# Question
Title: Why does "tar -czh" produce a corrupt archive but "tar -ch | gzip" work fine?
I am trying to backup a directory from a phone over `adb`.

When using the following command I get an archive which is corrupt:

```
adb exec-out "tar -czh /sdcard/DCIM" > backup.tar.gz

```

But with the following command the archive is correct:

```
adb exec-out "tar -ch /sdcard/DCIM | gzip" > backup.tar.gz

```

The two tar files are 48.8mB with a difference of about 200kB. The corrupt archive is smaller.

I am using `adb` at the Windows command line. It is necessary to receive the output as compressed data to avoid newline conversions. Both commands should provide compressed data.

My question is specifically asking why these two commands which should be identical are producing a different result.

The phone is running LineageOS 14.1 and is connected to a computer running Windows 10.

# Answer
> 1 votes
`exec-out` mixed up stdout and stderr

in 1st example the tar `stderr` message *"removing leading '/' from member names"* is redirected into target file

in 2nd example only tar `stdout` is piped to `gzip`

to avoid broken archive silent `stderr` see linked duplicate

---
Tags: adb, backup
---


# Question
Title: Can an app that has permission to access the photos copy them?
i'm really wondering and can't find answer. Google Play from the store every downloaded apps want to access photos. Permission content `read the contents of your usb, modify or delete the contents of your usb storage`

My question is, can the application copy and send the photos to the application owner if they want? They are virus-free applications available in the official store I am talking about.

My device is an Xiaomi Android tv box running Android 9.

# Answer
What you are looking at is the static permission to get read/write access to the shared storage (`/sdcard` respectively `/storage/emulated/0`).

Since about Android 6 this static permission you grant by installing the app is no longer enough for actually accessing the files on the shared storage. Instead the app has to additionally ask you to get access to those files at run-time. And this time you can chose to deny access. Additionally apps usually ask for this permission at that time when they really need it. This means if access to shared storage is only required for one functionality you never use you should not see this permission request dialog and thus the app never gets access to the shared storage.

But if you get this permission request and you allow it then the app has full access to ever file on shared storage including your stored photos. An app can do anything it want with files it has access to, including sending them to a server in the internet.

Google also recognized that "all-or-nothing permission" was not a good decision. Starting with Android 10/11 the way to access devices shared storage has totally changed and now allows to grant/deny access on a finer granular level.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: applications, google-play-store, privacy
---


title: How to install TWRP after Magisk?

text:
# Question
Title: How to install TWRP after Magisk?
# How to install TWRP after Magisk?

I have a OnePlus 6 running Oxygen OS 9.0 and I managed to install Magisk by obtaining the stock boot image and using the magisk manager app to patch it to include magisk, then I flashed the patched boot.img using fastboot and ADB.

The reason I did it this way is that every time I tried to boot with twrp.img in order to flash twrp.zip, I would run into a screen saying Qualcomm CrashDump Mode and TWRP wouldn't boot.

Now I want to install TWRP and I was wondering if there is any way of doing it by using Magisk, so I wouldn't have to boot twrp.img.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

# Answer
> 3 votes
**There is different method from Android 9 and later.**

For Android 9 and 10 devices, ensure to disable dm\_verity by flashing an empty vbmeta before flashing magisk patched boot. Some devices most especially those using Unisoc chipset require that you generate your custom signed vbmeta.

*Sorry, I don't know more but only this difference about Android 9 or newer.*

# Answer
> 0 votes
Had a similar issue. The problem is that regular twrp (current version 3.2.3) does not work with Oxygen OS 9.0.

The solution is to use blu\_spark twrp, which does work. You can find the download here:

https://forum.xda-developers.com/devdb/project/?id=27466#downloads

(twrp-3.2.3-x\_blu\_spark\_v9.86\_op6.img and twrp-3.2.3-x\_blu\_spark\_v9.86\_op6.zip)

linked to from the main Oxygen OS 9.0 oneplus 6 thread on xda-developers:

https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-6/how-to/official-oxygenos-5-1-5-ota-oneplus-6-t3794232

---
Tags: twrp, magisk, oneplus-6
---


# Question
Title: How to remove old credit card details from credit card autofill feature in Android One?
Every app in my phone (Xiaomi Mi A2, Android One) that implements Credit Card auto-fill still shows my old credit card information even though I have already (a) replaced all my payment information in my google account a few weeks ago, (b) used 'Scan a new card' feature every time this auto-fill feature pops up and (c) cleared cache and storage of the app that used this feature.

Do you know where these credit card information are kept and where can I reset them?

Note: The credit card info above were purposefully blurred.

**Other Notes**

Out of curiosity, when I select any of those old credit cards, I get an error popup

```
Request failed: An unexpected error has occurred. Please try again later [OR-PMIA-18]

```

This is expected as I have removed them from my google account.

# Answer
> 3 votes
I was able to reset the Credit Card information by going to Settings \> Google \> Auto-fill \> Auto-fill with Google then switch to different Google account and back again. My guess is this action clears the auto-fill cache.

You might also have some luck clearing the Setting app's cache instead but I have not tried that.

# Answer
> -1 votes
Cleat the App Data which are storing the information. And if it doesnot work. your password can be managed by different apps depending on what Brand you are using, SAMSUNG, IPHONE or other every Manufacture has its own official app which manage this kind of information of users. Like Samsung has Samsung Pass (in settings).

---
Tags: android-one, auto-fill
---


# Question
Title: Disable part of a touchscreen from taking phantom touches
I have a 10.Or G android Oreo device

* Resolution: 1080x1920
* Density: 480

This question follows up from here

I'm having problem with lots of ghost touches in the very top 5 mm bar of the screen where touches will register almost 20 times in a minute. Doing the overscan doesnt help at all, because touches will still register, so I am looking to resize my screen with:

```
adb shell wm size 1080*1820

```

I dont know what to do from here because I'm receiving error:

```
Error: bad size 1080*1820

```

Help will be greatly appreciated.

# Answer
You can use the `overscan` subcommand instead of `size` for achieving your objective.
The syntax is `adb shell wm overscan left,top,right,bottom`, where **left**, **top**, **right** and **bottom** are the coordinates relative to the actual edges of the screen. So, in your case, you should write `adb shell wm overscan 0,100,0,0`, to get a resolution of 1080×1820, as you have mentioned above.

**Explanation:** This will set your device's screen bounds to 0px from the left, 100 px from the top, 0 px from the right and 0 px from the bottom. See this image:
> 3 votes

# Answer
You are getting the error `Error: bad size 1080*1820` because it should be `x` and not `*` which is also mentioned when typing `adb shell wm`:

```
  size [reset|WxH|WdpxHdp] [-d DISPLAY_ID]
    Return or override display size.
    width and height in pixels unless suffixed with 'dp'.

```

So, the correct command is `adb shell wm size 1080x1820` which won't result in any error. You can find out more using `adb shell wm` which returns:

```
Window manager (window) commands:
  help
      Print this help text.
  size [reset|WxH|WdpxHdp] [-d DISPLAY_ID]
    Return or override display size.
    width and height in pixels unless suffixed with 'dp'.
  density [reset|DENSITY] [-d DISPLAY_ID]
    Return or override display density.
  folded-area [reset|LEFT,TOP,RIGHT,BOTTOM]
    Return or override folded area.
  overscan [reset|LEFT,TOP,RIGHT,BOTTOM] [-d DISPLAY ID]
    Set overscan area for display.
  scaling [off|auto] [-d DISPLAY_ID]
    Set display scaling mode.
  dismiss-keyguard
    Dismiss the keyguard, prompting user for auth if necessary.
  set-user-rotation [free|lock] [-d DISPLAY_ID] [rotation]
    Set user rotation mode and user rotation.
  set-fix-to-user-rotation [-d DISPLAY_ID] [enabled|disabled]
    Enable or disable rotating display for app requested orientation.
  tracing (start | stop)
    Start or stop window tracing.

```

You will most likely have to combine this with the other answer mentioned here about `overscan` to find a fix for your use case.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: adb, touchscreen
---


title: Battery for Samsung Galaxy S8

text:
# Question
Title: Battery for Samsung Galaxy S8
I am looking to replace the battery in my samsung galaxy s8. Amazon shows many available batteries, ranging in capacity from 3000mAh to 4350mAh, all about $20 or less. The one and only authorized Samsung technician in my neighborhood tells me that none of those batteries is optimized to work with the phone, that any of them would result in very poor battery life, and that I need an OEM battery, capacity 3000mAh, for $99 (plus labor of course). Should I believe him?

# Answer
> 1 votes
Samsung technician is telling you what he has been trained to say (like a call center operator). It does not make any sense:

* Think of the bigger battery as an extended battery and it will work as long as it fits in the battery compartment and the battery terminals are identical (if it is advertised for your model by a reputed seller, it should). This is not a unusual situation as after market battery manufacturers make a large capacity battery that serves for several device models as long as the battery dimensions and terminal connections are same.
* It's no secret that accessories such as batteries, cables and other accessories are far more expensive from OEM compared to after market manufacturers (added revenue for them). Therefore standard refrain of *buy OEM products only*.

**But**, you would face a problem of correct battery reading in your status bar When you change your battery and replace with an extended battery, the ROM information pertaining to battery is not updated ( battery capacity is hard coded - for more details see Where are the battery capacity files located?).

So, your battery readings in status bar would be wrong. To overcome this problem, use 3C Toolbox and adjust the capacity of the battery manually in the app (from Battery Manager → Tap the 4 small square icon → Adjust Capacity or use Configuration Wizard) and create a shortcut on your home screen for the Battery Mgr widget and use that to measure (not the status bar battery status)

---
Tags: battery, charging, samsung-galaxy-s
---


# Question
Title: What is the 'Relationship' field for in Android Contacts?
In Android Contacts, you can add a field called relationships.

What is it used for and does anyone even bother putting it in?

# Answer
It is meant for your relationship with contact

> After a relationship is added, you can call, text, or email the person using their nickname.... After the nickname is added, you can contact them by saying things like "Text my sister" or "Email my mom."

Some typical fields from Google contacts app in screenshot (you can define a custom field too)

In example below, I have added child with nickname of XYZ. If I use Google assistant I would say call XYZ
> 2 votes

---
Tags: contacts, google-account, google-contacts, profiles
---


# Question
Title: How to prevent an app from sharing its data with Google?
The changelog of a popular SMS/MMS app, Textra, states:

> Textra is now backed up **automatically** *\[emphasis added\]* using the built-in Google Backup service. Makes it so easy to swap devices or uninstall / reinstall without losing your settings and any customization! Supported from Android 6.

*Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20210519012025/https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.textra*

What does this really mean? In Android 7.0 is there a way to disable a single app from sharing private/personal data with Google? If not, how about all apps?

The app itself does not appear to have any options regarding this unwanted functionality.

# Answer
See Data backup overview. Since changelog is talking of Android 6 compatibility, it is referring to *Android auto backup* (see table).

> Enabled by default. Apps can opt out by disabling backups.

Contextually, it implies Textra had opted out of back up earlier and now has it enabled.

There is *no option* for the user to choose which apps can be backed up or not. Either they backup or not (search settings for backup to see the toggle switch). If backup is enabled, apps that are enabled for backup are backed up.

Developers can choose to exclude some parts of app data even if backup is enabled. Backup data size is limited to 25 MB and doesn't count for your drive storage usage. Users have no control on *what* is backed up, so if you don't trust Google (good idea) look for custom ROM options as suggested by Izzy in comments or turn off backup in settings.
> 5 votes

---
Tags: backup, sms, privacy, mms, google-backup
---


# Question
Title: How do I run Windows or Linux as a virtual machine on Android?
I would like to run Windows XP as a virtual machine on my Android tablet. Since Android is based on Linux, is it possible to compile VirtualBox to run in Android? If not possible, is it possible to run WinXP as a virtual machine in any way on an Android tablet?

# Answer
> 13 votes
Have a look at qemu. Apparently it's known to run on ARM. Running XP (if it even works) is probably not going to be a pleasant experience due to what's noted by Chris Herbert and the probable lack of a screen/pointer driver. If you really want to do it maybe wait for the Intel Atom (x86) based tablets. There should be some Atom based Windows 8 tablets about now. The androids are coming soon.

# Answer
> 20 votes
VirtualBox uses virtualization, which isn't possible when the host device (Android tablet) uses a different CPU architecture than the guest device (x86 PC running windows XP). Since your android tablet almost certainly has an ARM CPU, the x86 CPU would have to be emulated, which is massively slower than virtualization. It doesn't seem like it would be practical at all.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Well, you could try DOSBox, a MS-DOS, Windows 95/98/XP capable emulator based off QEMU. It will emulate something close to a 1st-generation Pentium, so don't expect it to be fast even if you run it on, say, a Nexus 9 (but it could be usable). XDA has some tricks to up the performance somewhat.

# Answer
> 1 votes
The best you can do is to run full windows applications under wine on android. It supports some applications it is an emulator originally for Linux desktop and ported also for android as its also Linux. They list applications that can run on xda-developers

# Answer
> 1 votes
You can use Limbo emulator or Qemu. but i don't think that your phone can handle windows 10. i've tried windows xp though and it worked pretty well.

---
Tags: linux, windows, emulators, virtualbox, virtualization
---


# Question
Title: Device not detected in fastboot | REALME 3 PRO
I have device Realme 3 Pro. And I am trying to install TWRP. So, I downloaded In-depth test apk and got application reviewed. Then I booted into fastboot and device is not showing in device manager. I tried to add legacy device with google usb drivers. It said drivers installed but device starting failed. Error code 10.

It detected corrupted adb interface. So, I again updated same drivers.

This time device popped up in other devices and showed an error icon. So, I again updated drivers for the device. It says drivers installation successful.

But, when i double click on icon it shows no drivers are installed.

No matter how many time i update the drivers it shows no drivers installed.

---

**Solutions tried**

1. resetted my PC
2. resetted my phone
3. tried various ADB drivers for Windows
4. tried various ADB drivers for Android interface
5. completely wiped my PC
6. re-installed Windows (clean install)
7. updated Windows
8. updated all drivers present in Windows
9. updated BIOS
10. updated my phone to latest version

NOTE: OEM unlocking is ON. And usb-debugging is on too.

# Answer
> -1 votes
you can access your phone with `fastboot` command. try `fastboot devices` in cmd and it will show connected fastboot devices. you can see full command list with `fastboot --help`

if you want to install twrp, you need to enter the command:

```
fastboot flash recovery <your twrp image file>

```

but i think you need to unlock your bootloader first.

---
Tags: adb, fastboot
---


title: How to push a file to internal storage?

text:
# Question
Title: How to push a file to internal storage?
I want to do this step to root my phone: Copy it to the internal storage of your device

So the command is:

```
adb push <local file> <remote location>

```

The "local file" is "boot.img" What is name for my phone's "internal storage"?

# Answer
```
adb push <the file> /sdcard/

```

if `/sdcard` is not available, try

```
adb push <the file> /storage/emulated/0/

```
> 4 votes

---
Tags: adb, fastboot, motorola-moto-g
---


# Question
Title: What method does Monospace use for encryption?
This application has the ability to encrypt. What method does Monospace use for encryption?

# Answer
> 2 votes
Looking at the decompiled source code I would not call it "encryption".

Instead "encrypted" texts are simply the markdown text encoded using base64 plus the SHA-256 hashed password appended to it:

From `com.underwood.monospace.main.MainActivityFragment.encryptText()` :

```
 this.mEncryptedText = Utils.base64Encode(new SpannableToMarkdown(
    new WeakReference(getActivity())).toMarkdown(this.mEditText.getText())) +
    "\n" + this.mHashedPassword;

```

---
Tags: applications, encryption
---


# Question
Title: 'Network permission' notifications for apps in Android 10 - turning off
I have Android 10 on my phone. In the 'Settings - SIM card & mobile data - Mobile Data - Network Permissions' menu, I have set wifi & mobile data access as "disable network" for some of my apps.

The problem is, when I open such an app, it shows a notification "*App name* is Forbidden From Using the Network" with two buttons to choose from - "Keep disabled" or "Allow". This cannot be minimized or removed without choosing either of the two buttons.

After choosing "Keep disabled", the nuisance does not go away. Each time the app is opened next, there is a toast informing "Network is turned off for *App name*. You can modiy this in *menu location*". This happens every time! And sometimes (probably after a reboot, not sure) Android 10 forgets the setting for that app and the mandatory notification comes again with the buttons to choose from.

Can this behavior be prevented or at least minimized?

# Answer
Getting rid of that annoying notifications is possible but not easy. I had exactly the same problem and used Automate https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.llamalab.automate to solve it. In Automate I created a flow that waits for a notification to appear (you can define conditions which must be met to select only these unwanted notifications) and then executes 'snooze' operation on it. The length of the snooze time is freely adjustable, I chose 48 hours. That solved the problem once and for all.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: notifications, permissions, mobile-data, android-10, toast-notifications
---


title: Quickest way to note the current time

text:
# Question
Title: Quickest way to note the current time
I occasionally need to note the current time so I can quickly check it later, for example the time I arrived at some place. I don't care how it's stored since I don't keep it long term.

Previously I used the alarm functionality of the Clock app - when adding an alarm, the initial value was the current time. Unfortunately they updated the app and now it defaults to the next hour or something, so I have to manually adjust it.

# Answer
I agree with Irfan Latif's suggestion in the comments that taking a screenshot is the quickest way. That said, I'm suggesting a little bit sophistication on this, so as to justify this answer!

My suggestion is that you add up a quick tile in your Quick Settings. Preferably, among the first four or five tiles that shows up when you swipe down from the status bar. Customize it in a manner so that whenever you would tap/press that quick tile it would log the then datetime in a text file. Whenever you feel the need to look the time log you can see it by opening the file in any text editor. Better, if you append the file instead of overwriting it, you would have all the timelogs at your disposal.

I'm suggesting MacroDroid automation app for this, primarily because it is free (price) to try and test the solution.

Instructions:

1. Install the app and launch it.
2. In the main window, scroll down until you see a box/tile titled *Quick Settings Tiles*.
3. Tap on it, and do the following:

* In *Macrodroid tile 1* field enter this text : `Log time`.
    * Tick *Button*.
    * Tick *Collapse on Press*.
    * Turn the slider rightwards to make it *Enabled*
4. Edit your Quick Settings to add MacroDroid tile named *Macrodroid tile 1* in the visible quick tiles. This step may differ depending upon your ROM. If you need help do a web search such as "How to configure/customize quick settings in" followed by the name of your device.
5. In the main Macrodroid window, click on the box/tile *Add Macro*.
6. Set Triggers, Actions and Constraints as follows:

* **Trigger**: *Macrodroid specific → Quick Settings Tile → Log time → Toggle On/Button Press*
    * **Action**: *Files → Write to File*:

    + Use pencil icon to choose location for your text file, or leave it to default location `/storage/emulated/0` (this is the internal storage / sdcard location that shows up when a file manager is started)
        + in the *filename* field, type `logtime.txt`
        + in the *Enter text* field, type `[month] [dayofmonth], [year] - [hour 12]:[minute]:[second] [am_pm]\n`
        + tick *Append to file*
    * Constraints: leave them untouched
7. Name the macro to whatever you want.
8. If you have not done this already, make sure to **exempt Macrodroid from battery optimization settings**, or it won't work reliably! This step may differ for your ROM. If you have difficulty getting the app battery optimization exempted, do a web search.

At this point everything is ready. Swipe down from the status bar to access Quick Settings and tap/press that *Log time* tile you had added. Now, go into your file manager to the location where you intended the text file to be saved (in step 6). It should be there. Open it, and the datetime would be noted there. It should look something like this:

```
May 20, 2021 - 12:01:10 PM

```

New datetime would be appended in a new line every time you would tap/press that quick tile. If you don't want the file to be appended, untick "Append to file" option in the action for your macro.

***Tip***: you can add another action in your macro to give you a audio/visual or both of the hints that the macro has run. For example, after the file writing action, you can add another action that should play a sound or show a notification. Such actions are available in Macrodroid.
> 4 votes

---
Tags: applications, default-applications
---


# Question
Title: Is it possible to use a keyboard and mouse on android to control a remote pc?
There are apps like TeamViewer where you can control a pc remotely, my question is if it's possible to use mouse and keyboard otg on the android device to actually control the desktop pc?, like if you were in front of it.

