text:
Can't close browser tabs
I'm having an issue with an LG G pad.
Chrome 87.0.4280.101
Firefox Daylight 84.1.2 (Build #2015783145)
OS Android 5.1.1 LG-V940n Build/LMY47V
I don't do much with it other than email, browsing and Netflix. Everything was working fine until last month, then it decided that I can't close browser tabs anymore. I'm assuming there was an update that happened.
I have found three other posts on this (see below) sorry for the duplicate.
I can't open or close any tabs on my Android tablet in Chrome
I'm unable to toggle between Chrome Tabs
Can't switch/close tabs in the Chrome browser on my Android tablet
This happens with Chrome and has happened with Firefox too. Both and seems to be related to video. Once I view video in a new tab, I can't switch, close or create tabs. However, I can open links in new tabs, but I cannot switch to them. I can switch to/from private mode as well, but still can't do anything with tabs.
Additionally, I have tried simplified mode and desktop with no difference.
If I rotate the tablet it seems to unlock the tabs and I can switch/open/close them again.
In the posts above, mention going to settings->developer options which I don't have. And why should a simple user of chrome need to tweak any developer options.
Do I have any options than rotating the thing and waiting for an update that hopefully fixes the issue?

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts! Does it happen when videos are playing in full and normal screen?

If you have read about Developer Options menu I am sure you have also card that it is hidden by default and needs to be activated by tapping the build number a few times? Every regular Android phone has that menu.

Good catch. It seems to happen after I go to full screen on the video (Youtube in this case). I tapped on the build a bunch of time and it said I'm now a developer, but I don't have any other options in Chrome.

The Developer Options menu is shown in the Android Settings app, not in Chrome.

Yup, I found the dev ops in Android.


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Redmi note 9 brick
i tried to install unofficial twrp for redmi note 9. But ended up bricking my phone.
-The pc can recognise phone(there is windows sound, every 10 seconds)
-Phone is not showing anything
-MiFlashTool v1/v2 cannot see my phone, i used v2 to turn into fastboot but later couldnt reinstall global rom.
I just need to get into fastboot so I will install official rom, but I need to turn fastboot from computer

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

According to xda-developers.com the Unofficial TWRP works only for Redmi Note 9 (merlin) without NFC support. If your device is the NFC version you can not use this TWRP.
Furthermore it is necessary to disable AVB before doing any modifications. The flashing instructions are incomplete. Before flashing magisk_patched.img or twrp.img make sure to flash "empty" vbmeta images
fastboot flash --disable-verity --disable-verification vbmeta vbmeta.img
fastboot flash --disable-verity --disable-verification vbmeta_system vbmeta_system.img
fastboot flash --disable-verity --disable-verification vbmeta_vendor vbmeta_vendor.img

fastboot is relatively safe for flashing, however unlocked bootloader is required. therefore when flashing in fastboot mode do not flash with flash_all_lock.bat, do not try to re-lock bootloader.

when flashing in SP Flash tool observe the golden rules:

never use any scatter file that does not match your current partition layout/device/ROM
the file name MT6769_Android_scatter.txt is no guarantee. even the Redmi Note 9 MT6769V/CZ comes in two different versions 128/64GB.
fastboot getvar all may give some partition related information.
WwR MTK v2.51 is the safest way to create own scatter file

always un-tick preloader checkbox
we do not want to flash preloader as this is the most imporant area in EMMC_BOOT responsible for receiving flashing instructions. if the preloader is broken, the only way to recover dead phone is from Engineering mode via KCOLO test point

flash in "Download only" mode only
other modes will erase your emmc which destroys secure boot

https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/da-flash-da-files-for-flashing-to-merlin-using-flash-tool-xiaomi-redmi-note-9-xiaomi-redmi-10x-4g.4209765

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Does Android perform cold app startup optimization?
I am trying to measure the time it takes to launch an App (cold startup) on Android.
As the official documentation states, that the startup time will be displayed in the logcat:
ActivityManager: Displayed com.android.myexample/.StartupTiming: +3s534ms

The problem I currently have is that startup times vary greatly. I tested on three different days à 10 times. These are the results:

Day 1:

~1100ms

Day 2:

~900ms

Day 3:

~350ms

My Question:
Does Android perform any optimization in the background for the App startup? Is there a way to reliably measure the startup time?
I haven't done any changes to the App in these three days. Before the testing, the phone was at 100% battery capacity and was cold to the touch (to eliminate the possibility of thermal throttling).
On day 2 and 3, I deleted the App, restarted the phone, reinstalled the App and tested again with the same results (day 2 was again ~900ms and on day 3: ~350ms).
Maybe it has something to do with the ART (Android RunTime) using JIT (just-in-time) and AOT (ahead-of-time) compiler?!
The app does not perform any network actions. At startup it only ready about 100 pictures from the internal storage and displays them in a Recycler View.
I used a Google Pixel 2 running on Android 9. The app is written in Java.

run-time measurement of Java based programs in generally is not very easy (JIT, garbage collector, ..). Additionally you have to consider that your app may be executed concurrently by other apps or other services starting-up. Therefore measuring execution time is IMHO meaningless, better measure CPU time. Also when your app is loading something from internal storage I assume you use other services such as MediaStore which itself can have different execution timing. If you really need a timing value, measure may be 100 boot cycles and take the median.

https://elinux.org/images/4/4c/Android-bootup-time-linuxcon-2010-08.pdf

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


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Termux (specifically npm) can't install in internal storage
Everytime I try to use NPM to install something into /storage/emulated/0/dir it would always do this:
npm WARN tar EPERM: operation not permitted, futime
npm WARN tar EPERM: operation not permitted, futime
npm WARN tar EPERM: operation not permitted, futime
npm WARN tar EPERM: operation not permitted, futime
npm WARN tar EPERM: operation not permitted, futime
npm WARN tar EPERM: operation not permitted, futime
npm WARN tar EPERM: operation not permitted, futime
npm WARN tar EPERM: operation not permitted, futime
npm WARN tar EPERM: operation not permitted, futime
npm WARN tar EPERM: operation not permitted, futime
npm WARN tar EPERM: operation not permitted, futime

It has access to download things using git and other methods but it never seems to work using NPM.

When installing something with npm try the --user option: npm install --user

Probably it would work with a HOME=/data/data/com.termux/files npm -i ..., does it?


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Wipe option is missing
I lost password for my phone and now I cannot unlock. I think only option what I have is completely wipe device (data lost is not matter). I googled many manuals and videos and it looked very easy. Boot into recovery menu and click to wipe button but in my case there is no wipe option. I's really weird because the resources what I found was for the exactly same device (region differences?).
How to wipe this device? Do I need to have special cable? Which one?
Model: Lenovo K5 PRO (L38041)

Does your device has a Google account signed in and can it be connected to internet? If yes, you should be able to wipe data using Google's Find my device. https://support.google.com/android/answer/6160491?hl=en

even after factory reset google play password is required because of FRP (factory reset protection)

@Firelord Awesome man! I tried the same post at XDA forums a few weeks ago and without response. Now, your idea saved my nephew phone :) Fortunately brother in law enabled location services when installed this phone so wipe using this service was successful.

Cool. Have you been able to successfully boot into home screen after wipe?

Yes. I'm not an android user but it looked like setup screen.


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Looking for a pseudo-random shuffled classic Android Klondike solitaire game
Hypothesis: Most classic Android Klondike solitaire apps are "rigged" to allow the player to win more often than they would if they were playing from a pseudo-random shuffled deck.
Opinion: This is done to maintain interest in the particular app; vis-à-vis, the possible frustration of frequently losing.
Request: Can anyone recommend a classic Android Klondike solitaire app such that the shuffle is pseudo-random?
Thanks!
Joe

What if you are simply good? :-)

There are a number of open source solitaire card apps where any "rigging" should be easily identified in code or at worst ask the respective owners/maintainers.

PeterH, Thanks for the kind words. The difference between my performance when playing with a well-shuffled deck of cards and when playing electronic solitaire is significant. Not necessarily an order of magnitude different, but likely 4X or 5X.

Morrison, the last time I read, wrote or modified code of any sort was in the mid- to late-80's. Maybe I should look under the hood of some open source solitaire apps for laughs and giggles. Unfortunately, all of the 7 or 8 inquiries I made went unanswered.


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Recover data from a phone that says decryption unsuccessful
I have a OnePlus device which is setup with face unlock, fingerprint and pattern unlock. Non rooted, stock Oxygen 10 and stock recovery. Locked bootloader.
My phone recently froze while unlocking and after a reboot it now says decryption unsuccessful. I seek some help in figuring out what my options are from here on. What must I do, so that I do not loose my data?

Will it be possible to perform a device dump from fastboot/adb and flash it to a similar device with similar pattern lock and get my files back?
Is there a way to backup the /data (apps, books, pictures, music) from fastboot/adb and have them decrypted in some other way? Or pull /data from adb/fastboot, reset phone and reflash the /data and hope for decryption?
Can I reset my phone without losing data?
Or should I reflash the stock OS?

Any pointers will be appreciated! Thank you!

Encrypted user data dumps are encrypted with a key that is bound to the chip in your phone. An identical phone can has a different key and thus can not decrypt the dump.

So can we fetch this key assuming I dump my data and rest my phone, and them attempt to decrypt the dump on my same device?

The key is bound to the hardware chip and the installed OS. You can use it on the device but extraction is not possible as this is not supported by the installed OS.

