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When you buy a new phone for your child. You want it must be a cool phone, but you also don't want your child uses WiFi function.
I have seen many people wondering here and there to Disable the WiFi permanently in their device. So i thought to make a thread regarding this.
I have seen many posts asking to remove or rename the WiFi Modules to Disable the WiFi but when i tried that unfortunately it failed to delete the Module.
So i moved on for another step and found easy steps to Disable WiFi permanently
Tested & worked in HTC M8 (4.4.2) & Nexus 5 (5.1)
This is a simple trick played in Build.prop which can disable the WiFi of your device for ever.
All you need is :
Rooted Device
ES File Explorer
RB Text Editor
First of all i recommend you to make a system backup with TWRP
here we go :
1. Open ES File Explorer and get Root access
2. Go to system folder and open Build.prop using RB Text Editor (i recommend you to backup original file)
3. Remove the below mentioned lines in Build.prop
Code:
[COLOR="red"]wifi.interface=
wifi.supplicant_scan_interval=[/COLOR]
4. save it and reboot!!
You can notice that WiFi buttons are no longer in use
Warning!
Im not responsible for any damage caused. Always Make Backup
Disclaimers:
PM me before you post!
#Reserved
Does this cause problems with broadcasting a Hotspot?
olearius said:
Does this cause problems with broadcasting a Hotspot?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No i guess
did not test that yet
please before i install new version of cm 12 how i can edit wifi to not turn on auto
Is there any Way to Disable Mobile Network Internet also ? Like 2G Edge , 3G ,4G etc.,
There is manual option to Disable Data Usage.
Is there any permanent Solution ?
Yes you can disable data permanently....
ashu55 said:
Is there any Way to Disable Mobile Network Internet also ? Like 2G Edge , 3G ,4G etc.,
There is manual option to Disable Data Usage.
Is there any permanent Solution ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From my experience you have three options: 1. go into settings and disable your data that way, 2. download an app that allows for easy data on/off switching or 3. which I'm going to do myself when I buy a new (used ebay) phone in the next couple weeks for someone: contact my prepaid carrier and ask them to "disable the data". They can do this at the carrier-level. This will prevent a child for example from re-enabling the data just by clicking a button on their phone. I just verified with my carrier today that they can in fact do this. Good luck!
Hello .. sir ... I had seen that file in that text editor .. i dont found that coding... Nw what i can do.. pls tell me...
[email protected]
This did not work for my phone, as those program lines are not present in my build.prop folder, but I found a solution for my Samsung Galaxy S5 Neo (6.0.1) that I know many others are looking for, it will probably work for all the galaxy models or at least some of them. Here it is:
1. Root your phone using "oneclickroot.com", they will do everything for you, including installing TWRP and SuperSU. Be sure to pay attention to how to access TWRP (Team Win Recovery Project)... for me it was by holding down the volume up, home, and power keys simultaneously and then releasing the power key on seeing red letters. It might vary phone to phone.
2. Make a system backup with TWRP after rooting by accessing TWRP and simply clicking "backup" and then swipe. In the event that you need to restore just access TWRP and click and swipe "restore".
3. Use a file managing app like "Root Browser" by JRummy from google play to go into these file folders: "system/etc/wifi"
4. In the Wifi folder delete the first four files:
bcmdhd_apsta.bin
bcmdhd_ibss.bin
bcmd_mfg.bin
bcmd_sta.bin
4. Now reboot your phone by simply turning it off and back on again.
5. All done, your phone's wifi will no longer work.
6. If for whatever reason you don't want to be able to get it back ever again, just go delete your system backup in TWRP and you won't be able to get it back.
If you don't see these files in your phone after rooting, don't be discouraged. I figured it out with a little experimentation and I knew absolutely nothing about programming or androids... I still don't. Just make a system backup with TWRP and experiment by deleting different files that have "Wifi" in their name. Only delete one at a time or a small group of files at a time, and restart the phone every time as programming changes will not take effect until you do. Every time you brick (disable) the phone, just use TWRP to restore your OS (Operating System) using your TWRP backup. It only takes about 2 minutes to restore every time. I bricked my phone about 4 times in the process of figuring this out. Very simple and easy.
Also, your carrier will usually be willing to apply a "data block" to your account if you call them. For $2/month Koodo will apply a data block that makes it impossible to access data.
Hello,
I couldn't find neither the file "Build.prop"
neither these files.
I have an intel tab with android 5.0
me too
I have android 6.. didn't find any of them...
Jasmin74 said:
Hello,
I couldn't find neither the file "Build.prop"
neither these files.
I have an intel tab with android 5.0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And to enable it whats the number Code ?? I have lenovo Vibek4 note , my wifi configured interface is Disable, Please help
If I did this to disable wi-fi on my child's phone, could they simply undo it by doing a factory reset of the phone?
Disable Wifi on Moto G6 / Pie
I recently had to do the same thing with my child's phone. She was just too good at circumventing the usual child protections and getting on the internet to surf adult material and chat with random stalkers halfway around the planet.
She has a Moto G6 with Android 9.0 PIE.
1. Rooted it
2. Loaded a file manager and after much trial and error found that wifi could be disabled with name changes on:
/vendor/lib/modules/wlan.ko -> wlan.bak
/vendor/lib/modules/pronto_wlan.ko -> pronto_wlan.back
Then, reboot the phone.
The user can attempt to start wifi, but it fails. No boot issues.
thedude06 said:
If I did this to disable wi-fi on my child's phone, could they simply undo it by doing a factory reset of the phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, they could. That's why I also used Google Family Link to set up a minor child account for her and made it the main account for the phone after I changed the file names above, but before rebooting. GLF prevents a factor reset from within the phone or changing the user. She could try to boot into recovery and perform a factory flash, but then it's going to want the same google account as before....and she doesn't have the password. Fastboot is locked as well. The only issue you might have is that google somehow thinks all 14 yr-olds should be independent enough to remove supervision, but I guess you could do the same thing that the kids do to get around age limits - change the birth date.
