text:
SD card partitioning? why? how?
I am going to install cm7 and it seems to me that is 'good' to partition my SD card.
I did some reading but I am not sure if ext partition will become accessible as mass storage when an Android phone is connected to the computer.
I still want to transfer files from / to my SD card via computer. How can I backup files if they are on an ext partition?
How big ext partition is good if my sd card is 16GB?

HTC Desire on Android 2.1

Ext won't visible, without any add-ons, in Windows.  With Linux there's no problem.

I'm on a rooted Samsung Spica running the stock Samsung 2.1 Eclair version.
Since my internal memory was limited to around 160 MB, I was hunting around for a simple enough solution and preferably freeware. I have an 8 GB card and IMO, allotting 1 GB would be more than adequate for all the games / apps that I'd want to keep for posterity but couldn't afford to occupy space within the limited internal memory that I had.
Enter Link2SD - it's freeware and works with Android 1.6 and above.
You will also need a partitioning tool - I used the excellent freeware Easeus Partition Manager (EPM) to ensure no data was erased during the repartitioning / resizing.

First, download and install EPM.
Pop your storage card into your card reader.
Start EPM
Your card should be visible amongst the other drives/partitions in your PC.
Select the partition on your card - it should cover the entire length by default. Right-click & choose RESIZE/MOVE and then REDUCE the Partition Size (this is what shows in Windows) until the Unallocated Space size is of a suitable size. (The Unallocated space will be allocated as the partition on which your apps will be stored.) Click OK.

An aside - even though Link2SD supports the usage of the second partition (in which your apps will reside) created in the FAT / FAT32 format, Windows only recognizes the first PRIMARY partition which is why this newly created partition won't show within Windows inspite of it being FAT / FAT32. We shall be using either ext2 / ext3 or ext4 as the file system in any case.
Onward...

Right-click this new Unallocated Space and choose CREATE. Click YES on the warning that describes what I've said above.
Now, in the Partition Label, type in a label like "AndroidApps" or whatever suits you.
This is CRITICAL - the CREATE AS should be PRIMARY
Choose File System as EXT3 and click OK.
Click APPLY in the main window's TOP LEFT corner (big blue check mark icon). EPM will carry out the operations. Congrats! You've just re-partitioned your card and without any data loss too. (Hopefully!)

Assuming you've installed Link2SD in your phone and the SD card has been re-inserted.
11. Reboot your phone.

Start Link2SD and it should detect your partition.
A list of apps is now displayed. Click the app you want to move to the card and then click CREATE LINK.

That's it.

excelent step by step how to. Till now I thought I was going to loose all my data on my SD card when partitioning. So I do not have to :-)

not sure if my comp at home can read SD cards. Can I partition SD card while the card is inside the phone?

Indeed, you can. I did it. I had USB debugging active and I also had the required Samsung drivers installed. Note that sometimes, if only USB Mass Storage Mode is being used, the device (and the card) won't show up in EPM.

Note that by SD Card, I mean your MicroSD card or whatever other storage media your device uses. Most often, you can purchase a dirt-cheap external multi-card reader.

I have an in build card reader in my notebook that cannot read MicroSD cards without an adapter. I was wondering if I can do the partition without taking my MicroSD card out of my mobile. ... well I bought the adapter ;-)

To a Windows user "mass storage" means the FAT32 bit remainder of the SD card after partitioning. The ext partition won't be visible to Windows normally.
The ext partition will be used by some some the "store my apps on the SD card" implementations. Some use FAT32, some use ext2/ext3/ext4. For the latter it is an extension of your internal storage (with some caveats)
Personally, I don't use a partition: I have the custom Oxygen (good for CM7 too I think) HBOOT from alphrev.nl. Of course, this may not be everyone's cup of tea so you can partition it using ROM Manager or one of the custom recoveries (AnomRa, ClockWorkMod etc). Or use a linux live cd to partition it manually rather than from your phone


text:
Is it possible to add a keyboard layout and dictionary to Swype?
I used the official Motorola upgrade tool and updated my Motorola Defy to Froyo (French firmware). Before the update, when I held the Q key on the Swype keyboard, many languages options were offered, and among them there was the Polish language. Now I don't have that option anymore, as there are far fewer languages available.
Is there any way to have that language installed back? I have tried Manylocale2, but it does NOT what I need: it changes the locale, but it will not add any languages to the language menu...
Thanks

From Swype Help

Swype supports text entry in a number
  of languages. To switch between
  languages:
Tap the SYM key.
Tap the key showing the abbreviation code for the currently

active language (e.g. "EN" for
  English).
      A Language Choice window displays, showing available languages.
      Select the desired language by tapping it in the list.
To toggle between the current language
  and last-used language, Swype from the
  Swype key to the key with the current
  Language indicator.

However if the Swype was preinstalled (as seems the case by way of the update given to you) it seems that you are stuffed as there is no way to add a language, or if it comes to that, edit a preinstalled language with Swype.
This is probably the one downside of Swype, whereby they have a business model to sell to carriers not to the public and a preinstalled Swype is neither updateable or removeable.
Solution: spend a couple of bucks on the excellent SwiftKey in the Market, it has editable and readily available language dictionaries and is very full featured and is directly comparable to Swype.

That's a pity because I just started to be proficient with Swype and this would force me to learn it all over again. But I will try :) Thanks!

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Tethering Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 (GT-P3110) via Nokia E71
I have a data plan on my Nokia E71 phone, and I would like to share it for my brand new Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 (GT-P3110) which has no 3G. Bluetooth would be fine as would creating a WiFi hotspot, however so far I haven't gotten any method to do the trick. Even wired by USB would be fine, if it just worked.

On the Nokia E71 I have JoikuSpot installed, but stock Android ICS does not work with the ad hoc network that it creates. I rooted the tab and tried installing different versions of wpa_supplicant that I could find, but none of them really worked on this tab.
I have paired the devices using Bluetooth, which appears to work fine – however, I don't know how exactly I could get connected to the internet. I believe there is something obvious that I've missed here. If I need some app (in either end), please tell me which app. (I guess it basically does not work because Nokia does no PAN while Android is ignorant of DUN, but I might be very wrong.)
I don't have any cables that I could use to connect the devices by USB or similar, but if a working solution exists, I would be happy to buy some. (I've already used many many hours for this.)

EDIT: I no longer have the Nokia phone, nor the Samsung Tab, so I cannot really test the suggestions posted here. As far as I am concerned, this question can be closed. (While I do understand that any answers might be helpful for other people, I still cannot test whether they work or not. Therefore, it also does not make a lot of sense to accept any answer, does it?)

Have you tried WiFi Tether for Root Users?

@onik: No, I have not. I don't think it solves the problem, because my Android device has no 3G connection to share. I think if my phone had Android, then this would be one possible solution, but as of now it is not, I believe.

I just thought that since it enables creating Ad Hoc networks, maybe it would enable connecting to JoikuSpot's Ad Hoc network.

Ok, I'll give it a try.

I tried, but it did not help: the ad hoc network remains invisible. But thanks anyway!

On the android 4 system install BlueVPN.
If your phone has bluetooth and can act as a modem you need to pair the phone and your android device. When pairing enable the option in the phone to let the other device to connect.
Be sure that on your sim card you have a contract that support WAP connections enabled (otherwise it can be very expensive).
Get the provider access point info (some times called APN) and set it into the BlueVPN settings.
If your phone already goes into internet with gprs or 3G, you can get the string directly from the settings of your phone.
On my Nokia (Xpress musik 5800) I went to Settings-Connectivity-Access Points-WAP services and there I found all the needed informations in order to configure BlueVPN.

I got it to work with BlueVPN installed on my Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 and using my Nokia E71 data plan. It is not necessary to install any app on your Nokia phone.
Open BlueVPN on your tab and set the configuration info of your data plan (access point, number, username, password, etc.). Then, pair the devices from the phone and authorize the tablet to always connect to the phone.
In BlueVPN, click the phone device in the list of available devices and wait until it connects. Now you can access internet from you tablet. If the connection fails, try changing the BlueVPN settings for compatibility.

I had the same issue with my galaxy tab 2 7" and a nokia n900
Solved it by enabling bluetooth dun on n900 and installing 2 apps on the tab : BlueDUN trial ,and BlueVPN ics by Mirko Solazzi ,available on google play.
Hope that helps

Thanks for the suggestion. Tried to get it to work for about two hours or so, but with no success. :(

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


text:
After upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich my Samsung Galaxy S2 camera cannot focus
After upgrading to new Android version (Ice Cream Sandwich) my camera cannot focus. All the pictures made by my phone are blurry (not focused). I tried to reset camera settings to default, I tried clearing apps data (of my camera), I installed another camera application - nothing helped.
Interesting is, that the camera can focus on objects, that are relatively close (50 cm) but object that are further are blurry.
My front-camera works fine (the one on the display side)
Any ideas?
Thanks

There could be other core apps or services involved besides Camera that could be causing this.  I would recommend a factory reset.

Unfortunately the factory reset did not help. It is still the same.

Was this an official over-the-air (OTA) update from your carrier, or is it a custom ROM?

Regular (official) update through Kies. No custom ROM.

It seems that it is HW issue. Unfortunately it occurred at the same time as I upgraded to ICS, but it is a HW issue.

This may be a long shot but check the camera lens, it might have a small piece of see through plastic that starts to get worn out.
Pictures on my new phone were blurry right from the start and I didn't know what to do. Then I noticed that the lens felt a bit rubbery, so I scratched very carefully with my nails and to my amazement the small piece of rubber was removed. Now I have 100% clear pictures.

I had the same issue but fixed it by resetting my camera settings. First switch off your phone and switch it back on, then reset your camera settings.