Does this answer your question? FBE encryption bootloader state in keys


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How can I programmatically filter incoming traffic on an Android device via an app?
I need some pretty thorough guidance on a project I've been tasked with. I guess ideally I am looking for either a tutorial (or set of tutorials), or else a working, self-contained, open-source codebase for an Android app that can filter all incoming internet traffic on the Android device based on keywords.
In particular, the app will stop incoming HTTPS traffic for any given web request if the requested URL or webpage (not just the domain) has certain keywords in the HTML or the URL. If a request does not have the keywords, it will be allowed through and the device will function normally. If it is not an HTML or TXT request -- if there is no text to analyze except the URL -- then it will look for keywords in the full URL alone.
By self-contained, what I mean is that it should not require a remote proxy server or remote VPN.
I have searched Google for such a thing. I've searched in GitHub.
I've seen plenty of tutorials for setting up a local proxy or VPN... all point-and-click kinds of tutorials. I need something programmatic.
I've found libraries that supposedly allow you to set up a proxy from inside an Android app, but their documentation is too cryptic and there are no step-by-step examples for them, so I can never make them work.
I've found a few open-source apps that do some of this, but aren't quite what I'm looking for. Nothing that really does what I need it to. I've tried to alter the apps that I've found to turn them into what I want, but my knowledge is so limited and the missing pieces are always too numerous.
I've been working on this for months. Sad, I know.
Can anyone point me to a fairly thorough tutorial (or a set of tutorials) that will help me to build such an app? Or, can anyone point me to an existing open-source app like what I'm looking for? Or even something that comes pretty close?
FWIW, giving me broad advice like "you need to set up a local VPN and a local proxy, with a certificate, and then use the proxy to filter traffic" won't be of any help to me. I already know the broad outline of what I should probably do. I just can't figure out how to do it, and can't find any good resources for guidance! Which is why I'm here...
Thanks in advance!

Intercepting HTTPS traffic system wide is no longer possible on an unrooted Android since Android 6.

@Robert By "intercepting" do you mean actually reading it, or do you mean even just passing it through a local proxy (without reading it)? And, either way, is that true even with a manually installed certificate?

Well I never did it, but if I should do that, I would use an out-of-android solution (a https eavesdropping transparent proxy installed in the router).

@gcdev You need to install an auth certificate system-wide, probably it can be done, and also use a transparent proxy which eavesdrops https by decoding the traffic and auto-generating a cert by your auth cert. It is hard, but possible. Mainly big companies do this to eavesdrop their employee traffic.

While we might be able to help on the concept/idea for end-users, take note that app development is off-topic since Android Enthusiasts focuses on end-users or power-users (but not necessarily developers) solving their issues, so we won't and can't provide help on code (a directly runnable script is still okay, but code that needs to be compiled to make an Android app is not).

By "intercepting" I mean HTTPS decryption + reencryption because you were asking for searching for keywords. The main problem is that since Android 6 you need root permissions to install the root CA certificate of the used proxy. Installing the cert as user certificate has no effect as apps by default ignore user certificates.

Thanks @Robert! I've now found some corroboration to what you're saying, sad as it makes me. https://httptoolkit.tech/blog/intercepting-android-https/#intercepting-https-on-non-rooted-devices https://medium.com/@Mayank.Grover/intercept-ssl-traffic-to-perform-penetration-testing-on-android-apps-using-charles-debug-proxy-59211859d22f

Thanks @AndrewT.! I didn't realize that... probably should have... but even given that, if an Android enthusiast knew of an open-source app that filters based on keywords, they could recommend it to me and that would have answered my question!


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Instagram stories and local videos play in slow motion but sound is fine
A friend of mine started facing this problem yesterday night: when she browses through her Instagram stories, the video plays at a slower rate than normal, however the sound is totally fine. She went ahead and checked the gallery as well - same problem there. In TikTok though, there are no issues at all.
As she did not provide any more information (she is not tech savvy at all) here is the info that I know about her phone: it's a Huawei Y5 2018, with Android 8.
I searched online about this, but I didn't come up with anything related to Android. Any help is appreciated.

The latest version(s) of Instagram app seems to be very buggy. We have a large numbers of users complaining about different problems. May be the video problem is just another bug of the recent version.

@Robert Yes, IG might be buggy. But it also happens in the Gallery app. How is this explained?

@Robert Nevermind, she just messaged me saying it's OK now (she maybe deleted the cache). Should I delete the question to avoid a reputation drop?


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App not being loaded in the emulator
I am trying to run this project in the emulator through Android Studio (4.1.1) on Ubuntu 18.04. Everything seems to be set up properly in Android Studio, I have a device called Pixel XL API 29 and the emulator starts up but it doesn't open the app and I can't find the app in all apps.
At first, I had a couple of issues with the emulator not starting up at all but I managed to fix those - something to do with kvm - had to change some user settings and then restart my laptop.
I've tried googling but no solution yet, mostly I find issues with installing apps from the Google Play Store.
Any ideas appreciated!

Did you install the app in emulator using adb install? What message it shows? Did you check apps list in Settings?

If you don't want to make changes to the app I would recommend to you to just download the APK file from FDroid (there is a direct APK download link for each version of the FDroid app's page) and the install it using adb install.

@Robert I need to make changes to the app. Irfan, I found it in the Settings app lists of apps, even managed to run it from there. Any idea why it won't run by default and I can't see it in the app list?

Works for me without problems after I added a fake google-services.json to the project. Runs in emulator and app is directly opened.

Very strange. I'll try it on my other computer.

@PetarVasilev you can use a different home/launcher app. There are abundant.

@IrfanLatif what do you mean by that?

Aaaa you mean an app that handles the UI of the home screen and all apps sections?

@PetarVasilev yes.


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/bin/sh: dumpsys: not found
I am working on an 845 uSOM (Linux sda845 4.9.103) and want to modify USB charging/battery behavior. I'm not the most knowledgeable when it comes to working with adb, and I am not sure how to move forward. It seems that I can neither use 'dumpsys' or 'service call'. My ultimate goal is for things like:
adb shell dumpsys battery unplug
adb shell dumpsys battery set

I am told online that in order to find the name of the service I need in place of 'battery' I need to use:
adb shell service list

However, this isn't found either. Am I supposed to use systemctl at this point?
systemctl list-unit-files

yields a service called 'charger_monitor.service' but at this point I don't know if I've found something useful or I am completely off the scent. Do I need to get dumpsys on this system? I thought that if I could use adb on a device then dumpsys came along with it but maybe it is not applicable on this uSOM?


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Is it possible to connect to a WiFi network using the router's MAC address and not the broadcasted SSID on Android?
Assuming that there are many hotspots broadcasting the same SSID, is it possible to "force" my Android phone to connect to a specific network by using a unique identifier, for example the MAC address of the broadcasting router?
What I'm looking for is a solution without the need of third party software. I'm currently using Android 10 on Xiaomi MIUI 12, but I'm open to hear any answer including other Android versions or mobile manufacturers.


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Enabling logcat on boot
I'm trying to debug a ROM problem, that cause Android animation boot run forever, occuring after the first reboot.
Trying to read the log with logcat ,executing from shell adb logcat -d before powering on the phone, but adb remains in < waiting for device > state
Before rebooting Android, I test adb logcat and it was working fine.
Anyone can help? How to read boot logs?

Logcat is part of the OS, hence it can not run before the OS boot process has at least started up to the point where logcat is loaded.

I found some log files in /cache partition, but they are completely empty

You can persist the logcat: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/216659/218526 and https://android.stackexchange.com/a/216857/218526. Or persist the kernel log: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/213460/218526


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How to tell which partitions to backup in recovery (TWRP)?
I have TWRP as my recovery on a Galaxy phone. There are so many options to choose which partitions to backup. What do they all do? My goal is to be able to recover from the largest number of disasters. However I think restoring some partitions can lead to a boot loop, because this recently happened to me.

depending on TWRP fstab you should see only rom related partitions. for full backup compare partition list from terminal 'ls -d $(find /dev/block -name by-name)/*' usually all (or most) partitions can be downloaded, no need to backup. for daily use just backup /boot /system /vendor /data /data/media/0 and do not wipe other partitions


text:
Is it possible to recover the digit prompts given a phone number?
Let's say I call a number and enter a certain sequence of digits in response to the machine prompts. Is it possible to recover that sequence as part of the call history?

@peterh-ReinstateMonica I guess OP is talking about entering digits in response to input asked by an  IVR system on call. OP wants to know what digits they had entered. That's my guess.

@Firelord is correct, I'm not sure how else to describe that.

depends on phone app. try another dialer from google play store


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How to save all WhatsApp messages and media unencrypted?
I'm planning to quit Whatsapp but I would like to save an unencrypted record of my messages plus all the media files that are still on my phone. From existing solutions, I found some shortcomings such as no exporting of group chats or a 40k message limit. What is the method that best circumvents these limitations?
While I have the android app, I'd be open for a Mac or PC solution.


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Fit more notification icons on status bar
I have a xiaomi mi a3, recently updated to android 11. Before updating to android 11, on android 10, the limit of the notification icons that would show, at the left side of the status bar was 4 icons. Now, after updating to android 11, I can see max 2 icons followed by a dot if there are more than 2 notifications. Is there any way to "increase" the limit? I would like to have 4 instead of 2. Is there any way without rooting please? I don't want to root my phone. Maybe an ADB command would do that?


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Lack of available storage on my Samsung Galaxy Tablet
My samsung galaxy tablet is low on storage and i have no idea where the storage is being used.   When I go into setting and look up storage I get a reading for the various sources documents,apps,pictures, etc.  When I add up the usage I get about 5G.  The usaged defined on the tablet is 15G.  Where is the other 10G being consumed.  Cache has all been cleared so I know it is not that and that should have been in the 5G anyways.  Is it the operating system?

Welcome on the Android SE! If the user-level options are depleted, I think here is the time to think on rooting. Hopefully you will get an useful answer before that.

I suggest you to read the posts here about how storage works W-A-A-A-Y before you head into rooting. Rooting should not be undertaken lightly, and you'll need the knowledge anyway. Move slowly and with firm footing.


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How to install Google Camera on Nokia TA-1053
My phone Nokia TA-1053 is almost stock android with a couple of apps from them here and there. I really dislike their camera app. So, I tried to install Google Camera(since all other apps are from Google).
Now Google Camera app is not available in Play Store(at least for my phone). So I tried to side-load it from Apkmirror. My phone's android version in 9 and it supports API 28.
I downloaded the apk, installed it and when I was trying to open it, the app just won't open. It instantly shuts down the app and shows error messages. What should I do?

