# Question
Title: Recover files from a Pixel 2 stuck in bootloop
My Pixel 2 is stuck in the boot loop. I will send it for a replacement but I would like to recover some files that weren't backed up in the cloud.

I can see the phone using `adb devices` and I was hoping to use the `abd pull` command but I can't due to permissions. I am using a Mac and my phone is not rooted.

### adb shell ls -lah

```
1|walleye:/ $ ls -lah
ls: ./init.usb.configfs.rc: Permission denied
ls: ./init.recovery.walleye.rc: Permission denied
ls: ./init.rc: Permission denied
ls: ./init.zygote32.rc: Permission denied
ls: ./init: Permission denied
ls: ./init.environ.rc: Permission denied
ls: ./init.usb.rc: Permission denied
ls: ./persist: Permission denied
ls: ./cache: Permission denied
ls: ./postinstall: Permission denied
ls: ./ueventd.rc: Permission denied
ls: ./init.zygote64_32.rc: Permission denied
total 40K
drwxr-xr-x  21 root   root   4.0K 2009-01-01 09:00 .
drwxr-xr-x  21 root   root   4.0K 2009-01-01 09:00 ..
dr-xr-xr-x  20 root   root      0 1970-07-27 04:06 acct
lrw-r--r--   1 root   root     50 2009-01-01 09:00 bugreports -> /data/user_de/0/com.android.shell/files/bugreports
lrw-r--r--   1 root   root     13 2009-01-01 09:00 charger -> /sbin/charger
drwxr-xr-x   4 root   root      0 1970-01-01 01:00 config
lrw-r--r--   1 root   root     17 2009-01-01 09:00 d -> /sys/kernel/debug
drwxrwx--x  39 system system 4.0K 2018-01-13 17:08 data
lrw-------   1 root   root     23 2009-01-01 09:00 default.prop -> system/etc/prop.default
drwxr-xr-x  15 root   root   3.8K 2018-07-10 17:30 dev
lrw-r--r--   1 root   root     15 2009-01-01 09:00 dsp -> /vendor/lib/dsp
lrw-r--r--   1 root   root     11 2009-01-01 09:00 etc -> /system/etc
dr-xr-x---   4 system system  16K 1970-01-01 01:00 firmware
drwx------   2 root   root    16K 2009-01-01 09:00 lost+found
drwxr-xr-x   2 root   root   4.0K 2009-01-01 09:00 metadata
drwxr-xr-x  10 root   system  220 1970-07-27 04:06 mnt
drwxr-xr-x   2 root   root   4.0K 2009-01-01 09:00 oem
dr-xr-xr-x 655 root   root      0 1970-01-01 01:00 proc
drwxr-xr-x   3 root   root   4.0K 2009-01-01 09:00 res
drwxr-xr-x   2 root   root   4.0K 2009-01-01 09:00 root
drwxr-x---   2 root   shell  4.0K 2009-01-01 09:00 sbin
lrw-r--r--   1 root   root     21 2009-01-01 09:00 sdcard -> /storage/self/primary
drwxr-xr-x   3 root   root     60 1970-07-27 04:06 storage
dr-xr-xr-x  13 root   root      0 1970-07-27 04:06 sys
drwxr-xr-x  14 root   root   4.0K 2009-01-01 09:00 system
drwxr-xr-x  16 root   root   4.0K 2009-01-01 09:00 vendor

```

### adb pull /

```
adb pull /
adb: warning: stat failed for path /charger: Permission denied
adb: warning: stat failed for path /sdcard: No such file or directory
adb: warning: stat failed for path /system/bin/ip6tables-wrapper-1.0: Permission denied
...
...
...

```

Is it possible to pull all files from the phone or mount it on my Mac? I'm only interested in the pictures really.

# Answer
> 2 votes
I have used ADB on a Mac before, so it should be possible. I would suggest trying to pull specifically the emulated SD partition using the full path shown by your ls command: adb pull /storage/self/primary

I have seen a variety of "real paths" across different phones/versions of Android. Its actual location may be in emulated or mnt.

If it is stuck in a loop and never booting to Android, then there is little ADB can do.

---
Tags: adb
---


# Question
Title: Fondi 4.4 Wifi Tablet - Pattern locked and can't remember the gmail log in and password
My Wifi tablet Fondi 4.4 is locked with a pattern and I can't remember the gmail account settings for this tablet or the password how do I retrieve this? The tablet was locked in July 2017 and I have been struggling ever since to open it, please advise how do I get logged into the gmail account for this, the tablet does ask for the gmail login and password after I have done the pattern 5 times wrong

# Answer
> 0 votes
If your account has recovery settings, you should be able to regain access to the account, and therefore the tablet. Understandably, Google does not want entry methods that bypass the built-in security. If you cannot provide the details, there are no legitimate ways of gaining entry that I am aware of.

If you simply want to make the tablet useable, you can factory reset it.

---
Tags: locked-out
---


# Question
Title: What is this Overlay Application and How can I get rid of it?
Recently this "app" has shown up on my phone. Tapping it gives me access to things like the home and back button, as well as screen lock.

I can't figure out what app or setting has caused this to show up recently and I'd very much like to get rid of it as it gets in the way of using other applications. There aren't any apps that I see in the settings panel that I recognize as being this kind of tool (Lux, Twilight, Lumen, "toolbar", etc).

# Answer
> 2 votes
Thanks for adding the comment. This looks like the "**Navigation Dock**" feature of Huawei's EMUI. Because these Chinese system skins will include all features that are included with an iPhone.

You will find the option to disable if you search for *navigation dock* in your settings app.

It should also be somewhere here (varies slightly per device).

*Settings \> Smart Assistance \> System navigation \> Navigation Dock*.

Let's see how that goes.

---
Tags: applications, overlay
---


# Question
Title: Automatically, seamlessly block Google-suspected spam calls
The Google Phone app now reports when a suspected call is spam. Right now when I receive such a call, I have the choice to block that number. But what I'd like to do is pre-emptively set it up so that any such call is automatically blocked without my intervention.

I've investigated apps like Root Call Blocker Pro, and while they seem to do the silent, transparent blocking I'm after, it seems to require me actively maintaining a black list, entering the phone numbers I want to block. I'd like to rely on the Google's suspicions to block them. How can I set this up?

Alternately, might this be something my carrier can handle on a network-level? I'd be happy to pay for a relatively cheap app or work up a tasker/etc solution, but I'd rather not pay AT&T for a monthly service.

# Answer
> 1 votes
The phone app newly (as of July 13, 2018) allows a user to block calls from numbers Google suspects to be spam.

Under `Phone > Settings > Caller ID & spam`, toggle on both the `Caller ID & spam` and `Filter suspected spam calls` settings.

Reported here among other places; the article contains photos showing the steps I described above.

---
Tags: calls, phone-app, call-screening, spam, sms-blocking
---


# Question
Title: Will removing a google account from a device delete the game data?
I have an android phone from my friend because i need to get some game data with a code from my old account for a game. The thing is, he is logged in his account rn. If i go to settings,google then accounts and i remove his account will his game data be wiped? If yes,when i login back with his account will his data be back or no? Please anawer quickly, i dont have much time. and btw i cant acces my google play account because i use ios.

# Answer
> 1 votes
different games have different ways to save. most games have their save on google cloud, and some game place it on private server, or local storage. Most western (google play requiring games) store their saves in google server, meanwhile eastern have their own server for save.

why dont you mention your game title for a better understanding? because different game have different rule

---
Tags: google
---


# Question
Title: How do I flash SuperSU to my encrypted Wileyfox on COS 13.0.1?
Yesterday my WileyFox Spark+ came in, which is still equipped with COS13.0.1, based on Android 6.0.1. When I tried rooting the phone though, I got stuck at the point of using the TWRP recovery for flashing SuperSU. I until then, I had succesfully followed the following process:

-Enabled 'OEM Bootloader allowed to be unlocked' in Developer Options
-Installed USB drivers and such on PC
-Enabled USB debugging, apps from unknown sources, ADB install unsigned apps allowed etc.
-Enabled fastboot by holding correct buttons and enabling it after
-Flashed TWRP Recovery to phone like this in CMD:

```
fastboot devices (my phone showed up)
fastboot flash recovery twrp3100.img

```

-Booted into TWRP recovery

A few folders were present there, but almost all were empty. TWRP even said no OS was installed when I wanted to reboot. I was confused for a while, only to discover the OS was still there after booting into System. In tried to flash SuperSU from ADB, but that also didn't work. I issued the following commands in CMD:

```
adb reboot recovery
(ticked adb sideload in TWRP +wipe dalvik & cache)
adb sideload supersu279.zip

```

TWRP said it executed succesfully, but failed to access /data and /cache. Turned out the phone was encrypted already from the box. I never considered this an option. It's weird though, because I believe I have heard that flashing SuperSU from ADB should work even with an encrypted phone.

Now the interwebs and Wileyfox themselves say encryption is disabled when you factory reset the phone: https://twitter.com/wileyfox/status/685884111551115264 And so I did, but it just booted into TWRP with the same circumstances. Few folders, almost all empty. SD-card not visible. I tried sideloading SuperSU again, but without result.

Any idea how i should progress further? Did I miss something? 'Cause I have run out of ideas.. :(
I also can find very little about Wileyfoxe phones, so that doesn't help either.
Is it possible to flash SuperSU via fastboot or ODIN or anything?

Anyway, thanks for the help. Cheers.

*NB: I don't care about my data being encrypted or not, so decrypting the phone is not an issue for me, if possible/helpful. I'd rather have it gone.*

# Answer
> 1 votes
TWRP allows you to format data, this will clear the encryption and ALL your data of course, then you can mount the clean partition with mtp pass zips and flash the usual way.

---
Tags: rooting, 6.0-marshmallow, adb, encryption, side-loading
---


title: Stop Android from switching networks

text:
# Question
Title: Stop Android from switching networks
We have four different WiFi networks in our home which we use for different things. What I'm doing and where I am in the house dictates the one I want to use.

Android always tries to automatically connect to the network with the strongest signal strength, which is not necessarily the one I want to use. It becomes very annoying to have to keep switching it back to the one that I want.

Is there a way to make Android stay connected to the wifi network I select, until I either change it or go out of range of that network?

# Answer
> 1 votes
Assuming you don't protect your wifi with a password, then its likely that your phone automatically scans for open wifi connection and connects to 'nearest'. However, this only happens if you are no longer connected to or out of range of your desired network. So

1. Disabling auto scan for open network may ensure that you only connect to the active one.
2. Once you are done with the other networks, always remember to press "forget" on the wifi option

On the other hand if you have a password, then obviously you have stored the password of all the connection and using the "forget" option would mean entering the password each time.

