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Can there be malicious apps on Google Play?
Do I need to worry about malicious apps on Google Play, or can I trust everything I install, so long as I install it from Google Play?
And if I need to worry, what red flags should I look for - number of downloads, ratings, how old the app is, what permissions it requires?
On a practical level, would you say that it is as safe as Apple's App Store?

Long story short: No software distribution service is 100% safe. Each app should be evaluated individually.

See also: Does Google Audit all apps that enter the market place? and Are the apps safe? How can I make my Android more secure?

@dotVezz Thanks. So Android is as safe as Apple's App Store? I've had an iPad, recently bought an Xperia S, and I was wondering.

Like Izzy said, "We don't compare apples to peaches" (or something). It's likely that the Play Store has more malicious apps than the App Store at any time. But that doesn't make either more dangerous than the other. Merely the presence of a malicious app doesn't undermine the security of a distribution system. In the end, you are responsible to research anything you install on your device.

@dotVezz is technically correct, but this is a good question because it is useful to have some sense of your risk exposure. For example, you are safer installing an app from the Play Store than some random .apk you found on the interwebs. This question might help people understand how much safer.

Oh, @Reid You are absolutely correct! Thanks for pointing that out.

We don't compare apples with peaches. But it's always a good idea to be careful what you install. True, Google Play is to be considered one of the safest sources for Android apps. Still, some malware sneaks in every now and then. So you should use some common sense before hitting the "Install" button.
Things to look at include (but might not be restricted to):

What permissions are required?
Though not always easy to decide, there are some things which can count as indicators – e.g. taking a simple calculator app, it certainly doesn't need access to your contacts, calendars, system settings, etc.
How is it rated?
I'm not talking about "naked numbers", but check the comments. They might give you useful hints on whether it's safe to install. Also, an app installed several thousands of times with no traces of maliciousness in the comments should be considerably safer than an app with almost no installs and no comments.
Should it be a very popular app, but only has few installs?
That's in most cases a clear indicator for malware, hiding behind a popular name. Better keep your hands off those.

Aside of that: In case you're still unsure, pick a good forum and ask. Another good idea is to check other apps from the same developer (just follow the link on his name), and use above criteria on them.

We have a few good "Is this app malware?" questions on ASE already. I think we can reasonably encourage more questions like that, instead of pointing users to other sites.

Thanks for the hint, @DanHulme – I wasn't sure whether to encourage that. Will update my answer accordingly (neutralizing ;) Better? (if so, we could remove our comments ;)

Your third point is so excellent that I could not possibly recommend this answer enough. The Play Store is rife with unofficial clones of varying levels of iffyness and every effort should be taken to avoid them.

Another important tip: If the app has a lot of 5 star reviews, read them and see if they are legit reviews. It is too easy to farm reviews these days, and a lot of fake apps do this to get a high ranking on the play store.

@Munim same applies to low-rated comments. Aside from faked ones ("bought by competition") there are also stupid ones (where users didn't understand what the app was for, or had problems with downloading from Google Play which have nothing to do with the app). This both together was what I refered to with my second point: check the comments (note: check, not count ;)

For those who do still believe Google Play to be "absolutely safe": Scareware: Fake Minecraft apps Scare Hundreds of Thousands on Google Play. Excerpt: ESET has discovered over 30 scareware applications available for download from the Google Play store. The malicious applications, which pretended to be cheats for the popular Minecraft game, have been installed by more than 600.000 Android users. (5/2015)

It is possible for there to be malicious apps on Google Play. However, there are a number of things that you can do to protect yourself:

Check the permissions that an app requests when installing. If it looks excessive for what the app does, then you can email the developer and ask why they need the permissions they ask for. Most developers should be happy to do this, although it may take a while to get a response.
Look at the amount of downloads and reviews. If it doesn't have many downloads then be more cautious. It does not however, mean that the app is malicious, just that you need to check more yourself. If it has a lot of 1-2 star reviews then i'd probably stay clear as well.
If it is a popular app (such as Need For Speed, Riptide GP etc.) that is normally a paid for app, but you find a free version then be very careful. A common tactic by malware authors is to pose as popular apps but actually they install malware on your device.

Essentially you have to use common sense. If in doubt don't install the app. Google does have a system called Bouncer which scans all apps uploaded to the Play Store which has reduced the amount of malicous apps but it is not 100% guaranteed.

I love the third point, but I think the examples used are a bit misleading. It's important to note that Angry Birds actually is officially free on the Play Store. Not to mention PvZ2 has embraced the free-to-play model.

Good point. I've replaced the examples with apps that aren't normally free.

@bmdixon Also, you can check the vendor name, to see if it is the same as the vendor name of the official app.

Anyone who has any experience programming and working on both Android and iOS apps can tell you that there are most certainly malicious apps on the Play store.  Here's the deal:
In order to publish your app to Apple's App store you have to submit it to Apple for review.  Oh, and you also have to pay them $99 per year and jump through some other hoops.  Either way, Apple goes through your app's code line by line (or at least that's what they claim) and verify there is not malicious code.  As a lot of devs can tell you, it's not hard to get an app rejected and not all that uncommon to have to resubmit.  The end result is that the Apple App Store is about as safe as it gets.  Not perfect, but as far as safety it doesn't get much safer.
Now, if I develop and app for Android I can basically just upload it to the Play Store.  I will need to create a developer account, but that's all I have to do.  If my app contains known viruses or malware Google will eventually catch it and remove it from the app store.
The important thing to keep in mind about Android is that it really is closer to Windows in that you can easily mess around and download an app or apps that can steal your personal information, slow your system down due to poor design or ads, and any number of other things.  My best advice is to pay very close attention to an apps permissions and if in doubt just don't install it.  Also, even if you don't usually read reviews on iOS devices, I would recommend that you at least take a look at the reviews for any lesser known Android app you are considering installing.  You can find out pretty quickly if the app has been causing other users problems with their devices.
For this reason, I would not recommend just indiscriminately downloading every single app that looks interesting on Android.  You really should be savvy enough to pay attention and protect yourself.  In addition to programming I have also worked for a few years in the mobile industry and I can tell that I hated to see older users get Androids because they would end up with so much crap on their phone and then wonder why it didn't work the way they wanted.  If this is you, then you maybe you should go with Apple.  If you don't mind paying attention to what you are doing then Android will treat you very well!  Hope this helps.

What about the permissions, though? I wanted to install a Sudoku app, and the top app on Google Play requires access to my "Network connection", "Phone calls" and "System tools", among others. This app has a 100,000 downloads, so it has to be legit, but if legit apps want these permissions, how do I distinguish viruses?

Apple doesn't check the source code, though, see http://stackoverflow.com/a/3188649/492336 for more details on how their review process works.

That's right. Roan's answer contains quite a lot mistakes: Apple cannot check the source code (how should they, you only upload the binary app), also you have to pay a fee to get an Android Developer Account as well. The Play store has automatic malware checks which might be as much of a security check as Apple's process (human testings will have to focus on looks&feel there as you can easily make an app that behaves normally during review...).

It is entirely possible for a malicious app to become available through it. However, the same can be said for any other software distribution system. The App Store is not immune to sneaky devs either.
Never assume that any software distributor offers 100% safe software. Whether you're using Windows, OSX, iOS, Android, Linux, Unix, FreeBSD, or any OS, the only person who should be responsible for your security is you, yourself.
When installing software, make sure that you trust the vendor and the app itself, regardless of how much you trust the supplier. If you trust Rovio, then Angry Birds is going to be just as safe on iOS as it is on Android, or any other platform it's available on.

This advice is hard to operationalize. How are you going to evaluate a given .apk in vacuo? The distribution channel is part of the risk evaluation. Ignoring it because it doesn't give 100% confidence is needlessly pedantic and not very useful.


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Xperia S, sleep-to-snap not capturing automatically
Xperia S has the sleep-to-snap function:

A single key press takes you from sleep to snap in just over a second.

But when I press the shutter-button, the phone wakes, goes into camera mode, but it doesn't snap a photo - I have to press the snap button for that.
How do I make it also snap automatically?

A friend showed me how to, you go to the Camera App's Settings, then go to "Quick launch", and check "Launch and Capture". It was set on "Launch only (still camera)".

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Can JFLTE Lollipop ROM be installed on the Verizon Galaxy S4 SCH-i545 with ME7 baseband?
I have a rooted Verizon Galaxy S4 SCH-i545 (edit: NOT GT-i9505) updated to the ME7 baseband version.
I would like to upgrade to this Lollipop ROM, which appears to be designed for the GT-i9505, but I don't know much (read: anything) about flashing and I can't understand which methods are or are not expected to work:

Flashing with TWRP or CWM Recovery apparently (?) requires an unlocked bootloader; with a locked bootloader, installing TWRP or CWM and rebooting just brings up an "unauthorized software" screen. However, there is an open bounty for unlocking the bootloader for Verizon S4s including (I think) those with the ME7 baseband. So does this mean that TWRP and CWM Recovery can't be used on my phone?
It appears that the standard way of bypassing the locked bootloader is to use Safestrap, but there are some comments in the ROM announcement thread and in the announcement itself at this somewhat sketchy-seeming site stating that Safestrap can't be used with this ROM. Is that actually the case? Why are some ROMs not usable with Safestrap?
Will Odin or Heimdall allow me to bypass the bootloader and install either the ROM itself or CWM or TWRP?
Is there anything I can do with the Android SDK and associated tools (fastboot, adb, etc) to circumvent the bootloader problem?

If none of these are expected to work, how exactly is the above ROM supposed to be used with a Verizon S4? Are people with the ME7 and other bootloader-locked baseband versions just out of luck?
EDIT: Are the GT-i9505 and SCH-i545 even comparable?

