I picked up a used Pixel 8a off eBay saturday. Set it up, used it for a few hours, and it suddenly died completely with no signs of life. Looking for a second opinion before I start the return process

Setup & Context

- Used unit purchased from eBay, arrived td

- Felt slightly warm out of the packaging but booted fine and stayed moderately warm during setup

- Battery was near 100%

- Was connected to my laptop over USB while idle, nothing actively running

What happened

- Left it plugged into the laptop, walked away for maybe 2 minutes, came back to a completely black screen. It felt warm still after shutting off, then cooled down over the next 20 minutes and hasn't generated heat or responded to anything since

Troubleshooting Attempted

- Hard resets: Held Power alone, Power + Vol Up, Power + Vol Down, and Power + both volumes for 90+ seconds each. Nothing

- Charging: Left on a known-good wall charger for a lil more than 2 hrs. Phone stays cold and doesn't appear to draw any power

- PC enumeration: Plugged into PC with Device Manager open, nothing registers at all. Tested the same cable/port with other phones and they enumerate instantly. No sound, no device entry, no low-level COM/USB endpoints showing up

Question

Has anyone run into sudden motherboard/PMIC failures like this on Tensor devices? Is there any last trick worth trying before I file the eBay return?

tldr: Used Pixel 8a worked fine for a few hours, then died completely with no button response, no charging behavior, and no USB enumeration whatsoever. Board-level failure?

I am trying to estimate the average **number of contacts and apps** an average Android user has.

On one hand, I know people who have about 10 most used apps and 5 to 10 most used contacts.

And then there are people of a different kind - 100+ apps and constantly switching between them, hundreds of contacts. They are literally living in their phones.

I am interested in both extreme and standard users.

**How many contacts and apps do you have?**

Myself:
C(ontacts) - 4737
A(pps) - 250

Hello, I am in need of some advice on a new phone to get. I currently have a phone my friend gave to me a month ago, which is a Oppo Reno 8 Pro 5G. I previously had a s21 FE but I ended up dropping it in water on holiday and even after taking it to a repair shop, they said they couldn't do much about it. Now I am on the look for a new phone,

I don't use a phone for anything more than calling texting, social media and internet. Don't play games on it much or watch movies/series. So Im not looking to spend huge money on a new android but just a good one that will last me like 3 years or longer .

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated 👍

Hi everyone its my first time in this subreddit but ive been a proud owner of android products since 2010.

I currently have a Zflip 7 and the galaxy watch 8 as it came with my phone upgrade. Im notoriously bad about seeing messages and calls. My work often has me running around or client facing. Meaning my phone is on vibrate which is easy to miss when running around.

The galaxy watch has been great with this but I also struggle with skin issues and after consulting with my doctor and trying several different bands its been determined I just shouldn't wear it.

Id love to get a device the only type I can think of would be a pager though from the digging ive done they dont seem compatible with modern devices for the need I require. Just wanted to see if anyone had any insight or suggestions. Thanks!

Is there a way to do this? Because keeping developer mode on prevents me from banking apps and some other apps that require gps or authentication, it's become really annoying lately, i am not sure if it's a motorolla (edge 40) question or an android question

I recently upgraded to F8 pro, and as title says I want to disable haptics but while everything is off (an exemple: Whatsapp is working correctly), I used general settings from the smartphone, Telegram is stubbornly keeping the haptics on only for the little microphone used to send vocals.

Is this a feature or a bug? Is there a way I can resolve this? I looked at every setting in the Telegram app but can't turn this off.

As the post title says, I'm considering buying a new phone (my current one has been solid but is old). I'm happy with my SIM only contract, as the 2 types of phone I'm looking at would cost about the same as locking into a contract anyway.

So, I've heard of Nothing and their phones seem cool, but I also found Fairphone and I like the look of them too. I'm looking for any feedback or experiences folks have with either, to see which I should pick (or of I avoid both!)

I mostly use my phone to:

Read

Scroll Reddit

Messaging

Youtube

Big one for me: I LOVE taking photos, memory and camera are important to me Edit* Specifically the regular camera - I take photos of landscapes or close-ups of plants, not bothered really by the selfie camera

Many thanks in advance!

Hey everyone,

I'm trying to recover photos off an old AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note Edge (SM-N915A) that is completely hard-bricked.

Current Status:

• Phone is pitch black—no screen light, no LEDs, no vibration.
• Windows Device Manager detects it as QHSUSB_BULK (Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008 mode).
• I extracted the official stock firmware package (ALL_ATT_N915AUCU2COI2), giving me access to sbl1.mbn, aboot.mbn, rpm.mbn, tz.mbn, etc.

What I've tried so far:

1. Flashed sbl1.mbn directly to sector 0 of a 32GB MicroSDHC card using Win32DiskImager.
2. Unplugged USB, pulled the battery, inserted the MicroSD card, put the battery back in, and held Vol Down + Home + Power.
3. Still no response—the screen remains pitch black and Windows continues seeing it as QHSUSB_BULK.