So it may be that the strength of your desired connection is too weak or lost and the phone decides to connect to the nearest one, in which case there is nothing you can do but to make sure you are connected to the "right" network.

Hope it helped...

---
Tags: wi-fi
---


# Question
Title: How to swiftly hide on-screen keyboard with a gesture?
I'm using an ageing Nexus 6 with stock and rooted Android 7.1.1. The problem I have with most multi-featured keyboards is that they don't hide timely with my pace of app usage. So, with animations disabled, when I swiftly switch to an app and the keyboard was opened in last used app, it would not hide out with a breeze. Often I find a gap of one or more seconds which is irritating and unproductive.

Using Back key doesn't really work in such cases. I tried Hackers Keyboard while looking for a lightweight keyboard and while it provides a swipe action to hide keyboard (which reduces the severity of the issue here) I have productivity issues with the low and rigid width of its space bar which I have discussed here. Furthermore, it lacks predictions which is another disappointment.

Ideally, I would prefer to use my Gboard or any alternative but *competitive* app but the competitive ones I tried, such as TouchPal, Swiftkey, Google Indic, suffers from performance issues on my device. As such, I'm looking for a way to hide any keyboard with a gesture and swiftly.

I tried to look for Xposed modules but to no avail. I also looked into GMD Gesture Control to my utter disappointment.

# Answer
> 1 votes
* Install Xposed edge module (see the help and support section on basics of how to use this module)
* In preferences *gesture on soft keyboard* is enabled by default. Disable that (optional)
* Choose an edge and the desired trigger (single tap, double tap etc from the 6 options) and action as soft keyboard → hide soft keyboard

---
Tags: keyboard, 7.1-nougat, gestures
---


title: Gboard settings keeps crashing

text:
# Question
Title: Gboard settings keeps crashing
I am running Resurrection Remix, Nougat 7.1.1 on a Nexus 6p. I have Gboard "6.0.79.144029707-arm64-v8a" installed. I can open settings, but when I choose one of the settings categories, I get the message saying "Gboard has stopped", How do I fix this?

# Answer
Once you have made sure that Gboard is your default keyboard for your device, please check if you're able to navigate to the app's preferences by going to your device's Settings \> language & input \> Gboard \> Preferences. Here you can choose your keyboard preferences for Gboard.

If the app still crashes, I'd suggest you report this to the product developers directly by sending a feedback. To submit feedback, go to your device's Settings \> Language and input \> Virtual Keyboard \> Select Gboard \> Tap on the menu icon on the top right corner \> Send Feedback.
> 1 votes

# Answer
I am using a Samsung J7 2016 phone, and the only solution that works is switching to the Samsung virtual keyboard. That works fine and I am not receiving any crashes with it. I also believe that I can find other "virtual keyboards" to download on Google Play Store, but have not tried it, since the Samsung one works just fine.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: crashes, gboard
---


# Question
Title: Why not use a legacy flagship rather than a new mid-class smartphone? (Galaxy Note 3 2013 vs. A7 2018)
### Why does Samsung not keep producing the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note 3?

These devices, despite of their release date as flaghsip device in 2014 and 2013 still perform very well, and are solid mid-class phones today.

A great example: **Note 3 (2013)** versus **A7 2018 (2018)**:

The Galaxy Note 3 is equipped with:

* Air View hovering controls and tooltips
* Air Gesture controls
* Humidity sensor (hygrometer).
* Temperature sensor (thermometer).
* 2160p video recording (yes, the **Galaxy A7 2018 still only has 1080p at 30fps‼**)
* 1080p@60fps smooth video caputuring capabilities,
* Infrared transmitter,
* Slightly larger battery
* User-replaceable battery (thus custom back covers and wireless charging cover)
* S-Pen, the highly functional stylus.
* Multi-window pop-up windows with small minimum window size.
* Dark user interface (as known from legacy TouchWiz versions) with more icons **in addition to** the text, also in context menus.
* More customizeable and ultimately vibrant camera application user interface.
* Homescreen with more options, page slider and more drag/drop shortcuts such as AppInfo.

### All of which the A7 2018 has nothing.

Of course, the Galaxy A7 2018 has some advantages such as quick-launching camera, but **why does Samsung not keep producing previous flagships that could be an excellent mid-range device today?**
And features such as the camera quick launcher can simply be implemented via software updates that hopefully do not have side effects such as the uglified Lollipop user interface after updating S4, Note 3 and S5.

There is no *mid-range Galaxy Note* (there is LG G Stylo however), except Note 3 Neo, which got sold **much longer than original Galaxy Note 3 despite being not as good as the original Note 3.**

# Answer
Well, there's 2 parts to your question:

* **older model phones:** I currently use a Samsung Galaxy S4, and I agree with you 100% that older flagship smartphones are still excellent devices for today. Features like a removable battery are going extinct, and that's a deal-breaker for me. Some of these older flagship smartphones are still available for purchase new, just maybe not from where you'd expect.
* **why don't they do this:** Well, a lot of engineering work goes into designing a new device, so manufacturers need to meet certain sales volumes to recoup costs. Also, manufacturing older devices runs into the issue of taking up "resources" (assembly line time, warehouse space) that could be better spent on the newer model. Finally, older phones use different components than current phones. Some of these components may no longer be available, or the contract to supply them has expired, or new contracts for new suppliers for components of newer devices prevents them from entering contracts with older suppliers ("exclusive supply").
> 1 votes

# Answer
There's a few factors at play here, some of them technical, some commercial. Don't forget that when Apple introduced this policy of introducing new generations of iPod with more features and completely discontinuing the old ones, people praised them for going counter to the tech industry norm of dropping the price of older models, which was seen as price-gouging of early adopters.

## Costs don't work like that

The per-unit cost of making each phone doesn't decrease as the phone model gets older, because the components don't get any cheaper, so the margins would have to decrease in order to reduce the price point of the old models. Although the up-front cost of designing the phone has been paid off, there is an ongoing cost of porting new Android versions and/or backporting security fixes. People already get annoyed when their old phone doesn't get the latest Android version, and this would be even worse when their ex-flagship phone is already stuck on an old version out of the shop.

## Can't always support new versions

The Android version problem is even worse than it looks. Sometimes new features require new hardware components to support, for example NFC host emulation for Android Pay, or Bluetooth LE. Sometimes these components are mandatory for supporting a new Android version. The old flagship phone wouldn't be able to keep getting Android updates, while a new budget phone would.

Even when there's no new headline features, the phone OEM is also at the mercy of their component vendors, who have to supply drivers for parts like the GPU, video codec hardware, cellular modem. They don't want to support new Android versions on their old hardware either, because they have the same problem with decreasing margins. If OEMs demanded longer support, component vendors would have to increase their component prices, which would make even the flagship phones more expensive.

## Software integration is a variable cost

We've already mentioned that the software integration is a large part of the up-front cost of developing a new model, but it's not the same cost for every model. Flagship phones, with their slick camera app, swanky box features, and performance optimisations, cost a lot more to develop than budget phones. This is part of why the budget phones can be cheap in comparison.

## Branding

One last commercial reason is that having a separate budget phone range allows the OEM to differentiate their products better. Samsung (to use your example) doesn't want the Note range tainted with the idea that it's old technology, and discontinuing old models allows them to avoid that. Keeping the budget range with a separate name allows it to be better associated with the price point it's targeted at.

# Summary

It wouldn't be possible to offer last year's flagship phone at the same price point as this year's budget phone, it would make it harder for the OEM's marketing, and the decision of when to stop support wouldn't be entirely under the OEM's control any more.
> 3 votes

---
Tags: hardware
---


# Question
Title: Sync Exchange Contacts Subfolders with Android
Finally I managed to sync Exchange Server with Galaxy S3 and had managed to make it all work fine except the annoying contacts thing... The android sync only contacts that are in the main contacts folder won't sync contacts sub folders. Email Subfolders from some reason does sync. Any idea how can I make it work?

# Answer
> 1 votes
The problem has been reported and seems like it might be solved with some release

In the mean while, an alternative would be:

> * label contacts rather than put them in folder

# Answer
> 0 votes
Try the android "Smart Contacts" app and create groups. These can then be accessed when sending emails using std android app.

---
Tags: contacts, sync, exchange
---


# Question
Title: Syncing Android with (local) desktop Taskwarrior server on Ubuntu 16.04 on Windows 10
After installing the Taskwarrior and Taskwarrior server on Ubuntu 16.04 on Windows 10 and successfully synchronizing Taskwarrior with the Taskwarrior server on that laptop, I am trying to synchronize the F-Droid Taskwarrior app on LineageOS 7.1.2 with the laptop:

* either when they are locally on the same WiFi network, without a configurable router,
* or through the internet, preferably without dependency on external services.

So the question is, **what `taskd.server` solution/value in the APK/app would allow me to connect to my local PC with a local static IP address: and public shared IP adress: ?^**

^Whilst satisfying constraints:

* Preferably without dependency on external services
* Otherwise, a non-paid service that allows maintaining your own security/certificates.

Now I do not expect a simple answer, *I would really appreciate confirmations of assumptions or explanations why my assumptions or reasonings are invalid/incomplete.*

**Information that describes the installation steps followed:**

1. For simplification, all options are multiplied by applied twice, to alternate for the following setting:

```
ciphers=NORMAL
ciphers=SECURE256

```

As suggested here: https://bitbucket.org/kvorobyev/taskwarriorandroid/issues/2/provide-a-taskrcandroid-with-options-and
2. The certificates are copied from the folder in Ubuntu `/home/a/.task` folder to the `C:/exportcertificates` folder on the Windows 10 OS with the following command:

```
cp /home/a/.task/first.cert.pem /mnt/c/exportcertificates
cp /home/a/.task/first.key.pem /mnt/c/exportcertificates
cp /home/a/.task/ca.cert.pem /mnt/c/exportcertificates

```

Next, in Windows, `ca.cert.pem` is opened in Subliminal. All the text above `-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----` is deleted, to ensure the `ca.cert.pem` certificate starts with `-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----` and ends with `-----END CERTIFICATE-----` as suggested by the repo owner here: https://bitbucket.org/kvorobyev/taskwarriorandroid/issues/19/failed-sync-on-android-601-nexus-6

Next, these 3 certificates are copied to the internal storage of the Android phone with LineageOS, Android 7.1.2.
3. The location of the certificates storage is created manually **in the internal storage of the phone** as `<uuid>`:

```
/storage/self/primary/Android/data/kvj.taskw/files/<uuid>

```

Where `<uuid>` is the User Key in the original Ubuntu installation of Taskserver, as specified here: https://gitpitch.com/GothenburgBitFactory/taskserver-setup#/13/2. This adheres to the protocol according to: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Taskd

Next, a new account is created and the location accompanying that account is the previously created `<uuid>`.
4. There are `n` keys, and certificates produced, some might be based on the information in: `/var/taskd/vars` file which contains the `CN=localhost` line.

