Surprisingly I haven't found a satisfactory answer for this in a FAQ somewhere or anything.
I have a Motorola Droid (with froyo, if it matters) I am thinking about getting a Samsung Galaxy Tab.
Pretty simple question: What will happen if I attach the same google account to the tablet?
What I do not want to happen is for the new device to automatically download all of the same apps from my phone, especially the ones that don't make sense on a Wifi-only non-phone device. And especially if the installed apps on both devices need to always stay synchronized.
What I want is to be able to sync contacts, gmail, calendar, etc, on both devices.
Bonus Question
It would be nice if my paid apps were available for re-download on the new device, but that isn't even necessary. So I was thinking about creating a new google account just for the sake of apps on the new device, and adding my gmail account as a "secondary" on the tablet. So, the bonus question is: would this option be a better plan (if it would work at all)?
Answer
I have a Motorola Droid running CM6 (Android 2.2, effectively) and a G1 running CM5 (Android 2.1, effectively). The Droid is on Verizon and the G1 is on a pre-pay SIM card with no data (so it is basically a wifi device I use for dev testing).
I use the same Google account on both. It does not force me to have the same apps on both phones. I can download apps I have paid for on both phones without any problems. Contacts, gmail, etc. sync just fine.
However, I do believe that if both devices are running Froyo, it will try to initially restore your apps when you add your Google account. But I believe you can then uninstall them (it won't try to re-install again).
I have a Nexus One that I want to keep at v2.2 for testing purpose. But the update 2.3.4 has been pushed to my phone and I keep seeing the notification to install it. Is it possible to disable the system update notification?
Answer
I believe the only way to stop the OTA notifications for good is to unlock/root the handset and install FOTAkill.apk to the /system/app/ directory. The version of this app for Froyo can be found within the GApps package.
You might also need to "fake" your phone's signature by modifying the /system/build.prop file and altering the ro.build.... lines, so that they match the latest OS version.
On my Nexus One (it's rooted and running CyanogenMod 7) these are the relevant entries:
I have looked around and found no information on how Android manages to store passwords on the device. Especially Gmail passwords. I'm looking to learn how Android encrypts and stores passwords ? What key does it use and where is this key stored, and what encryption algorithm it uses.
Answer
Gmail's official appdoesn't store password in your device. Your password is 100% safe if you use this app.
This is how it works: The password is used by Google's authentication servers for the first time ONLY. After first successful authentication, an Auth Token is downloaded to device which is stored in accounts.db file as plain text. For all subsequent logins, this Auth Token is used, NOT your original password. So, if your device is stolen, all anyone can get is Auth Token which becomes invalid once you change your password. So, you'll be in ultimate command. For ultimate security, I'd recommend you to enable 2-Factor Authentication & create Device Specific Password for your device. After losing device, all you need is to disable that device. You don't even need to change main password.
Note: These all aren't true if you use third-party email apps for Gmail viz. Stock Email app, K-9 Mail etc. IMAP or POP protocol needs original password to authenticate users everytime. So, plain password needs to be available to email app before sending it to server. So, most of email apps store passwords in plain text (hashing/encryption is useless because hashing/encryption key needs to be stored locally). In this case, I'd recommend you to enable 2-Factor Authentication & create Device Specific Password for your device. After losing device, all you need is to disable that device.
Update: Technically, its possible to store passwords locally in encrypted/hashed form without keeping encryption key/ hashing key in plain text locally. Thanks to @J.F.Sebastian for pointing it out. Unfortunately, such implementation for Android isn't available yet. Starting ICS, Android provides KeyChain API using which an app can store a password locally in secure form. Apps using KeyChain API are rare, but stock email app uses it (Thanks to @wawa for this info). So, your password will be safe with stock email app as long as your screen is locked. Remember, KeyChain isn't safe if device is rooted and its not available on pre-ICS devices.
I cannot see the download counts of one app on Google Play.
How can we know that number of one app?
Answer
As an end user, there is no way to know the exact number of downloads. But you can see a range if you scroll down the app page and look at the Installs section within Additional Information.
I would like to know how the Android OS manages memory for Applications. When are the various memory hardware components like ROM, RAM, Internal storage and External storage used during an Application's life-cycle ? Does all this have an effect on battery utilization ? For e.g. If the RAM is half free then will it consume only 50% of power and likewise for ROM , Internal storage and external storage.
In short I want to understand and decide how I should use my Android phone to minimize battery consumption.
I have a ton of programming/technical/math PDFs that I would like to read on my Samsung Epic 4G. I have tried Adobe's PDF reader and ThinkFree office and the reading views destroy the code snippets and images. Zooming in and out is difficult and cumbersome. I have tried converting to ePub and reading using Aldiko but I have the same problem. (Aldiko being the best application I have found for reading on Android).
What solution would you suggest for reading these books on my phone?
I have no problem with converting or buying an application.
Answer
There's also Documents to Go which is a suite - allows for viewing / editing of MS Office docs. PDF support as well. No conversion needed.
An additional plus point is that the paid version integrates with Google Docs online allowing a user to view and edit your files from your Google Docs account directly in Docs To Go. Any changes you make can be saved and synchronized back to Google Docs so that you'll always have the most up-to-date version. You can even create new files in Docs To Go and upload them immediately to your account.
There are situations I require to save a "complete" web page for offline reading. I can easily do that on Windows by saving the web page, but not on Android.
I am using Chrome on Android and I don't see a "save" option. Instead, I see "Save link" which, I believe, saves "only" the "pure HTML" version of a site of which the link leads to.
I have tried this but, when I view it in the HTML Viewer a lot of necessary CSS formatting and all the images were lost, which made the information misleading and incomplete respectively. (PS I thought I downloaded the complete page and the fault was that of the HTML Viewer for not rendering every thing, but I was wrong, as the desktop Chrome also displayed the "only HTML" version when I transferred those pages to my laptop through Bluetooth).
So, my question is: How can I download "a complete" web page on my Android smart-phone. It's OK if I can't view it on my smart-phone, but every thing should be in place when I view it on my laptop after transferring it. It is also OK if it is saved as a PDF file.
(PS I'm asking this as I use internet very often in my smartphone because my laptop is not connected to the internet. Also I want to transfer it to my laptop because I don't want to view those "important" pages on a small screen, it's inconvenient).
Answer
In chrome for mobile, you can save the opened web page as a PDF. To do that, you have to install the Google Cloud Print application to do this.
Once you have installed it, first open a desired web page in the chrome.
Then click on the menu icon and select on Print option. There you can select the Save As PDF option.
