text:
Use adb to remove adoptable storage
I followed these steps (in brief, enable debugging and use adb to enable storage and format sd card) to enable adoptable storage on a Samsung A01 to make the phone more usable (device is not rooted). It basically seemed to work and some apps could be moved to the SD-card and freed up space.
It freed up enough space that I then tried to update the OS (to One UI 3.1 / Android 11) and am now stuck. After the install, most software just hung until I removed the sd card. I have since reformatted the card and uninstalled all the apps previously moved to it and tried the same command sequence hoping to re-enable adoptable storage.
The phone basically works now except the SD card isn't working correctly - I assume it's still looking for the now missing adoptable storage. It complains: "SD card missing" / "insert device again".
I'm wondering if there are similar adb commands to undo adoptable storage - even if the adoptable storage partition is missing. Hoping to avoid a factory reset.
Thanks for any tips!

I came back to this and found the magic incantation here:
Basically, connect back to the device and redo the earlier partition command replacing the word "private" with "public". In my case:
adb shell sm partition disk:179,64 public

Having said that - I then tried to redo the process and am discovering the phone may not play well with adoptable storage. Wonder how many phones get landfilled because of this design issue - all of 2yo.
Perhaps I spoke a bit too soon...
Wasted a couple more hours on this and found another nugget on reddit: buried in Developer Options is "force allow apps on external" With that I was finally able to free some storage and it seems to work - time will tell. Perhaps leaving this here may be of use to someone.


text:
Cannot stop hotspot from loading which prevents wifi from auto loading
I have an Android head unit, which has hot spot details inserted, which I can't delete or remove with factory reset. I want to have my wifi to auto load on boot, but the hot spot prevents this from happening.
What can I do to disable the hot spot permanently or have it turn off after it starts and auto start my head units wifi.
It's a Chinese HU, Android 10
Thanks

Can you load an app from Play Store or sideload it? If yes, try an automation app such as MacroDroid or Tasker or Automate and use any of them to wait for boot completion, detect hostspot is active, then enable Wifi (which would turn off hotpost automatically).

Play Store works fine, I'll give them a go.Which would be the easiest to use?

Try Macrodroid.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
System settings: order of bluetooth devices in list
On Android 11, I noticed the list of "Previously connected devices" does not show the latest successfully connected device. That said, when I want to manually force a Bluetooth connection to a specific device, I always need to click on "See all" then browse and try to find the bluetooth device.
My list has around ~25 entries as today and is tedious to search. I would like to know if it's possible to have this list somehow sorted from the most recently connected to the older one.
Do you know any trick for doing that?

This is quite an annoying little issue, as there are about six or seven devices that I connect to frequently, but they are scattered across the list, so I had to resort to extending their names with long strings of dots (like Bathroom Echo Dot •••••••••••••••), so they are easier to spot in the long list. Also, the order in the list that opens from the quick settings panel dropdown should at least put the currently connected devices on the top, so they can be quickly disconnected...

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


text:
Battery voltage
I've just bought a replacement battery for my phone, it's exactly the same 1200 mAh 3.7v however when I look at apps showing battery info they say the battery voltage is 4mv. So what does this mean? Is it safe to use?

Are you sure you typed that correctly? Neither 4 mV nor 4 MV are plausible voltages for a cellphone battery.

@DanHulme I know that, that's why I'm asking here, it's my old phone, could it be that it's not displaying properly?

@DanHulme When looking at my old battery it displays 3mV maybe 3mV stands for somewhere in the 3v range and 4mV in 4v range, but then as my phone is only rated for 3.7v and the new battery is obviously stronger is it safe to use?

Either the thing you are reading is not the battery voltage, or the author of that app has no idea what they're doing.

@DanHulme it's the same reading with every single app next to the heading voltage:

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


text:
Why do the system apps show 0B memory space occupied?
I had noticed in my phone's applications manager, that the size of the system apps are displayed as 0B, which indicates that no memory space is occupied by that particular app.
Please see this screenshot in which the pre-installed Browser app is shown to have occupied no memory space:

But, I know that every app is composed of several files, so no app can have 0B size. But, the size of third-party apps are shown correctly.
Why does this happen ?

Is this the case with other system apps as well?

Yes, all of them. When the system apps are used, they create some data and cache, for which their size becomes a few kilobytes only.

Many system apps have their (original) apk's stored on the system partition, which as it is fixed in size wouldn't really count towards available storage.  Nor are they user removable.  So it doesn't make a lot of sense to show a size for them, when they are not consuming any fungible resources which a user could chose to put to a different use instead.
And if pre-dexed as is typical for things packaged in a system build, they don't need those lookup resolutions against the installed system libraries stored in a runtime-writeable place either, something that is ordinarily a cost of having a latent downloaded or sideloaded app installed.

When the system apps are used, they create some data and cache, for which their size becomes a few kilobytes only

Indeed, that makes sense, files created during use cannot be stored on the system partition, but only on the data or cache partitions, competing with what other apps need to store there.
All of that is not to say that some other configuration might not report this differently, or that some other system apps may consume fungible resources by the time the user can interact with the system, but only that what is being reported is an arguably legitimate representation of reality.

I couldn't understand why the system apps are shown to use 0B space. Is it just because their APK files are stored in the system partition?

That is the simple version, yes.


text:
Is goggles still solving sudokus?
Some time ago I tried to solve sudokus using goggles and it worked. But today I've been recognizing several sudokus, and goggles says "it's a sudoku" and performs a google search for me, but I don't have the solving feature anymore.
Is it a matter of versions? Do I have to adjust any setting?
Thanks,

Yes, it does. After scanning the Sudoku it should present you with multiple results, one recognized as a Sudoku puzzle, one recognized as an object, and one recognized as text. You'll want to select the Sudoku puzzle result and then select 'Solve' on the next screen that comes up.
This was just verified on v1.9.4

Thanks, I've updated to v1.9.4 and now I have the "solve" button. But I receive an error 500 when I click that.

I've tried again today [2014-11-03] and still get an error 500 (that's all we know) :(

Have you tried going to the Application Manager and clearing data for Google Search? I've had a few apps that refused to work properly after an update unless i did this.

I just did and receive the same error. The full page text is: [google logo] 500. That's an error. There was an error. Please try again later. That's all we know.

Oh! Looking at the address bar, it looks that the sudoku is solved, but somehow it cannot be displayed! This is the full address bar content: http://www.google.com/goggles/a/sudoku?original=530070000600195000098000060800060003400803001700020006060000280000419005000080079&solved=534678912672195348198342567859761423426853791713924856961537284287419635345286179&solutionOnly=y

I know the trick with address bar content, but now even this doesn't work anymore...

I've got the same error..but I have a answer: in the adress line there is the solution. The numbers are written there one by one from left to right and then the next line and so on. In your case it is: 534678912672195348198342567859761423426853791713924856961537284287419635345286179..look at your Link above.
Felix

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


text:
ADB is not fully backup my device
I am backing up my device. When I restore it in another device, I see that some settings is not restored. For instance, Google accounts, security settings etc. How can I fix that?
UPDATE:
I used
./adb backup -apk -shared -all -f backup_test.ab

for backup.

How did you backup your device? What did you backup? We'll need more information in order to help you...

I updated the question, please check.


text:
Automatically verify signature on all Android Exchange emails
I work in an office where everyone uses a digital signature on their emails. I just bought a new LG G3 with 4.4.2 KitKat and whenever someone sends me an email that is signed, it shows up with a body that says "This email is signed". In order to see the contents, I have to open it and manually click the "Verify signature" button.
This is especially frustrating when I just want to preview the contents of the email right from my inbox but cannot.
Is there any way to have the phone automatically verify ALL signatures?

What email client are you using? The one that came with the phone, Gmail, or something else?

The default client


text:
Titanium backup only shows "Overview" tab
A few days ago, my phone ran an automatic update of Titanium backup, which used to work fine.
Now when I launch it, I am stuck on its home screen. I've tried restarting my phone, nothing changed :

There is no backup/restore tab, no schedule tab...
What can I do to remedy this ? Will reinstalling TB be useful ? Will doing so delete its data (like the back uped apps) ?
The phone : Asus Zenfone 2 Laser (ze500kl) rooted with SuperSU, using Android 5.0.2

Have you tried hitting "Menu"?  Have you uninstalled and re-installed the app to see if anything changes?

What did you do? It says Backup directory unavailable. Have you tried setting it up from Preferences under Menu?

If @Firelord's comment doesn't work, try:

Settings -> Apps -> Titanium -> Force Stop and Clear Data and Clear Cache
Rename folder /data/data/com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup
Rename folder data/com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup on both your internal and external SD cards
Uninstall / reinstall Titanium Backup
Open Titanium Backup, go through initial welcome screens
Settings -> Apps -> Titanium -> Force Stop only
Restore the copy of the old /data/data/com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup/databases to restore labels and schedules

These days I backup Titanium Backup with Helium to avoid such problems :)

Ihad the same problem as you. Open SuperSU and go to settings. From there, uncheck "Mount namespace separation" and then reboot.


text:
Where is adopted storage mounted?
Where in the filesystem is the mountpoint for the adoptable storage partition?

On my Dirty Unicorns ROM, I found it mounted under /mnt/expand.
If it's not there try looking through the output of:

mount | grep dm-
mount | grep block

Same on a LineageOS 18 (Android 11)


text:
Mass transfer apps to adopted storage
So now we have excellent adopted storage that lets us use the
SDcard like it should have always worked. So far so good.
However upgrading from Lollipop via titanium backup hits a snag - TB will always stick the restored apps to internal storage even if adoptive storage is the default after data migrate. Sure you can move them one by one but with 100 apps that's a LOT of fiddling. Is there any way to automate this? A console command to rerun the data migrate?
Link2SD does not work with AS as far as I know. App MGR III claims to have 1-click move but at least on the free version it just plops you into the app info page.