I also shut off data at the wireless provider.
Now, she's got a smart phone that calls and texts, but can't get on the internet or play store. Also, without the internet, no updates that will wipe out these changes.
Does not work for me
Hi
I have a Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime with LineageOs, rooted. I didnt find the files you were speaking about.
Except build.prop, but the mentioned lines didnt even exist in my phone files. Is there any other way to disable wifi permanently ?
Thanks
Sorry for the bump, but I really need to disable wifi in a Android 10 LineageOS based rom, but none of this solutions works...
How can I do this?
How to find Driver Files to disable the Wifi
There were a couple of bumps on this thread regarding driver files for wifi and how people weren't able to find these files on their phone.
The answer is that if you don't see the driver files mentioned in the thread above, it's because they're called something else, if they exist at all.
For the Moto 6, I spent a fair amount time doing trial and error renaming of system files until something worked. It took me some time and research to determine that for PIE, the .ko files represented some sort of driver files. Then, I went searching for .ko files with wifi in them, and then finally, I located the two files mentioned in the thread above. For your phone, they may be in a completely different directory, or named something different.
I knew that I had figured it out when I booted the phone, and was unable to get the wifi to work or even detect any signal.
Maybe there's a parameter file on your phone that controls the wifi settings, or maybe you rename driver files like I did.
I've done this a couple of times now on my kid's phones, and for each phone, the driver files were different. The last phone I did, I went ahead and posted to this forum so maybe someone else can get some benefit.
Best of luck!
-Oldguy51
An alternative solution for this issue is to assign a wrong universal local IP address for all wifi connections and the final user cant change it... Just Saying.
Wrong Universal Local IP Address
Orbitv said:
An alternative solution for this issue is to assign a wrong universal local IP address for all wifi connections and the final user cant change it... Just Saying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's in interesting concept. How would you do this on an Android phone?
etienne_9000 said:
Does not work for me
Hi
I have a Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime with LineageOs, rooted. I didnt find the files you were speaking about.
Except build.prop, but the mentioned lines didnt even exist in my phone files. Is there any other way to disable wifi permanently ?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mdio said:
Sorry for the bump, but I really need to disable wifi in a Android 10 LineageOS based rom, but none of this solutions works...
How can I do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well Well Well, I'm just 2 years late bumped on this thread .
It's Andoid 11 minimum in these times or even 12 & now 13 is also available.
But I managed to keep Wifi off while keeping Bluetooth Pairing & BT file transfers On, Hotspot On & Data On specially because Flight Mode no longer Disables WiFi, Bluetooth & Hotspot (only keeps Data off) since andoid 9 i think.
------------------ Worked on Andoid 11 GSI, Galaxy M-Series -----------------
I] If you just want WiFi disabled permanently, then Here are the steps that worked :
> Install Magisk or SuperSU And Optionally TWRP/Any Custom Recovery
> Install any Root Exploration app & grant it Root permissions
> Create a Backup (nandroid or anything that can backup your data)
> Using the Root Exploration app navigate to (vendor/etc/wifi)
> Look for the file ( wpa_supplicant_overlay.conf ), Tap and select Text Editor option
> Change to this -> [ p2p_disabled=0 ] , [ update_config=0 ], [ pmf=0 ] then tap Save.
> Reboot.
> Go to Settings >> Apps >> Bluetooth MIDI Service >> Reset the app
> Go to Settings >> Apps >> Bluetooth >> Reset the app
> Reset Network Settings (Settings >> System >> Reset Options >> Reset WiFi, Mobile & Bluetooth)
> Reset Firewall Settings(AFFirewall+, Netguard etc.)
> Reboot to Recovery
> Wipe Dalvik/ART Cache & Cache
> Reboot to System
Now WiFi & Location should be permanently disabled but you can still connect BT wireless & send/receive BT files (mp3, jpeg etc. but not apk, exe etc.) also Hotspot, Data , Manual Location (Not GPS Location) works.
#BUGS: Windows does not Connect Automatically to phone Hotspot, manual reconnect needed everytime. GPS Location breaks but Manual Location entry can be picked-up by apps like Opera Browser etc.
II] There is also another same way to get WiFi, BT, Hotspot Disabled while keeping ONLY Data Enabled but that was not the original question on this post so no need I guess.
Hello!
This is a discussion thread for NEC Terrain.
The hardcore steps, which are bootloader unlock, rooting and even repartitioning have found their solutions and can be found in:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2515602 for the discussion
https://github.com/x29a/nec_terrain_root for an apk which opens for you an ability to have the system area of the phone writeable
https://github.com/alex-kas/nec_terrain for the last ideas on how recovery and boot images should be and a list of stock apps to disable with explanations
So, all questions regarding all the above should be asked in that thread as they are off-topic here.
Currently we have to use this device with its stock components. You are welcome to contribute with workaround related to known oddities here.
Note that many questions were already asked in the above mentioned thread and some of them have answers. However, since that thread is supposed to for the rooting/unlocking, it is more than logic to separate the topics and discuss the end-user phone features here.
If you have a serious idea towards a new custom ROM then you should go here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software-hacking/rom-nec-terrain-custom-rom-t3162061
That thread is dedicated for the developers of a new csutom ROM for NEC Terrain
Thanks for understanding the thread aim and welcome!
First exploration
You can find apps which can be disabled with some explanation why in
https://github.com/alex-kas/nec_terrain/tree/master/system
The speciall account should be paid to the following issues:
Why stock Contacts and Phone must not be disabled
Why apps with provider in their name should treated carefully
Current impossibility to activate a soft keyboard (if you need chinese, for example).
