text:
com.android.incallui: not syncing the contacts
I have xaiomi redmi 7S.
I have seen the application used for calling is com.android.incallui
I added some contacts to it. But they are not syncing to the google account.

That app doesn't store contacts. Contacts Storage does. As for sync, have you enabled sync for contacts under Settings > Accounts >your account? Make sure to do "sync now" as well.

Understanding Contacts in Android is a very easy thing if you have been using android for a couple of time. The OS manages contacts by working with a few apps. Some which are physical and some which are non physical on the App Drawer.
We have Contacts Storage, a core app that is used to manage a contact database in the system. By adding, deleting and editing Contacts as commanded by Contact User Apps
We have Contacts Provider which queries names of Contacts from the Contacts Storage app or any other Contact Repository. Sometimes this app can Cache Contacts so as to real-timely process Call and Message identification rapidly
We have the Contacts App that can be seen in the application drawer that is used to present the Contacts database alongside with formal editing ways a human can understand instead of the traditional query languages
What's funny, none of these apps is responsible for synchronization of Contacts to Google or anywhere. This is where we have wrapper apps that work across the system and Google to ensure that a well maintained active sync exists
We then have Google Contacts Sync which synchronizes them from the Contacts app and transports them to Google servers and also restores them upon Mail login on a new device. As long as all those apps exist. Contact services work well.
You should note that Phone Services are also Closely related to Contact Services. This is where we find Phone Storage which maintains a call log database. Telephony Provider which offers the native calling service, Phone which shows you calls and gives you options to do on a number and also maintain a physical call history, and Calling Framework (in-Call UI) which themes the calling screen.
Note com.android.incallui is not responsible for any synchronization of Contacts to Google
Back to the topic. If you don't see any synchronization to google, ensure Contacts sync setting is active, ensure power saving is off to help in freeing background services like sync and to be sure, force a 'sync now'
if you don't see a name of a person in a call whose name exists in Contacts even though I'm sure com.android.incallui (Phone) should be having such access by default. Only a few phones don't treat it so and if you find it needs manual permission confirmation try to allow permissions from app settings and if none of those works wrap issues up and  reset the device and you'll start over again


text:
how to disable gmail notification sound samsung a50s
I have a Samsung A50s. It is making some sound each time an email arrives in inbox. I am not able to find out how to disable these sounds?
How can I do this?

Swipe down from the screen so you see the notification in your notification center. Then, hold down on the notification so that it expands. You can edit the notification settings there. Change the priority so that the sound does not occur anymore (if I'm not mistaken, medium or low priority disables the sound)
https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/xScreenshot_20180228-111409.png.pagespeed.gp+jp+jw+pj+ws+js+rj+rp+rw+ri+cp+md.ic.jxvpjJzLUN.png
The show silently switch would help here.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How to make a "system" screenshot with ButtonMapper
Since a recent update of ButtonMapper the functionality to make a "system screenshot" (if you have root) seemed to be replaced by a "app screenshot", which is limited in some apps as Instagram of Snapchat and also makes a very annoying clicker sound. I understand non rooted users prefer this over nothing. But I like to have my "system screenshot" back when I long press the Volume Down button.
I bought the Pro version of ButtonMapper and I have root access. Can someone please tell me how I can assign my "system screenshot" functionality back to long press Volume Down in Button Mapper? I miss it so hard.

the developer build this in but you have to know...
if you want a system screenshot instead of a limited app screenshot
do the following in ButtonMapper:

be sure to have root access
press the 3 dots
select "check for root"
now assign the screenshot functionality again to the desired button
ButtonMapper is making a "system screenshot" instead of an "app screenshot"!

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


text:
Force stopping bloatware apps on android phone
I don't use Facebook and don't intend to. Can I force stop on android phone (LG Stylo 4) without destabilizing anything else? I have installed WhatsApp which I know is owned by Facebook but which I think (hope) functions independently and hopefully would not be impacted by stopping Facebook.

You ca simply disable and/or deinstall the Facebook app. That will permanently stop it.

Yes, WhatsApps runs separately from Facebook, despite them being owned by the same company. You can safely force stop Facebook.
If you don't intend to use Facebook, the more logical solution is to remove it, which will prevent it from doing anything and free up space.


text:
recover WiFi password file Android Pie
I know that Android (at least Pie) uses a file WifiConfigStore.xml to store WiFi access points and passwords. It is located in /data/misc/wifi/.
I saved it before wipe and reinstall everything. The idea was to copy it back to this location. While the phone is on/powered it seems not to uses the information from this new file. But after reboot it is gone and overwritten.
So my question: is there a special trick? Or is this not the proper location? Is there some backup file stored somewhere else?
(I have a rooted LineageOS 16 device with Magisk. I even tried to change the file in TWRP with not better result.)
Edit: Found that this file is also located in
/data/misc_ce/0/wifi,
/sbin/.magisk/mirror/data/misc/wifi and
/sbin/.magisk/mirror/data/misc_ce/wifi
And there are also files
WifiConfigStore.xml.encrypted-checksum. From naming it sounds like there it is including a checksum to avoid errors in xml?
This file I have not saved. Am I lost now? Can I delete this and it will be created than?
What is function of this misc_ce folders?
Thanks!

/data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf

This has been used in older versions - it is not active used anymore... I can see all the data in this (saved) WifiConfigStore.xml.

It seems that the magisk folder is just a link. Not sure about the misc_ce folder.
I copied WifiConfigStore.xml, changed properties and owners and renamed the checksum file. After reboot the checksum was recreated and the xml gets valid...

I can confirm it works. So I've written a tool to convert old wpa_supplicant.conf to WifiConfigStore.xml if anyone is interested: https://github.com/mnalis/android-wifi-upgrade


text:
Firefox for Android doesn't autofill saved/synced paswords since installing and uninstalling external password manager
Firefox sync was working on all my devices as my logins and passwords were perfectly synced. The problem started when I was offered to install the Lockwise app on Android. Where logins were available in the Firefox for Android app they wouldn't sync with the Lockwise app, the syncing went in an infinite loop and did not sync anything. Reinstalling or rebooting did not help. From this moment Firefox for Android offered to fill in the passwords from the Lockwise app, but since there were no passwords synced, there were none to fill. So I decided to uninstall the Lockwise app and go back to Google Autofill service for my global Android password management. But in the Firefox for Android app (which I use the most) I still like to use the build-in Firefox Sync autofill feature like I used to before installing the Lockwise app. Firefox for Android does not offer to fill in any password information anymore. When I look in Tools > Logins all my passwords are there, perfectly synced.
After some research I checked if the following about:config booleans were enabled: and yes they were.
signon.autofillForms
signon.autofillForms.autocompleteOff
signon.autofillForms.http

Firefox for Android version: 68.2.0

External autofill apps change a certain boolean in the Firefox for Android configuration variables, this "setting" can only set back to the old setting by completely uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox or (better) by changing a variable in: about:config

goto about:config
search for: dom.forms.autocomplete.formautofill
set it back to true
refresh your login window and... fixed!


text:
Playing a video in MX Player Pro turns the phone's brightness to extremes. What is the cause?
Used MX Player Pro for years on my S6, S8 but on my new Note 9 every time I try to play a video the brightness of the whole phone screen goes to extreme brightness that I have to turn the phone fully away to close the app.
What is the cause & fix? Note 9 is a year old phone so I thought any issues would be fixed by now.

Possibly related/duplicate: Why does video screen get brighter and how to prevent it?: MX Player has a setting to override screen brightness while playing a video.

@Andrew T. Saw that linked one before posting.Unrelated as my issue turns not just the video bright but the whole phone screen clock & all. In 2019 on my Samsung Note 9 none of it those solutions linked to apply.


text:
WhatsApp not prompting to restore from Google Drive backup
Transferring WhatsApp from a Samsung S7 to a Samsung 10e.
Backedup to Google Drive as per instructions, 174mb of backup exists
Setup WhatsApp on the new phone (same number, SIM swapped over etc) and it doesn't prompt me to restore the backup.
Backup exists, I can see details if I go to Settings>Chats>Chat Backup, but I can't see any way to make it use that backup.  (I'm assuming if I click Backup, it will backup current state, not restore??)
How do I get it to use the backup it knows exists?

Late to the party, but just experienced this on my own: I have to grant whatever permission that Whatsapp has asked for. Denying even one of them will lead to not showing the prompt.

I'm so glad you still shared about your experience: I've had the same issue today and not granting all permissions was what caused it for me too. Thank you so much. The fix then was to uninstall WhatsApp, reinstall it, grant everything and get prompted this time, restore, deny everything again.

Same case here; What an unfortunate bug

I'm assuming if I click Backup, it will backup current state, not restore??

Yes, don't tap backup. You will lose your entire backed up data. Also disable auto backup until the problem is solved.
Try reinstalling the app. This often helps.


text:
Connect Android device to Wifi for internet and ethernet simultaneously
I have a Samsung tablet where I want to use wifi for internet connection and ethernet to communicate to other network devices connected to it such as Field Bus Coupler etc simultaneously.
Right now once I connected LAN with android device it disconnected from wifi.

It simply disconnects. Without root is there any possibility?

How to make Ethernet work on Android over OTG?

I am working on a solution in
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/63499840/android-9-ethernet-and-wifi-simulataneously I hope this is still relevant to you... did you find a solution yet?


text:
Part of mobile screen not working
I have an Android mobile Meizu m5 which has a Flyme OS.Until recently the phone has been working just fine. However recently i noticed that the lower part of the screen has stopped working. I tried the touch detector tool and it also didnt work in that specific area which is
On random occasions the screen stated acting weird and clicking random buttons. Antiviruses didnt catch any problem however the antivirus of meizu showeved that there was something in the TouchPal. I transfered my contacts and sms and did a full factory reset however the issue still presisted and then meizus owns antivirus also didnt give any issue.I also took off the screen protector but still no luck.
Waiting for help. Thanks

If you are willing to resize the screen so as to use only its working part, my answer might help you out. See Resize screen to display only on working part of semi-functional touchscreen

@Firelord any solution without resizing? As sometimes the whole screen just glitches and clicks random things

@Talha Usually when a part of the touch screen stops working and a factory reset does not help this is a hardware defect. Therefore I see the three options: 1. resize the screen so that it doe snot use the non-working area. 2. repair the hone (usually means complete new screen) 3. Buy a new phone.

