# Question
Title: How to delete 0-byte files in the root directory of internal storage without root access?
This is the same to this question: Can't delete file in download folder

But for me, the answer is not clear, as per the OP's answer 'he turned on the SD Maid app' but did not state what option in SD Maid resolved the issue. The OP stated as well 'he deleted the whole directory' but not specified if using SD Maid or PC.

We have the same scenario where I redownloaded the same file, and after copying it to the exact location where I'm having an issue, it made two identical files and what I tried so far:

1. Highlighted both items and deleted them using SD Maid, it says success but after a refresh, it retains the other file with 0 bytes.
2. Connected my phone to PC as MTP and tried to delete it from there. What I noticed is it only shows one file, unlike looking in any Android file manager. It says success but checking it again on the phone it retains still the file with 0 bytes.
3. Tried apps in Play Store that says secure delete that uses a different algorithm but still, after it says yes, the same scenario occurs above.
4. Perform wipe cache partition in the stock recovery.
5. Clear data and cache of stock file manager.

I know my last resort would be a complete factory reset, but is there any other way?

# Answer
I installed the SD Maid app despite knowing that it didn't delete the problematic file. But at last, I removed the whole folder with the app, and it finally worked. Then I tried to delete the folder by the file explorer of my phone, and everything except the problematic file got deleted. Then I deleted the folder (with the 0b file in it) with SD Maid.

Note that before doing this, I've also tried using force delete on Windows Explorer and ADB Shell, but none worked.
> 0 votes

# Answer
I found a pretty easy fix: Deleting storage and cache from the system app "media storage" and then restarting made the 0 byte files disappear for me
> 0 votes

---
Tags: internal-storage, files, 8.0-oreo, asus-zenfone-5
---


title: What is this circle icon for?

text:
# Question
Title: What is this circle icon for?
What for is this circle icon in taskbar?

# Answer
That's the icon of SHAREit. Check if it is among your apps.
> 2 votes

---
Tags: samsung
---


# Question
Title: Can I get more RAM in emulator while still having a Google Play image?
I know how to make a new system image, by cloning an existing one...

But, I can't alter the amount of RAM in a Google Play-enabled image, without the clone being non-Google Play.

Is there a way to give more RAM to the image while keeping it Google Play-able, instead of the default 1.5GB?

# Answer
The UI does not allow to change the RAM size neither when creating a new virtual device nor later when editing the virtual device.

However on file level you can simply open the configuration file of the AVD and change the RAM size.

Use an text editor and open `~/.android/avd/<avd name>.avd/config.ini`.

Search for the line

```
hw.ramSize = 1536

```

and change the amount of RAM, for example to

```
hw.ramSize = 4096

```

Then boot the virtual device and you will have 4096 MB RAM as shown in this screenshot:
> 6 votes

---
Tags: android-emulator, avd-manager
---


# Question
Title: How to list system packages uninstalled (for a user) via ADB?
I want to research the bloatware that I disabled using `pm uninstall -k –user 0 <package>` and I just realized that I don't know how to make a list of those specific apps. I can list the file names stored in `/system/app` but it would be very tedious to find which ones are disabled and also to figure out their package names. `pm list` has a `-d` option to display disabled apps, but it only works for apps disabled from within the android menu.

If it helps, the phone in mind is not rooted and it is running Android 6.0.1.

# Answer
> 3 votes
```
pm list packages -u

```

This lists all such 'uninstalled' packages in the system.

---
Tags: adb, system-apps
---


# Question
Title: How many clients can be connected to a WiFi Hotspot?
I want to create an application which hosts a sever in my phone and many people can use it after connecting to my wifi hotspot.

Suppose I want to implement it in a classroom with 50+ students, is it feasible?

I want to know how many clients can be connected to the wifi hotspot. Are there any limitations?

# Answer
> 6 votes
**Note:** Partial answer regarding no. of hotspot connections that can be connected to a device.

---

Google on the page "Set up tethering or portable Wi-Fi hotspot" has stated:

> If your device has mobile data, you can turn it into a portable Wi-Fi hotspot for up to 10 other devices, like laptop computers\[.\]

See also,

> These features depend on your mobile device and your carrier. You may be charged extra for tethering or Wi-Fi hotspot connections. If you have issues, check with your carrier to see whether tethering can be enabled.

As *Andrew* already mentioned in the comment, the results on web usually tells the limit to 5,6,8,10, but not more than 10.

---

I could not find any content that states that hotspot could connect more than 10 devices. One person mentioned(I asked) a limitation vaguely here(in the comments).

IMO, you can't connect more than 10 devices, not without a hack. And to hack, you need to know why you can't connect more than 10 devices?

---

Please, do ping here if you(reader) come to know the reason.

# Answer
> 1 votes
To use hotspot in the house with more than 10 devices, I found something that works with a little money. What I end up using were some old devices that I had laying around the house. What you need are two items: a repeater, and also an old router.

If you have to use a repeater alone, use it in bridge mode so it will not be assigning new IP addresses. The IP address is assigned by the phone in that case, so you will reach its limit. On top of that, the repeater itself will take away one of the spots on your phone as one of the 10 devices.

But what I did is the following: I use the repeater which has an ethernet out and connected my phone to the repeater. Then I plugged in my old router into the repeater routers WAN port and connected it with a CAT5 cable to the repeater. Placed the old router into DHCP mode bring it with a new network name. Then I connected all the devices to the old router, and none of them show up on the repeater or on the phone's hotspot.

Basically you're creating a subnet I guess. Works great and honestly, for low bandwidth devices, it runs fine. The speed test was almost the same as off of the repeater itself. If anything, use the high priority/bandwidth devices onto the hotspot directly, and then use the repeater/router for the low bandwidth stuff (smart speakers/plugs/lights)

Also another tip I can say, right now my wireless carrier gives me an unlimited hotspot to all of my phones. I have multiple phones that come in and out of the house. So what I have done is to place all the phones with the same exact SSID for the hotspot, and also the same exact password. Therefore, the Wi-Fi repeater will join whichever phone is in the house. Personally, this has been a great replacement for the internet in my house since my demand for the internet is not that high. And if you have unlimited internet, I guess you can use this even as a replacement for home internet. Also, this way it distributes the Hotspot data usage to all the different phones.

# Answer
> -2 votes
There can only be a 5 clients at a time on a Wi-Fi hotspot.

# Answer
> -2 votes
if you are using 3g then you provide wifi for 5 connections and if you are using 4g then 10 clients can use hotspot.

---
Tags: wifi-hotspot
---


# Question
Title: Mobile data only works when tethering is active
Issue is exactly as described in the title, works when used as hotspot and connected with computer, but not on the phone directly(regardless the hotspot setting). Moreover I have to add:

I am abroad in Italy. This is vodafone "data only sim". Bought two days ago and last time it worked was yesterday evening. I have two sims and my native-roaming enabled sim works fine. I tried swapping slots, having one sim, removing/changing/restoring apns, changing dns, restarting phone multiple times. When I try changing apns it goes back to the default one automatically. I cannot call customer service as they do not speak English.

# Answer
After two hours, I have solved the issue. The problem was, there were two default APNs. One for tethering, one for mobile phone network connection. The solution was to add "defult" apn type to the tethering apn and remove the mobile phone one.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: mobile-data, wifi-hotspot, mobile-network
---


# Question
Title: Installing rsync on Android to transfer files from Android to OSX
I am trying to use `rsync` to transfer some files from my Android phone (Samsung Galaxy S10+ / Android V10) to my local machine (OSX / Mojave).

I did the following:

1. Installed SSH/SFTP server on my Android device and started the server
2. Verified that I am able to `ssh` into the phone (although it logs me in as user `u0_a312` and not `my_user`?)

```
$ ssh my_user@192.168.0.16 -p 2222

The authenticity of host '[192.168.0.16]:2222 ([192.168.0.16]:2222)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is SHA256:3mNL574rJyHCOGm1e7Upx4NHXMg/YnJJzq+jXhdQQxI.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added '[192.168.0.16]:2222' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
Password authentication
Password:
:/ $ whoami
u0_a312

```
3. Attempted to run `rsync` from my local OSX machine to copy remote Android files to my laptop

```
rsync -avzhP -e "ssh -p 2222" my_user@192.168.0.16:/storage/6632-6330/DCIM/Camera/* .

Password authentication
Password:
exec request failed on channel 0
rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (0 bytes received so far) [receiver]
rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at /BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/rsync/rsync-52.200.1/rsync/io.c(453) [receiver=2.6.9]

```

As you can see, I ran into an error on step 3. From some basic snooping on forums, it seems like `rsync` needs to be installed on the Android remote device.

(That's also backed up by the fact that `which rsync` returns nothing when executed from the Android shell)

However:

* How do I go about installing `rsync` on the phone? Is this even the right solution here?
* I never needed to do this on my previous phone (Galaxy S7), the above `rsync` process "just worked". Did something change with the standard installation of Android with regards to `rsync` ?

# Answer
> 2 votes
First on Android each app has an own user-id/account, hence `u0_a312`is the user of the app that runs the ssh server. Regular Linux user accounts like `myuser` don't exist on Android.

Based on the path `/storage/6632-6330/` I would assume that you are trying to access the external sd-card.

On a non-rooted device write access to ext-sd is not possible on Android using standard Linux/Unix file programs (this is only possible via Android Java API). Only if the ssh/ftp server + rsync was specially adopted to use this API it can work.

On Android 10/11 the situation is even getting worse because of the new "Scoped storage" system. Not sure if it is still possible to get full access to all files on the external ad-card.

---
Tags: ssh, rsync
---


title: Use a phone without a screen

text:
# Question
Title: Use a phone without a screen
I have a very peculiar situation/question. Below is my mom's phone, OPPO F5 to be precise. It had a broken screen a long time ago. I removed the broken screen, as it posed threat to my siblings, as it could injure them without us knowing. Then, i decided to buy a new screen from OPPO service centre to fix this problem myself. As it is now a lock down period, most/all service centres are not available. I could wait till the lock down is over, but my question is, can you use the phone, like have the screen displayed/ported to a laptop, by wired means(i have no access to the phone's applications or any other forms, as there is no touch screen to control them), to use the phone, till the lock down is over? The phone functions normally by all means, as you can see from the picture, that there is the notification light is still on. `Hey Google` is also working partially, as when i say it, there is vibration, but no response by the assistant. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: When i connect that phone to my laptop, it is charging but isnt detected by my laptop as a device.

# Answer
> 1 votes
What you could try doing is flashing a custom recovery onto your phone, then get USB debugging permission using the custom recovery, to then launch a screen control software to control your phone.

