I agree with @ocnbrze Take your phone to a trusted, nearby phone repair shop and have them look into this for you.

From your description, instead of just focusing on your phone's Camera app you've created a more complicated fix/repair/restore than necessary. Rough analogy being you're using to sledgehammer as opposed to just a basic hammer -- a minor software issue with the camera app doesn't require flashing the firmware.
It's just not a good practice to unknowing experiment with things like Fastboot nor flashing possibly questionable ROMs. Maybe with a secondary phone you don't need and just want to teach yourself about Android fundamentals, but not on daily usage phone.

justamel said:

Sorry for delay in replying to the suggestions. I had be trying to do the update using my mobile data connection. On looking carefully at the screen info. with the update instructions I saw that using Wifi connection was suggested as better option. I went to my public library, logged on to their wifi service and the update functioned correctly with no mention of "turning off data saver" function (which as mentioned before I never had ON at any point).
Update process took about 1 hr. and at the end system was updated and seems to be just fine. No need to try Reset. As said before I am NOT totally "tech savvy" and maybe using Wifi is normally the way it is done.

SO, problem solved and thankyou again for suggestions/help.

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There may be a setting that restricts system updates to download over wi-fi only. If you can find it you can toggle it on/off as needed.

nickdalzell said:

I'm well aware that OEMs are also using letters/numbers. Still confusing. Car manufacturers do the same. Maybe I'm just gettin' too old for this ****

Thankfully my two vehicles have names. Saturn Ion, Honda Ridgeline.

Even my computers have names. Dell Vostro. Dell Latitude. I was brought up to believe that if it's not important enough to give it a name, it's not going to be of very good quality. That rang true as every foreign car in the USA in the 80s was utter garbage, be it a Subaru XT6 or a Honda CVCC to a Bricklin SV1. All junk.

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I believe Dell calls a majority of their laptops "Latitude", and has done so since 1994, with "Vostro" for their desktop PCs.
And it's arbitrary numbers that identifies the particular models. Same same with Lenovo(formerly IBM) calls their laptops "Thinkpad", Samsung with "Galaxy" for phones etc.

I've never seen or heard of a Honda Ridgeline or Saturn Ion, but I suspect they've got some other marques outside of the US, in other parts of the world. That's what carmakers do, especially the likes of VW, GM, and Toyota.

lsj09 said:

Thanks! I tried the default settings and it didn't work. I found out they weren't working when my husband kept asking why I was sending blank texts...haha

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So I was having the same issue not being able to send emojis how I resolved my issue was by going directly in messaging app selecting the three dots on the right hand side. From there I selected settings. Select on advanced sms/mms settings and I scrolled to the bottom where the simple characters only was turned on I turned it off and it fixed my issue

patrick85 said:

My S5 has developed an internet connectivity and phone signal issue. I managed to fix the internet connection issue (knock on wood) by installing a "booster" app. However, my phone signal still fades in and out. One minute I'll have sufficient signal to make a call or send a text, and then a few minutes later I will have no signal at all (zero bars.) It does not matter where I am at. Whether I'm at home, or work, or driving, my phone signal is always intermittent.

Does anyone have suggestions on how I might be able to fix this?

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If you upgrade yourself (not Samsung) to a newer Android version you can try making your phone calls via the wifi calling option. Today I use T-Mobile and use it on my Moto G stylus smartphone for the spotty cell signal areas of my house. 5 yrs ago AT&T gave us a cell booster box to attach to our router to help with the dead cell signals within our home.

Sometimes using ADB can remove a system app without root.

Instead of trying to use a file manager app, try using terminal app to change the Permissions feature of that system folder.
Possibly chmod 644 /system/media/audio/ringtones
Read up and be judicious about which r/w/x permissions you use.

If you don't already have a preferred terminal emulator installed, suggest you try the Termux app, it's a very versatile terminal

If your company is managing and maintaining 50 or so phones for its staff, there's likely to be someone in charge of a MDM (Mobile Device Management) service to remotely manage those phones? Which one?
If not, with that many mobile devices that should be implemented to keep employees from tweaking things to for their own purposes. Locking down the Settings menu is typical feature in most MDM services, a measure to prevent things like change date/time, installing apps, etc.

I can tell you that it doesn't comply with current Google style guidelines.

Beyond that, anyone's guess as it's very blurred. I had an impression of a game piece, but could be completely off track.

Bear in mind that there are literally millions of apps, so unless it's a common one the chances of getting an answer are slim. Your best bet is probably to ask the person whose phone it's from, but usually these queries are from people who don't want to ask (or don't trust the answer).

Sorry I meant OTA package autocorrect, ok I'll try

hstroph said:

Please take care to detail your words. I have no idea what is meant by "the it's package". Did you locate the *payload.bin file (I think it was) for your particular phone to match the OS you have installed? Maybe that's what "the oxygen updater app" does ... If so, you'd have to locate that file to follow the rest of the instructions.

