Develop Bugs

[Q] Forgot Lock Pattern and Gmail Password, Please Help

I'm a Sprint employee and I have a customer who's kids set a lock code that they forgot and she doesn't know her gmail password AND she wasn't able to retrieve her password. Besides resetting the phone and making a new gmail, is there any way to get back into the phone??

Nope. I have yet to find where in /data the password is stored, and none of the devs I've talked to know, either. Your only choice is to wipe the phone.

Is the phone rooted (slim chance, I suspect)? If so, would restoring a nand backup work? Just thinking out loud......

Try reseting the Google password online.
https://www.google.com/accounts/recovery

She tried the gmail password recovery, but she didn't know the answer to her security question even though she bought the phone and made the account 2 weeks ago. Thanks for your help guys. I guess I'll have to reset her phone and she'll lose her contacts.

Tazdeviloo7 said:
She tried the gmail password recovery, but she didn't know the answer to her security question even though she bought the phone and made the account 2 weeks ago. Thanks for your help guys. I guess I'll have to reset her phone and she'll lose her contacts.
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Click to collapse
Well if she ever manages to remember the password or answer to her security question she'll get her contacts back. Tell her to take some more vitamin B, helps with memory lol.

Tazdeviloo7 said:
She tried the gmail password recovery, but she didn't know the answer to her security question even though she bought the phone and made the account 2 weeks ago. Thanks for your help guys. I guess I'll have to reset her phone and she'll lose her contacts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tell her to buy an iphone... stupid people everywhere love em

I would prefer that this question remain unanswered. I'm not calling the OP a criminal, but this is exactly what I would do if I just stole a phone that was locked.
I don't want the ability to defeat the security of my phone to be easily accessible.
If someone is stupid enough to forget thier gmail password, the answer to their security question, and allow their kids to set a lock should not be using a smart phone. Just reset her phone and she can start over.

Tazdeviloo7 said:
I'm a Sprint employee and I have a customer who's kids set a lock code that they forgot and she doesn't know her gmail password AND she wasn't able to retrieve her password. Besides resetting the phone and making a new gmail, is there any way to get back into the phone??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like complete bull**** to me............I'm just sayin'

pirish1 said:
Sounds like complete bull**** to me............I'm just sayin'
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Click to collapse
I agree, calling bull**** on this as well & I'm pretty sure consulting xda isn't part of sprints trouble shooting protocal...heh, even if this forum is way more helpful then sprint...
Sent from my phone.

maxomus said:
I agree, calling bull**** on this as well & I'm pretty sure consulting xda isn't part of sprints trouble shooting protocal...heh, even if this forum is way more helpful then sprint...
Sent from my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just wanted to interject here, and say we get at least 1 or 2 customers a week who this happens to. They'll get their phone in a store where the rep sets their Gmail up for them, or they're rushed through the process in store, and forget the info.
Our internal support system doesn't get into EVERY SINGLE THING that can happen, or will give "official" solutions to things. I have OFTEN referred to third party sites to fix issues, so I don't doubt this guy for a second.
edit: This is all from within a retail store, as a rep or in-store technician, I'm not sure if phone tech support would refer to a site such as this, but in the store we exhaust every resource we can.

Found a flaw in my evos security. Maybe is just mine or froyo. My patern security lock opens with any patern I input right after a boot or battery pull. This happens with every custom froyo rom I try. I tried fresh, cyanogen, omj, and damagecontrol. Sometimes it dosnt do it but if I do a fast random swipe of any pattern it opens. I'm in the process of making a video.......help fear for my security!
Found flaw. Titanium backup. The app is great and all and I love it. The problem is that titanium backs up my patern and I guess thers a certain flaw or conflicts when the backup and the original security interact. I fix this by making a new pattern or re entering the patern. But is alot less troubling by just not backing up HTC screen lock
sent from my EVO

when i worked at sprint alot of my stupid arse coworkers would setup gmail for people that didn't have it and not tell the customer...dont ask.... also after working in retail for 5 years lemme tell you something
People are fraggin stupid, not some of them, but like 90%, so when you look at your intelligent friends, look at them with some more respect, cause most people are completely retarded haha.
Anyhow, I can also tell you as an X sprint employee...and probably one of the most empathetic employee's and my store I would never care this much to ask on a forum, so I call BS as well.
Besides come on sprint rep, you should know damn well there aint no way around it, not unless your a super hacker.
lock code, gmail and the security questions, you mean the one like, whats your dogs name? LIES!

i work with a guy that has a hero and was drunk playing with phone and set a lock pattern. he doesn't know his gmail password either and had to go to sprint store and have it reset. lost contacts.
I say that you buy a google phone, you should be a google customer with an account. to be so stupid you forget your password is just lame. to buy a device for cool factor and not know how to use it is stupid. there should be a smart test required before someone is allowed to purchase a smartphone.
OP, make your customers download lookout from market. it saves contacts, and make them use an email they already use on daily basis and have the password the same as the password for their sprint account. then if they forget password, it is same as their account with same email provided with account.

