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[Q] Remap volume-up button to power button

Hello all,
Recently the power button on my Nexus 5 has been acting really weird. Sometimes it works flawlessly, others it requires pressing it really hard to work. In order to prevent it to stop working indefinetely, I am looking for a way to remap my volume-up button so it can work as a power button. I don't need it to turn my phone on or to work in the recovery mode (from what I read, it seems to be impossible), only when Android is running.
I've already tried some workarounds:
1) Volume Unlock Power Button Fix app: I tried it, but it just allowed me to turn on my phone with volume but not turning off. Also, it drains a LOT of power.
2) Buttonremapper app: It would theoretically do exactly what I wanted, but did not work at all.
3) Editing generic.kl: I tried switching volume-up and power buttons codes in generic.kl, but also did not work. Maybe I need to modify another file?
3) Xposed Framework + Additions: The installation of Xposed went Ok, but after installing Additions module I got stucked in bootloop. I am running Android 5.1 stock, maybe this module is not yet compatible.
So, can anyone help me? Do I need to install a custom ROM?
PS: I live outside US, so no warranty for me. Otherwise I would just use it
Thanks in advance for any help!
Cheers,
Humberto

Hi folks,
Just a heads up for anyone who might be facing the same issue. I decided to change from stock to Cataclysm ROM due to some specific features (listed below). After the installation, here's what I did to work around this problem:
1) Enabled "Volume wake" and "Sleep button on status bar" in "Cataclysm Settings / Miscellaneous".
2) Enabled "Swipe to sleep" and resized NavBar to 115% in "Cataclysm Settings / Navigation bar options". -> This way I can swipe in NavBar at any time (except lockscreen) to turn off screen. I raised it a little to facilitate the swipe gesture.
3) Changed Lockscreen Dialer shortcut to ""Turn off Screen" app shortcut (just search for it in the play store) in "Cataclysm Settings / Lockscreen options" -> This allows me to just swipe right and turn off the screen when my security settings are disabled (which accounts for most of the time). I found it way faster than pressing sleep button in status bar, especially when I'm driving and I can't look at the screen. Plus, I don't really use the dialer function of my phone so often since the invention of Whatsapp ;P
I realize this is not the perfect solution, but I don't see a better way to deal with this power button malfunction problem (except from a hardware fix).
Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Humberto
PS: I am really enjoying Cataclysm. It's a very nice ROM, completely stable and with a lot of other interesting features aside from the ones mentioned above. I strongly encourage anyone to give it a try!

I'm facing the exact same problem but I really need to eliminate the power button or I will need a power button fix soon.
The solutions you found hthiengo are good if not needing to turn off (or worst: running out of battery, something that happens me sometimes). I'm in the situation that next time I hit power button I will need to replace the button, or throw the nexus away
I did installed the xposed additions for lollipop but it is not working, and the Cataclysm trick is not enough in this case

Ok, after some research I've found a temporary solution:
For the power button you can remap modifying the file gpio-keys.kl under system/usr/keylaout (i wonder why anyone could figure out thise before, no that difficult). I would like to map power button leeaving it useless but I've found it impossible to remap the power button (probably because the key number is not 116). I would have liked to see xposed additions to help me map the keys but is not functional at least for me.
If the phone runs out of battery I've found that if I plug the power cable by pressing both volume buttons at the same time, eventually it starts up with the bootloader so I can plug the pc cable and it will reboot sucessfully.
So despite the phone know is pretty disfunctional (not the best phone for a hurry without battery), I can still use it for some weeks before I plan buying a new one or something (or I find a place for reparing). Its a shame I could not find a better solution for example, ADT when powered off so I could just reboot it by using ADT reboot command while powered off.
And It would be really amazing if the volume up button could also power it on from the powered off state.
In my case the power button is broken, but sometimes it gets stuck and puts the phone in a reboot loop: To avoid pressing the power button accidentally I've made a hole in the protective case so its pretty difficult to access it.
That's all for now. If anyone can make it better I will be glad to hear him/her

Long press Home Button

I install an app on the playstore for remote control of kodi on my htpc computer , after uninstalling it , noticed when I long press and hold my home button It no longer opens up voice search, it opends google now cards page I then have to click on the mic button at the top to perform a voice search.
is there a way to reset this ? , I uninstalled updates on google app cleared data ect , now when I press and hold my home button I only get these 2 options.
if I select "google" it opends google now page (same way as above)
looking for a way tog et pack the long press home button and you can instantly start talking to the google voice .
im stock rooted

Just turn on 'okay google anywhere' and you can activate voice commands without touching anything.
Sent from my SM-T805 using Tapatalk

¿Will-it-Blend? said:
Just turn on 'okay google anywhere' and you can activate voice commands without touching anything.
Sent from my SM-T805 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have ok google setup and working fine however like to have access to my home button again the way it was by default , looking for a solution not a work around , but appreciate the responce. tx..

ex-28 said:
i have ok google setup and working fine however like to have access to my home button again the way it was by default , looking for a solution not a work around , but appreciate the responce. tx..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try download Tasker, secure settings or greenify. Open them, restart phone. Open agian. Go to home screen. Long press home button. Choose what you want. ?

