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    Thursday, August 6, 2020

    Android Questions: I don’t like a retail store app’s permissions, but it would very useful the day I go. Would installing before and uninstalling right after I shop reasonably limit data collection?

    Android Questions: I don’t like a retail store app’s permissions, but it would very useful the day I go. Would installing before and uninstalling right after I shop reasonably limit data collection?


    I don’t like a retail store app’s permissions, but it would very useful the day I go. Would installing before and uninstalling right after I shop reasonably limit data collection?

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 08:27 AM PDT

    TL;DR: A store already has a lot of information on me, but some of its app's permissions (e.g. "run at startup" and "read precise location") would enable deeper tracking such as what other stores/people I visit. Can I get around this by uninstalling right after I use the app or can an app leave traces so that it can collect historical information the next time it's installed?

    There are lots of examples of apps beyond stores, but today I was looking at the Sam's Club app. It has an extremely useful feature — it allows scanning items and checking out without waiting in line.

    Sam's already has a ton of information on me, including the cards I use and lots of basic biographical information. But combining permissions like "run at startup" and "precise location" means that it'd get a ton more over time, which I'd rather not give it. My thought is to install it right before I leave for the store and uninstall it immediately afterwards. That seems like a simple enough workaround, but one that data miners/programmers would have already thought of and compensated for.

    The app's permission include, among others:

    Photo/Media/Files/Storage: Modify or delete the contents of your USB storage and Read the contents of your USB storage

    First, I don't have a USB storage that I know of. No SD card either. Or am I misunderstanding the permission — that it relates to a partition or other element of my phone's storage?

    Second, I understand that the app needs to store payment, scanning and other information related to me using it. But does this mean I'm granting permission to san/read my entire drive from music files to pictures and movies?

    Precise and approximate location

    They already know where I live, so I don't think there is any data to be gleaned here. Or can this permission be used to read previous locations? If I uninstall it right after using it, can it leave tracks to collect and upload location data the next time I install it?

    View Wi-Fi and network connections
    I do most of my browsing via a virtual machine that goes through a VPN, but my actual shopping on a relatively unprotected browser — they already have my IP and home address. Am I right that this will just give them my SSID and any networks it picks up as I drive to the store?

    Read Google service configuration
    I haven't been able to find any information on what this does. I assume it pairs my phone with my identity?

    Run at startup
    This is the main permission that keeps me from leaving it installed. Am I right that uninstalling will leave no trace of it on my phone and re-installing it will not allow data collected between installs?

    There are other permissions that I'm not listing here (e.g. control vibration, change network connectivity) that seem relatively innocuous if the app has been uninstalled.

    I realize that I already leak information like a sieve (especially with a Pixel 2 on Google Fi service), but would rather not make it even easier to be tracked. Also, I'm asking here in /r/AndroidQuestions because I'm curious about the mechanics behind the scenes and because not every developer has access to the full gamut of what's tracking me now.

    Thanks!

    (Flaired this as "other" rather than app-specific because even though I'm using a specific app as a basis for the question, I'm curious about apps/permissions in general. I hope that was the right flair to use.)

    submitted by /u/TheYask
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    Low speaker sound after motherboard/battery replacement

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 02:06 AM PDT

    My phone was on service, got new mainboard and battery. But when I got it back the speaker volume is too low. When I put on audio from e.g. podcast, music or youtube during a few seconds the volume fades down. Until I barely can recognize speech from ambient noises around. Volume control is still on top, but volume low. Any clue what causes this? Tried resetting phone too, but same.

    Edit: Seems as the sound is sometimes normal level on ringtones and start of audio playing. But from audio playing it immediately fades down to low.

    submitted by /u/Navstar27
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    Where is all my storage space?

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 01:21 PM PDT

    I have a 32 GB Samsung Galaxy A5 and when I check my storage usage I have 29.5 GB full out of 32. However, my user data only comes to a total of about 10-11 GB. Am I to believe that at least 18 GB on my phone are taken up by systems or something else? I have used the "free up space" tool, but it only ever frees up about 1 GB. Is there anything I can do about this?

