date stringlengths 10 10 | nb_tokens int64 60 629k | text_size int64 234 1.02M | content stringlengths 234 1.02M |
|---|---|---|---|
2015/10/18 | 523 | 1,853 | <issue_start>username_0: Some program keeps showing me ads on the main page every now and then. It's extremely annoying, and I'm unable to catch it. Is there a way I can detect it to remove it?
When the ad shows up, I try to hold the home button to see the app name, but it disappears. Sometimes the ad is a link, so it asks me for the browser to use. My device is rooted.<issue_comment>username_1: I installed [AdBlock Plus](https://adblockplus.org/android-install) (not the browser, click on the gray link in below the big link in the middle) and [AdAway](https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=org.adaway) and this solved the problem. Unfortunately this works only if your device is rooted.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: You can install AdwCleaner! With it you can remove Adware,PUP/LPI (Potentially Undesirable Program), Toolbars! I have used it, and its very good! It does a great job!
Then you can use adblock plus, to prevent any other ads from showing up! But first use adwcleaner!
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Finding the Source
------------------
**For Android >4.1**
If your device is running Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean" or higher, you can just press and hold on notifications and your device will tell you who is generating them.
**For Android <4.1**
Use [Airpush Detector](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brosmike.airpushdetector&hl=en). This application has a big list of apps that create banner ads. If it finds an application it knows of, it will tell you and ask you to uninstall.
---
Stopping the Future Problems
----------------------------
Use an Adblocker to Block Ads:
1. [AdFree](http://adfree.odiousapps.com/) *(Recommended)*
2. [AdBlock Plus](https://adblockplus.org/android-install)
3. [Ad Away](https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=org.adaway)
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer] |
2015/10/18 | 646 | 2,366 | <issue_start>username_0: and thanks for reading this. So I've had an S5 for just over a year now. As it has an AMOLED screen, when you turn the brightness all the way down, the screen will flicker a yellow-green. This happened whenever the screen would dim on standby, and it seemed that it was normal. However, now, when I power it off, the screen does the green flicker when it's fading out. This did not happen before.
On top of this, sometimes the screen simply will not turn on. The phone is on, the lights are on, but I'll press the power button, and nothing will happen. I'll keep pressing it, and eventually it will turn on, but this could be part of an underlying issue. If anyone has any ideas, please do tell me.
Also, smaller issue: woke up one morning, and a notification came up at 3 AM saying that I was running out of storage space. Is my phone trying to kill itself?<issue_comment>username_1: I installed [AdBlock Plus](https://adblockplus.org/android-install) (not the browser, click on the gray link in below the big link in the middle) and [AdAway](https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=org.adaway) and this solved the problem. Unfortunately this works only if your device is rooted.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: You can install AdwCleaner! With it you can remove Adware,PUP/LPI (Potentially Undesirable Program), Toolbars! I have used it, and its very good! It does a great job!
Then you can use adblock plus, to prevent any other ads from showing up! But first use adwcleaner!
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Finding the Source
------------------
**For Android >4.1**
If your device is running Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean" or higher, you can just press and hold on notifications and your device will tell you who is generating them.
**For Android <4.1**
Use [Airpush Detector](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brosmike.airpushdetector&hl=en). This application has a big list of apps that create banner ads. If it finds an application it knows of, it will tell you and ask you to uninstall.
---
Stopping the Future Problems
----------------------------
Use an Adblocker to Block Ads:
1. [AdFree](http://adfree.odiousapps.com/) *(Recommended)*
2. [AdBlock Plus](https://adblockplus.org/android-install)
3. [Ad Away](https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=org.adaway)
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer] |
2015/10/19 | 818 | 2,675 | <issue_start>username_0: I recently bought a YU Yuphoria shipped with Stock Android which is really freaking me as people are saying that *Yuphoria shipped with Cyanogen OS* is far better than the *Yuphoria shipped with stock Android*. So, is there anyway I can put Cyanogen OS now on my Yuphoria??<issue_comment>username_1: Well, Android and Cyanogen aren't two separate OS internally but Cyanogen is the customized form of Android (with extra privileges). And, I would recommend you to stay with the stock Android if you've recently bought the device.
If you want to put Cyanogen you'll have to go through a lot of steps [Flashing another ROM] (it might make your device unusable/ cause errors after installing Cyanogen). Tell your friends to peace out and keep calm. I prefer the stock Android rather than CyanogenMod.
And, at last if you've money to get another smartphone, you can go ahead and experiment by installing Cyanogen. (:-D)
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: If you want cyanogen OS on your yuphoria on android then you can go to the nearest service center and get it on your phone.
You can check it on their [website](http://www.yuplaygod.com/). I haven't done it yet, but you can give it a shot
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Yu Yuphoria comes with 2 different version
* [Cyanogen OS version](http://www.amazon.in/dp/B00XTWAAYW)
* [Stock Android Version](http://www.amazon.in/dp/B015W4UQJS)
[Related thread](http://forums.yuplaygod.com/threads/yuphoria-now-available-with-stock-android.24663/) on Official forum.
---
To get *Cyanogen OS* : You can scroll down to files to your device on Official [Cyanogen - Support](https://cyngn.com/support) page. Or Download directly [Cyanogen OS 12.1 - 5.1.1](http://builds.cyngn.com/factory/lettuce/cm-12.1-YOG4PAS47N-lettuce-signed-fastboot-5d674b9b61.zip) and flash it to your device.
---
To get *CyanogenMod* : You can go to Official [CyanogenMod support page for Yuphoria](https://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=lettuce). Or Download directly [CyanogenMod 12.1](https://download.cyanogenmod.org/get/jenkins/135329/cm-12.1-20151119-SNAPSHOT-YOG7DAO1M9-lettuce.zip) and flash it to your device.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: You can install stock android YUOS which is available on [Yu official](http://download.yuplaygod.com) website or install [CM website](https://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=lettuce). I am currently having CM 13.0 snapshot release on my yuphoria and very happy using it. CM community did a wonderful job on fixing bugs and adding improvements to 13.0 release.
Install instructions are provided on respective sites and xda forums.
Hope it helps.
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/19 | 377 | 1,662 | <issue_start>username_0: I am afraid of using whatsapp just to avoid so many unwanted messages or unnecessary people contacting you. Just wondering, is it possible that am visible on whatsapp to ONLY some people (all my contacts shouldn't come to know)?<issue_comment>username_1: WhatsApp needs the users mobile number to add someone, so I guess don't give your mobiles number to everyone and if someone got your number and is trying to give you unwanted messages then just block 'em.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes, you can choose the option to be visible only to your contacts.
Go to **Settings --> Account --> Privacy --> Who can see my personal info** and choose Last seen, Profile photo, status to `My contacts`. But configuring this, everyone who is not in your address list can know that you have a WhatsApp account, but they cannot see your last seen, profile photo, status. You can also **block** unwanted contacts here. By blocking a particular contact, the other side will not see your last seen, profile photo, status and additionally you will not receive any messages / calls from blocked contact, messages will be shown as undelivered to them.
When you are in a group, provided you set the correct privacy options, the group members can only see your `number` and the `name` that you used while adding account on the device. There is no way to change this behavior.
Also, you cannot avoid unknown users adding you to a group. WhatsApp doesn't ask you whether you wanted to join a group or not. All you can do is to quit after joining and block the ones that joined you. **Blocked contacts** couldn't add you to a group.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/10/19 | 340 | 1,435 | <issue_start>username_0: I have a Samsung tablet and bought a cover with a Bluetooth keyboard. The problem I have is that the `@` key and the `"` key are swapped around.
How do I resolve this?<issue_comment>username_1: I think this is the problem of the layout of the keyboard. Make sure that the layouts of keyboard on your OS and the Bluetooth keyboard consistent.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: This can be due to a number of reasons:
1. You have a layout conflict between the OS and the Bluetooth keyboard, as pointed out by the previous answerer. Resolve this by going into the "Physical Keyboard Settings" option in the settings of whatever 3rd-party keyboard app you may have as default, or if you use the inbuilt soft keyboard, go into
Settings -> Language and Input -> Keyboard app Settings button -> Input Layouts.
2. Same as above, but in this case the problem is due to a region setting in your phone which conflicts with the layout of the keyboard. Fix this by checking if the region setting on your tablet is incorrect for the keyboard layout, and correct as necessary.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I have Samsung Tab S7+ and my keys would change all the time. I knew it happened when I would use the `shift` key so I tried a bunch of combos. It ended up being `shift` + `space bar`. It makes sense it would happen often since I use these all the time.
I was using a Logitech K360 keyboard.
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/19 | 624 | 2,573 | <issue_start>username_0: Let me start off by saying this question is essentially an updated version of [Access synced Exchange calendar from desktop browser](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/1240/access-synced-exchange-calendar-from-desktop-browser) but not a duplication
I have a work phone with Exchange access over VPN, let's called it me@work. This syncs to an Android phone running the VPN tool but uses my personal Google account me@home. I don't want or need to carry the work phone around during non-business hours, but it's great to know "oh I have a meeting tomorrow morning" or when making personal plans to know what my schedule is like without having to say "Let me check my work phone later to make sure I'm available"
me@work uses the Google native calendar app on Android. I don't currently sync my personal calendar to my work phone, but me@home is the main Google Account on that phone. Is there anyway to publish/sync those appointments to <https://calendar.google.com/calendar> with an app on Android? This would enable the events to show up on the webpage, and since they're syncing with my personal Google account they would likewise show up in my personal phone.
As bonus points, is there a way to have this be a one-way or isolated sync, so my work calendar doesn't show personal events?
My company's Exchange server is only available over VPN, so I can't just sync directly to my personal phone.<issue_comment>username_1: I used an app call e.sync from the Google play store and it works great. All of my work calendar events syncs to my Google calendar which shows up on my personal phone
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: It is a little bit late but maybe there is a solution now: Someone else had the same problem and asked me for a solution. I have created an Android app for this purpose now. It can copy/sync a calendar (e.g. your Exchange calendar) into another calendar (e.g. a new Google calendar that you create in your me@home Google account). This way you can see your work events in your me@home Google account but your personal events won't appear in your me@work work account.
It is a one way sync from your Exchange account into your Google account:
*Exchange (me@work) -> Android calendar -> [SyncCal](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.calengoo.synccal) -> Android calendar -> Google (me@google)*
You can find the app here: <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.calengoo.synccal>
It can be used for free but it also contains an In-App purchase for an automatic sync.
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/19 | 390 | 1,594 | <issue_start>username_0: Every time I receive an email, this message shows up on my Droid
>
> Unfortunately, Gmail has stopped.
>
>
>
How can I remedy this situation?<issue_comment>username_1: I could suggest various things which would most probably resolve the issue.
1. Uninstall updates to the app and update it again.
2. Update the app to the latest version (if you've not updated it).
3. Try to use the previous build (stock build) by uninstalling the recent update. And, check whether the problem has been resolved.
* If you've rooted the device, the above three would also be applicable
4. At last, Factory Reset is the option.
Hope that helps!
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: For anyone else who has this problem, wait until you have a notification for two new emails, then click the notification and you will be asked which app you would like to use, it wouldn't ask for me if it was just one email I would just get the error every time.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: I had this bug on my Nexus for about 2 days. Absolutely infuriating. It was stopping me from accessing phone settings because when the error message described above came up, which it did almost all the time, the screen closed.
Opening Gmail settings seemed to definitely trigger an instant error message every time. I tried a few things.
I had never had the Google/android "inbox"app on this phone. I installed it in addition to my Gmail app. Instantly, the bug stopped. This was a really debilitating problem and I'm glad to have chanced on a solution that works for my phone!
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/20 | 378 | 1,354 | <issue_start>username_0: `com.browser.player` suddenly appeared to my installed application when I connect to a wireless data. It periodically shows advertisement on the screen which is annoying.
I tried to uninstall from **Settings > Applications > Manage applications** but it's still there.
How to remove it?<issue_comment>username_1: If yours is a rooted phone you can use system app remover like No bloat etc to remove system apps. Try searching for system app removers online. I don't think the option is there for non rooted phones
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: According to [Julius's post on Android Central](http://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/580827-how-uninstall-com-browser-player-application-htc-inspire-4g.html#post4685363), you need to turn off its device administration first.
>
> Settings -> Security -> Administration, then Deactivate it. Now you can uninstall it.
>
>
>
Assuming you have Samsung device (based on the original revision),
>
> 1. Press Home key and then tap Menu key > Settings > More.
> 2. Tap Security, and then tap Device administrators.
>
>
> From [User Manual for Samsung Galaxy S3 by Sprint](http://eguides.sprint.com/support/eguides/samsunggalaxysiii/index.html#samsung_galaxy_s_iii_ug/device_administration.html)
>
>
>
For other model, please consult its user manual.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/10/20 | 507 | 1,734 | <issue_start>username_0: seriously i hate advertisements because they disturbing my enjoinment on my phone, even in my other account like facebook, twitter, gmail they suddenly appeared.<issue_comment>username_1: Advertisements are often used by developers to finance their free applications . But if your device shows more advertisements on screen than content it might become a problem.
There are 2 reasons why your android device shows a lot of ads:
1. The individual apps have ads included
2. You have adware on your phone
So first make sure that you don't have any adware/malware installed on your phone. To do this, you can install a trusted adware scanner like [**Malwarebytes Anti-Malware**](https://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDMQFjACahUKEwj9vYCr19DIAhXMSRoKHTS9BGc&url=https%3A%2F%2Fplay.google.com%2Fstore%2Fapps%2Fdetails%3Fid%3Dorg.malwarebytes.antimalware%26hl%3Dde&usg=AFQjCNGy9FRyZCEJBw-8aT9foQY-8TO1XA&cad=rja).
To deactivate inbuild ads you need to root your device.
If your device is rooted, you can install [**AdAway from f-droid**](https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=org.adaway). Note: You don't need to install F-Droid, just download the apk from adaway and install it. (you may need to accept the installation of applications from untrusted sources inside your security settings).
This will block the most common advertisements by altering your hostfile configuration.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: If you have **Root Access** you can go for software like [AdFree](http://adfree.odiousapps.com/)
AdFree removes most ads in the browser and other apps. Basically It does this by nullifying requests to known host names in the system hosts file.
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/20 | 605 | 2,136 | <issue_start>username_0: I have loved my Nexus 5 since it was released with KitKat, and last evening I decided to enable full disk encryption, which I expected might take around an hour or so. It's now about 12 hours in with no visible change. All I see are the Marshmallow four animated dots. I've never seen any progress display on encrypting the disk, and of course I'm trying to avoid rebooting the phone for fear that the disk will be a jumbled mess and I could either lose my data or even brick the phone.
What is the best course of action at this point, and possible consequences?<issue_comment>username_1: Advertisements are often used by developers to finance their free applications . But if your device shows more advertisements on screen than content it might become a problem.
There are 2 reasons why your android device shows a lot of ads:
1. The individual apps have ads included
2. You have adware on your phone
So first make sure that you don't have any adware/malware installed on your phone. To do this, you can install a trusted adware scanner like [**Malwarebytes Anti-Malware**](https://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDMQFjACahUKEwj9vYCr19DIAhXMSRoKHTS9BGc&url=https%3A%2F%2Fplay.google.com%2Fstore%2Fapps%2Fdetails%3Fid%3Dorg.malwarebytes.antimalware%26hl%3Dde&usg=AFQjCNGy9FRyZCEJBw-8aT9foQY-8TO1XA&cad=rja).
To deactivate inbuild ads you need to root your device.
If your device is rooted, you can install [**AdAway from f-droid**](https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=org.adaway). Note: You don't need to install F-Droid, just download the apk from adaway and install it. (you may need to accept the installation of applications from untrusted sources inside your security settings).
This will block the most common advertisements by altering your hostfile configuration.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: If you have **Root Access** you can go for software like [AdFree](http://adfree.odiousapps.com/)
AdFree removes most ads in the browser and other apps. Basically It does this by nullifying requests to known host names in the system hosts file.
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/20 | 331 | 1,286 | <issue_start>username_0: Is there any extention or function to manage whatsapp to send delayed messages?
I would like to send every day a message at the same time but I do not find this function?
The message is different every day and there are images or text<issue_comment>username_1: Sending automated texts is possible. "Tasker" is a powerful app that lets you do so.. It could be complicated to use at start. So I would recommend you search on youtube about the same using Tasker app.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: There seems to be an [app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.seebye.whatsapp.scheduler) called `Seebye Scheduler ROOT` which can do what you intend but the device must be ROOTED and [this](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.seebye.scheduler) one named `Scheduler NO ROOT`(from the same developer) is also available, for non-rooted device.
Once app is installed on your device, user needs to set a rule, by below steps,
1. setting the user to whom the message will be sent,
2. message text that needs to be sent,
3. when it needs to be sent
4.how frequently it needs to be sent.
None of my devices are compatible with these app, hence I could not test it myself, but looks worth for trying! Good Luck.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/10/20 | 375 | 1,365 | <issue_start>username_0: I want to configure my tablets such that if the device is plugged into a charger and it is between, say, 7 am and 10pm, then the screen doesn't turn off, otherwise, it will. Is this possible?
Edit ------
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/w0Rwx.png)<issue_comment>username_1: Sending automated texts is possible. "Tasker" is a powerful app that lets you do so.. It could be complicated to use at start. So I would recommend you search on youtube about the same using Tasker app.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: There seems to be an [app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.seebye.whatsapp.scheduler) called `Seebye Scheduler ROOT` which can do what you intend but the device must be ROOTED and [this](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.seebye.scheduler) one named `Scheduler NO ROOT`(from the same developer) is also available, for non-rooted device.
Once app is installed on your device, user needs to set a rule, by below steps,
1. setting the user to whom the message will be sent,
2. message text that needs to be sent,
3. when it needs to be sent
4.how frequently it needs to be sent.
None of my devices are compatible with these app, hence I could not test it myself, but looks worth for trying! Good Luck.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/10/21 | 1,163 | 4,273 | <issue_start>username_0: I have a note 3 and will be transferring to my note 5 soon.
I want to find out if there is anyway i can just transfer the app with the existing internet browsing info with the login info i already have in the cache. The cache has not been cleared so I want to directly transfer this to my new phone so i don't have to re-log into and re-enter all my passwords for the sites.
Is there a way to do this?
Just to be clear:
I want to open up my internet app on note 5 as it is on my note 3....so that the login info and stuff is already there so i don't have to find all my logon info again for the sites i visit.
Many thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: Use Titanium backup (requires root access on both old and new devices)
Make the backup of the internet app on note 3, copy the backup in your new device, download Titanium Backup in new device, restore the backup but be sure to restore only the data. Titanium backup offers 3 types of app restores: App only, App+Data, Data only. Use the "Data Only" option as using the "App+Data" restore option may replace the internet app with an older version (Note 3 would have older app version than Note 5).
This shall restore all the saved data of your old device to your new device.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: A solution without root is described in [Full Backup of non-rooted devices](https://android.stackexchange.com/q/28296/16575): using `adb backup` you can grab all (or selected) apps including their data from your old device, and then restore them to your new device. I'd recommend taking separate backups from all your apps, as `adb restore` is an all-or-nothing without the possibility to select what to restore – and you probably want a "clean transfer", leaving "garbage" out.
### Instructions
So the recommended steps would be:
1. installing the required ADB stuff to your computer, see [Is there a minimal installation of ADB?](https://android.stackexchange.com/q/42474/16575)
2. performing an ADB backup for all your apps. If you're using Linux on your computer, my tool [Adebar](https://github.com/username_2Soft/Adebar "username_2's Adebar at Github") can assist you with that, creating shell scripts to backup/restore each single app and more (on Windows, [Ultimate Backup Tool](http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1844032) might offer something comparable). If not, you can list all apps via `adb shell pm list packages` (with being `-3` for user apps you want to backup including their `.apk` files, and `-s` for system apps where you want only the data from – as you couldn't restore the `.apk` anyway due to read-only `/system` file system). Then run `adb backup -f .ab -apk` for each user app, and `adb backup -f .ab -noapk` for each system app. Hint: `com.android.sharedstoragebackup` will take a while and create a huge file, and you probably can skip that; it's the contents of your SD card(s).
3. for each backup file you want to transfer to the new device, run `adb restore` with the new device connected
### A few caveats and tricks
* apps may opt-out of this backup (`ALLOW_BACKUP = FALSE`), in which case the backup file will be only 41 bytes large (or 0 bytes). In this case, you cannot transfer the app this way without root tricks.
* you could simply do a "full backup" of the entire system, and later pick what to restore with the help of some 3rd party tools – see [How do you extract an App's data from a full backup made through “adb backup”?](https://android.stackexchange.com/q/28481/16575) and [Partial adb restore](https://android.stackexchange.com/q/24785/16575)
### Further readings
* [Restoring an ADB backup onto a different phone of the same model?](https://android.stackexchange.com/q/37570/16575)
* our [backup tag-wiki](https://android.stackexchange.com/tags/backup/info)
* our [adb tag-wiki](https://android.stackexchange.com/tags/adb/info)
* if the above sounds "too much", and you want a few selected apps only: [my list of backup apps](http://android.izzysoft.de/applists/category/named/file_backup#group_141 "username_2OnDroid: app list for backups without root") has a.o. *Helium* mentioned, which might be worth a look then. It does the same as described above, just directly on the Android device.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/10/21 | 588 | 2,411 | <issue_start>username_0: So, a little bit of background. The worst part about this is that I'm pretty confident I know how to fix it, but I don't know how to go about doing the thing I need to do to fix it. Bear with me a moment.
So I have a stock Droid Turbo, I don't have any kind of ROMS or any non-play store stuff on it.
So what I did was I went into developer settings on the phone, the "Hidden Settings" and I started fiddling with stuff.
I either pressed on:
Simulate secondary displays
or
Force RTL layout direction
and the phone's GUI crashed hard. Now it's completely bonkers, and only endlessly loops the error that "Unfortunately, the System UI has stopped working."
Now my question is, is there a way to reset those options in the developer menu somehow, without doing a factory reset? I have a few apps that store local data that will get erased, and I'd rather not.
Additionally, the phone is still working in the background, I can hear text message notifications and it rings when I get a call, though I can't interact with it in any way. The Droid Turbo user interface (For gestures while the phone is locked) works too.
I tried clearing the cache, I tried letting it complexly run out of battery and doing it again. Hard resets. Nothing seems to work.
The worst part is that my PC Doesn't want to recognize it either, which is odd. While in the bootloader it got a connection to my PC as a linux USB Storage device, inside system recovery it made the noise like something is there, but it's not.
So any tips? any way to save my data before I have to factory reset this? I really can't lose that data, a few apps I have store user data locally.<issue_comment>username_1: Why not just install a recovery on an sd card and then install it through the stock recovery mode and reboot into it. The only thing i'm an expert on, is not being an expert, so I might be way off in regards to your Droid. I had to do it on my s5 galaxy and it worked on that.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: If your phone is encrypted, the only thing I can think of to get your data is to install a custom recovery, a custom ROM which uses a custom system UI and start the phone. Your data should be there. If it's not possible, you will have to turn off the phone, press and hold power on and volume down and factory reset. This last part is not recommended since you may loose your data.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/10/22 | 217 | 893 | <issue_start>username_0: I can use AdBlock Plus to block ads on wifi. Is there a way to do it while on mobile data? I'd like to use it in Chrome, if possible.<issue_comment>username_1: Why not just install a recovery on an sd card and then install it through the stock recovery mode and reboot into it. The only thing i'm an expert on, is not being an expert, so I might be way off in regards to your Droid. I had to do it on my s5 galaxy and it worked on that.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: If your phone is encrypted, the only thing I can think of to get your data is to install a custom recovery, a custom ROM which uses a custom system UI and start the phone. Your data should be there. If it's not possible, you will have to turn off the phone, press and hold power on and volume down and factory reset. This last part is not recommended since you may loose your data.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/10/22 | 245 | 1,002 | <issue_start>username_0: I have an Alcatel Fierce 2 phone with Kit Kat. Even though I have an 8 GB SD card, when I try to update Chrome I keep getting "not enough memory check storage". I have the box checked to use my SD card as default, but no luck. Any resolution?<issue_comment>username_1: Why not just install a recovery on an sd card and then install it through the stock recovery mode and reboot into it. The only thing i'm an expert on, is not being an expert, so I might be way off in regards to your Droid. I had to do it on my s5 galaxy and it worked on that.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: If your phone is encrypted, the only thing I can think of to get your data is to install a custom recovery, a custom ROM which uses a custom system UI and start the phone. Your data should be there. If it's not possible, you will have to turn off the phone, press and hold power on and volume down and factory reset. This last part is not recommended since you may loose your data.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/10/22 | 235 | 991 | <issue_start>username_0: I have tried the most popular applications but no default shortcuts.
For instance pressing the button long time could be one. I am using Samsung Galaxy 4 and Android 5.0.1.
Is there any shortcut for a better flashlight in Android?<issue_comment>username_1: Why not just install a recovery on an sd card and then install it through the stock recovery mode and reboot into it. The only thing i'm an expert on, is not being an expert, so I might be way off in regards to your Droid. I had to do it on my s5 galaxy and it worked on that.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: If your phone is encrypted, the only thing I can think of to get your data is to install a custom recovery, a custom ROM which uses a custom system UI and start the phone. Your data should be there. If it's not possible, you will have to turn off the phone, press and hold power on and volume down and factory reset. This last part is not recommended since you may loose your data.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/10/22 | 684 | 2,737 | <issue_start>username_0: I know the thread [What can I do to increase battery life on my Android device?](https://android.stackexchange.com/q/476/9897) which is a subset of this question.
I want to understand how you can improve battery lasting in Android, which is a much broader topic than the original.
I am especially interested in Android versions later than 4.4 because of [Xposed installer](http://repo.xposed.info/module/de.robv.android.xposed.installer), a necessity of [Greenify's](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oasisfeng.greenify&hl=en) applications, is developed for those versions but still in the experimental phase.
I see this after morning use in Samsung Galaxy 4 and Android 5.0.1:
which is too fast. I am using battery saving mode and disabled step-counter from my phone.
How can you use better battery in Android?<issue_comment>username_1: You can increase you battery lasting by making this settings on your phone:
* Go to settings-> Battery, check which app is consuming your battery, you have to get rid of that.
* You should off the unnecessary hardware radio's [wifi, bluetooth, Internet], if you are not using it like at night.
* Turn off the app services which are not useful, by going to settings->apps.
* Remove if any live wallpaper or widget you had used on home screen.
* Turn down the brightness and turn off Automatic Brightness.
* Update your apps.
* Put the device on Airplane mode if you are not using it like on Flight.
* Use power control app or other battery saver app.
* You can use Greenify app that can really help you in saving battery life.
Hope that helps.
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Follow whatever tips you can do that username_1 suggested prior to this in case it is an app or apps causing your problem.
Also consider the battery age. Over time batteries become less and less efficient. You can replace your battery with an extended battery as well. It makes your phone heavier as a result, but your battery time will improve significantly.
If you do have spotty or no coverage, do use airplane mode, your phone uses more battery when it's searching for a signal or the signal received is low. Also turn off wifi when you don't need to use it but you expect cell coverage instead of airplane mode.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: If you have a rooted device with Xposed Framework installed, you can use [Deep Sleep Battery Saver](http://repo.xposed.info/module/com.rootuninstaller.batrsaver). It works better than many others because it has the ability to hook into the phone and control it directly. But don't install Xposed Framework just for a battery saver.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/10/22 | 690 | 2,568 | <issue_start>username_0: I am thinking about getting a subscription to google music after seeing so many good reviews (plus, the same subscription will allow you access to Youtube Red when it comes out! [*source*](http://gizmodo.com/youtube-really-wants-you-to-pay-for-youtube-1737829631?rev=1445448211221)).
I just have this doubt: if I can't renew my subscription one month, will I be able to hear those albums that I made available for offline listening? How does that work?
Thanks<issue_comment>username_1: As far as I know, Google Play Music (the app) stores offline music in it's data directory. This is device dependent, and you'll need a file explorer such as ES File Explorer to access the files directly. If you have the music stored on the device itself (so not a microSD card or external storage), they'll be located in somewhere such as `/storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.google.android.music/files/music` or `/storage/sdcard0/Android/data/com.google.android.music/files/music` - they are all MP3 files, and the filenames are all numbers, eg: `245.mp3` or `14.mp3`. If they are stored on external storage, again it is system dependent, but one possible location is `/storage/sdcard1/Android/data/com.google.android.music/files/music`.
Anyway, I'm not sure if these files get deleted when your subscription ends/you cancel it, you you could always copy them to somewhere else (for example, `/storage/sdcard0/Music` or `/storage/emulated/0/Music` for internal storage, or `/storage/sdcard1/Music` for external storage.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Google music doesn't store the songs you save offline like if they were normal downloads, instead it saves them
>
> in a randomized folder structure with obfuscated file names.
>
>
>
So you can't just browse them with a file manager and have access to them; they are in a cache of sort. When the subscription expires, Play music provides to delete them from your phone. If you think about it, this would make the subscription system useless, resulting in a financial loss for Google. You can try, though, this [app](https://www.david-schulte.de/en/play-music-exporter/) (root required) which is able to locate the files and "decrypt" them, to make them available as simple stored files. Note also that the app currently doesn't work on Marshmellow. For more information and a guide on how to use Play music exporter check this [article](http://nexus5.wonderhowto.com/how-to/download-songs-from-google-play-music-for-offline-use-any-app-your-nexus-5-0156234/).
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer] |
2015/10/22 | 484 | 1,686 | <issue_start>username_0: This keeps appearing/dissapearing on my icon bar, and I can't find any reference to it. Can anyone shed some light on this mystery?
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/YhRxO.png)<issue_comment>username_1: This means that the audio you are playing at this moment is **supported by** the "**DolbyAudio**" sound-enhancement. Seems like you are using a **HTC ONE M9** then - it is a replacement for the BeatsAudio engine to enhance your music.
I found the explanation on a [**german site**](https://www.droidwiki.de/Symbole_in_der_Benachrichtigungszeile). Credits go to them.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: This icon comes from BoomSound, installed on your HTC device. Android Central [forums](http://forums.androidcentral.com/htc-one-m8/461323-why-does-boomsound-icon-pop-up-notification-bar-along-sound.html) has a thread about it. This icon pops up when there is sound to play on anything active on the device. Web pages, messages, anything including something with sound.
Quoting from one entry:
>
> The thing about BoomSound that it is set so that it automatically works whenever any sound is played through the built-in speakers.
>
>
> It never really bothered me, however, it would've been nice if they made it possible for the user to turn-off BoomSound, this way users can choose to use it or not.
>
>
> So even receiving a phone call or a notification will trigger the BoomSound to work.
>
>
>
Here's a [page](http://www.androidcentral.com/boomsound-settings-htc-one-m9) that describes settings available for it, even if it is describing the M9.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/10/22 | 327 | 1,212 | <issue_start>username_0: Is there a way to enable Qi Wireless charging for Nexus 6P or Nexus 5X? They had wireless charging in all the previous Nexus models and I'm sure it's a hidden feature in there somewhere.<issue_comment>username_1: No, out of the box it won't. The reason is that wireless charging requires specific hardware to work. Indeed it is possible thanks to electromagnetic [induction](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductive_charging); in simple terms: there is a coil inside both charger and phone, connected to the battery. The charger generates an alternating elecromagnetic field in the coil, with which the phone's coil pairs, generating current which charges the battery. It will be possible, although, if some firm produces specific covers with the necessary hardware embedded, which already exist for some flagship phones, so there will be a workaround.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Seems that you can hack the Nexus 5X and integrate a Qi Receiver into the phone:
<http://www.phonerepair.us/blog/nexus-5x-teardown-disassembly-qi-wireless-charging-mod-demo>
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/dai8H.jpg)
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/10/23 | 537 | 1,971 | <issue_start>username_0: I am running Android KitKat 4.4.2 on a Samsung Galaxy SIII Neo. I have installed the [Screen Lock Pro](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iglint.android.screenlockpro) app which allows you to log off by clicking a home screen icon or tapping on a notification drawer entry.