Faspaiso said:
Try download Tasker, secure settings or greenify. Open them, restart phone. Open agian. Go to home screen. Long press home button. Choose what you want. ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
installed greenify rebooted long press home screen , have more options but same result as before , if I select Google it opens the Google now page and not the voice search .
also tried secure settings but I get less options then I did with greenify. some reason I just cant get voice search to appear when I long press home button.

Buttons

If I root my device, can I change button's standings? It's very irritating that every time I press power button, at the same time I press volume down and phone takes screen capture!?!
Or is there something wrong with my fingers

It's not just you...

If you root and install xposed framework there are xposed modules that let you pretty much configure anything you want.
http://www.addictivetips.com/android/xposed-additions/
That module specifically handles remapping hardware buttons which is what you are trying to accomplish.
Personally I prefer just adding screenshot to the power down menu but since Alcatel skinned it none of the modules to add "Advanced Power Menu" appear to work.

tommihut said:
If I root my device, can I change button's standings? It's very irritating that every time I press power button, at the same time I press volume down and phone takes screen capture!?!
Or is there something wrong with my fingers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a design flaw. The way they've positioned the power button opposite the volume buttons makes this kind of mistake inevitable. They probably should have known better in that plenty of other devices have their buttons positioned in ways that avoid the likelihood of this happening.
ROMs (for other devices) and xPosed modules could give you increased options for the behavior of the volume up and down buttons, but I don't know that you can avoid this particular problem altogether. At best, you can probably trade one problem for another. You'll probably just adapt to it after awhile and learn to hold the device in a way that prevents this from happening. Hopefully, TCL will change the button locations on the next iteration of the phone.

maigre said:
It's a design flaw. The way they've positioned the power button opposite the volume buttons makes this kind of mistake inevitable. They probably should have known better in that plenty of other devices have their buttons positioned in ways that avoid the likelihood of this happening.
ROMs (for other devices) and xPosed modules could give you increased options for the behavior of the volume up and down buttons, but I don't know that you can avoid this particular problem altogether. At best, you can probably trade one problem for another. You'll probably just adapt to it after awhile and learn to hold the device in a way that prevents this from happening. Hopefully, TCL will change the button locations on the next iteration of the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I didn't need the screenshot at all I'd just disable the power/vol up combo entirely in the rom. If I did I'd install a screenshot app and pin the screenshot icon to the notification pulldown using app "Hangar".
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca.mimic.apphangar&hl=en

Ok, thanks. Maybe I just root my phone and install xposed framework.
I'm just waiting for my first update. My phone firmware is still 5.0.2-010 01
I don't know why I haven't got even my first update, it should be 5.0.2-010 03
I live in Finland. Phone is 6045Y

tommihut said:
Ok, thanks. Maybe I just root my phone and install xposed framework.
I'm just waiting for my first update. My phone firmware is still 5.0.2-010 01
I don't know why I haven't got even my first update, it should be 5.0.2-010 03
I live in Finland. Phone is 6045Y
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The system image thread has the newer versions of your firmware (twrp backup images) and you could do your own updating if you wished.....

famewolf said:
If you root and install xposed framework there are xposed modules that let you pretty much configure anything you want.
That module specifically handles remapping hardware buttons which is what you are trying to accomplish.
Personally I prefer just adding screenshot to the power down menu but since Alcatel skinned it none of the modules to add "Advanced Power Menu" appear to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Talking about the buttons, i'm very iritated by something with this phone: long press on Vol+ (and vice versa) doesn't skip to the next song in music players ... (like on most phones I had in the past) do you think it's possible to map this behavior by using your method , or is there any chance that Alcatel implement this on futur firmwares ? I don't think it's something complicated for them, ... thanks

yeep3 said:
Talking about the buttons, i'm very iritated by something with this phone: long press on Vol+ (and vice versa) doesn't skip to the next song in music players ... (like on most phones I had in the past) do you think it's possible to map this behavior by using your method , or is there any chance that Alcatel implement this on futur firmwares ? I don't think it's something complicated for them, ... thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why don't you make a backup and try it for yourself then report back to let us know? I found that module with a few minutes of googl'ing. I don't use it myself so how would I know?

