text:
Reboot touchphone without touching the screen
Sometimes touch screen on my phone is swithced off and does not switch on again. The phone is working, you can ring it, even the touch keys have light.
Can you say, it there a method how to reboot it not touching the screen?
My phone is I-Mobile IQ 5.5 (bought in Thailand).
OS: Android 4.2.2.
I've searched the phone's manual, there is nothing about this topic.
I know there is a combination of keys from other manufacturers like Samsung, but as I said here there were no word about it in manual.
Maybe there is an app, which can help me reboot the phone by pressing several hard keys?
Now, I am just taking off the battery to reboot the phone.

Sounds like a hardware problem honestly.  The process of rebooting an Android phone depends entirely on the hardware itself.

hold power button ?

Have you tried adb reboot?

Yep, I was trying (it works), but I don't need the solution with smartphone connected to computer.

Pressing and holding the phone's power button for a few seconds might do the trick.
It switches off my Android phones.

yea, hold it for a long time, 10seconds for this one, 15seconds for my old thing. cool, i had forgot that.

I've hold it for 30 seconds. No reboot.
Only the menu for reboot, shotdow, scrennsho, etc. appeared.

@Alex Does your phone have the ability to connect to USB devices like a keyboard and mouse? I once used this method to help someone get stuff off of their phone after they smashed the screen.

@ chritohnide No. But can you point me to this information about reboot with keyboard? Just interesting .

@Alex I don't have a link, but I can explain: fortunately there was an adaptor device for the phone (galaxy s 2) that plugged into the phone's micro-USB port and provided a full size USB port into which I was able to plug a keyboard and mouse (via a hub). This then allowed me to interact with the phone. Presumably, you'd be able to shutdown the phone in this manner.

Total noob with this stuff myself, I have been reading around,
Some applications given access like admin(?) , will have been allowed to install in critical locations to do the special tricks they do.
To fully remove these applications the special permission change made has to be disabled by the program first, then the program itself can be uninstalled.
If the program was allowed (the special permission) to make changes to critical section, then removed without the permission, it is possible for critical changes to be left.  (source: fails done by commenters in google play store)
 Anytime these high permissions are allowed, and these changes made, it should be turned back off first in the program, prior to uninstalling the program, or unexpected things could occur.
It is possible that a cool trick software has been installed, and forgotten, or not un-installed properly.  Maybe an app that turns the screen on or off based on sencors or cameras , or phone or messages, like the proximity, or a shake , docking ?  That the application has made changes, or even changes to more critical areas.  Lock screen app, lock screen customiser, launcher , special trick home changes, there are hundreds of less documented tricks.
There are "safe Mode" ways of getting into the phones which keeps 3rd party items from operating, the https://android.stackexchange.com/search?q=safe+mode Android site has lots of information on it.
Also
 The search of https://android.stackexchange.com/search?q=boot+loop Bootloop.  We know you do not have a boot loop, but you still cant do much when this happens, so some of the boot loop information could be applied, which is this safe mode.
Different phones use slightly different methods for getting into the safemode, adding to the fun, finding an expert with the same phone might be a thing to do if you wanted to access safe mode.

My android LG phone had the same problem. I tried the power button, with no success. Then I took of the back cover and then removed the battery, then put it back in. Next, I held the power button down. This rebooted the phone back up. Hope this works for you, and good luck!


text:
Why my DCIM folder is empty seen in the computer but not empty in the phone
I am using HuaWeiNova device, and I tried to access it with aft-mtp-cli.
$ aft-mtp-cli
$ ls DCIM/

I got folders listed here:
|-photos
|-Camera
....

When I tried to list or download my photos in the Camera/ folder, I got nothing. Only the empty folders are listed and the folders that contains files are not shown at all. I am quite sure my photos are stored in the Camera folder in my cell phone. How come I could not access my photos with my computer ?

Maybe your photos are on the sd card, but you show internal storage?

Related: Why does MTP show wrong directory location?

For accessing your Android device via USB in "File Transfer" mode your computer uses the MTP protocol. This protocol allows to list and read/write the files from/to your device.
What most people don't know is that the MTP protocol does not show the content of the file-system. Instead it uses the Android MediaStore Database (an SQLite database) which is populated by the Media Provider, a special daemon running on Android (app package name: com.android.providers.media).
If you create a new file/directory or delete something without notify this daemon the database and the file-system are out-of sync and you end up that you can see files already deleted or can't see existing files.
You can force the Android MediaStore to refresh it's database.
There are three way to do so, just pick one of the following:

Reboot your phone

Use one of the multitude of apps that can force a rescan of the sd-card

Only for Android 4-7: Use the following ADB command-line (source):
adb shell am broadcast -a android.intent.action.MEDIA_MOUNTED -d file:///sdcard

Resetting MediaStore Database
Some times it can happen that the MediaStore database is corrupted. In such a case open the app info page of com.android.providers.media (enable "show system apps") and clear storage of this app. Afterwards reboot the device.
After reboot login using your password/pin/pattern so that you can see the launcher. Then leave the device alone to regenerate the media database. This can take some minutes or hours depending on the number of media files you have on your phone.
If that still not resolves the problem of missing files and folders then may be you have a corrupted media file on your phone that prevents further scanning of the media files. In such a case you first have to identify the corrupt file and remove or repair it.

For Android 8 and above that adb command would not work. See my answer https://android.stackexchange.com/a/200785/96277.

@Firelord Thanks for the info. If I draw the correct conclusion from your tests an Android 8 an updated app that sends this broadcast with an File object should work, right? And from my experience on Android 9 the MediaStore usually auto-updates the database so that there is no need for manually triggering an update.

Sorry, I can't interpret that conclusion for some reason, so can't comment on it. // I did come to know from you sometime ago that Android 9 automatically auto update the database so there is no need for a manual trigger. I had updated my answer there because mediaserver can be crased by an app (happened by an Xposed module) so an alternative solution was needed. In normal circumstances, yes, nobody would need to resort to command-line solution at all. So your answer is all good now. :)

Well rebooting used to do that on Android 7.

@Firelord how is this guy doing it so in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GitMOYdsA9I  where he shows here https://i.imgur.com/9gou0yT.png  windows explorer showing lots more folders than just DCIM and Pictures,  ?!

@barlop Android devices typically show all folders. Even modern Android 11 devices do. If your device does not show then something is wrong. Clear app cache of com.android.providers.media, reboot the device and wait some hours (depends on the number of media files you have).

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
I am unable to restore my whatsapp chats while switching to new phone
I switched to a new phone. I copied whatsapp folders- Database and media to the laptop. The database file has correct name as suggested by whatsapp faq- msgstore.db.crypt and it is version 12 only. But when i install whatsapp it does not take that local backup and asks to check google drive. I don't have backup on google drive.
Later i tried new idea- I disconnected internet after verification of mobile number and yes so it prompted - >backup found- Restore> i tapped restore, but still my chats didn't backedup, the restore processing also did not took lace, i turned on internet after tapping restore. what's the matter? please help. I have some really important stuff. You all are tech enthusiast here. i hope you can help me in this minor problem. I have local Backup, i have mobile, i have application. What else is needed??

Please try this step. Its just a test method, I hope this may work. Remove old copied folders from device uninstall whatsapp and remove whatsapp folder(keep it on another storage/USB etc ).  Install whatsap app on new device. after completing verification and all, it will create whtasapp folder. then copy old folders to exact folders that match with them. That means keep databases files on database folder. Then force stop whatsapp. clear all data. repeat initial processes and on complete I think you can see old items on your new device.

https://www.fonepaw.com/solution/transfer-whatsapp-messages-android-to-android.html, https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-get-my-old-WhatsApp-chat-in-my-new-phone

No, it doesn't work. whatsapp is not restoring messages even when it has found backup of 1.6 GB. 0 messages restored was written. it again and again prompts to check google drive. but i dont have backup on google drive. you alll are tech enthusiast please help. or if i put my old local backup in whatsapp folder and now tap backup after installing whatsapp. will it also backup this previous files or only the new chat?

Any Solution found?

not sure if you ever solved this or not but I have the solution.
First, lets call your original device, "Device A", and your new device, "Device B".
Device A should have all your local whatsapp backup files located in your internal device storage whatsapp database folder. Those files should have dates on them for the last 7 days (ex. msgstore-2020-03-08.1.db.crypt12).  Copy one of those dated files in Device A to another location (you could place it anywhere as long as you could retrieve it on Device B later. To be safe, choose a file date at least the day before you switched phones).
Now on Device B, go to settings Backup. Make sure you have Local Backup enabled (when enabling, it might look like youre enabling Google Drive backup but youre not, just follow the steps to back up to your local drive). To confirm you have back up enabled, go to your internal storage Whatsapp database folder in Device B, check to see if there is a msgstore.db file located there. If there is then you've got backup enabled on Device B.
Now uninstall Whatsapp on Device B. (This will not delete the internal storage local backup files on Device B, it will just enable you to run a restore which only happens during device set up).
Transfer the copied file you chose on Device A to a temporary random location on Device B for future retrieval (excluding the local database folder). On Device B, rename the transferred file to "msgstore.db" removing the date and leaving the crypt12 file extension part unchanged.  When renamed, the full filename should look like this "msgstore.db.crypt12".
Now browse to Device B internal storage whatsapp database folder. Delete all files in this folder. (There should only be one since youve only backed up the new whatsapp on Device B once, but if you've been backing up for a while and only want the backup from Device A then these backup files on Device B arent needed. If you want to keep them you can always save a copy of them elsewhere. For now we'll be replacing them with the renamed backup file from Device A). Next go to the temp location where you've placed the renamed file, and move it to the now empty Device B internal storage Whatsapp Database folder. There should now only be one file in Device B's whatsapp database folder which is your renamed file.
Next go to your playstore/appstore and install whatsapp on Device B. Make sure to provide the same phone number you had once registered on Device A. Once installed and number confirmed, it should automatically prompt to restore. Click to restore. When it asks to restore from Google drive continue clicking allow, yes and restore. (This part can be confusing since youre not restoring from Google Drive but when its past this it will see that there's no google drive to restore from and will automatically detect the local backup files instead). Click allow to access internal storage files. (This will allow it to find your recently renamed restore file).
Your whatsapp should restore now with all previous contacts, messages and everything else. Hope that helps.

