Hadron said:

Why changing a VPN setting would do this is not obvious to me, but it's clearly happened.

Click to expand...

Thank you all for the responses.

I am told by someone else that when you set up the alternate DNS, it encrypts the URLs of the Website shortcuts and that is probably why it deleted them when it was disabled. Not completely sure this is correct, but sounds plausible even though many of those links were set up long before the private DNS.

Yes, I am convinced they are lost forever.

I did not like saving the shortcuts this way, but it was convenient and easy to access them. Some of them, like a link to Google Tasks eliminated the need to install the app. Others were just saved that way because it was easier than bookmarking for the reason I already gave and I was pressed for time.

I had planned on backing them all up one day or copying them or even manually storing them in a text file but the last time I checked there were really no good ways to deal with these shortcuts in bulk (like converting them to bookmarks). So I put it off and paid the price.

Too late now! Oh well.

Thanks for all the replies.

PS: For some reason it also deleted some (but not all) of my Widgets. Looks like the ones it didn't delete might have been for the stock built in apps. This wasn't a big issue and I was able to recreate them. But it is puzzling why it would do that especially since to my knowledge those Widgets had nothing to do with the Internet and I can't see why they would even have access.

I think this might help. Follow this, and reset the calling SIM preferences.

To do it through Google Dialer/Phone app
Phone app >> 3 dot menu in the top-right >> Settings >> Calling accounts (Under GENERAL) >> Voice calls (Under 'Make and receive calls') >> Always ask

To do it through the system settings app
Settings app >> Network & Internet >> Internet >> Settings icon beside your carrier name >> SIM preferences >> Voice calls ('Under Preferred SIM for') >> Always ask

If you are flashing the same ROM .zip file that was installed previously then you should be able to do so without doing a factory reset in the process. So if it's the same ROM, and if your data haven't already been deleted, this should be possible.

Now I've never heard of OrangeFox so don't know whether there is any quirk in its interface, such as it doing a reset by default when you flash a ROM. The recoveries I used in my ROM flashing days, including the most widely-used one (TWRP) kept such things separate: you just flashed the ROM, and it was up to you whether you did a reset or not. But if you didn't choose to do a reset when flashing and the data were gone then maybe you need to do something special with OrangeFox to tell it not do a wipe (the opposite of what other recoveries do)? Or maybe the data had already been deleted by whatever corrupted your ROM, and so nothing you did could have saved them.

I am however curious about this "recent upgrade": custom ROMs don't generally receive over the air updates, you update them by flashing a newer version of the ROM. So what exactly was this "recent upgrade", and what exactly happened (as this might give a clue as to what happened to your data)?

Of course if you flash a different custom ROM from the one that was previously installed it's likely you'd need to do a reset anyway, since the system data and settings will almost certainly be incompatible. If it's based on a different base (e.g. AOSP vs a manufacturer's own customised Android) or a different major version of Android then you almost certainly need to do a reset.

If you have a custom recovery and don't want to risk losing stuff then take a backup using the recovery every now and then (a "nandroid" backup) and keep a copy on some other device (SD card, flash drive, etc). If your ROM is rooted you can also take full app and data backups: Titanium Backup used to be the go-to app for this, but I think it's not been in development for a while. I've heard that there are alternatives, but as I no longer root I don't keep up with such things.

version update V3.6

I'm developing a web app that uses audio recording. The issue I'm facing is that when the phone locks after inactivity, Android shuts down the microphone, probably due to a security policy.

I'm not aware of any way to allow a website to keep the microphone on during a screen lock.

Is anyone aware of how to shut this behavior off, or work around it? I think a mobile app can probably do it, but I'm wondering if a web app can.

Thanks for your help!

No, I haven't done that but it would be a good idea. Probably the main difficulty is the cheapness of the Moto G Pure (sub $50 at walmart). The Nord might not be super expensive but it likely has overall the better specs. As for pink/red, blue/green etc., I might have been exaggerating somewhat. It's just frustrating to see a color in real life and not be able to capture it properly.

I am not impressed with how the "kids" want their internet served, I wished I could still have the XP Pro OS !

I do not like touch screen, Ipad look, tablet look, or any other "fad" that is going around, just deliver my content to my device and let me alone.


The world changes everyday, and if we do not change with it, we will be left behind ....

Thnkx to Rob for wanting to keep us "in the game".