Have you noticed that in some apps that are on full screen nav bars disapear? For example i use lgcamera and when i want to get out from app i cannot do it in different way than going to gallery to have those buttons. In some apps i dont have that "option" so i need to pull down panel and enter to settings. This is really anoying. Or maybe i have kosher model

Mauelith said:
Have you noticed that in some apps that are on full screen nav bars disapear? For example i use lgcamera and when i want to get out from app i cannot do it in different way than going to gallery to have those buttons. In some apps i dont have that "option" so i need to pull down panel and enter to settings. This is really anoying. Or maybe i have kosher model
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Typically "full screen apps" have an option in settings to enable/disable that feature. In lenovo and moto camera if you tap the bottom where the back arrow should be it shows up and then you can exit.

famewolf said:
Typically "full screen apps" have an option in settings to enable/disable that feature. In lenovo and moto camera if you tap the bottom where the back arrow should be it shows up and then you can exit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, i do not see that kind of option in app. Alcatels camera have back button, but not in lgcamera and few other apps unfortunatelly. So it seems that i have very strange version of android, or maybe those are the bugs that will dissapear after upgrade, if finally it will be released for my country. I believe that CM will be faster

Anyone Else not able to Simulate a "Menu Button" press?

I cannot simulate a menu button press on this phone. Blu's ESL customer support didn't help at all.
On the Note 4, you hold down the recent apps button and the phone treats it like a menu button press. I use a few somewhat legacy apps and not having menu press completely breaks those apps.

RDProgrammer said:
I cannot simulate a menu button press on this phone. Blu's ESL customer support didn't help at all.
On the Note 4, you hold down the recent apps button and the phone treats it like a menu button press. I use a few somewhat legacy apps and not having menu press completely breaks those apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Current apps should not need a menu button. However, if you have old outdated apps you can simulate it with the (weirdly named) built in "suspend button." Settings > Advanced settings > Suspend option. Enable that and it will overlay a round button on the screen. When you need the menu button tap the on-screen button. It will expand and show more buttons. The button with three dots is the menu button. If you'd prefer to hide the "suspend button" so that it's not always visible you can do so by long pressing on it. You can unhide it in the notification panel.

Awesome, that works, but what a sad work around to an issue solved so much more efficiently on other devices.

RDProgrammer said:
Awesome, that works, but what a sad work around to an issue solved so much more efficiently on other devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sad indeed. I will continue to poke around for another solution to this, with the ultimate goal of remapping that recent apps button to a menu. I am not sure this will be possible without root access though. Good news is there is another thread here on XDA with a bounty/reward of around $200 at the moment for anyone who can get a workable root and TWRP recovery goin for this phone. :fingers-crossed:

RDProgrammer said:
Awesome, that works, but what a sad work around to an issue solved so much more efficiently on other devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, but as I said no current app should need a menu key. Most new Android phones have no menu key because it's not needed. I have about 200 apps installed and only one needs the menu key workaround because it hasn't been updated in years.

In App Menu button

Idk if you guys are coming from a note 4 or just a general non s6 or s6 edge... but I didn't know they got rid of the long press menu... i just found out that if you long press the back button, it sort of acts as an in App Menu button. Just sharing a tip for those who may not know.

ahq1216 said:
Idk if you guys are coming from a note 4 or just a general non s6 or s6 edge... but I didn't know they got rid of the long press menu... i just found out that if you long press the back button, it sort of acts as an in App Menu button. Just sharing a tip for those who may not know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have an app (maybe multiple) that does not have an in app menu button built in and therefore requires a menu function from the OS. I used to long press the back key in my LG G4 to get into the menu, but can't figuring out how to do it in my video surveillance app on my S7 Edge. If I short press the bottom left (two squares button), the open apps come up. If I long press the bottom left, it tries to take me into split screen mode (which this app doesn't support). If I press the bottom right key, the phone goes back to the desktop. Same results yield in long pressing the bottom right button. Does anyone know how to get into in app menus that do not have a menu button? My Uniden Guardian app requires this menu to exit out of the application or it will show in the notification area in standby mode. The only other way I can exit the app is doing a force close.
---------- Post added at 08:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:34 AM ----------
jco377 said:
I have an app (maybe multiple) that does not have an in app menu button built in and therefore requires a menu function from the OS. I used to long press the back key in my LG G4 to get into the menu, but can't figuring out how to do it in my video surveillance app on my S7 Edge. If I short press the bottom left (two squares button), the open apps come up. If I long press the bottom left, it tries to take me into split screen mode (which this app doesn't support). If I press the bottom right key, the phone goes back to the desktop. Same results yield in long pressing the bottom right button. Does anyone know how to get into in app menus that do not have a menu button? My Uniden Guardian app requires this menu to exit out of the application or it will show in the notification area in standby mode. The only other way I can exit the app is doing a force close.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NM, it must be specific to my Uniden Guardian app... The long press back key works in other apps.