Okay, after some semi-random googling I found the app that will do the job. Apps2SD. It's free, requires root but does batch move apps to adopted storage. It's a bit slow too but beats having to do the "transfer to external" sequence for each app hands down.
For the interested, googling for app for adoptive storage doesn't give you anything useful but googling for link2sd marshmallow links to a XDA thread that mentions Apps2SD as a workaround for Marshmallow. It can create mounting scripts unlike Link2SD but Link2SD will then happily use the 2nd partition if you like it better.

I have to second Apps2SD PRO as a solution. Force-moving many apps to adoptable was a breeze. Definitively worth the price.

Titanium Backup Pro has a batch option to move selected apps to/from adopted storage.
It's worth paying for for this and the usual batch backup/restore functionality.


text:
How frequently is it okay to let the battery discharge fully or as low as possible?
I know that atleast once or twice a month a full battery drain and then a 100% charge helps increase the battery life and also gives more accurate battery readings.
I was wondering, how frequently is it okay to let it drain as low as possible or to zero?
Like is it okay even if done most of the times(or all the times) or it should not be done more than like say max 5-6 times a month or so??
Thankyou!

Fully discharging a lithium-ion (or lithium-polymer) battery is generally not advised, actually. It was common for older NiCad batteries, but the chemistry of Li-Ion/Li-Po batteries is rather different. Related questions: When should I start charging my Lithium battery?, Battery Life and First Time Charging on Li-ion Batteries. Myth?

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_charge_when_to_charge_table

once or twice a month a full battery drain and then a 100% charge helps increase the battery life

That is incorrect, a full discharge is never beneficial to LiON battery capacity. The battery life of a LiON battery is dependant mostly on temperature, discharge rate, and age. In fact, low charge state actually is harmful to LiON battery capacity; although modern batteries have circuits that tells the system to shutdown before it became really harmful to the battery, it is best for LiON battery to be plugged in as often as is convenient.

also gives more accurate battery readings.

As for calibrating battery meter by full discharge-recharge, that is partially true. Modern smart battery comes with a microchip to keep track of the state of charge. The following is a quote from HP regarding Smart Battery System in their laptops:

Repeated short discharges and recharges cause increasing inaccuracy between the state-of-charge of the battery and the Power Meter readings. Periodically, the battery needs to be calibrated to "relearn" its usable capacity so it can synchronize its charge status with the Power Meter. ... The user simply has to periodically discharge the battery until the 5% capacity alarm is received. The need to perform this procedure will vary with individual use. In general, a Li-Ion battery should be calibrated a minimum of once every 3 months. A battery that is seldom discharged completely should be calibrated about once a month.

and the following is from Battery University:

How often does a battery need calibrating? The answer depends on the application. For practical purposes, a calibration should be done once every three months or after 40 partial cycles. If the portable device applies a periodic deep discharge on its own, no additional calibration will be needed.

The need for calibration comes from the mismatch between the battery's chemistry and the microchip that estimates the battery's state of charge. This mismatch develops over numerous partial discharge, although unlike the memory effect in NiCad battery, it does not affect the battery's actual chemical capacity and is reversible by letting the battery relearn its bottom and top charge state. Do not do calibration too often since deep discharge does permanently harm LiON's actual capacity.

For this question you might want to check with the Wikipedia article on LiIo batteries. Quoting:

Avoid deep discharge (depletion) and instead charge more often between uses. The smaller the depth of discharge, the longer the battery will last.
Avoid storing the battery in full discharged state. As the battery will self-discharge over time, its voltage will gradually lower, and when it is depleted below the low-voltage threshold (2.4 to 2.9 V/cell, depending on chemistry) it cannot be charged anymore because the protection circuit (a type of electronic fuse) disables it. [...]
The rate of degradation of Lithium-ion batteries is strongly temperature-dependent; they degrade much faster if stored or used at higher temperatures and may even be stored in a refrigerator.

The first point already answers your question: You'd better avoid to "deep discharge" your battery. Best is to always keep it on 50% or up, but 20% should already "cry" for a charger. There's no memory effect or the like, so no need for that.
You might refer to the so-called "battery calibration" -- which today is called a myth by most, as explained by Google developer Dianne Hackborne.
If you think a "full charging cycle" (that is what you describe) might be useful from time to time (also see Lie Ryan's answer for this), make the interval between them as large as possible. IMHO multiple times a month is much too much -- once every 3 month should be enough. In that timeframe it might even accidentally happen you nearly "run out of juice" unwittingly, so you can use that "chance".

Dianne debunked the myth of doing battery calibration by deleting batterystats.bin; in her post, she is not addressing calibrating battery by doing a full discharge-recharge cycle. In particular, she does not claim that all kinds of battery calibration is a myth.

@LieRyan you're absolutely correct -- though that's what most people think (especially those not having read her post personally, which I did yesterday and got my surprise). First time I read about the real need for any calibration claimed by the producer is right now in your answer, quoting HP and Battery University. Thanks a lot for those sources!

Does that mean connect the battery to the charger when not in use?

It means there isn't a "connect too often" – but you should avoid full discharge whenever possible.

Lithium batteries were invented to avoid the issue of the 80% charge on the balance of power....
Charging at anytime has NO effect on the battery...
Older batteries could only charge 80% ow the empty cycle...but NOT true with Lithium ion or polymer batteries...
Charge anytime, any amount...no problem


text:
Bluetooth car audio with track data
I have a Droid 3 and a 2012 Toyota Camry which offers bluetooth support. Currently I find the only app that will display track information on the screen of the Camry's stereo is the default Android music player. Winamp and others don't seem able to do this.
Is this a limitation of Android? Or are there other apps that I do not know about that have the ability to transfer track information to the car stereo?

The feature uses Bluetooth AVRCP, the Audio Video Remote Control Profile. It's used for controlling the app from the receiver (e.g. play/pause buttons on a BT headset).
AVRCP level 1.3 is possible since ICS and improved in Jelly Bean; it allows all of 1.0 (play, pause, next,...) plus metadata information on the track itself (artist, track name, etc.). It was also backported into CyanogenMod7.2 (Gingerbread).
Players themselves have to support AVRCP 1.3 too, I guess.
Apollo might also support this. Or just search for AVRCP 1.3 in the store.

It's weird that stock music supports this and the other players don't. If nothing else this will make me more likely to upgrade once I'm eligible for a new subsidized phone.

Maybe AVRCP 1.3 support was added by Motorola for the builtin player only.

AVRCP is not supported in most players. Mostly in the stock players and CM,s Apollo, unfortunately the stock players are crap and unusable in terms of sound quality. Double Twist player has partial support, song title shows but not album title.

Now Playing just received support for AVRCP, in case that helps.


text:
Brightness changes too frequently after I updated to 4.2
I have a Nexus 7 and after the update to Android 4.2 setting the brightness regulation to auto I noticed that it changes way more frequently than it used to do in the previous version of the operating system.
Is there a way to have automatic brightness regulation less aggressively?

Unfortunately it is a known bug introduced on Nexus 7 with Jelly Bean 4.2. In previous version 4.1.2 auto-brightness was criticised as slow in reaction on light changes and now in 4.2 it is just opposite, over-reactive. From one bad to another bad. But I agree with you that even previous not so good behaviour was better than what we have now. Someone cure it by sticking small semi transparent tape over light sensor. But it is only temporary and ugly workaround, we can hope for correction in the next version, or downgrade to previous 4.1.2 version.


text:
"There is an internal problem with your device, and it might be unstable until you factory data reset."
On boot, I'm getting the message:

There is an internal problem with your device, and it might be unstable until you factory data reset.

I'm experiencing no force closes or instability.
What circumstances cause this error, and is there some terminal magic which can avert the need for a factory reset?
If this is a problem with a /system/build.prop mismatch, how can I find out the specific mismatches so I can restore those?
I'm running Dirty Unicorns on a Moto Pure/Play, but I've seen this on other ROMs and hardware.

see this

Also clearing /cache might help as technobill says The error message you see on boot is due to system files being out of sync

Wiping cache didn't help

On Nexus phones this is caused by mismatching ROM and vendor partition. Moto phones surely doesn't have that partition, but I'm guessing that it will happen when your custom ROM is on a different build number from the underlying official build, in a similar manner. Whatever it is, just ignore it - as long as both are up-to-date, you should encounter no actual errors.

........ To continue the statement of @AndyYan There can be the odd.. weirdness. I had a similar problem, and my PIN was reversed

You guessed correctly. It is a mismatch between the build fingerprint mentioned in the build.prop file in the system partition and the build.prop file in the vendor image, specifically the ro.vendor.build.fingerprint key.
As fas as I know, that happens when the vendor partition and system partition were built separately from different builds or versions.
There are several fixes for this issue, I'll specify two I've personally tried and successfully got rid of this annoying error message.
Runtime Fix
The first fix is in runtime and requires root access on adb. We'll mount the images and just make the fingerprint value match by copying it from one partition to the other.

adb root
mount -o rw,remount -t ext4 /system
adb remount
adb pull /vendor/build.prop ./build.prop.vendor
adb pull /system/build.prop ./build.prop.system
copy the value from build.prop.system to build.prop.vendor for ro.vendor.build.fingerprint
adb push ./build.prop.vendor /vendor/build.prop
adb reboot

Compile Time Fix
The second fix I like more because it actually removes the check completely from the code. If you are building your own Android flavor, or at least compiling it yourself you can just change the code and disable this feature.
The code that checks the fingerprint and eventually raises that error is found in
/frameworks/base/core/java/android/os/Build.java.
Look for the following method:
public static boolean isBuildConsistent()
Simply comment out all the code in it and replace it with
return true;
This will make your build always "consistent" and no fingerprint problems will ever be raised.

https://github.com/LineageOS/android_vendor_lineage/commit/27180809c594cf6beeaeb206cced6fa42c086517

The third solution that @xdevs23 mentioned, is to actually make the fingerprints match :)

Exactly, I picked that commit and never got that message again.


text:
Create Google passkey for Web authentication
Webauthn passkey support is mainstream as of Chrome 108.
How do I generate a Google passkey using my android device?