Could be the wireless AP needs resetting or rebooting, e.g. perhaps it's something like the DHCP pool is full, and so is unable to connect your device. Suggest you contact your company's IT admin.

In a place people were attacked by a virus called zombies. No human being left there. it seems like a forest. So, in order to get rid of this zombies soldiers came with an operation Zombie D(Dark). Firstly one soldier got down from army chopper zombies killed him, and again another soldier is getting down by seeing this zombie crashed the army chopper. But unfortunately only one solider had saved he should destroy the zombie with weapon only. From here game starts

Download : Operation Zombie D Episode-1

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How to play :

• Select Gun and shoot the Zombies
• Tap the special button while choosing shot gun
• Use special power weapons
• Use limited bullets and try to walk more distance.

SamBoss123 said:

On step #9 in part 1 i got this error:
...
FAILED (remote: unknown command)
finished. total time: 0.000s

For part 2 steps 1 and 2, im not sure which website to go to.
other than these my pc is recognizing the device and it seems to be working.

Click to expand...

svim said:

Stop wasting time trying to do a Factory Reset to bypass the Lock screen. When you set up your lock screen pattern, that was saved within the installed Android operating system on your Nokia C100. It was not saved in your user account stored in your phone.
Note that with Android, there's a clear distinction between the OS and the user account.
The internal storage inside your phone is divided into several separate partitions. Most are dedicated solely to the operating system and are protected and restricted by system-level permissions. One partitions is set aside as a general, user data partition. That user data partition is not protected and only has user-level permissions.
And that has a lot of relevance to your situation. A Factory Reset only wipes that user data partition clean, it does nothing to any of those system partitions. So doing a Factory Reset wipes off your saved user account data, but again that isn't where the Lock screen config data is stored. You need to focus on actual problem, reloading the existing Android OS with a 'clean' version. With Android that's commonly referred to as flashing the ROM or flashing the firmware. Flashing the stock ROM will result in an OS that has no lock screen enabled.

Does your Nokia C100 have an unlocked bootloader?

Click to expand...

I gave a Nokia N152DL to my friend, but no matter how many different ways i try, this phone will absolutely not allow me to perform a hard reset. I also am only able to get a ..."Fastboot On"... in the lower left hand corner of my screen. No matter if I push volume buttons or the power button, nothing changes.

Any suggestions on any secret methods that i can use for this the Nokia N152DL?

I know you said "network settings reset", but I'd specifically go into them and check the APN (Access Point Names) settings and make sure they are correct for Straight Talk. Some providers use 2 APNs, one for regular mobile data and a different set for MMS, so it's possible for mobile data to be working but MMS not. You should be able to find the correct settings on your provider's website.

I am using Android Studio and would like to modify the project templates so I get the theme and other resource values every time I use those tempates.
Is this possible?

ii agree with everything that @Hadron said. but i also just want to add to it:

we get this question almost every day. the problem is that there are millions upon millions of apps with their own notification icon. so unless it is something popular like facebook or youtube, most of these questions go unanswered. most of the time we can only give guesses as to what the icon is.

so do not hold your breath thinking you will get an actual answer from us.

hstroph said:

I'd like to use a Nexus 6P to video the total solar eclipse on August 21 2017. The idea I have is to use a tripod to allow video tracking since well before totality at my location, until well after when a large part of the bright solar disc is again visible.

Would any of this cause damage to the Nexus 6P camera or display, please?

Click to expand...

I'd like to "bump" this topic please, to help those with the 14 Oct 2023 annular eclipse.

Ever since I've been playing Android games on an emulator on the PC (for the larger screen and better sound), I've got used to dragging items with the mouse, and scrolling the screen with the mouse (as in holding the left button and dragging). I now find myself trying to do this in Windows, say on this webpage instead of using the scroll wheel. I found this program - GitHub - Mikhail22/drag-scroll--autohotkey: AHK scripts - but it's very old (Autohotkey said it needed to install an older version) and seems not to tell Windows quick enough to scroll the other way. It moves the screen the wrong way for about 6 lines, then goes the right way.

Any better ways?

So I've just found a way to backup the whole thing (all of my chats and media) to my PC, using an app called WonderShare Dr.Fone which I downloaded for Windows 11. But a big problem is it's encrypted (since the backup process requires enabling end-to-end encryption backup in WhatsApp with a 64-bit key) and the software doesn't seem to have the option to directly view or extract the encrypted data.