Alanmw86 said:
when i worked at sprint alot of my stupid arse coworkers would setup gmail for people that didn't have it and not tell the customer...dont ask.... also after working in retail for 5 years lemme tell you something
People are fraggin stupid, not some of them, but like 90%, so when you look at your intelligent friends, look at them with some more respect, cause most people are completely retarded haha.
Anyhow, I can also tell you as an X sprint employee...and probably one of the most empathetic employee's and my store I would never care this much to ask on a forum, so I call BS as well.
Besides come on sprint rep, you should know damn well there aint no way around it, not unless your a super hacker.
lock code, gmail and the security questions, you mean the one like, whats your dogs name? LIES!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know, and everyone in my store knows there's no way around it... we don't post to forums asking, but we do read forums for info... but I've used forums to solve several issues on phones that probably goes against policies, like using JL Commander on Blackberries, installing .cab files on WinMo phones to fix small registry issues, etc. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to make the customer happy... but no, I nor anyone I've worked with have POSTED, just read.

if you are rooted there is a way around the pattern unlock screen. Hell it might work if you're not rooted.
Code:
adb -d shell
# sqlite3 data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db
sqlite> update system set value=0 where name='lock_pattern_autolock';
sqlite> .exit
# exit
reboot and tada
At least this works on the hero. It removes the pattern lockscreen

Alanmw86 said:
when i worked at sprint alot of my stupid arse coworkers would setup gmail for people that didn't have it and not tell the customer...dont ask.... also after working in retail for 5 years lemme tell you something
People are fraggin stupid, not some of them, but like 90%, so when you look at your intelligent friends, look at them with some more respect, cause most people are completely retarded haha.
Anyhow, I can also tell you as an X sprint employee...and probably one of the most empathetic employee's and my store I would never care this much to ask on a forum, so I call BS as well.
Besides come on sprint rep, you should know damn well there aint no way around it, not unless your a super hacker.
lock code, gmail and the security questions, you mean the one like, whats your dogs name? LIES!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If there was a way to agree more, I would. I work in retail/wholesale and people amaze me every day at how stupid they are. I work at a tire store that shares a building with a collision shop. I can't tell you how many people have walked in and asked for an estimate on collision repair. I mean seriously, we've got frickin tires EVERYWHERE!
Sent from my FROYO'D EVO using xda app

So one nite i was drunk, got out of truck (not driving) and went to bed. Next AM at hotel i couldn't find phone. Because i am smart enough to remember my gmail password (been using it for years) first thing i did was go online and change my password. Phone could no longer sync and gave me a minor sense of security. Found phone in a co-workers hotel room later that nite. I then changed my password back.
For those that wouldn't do the same when they lost or had their phone stollen, you just presented a way for the person that has it access to their device.
Simple..... you forgot your lock pattern or pin (like you need a phone like this then) if you also forgot your email and password, then start over and lesson learned. But to provide this kind of info for a theif or not so honest person access to a phone that doesn't belong to them is just wrong.

unCoRrUpTeD said:
if you are rooted there is a way around the pattern unlock screen. Hell it might work if you're not rooted.
Code:
adb -d shell
# sqlite3 data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db
sqlite> update system set value=0 where name='lock_pattern_autolock';
sqlite> .exit
# exit
reboot and tada
At least this works on the hero. It removes the pattern lockscreen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just guessing...since you are working with /data, you would not need root. Or at least not nand unlocked. I don't believe data is a protected directory.
Nice trick BTW...
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

jpwhre said:
So one nite i was drunk, got out of truck (not driving) and went to bed. Next AM at hotel i couldn't find phone. Because i am smart enough to remember my gmail password (been using it for years) first thing i did was go online and change my password. Phone could no longer sync and gave me a minor sense of security. Found phone in a co-workers hotel room later that nite. I then changed my password back.
For those that wouldn't do the same when they lost or had their phone stollen, you just presented a way for the person that has it access to their device.
Simple..... you forgot your lock pattern or pin (like you need a phone like this then) if you also forgot your email and password, then start over and lesson learned. But to provide this kind of info for a theif or not so honest person access to a phone that doesn't belong to them is just wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing is that this information can be found by anyone or you could do a master reset and would still be able to use the phone. I just put this up there because people were saying there was no way to get around this stuff and there are. In no way do I condone using this info for illegal or dishonest use.

[BUG]Android firing a message to the wrong person!

Have you read this terrible notice from engadget.com?
Android still has horrible text messaging bugs that'll get you fired, busted, or otherwise embarrassed
By Chris Ziegler posted Dec 31st 2010 1:12PM
Pardon us if the headline is a little sensational, but this is one that we've personally experienced -- and it's not pretty. For at least the last couple versions, Android has been plagued with a couple extremely serious bugs in its text messaging subsystem that can ultimately end up causing you to text the wrong contact -- even contacts that you've never texted before. There appear to be a few failure modes; the one we definitely experience on the Gingerbread-powered Nexus S involves being routed to the wrong thread when you tap it either in the Notifications list or the master thread list in the Messaging application, so if you don't notice, you'll end up firing a message to the wrong person.
More seriously, though, there's also an open issue in Android's bug tracking system -- inexplicably marked "medium" priority -- where sent text messages can appear to be in the correct thread and still end up being sent to another contact altogether. In other words, unless you pull up the Message Details screen after the fact, you might not even know the grievous act you've committed until your boss, significant other, or best friend -- make that former best friend -- texts you back. There seem to have been some attempts on Google's part over the year to fix it; we can't confirm that it still happens in 2.3, but for what it's worth, the issue hasn't been marked resolved in Google Code... and it was opened some six months ago.
This is akin to an alarm clock that occasionally won't go off (we've been there) or a car that randomly won't let you turn the steering wheel -- you simply cannot have a phone that you can't trust to communicate with the right people. It's a deal-breaker. We're pretty shocked that these issues weren't tied up and blasted to all affected phones as an over-the-air patch months ago, but whatever the reason, we'd like to see Google, manufacturers, and carriers drop every other Android update they're working on and make sure this is completely resolved immediately.
Want to see this fixed as much as we do? Scroll to the bottom of the Google Code page and hit "Vote for this issue and get email change notifications."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Contribute yourself to convince GoogleGuys to fix it!

