title: Unable to flash factory ROM on Pixel

text:
# Question
Title: Unable to flash factory ROM on Pixel
I'm trying to restore the factory ROM on my Pixel. I've downloaded and unpacked a factory image for my phone, and when I run `sudo ./flash-all.sh` I get `FAILED (remote: partition [bootb] doesn't exist)`. Here's the whole transcript. Can anyone suggest a workaround?

```
target reported max download size of 536870912 bytes
sending 'bootloaderb' (32728 KB)...
OKAY [  0.836s]
writing 'bootloaderb'...
(bootloader) Valid bootloader version.
OKAY [  1.600s]
finished. total time: 2.435s
rebooting into bootloader...
OKAY [  8.593s]
finished. total time: 8.693s
< waiting for any device >
target reported max download size of 536870912 bytes
sending 'radiob' (57192 KB)...
OKAY [  1.428s]
writing 'radiob'...
OKAY [  0.909s]
finished. total time: 2.337s
rebooting into bootloader...
OKAY [  0.006s]
finished. total time: 0.106s
target reported max download size of 536870912 bytes
archive does not contain 'boot.sig'
archive does not contain 'recovery.img'
archive does not contain 'system.sig'
archive does not contain 'vendor.sig'
wiping userdata...
Creating filesystem with parameters:
    Size: 122633060352
    Block size: 4096
    Blocks per group: 32768
    Inodes per group: 8192
    Inode size: 256
    Journal blocks: 32768
    Label:
    Blocks: 29939712
    Block groups: 914
    Reserved block group size: 1024
Created filesystem with 11/7487488 inodes and 518062/29939712 blocks
--------------------------------------------
Bootloader Version...: 8996-012001-1610061102
Baseband Version.....: 8996-012511-1611190200
Serial Number........: XXXXXXXXXXXX
--------------------------------------------
checking product...
OKAY [  0.050s]
checking version-bootloader...
OKAY [  0.051s]
checking version-baseband...
OKAY [  0.050s]
sending 'bootb' (24821 KB)...
OKAY [  0.642s]
writing 'bootb'...
(bootloader) Flashing active slot "_b"
FAILED (remote: partition [bootb] doesn't exist)
finished. total time: 1.095s

```

# Answer
> 6 votes
I had the exact same issue you did, and after finding nothing about it online, became panicked that there was a defect with my phone.

Instead, I realized that the version of ADB I had installed on my computer was out of date. I downloaded a newer version from Google and tried the process again. It worked fine and I was able to restore my phone.

# Answer
> 2 votes
I had this same issue. (Using Ubuntu Linux) At first, I was getting the "Fastboot too old" error. I was able to bypass this error by running the fastboot commands manually, rather than from the ./flash-all.sh script file.

Then I found that I was getting the error stated above when running `sudo fastboot update image-marlin-opm4.171019.021.d1.zip`. To resolve it, I had to uninstall fastboot, adb and android-sdk-platform tools from my system (assuming they were the old versions that the CLI was trying to use instead of the new version I had just downloaded in to my ~/platform-tools folder. (Under Ubuntu just using `sudo apt-get remove adb fastboot android-sdk-platform-tools`, other distros may require a different command, ie. pacman for Arch, Manjaro). After this was done, just in my home directory, to verify that fastboot had been uninstalled, typed `sudo fastboot devices`, which returned command not found error, this is good.

Then I navigated to my ~/platform-tools directory and ran `sudo ./fastboot update image-marlin-opm4.171019.021.d1.zip` which directly uses the fastboot application in that directory and it all worked fine then.

Output:

```
ewan@obiwan:~/platform-tools$ sudo ./fastboot update
image-marlin-opm4.171019.021.d1.zip extracting android-info.txt (0 MB)
to RAM...
--------------------------------------------        Bootloader Version...: 8996-012001-1711291800 Baseband Version.....:
8996-130091-1802061512 Serial Number........: HT69J0201460
--------------------------------------------        Checking product                                   OKAY [  0.050s] Checking version-bootloader
OKAY [  0.050s] Checking version-baseband
OKAY [  0.050s] extracting boot.img (29 MB) to disk... took 0.180s
archive does not contain 'boot.sig' archive does not contain
'boot_other.img' archive does not contain 'dtbo.img' archive does not
contain 'dt.img' archive does not contain 'odm.img' archive does not
contain 'product.img' archive does not contain 'recovery.img'
extracting system.img (1762 MB) to disk... took 16.977s archive does
not contain 'system.sig' extracting system_other.img (551 MB) to
disk... took 5.994s archive does not contain 'system.sig' archive does
not contain 'vbmeta.img' extracting vendor.img (251 MB) to disk...
took 2.891s archive does not contain 'vendor.sig' archive does not
contain 'vendor_other.img' Sending 'boot_b' (30173 KB)
OKAY [  0.851s] Writing 'boot_b'
OKAY [  0.301s] Sending sparse 'system_b' 1/4 (524284 KB)
OKAY [ 14.661s] Writing sparse 'system_b' 1/4
OKAY [  4.363s] Sending sparse 'system_b' 2/4 (524284 KB)
OKAY [ 13.404s] Writing sparse 'system_b' 2/4
OKAY [  3.584s] Sending sparse 'system_b' 3/4 (524284 KB)
OKAY [ 13.773s] Writing sparse 'system_b' 3/4
OKAY [  4.445s] Sending sparse 'system_b' 4/4 (231592 KB)
OKAY [  6.100s] Writing sparse 'system_b' 4/4
OKAY [  1.612s] Sending sparse 'system_a' 1/2 (524284 KB)
OKAY [ 13.654s] Writing sparse 'system_a' 1/2
OKAY [  3.652s] Sending sparse 'system_a' 2/2 (40680 KB)
OKAY [  1.133s] Writing sparse 'system_a' 2/2
OKAY [  0.400s] Sending 'vendor_b' (257548 KB)
OKAY [  6.709s] Writing 'vendor_b'
OKAY [  2.661s] Setting current slot to 'b'
OKAY [  0.089s] Rebooting
Finished. Total time: 118.310s

```

# Answer
> 1 votes
Use the lastest Android7.1.1 fastboot tool to flash images. I have successfully flashed the Pixel 7.1.1 (NMF26Q, Dec 2016) today.

---
Tags: factory-image, google-pixel
---


title: S Note 4 - How Many Books

text:
# Question
Title: S Note 4 - How Many Books
How can I tell my number of uploads in Google Play Books? I have a bunch of books in my Google books. It seems like I cannot add any more unless I delete some. I found out that the limit is 1000 but I cannot figure out how to find how many I have already uploaded on to Google Books.

# Answer
Visit the Google Dashboard, which details ALL data usage of your account. It includes a rundown about your Gmail converations, your synched Contacts, your connected Android Devices, usage and storage of Google Drive, Calendar, Photos, etc., in addition to the target of your question, how many books are in your Google Books.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: google, google-play-books
---


title: Lock screen wallpaper location

text:
# Question
Title: Lock screen wallpaper location
The Samsung Galaxy S4 comes with a TripAdvisor lock screen wallpaper that rotates images every X hours of places around the world. Every now and then, it has really cool ones that I would potentially like to save to use as my lock screen permanently, but I can't figure out where in the filesystem they are stored.

I have found a couple of posts saying it is located in `/data/data/com.android.settings/` or something like that, but my `/data` folder is empty.

TL;DR: Where does Android save the current lock screen image?

# Answer
That depends on your Android version, but only changes a little. Wherever it is, you need to retrieve it.

**For Android 6 and under**:

```
/data/system/users/0/lock_wallpaper

```

While primary (mainscreen) wallpaper is available at `/data/system/users/0/wallpaper`.

**For Android 7+**, the file name has changed to `wallpaper_lock` and is still available at the same place. You may want to fetch `wallpaper_lock_orig` instead, however.
> 2 votes

# Answer
On Lenovo S1La40 (Vibe S1 Lite, Android 5.1, rooted) under the folder `/data/system/users/0`, I found the following files:

```
root@S1La40:/data/system/users/0 # ls -la
-rw-rw---- system   system     253952 2017-05-16 20:06 accounts.db
-rw------- system   system      37448 2017-05-16 20:06 accounts.db-journal
-rw------- system   system        715 2017-05-16 20:05 appwidgets.xml
-rwx------ system   system     356866 2017-05-16 20:05 lock_wallpaper
-rw-rw---- system   system      56663 2017-05-16 20:19 package-restrictions.xml
-rwx------ system   system     209008 2017-05-16 20:06 wallpaper
-rw------- system   system         99 2017-05-16 20:06 wallpaper_info.xml

```

where `lock_wallpaper` is the lock screen wallpaper, a jpeg without an extension.

I have my new wallpaper under the name `majestic.jpg`, so I can do the following:

```
adb push majestic.jpg /storage/emulated/0/lock_wallpaper
adb shell
su
cp /storage/emulated/0/lock_wallpaper /data/system/users/0/lock_wallpaper

```
> 0 votes

# Answer
My Samsung Galaxy Note 2 saved it under `/data/data/com.sec.android.gallery3d/files` as `lockscreen_wallpaper.jpg`

The uncropped file was in the same folder.
> 0 votes

# Answer
It's in `/data/data/com.sec.android.app.themechooser/files`.
> -1 votes

# Answer
In Samsung Galaxy S4 it's at the location `/data/data/com.sec.android.gallery3d/files/`.
> -1 votes

# Answer
`Android\data\com.sec.android.wallpapercropper2\files`

This is where I found Lock Screen Wallpaper on Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.
> -1 votes

# Answer
Make sure you have USB debugging turned on and then it should be in the data folder under com.sec.android.**something**
> -2 votes

---
Tags: lock-screens, wallpaper
---


# Question
Title: "Format as Internal Storage" option no longer available
When I first inserted my SD card, it showed a notification with an "options button." I proceeded to format the card as external, portable storage, although the system storage format option was available (a mistake on my part). I later realized this when there was no option to move apps to SD card, as you can on LG devices. So, I went to storage settings, and pressed format, and it did not show the option to format as internal memory. Could anyone help me set this microSD card as internal storage? \***

> **Please note that this is not a previously asked question. I know that my phone has the ability to set it as internal storage. I have seen the option. Read the entire question.**

---

# Answer
> 10 votes
It seems like manufacturers are removing the "Format as Internal" feature on newer phones. Perhaps because it's in their interest to force us to upgrade our devices after running into memory frustrations.