@Robert but that portion starts working for some times on random occasions. So shouldnt it be a software issue?

I had exactly the same problem one year ago with m5. I agree that it appears to be a software problem since it sometimes disappear . I bought an M6 and moved on,  but I will send it to service shop since it is still n the warranty period. You can now buy an M8 for the same money

@magma thanks for your response. So i suppose there is no possible fix

Well, I think the  only possibility is to send it to a repair center and see what happens. I will do it asap since my 2 year EU warranty is expiring soon. They will keep it for 30-40 days they told me. That's why I bought a new model in the meantime

@magma oh ok well mabye i'll try to do the same.Thanks


text:
Can someone receive my calls on viber even I deleted the application, I called by mistake
Had called someone on viber by mistake, how can I let him not receiving the calls notification, I already blocked him; should I delete theapplication? Tour assistance is needed please

i am not sure what you asking. you need to unregister before deleting

from my understanding you already called, so the call notification is already happen?

https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/time-travel

If you already called the person there is no way to delete the notification.


text:
Should I be worried about this strange notification from Delta?
I got a notification from the Fly Delta app that just says "test". The icon appears to be missing. Should I be concerned about this? I've uninstalled the Delta app, but I'm unsure if I need to do more.
This is, to the best of my knowledge, the official Delta Airlines app installed from the Play Store.

This might just be some Delta engineer trying something out, and maybe mistakenly pushing it to customer devices, but I don't know how to find out if it is legitimate testing or a potential sign of some exploit.

A Twitter search suggests that a lot of people got the same message. It appears to be an error at Delta. What I don't know is whether there's any way to confirm that a particular message came from the app vs spoofed it in some way.

It's possible to check the sender by using a built-in/3rd-party notification log.


text:
Motorola G5 GBoard Issues
I've been having the same GBoard issues as a lot of other people , but I have been locked out of my phone because I powered it down and need to type in password to get into my phone. Any ideas as to how I should fix this issue??? I've have tried a cache partition wipe and it hasn't done anything. Thanks in advance to whoever finds a solution!

connect a keyboard or mouse with usb otg adapter

https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/219482


text:
How to Make Samsung Galaxy S10e perform IR?
Now, I know the Samsung Galaxy S10e does not have a built-in IR blaster.
However, the comment at the end of this post says the built-in iris scanner has some sort of IR capability?
Is that true, and do you think it's possible to utilize that?
Otherwise, I would use one of those IR remote control apps on Google Play and I'd need an IR blaster attachment like this.  But is this the best way to go?
I'm thinking to control random TVs in hotel and airport lobbies... (just for fun) or the AC at a friend's house or our Stereo receiver we have.


text:
How do I change the call from my left earphone to right?
How do I change the call from my left earphone to my right one? I have trouble hearing in my left ear so I would prefer for the person whose on call for their voice to be coming from my right earphone, my phone is a Samsung s7

Are you sure both ears of your headset are correctly working? Because I would think that the sound would come from both sides at the same time. At least that is the case when I'm using a headset or something like that.

Go to Settings --> Accessibility. Then tap Hearing. Towards the bottom, you will find an option for Mono Output, switch that ON. Then you can drop the earphone from one ear.
There is also a left-right sound balance. You can shift the slider to the ear you prefer.
Here is a guide to using the hearing accessibility settings on your phone:
https://www.androidcentral.com/how-use-hearing-accessibility-options-galaxy-s7


text:
Unlocking Samsung Galaxy S7 with broken screen plugged into computer
The screen on my phone is broken, and there are a few files I'd like to get off of it. I don't care about the phone at all, just the files. I know the password, I just can't enter it on the broken screen.
I can plug the device into my computer, and it recognizes it, but I can't unlock it, so my computer cannot copy files off of it.
lsusb lists it as Bus 001 Device 097: ID 04e8:6860 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd Galaxy (MTP).
adb devices unfortunately doesn't recognize my phone, presumably since it's locked.
It's possible there's more damage to my phone than just the screen, not sure though since it won't turn on.
Any advice would be appreciated, I don't even really know where to start.

https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/159551

@alecxs thanks, hopefully I can get that working

try with working device first, you just have one try

A bit late to the party but you can unlock your phone with find my phone
That wasn't enough in my case.
Most recovery tools require you to have usb debugging enabled before you break your phone.


text:
How to install SuperSU using adb while the phone is in TWRP recovery with a broken screen
I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 SHV-E330S with a broken screen (cannot see or touch anything). Please see this and it's comments for more context
I have managed to flash TWRP on this phone (https://twrp.me/samsung/samsunggalaxys4ltea.html) and now I can boot the phone into recovery mode and during this time I can use adb to get a root shell on the phone
I would like to find a way to stream it's screen to the laptop monitor and control it using adb, but I suppose I will need to root the android OS first to this more easily
I cannot use the phone screen so I am not sure how I can install SuperSu.apk from the phone itself. Is there a way to install it through adb? I think the adb shell I get while the phone is in recovery is not the android OS if I understand it correctly, so I don't know adb pm install while in recovery will install the apk correctly. Using adb to control the phone while in recovery is the only I can do anything at all with this phone at the moment so as far as possible I don't want to do anything wrong which might make me loose control of adb during recovery. What is the best way to go about this?
Or is there any way to get adb authorization for android OS, without root and completely through adb while in recovery?

See if my answer helps you in bypassing adb authorisation issue. https://android.stackexchange.com/a/120453/96277 // As for rooting the device you need to flash a SuperSU zip. It would install all the necessary files including the SuperSU apk. However,  it is best you find solution for adb authorisation and streaming display to external sources because SuperSU needs to be configured too and you can't as of now due to non-functional screen.

@Firelord I'll have a look at the authorisation issue using your answer thanks. If this part is solved, then for at least streaming the display and controlling the phone through adb, I can do it without having root? And even if I am able to view the android OS screen on PC and control it through adb, will it make it any easier to root in later on? because I am guessing I can't stream the screen contents while in recovery, and I thought that was the point where I have to do the rooting process

I don't think there are much choices to stream screen content for Kitkat devices without root access, but you are free to search into. You have the twrp access which actually is the easiest thing to root a device. My suggestion is  that you prioritize adb access first, than find solution to stream, and if all good solutions need root access than only root your device.

@Firelord I found the adbkey.pub file in my .android folder and pushed it to /data/misc/adb/adb_keys like it says in your answer while the phone was in recovery mode. I rebooted the phone and I still get unauthorized when I type adb devices. trying to adb shell into the phone while it it running android OS  (not in recovery) I get this error: error: device unauthorized. This adb server's $ADB_VENDOR_KEYS is not set Try 'adb kill-server' if that seems wrong. Otherwise check for a confirmation dialog on your device. Is there anything else I can try?

@Firelord the other rooted phone does not have an adb_keys folder inside  /data/misc/adb/ and to be honest I don't exactly remember if I ever authorised this phone on my PC or not, I think it has always "just worked" after I connected the USB cable. Is there anything else I can try?

@Firelord with the adbkey.pub still in place, I added the lines mentioned in this answer (https://stackoverflow.com/a/36507415/1693203) and the phone is still unauthorised

Sorry, I don't know what else to recommend now. :(

@Firelord it's working now https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/218640/how-do-i-bypass-the-rsa-authentication-dialog-box-to-enable-controlling-phone-fr


text:
Contacts app in Android 7.1 claims that I have no images on my device
On my Motorola Moto Z2 Play with stock version of Android 7.1.1 currently I have:

188 photos in DCIM > Camera folder,
10 pictures in Pictures > Contacts folder,
5 pictures in Pictures > Icons folder,
24 pictures in Pictures > Wallpapers folder.

Yet, when I am trying to assign a new photo for one of my newly created contacts (Google Account) in Contacts app it claims that I have no images in my device and does not open a file browser / does not allow me to pick any photo for given contact:

What am I missing here? How to workaround this weird problem and be able to pick a photo for any contact (other way than using PC for this purpose)?

Did you check that the contacts app has the "Access Photos and Videos" permission?

Yes, it has (though it is called just "Storage" in Android 7.1.1 with details explaining that this allows app to read files on my SD card). It actually has all requested permissions enabled. For testing purposes I have revoked this permission and tried to add photo using above way -- no change, still the same message.


text:
Turn android into server to livestream its own camera and serial data
In my project, I need to turn an old android into a web server. I need to be able to access live video from this phone and be able to send/receive data to/from a mobile app.
Data received from the app will be sent via serial to an Arduino to carry out a respective task, and likewise data received by the Arduino will be sent to the app.

After a lot of Googling, I still can't figure out a solution.
How can I accomplish this?


text:
Bug in Asus Zenfone max pro m2
I've found a serious privacy bug in system app of stock android 9.0 of Asus Zenfone Max pro m2. The problem is I am confused about where to file this bug? Should I go for Report bugs: Android or should I use ZenUI forums?

Since it is stock Android, it would be appropriate  posting as directed in the link you included in the question. Make sure it's not already reported. If it is, you can either star (you would get mail updates) or  add if your observations add more information
In addition, report on Asus official forums too, since you say it is a serious bug.

Thank you. I'll add it to the official ZenUI forums too.


text:
How to go to the App Screen when "Swipe down for notification panel" is on?
On my Galaxy Note 10, how do I quickly go to the App screen when I enabled "Swipe down for notification panel" in the Settings Menue?