Never had any issue with this...

Maybe, it happens only on the default Google sms app not the HTC one.

I've often sent 2 - 3000 text messeges a month with two diffrent devices over the last 18 months and never had this problem. on the otherhand engadget are known for chatting sensationalist rubbish, only to have to apologise later in an editorial.

Fightspit said:
Maybe, it happens only on the default Google sms app not the HTC one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have experienced this with the HTC messaging one. When I individually texted "Happy new year!!" to everyone, the bug happened twice and it actually sent to someone else.

AndroHero said:
I've often sent 2 - 3000 text messeges a month with two diffrent devices over the last 18 months and never had this problem. on the otherhand engadget are known for chatting sensationalist rubbish, only to have to apologise later in an editorial.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is not sensationalism, is an actual big ugly bug.

crapula512 said:
is not sensationalism, is an actual big ugly bug.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it's a bug, then why have I not encountered it since owning this phone for 7 months?
It could be a stock Android problem as already mentioned (HTC Sense ROMs have a different messaging application).

I found a post in the discuss thread where a guy explain how to reproduce this *bug*:
killerbee3 said:
If anyone is interested, evidently "Darth Mo" has been able to replicate it - found in ACentral Forums - entire post follows;
"It's not user error, or at least it's a combination of user technique and a possible design. It has to do with how the stock messaging app interacts with the Android system notification.
I recreated it this way. Open a text, but only from the notification bar. You will be taken directly to the conversation from that contact. Now, just hit the home button to get back to the home screen. Repeat this four times to let the open conversations build up. We'll call the earliest contact 1, the next 2, etc. for this example. Let's say you converse with these contacts over some time so that messages occur in this chronological order (opened from the notification menu if possible) : 1, you, 2, you, 3, you, 4, you, 1, 3, you, 3.
Now, you've read the message from contact 3, but quickly hit the back button because you need to send a message to contact 4. So you're back at the conversation list and select conversation 4. You compose and send your message and off you go. But, what can actually happen is that your message went to contact 1 because there is a bug that when you use the back button, it will take you to the conversation screen and when you select one, it will take you to the conversation with the last "unreplied" message received before the last conversation you didn't reply to, regardless of the one you actually select from the list. It's easy to miss that it took you to the wrong conversation as the on screen info can take a beat to update and it looks like you've select the right conversation. The kicker is the conversation list does highlight the one you meant to select, but will take you to that other conversation. It's as if it's saying, "Hey, I know you want to go to that one, but you opened this message and jumped out of it without replying. Maybe you didn't see it."
It's pretty easy for people to not have seen this for a few reasons:
1. You open messages directly from the messaging app
2. You close out every conversation using the back button and don't let them build up on top of each other
3. Messages can come in such a sequence that the conditions are never correct
4. It has actually happened, only the last "unreplied" message was from the conversation you actually intended to enter
I was able to create reliably using my Google voice number to send myself text and watched it bounce around conversations seemingly randomly. It was only when I looked at the times of each message with no replies that I saw what it was doing actually had order to it.
About 30 minutes of experimentation to figure it out, but I had to know how this was happening as I could see it leading to an egregious error later. Now to explain it to HTC..."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

i've never had this either - i use handcent

Since a few minutes ago, the issue is considered critical instead of of medium:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=9392#c794

Are kiddin me?
I dont send any sms for a while , this is a very big issue !
It never happened to me but , this is a realy really big bug!

Mekrel said:
If it's a bug, then why have I not encountered it since owning this phone for 7 months?
It could be a stock Android problem as already mentioned (HTC Sense ROMs have a different messaging application).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why havent you encountered it? i have no frikking clue and i dont care.
fortunately now it is a critical bug.
btw, i just care about android stock problems, im not using that sense stuff.

I quite often get messages which are meant for other people from someone who has a samsung galaxy (seems that's it's a copy of the message, rather than it being sent to the wrong sender).
I don't text as much, so less prone to the error.

happened to me on stock Android. Never on HTC Sense or mod

I have actually had this bug... but it reported the message had gone to the wrong person, but the correct person replied so I assumed it was reporting it wrong.... only happened twice.
on stock rom unrooted desire

I'm using a stock ROM & native SMS. I get this bug quite a few times.
I'm working in a very loud environment, so I send & receive lots & lots of text messages.
I notice that when i have lots of threaded messages, the SMS starts to slow down & sooner or later the bug will cause me send a text to the wrong recipient.
I'm quite careful of what I'm sending now.
HTC & they told me to reset the phone.
It hasn't been fun for me since I have to reset the phone once a month because my threaded sms buildup very quickly...
I'll update to 2.29.405.5 to see if this fixes anything.

Guys,
Is the 'wrong' person who receives the message someone in your phonebook or a total stranger. If it'd someone you don't know... how does your phone pick that number up? Randomly?
I had my Desire since April, and never had this issue. I open texts from notification bar and have sent them frequently.

I've had a G1, Magic, Milestone and now a Desire and I've never experienced this at all.

I don't think this bug is very common... I've never experienced it myself and none of my android friends have either...
Just some evil forces trying to make the Android OS look bad. Not our fault they couldn't resist taking a bite of that apple so screw them!