Select the location and click on the save button. This should save a PDF of the current web page which you can read by using any PDF viewer that came with your smart phone.
I live in Portugal and I'm going on vacation to the U.S. in a few months. I'd like to buy an Asus Transformer (Prime or 300) while in the U.S., but I don't know if the Wi-Fi or 3G will work in Portugal. I only know for a fact that 4G doesn't work.
In android app Tap the start button and wait for bluetooth to initiate. If you get an 'Error: Missing required protocol' message, your device is not supported.
You must manually pair the controller with your phone. This can be done using SixaxisPairTool in yor pc.Your phones bluetooth address should be shown at the bottom of the main application window and will look something like 1A:3C:13:00:21:C2; you need to enter this number into the SixaxisPairTool
Once paired, unplug the USB cable and press the power button on the controller. If successful, the lights on the controller will stop blinking and a single light will remain on.
Tap the 'Change Input Method' button and select 'Sixaxis Controller'. You should now be able to use the controller in any games or applications that support key bindings, such as many emulators.
I'd like to install an app from the Market which is limited to the USA (specifically Google Music). When I search for the app myself in the Market app on my phone, it does not find the app; it seems to be filtered.
So how do I install apps which are not meant for my country?
Answer
Before we got paid apps in the Android Market in Denmark, I used to use Market Enabler (requires root). This allowed me to pretend that I was a resident in another country, and thus buy paid apps from the Market.
Perhaps you can use the same solution, faking the market to believe you are from the US?
I often end up accidentally rebooting my Nexus 6 while having it in my pocket, because the power buttons gets pushed for more than 10 seconds.
Considering the long boot times, this can be very annoying.
I can see why it is important to have a way to force-reboot your when it gets stuck, even though I haven't had this type of issue yet.
Is there are way I can change the force-reboot behaviour?
Perhaps increase the time in which power button must be pushed or change it to a combination of buttons (i.e. volume up + power button for 10 seconds) ...anythign that makes it less likely to be triggered by my pocket.
I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7" tablet (Android 4.1.2, not rooted). I tried to install a big app recently and it failed because it said that I didn't have enough space.
When I go into Settings > Storage, this is what I see: 8GB - Total Space 2.83GB - Apps 199MB - Pictures, videos 116KB - Audio
18.69MB - Downloads 3.47GB - Miscellaneous files 1.14GB - Available space
The 3.47GB for Miscellaneous files seems really odd to me. When I select the "Miscellaneous files" item, it says that most of the space (3.33GB) is being used for "System Memory" and the rest contains a number of small files.
I have tried restarting it, cleaning out cache of various apps, and a lot of poking around with a file manager. I have also moved as many apps to SD Card as possible, but most of my apps don't support that function.
I just can't understand what is taking up almost half the available storage space. Is this normal operating system stuff that can't be cleaned up? Is there a way to see what is contained within and clean some of that space up? If there is one particular app that is taking up a ton of "System Memory" space, then I might be willing to remove it. Note that I have looked at the applications through Application manager, sorted by size, and the largest app is only using 323MB of app space.
Since yesterday I have (in addition to the regular IPv4) IPv6 in my LAN at home (native IPv6 is provided by my ISP).
I have Windows XP, Windows 7 and Linux desktops and an Android 3.1 tablet (Asus Transformer 101) that all work fine. They can access IPv4 and IPv6 websites on the internet.
The problem is with my Samsung Galaxy S2 (Android 2.3.3). The system gets a public IPv6 address and an internal IPv4 address.
When typing the URL of an IPv6 enabled site (like google.com or xs4all.nl) I get to see the site just fine. When typing the URL of an IPv4 only site (like android.stackexchange.com) I get an error stating the site cannot be reached. When I enter the IPv4 IP address I CAN reach the mentioned site with this phone.
So I enabled debugging on my DNS (dnsmasq) server and I noticed that
all the clients that work do a request for the AAAA record and if that fails they try the A record.
the Android 2.3.3 phone ONLY does a request for the AAAA record and if that fails the whole thing fails.
All clients (including the phone) get the same network settings.
How do I fix this?
Answer
It took a lot of effort but I actually found a working solution to my problem.
I first updated my phone to latest available Android version 2.3.6 and that did not solve my problem. So I installed an App that shows me more details about the network setup of my phone. And after some digging around I noticed what was wrong:
My phone didn't have a default IPv4 route.
How did that happen? In the DHCP I push a default route (dhcp option 3)!
I realized that when I just had the IPv6 link (which is part of a whole new internet connection) my phone DID connect to the internet with both IPv4 and IPv6. So I recreated the original setup and found that in that scenario indeed it does work. So what is different?
It took me two nights with wireshark to track the culprit down.
The real reason turns out to be that I have a static route for my DMZ which is pushed by my IPv4 DHCP server (dhcp option 121).
When I do that the Android phone only shows a route for the local subnet and the additional route I pushed. The default route is lost, hence IPv4 traffic is distorted. Apparently Android even no longer tries to do IPv4 DNS requests (which is the problem I started with).
All of my other systems (Windows {XP,7}, Linux, Android 3.x) do not do this and they keep all of the pushed routes and the default route.
My phone has access to various hotspot networks in the area I live in. When I walk down the street, now and again I pass by a hotspot and my phone will attempt to connect.
As often as not, the phone will connect, but for whatever reason, it will be a weak connection, and effectively my internet access stops. My phone abandons my cellular network connection in favour of the wifi, even though the wifi is bringing in little or no data.
Is there a way I can enforce a minimum standard of connectivity to a wifi network so that my phone won't leave my mobile connection in favour of hotspots that are useless?
Android has a centralized system for managing credentials for online services (such as your Google account). One component is called the AccountManager. Some apps can "act as an account authenticator". This means that they understand how to log into a particular online service, and can log in to that service for the AccountManager. Other apps want to use that login information to identify you or perform actions on your behalf, without you having to enter your password every time.
Example: logging into Google
Your phone has a built-in app that "acts as an account authenticator" for your Google account. It knows how to log into Google, and it has the email and password you entered when you set up the phone. There's also a YouTube app, which wants to log in to show your favourite videos, and to let you comment, but without having to enter your email and password again.
This YouTube app talks to the AccountManager and asks if it has any credentials for a Google account. Asking this question requires the "find accounts on the device" permission. The AccountManager has a list of authenticators installed on the phone, which it consults to answer this question. If it does have any credentials, the app will then ask for what's known as an authtoken for the Google account. This request requires the "use accounts on the device" permission.