It's unfortunate that you learnt it the hard way, so posting this here for benefit of others who may be similarly placed
Very bright chances of bricking your phone if you flash a ROM not specifically meant for your phone. Custom ROMs are made by developers to cater explicitly for models specified by them, and being "closest" to your phone model doesn't mean anything in this context. Please read these to get more understanding

Can I install a ROM made for a different device?:
Feasibility of flashing a ROM (meant for original device) on a re-branded device

I bricked my phone attempting to use Heimdall to overwrite the bootloader. I do not believe the Verizon S4 with the ME7 baseband can be flashed with a custom ROM.

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


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What content (exactly) is transferred during setup by cable, that is not transferred by other means? Pixel warns a cable required for "most content"
The exact official warning message shown on a modern Google Pixel 5 is a cutely worded "Copy another way? You'll get the most content, including photos, videos, and MMS messages, if you use a cable."
I am in the initial setup process/instructions, booting for the first time, and my Original Google Pixel 1 does not have enough battery strength to accomodate the risque "Battery Sharing" required for a cable setup, so given the limited options, if a cable Phone-to-Phone transfer is not able to work because you have battery issues, I want to know exactly what I am missing in my data.
What does "most" mean?
Error message reading ""Copy another way? You'll get the most content, including photos, videos, and MMS messages, if you use a cable." (emphasis added) as given at first boot, if you try to not use a "cable" method.

See What won't copy during setup

@beeshyams Distinguishing 'What will/won't copy during setup for a cable vs. other methods/means' is the question then. :) Which is implied to be better (with a cable) than other options (even though, if the reason for requring a cable for MOST transfer is security, I would do a background check and security interview in-person at a Google Store if I could just get Bluetooth or Wifi to transfer. If I need to authorize transferring my own data securely, I mean why is Google thinking for us, that cable/battery backup is the securest option, they distinguish as superior for basic backup methods).

A) Cable = "MOST DATA" = "ALL DATA"
B) Non-Cable = "SOME DATA"= "CLOUD DATA"
Hesitatingly, I finally asked in a Google Fi support ticket and that is the response I had to wrestle from the reps (who did not want to use the word "Cable" specifically, and in their wisdom specifically avoided the word).
Their support documentation does not use the same language as their User Interface, leading to misleading directions and ideas about what it means. (I gathered that some of the front-line support representatives did not know about the "cable" part from reading their own documentation pages they copy/pasted me as responses, before I finally got a clear answer. Meaning a random user who does not have the greater technical literacy, would be at their whim. That is not acceptable User Data Policy, for an adult company writing documentation, to not catch that glaring lack of clear language, and should have been noticed long before I had to formalize this report.)
On an official documentation/inteface-level that is appallingly not warning users of the SEVERITY of not using a cable transfer, saying "most" is definitely not clear/mature enough for a final warning message. (If you heard or thought that not using a cable would work to keep data that is not in the cloud, multiple Google representatives also thought so it seems, and I am thinking about the rules for proving the whole email support ticket, because there is a disconnect if connecting user's devices (especially when internally between Google the same provider) is not treated as important as enterprise data retention policies, why do companies get 100% guarantees but I get just a a cable warning, we're going on the sixth generation of Google Pixels and there need to be user-specific standards for once.)
It is already appalling that GPixel is not designed with removeable batteries (and we break our warranty if broken and repaired), and egregious to add insult to injury by making Battery Sharing the only way, to save your life's data. Can you imagine the abuse of an enterprise being told they need to use a terrible battery/cable or else?
There is not a technical reason for this that is not opinionated infosec policy (a policy that is not codified or codifiable into law, because it's stupifying opinionated conjecture [the idea you Users need a unreliable error-prone asking-for-problems "Battery Sharing" cable, and can not be trusted with the ancient litany of other great official trusted methods known to transfer data well and reliably just fine instead like Bluetooth and Wifi too] written as a wise/official-sounding User Interface security warning dialog as-if it is just "good advice" for a user who needs dumbed-down 1-sentence language yet is given a 100-page Terms of Service policy? Users paid your bills too, hello. My data is more important than saving face that "Battery Sharing" was a good idea for primary backup), thus unlike enterprise Data Retention policies which would GUARANTEE a connection and archival (and say Hello politely in every email personally and not using canned responses, for an enterprise superuser customer), we users are not given full information standards, our US congressional law does not speak the same language as coders, and thus users are forced by this to go through hoops.
In the Warning Dialog, We might as well write 'Fix with a new battery, or sacrifice your data', to save someone's life's data, which should be the point if not a corresponding documentation law, the User's Data should be sacrosanct.
If during setup "Battery Sharing" is not working, you must fix your battery first at all costs because there is not an alternative option, or your data will not survive, (Raw ROM copying is not a user-friendly alternative option, & Google could do much better realistically, it's not the user's fault if there are not full backup redundancies built-in, why are we forcing the only one option that may be physically challenging) so please make sure to do a full cable-only transfer to be complete.

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


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3rd party messaging apps with random silent notifications problem
I am having a weird issue. I am on Android 10 on my LG G6 and I haven't installed any doze control app or greenify type apps etc on my phone but whenever I receive any message on 3rd party apps like Whatsapp or Skype etc, many of notifications arrive on time but some of the messages arrive with no vibration and no sound like silent notifications. I haven't set any DND or anything. It's just clean install rom and I have also faced this issue at my official stock ROM Android 9. Same behaviour recorded in that as well. For testing I captured notifications and what I saw is some of the messages comes via silent channelID which is very strange for me as no settings applied. It's all random messages and same behaviour when I am using my phone so I believe it's not doze level thing. I am attaching screenshots of notifications log, please guide me what's wrong going on here. Thanks.
Screenshots: https://postimg.cc/gallery/G3Tbjcg

The same issue on Galaxy Note 9, observed this issue in Nov 2018 but no resolution. The same issue in One Plus also. Very difficult to say whether it is an Android issue or applications issue.
Found this issue in Android Issue Tracker, Google is working on this, although I have observed this issue in Android 8, 9, 10.

Thank you, so its not me only.

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


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Official Facebook Hello contacts/dialer app login only says "104"
The Facebook Hello app https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/04/introducing-hello (released April 22, 2015 according to their post) is giving an error only saying "incorrect signature" and "104".
I am a good/loyal Facebook user so I installed the apps they suggested, grew to love using Facebook Hello the officially advocated contacts program, and now after searching several times over a year for news and not finding any clear Help article (I found a lot of still-posted promotional pieces about how great "Hello" is as the first, second, and third, result!) I am wondering what do you do?
Customer reviews at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.facebook.phone&rdid=com.facebook.phone&reviewId=gp%3AAOqpTOHZWFKjSnnjN5CrK5pmMl558_uC7NiCPu9pWIWcATy8WwuYkGe9IRmfOisfZN2fS3dlIh2cGaGO-2I&showAllReviews=true show many people also just reported a "104".

"We're moving on" is all Facebook has said since then, adding "We will be deprecating Hello in a few weeks." minus a reason, from an unknown anonymous Facebook employee author.
For some reason Facebook did not tell users who installed the HEAVILY advertised "Hello Dialer" application about (maybe with another ad equally) that they're forgetting the idea now: https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/07/hello-tbh-moving-on/.
The reason you did not find information, is that recent news suggests the application in question has been deprecated officially in a quiet press release, in their news article I archived to report at http://web.archive.org/web/20190522194837/https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/07/hello-tbh-moving-on because of the secrecy, as that is fairly well hidden for a large organization, and had not been given good meta-data information, to be indexed in searches with priority.


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Determining how particular SwiftKey suggestions are generated
Is there a way to determine how a particular SwiftKey suggestion got added to SwiftKey's dictionary of words? I'm seeing some weird suggestions pop up, and I'm pretty sure they're not words I've ever used in email or SMS.
Specifically, I wrote "Saturday," and then just started picking the strangest-looking suggestions I saw, and ended up with the following:

Saturday, Konigsburg 45Ira Sleeps Over 157Nature's Children #Mike's Mystry 145BxcrChldrn #9Mntn Top 63Paddington

It's conceivable that I used the word "Konigsburg" at some point, and of course I've used "sleeps," "over," and "children," but I'm pretty sure I never misspelled "mystery" like that, and the others are just bizarre. I also find it strange that all of them are capitalized. Any ideas?
EDIT: To clarify, I'm not asking why these words popped up at this particular time; i.e., I don't want details regarding how SwiftKey selects the "best" words to display at any given time. I just want to know how these words got added as dictionary candidates at all.

An answer to this question is very implementation specific, and can in fact only be answered for sure by a SwiftKey developer, eventually. In general, word suggestions are based on algorithms that are fed by n-gram dictionaries that predict possibilities for the next word you're likely to type.
See Wikipedia's n-gram entry to get more insight.
2-gram or 3-gram dictionaries are likely to be used with SwiftKey, amongst other techniques.
Regarding the strange sentence you auto-typed in: This reflects common use of probable 2/3-grams, so blame your fellow users on the poor spelling, it's just what they actually use.

This is probably part of the "secret sauce". I doubt Swiftkey will be forthcoming with this information.

SwiftKey also has a 'Trending Words' it looks up every hour or so. You will get some very weird stuff appearing if you have this option enabled.

Now that is some useful information, RossC. How do you enable/disable that option?

ce4: I'm not asking how the n-gram dictionaries work; I'm asking how these particular strings got added to the dictionaries in the first place.