Ok, got it, just swipe up, whereas when the "Swipe down for notification panel" feature is off swiping up AND down on the Home Screen enables the App Screen.


text:
Android Auto is not working with Realme1 (6 GB / 128 GB)
I have Sony XAV-AX5000 in my car, I tried to run android auto with my realme1 (6GB /128 GB) variant but it is not woring in both colorOS 5.2 and colorOS 6.
I checked with other phones (iphone as well), Android auto and Apple car play both are working fine as expected.

Are you using a quality USB cable? (trust me, this matters) Is your phone running the most current OS version? Is the Sony stereo updated to the most recent firmware? See link below https://us.community.sony.com/s/question/0D50B00005IMvLxSAL/android-auto-not-working-in-ax5000-with-realme1-phone?language=en_US

Yes everything is latest and I am using standard quality cable.


text:
Permit use hardware (camera,microphone,etc) to application for some time, not forever
In Android 6 and latter, when application asks for permission (for example camera access) user can

allow,
or dismiss,
or check 'do not ask any more' and dismiss.

I would like to have one more option:

allow for some time (5sec,1min,5min,3days)

I am sorry but this is not the way Android works. There may be way on rooted devices or using a privacy aware custom ROM for your device, but those are not of--the-shelve solutions and may require a lot of work.

You can run a cron daemon as root which periodically checks for specified permissions on specified apps. And if the permission is granted, it will revoke that. It needs some scripting. May also work on adb shell but non-root daemons may get killed. Possibly some automation app can do that for you.


text:
Enable external users to un-silence my phone
I have my phone on do-not-disturb or silent virtually always. I usually see my phone, and can see I'm being called.
However, sometimes my SO needs to reach me quickly, and I just happen to not see my phone. I want her to somehow be able to force my phone to ring then.
I seem to recall someone talking about being able to do this on their phone: if their SO called them 3 times in rapid succession, the phone would enable sound. I don't remember what phone or app or such this was using.
I want something similar. It doesn't have to be the exact same thing, but I simply want my SO to have a way to quickly, without much effort, be able to reach me even when my phone is on do-not-disturb. (the advantage of the 3-call thing is that you can do it while driving using the on-board hands-free system, no additional effort needed).
Can anyone point me to how to do this?
Some additional info: My SO uses an iPhone, I have a Nokia 6.1 running android 9

You can add the SO to the priority list in do not disturb. Or you can use an app like tasker to change ringer based on their number.

Just for curiosity what is a "SO"?


text:
Hide button xciptv activity_categories
I have been tryin to remove or hide buttons on android app xciptv but can't seem to make them go away.  I have set the visibility of the app to "gone" but they are still visible.  I can maneuver the buttons into different locations but never hide.
Please help

Umm... how did you set the visibility of the app to "gone"? And how did you know the ID of the button? Were you tinkering with its source code or something?

I went into the res/layout/activity_categories file and located the name of the button via the name of the .png file and changed the visibility from visible to gone


text:
How to find my own mobile number on Huawei P30 Pro?
Is there any way to find the number of my SIMs? I tried to find it on the "about" page of the phone, but it's not there.
Any suggestion?
Android version = 9

I don't think there's a way if the SIM card doesn't store its phone number. Contact your provider's support instead.

Huawei P30 EMUI 11:
Settings → Mobile Network → SIM menagement.
Here you will see a list of your SIM cards and their phone numbers.


text:
memory card as internal storage
My phone can't read my memory card and my memory card mounted as internal storage in marshmallow operating system. How can i get my data back?, in my setting it show memory 91 gb to 119gb but directory not exist, no data found all app that i run in my memory are gone. Some one please help me.

i can't test because my device is linked with my memory card as internal storage. In my setting storage option my memory card show but not shows the data like app data etc..

they format my memory card. My 91 gb data lost..

i know how to fix(root) but i don't know the process...

my data is still in my memory card but i can't access.. that's all... and it's not formated.. it's shows 91gb but directory lost... so it can't find any data. that's all.

@Aman you can eject the SD card from settings and test it on some PC. Just don't format it. Then you can put the card back in phone. The bonding won't break until you don't "Forget" the SD card.

i use all the possibilities you mentioned but no data found....

i use many recovery software but nothing help me..

if your SD card is encrypted/adopted no external software will work. first thing i would do is make a snapshot with ddrescue for further analysis

As @alecxs mentioned, you cannot read SD card formatted as Adoptable storage on any other device. Connecting to PC is just to test if it's detected properly. If the point of your question is to recover data from Adoptable SD card, it's already been answered.

Duplicate of: How to decrypt Adopted Storage?

ya it detected properly but format option pop up..


text:
Is WiFi Calling possible over reverse tethering?
For internet access on my smartphone I use reverse tethering via USB from my PC while having it in flight mode. Everything works great (WhatsApp, Chrome, etc.) except calls, of course.
I was wondering if it would be possible to use "WiFi" calls without WiFi but with internet over reverse tethering via USB while the smartphone is in flight mode?

Based on my understanding, isn't the technology called VoIP (Voice-over-IP)? So it shouldn't be necessarily using Wi-Fi, but anything that connects to the internet should work?

... and you just need to make sure that your router (and PC or whatever the hosts in between) isn't blocking ports used for VoIP calls.

Unfortunately, my current smartphone does not meet the necessary requirements (Android 7+), since it runs on Android 6 and there are no more updates probably because it is a Huawai. And before I buy a new one I would like to make sure that it works

Also I am not sure whether it is possible to turn on "WiFi" calls in the flight mode?


text:
sysui_nav_bar element that does nothing? (create a dead spot on the navigation bar)
For accessibility reasons, I want to create a dead spot on the bottom right corner of an Android Pie phone (Xiaomi Mi A3) so that touching it does nothing.
The phone comes with new style 2 button nav and pill shaped home button. I've tried to customize the nav bar with the "settings put secure sysui_nav_bar" trick and I've managed to get the buttons I want but cannot create a dead spot on the right side (or anywhere) because it always treats the left and right side as part of the nearest button, even if you add a "space" element there.  The best I've come up with is
adb shell
settings put secure sysui_nav_bar "back;space,home,space,space,space;recent,contextual"

This creates a left-justified nav bar, with the contextual button on the right acting as a dead spot EXCEPT when the contextual icon actually appears.
What I need is an element that does nothing, or perhaps one that practically no app uses any more so it effectively does nothing. Is there such a thing?
thanks

Simply removing the "contextual" part from your command seems to achieve what you need.
i.e.
adb shell
settings put secure sysui_nav_bar "back;space,home,space,space,space;recent"


text:
How can I disable the confirmation pop-up when uninstalling an app?
I have multiple apps that I want to uninstall but it becomes really tedious having to sit and watch as each individual one uninstalls and confirm deletion one at a time.
I have a Samsung a50

Use command-line instead. Confirmation is not asked from there.


text:
Why doesn't the Android Studio include the google play store app for tablet AVDs?
I am using Android Studio 3.5.2
Build #AI-191.8026.42.35.5977832, built on October 30, 2019
JRE: 1.8.0_202-release-1483-b49-5587405 x86_64
JVM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM by JetBrains s.r.o
macOS 10.13.6
Some of the virtual devices (the phones) include the Play Store components, but none of the Android TV or Tablet images do. Why is that?
Furthermore, is there a way to add the google play store components to a virtual android image?
Is there somewhere to download an image for an Android tablet or TV that includes the google play store components?


text:
music is stuttering
So I have a zte z557bl running android 7.1.1 and ive been using google play music, but every time I would open a app, open the notification bar, lock my phone or go to the home screen, it would stop the music for a second and them the volume would change, or it would lag the music. does anyone know why its doing this?

Have you tried to use a different music player? Did the issue persist?

@Firelord yes i have, i've used the default music player, as well as spotify.

but the problem still exists


text:
How does Package Disabler app work?
There are two apps that can disable system apps (bloatware) from Samsung and LG devices. Those do not need root or any special permission. Can anyone explain how this works?

There is a difference between disabling and removing bloatwares. Disabling can be done without root, but removing them can be done with root only.
The app for LG that you mentioned changes device ownership permissions. It asks you to make itself the device owner. Quoting this site,

A Device Owner is an application that runs as a device administrator on your Android 5.0+ device. The Device Owner app can use the programming methods in the DevicePolicyManager class to take control of the configuration, security and other applications on the device. A device can have only one Device Owner. No other applications can utilize the methods in that class to control the device.

As a device owner, the app can modify the partitions that cannot be otherwise accessed without root. Basically you can consider this a restricted root access (restricted because root permissions have many more privileges compared to device ownership).
Remember that making any app a device owner is kind of playing with your phone's security, so don't do that unless you trust the app fully. In root, you have an option to deny root access. Here, you won't even know what the app is doing under cover, and it might be late before you actually remove it.

Do you know how the samsung app works? It seems to not require the device owner permission (but device admin).


text:
Keeping control of alarms and notifications
Often alarms and timers doesn't make a sound.  Other times unexpected sounds in the middle of the night.  Often they are "in the background" so I have to find the app making it before I can stop it.
So how can I have good control of upcoming alarms, notifications and how they will appear?  How can I be sure they are easy to stop?
(I assume this must be about interaction between OS and app, so I need some way to check if apps confirms to standards)
Pixel with latest Android, Wear OS (And Google/Chrome on Windows)

There must be a setting "Do Not Disturb". Switch that ON and set it to "Alarms only". That should forbid all apps from making sounds until you disable DND. This will prevent unexpected sounds in the middle of the night.