The AccountManager then asks you if you want the requesting app (YouTube) to be able to use the requested account (Google account). This might be in a dialog that appears over the app, or in a notification. Alternatively, the app can choose to do nothing if you haven't already answered yes to this question: it might want to ask later at a more convenient time. This step ensures that an app with the "use accounts on the device" permission can't immediately use every account without asking.
If you say yes, the AccountManager forwards the request to the authenticator (the built-in Google app). What happens next is up to the authenticator and the particular service you're logging into. You might need to log in if you haven't previously done that, and logging in might require a username and password, a photo, an SMS, or something else entirely. Whatever the authenticator does, it can either fail, or give an authtoken back to the requesting app.
Further checks
The authenticator and the online service can also control what actions the requesting app can perform. For example, when you connect an app to your Google account, Google lists permissions the app needs (such as "upload videos" for YouTube). Thus, the app can only do the actions listed. However, some services might not have anything like that; for such a service, once you've allowed the app to use your credentials, it can take any action in your name.
Once the requesting app has obtained the authtoken, it can continue to use it to perform actions in your name without any further interaction from you. That is, once you've agreed that Dan's Twitter Client can post to your Twitter feed, it might run in the background and post further tweets without you knowing. You should only grant the app access to your credentials if you trust it not to do that.
Summary
An app with the "use accounts on the device" permission can, once installed, ask you to access an online service (such as Google, Facebook, or Twitter) in your name. You can choose to let it access the service or not. If you do let it access the service, what actions it can take on your behalf might be limited by the service (it's up to the service), and the service might let you revoke that permission later (usually through a list of "connected apps" on the service's website).
I've noticed this issue on my Sprint Samsung Intercept running 2.2 Froyo (rooted, custom kernel, etc.) I swear I didn't have this issue on Android 2.1, but someone with a Motorola Droid running 2.1 did, as you can see here: http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=323590
My issue is I love the WinAmp music player. However, when I pause it and leave the app, it will randomly, unexpectedly begin music playback later (both when I am using the phone, and when it's sitting on the ground next to me.) When I navigate to the app, the controls show that it is paused, and clicking on it once will bring it to the normal state (shows as playing, and it is,) and a second time will pause it again (where it should have been to begin with.) This could be a real issue while I'm in class, etc. and I'm forced not to be able to use WinAmp, which I'd really like to be able to do.
With Cubed, the issue is similar. Instead of having it be random though, it plays when I go back to the app. This leads me to believe that it's playing onResume(), without first checking the state it should be in. I'm guessing WinAmp is staying open in the background somehow and doing the same thing.
My question is, is there any fix?
Answer
I used to have this problem a lot on my Droid. I believe it has something to do with the headphones and how some music apps react to you plugging them in/out.
My solution? I use tasker to make two profiles:
Not Headset Plugged
Music Stop
Media Volume 0
Headset Plugged
Music Stop
Media Volume 5
The volume isn't necessary (just so I don't blare loud music into my ears when I put in my ear buds OR sets it 0 if I unplug my headphones and it somehow is still playing). So in other words every time I plug in or out my headphones, it stops all music. Since I've done this, I've had no more problems.
I keep seeing warning signs about enabling ADB over Network when you aren't connected to a WiFi network, but what if I want to connect ADB over 3G/4G ?
Whenever I try to do it with any of the conventional WiFi methods, it returns an invalid IP to connect to. I even tried getting the IP with # ip addr show - but that didn't work, either.
Any ideas on how to do this?
Yeah, it isn't safe. But how does such a vulnerability get leveraged when the IP address is likely to change?
Answer
Opening ADB on an unsecured connection is a major security risk. On an unrooted phone, it gives access to your entire filesystem. On a rooted phone, it gives access to your entire filesystem with write permissions. The connection isn't encrypted and there is no password or key exchange to access ADB. It's just a bad idea. Beyond that, your carrier may not even allow traffic over 5555 (the standard ADB port), they may be proxying your traffic, or there may be other complicating factors.
Also, setting up SSH shouldn't be difficult. I use SSHDroid all the time. I can get a secure shell from any WiFi connection, and it works great for wireless file transfer. You could set up a task to turn on SSHDroid whenever the device connects to WiFi and another to send you the IP. Technically, you can even run it without WiFi, but I generally wouldn't recommend it, as it's still open to vulnerabilities, which would lead to problems similar to leaving ADB open (although somewhat less likely since SSH is designed to be secure).
Finally, there are a number of apps that are built specifically for locating your phone. Motorola includes this feature with Motoblur, which can also wipe your phone remotely. There are other free and paid alternatives that can do this as well. If your phone is actually stolen, these are going to be much better than any back door you open for yourself.
I just re-flashed CM 6.1 and when I opened up the market to download Titanium Backup, 27 apps started to automatically download, simultaneously. I'm not sure why they'd do that, and they never have done this before after flashing a fresh ROM. Needless to say, is there any way to stop all downloads all at once, or prevent this from happening in the future?
Android 2.2.1, Moto Droid 1.
Answer
I think it is the result of a new synchronization option in 2.1 or 2.2. On the first boot it asks whether you want to store some information about your apps online. I found it quite confusingly worded and was surprised by this effect. IIRC you can prevent this from happening by refusing all the synchronization on the first boot. And I learned to only update when on wifi..
The question appears in variate forms [1] just to say it is ridiculous on Android that ext4 is the default file system doesn't recognize usb pen formatted with ext4 (but android 4.4 reconize it without any problem), as a Linux user this is a big regression , and I still not found a way to usb be detect as usb , like pens with FAT32 or NTFS. I have root on my device .
I'm concerned about an app on my child's phone. I saw an app icon in the notification area that looked strange (Andy Android head, slightly tilted as its icon).
How can I find out what app it is from just having seen that icon in the notification bar?
I am trying all sorts of (non-root) security software that allows me to block internet for apps. so far every one needs some kind of fake VPN to gain access to traffic, I guess so no root is needed. I can't have this since I use an actual VPN which gets turned off if I use any of these security apps. is there no way to block internet for apps while using my VPN?
I am trying to change the MAC address on a device running Android. It has been rooted and a command line installed ("ConnectBot"); I was looking around Google for methods of changing the MAC address on it and I found something called ip and ip link. Initially I thought I would use ifconfig but I haven't found the name of the network interface to change.
Occassionally my Wi-Fi goes into this weird state where the phone "thinks" I'm connected, but the connection simply doesn't work. Apps still seem to think I have connectivity, though they can't actually connect to anything, and the status bar still shows that I'm connected to Wi-Fi. Turning Wi-Fi off and back on resolves the issue, and this occurs on multiple networks.
