Hello,
yesterday, I got my Galaxy S3 (custom build cm10.1) from my pocket to notice it said "safe mode" on the bottom. It might be that I accidentally pressed buttons to get into safe mode; but thats not the problem here.
I noticed that all my custom accounts were now missing (Caldav, Carddav, Xing, and some more). Only the google accounts remain. As all my contacts and calendar entries are on the caldav/carddav server, they went missing, too (of course, they will come back when re-adding the account). I didn't know about the existence of safe mode, I thought like "what the...", and restarted the phone, and it came up without safe mode now. But - the accounts are still missing, and taking a closer look I noticed that some customized or account-related widgets (K9 for example) are also missing now. At least most of the app data seems to still be present; even the Xing app works as expected, even though the related account is missing from the settings. It seems all the account related data is still there.
I've got three questions now:
1) Is it normal, that the described accounts/widgets get permanently lost when entering safe mode?
2) Is there a way to restore these without manually entering/configuring them again?
3) What _other_ data/settings I perhaps didn't notice until now can go missing when entering safe mode?
Thanks in advance
Nico
McNetic said:
I noticed that all my custom accounts were now missing (Caldav, Carddav, Xing, and some more). Only the google accounts remain.
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Click to collapse
Same with Nexus 4 (Stock firmware 4.3): Inadvertently (don't ask how ) but manually started safe mode. The result after a normal reboot was the complete loss of all custom accounts and related widgets.
lonesomecoder said:
Same with Nexus 4 (Stock firmware 4.3): Inadvertently (don't ask how ) but manually started safe mode. The result after a normal reboot was the complete loss of all custom accounts and related widgets.
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Click to collapse
Same with Nexus 5. All accounts and widgets lost. All (non-Google) contacts lost. Calendar lost.
There should be a warning on the on-line instructions for using safe-mode unless this is a bug in Android that needs to be fixed.
This is NOT a bug. This is how Safe Mode is designed and works very similar to Safe Mode on the computer. It disables all 3rd party apps, widgets, data, etc so you can make sure if your phone is having trouble that it's not from something you have done or installed. You should just be able to reboot and Safe Mode be disabled. If it is not, then make sure your Volume keys aren't stuck.
es0tericcha0s said:
You should just be able to reboot and Safe Mode be disabled.
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Click to collapse
That right. However, the problem is not safe mode or leaving safe mode, but the problem is, that afterwards, when booting normally, all third party (non-google) accounts and some widgets (and maybe other data, but that I don't know) are lost and seem not to be recoverable. (see post #1)
Ohh sorry, thought you were still stuck in Safe Mode and wondering why the stuff wasn't there. Sorry. But yea...definitely not normal for it to lose all your stuff after you boot back to normal mode. As far as restoring it - only if you had a nandroid of the same rom or everything backed up with like Titanium Backup.
This happened to me last night.
I left my Nexus 5 on my bedside table. Usually I put it into aeroplane mode before going to sleep, but this time I didn't. When I woke up this morning, I picked the phone up and all my widgets were gone from my home screens apart from Google Newsstand and the Google search bar and all of my accounts were gone apart from my main Google account. My wallpaper had also reverted to the stock Nexus 5 wallpaper.
I rebooted the phone, but it booted up in Safe Mode for some reason - and it was still messed up - so I turned it off and on again and it booted into normal mode, but it was STILL messed up and all of my widgets/accounts were gone apart from the Google ones.
I ended up doing a factory reset. I have no idea how this happened as the phone was on a bedside table all night, untouched. The only thing I didn't do that I would normally do at night is put it into aeroplane mode.
Well it's 2020, and this fault still occurs! I've a Samsung Note 3 (Android 5.0) that just disconnected and deleted my CardDAV sync connector/account. I've lost all my unsync'd contacts (There were quite a number, as it's been a while since I sync'd -- so it's quite the loss). I've tried various contact recovery tools, to no avail. Here's a description from from DAVx⁵ tech support, as to what seemingly happened .... (DAVx⁵ is a CardDAV sync adapter, but mine was similiar: CardDAV-Sync Free):
-------------------------------------
"At some occasions (especially when booting), Android looks for orphaned accounts which are not associated to a sync adapter. Unfortunately, this check is sometimes run before DAVx⁵ is available.
So, if this check doesn't find DAVx⁵ for whatever reason, it thinks that all DAVx⁵ accounts are orphaned and deletes them, including all your local contacts, calendars and tasks (together with all unsynced changes). This problem is known for at least these cases:
- when DAVx⁵ has been moved to the external storage or SD card (although this is forbidden by the app manifest),
- when the device is booted into safe mode, and...
because of a Google Play bug which may affect users who have got DAVx⁵ via Google Play on
many Android 4.4.x devices, regardless of the manufacturer, for instance LG G3 (LG-D855) with Android 4.4.2, and some other devices.