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LG L5 restarts every minute
I don't know what I've done to my LG L5, but now it's just restarting and restarting.
I've rooted my phone using adb and installed ClockworkMod recovery, but now it just restarts every time it loads into phone or into ClockworkMod.
I really don't know what to do. Even if I get new ROM onto sdcard and try to flash my phone, it could randomly (in 1 min) shutdown, and I guess then I will brick my phone. So what should I do? I've tried to wipe cache/data/dalvik cache.
At first I could get to my home screen and even work for a while, but now I can't even go to my home screen. It freezes on the boot logo and restarts after 1 minute. Even in ClowkworkMod recovery. Works one minute and restarts.
Is there something that could help me?
Ok, so for now I've updated to cyanogenmod, thought it'll help, but no. It just keeps restarting, but now it goes to home screen again. So what to do? How can I update kernel or whatever I need to do?

This is strange. Sounds to me like a kernel issue, have you tried flashing a new kernel/bootloader using fastboot?

Where can I find new kernel, and how I even can load them, if my phone now just don't load up... only loops in logo screen..

What should I do? adb devices returns nothing else than empty string... I can't even go to home screen anymore.. it just freezes for a minute on my LG logo screen (startup) and after minute restarts...

Can you get to recovery?

Yes.. but again only for 1 minute

@AigarsCibuļskis Did you manage to find a solution for this? I believe I might be face the same issue with my LG L5 (E610/612(f))


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Can a Factory Reset fix Malware Problem? And another question too!
After factory reset my pictures, videos, and other media remained. Is it an indication of infection? Prior to the factory reset.
Can you explain why my media wasn't deleted? It was supposed to wipe out everything on the phone.

Please only include one question per question post.

Factory resets only partially erase* the main data directory, not the internal/external storage drive (SD Card for example).
All videos, photos, music etc remain, as they are stored on the internal/external drive - only apps and app data would be deleted.
*I say partially erase, because if everything in the data directory was erased, the OS wouldn't function correctly.

A minor adjustment: Everything in the /data directory does in fact get erased, that's the idea behind a factory-reset. And that's why all apps and their data are gone. Only the ROM survives, with the integrated ("pre-installed") apps. Apart from that: Yes, exactly that's why media survive – unless one checks to have the SDCard wiped, too (some devices offer that).


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Nexus 4 won't charge through laptop on low power
When my Nexus 4's battery is less than 5%, it won't charge while connected to my PC, but I can charge by plugging my Nexus 4 the wall adapter.
I believe it is a hardware problem. Can you help me?

Your computer’s USB port have lower energy output than your wall charger. There is nothing you can do about this other than getting a new computer with higher power USB power output.
Do note that your phone is actually charging even when it says it is not. It is just slower. If you keep the screen off and the device idle, it should be fully charged after some hours. This will be much slower than using a higher power output source.


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Merge calls option shows a popup 'Conference call not allowed'
While trying to make a conference call using the merge calls button, my Micromax A25 with Android2.3.6 shows a popup displaying 'Condference call not allowed'. Can you please tell me whether it is OS related or my operator related ? Or there is any settings that needs to be enabled for activating conference calling in my device?

This is generally turned off in Indian prepaid connections. Speak to the customer care to enable it. I believe you need a minimum balance to turn it on.

It's operator-related. Although the phone can support conference calling, most consumer calling plans don't let you do that.


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number of pattern matching attempt in android 2.3(Maxx msd7)
When i start my phone(Maxx msd7),i am getting "number of invalid pattern matching attempts" error in android 2.3.I am trying to perform factory reset at starup.
I got the recovery menu at startup by pressing volume - button but i am not getting Factory reset option over there.

TEST ITEM
TEST ALL
CLEAR FLASH

options are there.
What should i do.?

Please [edit] your question to give more details about the error. Exactly when does the error message appear? What does it look like? What is the exact message?

Solved....
Select clear flash option,It will restart phone and menu will be displayed at startup.

Good work. If you want this information to be useful to future visitors, you should edit your question to say what phone these are the instructions for. Not every Android phone has the same recovery menu.


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Crossy Road on Android (Fire Stick) Issue
My nephew plays Crossy Road on his Amazon Fire Stick Android device.
He's earned almost every different character.  He hasn't had to pay for any... he's earned them all by playing... a lot.
Suddenly, the game stopped working for him yesterday.  The icon is still there, but when he clicks on it, it does nothing.
What I've done for him:

Restarted the Fire Stick.  Didn't help.
Offered to attempt psychotherapy.  Refused.

I was thinking about just uninstalling it and then reinstalling it, but I'm afraid that will lose all of the characters he's earned.
How do I get Crossy Road working on his Fire Stick again without him losing all the character he earned?

Thank you.  That is great help, because without your post, that would have been the next step.  Thank you for helping him navigate the treacherous pathways through this dark and difficult time in his life.

The acronym FWP can be taken in directions you didn't intend here. Because: crazy people.

@wbogacz Thanks... I had no idea... I'll edit the question to remove ambiguity.

Amazon say it's a known problem and they're working on it. Update in up to 3 days!

Thanks.  Is there a site with the info, or did you call them?  Glad it's not just his game, otherwise it would never get fixed.

I called them, they promised an email update. Son identifies with your nephew, so thinking a support group may be needed

And also one for parents.  Perhaps we can call it CRAP (Crossy Road Anonymous for Parents).

Good plan, but no need now - CROSSY ROAD IS BACK!


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How to keep my Android phone asleep until I press the power button
When I am done with doing something on my Android phone, I put it asleep with the Power Button. I expect it to stay asleep until I press Power again, or perhaps until a phone call comes in. This is to minimize draining the battery.
However, the phone wakes up when putting it away, e.g. in my trouser bag. After several seconds the screen goes dark again. But why? Is this a 'feature'?
When walking in the dark, the phone backlight will shine through my clothes.
Is it possible to turn this 'feature' off?
I might be old fashioned, wanting to be in control in turning this thing on and off when I, the owner, want this.
This behaviour happened with my previous phone, Motorola Moto, with android 11, and with my current Moto E32s with Android 12.

Does your Settings app have an option which is something like "Lift to wake up" or "Lift to check phone"? If yes, disable it and see if the problem goes away.

Kudo's to
@Firelord: disabling Lift To Wake was very important, thanks!
In the same settings page I found Peek Display to be somewhat important, to keep the phone asleep. Peek shows the time on a black screen in small font every once in a while during sleep.
Both settings can be found by searching Settings for Lift, or by going to Settings, Display, Advanced.


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Cannot backup Pixel 6a
I forgot my passcode the other day (Pixel 6a, Android 14) and I was planning to backup my phone, reset my phone, then put all the data back into the phone. I was planning to use ADB, but then I realized that USB Debugging is not enabled. The only way to really use ADB at this point is to go into recovery mode and selected the "Install update from ADB" option,which is what I did. then I put in this code. "adb backup -apk -obb -shared -all -system -f backup.ab", but it returned this error. "adb: unable to connect for backup: closed"
Any fixes/Is it possible to do it in sideload mode? If not then just tell me

I use Pixel 6a
Firstly, sorry but the only way out for you is to try to recall the password. Or use Google backup to restore (if you backed up)
Next, coming to your questions:

In recovery or sideload mode adb is very restricted and adb backup won't work. IIRC, so is the case with adb pull /sdcard/

Even in normal mode, adb backup is a poor choice. See Does adb backup/restore still work because it says it's deprecated?. In addition to the problems with apps targeting Android 12 and above, banking apps and other apps that depend on Android Keystore
will not be restored correctly (this is the case with rooted backup methods too)

Also note that the backup command tried by you would have failed if the device is not rooted. See accepted answer here How do I know when "adb backup" is finished? (I am presuming your device isn't rooted, else you would have a backup using rooted apps on your PC/USB/cloud). Even if your device is rooted, and you took a backup using adb, it would be useless because it would be encrypted. How are you going to decrypt?


text:
Why has Android made it impossible to install system fonts?
Fonts in Android are kept in /system/font directory. There seems to be no way to install custom fonts without rooting your Android or installing some apps.

Why has Google made it almost impossible for Android users to install custom fonts?
What was the engineering decision that led fonts not getting picked up from ~/.fonts/ user directory as happens in a standard Linux Distribution?

The same behaviour is seen in ChromeOS as well.

the system partition is never writable, that is a common standard on embedded devices. 2. Android is not a common Linux system, that means there is no user and thus no home directory...

@Robert 2. You're partially wrong. Android is a non GNU/Linux system I agree but home directories indeed exist in Android: They're /storage/emulated/0 , /storage/emulated/1 and so on

@karthiknair Are you sure that /storage/emulated/0 is the home directory? And of which user? Every app has an own user account, so it would not make sense to have one home directory for all users. On Android versions prior to 11 /storage/emulated/0 was often used like a home directory by some apps, but it was never a home directory in a Linux meaning. And since Android 11 it isn't accessible at all on file level.

@Robert /storage/emulated/0 is what you see when you open File Manager and tap on 'internal storage' i.e where folders such as Downloads, Pictures, Android etc exists just like in a Linux system. /storage/emulated/0 is for user 0. if you create another user and open internal storage in file manager, the contents you see are under /storage/emulated/1

@Robert In android >=11, /storage/emulated/0/Android isnt accessible at all in the file level (there are workarounds for that too). But /storage/emulated/0 has always been and would continue to be accessible

@karthiknair We simply have different understanding what a home directory is. For you it is some directory shown by default in an UI file manager, for me it is a directory where applications places their configuration files/directories and where use related files are stored.

@Robert No we don't have a different understanding of what $HOME is. I'm a GNU/Linux user. Assume you have set up two users in your phone. And e.g let's consider WhatsApp and let's imagine we've that app installed on both users... A lot of related directories of WhatsApp are stored under /storage/emulated/0/Android/data and /storage/emulated/0/media for user 0 and similalry /storage/emulated/1/data for user 1. Though I agree that Android apps store part of related files and configs in /data/data/0 and /data/data/1 too, /storage/emulated/ still remains something similar to $HOME

@Robert also kindly read my prev two comments properly once

Fonts can be considered an attack surface so system level fonts are restricted.
The Android Open Source Project documentation has a section on Custom Fonts Fallback which allows for Android 12+ OEMs to modify/update the system font with appropriate system level permission/keys. For Android 11 and earlier, the system font was delivered with a ROM update.
Reading on there is a section on signing font files:

Signing font files
Since font files are risky resources, they must be verified with trusted keys. Carefully review all font files that are to be updated, and sign with your private key. The signature must be fs-verity compatible.

where Google calls out that font files are 'risky resources'.
Quoting from:
How can a font be used for privilege escalation?

