Develop Bugs

Changing your DPI Settings (No-Root)

Hi all, please see the below thread. Only sharing the info as this was posted on the Verizon N4 forum.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4-verizon/general/root-want-to-modify-dpi-t2960644
Hope this helps...
As indicated below some touchwiz native apps are affected.
List of known affected applications by changing DPI settings:
S-View (for S-View covers -- slightly misaligned but functional)
Touchwiz Stock Dialer (slightly misaligned but functional -- other non-stock options exist such as Hangouts or ExDialer)
Fingerprint lockscreen (arrow pointing to finger print scanner off center)
Exchange email (stock Samsung Email)
Stock Camera App

Just FYI to get some easy download links:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4-verizon/general/root-want-to-modify-dpi-t2960644
Enable USB debugging on yer phone
-> http://www.mediafire.com/download/a4hd8y0c1iakysk/Samsung-Usb-Driver-v1.5.49.0.exe
Samsung USB drivers you'll need installed
-> http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=48915118#post48915118
ADB / Fastboot installer
navigate to C:\adb\ and then run the command they give in the thread
adb shell wm density 540
(not confirmation will be sent but your phone should prompt you to 'allow' your computer to send adb commands to it.).
Restart phone
DPI settings are now at 540. original DPI settings are 640 BTW

imnoob55 said:
Hi all, please see the below thread. Only sharing the info as this was posted on the Verizon N4 forum.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4-verizon/general/root-want-to-modify-dpi-t2960644
Hope this helps...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I came across that thread a few hours ago. It's pretty neat to be able to drop the density and make more use of display space (could even drop it down to 384 and make it look more like a tablet), but it has its problems. Samsung apps (Dialer, camera, S Note, S-View, etc) will lose their screen alignment and/or only cover a portion of the screen when altering the density. Finding an alternate dialer was easy enough, but I'm having trouble finding a camera app similar to stock in quality, and was unsuccessful at replacing the S-View...

redphazon said:
I came across that thread a few hours ago. It's pretty neat to be able to drop the density and make more use of display space (could even drop it down to 384 and make it look more like a tablet), but it has its problems. Samsung apps (Dialer, camera, S Note, S-View, etc) will lose their screen alignment and/or only cover a portion of the screen when altering the density. Finding an alternate dialer was easy enough, but I'm having trouble finding a camera app similar to stock in quality, and was unsuccessful at replacing the S-View...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup unfortunately that is a side-effect of doing this. Only way to do it that I am aware of conventionally would be via xposed or loading in custom TW apps, both not possible. Hangout dialer works well, for this. TW stock browser is not affected. My S-Note is not affected either, too. Dialer and S-View are (not unusable, they just are not center-aligned any longer as their height/width are set on static widths rather than proportional % when Samsung set up the layout.) Maybe they'll change that in L.
BTW I use Nova for launcher and Hangouts as my dialer. I do use an s-view case, though, which is of course impacted.

imnoob55 said:
Yup unfortunately that is a side-effect of doing this. Only way to do it that I am aware of conventionally would be via xposed or loading in custom TW apps, both not possible. Hangout dialer works well, for this. TW stock browser is not affected. My S-Note is not affected either, too. Dialer and S-View are (not unusable, they just are not center-aligned any longer as their height/width are set on static widths rather than proportional % when Samsung set up the layout.) Maybe they'll change that in L.
BTW I use Nova for launcher and Hangouts as my dialer. I do use an s-view case, though, which is of course impacted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm also using Nova Launcher. I did download ExDialer at first, but I went to Hangouts Dialer instead since ExDialer has a trial period and costs money.
S Note is largely unaffected yes, but when you open the camera for copying documents, the square used for aligning the camera with the document is off-center. It doesn't seem to hurt functionality in any way, though. Oddly enough, the camera when used in S Note is fullscreen...
As far as S-View goes, I'm thinking about removing the flip cover. S-View is nice, but I'm always trying to not get smudges on the cover screen on top of the phone display, so the cover is a little bit cumbersome to me when holding it. Seeing how much better the phone looks at a lower density makes me lean even closer to just getting rid of it. That leaves me with just the camera replacement...