How to fix it:
- DAVx⁵ must not be moved to external storage (SD card or USB storage).
- Upgrade your device to the latest available Android version (if your firmware is really old, you may consider a custom ROM).
- If you boot into safe mode, be prepared that all local DAVx⁵ data (including unsynced changes) will be lost. At the next synchronization, all data will be downloaded from the server again.
- You may consider to install DAVx⁵ from another source (e.g. F-Droid)." --https://www.davx5.com/faq/accounts-gone-after-reboot-or-update
---------------------------------------------
I've spent many, many hours searching the net and trying to recover what I lost, to no avail. It seems that most people go for the "set it up again and re-sync to the server"... which restores everything up until the last sync. So they don't loose too much... so the occasional problem doesn't get a lot of attention, nor does it garner enough outrage to get it fixed, it seems. I have no great confidence that this won't happen again, so I'm taking the precaution of:
- Upgrading to a phone with Android 8, and not using Google Play to install the sync adapter app
- or -
- Disabling safe mode for Android v7 or lower (https://www.hexnode.com/mobile-devi...fe-mode-on-android-devices-using-hexnode-mdm/)
Related
I can't seem to find anything that touches on this, so I thought I'd go ahead and ask.
My girlfriend (who is in another state at the moment for a couple months) is concerned someone has 'hacked' her phone.
As much as I know right now, she had her phone sitting on her desk and it came on, out of sleep, bypassing her pattern lock and started automatically downloading and updating her Maps app. She does not have her phone rooted or modded in anyway, just some additional apps (none that deal with app management) and as far as I know (I have a Samsung Vibrant) there are no 'automatically update' option in any of the menus.
Anyone have any idea? I know this is very little information, but it's all I can grab right now and I had a few minutes.
Thanks in advance for any responses!
jwrichards1982 said:
I can't seem to find anything that touches on this, so I thought I'd go ahead and ask.
My girlfriend (who is in another state at the moment for a couple months) is concerned someone has 'hacked' her phone.
As much as I know right now, she had her phone sitting on her desk and it came on, out of sleep, bypassing her pattern lock and started automatically downloading and updating her Maps app. She does not have her phone rooted or modded in anyway, just some additional apps (none that deal with app management) and as far as I know (I have a Samsung Vibrant) there are no 'automatically update' option in any of the menus.
Anyone have any idea? I know this is very little information, but it's all I can grab right now and I had a few minutes.
Thanks in advance for any responses!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to be sure, she has an Eris, correct? I only ask because if her Android Phone (since it's not rooted) is not an Eris then it could have Android OS 2.2 (Froyo), and the Android Market for Froyo does have an option (she would've had to toggle it on somehow) to autoupdate individual apps.
If she definitely has a unrooted Eris and therefore running 2.1, it may still be possible that she installed the Market from 2.2 (there are various sources to do so), although it doesn't sound likely from your description. She would be aware if she did that, too.
I would double check to make sure she has the phone set to only install apps through the Market:
Long-press Menu
Settings
Applications
Make sure that "Unknown sources" is unchecked.
I don't know if it would still be possible for a malicious app to be installed with it unchecked, but it should definitely reduce the probability.
I've seen weird things happen on all sorts of electronics/computers/phones so unless something else suspicious happened, or she has good reason to believe someone did something to her phone in person that would allow them to do things to it remotely, then I wouldn't sweat it yet.
I originally used security software on my phone, but I haven't for a long time.
If she wants to be certain nothing has invaded her phone, then she could do a factory reset:
Long-press Menu
Settings
Privacy
Factory data reset
This will erase everything that didn't come with her phone. Without root access, noone could've done anything permanent to it.
When she boots the phone after the reset, and puts her Google email and password in, Google will automatically restore her Contacts and Calendar (takes several minutes if a lot of data), but she would have to either manually reinstall and reconfigure her apps, or use a backup program like Titanium Backup, or My Backup Pro. MBP is much slower but recent versions have gotten faster and overall I've had better success with it than TB, but many people swear by TB so it just depends.
Good luck.
Hi,
This is going to be such a "noob" question & I apologize in advance.
I have an Orange UK branded HTC Desire HD running stock firmware & NOT rooted. Since the fairly recent 2.3.5 update with Sense 3.0 I have found that I am regularly seeing Sense restart upon exiting an app and returning to the home screen. This is not related to a particular app, as it can happen when returning to home from ANY app. My wife is seeing the same behaviour on hers too.
Having posted on both HTC's & Orange's Facebook pages, I have been advised in no uncertain terms that as a first step I should perform a factory reset.