Overblown sensationalism AKA typical journalism. It's a bug but seldom a problem encountered by users, or XDA-Dev would've been flooded with such problem threads long before such publicity sites noticed. Just me personally having switched between over a dozen ROMs/kernels and their versions since March with over 60 average text out per day since and not one occurrence means it isn't anything but rare. I rely on SMS very much daily.
------------------------------
- Sent via HTC Desire -

Crazy lag in long text conversations

Hey everyone, I`ve noticed a terrible flaw in WP7 and maybe I`ve overlooked a way to overcome it.
The problem is that sms conversations that have become really long, create a huge lag in terms of scrolling, typing and pressing the send button. In Android and iPhone, they have that option where you can 'click to view previous messages' but in WP7, it seems to display all the messages no matter what which is probably what creates the huge lag.
Anyway to fix this?

impruv said:
Hey everyone, I`ve noticed a terrible flaw in WP7 and maybe I`ve overlooked a way to overcome it.
The problem is that sms conversations that have become really long, create a huge lag in terms of scrolling, typing and pressing the send button. In Android and iPhone, they have that option where you can 'click to view previous messages' but in WP7, it seems to display all the messages no matter what which is probably what creates the huge lag.
Anyway to fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How many messages do you mean by saying "really long"?
The conversation with my girlfriend has a few hundred messages since I bought the Omnia7 but I cannot see any kind of lag.

skycamefalling said:
How many messages do you mean by saying "really long"?
The conversation with my girlfriend has a few hundred messages since I bought the Omnia7 but I cannot see any kind of lag.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm..I'd say somewhere around 2000 texts? It's really bothering me... I feel like I'm texting on my iphone 3g lol.
Ill probably record a video to show what I'm experiencing in a few days after my exams.

impruv said:
Hmm..I'd say somewhere around 2000 texts? It's really bothering me... I feel like I'm texting on my iphone 3g lol.
Ill probably record a video to show what I'm experiencing in a few days after my exams.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ive noticed the same thing! they should do like they did on windows mobile when you scroll up you gotta press a button to load the next few cause theres no point loading every single text cause it can cause majorr lag

I had the same problem too. The only way to fix it is to delete the conversation.
Sent from my HD7 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

Strange, i just came on here to see if others had the same problem. It happens here too. A "see more" button would be great.

silvertonesx24 said:
Strange, i just came on here to see if others had the same problem. It happens here too. A "see more" button would be great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is definitely a feature i would like to see!

Wish they add it in next update.
Sent from my SGH-i917 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

My wp7 lags on messaging too after 1000 messages so slow

Darn, I was hoping it was just me and that i could fix it.
I really don't want to delete the conversation... guess I'll just have to live with it. I'm surprised they didn't implement the show more button like android/iPhone does it.

You should be deleting conversations that start to creep up into the 1k range.. I remember on android if i reached 1k in a thread; I wasn't able to delete it, it was so large that the os would choke..
So moral of the story, dont keep long threads..

Really??? You need that many texts???
Sent from my Dell Streak 7 using XDA Premium App

impruv said:
Hmm..I'd say somewhere around 2000 texts? It's really bothering me... I feel like I'm texting on my iphone 3g lol.
Ill probably record a video to show what I'm experiencing in a few days after my exams.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any phone would do that. Blackberries do it, Androids do it, and iPhones do it as well. It's time to set a reasonable threshold for cached texts. It lags for the same reason the XDA Forum list lags a lot of browsers...
Microsoft really needs to add Text Backup to the Devices Site, like MyPhone had...
Dunno why you'd want 2k text cached, though (everyone says in case they need to look up information from an earlier text, lol...).

microhaxo said:
You should be deleting conversations that start to creep up into the 1k range.. I remember on android if i reached 1k in a thread; I wasn't able to delete it, it was so large that the os would choke..
So moral of the story, dont keep long threads..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have several 1600-2200 message conversations. I haven't delete an sms since december of last year. there is no need in deleting them. fix the problem, move on.
smsbackup is great.

N8ter said:
Dunno why you'd want 2k text cached, though (everyone says in case they need to look up information from an earlier text, lol...).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This.
Sure, some of those texts may well include important information but, and be honest, would you ever be able to find that one message out of 2000 when you actually needed it?
I'll admit, I don't text much these days as most everyone I used to text now owns a smartphone - I tend to email or IM. If I email all messages are stored in the cloud (Exchange, Hotmail, GMail etc etc) and easily searchable (I do wish WP7's email client would include server-search though) and if I get a piece of very important information thru IM I'll copy it into OneNote - which, again, lives in the cloud and is fully searchable.

Honestly, if there is any vital information within a text you need to "look back upon to read" then you're seriously handling your information in a horrible, horrible manner. I would think most people would use e-mail for this type of thing, or store it better. Once texts in any OS reach a certain point, it takes a disgustingly long amount of time to look back at any level due to he sheer amount of texts... I delete messages once a month.
This is honestly a no win situation for Microsoft... If they put a load more button, then people complain the way they did back in the Sense days where they wanted it loaded entirely. I like the load feature, it allows to uninterrupted view for a reasonable amount of texts...
If you're a psychopath who decides to store 5 billion texts, you can't blame anybody but yourself, and you honestly aren't normal.