It seems sort of like whatever service manages the Wi-Fi connection gets killed occasionally. It usually happens when I've been playing a game (that doesn't access the Internet) for a while or if my phone's been sitting for a while; it never happens while I'm actively using the connection. I have my Wi-Fi timeout set to "Never" and the normal timeout isn't the issue since my phone regularly lasts several hours without the Wi-Fi dying. Sometimes it dies a couple times in a day, and recently I went a week or so without it happening.
How can I fix this or prevent the service from being killed (if that's indeed what's happening)? Shouldn't that be a system process that never gets killed? (Does Android ever kill system processes other than when they crash?) Could it be related to TouchWiz? I have an SGS Vibrant running 2.2 (Bionix NextGen v1, but this has occurred on multiple ROMs).
Answer
This could be a solution, but it's more a hint at the issue:
The ZTE Blade suffers with losing it's Wi-Fi connection when it comes back from sleep. Perhaps you have a similar issue? The app Blade Wifi Fix by AA Android available from Google Play Store, fixes it on the Blade, you could give it a try:
Some people with the ZTE Blade / Orange San Francisco phone find that the Wifi doesn't always come back on after the phone wakes up from being locked or asleep.
Install this and you wont know its there until you wake up your phone and the Wifi jams, at which point it will flash a message to tell you its fixing it.
Today I updated my Android Lenovo A2010-a to latest version (Android 5.1): I just click on message like that "Your have new update. Update have downloaded and can be installed". Than was opened new window on that window I click on button "install". Than phone was reboot. Than phone was updating (with icon - green android). Battery was in normal condition (not low). After that phone booted normal.
After updating I have error on all applications installed on my phone. Error for all application in one separate window, one after one. With text like this: Error in application "Google Keyboard" - it translated to English from Russian.
How can I get the IP address, MAC address, etc. of a user connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot? ( Using Karbonn A21 Phone running Android 4.0.4 with minor changes to the skin)
I have received incoming calls from an unknown number (no caller ID provided). When I answer, I get a recording which is clearly spam. Is there a way to send calls from an unknown number directly to voicemail so that my phone does not ring?
I am interested in a solution for stock Android 6.0 Marshmallow. There appears to be the ability to block calls in CyanogenMod, which would be suboptimal, but I cannot find a similar setting in Marshmallow, either in Settings or in the Call application settings. Send blind calls to voicemail?
This is different from How to block private numbers because I do not want to block calls, just send them to voicemail, and this option is not available on stock Marshmallow. The call application allows blocking specific numbers but not unknown numbers.
I know Google Play uses SIM card to determine the region on cell phones. And I know Market Unlocker and Market Enabler.
How does Google Play determine your region on a tablet without SIM card?
And how to change it? I have access to IP address where Google Play is available. And I own a credit card whose billing address is in a country where Google Play paid apps are available.
I spent an hour trying to get this to work so I could get some sleep in my noisy hospital bed last night.
I wanted to listen to some noise on loop. I downloaded some waves lapping type music.
It's on my internal SD and is an mp3.
Clicking the file in Astro browser doesn't open the file in a player fully but only a popup preview window. It's in the foreground, doesn't offer many controls and stops playing when the focus is removed.
Searching for the file in all 3 of my players doesn't result in anything, even after a restart. I have also tried a SD card rescan utility from the play store.
Music apps I tried were Fusion, Bubble UPNP and the Samsung Music App. All of which seem to rely on some internal media index. Frustratingly I can't simply browse to the file from inside the apps, I have to search the library.
It should not take an hour and a post to here to figure out how to manually play a simple file, added to my phone in such a way.
It would be great if it were like Windows or osx and allow the user to "Open with... ", and then select the app. I know you can dig in and change this, but it's a more permanent solution for a temporary requirement.
Anyway I must be loosing my mind:)
How can I add this file to my library from within Android or otherwise open this file in a full player to make use of controls like loop etc?
Update from a comment on an answer:
It's mp3, and plays in the popup player just fine. Perhaps the tags are corrupted and somehow blocking it from appearing in the library. I tried an mp3 tag utility and it can't see the file in the folder. So perhaps it is corrupt in some way.
Answer
As already suggested your files are most likely wrong tagged or not tagged at all.
In order to be recognized by apps relying on meda scanning, mp3 files need to contain at least a valid "title" id(3) tag.
On linux you can check your file with the tool "eyeD3" which can be installed on debian based distris from the package: eyed3
A simple:
eyeD3 /path/to/mp3/file
should give you all id information.
If there is no title tag you can tag by:
eyeD3 -t yourtitle /path/to/mp3/file
If you push this file now to your device and perform a reboot it should be recognized by the media scanner.
I have a HTC Desire comes with Sense UI when bought. I rooted it and installed Cyanogenmod. Is there anyway I can get back my Sense UI. I don't mind removing Cyanogenmod.
Answer
You're going to need to install a Sense-based ROM. CyanogenMod is basically a customized build of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code, which is released in source form by Google. They use only open source components, and Sense is a proprietary, closed source UI made by HTC.
Installing a ROM with Sense is very easy, though. The procedure will be just like flashing CM - boot into recovery and flash a .zip file with the ROM that you want (alternatively, install via ROM Manager, whatever you prefer).
There are custom Sense ROMs as well as "stock" rooted ROMs floating around. The XDA boards have a handful of each. You can find a rooted stock ROM here, though, if you're looking to go back to the original system as provided by HTC (but retaining root).
Edit: I answered this under the assumption that you have no backups to work with, but if you used ClockworkMod to create a backup of your system before installing CM7 (which is highly advised for any future readers out there!), you can restore that backup and...well, be back where you were on a stock rooted system. After all, that's the point of the backup!
Every time I try to telnet to a domain on my LG Ally it fails, but it works if I use an IP address. So I tried to use nslookup telehack.com and it returns:
Is there a technical reason why Android phones general lag a lot behind the stable released version of Android?
This applies to both new phones, for example a recent trip to the phone shop everything was 4.0 to 4.2.1, KitKat could not be seen. And also old phones, my girlfriend's iPhone 4 had an OTA update to the latest OS, this is a July 2010 phone, whilst a July 2010 Android is basically a paperweight.
Presumably Android itself doesn't concern itself with the actual hardware, and thus talks to the OS via abstractions? I guess then the handset maker just provides the drivers for the specific hardware, thus I can't see the issue with pushing OTA updates if the ABI remains stable (my phone doesn't grow new hardware features).