As far as I know Google Camera app is limited to Google Pixel devices, therefore it does not work on other devices. Modified versions can be found on the Internet that allows to use them on non-Pixel device, but you never know what else was modified on such apps. Therefore better check the common camera apps like OpenCamera.

@Robert I think Google Camera can be installed (on custom ROM) with Open GApps, but they have a FAQ for Google Camera installation: I read that 'Google Camera can only be installed during a Clean Install or as an update to an existing Open GApps Installation.' What does this mean?.


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Draw unlock pattern without having to swipe first
When an Android 10 phone is locked, it shows notifications and says "Swipe to unlock", then after swiping it hides the notifications, and shows the pattern lock saying "Draw unlock pattern". So the unlocking requires two steps (swiping and then drawing).
Andriod 4 directly shows notifications and the pattern lock below them. The screen is smaller than on the Android 10 phone, but it still all fits on the screen. How can this be achieved on Android 10, without the unnecessary first swiping step?
This is not about Android 3 like here nor Android 6 like here.
This is not about changing the timer for the swipe like here, but about removing the swipe completely.

claim it to google but we have to live with


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How to access forgot-password option when you forgot the PIN of your Android Device?
I have this Huawei Nova 3i, I forgot the PIN but there's no "forgot password" or "forgot PIN" option. I noticed that my Huawei Nova 2i doesn't have that option too, and I'm stuck on "Try again after 24 hours".
Normally, when I forgot my password or pin, I just click on the "Forgot Password" option, input the Google Account Password that is bound to the device, and viola, password or pin successfully reset.
Is there a workaround here to use that option?

google has removed the password option from find my device. i am not sure if that is related to local ROM unlock options, but android is developed by google and i believe that option is no longer available on recent android in general

You can go to google find my android page. Log in to your Gmail account linked with Huawei Nova 3i.
You get 3 option lock / unlock , erase and sound. Use unlock screen option. Now you can access mobile and change passcode. Or take full backup of mobile and restore it.
You can start mobile in recovery mode using volume and power button. Wipe Cache partition. This will remove passcode.

As @alecxs commented, there is no more option for unlocking your android device on Google Find My Device. The only options left are PLAY SOUND, SECURE DEVICE, and  ERASE DEVICE.

Also, wiping cache won't remove the PIN/Password/Pattern, it's not related to security, it's just for cache.


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Can I automatically turn off WIFI completely whenever not connected to a network on Android 10+
Here's my problem:
I used to run Lineage 16 on my Pixel3a, which still had the "profile" option where I could do things like "When my home network is not within reach, switch to another profile". I used this to turn off wifi when leaving the house and it worked very well. Important: This did not need my location services to be on to work.
Now I've upgraded to Lineage 17.1 (Android 10) and this option is gone. I am now looking into how to rebuild that functionality.
My phone is rooted (via Magisk), and as a software developer I am ready to use all tools I have available.
What I've tried: I've built an app that periodically checks if I am connected to one specific SSID (since that is all I can see on Android 10 anymore - "Am I connected to "my-ssid"?) and then turns of wifi using the shell and sulike this:  sudo("svc wifi disable"). sudo() is my function that opens a process and talks to the shell.
The problem is I don't think there is a way I can guarantee my app always runs, and I'd like this to also work when the app is off? It doesn't even need to be a specific SSID, I'd be happy if my result is: "If we're not connected to a wifi network for more than 3min, turn wifi off.
so what other options do I have? Tasker, just like my own attempt, kind of works but only with location services on, which I'd like to avoid. What else can I do. Can I run some kind of script or a job just on the shell or so?
Is there anything I can do with Magisk or Xposed?
Happy for any help here - the internet is full of links and tips, but they all target older OS versions. Btw the source for my (extremely rough draft) app is here if anyone is curious.

if you have Xposed installed, you can try installing Xposed Edge. Open it, go to More triggers > Wifi Disconncted > Wifi > Turn off. It will turn off wifi as soon as the phone is disconnected from any network.

With methods described below, when the phone disconnect from your wifi network, wifi will be immediately switched off. Also they don't require the Location Services to be on.
A. Xposed Edge
Open Xposed Edge, go to More triggers > Wifi Disconncted > Wifi > Turn off.
B. Macrodroid

Open Macrodroid, click Add Macro.
Click the + on the right of Trigger. Click Connectivity > Wifi State Change > Disconnected from network. Click OK. Select your network(s).
Click the + on the right of Actions. Click Connectivity > Wifi Configure > Disable Wifi. Click Ok
Give your macro a name. Press back, save the macro. The macro will look like this:

C. Automate

Open Automate, click the + at the bottom of the screen to add a new flow.
Click +, Connectivity > Wifi enable?. Click the Wifi enable? block, set Options to Immediately. Click Save.
Click +, Connectivity > Wifi network connected?. Click Wifi network connected? block, Don't click on pick the network, but enter the network name (SSID) manually. Set Options to Immediately. Click Save.
Click +, Date & time > Delay. Click on the Delay block, set the duration to 3s. Click Save.
Click +, Connectivity > Wifi set state. Click on the Wifi set state block, select Off. Note that this block is not officially supported for Android 10+ and might not work.
Link the block has shown on the image below. Press back. Give your flow a name. Press Start to start the flow.

D. Ping your home router
You can use a script in combination with the app mentioned to ping your home router. When the pings are successful, the phone wifi stays on. When they are unsuccessful, disable you phone wifi.


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How do I stop remote access?
I have a Samsung Galaxy 10. Somehow, my ex has gained access and is able to see my texts and video calls in Whatsapp and Telegram, etc. He is listening to or watching every conversation. I became suspicious when he mentioned details from private conversations. He admitted to mirroring my device but will not provide details and says he has stopped. However, I believe it is still happening. When I am on video calls in WhatsApp and Telegram, the calls freeze and it seems the signal is bad even when I am on WiFi or have full bars. How can I stop this? Please help.

remove all google/samsung accounts from settings. even if you are using another phone it still might possible to mirror WhatsApp web. therefore i recommend to unregister all services and change all passwords. use another phone number for Whatsapp Telegram etc. besides this, inform all your friends and contacts about your phone probably has been compromised and they might receive fake messages from attacker in your name

You may also contact the support form WhatsApp and Telegram, to check if they can see anything suspicious happening with your accounts.And also the police, since eavesdropping is a serious offense! In most countries, recording a a conversation is illegal even if is it your own (if other parties do not consent)!

If someone has gained remote access to your Android device, it is compromised.  The only way to likely remove the malware is to perform a factory reset.

Backup your data.
Perform a factory reset.

I would not backup all your apps, just the data itself, as you really can't trust anything on the device.
If you don't need any of the data on the device, just factory reset it.  That's the second safest thing you can do without buying a new device.  (Outside of buying a new device, the safest thing is wiping all the non-volatile storage, but that's a more in-depth procedure.)
Note that even a factory reset does not truly reset the entire device (reportedly true on iPhones and Android devices).  See: With Android, does a factory reset truly reset the device to the same as it was when it left the factory (unlike an iPhone)?

@alecxs Your recommendation to not use the same Google/Samsung account is a good one.  Why do you recommend removing all accounts before a factory reset since the factory reset will remove them from the device?

behavior depends on how factory reset is performed. on some devices factory reset from recovery won't remove google account. instead factory reset protection (FRP lock) is activated (requires unlocking with bonded google account which survived factory reset). on Xiaomi devices we have additional fun with Mi account (even on already unlocked bootloader) therefore assume for samsung account it's similar protection (but don't know for sure)

@alecxs Thanks for the info.  They really should rename "factory reset" to "kinda sorta reset".

@rockpaperlz-mask-it-or-casket A true factory reset would require manually re-flashing an older version of your device firmware. This may not be safe if the bootloader has been updated by a system update, or even impossible without voiding warranty... There is a reason to the madness though... If you reset to a vulnerable version of your OS, your device could (in some circumstances) get targeted and quickly be compromized as soon as you connect it to anything (wifi, mobile data, etc).

@svin83 Thanks.  It's one of the (many) things I find concerning about Microsoft's Windows.  Millions of users connect it to the internet while it is in an extremely vulnerable state in order to download updates to reduce some of the vulnerabilities.  The obvious solution for all operating systems (Android, Windows, Linux, macOS, et. al.) is to obtain the updates from a more secure device or directly from an external storage medium (e.g. DVD-ROM or CD-ROM).

@svin83 Regarding the bootloader, wouldn't a true factory reset perform a reset of that as well, removing that possible risk?  And regarding warranties, those are arbitrarily written by the manufacturer, so they could certainly allow a true factory reset.  It might actually save them in support and warranty costs, because a true factory reset would make the device to be identical to how it was when it was new out of the box.

Production systems should fetch the first, and most critical updates from a trusted local repository. Withdrawing administrative privileges from all users on Windows will block MANY attack vectors.

@rockpaperlz-mask-it-or-casket Boot loaders are often protected from flashing except by vendor approved updates. It may be possible if devices come with extra immutable storage containing the original OS, but who wants to pay for that?

@svin83 I agree completely that security updates should be fetched from a trusted local repo, but unfortunately Windows 10 isn't designed that way at all for the hundreds of millions (are they up to billions yet?) of home and small business users on Win10.  I think it's a safe estimate that well under 1% of home and small business Windows 10 users get their updates that way.

@svin83 Good point about having an immutable copy of the OS.  I wonder if it's more of a physical space issue rather than cost.  I haven't priced ROM chips in years... any idea of the size & cost (when purchased in bulk) of ROM chips these days (sufficient in size to store Android)?

It all depends on how far your ex went with installing unwanted software on your device.
In most cases a factory restore would remove unwanted software.
Just make sure to copy your important data (photos/messages/etc.) somewhere else before doing it.


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Should I choose a custom ROM with or without GApps?
This may be considered an extension of a question I recently posted.
Does an appstore like F-Droid offer the same variety as the Google Play Store? What if I need a Google app(like the appstore,maps,google app etc.) later on, do I need to do any "Flashing" to separately install them?
Will it be better to use a custom ROM version with Gapps or try to live without Google first?
I did try searching around online but there seems to be nothing substantial.
Please provide your valuable suggestion on how I can improve my questions here since I am still very new to Android-rooting as well as Stack Exchange.

