[QUESTION] Future of Bootloaders and rooting. Custom ROMs and root sensitive Apps - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi guys,
So after ages I finally unlocked my S7E Bootloader so I could root and be able to do a 'nandroid' backup instead of relying on 'the cloud' which is slow and does not restore my app data. My phone had gotten to the point where typing even was almost impossible 7 out of 10 times.
I used magisk for rooting, went through all kinds of shenanigans and apparently my knox efuse (while burnt) displays 0x0 to apps at least. Hid magisk, hid magisk from my banking app (Juice by MCB if curious) and it still would detect my device is rooted. I removed magisk completely thus removing root and still no go. Nothing I could do it appears (btw if there's a method to determine how a specific app is detecting root, I'd love to know).
So basically now I cannot use my phone anymore with the banking app... nice.
In the interval I was looking also at replacement phones and with the knox situation I was looking to leave samsung. I wanted a nice bump in battery life and camera performance and loved what the p30 pro is offering (still gapps compatible and amazing low light and zoom) even if I'm not a fan of the nano-memory expansion.
Eventually I found out that the p30 pro's bootloader was at one point unlockable then not anymore and I'm like that's a mess.
To me (I could be wrong) there's no way to plug your phone in a computer and backup completely (like an itunes iphone backup) or to do a nandroid type of backup from stock recovery.
I also love ACC (which you can use to charge your phone to 80% and no more). but apparently we're letting apps dictate how we use our phones now more and more.
So my questions are:
1. What's happening with the bootloaders? Are we more and more having locked BLs that mean we cannot root our phones
2. Is rooting (despite all the amazing efforts of magisk & friends) just not going to be invisible anymore to all apps
3. Are custom ROMs going to die off as people are more dependent on their phones to use banking apps (and tomorrow maybe more apps will want your phone to be 'stock)
4. Is there currently no way to trick those sensitive apps to think you're a stock phone, unrooted, etc?
I absolutely hate having to carry around a 2nd phone in my pocket which seems to be the only solution to this problem right now besides just plain not touching the phone's BL and/or rooting
Thanks for reading through guys
little no.5: What's the status of phones like the Realme Pro x2 which seem to bring great value but little to no community support?
I guess I'm talking about the camera system. It seems to have top notch hardware but no proper software, can this be improved substantially in software today, aka a special gcam maybe? < That is likely its own thread sorry

Related

HUAWEI Y538: how to upgrade Lollipop to something usable?

I lucked into a sale on a HUAWEI Y538 smartphone at Best Buy the other day, knowing we have no Boost Network around here for the cellphone service. Perfect!
I just wanted it as a nice little media player and access to my LAN, like my KitKat tablet. Nothing terribly fancy. I rooted it with Kingo, hoping to remove that nag cellphone activation every startup. I have to press Accept, then Self Service comes in and I click the no button. In addition as many of you know, Lollipop has a lot of unwanted background apps running . I spent a whole day trying to tame this and the only good news is that I worked out the factory reset.
My real question is if it's possible to remove that startup nag entirely, but either way, to ask if it's possible to downgrade to KitKat or something else? As a WiFi-only media player Lollipop would seem to be quite awful.
I've been on computers for decades but no experience with Android except my happy KitKat tablet. If some kind soul could be persuaded to help me out, well that'd be really cool.
JoeyTablet said:
I lucked into a sale on a HUAWEI Y538 smartphone at Best Buy the other day, knowing we have no Boost Network around here for the cellphone service. Perfect!
I just wanted it as a nice little media player and access to my LAN, like my KitKat tablet. Nothing terribly fancy. I rooted it with Kingo, hoping to remove that nag cellphone activation every startup. I have to press Accept, then Self Service comes in and I click the no button. In addition as many of you know, Lollipop has a lot of unwanted background apps running . I spent a whole day trying to tame this and the only good news is that I worked out the factory reset.
My real question is if it's possible to remove that startup nag entirely, but either way, to ask if it's possible to downgrade to KitKat or something else? As a WiFi-only media player Lollipop would seem to be quite awful.
I've been on computers for decades but no experience with Android except my happy KitKat tablet. If some kind soul could be persuaded to help me out, well that'd be really cool.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://www.techmesto.com/unlock-bootloader-huawei-honor/
http://forum.xda-developers.com/and...how-to-data-off-shell-command-tasker-t3370783
Well I can't thank you enough for trying, but it seems Huawei changed their procedure. I got the 4 informations required and registered with Huawei. Going to the unlock page changes to Chinese and says too much traffic for servers in English. So I emailed Huawei Mobile support and got the following reply:
Dear User,
Huawei Customer Service is pleasure to be at your service,sorry to bring you the trouble,if you want to unlock your phone, you should meet these conditions as follow:
1.Please register your Huawei ID in our official website http://huawei.com/en/ on your phone.
2.Log in your Huawei ID for continuously 14 days.
3.Each Huawei ID should not apply for the unlock code more than twice within half years.If you meet the information,please go to http://emui.huawei.com/en/ and click the 'download'button to login your Huawei ID other than any other third party ID to apply for the unlock code.Please contact us by mail or local service hotline as following if error message appears.
TEL: http://consumer.huawei.com/en/contact-us/index.htm?tag=hotline
Mail: http://consumer.huawei.com/en/contact-us/index.htm?tag=email
Please submit your mobile model, SN, IMEI/MEID and erro message in your e-mail.We also need to know that your phone is rooted, it can be out of the best working state and part of functions may not be able to work normally. In additon, the system is vulnerable to be invaded by viruses once your phone is permitted to unlock. What's more, for the lacking of fully tested, the third party software will not be compatible with your phone. Unlocking will bring unexpected negative impacts and the device will be not normal, and can not be restored, Huawei after-sales service office will not provide warranty service for your rooted phone, and you may bear the cost. So we strongly advise you to think it twice.
If you have any other problems, please send your feedback to us. We will be at your service to help you to solve your problems.
Once again thank you for contacting Huawei device.
Best Regards.
Huawei Device Customer Care Team 3206
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I 'm reading that right they want me to log in every day for 14 days, which is kind of nuts.