# Answer
I've been using Splashtop (another remote desktop app, just like TeamViewer), and mouse & keyboard works just fine, but definitely not exactly like you're "in front of it". It can recognize right clicks (Android can't natively), but lots of common shortcut keys like Alt+Tab or Win+\* are absent, not necessarily because the software can't support it, but because they already have a purpose in Android itself and that's of higher priority. For example, Alt+Tab actually switches apps on the Android device, instead of the remote one.
> 1 votes

# Answer
You can use an external keyboard and external mouse in teamviewer, you can right click, left click but can't alt+tab, it switches Android apps to another Android app.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: usb-on-the-go, remote-access
---


# Question
Title: Recovering data from "Recently deleted" folder (SD card) in Huawei P20 after removal
I sent some files from my SD card to the "Recently deleted" folder and then removed the card.

May I be able to recover these files if I insert back the SD?

Thanks for your help!

# Answer
> 1 votes
The easiest way to recover data from an SD card would be by connecting it to a PC. I recommend an open source, cross-platform tool called 'PhotoRec'

```
https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec)

```

The reason is that files can be a little broken when they're recovered from being deleted, so having a tool that understands file structures can be helpful. The name 'PhotoRec' is a little misleading, since it actually recovers hundreds of different file types

```
https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/File_Formats_Recovered_By_PhotoRec)

```

There's a good tutorial here since the UI is quite simplistic:

```
https://havecamerawilltravel.com/photographer/photorec-recover-photos-memory-card/

```

---
Tags: recovery-mode, sd-card, huawei-p20
---


# Question
Title: Prevent app from accessing mobile network on Android 8?
I am on Android 8.0.0 and not able to find an option to prevent an app from accessing the mobile network.

Did I just not find it or doesn't this feature exist on version 8 yet?

# Answer
You can use an App called Tasker to accomplish this.

Deny Access to App

Go to Add task \> add action \> Net \> Network Access

It creates a VPN for the chosen app, thereby preventing it from using the real network.
> 1 votes

# Answer
You might wish to take a look at Firewall apps. Depending on whether your device is rooted, the following two candidates are especially recommendable:

### rooted device: AFWall+

(also available at Play Store¹) This is what I use, and I'm quite satisfied with it:

Able to access root powers, this is the most complete Firewall solution available. You can even use custom `iptables` rules (I use that e.g. to make sure what DNS provider is contacted when I'm not in my home network). And as the first screenshot shows, you can not only define per-app, or per-interface – but have several more options which are not all shown here, e.g. to prevent an app using data when in roaming, while otherwise permitting it.

### non-rooted device: NetGuard

(also available at Play Store¹) Like the solution presented by Dan, Netguard uses VPN to tackle the issue. You will easily identify some similarities:

Like *AFWall+*, NetGuard allows you per-app and per-interface (incl. Roaming) settings. It also offers several additional features worth exploring (some of which are paid – as are some of AFWall+).

Both apps are open-source and have a very good standing. Both are recommended by several security experts, so both are good choices. Specifically for the purpose you were asking, they offer you much easier maintenance and give you easy overview of which app is allowed what (recommended mode in both cases: block all by default, and allow selectively where needed). Tasker of course is a mighty tool as well and kind of a swiss-army-knife – but for this purpose, a dedicated Firewall app is much better suited IMHO.

---

¹ I always recommend F-Droid as source as apps from there are more privacy-friendly and not crippled to meet Google's restrictions
> 1 votes

# Answer
## Un-Rooted:

Use **Tracker Control** from FDroid.
It has many features. But requires a `local VPN` to set up(just like NetGuard).
If you're a privacy enthusiast like me, I'd recommend you using that.

**Main Features it offers:**

* Revoke/Block access to individual apps from trackers.
* Block internet access to apps.
* You can even check where your data goes(Country is highlighted).
* And many more.

## Rooted:

* Use **Adaway** for blocking Ads.
* Afwall+ as Firewall.(It basically uses iptables for blocking internet access).

### My personal suggestion:

Always buy phones that is community supported, and install custom ROMs like LineageOS which support **firewall**s by default and more private compared to Stock ROMs. And don't forget to **De-Google**.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: mobile-network, 8.0-oreo
---


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

Thanks in advance

# Answer
I also had this issue but I installed Android Revolution HD and it worked! It booted and said that the /data is corrupted and it required a factory reset. I gave the only option **Reset** and it booted back to twrp(i was using it) and there it automatically formatted /data! Hope it helps you.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: recovery-mode, custom-roms, twrp, resurrection-remix-os
---


title: Does Samsung Galaxy support MMS?

text:
# Question
Title: Does Samsung Galaxy support MMS?
Does Samsung Galaxy support MMS? I have got Galaxy 1.8 version mobile. MMS is not sending in it.

# Answer
> 1 votes
I am using Samsung Galaxy 3 with Android 2.1 update MMS works in this.

# Answer
> 1 votes
If you are having problems sending MMS, perhaps its not the OS or the hardware, but a setting or you provider? I was having issues sending texts on my Captivate (Galaxy S), turned out AT&T had not turned messaging on for my plan, and I had to enter a Message Center number (Messaging app -\> Menu -\> Settings -\> Message center) to get it to work.

# Answer
> 1 votes
All models of the Samsung Galaxy support MMS messaging. This includes the original "Galaxy" to the very latest models.

When having such an issue, it's almost always a configuration issue, either in the phone itself or with the service provider.

---
Tags: mms
---


title: Immersive mode in Termux?

text:
# Question
Title: Immersive mode in Termux?
How can I enable immersive/fullscreen mode in Termux?

I want to hide the bars at the top and bottom of the screen so that the entire screen displays the terminal.

In summary, I'm looking for *either* a configuration option for enabling fullscreen mode in Termux, without reconfiguring (or rooting) my device and without connecting an external device, *or* an explanation of what happened to the fullscreen option mentioned in some parts of the documentation, if it has been removed.

# Answer
I could have sworn immersive mode was a feature of Termux... You can still use immersive mode via ADB (or root, if you have that).

Hide both status and navigation bar: `adb shell settings put global policy_control immersive.full=com.termux`

Hide status bar only: `adb shell settings put global policy_control immersive.status=com.termux`

Hide navigation bar only: `adb shell settings put global policy_control immersive.navigation=com.termux`

Turn off immersive mode: `adb shell settings put global policy_control immersive.off=com.termux`
> 4 votes

# Answer
Since v0.107 (around Feb 2021), the fullscreen mode was added back with a fix to the Extra Keys issue. This should be configured manually through the property file.

From Termux Wiki - Terminal Settings

> The Termux terminal can be configured by creating the file `~/.termux/termux.properties`. This file uses a simple `key=value` property syntax and allows configuring the properties listed below.
>
> After changing the properties file the changes will take effect either by executing `termux-reload-settings` or by restarting the Termux app (closing all sessions and starting the app again).
>
> ### FullScreen Mode
>
> v0.107 added option to enable fullscreen mode by specifying:
>
> ```
> fullscreen = true
>
> ```
>
> Note: It is likely that with fullscreen enabled, the Extra Keys view may no longer be visible. To fix, enable this workaround:
>
> ```
> use-fullscreen-workaround = true
>
> ```
>
> *Fullscreen may not work well for all devices so consider it unstable for now.*

---

Related pull request and discussion: #1911 - Implement full screen and add FullScreenWorkAround to fix ExtraKeysView
> 3 votes

# Answer
The fullscreen mode was removed in December 2017 due to the claim of complication with the multi-window and translucent status bar & navigation bar.

This was reported in #507 - Fullscreen / immersive mode option is gone

> I have noticed that fullscreen option was missing, I have looked at recent commits and it looks that it was removed from sources.
>
> kracejic - Dec 14, 2017

---

> Since it hasn't been mentioned why it was removed, here's the commit
>
> > **Remove the fullscreen setting**
> > Trying to use fullscreen doesn't work well in a multi-windowed world and makes using translucent navigation and status bars more complicated.
>
> hyperpallium - Jul 28, 2018
> 2 votes

# Answer
Volume Up+K → variant to toggle extra keys view

Reference : https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Touch\_Keyboard
> -1 votes

---
Tags: terminal, termux, immersive-mode
---


# Question
Title: There is no emulator that can totally emulate an Android device?
Is it true that there is no Android emulator out there (as of May 2021) that can emulate an Android phone so that an app cannot detect it?

Of all the emulators out there (I saw a 15 best Android emulator list), they were not able to do it? The reason is it'd seem a bit strange why it is not possible to emulate such an environment totally, if a US$99 phone can do the job. (and that some developers may write the emulator with the original goal of: no code running in the emulator can tell it is an emulator).

I think probably the official Android developer emulator cannot do the job either (maybe intentionally) or else it would be recommended as the method on some forum.

# Answer
> 3 votes
You are talking about an Android device, there may be 100.000 small differences between real and emulated devices. Even eliminating all those differences that can be "fixed" requires quite some work.

Just the execution speed is an indicator you can't forge that easily. To emulate an ARM device that costs US$99, you may need a PC that costs more than US$1000, and then the execution speed of an ARM emulator will still be lower than the physical device. This is because emulating an ARM CPU on an x86 CPU is difficult and requires a lot of CPU resources.

Even if you would use one of the new Apple computers with an M1 ARM chip (or another device that runs a fast ARM-based chip which therefore understands most of the ARM commands directly), there will still be differences on the code-level you can detect and therefore guess that with a high probability it is an emulator.

Another problem is that assuming you would be able to create an emulator that an app can't detect as an emulator, you then sell it to anyone on the internet. Very soon those people you don't want an app to run on an emulator will recognize your emulator, get it and tear it apart until they have found a way to still detect it.

Therefore from my perspective, the answer to your question is: yes, with a high probability, there are emulators at the moment no app can detect as emulators. However, to keep it that way, those emulators are never published and cannot be bought or retrieved anywhere.

For example, Anti Virus companies most likely have such an emulator because malware usually contains the most sophisticated way to detect if they are running in an emulated environment or a regular device. Running in an emulated environment for malware usually means there is someone analyzing it (which obviously the malware author doesn't want to).

---
Tags: android-emulator, emulators
---


# Question
Title: How to install XAPK packages on Android 4.4 (API 19)?
There is an Android 4.4 (KitKat, API version 19) device, that should get some external programs with XAPK packages. These XAPK packages does **not** contain any OBB files, they just have a "main" `.apk`, then a lot of configuration APKs.

How to install that mentioned XAPK files? If I install the APKs manually, then the app simply fails to launch. The `XAPK Installer` app, which could handle this, is available from Android 5+, so also not an option.

Updating or upgrading that device is also **not** an option. So, no need the comments like "that is outdated" etc.

