text:
Are lower-end phones just as moddable as flagships?
After a long time in the waiting, I finally have an excuse to upgrade from an iPhone (5s) to an Android. As a tech enthusiast and general superuser, the freedom to do what I want as far as customisability and general tinkering with the software is almost entirely the reason I've gone off iPhones and am looking for an Android. I'm bored of playing in the garden and it's time to climb the wall.
However, I'm also on a low income, which means I'm still very much limited by budget (less than £200, let's say, although the lower the better), and as someone who knows very little about the Android mobile market, I'm wondering how realistic it will be for me to satisfy both desires in a single phone.
I'm not asking for product recommendations per se, just wondering in general terms, based on the state of the market, what the situation is. Are most phones of this range just as malleable software-wise as flagships, or are they not? If they are, which ones in particular should I avoid?

Also see meta Is it on topic to ask for help choosing a suitable Android device?

Go for vendors that allow unlocking bootloader and provide kernel sources. Without that you'll have very little "tinkering". Also, Qualcomm SoCs get more attention from developer community which is very essential to "climb the wall". You will have more custom kernels and ROMs and you will be able to have "unofficial updates" for longer period of time. Apart from all that, the latest the better, in most cases whether it's software or hardware. Everything else can be beautifully compared on gsmarena :)

You should avoid some Flagship device's...
Samsung's use a security feature called Knox, that'll make thing's harder.   Some newer androids 5.1+ will have extra security to stop system modifications...
In my opinion you are better off looking for a device that's running below Android 5.1 and uses an MTK Cpu, this is because most of the new security features to stop modifications hadn't been implemented yet.
Theirs practically no difference in the actual Android system when comparing manufacturers, if its using Android 4.4 it's the same on a more expensive device running 4.4, however their is differences when it comes to each device, some ( Samsung's use Knox ) to lock things down even more...
You should definitely be open to device suggestions because some devices are simply better for modifications.

Main Price Difference Causes

OGS - (One Glass Solutions) Screen Thickness
IPS - Viewing Angle Of Screen
CPU Capabilities - Speed & Support for games
RAM - Obvious price impact
OTG - On The Go Support - Usb Device's
Dual Camera - (Tri Camera) - Face, Back, (Focus Assist)
Back & Front Camera MP - Size of photos
Finger Print Support - Security
GPS
Gyroscope
Mobile network radio band support
Full HD - 4K Screen Definition ( Retina Display )
Full screen width ( Edge to Edge )
Other non essential enhancements....

If you don't mind about support or inclusion of any thing above and some other's, the price doesn't really matter.

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


text:
Deleting unsent WhatsApp messages
What will happen if I do a "Delete for me" option to a WhatsApp message that doesn't have any ticks? Will it reach the recipient or will it be never sent?

messages with no tick will not be delivered to the recipient as it is not moved from your device to server.
However if it have single tick that means it is delivered to server but still if you delete that message than it will be deleted from your device as well as from the server as it is not delivered to the recipient.
If message is delivered and have two ticks that it is delivered to the recipient and you have to delete that message for both to remove messages from both devices, but that is limited to some time frame, limited to 8 seconds i guess from the time it is delivered to the recipient device.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Cannot communicate on LAN when WIFI doesnt have internet
This is pertaining to a smart phone with data.
My phone is connected to my WIFI which lacks internet currently. It is also connected to the cell network and using it for data. When I ifconfig it tells me I am connected on wlan with 192.168.1.4 and rmnet at 10.124.121.12. I am trying to ping a device on 192.168.1.55 for purposes.
If I turn off my cell network I can ping it fine. With my cell network on its unreachable.
How do I get my android to allow me to ping 192.168.1.55 while being on the cell network? I have only noticed this since the internet went out on my WIFI so its a strange and new problem.

That's expected. You won't be able to ping 55 from 4, but can do opposite. The reason is that Android can connect either to Wi-Fi or mobile data, which one has internet connectivity, if given option. If both are online, WiFi is preferred. It's because default route is set to mobile data (rmnet_data) interface. You can modify routing table manually if you have root access.

https://android.stackexchange.com/q/191343/311449 is an older duplicate of this with potentially more actionable answers, like https://android.stackexchange.com/a/258786/311449.

This question is similar to: How to connect to WiFi router without internet?. 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.

I have the same setup. I have a local WiFi network that is not connected to the internet. I found that if you go to settings on your phone, then select “Developer options” and tick “Cellular data always active” that you will have access to the WiFi network and the cell network simultaneously.
On my LG, I can be on the web with cell data and print to the printer on the local WiFi network. I just now tested a ping just to make sure and it works just as you would expect.

I am fully rooted so I will try this out when the internet dies again, its about time for it. I have seen the option but did not try it. I'll let you know how it works.

This seemed to work fine for the rare instance that my internet goes out. Upvoted both of you but not enough Reputation for it to apply yet it seems.

Not worked for me, i already have this option enabled on developer settings with Android 10

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


text:
Hacker's Keyboard is ignored now, it tells me I have to unlock the phone?
Somehow my phone is not showing me my Hacker's Keyboard anymore. It's saying that it could send all the info I type to a 3rd party (which is technically correct, I would imagine...)
It used to work, I installed a new app. and after about a month it managed to prevent the keyboard from showing up. I went to the settings and turned the keyboard back on (ah! it looks like it was turned off on me...) That step told me that it would work only if I were to unlock my phone and reboot.
So how do I do that and is that specific to just this app or would it allow (unlock) any app. from doing what it wants? Is Android that lame?

Have you tried clearing its cache and/or data?

Well! I'm not sure why, but somehow my Default Keyboard setup was back to the Samsung keyboard (the default). So I guess there was a new version which was updated and after updating, the Default keyboard switch was back to the default.
Editing that one setting and the Hacker's Keyboard was back in business.
The selection of the Default Keyboard on my phone is available from "Settings" > "General Management" > "Language and Input"


text:
What does "Global EU" mean in the context of smartphone versions?
While browsing smartphone offers, I encountered several offers like "Xiaomi Mi9 6/64GB Global EU". What does "Global EU" mean in this context?

It's the ROM version installed on the phone indicating the region. Manufacturers ship different ROMs depending on the region. Someone living in Europe will have a different ROM than one living in Africa or Asia. You can even find difference in ROMs within a continent or region.
Usually with Xiaomi phones, you have the Global and China ROMs. Then (if I am not mistaken -- someone corrects me here), the Global versions is divided in EU, Russia, India, etc depending on the market. Global EU is just the ROM version for the EU market.


text:
How to configure a Bluetooth keyboard to open and close a specific app?
I want to convert my Bluetooth keyboard to some sort of control panel for my car, to open maps etc on keypress. So that I don't need to use the touchscreen while driving.
Is that possible?

Looks like some old phones with integrated physical keyboard had this functionality:https://www.dummies.com/consumer-electronics/smartphones/droid/quick-launch-feature-for-android-phone-apps/

Does your keyboard have media buttons by any chance? If so you can use something like Tasker or Automate (Free) to programatically set actions. I happen to have Automate on my phone and just checked you can use media buttons as a trigger e.g. pause, play, next, previous, eject etc. Then you can hook this up to start apps and voice searches easily - the interface is pretty straightforward if you haven't used one of these apps before.
If your keyboard doesn't have media buttons a generic bluetooth remote of some sort could work (try ebay/aliexpress etc.)
Quick google search says Tasker can't capture generic keypresses but that might've changed since 2015.

Awesome! I have some media buttons on it, great!


text:
Lucky Patcher broke my Google Play services
I have a OnePlus 6 running Android 9.0.2 rooted with Magisk, but no recovery. (I tried to install recovery before rooting it every way I could imagine, with no success.)
I had Lucky Patcher installed with patches applied to Android and to the Play Store, and everything was working fine. I recently updated Android from 8.1 to 9.0.2 and the patches were removed.
When I tried to patch it again, the play store disappeared and all the Google apps say that my device doesn't support Google Play Services.
I tried reinstalling the Play Store both from Lucky Patcher (original and mod versions) and from APKMirror, but whenever I try to open the app, it just says "Google Play Store keeps stopping".
And when I tried installing the Play Store as a system app with Lucky Patcher, it just wouldn't install.
I tried installing Google Play services from APKMirror, but the app just wouldn't install.
I even tried installing it using ADB, and I get this error:
Failed to install Downloads/ps.apk:
Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_UPDATE_INCOMPATIBLE:
Update to package com.google.android.gms doesn't support multi arch]

My question is, how can I get the Play Store and Google Play Services working again?

It might be worth looking into [tag:logcat] to find out what happens (including errors) when you try to install Play Store and Play Services.

I had similar issue, this was how I resolved mine:

Open Magisk Manager
Tap on Setting
Enable Magisk Core

Reboot the device. After rebooting:

Open Lucky Patcher
Go to Toolbox
Tap on Install modded Play Store
Install the most recent version  you see

NB:
If it fails,  enable Magisk core, after reboot, open Lucky Patcher > Rebuild and install > Lucky Patcher folder > Install app as system app.

The real issue here is that Lucky Patcher breaks some Google Play Services when you apply inApp or Remove Google Ads patch. The fix here is to Roll back those changes you made to whatever app or service you applied the patch to. Then clear cache and dalvik, done.

Flashing the system again seemed to do the trick.
I followed this guide on xda
https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-6/how-to/rom-stock-fastboot-roms-oneplus-6-t3796665
I just didn't flash the boot partitions, so I was able to keep my systemless root.


text:
Searching for a VM?
I would like to know if there is a app/ etc. thats makes possible to use multiple smartphone operating systems on device. To be precise: Is how to get an VM. Are there any apps or other posiblilities.
Or other stuff for andriod similar to "Bluestacks for Windows-Phone"

QEMU is the only thing that does what you're asking for, at the moment. The download is available through XDA, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1459153

No it shouldn't root access

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


text:
How to access andriod to my pcs hardrive using wifi
I would like to connect my samsung galaxy s4 over wifi with my pcs harddrive. It should be the same way as by the remote desktop apps but indstead of them only to use the pc hardrive. I want to get and send files between my whole 1 TB hardrive therefore I don't want to use cloud services like dropbox. Also I don't need to sync.

