RTT) and WiFi Aware (ranging from peer mobile, see WiFi Aware) on it. Hardware-wise Google pixel 5 supports both functionalities, however I am not too sure if there will be any compatibility issue when both functions are running foreground. I am not sure if my concern is valid nor can I find any source of clarification.
Any help is appreciated.

In the official Android Developer Doc of RangingRequest.Builder class, there is a method called addWifiAwarePeer, along with the addAccessPoints method. From which I assume these two functionalities can be implemented and run simultaneously.


text:
VNC viewers not working
I have a Samsung Galaxy A10s with Android 11 One UI 3. Recently there was a problem: VNC viewers do not work. I enter, for example, localhost:1 (I want to connect to the Termux VNC server), I connect, and the connection window hangs indefinitely, and then a timeout appears. And so with any VNC viewers (I tried AVNC, bVNC, VNC Viewer). Help me please!

Translated by Google Translate from Russian

In my understanding localhost:1 means "connect to the VNC server that runs on localhost TCP port 1". But VNC server usually don't run on TCP port 1. Specify the correct TCP port termux VNC run on (instead of 1) and the client may be able to connect.

@Robert I installed xfce4 in Termux and tigervncserver. And when I write the vncserver command, it gives me port :1, that is, everything is correct. Changing the address to localhost:5901 not helps.

The problem was solved by allowing background activity in the Termux settings.