That's 1/3 o the problem - and only if "Alarms" are well defined.


text:
Google asistant keeps playing sounds
My google assistant keeps playing sounds even when th screen is off, the sound is the same as when it proposes to speak to the microphone. But I can't stop it, even after the screen is off.
So I need a simple solution, I know I can stop he application by forcing stop, but I relly prefer to do it by app settings if possible, just becouse if I open the app again the problem starts again, and I use this app often, so It's anoying.
I'm on Galaxy A10 running android 9.0

If you don't want to use the Assistant, you can:

Open Google app
Select More -> Settings -> Google Assistant
Choose Assistant tab -> Phone and turn off "Google Assistant" switch

This should disable the Assistant and let the rest of Google app still work fine.


text:
Do Apps like Google Assistant work on Blloc Zero18?
Do Apps like Google Assistant work on Blloc Zero18?
Because this is a minimalist phone with its own UI

Optionally.
From the Blloc site

Start your smartphone experience differently with Blloc: the real (non-Google) stock Android experience without any forced Google services.
Zero18 comes with the Blloc MNML operating system—a distraction-free custom software built on top of Android 8.1

So out of the box there appears to be NO Google Services.
Google Assistant, Google Maps, Google Mail, Google Translate all require Google Services to be running on the device.
Therefore from the Blloc help/wiki page: it seems you would need to manually install Google Services (basically flip a special settings switch and reboot) so that the device could get Play Store apps.
I'm unclear/doubtful that some of the deeper integrations of Google Assistant like being able have the phone passively listen for "wake words" to enable a voice assistant would be possible on this device.
You have the option to use alternatives to Google Services


text:
Dark mode / theme before Android 10?
How is it possible (via third party app or without?) to enable Dark mode for all apps (Chrome browser, Phone calls app, Messaging app, etc.) on a Android 5 or 6 smartphone?
It's integrated in the OS in Android 10: https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/look-and-feel/darktheme
But how to do this for Android 5+?

On Android 10, it's available as a system setting.
However the dark theme can be enabled using "night" resources for example. Meaning  switching resources such as styles, colours, themes, drawables, etc according to user's device time.

This can change during the life of your app if night mode is left in auto mode (default), in which case the mode changes based on the time of day. You can enable or disable this mode using UiModeManager. See Handling Runtime Changes for information about how this affects your app during runtime.

You can force the mode or not using a toggle or something too. Read documentation for more info.

The question here is specific to Android version before Android 10. How to enable a Dark Mode on Android 5 / 6 / 7 etc.?  Via third party app? Via settings (which ones)? How to force "Night"  as an Android simple user?

You can't. You will have to enable it for each app individually (if they offer it). There is no global setting that will offer you what you are looking for.


text:
recover smartphone after factory reset
Last friday, my Samsung smartphone somehow performed a factory reset. I do not know why (it fell on the ground, or my son triggered something, but that does not matter now).
I noticed it when during booting, I saw the samsung letters and after that the 'let's get started' screen where I had to choose a language to setup the phone.
I lost everything that was on my smartphone including some pictures. Most stupid of course, but I know I setup google photos to automatically backup my photos. However, when I checked google online, not 1 image was there so, I lost everything that was on my smartphone. I can live with that for most of the pictures but some I would like to get back somehow.
I tried to recover my data using several apps on my computer.
dr fone for android, fonelab for android, easeus data recovery.
Dr Fone took some time before completing with saying nothing could be found because I do not have root access on my samsung smartphone.
I already looked into rooting the phone but as far as I could read, rooting would cause a data wipe which I do not.
Is there any chance / method to recover data from my phone and how should I do that? The device is a Samsung A6 SM-A600FN (2018).

Sorry for your loss but there's no way to recover deleted data without root access. Even with root access, after factory reset, chances aren't very high. Related: How to make a complete factory reset, without anyone being able to retrieve my data? You may contact some professional service but consider factors explained here: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/216410/218526

As Irfan says, your data is most likely gone now. It's also worth pointing out that an auto wipe can often be triggered by incorrectly entering the passcode 10 times in a row.

The trigger for auto wipe, is that a standard setting or does it have to be set by the user when configuring the phone? The auto wipe is the only reason I can come up with for this factory reset to occur.  But I have not set that when I configured my phone.

@DutchArjo that's not a standard settings on stock Android but OEMs can configure their ROMs to add such features on their devices. Also on managed devices this can be a part of policy. Apps (user or system) with admin rights can also do that.

I suspect my employer made this a setting then. I will check with them if this is the case. Doesn't help me with getting my files back, but might explain to me how this could happen.

check your clouds https://photos.google.com or https://drive.google.com/drive/backups maybe there is something left. your history may helpful too https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity

I did, there was nothing there. I had a phone backup from the evening before so some files are recovered, but I do not care about these files. I hoped google photos had backupped but did not backup anything. I have now reset my phone and configured it again.

completely surprised: my phone is reconfigured, I opened google photos to enable backup, and suddenly I have all my photos back...


text:
Unable to make phone calls or send text message because of "call barring"
There is nothing wrong with my sim card nor the providers of it. However I am unable to call anyone or send text messages to anyone but I am able to receive calls and text messages from anyone.
Whenever I try to call someone I get the following message "Can't make outgoing calls while call barrng is on"
What I have tried: entered phone app -> Settings -> Supplementary services -> Call barring -> Voice call. Everything is unchecked! If I check everything, nothing changes about my situation I am still unable to call people
I am on Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus

Back up all your important files and start a new. Create a Smart switch back up and factory reset. Smart switch could possibly be backing up the file that's giving you fits. Maybe don't backup anything phone related too.


text:
How can I transfer all carrier settings from an existing phone to a new phone?
I have been provided a device for a telephone carrier that cannot be joined automatically. When the Sim is inserted into another phone, it cannot find/connect to the network. Due to the nature of the network I am on, and given I was supplied the phone from the telephone carrier, I believe its customized in some way.
I want to use this network and sim card, but on a better phone (Razer Phone 2).
Is there some mechanism I can use to transfer all settings from one phone to the other, including whatever secret settings the carrier may have setup prior to handing out the devices?

Dial *#*#*4636#*#* and in the phone menu see under carrier related information.

*#*#4636#*#* does nothing on this phone. When entered, it simply disappears and the menu that should appear, doesn't show up.

You should be able to go to settings, find your settings for you sim (APN) settings and from there be able to copy these settings to your new phone.
I am assuming your current device is an android device. On my phone (OPO5T) I can simply go to settings->Wi-Fi & internet->SIM & network->(My sim card)->Access Point Names.

This does not result in successful connection to the carrier. There appears to be some other setup / information that is beyond that controlled in the APN settings that permits connection.

@Predominant what carrier are you using? also make sure the APN settings are correct, you can always double check, you could also check the carriers website for APN settings.

I cannot say the carrier I am using. The provided phone has some configuration beyond simple APN settings, and that is the information I wish to discover, or simply transfer to another phone.

On my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge to do all these things I would simply go to Connections ->Mobile Network->Access Point Names->Select your carrier-> click on the 3 vertical dots and a dialogue box is opened->Click Save ->email the settings->open your new mobile and access your email->copy all the settings and paste it on your Razor Phone 2 APN(Access Point Name)
I hope this helps you! :)

Razer phone 2 will not work on Verizon CDMA/LTE
Many Prepaid Carriers will not let you use unlocked phones.
You have to verify it on their site: Looking for a "Bring your own phone" option.
Pending that checks out

Insert Card
Settings - Connections -> find "Mobile settings --> APN/Access point names"
Top right [New]
You have to fill in these blanks: You will have to google "LTE APN settings ATT/Tmo/etc.."

I'm not using Verizon.


text:
Avoid porn/nude recommendation in feed of android you tube app?
How can i avoid video containing porn/nude content from appearing up in feed/recommendation of my youtube app?

Open Youtube's settings, click General.
Enable "Restricted Mode".
Restart Youtube.

I tried it and somehow it show a reduction but not completely or dominantly

@engr Because it was showing before, I guess maybe there are still remnants of data from whatever used to be shown before. Close Youtube, its clear data and cache, start it and see if there is any difference.  However, you should also know that Restricted Mode is not 100% bulletproof.


text:
Data recovery from encrypted phone based on glitches in the encryption?
To make a long story short I needed to root my phone and didn't notice the warning that unlocking the bootloader erased all contents of the memory.
I contacted a data recovery company and told them that the memory was encrypted and the phone used Android 6. In response I was told that there was a chance, albeit small, that they could recover some data. However, they were unsuccessful and in their report they blamed the encryption.
This made me pretty upset since the encryption was the first thing I mentioned in my contact with them. When I called and complained about this I got the very "interesting" answer: sometimes there is a glitch when enabling encryption leaving some of the storage unencrypted and we might be able to recover that.
Is this really true??? It sounds completely absurd that something like that could happen frequent enough so they could base their business model on it. In my ears it sounds like a bad excuse for charging me money for something that could "never" work.

An Android 6 the encryption was AFAIR not enabled by default. Considering a large storage and an encryption algorithm that only encrypts the data but leaves the rest untouched there is a chance of being able to recover something, if the encrypted time is not too long. Also how you use the phone can change the recovery rate. Also on some older devices factory reset and re-encryption had flaws not erasing everything. Anyway they told you that the chance was low - and their business model is not "recovering data" but "searching for recoverable data".

i don't believe that data is recoverable from encrypted partition when keys are wiped, and android 6 uses FDE full disk encryption, so a partially unencrypted partition won't be mountable. maybe he was talking about the (unencrypted) encryption footer at end of partition, with this it would be possible to decrypt. Besides this, they spend time in trying to recover, you must pay for the try

I'm not an expert in the filed, it's just an analyses of the case according to my limited knowledge.
ANDROID'S ENCRYPTION
Android supports two modes of encryption; FDE and FBE. FDE encrypts whole block device i.e. userdata partition using Linux kernel's dm-crypt framework, while FBE is based on fscrypt available since Android 7. From data recovery's aspect, approach is similar for both. Both offer strong encryption and what's been attacked by hackers is not the encryption itself, but Android's mechanism to create and store keys required for decryption.

sometimes there is a glitch when enabling encryption leaving some of the storage unencrypted

You are right, it's interesting. FDE, AFAIK, encrypts the whole block device, just excluding the crypto footer at the end of partition which includes keys for decryption. Initially all sectors might not be encrypted as is the case with inplace encryption:

vold checks to see if a sector is in use before reading and writing it, which makes encryption much faster on a new device that has little to no data.