To be fair the phone may possibly be rooted using Kingo (fast boot showed an "unlocked" message which I don't know if that means rooted but probably not boot unlocked), and for all I know that changes some of the information.
So I'm just replying FYI so you know how it went. Maybe I should do factory reset and try again?
Long day I'll go crash and see how it looks in the morning. Thanks for trying!
Joey
Happy here to report a partial solution, 1/2 way there!
If you take out the SIM card inside the phone it only nags once and saves probably 30 seconds of boot-up time. It's a great improvement!
bg260 said:
https://www.techmesto.com/unlock-bootloader-huawei-honor/
http://forum.xda-developers.com/and...how-to-data-off-shell-command-tasker-t3370783
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought the same phone at BB ($10 on sale) to use like you do (unactivated). What you're trying to do is actually super simple. Merely put the device in Airplane mode, then turn back on the wifi (and GPS if you like). You will not be prompted to activate your device. You actually should be doing this anyway as it saves your battery by not having the cell radio constantly trying to talk to the tower.
In case you missed it, there is a firmware update to the phone that can be downloaded via the Emui app on the phone. I'm not sure what all the update affects, but it doesn't impact your ability to use the procedure I described to avoid the constant activation reminder.
I believe this was in response to your question @JoeyTablet
bg260 said:
I believe this was in response to your question @JoeyTablet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oops, sorry, yes it was meant for @JoeyTablet
zerozed99 said:
I bought the same phone at BB ($10 on sale) to use like you do (unactivated). What you're trying to do is actually super simple. Merely put the device in Airplane mode, then turn back on the wifi (and GPS if you like). You will not be prompted to activate your device. You actually should be doing this anyway as it saves your battery by not having the cell radio constantly trying to talk to the tower.
In case you missed it, there is a firmware update to the phone that can be downloaded via the Emui app on the phone. I'm not sure what all the update affects, but it doesn't impact your ability to use the procedure I described to avoid the constant activation reminder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe this was in response to your question @JoeyTablet
Remember, quote or mention the member if you want them to be notified.
zerozed99 said:
I bought the same phone at BB ($10 on sale) to use like you do (unactivated). What you're trying to do is actually super simple. Merely put the device in Airplane mode, then turn back on the wifi (and GPS if you like). You will not be prompted to activate your device. You actually should be doing this anyway as it saves your battery by not having the cell radio constantly trying to talk to the tower.
In case you missed it, there is a firmware update to the phone that can be downloaded via the Emui app on the phone. I'm not sure what all the update affects, but it doesn't impact your ability to use the procedure I described to avoid the constant activation reminder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
COOL! Perfect it boots and no need to click anything further - and besides it's less stray microwaves. Also to report Huawei replied and said they accept bootloader code requests at: consumer (at) huawei.com. They say to include IMEI and serial numbers in the email. Both can be found in Settings >> about phone or underneath the back cover.
Where to go from here, I'd also like to disable sneaky RAM-stealing apps like Sprint cellphone and some apps I'll never use, such as most Google Play. Add decent firewall and decent media player, and have a good time!
Recommend root method I'm good to go.
JoeyTablet said:
COOL! Perfect it boots and no need to click anything further - and besides it's less stray microwaves. Also to report Huawei replied and said they accept bootloader code requests at: consumer (at) huawei.com. They say to include IMEI and serial numbers in the email. Both can be found in Settings >> about phone or underneath the back cover.
Where to go from here, I'd also like to disable sneaky RAM-stealing apps like Sprint cellphone and some apps I'll never use, such as most Google Play. Add decent firewall and decent media player, and have a good time!
Recommend root method I'm good to go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've read elsewhere (here on XDA) that folks have gotten root using Kingo root (mostly tethered to a Windows PC and not the app version). Note that this root method often requires you to run the rooting program multiple times before it is successful. I'm not a fan of Kingo after being forced to use it to re-root another device (it took well over a dozen times before root took). Also, Kingo doesn't use SuperSu, it installs a Kingo version of SuperSu which CAN be removed (not exactly easily) but users of the Huawei Y538 Union have gotten bootloops trying to remove Kingo's proprietary SuperSu, so not advisable at this time. Even after rooted you are not able to remove the pre-installed bloatware because of the locked bootloader (which is different than the carrier unlock). To be honest, I've pretty much decided to just not root this device and just install an SD card if I need the space...I'd rather do that than risk bricking the device when (for me) there's really no need. I'm going to wait it out and see if anybody can figure a reliable way to deal with the device without bricking before I do anything else.
If you do root using Kingo, you might be able to "freeze" the background apps you don't want using Titanium Backup. I've read that folks haven't had any luck using TB to uninstall the bloatware, but if you're just trying to free ram it *might* work. I believe the risk would be the device expecting certain apps to run, and if unable it might bootloop/brick. Without a custom recovery allowing a nand backup bricking seems like a real possibility.
Please post your results if you unlock your bootloader. It surprises me that they're offering this, as I thought they only supported carrier unlocking. If you're able to figure out how to trim down the bloat please share.
I'm currently using Google's Play Music app for music/podcasts since I've already got 20,000 song's uploaded and since I can't delete that app anyway. Otherwise I'd just use Doubletwist for offline listening.
In case you, or anyone else with this phone is interested, I ended up purchasing a cheap ($5 delivered) case for this thing. Overall I like the case, but if you have any questions about that, let me know.
Yeah that case is perfect. I might have found the same on eBay searching " Huawei Union Y538 Case Innovaa".
As for Kingo ROOT, I have one hit and one miss to report. The KitKAt tablet it worked and I un-rooted after I got my business done. But the Lollipop phone is another story. I run a really tight ship on the Windows end, and Kingo rooted Lollipop, I got some functions involving root accomplished, but it ended at some point (completely offline except for USB tether to PC).
I factory reset the phone and tried again. Kingo downloaded more stuff and my firewall asked for access to PCAccelerator and acdsee.. The former is considered a virus and the second an image viewing app, which I don't use (maybe it's payloaded who knows).
I don't wish to scare anyone nor besmirch Kingo ROOT's reputation if it's a wholesome rooting app, but advise great caution and use a firewall that notifies things like this (I use NetLimiter on PC).
So I await the boot-unlock code and hope I live to tell about it Thanks a million zerozed99! That case is icing on the cake.