Every phone have a different way of installing a custom recovery, I remember Oppo phones need edl to install one, you can search up "oppo f5 recovery custom recovery" to find the custom recovery and install method.

After that, get adb, start adb by `adb start-server`. Next, reboot into recovery mode, it can be done by doing a button combination.

You can then push a key file in your `.android` folder when your device is detected as in recovery, if you are on Ubuntu, it is in `~/.android`. Push the adb\_keys in the folder to `/data/misc/adb/adb_keys`, use `adb push ~/.android/adbkey.pub /data/misc/adb/adb_keys`

After that, run all these commands to finish our work:

```
su
mount -o remount,rw /system
cd /
echo "persist.service.adb.enable=1" >> default.prop
echo "persist.service.debuggable=1" >> default.prop
echo "persist.sys.usb.config=mtp,adb" >> default.prop
echo "persist.service.adb.enable=1" >> /system/build.prop
echo "persist.service.debuggable=1" >> /system/build.prop
echo "persist.sys.usb.config=mtp,adb" >> /system/build.prop

```

After that, type `reboot` to reboot to system, you should now be able to use scrcpy to control your screen.

---
Tags: screen, broken-screen
---


# Question
Title: How can I unlock my Lenovo A7700 pattern lock which I forgot the pattern?
I use pattern lock on my Lenovo A7700 running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, but today I forget my pattern.

How can I unlock my phone?

# Answer
You'll need to perform a hard reset, but this will remove all your personal data. You could have a look here
> 0 votes

# Answer
There is a way to keep data, but you have to install a custom recovery.

Refer: https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software-hacking/remove-lockscreen-recovery-t3530008
> -1 votes

---
Tags: 6.0-marshmallow, lock-screens, locked-out, lenovo, pattern-lock
---


# Question
Title: How can I see the history log of system updates?
I need to know the history log of system updates (ROM / OTA updates). Is there any file on the device that contains this information?

# Answer
> 3 votes
Most OEM doesn't keep a log of that on your device, but the recovery (a place for installing OTA updates) does keep a log of what you installed, when you wiped data, etc. That log should be in `/cache/recovery/last_log`

---
Tags: updates, rom, ota-update, system, logging
---


# Question
Title: Repair SD card removed from phone without unmounting?
I have a Xiaomi phone and I'm using a microSD card to store photos and other data. I wanted to copy photos to PC so, with the phone turned on I just removed the sd card from the phone.

Putting the card into PC doesn't work, it asks me to format it and putting it back on the phone it seems it's not recognized and when I click 'install SD' it just gives me an error.

I ran Easeus Data recovery and all data seems to kinda be there so it probably just needs to run like a 'chkdsk' for android SD cards :)

How can I repair this card so I can read the files normally on Windows and/or works again in Android without formatting and losing data?

# Answer
> 1 votes
tesdisk can probably also fix this (it detects the partition also) but I ended up using DiskGenius to fix the partition table and save it, all data come up and it's working 100%. Easeus Partition Magic wasn't able to recover the partition in case anyone gets into the same trouble.

On DiskGenius:

1. First insert your SD card into your PC and run DiskGenius;
2. Click on Partition Recovery, `Whole Disk` and start the scan, it can take a few minutes to run;
3. While scanning, select `Reserve` for all partitions that appear;
4. Hopefully DiskGenius can find your missing partition that will appear in Green on the left Tree menu under your SD card;
5. If you are happy with the partitions found, just hit `Save All` and changes will be saved to the SD card

I was able to follow these steps and recover 100% functionality of the SD Card without formatting or losing any data. Be aware that DiskGenius is a paid app. I can guess the free testdisk can also achieve this but I was afraid to do it with the more 'manual' steps required by testdisk.

---
Tags: sd-card, data-recovery, xiaomi
---


title: Can't decrypt adopted storage

text:
# Question
Title: Can't decrypt adopted storage
Last night, I messed up my LineageOS 16 install on my Galaxy S5 and had to reinstall it, starting essentially from scratch. I wanted to see if there was any way I could decrypt the 128 GB microSD card I used as adopted storage and found this tutorial. I got the key from a backup made using TWRP and tried it on Linux Mint 20 MATE (booting from USB), but it didn't work. The following command gave me an error:

```
dmsetup create crypt1 --table "0 `blockdev --getsize /media/mint/4B2E-1F13` crypt aes-cbc-essiv:sha256 [16-BYTE HEX KEY] 0 /media/mint/4B2E-1F13 0"

blockdev: ioctl error on BLKGETSIZE: Inappropriate ioctl for device
/dev/mapper/control: open failed: Permission denied
Failure to communicate with kernel device-mapper driver.
Incompatible libdevmapper 1.02.167 (2019-11-30) and kernel driver (unknown version).

```

Doing it with `sudo` gave me this error:

```
blockdev: ioctl error on BLKGETSIZE: Inappropriate ioctl for device
Invalid format on line 1 of table.
Command failed.

```

I couldn't even mount the SD card with Termux when after putting it back into my phone. Is my data unrecoverable? Do I have the wrong key? Thanks.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Good news: trying the following command successfully decrypted my SD card without any errors:

```
sudo dmsetup create crypt1 --table "0 `sudo blockdev --getsize /dev/mmcblk0p2` crypt aes-cbc-essiv:sha256 [16-BYTE HEX KEY] 0 /dev/mmcblk0p2 0"

```

A couple of minor issues:

* `sudo mount -t /dev/mmcblk0p2/crypt1 /media/mint/sd` returned the error `mount: /media/mint/sd: can't find in /etc/fstab.` I can view the content of the SD card in the file browser running as admin, however.
* Copying the files over to my laptop's Windows 10 SSD, some files and directories didn't get copied due to the presence of invalid characters in their names (mainly asterisks and colons in file names and a period in a folder name). Not sure how to deal with these...

Thanks for all your help.

---
Tags: external-sd, linux, encryption, adoptable-storage, termux
---


# Question
Title: An app keeps sending me to a website i dont want to be sent on
When i installed an app after a few days it started opening chrome on random time intervals that keep sending me to baovendt.org How to fix it?

# Answer
The best way is to uninstall the app, here's how:

1. Open Settings
2. Find "Apps and notifications"
3. Select "See all (how many apps you have) apps"
4. Locate the app and tap on it
5. Tap on "Uninstall"
6. A dialogue will pop-up, now press "OK" to finish the uninstallation.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: applications
---


title: Galaxy S4 Not Showing in ADB

text:
# Question
Title: Galaxy S4 Not Showing in ADB
I want to root a Galaxy S4, yea I know it's an old phone, but perfect for what I want to do. Problem is, once I do `adb restart bootloader`, the device is no longer on the `adb devices` list, so I cannot unlock the bootloader.

Any suggestions? I am somewhat new at this so I don't know exactly what to do. Step by step would be nice.

# Answer
When you are in the bootloader mode, the device no longer communicates via `adb`, if you want to now unlock your bootloader, you have to use `fastboot`.

Also, the Samsung Galaxy S4 (except for AT&T and Verizon versions) don't have a locked bootloader, all you have to do is flash a custom recovery via Odin, then you are all good to go.

TWRP is a good option for custom recoveries these days, you can go to their website and download the `.tar` version of their recovery, then put the `.tar` file into Odin's "AP" slot and hit "Start", your device should now be loaded with a custom recovery.

Here's the link to all the information required: https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4/i9505-orig-develop/recovery-twrp-3-2-1-0-t3742880
> 1 votes

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-s-4, bootloader
---


title: Sony Xperia ZR fastboot driver

text:
# Question
Title: Sony Xperia ZR fastboot driver
I am trying to get the fastboot driver for Sony Xperia ZR (dogo) for Windows 7 x64.

I found a page with instructions which pointed me to a Sony site where you can download a `android_winusb.inf` file which one is supposed to copy over the one in the Android SDK folder under `extras\google\usb_driver\`.

Then, I put the phone into fastboot mode by

1. Powering it off
2. Pushing the Volume Up button while connecting the phone via USB to the PC.
3. The light turns blue and in the Windows Device Manager, I can see a new `S1Boot Fastboot` entry under `Other devices`.

After right-clicking on that entry and selecting `Update Driver Software...`, then `Browse my computer for driver software`, I pointed to the Android SDK folder where I previously put the `android_winusb.inf` file (see above).

Unfortunately after clicking `Next`, there is a message `Windows was unable to install your S1Boot Fastboot` and `Windows could not find driver software for your device`.

On this thread, I found a link to a thread on XDA Developers where one can download a "fastboot package" and "32/64bit drivers", but I am hesitant because these are EXE files from an unknown source and the thread's title suggests this is for Xperia Arc, not ZR.

Are there any "official" drivers for my phone?

**UPDATE:**

I also found a great Sony webpage listing "All Android downloads" which has white papers, source code and drivers for all(?) devices, except the drivers for the ZR are missing.

**UPDATE 2:**

I have seen this comment to a question concerning fastboot drivers and USB device IDs, so I tried to replace device IDs for `SingleAdbInterface`, `CompositeAdbInterface` and `SingleBootLoaderInterface` (sequentially, not all at once) with the one which I got from the Device Manager, which is `USB\VID_0FCE&PID_0DDE&REV_0100`. Unfortunately this didn't make any difference, the drivers are still not recognised.

# Answer
> 3 votes
While playing around with the INF files, I found that the one supplied by Sony actually **does** work, you only need to "force" Windows to use it for your device. I am not sure if that has anything to do with the unsigned nature of the driver or that Windows cannot verify that the driver is compatible (see below), but it simply doesn't seem to accept the driver with Sony's INF automatically.

I order to install the driver, I did the following:

1. In the Device Manager, right-click on the `S1Boot Fastboot` entry and select `Update Driver Software`, then `Browse my computer for driver software` and `Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer`.
2. Select `Show All Devices`, then `Next`.
3. Click `Have Disk...` and then `Browse...` to the `android-sdk\extras\google\usb_driver` directory.
4. Then the `Model` list is populated with three entries, select the one called `Android Bootloader Interface` and click `Next`.
5. Click `Yes` on the `Update Driver Warning` message mentioning that Windows cannot verify compatibility of the driver with the device.
6. Click `Install this driver software anyway` on the `Windows Security` message saying that Windows can't verify the publisher of this driver software.

After that, I was able to run `fastboot` commands on my device (I only tried `devices` and `reboot` so far).