This is kind of vague. How exactly did you reset your camera settings?


text:
The RAM total of the apps "Running" never equals the "Used Ram" shown below on the scale
I realised after a few days of observation, that the total of the RAM usage of indivisual apps shown in the running process is quite lower than that shown below it on the scale
And as "Cached Background Process" are calculated separately, they are not added in this "RAM Used" part of the scale.
Then what is using it? Coz the OS has its own space. Then what from the userspace is taking it up but not showing up?
Gingerbread 2.3.6
Like when I am writing this, the Total of indivisual values displayed is around 45-50mb while the scale below shows 95mb used!! How? \
Edit
Screen cast -
http://youtu.be/fzkQlZ8CdkU

Well i was going to, but all running processes were not visible...Ill upload a screencast...

I think it's because of linux. Linux put some disk cache on ram.
So, you can see cached ram, which is app cached ram, AND disk cached ram.
If you have access to a linux box, run free -m.
cubox@coruscant:~$ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          1974       1478        496          0        335        671
-/+ buffers/cache:        471       1503

Here, you can see that my server is using 1478 mo of ram. But, like 1000 mo is used for disk cache. You can't really recover it. If this part of ram is needed by the system, it's will not longer be used for disk cache and released for the app.

linux box as in busy box? with a terminal emulator?

You know that Android uses Linux at its base, right? So basic device management is done by Linux. Zygote and the Dalvik stuff running on top of this to allow for Android apps.

No, this is a regular debian server ._.

Yeah i know its a linux base...

@Cubox....well i checked this command on my android as i am rooted..using a terminal emulator...and it dint show a cache column at all!

Are you seeing the buffers column ?


text:
How can I detect if my phone is in a "Normal calls are restricted by access control" state, blocking incoming and outgoing calls
Sometimes this error occurs on my cell (a Lenny 2 with android 5.1). I'll only notice the error when I try to make a call, there are no obvious warnings that something is erroneous i.e. signal strength is fine - perfect.
I can't receive calls then either, this can be pretty bad as you can imagine.
I tried the standard things, resting to factory defaults, only using the stock apps, updating everything, contacting phone manufacturer and network provider to no avail.
When the error occurs, its easily fixed by switching into airplane mode for a sec and back again.

What I would like to do:
Create a small app that periodically checks if I can do a call or can be called i.e. checking if the device is connected to the network correctly.
And if something isnt working correctly, it automatically does the airplane-mode switch.

Is there a method for doing such a test, without actually dialing a
number?


text:
How to check that an Android device isn't being used in a botnet / sending spam emails?
I've discovered that my home network IP address has ended up on several blacklists after spam traps received emails from this IP address. I've tested the one PC that uses this network, and it seems to be fine. That leaves the most likely culprit looking like one of the two Android devices on this network.
On a PC, common ways to check for botnet-type activity include checking traffic on specific ports, and monitoring outgoing traffic. Is there any equivalent for Android?

I've searched on this but found nothing beyond generic anti-malware articles talking about antivirus software. I've not found anything specific to spam or unsolicited outgoing mail, and common anti-malware apps like AVG and Avast seem to only mention spam in the context of preventing incoming spam (not a problem for me), not outgoing.
If possible, I'd prefer a solution based on checking for the actual malicious activity (i.e. detecting actual outgoing mail), rather than relying that an anti-malware app has its listings up to date.
If possible, I'd also prefer to not need to root the devices, or change the operating system from the manufacturers' (Samsung and Sony in my case).

Without rooting it would most likely be easiest to intercept the traffic at the router/gateway.

I was actually just researching whether this is possible on my router. Not found anything yet. Any suggestions on how to start finding out how to monitor my Android device from the router would be welcome!

Looks like it's impossible from my router. I had the idea of turning my PC into a wireless hotspot then monitoring the Android device traffic from it, and asked a SuperUser question to see if that's possible, but direct monitoring or botnet-specific checks from the Android device itself would be better, if possible

I suggest using the Android VPN feature to route all of your network traffic to an OpenVPN server. This will send all traffic, Wifi and cellular, through one chokepoint where you can log and analyze it, and it will do so regardless of what network the phone is using. Then you can log and analyze traffic from the OpenVPN server using any of the standard tools.
For an example of a project that uses this approach for a different sort of network security analysis, namely to find apps that send data over unencrypted or insecurely-encrypted connections, see nogotofail.


text:
How to lock screen besides pressing Nexus S right side power button
I was wondering, besides locking screen by pressing Nexus S right side power hardware button, is there any way to lock screen, using software button press instead of hardware?

Such as a widget on the home screen?

why?

@Lie: I guess that can be useful... Maybe in case the button is broken.

There are many widgets available on the Android Market that provide this functionality.
If you are running a custom ROM on your Nexus S (e.g. CyanogenMod) you might already have this feature within the Notification power widget.  Go to Menu -> Settings -> CyanogenMod Settings -> Interface -> Notification power widget -> Widget buttons and enable the Go to sleep button (also enable the widget itself in the previous screen.)  Now when you pull down the notification bar you can tap the "zzZ" button to lock the phone.

I don't have custom ROM yet. Out of curiosity, how do you unlock the phone after you press "zzZ" button?

You can unlock it normally, with the Power button.  CyanogenMod ROM also has a feature that allows you to unlock with other hardware buttons as well, such as the trackball on Nexus One, or Volume keys on Nexus S.


text:
Can not edit build.prop
I am trying to edit the lcd density in build.prop in /system but every time after reboot my changes are lost..
I tried to adb pull + edit + adb push in normal and recovery mode..
also i tried fileexpert and super manager but nothing worked.
I heard many people saying about root explorer but its not free.. I want to be sure if my problem will be solved with root explorer then i will buy it..
Please help me out guys..
I am using android 2.3.3 on HTC HD2. My Rom is custom one (HyperDroidGBX-v12)

Answering my own question as found the solution.
We can edit build.prop from mobile. I downloaded ES file explorer which is free. then from optin set "root explorer" and set "mount system as read/write"
Now edit build.prop and save it using ES file explorer's editor then uncheck "root explorer" and "mount system as read/write" for safety..
hope it wil help someone :)

Yes, newer versions of ES File Explorer do not allow write to dangerous directories if "Root Explorer" is not enabled in the left menu. The full path to the "Root Explorer" option is Tap in the top left corner, in the menu icon, the left menu appears, then scroll down to Tools, and finally enable Root Explorer. Now, if device is rooted, ES File Explorer will allow to overwrite system files.

Root Explorer won't solve your problem any more than adb, although it's a great app.
First, I'd try making sure you remount /system as read-only after you push the modified file.  If that doesn't work I would assume your bootloader is checking the file and replacing it when it doesn't match what it should be.  To help you further, I think we need to know what phone you have; please add that to the question.  Your version of Android, name of your ROM if it's custom, etc. will also be useful.

You could also use TWRP
Reboot to recovery (TWRP)
Click Mount
Deselect mount system partition as read-only
Done

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


text:
Is my ext3 sd partitioning correct?
I've read a bit here on Android Enthusiasts and I've been able to partition my sdcard.
A partition FAT32 and another one ext3, using the AmonRa Recovery for Acer Liquid Metal.
Everything looks fine and if I start titanium backup I see on overview screen:

Internal: 193 mb (60.2 mb free).
  SD card: 6.87 GB (520 mb free).
  SD card (a2sd): 958 MB (958 MB free)

So it looks like I'm not using that partition, right?
I've tried moving application with app2sd pro and titanium backup to sd card but the ext3 partition does not get filled.
What's wrong?

You would need a custom ROM that supports moving apps to the Ext3 partition.  I would recommend searching the development section of xda-developers forums for your handset for such a ROM.
If a ROM does not support apps2ext natively, you can try your luck with a script (example for HTC Dream/Magic here) that can be installed on top of another ROM.
[Edit]: just adding stuff from my comments to the answer.
If you are on Android version 2.2 and above, you can use the built-in "Apps-to-SD" functionality to move apps to SD Card.  Go to Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications then tap on any app and under the "Storage" section tap the "Move to SD" button.  After a few seconds you will see the button's name change to "Move to Phone" and size of the app decrease significantly.
This method is not without drawbacks.  First off, an app needs to be explicitly coded to support this functionality.  Second, widgets and apps that run as a service (e-mail, virtual keyboards, weather notifications, etc.) don't work when moved to SD, and must reside on the phone's internal memory.  Furthermore, not the entire app moves to the SD Card.  A part of it stays on the phone, along with its cache and data/settings.  If you have a phone with a small amount of internal app storage, using the built-in Apps-to-SD will just prolong the inevitable "out of memory" errors.
The Apps2ext scripts resolve most of these shortcomings.  It "fools" the phone into thinking that the Ext2/3/4 partition is part of the phone's internal memory.  This means that widgets and services will work just fine with this method. Also, since you can make your partition as large as you wish (recommended not to exceed 2GB), the space issues disappear.  The scripts also provide options for moving caches and data to the Ext partition in order to free up even more internal memory.
The drawback of the Apps2ext method is that it's well, a hack.  First off, your phone needs to be rooted.  Second, you will no longer be able to un-mount and remove the SD Card from the phone, since ALL of the apps (including system ones) reside on the Ext partition. Third, you are putting a lot more strain on the SD Card from increased writing, which may shorten its lifespan. Finally, as with any hack it may make your phone less stable.

Thank you, mate!
I will try to make and ext2 partition and get back to give you correct answer.
I just don't understand what's the point to use ext instead of standard fat32...

I think you misunderstood me.  Simply creating a partition does not automatically mean that your phone can use it to store apps.  Android OS needs to be modified to support moving apps to Ext2/3/4 partition.  This was a very useful hack pre-Froyo (Android 2.2) when apps could only be stored on phone's internal memory.  The script I was talking about basically "fools" the phone into thinking that the Ext partition is part of the internal memory.  In Android 2.2 and above, Google implemented Apps-to-SD functionality that uses Fat32 partition, so this hack is not really necessary anymore.

In the end I've just wasted time partitioning? O_O

Well, it depends. Android's Apps2SD solution is not perfect. The biggest drawback is that widgets and apps that run as services don't work if you move them to SD Card (Fat32 partition), so developers of these apps don't allow moving them to SD card to begin with. Also, space is still being taken up by apps that were moved to SD (cache, dalvik-cache, data/settings) so it's still possible to fill up the phone's internal memory. With aps2ext hacks, the entire app resides on the Ext partition, and there are options to move caches and data as well.