Now I would like to know whether I can leave the sound volume on, but disable the sound that is emitted when the user logs out / logs in.
I presume this can be done by renaming a sound file somewhere [using a similar trick as can be done with the camera app](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/102420/how-to-make-stock-camera-app-silent-when-shot-is-taken-without-preventing-phone/102469#102469).
Thank you for your replies.
---
NOTE: This question I am asking is the same as [this one for Windows 7 PCs](https://superuser.com/questions/988399/how-to-disable-the-sound-when-logging-off-locking-switching-users), but relates to Android devices instead.<issue_comment>username_1: You don't need to edit any sound files as the Screen Lock app has provided this as an inbuilt feature to disable/modify lock and unlock screen sounds.
Open Screen Lock app and open Settings, scroll down to the bottom and you will be able to find the option to uncheck and turn off the sound when locking and unlocking the screen using the widget or notification bar.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/VOVAY.png)
Screenshot - Screen Lock Settings - (Click to enlarge image)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Go to Settings → Device → Sound, and you will find under the Feedback section relevant options, such as Touch sounds / Play tone when the dialing keypad is tapped, and Screen lock sound which plays sound when locking and unlocking screen.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Turn off NFC in your phone. My phone did this because I slipped an NFC card into my case.
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/23 | 1,114 | 4,360 | <issue_start>username_0: I have a Nexus 5 phone and ever since I allowed a system update, it won't let me post pictures to Instagram. It keeps talking about turning off a "screen overlay", but then when I try to follow the steps to get to that setting, it just sends me in a loop and doesn't actually let me change anything.
(Click image to enlarge)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/91ENa.png) [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/BEGzf.png)<issue_comment>username_1: This is a kludge and probably only a partial solution. I followed the messages to the permission screen, selected the option "apps with this permission" then proceeded to turn off the overlay permission on all apps that had it set on. I was then able to enable the permission that the app I was running required. Because I turned off the permission on all apps, I do not know which app was causing the problem. Will see if any apps stop functioning as I expect.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Simple Resolution / Answer
==========================
I had this same problem with my Nexus 5X, using Android M. I also went ahead & turned all the permissions off, *except* for **Twilight**, the suspected culprit. I still had the problem. So I went ahead and also turned over the overlay for **Twilight**, and I did not have the problem.
So, ***Twilight is the "problem"***, in my case and in the case shown above. (I put problem in quotes because it seems to me like Twilight should not be to blame in this case. Instead, multiple overlays should be possible.)
---
Where is This Setting??
=======================
For those who had this problem, or want to understand what we're talking about, here are the steps to get to this "hidden" setting, within Android M:
1. Open `settings` (the nut / gear).
2. Scroll down to `Apps`.
3. From within the `Apps` portion of `settings`, again choose the `settings` gear / nut.
4. Choose `Draw over other apps`.
5. *(Optional)* Click on the `additional menu` (the 3 dots), then choose `Show system` to get at ***all*** of the apps that are asking to draw over others, including system apps like `Phone Services`.
---
What's Really Going On?
=======================
Last little tidbit: I am not 100% certain about this, but from what I know of Android, it seems things work as follows in Mashmallow:
* Permissions are not asked / required upon app installation, but rather upon when the app needs that permission. Similarly, some permissions can be granted or rejected... the app will work to the best of its capability, if the permission is rejected.
* Since this is the case, any time an app asks for permission to a particular thing, such as drawing over other apps, the user's *yes* or *no* response is recorded.
+ As the user, you can change your response later, which is the essence of what that pop-up window is asking: the window is saying, "I cannot do what I need to do, unless you change your answer to that earlier problem". (However, without highlighting which app is the actual problem, the error seems fairly useless, IMHO.)
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: There are three places to check. Not just one.
Non-system Apps
---------------
`Settings` -> `Application Manager` -> `Apps with Overlay Permissions` -> `Apps with Permissions`
System Apps
-----------
Same as above, but with `Show System Apps` turned on
Accessibility Apps
------------------
`Settings` -> `Acessibility` -> Scroll to the bottom. It lists app names. Just turn them all off for now.
<http://www.renewandroid.com/phone-tips-and-tricks/screen-overlay-detected-170.html>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: There are some apps that are handled as Accessibility Services, for instance, [Assistive Touch](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.easytouch.assistivetouch).
You can find them under *Settings -> Accessibility -> Services*.
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/23 | 302 | 1,232 | <issue_start>username_0: I got an update for Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and there's an option to use the SD card as internal storage. I did that and am now able to install apps, etc to it. But the problem is, all the apps which needed an SD card stopped working (e.g. Camera, Whatsapp, etc.)
Any workaround for this, like enabling this app to use the internal memory instead? Couldn't find such an option anywhere in the Settings.<issue_comment>username_1: The card can only be used as internal storage. If you try to eject the card and read it on a computer, it won’t work. **All data on the card will also be erased, so you have to take back up anything important first**. **So there is no way to revert back**.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Format your microSD Card as internal storage (there is an option in the menu) before using it as Internal Storage.
If that doesn't work, try rebooting the phone.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: In marshmallow once you install it I will copy the apps. But those app will be in internal storage only it will ask you like to move pictures audio any any other storages . might be you got moved up with your apps . try restore to phone internal storage or reinstall .
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/23 | 440 | 1,781 | <issue_start>username_0: My samsung s5 heats up for no reason. I have tried factory reset my phone. There's no problem after i factory reset. After i download an app,the heating starts..but when i turn on power saving mode,the heating stops. What's the main cause of the heating? The source can't be from an app. It does not matter what app,it just start to heat up when there's app and does not heat up when i turn on power saving mode. I have tried safe mode...it works for awhile and starts to heat up when i turn off.<issue_comment>username_1: It happens due to apps running in background. This also causes battery drain. If you feel it really annoying then I have a solution.
You just need to download an app named **DS Battery saver**. This app is good on saving battery and heating.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: If I may elaborate on Vivek's answer, it is likely being caused not so much by apps running in the background but by *what* apps you have running in the background.
When you put your device into battery saver mode, it disables all apps' ability to connect to the internet without being the app you are currently interacting with. Some really bad offenders in abuse of background data (connecting to a website when you are not using the app) are social networking sites such as Facebook and messaging apps such as Skype and Kik. Google's [mobile radio active bug](https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=165558) only augments the drain. [Greenify](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oasisfeng.greenify&hl=en) will automate the process of shutting down these power-hungry apps.
Additionally, check to see if any app is causing an issue with wakelocks. The active section of the battery graph would be almost solid.
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/23 | 1,036 | 3,365 | <issue_start>username_0: I am having trouble trying to root my Acer Iconia A100 with Android 4.0.3. I have tried several rooting methods and they always fail.
I have the USB debugging enabled, and all the adblock or antivirus apps are off.
I've tried all of these:
* [SRSRoot](http://www.srsroot.com/)
* [KingoRoot](http://www.kingoapp.com/)
* [KingRoot](http://androidxda.com/download-kingroot-application)
* [Z4root](http://z4root.en.uptodown.com/android)
* [How to Root Acer Iconia A100 Tablet](http://theunlockr.com/2012/04/29/how-to-root-acer-iconia-a100-tablet/)
Am I just missing a step somewhere?
Here is the report from the SRSroot app:
```
---= SRS One-Click-Root v5.1 =---
11:29:11 AM - Starting ADB Server..
11:29:16 AM - Manufacturer: Acer
11:29:16 AM - Model: A100
11:29:16 AM - Android Version: 4.0.3
11:29:16 AM - Build ID: Acer_AV041_A100_1.049.00_PA_CUS1
11:29:16 AM - Board ID: vangogh
11:29:16 AM - Chipset Platform: tegra
11:29:16 AM - Getting OffSets.. : 0xd9f0 0xaf47 (True)
11:29:17 AM - Query Server for Best Method.. Found Rootkit: 4
----= Start Rooting Process.. Please Wait =----
11:29:17 AM [+] Testing exploit: root8 (please wait..)
11:29:39 AM [+] Executing root8 exploit Failed.
11:29:39 AM Auto Root Failed on this device. :(
11:29:39 AM Rebooting Device and try again...
```
On the Kingo, when I run the Windows application to root the Android it always says that rooting was successful, but when I try to do anything that requires root (like installing busybox) on the Android, it always fails. Then when I restart the android the rooting is gone.
So, I can root it with Kingo, and if I use SRSRoot after that, it says the android is, indeed rooted, but it doesn't persist. When I reboot the Android then run the SRSrootkit then it sees that the Android is not rooted (even though it seemed to be before reboot) and it cannot root it itself.
Using the *unlockr* method, I find that the batch file reports `mkdir failed for /data/local/tools, permission denied` with subsequent permissions errors. And so that method is not able to get root either.<issue_comment>username_1: It happens due to apps running in background. This also causes battery drain. If you feel it really annoying then I have a solution.
You just need to download an app named **DS Battery saver**. This app is good on saving battery and heating.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: If I may elaborate on Vivek's answer, it is likely being caused not so much by apps running in the background but by *what* apps you have running in the background.
When you put your device into battery saver mode, it disables all apps' ability to connect to the internet without being the app you are currently interacting with. Some really bad offenders in abuse of background data (connecting to a website when you are not using the app) are social networking sites such as Facebook and messaging apps such as Skype and Kik. Google's [mobile radio active bug](https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=165558) only augments the drain. [Greenify](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oasisfeng.greenify&hl=en) will automate the process of shutting down these power-hungry apps.
Additionally, check to see if any app is causing an issue with wakelocks. The active section of the battery graph would be almost solid.
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/24 | 1,220 | 4,705 | <issue_start>username_0: First of all "Service google play" (in Russian "Сервисы google play") is **not** play market appication which is used to download and install applications from play market. So what is the problem with it? I spot that "Service google play" (in Russian "Сервисы google play") took about 100Mb (for strange searching data) and cleanuping application data does not help - after several minutes they are magically restored. I wonder - can it be safely removed (or disabled) from phone? Or it is a system important process?
**Note**
It probably good to provided a link to google play, but I can not find that service (may be english name is different) in play market.<issue_comment>username_1: I copy the description from [Google Play Market](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.gms):
>
> Google Play services is used to update Google apps and apps from
> Google Play. This component provides core functionality like
> authentication to your Google services, synchronized contacts, access
> to all the latest user privacy settings, and higher quality,
> lower-powered location based services. Google Play services also
> enhances your app experience. It speeds up offline searches, provides
> more immersive maps, and improves gaming experiences. Apps may not
> work if you uninstall Google Play services.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: **Google Play Services** is hidden in Google Play. You can find it [here](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.gms).
Google Play Services is an app that brings the newest features to older phones, like authentication to Google Services. When you uninstall/disable Google Play Services then most of the apps on your phone won't work properly anymore.
Description copied from Google Play:
>
> **Google Play services** is used to update Google apps and apps from Google Play.
> This component provides core functionality like **authentication to your Google services,** **synchronized contacts**, access to all the **latest user privacy settings,** and higher quality, lower-powered **location based services.**
> Google Play services also enhances your app experience. It speeds up **offline searches**, **provides more immersive maps**, and **improves gaming experiences**.
>
> **Apps may not work if you uninstall Google Play services.**
>
>
>
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Added to the exaggerated "Apps may not work if you uninstall Google Play services" from the app's description (see e.g. the [answer of SuperThomasLab](https://android.stackexchange.com/a/126889/16575)):
Many apps found on *Google Play* depend on this, but by far not all. Apps e.g. from *F-Droid* mostly can live without it. One can think of *Google Play Services* as kind of "shared library" for "many things Google".
When using a custom ROM without GApps, it can e.g. be substituted by [migroG GmsCore](https://github.com/microg/android_packages_apps_GmsCore "microG GmsCore at Github") – I've just done that on one of my devices :) *[microG](http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/app-microg-gmscore-floss-play-services-t3217616 "XDA: microG GmsCore - FLOSS Play Services compatible framework") GmsCore*, as the name-part "Core" suggests, offers the essential services many apps rely on – but without all the overhead Google's app ships with. So it should be much less aggressive towards the device's resources. Please see the linked XDA thread for details and up-to-date information – which also gives you ideas on what *Google Play Services* does:
* **Ads/Analytics API:** will not be covered by *microG*
* **Auth API:** authentication with Google's services. Covered by *microG*
* **Cast API:** in the works (*microG* is still young :)
* **Drive API:** Google Drive stuff (not yet in *microG*)
* **Fitness API:** not (yet) in *microG*
* **Games API:** not (yet) in *microG*
* **Cloud Messaging API:** fully functional in *microG*
* **Location Provider API:** fully functional in *microG*
* **Geofencing API:** not yet supported in *microG*
* **Maps API:** partly implemented in *microG* (work in progress)
* **Plus API:** minimal support with *microG*
* **Wearable API:** work on this has just started in *microG*
From this list you can get an idea what *Google Play Services* include. And from the "state" mentioned toward them for *microG*, you should see why it's more lightweight. I for one hope that, if implemented at all, Fitness + Games at least go to a separate app which one only need to install when needed; I don't need that, so for me it would be [bloatware](/questions/tagged/bloatware "show questions tagged 'bloatware'") :)
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/10/24 | 3,826 | 11,199 | <issue_start>username_0: This question comes from [How can I tell if my installed Android version, not CPU, is a 64 bit or 32 bit one?](https://android.stackexchange.com/q/126776/96277)
On desktop computers it is possible to install a **32-bit** operating system on a **64-bit** hardware device i.e. you can install Ubuntu Linux 32-bit on an AMD FX(tm)-9370 Eight-Core Processor (64-bit).
Does the same case happens for Android? Is there a **32-bit and a 64-bit version** for the same 64-bit device?
Some example links (like ROM downloads in 32 and 64 bits for the same Android device) would be welcome.<issue_comment>username_1: Answer is yes. You can run 32bit android on 64 bit chipsets without much hassles. But it shouldn't really matter what version you're on because as of now 90% of all apps that are available are 32bit and won't make use of the 64 bit hardware.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes you can. Infact, Some early devices did exactly that. Its similar to what we have in desktop computing side. Moto E2 is one example of 64-bit processor running 32-bit OS.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: It's not clearly mentioned but I assume you are talking about ARM architecture. ***“32-bit Android OS”*** means a 32-bit kernel and the collection of ELF binaries and libraries which are compiled to run on 32-bit processor. This middleware stack particularly includes `app_process` binary which runs with name `zygote` and hosts the complete application framework of Android. It forks Java Virtual Machines (for every app) in which Dalvik EXecutable (`.dex`) code runs which is neither 32-bit nor 64-bit. But the JVMs are native processes; either 32 or 64-bit depending on the JNI libraries the app contains.
We can run 32-bit OS on 64-bit device if 64-bit:
1. Processor supports running 32-bit code which is usually the case because backward compatibility is desired, but not always.
2. Kernel supports running 32-bit code because unlike bare-metal hypervisors we - the processes on Android - don't deal directly with hardware.
PROCESSOR'S BITNESS
-------------------
Every 64-bit processor's support for 32-bit execution isn't universal. For instance Samsumg Exynos 9 Series 982x SoCs contain [Cortex-A55](https://developer.arm.com/ip-products/processors/cortex-a/cortex-a55) and A75 which (are based on ARMv8.x and they) have support for `aarch64` and `aarch32`. On the other hand Qualcomm's [Centriq 2400](https://www.anandtech.com/show/11737/analyzing-falkors-microarchitecture-a-deep-dive-into-qualcomms-centriq-2400-for-windows-server-and-linux) SoCs and Cavium's [Thunder X2](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/cavium/thunderx2) SoCs also include ARMv8.x processors but without `aarch32` support.
In order to find device architecture, we can read `/proc/cpuinfo` which [exposes](https://community.arm.com/developer/tools-software/oss-platforms/w/docs/245/cpufreq-dvfs) information from [Main ID register](http://infocenter.arm.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.arm.doc.ddi0488c/CIHFAACD.html) of the processor.
```
~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
...
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 8
...
CPU part : 0xd03
...
Hardware : Qualcomm Technologies, Inc MSM8953
```
But there in no direct information like [`lm`](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPUID#EAX.3D80000001h:_Extended_Processor_Info_and_Feature_Bits) flag to confirm 32/64-bit support. So we need to get technical details of hardware. As per the [requirements](https://source.android.com/compatibility/10/android-10-cdd#3_3_2_32-bit_arm_native_code_compatibility) from Google, `CPU architecture: 8` indicates that it's a `ARMv8` device. Also see [this commit](https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/common/+/93f22300975017f18c286899e8b98b5d843fe118). And [here](https://github.com/karelzak/util-linux/blob/master/sys-utils/lscpu-arm.c) is the hex to human readable decoding map which `lscpu` command uses.
```
~$ lscpu | grep -E 'Vendor |Model '
Vendor ID: ARM
Model name: Cortex-A53
```
Other possible ways to get SoC information:
```
~$ cat /sys/firmware/devicetree/base/model
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. MSM8953 + PMI8950 QRD SKU3
```
```
~$ cat /sys/devices/soc0/{vendor,family,machine}
Qualcomm
Snapdragon
MSM8953
```
It's evident from technical specifications of Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 ([MSM 8953](https://www.qualcomm.com/products/snapdragon-625-mobile-platform)) and [Cortex-53](https://developer.arm.com/products/processors/cortex-a/cortex-a53) that it's based on ARMv8 architecture, which can process both instruction sets: `aarch64` and `aarch32`.
KERNEL'S BITNESS
----------------
When `arm64` support was [added](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/8c2c3df31e3b87cb5348e48776c366ebd1dc5a7a) to Linux kernel, 32-bit compatibility mode was also included. If kernel is built with `IKCONFIG_PROC`, confirm by:
```
~# zcat /proc/config.gz | grep -E 'CONFIG_ARM64=|CONFIG_COMPAT=|BINFMT'
CONFIG_ARM64=y
CONFIG_COMPAT=y
CONFIG_BINFMT_ELF=y
CONFIG_COMPAT_BINFMT_ELF=y
CONFIG_BINFMT_SCRIPT=y
```
So the 64-bit ELF files are executed natively with [binfmt\_elf](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/fs/Kconfig.binfmt#L5) while 32-bit ELF files are executed with [compat\_binfmt\_elf](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/fs/compat_binfmt_elf.c#L3). See details in [this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/23295968/9165920).).
Usually `uname -m` is used to find the architecture of device supported by kernel. It shows the persoanlity ([execution domain](https://www.halolinux.us/kernel-reference/execution-domains.html)) of the process which defaults to kernel's primary architecture (`PER_LINUX` ). But Linux kernel supports changing [*persoanlity*](http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/personality.2.html), so this approach can be confusing:
```
~$ uname -m
aarch64
~$ setarch linux32 uname -m
armv8l
```
In latter command `uname` is running under 32-bit [compatible personality](https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/common/+/refs/heads/android-4.19/arch/arm64/include/asm/compat.h#32). The same would happen if you use some app - like [this](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jackpal.androidterm) - which [runs](https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/refs/tags/android-9.0.0_r47/core/java/android/content/pm/ApplicationInfo.java#870) with `LINUX32` personality, no matter even if kernel and `uname` binaries are 64-bit. For details see [this](https://stackoverflow.com/a/45125525/9165920) and [this](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uname#Examples). `lscpu` also confirms CPU operation modes using same phenomenon.
USERCODE BITNESS
----------------
Now coming to the userspace, `init` is the very first process run by kernel. Lets check its bitness. If the 5th byte is 1 it's 32-bit ELF file, if it's 2 the binary is 64-bit:
```
~# hexdump -n5 /proc/1/exe
0000000 457f 464c 0002
```
Or use `file` command:
```
~# file /proc/1/exe
/proc/1/exe: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, ARM aarch64, version 1 (SYSV), statically linked ...
```
Similarly check bitness of other vital OS binaries/libraries:
```
~$ file /system/lib*/libc.so
/system/lib/libc.so: ELF 32-bit LSB shared object, ARM, EABI5 version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked ...
/system/lib64/libc.so: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, ARM aarch64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked ...
```
```
~$ file /system/bin/linker*
/system/bin/linker: ELF 32-bit LSB shared object, ARM, EABI5 version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked ...
/system/bin/linker64: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, ARM aarch64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked ...
```
OS maintains 64-bit as well as 32-bit libraries and dynamic linker because apps may contain both types of binary code (though the major part must be Java/Dalvik bytecode). For instance the `dnsmasq` program which serves as DHCP server on hotspot is a 64 bit binary while Google Play Services uses a 32-bit library:
```
~# readelf -a /system/bin/dnsmasq
Class: ELF64
Type: DYN (Shared object file)
Machine: AArch64
[Requesting program interpreter: /system/bin/linker64]
0x0000000000000001 (NEEDED) Shared library: [libc.so]
```
```
~# readelf -a /data/data/com.google.android.gms/app_vision/ocr/libs/armeabi-v7a/libocr.so
Class: ELF32
Type: DYN (Shared object file)
Machine: ARM
[Requesting program interpreter: /system/bin/linker]
0x00000001 (NEEDED) Shared library: [libc.so]
```
Similarly it's not uncommon to have 32-bit binary blobs from OEMs / SoC vendors on 64-bit ROMs. Even some basic components of AOSP aren't 64-bit supported. Take example of [`audioserver`](https://www.mail-archive.com/<EMAIL>/msg20926.html).
To see all processes running in 32-bit mode:
```
~# for p in $(ps -p 2 --ppid 2 --deselect -o pid=); do grep -qE '^.{8}[^-]' /proc/$p/maps || echo $p; done | xargs ps f -o pid,cmd -p
PID CMD
3359 /system/bin/mediaserver
3358 /system/bin/cameraserver
3357 /system/bin/audioserver
3356 zygote
5081 \_ webview_zygote
20824 | \_ com.android.webview:sandboxed_process0
18609 \_ it.colucciweb.vpnclient
3354 /vendor/bin/hw/android.hardware.audio@2.0-service
2665 /vendor/bin/hw/android.hardware.camera.provider@2.4-service
2335 /vendor/bin/mm-qcamera-daemon
2278 /vendor/bin/wifidisplayhalservice
2277 media.codec hw/android.hardware.media.omx@1.0-service
2244 /system/bin/drmserver
777 /vendor/bin/hw/android.hardware.drm@1.1-service.widevine
773 /vendor/bin/hw/android.hardware.cas@1.0-service
```
Out of these only one is a VPN app, rest are OS processes.
CONCLUSION
----------
So it's clear that even if core OS is 64-bit, there are possibly large number of processes running as 32-bit, though each process and its linked libraries have to be be homogeneous; either 32 or 64-bit. And there's no constraint if the OS doesn't include 64-bit code at all, but you won't find many instances because OEMs ship 64-bit devices with 64-bit binary code. It's more about business than performance; that's what a user pays for. However exceptions do exist where business isn't that much involved: [Raspberry Pi 3 has 64-bit CPU, but 32-bit Raspbian OS](http://linuxgizmos.com/raspberry-pi-3-has-a-64-bit-cpu-but-a-32-bit-raspbian-os). Android phones examples from past include Galaxy E5, LG G Stylo, Moto G5 Plus, Lenovo A6000 Plus and MT6735 devices. But now Android is [moving](https://developer.android.com/distribute/best-practices/develop/64-bit) towards 64-bit and some devices may [drop](https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/1ac8a6df9a8ad749e40c5a0f21cd75906a3bcff9) 32-bit support gradually.
>
> Does the same case happens for Android? Is there a 32-bit and a 64-bit version for the same 64-bit device?
>
>
>
Yes, take example of [Moto G4 Plus](https://www.xda-developers.com/moto-g4-plus-64-bit-custom-roms/).
---
**RELATED:** [Android apps for “armeabi-v7a” and “x86” architecture: SoC vs. Processor vs. ABI](https://android.stackexchange.com/a/208132/218526)
Upvotes: 2 |
2015/10/24 | 476 | 1,642 | <issue_start>username_0: I've tried researching and I cannot find any explanation for this. About 2 weeks after Android 6 was released I did get a security update for lollipop but nothing since then. Everyone I know with a Nexus 5 has it, but I don't know anyone with a Nexus 6 besides myself. Why is my Nexus 6 not getting updated?
My phone is unlocked, but I do use T-Mobile.
Thanks<issue_comment>username_1: It doesn't roll out all at once, it's a staggered roll out. Relax you'll get it soon. That's how they do it. Would you complain if they pushed out the update quickly and your device bricks because of a potential problem. This is why they do small batches. Easier to replace 100 devices than replace thousends of devices.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: As pointed in the previous answer, you can wait for the update rollout or visit [here](http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6) and install it manually. You'd have to do a lot of reading though before you go ahead playing around with the device. But, I'm very sure it'll be fun.
All the best.!!
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Google uses a staged rollout method so if a bug goes un-noticed and appears in real world use, they can stop the rollout with minimal damage. Rest assured, you will eventually receive the update. Update is rolled out in batches everyday.
<http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/11/20/google-engineer-dan-morrill-sheds-some-light-on-the-nexus-ota-process-urges-you-to-never-clear-google-service-framework-data/>
Direct link: <https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/1r1dz4/44_kitkat_has_started_rolling_out_on_the_n4/cdiwt6f>
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/10/24 | 587 | 2,029 | <issue_start>username_0: I have a problem with my Galaxy S3 4G. It's currently all stock and running Android 4.4.4.
It seems the Wi-Fi will not turn off i.e. I can turn it "off" in the settings or notification bar, and this will stop Wi-Fi from being connected and device uses my mobile data instead, however in the battery menu the Wi-Fi is still being shown as on, even when it's turned off.
As you can see in the attached image, it's draining my battery really fast, and will only turn off when the device is in flight mode. I've checked and cannot see any rogue apps causing this, but after searching online and checking all option menus I seem unable to fix this problem.
Is there any way to stop this, save for a factory reset? Is this a KitKat wide problem, or just on my phone?
(Click image to enlarge)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/l2C5F.png)<issue_comment>username_1: First reboot your phone! If this doesn't work you should try a factory reset. I would recommend some apps to disable your wifi but they are already disabled! So i believe it's a software bug!
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: This is a common misconception with Android. When you turn off Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi does not actually turn off. There is an advanced settings menu where you will find an option that either says Wi-Fi scanning or Wi-Fi always on. Google uses Wi-Fi points to determine the device's location without activating the GPS.
Turn Wi-Fi scanning off to fix this. You might want to turn off Wi-Fi while asleep while your at it. It's in the same menu.
(Click image to enlarge)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/krbjE.jpg)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/zDxUP.jpg)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/8sOua.jpg)
Edit: In Android 6.0 (Marshmallow), this option has been moved. It is now located in Location > (Overflow menu) > Scanning (Thanks, nanny)
Upvotes: 4 |
2015/10/25 | 759 | 2,938 | <issue_start>username_0: So my Motorola X will not turn on or charge. Some other people have told me to connect it to a 5 volts 2.1 amps charger but that wont work for me. If any of you know a way that can work for me I would love it.<issue_comment>username_1: If you're sure you're using a known good charger, It's possible your phone just needs a reset. Try holding first the volume down button, and then the power switch at the same time for several seconds. If that doesn't work, try volume up and then the power button for several seconds. A few devices require all three be pressed at once. Do this after the charger has been connected for at least a half hour leaving it connected while you try the button combinations.
If that doesn't work, and you're certain you're using a known good charger and/or cable that work on other devices, your phone is very likely dead. It could be the battery or another hardware problem.
And, for future reference, it's very hard on LiIon batteries to run them completely dead and especially to leave them that way for very long. Phones will shut themselves down when the battery is too low but they continue to draw a small amount of power even while off. And that small drain can eventually destroy the battery.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I was having the same issues. Check out <https://support.sprint.com/support/article/Troubleshoot-when-your-Moto-X-Pure-Edition-doesnt-turn-on/WTroubleshootingGuide_542_GKB89625-dvc9560007prd>
For me, all I had to do was hold the power button for 30 seconds and boom, phone is on now. :D
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: tried everything plugged in laptop charge port and is no charging. before it wouldn't charge power up or restart just come on long enough to tell me that it was at 0% charge. charging fine now. Try laptop port to charge first may save a lot of time, up to 20% charge in 5 min.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: My Moto X Play died completely after I plugged it in to my camera charger when the normal charger went walkabout. Retrospectively, I found it had charged up to 100 % and hibernated to protective mode to avoid damaging the battery. After lots of Googling I held the Volume Down and Power On Buttons until lots of gobbledook appeared on the screen about initiating a hard re-start or whatever and everything has worked fine since.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: *phone stopped responding properly so I turned it off and it wouldn't turn back on when I tried, even plugged up and holding volume button..*
**Solution:**
Held power down for 10-30 seconds after leaving phone charging for over an hour and now it's restarted at 100%.
Moto X 2nd gen
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: Moto X Style:
Costed me 60 seconds (stopwatch check) before I got into the bootmenu again, by holding Power and volume up button. Old phone but still happy with it, live another day!!!
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/25 | 1,542 | 6,115 | <issue_start>username_0: Just got the 5x, and loaded it with my favorite tones. Did the same thing I usually do with Android phones to set different tones for different app notifications, alarms, etc.
Phone either plays stock tone or no tone + vibration.
The files were pulled directly from my Samsung in .wav format and will play on the 5x via VLC just fine.<issue_comment>username_1: You can try converting the same into \*.mp3 and try again. Ideally you should be able to.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: 1. Downloaded ringtone from zedge (mp3 format)
2. Downloaded ES File Explorer from Play Store
3. Copied ringtone from download folder and pasted into Ringtone folder
4. Called myself from other phone to confirm
Worked fine on Nexus 5x.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Surprisingly, the analogous trick doesn't work with alarm tones. I added an alarm tone to `/sdcard/Alarms` but the alarm clock app doesn't notice it or add it to the list of available alarms on my Nexus 5x. (To be sure my Samsung audio clip was OK, I tested it by putting it into the `/sdcard/Ringtones` folder, where it works as described here by others.)
However, I have discovered a workaround for alarm ringtones: If you put the ringtone into `/sdcard/Ringtones/Notifications/Alarms`, it will show up in the list of alarm tones in the Alarm Clock application and can be used normally.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I had this issue, but only with the Alarm media files.
Use a file explorer, like ES File Explorer:
* Using the ES File Explorer, navigate to the folder you have place your custom alarm media files.
* Click on the file you want, and in the "Open with" prompt select "ES Media Player"
* Open the menu in the top right, and pick "Set ringtone" (the entry with a bell icon)
* In the dialog that appears, pick "Set alarm"
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: I copied the ringtone to ringtones folder on the phone. And when ever I want to change the tone in sounds and notification, that tone appeared along with the system tones. Simple isn't it?
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: I was having the same issue for notification tones and while troubleshooting it I happened to need to send a picture file over Google HO. The system prompted me to allow access to media (for the picture) and then suddenly custom tones started working. So you might try sending a pic in case this is a case of permissions not being set correctly by Android.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_7: I plugged Nexus 5x into my iMac. Used USB file transfer to move downloaded ringtone from download folder into Android ringtone folder. It then appears in the ringtone list under sounds in settings. Choose it and then it works fine. Double checked by calling my Nexus 5x from my landline.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_8: Nexus 5X/Android 6.0.1
Android won't see new ringtones saved in the system ringtones folder (Android/media/com.google.android.talk/Ringtones) unless files are transferred to the phone via USB. If you transfer ringtone files to your phone from the cloud, FTP, or some other non-USB method you'll need to reboot your phone in order to see your ringtones using the system 'Media Storage' file picker.
In order to choose ringtones stored in a different folder using a 3rd party file browser such as Solid Explorer you first need to clear the system default 'Media Storage' ringtone file picker.