Fonts are hard. It's old code. It runs in kernel mode.

Related post:
How to detect suspicious content in a TrueType Font (.ttf) font file
So it can be implied that by not allowing end-user customization of the system fonts, there is a reduction of the attack surface.
Individual apps can embed their own custom font files for use within their own app.


text:
How can I uninstall Google Chrome on my Android and recommend a suitable replacement?
I'd like to choose something other than chrome for my android. But, don't know what specifically I can do to uninstall it. Also, is my Google account automatically linked to my chrome? I'm not satisfied with either one but am apprehensive about removing both since I don't quite understand what the implications will be. I'm new to this platform and to being online so any feedback is of course welcomed!

Please edit with device name and android version  in question. If you have installed chrome from playstore or using apk, then you can uninstall from settings/from playstore. If chrome is pre-installed(its present during first boot), then it act as system app, and you can only perform disable. If you want to uninstall system app, that requires root access(voids warrenty).

Uninstalling system apps is usually impossible if your phone is not rooted.
For non-rooted phones:
you can only disable the app. This would usually accomplish the same thing as uninstalling. To disable chrome, go to settings -> apps -> chrome -> disable.
For rooted phones:
You can use an app called titanium backup the app allows you to backup and uninstall system apps.

is my Google account automatically linked to my chrome?

No. The first time you open chrome, it gaves you the open between syncing or not.
To see if chrome is currently connected to your Google account, open your chrome browser, press on the three dots menu on the top right, press on settings, and there on the top of the screen it will say syncing to [your email address] if it says sign in instead of your email address, that would mean that chrome is not currently logged in to your account.

This is EXACTLY the answer I needed! And I can understand every word! (Thank you) I did see the disable chrome option but didn't understand what this would do to my Google account. I don't want either one unless there's some major advantages I'm unaware of. Thank yoy

Your help soo much appreciated here!! Ok I'm looking for the checkmark of which you speak of now...aha!! Thanks AGAIN! I wish I was better at using this site cuz I absolutely adore it!

@Prettycool666 Having Google account synced with Chrome will give you cross-platform syncing. Your browsing history, saved passwords, bookmarks, auto-fill options, open tabs across devices will all be available on all your devices.

You can uninstall an android system app without root using a USB cable and a computer.

Install ADB (Android Debugging Bridge) package on the computer from Google (https://dl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools-latest-windows.zip)

Enable USB Debugging mode on the Andriod. and plug in the device (connect to transfer files)

CD to the ADB package directory and use the abd command in console (CLI/CMD/PS): adb devices to ensure your android device is connected and recognized

Once confirmed, then use adb shell to enter ADB.

Get the android app full system name you want to remove (eg com.google.android.chrome) from your android app list (use an app info program or something to find the system app name)

On your computer, use the ADB Shell command pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.chrome to remove the app.

Do this at your own risk, since android OS relies on certain system apps to operate (eg Contacts, Phone etc.). Use adb --help for more info and other options.
Alternatives to Chrome? I use DuckDuckGo (privacy) and Samsung Internet (for PDF printing pages) as my browers.

For replacement it depends on what you are looking for.
Want extensions and fully featured browser? Use Firefox.
Want Chrome without Google's bloat? Use Chromium or Chromium based browsers like Brave
Want something extremely minimal, fast and light? Use Lightning browser.
If you use Samsung device, you can try Samsung Internet Browser which is optimized for Exynos Chips.


text:
How to set default phone number for contacts?
USE CASE:
When I do voice dialing with Google on my Android phone or more importantly text messaging it always asks which phone number I should use for the contact. That's really frustrating when I'm driving.
Is there a way to set a default so it just uses that one?

Open up the Google Contacts app on Android.  Go to the desired contact (do not edit the contact).  Long press the phone number you want to set as the default number.  You should get a pop-up dialog with Copy, Edit before calling, and (Tada!) Set default.
You can do the same thing with email addresses.
This works with the official Google Contacts app from the Google Play Store.  If it doesn't work on your phone, make sure you are using the official app and not a phone vendor-supplied version (Samsung, LG, etc.)
This works in Contacts Version 6.01 that was installed on my phone by Motorola and Version 2.5.4... from the Play Store.

thank you.  Works great.


text:
How to control the volume of an Android device from an iPhone?
How to control the volume of an Android device from an iPhone?

Something about the self-promotional question/answer pair seems a little "off", but we'll leave it to the community at large to decide.

I totally agree, I would totally understand if that question was deleted. I did not do that question/answer earlier because indeed, it is self-promotion. But the thing is : 1/ my app is (and will remain) free, no ad, open source, I earn nothing from it. 2/ I talked about my app in the linked question, but my app can be the answer to more questions (remote not only from PC) 3/ finally, that article made me think it was ok, "a question that you already know the answer to, and you would like to document that knowledge" : https://stackoverflow.com/help/self-answer

@tanaka42 FWIW, free/no-ad/open-source is not a factor to decide if it's spam or not. SE has a guideline for self-promotion in that it has to be non-excessive and always disclosed. The fact that you disclosed it here seems okay-ish, I think.

Understood. Thank you I will read the guideline carefully. I did edit my answer so the self-promotion disclosure is even more obvious. I have also added alternative solutions to my product so not all my answer is self-promotional.

You could use my free open-source and no-ad app, Web Remote Volume Control, I have made it myself to address this exact purpose, see my answer on this thread.
Full disclosure: I am the author of this free, ad-free, and open-source app.
You could instead use Teamviewer plus a slider widget (Teamviewer Remote Control on the iPhone, Teamviewer Quick Support on the Android device, and also a sound volume slider widget on the Android device), but this may not be free.
You could maybe also use Airdroid, but I think it is not free either.

Something about the self-promotional question/answer pair seems a little "off", but we'll leave it to the community at large to decide.

I added a full disclosure for the author.  I think between the OP's good-faith edits and the disclosure, this answer is good now.  I've upvoted it.


text:
Viewing using computer Chrome a HTML page downloaded on Arndroid Chrome
I save webpages for offline reading by opening the three-dot menu icon and tapping the download icon up top, which will download a version of the page. I also take regular backups on USB drives.
Now if I wish to view these HTML pages on my computer's Chrome browser, how do I do the same?
These files do not have any file extension. I tried adding .htm to them and then trying to open but was not successful.
All help is sincerely appreciated.
Thanks

Apparently, this Chrome's behavior doesn't seem to be global. So, to determine the line, is it okay for you to mention the device model and Android version?

Chrome for Android saves a webpage in MHTML format. It doesn't append the extension in the filename though, hence, the problem in opening it in Chrome on PC. Opening such a file in Chrome on PC without correct extension makes Chrome load the content of the webpage in plain text instead.
Appending .mhtml or .mht as extension to the filename and then opening the webpage in Chrome on PC should work.


text:
Removing all Google data except the Play store
My main Android device is a phone. I recently acquired a tablet which I don't really use for email, calendars, etc. Therefore I want none of that data on the tablet.
I have disabled sync for all entries under my Google account, but the emails/calendars/hangouts which were already synced remain on the device.
How can I remove my emails/calendar entries/hangouts/etc from the device while keeping the Play store credentials?

I'm not 100% sure for all apps involved, but for most the "general rule of thumbs" applies:

go to Settings→Apps
select the "All" tab (to also show pre-installed apps)
walk the apps one-by-one, open their entries, and select "Clear Cache" plus "Delete Data"

Especially exclude things like "Google Play Services", but include the "Calendar Provider" and "Contacts Provider" (or similar named entries).
It's a good idea to first make a backup (just in case), and also to keep log of what you cleared. The former in case you hit one app too much, the latter in case you need to perform a factory-reset one day – as after that, sync would be automatically enabled by default, and you can only disable it after having finished the wizard and re-created your account – so all calendars, contacts, etc. would be back.

That worked just fine, thank you! Now there is no more data on my device.

As always, do a backup of your device before removing anything.
If you don't understand something that is stated, please ask before continuing.

Go into Settings and turn off all syncs. Go to Settings/Apps/ locate the Google apps you don't want running. Clear data and disable each, one at a time. (Leave Play Store, Play Services, Services Framework, and Accounts Manager intact; I'm not sure about Partner Setup and One Time Init, try those, and if not working properly, re-enable)

OR

Assuming you are rooted: you can manually uninstall most of the Google apps if you know which ones to remove (Leave Play Store, Play Services, Services Framework, and Accounts Manager intact; I'm not sure about Partner Setup and One Time Init). I use /system/app mover to switch apps from system to user space, then delete from there.

OR

Assuming you are rooted: the easiest way of slimming down on the Google apps would be to flash a minimal GApps to your device, that have the core requirements necessary for your apps from Play Store to function properly. you can add on any of the other features after that as needed.

As I stated at the top, make sure you make a backup/Nandroid so any issues can be easily corrected.

Thanks for the answer, good pointers. I'm not rooted so I won't be able to uninstall them, but clearing the data worked.