On a side note, I found it interesting that you actually don't need any specific driver binaries such as DLLs from Sony and that the drivers supplied with the Android SDK seem to be sufficient, except for the INF entries with the correct device IDs.

# Answer
> 2 votes
I had the same trouble with my Xperia Z just 2 days ago, but the I found the Flashtool-drivers package. This included drivers for several Xperia devices, and I think for ZR too.

The download can be found here, and the post that lead me there is this one.

I trusted this package since it's by a recognized member of XDA, DooMLoRD.

# Answer
> 0 votes
I created a adb and fastboot drivers installer tool, so people don't have to face issues like this

Here is the link to that tool: https://github.com/fawazahmed0/Latest-adb-fastboot-installer-for-windows

You will just have to connect the phone with usb debugging mode enabled and then run the tool Hopefully that should fix the problem for you

---
Tags: windows, fastboot, usb-drivers, sony-xperia-z
---


# Question
Title: Android Outlook over IMAP is logging in from Microsoft servers
Using Microsoft Outlook app for Android I could not add an Outlook-IMAP account on some Android tablet for some customer. However, it was no problem to add the same IMAP account to the GMail App, or some other mail Clients on the same tablet. Or to Thunderbird on Windows, even Outlook on Windows worked fine...

I wondered what the heck is going on. updated outlook on android, no change. So i setup an Test-Mail-Server and sniffed the network traffic. Turns out that my device was not talking to the Mail-Server but some Microsoft servers where... what?? got logins to my IMAP from 52.125.138.21 and 52.125.139.100. WHOIS... 52.125.0.0 - 52.127.255.255 -\> Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)...

Why are they logging in to my IMAP Server with user and password... why is Andorid-Outlook telling my SECRET password to some servers @ Microsoft... and... do i have to assume they pass my credentials and all mails so some 3Letter agency? It's just stupid to transport all IMAP communication to MS and from there to the tablet.

So the question is: Is there any way to force Outlook on a Android tablet to directly communicate with the IMAP-Server? I set imap.myserver.ch:993 in the advanced settings... but this also leads to MS logging in and get all mails... still no traffic from tablet to IMAP-Server.

I'm useing Oultook Version 4.2025.3 (42025807) on a Galaxy Tab S6 Android Version 10

# Answer
Looks like you have not read the the small print before using the
Microsoft Outlook app for Android.

Yes, what you have detected is the way the Outlook Android app works. Outlook is not an IMAP client, instead username and password are transmitted to a cloud server (named "Exchange Online") that saves these info and then logs into your mailbox, does what ever it is supposed to do in background and also allows your Outlook app to access your mailbox as well. See also the official documentation by Microsoft on that topic.

I assume access to IMAP folders is only for backward compatibility. The real target of Outlook app is accessing Outlook.com and cloud based Exchange servers. In this scenario the password is not stored on the Microsoft server, instead a generated token is used for user authentication towards the Exchange server. However all your mail, calendar and contact data still passes the Microsoft cloud servers.

BTW: This app and it's backend has not been developed by Microsoft. Instead Microsoft bought a company named "Acompli" and they are the creator of this system.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: privacy, outlook, imap
---


# Question
Title: Dropped phone into water and shut down automatically after the logo is displayed
I dropped my phone(Asus Zenfone max pro m1) into water then I took the phone out from the water and turned off and cleaned the phone surface with a dry cloth. Then kept my phone in a pouch with uncooked rice for 4 days. Now I try to turn on it shows the logo and shutdowns automatically. Even I tried to enter into the recovery mode but got failed. But I can enter into the fastboot mode. When I try to charge, the charging indicator fluctuates. Can anyone tell me what is the issue?

# Answer
firstly did you completely sink your phone into rice? if at all you did then no wonder your mother board is damaged! like some kind of short circuit might have happened... well you can replace same model mother board or you upgrade to some good affordable motherboard because they cost nearly same price as new phone, you got 2 options buy new phone or buy new motherboard(costs less than new phone).
> 0 votes

---
Tags: charging, boot, hardware, shutdown, water-damage
---


# Question
Title: Forgotten Swipe Pattern lock for Nexus 6P (but fingerprint works!)
I have a Google Nexus 6P with Copperhead OS installed on it. I forgot the pattern to unlock the screen. Is there any way I can recover (a part) of the data on my phone? I am pretty sure that the answer is going to be "no way", but I just want to ask to make sure, before I wipe the phone.

I DO have a fingerprint in the phone, which works. Unfortunately - for some security reason - it wants the pattern as well.

Maybe I can add, that I *kind of* remember the swipe pattern. I am sure about a middle part, but not about the beginning and the end. Unfortutely I have tried so many combinations by now (even keeping a book), that I have to wait 240 seconds now until I am allowed to enter the next try. (First I had to wait 20, then 30, 60, 120 seconds, now 240.) I had about 55 tries by now.

# Answer
What you can do since you have such an open phone is unlock the bootloader temporarily and flash a custom recovery to remove the password related files. Here's how:

1. Unlock your bootloader -
2. Install a custom recovery -
3. Use the custom recovery's "File Manager" feature to remove the following files - :

```
/data/system/password.key
/data/system/pattern.key
/data/system/locksettings.db
/data/system/locksettings.db-shm
/data/system/locksettings.db-wal

```
4. Reboot your device
5. It should now have no password/pattern, enjoy your device
6. Reinstall stock recovery (should be automatically reinstalled when you reboot) and relocking bootloader -  (Optional)
> 2 votes

---
Tags: password, pattern-lock, nexus
---


title: Installing android 9 or 10 on iphone 4

text:
# Question
Title: Installing android 9 or 10 on iphone 4
Is it possible to install Android 9 or 10 on iPhone 4? If no, what are the missed requirements and what is the last Android version that can be installed on iPhone 4?

# Answer
**Is it possible to install Android on an iPhone 4?**

Technically speaking, yes. The bootrom of the iPhone 4 has long been exploited. If you want to try, here's a few steps you can take:

1. Exploit your iPhone 4 using any bootrom exploit
2. Build a custom Android kernel for your iPhone 4
3. Write a custom loader with all the necessary configuration and components
4. Boot it on the iPhone 4

**What're the missed requirements?**

There could be a lot of them, for example, the storage chip, the CPU, a lot of things can go wrong with this type of exploit.

**What's the latest version that can run on the iPhone 4?**

None. But if you somehow manage to get Android running on it, I would say you can run up to Nougat. Because your iPhone 4 have a single core and 512mb of ram, this configuration is similar to another device called Samsung Galaxy Star and it has almost the same configuration in terms of ram and CPU cores, and it is able to run up to Nougat.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: installation, ios
---


title: How to fix a bricked K20 Pro?

text:
# Question
Title: How to fix a bricked K20 Pro?
I did something incorrectly to my Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro, and it's now not turning ON, no bootloader or recovery mode. I found something on XDA developers forum and my phone is currently in EDL mode. It is detected only on COM-port 10. I don't know how to recover it.

How do I fix my phone?

# Answer
1 year ago I also faced the same problem on my Redmi 3S Prime. It wasn't even detected by MiFlash. After lots of research and 3-4 months I thought to take to a repairing shop. The man at repairing shop just removed back panel and touched at a point on motherboard with screwdriver and inserted the usb cable in the mobile. The computer detected the phone. I don't know what the software he used to flash the device this can help you in your further research.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: unbricking
---


# Question
Title: Does Android TV remote always have a back button?
Does Android TV remote always have a back button, or do some manufacturers do not include it? The reason I as is I am developing an app for it and want to decide to include a back button in UI or not.

# Answer
Two major Android TV boxes I know of are Nvidia Shield TV (which I use) and Xiaomi Mi Box. By checking the remote control of my Nvidia Shield there is a back button. Looking at images of the remotes of other Android TV boxes such as Ematic Jetstream, these also have an independent back button on the remote control.

It appears most if not all Android TV box manufacturers include a back button on their remote controls.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: android-tv
---


# Question
Title: Will a Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 (international version) work reliably in the United States (comparable to a domestic phone)?
I'm buying a new phone, upgrading from an LG Q7+, and so far the best phone I've seen is the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9. The only con to this is that the Note 9 is only available in International version, and I live in the USA. I've heard that Metro by T-Mobile (my service provider) is good for international phones, but I don't know if it will be comparable to buying a domestic phone. That is, I don't want to get a really good phone but sacrifice all of my connection speed. If it's a little slower, I'm fine with it, but if it will be a major difference, I'll shop domestic.

One thing I've noticed is that, according to this site https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=9206&idPhone2=10192 , the Note 9 actually has more 4G connectivity than my current Q7+ (11 bands compared to 9). Does this mean that it will be more reliable than my current phone, or does this mean nothing since it's international? (Note that I'm not very tech savvy. I know next to nothing about these complicated specs, so I don't actually understand the numbers)

The bottom line is, I want to buy a new phone, but I want to be sure that the new model I'm considering will have comparable connectivity speed to a domestic phone. I know that T-Mobile will support international phones, but I want to be sure that the support is good compared to their domestic support. If anyone reading this owns a Xiaomi in the US, I'd love to hear from you, but anyone who knows about this sort of topic would be extremely useful to hear from. Thank you to anyone who has read this far. I appreciate the help!

EDIT: I've found this site https://www.kimovil.com/en/frequency-checker/US/xiaomi-redmi-note-9 which suggests that it will work on US networks, but I have no idea what the numbers and technical terms mean. I'd like to know what exactly this says about the network reliability in the US. Thanks for putting up with my lack of tech knowledge!

# Answer
> 0 votes
I was going to try and leave a comment instead but my reputation is not high enough.

A useful site that breaks down frequency bands is

https://www.frequencycheck.com/compatibility/Jxq7inG/xiaomi-redmi-note-9-global-dual-sim-td-lte-64gb-xiaomi-merlin/united-states

This will show you the bands of each network in the US and will state whether the phone supports it or not.

I can see that it is stating that only 2 of 5 LTE bands are supported on T Mobile for this phone. So it is likely you may experience some issues with 4g mobile signal depending on the bands available at the location you are at.

---
Tags: connection-issues, xiaomi, gsm
---


# Question
Title: adb: Restoration of a backup on Acer Icionia 7 fails by error "archive is encrypted but no password given"
Due to some problems with my Acer Iconia 7 tablet (with KitKat 4.4) I decided to perform factory reset. However, because I have there some data that I did not want to lose I created a backup in HoloBackup. The backup was created succesfully (it has around 1 GB), but when I try to restore it, the process fails by error adb: archive is encrypted but no password given.
Now, at this point, I do not understand, because in developer settings I set a password to protect the backup feature of the tablet. But the error message sounds like a password protection is actually required for the .ab file itself. But in the settings nor in HoloBackup, I cannot see any way how to do it.
Can you help me please. Thank you.