If one of the 3 exported certificates, most likely `ca.cert.pem` is based on that `CN=localhost` line, it could produce an error since the "config file" of the Taskwarrior app needs to refer to a different/external host if it wants to connect to the localhost on that PC. As I think is implied here: https://gitpitch.com/GothenburgBitFactory/taskserver-setup#/9/2
5. The PC has local IP: `172.XX.YY.4` and all PC's on the whole building (200+ PCs) share the following external IP address: `89.AAA.BBB.4`. So, the first thing I tried was accessing the building's router at the default gateway to set up a portforward. That was not possible, neither with https://github.com/kaklakariada/portmapper nor the system administrator indicated:

> Routers are not supplied to the building, you on your individual LAN ports you are given through DHCP you are given a public IPv4 address. If you connect your PC to the LAN you don't need to portforward. If you want you can put a router between the wall socket and your PC to portforward.

That seems to suggest that without the portforward, it should directly connect to the localhost.

But I do not understand how I could tell it to go from public IP address `89.AAA.BBB.4` to local IP address `89.AAA.BBB.4` at port `53589`.
6. I am currently working at brute forcing all attempts to connect to `localhost` on a different PC listed below. The list contains the settings for the Taskwarrior F-Droid app:"

If the following lines are not specified, they are added in the settings as either:

```
taskd.certificate=first.cert.pem
taskd.key=first.key.pem
taskd.ca=ca.cert.pem
taskd.credentials=<organisation>\/<username of taskwarrior>\/<User key>
ciphers=NORMAL

```

Or:

```
taskd.certificate=first.cert.pem
taskd.key=first.key.pem
taskd.ca=ca.cert.pem
taskd.credentials=<organisation>\/<username of taskwarrior>\/<User key>
ciphers=SECURE256

```

**List of current attempts:**

```
taskd.server=localhost:53589
taskd.server=127.0.0.1:53589
taskd.server=172.XX.YY.4:53589
taskd.server=89.AAA.BBB.4:53589

```

Then I tried tunneling an external host using ngrok (Source: https://dashboard.ngrok.com/get-started)

I downloaded and unpacked the `ngrok.exe` to `c:/ngrok/` opened `cmd>cd c:/ngrok` and entered the following commands:

```
ngrok http 80

```

Which returned:

```
http://f59195a3.ngrok.io -> localhost:80
https://f59195a3.ngrok.io -> localhost:80

```

So the config file in the APK file was set to:

```
taskd.certificate=first.cert.pem
taskd.key=first.key.pem
taskd.ca=ca.cert.pem
taskd.server=http://f59195a3.ngrok.io
taskd.credentials=<organisation>\/<username of taskwarrior>\/<User key>
ciphers=NORMAL

```

And to:

```
taskd.certificate=first.cert.pem
taskd.key=first.key.pem
taskd.ca=ca.cert.pem
taskd.server=http://f59195a3.ngrok.io
taskd.credentials=<organisation>\/<username of taskwarrior>\/<User key>
ciphers=SECURE256

```

And to:

```
taskd.certificate=first.cert.pem
taskd.key=first.key.pem
taskd.ca=ca.cert.pem
taskd.server=https://f59195a3.ngrok.io
taskd.credentials=<organisation>\/<username of taskwarrior>\/<User key>
ciphers=NORMAL

```

And to:

```
taskd.certificate=first.cert.pem
taskd.key=first.key.pem
taskd.ca=ca.cert.pem
taskd.server=https://f59195a3.ngrok.io
taskd.credentials=<organisation>\/<username of taskwarrior>\/<User key>
ciphers=SECURE256

```

And to:

```
taskd.certificate=first.cert.pem
taskd.key=first.key.pem
taskd.ca=ca.cert.pem
taskd.server=f59195a3.ngrok.io
taskd.credentials=<organisation>\/<username of taskwarrior>\/<User key>
ciphers=NORMAL

```

And to:

```
taskd.certificate=first.cert.pem
taskd.key=first.key.pem
taskd.ca=ca.cert.pem
taskd.server=f59195a3.ngrok.io
taskd.credentials=<organisation>\/<username of taskwarrior>\/<User key>
ciphers=SECURE256

```

Without a port number specified at the end, e.g. `taskd.server=https://f59195a3.ngrok.io`, it immediately returns the following error:

> Sync disabled: certificate load failure

With a port specified, e.g. `taskd.server=f59195a3.ngrok.io:80` and `taskd.server=f59195a3.ngrok.io:53589`, the sync is configured successfully and it tries and fails after a few minutes with the error:

> Failed to receive data: Unkown error -1 sync failed. Could not connect to the Taskserver.

This procedure is repeated with the different secure tunnel by ngrok using forward to port `53589` (which is set open in the Windows firewall. TODO: Present evidence that it is reachable from an external (not local WiFi) system).

```
ngrok http 53589
ngrok tcp 53589

```

Without a successful sync.

Next, a similar approach is used using https://localtunnel.github.io/www/. After installation, the following commands are used to set up a secure tunnel to the server on Windows 10.

```
lt --port 53589

```

returning: https://ancient-octopus-100.localtunnel.me

Analogous to ng, the servers without the port specified immediately failed on the certificate error described above.

And the ones with port specifications tried, but they failed after a few minutes on the same error as specified above.

Next, there was the awesome site https://www.freecinc.com/ which provides a hosting service. However, it only allows one to use the keys that are generated by that service. As far as I understand, using that, you lose your security, which I do appreciate.

The other awesome equivalent is https://inthe.am/ which requires a Google account. Which I am trying to avoid.

The next option is to modify the cn=.. in the configuration file on the hosting server (my laptop) itself so that that matches the value of what eventually needs to be filled in in the Android Taskwarrior app. However, since I have not determined this value yet, and I assume the `ca.cert.pert` is dependent on the "cn=.." value in the config file, they need to be transferred every iteration, making it a rather convoluted process.

Against recommendations, I am trying to use a laptop as a hosting server, and I would be ecstatic if the Android phone and laptop could sync if they are on the same home WiFi network.

Here, it is suggested on https://gitpitch.com/GothenburgBitFactory/taskserver-setup#/10/1 to use "your full machine name for proper network addressability". `hostname -f` returns `DESKTOP-2XXXXXT.localdomain`, I do not think that is the "full machine name".

# Answer
The short answer is classified by the Taskwarrior setup guide as "a bad idea". Source: https://taskwarrior.org/docs/taskserver/taskwarrior.html

Set the `taskd.trust` to `ignore hostname` with the following line:

`sudo task config taskd.trust -- ignore hostname`

This approach was combined with the solution suggested in this question that I found afterward: https://superuser.com/questions/1314916/when-listening-to-a-port-taskserver-should-the-local-address-be-localhost-or

It suggests one set the `CN=localhost:portnr` to `CN=0.0.0.0:53589` in the `/pki` folder before generating the certificates. `CN=0.0.0.0:53589` would mean only Taskwarrior instances that are on the same machine, e.g. VirtualBox Ubuntu with Taskwarrior or emulated Android with Taskwarrior F-Droid app would be able to access the server.

However, just setting `CN=0.0.0.0:53589` did not allow the Taskwarrior server on Ubuntu on Windows 10 (through Windows Store) to sync with itself. That is why the ignore hostname **a bad idea**, was added to make it work.

That also meant the Taskwarrior F-Droid app was able to synchronize with it from a different WiFi network in the same building.

There are two moments where one needs to enter the host IP address and port name.

1. In the `vars` file in the `pki` folder in the line `CN=...`
2. After telling Taskserver where the freshly generated certificates are located, with the line: `sudo taskd config --force server 0.0.0.0:53589 --data $TASKDDATA`

I intend on testing the following setups to yield a definite answer.

1. Setting the static IP address of my laptop and seeing if I can sync the Taskserver on Ubuntu on Windows 10 and the Taskwarrior app with the server on the PC if I enter the static. With and without ignoring the hostname in `taskd.trust`
2. Setting `CN=127.0.0.1:53589` and seeing if I can sync the Taskserver on Ubuntu on Windows 10 and the Taskwarrior app with the server on the PC if I enter the static. With and without ignoring the hostname in `taskd.trust`
3. Performing more thorough troubleshooting with `CN=0.0.0.0:53589` to try and sync without ignoring `hostname` in `taskd.trust`.
4. Changing a character in every certificate (one at a time) in the F-Droid Taskwarrior app and checking if the successful synchronisation becomes unsuccessful due to an invalid certificate. From that, one could conclude that the answer I suggest, ignoring the hostname breaches the security of the hostname location, and not the complete certificate security check.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: applications, sync
---


# Question
Title: If I buy an Android phone today and want security updates for as long as possible, how should I choose a phone? I'm willing to use custom ROMs.
# Background

Quite a few software developers offer special "long-term support" (LTS) or "extended-support release" (ESR) editions of their products. You install the product once and get security updates for up to ten years, without having to upgrade to the next major version of the software.

Here are some examples: You can install one version of Firefox ESR and then get security updates for version for about a year. Or you can install one version of Ubuntu LTS and then get security updates for that version for five years.

Unfortunately, Google doesn't offer a special long-term support edition of Android. Security fixes get backported to your device's Android version until Google stops backporting them. These patched Android versions get built into new firmware images for your device until your device manufacturer or third-party ROM builder stops building new images.

(For example, it looks like Android 6.0.1 "Marshmallow" is still getting security fixes. The latest versions of Android 6.0.1 are android-6.0.1\_r56 through android-6.0.1\_r63. Each of these eight Android versions was released on the same day: on Aug. 1, '16. Each of the eight was designed to support a different set of Nexus devices. Device makers can pick any of the eight and then port it to other Android devices. As of this writing, it looks like Android 5.1.1 "Lollipop" may also still be getting security fixes. The latest version is android-5.1.1\_r38, which was released July 19, '16; it may also be known by the build code LMY49M.)

### iOS

Apple tends to support iOS devices for three to five years after their initial release. (Source.) They ship both new features (which slow down your device, thereby encouraging you to upgrade) and security updates. But I want a device which is more open and expandable than an Apple device.