AirStream: Stream PC on mobile could help you. There is no root or registration required.

I do all manner of communication between android and Windows. I have several android TV PCs with monitors used as thin clients, and I use TV PCs for streaming on big TVs. For remoting into Windows use Microsoft Remote Desktop Beta from the play store. Many android file browsers connect to Windows file sharing. I use ES File Explorer Pro to copy files and update the TV PCs. I use FolderSync Pro to backup my cell phone to Windows. This all works flawlessly and is easy to set up if you have Windows security knowledge. Also use a fixed IP address for the Windows machine, using that as the server name. The Windows machine name often is not found via DNS, but the IP address always works. Do not include a domain name in server set up for android apps.
Windows security is a pain. Do not take a shortcut and give too much access to your android devices. Create a user on the Windows machine for the intended purpose, and give that user access to one or more folders required. It's fine to give full access to that user for just those folders. Permission must be given at the Windows share name and the Windows folder. These are two different sets of permissions.

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


text:
How to use two whatsapp accounts on one phone
I have a Samsung galaxy Duos and want to use my two whatsapp accounts at the same device. Is it for example possible to run dual two whatsapp client apps on one phone?

Well, I don't think that would be possible at all but anyway I would rather say over here nothing is impossible for developers at all ! I think I want to know about it too ! So, +1 from my side !

Yeah, searching on Google did return some results. Probably I'll write the answer if I have some time after understanding the procedure.

Possible duplicate of How can I run multiple copies of the same app?

@RahulParashar I don't think this is quite a duplicate, because if there's a trick that's specific to WhatsApp, that couldn't be posted on the linked question.

@DanHulme I want to point out,  all in all, whatsapp is an android app. If there is a technique then it can be applied to the all the android app. This is because of how the system (Operating system) is designed.

@RahulParashar There are already two answers on this question which recommend an alternative WhatsApp app. Obviously that's a solution that doesn't generalise to other apps.

But, the truth still holds that android app cannot have two instances. These are just workarounds which possibly/tweak-ably work for other apps also.

Yes you can use two WhatsApp account in a single phone,and here is an alternate method. There are so many application using them you can use dual WhatsApp,
and Parallel Space,
simply install application Parallel Space from Google Play.
After installing, there you will see an option for WhatsApp, using that you can use another WhatsApp account.
Using Parallel Space you will use multiple WhatsApp,Hike,Messenger account with a single Application.

You can't install an app twice unless you go deep down hacking.
I don't know how WhatsApp works but you may just be able to put multiple accounts to one device. These accounts then may be handled separately by a single app. You can also try to look for alternatives if WhatsApp doesn't support multiple accounts.

Use WhatsApp business as the second instance of the app
WhatsApp has now officially made it possible to have two WhatsApp accounts without needing any shady third party apps.
WhatsApp has recently come out with an app called WhatsApp business. It's almost an exact copy of the regular WhatsApp app, and they can both run together on the and phone, without any problems.
There are some minor differences between them, but they are small enough to not get in the way. Main difference would definitely be that when someone good to see more details about you, it will tell them that this is an unverified business account.
Otherwise, it's all the same. You have chats, group chats, statuses, regular and video calling, etc.
It has also some cool features that the regular WhatsApp didn't have. For example: automatic reply, quic reply, and many other.
How to set it up:
Download WhatsApp business from the play store, and go through the regular number authentication process. After you're done, you will be able to use both apps on the same phone.

Its possible to use two account by using two whatsapp(first offical whatsapp,second OGWhatsapp)  OGWhatsapp

Welcome to [android.se]. Thank you for your contribution. This is a good starting for an answer, but could you also mention (or quote) the steps to install it?

@AndrewT. Its simple download OGwhatsapp the link i provided above and install provide your 1st number. After that you can install offical whatsapp install provide 2nd number. So by this way 2 numbers will be working in a single mobile parallel way.

Security and privacy concerns of using a non official "whastapp"? Don't recommend that kind of thing...

A more recent workaround involves using Disa (Unified Messenger Hub) (available on playstore).
It uses plugin to access services like WhatsApp, Telegram etc.
Despite the fact that it is still in beta versions, AFAICT, it has stable release of its plugins and can be a good way to use multiple WhatsApp instances on one device.
The plugins are still bring fine-tuned as currently sone features are still lacking (e.g WhatsApp web, WhatsApp statuses), but the developers promised to implement such features soon.
However its core features are intact, for regular usage e.g chats etc , it is very good to tool to achieve your goal.

You can use OGwhatsapp to use two numbers on your device. But now a days WhatsApp has started to ban unofficial users of whatsapp so do at your own risk!
Download OGWhatsapp

It'd be better if you could provide the download link to WhatsApp+, since it's not available on Play Store though.


text:
Samsung phone charges poorly, periodically
My Samsung S8+ has started having periods when it does not keep up 100% charging when connected and in simple editing usage. If I leave it idle it charges slowly and the "charger beep" occasionally goes on and off. (But charging icon is lit most if the time.) If it is turned off it charges fast.
I only use original cable and charger and have replaced these. The problem has ocurred with several different power grids. I am abroad and can not claim warranty.
I had exactly the same problem with a Note 3. Original Samsung service ran the full program on it and declared it ok. (It was 3 yrs old then.) Finally I let unauthorized repair shop change all charging components to no avail.
I barely use a computer any more. My phone is connected to charger and often in heavy use about 18 hrs/day.
Once when I bought new battery for Note 3 (often change these) the original service center insisted on examining my phone even though I considered it OK at that time. They said phones that are connected all day may develop problems. I couldn't leave my phone for examination for privacy reasons.
Note 3 is now bricked by yours truly.
S8+ is 1 yr old and I have never changed its battery. It has started developing this same strange disease.
Maybe I should just leave my S8+ for battery change, but I fear it has developed the same problem as my Note 3. Changing battery was simple with Note 3, but did not help.
I have considered factory reset, but that would be difficult for me now, since backing up would take time. (Could malware or something be running and draining battery?)
Sorry for long post but does anyone have advice? Does SS include "controlled aging" in the software?  ;)
Edit:
I wrote this long post connected to a stable power grid with original charger. Charging is still 77%, like when I started, charging symbol is lit. When phone was new it would charge rapidly during such an edit. Charging has gone off and on maybe 7-8 times, but it is mostly on.

The phone probably had malware introduced through a SIM-card.
The phone also stopped recognizing the SIM-card. No calls or data possible. It asked me to make a factory reset to "accept new network configuration". Charged poorly when not turned off.
I removed the SIM, made backups and factory reset (which needs wifi to find my Samsung account password to allow for reset).
I do not wish to point out any country in particular. This has happened before in other countries. The new SIM that only worked for two days, I had bought in a big shopping center that also gave away SIMs for free with other buys. Largest network in the country I believe.
I had also connected to a hotel wifi with advertisments etc.
I went to the only direct outlet for the network and asked. They told me the SIM had given me the problems. Hotel networks have ads but are safe.
Malware was running, draining power and also interfered with connection.
The network shop was super pro. They sold me a new SIM and "pocket wifi" and set up everything perfectly. All works fine now.
My conclusion:
Only buy SIM directly from the network shops (or if you trust their envelope seals). (A lot of hassle for me that often travel and roaming  becomes too expensive. But no other choice.)
Data I backed up but apps seem to have problems downloading through the Google/Samsung system. Hopefully it will improve when wifi is not crowded in the night. But I can restore apps manually. The app data seem to be there if I just download the app manually. The nice Adobe Lightrooom that I reinstalled suddenly has pay-options for what used to be free :(  ;)
What the malware programmer wishes to achieve is not clear.


text:
How do you change which app opens when USB is connected?
Regarding which app will be opened when I connect a USB ("OTG") device.
How do I change this setting. I do not wish any of the following apps to open:

Screenshot (click image to enlarge)
(The screenshot shows the situation when I connect a USB flash drive.)
I wish Android stock file manager  ("My Files") to open when I connect a USB flash.
A week ago I got problems connecting USB. Test apps for USB say flash disks are connected but I can not see them.
The only time they work is when Android stock file manager opens on connection. It always used to be like that but now "My Files" only opens automatically, occasionally.
It seems to work better for flash drives that have never been connected before. Somehow some apps have decided that they should open for certain defined USB devices. (I may unfortunately have replied yes to some questions earlier.)
I naturally looked in the application manager. I found a relevant setting for one of these programs but not for the remaining.
It is not practical right now to uninstall the programs or format flash drives.
How do I make stock file manager "My Files" open default when USB is connected?
Thanks
Android 5.0,
Galaxy Note 3
Edit
If someone else gets the same problem I can add this: The best file managers for USB/OTG that work even if Android can not see the flash drives seem to be:

Nexus Media Importer ($5)
Total Commander OTG plug in ($1)

With a modern good speed USB flash drive these two programs copy files with "reasonably" good speed.

If that screenshot is what you get to see in those cases: Have you tried tapping the "File Manager" and then the "Always" button (provided that "File Manager" is the one you want)?

The "File Manager" in the screen shot is not the one I want. The one I want is the Android stock file manager. It is called "My Files". It does not show up.

@ycc_swe This is doable, to launch your My Files app but there is a slight problem. Do you use USB OTG for anything other than accessing USB drives? If you don't then you can use Tasker or Automate app to listen to the broadcast with action android.hardware.usb.action.USB_DEVICE_ATTACHED and launch your My Files app when done receiving it. It works perfectly as long as I don't go attaching other type of USB peripherals, such as a mouse.

Thanks. I've downloaded the two apps. I haven't yet understood how to set one of them up to connect "My Files" to the broadcast. / It is definitely worth a try. But I would prefer to do it within the Android system without adding extra apps. If I start My Files manually it will not help the situation. / What is my main problem is naturlly to make the Android system see the USB flash drives. I am not primarily looking for an automated start of My Files. / I just notice that when Android starts My Files automatically my USB flash work. / I don't use other USB than flash drives.