Answer
See this image released by HTC. It describes the update process in a very detailed form:
It wasn't long time since Android 2.3 Gingerbread was released and so for only a few phones has 2.3. And already a beta version of Android 3.0 Honeycomb is released.
What does this mean, is Android 3.0 only for tablets? If not, I guess that 2.3 will be very shortlived. If 2.3 is for phones and 3.0 is for tablets, that sounds like a fork of Android.
Answer
I think the conventional wisdom is that Honeycomb is a fork for Tablets only but this post suggests otherwise. It says that in an interview with Engadget, Matias Duarte claimed that Honeycomb would be for all form factors.
I just recently switched to Sony XPERIA Z5, and I am quite annoyed with it doing things in my pocket. The phone is set to wake on double tapping (which is handy, for a user coming from nokia n9 and jolla). So the phone will randomly goes to the emergency dialer, attempting to unlock, or even may trigger the camera while it is in my pocket.
Since the phone has a proximity sensor built in, is it possible to make the phone aware of that when the screen is off? I mean I don't need it to be automatically switched off whenever it is covered. However, it would be nice if the screen doesn't turn on to load the lock screen when the proximity sensor is covered.
There should be a proper way of doing this right? If a jolla and nokia n9 can do it, I suppose it is going to be easy with Androids?
Recently my mom's phone running Android 5.0 has been infected with a piece of adware:
At first we thought this was caused by applications, but as you can see here, only the Google/METROPCS Internet browser is running.
In the photo, there is a button that reads 'opt out'. So I clicked on it and it took me to this link at http://tracker.tpc.re/optout/mobile/:
BUT both of these options smelly fishy. For starters, the manual app is not a download link in the play store but an APK, making it seem like a virus. The second (manual) as for sensitive information, which could harm me even more.
Which one of these options do I choose? Are they legit or do I have to do get rid of it another way?
Answer
You should absolutely not give them your information or install their app, only bad things can come of it.
You should check in Settings → Security (or Safety & Privacy) under Device Administrators and remove any that you don't want controlling your device (if present), and then see if you can figure out which app it is and then uninstall it under Applications (also in Settings).
If that doesn't work, try an anti-malware app from a respected company or follow the guide here. In the worst case, you could also perform a factory reset (in the case of user app malware) or reflash the ROM (in the case of system app malware).
I'm using Termux and would like to use Sox's rec command to record audio from the terminal. Unfortunately, since Termux doesn't request the mic permission, it just records silence. I can't grant Termux the permission in Settings because...well, it doesn't request it. It's not in the app manifest, therefore Android (understandably) assumes it wouldn't know what to do with the permission if it had it and doesn't list "record audio" as an option.
Is there a way I can force Android to grant an app a permission it never asked for?
Answer
Not possible without root but even with root SoX recording might not work.
Android Manifest Permissions
Android permission system has different Protection Levels(1, 2); Normal permissions are granted to any app without user interaction while Signature|Privileged (SignatureOrSystem) permissions (whitelisted in /etc/permissions/privapp-permissions-*.xml) are granted only to system apps. Both are granted when app is installed or on first startup (if system app) and configuration is saved in /data/system/packages.xml file. Some signature permissions can be granted to non-system apps after user's approval using appops.
Dangerous permissions are those which require user's approval to be granted or denied. User's choice is saved in /data/system/users//runtime-permissions.xml where device owner's User_ID is 0 (don't confuse it with UNIX DAC's UID).
Most of the manifest permissions are enforced by Android framework (system_server) but some are mapped to GIDs; hence enforced by kernel. Permission to GID mapping is stored in /data/system/packages.list.
How to Grant an App Unrequested Permission
You can modify above mentioned files to grant a permission which isn't requested by an app in its Manifest. I haven't tested with all permissions but this trick works (at least up to Pie) because Android framework doesn't verify the saved permission configuration vs. apps manifest files on every reboot (may be the changes are reverted back to actual during a scheduled maintenance task or when some app is installed or updated; I'm not sure).
In our case we want to grant android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO to Termux which is a dangerous permission, so this is how you should edit your runtime-permissions.xml followed by an immediate reboot:
That said, still SoX won't be able to record audio because (AFAIK) it's not using Android's Java APIs (android.media) or native APIs (aaudio/opensles). It uses ALSA/OSS driver directly or through PulseAudio which needs direct access to device interfaces in /dev/snd/ or /dev/{audio,dsp*} and proc tree in /proc/asound/. For details see Android Audio Architecture.
However direct kernel level access isn't a norm on Android, so you need root access. Apps with android.permission.MANAGE_VOICE_KEYPHRASES are allowed to read /dev/snd/* devices. It's a privileged signature level permission which is mapped to GID audio (1005). You can edit packages.xml to get this permission granted:
But SELinux allows only privileged apps (having context priv_app) to read files in /dev/snd while /proc/asound/ isn't readable by apps at all, so you need to patch sepolicy as well.
And even after that, configuring SoX to use ALSA/OSS/PA is up to you.
Non-Root Solutions
Instead of using ALSA directly, PulseAudio can also be configured to stream audio over TCP or UDP or UNIX sockets. That's how media playback works on Termux. See this issue. However capturing audio only work through Android APIs. You can install termux-api package to use termux-microphone-record command for audio recording. It uses MediaRecorder class of Java API, or you may consider modifying SoX source to use Android's native APIs.
I am used to install and remove various operating systems in my PCs, even having several at a time.
Usually, to install a new OS means:
Burn the ISO to a CD/DVD/USB.
Insert it.
Boot. (Maybe you have to tweak a bit the BIOS first).
The only difference between PCs is its CPU architecture: x86, x86_64, arm, etc. Depending on that, you have to download one ISO or another. But I never have to worry about which graphic card, mouse, keyboard, screen, network card, etc. it has. The install wizard automatically detects that and installs the corresponding drivers. Sometimes, if they are not bundled, the installer also downloads them. Anyway, the key point here is that the ISO is always the same.
Now, many mobile OS come out: Ubuntu, Tizen, Firefox OS, the omnipresent Android, and why not any Linux ARM distro out there!. Sadly I have a random chinese mobile, that surely will never get official support in any platform, and I will never be able to test them.
But... Are not today's phones just tiny ARM PCs? Why is installation that different? Why do I always need to have a precompiled monolithic ROM specific for my phone model? Why not just a single "ISO" per OS for any phone that detects and installs automatically the needed drivers, just like always has been in the PC market?