For what it's worth, no reply from Hauwei, and yesterday I sent another SOS asking, if not for boot unlock code, even just a stock KitKat ROM for the Y538. We know that model ran KitKat as well as Lollipop.
It just kills me to see this cute little quadcore wasted with all the bloatware taking up valuable RAM and battery power as well.
Ladies & Gentlemen, distinguished colleagues at xda-developers... Please bear with me.
I started coding on Macs in 1981(1981!). I later went on to 5 years formal education in Computer Science at a decent University, and spent the better part of 2 decades volunteering for low and no income people- those were the best years of my life!
Now I'm on the old side, with some heart disease that has four stents in my heart and the no-fun life expectancy that goes with it.
Now, being a reasonably informed geek, I'm seeing some disturbing things I want to air out in "public" if you'll so allow me.
The idea Hauwei will send you a boot unlock code, I don't think it's true. They make it easy to fill out a form with at least four identifying informations, but I have YET to see anyone receive their code! In my case the form advances to a page written in Chinese! I believe this is a spy device and priced to spy on a certain demographic. The almost perfect unlockability and easy bootlock application with no one reporting being sent a code.... there's a reason.
Granted one thing: I've never owned a cellphone nor did I even want cell access from this. Maybe you've noticed the same thing(s) years ago. I just wanted a little quadcore computer to play around with, to access my LAN and play media, and this has me worried the kind of entities that design such forced options.
Oh well, no luck. anyone else going to wait a bit or should I trash this?
Can't tell you how much I'd like Marshmallow and the evil bootloader out of there for something else.
Lollipop is not so bad IMHO except for the lack of privs to access our own SD cards.
If you hold down the volume-down button and press the power button until the phone starts up you can boot into fastboot mode. I've read here in XDA someplace that there are 2 available builds of TWRP custom recovery for the y6, both work on our phone, tho only one of the builds works fully. I have not tried to install either on my y538 yet, but I will, and I'll let you know what I find out.
If you can get the bootloader unlocked, you should be able to flash SuperSU from TWRP.
I suggest you google the xda guide to fastboot. It is not very complicated.
I doubt we can locate any custom ROM for this device. However, if we can get rooted we can backup stock and then remove all the bloatware. ES File Explorer is great in root mode for managing the SD card.
More useful info: I pulled my SIM out before I fired up the phone for the first time, and when I turned on the phone it didn't download any of the extra crapware from Sprint! I have the Virgin version, and I expected all that stuff to download, but it did not. Also, if you look in the App Manager settings, you will see a few apps which shipped on your phone in the Disabled state!! You may wish to enable Lookout or others of the stock disabled apps. Also, without root, you can remove the Sprint ID app here, and disable any of the Google spots you don't want, like Play News or Play Movies.
This is my first Huawei device, though it's my twenty-somethingh Android, and so far I am very pleased with the layout of the settings and of the notifications tray. This is way liveable, and they allow us to disable most of the bloat.
Good luck!

Need help "preserving" an SM-G900T in a few different ways

I feel super awkward and a bit embarrassed to ask this question, but I'm asking for help from this community (see last 2 or paragraphs for ask if you want to skip the boring details) and I think I need to explain briefly why to define my ultimate goal and why I even have to ask rather than sift through searches and assemble the steps/versions I need, etc.
My 22 year old daughter died recently (unexpectedly). I obviously want to preserve everything I can of hers, but I'm not firing on all cylinders mentally. I was able take her ThinkPad and virtualize it to my ESX system and also yank and clone the physical drive for safe keeping. But even doing that took me a while (which it shouldn't, that's kind of what I do for a living - I should be able to do that in my sleep, but it took 3 days and a lot of screaming). I was able to access her google accounts, facebook accounts, etc. and preserve a ton of stuff from there.
Ultimately while I would want to do with her phone the same thing I did to her notebook - preserve it virtually so I could examine it without fear of changing/modifying anything, but I don't think the product exists that allows me to virtualize an existing Android phone with apps and everything intact into a PC environment. I think I could install a whole new Android emulator in Windows, but that's not probably what I want.
I had just given her a Samsung S5 SM-G900T running on Ting for her birthday about 2 weeks before she died. It was unlocked but unrooted, it's rare that I would do nothing to the phone prior to giving it to her - but I pretty much just turned it on and handed it over with no custom ROM or anything - mostly because I was pressed for time the day of her party and it was shipped late.
When I got it back from the police a few say ago (they held it for 2 months) and charged it and turned it on 2 days ago, it upgraded from Lollipop to Marshmallow 6.0.1 (baseband is PE1), which was apparently pending. I don't know if that complicates things. It pissed me off, though. I have copied off local photos off and videos and already took control of her Google and Facebook accounts as I mentioned.
My slightly confused brain tells me normally I might install TWRP or CWM and make a NAND backup and copy it off someplace and at least have a restorable copy of her phone. I haven't done much of this sort of thing with phones for a year or two, I don't know what's changed in the latest OS versions and beides, plus I sort of "lose it" a bit, especially going through her personal things.
I'm not an idiot, I'm just not all here, yet. I'm asking if someone can please give me steps to safely preserve an image of her phone (IE, install TWRP or CWM using specific version xxx, etc., using Odin version xxx, etc.) - If I can virtualize it, too, I'd love to know what product does that, but again, I don't think I can.
I don't know why I feel the need to do these things, I just do.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Bump. Somebody please help this fellow. This is too important for me to try advising him, I don't know enough.
So even though half my brain is addled, I did some more research and found out a few interesting things, should anyone care to try this. I found there are a couple of open source tools built for android forensics:
Open Source Android Forensics Toolkit
https://sourceforge.net/projects/osaftoolkit/
Santoku
https://santoku-linux.com/about-santoku/
And there are commercial products, , like NowSecureForensics, some (if not most) built on the toolkits I just mentioned. Another is the painfully ironically named (for me, anyway) Autopsy.
This interesting website verified (to me anyway) that rooting the phone and changing access is still fundamentally sound forensically:
http://freeandroidforensics.blogspot.com
And it confirmed there is no way (yet) to truly "virtualize" the phone entirely (unless you are the manufacturer and you have some proprietary software).