In this situation, where Android has a problem seeing the USB flash drive, I would like to find the setting to stop all other apps from opening and have only My Files open when USB is connected. That was the original situation. I used USB long time like that and it worked fine. If I get back to that I hope USB will work. / It still works like that when I connect NEW usb drives. But somehow these apps have decided that they should open when my old USB sticks are inserted. I must get rid of that setting. These apps interfere somehow. I just can't uninstall them now. I need them.

I went one step further. I uninstalled the apps that open when my old flash drives are connected. But it didn't resolve the problem - Now nothing happens when my old flash drives are connected. But when new flash drives (that were not connected a week ago, when problems started) are connected, they work. ("My Files" open automatically and flash drives are seen by the Android system.)/ I need to erase the settings that make my phone recognize these old flash drives and treat them in a way that the system can't see them.

The problem seems to have almost disappeared by itself! I had problems with three flash drives. Another drive that hadn't been connected for a while, worked though. (I didn't dare test more drives.) / Today all drives except one works. (The faulty one was even formatted (not quick) in std Windows program. But still faulty). I also bought new that works. / One possibility is that the three faulty drives got a write error. The cable feels ok but maybe I change it anyway if connector is loose. / Today all works as before. Android "My Files" (and not the strange ES File explorer free version) ...

... "My Files" open. My theory that other file managers take over, seems incorrect, at least as the single cause. Today also the newly installed OTG managers open but all works fine. / I think somehow three of my flash got some strange write error. One file manager had problems deleting files on the faulty one today./ Well. In retrospect it is easy to say "The flash drive is often faulty" :)


text:
File copy: Add new files, but do not replace files, to a set of folders
I often need the following function:
I wish to make a copy operation  (usually from my phone to the cloud). I wish to copy a set of folders and subfolders with contents/files.
I wish all NEW files to be copied but NO FILES SHOULD BE REPLACED in the target.
One reson for doing this is that earlier backups in the cloud are incomplete. Copying to the cloud can consume a lot of time and bandwidth, I therefore wish to skip overwriting files that are already in the cloud. I wish to only copy NEW files that not yet reside in the cloud.
It would be like pressing "overwrite" for every duplicate folder but "skip" for every duplicate file, in a copy dialogue.
I have tried the app ES File Explorer. It handles all clouds relevant to me (Dropbox, Drive, Mega, OneDrive) in an efficient way. But I can not find the function described above. Files and folders are treated in the same way regarding overwrite/skip.
An example could be:
I make a backup of 1000 files to the cloud. The connection breaks after 900 files. I am not sure which 100 files still have to be copied.
I just want to restart the 1000 file backup and only the missing 100 files should be copied. This should work no matter in which folders/subfolders the missing files are located.
It is very simple to do manually. (Dilbert's boss could do it.  ;) ) Just press "overwrite" for duplicate folders and "skip" for duplicate files. But I can't sit and do that for hours. There ought to be a file manager that does it for me?

FolderSync can sync the files  with various cloud services and appears to have a support for Tasker as well. Perhaps, that's what you need.

Thanks Firelord. I just set up FolderSync to repair a large, broken backup to OneDrive. First impression of app interface and how it works look promising. I'll come back with another report later. This could be a solution. (Tried to up-vote your comment, but not allowed for me.)

FolderSync seems to be a great app. ES file explorer did well with DB, Mega & Drive. But I think that ES got thrown out by OneDrive everytime my poor connection stalled. After every 50-100 files ES crashed. FolderSync has pushed up 4000-5000 without any problems already. So far FolderSync gets a top rating from me. Also works independently with simple interface and many options.

Well then, consider posting an answer if it is working for you.

Ok. Will do that when I have tried some more functions. Thanks for good tip.

The app FolderSync solves the problem. You can choose whether to overwrite target files or not. (Even if you choose not to overwrite individual files, you can still include new files in subfolders into your backup, if you want.)
You can also choose whether to only backup/sync modified files (date or MD5 options). Under this option, a file deleted in the cloud, will not be uploaded again, unless modified.
The app has many options e.g.

synch both directions or just f.ex to (or from) the cloud
include/exclude subfolders
include/exclude filenames containing user defined strings
synch deletions is optional (files deleted on the phone will then also be deleted in the cloud)
and many more

It is able to handle thousands of files and also works under a less than optimal Internet connection. It connects to a multitude of clouds. It does scheduling and works discretely in the background.
So far it has solved my copy needs for the cloud.
...
Another good app is ES File Explorer. It is a file manager (not a sync program). It also handles the common clouds (I think you need "Pro" version for cloud Mega.)
ES File Explorer works well. But if you choose "do not overwrite files" you can not include subfolders. (Files and folders are treated in the same way with respect to overwrite/skip.) At least I couldn't make it work. For me it also had problems communicating with Microsoft cloud OneDrive for large backups. Maybe because my Internet connection is somewhat poor. "ES" functions well with other clouds over my Internet connection,  though.


text:
How to install a 64bit gsi
I know, to some people, this question may seem illogical, but I have tried every possible solution available. I want to flash a 64 bit AOSP phusson's GSI in my Redmi S2, which has stock 32 bit OS, however, the CPU is capable of 64 bit. I tried directly to install 64 bit gsi but it failed and repeatedly booted into fastboot rather than system. Then I read somewhere that it was so because it'd kernel too is 32 bit. I gathered 64 bit source files for my phone, compiled it and tried to flash it but the kernel was looping over and over in bootloader. What should I do to install a 64 bit ROM? (32BU
It GSI is working in my phone)

You will need to recompile your entire ROM as 64 bit, then flash the GSI
GSIs will need the vendor and kernel and well everything else to be 64 bit
This is not a task for the faint heart,  but I'm sure you can find a guide somewhere. Even so, the source ROM may not have the required 64 bit libraries, so you'll have to include those. Basically the only way to bring 64 bit support is a 64 bit ROM. Not undoablle, but not easy.

Can you please give a link to such guide please?

Thanks for guidance though.

Is it OK that if I flash a 64 bit CUSTOM ROM instead of STOCK ROM and then flash GSI? Like flashing lineageOS first and then GSI: https://forum.xda-developers.com/redmi-s2/development/alpha-lineageos-16-0-ysl-t3936101 like this one?

@ChMuhammadSohaib that should w provided its designed for your device

Yes, it's in development section of Redmi S2. Means it would work for me?

@ChMuhammadSohaib Should work

Thanks @colbycdev

man, you are great! Thanks for guidance! It worked!

@ChMuhammadSohaib don't forget to upvote and accept if this helped you

yeah, of course, I accepted the answer but don't have enough reputation to upvote it.


text:
Stop notifications from chrome spam
My new Android device is full of spams. I get chrome notifications continuously from a website I did not even visit once. looks like a gossip site. Are there any methods to stop these annoying notifications?

Try the following:

Open Chrome, then Settings,select Site Settings
Click on Notifications. Check if that website is listed among the Allowed sites.
If yes, Click on it. Remove or block the permissions given to it by clicking on the permissions


text:
How can I force a website to provide its mobile page?
I'm trying to access the following page using Chrome on my Galaxy S10+, but the website always returns the desktop page, even with the Desktop site check box unchecked.
Facebook's built-in browser seems to have no issue displaying the correct page.

I recently had a problem with gmail.com trying to get the desktop site to display (setting rules anđ labels requires the desktop site).  Somehow, the act of typing gmail.com into the browser does not show the desktop site but following the link from google.com works. I know this is backwards from your problem, but the presence or absence of extra data in the link or cookie can cause this behavior on certain sites. You can try deleting cookies for this site and try différent links from other sources.
I'm a web developer too and there are libraries like bootstrap that can switch to a mobile format that depends solely on the width of the page. It completely ignores the desktop checkbox and uses CSS and js to reformat the page even on a desktop computer if the window is resized. In this case, there really is no 'mobile site'. Viewing with your phone in portrait mode should work but landscape may or may not.
Facebook's browser may be a different size window, or may not be standardized to detect screen size with bootstrap, You could also have a chrome plugin that is causing an issue.
If I had to guess, I'd say that you need to delete the cookies (which will delete some login info) and try again.
Just keep in minđ that not every site responds to the checkbox in chrome. That only works if there are separate pages for mobile and desktop which is not the way that bootstrap works.
BTW, I just saw your link and tried it. I can use the checkbox on chrome on my s10e and I can switch from mobile to `desktop without issue.

It's a while since I encountered this issue, and truth be told, I'd forgotten about it until now. A quick check of the link has it working for me again, and I cannot reproduce the old issue. Perhaps it was to do with page width; perhaps it was to do with cookies; I don't know. Either way, I think this answer is probably the best one could expect, so I'll accept it.

probably you have turn on some dev feature on chrome. It is working fine on chrome...

That's my guess too, but I'm not sure where to begin.


text:
App not showing up in app store search result
I am trying to download this app in samsung galaxy s4 with android 5.0.1
I have tried looking for it in another phone with android 4.2 but it doesn't show up when I search for it in the playstore (even though the search box autocomplete shows me the exact name of the app when typing the first few letters). I assumed this was because the app says it's for Android 4.4 and up so I tried the samsung phone with Android 5.0.1 but the problem is still same. In both phones the search results are similar, but neither one of them shows me the one I want
Why is this happening? The two phones are signed into app store through different google accounts. Is there any way to go directly to the page for this app using the Play Store app, instead of searching for it? I cannot do this through the browser because I don't have the google password for the Android 5.0.1 phone.

On their web site there is a list of supported devices: https://nextradioapp.com/supported-devices/

It's because the app is not compatible with your device, and thus Google Play Store app filters those out because the user won't be able to install from it anyway (APK sideloading is always possible though).
As stated in Android Developer's official documentation,

How filters work on Google Play
Google Play uses the filter restrictions described below to determine whether to show your application to a user who is browsing or searching for applications from the Google Play app.
When determining whether to display your app, Google Play checks the device's hardware and software requirement, as well as its carrier, location, and other characteristics. It then compares those against the restrictions and dependencies expressed by the application's manifest file and publishing details.
If the application is compatible with the device according to the filter rules, Google Play displays the application to the user. Otherwise, Google Play hides your application from search results and category browsing, even if a user specifically requests the app by clicking a deep link that points directly to the app's ID within Google Play.
(Emphasis mine)

Note that app developer can also exclude individual device model manually.