So after a long and frustrating process, this eventually method worked for me. I had to make two alterations:

1. I used the MTK ADB driver instead of the one linked in the guide. This depends on your chip type, there's no harm in trying both if you don't know which to pick. Just that your phone might not show up on step 7.
2. On step 8, the fourth command `adb shell sm partition disk:179,64 private` might give you a java exception error. I had to use my result from the first command `adb shell sm list-disks` which was something like `disk:179,124`. The author neglects to mention that this may vary for your device.

With a bit of patience this should work for you too. If I missed anything, search the comments of the article, another person's experience might give you a clue.

# Answer
> 0 votes
Insert the SD card into a PC, or connect the phone with the SD card in it to a PC via USB. Next, locate the SD card through "This PC" in file explorer. When you find it, right click it and format it as EXT4 or exFAT. After it is formatted, return the MicroSD card to the phone or unplug the phone and then restart it. It should, in the notifications/alerts dropdown say the SD card is corrupted. Click this notification, and you should now have the option to format it as internal storage after restarting your phone.

---
Tags: internal-storage, sd-card, storage, adoptable-storage, formatting
---


# Question
Title: New smartphone LINE account recover/restore from PC LINE account
I have the following problems and need help:

1. Before I got a new phone (Galaxy S9+), I synchronized my old smartphone (LG 10) LINE account within my new Dell laptop (Win 10).
2. After I switched all info from old phone (LG) to new phone (Galaxy S9+), I login/open LINE and I did "OK" for "Delete old messages and Logs" which no previous messages and logs were displayed.
3. When I login my laptop Line account, I found all messages and logs are still over there.
4. How can I restore or recovery my LINE account (Same phone number but in different smartphone brand names) ? Or, it's hopeless for my sutation.

Thanks,

Tony

# Answer
No, there is no way to import the chat history from the PC version into the Android version. The PC version saves the chat as a .txt file, while the Android version saves the backup as a .zip file with various file formats in it.

You can, however, save the chat log of the PC version in the same way as you would on the Android version.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: line
---


title: 2 mobile, 2 sim, 2whatsapp account

text:
# Question
Title: 2 mobile, 2 sim, 2whatsapp account
I have 2 mobile old lenevo with Vodafone sim A6000 and new MI note4 with Jio sim. Both mobile is having different WhatsApp account. I want to use old mobile WhatsApp account with new mobile and vice-versa. Now if I want to exchange my sim card what should I do? WhatsApp is not having logout option. Once I uninstalled WhatsApp exchanged sim and again reinstalled WhatsApp. But it's not performing well. Groups appears in old Lenovo mobile and individual friends appears in new MI note 4.

# Answer
> 0 votes
* **Mobile number changing in WhatsApp** :

Open WhatsApp \> goto Settings \> Account \> Change number.

\[ currently, backup both your whatsapp accounts to google drive. Then change number on both phones or clear data on phone. Again open whatsapp, and set the things, restore from backup. Now, you can have all the chats and groups from lenovo to mi device and all items to mi to old device.\]

* **WhatsApp Logout**:

Only web version of Whatsapp has logout option. In android, you need to clear data before uninstalling Whatsapp. Also, delete whatsapp folder from internal storage.

* **Backup:** : You have option to backup your current whatsapp data using google drive. Goto whatsapp settings \> chats \> chat backup. Set email account in google drive settings and tap on backup.

---
Tags: whatsapp-messenger
---


# Question
Title: If I hide a contact on the LINE app can they still send me messages?
If I hide a contact for LINE can they still send me messages?

# Answer
Yes, they can. Hiding a contact only removes them from view, but you can still send them messages and they can still contact you.
> 2 votes

---
Tags: line
---


# Question
Title: Who is responsible for locking the bootloader?
I was wondering who is in charge of the locking of bootloaders.

I recently chatted with a representative from LG-UK enquiring about the unlocking of bootloaders. I was told that I need to speak to Google about why the bootloader is locked. I suspect this information to be false but just to be sure I wanted to ask on here if anyone knows who is actually responsible for the locking of bootloaders?

# Answer
I think the LG rep was just trying to get rid of you. Bootloader locking is an important security feature. It prevents a thief getting past the lockscreen by just flashing a custom ROM to circumvent the PIN or password. It's a core part of Android but the phone manufacturer has to make it work by signing their system images with their private key and storing the public key in the phone's bootloader.
> 0 votes

# Answer
The OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) or Carriers like verizon, AT&T, etc Lock Bootloaders, Google Devices Like Pixel come with unlockable bootloaders via Fastboot.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: bootloader, lg
---


title: How to fix media volume stuck on zero?

text:
# Question
Title: How to fix media volume stuck on zero?
Today I tried to play a video but my media volume was on zero.

I used the volume button on my phone but it did not increase the media volume. I then went to the settings --\> sound --\> media but I could not change the media volume from zero.

The reason i could not change the media volume was because media volume slider was grayed out... So I could touch or change it in any way.

It's a very unintuitive problem and many others seem to have it if you Google.

# Answer
Mine wasnt caused by an app. My Do Not Disturb was accidentally set to do not disturb for anything. Changing the settings worked.
> 9 votes

# Answer
The problem seems to be somehow caused by an app. If you close the right app the media volume slider becomes unstuck.

If you are having trouble finding the right app, look for any app having to do with sound.

If you still can't, find the specific app keep closing apps until the media volume becomes unstuck.

Alternatively you can close all your apps and that should guarantee unlocking the media volume.
> 2 votes

# Answer
Sorted mine the now. It was DPT delivery app that caused it. Media slider button now working.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: volume-control
---


# Question
Title: Is there a way to see when the last time an uninstalled app was installed?
Here's the situation, I'm trying to work things out with an ex, but her friend saw me on Bumble and told her. I haven't used the app since before her and I started dating, but I must have just deleted the app without ever deleting my profile. It's been uninstalled for well over a year. Is there a way to see the last time an uninstalled app was installed so I can show her that I have not been using it?

Thanks!

# Answer
The information you're seeking is located inside the *library.db* which is located at */data/data/com.android.vending/databases*. It is part of Google Play Store app's data.

**Note**: I presupposed that the app was installed via Play Store, as otherwise, this solution is of no use.

## For an unrooted Android

* Use to pull data of *com.android.vending* (Google Play Store)

```
  adb backup com.android.vending

```
* convert the backup into tar file using Android Backup Extractor (ABE) or other means you know of.

(ABE needs Java Runtime Environment and has *README.txt* for usage). ABE would unpack the `.ab` file into a `.tar` which you can then extract using an archiver like Ark, 7zip, WinRAR.)
* Locate the *library.db* under databases directory and use an Sqlite viewer software (such as DB Browser for SQLite) to open that file.
* Search for the package name of your uninstalled app (*com.bumble.app* in OP's case) under the *doc\_id* column, and note down the corresponding timestamp in the *purchase\_time* column in that same entry. That is a unix timestamp. Furthermore, a free app is also considered purchased (for zero amount) in this table, so do not be confused by the column name.
* Use a site like Epoch Converter to convert the timestamp into human readable form.

## For a rooted Android

You can use an SQlite viewer app to view that database. I used MyAndroidTools (not available on Play Store anymore) for testing purposes.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: applications
---


# Question
Title: message saying "disable harmful apps Galaxy apps can damage your device"
I got this message on my Samsung Galaxy trend Plus but not sure what to do. Not very tech savvy anyone got any advice?

thank you

# Answer
> 0 votes
Galaxy Apps is Samsung's Appstore for its own software, which are usually variants of apps produced and distributed by Google through Google Play Store. There is generally a complement app for every Google App. Galaxy Apps, the Appstore frontend, is not unsafe, but it can be a propaganda spread by other appstores and virus checkers to dissuade you from downloading and using Samsung APKs there. The official opinion is that ANY APKs distributed through any appstore than Google's Play Store can be unsafe, and as a consequence, to install Galaxy Apps distributed APKs demands the permission "Install unknown/outside apps". Something is warning you about this setting; accept the warning under this understanding or remove whatever checking is in place.

EDIT: as of my Samsung Galaxy S8, or possibly earlier, Galaxy Apps CANNOT be disabled, so while whatever is possibly reporting a false safety warning, it may also be hinting that the app may be unsafe but can be corrected with a more current update?

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


# Question
Title: Is it possible to estimate the ideal number of CPU cores for Android phones?
I'm thinking that with the way we typically use Android phones, run a single app at a time, fewer faster CPU cores are better than many smaller (slower) cores.

Does Android really benefit that much from the current octa-core phones? How long before we see 16-core Android phones, and will that actually be useful in a phone?

I keep thinking that 4 fast cores, or 2 very fast cores, seem ideal for the kind of things we do with Android phones. Is it possible to determine some ideal number of cores, or at what point it simply does not make sense to add more cores?

# Answer
> 2 votes
Even though you think you're only running a single app at a time, that doesn't mean only a single thread is running. Getting the UI from that app onto the screen is actually done by a second process, called *Surface Flinger*. Even within that one app you're using, there are probably multiple threads: one drawing the UI and responding to your input, another communicating with a server, and perhaps another doing whatever slow computation the app needs to do. Having multiple threads allows the UI to remain responsive while performing these slow tasks. On top of that, other apps run in the background sometimes: WhatsApp is listening for new messages, Gmail is checking for new mail, Google Now is checking updated stock prices, Google Play is downloading an app update, etc.

All in all, there's no single ideal number of CPU cores that suits every situation. A lot of the drive towards increasing number of cores on phones is marketing, just like the clock speed wars on PCs 10 years ago. But there's an extra factor that makes it worthwhile having these huge numbers of cores: dark silicon.

The silicon area on the phone's system-on-chip that's taken up by a single CPU core has got smaller and smaller over the years. Most of the space is taken up by RAM, and even the GPU is several times larger than the whole CPU. It doesn't cost much to just put more CPU cores in the silicon. Most of the time, if your phone isn't doing very much, those extra cores can be turned off to save power. But then when you want to play a mobile game, or run a Snapchat filter, or anything compute-intensive that wants to run several threads, those extra cores can be powered up for a burst of speed.

So really, the ideal number of cores is lots. Even if some people never run the kind of workload that benefits from lots of cores, there's almost zero cost to having unused cores, and there's a huge benefit for some workloads.