# Answer
Thanks to alexcs I was able to get it working, so here are the steps to solve the issue:

1. You need to convert the .ab file to unencrypted .tar archive, first. To do that, follow next steps.
2. If you have not installed Java SE on your computer yet, download it and install.
3. Download android-backup-extractor from SourceForge and extract it.
4. Now open Windows Explorer and locate the folder, to which you unpacked that archive.
5. Navigate to ...\android-backup-tookit\android-backup-extractor\android-backup-extractor-20180521-bin
6. Open the folder, where is located your .ab backup, in a new window and copy the abe.jar executable from android-backup-extractor-20180521-bin folder and paste it here.
7. Now open command-line or Windows PowerShell and use the `cd "path"` command (for example `cd "C:\omegavesko-HoloBackup-179d978\Backups"` to change your parent directory to the folder, in which is stored your .ab file
8. Now convert the .ab file to unencrypted .tar archive by entering this command: `java -jar abe.jar unpack [file name of the original .ab file] [file name of the output file],`(for example `java -jar abe.jar unpack backup_june_2020.ab output.tar`).
9. Now unlock the .ab file by entering password, which should be the same as the password you are using to unlock the backup function of your device.
10. Wait, until the process is not finished (the size of the .tar file will stop grow) .
11. Now convert the .tar file to unencrypted .ab file, using command: `java -jar abe.jar pack [file name of the converted backup file] [file name of the new .ab backup]`(for example: `java -jar abe.jar pack output.tar backup_june_2020_fixed.ab`)
12. Wait, until the process is not finished.
13. Now navigate to the directory, where is executable HoloBackup.exe (for example `cd "C:\omegavesko-HoloBackup-179d978"`)
14. Now power on your android device, connect it via USB and eventually make other neccesary settings.
15. Restore the backup by using command `.\adb restore "file path"` (for example `adb restore "C:\omegavesko-HoloBackup-179d978\backups\backup_june_2020_fixed.ab"`)
16. Enter the password on your device to unlock the backup function.
17. Wait until the process finishes.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: 4.4-kitkat, restore, backup-manager
---


title: Blocking all porn sites and contents

text:
# Question
Title: Blocking all porn sites and contents
Is there anything in android mobile which has block all porn sites with high security features and any paid software or anything please tell me..

# Answer
> 1 votes
There are many ways to block porn on android

1- First if you are android pie or up you can use DNS option in settings in other wireless connections and use a DNS that block porn like clean browsing DNS or opendns

Use this DNS

adult-filter-dns.cleanbrowsing.org

Put it in DNS option on settings

2- via router settings you can block porn same way like above way by providing DNS to block porn (just Google DNS to block porn and how to inject in router settings)

3- block porn on non root devices by using apps such as blockada or adguard

4 - block porn in root devices by using an app such as adaway with providing a host file to block porn ( just Google adway host to block porn)

5 - there are an XDA app to block porn but don't remember it's name now

https://techwiser.com/block-adult-content-on-android/

---
Tags: applications
---


# Question
Title: More flexible Digital Wellbeing settings for limiting time spent in specific apps?
Digital Wellbeing is a feature/app built in to recent Google phones and some phones with Google-licensed Android distributions, but it isn't open source, so unfortunately it doesn't seem like it would be possible to modify it and add new features. I am looking for something a little more powerful, that would allow me to, for example:

* Group a bunch of social media apps together, and have one time limit per day that covers them all as a group, rather than timing the usage of each individual app separately. For example, instead of limiting myself to 30 minutes on Twitter, 30 minutes on Facebook, and 30 minutes on Reddit, I would like to be able to limit myself to 1.5 hours in total on any "social media" app (the group of apps being definable by me, and I would define it to include Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and perhaps others). So with that "group limit", I would be able to spend, for example, 1 hour on Twitter and 30 minutes on Facebook, but then it wouldn't allow me to use any of those 3 apps for the remainder of the day.
* Disable the time limits automatically at weekends, and re-enable them at the beginning of the next week
* Disable all the time limits manually in the evening, but have them re-enabled automatically the following day, in case I forget to do so.

Is there any way I can achieve these goals?

Also, is there any way to also achieve these goals on my Windows PC, in a unified way? Right now I'm just blocking those particular websites on my PC, as a workaround. That means I can only access them on my phone, so I don't have an easy way to get around the time limits I've set up on my phone. But it would be nice to have a time limit that's shared across all of my devices.

# Answer
> 1 votes
TimeLimit can be used to achieve the first three goals. Steps to follow:

1. Go into Settings -\> Digital Wellbeing and delete all existing time limits, making a note of them as you do so, so you can recreate them below. They will be managed by Timelimit instead, from now on.
2. Install Timelimit from F-Droid (where it is called Open Timelimit) or Google Play.
3. Open the Timelimit app
4. Grant all the permissions requested - except the device management permission, which is optional, and dangerous, because I think it is impossible to unlock your phone if you forget your "parental" password.
5. Set a password for the "parental" user (which can be just you, or it can be someone else who you trust to set limits on your behalf)
6. Add apps which you don't want to be time-limited to the "Allowed Apps" category. **Be warned** that notifications will be limited too - so make sure to add apps which you want to receive notifications at all times from, to this category!
7. Create a new category, e.g. "Social media".
8. Add the apps that you want to be in this category
9. Set a time limit for *each day* that you want the time limit to apply on, *individually*. So if you want to limit the apps during week days, you have to create 5 separate limits, one for each day. There is a warning message that warns you that you have to do it this way, but it's easy to skip past it and miss it. The problem is, if you just select all 5 week days, your limit will apply to the whole 5 days, and once it's exceeded, it's exceeded for the whole week!

The "child" user is the user that is restricted, and does not need a password. You can rename that user if you are not a child, by going into it and tapping the gear icon.

If you are asking someone else to manage the time limits on your behalf, perhaps because you don't trust yourself to manage them appropriately, there is currently no option to rename the "parent 1" user, but you can achieve the same effect by creating a new "parent" and then deleting "parent 1".

---
Tags: google-apps
---


# Question
Title: Connect a USB soundcard to an Android phone? And use it for videos?
Is it possible to connect a **USB soundcard** to an Android phone, with an USB OTG cable?

... and then use this USB soundcards's stereo input as audio when making a video with the phone?

# Answer
> 11 votes
Yes it is possible. I'm doing this with several devices for amateur radio and video production with KineMaster Pro. For amateur radio, I use the DigiMaster MiniProSC connected via OTG cable to a Nexus 9 via OTG cable. I also do this with SignaLink usb connected the same way. Both of these devices have internal usb sound cards with audio in, audio out, and usb connection between android tablet and the radio.

For YouTube videos, I use KineMaster Pro with Zoom H2 and H4 as external microphone or line in. Both connected via USB to the Nexus 9, and both work perfectly!

I know this is an old thread, but when I saw the answer from the guy who says it doesn't work, I wanted to correct this out-of-date information, letting everyone who makes there way here via Google search of the correct answer!

Btw, it also works on Samsung galaxy s4 i9506. I've tested on Android 5, 6 and 7 successfully.

Thanks

# Answer
> 2 votes
Android DOES support USB sound cards over android 5.0, or, if you have a sony, the Z series (Z2 and up), they support it since 4.4. I use my phone with a cheap chinese device, but tried a Xonar U3, and a creative Play!. However I never tried the audio recording through these cards.

# Answer
> 2 votes
I use a Cambridge Audio DAC Magic XS with my Nexus 5 running Marshmallow and it works fine. I have also tried a Behringer 8 channel desk that has usb audio interface, and it seems to work as well.

# Answer
> 2 votes
Yes, it is (mostly) possible.

1. You need to be **connected via USB OTG** (which you are) that your phone acts as a host and not as a peripheral device
2. The **audio interface** / sound card **must be *class compliant*** (see also here)

Many (including **some** interfaces from RME, Focusrite, Behringer, M-Audio, ...) but not all audio interfaces are class compliant.

Many phones nowadays don't come with a headphone jack. Those USB adapters or USB headphones are in turn a small sound card.

# Answer
> 1 votes
I haven't tried it yet but extreamsd's USB Audio Recorder PRO seems to do what you want. There is a demo version.

# Answer
> 0 votes
working with zoom h6 + samsung A6 + opencamera app . im getting some micro click from time to time though. gonna try with with other app and power the zoom externally.

# Answer
> -1 votes
No. Android doesn't support drivers for these types of devices. Its support for external devices is pretty limited to simple input devices, such as keyboards and mice, and storage devices, along with occasional special peripherals that your individual app would be designed to use. A PC sound card is way outside of its functionality.

---
Tags: usb, audio, video, usb-on-the-go
---


# Question
Title: What is this strange symbol when I try to play YouTube videos on Kindle's Silk Browser?
I have always used the included Silk Browser on a Kindle Fire 5th Generation to play YouTube videos. Inexplicably sometime in the last week, it stopped working. The video playback window plays the ad just fine, then briefly shows the spinning wheel loading thing, then displays the strange symbol seen here:

*Screenshot of Kindle Fire. On screen is a YouTube page with a strange icon in the playback window. The Kindle screen orientation is portrait mode. The YouTube video is not on full screen. The YouTube page is opened in the Silk Browser app. This particular video is an episode of Jay Leno's Garage. Two suggested videos are also visible, both of them also Jay Leno.*

The device does not seem to have taken an update recently, and does not seem to require an update. These screenshots show some device configuration information.

*Screenshot of Kindle Fire "Device Options" screen. The Device Model is Fire 5th Generation. Battery is 93%. The following notification icons are seen at the top of the screen: screenshot captured, PC connected via USB, wifi connected with full signal strength, time is 8:46. The Device Name is redacted. The Find Your Tablet switch is ON. The serial number is G000 H404 5496....and the last four characters of the serial number are redacted. Developer options are enabled.*

You can see I have Developer options enabled, but the only thing I did here was set the screen to stay awake during charging, animators are set to 0.5x, and strict mode is enabled. I have had these same settings for years, no recent changes.

*Screenshot of Kindle Fire "System Updates" screen. You can see that the device is running Fire OS 5.3.6.4 (626533320). The build date is November 12, 2018. There are no updates available. The top notification bar shows the same notifications as the previous picture, except that the clock displays 8:48.*

Internet searches for this problem only lead to companies trying to push me to install their app which is outside the Kindle store, and some "bootleg" YouTube apps within the Kindle store. I'm not inclined to do either one of these unless it is necessary. This is my kids' device, and the adult account I am using does not have any apps other than what it came with, not even from the Kindle store.