    Thanks!

    submitted by /u/PCMRsmellyballsax
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    Can i leave my phone on at night?

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 01:19 PM PDT

    can you have your phone on the whole night? like when i go to bed i open a game to get rewards and leave it on until i wake up, is that safe? i dont want to do anything to harm my device

    submitted by /u/FriendlyPringel
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    Need help with mapping a Nintendo Switch controller.

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 01:18 PM PDT

    So, I'm using Android 10 on both phones, one being a Samsung Galaxy S10E and the other being a Onetouch7. Both are able to pair to the controller via bluetooth, and while it accepts some of the inputs, it doesn't seem to be mapped in any playable state.

    I was wondering if anyone else had similar issues, or a solution?

    submitted by /u/Some_Responsibility
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    One plus upgrade recommendations

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 01:15 PM PDT

    Hi guys, Title says it all really Ive had my one plus 6 now for a couple of year and I love it upgraded from my 3T but the screen is going on it again and instead of getting it fixed again I think I will upgrade , can someone recommend me a good phone to upgrade that will not break the bank , was currently looking at one plus Nord or 7t pro , open to other suggestions obviously with a valid arguement but that's the spec range or if I can get better I'll pay a bit extra , also links for cheapest place to purchase please. Thanks in Advance 👍

    submitted by /u/Well_laad
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    Can I factory reset with a black smashed screen?

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 01:14 PM PDT

    Can anyone help, I have completely smashed the screen. The phone is still on. Looking to factory reset as I have bought a replacement and am selling this one but would like to delete the stuff off it. It is a huawei p20 pro

    submitted by /u/hatterredditor1
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    I have three Amazon developed apps ( amazon, Prime video & Fire tv) and whenever I open any one of these apps, all 3 are opening in the background ( observed from greenify). Would love to know the reason and cause of it.

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 01:13 PM PDT

    BeeX - anyone heard about this manufacturer outside my country?

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 12:53 PM PDT

    I was digging around in my family's attic and found an old tablet they used around the early 2010s. I looked up the manufacturer, and basically only found Hungarian ships selling this specific brand. Was BeeX sold anywhere else around the world? Maybe under a different name?

    submitted by /u/Tacska
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    Touch screen 'angle compensation'

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 05:20 AM PDT

    I remember this being a heavily advertised feature a few years ago on one of the new iPhones. Basically, if you're using the keyboard, and you tap on the delete key, but the phone thinks you were actually trying to tap the M key, it'll register tapping the M even if your finger actually touches the delete key.

    This was a few years ago, from what I understand the feature has been absorbed into a lot of apples tech as an automatic thing, and now having switched to a Samsung S20, I cant help but feel like the feature is present on this phone as well. I find myself constantly opening the wrong links or typing the wrong letters just because one mm of my finger edged onto an adjacent pixel. Does anyone know if this is now a standard industry feature, whether my phone would have it, and if so, how would i disable it?

    submitted by /u/shakakierakahn
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    A New Phone on the Wrong Server

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 12:49 PM PDT

    I just got a Moto G7 Power in today and activated a new service plan. I realized after a bit that my data speed was slow so I decided to do a speed test on google. 0.15 down and 3.37 up. What troubled me is that my other phone is on the Dallas server and the new phone is on the Los Angeles server. Is there a way I can change my server? I live in Oklahoma so it makes sense to change the new phone to the Dallas server, I just dont know how. All help is appreciated

    submitted by /u/CrazyWolfcc
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    App info syncing issue

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 12:30 PM PDT

    Hey guys, my old S9 conked out on me completely after a crack a d water damage. I used a new phone (LG G8X) and it looks like a lot of my app info came over and synced. However, when I got my permanent replacement (another s9) that's not happening. All apps still downloaded, but all the info is missing. Any idea why this would be?

    submitted by /u/Paulsitive
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    Using a Bluetooth speaker during phone calls

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 12:21 PM PDT

    Is it possible to still use a Bluetooth speaker during phone calls while having your phone be the default mic? The mic on the speaker is bad but I would like to use it as the speaker still.