# Answer
> 0 votes
I do not really see this coming forward and for a little while I do not think we will see high-end smartphones with more than 8 cores. Remember also that only 4 of them are used in the situation depending how heavy the task is. You cannot really determine how many cores you will need at a specific time. It all depends how the application is written. Does it do few concurrent tasks in the same time? The design that we can see currently in the smartphone world allows you to run multiple applications i the same time without loosing much performance.

---
Tags: multitasking, cpu
---


# Question
Title: How to mount userdata_b in stot_a in A/B partition device?
I have a Tissot (mi a1) with TWRP dual booted by separating vendor\_a, vendor\_b, userdata\_a, userdata\_b. It is dual booted by cosmicdan's twrp with Resurrection remix ( slot\_a) official and Dotos official ( slot\_b). I want to mount userdata\_b in resurrection remix or vice verse. I have already tried these steps by no result.

1. create a folder named 'data2' in " /data/local/tmp/data2" .
2. open terminal.
3. run su.
4. Enter "mount -o rw /dev/block/mmcblk0p52 /data/local/tmp/data2" (as 52 is my userdata\_b partition).
5. no error showing but nothing mounted.

Is there any way to mount this?

# Answer
> 0 votes
Go to android update if it's update is available than the phone would have to be connected to a power source while it rebooted to recovery mode and actually flashed the update.All in, you're talking 30 minutes to an hour to install an update, and nobody has time for that. Even disregarding that hurdle, many users would just ignore the update out of fear for the bugs and UI changes it might bring, leaving their systems dangerously exposed to malware and hacks.

When you take a new phone out of its box, the operating system is installed on the first hard drive (partition "A"). When an update becomes available, it gets downloaded and installed to the second hard drive (partition "B").

The next time you restart your phone, it simply boots off of the "B" partition instead, which means you're now running the new Android update.A/B system updates, also known as seamless updates, ensure a workable booting system remains on the disk during an over-the-air (OTA) update.

This reduces the likelihood of an inactive device afterward, which means fewer device replacements and device reflashes at repair and warranty centers. This approach is already explored successfully by other commercial-grade operating systems, such as ChromeOS, and Android 8.0 comes with the necessary platform changes to conduct streaming updates.

Allow to cancel a proxy resolution request 1 Fix terminating a transfer while resolving proxies 2 Add unittest for TerminateTrasnfer between ranges 3 Cleanup the RetryTimeoutCallback()

A/B system updates affect:

Interactions with the bootloader Partition selection The build process OTA update package generation The existing dm-verity feature guarantees the device will boot an uncorrupted image. If a device doesn't boot, because of a bad OTA or dm-verity issue, the device can reboot into an old image.

---
Tags: boot, partitions, android-x86, rom
---


# Question
Title: How do I protect my photos from accidental deletion when giving my phone to my kids?
My little kids (less than 3 yo) like to view photos on my Samsung A5 cell phone. That's great, and they are allowed to do so. I can even pin the screen to make sure they can't leave the gallery app and start deleting e-mails, which is good.

Unfortunately, both the built-in Samsung Gallery app as well as the pre-installed Google Photos app allow them to (accidentally) edit and delete images, which is bad.

**Can I somehow make those image viewers "child-safe" and turn off all editing features?**

I also tried looking for alternatives, but, apparently, all highly-rated gallery apps have lots of "useful" features (like renaming and deleting files). There are also "kids mode" apps available, but they don't give access to all photos taken on the device and would require me to select the ones I want to show my kids (I want them to see them all).

# Answer
> 2 votes
Looking for a gallery app with Trash/Recycle Bin feature I came across Foto Gallery. If you delete a pic using trash icon, the pic is moved into trash (which itself is an album in this app). Within trash album you don't get the trash icon at all.

For your kid to delete a pic permanently, they would have to swipe leftwards from right edge, choose Delete now, and confirm to the dialog. I think that's tedious and provides enough safeguards from accidental deletion.

Furthermore, while the app does provide editing effects, the modifications are saved into the copy of an image, so the original remains intact.

## Alternatively

You can continue with your default/favorite Gallery app as long as your device is running Android 5.1 or above. Simply fire up and issue these commands:

```
adb shell appops set PKG_NAME WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE deny
adb shell am force-stop PKG_NAME

```

Replace PKG\_NAME with package name of your Gallery app. To know how to find out package see View app's full package name?

The first command denies your app the permission to write the external storage (also includes inbuilt internal storage), which means tapping onto the trash icon or using image effects would either do nothing or crash the app, depending upon how the developer programmed the app to handle such a situation. The other command force-stops the app so that new permission set applies afresh.

To reverse the changes, simply replace *deny* with *allow* in the first command.

# Answer
> 0 votes
**Create a New User and Share to that User.**

I'm going to assume that you use Google Photos.

1. Create a new generic 'family' Gmail/Google account.
2. Create a new user on your phone using the 'family' Gmail account.
3. Share your photos from Google photos as 'Read Only/View Only' to that account.
4. When handing off your phone to kids, switch to 'family' account. This will also prevent them accessing other apps that you use, as the account is separate.

The disadvantage are that:

* you'll have to switch to and from the account when giving the device to your kids
* the new profile will take up space on your device
* you'll have to use cloud sharing photo service.

---
Tags: samsung, security, photos
---


# Question
Title: Can not install apks from File Manager or browser?
In the answer to this question I specifically discovered that I could not install the VLC nightlies. It had nothing to do with that answer, which was on a question about which version of VLC was right for that device. But that question was in fact inspired by this problem: I never previously had an APK I couldn't install by merely downloading, when I am in the Android Web Browser, and it downloads the APK, I can click on it in the notification applet at the top. When I do, it says

> Can not open file

When I open that file up with the LineageOS Files Manager, `com.android.documentsui` I get the same error. Now, I'm wanting to know what specifically is borked about *just* the VLC packages? Does anyone else get this problem? Why is that `pm install ./appname.apk` in the shell works, but the GUI doesn't?

I'm using LineageOS 14.1-20180616, based on Android 7.1.2.

# Answer
> 4 votes
# Installing

## With the LineageOS File Manager

It seems that inside the File Manager, there are two discrete things `Download` a directory, and `Downloads` some broken nonsense shortcut link:

* **Does not work:** On the left nav, you'll see `Images` `Videos` `Audio` `Recent`, and then `Downloads` `Documents`, and `SM-P600`. Installing from the `Downloads` on the right bar, gives this error.
* **Works**: Going into the device at the bottom of the left nav (which is actually just a link to `/data/media/0` and then clicking on `Download` will take you `Download` which is actually different from `Downloads` (plural and on the Left Nav). From this you can install the APK.

## With the CLI

* Enable ADB in the Settings
* Run `adb shell` on the host
* Browse to `/sdcard/Downloads` or `/data/media/0/Download` with `cd`. If you're unsure where the apk is located try running

```
find / -name 'VLC*-ARMv7.apk

```
* Locate the apk and install with `pm`

```
pm install ./VLC*-ARMv7.apk

```

# The problem

The problem seems to be that VLC web server answers the request with a response that has `content-type: application/octet-stream` like this,

```
$ curl -s -I "https://nightlies.videolan.org/build/android-armv7/VLC-Android-3.0.11-20180618-0249-ARMv7.apk"
HTTP/2 200
server: nginx/1.15.0
date: Tue, 19 Jun 2018 03:16:06 GMT
content-type: application/octet-stream
content-length: 25048251
last-modified: Mon, 18 Jun 2018 06:05:02 GMT
etag: "5b274b8e-17e34bb"
accept-ranges: bytes
x-clacks-overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000

```

Rather than `application/vnd.android.package-archive`. This means that you can't install through the browser, or the *Downloads* shortcut. This is because APK files are just zip files:

```
$ file VLC-Android-3.0.11-20180618-0249-ARMv7.apk
VLC-Android-3.0.11-20180618-0249-ARMv7.apk: Zip archive data, at least v2.0 to extract

```

So what the File Manager and browser are trying to do is open them as such -- and you don't have something that hands `Zip archive data` 2.0+

---
Tags: installation, apk, lineageos, vlc
---


title: APK won't install

text:
# Question
Title: APK won't install
I have a Moto X running Android 5.0.1 and can't install an APK that i've received on my e-mail from a developer on my company.

I already researched a bit about this and none of the similar problems nor solutions worked for me.

What happens in my case is that i downlaod the APK from the e-mail, then go to the Downlaod section and try to install it.

* I can touch the "Install" button normally (no screen dimming app installed here) and the progress bar of the app being installed appears normally, as if the app was being installed.
* The option that allows me to install APKs from unknowns sources is also activated (in fact i managed to install other apps on this same smartphone the same way before).

After the progress bar screen i get a message that says "The app wasn't installed" (the original message is in portuguese, this is the most literal translation) and that is it. There is no feedback, no error message, no nothing.

When i try to install the same app but from the Android Studio (running the project on the smartphone) it runs sucessfully, but when i compile it into an APK and send it to be downloaded and installed, it doesn't work.

Any thoughts?

# Answer
> 2 votes
After further exploration I found out what the problem was. It has to do with the permissions declared **inside** the app.

I plugged my phone into PC for Android Studio and checked the *logcat* looking for the moment where the error appeared. Here it is:

```
02-05 15:38:50.828      929-970/? W/PackageManager﹕ Package motoboy.yellowlab.com.br.motoboy attempting to redeclare permission com.startPoint.gmap.MAPS_RECEIVE already owned by br.com.belaapp.profissional

```

It seems that since both apps want to use the same permission (*com.startPoint.gmap.MAPS\_RECEIVE*) they can't be installed at the same time.

I just performed a test: I uninstalled the *belapp.profissional* app, then tried to install my APK from Downloads and it worked.

I also found this thread: Issue 1668: Unknown error code during application install: 505. It seems to be an error with Android 5.0 where you can't have two apps which require the same permission, which is absurd.

# Answer
> 0 votes
# Download from a website

If you downloaded the APK from a website and merely doesn't open in the File Manager, nor the browser see this issue,

---
Tags: 5.0-lollipop, installation, apk, motorola-droid-x
---


# Question
Title: I can't install apk file: App Not Installed
I recently got a HTC One M9, and I wanted to replace it's gallery with my old phone's gallery because I loved one of the filters that it had. This led to me having to download a third party APK file, but when I tried to install it, it just gave me an error that said "App not installed." I first thought it's because it won't install because the current gallery is still on my phone, but after disabling the app, I still get the error message. Is there any way I can fix this?