# Answer
> 0 votes
An XAPK package is basically ZIP files containing the different split APK files. Before trying to make an app work on your device I strongly recommend to you to extract the base APK files from the XAPK package and check the `minSdkVersion` in it's `AndroidManifest.xml`. You can do so easily by opening the main APK file e.g. in Jadx or any other tool that can decode and display the AndroidManifest.xml. If this entry is 19 or lower there may be a chance to install the app on your device.

If I remember correctly the possibility to install multiple APK files as one app was introduced with Android 5, therefore the XAPK installer is limited to Android 5+. Also installing multiple APK files as one app via adb will not work. The only option I can see is building an universal APK from those multiple APK files inside the XAPK package. See section **Re-Building an universal APK** from my answer Creating universal APK form multiple APKs without having \*.aab:

> On the Internet you can find a tool named "SAP (Split APKs Packer)" which seems to allow to combine multiple split APK files into one universal APK file (if you have all the necessary split APK files)
>
> This "SAP" tool is available for Linux and Windows, however it is closed source and contains a lot of binaries. I am not sure if it is really trustworthy - I would not recommend to execute it outside of a protected environment (e.g. a virtual machine).
>
> The following blog post describes the SAP tool and provides download links.

---
Tags: 4.4-kitkat, apk
---


# Question
Title: How to solve "Couldn't save screenshot storage may be in use"
i have been experiencing an issue on my smartphone.Every time i try to save a picture it says"Couldn't save screenshot,storage may be in use"

I already tried to clean the whole cache but it didn't work.

# Answer
i have already fixed this issue.It is basically a cache problem that i was experiencing,however even if i cleaned that,it didn't work so I got to go a little bit deeper and I found the solution.Very simple 1:Go to settings then application manager

2:Click on Chorme(in my case,the problem was on Google Chrome and Google)

3:Click on Manage Storage ,then on Manage and delete the content

4:Do the same to Google application and the problem will be fixed.

5:Also try cleaning DATA from apps if the text above doesn't work! (VERY USEFUL TOO).

Although it is simple I had a hard time trying to figure out what was wrong,then I noticed that it was not only to clean the cache normally but you also nedded to open its configuration and clean the cache that was in there.Apparently Google Chorme stores a lot of trash and over the time,it might cause some issues. Please if you have other ways to fix this problem,share them here. Let's help others :)

Learn more at: https://www.popsci.com/fix-most-common-smartphone-problems/
> 1 votes

---
Tags: storage, insufficient-memory, system-error, cache, screenshots
---


# Question
Title: I want to make static IP on my tablet using usb-c to ethernet port
I have Huawei Meta Pad t10s tablet & usb-c to pd rj45 adapter to connect it to ethernet not WIFI and it connect to internet automatically but I want to connect to server with another Gateway and need to enter static IP but can't find the way in the software of the tablet. can any one help me to find solution to this situation?

# Answer
> 0 votes
If you have access to the router/DHCP server, you can do a DHCP reservation on the MAC of the USB to ethernet adapter. This means that even though the port is set to DHCP, it will always get the same address.

---
Tags: gateway, usb-c
---


title: Cannot boot into fastbootd OnePlus 8T

text:
# Question
Title: Cannot boot into fastbootd OnePlus 8T
I'm trying to manually flash the factory image on my OnePlus 8T (using this TCD guide).

I was able to boot my phone into Fastboot mode using the volume + power keys. I'm able to execute `fastboot devices` and successfully flashed all images in Section 8 of the above mentioned tutorial before it gets to the `fastboot reboot fastboot` command (i.e. boot.img, dtbo.img, etc.)

When I try to execute `fastboot reboot fastboot`, I get the following error: `fastboot: usage: unknown reboot target fastboot`.

It seems other people have this problem as well and it's due to some changes that happened in Android 10 (my OnePlus 8T is on Android 11). Reading this XDA thread, comments #14 - #18 (inclusive) I think describe the underlying problem, but I don't understand the solution.

Do I need to execute a different command, is there a process I need to complete first?

For broader context, I was rooting my phone and got into a bootloop. Fastboot can recognize my phone but not adb. I'm trying to get a clean start by restoring it to the factory image and have successfully completed all the steps in the TCD guide except for the final step of flashing the images.

Here's a screenshot of my terminal -

My adb version is:

```
Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.39
Version 0.0.1-4500957
Installed as /usr/local/bin/adb

```

Updates:

* I tried `fastboot reboot bootloader` which does successfully reboot into bootloader, but then I cannot flash the other images. When I try, I get the error: `FAILED (remote: Flashing is not allowed for Critical Partitions)` which I think is because I'm not in "fastbootd" which seems to be important based on the XDA thread
* When I try `fastboot reboot recovery`, I am not booted into recovery but get the same error: `fastboot: usage: unknown reboot target recovery`
* I ran `fastboot boot imagefv.img` and got the following. My phone is now showing a screen with the OnePlus logo and the words "Fastboot Mode", but no other options.

# Answer
I downloaded Android's SDK Platform-Tools, extracted the platform-tools folder and ran a terminal in side that directory. When I executed `./fastboot reboot fastboot` it did boot into `fastbootd` successfully. What's weird is that I installed platform-tools, put it in my /etc/ folder, and added it to my PATHS only 2 days ago. I'm not sure why exactly this worked...
> 3 votes

---
Tags: fastboot, boot-loop, bootloader, reboot, oneplus
---


# Question
Title: CPU-Z shows 8 cores, but 4 of them are stopped
I am using CPU-Z to test basic things about the J7. It reports an Exynos Octa 7580, 8 cores, 8x ARM Cortex-A53 @ 1.5GHz, r0p3, 28 nm.

At all times that I checked, only cores 0-3 are active, and cores 4-7 are stopped. Power saving is disabled.

**Is there any way of activating all cores?**
**Is there any way of at least seeing all of them active, for testing purposes?**

I have found a few posts around (here and here) mentioning that it may be the way the phone + OS kernel keep temperature in check, but I am not sure it applies to J7, and if so, how to circumvent it.

**PS:**
I find some times that my J7 is sluggish, so I wonder why would it have 4 processors idling if they could work (assuming the causes are processing several apps, which could be tackled by assigning different processors).

# Answer
> 5 votes
> Is there any way of activating all cores?

You can't.

The hardware is not designed to have all 8 cores active. The reason for this is that this Octacore CPU is actually based on big.LITTLE technology, where there are two sets of four cores: a powerful big cores used for heavy processing (e.g. gaming) and energy efficient LITTLE cores used for low load applications. The system will automatically switch between the two sets depending on system load, but you can't activate all 8 cores at the same time (it'll likely overheat beyond its intended design if you somehow managed to do so).

# Answer
> 2 votes
That is perfectly fine. Why would 8 cores be active if you are in cpu-z app. Four cores are let's say active all time, and other four are jumping in if needed, cpu-z don't need 8 cores trust me. Try runing some heavy process like video convertor or unziping huge file, and in time of converting/unziping open cpu-z and see.

# Answer
> 2 votes
It all depends on how the apps that are running are written and if they can actually make use of multiple cores. Even if you are running a heavy application, if it cant make use of all the cores, the other cores might still be appearing as off. Most system apps these days can use all the cores that the hardware has to offer. Bottom Line: You do not at all need to worry about number of cores running. Let OS do its thing!

# Answer
> 1 votes
Actually the core usage depends on the usage of particular apps. Like, if you use high graphics game you'll usually find that the number of core in use are more whereas if you use simple applications like WhatsApp Messenger the number of core in use will be 3-4 maximum. Hope it helped you.

# Answer
> 1 votes
If you switch to other apps and then back to CPU-Z, you would briefly see all the cores working.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Yep, same here thought which brought me here but then noticed also if you fire few apps and then switch between these and back to CPU-z it will shortly show activity on all cores.

# Answer
> 0 votes
Try running a benchmark app from play store. It will test your CPU to it's maximum potential and give you a report that will specify what each of the cores are doing.

---
Tags: kernel, performance, cpu, processor
---


# Question
Title: Streaming TV audio to Android device through Wi-Fi
I have an LG Smart TV and I want to hear its audio on my smartphone with headphones.

Another possibility is to use two smartphones, one connected to the TV by P2 cable and another receiving the audio from the smartphone.

I want to do this through Wi-Fi. I do not want to buy more devices, so I want to use my smartphone.

Is it possible, like using an app for this?

# Answer
## It's just not possible.

Setting your smartphone aside for a moment, even assuming you have an extraordinarily stable WiFi signal, transmitting audio over WiFi would introduce enough latency to ruin your day.

In some cases, the transmitter side could introduce a delay on the video stream to compensate for the audio delay (forget about gaming or anything like that in this case). Your LG TV might have a "AV Sync Adjustment" option, but even then, this might not be enough.

In any case, your TV will not cast audio by itself and here we come to your "second phone" as transmitter. The phone is unlikely to have a line-level audio input, and even if you still have a phone with a 3.5mm audio jack, that is a microphone input. To make things worse, this input is MONO.

Your

> I don't want to buy more devices

rules out any other type of audio input adapter for your transmitter phone. I'd say this is a dead end.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: wi-fi, audio, streaming
---


# Question
Title: Can't enable "Developer options" on Redmi devices
The official guide says:

> On Android 4.1 and lower, the Developer options screen is available by default. On Android 4.2 and higher, you must enable this screen as follows:
>
> 1. Open the Settings app.
> 2. (Only on Android 8.0 or higher) Select System.
> 3. Scroll to the bottom and select About phone.
> 4. Scroll to the bottom and tap Build number 7 times.
> 5. Return to the previous screen to find Developer options near the bottom.

I'm using Android 8.1 and there's no "System" option, but there's "About phone" right on the first Settings screen. However, inside "About phone", there's no "Build number". My phone is a Redmi 6, did they change the Android interface, or Android 8.1 interface is different, or what?

\]

\]

# Answer
It is not a big secret that the Xiaomi uses MIUI which is a heavily modified Android OS.

Just searching the net quickly gets you the result that on MIUI you have to tap the field `MIUI Version` 7 times.

Anyway you could have found out that yourself by just tapping all available fields 7 times...
> 2 votes

# Answer
Try this one too:

Settings-\>About phone-\>Software info-\>Build number. Now tap it 7 times, then you will be in developer mode. Good luck!
> 0 votes

---
Tags: developer-options, redmi
---


# Question
Title: APN Settings: What Does Each Setting Do?
An Access Point Name, APN, is a gateway between mobile networks and the public Internet. I've done research, and there's not much online about what the individual settings are or do.

