Good day,
What I'm trying to do has sort of been asked before; I found a few posts discussing something of the sort, but most of them were quite old/outdated and others were mainly about how to do it without root (and were quite unsuccessful). As it is what I feel might be a rather common procedure I thought it would be good to ask it again, to see if it has been figured out and to help future migrators.
The problem is as follows. I have an old phone (phone A) on which I have a WhatsApp account registered to SIM card A. SIM card A no longer exists however, and the phone is being used with SIM card B, which is not connected to the WhatsApp account; people still send messages to phone number A. This phone is rooted, and I have access to all* apps that might be useful for this. The phone is on Android 7.0.
Now, I want to move the WhatsApp account tied to phone A and SIM card A to a new phone: phone B. Phone B has SIM card B, is also rooted, and is also on Android 7.0. Important to note is that I want WhatsApp to remain tied to SIM card A.
So what I'm looking for is a method to do the above. I've tried some things myself, but I have failed thus far, so if you know how to do it successfully feel free to skip the rest!
Now, I initially thought this should be easy to do with backups, via Titanium Backup Pro. I backed up the app and data on device A, restored it on B, and voila, working WhatsApp account. This is true, but not completely; the notifications didn't really work anymore. I only received the messages if I had the app open on the screen, never when it was in the background. I searched around a bit and it seems to be related to push notifications, although I couldn't really figure it out. Someone suggested to instead download an old WhatsApp apk, install that, restore only the data with Titanium, and then update the app in the Play store. This works a little bit better, but still not completely. From time to time the messages will come in by themselves, but still very often I find that I need to manually open the app and wait for about 5 seconds before receiving everything. So still somehow the notifications/background process/something else seems to be off. Note that I've given the app all types of permissions, locked it from closing, made sure the battery saving options aren't killing it, and so on. It's close to normal functionality, but I can't figure out how to get it exactly right.
*I have Titanium Backup Pro and I'm willing to pay for other apps
Related
Ok, maybe I'm in the wrong place. But here goes.
My phone is trying to send text to paid numbers behind my back. I'm using prepaid so it doesn't work. I get a "You have insufficient funds to send this text" message daily, at random times.
I have no pirated apps. Everything on my phone came straight from the market. However, I've not installed a single one of the apps that was on the recent list all over tech sites.
I'm planning on reflashing with a different rom and changing all the passwords that were stored on my phone.
BUT.
Before I do this, I want to find out which app is causing this behavior. Any Ideas on how to find out what is sending random text from my phone (they don't show up in the messaging app)
viogrep said:
Ok, maybe I'm in the wrong place. But here goes.
My phone is trying to send text to paid numbers behind my back. I'm using prepaid so it doesn't work. I get a "You have insufficient funds to send this text" message daily, at random times.
I have no pirated apps. Everything on my phone came straight from the market. However, I've not installed a single one of the apps that was on the recent list all over tech sites.
I'm planning on reflashing with a different rom and changing all the passwords that were stored on my phone.
BUT.
Before I do this, I want to find out which app is causing this behavior. Any Ideas on how to find out what is sending random text from my phone (they don't show up in the messaging app)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Install a android antivirus and firewall like Lookout.
Sent from my GingerBread Eris using XDA App
lookout finds nothing. All the other AV software fails to install. "Unknown error -18"
i have plenty of free space.
viogrep,
I wrote a novel, but then thought I should just ask a few preliminary questions:
Q1) does the error message contain any useful "hints", such as the destination number ?
Q2) if you use a logcat - capturing app, does anything show up in the logcat right around the time the message is generated which might provide some further clues?
There's a lot of different techniques you can use, but they require a bit of effort - not only to perform, but to explain, too.
Q3) Are you willing to post up the output of the "ps" command to a pastebin?