You can also opt for an easier way as described in this answer, if all you're looking for, is to shift apps from your phone's internal memory to SD Card.
A free app called Link2SD will help in this case. It has a decent GUI and makes it easier to move apps between SD Card and internal memory - also fixes the market links so that updates from the market are automatically moved to SD Card if the app was previously on SD Card.

Is there any kind of difference storing apps on the exy2 with link2sd and storing apps on fat32 with standard froyo?

You can use FAT with Link2SD too.

So.... What's the point of having ext2? O_O

If you're on a Windows machine, and insert said partitioned card into a reader, I don't think the ext partitions will be shown. That's the caveat. ExtFS is faster and less prone to fragmentation, IIRC as compared to FAT.

@Pitto: ext2/3/4 are Linux's native file system (or rather, they're the most widely used file system in Linux). Many manufacturer ships SD Card in FAT for since Windows cannot read ext3 without extra software. For internal memory, there are more variability; some phone ships with ext3 while others with YAFFS/YAFF2. The advantage of using ext3 is Android can put permissions on ext3 partition (apk/data stored in FAT partition is read- and writable by every app), is more resistant against file corruptions, and some says it is faster. FAT is inherently insecure for storing apps.

@Pitto, @Lie Ryan is absolutely correct. In fact, Froyo's Apps-to-SD method basically for each app that you move is setting aside a tiny virtual "drive" on the Fat32 partition and mounting it in a secure manner.  The article here explain all the details: http://ydal.de/android-2-2-froyo-apps-to-sd/

Please, you experts: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/14696/link2sd-boot-loop-at-reboot

No matter what you try, you are basically stuck with the limitations of your phone. There are other procedures on Android forums to force apps that usually can not be put on your sd card therefore freeing up more internal memory. I only have 200mb of internal memory, over 100 apps and still have 105mb of internal memory. I have room for more apps than I will ever need. Again, you do not have to root your phone, as some you can not due to upgrades in the OS like mine, but there are other workarounds. Good luck !


text:
Need a car-friendly way to listen to music?
Here is specifically what I'm looking for.
1)  I would like the ability to use gesture/swipe controls to skip tracks.  This is much easier than finding a button on a touchscreen to change tracks.
2)  Ability to either prevent a lockscreen or control the player from the lockscreen.  I don't mind if I have to push the power button to get the screen to wakeup, but once I do, I would like the ability to control the music player without going through the Android screen lock.  I see this accomplished through either a certain type of music app, or some application that allows me to control what applications prevent a screen from locking.
I have a rooted Samsung Captivate (Galaxy-S) running a custom ROM variant of 2.2.1.

Go download PowerAmp.  Best $5 I ever spent on an app.
It includes lockscreen controls and I'm pretty sure you can set up lockscreen gestures to do whatever you want.  I'll confirm this real quick on my installation.
Edit: Confirmed on the lockscreen gestures.  Swiping left and right over the album art will skip the track forward and backward by default, from anywhere in the app or on the lockscreen.

Does it allow me to send audio to my parrot bluetooth head unit? I'd LOVE that.

@Pitto - I dunno, I don't use a BT headset so I've obviously never tried it.  As Chance said in his comment they offer a 15-day free trial, so you've really got nothing to lose by giving it a shot.

I'll get my lazy *** off this chair and do it :D Thanks!

I'm using it right now.  Great app.  Have you found a way to pause it other than the pause button or removing the headphones?  I want to be able to pause it without looking for the button on the screen.


text:
Can I have different default phone numbers for different actions?
Take a contact which has several phone numbers... say Home, Mobile and Work. When I click the QuickContact action to text them, it asks me which number... so I select Mobile. Now, I'd like to set this as default... because I always text them on their mobile. Problem is, when I do this, it ALSO sets it as the default phone for ACTION==CALL, which I do NOT want, as I regularly call them on all three numbers.
Is there any way to set a default number for texting while NOT having a default for calling, so that it will still prompt me to pick a number when I click QuickContact.Call?

I don't think you can set separate default numbers.  However what you could do is set a shortcut to message that contact and leave the default number empty so it can prompt you when you call.  To set a message shortcut: long press on the Home-screen, select "Shortcut", then select "Direct Message".  This will launch your default messaging app to send a message to that contact to whichever number you set when you create the shortcut.

Hope this helps

I guess this could be a workaround; though hardly ideal. Ideally it would be a method that would carry through to all instances where the QuickContact badges and placards are used.

@eidylon True, but I don't think you can accomplish that.


text:
Can apps with Baidu Web Push work on non-Chinese devices out-of-the-box?
For our client, we are developing an application where the majority of the users are located in Mainland China and we need to support push notifications for this group. Since Google and GCM (Google Cloud Messaging) is blocked in China, we are looking to implement Baidu Web Push.
In the Amazon documentation, handling Push Notifications from Baidu Cloud Push, they state the following:

Install your app on to a Baidu-enabled device and capture the generated device token.

Is Baidu Web Push only supported on certain Chinese devices? GCM requires the Google Play Services to be installed and we are wondering if Baidu needs something similar?

We've integrated the Baidu Cloud Push on our own device (non-Chinese), in Europe, and we were able to receive a push from the Baidu Cloud Push Console.
So apps with Baidu Web Push do not need any other services installed and will work out of the box.

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


text:
Help, I Accidentally Corrupted my MediaTek Preloader
Please help me, I have an Ulefone Note 7P and I wanted to upgrade my firmware, so I downloaded the latest of this ROM and I got the SP Flash Tool and followed the guide on that forum.
So after loading Scatter and everything, I pressed start. The red line loaded (I marked Preloader) and after a while, I received an error (I have forgotten the error now) and now my phone won't boot. I think I loaded the preloader halfway and now my phone won't boot, or charge, or turn on, and my computer does not recognize my phone. It just says unrecognized device.
I have installed the Mediatek VCOM Drivers many times, it does not recognize my phone, the VCOM Drivers don't even work, they say "device cannot start."
Please help me, I really need this phone to work.
Edit: Thanks for the help, i followed the guides and opened up my phone but i did not use soldering iron, i just touched around inside with my fingers and i tried to connect and it worked, luckily i already started sp flash tool and put it in download mode to install the preloader so my phone is up and running now. And i've learnt my lesson and i'm never selecting preloader ever again.

https://forum.hovatek.com/thread-11802.html

you learned lession hard way: SP Flash Tool golden rule No 1 - always uncheck preloader, No 2 - don't trust any scatter file, No 3 - Never flash "Format All + Download" or "Firmware Upgrade" *** (***except "Download Only" deny), No 4 - Do a readback first


text:
Emulator 'redir' command unavailable... (?)
I am trying to configure my emulator to connect to my WiFi as per these instructions, however, I find that the "redir" command is not available. My emulator is for API version 29, and its image was generated from the AVD manager supplied with version 4.0.1 of Android Studio.
What gives?

The console has to be authenticated first to unlock more commands on the emulator console, including redir.

After connecting through telnet, it will prompt something like this:
Android Console: Authentication required
Android Console: type 'auth <auth_token>' to authenticate
Android Console: you can find your <auth_token> in
'C:\Users\<user_name>\.emulator_console_auth_token'
OK

Browse/open the said file, and note/copy the 16-characters authorization token

Then, enter auth <auth_token>

Afterward, redir and more commands will be unlocked (typing help will show the available commands)

That worked. I wasn't expecting the console to need further information, and hence it may have helped if the instructions were given in the guide I was following. Thanks for your help.


text:
Is the root file different if a custom rom is installed?
Do I need a different root file if I have installed a custom rom on Android?
Who creates root files for devices?

no (yes). no. vendor (proprietary)

@alecxs Please be descriptive for the main question. I didn't understand "No(yes)"

sorry i am lazy.. with "root file" you probably mean kernel image. usually that boot.img is the same for stock and custom rom. just some options will changed inside, for example dm-verity must be disabled. so the file is different but it's the same kernel

I mean the update.zip file :-) that they provide to enable root access. How do I change options in side? How do I disable dm-varity? Where would I find it?

Does this answer your question? How do I root my Android device?

https://android.stackexchange.com/tags/systemless-root/info

Systemless root didn't answer my question completely but it did solve my problem. Thanks!

basically root method is pretty generic. the leading tools are

Magisk
SuperSU
phh's SuperUser
AddonSU

in that the order, where former one is recommended for all devices and ROMs while the last is ROM specific
However, while the rooting process is nearly the same, every device is different and there is no generic root method. First you need to unlock bootloader. Some vendors (like Huawei) decided to lock devices completely, others (like Samsung, Xiaomi, Lenovo) have there own special protections
Second, you need custom recovery (or at least, modified boot.img) which is definitely device specific and not interchangeable with other device models
Usually every device has it's own section in famous xda forum where developers share custom recovery or custom rom
Always search for root method specific for your device model
(Note: i am aware of exploit based temp root methods but decided that is out of scope and not worth a timeless answer, because development is ongoing and that exploits become outdated)

I know how to root etc. I have installed a custom rom on my device. Now I want to root too. I just want to know if the root file is different if the stock rom is not installed. Is the root file changes with rom. Thanks :)

Magisk is good. It also had the option to unroot back.

However, it has some incompatibilities with GSIs and fails to patch dm-verity with FEC enabled Strictly Enforced Verified Boot with Error Correction

Do you know of any app that blocks internet from a specific app, not a whole system firewall or VPN that always run in the background?

FEC link updated because xda doubled posts per page


text:
Import SMS/MMS messages and Call log backup to Fresh LineageOS
I switch from Google Android to LineageOS and prepare all my data to be ready for the switch. Everything is on Nextcloud so, Contact, Photos, etc are already out of my device. I want to backup SMS/MMS messages and Call log. I can backup them with Samsung Switch, but is there a way to import them in LineageOS after?
Update 1
I'll not install LineageOS with Google Apps support, so any apps from Google Play will not be able to run after the LineageOS install. I can install app from F-Droid or run command line in Linux shell if needed.
Thank you!