# My question

If I'm buying an Android cellphone today, and I want to get security updates for it as many years as possible, how should I choose?

(Monthly security updates are nice, but today I'm not asking about monthly security updates. My question is *not* about which Android phones get security updates the most frequently. Instead, it's about which Android phones get security updates for the greatest number of years after purchase — even if I must wait six or twelve months between updates.)

Please don't recommend a specific make and model of mobile phone and leave it at that. Such an answer would be useful to readers today, but not to readers who view this question a few years from now. Instead, please tell me how to compare products myself. How important is it for me to choose a best-selling device? Does it matter whether I buy a midrange phone (US$100-$200 with no contract) or a high-end phone ($600-$800 with no contract)? Must I choose hardware from manufacturers who get their drivers into the Linux kernel, and if so, which manufacturers are these? What other criteria should I use in order to make my choice?

Please assume that I'm willing to download and install custom ROMs in order to get security updates, but that I'm not willing to compile anything myself.

I know that you can't predict the future with perfect accuracy. Please just try your best.

# Answer
The Dutch consumer organization retests their smartphones periodically for updates: https://www.consumentenbond.nl/acties/updaten/ruim-een-derde-smartphones-heeft-sterk-verouderde-veiligheidsupdate

The list is basically: the Google Nexus/Pixel phones (~3 years), Nokia / HMD Global, last (& this..) year's flagship Samsung (~1.5 years), this years flagship Sony Xperia.

(These phones had the February 2018 update begin March)

In the mean time iDevices are updated for up to 5 years (4 years + security updates until next iOS). This makes them cheaper year-over-year over the lifetime of the phone. Please see the "Depreciation" and "Sources" worksheets in this Google Sheets workbook.
> 7 votes

# Answer
## Modular may offer official long-term support

Not quite ready today are modular phones, like that for Project Ara. Be aware that the schedule for modular phones has already slipped by years, so I would still treat the dates as questionable. Due to their modular nature, the expectation is that they will continue to be supported for a long time.

Update: Project Ara was nixed not long after I wrote this answer. VentureBeat has a story on Project Ara and the difficulties with modular phones.

## Unofficial support

Without official support, you are basically trying to predict the future about what phones will have a sufficiently enthusiastic user base to support the phones. There are no simple hardware or price based criteria you can use to do this.

If you want something today, I would recommend a Nexus device. The guaranteed updates aside, these seem to have enough of a following in the community that there are custom ROMs available years after the official support has ended. Don't expect updates to be released in a timely manner, however, because people are basically supplying this out of their volunteer time. I have a Galaxy Nexus (maguro), for example, which was released in 2011. The latest maguro Cyanogenmod releases are:

1. cm-13.0-20160820
2. cm-13.0-20160816
3. cm-12.1-20160719
4. cm-11-20150626

I was surprised to see an update to the 12.x line last month because it had been so long since the last update. I ended up reverting to the 20150626 build for development purposes because video on 12.x had problems, so also be aware that the custom ROMs can't work magic with less capable hardware.

Having unusual hardware has not dissuaded motivated volunteers from continuing to support the Galaxy Nexus, which has an unusual Texas Instruments processor. There were rumors that Google dropped support relatively early because of this.

Short of maintaining the device yourself or paying someone to maintain it for you, you have to guess.
> 3 votes

# Answer
Other answers mention that aftermarket distributions can provide you with security updates. This is only true to some degree. They usually integrate low level-code (proprietary blobs) from the manufacturer and those parts don't get updates after support from the manufacturer ends.

The same is true for firmware bugs of hardware components. (e.g. Broadpwn)

postmarketOS tries to solve those problems with a GNU/Linux distribution for phones and open source firmware.
> 3 votes

# Answer
Your best option would be to buy a Google Nexus phone. Because Google is Android's developer, Nexus phones get updates first.

Example of their updates is the Stagefright patch. The oldest phone that got the security patch was the Nexus 4. The phone was released in 2012 and still got the update. Nexus phones which did not get the update from Google got it from third-party ROM developers — Google's phones seem to attract developers.

At the time of writing, the latest Nexus phone is the Nexus 6P.

List of end-of-support dates for Google phones:

* Nexus 6P September 2017
* Nexus 5X September 2017
* Nexus 9 October 2016
* Nexus 6 October 2016
* Nexus 5 October 2015
* Nexus 7 (2013) July 2015
* Nexus 4 November 2014
* Nexus 10 November 2014
* Nexus 7 (2012) June 2014

Security patches aren't *guaranteed* to end at these dates, but it's very possible that they will.

(Source)

List of patched vulnerabilities pushed out via OTA to Nexus devices (stagefright):

* CVE-2015-3873
* CVE-2015-3872
* CVE-2015-3871
* CVE-2015-3868
* CVE-2015-3867
* CVE-2015-3869
* CVE-2015-3870
* CVE-2015-3823
* CVE-2015-6598
* CVE-2015-6599
* CVE-2015-6600
* CVE-2015-3870
* CVE-2015-6601
* CVE-2015-3876
* CVE-2015-6604

(Source)
> 2 votes

# Answer
Regarding stock Android, the manufacturers that are currently most vigilant about updating their latest models' OS in a timely manner are Google in its Nexus collaborations and Motorola in its Moto line.

After the manufacturers end their updates, the community continues to produce custom ROMs for popular models. Perhaps the widest set of custom roms, CyanogenMod (CM) still supports old devices such as the Galaxy S2, albeit with some limitation. The ability to support old models depends strongly on the release of the source codes by the manufacturers and (with some exceptions) it seems that source codes of Snapdragon devices are released more often than source codes for Exynos devices.

A list of devices from major vendors supported by the latest CM version (13) can be found here and it can provide you some perspective on how devices are supported by the community in the long term.

Combining these two perspectives I would say that Nexus devices provide the best short term stock support. However, you can often find flagship phones with better specs that will have the same long term community support. You may want to avoid Exynos devices, though.
> 1 votes

# Answer
Go for a flagship device instead of a mid-range or low-range device. Flagships (and some other popular models) generally tend to be supported by the community for a long time. I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 (d2tmo) that came out almost 4.5 years ago and it is still supported by Cyanogenmod. It was released with Icecream Sandwich and now upgraded up to Marshmallow thanks to CM. Ultimately, community support depends on the number of active users.
> 1 votes

# Answer
Google has released a statement somewhere that they will only officially provide support for 2years for their Nexus phones and thats the best you can get with stock.

If you are willing to roll with custom roms. I think that getting a phone that has chipset from a manufacturer with a good track record in providing drivers for a recently released Android version is a good bet. Qualcomm is still providing recent kernel drivers for all Snapdragon 6xx-8xx for Android 6.0 for example, which provides the community like XDA forums to build upon custom roms for all phones sporting the chipset. Also pick a brand/manufacturer that allows bootloader unlocking, e.g Sony, Motorola. Locked bootloader severely impacts the community in making custom roms as forces them to create exploits or workarounds in the device making it potentially unstable to use.

But my advice is, just pick the best phone which fills most of your checkbox and live with it till it breaks. I think Android is pretty secure as is.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: security, custom-roms, hardware, device-firmware
---


# Question
Title: Is it possible to reset Engineering mode's audio settings?
I have a Quantum Muv (Brazilian phone) with android 6.0

When I first got it, its max volume for media was really low, both with earphones and without, so I followed a tutorial to change the settings via engineering mode. It worked well for headphones, but the speakers were still too low. Some time goes by and I try to change the settings again, but now it's like there's no volume 'slider': there's either off (0% volume) or max (all other %es). The settings are all a mess and I'm afraid trying to fix it will just mess everything up again.

Is it possible to reset engineering mode configurations without a factory reset?

# Answer
> 0 votes
* Open engineering mode using the number `*#*#3646633#*#*`
* Then go to hardware testing
* Press audio
* Then go to loudspeaker mode
* Press ring change to media
* Change value 0~255 change to 60.

I.e...., from if you have messed up everything in all the setting sid, sip, ring, sph and sph2 From level 0 to 6or 14 the value 0~255 should be in increasing order in counts of 12 or 16. And value 0~160 keep that in 128 default or for increase in volume keep in 135 that's all.

Do this properly and you will get the slider corrected and increase in volume. While doing this process play a song from the music player.

Even I faced the same issue and got it solved after an hour of experimenting with all 4 audio settings Don't alter engineering mode again.

---
Tags: 6.0-marshmallow, audio
---


# Question
Title: What is the meaning of "a5ultexx" in terms of phone models?
I have an sm-a500fu 2015 and I've been tinkering with it for the last few months, custom recovery and root.

I've found a ROM port for it which I want to install and the latest version is for the ROM is for a model a5ultexx. The previous versions of the ROM explicitly say a500fu but the latest says a5ultexx. Does this mean my a500fu is compatible, or that all a5 models are compatible?

# Answer
> 2 votes
`a500fu` or `a5ultexx` are codenames, but not necessarily ones given by the manufacturer. ROM maintainers will determine a suitable codename representative of the device in the bringup process, and that codename can change during the device's life cycle (in another answer of mine, I described a similar change to another device).

For recent Samsung devices there's an undocumented (AFAIK) pattern in the codenames. Take your device for example:

> `a5ultexx` = SM-A500FU
>
> * `a5` is obviously Galaxy A5
> * `u` for sub-variant, the "U" in "A500FU" - this part is rarely seen
> * `lte` for LTE variants, versus `wifi` for WiFi-only tablets, or `3g` for 3G variants.
> * `xx` for general region/carrier, in this case, for international devices, the "F" in "A500FU".

As you can see the 2 expressions point to the same device, so yours is compatible.

---
Tags: rom-flashing
---


# Question
Title: Is there a VoIP / WifiCalling app that allows you to use your own number?
Is there a VoIP/Wifi-Calling app that allows you to use your own phone number? (that is, the cell phone number that is already assigned to your device by your carrier)?

I've been poking around online and it seems almost all force you to take on a separate phone number for the VoIP/Wifi-Calling app. I've only seen one claim that Vonage allows it, but none other. Ideally I'd like more than one to choose from. Haven't tried Vonage as of this writing but going to try it right after posting this question.

I tried Vonage. It does use my number for outgoing calls, but incoming calls still ring the phone app installed on my phone by Sprint. I have a feeling that acejavelin is correct that my only option is call forwarding to another line (like google voice) which is inherently set up to work over IP.

