This is a trick I came across (originally seen here, I think). Of course there are apps that can do this for you (see here, for example), but I like to do things without extra apps, if possible. I will use the stock Task Manager as an example (since that is why I looked into this in the first place)..
What you will need is:
-root
-SQLite Editor (or equal)
-Root Explorer (or equal) <-- may or may not be necessary depending on how you find your app names and processes.
-your desired app's full name and process
-resourcefulness
First, check your "Double tap home launch" settings in Settings>Applications to make sure the app you want to launch is not already listed.
Then, locate and note the full app name and process of your choice (it will need to be in this form: <full app name>/<full app process>). For example, this is what one would need to launch the stock Task Manager (which is all anyone should need as far as a task-killer, if you ask me):
com.motorola.PerformanceManager/com.motorola.PerformanceManager.PMAdvancedViewTab
I've looked everywhere for finding the right process name, but where I ended up finding it was in the AndroidManifest.xml in the apk (this is where Root Explorer would be necessary). Your apks are located in the /system/app folder for system apps, and /data/app for user apps (View apk, then view the AndroidManifest.xml file).
The full app name should be basically the first entry listed as <manifest package="app_name_here" versionCode=blah,blah...>. The process name is a bit trickier, but should be found a little further down in the manifest under <activity configChanges="###" label="resource_blah,blah,blah" name=".app_process_name"... The process name will start with a ".", and you need to tack that on the end of the app name, as shown above for Task Manager.
Once you have the info you need, open SQLite and open Settings Storage (the com.motorola.android.providers.settings one, with a hammer & wrench icon). Open the settings.db, then settings (should be very familiar if you've tried the tether hack), and find the line for "double_tap". Edit the value as necessary using app_name/app_process format (there should be no spaces in the value that you enter), save, close, then double-tap home to test it.
Here are a couple apps/processes that I find useful:
Task Manager
com.motorola.PerformanceManager/com.motorola.PerformanceManager.PMAdvancedViewTab
Root Explorer
com.speedsoftware.rootexplorer/com.speedsoftware.rootexplorer.RootExplorer
I started making a list on my sdcard, but it proved to be too much hassle finding the proper processes - if anyone knows of an easier way to locate these, PLEASE post! Also, if people are interested in this, please post the apps/processes that you find so we could compile a reference list.
(Holy crap - I did not realize how long this post is becoming...)
its another way to show how friendly the original coder/(mana)gers/corp. is
Sent from my ME865 using XDA
Related
Im a bit of a noob when it comes to Android.
im more a windows mobile person however....
For xmas i recieved an android tablet which is an awesome toy! but ive had issues with making the widgets work on the home screen - they dont show up.
Ive read forums and forums all day and each forum points back to xda:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=780828&page=13
Looks great, downloaded the apk tried to copy it to the system/app folder but it wont let me do it.
Ive managed to confuse myself after hours of reading so hoping someone can give me some ideas.
Ive read about needing the device 'rooted' i still dont understand what this is n how i do it.
Ive also read the file is to be pushed into the folder??
Ive downloaded the terminal emulator, file explorer etc... tried copy/paste, move, cut etc... all with the same answer of insufficent access.
The terminal emulator on the other hand i cannot use as its all touch screen with no hard buttons once running i cannot type into the program.
surely theres an easier way to load things into the system folders?
Sorry if its the wrong section or what seems a simple ask for some direction, I'm used to windows mobile and htc sence modding where you can just delete and replace files at will
Hey,
Root is like the administrator in Windows. By default, you have a user account, not a root or admin account. And therefore you're access permissions are limited. You do not have write permissions to most internal directories and are pretty much limited to the sd card, which is kinda like 'home' in linux or 'my documents' in windows. Also, cannot run applications that require su (superuser, ie: root, admin).
Rooting is the act of accessing the root user account, or admin account. Like 'jail-breaking' in the apple world.
How to root your android depends on which model you have.
For installing the widget app, as long as its an .apk file, you should be able to just click on it and be prompted to install it.
To access your widgets, should be able to log press on a blank area of the home screen and get a option box to select from. Or if you have a 'menu' button there should be an add option.