Any answer yet?
If I long press the back button in any app, I am immediately taken back to the home screen and once in the home screen, the home screen drop down items pop up. Any solutions for this?

Maybe it's carrier specific? The long-press back button brings up the in-app menu in virtually all of my apps.

On my Sprint GS7E, longpressing the Back button brings up the in-app Menu function.
Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

I have found a few apps that close when long pressing the back, and some that show the menu properly. I had to find another super simple (no permissions required) grocery list app since Simple Grocery List was one that would close.

Here is the fix I figured out that works in this situation and it would be good to pass this on or write up a document.
Go to phone settings => Accessibility => Dexterity and interaction => Assistant Menu.
Got this from galaxy s6 edge forum have an app with need of menu button and it now work with this work around hope this helps for now my phone is not rooted.

daveid said:
I have found a few apps that close when long pressing the back, and some that show the menu properly. I had to find another super simple (no permissions required) grocery list app since Simple Grocery List was one that would close.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm seeing this too in some apps. Including XDA Premium (Tapatalk). Holding back for the menu seems to think I'm tapping the back button. The app goes back through the previous pages, then quits.
harii_8 said:
Here is the fix I figured out that works in this situation and it would be good to pass this on or write up a document.
Go to phone settings => Accessibility => Dexterity and interaction => Assistant Menu.
Got this from galaxy s6 edge forum have an app with need of menu button and it now work with this work around hope this helps for now my phone is not rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure how this will help?

the_scotsman said:
I'm seeing this too in some apps. Including XDA Premium (Tapatalk). Holding back for the menu seems to think I'm tapping the back button. The app goes back through the previous pages, then quits.
Not sure how this will help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Assistant Menu gives you a few options like home button back button and also a menu button that you can use whilst in any app to open the menu as the long press back button doesn't work on some apps it's just a work around that does work

I don't get the menu button in the assistant menu?

Zamboney said:
I don't get the menu button in the assistant menu?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The assist menu button is for apps that require a physical menu button to access the menu on any apps. It is used for apps that don't have the 3dot menu option it's just a work around for apps that don't have that option or that not have been updated for marshmallow

Unfortunately doesn't work on apps made with pre Android v4.0 SDK I use an SMS parsing app for bank notifications/login codes and it hasn't been updated since 2 years but works perfectly, just the settings are missing.

Assistant Menu button
Zamboney said:
I don't get the menu button in the assistant menu?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found this discussion was very helpful, but it took me some time to work it out.
When the Assistant menu button is switched on (Settings - Accessibility - Dexterity and interaction), a blue symbol with four white squares appears. If this symbol is pressed, a menu pops up with a selection of available tasks. This includes (on page 2/4) a button called "More options". This is the extra Menu button that should be accessible from a long press of the Back button, but is not available in some apps.

Zamboney said:
I don't get the menu button in the assistant menu?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
use this app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.phoenixstudios.aiogestures
you can assign actions to every key
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Not happy with this at all. Whats wrong with the developers? Why take functionality away? Should be adding more! Why change things for the hell of it? Appart from just being plain annoying, buying the latest S7 edge phone out, and looking forward to trying ps1 emulation out, and cant use ePSXe save function now, or any app menu...

Hello All,
I found a fix. settings==>system==>Buttons==>Home Button. Change the action to open/close menu. or any of the buttons you see there. This works like a charm and if it's a button you dont normally use then even better cause you wont forget which one you chose.
Grilo.
---------- Post added at 10:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:42 AM ----------
Hello All,
I found a fix for this. settings==>system==>buttons==>Home button. I chose to change the double tap to open/close menu. You can choose any button on this page and then access the menu.
Hope this helps
Grilo

the_scotsman said:
I'm seeing this too in some apps. Including XDA Premium (Tapatalk). Holding back for the menu seems to think I'm tapping the back button. The app goes back through the previous pages, then quits.
Not sure how this will help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This worked for me. It floats a circular object and you tap this and it gives you some quick one touch functions, one of those is the 3 dots in a vertical line, you tap that and your app will then behave as if you'd tapped a physical MENU button.
Thanks for the tip.