For a "live" example virtually, the best you can do is install an Android emulator and restore an ADB backup of an app. This obviously may or may not work if the app is very hardware dependent. But for a simple program it might work fine.
So in addition to rooting my daughter's S5, installing TWRP, and backing it up, I also got my daughter's HTC One M7 to finally power up, and I rooted it and installed TWRP for backup purposes as well. Many of the forensic tools I mentioned will then report from the standard TWRP backups, with no risk to changing the phone. Some want to look at the phone themselves, even offering to root them, which I find more risky.
I haven't found any one tool to fully provide what I need, you need a Windows PC, a Linux PC (or VM), one or more toolsets (each comprised of other toolsets) and then a lot of time/will to really piece together things. I haven't completed the examinations - even typing is harder now for some reason, but should anyone else need this sort of thing (hopefully for different reasons than mine), the above info is a good start.

Safe full backup - back to Android 10 help

Hi,
I, like many others, got forced onto Android 11. I have a lot of problems with it. With or without root. The most annoying of which is the wifi aggressively dropping/changing. Bluetooth failures. Volume drops that don't return to normal, forcing a reboot to fix. Clock and background/screen saver problems. System UI crashing. Keyboard freezing and lagging on certain sites with textareas. I used my phone without root for a couple days after the forced upgrade and all of these issues were present with or without magisk modules.
I'm interested in going back to Android 10 and blocking the a11 OTA in Hosts.
I'd like to get some help with a couple things. I'd like to make a FULL flashable backup of my current device as is. Just in case I mess something up, I can get back to this current state as worst case, very easily. Do I use the MSM tool and copy something? Do I boot twrp and push something over? Please advise the safe and smart way to get right back to a 1:1 of current install. I want to be very sure about this part.
After I know which way I can safely get back to current state, can I use the MSM tool to wipe and flash an older build of Android 10? Or is it a problem after being on 11 because of some restrictions (partitions, RO, twrp no mount) somewhere?
If I can get back to an older build of Android 10, I have a couple options (grayhat and httpcanary) to monitor the traffic to see what we need to block in Hosts for sure.
I'm open to other suggestions also. Someone in the root thread said they proactively tried to disable some services around update and it was still forced on them.
OnePlus 7T Pro 5G McLaren TMobile
Android 11.0.1.2HD61B
(Carrier unlocked, bootloader unlocked, magisk root)
Thanks for any help
Disable the T-mobile update app or ask them to disable it on their end, they can.
Backup all critical data by direct file transfer and verify... just in case.
There's no way to do a full nandroid backup, e.g. restoring things exactly back to how they are now. Best you can do is use the app Swift Backup to backup app data/settings along with Google's backup and OP's backup app.
As for OOS11, have you tried resetting back to stock (factory reset while running OOS11)? Chances are you just have some leftover things from OOS10 that didn't play well with the upgrade. So before you abandon OOS11, try that first (factory reset from stock recovery). Make sure you've copied any backups to your PC first. If the issues come back after restoring your backup from Swift Backup or from Google or OP, then you need to find out exactly what app(s) are causing issue or just start from scratch.
As for the MSM Tool, it will restore you back to OOS10 just fine on its own.
Lastly, the OTA updates are downloaded from https://android.googleapis.com
For example, the url for the latest OTA to go from latest version of OOS10 (10.0.43) to first version of OOS11 (11.0.1.2) was
https://android.googleapis.com/packages/ota-api/package/45ba72b0b2f7c643a09d2d0875459cd01b8db998.zip
I pulled that from the update log. So blocking
https://android.googleapis.com/packages/ota-api/*/
in AdBlock or other hosts file app should do the trick. It may still see an update available, but it will definitely continue to fail when trying to download it.
But try OOS11 clean (after a factory reset). I bet all your problems will go away. I have exact same phone, not a single issue on OOS11, bootloader unlocked, latest version of Magisk.
starcms said:
There's no way to do a full nandroid backup, e.g. restoring things exactly back to how they are now. Best you can do is use the app Swift Backup to backup app data/settings along with Google's backup and OP's backup app.
As for OOS11, have you tried resetting back to stock (factory reset while running OOS11)? Chances are you just have some leftover things from OOS10 that didn't play well with the upgrade. So before you abandon OOS11, try that first (factory reset from stock recovery). Make sure you've copied any backups to your PC first. If the issues come back after restoring your backup from Swift Backup or from Google or OP, then you need to find out exactly what app(s) are causing issue or just start from scratch.
As for the MSM Tool, it will restore you back to OOS10 just fine on its own.
Lastly, the OTA updates are downloaded from https://android.googleapis.com
For example, the url for the latest OTA to go from latest version of OOS10 (10.0.43) to first version of OOS11 (11.0.1.2) was
https://android.googleapis.com/packages/ota-api/package/45ba72b0b2f7c643a09d2d0875459cd01b8db998.zip
I pulled that from the update log. So blocking
https://android.googleapis.com/packages/ota-api/*/
in AdBlock or other hosts file app should do the trick. It may still see an update available, but it will definitely continue to fail when trying to download it.
But try OOS11 clean (after a factory reset). I bet all your problems will go away. I have exact same phone, not a single issue on OOS11, bootloader unlocked, latest version of Magisk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much for the detailed reply.
My main reason for rooting my phone is to have full speed tethering. If that worked, I would try a reset. Since it doesn't, it's a good excuse to go back to 10 on its own for me.
No simple method for a full nandroid backup is going to slow me down. I need to go thru my apps and make sure I don't forget about anything important for a reset or a downgrade.
Do you have any hypothesis on why they forced Android 11 so hard?
During the time I wrote this message, my wifi switched networks a half dozen times. When this first started after the force to a11, I thought it was strange because I wasn't rooted and any modules shouldn't have been affecting anything. They're only added props (for the tethering module anyway). I don't have the Qualcomm crash others are reporting but maybe something in the new settings are related and causing both problems, theirs and mine.