@RobertMunteanu Check this link out for rooting and rom! Works with Primus QS!!   http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2316845

Disabling unwanted apps is a good pointer indeed, which I didn't think of with my answer. +1 for that! What is not needed doesn't need to be running :)

@Izzy no GApps (blank store) is a good suggestion

Have not used it myself, but I've got my first Google-free device running. Up to now, F-Droid + Aptoide substitute for Play just fine :) Part 6 of the blog I've linked in my other comment will report about my "self-test" in a couple of days (hopefully). Second device pending for migration ;)

As someone asked (but removed that comment): Here's the preliminary report: Android without Google 6: Self-Experiment

@Izzy  awesome testing, amazing how much "energy" Google uses

I was expecting that – but not at that degree. 4d battery time was what I imagined (due to "low use" from my end). 5 days I didn't dream of – but that's what I've got :)

Great answers are posted already. If your device is rooted, you can look for a custom ROM such as CyanogenMod, AOSP ROM, etc. These ROMs do not have Google apps by default. You have to flash them separately. If available, you can install a custom ROM compatible with your device, then install a Micro GApps package (also known as minimal Google apps). The Micro GApps package basically just includes Play Store and core services without all the extras such as Hangout, Google+, Maps, etc. A good resource for custom ROM is XDA forums.

I don't think there's a custom ROM for my device (  vonino primus qs ), so I'll go with clearing the app data.

With a custom ROM you could even go without GApps at all, and use the BlankStore from NOGAPPS to access Play (details here). Its latest version (just published a few days ago) even works for updating paid apps – just buying new ones is not possible from BlankStore.

authors: صنائع المعروف


text:
How to prevent android from auto-sync'ing gmail contacts and photos etc
I just got a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and when I go into my settings then add an account and add a gmail account, it gives me an option to choose what I want to sync. I unchecked 'photos' and 'contacts' and everything else except for 'gmail', but it still auto sync'ed my photos and contacts (and my apps and app data, even though I told it not to). I then deleted the account and tried again but this time, I didn't check anything at all (not even gmail) and it did not sync anything, which is good. But I want to sync only my mail, so then I went into the settings for my account and checked only the 'sync gmail' box and it synced everything again (app, app data, contacts, photos).  How do I make it stop syncing everything? I just want to sync my inbox.

You can Hack it

Go to Settings -> Accounts
Click on Top RIGHT Icon (Settings) and then UNCHECK Auto-Sync Data*
Add your Google Account
Turn the phone on Air Plane Mode
Go to Settings -> Accounts -> Google -> Your Account
Selectively turn sync only for things that you would like sync (e.g gmail)
Turn off Air plane mode.
Turn On 'Auto-Sync Data' option.

Now not all of the data will be synced except the ones that you selected!

To turn off syncing of everything to google, except mail then you can try the following steps:

Go to "Settings" on your phone -> "General" -> "Accounts" -> "Google" -> click your email address in the top. From here, you can uncheck checkboxes on everything you don't want to sync with Google.
Google+ also has its own syncing options -> Go to "Settings" on your phone -> "General" -> "Accounts" -> "Google" -> "Google+" -> "Auto backup". In the top, you can choose "Off" to turn off the backup of pictures and files to Google+.

I hope this helps.

problem is, even when I tried to do this, it still synced the photos and the photos are all there. It's annoying how when I first link my account and say to not sync photos and anything else except for email, it still does it :/

okay so I tried adding an account again and it worked, I'm not sure what I did differently but just in case someone comes across this same problem in the future, I think if you go to the GMAIL app (don't click on settings -> accounts), just if you go to the GMAIL app, click settings inside the gmail app and then click 'ADD ACCOUNT', then it won't sync anything except the gmail. If you go to your phone settings -> Accounts and add accounts from there and tell it not to sync, then it might sync regardless of what you tell it (like what it was doing for me).

Also, to clear already downloaded online galleries from your Gallery on the phone: Go to Gallery Application in application manager and clear data.

Also the program photos has its own sync service. To stop it just entrr the program, go into settings and turn it off there

you turn off the sync and open the mail app if it is gmail then it is easy as gmail app has its swipe down to refresh mails. but the android email app has no features like this so go to its settings to change it

That's a reasonable workaround, but only if you don't want new-mail notifications.


text:
Switched off device is kept charging for a long time? Is this okay?
Is it harmful for a switched off device to be kept charging for a long time? If yes, I would like to know why. (Not a very deep explanation but just a plain explanation as I am not an expert).

It is not altogether harmful, because once the battery is fully charged, it stops receiving more current automatically. This is true because most laptops can be use plugged in while fully charged to save the juice.
But however, its good practice to unplug your device once its full because some non-li-ion batteries tend to decrease in efficiency due to contactly being plugged in while full.
Hope this answered your question...

Actually I read somewhere that it is not very ok to charge a switched off device, it creates more pressure on the device so I was asking !.

Possibly, but come to think of it, most of the electronic devices are charged while off... Plus most devices tend to be affected by power surge while charged ON than not...

Oh ! Thats also true

Right... Thumbs up...

@Hiren you could help mark my answer and give upvote . Would appreciate


text:
Can you change the number of icons In the 'quick settings' tray (Android Oreo)
Oreo has reduced the number of icons in the quick settings tray from 9 to 6. Is it possible to adjust the number of icons shown, e.g. to 6 or 12?
Edit: Just to clarify: I mean the layout of the drawer, e.g. 3x2 (Oreo) vs. 3x3 (Nougat) vs. 4x2 (Samsung). I don't mean the total number of icons shown, including the icons accesses by swiping left/right.

Not in pure AOSP Android, but maybe... What device specifically?

Use "System UI Tuner" app which found on Google Play Store. It need some permissions from ADB. Dont worry that describes within the App

The app can customise many settings, but I was specifically wondering whether you can change the layout - from 3x2, to 3x3 (as it was in nougat) or e.g. 4x2 (Samsung). I couldn't see that in the screenshots of the app


text:
How to access my SD card of Moto G 2nd from Win7
All, I am in trouble with accessing the files , photos etc in my SD card of Moto G 2nd. Is there any way to make it ? Thanks.
Updated
It is my mistake, I am sorry that I didn't put it clear. Please forgive me .
I mean I was trying access it from computer desktop. But so far didn't get it work around. Thanks.

Well, inorder to access the SD card content over the device you are going to need a file manager app to do that, if you head over to the Google PlayStore then you can find a number of file explorer available that you can use. Just in case if you want you can try installing ES File Explorer over your device. Once done open the ES File Explorer to look out for the files and folder over your SD card.

It doesn't have an SD card.
Nor does it have a file explorer.
Download and install ES file manager from the play store to fix.

Excuse me, Did I mistake something?

authors: กอฟแกฟ คนไม่มีเวลา


text:
Any suggestion on how to recover deleted sms?
Yesterday I just picked my phone from my pocket and it was prompting me to delete all my messages, and I accidentally tapped the confirm button and lost all my messages.
I don't have any backup and my phone is not rooted. Is possible to recover it?

If you use the search box on top of this page, and enter recover deleted sms, it turns up some helpful questions which do have answers. Have you checked e.g. with Is there a way to recover a deleted SMS? / HTC Desire crashed, deleted all SMS/MMS. Can I recover? / Recover deleted content from userdata partition?

Yes, but all those questions have answers about having backup or rooted phones.

For good reasons: There's no other way.

Thanks!
So, my question is not a total duplicate, and the answer is 'No'.

Depending on the phone you might still root it by the way. What model do you own?

@ce4 It's a S3 Mini. Do you think I can root it and still recover the messages?

The S3 mini can be rooted afterwards, yep. You might have luck to root without loosing data and then possibly have even more luck to recover it using the techniques in the other answers linked here.

Most Samsung phones have unlocked bootloaders. It'll void your warranty though and alter your firmware. So it's not for the faint of heart, you'd flash the recovery from this Rom thread (don't do a full install and no wipe!) and boot into CWM to grab a flash dump.


text:
My Xiaomi Mi 10T gets a black/shut off screen at minimum brightness. Is it possible to increment the minimum brightness level?
My Xiaomi Mi 10T gets total black screen when setting brighness to minimum - IE: impossible to see anything even in a corner of a dark room - as can be seen in this video:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AS8QhZV3vyCTMKLL92hW_4H4jXdzbNMg/view?usp=sharing
Is it possible to increment the minimum brightness level?
I checked other old answers regarding this issue and seems they don't apply to this one:
I accidentally slid the brightness to minimum and I couldn't use the phone again! Just had to wipe all my data to recover from this state.
Checking the slider carefully now, it seems it goes "shut down" at about 5%, and that's very dangerous.
Any help is appreciated!

Isn't the minimum same as 0 or total darkness? Don't slide it that far.

Sorry if I didn't make myself clear, but sliding a brightness control to minimum should not "turn off" the screen. I want to fix this behavior

Sounds like a glitch in system software. I'd suggest that you report the problem to MI customer care in the meantime.

Could you [edit] and list the other Q&A on the question body?

That said, this reminds me of the same issue when I was using an old Nexus 5 on LineageOS 14. Turns out it's just the display, but the touchscreen still works, thus I could swipe the brightness slider from the quick settings panel with trial-and-error (luckily). I didn't find the solution to fix it permanently before it went totally broken though.

The minimum brightness is a common problem. Some users say it is too high, for others it is too low. In most cases it is simply the question how much light you have in your environment. Check your screen in a totally dark environment and I would assume you will see that the screen is not totally dark. Modern devices have an "extra dark" mode that is disabled by default and prevents users from accidentally set the screen brightness to value that appears as "off" in an indoor daylight environment.

Maybe use an like this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nu.lower.brightness// You can't overcome ROM glitch easily


text:
Alarm Volume On A Motorola Citrus
I'm using a Motorola Citrus.
Basically my alarm volume is low.  It is low in settings, but it is even lower, barely audible when I run a timer.
In settings I have the volume bar maxed out.
I also have the volume bar maxed out when I press the volume button on the upper right side of the phone
The phone is fully charged.
I'm using the sound of an alarm clock.
I'm new to Android and smart phones.
Any ideas on how I can make the alarm louder?
Thanks

If you go to Settings, then Sound, does it have multiple volume sliders? The Citrus should run software similar to my old Atrix 4G, and I remember it having a separate slider for Alarm volume (So you can have other volumes low, but your alarm can still be loud, etc). This is how modern devices handle it nowadays as well.