1. click Settings, click Apps, click on the 3 dots upper right corner, click 'Show system'
2. click 'Media Storage', click 'Open by default', click 'CLEAR DEFAULTS'
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_9: What I did:
1. Installed ES File Explorer App on Nexus 5X.
2. Connected my Chromebook to the Nexus 5X using a USB cable.
3. Swiped down from top of the Nexus, chose "File transfers" as the desired use for the USB connection.
4. Waited for the Chromebook to automatically open a window that shows the Chromebook and the Nexus file folders. Had to wait for a few seconds for this window to automatically open.
5. On the Chromebook, dragged the desired mp3 file from its Chromebook folder to the Nexus 5X folder named "Ringtones".
6. On the Nexus, tap Settings> Sound & Notification > Phone ringtone. Nexus dialog asks which App to use, choose ES File Explorer.
7. Tap on the mp3 file you want to use as your new ringtone.
8. Close the Nexus Settings app, disconnect the USB cable, and you're done.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_10: I've had this problem with my 6P. Even though my 3rd party .mp3 ringtones and notifications were stored in the Ringtones and Notifications folders (resp.) the Android Settings selection 'using Media Storage' would not display them (even after a reboot) and using the ES File Explorer option to select them gave "Wrong file type" errors. I couldn't set my Hangouts SMS notification to a 3rd party tone either. I also tried messing about with converting the file types with no luck.
I then followed the alternative method of setting ringtones and notifications from within ES Media Player described within this thread and it worked ...and I noticed that my 3rd party ringtone then appeared in the 'Media storage' list. Though I couldn't directly set my Hangouts SMS notification tone from within ES File Explorer I set my 3rd party notification tone as my general notification tone and then it appeared in the 'Media Storage' list in Hangouts so I then set it as my SMS tone and switched my general notification tone back to Tethys - job done.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_11: It was a permissions thing for me.
Upgraded no problem and it was all OK. Factory started and although I could see the file in notifications it wouldn't play as a message tone.
Settings, apps, messages, added storage to permissions.......happy me!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_12: Super easy way to do this (free as well)
* send the .mp3 via bluetooth to your nexus 5x
* download vlc player from the google play store onto your phone
* play the .mp3 file with vlc player on your phone
* from vlc there is a setting in the "kebab menu" to set as ringtone
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/25 | 663 | 2,614 | <issue_start>username_0: I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 that has been infected with some viruses really badly.
After factory defaults, as soon as it connects to the internet it starts downloading some apps and advertisement windows pop up like every 10 seconds.
Things I tried:
* Installed AVG AntiVirus, CM serurity, Clear master
+ It helped me delete some files of the virus but did not solve the problem
* Booted into recovery mode:
+ Wiped cache partition
+ wiped data/factory reset
* Booted into Odin mode:
+ Product Name: GT-N8010
+ Custom Binary: Download: No
+ Current Binary: Samsung Official
+ System Status: Custom
* Tried to software update
+ Message: Your device has been modified, software updates are not available.
What can I do to get rid of the virus and be able to software update normally?<issue_comment>username_1: It sounds like you have it unlocked with a custom recovery. If so, use the custom recovery to install a new ROM for your tablet. Find your tablet on <http://forum.xda-developers.com/> and you can find either a third-party (i.e. Cyanogenmod, etc.), modified stock, or even completely stock ROM such as this one: <http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2792979> .
If you don't have a custom recovery, you can find instructions on XDA to use the odin utility to install one.
Wiping the system and data partitions should get rid of the malware but you'll need a new rom to install. If you have an SD card you can put the new rom zip file on the card. If not, you should copy it to the tablet first.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I have found a solution for stopping apps downloading without user intervention:
1. Download TowelRoot and root your device. Then download SuperSU and make it functional.
2. Download CM security, then scan your phone for infected files.
3. Download system app remover (root) and delete all the apps what you found affected in CM security. Uninstall CM SECURITY.
4. Download Titanium Backup and wipe all the data from your phone including cache and apps.
5. Go to recovery mode and reset your device.
This will probably sort out your problem but in case if you find some more apps most of them will stop. Repeat this again and go to system app remover and uninstall your apps one by one, first remove one and wait for some time. If it doesn't stop then remove another and then another. And when it's stopped go to "Recycle Bin" and reinstall all the apps except the last one.
Once your phone will be all right, download a trustworthy antivirus app (say Avast) for future security.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/10/26 | 993 | 3,134 | <issue_start>username_0: I have a Alcatel C5 5036, initially with 4GB internal storage
I have rooted it successfully,
I tried to increase ram with "[ROEHSOFT RAM Expander (SWAP)](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.swapit.expander.de)",
After some unsuccessful tries,
While any SWAP was not created,
The internal storage decreased to 2.05GB,
2 GB has been lost!
I tried SWAPoff for several times, but there was no any SWAP for it to remove now in storage or any other explorer location, it shows the total capacity of internal storage as 2.05GB, instead of 4GB. Please help me as to how to recover the lost storage.<issue_comment>username_1: Try to change partition size using GParted
---
Using adb you can dump whole internal storage to your PC
this will work only on linux but since you will have to use gparted it shouldn't be a problem
connect phone to the PC and type in the terminal
```
adb shell
su
cat /dev/block/mmcblk0 | busybox nc -l 6666
```
aasuming that your pc and phone are in the same network and phone's IP address is `192.168.0.101`
in another terminal type:
```
nc 192.168.0.101 6666 > dump.img
```
after few minutes transfer should end and then you can edit `dump.img` using gparted:
```
gparted dump.img
```
after editing partition layout dump it back to your phone
(you may need to remount all partitions read-only before it)
```
adb shell
su
busybox nc -l 6666 > /dev/block/mmcblk0
```
and in another terminal
```
cat dump.img | nc 192.168.0.101 6666
```
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The [answer given by rav\_kr](https://android.stackexchange.com/a/127077/16575) certainly provides a solution – but looks a bit complicated to me. Not only does it require Busybox on the device, and deals with partitions over the network (one more possible cause of problems) – it involves too many steps. Hence here's my suggestion:
1. Backup the storage device (as described in mentioned answer) is always a good idea. But we can use an easier approach:
```
adb shell "su -c \"cat /dev/block/mmcblk0 > /sdcard/mmcblk0.img\""
```
2. Install [AParted](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sylkat.AParted "AParted at Google Play") (the Android pendant to GParted) and use it to re-partition the storage device directly:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/QvKz8.png) [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/LqxNF.png)
*AParted* (source: [Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sylkat.AParted "AParted at Google Play"); click images for larger variants)
Done. In case anything goes wrong, reverting changes is as easy as
```
adb shell "su -c \"cat /sdcard/mmcblk0.img > /dev/block/mmcblk0\""
```
And if you want to take a look first, there are other [Android partitioning apps](http://android.izzysoft.de/applists/category/named/tools_storagemedia#group_915 "IzzyOnDroid: List of Android partitioning apps") available as well – two from the same dev as your *RAM Expander*; but at least these two are rather expensive, while *AParted* comes for free.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/10/26 | 1,094 | 3,619 | <issue_start>username_0: I was planning to flash a custom recovery in my Yu Yuphoria. So I searched for it on Google, and found a download link along with a written tutorial. I'm acquainted with the fastboot commands, so I avoided reading it, but somehow came across something different. Instead of commands like:
```
fastboot oem unlock
fastboot reboot
```
I came across commands like:
```
fastboot -i 0x2A96 reboot
```
What's the use of the `-i 0x2A96`? Is it specific for different devices? Why is it necessary to add this to the command?<issue_comment>username_1: `-i` is used to specify a custom USB vendor id
according to the `fastboot --help` page
```
usage: fastboot [ ]
commands:
update reflash device from update.zip
flashall flash boot, system, vendor and if found,
recovery
flash [ ] write a file to a flash partition
erase erase a flash partition
format[:[][:[]] format a flash partition.
Can override the fs type and/or
size the bootloader reports.
getvar display a bootloader variable
boot [ [ ] ] download and boot kernel
flash:raw boot [ [ ] ] create bootimage and
flash it
devices list all connected devices
continue continue with autoboot
reboot reboot device normally
reboot-bootloader reboot device into bootloader
help show this help message
options:
-w erase userdata and cache (and format
if supported by partition type)
-u do not first erase partition before
formatting
-s specify device serial number
or path to device port
-l with "devices", lists device paths
-p specify product name
-c override kernel commandline
-i specify a custom USB vendor id
-b specify a custom kernel base address.
default: 0x10000000
-n specify the nand page size.
default: 2048
-S [K|M|G] automatically sparse files greater
than size. 0 to disable
```
As for usage, I've never had to use it, but [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/3ayvk7/not_dev_one_true_adb_usbini_to_rule_them_all/cshwdm7) suggests that it's for getting fastboot to work with unrecognized devices:
>
> As you've already know, you can force `fastboot` to work with a device, even if the vendor ID is unknown by fastboot binary, by `-i` parameter: `-i` specify a custom USB vendor id
>
>
>
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I just had the case that indeed I HAD to specify my Android device ID.
My intention was to unlock the bootloader of my Android device.
But Ubuntu just did not find the device when in "Download mode" - as displayed on the device screen.
When using like:
```
fastboot devices
```
Had no output, just prompt.
As soon as I used just
```
fastboot -i 0x2e04 devices
```
it listed the device.
For all my predecessor Androids on the same Ubuntu host optin "-i" wasn't necessary.
2e04 resp. 0x2e04 is the ID for Nokia. In my case Nokia 6.1 or 6 (2018).
Could be found with "lsusb" or "dmesg" like:
```
saeufer@eckkneipe:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 17ef:7214 Lenovo
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 014: ID 2e04:c026
```
Also mind "fastboot" might need sudo/root permission on default Ubuntu settings.
**EDIT/Update**
Reason was I had an older Ubuntu (32Bit) and package-manager did not update ADB tools (including also fastboot) to more resent version. I later used a newer Ubuntu (virtual machine) and ADB tolls were a bit more current - no need to use `"-i"` option any longer. So if you struggle consider update ADB. Newer 64Bit versions can also be downloaded at Google (I just miss the link). 32Bit ADB tools are deprecated by Google.
Upvotes: 2 |
2015/10/27 | 257 | 1,184 | <issue_start>username_0: I am unable to remove the pattern lock on my Moto G 2 because the none option is greyed out and a message saying 'Disabled by administrator, encryption policy or credential storage'. I have already tried having all accessibility settings off as suggested by other members here. Please help.<issue_comment>username_1: My guess is that there's an app that is mandating the pattern. For example, I know that when you have a corporate MS Exchange account set up that account can mandate a pattern. If you don't have any exchange email, I guess it could be another app, but that's the one type that I know will do it. It's possible the new Android Pay will mandate a pin/pattern as well, but not sure if that's the case...
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: The answer is in the pop-up message... Go to Settings - Security - Device Administrators and revoke the Device Administration privileges for everything except Android Device Manager and then change or remove the pattern lock. Note that if you have a corporate email setup, they may require this, so to remove the device administration privilege you may have to completely remove the account.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/10/27 | 1,420 | 5,014 | <issue_start>username_0: On my Nexus 5, since Android updated to [marshmallow](/questions/tagged/marshmallow "show questions tagged 'marshmallow'"), the Wi-Fi is draining the battery way too fast, even when disabled. See the screenshot:
(Click image to enlarge)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/cKOrF.png)
I've seen this question: [Battery drain when wifi is off](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/77410/battery-drain-when-wifi-is-off) but since I've a very stable network, the answer doesn't fit my need.
I've disabled the *Location*, I doubt that the issue could come from here.
Where should I look next?
### Edit:
The real question is in fact "How come that the WiFi usage bar is going from 100% until now even if Wi-Fi is Off?"<issue_comment>username_1: Okay, to address the points here:
Marshmallow doesn't have the option of `Scanning Always Available` as it was in Lollipop.
So, what to do?
Marshmallow still has these options, only now they are fragmented and redistributed. It is now under:
1. Settings → Google → Services → Location → 3-dot menu → Scanning → Wi-Fi scanning
Also, there are:
2. Settings → Wi-Fi → 3-dot menu → Advanced → Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep
and
3. Settings → Wi-Fi → 3-dot menu → Advanced → Network notification,
if you are paranoid about battery.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: After doing [everything tamoghna said](/a/127184/205488), it may also be necessary do do the following (I had to on my moto g4):
1. open the location menu
2. click "mode"
3. choose "device only" (gps only)
4. turn gps back off because choosing this setting activates gps
The other modes use background wifi, as the menu explains.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Little notice for AOSP [Marhsmallow](https://github.com/aosp-mirror/platform_packages_apps_settings/commit/4148f17616173a0bb475ed3b09ed90fc17540cc6) (and [Nougat](https://github.com/aosp-mirror/platform_packages_apps_settings/commit/178b198f7053844576e9079c8036c5bb3d52b900)?) users: the "more" vertical button will not appear whatsoever in the Location settings page.
It can still be accessed from *toggled-off* WiFi and Bluetooth settings ones, but once their scan is both off (and the "convenience tips" aren't shown anymore) there's no other code in the UI to access ScanningSettings.
The only existing method (and necessarily from a rooted phone, since [SubSettings](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21844593/how-to-launch-an-android-subsettings-fragment#comment42349999_21844594) is not callable from unprivileged uids since Lollipop) is using `adb shell "su -c 'am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.android.settings/com.android.settings.SubSettings -e :settings:show_fragment com.android.settings.location.ScanningSettings'"`
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: This is what worked for me. I suspected the Wi-Fi was draining the battery way too fast because of an app called wireless update com.adups.fota. When I first got the phone it downloaded a large file and then restarted. If your phone is BLU, ZTE or Huawei but not limited to these brands, this is likely the problem. Apparently this is malware.
Here is what I did:
1. Factory reset.
2. Disable the above app (and rest of bloatware as well), but not through the settings as it will automatically be enabled again. You need adb shell. I followed these instructions: [How to Uninstall Carrier/OEM Bloatware Without Root Access](https://www.xda-developers.com/uninstall-carrier-oem-bloatware-without-root-access/).
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: This is most likely media related.
Devices on the network can be too chatty and try to constantly discover things and speak to each other non stop, keeping the wifi awake and active.
Two big culprits:
* Spotify (uninstall or restrict all background activity?)
* Google Home devices like the Mini (turn off "Let others control your cast media")
---
Also check out,
`Settings -> Google -> Security -> Find my Device`
this might also be a suspect
and,
`Settings -> Google -> Device Connections -> Devices -> Show Notifications When devices are nearby`
And then also,
`Settings -> Passwords & security -> Privacy -> Location -> Google Location history`
perhaps this is also scanning
---
Background:
I monitored the network traffic on the wifi network that the Redmi 6 running MiUi was connected to that has the drain issue.
It seems to be communicating constantly with a random laptop over the network.
It's keeping awake because of some Spotify traffic.
So I believe this is caused by media apps that try to do this whole shared network controls.
It can be related to other media devices on the network too.
There's a Google Home Mini on this network, which has this "allow other devices to control the media playback".
So turn off Spotify and Google Home devices and see if that helps.
The network broadcasting features must be draining and always keeping things awake.
Upvotes: 2 |
2015/10/27 | 503 | 1,905 | <issue_start>username_0: Have looked in various places, googled, looked on the play store, etc., but so far I've been unable to find an app or other way to do what I'm looking for, which I'll describe here:
I've been using various apps over the years that let me swipe from the side of my screen to overlay a series of shortcut icons to different apps. Currently I use Smart Task Launcher. However, I've recently started using Bubble Cloud Launcher for my Androidwear watch, and it also has the ability to create a homescreen widget that provides an easier/more dynamic way to set up icons. But Smart Task Launcher doesn't allow for launching of widgets via a swipe. Well, it's supposed to, but an error is produced when you try to set it up. Does anyone know of an way to do this - swipe from the side of the screen and a widget of your choosing gets displayed as an overlayed "screen" on top of whatever you are currently on, whether an app or launcher screen?<issue_comment>username_1: I am the developer of Bubble Cloud Widgets. I tried, and it is fully compatible with Smart Task Launcher, but you have to invoke the special "Widget Measure Mode", since STL doesn't report the widget size correctly.
Here, I shot a video for you:
* <https://youtu.be/UYsoU-xwqkI>
This is my blog entry on this subject:
* <https://plus.google.com/111815032990260235809/posts/1WXHmh3V9bX>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Hey here's an alternative if you are still interested:
You can use tasker scenes :) if you create a scen that fills the screen from top to bottom and just about 40-60px (i use an S6 and 40px is best for me), and position it to the right/left. Then u can set an task when you stroke the scene the way you want (i have mine on the right and use stroke 40px to the left), and from there choose a task which can open up any widger you would like to :) mine is working perfectly!
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/27 | 449 | 1,640 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm using an LG Tribute phone which I recently purchased for Virgin Mobile. I have Gmail installed and by default, whenever I get an email, it generates a notification (in my case a buzz since I have my phone on vibrate).
How do I turn off notifications entirely for my Gmail app (don't want any sounds when I receive an email)?<issue_comment>username_1: In the Gmail app itself:
1. Slide open the hamburger (3-lines) menu and tap on "Settings".
2. Then tap on the Gmail account that you want to disable notifications for.
3. In here deselect the "Notifications" check box.
(Click image to enlarge)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/0AWMj.jpg)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Also, if you wanted to disable notifications entirely for the Gmail app (or any other app for that matter), you could do this:
1. Go to Settings → Apps → All Apps tab.
2. Find the app you want to stop receiving notifications for and tap on its entry.
3. Find a check-box for "Show Notifications" and uncheck it.
4. A warning that you might miss important updates will be shown, tap "OK" to continue.
You have now successfully disabled notifications for the app!
(Click image to enlarge)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/v0k0t.jpg)
Image Credits Google Images
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: On Android 5.0 and up, go to Settings > Notifications > App notifications > Gmail > Block.
You will not get any notification from Gmail app until you change this option.
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/28 | 581 | 2,128 | <issue_start>username_0: When I try to install anything through the Play store, I get a pop-up saying I have 'insufficient storage', with a button which takes me to view my current used storage. According to that program, I have 449mb free on my internal storage. Infuriatingly, I am not told how much each app actually requires, but 449mb should be enough to install anything, since the hungriest app I currently have installed only uses ~250mb.
I managed to get enough space to install the 1.5mb 'Move to SD card' app I wanted. Now that app reports that I have 'no reason to move to SD card, since it shares the same disk with the OS'. In that case I do not just have 449mb free; I also have the 16gb free on my SD card which it should be able to use to install new apps.
Why then does it still complain that it does not have enough space?<issue_comment>username_1: In the Gmail app itself:
1. Slide open the hamburger (3-lines) menu and tap on "Settings".
2. Then tap on the Gmail account that you want to disable notifications for.
3. In here deselect the "Notifications" check box.
(Click image to enlarge)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/0AWMj.jpg)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Also, if you wanted to disable notifications entirely for the Gmail app (or any other app for that matter), you could do this:
1. Go to Settings → Apps → All Apps tab.
2. Find the app you want to stop receiving notifications for and tap on its entry.
3. Find a check-box for "Show Notifications" and uncheck it.
4. A warning that you might miss important updates will be shown, tap "OK" to continue.
You have now successfully disabled notifications for the app!
(Click image to enlarge)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/v0k0t.jpg)
Image Credits Google Images
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: On Android 5.0 and up, go to Settings > Notifications > App notifications > Gmail > Block.
You will not get any notification from Gmail app until you change this option.
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/28 | 490 | 2,082 | <issue_start>username_0: I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 phone running on Android 5.0. At home and in the office, when I'm connected to a WiFi network and the screen is locked (sleep), WhatsApp doesn't receive any messages until I unlock the screen. I don't use so many apps so I can't confirm if this is the case with other applications or not, however, I might have experienced the same problem with the email app as well.
I have observed my phone behavior and noted that other applications (e.g., hangouts) show act the same. Furthermore, I noted another fact that might shed some light: Say, I unlock my screen and after several seconds my apps start to notify me about some messages. But the time-stamp of these messages aren't for this moment but rather [e.g.] half an hour ago when they were supposed to be delivered.
"Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep" is set to "Always", I don't have any power management application or any particular settings. I checked WhatsApp FAQ and they suggested checking priority notification, which I don't use. Searching the web suggests clearing cache and data which doesn't solve the problem. I have cleared the cache/data files, updated the app, etc. I would highly applicate if you submit answers that do not suggest these generic (and almost always non-functional) workarounds.
Any workaround?<issue_comment>username_1: I think your issue is related to the OS, as discussed in [Android Central forum](http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s6/537843-notifications-not-working-when-screen-sleeping.html).
Maybe a new update from Samsung might fix this issue. You should contact Samsung service. Some guy exchanged his Samsung Galaxy S6 over this issue as mentioned in the discussion.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Just uninstall WhatsApp and re-install again, but before doing so, you should backup all your files/conversations and it should work fine.
Also, it's better to power off the phone when you feel that you really don't need it especially during your night sleeping hours, or keep on Airplane Mode, it works.
Upvotes: -1 |
2015/10/28 | 1,692 | 6,602 | <issue_start>username_0: Straight to the point. My wifi has not been working properly since after a *few days* after upgrading its firmware and android version.
**Issue description**
The issue is rather inconsistent. Wifi will usually not detect any networks. Sometimes it will spend around 30 seconds scanning, and then it will show available networks for around 10 seconds, after which the networks disappear from the list. Trying to connect in this span of time does nothing, that is, when I tap on the network and then choose "connect", I get bumped back on the network list as if nothing had happened. Other times, attempting to connect a network makes all networks disappear instantly. In this case, the networks come back after a few seconds, and the network I was trying to connect to appears as "connecting", but all networks disappear shortly after this. Occasionally, wifi will get stuck while turning on, but this usually happens after/while I'm tinkering permissions.
I must remark, this happens on every network, it is not a router-related issue. I also ruled out a hardware issue, since I am able to briefly detect networks, but I am not able to connect to them.
**Origin of the issue**
The issue started after a *few days* after I updated my tablet's ROM, using the official software released by the developer, and after rooting the tablet. The odd thing is that the wifi worked just fine for a few days after I upgraded the software. While this could be the origin of this problem, it could come from a different source. By all means do read the "Other (weird) information"
**Fixes I have tried**
* Changing wifi settings (changing advance settings, changing device name in wifi direct's settings, etc.)
* Factory reset (issue persisted even before I rooted the device again)
* Editing permissions of every file inside the dhcpcd folder, using the app X-plore (with root permission), as well as other files inside the "permission" folder (all the ones that have the "wifi" name on them).
* Various "Wifi fixer" apps.
* MAC changer apps (to change my MAC address)
* Wiping cache partition
**Fixes I have not tried**
* Installing another ROM (I am unable to do that, because there are no other ROMs compatible for my device, not even custom ones)
* Rolling back my android version (from 4.4.2 to 4.2)
**Other (weird) information**
* Mac Address oddities
My MAC address changed after a few days, just when the issue begun. I am not sure if this is related, but I'll explain it anyway: My girlfriend's ISP is a local small company (owned by 1-3 people) which requires you to send them your MAC address so they can... whitelist your device? If you do not send them your MAC address, you can connect to the network, but with limited access (only their webpage). This seems odd to me because the network itself is private (that is, it has its own password, like any private network) but you are still required to send the MAC address of every device you want to connect to your network.
When I went to her house and I tried to connect after I had upgraded my ROM, I got limited access, despite having already sent my tablet's MAC address many months ago. I checked my MAC address and I noticed it had changed to **00:90:4c:07:71:12**. I messaged the ISP guy and sent him my new MAC. But I checked again, after a few minutes and my MAC was back to its old number. The MAC went back and forth from the new one to the old one a few times, and it finally stuck with the new one. The ISP "guy" said he would try to "remote access" to try and fix the issue (that is, my limited access to my GF's particular network).
After that, my tablet couldn't connect to *any* network, and the issue begun as I described above. I thought this unrelated to the issue, but I found some threads complaining about issues related to MACs that begin with 00:90:4c. Could this be the source of the problem?
* Brief but stable conection
Last week, my tablet was able to connect normally to my university's network. It happened after I enabled the "mobile network" settings (Data enabled, Data roaming). I have no data service on this tablet, despite that, after checking those boxes I was able to connect like the issue had never existed. However, after disconnecting from that network the issue came back as if nothing happened. I have not been able to reproduce this, not by connecting to the same network, not by being in the same spot (so I would have the same wifi signal strength).
* Wifi was on after factory reset
As it says, after reseting the tablet (and wiping the internal SD card, of course) the wifi was already on by default. Could this mean anything?
**Device description and more information**
It's an Onda v975s, with android kitkat 4.4.2, Firmware version v4.4\_V1. Kernel version 3.3.0. Please, do ask for more information if needed.
I also have some logcats that point at wpa\_supplicant.
>
> wpa\_supplicant: Could not set interface wlan0 flags (UP): Operation not permitted
>
>
>
You can find the [**full logcat here on Pastebin**](http://pastebin.com/C2Lfyy7T).
If you made it through this long post, I thank you. I just ran out of ideas, so I hope someone here is able to help me.<issue_comment>username_1: By looking at these two lines in logcat:
```
Could not set interface wlan0 flags (UP): Operation not permitted
WifiStateMachine: Driver start failed, retrying
```
I would say that the 4.4.2 ROM has a faulty/missing WiFi card driver (2nd line) without which you of course can't even start/scan/keep the WiFi connection (1st line).
As you have said, you haven't tried flashing it back to 4.2, but I strongly recommend to do so, at least to check if then the WiFi would work again.
If it then does work, that means the 4.4.2 ROM probably has faulty drivers or the permissions somehow changed so you don't have permission to turn WiFi on.
Depending on the outcome, you can either:
* Try to contact your OEM for a fix in 4.4.2
* Stay on 4.2 since you got no custom ROMs available
* MAYBE try to transfer drivers somehow from 4.2 into 4.4.2
I wouldn't rely much on the last option because of compatibility and changes in Android between versions, and besides that, it would require a lot of technical skill and knowledge + it could lead to potential hardware damage.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It seems that your **EFS** ( encrypting file system ) got **corrupted**. I can't tell why. But I have found to fix it. You can check these links -->
1. [XDA](http://bit.ly/2cXoqaQ)
2. [A blog](http://bit.ly/2dmry2U)
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/28 | 733 | 2,732 | <issue_start>username_0: Somehow the Gmail app has disappeared from my new Android phone (Motorola Moto G 3, Android 5.1.1 Lollipop).
I thought it was impossible to uninstall Gmail so I suspect a hardware failure or an Android bug.
A previous thread says that Gmail can not be uninstalled on KitKat:
[How to (cleanly) remove Gmail app from KitKat? I have fully moved over to Inbox](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/95653/how-to-cleanly-remove-gmail-app-from-kitkat-i-have-fully-moved-over-to-inbox)
But can Gmail be removed from Android 5.1.1 (Lollipop)?
UPDATE: To avoid confusion here perhaps I should add that I can not find Gmail in Google Play under "Installed" apps and not in "Settings -> Apps -> All".
UPDATE 2: Today Gmail is back on my phone. (Yes, I am sure it was not there.) So I guess this was the automatic uninstall + reinstall that Android uses when there seem to be some problem with an app. However I am not sure why this happened. It can be hardware problem or a bug in Gmail that was hit because of my huge amount of mail messages. Is there some way to get information about this from Google/Android?<issue_comment>username_1: Try this :
* Install Terminal App on your phone.
* Open the app, write command to check gmail app is there or not, this command will show every app installed on your phone
**adb shell pm list packages**
* once you got your package name [gmail app], use this command to uninstall it.
**adb uninstall package name**
Hope that helps !!
**Original Source:**
[How to completely uninstall an app on Android Lollipop?](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/92025/how-to-completely-uninstall-an-app-on-android-lollipop)
<https://seo-michael.co.uk/how-to-uninstall-packages-and-applications-with-adb/>
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Are you Root?
if no: then get root, or try using adb (android debug bridge) through a laptop.
if yes: get a root browser (I recommend Solid Explorer), in settings activate root privileges, then navigate to directory: "/system/app/" and search for one that says something like: com.google.gmail2 (or gmail) or something like that with gmail in it. and simply delete the folder.
althoigh dont piss around with root if you dont know what youre doing. system folders are very sensitive and can cause hardbootloops (these are bad).
GL (Inbox is great)
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: If it's built into Android as a system app (built into the system, uninstallable by normal means), no, not unless you have root or unless your device has some rare functionality which will allow you to (I don't even know if such a device exists). If it's an app you installed yourself and isn't a system app, then yes.
Upvotes: 2 |
2015/10/29 | 557 | 2,160 | <issue_start>username_0: I am setting up a new Nexus 5X with Marshmallow. There does not appear to be a default mail application as in prior versions; instead there is just the GMail application. Is the [Inbox](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.inbox) by Google application what was formerly the stock mail application called "Email"?<issue_comment>username_1: No. Inbox is a very different application that was opened to the public in early 2015. It's primarily designed around the idea that your inbox is like a to-do list of sorts. The [project's website](https://www.google.com/inbox/) explains this in more detail.
The "Android" email application is no longer developed by Google in any meaningful capacity, aside from ensuring that new platform releases do not break the build (and some translation updates, which are mostly automated). The Exchange and IMAP/POP features were instead rolled into Gmail, which is now considered the "stock" email application on any Google device.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: >
> Is the Inbox by Google application what was formerly the stock mail
> application called "Email"?
>
>
>
No, it is not.
As said already in earlier Answer, the support for Stock Email app is no more. I recently bought **Moto G3** and it came pre-installed with Gmail **with no other Email app**.
[Inbox](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.inbox) is developed by Gmail team. Hence, all your messages from Gmail are with Inbox, along with the reliability and spam protection of Gmail.
But there are few **advantages** of Inbox over Gmail App.
* **Creating a new labels**: If you want to [create new labels](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/96253/create-new-labels-in-gmail-app) using Gmail app, it is not supported, Yet in Android. However, you can create new label using Inbox app.
* **Inserting Images inline**: Attaching inline images is not supported by Gmail, but you can attach images inline in the Inbox by Gmail app for Android.
But on **flip** side, Inbox does not support App widgets like Gmail app do.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/10/29 | 328 | 1,347 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm using a Kitkat 4.4.4 based phone (Samsung Galaxy S Duos 3)
For the most part I don't use G+ or Maps or most of the Google apps provided.
But I do prefer documents being backed up, so I've refrained from shutting down the google app entirely.
Being a phone of very low ram, it kinda cripples the performance. As far as I understand in Android it's not a good idea to kill apps (so normally I hibernate the stuff I don't use). I prefer having the RAM full with apps I actually use.
I'm not really sure what I should be doing with the Google apps. And I would prefer not voiding my warranty by creating a swap partition (using root)<issue_comment>username_1: Generally speaking, any system app you can disable can safely be disabled. Core system apps will have the disable button greyed out. You can see this if you open App info for the Settings app itself.
Go ahead and disable all Google apps you don't want.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Root your phone. Then install it a custom ROM. Custom ROMs doesn't include Google apps at all. Once installed the custom ROM, I suggest you to install the Nano Google apps on your device. Nano apps only include play store and core services. After all this is all you really need. Other apps can be installed via Play Store if you need them
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/29 | 237 | 1,006 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm a moto gen 2 user, my phone is discharging extremely fast.. Just switches off overnight even with >50% charge .. But I'm able to charge properly.. Takes long, but its fine..
Tried the factory reset but both the soft and external reset not working. Please help. Customer care is a big task.<issue_comment>username_1: Generally speaking, any system app you can disable can safely be disabled. Core system apps will have the disable button greyed out. You can see this if you open App info for the Settings app itself.
Go ahead and disable all Google apps you don't want.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Root your phone. Then install it a custom ROM. Custom ROMs doesn't include Google apps at all. Once installed the custom ROM, I suggest you to install the Nano Google apps on your device. Nano apps only include play store and core services. After all this is all you really need. Other apps can be installed via Play Store if you need them
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/29 | 497 | 1,743 | <issue_start>username_0: I cannot install any app on my Galaxy Note 8 N5100 tablet which is rooted and uses Android 4.4.2. It takes too much time with no result.