Do you have multiple APs within reach of your phone? I've tried to disable/enable different connection options in the wifi settings and handoff settings. Nothing seems to help. It wants to drop me off my AP to any closer AP, constantly. Which is particularly annoying because I'm constantly in ssh sessions and that closes them. I can avoid that somewhat by forgetting the other APs near me so it tries to stay connected to just one but I shouldn't have to do that. I never had an issue before the update. In fact, I was actually really happy with how stable Android 10 was for our device.
Appreciative said:
Thanks so much for the detailed reply.
My main reason for rooting my phone is to have full speed tethering. If that worked, I would try a reset. Since it doesn't, it's a good excuse to go back to 10 on its own for me.
No simple method for a full nandroid backup is going to slow me down. I need to go thru my apps and make sure I don't forget about anything important for a reset or a downgrade.
Do you have any hypothesis on why they forced Android 11 so hard?
During the time I wrote this message, my wifi switched networks a half dozen times. When this first started after the force to a11, I thought it was strange because I wasn't rooted and any modules shouldn't have been affecting anything. They're only added props (for the tethering module anyway). I don't have the Qualcomm crash others are reporting but maybe something in the new settings are related and causing both problems, theirs and mine.
Do you have multiple APs within reach of your phone? I've tried to disable/enable different connection options in the wifi settings and handoff settings. Nothing seems to help. It wants to drop me off my AP to any closer AP, constantly. Which is particularly annoying because I'm constantly in ssh sessions and that closes them. I can avoid that somewhat by forgetting the other APs near me so it tries to stay connected to just one but I shouldn't have to do that. I never had an issue before the update. In fact, I was actually really happy with how stable Android 10 was for our device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly I can't help. OOS11 made my phone even better than it ever has been. No exaggeration. And not a single bug or even issue. They probably saw the same results on their test phones and pushed it really hard because they knew people had been waiting a very long time for it.
That's why I really think you have some trash left behind from your OOS10 install that made the upgrade to OOS11 go crazy. Once you get your backups done, please try a factory reset on OOS11 and don't restore any Google or other backups and just see if you have any issues. It could all be due simply to needing a "fresh install"
Edit: As for high speed tethering, is that accomplished with a Magisk module? If so, it probably needs the tiniest change in directory names/path to be compatible with OOS11, just like the boot and shutdown animation modules
Edit2: And yes, my phone can see at least 15 APs while at home. Never have any trouble connecting via 802.11ac on 2.4 or 5ghz at home, and never had any trouble with other random hotspots.
You've got some OOS10 settings/junk/leftovers interfering with OOS11. Not trying to sound like an idiot TMobile tech, but in this case you do need to factory reset and I bet all issues go away.
starcms said:
Honestly I can't help. OOS11 made my phone even better than it ever has been. No exaggeration. And not a single bug or even issue. They probably saw the same results on their test phones and pushed it really hard because they knew people had been waiting a very long time for it.
That's why I really think you have some trash left behind from your OOS10 install that made the upgrade to OOS11 go crazy. Once you get your backups done, please try a factory reset on OOS11 and don't restore any Google or other backups and just see if you have any issues. It could all be due simply to needing a "fresh install"
Edit: As for high speed tethering, is that accomplished with a Magisk module? If so, it probably needs the tiniest change in directory names/path to be compatible with OOS11, just like the boot and shutdown animation modules
Edit2: And yes, my phone can see at least 15 APs while at home. Never have any trouble connecting via 802.11ac on 2.4 or 5ghz at home, and never had any trouble with other random hotspots.
You've got some OOS10 settings/junk/leftovers interfering with OOS11. Not trying to sound like an idiot TMobile tech, but in this case you do need to factory reset and I bet all issues go away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe you. I don't think you sound like the robot techs either. Yes, it can be accomplished with a magisk module. Which I first tried to edit like the animation modules. When that was unsuccessful, I did it manually by creating/editing props. The tethering provision and dun props. I even tried them in combination with another apn using only ipv4.
Some other phones report the module still working in Android 11 so I was hopeful it was just a path adjustment or that manual would work. It's still likely it could be done but I have to balance how long someone with more experience to bring a solution might take, with how long I can get by with this 600kbps throttle. I have kids and having internet (capable of YouTube, 600kbps doesn't cut it, especially on multiple devices) available for long car rides is really helpful after they're tired of playing Eye-Spy
Appreciative said:
I believe you. I don't think you sound like the robot techs either. Yes, it can be accomplished with a magisk module. Which I first tried to edit like the animation modules. When that was unsuccessful, I did it manually by creating/editing props. The tethering provision and dun props. I even tried them in combination with another apn using only ipv4.
Some other phones report the module still working in Android 11 so I was hopeful it was just a path adjustment or that manual would work. It's still likely it could be done but I have to balance how long someone with more experience to bring a solution might take, with how long I can get by with this 600kbps throttle. I have kids and having internet (capable of YouTube, 600kbps doesn't cut it, especially on multiple devices) available for long car rides is really helpful after they're tired of playing Eye-Spy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Post the Magisk module for high-speed tethering and I'll take a look at it. It'll either be really simple to get it working on OOS11...or not lol.
All credit to the authors and yadda yadda.
There's another one floating around.
In this one, I changed it to be /product/ but didn't have success.
If you do have success on a11 with it, that'd be cool. I can find out if a reset will clear up these other issues I have or not
Hello everyone, I'm in a similar situation though I was wondering if it might be a different problem.
So I bought a 7TPro Mclaren off Ebay and for the last year, it's worked fine. the phone came factory unlocked, with zero issues connecting to Telus (my Canadian provider). Last month my phone force-updated itself to android 11, and nothing but bad things have happened since. screen frame-rate tanks randomly, apps are slow, battery's tanked, the works.
After resetting the cache 3 or 4 times and still having issues, I reset the phone to factory, stock settings, but the phone still performs poorly Maybe because I re-added all my apps and pictures via Oneplus backup? either way, I'm very fed up with how the phone has been especially the battery, so I've been looking into downgrading back to Android 10, but it seems that the Tmobile variant has trouble doing that (i.e. no simple menu option).
Should I try downgrading to Android 10 again and not bothering with a backup? I don't have too much to lose as of right now so I don't mind resetting it again, but if restoring all my pictures via backup is what's causing the issue I'm willing to do that. Should I make another Oneplus backup before I do this, or should I back up the data to my PC first? I find it very irritating that T-mobile forced this update so I will try and block the upgrade in my hosts but I'm worried that won't work because I don't plan to root my phone and block the hosts files.