Seems to me, ideally, if I could just actually replace the phone app that my phone came with, that would work, if I could find a phone app that can do that and that does everything I want. By the way, the main reason I want this is to be able to use Wifi calling when I'm in a location with a weak signal but available Wifi. Sprint offers Wifi calling but they have some bugs; I've escalated to Sprint's Engineering team, but it does not appear they are going to fix their bugs anytime soon.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Many SIP or other online providers can route call outbound sending your Caller ID, or any Caller ID you chose for that matter (there are some legalities to this, so it could depend on your country or locale), but to get inbound calls over that service the provider must "own" the number in order to route it. The only other option would be to get a different number from that provider, and call forward always your existing number to that number.

A common way to do this is to port your number to Google Voice, and get a replacement number from your carrier... This allows Google Voice to route inbound and outbound calls on your number to cell phone. Google Voice allows inbound calls to be routed to your new number from your carrier transparently so the caller doesn't know the call is a data call or a voice call. This also removed the "link" between your number and the device, allowing you to make and receive calls via an Android app, iPhone app, Hangouts extension on Chrome/web browser, or with services like Simon Telephonics Google Voice SIP Gateway.

# Answer
> 1 votes
T-Mobile supports the Android's native WiFi calling mechanism, provided you have a device/Android version that support it.

# Answer
> 0 votes
FreeFly881 app does offer the same mobile number for your VoIP calling.

---
Tags: voip
---


# Question
Title: How to restore my Z8 android dual SIM card phone
My Z8 informed me that a lot of files were not responding and kept me in a continual loop! Please understand that I am not that tech savvy so I am here asking for help in the simplest terms possible. I once followed y our instructions to use n power button and volume button and got to c prompt and removed a pin code. I was hoping that you can reinstruct me on how and maybe the phone can be restarted or you can tell me how to reinstall drivers, IOS, UK etc to make it work please. Thank you.

# Answer
> 0 votes
You didn't provide info about which Z8 you have. From what I checked, many companies have a model named Z8.

Anyhow, you should be able to fix most software issues by resetting the phone to factory state. That means you'll lose all user data. So, backup everything that you possibly can.

Then boot your device into recovery mode. The procedure may differ from device to device. But for most, the following combo works from a powered off state:

Press and hold *Power* and *Volume Up* keys. Release the power key upon vibration, but keep on holding the volume up key till you reach the recovery mode.

You can do "Factory Reset" or "Wipe Data" or something similar from the recovery to bring everything to the factory state.

---
Tags: 5.0-lollipop
---


# Question
Title: What does a "phone with 4G" system notification icon mean?
I have a Moto G6 with Vodafone Gujarat India. There is a "phone with 4G" icon in the notification bar.

What does it mean?

# Answer
That signifies the "VoLTE" calling. Because now your call is made over the LTE network, which is different than how they used to be placed earlier. Vodafone had launched VoLTE in many states but it's been a good time since they were launched in Gujarat. Surprising that you're noticing it only now.

VoLTE brings HD voice quality and faster call connect times. So, you get a lot of improvement in the experience.
> 2 votes

---
Tags: notification-icons
---


# Question
Title: How do you NOT sync contacts when adding a new google account on Android?
By the time you add a new google account it adds the contacts already and you have to uncheck the option but its too late. Its running **lollipop**

# Answer
> 0 votes
That's almost a chicken-and-egg problem: you cannot disable sync before the data are already gone, and you cannot create the new account offline to prevent this. But there are two apporaches which should work:

1. create the account and turn sync off *before* you save any contacts/calendars (not always possible; I assume you are speaking of an additionbal account while already using the device for a while)
2. have your contacts/calendar data in a separate calendar/addressbook which is not synced. To achieve this,
    * either use the "device only" storage (if your device offers that)
    * there's e.g. offline calendar for calendar. And there's DAVDroid (and probably other DAV-based sync tools) creating its own calendar and contact storage.

You should then make this other storage the "default storage" so that, whenever you add a contact/calendar entry, it will be saved there. Now you'd also need to move your data over to the new storage. For contacts, you could e.g. export them to a `.vcf` file (the contacts app offers that), then delete them all, then import the .vcf into the "other address book". For calendars, there's no such export possibility, unfortunately, though the `.ical` format could take care for that.

The easiest way of course would be not to create a Google account …

---
Tags: 5.0-lollipop, sync, google-contacts
---


# Question
Title: how to ignore folder when using adb push
I like to copy development files (ie a git repo) from my local machine to my android using adb push (I still couldn't find a reliable git client application on android).

However, I also need to ignore certain directories (think of the directories that are typically ignored by git and placed in .gitignore).. such as the build folder in a java project.

How do I make an adb push command that ignores a certain directory but copies everything else?

# Answer
This sounds like an XY problem as excluding files and directories with `adb push` isn't what you're really intending to do.

If you're syncing Git repositories, the best option is a Git client. The one I'm currently using is Termux and I do a lot of development on my phone with it.

Download Termux and use its built-in APT package manager to install Git and you'll be able to process your work easily.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: adb
---


# Question
Title: Can I install packages to external SD card on Termux in Android?
I am using Termux in my Android device and it is awesome. I've installed it from Google Play. Now the packages that I install using the command `pkg install ...`, install those to the internal storage. Since my internal storage space is running low, I am thinking to install these packages to the external SD card. Can I do it? Thank you.

# Answer
Unfortunately you can't.

The packages you install using `pkg install`, which is actually a wrapper for the frontend of the famous Debian Package Manager, APT. APT downloads packages provided by Termux and installs them. So the packages are just Debian packages. Witha bit of Googling and/or digging, you'll find that **file paths are hardcoded**, i.e., they'll always be extracted (installed) into `/data/data/com.termux/files/usr`.

Possible tricks are, apparently, possible. However it's not recommended to try any as Termux is highly similar to a real Linux environment, which means any bad SELinux context or wrong permission can cause programs to malfunction.

Answer: Try to free up your internal storage if you plan to install more packages in Termux, instead of thinking about installing the packages to elsewhere.
> 3 votes

---
Tags: external-sd, linux, android-versions, termux
---


# Question
Title: Is there are way to change Android's default screen orientation?
I have a general purpose Android computer that has no sensors. It requires an external monitor to view output via HDMI. It always displays in landscape unless the app running specifies portrait.

1) The screen PHYSICALLY needs to be displayed in portrait.
2) The OS **always displays in landscape**, unless an app overrides orientation.

3) How to change the default (currently landscape) orientation to portrait in the OS?

Is there a setting in Android that determines default orientation or does this require a hack? I have root access.

# Answer
Run this from `adb shell` or from a root terminal:

```
content insert --uri content://settings/system --bind name:s:user_rotation --bind value:i:0

```

Change the value to 1 if you want to go back to Landscape (2 and 3 also work for upside-down portrait and reverse landscape).
> 11 votes

# Answer
There's an app called Set Orientation which looks like it does what you need:

> Set Orientation allows you to force your device into a particular screen orientation.

Screenshots of *Set Orientation* (source: Google Play; click images for larger variants)

As the screenshots show, this app let's you override the sensors (which you don't have) and tell the system which way your screen is oriented.

**Update:** the app was unlisted from Play, but you can find some alternatives here.
> 2 votes

# Answer
In settings -\> accessibility -\> autorotate screen there is an option that is stronger than the display options !
> -1 votes

# Answer
Android 6+ you just check Auto Orientation. Select desired Orientation. Check Lock Screen. Deselect Auto orientation. Close reboot to check.
> -2 votes

---
Tags: settings, orientation
---


# Question
Title: Helium (carbon) won't recognize backup files
I backed up to an SD card using Helium before factory resetting my Samsung Galaxy S5. Helium could find my backups and gave the option to "restore" before factory reset - after, it's not.

I've tried this method:

1. Start Helium
2. Pick any "dummy app" to create a backup from
3. Exit Helium
4. Check where it placed the backup files, and which files those are (a backup consists of multiple files)
5. Copy your backup files to that location
6. Check if for each app there are all the files you've checked above1
7. Start Helium again, it now should find the backups
8. Restore whatever you wanted to restore

But it still only sees the recently backed up apps, not the many others I've pasted there.

What is different about my previously backed-up apps that it is not recognizing?

# Answer
It's because the files within the `com.koushikdutta.backup/files` are deleted whenever

1. You uninstall Helium Backup, or
2. The phone has been factory reset

If those files are missing, Helium Backup will fail to recognize any of your backups, even if they exist and is easily restorable.

Requiring those files to exist in order to restore backups is honestly quite a retarded system.
> 1 votes

# Answer
If you have the premium version of the app (which enables cloud saves) then backup any of your apps to Google Drive, this will create a folder in your Drive which Helium will use for future backups. Then upload your old backup to the Google Drive folder created by Helium. Open Helium again and choose restore from cloud/Google Drive and your old backup will show up.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: backup, factory-reset, samsung-galaxy-s-5, restore
---


title: can't update, can't do a factory reset

text:
# Question
Title: can't update, can't do a factory reset
I have a Nexus S running Android 2.3.4. For a while now it's been trying to prompt me to install newer versions. Every time I try, it restarts, displays the cute robot error screen and doesn't come back on until I take out the battery and restart it. Pressing power+volume+/- doesn't help.

I also tried to do a factory reset. Same result.

Before I got this phone (it was a gift), the shop did something to it "to enable Hebrew." Not sure what exactly but I suspect they dinkied around with system files and that's what is causing this.

Anyone have suggestions for what to try next?

# Answer
> 2 votes
This a solution to bring your device to a stable, stock, factory default state.

**NOTE: this will wipe your device *(not the SD card)* and return it to stock, unrooted factory defaults.**

1. Download one of these two files:

* This file if you want to restore to **Gingerbread**
    * and this zip file if you want to restore to the OTA **4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich)** latest update.
2. Extract the file you downloaded to your computer, in a location you remember.
3. On your phone, enable debugging

* this is usually found by going to the home screen, then pressing `Menu` and choosing `Settings->Applications->Development` and check the `USB debugging` option
4. Plug your phone into your computer
5. Locate the `run.bat` file in the location where you extracted the .zip file
6. Run this file and wait for the process to finish.
7. You're done! Reboot and enjoy!