This is what I've managed to figure out so far, listed in the order they appear on an Android phone. Settings in **bold** I do not have a good answer for. Please tell me the setting's "full name" and what it does. If you know of a site that lists these out and describes them please share it. Thank you!

---

1. Name: User given label that doesn't actually affect anything. It can be anything.
2. **APN:** Stands for Access Point Name I guess? Usually, this is a short single word and ALL CAPS for some reason. No idea what this does.
3. **Proxy:** Is this for using a regular proxy server or something mobile specific?
4. **Port:** Port for the proxy? 80 by default?
5. Username: Credentials to use the carrier.
6. Password: Credentials to use the carrier.
7. Server: Found out this is for a WAP Gateway Server - kind of like a proxy except that it also translates/decodes web pages.
8. **MMSC:** A URL to send MMS messages to? What does MMSC stand for?
9. **MMS proxy:** Why does there need to be a proxy? Why not just send it to the MMSC directly?
10. **MMS port:** Why is this here, won't it always be 80?
11. **MCC:** Mobile Country Code - I believe this specifies to the cell phone towers which network to default to. Why would they need to know this?
12. **MNC:** Mobile Network Code - tells the towers what carrier is being used?
13. **Authentication type:** Port to send the Username & Password over?
14. **APN type:** So instead of IP port numbers mobile networks use "port names" to specify the data type. So if you put "default,mms" then those communication protocols will be used. Correct me if I'm wrong, please.
15. APN protocol: Whether to use IPv4 or IPv6.
16. APN roaming protocol: Roaming is using another carrier company's service. This specifies what IP type to use when doing so.
17. APN enable/disable: For when multiple APN's are on the phone. Allows one to pick a certain configuration.
18. **Bearer:** What does this do?
19. **MVNO type:** Mobile Virtual Network Operator - a reseller carrier that uses one of the larger (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile) carriers. This option can be either None, SPN, IMSI, GID, or ICCID. Tells the major carrier what the reseller is I think.
20. **MVNO value:** The number given to the reseller?

# Answer
> 2 votes
Found this as part of a search that lead me here:

## Name (APN)

A user-chosen name to apply to this APN configuration. This name has no effect at all on the connection, and is only used as a label.

## APN

Specifies the Access Point Name (APN) your device should quote when communicating with your carrier. The APN is a short string of text.

## Proxy / Port

Optional fields for specifying an HTTP proxy to use for all web traffic over this connection. No longer usually required for most carriers.

## Username / Password

In rare cases your carrier may require a username and password in order to access data. Usually left blank.

## Server

WAP Gateway Server, a feature not usually used in modern smartphones and devices. This field should usually be left blank.

## MMSC

Details of the Multimedia Messaging Service Center to use for sending and receiving of MMS messages.

## MMS proxy / MMS port

HTTP proxy details to be used only for communicating with the MMSC to send and receive MMS messages.

## MMS Protocol

Specifies the protocol that your device should use for sending and receiving MMS messages. Usually does not need to be modified.

## MCC / MNC

Specifies the carrier network that the APN configuration should be used for. Stands for Mobile Country Code and Mobile Network Code. Authentication type Method used to supply your name and password to the server for your data connection. Usually not used.

## APN type

Specifies which types of data communication should use this APN configuration. Different types of communication may use different configurations.

## APN protocol / APN roaming protocol

For devices that support IPv6 networking, this specifies whether to enable IPv4, IPv6 or both. This can be set independently for home and roaming networks.

## APN enable/disable

When having multiple general purpose APN configurations, allows you to choose which one is currently enabled.

## Bearer

An optional field allowing you to exclude this APN configuration based on the communication technology (eg LTE, eHRPD) currently being used. Mobile virtual network operator type / value Restrict use of this APN to certain MVNOs (mobile network resellers) or subscriber accounts.

## Mobile virtual network operator type / value

Restrict use of this APN to certain MVNOs (mobile network resellers) or subscriber accounts.

# Answer
> 0 votes
Most of the major configuration is hard programmed into the sim. The only difference apn info makes I'd for reseller ultility that least thier service from another utility and thus have special apn settings for the tower.

---
Tags: mobile-data, mobile-network, cellular-radio, apn
---


# Question
Title: Pixel 4a : adb detects device but fastboot command doesn't work
*This is a self answered question that is different and may save hours of frustration to somebody*

**Related questions but none that helped**

**My situation**

* After more than 6 months I thought of updating security patches on my Pixel 4a Android 11 (stock) and root it again.
* I uninstalled Magisk , applied OTA update , extracted boot image and patched it with magisk (see this). All smooth

**Problem**

I needed to run `fastboot flash boot patched.img` to root the device. But when I run the command response is `<waiting for any device>`, which was strange since `adb devices` shows device serial.

**Things tried, without any luck**

* Updated adb on Lint Minux, it was latest
* Switched to Windows 10 and updated
* Andrew in chat pointed to an XDA thread, which was better covered by Izzy here How do I get my device detected by ADB on Linux?. Added udev rule but then no dice.
* Firelord in chat suggested it could be `plugdev` issue so tried the solution mentioned in this Stack Overflow question adb devices =\> no permissions (user in plugdev group; are your udev rules wrong?), though the problem wasn't similar
* Multiple cables , rebooting Android, Windows, Linux when I was at a loss to figure out
* Variations of fastboot like `fastboot flash boot_a patched.img`, `fastboot flash boot --slot all patched.img` and `sudo fastboot devices`

Finally, the solution ....

# Answer
I have now idea why this worked. Before running fastboot commands rebooted device in download mode:

* `adb reboot bootloader` to get into fastboot
* `fastboot devices` shows device serial
* `fastboot flash boot patched.img` works :)
* `fastboot reboot` to get back to normal device state
* Device is rooted and I see `su` permission requests

Note: Some devices of LG and Samsung lack fastboot functionality.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: adb, rooting, fastboot, android-11, google-pixel-4a
---


# Question
Title: Is there some trick to block the Netflix "BangBang" sound?
That horrible sound that hurts my ears, on the start of every episode with Netflix logo...

I would even root my phone if that sound could be detected, filtered and blocked...

May be some app that when there is no sound playing for 10s, auto lowers the volume to a minimum?

I use headphone always - I need to - but that just worsens the problem...

These big companies and their lack of config options are quite annoying...

# Answer
This is a manual (non automatic) workaround.

I installed this app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alwaysvolumebutton

It is highly configurable. I can move the buttons, rotate them, and make them transparent. And the volume percent shows on the button.

So with 1 click, i can quickly mute sounds and not show the bright annoying system volume control. To mute is a initially disabled option.

So, b4 clicking on play, i hit the mute button, and again after the bangbang, and that is very simple to use.

It may be buggy to configure, but as soon you manage to, it works fine.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: audio, netflix
---


# Question
Title: Microphone goes mute on Pocophone F1 when opening any game while in a phone call
Using Xiaomi Pocophone F1 (MIUI 11.0.8 Global). I abruptly go into **mute** when I boot up any games while in a normal phone call. This doesn't happen in other apps.

I tried denying microphone permissions for the game (Phone permission wasn't required in there). Experienced this issue in Call of Duty Mobile, Head Ball 2, etc.

Does Game Turbo have anything to do with this issue? I can still hear them while gaming, whereas I'm muted until I exit the app.

# Answer
> 0 votes
Yes, I too have that problem. I disabled Game Turbo and calls are working fine.

---
Tags: calls, miui, mute, xiaomi-pocophone-f1
---


title: Restore mmssms.db without root?

text:
# Question
Title: Restore mmssms.db without root?
So I have managed to get this file from a broken install, I'd like to restore my sms but I don't want to root my phone. How can I manage this ?

I've thought about converting to xml and using sms backup and restore but this will be tedious because of the format converting.

What else do you suggest ?

# Answer
So I decided to export the SQL data as CSV and then imported in Excel. I then checked the XML format from SMS backup and Restore, made it match, exported it as XML from Excel. And finally you can just restore it.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: root-access, backup, sms
---


# Question
Title: Galaxy S10+ - Gallery broken in weird ways - can't see pictures, can't save camera photos and can't take screenshots
I'm having a very strange problem today with my Galaxy S10+.

I had an update yesterday evening, and all of today it's been broken in a weird way. This'll be a longish post because I want to be really clear about the problems I'm having and explain what I've done so far to try fix it. Right off the bat I want to note that these problems are not exclusive to my SD card. My SD card works just fine and my pictures are stored across both my internal storage and the SD card. I've tried most of my troubleshooting with and without it in.

These problems occurred immediately after I finished an update. The Software Update Information says "G975FXXU9FUBD / G975FOTF9FUBD / G975FXXU9DUBD"

Basically, when I open the stock Gallery app, it shows absolutely nothing. None of my pictures or albums show at all. However, the automatically generated Stories work just fine. I can't select anything, I can't highlight anything, I can't change anything. All I see is a blank screen where I can swipe endlessly between Pictures and Albums and see a whole lot of nothing.

My files are perfectly fine and safe from what I can see. I've hooked it up to my computer and nothing is missing, damaged, broken or corrupted. They are all there in the My Files app and show all the thumbnails for the pictures. I've downloaded another Gallery app from the Play Store and all the pictures are there in the right order and the albums are there too.

But, if I say open a picture in My Files and click Gallery as the app to open the image with, it'll hang for a while then open a black screen with no buttons on it except the home bar, and all I can do is back out of it. Strangely, when I open the app tray after this, it'll only show the My Files app being open and not Gallery.

There are two very strange aspects to my problem too - I can't take photos with the camera or screenshots.

The Camera app won't save photos no matter whether I choose to point them to the internal storage or the SD card. It'll show the little preview box showing a picture was taken and do the little animation, but after a while that just turns back into the generic Gallery icon, says "Warning, camera failed" and closes itself.

If I'm quick and click on the icon that shows the picture I took, it'll just do the same thing. If I try click there before taking a picture, it'll just open the broken Gallery app after a delay of a few seconds.

I'd love to show some screenshots of my problems but I also can't take screenshots. I can press the button for it and get the overlay, but if I try to crop them or let it save, it just hangs on the overlay screen and I can't interact with anything and can only back out.

I can still save photos from online or from apps like Twitter, and apps like Messenger or Line which I use very often allow me to open and browse media and send pictures just fine. They also let me save pictures taken with the camera as long as it's through those apps and it saves those photos as I've set it in the settings of those apps, and I can see them in the My Files app right after.