The latter question of a soft-keyboard for this phone has been asked before in
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2806270
and has no answer. There is further discussion on this in my github (see above)
On more oddity which at least my phone has: when I travers to
Settings->wrieless & networks->more...->Mobile networks
I see as the last option "network operators". This option i constantly greyed out. It is useful in roaming as often different orpeators have different prices. Also, near the borders of a country som eforeignn operators can be captured. This is bad. Anyone with ideas on this?
i was wondering if someone with a fully functional Terrain upload their /system/app folder and its contents, I've seemed to remove an essential app somewhere and now I can't do phone calls or terrain hotspot.
Daxiongmao87 said:
i was wondering if someone with a fully functional Terrain upload their /system/app folder and its contents, I've seemed to remove an essential app somewhere and now I can't do phone calls or terrain hotspot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can do this tomorrow. I am able to phone call, hotspot, etc. I've noticed that with me, sometimes the phone UI won't show up when someone calls me so I cannot answer the phone... If this happens, just do a Wipe Data on the phone apk and reboot.
Sent from my LG-D415 using XDA Forums
@jasonmerc much appreciated! My backup phone just isn't cutting it for me!
Daxiongmao87 said:
@jasonmerc much appreciated! My backup phone just isn't cutting it for me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem man . Just curious, what is your backup phone?
Sent from my LG-D415 using XDA
My nieces phone for her upcoming birthday. The excuse I'm making to myself is that I'm "test driving" it. It's called the Xperia Tipo, she's only 9 and would be using it at more or less a little toy; no SIM card. I have better ones actually, HTC One and a Moto X (2013), the latter being my favorite phone without a hardware keyboard.
I'm wondering about 2 questions, guys:
1. @Daxiongmao87, what is the hotspot you are talking about?
2. @jasonmerc, can you provide to me the list of your apps, enabled and disabled? Or, if you just uninstalled them (so no disabled) then only enabled.
I want to see the list given in adb shell by
pm list packages -e -f [for ENabled with file-names]
pm list packages -d -f [for DISabled with file-names]
I'm curious about this can/cannot do phone calls. I had established some dependence but you have said you CAN do calls with attsettingsprovider disabled and even see contacts. Very strange to me and I want to find the truth I.e. Can I or not eventually get rid of stock contacts at all.
Thanks in advance.
@alex-kas hotspot meaning wireless tethering. There's a system app with the package name containing hotspot. I believe jasonmerc already provided me with that earlier along with the phone apk, but ultimately did not help fix my issue. My symptom for the two issues are as follows:
Wifi Hotspot (Tethering)
-Under the Tethering & portable hotspot menu, toggling Portable Wi-Fi hotspot reveals a subtext that reads "Failed to set transmit power"
Phone Calls
-My phone no longer notifies me whether or not I have a SIM card. No icon or any indicator at all. My signal icon always shows zero bars. attempting to make a phone causes Contacts to crash ("Unfortunately, Contact has stopped.") and haults the phone call process.
I hope this information helps a little bit. More than likely i'm missing a vital app that I carelessly removed upon tinkering.
Daxiongmao87 said:
@alex-kas hotspot meaning wireless tethering. There's a system app with the package name containing hotspot. I believe jasonmerc already provided me with that earlier along with the phone apk, but ultimately did not help fix my issue. My symptom for the two issues are as follows:
Wifi Hotspot (Tethering)
-Under the Tethering & portable hotspot menu, toggling Portable Wi-Fi hotspot reveals a subtext that reads "Failed to set transmit power"
Phone Calls
-My phone no longer notifies me whether or not I have a SIM card. No icon or any indicator at all. My signal icon always shows zero bars. attempting to make a phone causes Contacts to crash ("Unfortunately, Contact has stopped.") and haults the phone call process.
I hope this information helps a little bit. More than likely i'm missing a vital app that I carelessly removed upon tinkering.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you read my github?
https://github.com/alex-kas/nec_terrain/tree/master/system
If not, try to see there. I spent quite a time and I'm sure my phone IS working in both aspects you mention. Pay attention to: contacts, phone, attsettingsprovider and installation of "dw contacts". All of that is by purpose. Perhaps, my phone would not work w/o "dw contacts" but I just learned that a replacement (which joins phone app and contacts app, which are disintegrated once you remove attsettingsprovider) MUST be.
You will find there files: lists of enabled and disabled programs. Compare with yours. In adb shell:
pm list packages -d [gives disabled packages] -s [if only system]
pm list packages -e [gives enabled packages, all, system and 3-rd party] -s [if only system]
My lists contain ONLY system apps. 'system' are those who reside in /system/apk OR in /data but are upgrades to initial system apps. Hope this helps. If you have put there superuser - it is system now, for example.
I can also imagine that moving some app to sdcard makes the system buggy. I had no full skype autostart then it was moved.
hotspot in the name does NOTHING with tethering.
@alex-kas you should have a full list of apps I have installed already, I PM'd you a list a while back. About to do the /system/app dump, most likely I'll package it as a zip or 7z file and upload and share from Google Drive.
Also as a little update, I mentioned the GPL stuff in my ATT thread. Waiting for a response
Sent from my LG-D415 using XDA
Here's the contents of my /system/app folder. Apparently I don't have ATTSettingsProvider.apk, BUT I still have ATTSettingsProvider.odex if that makes a difference.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxupjEjigG4taFZhWXl3RjVULTA/view?usp=sharing
alex-kas said:
Have you read my github?
https://github.com/alex-kas/nec_terrain/tree/master/system
If not, try to see there. I spent quite a time and I'm sure my phone IS working in both aspects you mention. Pay attention to: contacts, phone, attsettingsprovider and installation of "dw contacts". All of that is by purpose. Perhaps, my phone would not work w/o "dw contacts" but I just learned that a replacement (which joins phone app and contacts app, which are disintegrated once you remove attsettingsprovider) MUST be.