# Answer
> 1 votes
If you don't mind ending with CM9 follow these steps:

http://oldwiki.cyanogenmod.org/wiki/Nexus\_S:\_Full\_Update\_Guide

# Answer
> 1 votes
Google has the official system images available for download here. You'll need to be familiar with the fastboot tool or learn how to use it :)

# Answer
> 0 votes
This is really old, but I just needed and found working instructions for the factory reset of a Nexus S. They are at https://developers.google.com/android/ota, the relevant steps are:

4. ... use the key combination for your device (Press and hold Volume Up, then press and hold Power), and then select the Recovery option from the bootloader menu. The device is now in recovery mode and an Android logo with red exclamation mark should appear on screen.
5. To access the recovery menu, hold the Power button and press Volume Up once. The recovery text menu will appear.

From the recovery menu, you can do a factory reset that will wipe all your data.

---
Tags: samsung-nexus-s, backup, factory-reset
---


# Question
Title: Meizu m3 note started lagging because of Google play services
Recently, my meizu phone started lagging, and after a while, I decided to reinstall my system. After a couple of reinstallations, i realised, the problem was in google services, because my phone started to lag exactly after google services installation. And the worst thing is that I can't use any of 50% of my apps anymore, because they all need a GS to work.

P.S. I installed GS with google installer from meizu app store.

# Answer
> 3 votes
The problem is caused by Meizu app store that continuously updating google play service infinitely. So, try the following steps:

1. Turn off your auto update on Meizu app store by tapping App store \> profile (top right) \> setting \> App store auto update.
2. Install older version of Google app installer, for example is here.

Those steps work for me.

---
Tags: google-play-store, google
---


title: How to mask USB OTG as SD card

text:
# Question
Title: How to mask USB OTG as SD card
I have a unique requirement wrt Youtube, MicroSD Card and USB OTG.

**What I am trying to do:** I want to make use of Youtube offline feature where you can store a supported video offline (to view without any internet connection at a later date and time) in phone internal storage or attached MicroSD card.

**The problem** The MicroSD slot in my phone is unavailable (because I am using the same for Dual SIM)

**The non working solution** I do have an OTG connector where I can add a MicroSD card to my phone, however the same is being detected as USB storage by the Android and hence by Youtube, and I am unable to store offline videos.

**Help required** I would like to know any app, hack, patch, custom ROM that will help me to use OTG as internal storage or mask the same as MicroSD card?

Thank you all in advance for reading or replying to my question. PS: I have "Redmi Note 3" as my phone running Android 5.1.1 and MIUI 8.0.5.0

# Answer
> 2 votes
I found a rather easy solution here, but it requires Android Marshmallow 6.0:

(My Device is a rooted Nexus 7 2012 with latest ASOP 7.1.2 installed, the OTG Device is a USB-Card-Reader with a Micro-SD-Card). I'm note sure if you need root for these commands.

Connect your OTG-Device, then run the command in a Terminal-Emulator (like this one) directly on your device:

```
sm set-force-adoptable true

```

or use ADB from your pc (you'll need to install the Android Debug Bridge ADB first, see here):

```
adb shell sm set-force-adoptable true

```

After that, you should see a Notification, which ask if you want to use the storage "normally" or as adoptable storage (which would format the Usb-device). I chose the first one (without formatting), then the my OTG-Device was available like a Micro-SD-Card on my SGS5. The OTG-Device will then automatically be mounted under /storage/0000-ffff (hex-code of your device).

Now i can choose my "new" SD-Card for Netflix Downloads. I assume Youtube offline downloads are supported now, too.

There is a Notification to "discard" your device, with that I even can disconnect the OTG-Device and/or restart my android, the next time I reconnected my OTG-Device I was able to use the Netflix Downloads again, without repeating the commands (sometimes I had to force-close Netflix first)!

With my OTG-Adaptor (Inateck OTG Hub & SD Card Reader HB3001G) I even can use OTG and charge at the same time (connect the power source to the OTG Reader first, then to your Android Device, for some reason that dosen't work all thetime)!

---
Tags: external-sd, youtube, usb-on-the-go, internal-sd, link2sd
---


title: Company account terminated

text:
# Question
Title: Company account terminated
I had my work gmail setup on my phone. I just switched jobs and I got a notification that I've been signed out of my account (the account activity required notification). I click it and it's trying to get me to sign in under the old gmail, which is deactivated. I disabled gmail and it still won't go away.

My phone is signed into my personal gmail account. How do I get this notification to go away?

# Answer
Simply remove the account from the phone settings.

Depending on your model and Android version, the location will slightly vary. Try this:

Settings \> Users & Accounts (Or only accounts) \> That Google work account \> Remove account.

Once removed, you should get rid of the notification in your tray.
> 4 votes

---
Tags: google-account
---


# Question
Title: How to use GNU Root Debian from android terminal emulator?
I install GNU Root Debian on my android. Also i install jdk8. I can compile java programs. For example i can get java version.

```
cd /data/data/com.gnuroot.debian/debian/usr/java/jdk1.8.0_181/bin
./java -version

```

But it works only in GNU Root Debian terminal emulator. How i can use java from android terminal emulator? I got error: cannot execute binary file.

Android shell cannot run java? How i can change shell to debian shell?

# Answer
GNURoot Debian run script in /data/data/com.gnuroot.debian/support/launchProot when app started. In termux I run it script and java works!
> 0 votes

---
Tags: shell, terminal
---


# Question
Title: samsung xcover 4, has no internet access while connected to a specific wifi network
It seems I'm facing a strange problem with my smartphone. After the last update, I can't connect to my office's wifi. All the other devices connect normally. However, I tried resetting the router many times. On the other hand, my phone connects perfectly to all other networks. I think I did everything possible, even a hard reset, but the problem insists. I've tried changing the IP settings to static and typing my IP etc, but nothing worked. Any other ideas are welcome.

thanx

Update : When I walk 15 meters away from my desk to another office and try to connect again, my phone connects normally to the same network but from a different router. So, I suppose the problem is between my nearby router and my phone. Is there any way to fix this? It worked till last Friday, so there's no chance of incompatibility.

# Answer
Perhaps you should upgrade your Android OS version, most of the time this method work for me.
> -1 votes

# Answer
Problem solved. Just bought a brand new router. I was totally defeated.
> -1 votes

---
Tags: wi-fi
---


title: Why does VLC show deleted files?

text:
# Question
Title: Why does VLC show deleted files?
I have the VLC app in my ASUS phone and when I search via the subtitles-option in the downloads section, it shows files that have been deleted.

I downloaded apps to see if they exist and searched the phone files via PC also.

These files are deleted, so how can it still keep them or track them?

I deleted and reinstalled vlc and problem persists

# Answer
> 3 votes
Actually what you see is "**Downloads History**", not "**Downloads Directory**".

So the item will remains even though the actual file has been moved/deleted.

Same concept like web browser downloads history, the history item will not remove even though the actual file has been deleted in file explorer. For example, Firefox Downloads history, you need to explicitly click "**Remove From History**":

The difference of Android is it's system wide and cross apps. New to users who come from PC background.

**\[UPDATE WARNING\] The 2nd difference of Android from PC is it will delete the actual file if you delete it in "Download history". This different make user confuse and make me confident to said it's really an android design bug.**

Now you get the idea, you can remove this download history with the following steps:

1. Go to **App drawer icon (bottom six dots) -\> Downloads icon**:

1.2 Or if you can't find Downloads icon, you can go to **Settings -\> Device -\> Storage -\> Downloads**:

2. Then you will see the **Downloads History** page:

3. Long press one item, then you can highlight more items, and click trash icon to delete:

The users(I'm one of them) who have the same question like you is because they always click "**File Manager**" icon as file explorer(Or plug USB to open the file in PC) and unrealized the **Downloads** icon is **Downloads History**, not sync from "**File Manager**". I personally think this is a design bug because of easy to confuse.

p/s: Not only vlc, if you visits **Settings -\> Wi-Fi -\> upper right option menu -\> Advanced -\> Install certificates -\> left side navigation drawer -\> Downloads**, you will see the same thing.

# Answer
> 2 votes
Go to Settings, then Application manager, then click on VLC, then click on Storage, then Clear cache and Clear data, then restart the application. I did that and it worked just fine.

---
Tags: applications, file-management, search, vlc
---


title: How does compass calibration work?

text:
# Question
Title: How does compass calibration work?
I am wondering how compass calibration works / why e.g. drawing an 8 or rotating the phone to all 3 axis works (or at least shall work) - I mean I would understand the calibration process, if an application would say me: Point to north, then press that button down there, but you can start at basically zero knowledge for the app, just by rotating your phone! How is that done? Also, do I need to enter a special calibration mode or can I draw these figures (like the 8) directly in Google Maps? How does Google Maps know that I am not just really moving the phone but want to calibrate the compass? Thanks for any hint!

# Answer
> 3 votes
Compass calibration works by detecting the magnetic field intensity of earth. But sometimes due to strong interference from other electronic devices like transformers, compass sensor may get wrong idea about the magnetic poles of earth and can point in wrong direction.

So to ensure that, it asks users to recalibrate compass by rotating in figure-8 direction so that it can judge the magnetic intensity in all directions. From that data, it deduces the actual poles of earth.

# Answer
> 9 votes
The purpose of calibration is to figure out how to compensate for how the components in your phone (screws, speaker magnets, etc.) interfere with the measured magnetic field.

The calibration process is based on the fact that you can separate the internal and external contributions to the magnetic field by looking at how the field changes as the phone is rotated. For example, in one orientation the magnetic field from the magnet in the speaker will add on to the Earth's field; but when the phone is oriented in the opposite direction, the two fields will partially cancel out.

As you wave the phone around, the magnetometer records how the magnitude of the measured field changes and uses this to calibrate the x, y, and z magnetic field sensors. See geometrikal's answer to a similar question for more details on this process. Note that this calibration does *not* let you compensate for the influence of other external objects (e.g., your refrigerator) on the magnetic field.

Regarding the implementation in Google Maps: I believe that Google Maps has no control over the compass calibration because there is no such functionality in the Android API. The magnetometer is probably calibrating itself continuously, and Google Maps is just asking you to rotate your phone so that the magnetometer can collect the data it needs to get an accurate calibration.

In other words, you can calibrate your compass any time the magnetic field sensor is being used just by waving your phone – there is no "calibration mode".

# Answer
> 3 votes
At any point in space, the magnetic field strength and direction is the net effect of all the magnetic field sources affecting that point. The earth's magnetic field is one of them. Magnetized screwdrivers, cars, refrigerator magnets, etc. all produce fields. Fields are also produced by current flowing through wires. It's like pouring water into a glass from multiple sources. Once it's in the glass, you can't tell where it came from.