This is something that I have not done since I got my DHD (my 1st Android - plenty of hard resets on WM ). I have had a bit of a tidy up - clearing unnecessary data, uninstalling apps I don't use, etc. Pretty much ready to reset (but aware that there is SOME data that I will lose). However, there is one thing that I am unsure about...
I have previously moved a number of apps to the SD card. If I leave them there, will the existing data be recognised upon reinstalling the apps? Or will it cause me problems? Or will the existing data just be orphaned? I.e. should I move all apps back to the phone before performing the reset?
Thanks in Advance
Saving them SD leaves a bit on your phone, so that wont help. Just back them up with your google account!
The apps and system data will be wiped regardless of it being on the sdcard or not. You can perform a manual backup by enabling debugging and using adb to pull the apps from your phone to your computer.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Ok, thanks RTContent. I think that answers my question. So I needn't worry about moving stuff back, which is good.
I have no experience of using ADB. Would this backup just the APKs? Or the settings & user data too?
AlwaysDroid: "Just back them up with your google account" - Not sure I get what you mean. Are you referring to the way Google Play will auto restore apps from your install list? TBH, I was banking on this working correctly. Hopefully it will only reinstall those that were on the device, and not ALL previously installed apps. Especially as some of those were from my tablet only.
Not sure that now is the time to start dabbling with ADB, so will probably just go ahead with the reset and lose non synced app data.
Thanks.
I have an HTC Desire Z, and it's been acting strangely lately. I hear it play the startup sound when it's in my pocket, meaning the phone has crashed when I wasn't even doing anything. I suppose it's time for a hard reset. I'm very reluctant to do this, but when I missed an important call the other day because my "com.htc.phone" (or whatever) application crashed and I didn't notice, that was the last straw.
What is a checklist of things I should do before hard resetting? So far, I've:
1) Backed up SMS
2) Taken screenshots of all my home screens so as to put the icons back in the same place
3) Taken screenshots of the application settings screens so as to install all the same applications again
4) Taken screenshots of some of the other settings screens, so as to use the same ringtone, background, SMS beep, etc.
What are some other steps I should take? I'm scared that I won't get my phone set up the same way again. My phone is great right now, it's just how I like it - except for the crashes.
Is your phone rooted? If so, TitaniumBackup (TB) would be all you need. You can get TitaniumBackup, free and paid, from the market. TB can backup your screen settings according to the launcher apps. For example, I use Go Launcher and when I do a full backup of Go Launcher, it will backup icons positions and everything else that I have changed in Go Launcher.
It may not be necessary to reset your whole device if your just getting one or two processes force closing themselves. The first thing to check is see if you have installed an app that might be conflicting with system apps (try and remember the last time it was working correctly and uninstall apps that you've installed since then).
If this isn't the issue you can also try to wipe app data/cache for the app in question. I hope this makes sense
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Well, I'm not really sure what's causing the problem. My phone came installed with crapware, and lately I've found software installing itself on my phone without my knowledge. I know for a fact the "QQ Security" crapware the phone came with did indeed prevent my phone from functioning correctly.
Some very weird things started happening on my phone earlier today. It's a Nexus 5X, running 8.0 Oreo, with the October security patch. I'm not rooted and I'm careful about what I install. The phone is fairly new, from this summer.
I will begin with describing what I did in the hours before this started. I can think of two things that possibly could have started it:
1) Two of my Facebook contacts sent malicious links to me an hour before. It looked like Youtube videos but was not. I did NOT open any of these links, knowing directly they were harmful (not sure if you can be affected by just receiving them, not clicking on them?). I received them in the Messenger Lite application (an official app from Facebook with scaled-down functionality).
2) A few hours before the Facebook links, I sideloaded an APK containing the new Pixel Launcher. I got the APK from Android Police/APK Mirror.
Can't attach links, but Google for: Hands-on with the updated Pixel Launcher, including the new Pixel 2 features [APK Download]
The APK was working fine and nothing seemed odd with it (I used the launcher for a few hours). As long as Android Police know what they uploaded, this shouldn't be the cause for my problems. I bet on Facebook Messenger instead. (People that click such malware links typically get their Facebook accounts hacked, however my account seems fine and my account didn't spam others with the same link. I did not change password or did anything else to "recover" my account yet).
So what happened after this on my phone?
Here is the first thing I noticed. I open Play Store to install updates. It turns out I have one update pending, it's called BankID. This is a major Swedish app used by nearly every smartphone user in the country, and it's for signing into government websites, bank websites, insurance company websites, and much more. When I click update in Play Store two things happen almost instantly:
1) Six pictures are downloaded from Messenger Lite to my phone. That makes no sense, how could clicking a button in Google Play trigger something to happen in Messenger Lite? In fact I tried it three times, with the same behavior every time. (Well, actually opening the Messenger Lite photo album, there are only photos there I already downloaded, so nothing new seems to be added there - but the photos were probably re-downloaded I believe).