The APK file is MIUI's Gallery app if that helps.

# Answer
Generally you can't install one manufacturer's built-in apps on another manufacturer's phone anyway. The built-in apps are written to take advantage of the specific hardware on that phone and/or extra libraries the manufacturer includes in their system image. Camera apps are a particularly bad culprit because often they rely on the features of the camera chip and on a custom image-processing library.

As well as the technical problems, this is software piracy. The app is made by the phone manufacturer to give that particular phone a competitive advantage. It's only licensed for use on that phone. It's not like on Google Play where you buy an app and then can use it on any phone.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: apk, gallery
---


# Question
Title: Is there a way to adjust the size of the text when reading PDF files?
When I use Aldiko to a book in *epub* format on a mobile device with a small screen, I can read it without problems. The text is adjustable to the size, the application has no issues.

The opposite is true when I'm reading *pdf* file. It's always a fight. The text is small and unadjustable and the application freezes.

Is there a way to adjust the size of the text in my PDF files so that they are more easily readable? I don't intend to read scanned pdfs (this would be even bigger fight). I would like to be able to adjust text size, do scaling and not have the application freeze. I'm open to trying other readers if Aldiko cannot handle this.

EDIT: The title was changed, but note that it's not only the change in the size of text. The text should be flexible to various sizes of devices. This is called floating text (or layout) in HTML terminology. A lot of PDF readers can change the text size without the text fitting the device screen.

# Answer
Use ezPDF Reader and use its text column locking feature in landscape orientation (to kick out blank margins and use large device height as width of PDF). I find it useful on my 4.0-inch screen even for the codes because it doesn't change formatting to reflow text. But, if your screen size is much smaller than my one, it'd be useless to you.

Plus, it features voice reading. You can use that too.
> 7 votes

# Answer
qPDF Viewer \- a free ad-free Android PDF Reader - also has a great text reflow mode. Users can zoom in and out to increase or decrease the font size. Look for "Reflow Text" under the action toolbar "View" menu.
> 5 votes

# Answer
The best option is Foxit Mobile PDF.
> 3 votes

# Answer
Xodo PDF Reader is a good option, text reflow works really well.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xodo.pdf.reader
> 2 votes

# Answer
You can use K2pdfopt to convert the pdf to your screen size. Or if you are using an Android device, try KOReader, which has the most advanced support for dynamic pdf reflow.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: pdf, ebook-reader, reading
---


# Question
Title: Does Xposed Framework require to be buillt specifically for the device or just the Android version?
When installing the Xposed framework do I need the device specific binary (like custom recovery or ROM) or just the app that works for Android (4.4.4 in my case). The device is Galaxy Tab E T560.
**Update 12/7/2018**
I tried to Install the framework as on the custom ROM as well as on the stock firmware but with no luck. It seems that Xposed is device/arch/firmware dependent.

# Answer
Built for the Android version, plus the device architecture (arm/arm64/x86). See the Xposed Framework download page (e.g. Android 8.1 (SDK27) here).

The reason behind this is that part of Xposed Framework is a modified `app_process` binary (Zygote), which is different for each arch.
> 4 votes

---
Tags: 4.4-kitkat, samsung-galaxy-tab, command-line, xposed-framework
---


# Question
Title: How to trigger task when Play/Pause button is pressed on Podcast Addict widget or notification?
I would like to trigger a task when the Play/Pause button is pressed on the Podcast Addict widget or notification on lock screen.

I've tried using Receive Intent but that's not working (possibly because the intent itself isn't broadcast).

# Answer
> 1 votes
You can't do it this way. Buttons on widgets are signalled via intents, that's true, but the intent is delivered only to the app that owns the widget - in this case, Podcast Addict.

Instead, you should create a button widget through Tasker, and have it trigger a profile which does the other stuff you want *and* sends the same intent to Podcast Addict that its own widget would send.

---
Tags: tasker, intents
---


title: Screencast and Wi-Fi

text:
# Question
Title: Screencast and Wi-Fi
can I be connected to Wi-Fi and still use screencast I'm trying to watch YouTube on my TV but I also connected my phone to the Wi-Fi I want to know whether or not is it possible to be connected to the Wi-Fi and still use screencast

# Answer
Yes, in fact you *have* to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network that the Chromecast (or whatever device you're trying to cast to) is connected to, because casting works over Wi-Fi.

It may be that when you originally set up the Chromecast, you didn't connect it to your Wi-Fi network, but let it use its own Wi-Fi network. In this case, you'll first have to go into its settings and connect it to the same Wi-Fi network that you want the phone connected to.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: wi-fi, chromecast
---


# Question
Title: how to exit developer mode on android 4.0 ice cream sandwich
I have a Sony-Ericsson Xperia Arc S with android 4.0, the dev mode was activated by mistake by a non tech person. ( so now every touch/drag draws a line, and on the top it shows x,y coordinates )

I can't find how to disable it

# Answer
If you just want that line / coordinate overlay gone, disable `Settings - Developer Options - Pointer location`.
> 1 votes

# Answer
To Disable Developer mode goto settings-\> **developer{ }** then there is a slider on top of Developer options which you can on/off.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: 4.0-ice-cream-sandwich, settings, developer-options
---


# Question
Title: How to view internal AND SD card storage on my Moto e4 when I connect it to my computer?
Up until a couple of hours ago I have been able to view my internal storage and SD storage on my phone when I connect it to my computer via USB. I simply swipe down on my phone, click USB for file transfer and select "transfer file." Since formatting the SD card **I can view my SD card storage** but NOT my internal. **Should I still be able to see the *internal storage* after I do that?**

Other than formatting the SD card, there are a few things that I did to my phone since being able to view internal storage:
1) I moved some apps to the SD card
2) I activated/enabled developer options (sorry I did that) but nothing is changed, that I know of
3) I cleared the settings storage cache (not data)
4) Some apps updated but I don't know which ones, I didn't pay attention to the notification

I'm not sure which, if any, of these things would cause me to no longer be able to view my internal storage.

I tried:

* restarting my phone
* unplugging and replugging the usb cable
* restarting my computer (which also updated)
* uninstalling the device driver (I did not get the checkbox option to delete driver but I did get this warning letting me know that I was uninstalling the device from my system and I continued with the uninstall)

# Answer
Looks like your MTP drivers are corrupted. One way to resolve is uninstalling the driver and then reinstall it.

Depending on your OS running on your PC, locate the device manager and uninstall the driver:

If on Windows PC;

* Go to Device Manager, expand Portable Devices and right click on your device.
* Select Uninstall (also tick the box besides **Delete the driver software for this device**) and click OK.

* Unplug your device and restart your computer.
* After the computer restarted, re-connect your device via usb and allow the MTP driver to be installed (it may take a while, so be patient)
* When done check if the internal storage is now visible.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: internal-storage, settings, storage, cache, developer-options
---


# Question
Title: What is CCleaner for Android referring to by "Hidden Cache"?
CCleaner for Android cleans regular cache and "hidden" cache.

What do they mean by "hidden" cache?

# Answer
Other apps mention that as well, e.g. the cleaners of Avast and AVG – so it seems this isn't specific to the app. I would guess they refer to the apps' "private cache" (i.e. a cache directory inside the apps' private space in `/data/data/<package_name>`).

This developer article might give some insight. Quoting (emphasis mine):

> By default, Android Extensions adds a **hidden cache** function and a storage field to each container (Activity, Fragment, View or a LayoutContainer implementation) written in Kotlin. The method is pretty small so it does not increase the size of APK much.

Another insight from our sister site:

> … but other then that it's all saved on hidden cache partition.

Which suggests there's some special *hidden* cache partition somewhere – or the writer of that answer got it a bit wrong (which I think is the case).

A third variant: Some apps create "hidden cache folders" on the SD card. Now guess what "hidden" means here? `sdcard/Android/data/<some_app>/.cache` – a hidden directory (leading dot in the name) called `.cache`.

No straight answer, sorry – but my guess is it's referring either to the first or to the last of these 3 options. Highest likelyness is the latter – which seems to be confirmed by the SD Maid wiki¹:

> "Hidden caches" targets cache like files that are in non-default cache directories, e.g. `videoCache`, `.cache`.

One thing for sure: they're NOT talking about geo-caching with that

---

¹ thanks to SSS for this pointer!
> 2 votes

---
Tags: cache
---


# Question
Title: Drop\stop mobile data connection (non-wifi) by conditions
Can I set Android 4.4.2 to drop mobile data connection once a data limit set by me is reach within a period?

Which version of Android has this feature?

How can I achieve this?

# Answer
> 0 votes
Settings only available after you turn on mobile data, it's under settings--\>data usage.

---
Tags: mobile-data
---


# Question
Title: Write to SD card to android in Windows 10
Im trying to put some music on my SD card but i've left my micro sdcard reader at home. I do have my charger cable. I can see the files of the sd card on my laptop. But I can't write my music from my laptop to the SD card. Is there a way to enable write permissions of the SD card?
Thanks for thinking with me!

My phone is the Samsung Galaxy J5 2016 (Android 7.1.1)

# Answer
It should just work. The SD card should be writeable by the MTP drivers installed on your PC. Can you please upload a screenshot of the error that appears when you try to paste your music files? Do try creating a new folder and pasting inside it.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: sd-card, 7.1-nougat
---


# Question
Title: How do I simulate menu button on Android 8?
So far I've used the Assistant Menu on my Galaxy S7 as recommended in this question, but after a recent update the assistant menu no longer contains the old menu button.

The "long press" suggestions in the answers doesn't work for me either.

# Answer
Same problem here. Found an app called "Menu Button" in the play store which has solved my issue with an old app (Loot personal finance). I have no association with this app.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: 8.0-oreo, samsung-galaxy-s7
---


# Question
Title: How can I use a bluetooth controller to skip back/forward a video 5/10 seconds?
I've been trying to find an application that will skip a video backwards 5/10 seconds when I press a button on a bluetooth remote and maybe even save a bookmark to a list of bookmarks when I double click for instance play. I was able to do this on a rooted ios device using an app that remapped the forward/next track keys to short skip. I'm watching video lectures and want to control the playback. Is there any hack that will allow this in for instance VLC which already short skips when double tapping the side of the screen?

# Answer
> 0 votes
MX player has this functionality although it doesn't appear to have a bookmarking capability that can save multiple bookmarks in a video.