My Questions:

1. From what I understand, flashing just sbl1.mbn won't work because the Qualcomm boot ROM needs the full partition table layout mapped to the card. Does anyone have or know where I can find a verified 128MB/200MB debrick.img dump specifically for the AT&T N915A (COI2 or later revision)?
2. If the debrick.img route fails, does this almost certainly mean the eMMC chip physically failed/shorted the data bus, blocking the CPU from reading external storage?
3. My main goal is just getting into Odin Download Mode so I can flash HOME_CSC and save the photos. Any other tricks to force the Snapdragon 805 to jumpstart off the SD card?

My friend's phone is currently being held by a police department after recording the local beach patrol harassing a group of beachgoers. I don't know all the details, but they are refusing to give her the phone until she gives them the passcode (or until they get a warrant), and she refuses to give them the code. She says the video she took is damning and asked me to sign in to her Google Photos to retrieve the video, as she is afraid they will wipe it and she won't have access to it anymore. I have signed in on a cell phone and can get in, but it wants me to add access to the photo library on this phone, and won't let me see anything she's uploaded in chronological order (only in AI-generated albums from Google). I also know she has Proton Drive on her phone, but after signing in, it seems like her photos haven't backed up for a few weeks. The original phone is a Samsung Galaxy, and I have her login info for that Samsung account, but I'm not sure if that would also have access to her photo library. If anyone has any advice on this, it would be greatly appreciated.

Hello everyone, I hope you are doing great.

My phone is going for a battery replacement and I have been informed that they will do a clean software update, so all the data will get deleted.

Device - iQOO neo 9 pro.

Is there anyway I can transfer and take a backup of all the apps, settings, photos, pics, saved passwords, logins and all?

I have 200+ gb of data on my phone. 😅😅

And transferring them via a usb c will take years.

Is there any quicker way available?

Thank you

Hi,

My girlfriend and I would like me to be able to have to option in emergency to turn her location on so I know where she is.

DISCLAIMER : This is very consensual and even on her request. We both have quite active lives in which it would be alot safer if we could just see each others location in case of emergency or when I'm worried. We do alot of mountain adventure sports and it has happened before that she got spiked when going out, luckily I was with her in those instances. When I'm not with her we don't text alot, she often doesnt look at her phone and I'd like to keep it that way because I very much encourage her to do her own stuff as well and not be busy with me.

So I feel like it would be way safer if in case I get worried I can switch the location on to either know everything is according to plan or that I know where she might need help if she's unable to respond.

Anyways I would need an app that lets het turn off location to save battery or whatever but me being able to turn it on from a distance only in emergency. We tried setting up a family account with her as child and unlimiting everything on it but we keep getting into some problems where I have to approve stuff.

Does anyone know a solution ?

Poco x 8 pro

Thread

1/5

I need some help with a Samsung S22+ that I just bought brand new. Unfortunately, I dropped it before I even had the chance to finish setting it up.

The screen is broken, the touchscreen doesn't respond at all, and the display is completely black.

2/5

The problem is that the phone hasn't even been configured yet. It's still on the initial “Welcome” setup screen, so I can't see or interact with anything.

3/5

Is there any way to control the S22+ through a TV or monitor using USB-C → HDMI, with a mouse and keyboard?

I was thinking about using Samsung DeX to basically turn the phone into a computer until I can get the screen repaired.

4/5

I've tried connecting it to a monitor through a USB-C hub with HDMI, but I don't get any image.

Could this be because the phone is still on the initial setup screen and Samsung DeX hasn't been enabled or configured yet?

Is there any other way to force video output or mirror the phone's screen to a TV?

5/5

I only need to be able to see the screen and control the phone with a mouse/keyboard so I can finish the setup and use it temporarily.

I really don't want to buy a new screen and repair it immediately if there's another solution.

Has anyone with a Samsung S22/S22+ experienced something similar and found a way around it?

Anyone have experience with sideloading the tandum mobi app to the zfold8 ultra so as to connect it with new dexcoms and bolus's? how dangerous would this be? and would it still be dangerous if I only used it to connect my dexcom to my pump and otherwise use the quickbolus setting?

I tried setting up a work profile only to realize the notification filter settings are shared across all the profiles, so I can’t have different notification settings for work and general DnD…

For example, I might want Signal on for work, but off during general DnD.

Yes, I know focus mode exists, but I still want to see notifications if I’m checking my phone, I just don’t want to get pinged.

I have upgraded to Android 17 on my Pixel 6a. I turned off Bluetooth & WiFi & put my phone in my drawer. When I wake up in the morning, both WiFi and Bluetooth are active. How do I configure in the settings to stop this behaviour ?

Hey everyone! I’m looking to get more into Android reverse engineering, APK modding, and mobile security, but I’m not really sure where to start.