Exchange email is also broken... when you reply to an email, the screen font is set to eleventybillion.
-----
Sent with my Galaxy Note 4

Can anyone confirm if this impacts the play store? Typically changing the dpi on the whole device would prevent the play store from downloading some apps.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using XDA Free mobile app

jfenton78 said:
Can anyone confirm if this impacts the play store? Typically changing the dpi on the whole device would prevent the play store from downloading some apps.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't seen any problems with the Play Store yet, though I haven't been installing much of anything, either. The few apps I've installed so far gave me no trouble.
Also, just found out that the stock camera has no problems with accurate button detection when the phone is turned sideways for landscape rotation, though it's still not fullscreen. You have to guess where the buttons are on the screen in portrait when the density is changed.

Couple of tips:
if you get an error about the device being offline make sure you've got the current ADB installed. The link provided for the adb and fastboot didn't work for me because the file didn't install. The program is just an auto run zip file. you can open with 7-zip and just extract the adb files.
also if you get an error about the device being unauthorized you must select no action on the windows pop up and always perform this action. the phone should then get a pop up with the RSA key number and ask you to authorize. hope this helps.
540 DPI is pretty nice.

I was okay with the dialer and lockscreen, but the camera made me go back to 640. In vertical shooting mode, the touch points for all the icons, including the shutter button, is misaligned and is very annoying. What a shame as 540 looked AWESOME.

cj00ta said:
Exchange email is also broken... when you reply to an email, the screen font is set to eleventybillion.
-----
Sent with my Galaxy Note 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! Just added to the top thread under impacted apps

Does this effectively change the resolution? I'm curious if lowering the DPI would give positive improvement to high-end game performance. Can anyone shed some light here?

Conkrete said:
Does this effectively change the resolution? I'm curious if lowering the DPI would give positive improvement to high-end game performance. Can anyone shed some light here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't change the resolution. What it changes is the drawing size of on-screen content which is directly from the 'dpi setting' of the phone.
It's a little complicated to explain but this is how it works;
The phone's default screen density (DPI) setting 640, this is done because that's how many dots per inch of the physical screen there is (a phone of similar screen size would have a similar dpi). This value is stored in your phone's build.prop and is read by numerous applications, it might not match exactly the 'real' dpi of the screen but its normally very close to it.
By changing it lower in dpi you're instructing to applications you actually have a smaller screen size, thus to fit content (i.e words not being HUGE on a small screen) content is drawn to that dpi setting you're providing in build.prop.
Now to go into why we have certain issues when changing the dpi.
This is basically due to how the app did its layout sizing (do I base content on "actual size" of the screen-size or do I base it on "actual density" of the screen density in build.prop? Most apps, since they're targeting to be used with dozens of devices of all sorts of different sizes, will be designed where the layout of content is dependent upon dpi. A layout would be I want a rectangular box on the bottom that has height 10px and width 100%, so that effectively means the width is based on the proportion of the screen size (the OS controls this, its just a matter of scaling). This is why you once had 5 items to show now has 8 items to show in a listbox. The size of the listbox in this case would be based on actual density while the content (text etc.) inside would be based on actual size (scaling I would think is limited to a min/max actual size for text).
Samsung can get away with this on their stock apps because in their mind when they build their roms they are only going to be used on that specific device. They're starting to go away from this, however, and are starting to make their layouts more typical that of a normal application. You have somewhat less control of the layout going from actual size to actual density.
*keep in mind you can actually set parameters for both. Such as if I wanted something to be 10% in width but only up to 2.5 inches in actual size this effectively means that it will scale until it reaches 2.5" and then scale no longer.
I hope that makes sense. Resolution really doesn't have a role at all in this, you're always at the same resolution (4K) and this is handled by the lower-level kernel and GPU firmware. I don't think there's a way to change this at the app layer but than again I have really no background in android development.
*please if anything comes off as inaccurate please point out, I am from a XAML/.NET development background and linux/unix embedded systems and really I focused on back-end/databases/services and not really front-endy stuff. This is how it is handled in XAML though and I have seen android uses the same principals.