Under settings > sound and display settings I have: ringer volume, media volume.  Both volume bars are at the max.  In alarms there is a volume bar, also maxed. Under the timer, the thing I have the problem with, there is no volume control there

Hm... it's not normal Android behavior for the timer to ignore the alarm volume. Are you using the timer from the default Clock app, a Motorola bundle app, or a third-party app?

I'm using the alarm/timer app that came with the phone.  It is one app with two tabs, one for the alarm, one for the timer.

It seems like Motorola has shipped a weird alarm/timer app. I'd recommend looking in the Play Store for pretty much any well-rated alternative and see how it fares in comparison.


text:
What folder are Google Podcasts downloads stored in?
I want to pull some podcast downloads off my phone, and put them on my computer.
I have plugged my phone into my computer's USB port.  What folder can I find my Google Podcast downloads in?  My computer is showing a lot of folders with cryptic names :-(.
I am looking in my computer's file manager, "Nokia 6.1" -> "Internal shared storage".  I do not have an SD card in my phone.

My computer runs GNOME.  I have connected to the phone using USB (MTP) before, and it worked great.  That was for some different files though :-).
Phone version:

Device name: Nokia 6.1
Model & Hardware: TA-1050
Android version: 9
Security patch level: 1 October 2019
Kernel version: 4.4.153-perf+
Build number: 00WW_3_54H_SP03

I bought the phone as new, and I have not rooted it.

I get it what you are trying to say, but I see no point in keeping X amount of questions lying around when the dupe target already answers them. All the user has to do is to take a step and see in which location (among the ones suggested by answers there) their target data might be lying. In a way, this as well answers where FB stores downloads, where a slides app stores slides, etc. Feel free to argue. If you feel the question should still remain open, you can also argue on meta site. :)

@Firelord Apart from how I am expected to associate com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox with Google Podcasts, the duplicate can't possibly answer my question. It doesn't mention /data/0/ anywhere, and that's the only path to accessing these files over USB.

@sourcejedi Mapping an app label to its package name is a separate question. Why Google Podcasts (com.google.android.apps.podcasts) is saving its data to Google app's (com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox) directory is a separate question (how and why Google's apps rely on each other and how apps share data with each other by sharing UID or using other methods). Accessing /data (/data/0?) over MTP is an impossible case. So in my humble opinion your question doesn't contribute anything new to community which isn't already answered.

data/user/0/com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox/filesvelour/feature_data/wernicke_player/downloaded_episodes

Found using the Disk Space Analyzer on my GNOME computer :-).
This is the only folder that appears in data/user/0/.
Apparently, there are a lot of other folders that might look similar, but would not be accessible by other non-system Android apps, and would not be expected to be accessible through USB either.  But my Android is quite happy for me to access this specific folder through USB.
I have enabled "Developer options", but I have not used it to change anything AFAIR.  If I disabling "Developer options", I can still plug my phone in and access the above folder using USB.

Unless I'm mistaken /data/user/0 corresponds to /data/data/ which can be accessed by a user only through root.

@Firelord ? I completed my task successfully.  I don't run the GNOME file browser on my laptop as root, that's a terrible idea and is/was absolutely not necessary :-).

As @Firelord said /data/user/0 is actually /data/data. Any directory inside that is either accessible to root (UID 0) or system (UID 1000; can see directory only) or the app itself. SELinux restrictions are in addition to this. Which Android version are you on?

@IrfanLatif If someone tells me they've tested this, accessing their own phone's internal filesystem over a USB cable, I'll dig up my exact software version. (Seems to me like the  USB MTP host is running with all necessary privileges).

@sourcejedi interesting. MTP relies on MediaStore which indexes files from /storage/emulated/0 and external SD card. Other contents on /data aren't scanned at all (neither are accessible). So there's something very exceptional happening on your phone.

@IrfanLatif thanks for your response! I have edited further details into both the question and the answer.

For clarity, the many cryptic folders I first tried to look at were in Android/data.

Android/data is /storage/emulated/0/Android/data which is obviously accessible to apps as well as MTP (which is also in fact an app). The point is that /data or any of it's subdirectories (except app's own private directory) are not and should not be accessible to apps, adb, MTP or any other possible access method. Such open access breaks Android's security model and must be considered a high priority security vulnerability.

I was searching for this info myself today. After plugging in my phone, I was able to locate the downloaded podcasts here: \Internal storage\Android\data\com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox\files\Podcasts\Downloads


text:
Does Android OS impose an SMS sending limit?
Is there an SMS sending limit? I have sent SMSs totaling >30,000 characters within 24 hours and am no longer able to send any SMSs (though I can receive them). Is my SMSC blocking me, or is the Android OS limiting how many SMSs I can send? If the latter is the case, how do I reset or increasing the SMS sending limit using adb (service call?)?

Related: Pop up message when sending large amounts of SMS messages

Yes, there is. From

Lynch, Doug. “How to Change the SMS Limit on Android Without Root.” XDA Developers, August 27, 2017:

by default, Android will check to make sure you haven't sent more than 30 SMS messages to anyone within a span of 30 minutes.

How to Change Android's SMS Limit

Set up ADB as outlined in this previous tutorial.

Enter an ADB shell by sending the following command in the command prompt or terminal window: adb shell

Then run the following command in the ADB shell to change the max SMS limit option: settings put global sms_outgoing_check_max_count 5

So in this example, I am actually reducing the number so Android warns me if I have sent more than 5 SMS messages within 30 minutes.
Change "5" to whatever number you want.

Next, you can run the following command to also change the time frame: settings put global sms_outgoing_check_interval_ms 9000000

And with this command I am reducing the time frame for this check from 30 minutes, to 15 minutes (this value is in milliseconds). You
can choose any integer value here for the time frame, just make sure
it's something sensible.


text:
Updating Android make it to user more data transfer, now there is no way to block data by default
I have accidentally updated my Android One phone to v10 of 2020-05-01 and now each time I switch-on the phone data transfer is also on.
How can I disable data transfer by default so I need to manually enable it whenever I want.
Previously once I switched-off the data, by sliding a drawer from top of the screen and tapping data transfer triangle, it was off until I really made it on. It also stayed up when I rebooted the system.

How to you enable/disable mobile data? Have you also disabled VoiceOverLTE (VoLTE) because if VoLTE is enabled your device may still open a data connection even if you disabled it. This is required as LTE has only data, hence voice calls have to be done via data, or otherwise your phone has to go down to 3G/2G for voice calls.

Operators around here make a distinction between voice calls and data connections. Honestly I never came across VoLTE term, but even if is in use it is not charged against may data quota. Only "true" data transfer lowers the remaining limit. Not sure though how the operator differentiates the two.

Theoretically you are correct VoLTE data calls are not charged, however 99% of all mobile network operators don't manage to correctly distinguish between VoLTE traffic and regular traffic. This always makes problems when you are abroad and you want to disable mobile data because of high roaming costs. Looks like the customers should complain more often about wrong charged data connections. If the complaint handling costs more and more money they finally start implementing data charging correctly.

I am almost sure that VoLTE is charged correctly against voice limit as the problem appeared recently just after updating Android. Before not even a byte was charged as long as I did not enable the transfer on the sliding drawer. Now after each reboot sometimes even a megabyte gets charged which outside of EU starts a new costly package and even within EU makes me start counting the period when extra charges take place. This is hell annoying enough to consider to switch to another OS.

It is not the complete call data that is charged incorrectly, typically some signalling data and other smaller data are charged wrong. It may by only up to a few hundred KB per day but depending on your data plan (especially on roaming) this still can cost you some money.

In this case how would you explain that just a week ago data transfer stayed off and now gets on each time I restart the phone?

I would assume that the old version did not had VoLTE support or the new version simply has a bug may be introduced by the device manufacturer modifications.


text:
Android v7: Import close to 8000 complex contacts in one shot
I have close to 8000 vcf files in a directory on the usb stick. I attach the stick to my phone and all files are perfectly visible. In the contacts app I choose import, select the stick, and it shows me all the contacts, so I choose "import all".
Unfortunately only first few dozens get imported.
Apparently Android v4 had the same problem as the following question explains: Transfer and import .VCF Contacts
It seems to me unlikely that so obvious contact app error remains unfixed for years.
How to make the contact app import all of them?
Please note that some of the contacts (actually quite few of them) are fairly complex with a lot of data - such as for example multiple, long "note" fields, multiple phone numbers with different attributes, sometimes custom-defined, very long company name fields, multiple addresses (private / business / branch office list, etc.) and so on.

Possible duplicate of Transfer and import .VCF Contacts

Looks  like Google does not care about quality and leaves this bug unfixed. I am highly disappointed how low quality Android is compared to Symbian.

Android exports all contacts in on single VCF; probably they never thought they'd have to deal with that many standalone files, and with other OSes virtually out of competition, I doubt that would change... Sympathies. I'm thinking if there are PC softwares that would merge those VCFs...

This app claims to deal with vcf , see if that helps https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=by.androld.contactsvcf

Or this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dasmic.android.vcardexim.  If these don't help, search on Play store

Unfortunately most of the apps I tried expected one large VCF file and/or rejected VCF files with a lot of additional information, such as multiple "note" fields for one contact, too long "company" field, multiple phones with various attributes (primary/private mobile/business mobile/etc.) and so on.
After some searching and trying a few apps I found the following solution:

I have imported the VCF files to old Nokia Symbian based phone - Symbian has excellent VCF importer.
I used this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.madajevi.android.phonebook.transfer to transfer the contacts directly via bluetooth.