Q4) What apps on your phone request "SEND_SMS" privileges? You can find out with
Code:
strings /data/system/packages.xml > /sdcard/strings-pkgs-xml.txt
and then poking through the "strings-pkgs-xml.txt" file. When you see (for instance)
name="android.permission.SEND_SMS"
the immediately prior package is what requested it. Either that or you can do something tricky like
Code:
strings /data/system/packages.xml | awk '/<package name/{pkg=$2;}; /_SMS/{print pkg, $2;}'
bftb0
1. No destination number in the error. Sorry.
2. Also, no clues in logcat from what I've seen.
3. PS > http://pastebin.com/iUAfP9Yb
4. Besides the default gapps, the only other app with SEND_SMS priv. is Koxx Pure Messenger. (Purchased from the market, Have had for awhile, the sms sending is new)
Going to try to call my provider and see if I can get the number that's been denied because of funds.
*edit* No luck with provider.
I'd really like to know whats doing it so I don't install the same app once I flash. Luckily I keep nothing important on my phone. Its gmail account is actually a duplicate with my original forwarding to it. I'm a tiny bit overprotective over my email(address). :x
viogrep said:
4. Besides the default gapps, the only other app with SEND_SMS priv. is Koxx Pure Messenger. (Purchased from the market, Have had for awhile, the sms sending is new)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that it isn't necessarily this simple, but if that really is the only other app besides the GAPPs with SMS priveledges, especially coupled with the knowledge that the SMS capability is new, I think you have your answer.
If you tried a new ROM and restored all but that one app, and the problem never happens again then you can be 95% sure. Only way to be 100% sure is that after a certain length of time without a problem (a week?) you reinstall Koxx and then if the problem starts happening again.
I looked through your "ps" listing.
Didn't see anything too obvious sticking out at me; there were a couple of non-market apps running though. I know that there is no theoretical reason why non-market apps would be malicious - on the other hand, I sort of wonder why they are not on the market... you know what I mean? What is stopping them? (In the case of Tubemate - which was actually kicked off of Google's market, my suspicions are even higher. I realize it was not kicked off because of malware; but still...)
These were the only processes that were either not on my phone, or I didn't really recognize.
Code:
com.dylan.tube = [Non-Market App] Tubemate
com.gau.golauncherex.notification = GO Launcher EX (READ SMS)
com.levelup.beautifulwidgets = Beautiful Widgets (LevelUp)?
com.revsodev.volumecontrol = [Non-Market App] Volume Control (Cyrket?)
com.swype.android.inputmethod = Swype?
com.tencent.research.drop = QQPlayer (no perms req'd?)
net.bajawa.battery = BattStatt (no perms req'd?)
org.sipdroid.sipua = Sipdroid VoIP + video
The Road Warrior has an idea which is sort of useful; but I'll modify it to use binary division.
Start with a freshly installed, clean ROM, and only install half of your apps. (I would put all of your most frequently used apps in the first half, and delay any non-market apps as long as possible). Here's how this goes:
- if the "half" you put on the phone is trouble-free (long enough to know the SMS popup thing is not going on), then, install half of the remaining apps, and wait again to see if there is a problem.
- if the "half" you put on the phone develops trouble, then you know that the problem app is in that group. Wipe the phone and re-install all prior "halves" (that caused no trouble), but split the current half (the group containing the suspect app) in half, and only install that. Proceed in this fashion until you are down to the app which causes the trouble.
If you have 128 apps on your phone, and you wait 1 day between installations, it will take 7 days to find the malicious app. (And if you don't get a failure within the first two days, your phone will have 3/4s of it's apps installed - that's not too bad).
The thing is though, even if you had an app compromise your phone, it might not be an "app" that is doing the dirty work any longer. For example, the most recently discovered malware ran rooting exploits against the device, and once successful, downloaded and installed "other stuff". That "other stuff" could be native binaries. So, examining permissions in the system manifest doesn't necessarily guarantee that you have exhaustively looked at your phone, or discovered all possible means of interacting with the SMS system.
It might be "just an app", though - and if it were me, the first ones that I would suspect are non-Market apps, or apps that *cough* got downloaded from "freeware" sites.
Thanks for the responses. I actually did a fresh flash last night. First thing I installed was tubemate (running through non market apps) and it did it. Ironically I added some money to my account to see if I could get the number it was trying to text. Apparently it still couldn't go through.
Sent from my FroShedYo V10-ERIS using XDA App
I had a game from a Chinese developer that stole my gmail. Log into yours from the website and see if you get a red warning.