imnoob55 said:
It doesn't change the resolution. What it changes is the drawing size of on-screen content which is directly from the 'dpi setting' of the phone.
It's a little complicated to explain but this is how it works;
The phone's default screen density (DPI) setting 640, this is done because that's how many dots per inch of the physical screen there is (a phone of similar screen size would have a similar dpi). This value is stored in your phone's build.prop and is read by numerous applications, it might not match exactly the 'real' dpi of the screen but its normally very close to it.
By changing it lower in dpi you're instructing to applications you actually have a smaller screen size, thus to fit content (i.e words not being HUGE on a small screen) content is drawn to that dpi setting you're providing in build.prop.
Now to go into why we have certain issues when changing the dpi.
This is basically due to how the app did its layout sizing (do I base content on "actual size" of the screen-size or do I base it on "actual density" of the screen density in build.prop? Most apps, since they're targeting to be used with dozens of devices of all sorts of different sizes, will be designed where the layout of content is dependent upon dpi. A layout would be I want a rectangular box on the bottom that has height 10px and width 100%, so that effectively means the width is based on the proportion of the screen size (the OS controls this, its just a matter of scaling). This is why you once had 5 items to show now has 8 items to show in a listbox. The size of the listbox in this case would be based on actual density while the content (text etc.) inside would be based on actual size (scaling I would think is limited to a min/max actual size for text).
Samsung can get away with this on their stock apps because in their mind when they build their roms they are only going to be used on that specific device. They're starting to go away from this, however, and are starting to make their layouts more typical that of a normal application. You have somewhat less control of the layout going from actual size to actual density.
*keep in mind you can actually set parameters for both. Such as if I wanted something to be 10% in width but only up to 2.5 inches in actual size this effectively means that it will scale until it reaches 2.5" and then scale no longer.
I hope that makes sense. Resolution really doesn't have a role at all in this, you're always at the same resolution (4K) and this is handled by the lower-level kernel and GPU firmware. I don't think there's a way to change this at the app layer but than again I have really no background in android development.
*please if anything comes off as inaccurate please point out, I am from a XAML/.NET development background and linux/unix embedded systems and really I focused on back-end/databases/services and not really front-endy stuff. This is how it is handled in XAML though and I have seen android uses the same principals.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Extremely helpful and great info. Possibly the best response I've received from XDA. Thank you for the info. I have found a couple root apps that claim to change resolution but I've been hoping to find a non-root alternative.

Change screen resolution?

Is it possible to change g4's screen resolution from qhd to hd? Thanks

To save a battery time?
Skickat från min LG-H818 via Tapatalk

Probably only through a custom kernel.

Not doable. Even if forced to render/emulate FHD, It's still doing a post Processing conversion that will consume more energy than stock settings.

Definitely your device must be rooted (to recoever). Well I used "Resolution Changer Pro" by nexter and NOMone as well for lenovo K3 note ,and had a better better backup. If you want you can try these 2 apps, to see which one fits better.
A long Warning - The onscreen buttons may become non-responsive completely if switch to a non-compatible resolution. So better google well first to understand how to recover/reset from that. I had to change some codes in my case to get the on screen keys back, and my capactive keys are now gone for good.

Hey,
Any solution to change resolution to fullhd?

Display blur when scrolling.