There is no instrument that can determine the "actual poles" of the earth by measuring the magnetic field at a point. What the phone can do, however, is sense the point where the phone axis is parallel to the N/S magnetic force line and determine which end of the phone is north-pointing. If you do your dance far away from objects that might be magnetized, like cars and steel fences, the field the phone is measuring *may* be primarily the earth's field and hence the phone compass will be properly calibrated. If you then put the phone into a magnetized car, however, it will point the wrong direction for north. The steel in every car is magnetized to one degree or another.

High-precision compasses such are used on aircraft and serious maritime vessels actually have tiny correction magnets that are adjustable with screws for N/S and E/W errors. They are calibrated after installation by turning the vehicle onto known headings (a compass rose painted by a surveyor on a taxiway far from metal buildings, for example) and fussing with the magnets until the compass error is minimized. Then the residual errors are recorded on a "compass correction card" for use in correcting the indicated readings. Search "compass correction card" to see the images.

In theory, the GPS could be used to calibrate the compass when walking or driving since the instantaneous GPS track is accurate. I have not heard of this being done, though it possibly is common. It would work even in a magnetized car. However, in an airplane or a ship, this wouldn't work because the vehicle's heading is to one degree or another usually crabbed slightly into the wind and the GPS has no knowledge of this.

# Answer
> 1 votes
I've tested the compass fields measurments provided by Android phone and found out, that if I rotate the phone by 180 degrees, the field doesn't change to exactly opposite, which must be the case if the sensors are correct. This might be due inner magnetism of the phone details or sensor reading inacuracy.

If you don't compensate for that and just use reading as is and try to calculate the North direction, you'll find out that they are incorrect: rotating phone by 90 degress around vertical axis doesn't lead to rotating measured magnetic field by the same angle (that is true for any angle, it's just easier to check it with 90 degrees).

So the aim of calibration is to develop compensation formula which will transform wrong readings from magnetic sensor to more realistic values, from which we can calculate the correct bearing. My guess is that it is looking for optimal shift of zero for each axis which will give the result magnetic vector length independent on the phone orientation (that must be the case in ideal situation but is not the case when the zero is shifted on any axis).

---
Tags: compass, calibration
---


# Question
Title: How to lock android tablet for web browsing only?
Im developing a web app for some clients and Im going to lend then an android tablet (one of those cheap chinese non-brand tablets, pretty easy to manipulate) and Im kind of new into android so I want to know how can I lock all system apps (including settings) and leave them with google chrome enabled, even with a browsing lock that only allows to navigate in the desired domain.

As a plus I would like to have like a remote monitoring of the tablet so I can see the activity.

Im asking such an ambiguous way cause I dont know anything about android, but I imagine that this can be done because is such an open OS. If someone can recommend me some apps or website where I can get more info about this.

Thanks!!

# Answer
> 1 votes
The simplest approach is probably to use Google's Android Management API, it's compatible with all Android devices running Android 5.1 or above.

To lock the device on one app, or on multiple app, you define a kiosk policy like below:

```
"applications": [
 {
   "packageName": "com.example.app",
   "installType": "FORCE_INSTALLED",
   "lockTaskAllowed": true,
   "defaultPermissionPolicy": "GRANT",
 },
 {
   "packageName": "com.example.app2",
   "installType": "FORCE_INSTALLED",
   "lockTaskAllowed": true,
   "defaultPermissionPolicy": "GRANT",
 }
"persistentPreferredActivities": [
  {
    "receiverActivity": "com.example.app/.com.example.app.MainActivity",
    "actions": [
      "android.intent.action.MAIN"
    ],
    "categories": [
      "android.intent.category.HOME",
      "android.intent.category.DEFAULT"
    ]
  }
]

```

---
Tags: applications, security, kiosk-mode
---


# Question
Title: Google Calendar Android app doesn't always synchronize
I use a shared Google Agenda with someone else ("UserA").

If UserA:

* opens his Google Agenda Android app (version 5.8.38-200532405, the latest version)
* adds a new event in our common agenda
* saves the event

then I often don't see it in my own Google calendar (on http://calendar.google.com desktop version for example) even if I refresh the page multiple times (`F5` or `CTRL`+`F5` or even close/reopen browser).

The only solution we found was that UserA has to click on the 3 dots menu on the top right, then choose "Refresh" (or maybe "Update"?). If he forgets to do "Refresh" after "Save" then it won't be synchronized. This is annoying and not user-friendly: a synchronization **should be automatically triggered** after an event is saved in a shared agenda.

**Is there a solution to fix this?**

PS: this lead to sometimes not knowing that the other one has added an event :) because he didn't do "Refresh" – the event was not propagated!

# Answer
UserA needs to have:

* ticked automatic synchronization
* signed in into google account
* allowed synchronization of Google Calendar
> 0 votes

---
Tags: google-calendar, sync
---


# Question
Title: How to manually set a roaming network (Pixel 2)
I am having trouble setting a specific roaming network on my Pixel 2. These are my options in the Mobile Network settings. Does anyone know how to set the roaming network here?

# Answer
I managed to figure it out. The secret was setting the 'Preferred network type' from 'Global' to 'LTE / GSM / UMTS'. That displayed the 'Automatically select network' toggle which I disabled in order to select my desired network. See image below. Thanks for your help, beeshyams!
> 1 votes

---
Tags: settings, roaming, google-pixel-2
---


# Question
Title: Is it possible to run two instances of android on your phone at the same time?
Sorry if I am misusing 'instances'. What I mean is the following: I want to run an master OS. The 'only' thing that master OS does is let me boot/kill/switch between OS 1, OS 2, OS 3, etc. I want apps to believe they run on a normal Android phone. So if I run app X on two OS, namely 1 and 2. I want each instance of app X to believe it runs on a different machine. I understand you can do this with a dual boot. However I want both OS at the same time. I interact within OS 1 and switch to OS 2 to continue where I left.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Sounds like you want an Android virtual machine host, like VMWare on desktops/servers.

As far as I know, there are no Android OS virtual machine hosts that can host Android OS virtualized instances. (There are desktop/server hosts that can host Android OS guests though--think AVD, GenyMotion, etc.) I'm guessing an Android host isn't a common case, to want to virtualize multiple instance on a single embedded device. And because of the complexity in doing that, it would have to be pretty low level, maybe even tied to specific devices. So it is unlikely someone will create one any time soon. Sorry.

# Answer
> 0 votes
Dual boot even on computers usually only boot 1 at a time. There are dual boot setups for some android devices. What you are trying to do wouldn't work in a dual boot set up. Check out island XDA Link, which allows the same app being run as two separate instances on the same device.

---
Tags: root-access, dual-boot
---


# Question
Title: Where is the location for old WhatsApp database?
In my internal memory, I found the WhatsApp database folder, but it only contains a few files, a maximum of 6/7 days.

Where can I find my old WhatsApp database files? Where would I get the previous days' or months' chat database?

# Answer
> -1 votes
if you start what's app without restoring previous data it gets deleted and if you are talking about encryption you can eaisly access it by scanning the qr code in other device

---
Tags: whatsapp-messenger
---


# Question
Title: Where can I add xposed modules to systemless xposed framework?
I have installed Magisk and systemless xposed. What do I need to do to download and install xposed modules (not Magisk modules)?

I don't see any app for xposed only the Magisk Manager from where I can install Magisk modules (like systemless xposed).

# Answer
From Magisk tap downloads and search for Xposed

1. Choose Xposed version corresponding to your Android version- choose the version by *rovo89*
2. Tap on the module, on the next screen it will prompt you to download an installer. Do that, give permissions for installing for external sources when prompted. Go back to the earlier screen and install. Let it do it's job and reboot.
3. You would get the familiar Xposed installer. You are now good to install systemless Xposed modules
> 3 votes

---
Tags: xposed-framework, magisk, systemless-root
---


# Question
Title: Can I install Android P Beta to my Galaxy S8?
I want to install Android P Beta to my Galaxy S8 device but after I went to https://www.google.com/android/beta I can see that only Pixel 2 device can opt out for an upgrade.

Is it ok if I opt out for the Pixel version or this will be dangerous for my device?

# Answer
It would be disastrous to do that !

Unless you fancy an expensive paper weight , don't
> 2 votes

---
Tags: updates, google
---


title: Installed app not showing on Play Store

text:
# Question
Title: Installed app not showing on Play Store
I have a Samsung FGalaxy 7 using Android version 8.0.0. I have an app that is on my list of apps to run (and it does run), but it does not show in Play Store so that I can uninstall it. I tried finding it within Play Store, thinking that reinstalling it would clean up the app listings so I could uninstall it, but it looks like the app is no longer on there.

How can apps be uninstalled outside of Play Store?

# Answer
Since you are running a newer version of Android you should be able to hold down on the app icon and then drag it to the top right of your screen where an "uninstall" should appear.
> 1 votes

# Answer
Samsung does things differently , so you may need to vary it ; on stock you would go to Settings→ Apps & Notifications → App Info → scroll and find your app name → tap on it and you get to see details with uninstall option
> 1 votes

---
Tags: google-play-store
---


# Question
Title: How to infer battery consumption on a non owned app
I am a back-office system developer, and am struggling to deal with a problem.

I am addicted to podcasts (in fact I use the Podcast Addict app), but I am interested in all kinds of subjects and there are a lot of podcasters to provide me a bunch of options. This addiction means that I have more podcasts to listen to than hours in a week. So I listen with accelerated audio.

**But**, podcast addicted implementation of accelerated audio is very power hungry, and I am wondering if it should.

My goal is to get any information about CPU/GPU usage of every podcast player when playing in accelerated playback.

Any advice? Tools? Procedures? Anyone has made this analysis before?

# Answer
> 0 votes
Looking into the APK of Podcast Addict you can find the library `libsonic` which is the key component "for speeding up or slowing down speech". As it is a native library it should be relative efficient (compared to plain Java). The sonic library does not seem to use the GPU for computations, just plain CPU power.

Regarding the comparison on different Apps modern Android systems already have everything in place to do so. On the app details page you can see the CPU time (total, background), and the keep wake time.

If you want to see more details you can use an app like GSam Battery Monitor.

Using a fixed length podcast you can compare different apps by noting the displayed values before and after the test.

For testing non-owned apps I only see the chance to buy it if it is not free, test it and then if it does not meet your expectations regarding the battery usage refund it. On Google Play Store this should be possible within 48 hours after you have bought the app.

---
Tags: performance, podcast
---


# Question
Title: What would happen if I deleted all my data used by Google Play Services?
Unfortunately my phone has a total space of 5.52GB with no place for extra storage ... Sad, I know.. However my phone is constantly rejecting texts and won't keep an app open for more than 2 minutes without crashing. I clear my cached data almost every ten minutes. My phone isn't full by any means. I only have Facebook and Snapchat as apps and only 168MB of pictures and videos.