But the skipped sectors are the ones which contain no data in filesystem. However as data is written to the sectors (or if the encryption was initialized with random data which doesn't seem to be the case with Android), they get encrypted and very soon whole block device becomes one giant high entropy block of data with no visible structure. It's impossible to distinguish encrypted data from random noise. TRIM, however, if supported by hardware, kernel, filesystem and the OS, may reveal the empty space in filesystem. But reading from that space only returns zeros.
POSSIBLE METHODS OF DATA RECOVERY
Data recovery works in two ways generally:

Read just the file contents by carving method / signature search
Or read the complete files along with metadata (file names, timestamps, permissions) from filesystem

Possible methods are:

Reading flash memory through firmware controller (Flash Translation Layer) of eMMC using commonly available APIs e.g. of Liux kernel. It's the FTL which stores LBAs to PBAs mapping, and information related to partitions, bad sectors, deleted data etc. This can be done by exposing partitions to a PC in some bootloader mode if available, or by using some lower level communication protocol e.g. JTAG or by chip-off method.
Or accessing silicon cells directly which is possible only with sophisticated equipment found in forensic labs, and not without manufacturer’s data sheet. In this case only carving method is possible. Data read from cells is random bytes from un-partitioned space and all 50+ partitions, including the ones which don't have filesystems at all. So the probability of recovering useful data is almost negligible, particularly of reasonably larger files. If the data saved is encrypted (using FDE, FBE or any other method), chances with this method are nil for sure.

The choice of method depends on multiple factors like if the purpose is:

To recover deleted data
To recover data off a dead phone
To break the encryption mechanism, e.g. in case of forensics, phone theft etc.

Data recovery can be done either:

On the device e.g. in recovery mode if the device is unlocked and some custom recovery environment is available.
Or off the device. It's the only option in most cases as the devices have bootloaders locked. But if your device was shipped with Android 5+, the chances are it must have hardware-backed encryption enabled which makes it almost impossible to recover - even undeleted - data off-the-device, except trying some hacks, because you can't brute force RSA keys.

BOOTLOADER UNLOCKING
Keeping all above facts and you situation in view, only an on-the-device or semi-offline approach can be tried to recover data. But then comes the bootloader unlocking part.
Google demands from SoC/OEM vendors to completely erase data on bootloader unlocking:

As a best practice, unlockable Android devices must securely erase all user data prior to being unlocked.
  ...
  Failure to implement these protections is considered a moderate level security vulnerability.

Quoted from here:

When the fastboot flashing unlock command is sent...
  ...
  a factory data reset should be done to prevent unauthorized data access

Depending on the device a BLKSECDISCARD, BLKDISCARD or a complete overwrite with zeros is recommended. It's then followed by filesystem creation which may again issue TRIM. Same happens during a factory reset i.e. userdata and cache partitions are completely erased (though conformance in past has been bad). See this answer for more details.
BLKDISCARD and FITRIM are Linux kernel's IOCTLs which issue special commands to underlying eMMC devices depending on their capabilities. TRIM is issued by the filesystem to the FTL, requesting the actual physical erasure of data blocks (LBAs) which have been deleted from the filesystem. DISCARD is kind of TRIM for whole block device. TRIM obviously doesn't touch undeleted files, filesystem structure and drive's partition table. BLKDISCARD saves nothing at all on block device, including the crypto footer. Both of these commands belong to Logical Sanitization level of secure data deletion. So is ERASE command issued by BLKSECDISCARD IOCTL, while others issued by the same - including SECURE TRIM, SECURE ERASE and SANITIZE - are considered of Digital Sanitization level i.e. they cause even more secure deletion. Even a complete overwrite with zeros will render data irrecoverable - at least without melting eMMC - because of Overprovisioning and Garbage Collection.
POSSIBILITY OF DATA RECOVERY
So in short these commands (if supported by underlying hardware and if required drivers provided by vendors) don't leave much space for deleted data recovery. Encryption adds to the trouble. As explained above, encryption type with FDE is, a kind of, all or nothing. If even a small part of crypto footer is erased during bootloader unlocking, forget about decryption. Quoted from a lead engineer for Android security (ref):

If you plan to resell or discard your device and you haven’t already, encrypt it and then perform a factory reset

And so does the removal of LUKS header on Linux. Quoted from warnings section on official page:

By far the most questions on the cryptsetup mailing list are from people that managed to damage the start of their LUKS partitions, i.e. the LUKS header. In most cases, there is nothing that can be done to help these poor souls recover their data.

So without the crypto footer which contains encrypted master key, RSA key (hardware-bound) and other information related to encryption, everything is random data. But even if we assume that crypto footer wasn't erased in your case and hardware-backed encryption wasn't a hurdle either, the problems aren't over. With dm-crypt FDE a master key is used to encrypt / decrypt sectors (512B each) individually when they are written / read respectively (every sector has it's own IV). After decrypting userdata partiton a new virtual block device is created at /dev/block/dm-0 which contains a filesystem, mostly ext4.
In order to mount the filesystem, the sectors containing basic structure of filesystem must be intact e.g. superblock(s), directory entries, inode tables, inode/block bitmaps, journal etc. It's next to impossible that all of this wasn't overwritten when unlocking bootloader and creating new filesystem. So the old filesystem is gone and what you would be left with is carving method which has a very small success rate particularly because of file fragmentation of large files. Mostly what you get is small nameless thumbnails or text files, that too after so many assumptions.
CONCLUSION
Bootloader unlocked on an encrypted device, the probability of data recovery seems very near to zero.
RELATED

What makes data recovery difficult?
How to get data off a completely dead Android phone?
Reliably Erasing Data From Flash-Based Solid State Drives


text:
Can i add money to a google play gift card and how
Can I add funds, and how if I can. If I had a 10 pound Google play card and I needed 14 pounds on it can i add 4 pounds to it?

Answer is to your question is No, you cannot add an amount to a gift card after purchase. You'll have to purchase another gift card & redeem both in order to accumulate the desired amount.
As per the Comments
There is no information which actually states this. but this document says that user can use multiple gift cards to complete the purchase. What I've seen is, third party seller sells the gift card & updates the gift card number with the amount to google. so I don't think there is any provision to update amount later. otherwise they would have stated that way.
 https://play.google.com/intl/ALL_ALL/about/card-terms/

Any supportive information to link to? Some rule or policy stated somewhere accessible to document this?

there is no information which actually states this. but in below-given documents says that user can use multiple gift cards to complete the purchase. What I've seen is, third party seller sells the gift card & updates the gift card number with the amount to google. so I don't think there is any provision to update amount later. otherwise they would have stated that way. https://play.google.com/intl/ALL_ALL/about/card-terms/

People tend not to read comments, and, they are transitory, so information can be lost. Please edit your additional information into your post to solidify it. Thanks.

Done that . Thanks


text:
Netflix app on Smart TV with android
I just bought a cheap Polaroid smart Tv that comes with Android OS.
The specs are the following:

OS: SmartTV OS
CPU: Cortex-A53 4Core(64 bit) 1.5GHz (DVFS)
GPU: Mali450MP 5 Core 750Mhz(DVFS)
Android version: android 7.1.2
ROM version: CV950XH_C42_SmartTV-V20190620

The Netflix app that comes with it is very old, Is there a website I can download a compatible Netflix .APK that I can install onto this Smart TV?

I assume there it is running on Android TV but doesn't have Play Store installed? Because otherwise, the Play Store will install the latest & most compatible APK for your system. On the other hand, APKMirror lists the existing APK for "Netflix (Android TV)". You can try to download and install it, and see if it works or not...

Tried this but I cannot install these packages.


text:
What is the standard operational battery temperature for the Note 9?
Bought the phone a week ago & today it seems to be running slightly warm just surfing sites in Chrome. Downloaded a battery app and see that the battery temp is at 32 degrees Celsius constantly right now for the last 2 hrs. Is this normal?

OEMs hardly provide such data to decide if it is normal or not. Not surprisingly, user manual of your device is quiet on this point.
This post on SE. Electronics (talks of Samsung), puts maximum safe temperature as 45°C.
However, temperature has a bearing on the battery performance. See this for details. At 32°C it results in 80% of optimum battery capacity.
I would consider based on my observations, that this perfectly fine, though Samsung phones have been reported to have  fast charging problems with a low temperature error, which doesn't seem to be your problem.

what battery temp number would be a concern and definitely needs repair? strangely enough playing mc5 game for an hour for a whole week with no warm back cover. only today it ran warmer though i ran the exact same apps etc

45°C. See edit to answer

good links. i think only once have i had a phone get too hot to even hold: it was my S8 uploading 20GB of files to my new phone. any way to keep heat down while uploading files?

No. For the simple reason that power is drawn heavily while uploading that leads to high battery temperature. Power drawn varies with device but you can get an idea from Izzy's answer here

next time i need to use an app that has a pause feature while uploading so the phone can take a break. was using Send Anywhere.


text:
My GKeyboard keeps crashing
It crashes every time I open my phone. I'm locked out of my device and I cannot even try to factory reset it.

it was a worldwide problem, latest update for gboard will fix it. if your device is standard configuration it will auto-update apps, in this case just enable Wi-Fi and wait for update.
if your device support usb otg connect a keyboard or mouse with usb-otg-adapter to unlock.
if you already unlocked you can speech-to-text in case you need enter text.
if you can't unlock your device, login to your google account and try to remote update gboard from pc by clicking this link. you can also remote install any other keyboard like swiftkey.
if nothing works you can adb sideload any official signed apk from recovery mode


text:
How can one increase Microsoft Outlook (Android application)'s cache size?
How can one increase Microsoft Outlook (Android application)'s cache size (in terms of number of emails stored offline, disk space or some other measurements)?

What problem are you having?