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


text:
Bootloader/BIOS, flashing ROMs and related risks. Why are Android devices more brickable than PCs?
I have solid experience with installing different OSes (Linux, Windows,...) on PCs. I would like to try just for fun to install Linux on an unbranded Android low cost tablet acquired in 2015. I spent some time browsing the web and as far as I understand there is a risk that during the flash procedure the device could be potentially damaged. So I read extensively on how to backup the ROM using TWRP and all related matters. I would like just to have some explanations on the below topic:
Scenario #1:
I have a PC, if I want to try another OS I can just format the hard disk and install it, in no way is there a risk of damaging the BIOS or motherboard. Motherboard and hard-disk are separated, so no problems can arise.
Scenario #2:
I have a tablet, want to wipe out Android and install an upgraded version of Android or a Linux distro suitable for mobile devices.

Why in this scenario is there a risk of ending up with an unusable device?
Is this because in this case the motherboard and unit memory are bundled together? So wiping the memory would also erase the configuration settings of the motherboard?
Do we have here the equivalent of BIOS settings?

SHORT ANSWER:
Android phones are more brickable than PCs because they can hardly communicate with us if the bootloader is erased. And bootloader(s) live on Flash memory (eMMC) partitions which are prone to deletion quite easily (even during an update process). If you unluckily damage these partitions or they are worn out, there is a great chance you won't be able to communicate with device ever afterwards.
See Boot Process: Android vs. Linux and Android Device Partitions and Filesystems for details.
LONG ANSWER:
A device is considered bricked if we are unable to communicate with it. Now let's see how we communicate with devices at very lower level - say - when there is no Operating System installed or it gets corrupted/erased accidentally.
PERSONAL COMPUTERS:
There is a standardization in PC world. BIOS is a mature firmware that provides a well developed platform to communicate with the system. It has ability to enumerate the hardware i.e. load basic hardware including motherboard, CMOS/NVRAM, RAM, hard drive, optical drive, graphics card and screen, keyboard, mouse, network card, and other peripherals connected to USB.
During Power On Self Test (POST), BIOS identifies all above said hardware by communicating at all internal and external buses whose paths are hard-coded with BIOS, sending them a signal like who is where?
UEFI - an evolution of BIOS - overcomes the limitations of 16-bit operation mode and maximum 1MB RAM usage. It's a minimal OS in itself which can even recognize and use filesystems, providing a better user interface, more configurable boot options and support for larger disk drives.
After this initialization of system, BIOS/UEFI reads bootsectors/bootloaders from bootable media like hard drives, USB storage or even network. It means that a PC is able to communicate with us even if there is no hard drive installed; it'll inform us: No bootable media detected. It's because BIOS/UEFI is stored on Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM that evolved from ROM, PROM and EPROM) connected to motherboard. If you somehow manage to erase or damage this EEPROM, yes your PC will also be bricked but that's rare.
ANDROID DEVICES:
Now coming to Android devices, hardware components are not connected to motherboard through buses, instead the core components that include CPUs, GPU, RAM, Flash/eMMC (equivalent of HDD or SSD), WiFi and bluetooth module, USB connectivity, UART (serial ports), JTAG (a very lower level serial communication protocol), GPS, modems (for cellular connectivity) are all built on a single System on Chip (SoC). Most of these components are not discoverable by SoC firmware (roughly equivalent of BIOS/UEFI) unless a Device Tree is loaded by final bootloader (e.g. ABOOT) into device memory i.e. just before kernel (OS) is loaded. And if you have no OS on the device, you are just depending on the minimal communication protocols provided by bootloader(s). At this stage only a few hardware components (usually graphics, NAND and some way of serial communication) are working, and that too with limited functionality.
Manufacturers may provide protocols at pre-bootloader or bootloader level e.g. Download Mode (QFIL / QPST / Qualcomm HS-USB QDloader 9006 and 9008 modes; PS: I don't know much about MTK or other SoC vendors), Fastboot, Odin etc. But these - Service Modes; what they call it - are disabled by OEMs for security reasons and as a part of their business strategies. Some manufacturers allow unlocking these service modes at user's risk after special approvals. Some hacks may also be used e.g. finding some test points on main board, shortening USB wires, using JIGs etc.
Lower level communication protocols e.g. JTAG are for development purpose only and those are almost impossible to be discovered and used for repairing purpose, though the same would have been possibly used for initial writing of firmware (including bootloaders) to flash memory. Some hacking tools like eMMC Flasher boxes/adapters may also use similar protocols for IMEI unlocking and other "black" stuff ;)
Also there have been successful attempts to boot Android from USB / UART ports but that's very rare now a days and requires a lot of technical knowledge and hacking skills.
All of these methods used to unbrick devices are not officially supported by most of the vendors, vary from vendor to vendor (not standardized) and are poorly documented for end user's usage.
That's why Android devices (or generally saying devices with embedded components) are more brickable than PCs.

RELATED:

Can I flash Android on device with overwritten mmcblk0?

SOURCES:

Device trees I: Are we having fun yet?
Android vs. PC

See Also:

Why mobile phone manufacturers lock their devices?

How did you know these info ? Where can i learn more in detail about what you just wrote ? Are there books that describes how to rewrite the eMMC ?


text:
How to stop ads redirecting to Google Play store?
I have a similar problem to
How can I stop being redirected to the App Store/Google Store by dodgy ad-scripts?
however the solution provided there doesn't work:
I'm opening in-app ads on purpose for in-app rewards (freemium game), and some of them open the Play store after they finish playing. I want to continue seeing these ads, so I can't just block them, and redirecting to a web browser changes virtually nothing on the problem. Can I prevent those ads from sending me to the store?
I'm using an older Samsung Android, 4.4.4 according to the device.
I think a redirect tag would fit this question as well, but it doesn't exist.

I ended up installing Firefox to use as my web browser and my problem was solved.
The phone started asking which app to open the links in instead of opening the store directly.

Hi, while this might be a solution, I'm trying to understand the reasoning. The question is talking about in-app ads, not ads on websites. In-app ads are using web view/native component and it is possible to redirect to Play Store directly, skipping the browser entirely.

@AndrewT. While you're not wrong the solution proposed is in fact similar to what ultimately ended up happening for me, at some point the phone started asking which app to open the links in instead of opening the store directly. Either way, I have since switched devices and stopped experiencing the issue.

@MrRedstoner I see, thanks, looks like it's either "have multiple apps that handle specific links to prompt the user" and/or "reset the default app for handling Play Store links".

Here's a solution for Android:

Turn on the Pin windows feature. (For my phone, it's located in Settings --> Lock screen and security --> Other security settings --> Pin windows.)
When you're about to watch an ad for rewards, pin the app window.
Once the ad ends, it'll try to redirect to google store and fail. Then, you hit the back button, and voila: there's your in-app reward.


text:
How do I NOT install the apps that Google Play Store offers for review?
I have a new Nokia 3.1. It immediately wanted to download updates, which it did successfully. Now I have a notification that I can't get rid of to "Complete setup by installing apps". When I touch it, I get this:

I can't seem to deselect these. How do I NOT download them, and not be bothered by the offer any more?

Solution found.
Hold on the notification and turn off notifications from play store.

You can make that annoying notification go away by disabling the Android Setup app

Got to Settings/Apps and notifications
Tap "All apps"
tap ... in the top right corner and select "Show system"
Search "Android setup" and disable the app, the notification disappears right away, including the one in the settings menu.

Try to switch over to mobile data and reboot your phone. Maybe this will hold off the auto-download from wifi.
You can also stop your updates by disabling auto-update in "Updates" section of "My apps and games".

It happened in my Samsung A30s - Android 9.0.
I installed the recommended apps, the notification of Complete setup by installing apps gone, and I uninstalled them again.
I seems there is no easy way to get rid of that notification.


text:
How to Connect a MIDI Keyboard in Bluestacks android
Is there a way to recognise and use a USB MIDI keyboard (Akai mpk mini) with Bluestacks (Android VM for Windows)?
My Android devices recognise the MIDI keyboard correctly but Bluestacks does not.

I don't have any experience in using a USB MIDI keyboard on Android, but I remember on some Android devices (possibly Android 6.0 Marshmallow and above), the Developer options allow changing the USB configuration to MIDI. Also, could you [edit] and mention what you have tried to let us know and prevent suggesting the same attempts?

In my android phone it works correctly, in bluestacks vm it doesn't...

found a solution yet?

no i havent, but i use my phone and tablet with it


text:
How to find screenshots from PC?
I'm looking for a screenshot, which I can see in Google Photos under Device folders -> Screeshots.
But when I browse it from my PC (Windows 10), in DCIM folder I can only see Camera one (I read it should be Screenshots next to it).
Why is that? Is it possible that I don't have permissions to see it?

In my case screenshots were actually located under Pictures/Screenshots.
Yet for some reason this directory wasn't visible when I was connected in (I believe default) Transfer files mode.
When I switched to Transfer Photos (PTP) , the Screenshots folder became visible from file browser.
To change, I needed to click on notification USB for file transfer, which popped up on my phone.

Most likely if you switch back to "Transfer files / MTP" mode the screenshots will also be visible.

@Robert that is right, why is that?

This question is quite common. See for example my answer here.


text:
What happens to the encryption key on "Forget SD card" action?
Recently my SD card, formatted as internal storage, got inaccessible for the phone (Moto G5) for some reason.
If "Forget SD card" option was selected, does it wipe out the SD card encryption key from /data/misc/vold?
Does it make sense to root the phone and try to extract the key?

I never did that, but in my opinion key would have been deleted after forgetting SD card.

Possible duplicate of How to get Adoptable storage encryption key without root access after I "forget it"


text:
Enhancing PDF (handwritten text)
I scanned many handwritten sheets (written by using a pencil and scanned by using a PC software), and I'm wondering if there is a way to enhance the handwritten text quality: the text is grey and there is some colored figures.
My goal is to make the text darker.

