Rescuing from a faulty/malicious app black fullscreen takeover - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello. So strange. A friend's HTC U11 Android phone boots up normally and just as the UI starts to load in, the entire screen is taken over by nothing but black. Tapping on the screen unveils a white dot where the tap is occurring (I'm wondering if they messed with Developer options and caused this?). The hard buttons still work. It operates in the background. Swiping down from the top edge doesn't work. Opening the task viewer doesn't work -- you can't do anything. Pressing and holding the power button does bring up the restart/power off pop-up. Gestures work (tried three-point multi-touch swipe downwards and a permissions request for HTC Connect popped up). These pop-ups happen over the black fullscreen. Other than those, nothing works.
For the split second that it loads the UI upon boot-up, I've tried quickly swiping down from the top and tapping on the Settings gear icon, however even though it goes into Settings the black fullscreen takes over just the same.
Tried wiping cache. Tried booting under "Safe Mode" -- nothing helps.
Now, the phone is not rooted, and it's set up with encrypted unlock at boot-up, so that makes things even trickier. Perhaps there's a way to install some sort of app that clears startup apps/services from Google Play remotely using a desktop computer on the account? Or it won't work until the app is first opened on the phone right? Maybe TeamViewer Mobile somehow and see if the phone's screen shows up on the connecting PC?
Tried plugging in a USB keyboard/mouse. I see the mouse cursor move around on-screen. Tried different keyboard shortcut combinations and nothing seemed to work. Any ideas in terms of keyboard shortcuts I should try?
Any ideas on how to salvage the data without losing it by rooting the bootloader? It won't respond to ADB. HTC Sync Manager doesn't see it either.

Related

Starting phone from standy in landscape mode

So I have a habit of sliding the phone open and then pressing the hardware messaging key, and no matter what, it never seems to work. I press the button, and Ill see the today screen, but no messaging window. I have to slide it back closed and open again and everything sorts itself out.
I've tried looking, but haven't seen anyone complain about this particular problem. Anyone else fret about this? any solutions?
no one has this problem?
Similar
I find my X01HT in landscape mode when i wake him um with the "on" button, and have to wait for it to "think" a litle bit to obey me, while that, if I try to push any command he will go crazy and the image will stay locked in the last scene and will not get actualized... Kind of annoying thing, using black Satin... But i'll try schaps now to see if that goes away...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=1504436&posted=1#post1504436
V
Im on WM5.
Vijay, I don't want to disable orientation permanently. Just sometimes, I want to start messaging, so in stanby mode itself, ill open and start it up. thats what confuses the 8525, thats all. I have to close the phone, and then slide it open again for it to regain consciousness!
Its no biggie, but i was just wondering if any1 else had a similar issue.
FINALLY... WHAT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR
Originally posted from here
shlomki said:
I've come to notice that no one REALLY knew how to fully disable screen rotation on WM devices.
Some offered 3rd party apps to get the job done, some only knew how to disable automatic rotation, but when the device went into standby and woke up again - the screen rotated back. So that didnt really work.
So if you're as desperate as i was about screen rotation,
this is what you need to do:
1. Get dotfred's free taskmanager HERE, and run it.
2. Go to "Devices" tab, and look for "MIS1:" device (oem_misc.dll)
3. Long-Tap on it, and tap on "Stop"
4. Long-Tap on it again, and now choose "Set Manual"
5. Go to "Notifications" tab, and look for "Notifications\NamedEvents\VCPowerWakeupEvent"
6. Tap on it to make it selected
7. Disable it
(In dotfred's taskmanager, there should be a button for disabling it, but for some reason some devices couldn't see the button icons, although the buttons are still clickable. Under the notifications list there is an empty light-blue line - the buttons are there, eventough you can't see them.
The disable buttons is somewhere i the middle of that light-blue line, just tap the center until a message box popps up and asks if you'd like to disable this notification - Tap on yes.)​All those steps are a one time deal - they stick even after an SR.
This has been tested on htc universal and works great.
The screen will keep its orientation even if you flip your screen, take out your built in keyboard, or turn the device off and back on.
The only time your screen will revert back to the original orientation is when you soft reset your device.
Hope this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Useful tips for flyer