---
Tags: bluetooth, video, media-player
---


# Question
Title: Honor 7 boot loop after changing display+frame
A few weeks ago, my friend's Honor 7 display cracked. So I ordered a new display+frame from "Ali" as I already have done a few times before. After transferring all the hardware to the new frame and connecting everything as it was before, two issues arose:

1. The battery seems dead. When plugged into a charger, the battery does not charge. But I found a useful thread which might work, so this is not the main issue.

The more pressing issue is:

2. The phone enters a boot loop when powered up (it does not matter if I power it up with or without a battery). SD card and SIM card are not in the phone when powering up. The boot loop consists of a short vibration and then showing the first screen "Honor - powered by android", then going dark and starting over. It is to be noted that no rooting or flashing was done to this phone.

I already tried the old display again but now the same issue arises there too. It can only enter "Fastboot mode" not "Huawei eRecovery". When trying to enter "Huawei eRecovery", it just vibrates really short and then does nothing.

Since the phone is still locked and I can't power it up, my hands are kinda tied up. Any advice would be great. Even if it is just telling me that nothing can be done here.

# Answer
> 0 votes
You should take the phone to a repair shop and explain the situation to them. Most likely a physical component is damaged or not connected, and the bootloop is caused when Android first tries to initialize or use that component. If recovery has the same problem, but fastboot mode doesn't, that narrows the problem down to a component that's initialized by the recovery image, but isn't by the bootloader. It could be as simple as that some RAM or storage, but not all of it, is damaged. This damage could be permanent or could just be a faulty connection. Possibly it was caused by the same physical stress that broke the display in the first place.

---
Tags: boot-loop, huawei, huawei-honor-7
---


# Question
Title: How to automate actions in certain apps?
I have a Note 5 running Android 7.0. I use an app to get scheduled for work. Is there any app that could automate my scheduling in the app? Getting schedule is very hard if I do it manually by updating the screen manually for 30 minutes at least. I checked Automate and MacroDroid but could not find any actions that would control third party apps. If no app is available, is there examples of a Java code to see how controlling on Android works. I could modify the code for my use case. Thanks!

# Answer
By default regular Apps can't control other apps.

There are two exceptions:

1. If the app is a system app (signed with the same cryptographic key that was used to sign the OS itself)
2. An app can request access to the "accessibility services". Using this service an app can interact with other apps.

Note that Google is currently (mid 2018) restricting the accessibility service usage. Only apps that use it for legitimate purposes are allowed (helping disabled people to use an Android phone. As you can imagine controlling third party apps is not a legitimate purpose for Google's perspective.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: automation
---


# Question
Title: Why some of the android apps doesn't work on Wifi
Why some of my android apps doesn't work on Wifi when all other apps work fine.

And these apps work on Mobile Data but not on my Home wifi.

> These apps work when I switch 'Airplane Mode - On' and turn On my Wifi

**Tried:**

1. Have tried searching this on XDA forum
2. Tried Static IP instead of DHCP
3. Setting my time and date manually
4. Checked my App Data Usage (for specific app) - 1.66Mb over Wifi & 11.02Mb over Mobile data
5. Tried my Wifi password twice, tried rebooting my phone twice.
6. Tried App Restrictions & Storage Permissions
7. Turned Power Saving Mode - Off

**FYI:**

My app is in Testing phase - Loading Bitmaps

My Phone is Coolpad3600I ver: 6.0.1

Couldn't understand this weird problem. Need help.

# Answer
> 0 votes
After a lot of research yesterday, I found my project was lacking few crucial steps for loading bitmaps

* Caching of bitmaps was not properly implemented because of which I was getting Out of Memory errors
* I was also getting Android Support Disable plugin error after every few minutes
* Android Profile Analyzer was showing lot of irrelevant threads which was consuming memory

Since, I didn't have much time to look in every file of my code. I modified my sluggish code and imported *Android Bitmap Sample* code from the library.

Most of the common errors of Wifi, caching of bitmaps & Disable Plugin errors were taken care.

---
Tags: wi-fi
---


title: How to change pin on android?

text:
# Question
Title: How to change pin on android?
I have the Blackview BV8000 Pro.

Today, suddenly the pin stopped working and I can not access my phone anymore.

When restarting the Phone (without a sim card), it asks for the pin twice. The first time, it tells me it has to know the pin to boot the device; I enter the pin and the device boots. -\> pin is correct.

Then when it gets to the normal login screen, it asks again for the pin - this time it tells me the pin is wrong.

(When a simcard is in my phone, it asks first for the pin - than boots, than asks for the sim pin, confirms that, and then asks again for the pin on the logon screen- which doesnt work anymore.

What can I do to connect to my data?

The PIN is obviously the right one, since my phone can still boot with that one. And friends who know my pin can confirm that its the correct one. (None of my friends could access my pin in the last few hours).

What can I do? (Besides hard reset it)

# Answer
Try forgot password and enter your email and password that is connected as play store id they will unlock it and sends the password on your gmail as recovery or as reset it.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: password
---


# Question
Title: Reset my android device password using android device manager
I'm android Marshmallow user. and I want to resent my password using android device manager. I signed in my google account and went to google's android device manager and it's not showing any option to reset the password.

I went through some tutorial on google and they've shown this option with screenshot. But i'm enable to find it right now. can somebody pls help

thanks in advance

# Answer
Resetting pattern / password using ADM is possible for devices running 4.4 or lower only . Also see this on Google forums

Your way out is to reset your device after logging out of the Google account to prevent factory reset protection issues or keep guessing the password till you get it right
> 2 votes

# Answer
Here’s how to Unlock your Android device using Android Device Manager.

1. Get on your PC or borrow a phone or tablet from a friend and go to "Forwarding ...".
2. Sign into your Google account that you use on your locked phone.
3. Choose the phone you want to attack in Android Device Manager. Choose "Lock".
4. A window will appear, which will prompt you for a password. Enter a new password.
5. Hit "Lock" a second time.
6. You'll get a confirmation message if everything went right.
7. Unlock your phone with the new password.
8. Finally, go to your phone's settings and remove the new password unless you want to keep using it.
9. Unlock your Android lock screen pattern with your Google Login (only works on Android 4.4 and older versions).
> 0 votes

---
Tags: 6.0-marshmallow, lock-screens, password, android-device-manager
---


# Question
Title: Google authenticator remove and install back in same phone(time corrention)
If i uninstall g.authenticator from my phone and then install it again i lose the tokens for the sites i have? Can anyone tell me about backup codes?those codes are only to access my google account again right? How can disable the ayth authentiacation in all the sites ,if cant access google authenticator

# Answer
> 0 votes
If you uninstall your Google Auth you’ll lose all your tokens. Some services offer backup codes and these codes are valid only for this services. For example, Google offers backup codes, so if you lose your token you can use these backup codes to restore an access only to your Google account. If you lose the token and don’t have a backup code you should contact the support team of service you protect with 2FA. They will help you to restore an access to your account.

Tip: in the process of token enrolment save the QR code and keep it in a SAFE place. Then if you lose your phone you’ll be able to restore your token on a new device.

Another solution is a hardware token that can be used as a backup. For example, Protectimus (the company I work for) offers reprogrammable tokens Protectimus Slim NFC. They can be used as backup tokens (1 token can store 1 seed and can be reprogrammed an unlimited number of times).

---
Tags: google, google-authenticator
---


title: Write text messages using Vim

text:
# Question
Title: Write text messages using Vim
I have an Android phone (Motorola XT 1068 Moto G) that I use mostly for sending text messages.

Being a heavy Vim user, I'm frustrated with the low speed of writing messages using the Android keyboard.

Is there some way I can use Vim to write text messages on the phone?

# Answer
# With AirDroid + withExEditor

First, you establish a connection between a laptop or desktop computer with a proper keyboard and the Android phone.

On the phone, install the AirDroid app.

On the laptop, use the web application to connect to your phone. Currently (2018-06-21), this requires a free registration.

Using "Messages" in the web application (see screenshot below) you'll be able to write text messages on your laptop, sending them via your phone.

To write those messsages conveniently using Vim, you can use the withExEditor add-on for Firefox and Chrome.

After installling the add-on, and doing some additional setup on your laptop, you can use gVim to write your text messages.
> 2 votes

---
Tags: sms
---


title: Lost Phone - Enable Secure Erase

text:
# Question
Title: Lost Phone - Enable Secure Erase
So I lost my device today and it was a Samsung Galaxy Prime. I went onto Google's "Find my device" and there were only 2 options: "Start ringing" and "Enable Secure Erase."

I pressed the Secure Erase button, then I searched online for what that meant. It turns out that it will wipe all of my data away. I wanted to undo that option but it turns out I can't.

So will all of my data be erased and will I be able to get all of my data back?

# Answer
> 7 votes
The “enable secure erase” button does not actually erase your device. Instead, what it does is reach out to the device to and turn on the Device Admin permission for the Find My Device app. So if that's all you've done, your data is still fine, and you can undo it by going into settings and removing Device Admin permission. Despite that, I'd still go with acejavelin's paranoid approach if I had any un-backed-up data.

After you press "enable secure erase", Google contacts your device to enable the feature (not erase your device) and once Google gets an answer back, you should see two new buttons — "lock device" and "erase device". If you then hit "erase device", your device will be erased. And since it was probably online (otherwise the two buttons wouldn't have appeared), it's very likely too late — the device has already been erased.

Google does make it very clear what this button does:

Unless you pressed that button, you should be fine — but again, there is no harm in following acejavelin's paranoid procedure, so I recommend being paranoid!

# Answer
> 7 votes
Since you have already initiated the Erase procedure, the only solution is to prevent the device from contacting Google so the wipe command to **Find My Device** (the Google Device Administrator service on your phone) is not received or executed. Once the erase is initiated from the website the command will go out, it cannot be stopped from happening, although it can sometimes be mitigated.

Assuming you find the device and it is powered off or the battery is dead, *DO NOT* attempt to turn the device on. Remove the SIM card and disable any WiFi that may be in range device, such as turning off your wireless router and any network it may automatically connect to, if it connects to the Internet and Google, it will wipe all data immediately.

Once you have removed the SIM and disabled WiFi, power on the device. As soon as you are able to do so, turn on Airplane Mode. Then go to `Settings - Security - Device Administrators` and disable **Find My Device**'s administration capabilities. Important things here are usually photos and video in the DCIM folder.

