When I try to run the Google Play store app on my Android 6.0 device, I get an error message telling me: Background data disabled Google Play Store needs background data to be enabled. When I click on "learn more" I am taken to this page: https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1663315?hl=en That page claims that, under Android 5.0 or higher I need to open the Settings app and select "Wireless & networks" or "Connections" and touch "Data Usage", or on some devices "Battery & Data Manager" and then "Delivery". I have none of these, the closest I have are "WiFi" and "Battery", neither of which have "Data Usage" or "Delivery" under them. I do however have "Data Usage" as a top-level menu item in Settings but it deals exclusively with *Cellular Data* limiting. And in that I *do* have Google Play Store restricted to "Disable background data on cellular networks". I am *not* going to change this as this was one app I identified which was using excessive mobile data usage. However, I am *not* on a cellular network when I am trying to open the Google Play store, I am on WiFi, so I'm not sure why it is complaining. Is there some other location that background data has to be enabled for WiFi? I find that when connected to WiFi my phone is automatically updating apps in the background every day or two which would seem to suggest it *does* have background data when on WiFi, so why can't I open the Play Store under the same conditions?

Technology users are faced with a challenge: Allowing our tech devices to work without them invading our privacy. Obviously choosing products carefully is a critical step. Unfortunately, the two main players in the smartphone space, **Google and Apple**, are well known for their questionable data collection and harvesting practices. [LineageOS](https://lineageos.org/) and [/e/OS](https://e.foundation/products/) are *up-and-coming* providers of privacy-friendly smartphone operating systems. Until they become more commonplace, I thought it would be worthwhile to create a compendium of internet hosts to which Android connects by default. To do this, I let an Android device run for 5 hours and captured all packets trying to leave the device. The Android device was configured *never* to share contact data, calendar data, task data, map data, location data, or any history of any kind. It also was configured to not transmit or receive email *at all*. The internet search function of the launcher was removed. Furthermore, Google Chrome and the Google's Android Assistant were both disabled, as were all the various "Google Play" apps (such as Google Play Books, Google Play Games, Google Play Movies & TV, Google Play Music / YouTube, Google Play Newsstand) except for the Play store. Within the Google Play store, automatically checking for new app versions was disabled. Finally, a non-Google keyboard was installed and set as the default. Even after doing all this, within just 5 hours of the phone sitting without being used, the Android device attempted to connect to all the following Google-owned hosts: history.google.com mtalk.google.com alt1-mtalk.google.com alt2-mtalk.google.com alt3-mtalk.google.com alt4-mtalk.google.com alt5-mtalk.google.com alt6-mtalk.google.com alt7-mtalk.google.com alt8-mtalk.google.com android.clients.google.com www.google.com android.googleapis.com play.googleapis.com cloudconfig.googleapis.com connectivitycheck.gstatic.com footprints-pa.googleapis.com mobilemaps.googleapis.com people-pa.googleapis.com www.googleapis.com www.googletagmanager.com play-lh.googleusercontent.com smtp.gmail.com What is the purpose of each of these hosts, and why are so many connections still being attempted given that almost everything Google-related is supposed to be disabled on the device? Note that I don't expect a single answerer to know the purpose of every host listed, but hopefully we can work together to use this QA to create a quality reference resource.

I've noticed that Removed apps and Users uses too much data on the background. But dont know the reason. In this photo I can see that Removed apps and users, and Android OS uses too much data. How to reduce this usage? I know that Removed apps and users are use by my uninstall apps, disabled apps in the session. But if I use the uninstall apps then why this photo shows the the data used in foreground not in background .? Then how to reduce usage of Removed apps and users, and Android OS

Does restricting background data also stop my phone from receiving notifications from restricted apps? For example: I go to Settings > Data usage > Cellular data usage > Facebook, then I turn off 'Background data'. Will I still receive notifications from Facebook? Note* I am on Android: 7.1.2 and Device: Pixel

As you can see in the attached picture, Gmail has been consuming so much data, is this logical? (click image for larger variant)

A user can enable or disable background data usage by following the following steps: 1. From the Home screen, tap the app slider, then open "Settings". 2. Select "Data usage". 3. Select "Cellular data usage". 4. Select the app you want to limit background data on. 5. Toggle "Background data" to "On" or "Off" as desired. The question is - is there anyway to do it on a mass scale for all apps so that a user do not need to keep repeating the five steps as described above? Example, a user just need to follow the following steps: 1. From the Home screen, tap the app slider, then open "Settings". 2. Select "Data usage". 3. Select "Background data usage", which will list all the apps. Each row will display the app name, the app version and a "On/Off" switch. If the app was "On" for background data, it will be a "On" for that switch. 4. Toggle "Background data" to "On" or "Off" as desired thru scrolling on the same page. (Step 3 should look something like the picture below, which the picture illustrate which WIFI to be "On" or "Off" as a metered Wifi network.)