You'll be automatically prompted to create a passkey when visiting a Webauthn site or using an app that supports it.

If you want to kick-start the process:

Open https://www.passkeys.io/
Enter your email address
Enter the OTP sent to your email address
Tap "continue" when you see a prompt similar to this:

To test:

Logout
Login again and notice you don't need to enter a password


text:
My data is wiped out after a battery service
I hit my Nexus 7 with Android 4.2 on it, into a glass bottle. Somehow, internally the battery got disconnected so it didn't turn on. It was only flickering a black screen when attached to a power cord. I didn't want to fix it myself so I brought it to a certified service for mobile devices. I received it back but it had installed Android 4.4 and all of the data was wiped out.
What did the people from the service do to my Nexus 7?

Not sure why but they did factory reset to it. Probably it is that bad when the battery detaches from the other part of the device :)
Don't they make these devices crash proof? I just hit it into a glass bottle :D

Sounds like they just replaced the device and gave you a new/refurbished one. Your original device will be fixed (if possible), and then it will be wiped and turned into a refurbished unit.
If you didn't back up any of your data, it is gone. Hopefully you did; I'm pretty sure anytime you send in a device for service, they warn you that it could be completely wiped.

Well they didn't tell me that they will wipe out the data, but I can tell that it is the same device because of the sticker with the serial number on the back. It doesn't seem removed and then sticked again.

As if they just made factory reset and updated it to Android 4.4 :D luckily I don't do my job with my nexus. I had couple of books on my kindle and some videos. But I can replace them. Your google account keeps track what apps were installed. So when I logged in it started downloding them.

There is SSN which is the serial number on the back cover and on the box, and there is CSSN which is the number in Android tablet info serial number. They match so it is the same tablet.


text:
Asus Transformer slow charge
My ASUS Transformer TF101 charges extremely slowly using the original power adapter.
I'm trying to figure out the cause.
Here are all my knowns:

The power block (wall to USB adapter) charges my mobile phone without issues
The power block plus ASUS cable turns on my Transformer if it is off, or wakes it up if it is sleeping (but charges extremely slowly)
The ASUS cable lets me MTP and all that from computer and tablet
I installed ICS when in April and now its running 4.0.3
The charger does charge, but extremely slowly both on Keyboard dock and Tablet (a few days to get to 20%)
It definitely has not been near water, dust, direct sunlight or particle accelerators

From this I gauge: it's not the power block or the cable, and the only change was ICS a few months back which worked okay (first update was buggy, but the next one fixed this).
Anyone else had this or know why it could be?

If the same adapter charges your phone without any issue it must charge the power hungry table very slowly.

Does it still charge slowly while the phone is turned off? If it is, then you might have a hardware issue, perhaps a damaged battery, you might want to bring it to the store if it's still under warranty.

I shall try a different cable, if it charges fine, it was the charger. If it doesn't then yes the battery is probably damaged.

The issue turned out to be with the charging cable. Asus quickly swapped it over with a longer cable too.

Charging via USB can happen at very different rates depending on what the "host" end is plugged into.  Generally the vendor-supplied wall charger is the "fastest" way, but perhaps something has gone bad with your supplied wall adapter.  You should be able to improve charging times by shutting off wifi, GPS, etc, and making sure the screen is off.
See these questions for more details on what to look for on your adapters:

Why is charging from computer using USB slower than using an outlet?
Galaxy Tab is not being charged through USB Cable

I read randomly that the power brick needs communication from the tablet to supply the 15V it needs for charging. otherwise it will operate at 5V. So it could be the 'host' or maybe the tablet not communicating properly. thanks for your post


text:
Android 11 - Format SD as Adoptable storage
I use a device on Android 11, Xiaomi OEM, MIUI 12.5.7
I formatted my SD card as Adoptable storage, though I had to get that "Fix SD card" prompt to select "format as phone's storage" because, in settings, the SD card is formatted as portable by default.
Now here's the thing, after formatting the SD card as added internal storage, I can't find the SD card anymore, there's no option to unmount it in settings, can't find the additional space when I look in the file manager, is this normal?
My device is rooted BTW, any tips are appreciated, my goal is to get more space for my games, I've had little success with Link2sd, strangely the tool was working perfectly for linking game/app data to the first partition of my ext storage before I flashed my phone, now I'm left with no ideas on what to do.

I don't think you understand how adopted storage works... Once added, the phone treats as an extension of the system storage, you can't mount/unmount or do anything with it directly... It's no longer "external storage" it is now part of the system, you don't manage it anymore, the system does.

Does this answer your question? Link2SD - Game ignores binded data after link


text:
Internal storage goes missing and reappears after a few seconds
Whenever I use the media apps i.e gallery or any other app like file manager (the apps that require internal storage mostly), the apps close automatically after running like 5 seconds and upon reopening, the contents of app (the media/data that it was displaying) couldn't be found. I have to open them 2 to 3 times and clear it from memory using recent app button (not physical button). Than the contents i.e media show up and again disappear after few seconds and app closes.
Chrome runs fine as long as I'm browsing and abruptly closes within 5 seconds when a download is started. Same is in the case of YouTube reddit or any browsing app that I'm using. They [YouTube, reddit, chrome (when not downloading)] run fine for as long as I want.
Whatsapp throws an error saying "internal storage is missing" or "turn off USB storage" when downloading or uploading files but downloads media occasionally. Text messages don't throw any error. Just the downloadable files that require internal memory.
When I connect the phone to the PC via cable, the PC shows a number of internal storages, ranging from 1 to 20 or more. Depends upon the amount of duration that the phone was connected with PC. Firstly it shows 1 internal storage than keeps on showing more, having same information i.e 35 GB out of 109GB are free on every single one of them, with passage of time. Gallery will first show up as empty and after 1 or two seconds, show the media. The media is readable for few seconds and than the files will say "cannot generate thumbnail" or "cannot play video". I than clear the app from memory using recent apps button and again open it and clear it from memory 2/3 times. Than the media again shows up for 5/10 seconds and is perfectly readable or playable. If I don't clear it from memory, the media also comes back after 5 or 10 seconds and is playable for 5 to 10 seconds. LoL, looks like I'm writing same thing again and again. I don't want to rest until it's the only option (which it is). Infinix note 10 pro (X695), Android. Non rooted. No SD card is put in it.
I've tried everything that I could hear or read off. Clearing app cache using adb commands, clearing app data using abd commands (lost xhide data and was signed out of accounts due to this). Making a list of installed packages and using adb command to again install them for user 0. Installing third party virus scanning apps like Microsoft defender mobile (premium) and avast antivirus and avast cleaner app and CCleaner app etc etc etc to clear the hidden caches and scan for viruses. And probably everything that was not the solution for this issue.

What Android device(mode) and Android version does show this behavior? You may have problems with MediaStore database that is responsible for indexing files, provide file listings, thumbnails. You can try to clear the app data of MediaStore database system app . That will rest the index database (and start a re-index of all existent files) and hopefully fix the problems you have.

Safe mode is not present in Infinix note 10 pro non NFC variant. Device is on Android 11.

I'll try to clear that app. Would data be deleted or not? I don't want it to be deleted . Also, adb command to list all volumes ends up showing 3 volumes (1:emulated;999 unmountable none 2: private mounted none 3:emulated;0 mounted none) and anything that has to do something with emulated 999 or user 999 will end up in permission denied. I didn't create user 999. Can't clear it or mount or unmount it. I don't know if it's the solution. I'm saying this for additional information.

Media store database app was not listed in system apps. If it's package name is com.android.providers.media, than it's listed by package-name in my device and I've cleared it via clear cache and clear data options and nothing changed. Also via adb using clear command and rebooted. Same as it was. ಥ_ಥ

The media store database package name is often adapted by the manufacturer. On Google devices it is AFAIR com.google.android.providers.media.midule. On Samsung devices I have seen a similar name just with samsung instead of google. Clearing the database should not result in data loss as this database just stores the copy of the files meta data in a central place. Unless all files are reindexed some apps may not see all files (thus it may for a while look like files are missing).

I've cleared com.android.providers.media and com.android.providers.media.module but nothing changed. It's as if when the device has no storage, it will close any app that will open except the storage management settings despite the fact that almost 30 GB of internal storage is free. It actually started to happen when I got a low storage warning while downloading a large file. I uninstalled PUBG mobile and PUBG lite and freed up to 5 or 6 GB but it seems like something is stuck in that low storage mod. I also uninstalled some system apps like play services, play store, Google, gallery etc ◉‿◉

I used a sketchy app on PC to uninstall them. It uninstalled the app for user 0 which I think automatically triggered the system to make a backup of the system apps in another user profile 999 which is inaccessible. I couldn't find user 999 on the other devices when I ran command of listing all volumes and all users on those devices. They were someone else's devices and were not tampered with. Those system apps were reinstalled via command adb shell pm install-existing com.packagename which resulted in prompt saying "installed for user 0" as if they were already installed for user 999.

Removed user 999 and everything became tip top.
After struggling for 8 days on many platforms and going through so much stress, the final solution that worked was fairly simple.

install adb on your PC by watching a fairly popular video.
enable USB debugging in developer options
run command; adb shell list users (it will show you the users/user profiles currently active or running on your device).
If there are more than 1 users and both end with "running", you will have to remove 1 because it's the one revoking the permissions etc.
User 0 or UserInfo{0:name:number} is the main profile and is most likely that it's you. The other (UserInfo{999:name:number} in case of Infinix) is the secondary user profile that the system automatically made when you did something wrong like uninstalling a system app or a pre installed app that did not have the option to uninstall.
Simply use the adb command: adb shell pm remove-user 999
User 999 is not a universal user profile and your's might be different. It's the first number that comes after "UserInfo" if you run the first command.