Hello. Why don't you try enhancement before committing scan into a pdf? Enhancing images are easier than doing that to a pdf.

Hi, take note that questions directly asking for app recommendations are off-topic. Instead, we prefer the asker to just state the underlying problem that they want to solve and not putting any restriction for apps-only, so we'd appreciate it if you could [edit] the question, add some details and/or remove the restriction. Otherwise, you might be interested in our sister site, Software Recommendations Stack Exchange instead.

Hello @AndrewT. could you tell me if the edit is ok please?

Hi @Firelord that process requires more time; in a photocopy shop the scanning is done by using an automatic machine.


text:
I recovered some encrypted pictures, but I can't decrypt them
My girlfriend lost all the pictures from our holidays. She has a Samsung Galaxy A70. She had an external encrypted SD card on it. I managed to recover the lost pictures, but they are encrypted. Do you have any idea what I can do?
I've tried putting back the pictures, and then decrypting the SD but it doesn't work.

"I managed to recover the lost pictures, but they are encrypted" please elaborate

Thanks, of course. The phone simply deleted all the images from the SD starting January 1st. I recovered the files with Diskdrill. I can see the date and time when the picture was taken but can't open them.

adoptable-storage can be FDE or FBE

The encryption was the one that Android uses on the SD card.

sorry that is too broad. don't know what you have done, but most likely it's pointless

Cool, thanks. I have no idea which one of them I'll check that and edit the post. Thanks again.

This is one reason why I recommend not encrypting data unless you have a reason to do so.

@RockPaperLz-MaskitorCasket this is no different from the cases where a hard drive of a PC ends up corrupting very badly. The solution is regular and encrypted backups for both cases. It is not easy to do if one cannot afford additional offline/online storage, but it is reliable.


text:
Memory card is not visible
I was zipping a file on the memory card, but the process of zipping hangs, then the whole Android phone hangs, and I had to remove the battery. Now the memory card is not visible, I tried it on any other phone and there is the same problem.

Have you initialized the SD-card as portable storage or internal storage? If you have initialized it as portable storage try to read the card in an USB SD-card reader on a PC. If that does not work most likely the SD-card is defect and has to be replaced.

@Robert  An error while zipping the file appears to cause the memory card to be unrecognizable to any device. "If that does not work most likely the SD-card is defect and has to be replaced" It's hard to believe, but it seems like it just happened.

It is hard to believe because you have reversed cause and effect. The SD-card broke, therefore the ZIP operation hung (card does not answer on commands from phone), not the other way around. But as I wrote this is just a guess. The only reliable way to prove it is using a PC + USB SD-Card reader. Try to read the card and if this works try re-partition and re-format the SD-card.


text:
How to stop Samsung Galaxy S20 vibrating on resuming and entering lock mode?
My Samsung Galaxy S20 vibrates every time the screen times out and enters lock mode and vice-versa when I press the right button to exit the lock mode and start using the phone.
How do I remove this behavior?

its just a haptic feedback i guess. is it unbearable?

I understand, but it's my wife's phone and she's raising hell about it!

Someone here has same problem - https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/mobile-apps-services/need-to-disable-vibrate-on-lock-unlock/td-p/1849864
It is different phone but I guess you can try. It is basically suggesting to turn off NFC.
Usual method - Settings>Sounds&vibration. Find settings related to vibration and keyboard feedback. Tweak settings to your liking.


text:
How to make Joplin app in my Android phone read-only?
I am using Joplin note taking app both in my Ubuntu 20.04 PC and Android phone running Android 10. I sync my notes from both devices into my Dropbox account such that the notes are same in both my PC and phone. I edit and add new notes from my PC only and use my phone to only read the notes. But sometimes by accident, I end up editing or outright deleting my notes from my phone.
So how can I set my Joplin app in Android phone to read-only mode to prevent any accidental deletion or update?

There are multiple apps in Play Store named "Joplin". Please edit your question and include a link to the app in Play Store you are talking about.

@Robert most likely this one but it is best if OP links it themselves.

If this is about this Joplin app, the app is open-sourced. Perhaps you (or anyone) can make a feature request if this feature hasn't been implemented.


text:
Is it better to charge your battery above 50% or let it go down, technically speaking?
Following up on this question:
Is it better, when the battery is at 40% to let it drop (use the phone until it's 30% for example) or to let it charge to 70%?
As far as I understand 50% is the "ideal" situation, but is it better to be "overcharged" or "undercharged" (for maximum life of the battery)?

Most modern devices have circuitry and software controls in place to prevent over charging, over discharge, and over cycling (that's a thing too). This has been talked to death and unless you are doing things that cause it to overheat, normal use isn't going to be improved much by any technique that limits deep cycling. Those days are largely past us. That said, you can increase your batteries longevity by following some basic rules, but honestly in modern phones the gain is minimal. https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries

Things have improved a lot since this question was addressed 5 years go... Today these things are much less of an issue, even the batteryuniveristy article linked above is kind of outdated. Due to how phones charge today, slowing the charge as battery level increases, the detriment to the lifespan of the battery is greatly reduced by going outside of the 40-90 percent range because of better technology and better batteries. I don't know anyone who recommends anything except "don't let your battery go completely dead" if you can avoid it, and even then once in a while is OK


text:
How does a incoming call show my location?
I got a spam call on my mobile recently and while the phone was ringing, on the screen I can see my location displayed along with incoming person's name.
Why my phone was showing my own location for this particular call?
Does it mean that my phone is compromised or something?
Edit:
Just before the call, I was having a call with a scammer who was trying to trick me to enter my bank details through a phishing site (which I entered some random numbers, but correct phone number)

When many phones receive incoming calls, they display the incoming number as well as an approximate location of the incoming call, usually based on a table lookup for the country code / area code / prefix of the Caller ID of the incoming call.
The Caller ID data is easy to forge, so often scammers set it to match whatever location they are calling (by matching your country code / area code / prefix).  This way, when they call, it looks like a local call, and they believe you are more likely to pick up the phone.  But, in reality, they can be calling from anywhere in the world.
When they set their Caller ID to match the country code / area code / prefix of your phone number, your approximate location will appear on your screen because that is simply the location associated with that Caller ID data.
The best way I have found to circumvent their tactics is to get a phone number with a completely different country code / area code / prefix from where you live or typically travel and different from any of your close contacts.  That way, when an incoming call uses Caller ID data that is similar to yours, you quickly know it is most likely a scammer.

Most cell phone towers know and publish their exact location. If your phone is now in an area with multiple cell phone towers in reception range it is a simple mathematical task to triangulate your position based on the phone tower locations and the signal strength to each cell tower.
The more towers there are in reception range and the smaller the signal covering area of each cell phone tower is, the better the calculated location.
As modern 4G and 5G cells in city areas are getting smaller and smaller the calculated location can be very accurate nowadays.


text:
Is it normal for an Android OS upgrade to change bitness on an upgrade?
I support an Android app, that uses native files. (multiple APKs)
Some app setup is done on first startup, (which is different for 32bit + 64bit).
Recently I dealt with a bug report, caused by a users OS being upgraded from Android 7.1 to android 8.1. Surprisingly to me, the OS changed from 32bit to 64bit. I don't have direct contact with the user, so I don't know if this was the user manually upgrading the OS on a rooted device, or a standard OS upgrade.
Is this a normal thing that can happen for non rooted devices?

I don't think that should happen but isn't technically impossible. Some details in my answer to Could a 64-bit hardware device run a 32-bit Android version?

I was wrong about what was happening.
I was using a C#/Xamarin call to determine the OS bitness : "Environment.OSVersion.VersionString"
Which I mistakenly believed would tell me the os bitness rather than process bitness.
(I was already using IntPtr.Size to determine process bitness)


text:
WhatsApp keyboard smiley bug
I type with keyboard and after typing I want to add a smiley.
Then it looks like this:

bit annoying and only since some days
any idea to fix this?
EDIT:
also: menu key on i9300 shows menu up the keyboard
and if I click on the red underlined text (& this is directly up the keyboard) the correction drop down is under the keyboard overlay
Galaxy S 3 [i9300]
PAC ROM newest nightly

What's your question?

sorry, already edited

well, i think it was a ROM bug

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


text:
How to disable Android Wear's "Listening via TCP" notification?
I don't have an Android Wear, but I always get a notification from the Google Play Services app with this content:

Android Wear
  Listening via TCP on 127.0.0.1:5601

I want to disable this tracking. Any idea? Also, how is it tracking my phone?
Quick fix: stop the process.
rooted Device

Try downloading the Android Wear app. Open it up and see if it says Emulator Connecting in the top left. If it does, go to the menu and select Disconnect Emulator and then Forget Emulator. It worked for me. I was getting the same notification.

That did it for me. I accidentally enabled the emulator mode in the app, and uninstalled the app afterwards. Looks like the app enable some settings in the OS, which leave the emulator mode active even if the app has been uninstalled.

If you're rooted:

Download ROM Toolbox (paid app) and run the app
Open the App Manager
Select the Google Play Services package
Select Advanced Freeze
Scroll through the list of activities/services and disable all Android Wear items

I did this on my device yesterday because I was sick of having useless services running on my low memory device. Lo and behold, my device now has more free RAM and is working better in general.
P.S. Don't forget to do a nandroid backup first.

I have seen that when I had the Android wear app installed from the Google Play store. Check your app drawer and uninstall the app if it is there. You might have to restart the phone after. I can't remember if that is necessary or not,  probably not.

isn't installed | I've only a Chromecast

it doesn't work

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


text:
How to restore (mobile) data usage?
I've an S3 and until yesterday I've PACMAN ROM running - previous: Paranoid Android
I made a Nandroid backup, in using titanium backup but I've forgotten to save my mobile data usage.
Now I'm searching for an way to get it back (without restore the backup, if possible)
Is there any absolute path to a file?