Now backup any data via USB to PC, SD card, or OTG flash drive. Do not attempt to backup to any cloud service, install apps, or anything else requiring network access.

Verify again that **Find My Device** does NOT have permissions as device administrator by going to `Settings - Security - Device Administrators`.

Now enable the network access (WiFi or reinstall SIM) and verify you can access the Internet and your Google account such as Gmail, and continue to use the device for a few minutes. I would suggest backing up anything you needed an app or the cloud to backup that you couldn't earlier, such as text messages via SMS Backup & Restore app.

Now reboot, and make sure everything is working as expected. After 5-10 minutes, go back to `Settings - Security - Device Administrators` and authorize **Find My Device** again.

In many cases the wipe event has "passed" and the device will not reset, but in some instances it still does occur. Either way, realize it could still happen, but if it goes 24 hours the wipe event most likely will not occur.

Also note that if it does get wiped, you must log back into the device using the same Google account and credentials that were on the device previously as it will likely be in Factory Reset Protection (FRP) mode.

There are a few articles, mostly dated, on the Internet regarding this, most are fluff so be careful... This answer is largely paraphrased from this one which I have used before.

BTW, next time something like this happens... Research on the Internet first, then press the Doom and Gloom button after you know what it will do, not before. :)

---
Tags: applications, lost-phone, samsung-galaxy-core-prime
---


# Question
Title: How do I restore Whatsapp from backup after skipping the restore option?
I accidentally skipped Whatsapp restore option when I changed my device and now my backup on google drive is overwritten. How can I get my old backup? It was about 2.3gb of my data and I need those chats. Kindly help me.

# Answer
If you still have your old phone, recovery will be pretty easy

First of all make sure to turn on backup on your new phone.

**WhatsApp \> Menu Button \> Settings \> Chat Settings \> Backup conversations.**

Now, follow these steps:

1. Install the data recovery software for Android mobiles on your Windows PC using this link.
2. Use the data recovery to scan your Android mobile phone. It supports up to 2000 Android mobiles, including Samsung mobiles, LG phones, HTC, Motorola, Lenovo, Nexus, ZTE, Huawei, Xiaomi, Blu, or other Android based phones and tablets.
3. Get back your lost WhatsApp messages on your old phone.
4. Now, you will need to transfer the/sd card/WhatsApp/folder from your old phone to the same folder on your new phone.

Hope this helps.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: backup, whatsapp-messenger, google-drive, chat-history
---


# Question
Title: Micromax canvas juice 3 plus q394 reboots after every 5 minutes of use
Im using Micromax canvas juice 3 plus q394 from long time but from few months it overheats and restarts consistently every five minutes of use, i used all hibernate apps as well as memory, cache cleaners app but none of worked if anyone know how to solve this problem please your answer.

# Answer
There can be multiple causes of your android's random behavior. I am listing some of then with solution.

1. In most cases, random restarts are caused by a poor quality app. Try uninstalling apps you don’t use. Be sure the apps you do use are reliable, especially the apps that handle email or text messaging.
2. If you disabled apps that are required to run the Android OS, it may be causing your restarting issue. Have a look under “Settings” \> “Applications” and swipe over to the list of apps that are “Turned Off” or “Disabled” and enable any apps that may be needed for your device to function properly.
3. Many Android devices are designed to shut off automatically if they become too hot. If you are trying to use 4G, GPS, and the screen is set to the brightest setting, it might restart itself or shut down. Try to take it easy and maybe disable features you don’t need.
4. Loose Battery is also one of the issues.The most common reason for this is the rear cover has become slightly bent and is no longer holding the battery into place. Another reason is the gold battery connectors are bent out of shape. Over time, the connectors may get worn down.
5. Sometimes the Android system software gets corrupted. If you are using a custom Android ROM, try a different version of the ROM or another type of ROM altogether. If you’re not using a custom ROM, your only option may be to try a factory reset of the device.

Hope this helps.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: reboot
---


# Question
Title: How to Upgrade Sony Xperia Z3 Compact (D5803) to Android 8.1?
How do you upgrade the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact (D5803) to Android 8.1?

There are a number of web pages that attempt to answer this question, but none of them provide every step along the way. These include:

They all skip steps or are missing key pieces of information that someone who is unfamiliar with the process would prevent from completing. A comprehensive, step-by-step guide for a complete novice would be helpful.

# Answer
> 5 votes
# Upgrade Sony Xperia Z3 Compact to Android 8.1

These instructions describe how to upgrade the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact (D5803) smart phone. These instructions do not include backup instructions, so be sure to save any important information and then proceed at your own risk.

## Requirements

* Laptop or Desktop - Windows 7
* Xperia - Stock Build Number 23.5.A.1.291 (revert if necessary)
* Xperia - Fully charged (100% recommended)
* Xperia Companion
* TWRP

## Disclaimer

These instructions could brick your phone, rendering it a paperweight. *Read all the instructions thoroughly at least once **before you begin.***

Unlocking the bootloader erases Sony's DRM-protected functionality, such as X-Reality Engine and Miracast. Unless you make a backup of a specific partition, the functionality will be permanently lost.

## Enable Developer Mode

Enable developer mode on the phone as follows:

1. Power on the phone
2. Open **Settings**
3. Tap **About phone**
4. Scroll down to **Build number**
5. Tap **Build number** at least 7 times in succession
6. Enable developer mode

Developer mode is enabled.

## Install Device Drivers

On the laptop or desktop computer, perform the following steps:

1. Disconnect Phone from USB, if not already disconnected
2. Download Flashtool v0.9.24.4 for Windows
3. Install into `C:\Flashtool`
4. Plug phone into laptop or desktop USB port
5. Run `C:\Flashtool\drivers\Flashtool-drivers.exe`
6. Check **Flashboot Drivers**
7. Scroll down
8. Check **Xperia Z3 Compact Device Driver**
9. Click **Install**
10. Accept any warnings that appear

The device drivers are installed.

## Install Platform Tools

Download and install the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) as follows:

1. Download ADB platform tools
2. Unzip into `C:\Program Files\platform-tools`
3. Open a command prompt
4. Type: `cd C:\Program Files\platform-tools`
5. Type: `adb devices`
6. Authorize the connection on the phone.

The phone is listed and the ADB platform tools are installed.

## Unblock the Bootloader

Advanced users can use Flashtool to unlock the bootloader, which is not described herein.

Unblock the phone's bootloader as follows:

1. Follow along with Sony's Guide
2. Complete Step 1: **Check if the bootloader can be unlocked on your device**
3. Skip Step 2: **installing devices drivers and platform tools**
4. Unplug the USB cable
5. Complete Step 3: **Connect to Fastboot**
6. Complete Step 4: **Enter unlock key**
7. Type: `fastboot -i 0x0fce oem unlock 0x{UNLOCK CODE}`
    * Replace `{UNLOCK CODE}` with the unlock code from Sony

The console shows:

```
...
OKAY [  1.544s]
finished. total time: 1.560s

```

The bootloader is unlocked.

## Reboot

After the bootloader is unlocked, reboot the phone as follows:

1. Type: `fastboot reboot`
2. Wait for the reboot cycle to complete

The phone is rebooted with an unlocked bootloader.

## TWRP

TWRP is a tool for writing custom software on mobile phones. Install TWRP as follows:

1. On the phone, visit https://twrp.me/sony/sonyxperiaz3compact.html
2. Install the Official TWRP App from the Play Store.
3. Download image into `C:\Program Files\platform-tools`:
4. Power off phone
5. Unplug USB cable
6. Press and hold volume down
7. Plug in USB cable
8. Wait for blue indicator light in top left (may have to re-plug in)
    * Or run: `adb reboot bootloader`
9. Type: `fastboot flash FOTAKernel twrp_z3c_O_2018-05-09.img`

The output resembles:

```
target didn't report max-download-size
sending 'FOTAKernel' (10730 KB)...
OKAY [  0.345s]
writing 'FOTAKernel'...
OKAY [  0.722s]
finished. total time: 1.075s

```

TWRP recovery mode application is installed, to assist flashing ROM.

## ROM

A handful of ROMs exist. When choosing a ROM, also find the version of GApps that is suitable for the selected ROM. The Sony Xperia Z3 Compact uses a Snapdragon 801 Processor, which has a 32-bit architecture.

Note: These instructions have only been successfully accomplished using CarbonROM and MindTheGapps.

### CarbonROM 6.1

Download CarbonROM from:

Download the ARM architecture version of MindTheGapps from:

Alternatively, download the 32-bit ARM architecture version of Open GApps for Android version 8.1 from:

The version of Open GApps must match the Android version of CarbonROM.

Skip to the **General ROM Installation** section.

### LineageOS 15.1

Download LineageOS from (forum post):

Skip to the **General ROM Installation** section.

### OmniROM Oreo 8.1

Download OmniROM Oreo from either of the following sites (forum post):

Continue to the **General ROM Installation** section.

### General ROM Installation

The ROM filename will differ, depending on the ROM that was downloaded, such as:

* CarbonROM: CARBON-CR-6.1-NOCT-WEEKLY-z3c-20180605-0603.zip
* OmniROM: omni-8.1.0-20180320-z3c-nailyk.zip
* LineageOS: lineage-15.1-20171103-UNOFFICIAL.zip

The steps to flash a given ROM are as follows:

1. Reboot the phone using: `fastboot reboot`
2. Start Xperia Companion
3. Click **Browse Xperia**
4. Copy both the ROM and the Gapps files into the phones download directory (e.g., `Computer\Xperia Z3 Compact\Internal storage\Download\`)
5. Power off phone
6. Unplug phone
7. Press and hold the volume down button
8. Press and hold the power button
9. Wait for a slight vibration before releasing both buttons
10. Wait for recovery application to load
11. Swipe to allow modifications
12. Select **WIPE**
13. Select **Advanced**
14. Check the following:
    * **Dalvik / ART cache**
    * **System**
    * **Cache**
    * **Data**
15. Swipe to confirm wipe
16. Tap **Home** icon
17. Tap **Install**
18. Browse to and select the OS ROM file
19. Tap **Add more Zips**
20. Browse to and select the GApps file
21. Swipe to confirm Flash
22. Tap **Reboot System**
23. Wait for the boot to complete

Android and the GApps are installed using the specified ROM.