Exclude your app from certain devices
Manage excluded devices per app
To prevent app crashes, you can exclude your app from being available to individual devices on Google Play. Making this change manually excludes your whole app—you can't exclude individual APKs.
By manually excluding devices with known compatibility issues, you can help provide a better experience for your users.

For this specific case, NextRadio Free Live FM Radio depends on the FM receiver chip on the user's device. The update since January 2, 2019 also states that it doesn't support streaming anymore and only use FM-radio.

WHAT'S NEW
NextRadio is going back to basics. Streaming is no longer supported, but you can still tune to your favorite local stations on FM-enabled devices.

On the other hand, Samsung Galaxy S4 doesn't have FM radio, and it will be pointless to install the app since it won't work properly. Note that the user can always sideload the APK if they want.

so the manifest file determines if the app is excluded from search results? Isn't it better from the developers point of view if the app shows up in the results?

@user17915 1) yes, the manifest file affects the filter, 2) the result is only hidden on the Play Store app, but it's still shown on the Play Store web, you still can't install it from there anyway. On the other hand, the developer can only affect the filter, they can't choose to show but prevent the installation from Play Store app. Hence, if they allow it to be displayed on the Play Store app, someone with incompatible device can install it, but then they realize it doesn't work, then give 1-star rating, which is worse than preventing it altogether.

As there is no Android manifest setting for FM I assume that the developer has manually white listed the supported devices using the mentioned method to "exclude individual device model manually).


text:
How can I remove all animations on Samsung One UI (Android 9)?
How can I remove all animations on Samsung One UI (Android 9)?
I've only found:

which does reduce the animations but does not remove them.

I found the setting to remove the animations on:
Settings -> Accessibility -> Visibility enhancements -> Remove animations:

I have no idea why this is in a different place, and why animations are turned on by default (this is a waste of time).


text:
Coming back Google Play Services
I have Samsung Galaxy A50 which is my professional smartphone, I use it for work and it is funded by my company. It has some professional software installed in Knox like encrypted e-mail etc.
I am observing problem with Google Play services app/service. I have message coming from time to time saying (translated):
Device Health Services
Enable Google Play Services
Device Health Services app won't work if you do not enable Google Play Services

I've tried to turn off this message by disabling notifications from three apps:

Google Play Service
Device Health Services
FAMOC

This didn't helped. Still I get the same message between few minutes to few hours.
When I click this message I get possibility to enable or stop Google Play Services but the enable button does not work - it does nothing or sometimes is disabled. From this screen it is obvious that the app is stopped. However when going to Settings menu and below I get info that the app is enabled and working.
Stopping the app also does nearly nothing. Clearing data and/or cache does not help. Downgrade of this app is not possible. Deactivation also is not possible.
The app version is 19.2.75 (100400-269183835). It is the newest as I have other phone and the version on it is the same.
The app does not make any problems, there are no errors.
How can I get rid off this message coming from time to time?

Ok, so I found a solution.
When you block notifications for all 3 apps it is not enough.
You need to hold this specific notification longer and use options there.
Problem solved!


text:
What does a blue/white arrow on an app icon in app manager mean?
The icon in application manager for one of the applications had a blue and white arrow overlaid on it for a while. Approximately the same time the app's icon disappeared from the home screen (pressing "apps" grid symbol for the alphabetical list of apps) and I could only start the app via Google Play Store when I was online. The app's shortcut I had created disappeared with it. (Android Kit-Kat, Galaxy Note 3)
I have only seen this arrow on the icon for the app TripAdvisor.
After a while the icon on the home screen reappeared and the arrow disappeared without me doing anything I can imagine affected the situation. (I could be wrong here, though.) A little before the problem (not being able to start the app since there was no icon for it) disappeared, I had just tried at random to clear cache, force stop and disable updates. Also restarting device, of course. Re-enabling updates made the app reinstall but the problem persisted a while longer.
It is not possible to uninstall this app, you can only disable updates. (But it has been downloaded and appears among downloaded apps in the app manager. It was not included with the phone. )
The app has not (cannot) be put on the external card. It has not been disabled.
I have previously had occasional problems with apps disappearing from the alphabetical grid/list. They're still installed and visible in app manager, but cannot be started otherwise than from Google Play Store when online. If I find out the meaning of this arrow maybe I can solve such problems.


text:
How to minimize the app window (freeform mode/pop-up view)?
I sometimes accidentally minimize the window for the app Quick Edit Pro, whilst working with it. I get the smaller variable size and position window that I can intentionally create for some apps by long press of the return button (Android 5, Samsung GN3).
But Quick Edit Pro does not appear in the list I get when long pressing the return button.
What kind of swiping movement do I sometimes perform unintentionally in the upper part of the screen, that minimizes the app to this useful window. (Going back to the full window is done by a simple button press.)
I have tried many times but can not repeat it intentionally.
I now find that it is called "freeform mode". I have not installed any special apps to enable it.

The phone in the question uses Android 5. I was now also using another phone with Android 6. In this version I stumbled over the answer by accident. This also works in my Android 5 phone.
You swipe diagonally from one upper corner. (If you don't hit a clean diagonal swipe, you will naturally risk getting a "settings"-screen or what the app in question does for horizontal swipe.

Click image for larger variant
Here it is called the gesture for "pop-up view".
(If I make the diagonal swipe for this app (SE), I get a red frame. It probably indicates that minimization of this app has been disabled.)


text:
Can I disable an Android app to read write some folders in SD card? (CLOSED)
So many Chinese Android apps always creates garbage in SD card, like there is their's home. Some apps auto downloads binding apps to SD card, when I deleted them, they come up next time! So is there any idea to prevent this? This drives my crazy!

The apps will probably crash or fail to work if they can't read or write data.  I think the answer is to uninstall the apps that do things you don't like.

If your phone is rooted you can freeze them by using SD Maid or Titanium Backup OR you can use a 'Grant Permission' app to limit their permissions (freezing them is the best option IMO).
I have tried this myself on my Huawei phone and freezes all the bloatware (Chinese apps).
EDITED:
Use a permission fix app and remove the SD card reading/writing permission.
Second Update:
The app let you FIX permission for an individual app as well as all apps installed.

No no no, I need to use this app, I dont wanna freeze it!

I'm not wanting to prevent the rw on SD card, that will disable all apps to rw it. What I want is disable some apps to rw some folders or files, got it?

For all apps I have this answer, but if you want it for a specific app since Android 6.0 Marshmellow the is a way to control app permissions!

There is also the option for turning on/ off the app permissions for the device storage. If you disable that, then the app always ask you before writing/ reading on the external sd-card. Notice that also the internal storage isn't accssesable for the choiced app.


text:
Flash zips in download mode
I have an old Galaxy Ace II with no installed ROM and stock recovery, and I am trying to put a custom recovery/ROM on it but all I can find is flashable zips intended for flashing in recovery. I cannot transfer them to the phone as adb reports the filesystem as read-only (adb shell tells me the shell doesn't exist).
I don't know whether what I'm trying to do is possible, I don't know if I'm being stupid, but is there a way of transferring or flashing the zips in download mode using Odin/Heimdall, or is it possible of transferring the files to the phone any other way?
EDIT: Recovery download

Huh? Flash a custom recovery (e.g. TWRP) via Odin first. Check out the subforum in XDA for more stuff.

Problem is there doesn't seem to be any. There is one CWM recovery flashable via odin and the download link is dead, and one TWRP download which flashes ok but has some serious issues (no adb, can't mount /sdcard) rendering it useless

It is not possible to flash zip files in Odin Mode, as far as I know, because the component which answers Odin/Heimdall has no knowledge of zip files and the like.

Would it be possible to reconstruct the zips into a format it can read and how hard is that likely to be? I'd only need to do it for TWRP

@JakeStanger Could you either upload or link to the zip you are dealing with?

Added a download link

Wait what? You mean the one I pointed you to in the comments has issues? Please make clear your exact model number and last official firmware version - there might be some incompatibility going on.

Oh sorry I completely missed your link. Yes, I had some pretty severe issues with that one (no adb and couldn't mount internal storage). I don't have access to the phone at the moment but if once I do I've still got trouble I'll get back to you.

@JakeStanger Your link has expired, so let's test Andy's idea.

Unable to mount internal storage is probably because TWRP can't handle encryption of stock /data. You might also ask in that XDA thread if anyone has a similar phenomenon.

Hi guys, sorry to waste your time here but after hours of searching I eventually found a ported Odin-flashable version of TWRP buried in the depths of some XDA thread. I will however keep your comments in mind if ever I have a similar experience.


text:
Why would external Storage Location be unavailable in Play Music and Play Movies?
I have a Galaxy Tab S running Android 5.0.2. I also have a 32GB SD card installed. Supposedly I should be able to set Play Music and Play Movies to download to the external card, but those options are not available for some reason.
In Play Music Settings, I see the Storage location option, but it's set to "Internal (on this device)" and it is disabled (greyed out); tapping does nothing to change it. In Play Movies, there is no option at all in Settings nor when I tap to download a rented or purchased movie.
I see plenty of referneces online about people being able to set the storage location for both apps, as of Android 4.4 and above, so I'm confused why I can't get it on my Lollipop 5.0.2 tablet.
I've confirmed that I can write to the SD card; I've done so via the Android File Transfer app from my laptop, as well as using the Samsung My File app installed on the tablet.
Update: I just noticed that this happens only for some of the user profiles on the device. The "owner" profile can set the storage locations to external (SD card) but no other user profile can.

I had a similar problem on my Lenovo P70A on Android 4.4 and 5.x as well.
The solution for me was to manually create the folder "com.google.android.music" under the "/Android/data" folder on my external SD card, which is where Google Play Music normally stores the downloaded (offline) music. Once I've done this and force closed Google Play Music, starting it again it resulted in the External Storage option becoming available.