I guess it's better than nothing, because supposedly this data can be transferred to WhatsApp on a new device as it presents that option, and may be theoretically extractable by other programs?

However, if anyone finds out how to view or extract the encrypted data (given I know the 64-bit key I generated), or know of another software that enables a more transparent backup, please chime in.

In the meantime, I guess I'll have to sift through my chats and download any media I don't have yet I may want to keep, in case I don't have access to these later (planning to change phones soon).

A few tips for the software: you'll prob need to also download the "Dr.Fone Link" mobile app for Android, and after connecting your phone by USB, will need to enable USB File Transfer, Developer Mode, USB Debugging (the app will guide you through the latter 2 if not enabled yet). In the desktop app settings, you can specify where to save the backup. If you don't specify a path, it will save directly in the C drive. For the WhatsApp backup process in Dr.Fone, unfortunately a 64-bit key is required; won't accept a standard password.

why not send your files via email to yourself? you can then go into the email on your other phone and download the file from your email. pretty simple really.

Glad you got it resolved

Milo Williamson said:

I wonder how much is my father's Silver Age Comics are worth...

Click to expand...

You can check places that sell them to see what they are worth. Like this site:

Silver Age Comics - Shop Our Large Selection | Superworld Comics

Reporting your post with a request to delete is the ticket. Threads are the exception. Sometimes threads have great information that should remain to help others.

many Samsung devices today don't have an email client installed out of the box. Samsung's Email app is on the Galaxy Store. Even my Z Flip 4 as expensive as it was came without an offline music player and email app. Seems odd.

nickdalzell said:

The lockscreen timeout helps for those who don't use a secure lock. I lost count at the many times my Galaxy SIII woke up, unlocked itself in my pocket, dialed contacts, or opened an untold number of apps, or sent eahoaejfoaeofjaioefj to someone as a text.

Click to expand...

That used to happen to me before smartphones were invented, and my stupid phone just needed you to hold one button in the corner for a while, which happened if I leaned against something. Often the next thing I'd lean on was the number 9, hence lots of 999 calls. I wonder if that's why America uses 911, which is harder to dial by accident?

But it's insane not to use a lock screen on your smartphone, as you've just proved.

nickdalzell said:

The security argument for shorter timeout that can turn the screen off before you finish PIN or Pattern is intended to stop or a least deter brute forcing it.

Click to expand...

Wouldn't work. Notice if you get the pattern wrong, the screen doesn't go off. The timeout is 5 seconds after you last touched the screen, you can try many patterns in a row, although it does make you wait a bit between each try, so you can't just wave your finger about randomly and get in.

There's actually a lot more combinations than you think of drawing a pattern in a 3x3 square of dots, although I bet most folk make predictable common shapes, like an L or an r. I don't use it for security anyway. I prefer to prevent someone stealing the phone in the first place, same as I try to prevent people stealing my wallet instead of putting a padlock on it.

My Aunt uses her face to unlock it. Weird idea, I'd be unlocking it by mistake.

nickdalzell said:

I didn't say I agreed with it. If someone wants to get into your phone that badly you got larger problems than your phone's security or you're a high profile government employee that's likely got a hit out on ya.

Click to expand...

More likely it's the government after you.

I once had Windows 11 lie to me telling me my Core i7 ain't supported when it is listed in the supported CPU list on their site. Took a USB installer and hacking via DOS PROMPT trick to get past it. This is probably another case of Windows 10 being a dick in general. I had multiple instances of 'this app won't work' (that's all it said no code no nothing talk about dumbed down) and it ended up being a 32 bit app not working with a 64-bit OS when technically it should as backward compatibility exists but overall it's one of the many things that ultimately pushed me to linux. It ain't my OS's job to protect me from myself. If I screw something up with running an app that Windows finds 'unsafe' that's on me and me alone.

I had a mulitude of tablets with cellular capability. I still got them, and they still make them. Even the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 from 2012 had a GPS, only the cheap throwaway crap from Walmart or Kmart didn't. Phones tend to use A-GPS and need data for it to fully work, while an old tablet can easily run Waze or Navmii offline.

Android Auto functions perfectly fine offline. it's sorta broken on my Ridgeline as the stupid USB-C cable has issues connecting properly leading it to assuming there is zero signal (get the 'x!' icon instead of bars) but I use it to control downloaded YouTube music playlists and it works anyway. sure, you don't get Assistant text reply function but nobody texts me when I ain't home.

Huge update since last time!

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