ROMs with built-in GApps are illegal because of license restrictions of GApps. The common way is to flash a ROM and then if you want also flash the desired OpenGApps package (IMHO the maximum desiderable package is "micro" - everything else can be installed from PlayStore if you really want it; mini, full, and higher are just a waste of space).

F-Droid only host open-source apps. without google play store (vending) you can still install any apk file from untrusted sources. But apps might not work as expected because google play services (gms) is the core of android providing all APIs most apps rely on. https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/wiki


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adb push and wrong slash -> bootloop
I have my brand new Doogee S96 Pro which is now not able to boot.
I made a great fail:
instead of
adb push myfile.zip /sdcard/

i wrote
adb push myfile.zip \sdcard\

From that moment, no more boot.
I can't get what I did, but I now can only boot in the TWRP recovery.
Someone could give me a tip on what I did and how to solve the issue? Thank you.

flash dm-verity disabler

thank you for your feedback. Are you talking of the Disable_Dm-Verity_ForceEncrypt_11.02.2020.zip file?
I don't know what it does, so I'm a bit worried to worsen my situation.
Should I give a try?

I tried with Disable_Dm-Verity_ForceEncrypt_11.02.2020.zip but it doesn't change the situation. How can I know if my device is encrypted? It's brand new, the last time it boot it was in the welcome screen... so i never enabled the encryption. Should I try also with no-verity-opt-encrypt-6.1.zip ? Thank you again for your support.

that zip will disable dm-verity and destroy encryption. for FDE encrypted devices flash no-verity-opt-encrypt.zip instead. another method is flash 'empty' vbmeta partition

I tried to flash vbmeta.img from fastboot and to format userdata but it still can't boot to android. I always to go TWRP.

according to fstab.mt6785 this device is running FBE file-based-encryption, but twrp.fstab is for FDE full-disk-encryption. formatting userdata is necessary.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

Does this answer your question? How to mount system under super partition?

At the end I think I got something very wrong in the phone itself, because in 4pda.ru I found an hacked version of boot + vbmeta + super, but flashing it did not solved for me. Probably adb really corrupted something.


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Found a locked phone, how can I access the contacts?
I found a P30 Lite which I would like to return to the owner. However, I have no way of contacting anyone on the phones contact list as the phone is locked. Is there a way I can recover the data to a PC or somehow access the contacts? Note that USB Debugging is not enabled.

Make sure the phone has power and network connection is enabled. If the device owner did not made a mistake she or he will use Google connoection to lock the phone and display owner info.

Try to access its emergency info. Owner might have left a clue there. I usually do so, leaving my other number to "contact me if found".

If you are really motivated, see if the phone has an IMEI number on a sticker (sometimes under the battery cover if removable) - if you can locate this number, try calling a few prominent GSM servicers in your area.  They might be able to contact the subscriber based on IMEI lookup.


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Access files of Android device without the login code
Long story short. The father of a friend of mine died and he asked me if I could have a look at the father's phone to see if there might be any images or other stuff he might find relevant. The problem however, is that it is locked and no-one in his family knows the code.
I thought of a few ways to tackle this, but most of them require USB debugging to be enabled (which it is not), so stuff like ADB or so is impossible (or is it?).
Then I thought of the program Autopsy, which we used in school to scan an entire device. However, back then, the image of the device was handed to us. I understand I could use the program dd to copy an raw image, however, is it possible to do so on a locked Android device which is not rooted?
Any other suggestions to how I can solve this? Thanks!

The simple answer: No. The long answer: Your friend has to contact Google and as the heir claim to get access to the used Google account (hopefully the gmail address is known). Via Google account you can then try to unlock the device via find-my-device functionality.

I'll have to contact him if he has the gmail, thanks for the suggestion


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Changes made in developer options revert back to default after turning off developer options
I am trying to enable Force GPU rendering option in the developer options. But after enabling it and then turning off the developer options, the developer settings revert back to default. How do I make these changes stick permanently?
Using a Vivo Y53, Android Marshmallow.


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Creating a log entry in logcat via adb?
Does anybody knows a possibility to add a log entry into the logcat main log?
I need to inject an log line with custom text into this log on arbitrary devices.
The main problem is that I can't just install an own app that does inject the log entries.
I need to create the log entry directly on adb.

Use the log commandline tool.

@IrfanLatif Thanks that looks good. Do you know if log universally available or do I have to expect device that don't support this command?

log is a toybox applet, available since Android 8: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/toybox/+/3b051985b3c4787c8e323d41e2833c0278a13e20. For older releases you can port the binary. It's very minimalistic.


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How does Android Chrome send newline from soft keyboard?
I am attempting to access an ESP32 microcontroller running MicroPython over a web interface using the following page WebREPL which within my local network using Chrome on my PC is all fine.
The problem arises when I use the same page from my Android using Chrome and attempt to input the password, followed by the 'enter' key which is promptly rejected as the wrong password - the password I have configured uses only upper and lowercase with no symbols so the only way I can see things getting FUBAR is with the line ending being sent.
Can anybody shed some knowledge on what ascii or whatever code the keyboard would be sending back through the connection, or if there is any possibility there is a space being appended first (the web page does not echo the password keys being entered) - also are there any apps or hacks to give more transparency to what the keyboard is sending in general for non alphanumeric characters?

Key event list may help

I assume this is more a problem of the WebREPL web page you use. Because the keyboard only sends standard key events, what the web page creates from the key event is the question. Try to use telnet on your PC (on Windows it can be installed in Windows options) for connecting to your microcontroller. On Android side a telnet app would also be my preferred preference.

There's the rub,trying to be a good netizen and figure out what the problem with WebREPL could be in order to send a more useful bug report up stream - definitely wherever the bug lies it will need to be fixed there. Meanwhile I do not see any way that WebREPL (from what I have groked which is not all) would be treating the character streams between the two differently unless they actually are: which I'm at a loss to test... Will definitely give Telnet client on the Android side a try as a workaround and possibly as a tool to illuminate what Chrome is sending. Thanks for the suggestion!


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Automatically restart screencasting on phone
I have an app that continually casts the screen so I can capture images that I run through a tensorflow lite model for object detection. On Android 9 I was able to check a box to remember my decision to start the recording of the screen so when I restart my phone I don't have to intervene to start the service . Now an Android 10 and above they've removed that box and you have to tap it to enable it every single time the phone restarts. How can I Ensure that the screencasting automatically restarts whenever the phone is turned off and turned back on in Android 10 and above. Can I use phone administrator to accomplish this?

You know the scrcpy project? It automatically does all the necessary changes for streaming the screen to a PC and it allows recording.  It just requires an adb connection. May be this would be an alternative to the app you used before.

Thanks for the suggestion Robert. I took a look at the GitHub for this project and it looks like the device has to be attached to a PC or Mac and debugging mode. I'm not sure that's going to help me because my app runs standalone on an Android device and needs to record the screen 24/7. Prior to Android 10 this wasn't an issue like I said because when screen came up and asked to enable capture it had a checkbox that said remember my choice so even when I restarted the phone or the app was restarted it was able to bring it back up again without presenting that dialogue.

Can you please elaborate a bit more why you need screen record 24/7 on a phone not connected to a PC? From my perspective the only use case that comes to my mind would be spy-/malware.

Hey Robert, some of the details about what we do is proprietary and I'm not able to disclose it here however I will just say that we monitor the screen and use onboard machine learning and open CV to grab individual images and check them against an ml that we created for specific image classifications. Imagine if you were giving out phones to employees and you wanted to make sure they weren't doing anything other than work on them you could use this app to check for inappropriate texting or inappropriate images in input and output and then it would load them up to a server and report them. I

Up until Android 9 the dialogue that would come up allowed you to check a box that said remember my choice and since the phones would be set up by administrators this could not be changed so even a restore would allow it us to have the app restart screen capture, and that worked fine. Now with Android 10 they don't have that checkbox anymore and anytime an employee turns on the phone they could just ignore it and that defeats the whole purpose of the app. So what I'm looking to do is to have some code that would lock the screen and reset the password or pattern or fingerprint or whatever

The app can detect whether or not the screen capture is running and normally after a minute after restart it usually is now an Android 10 we can notify the administrator that it's not running but without the phone in hand we cannot force the employee to go back into the app and restart screen recording. If we could somehow lock them out of the phone all together that would be ideal. The employee would have to call in and get the new pattern or code and would be written up. And each time the screen lock is reset we generate a new random password


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TWRP not asking me to enter password to decrypt
I need to restore from a backup. However TWRP stopped asking me for the password to decrypt. In the terminal emulator I tried twrp decrypt 1234 but got the error "Failed to decrypt data". Whenever I try to use any other feature in TWRP, such as restore, it says "Failed to decrypt data".  and "extracTarFork() process ended with ERROR: 255"
How can I restore from a backup?

@beeshyams no it isn't a multi user backup. It's TWRP 3-3-10, is there a new version for Xperia XZ1 Compact?

@beeshyams as far as I could determine, no there isn't a newer version for XZ1 Compact. By trying things out I got it to work (see answer bellow). I'm curious, is this a known bug? Why is it sometimes TWRP just doesn't ask for password?

TWRP needs a working firmware for decryption. if system vendor or modem is wiped, the workaround is to format userdata in order to remove encryption completely, so TWRP can mount it unencrypted

@alecxs all I did was flash Lineage 17 so how could that corrupt the firmware?

just a guess as you stated you wiped everything. encryption also depends on android version - switching between ROMs can also cause this

If switching between ROMs can cause this how does one backup their phone before trying a new one? I thought this was one of the  main use cases of TWRP. @alecxs

backup data + internal storage -> to external storage like MicroSD Card, USB-OTG or adb pull /sdcard

for switching between ROMs i recommend Migrate

Copied from comments:

TWRP needs a working firmware for decryption. If system vendor or
modem is wiped, the workaround is to format userdata in order to
remove encryption completely, so TWRP can mount it unencrypted.