Is there any way so that I can limit only one or two apps to use my mobile data in Android 4.4.2? PS: I know about blocking background data, but I am curious about any other way.

I have three Android devices: - Lenovo A7000 with Stock ROM Lollipop 5.0 - HTC Desire 620G with Stock ROM KitKat 4.4 - Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 with custom ROM (Resurrection ROM) Lollipop 5.0.2. In all these devices, WhatsApp sleeps frequently when the screen is off. When I turn on the device screen and use WhatsApp, I am getting messages normally. But when the screen is off after a short span of time, it stops receiving messages. I need to turn on the screen and open WhatsApp to start getting the messages. Then a bunch of messages will be received. I am facing this problem in all three devices in both Wi-Fi and mobile networks. My Wi-Fi network is fast enough (40 Mbps) to receive messages at an instant and mobile networks are decently fast (>3 Mbps). In WhatsApp Web, I am getting **Phone Not Connected** yellow messages when I turn the screen off. After researching on the Internet, I learnt this may happen when the device enters power-saving mode or when background data is restricted. But in my devices, I never turn on power-saving mode and never restrict background data too. Any other reasons? For this reason, I have changed the screen timeout to 30 minutes and left the WhatsApp open. Is this an app bug or some other problem?

Google play services consumes some data. Can I restrict data access to it. Does user experience compromised if I do. If yes what are they?

Just noticed this now on Android 4.2.2, I'm pretty sure the option to restrict background data per app was there a few days ago. Now I can't stop the Play Store from using up my data. There is now a global "restrict data access" but it doesn't seem to apply to some apps - like the Play Store. **EDIT:** weird, now they're back again. I think the only thing I did was log out (via about:debug, then Setting -> Debug -> Reset prelogin, the last one)

I configured 3 user profiles with each their own google account on my device (Nexus 5 with Android 5.1). When I switch the user profiles, do the applications keep running in the user profiles that are not active at the moment and consume CPU, RAM, battery and data? E.g. Does my email app/Facebook/Twitter keep on running and receive Push Mail and consume network traffic while the corresponding profile is not active?

I have an old(2016) Mediatek mtk6580 chipset phone(non rooted/stock). Couple days back, I downloaded an app called "Apk extractor" from play store, and extracted the system apps to the sdcard. Then from there I uploaded them to https://virustotal.com and found out that, ***Android system framework***, ***com.mediatek***, ***Android system webview***, ***eSETterminal*** and ***Android browser provider*** had malwares in them. A couple days back, a serious vulnerability(mtk-su) for mediatek mt65** was found which gives a user temporary root privilege. I was able to obtain root permission and did mount -o rw,remount /system and went straight to /system/app/ and deleted ***Android system webview*** and ***Android browser provider***. However, I wasn't able to find ***com.mediatek*** on /system/app and instead found it on /data/data. I deleted that from there. But then I did a system reset. ***com.mediatek*** was still there. Also, I couldn't delete ***Android service framework***, because I tried doing adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 android and couldn't access anything from the notification menu. For now I disabled the apps with adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.app.name. Are there any ways to permanently delete ***com.mediatek***. If it would help ya'll in any way I could attach a adb dumpsys and adb logcat logs. I noticed a few suspicious behaviors like, when I exit an app, the data/wifi completely bolts down, and vpn logs says **network change detected**. None of the other phones has this issue. I think I might be dealing with something big here. Edit: Okay, I don't happen to have all the links, but two of those apps were with me, and am providing the scan links here for eSet terminal and webview. * Eset terminal https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/b319236ee02778c88198e1b88e730b871f2709705728d766825a479652a7cec9/detection * webview https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/c1d4821e87519453ad5fc4e31fa4790cdc3a98dd45fd6015899a8f7093f6b784/detection

I did ./adb shell cmd appops set com.whatsapp RUN_IN_BACKGROUND ignore for lots of apps in my android. However, when I go into the app settings, I still can press "force stop". Does that mean the app is still running in the background, even if I setted it to ignore? How can I see the apps running? adb shell ps shows too much thing and I don't know which ones are the apps. Also, will these settings work after reboot?