After spending the whole day googling as best I can, so far I've tried the following;

* Booting in Safe Mode (both with and without the SD card in) - The same problem exists in Safe Mode
* Clearing the Cache/Data for various apps like Gallery, Media and Devices, My Files, Camera and all sorts
* Looked for files called ".nomedia" on both the phone itself and through my computer and found nothing.
* I was going to try deleting the "com.android.gallery3d" folder as suggested in a post which sounded a lot like my problem, but turns out I don't have that folder in the directory the post suggested.
* Using a "media rescan" app.
* Forcing an update through the Galaxy Store but it couldn't find an update for Gallery and wouldn't let me do anything with it.
* Pressing the "uninstall update" button on the Gallery app settings page and it remained the same. Updated it through the Galaxy Store and no prizes for guessing the outcome there.
* Literally just turning my device off for an hour and leaving it, then back on.
* Literally just leaving the device on, locked for an hour.
* Literally just leaving the device on with the Gallery app open in case it needed to refresh or something.

I've tried most of these both with and without the SD card in too.

I feel the problem has to be centred around Gallery because it's only ever when an app needs to use it as a medium for saving, viewing or interacting with a picture where it has issues.

The only thing I can really see that might be causing a problem is that I've got a LOT of pictures and videos. We're talking well over ten thousand pictures spread across the internal storage and the SD card. But a day ago when it worked perfectly fine that didn't seem to be an issue.

I've been using it all day and besides the gallery thing it's worked just fine. No other apps seem to be broken or have had any weird issues. My notifications are as they normally are. It's literally just any time I need to use the Gallery app.

So far all my troubleshooting has done is bother me by deleting the wallpapers and theme/icons I had on after coming out of Safe Mode. I'm completely stumped as to what to try short of a full factory restore, and I really don't want to have to take that option.

Any help would be really appreciated.

# Answer
> 0 votes
Okay so I seem to have fixed it. Robert gave me an idea, so I checked the button on the Apps settings page so I could view all the system apps, and then I cleared the data and cache of everything I could related even slightly to UI, media, storage, photos, videos and everything in between. I'm not sure at which point it was fixed, but it seems to have done the trick.

# Answer
> 0 votes
I had a very similar problem on my S10+:

* Camera wouldn't save photos (though 3rd party camera app worked)
* Screen capture wouldn't save
* Opera browser wouldn't save downloads (though another browser worked)
* Gmail wouldn't save attachments
* Random Gmail crashes, usually 10-20 seconds after starting

It was pretty frustrating, especially the Gmail crash. Anyway, I took your advice and deleted the data/cache of various system apps one by one, then retested.

Happy to report that everything went back to normal after deleting data/cache from "Sec Media Storage"

---
Tags: camera, gallery, screenshots, samsung-galaxy-s-10
---


# Question
Title: My phone is charging my MacBook over USB C, and not showing up as an adb device. Is there a fix?
Sorry in advance if this is a duplicate, I couldn't find a solution to this exact problem posted anywhere.

I'm using Unity on macOS and I am trying to build for Android. I'm running into an issue where my development phone (it's a Galaxy A5 2017) will start charging my MacBook when I plug it in and will not show up as an adb device.

What I've done so far is:

* Enable USB debugging on my phone
* Install android-sdk and android-platform-tools through homebrew
* Install openjdk@8 through homebrew (this resolved an issue where the sdk required java 8)
* Attempt to switch the USB mode on the phone from 'Charge connected device' to 'Transfer files'
* Switch USB ports

Trying to switch USB modes on the phone does not seem to work, it will close the dialog when selecting 'Transfer files' but when I check in the notification shade it will still be set to 'Charge connected device'. I also tried checking if the phone showed up over adb, but unfortunately `adb devices` returns an empty list.

Potentially useful information: I have built this exact Unity project to this exact phone successfully from my Windows desktop with this USB C to C cable, but I need to be able to do this from my MacBook.

I am using:

* Unity 2021.1.4f
* macOS Big Sur 11.4
* Android 8.0.0

My question is, how can I prevent my phone from trying to charge the Mac? How can I get it to show up as an adb device so I can build to it from Unity?

Edit: alecxs suggested another question as a possible solution but this did not work for me either. In USB debugging, the USB mode is still set to MTP file transfer when this issue occurs. Changing it to something else and back unfortunately does not resolve the issue.

Edit 2: looks like this is a problem with macOS. I came across this article that mentioned for Samsung phones you need to use Smart Switch. I downloaded it for macOS, but it warned me that until further notice they do not support Big Sur as their system extension has not been approved. There is a temporary workaround mentioned in the warning here, but it is a bit involved, requiring you to disable SIP. For now this seems like the only solution. Since I know the root of the issue, I will mark this question as solved.

# Answer
I believe I've found the issue, I added an edit to the original post. Looks like this is a problem with macOS. I came across this article that mentioned for Samsung phones you need to use Smart Switch. I downloaded it for macOS, but it warned me that until further notice they do not support Big Sur as their system extension has not been approved. There is a temporary workaround mentioned in the warning that can be found here, but it is a bit involved, requiring you to disable SIP. For now this seems like the only solution until Apple approves the extension.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: adb, macos
---


# Question
Title: How to restore WhatsApp data from SD card or internal memory and not from Google Drive?
I changed phones and installed WhatsApp on the new one. I have a backup database file on an SD card and the same file copied to the internal WhatsApp folder and Google Drive. However, during install, the restore process only checks in G Drive and says that no backup is available.

How do I restore the data from this backup file from the internal memory or SD card? There is no corresponding option during backup restore.

Adding a few points based on other QnA I went through. Hope they help.

1. The phone number has not changed. I am using the same number on the new phone as earlier.
2. I have copied the backup database file from the SD card to the internal memory and also to the G Drive
3. The backup file is named "msgstore.db.crypt12" It does not have the date in the name.

# Answer
I had problems with this too, and today finally it worked. Unfortunately I'm not sure which of the following additional steps did the trick, but maybe it helps others:

1. I copied the *entire* WhatsApp folder over from the old phone to the new one (zipped it using Total Commander, copied it to a PC via USB, copied it to the new phone also via USB, unzipped it also using Total Commander).
2. After installing WhatsApp, I gave the app all possible permissions *before* running it: under Settings/Apps, select WhatsApp, tap Permissions, and then select all permissions listed under "denied" and tap "allow" (you can revoke the permissions again after the backup is succesfully restored).

After doing this, running WhatsApp and confirming my phone number, I was finally prompted to restore the local backup. Before that, WhatsApp asked me for some permissions and then asked me to select a Google Drive backup (which I hadn't done), when I selected "skip" at this step it apparently also skipped the local backup.
> 0 votes

# Answer
1. Open google drive.
2. Top left menu, backups, **deactivate** WhatsApp backup (option to delete also, not necessary)
3. Re-do the login procedure as usual. Done.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: backup, whatsapp-messenger, data-recovery, restore
---


# Question
Title: Restore WhatsApp Data from Internal Storage on Moving to a New Phone
I have WhatsApp installed on my old Phone.
WhatsApp is backup both to Google Drive and to the local storage.
The Google Drive backup is for text chat and images only (The default).
The local backup includes everything (Audio, Video, Documents, etc...).

I want to move all my WhatsApp data to my new phone.
Usually it will be done as following:

1. Copy all files of the WhatsApp folder from the old phone to the new phone.
2. Install WhatsApp on the new phone.
3. Start WhatsApp on the new phone and when asked for restoring data click restore.

### The Problem

The restoration process of WhatsApp will restore information from Google Drive and not from the local storage.

How can one force WhatsApp to restore all data from the local storage?

# Answer
Assuming you have your local files all, databases and images.

First deactivate google drive.

1. Open google drive.
2. Top left menu, backups, **deactivate** Google Drive WhatsApp backup

(option to delete also, not necessary)

Copy all files over to WhatsApp folder on phone

4. Re-do the login procedure as usual.

In theory that's it.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: applications, backup, whatsapp-messenger, restore
---


# Question
Title: WhatsApp chat backup in Android backup on Google Drive
I recently broke my Google Pixel 3a and now I got a new phone (Samsung Galaxy S9, running on the same Android version, Android 10). Now I would like to restore my WhatsApp chats from my old phone. I could not manage to retrieve the local chat backup from my Pixel phone and I did not store any WhatsApp backups on Google Drive. However, I have a phone backup called 'backup of Pixel 3a' in my Google Drive. I was able to restore that backup on my new phone. As it seems, that backup contains my local settings, call log and which apps I installed on my previous phone. Apparently, some app data is also included in this backup.

Now my question is: Is there any way to retrieve my WhatsApp chats from this phone backup on Google Drive?

# Answer
> Is there any way to retrieve my WhatsApp chats from this phone backup on Google Drive?

I don't quite understand, if you want to backup from Google Drive, if it's been set up, then it should be automatic. Check your google drive, top left menu, backups, if there exists a whatsapp file. If not, you don't have a backup in GD.

What I would probably do is to try and access the phone through ADB (if possible) repair the phone/screen, copy local files over, deactivate google drive backup, and just restore from local backup.
> 0 votes

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


# Question
Title: Android 11 Wifi no internet, even though there is internet
**Edit**: after getting the hint to try creating a new SSID on my WiFi router, I now resolved the problem by just connecting to the same router but with a separate SSID. I still have no idea what the problem was, and the solution now is also completely unrelated to Android. I guess I'll never know what the problem was, but there's no reason anymore for others to try and diagnose the issue.

I know that remotely diagnosing WiFi issues can be very difficult, but I'm running out of ideas (and time) what I could try to identify the cause of the issue I'm having. Therefore, I'm trying to give as much detail as possible and **the main advice I'm asking for is what I can do to diagnose the issue**.

Since approximately last weekend (I didn't notice right away), I have a very annoying WiFi connection issue on Pixel 3a, Android 11. **Android tells me that I have no internet connection through the WiFi network**, but in Google Chrome (or Firefox), **any pages not related to Google load just fine**. google.com for example, and abc.xyz do not load. ourworldindata.org, android.stackexchange.com and superuser.com do also not load (details below, this is because they load stuff from fonts.googleapis.com or similar URLs). duckduckgo.com loads.

This issue is extremely annoying since apps by Google are also not working, so I don't get new e-mails, the calendar does not synchronize and I cannot use Google Play, for example. I do only have very limited mobile data available which I use when I do not have access to WiFi, so I don't want to simply switch to using mobile data (which works fine). I tried restarting the phone in safe mode (it first seemed to work, but the issue now also persists in safe mode) and uninstalling different apps from my phone, but while the issue disappeared sometimes for a few minutes, it came back every time.