Through experimenting I was able to get it to work by doing the following. First, try reflashing just TWRP in fastboot mode: fastboot flash recovery twrp.img. This may be enough, but if not se bellow . My phone is an Xperia so replace steps 1. and 2. with however you normally would install firmware.
Steps:

download phone's Firmware as ftf
Use flashtool to flash firmware
Use fastboot to flash TWRP
Use TWRP to wipe all data, but make sure not to wipe the backup you're trying to restore!
Use TWRP to install a new ROM.
Setup new ROM e.g. sign into WiFi
Reboot to TWRP again
Now TWRP should ask for password and you will be able to decrypt


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(Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite) Mobile data turns off automatically when screen is off!
I have an issue with Mi 9 Lite, when I lock my phone, mobile data turns off automatically after a short period of time, it will turn on as soon as the screen turn on, I tried to enable "Mobile Data Always Active" in developers options but still the same!
Does anyone knows how to disable this?

Are you using some apps to put the device into doze faster? Apps like Naptime have this option

@beeshyams Nope!


text:
Nexus 9 stuck in reboot loop
Few days ago I started my Nexus 9 and it didn't manage to load. It started looping.
The loop goes like this:
The four colored dots circling around and then loops again - 5-6 times then it shuts down.
I haven't done anything with it - it's unrooted, original firmware, used it normally since the day I bought it (have it for about 5 years).
I tried anything I knew:
-factory settings,
-wiped cache,
-flashed original (newest firmware),
-flashed earlier versions,
-flashed original HTC firmware,
-sideloaded newest firmware,
-sideloaded an earlier version.
Every procedure ended with a success, but the result was always the same - four colored dots circling around and then loop again ...
Any suggestions (besides "get a new tablet")?

this is called emmc wear-out (and maybe planned obsolescence) fun fact about Nvidia Tegra

Sad to hear that ... tablet worked very well and was perfect for me.

Does this answer your question? Use sd card as internal storage and stop writing to internal memory for good

By the way - my bootloader is unlocked, but I'm affraid, I don't have the required knowledge to do this. I read the links but for me its like rocket science.

oh, didn't expect that! flash twrp recovery from fastboot that will help to figure out which partitions are problematic https://twrp.me/htc/htcnexus9.html

if your bootloader already unlocked, does it mean the boot-loop can have other causes like dm-verity? this is the first thing i would try https://build.nethunter.com/android-tools/no-verity-opt-encrypt

It should be possible to automatize the whole modification process. If you are interested we can provide flashable zip which can be installed from TWRP with simple steps. All you have to do is provide your free time for extensive testing. In case you want us to spend our free time in your project, please set up your stackexchange notifications to get notified instantly and mention your GMT timezone (mine is GMT+1). Aliens should be interested in rocket science


text:
How to eliminate all not chat-related from the Facebook Messenger?
I do not want to see anything from the facebook what is not chat-related, like:

the integrated facebook browser (yes, it is not a joke)
popups of my pals currently logged in
excerpts of their facebook posts
many-level influence of my phone GUI (like flooding of my sharing possibilities by my messenger contacts)

My goal is to entirely eliminate facebook from my life, except the messenger chat and video calls, because I can talk with some people only there.
The best would be an opensource app which knows the facebook messenger protocol, and serves exactly this purpose. Alternatively, not opensource apps, or the tunings/settings of the currently available apps would also do.

Meta post about the topicality of borderline software recommendation questions.


text:
Custom rom can I trust? Can I install pure android instead?
I have a "galaxy tab E" device, it is old in years, but it is quite new because I don't use it very often.
The problem is, it has android 4.4.4.
I notice it has a custom rom to install android 7.1.2 Nougat (see this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmRtueImtlw) It is a rom made by lineage.
First question, can I trust this rom?
Is there a way to install pure android (7.1.2) from google instead? If I download android from google and install it using odin will it work?
Thanks a lot.

Does this answer your question? Where to get old LineageOS ROMs?

The main question is it an original LineageOS ROM (built and released by LineageOS) or is it a LineageOS based custom ROM. The latter can contain any modification and thus is less trustable than an original build. An original LineageOS ROM should contain a cryptographic signature by LineageOS and therefore it can be verified.

"Is there a way to install pure android (7.1.2) from google instead?" if by "Google", it's "Google, the company", no, because Google doesn't provide ROM for non-Google devices, just like other manufacturers. If it's "Google, the search engine", plausibly, since ROMs on popular forum like XDA usually get some review and feedback from their users directly on there.

In the rom zip file it is named as lineage-14.1-20180419-UNOFFICIAL-gtel3g, so, yeah, I think it is not a original lineage rom.


text:
For video playback from cloud, would a properly written native mobile app be faster than a web app run on Android?
I want to develop a backend cloud service that delivers full color compressed videos (as high def as possible) to Android smart phones for streaming playback. Would I get better playback if I properly develop a native mobile app or if I simply use the browser, maybe with some scripting, to access and play the video? I want the highest bandwidth playback I can get. Thanks!

Video quality is determined by the used codec (plus the used options) and of the bitrate. Codecs should be implemented in hardware for efficiency reasons which limits the available codecs. I am not sure if in a web browser all codecs are available. If not this would be an advantage of the app. But this means of course that you have influence on the server side to decide which codec and bitrate to use. If you only can change the client side there is not much choice.

You might want to compare existing services like YouTube and other video sharing platforms which provide web app and mobile app.


text:
Can't format my SD Card in my Android
I'm having this weird issue that I can't find any solutions online. A few days ago my SD card was showing that it was corrupted and I had to format it to get it to work, losing all my data (which was fine). It worked well after formatting (I formatted it on my phone itself). Today it began to show as 'Corrupted' again. Every time I try to format it shows this java.util.concurrent. TimeoutException: Thread Binder:2980_4 gave up waiting for partitionPublic after 180000ms error.
Can anyone help me fix this? It's a Samsung 16GB card and I've been using it for almost 2 years without any issues until now. Also my phone's a Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime. OS: Oreo 8.1

if not a loose tray causes this, card is probably end of life (emmc wear-out)

The tray is fine. So are you sure the card is unusable now?

Got similar problem a few days ago after upgrading to LineageOS 17.1.
Best option to be sure if your card is corrupted or not : Put it in your PC (Windows, Mac or Linux, doesn't matter) and try to format it. If it fails from computer, consider SD card is corrupted.
If you do not have a computer or an SD card tray in your computer, try to root your phone and format the card using Aparted app (available from Play Store, but requires root)
Good luck with this

Thanks for the detailed reply bro!. I'll let you know when I can get this done.


text:
Android pie 9 music stop when minimize
I am using android mobile having android pie 9. When I play music and minimize app, it stop music. Even when I am use other option music stop playing. I want that music play in background when I use mobile.

Which app are you using?

It is default app on android pie 9 on nokia 2.2. It can play mp4. When I tap on music file it use file apps.

As per the question, it doesn't look like the phone's default music player supports background play feature. You can use third-party apps like VLC Media Player to play music in the background (when minimized).

Yes it works with vlc player. But I want to know is there is setting for background music play on default player on android pie 9.


text:
What does the "Save password to Google?" do?
I'm on Android 10 and and after installing the Uber App, I get the "Save password to Google?" prompt. But since I'm a not a huge fan of the Google megapoly, I'm reluctant to say yes, when I have no idea where my password will end up.
What does the "Save password to Google?" actually do? (and where is it saved?)

Related: Google Account Help - Sync passwords across your devices

Google app -> Manage your account -> Security -> Password Manager, click on the gear, they are listed there. You can also switch it on/of by enabling/disabling "Offer to save passwords" from the same place.

@ReddyLutonadio I have 14 different "Google apps" on my phone, which one are you talking about?

@AndrewT. As (ususal?) Googles own pages are outdated. The path shown in the no.1 item doesn't exist: On your Android phone or tablet, open your device's * Settings app > Google > Google Account.

There is one called Google, open that one (not Google something).

Ok, I found it under the following path (when using MIUI Global 12.0.8):
Settings > Privacy > "Autofill service from Google" > Passwords. But this still do not answer as to where these passwords are stored.


text:
How to format SD card second partition as internal storage
I formatted my SD card into 2 partition. The first one is exfat and the second partition is f2fs.
I want to format the second partition as internal storage using built in storage setting, but when I do that the whole SD card get formatted.
How do I format the second partition as internal storage without losing the first partition data?

Does this answer your question? I want to split one MicroSD card into two parts: part adoptable storage, and part normal storage. How can I do this?

I will lose my data that way

yes repartitioning will erase everything. do a backup to PC via adb and restore afterwards. no other way because adoptable-storage requires 3rd partition 16 MiB (probably related to encryption)

okay thanks @alecxs I'll test it using my another SD card.


text:
How is bootloader state protected against physical tampering in Google Pixel
A week ago my professor's Pixel 4 XL was stolen from his desk when he left it there for charging. The phone has been shut down. It had few minutes of battery left when it was plugged in charging. Though I believe that the attacker has powered it off immediately and also turned off mobile data or turned on airplane mode which are unfortunately allowed in Pixel devices without unlocking the screen. I must say that this is a weak physical security design and helps the attacker more than environment safety*. Although location cannot be turned off at locked screen but it will be useless unless the device automatically reconnects to the nearby open wifi in campus to which the device was connected earlier.
I assured him that the data cannot be compromised because it is protected by file based encryption (FBE) which is bound to the user's lock screen password and lock screen password is verified by Titan M chip (TEE) to unlock the device. The attacker can still reset the device which is then prompted by factory reset protection when setting up the device. This is yet another weak physical security design because unauthorised factory reset can be prevented by adopting biometric authentication for bootloader and recovery mode by TEE which wakes up before the android bootloader is awaken.
In Pixel, bootloader can be unlocked by enabling OEM unlocking from developer tools and then executing fastboot flashing unlock in bootloader mode. As the attacker cannot reach developer settings without unlocking the screen, my professor asked if by using a hardware tool like UFS flash storage reader & writer, can the attacker directly tamper with OEM unlocking byte and bootloader state (locked & unlocked) bytes which are stored somewhere for persistence across reboots and flashing custom ROMs?