To use the Terminal, long press 'menu' and your keyboard will popup. Or click menu and there will be an option for the keyboard, also settings to change color, text size and others.
Sent from my ERIS using XDA App
Also, in the terminal, it will use linux commands, not windows commands.
You can google android commands and get a list of common commands.
Good luck. Have fun. If you don't have some linux experience, it may seem like there's a steep learning curve, but most things will become easy after a little tinkering.
Sent from my ERIS using XDA App
im finding this an incredibly steep curve - a bit too steep lol
I would recommend searching <(name of device) root guide> and then you will find your way around.
But, i don't think you need root, root is for when you need to install applications that you need higher permissions to control system settings. Also to install different versions of android.
Your problem seems to be only a bug. If you want to install an application that is not on the market, you just go to your settings and turn on installing from unknown sources.
You don't need to put it in system apps, the apk is like an .exe, just put it on your sd card, install a file manager program like ASTRO, and then open that app, go to the directory you transfered the file, and click it, ASTRO will give you the ability to install it.
patriotaus said:
I would recommend searching <(name of device) root guide> and then you will find your way around.
But, i don't think you need root, root is for when you need to install applications that you need higher permissions to control system settings. Also to install different versions of android.
Your problem seems to be only a bug. If you want to install an application that is not on the market, you just go to your settings and turn on installing from unknown sources.
You don't need to put it in system apps, the apk is like an .exe, just put it on your sd card, install a file manager program like ASTRO, and then open that app, go to the directory you transfered the file, and click it, ASTRO will give you the ability to install it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont think rooting is essential to do this but from what ive read - it helps.
the app in question is this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=780828
this should replace the file on my system which doesnt work. unless anyone has a suggestion to get the same item by installing an apk to achieve as per the instructions state "copy into system/app and set permissions"
I have run out of space on my phone. (Again. Why can't I add an sdcard to this nexus thing dammit?) I'm going through the Storage sections under Settings, picking and choosing what I want to keep and discard. There's a number of items appearing in Downloads that I want to move to my PC, but I can't find the files and the only commands available are Open, Delete and Share.
How do I locate the items so can copy them?
My phone is not rooted and is running Lollipop 5.1.1.
Downloads as shown in from Settings >> Storage:
i.imgur.com/LzJz05I.png
Downloads as seen by ES File Explorer:
i.imgur.com/EJZUHYu.png
(sorry, no active links. I don't have the reputation to post links).
I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but the first image shows the list of things that you've downloaded (and then maybe moved to another folder?) while the second shows what is in your downloads folder now. In other words, one image shows an application, the other shows files.
The Downloads app seems to show items downloaded in the traditional sense (like from my browser, those are the items also seen in 2nd screen shot)
as well as items downloaded by apps, and these are saved somewhere else, not in /sdcard/download.
My question is how do I follow the items from the Download app to their actual location, so I can do something with them?
Double tap on the item opens it. Long press selects it. I need to copy it (or rename or move or...)
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
If my suggestion is correct, and nobody so far has contradicted it, then the download list needn't correspond in any way to what's actually on your phone at this moment. You may have moved the files, deleted them... there may not be anything to find. What you're seeing is just your file download history, not what actually exists now.
One tool that I find invaluable for this sort of thing is Search Everything - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.marlon.searcheverything
It indexes all your files and displays them on the fly - as you type each letter the list of files shown diminishes until you're left with the one you're looking for. If you're looking for a downloaded file then it shouldn't be hidden in an unreachable system folder requiring root. If Search Everything doesn't find what you're looking for, it's a pretty safe bet that it's been deleted.
On your comment about the reason for your question, that your phone is getting full, have you tried Disk Usage to see where the heavy usage is? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.diskusage
And finally consider Stickmount - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.chainfire.stickmount
In combination with an OTG cable (a couple of dollars) and a USB stick, Stickmount allows you to store files on the USB stick, so you can have effectively unlimited storage.
THIS IS FOR SAMSUNG DEVICES THAT ARE NOT ROOTED AND HAVE THE MULTI WINDOW FEATURE.