You will find there files: lists of enabled and disabled programs. Compare with yours. In adb shell:
pm list packages -d [gives disabled packages] -s [if only system]
pm list packages -e [gives enabled packages, all, system and 3-rd party] -s [if only system]
My lists contain ONLY system apps. 'system' are those who reside in /system/apk OR in /data but are upgrades to initial system apps. Hope this helps. If you have put there superuser - it is system now, for example.
I can also imagine that moving some app to sdcard makes the system buggy. I had no full skype autostart then it was moved.
hotspot in the name does NOTHING with tethering.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://pastebin.com/1yRtvVhz
Thank you for your assist!!
And @jasonmerc thanks a bunch!! Giving it a shot now
EDIT: back online with wifi tethering and cell network thanks again guys
Edit 2: By the way, has anyone experienced unexpected reboots during high RAM usage? Games for example?
Sent from my NEC-NE-201A1A using XDA Free mobile app
@alex-kas after successfully applying your custom recovery and resizing my partitions i seemed to have lost my boot animation and sound. It just shows a black screen. Is this intended? Perhaps with the new build.prop?
Yeap, i disabled bootanimation. It seems to increase the boottime even more.
Sent on the go
Yes, I've experienced reboots when doing multiple things. For me it's usually just watching a video or something... Perhaps it overheats and that's what causes the reboot. On average my Terrain's CPU is somewhere in the 120°F range, and if I use it it can go up to 145°F at times. It will sometimes even get so hot that I get a notification stating the device is too hot to continue charging, and I need to try charging again in a few minutes. Is this normal?
Sent from my LG-D415 using XDA
jasonmerc said:
Yes, I've experienced reboots when doing multiple things. For me it's usually just watching a video or something... Perhaps it overheats and that's what causes the reboot. On average my Terrain's CPU is somewhere in the 120°F range, and if I use it it can go up to 145°F at times. It will sometimes even get so hot that I get a notification stating the device is too hot to continue charging, and I need to try charging again in a few minutes. Is this normal?
Sent from my LG-D415 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm I thought I replied to this. I experience overheats as well, but mostly when using maps. However, I haven't been able to see a correlation between reboots and overheating. I have a feeling that when available memory gets too low the system becomes unstable and inevitably reboots. With the new partition size I was able to install hearthstone without any need for apps like Link2SD, but upon loading all of its assets to start an actual game session it reboots every single time. When not attempting to play that game, during times where the phone feels sluggish or unresponsive, it often follows with a reboot.
Daxiongmao87 said:
Hmm I thought I replied to this. I experience overheats as well, but mostly when using maps. However, I haven't been able to see a correlation between reboots and overheating. I have a feeling that when available memory gets too low the system becomes unstable and inevitably reboots. With the new partition size I was able to install hearthstone without any need for apps like Link2SD, but upon loading all of its assets to start an actual game session it reboots every single time. When not attempting to play that game, during times where the phone feels sluggish or unresponsive, it often follows with a reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly what I have denoted as the kernel bug, see
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=61915007&postcount=293
In addition to the info there: reboots happen if several not so big files (say, 50MiB each) are read in a row, not just a single file of > 500MiB. Loading a large set of game assets just confirms this.
I traced this bug and the point is that its origin is a mystery to me. It is in a part which I would never imagine was changed from the linux source. Just no need for this.
In short, the ext2,3,4 driver, reading data, then caches them (linux always caches, all it reads, as much as possible). At some point the cache request to allocate the memory just ignores the negative answer (i.e. no memory), it just does not check this answer at all and caches to NULL, i.e. start of the memory, where the memory map is. As it is the kernel, it has right to write there, writes, kernel panics - reboot.
How come? I have no idea. This code was already working in about 2005 ... and bug-free in about 2008 ...
@alex-kas you get what you pay for I guess...
Sent from my LG-D415 using XDA
jasonmerc said:
@alex-kas you get what you pay for I guess...
Sent from my LG-D415 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What exactly you mean? The phone is not that cheap. If new. Especially from att.
As I am sure all Alcatel Idol 3 owners noticed by now, Alcatel have, over the last year or so, released on Google Play "updates" for most of their builtin software - the launcher, file manager, radio player, photo gallery, calendar and more - with what is, if I can be blunt - malware, updates whose only intention is to show you ads and notifications (whereas the original applications, obviously, did not have ads) which you have no way of disabling, and who knows what else.
I avoided this crap by "uninstalling" the updated applications and getting back the preinstalled versions.
BUT, today I started getting on all my Alcatel Idol phones (I have 3 of them!), OTA Android update. And I'm worried what would happen if I click it. Will I get the "updated" (malicious) versions of all the builtin applications with no way to revert them?
Does anyone have an experience with the new OTA update that came out yesterday? Can you tell me if after the update, the "joy launcher", "file manager", etc., are decent versions or the crappy versions which show ads?
P.S. Alcatel, you guys are idiots. I love your phones, and in the past bought 5 of them, but I'll *never* buy another phone from you because of this malware issue.
i have been wondering the same thing, i was scared to even touch the notification to see if it is a large upgrade or just 1 or 2 megabytes, in case touching it forces me to download it. please note, i have no idea if the OTA is any good, but i'm going to continue this post to vent about alcatel idol 3.
i was a bit annoyed with the last system upgrade, which started flashing the screen on and off periodically when any notifications were left active... for me, i always leave some notifications going, so that i don't forget about them or just want to leave them up even if i never take any action with them...
so i'm sure this takes a toll on my battery, since the screen will be flashing on and off for a few minutes before it stops.
i was shocked when a few months ago (or even a year?) apps started sending ads to the notification bar, from reading some posts i figured out you not only had to stop auto-updates in the play store, but also go into the updates app and disable them there. i didn't even know ads on a stock system were a thing, until i saw my dad's BLU $50 phone and realized that's how they make a decent phone $50.
since my idol 3 4.7" was relatively cheap at $180, i could see how they might need to put ads, but if i got a brand new alcatel phone at over $400, i'd be even more furious, do they put ads on their brand new phones?