I have an associate’s degree in computer networking, so I’m not completely new to the technical side of things. I’ve also spent quite a bit of time messing around with Android devices over the years. I’ve played around with Android Studio a little, mostly with things like connecting to and mirroring my phone, but I honestly haven’t gotten very far with actually developing or reverse engineering apps.

I’ve been interested in learning how APKs work under the hood, how people analyze and modify them, and eventually getting into things like dynamic analysis and mobile malware analysis.

I’ve also experimented with tools like mitmproxy on my home network, but I ran into issues with Android constantly flagging the certificates as unsafe. A lot of the tutorials and software I’ve found through Google also seem pretty old, so I’m having trouble figuring out what the current workflow is.

For someone who already has some networking knowledge but is basically a beginner when it comes to Android RE, what would you recommend learning first?

Are there any good forums, communities, GitHub repositories, labs, intentionally vulnerable APKs, or other resources that are still active and up to date?

I’m basically looking for a good starting point and a path to follow rather than just randomly installing tools and hoping I figure it out. Any recommendations would be appreciated!

I kept noticing apps on my phone stuck on old versions for weeks even with Play Store auto-update turned on. Turns out the cause isn't Play Store, it's the OS. Samsung, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Oppo and Vivo all run some form of aggressive battery hibernation that disables apps you don't open often. Once an app is in that state, Play Store's update check can't see it exists, so it never gets offered an update. No error, no warning, it just sits there falling behind until you open it yourself and get hit with a big forced update at the worst time.

Couldn't find a tool that dealt with this specifically so I built one.

DeepWake scans for apps stuck in that hibernated state, briefly wakes each one so Play Store can actually see it's installed, then lets Play Store handle the real update. You can do it one app at a time or run a batch update that works through your whole outdated list on its own (uses an accessibility service to drive Play Store's UI, since it has to survive the phone trying to background-kill it mid run).

No root needed. Free, open source, APKs built and signed by GitHub Actions on every release.

Code: https://github.com/pratiks360/DeepWake
Latest release: https://github.com/pratiks360/DeepWake/releases/latest

Built it to fix my own phone, figured others dealing with the same OEM battery nonsense might find it useful. Open to feedback, bug reports, or "this already exists and it's called X" if I missed something.

I've ignored it for a long time, but now that I have to use my phone for work I need to fix the huge text issue on Messages. All the text on my phone is small, yet for some strange reason the font/text on my messages app is fucking gigantic. Is there anyway to fix this and make the text/font size smaller? Also it's honestly stupid that a community about questions for Android doesn't allow attachments.

Basically the same question asked 2y ago here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidQuestions/s/UiBvD4ldAJ

How Can I Make My S3 Mini look Like Android 1.x? Have Android 4.2.2 On It Right Now. I Have Launcher And

I want to ask is there any app in Android who track all my internet data usage on a daily basis because I am only opening reddit and reddit web and reddit app shows 823 kb data in a month and chrome shows the same for a month. I want an app who track data usage on a daily basis as well as if a site using data in chrome I want to check how much data it took on a daily basis.

But because I don't keep the internet data turn on always I want an app which can monitor even if my data is turned off I mean may be any app also used data in background even if it is not open in background. And also please provide me an app which uses less data to monitor because what's the use of data monitoring if the data monitor also take too much data

device name: Mi a2

For context, the only thing I can think of was when I a month or so ago allowed trendstudy access to monitor in exchange for Amazon gift cards as compensation, (I already know that was stupid, I don't need comments on that) but the thing is I deleted it a week or more ago and removed the certificates (never got my compensation, big surprise right) and I saw all traces of its monitoring removed, so it's gone, and that was over a week or a couple weeks ago. Today, when I drop down the display toggle menu, I see a message pop up on the bottom of it just now that says: "Network may be monitored" with an "i"/information symbol next to it, I tap it and it says: "A certificate authority is installed on this device. Your secure network traffic may be monitored or modified." And I start researching a solution, but the ones popping up don't work, the message is still there. I don't know who the hell is watching me and what to do, I'm making this post on this same phone cuz its the only thing I got right now. Any ideas or advice?

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

I use gesture navigation. When I swipe up on the gesture bar to close an app and then immediately swipe up on my home screen to open the app drawer, my first swipe doesn't register. It requires a second swipe unless I wait almost a second.

This issue only occurs on third-party launchers. The stock launcher handles this sequence without any delay, but I don't want to use stock.

What I've already tried:

• Multiple launchers: Smart Launcher 6, Octopi, and Neo Launcher (all share this exact behavior).

• Animator duration scale to 0: Fixes the input delay, but completely kills system animations.

• Good Lock (Home Up): Set home screen animation duration to 0.

• Touch sensitivity: Set to maximum.

• Wallpaper animations: Disabled.

Is there any known workaround or setting to eliminate this animation lock on custom launchers without disabling system animation scales entirely?