Very reliable app

Thank you for your advice, but I don't want to use Google Play services. Question is updated.

I found "SMS Backup+" on F-Droid. I know Google introduce sensitivity scopes, and as a result some API don't work anymore like MMS backup. I'll give it a try...

But it stores backup on IMAP instead of local storage. Bad luck.

See the app description, it can backup to cloud (few types of cloud) or to xml format

which app can access device without google play services? you probably have some misconceive of android

@alecxs Probably. I talk about the install part of LineageOS ("Optionally, download additional application packages such as Google Apps [...]")[https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/hlte/install#installing-lineageos-from-recovery] that I'll not install. So, without Google Play, no "SMS Backup & Restore", am I wrong ?

Optionally is a funny wording. android apps rely on google APIs, you need at least a replacement for GmsCore (like microG, Open GApps or MindTheGapps). btw you can download apps from Uptodown, APK Pure, APKMirror or similar without using google play store

Thanks for additional informations.

of course it's always possible with direct access from cmd line but SQLite is a hassle for Write-Ahead Log enabled databases. to keep it simple i personally prefer Migrate or MyPhoneExplorer but the above apps are good choice too

I know my Android SMS/MMS database are stored in SQLite. A simple import/export from CLI should work. But I don't know how LineageOS manage SMS/MMS and Call logs database. That's why I ask for.

Thanks to @beeshyams for his comment.
TL;DR
Just install SMS Backup & Restore or download it from apkmirror. Copy apk to SD card. Do a backup of SMS/MMS messages (don't forget to enable MMS images/file/etc in advanced settings) and Call log to SD card.  After the switch to LineageOS, install APK from SD card and import SMS/MMS messages and Call log. Done.
Story (and issues)
I finally switch from Android 5 on my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (don't laugh, it still rocks!) to LineageOS 16.0 following Install LineageOS on hlte.
After a backup of my data (see TL;DR), I boot in recovery mode and at the Installing a custom recovery using heimdall step, the command
heimdall flash --RECOVERY <recovery_filename>.img --no-reboot

did not work properly.
My shell fail with :
ERROR: Failed to confirm end of file transfer sequence!
ERROR: RECOVERY upload failed!

and my device show a "SECURE CHECK FAIL : recovery".
From this post,

"it was the Samsung Reactivation Lock that was blocking me. Upon booting the phone, going into Apps > Setttings > Security and then typing in my samsung account password I was able to disable the lock [...]"

And recovery file upload success!
After the LineageOS install, I use SMS Backup & Restore again to import data.


text:
Android 9 Pie where are SMS stored please? What is the path to the SMS database?
Android 9 where are SMS stored please? What is the path?

/data/user_de/0/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db

Here is my current path:
/moto g(8) plus/Internal shared storage/Android/data
I cannot see anything at the moment with user_de

Internal storage /storage/emulated/0 is just a view of /data/media/0 - as you can see that is a subdirectory of /data - for that you need root access

Right it's a moto G8 plus. Wondering what the easiest way to root is, sorry about this but need help

rooting requires unlocking bootloader (which performes factory reset)

https://android.stackexchange.com/q/228744

As mentioned by @alecxs, the sms are stored in the database: "
/data/user_de/0/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db" which need root privileges to access it or edit it.
If you don't have root access, you can interact with the table sms in this database using ADB:
list all SMS
adb shell content query --uri content://sms

list SMS from +2121212121
adb shell content query --uri content://sms --projection address:date:date_sent:body --where 'address=+2121212121'


text:
How to stop disabled Google Assistant popping up on home button long presses?
I don't use Google Assistant, so I disabled it, by (1) opening the Google app, then (2) going to settings from the profile icon, then (3) choosing "Google Assistant" settings, then (4) scrolling a long way down to "General" settings, then (5) toggling off the top toggle that simply says "Google Assistant".
However, sometimes the device thinks I long-pressed the home button (e.g. if I swipe up too slowly) and pops up a Google Assistant nag screen asking me to re-enable it.

How do I stop the Home button from doing this? There don't seem to be any related settings in the Google app settings.
I've found dozens and dozens of articles explaining how to disable Google Assistant - which I've already done - but not how to stop this home button behaviour.
Device is a Samsung S22 Ultra running Android 14 and OneUI 6.0 if that's relevant.

As of August 2024, within different versions of Android 14 there are two places you might need to turn this off,  details below:

Set "Device Assistant App" to "none" under "Digital Assistant" settings
Turn off "Circle to search" under "Navigation Bar" settings

For the first, I found something, at the end of this article. This home button behaviour is apparently a system behaviour in general Android settings outside of Google Assistant, set to summon whatever is your current "Digital Assistant App" - and by default, Google Assistant remains the default Assistant App, even if disabled.
So, you need to find your default Assistant App setting,  and set it to "none":

Pull down from the top, open system settings (cog icon)

Go to "Choose Defaults Apps" (under "Apps" in the main settings list, or,  search for it)

Go to "Digital Assistant Apps"

Tap on the text that says "Device Assistant App" with "Google" under it (not the cog icon next to it)

Choose "None" from the list

After this, long presses on the home button should do nothing and pop nothing up.

Disclaimer: as always with Android,  labels,  menu positions, behaviour and side effects may vary between devices and versions, this is only tested on a Samsung S22 Ultra running Android 14 and OneUI 6.0

August 2024 update - on my device Google have snuck in a brand new annoying on-by- default behaviour which needs to be disabled in another hidden menu, for me it's under "Circle to search" under "Navigation bar", turn it off:

If you don't, long presses on home bring up this confusing "Google" overlay screen:

I've done this but the home button behaviour persists, on both One UI launcher and Nova Launcher. Also despite Assistant being untoggled I still get the full search box overlay instead of the "turn on" suggestion pop-up (as seen in your screenshot). Something must have changed in One UI 6.1.

Oh no,  mine had also turned back on with a new more confusing screen after some update.  I've added a new section,  maybe that's the same as yours

Thanks, disabling that "circle to search" finally worked. (Disabled even if default assistance app is selected.) Apparently was easy to miss this setting due to the naming.

I believe this setting can also be modified via SetEdit through the System table, under the KEY_HOME_LONG_PRESS_ACTION key.
Below is documentation from LineageOS' GitHub repo (so YMMV), but I'd presume the key values should follow the same convention as stock Android.  Either way, just for reference:

public static final String KEY_HOME_LONG_PRESS_ACTION
added in API level 8
Action to perform when the home key is long-pressed.
(Default can be configured via config_longPressOnHomeBehavior)
0 - Nothing
1 - Menu
2 - App-switch
3 - Search
4 - Voice search
5 - In-app search
6 - Launch Camera
7 - Action Sleep
8 - Last app
9 - Toggle split screen
10 - Single hand (left)
11 - Single hand (right)

Constant Value:
"key_home_long_press_action"


text:
What can I expect from the "Pure Google" Nexus S 4G?
Sprint recently announced that they are going to sell the Nexus S, and that it will be "Pure Google", implying that there will not be any additional carrier fluff on the device. I am considering buying the phone, but I'm hoping others who already have the Nexus S or Nexus One can tell me a little bit about what to expect.

Are the updates timely? With my HTC Hero, I found that I had to wait a long time for updates for the OS, and eventually it stopped receiving updates, leading me to install Cyanogenmod for Froyo/Gingerbread. Will I be getting updates for new versions of Android almost as soon as Google releases it?
Can I tether? I'm assuming that if this is "Pure Google", it will not have restrictions on it such as grayed out tethering buttons. Is that a valid assumption? Or do I need to root the phone? If I root, do I still get OTA updates? This segues to the next question..
What can I not do without root access? I understand that if I want to install a different boot loader or Cyanogenmod or something, I need root access. But if we're looking at day to day activities, is there functionality that I will be missing without root access?

And any other factual comments about things I may not have considered that's materially different from running a carrier-fluffed phone would be greatly appreciated!

By virtue of the fact that the carrier isn't adding their own modifications to the phone, I think you can expect to get OS updates before anyone else.

I have a Nexus S for T-Mobile, and I've enjoyed it so far.

There's only been one update for the Nexus S so far, to 2.3.3. I didn't get it the first day, so I installed it myself.
Unless Sprint turns it off, you should be able to tether. I can both over Wifi and USB.
I have never needed to root, and I'm a rather advanced Android user. You can unlock the bootloader without doing anything fancy on the Nexus S.

I truly enjoy having a clean phone. There are a few apps installed by Google that I can't remove (with root you can), but they don't bug me much. It doesn't have the load of crapware that most carriers apply, and it definitely does not have the various awful custom UIs manufacturers feel they need to add.
It runs fast for everything I do, including some light gaming; I generally wait till I'm at my PC to game, but it plays Angry Birds and Robot Unicorn Attack just fine.


text:
Other than portability, are there any other advantages (or disadvantages) to storing apps on external storage?
Are there any particular advantages/disadvantages to storing apps on the external storage of an Android device? As I have a Nexus S,  I can't think of advantages for me as I can't remove the storage, also the internal storage is more than enough for my needs.
I noticed that on phone start up, when I had all my apps moved to USB storage it was quite sluggish to register all the apps on the menu/home screens.
I also read somewhere that having a wallpaper set from a photo that was stored on the external memory actually drained quite a bit of battery too with all the reads (although I think this may have been a bug).

You haven't got an HTC phone, you don't have all their problems with tiny internal storage. There's no real reason for you to move any apps to SD.

See also http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/3298/what-are-the-drawbacks-of-moving-an-app-to-sd-card

Advantages:

Extend the available space on internal memory for installing more apps.
Although some parts of the app still stay on the internal memory (data and settings,) it still frees up a significant amount of space. For older handsets with 150MB of free space (G1, MT3G, etc.) this is a huge improvement. For owners of these devices this advantage alone outweighs any disadvantages that this method brings.