I restarted the phone a lot of times, I deleted the WiFi network and reconnected, I tried setting the network rating provider to none and in general turning different WiFi settings off and on, and I slowly run out of ideas. **WiFi works fine on my laptop connected to the same network**. Resetting the router seemed to help first, but again the issue reappeared after a few minutes (just like after some of the restarts: sometimes it works for a few minutes but mostly it says no connection right after the device powered up). **Connecting through a hotspot created using my laptop which uses the same WiFi network works**. Unfortunately, this is not a long-term solution. Also, the router is not easily accessible for me, so it's difficult to debug router issues if this is a router issue. But the issue concerns only my phone (not the printer, not the laptop, nor devices of other users of the same network; it's not a public WiFi network if anyone was wondering). Any ideas what else I could try?

**I'm not 100% sure that this is an issue with the Android phone alone**, but since the WiFi network works with all other devices and since only Google-related URLs seem to be affected, I think it is highly likely that the root issue is indeed caused by Android.

Below you can find an **extended log of attempts to get to the root of the problem**:

I did now get access to the router (a FritzBox) and captured network traffic. I had a look at it in **Wireshark**: to me, it looks like my phone goes silent / doesn't get or process the TCP syn ack after the initial TCP syn when running a request for google.com. Not sure why...

Head requests to duckduckgo.com and google.com using curl on my phone during a short period when everything was working (white bars = my phone's IP address):

Head requests to duckduckgo.com and google.com using curl on my phone while the issue was present (duckduckgo.com works, google.com doesn't):

Using PCAPdroid (Google Play Link, I don't want to root my device) seems to suggest that the TCP syn ack never reaches the app / phone...

Here are **some screenshots made using chrome://inspect** from trying to load different pages:

duckduckgo.com:

(no issue)

supersuer.com:

(issue here is jquery.min.js from ajax.googleapis.com)

**Some screenshots of how it looks on the phone** (in German):

Loading duckduckgo.com, trying to load google.com (see address bar), and the same issue in safe mode:

**Ping results**:

```
***>adb shell ping google.com
PING google.com (216.58.207.142) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from muc11s03-in-f14.1e100.net (216.58.207.142): icmp_seq=1 ttl=118 time=49.8 ms
64 bytes from muc11s03-in-f14.1e100.net (216.58.207.142): icmp_seq=2 ttl=118 time=761 ms
64 bytes from muc11s03-in-f14.1e100.net (216.58.207.142): icmp_seq=3 ttl=118 time=473 ms
64 bytes from muc11s03-in-f14.1e100.net (216.58.207.142): icmp_seq=4 ttl=118 time=627 ms
^C
***>adb shell ping superuser.com
PING superuser.com (151.101.1.69) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 151.101.1.69: icmp_seq=1 ttl=59 time=2003 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.1.69: icmp_seq=2 ttl=59 time=1000 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.1.69: icmp_seq=3 ttl=59 time=499 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.1.69: icmp_seq=4 ttl=59 time=981 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.1.69: icmp_seq=5 ttl=59 time=273 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.1.69: icmp_seq=6 ttl=59 time=1544 ms
^C

```

for comparison, this is how it looks if I ping directly from my laptop:

```
***>ping -4 google.com

Ping wird ausgeführt für google.com [216.58.207.142] mit 32 Bytes Daten:
Antwort von 216.58.207.142: Bytes=32 Zeit=6ms TTL=118
Antwort von 216.58.207.142: Bytes=32 Zeit=7ms TTL=118
Antwort von 216.58.207.142: Bytes=32 Zeit=7ms TTL=118
Antwort von 216.58.207.142: Bytes=32 Zeit=7ms TTL=118

Ping-Statistik für 216.58.207.142:
    Pakete: Gesendet = 4, Empfangen = 4, Verloren = 0
    (0% Verlust),
Ca. Zeitangaben in Millisek.:
    Minimum = 6ms, Maximum = 7ms, Mittelwert = 6ms

```

**Output of curl using Termux**:

If I do a ping using Termux terminal, I get the same result as for `adb shell ping`

PS: since you can see the Avast icon on the last two screenshots: I had it uninstalled for quite some time without any improvement.

**Traceroute output**:

On Termux, directly connected to the WiFi network:

```
traceroute -b www.google.com
1: fritz.box ([IPv6 address]) 2.692ms
1: fritz.box ([IPv6 address]) 3.035ms
2: [IPv6 address] ([IPv6 address]) 8.353ms
3: no reply
4: no reply
...

```

Same on my laptop:

```
***>tracert www.google.com

Routenverfolgung zu www.google.com [2a00:1450:4016:803::2004]
über maximal 30 Hops:

  1     2 ms     3 ms     1 ms  fritz.box [same IPv6 address as for Termux hop 1]
  2     8 ms    10 ms     6 ms  [same IPv6 address as for Termux hop 2]
  3     *        *        *     Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung. [<- timeout]
  4     7 ms     6 ms     8 ms  [IPv6 address]
  5     6 ms     7 ms     8 ms  [IPv6 address]
  6     6 ms     6 ms     8 ms  [IPv6 address]
  7     6 ms     7 ms     6 ms  [IPv6 address]
  8   143 ms     *        *     [IPv6 address]
  9     6 ms     6 ms     8 ms  [IPv6 address]
 10     6 ms     6 ms     5 ms  muc12s04-in-x04.1e100.net [2a00:1450:4016:803::2004]

Ablaufverfolgung beendet.

```

On Termux, connected to the WiFi network via mobile hotspot on my laptop:

```
traceroute -b www.google.com
1: [...] ([IPv4 address]) 75.818ms
1: [...] ([IPv4 address]) 2.957ms
2: no reply
3: fritz.box ([IPv4 address]) 142.428ms asymm 2
4: [IPv4 address] ([IPv4 address]) 1018.851ms asymm 3
4: [IPv4 address] ([IPv4 address]) 134.135ms asymm 3
5: [ISP server address] ([IPv4 address]) 103.956ms asymm 8
6: [IPv4 address] ([IPv4 address]) 182.587ms asymm 9
7: no reply
8: no reply
...

```

Same on my laptop:

```
***>tracert -4 www.google.com

Routenverfolgung zu www.google.com [216.58.207.132]
über maximal 30 Hops:

  1     3 ms     3 ms     1 ms  fritz.box [same IPv4 address as for Termux hop 3]
  2    52 ms     6 ms     6 ms  [same IPv4 address as for Termux hop 4]
  3     7 ms    55 ms     6 ms  [ISP server address] [same IPv4 address as for Termux hop 5]
  4    32 ms     6 ms     6 ms  [same IPv4 address as for Termux hop 6]
  5     9 ms    54 ms     7 ms  [IPv4 address]
  6     8 ms    47 ms     7 ms  [IPv4 address]
  7     7 ms     6 ms    50 ms  muc11s03-in-f4.1e100.net [216.58.207.132]

Ablaufverfolgung beendet.

```

# Answer
> 0 votes
Adding as an answer since it worked.
It seems that for some reason, your phone may have an issue with the existing SSID that you use. Create a new SSID on your router and use that to connect your phone.

---
Tags: wi-fi, google, connection-issues, android-11
---


# Question
Title: Fail to find an Android device sound file
In the clock app (bedtime tab, sleep sounds) I can choose a device sound `Deep space`.

I would love to use it as my alarm sound.

Every file-exploring app that I have used hasn't found this file.

How can I?

# Answer
> 0 votes
I would suggest extracting the APK of the app from /data/app. Copy it to sdcard. Rename clock.apk to clock.zip, extract it and starts looking for sound files. Format will probably be something like deep\_space.ogg. Good luck

---
Tags: internal-storage, audio, alarm, clock, custom-sounds
---


# Question
Title: Android tablet disconnects from wifi every ten minutes
I have a Galaxy Tab A Wifi only version (SM-T580), running Android 8.1.0. It is unrooted.

Every ten or fifteen minutes or so, the wifi drops out. After about 30 seconds or so, it reconnects. No other device on my network has this issue.

Less frequently, the Bluetooth connection drops out, which I suspect might be an associated issue. I usually have the tablet connected to Bluetooth speakers, and every now and the sound will cut out for about twenty seconds, then return.

I have searched online for solutions, and the general advice is to switch from DHCP to static, which I have done. Beyond that I can't get any more specific information.

Is there any kind of test I can run to determine why this is happening?

# Answer
Just a stab in the dark, but according to one site, you can try turning off the "disconnect on sleep" option.

> Check your Keep WiFi on during sleep options. These allow you to specify when to disconnect from WiFi.
>
> Go to Home \> Apps \> Settings \> WiFi \> more \>Keep WiFi on during sleep. Hopefully you can stop it from disconnecting at all by choosing an option .

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/280849/Tablet+loses+wifi+connection

There are other models that lose connectivity based on how you hold it or due to an old update, but these are significantly different models that shouldn't anything to do with your model.
> 1 votes

# Answer
Hope this helps!

Settings\>Connections\>Data Usage\>Restrict Networks

Select your wifi connection

Select not metered

Done
> 1 votes

---
Tags: wi-fi, bluetooth, 8.1-oreo
---


# Question
Title: What does it mean for a bootloader to be locked/unlocked?
What exactly does it mean in this context to be locked anyways?

# Answer
The definitive answer comes from the android documentation itself

> By default, most Android devices ship with a **locked bootloader**, meaning that users can't flash the bootloader or device partitions. https://source.android.com/devices/bootloader/locking\_unlocking

So functionally it's a prevention mechanism for altering these protected filesystem partitions on the device.

Some fundamental background is worth mentioning regarding these special partitions.

> Any Android phone has three main partitions: boot loader, Android ROM, and recovery. The boot loader is present in the first partition and is the first program that runs when the phone is powered on.
>
> The primary role of the Boot Loader is to take care of low-level hardware initialization and boot the device into other partitions. It usually loads the Android partition, commonly called as Android ROM. Android ROM contains all the operating system files that are necessary to run the device. The recovery partition, commonly called as stock recovery, is used to delete all user data and files or to perform system updates. https://resources.infosecinstitute.com/topic/practical-android-phone-forensics/

A bootloader lock prevents ROM/firmware from unwanted modifications. It is one link in the secure boot chain of trust.