This time the correct approach, hopefully:
XDA mentions the stats being located in /data/system/netstats/* (the statistic data you are looking for) and /data/system/netpolicy.xml (configuration of the applications that have restricted reference data).

thx - yes that looks good... - extracted the files - note only merging is missing.. :D

I wouldn't expect a merge functionality here. Those data are not intended to be dealt with this way :) So if my answer solved your issue, it would be nice if you could "accept" it (by hitting the check-mark next to it) – so it shows up as "solved". Thanks, and enjoy!


text:
After Firmware update keeps rebooting my galaxy s4
I recently updated my galaxy s4, and since then it keeps randomly rebooting. I have tried google for some solutions. I have tried a number of steps, such as taking battery out, clearing the cache, restarting the phone, deleting some recently downloaded apps but none of these steps have worked?
Does anyone else have any knowledge why this might be occurring? Or what I should do? Thank you.
Update 28/10/2014
After doing a factory reset the issue seems to have gone away, leading me to believe it must have been corrupted at some point downloading files/apps on to my phone.

I would do something else. Chances are high your firmware has an issue. Go to http://samsung-updates.com/, select your device and search for your provider. Download the full firmware (about 1.6 gb) unzip(only once). Get yourself Odin(its for windows only). Its on xda everywhere.
A wipe data and wipe cache from recovery mode would be helpful here.
Hold on power button and volume up fore a while to go there, navigate using volume buttons. hit ok using power button.
Put your phone in download mode. (Turn off, hold down power button and volume down for a while, hit power up when the message appeared).
Connect your phone to the pc. Odin should see it now. In Odin you have a bunch of buttons on the right, select the second from the top on the right there. Navigate to your unzipped firmware image. (A .tar.md5 file) select it. Hit start after the file loaded. Do not touch your setup during flashing.
Good luck!
Do not try to flash firmware that isn't designed for your phone. It can destroy it. (Worst case). You can hit getprop in a shell on the device to get all information about your device. The exact device type, firmware version, provider shortcut and so on.
Another approach is to use Samsung Kies. Kies allows you to do firmware updates and used to flash every system partition on the device, not just the changes as the ota does. If you already are at the newest firmware, it might not work cause there's no update.

there are about 10 different S4 devices with different hardware. For example GT-i9505, GT-i9506, SGH-i919, and so on. Just choose the right one.

I am unfamiliar with Samsungs recovery, but isn't there a way to wipe the phone from recovery? That might trigger Kies to try and download + install the update again.

I've been using it a lot, but i never saw a firmware wipe there. Just wipe user data and cache. But this will not trigger a kies reflash.

Your S4 firmware is corrupt some way.
You should head to XDA forums and see tutorial for S4 rooting.
Once you have read everything carefully and done all the steps correctly, you should install a custom rom for S4, since this would remove the random booting, if you haven't damaged the battery with water or anything.
NOTE! Rooting is very risky if you don't know what you are doing! Maybe one of your friends has a rooted phone? Ask them or read more about rooting in google.
Regards.

hmm i really wanted to avoid rooting it, i have never rooted before. But i guess if all else fails i will try it.


text:
What is the difference between USB charging and AC charging?
I've recently got hold on an HTC One X  having moved from an HTC Desire.
I noticed that my One X charges very slowly when connected to the USB socket on my PC, whereas the Desire was comparatively fast. When charging the One X from the supplied AC adapter the charge is very fast. So, I purchased a new Mains Adapter to keep in the office.
However, when connecting the phone to this mains adapter the device still says Charging : USB under the battery status tab and it isn’t as fast as I thought it should be
So, is there some difference between the supplied AC adapter and this third-party one I have purchased? Presumably the power supplied s not as high or is there something more?

I would guess the one connected via USB isn't giving off power more than the direct AC. That's the case as well for my Xperia so I assumed it's a normal thing.

To charge at the maximum rate, the charger must identify itself as a charging device by shorting two middle USB pins. This is in the USB specification. Proper chargers come like this. Other chargers can be modified to short the pins together.
I have personally modded a Griffin USB car charger in this manner. Before the change, it would charge in "USB" mode. After soldering together the two pins, the phone charges in "AC" mode.
One caveat: I have not done any tests to see if this changes the charging rate, but it certainly charges quickly after the mod. Everything I have read about this phone says that it will only pull 500 mA in "USB" mode.
References:
Wikipedia entry regarding USB charging spec. Look for the words "Dedicated charging port."
Amazon user review with instructions for modding a certain car charger.

Is there any reference that says they follow the USB.org charger spec?  Apple, Sony, and HP do not.  Do all HTC phones?

In fact the charging time depends on two points:

the output current of the adapter or the USB. The output current of the PC is only 0.5a, it may charge slowly than most of the AC adapters (most of the AC Adapters are 1A or more).
the input current and the charging convert rate of the phone. Different phones have different input current due to Limited current protection for them. For example, the limites current for Nokia is 0.5a, the input current is only 0.5a even you use an ac adapter with 1.0a output. Beside, the charging convert rate is also different according to the models.

Thank you. This suggests that there is a difference in power output between the third-party AC charger I am using and the HTC branded AC charger that came with the device. The third party says it outputs 1000mA, so presumably this will still charge faster than plugging into the USB socket.

@Rob: No, it will still charge at the slow speed. In "USB" charging mode the phone will only pull 500 mA.


text:
Droid Explorer cannot find device
As the title implies, Droid Explorer cannot detect my Samsung Galaxy Tab A.
I've enabled USB debugging and set up Droid Explorer with Android SDK Platform-Tools 28.0.1.
I can detect the device with adb devices which shows:
5200dfccec4a940d    device

I can send commands to it as well, running adb reboot will cause the device to reboot, but Droid Explorer still cannot detect it.

Solution: https://github.com/camalot/droidexplorer/issues/63

Droid Explorer is pretty old and unmaintained for years.
Some years ago Google changed the API of adb. If you are using a recent version of adb together with Droid Explorer which was developed for the old adb version this may end up in several non-functional features.
You should better check for an adb based tool that is still actively developed and maintained.

Do you have any suggestions? I'm just trying to view the root directory on my device. Thanks for the help.

Just use adb on the command line. This works without problems: adb shell -> cd / -> ls -l


text:
How do I diagnose the last shutdown? adb root?
Everything I've read indicates /proc/last_kmsg used to be how, however that seems to have changed with Android 6.0 (I'm on 8.1). I've also seen reference to /sys/fs/pstore/console-ramoops for Android 6.0+, but I have no file called that. I can't ls the directory either, because apparently I don't have root shell with adb.
I've tried adb bugreport, but that doesn't seem to contain shutdown logs.
I've tried adb root, but I get the message:
adbd cannot run as root in production builds

I have a Nexus 5x that is rooted, with TWRP and Magisk.
The only other suggestion I've seen is to edit '/system/build.prop' to include the line ro.debuggable=1, but I can't access that file either due to a lack of root access.
I've spent a week trying to sort this out. Surely it can't be this hard to find shutdown logs?

Persistent store doesn't exist on your device because your kernel isn't built with CONFIG_PSTORE_* options. Last_kmsg also works if phone isn't manually restarted. Yes, only on userdebug and engineering builds of ROM, adbd can run as root, not on user builds. In fact you can't do any reasonable debugging on non-debug ROMs without root access. Btw why are you looking for kernel logs? Are you building some ROM?

Why are you trying to read the shutdown logs ?
May be there's another method of diagnosis.
Have you tried logcat ?


text:
What does the charge counter in battery indicates?
I have used the adb shell dumpsys battery command on my phone. It delivers the following results (posted on the image). Most of the terms, I can understand but not the charge counter. What does it indicate and why does it decrease whenever I connect my phone to the USB cable? What is the significance of charge counter for battery?
I tried googling but cant find the answers.

I checked the Android source and the value shows your remaining battery capacity in microampere-hours.
BATTERY_PROPERTY_CHARGE_COUNTER
Added in API level 21

public static final int BATTERY_PROPERTY_CHARGE_COUNTER

Battery capacity in microampere-hours, as an integer.

Constant Value: 1 (0x00000001)

Source - Developer.Android.com

The temperature shows 350 is it in Kelvin or in other format. I have also another doubt lenovo vibe k5 note's output produces two presets and status. Does it mean it can hold two batteries?.

@BalaSubramanian the temperature is in tenth of a degree centrigrate. You divide it by 10 to get the celcius value. In your case it is 35 Degrees. The K5 doesn't seem to have 2 batteries, but maybe there's a difference in the way the system utlizies the battery cells. I don't have a clue about that.


text:
Skype not notify of new messages until it is opened
My Skype is not showing new messages or Skype call until I open it.
I have a Samsung J6+. It night be my fault due to changing many settings at once now causing Skype to behave this way. So it was with other chat messengers such as Wire and Whatsapp.
But I got Whatsapp working fine now, when i disable "data saver" feature under "data usage".
However Skype and Wire are not working as they should.
Can anybody please help by provide a list of possible settings and solutions ?
Thanks.

Have you exempted them from battery optimization? Check the battery settings for these two apps, exempt them, and see if this solves the issue.

i seached my phone setting area.. can't locate "battery optimization" setting. i saw that before, but i just can't find it now.

Go to System settings->Battery. Then tap on the 3-dot icon on the title bar, or press the menu button on your device. A drop-down menu will appear. There you can find a link for battery optimization.


text:
Huawei does not accept password to unlock
I have a Huawei tablet it was reset  now when i try to sign in with Google it gives me a message shown on the image.

What can i do? Thanks.

Bypass this via any box which support your tablet cpu ,
i.e > maricle ,umt,z3x,volkano box etc according to my knowledge you need to bypass FRP.

Please sign in using one of the owner's accounts for this device


text:
HTC One wireless hotspot not turning on
My HTC One won't turn on its hotspot. It always displays the message:

There is a temporary network problem that prevents the enablement of Mobile Hotspot function. Please retry later"

What can I do to turn it on?
I don't want to root my phone. The last time I tried, I crashed the phone completely

try to reset the network settings in the reset option in the settings.


text:
Can you limit Google Maps timeline for alternate accounts on your android phone?
I have multiple accounts on my Android phone, some shared with my kids.  I would like my location sharing to only be my primary account.  Is there any way to configure that?
One side effect, my son has his location shared with me.  But most often, when I look for his location, it shows where I am.


text:
How to Remove Old Email Accounts
So I just bought a new phone last week and I'm in the process of downloading all my apps and setting it up. I was trying to log into the Slack app when this pop-up appeared with a list of all the emails that I've ever used.
Half of them were old email accounts that I haven't used in a while and they ranged from Gmail to Yahoo to Outlook and even my old college email address showed up. Where are these emails stored and how can I remove them from my device?
I've wrecked my brain and could not figure this out. Any help would be appreciated!