I really wasn't able to find anything on why app crashes happen in multI window mode for some apps when using mw-pen on devices that are not rooted. So I wanted to post a blurb on how to manually stop the crashes as well as how to manually enable an app, and get things working. Again this is for devices that are not rooted, though it will work with rooted devices. There really is no point in doing it this way on a rooted device unless your bored or you are just slightly insane.
Since your not rooted you will lose all current app data that is not hosted in the respective applications cloud. As well you will need to recompile new packages when updates are released if you want new features or the program will no longer connect, etc. Updating directly from the app store will kill the multiwindow feature on the respective app. If you are user of MW-Pen app enabler skip step 9. and as MW does this already. If you just didn't want to use mw pro......or are again slightly insane.... then do step 9.
All of the steps below will be carried out on Android device.
You will need the following software:
1) File exploration program with zip support (JRUMMY Root Browser works great)
2) Apk Editor (Free version should be fine although I use pro)
We will assume you have the previously mentioned software installed. If it is not you should do so AFTER reading this post.
1) Create an independent folder in "/sdcard/APKeditor/(My project)/" , additionally I created ./backup & ./new (./ representing the working parent directory).
2)Once the folders are in place, go to Settings>Applications>All Applications>YourTargetApplication I recommend stopping your application and clearing any data or at least cache. Although the information should not transfer over it would really bite if you were the one random exception in this vers, and you were giving copies out. Do not disable the application only stop it.
3) Now you will want to backup your target app. To do this fire up "Apk Editor" select the option to pick an apk from a currently installed app select the option for common edit. Click through until you see the save button on the top right corner. THIS IS BACK UP!! SO DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING!!
4) Once it has completed successfully I recommend flipping back to your application manager and uninstalling the target app. Then flip back over to APKeditor and install. Test the app to verify nothing became corrupted and the app functions normally with a backup only. This will help in your trouble shooting.
5) Once you have the app installed and everything is good you will want to again go to to your app manager, stop the target app and clear data or at least cache. Stop do not disable.
6) Now open your File Browser of choice that met the requirments and navigate to "./sdcard/APKEditor/" you shold see an apk named "_Base" with the icon of your target app. That is your know good backup so you will want to move the apk file to its respective backup folder created earlier
7) Once the backup is secure go back into APKeditor and again select the option apk from app. This time instead select the Full Edit option (Resource Rebuild).
8) The fun part! This part should take you no more than 15 seconds if it takes longer than that your messing up (JOKE). From the edit screen you will see 3 buttons in the bottom. Go to the last button or "tab" it is labeled "Manifest". Once selected go ahead and long press an entry under <intent-filter> any entry really should be fine but let's be safe. On the menu that pops up you will see the option "Open In New Window" select it. Take a minute at first to look things over and familiarize yourself with the patterns at first it may seem a bit overwhelming. There is a logical structure to the file it is telling things what to do and where they belong. The top will have the permissions required followed by accessing features pertains to those permissions. We don't care about that however. The main areas you should look through (just look at to get familier) are the <intent-filter> entries along with what preceded the entry and the structure and what follows and again and again until you see the pattern. What we will be doing in the next step (The 10 second step) is adding entries under the <intent-filter> sections.
9) So your 15 seconds is up and now you feel like your ready for the 10 second step. Now that your ready we need to go into a less obvious view. You will now see the reason why I had you look at the code in the first view until you were comfortable. So go ahead and click on the pencil icon in the upper right corner. The first edit will be slightly different than the rest. You will see ano entry that says <application> followed by icon, labels, name, theme, those kinds of things. They should be followed by <activity> then <intent-filter> and then <action>. Under the last <action> item in the grouping and before </intent-filter> is where your entry will go. (<whatever> is the starting point for instructions and </whatever> is the closing point. So if we input in <activity-alias> or <program> then that is where our command would sit. In some random place never meeting up with us for our scheduled date). So we will go below the last action entry in the first grouping, and input the following:
<category android:name="com.sec.android.intent.category.MULTIWINDOW_LAUNCHER" />
<category android:name="com.samsung.android.intent.category.PENWINDOW_LAUNCHER" />
Rinse, wash, and repeat, Rinse, wash, and repeat, Rinse, wash, and repeat......You get the idea... Be sure that </intent-filter> is the line after everytime you make an entry.