Hello,
When I scroll the text seems to get blurry it smears out a bit u can compare it with a old tft screen, the phone with miui 9.5.17.0 on it.
Is there some fix for it? It is pretty enjoying, I already set Force gpu to render 2d.

hey I have the same question. I bought my father the Redmi Note 5 and i got myself a Mi 8. When comparing the two, I noticed as well that the screen gets very blurry while scrolling. It doesnt matter if its in app drawer, twitter, settings, instagram, facebook etc., it is system-wide. My Mi 8 does not have this "blur effect" when scrolling. Both phones running on latest MIUI beta.

Try changing theme... Some compatibility issues .. try ... If it works for you...

Not helping either. Its more of a Ghosting effect when scrolling etc. Nobody noticed this behaviour on their Note 5?

Yes, I have this as well and its very annoying. Have tried various roms but this is still present to varying degrees.
Although the phone is value for what you get, this is the one area were your getting what you payed for.

yeah ok I read on notebookcheck.com that the redmi note 5 pro has a weak grey to grey response time, which causes the ghosting effect. maybe theres a rom or app or whatever, which can tweak the panel response time!?

New dpi via adb?

Hi
I'm trying to change dpi in adb. Adb finds the device but when I'm typing "adb shell wm density 380" it doesn't work.
Anyone knows why?
Thx in advance

Try going into developer options and enable the security setting to on.

What is the default dpi for mi max 3?

jutley said:
What is the default dpi for mi max 3?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should be 480

Lasse58 said:
Hi
I'm trying to change dpi in adb. Adb finds the device but when I'm typing "adb shell wm density 380" it doesn't work.
Anyone knows why?
Thx in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think Xiaomi controlled the dpi using another variable, its called persistent density or something like that.. hence changing the normal density variable wont have any impact
Sent from my ONEPLUS A6000 using Tapatalk

You can change the DPI in MIUI by going to Settings > Additional settings > Accessibilty > Display size

barro32 said:
You can change the DPI in MIUI by going to Settings > Additional settings > Accessibilty > Display size
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The smallest display dpi is "small"... its still too large for me haha... i think without root, there is no other way
Sent from my ONEPLUS A6000 using Tapatalk

Are USB debugging & USB debugging (Security settings) both enabled?
If I recall correctly, enabling USB debugging (Security settings) is a bit tricky.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/mi-mix-2/how-to/guide-changing-min-width-dpi-miui-9-t3736218
this can be helpful for you. My dpi is now 290. If you go higher google keyboard change tablet mode.

I was able to change it using Activity Launcher using the tutorial below:
http://en.miui.com/thread-1093064-1-1.html

Default dpi is huge even at the smallest setting. I am using 320 and it's perfect, can see a lot of content without being too small
Just make sure Developer options has USB debugging (Security settings) enabled and use adb shell wm density 320
Big difference. Would be a waste to not see more content on such a big screen but also understand some people's eye sight may not be as good so they prefer bigger objects
320 vs Small setting

I used this tool to change dpi:
https://github.com/Saki-EU/XiaomiADBFastbootTools

zed011 said:
Default dpi is huge even at the smallest setting. I am using 320 and it's perfect, can see a lot of content without being too small
Just make sure Developer options has USB debugging (Security settings) enabled and use adb shell wm density 320
Big difference. Would be a waste to not see more content on such a big screen but also understand some people's eye sight may not be as good so they prefer bigger objects
320 vs Small setting
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tried this. but it doesnt seem to work. none of the layout is changing.

yup changing dpi without root is tricky. u need to enable security usb debugging. u need to use vpn apps.

got usb debugging on.
whats vpn tools?
anyway guys, thanks much. yea i have noticed that there are two options for usb debugging. look passed the other one.
now its working.

I just upgraded from Max 2 to Max 3... LOVE that i can change the DPI without rooting... had no trouble with either phone doing this. With the Max 2 i had it at 360, but with the Max 3 i'm trying 290....i may go up to 320 just because i need my glasses to see things like the battery % lol . No clue why Xiaomi didn't drop it below 400 out of the box but thrilled i can do it easily.