Disadvantages:

Cannot use apps moved to SD Card if it's unmounted.
Kind of self-explanatory: if you un-mount the SD Card for removal, the apps that reside on it need to be stopped and um-mounted as well to prevent crashes and data loss if you do remove the card.
Inability to use widgets or sync adapters when you move those apps to SD Card.
This is a design limitation that stands from the above point. Since the apps stored on SD Cards need to be able to be removed on demand, things like widgets or apps that hook into your account settings (e.g. Skype, LinkedIn) will crash, with no easy way to re-start them. So Google made a compromise by requiring these apps to stay on internal memory. Even if you do manage to force them to the SD Card (some custom ROMs allow this), you simply won't be able to use them.
Longer boot-up and shut-down times when the system mounts/un-mounts all of the apps stored on SD Card.
Apps that were moved to SD Card are not stored in plain sight to prevent rampant piracy. Instead, Android sets aside some space and creates a virtual partition for each app that you move. This means that at the initial boot-up, all these virtual partitions need to be mounted before apps stored on them can be accessed. The same holds true when you turn the handset off - each virtual partition is un-mounted before other shutdown processes can happen. Depending on the number of installed apps this can take an extra minute or even longer for the system to "stabilize" upon boot-up (and about 20 extra seconds for shutting down.) Once this happens though, launching these apps doesn't take any longer than those on internal memory.
Extra wear on the SD Card.
This point is debatable, since writing to SD Card (which causes wear) doesn't happen that often. And besides, the SD Cards these days are cheap enough to not worry about their life time.
Apps require an update to support this functionality.
Ability to be moved to SD Card is not automatically granted to older apps. Developers must change their apps to support this feature and issue an update via Market (or whatever distribution method they use.) Some older apps may not be supported any longer, and so may never get this feature. Although some custom ROMs can override this, for most people that are running stock firmware, this is a problem.

For newer devices with gigabytes of internal memory moving apps to external storage is not necessary, since space is not an issue. However for handsets with low memory it's an invaluable tool that extends their shelf life for their owners.

Another drawback: when restoring from backups, all restored apps go into main memory - which causes the restore to fail when main memory fills up.

@David That really depends on the application you are using for backup/restore purposes.  Better ones (Titanium Backup for example) will give you an option for the restore location, and allow to restore either directly to SD Card, or to the original location.

"Wear" on an sd card?   C'mon, no more or less than "wear" on internal storage.

taken straight from android developer site

There is no effect on the application performance so long as the external storage is mounted on the device.

The .apk file is saved on the external storage, but all private user data, databases, optimized .dex files, and extracted native code are saved on the internal device memory.
The unique container in which your application is stored is encrypted with a randomly generated key that can be decrypted only by the device that originally installed it. Thus, an application installed on an SD card works for only one device.
The user can move your application to the internal storage through the system settings.

Also -> Applications That Should NOT Install on External Storage (more details on android developer site)

Services
Alarm Services
Live Wallpapers
Live Folders
App Widgets
Account Managers
Sync Adapters
Device Administrators
Broadcast Receivers listening for "boot completed"

Widgets won't work if they're on the SD card.

Applications installed on SD card cannot run if you remove your SD card or you're turning on USB Mass storage (so it can be accessed from a computer). That's the only drawback I have been experiencing.
I've actually seen performance improvement since moving to SD; before I moved to SD I had exhausted the internal memory (about a few kilobytes left) and the phone lags quite badly. Since moving to SD (and therefore freeing some space in the internal memory), and the lag disappears.

For some phones and devices (especially the older ones) the internal storage is quite limited. Every application (and it's data files) take precious space. I.e. my Ideos has 512MB and was nearly full before I started "evacuating" apps to the SD card.
Another factor is the ability to backup your apps and data, or move them to another device.
Other than that, you are right in your observation that apps load slower from the external storage compared to the internal storage. This is very visible if you have those apps' shortcuts on your home screen - you'll see a generic Android icon for the first 30 seconds until the app is located on the card.
I found that switching to a class 6 microSD (I had the default class 2 that came with the phone) improved the situation considerably. Still, it takes my phone about 20 seconds to "equalize" following a cold start.

Ooh, default class 2? That's harsh.

Security and Performance Implications
The application resources stored on external storage are read-only and
  hence there are no performance issues with loading or launching
  applications on SD card.

From: http://android-developers.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/apps-on-sd-card-details.html
The post is written by a 'Suchi Amalapurapu, an engineer who worked on this feature.' The feature being the ability to put apps onto the SD card.

Why external storage being read-only the reason why launching an application isn't slower? I would have assumed that reading performance is more important for that.

In my experience there has been little or any perceptible performance problem. I was having a really annoying experience managing my memory with my Nexus One. I used S2E to migrate and have not looked back. Amazing to be able to not have to delete apps just to install new ones.

I think that moving apps from internal to external does not affect the performance.
But it does add on an extra few milliseconds to open the app from external storage instead of in internal storage. mileage will vary from device to device, depending on speed, Android version etc

Apps that have a service that is constantly open, like for example Viber, WhatsApp, Facebook messenger, etcetera can slow down the ui a lot if there are a lot of these running, so its preferable to keep apps with a constant service on the phone memory, since the impact there is non noticeable by comparison.

If it's constantly running, then it's loaded into memory and it doesn't matter where it's installed after that initial load time.

Never ever move your apps into your external SD card. It will make your phone to lag more and the phone will reboot more slowly than usual. You might even have to restart the phone daily or once per week.  It will take longer to process all the information that those apps have. I speak from experience.

Can you provide us something hard to trust or verify which we can use to evaluate your answer in a technical manner? (Hint: benchmarking)

authors: Кирилл Сухоруков

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/


text:
Strange data plan speed on Nexus S
I have a Nexus S and a GPRS plan activated, from what customer services of my mobile carrier have told me is that GPRS will give you max of 10-15 kB/s download speed.
In my Nexus S if i don't select "Use Only 2G" in "mobile network" setting i get speeds up to 80kB/S and the symbol in the status bar shows 3G symbol. As soon as i select the "Use only 2G Network" my download speed drops to 10 kB/s.
I have used spedtest application to check speed.
I have verified with my Mobile carrier and i do not have any 3G plan activated.
How is this Possible, i don't want to get any kind of shock when i receive my Mobile bill :)
Edit : My mistake, corrected capitalizations.

OK, so it's quite obvious that your phone is receiving 3G service (likely EDGE/UMTS), not just the 2G GPRS service.  GPRS is simply not capable of the speeds you're getting.  Since you've called the carrier and had them check, it's their problem.  I would say just go with it and enjoy the free service.  Don't let them charge you for it if they figure it out later, since you did try to make them aware.  If you're worried about it just call again and make the situation really clear.

My mistake corrected capitalizations.


text:
Do I need to (re-)partition my SD card for app2sd to work?
I have a rooted HTC Hero, currently running VillainRom (Android 2.1). I want to install FroydVillain (Android 2.2), which supports app2sd, but I'm not sure whether I need to repartition my SD card before I install 2.2 and if yes, how, if I want app2sd to work. Any ideas?

The CyanogenMod wiki has some info on this.
Basically, their old version of apps2sd (now called apps2ext) required an EXT partition on the SD card.
Their current version does not require partitioning, it's just a matter of overriding the preference of the app and moving it to the SD card anyways.
Since FroydVillain is based on CM6, you don't need to format your SD card; CM6+ uses the new apps2sd, not apps2ext.


text:
Can Android phones be set to automatically wipe all data after a certain amount of failed logins without an app?
A new policy at my work is being drafted regarding email access on phones. A requirement will be that the phone must automatically have all data erased after a certain amount of failed login attempts. Let's ignore the fact that it's pretty silly to a.) be allowing work email access on personal phones when such stringent expectations are in place, and b.) expect to be able to enforce something like this across a variety of phone platforms. Is it possible to set this up in vanilla Android without any apps?

Not related to the number of logins, but if you use the default email app with Outlook, and Outlook is configured properly, you need to accept the ability for remote wiping. Presumably then the Outlook administrators can wipe the phone's data remotely. (There are other questions here about how to prevent that that might be useful for you.)

related: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/69486/lock-screen-security-reboot-after-x-invalid-pins - if you encrypt the phone and reboot after a certain number of failed attempts, you force the attacker to potentially use a different, much stronger passphrase.

Apparently, this might not be a built-in security option in the OS itself, but Exchange ActiveSync can enforce this requirement.

The problem is that wiping data requires to overwrite it. On todays devices with lots of in-device flash memory and large SD-cards this can take a while - up to several hours. This leaves a lot for the attacker to interrupt this process and try again. Therefore wiping triggered by false login attempts is only reasonable if your data is encrypted. Then you wipe the device by simply erase the key from memory that is required to read/write your data.
Since Android Honeycomb (3.0) you have the possibility to encrypt all your data and to erase the device if the wrong password/pin has been entered several times. Therefore what you want to achieve is only possible with android tablets at the moment. For smartphones you have to wait for Android (4.0) Ice Cream Sandwich.

Right on.  You can quickly make the device unusable without encryption, but you can't quickly make its data unrecoverable without encryption.

"Since Android Honeycomb (3.0) you have the possibility to encrypt all your data and to erase the device if the wrong password/pin has been entered several times.  For smartphones you have to wait for Android (4.0) Ice Cream Sandwich." --- could you shed some more lights here please? Is it actually available?

Most Android 4.x devices include encryption support. However this only applies to the internal memory. The encryption is based on your lock scree passwoard which there has to be 8+ chars to be secure. External memory on an SD-card can only be encrypted by certain Samsung devices.

@Robert: encryption is a good thing, but it's helpess against brute-force. If you've lost your device and it's locked by sim or gesture - then it will take less than a day to brute force manually. For 8 chars password you may use some intelligent way of bruteforce - I'm sure there are some. That's what the auto-wiping feature useful for. PS: not even mention that you'll get bored soon to enter 8 char password each time you unlock your phone


text:
Add text labels in photos
In Android 11 (Samsung Galaxy A20):
When editing a photo using the OOTB Gallery/photo editing functionality, is there a way to add text labels in a photo?
Like this (label added in MS Paint):

If OOTB means Out Of The Box, there is no standard gallery app as manufacturers can change code/features (fonts/colors/filters/etc.). Without knowing which device you have, you may be served better by finding and installing an app that fits your needs.

