Ask Android

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/46066494

I followed the recommended processes for adding images to my app, and it is being displayed correctly on the layout preview, but not at all on the app. I have vector assets, webp, png images, but none are being displayed.

The project is too big to put here in its entirety, but please ask for any snippets that could help you solve the issue. I've tried searching the web and asking LLMs and neither could help, so please help me, fellow humans.

I bought a refurbished pixel 7 in europe. I assumed it was the european version (GVU6C).

I tested it and it appeared functional in all functions, so i released the escrow to the seller.

Now because I don't trust the software hasn't been tampered, I wanted to clean it with flash.android.com but... can't because it can't unlock the bootloader (even if i connect to internet and call the code ##2432546## to get the "checkin requested" from google play services)

It looks like i have the model GQML3 for Verizon which can't be bootloader unlocked. FUCK! I especially bought this because it can unlock the bootloader...

Anyway.... about restoring the original software....

Phone says "phone is with latest update installed" with android 14 and security update from 5 june 2024.

Can I flash the full image for android 15 with october security update or i risk a brick? Do I need to wait for the lazy fucks at verizon to "certify" the android 15 update? Those fuckers take ages to "certify" the updates...

I am currently using an S9 with /e/OS, and I'm thinking about upgrading next year, since the battery is starting to act up.

Are there any phones released in the past few years that are a decent upgrade and that support a privacy-oriented ROM?

I can go up to 500USD, but I live in a 3rd world country, so Fairphones, Pixels, and some other phones aren't available here.

Thank you in advance!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/21146609

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/21145878

Basically one day all of a sudden I lost all mobile network, can't receive SMS, calls, etc, can't use mobile data, nothing.

I own a Xiaomi Redmi 12 OS version 1.0.7.0.UMXMIXM Android version 14 UP1A.231005.007

I've tried going into the setting mobile network and disabling automatic connection and trying to connect manually but it doesn't let me connect

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/21015575

Hackers Keyboard has that via ctrl+z, but only in horizontal mode. For this only i had my Galaxy S3 in horizontal per default. But can't do that with modern phones' aspect ratio and i'm missing undo since then.

cross-posted from: https://lemy.lol/post/31616900

I currently have an iPhone 14 Pro Max and I want to switch to an Android phone.

First of all, I eliminated all Chinese phones. Since Samsung has limited custom rom support, I gave up on that too. At the end, I decided to get a Pixel because of its GrapheneOS support.

But right now I'm stuck between Pixel 8 and 9. There's a big price difference with small improvements. I can afford both but not sure if Pixel 9 is worth it. What do you think?

The phone models shouldn't matter should they? One is on Android 11 and the other is on 13. I can only get them to connect for about a second, then the connection drops out. And yes, they're right next to each other.

And where the hell am I supposed to enter the 'pairing code' thing? No entry box pops up on either device..

You can't remove things from it, you cannot rearrange it... Useless things and suggestions get stuck at the top.

I'm on Android 13. Have they made any improvements in the newer versions of Android?

I accidentally all Gboard layouts and can’t enter my password anymore. I do have some other keyboard apps, but they don’t load immediately after booting. adb shows no devices, probably need to unlock and allow USB debugging… I thought about connecting a hardware keyboard. How would that work?

I bought a galaxy Tab a7 lite at an estate sale place. Tried to set it up, but it's locked out of resetting without a password which unfortunately died with it's previous owner. I called samsung, who told me I need to find someone to do a factory reset bypass.

I don't want to use it as a phone, just as a tablet.

I did some reading online and looked at some software supposedly meant for the purpose, but no luck.

Any advice out there?

I will be recieving a gastric surgery somewhere in the future. After which, I am to follow a strict schedule for eating and drinking. I looked at a lot of routine apps, and tasker apps. But they all lack the flexibility I need. Or I am just missing it.

Why I need it: my life does not fit a daily or weekly strict schedule. It is quite dynamic when my day actually starts and varies month by month.

If I have to move the tasks or alarms manually every time, I know I won't be able to stick to it.

If I have to manage a massive list of routines for any possible starting time. I will probably overwhelm myself and abandon the schedule.