Yes me too. I didnt erase my sms since i bought this Mozart and i dont see lag at all up to now.
Sent from my T8698 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

FiyaFleye said:
Honestly, if there is any vital information within a text you need to "look back upon to read" then you're seriously handling your information in a horrible, horrible manner. I would think most people would use e-mail for this type of thing, or store it better. Once texts in any OS reach a certain point, it takes a disgustingly long amount of time to look back at any level due to he sheer amount of texts... I delete messages once a month.
This is honestly a no win situation for Microsoft... If they put a load more button, then people complain the way they did back in the Sense days where they wanted it loaded entirely. I like the load feature, it allows to uninterrupted view for a reasonable amount of texts...
If you're a psychopath who decides to store 5 billion texts, you can't blame anybody but yourself, and you honestly aren't normal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
then it should load like 100-200 texts and when you scroll back when you reach the end it should automatically load 100 more before you get to the end

DatDereX1 said:
then it should load like 100-200 texts and when you scroll back when you reach the end it should automatically load 100 more before you get to the end
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I promise somebody would find a problem with this... Like I said, I honestly don't mind because I don't keep thousands of texts, and I send a healthy amount a month... But I don't let them collect for a year like some users...
As far as the lag, I haven't seen it, I'm guessing because I keep it at a reasonable amount...

FiyaFleye said:
Honestly, if there is any vital information within a text you need to "look back upon to read" then you're seriously handling your information in a horrible, horrible manner. I would think most people would use e-mail for this type of thing, or store it better. Once texts in any OS reach a certain point, it takes a disgustingly long amount of time to look back at any level due to he sheer amount of texts... I delete messages once a month.
This is honestly a no win situation for Microsoft... If they put a load more button, then people complain the way they did back in the Sense days where they wanted it loaded entirely. I like the load feature, it allows to uninterrupted view for a reasonable amount of texts...
If you're a psychopath who decides to store 5 billion texts, you can't blame anybody but yourself, and you honestly aren't normal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not vital to me, but sometimes you want to keep the texts from someone special, or someone who isn't around anymore. I would delete them, but I do not like deleting anything knowing that I'll NEVER get it back if I wanted. With the iPhone, I backed up the SMS database file iTunes backed up and then deleted the texts from the phone. That's all I needed.

Facebook keeping tabs on calls and sms via FB app? (Creepy!)

For a while now I've been weirded out with some of Facebook's friend suggestions that pop up on the right (desktop), because it's putting customers of mine up there that I have never corresponded with via FB or email, basically only by phone or text. And the timing was always crazy because I would work at their house or talk to them on the phone and the next day they would come up as a suggestion. Well last night I spoke with an old colleague of mine on the phone that I haven't spoken to in about a year and today I go to my profile and sure enough, he's at the very top of my friends list. I have come to the conclusion that the FB app on our phones MUST be keeping tabs of who we are talking to and making the suggestions based on that information, and god knows what else they are doing with that info. How else can this be explained? It is the only explanation that I can think of. Checking the permissions of the app, it DOES have the ability to check pretty much everything we do on our phones.
Has anybody else noticed anything like this going on?

I'm only surprised that you're surprised. I assumed this was true without even using the app.

I guess I'm not surprised but I didn't think they dug that deep into our privacy. Nowhere is it disclosed that they use that information for anything, and when I google it I find people posting about similar findings as me but never anything official from Facebook.

Permissions Denied can block most of those! It still bugs me that GPS can't be blocked without crashing the app, though (even if you've turned off posting with location).
PDroid seems to be a good option for those with Cyanogen, but it's not available for my E4GT. Anybody have a moment to put together a PDroid patch for Calkulin's ROM?

Thank you for that, pinandstutter! I use AdBlock, NoScript and Peerblock on my PC for these exact reasons. I didn't know something like this was available for my phone.

Quite frankly FB is a sack of scuzzbags.

Question Phone hacked detection

Good morning everyone,
I am not super tech savvy, and need some help. I truly believe that my phone is somehow hacked, here is the situation:
My significant other and I are going through a break up in court,
She seems to know what I am saying in real time, often mentioning in it later that day or the next day; She seems to know what I am google searching, and even possibly what photos I have taken.
When I put my phone in airplane mode a few times, I could tell, even though she would have no idea that I put it in airplane mode, she freaked out by texting me repeatedly as if she was trying to get me to respond to pick up my signal or something.
Could she have hired someone from the dark web or something and they have hacked or cloned my phone?
The program I have for security is Avast.
Is there anything I can do other than trading my fold 3 in for the fold 4 to completely gain confidence I am not being spied on? I know that she would go to any extreme to find out what I am doing, her whole family is schizo like that and I am really worried, I just want to have the piece of mind my phone is safe, and as of now I dont trust it, or anything else electronic in my house.
Any comments or suggestions are truly appreciated and welcomed.