(Click image to enlarge)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/7v66g.png)
And this is the status of my package installer app:
(Click image to enlarge)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/tcAQu.jpg)
---
**Edit:**
I think I found what's the problem. This is the battery usage of my device:
You see the usage of `Google play services` is very high about 47%
(Click image to enlarge)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/bb3IK.jpg)
I think it's the cause of these problems:
* When I try to play a film, it stops time to time
* Installation of applications takes a lot of time
* Battery usage is very high
* The devise is warm even if I'm not using it
What should I do to solve the problem?
It's not possible to uninstall `Google play services` and reinstall it<issue_comment>username_1: Generally speaking, any system app you can disable can safely be disabled. Core system apps will have the disable button greyed out. You can see this if you open App info for the Settings app itself.
Go ahead and disable all Google apps you don't want.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Root your phone. Then install it a custom ROM. Custom ROMs doesn't include Google apps at all. Once installed the custom ROM, I suggest you to install the Nano Google apps on your device. Nano apps only include play store and core services. After all this is all you really need. Other apps can be installed via Play Store if you need them
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/30 | 1,159 | 4,145 | <issue_start>username_0: Is there any way to shutdown or reboot HP Pro Slate 12 tablet without using the power button?
I'm afraid the button will wear out quickly, so I'm looking for a workaround solution.
Yes, I know that for rooted devices there are a lot of shutdown and reboot apps, but it is **impossible** to [root this device](https://android.stackexchange.com/q/127473/96277). It has Android 5.1.1.<issue_comment>username_1: Thanks to @username_2:
The only way to do this without root and without [tasker](/questions/tagged/tasker "show questions tagged 'tasker'") is via [adb](/questions/tagged/adb "show questions tagged 'adb'") by executing these commands:
* `adb reboot` -- no root required; for reboot, or
* `adb shell reboot -p` -- no root required.
* `adb shell shutdown` -- needs root.
`adb shell su` must be run before it, preferably like this: `adb shell` → `su` → `shutdown` -- for shutdown / power off -- on a computer while the tablet is connected to the computer with USB debugging enabled.
These commands work via adb as adb is more privileged than a normal user, although not as much as root on-device.
The reason why you simply can't run the commands `reboot` or `shutdown` through a terminal emulator on-device or through an app without root is because of the following reasons in order:
1. Android apps use Java as their programming language.
2. Java has a function `System.exec(String)` which allows the program to execute a shell command (specified by the `String` argument to the function).
3. If an app did not need root to run the `reboot` or `shutdown` commands, it could easily perpetrate Denial Of Service (DoS) attacks on a device (basically like a Trojan (in computer parlance)).
As you can understand, the reboot/shutdown functionality needs to be protected from userspace software, hence, for your [other question](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/127473/how-to-root-hp-pro-slate-12-tablet), we will help you to try to root your device so that you can get this functionality. Otherwise, there is no other way I can help you.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Like @Tamoghna said , only way to reboot and shutdown for non rooted device is using adb. You can download adb from this [link](http://adbshell.com/upload/adb.zip) and unzip it.
Open cmd from same folder and type
```
adb reboot
```
to reboot the device
and type
```
adb shell reboot -p
```
to shutdown the device. I hope it helps you..
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: Provided that HP has not messed up with AOSP much in your device, you can use [Tasker](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm) with [AutoInput](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joaomgcd.autoinput) (both are paid apps with 7 day free trial) to reboot/shutdown without using power button and without requiring root access.
In essence, what we're going to do is show the power dialog (the one you see when you long-press the Power button).
(Solution tested on AICP ROM (Android 5.1.1))
Instructions
------------
1. Install both the apps and enable accessibility service for both from *Settings → Accessibility*
2. In Tasker, create a task with the action: *Plugin → AutoInput → Global Action → Configuration → Action → Power Dialog*
3. Go to Home screen → find the option to add Widgets → select *Task Shortcut* → choose the newly created task → select an icon
An icon would now be placed on your home screen with name as the task name and icon that you selected for the task. Tap it and the power dialog would show up.
(Click image to enlarge)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/45QxX.jpg)
In case you want to have a functionality of launching that dialog from anywhere in the system, you can consider [LMT Launcher](http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1330150).
My answer for [Page up and page down in web pages and elsewhere](https://android.stackexchange.com/a/119265) will help you in its basic *know-how*.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/D6jim.jpg)
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer] |
2015/10/30 | 568 | 2,447 | <issue_start>username_0: My phone (Sony E4g, running Android 4.4.4) offers the possibility of moving some of the installed apps partially onto the (removable) SD-card. I use this feature regularly, and -in theory- quite a big part of the apps are already moved on it. My problem is however that I can't find these anywhere on the SD-card, and there are no separate partitions on the card either. So my question is: where exactly are this moved apps stored on the external storage in KitKat ? Thanks.<issue_comment>username_1: Generally, you cannot see app data files on internal storage unless you have root - I would assume that this is the same with data files on external storage. A quick check with one of my apps shows me that even after moving it to the SD card, the data is still in `/data/data`, without a symbolic link or anything. Of course, this doesn't mean that the files aren't on the SD card - maybe the Android system itself just "sees" the files as on internal storage but really they're on the external one. There also doesn't seem to be anything in the `/storage/sdcard1/Android/data/app.package.name` (or `/external_sd/Android/data/app.package.name`) folders, however that's where I would assume they're stored. I see your point though, and I would like to know myself exactly where they're stored - but I can't exactly fit this all into a comment. Some apps use root and a second partition to completely move app data and create "links" (specifically symbolic links) between where the actual files, libraries, APK files etc. are stored and where they normally would be. This is done on a second partition as there is a large risk that the first partition will become unmounted when you plug your device into a computer in MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) mode, and if it was unmounted it would render a large amount of apps useless.
When you've got a large amount of apps moved onto external storage, make sure that the microSD card is always plugged in and that you don't delete anything off it. You can run into issues such as the whole app being unavailable and yet still taking up space on internal storage if this happens.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: OK, after some research it seems that all the apps moved to external SD-card are in the virtual file system /mnt/asec, which is, in turn, an abstraction layer over the encrypted files stored in the hidden .android\_secure folder, on the ext. SD-card.
Upvotes: 3 |
2015/10/30 | 698 | 3,311 | <issue_start>username_0: There is an app called smart app lock. It has an option to prevent uninstalling of the app. Ticking it gives confirmation to add app to system administrators.
Root was not required to make it work. What privileges does this 'Administrator' get? I know that root has more privileges as I could uninstall it with root privileges, but what is the difference between the privileges of admin and those of root?<issue_comment>username_1: A device administrator, when talking about an app, is basically an app which had extra privileges over other non-administrator apps. These "administrator" privileges do not require root access and only give the app certain extra functionality.
An app with root access is different and on a much higher and more dangerous level system-control wise. An app with root permissions can essentially do anything to your phone - delete virtually any file, secretly route your traffic to somewhere else, access things it otherwise wouldn't have access to.
However, that's not really a fair justification of what rooting can give you as it also provides benefits too, however this isn't really related to the question.
Rooting a device (to gain root privileges and to give an app root access) requires a process which usually voids a device's warranty, whereas for an app to become an app administrator you just need to enable it in your settings. A similar procedure is required for apps to request root access. However, while a device administrator can be enabled by tapping a switch and confirming a dialog, root access is usually presented to the user as a popup dialog with a timeout.
Also, the (main and most probable) reason why your app locker app requests to become a device administrator is because device administrators cannot be uninstalled without you first disabling them (this process is basically the same as enabling it, however without the confirmation dialog). This is because someone who might want to access an app which you have locked might just uninstall the app locker to access it - this adds some security in that they have to spend the (albeit small) amount of time disabling it, and if they don't know how to (as this isn't something you do every day, even though it is simple) it helps prevent them gaining access to apps you don't want them to.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Device Administrators are apps which the user grants certain privileges. For example:
* Password policies (minimum length, expiration time, etc.)
* Lock screen (say, after a given time)
* Require storage encryption
* Remotely wipe the device
* Disable camera
And some other options, including the possibility to prevent uninstalling of the app.
So the difference is that with root you gain the possibility to *modify the system at all levels*, instead with administrator you can *gain control over a limited set of options* - which are of course available to root.
Another difference is that administrator permissions are built-in in stock Android and available to apps developer through the [dedicated API](http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/admin/device-admin.html).
You can see which permissions are granted to which apps and revoke them by going to Settings -> Security -> Device administrators.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer] |
2015/10/30 | 436 | 1,936 | <issue_start>username_0: I got myself a Nexus 6P with a fancy fingerprint scanner. So far I'm a bit reluctant to use it because I can't find any info on how Android Marshmallow stores those fingerprints. Are they hashed (as SHA2 or whatever), or are they in they stored in the clear? Is the fingerprint data kept on the device, or does it get sent up to the cloud?<issue_comment>username_1: Looks like the answer is in [Google's Android 6.0 Compatibility Requirements](https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/source.android.com/en//compatibility/android-cdd.pdf), section 7.3.10:
* MUST have a hardware-backed keystore implementation, and perform the fingerprint matching in a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) or on a chip with a secure channel to the TEE.
* MUST have all identifiable fingerprint data encrypted and cryptographically authenticated such that they cannot be acquired, read or altered outside of the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) as documented in the implementation guidelines on the Android Open Source Project site [Resources, 96].
* MUST prevent adding a fingerprint without first establishing a chain of trust by having the user confirm existing or add a new device credential (PIN/pattern/password) using the TEE as implemented in the Android Open Source project.
* MUST NOT enable 3rd-party applications to distinguish between individual fingerprints.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: As far as I understand it, the fingerprints are not backed up in the cloud - if they were, I'm sure someone would have noticed it and written an article on it and calling it a huge security risk as if hackers get your personal data, they'd have your fingerprint too. The security method I'm not sure about, but I doubt it would be left unencrypted - that would pose a security risk, however even if it was left unencrypted it would be very hard to actually access it (but most likely not impossible).
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/31 | 431 | 1,901 | <issue_start>username_0: My phone is HTC desire 826, I'm living in a flat, with my friends. We have a WiFi connection. When we establish connection, one of us should sign in with a given username and password, in a pop-up page. This thing never happens in my phone. So I can't connect WiFi when I'm alone. Hope you could help me.<issue_comment>username_1: Looks like the answer is in [Google's Android 6.0 Compatibility Requirements](https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/source.android.com/en//compatibility/android-cdd.pdf), section 7.3.10:
* MUST have a hardware-backed keystore implementation, and perform the fingerprint matching in a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) or on a chip with a secure channel to the TEE.
* MUST have all identifiable fingerprint data encrypted and cryptographically authenticated such that they cannot be acquired, read or altered outside of the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) as documented in the implementation guidelines on the Android Open Source Project site [Resources, 96].
* MUST prevent adding a fingerprint without first establishing a chain of trust by having the user confirm existing or add a new device credential (PIN/pattern/password) using the TEE as implemented in the Android Open Source project.
* MUST NOT enable 3rd-party applications to distinguish between individual fingerprints.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: As far as I understand it, the fingerprints are not backed up in the cloud - if they were, I'm sure someone would have noticed it and written an article on it and calling it a huge security risk as if hackers get your personal data, they'd have your fingerprint too. The security method I'm not sure about, but I doubt it would be left unencrypted - that would pose a security risk, however even if it was left unencrypted it would be very hard to actually access it (but most likely not impossible).
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/10/31 | 465 | 1,657 | <issue_start>username_0: I have an ASUS Zenfone 2 with Android version 5.0. All of a sudden today it started draining the battery rapidly.
* I have made multiple restarts but it didn't help.
* I tried to scan the phone with Norton and Kaspersky to identify any possible risks, but got nothing.
* I uninstalled all latest apps that I installed in previous few days.
Even while it is connected to a power source, it is still not able to increase the battery charge level. I know according to the usage battery consumption can be high but only Wi-Fi is running and I'm not using the phone. And 115% usage is really very high.
(Click image to enlarge)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/6yMn5.jpg)<issue_comment>username_1: Try to use a Greenify app to hibernate an aplications: <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oasisfeng.greenify&hl=pl>
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: Last time I had such a problem, it was not because of how the battery was emptied, but how it was charged.
I bought a new usb cable and everything was fine again :)
Don't ask me why though!
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: The first thing I'd look for is ***one app*** that's using an extraordinary amount of resources.
Go to settings>apps> [choose an app -- I'd start with Chrome or any other browser that you use]
Then do a "Force Stop" on the suspected app. See if that helps. If there are any apps that you rarely use you can keep them stopped -- so you know they aren't using any battery.
It could be a hardware problem.
Disclaimer: I'm not familiar with your phone but have used 5.0 quite a bit.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/10/31 | 342 | 1,221 | <issue_start>username_0: I have a Moto E 1st Gen. When I updated to Lollipop, my boot animation updated too, but a few months later I did a hard reset to my Moto E. All was great, but yesterday I noticed that my boot animation is back to what it was on KitKat.
Is there a problem, and what can I do?<issue_comment>username_1: Try to use a Greenify app to hibernate an aplications: <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oasisfeng.greenify&hl=pl>
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: Last time I had such a problem, it was not because of how the battery was emptied, but how it was charged.
I bought a new usb cable and everything was fine again :)
Don't ask me why though!
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: The first thing I'd look for is ***one app*** that's using an extraordinary amount of resources.
Go to settings>apps> [choose an app -- I'd start with Chrome or any other browser that you use]
Then do a "Force Stop" on the suspected app. See if that helps. If there are any apps that you rarely use you can keep them stopped -- so you know they aren't using any battery.
It could be a hardware problem.
Disclaimer: I'm not familiar with your phone but have used 5.0 quite a bit.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/11/01 | 256 | 974 | <issue_start>username_0: I have a MotoX (1st Gen) phone. A few days back my display went black and I am not able to see anything once the phone boots. The notifications are getting displayed on the locked screen, but when I am trying to unlock, the screen is getting black again. The voice command is responding sometimes, but that's about it. I have cleared the cache partition, but that did not help either. Please tell me some way to recover the photos/videos in my mobile.<issue_comment>username_1: Your phone still works, so you got lucky.
Plug the device into a PC/Mac and navigate the phone's file directory. Look for the root folder "DCIM". All of your videos and photos should be in there.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I think this will work.
just go to this website.
<https://www.fonelab.com/resource/moto-x-data-recovery-recover-videos-from-moto-x.html>
just download the app.
app is only for apple and windows.
this app recovers media.
Upvotes: -1 |
2015/11/01 | 273 | 1,010 | <issue_start>username_0: On my Moto G (peregrine) with Android 4.4.4 I installed some apps where I joined beta tester programs long time ago (via log-in from a googlegroup etc.), and also just some weeks ago where no more group joining was necessary.
As I lost overview of the apps where I am beta tester:
How can I identify all apps where I a take part in beta testing?
(looking on my device intensively, also in GooglePlay settings and a general internet search were without success for my to find this out)<issue_comment>username_1: Your phone still works, so you got lucky.
Plug the device into a PC/Mac and navigate the phone's file directory. Look for the root folder "DCIM". All of your videos and photos should be in there.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I think this will work.
just go to this website.
<https://www.fonelab.com/resource/moto-x-data-recovery-recover-videos-from-moto-x.html>
just download the app.
app is only for apple and windows.
this app recovers media.
Upvotes: -1 |
2015/11/01 | 409 | 1,661 | <issue_start>username_0: I wanted to know when flashing a new ROM by using Odin does it wipe and clean the contents of the partitions(system, boot, ..) and then add the new content or just use some kind of replace over files?
The reason for asking the question is that I had my phone which was functioning normally but I decided to flash the new and updated stock ROM for my phone. So I went on with the process of flashing and after it finished and booted successfully, I noticed that stock apps are updated with some new apps but my previously installed apps and settings, contacts, ... all are there too! so I did a factory reset to have a clean start. (***Note:*** *I used a stock '.tar.md5' file which had everything in it; system,boot,recovery,...*)
So what should I do if I want to have a completely fresh ROM just after flashing? (any options in Odin maybe, what about 'Nand Erase All' option?)<issue_comment>username_1: **Do not press the nand erase option! Pressing nand erase will cause a hard brick.**
If you want to wipe data and cache you can do that from recovery mode: press Volume Up+ Home + Power keys
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: As stated [here](https://android.stackexchange.com/a/127686/96277) by username_1, dont use the NAND erase all. It will completely wipe the NAND including bits required to boot.
Odin should theoretically wipe the partition before writing on it as it does a write by block. Odin did not format the data partition resulting in old contacts data being present. The tarball file you used must be missing the blank data which is typically used to overwrite the data partition.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer] |
2015/11/02 | 2,517 | 9,270 | <issue_start>username_0: I won a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, signed into it with my Google account, played around with it, wiped it, and sold it.
Now the person can't get past setup because it's saying he must log in with an account previously synced to the phone.
Is there anything I can do from my side to remove this lock?
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/jLjv1.jpg)<issue_comment>username_1: No, there is not (or there *shouldn't* be). Factory Reset Protection uses a protected storage area located at `/dev/block/*/by-name/frp` that can't be wiped without special privileges or initiating a Factory Reset from Settings. If the user was able to root the device they could manually launch Settings via adb and do the reset themselves, but rooting is typically not possible when you can't even get past the initial setup wizard. If your bootloader is unlocked and/or you've already rooted the device, however, they could overwrite that FRP partition in order to bypass it!
If he sends the phone back to you: Log in with your Google account at the prompt in the Setup Wizard, finish the wizard, and then go to Settings and do the Factory Reset from there (rather than via recovery, etc.).
See this Android Police post for more details on the feature: [What Is Android 5.1's Anti-Theft "Device Protection" Feature And How Do I Use It?](http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/03/12/guide-what-is-android-5-1s-antitheft-device-protection-feature-and-how-do-i-use-it/)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_1: There are full guides for several devices from [RootJunky on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWhQwvCaC2ZMkCnrC15NfAw). This first method works on some **[Samsung](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ8_qbj1DPQ) and [LG](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEh2VpbNj_c) devices**. Your user can probably start at step 4.
1. Reboot into Recovery mode (hold Home, Volume Up, and Power, releasing Power when you see the device turn on/reboot).
2. Perform a Factory Reset (press Volume Down until `wipe data/factory reset` is selected, press Power, scroll down to `Yes -- delete all user data` and press Power again).
3. Proceed through the device Setup Wizard until it prompts you for the Google account credentials.
4. For a Samsung device, save [this RootJunky APK](http://rootjunkysdl.com/getdownload.php?file=Apps/samsung%20bypass%20google%20verify.apk) onto a USB flash drive, and connect it to the device via OTG.
For LG:
* Back up, connect to Wi-Fi, then back up again and hit Accessibility (Yes to the prompt that follows).
* Turn "Switch Access" on, then enter its Settings and set a key for Overview, such as Volume Down.
* Back out to Accessibility again, go to Vision → Talkback → Settings → Privacy Policy to open the browser, and download the APK linked above (rootjunkysdl.com → Apps).
* Press the key you set up for Overview, hit Dual Window, and select the file browser.
5. When the File Explorer launches, browse to and tap the APK to install it. When you get the prompt about unknown sources, choose the Settings option and enable the Unknown Sources option.
6. Complete the install and choose to Open the application, which will open Settings.
For LG:
* Add a new user account under Users, switch to it and add your own Google account via Setup, then switch back to the main user (Owner) from Settings → Users, and back out from there to the main Settings.
7. Go to Backup and Reset and do a Factory Data Reset. As per my other answer, this will remove FRP from the device.
The APK in (4) is very simple and just opens Settings, you could use any other that does the same if you don't want to trust that source.
---
**Nexus 5, 5X, 6, and [6P](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocC7ruFCqOI) running 6.0.1; Goclever Quantum 2 400S running 5.1:**
Insert an activated SIM card and call it from another phone. Answer the call, hit the Add Line (call conferencing) button, and enter `*#*#4646#*#*` or `*#*#4636#*#*` (worked on Nexus 5X). Tap "Usage Statistics", then hit the back button, and you're in Settings and can do a factory reset.
If Factory Reset is disabled [thanks to a security patch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLZOI-9tYg4), you can instead create a new user account (going through and setting it up), then follow the very next guide below for the Turbo, starting at the second paragraph.
You can also do this without a sim through [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOymYg3lswI) exploit.
---
**[Motorola Droid Turbo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXTojqc0ZX8) running 5.1:**
Go through the Setup Wizard until you encounter the "About your privacy" page (you might need to connect to Wi-Fi). Hit the "Privacy settings" link, then "View Motorola Privacy Policy". On that page, select any text and hit the Search button, which will open the browser. Type Settings into the address bar, and tap the suggested Settings app.
Enable developer options (by tapping the version code in About Phone seven times), then go into Developer Options and turn on USB debugging. Connect your device to a PC with ADB installed (from [here](http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html#Other)) and run this in a shell window:
```
adb shell content insert --uri content://settings/secure --bind name:s:user_setup_complete --bind value:s:1
```
Now you can go into Settings and do a Factory Reset.
---
**[Motorola Droid X Pure](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB4ZmzIDPyk) running 6.0:**
Navigate through the Setup Wizard to the Wi-Fi connection screen, and select a password-protected network. Select "Show password", then type in a password and select the password text. Hit "Share" in the menu that pops up and select Gmail. Add a POP or Exchange account (*not* a Gmail account), and (from the message pre-populated with the text you "shared") select Settings from the 3-dot menu and then choose "Manage accounts" from that same menu.
You should now be in the Settings app. Follow the above Turbo guide starting at the second paragraph, and you're done!
---
For devices where none of the above or similar methods work, or after these exploits are fixed, see [my other answer](https://android.stackexchange.com/a/127741/1465).
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Use this code to unlock in an emergency call: `*#812#`. After calling it, the phone unlocked and I was shown the home screen. After that, I went to the setting and added a new Google account. Since then, the phone works perfectly and thus is absolutely safe.
If you have the same problem, just try it. If it unlocks, then good for you. If it does not, then just nothing happens.
It worked beautifully on my OnePlus2.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: IF the phone has a *Google keyboard*, the following may look pretty lengthy but it doesn't require OTG cable or PC so it's worth a try.
1. Boot your device and select preferred language
2. Connect to Wi-FI network.
3. You will be prompted to enter email, then tap on it as if you want to type something to bring up keyboard.
4. From the keyboard, tap and hold the “@” button until it pops up gear icon to input options like Google keyboard settings, languages.
5. Choose Google keyboard settings.
6. Tap on the 3 vertical dots at the right top part of your screen
7. Now Select the Help & Feedback
8. From the screen displayed, look for Settings in the text, select it, copy it and tap on the search icon.
9. You should see Settings menu on the search queries. Tap on it to open device settings
10. Scroll down to About Phone or About device and tap 7 times on the Build number to enable Developer Options
11. Return to Settings and open the Developer Options that you just enabled
12. Allow OEM Unlocking and tap Back two times
13. Restart your device
14. Connect your Wi-Fi again. You won’t be prompted to log in the previous Google Account and instead the phone will ask you to ADD a new Google Account. Instead Skip it.
15. Continue to set up your phone.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: ### FRP bypass for ZTE instructions
1. Reset the phone and power it back on.
2. Choose your preferred language, then tap on *Start*.
3. Connect the phone to a WiFi network (preferably your Home network).
4. Skip several steps of the setup until you reach the *Verify Account* screen.
5. Tap on the email field, in order to activate the keyboard.
6. Most ZTE phones come with the Swift Key keyboard, so you need to tap on the keyboard’s menu key.
7. Select *Settings* from the menu.
8. From the Settings menu within *SwiftKey* select *Languages*.
9. Minimize the menu on the screen, then go to the Google search bar.
10. When prompted to sign in with a Google Account, choose "No, Thanks".
11. In the Google search bar, type `Settings` and select it. If the SwiftKey menu pops up again, tap on *Got it*, then *Not Now*.
12. From the Settings menu select *Backup and Reset*. (read the comment below for Huawei Y5)
13. From this submenu, choose *Factory Data Reset*. Go through the entire process and reset your handset again. However, this time you won’t see the FRP lock.
**Source:** [How to bypass Google Account Verification (Factory Reset Protection)](https://www.unlockunit.com/blog/bypass-google-account-verification-factory-reset-protection/)
Upvotes: 2 |
2015/11/02 | 361 | 1,374 | <issue_start>username_0: I noticed I had 623MB free in my internal storage so I connected my Android to my Laptop and navigated to the Thumbnails folder which had lot of files and was big in size. I selected all files and deleted them, it was about 300MB. Now when I read the available internal memory space, it reads 623MB...
What happened here? the files are no longer there but for some reason Android is not reflecting the increased available memory..
any clues?
Thank you!
Matias.<issue_comment>username_1: Sometimes it may not reflect until restart. Moreover, thumbnails would be recreated once you open the images again. Perform a restart or reboot.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I found a way to release the memory:
1. Connect you phone to a PC.
2. Open the memory with the File Explorer. Either "Card" or "Phone"
3. Open the file LOST.Dir
4. Erase the files in that folder.
This seems to be the recycle bin for Android.
Best!
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I had the same problem on my ancient ZTE blade 2.2 device that i use for listening to audiobooks. When i deleted some files using linux file browser, the amount of free space on the device did not increase.
After some digging, i found the "removed" files inside a folder called ".Trash-1000". Deleting these freed up all the lost space.
Hope this helps.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/11/02 | 3,601 | 12,961 | <issue_start>username_0: Is there a way to determine which application is drawing on top of other applications?
For example, Facebook Messenger app can draw the chat bubbles on top of everything, but how do I know which app is doing this?
**My problem:**
I have an app which is drawing ads on top of everything and I wanna know which app is doing this. Not just to uninstall it, but to warn everyone that uses this app. (I didn't install any application recently and I already verified the recent updates.)
I tried to use the *Dump View Hierarchy for UI Automator* from the Android Studio, but it seems that the applications that draw on top can't be selected this way.
(Click image to enlarge)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/BQM9Zm.png)<issue_comment>username_1: **Note:**
* [adb](/questions/tagged/adb "show questions tagged 'adb'") should already be setup in PC.
* For Android earlier than version 4.4.x, root access may be required.
* Some commands would not work on Android earlier than version 5.1.
* Jump to heading "**Apps for apps**" if you're unfamiliar or uncomfortable with command-line and/or the command-line fails to solve your issue.
---
Edit: cut the chase in the earlier solution and follow this edited section only.
================================================================================
Setup [adb](/questions/tagged/adb "show questions tagged 'adb'") and run this command:
```
adb shell "dumpsys window windows | toybox grep -i system_alert_window"
```
You would get the output of all the **active overlays** on the screen. Example of an output with DU Screen Recorder, Tasker and AZ Screen Recorder showing active overlays on screen:
```
bash-4.3# adb shell "dumpsys window windows| toybox grep -i system_alert_window"
mOwnerUid=10087 mShowToOwnerOnly=true package=**net.dinglisch.android.tasker** appop=SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW
mOwnerUid=10604 mShowToOwnerOnly=true package=**com.hecorat.screenrecorder.free** appop=SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW
mOwnerUid=10604 mShowToOwnerOnly=true package=com.hecorat.screenrecorder.free appop=SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW
mOwnerUid=10649 mShowToOwnerOnly=true package=**com.duapps.recorder** appop=SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW
mOwnerUid=10649 mShowToOwnerOnly=true package=com.duapps.recorder appop=SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW
mOwnerUid=10604 mShowToOwnerOnly=true package=com.hecorat.screenrecorder.free appop=SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW
mOwnerUid=10604 mShowToOwnerOnly=true package=com.hecorat.screenrecorder.free appop=SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW
mOwnerUid=10638 mShowToOwnerOnly=true package=**ninja.sesame.app.edge** appop=SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW
```
The highlighted text next to *package=* and before *appop* is the package name(s) of the app(s) **currently drawing overlay** on the screen. In your case, the output including the package name(s) would differ.
Note down the package name(s) (henceforth as PKG) and execute this command:
```
adb shell am force-stop PKG
```
Replace *PKG* with the package name you noted down. If you had multiple package names, repeat the command with one package name at a time.
The command would forcefully stop the app and thereby discard the overlay. This should work. You may alternatively strip the permission of "Draw over other apps" (screen overlay in short) from the apps using this command:
```
adb shell appops set PKG SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW ignore
```
Again, replace PKG with package name as necessary. Furthermore, you may have to repeat the force-stop command for the PKG. If you decide to revert the changes, replace *ignore* with *allow* in aforesaid command.
You may alternatively use [App Ops](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=rikka.appops) to manage the permissions from GUI.
To know which package name corresponds to which app you could try an open source app like [Applications Info](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.majeur.applicationsinfo). Search by package name and you would get the App's name.
Edit finished
=============
You really **need not to read anymore now**. I'm leaving the earlier solution (i.e. following section) intact because 21 people who voted it did find that helpful and I don't want to mess up anymore.
---
A simple way would be to find out all the apps having the permission "draw over other apps" and then single out them from the ones currently active on the screen. Afterwards, engage in force-stopping those common apps until you pin-point the app responsible for the active overlay.
Enumerate apps having permission for overlay
============================================
The permission required by an app to create an overlay is [`android.permission.SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW`](http://developer.android.com/reference/android/Manifest.permission.html#SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW) (draw over other apps).
We need to find out all the installed apps having the said permission. It is up to you to find out a method for this. My answer [here](https://android.stackexchange.com/a/123100/96277) may aid you.
**Note** that we need the apps' [package names](https://android.stackexchange.com/q/28767/96277) and not their labels.
Cherry-pick from active windows
===============================
Execute the command
```
adb shell dumpsys window windows
```
This would give you details on whatsoever causing something to be displayed on the screen, including the component name of an app causing it.
How you would extract the name is up to you. You may try this command however
```
adb shell 'dumpsys window windows | grep "Window #"'
```
If you receive the error: *'grep' is not recognized as an internal or external command*, on Windows try this alternative command:
```
adb shell "dumpsys window windows | grep 'Window #'"
```
Demo output
```
Window #4 Window{42065d50 u0 com.android.phone/com.mediatek.phone.UssdAlertActivity}:
Window #5 Window{42197468 u0 ginlemon.flowerpro/ginlemon.flower.HomeScreen}:
Window #6 Window{420fdb58 u0 com.android.systemui.ImageWallpaper}:
Window #7 Window{421e3b88 u0 com.android.contacts/com.android.contacts.activities.DialtactsActivity}:
```
In the above output, anything succeeding `u0` and preceding `/` is the package name of an app. An app can have multiple components displaying something on the screen.
You've to create a list of those package names. If you [have BusyBox installed](https://android.stackexchange.com/a/134593/96277), you can do
```
adb shell 'dumpsys window windows | grep "Window #" | sed -e "s/.*u0 //g" -e "s/\/.*//g" -e "s/}://g"'
```
Anyhow, now you would be having two lists:
* First list contains all the apps having the permission `android.permission.SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW`.
* Second list contains all the apps actively displaying something on the screen.
Compare these two lists and single out apps which are common in both the lists. This third list would constitute of apps having the permission to draw overlay and are currently drawing an active overlay on screen.
Time to kill
============
Kill each of the apps from the third list one by one and notice the state of overlay. You can use `am force-stop PACKAGE_NAME --user 0` or any other method that suits you. `PACKAGE_NAME` is the package name of the app.
**EDIT**: It is not necessary to kill an app. You can consider denying the app the permission to draw over other apps. Use this command:
```
adb shell 'appops set PACKAGE SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW deny' # replace PACKAGE with package name of the app
```
To revert the changes, replace *deny* with *allow* in the said command and execute it.
If you're running Android Marshmallow, [this answer](https://android.stackexchange.com/a/136145/96277) by username_2 can be used.