I did a reverse image search on Google and did not find this icon/symbol anywhere.

The ads play fine. After the ad ends and it tries to load the video proper is when this happens.

Does this strange symbol tell me what is wrong with playing videos and how I may be able to fix it?

# Answer
> 1 votes
I had the same problem a couple of days ago. I performed a factory reset and restored my files from the backup and that seems to have cleared the problem, mostly.

I used one of the YouTube apps on the Kindle Appstore for watching videos. I initially encountered the problem while watching a video and switching to another. The emergence of the problem seemed to be unrelated to anything I was doing since I didn't change any settings between videos. I switched to the Silk Browser and encountered the same problem.

Clearing the cache in both the app and the browser did nothing to solve the issue. After the factory reset, YouTube started working properly in the Silk Browser but seems to be encountering the problem again in the app.

In my searching for a solution, I did come across a post that mentioned the symbol and explained that it was a problem caused by a change that YouTube made on their end. The solution offered was to "wait it out." Unfortunately, I don't have the link to the page since my search history was deleted when I performed the factory reset and I can't remember what search terms I used to find the page.

---
Tags: youtube, amazon-kindle-fire, stock-browser
---


# Question
Title: Chrome - how to swipe to dismiss articles on home page
Chrome - swipe to dismiss articles on home page missing answered for previous versions of Chrome. This does not work on Chrome `84.0.4147.89`

Internet search and experiments didn't help. Any ideas?

# Answer
It's a shame but you can't do that any more. Google says they won't fix it as mentioned in the Chromium bug report ( Chrome does not maintain separate bug reports)

> Swiping was indeed removed with the latest update due to usability reasons and it being difficult to interpret as a user signal. So this is working as intended.

But an enterprising user found out a fix! Great!

> Paste `chrome://flags/#interest-feed-content-suggestions` in search bar select Enabled (snippets)

> Paste `chrome://flags/#interest-feed-v2` in search bar and select Enable

> Relaunch Chrome and click on **More** at the bottom of the page.

Now you can swipe away as before. If you care for this feature which Google has removed, please star the bug report and optionally vent your frustration!
> 1 votes

---
Tags: chrome-for-android
---


# Question
Title: how to turn on phone when power button is broken?
its a xiomi mi redmi 5a prime. i can get it to fast boot but since usb debugging is int enabled i cant get it to go to recovery. mi manager doesn't detect the phone in fast boot as well. Is there any way to fix this apart from taking the phone apart?

# Answer
If you can get it into fastboot mode, here's how you can bootup your device:

1. Get Google's platform-tools (aka adb), from here
2. Boot your phone into fastboot mode
3. Run this command with platform-tools:

```
fastboot reboot

```
> 1 votes

---
Tags: 7.0-nougat
---


# Question
Title: How do I fix internal sdcard mount failure I/O error?
I have a tablet running android 4.2.2. The internal sdcard will not mount and logcat output is - failed to mount via vfat (I/O error). I used fsck\_msdos and output is - \** Phase 1 - read FAT (compare skipped) Attempting to allocate 14000 KB for FAT \** Phase 2 - check cluster chains \** Phase 3 checking directories Root directory starts with free cluster Fix? yes \** Phase 4 - checking for lost files Update FATs? yes Attempting to allocate 14000 KB for FAT 1389 files, 1133632 free (2238856 clusters) \***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED \***** But I am still getting the same error from vold. Is there anything elseI should try?

# Answer
Should have waited to ask but heres the answer - mkdosfs on /dev/(etc.) and vold now mounts no problem.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: internal-storage, mount, exfat
---


# Question
Title: Play Store updating over Mobile Data when it is not supposed to
Today I got a bit of a nasty surprise with my mobile data and I am not sure how to correct it.

In my settings for the Play Store I have (and had for ages) download only on Wifi.

This month something has changed as my phone has gone over its data allowance and looking at the list of apps and usage the top bandwidth user is the Play Store on Mobile Data with 540Mb.

I do not understand why the Play Store is updating on Mobile data even though it is not supposed to?

Under the Wifi Usage tab the Play store is also the largest user of bandwidth, which I do expect as that is what is supposed to happen.

Any ideas why Play Store is running over Mobile Data?

# Answer
Google Play Store/Services does actually download stuffs over mobile data. Its a bit annoying and under certain circumstances can be quite frustrating, in cases like if someone went camping or on a trip with limited data plans, and google play used all of it to update stuffs. Well, things you could do are, turning off mobile data when not in use, although as soon as you go online, it'll srart downloading. Second thing you could do is, turn on powersaving mode, which reduces the amount of power consumption and also restricts background data. Third thing you can do is enable restrict background apps which is separate from power saving as it only includes restricting apps from taking up data in the background over mobile data plans. And the fourth and probably my favorite is to use a firewall app. Although firewall apps are build into modern Android versions, google play being a system app has an upper hand over that function. That's when a firewall app like "NETGUARD" comes in handy. This app basically stops all incoming and outgoing traffic from your phone (except apps that you allow) with the help of a vpn that routes to localhost. This app is hands down one of my fav so far, and yeah, might as well give it a try perhaps? This app is available both on F-Droid and on Google Play Store. Hope this helps (:
> 2 votes

# Answer
I had the same issue. The solution, which worked for me has been going to Settings → Data usage → Data Saving Mode. Besides switching this mode on and off, there is an additional menu called Unlimited Data Access, in which you can activate this feature on per app basis. In my case, Play Store was activated. Switching this option to off brought me over the hump and I am fine now.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: google-play-store, mobile-data
---


# Question
Title: Mirroring PC screen to Android via USB-C
A few months ago I found software for Windows which could mirror Android screen to PC via USB (not sure if it needed to be type-C or not) and also capture mouse clicks as touch inputs.

I also know there is some software that mirrors PC screen to Android with Wi-Fi and such, but firstly they are not free and don't function as I want it to, and secondly, most of them use wireless which I don't want.

Is it possible to mirror (part of) PC screen to Android with USB-C?

# Answer
There are plenty of apps that allow to remote control a PC from an Android device. You are correct that most of them use Wifi or in detail TCP/IP for communication with the PC. But some of those tools establish a direct TCP connection - hence using Android Debug bridge and `adb forward` you can forward the server port from your PC to your Android device and therefore tunnel the TCP connection through the USB cable.

On Android side in the app you then connect to `localhost:<forwarded port>`.

Each of this app requires a different software installed on your PC. Only Remote Desktop is bound to the used Windows type.
> 3 votes

---
Tags: usb, screen-mirroring
---


# Question
Title: Android massive background data usage 38 GB month
I have Mediatek Smartphone with stock Android 7.0 and suddenly it increases data usage. Tracked it down to `/data/data/com.android.email/cache` which is occupying 1.6 GB. I have cleared cache many times which maybe explains the massive data usage 38 GB this month. The question is why it happens just now and not the months before?

How can i prevent increasing cache?

**Edit:** I use the stock email app for about 1 year without problems. I have 2x IMAP accounts connected. Recently I updated security patches to latest available Dec 2018 \_V22. But after firmware update the battery drain increases too fast, so I decided to revert back to May 2018 CUBOT\_KING\_KONG\_7081C\_V16\_20180517 (both still 7.0, no updates 7.1.2 available).

The phone is rooted so I can see that it downloades many files `body1009174325.tmp` in cache folder each with size 44,76 KB. I have inspected this file and it turns out it is a corrupt PDF which is downloaded a million times again and again. I found the responsible email and the App says attachment download has failed. After I pressed "save" the attachment was successful downloaded. After I cleared cache, the tmp files are gone. Now it starts repeating with next message (different tmp files, all the same). This time it is not a PDF and its hard to find the related email.

How can I avoid this behavior?

# Answer
> 3 votes
Netguard can be an amazing choice in this situation. You can block apps from taking up unnecessary data, and can also allow apps of your choice to use data. I would most probably uninstall that email app since it's not secure. Give Netguard a try. (:

---
Tags: data-monitoring, stock-email-app, background-data
---


title: Backup YouTube's offline videos

text:
# Question
Title: Backup YouTube's offline videos
I want to format (factory reset) my device (Lenovo K3 Note). I have saved some offline videos from YouTube and I am afraid that I might lose them after the device format.

How to back up those videos and save them?

# Answer
> 2 votes
Yes you will lose them from local storage, you may want to use unofficial client "NewPipe" that allows you to download the videos on your user media folder, giving you total control on the file for your backup needs.

# Answer
> 0 votes
# I have an idea

Try to save those downloaded videos into playlists, so you can save those videos again for offline use

**So the steps are:**

1. Create a playlist (make sure it's private) for your downloaded videos
2. Go to Library -\> Downloads
3. Watch a downloaded video (if you have internet connection), don't forget to watch the other videos, not just one if you have multiple videos downloaded
4. Long click on the Save button and click on the playlist you just created (this step means you save the video into the playlist you selected)
5. Dismiss the dialog (using the Done button at the bottom of the dialog)
6. Close YouTube
7. Factory reset your device now, safely

**If you want to restore the videos in playlist after factory reset:**

1. Sign in to Google
2. Update YouTube (if there is an update)
3. Launch YouTube and go to the Library page
4. Go to your playlist where you saved your downloads
5. Save your videos for offline use again (if you want)

---
Tags: youtube
---


# Question
Title: Google Hangouts v Hangouts Dialer v Voice : Which to download to call outbound?
If I desire only to make outgoing telephone calls from my Android, which must I download?

# Answer
> 1 votes
Google Voice gives you a second phone number linked to your original. You can use it to call outbound from the app. Google voice can also *recieve* calls as well as send and receive texts.

Google Hangouts is a messaging app. On the web version, you can call outbound. I'm not sure about the app version. You can also use it to video call, both single person and group calls.

^^My Google Hangouts menu^^

Google Dialer (If I have the correct product) seems to be just a phone management app, just like the typical "Phone" app that comes preinstalled on most phones. It gives you a dialer screen and a Google Duos video call screen as well as spam protection and caller ID. However, it doesn't look like it comes with a phone number, it uses the one from your SIM. So it'll make outbound calls, but only if you have a SIM card installed.

EDIT: Hangouts Dialer (Not Google Phone, sorry, got that wrong the first time) is a dialer for Google Hangouts (hence the name). It's a way of making phone calls without using minutes. You can call any phone number, and it shows on the receiving end the verified number connected with your device. I believe it can also be used in combination with Google Voice, using that number as your verified number.