i see a lot of cheap phones on amazon now listed having versions with "lockscreen offers and ads" including idol 5s
as long as the ads aren't malicious, and if you can just block notifications in android (i dunno if they somehow disable that) then it's sort of worth saving the money
anyway, i've had my idol 3 4.7" for just about 2 years, it's still fine, but i guess i'm starting to think about getting something else. i'd love to get another small phone, right before this i had an xperia z1 compact which i loved but the the battery started failing and bloating after less than a year and a half, so i'm kind of thinking i should never spend over $200 for a phone again (that one was $350)
my android history has been
nexus one $529
galaxy nexus $435.50
xperia z1 compact $350
idol 3 4.7" $180
i've been looking at nokia's new androids lately, or some kind of honor maybe
but my idol 3 4.7" is still working fine pretty much
i just remembered one other thing i hated about the marshmallow updated, which is the adopted SD card storage...
from what i understand if your phone dies, everything that was on the SD card can never be read again, because it works only when plugged into your phone. i mean i guess that's good for security, but it should be optional. it'd be nice to just be able to take that SD card to a new phone and just have everything that was there on it again.
i just noticed someone's post about "semi-adopted" SD card, which i guess means making 2 partitions, which kinda makes sense, but it would be nice if android offered that as a preset option. i had just gotten an SD card a few weeks before the marshmallow update came out and moving apps to SD for apps that supported it, worked fine.
anyway, i don't think and kinda hope no one read this, i'm not sure why i wrote this
I know that feeling, bros
Actually, I managed to uninstall built-in apps using adb shell, which was described in the discussion about Debloater (the app itself did not work after Marshmallow update):
Code:
pm uninstall --user 0 com.package.name
(this uninstalls system apps for the current user, so that they cannot be launched, do not notify about their updates in Google Play, and this works without root)
nyh said:
BUT, today I started getting on all my Alcatel Idol phones (I have 3 of them!), OTA Android update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dear nyh, what is your region and phone model (like, 6045K or 6039Y or with other letter in the end)? Here in Belarus (Eastern Europe), my 6045Y does not notify of any update (current system version 6.0.1-010 20).
Mankann said:
Dear nyh, what is your region and phone model (like, 6045K or 6039Y or with other letter in the end)? Here in Belarus (Eastern Europe), my 6045Y does not notify of any update (current system version 6.0.1-010 20).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the 4.7" model 6039S, and three more phones of the 5.5" model, I don't remember now their model number.
What I'm running now appears to be Android 6.0.1 build number "1BGD-UED2". I don't know how this relates to your number. I noticed the "update" program tells me the new version is "0100020" which is suspiciously close to the number you said, maybe it's the same. With your version, does "uninstalling" the "Joy Launcher" (and other) applications to get back to the preinstalled one, gets you a decent version, or one with ads?
nyh said:
I noticed the "update" program tells me the new version is "0100020" which is suspiciously close to the number you said, maybe it's the same. With your version, does "uninstalling" the "Joy Launcher" (and other) applications to get back to the preinstalled one, gets you a decent version, or one with ads?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, I understand now. It seems that your phone wants to update to the version that removes fastboot commands (so I suggest you triple-think and triple-check before upgrading).
"Uninstalling" system apps does not revert them to preinstalled versions, it makes them completely unavailable until hard reset (they are only listed in Settings labeled with "Disabled for current user" and cannot be run). If you decide to do this, you should first install some alternative apps (like Nova Launcher, Google Calendar etc), or else you won't be able to boot and use your phone.
I have the Idol 3 5.5 6045l(USA) Android 6.0.1 Build number 7VGE-UEE1.
I am reluctant to install the OTA I have pending:
______________________________
System update available
010 01 (471.5 MB)
New in this version
Version 7VGS-UES6 includes a security update that fixes Android major security flaw.
Update info:
- Netflix service
- Gameloft games
- UE improvements& bug fixes
______________________________
I am baffled that Alcatel would include Netflix & Gameloft with a major security fix.
After the adware riddled system app updates(that I've reverted to original) I will wait for more information before updating.
I love my phone and was considering buying a back-up or an Idol 4s especially as it seems that the front-facing speakers have been dropped from Alcatel's 2018 lineup.
But the bond of trust concerning system & app updates has been broken.
[Not sure whether one will be able to revert adware riddled system apps after the update]
That's real bad
Maybe this "security update" is resolving BlueBorne vulnerability (actually I wrote Alcatel about this, and they told me not to have bluetooth on all the time, wait patiently and install an antivirus which of course I did not do). But Netflix or Gameloft as system (priv-)apps is a no way (I struggled with TWO hidden Facebook services preinstalled on my phone until I found a method to "remove" them, which I described above).
If such an update comes to me (it may take days, weeks or months before it reaches all regions), and if no one installs it, I will do it and report here
I was stupid and sleepy and didn't fully check the update notes in depth when I saw it pop-up yesterday, I figured the majority of it was for security and maybe a couple of quality of life improvements like a new lock screen, even the entry about the Netflix app just sounded to me like they were fixing a problem people might have been having with it. suddenly I have and Netflix app I didn't want, a news app, some sort of Alcatel store front and two space wasting games (or at least one game and some gameloft "50 free games thing I have no use for).
I got rid of the apps that could be insta-deleted, and the netflix app can at least be disabled, but the filemanager is by far the worse offender. It's "boost" download and obnoxious UI, not to mention it clutters my notifications and lock screen. I've managed to quiet it down by canceling its access and whatever permissions I could. The fact that it restarts itself after a few seconds is just as irritating even before the reports that it actually may make my phone operate worse. I haven't experienced anything yet aside from the Google Play store crashing once while trying to figure out how to get rid of the update, but that was shortly after doing the factory reset and it's only been a day.