text:
My Android TV seems to be rebooting frequently in sleep mode and causing ADB to be disconnected, why?
This is the log I got from adb logcat when the TV is at sleep mode:
03-05 00:50:40.242  9534  9647 I uicksetsdk.son: Starting a blocking GC Alloc
03-05 00:50:40.242  9534  9647 I uicksetsdk.son: Starting a blocking GC Alloc
03-05 00:50:40.271  9534  9647 I uicksetsdk.son: Alloc concurrent copying GC freed 19943(12MB) AllocSpace objects, 29(3092KB) LOS objects, 49% free, 2295KB/4590KB, paused 110us total 28.982ms
03-05 00:50:40.671  9986  9986 D LIBIWPRIV: Ethernet_WoPacket  ifc_set_Ethernet_listen_port
03-05 00:50:40.671  9986  9986 D MTK PowerHAL: ACFGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG : AM_BRDCST_MSG_PRE_POWER_OFF
03-05 00:50:41.178  2902  9975 I BatteryStatsService: In wakeup_callback: suspend aborted
03-05 00:50:41.179  2902  3203 D AlarmManager: Wakeup history#0 Wakeup alarmType=RTC_WAKEUP package=com.mediatek.agent wakeups=1 alarms=1 whenElapsed=0 when=2023-03-04 23:47:47 nowRTC=2023-03-04 23:47:47 workSource=null uid=1000 tag="*walarm*:mtk.intent.rtctimer.set.bgm"
03-05 00:50:41.179  2902  3203 D AlarmManager: Wakeup history#1 Wakeup alarmType=ELAPSED_WAKEUP package=android wakeups=3 alarms=3 whenElapsed=-21s956ms when=-21s956ms nowRTC=2023-03-04 23:48:10 workSource=null uid=1000 tag="*walarm*:DeviceIdleController.deep"
03-05 00:50:41.179  2902  3203 D AlarmManager: Wakeup history#2 Wakeup alarmType=ELAPSED_WAKEUP package=android wakeups=4 alarms=4 whenElapsed=0 when=0 nowRTC=2023-03-05 00:50:32 workSource=null uid=1000 tag="*walarm*:DeviceIdleController.deep"
03-05 00:50:41.179  2902  3203 D AlarmManager: Wakeup alarmType=ELAPSED_WAKEUP package=android wakeups=5 alarms=5 whenElapsed=0 when=0 nowRTC=2023-03-05 00:50:41 workSource=null uid=1000 tag="*walarm*:DeviceIdleController.deep"
03-05 00:50:41.180  2902  2980 W AlarmManager: Unrecognized alarm listener com.android.server.DeviceIdleController$4@2730dbf
03-05 00:50:41.225  9810  9990 W adbd    : timed out while waiting for FUNCTIONFS_BIND, trying again
03-05 00:50:41.225  9810  9990 I adbd    : UsbFfs: connection terminated: monitor thread finished
03-05 00:50:41.225  9810  9810 I adbd    : UsbFfs: already offline
03-05 00:50:41.225  9810  9810 I adbd    : destroying transport UsbFfs
03-05 00:50:41.225  9810  9810 I adbd    : UsbFfsConnection being destroyed
03-05 00:50:41.268  9810  9811 I adbd    : opening control endpoint /dev/usb-ffs/adb/ep0
03-05 00:50:41.268  9810  9811 I adbd    : UsbFfsConnection constructed
03-05 00:50:41.437  9993  9993 D MTK PowerHAL: for GCM case,update port info
03-05 00:50:41.437  9993  9993 D MTK PowerHAL: wopacket Sony behavior(for GCM case,update port info)
03-05 00:50:41.437  9993  9993 D MTK PowerHAL: enable WoPacket before power off
03-05 00:50:41.437  9993  9993 D MTK PowerHAL: XXXXXenter: AP 7668 a_nw_wlan_set_ip_and_port_to_driver
03-05 00:50:41.437  9993  9993 D MTK PowerHAL: XXXXX AP first clear all ethernet port
03-05 00:50:41.437  9993  9993 D LIBIWPRIV: Ethernet_WoPacket  ifc_clear_listen_port
03-05 00:50:41.438  9993  9993 D MTK PowerHAL: XXXXXXXXget valid Ex v4port 40918
03-05 00:50:41.438  9993  9993 D MTK PowerHAL: (WOWL)tcp v6 port2 = set_wow_tcp 0 8008,8009,1900,40918
03-05 00:50:41.438  9993  9993 D MTK PowerHAL: XXXXXethernet tcp port0 is 8008
03-05 00:50:41.438  9993  9993 D MTK PowerHAL: XXXXXethernet tcp port1 is 8009
03-05 00:50:41.438  9993  9993 D MTK PowerHAL: XXXXXethernet tcp port2 is 1900
03-05 00:50:41.438  9993  9993 D MTK PowerHAL: XXXXXethernet tcp port3 is 40918
03-05 00:50:42.273  9810  9991 W adbd    : timed out while waiting for FUNCTIONFS_BIND, trying again
03-05 00:50:42.273  9810  9991 I adbd    : UsbFfs: connection terminated: monitor thread finished
03-05 00:50:42.273  9810  9810 I adbd    : UsbFfs: already offline
03-05 00:50:42.273  9810  9810 I adbd    : destroying transport UsbFfs
03-05 00:50:42.273  9810  9810 I adbd    : UsbFfsConnection being destroyed
03-05 00:50:42.338  9810  9811 I adbd    : opening control endpoint /dev/usb-ffs/adb/ep0
03-05 00:50:42.339  9810  9811 I adbd    : UsbFfsConnection constructed
03-05 00:50:42.976  9993  9993 D LIBIWPRIV: Ethernet_WoPacket  ifc_set_Ethernet_listen_port
03-05 00:50:42.977  9993  9993 D MTK PowerHAL: (WOWL)udp port = set_wow_udp 0 5353
03-05 00:50:42.977  9993  9993 D MTK PowerHAL: XXXXXethernet udp port0 is 5353
03-05 00:50:43.341  9810  9994 W adbd    : timed out while waiting for FUNCTIONFS_BIND, trying again
03-05 00:50:43.341  9810  9994 I adbd    : UsbFfs: connection terminated: monitor thread finished
03-05 00:50:43.342  9810  9810 I adbd    : UsbFfs: already offline
03-05 00:50:43.342  9810  9810 I adbd    : destroying transport UsbFfs
03-05 00:50:43.342  9810  9810 I adbd    : UsbFfsConnection being destroyed
03-05 00:50:43.388  9810  9811 I adbd    : opening control endpoint /dev/usb-ffs/adb/ep0
03-05 00:50:43.389  9810  9811 I adbd    : UsbFfsConnection constructed
03-05 00:50:44.391  9810  9995 W adbd    : timed out while waiting for FUNCTIONFS_BIND, trying again
03-05 00:50:44.391  9810  9995 I adbd    : UsbFfs: connection terminated: monitor thread finished
03-05 00:50:44.391  9810  9810 I adbd    : UsbFfs: already offline
03-05 00:50:44.391  9810  9810 I adbd    : destroying transport UsbFfs
03-05 00:50:44.391  9810  9810 I adbd    : UsbFfsConnection being destroyed
03-05 00:50:44.458  9810  9811 I adbd    : opening control endpoint /dev/usb-ffs/adb/ep0
03-05 00:50:44.458  9810  9811 I adbd    : UsbFfsConnection constructed
03-05 00:50:44.515  9993  9993 D LIBIWPRIV: Ethernet_WoPacket  ifc_set_Ethernet_listen_port
03-05 00:50:44.515  9993  9993 D MTK PowerHAL: ACFGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG : AM_BRDCST_MSG_PRE_POWER_OFF