---
Tags: google-hangouts
---


# Question
Title: What is an effective way to backup data?
I have a ton of stuff. Some of it is very old. One bizarre issue I run into when using android is that I can't copy or even see some of the oldest files when I plug the phone to a computer and open it for transferring files.

For some reason, the computer can't read or copy some files. There is no corruption or data loss because I can browse said files on the phone, open them or send them through Whatsapp.

Which is what I did last time. I have to back up a thousand photos so I send them through WhatsApp in batches of 50. Needless to say, that was quite annoying.

Is there some effective method/software of dumping all images and videos from the phone onto anything?

Why is there such a bizarre data reading issue any way?

Do I like need the android equivalent of shadowcopy or something ?

# Answer
> I have to back up a thousand photos

For backing up photos, I would use Google Photos. It's free, and it does it automatically (if that's enabled). It also has a ton of other features like sorting by people and pets, using Google Lens to copy text in the photo, and backed up photos are accessible on the web version.

Be careful though, as deleting a picture on the web version deletes it from the synced device as well, thanks to alecxs for mentioning this.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: backup, video, images, data-transfer
---


# Question
Title: How to prevent myself from accidentaly opening android ads?
So, quite often i miss the little "X" in the corner of my phone screen when trying to close an ad. It then opens in quick succession my default browser and then the play store. This process is enough to make my phone reach the end of its performance, meaning that any taps on the "Back"-Button etc. cause a few seconds of lag, causing major annoyance on my side.

Searching for solutions only yielded articles describing measures by Google reducing the likeliness of these accidental clicks by ignoring very early clicks after the ad loads etc..

But i noticed that quite often the browser opens a link starting with some kind of "ad-relay"-sounding url-names ("ad4m.at", "ad4mat.de", "ad4.adfarm1"...) and i was wondering if i could at least make my browser ask for my confirmation before sending me to the follow-up page. I am using Chrome and could not find anything like that in the settings, but i would be willing to change browsers if another one supports this feature but Chrome does not.

I would also be happy about alternative solutions to my problem, if there are any.

# Answer
I typically use the back button. Since it's not on the screen (Samsung J3V) I don't run the risk of accidentally tapping on the ad. But there are times when the back button doesn't work, which is frustrating, and you just have to use the small X.
> 3 votes

---
Tags: ads
---


# Question
Title: Cannot edit mixer_paths_tasha.xml on android 10
I wanted to edit mixer\_paths\_tasha.xml to change RX0 value from 84 to 95. I am currently using havoc 3.0 on oneplus 3. Havoc os has low call volume bug which can be rectified by above changes. But ever since I updated to android 10 I am not able to edit the above xml file. It's location is /system/vendor/etc. Editing using any root explorer results in error that given file cannot be moved from tmp folder to etc folder. Please provide a way to edit the file. It's a read only file system. Please suggest a way to mount is at write file system

# Answer
> 0 votes
Try to copy the file mixer\_gains.xml into your internal storage, edit it and copy it back with twrp recoverys file manager.

---
Tags: root-access, custom-roms
---


# Question
Title: Where does Android get its DNS information when connected to Wi-Fi?
I'm hosting a server on my LAN with a port exposed publicly by the router. `myserver.mydomain.com` is pointing to the static IP of my router. So I can access the server from the the internet.

To make `myserver.mydomain.com` work when connected to my LAN I added an entry to the DNS server of my router, so it redirects to the private IP address of the server. This works fine for most devices connected to my LAN, except for my Android phone, `where myserver.mydomain.com` still resolves to the public IP of my router, even when connected to my Wi-Fi. So I suspect android always uses google DNS servers or something.

When I'm out and about connecting to some random Wi-Fi network this seems like highly desirable behavior, but when at home this creates the said issue.

I know I could configure my own DNS servers on my phone but I don’t want to configure that manually each time I connect to my LAN.

What would be the best approach here? Maybe I need to set up local access to my server differently?

# Answer
Thank you all for the comments. They helped me work it out. I'm not 100% sure of the cause of the behavior. It stays even when I switch off 4G and restart the phone. In the post linked to by Irfan Latif it is suggested that Android favors IPv6 dns servers. That could be the cause since my network is IPv4 only. But the hairpin NAT provided the solution. (Called NAT Reflection in pfSense) After enabling this, things started to work.
> 2 votes

---
Tags: dns
---


# Question
Title: How to recover data when everything is locked (FRP, OEM)
Working on recovering data from phones newer than Android 8.1. The situation is this:

* Customer forgot the lock (pattern/pin/...)
* Because lock screen can't be opened, OEM is locked.
* Can't install custom recovery (such as cwn, twrp) due to OEM lock.

It seems that the only way is to mount the hard disk which seems to be encrypted by default.

So what should be done in this situation?

# Answer
> 3 votes
Data recovery and Screen lock by-pass are two different things. Both should be impossible due to security reasons.

~~Android provides official unlock solution via a Google account~~ (not anymore). A Bonded Google account is a requirement for using Google Play App Store, which most likely every customer will have.
***edit:** Unfortunately Google discontinued Find My Device Unlock feature*

A Google account itself has several forgotten password options. It's up to the customer to get it to work, not you.

You already have mentioned some workarounds which might have worked on some (older) devices. Let me explain a little more.

* Data recovery from factory reset is not possible because of encryption.
* Data recovery from FRP lock is not possible because of factory reset.
* Data recovery via unlocking is not possible because the bootloader unlock triggers factory reset.
* Resetting screen lock is not possible because login credentials are partially involved in calculating encryption keys. Deleted locksettings.db will destroy encryption.
* Off-chip recovery is not possible because encryption is hardware bound.

However, some cracking is possible for some devices under certain conditions.

Data partition can be decrypted when:

* device uses FDE full-disk encryption
* full-disk encryption uses *default\_password*
* decryption is performed on this unique source device itself

Screen lock can be deleted when:

* data partition is decrypted
* encryption doesn't rely on login credentials

Dumping partitions on a locked bootloader is possible via:

* Qualcomm EDL mode when OEM signed factory loader is leaked
* Mediatek SP Flash Tool with proper Secure boot Download Agent and authentification files

Flashing on locked bootloader is possible when:

* boot/recovery image is AVBv1 signed

---
Tags: lock-screens, custom-roms, frp
---


# Question
Title: Can i delete a message from a blocked caller. Just a certain one not all of them?
Can you delete just certain messages you get from a blocked call?

# Answer
On most messaging apps, if you tap and hold on a message in *any* conversation, it will give you an option to delete the message. However, the deletion only occurs on your phone, not the phone on the other end.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: sms-blocking
---


# Question
Title: TeamViewer Android: how to connect in a unattended way?
My grandma is 89 years old, and I have installed **TeamViewer** on her Android tablet in order to remotely assist her.
But it is a problem for me to teach her understanding the screen messages, even when it is a single "*Accept incoming connection? Yes/No*" .

Is there any way to configure TeamViewer for Android to **connect to it without any intervention** on remote side?

* **Free**(gratis) options preferred.

# Answer
I believe the way it works is for you to install TeamViewer for Remote Control on your device and install TeamViewer Host on you grand mother device to allow unattended access. Test it after installing. Reading the comments, it seems it does not work on 100% on all devices.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: teamviewer
---


# Question
Title: How to change the date format within WhatsApp messages?
In WhatsApp, you see the date as DD/MM/YY or MM/DD/YY and you want it the other way around.

How to change the date format within WhatsApp messages?

# Answer
> 3 votes
WhatsApp doesn't read the date format settings from Android's date format settings, but rather it adjusts the date format depending on the language set for the Android interface.

**Solution:**

* If you want DD/MM/YY, change the language of Android to English (UK)
* If you want MM/DD/YY, change the language of Android to English (USA)

Settings \> Language & Input \> Language (in the phone settings)

---
Tags: whatsapp-messenger, date-and-time
---


# Question
Title: How can I stop the status bar from hiding?
On my Samsung S10 with Nova as the main launcher, I'm noticing that for a few days now I don't have a status bar when on my home screen. The status bar is there when I'm working from inside any application, but as soon as I move the the home screen, it is pulled up somehow (literally, I see it moving up and disappearing). I can easily get it back by just swiping my finger from the top of the screen just a bit downwards which is why I don't think this is a bug or the launcher somehow covering it. But I'd prefer for the status bar to remain visible all the time.

I'm really not aware of anything I have done to cause this. I might have pressed something by mistake but I did not tinker with my phone in some meaningful way.

I tried googling this but all I get is results about how to show or hide notifications or icons within the status bar. When it comes to hiding and unhiding the status bar, I could only find development examples but as mentioned, I have never developed anything on this phone, it's also not rooted.

Some help on this would be much appreciated.

# Answer
> 2 votes
Nova Launcher has dozens of settings for its Home Screen layout and personalization. Included is a `Notification bar` setting, which allows the device owner to hide it on the Home Screen.

It can be found under the `Look & feel` settings.

Change the state of `Show notification bar` to experiment to taste.

---
Tags: home-screen, samsung-galaxy-s-10, nova-launcher
---


# Question
Title: Where did my downloaded music on sd card go?
I downloaded all of my amazon music to my SD card to switch to a new device. So I take the SD card with all of the downloaded music put it in my new phone then sign into my Amazon music account and it says I have no fricken music downloaded. I seriously need a solution to this problem before I go ballistic because after waiting for all my stupid music to download just for it to not show up on the new phone I am frickin livid. Keep in mind it shows up in offline music on my sd card on the old device. ****I NEED TO KNOW****

# Answer
I'm not very experienced with Amazon Music, but on other sources, when you download music to an SD card, it stays on the SD card. So most likely, your music will not appear in Amazon Music because Amazon Music doesn't know to look in your SD card for the music. If you use a file explorer, you should be able to find your music on the SD card.

If your phone doesn't come preinstalled with a file browser, ASTRO File Browser works pretty well for me. There are a lot of file browser apps out there.

There might also be an option on Amazon Music to import or show music on the device/SD card.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: sd-card
---


title: Retrieve (list of) default apps via ADB

text:
# Question
Title: Retrieve (list of) default apps via ADB
Many of you will know (or at least have heard of) commands like `adb shell pm list packages` or `adb shell dumpsys package` to retrieve a list of apps available on your device. What I am looking for and cannot find is a command to list default apps – like what is set as default launcher, default camera, default browser etc. Not even parsing the full details of all apps via e.g. `for app in $(pm list packages); do [[ -n "$(dumpsys package ${app#package:} | grep APP_BROWSER)" ]] && echo ${app#package:}; done` reveals that (the command would simply list all web browsers on the device).