Note: I understand the problem with privative drivers, but I remember Debian asking me for those when there were no libre alternatives at installation, and I could install them then or later. I suppose that workaround could be used in those cases too. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Answer
In short, it's because of the different ways that Android and MS Windows are distributed. MS Windows is a retail product, sold directly to PC owners. Therefore, Microsoft is responsible for making it run on PCs. PCs are standardized, and (nowadays) have a hardware-discovery mechanism, so Microsoft can design the Windows installer so that it can run on any PC-compatible machine. It's in their interest to make drivers for old Windows versions compatible with newer versions, so that they can keep selling new Windows versions to users.
There's also a technical dimension to this. Phones aren't just "tiny ARM PCs" as you suggest. The distinguishing thing about a PC is that it satisfies the PC specification, originated by IBM but now specified by an industry consortium. There are several more standards for how components of a PC interact, and they're what allows automatic driver configuration such as you find on a desktop PC. Graphics cards offer a VESA interface, which allows graphics to be displayed before a GPU driver has been configured.
All PC hardware nowadays offers Plug N Play, which allows the OS to discover hardware and configure the memory map at boot. Before Plug N Play, you had to change physical jumpers on each PCI card, and then tell the software what memory range, IRQ, etc. you'd set on the jumpers. And in the days before DirectX and its ilk, you had to do that separately for every game that wanted to use that hardware. Plug N Play came about mostly so that sound card (and other discrete component) vendors could make easier-to-install hardware.
In contrast, Android isn't a product that's sold to users: it's "sold" to device manufacturers. Phones (also tablets, STBs, media players, etc.) don't have anything like the PC specification, so it's not possible for Google to make an "Android installer" that can run on any device. Even displaying the battery animation when the phone is off requires it to load the Linux kernel with a framebuffer driver and a battery driver. It's the device manufacturer's responsibility to modify the Android source code so that it can run on their device, and the resulting Android firmware image belongs to the manufacturer: they don't (have to) give those changes to Google or anyone else.
The phone world doesn't have these kinds of standards, because there's no demand for it. There's no one trying to sell phone components that you put together yourself. No one in the phone industry is interested in making an OS that you can install on any phone - only the likes of Ubuntu and Mozilla, who are outsiders with no contribution to hardware standards.
In our area there is gadget called "IRobot" which the supplier claims has Android 1.4 inside. I am afraid that it might be a "fake" version of the Android OS. I do not have experience with Android so are there any guidelines I can use to check that a device is really running Android? Also, is there a way to check if a version of Android can be updated?
What are the possible effects that can be seen in my device by disabling/enabling them? [Note: I've found other options by Google-ing but not these.]
Do the developer settings affect battery life by using lower animation speeds (all to 2x precisely) or higher animation speeds (0.5x precisely) at the expense of user experience?
Answer
Please keep in mind these are Developer options, and may be of no use, or have a negative impact on the performance of your device.
Force GPU rendering
The GPU is the Graphics Processing Unit. It's very much like the CPU, but instead of crunching numbers and taking care of tasks for the operating system and hardware, the GPU renders graphical information and puts it on the screen for you.
The CPU can process graphical instructions just fine, but doing so takes time away from doing other computations, and can lead to lag while graphical instructions are processed
In Ice Cream Sandwich onwards, developers (or power users) are given the option to force apps to use GPU rendering, whether that bit is on or off in the app's manifest. This does not necessarily make the app faster, and may cause issues.
Disable non-rectangular clip ops
This is too technical for me to explain in great detail. Basically a "canvas" is used for drawing. The source Code for Android contains this:
/** * Turn on to **debug non-rectangular clip operations**. * * Possible values: * "hide", to disable this debug mode * "highlight", highlight drawing commands tested against a non-rectangular clip * "stencil", renders the clip region on screen when set *
* @hide */ public static final String DEBUG_SHOW_NON_RECTANGULAR_CLIP_PROPERTY = "debug.hwui.show_non_rect_clip";
It's probably worth pointing out that "non-rectangular clip regions" is a little misleading. It should be "clip regions that aren't screen-aligned rectangles." If you have a rectangular clip region that's rotated by some non-multiple of 90 degrees, then it goes down the same slow path as a clip region shaped like a donut or what have you. (The "slow path" uses the stencil buffer, and probably doesn't need to be as slow as it is; it's a good area for future optimization.)
Force 4X MSAA
Force 4x MSAA does not require a rooted device. This option does the same as any Anti Aliasing filter in PC games - smooths out all the pixelization and provides better rendering, which means better looking graphics. Users should know that this function is only recommended for devices that have GPU capable of native MSAA support.
In signal processing and related disciplines, aliasing is an effect that causes different signals to become indistinguishable (or aliases of one another) when sampled. It also refers to the distortion or artifact that results when the signal reconstructed from samples is different from the original continuous signal.
Disable HW overlays
Without a hardware overlay every application that is displaying things on the screen will share video memory and will have to constantly check for collision and clipping to render a proper image, this can cost a lot of processing power. With a hardware overlay each application gets its own portion of video memory, getting rid of the need to check for collision and clipping.
As @DanHulme put it: Windows in Android are always composited rather than rendered into shared video memory. Normally, SurfaceFlinger uses the GPU for composition, but it will use a hardware overlay when that's possible, which is faster and uses less battery. Disabling overlays means it will always use GPU rendering. It's only useful for debugging system integration or HW video decode: even app developers don't need to turn on this option
I have just got a Nexus 7, and I am trying to send an app that i made into my Nexus, neither sending it with my phone using bluetooth or directly from my laptop using bluetooth works: on my phone it says "the file couldn't be sent" while on my laptop is says: "the request couldn't be honored".
The Samsung keyboard has a Quick Symbol key, where ".,?" are on the same key and accessed similar to the T9 method (don't know if this is standard for Android keyboards).
A good idea, but how can I quickly enter an ellipsis (three dots)? The best I could come up with is:
dot space del dot space del dot
Quite clumsy, but much faster than tapping dot and then twice wait until a next tap wont change the dot anymore. There surely must be a better way?
Update
On the Galaxy Tab there is no option to choose another keyboard layout; apparently on other Samsung devices there is (see GAThrawn's answer). Here you can see what options I can choose from:
Answer
I recommand you to install AnySoftKeyboard (available in Android Market), it a bloody good keybaord, by pressing 1 sec. on [.] key there is an additional key wit the three dots ! What I also find great in this keyboard is that you can install your country keyboard what the standard Androïd keyboard does not provide... Test it ... you will adopt it !
1) If i want to flash a stock rom what should I use adb sideload or fastboot. I have seen on youtube people using both of these. Are both of these similar or different. Sorry if this sounds stupid but I'm a noob and I'm very confused.