I use the "Data Saver" feature to extend battery life and to prevent/reduce apps from accessing the internet when the phone/tablet is sleeping and when they are not supposed to be running. Note that I'm not sure if that feature is an Android or OEM feature. To accomplish this, I go to: Settings > Apps > Special Access > Allow app while Data Saver on > Show system apps and deselect every app... currently with the sole exception of KLMS Agent. The only reason I do not deselect KLMS Agent is because I do not fully understand its purpose, and if there are any consequences of preventing it from being "allowed" while Data Saver is on. From what I've researched, KLMS Agent is part of KNOX security, which is pre-installed on most (all?) Samsung Android devices. I've read a bit about KNOX, and I've never had the time to fully understand all of the details about it. Plus, I think it's closed-source, which makes it almost impossible to truly fully understand. Are there any downsides or issues with ***deselecting*** KLMS Agent in the Allow app while Data Saver on list, thus allowing KLMS Agent to be restricted by Data Saver?

I am just trying to understand that, these days most of the apps require access to things like camera, storage, contacts. Is there any data privacy link to read through for an app consumer to know what is all that an app is doing in your background, in simple English so that a non-tech person can also understand the effects I see some apps, like a fitness apps, asking for camera access, and allow access to make calls, cannot join the dots like why does it require camera access and asking for permission to make calls. I'm sure there must be scan/check when an app is uploaded to Playstore, but is this point checked like why a fitness app is asking permission to make calls or camera access. I am sure given an app, the app devs know exactly what all does the app does with all access permission in hand. Isn't it creepy sometimes from a consumer point of view. A little I know is some apps collect our data and just sell it Any online document link on privacy policy, data collection given an app, could help understand in detail. Could anyone throw some light or thoughts on app consumers data security in Android

I have Mediatek Smartphone with stock Android 7.0 and suddenly it increases data usage. Tracked it down to /data/data/com.android.email/cache which is occupying 1.6 GB. I have cleared cache many times which maybe explains the massive data usage 38 GB this month. The question is why it happens just now and not the months before? How can i prevent increasing cache? [](https://i.sstatic.net/TYK4t.png) **Edit:** I use the stock email app for about 1 year without problems. I have 2x IMAP accounts connected. Recently I updated security patches to latest available Dec 2018 _V22. But after firmware update the battery drain increases too fast, so I decided to revert back to May 2018 CUBOT_KING_KONG_7081C_V16_20180517 (both still 7.0, no updates 7.1.2 available). The phone is rooted so I can see that it downloades many files body1009174325.tmp in cache folder each with size 44,76 KB. I have inspected this file and it turns out it is a corrupt PDF which is downloaded a million times again and again. I found the responsible email and the App says attachment download has failed. After I pressed "save" the attachment was successful downloaded. After I cleared cache, the tmp files are gone. Now it starts repeating with next message (different tmp files, all the same). This time it is not a PDF and its hard to find the related email. How can I avoid this behavior?

The section Use Android Nougat’s "Data Saver" (Android 7.0+) under this site How to Restrict Background Data for Metered Wi-Fi Networks on Android mentions: > Android 7.0 Nougat introduced a much more granular way to take the reins on your mobile data with a new feature called Data Saver. > Basically, this allows you to limit background data used by apps, but whitelist anything that want to have unrestricted access. This means background data is disabled for every app by default, then you can pick and choose where to grant unlimited access > And that’s all there is to it. It’s worth keeping in mind that this only applies to mobile data-all apps will remain unrestricted while on Wi-Fi. My question is whether this Data Saver option applies to Wi-Fi that you set to metered, meaning metered WLAN?

What is the reason for apps like WhatsApp running background services in andrioid even though in iOS they work smoothly without any background service

Let me start with an example, Delta's airline app called "FlyDelta" has an option in it settings to enable/disable "Get check-in reminders & status notifications". My question is, if I enable this "Get check-in reminders & status notifications" will the app from that point on run in the background at all times (even after restarting the phone or killing the app)? I'm a bit confused on how notifications work. I know that Google has a very nice infrastructure to push notifications to an app, but does the app has to be running in order to consume the data? any help explaining this specific app behavior will be greatly appreciated.

I would like to prevents all app except one (which I use it in foreground) to use WiFi network. The phone is not rooted so the root firewall are not suitable, and also I don't want to use firewall which create VPN connection. I have tried how-to-restrict-background-data-for-metered-wi-fi-networks-on-android but when I check the network traffic of the device it contains closed app traffic also.