It therefore plays important role in data security protecting your personal data against theft (it won't however protect your data from deleting, factory reset is always possible). More can be read about the subject here
Is Android's system recovery a firmware thing or Android thing? Can factory reset be prevented?

Additional information can be found in this related question that asked to disambiguate a locked device from a locked bootloader device. unlocked device vs. unlocked bootloader. The key takeaways are

* boot loader loads the core Android OS code.
* locked bootloaders use digital signatures to verify the Android code it's loading.
* an unlocked bootloader will load any ROM.

This other answer though not really offering a precise definition gives some insight into the motivations behind the design of the boot loader being locked
what is a bootloader unlocked phone?

A prerequisite for a device to be locked is that it must first be flashed with a ROM image that had the lock support option baked into it at build time with the build property `ro.oem_unlock_supported` set to 1 as in a `build.prop` file. Only then can a device have the ability to toggle between a locked and unlocked state, otherwise it will always be unlocked by default.
> 3 votes

---
Tags: bootloader
---


# Question
Title: How to power-off Motorola phone without screen
How would one power down an Android phone (Moto X 2nd gen - Android 5.1) without the ability to interact with the screen? USB debugging not enabled, nor is custom recovery.

I know how to reboot it, that is not the question. The question is about turning off, not restarting, the device.

The phone has a broken screen (black screen, blank screen, cracked screen) and also does not respond to touch, so the answer should not include any screen interaction.

Is there a series of button presses, timings, and preconditions (if applicable) if executed will leave the phone in a true power off state?

# Answer
> 4 votes
I can't be sure that this is the optimal way to power-off the phone, but it seems to work.

1. Press and hold power until it buzzes or about 15 seconds, then release.
2. Press and hold volume-down and the power button for 20 seconds, then release.
3. Press and release the power button once.

This procedure is demonstrated in a you tube video https://youtu.be/x\_jx5u7dXK4

*Tip: Even though the broken phone has no display functionality, if you view the phone with another camera, you can check activity of this phone by looking at the infrared emitters at the four corners of the device. Before power-down, these dots will be flickering. Afterwards, no flickering.*

# Answer
> 4 votes
Came upon this when I was looking for a way to shut down my Moto Z with a broken screen and the method described by Dale (thank you) almost worked, but then I figured out it required one extra step. I probably won't be the only one in this predicament, so allow me to contribute. The procedure described above works by opening the fastboot menu and selecting the "power off" option using the power button. Problem is it would seem newer phones have "start" as the default option instead of "power off". The solution is simply to scroll down to "power off" by pressing the volume down key THREE TIMES and then push the power button.

In summary, to shut the phone down without being able to see what's on screen:

1. Hold power button for about 15 seconds until it vibrates. This will initiate a restart.
2. While phone is restarting, hold both the power and volume down button for 20 seconds. This will make the phone load up the fastboot menu.
3. For Moto X, skip this step. For Moto Z, Z2, and possibly other models, press the volume down button exactly three times. For Moto E 2020, press the volume down button two times. This should scroll it down to "power off".
4. Press power button to select "power off".

As mentioned before, if you're unsure if the phone's off or not, you can check the infrared emitters for glowing using another camera. Hope this helps anyone else who comes across here.

# Answer
> 0 votes
If you can, just take the battery out

# Answer
> 0 votes
Just found this solution which seems to have worked on my Sony Xperia XZ1. I know it's not a Motorola, but it seems less obnoxious than the other solutions:

1. Plug the phone into a wall charger and verify it is charging.
2. Hold the power and volume buttons simultaneously until the phone responds and shuts off.

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/459021/Broken+screen+can't+deactivate

# Answer
> -1 votes
If you do not have custom recovery installed, then try rebooting into the bootloader or the stock recovery itself, and use your volume(up and down) keys and navigate to the Shut Down option. If this doesn't work, then send it back to Motorola customer service center and let them do their thing.

---
Tags: 5.1-lollipop, broken-screen, moto-x
---


title: Access Spotify cached files

text:
# Question
Title: Access Spotify cached files
How to use cached files in Spotify application under Android ? The mentioned file extensions are ".file" , which are not normally playable, but it is clear from the size and type of archiving that they can be used offline by the application. The threshold storage address

is as follows: /internal storage/android/data/com.spotofy.music/files/spotifycash/storage

# Answer
Well, those files might be stored in /root/data/data/spotify but wont be playable or even accessible without superuser privileges
> 0 votes

---
Tags: offline, android-11, spotify
---


# Question
Title: ADB/Fastboot not detecting Android stuck in bootloader
I tried to flash the most recent android pie update to my pixel 2 only for it to fail writing partitions even though I followed a recent guide to my best ability. Now, the phone is stuck in the bootloader with no way to boot into android or any way to access the recovery options (throws an error and takes me back to the bootloader info page)

Neither fastboot nor ADB can recognize the phone, I think this is because the USB debugging must have turned off somehow even though I turned it on, as before I WAS able to access it through fastboot. But now I can not, plugging it into the Windows machine, windows doesn't see any change in Device Manager when the phone is plugged in and out.

I reached out to a google supports rep and they told me since there is no way to access the recovery options, the phone needs to go through warranty, but is this really the only way? Is there some driver I am missing?

Thank you.

# Answer
> 0 votes
> Disclaimer: this is not necessarily a proper answer because it involves indeterministic and rather sporadic approaches. That said, thought it'd still be worth it to jot it down and share it for informational purpose. :)

**What didn't work for me**:

✗ Using my newer Mac (2019/Big Sur) whose USB ports are USB-C/3.1.

✗ Trying out various USB 2.0 cables and adapters (USB-C/3.1 \<-\> USB-A/2.0, USB-A/3.0 \<-\> USB-A/2.0, etc.). More about that here (https://stackoverflow.com/a/58774581/2013891) and here (https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/7lj50n/apparently\_the\_pixel\_2\_nonxl\_doesnt\_like\_usb\_3031/).

✗ Installing Linux (Ubuntu) on VirtualBox, or any virtual machines in this case.

✗ Getting RMA since I bought the phone secondhand on eBay \[sic.\] :D

**What made it work for me**:

➜ Praying. (yup seriously, this could be the most important pre-step that I forgot to do when failing continuously before ;) )

➜ Using my older Mac (2015/El Capitan) whose USB ports are USB-A/3.0.

➜ Running `fastboot getvar all`. While it's saying `< waiting for any device >`, plugging-in and -out again the Pixel 2 (assumed it is booted already to FastBoot mode) until all the vars are printed out in the console. Note that this step is like a game of chance to me. Depending on your luck, you may need to do it 100 times or even 1000 times while wiggling the cable, waiting for a little, and making a sudden plug-in/out over and over again. Your mileage may vary, hence the praying step.

➜ When the vars got printed, it means the hardware connection has been successfully established in the USB interface. Running `fastboot devices` will list your Pixel 2 device. From this point on, it's business as usual -- I did the `./flash-all.sh` thingy from https://developers.google.com/android/images#walleye.

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Having all these messes, I still strongly believe a few Google phone/tablet hardwares are buggy when they come to establishing USB connection. Now, even after I managed to bring my Pixel 2 back to life, it's still not able create a USB connection to do a wired files transfer unless I do the "game of chance" mentioned above. Well, at least I got it working and it's becoming usable again.

# Answer
> 0 votes
before we go any further, please make sure your usb cable is working correctly, and try using different ones if it is not the case. If not, please try again as it the most annoying device I've had for getting into recovery. You basically need to hold power and then press volume up and immediately release both of them. It's very picky.

# Answer
> 0 votes
The phone was bricked, had to get an rma unfortunatleyh5rft

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Tags: adb, boot-loop, fastboot, bootloader
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# Question
Title: Delete words from the built-in dictionary?
Using Android 6. Auto correct usually works very well, so I don't want to turn it off. However on some occasions it stubbornly 'corrects' some words which I don't want, which is *extremely* inconvenient.

These words are not in my personal dictionary. I've tried the following:

* add the word I want to my personal dictionary
* add the word I want to the 'all languages' dictionary
* add the wrong word (to which it tends to autocorrect) to the custom dictionary and then remove that
* repeatedly type in the word and when it autocorrects, click it and set it back to what it was, hoping that Android will learn my preference (I really tried this many many interations)

It's driving me nuts. How do I force Android NOT to autocorrect certain words? Or rather, how do delete some words from its own dictionary?

P.S. I know several similar questions like these were posted before, but they were all either outdated (apparently referring to much older Android versions) or the posted answers didn't work (I've tried them all). Quite some references to Android in 2011 are no longer relevant.

P.P.S. I'm using a Nexus 5, default built-in keyboard.

# Answer
> 0 votes
I think it might work to misspell it and then not press spacebar. When the suggestion pops up (on my Gboard, there are always corrections at the top of the keyboard) you can see the word you do not want it to change to if you were to press spacebar. You then long-press that suggestion and then it gives you an option to remove that suggestion. I just did it, and it seems to work so far. I have tried to misspell the word I am having a problem with in all possible ways, and so far it has worked.

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Tags: nexus-5, 6.0-marshmallow, auto-correct, dictionary
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# Question
Title: Keeping Samsung mobile phone cool in car while making a Zoom call
I have a Samsung Galaxy Note20 and sometimes make personal Zoom calls to friends in my car as I live with roommates. I live in the Seattle area, so during the warmer months, it'll get anywhere from 70 to 85 or even 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Today, it's about 70 degrees outside today and I got a notification on my phone that it was overheating, even though I had my car windows open.

I'm thinking I could put my cell phone in an insulated container, and then put that insulated container in a cooler with cold packs in it and use Bluetooth earphones for audio on a Zoom call.

Would that work? Or does anybody else have ideas about how to keep my mobile phone cool in my car while making a Zoom call?

# Answer
Here's the answer to my own question. Luckily it's been cold enough in the Seattle area to make Zoom calls in my car and I sometimes turn the video off when my phone gets hot.

When the temperate gets hotter I'll turn the video on my phone off and listen with wireless earphones via Bluetooth.

To further cool off the phone (like if the temp gets up to 85 or 90 degrees Fahrenheit) I'll put small cold packs (using a flexible gel cold pack) in a large insulated water bottle (like Hydro Flask Oasis 128 fl. oz. Container - 1 gal.), put my phone in a thermal phone case (like PHOOZY Apollo Series Thermal Phone Case), and listen to the Zoom call with my camera off via wireless earphones using Bluetooth.

Hopefully this helps someone.
> 0 votes

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Tags: samsung, temperature
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