**Note:** The aforesaid command is successfully tested on Android 5.1.1 and 6.0.1 (CM builds). It is also possible that the command works on Android 5.0.x but [I can't guarantee](https://android.stackexchange.com/q/137220/96277). Execution of that command on Android version [released prior to Lollipop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_version_history) would cause failure.
Since often the overlay is perceivable, it would instantly disappear the moment the app causing it is killed, hence, you would know which app was causing that overlay.
Apps for apps
=============
Originally suggested by Izzy, you can use an app which has the functionality of listing permissions granted to installed apps, to single out the apps having the permission "draw over other apps". You can either search such an app on your own or use the the list [Permission checker](https://android.izzysoft.de/applists/category/named/security_permissions#group_379) maintained by Izzy on his website.
You would also need a process/app manager to force-stop/kill some processes. I recommend [OS Monitor](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eolwral.osmonitor) but you're at liberty to use any competent app. See related apps under [System Info](https://android.izzysoft.de/applists/category/named/tools_systeminfo).
### For demonstration purposes only
I tried [Advanced Permission Manager](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gmail.heagoo.pmaster) to list apps with permission to "draw over other apps". Afterwards, I switched to OS Monitor to see the apps running in foreground and background. I matched the output from both the apps and individually force-stopped the apps common in both. You can kill a process from inside the OS Monitor, so no need to switch to App settings.
(Click image to enlarge)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/CjiLk.png)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/aAf2K.png)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/lw1NU.png)
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If you're using Android 6.0 Marshmallow, you can use its native permissions manager.
From [an article on BGR](http://bgr.com/2015/08/18/android-6-0-marshmallow-tips-and-tricks-app-permissions/),
>
> Android 6.0 Marshmallow has a lot of highly anticipated new features and one of them is something iPhone users have had for years: Granular app permissions. Phone Arena installed the latest developer preview of Marshmallow and posted some terrific tips to help Android users make sure they’re only sharing data with apps that they specifically want to share.
>
>
> To access Marshmallow’s permissions management feature, you’ll want to open up your Settings menu and then click on the Apps section. From there, click on the Gear icon that will then give you the option to go to app permissions manager.
>
>
>
To list the apps that can draw over other apps, go to **Settings - Apps - Advanced (menu with gear icon) - Draw over other apps**.
You can also enable/disable the feature temporarily by tapping the app, and toggle the "Permit drawing over other apps".
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/BzDLk.png)
Image courtesy of [<NAME> on Medium](https://medium.com/@rotxed/drawing-over-other-apps-marshmallow-edition-987eff9f99a9#.2m336h9a0)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Thanks a bunch @username_1 ! I have finally found the app which has been preventing me from installing apk's and performing adb backups.
For me I found it was an app called `Battery Mix` Read on to see what I did and how I did it.
`https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.smapho.battery_mix`
Many people have had issues with Installing apk's and not being able to press 'Install'. All answers I could find were mainly down to display dimming,tinting,power-saving apps. As I didn't use any or had removed all similar apps I had been struggling to find what was going on and which app was the culprit. And finally! After one simple command and a quick search, it has been solved :D
The offending app `Battery Mix` is a simple battery monitoring app which had the function I used to displayed a thin line across the top of the screen to show the state of the battery level (a great little app).
So to diagnose, I used a command from `username_1` (above) to dump a text file and then to search for the app which was causing the android system to prevent me form clicking that Install button.
**Execute command from PC**
`adb shell dumpsys window windows > dumpsys-windows.txt`
**Search for**
`SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW`
To find any offending applications I searched for the above string
Which gave me the line:
`mOwnerUid=10129 mShowToOwnerOnly=true package=jp.smapho.battery_mix appop=SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW`
(See image upload for the section of text file)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/fjEiA.png)
immediately I could recognise which app it was referring to: jp.smapho.**battery\_mix**
So now I know to kill that app whenever I plan to sideload or befor adb backups.
Upvotes: 2 |
2015/11/03 | 542 | 2,381 | <issue_start>username_0: I am using Android 5.0 with a 64GB SD card and I have approximately 500MB of memory left in the internal storage, but I am unable to install apps from Play Store on account of "insufficient memory for app size".
How to resolve this issue? Is there any way to install apps directly in SD card?<issue_comment>username_1: There are two solutions to your problem:
* Moving apps from internal memory to SD card (not necessary external SD card).
This will allow you to install apps on the internal memory while the data of the apps (which is usually bigger then the app itself) will be stored on your SD card. This is will give you a lot of free space for more apps of your choice. Downside is, every app you move to the SD card will not have a widget and will be slower to use. You can do this by installing App2SD from Play Store or any other app that can move other apps.
* Different approach requires more technical skills.
You can root your device and manually change the partitions so you get more space on your "apps partition", but less in system partition or cache partition. This procedure is a bit tricky and is different for each device. If you decide to do this a good starting point is the XDA developers forum or simply Google it for your specific device.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Go to `Settings` > `Apps`. Choose already installed applications and move them to SD Card. (Preferably apps other than Play Store, Google Apps, etc, which may not be movable )
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: I use AppMgrIII, I ALWAYS root my devices therefore enabling me unrestricted access to my devices. You can move apps to your SD Card in bulk with root access within AppMgrIII. Even those that fault under "boot complete" call.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: When you uninstall an app from your Android phone it doesn't actually remove everything. The APK is hidden away still, therefore, using unnecessary storage.
I'd say the simplest way to resolve this is to clear up some space (photos, videos and more) and download CleanMaster. It clears out anything that doesn't need to be there and can even improve performance.
If you can't clear enough space with CleanMaster, it's probably worth your time to plug your phone into your PC and navigate through until you find the APKs and manually delete them yourself.
Upvotes: -1 |
2015/11/04 | 665 | 2,373 | <issue_start>username_0: [Is it possible to pre-download a YouTube video to view it later offline?](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/39128/is-it-possible-to-pre-download-a-youtube-video-to-view-it-later-offline?newreg=b4e8b45c58734eafbba31fb5d4576ff7) I know this is a duplicate, but the functionality has been removed for a year, and no (automatic) alternatives to the problem.
So here is the problem I take the train 2 hours everyday, and I dont have Wifi and 3G would just have its download limit busted in a day.
Si I would like to have my 'Watch Later' playlist (or could be another playlist) automatically downloaded to my phone when I have WiFi so I can watch it later, when I have no network.
The current solutions would be to manually download every video, then transfer them to my phone. Any app that does it automatically?<issue_comment>username_1: If you are planning to download the videos through the YouTube app: yes, you can!
YouTube has that functionality present internally at the moment, so no need for third party apps.
Screenshots (Click to enlarge image)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/CNgYk.png) [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/dhUMk.png)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: You can also open the youtube video you'd like to download in your browser and then add "dlv" in front of youtube in the URL so that it becomes dlvyoutube.com
Not sure how much more smooth this will be compared to working on your computer + transfer if you want to download several videos..
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: You should try to download Youtube Go from playstore, it has the ability to download the video you want and watch it wherever you are. This works offline too and when you prompt the download you can set the quality of the video you want to download
Take a look at here
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.youtube.mango&hl=en_US>
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/WLGcZ.jpg)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/N5vVz.jpg)
Upvotes: 2 |
2015/11/04 | 877 | 3,423 | <issue_start>username_0: The latest Pushbullet update (v17.0.4) for Android has added a persistent notification to my notification drawer. The app indicates that I can remove the notification by enabling Pushbullet in the notification access settings. However, I can't seem to find these settings in my Samsung Galaxy S4 running Android 4.2.2 with Samsung's ROM.
Are there notification access settings in Android 4.2.2? If so, where did Samsung bury them in the settings?
If there are no such settings in Android 4.2.2, is there a way to remove persistent notifications without affecting Pushbullet's functionality (such as through an Xposed module)?
EDIT:
To clarify, I don't want to disable **all** notifications for this app, it would defeat the purpose of the app. I want to disable the persistent notification that now shows up. It is supposedly necessary in order to allow certain features, now that the accessibility service has been removed.<issue_comment>username_1: Since the device is are rooted, you may like to give [Notifications Off](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aboutmycode.NotificationsOff) app, a try.
This additionally offers integration with automation apps and that may offer more flexibility in customizing app behavior.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: In the case of Pushbullet, if you don't want to use SMS sync, you can turn off it from Pushbullet settings and the notification will disappear.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: If your device is rooted you can install Xposed and install [Notify Clean](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.defim.apk.notifyclean) which allows to disable a specific notification which matches some text filter.
[Notifications Off](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aboutmycode.NotificationsOff) can only turn off notifications for whole app so it cannot help in this case.
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_1: Disabling persistent notification would affect the functionality of app, as confirmed by app's developer in reply to my query.
[My query](http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=63664459&postcount=229):
>
> If I disable persistent notification does it affect the functionality[?]
>
>
>
Developer's ([guzba](http://forum.xda-developers.com/member.php?u=4374844)) [reply](http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=63664518&postcount=230):
>
> I'm working toward not needing the notification. It can affect functionality right now though if you use SMS sync or Universal copy & paste because without the notification, Android can (and probably will) kill our app making them no longer work. This is less bad with SMS sync since I can make sure it's running for incoming messages, but will be potentially functionality-ending for Android initiated Universal copy & paste.
>
>
>
Source: [Pushbullet](http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=63664518) at XDA Developers forum.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Surprisingly, no one has yet mentioned that notification access settings do not exist in Android 4.2.2 (my first question in the question post body above), having been introduced for 4.4. Evidence: I found notification access settings on my device running 4.4, but not on my 4.2.2 device. Thus, the only solution is to remove the persistent notification, which I have done with NotifyClean as suggested by Firelord.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/11/04 | 809 | 2,877 | <issue_start>username_0: [This answer](https://android.stackexchange.com/a/106152/115800) explains how to save your chat on google drive and recently I got that option on WhatsApp. It says the backup will be stored on Drive as well as on my sd card, ok fine.
When I started my Google drive backup even it showed `Backing up 110MB` but I don't want to backup the whatsapp media (I just want to backup the text messages). Even if I backup entire 110MB to Drive and delete all my media and text messages (to clear up the space consumed by whatsapp), what will happen on next backup? Will it overwrite the last backup and substitute a new backup consisting of nothing?
I got to know that there is some third party apps like [Helium](https://android.stackexchange.com/a/95639/115800) which can do this work. But is there something I can do without consuming more of my phone memory?<issue_comment>username_1: WhatsApp automatically makes backups every day at 3 AM and stores them in the WhatsApp folder of your Android phone. This folder is either located in your device's internal memory or external SD card. You can set the automatic backup in WhatsApp or manually use the "Back up chats" option in Whatsapp Settings,
```
Whatsapp > Settings > Chats and calls > Backup up chats
```
This will store a backup file(usually named `msgstore.db.crypt8`) in your `Main storage > Whatsapp > Databases` directory which includes only the text messages in an encrypted format.
For individual export of chat messages without including media, as mentioned in the [Whatsapp FAQ](http://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/android/23756533):
>
> To export a copy of the history of an individual chat or group, use
> the Email chat feature:
>
>
> 1. Tap and hold on the conversation or group.
> 2. Select Email chat.
> 3. Choose whether to Attach Media or not.
>
>
> An email will be composed with your chat history attached as a .txt
> document.
>
>
> Note:
>
>
> * If you choose to attach media, the most recent media sent will be added as attachments.
> * When sending with media, you can send up to 10,000 latest messages. Without media, you can send 40,000 messages. These constraints are due
> to maximum email sizes.
>
>
>
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ljb9t.png)
You can now keep this backup in your mail or download it to your phone for later use. If you want to restore the messages, read this article, [How do I restore my messages?](http://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/android/20887921) for more information.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Simple rename Whatsapp>Media folder to any other name. After backup rename it back. You may lose the media files, which whatsapp get until back renaming. Therefore look in new Media folder created in Whatsapp folder, and move they into old folder.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/11/04 | 1,026 | 3,572 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm running Android Marshmallow on a Nexus 5. I tether it to my laptop via USB. Is there a way to configure things so that the USB tethering happens automatically when I plug things in? (It takes 5-6 touches to turn on the USB tethering.)<issue_comment>username_1: Try [Tasker](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm&hl=en).
Enable USB Tethering when USB is plugged in into a PC:
* Context: State –> USB Plugged
* Action: Net –> USB Tether
[Source](http://techsplurge.com/4926/android-awesome-15-tasker-profiles-tutorials/)
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: You can do this using the [Interact](http://llamalab.com/automate/doc/block/interact.html) block in [Automate](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.llamalab.automate). Then it does not require root. [Here is a flow](http://www.llamalab.com/automate/community/flows/17713) to do just that. I first got the idea from [a post by llamalab on androidforums](https://androidforums.com/threads/automate-turning-on-usb-tethering-upon-connect.928481/#post-7023211).
Here are two explanatory screenshots from the Automate app:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/z3gZl.png)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/4DU7L.png)
You might have to modify the `UI Element Class` or `UI Element Text` to make it work with your phone.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Having tried multiple answers to this question and never getting it to work, I noticed on my Xiami phone running MUI 11 (Android 9) that turning on "Developer Options" now has an option for the default USB setting - one of which is USB tethering. This works flawlessly for me.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: **Developer options** settings has a setting to set *default USB configuration*. Its name could vary depending upon your ROM, so try looking for any setting having the name "USB configuration" under Developer options. Click on that, and choose the option which has "USB tethering" or "RNDIS" written.
From than on, whenever you would plug the device with a PC using USB cable and **unlock the device**, if not unlocked already, USB tethering would automatically be enabled. I tested this on a OnePlus 6 running Android 10 and the settings change persisted across multiple plugging/unplugging and reboots.
Developer options settings are by-default hidden though. To enable the access to them, you would need to follow certain steps. Google's instruction per "[Configure on-device developer options](https://web.archive.org/web/20200325145246/https://developer.android.com/studio/debug/dev-options)" are:
>
> On Android 4.1 and lower, the **Developer options** screen is available by default. On Android 4.2 and higher, you must enable this screen. To enable developer options, tap the **Build Number** option 7 times. You can find this option in one of the following locations, depending on your Android version:
>
>
> * Android 9 (API level 28) and higher: **Settings > About Phone > Build Number**
> * Android 8.0.0 (API level 26) and Android 8.1.0 (API level 26): **Settings > System > About Phone > Build Number**
> * Android 7.1 (API level 25) and lower: **Settings > About Phone > Build Number**
>
>
>
**Note:** instructions for your ROM may differ if the aforesaid instructions from Google fail to work to enable Developer options. Your OEM or third-party websites are better alternatives to search for the solution in that case.
Upvotes: 3 |
2015/11/04 | 2,428 | 9,189 | <issue_start>username_0: **Background**
I deal with a lot of Galaxy S5s and spend a considerable amount of time duplicating the settings and installing the same applications on each.
Because of the repetitive nature, I'm sure there is a way of imaging a phone that I have set up then then flashing that image on others. This will save me a lot of time in the future.
**Question**
I have a number of questions regarding this, hopefully some one could push me in the right direction.
*1. What is the best way of imaging the device?*
*2. What is the best way of flashing the image on a device?*
*3. Are there any implications on using a copied image on multiple phones?*
*Basically is there a standard way of doing what I require?*
**NB.1 When I say 'best' I mean, least complicated, fiddly and quickest.**
**NB.2 I'm not that bothered about changing bootloader and rooting, what ever is quicker and easiest is good for me.**
**NB.3 I would like to keep the firmware/ROM that originally came on the phone and not use a custom ROM.**
**Specifics of Phones**
Phone : International Galaxy S5
Model Number: SM-G900F
Carrier: Vodaphone
Android version: 4.4.2
Build Number: KOT49H.G900FXXU1AN13<issue_comment>username_1: I think you should check [Titanium Back Up](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackupPro). For me it's "must have" app when you are ROMs-Maniac and it makes life easier.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Short answer. **TWRP**. Long answer. **Team Win Recovery Project, the custom recovery**.
Now bad jokes aside, I really wanted to stress how this is the thing you'd like. Using TWRP you can create an image of the entire phone and using it you can restore it to another (or the same) phone. It is very easy to use. You can install it using fastboot/ODIN. [It works on non-rooted devices too.](http://nexusandme.com/how-to-install-twrp-recovery-without-root/)
If you don't want to use fastboot/ODIN then you'll need to root the phone and use an app like [Flashify](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cgollner.flashify&hl=en) to install TWRP, which you can then use to restore the images.
Another option is **Titanium Backup.** It is effective but I have never used it for the entire phone back up therefore I can't give personal recommendation but I haven't met anyone who talks negative about it yet. It is a well-praised application. [Here are the instructions for backing up with Titanium Backup.](http://www.howtogeek.com/70715/how-to-backup-and-restore-your-android-phone-with-titanium-backup/) Please note that Titanium Backup will also require root.
**IMPORTANT NOTE:** Far as I know there is something that must be taken care of cautiously about Samsungs when flashing/restoring/backing up ROMs that are **EFS files**. EFS files are the files that include your IMEI number **and they are strictly device-specific.** Therefore I can't tell for sure but predict that flashing a back-up with EFS files of another phone can be problematic. I would suggest asking about it on [Stack Overflow](https://stackoverflow.com/) since they'll know better about it.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: This solution answers the question from a process perspective and details as relevant to your device have been linked (please do double check the version before downloading from links). Clarifications provided by you in our chat have been factored in. In short, it is as specific I can get to be without having the device and running through all the steps. Had two Samsung devices earlier and am quite familiar with most steps mentioned here (only CF auto root is new to me)
1. 50 phones is a tidy number and it may be possible that these have different version updates and maybe different modem versions. Select the latest one, make sure you are it works per your needs and let's call it "mother mobile".
2. From [Sammobile](http://www.sammobile.com/) site, download the stock ROM (which is on the mother mobile) . This will be your master copy to revert to stock if required. Store on laptop. Will come in handy when things go wrong and need to revert to stock.
3. There would be bloatware you would want to remove. Instead of uninstall, first freeze them using [Titanium Pro](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup) and load your apps. If RAM and performance meet your needs, it is better to leave those apps frozen - never know if you would need them in future. If you decide to uninstall Titanium would do.
4. For **unlocking bootloader** if required (googling led me to understand that not required to unlock) please check with your carrier. They are carrier specific restrictions at times.
5. Download latest version of [Odin](http://odin.website/), along with [drivers](http://developer.samsung.com/technical-doc/view.do?v=T000000117) corresponding to your Windows version and install on your laptop to connect to mobile. How to use is made clear on the website.
6. **Rooting**. Odin is undoubtedly best option for Samsung devices. Period. Odin with [CF autoroot](http://www.skyneel.com/2014/04/how-to-root-samsung-galaxy-s5-sm-g900f-odin.html) works with your device. This [step by step](http://www.phonearena.com/news/Heres-how-to-root-the-Samsung-Galaxy-S5-SM-G900F-step-by-step_id54475) tutorial explains how-to. I strongly suggest NOT even consider trying numerous one click apps available on play store, unless you are willing to experiment ([Kingroot](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kingouser.com),[Framaroot](http://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/framaroot/root-framaroot-one-click-apk-to-root-t2130276) are among popular methods which may or may not work with your device). I recall reading that the stagefright vulnerability fix does not permit these exploits to be used (don't recall where I read that)
***(Rooting and flashing TWRP) OR (flashing TWRP/custom recovery) triggers Knox rendering warranty void***. That is how Samsung works ([Does rooting (but no custom roms) trigger knox's void warranty](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/66795/does-rooting-but-no-custom-roms-trigger-knoxs-void-warranty)). Flashing a custom ROM would also trigger Knox. There are workarounds mostly involving apps(of the one click variety), that use exploits and may or not work and hence not recommending them. If warranty not being void is important to you, please experiment and decide. Odin method is safe but trips Knox once you flash custom recovery
7. **Custom Recovery**. IMO, **TWRP** is the best in terms of it being easiest to use and also reliability. Download TWRP from the official [website](https://twrp.me/devices/samsunggalaxys5qualcomm.html). One of many tutorials on net show how to root and **[flash TWRP](http://howtorootmobile.com/install-twrp-recovery-samsung-galaxy-s5-sm-g900f/)**
8. Download SuperSU latest version from [official website](https://download.chainfire.eu/396/supersu/)
9. Now, you are all set for unlocking bootloader, rooting and flashing TWRP on your mother mobile. Once you are done, double check if rooted fully using apps like [Root Checker](http://www.teamandroid.com/2012/07/22/how-to-verify-root-access-with-root-checker/). Configure mother mobile in terms of freezing unwanted apps, installing apps you need, setting up the user interface the way you want, launchers etc. Take two backups. First backup would be a complete back up or image This is ONLY to backup your mother mobile. Second back up or image would be WITHOUT EFS, and would be used for flashing on rest of devices. As already pointed out in another answer, EFS is device specific and flashing complete backup like the first back up discussed, on to any other device would almost certainly result in losing IMEI and emphatically not recommended (Tip: while backing up do not enable MD5 check option, it vastly increases imaging time without adding much value)
10. Now for rooting and flashing TWRP on other devices. Follow the same method as for mother mobile. Flashing TWRP through Odin is safest bet.
11. Now, coming to imaging on other devices. Copy the second image file (without EFS) on an ext SD or internal storage as you prefer and install image using TWRP. You could even take help from one or two of the bright, dependable end users and get done quickly. Typically a 3 gig image can be flashed in about 6 minutes, so two of you can get the job of populating images done in about 3 hours
Now, you know your end users better, but you are running the risk of end users if knowledgeable or plain curious to exploit root capabilities. But transferring the image from mother mobile in totality, including settings, app configurations, permissions etc. ***Quick complete imaging Vs warranty*** is the decision node.
Other alternative is to only root and set up each device individually and keep warranty intact, but of course end users are root empowered and if they mess around and trigger Knox, you can decide next steps.Educating them would help in keeping warranty intact and makes your job easier if they default. Guess this option is not what you are looking for
All the best.....
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer] |
2015/11/04 | 2,152 | 8,305 | <issue_start>username_0: I occasionally use my phone to connect to the work network for quick diagnostic purposes. I do not like being connected to it for regular use, as I don't like my phone activity to be traceable by my employer.
Is it possible to remember a WiFi network, but only connect when manually triggered?<issue_comment>username_1: I think you should check [Titanium Back Up](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackupPro). For me it's "must have" app when you are ROMs-Maniac and it makes life easier.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Short answer. **TWRP**. Long answer. **Team Win Recovery Project, the custom recovery**.
Now bad jokes aside, I really wanted to stress how this is the thing you'd like. Using TWRP you can create an image of the entire phone and using it you can restore it to another (or the same) phone. It is very easy to use. You can install it using fastboot/ODIN. [It works on non-rooted devices too.](http://nexusandme.com/how-to-install-twrp-recovery-without-root/)
If you don't want to use fastboot/ODIN then you'll need to root the phone and use an app like [Flashify](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cgollner.flashify&hl=en) to install TWRP, which you can then use to restore the images.
Another option is **Titanium Backup.** It is effective but I have never used it for the entire phone back up therefore I can't give personal recommendation but I haven't met anyone who talks negative about it yet. It is a well-praised application. [Here are the instructions for backing up with Titanium Backup.](http://www.howtogeek.com/70715/how-to-backup-and-restore-your-android-phone-with-titanium-backup/) Please note that Titanium Backup will also require root.
**IMPORTANT NOTE:** Far as I know there is something that must be taken care of cautiously about Samsungs when flashing/restoring/backing up ROMs that are **EFS files**. EFS files are the files that include your IMEI number **and they are strictly device-specific.** Therefore I can't tell for sure but predict that flashing a back-up with EFS files of another phone can be problematic. I would suggest asking about it on [Stack Overflow](https://stackoverflow.com/) since they'll know better about it.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: This solution answers the question from a process perspective and details as relevant to your device have been linked (please do double check the version before downloading from links). Clarifications provided by you in our chat have been factored in. In short, it is as specific I can get to be without having the device and running through all the steps. Had two Samsung devices earlier and am quite familiar with most steps mentioned here (only CF auto root is new to me)
1. 50 phones is a tidy number and it may be possible that these have different version updates and maybe different modem versions. Select the latest one, make sure you are it works per your needs and let's call it "mother mobile".
2. From [Sammobile](http://www.sammobile.com/) site, download the stock ROM (which is on the mother mobile) . This will be your master copy to revert to stock if required. Store on laptop. Will come in handy when things go wrong and need to revert to stock.
3. There would be bloatware you would want to remove. Instead of uninstall, first freeze them using [Titanium Pro](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup) and load your apps. If RAM and performance meet your needs, it is better to leave those apps frozen - never know if you would need them in future. If you decide to uninstall Titanium would do.
4. For **unlocking bootloader** if required (googling led me to understand that not required to unlock) please check with your carrier. They are carrier specific restrictions at times.
5. Download latest version of [Odin](http://odin.website/), along with [drivers](http://developer.samsung.com/technical-doc/view.do?v=T000000117) corresponding to your Windows version and install on your laptop to connect to mobile. How to use is made clear on the website.
6. **Rooting**. Odin is undoubtedly best option for Samsung devices. Period. Odin with [CF autoroot](http://www.skyneel.com/2014/04/how-to-root-samsung-galaxy-s5-sm-g900f-odin.html) works with your device. This [step by step](http://www.phonearena.com/news/Heres-how-to-root-the-Samsung-Galaxy-S5-SM-G900F-step-by-step_id54475) tutorial explains how-to. I strongly suggest NOT even consider trying numerous one click apps available on play store, unless you are willing to experiment ([Kingroot](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kingouser.com),[Framaroot](http://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/framaroot/root-framaroot-one-click-apk-to-root-t2130276) are among popular methods which may or may not work with your device). I recall reading that the stagefright vulnerability fix does not permit these exploits to be used (don't recall where I read that)
***(Rooting and flashing TWRP) OR (flashing TWRP/custom recovery) triggers Knox rendering warranty void***. That is how Samsung works ([Does rooting (but no custom roms) trigger knox's void warranty](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/66795/does-rooting-but-no-custom-roms-trigger-knoxs-void-warranty)). Flashing a custom ROM would also trigger Knox. There are workarounds mostly involving apps(of the one click variety), that use exploits and may or not work and hence not recommending them. If warranty not being void is important to you, please experiment and decide. Odin method is safe but trips Knox once you flash custom recovery
7. **Custom Recovery**. IMO, **TWRP** is the best in terms of it being easiest to use and also reliability. Download TWRP from the official [website](https://twrp.me/devices/samsunggalaxys5qualcomm.html). One of many tutorials on net show how to root and **[flash TWRP](http://howtorootmobile.com/install-twrp-recovery-samsung-galaxy-s5-sm-g900f/)**
8. Download SuperSU latest version from [official website](https://download.chainfire.eu/396/supersu/)
9. Now, you are all set for unlocking bootloader, rooting and flashing TWRP on your mother mobile. Once you are done, double check if rooted fully using apps like [Root Checker](http://www.teamandroid.com/2012/07/22/how-to-verify-root-access-with-root-checker/). Configure mother mobile in terms of freezing unwanted apps, installing apps you need, setting up the user interface the way you want, launchers etc. Take two backups. First backup would be a complete back up or image This is ONLY to backup your mother mobile. Second back up or image would be WITHOUT EFS, and would be used for flashing on rest of devices. As already pointed out in another answer, EFS is device specific and flashing complete backup like the first back up discussed, on to any other device would almost certainly result in losing IMEI and emphatically not recommended (Tip: while backing up do not enable MD5 check option, it vastly increases imaging time without adding much value)
10. Now for rooting and flashing TWRP on other devices. Follow the same method as for mother mobile. Flashing TWRP through Odin is safest bet.
11. Now, coming to imaging on other devices. Copy the second image file (without EFS) on an ext SD or internal storage as you prefer and install image using TWRP. You could even take help from one or two of the bright, dependable end users and get done quickly. Typically a 3 gig image can be flashed in about 6 minutes, so two of you can get the job of populating images done in about 3 hours
Now, you know your end users better, but you are running the risk of end users if knowledgeable or plain curious to exploit root capabilities. But transferring the image from mother mobile in totality, including settings, app configurations, permissions etc. ***Quick complete imaging Vs warranty*** is the decision node.
Other alternative is to only root and set up each device individually and keep warranty intact, but of course end users are root empowered and if they mess around and trigger Knox, you can decide next steps.Educating them would help in keeping warranty intact and makes your job easier if they default. Guess this option is not what you are looking for
All the best.....
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer] |
2015/11/05 | 1,020 | 3,396 | <issue_start>username_0: I have a phone with dropbear installed. I usually access my phone over WiFi & run commands in putty.
I want to get battery status & percentage in terminal. Is there any command or program to obtain battery info ?<issue_comment>username_1: Query the system service `battery` (possibly requires root access)
```
dumpsys battery
```
Output would be like
```
Current Battery Service state:
AC powered: false
USB powered: true
Wireless powered: false
**status: 2**
health: 2
present: true
**level: 70**
scale: 100
voltage:3950
temperature: 260
technology: Li-ion
```
`level: 70` is the battery percentage here.
---
Not sure about Android 2.3 but this is relevant for at least Android 4.2.1 and above:
(Prefix *adb shell* next to every command to run the command using adb.)
* This would give you a list of all the historical broadcasts as well as the sticky ones:
```
dumpsys activity broadcasts
```
In the output search:
```
Sticky action android.intent.action.BATTERY_CHANGED:
```
The lines next to it, until you encounter a new sticky broadcast, are useful to us. In my devices, they are listed as:
```
Intent: act=android.intent.action.BATTERY_CHANGED flg=0x60000010
Bundle[{icon-small=17302819, present=true, scale=100, **level=100**, technology=Li-ion, **status=4**, voltage=4140, invalid_charger=0, plugged=0, health=2, temperature=200}]
```
Assuming that your Android has `grep` utility, you can shorten the search by using:
```
dumpsys activity broadcasts | grep -A2 "Sticky action android.intent.action.BATTERY_CHANGED:"
```
(Source: [Monitoring the Battery Level and Charging State](http://developer.android.com/training/monitoring-device-state/battery-monitoring.html))
* **Alternative:** it is possible to query the battery info from `/sys` or I should say the Linux kernel.
`/sys/class/power_supply/battery/` has some files with useful information. The file named `capacity` is equivalent to current battery percentage. You can get an accumulated info from `uevent` file as well.
For more and related info, read my answer [here](https://android.stackexchange.com/a/116029/96277).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: ### Script to show battery status on terminal (root required)
Using only the alternative method @username_1 mentioned.
```
#!/system/bin/sh # might need to change to your sh bin
print_battery_status()
{
ctype=`cat /sys/class/power_supply/battery/charge_type`
capacity=`cat /sys/class/power_supply/battery/capacity`
charging=`cat /sys/class/power_supply/battery/charging_enabled`
health=`cat /sys/class/power_supply/battery/health`
status=`cat /sys/class/power_supply/battery/status`
printf "# %s # %s # %s # %s # %s #\r" "Capacity: ${capacity}" "Charging: ${charging}" "Type: ${ctype}" "Health: ${health}" "Status: ${status}"
}
while [ true ]
do
print_battery_status
sleep 1 # 1 second of wait
done
```
You might need to adapt the script a bit. Some file names used above are device specific. For example, `charging_enable` should be replaced by `charge_now` and some devices, and so on.
It runs and shows status like bellow. To stop it use CRTL+C.
```
./batery_status.sh
# Capacity: 63 # Charging: 1 # Type: Fast # Health: Good # Status: Charging #
```
I use this since I do remote ssh on my device. It works even with zygote stopped.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/11/05 | 972 | 3,976 | <issue_start>username_0: I just migrated to Android 6.0 and the 'Share to' panel has a new grey area on top of the various apps in which it puts contacts that, I assume, you pin there. This would be a good feature, except a contact ended up there and I can find no way to remove it. Is there one?