    Thanks for any help

    submitted by /u/CalisMedic
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    Storage Capacity and Access Problems on Android 8

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 11:59 AM PDT

    Hi all, I posted on here a few days ago, but got no response, so I apologize for posting again but it seems that my initial post wasn't seen by many and I'm still having this problem.

    So I have a Moto Z Play running Android 8 that I've had for about 3 years now, and have had next to no problems with it until now. However, over the last few months, I've encountered bizarre errors where I cannot download apps or take photos due to an error stating "Your internal storage is running out of space. Delete some images or other files"...even though I'm currently only utilizing 62% of my storage capacity (32 GB). When this error first started popping up, I would typically just delete some extra photos, maybe an unused app or two, clear app cache, and maybe reboot, which would always fix the issue. Now, this approach isn't working, and I'm not sure what else to do... Has anyone encountered an error like this before?

    For what it's worth, I did come across this post from the other day, but it appears their error was strictly with the Play Store, so it wasn't enough for my problem...

    Along with this, I'm also having trouble accessing my file system - attempted on both Windows and Linux machines. My device is recognized when I switch the USB mode to file transfer, but the OS displays it as if the device is empty. I feel like I'm missing something obvious, but would anyone know how to solve this as well? I tried manually reinstalling the drivers for it and changing the developer options around USB to be sure it's set for media transfer, but that didn't have any effect either. Any ideas? Are there maybe some developer options or recovery mode settings I could look into?

    Also, would anyone know what could be causing these two strange issues? Could I have a corrupt partition or something? Can't really think of any other explanation for this...

    Thanks.

    submitted by /u/jaypb08
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    LG VS880 has no room for apps

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 07:44 AM PDT

    I just grabbed my dad's old LG VS880 to use as a desk clock. It only has 8GB of memory, and apparently it's completely full, even after a factory reset. Under "storage" it says I have about 30MB free.

    So I can't download any apps from the app store. I've installed an SD card, but apparently I can't move any apps to it.

    Any ideas? How does one use a phone you can't even download apps to?

    submitted by /u/Adrenocastles66
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    Chrome on mobile isn't giving me copy, cut, paste, etc. options bar when text is selected

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 11:12 AM PDT

    Title, if I'm reading an article on mobile chrome (Note 9) and select some text that bar with the copy/paste options don't pop up. Sometimes I can do a small scroll up or down and it'll pop up but most of the time I'm giving no option to copy any of the text I select.

    This went from being rare a couple months ago to progressively getting to the point where it's happening 75% of the time. Is there a fix for this?

    submitted by /u/Ninety9Balloons
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    Can't add custom notification sound

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 10:49 AM PDT

    Hello!

    I'm using Nokia 51 with up to date version of Android 9 (no roots no nothing). For quite some time now I am unable to use custom notification sounds besides the ones I already used in the past. Any new sounds added to a folder are just not recognized and don't show up on the list at all, here's a screenshot. I can still pick any of the ones that do show up, though, so maybe it's not a problem with notification itself but rather visibility? If I use file manager (Files app) and navigate to this folder I can see new sounds no problem but that's it.

    Any solutions?

    submitted by /u/I_am_Maslak
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    I am thinking of getting realme x2 but before that i would like to know the rooting, flashing.. etc experience

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 10:48 AM PDT

    I won't be using the phone for heavy gaming, i am just interested in the 90hz display and that i can flash custom roms easily.

    I have been reading some xda posts they say that you can't use the finger print after unlocking the bootloader and it can go into bootloop easily Ill be using this phone for as long as it last. So i really need the customisation to keep me entertained.

    Edit: Realme X2 Pro

    submitted by /u/huskyhunter24
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    Silencing the Voice-to-text / voice typing "ding" sound?

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 10:44 AM PDT

    TL;DR - I've spent a long time trying to figure this out, and there legitimately seems to be no solution nor answers.-----> How do I turn off the extremely loud and uncontrollably "DIIING!" notification sound that alerts you when you are about to voice to text?