2) The BankID update downloads to 100 % (the downloading takes a little longer than expected), then it halts and does nothing, i.e. it's not installing. No error message, it just stops there. I can choose to abort and try again, which I do three times or more, with exactly the same behavior.
Also, I now notice Play Protect hasn't run for two days, but when I try to run it, it seems to be down. After ~30 seconds of scanning it says "App verification temporarily down". "App verification temporarily down" could very well be connected with the halted update I just described? It still says it hasn't run for two days after this.
When I experiment, I notice other things that are very weird indeed.
1) Notifications in Gmail, Snapchat and possibly other apps aren't coming through. By opening the apps, I can sync manually.
2) When I move a file to a new folder using the Downloads app (Files app, stock one) I get a error message saying the move operation failed. This also triggered the photo notifications from Messenger Lite (same behavior as described above, with six photos). However, after a while the moved pictures are indeed in the right folder, even though the error message saying otherwise.
3) After some time I remove "app data" for the Google Play app. When I open it after that, there are now three app updates pending (e.g. Google Wifi also). But the same behavior occurs, when I try to download one or all of them, I get the Messenger photo notifications and the updates halt at 100 % without installing. So the BankID app - which could be targeted by attackers for obvious reasons - could just be a coincidence. It could have happened with any app I suppose, this was the only one pending right then. But still, why couldn't Play Store detect other pending app updates until I refreshed it the way I did? Was Play Store blocked from connecting to Google (or forced to connect to some other server, perhaps?).
What did I do after all of this?
I uninstalled three apps:
-Facebook Lite
-Facebook Messenger Lite
-Pixel Launcher APK
However the uninstall process was very odd. A process called "Package Installer" had a notification saying "Uninstalling Lite" and "Uninstalling Messenger Lite". It didn't seem to be working, it was stuck after some time. I restarted my phone and the apps seem to be gone now, at least they aren't listed in Settings --> Apps. So the uninstall process was successful I suppose, even though it didn't seem to work.
After I restarted my phone I also noticed:
-When I install Messenger Lite from Play Store now, it's easy to uninstall it the way it should be - in mere seconds.
-When I open Play Store, updates are now installing fine. Play Protect is also scanning fine now.
Everything looks back to normal now. But I'm not trusting my device. I'm gonna factory reset it. Before I do, I wonder:
-Can I feel safe the wipe would erase whatever malware I might have had on the phone?
-Is there something I could do to let us know what caused this? Upload a log here somehow?
The only piece of advice I have received as of now is: "Try restarting in safe mode, installing some AV software, and generally looking for suspicious processes." I haven't done that yet, would it still be a good thing to do? Must I install AV software before rebooting into safe mode, or could I install it directly from safe mode? (App suggestions, AV software?).
Usually I'm very careful and security-minded. I haven't had something like this happen before. So I'm very intrigued and mad about this. I'm gonna change my Google account and Facebook account passwords later on I think (I already have 2-factor authentication enabled).
One last thing: When I install Pixel Launcher on my non-rooted phone, it's not running as a system app if my understanding is correct. (At least it shouldn't be). But none the less, when I wanted to uninstall it I had to go into Settings --> Apps and tap "Show system apps" to find it in the list. Is that normal? Perhaps it doesn't mean anything, I just want to know.
Thanks for your advice in advance. Anything else to add? What should I do know? All you might have to say is appreciated.
Come on now guys, someone must be able to help?
If I factory reset the device, will it be clean? I didn't mess with custom ROMs, root, the bootloader or something else. (I suppose the bootloader is locked).
Hi, I apologise if this is not in the right place but I'm out of ideas.
So yesterday my phone was overheating (not the first time) and I decided to do a reset of the phone to see if anything changed (could be because of something installed or something). The problem is that I backed up everything using Smart Switch - but that won't save the data from whatsapp...
So I did a direct backup to my google drive account (I have it set to do it daily) but something must have happened because despite showing that it had made a backup copy at 2:08 once I proceeded to reset and tried recovering that backup the most recent messages were gone-........I lost a whole day of communications
What's more strange is that the photos are still on my phone....it's really strange....
Can anyone help me or give any suggestions? I can't even check the date of that backup file in Google Drive, but from the looks of it it seems the recent one was faulty and it ended up getting the second more recent? I really don't know...
Thanks in advance
So your photos will stay on the device because it was downloaded from WhatsApp, if you sign in and sign out of the same device that you claim to have lost your messages on they should be recovered upon re-authentication provided you have not deleted the WhatsApp back up or reset the phone.