So how can I query for those default apps via ADB? It's fine if I have to pass the "type" (like `APP_BROWSER` in my example) as long as there's a reference of types available.

# Answer
I meanwhile found a partly resolve working with Android 7/8 and up (when the `cmd package` command was added):

* Default dialer: `cmd package resolve-activity tel://123456`
* Default mail: `cmd package resolve-activity mailto:john@example.com`
* Default browser: `cmd package resolve-activity http://www.example.com/`
* Default messenging: `cmd package resolve-activity sms://123456`
* Default homescreen launcher: `cmd package resolve-activity -c android.intent.category.HOME -a android.intent.action.MAIN`

In the output, then `grep` for `packageName=` (e.g. `packageName=com.android.messaging` for the default SMS app). If a given action has no default set (e.g. multiple browsers are installed but none was declared to be "always used"), the action will resolve to the OS (`packageName=android`) to prompt the user. Side-note: if you want to check for available alternatives, just replace `resolve-activity` with `query-activities` (note it might also return a one-liner like "No activities found", especially on Android \< 8).

I call this a "partly resolve" as it lacks several default apps I've no idea what activity to ask for – like the ~~default homescreen launcher~~ (note: just figured) or the assistant app (hints welcome!).

Thanks to Irfan Latif for pointing out a solution for Android 10 and up. Here, the role manager was added which I had already found but didn't figure how to call it via ADB. Turns out that was because all my devices are running Android \< 10 (and as just said, role manager was added with Android 10), and the command would be `dumpsys role` (but not availabe before Android 10).
> 4 votes

---
Tags: applications, adb
---


# Question
Title: How to root a Lenovo Tab M8 FHD (TB_8705F)
I have tried to root my tablet using the one click options but wasn't successful.

Does anyone know of a way to root it?

Thank You,

# Answer
> 1 votes
Here is a solution that I found after a lot of research and trial and error.

**Disclaimer I don't take any responsibility for your device follow this at your own risk!**

1. **Warning This step will factory reset device (delete all your data)** Unlock your bootloader.
    * Turn on OEM unlocking and USB Debugging in developer settings.
    * On Pc do fastboot flashing unlock. For more info on unlocking please see here.
2. Get the firmware for your device using "Rescue and Smart Assistant" form Lenovo's website. You will need to log in with your Lenovo ID to be able to
3. Install Magisk Manager on your device.
4. Get the boot.img from the firmware and copy it onto your device.
5. In Magisk Manager click on `Install` and select `Select and Patch File` then select the boot.img you copied.
6. Copy the patched image back to the PC.
7. Flash the patched image to the boot partition with fastboot.

All Done!

---
Tags: rooting, lenovo
---


title: How to disable sound from an app

text:
# Question
Title: How to disable sound from an app
I have got a game I play (*The Simpsons Tapped Out*) that is based on time. (For example every 5 hours I get a coin).

But every time something is completed (like a quest) I hear from the speakers something like ("yeaho work is done!")

I would like to disable that sound, but there is no setting for it within the game.

Because when I am working I want to hear when someone is calling, not when the app is done doing something.

Is there a way to disable the sound of one app?

Or is there a setting in my phone that can disable that sound?

I am using Android 4.1.2 on an LG Optimus L5.

# Answer
> 5 votes
There are several possibilities:

* manually setting all volumes to 0, except for those channels you want to keep (e.g. alerts, notifications, system). Issue: on some devices/systems some channels seem to be "locked together", so as soon as e.g. volume for calls is increased, some other slider increases automatically along. An app like Audio Control might help on that.
* same thing, but use some automation tool (e.g. ). This might work-around the slider-lock.
* disabling notifications from the app (might not work if the app doesn't count that as "notification")
* if root access is available: replace/remove the corresponding sound file (credits go to Dan for this)
* using a helper like App Override. Unfortunately this is no longer available on *Google Play*, so I linked to the original thread on XDA.

# Answer
> 7 votes
If you happen to be on a Samsung phone, there is an app called "Sound Assistant" which is excellent - adding volume sliders for whatever individual apps you like.

They waste a lot of money and frustrate a lot of people customizing & bloating Android, but this *optional* app is great and should be mimicked by Google into base Android!

---
Tags: 4.1-jelly-bean, audio
---


# Question
Title: Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 - how to connect device wirelessly to computer?
I should first explain that the Tab connects wirelessly to my modem\router, and thence to the internet. Also, it connects to the computer via USB cable. However, I cannot get it to connect wirelessly to my computer, or any other of the five desktops and laptops that make up my home network. I must be missing something basic. Anyone have a suggestion?

BTW: All the PCs but one are W7 Ultimate 64bit. The other is W10 Enterprise. All are connected via gigabit hub and are fully shared with each other. Galaxy model is SM-T800. Android is 6.0.1. Thanks for reading.

# Answer
> 0 votes
You cannot just use a local WiFi connection to transfer the data. It has no way of knowing you want it to. There has to be a third party of some sort telling them both to talk.

I would recommend checking out apps like this.

Or, for Android to Android, this.

---
Tags: samsung
---


# Question
Title: How do I identify and remove this spammy malware "Suggestion" app?
Recently these spam ads have started showing up on my phone from an app calling itself "Suggestions". I never installed this thing itself and I don't see it on the apps list.

It runs periodically throughout the day by itself. Maybe once/hour? Generally when I turn on the phone and unlock, its there. More rarely it pops up in front of the active app if I've been using the phone for a while.

Presumably it tagged along with something else I installed, but I can't recall that it started occurring at a corresponding time with any other app being added.

Generally once I minimize it, it disappears entirely.

Is there a way to identify & remove this?

The ad shown below is just an example, they vary.

---

While this was on the screen, I long pressed the square Android apps button to go into split screen, somehow this triggered the following site to open up:

(don't click it - just for info)

```
https://yourphoneboost.com/landers/external/cleaner-update/landing.html?device_name=Motorola%20o&language=en-US&device_brand=Motorola&device_model=o&uclick=17m7e8xr0&uclickhash=17m7e8xr0-17m7e8xr0-gm-sy-9z-wf0-tw3y-7a9e36#

```

---

This phone is a Motorola G4 running Android 7. The security patch level was April 1, 2018.

<sup>(click images for larger variants)</sup>

# Answer
It turns out to be "Bluetooth Auto Connect" that introduced this spamware-like behavior. This app had been installed for a long time but apparently only recently changed its behavior. I will find a replacement.

Thanks to a tip from @Firelord, I was able to determine the actual app (process?) by:

1. Pressing the main Android square recent / running apps button
2. Long-pressing the title bar of the "Suggestions" window.
3. Pressing the (i) icon which shows up after the long-press. This showed the actual app name.
> 3 votes

---
Tags: malware
---


# Question
Title: Recovering data from Mi 4c able to get only to fastboot
my phone has fallen and it cannot boot. The only accessible thing is fastboot, but even there I cannot flash TWRP.

When I try to flash TWRP 3.1.1 or 3.1.0 I get:

```
>fastboot.exe flash recovery twrp.img
target reported max download size of 536870912 bytes
sending 'recovery' (21100 KB)...
OKAY [  0.483s]
writing 'recovery'...
FAILED (status read failed (Too many links))
finished. total time: 0.544s

```

The phone is unable to boot at all. So adb is out of question.

Additional info that may help:

```
>fastboot.exe getvar all
(bootloader) version:
(bootloader) token:OrhCgsF/c0ZJ0PDtn3UZAR4A
(bootloader) sec_boot:TRUE
(bootloader) variant: eMMC
(bootloader) secure:yes
(bootloader) version-baseband:
(bootloader) version-bootloader:
(bootloader) display-panel:
(bootloader) off-mode-charge:0
(bootloader) charger-screen-enabled:0
(bootloader) max-download-size: 0x20000000
(bootloader) partition-type:cache:ext4
(bootloader) partition-size:cache:       0x18000000
(bootloader) partition-type:userdata:ext4
(bootloader) partition-size:userdata:    0x683bfbe00
(bootloader) partition-type:system:ext4
(bootloader) partition-size:system:      0x78000000
(bootloader) soc_id:251
(bootloader) serialno:10adc264
(bootloader) kernel:lk
(bootloader) product:MSM8992
all:
finished. total time: 0.217s

```

From this message I believe the storage chip is done for but you never know.

The phone claims to be unlocked (it should be as I use custom ROM). Physically there does not appear to be any damage, but when battery is connected it does not start at all.

I wanted to use TWRP ability provide data through MTP. There is TWRP installed, but it was accessible by updater application where was option to reboot to TWRP. So TWRP should be already there. But when pressing volume down button during boot I get only to fastboot.

Is there any way how to get at least to my data or is the phone completely done?

EDIT:

Tried advice from Robert in comments to directly boot TWRP.

```
>fastboot.exe boot twrp.img
downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [  0.500s]
booting...
FAILED (status read failed (Too many links))
finished. total time: 1.150s

```

Also advice from alexcs in comments does not yield any results. The phone cannot boot to recovery.

# Answer
**Success! Thank you @alecxs for help and resources.**

# 1 Obtain a programmer

To successfully acquire all of the data from EDL you need programmer.

For Mi 4c it is `prog_emmc_firehose_8992_ddr.mbn` that can be obtained in (first?) official image of OS. I got it from file `Xiaomi_Mi_4C_V8.1.3.0.LXKCNDI_20161213_China_5.1_XFT.zip` on some random site. You can find it in the archive under folder `Firmware/images/`.

The full path in archive would be `Firmware/images/prog_emmc_firehose_8992_ddr.mbn`.

# 2 Get working Firehorse

I have got mine from repository: https://github.com/bkerler/edl.

Proceed with all instructions mentioned in the repository. (I personally used Ubuntu 20.04 as all of the stuff is easier to make work.)

# 3 Connect to EDL

Boot phone to fastboot. In case of Mi 4c that is my case it is pushing volume down during boot.

When you enter fastboot and you can see your device with fastboot:

`fastboot devices`

In case of Mi 4c you can directly boot to EDL with command:

`fastboot oem edl`

# 4 Acquire data through EDL

When device enters EDL state you can test connection with programmer (in my case `prog_emmc_firehose_8992_ddr.mbn`). In loader parameter you are entering path to this file.

`./edl.py --loader=prog_emmc_firehose_8992_ddr.mbn printgpt`

When it outputs all of the partition then you are golden!