There are photo editor apps like Snapseed which offer adding text to an image if that is what you are searching for.


text:
IBM website zoomed in too far in various browsers
Android 11; Samsung Galaxy A20 (SM-S205G)

I've had a long-standing problem on my Android phone with IBM Community forum websites.
Forum postings like this one are zoomed in too far. I can't read the text on either side of the page (portrait or landscape).
I have the same problem in all browsers that I've tried. I've tried pinching out the screen to zoom out, but that doesn't do anything. It stays at the same zoom level.

Samsung Internet 15.0.2.47
Firefox 92.1.1
Chrome 93.0.4577.62

My uneducated guess would be that the page isn't handling responsive design properly. I've reported the problem to IBM. But they don't seem to be interested in fixing it.
I don't have this problem with any other websites on my Android phone. For example, there are even other IBM forums that don't have this problem. But unfortunately, I don't use those specific forums.

I've had some luck solving the issue on a different device: Safari/iPad (7th gen; 17.7.1).
In Safari, there is an option where I can zoom out at a set percentage (85%).

That works well. There's a tiny bit of cutoff at the righthand side. But I can live with that.

Question:
To compensate for the problem with the IBM website on my phone, is there a way for me to change the zoom level in an Android browser app? (just like I did with Safari?)
So far, I haven't found a setting like that in Samsung Internet, Firefox, or Chrome. I'm open to installing a different browser on my phone if needed.

Since you are open to trying other browsers, install Opera and open the site in it. Next, tap on the  symbol with letter A (circled in screen shot below) and the content is rendered legibly in Reader Mode

If you are comfortable viewing in desktop mode, that also works.
Edit: If you want to use Chrome and are fine with Safari like experience, from Settings → Accessibility → Text scaling adjust the slider to increase/decrease font size and view the site in desktop mode. The last word of every sentence is clipped though.


text:
contents of playlists being deleted but playlist files still exist
Sometimes (probably on reset/power-cycle, which I do every now and then) I lost most of the content of my playlists. I have about 15 playlists that I have created. I have put songs in them several times (several hours of work) and then have come back later and found them all empty -- except for 1 or 2 which remain intact. There are .pla files for the playlists in sdcard/Playlists.
The music files are all on the external sd card.
I have done tests like setting up several playlists, then restarting or power cycling, then checking to see if the content is still there. It usually is. But if I don't use the play for a while then come back, the playlists' contents have been whacked.
Anybody know the 'right' way to store playlists for Android 4.1.x? In some db? Playlist files? Either one? Does one supercede the other?
I have tried both the default player and MixZing player. Phone is Galaxy Note 2 Android 4.1.3.
Sure would be nice to be able to depend on the playlists not being emptied out all the time.... Any clues greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Have you tried other music players? Like Shuttle? Is your phone rooted? Do you have any problem with installing a custom ROM or something?

@rjt.rockx the original question says they have this problem with MixZing player as well as the default. And I'd say installing an entire custom ROM just to get playlists to not randomly delete themselves is excessive.

@user568458 LOL I was just kidding. But what about other music players?

I had a long journey and did some trial and error. I think I've figured this out  - with a big disclaimer that the details may vary between devices, Android versions, music apps and maybe even types of SD card.
The apparent cause
It seems to happen when this happens - this fits my experiments plus the details in the various angry "Arrrrgh why are my playlists empty" forum threads I've read:

Something causes the phone to need to reconnect to the SD card, such as restarting the phone or connecting it to a computer by USB.
Reading the SD card doesn't happen instantly - kinda like plugging a pen drive into a computer, it needs a little time, seconds or maybe a few minutes. The more stuff on the SD card, and the older/slower/cheaper the SD card, the longer this will take.
The important part - something causes the music app to look at the playlist while the SD card isn't fully connected. It sees a bunch of references to files it can't find.
The music app, instead of sensibly realising that the files are on a card that is being connected, freaks out and deletes each item in the playlist it can't find. If all your music is on the SD card, that means emptying the playlist.

Possible fixes
So far, the first two of these seem to have been enough to fix it for me (Sony music app, Xperia Z3 Compact, 4+ year old nearly full 16GB SD card).

Don't touch the music app until the SD card has definitely finished connecting. For example, wait 5 minutes after restarting the phone or unplugging from a computer. Some versions of Android show a notification like "checking SD card for errors" but in  my testing relying on this wasn't quite enough.
If you use a music widget, move it off home screen 1 and maybe delete it. This was a crucial one for me. If I had the music widget on my first centre home screen, or, if I swiped over to the home screen with the music widget immediately after restarting the phone, the playlists got wiped (even though I hadn't touched the widget or app). If I had the music widget on the home screen one swipe to the right, and I didn't look at that screen until a few minutes after restarting the phone, the playlists didn't get wiped. Clearly the widget being visible on the screen caused the music app to do some startup process which then triggered this problem if the SD card wasn't fully connected yet.
Maybe play a second of a song you know is on the SD card before touching a playlist. I thought this would fix it for me, forcing the music app to have successfully read from the SD card before giving it a reason to look at my playlists, but my music app doesn't seem to work that way. Others might, though.
Test anything else that might start the music app before the SD card has loaded. For example, some phones have music players on the lock screen, or things that auto-start the music player if headphones are plugged in.
Consider getting a faster SD card. This is a last resort option, I've seen people post that this solved it for them. I guess maybe some modern SD cards connect fast enough or leave some sort of trace that stops this happening.

I've seen this on my Samsung S7 on Nougat. My music audio files are stored on the external SD card. It's sad it's still happening in 2018.
The most recent time I lost my playlist items happened when my battery died but when I charged it and booted it up, the Samsung Music app was still in the 'Recent apps' list (as it was a app I had just used). This must have prompted it to verify the playlist links before SD was mounted, and it removed any links to audio files in based on the SD card that it couldn't find.
I am now using a playlist backup app from the Play store (it's called PlaylistSync but there are several others) to regularly backup the playlist to Google Drive and when this calamity happens I have just restored the most recent back-up. This saves a lot of frustration from having to re-build your playlists again.

You can try deleting the empty playlists cached in the phone, forcing it to rebuild them from the Micro SD.  Here's how:

Power off.
Remove the Micro SD containing your music and .m3u playlist files.
Power on.
Open your music app and delete all your empty playlists.
Power off.
Reinsert the Micro SD.
Power on and open your music app.

All your playlists should reappear.
Unfortunately, in my experience with a new Samsung S8, the problem quickly reappears.  The Micro SD is mounted as a file system during boot but it's possible the playlist software often starts sooner (especially on a very fast phone) and that the playlist software simply does not anticipate this.
So it's quite possible that for playlists to work reliably on any given phone, both the playlists and the associated music files have to be in the phone's internal storage.

authors: نورالله نظری


text:
Whatsapp says "Your phone date is inaccurate", but this isn't true
I can't log on to Whatsapp on my new phone because as soon as I open the app, I get this message:

Your phone date is inaccurate! Adjust your clock and try again.
Your phone date and time is: 16:08, 6/22/2016 (Greenwich Mean Time)
[Adjust date]

The only option is to go to the Date and Time settings (or cancel with the back button).
Trouble is, my date and time are correct. They're set to...

Automatic. Use network-provided values

...and those values match my timezone and the time Google and other sources give to my timezone.
What can I do about this erroneous error?
I've got a stable connection, this is a low-spec duel sim phone running 4.1.1, with Whatsapp pre-installed.
Whatsapp recently (10 minutes ago) updated itself. Settings > Manage Applications tells me it's on version 2.11.448.

Try uninstalling and reinstalling- helped me the only time I had this problem

Forcing Whatsapp to update through Google Play (uninstalling previous updates if necessary) seems to have fixed this.
It sounds like this is a common problem and is most often caused by a version issue, despite the misleading message (example source).


text:
Make a cell signal heat map of remote location
I work and camp at a remote backwoods location in Eastern Ontario (200 acres). I’ve noticed that I can get a weak data signal at some spots on the tops of hills. I would like to make a map of the signal strength so that I can determine where the strongest signal is; the Bell coverage map is not detailed enough.
Is there a way to generate a cell signal heat map using my android phone?

Do you mean "Generate a heatmap by visiting all the hilltops and observing signal strengths there" or "Generate a heatmap from the tower locations and power levels and an elevation map of the area"? The former is practical, but slow; the latter is quick, but may not match observed reality. In either case, the signal you can get from distant towers may vary with the weather and season.

@JohnDallman I meant, "Generate a heatmap by visiting all the hilltops and observing signal strengths there." Good point about the weather and season affecting reception.

@JohnDallman Any idea how much the leaves being off the trees might affect reception?

I don't know how large the leaves effect is, but I'd expect there to be one. If you're going to visit the hilltops, do you really need a heatmap? Simply knowing which hilltop is best seems like enough.


text:
How to flash /system using twrp when system.img is 1.7GB and internal storage has 1.5GB max limit
I happen to have an old phone laying around with messed up system partition(a couple of files accidentally deleted). This phone has an internal storage of max 1.5 GB(total 4gb, after setting everything up leaves me with 1.5 GB). I downloaded the stock firmware for the phone and the system.img size is almost 1.7GB I have twrp recovery. Is it possible to flash with an external sdcard.
N.B: I unfortunately don't have my pc with me atm.

It would help if you could tell us what phone (manufacturer, model) this is. Apart from that: no worries about the size, /system is not "internat storage" but a different partition – which is one reason why only 1.5G are "left" from the 4G announced (the remaining ~800M are on the other partitions, like recovery, cache etc).

Yes you can flash from SD card. There must be some free space out of 1.7GB, so you can put it in an archive to reduce size. Or expose system partirion through UMS to a PC and flash image there. Or stream the image over network (using adb/nc) and write to partition at the same time. There are even more possibilities.