Check Google account for any unauthorized logins.
Backup all critical data, remove Google and Samsung accounts from phone.
Factory reset from settings, then reset your Google account password. Done.
Be careful what you install and don't let others use the device or connect foreign flash drives to it. Do Not install or use trash sites like WhatsApp, FB, Tiktok, etc.

blackhawk said:
Check Google account for any unauthorized logins.
Backup all critical data, remove Google and Samsung accounts from phone.
Factory reset from settings, then reset your Google account password. Done.
Be careful what you install and don't let others use the device or connect foreign flash drives to it. Do Not install or use trash sites like WhatsApp, FB, Tiktok, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree completely with the recommendation that you do the factory reset. And if you have access to a laptop or computer-- or any other device: use a web browser to change Google and Samsung passwords. Also if you use any other email provider, chat apps change those passwords too.

eliniko said:
Good morning everyone,
I am not super tech savvy, and need some help. I truly believe that my phone is somehow hacked, here is the situation:
My significant other and I are going through a break up in court,
She seems to know what I am saying in real time, often mentioning in it later that day or the next day; She seems to know what I am google searching, and even possibly what photos I have taken.
When I put my phone in airplane mode a few times, I could tell, even though she would have no idea that I put it in airplane mode, she freaked out by texting me repeatedly as if she was trying to get me to respond to pick up my signal or something.
Could she have hired someone from the dark web or something and they have hacked or cloned my phone?
The program I have for security is Avast.
Is there anything I can do other than trading my fold 3 in for the fold 4 to completely gain confidence I am not being spied on? I know that she would go to any extreme to find out what I am doing, her whole family is schizo like that and I am really worried, I just want to have the piece of mind my phone is safe, and as of now I dont trust it, or anything else electronic in my house.
Any comments or suggestions are truly appreciated and welcomed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree completely with the recommendation that you do the factory reset. And if you have access to a laptop or computer-- or any other device (not the phone in question): use a web browser to change Google and Samsung passwords. Also if you use any other email provider, chat apps change those passwords too.
---------------------------------------------------------

Yeah in this case I would say she definitely somehow has access to your Google account. Your best bet is to first go through and remove any recovery email / phone numbers you don't recognize from your account and then do a factory reset of your current device, if you want to go further you could reflash Android onto the device using ODIN but that does take some knowhow. Also check for any unrecognized apps on your device, as simply having access to your backups will not give her instant access to what you said so my best guess is that she has your passwords.

eliniko said:
When I put my phone in airplane mode a few times, I could tell, even though she would have no idea that I put it in airplane mode, she freaked out by texting me repeatedly as if she was trying to get me to respond to pick up my signal or something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you receive any messages when in airplane mode?

eliniko said:
The program I have for security is Avast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can deinstall it. It's worthless.

WoKoschekk said:
You can deinstall it. It's worthless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, you can tell I dont know anything, can you tell me what program/app can scan my phone?

WoKoschekk said:
How do you receive any messages when in airplane mode?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they all come through in a flurry when I switch my phone back on. I turn it on in airplane mode when I have my son with me, this is what I am most concerned about is she is spying on me for.

eliniko said:
thanks, you can tell I dont know anything, can you tell me what program/app can scan my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
brain.exe! An anti virus app compares your installed packages (apps) with a black list on its home server. Is there a match => show a warning screen. The problem here is that it's no problem to install a package with a random generated name (Magisk users should know what I mean). So you have no chance to detect it. And that's only one method to bypass your anti virus.
Afraid of unknown apps? Check your installed apps either in your device settings or by checking the folder /data/app which is accessible without root permissions. Every app for Android has to store its APK in this directory or otherwise it is not executable.
Apart from that a Google account must be secured by at least 2FA. This is the minimum to secure your data. Find it in your Google settings. There is also listed which devices are currently logged in.
Messenger apps can't be installed with your account on 2 or more different devices without a warning or without being uninstalled on the first device. Additionally you need a verification for that which will be sent to your mobile no.
Spying on a device also means permanent data traffic. Did you check your device settings if any app shows irregular high data traffic?

eliniko said:
Good morning everyone,
I am not super tech savvy, and need some help. I truly believe that my phone is somehow hacked, here is the situation:
My significant other and I are going through a break up in court,
She seems to know what I am saying in real time, often mentioning in it later that day or the next day; She seems to know what I am google searching, and even possibly what photos I have taken.
When I put my phone in airplane mode a few times, I could tell, even though she would have no idea that I put it in airplane mode, she freaked out by texting me repeatedly as if she was trying to get me to respond to pick up my signal or something.
Could she have hired someone from the dark web or something and they have hacked or cloned my phone?
The program I have for security is Avast.
Is there anything I can do other than trading my fold 3 in for the fold 4 to completely gain confidence I am not being spied on? I know that she would go to any extreme to find out what I am doing, her whole family is schizo like that and I am really worried, I just want to have the piece of mind my phone is safe, and as of now I dont trust it, or anything else electronic in my house.
Any comments or suggestions are truly appreciated and welcomed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry to hear you are going through this. A friend of mine went through something similar. His ex had connections to email accounts and online messaging accounts by password spoofing and other means and might have had some help knowing what passwords he used or like to use. He was alerted of random locations of unauthorized access to gmail and yahoo many many times, he sent them to me along with other chat messages from things she wouldn't know unless she or someone was watching him. I believed his vehicle or phone had been tracked by gps but we never found anything. His ex knew stuff that didn't make sense and where he was were as if he was being watched, and I'm also positive he was being watched. They were living together during court for a 3 months and then separated. I told him to stop using all the online chats, reset phone and change passwords. And he did, but he was still being tracked. I said either they put in some gps tracking device like an apple air tag or cheap gps tracker or a recording device somewhere or had someone watching him. I told him to buy a temp phone with new number and he did and communicate with only a handful of people he 100% trusted and left his main phone at home most of time until the court stuff was over. He thought she had connections to a law enforcement detective. I said anything is possible. Talk about being paranoid. I went through most of it with him. He also bought a new computer and after a new phone and trading in his car, yes, he did all three. I thought he shouldn't have to go that far but there was a lot crazy stuff going that didn't make sense. So after he did those things and also got a secure place of his own, and bought video cameras for his car and house, she went completely was clueless...but also turned crazy agitated and annoying. There's so much more but its amazing what lengths some people will go to on both ends.
Oh I forgot to add she or someone had attached random different emails to two of his accounts for backup emails. He sent me pictures. I believe that is for an alternative login and forget password. So even if you changed it she could still get access. So check that too!
Do you have separate phone accounts or on the same plan? Hopefully separate or she could be accessing your mobile account.
Is she using Android or iPhone?
You can care or not care about it, but I say do what makes you feel safe and comfortable.
Definitely start with what Blackhawk wrote!
I'm so sorry to ramble on, your post just made me think of that and all the horrible stuff she did to my friend.
One day at a time my friend, it will get better!
I wish you the best of luck!