Specifically, the contact seems to have been put there by the Messenger app but there is no way to alter its pinning from the app, either.<issue_comment>username_1: Currently. as of 6.0 there is no way of disabling direct share all together. Some apps may add an option to disable direct share for their apps though.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You can disable the 'share via' menu by removing Messenger's permission to access your contacts. This isn't practical if you use Messenger as your primary SMS app, but if you use another app, it's fine.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I discovered that in the case of WhatsApp showing the offending contact on your direct share menu (i.e. your side chick when your girlfriend is looking), you can push that contact down and out of the list by sending attachments to other, more safer, contacts.
Since WhatsApp displays the last four people with whom you have shared something, share a photo with four other people, or as many contacts as needed to push the offending contact out of the top four.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: To successfully remove Outlook contacts from Share via menu, I did the following:-
1. Settings, Applications, Application Manager, Outlook, Permissions - uncheck all
2. Outlook, Gear icon, click account in question, uncheck Sync contacts, click RESET Account
This removed outlook email contacts from the Share Via menu. Outlook works as normal but is ring fenced from the rest of my phone.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: I discovered that if you block the contact in WhatsApp, it stops showing it in the share menu and in the new "frequent chats" section when you share or forward stuff.
However, when you unblock it, it's possible for it to show again in those two places.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Go to settings. Click on Advanced Features. Scroll to "Direct Share". Turn it off and all contacts are gone from share via.
Image shows a before and after visualization of disabling Direct share.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/GxXEb.jpg)
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: It turns out that - for rooted people - there is a way to completely turn off Direct Share!
For the short version skip to the bottom of this answer.
In my search for a way to stop this stupid feature from bugging me I had a look at how the feature is actually implemented in apps by developers. It turns out that [they register a service with an intent receiver](https://www.bignerdranch.com/blog/implementing-android-marshmallow-direct-share/) (read: event listener) and when I realized that, I started looking for a way to block certain intents from broadcasting through the system. Well, Android actually has that built in. It's called the [Intent Firewall](http://www.cis.syr.edu/~wedu/android/IntentFirewall/index.html). I quickly figured out how to create a rule for it to block apps from receiving the "Hey are there any apps that want to bug the user by putting a couple of Direct Share buttons under their thumb as they're about to tap something?"-event.
You just create a simple xml file like and drop this into it:
```
```
Now you have to put it on the phone and copy it into the Intent Firewall directory. On most devices that would be
```
/data/system/ifw/
```
I simply used Root Explorer to copy the file there (no chmod required), tried to share something that caused Direct Share targets to pop up and BOOM! Nothing!
I recommend to do some background reading (see links above), especially about how the Intent Firewall works and how you can find the folder.
Happy not-sharing!
Upvotes: 4 |
2015/11/05 | 985 | 4,074 | <issue_start>username_0: Since Yesterday I have been getting this message from the google play store when ever I try to save something to my wishlist. This has occurred both on the app and the web version of the play store. This is a problem I would like to resolve as fast as I can.
**My questions are:**
1. Is there a workaround for the google play store app (*Important*)
2. Has this happened to anyone else or is just on my google account (*Off topic as it is Android Independent, feel free to remove this part of the question*)<issue_comment>username_1: Currently. as of 6.0 there is no way of disabling direct share all together. Some apps may add an option to disable direct share for their apps though.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You can disable the 'share via' menu by removing Messenger's permission to access your contacts. This isn't practical if you use Messenger as your primary SMS app, but if you use another app, it's fine.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I discovered that in the case of WhatsApp showing the offending contact on your direct share menu (i.e. your side chick when your girlfriend is looking), you can push that contact down and out of the list by sending attachments to other, more safer, contacts.
Since WhatsApp displays the last four people with whom you have shared something, share a photo with four other people, or as many contacts as needed to push the offending contact out of the top four.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: To successfully remove Outlook contacts from Share via menu, I did the following:-
1. Settings, Applications, Application Manager, Outlook, Permissions - uncheck all
2. Outlook, Gear icon, click account in question, uncheck Sync contacts, click RESET Account
This removed outlook email contacts from the Share Via menu. Outlook works as normal but is ring fenced from the rest of my phone.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: I discovered that if you block the contact in WhatsApp, it stops showing it in the share menu and in the new "frequent chats" section when you share or forward stuff.
However, when you unblock it, it's possible for it to show again in those two places.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Go to settings. Click on Advanced Features. Scroll to "Direct Share". Turn it off and all contacts are gone from share via.
Image shows a before and after visualization of disabling Direct share.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/GxXEb.jpg)
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: It turns out that - for rooted people - there is a way to completely turn off Direct Share!
For the short version skip to the bottom of this answer.
In my search for a way to stop this stupid feature from bugging me I had a look at how the feature is actually implemented in apps by developers. It turns out that [they register a service with an intent receiver](https://www.bignerdranch.com/blog/implementing-android-marshmallow-direct-share/) (read: event listener) and when I realized that, I started looking for a way to block certain intents from broadcasting through the system. Well, Android actually has that built in. It's called the [Intent Firewall](http://www.cis.syr.edu/~wedu/android/IntentFirewall/index.html). I quickly figured out how to create a rule for it to block apps from receiving the "Hey are there any apps that want to bug the user by putting a couple of Direct Share buttons under their thumb as they're about to tap something?"-event.
You just create a simple xml file like and drop this into it:
```
```
Now you have to put it on the phone and copy it into the Intent Firewall directory. On most devices that would be
```
/data/system/ifw/
```
I simply used Root Explorer to copy the file there (no chmod required), tried to share something that caused Direct Share targets to pop up and BOOM! Nothing!
I recommend to do some background reading (see links above), especially about how the Intent Firewall works and how you can find the folder.
Happy not-sharing!
Upvotes: 4 |
2015/11/05 | 756 | 3,242 | <issue_start>username_0: I received a Samsung GS5 as part of a program from Samsung in exchange for their recording device statistics through an app I installed. The program is over, and I have been notified that the app can be removed, but whenever I try to uninstall it I'm told that the app is a device administrator and therefore can not be removed.
I tried to remove the administrator status from the app (it's called Samsung Insights) but the option is greyed out. Does anyone have another method of removing admin status or uninstalling apps that have admin status?<issue_comment>username_1: Go into your phone's Settings and open Security. From there, tap Device administrators, and you should be able to turn it off from there.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: From Task manager go to downloads and click to uninstall. That should again lead you to device manager option of manage device admin apps and it may be possible now to see the option not greyed out
Another option if rooted, is to delete folder named after the app in /data /data. Next, search for apk file in device /system, delete it and reboot
If this doesn't work you could try uninstall through Titanium
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: IF you can not deactivate a device administrator boot into safe mode.
And try it I am pretty sure it will work and then you can uninstall it.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: That app is using the Samsung Knox api, which cannot be disabled by you. You need to reach whoever installed it and ask him to enable you permission to deactivate device admin. Another option would be wipe, if that is not locked too. You can check that by going into Setting - Backup and reset. If its grayed out, there is nothing you can do.
AS EXTRA, i can say the samsung api can lock device admin removal, factory reset from system and recovery and also flash through download mode and also safe mode.
I am using the same api in some of my apps and i know what that means. I cannot show now the link to it as Chrome is freezing on mobile. Will do when i get to my pc.
LE:
public boolean setAdminRemovable (boolean removable)
Usage
An administrator can set their removable status. If set to true, the user can remove the administrator through the Settings application. If set to false, the user cannot remove the administrator through the Settings application.
<https://seap.samsung.com/api-references/android-standard/reference/android/app/enterprise/EnterpriseDeviceManager.html#setAdminRemovable(boolean)>
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: I had the same issue on a 7s edge with the latest Nougat update. Fixed the issue by resetting all settings. After that everything worked fine. No need for factory reset.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: Samsung Insights app is required to participate in the Samsung Insights program (latest equipment at a 50% discount, etc).
You normally run it for 6-months to a year.
At that point, you have a Contact Support link you can press.
If you've run the app long enough to qualify for deactivation, it'll provide you with an e-mail link. Click on it, go to your mail program, and send the message out.
They should send you back a code you can input to deactivate.
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/11/06 | 947 | 3,704 | <issue_start>username_0: It all started about three months ago when my HTC One (M8)'s USB charging port died. At first the port would sometimes not work, you just have to move the cable around a bit for it to charge, then you had to hold the cable down to make it keep charging, and finally device wouldn't charge at all.
The same exact thing happened to my HTC Vivid. When I got the Vivid fixed, the technician said it was water damage.
Anyway, after the local phone repair shop successfully installed the new USB port on my One phone, failing on the first try as it was still in the same condition, everything was fine. For a few weeks. Then the phone started shutting down as if it had no battery left, at 20%. I immediately plugged it into a charger, turned it back on, and the phone read 1%.
Its been doing that ever since. Some days it goes down to 0%, some days it goes down to 20% or 25% and dies.
Here's a screen shot of what is going on.
Under device settings, it says that the battery condition is good.
So I'm just wondering why my phone may be doing this, and what do you think the best option is to fix this.
I tried recalibrating the battery, clearing the cache, and installing a new ROM. None of the above worked.<issue_comment>username_1: There could be three reasons to this (not in any order) :
1. Battery lived it's life.
2. Fuel Guage drivers corrupted. To rule this out, i suggest back up your data and with your recovery wipe clean all Cache and system and flash stock(not sure if you cleaned fully when you flashed a ROM) If the problem continues, it is likely that it is not a driver corruption issue.
3. Hardware of battery charging chip gone bad. One possible way of checking this is to see if it is charging and discharging fully in safe mode. If it does unlikely to be hardware issue
I would recommend step 2 first and then if possible borrow a battery to check if it is a case of battery end of life.
All the best and do post the conclusion
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Actually, after hours of scouring the forums, I finally contacted HTC via chat. Right away, they said to power off the device. Then hold the volume down, volume up, and power buttons all at once for...3 mintes??
Yep. You hold all three physical buttons for a full 3 minutes. He said this resets the battery logic, and how the battery talks to the software to let it know how much power it has based on the voltage. The phone started up, then shut back down. Powered up, then shut back down again for the whole 3 minutes, then I let go. It started turning on and when it finished, the battery read out 19%. Woah, before I did this, I was at 54%! Was my phone really that inaccurate the whole time? Probably. I'm charging the phone back up right now, so hopefully this fixes the problem!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: In case more people are having this issue but are unable to get the battery working properly, I developed a workaround that shows a low battery warning at any given battery percentage.
Here is the link for the interested: [Custom Low Battery Warning](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.derpdeveloper.customlowbatteryalert)
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: I had the battery problem with my phone - shutting off at 20% and some settings resetting after charging and turning it back. Nothing helped except factory reset. The reason for such behavior seem to be [HTC Service Pack](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.htc.sense.hsp&hl=en) (not 100% sure though). Make sure not to install it after reset or uninstalling the update might also help.
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/11/06 | 913 | 3,589 | <issue_start>username_0: I read all other questions of "Insufficient storage available" but none of solution works for me.
I have Samsung Galaxy S3 (GT-I9300). I have 5GB free space on internal memory.
A couple days ago WhatsApp and Viber were gone (In the application manager instead WhatsApp I saw com.whatsapp.. same for viber- saw the package name and the two apps's size is 0)
I tried the following solutions:
1. Clear cache of google play store, services, and also clear updates of those apps.
2. Got root access and delete com.whatsapp-2 folder from /data/app-lib as described at XDA
3. wipe cache partiotion via recovery
4. clear dalvik cache
5. Download manually the apk from whatsapp.com and not from Google Play
6. Backup WhatsApp from other device and restore with titanium backup to my device -same error...
7. change default install location with pm set-install-location to 0 then 1 then 2. none worked.
8. Deleted cache of all other apps in the device.
I can install any other application from Play store, just viber and whatsapp causes the "Insufficient storage available" error.
I don't want to do factory reset.
Could you help me and suggest another solution, please?<issue_comment>username_1: There could be three reasons to this (not in any order) :
1. Battery lived it's life.
2. Fuel Guage drivers corrupted. To rule this out, i suggest back up your data and with your recovery wipe clean all Cache and system and flash stock(not sure if you cleaned fully when you flashed a ROM) If the problem continues, it is likely that it is not a driver corruption issue.
3. Hardware of battery charging chip gone bad. One possible way of checking this is to see if it is charging and discharging fully in safe mode. If it does unlikely to be hardware issue
I would recommend step 2 first and then if possible borrow a battery to check if it is a case of battery end of life.
All the best and do post the conclusion
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Actually, after hours of scouring the forums, I finally contacted HTC via chat. Right away, they said to power off the device. Then hold the volume down, volume up, and power buttons all at once for...3 mintes??
Yep. You hold all three physical buttons for a full 3 minutes. He said this resets the battery logic, and how the battery talks to the software to let it know how much power it has based on the voltage. The phone started up, then shut back down. Powered up, then shut back down again for the whole 3 minutes, then I let go. It started turning on and when it finished, the battery read out 19%. Woah, before I did this, I was at 54%! Was my phone really that inaccurate the whole time? Probably. I'm charging the phone back up right now, so hopefully this fixes the problem!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: In case more people are having this issue but are unable to get the battery working properly, I developed a workaround that shows a low battery warning at any given battery percentage.
Here is the link for the interested: [Custom Low Battery Warning](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.derpdeveloper.customlowbatteryalert)
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: I had the battery problem with my phone - shutting off at 20% and some settings resetting after charging and turning it back. Nothing helped except factory reset. The reason for such behavior seem to be [HTC Service Pack](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.htc.sense.hsp&hl=en) (not 100% sure though). Make sure not to install it after reset or uninstalling the update might also help.
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/11/06 | 512 | 1,854 | <issue_start>username_0: My cell phone seems to charge slowly, especially at my home (I've tried different outlets). But recently I was in a coffee bar, and it seemed to charge a lot - a lot! - faster. I was using the same charger. (My phone is an inexpensive Samsung Galaxy phone, I paid like $50 for it.)<issue_comment>username_1: Could be because
1. Coffee bar may be using [charging stations](https://chargetech.com/portfolio-item/mcdonalds/) which may look like regular charging wall outlets but seem to be designed to charge faster (have not been able to get technical view to back that yet and am searching)
2. Outlet at home is not providing sufficient wattage either in terms of voltage or amperage, may be because of poor electrical earthing
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Also, your phone may be connected to WIFI at home which will also slow down charging.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: There may be some issues with the input and output voltage with your phone, or its charger. I strongly suggest getting a new charger. I just got a new charger from Amazon. I have a `Samsung Galaxy S4`, but I bought a charger for the `Samsung Galaxy 6 Edge`. This charger is a lot faster, and is consistent with charging speeds.
Try this charger: [http://www.amazon.com/Original-Authentic-Samsung-Adapter-Charger/dp/B0108LF09Q/ref=sr\_1\_4?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1446877691&sr=1-4&keywords=galaxy+s6+charger](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/B0108LF09Q)
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: It depends on the voltage and current being supplied to the charger at different places. Like for me while travelling via train, the sockets have half the voltage but higher current(Amps) which used to charge my cell faster(of course cannot exceed the maximum output of your charger). I guess so, can be some other reason too.
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/11/07 | 553 | 1,876 | <issue_start>username_0: Is there a way to enable hotspot / tethering for the Nexus 5X and 6P even if you don't have a subscription plan for it? How do you do it via rooted phone and a non-rooted phone?<issue_comment>username_1: **With rooting**
(tested on **6.0.1** on 2016-05-10 and **7.1.1** on 2017-02-09)
* Flash TWRP 3.0
* Root your system with superuser.zip
* Download ES file explorer
* Remount /system to be read-write
* Goto /system and edit build.prop
* On the last line enter: `net.tethering.noprovisioning=true`
* Then, `adb shell settings put global tether_dun_required 0`
* reboot
**Without rooting**
You only need your sim tool and the phone.
1. open the sim tray but don't take out the sim card.
2. push the sim tray back in the phone.
3. wait 4-5 seconds and then activate hotspot in the settings->more->tethering
Works for Verizon and AT&T. I have not tested this on any other carriers. This works by turning on the hotspot while the phone is provisioning. If you attempt to do this too soon or too late you will trigger the subscription check.
You will need to perform this everytime you want tethering if you turn tethering off or reboot the phone.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: This also appears to work with the Moto X Pure Edition using Straight Talk. Slightly modified steps, though. Eject SIM tray, turn on tethering, Push in tray.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: This is the only "fix" that has worked for me thus far.
I switched from the Nexus 5 to the 6P yesterday and discovered that my grandfathered unlimited data plan was of not much use now because the Wifi hotspot functionality has to be activated through the carrier on the 6P. Wifi Hotspot tethering worked just fine on the Nexus 5.
At least I can use my hotspot, but this pop-the-sim-card-out work around will get old fast... Oh well :/
Upvotes: 1 [selected_answer] |
2015/11/08 | 324 | 1,092 | <issue_start>username_0: Helium back up doesn't seem to work for xiaomi at all.
Anyone ever did restore helium back up to xiaomi?
What are the other alternatives? Google play restore doesn't seem to work either.
Note: I do NOT need to back up the APK. What I mainly want is to back up content of chat applications like wechat, whatsapp, etc.<issue_comment>username_1: Try [Super Backup](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.idea.backup.smscontacts&hl=en). It works on both other Android mobiles as well as Xiaomi mobiles.
This [link](http://en.miui.com/thread-3998-1-1.html) will help you to install google play store and other apps.
If installed google apps not working then refer this [link](http://en.miui.com/thread-22576-1-1.html)
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes there is an app called Mi Mover which helps to transfer data from one Android Phone to a Mi phone. Users can refer [Xiaomiadvices](http://xiaomiadvices.com/) for download links and tutorial on [how to transfer data using Mi Mover app](http://xiaomiadvices.com/mi-mover-apk-download/).
Upvotes: 2 |
2015/11/09 | 793 | 3,117 | <issue_start>username_0: Please i need to know if it is possible to overwrite the system factory reset option with our own backup file. Basically, i am interested to tune the factory reset option with my own custom full system backup.
In other words, i want to restore my custom backup when i click on the factory reset option instead of restoring the original settings of the factory.
**Note 1:** I have already rooted my Android device (Huawei Honor 7 - PLK-L01).
**Note 2:** My objective is not restoring a backup. I know how to restore a full backup. I need though to understand if it is possible to configure the factory reset option with my own backup. I really like to understand the procedure to do that if it is possible.
Thanks in advance for your help!<issue_comment>username_1: When you start the factory reset in the settings it just runs **recovery** which the actual resetting is done by. Normally, recovery just wipes everything in `/data` and `/cache` in all (and `/sdcard` in most of) phones, since that is all a non-root user can modify.
**So a factory reset is not a fresh install of the ROM. It is just the wiping process of every made-by-user change on the phone.**
I want to stress it since as much as I understand you think factory reset does some sort of overwriting. It doesn't do that. Vice versa it wipes stuff. It, by default, doesn't restore, install, overwrite anything.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: [username_1](https://android.stackexchange.com/users/132013/sarpsta) explains it absolute correctly in [the other answer](https://android.stackexchange.com/a/128318/16575) (which I upvoted: it's short and exactly on the point).
To get a better idea about the factory-reset, you might wish to see [its tag-wiki](https://android.stackexchange.com/tags/factory-reset/info). It only affects the `/data` and `/cache` partitions. To make yourself familiar with the Android partition concept, please see our [partition tag-wiki](https://android.stackexchange.com/tags/partition/info) – and you will see the OS resides on the `/system` partition. Basically, a new device ships with empty `/data` and `/cache` partitions, so bringing it back to factory settings simply means to clear those two, all else is rather "static".
Keeping that in mind, and picking up the pointer to recovery which username_1 mentioned, there're ways to achieve what you want:
* on a rooted device and using a custom recovery, you could create a flashable `update.zip` with [Titanium Backup](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup) and place that on your SDCard. Then, following a "normal [factory-reset](/questions/tagged/factory-reset "show questions tagged 'factory-reset'")", you can flash this via your custom recovery to restore.
* without the need to root, similar can be achieved e.g. using [adb](/questions/tagged/adb "show questions tagged 'adb'") [backup](/questions/tagged/backup "show questions tagged 'backup'"). But in this case (without root), it would require an USB connection to a computer to restore the backup set.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/11/09 | 2,360 | 9,161 | <issue_start>username_0: I know this was covered in a different post, but I've been wondering how this app can actually make a difference in battery life. I've tried many of these, and "Repair Battery Life" is the only one that seemed to help. I understand that, like everything Android/Linux, the battery is a file, and that file can be manipulated to show whatever percent (a bad ROM/Kernel combination once showed -%1078663).
I've got a Galaxy S3 (i747). There are times when my phone will sit charging for an hour or so, yet only have 10%-15% charged. When that happens, I run this app, and it manages to find 2 or 3 "bad cells". After fixing them, my phone then charges much quicker, and battery life is back to normal. I was under the impression the only thing you can do to impact the apparent battery life was recalibration, which I'm not convinced matters. It's also worth mentioning that I've installed this app several times after wiping my phone and flashing a ROM, and it had upgraded itself to the Pro version with absolutely no input from me. The first time I ever used this, it upgraded itself. Next couple times I reinstalled it, it didn't upgrade. This past time, it did - again, for no reason. So, I'm really confused, here, because I don't understand why the app randomly upgrades, and I still can't figure out how this app "fixes" my battery.
It's also worth mentioning that every so often, it "finds" new "bad cells" randomly. And every time I have it "fix" the problems, well, it actually seems to fix the battery issue. Doesn't make sense to me.
However, my phone has been through some semi-traumatic events in it's life (well, in my possession). It has fallen out of my pocket while crossing a road, and after I realized it was gone, I retrieved it. Luckily, it had been face-down. It had been run over a few times, and it cost me my rear camera, which still worked for a few months but finally crapped out entirely (any camera app crashes almost immediately). It has also been victim to an unexpected dip in a pitcher of water for about 10 seconds, while playing music and downloading, so it was also running a bit hot. After letting it dry overnight on the air vent, it worked. Mostly. About 90% of my touches didn't register, and so I figured I'd have to either replace the digitizer or just get a new phone. Later that day, it finally started working again, perfectly. I did read, however, that people who had the same luck with their screens were complaining that after about 6 months or so, their phone would behave erratically and eventually die completely.
So, is this app actually making good on its claim, or does it seem like my phone is just suffering a weird, periodic combination of events that only allow "Repair Battery Life" to right them? I've seen this app report "bad cells" on a brand new Note 5, and read that someone had "bad cells" on an emulated copy of Android. I mean, right there should be the obvious BS-flag, but still. It does seem to do something beneficial in my experience.<issue_comment>username_1: I can say %99,9 of all apps that claim to fix battery, get you longer battery life, better CPU usage, better RAM management, are completely useless wastes of battery, CPU and RAM usage.
That app is no different.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: **It's a scam. Android app cannot access physical battery directly**.
The battery file is just an interface for Android with value provided by the battery's *sensor*. Again, a sensor only reads data; it cannot write/modify anything.
[An article on Android Police](http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/01/20/facepalm-battery-life-repair-selling-placebo-effect-3-play-store/) explained this very well,
>
> Battery not working correctly? Well, just defrag it! It's all so obvious now. No, but really, there's an app in the Play Store that claims to repair your battery and basically looks like a hard drive defrag program.
>
>
> So here's what the app supposedly does—Battery Life Repair analyzes your battery "data cells" to see which ones are under-performing (okay, whatever). Then it magically fixes them and improves your battery life by unrealistically huge margins.
>
>
> Anyone who knows much about technology will immediately be suspicious of this app's claims. If it were possible to wave a magic wand over your battery and fix the "data cells," you can be sure the engineers who made your phone would have built that into the software.
>
>
> The fact that so many real people (and probably some bots) are praising this app is *a tribute to confirmation bias and the power of the placebo effect*. Consider this a cautionary tale.
>
>
>
(Emphasized added)
Also, looking on [similar app's permission](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.optura.batteryfixer),
>
> * modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
> * read the contents of your USB storage
> * view Wi-Fi connections
> * full network access
> * view network connections
>
>
>
It's doubtful for this app to really be able to access the battery, compared to other reputable optimization apps, like [Greenify](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oasisfeng.greenify) (this app doesn't access the battery directly either, but it can kill apps that may drain much power, improving the battery life in a sense).
Disclaimer: I don't have any affiliation with the offending app nor Greenify
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: The way these sort of APPs (the ones that are somewhat effective) work is that they trick you into recalibrating your Battery - you can do that without the APP.
Example Instructions (which in a roundabout way the somewhat effective APPs get you to do) from: <https://www.androidpit.com/how-to-calibrate-the-battery-on-your-android-device> .
>
> "How to calibrate an Android device battery without root access
>
>
> The old 'fully charge and discharge' approach stands as one of the simplest ways to 'recalibrate' your Android battery.
>
>
> We've warned you in the past about low voltage problems in lithium batteries and the negative impacts of fully draining a battery on its lifespan and the same holds true here. But, if your phone battery is causing you real problems, it's worth taking the risk.
>
>
> Method 1
>
>
> 1. Discharge your phone fully until it turns itself off.
> 2. Turn it on again and let it turn itself off.
> 3. Plug your phone into a charger and, without turning it on, let it charge until the on-screen or LED indicator says 100 percent.
> 4. Unplug your charger.
> 5. Turn your phone on. It's likely that the battery indicator won't say 100 percent, so plug the charger back in (leave your phone on) and continue charging until it says 100 percent on-screen as well.
> 6. Unplug your phone and restart it. If it doesn't say 100 percent, plug the charger back in until it says 100 percent on screen.
> 7. Repeat this cycle until it says 100 percent (or as close as you think it's going to get) when you start it up without it being plugged in.
> 8. Now, let your battery discharge all the way down to 0 percent and let your phone turn off again.
> 9. Fully charge the battery one more time without interruption and you should have reset the Android system's battery percentage.
>
>
> Remember that it is **not recommended to perform this process regularly.** Even when your battery is so dead your phone won't even turn on, your battery still has enough reserve charge to avoid system damage. But you don't want to poke the tiger with a stick. Perform this process once every three months at the most. If it is required more often than that, you have bigger problems at hand.
>
>
> Put plainly: fully discharging a battery is bad for it. Trying to overload a battery is also bad for it. The good news is that charging batteries will shut off automatically when they've reached their safe limit and there's always a little in reserve even if your phone won't start. Again: only do this when really necessary, because it does have a negative impact on battery life.".
>
>
> ...
>
>
>
APPs which 'seem to work' have a fancy UI, a little 'Scanner', a 'Report Section' that almost always finds a 'problem' and then claims it can fix it - but you need to let your phone discharge and let it shutoff, then recharge it - that causes the phone's battery's "Protection Circuitry" (that protects it from exploding or deep discharging) to recalibrate the zero and full points.
Your Battery will still be old and doing the above procedure wears it out one more Discharge Cycle (of which there are a limited number) but it resets the Hardware unlike a non-root APP claims it can do.
Once your Battery is over four years old the only thing to do is either get an expert to disassemble the Phone and replace the battery or buy an external battery that plugs into the USB and carry a bulky 'Charging Case' or a 'brick' in your pocket.
Purchasing Phones that have replaceable batteries sends the Manufacturer the message that you prefer replaceable batteries over waterproof phones - if people keep buying sealed phones every few years nothing is going to change.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/11/09 | 1,224 | 5,093 | <issue_start>username_0: With Google's new policy of issuing monthly security updates to Nexus devices going on from Marshmallow, me, the proud owner of a Nexus 9 (16GB,WiFi, Build version: MRA58K), has to dirty flash all the factory images every month just because Google issued a 4.0MB update, and I had to connect my tablet to WiFi just because I needed it.
Rather, I prefer to go manual and flash factory images to upgrade between major releases, and ignore those which come in between. So, these monthly OTA updates are a nuisance, even if all I have to do to not install it is ignore the notification it poses. The nuisance being that I have TWRP, root and ElementalX, and prefer to use OfficeSuite over Docs and have no use for Fit - hence I've uninstalled (removed) those system apps, which makes the updates unable to install anyway.
So, the question:
*What service(s) or process(es) is/are responsible for downloading this update? Which app are they a part of? And, most importantly,* **Can I Disable the offending app/process/service without otherwise affecting my system? (That includes interfering with GAPPs in any way)**
NOTE: I know the notification is presented by Google Play Services, I checked that. I want to know what processes/services are responsible for downloading the update, not showing the notification.
**Edit:**
For all those voting to close the question as a duplicate, I have not encountered an answer which satisfies my requirements in the referenced question which this has been thought to be a duplicate of. For future notice, I not only wish to disable the notification, but the updater service as well. Also, the answer provided in the linked question will potentially affect other components of my system, not just the OTA Updater, as it involves disabling all or just notifications from "Google Play Services", which is not at all what I want (I understand what that app is, and disabling any part of it is not in my best interests. So, anything **not involving GAPPs** is a better solution (since I am heavily dependent on them, excepting the Docs suite).
**Edit:**
I had since moved on to the PureNexus ROM and rid myself of these issues. Now I have manually upgraded to Android 7.0, and I don't use the device as much anymore. So these answers are not applicable to me any longer, but this question is a good reference point for others with a similar concern.<issue_comment>username_1: Sorry, I don't have Marshmallow available to confirm the process 100%.
That being said, the standard method for several versions of Android has always been the following:
1. Goto Settings
2. Scroll all the way to the bottom & find "About (... | phone | device)"
3. Find the "Update" | "System update" option
4. Disable "auto download" | "auto update"
Simple instructions with screen shots are [available from WikiHow](http://www.wikihow.com/Check-for-Updates-on-Your-Android-Phone).
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I bought a Nexus 6P and activated the service with Sprint. The problems was, a few months ago one of Google's updates has a bug that won't allow me to get LTE service with Sprint (fixed now). So what I had to do what revert my android phone to a previous version and not update my phone until the patch fixes the problem.
To go along with you problem, it annoyed me because after reverting to a previous version, I would constantly get these notifications to update my phone which I didn't want. Here's what I did to get rid of these notifications:
**Go to Settings → Apps → Google Play services → Notifications → Block all.**
I re-enabled it recently because it seems Google fixed this issue.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: Rename /system/etc/security/otacerts.zip to otacerts\_bak.zip.
This will prevent it from communicating with the OTA update server.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: Enable Developer Options In Android 6.0 Marshmallow
1. Pull down on the notifications shade and open the Settings app. You can also achieve the same thing from the app drawer if you so wish.
2. Scroll all the way down and tap on ‘About phone.’
3. Now scroll down again and you’ll see an entry labelled ‘Build number.’ Keep on tapping till you see a prompt that says ‘You are now a developer!’
after on this option you can Automatic System Updates toggle is set to off, for get rid of this stupid automatic System update.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: Deepak has correctly answered the question, however, has not been clear enough. To clarify: go to "Settings", "About", and tap on "Build Number" until you see the message "Developer Options has been turned on" (or similar) - requires 7 taps usually. At that point, GO BACK to Settings main screen and scroll all the way to bottom, where you will now see "Developer OPtions". Under this (new) set of options, find "Automatic System Updates" and turn it off. This should resolve the problem, though not sure about the notifications, but my quess is that will not pop up anymore, since you have disabled the functionality that causes it.)
Upvotes: -1 |
2015/11/09 | 204 | 867 | <issue_start>username_0: I can't find the simplest of information on anything for Droid Explorer. For instance, I did a backup, the backup screen disappeared, where does it put my \*.ab file?
Does the Droid Explorer app have documentation?<issue_comment>username_1: Documentation for Droid Explorer can be found on the [GitHub repository's wiki](https://github.com/camalot/droidexplorer/wiki).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: *Disclaimer: I am the lead developer on Droid Explorer.*
As username_1 said, those are the locations to find documentation. Documentation is very sparse. I am always looking for someone to help with creating documentation.
To answer where the backup file is saved, it is put in `%USERPROFILE%\Android Backups`. This is not currently configurable, but I have been working on making that configured as part of the install.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/11/09 | 269 | 1,124 | <issue_start>username_0: My device is rooted. It was working fine for months. But suddenly it struck and now its not restarting back. It struck at LG logo. I have no idea why its happening.