Most likely Slack has stored them and they are connected to your phone number. Check your Slack account.

Hmm, I can't see how it could be tied to my Slack account since I only started using Slack last year. Some of the email addresses on that list are from 5 years ago. My phone number is also not tied to Slack.

From your screenshots, it looks like old logins saved in Chrome. If you've used Chrome to remember your login details for websites, that's what they'll be. They're synced across desktop as well as mobile Chrome installs via your Google account. The UI for selecting which login to use has changed recently, so it's natural that you might be surprised by it.
You can delete old login details from the Chrome settings, on PC or mobile. On Android, the steps are:

In Chrome, click the three dots button in the top-right
Choose Settings from the menu
Choose Passwords
Either turn off Save passwords to disable the feature entirely, or:

Click a site in the list
Click the bin/trashcan icon in the top-right to delete that password
Repeat that for all the old login details you want removed

You are a genius! I'm not logged into Chrome on my phone but I did go to Passwords Manager in my Google account and found the list of saved emails and passwords. Erased everything and viola!


text:
Possible hacking of my OnePlus6. Contacts disappearing under 'Speed dial'
The speed dial section in my One Plus 6, until now had a list of contacts who I used to call recently and/or contacts who I used to call on a frequent basis, never used to be a speed dial contact that I had manually added.
But now, all of a sudden, it's empty.
What can be the reason? Is there a good chance my phone is hacked?
Can someone please me

I doubt that your phone has been hacked. There have been other people complaining about the same problem has shown in the OnePlus Forum and even here. It must be a problem with the app itself. One simple solution will be to use another Phone app. Or if there is an update to the OS or Phone app, then update it to the latest version and check if the problem persists.

thank you so much! But how can I check if there are updates to the Phone App in particular?

Usually it should come with an update of the OS. You will have to wait for OnePlus to give an answer to the problem

If (and only if the answer) the answer is satisfactory, you ca mark it as "accepted" as shown here.


text:
Possible Virus? Link at the bottom of some messages
My friend is getting this Chinese writing at the bottom of the odd sent text message, only on very few texts. It seems to be a link to a website something like 11.am. I have used AVG, Malwarebytes and Kaspersky, and they didn't find anything.
Has anyone got any ideas?
Thanks

It is a website. It goes to a chinese casino webpage (or something like that). Anyway, because the text 11.am is written like that, without a space between the dot and a, it looks to see if it is a link, and since it is a valid link, it processes it as so.


text:
How to change the modified date of a file without root?
How do I change the modified date of a file, specifically PNGs, on Android without root?
Total Commander failed to do it with a permission error Access Denied.

SHORT ANSWER:
You can simply touch the file or provide any time and date in past or future:
~$ touch /sdcard/test_file
~# debugfs -R 'stat media/0/test_file' /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata | grep crtime:
crtime: 0x5c926e0d:2d61b810 -- Wed Mar 20 21:45:01 2019
~$ touch -d '2009-2-13 14:32:55' /sdcard/test_file
~$ stat /sdcard/test_file
[...]
Access: 2009-02-13 14:32:55.000000000 +0000
Modify: 2009-02-13 14:32:55.000000000 +0000
Change: 2019-03-20 21:45:38.067021025 +0000
 Birth: -

Some file explorers like MiXplorer also have options to change Modified Time.
You don't need super user privileges to change mtime. Only the file should be writeable by your user ID (app in case of Android).
DETAILS:
touch uses utimensat to update time of access (atime) and modification (mtime) provided that filesystem supports the timestamps be saved in inode along with file's data.
Birth/creation time (btime/crtime) - a part of extended file status which requires at least 256bytes inode size - is not standardized, thus rarely supported by filesystems. In above commands debugfs is used with root privileges to get creation time of file on ext4 because some stat binaries aren't updated to use statx yet (requires at least Linux Kernel 4.11), so btime is empty.
Both btime and change time (ctime; inode/metadata modification time) are supposed to be handled by system, not simply changeable by user.
Since Android is based on Linux, it inherits the concept of inode and timestamps from UNIX world. Common Linux filesystems like ext4 and f2fs support timestamps, including the emulated filesystems used by Android on SD cards. Other OS and filesystems have similar concept with slightly different terminologies. E.g. on Windows' NTFS, MFTEntry Modified time is very identical to UNIX's ctime.

touch -m wasn't working for me today where android phone is mounted using SSHFS on Ubuntu 16.04.6. However files copied to the phone OK. Most puzzling...

@WinEunuuchs2Unix that must be due to your SSHFS permissions (FUSE mount options). Android's emulated filesystem is quite tolerant. It even allows touch -d even if you are not the file owner (since all files in /sdcard are owned by root). On normal *NIX filesystems utimensat/utimes have strict permission requirements. Btw did you mount /sdcard or /data/media/0 on SSHFS?

This is most embarassing. Touch does work manually just not within my python program when file server touches phone. Touch phone to file server works. Grr three times I've run this two hour update over WiFi. Back to the drawing board. My Mount is: echo rick | sshfs -o auto_cache,reconnect,defer_permissions -o Ciphers=aes128-ctr -o Compression=no -o password_stdin -p 2222 rick@192.168.0.11:/ /mnt/phone File server mount is different defaulting to port 22 and not nearly as complicated.

I spoke too soon. Manually touch -m .... the files on the SDCARD no longer appears to work either. Definitely have some homework to do.

It appears it's a bug in Android where you can't set the modification time. Not just my version 6 but even version 8:https://freefilesync.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4311 The only option is to root the phone but I'm going to change my program instead to not sync to Android devices based on modification time. Such a shame a Linux system got crippled by Google in this fashion.

@WinEunuuchs2Unix interesting find. I've a few queries now. Did you try both paths (the emulated one /sdcard and the actual one /data/media/0)? Did you try on device too (e.g. through Termux or adb shell) on both paths? If the problem is only with emulated path, is it FUSE or sdcardfs? Did you try with root privileges too? Does the bug occur without -m -d too i.e. when changing both atime/mtime to current time? Can you share strace of failed command to figure out what syscall fails with exactly what error? Thanks.

I've actually moved on and created a file shadow system with the correct modification time. Other errors reported here: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/36930892 I tried root. I tried -m -d. Only using SD Card with fusermount. As I said it can write files no poblem. Untarring a file doesn't honor modification time, it gets curretn time. I tried access time and creation time as well.

BTW the phone is not plugged into my laptop or file server for that matter. It is running SSH Open Server (provided by Banana Studio) over WiFi. There is no /data/media directory or /run/gvfs (whatever) directory. It is mounted as if it were a normal drive like ext4 or NTFS or what have you. As I said I can copy a file to it and it gets current time. cp --preserve=timestamps is not honored. touch is not honored. The Android OS is simply broken when it comes to modification times.

Total Commander - file system - mark one or more files - long touch - properties - change the displayed date to what you need (there is also a "Now" button) - Save - voila !
BTW Total Commander is an excellent tool - in all areas and on all platforms !

Works great (Android 11)

I think the phone still needs to be rooted.  I tried this on a Moto and received an "Access Denied" error.


text:
How to record High quality audio in android?
I have tried many android application to record voice, but they're quality is not great, often it muffles the sound, as a result of forced noise removal.
But surprisingly, the video recorded from the stock camera records much much high quality sound(no distortion).
So is there is anyway to utilize this fact?
The device is a Asus Zenfone Max pro M1 (ZB601KL-4H070IN). Android Version: 8.1.0

What is the model of phone? Android version?

Asus Zenfone Max pro M1 (ZB601KL-4H070IN). Android Version: 8.1.0


text:
I cant get my GBoard back to "normal"
For some reason, my keyboard now looks like this, and I cant get it back to normal with normal shift key function and auto correct and word suggestions. Yes, I went into the keyboard options and turned these things on. Still not working.

You are accidentally on the PC version. On the keyboard, just follow these steps and you'll get back your previous version.

Click on the setting option on the left corner
Click on languages (image 1)
There you have keyboard languages and layouts click on the English US (PC) (image 2)
First click on qwerty if not checked and select done (image 3) after checking it then swap to the right you'll find the PC double click it and touch done on the bottom right (3rd and 4rth image)
-Your setting changed now to the previous one :)

here are the screenshots


text:
Android applications privacy and security concerns
If a user wants to install some applications from play store, is it sole responsibility of the user to decide whether the apps may harm or not? Should the user be worries regarding permissions? For example, if an application asks permission to read contacts, can user be assured that it does not misuse that permission (like, sending to third party)? How google regulates applications and prevent malicious applications? Are all play store applications safe?

Good question, but hard to answer.

Agree to blogger. The Play Store apps aren't safe, because Google can't scan apps to determine if they send your contact "home", but if you download often used apps you are safe. Normally the Android community find this out and downrate the apps.

@Leandros: Nix 'safe', and replace with 'probably safer'.

@david6 Sure, your're. WhatsApp is the living evidence. ;)

In short: You can't be assured that an app won't phone home without further steps. Not on Android nor on iOS, period. If you want to minimise your risk, only install official Play Apps through the store itself, see their permission grants upon install and stick only to popular/high volume apps or to big publishers.
Google's Play store is less curated than Apple's one. Additionally, Android allows to access much more APIs than iOS does (e.g. replacing the keyboard or stock SMS app and so on). Also Google allows you to install apps from other sources in contrast to Apple. Most people see this as more freedom (not meant cynically) while it has its drawbacks.

In early 2012, Google announced its Bouncer, an internal Google Play malware scanner service that all submitted apps have to pass before they get published.
Starting with Android 4.2 Google also announced an option to have all installed apps remotely checked for malware by Google (regardless if from Google's Play store or not).
While I personally don't like them (for their bloat and battery sucking), you can install AntiVirus software like Avast. For improved battery, switch off everything realtime and only have it scan newly installed apps.