Any tips or help would be appreciated!
DhoomLard said:
Hello everyone, I'm in a similar situation though I was wondering if it might be a different problem.
So I bought a 7TPro Mclaren off Ebay and for the last year, it's worked fine. the phone came factory unlocked, with zero issues connecting to Telus (my Canadian provider). Last month my phone force-updated itself to android 11, and nothing but bad things have happened since. screen frame-rate tanks randomly, apps are slow, battery's tanked, the works.
After resetting the cache 3 or 4 times and still having issues, I reset the phone to factory, stock settings, but the phone still performs poorly Maybe because I re-added all my apps and pictures via Oneplus backup? either way, I'm very fed up with how the phone has been especially the battery, so I've been looking into downgrading back to Android 10, but it seems that the Tmobile variant has trouble doing that (i.e. no simple menu option).
Should I try downgrading to Android 10 again and not bothering with a backup? I don't have too much to lose as of right now so I don't mind resetting it again, but if restoring all my pictures via backup is what's causing the issue I'm willing to do that. Should I make another Oneplus backup before I do this, or should I back up the data to my PC first? I find it very irritating that T-mobile forced this update so I will try and block the upgrade in my hosts but I'm worried that won't work because I don't plan to root my phone and block the hosts files.
Any tips or help would be appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to hear that.
Do fresh installs for the apps.
Do direct file transfers to/from the PC for all other critical data. "Restore it all" apps can fail miserably and are hard to verify the data they supposedly stored.
11 is a mess but this might help... or not.
DhoomLard said:
Hello everyone, I'm in a similar situation though I was wondering if it might be a different problem.
So I bought a 7TPro Mclaren off Ebay and for the last year, it's worked fine. the phone came factory unlocked, with zero issues connecting to Telus (my Canadian provider). Last month my phone force-updated itself to android 11, and nothing but bad things have happened since. screen frame-rate tanks randomly, apps are slow, battery's tanked, the works.
After resetting the cache 3 or 4 times and still having issues, I reset the phone to factory, stock settings, but the phone still performs poorly Maybe because I re-added all my apps and pictures via Oneplus backup? either way, I'm very fed up with how the phone has been especially the battery, so I've been looking into downgrading back to Android 10, but it seems that the Tmobile variant has trouble doing that (i.e. no simple menu option).
Should I try downgrading to Android 10 again and not bothering with a backup? I don't have too much to lose as of right now so I don't mind resetting it again, but if restoring all my pictures via backup is what's causing the issue I'm willing to do that. Should I make another Oneplus backup before I do this, or should I back up the data to my PC first? I find it very irritating that T-mobile forced this update so I will try and block the upgrade in my hosts but I'm worried that won't work because I don't plan to root my phone and block the hosts files.
Any tips or help would be appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try another factory reset on OOS11 but don't restore any backups including Google app backups and see if problem still persists. Don't even bother logging in with your Google account at first. Just see if issues are fixed.
Morning b4 coffee rant:. I'm so tired of hearing this, TMobile/OnePlus didn't "force update" anyone's phones any more so than Google or any other manufacturer. This is my first OnePlus phone, probably will be the last because of all the serious quirks in rooting and just horrible software engineering by OnePlus and I want to throw it thru the window sometimes, but that's half from me screwing with it lol. Anyway, so I'm not OnePlus's biggest fan, but they didn't do crazy by releasing OOS11. That's how updates work...People had been (rightfully) been expecting it for a long time. And I don't have a single issue with it.
My battery life is much worse also. I blame it on the constant/aggressive wifi changes.
starcms said:
Try another factory reset on OOS11 but don't restore any backups including Google app backups and see if problem still persists. Don't even bother logging in with your Google account at first. Just see if issues are fixed.
Morning b4 coffee rant:. I'm so tired of hearing this, TMobile/OnePlus didn't "force update" anyone's phones any more so than Google or any other manufacturer. This is my first OnePlus phone, probably will be the last because of all the serious quirks in rooting and just horrible software engineering by OnePlus and I want to throw it thru the window sometimes, but that's half from me screwing with it lol. Anyway, so I'm not OnePlus's biggest fan, but they didn't do crazy by releasing OOS11. That's how updates work...People had been (rightfully) been expecting it for a long time. And I don't have a single issue with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They did force the update. There was no further postponement available. It's not cool that we have to jump thru hoops to take an OTA but the full version upgrade ignores root woes and forces itself to install. I don't mind jumping the hoops, so long as it's consistent.
I've never had this force update issue on any previous device. I've been able to ignore it indefinitely, and if rooted, need to do a manual intervention to take the OTA. I was in the middle of doing something when my phone shut down and installed a11.
This isn't my first OnePlus device. It is my first carrier tied/coupled OnePlus device. And will definitely be my last carrier coupled phone. I want to give OnePlus another chance. I had the 8 Pro and it was lackluster to say the least. I found a great medium with this device. It offered similar specs, 5G, good build quality at a reasonable price.
It may be true that other manufacturers force updates on some devices but it wasn't true for me with the Nexus or Pixel phones I had. Or my previous OnePlus device (5T/8P).
A lot of us are intentionally choosing OnePlus for the root and ubl friendliness with good specs.
I don't think anyone is saying A11 shouldn't be offered, it should be of course. It just shouldn't be forced and the safety net we thought we had to prevent that, was also swallowed up.
Give OnePlus another chance, this phone is not the typical OnePlus experience I've come to love. Or maybe this is the new OnePlus... I'm gonna give them another shot.
As a side note to this, my wife wanted the Samsung s21, coming from a OnePlus device. She is very disappointed with the s21 in just about every aspect other than the picture quality. Oppo and OnePlus are merging, I'm not even sure where to go after OnePlus
Appreciative said:
My battery life is much worse also. I blame it on the constant/aggressive wifi changes.
They did force the update. There was no further postponement available. It's not cool that we have to jump thru hoops to take an OTA but the full version upgrade ignores root woes and forces itself to install. I don't mind jumping the hoops, so long as it's consistent.