So I decided to dig a little deeper to figure out where all my storage is and under my Google Play services it says I have 3.9GB just there! What I'm wondering is what exactly Google Play Services entails. For example, what would I be losing if I cleared all of its data? Would I lose pictures and apps?

# Answer
> 8 votes
Google Play services offers APIs to other apps. Data used by Play services is mostly cached data for these APIs, duplicated data of Android wear apps synched with your phone and some kind of search index. If you delete this data, chances are Google Play services will just recreate it, although 3.9 GB is really much (mine only use 300 MB). But you won't delete any of your personal data by deleting Play services data.

# Answer
> 3 votes
I just cleared all data used by Google Play services and my phone abruptly crashed. I rebooted it but it starts hanging for 2-5 secs every 10 secs or so. Most of my apps won't open and I get an "unfortunately stopped" message everytime I wait for it to open. However, all my datas ie. photos. music. videos etc. are intact. My phone is now unusable and I totally regret doing it.

However, I've found a solution. I cleared the cache of both Google Play services AND Google Play Store and it repaired itself automatically. (You'll need wifi for this to work tho.) Within a minute or two, it will fully restore itself back to normal.

# Answer
> -2 votes
Here's what the Google Help forum suggests:

> 1. Make sure you have an Internet or mobile data connection. Then, restart your device.
> 2. Update the date and time on your device.
> 3. Clear cache data for the Google Play Store app and Google Play Services (Go to Settings \> Apps or Application Manager \> Google Play Services \> Clear cache \> OK).
> 4. Uninstall and reinstall the Play Store updates. (Go to Settings \> Apps or Application Manager \> Google Play Store app \> Uninstall Updates \> OK). As long as you have a strong Internet connection (Wi-Fi or mobile data), your Play Store app will update to the latest version within a few minutes.
> 5. Install system updates. To do this, try the steps listed below:
>     * Open your device's main Settings app.
>     * Select About or System updates (depending on your device, this may be different).
>     * If an update is available, follow the on-screen instructions to install it on your device.
>     * Try your download again
> 6. Restart your device.

If the issue still persists *after having tried the above,* the same place recommends removing and re-adding your Google account.

---
Tags: google-play-services
---


# Question
Title: Help setting up my phone or tablet as a hotspot
Can someone help me on how to use my phone or new tablet as a hotspot, so I can connect my old tablet? (using either my phone, or new tablet) I just found my old Tablet, a Galaxy Tab E. An old guy would really appreciate it.

# Answer
> 0 votes
Options for mobile hotspot/tethering are usually found under ***Wireless & Networks*** section in Settings.

Depending on your target device you may need to navigate to:

*Settings → Wireless & Networks → Personal hotspot (or Tethering & portable hotspot)*

Alternatively, recent versions of Android allow you to search a particular setting that is "hidden" you can use the keyword "hotspot" or "tethering" to get to the required screen, thereafter simply toggle to activate the hotspot (*you may need to configure the hotspot setting first*).

---
Tags: wifi-hotspot, tethering
---


# Question
Title: Xiaomi Mi5s plus' display won't turn on after updating LOS
I encountered a very strange problem with my Mi5s plus (natrium). I was flashing the recent LOS 20180717 version, Open GApps Aroma and Magisk 16.0 via TWRP (in that order). That's my usual procedure every once in a while and it usually works perfectly fine. After flashing the Magisk zip, my phone "wouldn't turn on" anymore. However, I can boot into the bootloader and recovery modes and I can easily access everything from my terminal with fastboot and adb (it's even mounted when in recovery). The display stays dark, the notification LED as well. Now, I'm not sure what to do, I erased the cache, I tried to reboot.

Does anybody have an idea how to "unbrick" my device? I have the feeling that I messed up something with the boot partition, but I'm no expert on that.

Thanks, hundertzwoelf.

# Answer
Update: I solved it by flashing the **stock** boot.img from MIUI. Yesterday I tried the same with the boot.img provided by the Lineage OS ROM and it did not work.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: recovery-mode, unbricking, bootloader, lineageos
---


# Question
Title: My Youtube app won appear anymore if I click home. What's wrong?
Previously, when I click home on my s9, if my youtube app is playing a song for example, my phone would go to home but it would still display the app like this.

And when I click on it, it would maximize like this.

It's not PiP (I think), because I don't deliberately set the app like this, it just automatically does it when I click the home button. I could even browse chrome and open other apps and it would still be there on the lower right..

But now, suddenly, it's gone! When I play something on the app and then click home, it just closes. The preview window doesn't appear anymore and nothing is playing.

I'm just wondering what I did wrong and how I could fix it. I don't like using PiP because it's not automatic and I like how it would automatically just preview itself before.

# Answer
> 0 votes
It depends on where you are from. What you're seeing is the PIP mode of YouTube. For most parts of the world, it is only included with YouTube Red. So, maybe you had a YouTube Red/Pro subscription or Trial which has expired.

YouTube also enabled the PIP for free to all users in the US. That is, even those who don't have a paying plan. So, do you happen to be from the US? Plus, they could be testing the free PIP support in in other regions too.

---
Tags: applications
---


title: Using WhatsApp without current SIM

text:
# Question
Title: Using WhatsApp without current SIM
Next week I will go on holiday to a foreign country and for this, I bought a prepaid SIM card because with my phone's current plan, I have little to no data in Roaming. My problem is that I will be using my phone with this new card, but I would still like to use my current WhatsApp account.

The only solution I have come up with is changing my number in my Whatsapp account's settings, but I wouldn't really want to do that because it notifies all my active conversations.

So, is there anything else I can do so that I should be able to still use my WhatsApp with this prepaid SIM card?

# Answer
Yes, you are actually in the right direction. WhatsApp requires a SIM for installation and activation. **But** once activated, it doesn't matter if the SIM stays in the same phone or is tossed to a different phone, or even lost. Sure, in cases of lost SIM, re-installing WhatsApp with the same phone number will be impossible.

**WhatsApp will keep on working on your phone, provided you have a data connection (no matter which SIM it comes from) or WiFi access.**

So, yep, just toss in your prepaid SIM, turn on data connection and continue to use your old (current) WhatsApp. You do not have to make any changes in WhatsApp. Changing the number is also absolutely NOT NEEDED. It is only used when you are officially switching to a different number and would like to carry your chats along.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: whatsapp-messenger, sim-card
---


# Question
Title: Is it possible to view files on an SD card encrypted with Gallery-vault on a computer?
I assume the answer is no but just wanted to check. I had some files/ photos etc on the Gallery-vault app on my phone -they were saved to my SD card. My SD card has been lost/ possibly stolen and I just wanted to check if someone could access these files in any way?

# Answer
> 1 votes
No you cant....because in gallery vault they are encrypted..you cant view encrypted files on computer...because you dont have decryption key or code as it present in your phone

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Tags: gallery-vault
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title: I have bought a new mi 5 mobile

text:
# Question
Title: I have bought a new mi 5 mobile
My older phone internet was too fast. When I transferred my sim into new phone, the internet is too damn slow. It's slower than tortoise. What should I do?

# Answer
> 0 votes
The only thing I can suggest is to check and make sure that your phone is set to 4G (preferred) mode in Network settings.

Another thing worth considering is to check with your operator that the correct access point is being used.

And can you tell which was your previous phone? Depending on the device and its OS, it is very possible that it consumed lesser data whereas your Android's browser uses more data. Consider using Opera Mini or other browsers which compress pages before delivering to your device.

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Tags: android-versions
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# Question
Title: Error with screen brightness on Samsung Galaxy J7 prime
I have a Samsung galaxy J7 prime SM-G610M Duos with Android 7.0 operating system. I have noticed something curious with the phone, is that sometimes the full screen of the phone does a slight flicker.

It happens a few times when I close an application, when one calls the other (for example share a MEGA file in whatsapp).

Another fact, and this one always happens, is with youtube, when you open it, the brightness decreases, and when I write in the search bar and I already have some text I write when I press the spacebar, it blinks.

Once, also the brightness gauge was hung, and the brightness of the screen was set to maximum, no matter if it decreased it, it remained at maximum. Although then it settled with just lock the screen and turn on again.

Does anyone know why this happens? Is it a software problem?

I read some articles online and they say that the screen should be changed.

I have little time with the phone, and it is in perfect condition, without any accidents. So I am inclined to make it a software bug, and that is how I would solve it.

Thank you very much in advance.

# Answer
Try factory reset your phone If it didn't work flash you're phone to another android version
> -1 votes

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Tags: screen, screen-brightness, samsung-galaxy-j7
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# Question
Title: How do I delete podcasts downloaded by podbean?
As far as I can tell from looking at the settings, all I can do is listen to the podcasts, and then the program will delete them. I'd prefer if it didn't download them unless I tell it to, and allow me to delete them when I'm done listening to them. I have a Lenovo TAB3 with Android 6.0 Marshmallow on it.

# Answer
Here is what you do:

1. Click the second icon from the left on the top that looks like a broadcast radio tower.
2. Down from that on the second toolbar from the top click "Downloads"
3. Click ""Downloaded"
4. Below there will be a list of podcasts that have been downloaded, select the one you want to delete, press your finger on it until a delete button is displayed in the center of the screen, and when you click that it will be deleted, it should free alot of space on the device.
> 0 votes

# Answer
> I'd prefer if it didn't download them unless I tell it to...

Unless you click on the 3 dots (top right) to download, it won't. And you can remove downloads from same place

> .... allow me to delete them when I'm done listening to them

Settings → Disable *Delete Played episodes*

For more understanding on how the app works see this YouTube Video
> 1 votes

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Tags: applications, 6.0-marshmallow, podcast
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# Question
Title: Find My Device says "can't reach device", but I can make it ring
I'm having a bizarre issue with the Android Device Manager. Basically when I try to look up my Nexus 9 tablet, I cannot see its location, and it looks like this:

As you can see, it somehow does display the charge level and the name of the WiFi network it's connected to. More importantly, when I click the play sound button, **it immediately starts ringing**.

So this is clearly not true. How can I fix this and make it so that I can track my tablet's location again?

# Answer
Managed to figure it out. Apparently this happens when location services are turned on, but fail to produce a location.

In my case, the tablet's location mode was set to GPS only, but the GPS sensors are busted and don't work. Switching to battery saving mode in Settings → Location solved this issue.
> 2 votes

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Tags: android-device-manager
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