*Environment safety: Some security trade-offs were made by android security team by allowing to shut down, to turn on airplane mode and to turn off mobile data from locked screen so that devices in case of emergency like overheating of the device while in plane and radio interference, these features can be remain functional from locked screen.

Pixel refuses fastboot flashing unlock (and unlock_critical) command unless OEM unlocking is enabled. OEM unlocking byte is stored by TEE as implemented in android source.

libese
provides a minimal transport wrapper for communicating with embedded secure elements. Embedded secure elements typically adhere to smart card standards.

TEE is tamper-resistant by design. So it's not possible to physically modify OEM unlocking byte in Pixel. VerifiedBootState is also stored in TEE. This ensures that stolen Pixel device cannot be reused by unlocking the bootloader and reflashing the images.
When bootloader unlock command is executed, bootloader queries TEE to get unlock ability set by OEM unlocking. When VerifiedBootState is set to unlocked, TEE flushes file based encryption (FBE) keys and bootloader resets the device. Verified boot state and unlock ability remains persistent in TEE across reboots, flashing custom ROMs and factory reset. This is why the user still has to relock the bootloader even if all partitions are reflashed with stock images.
Verified boot state in TEE is now also used in SafetyNet's hardware-backed attestation. Tamper-protection by TEE makes it impossible to fake verified boot state. As a result, it leaves no way to pass SafetyNet's device-integrity test even if you have root access.
In other devices, OEM unlocking byte is stored in FRP partition which is a bad security design because OEM unlocking byte can be physically modified if it's stored outside of TEE. In such devices, OEMs sends unlock.bin signature file to the user which is used as an additional argument with unlock command so there is some sort of verification in place to verify the device owner. In Mi devices, OEM unlocking requires registration with Mi account which ensures that only the account owner can unlock bootloader from Mi unlock tool even if OEM unlocking is enabled.
Earlier Mi devices are found to be storing bootloader state in /devinfo partition which is totally insecure because by simply modifying the byte, the attacker could unlock the bootloader. As more and more devices will be mandated to enforce SafetyNet's hardware-backed attestation, VerifiedBootState will be stored in TEE.


text:
Is data recovery possible in encrypted phone?
I need a suggestion!
Tomorrow I am giving my phone to service centre for repairing my broken camera. I am feared that whether they can access my files or not?
My phone is on android 10 out of the box and it is encrypted by default. I am going to reset my phone before giving it to the service centre. Is it possible to recover data on a encrypted phone?

if your bootloader is locked a simple lock screen pin/password (min 5 digits) is already enough. no need to factory reset. nevertheless factory reset will wipe encryption key(s) therefore recovery is impossible

@alecxs But a locked device would make it difficult for the service to test the replaced camera, or do they have signed boot images for hardware testing that can be loaded on-the-fly like fastboot boot img?

@Robert true, in that case factory reset is recommended. Although on some devices you can access camera on lock screen. i doubt service center has special access, except for the manufacturer itself maybe

@10E_13_ Bipin remove all google accounts before factory reset (to avoid FRP lock)


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Photos in DCIM folder messed up - sometimes file explorer frozen
I have a Samsung S8 and I try to access DCIM folder. Once doing so, sometimes the file explorer freezes and sometimes it does not display all the results. Actually I see some old photos on top. If I search for the latest photos I can find by using the photo name, but it seems that the order has been messed up. On the other hand, the gallery shows properly the pictures in the correct order. Do you know why it happens and how it can be fixed?

By "file explorer" do you mean an app or the Windows Explorer on a PC connected via USB to your phone?


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How do I backup Internal Storage to PC or OTG Drive without it changing folder and file modified dates?
I'm on Android 11 and I want to backup my files to a drive but I don't want it to change the modified date for folders and files...

Best way to preserve such attributes is packing all files into a TAR archive. You can create it via adb and directly save it on the PC: adb exec-out 'cd /sdcard; tar -cf - .' > backup.tar

what if i want to save it in a different drive? sorry i dont know a lot about adb..

What do you mean "different drive" as USB OTG stick or a drive on your PC?

portable ext hard drive, just start the command prompt where i want to save the tar?

An external hdd is fine. Just place the path before the backup.tar (specify an absolute path like F:\backup.tar on Windows.

after typing the command it makes a corrupted tar file that i cant open that's around 1kb....

adb pull -a /sdcard preserves mtime

@alecxs not for folders though...

Make sure you have adb installed on your PC, enabled on your phone and your phone connected via USB. Try adb shell first. if that works use the backup command. If that still does not work open the created file in an text editor and read the error message.

@Robert adb shell works. This is what the error message says /system/bin/sh: cd /storage/emulated/0: inaccessible or not found
/system/bin/sh:  tar -cf - .: inaccessible or not found

/system/bin/sh: cd /storage/emulated/0: inaccessible or not found /system/bin/sh:  tar -cf - .\: inaccessible or not found

Does this answer your question? How do I backup media, game data (internal storage) using TWRP?

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

How do I restore it directly to my phone after backing up using tar in your linked post


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How can I make my Samsung Galaxy S9+ install unsigned applications?
I have root on my phone, and also Lucky Patcher patched the signature verification stuff (both of them). I have rooted my Galaxy with Magisk and Odin (using PC). I can't patch "dalvik-cache" whatever that means, and I have a suspicion that that is why my unsigned apks install, but crash straight after opening. It's not the app, as I can use them perfectly well on an emulator. Does anyone know how to get past this problem? Thanks!

Android can not install unsigned apps/APKs, the APK signature is always checked when you install it. The only way would be to manipulate an already installed app. Upon installation the APK file is saved, some files extracted and the DEX files are pre-compiled using dex2oat on modern devices using ART runtime. Those extracted files and the APK itself can be modified but that isn't that simple. I assume that is Lucky Patcher is trying to do and fails.

@Robert Maybe some signature could be updated in some apk manifest?

@peterh-ReinstateMonica You can of course re-sign an APK file with a self-generated key pair. But then Android would not allow to install this app as an update of an already existing app because the keys do not match. On a rooted device it may be possible to change the files where Android saves the info which installed app is signed by what key, but I never did this before and don't know how complicated such a modification would be.

Check whether apps can support your android OS version.
You can turn on Allow installation of app from unknown sources. Go to setting / security / turn on Unknown sources option.

"Allow installation of app from unknown sources" -- this wouldn't make a difference. Unsigned apps cannot be installed. See https://source.android.com/security/apksigning


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If we want to give the apps fake geolocation datas is it enough to change only the GPS data or i need to change all datas that are transsmitted?
When we change the GPS data using fake GPS app the cell id of our BTS still shows completely different region (the region of our real location). Isn't that enough for third-party applications to understand  that the received Gps datas are fake ? We know that most of positioning systems using hybrid thechnologies for positioning and not a specefic one .In this case if we want to give the third party apps  fake datas  is it enough to change only the GPS data or i need to change all datas that are transsmitted (Gsm,wi fi, ect.)

You might want to explain what "BTS" means. Also is this GPS spoofing for testing or anti-piracy/fraud measures?

@MorrisonChang  BTS means Base Stations . For testig.


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How to completely backup every single piece of data on samsung s9
I want to do a full backup of my phone but backing up via the cloud doesn't backup everything and backing up via sd card doesn't backup everything either. If you tried to backup via any of these options, the screen will give you a small link containing the things that it won't backup. However, the items excluded from backup are different. Do you think if I tried to backup via both options it will cover everything on my phone? Or is there another way to achieve this?

What you want may be impossible depending on your used apps. If an app uses the Android keystone the keys are bound to your CPU and can't be extracted from the device even on a rooted device. Furthermore apps can disallow backup that makes backup again impossible (can be bypassed on rooted devices).

that is always the hen-egg-dilemma when it comes to rooting. try samsung kies or samsung smart switch


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My samsung a20 was dropped and the screen is black, can't get the alarm to shut off
My samsung a20 was dropped and screen cracked,it worked for a hour or so then screen went completely black...hey google works but can't get the alarm to shut off now...i need all my important information off that device..how do I get the alarm to shut off and if I replaced the screen will everything be the same as before

if only screen is replaced (but not main pcb board) your data will survive until someone does factory reset. your data is encrypted and protected with screen lock credentials and therefore not accessable


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Android 7.1 certificates are going to expire, anyway to renew them?
starting from September android 7.1 and below users are going to have issues with the internet
so is there anyway to renew those certificates so i can use my phone properly?

Kind of related: Let's Encrypt: Is there a workaround for the 2021 SSL “cutoff” for pre-7.1.1 Android devices?

Could you please be a bit more specific about what certificates you are talking about?


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What is the package name for the default Samsung Gallery App?
Deleted it while debloating my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. I am unable to install it via the Samsung store. Thank you in advance!

The default package name of the Samsung Gallery app (at least on my Samsung device here) is
com.sec.android.gallery3d

https://galaxystore.samsung.com/detail/com.sec.android.gallery3d
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sec.android.gallery3d

Same on my Samsung Galaxy A7


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TWRP Backup of encrypted files or decrypted ones?
I'm using File Based Encryption on data partition and I want to backup it with TWRP. In this kind of encryption, there are two possibilities to backup files. First, one does not decrypt files in TWRP and take backup files as they are, backup of encrypted files. The second solution is to backup decrypted files, so I need to decrypt files with PIN code in TWRP and then take backup.
Which solution is better and has fewer cons while restoring a backup?

Always better to go for backup without encryption, in my experience. Reasons 1. TWRP version may not be updated with latest OS version as I saw on One Plus 7 2. Changing ROMs 3. If you need to factory reset or wipe your device, encrypted backup not possible to be restored (even if you use same PIN) 4. cases like this

encrypted backup is useless when keystore in TEE is wiped

@beeshyams thx for reply. When changing ROM it's better to start with new /data filesystem, it's obvious. To deal with cannot unlock device after restoring TWRP backup is easy, just delete unlock screen config file/sqlite db.