On my phone there is one partition named `userdata`:

`userdata: Offset 0x00000000c4000000, Length 0x0000000683bfbe00, Flags 0x00000000, UUID 07c2b899-1574-564c-2f46-e26a6378bdd8, Type 0x1b81e7e6`

To acquire the partition use command:

`./edl.py --loader=examples/prog_emmc_firehose_8992_ddr.mbn r userdata userdata.bin`

The copy of user data just needs to be read.

# 5 Reading user data (userdata.bin)

Luckily for the phone Mi 4c you can directly mount the dump in Linux. For some other phones the process might not be so straightforward and you might need `simg2img`. But I am not 100% sure.

```
sudo mkdir /media/userdata
sudo mount -t ext4 -o loop userdata.bin /media/userdata/

```

To read the data you will need to get root rights as the data belong to non-existing or different existing users and you won't get access with your user.

```
sudo mkdir userdata
sudo cp -r /media/userdata/media/0/* userdata/

```

*The path to the your data might be different so take your time to look around.*

Done! All the data are now completely accessible.
> 3 votes

---
Tags: recovery-mode, fastboot, xiaomi, xiaomi-mi4
---


# Question
Title: How can I communicate with someone that only has a tablet?
My wife and I recently ran into an unusal situation: She left her phone in my car, which I didn't know. I, of course, drove off with it. So we couldn't communicate by standard voice or text.

She did, however, still have our tablet with her. So I was wondering: what are the various ways that a person with a tablet can communicate with a person that has an Android phone (so never mind "borrow another phone" type answers)? I'd like as many different solutions as possible since, in this situaion, certain methods of commication (such as email) might be ignored as unexpected.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Here's a couple of answers to start with:

* Email
* Hangouts (or any other IM app), which usually require the other person to be logged in.
* Glympse \- Send a check-in glympse to their mobile number with a message. They'll get it as a text.
* using some SMS gateway either via Web (browser) or a specific SMS app supporting this
* using a messenger app like Tango, Skype, or LINE

# Answer
> 1 votes
A Tablet has several methods that it can utilize to make a connection into the world:

* WiFi Connection
* Data Connection
* Bluetooth
* USB
* NFC

Both WiFi and Mobile Data Providers connect into the Internet. Any service that uses such a connection may send messages from one device to the other. Email and Instant Messengers like WhatsApp or Telegram can be named here.

Two internet capable devices can also connect through Bluetooth. Bluetooth is a direct connection between two devices, with no router, switch or modem in between. Two devices can communicate through Bluetooth. There are some Bluetooth Messengers out there, even though it does not make much sense (when the two devices are close enough for bluetooth to work, why don't you just communicate directly?). PLUS, there are so-called Bluetooth Hotspots, where you can log onto a hotspot using Bluetooth instead of WiFi.

A Tablet can communicate with a device it is connected to via USB. This option allows 'USB Tethering' for example. In theory, you could also directly connect two phones with USB to enable communication between them.

NFC is short for "Near Field Communication" and does exactly that. NFC sensors are very weak and only work when in very close proximity to another NFC sensor (within another phone). This is a wireless communication with a range of 1 to 10 centimeters.

These are all options a modern phone has to communicate with other devices.

# Answer
> 0 votes
Facebook Messenger. Of course, the tablet needs to be connected to the internet.

---
Tags: tablet
---


# Question
Title: Trichromelibrary was suddenly downloading from Google Play Store
From nowhere, my friend got a notification that `com.google.android.trichromelibrary` was downloading together with a progress bar.

Why?

# Answer
From Shared Libraries on Android which explains native code in Chrome on Android

> * Android L & M need ChromeModernPublic.aab
> * Android N, O & P need MonochromePublic.aab
> * **Android Q** needs TrichromeChrome.aab + **TrichromeLibrary**.apk

(Emphasis added)

Further down the page it explains what these packages do (in developer speak). So, it's perfectly safe and legit, as it is a part of Android Chrome - nothing to be worried about.

**Edit:** From Android Police

> ... Chrome no longer appeared an option in the WebView picker (found in Android's Developer Options). A Google engineer explained that Android 10 uses a new implementation called 'Trichrome':

> > "Chrome is no longer used as a WebView implementation in Q+. We've moved to a new model for sharing common code between Chrome and WebView (called "Trichrome") which gives the same benefits of reduced download and install size while having fewer weird special cases and bugs."
> 27 votes

---
Tags: google-play-store, android-10
---


title: Names of Screens

text:
# Question
Title: Names of Screens
I totally lack the terminology here, so asking to help me clarify

1. When I look at my note 10 I see a screen with clock, always on display. What is the name of this"screen"?
2. If I double tap on this screen, I get another screen that tells me to swipe to unlock. What is the name of this screen?
3. When I swipe, I get the login screen. This is simply called the login screen?
4. Now I'm logged in and I'm on the home screen? Main screen. Start screen?;)

# Answer
> 1. When I look at my note 10 I see a screen with clock, always on display. What is the name of this"screen"?

It is commonly known as Always on Display. It is a feature commonly found in devices with AMOLED display. See its wiki page for more information on this.

> 2. If I double tap on this screen, I get another screen that tells me to swipe to unlock. What is the name of this screen?
> 3. When I swipe, I get the login screen. This is simply called the login screen?

It is recognized and called as the *login screen*. Developer oriented manuals however might not use this term. For example, the screen where you (the user) are required to authenticate yourself using PIN/password/pattern/biometric might be called as *login prompt*. But everyone understands it as *login screen* and the term is acceptable to both general users and power users of Android.

> 4. Now I'm logged in and I'm on the home screen? Main screen. Start screen?;)

It depends. If your device went to sleep (display turned off, either manually by the user using power button or because of screen timeout) and the user was using an app other than launcher app, the first screen you would see after unlocking the device is that last app you were using. Otherwise, if you press Home button / home gesture, than the screen you get is one of many *Home screens*. Home screens are part of a home launcher app. A home launcher app is one such app which manages your home screens, the contents displayed on them (such as your app and web shortcuts, app widgets, etc.), and also allows the user to access the installed apps using another screen called app launcher.
> 1 votes

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Tags: password, user-interface
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# Question
Title: Reviving my phone after a small part of it (eg the processor) overheated
I tried to compress my 1.6GB video in the Media Converter app by exporting it to mp4(h264,aac) on my OnePlus 3 as per https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-reduce-video-size-on-Android. However, approximately 75% of the way through the conversion (after about 30 minutes) my phone overheated and turned off (with the screen going black immediately and no shut-down procedure). I tried to turn it on in the normal way, but it would not turn on. After leaving it to cool for 5 minutes, I plugged it back into the charger and it immediately turned on automatically (displaying battery at 30%).

I tried to compress the video a second time, this time putting my phone on an ice-pack to keep it cool and leaving it on charge. I touched and checked the front and back of the phone regularly to ensure it was remaining dry, was not cooling too much because of the ice pack, and was not overheating (it remained at something like 20 degrees C, approximately the same as the top of the ice pack, through most of the process - although the bottom of the ice pack remained cold). This time it turned off after 45 minutes, 1 minute before the conversion was due to complete. Immediately after it turned off I noticed a very small area near the speaker (I assume near the processor) was overly warm (though not hot). I assume the heat could not escape fast enough from the hot processor into the body of the phone. Maybe the internal thermometer was closer to the ice-pack than the processor and 'tricked' into thinking the processor was cool. Now my phone is not turning on, displaying anything on the screen, or vibrating, even after plugging it into the charger and unplugging it many times over the past 12 hours. What can I do to try and revive my phone?

# Answer
I managed to turn my phone on by myself. Hopefully it will continue working.

I warmed up 2 plates in the oven to 80 Degrees C, took them out, and put a third (cool) plate with the phone on top of them. Once they had cooled enough to hold my finger on them, I stacked them into a warm plate-phone-warm plate sandwich, with the top plate upsides down. This warmed the phone up quite a lot, and was meant to allow any moisture to escape. Maybe it also affected the battery. In any case it turned on after 30 minutes of warming.

I would have put my phone on the radiator, but the weather is too warm to turn the radiator on right now.
> 1 votes

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Tags: battery, charging, unbricking, overheating, processor
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# Question
Title: How do I clear native PDF viewer as default?
I'm on Android Lollipop. Due to ghost touch, the native PDF viewer is selected default.

I also checked Reset Default Apps in the Settings menu, but there's only e-mail and messaging.

# Answer
If it is (Google) Drive PDF Viewer, then:

1. Go to Settings
2. App and Storage (where you can see installed apps which are downloaded or pre-installed)
3. Select All Tab where you can see System Apps
4. Select Drive (triangle logo with three colors side green, yellow, blue)
5. Scroll down and click on Clear Defaults (if not available, directly check permission if available)

Note: Drive PDF Viewer has a red icon with a white Drive icon
> 0 votes

# Answer
I don't use Google so no data (of mine) to lose, and that did it.

I did manage to find the core problem, tho. Opening an image file did the same problem: ghost touch selected Default as I tapped Gallery. Of course, Gallery is right on the application list but again no default was set there or under Clear All, but I deleted the data and fixed it.

Something clicked that I thought to check ES File Explorer so I set Gallery as Default again and checked that app, ES. It didn't have a Default but I deleted that data and that also restored the "Open With..." menu.

So that's the problem: browsing with ES or maybe other file managers and selecting a default only applies to that manager (confirmed via browsing with the stock manager), and why no default shows in the application manager, and the solution is to delete data for either the defaulted application if known or the file manager.

Poor design on either ES or Google's part or both.

Thanks, @Kirandeep Maan, for the help and getting this solved!
> 0 votes

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Tags: 5.1-lollipop, default-applications, pdf
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# Question
Title: Emulator 'redir' command unavailable... (?)
I am trying to configure my emulator to connect to my WiFi as per these instructions, however, I find that the "redir" command is not available. My emulator is for API version 29, and its image was generated from the AVD manager supplied with version 4.0.1 of Android Studio.

What gives?

# Answer
> 0 votes
**The console has to be authenticated first to unlock more commands on the emulator console, including `redir`**.

1. After connecting through `telnet`, it will prompt something like this:

```
Android Console: Authentication required
Android Console: type 'auth <auth_token>' to authenticate
Android Console: you can find your <auth_token> in
'C:\Users\<user_name>\.emulator_console_auth_token'
OK

```
2. Browse/open the said file, and note/copy the 16-characters authorization token
3. Then, enter `auth <auth_token>`
4. Afterward, `redir` and more commands will be unlocked (typing `help` will show the available commands)

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Tags: networking, android-emulator
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