What I need:

• Able to set a day spanning routine, that can be started at any time.
• Have an alarm that can be snoozed, and will also push all next task with the same amount.
• Be able to trigger a task early, and push all next event forward by the same time.
• Have a buy-once option
• Nice to have: wearos support

I am about to investigate how to make this myself. But I would suspect someone already made this.

Thank you for reading, and your time.

Q: Is it still possible to have "Web & App Activity" turned off, but also have history of previously searched places in Google Maps?

This was possible until recently (Pixel 8), and came back this week for a few days, but now my history is empty again with a button trying to get me to turn on privacy cancer.

(Yes I use OSMAnd and Organic Maps when I can already.)

It shows up every time I dismiss or switch apps and displays over other stuff that might be more relevant. Any way to turn it off?

I need to ask a small favor from the good people of Lemdro.id Community.

In short, I accidentally wiped the metadata partition on my Poco F3 and now I can't boot into the OS and access my data. I have a lot of pictures, videos and other stuff that I would hate to lose, because of a mistake. But all that is still on the phone, I just can't boot the phone to access it.

Thankfully, there is a way to fix this by creating a full backup of the phone with adb, then using a HEX Editor to manually look through that gigantic file and try to find the files that were in that metadata partition.

A huge thanks to bluet33th, a user from XDA Forums, without whom I would be helpless and couldn't do any of this. It might be a bit complicated and manual process, but it is possible. He explained everything in great detail here, so check it out, especially if you are facing the same problem, this will help you tremendously: https://xdaforums.com/t/how-to-recover-data-if-metadata-partition-was-deleted.4686789/

In order to find these files and put them back where they belong, I need your help, because I have to know their names, exact sizes and at least part of their content, so that I can search for it. Because I'm searching for a specific text in a text file that is 128 GB in size.

I have already tried this on another Xiaomi phone, to make sure this procedure works on Xiaomi phones and it does, but that phone had HyperOS with Android 14 and since every phone and android version is probably different, in order to be sure, I need this information specifically for Poco F3 with Android 13.

It doesn't take long, but if you don't have the time to look inside your metadata partition and tell me which files are inside of that partition and their sizes in bytes, you can just make a backup of the metadata partition and sent it to me, and I'll do the rest of the work.

Here are the steps on how to create a backup:

1. Turn on your phone and boot into TWRP, then connect your phone to a PC, type cmd inside Windows search and run cmd, then position cmd into your platform-tools folder (if you flashed your ROM, you should already have the necessary drivers installed for the next steps to work). For example, if your platform-tools folder on Windows is inside C:\platform-tools, all you need to type into cmd is: cd C:\platform-tools

You can also just go inside your platform-tools folder and type cmd in the address bar and the cmd will start already positioned inside that folder.

2. Then type adb devices and you should see your device, if you do, that means that all the drivers are successfully installed and your phone is detected.

3. Type adb pull /dev/block/by-name/metadata

4. After that, you should see a file named metadata inside C:\platform-tools. That is the file that I'm looking for and as you can see, it takes just a few minutes to get it.

You can skip the next steps (5 and 6), but I'll explain them, just in case someone wants to extract these files for themselves, so that you have them in case something like this happens to you. Of course, you can also proceed to extract the files and tell me their names and sizes.

Here is what you need to do:

5. Extract the content of the metadata file, you can use a software like 7-Zip. Go inside that extracted folder, then into vold > metadata_encryption > key

6. Inside of that key folder, you should see a few files. These are the important files and save them somewhere safe in case you ever need them. Since I don't have them anymore, in order to recreate them, I need to know their exact names and sizes in bytes. You can check the size of every individual file by right clicking on the file and choosing Properties. Then look under Size, not Size on disk, and in parenthesis, you should see the size in bytes.

Please, if you could check the size of every file and write down which file has what size. I would really appreciate it.

I'm specifically looking for someone who has a Poco F3 with Android 13 and MIUI, because I'm not sure if HyperOS changed something, so maybe the number of files or their size is different. But feel free to post the information even if you have HyperOS, but please mention that, so that I am aware of it.

Thanks a lot for your help, it really means a great deal.

I'm considering stock pixel 9, but I was wondering if anyone had specific critiques of Gemini's privacy.

I use LLM bots frequently, but am a bit hesitant to let one take over my phone.