Also, it is rebooting again and again to LG logo. I don't wanna factory reset as I have have too many apps installed on the device and don't even know the names of all those apps. Is there any way through ADB that I can get the list of installed apps(without restarting) and then I can hard factory reset?<issue_comment>username_1: Documentation for Droid Explorer can be found on the [GitHub repository's wiki](https://github.com/camalot/droidexplorer/wiki).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: *Disclaimer: I am the lead developer on Droid Explorer.*
As username_1 said, those are the locations to find documentation. Documentation is very sparse. I am always looking for someone to help with creating documentation.
To answer where the backup file is saved, it is put in `%USERPROFILE%\Android Backups`. This is not currently configurable, but I have been working on making that configured as part of the install.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/11/10 | 534 | 2,012 | <issue_start>username_0: It seems when access to Google's servers is blocked (by a firewall for example) Photos doesn't display my photos. The photos are locally available and can be browsed with a file explorer app. I don't want all my photos stored in the cloud nor do I like the idea that Google is checking something every time I open the Photos app. Is there a workaround to disable this behavior?
Edit: The bounty auto-selected an answer but the answer does not work. This is the main "Assistant" view:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Z2bMf.png)
This is the device folders view:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/4lOoq.png)<issue_comment>username_1: Even thought the photos are stored locally, when in the main view of the photos app only the thumbnails or nothing at all (if thumbs are not cached) will be shown when internet is off/blocked/limited.
The only way you can access the local copies while using the photos app is to open the menu on the left and select "Device Folders" and then go into the Camera folder (or wherever it is you are trying to access).
Click Images to enlarge
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/w4TOX.png)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/chTMh.png)
Unfortunately because the internet is limited you wont have access to the nice new features such as the advanced photo search or the nice date order layout as these are all server-based features.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You can check if the photos are locally stored or not by:
*Photos* → *Settings* → Uncheck *Show your google drive photos & videos*
If your photos do not show now they were never on your device. To store them on your device download them from Google Photos and also turn off Backup & Sync if you don't want it.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/11/10 | 442 | 1,554 | <issue_start>username_0: I have downloaded Python 3 and a terminal emulator. But when I type python3 in the terminal, it says "not found".
How do I run the python interactive shell inside the terminal?<issue_comment>username_1: You first have to set the environment settings in your device to access the python 3.
**To use, make the script executable and run from the shell**:
```
chmod a+x standalone_python.sh
./standalone_python.sh
```
or, if that doesn't work (and it may not, depending on filesystem) just:
```
sh /sdcard/standalone_python.sh
```
The script at time of writing looks like this:
```
#! /bin/sh
export EXTERNAL_STORAGE=/mnt/storage
PYTHONPATH=/mnt/storage/com.googlecode.pythonforandroid/extras/python
PYTHONPATH=${PYTHONPATH}:/data/data/com.googlecode.pythonforandroid/files/python/lib/python2.6/lib-dynload
export PYTHONPATH
export TEMP=/mnt/storage/com.googlecode.pythonforandroid/extras/python/tmp
export PYTHON_EGG_CACHE=$TEMP
export PYTHONHOME=/data/data/com.googlecode.pythonforandroid/files/python
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/data/data/com.googlecode.pythonforandroid/files/python/lib
/data/data/com.googlecode.pythonforandroid/files/python/bin/python "$@"
```
**Original Source :**
<https://code.google.com/p/python-for-android/wiki/RunPythonFromShell>
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I assume you are on Android so why you don't just download the app already optimized? There's and a fine editor too. When you install it from GooglePlay you just tap on console and you are ready.
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/11/10 | 1,184 | 3,635 | <issue_start>username_0: Sadly my device (sm-g3185) isn't supported by either CWM or NANDbackup, so I am trying to do a backup manually. I found [this thread](http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1818321) which tells me to open a terminal (I'm on Arch Linux) and run:
```
adb forward tcp:5555 tcp:5555
adb shell
su
/system/xbin/busybox nc -l -p 5555 -e /system/xbin/busybox dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0
```
And then open another terminal and run:
```
adb forward tcp:5555 tcp:5555
cd /path/to/store/the/backup
nc 127.0.0.1 5555 | pv -i 0.5 > mmcblk0.raw
```
I did all this and it seems to be working. However, there was a delay of a few seconds between launching the `dd` command in terminal1 and the `nc` command in terminal2.
Can I trust the backup I created in this way? Doesn't this mean that I've lost some of the output of `dd`? Shouldn't these be run concurrently or, at least, shouldn't the `nc` command be started *before* the `dd` one?<issue_comment>username_1: I let it run and after it finished, `dd` reported:
```
7818182656 bytes (7.3GB) copied, 1245.237601 seconds, 6.0MB/s
```
And `ls -l mmcblk0.raw` on my computer shows:
```
-rw-r--r-- 1 username_1 username_1 7818182656 Nov 10 14:45 mmcblk0.raw
```
Since the file is the right size, presumably the backup was successful.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Here's the output of `busybox nc -h` from the Kindle Fire HDX I'm working on:
```
BusyBox v1.20.2 (2013-01-21 11:34:41 CET) multi-call binary.
Usage: nc [-iN] [-wN] [-l] [-p PORT] [-f FILE|IPADDR PORT] [-e PROG]
Open a pipe to IP:PORT or FILE
-e PROG Run PROG after connect
-l Listen mode, for inbound connects
(use -l twice with -e for persistent server)
-p PORT Local port
-w SEC Timeout for connect
-i SEC Delay interval for lines sent
-f FILE Use file (ala /dev/ttyS0) instead of network
```
So, the entire image is received because netcat waits for the connection to be established before running `busybox dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0`, that connection being established by `nc 127.0.0.1 5555` in the second terminal window.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> *Can I trust the backup I created in this way?*
>
>
>
Yes, of course! This is the most accurate backup method.
Data integrity can be verified by comparing the outputs of running [`md5sum(1)`](https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/md5sum.1.html) on both the `/dev/block/mmcblk0` volume on your device and the `mmcblk0.raw` disk image on your computer.
Additionally, you can use [`parted(8)`](https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/parted.8.html) to list all the partitions on the backup file:
```
parted /path/backup/mmcblk0.raw print
```
There you will find your `system` and `userdata` partitions, among many others containing bootloaders, firmware and recovery images.
>
> *There was a delay of a few seconds between launching the `dd` command on the device and the `nc` on the host computer. Doesn't this mean that I've lost some of the output of `dd`?*
> *Shouldn't these be run concurrently or, at least, shouldn't the `nc` command be started before the `dd` one?*
>
>
>
Don't worry! When you run `nc -l`, it will listen for an inbound connection, blocking the pipe and keeping `dd` from sending data until you establish the connection from your computer.
---
*Note: you don't need to run `adb forward tcp:5555 tcp:5555` twice.*
### Warning
**Most of the modern devices encrypt all your data. Make sure that you can decrypt the backup file and access your data before erasing the phone.**
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer] |
2015/11/10 | 641 | 2,748 | <issue_start>username_0: I mainly use my phone to contact one person. Recently the contact's texts got muted so no notification sounds. In the conversation view the little mute icon shows but in the menu the mute option is not checked/ticked.
This happened before with the same contact and I had to delete the contact and recover the conversation from a backup. It's very strange that it has happened again. I'm seeking a simpler solution if there is one.
Does anyone know how to unmute notifications (demute notifications or reactivate notifications) for a single conversation or contact that has been muted but isn't muted in the menu.
In particular I've tried:
1. using the menu to mute, then unmute
2. using the menu to mute for a set time, on the hope it would then be unmuted
3. set the "ringtone" for the conversation to default
4. set the ringtone for the conversation to a non-default
There is no problem with the contact when receiving calls, texts from all other contacts are notified (none of them show as muted).
The phone runs Android 4.4.2 as in an Acer E380. It's on Three network in UK; contacts are synced to Google manually but I've checked on the Google end and can't see any settings that are relevant. Contact is in a group but other members of the group sending texts causes notifications to sound as normal (and they're all set to the same default "ringtone").
Thanks for any suggestions.<issue_comment>username_1: Whoop, found the answer - open "messaging", click on the conversation for the contact, hold menu button to get the menu and choose "Chat Settings" then press the "..." menu this gives an option which says "Restore default settings" which worked, removing the mute and the mute icon.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I had the same exact problem. I pocket muted my girlfriends notifications. I found the solution however! Go to your messages with the person who has a mute symbol next to the conversation. Then look at the spot that had their name at the top left (with a phone number right under) click the drop down arrow on the right side of the name. And it will say notifications. Then click on. (: good luck. (Galaxy s6)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Same issue here for my husband's text messages; just his conversation was muted and I wasn't receiving any type of notification when he sent a message. I must've pocket muted him :) To fix I opened the conversation, tapped the arrow to the right of his name, and tapped notifications to turn them back on (was set to off). Now the conversation is un-muted and I get notifications! Thank you thank you!!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Just click on the down arrow beside the phone number and change the notification
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/11/11 | 453 | 1,924 | <issue_start>username_0: I have a re-branded smartphone with Android 5.0. The thing is I want to install a custom ROM to remove all the bloatware and get more control. But, as it is re-branded and not that popular there are not any custom ROMs available for it.
What I'm thinking is that since its hardware is not that old and there are many popular smartphones with exactly the same specifications, is it possible to install a custom ROM that was not built for my smartphone but was built for one which has exactly similar specifications?
**Note:** I can post the specifications, if required.<issue_comment>username_1: Whoop, found the answer - open "messaging", click on the conversation for the contact, hold menu button to get the menu and choose "Chat Settings" then press the "..." menu this gives an option which says "Restore default settings" which worked, removing the mute and the mute icon.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I had the same exact problem. I pocket muted my girlfriends notifications. I found the solution however! Go to your messages with the person who has a mute symbol next to the conversation. Then look at the spot that had their name at the top left (with a phone number right under) click the drop down arrow on the right side of the name. And it will say notifications. Then click on. (: good luck. (Galaxy s6)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Same issue here for my husband's text messages; just his conversation was muted and I wasn't receiving any type of notification when he sent a message. I must've pocket muted him :) To fix I opened the conversation, tapped the arrow to the right of his name, and tapped notifications to turn them back on (was set to off). Now the conversation is un-muted and I get notifications! Thank you thank you!!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Just click on the down arrow beside the phone number and change the notification
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/11/11 | 171 | 714 | <issue_start>username_0: Have a Samsung galaxy 5 and I am trying to add a .pdf to a text message.
Have tried the drop box but it wouldn't let me attach the file
thanks,
dana<issue_comment>username_1: I haven't found a way to directly send anything other than an image or audio file through text message. The best thing to do would be to paste the public download link to the Dropbox file into the text message.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: With SMS (Short Message Service) you can only send text. The only way to share your pdf through this service is by pasting the Dropbox (or Google Drive or another cloud service) link where is stored your file.
Otherwise you can always send an email :)
Upvotes: 2 |
2015/11/11 | 1,995 | 7,531 | <issue_start>username_0: Whenever I open google voice typing, it plays a rising ding sound, then a falling ding sound when it stops.
This is very annoying to me. I have a rooted stock S5 on Lollipop. I searched for the sound file but couldn't locate it, it may be wrapped up in the apk file.
Is there a way to stop this irritating sound? If I install the Xposed Framework, will that help?
Edit: Someone has suggested turning the media volume down to zero. This will work, but is not appropriate for me, as I am using the language learning app duolingo while I am using voice typing. So I need the app to send out audio via the media channel, simultaneously with using voice typing. Coming at it from another angle, [I have asked if there is an alternative application which meets my requirements.](https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/26522/offline-voice-typing-alternative-for-android)
**edit**
**Using app settings 1.15, you can mute voice typing by muting the Google app in Marshmallow (and maybe above). However, voice typing now mutes other audio ( regardless of its configuration on app settings) so I asked a question about it here**
[How do I stop voice typing from muting/pausing other playing media?](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/193881/how-do-i-stop-voice-typing-from-muting-pausing-other-playing-media)<issue_comment>username_1: Automation is my solution.
There are plenty of automation apps, but I use [MacroDroid](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.arlosoft.macrodroid), since it is easy to learn (that's why I use it) and the behaviour can be easily customized to get the result you want. Besides,free version allows you to create up to 5 macros and so for the task at hand, free version suffices. I prefer automation as a first choice when I need to get something running the way I want rather than depend on an app.
MacroDroid uses macros to perform desired actions.
Macro for your requirement would look like this:
(I am **thankful to OP for testing** o on his Lollipop based device and confirming behaviour as expected, since my device runs on KitKat and Google has implemented API level changes differently in Lollipop)
### Main Macro (working as tested by OP)
### Trigger
Application Launched → Google
### Action
Volume Change → Configure
Here you get 7 options which can be chosen singly or in combination on a sliding scale from 0 to 100. Options are-
1. Alarm
2. Music
3. Notifications
4. Ringer
5. System Sounds
6. Voice Call
7. Bluetooth Voice
Choose ((2) Music and (5) System Sounds) and set them to 0 for **Lollipop**
Choose ((3) Notifications and (5) System Sounds) and set them to 0 for **KitKat**
( Reason for different selection is explained in Note below)
You can set the (6) Voice call level as desired ( select by testing voice
typing comfort level)
### Constraints
None
(Macro runs only when constraint is *true*, so here it runs always)
Save the macro and ensure it is enabled before testing
### Optional Macro (Awaiting OP to test)
(In case you need to change volume manually for voice typing, the "ding sound reappears, as reported by OP. This macro is to kill the "ding sound". This macro is not required if you are fine with the voice control level in the main macro and do not need to manually change voice typing volume)
### Trigger
Volume Button Pressed → Volume Up → Update Volume
(Followed by)
Volume Button Pressed → Volume Down → Update Volume
### Action and Constraints
Same as in the main macro
( Triggers work as logical *OR* and the action for muting the "ding sound" is triggered whenever the volume is manually increased or decreased for voice typing )
### Why this should work for everybody
1. My search hasn't shown an app or Xposed module that can do this ( not denying the possibility, though)
2. This macro **doesn't require root** unlike Xposed approach.
3. **Granular control on different Volume settings**. MacroDroid permits you to alter sounds, with a flexibility that is beyond what normally is available in ringer / volume sound control as this example illustrates. My Huawei Honor 6 has only 6 types of volume settings (which is more than some devices offer) but not Bluetooth, which can be controlled through a macro
4. **Customization**. You can set "modes", which are like global variables akin to setting profiles. As an example, you can set this macro to run while at home (by mapping cell towers of your home location) and have the "ding" sound active elsewhere. Possibilities for customization are pretty much as you wish
5. Last but not least, **it is free :-)**
### System Settings
1. Do not Greenify MacroDroid and exclude it from task killers, if you use them.
2. Enable MacroDroid in "Auto Protect"(Huawei phones) or "Stamina Mode" (Sony phones or "Power Nap" (Stamina Mode Xposed module for non Sony devices). Also, if you update to Marshmallow in the future, exclude MacroDroid from Doze. Refer this: [Is there a way to exclude an app from Doze?](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/129074/is-there-a-way-to-exclude-an-app-from-doze/129075)
These features prevent app(s) to be active when the device is not awake, conserving battery. May not be pertinent to your phone but adding this as a general precaution.
3. Enable MacroDroid in accessibility settings and also allow it as device administrator in security settings.
4. For Lollipop, enable notification access from notification settings
### Note
Google Voice Recognition functionality that creates the "ding" sound was streamed as notification stream in KitKat. In Lollipop this is switched to music stream. Hence, in the macro, settings differ.
**Source**: <https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21701432/continues-speech-recognition-beep-sound-after-google-search-update>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I have a solution that may be useful ,if not for the OP I hope it will be useful as a reference for shutting the volume of a particular application OFF.
This method will mute all sounds coming from Google App but will not affect the other apps. It works on 4.1 up to Lollipop, but the questioner found that the App Settings Xposed module doesn't work on Marshmallow.
**Requirements :**
* Root access
* Xposed installer [Lollipop/Marshmallow](http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3034811) / [kitkat and older](http://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/xposed-installer-versions-changelog-t2714053) / [Stock lollipop Samsung Only](http://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/unofficial-xposed-samsung-lollipop-t3113463) (!)
* App settings xposed Module get it from [here](http://repo.xposed.info/module/de.robv.android.xposed.mods.appsettings) (install apk on phone )
**Method :**
* make sure app settings is activated in `xposed installer` under "**modules**" reboot after activating for the first time.
* now open App settings and type `Google` in the search field.
* You will see in the list the `Google App` click on it.
* on the Activity Bar you will see a toggle button toggle it `ON`.
* A view with lots of settings will show up ,look at the bottom of the screen just above the permission button there is a check box that say "**Mute audio**" check it.
* now click on the save button in the right side of the activity bar and confirm the pop-up message.
* Now open the voice typing and enjoy the full silence :)
>
> (!) For Samsung devices under Lollipop Follow carefully the thread you must have a deodexed Rom.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer] |
2015/11/11 | 281 | 1,124 | <issue_start>username_0: A few months ago I reset my phone because it had began to break and get really laggy. I want to re-root it now, I was just wondering if it would reset my data if the bootloader is already unlocked?<issue_comment>username_1: I'm not familiar with the G2 specifically, but in general, no, rooting a device on its own should not wipe data. Rooting your phone is the process of getting the `su` binary installed and available to access root privileges. That said, @SarpSTA is right in stating that a factory reset shouldn't unroot your phone. The `su` binary is placed in the system partition, which is left intact on wipe. If a wipe touched /system, your phone would be bricked and unusable, requiring a low-level flash to recover. What you may be missing is an app, such as SuperSU, to control access to root.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You re-flashed your phone or just done "Factory Reset"?I think that it would not wipe your data if you root your phone in case that you re-flashed it, but if you just have done" Factory Reset " it have to be already rooted.
Upvotes: -1 |
2015/11/12 | 519 | 2,104 | <issue_start>username_0: I got a new (unrooted) Nexus 6P and want to transfer my app data from a rooted Amazon Fire Phone.
Methods I've considered:
* Use titanium backup to backup apps - Can't be restored on my new unrooted phone
* Use titanium backup to create apks that contain app data - Installed apps wouldn't be linked to play store (right?)
* Use google syncing capability? The fire phone doesn't seem to sync the apps even though I have google services installed.
* Use an intermediate rooted device that supports google syncing? Would this actually work? Could I use Bluestacks for this?
I'm open to any other suggestions as well. The fact that my previous device is rooted seems to help, but I'm not sure how to get around my new device being unrooted since only a system user or each app itself would have permission to rewrite its app data.<issue_comment>username_1: Utilize the [backup](/questions/tagged/backup "show questions tagged 'backup'") and restore features of [adb](/questions/tagged/adb "show questions tagged 'adb'") for this, as they are available on rooted and not-rooted devices alike – provided they run Android 4+. On the old device: `adb backup -f .ab -apk` – on the new device: `adb restore` . Either do that for each app separately (recommended, as you can "skip some to be dealt with later") – or create a "bundle" by repeating the part in the backup for each app. Package names you can find out via their Playstore URL (`id=`).
Some additional details can be found in our [adb tag-wiki](https://android.stackexchange.com/tags/backup/info) and [backup tag-wiki](https://android.stackexchange.com/tags/adb/info).
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You can install ZArchiver from Play Store and extract Titanium Backup, then you will see two folders. Extract the "data" folder and install Virtual Backup on a non-rooted mobile and add all those apps which data you want to restore. Add those files into Virtual Backup and take a backup of those files. In this way, you will have a path of, then paste those titanium files and restore.
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/11/12 | 1,571 | 5,391 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm searching a way for get all my notes1 created in my Samsung Galaxy Ace II2 and export them to PC "in separately or unified text file (.txt)".
After hours of searching, I found [this question](https://android.stackexchange.com/q/113220); however, I can't follow the provided steps and the final target is *quite* different from the linked question.
As an alternative, I found a software called [Remo Recover for Android](http://www.remorecover.com/android/) but this app *looks like* it cannot access the saved notes.
In another search, [this answer](http://www.simplydroid.com/forum/transfer-memos-samsung-galaxy-y-samsung-galaxy-ace-57111.html#post81980) suggests:
* Select memo/note.
* Select "Share" or "Send" selected note.
The problem with this solution is that I have more than 100 notes and some of them has 1500 characters, and making this manually takes much time.
I'm looking for a solution4 that download/export the saved notes from my smartphone and save them in my PC; those notes should2 be stored as `.txt` files (separately, or in a unified `.txt` file).
---
1 The app used for taking notes/memos is the default one integrated in the smartphone.
[Here's a image sample](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ryplt.png); I didn't find the name or another useful information about the default note/memo app.
2 My smartphone has not been rooted or modified; no additional notes app is in the smartphone.
3 Other acceptable file extensions could be XSL or DOCX.
4 I'm not sure if this question should be created on [Software Recommendations](https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/) too, because the possible solution could be a free or commercial app / software.
---
Edit: Package name of Notes app: `com.sec.android.app.memo`. [Source](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/128678/get-notes-created-using-notes-default-app-and-export-them-to-pc#comment159991_128678)
Screenshot:
Click image to enlarge
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/nfqpq.png)<issue_comment>username_1: Firstly, this is difficult, if not impossible, without ADB or root. However, I will try to make the adb part simple for you, so you can follow the rest of the answer.
1. Get this package: [Minimal ADB and fastboot](http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2317790), and install it on your computer.
2. On your phone, go to Settings → Developer Options (On Android 4.2 and above, this option is normally hidden. Go to Settings → About Device, and tap on the build number entry 7 times. This will enable the Developer Settings option).
3. Under Developer options, select "Allow USB Debugging".
4. Connect your phone to the computer where you had installed ADB. If Windows starts installing drivers, let it finish.
5. Go to the ADB install folder, and Do a Shift+Right Click on the adb installation folder, select "Open command window here", and type `adb devices` in the command prompt that opens.
6. Your phone might pop up a request for authorization with an RSA Key, accept it.
7. If the prompt shows something like:
`Connected devices:`
`123456789ABCDEF device`
or variants thereof, you are good to follow the steps mentioned below:
The steps are taken from @Firelord 's answer [here](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/113220/retrieving-and-classifying-notes-with-time-and-date-of-creation/113232#113232), almost verbatim. All credits to @Firelord
1. Take backup of your "Notes" app by issuing the following ADB command:
```
adb backup
```
where is the package name of the app whose backup you want to take. The file will be saved as `backup.ab` in the directory from where ADB is executed.
In your case, you should end up with the backup file `backup.ab` (~1.7KiB) in your Home directory of GNU/Linux using the command:
```
adb backup com.sec.android.app.memo
```
This step is needed because I'm unaware (as a non-root user) of any other way to get your hands on an app's internal files residing in `/data`.
2. The `.ab` file may not be able to be opened on your PC so use [Android Backup Extractor](http://sourceforge.net/projects/adbextractor/) (see usage in its `README.txt`) to convert into `.tar` archive which then can be opened by any archive viewer (like Ark, WinRAR, and so on).
Some other methods to unpack the `.ab` file are mentioned [here](https://android.stackexchange.com/q/28481/96277).
3. Open the converted file (`.tar` in case you used Android Backup Extractor) and locate `.db` file under **apps**→→**db**→`<.db>`.
4. Open that `.db` in an SQL viewer like [DB Browser for SQLite](http://sqlitebrowser.org/). You can then export the file into `.csv` using **File → Export → Table(s) as CSV file**.
5. The resulting `.csv` can be viewed formatted in any spreadsheet software like MS Excel or even Google Sheets.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Thank you for this useful post.
to get adb on my linux : `urpmi android-tools`
On a Huawei Y330, Android 4.2.2, Package name of Notes app is: **com.example.android.notepad**
found it in app list from command line: ([here](https://gist.github.com/davidnunez/1404789))
`adb shell pm list packages | awk -F ":" '{print $2}'`
Then extracted backup with: ([here](https://android.stackexchange.com/q/28481/96277))
`java -jar abe.jar unpack`
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/11/13 | 499 | 1,597 | <issue_start>username_0: Presently, my BlueStacks appears slightly blurry. By blurry, I mean 'not sharp'.
Compare BlueStacks with my desktop:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/r3GzR.png)
(Click image to enlarge)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/FpycP.png)
**BlueStacks** (Click image to enlarge)
The difference is subtle, but I don't like it. I think it's got something to do with the resolution. How do I increase it so that the items in BlueStacks appear sharp?<issue_comment>username_1: To change the Resolution of BlueStack:
* Open ‘regedit': Start->Run->regedit
* Navigate to: `'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/BlueStacks/Guests/Android/FrameBuffer/0/’`
* Double click the value ‘GuestHeight’
* Change Base to Decimal
* Input your desired Height resolution
* Double click the value ‘GuestWidth’
* Change Base to Decimal
* Input your desired Height resolution
* Restart your PC, Open BlueStack [It will open up with New Resolution.]
Check this Link to work Around :
<http://www.techcrises.com/how-to/how-to-change-bluestacks-resolution-in-windows-fixed/>
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Bluestacks now has built-in options for increasing resolution and DPI, which can reduce blurriness. By default, neither of these are maxed.
See <https://support.bluestacks.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003116443-How-can-I-customize-BlueStacks-3-resolution-and-DPI->
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/oFbpT.png)
Upvotes: 2 |
2015/11/13 | 1,627 | 6,433 | <issue_start>username_0: There's a long-running issue with Skype for Android where, in recent versions (since 2014 I believe), it very often ignores incoming calls and doesn't notify about messages when it is running in the background. There are many long (and often angry) threads about this on Skype's forums, for example: [No incoming call and chat notification on Android KitKat](http://community.skype.com/t5/Android/No-incoming-call-and-chat-notification-on-Android-KitKat/td-p/3192984) (12 pages), [Skype never rings on Android phone](http://community.skype.com/t5/Android/Skype-never-rings-on-Android-phone/td-p/2725539) (9 pages), [skype not running in background anymore?](http://community.skype.com/t5/Android/skype-not-running-in-background-anymore/td-p/2706969) (4 pages), and many others.
From these threads I've extracted some clues:
* It used to be possible to fix this issue by downgrading to before version 4, but older versions now no longer connect, so this appears to be no longer an option.
* There is some mystery about why this happens, but there are claims that it's something to do with Skype's status changing to some kind of "inactive" status when it goes into the background after a period of inactivity (some sources say 15 minutes, some 5 minutes, some immediately on the Skype app window not being open), which, recently (but not in the past) results in Skype centrally not connect calls or messages to this user when this status is present.
* If this is the case, it happens even when the optional Skype notification tray status icon shows the status as being "active" - some comments suggest this icon doesn't update when Skype becomes inactive in the background
* There's [a separate issue where Skype doesn't notify on a phone if you're active on a computer](https://superuser.com/questions/996019/how-to-make-skype-ring-on-all-connected-devices), but plenty of people report this problem even when they've confirmed they're only logged in on Android.
* There's a [post from 2014 which suggests that background calls work if "Answer calls automatically" is ticked](http://community.skype.com/t5/Android-archive/No-longer-getting-Notifications-on-my-phone-from-skype/td-p/3033892) in Skype settings - but I don't like the idea of people calling me and instantly hearing the sound of the inside of my pocket (maybe I've misunderstood what answer calls automatically means?), and I imagine I still wouldn't know they've called unless I'm in a silent room
* A few users mention that turning on "sync group chat in the background" in notifications fixes notifications for calls and messages too ([example](http://community.skype.com/t5/Android-archive/No-longer-getting-Notifications-on-my-phone-from-skype/td-p/3033892)) but this didn't work for me
* A minority of posters claim to not have this issue, suggesting there might be something to do with general Android settings that influences whether Skype becomes unreachable when it goes into the background.
* There's mention of 3rd party apps that fix this problem by keeping Skype active, thus preventing the status change. However I couldn't find any such examples that wasn't followed by a comment later suggesting it no longer works (and I can't find any examples now I look for it).
I've discussed this with Skype customer support, who were unable to help beyond establishing that it's nothing to do with my Skype app settings (notifications are on) or being logged in on another device. My main hope, therefore, is for some kind of 3rd party solution like the apps referred to above for keeping Skype active, or some general Android setting.
---
Non-rooted, Android 5.1.1, Skype 6.8.0.590, Sony Z3 compact. I'd prefer not to root but this issue is very important to me and if that's the only option I'd accept an answer that involves rooting the phone.
I'd prefer not to install a custom mod, but I'd consider it if that can somehow reliably fix this problem and give me reliable notifications and incoming calls any time I'm online and someone calls or messages me by Skype.<issue_comment>username_1: Your search it appears is for a solution that keeps Skype active only when you are on line . Since you couldn't find an app or root unless necessary , I am suggesting you to look at automation as an alternative
There are plenty of them, but I use [MacroDroid](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.arlosoft.macrodroid), since it is easy to learn and the behaviour can be easily customized to get the result you want. Besides,free version allows you to create upto 5 macros and for the task at hand, free version suffices. I prefer automation as a first choice, when I need to get something running the way I like and not depend on apps.
The macro would look like this and needs to be tested. I gave up on using Skype, so can't test it, but in principle should run fine
Trigger
=======
Regular Interval (can be configured in seconds,minutes, hours as you require - the macro runs periodically based on this setting)
Actions
=======
Launch Skype> force new with the constraint WiFi connected to any network
(You want Skype to be launched at the periodicity specificied in trigger, only when you are connected on Wifi. Assuming WiFi to be your mode of being on line)
Launch homescreen ( you don't want to see Skype launching when you are say mailing for example, so you get to the home screen for you to pick up the mail app and resume)
Constraint
==========
Application running> not in foreground>Skype
( macro runs only when constraint is TRUE. Here, you are ensuring that macro isn't triggered when you are actually using Skype !!!. You can add more constraints like the time period you want the macro active, day of week etc. These can be added with AND (or) OR logical operator. Bottom line is macro runs when constraint(s) evaluate to a logical TRUE).
You would need to test and fine tune on how frequently you want this macro to run.
All the best....
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I had the same problem.
If Skype is running, either active or in the background, it does ring OK. But if it is off, doesn't ring.
Fixed it by going into settings, notification settings, Skype status. When you switch this ON, Skype is always running in background I guess. Takes a bit longer to start ringing but it does (at least for me).
Stock android 5.1 on Moto G. Latest Skype app as of June 2016.
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/11/14 | 231 | 965 | <issue_start>username_0: I have been using one WhatsApp number up until I went into another country where I started using a new number.
In a new number I was joined into different groups and since WhatsApp allows one number per device I could not use old one. Now I want to merge my new number to my old WhatsApp account and have a single one.
Is that possible? I contacted their support and they have not answered yet.
I have both Sim cards in one phone<issue_comment>username_1: whatsapp now allowing users to change mobile number without loosing data.
If you are ok to loose 1 whatsapp data, you can keep another. Just change your number and enjoy your whatsapp
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: you can change the numbers by going into Settings>>Account>>Change Number.
Here you can Change Number form A to B and you wont loose your chats(data).
Also you can select an option if you want you contacts to get notification about this change.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/11/14 | 286 | 1,268 | <issue_start>username_0: I need more space and I saw somewhere that I can clear the cache for Google Play Services but I'm not sure if something will go wrong
Help please!<issue_comment>username_1: Clearing cache for an app will never delete any important information, only data held to make loading images etc faster. Data, however, is often used to store important information.
If the app is using too much data, I would say that there probably isn't much harm in clearing it, but if the app doesn't store much data, there isn't much point.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: It is safe to clear cache, but make sure you don't clear data as it will remove you Google account and you will have to login again.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I've clear cache on Play Store many times as well as clear cache/clear data which then routes me to a manage space button and/or a page with my multiple Google apps to manage spaces of app(s) of my choice that I'm trying to clear. I usually don't have to sign in again. Maybe because of dual sign ins on various Google apps however clearing data could very well reset your Google Play Store settings back to default; enter dreaded auto updates and auto permissions and auto storage/memory hogger upper
Upvotes: 0 |
2015/11/14 | 415 | 1,681 | <issue_start>username_0: I have in my hands a Mpie M8 device (Android 5), The previous owner said it wasn't working properly and I suspected it had a virus. I factory reset it and now the phone wants desperately to install `com.google.system.s` every 5 seconds even though I press cancel and even though I have WiFi off. I install it and it said that it is about locking. The phone started restarting all the time. I downloaded 360 Security and it said this is malware.