Hello flyer users,
This afternoon I managed to get my flyer stuck on the "Red Triangle" with "Exclamation Mark" as I was playing with "adb".
Now to get out of the dreaded screen, you do not need to remove the battery as we do with other devices - especially because, as I have been told, you CANNOT remove it.
What you need to do to leave the red triangle screen is the following:
1. Press Volume up (the "+" sign on the side) and the Power Button.
2. Select "Reboot system now"
That is it, that is you done, and your flyer reboots as normal.
Here's another tip...
I keep activating the keyboard in the notes app or hitting one of the capacitive buttons because my hand always goes down before the stylus.
I found that by putting the thumb of my offhand somewhere on the screen in a non activating area, it stops my hand from triggering the capacitive buttons and the screen. Much easier to start writing. and I don't have to worry about stuff activating if I lift the pen too high either.
-Mike
Good tip. I have the same problem with the capacitive buttons in Notes.
Random launcher reboots?
Several times today, my Flyer would go to a white screen that shows the HTC logo and restart what I belive is called the launcher. All my widgets would read "loading" and reload.
Anyone else seeing this?
jwiskowski said:
Several times today, my Flyer would go to a white screen that shows the HTC logo and restart what I belive is called the launcher. All my widgets would read "loading" and reload.
Anyone else seeing this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I got this a few times. Usually it is due to low memory and the android OS clearing the launcher from memory... but this thing has 1GB of ram...
I read that perhaps not having the Task Manager auto-load on startup might help, as Android versions like Gingerbread don't really need a Task Manager.
I might try running without it.
Stuke00 said:
Yeah I got this a few times. Usually it is due to low memory and the android OS clearing the launcher from memory... but this thing has 1GB of ram...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But upon start up theres only about 150 megs free.
Useless tip,
If you do a long and fast swipe across the home screen, it spins through more than 1 screen. I never noticed this before today
Here is another saver.
The FriendStream widget for some unknown reason would not show all the usual text in twitter and facebook posts.
I tried to recover or repopulate it by rebooting the device, tried re-sync, nothing was doing.
SOLUTION was deleting the widget, and then putting it back on its homescreen, and everything was back.
I had feared I lost my twitter and facebook messages.
Had to laugh at this one! Thanks Useless tip,
If you do a long and fast swipe across the home screen, it spins through more than 1 screen. I never noticed this before today

[Q] Wierd thing when pressing the home button

Last night I gave my gf my s2 to play a game with. When she was playing the voice command thing kept coming on, she probably at some point double pressed the home button and that happened. I did notice it though that it came up some times when she was just touching the screen.
Anyhow, when she gave it back to me whenever I was pressing the home button instead of going to the regular homescreen it would show me something completely different I never saw before. After rebooting the home button worked like before. Anyone recognize the "different" home screen?
Looks like the desk clock found in the clock app (to the right of the stopwatch, you need to scroll right to see it).
You are right, just checked and it's that. I don't know how it got activated though.
Wait, I think I do. The phone was being charged with one of those portable battery changer things (Veho Pebble) and the phone was probably tricked or something thinking it was docked or whatever.
I have the exact same issue. When I press the Home button, this app comes up instead of the launcher. I tried setting the launcher using "Home Switcher" app, but it does not stick, I mean, when I start "Home Switcher" again it says "Your default Home app is (not determined yet)".
Anyone has any idea how to solve this?

