Force Google Maps to save cached maps on SD card

Update to Maps 6.9.0 (released 2012-06-27) or later if you not already have done so. Google added the feature one you wanted:

  What's in this version:
  * Save maps for use offline

Besides this: Cached tiles for Google Maps are saved to the SD card.

To also answer your exact question (for users that cannot upgrade):

Use Android's provided 'move to sdcard' mechanism or install some 3rd party apps to do it (Link2SD, App2SD skripts, most need a custom rom however).

If all above is not an option and you like to do it manually:

Prerequisites:

Root access
Know which directory you want to move
Be sure that directory doesn't contain executables
Awareness: /sdcard/ is world-readable and many apps can write to it.
You might not want to expose sensitive data to other apps
Be sure the app is not running.
If something breaks, you might fix it by clearing the appdata
The app might break if sdcard is not accessible (e.g. phone plugged into PC)

A. You need to find the package name of your desired app (just reverse the steps here, aka go to the Google Play website of the app and see the package name in the browser's URL, for Maps it's 'com.google.android.apps.maps').
The location for the app's internal data is then: /data/data/[PKG_NAME]

B. Find the big subdirectory that you want to move, use a terminal emulator or adb shell access to execute something like this on the device:

me@workstation:~$ adb shell
root@android:/ # cd /data/data/com.google.android.apps.maps
root@android:/data/data/com.google.android.apps.maps # du -sh *
8.5K    app_sslcache
9.0K    cache
55.0K   databases
52.0K   files
2.0K    lib
2.5K    shared_prefs

C. Move & symlink

mkdir -p /sdcard/Android/data/[PKG_NAME]/linked
mv /data/data/[PKG_NAME]/[BIG_DIR] /sdcard/Android/data/[PKG_NAME]/linked/[BIG_DIR]
ln -s /sdcard/Android/data/[PKG_NAME]/linked/[BIG_DIR] /data/data/[PKG_NAME]/[BIG_DIR]


Any way to find a Wi-Fi connected (unactivated) phone?

There are plenty of apps on Play supporting that already. The first coming to my mind is PAW Server, which allows that and many more things (basically, you can remote-administrate your device via WiFi with this app). Other, similar apps might offer the remote-ring as well. Several anti-theft apps for example.


Since WhatsApp version 2.11.399 and above for Android you can disable notifications when group is muted.

Follow this:

Open your group which you wanna mute.
Now go in 'Options' > 'Mute'.
A dialog box will pop up and as of WhatsApp version 2.11.399 select the max period available to mute your group which is '1 Year'.
Untick the 'Show Notifications' checkbox. Then click 'OK'.

You won't receive any notifications now from this group on your status bar.

(Click image to enlarge)


Blue arrow pointer in Google Maps won't update whichever way I'm facing?

had same problems b4 i tried calibrating the magnetic compass by the x ,y ,z axis here 8s the simple steps keep in mind all the rotations are clockwise directions first put your phone in a flat surface for me i placed it in a table and rotate it 3 full rotations clockwise then pick up your phone and face it on your left with the but part nearest to you and rotate it 3 full rotations clockwise and finally face your phone towards you like ussing it normaly and rotate it 3 full rotations clockwise and thats it ,for me it solved my prorblem reg the pointer in my map do this while your map is active ,hope this will help someone .


Can any Android device be set to not auto power-off?

Check out the free StayAwake app

  Simple app to toggle a stay awake mode.

  enables stay awake,

  always
  if plugged in to AC/USB


web browser / plugin with mouse hover mode

Smartphones and tablets have an obvious problem with events like mouseover:  When there’s no mouse cursor, there’s no way to mouse over controls.

Some techniques may be applied as a work around, but it's hard to have them working decently.

Testing: with minimal success

Don't know what browser are you using, but with my phone:

  Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.3; en-us; U8510 Build/HuaweiU8510)

  AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko)

  Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1

If I long press the menu that contains a sub-menu presented with mouseover, it opens after about 3 seconds (even though, every two out of three, the click for the main menu gets triggered).

Ps:
The website used to test it was developed by me, so I know for sure that there's no support for mobile phones being used.