@alecxs Does TEE still flush keys if /data partition is wiped from TWRP instead of factory reset?

@defalt from what we both discovered recently that's the point i still don't know. guess not because that requires deleteKey command send to TEE


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Disable "Call via hangouts" in Contacts.google.com in browser - use tel: instead
I use "click to call" from my phone often on phone numbers in my laptop browser (Chrome) and recently tried it from Gmail and Contacts tabs of Google apps. I even created a page to paste numbers in to use this function: https://craiglambie.com/ClickToCallForm.html
However this sends a link to call using Hangouts - when I want to use the mobile/cell phone to call usually.
Is there a way to disable the hangouts link, and make it a "normal" tel: link that the phone accepts?

Hi, I assume you want to fix the link from the laptop (Google Contacts web app), not on the phone? If so, [webapps.se] should be more suitable since it's more about manipulating the web page (e.g. using userscript), not Android. Let me know if you want this to be migrated to there.

Thanks Andrew - you are probably right. tbh I didn't notice I was in a "specialist" android community until after I posted, just thought it was vanilla SE.

Could you please move this to "web applications"? @AndrewT. Thanks

Done, I'll clean up my comments on there, you might want to too.

"click to call" is not a generally available built-in Google Contacts feature. Are you using a Chrome extension? Do you have a Google Voice phone number? How doe the link to call using Hangouts link look? Have you already tried to change the app used by Android to open links?


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Is it possible to keep phone plugged in a powerbank when the battery is worn out?
Is it possible to glue a powerbank to the back of a phone, and keep it plugged in permanently, if the battery has been worn out?

Related: Removeable battery-like “thing” that provide unlimited power for android phones and ultimately Using Android phone without battery

My experience is that the answer is yes.
For some devices, I have completely removed the battery and have them running just from the charger.
Of course, if there is a power outage, the device will immediately turn off without saving anything.  So be aware of that possibility.


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Is it possible to merge/network multiple smartphones and use them as one device?
I have 4 android smartphones each with 512 gb memory card. Is it possible to somehow combine them together so that I can access a total of 2TB?
My exact use case is to install kmplayer on one of those devices and network/merge the others such that the primary device has access to all the content as if it was on that device itself. I would leave all these phones at home and access the primary device, via some app like splashtop, from the phone that I have on me.
Am aware of cluster/distributed/HPC computing concepts to get many mainframe/workstation/server/home pc systems(and even the raspberry Pi using Beowulf cluster) to work together but in those cases almost all resources are desired to be used unlike my case where I only intend to combine the memory card storage resource.

What version of Android (and what devices, might be relevant) and is there root access on these devices? Basically you want to do network shares of folders on the devices so that one can access the other 3 devices folders (possible), or you want everything to appear as one single resource (very unlikely)? Curious why something a RP or other device with a network share wouldn't be better, especially since you could VPN it and make it accessible from anywhere...

@acejavelin I wanted a solution where the total memory of all 3 devices is available as one single memory resource to the primary device. Network shares are possible relatively easily. All the phones are on the latest version of android and high end enough.

I don't think the Android devices themselves could do this, you would need a third party tool, like a small Linux server to merge the volumes and make it appear as one virtual volume to the other device... Even with root this likely wouldn't be very clean. The Linux instance could be very small, a RPi or a VM would work well.


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Prevent Wifi and mobile broadband from being turned off when phone is locked
On my old android 10 phone (an LG) if I pull down the shade when the phone is locked and try to turn off wifi or mobile broadband, it asks me for my password.  My new phone doesn't do that.  Is that a setting somewhere? or do the manufacturers change that for you?
--
Actually my old phone also doesn't let me power it off without the code.

Preventing data connectivity change from lock screen might be a security feature implemented by your LG vendor (Xiaomi does that too).


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Cannot move app to SD card
I am using Android 8.1 in a Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime.
Some apps show a Storage used option. This means they can be stored in Device memory or External storage.
I mean to move all apps to External storage whenever possible.
In some cases, when I select
Storage used -> CHANGE to move to SD card, after 100% completion the app is still in Device memory.
Is there any way to solve this?
Notes:

Cannot move app to SD card: "Not enough storage space" is a similar question from me (although not the same).
I would avoid removing the app and reinstalling, just to try, since I have this problem.

native App2SD is not related to android version, it is a decision of app developer. if app allows it, note that external storage is still another location in your phones memory (emulated storage). you can however map MicroSD Card with [adoptable-storage] as emulated storage location (unfortunately not for FBE encrypted devices with android 8.1)

Does this answer your question? SD card not appearing when formatted as internal

"Some apps show a Storage used option. This means they can be stored in Device memory or External storage." This might not be correct. It's the android:installLocation attribute which decides if the app is movable or not. See my answers to related questions: How to free Internal Storage by moving data or using symlink / bind-mount with Adoptable Storage? and How to move apps from internal to external storage?

@IrfanLatif - I will read your links. In the meantime, why would the OS show an option for choosing the storage location of an app if it is not movable?
If it's the android:installLocation attribute which decides if the app is movable or not, I would expect the OS to check that attribute and show the option as per it.
Otherwise, what controls the appearance of such an option?

I've never been a user of Samsung device, neither I ever moved apps to external storage except for experimenting. So I'm not sure about it. That's why I said might be. Logically you are correct. But you can check the said attribute in the app's manifest to confirm.

Nevertheless i got the feeling you missed the point of my comment. after moving to SD card, app is still in device memory, because /sdcard is still in device memory. see linked question how to solve this from command line, when your ROM does not provide this setting in gui


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How to set emulator sensor values programmatically?
I'm looking for a way to set the x, y, and z values for the accelerometer sensor on an android emulator for tests using espresso. My test requires that the device be positioned in a specific way and I am aware that the android emulator has extended controls to modify the rotation and movement of the virtual sensors. However, I am looking for a way to do this automatically without needing to use the extended controls or physically moving an actual device.
I have successfully modified the virtual sensors through the emulator console when connecting to the emulator via telnet; however, I haven't found a way to achieve this programmatically. To do this via telnet, I first needed to enter an authentication token, then, I used the following console command sensor set acceleration x:y:z.
I have previously used adb shell dumpsys battery set level <percent> to modify the battery level of the device and I was wondering if there was a similar command to modify the x, y, and z components of the accelerometer.
Is there a way to achieve my goal programmatically, or will I need to aim for manually manipulating either the emulated or physical device during tests?

Have you managed to solve the problem of setting the value of the accelerometer sensor programmatically?


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Samsung Health has ads?
I never noticed it before, but there is an ad in the top of Samsung Health.
Screenshot below.
Can I turn it off?
I paid for the phone and I do not expect core apps to contain ads.

Yes, it has ads, despite their denial (top of search list). It's been going on from last two years. See this


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How to run 64 bit apps on a 32 bit Android smartphone without root access?
I know it's difficult or rather almost impossible to change a 32 bit to 64 bit with or without root but is it possible to run 64 bit apps on a 32 bit Android smartphone without root access ?
I am using Samsung Galaxy J5 Prime.

Theoretically it is possible but in the end it is like manually installing a different custom ROM. The main problem is that you need a 64bit kernel and therefore for all components in your phone you need 64bit drivers. Drivers for phone components are mostly not open source which makes it difficult to get them. And as your device has a 32bit ROM installed it's current kernel is 32bit, hence it can't be reused. Even if you would find a 64bit ROM for your device most likely the apps/games you want to run would still not work because your phone has only 2GB RAM and 64bit phone usually have more.

Android apps aren't 32-bit or 64-bit. But they may contain arch-specific native libraries/executables. Details here. In this case the app usually contains the native binaries for multiple architectures, and as they state: "Starting August 1, 2019, your apps published on Google Play will need to support 64-bit architectures". So you need to be specific which app you are talking about. Generally you cannot run 64-bit code on 32-bit hardware.


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whatsapp not connecting to network until opened
The problem is only with whatsapp app, only in my android device and only when connected to my WiFi.
Background data is turned on.
Battery optimization is off.
Account sync is enabled.
Proxy is none.
DNS is 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4.
Could anyone please help. Thankyou

Whatsapp uses Google Push notifications, therefore battery optimization has to be disabled not only for Whatsapp itself but also for GooglePlayServices.

battery optimization is totally disabled. Still the problem exist.  Only sometimes i'm facing the problem. Tried many ways. Its not when the battery is low and not when whatsApp is removed from recent tasks. I couldn't figure out when and what's causing it .


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Pixel phone privacy. How to exempt data sharing with google
Does anybody knows if a pixel phone is able to profile, based on the user's data although a VPN is always active on the phone.
I am also not using any Google apps. I am wondering if the profiling is done on the mobile platform, then sent to Google's profiling analysis servers.

Android devices don't do profiling, that is done on Google server side. Even if you don't use any Google services they can automatically connect to Google in background (e.g. PlayStore, app scanning, ...) and the Google services can be used by other apps e.g. via PlayServices or directly e.g. displaying a Google map.

You will need to install another ROM that does not have Google Play services such as LineageOS or GrapheneOS.

I am also not using any Google apps.

It does not matter which Google apps you explicitly use or not, this process is a core part of stock Android.

VPN is always active on the phone

This cannot be guaranteed unless the phone is rooted as some connections might be made before the VPN is setup.


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I can't open or close any tabs on my Android tablet in Chrome
This is a tablet I've had for years, and suddenly it decided that tabs in Chromes cannot be selected, exited, or added (The only change I can do is the new tab button option on the 3 dots, but I can't switch back from it, or I close out of Chrome and reopen it, then I can do only one of those things, but not more).

I had this issue too on my Galaxy Tab A.
I found a workaround. It's not the fix just a workaround. Please enable rotation of display btw. landscape and portrait. Each time you encounter this issue so you cannot close any Chrome Tabs any longer just rotate your display. That's it!
Regards and stay healthy!
Markus

I have the exact same issue in Chrome on pixel c. It happens every time i have had a video in film screen. And starter sekund the same time as you. I found the same work around, nyt it is anoying.

Same issue is in chrome 87.0.4280.141 and Android 8.1.0 on pixel c.