ADB is highly possible to be disconnected after the last line is printed.
Android version: 10
Kernal version: 4.19.75
Because everytime this happens I see different PID for PowerHAL, I guess the TV is actaully being rebooted fequently?
Does anyone know what could possibly be the reason, or how can I troubleshoot this issue?

As the last message contains PRE_POWER_OFF I would assume that this is intended behavior may be for saving power. So from my perspective the question should rather be why does the TV wake-up so frequently...

Figured it out myself.
The TV has three modes for remote power on:

Off
Through network
Through application (ADB)

If you choose the third option, the TV periodically "pre-power on" itself so that the user can send an ADB command to it to actually turn on the screen, which causes my HDMI cable periodically receiving signals of a new device.
(still not sure why the TV can't be always "pre-powered on")
But if you choose the second option, everything is fine.


text:
Cannot sign-in into the app using Google account
I have Shiaomi Redmi 5 with Android 8 and MIUI 11.
My Google account is OK - I can use play store, gmail, whatever.
But when some app requires sign-in my phone is stacked on the window

I.e. I try to tap my account but nothing happens.
Is it possible that there is an Android or MIUI setting that prevents login?
Or it is just a bug?
What to do?
Thanks.

That screen looks like the oAuth login dialog shown when you want to use your Google account to login into a third party app. It should be displayed in your default web browser. What web browser do you use and do you use add-ons or an ad blocker?

@Robert I use Chrome and yes I have AdBlocker turned on (at least on my desktop, but they are probably synced). The solution is to make another browser default on Android? I will try.

@Robert. It works, thanks. I just changed the default browser to MIUI Browser, but any browser except those with AdBlocker will work. You can post it as the answer, I will accept and upvote it.

Hmm, could you explain more about the AdBlocker? Chrome for Android doesn't support browser extensions, so I'm confused about what it refers to...

@AndrewT. It looks like Android prevents Chrome (or theoretically any other browser which have AdBlocker on the desktop and synced) from siign-in to apps.  Purely empirical knowledge, not supported by any known documentation :-).

That screen looks like the oAuth login dialog shown when you want to use your Google account to login into a third party app.
The login page is by default opened in your default web browser (not inside the app itself because the app should not be able to grab your Google credentials when you log-in).
If you can not login, then this is caused by the used web browser or a tool the causes the login to fail on network level.
Possible causes for the web browser to fail:

Problems with defect cached parts of the web site -> clear web browser cache
Problems with the web browser itself -> try a different web browser
Active ad blocker (in the web browser or on Android level if the ad blocker works as a local VPN).