Caution: I'm not a professional and neither do I claim that everything that I said is exactly what it is. I might be wrong about what user 999 is or about something else. All I'm saying is that it worked for me.

I didn't lose any of my data and every app is currently working fine.


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My Samsung A03s network is locked! How do i unlock network for any sim carrier?
My location now is in Africa and my phone is manufactured in America and it's an American version Samsung A03s. How do I unlock it?
I've tried many online mobile unlock sites but they don't work.


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How can I schedule a Nandroid backup?
Is it possible to schedule a Nandroid backup for a particular time on a rooted Samsung Galaxy S2 running CM9 and the Siyah Kernel? How would one accomplish this?

You can make an automatic nandroid backup using ROM Manager (free / paid).
open the app - go to settings and select Automatic Backup.  You can select the time and frequency of the backups in the following screens.

I've read that ROM Manager has issues with the S2. Is that correct?

I've not heard of any issues with the s2 and Rom Manager.  My girlfriend uses it on her S2 without any issues, although I'm aware that is anecdotal and not empirical.  It may be worth trying to backup and restore to see if you run in to any problems now rather than relying on it for it to fail.

I did try to schedule a backup, but it didn't work. The schedule did initiate, but a long list of errors was thrown up. I think it could be because I'm on the Siyah Kernel which uses a customised version of ClockworkMod Recovery.


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What the difference between miracast and DLNA?
can anyone tell me the difference between DLNA and Miracast, especially the technologies underneath?
Thanks!

I'm not quite sure this is an Android related question.

Miracast was introduced in Android 4.2, where else have you seen it?

It is like asking about USB cable or GSM antenna or LiON battery, if the question are not Android-specific issue of the technology, they are generally considered off topic. Although the enforcement for these specific kind of questions have been quite lax, and I've been guilty answering a few such questions in the past.

This article discusses the differences.

May I/we edit the question to address the user experience and use of these as a way to use an external display given an Android device? That is what I am after and is Android-specific.

@user29020 ok go ahead. It's closed anyway

okay since no one is willing to answer this question, I figured something out myself.
Here's the key points:
DLNA:

TCP level, HTTP+SOAP interface based on UPnP technology
pull & push media contents
remote control play/pause/seek

Miracast:

transport layer protocol
AP makes two device handshake, then two device communicate directly via wireless
not only stream video/audio contents, but also mirro device screens from one to another.


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How to receive new email notifications when accessing email services exclusively with Firefox Android app (no email app installed)?
I'm using the Firefox app on Android 14 to access email services. I don't have any dedicated email apps installed. - I'm doing everything through Firefox.
Is there a way to make Firefox run in the background so that when I receive a new email, I get a notification? Importantly, the notification should be sent by Firefox itself, perhaps with an add-on or similar mechanism.
I'm looking for a solution that works entirely within Firefox, without relying on external email clients.
Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

If your webmailer supports Web Push Notifications Firefox should be able to get you new mail notifications. If not you need a plugin specific for your webmail system. Unfortunately you forgot to tell us which webmail system/provider you use.

@Robert thanks. I'm using gmail, outlook and protonmail with multiple accounts on each. At least for gmail I know for sure that I have desktop notifications toggled on. I don't know if that's what talking about.


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Can a "proper" Linux userspace run on an Android kernel?
I've been reading about the challenges of getting Android phones to boot up using a close to mainline Linux kernel, and it got me thinking, manufacturers have their own kernels with all the correct drivers, and Android ROMs like LineageOS use these kernels with great success on many devices (of course it's not 100% there due to SafetyNet, etc. but the majority of features work).
So my question is: is it possible to use these kernels to boot a conventional Linux userspace by having them start up something like systemd instead of Android's init? If not, what prevents that?

Have you read the Google documentation about Android kernel? Your question seems to like you make the Android kernel larger/more important than it is. Regarding the drivers there is often no choice, include it to be able to use a certain device or leave it out and have a hardware device that can't be or only partially used.

See the related part here: How to boot Ubuntu on Android device? and Is it possible to create an operating system other than Android for Android devices?


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How to make and receive calls from second phone?
On a motorcycle, I have the following situation:
The Galaxy S23 has a SIM card and is connected to the motorcycle intercom. Phone is located in my pocket or tank bag.
The Galaxy S8 without a SIM card is permanently mounted on the motorcycle. It works as navigation.
Problem to solve: How to receive/make a call via the S23 on the S8.

Please edit your post with answers/details for the following: When you say "make/receive calls on S8" are you expecting to use the same mobile number as the S23? Is the S23 a WiFi hotspot for the S8? If the S23 is already paired with the motorcycle intercom (as opposed to a helmet headset) is there a user interface issue that you want to change. More details about your current setup and why it doesn't work would be helpful.

I would like to have a function on the S8 like in Android Auto, which allows me to receive and make calls on the S23 phone


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Does it hurt battery life to not fully charge and disconnect?
If I charge my device and let it charge not fully but say, 60% and disconnect,
does that hurt battery life?
If so, what are the 'safe' ranges?

Is this a newer device, less than 2 years old? If so, it is much less important to fully charge the battery as there is no "battery memory" like older devices. General rule of thumb though, try to stay above 20%, and charge to at least 80%.

May I point you to our nice charging tag-wiki for the answer(s) to your question(s) – even those charging questions you've not (yet) asked? :)

According to the Android AccuBattery app, charging to less than 80% is better than charging to 80%, so I wouldn't recommend charging that much unless you really need to.  Personally, I charge to 50-60%, unless I think I'll need more charge before I'm around a power source.

As per Battery University. Battery level between 40 to 90 is recommended. Don't charge fully till 100%. Charge it till 90% and remove the plug. Then you will have long battery life.

Proper answers should give a reference for the information... and Battery University has a variety of answers on this topic depending on where you look... but it is an excellent reference. http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_charge_when_to_charge_table is a great page. Although the 40 to 90 percent will allow for longest battery life, most batteries have a full charge cycle life of 300-500 full cycles (100%-0%-100%) but if you stay within the 50% window it will be around 1200-1500 charge cycles http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries.

I think this answer is close, but not completely accurate.  Charging it to 60% is much better than charging it to 90%, according to the Android AccuBattery app.


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Google activity. Is this how a video call shows?
What does it mean when all 3 of these show together in Google activity?

com.sec.Android.app.camera
com.Samsung.Android.incallui
com.Samsung.Android.dialer

This is on an s22 ultra. I think the video calls on default for the phone would show as Google Meet? I'm not sure.


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How does Android keep track of if an app has been installed before?
I'm trying to find if there's a location within root where your phone keeps a record of what apps have been installed on your phone, like maybe a database. As a secondary question I'm also trying to find for instance where a game would keep local game saves. I did a test where I installed a game that I had played before, so the default local game save is where I left off. Uninstalled it with SD Maid and double checked data/data for the package name and it was deleted. Reinstalled the app and it had retained the last game save, so it obviously knows it had been installed previously. A factory reset clears any record of an app having been installed, since by doing that, your phone is considered a different device. Anyways, after uninstalling again, I tried doing a find / -name *packagename* > sdcard/output.txt and only ended up with 3 results:
/data/user/0/com.google.android.gms/files/backup_chunk_listings/
/data/data/com.google.android.gms/files/backup_chunk_listings/

I assume the save game data would be somewhere on /data/ but no idea where. As for a record of what apps the phone has installed, I have no idea where that would be, my only guess was
data/data/com.google.android.gms/databases/

Have you considered that the game itself may have restored it's save games from GDrive or a different cloud store. Alternatively Google Backup may have restored the files. Writing an answer TK your question and your post contains multiple questions. It would be easier if you would describe what you want to achieve in the end.

Please edit the question to limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer.

Well the end result/main question would be if there's a physical location, like a database/file, or a folder with subfolders that google "looks up" to determine if an app has been previously installed before, vaguely similar to the registry in Windows.

For instance, if you have a program that is a timed demo, it has to have some record of it being installed, and most, if not all if the time, deleting any registry entries with that program would be as if the program was never installed, allowing you to re-install to reset the timer.

I guess I was using the game save scenario because it seems the data for that could've possibly in the same locatíon as where Google would look and go "ah, this has been installed before"

Also you mentioned how the app might've restored a game save from a cloud. They would only do that if you bind an account of some sort to the game/app right? A 'guest' account would just be a local game save, unless that's more of a windows thing.

I believe it's the Google Play store that keeps track of which device has installed which apps.

Well, if that's the case, wouldn't it be looking up something it left on ur phone to determine that? Cause once you factory reset, as far as google is concerned, it's a new device and no apps have been installed on it, assuming you didnt have ur apps backed up and auto installed after the reset.

I guess it maybe would've helped narrow that down if I tested with apk's that weren't downloaded from google play and install/un install them to see if they recognize themselves as having been installed previously


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Termux copy paste problem
I started today coding with termux on mobile, I want to git clone but I can't copy paste the link to my github, I tried to do CTRL + ALT + V but it doesn't work
It would be very nice if someone could help me.

I just found out, we need to hold in the terminal screen and then click paste when it pops up


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Full Android 13 backup
I have a Samsung S9 phone running lineageos with root
I want to make a full backup of apps, config, SMS, etc. (Basically a byte-to-byte image of the disk).
This is to wipe it and install only the essentials again (I'm running low on storage, and ram including swap, to start clean from scratch.)
However there are two roadblocks on my way:

The phone since it has Android 13 It is encrypted, so on recovery i can take a full disk clone but cannot access my files
Powered on the device is obviously using the disk so i cannot pull an image if it is being used.