Do you have Samsung Note 4?? Follow this..
4 Ways to Fix Can’t Close Tabs in Samsung Note 4

Firstly, go to Settings in your Samsung Note 4 and head over to Developer Options. Then click on Input and uncheck show touches. After doing this, try again and this time you will be able to close tabs on Note-4.
Note: If you don’t have developer options, you can get them by going to the Settings page and heading over to About Phone and then tapping  Build Number 7 times.

If you are using Chrome, head over to Chrome settings and then turn off combine tabs. This step will restart Google Chrome and you will be able to tap on the number box and close the tabs.

Another great fix to solve the can’t close tabs in Note 4 problem is to Go to Settings -> developer options and unchecking ‘allow mock locations’. This will fix the issue and you will be able to close all the opened tabs.

Go to Developer options and go to the Apps section. Here, you will see an option “ Do Not Keep Activities”  Uncheck this box and you will be able to close tabs in Samsung Note-4. If that doesn’t work, you can also check this box and then try again.

Source

Thank you for the effort, but none of what you have told me has worked. I should make clear this is a tablet, not a phone.

Oh yeah.. sorry.. my bad. See https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/89468/cant-switch-close-tabs-in-the-chrome-browser-on-my-android-tablet and also try updating/downgrading (sometimes there are bugs in new updates) the app.. Tell me when you've read this, I'll delete the answer.


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Incorrect "Google Maps" section in Gmail contact
My contact suddenly has a new section titled "Google Maps" and this section shows information for a random business located in another state (this "Google Maps" section is between "Contact details" and "Google profile".
When I click on a link icon within this section, it takes me to the Maps listing for this business. AS far as I can tell, there is nothing in there that could possibly link my contact to it.
It's important for me to fix this because I have a business and this messes with my local SEO. Thanks in advance for any help.

Is there a pic attached to the contact that might have some incorrect EXIF data?

Is your web activity turned on?

Contact picture is a professional studio headshot, EXIF data for location isn't present. Web activity has been turned off for years. But thank you for the suggestions!


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GBoard app: Initializing of voice-to-text takes forever
I use GBoard on my Poco X3 and the keyboard sporadically takes forever to initialize when using Voice Typing. Sometimes it's fast, sometimes it isnt. Sometimes it shows "initializing" and than aborts - sometimes it goes over into speech-recognition mode. Very unreliable :(
Not sure why... Occurs on Wifi, as well as on mobile data connection. Havent found a way to reproduce it reliably.
Any ideas why?
Latest updates installed. Cache already cleared.
Different things tried, nothing yet worked :(
Thanks!

In  keyboard settings, enable "faster voice typing" //Is the keyboard language set to the phone language

@beeshyams Unfortunately Im in germany, hence this option is not even available, probably US-only :(

Maybe it's waiting for the background noise level to decrease before it activates its listen mode???


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Reading battery level/voltage via USB port
I'm interested in creating a device that needs to externally monitor the battery level or voltage of the phone via the USB port. I haven't had much experience with the inner workings of Android, but I do know that apps have access to the battery manager, but I'm wondering if, during charging, is it possible to obtain data (at least the voltage reading) about the battery via USB without having to install/create an app that reads and sends the data?

Hardware that is connected between the charging adapter and device is perhaps the only way of you don't want an app. Such hardware is available, though I haven't used it

Via adb you should be able to query the battery data: See this for details: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42274720/is-it-possible-to-query-device-state-ie-battery-charge-remaining-via-adb-shel


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Screen not registering all inputs (touchscreen isnt broken)
So i recently got a new phone, its good but ive noticed an issue with it. For whatever reason the screen isnt registering inputs but it like is at the same time (hard to explain)
So if i go into developer options and turn on the show touch coordinates, it will show all of my inputs im doing on the screen fully accurately. The issue is that the game im playing isnt being told about these inputs at all and acting like they arent there. (not an issue with the game itself, this happens everywhere, even on the home screen.)
So the physical screen itself is fully fune but there is some kind of artificial limitation in the software or whatever.. and im wondering if i could fix it somehow, like flash a rom or change some setting or some screen repair app
here is a few demonstration videos: https://youtu.be/pJLiaXRxzWA (the display showing the inputs are happening but thing no work work)
https://youtu.be/I8RUbMgNnGM (press finger on screen screen no do thing bla bla bla..)
The phone is Poco x3 nfc by xiaomi, running android 10, MIUI global 12.0.4 stable
and if anyone knows a better place to post this to get better answers please tell me

Use a screen test app (e.g. this to check if you have dead regions.

watched the videos and all i can see is touch is working fine - so what's the problem?

the problem is that inputs are being dropped. idk how you watched those 2 videos and came to that conclusion

I had the same issue for few days, on the same phone. First try enabling 'show pointer' in developer options. If touches are detected but not registered or occassionally omitted, switch off device for 5 mins, and turn back on. Worked for me!


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How to insert a recovery and root in HTC Desire 820 Dual Sim?
I want to insert a custom ROM in HTC Desire 820 dual sim. I have unlocked the bootloader and tried to insert a TWRP recovery. I have tried multiple recoveries namely:

HTC_A51_TWRP_Recovery_3.0.2-0_htcui
HTC_D820_TWRP-Recovery-2.8.7.0-en
HTC_TWRP_Recovery_All
recovery.iso
twrp-3.0.2-0-a32e
twrp-3.1.1-0-a5
twrp-3.2.2-0-a51cml_tuhl

While trying to flash these Unfortunately I Corrupted the OS. The first four of the above TWRP either won't get flashed due to
target reported max download size of 16777216 bytes
Invalid sparse file format at header magi
error: write_sparse_skip_chunk: don't care size 5736448 is not a multiple of the block size 4096
sending sparse 'recovery' (16382 KB)...
error: write_sparse_skip_chunk: don't care size 5736448 is not a multiple of the block size 4096
error: write_sparse_skip_chunk: don't care size 5736448 is not a multiple of the block size 4096
OKAY [  1.673s]
writing 'recovery'...
FAILED (remote: image error! (BootMagic check fail))
finished. total time: 1.689s

The other 2 flashed but when Executed the command fasboot boot twrp-3.0.2-0-a32e.img or the one with a5 the error is
downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [  1.356s]
booting...
FAILED (remote: dtb not found)
finished. total time: 1.356s

the last didn't give any error but doesn't work either( possibly because its a Desire 830 .img but its the only one not giving the error
the phone is (or was) android 6.0.1
A51_DTUL PVT SHIP S-ON
HBOOT-3.19.0.0000
RADIO-01.01.010_U10305041_08.01.51015
OS-3.17.720.3
eMMC-boot 2048MB
Apr 11 2016,21:16:51.0

It doesn't have an OEM unlock and I'm pretty much new to recovery and root stuff. Please suggest me how can I root this device too, so I don't fall into further problems. Thanks in advance :)

Have you checked https://www.htcdev.com/bootloader/ for instructions to unlock the bootloader?

@Robert I have unlocked the bootloader from the official site and it is successfully unlocked.

@beeshyam i think it is not the official recovery as it mentions it for desire 620 and mine is 820 dual sim. I gave it a try though dosen't work.

Sorry, my bad. Very strange situation. I had up voted your question. Hope you get a solution


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Purple line of Samsung galaxy s7
I have a Samsung galaxy s7 in gold. It has been stepped on. Now, there is purple bleeding on the left side with a few pale purple around the screen. I can’t enter my phone because I has a pattern passcode. I won’t let me touch the left area. I think the internal has been damaged but I am not sure. I can’t go and fix it during a pandemic. Can I be helped?

If you have an OTG cable/adapter and a mouse lying around or if you can manage to get a hold of them (a friend, online delivery, etc.), you should be able to unlock your phone using a mouse and also operate it at least for making some online backups.


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How to control phone with broken screen from computer when there is a password?
My phone's screen is broken. I want to be able to use it using a PC (I just need to use two apps for a short while). I have a password on my phone. If I remember correctly, I have USB debugging enabled. I don't know if I had ever checked the option to always allow from this computer when the allow USB debugging modal pops up. I am trying to use scrcpy to control my phone from my computer. The phone is Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016).
This is what I have tried:
I downloaded adb from here. I downloaded scrcpy from here. I moved the adb files to a folder. I moved scrcpy files to the same folder, overwriting the duplicates.
I opened the command prompt from that folder (I'm on Windows). I connected my phone to the computer using a USB cable. As soon as I connected it, I ran the command adb devices -l. This is what I got:
List of devices attached
31002adf4e2c435f       device product:j7xeltexx model:SM_J710F device:j7xelte transport_id:1

The I ran the following commands:
adb shell input swipe 600 800 150 900 300                            (swipe to get to screen with password prompt)
adb shell input text "[mypassword]"                                  (enter my password)
adb shell input keyevent 66                                          (press enter key)
scrcpy

This is what I got in the command prompt (after the last command):
INFO: scrcpy 1.17 <https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy>
C:\Users\[User]\Desktop\New folder (2)\scrcpy-server: 1 file pushed, 0 skipped. 5.0 MB/s (34930 bytes in 0.007s)
[server] INFO: Device: samsung SM-J710F (Android 8.1.0)
INFO: Renderer: direct3d
INFO: Initial texture: 720x1280
WARN: Device disconnected

I am stuck here, with no idea what to do. I've tried using Vysor, but it also didn't work. I'd like to stick with scrcpy, unless there is a better option. Please keep in mind that I don't intend to transfer data; I want to use two apps (one of which is the Signal app, to transfer my chats).

guesswork: your battery is fully charged. when 100% is reached usb connection is interrupted because of charging mode switch. wait for battery is drained 50% and try again. it should work, do a research for "WARN: Device disconnected"

https://android.stackexchange.com/q/215869

if problem persist connect to usb 2.0 port / hub instead (adb might hang because sometimes usb 3.0 speed is too fast)

@alecxs I'm pretty sure the battery being at 100% is not the problem. I have tried this repeatedly, some times after the I had left the phone for some time without plugging it in.

do you have usb 2.0 hub?

@alecxs Sorry, I don't.