In light of what's happened to Durov and possibly seeing Telegram compromised, I'm doubling my efforts to find a new main messenger. Before you start, not Signal as it's a bad fit for the needs of me, my family and friends.

So what do I need?

• The ability to run on multiple devices. Me, my family and friends all have multiple Android devices.
• The ability to run on desktop. Linux and Windows.
• Built in sticker repository. What can I say, I like to lazy flirt.
• Animated Emoji. I like my messenger experience vibrant.
• Material You. Again with the vibrancy, but also, it's a sign of modernity.
• Phone number linking. My family and friends are lazy as hell.
• Synchronized chats. I don't mind self hosting a bridge, but the ability to see messages on multiple devices is a must.
• Voice Messages
• Video Calls
• Group Video Calls
• Stories integrated into as first class citizens
• Private. If you suggest WhatsApp, I'm assuming you're either stupid or a troll.

Can anyone recommend anything?

I currently use a Pixel 7 Pro with GrapheneOS and I really enjoy the experience. I have a Surface Pro 7+ with Linux on it that I use from the couch. It's a bit bulky and I've found myself gravitating more to the Android UI anyhow. I'm looking into either getting the Pixel Fold or the Pixel Tablet, both of which are supported by GrapheneOS.

The bulk of my usage would be mobile games (including emulation through Lemuroid), books and magazines through Libby/Librera, and the occasional video content. I'd like to bring it with me on the go.

I was initially going to get a tablet and dock but the fold looked interesting. My reservations about the fold are the internal screen life and how apps behave on the internal screens. Surely being a moving part is going to decrease its lifespan, plus screen protectors and cases seem like they would be difficult. Are there cases for those phones? I always put a screen protector and case on my devices. How do apps behave in full screen on the fold? Do they have black bars if it's not big enough or does it get stuck to one side?

Thanks!

I know the title may sound a bit misleading, but this is my situation: I'm interested in using a custom launcher on my device, but the problem is that there's this option to "Pause app" that I want to use to prevent some apps from using my battery or getting my location or something, but I can't do that on custom launchers (for obvious reasons). Does this thing actually works or there isn't any actual difference?

Recently, I came across an article talking about hardware security features in android. It was talking about radio HAL versions.

I wanted to see which version is present on my android 14 device.

The article in question: https://security.googleblog.com/2024/08/keeping-your-android-device-safe-from.html

I was using the Nova launcher forever, but it's been getting buggier and buggier and support just blames android. plus I understand there are privacy concerns about them these days

I switched to hyperion, and it works just fine except for one feature, and I can't get support to respond anywhere for any reason.

which launcher do you use, and why do you like it?

I've used LineageOS with microG on my Oneplus 6 for years — so happily, in fact, that I haven't bothered with major updates since version 17 (Android 10). Oops!

Now I've been flashing updates to an older phone, and I might as well continue getting my daily driver up to date. I'm going to dirty flash my way up to the current version (21). But I'm rusty as all heck, and the upgrade instructions seem to have changed since last:

1. Back in '21 I recall being recommended to disable screenlock (fingerprint/PIN/pattern, etc) before upgrading. Is that still a thing?
2. With a/b slot devices it used to be necessary to flash ROMs twice or use a copy-partitions or simiilar zip file. The instructions make no mention of it, is that rolled into the upgrade package now?
3. Finally, is it safe to just upgrade directly from LOS/mG v18 to v21? Because neither LOS main or the mG branch seem to archive older versions but I'd hate to miss some system update or other.

All help is appreciated!

Edited for clarity: Please don't offer suggestions on "better" phones or OSes — my question regards the above only. Thanks in advance 👍

First time buying a tablet, seeking feedback.

https://m.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_tab_s6_lite_(2024)-12897.php

https://m.gsmarena.com/lenovo_tab_k11_plus-13186.php

Lenovo has awful update cycle but the display is bigger.

just something basic and open source

I want to compile all the GUI LineageOS apps and release their APKs.

To make them installable on other Android OS, I need to change the app ID. Otherwise Android would attempt an upgrade and fail because of mismatching keys.

For example the LineageOS Clock

There are many many files that refer to com.android.deskclock which I want to change to org.lineageos.deskclock.

Do I just need to change this line? And can I leave all the others normal?

I think I got build failures when changing more, and I wonder if I would need to change all the lines (using sed or something)