10) Now we need to review the document for oddities and/or anomalies to the general rule and what causes app crashes in MultI Window the majority of the time. Typically this happens when overlay singular windows are called from the app and are independent of the general <activity> <intent-filter> <action> rule. In these cases we have to put on our detective hats and poke around. Normally we already know screen the app crashes in so that will is our first clue, so we need to start to look for something to do with that window. If it is a chat window look for a chat window call, etc. In that set of instructions for your crashing window you will want to add in the calls as you have done before you may need to add the first <intent-filter> now you can test. Save the document off to the side and save the apk. And install in real-time. Test the app. You if it was done correctly your app should no longer crash. Unfortunately this is the grey area and things will vary from application to application and this is where detective hats need to be on tight. Look for things like "launchmode=singletask". These can be dead giveaways your in the hot zone of your issue.
11) save the new working apk to the "./new" directory created earlier inserting the app version number after. You can find the new file under the APKeditor folder you should see a new "_Base" File.
*At the end of process 10 you will get an error message when saving saying the file is not authentic etc etc. Ignore the message and continue on.
*As a side note if you follow these instructions, have done trial and error, and things still are not working. Then and ONLY then post below. I can not insure promptness but I will respond when able.
joutcast said:
THIS IS FOR SAMSUNG DEVICES THAT ARE NOT ROOTED AND HAVE THE MULTI WINDOW FEATURE.
I really wasn't able to find anything on why app crashes happen in multI window mode for some apps when using mw-pen on devices that are not rooted. So I wanted to post a blurb on how to manually stop the crashes as well as how to manually enable an app, and get things working. Again this is for devices that are not rooted, though it will work with rooted devices. There really is no point in doing it this way on a rooted device unless your bored or you are just slightly insane.
Since your not rooted you will lose all current app data that is not hosted in the respective applications cloud. As well you will need to recompile new packages when updates are released if you want new features or the program will no longer connect, etc. Updating directly from the app store will kill the multiwindow feature on the respective app. If you are user of MW-Pen app enabler skip step 9. and as MW does this already. If you just didn't want to use mw pro......or are again slightly insane.... then do step 9.
All of the steps below will be carried out on Android device.
You will need the following software:
1) File exploration program with zip support (JRUMMY Root Browser works great)
2) Apk Editor (Free version should be fine although I use pro)
We will assume you have the previously mentioned software installed. If it is not you should do so AFTER reading this post.
1) Create an independent folder in "/sdcard/APKeditor/(My project)/" , additionally I created ./backup & ./new (./ representing the working parent directory).
2)Once the folders are in place, go to Settings>Applications>All Applications>YourTargetApplication I recommend stopping your application and clearing any data or at least cache. Although the information should not transfer over it would really bite if you were the one random exception in this vers, and you were giving copies out. Do not disable the application only stop it.
3) Now you will want to backup your target app. To do this fire up "Apk Editor" select the option to pick an apk from a currently installed app select the option for common edit. Click through until you see the save button on the top right corner. THIS IS BACK UP!! SO DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING!!
4) Once it has completed successfully I recommend flipping back to your application manager and uninstalling the target app. Then flip back over to APKeditor and install. Test the app to verify nothing became corrupted and the app functions normally with a backup only. This will help in your trouble shooting.
5) Once you have the app installed and everything is good you will want to again go to to your app manager, stop the target app and clear data or at least cache. Stop do not disable.
6) Now open your File Browser of choice that met the requirments and navigate to "./sdcard/APKEditor/" you shold see an apk named "_Base" with the icon of your target app. That is your know good backup so you will want to move the apk file to its respective backup folder created earlier
7) Once the backup is secure go back into APKeditor and again select the option apk from app. This time instead select the Full Edit option (Resource Rebuild).