Doesn't work for me. How is your sdcard called? Mine is /Removable/MicroSD

authors: พุธ ดอกพิกุล


text:
Last seen on WhatsApp?
"last seen" does it  mean that the person opened MY chat window with him, saw the conversation we had and then went offline?
or "last seen" only means that the person was using WhatsApp and not particularly my chat window with them ?

What does last seen and online mean exactly?

Online and last seen tell you if your contacts are online, or the
  last time they were using WhatsApp.
online means that contact has WhatsApp open and is connected to the
  internet. However, it does not necessarily mean they have read your
  chat. last seen refers to the last time the contact used WhatsApp.


text:
Is it possible to delete a file through the Google Drive app?
In the Google Drive app, on its home screen, I get a list of files and a "3 dots" menu next to each file. When I open the menu, all of the options given to me are:

Share
Add to Starred
Make available offline
Link sharing off
Copy link
Make a copy
Send a copy
Open with
Download
Rename
Show file location
Details & activity
Print
Add to Home screen
Report abuse

While these are a ton of options, none of them are "Delete" or "Remove" or similar. I tried looking in the "Details & activity" section to see if there was a "Delete" option, but there was not. Is there a way to delete files through the Google Drive app, or do I have to use the website to delete files?

Yes, but not on Google Drive's home screen.
The Google Drive Help mentions the following:

Put a file in trash
To remove a file from your Drive, you can put it in your trash. Your file will stay there until you empty your trash.
If you're the owner of the file, others can view it until you permanently delete the file. If you're not the owner, others can see the file even if you empty your trash.

On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Drive app.
At the bottom right, tap Files .
Next to the file you want to delete, tap More   Remove.

Alternatively, you can also long-press and select multiple files, then tap "Remove" (trash icon) on the toolbar.
Note that you can also do this on "Starred" and "Shared", but not on "Home".

To actually remove the files, you also need to empty the trash.

Empty your trash
You can permanently delete an individual file or empty your entire trash. After deleting a file, anyone you've shared the file with will lose access to it. If you want others to be able to still view the file, you can give ownership to someone else.

In the upper left, tap Menu   Trash.
Next to the file you'd like to delete, tap More   Delete forever.


text:
Why can't Android device use Google service without permission?
Now Google doesn't allow HuaWei to ship their services with the phone and the install-after-shipment route is blocked too.
I think Google apps like Map/Gmail/Search/Youtube/Drive/Docs/Play/Assistant are all standard Android applications that can be installed on any Android compatible (no need to be certificated) devices.
Does the above fact means that Google's Android apps will use some DRM like mechanism to first verify whether the device is certificated or it won't run? If so, does this apply to all Google Android apps, or only some apps?

First the problem is mainly a legal problem, not a technical problem: Huawei is not allowed to install the Google apps.
Second the Google apps you mention are only the user visible part - similar to an iceberg there is a large hidden part you don't directly see:
The Google Play Services and it's, libraries.
This is not a normal "app" as it is running as a system app and therefore can't be installed by a user. And it is required by each app you mentioned and even more. Most of the regular apps you find in Google Play Store also make use of this service, e.g. for receiving push notifications. Therefore the impact of not having Google apps pre-installed on a device is larger than you expect.
And even if you manage to install the Google apps on a device Google will recognize that this device is not allowed to use Google apps: Every device and every firmware version is certified by Google. In that process Google creates some sort of fingerprint that allows to identify each device.
As an end user you can ask Google for an exception for your device by registering it's Google Services Framework ID at Google. This will then allow you to use Google apps until you do a factory reset.

Why does Android x86 contains some Google apps?

@jw_ Which apps are you talking about? Are you sure those are "Google apps" and not apps that are part of the Android OpenSource Project (AOSP)?

With Android x86 8.1r2, there are Gmail/Chrome/Play Store/Voice Search/Google.

@jw_ Well then they have integrated the apps with or without permission of Google. Most likely they have the permission because Google nowadays uses their legal department to prevent unauthorized use (that is e.g. the reason why there are no official CyanogenMod/LineageOS releases with Google apps)


text:
How reliable age certification at Google Play is?
So far I've been trusting in PEGI certifications nearly as in bible.
Today, I found Alchademy game, which has PEGI 3 age certification, but deeply in the game's desc you can find something like this:

This game is not intended for children and may have some content that is inappropriate for children under the age of 13.

Please, explain, what am I missing? How can a game pass PEGI 3 certification with such a note?
Based on above, I come with the conclusion that PEGI certifications at Google Play are completely worthless and when deciding whether particular app is or isn't applicable for my children, I must always dig description or -- the best -- install and play the game myself.
If that's truth then what is the reason in fouling people with that whole PEGI stuff at all?

You can, and probably should, flag the app as "improper content rating" in Google Play.

I did, as you suggested, nearly immediately, even before your suggestion has popped out. Unfortunately, this is pointless as it turned out that Google Play's age ratings are pretty much worthless. They're not based on application producer's disclaimer, but rather are the result of some semi-automatic algorithm that is based on some questions asked to the app's producer. Above is a pretty example that neither these questions nor the mentioned algorithm are working. See the answers below for more details. Thank you.

Totally off-topic... But until this post I only knew "PEGI XX" from the beginning of game trailer videos on various sights, and thought they were a video hosting server or something (Content delivered by PEGI 13 or something like that). Wow, was I wrong! Apparently this system has been in effect since 2003, and I highly doubt most people in the US have any clue what it is. Do Europeans know what the ESRB is?

@trejder I'd argue that the system is not worthless but probably the best you can get without having a human screen each and every app. Of course it is not perfect and can be gamed, but then again, that is why you can flag the app as inappropriate.

@acejavelin Not really, but we have our own ratings USK in germany and PEGI. That is why the play store provides ratings for most system on the globe and tries to show you the localized match.

Disclaimer: I don't develop Android apps so my answer might be lacking. I hope our residents developers will provide more clarifications if necessary.
According to Content ratings for apps & games, The rating of an app is done by independent 3rd-parties not Google. The app's developer fill a rating questionnaire, then independent 3rd parties rate it:

To receive a rating for each of your apps and games, you fill out a rating questionnaire on the Play Console about the nature of your apps’ content and receive a content rating from multiple rating authorities.  Since they are independent third party rating authorities, each rating authority uses their own methodology to assign your ratings (see Rating authorities & descriptions below). The ratings assigned to your app displayed on Google Play are determined by your questionnaire responses.

It is possible based on the last sentence that the responses to the rating questionnaire prompted the rating agencies to rate the app PEGI 3 while the developer(s) state(s) even on their own website that:

This game is not intended for children and may have some content that is inappropriate for children under the age of 13

Thus, the app should be rated PEGI 12. As a comparison, the game is rated +9 on the Appstore.
The rating can be inconsistent as shown here where keyboard apps with the same content are not rated the same:

The Fleksy app, which has been on the Play Store for around eight years at this point — and per Play Store install stats has had more than 5M downloads to date — was PEGI 3 rating until earlier this month. But then Google stepped in and forced the team to up the rating to 12.

That’s not the end of the saga, though. Google’s Play Store team is still not happy with the regional age rating for Fleksy — and wants to push the rating even higher — claiming, in a subsequent email, that “your app contains mature content (e.g. emoji) and should have higher rating”.
Now, to be crystal clear, Google’s own Gboard app also contains the middle finger emoji. We are 100% sure of this because we double-checked…

In the case, of the link article above, it was Google that forced the rating change not independent 3rd parties. After the developers complained to International Age Rating Coalition, the rating was then restored. It shows that Google can manipulate the rating.

While Reddy Lutonadio's answer actually fulfils the subject, I'd like to add my own, since I have received an answer and clarification from the creators of the game in question:

We understand the confusion that this can create, we place the information corresponding to the app, but in the case of the App rating, we have no control over it, this because Google assigns it automatically after some questions.

Based on above, I think we can clearly say that Google Play's age rating are pretty much worthless.

I do think the app publisher has some control over the app rating, according to https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/188189# he could use https://www.globalratings.com/developer-contactus.aspx to ask IARC to adjust the rating. Sadly, there is less incentive for the publisher/developer to do so: a low age rating means that the app is available for more users (children), which means more revenue from advertisement and in-app sales.


text:
Google just EOLed the original Pixel. How long until it's a brick?
Google has declared EOL for the original Pixel. I got my Pixel for a Google Fi account I use just for travelling, and I'm not really interested in replacing it.  Realistically, how much longer can I use my original-release Pixel before it stops functioning?

Just a side note: A large number of devices (especially the cheap non-name devices) are EOL at the same day they are announced - meaning they never get any update. And still a lot of people are buying and using such devices. It just depends on your personal attitude what device is "usable".

Just to note that as a developer of Android apps, we track what models of devices are used and around three quarters of then are EOLed devices, some which ended support 4+ years ago.

Kat: it needs to allow me to connect to Google Fi, make calls, use the internet, and install apps from the Google Store.  Apps I need to work include Maps, K9Mail, WeChat, and WhatsApp. Google Pay is negotiable.

Theoretically, the OG Pixel will work indefinitely until there's an irreparable software/hardware issue. Realistically? Depends on how the user takes care of it ;)
"End of Life (EOL)" doesn't mean that the device will end its life. It is just that the manufacturer (in this case, Google) will stop its support; no more security & OS updates, and the like.
If the user is adventurous enough, they can unlock the bootloader (warning: will delete all the storage) and flash custom ROM which at least extends the life a little further. (In addition, seems it's also compatible with Project Fi).

Anecdotal evidence: I'm using Nexus 5 which was released in 2013 (Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich) and EOL in 2016 (Android 6.0 Marshmallow). I flashed Lineage OS after that until it's not maintained (Android 7.1.1 Nougat). As of 2019, the phone is still usable in daily life.

Custom ROMs often don't get support for much longer than the official ones. Often the limiting factor is hardware support (hardware manufacturers no longer port their drivers to support newer Android versions), and this affects both official and custom ROMs.