So, how i can make a carbon copy of my phone but decrypted? Like i just double click an .img in my linux pc and just browse the files?
With my very limited knowledge on mobile architecture i have 2 guesses how can this be done:

Extract the entire disk encrypted, Then i turn it on and extract the "key" to decrypt it, leveraging my root access if possible.
Mount it like a USB hard drive when powered on, and "decrypted" (yes that i know physically is still encrypted and decrypts onto ram on the fly or something along those lines) and make an image with dd, gparted, gnome-disks, etc.

But I might be just way off, so I'm open to try anything...

Does your phone use FDE or FBE: https://android.stackexchange.com/q/195713/2241

FBE: getprop ro.crypto.type -->
file

FBE seems the case bc on twrp the i see the same amount of files as when on the file manager but with the names (and probably the content) garbled


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How to block access to a WiFi BSSID?
With a typical Linux distribution there are tools like wpa_cli, which can block specific BSSIDs, so that I can avoid connecting to certain bad access points that share the same SSID with good ones.  How can I do the same on a rooted Android phone?

Possible related: How can I connect to a specific access point in a group having the same SSID?


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Unknown Package (uid-253)
Unknown Package (uid-253) Uploading Data While Charging - What Should I Do?
Hi everyone,
I noticed something unusual on my Android phone recently. A package named "Unknown (uid-253)" was detected by my data manager app, and it seems to be uploading a large amount of data whenever my phone is plugged into the charger and connected to WiFi.
Has anyone else experienced this issue? Should I be concerned about this unknown package, and what steps can I take to investigate and stop this data upload?
Thanks in advance for your help!

App/package name would help. See: How can I find app name by UID?

Possible duplicate of https://android.stackexchange.com/q/86884/2241 https://android.stackexchange.com/q/46431/2241


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How can I fix corrupted android using an SD card?
I have a Samsung A34 which which I tried to root. I messed up somewhere and now I'm stuck in a continuous reboot cycle. Factory Reset button has no effect.  When I am able to finally get to the recovery screen, I do see I have the option to boot through the SD card, but every solution I tried on Google to download an image or software to the SD card was unable to be read by the phone. No computer will recognize the phone via USB cable either so my only option is some kind of recovery thru the SD card. If anyone knows how I can fix this, I would greatly appreciate the help. I will leave the screenshot that the phone always displays after I try to us the SD card to upload a fix. Thanks.

Samsung A34 is a Mediatek based phone. Such phone usually use special Mediatek (MTK) flash tools and they work when the phone is in switched off state. That screenshot looks like from a recovery ROM. If you try this way make sure to only use official full OTA images published by Samsung for your exact device model.

There's no "procedure via SD card". Commenting just in case the first comment wasn't sufficiently explicit.


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How to make Galaxy Note 4 look like A11?
Is there any quick way to change the style/theme on this old Note 4 to look more like Galaxy A11 as below?

Have you tried to install a different launcher app? Anyway skinning a ten year old phone wont make it faster if better, just the opposite by wasting RAM for the skin.


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How to pack an xapk into an apk?
is there a way to have an apk (also splitted for different architectures) from an xapk file?
I'm looking online but I can't find anything useful. I would like to have the apks splitted per abi.

An xapk is just a ZIP files of multiple split APK files. Therefore just extract it.

@Robert if I try to install the extracted apk after I rename the xapk in zip, adb can't install the apk because it says "missing split files". I would like to have one big apk with all the xapk files

Have you read the posts about installing an xapk like this one? https://android.stackexchange.com/q/221204/2241 If yes, please name the app you are trying the xapk of.

While the question itself is valid, albeit a multi-part (1. how to extract XAPK into split APK, and 2. how to build a fat APK using split APK), there's a possibility that this question falls into an XY-problem where the real question is to install split APKs. Consider clarify the real issue.

@Robert, yes, I've read the thread and I can't find my solution. I know how to install xapk using adb, I would like to know if there's a way to make the xapk an apk file. Just one file instead of having a zip file full of apks.

@AndrewT. The real issue is I want to have one (big) apk file instead of multiple apks inside a zip folder (xapk)

@AndrewT. In the duplicate I can't find the SAP app, do you have any link? Furthermore the blog post is unavailable

Note that if you create one big APK from multiple split APK files the APK signature will be invalid, thus you have to re-sign the APK. If the app checks the signature it will refuse to run

@Robert, yes, I know, thank you (I discovered this after 2 hours of debugging...). Now, when I make some modifications to the code, I have to resign every apk


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How to unlock the bootloader of HTC One A9?
I forgot my password so it got formated, I was gonna just set the phone again but the thing is my phones WiFi does not work (Maybe because of the firmware). So I thouht I could use Mobile Data but I need to set the APN and the Tools button is grayed out, so I can not do that (Is there a way?).
So I think the only way I might have is to re-flash its stock OS. And I started trying that.
But.. when I try to flash the ZIP RUU i downloaded from XDA Forums
using the flashing tool they provide (I tried others but got the same output) i get this error when the second zip is being written
(bootloader) ERR Update zip file failed.
(bootloader) ERR ZIP ERROR, exit read zip loop
(bootloader) ERR ZIP signature checking failed...
(bootloader) Update zip file OK
(bootloader) ERR ZIP ERROR CODE, 22
(bootloader) end@Done

I looked in Google and found that this maybe because the download is corrupted so i downloaded again but i got the same. Then I tried to flash the firmware because maybe it could be that but I get that same error. So as i looked more i thougt maybe is was because my bootloader is locked so looked in how to do that and followed the instructions in HTCDev for my specific model but the fastboot.exe file i got opens a terminal window but closes in a second so I did it using the Open PowerShell from here method but then instead of the response i should get as the instructions said i got this error
(bootloader) [KillSwitch] : /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/frp
(bootloader) [KillSwitch] Last Byte is 0X00, disable unlock
(bootloader) [KillSwitch] oem unlock Turn Off!

I looked for this in Google and a forum comment says it might be like a protection because of the reset, What can I do about this if I need to get my phone working again somehow?

The message mess that you first need a running Android OS, and there enable the OEM unlock settings entry in the developer settings. For flashing a firmware in locked state there is only the way to boot into recovery and then use the adb sideload way. Fastboot only works after unlocking the bootloader on your device.

@Robert Do I need TWRP custom recovery installed, because I do not have that installed.

Stock recovery ROM should also allow side loading, otherwise I wouldn't have mentioned it because you can not install nor boot a custom recovery with a locked bootloader.


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I can't connect my Android to any VPN except Kaspersky - How to fix?
I previously used 1.1.1.1 Warp VPN and it always used to work but it made my internet speed slow and so I'd keep it off. Later on, I tried Kaspersky VPN and it worked. I've tried many VPNs in the past too , they never showed any problems, but recently I can only connect to the VPN provided by Kaspersky and when I tried using 1.1.1.1 Warp it doesn't work (because I got premium there and want to use that instead).
And that's the same case for all other VPNs I've ever tried, I had them downloaded again and tried to connect, but they all say connection failed and doesn't work.
Kaspersky, on the other hand, does work even now, so I think that app changed some setting on my phone as it required but it's preventing other VPNs from working.
What should I do? I tried every solution video from YouTube, it still doesn't get fixed.

Have you tried uninstalling Kaspersky temporary?

Yes I have ,still the same

Please specify what exactly have you tried from solution Youtube videos. You might have conflicting VPN profiles, try deleting old VPN profiles you don't need. Also try clearing cache and saved data for your VPN Apps. Reinstall the apps, reset your network settings, check if you have the latestest software update installed.

Yeah, I've tried all of those you just told me about


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How do I run the latest version of rsync as root with SimpleSSHD?
SimpleSSHD is a free (open source, no ads) SSH server based on dropbear that supports scp, sftp, and rsync.
How do I run the latest version of rsync as root when accessing my phone from a remote host?

Download the latest rsync binary:
mkdir ~/bin && cd ~/bin &&
curl --progress-bar -L -o rsync "https://github.com/JBBgameich/rsync-static/releases/download/continuous/rsync-aarch64" &&
chmod 755 rsync && echo 'export PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH' > ~/.profile

To then use the new downloaded version of rsync as root on the Android phone, use the following rsync command options from the remote host:
rsync -e 'ssh -p 2222' --rsync-path='su -c /data/user/0/org.galexander.sshd/files/bin/rsync'

You'll need to add the source and destination and other rsync options. See the man page for what these listed options are doing :)


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How to use Adblock AND a VPN
I'm using Private Internet Access's VPN via its App and now I'd also like to additionally use Adblock Plus.
The problem however is that I apparently can only use either VPN or Adblock Plus - but not both in combination.
Is it possible to use both by changing some setting in either of the Apps or of my phone ?
It says it couldn't change the proxy settings of my phone so I should do it manually. But as all traffic is routed through the VPN changing the proxy-name to "localhost" and the proxy-port to "2020" didn't help. It keeps on waiting for traffic on Port 2020. I guess it comes down to routing the VPN traffic through the proxy. But maybe there's also another solution to it (like another Adblock App that works differently for example).

My phone:
Samsung Galaxy Ace 2, I8160
Firmware 4.1.2
Rooted
The Error Message (roughly translated):
"Seemingly no traffic was routed through adblock plus. Adblock Plus couldn't change the proxy settings of your device. Please configure them manually."

There are good reasons why you cannot use such a combination:

routing your VPN traffic via another proxy might compromise it, thus rendering your VPN useless
doing it the other way around won't work, as the Adblock proxy then would need to be behind the VPN one – which you cannot establish on your device

So what you need is, as you correctly pointed out, an ad-blocker working by different means. Examples include (without giving any recommendation here, just listing possibilities):

something working via the hosts file (i.e. routing all ad-requests "to /dev/null" (or rather to 127.0.0.1, which is your device itself, which doesn't have them → nothing returned to display)
something "nulling" the ad modules themselves (i.e. "disabling" them)

None of those are "to be found" at Google Play for obvious reasons (though there might be some which Google either didn't recognize yet, or which have the corresponding activity hidden from the UI itself by hiding it, or which are simply ignored as "not fit for international use").
I could name some of the latter two categories, e.g. LBE Security Master (which is only available in a Chinese version on Play (see XDA for a localized English version)). There are also several apps working with the hosts solution, which you can find on e.g. F-Droid or Aptoide (see my app-list on Ad-Blockers for examples).