Whats mroe annoying is this now part of their most recent update on Idol 3. It's now impossible to revert or kill this as it's all baked in, not even factory reset will remove it. The new file manager app restarts at every turn, even after Force stop and will not allow you to disable it, and it seems to resist methods of hiding it from the user. I'm still seeking ways of getting rid of it that dont require rooting my phone but at this point it seems like the only possible answer, which is a shame because I was fine not rooting android, this was a really nice phone until they ruined it with this garbage. I know I'm pretty much screwed because My computer doesn't always seem to respond properly to Android stuff for some reason so any attempt to root will probably result in me bricking the thing, and even if I could root I'm not certain I'm comfortable with my phone being that open with other applications like this roaming around not to mention the questions of whether any of my desired apps will respond poorly to my doing it. But I wanted to at least add my voice to the rest that are complaining about this and telling Alcatel this is the last product of their's I'll ever own.
@PN04
Thank you for your very detailed report. Sorry to hear of the predicament you are now in. It goes without saying that I - thanks to you - will not be updating.
PN04 said:
I got rid of the apps that could be insta-deleted, and the netflix app can at least be disabled, but the filemanager is by far the worse offender. It's "boost" download and obnoxious UI, not to mention it clutters my notifications and lock screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have you held down on a notification and hit the (i) and then block notifications?
does it somehow disregard that? that was a new feature added in marshmallow
zxcvb2 said:
have you held down on a notification and hit the (i) and then block notifications?
does it somehow disregard that? that was a new feature added in marshmallow
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have, it takes you to the app notification section where you can reduce it's priority, stop it from peeking and "hide sensitive content" (not sure what that last one means but I turned them all off anyway). As far as I can tell it's teeth are pulled as long as I don't actually start the app or give it any permissions when it asks, but the fact that constantly force stopping it only gets rid of the menu bar on my lock screen for a few seconds and that little stupid broom icon is constantly showing in my bar at the top means it's still an ugly scar on an otherwise nice phone. also App memory usage claims it's used 27 mb in the last 3 hours and I havent' even touched it.
I'll probably be studying up on rooting this weekend.
ichmoimeyo said:
@PN04
Thank you for your very detailed report. Sorry to hear of the predicament you are now in. It goes without saying that I - thanks to you - will not be updating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, no update for me either thanks to PN04's findings. I have managed to silence the Update app by uninstalling updates on the app and then turning off auto update and notifications. So far so good, no nagging messages about the update. Considering my latest security patch is from Nov 2016, I was not expecting to get any more anyway.
Shame on you Alcatel for ruining an otherwise perfect phone! Maybe i can get one more year on this one. The Xperia XZ1 Compact is looking more and more attractive, apart from the price (native Wifi calling, VoLTE and band 12 on TMO US, stuff that this phone didn't have and start to become more important for me).
Glad it helped. I guess I can take some measure of comfort in that at least.
The result of the upgrade.
nyh said:
Does anyone have an experience with the new OTA update that came out yesterday? Can you tell me if after the update, the "joy launcher", "file manager", etc., are decent versions or the crappy versions which show ads?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, I was surprised nobody came up to talk about their experience with the upgrade, so I took a risk and updated two of my Alcatel Idol 3 phones (mine and my son's) to the new update. Like in the old movie, I have good news, bad news, and ugly news:
The bad news was that the application content of the update was just as lousy as I feared it would be. It has the evil file manager and a bunch of other crap applications which spew notifications all the time, spontaneously install applications you never wanted to install, and so on. The strangest thing is that the update claims to add Netflix support, but actually uninstalled the Netflix app that I already had installed, which was very annoying (I had to re-install Netflix, re-download my downloads, and tell Netflix that I don't have the "old" device any more so it will let me download on the "new" one).
Also, the last on the bad list: after using the new system for two days, I haven't found a single thing to be better than the old system. This update doesn't upgrade Android - it's still exactly the same release 6.0.1 as it was before. The "patch level" is listed as November 2017, so maybe it has some security improvements, but I can't really tell.
The good news is that with some considerable effort, I was able to get rid of all of the crap (at least, everything I found so far). There is a new application called "Apps" which installs random crap. You can't uninstall it, but you can "disable" it and it never runs again. The evil file manager you can't uninstall (or disable), but its menu has an option to not send notifications, and then it doesn't. Then I went to the list of applications and uninstalled (luckily, that's possible) a bunch of games and other crap that Alcatel installed for me. If Alcatel had a better track record, I might actually enjoy trying out the new games they installed for me, but as it stands, I was worried about what might happen if I run them - I prefered to uninstall them. Anyway, after doing all that (sorry I don't have more detailed instructions), I am running with the updated Android for two days, and I haven't seen another ad, unexplained notification, or unsolicited application being installed. Hallelujah!
The ugly news is that after two days, I'm starting to worry that this version is less stable than the previous one. In two days I had to reboot my phone at least three times, once it hung during taking a video, once when Netflix suddenly couldn't find my downloaded content, and once when another app suddenly couldn't use the SD card (and a reboot solved these problems). I can't say I never had to reboot my phone, but this seems to be more frequent than I used to do it. I'm not sure this a real new problem or just a string of bad luck - only time will tell.
Mankann said:
Ah, I understand now. It seems that your phone wants to update to the version that removes fastboot commands (so I suggest you triple-think and triple-check before upgrading).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is "fastboot commands", and why should I be worried if they are removed?
Mankann said:
"Uninstalling" system apps does not revert them to preinstalled versions, it makes them completely unavailable until hard reset (they are only listed in Settings labeled with "Disabled for current user" and cannot be run). If you decide to do this, you should first install some alternative apps (like Nova Launcher, Google Calendar etc), or else you won't be able to boot and use your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not my experience... In the Google Play app. For most applications, "Uninstall" lets you really uninstall an app. But for built-in applications, when you "Uninstall" it asks you if you really want to revert to the pre-installed version, and that is actually what happens. This is why I did on my Alcatel Idol 3 for a year before this latest update. In application tray, when you long-press an application, it lets you "uninstall" regular applications, but for built-in application, the uninstall operation is simply missing. I never found any way to do what you describe - "disable for current user". Somebody above suggested this can be done through adb, but I never saw a way to do this in Alcatel's normal UI.