8) The fun part! This part should take you no more than 15 seconds if it takes longer than that your messing up (JOKE). From the edit screen you will see 3 buttons in the bottom. Go to the last button or "tab" it is labeled "Manifest". Once selected go ahead and long press an entry under <intent-filter> any entry really should be fine but let's be safe. On the menu that pops up you will see the option "Open In New Window" select it. Take a minute at first to look things over and familiarize yourself with the patterns at first it may seem a bit overwhelming. There is a logical structure to the file it is telling things what to do and where they belong. The top will have the permissions required followed by accessing features pertains to those permissions. We don't care about that however. The main areas you should look through (just look at to get familier) are the <intent-filter> entries along with what preceded the entry and the structure and what follows and again and again until you see the pattern. What we will be doing in the next step (The 10 second step) is adding entries under the <intent-filter> sections.
9) So your 15 seconds is up and now you feel like your ready for the 10 second step. Now that your ready we need to go into a less obvious view. You will now see the reason why I had you look at the code in the first view until you were comfortable. So go ahead and click on the pencil icon in the upper right corner. The first edit will be slightly different than the rest. You will see ano entry that says <application> followed by icon, labels, name, theme, those kinds of things. They should be followed by <activity> then <intent-filter> and then <action>. Under the last <action> item in the grouping and before </intent-filter> is where your entry will go. (<whatever> is the starting point for instructions and </whatever> is the closing point. So if we input in <activity-alias> or <program> then that is where our command would sit. In some random place never meeting up with us for our scheduled date). So we will go below the last action entry in the first grouping, and input the following:
<category android:name="com.sec.android.intent.category.MULTIWINDOW_LAUNCHER" />
<category android:name="com.samsung.android.intent.category.PENWINDOW_LAUNCHER" />
Rinse, wash, and repeat, Rinse, wash, and repeat, Rinse, wash, and repeat......You get the idea... Be sure that </intent-filter> is the line after everytime you make an entry.
10) Now we need to review the document for oddities and/or anomalies to the general rule and what causes app crashes in MultI Window the majority of the time. Typically this happens when overlay singular windows are called from the app and are independent of the general <activity> <intent-filter> <action> rule. In these cases we have to put on our detective hats and poke around. Normally we already know screen the app crashes in so that will is our first clue, so we need to start to look for something to do with that window. If it is a chat window look for a chat window call, etc. In that set of instructions for your crashing window you will want to add in the calls as you have done before you may need to add the first <intent-filter> now you can test. Save the document off to the side and save the apk. And install in real-time. Test the app. You if it was done correctly your app should no longer crash. Unfortunately this is the grey area and things will vary from application to application and this is where detective hats need to be on tight. Look for things like "launchmode=singletask". These can be dead giveaways your in the hot zone of your issue.
11) save the new working apk to the "./new" directory created earlier inserting the app version number after. You can find the new file under the APKeditor folder you should see a new "_Base" File.
*At the end of process 10 you will get an error message when saving saying the file is not authentic etc etc. Ignore the message and continue on.
*As a side note if you follow these instructions, have done trial and error, and things still are not working. Then and ONLY then post below. I can not insure promptness but I will respond when able.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
XDA Assist is not the place for this post.
Thread closed.
Hey guys, this is my first thread, and I'm a bit confused on the app. Today I'll tell how did I stop the freaking google 'malware' from installing and updating every single day. This would work on any rooted device that has access to the data partition, maybe it could be reproduced via adb without root.
First off, I searched everywhere looking on how to disable, uninstall, break, or do anything to this forced battery hog. The best answers were using 'pm hide' on the package but this caused a very high battery usage, due to the file dependencies. So I searched where it was installed. Luckily enough, it is an user app, so it means I would find it on /data/app and /data/data. I will use solid explorer, but any file manager with root access and chmod to change permissions should do just fine.
Once we locate the folder (/data/app/com.google.android.instantapps.supervisor-1 in my case) we delete it. Utterly. After that, we will create a file, and name it exactly the same as the folder did. This is a dummy file that the system will believe it is a folder, and will try to install the application inside it. We fill that file with enough random characters for making the system think it can't just delete it (sometimes cleaners point empty files as worthless and wipe them out)
Now we need to make the dummy file unremovable for anyone but us, by using chmod. Solid explorer has a nice interface for that. We long press the file, enter to properties and set the permission to 0 0 0 (attributes tab). This makes play store unable to delete the file to recover the old folder, and when it tries to download the package, it will fail because it won't have a respective folder to be sent to.