@James_pic Vendor drivers used to be the limiting factor. Nowadays, in theory, any device that supports Project Treble will never require HW driver updates just to support a newer Android OS, because the drivers pass a Vendor Test Suite to ensure forward-compatibility. https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2017/05/here-comes-treble-modular-base-for.html The original Pixel supports Treble. https://www.androidpolice.com/2017/05/18/current-google-pixelpixel-xl-will-support-project-treble-possibly-meaning-longer-support/

I've been using a Nexus 5 with its official Android 6.x ROM until last month. Although somewhat low on resources, all apps and the store worked perfectly fine (until the display or the GPU finally died, thus practically bricking it).

I still have a Nexus 6 with LineageOS 16.0 (Android 9.0). I only stopped using it because its battery no longer holds a charge for more than a few hours. My replacement Nexus 6P is still going strong on 15.1.

I continued using my Nexus 6P for a few months after EOL. The reason why I switched is because I dropped it and broke the screen.

If Google declares a device to be "EOL" this simply means that you no longer receive device and security updates.
Therefore your Android devices will not stop working, however after the point of EOL the chance of a security vulnerability that allows to attack you and your data will continuously raise.
However as Google devices can be unlocked easily you don't have to accept this. Unlocking the bootloader allows you to install an OS that does not come from Google, like LineageOS (warning: unlocking will erase all user data).
The first Pixel (code name "sailfish") is a supported device by LineageOS.
Therefore you can download and install LineageOS on your device and again receive updates until LineageOS also drops support for your device.
But there are also some draw backs of unlocking and installing LinegeOS: Some device assume that LineageOS devices are rooted and therefore insecure (they just assume that in general, independendently of the reality). Therefore apps like GooglePay may refuse to work.

How long does Lineage OS tend to support devices?  Historically speaking, since I know its open source.

@FuzzyChef That depends on the people maintaining the software for each device. The more popular a device (and long-living it is) the longer it stays in support. The Pixel seems to be still popular, as it has two maintainers. The Nexus 5x (which AFAIK was also very popular) on the other hand is no longer supported for quite a while.

@FuzzyChef The 5x probably lost support because the awful hardware has killed everyone's phone. The Samsung s5 has had incredible support because it is indestructible.

A modern rooting method such as Magisk will generally re-enable apps that require SafetyNet, such as Google Pay or your bank's app. This is how I use Google Pay on my rooted LineageOS.

@Michael: SafetyNet bases on comparing the system fingerprint with those from Google database, hence the SafetyNet check will fail by definition. Please note that my answer was on custom ROMS without root. Therefore Magisk is not an option. The apps detect a custom ROM and assume it is rooted even if it is not.

Oh, wait, I was mistaken. It was a Magisk module (MagiskHide) that resets the system fingerprint so that SafetyNet works, not Magisk itself.

In reality, i'd say a few years until it loses his usefulness. I have a 2 old phones that still work if plugged in, but a lot of the apps now fail because the API endpoints changed. Google maps won't load any maps or autocomplete searches, and only shows me a dot on a grey screen if GPS is turned on. YouTube videos wont play anymore, neither with the official app nor via browser. I think the webbrowser has some issues with SSL certificates that are now required everywhere. In the best case you get a message to update your software, but then the google PlayStore tells you that the latest app version is not supported by your android version.
The hardware, phone and text messages might still be working in 10 years, but eventually your apps wont be supported anymore.

In one respect it became a potential brick the day after your warranty ended, as it'd doubtless be uneconomical to repair.   But it's not going to get 'turned off'.   It'll work until it breaks.
I have a Pixel C with unresponsive screen.  Effectively a brick.   Pity.  It was a nice machine.


text:
I deleted the build.prop file but restore the old one but the phone wont boot
PLEASE HELP
I missed with the build.prop file but I made a copy of it before.Then I deleted the edited build.prop file and restore the old one then rebooted the phone(Samsung S3 lineage 14.1) but not working!IT shows the Samsung logo then black screen appear.I can access the TWRP so I checked that the old build.prop file is in /system but nothing.What should I do? pls help

File ownership? Mode? SELinux label? Dm-verity?

If you can access TWRP and you're on lineage. That means that you flashed a custom OS on the phone.
Same way you can get a fresh copy of build prop from the extracted firmware that you flashed because TWRP mainly flashes zip files. Zip files are generally easily extractable by programs like WinRAR.
After getting the build prop from the zip. Copy it to the phones internal storage using a PC while still on TWRP. Then use TWRP native file manager to copy the build.prop to /system/ so that the file address is /system/build.prop and use TWRP chmod option to set the permission of the file to 0644. Reboot the phone and enjoy.
Alternatively you can try to edit the current build.prop if you have the ability to interpret build.prop commands. And then copy it to the phone as similarly as above.
If nothing works here. Just reflash the Lineage OS, clear user data and cache and it will boot as freshly as it once was
Talking about permission 0644, this is a permission that means the owner of the file can read and write the file but, group and others can only read information from it.
When you want to calculate the number, you should understand that this is a 3-digit number for Owner + Group + Everybody respectively (each digit of the number)
The highest value of each digit totals to is 7 to mean all permissions are granted and it can be calculated as 4 (read) + 2 (write) + 1 (execute). 644 means owner has read write access, while others read only
The file is not executable and that's why owner has 6 (4 read + 2 write ) instead of 7 ( 4 read + 2 write + 1 execute)
The leading digit is "always" 0 and it is used for special permissions only
Even though other firmwares can read without this permissions, that is if the permission is less restrictive like 0755, it's safe to set the permission manually to ensure that when the file was written to system, it doesn't have a restrictive permission like 0000 where nothing not even the file owner can read from it

thanks a lot.It worked after setting the permission to 0644!.but why it needed to do this step.what is a0644 permission?and thanks again

I edited the answer adding the explanation of the permission. If you find it helpful you can mark it as an answer so that anyone with the same problem can trust it and try it up

simplified: mode is a 3-digit number for owner + group + everybody (each 1 digit) and the highest value is 7 = calculated 4 (read) + 2 (write) + 1 (execute). 644 means owner has read write access, while others read only, file is not executeable. the leading digit is "always" 0 (used for special permissions only)

@alecxs very clear and simple. Good contribution. Adding it to the answer

Nice!Thanks guys.


text:
Root Galaxy S3 SGH-i747M (Andr. 4.4.2) without computer?
I've tried several different methods to root my Samsung Galaxy S3 (SGH-i747M) that I got in Canada from Fido about a year and a half ago, and I've had no success whatsoever.
I'm on Android 4.4.2, Baseband I747MVLUFNF2, Build# KOT49H, Kernel v.3.4.0-1784548, and my USB port is broken for the second time. My contract is nearly up, but I'd really like to get this thing rooted.
Methods already attempted:
Towelroot (+Modstrings)
Framaroot (All available options)
TowelPieRoot
Key Root Master
vRoot
Poot
MotoChopper Terminal Exploit

Anyone have more suggestions?

calm down dude :)
use this ,or
 download from chain fire

checksum: 3477ce82bac9930198c562f769c95774

then add to pda on odin then flash.
this is good method with computer, and without computer i think it doesnt work.
goodluck.


text:
Locked by Android manager
I've used android manager to make my phone ring and Locked it by setting a password wish I never had. But unfortunately when I found the phone I was not able to deactivate the password because all option are dammed and the only one showing is password.
I need to change it again to none.
any ideas ?

if this phone is yours do the following :

login to you device manager on google website here
click on lock and set a new password this will over-write the old password
on your phone enter your new pass word

If this phone is not yours contact the phone owner and ask him to do the last steps


text:
Inaccurate location history
I have an Motorola moto e, and my location history is inaccurate. Nearly all of my location history is highly  inaccurate. Please help please help

Might be something useful here; http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/44608/google-maps-location-history-is-showing-an-incorrect-location

Do you have GPS turned on during the day? If not, google locates your position over your phone's network, which is inaccurate. Here are some ways to improve your location history: find and improve your location's accuracy


text:
Software Load Balancer for android
i have H+ data network from my mobile phone network operator and 2Mb connection with Wi-Fi router connected to the DSL  in home.
i want to Combine this two in my android device (galaxy note II ) for faster and more reliable Internet.
is there any software that do it for me?

I assume you have a Wi-Fi router connected to the DSL?

@MatthewRead yes of course

There's an app called "Super Download" that seems to be what you're looking for. From the XDA page:

DESCRIPTION:
Download web files much faster by using wifi and mobile data at the same time!
  Share or open a link from any program, like the web browser, and download it at speeds up to two times faster than usual.
  This is the only tool that can download using wifi and mobile data connection simultaneously*!

It's a paid app on Play Store, but free on XDA.


text:
Use new hangouts dialer from google search
The new hangouts app let's me call out from it and uses VoIP... Nice!
When I google a business in chrome I often get the business card with a button to call... Nice! But... It opens the regular android phone app...
How can I make the new hangouts dialer the default for this?

Not currently.
[Edit]:
Hangouts received an update since this was posted.  It now registers itself as a dialer with the system, and comes up as a choice when phone links are tapped in the browser app like Chrome.  However, it's still not an option when you use built-in People/Contacts apps.
The Hangouts Dialer app does not register itself with the system as an actual dialer.  In fact, it's simply a shortcut to a particular tab within the main Hangouts app.
Right now if you want to make true VoIP calls, you have to open the Hangouts Dialer (or main Hangouts app) manually, and copy/paste the number.  Perhaps such integration will come in a later version of these apps.

Copy/paste is what I ended up doing which is inconvenient.


text:
How can I find out if my device uses FBE or FDE?
Assuming that I have full access (root if neccesary) to a device running vanilla Android 8.1, how can I know if it is using Full Disk Encryption or File Based Encryption?