Sent from my GSBv1.9 ERIS using XDA App
viogrep said:
Thanks for the responses. I actually did a fresh flash last night. First thing I installed was tubemate (running through non market apps) and it did it. Ironically I added some money to my account to see if I could get the number it was trying to text. Apparently it still couldn't go through.
Sent from my FroShedYo V10-ERIS using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm always amazed when something I suggested actually works. LOL. It's just that I'm used to things being more complicated than I hope.
Glad you figured out the trouble!
Thanks bt and RW for the help.
As far as the gmail thing... I use a different gmail address on my phone with email forwarded (different pass)...
If it gets taken I just stop the forwarding and make a new one. Makes things a more simple. Sure, they can see past emails, but they cant request passes/info from other sites... (I also monitor the login IPs in gmail, religiously. Just a habbit.)
viogrep said:
Thanks bt and RW for the help.
As far as the gmail thing... I use a different gmail address on my phone with email forwarded (different pass)...
If it gets taken I just stop the forwarding and make a new one. Makes things a more simple. Sure, they can see past emails, but they cant request passes/info from other sites... (I also monitor the login IPs in gmail, religiously. Just a habbit.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome. You could just change your password from the web if your phone gets stolen.
Especially since it's the gmail address you use on your phone that everything is sync'd to, not the one that's forwarding to it. So if you got another Android phone you'd lose all your contact info and bought and installed apps info, calendar and such. Unless you sync them manually which is so much harder in my experience.
Or you could use one of the many free apps out there that would let you remotely do many things to your phone. Turn the GPS on, triangulate your phone, make your phone scream, do a factory reset to erase everything...
Just a suggestion.
Does anyone know of a way to add an account to the market without linking it to the gmail or any other apps? Basically I would like to link my gmail account into the market on my wifes phone without everything else bring affected. I've been looking around for something on this for a while and have had no luck. My wife wants some apps I've had but doesn't want to spend on it since I already put out the money for them. I even have paid apps dating back to day 1 of the market even having them.
I've wondered how to do this myself because when you hit the menu button, it shows account(s). Seems you should be able to switch between two or more. What if your Gmail gets hacked and you have to disable it? You lose all your apps and such. They should link it to your IMEI but there are so many things that run off Gmail (Gmail, Market, G+,...), I doubt that would work.
Back to your original question. What I do is make a back up of mine with Titanium and then copy the files to my PC and put them in my wife's Titanium folder and just restore them that way. She can't get updates, but most of them are incremental anyways. If something big happens in an update, I just update it on my end, back it up and do the switheroo on hers. I also "Detach From Market" on her phone so she doesn't get the update notification. Might seem unethical if I was doing it for you or someone else, but she is my wife and we are the same household, so I think it is fair enough.
Woodrube said:
Might seem unethical if I was doing it for you or someone else, but she is my wife and we are the same household, so I think it is fair enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've thought about the unethical aspect as well and the way I see it it's no different then if she watches a movie I buy.
Her phone isn't rooted (yet), I've had trouble with the adb aspect of it and from what I've read using super one click and adb is the only way to do it. I was going to root it because the my touch q has way too much bloat and it bogs down performance.
As far as using titanium goes, I have done that in the past but so many apps have verification now it can be a pain. This way would give her free range over what WE paid for.
I have a TMO Vibrant that I want to give to my 8 year old daughter so she can play games on it. There's no SIM card, but of course she can still (accidentally) call 911. I would like to just freeze the phone app, but I want to be sure that I can safely (from the phone point of view) do so. In other words, will it break the phone if I freeze the phone app? I am also hoping it will get rid of the "No sim card installed. Emergency calls only" warnings that won't go away. Secondly, if I can freeze the phone app, what exactly is the phone app called in TB? I don't see it there. I am using MIUI 20330 on kernel 2.6.35.12, android 2.3.7
MrGibbage said:
I have a TMO Vibrant that I want to give to my 8 year old daughter so she can play games on it. There's no SIM card, but of course she can still (accidentally) call 911. I would like to just freeze the phone app, but I want to be sure that I can safely (from the phone point of view) do so. In other words, will it break the phone if I freeze the phone app? I am also hoping it will get rid of the "No sim card installed. Emergency calls only" warnings that won't go away. Secondly, if I can freeze the phone app, what exactly is the phone app called in TB? I don't see it there. I am using MIUI 20330 on kernel 2.6.35.12, android 2.3.7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not too sure about the missing SIM card alert, but freezing the dialer app is very easy too do, and shouldn't cause any problems. There are also multiple ways to accomplish the task, however, I believe the most effective way would be to "manually" freeze the app. This can be done by following these steps:
Download an app like Root Explorer, if you don't already have it or don't have the money, a free alternative is Super Manager.