Thanks! I actually was pretty surprised Adblock Plus required proxy-settings as I thought it would work by hosts-file settings and other local set ups only. I'm using AdAway now.

Thanks for your feedback! Yes, that's an app I can approve (though I never used it myself; I use one of those evil "module disablers" ;) But I also usually purchase apps, if possible – so the "evil ones" are just applied to the "freemium apps" not having a "payed companion", basically.

For non-rooted phones see my relevant question here. Currently I'm using a VPN connection for my NetGuard firewall.
If you have a non-rooted phone you can use a VPN and then use the browser Firefox for Android and install an adblock AddOn to it (like UBlock Origin). Or simply use the Firefox Klar browser which blocks ads and tracking by default.
As far as I know there are no adblockers for non-rooted phones that also block ads in apps and don't use VPN. One exception I know of is pi-hole which isn't a solution in my and most cases.


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Security of the files added to Samsung Secure folder
Suppose I enable the Samsung secure folder and add some files to it and protect it with a password (or even biometrics) on my A-series phone. How safe are the files in case my phones got stolen?
Obviously if they can unlock my phone phone they will get access to it.
What I am asking is that, if they try to remove the memory card from the motherboard and try to access the files, will they be able to access the files in my secure folder?

Not sure who secure the files are stored, but there is at least one company which claims to provide tools for data extraction: https://www.gmdsoft.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/SamsungSecurefolder.pdf


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PDF Issues on Samsung S21 Ultra
Have a Samsung S21 Ultra, I am doing an online course that requires to see material in PDF format.  Every time I hit on view course it just flashes, and then nothing.  I have tried to download pdf on app store none work.  Is it possible that I have something turned off or not set right on my phone that keeps me from seeing these pdf files.  My DELL Laptop is working fine with getting pdf from this site.

Which PDF viewer apps have you tried?

Adobe Acrobat and PDF Reader for android. Either I picked wrong apps, didn't set them up properly or something on my phone isn't setup properly.

This is because you have previously selected some app to view pdfs all the time. Downloading new apps is not enough.

Go to Settings
Select Apps
Select Choose Default Apps
Scroll and see if there is an app for pdf viewing or document viewing or any such phrase
Press on it
Select a new default app.


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Is there a way to force enable Reader View in Firefox Android on pages where the icon doesn't appear?
From this question about Firefox in general I have tried everything except the custom css answer. How can I force enable Reader Mode in the Android app? Even the about:config page won't open. Maybe it's at a different location or something.


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Alarm turns off when Clock App is closed
When I close the Clock app the alarm no longer works. I have noticed that closing the app causes the little alarm icon to go away (indicating the alarm is no longer on). This never happened before, the alarm icon would stay on even if the app were not open.
I have cleared the clock app cache, restarted the phone, reset all settings and restarted again all to no avail.
This is on a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, Android 14 and it is the native Clock app that came with it.
Any ideas would be appreciated.

Have you verified that the alarm indeed doesn't go off? Or is the icon just going away? Have you tested with a different clock/alarm app yet?

Yes, I tried several times by setting the alarm to go off in 5 minutes, at which point the icon shows, then close the app, icon disappears, five minutes later, no alarm.
I did install a different app and it works just fine, but it is add supported and frankly it is just stupid that the native alarm app doesn't work.

That is pretty frustrating! I wouldn't imagine there's a setting to change as this couldn't really be expected to be the intended behavior of the app. Next steps I'd consider are seeing if there are updates for the app, checking for device updates, doing a factory reset (which it sounds like you may have already done), and finally - reaching out to Samsung

Same happened to me, remove clock from the sleeping apps on the background usage menu. Open settings, battery, backgound usage limits, sleeping apps... Find clock and long press it. Remove it from the list. Now when you close the app it continues running on the background and the icon will not dissapear. Alarm will sound


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How is GCam APK Port created?
Google Camera app is the application responsible for taking photos and recording videos and is only available for Google Pixel smartphone. It offers many great features such as such as HDR+, color enhancement, Super Res Zoom, Night Mode, and much more. This enables users to take amazing photos,even in low-light situations.
To use features from Google Camera app on Android smartphones from other vendors, GCam APK Port is created. Google Camera app is a closed source software.How does GCam APK Port have such capability? Google must use its own proprietary technologies for its features. How can
other apps access to the technologies? Does Google provide interfaces to use the technologies?
I searched the internet and found the following:

GCam APK Port refers to a modified version of the Google Camera app that has been ported to work on non-Pixel devices. These ports are created by developers who modify the original Google Camera app to make it compatible with a wider range of Android smartphones.

But I don't understand what these sentences mean.  What do they mean?

Not sure what you don't understand on that quote. It just describes the general process of how a manufacturer specific app is modified so that it also works on device of different manufacturers. As this process can be very complex it just gives you an overview how it works in general. If you want to understand app modification try to modify an app using apktool yourself (note that you need development skills and a lot of time to learn this).

Sorry, I am not a app developer, so I am not familiar with the process. Do you mean that the source code of Google Camera app is accessoible to developers?If so, developer can   make modifications to run the app on  Android smartphones from other vendors? Is the code of proprietary algorithms of features such as HDR+ is in binary mode? Only the interfaces to proprietary algorithms  is accessoible to developers? In summary, proprietary algorithms is closed source and the wrapper or the framework of the algorithms is open source?

No, the source code of GCam is not available but with enough effort plus knowledge and skill you can modify any program. On Android you have the DEX code which can be decompiled to Smali and native .so libraries can be decompiled to assembler and thus understood and modified. What exactly needs to be modified in case of GCam is only known to the developers who perform the modifications.


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Acepen graphics tablet with Tecno Pop 8 phone; synchronises well, but no cursor displayed
Tecno Pop 8 phone with Acepen graphics tablet.
No cursor displayed on screen.
Drawing with an invisible pen tip can be a bit frustrating.
How can I get the cursor to display?


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How to prevent Google from "synchronizing" my personal data after a factory-reset, adding a new Google account or software updates?
It seems that after a factory-reset, whenever a new Google account is enabled on a device and potentially after some software updates sync will be enabled again even if it was turned off in the Android settings before any personal data was loaded onto the device.
How can this be prevented?

The approach(es) I'm using:

don't use a Google account at all (if really needed, Playstore can be accessed via e.g. YalpStore – and instead of GMS I use microG anyway). As that's not practicable for some folks:
before adding the Google account, make sure you've prepared a different "account storage", made it the default and have all your data (contacts, calendars) in there. Examples for that:

DAVDroid with some self-hosted server (e.g. ownCloud, Nextcloud, Baïkal …)
"Device storage". Either your device/ROM supports that out-of-the-box, or you've got to use some helpers like Offline Calendar for calendars or MyLocalAccount for contacts.

I've personally made very good experiences with DAVDroid. Google Sync never touched its data.

Some things I thought about were:

Going into offline mode before doing any of the above: but enabling Internet could be done by default after these.
Installing the NetGuard firewall and configure it to start automatically: but the app could be disabled or take too long to start up. And it doesn't help with factory-resets.
Going into a remote area where there's no mobile Internet: impractical.
Somehow encasing or modifying the phone to be able to prevent it from Internet access and going into Offline-mode afterwards: likely impractical.

But I guess the best solution is the following:

Removing the SIM card before doing any of these and turning off one's WLAN router (or going to a place without WLAN access) before doing any of these: somewhat impractical but probably the best solution.

It might not be possible to remove the SIM card during any of these as one would need to remove the battery or SD card during phone operation.
I think one should also remove encrypted SD cards during any of these.

After doing this one needs to go into offline mode, disable "synchronization" settings (including in all apps such as messengers) and install the apparently only non-root open source firewall for Android: NetGuard.


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How can I delete synchronized Google data? (contacts, app data etc)
Apparently Google synchronized various data without my explicit permission. I don't want Google (and any parties that will ever have access to their data) to fetch any of my personal data without me allowing it!
Now I would like to at least transmit to them to delete it. How can I do that? I didn't find anything in the Google Dashboard. And there's no option to delete under Settings->Accounts->Google where I expected to find such a setting.

Back up your contacts on phone using any app from play store ( see Restore: Any Solution?)
(also note the contacts app has an export and import function built-in, so you won't necessarily need any 3rd party app for that)
Do the same for other synchronized data you want to keep (e.g. calendar; no built-in solution here, but you might pick an app from Izzy's list)
Disable Google Sync on your phone Setting → Accounts → Google including Gmail ( on Marshmallow, may vary on other versions)
Go to https://www.google.com/contacts/u/0/?cplus=1#contacts and select all for deletion
Repeat that for other affected data (calendars etc.)

Remove Gmail account from your phone and use web version of Gmail from Chrome or any other browser to prevent Gmail contacts getting synced again ( In earlier Android versions you could selectively stop contacts from syncing but I have noticed that contacts sync even if you specifically don't want them to )
If you disable backup (under settings) - none of the apps you installed will be backed up adding to cutting off from Google.
To prevent the mishap in future times, see e.g. How to prevent Google from “synchronizing” my personal data after a factory-reset, adding a new Google account or software updates?

One important point: Right after a factory-reset (or whenever a new Google account is enabled on a device), sync will be on again as that's the default (and the reason Google once got my data at all, years ago). So I strongly recommend establishing a separate storage for that, e.g. by using DAVDroid, and making that the default for your calendars, contact apps etc. That way you can prevent accidental syncs for the future.

But it also displays under Accounts -> Google and is hence within the scope of this question. I just edited the title for better clarity. @Izzy Thank you too. As nobody else seems to have done this I asked about this in separate question here. You can post some more details there (or edit my answer).