I wrote above my experience from the upgrade, which you can read, but I have two small comments about your experience:
PN04 said:
I got rid of the apps that could be insta-deleted, and the netflix app can at least be disabled,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's hilarious (or more accurately, sad) how people who already had Netflix installed (like me), their installation got deleted - but for people who never had Netflix, it got installed and made unremovable. Great job Alcatel!
PN04 said:
but the filemanager is by far the worse offender. It's "boost" download and obnoxious UI, not to mention it clutters my notifications and lock screen. I've managed to quiet it down by canceling its access and whatever permissions I could. The fact that it restarts itself after a few seconds is just as irritating even before the reports that it actually may make my phone operate worse.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I did to solve this was to reduce its permissions and more importantly, go into the file manager, go into its "settings", and ask it to stop its notifications. Luckily, it worked, and I never heard from the filemanager again. I don't know if it continues to do evil stuff in the background. It appears it is still running (my app info tells me it has used memory in the last 3 hours), but using "0%" CPU.
PN04 said:
this was a really nice phone until they ruined it with this garbage.
I wanted to at least add my voice to the rest that are complaining about this and telling Alcatel this is the last product of their's I'll ever own.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I wonder if someone in TCL lost their marbles with these adware updates... As I said, I bought *five* of these phones - for me, my wife (two phones), mother-in-law and son, and I would have continued to recommend their phones if it weren't for the tricks they started to pull off last year.
nyh said:
What is "fastboot commands", and why should I be worried if they are removed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One of the Alcatel's OTA updates (IIRC, it was from Lollipop to Marshmallow) removed the ability to send fastboot commands to the phone, so that it became very hard to unlock bootloader and install root or custom ROMs. Actually it was already discussed here many times.
nyh said:
Somebody above suggested this can be done through adb, but I never saw a way to do this in Alcatel's normal UI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can either use adb shell or you can use shell directly on your phone via apps such as Terminal Emulator (Google Play, F-Droid). Of course you cannot do this within "normal" GUI, because it is designed not-to-be-able-to-break-things
I work from home/am self employed so most of the time so my phone doesn't get outside except for a few occasions a week otherwise it's usually connected to the home wifi so that I don't waste data. But this weekend I had to run a few errands and in a single hour outing using mobile data, I force quit the file manager maybe 26 times as opposed to 5 - 8 times just connected to wifi so I feel like it's constantly trying to ping servers unless you restrict it to mobile data. I also noticed that number dropped by half to maybe 3 or 4 times in the house when I had a few apps like AIMP or one of the games I do play on it to pass time idling in the background. As I said before I did cancel every permission I could find for it and it still manages to crawl out of the grave every so often but maybe those apps had a high enough priority level so having them active an in memory pushes it down the list.... Literally while typing this just now I was charging the phone and got the signal that the battery was full, woke it up to check if file Manager was running, saw nothing on the lock screen, unplugged it and File manager popped up again.
This update is a cancer. I haven't had to restart yet, but I've definitely noticed a few more app crashes. The loss of Fastboot might explain why my first attempt to hide the offenders with ADB failed. after installing every thing , switching to developer mode and connecting it to my computer the phone just refused to show up in the program (again, this might still be a computer issue because I've had trouble with minor developer tools in the past). I may not be an Android developer like some people on this side but feel like I fiollowed the instructions correctly. I get the feeling this is bad news. We might not be able to even get a different rom installed on it at this point.
Is it possible someone has an older version of the firmware that can be reinstalled over top of this some how? ugh, I really can't afford to have to buy a new phone right now.
PN04 said:
This update is a cancer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. People, please try to avoid this update. If you can find a way to stop the "update" process from notifying you, great, if you don't, learn to leave with them - it's better than doing the update.
After another day experience with this update, I figured out that:
1. The "Google Play Services" processes takes 30% of the CPU all the time, and causes my battery to run out after 6 or so hours. This was not the case before the update. I can't figure out what is calling the "Google Play Services". I see the evil "File Manager" running, but it's not taking up CPU, and nothing else takes CPU except the "Google Play Services".
2. Every once in a while - several times each day (!) - something "hangs" in the OS, and applications start to hang: sometimes they can't start, sometimes they can't read their data (!?), sometimes they can't connect to the network (!?), and other bizarre phenomena. Rebooting the phone solves the problem, and I've been doing this several times each day now. Before that I rarely had to reboot the phone (maybe once a week).
Avoid this update. Like the plague. Shame on Alcatel / TCL.
Mankann said:
Code:
pm uninstall --user 0 com.package.name
(this uninstalls system apps for the current user, so that they cannot be launched, do not notify about their updates in Google Play, and this works without root)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't work for me:
pm uninstall --user 0 com.jrdcom.filemanager
Error: java.lang.SecurityException: Package null does not belong to 10096
I just bought a U11+ as an upgrade to my U11 and am configuring it, which is taking longer than I expected because neither of the two backups I did (htc's and Backup Your Mobile) installed most of the apps (or their data). Also, I've had two System updates in the last two days.
I got my custom background, the Keep Notes app (plus its data) and Facebook; that's pretty much it.
What did I overlook?
Oh, yeah... I cannot find a setting to keep the display on when powered. Anyone know how to do that?
If you did a jump to a new OS version or device that may be why.
If you did any major firmware updates on the new device, it's factory reset time.
Otherwise clear the system cache.
Manually loading them may be your only option.
Welcome to the fking planet
blackhawk said:
If you did a jump to a new OS version or device that may be why.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That occurred to me when I (finally) checked the OS version and saw that it was 8.