defcondoc said:
I'm sorry to hear you are going through this. A friend of mine went through something similar. His ex had connections to email accounts and online messaging accounts by password spoofing and other means and might have had some help knowing what passwords he used or like to use. He was alerted of random locations of unauthorized access to gmail and yahoo many many times, he sent them to me along with other chat messages from things she wouldn't know unless she or someone was watching him. I believed his vehicle or phone had been tracked by gps but we never found anything. His ex knew stuff that didn't make sense and where he was were as if he was being watched, and I'm also positive he was being watched. They were living together during court for a 3 months and then separated. I told him to stop using all the online chats, reset phone and change passwords. And he did, but he was still being tracked. I said either they put in some gps tracking device like an apple air tag or cheap gps tracker or a recording device somewhere or had someone watching him. I told him to buy a temp phone with new number and he did and communicate with only a handful of people he 100% trusted and left his main phone at home most of time until the court stuff was over. He thought she had connections to a law enforcement detective. I said anything is possible. Talk about being paranoid. I went through most of it with him. He also bought a new computer and after a new phone and trading in his car, yes, he did all three. I thought he shouldn't have to go that far but there was a lot crazy stuff going that didn't make sense. So after he did those things and also got a secure place of his own, and bought video cameras for his car and house, she went completely was clueless...but also turned crazy agitated and annoying. There's so much more but its amazing what lengths some people will go to on both ends.
Oh I forgot to add she or someone had attached random different emails to two of his accounts for backup emails. He sent me pictures. I believe that is for an alternative login and forget password. So even if you changed it she could still get access. So check that too!
Do you have separate phone accounts or on the same plan? Hopefully separate or she could be accessing your mobile account.
Is she using Android or iPhone?
You can care or not care about it, but I say do what makes you feel safe and comfortable.
Definitely start with what Blackhawk wrote!
I'm so sorry to ramble on, your post just made me think of that and all the horrible stuff she did to my friend.
One day at a time my friend, it will get better!
I wish you the best of luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, this is exactly happening to me. I believe she has seen photos either from google photos or on my phone, although I dont know how she could access, as well as a critical timeline of texts have just disappeared, I have no idea how to recover them, only her texts on the text app on the fold 3 phone have disappeared, a 2 month block of our conversations, I dont know how to e tthem back, I tried reinstalling my back up, but those messages are gone, even in my samsung back up and google back up, any idea how I could have my phone professionally recover those messages, i am willing to pay whatever amount, i really need those messages for court.....any ideas? I will pay for someone to try...
What happened was, she had my phone for like an hour (before the breakup) and I noticed days later those messages gone, then came the break up, seperation, court order, etc.....it is a true nightmare that was thought out by her. I know her brother stalked his girlfriend with a gps tracker, broke into her email, facebook, etc, so i know she used his know how to do the same.
Any ideas on how to ge tthose messages back? I would be extremely grateful to get those...

You should not forget that this person was part of your life for a long time. She knows a lot of your habits in daily life and there are a lot of people knowing both of you. One of them might see you somewhere and the next day this person meets your Ex and they talk about it. You can get a lot of information about a person even without having access to his/her mobile phone, accounts and so on. Sometimes you only see what you want ro see. Especially in such a challenging situation like a separation. Often you realized it by yourself when some time is passed and you have enough distance to it.

eliniko said:
Thanks, this is exactly happening to me. I believe she has seen photos either from google photos or on my phone, although I dont know how she could access, as well as a critical timeline of texts have just disappeared, I have no idea how to recover them, only her texts on the text app on the fold 3 phone have disappeared, a 2 month block of our conversations, I dont know how to e tthem back, I tried reinstalling my back up, but those messages are gone, even in my samsung back up and google back up, any idea how I could have my phone professionally recover those messages, i am willing to pay whatever amount, i really need those messages for court.....any ideas? I will pay for someone to try...
What happened was, she had my phone for like an hour (before the breakup) and I noticed days later those messages gone, then came the break up, seperation, court order, etc.....it is a true nightmare that was thought out by her. I know her brother stalked his girlfriend with a gps tracker, broke into her email, facebook, etc, so i know she used his know how to do the same.
Any ideas on how to ge tthose messages back? I would be extremely grateful to get those...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh ha, now this is definitely making more sense. So the actual SMS MMS text app? Only way to get messages back aside from a backup would be from the carrier, AFIK. I believe there is android recovery software that may be able to recover deleted messages.

defcondoc said:
Ahh ha, now this is definitely making more sense. So the actual SMS MMS text app? Only way to get messages back aside from a backup would be from the carrier, AFIK. I believe there is android recovery software that may be able to recover deleted messages.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, the SMS. I would have no idea how to contact them, I had Infinity at the time that the texts were sent, so would they even have those texts?