Funny thing is: Blowing into the phones USB solved the problem for me. Maybe you try that =D


Import SMS/MMS messages and Call log backup to Fresh LineageOS

Thanks to @beeshyams for his comment.
TL;DR
Just install SMS Backup & Restore or download it from apkmirror. Copy apk to SD card. Do a backup of SMS/MMS messages (don't forget to enable MMS images/file/etc in advanced settings) and Call log to SD card.  After the switch to LineageOS, install APK from SD card and import SMS/MMS messages and Call log. Done.
Story (and issues)
I finally switch from Android 5 on my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (don't laugh, it still rocks!) to LineageOS 16.0 following Install LineageOS on hlte.
After a backup of my data (see TL;DR), I boot in recovery mode and at the Installing a custom recovery using heimdall step, the command
heimdall flash --RECOVERY <recovery_filename>.img --no-reboot

did not work properly.
My shell fail with :
ERROR: Failed to confirm end of file transfer sequence!
ERROR: RECOVERY upload failed!

and my device show a "SECURE CHECK FAIL : recovery".
From this post,

"it was the Samsung Reactivation Lock that was blocking me. Upon booting the phone, going into Apps > Setttings > Security and then typing in my samsung account password I was able to disable the lock [...]"

And recovery file upload success!
After the LineageOS install, I use SMS Backup & Restore again to import data.


Backup using adb on a phone with a dead screen

I was in the same situation as you.
Once you enter the full backup screen
Use the following commands:

adb shell input text <your password>
adb shell input keyevent 22
adb shell input keyevent 23

the "adb shell input keyevent 22" command is Dpad Right, you'll be able to select back up my data
the "adb shell input keyevent 23" is the Dpad Center, It will allow you to select enter

22 -->  "KEYCODE_DPAD_RIGHT"

23 -->  "KEYCODE_DPAD_CENTER"


Red exclamation mark when trying to update Nexus 7.

I had this problem because I manually (via titanium backup) uninstalled one of the system apps: the korean keyboard (which, for me, is rather pointless). Somehow that caused the upgrading process to fail, maybe because my system was not "intact". After I restored the app it worked flawlessly. Did you make any modifications like that? If so, try reverting them.


Android system partition image on pc or sdcard

Here's how to get a system dump from Android:

Prepare Your PC

Ensure that your computer has the most recent version of the Java Development Kit installed. If it doesn't, download and install the most recent JDK from Oracle's Java SE Downloads page.
Navigate to the Download the Android SDK page on the Android Developers website in a Web browser and download the installer package to your computer. Double-click the downloaded file and follow the installation prompts.
Navigate in Windows Explorer to the location where you installed the SDK. By default, this is C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk.
Double-click the SDK Manager to launch it. In the left pane file tree, check the box next to "Android SDK Platform-tools." Click "Install Packages." A confirmation window appears. Click the radio button next to "Accept All." Click "Install." A progress bar appears.

Prepare Your Phone

Press your phone's menu button from the Home screen. Tap "Settings." The Settings menu appears.
Tap "Applications." In the Application Settings menu, tap "Development."
Check the box next to "USB Debugging" in the Development menu.

Get a System Dump

Press "R" and the Windows key simultaneously on your PC keyboard to bring up the Run box. Type "cmd."
Type the following into the command window:

cd C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools
Type "adb.exe shell."
Type su dd if=/dev/block/stl6 of=/sdcard/factoryfs.rfs at the ABD shell prompt. Replace "/sdcard/factoryfs.rfs" with the location to copy the file to if you don't want it on the phone's SD Card.

Reproduced in full from this site


What does "restricted" mean in Data Usage

It is referring to the restriction of background data.

This list only shows apps that have used, or attempted to use, mobile data in the current cycle period, which is shown underneath 'Set mobile data limit' and should be set to match your billing period.


Tapping an NFC tag which contains an URL. (How) can I override the default action (browser launch)?

The browser opens because no other app can handle this action. If you will have 2 browsers the OS will ask you which app do you want to handle this action and when you choose one the OS will remember your preference.

You always can go to settings (the app) and "clear default". So, to your question you can write an app that will handle this action (by write this Broadcast receiver in the  AndroidManifest.xml) and don't do anything with the URL. And then tapping on the NFC tag and choose your app and click always (so it'll not ask again). This way you can force the OS to not do anything when you tapping on an NFC tag with a URL.


Can I have different volumes settings for notifications and ringtones with Nexus 4/Android 4.2?

It appears to be somewhat awkward in ICS and JB to get this functionality, several methods in order to achieve it are discussed here. I'll summarise/copy some of the better sounding ones (I added the links):

Try Audio Control, it's by far the best volume management app in the
Google Play store. There is both a notification and ringer volume for
ICS or Jelly Bean.