@beeshyams honestly, I don't remember exactly (it's half a year ago). But glad to see you back, I gave it an edit to the best I remembered. Hope it looks fine for you?

@izzy: Thanks and absolutely love the last point To prevent the mishap in future times...

@beeshyams Yupp. That was actually a follow-up question made by the OP. Just placed it there for the benefit of other readers :)


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Encrypted SD card failed after S5 restart
As I can't get my Samsung S5 connected to my Debian 9.1 with KDE machine over MTP I had to use KDE Connect to copy over files.
I then had to move the files from my internal storage to the SD card.
I have both my internal storage as well as the SD card encrypted.
I copied over a lot of files which worked well. Then I ran KDE Connect for a bit longer to transfer a bit more files. I still have over 1 GB of free storage space on my internal disk. However my phone got stuck for quite a while: I could unlock it to see my wallpaper for a few seconds until it went back to the lockscreen (it had very slow reactions). I waited for a while and disabled the WLAN on my computer to stop any data transmissions which didn't help. I hence restarted my phone.
After restart I got greeted with the dialog to encrypt the SD card that said that SD card encryption has been activated and asking me to either enable it by proceeding or deactivating it. On the phone it shows no files on the SD card.
I connected it to my computer where I can see all the files which are unreadable (encrypted). I copied all the encrypted files over in case that helps me restore them and also wrote down the name under which the SD card was mounted.
I also deleted the "LOST.DIR" directory and a couple of files to free up some space in case that was the problem. I dismounted the SD card, reinserted it to my phone and restarted it.
The phone showed me that same dialog again. In searches I could only find questions where people had this problem after software updates or factory resets: but not after just a restart.
Any ideas what might have caused this and how I could fix it?
Note that it doesn't look like I can format the SD card. I could try pressing "deactivate" or proceed at that dialog. But wouldn't that change the decryption keys so that even if I copy my files back it won't be able to decrypt them?

Solution: Follow the steps outlined by Colbe here but format the SD card with GParted on the computer and then format it again on the Android. And leave out step 5.
Likely cause: a missing .MetaEcfsFile file.
Also GParted showed just the "boot" flag for the SD card partition: no "lba" flag.


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Projecting Google Play books onto Android televisions
I wanted to know if is possible to project (using Chromecast, or a similar technology), a Google Play book onto an Android television screen.
You could then have pinch to zoom or drag on the Android device to have everything displayed onto television.
The same goes for web pages, which could readjust to size on the television screen.
With current screen mirroring technology the screen size is just mirrored and a subset of the entire television screen is displayed, but I can't have the area enlarged and zoomed.
Also, I am not sure whether television screen resolution would be adequate, but theoretically,I think, it would.
I would like to be able to read a Google Play book on the television and control panning and zooming from my phone.
Thanks.

Depending on the phone you should be able to do this as "casting" can be done at the OS level. For example I was able to do this with a stock Pixel 6a Android 13.

From your phone, swipe down until you see the various settings tiles (WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.) See if you can find a "Screen Cast" tile with the Chromecast logo. Note you may need to edit (pencil icon) your quick setting tiles list so that it is easily available.

Tap on the "Screen Cast" tile and select the Chromecast receiver device that should be on the same WiFi access point as the phone.

Your phone screen should be shared with the TV. For reference I am using a 2nd generation Chromecast device connected to a 1080p TV.

Launch the Google Play Books app and pick the book of interest.

Rotate phone to landscape. There should be a "rotate display" button if the app hasn't auto-rotated to landscape.

Once rotated you should be viewing the book page on the TV and should be able to use normal gesture controls on your phone to zoom/pan/change page.

To leave "Screen Cast" pull down from the top again to find that Quick Setting Tile, tap it again to disable.

As this appears available at the OS level, ebook app developers don't have an incentive to add such a specific feature.


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How to automatically use USB for file transfers (on my PC only)
When I connect my Google Pixel 6 to my Windows 11 laptop via a USB cable, it only charges by default and does not allow me to transfer files without first enabling file transfers on the handheld, in USB preferences.
Unfortunately, every time I undock my laptop then redock, I need to reconfigure that setting, which constantly resets to "No data transfer". I am not alone in this situation, as this forum post (and another question) shows, but this happens on a fully up-to-date Android 15 (and takes more than 5 s each time).
Is there no way to remember the value of "Use USB for" with my laptop? Note that I am not an Android developer and store potentially confidential data on the handheld, so granting an unsafe allow all as Developer options lets me configure (regardless of which computer is plugged) is not an option.

The setting is on the phone, which you carry with you.  I dont see a problem here.

USB client devices can't identify the host. Even with the new spec "USB-C-Auth" the authentication would only work the other way round. The only secure, always active access between PC and Android phone via USB is Android Debug bridge (adb). However that requires special drivers and (command-line) tools on PC side.


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Phone calls don't go through with some numbers
I have an Android phone (Samsung Galaxy Note 8, Andorid Version 9) which works fine but on some specific numbers, it does not seem to be able to establish a connection. I hear the first tone (or at least part of it) indicating a connection has been made but afterward, there is only silence until the phone hangs up after about 35 seconds (it's always the same time).
Curiously the phone works fine with a different SIM card. Putting the original SIM card from the phone into a different phone works as well. Does anyone have any hints on how to troubleshoot this issue?

Most likely a codec problem of the used VoIP Connection. See also the similar question https://android.stackexchange.com/q/258913/2241

@Robert thanks, turning off VoLTE did the trick, the second workaround (pausing the call) doesn't work, since the phone doesn't establish a connection. Feel free to write an answer.

Hi Robert, you can write up the answer instead and you are allowed to tick it after 24hrs.

@RohitGupta do you mean Robert or myself?

Note that turning off VoLTE only works if the network you are in still has 2G or 3G capability. Also without VoLTE your Internet will be off while on a call

@Robert good points, thank you


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Why do "send USSD failed" notifications keep popping up?
SamsungS10e TruConnect network "send USSD failed" notifications keep popping up. Why?

We need more information

I have found two possible issues.

You are roaming and the firmware is not compatible
There is an app on your phone that is failing to connect.

Suggestions

Try wit roaming turned off, if you are roaming.
Try and remember the last few apps you installed and remove them.


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Why is my Android device not being recognized by adb on Windows 11?
I'm trying to use adb on Windows 11 and it's not picking up any of my devices. I've tried both a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and a Google Pixel 6a.
I've downloaded the platform tools on Windows 11 and added adb to my path so there's no problem there, adb is working just fine. I've enabled developer options on both phones and enabled USB debugging as well, my default USB configuration is set to file transfer even though I've tried every USB configuration available and I'm using the appropriate USB-C cable.
I have even tried different usb ports on my computer as I have 3 of them. However, when I enable usb debugging I'm not getting the normal popup for the computer's RSA fingerprint asking me to allow access to the phones so what could I be doing wrong? I've never had this problem before, normally I do all that I listed above and adb works just fine.
I've scoured the internet for solutions but they are all the same and no matter what I try I cannot get adb to recognize the devices. I've even gone as far as downloading specific USB drivers for each phone with no success. I'm at a loss, could windows defender somehow be blocking the adb connection?
Would my firewall somehow be contributing to the problem? I only have the stock Windows Defender options enabled and have not messed with the firewall in any way.

I think this belongs on the Superuser site.  Its not really about android?

When you have device problems the first check shoould always be Windows Device Manager. Is the adb device (often named "Android Composite ADB Interface
") visible in there? If not all the tests you made are useless because without a working adb device driver nothing can work.

Last time I had this, the problem was that Windows 11 wasn't seeing the USB ports. Does any another USB device work? If not, try a full shut down and restart of Windows. My problem proved to be specific to this 2-in-1 laptop: the CPU is part of the dismountable screen/tablet and un- then re-docking it with the keyboard, which has the USB sockets fixed the problem.

Yes, all of the USB ports are working, I tried every one with a double for a mouse and they are all fine. I will check the windows device manager and get back to you, however I did download the USB drivers for each phone before hand, does that make a difference?

So im not finding "Android Composite ADB Interface" in the windows device manager. How do i go about fixing that?

I fixed it, it was as simple as restarting my computer. Idk what exactly the problem was, but its working now.


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Am I supposed to delete old texts on a regular basis?
As a normal Android end user, am I supposed to regularly delete old texts? I've noticed my text messaging app (Textra) is getting slower and slower as time goes by, and is now nearly unusable.
If this is a normal android maintenance process, what is the correct method for deleting texts? I've tried deleting texts in Textra, but later I see them show up again, ie, in contacts, each contact shows the most recent texts to and from a contact. If I deleted all texts from Textra, how are these recent texts still showing up here? What is the correct method?

Yes, you need to regularly delete old text messages.  Otherwise, as you are experiencing, text messaging apps (especially ones like Textra) can get painfully slow.
You can perform this purging manually, or have an app do it for you.
If you would like Textra to do this automatically for you, click on the 3-dot button in its upper-right corner.  Then click on Settings.  Scroll to the bottom of the Settings page, and you'll see a More Stuff section.  Within that section, you'll see Messages to Keep.  Click on that item.  You'll then be presented with a screen that allows you to specify the maximum number of regular text messages and the maximum number of media messages to keep for every thread.  Note that recovery is usually not possible, so be careful.
The reason deleted texts may still get shown is because Android is rather limited in regards to how it handles text and media messages.  Due to Android's limitations, apps like Textra don't actually replace the text messaging system.  Instead, they add another layer.  Thus, the native text messaging system and this extra layer have to handle message deletion together.  This often has issues, resulting in deleted messages not really getting deleted.  The only workaround is to go into the native text messaging app and delete messages from there too.  This known issue can result in significant privacy problems.