[Q] Recovery, download or hard reset without power button

Good evening everyone.
Here is my story : my power button was hyper sensitive and locked/unlocked/rebooted my SGS3 by itself, sometimes even when I didn't touch it. I could not use my phone anymore, so I searched for a way to fix it, and I found out that it was a hardware problem. I carefully opened my phone and physically removed the power switch. To turn my phone on, I had to plug a charger/usb cable in, plug it out and immediately pull my battery out and in.
It worked pretty much, and I then decided to reinstall the previous version of Cyanogenmod 11 which I preferred. I don't know why but something went wrong during the installation, and now I can't go further than the unlock screen. Whenever I unlock my phone, a box saying "Launcher 3 has stopped working" shows up, and reappears right after I close it. I can't access to the homescreen, the notification bar is empty and I can't access to my phone parameters. The only thing I can do is opening my agenda or the clock app by clicking the date or the hour (only things in my status bar).
Also, my phone reboots when it connects to some wifi.
I can't hard reset my S3 because I can't access to my parameters, nor to the phone app (emergency call doesn't allow me to reset the dial way). I can't reboot in recovery or download mode because I don't have a power button anymore. ADB tools don't detect my phone (I installed the SGS3 drivers on my pc), and my computer only detects an empty phone.
The warranty is over so I can't just send it to Samsung.
Is there a way to reset my Galaxy S3 or just boot it in recovery or download mode so I can install a clean ROM via CWM or Odin ?
Thank you for your time,
Betatestgw
A jig usb can put it into download mode directly.
dxppxd said:
A jig usb can put it into download mode directly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your anwser, but I found a way to fix it !
I opened the clock by long pressing the hour in my status bar. Then I long pressed my home button, so the recently opened app appeared. I long pressed the clock app in this list, then chose "informations about this application". It led me to the clock app's settings. At the top of this page I was able to press back button to see all my apps.I displayed all the processes, then closed all of them (but settings), especially Launcher 3. After that I was able to access to my home page, so I could go to my settings to hard reset my phone !
Finally, I reinstalled CM11 and now it works like a charm.
I know this is a very specific situation but I hope this little trick will one day be useful to someone.
hi
Betatestgw said:
Thank you for your anwser, but I found a way to fix it !
I opened the clock by long pressing the hour in my status bar. Then I long pressed my home button, so the recently opened app appeared. I long pressed the clock app in this list, then chose "informations about this application". It led me to the clock app's settings. At the top of this page I was able to press back button to see all my apps.I displayed all the processes, then closed all of them (but settings), especially Launcher 3. After that I was able to access to my home page, so I could go to my settings to hard reset my phone !
Finally, I reinstalled CM11 and now it works like a charm.
I know this is a very specific situation but I hope this little trick will one day be useful to someone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or in the future you try this. With volume down and home pressed plug cable and after that the battery. For me is worked.