Go to the root of the phone, the directory being "/".
Go into the "system" folder. (Directory: "/system")
Then go into the "app" folder. (Directory: "/system/app")
Look around until you find an app called "phone.apk".
Rename it to "phone.apk.bak". This will effectively freeze the phone app.
It might also not hurt to freeze the contacts app, various email clients (gmail & email), the messaging app (mms), and other like apps using the same method mentioned in the previous steps.
Once the apps are frozen, you can even delete the file explorer app you used so that those core system files can't be accessed by your daughter.
For further monitoring of your daughter's device, you could even try an app like APP Lock. With a little bit of in app tweaking, you can block access to phone settings and even require a password to install and uninstall apps.
Another suggestion, you may also want to look into this ROM, I have a feeling it may satisfy your needs... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1566651.
If you need any help or have a question, please, don't hesitate to ask.
MrGibbage said:
I have a TMO Vibrant that I want to give to my 8 year old daughter so she can play games on it. There's no SIM card, but of course she can still (accidentally) call 911. I would like to just freeze the phone app, but I want to be sure that I can safely (from the phone point of view) do so. In other words, will it break the phone if I freeze the phone app? I am also hoping it will get rid of the "No sim card installed. Emergency calls only" warnings that won't go away. Secondly, if I can freeze the phone app, what exactly is the phone app called in TB? I don't see it there. I am using MIUI 20330 on kernel 2.6.35.12, android 2.3.7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha! For once, it's someone BEING ABLE to call 911 that's the problem. :silly:
That was really good help. Thanks. Anyone know how to make the "Emergency calls only" notification go away? There must be some app that looks for a SIM card that puts it up there. Or maybe it's baked into the kernel and it can't be disabled???
Uninstall sim tool kit or stk from titanium backup to get the notificqtion to go away
Sent from my SGH-T959 using xda premium
Hello there! I have been having a bit of a problem lately. I own a BLU Dash 5.0 simunlocked from factory. It's a double sim model, which I have two sims, since the companies are spanish, let's call them Green Sim and Blue Sim (since that's how they are color coded in my status bar). It is also running Android Jelly Bean 4.2. Here is the problem. Ever since of March 20, a Chinese app appeared on my home screen, I don't know how, something called "Mobile Video" but the content was in a foreign Asian language. I suspect of my friend since I lent it to him for 15 minutes and then it appeared. Aside of this, the wifi and the Green Sim 3G was turned on.
I clicked on the app curious of it was something my friend downloaded from me, but then the app prompted me two options, I didn't know what it said since again, it was Asian. Next, I proceeded to uninstall it, going to my apps list, I was surprised to see another mysterious app, "Push_Down", that was the name. I uninstalled both Mobile Video and Push_Down. I thought I fixed the problem. Wrong.
Next day when I woke up, I found two new apps on my homescreen, and again, the Wifi and Green Sim 3G was on.These were Chinese also. I uninstalled them both and found once again "Push_Down" in my apps. After I uninstalled them, I thought the problem was finally fixed. Wrong again. Since this event, about every 2 or 3 hours, my Wifi and Green Sim 3G turn on automatically, but haven't downloaded anything new, one, because I have no credit left, and two, I have no internet at home. Ever since, daily I wake up, the same problem, the Wifi and 3G are on. I checked my SD Card, I checked my Phone Storage, both with 2 Antivirus (Avast!, and Lookout Mobile) and with Addons Detector. Surprisingly, nothing has appeared.