eliniko said:
Yes, the SMS. I would have no idea how to contact them, I had Infinity at the time that the texts were sent, so would they even have those texts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok. I don't know Infinity, but I believe you would need to open a case with them and file a court order with other carriers. I would give them a call and ask technical support and customer relations on how you would go about getting those back. Do you have date and time when they were sent? They might need that specific information. Your attorney may have experience with this.

defcondoc said:
I'm sorry to hear you are going through this. A friend of mine went through something similar. His ex had connections to email accounts and online messaging accounts by password spoofing and other means and might have had some help knowing what passwords he used or like to use. He was alerted of random locations of unauthorized access to gmail and yahoo many many times, he sent them to me along with other chat messages from things she wouldn't know unless she or someone was watching him. I believed his vehicle or phone had been tracked by gps but we never found anything. His ex knew stuff that didn't make sense and where he was were as if he was being watched, and I'm also positive he was being watched. They were living together during court for a 3 months and then separated. I told him to stop using all the online chats, reset phone and change passwords. And he did, but he was still being tracked. I said either they put in some gps tracking device like an apple air tag or cheap gps tracker or a recording device somewhere or had someone watching him. I told him to buy a temp phone with new number and he did and communicate with only a handful of people he 100% trusted and left his main phone at home most of time until the court stuff was over. He thought she had connections to a law enforcement detective. I said anything is possible. Talk about being paranoid. I went through most of it with him. He also bought a new computer and after a new phone and trading in his car, yes, he did all three. I thought he shouldn't have to go that far but there was a lot crazy stuff going that didn't make sense. So after he did those things and also got a secure place of his own, and bought video cameras for his car and house, she went completely was clueless...but also turned crazy agitated and annoying. There's so much more but its amazing what lengths some people will go to on both ends.
Oh I forgot to add she or someone had attached random different emails to two of his accounts for backup emails. He sent me pictures. I believe that is for an alternative login and forget password. So even if you changed it she could still get access. So check that too!
Do you have separate phone accounts or on the same plan? Hopefully separate or she could be accessing your mobile account.
Is she using Android or iPhone?
You can care or not care about it, but I say do what makes you feel safe and comfortable.
Definitely start with what Blackhawk wrote!
I'm so sorry to ramble on, your post just made me think of that and all the horrible stuff she did to my friend.
One day at a time my friend, it will get better!
I wish you the best of luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stop goofing around with the runt and play hardball. Let the pros handle it. They have tools and methods that would make your head spin like Linda Blair.
&
Gps tracking device on car or other personal belonging. Relax. Sit back and look at the clues, find the cause(s), plug the leaks. Better yet, let the FBI build a case and do as directed... federal crimes will put someone deep in the hurt locker.

You could actually use this situation to your advantage, for a while, you could email/text things that would really make her happy/sad/angry/jealous etc when bored with that do the above wipe recommendations!

eliniko said:
Good morning everyone,
I am not super tech savvy, and need some help. I truly believe that my phone is somehow hacked, here is the situation:
My significant other and I are going through a break up in court,
She seems to know what I am saying in real time, often mentioning in it later that day or the next day; She seems to know what I am google searching, and even possibly what photos I have taken.
When I put my phone in airplane mode a few times, I could tell, even though she would have no idea that I put it in airplane mode, she freaked out by texting me repeatedly as if she was trying to get me to respond to pick up my signal or something.
Could she have hired someone from the dark web or something and they have hacked or cloned my phone?
The program I have for security is Avast.
Is there anything I can do other than trading my fold 3 in for the fold 4 to completely gain confidence I am not being spied on? I know that she would go to any extreme to find out what I am doing, her whole family is schizo like that and I am really worried, I just want to have the piece of mind my phone is safe, and as of now I dont trust it, or anything else electronic in my house.
Any comments or suggestions are truly appreciated and welcomed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The likelihood of your phone being hacked is really quite low. if you're truly concerned however, factory reset your phone, start from scratch, don't restore backups.
The main thing I'm certain you need to do is go and change all of your account passwords. If the account offers it, tell it to "force sign out everywhere"
Turn on 2 factor authentication, ideally not using a phone or email that she would know about.
Start here:
Account settings: Your browser is not supported.
myaccount.google.com
What to do if an unknown sign in or hacking attempt is found
FAQ for Samsung mobile devices. Find more about Continue watching videos after leaving Samsung TV Plus with Samsung Support
www.samsung.com
Goes without saying, go change facebook passwords, twitter, all your socials. change everything.

eliniko said:
Good morning everyone,
I am not super tech savvy, and need some help. I truly believe that my phone is somehow hacked, here is the situation:
My significant other and I are going through a break up in court,
She seems to know what I am saying in real time, often mentioning in it later that day or the next day; She seems to know what I am google searching, and even possibly what photos I have taken.
When I put my phone in airplane mode a few times, I could tell, even though she would have no idea that I put it in airplane mode, she freaked out by texting me repeatedly as if she was trying to get me to respond to pick up my signal or something.
Could she have hired someone from the dark web or something and they have hacked or cloned my phone?
The program I have for security is Avast.
Is there anything I can do other than trading my fold 3 in for the fold 4 to completely gain confidence I am not being spied on? I know that she would go to any extreme to find out what I am doing, her whole family is schizo like that and I am really worried, I just want to have the piece of mind my phone is safe, and as of now I dont trust it, or anything else electronic in my house.
Any comments or suggestions are truly appreciated and welcomed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you should change your phone and SIM card?