Tips and Tricks

Post any Tips and Tricks you may know of for the Sony Z3v D6708 model.
I f the phone won't shut down or gets stuck -- open Sim card door, press the off button hidden there (above Sim slot) to shut down phone with a small object, something not sharp.
Settings -> Wi-Fi -> Advanced -> Toggle everything off by "Wi-Fi Optimization.
Turn on NFC and Bluetooth only when needed as it drains battery.
Now my list of apps I've disabled...
Amazon
Amazon app suite
Amazon Kindle
Amazon Music
Amazon Appstore
Audible
Black Hole
Bubbles
Caller ID
Cloud
Enchanted Forest
FamilyBase Companion
Gmail (I use Cloudmagic)
Google Korean Keyboard (include Chinese if you don't use Chinese either)
Google Play Books
Google Play Games
Google Play Movies & TV
Google Play Music
Google Play Newsstand
IMDb
Isis Wallet
Message+
My Infozone
News & Weather
NFL Mobile
Phase Beam
Pico TTS
Podcast
Slacker Radio
TalkBack
TV Launcher
Verizon Location Agent
Verizon Support & Protection
VZ Navigator
Wikipedia Extension
Wireless Emergency Alerts
Xperia Social Engine Sharing
Xperia with Twitter
Youtube karaoke extension
I'd disable the Email app, but there were frequent popups telling me is crashes. So I just leave it enabled. This as as far as I can think on the top of my head. xP
GigaSPX said:
Now my list of apps I've disabled...
Amazon
Amazon app suite
Snip
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can we get a thread started dedicated to finding the apps safe to disable? This list is a good start for that.
Isn't the verizon locator agent the cell network location system? Or is it purely spyware...
Wish I knew what some of those more obscure apps actually did.
Marine6680 said:
Can we get a thread started dedicated to finding the apps safe to disable? This list is a good start for that.
Isn't the verizon locator agent the cell network location system? Or is it purely spyware...
Wish I knew what some of those more obscure apps actually did.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seconded on the locator agent, among other nebulous apps.
Maybe killing Wireless Emergency Alerts isn't a great idea? Those are the weather, amber, and presidential emergency notifications.
I've already disabled most of them, I wasn't really sure what else I could disable without screwing something up. Thanks for the list, I will do more tonight.
Sent from my ghost white Z3!
Marine6680 said:
Can we get a thread started dedicated to finding the apps safe to disable? This list is a good start for that.
Isn't the verizon locator agent the cell network location system? Or is it purely spyware...
Wish I knew what some of those more obscure apps actually did.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could go ahead and open up another thread since we're now free to post more to expand this new forum of ours.
Stormwing said:
Seconded on the locator agent, among other nebulous apps.
Maybe killing Wireless Emergency Alerts isn't a great idea? Those are the weather, amber, and presidential emergency notifications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Eh, when there's a giant tornado coming, I'm pretty sure I'll know what's coming when I see one. LOL
Jk, the real reason is the Amber alerts. Several times I've been alerted for a situation that occurs in a driving distance that's 6-8 hours away from me at 3 in the morning. What kind of BS is this? >_>
GigaSPX said:
I could go ahead and open up another thread since we're now free to post more to expand this new forum of ours.
Eh, when there's a giant tornado coming, I'm pretty sure I'll know what's coming when I see one. LOL
Jk, the real reason is the Amber alerts. Several times I've been alerted for a situation that occurs in a driving distance that's 6-8 hours away from me at 3 in the morning. What kind of BS is this? >_>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can disable amber alerts in the wireless emergency app.
If anyone else wants to know, our phones can do double tap to wake the screen to reduce wear on the power button. A feature most phones have to get root to add.
And if anyone is taking underwater photography, don't forget to enable No Touch to prevent the screen from spazzing out during your shoots.
Copy number from phone log
Copying number from log is a two step process here. Long press and choose "edit before call" then you can copy it
Try the slow speech effect in call settings. It's amazing tech and sometimes really helpful when dealing with people that talk too fast. There is an article about it here...
http://www.androidheadlines.com/201...low-talk-feature-slow-speech-voice-calls.html
Sent from my D6708 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Starting the camera app from the short cut options (camera key or from lock screen) resets any setting or mode that was previously active. To keep your settings active don't use these shortcuts.
nateperro said:
Starting the camera app from the short cut options (camera key or from lock screen) resets any setting or mode that was previously active. To keep your settings active don't use these shortcuts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice tip! I've noticed it always starts one way or another depending where I'm coming from. Right now I'm seeing there's about 4 ways to activate camera.
1. From physical shutter button
2. From lockscreen
3. From Camera app in app drawer or home screen
4. From the Camera widget (not including the other downloaded camera features)
Obviously 1 and 2 is advised not to reset, but the latter two is then what you should use to activate the previous settings.
GigaSPX said:
Nice tip! I've noticed it always starts one way or another depending where I'm coming from. Right now I'm seeing there's about 4 ways to activate camera.
1. From physical shutter button
2. From lockscreen
3. From Camera app in app drawer or home screen
4. From the Camera widget (not including the other downloaded camera features)
Obviously 1 and 2 is advised not to reset, but the latter two is then what you should use to activate the previous settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now that I understand this camera feature I actually find it useful. Sometimes I want to fire off a quick shot using the short cut to start the camera in SA (superior auto mode) as I don't have time to check settings. Other times it takes a double tap unlock and then selection of the camera app to keep previous settings when I know I have time to think about the shot. [emoji4]
Power the Device Up in Safe Mode - Sony Xperia® Z3v
[Device-Specific Instructions]
Safe Mode puts your phone in a diagnostic state (returned to default settings) so you can determine if a third-party app is causing your device to freeze/reset / run slow. Our Troubleshooting Assistant can help you with other device issues if you aren't currently using the tool.
An alternate method is available if the device can be powered on and is responsive.
With the device powered off, simultaneously press and hold the Power button and the Volume down button (located on the right edge of the device ) until the Sony screen appears then release.