2) Do i have to unlock bootloader for flashing stock rom.
3) Does fastboot oem lock/unlock command works on every android device.
Answer
Folks consider adb sideload when they have a ready to flash .zip file. The command is mostly used when booted into Recovery mode.
Fastboot on the other hand often deals with per partition flashing at a time. E.g. fastboot flash recovery -- only flashes Recovery partition and not all the relevant partitions for ROM installation. ADB sideload usually does full ROM installation in one go.
You unlock the bootloader only if it is locked. Google Nexus devices comes with locked bootloaders while some Chinese Mediatek devices comes unlocked. You've to search web for your model.
No, the command doesn't work on every Android device. The reason is 2.
I have an older Droid Incredible running Cyanogenmod 7.2. Recently, I've noticed some sluggishness on the phone that doesn't seem limited to a single app. The CPU Usage Plus app (which I think just runs top) often reports that the mmcqd\2 process is using up a lot of CPU (sometimes 50-60%). Googling around, it seems that this process is somehow related to SD card access.
Is there any way for me to diagnose in more detail what exactly is causing this process to use so much CPU, e.g., by seeing what other process is accessing the SD card? Could re-formatting the SD card help? Or could CPU Usage Plus be leading me astray? I have some apps installed on the SD card, and I could try moving them all back to the phone, but it would be nice to figure out a more detailed diagnosis before trying random solutions.
I just want to know what consumes less battery Wi-Fi or 2G Data.
My battery last long for 12- 16 hours only. I know there are lots of application which continually running and fetching data from internet.
I have both options available, in my office i have Wi-Fi and i also has 2G plan in my sim account, both give me desire speed.
Answer
I already posted this in another answer. As it where different details that time (more a general "what consumes most"), here some details from a reference Motorola Droid. Data taken from a German article named Energiesparplan (Heise is a very famous technology publisher in Germany; Google Translate Version here):
┌────────────┬──────────┬────────────┬──────────┐ | Standard | Upload | Download | Standby |
When switching between ROMs, I've found it helpful to have a list of the applications that I had installed before wiping and flashing the new ROM.
Is there a way to export such a list to a file so I don't have to create one manually?
Answer
With a Terminal Emulator app (or via adb shell), you can use the following command to get a list of installed applications:
pm list packages
There are some optional switches for this command that will give you more information, such as the location and name of the APK file as well. Keep in mind that this command lists both 3rd-party app as well as system ones that came pre-installed on your device.
If you are generating the list for the purpose of re-installing the apps on the new ROM, you might want to look into the AppBrain App Market app. Once you are signed in with your Google account and synced up, it will save the installed apps as a list that you can view and manage online. After installing a new ROM, you simply download the AppBrain app from the Market first and use it to re-install other apps from the saved list by doing the following:
Launch AppBrain app.
Select the Manage And Sync option.
Sign in with the same Google account as you did before.
Tap the My lists... button and select the list you've created previously.
Tap the Add all apps button. This will queue up all of the applications you had installed on the previous ROM for installation.
Go back to the previous screen and tap the Execute changes button which will automatically bring you to the Market page for installing the apps.
As in, I know that all Droids have the micro USB charging connector. But what if I used a charger of HTC make, or for that matter of fact a charger of RIM (BlackBerry) make, to charge my Android phone (which is not of aforementioned brands) to charge my phone? Will this cause (short/long term) harm to my battery? If so, why and how?
Answer
No, it should be fine as long as the charger is meant for a cell phone.
Most of the major cell phone manufacturers adhere to the the International Electrotechnical Commission's mobile phone charging specs which specifies the use of the micro USB charging standard. USB 1.0 and 2.0 is capable of delivering 0.5A at 5V and USB 3.0 is capable of 0.9A at 5V. Not all chargers adhere to those specs, but most phone chargers deliver a charge somewhere in that range. I have had several HTC, Samsung, Motorola and some off-brand phone chargers and they all are 5V and put out between 750mA and 1A.
Also, your cell phone has a charging control circuit and voltage protection circuit that protects the device from power outside its acceptable spec. I believe it also monitors temperature and will terminate charging if it falls outside of an acceptable spec, but I'm not sure about that.
Some tablets like the Nexus 7 come with chargers that put out 2.1A at 5V. Using this charger will charge your phone faster but it will also cause the battery to heat up more. Excess heat can degrade the life of a battery so I wouldn't make a habit of using a tablet charger on your phone.
I don't know if I'm posting this on the right website or not, but I'll try anyway.
I recently brought a Google Nexus 7 (non-SIM version). I've used it for around 3 months now and everything was working as normal until I left my battery to die whilst browsing online. The battery died overnight. In the morning, I charged my Nexus while attempting to use it at the same time.
What I found at first was that the device would boot right up until the lock screen, but the device would state there was 0% battery and shut down. I then continually powered the Nexus a couple of times just to make sure it wasn't a minor hitch. Then, I noticed that the Nexus was actually looping from Boot to the X to the lock screen then back off. At one point, it was going to a static fuzzy screen then holding there.
I did a little research and tried to boot it up via the Volume up + power method. After I tried this, the multi-colored X just holds on start up. It shows the white Google logo, then the Nexus logo and hangs there. I found out that the device could be "Soft bricked" and needs some sort of wipe.
But here is my main concern: I never thought the device would break after three months, so I never really backed up any photos.
I really would like to find a way to access the folders on the Nexus while it is soft bricked or fix the device without losing the photos. I'm even prepared to rip apart the device voiding any warranties and look for the memory card or whatever is inside. Under normal circumstances. I would just accept a loss, but these photos are of my baby where I haven't had my camera at hand. It has photos of her first moments, so they are worth a lot in sentimental value.
If anyone can help, I would really appreciate it. I would appreciate the time and effort spent solving this problem. Thank you.
P.S. I have no idea how technical stuff works on a deep level :(
When I open the Google Play Store it says, no connection retry even when I am connected to wifi and when I hit Sign In in the Youtube app it says, An error occurred.
Rooted LG Volt is bootlooping after build.prop and cpu setting changes, and I am unable to connect via ADB to restore build.prop or reflash system
How can I get the phone to connect via ADB?
Attempted to do factory reset from stock recovery, which was successful but there was no change in bootloop When phone is connected to PC during bootloop, it connects as Charge Only, and ADB doesnt recognize the device. When phone is in recovery and "Apply update from ADB" is selected, the phone connects to the computer, but Windows throws error "configuration descriptor request failed", and device is not recognized by ADB. Uninstalled all phone drivers from computer using USBDeview and Device Manager.