If you're rooted you can do more:

Install an outbound per-app internet firewall (DroidWall)
Control/withdraw permissions (LBE, Privacy Blocker, PDroid, Permissions denied)
Install an ad blocker (AdAway)

Nice answer... There can't be better answer than this.

Possible duplicate: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/7079/are-the-apps-safe-how-can-i-make-my-android-more-secure/19110#19110

It might be worth noting that there have been proof-of-concept attempts to circumvent Google's Bouncer to get malicious apps into the Play Store.  How much of a risk this presents is another question.

I know. See Jon Oberheide's blog entry on duosecurity

Answer, no. Not all play store applications are safe.
The reason behind this is that Google does not screen apps entered to the Google Play store - they just appear, with no verification process.
It is the responsibility of the user to judge whether or not an app is safe to install - and the permissions help you with that.
If you have an app that is a calculator, you would be wise to be suspicious if it asked for the read sms permission.
So, there isn't a way to tell if it misuses the permission or not - and those are the risks.
Google does delete apps from Google Play from time to time, however it is never publicized when they do, and it is normally because they are:

Viruses
Go against their terms
Hacking tools

So the only thing you can do is use your common sense.


text:
Can you use the Nexus 4 without a SIM card?
I currently have an iPod Touch, I want to buy the Nexus 4, but don't want to get a plan (SIM Card) for a while. Will the device work like an iPod Touch/ Wifi capable, but no access to data away from Wifi/Call/Text.

Why not a Nexus 7 then?

Yes - all android devices will work without a SIM card, and can be connected to wifi for an internet connection.
EDIT: Just so people know, there is a setting in the build.prop file that determines whether or the not the device can be used without a SIM or not.
Most of the time this is set to allow it, however in rare cases it may be disallowed.

Yes, I was about to do that. I had to wait a few minutes, and then I forgot.

Not to worry ;) I shouldn't have posted that comment!

I've been using mine for 3 days now without a SIM as I wait for one to come in the mail, confirming specifically for the N4.

Yep. I can now confirm, I got mine, works great without a SIM card.

Some Android devices, mostly older ones, and CDMA2000 devices, will attempt to let you not use them without activation.
Usually the 'provision' application has a secret code that can bypass the 'mandatory' activation - e.g., on the Motorola Droid 2 Global it's upper left corner, upper right corner, lower right corner, lower left corner (the lower corners being ABOVE the software buttons, not the absolute corner of the screen) - do that and you can use the phone unactivated (for battery life considerations, put the phone in Airplane mode).
Newer devices, including the N4, should just let you skip the activation altogether; a lot of the Google applications will continually beg for Google Credentials, however, if you don't log in.

Thanks for your comment as well. Very interesting. Anyway, I watched an unboxing and saw the guy skip the SIM card insert, and it was working, so I now know that it does work. I just didn't have time to check, as the Nexus 4 sold out VERY quickly.


text:
Are Nexus the only one that receive OS update directly from Google and not from Telecom / Phone Manufacturer?
According to a comment made to this article as shown below:
They already do that. Its called the Nexus One, secondly the Nexus S, and thirdly, now the Galaxy Nexus..... they all receive OS updates directly from google.
Is it true that there are only 3 Android phones that receive the latest OS updates?

Nexus One
Nexus S
Galaxy Nexus

The rest will have to wait for their Telecom or the phone manufacturer for the latest Android OS updates?

Also the Nexus 4 phone (by LG) and the two tablets: the Nexus 7 (Asus) and the Nexus 10 (Samsung).

@Jack They definitely receive the latest updates the quickest compared to other phones or tablets - which makes sense really

Yes and No. There are Nexus/Google devices that are nevertheless branded by the carrier and therefore receive a different ROM then the stock ROM. This usually takes longer then the stock ROM.
But yes, besides of that, the Google manufactured branded devices are the only ones who receive the updates directly from Google. All other devices get their updates from the manufacturer and/or the carrier.
Oh, and the Nexus One won't receive Android 4.2 (officially). Plus, no one gurantees you that your non-Google device will get the latest Android version. That's a big advantage when buying a Nexus device: It will be up to date for a while.

can I interpret "will be up to date for a while" -  as long as present hardware supports future software demands? Or something else a prospective Nexus device owner should be worried of?

No, hardware support is no criterion if there will be a official update. It's up to the manufacturer if he is willing to put the time and money in a update or if he is just "phasing out" the device. But the Nexus devices are the one who will get a update most likely and early. There is nothing to be worried of.

Yes. Its because they are Google branded devices.
Google only develops android OS for devices which is under Google Brand. i.e. compatible with those Google devices hardware.
Other phone manufacture will create similar OS versions for their devices with different User Interfaces and with more/less add-ons and functionalities.
Or they just port Pure Android Open Source code to their device(Pure Google experience).
And also there are so many Custom OS available. And you can flash it in your device( in your own risk).

This isn't quite correct. Google develops Android with the intention of it being used on devices made by other companies, and the other companies use the same OS, with a few new drivers (presumably) and some added crapware.


text:
How do I access the reflow mode on Adobe Reader?
How do I access the reflow mode on Adobe Reader for Android?

At Adobe Reader click on top part of screen, then you will see top toolbar. At toolbar you need 4 button from right corner of toolbar.


text:
How to enable silent mode during calendar events?
I'd like to disable all notification sounds whenever there is a current event in Calendar. How can I do this automatically?

Llama will let you do this, and it is free (Tasker costs money). It has many of the features as Tasker and Locale, and it can even use Locale plugins. I have grown fond of this app and have set up many automated events.
To do this in Llama, you create two events and two profiles.
Profiles

Create a new profile and name it something like "No Notifications". Uncheck all of the volume options except for Change notification volume. Set the volume level to 0.
Create a second profile and name it "Normal". Again, uncheck all volume options except for Change notification volume. This time, set the volume level to whatever you want, like 5/7.

Events

Create a new event.
Under Actions, click Add Condition and select Calendar Event. Use the defaults.
Next, click Add Action. Select Profile and choose your silent profile.
Create a second event. This one will be the opposite of your first event, so change the condition of the calendar to "Event finished/Not current event" and set the action profile to your normal profile.

The developer of Llama is still working on it and adding new features, and you can get details here.

This is, in fact, what I ended up doing.

Tasker will do this for you. It allows you to automate tasks when certain conditions are met (and is a truly awesome app). Tasker works by monitoring Contexts and then performing Tasks when those contexts match the conditions you set. Contexts and Tasks are grouped together to create Profiles.
You can set up a Tasker Profile with the Calendar Event Context (set to whatever conditions meet your needs, e.g. "From my Google Calendar [Calendar]," "When event shows me as [busy]," and/or "With title [Title]") and a Task containing Silent Mode > On.
You can find more information about Tasker from the Tasker Homepage and from the Tasker Wiki.

You can try Silent!. It's a very easy app to put your phone insilent mode.
It has a schedule plus a white list (to prevent you from losing important calls). It also has a location option; so it turns your phone to silent mode only if you're in a specified place.
It's very simple to use and doesn't need a lot of configurations to work.

I wrote an app, Free Busy Silent Mode which will be useful. Very minimal configuration needed, you just need to pick which calendar account to sync, that's it.

That link is dead

I've defined a custom flow in automate app from llama.
I use location based rules in combination with my calendar like:
At work, set ring tone to low level
At work and occuring meeting, enable do not disturb profile
Etc.
Works pretty well!

OP wants to permanently disable those, not just in specific locations. Do you suggest to permanently enable DND mode then? Doesn't sound like a suitable solution to me. Your answer is fine, but it doesn't fit the question I'm afraid…

I also wrote an app Polite which allows you to pick keywords in your calendar events

I do not know why this answer is voted as not useful. The idea in the app is very good and has a very good aspect easy to customize. Unfortunately, there seems to be a problem with recent versions of Android that stops this app frequently and so it renders the app useless. This may be the reason.


text:
Battery drops 20% after reboot!
Battery on Samsung Galaxy S2 on ICS likes to drop after reboot. Actually it happened when I was on Gingerbread as well. Anyone can help me fix this? Screenshots:

Its likely because there's huge amount of R/W & CPU activity at the time of Reboot..

How do I find the culprit.?

I have the same problem. @SachinShekhar: This is obviously a bug. I've seen drops from 80% to 20% with just a reboot. No matter how R/W intensive boot might be, it doesn't explain this. Strange thing is, in my case reported battery capacity usually increases after the reboot, without being connected to charger. But, though there is actually plenty power left, my phone will switch off Dropbox upload and misc sync, because it thinks battery's almost drained.

There is no easy way in finding which process consumes your battery. The battery monitoring tool in Android is not active during boot, so anyone wanting to know what's happening will have to make deep hackings in the Linux kernel and Android init scripts. I don't even believe you have a rooted phone or have a Android AOSP sources snapshot somewhere to hack into.
Also I believe that the battery estimation mechanism is somehow fooled at startup. Because it has no previous data to compare to (N is estimated depending on the value of N-1). So the level you see right after bootup is probably wrong. That's why you see the level strangely increasing although no power source was connected in the meantime. To what extent is this level wrong? Question without answer I think.
I have an easy solution though: stop installing apps that make your Android crash or need (stupid) reboot :-)


text:
How does Cloud message services reach devices behind NAT / firewall?
Getting push notifications with devices with a local IP works fine. I just wonder how is that it works.
Is it just uPnP? The device starts communication with the cloud messaging service and then IGD kicks in? So the mapping remains
Does the push notification client keeps a constant connection to the cloud server? I would like to think that is not the case.
I am interested specifically in how the push notification knows how to reach the device given it is behind a NAT or firewall. Is there a scenario where Google push notifications would not be able to reach a device?