App advantages:

imports all contacts, even the most complex ones without skipping user defined attributes nor multiple repeated fields

App disadvantages:

very slow (it took the whole night to transfer nearly 8000 contacts)
asks for strange, unnecessary permissions (I kept refusing, forgot exactly which ones)
synchronizes NOT with the local address book but with Google Contacts which means that your contacts actually are seen on the Internet - important security breach, do NOT use the app for confidential data
full-screen user interface with no exit button - after finish you need to kill the app via task manager

Please be kind. Expletives are not allowed on Stack Exchange. I removed it for you.

I would not call it "expletive" but rather "emphatic speech", but ok, let it be

You can use less abusive words such as "Who on earth" instead of "Who the hell", which will not be recognized as expletive, despite the fact that it'll very likely be removed by mods for the same reason.

You're perfectly right. My apologies.


text:
Why does my internet only work in certain places?
ok so i had this problem for a bout a day ago and i tried to restart the phone and the router and i forgot my wifi and pasword and put it in again and it says im connected but it keeps unconecting and reconnecting but the weird part about it is that everyone in the house is connected and it works for them and the second weird thing about it is that when i go to the living room where the wifi router i can access my instagram and other social media apps but when i head back to my room it doesnt work anymore it wont let me access my instagram or anything else i have to use my brothers hotspot plz help i have a lgk7 plz help ive really tried everything possible but nothing is not working ☹
disclamer: it always worked when i was in my room

According to GSMArena, your device (LG K7) uses Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n standards. According to my findings, this standard tends to have limited coverage on some bands.
More explanation on different wifi standards has been described here:
My suspicion is that probably something/someone messed up the router settings to operate on a certain band, perhaps the 5GHz one or another. This normally covers a pretty small area, but is associated with such high speeds and is less congested. On the other hand;

The shorter waves used by the 5 GHz band makes it less able to
  penetrate walls and solid objects

I suspect this may be the reason you can't get exclusive connection (instead you get disconnections and reconnections) the moment you move further away from the router.
Consider this illustration:

It gives a clear picture on extent of Wi-Fi coverage on common bands.
It may be the way round that you unknowingly tweaked these specific settings.
As a workaround You may need to revert to default configuration either on  your router or your device and see if the situation changes.

i mean i never had this problem before it always worked when i was in my room but just yesterday it stopped working like its weird for it to not work again

@DqrkShadowZ , you did a factory reset on your lg device?

Yea and im still having the problem is there anyother way that it will work like i went to my room this afternoon and it connected fine but when and also when I went in there it was slow and it dissconnects it sucks bc i have to go to bed without wifi so plz if u could help that would be awsome thx :,)


text:
"Signature Verification Failed" when flashing stock ROM
When booting into recovery mode and installing a ROM zip from my SDcard, it first says I need to mount my /sdcard (when it is mounted), and then it says "signature verification failed", despite my using a stock ROM zip.
Perhaps this has something to do with my obtaining the stock(?) ROM from a possibly untrustworthy third-party site? What is the official download site for Samsung Galaxy S4 (SGH-M919) phones?
thanks in advance for the help
(cf. my other question for more background information)

You probably have the stock recovery installed. It requires every zip to be signed with Samsung's signature to prevent users from flashing incompatible zips. Install a custom recovery like CWM, TWRP or Philz and try again.

@GiantTree: Where do I get these? thanks (and happy Easter, btw ☺). I tried this one, and it threw the "signature validation failed" error.

I have found sammobile.com a very useful site for finding firmware for samsung devices. I don't think there is an official download site.
Here is the firmware for SGH-M919
I have had the same issue before. Just trying the same process again fixed it for me.
You can try wiping your cache and dalvik cache but I am not sure if that will make a difference. Then retry flashing the ROM.
Also make sure you have downloaded the file correctly. Trying to Install a partially downloaded file will give you a lot of headaches!

You can get ClockWork Mod Recovery by installing it with the Rom Manager App, from GPlay or here: https://www.clockworkmod.com/rommanager
or find TWRP (my personal preference) here: http://twrp.me/Devices/

Your first option would not work for me because my phone does not boot up. I'll try out the second option. thanks

…Your second option would not work because http://twrp.me/Devices/ has .img files, not .zips.

Are you able to boot into download mode? If so, you should have no trouble installing through Odin. Follow the "Odin Install Method" here: http://twrp.me/devices/samsunggalaxys4tmobile.html

No, I cannot enter download mode, either. I can only install *.zips. Things would be very easy if I could enter USB debugging mode or download mode, but I cannot because it will not reboot.

what to do if my tablet is not booting up. while flashing,  it says that signature verification failed.


text:
Is there a way to root a Samsung Galaxy S4 running LineageOS 17.1?
Following the "Samsung (System-as-root)"* instructions, I cannot get Magisk to patch lineage-17.1-20210304-nightly-jfltexx-signed.zip for a Samsung Galaxy S4 (SGH-M919). Magisk throws an "unsupported/unknown image format" error.
*since Magik says SAR=yes
Is there a way to root a Samsung Galaxy S4 running LineageOS 17.1?
cf. "root on 17.1?" r/LineageOS

It seems to be a Magisk 22.0 bug (issue #3949).
Rebooting into download mode (Home + Volume Down + Power) and running

heimdall flash --RECOVERY Magisk-v21.4.zip

rooted it!

I wasn't even aware Magisk could patch LineageOS zips! Usually I extract the boot partition image (from recovery), patch it from Magisk, and re-flash it.


text:
Thumbnail image different to actual image
A similar question has been asked previously, however the answer is not relevant to my problem.
I have a number of photos where the thumbnail in the gallery does not match the photo displayed by the viewer (HTC Sensation, stock gallery and photo viewer).
for instance, take a picture of a child on a swing.
The thumbnail appears to be an image taken a fraction of a second earlier than the photo the viewer presents. The child is framed to the right of the photo in the thumbnail but to the left in the full view.
Is anyone able to explain why this is the case?
Also, am I able to rescue the image presented as the thumbnail (which is a better framed image)?

What question? How is your question different than that other question? (It's not that I don't believe you, but to keep from being closed as a duplicate you need to show the differences.)

Both previous questions regarding thumbnails not being the same as the actual image refer to images that have been deleted. This is in no way part of my question. My question relates to an image which appears to be taken a fraction of a second before (constituting the thumbnail) the image which the 'Gallery' presents to you.

I had the same problem with my OP5T running android 8.1. While you don't seem to be able to obtain the original images, the thumbnails can be found as low-res jpgs at:

storage/interrnal storage/DCIM/.thumbnails

Depending on what you need them for, you might still be able to use the images.
I hope my answer was helpful.


text:
ADB/fastboot over Serial/COM ports?
Long story short, my phone messed up and it's stuck in a bootloop. The phone in question is a Coolpad 7560U, also known as Orange Nivo, running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. Data and cache wiping do not fix the bootloop. USB jigs are not a valid method either. The usual means of connecting to it using adb or fastboot don't work anymore -- neither will detect the phone in any way. I have tried all of the power on button combinations. All I can manage is to get into the stock recovery mode (the same one the bootloop passes through) and a QPST "通讯中 Secboot" Download mode.
I am connecting the phone to my Windows 8 x86 PC through an USB cable. For a certain timespan during the boot loop, the following devices show up in Device Manager, all at once:

3 storage devices : One of them is a CD-ROM drive and the other two are generic removables - None of them are accessible, returning the prompt "Please insert a disk into drive *:".
4 other devices:

Under "Ports (COM & LPT)"
Coolpad Android AT USB VCOM (COM7)
Coolpad Android Diagnostics USB VCOM (COM10)
Coolpad Android NMEA USB VCOM (COM9)
Under "Modems"
Coolpad Mobile USB Modem Phone

These four seem like my only means of landing a connection to the phone.
Update: According to Alex P.'s answer, I can confirm that the "Secboot" mode puts the phone into a QPST Download mode. The 4 serial port devices do indeed allow for access to the phone through Qualcomm's QPST software suite, and probably impossible to push adb or fastboot commands through.

Is it a Samsung device? I have had success in the past using a jig to fix boot loops on Samsung devices

Have not heard of ADB or fastboot working over COM! Fastboot uses USB protocol only, adb both TCP/IP and USB.

Only thing is the COM ports are emulating USB. Are you using generic adb binary or the one supplied with the handset (by way of CD software installed prior and on first occasion of plugging in the device)?

Try this linky on XDA?

One last thing - try it on a older Win 7 or Win XP machine!


text:
How to stop screen from lighting up?
Just received a new Motorola E6 phone. It's running Android 9.0.  Any time the phone is bumped, moved, or there is any kind of vibration the screen lights up.  How can I stop it from doing this?
Internet search suggests I should find a "Sneak Peek" option under Settings - Displays, however, this phone does NOT have "Sneak Peek" or anything similar there.  It also does not have an Ambient Display setting.

It was due to a Motorola specific feature Peek Display. Disabling that fixed the issue. Tools → Moto  → Peek Display (thanks to OP for correct path -
Source)
On some other models disabling Moto Display  may help.


text:
How can I check the firmware version of my ONDA V712?
Is there an easy way to check the firmware version (not Android version)?

How about in Settings > About Phone? My Galaxy S2 has it there.

You can use either the way geff_chang suggested or use android service menus
In the service menu, it is located at Software info -> Phone info
You can always use third party apps as well.

It's a tablet so the service menu won't work

@Casebash see the edit.

That app certainly gives very detailed information, but I can't see the firmware version anywhere

go to app -> select system tab -> click Buildinfos The firmware version is what's called as the Id


text:
Upload contacts from Nokia to LG Optimus L5: phone numbers in notes field
I have exported contacts from Nokia to CSV and TXT files and upload to gmail contacts then I set LG to sync gmail contacts.
It worked but all contacts are in comments.
I can't call when I select contact and when someone calls me I do not see contact name.
How do I fix it?