@Firelord not being able to search through all my Outlook emails when offline

There is no way except to keep as much space free as possible. Since Oreo, space quotas are enforced at filesystem level (based on UIDs). An app can use up to 90% of disk space or 50% of filesystem inodes. But apps exceeding their cache quotas are on the top of list when OS clears apps' cache due to storage running short. But it depends on the app how it manages its files. Emails can be maintained as a database (like we have on PCs) in non-cached directories on internal or external storage. Even user can be given option to backup large databases on SD card or USB OTG.

@IrfanLatif Gmail allows to increase how many days of emails should be saved offline.

@FranckDernoncourt that's what I said. It's up to the app how it manages its files and space usage, and how much flexibility it gives to user in this regard. But if it doesn't, there's nothing we can do at OS level, except trying some hacks with root access.

@IrfanLatif thank you, you are welcome to convert your comments as answer

@FranckDernoncourt I don't think it's a proper answer. Feel free to answer your own question.


text:
keep needing to reset wifi
The network at my office works when I first connect to it, but every few minutes it becomes very slow. When this happens, I need to quickly turn the Wifi off and on, then it gets fast again. As you can expect, this gets really annoying.
Is there anything I can do on the phone side to help with this? Maybe it can automatically reset the wifi connection every few minutes? That would be ideal. Or any idea on what I can ask of our IT guy? I mentioned it to him, and he sort of blew me off.
I am using a Moto z4 with the current Android OS

There are automation apps like Automate. Have you tried using those?

@WrichikBasu I haven't. That is a good idea though. Thanks

Helpful for you https://android.stackexchange.com/a/169593/131553. You just need to add another action (3) Enable wifi and save the macro


text:
How to increase the sample rate of the current measured from the Android kernel?
I need to monitor some applications power consumption of my Samsung A8, programmatically. I'm doing this by accessing the files:
/sys/class/power_supply/battery/current_now
/sys/class/power_supply/battery/voltage_now
The problem is that the kernel update those files every 10 seconds, so it does not produce sufficient power samples measurement to my experiment. I want to reduce the update time produced by the kernel driver to increase the sample rate. Ideally the kernel would update the values every half second.
From this post: How does the Android estimate the battery level without a current sensor?
I understood that I might find the name of the chip that measures the battery information by looking into a defconfig file. After searching for a while on the defconfigs from my kernel, I believe that the Fuel Gauge used is S2MU004 as specified in this file: https://github.com/prashantpaddune/universal7885/blob/e5ffd23305f0b09fe2bef3f8580df046dab232cc/arch/arm64/configs/exynos7885-jackpotlte_defconfig#L4415
But I'm still not sure about it. Would be the s2mu004-fuelgauge the name of the chip? If so, where can I find the driver? And then, someone can enlighten me on how to modify the driver to increase the sample rate?
Device Information
Model: Samsung Galaxy A8 (SM-A530F)
Android Version: Android Pie (9)
Kernel: Quantum Kernel V4
Kernel version: 4.4.111-Quantum_pie.V4.0-A530F
Processor: Samsung Exynos Octa 7885
Magisk version: (used for root) 19.3

The question is more related to kernel development. Power related configurations are under drivers/power in kernel tree.

Is the question off-topic? Should I remove it then? I already looked at the drivers in the power directory, the problem is that I don't know which one of them is being used. But I'll try to use grep to look for keywords in the files.


text:
How can I know the hostname of an Android phone for use in SSH connection?
When setting up public key authentication on SimpleSSHD server on my Android phone, by http://www.galexander.org/software/simplesshd/

Quick start

Install SimpleSSHD.
On any computer which will connect to your Android device, set the port to 2222.  With OpenSSH, this can be done by putting these lines in ~/.ssh/config:
Host myphone
Port 2222

Launch SimpleSSHD, and in Settings enable "Start on Boot", then manually start it for the first time.
Create authorized_keys in the home directory (do not use ssh-copy-id)
Optionally make .profile

how can I find out the hostname myphone for my android phone?
My phone is assigned different IP addresses from time to time. For example, I can move my laptop and phone to different LANs, and my phone can reconnect to the same LAN.
Some attempts from my laptop:
First attempt (fail):
$ ssh -p 2222 192.168.1.87
user@C6730:/data/data/org.galexander.sshd/files $ hostname
sh: hostname: not found

Second attempt (fail):
user@C6730:/data/data/org.galexander.sshd/files $ ^D
Connection to 192.168.1.87 closed.
t@ocean:/home/t$ ssh -p 2222 C6730
ssh: Could not resolve hostname c6730: No address associated with hostname

Third attempt (succeed with some luck by guessing):
I find all the hosts in the LAN by  sudo nmap -sP 192.168.1.0/24, and guess which host in the output is most likely the phone. it is something like android-c0f659b6548c28b2 (not the real host name)

Will android-c0f659b6548c28b2 change under some cases, for example, when the phone is restarted, moved to a different LAN, assigned a different IP address, ...?
Does anyone know what c0f659b6548c28b2 means? It is not the Mac address of the phone.
Can I customize the hostname of the Android phone?

Thanks.

A related question: How to set friendly network name of android computer?

Possible duplicate of How do I change the name of my Android device?

Related: How to ping a local network host by hostname?


text:
How do I totally disable my phone?
I've bought a very cheap Android 8.1 tablet (which has 2 sim slots) just to play about with.  As it's cheap, the battery isn't wonderful and it has a very short life before it needs recharging.  The main culprit is "Phone Idle" which uses a vast amount of CPU time, whether I have sims installed or not.  I don't actually want to use the phone at all, just the tablet features;  is there any way of completely disabling the phone functions ?

Can you become root? Then you should be able to disable this system process.

Try turning on airplane mode and turn on wifi.


text:
How to delete erroneous email address from Android autofill?
The autofill in my phone is showing some outdated addresses in the suggestions when I have to enter my email address in certain apps.
Is there any way to delete these suggestions?
One such place where these email suggestions can be seen is in Chrome's settings, where you create a new address for form autofill. Go to Settings, Addresses and more, Add, scroll to the bottom and click on the email field, and your email addresses should be shown.

Try tapping and holding the suggestionm, that works in some apps.

It was worth a shot, but no, that didn't do it.

Is it suggestion of the keyboard or the app itself? If it's keyboard's, the addresses might be from your contacts

The suggestions are coming from Android's OS-wide form autofill.

What Android version and phone do you have?

I'm on Android 10.

This was happening to me, and I resolved it by removing the data from Google Contacts.


text:
One Plus One broken screen recover data (google auth codes)
I unfortunately broke my screen for the second time on my One Plus One. And it seems that my first repair somehow was not totally good, since when I booted it up with the replacement screen, the bottom of the screen was not working.
That makes me unable to unlock my pattern and access my precious data on my phone (the most important being a Google Auth code, and I can't find the recovery codes for that one).
The phone is running Cyanogen, so I tried to access it with adb :
 - I booted the One Plus One in recovery mode by holding the Volume - and Power buttons.
 - then I selected Reboot to bootloader
 - Finally i connected it to my laptop (running Archlinux) and typed fastboot boot twrp.img and got the result Device not unlocked cannot boot
I was mostly following this answer.
So, my question is, am I really out of luck and my data irremediably lost since the phone is locked ? Or is there workarounds with adb ? I only need to recover the data, not really to restore the phone.
For clarity, the phone still works, except for that lower part of the screen.
It seems there is some things I could do but I'm not really sure how :
 - Simulating a mouse with my computer to unlock the pattern grid
 - Extract the disk (but I'm not really sure what the connector type is...)
Thanks in advance if you have any leads.

Have you tried to resize the display with ADB?

Your phone has OTG support. Why don't you buy an OTG cable and use it with a mouse to unlock the device and do what you can with a touch. Also, you can resize the screen and change density if you still want to continue using the phone. In that case, follow my answer. But I suggest using OTG first and be done with the data you need.

@VannTen In the title you mention the Google Authenticator. Recovery/backup of the authentication codes is by design not intended. Therefore you should always collect the authenticator backup codes and e.g. print them.

@Robert I did print them, and I have moste of them, but there is one account of which I can not find the codes. (Not to mention some sites provides the 2FA setup but no recovery codes).

@Firelord
I'm gonna see if I can find that indeed...

Is the bootloader unlocked? Did you tick to enable OEM unlocking within developer settings? Your lock screen does not prevent you from doing stuff through the bootloader.

It is not, that's why I cannot boot a custom recovery. If I understand correctly, I could unlock it with fastboot oem unlock, but that would erase my data.


text:
fastboot boot TWRP.img Not working
I'm trying to just boot the TWRP image for my OnePlus 5t to then install a custom ROM. So I typed fastboot boot "C:\Users\Elias\Downloads\twrp-3.3.1-0-dumpling.img" and it seemed to work and I got the output:
Downloading 'boot.img'                             OKAY [  0.808s]
booting                                            OKAY [ 10.119s]
Finished. Total time: 10.992s

But the device just shows the text: "Fastboot Mode" and doesn't do anything.
I now read on this forum that they somehow removed it but it would still be possible with: fastboot -c "lge.kcal=0|0|0|x" boot customrecovery.img
 but this flag doesn't seem to exist.
The output is:
C:\platform-tools\fastboot.exe: unknown option -- c

My goal is just to install a custom ROM without actually flashing anything except the ROM. So if somebody knows a different way, it would be welcome as well.

There are different versions of fastboot.exe available.
One old version I have has the command line option -c as
-c <cmdline>               override kernel commandline

The recent versions for Android SDK (v29.0.5-5949299) does not has the -c option. Instead it has the option --cmdline which seem to the the exactly same thing:
--cmdline CMDLINE          Override kernel command line.

Therefore you may succeed changing the command-line to
fastboot --cmdline "lge.kcal=0|0|0|x" boot customrecovery.img

the command works but sadly now I'm again just getting to the logo screen (the text saying fastboot mode), any idea?