@Irfan Latif, hey, turns out I can only flash boot partition using twrp, guess I'll have to settle for the pc then. I also came across this that it can be done with dd command as well. Like dd if=/storage/sdcard/system.img of=I forgot the name from twrp terminal. is that possible

Yes. dd is the most commonly used tool in Linux world to read and write raw partitions. The methods I mentioned above are meant to be combined with dd  to solve the problem of space shortage.

dd — Linux manual page

Yep, I know about dd disk dump, but am confused about the of=? directory as in where should I dump the contents to, at which directory. An idea just popped in my head, what if I extracted the files in system.img and replaced everything under / to the contents of the files from image. Isn't that the same thing as doing dd?

Sorry, the link I mentioned earlier was suppossed to be this https://android.stackexchange.com/a/125422/332427

See this answer to know how you find correct block device. The answer is about userdata partition. Replace that with system.

Yep! found it in /dev/block/platform/mtk-msdc.0/by-name/system I did a ls -l on system and found that it is a symbolic link to /dev/block/mmcblk0p20 Now, should I do dd if=/storage/sdcard0/system.img of=/dev/block/platform/mtk-msdc.0/by-name/system or should I do dd if=/storage/sdcard0/system.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p20 Which one should I do?

This idea also popped in my head, the stock rom was in a zip file. Is it possible to flash the entire thing using twrp? That would be super easy.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.


text:
Used dd to write userdata.img into phone, now asking me for password
I used dd from twrp terminal to write to userdata on my phone using dd if=userdata.img of=/dev/block/platform/mtk-msdc.0/by-name/userdata when I did reboot, it asks for my password. I tried all the previous passwords I used before, but to no veil. Why is it asking for my password? How to overcome this situtation? Reseting does not seem to be working.

Because of the encryption, encrypted backups are bound to the device. Have you performed a factory reset after you have created the backup?

If by "resetting" you mean "performing a factory reset" – then no, that just destroyed your last chance to access and decrypt those data, as a factory reset also destroys the key file needed for decryption.

But I never encrypted my device in the first place to begin with. Yes I did a factory reset, will flashing userdata.img again could work?

If this phone is dead my mum's gonna kill me

Good news!!! I reflashed userdata.img with dd from twrp terminal and I'm in the phone yes!!!

It didn't ask for a password this time.


text:
TWRP showing error 7 even when the rom is correct
Hey I was trying to flash resurrection remix 8.6.0 on my Redmi 5A(riva) but twrp showed error 7.
Then I tried flashing Pixel Experience but still error 7 i tried reflasing the recovery also tried orange fox but still nothing is working. I was able to flash rr 7.0.2. So can someone help me update it to 8.6.0.
Now whenever I boot into recovery /data is not mounting
Thanks in advance

I also had this issue but I installed Android Revolution HD and it worked! It booted and said that the /data is corrupted and it required a factory reset. I gave the only option Reset and it booted back to twrp(i was using it) and there it automatically formatted /data!
Hope it helps you.


text:
Create link to custom URI-scheme on home-screen (eg. zoomus://zoom.us/...) to start app
Is there a way to create an app-icon-link to a non HTTP-url and place it on the home screen?
I'm trying to add an icon to auto-join a zoom-meeting.
https://marketplace.zoom.us/docs/guides/guides/client-url-schemes
The idea are to pass parameters like meeting id and password to the app Zoom, that uses the URI: zoomus://
Eg. zoomus://zoom.us/join?confno=123456789&pwd=xxxx
I have done similar on iOS / iPadOS using the Shortcut app.
UPDATE: Maybe it can be done with Google Action Blocks (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.accessibility.maui.actionblocks)
Or this:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kebab.UrlShortcut
Thanks for advice!

Does this answer your question? Creating a custom launch action on the menu

No, it seems to work well with files and browser url's (http and https).

But not for custom URL's...

I think Tasker (or other automation apps) which is mentioned in the duplicate link might work, though I haven't tested it. On the other hand, could you mention what you have tried from the duplicate link?

The App URL Shortcut (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kebab.UrlShortcut) works excellent!


text:
Oppo A5 2020 (CPH1931) won't go in to fastboot mode/bootloader
I want to root my phone, install custom recovery and eventually a custom ROM. For this, I need to unlock the bootloader.
I have an Oppo A5 2020 CPH1931. It should go into bootloader when I press volume+ and power buttons together for 5 seconds after completely turning off the phone. But when I do this, it boots like normal. Tried all different combinations and durations. I am able to boot into recovery but not fastboot mode. I have turned on the "OEM unlocking" option in developer options.
I tried it through ADB, it says fastboot on the screen for half a second and then once again jumps back to normal booting. I also tried to already put the fastboot command "fastboot oem unlock". When it says  I use another terminal to try to boot into fastboot with ADB. But this does not work (also tried this with "fastboot flashing unlock").
By the way, my devices only shows up with adb devices when I select transfer files upon connecting the USB cable. When I select just charge it doesn't even show.
There are tons of guides online on how to enter the bootloader of this device, so it must have been possible at some point. I considered trying to revert to an old STOCK ROM that still has fastboot. I contacted Oppo about this but they keep trying to confuse me and then just left the conversation.
Is there a way to go back to an old STOCK ROM that still supports fastboot mode?
EDIT:
I tried using the EDL toolbox provider by Björn Kerler like Alecxs suggested, but it cannot find a loader for my device:
Qualcomm Sahara / Firehose Client V3.53 (c) B.Kerler 2018-2021.
main - Trying with no loader given ...
main - Waiting for the device
......
main - Hint:   Press and hold vol up+dwn, connect usb. For some, only use vol up.
main - Xiaomi: Press and hold vol dwn + pwr, in fastboot mode connect usb.
        Run "./fastpwn oem edl".
main - Other:  Run "adb reboot edl".

...............
...main - Device detected :)
main - Mode detected: sahara
Device is in EDL mode .. continuing.
sahara -
------------------------
HWID:              0x0010a0e100510000 (MSM_ID:0x0010a0e1,OEM_ID:0x0051,MODEL_ID:0x0000)
CPU detected:      "nicobar"
PK_HASH:           0x6e91b529aad0307f1fc67310dab1ff821eb7aa02fa5620157a9d20e124f4e0b8
Serial:            0x31276e91

sahara
sahara - [LIB]: Couldn't find a loader for given hwid and pkhash (0010a0e100510000_6e91b529aad0307f_[FHPRG/ENPRG].bin) :(
Device is in an unknown sahara state, resetting
resp={'cmd': 1, 'len': 48, 'version': 2, 'version_min': 1, 'max_cmd_len': 1024, 'mode': 0, 'res1': 0, 'res2': 0, 'res3': 0, 'res4': 0, 'res5': 0, 'res6': 0, 'object_size': 48, 'raw_data': bytearray(b'\x01\x00\x00\x000\x00\x00\x00\x02\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x04\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00')}

device is not unlockable. adb unrelated

I read something about doing this in EDL mode but I cannot find a lot of information about this.

try old unlock method by modifying devinfo https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=4100897

I found a list of all firehose files. But how do I know which one belongs to my device? https://www.gadgetsdr.com/all-qualcomm-prog-emmc-firehose-programmer-file-download/

check specifications of device SoC is UFS or eMMC + qualcomm model + suffix OPPO

I found the firehose for another device that has the same SoC but QFIL is giving me sahara failures. I tried disabling my antivirus, put windows in test mode, disabling integritychecks and enabling testsigning. But all to no avail. I think I might give up and buy a new decent device.

first find test point, enter EDL mode, install Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008 Driver, enter EDL mode again and start sahara within first < 30 seconds - only then it may work. btw linux https://github.com/bkerler/edl is much easier to use

I tried this and it cannot find a loader, also see edited post. I'm giving up. Going to the store this afternoon and probably buying me a Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro ;)

probably no loader exist (or not yet imported from https://github.com/bkerler/Loaders/tree/main/oppo) but you can always provide own loader (which you found previously) https://android.stackexchange.com/q/226838

This was an MBN file, not a BIN file like the EDL tool uses. I don't feel comfortable enough around this stuff to figure this out. I have a general grasp of what's going on but I have come to the point where I do not longer know what I'm doing.

file name doesn't matter. edl.py provides module for oem unlock too. However chances to unlock are low to zero, be wise :)

Yea that seems like an awful lot of trouble for a low chance of succes


text:
Xperia play bootloader locked?
Hi guys i've been trying for quite a while to unlock the bootloader of the phone i've bought. It's from hong kong and branded to vodafone it's not sim locked as I tried an optus sim and it worked.
I press and hold the search button and plug the usb in and I get a blue light but when I try to check if fastboot can find it, it can't.
Any ideas what the problem is?

If fastboot from your computer can't find it, try following these steps exactly, beginning with installing the Requirements below. The most likely problem is some sort of driver missing, disallowing the computer from reading the phone in while it's in the bootloader.
This guide can be found on addictivetips.com, and uses a fastboot program from your computer to unlock the bootloader:
Requirements:

Fastboot package.
Sony Ericsson USB drivers (32bit & 64bit).
A functioning internet connection.

Steps:

To begin, navigate to this website: http://unlockbootloader.sonyericsson.com/instructions.
Click Continue at the bottom of the page and enter your device’s IMEI code, name and email address in the relevant fields.
Your unique unlock key will now be mailed to you.
Now unzip fastboot.rar and open the folder extracted.
Within that folder, hold the Shift key and press the right Mouse button. Now select Open command window here.
Now we need to connect the phone to the pc in fastboot mode. Do so by turning the phone off, holding the menu button (search button for the Xperia Play) and plugging in the USB Cable.
Now in the command prompt, enter the following command:

fastboot.exe -i 0x0fce getvar version

Now enter the command, replacing KEY in the string with the unlock key mailed to you:

fastboot.exe -i 0x0fce oem unlock 0xKEY
That is it! The bootloader is now unlocked.