# Answer
> 1 votes
A small note to Dave Jarvis' answer:

I almost gave up, just getting adb/fastboot talking to the device. Turned out to be a Windows 10 problem, because it refused without notice (?) to install drivers. The flashtool64 did complain however that it failed 2 of 3 in one of its windows, but I assumed (wrongly) that it was okay. I followed this guide to disable driver signature enforcement:

> Please check if you have performed these steps to disable the driver signature enforcement in Windows 10 Technical Preview.
>
> 1. Press the **Win + C** and click on **PC settings.**
> 2. Switch over to the “**Update & recovery**” section.
> 3. Then click on the **Recovery option** on the left hand side.
> 4. Once selected, you will see an advanced startup section appear on the right hand side. You will need to click on the “**Restart now**” button.
> 5. Once your Computer has rebooted you will need to choose the **Troubleshoot** option.
> 6. Then head into **Advanced options**.
> 7. Then **Startup Settings**.
> 8. Since we are modifying boot time configuration settings, restart your computer once more.
> 9. Here you will be given a list of startup settings that you can change. The one we are looking for is “**Disable driver signature enforcement**”. To choose the setting, you will need to press **F7**.

Once this was done, the drivers were installed from guide links and with flashtool64, and then I got a message that the `adb` "was too old", so they were updated as well.

Note: If you follow the guide, you *will* have new `adb` drivers. I assumed wrong (again) that my present ones would suffice.

---
Tags: updates, bootloader, 8.1-oreo, sony-xperia-z3
---


# Question
Title: What percentage of Android devices have BLE support?
Just asking for a bit of data, as I couldn't find it anywhere. Useful to know whether to develop for BLE or Bluetooth. How about percentage over time as well?

# Answer
Android has started supporting BLE from version 4.3 onwards. I guess all the android phones that now comes with Android 4.3 or above out of the box will be having BLE support in both hardware and software. Decide on which technology to use based on your application! If its some control application, and you don't have any end user who is still on devices that has stopped android updates beyond 4.0, go for BLE else BT classic will be your best bet.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: bluetooth, bluetooth-le
---


# Question
Title: How to install a web certificate on an Android device?
To gain access to WIFI at university I have to login with my user/pass credentials.

The certificate of their website (the local home page that asks for the credentials) is not recognized as a trusted certificate, so we install it separately on our computers.

The problem is that I don't take my laptop with me often to university, so I usually want to connect using my HTC Magic, but I have no clue on how to install the certificate separately on Android, it is always rejected.

This is what is stated in their website

## \> Need for installation of official certificates CyberTrust validated by the CRU (http://www.cru.fr/wiki/scs/)

> ---
>
> The certificates contain information certified to generate encryption keys for data exchange, called "sensitive" as the password of a user.
>
> By connecting to CanalIP-UPMC, for example, the user must validate the identity of the server accepting the certificate appears on the screen in a "popup window". In reality, the user is unable to validate a certificate knowing, because a simple visual check of the license is impossible.
>
> Therefore, the certificates of the certification authority **(CRU-Cybertrust Educationnal-ca.ca Cybertrust and-global-root-ca.ca**) must be installed prior to the browser for the validity of the certificate server can be controlled automatically.
>
> Before you connect to the network-UPMC CanalIP you must register in your browser through the certification authority **Cybertrust-Educationnal-ca.ca** Download the Cybertrust-Educationnal-ca.ca, depending on your browser and select the link below :
>
> With Internet Explorer, click on the link following.
>
> With Firefox, click on the link following.
>
> With Safari, click the link following.
>
> If this procedure is not respected, a real risk is incurred by the user: that of being robbed password LDAP directory UPMC. A malicious server may in fact try very easily attack type "**man-in-the-middle**" by posing as the legitimate server at UPMC.
>
> The theft of a password allows the attacker to steal an identity for transactions over the Internet can engage the responsibility of the user trapped ...

This is their website : http://www.canalip.upmc.fr/doc/Default.htm (in French, Google-translate it :))

Anyone knows how to install a web certificate on Android?

# Answer
For Android 2.2, the certificates (*without renaming or converting*) can be placed at the root of the sd card.

To install:

1. Go to the **Settings/Security** menu, **Credential storage** section.
2. Activate **Use secure credentials**.
3. Click **Install from SD card**.
4. A menu will appear with the available certificates.
5. Click on each certificate to install.

Those certificates will then be available to the wifi system.
> 5 votes

# Answer
I know this is late coming, but I designed a tool just for this purpose. I was having trouble with my Droid, so I created this tool: RealmB's Android Certificate Installer. I know it works with Android 2.0 (the OS which runs on the Droid), but I don't know for 1.5 or 1.6. Feel free to give it a try.
> 0 votes

# Answer
I've done it typing in the browser "file:/" plus the name of the certificate file in the SD
> -2 votes

---
Tags: wi-fi, certificates
---


title: Icons segment triangle

text:
# Question
Title: Icons segment triangle
Segmented triangle with up and down arrows inside triangle appears on the status bar. Can not find what this means. I have checked four different sites.

# Answer
It is the notificattion for **data saver ON** for OREO update.

Looks something like this.

Go to settings \> connections \> Data Usage \> Tap on Data Saver and turn it off

The icon will disapperar. Hope this helps
> 0 votes

---
Tags: screen
---


# Question
Title: How to download a specific part of any online streaming videos on Android phone?
I'm using an Android phone. I watch action movies online in it. I always want to download only some particular scenes of the movie. But I don't know how. So I download the complete movies which are very large in size and I cut specific parts of it using softwares. But I want to download only some parts of the online videos which are very small in size as compared to the whole movie. So my question is, is there any way to download parts of online streaming videos on Android. I'm not talking about YouTube videos. I'm taking about videos from movie websites.

# Answer
> 1 votes
You can use different Screen recorders for your requirement. Just start the recording where you wish to, and stop it when your are done. This way you can get your required length of video.

I'll try to list my top picks for the same.

1. **AZ Screen Recorder**: AZ Screen Recorder is the gold standard for screen recorder apps. It's light, easy, accessible, and cheap. It doesn't require root, has no watermarks and no time limits.
2. **DU Recorder** : It records your phone screen with up to 1080p/60fps quality. The app also works in 20 languages, has a decent UI, and a video editor built-in. It's all entirely free to download and use. It does have problems, though. Tablet support is a bit flaky and some people found bugs. Still, for free price, it's one of the better screen recording apps.
3. **Vysor**: Vysor is a fun little app that allows you to cast your device to your computer screen over USB. From there, you can use it on your computer or screen record it on your PC if you’d like to. It tends to work pretty well although you will need to fork out a little bit of money in order to get HD quality. This app doesn’t record anything on its own so don’t expect any options to do so. You’ll have to record it on your computer on your own.

Hope this helps.

---
Tags: downloading
---


# Question
Title: Why do Docs, Sheets and Slides keep recreating their data?
Look, I am *never, ever ever* going to use Docs, Sheets and Slides on my LG K7 (running 5.1.1), but I have come to terms with the fact that there is no way to remove them from my phone without rooting, which I am not interested in doing. But I figure at least I can free up scarce storage space by erasing the apps' data, which typically is on the order of about 70 MB each. Liberating 200+ MB of available space on a phone that only has 4GB internal storage, 3/4 of which is taken up with the OS and apps that can't be removed: it means the difference between "Not enough space to update apps" / "Voicemails will not be downloaded" and normal operation.

But every time I clear this memory -- without fail -- I find that within 24 hours the data is recreated and I am right back where I started. Note that I'm not *using* Docs, Sheets or Slides during this 24 hour period, so the apps are not running. Why does this data keep getting recreated, and is there anything I can do to stop it?

# Answer
You shoud **disable** those apps:

* Go to *Settings › Apps* – where you usually deleted the data
* before deleting data:
    + push the "force close" button to make sure the app is not running. Else it might recreate data before you reach the point of disabling it.
    + then push the "disable" button, so it won't start anymore.
    + on "disable" you might be asked if you wish to revert to the "factory version". Say yes: this will remove all updates the app has received, and which are stored in "user space" as well. So this will even free additional space
* finally push "clear cache" and "delete data", to complete the cleanup job.

Now that it's disabled, it won't start on its own anymore – and thus not collect or recreate any data. Nor should any updater pull updates for it.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: internal-storage, background-data
---


# Question
Title: How to bypass Factory Reset Protection (FRP) or "Verify your account" screen?
I won a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, signed into it with my Google account, played around with it, wiped it, and sold it.

Now the person can't get past setup because it's saying he must log in with an account previously synced to the phone.

Is there anything I can do from my side to remove this lock?

# Answer
There are full guides for several devices from RootJunky on YouTube. This first method works on some **Samsung and LG devices**. Your user can probably start at step 4.

1. Reboot into Recovery mode (hold Home, Volume Up, and Power, releasing Power when you see the device turn on/reboot).
2. Perform a Factory Reset (press Volume Down until `wipe data/factory reset` is selected, press Power, scroll down to `Yes -- delete all user data` and press Power again).
3. Proceed through the device Setup Wizard until it prompts you for the Google account credentials.
4. For a Samsung device, save this RootJunky APK onto a USB flash drive, and connect it to the device via OTG.

For LG:

* Back up, connect to Wi-Fi, then back up again and hit Accessibility (Yes to the prompt that follows).
    * Turn "Switch Access" on, then enter its Settings and set a key for Overview, such as Volume Down.
    * Back out to Accessibility again, go to Vision → Talkback → Settings → Privacy Policy to open the browser, and download the APK linked above (rootjunkysdl.com → Apps).
    * Press the key you set up for Overview, hit Dual Window, and select the file browser.
5. When the File Explorer launches, browse to and tap the APK to install it. When you get the prompt about unknown sources, choose the Settings option and enable the Unknown Sources option.
6. Complete the install and choose to Open the application, which will open Settings.

For LG:

* Add a new user account under Users, switch to it and add your own Google account via Setup, then switch back to the main user (Owner) from Settings → Users, and back out from there to the main Settings.
7. Go to Backup and Reset and do a Factory Data Reset. As per my other answer, this will remove FRP from the device.

The APK in (4) is very simple and just opens Settings, you could use any other that does the same if you don't want to trust that source.

---

**Nexus 5, 5X, 6, and 6P running 6.0.1; Goclever Quantum 2 400S running 5.1:**

Insert an activated SIM card and call it from another phone. Answer the call, hit the Add Line (call conferencing) button, and enter `*#*#4646#*#*` or `*#*#4636#*#*` (worked on Nexus 5X). Tap "Usage Statistics", then hit the back button, and you're in Settings and can do a factory reset.