As you might imagine, Google is pretty quiet with regard to its implementation details. So I'll just describe this in the general case and in a very basic form.
The way push is done is that the client (i.e. the phone) opens a TCP connection to the messaging server (e.g. Google). This connection is meant to remain open for as long as the phone is turned on. Fortunately a TCP connection uses absolutely no bandwidth when it's not transmitting anything, so it doesn't waste a lot of data, the radio transmitter can power down, etc.
The connection can remain open indefinitely, however behind a NAT, the NAT infrastructure keeps a table of open connections that it is handling, and drops connections that have been idle for some time, usually 10-15 minutes. Neither end gets notification of this. So this is handled by sending a TCP keep-alive packet which refreshes the entry in the carrier's NAT connection table. This only costs about 50 bytes or so, and only needs to be done every few minutes.


text:
How to find google account of locked phone we found to return it to owner
We found a phone in the park and would like to return it to the owner.

Samsung Galaxy S10
Battery was dead
Charged the phone, its locked by pin code, not registering on network
Took off SIM card and installed to another phone to wait and receive a call from someone/owner
SIM card not registering in the network, looks like it was locked/reissued

Is there any way to find Android or Samsung account tied to this phone, so we can send an email to owner to return it?
Thanks.

There was this question once where I asked the OP to check if the stolen phone's SIM card had any useful contacts. It had. Did you check the contacts in the SIM and is it also a dead end?

Now, this would not be possible for everyone to do, but if you ever happen to find a lost item somewhere and if you somehow has a pen and paper or can quickly arrange it, write your contact information (try using Firefox Relay to prevent abuse of email by any random person who might want to send you an email) on it and leave it there. Even though the hope is very feeble a lot many folks try to retrace their path when they have lost something in the hope that their item just might still be lying there. Your paper can give them the right hope.

@Firelord good point, i didnt check any contacts on SIM card, will try to. however, modern phones typically don't keep anything there....

If possible, you can try creating a open access wifi (no password needed) and keep the device in its range. Don't setup any captive portal. See if the device gets automatically connected to it. For howsoever long you can afford to, keep the wifi open so that the owner has the chance to locate the device on their Find my phone web interface. Some routers allow hosting both a protected and open wifi access and limiting access through MAC (just saying if you have a neighbor who might abuse your open wifi).

It's definitely mine... send it to me. ;)  Just kidding, of course, but I wanted to say that I think it's really great that you want to return it to the owner.  A few years ago, I returned a nice phone I found to its owner, and I know it really made their life a lot easier.

Keep mobile charged. Owner may send message or call. Try to restore mobile, it ask for google account. May be you can see email id.
Find IMEI number, contact service center for owner or police station for lost complaint.
Try to backup mobile use adb of usb debugging is on. You can find some contact from mobile.

adb backup won't give anything useful if the device remain encrypted. Also, it would frustrate the user to make sense of backed up data.

Owner can't call or send message since phone can't register in cellular network and apparently can't connect to wifi as well.


text:
Bootloader wont unlock on Google Pixel 2 (G011A)
I'm trying to root my Google Pixel 2 but I can't get the bootloader unlocked.
The phone is a renewed and unlocked international version, model number G011A.
From the bootloader screen, and connected to the computer, this is the result from the following commands:
fastboot flashing unlock

FAILED (remote: 'Flashing Unlock is not allowed')
fastboot: error: Command failed

fastboot flashing unlock_critical

FAILED (remote: 'unknown command')
fastboot: error: Command failed

It is communicating with the device:
fastboot devices

{{device serial number}}         fastboot

and unlocking the bootloader seems to be enabled on the phone
fastboot flashing get_unlock_ability

(bootloader) get_unlock_ability: 1
OKAY [ 0.000s]
Finished. Total Time: 0.000s

I've tried using a Windows 10 laptop and an Ubuntu laptop, both with the same results. I read that USB ports/cables can be problematic, so I've tried all the USB ports on both laptops using two different cables with the same result.
On the phone itself, developer options are enabled, USB debugging is enabled, and OEM unlocking is enabled.  Curiously, OEM unlocking becomes grayed out and disabled after enough failed attempts, but I've been fixing this with a factory reset.
The Android version is 11, build RP1A.201005.004A1
What am I missing here? Why wont this bootloader unlock? Thanks!

Note: the 'flashing unlock' command is only available with fastboot version 23.0.1 or later. The latest available version of fastboot can be downloaded from SDK Platform Tools - update fastboot version and try // Also fastboot flashing unlock_critical should not be used on your device, it's only for 2XL

it seems that more and more OEMs follow Huawei philosophy, some people reported for Samsung and Oppo devices not unlockable after 7+ days

@beeshyams I should have said, my fastboot version is 30.0.5-6877874. If fastboot flashing unlock_critical is not the correct command, what is? The XDA tutorial says they use the same command. https://www.xda-developers.com/how-to-unlock-bootloader-and-root-the-google-pixel-2-and-pixel-2-xl/

@alecxs I'm not sure what you're saying. Its an unlocked Google Pixel 2, so it should be able to have the bootloader unlocked. Its not as though Google is not allowing flashing of its own Android devices.

not for verizon, sprint, etc https://android.stackexchange.com/q/232947/

"It should also be noted that many if not most Pixel phones that are advertised for sale as 'unlocked' phones are in fact simply 'carrier unlocked' phones" https://support.google.com/pixelphone/thread/53018654

@alecxs I don't think that applies here, since get_unlock_ability command says its its able to be unlocked, and the OEM unlock in the developer settings is also enabled.

that description claims only OPD3.170816.012 is unlockable (and very rare). However, this post is contradictory

I just wish I could find someone who figured out a work around.  From what I have read Google has intentionally blocked the change of bootloader lock.
https://support.google.com/pixelphone/thread/14920605/google-refurbished-pixel-2-is-always-defective-bootloader-unlock?hl=en

please note link-only answers are discouraged. As you are the author of that link please copy+paste OP here in addition to your link

While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference.  Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. - From Review


text:
How can I direct all network traffic on my devices to 127.0.0.1 with a specified local port on an ssh that I setup on a separate android using termux?
So far, I have only been able to do the following steps:
Install openssh on termux.
pkg install openssh

Then I turned on hotspot on my phone.
Then I found the phone's IP address using ifconfig which was 192.168.126.176 and user name by whoami which was u0_a195 on termux.
I setup the password on termux by typing passwd.
Then I ran sshd -dD on termux.
Then I connected my Windows 10 PC WiFi to the hotspot and opened CMD.
ssh -D 8123 -fqgN u0_a195@192.168.126.176 -p 8022

I typed up the password that I already setup to ssh in.
From here nothing else happens on the CMD
In termux, it said accepted password for u0_a195 from 192.168.126.69 port 60353 ssh2
Then I go to settings on windows10 global proxy settings and select manual proxy.
I set it up as 127.0.0.1:8123
I then tried to connect to the internet on the PC but it didn't work.
What am I doing wrong?

Network troubleshooting goes in steps. First do ping 1.1.1.1 from Termux. Then login to ssh shell from Windows and ping again. If both work then problem is on your Windows side.

SSH port forwarding is for forwarding TCP connection(s). A forwarded TCP connection is not a proxy. You need to install and run a proxy on your phone, otherwise you can't use it as proxy. An HTTP proxy uses special commands that only a proxy understands, therefore you can not simply format a TCP connection. Please see also this very similar question: https://android.stackexchange.com/q/234655/2241

thank you I got it to work by setting up a shadowsocks server on my phone and connecting to that server from my PC and setting the PC's global proxy to localhost:(shadowsocks port).


text:
How to record my calls on Nexus 4 with Android 4.4.2?
I've got a Nexus 4 with Android 4.4.2 and want to record my voice calls.
My first idea was to simply use a recording app, so I've tried a whole bunch of call recording apps, but none of them work. They only record my voice, not the other side. Or they require the speaker / handsfree mode in order to record the other person (and then still sounds like crap).
After some reading it seems not all phones/models support full 2-way voice recording. However I did read some claims about people pulling ot off on Nexus 4 (although it's not clear to me if this necessarily involves rooting and/or custom roms, which I'd rather avoid).
Is there ANY way (preferably without rooting) to do proper 2-way phone call recording on a Nexus 4 running Android 4.4.2?

Try Easy Voice Recorder. It works for me (Nexus 4, Android 4.4.2 without root).
When you have root privileged, it is much easier. But without root, I don't know any apps that can record the other side in a way that you can hear him "clean". But as I said, Easy Voice Recorder did a very good job for me. Not perfect (crystal clear), but good (I can here the other side in the record without any issues).

Yes, actually I always use Easy Voice Recorder for normal audio recording. Great app. But it doesn't really work with phone calls for me. I tried it, and although it does record something when the other person talks, but it's extremely low volume and very noisy/compressed/disturbed. I've even tried recording at highest quality (PCM or highest AAC)  and post-processing the resulting audio file, boosting the volume 100x (by 10,000%), and then I hear something, but it's still mostly unrecognizable.

The best advice i can give you is to root your phone, i don't know of any app that equals the quality from a an record app with root privilege.

Rooting the phone will make no difference to voice recording incoming/outgoing calls as that is walled off from the proprietary telephony chipset used and hence no one has actually done that for that very simple reason. And to record the other end is totally grey area, the person would have to give you consent to do so, IANAL but broach this carefully.

2-way call recording on Nexus 4 is disabled by the manufacturer.
If you have root, try Jit Call Recorder, it records both sides of the call very well

CallRecorder from XDA this is the only APP that allowed me to record my conversations properly, I own a Samsung SGH-i537 (S4 Active) and Samsung decided not to allow native recording for it, so you HAVE to root your phone before installing this APP (in the link there's a trial version so you can see if it works on your phone).

I updated my Nexus 4 from Android 4.4.2 to 4.4.4, 5.0, 5.0.1 and 5.0.2. From my experience only Boldbeast Call Recorder (Play Store) works well for all these Android versions.

I tested Boldbeast Recorder (the special version provided by the developer). This is a free app, and it works very well for my LGE Nexus 4. It records calls perfectly in two directions.
Have a look at what settings you should use in the app suggested by the developer.
Link to the XDA post

Just install the Total Recall call recorder application on your Nexus 4 smartphone.

Call recording for non-rooted phones seem to only work with the Mic mode, when your speaker is on. This makes your volume not so clear. I tested this with Automatic Call Recorder.