Have Android Studio, Android SDK, and ADB installed on Windows 8.1 computer. There are no issues with the ports or cable, tested several different ones.
I do not have CWM recovery, was previously using rooted stock OS
Answer
I solved this by booting into Download Mode (with the phone off, hold Vol+ while plugging in USB to computer).
There were some files that needed to be downloaded, including the LG Flash Tool, which was used to flash the stock ROM to the phone.
After flashing, the phone was in its original pre-activated state but at least it functioned!
I'm facing a tricky scenario, sometime back I decided to discontinue using Google Play Services in favour of an open source alternative - microG due to constant problems and crashing of several Google applications on my device.
As Google launched Google Play Protect1 feature (on all Android devices running Google Play Services 11 or later), this seems to be missing or at least I'm not sure how to use it (i.e enable or disable it) with microG.
With a device running Google Play Services, one can easily control it by navigating to: Settings ➡ Google ➡ Security ➡ Google Play Protect
I wish to be able to control this feature on microG so I can control/disable constant false positive notifications about my installed applications being harmful, and also to have my applications regularly scanned.
Is there way to control "Play Protect" on a device running microG, or at least to integrate via another means, perhaps an Xposed module?
1
Google Play Protect is a feature that is, essentially, an evolution of the company’s “Verify Apps” service that was rolled out to Android many years ago. The feature, which will be enabled by default on all Android devices, is meant to be a real-time malware scanner that will scan every installed or about-to-be installed app and inform users in case there’s something amiss.
Answer
Google Play Protect can be disabled by editing these XML files:
/data/system/users/0/settings_secure.xml
package_verifier_user_consent=-1
/data/system/users/0/settings_global.xml
package_verifier_enable=0 upload_apk_enable=0
Edit
On older Android, it is stored in a database located at: /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db. You need to use some database editor to change that parameter
I've recently purchased a Lenovo Vibe K5 mobile. The phone runs Android 5.1 Lollipop with the Lenovo UI layered on top.
I have been facing a strange problem. Apps that are set to start at startup simply don't start until I start them manually. This includes messaging apps like Telegram etc. (only WhatsApp somehow seems to startup, but it then often hangs), battery monitors, QualityTime, Resilio Sync, Twilight, etc.
This has become more than an annoyance as the failure to start messaging apps means I never receive messages. I've missed several important messages as a result.
I have checked in Bootup Manager and all these apps are listed as startup apps. I have also switched off Lenovo's "Intelligent power settings" system (which seems to basically terminate apps if they are running in the background).
I have made no modifications to the stock ROM except rooting it. I also experienced a weird problem with SMS not being received when I restored messages from a different phone from a backup. I eventually deleted the message database and started from scratch; that seems to have fixed the problem.
Is there any way to fix this problem? Where would I start? I am tempted to go the whole hog and replace the stock firmware with a custom ROM, but that is likely to bring its own problems in its wake. Is that the only route forward?
My Samsung Galaxy 2 (SC-02C) has been rooted and upgraded to 4.1.2. It seemed that everything, all phone functionality, was fine.
However, I've discovered that I can not send SMS with my phone. I can receive SMS from anyone from any carrier in my area just fine. I've asked at my service provider (DoCoMo, in Japan) and was told that I have the service enabled and my account with them should be fully operational.
I wouldn't have imagined rooting and upgrading the phone would impact SMS, but that seems to be the case.
How might my SMS functionality be impacted by my current ROM, and how can I fix it?
Answer
For some reason I assumed that SMS functionality was integral to the phone, not the OS, and so it would be reliant on carrier configurations and settings. As a result, I automatically went looking for some kind of solution that involved ROMs or kernels and whatnot.
However, it turns out that there are SMS apps available on Google Play, and I was able to solve this by simply using an app other than the default. In my case, I chose Handcent. SMS works perfectly fine.
So it was only the default SMS app that was the problem, not anything more fundamental.
is the Google Authenticator saved with the google backup like wifi passwords, settings, gmail and some other google aps? If I will reflash my current system or make a clean install will it be backed up with all the codes form websites I have there? I do not want to loose it and it will be a lot of work to go to every site I have there, revoke 2step verification and then do it again with new system
I mounted a directory into another directory with:
mount --bind "/storage/sdcard/dir1" "/storage/sdcard/dir2"
I do this at boot completion with Tasker. I can see the mounted files in adb shell and in Termux, even as non-root user. But I can not see these files in apps like Total Commander or my Music Player.
I use Lineage 7.1.2.
In this thread, a solution is to switch off "mount namespaces" in SuperSU. Unfortunately, I have the LineageOS default SU app which does not seem to provide such option. Any suggestions?
UPDATE: 2018/06/27, bootloader implies wipe and it is a dead end for Data Recovery, mount as USB Mass Storage implies root to change settings, and for Mi5 or MIUI 8 this implies flashing ROM (dead end too as implies Data overwritten) so the only method I found is this (if the device is functional) then with the RAW partition dump recover files is easy
(LEGACY-post as is solved)
I have a problem I want to solve:
Notice: This is a specific problem, please try to advice on that matter (see complications at the bottom), any help and clarification will be very appreciated.
Fact:
I deleted by mistake files on path .. sdCard / .. / Downloads (internal memory)
Seconds after mistaken-deletion, I shut off the device, to prevent overwriting.
I notice about USB Mass Storage instead MTP (as key feature to connect device to PC) (and use some kind of recovery app like (Recuva or R-Studio (r-tt.com))
But I don't know how to activate that (Mass Storage) on my specific device and MIUI (Android version)
Another choice is create a image dump from custom recovery (TWRP) but how to install custom recovery... ... without changing the stock ROM, ... I saw unlocked bootloader is needed
Complications:
How to recover data from (internal sdCard, eMMc | UFS), without overwriting data.
How to root (if needed) without the changing of custom-ROM (if it is possible), on this specific device.
How to install custom recovery (bootloader unlocked is needed) to make a "raw image dump" exact byte-by-byte from the recovery ( isolated image dump, to work with IT Forensics tools)
Xiaomi Mi5 (how to root, methods, if it is needed), and how to install custom recovery, TWRP (bootloader unlocking etc)
Thanks in advance, first post here (a reader for years), I hope some people lead the way ^^, I want to learn.
Xiaomi Mi5 particularities: (more info-sources will be appreciated)
root methods (without ROM-changing)
TWRP recovery (stock ROM if possible) => create internal memory RAW image) to work with.