If you're willing to pay then this app has "Separate Notification and Ringer volumes for ICS/JB devices".

Google & download a silent MP3, use Profile Manager or
Tasker to change notification sound to silence mp3 when required.

Or alternatively (as the OP points out in the comments) use a low volume ringtone so you can still hear it. Someone points out that for this method if you have custom notifications for different apps then they won't be silenced/lower volume, only apps that use the default system notification will be affected unless you update all of the notification sounds.

Another option is to use a profile switcher like Tasker or Setting
Profiles (what I use) and make two profiles:

Silent - profile set it to silence your ringer
Ring - profile to set your desired ringer volume

Now make a rule to trigger your "Ring" profile based on incoming call
condition. The condition could be a call from a specific person, or
persons from particular groups in your address book. Use the *
wildcard if you want the condition to include calls from anyone. You
can piggy back conditions so that, for example, you can add a time
condition so the rule might only be activated at a certain time of
day.
So what you have now is 2 profiles, one that mutes ALL sounds (thanks
to ICS) and another that sets the ringer volume to a specific level.
Set the "Ring" profile to have a higher priority, that way when they
are both active at the same time, the "Ring" takes precedence.
Combined with your condition, the result should be, ALL of your sounds
are muted, but when a call comes in, it triggers the incoming call
condition, triggers the "Ring" profile, and both the mute and the ring
profiles are active at the same time, and the ring profile will win.
There might be a short delay, but it shouldn't be noticeable.
This would of course have the effect that certain calls will ALWAYS
ring and maybe sometimes you truly do want to silence your phone. To
that, you will just make another profile, call it "True Silent" for
example, and have it silence everything and give it the highest
priority (or at least higher then the "Ring" profile) and then when
you activate that profile, it will win over the others.

Both of these apps are again paid for applications however they have a grater functionality than Audio Control. Tasker is a particularly great one.

Ringleader allows you to
set up profiles that you can change any or all of your individual
ringtones to silent in one click.  It takes a while to configure. Once
you install it you have to set all of your ringtones and alerts again
using the Ringleader option for choosing alerts. If you set it as the
default ringtone chooser option it simplifies the process. Once you
have reset each one they will shop up in the Ringleader options list.
In Ringleader you then save a base profile. After you have a base
profile saved you can edit all of the alert sounds individually
through Ringleader and save new profiles. I have three profiles. One
is for normal use, one for phone calls only and one for silent. There
is a simple widget available for switching them quickly.

This is a free application however there's also a paid for version. Someone else in the thread mentions this working for them however the actual notification volume can't be set separately, the notifications can only be silenced while still allowing the phone to ring.
When Googling around I did see people mention Audio Manager as a solution to this, however I've tested it out and although you can set the ring volume independently of the system volume as soon as someone rings you the volumes change to the same level, even if you use the app to lock the volumes.


Sounds like an SD card problem to me. I've experienced similar problems a few times over the course of the years -- a card that has worked ok for some time has started to get "ejected" by itself. Changing the SD card has always solved the problem. .. Hmm. Except once but that phone turned out to be a very problematic case in a number of ways.

So, try out changing the SD card, I would suggest.


Is it possible to install an newer version of android for an old android device?

Yes, It is possible to install newer version of android on an old device but if any custom ROM exist for that device.
Matter of fact Cyanogen is one of popular custom distribution of android also there are many custom distributions for android that may support your device.
My advice to you is checking xda developers forums to find any possible ROMS for your device.
XDA


How to bypass fingerprint lock screen with wiping memory?

There is no regular way to do so if you do not have a backup. However, you can try this, if you are comfortable with using recovery.

Flash the file from this XDA thread in recovery: http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/orig-development/bypass-lock-screen-pattern-password-pin-t2948336, which will reset lock screen back to Swipe.

Alternately, you can: (Not sure if this will work, just my idea)

Install TWRP recovery with Odin
Insert a SD Card of your choice
Boot into your newly-installed TWRP recovery
Mount SD Card, System and Data partitions
Default storage area is /storage/emulated/0
You can access the data using the built-in File Manager to copy the data out to your SD Card, which is located in /sdcard


Why can't I install this downloaded APK?

Disable your screen dimming app. :)

Some screen dimming apps work by overlaying the whole screen with a translucent window, and letting touch events pass through to the activity below, but for security reasons, you can't interact with system dialogs (such as the package installer) through another activity.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but it could be the cause. It's more likely than a corrupt APK file or a version incompatibility, either of which would cause an error message.