I've never had this force update issue on any previous device. I've been able to ignore it indefinitely, and if rooted, need to do a manual intervention to take the OTA. I was in the middle of doing something when my phone shut down and installed a11.
This isn't my first OnePlus device. It is my first carrier tied/coupled OnePlus device. And will definitely be my last carrier coupled phone. I want to give OnePlus another chance. I had the 8 Pro and it was lackluster to say the least. I found a great medium with this device. It offered similar specs, 5G, good build quality at a reasonable price.
It may be true that other manufacturers force updates on some devices but it wasn't true for me with the Nexus or Pixel phones I had. Or my previous OnePlus device (5T/8P).
A lot of us are intentionally choosing OnePlus for the root and ubl friendliness with good specs.
I don't think anyone is saying A11 shouldn't be offered, it should be of course. It just shouldn't be forced and the safety net we thought we had to prevent that, was also swallowed up.
Give OnePlus another chance, this phone is not the typical OnePlus experience I've come to love. Or maybe this is the new OnePlus... I'm gonna give them another shot.
As a side note to this, my wife wanted the Samsung s21, coming from a OnePlus device. She is very disappointed with the s21 in just about every aspect other than the picture quality. Oppo and OnePlus are merging, I'm not even sure where to go after OnePlus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can block OTA a couple different ways. I've done it for over 5 years with AT&T, no root needed.
My 10+ is still running happily on Pie.
Appreciative said:
A lot of us are intentionally choosing OnePlus for the root and ubl friendliness with good specs.
Oppo and OnePlus are merging, I'm not even sure where to go after OnePlus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Xiaomi/Redmi/Poco meets the root and ubl friendliness. In some countries, they still have warranty coverage after unlock bootloader.
Good specs or not is vague between different phones.
Check XDA Xiaomi category and see the reply and thread count. It's to some point a sign of better price to the specs.
Use GSMarena to compare the spec.
Appreciative said:
Give OnePlus another chance, this phone is not the typical OnePlus experience I've come to love. Or maybe this is the new OnePlus... I'm gonna give them another shot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sadly, OnePlus hasn't been typical OnePlus in well over a year. Look how slow updates are now even for their latest non-carrier flagships beginning around 7T time (and can start to be seen as early as the 6T).
Appreciative said:
As a side note to this, my wife wanted the Samsung s21, coming from a OnePlus device. She is very disappointed with the s21 in just about every aspect other than the picture quality. Oppo and OnePlus are merging, I'm not even sure where to go after OnePlus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oppo and OnePlus are merging, like you said, so won't they still continue producing flagship phones at a manic rate, like Samsung? At least Samsung has gotten much better with the speed of OTA updates, while OnePlus has tanked.
We're guaranteed Android 12 for our phones. Let's see how long it takes for us to get it, probably more than a year after I make this post. The 6T is still waiting for OOS11.
To be honest, receiving the 8 Pro was disappointing. I had the pixel 2xl and it's the only thing I've returned in a decade. I got the 5T for half the price and couldn't believe how amazing that phone was. It's still alive and crack free. I put it through a lot.
Getting the 8 Pro, I knew it was $1k but I expected a lot. I was disappointed. I liked it but not $1k-liked-it. And I realized then, that maybe OnePlus had already ended their founding principles. I was most disappointed that nothing about the 8P was pushing the envelope. The 5T was breaking the envelope and the 6 was doing big moves with giant storage and ufs3 speed. After that, partially because of how well the 5T was made, I didn't follow what they were doing. I didn't need to. Now we are at OP9 and you may be right that 'that oneplus' isn't here anymore.
I did look at some oppo devices. I knew that's the parent/sister company to OnePlus and would find similar features. It just worked out that the 7T Pro 5G dropped right after I got the 8P and I traded back.
I guess I got spoiled
Appreciative said:
To be honest, receiving the 8 Pro was disappointing. I had the pixel 2xl and it's the only thing I've returned in a decade. I got the 5T for half the price and couldn't believe how amazing that phone was. It's still alive and crack free. I put it through a lot.
Getting the 8 Pro, I knew it was $1k but I expected a lot. I was disappointed. I liked it but not $1k-liked-it. And I realized then, that maybe OnePlus had already ended their founding principles. I was most disappointed that nothing about the 8P was pushing the envelope. The 5T was breaking the envelope and the 6 was doing big moves with giant storage and ufs3 speed. After that, partially because of how well the 5T was made, I didn't follow what they were doing. I didn't need to. Now we are at OP9 and you may be right that 'that oneplus' isn't here anymore.
I did look at some oppo devices. I knew that's the parent/sister company to OnePlus and would find similar features. It just worked out that the 7T Pro 5G dropped right after I got the 8P and I traded back.
I guess I got spoiled
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's one reason I got this phone, OnePlus's prices are thru the roof. And no, I don't want any Nord crap. I want a flagship phone at a reasonable price. Got my 7T Pro 5G Mclaren for $500 brand new from eBay the day after the OP8/Pro launched. I just couldn't justify spending $1000 on a phone and I never will.

Question Help me reverse engineer this mod? How do i get my phone back to stock rom, and regain full control over it? Unroot?

I have a A52 5g and a tab S7+ wifi, that are both remotely controled and monitored, and serve as gateway to my home network and basicaly every device connected to it. I noticed it at first and mew NOTHING related to this, didnt even know what open source was. Since then i have come to understand that, somehow, my phone seems to run a custom version of android, my guess is, built from AOSP and designed to disguise itself as oem samsung ui, but in background enables remote access and total takeover of every function. I have discovered, using total commander, that storage has been partitioned in 2 separate locations, and that one folder in there is called root system file, and filled with data/apk/installkits/etc.. this has me asking for help in 2 specific questions:
Am i holding a rooted device or is there another possibility that creates this situation? I was convinced its rooted untill i read here that root prevents from using samsung pass, secure folder etc.. and those seem to work on mine(or is it a version of those apps?) If its indeed rooted, will it wype everything if i flash it with the stock rom? And should i trust a small cell repair store to do that or learn how to do it myself?