Are the contacts right in GMail?

No. All phone numbers are in comments box on the right. Phone number field is blank.

I had manually exported contacts to Google CSV, uploaded to Google Spreadsheets.
Edited manually table by copying comments column to phone number column, deleted extra text, upload CSV to contacts again


text:
Can Android Chrome be linked to an account other than your main Android account?
Say that your main Android account is account1@gmail.com. Can you set up Android Chrome to use account2@gmail.com?
(Ideally Chrome would allow multiple users, which will no doubt happen in Android too eventually.)

"Use" in what way? For synchronization?

Yes, in terms of synchronization. I have read in the meantime that under Jelly Bean Chrome has become the default browser for Android, so I very much doubt it now.

Launch Chrome

In the overflow menu, choose Settings
Under basics, tap the entry for your account
Disconnect the account; you'll be warned that the data will remain but you'll lose your synchronization
Tap Sign in to Chrome at the bottom of the screen
Choose the account you want to use for synchronizing

Obviously for this to work you will need to have already added the account to your phone.

Thanks Al! I don't yet have a 4.x Android device, but this possibility is a must for me. Thanks again.


text:
Prevent reboot after fastboot -w image.zip?
Is it possible to prevent the automatic reboot that follows
fastboot -w image.zip

? This would be quite useful for batch files. Thanks for any hint :-)

usage: fastboot [ <option> ] <command>

commands:
 update <filename>                        reflash device from update.zip
 flashall                                 'flash boot' + 'flash system'
 flash <partition> [ <filename> ]         write a file to a flash partition
 erase <partition>                        erase a flash partition
 getvar <variable>                        display a bootloader variable
 boot <kernel> [ <ramdisk> ]              download and boot kernel
 flash:raw boot <kernel> [ <ramdisk> ]    create bootimage and flash it
 devices                                  list all connected devices
 reboot                                   reboot device normally
 reboot-bootloader                        reboot device into bootloader

options:
 -w                                       erase userdata and cache
 -s <serial number>                       specify device serial number
 -p <product>                             specify product name
 -c <cmdline>                             override kernel commandline

I think it's safe to assume that the options listed here are the options you have available to you when running the fastboot binary. Since there doesn't seem to be an override as a native function of fastboot, your only solution would be to access the source code of fastboot (if available) and remove or alter the part of the code where the device reboots.
Note that there might be very good reasons as to why the device reboots at that stage, so I'd be careful with messing around with it.

actually there are some hidden oem functions on fastboot, so I am not sure if there really is no option for it. for now, selected as correct answer, as it's the only one :P

I believe you're looking for the "--skip-reboot" switch, ex:
fastboot -w update image-marlin-opm1.171019.012.zip --skip-reboot

C:>fastboot --help
commands:
  update <filename>                        Reflash device from update.zip.
                                           Sets the flashed slot as active.
  flashall                                 Flash boot, system, vendor, and --
                                           if found -- recovery. If the device
                                           supports slots, the slot that has
                                           been flashed to is set as active.
                                           Secondary images may be flashed to
                                           an inactive slot.
  flash <partition> [ <filename> ]         Write a file to a flash partition.
  flashing lock                            Locks the device. Prevents flashing.
  flashing unlock                          Unlocks the device. Allows flashing
                                           any partition except
                                           bootloader-related partitions.
  flashing lock_critical                   Prevents flashing bootloader-related
                                           partitions.
  flashing unlock_critical                 Enables flashing bootloader-related
                                           partitions.
  flashing get_unlock_ability              Queries bootloader to see if the
                                           device is unlocked.
  flashing get_unlock_bootloader_nonce     Queries the bootloader to get the
                                           unlock nonce.
  flashing unlock_bootloader <request>     Issue unlock bootloader using request.
  flashing lock_bootloader                 Locks the bootloader to prevent
                                           bootloader version rollback.
  erase <partition>                        Erase a flash partition.
  format[:[<fs type>][:[<size>]] <partition>
                                           Format a flash partition. Can
                                           override the fs type and/or size
                                           the bootloader reports.
  getvar <variable>                        Display a bootloader variable.
  set_active <slot>                        Sets the active slot. If slots are
                                           not supported, this does nothing.
  boot <kernel> [ <ramdisk> [ <second> ] ] Download and boot kernel.
  flash:raw <bootable-partition> <kernel> [ <ramdisk> [ <second> ] ]
                                           Create bootimage and flash it.
  devices [-l]                             List all connected devices [with
                                           device paths].
  continue                                 Continue with autoboot.
  reboot [bootloader|emergency]            Reboot device [into bootloader or emergency mode].
  reboot-bootloader                        Reboot device into bootloader.
  oem <parameter1> ... <parameterN>        Executes oem specific command.
  stage <infile>                           Sends contents of <infile> to stage for
                                           the next command. Supported only on
                                           Android Things devices.
  get_staged <outfile>                     Receives data to <outfile> staged by the
                                           last command. Supported only on Android
                                           Things devices.
  help                                     Show this help message.

options:
  -w                                       Erase userdata and cache (and format
                                           if supported by partition type).
  -u                                       Do not erase partition before
                                           formatting.
  -s <specific device>                     Specify a device. For USB, provide either
                                           a serial number or path to device port.
                                           For ethernet, provide an address in the
                                           form <protocol>:<hostname>[:port] where
                                           <protocol> is either tcp or udp.
  -c <cmdline>                             Override kernel commandline.
  -i <vendor id>                           Specify a custom USB vendor id.
  -b, --base <base_addr>                   Specify a custom kernel base
                                           address (default: 0x10000000).
  --kernel-offset                          Specify a custom kernel offset.
                                           (default: 0x00008000)
  --ramdisk-offset                         Specify a custom ramdisk offset.
                                           (default: 0x01000000)
  --tags-offset                            Specify a custom tags offset.
                                           (default: 0x00000100)
  -n, --page-size <page size>              Specify the nand page size
                                           (default: 2048).
  -S <size>[K|M|G]                         Automatically sparse files greater
                                           than 'size'. 0 to disable.
  --slot <slot>                            Specify slot name to be used if the
                                           device supports slots. All operations
                                           on partitions that support slots will
                                           be done on the slot specified.
                                           'all' can be given to refer to all slots.
                                           'other' can be given to refer to a
                                           non-current slot. If this flag is not
                                           used, slotted partitions will default
                                           to the current active slot.
  -a, --set-active[=<slot>]                Sets the active slot. If no slot is
                                           provided, this will default to the value
                                           given by --slot. If slots are not
                                           supported, this does nothing. This will
                                           run after all non-reboot commands.
  --skip-secondary                         Will not flash secondary slots when
                                           performing a flashall or update. This
                                           will preserve data on other slots.
  --skip-reboot                            Will not reboot the device when
                                           performing commands that normally
                                           trigger a reboot.
  --disable-verity                         Set the disable-verity flag in the
                                           the vbmeta image being flashed.
  --disable-verification                   Set the disable-verification flag in                                           the vbmeta image being flashed.
  --unbuffered                             Do not buffer input or output.
  --version                                Display version.
  -h, --help                               show this message.


text:
Information regarding /proc file system
Yesterday I rooted my android phone. By using Es File Explorer when I see the file listing then I find various folders.
For the sake of curiosity I would like to know that what the proc file system contains.

It's a virtual file-system from the Linux kernel which contains information about the running processes

You could have a detailled explanation of what is in the /proc directory in the linux man page


text:
Will a Samsung Galaxy S3 4G/LTE bought in the US work or be made to work on UK 4G?
I'm researching which phone to buy next and have mostly decided on a Samsung Galaxy S3.  I'm on T-Mobile in the UK, which will probably transition to everything-everywhere in short order, who are launching a 4G service.
I'd like to get the US variant of the phone because it is built with 2Gb of RAM and a 1.5GHz processor, as compared to the UK's 1Gb of RAM and a 1.4GHz processor.
I've read that the carrier frequencies for US 4G/LTE are different from the UK's.

Is that true?
If it's true, can the US variant be persuaded to work in the UK, 4G-wise?  I'm not shy of flashing custom ROMs and so forth.

(I'm assuming that it will work without issue on 3G?)

Is that true?

Yes, this is true. The USA is currently using the 700, 800 (Sprint only, I think), 1700 and 1900 MHz bands for LTE service, whereas European providers are using 800, 900, 1800, and 2600 MHz (Wikipedia).

If it's true, can the US variant be persuaded to work in the UK, 4G-wise? I'm not shy of flashing custom ROMs and so forth.

No. The frequency limitation is not set by the software - it's the antenna. Flashing custom ROMs will not allow you to access frequencies that the antenna is physically unable to support, so there's nothing you can do short of modifying the hardware.

I'm assuming that it will work without issue on 3G?

This could potentially depend slightly on which specific variant you want, I suppose. The AT&T one supports 850, 1900, and 2100 MHz frequencies, the T-Mobile USA one also supports 1700 on top of the other three. According to this table, T-Mobile UK uses the 2100 MHz band, so either should be compatible with their 3G service in that case.

You don't need the US phone to begin with. If you're just looking for the RAM:
According to a Cnet article the UK Version has 2GB of RAM. Apparently the international version excluding US also has 2GB RAM.

The LTE variant is not out until sometime in 2013...

I would not read too much into EE's rollout of 4G just yet, for starters, the frequencies are different, give that time, EE and other 4G operators in the UK would have the final say on the compatibility of the handset. Here in Ireland, 3 and Vodafone are planning a merger which would see the in-evitable 4G being rolled out - do not know when yet...
Stick with what you have with GSM at the moment.