Apparently you need hardware support in your kernel and root access for line recording. Otherwise you're stuck with mic recording, which only picks up your voice (at least on my Nexus 4)
The only one that worked for me was this "Call Recorder" app. It costs $10 and requires root access, but it does a pretty good job. There's a trial version link on the Play page, you might want to try that and see if it works for you.

Try this android call recorder, Which i had found in
 XDA Forum

authors: Татьяна Манылова


text:
How to Stop apps from waking other apps?
I've been running xposed on my galaxy note 2 with 4.1.1. I have greenify enabled as well as android tuner with perms blocked.  Also,  I have everything scrambled with xprivacy. I have facebbok selected for hibernation.  Everytime I open Plume, I noticed that facebook app comes out of hibernation.  I had this same problem with "Keep" months ago,  but was able to cut the directory path through greenify. I don't see that option anymore.  I have gone through and set everything I can think of to stop this,  yet facebook still wakes when I launch Plume. Also  whenever  I use  SwiftKey (which is everytime I enter text!) it also wakes Facebook.

This is in essence working against the Google cogs' planned L app integration/cross-communication. Integration is usually good/well received.
My first guess is that you have swiftkey set to sign in with facebook and possibly have plume (twitter) linked with facebook. Try to revoke these permissions first to see if it fixes the problem.
One thing that may help you is to get rid of the android facebook account and instead either rely on using the browsers mobile facebook page, or sign in every time. I'm not sure how much this path would muck up facebooks usability.
Another option is to set up automated facebook freezing: How can I automatically freeze and thaw an app on demand?
Freezing is one step beyond hibernation and no app link or background process can thaw without deliberate action.

I don't sign in to apps with facebook, never trusted facebook in that way.  But since posting this thread,  I did uninstall facebook and go with firefox mobile sign in. That works,  it's a few extra steps, but it's been fine for the past few weeks.  I never thought of freezing with titanium though! I didn't even realize titanium's widgets were that versatile. I just tried it out on plume. I may even reinstall fb and swiftkey and "keep" now. Thanks


text:
Samsung "My Files" Downloads folder corrupted on non-rooted phone
On my Note 9 unrooted phone, for whatever reason, if I delete files from the "Downloads" section of the My Files app, these files (or references to them) aren't completely removed.  A residual "0 byte" file with no name and a time date stamp of "December 31, 1969 4:00pm" is leftover. Also, these residual files can't be moved or deleted.
This Downloads section seems to have a relation to the /emulated/0/Download/ folder... although, not the same thing. If I delete the "Download" folder, the "Downloads" section remains unaffected.
In the Windows OS world, I would just run chkdsk to quickly fix the corrupted file indexes on the file system. However, I'm not sure what the equivalent is for an unrooted Android OS.
Things I've tried:

Wipe the cache partition
Delete the /emulated/o/download folder and recreating it again.
Force Stopping the My Files app, clear cache, clear data.  This is supposed to be similar to clearing the app cache for 'Media Storage' app on non-Samsung Android devices

I REALLY don't want to factory reset my phone, considering how much time I spent configuring all my applications... unless I have absolutely no choice (and know for sure it would fix this issue).  This issue is completely over my head.  I'm hoping an Android expert will know what to do in this case without having to do a factory reset.  Maybe, I can do something via ADB shell?

There is an app named Media storage in Android OS that stores the database of files and folders in the storage of your device. Looks like there is some problem with this app, so you need to clear it's data and cache.
To do that, go to System settings->Apps, click on the menu button (3 dots) then click on Show system. Then, in the apps list, you can find an app named Media storage. Click on it and clear it's data and cache. See this screenshot :

Thanks so much.  However, I dont have that app listed on my phone's apps:  http://oucvlq.dm.files.1drv.com/y4pxoa1SpKM_c921ZWAOD6DNrGaTwiq-LC-bcg1DBufWvcvAN6Oe6Npif88RmUP8CtsaLoHIsTFscL69LZuFeLfDeVQddFK8oUtLFo0yt0yyzwC-erNcSZxOhhcUxTjMNejauHUOabKGFdgwC7Exhe2Z4Piw8IrbItHJEn6cPLLTbVVBbMjVldNdydHw4ZSedUXdoMG3YFbUbSYZnZhr9Odqw9Im7JYJnqc-jRaQXZZ2N4

Could I download it, install it, and then do it?  Would it be compatible with my Samsung Note 9 with Android Pie 9?  https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/media-storage/media-storage-9-2-release/media-storage-9-2-android-apk-download/

Samsung's version of "Media Storage" IS the "My Files" app.  Unfortunately, deleting the app cache and app data for this app doesn't resolve the issue.  There are still strange files in the Downloads area.  In fact, sometimes the My Files app itself crashes if I go into the Downloads area.

Media storage is a system app, so it is pre-installed in the OS, you can't download it.

After clearing it's data and cache, have you rebooted your phone?

Have you tried any third-party file manager app?

Yes.  I've rebooted my phone after clearing the app cache and app data for the "My Files" app (Samsung's replacement for Media Storage).  Not sure what else to try.

According to me, Media storage app is present in every version of Android. The link which you provided me about your screenshot, I have understood that you haven't clicked on Show system option. Tap on the 3 dots icon at the top right part of the screen and click on Show system.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

I had this problem, and somehow managed to delete the 0b file in my download folder (dated 1970 for some reason?) using a cleaning app called "SD maid".


text:
Disable part of a touchscreen from taking phantom touches
I have a 10.Or G android Oreo device

Resolution: 1080x1920
Density: 480

This question follows up from here
I'm having problem with lots of ghost touches in the very top 5 mm bar of the screen where touches will register almost 20 times in a minute. Doing the overscan doesnt help at all, because touches will still register, so I am looking to resize my screen with:
adb shell wm size 1080*1820

I dont know what to do from here because I'm receiving error:
Error: bad size 1080*1820

Help will be greatly appreciated.

You need to use x not * in the command.

You can use the overscan subcommand instead of size for achieving your objective.
The syntax is adb shell wm overscan left,top,right,bottom, where left, top, right and bottom are the coordinates relative to the actual edges of the screen.
So, in your case, you should write adb shell wm overscan 0,100,0,0, to get a resolution of 1080×1820, as you have mentioned above.
Explanation: This will set your device's screen bounds to 0px from the left, 100 px from the top, 0 px from the right and 0 px from the bottom. See this image:

Thank you, the command is working, but this command reduces my screen size evenly from the top and bottom halves, after applying 1080x1820, the screen moved down by 50px from top and it moved 50px from bottom. since the area that causes the phantom touches is the top most part, is there a way to just restrict the top 50px , and save my screen real estate?

That is quite normal. The screen size will get distributed evenly across the bounds of the screen. See my edits for the solution.

I have used the exact overscan command you have mentioned (you can see the attached link in question) but the overscan did not stop the phone from taking touches, that's why i was inclined to stop the top 100px from taking any touches. Again, help will be appreciated.  Please refer to the question link given in my question.

Here is the picture of what I've encountered https://imgur.com/a/csiw0h8 notice how the top bar takes touches.. if you'll provide with a solution/any solution, I will be very thankful

You can try increasing the top co-ordinate of the command. You can write adb shell wm overscan 0,200,0,0 and check whether it's working or not. Because, the Phantom touches may be extending to more than 100px from the top.

Or, you can use the command adb shell wm size 1080x1720. As you can see, that by using this technique, you need to sacrifice 100px from the bottom of the screen as well !!!

You are getting the error Error: bad size 1080*1820 because it should be x and not * which is also mentioned when typing adb shell wm:
  size [reset|WxH|WdpxHdp] [-d DISPLAY_ID]
    Return or override display size.
    width and height in pixels unless suffixed with 'dp'.

So, the correct command is adb shell wm size 1080x1820 which won't result in any error. You can find out more using adb shell wm which returns:
Window manager (window) commands:
  help
      Print this help text.
  size [reset|WxH|WdpxHdp] [-d DISPLAY_ID]
    Return or override display size.
    width and height in pixels unless suffixed with 'dp'.
  density [reset|DENSITY] [-d DISPLAY_ID]
    Return or override display density.
  folded-area [reset|LEFT,TOP,RIGHT,BOTTOM]
    Return or override folded area.
  overscan [reset|LEFT,TOP,RIGHT,BOTTOM] [-d DISPLAY ID]
    Set overscan area for display.
  scaling [off|auto] [-d DISPLAY_ID]
    Set display scaling mode.
  dismiss-keyguard
    Dismiss the keyguard, prompting user for auth if necessary.
  set-user-rotation [free|lock] [-d DISPLAY_ID] [rotation]
    Set user rotation mode and user rotation.
  set-fix-to-user-rotation [-d DISPLAY_ID] [enabled|disabled]
    Enable or disable rotating display for app requested orientation.
  tracing (start | stop)
    Start or stop window tracing.

You will most likely have to combine this with the other answer mentioned here about overscan to find a fix for your use case.


text:
Fastboot commands are not working
I have tried to relock my Zenfone Max pro m2,but after installing stock recovery when I tried to run relock.cmd, it is not working showing that
write to device failed(invalid argument)

Even when I have tried to find the device info using fastboot command, but I'm getting the same error as
write to device failed( too many links)

Please help me with this.

I don't get it: where are you issuing fastboot commands? Are you on bootloader mode or in recovery mode?

Bootloader mode

Did you enable OEM unlocking in development options?

Yes , I have enabled usb debugging

No, I mean OEM unlocking

No , that is not turned on

Go back there and enable OEM unlocking. Reboot from ADB to recovery then run relock.cmd file

But that is not listed in developer options

Hum don't own this phone, so I cannot check. Try instructions from here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/asus-zenfone-max-pro-m1/how-to/discussion-unlocking-bootloader-t3786698/post76439671#post76439671

I don't know if you are running relock.cmd as a file or a command, but the usual way to lock the bootloader in Fastboot is
fastboot oem lock

Try
fastboot devices

And wait until you see your device is found, then do the lock
fastboot oem lock

Try also,
fastboot flashing lock
fastboot flashing lock_critical

Those commands are not working

Try fastboot flashing lock  - or - fastboot flashing lock_critical

Yeah it worked ...!!!! , i tried changing the usb port. and thanks for your suggestions