I've been getting update notices for the last two days and the most recent one (the third) was the Android 9 OS (update # 2.19.401.2). Where can I check on official updates so I can get an idea when this will stop (because manually looking for updates this morning got me nothing, then I saw the update prompt a couple hours later).
Updated to 9, rebooted and verified that Google Drive is connected, but I'm still not getting Backup & Restore to work. Will have to experiment with the others.
Jeff in 92833 said:
That occurred to me when I (finally) checked the OS version and saw that it was 8.
I've been getting update notices for the last two days and the most recent one (the third) was the Android 9 OS (update # 2.19.401.2). Where can I check on official updates so I can get an idea when this will stop (because manually looking for updates this morning got me nothing, then I saw the update prompt a couple hours later).
Updated to 9, rebooted and verified that Google Drive is connected, but I'm still not getting Backup & Restore to work. Will have to experiment with the others.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I learned long ago that if your OS is fast, stable and fulfilling its mission, let it be.
I've been on Pie for 2 years, my last reload was 1.5 years ago, still fast and stable with minimum maintenance. What's not to like?
Unless you start screwing with the firmware and bring in new issues that need fixed.
Security generally isn't an issue unless you do something stupid.
There's no saving dumb bunnies... be careful what you load and download.
blackhawk said:
If you did a jump to a new OS version or device that may be why.
If you did any major firmware updates on the new device, it's factory reset time.
Otherwise clear the system cache.
Manually loading them may be your only option.
Welcome to the fking planet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did a Factory Reset (but it stayed Android 9). I did this because I had 'restored' a lot of files from Backup Your Mobile's (aka BYM) work on my U11.
Two things are bothering me:
1) The HTC Transfer Tool is not working this time (it transfers the PIN Code, but never gets to CONFIRM. After repeated attempts following reboots, etc., I have noticed that the PIN Code sometimes flickers off and back on again; what's up with that?).
2) BYM transferred my SMS and MMS to my U11+, but clicking on a text message that includes an MMS just makes the message thread avatar flicker and stay on the message thread listing (not even a flicker of the thread is displayed).
You mean screen lock codes?
First I don't password lock devices. You're the most likely one to end up getting locked out.
If you do use one I wouldn't attempt to back it up and transfer it. If it gets corrupted what follows won't be fun.
Pie's a good OS.
Clearing the system cache never hurts to try when experiencing glitches.
blackhawk said:
You mean screen lock codes?
First I don't password lock devices. You're the most likely one to end up getting locked out.
If you do use one I wouldn't attempt to back it up and transfer it. If it gets corrupted what follows won't be fun.
Pie's a good OS.
Clearing the system cache never hurts to try when experiencing glitches.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I did not mean screen lock codes. The HTC Transfer utility worked the first time I tried it before the Factory Reset, but it's not working now. The PIN Code is displayed on the source phone, but it doesn't activate the confirmation button to do the transfer.
I have since learned that many of the apps that were copied over via Google Play's utility also transferred the data, but not all the apps were transferred.
More research to be done, it seems.
Jeff in 92833 said:
No, I did not mean screen lock codes. The HTC Transfer utility worked the first time I tried it before the Factory Reset, but it's not working now. The PIN Code is displayed on the source phone, but it doesn't activate the confirmation button to do the transfer.
I have since learned that many of the apps that were copied over via Google Play's utility also transferred the data, but not all the apps were transferred.
More research to be done, it seems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My bad... I use Google search a lot and it doesn't need to be that specific model or OS version most times. Many of the issues are long standing. I even use solutions for other manufacturers models. Whatever comes in handy.
And/or just play with it until I work it out.
I haven't used that app. If you upgraded the firmware or are transferring data from another device these kind apps can screw up especially with app settings.
If you're doing a factory reset because of an issue or a crash they can inadvertently reload the root cause of the issue.
It's nice to save the homescreen, theme, icon setting on a reload using these though. Most apps I hand reload/configure or use the app's backup setting file like with Poweramp or DIGI Clock which are very intensive to set from scratch.
Critical data I save in a master backup folder(s) as files. Be ready to reload at any time as most crashes while rare give little or no warning. Redundantly backup critical data to at least 2 hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC.
Most times a factory reset is to give the device a clean slate. Looking over app settings while setting them up helps to spot things you may have previously missed. It helps a lot to be familiar with the nuts and bolts at the user interface level. Many times when troubleshooting this is where the answers lurk.
I consider my first load or two on a new phone trail runs. After which it's pretty well sorted out for a clean load. I do the same on PCs. Android's are very forgiving but poorly written apps or the user can still skew hidden user settings that are hard to find/access on a stock device. A stable, fast load is a pleasure to use and will run well for a long time with only simple maintenance on a stock Android.
About a year and a half ago, most of my Google Play apps needed to update, but I've accidentally tapped to uninstall them. The most stupid idea I could got, was to restart the phone in order to revoke that miss - since than, phone can't start normally. It always boot in the safe mode, no matter what I've tried. There's always pop-up after loading that says sth alike "there is something preventing your system to start normally. Please backup your data and do factory reset, yadyyada..." I've managed to transfer most files to PC, but I can't access 2 years worth of notes saved somewhere in Samsung Notes. According to this thread, they should be saved in \data\data\com.samsung.android.app.notes but I can't access them, since Android Studio throws error "package not debuggable". I tried using ADB backup, but that will result in 1 KB file (empty), probably because Samsung Notes has parameter allowBackup="false" in its manifest. There was some effort to rewrite it, but mostly failed, since I can't use Linux commands on Windows. There is a chance, that the data is no longer here. All packages seen in Android Studio show size of 4 KB. But when i do space analysis using the files app after loading the safe mode system, it shows to house 11 GB of system data and 12 GB of apps - which I don't have access to.
Is there any way to either crack that Samsung Notes app, or to repair that corupted system? Maybe get some log to see, whats crashing the system? Last resort solution may be rooting it?
Thanks in advance for your help. Mark