After this, we reboot the phone and see that google play services for instant apps has lost roughly 90% of it's size, and when we enter settings>google>google play instant it'll ask for installation. I was bold enough to accept, just for getting an error dialogue when it tried to install itself.
Known issue: The app reinstalls once again after reboot. The cause is that, when android can't install the app in the first folder (the one that ends with a -1), it can create a second one (ending with a -2 instead), like an alternative. This is solved by just doing the same procedure above on the second folder, and you will end up having two dummy files instead of one. A third folder cannot show up, or at least it didn't in my phone.
Notes: You can repeat this with the folder in /data/data and any other data partition level instant app folder, but I wouldn't do it because I already broke all functionality since I deleted the base apk, and the app size is less than 300KB now so I don't think the trouble is worth it.
You must whitelist these files from any memory cleaner, i.e SD maid corpse finder will delete it thinking it's a leftover of an old app
WARNING; I'M NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY MISLEADS, WRONGS, OR PLUTONIUM-UNSTABLE ROMS THAT MAY EXPLODE IN ANY WAY. YOU ARE THE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR DEVICE'S SAFETY AS THIS ISN'T EVEN FULLY TESTED IN MY PHONE AND I DON'T KNOW THE ULTIMATE CONSEQUENCES OF DOING THIS. YOU ARE WARNED.
PD: Please make some suggestions about how I made the thread, I did what I think it's my best
I saw this on my device, and only found little info/threads, with almost zero content/analysis. Aparently the kindle app leaves a bunch of random files around. And since the prefix is "RCE" i am a little paranoid, since that usually means "Remote code execution" and is usually associated with exploits
Files:
CS_JIT_Animation.mp4
jit_cs_positive_preview.png
rce_plugin_strings_resource_cs_CZ.json.min
rce_plugin_strings_resource_de_DE.json.min
rce_plugin_strings_resource_en_US.json.min
rce_plugin_strings_resource_es_ES.json.min
rce_plugin_strings_resource_fr_FR.json.min
rce_plugin_strings_resource_it_IT.json.min
rce_plugin_strings_resource_ja_JP.json.min
rce_plugin_strings_resource_nl_NL.json.min
rce_plugin_strings_resource_pt_BR.json.min
rce_plugin_strings_resource_v2_TYPO_TEST.json
rce_plugin_strings_resource_zh_CN.json.min
All Attached in a zip created by the android native file manager.
Current places mentioning this
https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/unkown-files-in-download.948860/
https://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/Xper...erious-Files-in-Downloads-Folder/td-p/1353185
https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-xz1/help/phone-mysterious-files-download-folder-t3871763
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMmx5tRm0jM (one of the files is a video, someone uploaded to youtube ...and to https://gfycat.com/generouspinkcolt
How to make those files appear for you:
Install kindle from the google app store
if you already have it installed, or want to see the files again after you deleted, Stop the app and delete all storage. (nothing will be lost, this app syncs everything and some more to the amazon servers)
perform the first Sync on kindle app
Now, insert a pen drive and open the native android File Mananger and look at the local Download folder
Files are somewhat hidden:
If you look into the download folder with any other app (I tried, blackberry file manager, oi file manager, Ghost Commander, and Termux --after enabling the storage setup)
Files probably have a weird attribute or ownership... but the native android file manager does not show anything other than creation date! And every single file operation (copy, move, compress) reset the information to "regular user, creation time set to now". So either I see them on the Native File Manager, without any information available, or I do not see the files until I destroy the information.
Android version is not important (seems to happen on several versions) and has been happening for a while (First mention seems to be Nov2018)
Anyone have any idea what this is? I know I will probably reverse eng the kindle app at some point, wast a bunch of time, and realize it is just some dumb amateur library badly implemented by amazon... or maybe not. I think at this point I am most curious as to how the app "hides" the files from most everything.