    More:

    I've spent an inordinate amount of time on this. The forums where I've seen "answers" always seem to offer outdated solutions from past OS version or different phones. My phone happens to be a Samsung Galaxy s9+ (Android Ver. 10/Q, however this is on all OS), but this is something I've experienced on every Galaxy phone I've ever used. I think anything associated with Samsung & Google, I've heard this painfully loud "DING" whenever you depress the microphone. It happens across every [*almost every?] app. You can not change the sound, nor can you lessen it compared to your other volumes.

    Yes, you can turn the ding off, but that means turning off all system sounds, which isn't practical.

    The notion that this isn't resolvable is fascinating to me, but I am giving it a shot. I think one issue is that it is called many things, "Voice to text", "Voice typing", or "Dictation", etc.

    In my research, the answers are typically "don't use voice typing", or "turn all sound off", which doesn't work if you are using a translation app repeating stuff back to you, and frankly, we should be able to adapt our phones to our preferences and personal tastes. Honestly, it's precisely why we're not Apple people.

    Any help would be lovely. I will be posting this across different SR where appropriate. Hopefully that's not annoying, but this is my death rattle final gasp attempt!

    submitted by /u/unclefishbits
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    What are these corner symbols mean? (Pixel 3a)

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 10:36 AM PDT

    These appear when I swipe up from the bottom of the screen while I'm in an app to go back to the main home screen.

    https://i.imgur.com/yMDkrTo.png

    submitted by /u/kidgeoff
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    Are Kindles based on AOSP? (Not talking about FireOS, I mean the e-ink ones)

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 10:30 AM PDT

    My Android folders are too tight on Nokia 6.1. Anyone having this issue on another Android device?

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 10:08 AM PDT

    When I upgraded to Android 10 last year, I noticed that my home screen folders were looking wonky when using Quickstep launcher. The icons stack incredibly tight vertically; the app name text nearly overlaps with the icon. "Descender" characters (y, g, j, etc.) get cut off. It looks awful. The various 3rd-party launchers I've used (namely Lawnchair) don't have this issue, but they of course don't support system gestures.

    Anyone else having this issue on their Android device? I'm a recent Android convert, though these little inconsistencies drive me nuts. Wondering if a Pixel device would run a cleaner version of Android, even though my Nokia runs Android One. Thanks in advance!

    Nokia 6.1 (Android One)
    AT&T
    Running Android 10

    submitted by /u/nmh22
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    Bypass Google Account LG Fortune 2 from Cricket

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 09:58 AM PDT

    Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but my grandma recently passed away and we are going to sell her phone but we didn't know her phone password, so I just did a hard reset on the phone. It worked fine, but now it's asking about a Google Verification thing. We don't know what her Gmail password it.. does anyone know how we can bypass that?

    Thanks!

    submitted by /u/skeletonpandemonium
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    Gboard autocorrect has become rubbish in the last year or two...

    Posted: 05 Aug 2020 02:47 PM PDT

    I swear with my Nexus 6P and when it was Google keyboard I could almost type without lookong. Now I have to continually check, constantly reading my slight incorrect typing as other words.

    Any.tips.and tricks? That one is the worst one, I slightly catch the full stop button :(

    submitted by /u/5footbanana
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    What could possibly go wrong while flashing TWRP

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 09:43 AM PDT

    So this is pretty dumb kinda question. Reason for asking is, I tried to install TWRP recovery by following a guide on internet[1]. It said to do the following. • Copy TWRP file to device storage (didn't mentioned SD card) • Launch command prompt and run the following commands: ->adb reboot bootloader ->fastboot devices ->fastboot boot <twrp>.img ->After this device booted in TWRP, as told. • After that, told to go to Advanced -> Install Recovery Ramdisk -> Navigate to the twrp.img file -> Right swipe.

    So I fall back here. I got upto booting into recovery. Then I looked for Install recovery ramdisk, but didn't find it. After that I selected boot to system, but it got stuck at bootloop. (I flashed rom again today)

    So my question is, what exactly was wrong? I wanna install and have a try again but am afraid to do so, coz getting back from bootloop was really a headache.

    [1] Have a look at complete guide I followed to end up bricking: https://www.droidwin.com/permanently-install-twrp-without-zip-using-img/

    submitted by /u/geetnagar
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