Tweaks build.prop for Android, which really work

The lion's share of the Android system settings, hidden from the user's eyes, is stored in a single file called build.prop. A competent change of settings will help breathe a second life into the gadget: improve autonomy and performance, optimize the interface. In the article, we show you how to conveniently edit build.prop, and give examples of useful tweaks, as well as those that wander from article to article on different resources, but do not really work.

What does editing build.prop do?

The build.prop file functions as follows: when you start the smartphone, it reads the contents, which in one way or another affect the logic of the operating system code. Among such hidden from the user settings there are both deeply systemic, which is better not to touch, and those that can be painlessly changed. For example, by adding a few lines to build.prop, you can speed up the download of the gadget, remove the delay for an incoming call, or enable auto-rotate the display on the lock screen. How to do it, we will now tell.

 

How to edit build.prop?

All you need to make changes is the text file editor and superuser rights. To find out how to get root access, please visit our forum in the Android firmware section of the topic dedicated to your smartphone or tablet. For immediate changes in the file, you can use a plain text editor - you'll have to find the file yourself on the path /system/build.prop. But it is much more convenient to make changes with the help of a specialized program, for example, BuildProp Editor .

 

Before you start experimenting, you must always make a backup copy of the file. BuildProp Editor saves the original backup automatically the first time it is started. If you decide to use a plain text editor, do not forget to make a copy manually. If something suddenly goes wrong, then it will be enough to replace the "spoiled" build.prop with a backup copy in order to return everything to its proper place.

 

Useful links:

• Android firmware


• Build Prop Editor

Improve the interface

For the sake of convenience, we have divided tweaks into several categories. The first is to improve the interface. Such tweaks are most evident, since they often influence not only the parameters of the system, but also its appearance.

Instant call sound. Depending on the model of the smartphone and the installed firmware, when a call comes in, the gadget may spend some time checking the connection before the melody plays. For the user it looks like this: first the device simply turns on the display, and only a second later with a small display of the call itself. You can correct this behavior by adding two lines to build.prop:

ro.telephony.call_ring.delay = 0
ring.delay = 0

After the device is restarted, all calls will be received instantly.

Auto-rotate screen lock. With the exception of tablets, almost no Android device allows you to freely rotate the lock screen when you turn your smartphone. Yes, this function is rarely needed, but if the gadget is installed horizontally in the car holder, then the attempt to enter the password or the graphic key turns into a real balancing act. All you need to avoid acrobatic stunts is to add lines to build.prop

lockscreen.rot_override = true
log.tag.launcher_force_rotate = VERBOSE

What will come of it - you can see in the screenshot.



 

Performance improvement

In this category, we attributed tweaks, which in one way or another will increase the speed of your gadget.

Acceleration of loading. Modern smartphones are often loaded almost no longer than conventional PCs. A little pokoldovav over the settings in build.prop, you can easily increase the download speed of the gadget in a half to two times! The following settings will help you:

debug.sf.nobootanimation = 1

ro.config.hw_quickpoweron = true

After making these settings, the mode of turning off the gadget will be changed, and the boot animation of the developer of the firmware will also be disabled. As a result, when you download the smartphone, you will not watch for a while on the screen. To be frightened of this it is not necessary: it was due to the disconnection of unnecessary animations that the test smartphone started to load in just 30 seconds instead of the previous 50 seconds.

Acceleration of work with memory. By default, Android logs a lot of actions into a special file, but it is only needed by developers for application debugging. For ordinary users, this log is not useful, and therefore it should be disabled by adding a line to build.prop

logcat.live = disable

Disabling the log will reduce the number of disk operations, which will positively affect the speed of the internal memory of the smartphone. True, the difference will be noticeable only on gadgets with slow memory types: in our case, the speed of sequential recording has increased by 2 MB / s.

 

Acceleration of the network. This tweak increases the size of TCP buffers, which will help increase the speed of a slow Internet connection, especially when using mobile networks. Well, prescribing Google's DNS servers in some cases reduces the ping time.

net.tcp.buffersize.default = 4096,87380,256960,4096,16384,256960

net.tcp.buffersize.wifi = 4096.87380,256960,4096,16384,256960

net.tcp.buffersize.umts = 4096,87380,256960,4096,16384,256960

net.tcp.buffersize.gprs = 4096.87380,256960,4096,16384,256960

net.tcp.buffersize.edge = 4096,87380,256960,4096,16384,256960

net.rmnet0.dns1 = 8.8.8.8

net.rmnet0.dns2 = 8.8.4.4

net.dns1 = 8.8.8.8

net.dns2 = 8.8.4.4

At us the difference has appeared tangible, but it is not necessary to forget that the most influencing on speed renders constantly changing loading of base stations.

Data transfer rate with standard settings Data transfer rate after editing build.prop

 

Increased autonomy

Unfortunately, miracles do not happen - double increase in autonomy can not be achieved by any tweaks. But adding extra 30-60 minutes to the time of the gadget is quite possible.

Increase the intervals for scanning Wi-Fi. By default, Android scans the surrounding Wi-Fi network every 20-90 seconds. And it does this even when Wi-Fi is off, but background search for networks is allowed to increase the accuracy of the location. To extend this interval, you need to add the following line to the build.prop file:

wifi.supplicant_scan_interval = 200

Here the number 200 is the network scanning interval in seconds.

Save battery on LineageOS. A small tweak that provides more efficient management of sleep mode when using CyanogenMod or LineageOS on smartphones with Qualcomm chipsets:

pm.sleep_mode = 1

More useful tweaks you can find on the forum 4PDA.

Useful links:

• Tutorials build.prop

 

Useless tweaks that do not improve anything

In addition to the really working tweaks given in this article and in the topic on the forum, there are a lot of those that are widely dispersed on the Web, but in fact do not have any influence on the operation of the system. A corresponding study was conducted by one of the users of the xda resource. He analyzed the source code of AOSP and CyanogenMod and found out that a lot of popular tweaks are simply not mentioned in the source code of Android. Among them there are various records.

Tweaks that do not save a charge:

ro.ril.disable.power.collapse

ro.mot.eri.losalert.delay

ro.config.hw_fast_dormancy

ro.config.hw_power_saving

Tweaks that do not speed up the work:

windowsmgr.max_events_per_sec

persist.cust.tel.eons

ro.max.fling_velocity

ro.min.fling_velocity
debug.performance.tuning

video.accelerate.hw

Other useless tweaks. They are designed to disable the Dalvik bytecode check and prohibit unloading the launcher from the main memory. Once they really worked, but not at all relevant for modern versions of Android due to changes in the internal architecture of the OS:

dalvik.vm.verify-bytecode

ro.HOME_APP_ADJ

And a few different simply not working tweaks:

ro.media.dec.jpeg.memcap

ro.config.nocheckin

profiler.force_disable_ulog

profiler.force_disable_err_rpt

persist.sys.shutdown.mode

ro.kernel.checkjni

Interestingly, although some of these records were useful for older versions of Android, some did not work at all, being a kind of placebo. And why such a mass delusion generally arose - now it is not even clear. However, from making such entries in build.prop, the smartphone will not get any worse - all invalid entries will simply be ignored.

 

Conclusion

Even though many of the tweaks recommended at forums and various sites do not work at all, the build.prop file still remains a good opportunity to improve the interface and operation of your smartphone. So get the superuser rights, make a backup of the settings and experiment boldly!

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