I tried to uninstall it and it said that this app is deep in my phone. I finally uninstall it (with a lots of sweat). And I have the same problem again, every 5 seconds. What is this file? What should I do?<issue_comment>username_1: From experience, flashing in any conventionally accepted way instantaneously bricks this Mpie M8. It takes a lot of efforts to unbrick it, too. So work with what you have, root it first so that the malware can be managed. When the auto-installation-without-permission starts, pull down notification and click on app info to see which system process is being hijacked and disable it immediately. As an example, mine shows Launcher and Android Service are involved. Have used a different launcher instead just to be on the safe side. Android Service, hiding in /system/priv-app as android\_service\_800000\_0923\_outsea.apk, appears the true culprit. Once deleted, the phone runs flawlessly. Of course your phone may have different malware in it depending on which malicious websites that you have visited. Good luck.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Go to Settings → Security → Device Administrators and uncheck `COM.GOOGLE.SYSTEM.S`. Now you can uninstall it.
Upvotes: -1 |
2015/11/15 | 341 | 1,378 | <issue_start>username_0: Well, I lost my phone. I know I can get some contacts from google, but it's not phone numbers, only e-mails. (I already tried locating my phone with google, and I was able to do it. It seems to be turned off now, though.) Is there any way that I can get those contacts from my SD card? I can get a new phone, but I can't get all those contacts back.<issue_comment>username_1: From experience, flashing in any conventionally accepted way instantaneously bricks this Mpie M8. It takes a lot of efforts to unbrick it, too. So work with what you have, root it first so that the malware can be managed. When the auto-installation-without-permission starts, pull down notification and click on app info to see which system process is being hijacked and disable it immediately. As an example, mine shows Launcher and Android Service are involved. Have used a different launcher instead just to be on the safe side. Android Service, hiding in /system/priv-app as android\_service\_800000\_0923\_outsea.apk, appears the true culprit. Once deleted, the phone runs flawlessly. Of course your phone may have different malware in it depending on which malicious websites that you have visited. Good luck.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Go to Settings → Security → Device Administrators and uncheck `COM.GOOGLE.SYSTEM.S`. Now you can uninstall it.
Upvotes: -1 |
2015/11/15 | 339 | 1,427 | <issue_start>username_0: My android device has been stolen (Xperia L) and I had not set up Android Device Manager. How do I remove the google access and play store; uninstall apps; protect SD card and personal data; sign out from shopping apps and block the SIM access.
If there is a way to control my phone remotely **without** having any prior access to the device or Android Device Manager enabled, please let me know.<issue_comment>username_1: From experience, flashing in any conventionally accepted way instantaneously bricks this Mpie M8. It takes a lot of efforts to unbrick it, too. So work with what you have, root it first so that the malware can be managed. When the auto-installation-without-permission starts, pull down notification and click on app info to see which system process is being hijacked and disable it immediately. As an example, mine shows Launcher and Android Service are involved. Have used a different launcher instead just to be on the safe side. Android Service, hiding in /system/priv-app as android\_service\_800000\_0923\_outsea.apk, appears the true culprit. Once deleted, the phone runs flawlessly. Of course your phone may have different malware in it depending on which malicious websites that you have visited. Good luck.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Go to Settings → Security → Device Administrators and uncheck `COM.GOOGLE.SYSTEM.S`. Now you can uninstall it.
Upvotes: -1 |
2015/11/15 | 402 | 1,686 | <issue_start>username_0: Would anyone know how I can remove the wonderlandads.com pop-up virus from my Nexus 5 mobile - it appears in my Chrome browser.
While there are many sites dedicated to the manual removal of the virus from PCs, despite several searches I am at a loss to find a suitable alternative solution for Android.
I have installed the free versions of AVG, Avast and Kaspersky to no avail, and I am wary of those sites which suggest SpyHunter, etc as a solution, for a fee. Any help, advice or suggestions would be much appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: Try to remove Chrome from your Android device and use default browser. It was ok for me on Galaxy S6 Edge.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I managed to successfully identify the cause of wonderland pop ups, this pop up was annoying me for sometime, my PC, two mobiles, a tab was infected and inspite of multiple reset from the scratch didn't work
I realised to look at my router and found a tempered DNS, I validated this with my broadband provider and updated correct one.....this works with me and would work for you as well
Regards
username_2
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: username_2 is right i'm also experiencing the same problem and found tempered dns in my router and changed it to dns provided by my isp and malware removed from all my devices but it get changed to malware dns after few hours again. So now i have to change it manually and keep checking. I haven't found a permanent solution for this and checked my systems and devices for dnschanger malware with no luck.
Also in this case only puffin browser will help you on android. In nexus 6 chrome is default browser.
Upvotes: 1 |
2015/11/15 | 8,456 | 31,424 | <issue_start>username_0: I'm trying to find what policy is actually enforced by my phone using selinux. You'd think this would be easy. After all, for security it is good to verify that your policy matches expectations. Unfortunately, I've found this shockingly hard to do, because A) android seems to use a forked policy version 30, and B) the policy toolchain seems to have a very low-quality build process (lots of hard-coded paths, etc.).
Here are two things I've tried that have not worked. If I try to use off-the-shelf setools tools (such as come packaged for fedora, or can be installed from AUR with arch linux), then I get the following (after pulling `/sepolicy` from by phone's root directory or factory image):
```
$ sedispol sepolicy
Reading policy...
libsepol.policydb_read: policydb version 30 does not match my version range 15-29
sedispol: error(s) encountered while parsing configuration
$ sesearch --all sepolicy
ERROR: policydb version 30 does not match my version range 15-29
ERROR: Unable to open policy sepolicy.
ERROR: Success
$
```
Okay, so that suggests I have to build the android version of the selinux libraries. The AOSP source tree comes with precompiled versions of some tools but these depend on old shared libraries that I don't have (like libpcre3). Anyway, it's pretty shocking if the only way to check your security policy is to trust some binary shared library you get off the net.
So here's what I did to build the android selinux libraries. On arch, I had to install `ustr-selinux` from AUR, because ustr uses `inline` where it is now required to use `static inline`. Okay, so far so good. Unfortunately, the build process is really gross, but I was able to get enough of it compiled and installed with the following:
```
git clone https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/selinux \
android/external/selinux
export ANDROID_BUILD_TOP=$PWD/android
DESTDIR=$HOME/android_selinux
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$DESTDIR/lib:$DESTDIR/usr/lib"
cd android/external/selinux
sed -ie '/^LDLIBS.*(LIBDIR)/s/$/ ..\/lex.yy.o/' checkpolicy/test/Makefile
make install DESTDIR="$DESTDIR" \
PREFIX='$(DESTDIR)/usr' \
CFLAGS='-I$(PREFIX)/include' \
-j20 -k
cp checkpolicy/test/dispol "$DESTDIR/usr/sbin/sedispol"
cp checkpolicy/test/dismod "$DESTDIR/usr/sbin/sedismod"
```
At this point, `sedispol` works an an ordinary SElinux policy (like a version 29 `policy.29` from fedora), but still won't show me what's going on with android:
```
$ ~/android_selinux/usr/sbin/sedispol sepolicy
Reading policy...
libsepol.avtab_read_item: more than one specifier
libsepol.avtab_read: failed on entry 457 of 5582
/home/user/android_selinux/usr/sbin/dispol: error(s) encountered while parsing configuration
$
```
I also tried compiling the vanilla `setools3` tools against the android libraries. Again, not so easy, but I got it to work with:
```
DESTDIR=$HOME/android_selinux
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$DESTDIR/lib:$DESTDIR/usr/lib"
git clone https://github.com/TresysTechnology/setools3.git
cd setools3
./configure --prefix=$DESTDIR/usr --with-sepol-devel=$DESTDIR/usr CPPFLAGS="-I$DESTDIR/usr/include -L$DESTDIR/usr/lib"
make -k -j20
```
This doesn't fully build, but builds enough of the source tree that I can execute `secmds/sesearch`. This sort of works on a vanilla `policy.29` file (I can search `-A` and `-T`, but `--all` gives me `operation not supported`). However, it completely fails with a similar error when trying to examine an android version 30 file:
```
$ ./secmds/sesearch -A sepolicy
ERROR: more than one specifier
ERROR: failed on entry 457 of 5582
ERROR: Unable to open policy sepolicy.
ERROR: Success
$
```
At this point my mind is kind of boggling that the tooling around something so critical as the system security policy is really this hard to build. Surely I must be doing something wrong. Has anyone actually managed to examine an android security policy without relying on externally distributed binary shared libraries?
I should add that I also tried the techniques suggested for rebuilding all prebuilt tools (`ndk/build/tools/download-toolchain-sources.sh` and `ndk/build/tools/rebuild-all-prebuilt.sh`). However the `download-toolchain-sources.sh` script is currently broken. It tries to check out old version directories that are not in the repositories any more, and anyway it doesn't appear to download any selinux related tools, despite that fact that `prebuilts/python` contains selinux-related code. Again, I'm shocked at how crufty these build systems are, and think there has to be an easier way. The question how can I get tools that allow me to check my android selinux policy?<issue_comment>username_1: You should first build an older version of libsepol from the AOSP code (like the one corresponding the 6.0 version), then link sepolicy-inject, dispol, etc against it. This recipe worked for me on debian jessie:
```
cd /to/the/aosp/dir
[repo init, etc]
repo sync external/selinux
cd external/selinux
git checkout android-6.0.0_r1^
cd libsepol
make
libsepol=`pwd`
cd /to/the/selinux-inject-source-dir
make LIBDIR=$libsepol
```
unlike the sepolicy-inject linked against the system's libsepol, this one works fine with the /sepolicy from the 6.0 image included in the android sdk:
```
$ sepolicy-inject -Z shell -P /tmp/sepolicy -o /tmp/sepolicy
libsepol.policydb_read: policydb version 30 does not match my version range 15-29
error(s) encountered while parsing configuration
Could not load policy
$ ./sepolicy-inject -Z shell -P /tmp/sepolicy -o /tmp/sepolicy
libsepol.policydb_index_others: security: 1 users, 2 roles, 525 types, 0 bools
libsepol.policydb_index_others: security: 1 sens, 1024 cats
libsepol.policydb_index_others: security: 87 classes, 4767 rules, 0 cond rules
```
For the tools included in the selinux distribution, the trick is to build them with the same DESTDIR:
```
cd libsepol
make DESTDIR=/some/dir install
cd ../checkpolicy
make DESTDIR=/some/dir
# here you have a working 'dispol' in the 'test' subdir
```
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You should try to apply [this patch](https://github.com/chenxiaolong/DualBootPatcher/blob/master/thirdparty/libsepol/0001-Support-Android-M-and-official-v30-sepolicy-format.patch) to the sources of libsepol, and then incrementaly rebuild all that stuff. It worked for me in the sam issue
You can try to use libsepol clone with applied patch from this repo <https://metizik@bitbucket.org/metizik/selinux_tools.git>
I use it to build dispol under Windows, and it works to me fine (still notice that I'm using cygwin for this)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: To the people facing the issue with:
```
policydb version 30 does not match my version range 15-29
```
while working with AOSP code.
Assuming, your AOSP code is checked out to **~/android/source** dir:
```
cd ~/android/source
source build/envsetup.sh
export ANDROID_BUILD_TOP=$(pwd)
```
And now you are free to use bundled **audit2allow** utility:
```
./external/selinux/prebuilts/bin/audit2allow
```
**P.S.** Also, I would like to address comment [Examine android (v30) selinux policy](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/128965/examine-android-v30-selinux-policy/146329#comment175686_137838)
>
> Sesearch dies looking for the include file (from within another policy.h file). Do you know which module contains apol?
>
>
>
Building selinux toolkit from sources <https://github.com/SELinuxProject/selinux> is not very trivial (unless you are using Fedora). On Ubuntu, you need to install (assuming you've already installed basic dev tools like bison and C compiler) **libglib2.0-dev, libcap-ng-dev, xmlto, libsemanage1-dev, libustr-dev, libaudit-dev, libsepol1-dev**
But at the end I've still failed to compile it because of <https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/glib2.0/+bug/793155> and have no idea how to resolve it
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: First of all, I must admit that I fully agree with your *"I've found this shockingly hard to do"* statement. Google has designed Android mainly from a consumer perspective, and not for power users. The result is that, as soon as you want to do something outside of using the latest Facebook app or playing with Candy Crush, you very quickly find yourself back in realm of early-2000 Linux, when a developer-like knowledge was required to change what should be simple settings. I believe that the situation will fastly evolve as Android system gets more mature, but for now we have to do with what we have got...
As you said, there are two reasons why it is necessary to compile your own SELinux toolset:
* The system provided toolset is usually a version behind. While Android's SELinux relies on policy DB version 30, current Linux boxes usually handle only version up to 29.
* Even if it would be more recent it would not help, in fact building SELinux from [upstream code](https://github.com/SELinuxProject/selinux) (which is easilly done, at least on Fedora machines following upstream recommendations) effectively allows the system to handle policy DB version 30, however Android's SELinux has been heavilly modified ([Google documentation](https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/libselinux/+/master/README.android) highlights a few modifications) so trying to handle Android's SELinux fails due to syntax and parsing errors.
So, to keep on the Android's SELinux analysis quest, we will have to put our hands in the dirt... in the cleanest possible way:
* First we will setup a sane environment,
* Once this is done we will compile Android's SELinux libraries and first tools,
* On top of them we will build SELinux tools,
* We will finish by adding a few supplementary utilities.
Setup a proper environment
==========================
Environment properties
----------------------
The cleanest recommended, an possibly maybe only reliably working way is to dedicate a environment to your Android work:
* A virtual machine is perfectly fine (if not the best option). Prefer to use a VMware one since you will have to connect your phone through USB to the guest system. The free alternative Qemu doesn't seem to handle such task very well. I did not try with other virualization software.
* It will need to be a 64 bits system, otherwise the code will simply not compile due to integers being of the wrong size.
* It is *strongly* recommended, possibly mandatory, to use a Ubuntu system. Feel free to use Xubuntu instead if you prefer XFCE's lighter desktop environment, this does not change the system's core and available package and will have no impact on your Android related work (whatever I say about Ubuntu in this procedure also applies to Xubuntu). You may find in Android's SELinux source tree some ReadMe files recommending the use of Fedora instead, these files are inherited from upstream NSA's SELinux project and their content do not necessarily match Google's Android.
* The exact version of Unbuntu to use depends on the version of Android you want to build. For Android 6.0, Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty) is recommended. Check [Google requirements page](https://source.android.com/source/requirements.html) for more information.
* You will need plenty of disk space (at least 50GB if you plan only SELinux-related investigation, at least 100GB if you plan for a complete build of Android). CPU and memory are less relevant, they only impact time for a full build and will have no real impact for SELinux related tasks.
Using Ubuntu has two main advantages:
* By using the recommended system, you are working in a well-known and well-tested environment: system libraries, tools and packages are at the version and location expected by the project.
* And more specifically in our current case: Ubuntu itself relies on AppArmor which is a SELinux alternative, it does not use SELinux. The good news is that you will therefore be able to install Android's SELinux tools and binaries system-wide without risking to alter system reliability.
Environment installation procedure
----------------------------------
You can install Ubuntu the traditional way by starting from a full-fledged live-DVD, but a faster alternative is to use a netboot install (textmode install) and select the desktop environment you prefer at the end. Doing so will save you the initial update time by directly installing up-to-date packages version instead of first installing obsolete ones, then asking to apply 389 pending updates on the first boot.
The ISO for Ubuntu/Xubuntu 14.04 (same ISO) netboot installer is [available here](http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/trusty/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot).
To skip VMware's troublesome "Easy Install" feature, it's a good habit to start by selecting the *"I will install the operating system later"* option.
Be sure to select *Linux*, then *Ubuntu 64 bits* as guest OS.
The VM will need the following ressources:
* Mandatory: disk space must be **at the very least** 40GB (the default 20 GB will **not** be enough, the source code alone takes more space than that), higher is recommended. A full build requires a 100 GB disk minimum, this is the value I usually take. Do not forget that this setting is just a maximum limit: the actual size taken by the VM grows dynamically with guest's requests.
* Facultative: Increase RAM from 1024 to at least 2048 or higher (depends on your host capacity, I use 4096),
* Facultative: Increase the number of processor cores from 1 to 2 or higher (depends on your host capacity, I use 3).
* The CD-Rom must point to the installation ISO file.
* You may want to switch USB from the default 1.1 to 2.0 as the former may give warnings when you connect your device. Depending on your usage, you can also safely uncheck *"Automatically connect new USB devices"* and *"Share Bluetooth devices with the virtual machine"*.
* Depending on your environment, you may also need to tweak display settings (disable 3D, enforce a screen size).
***Attention:***
* If you choosed the netboot install, do not forget to select your desktop environment (*Ubuntu desktop* or *Xubuntu desktop*) when reaching the *Software selection* screen, or you will end-up with a minimal text-only environment!
* Upon first boot, **refuse** to upgrade to the latest release: the whole point here is to stay in 14.04!
Upon first boot, one of the first you may want to do is install Linux guest tools:
```
sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools
```
This packet put boot-time triggers, its installation will therefore be complete only after a guest restart.
Fetch Android source code
=========================
While similar, the procedure details depends on the chosen ROM:
* For CyanogenMod, [search for your device](https://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Devices) (select the vendor first) then click on the *"How to build CyanogenMod"* link to get instruction adapted for your device.
* For AOSP, follow the procedure which [starts here](https://source.android.com/source/initializing.html).
It can be worth noting that CyanogeMod bundles in its source tree a tool allowing you to unpack `boot.img` files. To say it differently, CyanogenMod provides you a tool which will allow you to access the `sepolicy` file stored in devices and ROM archives. Google's AOSP does not provide such tool, so if you have no other imperative using CyanogenMod's source tree may be the most convenient choice, otherwise you will have to install it appart (which is quick and easy to do, so no worry here).
Here I'm following CyanogenMod 13.0 (Android 6.0) procedure. Explanation on the commands used is available on the pages linked above. Please read them, the typescript below is given only for reference purposes.
***Tip:*** While I use `apt-get` in this post to stick to the lowest common denominator and keep everybody happy, you may prefer to use `aptitude` instead since it will take care of the dependencies in a better way (when removing a package which required the installation of some dependencies, these dependencies will be removed too, leaving your system cleaner). AFAIK the `aptitude` command must be installed in Ubuntu but is available by default on Xubuntu.
```
sudo apt-get install bison build-essential curl flex git gnupg gperf \
libesd0-dev liblz4-tool libncurses5-dev libsdl1.2-dev libwxgtk2.8-dev libxml2 \
libxml2-utils lzop maven openjdk-7-jdk pngcrush schedtool squashfs-tools \
xsltproc zip zlib1g-dev g++-multilib gcc-multilib lib32ncurses5-dev \
lib32readline-gplv2-dev lib32z1-dev
mkdir -p ~/bin
mkdir -p ~/android/system
PATH=~/bin:$PATH
curl https://storage.googleapis.com/git-repo-downloads/repo > ~/bin/repo
chmod u+x ~/bin/repo
cd ~/android/system/
git config --global user.name "<NAME>"
git config --global user.email "<EMAIL>
repo init -u https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android.git -b cm-13.0
repo sync
# Coffee time: around 20GB are being downloaded, this may take several hours.
source ./build/envsetup.sh
breakfast
```
Now you have a clean and nearly complete source tree. The proprietary blobs are
missing, but you don't need them for SELinux related tasks.
***Tip:*** Fetching the sources is a tedious process, it may be worth to do a snapshot or backup of your VM now.
Compile and install Android's SELinux toolset and libraries
===========================================================
Now the funny part of the trip begins ;) !
Until now the procedure should have been pretty straightforward. The goal was mainly to ensure that you have the very same environment as me. If you do, the sequel should remain straightforward too.
Under the hood Google's do not hesitate to apply deep changes to Android's source code between versions, therefore the exact compilation steps will be quite certainly version dependent (for instance AOSP master shows that the `sepolicy/` directory [will be moved](https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/sepolicy/+/c81ebe522c66dd6e6ef4419ecc7737e2e1740d59)).
I will first share my exact procedure to compile and install Android's SElinux libraries and toolset, but in order to keep the relevance of this post over time I will then add some notes about the generic approach to follow in order to solve most compilation issues.
Step-by-step procedure
----------------------
Android's SELinux libraries provide the abstraction layer which will allow upper layer software to deal with Android-specific SELinux policy files. We will therefore need to compule and install them first (which, in itself, actually represents the core if the difficulties here, until you've found your way).
We will then be able to build and install SELinux tools. As we will see, fortunately these do not need to be Android specific, they only need to match the SELinux library version.
This procedure has been tested both using CyanogenMod and AOSP source code trees.
### Compile and install Android SELinux libraries and first tools
First install dependances:
```
sudo apt-get install libapol-dev libaudit-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev libgtk2.0-dev \
libustr-dev python-dev python-networkx swig xmlto
```
In this post the variable `$ANDROID_BUILD_TOP` stores your source location (the directory where you issued the `repo sync` command). Feel free to change its name as you like.
```
ANDROID_BUILD_TOP=~/android/system
cd $ANDROID_BUILD_TOP
source ./build/envsetup.sh
```
By default the policy core utils compilation fails due to `restorecond`'s Makefile being unable to locate some libraries. You have to edit this Makefile in order to use paths dynamically generated by `pkg-config` instead of hardcoded ones (do not confuse backticks with single quotes!):
```
sed -i 's/^CFLAGS ?= -g -Werror -Wall -W$/& `pkg-config --cflags --libs dbus-1 gtk+-2.0`/' \
$ANDROID_BUILD_TOP/external/selinux/policycoreutils/restorecond/Makefile
```
Feel free to open the Makefile with some text editor to ensure that the modification has been correctly taken into account.
And now compile and install:
```
cd $ANDROID_BUILD_TOP/external/bzip2/
make -f Makefile-libbz2_so
sudo make install
cd $ANDROID_BUILD_TOP/external/libcap-ng/libcap-ng-0.7/
./configure
make
sudo make install
cd $ANDROID_BUILD_TOP/external/selinux/
make -C ./libsepol/
sudo make -C /libsepol/ install
EMFLAGS=-fPIC make -C ./libselinux/
sudo make -C ./libselinux/ install
make -C ./libsemanage/
sudo make -C ./libsemanage/ install
make
sudo make install
make swigify
sudo make install-pywrap
sudo cp ./checkpolicy/test/{dispol,dismod} /usr/bin/
```
***Attention:*** Do not miss the `EMFLAGS=-fPIC` environment variable setting when building `libselinux`. It will not generate any error yet, but in the next step you will be unable to build SETools. In case you missed it or did anything else wrong, simply issue a `make clean` and restart your compilation.
### Compile and install SELinux tools
SELinux tools are provided in a prebuilt form which includes:
* Python scripts (and their shell script wrappers) within the `$ANDROID_BUILD_TOP/external/selinux/prebuilts/bin/` directory
* Python packages (including `*.o` compiled files) below `$ANDROID_BUILD_TOP/prebuilts/python/linux-x86/2.7.5/lib/python2.7/site-packages/`.
I would have expected the source code of these tools to be available below `$ANDROID_BUILD_TOP/external`, but it isn't. Actually, I did not find any place where Google shared the exact version of SETools they used (FYI the GPL only mandates to share the code if it has been modified), so we will have to guess and try and do as best as we can.
The tools themselves are Python scripts, this a new evolution from SETools 4 (in SETools 3, commands like `sesearch` were binary executable coded in C). However, the tools themselves still show a version of 3.3.8:
```
$ $ANDROID_BUILD_TOP/external/selinux/prebuilts/bin/sesearch --version
3.3.8
```
So my guess is that Google took some early development snapshot from SETools 4. Until 4.0.0 beta SETools relied on `libsepol` versoin 2.4, with 4.0.0 release they started to rely on the version 2.5 of the library which is not compatible with the version of SELinux bundled in Android 6.0 (you can try to compile this, it will just fail).
So the wisest choice seems to go with SETools 4.0.0 Beta.
Install supplementary dependencies:
```
sudo apt-get install python-setuptools
```
Download and extract the source code:
```
cd ~/android/
wget https://github.com/TresysTechnology/setools/archive/4.0.0-beta.tar.gz
tar xzf 4.0.0-beta.tar.gz
cd ./setools-4.0.0-beta/
```
Due to [a bug](https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=488274) affecting Flex 2.5, we need to remove `-Wredundant-decls` from compiler's flags:
```
sed -i '/-Wredundant-decls/d' ./setup.py
```
And finally compile and install:
```
python ./setup.py build
sudo python ./setup.py install
```
Generic procedure (or "How to unstuck yourself")
------------------------------------------------
In case the procedure above did not work in your case, here is a higher level view on how to try to progress.
There is sadly no magic (and no helper :( ) around here: the only way to get this code to compile is the classical yet dreaded cyclic "try-and-see" approach.
Try to compile a first time, it will most likely fail due to some `*.h` file being not found:
1. Search in Android's `external/` directory:
```
find $ANDROID_BUILD_TOP/external -name filename.h
```
If you find the requested file, then this means that a specific version of the corresponding library or tool has been bundled within Android source code. You should therefore not try to install it from Ubuntu's package system, but instead compile and install the version bundled in Android source code.
Be aware that this goes against general advice you may found on forums: *"Your compilation fails because of this library missing? Install this package then it will be fine!"*, by doing this you will most probably just go into worse issue: if a specific version is bundled, it is most probably because a specific version is needed (due to compatibility issues or because this version contains specific changes from Google).
BTW, if you are wondering: of course this library or tool may also have dependencies raising errors due to some `*.h` file being not found, and yes you should apply this very same cyclic "try-and-see" approach.
2. Search systemwide:
```
find / -name filename.h 2>/dev/null
```
If you find "missing" the file to be already present in your system in some standard shared library location, this mean that this dependency is probably already met in your environment but the Makefile who raised the error is too dumb to find it.
If you manually directly call this Makefile, it may be possible for you to set some environment variable fixing this (`LIBDIR=/usr/lib make` for instance), otherwise you may need to modify the Makefile itself (the `pkg-config` command may be of precious help to automatically generate missing build parameters).
3. Search in the packaging system:
```
apt-cache search filename-dev
```
Where `filename-dev` represents the name of the missing file in lowercase with the `.h` extension replaced by the `-dev` suffix (for instance, if `Python.h` is not found, search for `python-dev`). Some tweaking in the exact name may be needed to find the right package.
4. If you remain stuck and that even a quick search on Internet did not provide any clear answer, then `apt-file` will be your best friend. `apt-file` is not installed by default, you need to install it and generate its database:
```
sudo apt-get apt-file
sudo apt-file update
```
`apt-file` allows you to search for packages (even uninstalled ones) providing a particular file. To avoid having too much result, I recommend to associate it with `grep` as below:
```
apt-file search filename.h | grep -w filename.h
```
If there is a package in Ubuntu's repository providing this file, then `apt-file` should be able to find it.
Once you've found the right package, install it using `apt-get install packagename` where `packagename` is your package's name.
***Tip:*** If you screwed something on your system, the command to reinstall a package is this one: `apt-get reinstall pkg_name`. It will work even when a classical remove & install would not be possible due to breaking dependencies (which is most likely for system's libraries).
Supplementary tools
===================
At this step, you should now have a clean environment allowing you to investigate Android's SELinux rules both in compiled and source formats.
However, most chances are that at the end of your investigation you will want to take some action. In its current shape, your environment will not permit you to modify a device's `sepolicy` file. In fact, this file cannot be easilly replaced: it is part of the device root directory, and the content of the root directory is extracter at boot time from a RAM disk file, which in turn is stored in the device's boot image.
So you still miss two things before your environment is complete:
* A way to access and modify the device's boot image,
* A way to modify its `sepolicy` file.
Fortunately, these are precisely the subject of the two last sections of this post! :)
Fetch and update device's boot image
------------------------------------
Tools to fetch and update devices' boot image can be used for a wide variety of things apart from SELinux rules tampering. I have therefore created [a dedicated answer](https://android.stackexchange.com/a/154621/107603), please refer to it.
Modify device's SELinux rules
-----------------------------
You have two main possibilities here:
* Build a new `sepolicy` file from the rules in your source tree (search for `.te` files to find them: `find $ANDROID_BUILD_TOP -name \*.te`, they are spread into several directories).
* Modify the `sepolicy` file currently used by the device.
Unless you really need to build your rules from scratch, which is more a development-related task and therefore out-of-scope here, the second choice seems by far the safest one as you are sure that the only changes will be the one your explicitely made.
There has been a project to make a tool allowing you to decompile a `sepolicy` file into a recompilable form, allowing to freely edit rules in between. However this project has been abandonned in proof-of-concept state. You will find all information at the end of [this blog post](https://ge0n0sis.github.io/posts/2015/12/exploring-androids-selinux-kernel-policy/), the rest of the article contains enough details to allow anyone else interested to take over.
The currently recommended way to alter `sepolicy` rules goes another route: by directly modifying the `sepolicy` binary file. [sepolicy-inject](https://bitbucket.org/joshua_brindle/sepolicy-inject) tool allows just that and is actively maintained.
For completeness sake, note that [a fork](https://github.com/phhusson/sepolicy-inject) of this tool exist. It adds a few features, some of them being on the original author's to-do list (like the possibility to remove a rule), don't ask me why they choosed to fork instead of contributing...
To compile and install `sepolicy-inject`, simply proceed as follow:
```
cd ~/android/
git clone https://bitbucket.org/joshua_brindle/sepolicy-inject.git
cd ./sepolicy-inject/
LIBDIR=/usr/lib make
sudo cp ./sepolicy-inject /usr/bin/
```
Use-case example
----------------
Let's say for instance you want to add the autorization matching the following error message:
```
avc: denied { read } for pid=128 comm="file-storage"
path="/data/media/0/path/to/some/file"
dev="mmcblk0p28" ino=811035 scontext=u:r:kernel:s0
tcontext=u:object_r:media_rw_data_file:s0 tclass=file permissive=0
```
You will need to fetch device's boot image, then unpack it to get access to it's `sepolicy` file.
A quick check using `sesearch` shows that there is indeed no allow rule (yet!):
```
$ sesearch -A -s kernel -t media_rw_data_file -c file -p read ./sepolicy
$
```
The command has no output.
Then, use the command below to add the required rule (note the similarity between `sesearch` and `sepolicy-inject` parameters):
```
sepolicy-inject -s kernel -t media_rw_data_file -c file -p read -P ./sepolicy
```
Now we can call back our `sesearch` command:
```
$ sesearch -A -s kernel -t media_rw_data_file -c file -p read ./sepolicy
allow kernel media_rw_data_file:file read;
$
```
`sesearch` output shows that the policy has correctly been updated.
You can now repack the device's `boot.img` file and flash it back to the device. Checking the last modification time of the `/sepolicy` file is an easy way to ensure that your device is now running the newly updated `sepolicy` file.
Conclusion
==========
You should now have a complete environment allowing you to freely inspect and modify Android devices SELinux policies. Enjoy! :)
As a side note, there are also tools allowing to analyze and modify SELinux policy [directly from the device](https://android.stackexchange.com/q/152186/107603).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: audit2allow, audit2why, and sesearch are all broken with the update AOSP
upstream policy to v.30.
You have to apply patches below and rebuild your Android tree to update policy db. These patched already merged to master branch and available starting from Android N.
<https://android-review.googlesource.com/187140>
<https://android-review.googlesource.com/187111>
Upvotes: 0 |