@Elias Have you tried the older versions? Also have you read the XDA support thread on TWRP for the OnePlus 5T? https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-5t/development/recovery-twrp-oneplus-5t-t3715834

I've skipped through the thread and, correct me if I'm wrong, something about decrypting the data is not working? I'm now trying out a few older builds and see if I get one to work. Do you know if there is any log I could check? So I know what the problem actually is? Also, do you know what --cmdline "lge.kcal=0|0|0|x" does? maybe post a refference link? would be really nice of you :)

I have now tried the versions: 3.3.0-0, 3.2.3-1 and, the latest 3.3.1-0 which are all not working.

@Elias Using the kernel command line you can pass options to specific drivers. lge.kcal seems to be a part of the display driver system. Depending on the boot progress and the recovery it may be possible that you can get boot messages via adb.

I tried adb, to be specific I tried logcat but it only says waiting for device. Well, maybe I just have to flash TWRP. Thank you for your time anyways :)

Btw, flashing TWRP and lineageOS worked perfectly fine. Just, lineageOS didn't want to boot with the error: failed to start system service and then every service dying. So I'm back to stock... well.. a day of my life I never get back (It still was quiet fun)


text:
How to backup apps and data on non-rooted Android without needing a PC?
I know there's ADB backup and Helium and something called Droid Explorer that can help you backup your Android software and data to some extent using a PC, but I want a fully functional non-root, Android-only backup solution (basically, a replacement for Titanium Backup which does it all but requires root). It needs to be able to fully backup and restore apps and data in state. Any ideas?

Such a solution cannot exist without having provisions in the OS itself. The default provision in the OS is the Android backup service   which apps use to backup their data to Google accounts and which adb taps into when a user makes an app backup request. Any solution outside of tapping into backup service would require breaking apart the security model of Android and tap into the private data of apps. Naturally, such a solution is not going to be available without root access.
So your choices come down to these two:

use a PC with a software using adb in the background for app backups, or, use an app which requires adb running in wireless mode (such as what Helium requires; adb wireless needs to be started using PC though) so that the app can use adb to backup apps without further needing a PC.
root the device and do whatever you want with any app and its data without needing the PC.


text:
Where to find case settings of LG G4?
How can I find case settings? I can't find any instructuons on internet. I want to unlock phone when I open book type case.


text:
LG G5 Apps/services keep crashing . . . Hardware Issue?
for the past few weeks my LG G5 has been unexpectedly restarting, apps have been crashing, and I've been getting messages like "Unfortunately Bluetooth has stopped" but for pretty much every app/service. Also, I've had the phone get stuck on boot loops which has made removing the battery the only solution to getting it to start again.
I've tried restarting the phone, resetting network connections, even doing a  factory reset twice, none of which help. Even after the factory reset, before even putting in my Gmail account, I get a message "Google Play Services keeps crashing" and then "Google Duo keeps crashing", repeatedly to the point where I can't even do a internet search due to these messages popping up ever 1 second. If I do anything even a little memory intensive, the phone will restart which makes me wonder if it's a hardware issue with the memory.
I've had the phone for less than a year (It was a refurbished unit that was replaced under a third-party warranty I bought when I first about the phone from Costco). Otherwise the phone is in great condition. Not sure if it's just time to get a new phone. Any ideas?
Thanks.

If you did a fatory reset you should have already a data backup(or not), point is maybe doesn't matter if you try to flash a new stock rom, maybe the current one may be corrupt or something, otherwise consider the idea of getting a hardware issue.

Thanks for your reply. So the first time I restored the phone, I did a data backup. The second time, I started straight out the factory settings, without any data backup. In both cases, I still got the errors. Would this indicate a hardware issue, and if so is there anything that can be done to fix it?

You should try to flash a new firmmware, just in case the one you have is broken, if were the case, you should go to some place where cualified personal will check your phone for hardware issues and try to fix it

Thanks, so I tried re-flashing the firmware to Oreo 8.0.0 using LGUP tool. I'm not sure why, but after flashing and powering up the phone nothing had changed (same settings, apps, etc). I was expecting it to be returned to factory condition. Could this be because I had the same firmware before upgrading? I'm going to try installing a custom ROM to see if that helps. Will keep you updated. Thanks


text:
How do I cast screen from Pixel 3 to something that is not Chromecast?
Booting Chromecast requires working Internet with unhindered connection to a Google server with a non-fake TLS certificate. So using Chromecast seems to be not an option in my use case.
What else can be used to cast screen / audio from Pixel 3 to some HDMI-outputting device? Are there alternative hardware devices that are compatible with Pixel 3? Can [rooted] Pixel 3 running Android 9 use Miracast instead with some third-party software?
Or maybe there are some other methods to make a "virtual Google" to allow Chromecast 3 to activate?

Wired or wireless? If wired can there be a PC-like object between the screen and phone or does it have to be seamless/user friendly?

Maybe wired, maybe wireless, but with lag comparable to using Chromecast/Miracast.
Maybe with some compact, cheap-ish and fanless device in between.

I was thinking of using scrcpy on a Raspberry PI might work for you. Not sure if audio forwarding works on RPi if you need it. You would have to see if the lag is acceptable.

@MorrisonChang, Is it substantially different from using adb exec-out screenrecord --output-format=h264 --derived hacks?

scrcpy has its own server APK and uses bi-directional stream over adb. See: https://blog.rom1v.com/2018/03/introducing-scrcpy/ as the author addresses that exact case.


text:
WiFi network limits connection time - can I "change my MAC" and reconnect?
On a PC, you can change the MAC address of a network adapter - Ethernet, 802.11 Wireless - and thus assume a different "identity" than previously.
Now, I'm stuck in a train station for a few hours, and am using my RedMi 3S (Android 6.0.1) to connect to the Internet. But - curse be upon their heads - they only offer "30 minutes of free WiFi". Of course, that has to be tied to some sort of physical identification, for them to throw you out after 30 minutes, right?
Question:

Can I change my MAC, literally, or do something else which will make the access point(s) think of my phone as another device than the one it know?
Could I need to perform any other, complementary, actions, such as delete the cached DHCP lease before reconnecting, or clear the browser cache? Or - is such caching not used when reconnecting?

Changing MAC address is possible with root access but I don't think that would be helpful in your situation.

@IrfanLatif: Well, my situation has come and gone, but in principle - why would that not be helpful?

Public WiFi APs usually work as gateways, DHCP server, DNS server and captive portals at the same time. They maintain a list of whitelisted MACs which (have authenticated and) are allowed to access internet for a given time period. However MAC can be combined with other information like IP address, DHCP lease time and user agent to identify the connected client. So MAC spoofing might not work, and the very next HTTP request might be redirected to captive portal treating you as new client.

There are numerous other things which may expose that you are trying to bypass authentication. This relates: https://android.stackexchange.com/q/47819/218526

@IrfanLatif: So, MAC change + clearing the DHCP lease should do it then? Also, if I'm a new client, that's a good thing...

I'm not an expert, but it depends on captive portal implementation, how complex it is to hide identity. Being new client is a good thing if you are able to get new login credentials and you don't mind logging in every thirtieth minute. Spoofing MAC and clearing DHCP cache isn't enough if they are tracking you with web cookies or some other fingerprints or identification numbers.

In simple cases where no authentication is involved, spoofing MAC should suffice. Or additionally setting IP manually may also do the trick.


text:
Should warnings about not charging your phone at airport/public usb ports be taken seriously?
There are many articles on the internet saying that charging at the usb ports available at the airport and public places can cause your phone to get hacked.
Is there any any truth behind this?
If it is dangerous then why? Are those usb ports connected to some computer? But even if they are, isn't a phone unavailable to computers to that which it is connected to and you need to provide authorization for data transfer to take place?

Yes an no.
Some years ago this was a very severe security problem, as a lot of devices automatically enabled the MTP mode when connected via USB that allows to access all files in the "sd-card" section. Also some device had ADB enabled by default.
Nowadays MTP and the other file-access protocols provided by Android devices are usually disabled by default and the user is explicitly asked if it should be enabled. And for ADB there is the public key authentication to identify trusted computers.
However this does not mean that there is no risk to use public USB power ports for charging. For example some Samsung devices had an exploit that allowed root access using an exploit in the MTP protocol - and this was possible with disabled MTP and locked screen.
Therefore in my opinion the risk of being attacked by usb ports available at the airport and public places has reduced a but in the last years, however it is still present.
If you want to use those usb ports and be safe you should use an "USB condom" or some equivalent adapter that does makes it physically impossible to transfer data through it (usually those devices don't connect the USB data lines to the device which makes it impossible to transfer data from/to the device).


text:
Un-register service from hwservicemanager
I have disabled the fingerprint sensor on my phone by setting the device tree node status to disabled. When I boot up, the fingerprint menu options are gone, but dmesg shows that hwservicemanager is trying to start a fingerprint sensor over and over, but init can't find the service:
[  625.488742] init: Could not find 'android.hardware.biometrics.fingerprint@2.1::IBiometricsFingerprint/default' for ctl.interface_start
[  625.502583] init: Received control message 'interface_start' for 'android.hardware.biometrics.fingerprint@2.1::IBiometricsFingerprint/default' from pid: 669 (/system/bin/hwservicemanager)
[  625.502658] init: Could not find 'android.hardware.biometrics.fingerprint@2.1::IBiometricsFingerprint/default' for ctl.interface_start
[  625.523352] init: Received control message 'interface_start' for 'android.hardware.biometrics.fingerprint@2.1::IBiometricsFingerprint/default' from pid: 669 (/system/bin/hwservicemanager)
[  625.523427] init: Could not find 'android.hardware.biometrics.fingerprint@2.1::IBiometricsFingerprint/default' for ctl.interface_start
[  625.538080] init: Received control message 'interface_start' for 'android.hardware.biometrics.fingerprint@2.1::IBiometricsFingerprint/default' from pid: 669 (/system/bin/hwservicemanager)
[  625.538545] init: Could not find 'android.hardware.biometrics.fingerprint@2.1::IBiometricsFingerprint/default' for ctl.interface_start

How do I tell hwservicemanager to stop trying to start this now non-existent service? I saw here that there is an option to remove the hidl definitions from a manifest file, but I would like to enable or disable the fingerprint sensor at runtime. I can enable and disable the service with start vendor.fps_hal and stop vendor.fps_hal, but I can't stop hwservicemanager from trying to start it.