From the System Recovery screen, select Safe mode.
Note Utilize the Volume buttons to navigate and the Power button to select.
Note Allow approximately 1 minute for the device to reboot.
Note Once rebooted, 'Safe mode' appears in the lower-left corner of the screen.
Note Notes:
With Safe Mode enabled, test device and app functionality. If the previous issue fails to occur, the cause has been isolated to a third-party app and all recently installed or updated apps should be uninstalled.
Power cycle device to disable Safe Mode then reinstall and test each app one at a time to identify which app is causing the problem
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Clearing an Application's Cache / Data:
NOTE: Assuming that one of your applications isn't working properly then you may be able to fix this by clearing the app's cache or data. WARNING! Clearing an application's data will result in the removal of all personal information stored within the app. This includes login and credit card information, profiles, saved games, settings, high scores etc. It's recommended that you first try clearing the cache in order to prevent unwanted file deletion.
Tap "Apps" while viewing the home screen
Access the "Settings" menu and scroll to "Device"
Tap "Apps" and access the "All" or "Downloaded" screens
Select the desired application and tap "Clear cache"
If the method above didn’t help, tap "Clear data" too and press "OK" to confirm
Clearing the Phone's Cache Partition:
NOTE: In case your smartphone is not working as intended, it crashes, freezes etc. then you may consider master resetting it. However, you can also try solving these problems without losing personal data caused by a factory reset. To do so, try clearing the phone's cache partition as explained below:
With your smartphone turned on, press and hold the "Power" and "Volume Up" buttons
Wait for the screen to turn off and for the smartphone to vibrate three times
Once that's done, release all buttons
The cache partition should now be wiped. Press the "Power" key to turn on the smartphone as you normally would
NOTE: If clearing the phone's cache partition hasn't solved the problem, then you might want to master reset your phone. To learn how you can master reset the Sony Xperia Z3V, click the link
Enter Safe Mode and Uninstall an App:
NOTE: If you've installed an application that causes issues on your phone and prevents you from removing it as it runs processes in the background, then you can easily dispose of the app by first rebooting your phone in safe mode. In this mode, all third party applications are disabled.
With your smartphone turned on, press and hold the "Power" button
Tap and hold the "Power off" option
At the Safe Mode prompt, tap "OK" and wait for your smartphone to reboot
Once your phone restarts, a "Safe Mode" message should be present in the lower-left corner of the screen
To remove an app, tap "Apps" while viewing the home screen
Go to "Settings"
Swipe to "Device" and tap "Apps"
Scroll to the "Downloaded" screen and select the application you wish to remove
Tap "Uninstall" and press "OK" to confirm
Read more: http://verizonforums.com/threads/so...che-reboot-in-safe-mode.363259/#ixzz3PUePFP00
In case of emergency when your phone freezes and all else is unresponsive
A couple days ago, I was playing asphalt 8 and my phone froze when I tried exiting the game. My power button just pinged the notification ringtone, my camera button played the Cybershot sound but didn't change screen, and I couldn't pick up calls despite my ringtone playing. I thought my last resort somehow was to either wait for the phone to die (sure, waiting 2-3 days is definitely an option here due to battery life greatness, pfft) or use Android Device Manager and factory reset.
Unfortunately I went with the latter and then found out this one incredible tip: a hard reset button. I never knew such a thing existed for our phones and I would like to inform all new users of it too. This is thanks to @jhwookie for the info.
Tlr, there's a slightly brown button found inside the SIM compartment. Grab something such as a toothpick to press and hold onto the button for a few seconds, and voila. The phone will be hard reset to where you were previously.
GigaSPX said:
A couple days ago, I was playing asphalt 8 and my phone froze when I tried exiting the game. My power button just pinged the notification ringtone, my camera button played the Cybershot sound but didn't change screen, and I couldn't pick up calls despite my ringtone playing. I thought my last resort somehow was to either wait for the phone to die (sure, waiting 2-3 days is definitely an option here due to battery life greatness, pfft) or use Android Device Manager and factory reset.
Unfortunately I went with the latter and then found out this one incredible tip: a hard reset button. I never knew such a thing existed for our phones and I would like to inform all new users of it too. This is thanks to @jhwookie for the info.
Tlr, there's a slightly brown button found inside the SIM compartment. Grab something such as a toothpick to press and hold onto the button for a few seconds, and voila. The phone will be hard reset to where you were previously.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for elaborating further I had mentioned this in OG post.
To make the phone appear faster go to Settings>System>About phone>tap Build number several times till you get Developer options>Drawing>Window animation scale>off,Transition animation scale>off, Animation duration scale>off, x1 is default and x.5 works well too, I prefer "off", don't like animations.
YMMV
1linuxfreak said:
To make the phone appear faster go to Settings>System>About phone>tap Build number several times till you get Developer options>Drawing>Window animation scale>off,Transition animation scale>off, Animation duration scale>off, x1 is default and x.5 works well too, I prefer "off", don't like animations.
YMMV
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THat's good advice for most devices. Smooths out the transitions.
If you guys go into Settings -> Data Usage, you can see which apps is draining the most data. If you want to restrict its background data, select the specified app, and scroll to the bottom to enable the checkbox.
If any of you guys have Snapchat installed, I highly recommend it since it's been noted it takes way too much data since its January 27th update.
Creating new folders in Sony Album
I find that Album isn't completely intuitive when it comes to creating a new Folder to help organize all your pictures. Here's how:
1. From the Album app, swipe from the left side of the screen to open the menu and select "Folders"
2. Open the folder where the picture is currently
3. Find the photo you want to move and long press on it
4. Click on the menu button on the top right of the screen (3 dots), then select "Move to"
5. Click on the plus (+) on the top bar to create a new Folder
6. Name your new Folder and select whether you want it on the SD Card or in Internal Memory

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