Failed on cp file to /system - Cross-device link

and the answer is pretty simple, use cp instead of mv)


PDA/CSC explained in one of my previous answers here. As for your situation, there are 2 factors to consider:

Generally, the release date and version of what you're going to flash should be equal to or newer than what you had on the phone right now, so that it will flash at all. Downgrading is not entirely impossible - on newer devices, bootloader level determines how far you can go back; see part of another answer here.
If you need certain languages to be present, look into the CSC string and make sure it's from your general region.


I've got the same issue one week ago. Today I flashed an AOKP ROM using cwm and finally everything runs well.


Lost RAM after using phone for a day or two

There are multiple things involved with your question. I know this topic is hard to put in exact words, especially for someone new to Android -- so it gets a little unclear what the real issue is. I'll try to cover all I think is related, but will redirect to other questions here for details.
First: How RAM is used.
There is no such thing like "useful free RAM". As soon as there's "free RAM" available, it will be put to use: buffering and caching are the most interesting features in this context, as they speed up the system. As soon as an app requires additional RAM, and there's no free RAM available, the required amount is dropped from caches and buffers, so this is entirely dynamic and should have no negative effects.
More details:

Why is my Samsung Galaxy S not utilizing all of its RAM?
Why is my device not utilizing all of its available RAM?
Does Android hide some amount of RAM from the User?
Are there guidelines on how much free RAM a phone should have - specifically Samsung Galaxy S?
Android ROM, RAM, Internal storage, External storage and Battery utilization

There are a lot more questions here dealing with this topic. To find them all, just follow the ram tag you already used for your question.
Second: Your device slowing down.
This might have many different reasons: Some app might be hogging ressources is the most likely reason if the problem is not there right after a reboot (but starts only a few hours/days later). If the problem persists after a reboot, reasons might be different (or the "hogging app" got auto-started). Your caches (on internal storage) could be messed up, for example. If you installed/uninstalled a lot of apps for testing, it could as well be the Dalvik-Cache (pre-compiled code of your apps).
Good starting point to investigate this issue:
My device is getting slow, apps start misbehaving/crashing. What can I do?
See also the "Linked" and "Related" section of that question, which will provide you additional ressources.


Where does Android store the binaries of the apps themselves?

Just answering as the comments suggested,

 /data/app/package.name/base.apk

The APK File is placed inside the data partition.

This is different from Windows as you mentioned.

Windows uses a different protection for System Software called UAC (User Access Control)
whereas Android uses a separated Partition on the HDD ( SSD ) called the System Partition.

All Stock Software is stored under

system/app/*app name*/app name.apk

&

system/priv-app/*app name*/app name.apk

or

system/app/appname.apk

&

system/priv-app/appname.apk

Additional Software from OEM's is usually stored under

system/vendor/app/

However since the new partitions in Android 7.0+ i believe that Vendor is now designated its own partition, making the app directory

vendor/app

Or similar.

Some Vendors put APK's into the system tp be automata installed also under "custom" partition or root folder

custom/app

Furthermore, applications can be built by binaries under

system/bin/

&

system/xbin/

If you're the Administrator of your PC, you can hypothetically destroy the systems integrity on Windows - however due to any changes being placed in /data partition on Android, you can not delete system software or destroy the system integrity without root access.

The data partition & cache partition hold every single modification made to the device - this means a "Factory Reset" just Erases the Data & Cache partitions on Android - VS windows reinstalling the entire system from a separate backup partition.


Google play constantly asks for permissions

This issue seems to me like a bug with Google Play Services, probably caused by some of your data within the Services app given that this isn't happening to everyone. Try these steps in order until the issue is resolved:

Check Google Play Services for an update in the Play Store, and if available perform it.
Force Stop Google Play Services in Settings -> Apps -> Google Play Services -> Force Stop.
Log out of your Google account.
Restart your phone.
Log back into Google Play Services.
Clear its data and/or cache in Settings -> Apps -> Google Play Services -> Storage -> Clear Cache/Clear Data.
(According to OP, not necessary): Clear your phone's system cache.

Note: See OP's comments above for how they fixed the issue.

Happy to hear this helped!!


Battery warning (?) No words, just an image:

This looks like the screen that displays when the charger is plugged in.  I don't have a Huwaie device, but I do see a similar full-screen battery icon when my device is plugged in (but turned off).

I don't think this is an error message, try a different charger if you are having issues (that is probably your issue, not your device).


Directory named with random characters automatically (re)created in SD card? Could this be a malware?