Smoked33 said:
I just upgraded from Max 2 to Max 3... LOVE that i can change the DPI without rooting... had no trouble with either phone doing this. With the Max 2 i had it at 360, but with the Max 3 i'm trying 290....i may go up to 320 just because i need my glasses to see things like the battery % lol . No clue why Xiaomi didn't drop it below 400 out of the box but thrilled i can do it easily.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Font size 80%, Display size Custom (289), Smallest width 597 dp.
597 or 289dpi is the smallest dpi you can set before tablet mode is enabled in portrait mode.
If you rotate your phone watching a youtube video in full screen tablet mode is already enabled so the notification drawer is opened by swiping down on the left half side of the screen otherwise nothing will happen.
Setting Smallest width value is the easiest way to change dpi in the latest android versions.
Setting it to 596, 598 and 599 won't do anything.
It will either default back down to 595 or jump to 600 because it must represent a whole number in dpi.
It is crazy that pretty much ALL phones comes pre-configured out of the box at factory state with a dpi so large you can barely fit two words across the screen..really...I don't think anyone have this bad eyesight, if so then you need to get new glasses or lenses.
There are high index lenses out there that go to 1.9 and even beyond 2 if you really want to pay a lot if your prescription is crazy high to be able to enjoy a thin and light pair of glasses.
Like what is the purpose of getting a phone this big if you gonna have it display just as little as your old phone with third the screen size..isn't that why you wanted a bigger phone in the first place to get more screen estate, at least that's what I wanted..

SUPERUSER said:
It is crazy that pretty much ALL phones comes pre-configured out of the box at factory state with a dpi so large you can barely fit two words across the screen..really...I don't think anyone have this bad eyesight, if so then you need to get new glasses or lenses.
There are high index lenses out there that go to 1.9 and even beyond 2 if you really want to pay a lot if your prescription is crazy high to be able to enjoy a thin and light pair of glasses.
Like what is the purpose of getting a phone this big if you gonna have it display just as little as your old phone with third the screen size..isn't that why you wanted a bigger phone in the first place to get more screen estate, at least that's what I wanted..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't agree with you more. Just thankful it's so easy to change
On a side note...and i'm not sure it's related because I didnt' try before changing the dpi(i use the adb method)... my TSN app won't stream any channels. It gives me an error... i'm not sure if that's the DPI setting that caused it? Only app that doesn't work right. I'm going to have to play with that when i'm home from work as it worked on my Max 2 set at 360 no problems and the only main difference i can tell with the 2 phones is the version of Android.
Edit: nevermind it wasn't the DPI setting... i allowed TSN GO to work in full screen mode and that did it.
Love the phone!

Question 12 "Stable" Issues Thread

Besides the general low quality of this piece of software, here are some specific pains:
1. SafetyNet test fails (no root) - WTF? Can't use any of my work applications because of that.
2. Status bar notification icons don't appear (except for Gmail, for some reason)
3. About device shows there's an update available but I can't update because I'm not the "owner" of the device (there is only 1 user configured, no multiple users) - screenshot attached.
Please share your experience and whether or not you're seeing the same issues (or more).
Thanks!

Another botched update from oneplus scams

Well, it's a good thing I decided that the OP9P would be my last OP smartphone. I'm gona stick with Pixel phone from now on. Finally release A12 and no phone or data works. Really OP???

- Phone stuck in 60hz like 99% of the time.
- Keyboard doesn't have this convenient padding anymore. (On botttom to make typing easier.)
- [Launcher] Can't search apps with a single up swipe anymore, will have to find some hacky solution again. Usually I put a KISS launcher shortcut on other phones. But why ruin it when they had it ....
- [Launcher] Folders open on the middle of screen. Makes no sensse.
- [Launcher] The whole launcher experience is just way worse.
- Battery Management is a mess, now there are other options per app. The previous settings were reset.
- Rooting with Canary Magsik can soft brick. Managed to fix it but it took me a while and I consider myself a veteran.
Honestly, tons of great features are missing. I wish they would just give us a lean AOSP instead like the ASUS Android and call it a day. This feels like a botched, budget Android on a cheap Chinese phone.