You can check system/hwservicemanager/ServiceManager.cpp to see when and why hwservicemanager is setting ctl.interface_start to trigger init to start the HAL service.
Unless you are willing to update system/hwservicemanager/ServiceManager.cpp, I don't see a way to achieve what you are trying to do.


text:
Download transfer question
I downloaded a music album from the Google playstore on my Samsung phone.  How do I transfer that album to my Samsung Music App?


text:
How to extract/backup your phone contact list and browser bookmarks (stock browser, not chrome)
Android - how to extract/backup your phone contact list and browser favorites (stock browser, not chrome) - a modern Samsung smartphone.
Hi, I am grateful for any replies (pls note that we always talk about a non-rooted device, and I have no desire to root it, & I have no desire to use the inherent google-backup methods):
1)   How can I extract my entire contacts list in a way to be able to import it again to another similar Samsung phone? Any way to do it without using an App for it as workaround? If there is no way around an app, which app(s) would you suggest are considered to be very "safe" and 100% non-malicious?
2)   The same question - this time for calendar items extraction?
3)   Finallly the same question for my Android Stock Browser bookmarks (not chrome)? Both, the bookmarks which are available in the "Normal" browser mode, and the bookmarks which are separately stored in the "private" browser mode.
If you know also of a way to doing one of those 3 things but without the ability to import again to another phone, this is also very helpful. My prime interest is in backing up, and if I can import again to another Phone, even better.
Thanks for any technical explanations!

Depending on your intended recipient the Samsung SmartSwitch application can do everything you want.
It can back up contacts, calendars, applications and almost all other data.
It's primary use is in transferring files to a new phone, but it also has a mode to transfer data to a backup held on your MicroSD card.
In order to simply backup data in the current version you will see an icon representing a microSD card in the top right corner of the application when you launch it, next to the three dot "menu" icon.
On the next page you will see either a list of backups or "no backup" if this is your first. Tap the "Back up" button at the bottom of the page.
Tapping that will bring you to a screen that allows you to select contacts, applications and images (and so on) to back up.
Your Calendar and bookmarks are stored under those applications. If you connect to Google calendar and don't use the on-device calendars then you will have a warning telling you as much when you tap on the ">" icon next to "Applications".
You can then transfer the backup to a new phone and use Smart Switch to restore it, or you can simply keep the history.
It also has a Windows version, presumably primarily intended as a backup tool.

The apps i'm going to propose are available through F-Droid. The name F-Droid refers to both A.) a repository for open source android apps and to B.) an android app used to browse, download, install an manage those apps on your android device.
You might want to check out this tutorial for information on how to install F-Droid or apk-files downloaded from F-Droid.
If you don't want to use F-Droid or sideload apps on your device, maybe you can find some of these apps in the Play Store as well.
1)
The Contacts app in android normally has a feature to import or export the contacts to a text file (.vcf). If it doesn't you can install this open source contacts app that can definitely do it:
https://f-droid.org/app/com.simplemobiletools.contacts.pro
2)
This depends on how you store your calendar events. In Android, it is common to store the events in a certain calendar, usually tied to an E-Mail account, this can also be your google account. In these cases, the calendar events are stored online with your E-Mail provider and should be accesible from any device with that Mail account properly set up for calendar syncing. If there is a website where you can log in and check your mail, chances are there is a calendar function on that site as well. If you can log into your Mail account using a normal browser and find your calendar events there, they are already backed up to the server of your Mail Provider.
If you want a local backup of these Events or keep them stored in a local calendar on your device, https://f-droid.org/app/org.sufficientlysecure.ical can export and import your calendar events to and from .ics files.
Note that the Android Calendar backend might discard passed events, in which case they cannot be exported using this method.
If your events are stored in your E-Mail account, chances are that these passed events that are no longer displayed/exportable on your Android device are still available online and stay stored on the server of your E-Mail provider - Android usually just stops syncing these events and removes them from your calendar view.
3)
For the default preinstalled browser in android it is also possible to back up and restore bookmarks. From F-Droid https://f-droid.org/app/de.shandschuh.slightbackup can do it.
Though, it should be mentioned that this app hasn't been updated a long time and might thus not work too well with modern versions of android. Since i don't use the bookmark feature i can't attest how good it works but giving it a try shouldn't hurt either - as long as you don't try to restore data before testing that nothing gets deleted or overwritten on the device where you want to restore you shouldn't lose any data by trying.
As you stated that you are using a samsung phone the browser will likely be custom made by samsung, so your best bet would probably be finding an export function built into the browser.
If the same circumstances described here apply to your browser app, your chances don't look very good.


text:
I was checking my log of netguard ... and then I saw this ... is normal?
I was checking my log of netguard ... and then I saw this ... now im freaked

ampproject.org is the website for the Amp project developed by Google and it is normal.
“Amp is a web component framework and a website publishing technology developed by Google which has the mission to provide a user-first format for web content"

+1 it would be even better if you post the source link.


text:
Location Tracking as Evidence
With location tracking enabled in Android, I see entries in "Your Timeline" in Google Maps. I know it's possible to add/remove/edit entries in this timeline, but is there are a way to get a reliable, unmodified export of what has been tracked that could be used as evidence? I understand that tracking and times might not be 100% but I essentially want to see if there's a way to get a version similar to the KML export that hasn't been edited that I could say "this export can't be edited".
I've been told the red dots that appear on the map can't be edited and can be relied on but I'm not so sure if there's any non-editable version of Android's tracking history?

All personal data in your Google account, including timeline data, can be exported. here's an article showing how to do it.
https://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/how-to-download-your-personal-data-from-google/

Thanks, but I didn't ask how to do it (I showed how I could do it in my question), but I want to know if there's a way to download said data without it being modified by any changes made via the gui.

Sorry, yes, misunderstood. I don't know but I think it's unlikely. If I deliberately removed removed an item from my timeline and somehow Google still retained it (in history or wherever) it would make a nonsense of being able to download everything Google holds on you. In my jurisdiction at least that would not satisfy  Google's legal responsibility.


text:
Does Termux call fork/exec system calls in Android?
There are tutorials (e.g., this and this) that use Termux to compile and run cpp codes in Android. Does Termux run fork/exec system calls and start running the program's main function? More generally, do terminal emulators in android really create Linux processes running directly on the hardware or do they act as a virtual machine and introduce a performance loss?

Termux is a terminal emulator and it runs a shell (bash by default). You run commands there like any other shell on some Linux PC. System calls work  as on any Linux system (except those which require elevated privileges or those filtered through seccomp). Yes terminal emulators create native Linux processes when an executable is run. Virtual machines are run only for Java apps installed as .apks which have .dex bytecode to be run by Java-like VMs.


text:
Media volume is changed when on a phone call
I'm using Android Pie on a Samsung Galaxy S9 phone.
I noticed if I set the media volume down all the way to mute it that the volume is turned up a bit only while on a call.
If anyone is experiencing this issue, it would be appreciated if you can tell me if there are any settings I can access to stop Android from adjusting the media volume while on a call taking it out of mute mode.

There is indeed a different volume bar for when you are on a call. I think the easiest way to set this is to change the volume whilst on a call, this will save the settings for the next time you're on a call. If you want to change the settings before you go on a call just phone someone yourself and change the settings, they don't even have to pick up for you to do so.
This is of course not ideal and I'll change the answer if I find a app or so that can do this.
You can not however mute the sound from a phone call.


text:
Limit number of installed apps
My kids both have an android tablet. With parental control I can limit the apps type to PEGI 7 for example, which works fine.
But they then keep installing apps until the device is full, and then doesn't work properly anymore.
What I am looking for is an option to limit the number of apps installed at the same time. So I can set that to for example 30 or 50. If they then want to install a new one they first need to remove one.
With googling on this topic I find a lot about time management, but I already have an app to arrange that. So this is purely to set the maximum number of installed apps.
I hope someone has an idea how to achieve this, either by a setting in Android, or by a third party app.
Thanks!


text:
Where are saved Instagram videos stored on my device?
To be clear, these are videos I have taken on the device using Instagram, not other peoples videos. Its videos I have taken then pressed the "save" button before sharing/posting. I have several videos over time I  want to download to my PC.
Seems to be the only way to even find them on the device is in the Instagram app where you go to post on story and it browses all the media on your device, if I scroll down a while I can see the videos, but it is not filtered or organized.
I have browsed the device storage IE
This PC\Pixel 3\Internal shared storage\Android\data\com.instagram.android
To only find a few files there. They have to be on the device because I can search them when posting to timeline/story, but cant seem to find them.

I have a Samsung.
I found my saved instagram stories under [phone name]\Movies\Instagram


text:
Accessibility options - "Home answers calls"
I like this option on my old Android 4.2 Samsung Galaxy S3 mini. Especially when I am driving it's much easier to press a button instead of sliding...
But I cannot find such option neither on Android 4.4 phones (different phones, from Motorola to Sona) nor on newer phones with Android 5.1 and 6.0.
Is it 4.2 option that is not part of newer Android version?

Only Samsung offers that feature like home button answers the call. For other phone their might be an option like this, but not necessary to have.

Yeah, As said previously: It is device specific feature. But you may have this by using a custom ROM which provides this feature. Lineage ROMs usually provide this feature.
Google: "[Your device model] custom rom xda"


text:
Xperia xa2 restart loop
I have purchased Sony Xperia XA2 from UK. Initially had this problem of the phone in restart loop mode when I memory is more than 95%.for this once it gets started I immediately delete all large files.
Now since yesterday the phone is not moving past the Xperia logo ,it keeps restarting.
Sony service center advised that cannot touch the phone as this was purchased in UK so can't repair it in India.
Anyone here can you please help me to fix this issue. I have 1000s of kids photos and videos I can't lose it as I didn't back up it.
Thanks much in advance.