There are three ways to identify which encryption type is used:
Identification by device behavior
As a user you should be able to identify what encryption scheme is used by the behavior of your device when it boots (e.g. because you restarted it).
If the classic Full Disk Encryption is active your device will boot for some time and then present a special password enter dialog. If you enter the correct password and confirm it the device will continue to boot which will take some seconds. Then after some time Android will be started and ask again for your password or PIN using the common dialog you should already know when you unlock your device.
If you don't get such a password request in the middle of the boot process you have most likely File Based Encryption (or no encryption at all).
Read property via Termux
The terminal app Termux provides a command-line you can use for identifying which encryption mode your device uses.
Start Termux and enter the following command: getprop ro.crypto.type
If the output is file your device uses File Based Encryption and block if it uses Full Disk Encryption.
Read property via Android Debug Bridge (ADB)
If you have activated the development and ADB mode on your device you can connect it to your PC via USB and use the following command on your PC:
adb shell getprop ro.crypto.type

If it returns file your device uses File Based Encryption and block if it uses Full Disk Encryption.

Related how to check if your device is encrypted

For Samsung devices specifically, according to Samsung Knox Documentation - File-based encryption (FBE) and full-disk encryption (FDE),

Environment
FDE — Samsung Galaxy devices shipped with an Android version lower than 9.0 and Knox version lower than 3.3
FBE — Samsung Galaxy devices shipping with Android 9.0 or higher, with Knox 3.3 or higher

How do I check if my device uses FDE or FBE?
To check if your device uses FDE or FBE:

On your device, navigate to Settings > Biometrics and security.
In the Biometrics and security menu, check if the Secure startup menu exists or not.

If Secure startup is available, your device uses FDE.
If Secure startup is unavailable, your device uses FBE.


text:
does ART use dalvik bytecode?
I know dalvik vm use dalvik bytecode. does ART use dalvik bytecode or something else ?

Yes to both – DEX (Dalvik) and "something else" (native ELF). For additional details, see e.g. the Wikipedia article on ART.

ART is simply just Dalvik 2.x (and up) if you check the Dalvik version. It has to be able to run any valid *.apk files so obviously it must support all Dalvik VM's instructions. The instruction format is still the same like before, and so are the instructions

Android runtime (ART) is the managed runtime used by applications and some system services on Android. ART and its predecessor Dalvik were originally created specifically for the Android project. ART as the runtime executes the Dalvik Executable format and Dex bytecode specification.
ART and Dalvik are compatible runtimes running Dex bytecode, so apps developed for Dalvik should work when running with ART. However, some techniques that work on Dalvik do not work on ART. For information about the most important issues, see Verifying App Behavior on the Android Runtime (ART).
...
At install time, ART compiles apps using the on-device dex2oat tool. This utility accepts DEX files as input and generates a compiled app executable for the target device. The utility should be able to compile all valid DEX files without difficulty.
https://source.android.com/devices/tech/dalvik/

ART uses Dalvik bytecode but unlike Dalvik which would only create an optimized version of its bytecode before all of it is interpreted by the VM, ART can compile some Dalvik bytecode to native code while other code gets interpreted.
Regardless Android APKs still contain DEX files which is Dalvik bytecode.


text:
Android x86 > error: SysRq: Emergency remount R/0
I have a PC with Windows 10 and Ubuntu 18.04, but would like to add more Android x86(lineageOS 14.1). The ISO file works perfectly in Live USB. After installing with USB (by selecting "Run LineageOS"), the android launches without problems. But after the restart (added lineageOS 14.1 via /etc/grub.d/40_custom), it does start with the following message:
Detecting Android-x86... found at /dev/sda7
[     3.697517] sysrq: SysRq: Emergency remount R/0

Then it reboots to the GRUB2 menu.
How do I fix this, and boot lineageOS 14.1?
My PC with an CPU Intel Celeron 2.6 GHz 1 core, 1GB ram, and I am trying to start lineageOS 14.1 on a 8GB partition (without SDcard).
My boot code is:
    recordfail=1
    if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
set quiet=1
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,7)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 033e8fc7-4cfe-9454-bc59-df7329ca862d
linux /cm-x86-14.1-r2/kernel root=UUID=033e8fc7-4cfe-9454-bc59-df7329ca862d ro quiet splash
initrd /cm-x86-14.1-r2/initrd.img

I solved this problem!
This code for the GRUB2 loader helped me.

Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. Otherwise, your answer becomes useless in case the link dies. For further hints, please see: How do I write a good answer.


text:
TWRP and LineageOS display flipped (180 degree rotation)
I installed the latest version of TWRP and LineageOS on my BQ Aquaris U Plus and followed all instructions. Somehow, both TWRP (twrp-3.2.1-0-tenshi) and LineageOS (lineage-14.1-20180127-nightly-tenshi-signed) are flipped upside down.
As far as my search has led me, I have to edit the /system/build.prop and add the line
ro.sf.hwrotation=0

However, I am not able to push the file back to my phone. Nor am I able to edit the file on the device itself.
I am using the following code (Linux Mint):
sudo adb kill-server
sudo adb start-server
sudo adb root
sudo adb devices
sudo adb remount
sudo nano build.prop
sudo adb push build.prop /system

After that, adb does not seem to respond (empty line).
Am I missing something? Is there any possibility to fix this issue?

Is your ADB server running in insecure mode (i.e. as root – that is, when you run adb shell you get an # at the prompt immediately)? Because if not, you cannot simply push a file to /system as you don't have the required privileges. Though that should throw an error instead of giving an empty line.

@beeshyams That's a good call, but in this case I think the problem of editing build.prop is more generally applicable.

It actually did work to edit the build.prop when being in twrp. And the problem of the flipped screen was solved by flashing the firmware as provided by the manufacturer.

I know, this was asked a long time ago... but, for future reference:
The problem seems to be the phone's firmware. The original stock ROM is still based on Android M ("Marshmallow"), but the current versions of LineageOS are based on Android N ("Nougat"). Apparently this is a problem, because between Android M and N, some things in the phone's firmware changed, causing the screen to be upside down. Flashing a new LineageOS, however, does not update the phone's firmware.
Update: As @loki mentioned in a comment, using the BQ Firmware Flash Tool is a convenient way to revert to the stock ROM and to update to the newest version. Afterwards, LineageOS can be installed as usual. I first assumed it would only be for Windows, but there is also a version for Ubuntu in the zip file.
My solution was:

Flash back the stock ROM with fastboot. Note: It doesn't work with TWRP; the zip file needs to be extracted. It contains a script which flashes all parts of the phone's software.
Use the stock ROM's updater to update to the newest version. This usually takes 2 update steps (probably because of the switch to Android N).
Start over with flashing TWRP. At this point, the screen orientation should be correct in TWRP.
Flash LineageOS with TWRP.

One final note: My phone needed a full data wipe in order to get rid of the disk encryption. The phone can be encrypted afterwards from within LineageOS, however, the original encryption from the stock ROM could not be decrypted correctly.

I did manage to use bq's firmware updater. Afterwards everything worked just fine. Perhaps you add this to the answer. Thanks for leaving this solution for future users.


text:
DB of GPS Point in APK, is there any way?
I want to extract DB of GPS location in APK. I decompiled the APK and open DBM.Java File as follows:
   public DBM open() {
    return open(this.databasePath);
}

public DBM open(String path) {
    try {
        if (!path.endsWith(SQLITE_EXTENTION) && SamaUtils.absoluteFileExist(AppViewer.getContext(), path + SQLITE_EXTENTION)) {
            path = path + SQLITE_EXTENTION;
        }
        this.portalDB = SQLiteDatabase.openDatabase(path, null, 268435456);
        return this;
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
        return null;
    }
}

How I can extract the DB of GPS Location in this APK?

The excerpt of decompiled code you've pasted isn't sufficient to know the exact path to the database, because it doesn't give the value of this.databasePath, but no matter. The file will be stored somewhere in the app's private data, so after you've rooted your phone, just look in /data/data/packagename where packagename is the package name of this app. There will be an SQLite database file in there somewhere. The constant SQLITE_EXTENTION in the code you've decompiled but not included will tell you the extension to look for: it's probably .sqlite_db.
Don't forget you'll need a rooted phone to access the file.


text:
APK's AndroidManifest.xml looks to be binary
I'm not sure if this is a problem with my unzip tool, or not but I'm looking into the APK file structure and I see a file called AndroidManifest.xml. Inside that file there is no XML? It actually looks like a binary dump,
What does this file do, and should it look like this.
I'm using the official VLC nightly, I'm trying to troubleshoot this problem

https://nightlies.videolan.org/build/android-armv7/VLC-Android-3.0.11-20180618-0249-ARMv7.apk

It seems AndroidManifest.XML is a binary xml file, here is a tool to extract Binary XML. You can confirm that by using file
$ file AndroidManifest.xml
AndroidManifest.xml: Android binary XML

apktool can decode the binary XML format, and much more: https://ibotpeaches.github.io/Apktool/
It is available in many repositories, for instance on Ubuntu: apt install apktool

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.

Indeed, apktool decode app.apk works fine.


text:
Phone is locked with an impossible to enter password
As it appeared, the on-screen keyboard for entering the unlock password is missing English layout, although it for sure was present when the password has been created.
Now the situation appears really bad:

the phone (TP-LINK Neffos C9A, Android 8.1 NFUI 8.0) is locked,
the password is not possible to enter because of missing keyboard layout,
option for adding keyboard languages is not available,
there is no option "Forgotten password" and
Android Device Manager responds "Can't reach device" with either WiFi or 3G connection.

How to unlock the phone in such situation?

Have you tried to connect an USB keyboard via USB OTG?