App drawers can only display 4 icons per row. Anyone knows how to change it to 5 per row or more?

it is no longer possible to film and in 21:9... or I am blind.
Like a say h8Aramex Phone stuck in 60hz like 99% of the time.
anhtin said:
App drawers can only display 4 icons per row. Anyone knows how to change it to 5 per row or more?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's possible. settings --> home screen and lock screen

purpleman2k said:
Status bar notification icons don't appear (except for Gmail, for some reason)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not actually a bug, that's feature. Go to notification settings for particular app and you can set to show notification icon on status bar. Disabled by default for all apss (I think it should be enabled by default), except Gmail, Dialer and a few others.
Bug I found:
- font size issues. I want to set small fonts and dpi. But some apps, like default camera app, power menu, google feeds when swipe etc has still default large font, experience is terrible
- custom dpi set in developer settings will be reverted after reboot. If you set smaller dpi in phone settings, it will be applied a few seconds after boot, phone starts with default dpi
- AOD does not work, even if enabled, screen will turn off when inactive
I installed via built in ota from Oxygen 11 Global, I got update to ColorOS 12

Just got my first 1+ yesterday and was really impressed with the OOS 11 experience.
All day long. All the magic has gone after the update.
In addition to what was already said, the AOD is flickering terribly.
Perhaps it is caused by the pwm of low frequency.

Lol, I paid 1000 euros for this phone because the software was supposed to be good...

Oh yeah, the CLOCK. What is WRONG with that CLOCK!? LMAO.
I mean look at this ABOMINATION.
WHO DRAWS A CLOCK LIKE THAT? SATAN?!?!??!
Like wtf lol.

I have a new problem. I listen to music while walking with my wireless headphones. The phone is in my pocket. Unknown reason causes the phone to crash.
I feel it's going to be complicated.... At least I have 5G working.

Why would they remove the seconds on the clock feature. This update is horrible all around

anhtin said:
App drawers can only display 4 icons per row. Anyone knows how to change it to 5 per row or more?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get Nova launcher and don't look back?

I'm not even going to upgrade A12, I deleted the 4gig update I got from Oxygen Updater. Oneplus just shoot them self in the foot and will not recover from this. I'll be suprise if they sell 1k Oneplus 10 phone next month.

h8Aramex said:
Oh yeah, the CLOCK. What is WRONG with that CLOCK!? LMAO.
I mean look at this ABOMINATION.
WHO DRAWS A CLOCK LIKE THAT? SATAN?!?!??!
Like wtf lol.
View attachment 5476711
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is your phone in 24-hour format? Mine looks normal in 12-hour format but like yours in 24-hour format. I don't use the stock clock app so I hadn't noticed.
ddizzy81 said:
Why would they remove the seconds on the clock feature. This update is horrible all around
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They didn't. This is only when setting an alarm in the clock app.

Camera goes bananas when zoomed beyond 10x.. See attached

Any custom DPI set in developer options is completely lost after reboot.
Reported by me multiple times and was also seen in previous phones/Android versions.

Hi all, i can't open the icon option in the Launcher and and in the settings too it simply crash and nothing. Anyone as an idea? I just wipe launcher data but nothing.

h8Aramex said:
- Phone stuck in 60hz like 99% of the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you select "High" refresh rate in settings? Mine is at 120hz the vast majority of the time.

I have issues with screen brightness not adjusting to low-light conditions. When setting my phone on my dash mount I have to manually adjust the screen brightness down or go blind, even in dark mode. Worked fine with Oxygen OS 11. Fairly disappointed with the overall quality of this update, and I usually love getting the shiny new OS version update.