I fixed it :) I just had to update the original firmware. Then do those steps. That seemed to fix it.

cool! glad you found out how to fix it :)


text:
How can I find why I'm using so much data on mobile network?
According to my provider, I've used 6.8MB of data within 3 days.
The thing is, I don't know how. I've installed DroidWall and WiSync and only used Waze (a navigation app). I installed Traffic Monitor which shows Waze using less than 800KB and other apps even less (some of them used traffic before I setup DroidWall)
Any clues as to what is using 6MB??

It would make sense for a navigation app to use more than 800 KB. I would suspect Traffic Monitor is inaccurate, personally.

Why should it use so much? I predownload all maps. It syncs traffic data, that's it. And I've used it for a total of maybe 2 hours.

pre-downloading the maps is going to use data. And even if you predownload the maps, it will still use the network to check if your route needs changing. Plus there are other apps that will check and sync information. if you want to ensure that you dont use any data when using the navigation, you can try to disable the data network.

preloading over wifi... checking if route needs changing should not take 800000 bytes. something is definitely using data, the question is how to find it.

Try My Data Manager.  It says it can report usage per application.

My Data Manager is a free app available in the android market which will aid you in catering your needs. It will give you a detailed statistics of which app/service used how much data.
Edit : did not notice this was answered in the comments already.


text:
Buying apps and entering credit card number via 3G/GPRS. Is it secure enough?
As title. Of course using Android market and the Google Checkout payment. By the way, how about other market-like apps?

First be aware that you're transferring data over a wide area wireless device (the range of 3G is much wider than Wifi), therefore it is easier for an attacker to snoop on whatever your device is transmitting on 3G than on Wifi. The 3G/GPRS only has a lightweight encryption (to limit unnecessary use of CPU power and battery, which is already scarce in mobile devices), this encryption should never be relied upon.
However, applications can use its own encryption. I have not checked into it specifically, but I would presume that Google Checkout on Android does use SSL encryption; which is widely accepted to be strong enough for doing online purchases.
In short, you should not need to worry about doing online purchases using Android Market. If you're doing purchases on other apps, you should check whether they're using SSL or other strong encryption. Be aware that your banking details are being transmitted wirelessly, it is trivial for anyone to record data that are transmitted using radio waves; your only line of defense is SSL encryption, which should hold attackers at bay long enough until your credit card expires.

Thanks dude, that's a very clear answer. Is it possible to check that Checkout uses SSL? In computer browser there is that secure symbol, but since Checkout is an app, there is no such thing (the same for other market-like apps)

Keep in mind that there a lot of other things that can go wrong -- a man in the middle attack could still work if the certificate chain is not validated, etc. etc.  Normally you can rely on these mechanisms, but all it takes is an incompetent CA -- of which there are many -- or a tiny flaw or exception in security software to make the whole thing fall apart.

Its worth pointing out that 3G/GPRS only "feels" like it is more risky.  You should consider that if someone wants to intercept a significant amount of internet traffic they will find a way.  Keep your sensitive data protected regardless of how you access the 'net.

@greg: due to the wider range, 3G is much more risky if you're transmitting unencrypted data or weakly encrypted data such as the one used in 3G (the default encryption 3G is optimized for battery and cpu consumption, not security). Adding encryption such as SSL is necessary for any wireless communication to ensure man in middle won't be able to obtain your banking data.


text:
Moto G7 Power (XT1955-4) detects two touch inputs
I bought an aftermarket replacement LCD + touch for my Moto G7 Power off Aliexpress. However, it has an issue.
The problem is that it sometimes detects a touch in the top middle of the screen. This is the part of the screen where the notch is. So an actual physical touch on that part of the screen could never be registered because there is no touch sensing there.
When I then touch the screen anywhere else with just one finger, it detects two touch inputs. My screen is unusable in this state (obviously). I have to turn the screen off and back on again to get rid of this error. Here is a screenshot of the issue:

I have tried cleaning the connector, wiping data and cache + Dalvik cache. I downgraded my phone to another firmware version. I tried two different custom ROMs (LineageOS 18 and 17) but the issue persists. I'm using the original charging cable. No screen protector. It happens during normal usage without the phone heating up bad. A restart doesn't help, it only temporarily fixes the issue in the same way turning the screen off and on again does. Sometimes it happens 1 minute after I turn the screen on, sometimes it doesn't happen for half an hour. On average I would say it happens 50 times a day, which is getting very annoying.
I managed to start the partial screen app and press RUN SCREEN ANALYSIS through ADB shell after the glitch started happening. But after a minute, the app tells me "no areas were added". The erroneous touch is happening at (339.5; 0) so I also tried starting the analysis and then sending a tap event at those coordinates but still, no areas were added.
Is there anything I can do? Like making the system permanently ignore touch inputs in that region? I'm fine with such a solution as long as it works. I have some knowledge about Unix and Android systems, but I'm not an expert at this. Btw, I have already filed a complaint with the seller.
[EDIT]:
I managed to remove the notch by installing None Display Cutout through Magisk. This allowed me to run partial screen full screen. Then I did an analysis in partial screen and sent an input event through ADB with: adb shell input tap 339.5 0. This time, a partial screen found an area and has included it in its ignored regions. However, the glitch keeps happening still!


text:
Restart touchscreen
I already posted a question here. I came up with a solution that could work but I'm running into some issues still. The problem is that sometimes a touch-and-hold is detected at position (339.5; 0) that will only go away after the touchscreen is restarted, which basically means turning the screen off and on again. I have a Moto G7 Power XT1955-4 running on LineageOS 17.1.
My proposed solution would include an app or process that can detect certain touch inputs by reading the file /dev/input/event1 in the same way the command getevent -l does.
Upon detecting such a faulty input, the touchscreen should be restarted. I tried sending these commands:
adb shell "rm -rf /dev/input/event1"
adb shell input tap 500 500

And indeed, after removing event1, the touch at (339.5; 0) is no longer registered and the tap at (500; 500) is the only registered event. The problem is, however, that now I cannot turn my touchscreen back on. I have to reboot my phone.
So basically, I need a different method to restart my touchscreen. I tried the following:

Sending a keyevent 26 twice (2x powerbutton). This is not ideal since I have to wait for the screen to turn on and off completely (I only need to restart touch) and I have to put my code or fingerprint again
By searching through the {*}.rc files I found that the hardware of the screen is mounted in the following directory: /sys/devices/platform/soc/78b7000.i2c/i2c-3/3-0062. In there there is a file called poweron that contains a 1 when the screen is on and a 0 when the screen is off. I tried manually writing this value but I get a no permission error. I'm rooted and remounted the partition RW. I also tried chmod 0666 poweron && echo 0 > poweron but it doesn't change the file. I guess the file is a system output value.
I believe the touchscreen and LCD are two different devices in my system and I did manage to find the touchscreen in the /sys partition: /sys/class/touchscreen/NVT-ts/. However, it has no file containing a 1 or a 0 for the power state of the touchscreen. If it did, I could probably not even write to it.
As described above, I tried removing event1. I then tried manually remounting it, but failed. event1 is not in /proc/mounts so I'm left with no clue on how to mount it.
I tried searching through the system files for the word "event1" to see if I can figure out where and how the system handles mounting this hardware. But after 10 seconds the system just crashes and the phone reboots.
Temporarily moving the event1 file to a different location is not possible. I can move it within /dev/* but touch inputs will still be registered. I cannot move it outside /dev, say store it temporarily in /storage/emulated/0. The command just hangs.
I tried setting the screen brigthness to 0 with the hope that this would cut power to the screen and resetting the touchscreen: echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/lcd-backlight/brightness. The screen does seem to turn off but when I increase brightness again, the problem is still there. Ergo, the touchscreen was not reset.
I tried partial screen app. Glitch keeps happening and partial screen can do nothing about it.

I seem to be able to control some parts of the system but not the power going into the touchscreen. I already came this far in solving the problem. Please assist in restarting the touchscreen in a fast manner, which doesn't require me to turn my screen off and on.
Also, any tips on how build an app or process that can detect inputs and execute the screen restart are very welcome. I really don't care how, as long as it works and can run in the background.

why not just send the release command with toybox sendevent?

Thanks. I used this (https://www.dropbox.com/s/ugc9j6f1bqu0qw0/geteventsendevent.sh) link to find the DEVICE, TYPE, CODE and VALUE arguments of a touch input. But how does this help me restart the screen? And by that I mean just the touchscreen, not the whole screen.

How? I used the same script to see which event was sent upon releasing the screen and it said: sendevent /dev/input/event1    3    57 4294967295. But there are a few problems with this. It does not specify which location to release. Also, when I send it after the screen is in glitched state nothing changes.

The "input" command can be used for presses, taps, swipes, etc but not releases.

A sendevent you cannot specify at specific coordinates as far as I can tell. Can you give an example of how such a release would look?

coordinates are displayed as hex values but also dec values can be sent

Ok I tried capturing a full touch and release in getsendevent.sh and then sending those events on the terminal when the glitch happens but (339.5; 0) is NOT released.

The glitch is very persistent. I think my best option is to disable the touchscreen (e.g. by deleting /dev/input/even1) and re-enabling it (but I don't know how to mount /dev/input/event1). Got any ideas for that?

afaik character devices can only be created by kernel modules (or the kernel itself)

Excuse me for asking dumb questions but can't I get the kernel to restart that module then?

Hi, yea, I tried partial screen app. After a lot of messing around I got it to detect the faulty touch but then it can't do anything about it.

When I do ls /vendor/lib/modules I get this output: br_netfilter.ko efivarfs.ko lcd.ko modules.alias modules.dep mpq-adapter.ko mpq-dmx-hw-plugin.ko rdbg.ko. I can in fact start the lcd module but this does not bring my touch back after removing event1 from /dev/input.

I did a find / -name *.ko  and started all the modules with insmod but the touch doesn't come back. Is this conclusive evidence that I cannot achieve what I want? I'm a noob in this area.

maybe you shouldn't destroy event1 idk

Maybe not, but I need to restart my touchscreen. Maybe I'll just buy a new screen. I thought this would be a fun project but I'm starting to think that what I want is impossible.