2: i have bought 3 brand new phones since august, and made sure not to use my usual accounts, no use backups, not even set it up near my home wifi, and it almost instantly started self installing harmful software in background. I see no other way for it to link itself to be owned by me at initial setup, but for the sim card, new of course, but with my usual phone number and service transfered to it. Is that enough to make a breach and compromise a new device? If so, what would be different after fpashing the stock rom, if everything reinstalls itself? Do i need to change my number? Change cellular service provider even? I know its an unusual request but im a fast learner, i have compiled lots of technical info on specific apps, ip's, servers, build id numbers etc.. that i know would make more sense to anyone more qualified than me, and i am about ready to try and wype/flash the thing myself, i just would feel better with a little help since i have gone this far pretty much alone, since no service provider or manifacturer actualy feels like this is their problem to solve....
Here you can download firmware for your phone and flash with Odin, which you can also download at the bottom of the page, there are instructions on how to do it also.
Make sure to download correct firmware for exact device you have. There are few different A52 5G models.. SM-A526B, SM-A526U, SM-A5260, SM-A526U1, SM-A526W.
You will lose all data after flashing new firmware. After this your phone will be like brand new from Samsung..
If your device is rooted then that means your warranty is void and manufacturers and carriers are under no obligation to help you.
I'm trying to understand your situation but its so conflicting I don't know where to begin.
For example, you say your device runs a custom AOSP with a Samsung UI. Thats exactly how it actually works. Samsung take the AOSP, customise it with their own functionality, then overlay their own skin as the UI. Theres absolutely nothing unusual about that.
I'm conflicted as to whether your rooted or not. If the manufacturer or carrier has physically seen the device and won't repair it then that would suggest your definitely rooted. If you spoke to them virtually and told them your rooted then they will use it as an excuse whether you're truly rooted or not. The partitions you mention could be the internal storage and an sd card which can be seen non-rooted. I dont know what you mean when you mention a "root system file". Is it an actual folder called "root" or is the app you're using just telling you that you've reached the "root" of the filesystem? I can't quite work out what you mean. You also say Knox-powered apps still work which just adds to the confusion.
You stated you have had 3 new devices and they all self-installed harmful software. To get one device compromised is possible. To get three compromised means your either a high profile government target (which I doubt because they wouldn't be so sloppy as this) or your doing something to compromise your own devices such as continuously visiting dodgy websites.
Flashing will fix things but so would having a new device. The only common denominator is you so either you're doing something wrong or you truly are a government target in which case I wish you good luck!
First let me appologise for the long silence, i cut off most online activity for a while and just read your answers. To clarify, i have not solved my prolem yet. But ill try to explain better what you ask about my situation:
About de os version arobase40 got it right. I Asked google play help reps. And a stock samsung version of android would not trigger googles warning about running a custom version of android. So that point to a modified after-the-fact more than to the fact samsung has their propierary version installed.
About beeing rooted or not, ylwhat you are asking is what im not totaly certajn of, also. I know partition can happen without rooting, its seems to have created a "virtual sd card" since its named as such when sd card slot is actualy empty. About the root files folder, i cant say for sure, all i can say is that its holding a large amount of Gigs that dont get taken into account when looking at storage capacity and usage, and accessing that folder gives me a message that root files cant be access from this device. Does it mean my device had root acess privileges revoked to prevent viewing files that hide what is given control of the software remotely, so i dont find out or have the capacity to remove or alter those files?
What is absolutely sure is that if it is rooted, it wasnt done by me. As for the chance the devices were not factory brand new, 1 of them was not, got it opend box from amazon, a saudi arabia version, but my prkblems had started months before getting it, did not keep it more than 2 months, and all others before and since are 100% pure factory new, some directly from my cellular service provider, as financed device came with 2 year agreement of service,(actualy 2 of them i got this way) and the last one is my tab s7+ i got online directly from samsung canada website, on preorder, delivered on release day.
And lastly the fact i cant seem to shake those persistent leeches, is not from having reckless habbits online, but from having careless and uneducated habbits before that all started, usual older lazy dude stuff, like not changing my wifi password after a ruff breakup with bipolar psycho ex gf, or having only a few passwords reused on most my accounts. I have stopped doing those things long ago now that i know better, but i suspect that i could have been unaware something gettnng installed and staying dormant for a while, maybe? The ex had way more opportunities than needed to do something like this and is more than psycho enough to realy do it also. For having the skills to do it, lets say she has "assets" that can easily get her guys willing to help about that. It may also be coming from somwhere else, but as you say im not a super spy or a high ranking gov. Official. Im not even that interesting, and have absolutely no usable id for fraud or anything, my credit history would raise more red flags then there is in all china. So after so long struggling with this still very active, i cant even think of a rational reason to do so much effort into this, theres nothing to gain, i only can imagine that maybe a twisted mind seeking revege, or with a sick way of amusing themselves could see the point to all that, but i dont realy care. I only want to get rid of it.
As for the way it manages to be so much persistent, i can only see one option left i didnt remove from the process, and its through my phone number/account on the sim card, even a new sim on a new phone, still is linked to my cell service. I did initial setup with only that new sim card, accounts freshely created during setup, with no info or anythink linkable to my previous accounts, and even did it sitting outside, far from any building that could get me in range of a wifi network. And it still was no more effective at staying secure.
Thats why i did not yet try to flash a stock rom myself on my device, because it would, at best, become exactly like it was when brand new, and i know that this is not enough to keep it secure, and that means theres still something im missing in the whole picture.

Okay back of drawer find

Okay so I forget I had my old v60 in the back of a drawer and I guess there is no ROM love for it., seems there never was. Would love to at least root my TMO since I own many a good programs for rooted phones but sadly no longer have one. I loved rooted phones for backing up software, as well as deciding network access with my old ROM Toolkit and such. This was a decent phone with 5G and would be the one I'd sadly risk a potential brick since it's way out of warranty and such but can't find any rooting instructions anywhere. The about phone says the SW TMO has on this is V600TM20M running what looks like android 11. Is there a way to root this old dog or not now? Just wondering as each time it boots TMO tries to install FACEBOOK (BOOO I don't like that social app) Amazon shopping and a bunch of bloatware I have to keep deleting. Really want to slim it down and take control of the it again.
Side-load Magisk, It's an open-source rooting app. I have it and I like it.

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