My last option is what hurts me most, to reset my phone, which I don't want to do since I have lots of apps installed, progress made with certain games and etc, etc. Also, I am not a root user, so I haven't rooted and won't root my phone.
Now, can anyone please help me? I am very annoyed at this happening everyday!
same problem...cheinese apps keep reinstalling
I too have had this problem for a few weeks now. Got a Chinese smartphone for Christmas (ok i know thats the first mistake, but it was worth a try for the money). mfaction royale mp720 (mpie comes up on the startup screen). Anyway i realised there where a few Chinese apps that came with it (pinyin and a app with a orange icon with a squirrel logo on it) so i unistalled these without problem. One chinese app i couldn't uninstall so i disabled it in the app settings
Everything had been working fine without problem and had been very happy with the phone until a week or so ago. started getting the apps described above installing. These include 'push_down' 'push_collect' 'filegogo' 'mobile video' and some others with chinese writing on them. I also get my phone setting itself to mute when these apps reappear. Keep uninstalling them but they keep coming back. Have tried AVG and Antimalware but they only flag things up as they install themselves, not the thing thats doing the installing. I thought that google account might be a problem so changed password and reset my phone to factory default. As a test i didn't connect back to google account. No joy. Although some apps have not reappeared some have and this morning a new one so i don't think its google account.
I did read some Chinese phones can have the malware embedded into the firmware but it's been fine for months. Perhaps there is a delay so your not likely to send the phone back then the malware begins. If this is the case then the only way round would be to root the phone then find the app or apps that are doing this. Not sure if it's easy to root one of these phones.
Anyone else had these symptoms after a full factory reset?. Anyone been able to sort it out? Anyone know of a guide to root his phone?
Hmmmmm....
cmillsy said:
I too have had this problem for a few weeks now. Got a Chinese smartphone for Christmas (ok i know thats the first mistake, but it was worth a try for the money). mfaction royale mp720 (mpie comes up on the startup screen). Anyway i realised there where a few Chinese apps that came with it (pinyin and a app with a orange icon with a squirrel logo on it) so i unistalled these without problem. One chinese app i couldn't uninstall so i disabled it in the app settings
Everything had been working fine without problem and had been very happy with the phone until a week or so ago. started getting the apps described above installing. These include 'push_down' 'push_collect' 'filegogo' 'mobile video' and some others with chinese writing on them. I also get my phone setting itself to mute when these apps reappear. Keep uninstalling them but they keep coming back. Have tried AVG and Antimalware but they only flag things up as they install themselves, not the thing thats doing the installing. I thought that google account might be a problem so changed password and reset my phone to factory default. As a test i didn't connect back to google account. No joy. Although some apps have not reappeared some have and this morning a new one so i don't think its google account.
I did read some Chinese phones can have the malware embedded into the firmware but it's been fine for months. Perhaps there is a delay so your not likely to send the phone back then the malware begins. If this is the case then the only way round would be to root the phone then find the app or apps that are doing this. Not sure if it's easy to root one of these phones.
Anyone else had these symptoms after a full factory reset?. Anyone been able to sort it out? Anyone know of a guide to root his phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, as much as my experience from rooting, I haven't done it once again after a bad event I had, like almost bricking an old phone I had which for my good luck there was a way to restore it Ever since, I won't root anymore unless there exists a ROM backup by the manufacturer. But still, I don't know what's causing this. My phone has been fine since stock, I have more than 2 months with it! The problem started since last Thursday, which is why I suspect it's an app I downloaded or ad I clicked on. Any ideas?
(Also, thanks for your reply )
I'm with hsbc and thankfully they recently have an option to get rid is that stupid calculator like device and use the mobile app instead to create secure login passwords.
I did that and it was working great. A few days later I wiped my phone (note 4, but not relevant) to downgrade back to kit Kat. Much to my surprise the app wouldn't let me create a secure password anymore. The app was registered to my "old" phone, the login passwords were not enough. I had to call in and get a reset so it would work with my "new" phone.
The question is, if I backup with titanium, will the restored file and data still work? I'm too chicken to try it out. I don't live in the UK and calling in is a real hassle if it goes wrong.
Bump