If you have busybox installed on the phone, an "adb shell" from your connected laptop would make the search for the file location rather trivial. In adb shell:
find / -type f -name \*[Pp]ayload.bin 2> /dev/null

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Thank y'all for y'all's time. I ended up finding out what it was. It's used for mining

nickdalzell said:

I've also seen instances where another app's 'draw other over apps' permission interferes with the default launcher setting as well, but not sure why. Check to see if the survey app has a draw other over apps setting and try turning it off. That would be in the application manager's listing for the app, and in the 'special access' category (Android 6.0-under) or the 'draw over apps setting' (Android 7.0+)

Game Mode (or Game Launcher) is built-in, and shouldn't be interfering like this. I'm guessing this is a Samsung phone? However, if that service recently got updated it might have caused some issues. See if you can find Game Mode in the app manager and see if there's a three dot icon on the upper right corner when in the app's settings, and try tapping 'uninstall updates' if it's there. You might have to tap the same three-dot menu when in the main app manager list to 'show all system apps' first.

Click to expand...

Lots of useful advice there. I've checked as you suggest: both Bv Launcher (which seems to be the built-in, uninstallable launcher from the phone's maker Blackview) and Game mode have 'Not Allowed' in their 'Display over other apps' setting.

Anyway, this is hardly important in the grand scheme of things. Maybe it will fix itself at some point. Thanks for helping.

Received my Federal Tax Refund today. Eight days after filing electronically. Never got a refund that fast before.

Wasn't he the dad on the show?

Your thread was moved here for best support. Welcome to AF.

What do you think a 'factory reset' is? It warns you like three times that it will ERASE ALL USER DATA (in all caps). Sadly, Android never got the equivalent of iCloud where all your data syncs up soon after you login to your Apple ID (or in this case Google Account). That used to be a chief complaint in my transition away from Apple to Android; that all my games had to restart from level one, no progress saved, no apps backed up with the same version I used last, etc.

We could also require new members introduce themselves, but at that point, I think we're creating too large a hurdle for participation.

However, I just noticed the "Welcome E-Mail" for new members was WAYYYY outdated so I turned it off and the "Welcome Private Message" was turned off. We should definitely utilize these, too.... not only to urge people to Introduce themselves but also to give them the run down of the site and how to get the most of it.

I think we're still very much trying to reconfigure the site so I don't want to craft something just yet, but I'd love to hear opinions!

Don't install task killers, battery 'optimizers' or anything with the name 'Cheetah Mobile' in it. You'll thank me later.

Just use and enjoy it.

Otherwise known as changing for the sake of changing, much like anything else from this era.

Makes me glad I use stuff that never gets updates anymore. I'm far more sane.

I never will understand the appeal of shows such as Duck Dynasty, Swamp People or 'Hillbilly Handfishin'' (please don't look up 'noodling' unless you got vore fantasies!!!) and that last one was on Animal Planet of all things...

Hunting is non-negotiable with me. I don't want to know you or talk to you if you're a hunter. I have a zero tolerance policy for anyone who dares hurt my antlered and hooved friends.

Neither is SMS for me. It's also not reliant on having internet/data available, never forces you to update the app, and never forces annoyances like typing indicators or reading your message statuses. I love the basic, AIM style of send message, wait for 'DING!' read response. All in a nice, lovely conversational view. Why fix what ain't broke?

thank u all for your comments

Their A series is just a lag time for feature creep (or in this case, removal). For example, we got headphone jacks and expandable storage in A-series for now, but give it a few years they'll be where the S22+ are today. It just takes longer. Plus they're still too darned big. I don't want as 6.5" screen that barely fits my hands (or gesture controls that are horrid for those who've had early onset arthritis since their 20's like me...for the love of deer, please stop getting rid of buttons)

Believe me, if something worth upgrading to existed I'd be all for it. I'm not that closed minded. I just ain't seeing any real upgrades. As I said, in 2010 we had more companies, more mobile OSs and more people catered to. Today they seem to be chasing an even more narrow margin of users that they see as the 'future' and we older folks just accept it or stop using it. Just get the rapid progress and features back. We've been stuck in this stagnant rut since 2015 for crying out loud.

As for why Apple ditched PowerPC, there are plenty of theories/assumptions but none confirmed. Only Steve Jobs knew the answer and it died with him. If I had to guess, it was the last bit of the Sculley era and Steve wanted to get rid of everything he had a hand in (he took things really personal like)

It looks like the photos post 1:1 ratio, but that was only one shot for me. I moved this here to the suggestion box from https://androidforums.com/threads/caturday.721874/post-8098658 so we didn't derail that thread.