@Robert - thank you for the hint - I've tried a USB keyboard and was able to enter English letters, but neither Shift no Caps Lock were giving capital letters. Same happened with another USB keyboard

@Robert, thank you again - I've managed to enter caps with holding both Shift and a key. You saved me

In case there is a problem with the on-screen keyboard most devices support to use an USB keyboard connected via USB On-The-Go (OTG) adapter to the phone - if the phone supports USB OTG at all.
The simpler an USB keyboard is the more likely it will work - keyboards with integrated USB hub and/or readers for smartcard or sd-card often cause problems and may not work.
Note that the USB keyboard works like a regular keyboard (not like the on-screen keyboard): key combinations like have be pressed at the same time, not one after another.


text:
How can I reboot into recovery from fastboot?
I have a phone that is bootlooping after a power failure + battery depletion during system encryption. How it got bricked isn't important here, the trouble is that I can't get into the recovery mode. Usually turning on the phone¹ via Volume Up+Power will enter recovery mode. I had TWRP flashed as the recovery and Lineage OS as the ROM. Now it does not respond to that keystroke.
Also generally one could boot to the system and run adb boot recovery, but with the system not booting that is not an option. I can however use Volume Down+Power to enter fastboot mode. I've tried reflashing the recovery image from fastboot, but it still does not respond to the key sequence. Using fastboot reboot tries to boot to the system. How can I get into recovery mode?
¹ In my case, a Levovo K6 Note/ K53a48 (karatep), but not really relevant to this question.

after lots of attempts, power off + volume up worked for me

(Self answering here because I only found this answer after hours of dredging through 200 page threads of forum posts.)
There are two non-standard but semi-prevalent methods that may work depending on your make and model (and why recovery isn't working in the first place).

Some phones actually respond to fastboot reboot recovery. This is quite natural given adb reboot recovery, but unfortunately is non-standard. I found lots of people suggesting this method so I offer it here in the hopes that it works for some, but it didn't for me.
Some phones will actually let you book into an image via fastboot without flashing it. This will allow you to load a recovery image without needing to reboot the phone at all. You need a copy of the recovery image on your computer, but running fastboot boot image.img should do the trick. I was able to load up TWRP using this method.

That's interesting, thank you. I wonder what image.img you used? On a HTC One M8S I was unable to use some twrp.img, for example. The device rdebooted, but to the default bootloader (that hung up due to a missing system), it seems.

In case someone is looking for a way to get from fastboot to recovery on HTC One M8S, there is a path in the fastboot menu: (depending on the starting point) RADUMP2USB -> HBOOT (must not find a valid img file on the SD card) -> RECOVERY.


text:
Is Android FAT / FAT32 implementation power failure resilient?
Does the android FAT/32 implementation handle sudden battery removal?
I know that Symbian's 'Rugged FAT' (efat32.fsy) and Microsoft's T-Fat implement this, but I've not been able to find any information regarding Android.

Fat32 in Android usually only applies to the External SD card, no longer supported by Google. AFAIK it was a fairly generic implementation as it was only for the card.
Since most of the newer devices use eMMC,the file system android uses is ext4 except for firmware, which is vFat. Example below is from a Galaxy S4

/system ext4
/data ext4
/cache ext4
/firmware vfat

In terms of a little detail on the Android File System:
From this stackoverflow answer
It depends on what filesystem, for example /system and /data are yaffs2 while /sdcard is vfat. This is the output of mount:
rootfs / rootfs ro 0 0
tmpfs /dev tmpfs rw,mode=755 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,mode=600 0 0
proc /proc proc rw 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw 0 0
tmpfs /sqlite_stmt_journals tmpfs rw,size=4096k 0 0
none /dev/cpuctl cgroup rw,cpu 0 0
/dev/block/mtdblock0 /system yaffs2 ro 0 0
/dev/block/mtdblock1 /data yaffs2 rw,nosuid,nodev 0 0
/dev/block/mtdblock2 /cache yaffs2 rw,nosuid,nodev 0 0
/dev/block//vold/179:0 /sdcard vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0702,dmask=0702,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0


text:
Is there an app that blocks certain search words on kindle fire?
http://bucknacktssordidtawdryblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/dont-filter-me-from-aclu-15feb11.html?m=1I  want to block certain words like "pornographic" on search engines like Yahoo, Google, Bing, etc without blocking my whole search engines. Is there anything on the kindle fire HD that can do that or apps. Is there any apps that I can download to my silk browser as I do not want to install other browsers to block words and sites and videos. Any downloadable content at all? I have an obsession which my self-control of it is spiraling so if I can just find an app, software,  etc. Anything at all to block playlist,  videos, search words, anything related to thr obsession like this:
 It would gladly be appreciated.

See
 http://www.google.com/goodtoknow/familysafety/tools/
http://m.internet-safety.yoursphere.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Finternet-safety.yoursphere.com%2F2012%2F12%2Fhow-to-make-the-kindle-fire-safe-and-age-appropriate-for-your-child%2F#2941
Google search:   safe search kindle fire

If you really want to use an APP here are a couple of apps, separate search engines, and a search at the Play store to find others.  I don't think any provide for you selecting your words. Have attempted to eliminate those that are "Free Trial" and want money afterwards, but that is not always successful.  Check out ratings, descriptions and comments on each app.

Safe Search - Android Apps on Google Play
Worried about what you or your kids might see on the web? Safe Search is an app that leverages Google's "safe search" feature that filters out inappropri...
Parental Control and Dashboard - Android Apps on Google Play
Best Android Parental Control Apps Lock and Launcher for Smartphones, Tablets! Comes Bundled with Kids Safe Browser, Kids Video Player (with educationalists selected f...
Kids Safe Search Engine - Android Apps on Google Play
Shop Google Play on the web. Purchase and enjoy instantly on your Android phone or tablet without the hassle of syncing.
site:play.google.com/store/apps free -"free trial" "safe search" OR "parental control" - Google Search

What about a kindle fire HD? Were is this at on the kindle fire HD?

Google Safe search is set in Google Preferences: --
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/510?hl=en  --
https://support.google.com/preferences

Have modified my answer to include selecting an APP,  though the Google safe search should provide much of the same protection.

It looks like I cannot download these apps. I have apps on my kindle, but it doesn't look like any are up to my expectations.

There is an installation called userscript that can block youtube but it does not work on silk browser. Any apps or downloads specific to silk browser.


text:
How to repartition Google Nexus 4 (aka. LG E960)?
Over a month ago, LineageOS rolled out Oreo (I think) update for the Nexus 4 (mako), but there's a catch - the system now takes up so much space, that even the nano version of open-gapps package can no longer be installed without manually removing application in-between the installations. I thought, rather than shooting down apps from default LineageOS, I would rather bump the system partition's size by another 200 MiB.
I haven't attempted anything yet, as information how to achieve this on a snapdragon device seems to be very sparse - is it even possible? I've done repartitioning on a Mediatek device, where doing so involved hand-editing an MBR-like partition table and uploading it to the device using SP-flashtool. Is there a similar, or perhaps an easier-to-use tool for Snapdragon devices?
P.S. - I've read the answers/suggestions to question 65781, and none of them are helpful to my question.

Well, it turns out the flash-tool shenanigans are specific to Mediatek, and partitioning on other phones is done with plain GPT on the mmcblk0 device. So I should be able to resize partitions with generic tools like parted, or sgdisk (neither of which is available in TWRP,  but shouldn't be hard to get).Will write up a full answer once I actually get it done.

As mentioned above, the Nexus 4 uses plain GPT on its storage to split it up into partitions. Any tool able to modify GPT should work. By far the biggest problem for me was getting an appropriate tool - the fdisk bundled with TWRP can only list partitions on a GPT disk, without making any changes. I prefer not to use parted (available from Termux), due to its inability to display/modify partition GUIDs (may have changed since the last time I checked).
Looking back, it may be possible to dump the entire storage to a computer, make changes there, and put the whole thing back, but I specifically wanted to avoid writing over critical partitions (loaders, kernel, etc.), so I set out to get gdisk for android.
I eventually found this thread, where the author prepared an archive with gdisk and a few other tools.
Requirements:

Computer/VM with adb, fsck.ext4 and resize2fs
This zip file

Overview
The relevant partitions (system and userdata) are 21st and 23rd on the storage. The 22nd partition is just cache, so there's no harm nuking it, and making a new one after data from the other 2 are in place.
The TL;DR version of the procedure is:

pull the data partition to computer
[PC] adb pull /dev/block/mmcblk0p23 userdata.img

put gdisk on the phone, and use it to modify the partition table - grow system while retaining its starting sector, shrink userdata by the same amount, and re-create cache between them
[PC] adb push gdisk /tmp/
[adb-shell] /tmp/gdisk /dev/block/mmcblk0
...

use resize2fs on the phone with the system partition to grow it
use resize2fson the computer with the userdata partition's image to shrink it to appropriate size
push the modified data image to the phone
[PC] adb push userdata.img /dev/block/mmcblk0p23

format the cache partition, reboot into system


text:
Install TWRP to only one slot or offline boot.img file, not both
I want to install TWRP on my phone that uses the A/B partition schema. The official TWRP installer ZIP by default installs to both boot_a and boot_b. This always breaks the system in the inactive slot because I install Magisk after flashing/OTA.
Can I install TWRP to only one slot, or an offline boot.img file (like Magisk Manager supports)?

So this way, I ended up creating a script on my own.
Lucky enough, installing TWRP to boot.img isn't hard at all. The install script in TWRP just replaces ramdisk.cpio with the one ramdisk-twrp.cpio provided in the ZIP.
The effective part of the script is as following, root is of course required.
ln -s /system/bin/linker64 /sbin/linker
cp <path-to-magiskboot> /sbin/magiskboot
mkdir /data/local/tmp/twrp
cd /data/local/tmp/twrp
/sbin/magiskboot --unpack <path-to-boot.img>
cat <path-to-[ramdisk-twrp.cpio]> > ramdisk.cpio
/sbin/magiskboot --repack boot.img
cp new-boot.img /sdcard/new-boot.img

Now the TWRP-installed new-boot.img is located at /sdcard/.
To install to a single slot, dd the boot image out and apply the same process as shown above and dd the new image back.


text:
Where does the "privacy protection password" come from?
I wanted to insert a second sim card in my Umi phone.
From then onwards, it always asks me for this 'privacy protection password'.
I can only insert numbers, not letters... so I'm very puzzled about what this does.
I have all pin, puk, passwords of everything in a book here. But whatever pin I try it keeps failing.
Can anyone help me please?
Is this from the Prey app? Or from Android itself? Can I reset it somewhere witha  password online on the web?

did you set up an anti-theft password or someone else for your device?