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Can I change an SD card volume serial number manually, without formatting?
My laptop runs on stable Arch Linux. My tablet is running Android 14.
I have apps that are linked to a dead card that are very difficult to change the link to. Now I do know you can randomly get a new volume serial number. The thing is, can you deliberately change an SD card volume serial number=1234-abcd to volume serial number=0987-mnbv?
The card is formatted to exFAT. Plugged in a slot but listed as external SD. Already has data on it that I do not want to lose.
Edit: exfatlabel works. Note:To change volume serial number must use 0x12345678 instead of 1234-5678. Follow the linked notes.

I assume you are talking about the "volume serial number" - possible duplicate of Can I rename the external storage mount point on Android10 with root access

Thanks for getting me on the right track. Haven't tried it yet as still backing up info on new card. For Linux exfatlabel link

Feel free to add an answer here or on the linked question, describing exfatlabel program.

This question is similar to: Can I rename the external storage mount point on Android10 with root access. If you believe it’s different, please [edit] the question, make it clear how it’s different and/or how the answers on that question are not helpful for your problem.


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Force dark theme for content in Chrome depending on system settings
I know there is a setting in chrome://flags which forces dark mode for content ("Auto dark mode for Web content", #enable-force-dark). This works pretty well on all websites, even those which don't explicitly support dark mode.
However, this setting seems to be independent of Android's system-wide Dark theme. I would like Chrome to display content in dark mode each time I switch Android to Dark mode, and revert back to normal when Android is in Light mode. How can I achieve this?
Bonus question: is it possible for a website to tell Chrome to follow system-wide Light/Dark theme? This would, at least, solve the problem for websites that I develop.

As I just found out, for websites under your control the following CSS line does the trick: @media(prefers-color-scheme:dark) { body { background:black; color:white; } }. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@media/prefers-color-scheme


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How to export e-mail messages from the Samsung Email app on a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
A colleague of mine had his e-mail messages deleted from their e-mail account by accident. This happened quite a few weeks ago so he did not notice this until now. By now all the backups of his e-mail account already do not contain these messages anymore.
But he did not check his e-mail on his mobile phone (Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra) and so his mobile e-mail client (Samsung email app) did not sync with the IMAP server. We have disabled the sync, so he can see the older e-mails in his Samsung Galaxy S23. The question now is, how to get these e-mails from this app? There are more than 5000 emails on the phone.
We would like not to have to root the phone to get this done. Does anybody know how we can get his e-mails from the phone? Even if they do not have attachments, that is no problem.
We tried using ADB for the backup of com.samsung.android.email.provider, but his does not seem to work - the backup file is empty. We tried My Backup app, but this still has not finished the backup process so I do not know if this will work or not.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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How to revert an automatic system update from Android 12 back to Android 11
Despite having disallowed every possible automatic update option available, today my phone updated automatically from Android 11 to Android 12 after a short WiFi connection.
How can I get Android 11 back?
I don't care about loosing any data on the phone?

Android phone with locked bootloader usually have a downgrade protection, so you can't. Anyway what is the problem with Android 12?

Very likely, you need to download a stock firmware with Android 11, and then flash it into the phone. Not all phones loves it.

@Robert Adb scripts not working anymore. But actually it's me: I didn't ask for it


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Can I use this old LG as an Android TV?
I have an old monitor that is still working ok (LG W2361V).
Is it possible to make it into a TV by using an Android box or is it too old for that? What about the sound?

Doubtful without additional hardware as based on: https://www.lg.com/ca_en/monitors/fhd-qhd/w2361v-pf/ it is just a monitor without HDMI-CEC & Audio support thru the HDMI connector. You would need a extractor/converter box to take the output from a Android TV device to get the audio signal out. Searching on "turn monitor to TV" should give you options. To my knowledge Android TV box devices can't normally split audio to Bluetooth headphones or does so with lag due to HDMI delays but YMMV.

@MorrisonChang: So the movie could play fine but the only issue is the audio?

Yes, I believe so. I recall connecting an old Android/Google TV box to a monitor once, it worked but as there was no speaker output on the monitor or the box, no audio could be heard.

@MorrisonChang: Something like this? https://www.amazon.com/Android-Netflix-Certified-Support-Assistant/dp/B09FDM2MSX/  This mentions audio if I undestand correctly

Honestly I don't know if that particular device will handle non-HDMI audio with HDMI video stream correctly. Do note that hardware recommendations are off-topic here. However you can ask on the seller product page questions and hopefully either confirm or deny that the setup/configuration you want will work. Good luck.

@MorrisonChang: So I should be looking for a device that handles HDMI video and non HDMI audio? Why is that?

I was more concerned about possible general HDMI audio sync problems but that would depend upon what player/app you are using and how the audio is connected to the box as the monitor doesn't have HDMI audio/HDMI-ARC. Ideally the box you linked to has system level audio sync adjustment so audio can be synchronized.


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Why does screen of my phone stay on when listening to Spotify in my car?
Lately I have noticed that when I listen to Spotify while my phone is connected via Bluetooth to the car's speakers, the phone's screen is kept turned on indefinitely. Some specifics:

The phone is Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
The car is Skoda with Columbus infotainment system
Phone is charging via USB-C cable
Car supports wireless charging when phone is in the locker, but I keep it on the locker's lid and it looks like it never charges wirelessly
I'm unsure if the problem is only with Spotify or will it happen with other apps as well (need to check)

Where should I search for the settings to turn this "feature" off? Screen is configured to switch off in 2 minutes. I found no settings in Spotify nor in my car's setup to control the phone's screen.

Some phones tend to override the power saving settings while charging. Not really a problem because you can simply press the power button to turn the screen off. It has nothing to do with whatever device it is connected to and makes no sense whatsoever to try to find any related setting in the car.

In Spotify, go to Settings and privacy > Car
Uncheck "Keep app open on screen"


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How to encrypt an SD card for android so that it can also be used on other devices?
When encrypting the SD card via Android's encryption it makes the SD card only usable on that device.
However if that device gets lost or broken or if one would like to access the SD card from another device such as another mobile phone (maybe even with another OS than android) or a computer the SD card isn't accessible.
This is why I'd like to encrypt my SD card with some other tool than the one built into Android.
Is there such an encryption tool for Android which allows you to de- and encrypt the SD card in a way that it can also be decrypted on other devices?
It would be best if the tool also automatically prompted the user to enter the SD card password right after Android has completed the entire boot-process. This question seems to be relevant: Cross-platform compatible encryption of SD-card for Android but it's not about specific tools/ways.
It should be capable of encrypting Android data on the SD card, convenient to use and install (FDroid or Playstore), secure, not put the card at risk of data-loss and not slow down the phone / read/write-speeds a lot.
Here I asked about a way to do this with Android's default SD card encryption mechanism without having to root the phone until a proper solution to this question exists.

There is another question linked inside the question you mentioned which is about specific tools/ways: Decrypting microSD card on another Android device or desktop computer

Thanks, that Q&A you linked is helpful. However, I couldn't find any concrete steps / recommended app there. The answer only discusses different technologies to use but not a simple and easy-to-implement practical solution in the form of an (intuitive) app downloadable from Playstore or FDroid. I'll check the technologies proposed there later.

the link is still there in the comments https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sovworks.edslite

@mYnDstrEAm advanced solutions aren't for fainthearted, so there is no simple and easy-to-implement solution if you want something robust. All of the solutions provided there are practical which I have used/tested at different times for different purposes. I can provide detailed step if you choose which method you want to go with. It's a matter of compatibility with your OSes and how far you can go to implement the solution. But a simple solution is use Amdroid's built-in encryption on rooted device and keep a backup of encryption key so that SD card can be decrypted later on a PC.


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Do I need to unroot my phone to encrypt it?
I'd like to fully encrypt my rooted Samsung Galaxy S5 with Android 5.0 and its SD card.
This guide says that one needs to unroot ones phone before encrypting it. Is that really needed for my device? And if so - why?

Moved it here: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/154032/when-do-i-need-to-enter-my-password-once-i-encrypted-my-phone

My guess is that if your phone is rooted and encrypted, the encrypted keys are available for any malicious app/ intruder that can gain root access, rendering encryption useless. See this security stack exchange post but i am not sure how that can be avoided if you encrypt and then root !! Maybe, you can post this question there , if you don't get a response here and after deleting it here (cross posting discouraged)

This says encryption is lost on rooting


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Apps got weird names and icons -> virus?
So, for instance one of apps renamed itself to "Content on this profile might be inappropriate for those under a certain age" and displays that message (and "Stopped.") in a MessageBox when started. Its icon also changed (to a grey heart; another changed to a grey edit-pencil). It works again after reinstalling it though. And my VLC player app is now called "_".
Do you think my phone fell victim to a virus? I got the Kaspersky virus scanner installed and when doing a full scan it finds nothing. I guess it's probably just some bug.
Maybe someone else had the same problem?
Edit: it appears that moving apps from my phone to the SD card was causing the icon-problem. The icon of Firefox changed to some grey icon after doing so. It changed back to the proper icon after I restarted the device. Not sure if that was also causing the app-names problem and I think it's unlikely to have caused that soundcloud-app-problem.

Your question is not clear. Please add screenshot

I haven't experienced the same issue myself but it definitely sounds like something caused by third party app(s).
What I would suggest is to boot your phone up in safe mode and systematically go through your apps, uninstall and install them until you have identified the offending app.
Example:
1. boot into safe mode
2. remove app1
3. boot up normally
4. check if resolved
5. if not, reinstall app1
6. repeat process for app2

If you have an approximate idea of when this happened, refer to your app installation history so you don't have to do this for all your installed apps and save some time!

How could the OP identify the offending app, if all of third-party apps cannot run at boot in safe mode?

My suggestion does not require third party apps to run, in fact, I suggested the safe boot method to force this situation.

If the offending app may not run in safe mode, how could OP identify it?

I would kindly refer you to the example steps I have included in my answer. If it's still unclear and OP doesn't understand, I'll happily edit my answer.