If Factory Reset is disabled thanks to a security patch, you can instead create a new user account (going through and setting it up), then follow the very next guide below for the Turbo, starting at the second paragraph.

You can also do this without a sim through this exploit.

---

**Motorola Droid Turbo running 5.1:**

Go through the Setup Wizard until you encounter the "About your privacy" page (you might need to connect to Wi-Fi). Hit the "Privacy settings" link, then "View Motorola Privacy Policy". On that page, select any text and hit the Search button, which will open the browser. Type Settings into the address bar, and tap the suggested Settings app.

Enable developer options (by tapping the version code in About Phone seven times), then go into Developer Options and turn on USB debugging. Connect your device to a PC with ADB installed (from here) and run this in a shell window:

```
adb shell content insert --uri content://settings/secure --bind name:s:user_setup_complete --bind value:s:1

```

Now you can go into Settings and do a Factory Reset.

---

**Motorola Droid X Pure running 6.0:**

Navigate through the Setup Wizard to the Wi-Fi connection screen, and select a password-protected network. Select "Show password", then type in a password and select the password text. Hit "Share" in the menu that pops up and select Gmail. Add a POP or Exchange account (*not* a Gmail account), and (from the message pre-populated with the text you "shared") select Settings from the 3-dot menu and then choose "Manage accounts" from that same menu.

You should now be in the Settings app. Follow the above Turbo guide starting at the second paragraph, and you're done!

---

For devices where none of the above or similar methods work, or after these exploits are fixed, see my other answer.
> 33 votes

# Answer
Use this code to unlock in an emergency call: `*#812#`. After calling it, the phone unlocked and I was shown the home screen. After that, I went to the setting and added a new Google account. Since then, the phone works perfectly and thus is absolutely safe.

If you have the same problem, just try it. If it unlocks, then good for you. If it does not, then just nothing happens.

It worked beautifully on my OnePlus2.
> 9 votes

# Answer
No, there is not (or there *shouldn't* be). Factory Reset Protection uses a protected storage area located at `/dev/block/*/by-name/frp` that can't be wiped without special privileges or initiating a Factory Reset from Settings. If the user was able to root the device they could manually launch Settings via adb and do the reset themselves, but rooting is typically not possible when you can't even get past the initial setup wizard. If your bootloader is unlocked and/or you've already rooted the device, however, they could overwrite that FRP partition in order to bypass it!

If he sends the phone back to you: Log in with your Google account at the prompt in the Setup Wizard, finish the wizard, and then go to Settings and do the Factory Reset from there (rather than via recovery, etc.).

See this Android Police post for more details on the feature: What Is Android 5.1's Anti-Theft "Device Protection" Feature And How Do I Use It?
> 8 votes

# Answer
IF the phone has a *Google keyboard*, the following may look pretty lengthy but it doesn't require OTG cable or PC so it's worth a try.

1. Boot your device and select preferred language
2. Connect to Wi-FI network.
3. You will be prompted to enter email, then tap on it as if you want to type something to bring up keyboard.
4. From the keyboard, tap and hold the “@” button until it pops up gear icon to input options like Google keyboard settings, languages.
5. Choose Google keyboard settings.
6. Tap on the 3 vertical dots at the right top part of your screen
7. Now Select the Help & Feedback
8. From the screen displayed, look for Settings in the text, select it, copy it and tap on the search icon.
9. You should see Settings menu on the search queries. Tap on it to open device settings
10. Scroll down to About Phone or About device and tap 7 times on the Build number to enable Developer Options
11. Return to Settings and open the Developer Options that you just enabled
12. Allow OEM Unlocking and tap Back two times
13. Restart your device
14. Connect your Wi-Fi again. You won’t be prompted to log in the previous Google Account and instead the phone will ask you to ADD a new Google Account. Instead Skip it.
15. Continue to set up your phone.
> 2 votes

# Answer
### FRP bypass for ZTE instructions

1. Reset the phone and power it back on.
2. Choose your preferred language, then tap on *Start*.
3. Connect the phone to a WiFi network (preferably your Home network).
4. Skip several steps of the setup until you reach the *Verify Account* screen.
5. Tap on the email field, in order to activate the keyboard.
6. Most ZTE phones come with the Swift Key keyboard, so you need to tap on the keyboard’s menu key.
7. Select *Settings* from the menu.
8. From the Settings menu within *SwiftKey* select *Languages*.
9. Minimize the menu on the screen, then go to the Google search bar.
10. When prompted to sign in with a Google Account, choose "No, Thanks".
11. In the Google search bar, type `Settings` and select it. If the SwiftKey menu pops up again, tap on *Got it*, then *Not Now*.
12. From the Settings menu select *Backup and Reset*. (read the comment below for Huawei Y5)
13. From this submenu, choose *Factory Data Reset*. Go through the entire process and reset your handset again. However, this time you won’t see the FRP lock.

<sub>**Source:** How to bypass Google Account Verification (Factory Reset Protection)</sub>
> 2 votes

---
Tags: factory-reset, google-account, frp
---


# Question
Title: How do I Disable Android Device Manager on Sold Device?
I am a GSuite user and a ZTE Axon 7 device that I recently sold via SWAPPA was setup with Android Device Manager. I did a factory reset on the device, but when the buyer powered on the device, he said that the device indicated that it was already associated with a Google account and he would need the credentials to configure it. I went into the standard Find my Device and tried to remove it, and it appeared to have been removed from whatever screen I was on, but the buyer is still complaining. I am still seeing the device here: https://www.google.com/android/find I wondered if GSuite's device management might be at play, and just went there to "delete" it. Am wondering what else I can do?

# Answer
> 1 votes
An answer that works... Give him your email and password to unlock the device. Once they are in and working, change your password.

Yes, it has potential risks, but 99.99% of the time this would work out just fine.

---
Tags: android-device-manager
---


# Question
Title: How can I see which wifi channel / frequency is used by my android 4.4.2 device?
How can I see which wifi channel, frequency is used by my android 4.4.2 device?

# Answer
This answer might be helpful for you. However, there are multiple apps could do that. Search wifi on google play. For example, the one I use at work and home is Wifi Analyzer. which graphically shows the channel & frequency for all wifi networks around plus the one you're connected to. I used this app on Samsung galaxy S2. I would post couple of screenshots taken by me but I can't post more than 2 links (new user).
> 2 votes

# Answer
If you know how to use adb, you can run `adb shell iw dev wlan0 link`. This gives you the frequency. To know the channel, do a search or use wikipedia to find out.
> 1 votes

# Answer
In regards to what Wi-Fi channel your device is on you'll need to view the settings of the network that you're connected to.

This all depends on whether you have access to the network settings and what type of router it is. This will help you understand it more: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/network-wifi/3325316/how-change-wi-fi-channel/
> 0 votes

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Tags: wi-fi, 4.4-kitkat
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title: View HDMI output on Android Phone

text:
# Question
Title: View HDMI output on Android Phone
I have a raspberry pi: it is normally run 'headless' (sans monitor). I would like to be able to connect the video output on a Samsung Galaxy Phone. For this exercise, the solution must use a wired connection (HDMI, USB) and not rely on a network connection (SSH / VNC or similar).

My Google search brings up articles of how to cast video from the Android device through HDMI. I would like to wire and direct HDMI into the Android device's display.

# Questions:

Assuming there is a cable that can bridge HDMI into the Android device: does Android support wired HDMI capability? What is the nomenclature for the capability?

Bonus: can the same thing be done from the raspberry pi's USB port? That is, direct the video out through a USB port, through a USB cable and into the Android device for display?

# Answer
> Assuming there is a cable that can bridge HDMI into the Android device: does Android support wired HDMI capability? What is the nomenclature for the capability?

Nothing in the Android Compatibility Definition Document indicates that such a feature is supported by Android.

Consider that HDMI inputs on a PC is usually done via specialized capture cards and that you are asking for physical input to device which normally operates on **battery**. Remember that any hardware that isn't being sold/used as a 'feature' is a waste of space and power on a phone.

> Bonus: can the same thing be done from the raspberry pi's USB port? That is, direct the video out through a USB port, through a USB cable and into the Android device for display?

You would need VNC but this thread indicates that it is possible over USB: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=105336
> 0 votes

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Tags: usb, hdmi
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title: Can 5GHz wi-fi be disabled in Nougat?

text:
# Question
Title: Can 5GHz wi-fi be disabled in Nougat?
I have an ASUS Zenpad 10 that I travel with a lot, as in I'm connecting to other people's networks where I have zero control over the router settings.

Since upgrading to Nougat 7.0 the tablet now permanently prefers connecting to the faster, but usually weak and spotty 5 GHz networks instead of the slower but much stronger and much more reliable 2.4 GHz networks. They're still fast enough to stream Netflix so they're fast enough for me.

The tablet won't upgrade beyond 7.0, I assume this is controlled by my carrier, Verizon?

I would love to find a way to convince my Tablet that 5GHz simply doesn't exist. Is there a third party app for this or something?

# Answer
Following this discussion with Izzy, I think your scenario is the opposite of the described problem in that post, it seems you simply want stick to the **2.4GHz** connection because it is associated with better signal strength (although slightly slower when compared to 5GHz).

As such I'd recommend this tool called, Wifi Band Switcher on this thread. This app has been reverse engineered from the code from that gives advanced wi-fi menu since it essentially uses some standard AOSP hidden APIs. So the developer created an app that uses these same hidden APIs. With this you can **force the WLAN band to be always the 2.4GHz.**

Note: the app must be installed as system app.

**Usage:**

Just extract apk and using root explorer paste in system/app set permissions

> `rw-r--r-`

Not the prettiest interface but could possibly do the job, it is essentially the same implementation found in native android ROMs:

Alternatively you could try using using Wi-fi analyzer by farproc (to analyse the available bands) in conjuction with its open source plug-in Wi-fi Connecter Library to selectively connect to the 2.4Ghz band.

> If you are viewing the AP list of networks in Wi-fi Analyzer which shows you both the 5.0Ghz and the 2.4Ghz, with this plugin installed you can then tap and connect.

Additionally as suggested by Izzy in that discussion, you could also try
Smart WiFi Selector(trial)
> 2 votes

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Tags: wi-fi, 7.0-nougat
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