Something similar happened to my 7" phablet.

The file belonged to the MobileCare app.

If you check the properties, the date and time are similar.

Good luck!


After you selected as a developer in settings, in the Debugging session, you're going to select a "box" -> "Allow mock location". I suggest to restart your phone and try to use your "app" again.


How to run an executable on boot and keep it running?

How much is the possibility that Android will kill my executable?

Privileged native processes usually don't get killed by Android except if they can't handle an error occurred inside, such as some system resource not available or permission denied because of SELinux etc. To free up memory, Android only kills processes within its framework i.e. running under zygote. To manage resources for native processes, Android uses cgroups.

Processes are killed when they receive SIGNALS from kernel or other userspace programs (e.g. with kill command) (1, 2). Kernel is the actual operating system, not visible to us but handling everything we do with device. A developer can program his code how to react to a specific signal if received, or completely ignore it (3). Except SIGKILL. Which can't be handled by program, no warning from kernel, no grace period to exit safely, just being terminated immediately. But kernel won't mind your presence unless he gets short on hardware resources or you start misbehaving. That's why programming is important.

Programs can send each other signals (including KILL), which are forwarded by kernel, governed by UID (4). However, init the very first process in userspace started by kernel is the dear one, kernel never forwards dangerous signals to init. And if this happens for some reason, kernel gets panic and reboots (5).

Summarizing above lines, it is possible to avoid being killed (AMAP) programmatically or using some scripting tricks as @alecxs has mentioned. But if you want to make sure that your process should restart if gets killed, define an Android init service.

  On reboot init.rc reset to its original contents. I figured out that Magisk done this.

No, Magisk didn't do this. Android's rootfs is a temporary filesystem (not a persistent one like on /system or /data) that gets cleared on every reboot. Contents of root directory (/) are extracted from another partition named boot which contains kernel and ramdisk (though things have changed with system-as-root). So you can't change init.rc permanently unless you extract, modify, repack and reflash boot.img.

But to define a new init service, modifying init.rc isn't necessary. Android parses all .rc files from /etc/init directories located under /system and /vendor (6). So you can create your own .rc file.

NOTE: In order to get real root privileges and to deal with SELinux, all of the options given below depend on Magisk. See this answer for details.

INIT.D SCRIPT

You can use traditional init.d-like feature of Magisk to start a process on boot. Create script /data/adb/service.d/custom.sh:

#!/system/bin/sh

# write log file if executable throws something at stdout/sterr
exec >>/data/media/0/executable.log 2>&1

# run script in background to avoid blocking boot chain
[ -n "$BG" ] || { BG=Y "$0" & exit; }

# try to ignore signals as much as possible
for i in $(seq 64); do trap '' "$i"; done

# execute script whenever exits e.g. when executable gets killed
trap "sleep 5; exec $0" EXIT

# avoid multiple instances e.g. if script killed but executable is running
pkill -9 -x /system/bin/executable

# execute the binary, should run in foreground, otherwise get in loop
echo "$(date): Starting program..."
/system/bin/executable

# program is killed, won't reach here if script is killed
echo "$(date): Re-executing script..."

* EXIT is shell's pseudo-signal.
* Android's /system/bin/pkill (from toybox) is buggy, better use busybox applet.

Place the executable under /system/bin and set permissions:

~# chown 0.0 /system/bin/executable /data/adb/service.d/custom.sh
~# chmod 0755 /system/bin/executable /data/adb/service.d/custom.sh

You can also place script under /data/adb/post-fs-data.d/ but that's executed a bit earlier. Be sure that filesystem paths (and other required resources if any) are available at that stage.

EXECUTE PROGRAM FROM INIT

Another way is to directly execute the binary from init. Create custom.rc file:

#/etc/init/custom.rc

# execute the binary when boot is completed
on property:sys.boot_completed=1
    exec_background u:r:magisk:s0 -- /system/bin/executable

Set permissions:

~# chown 0.0 /etc/init/custom.rc
~# chmod 0644 /etc/init/custom.rc
~# chcon u:object_r:system_file:s0 /etc/init/custom.rc

And that's all! Restart device for changes to take effect.

However it's a one time execution, won't be restarted. Also there are some shell scripting features not available in .rc files. For instance you can't redirect stdout/stderr to a file, this has to be handled by executable program itself. So we can try to make use of both; shell script and .rc file:

INIT SERVICE

Instead of directly executing binary from .rc file, execute a shell script. Create script /system/bin/custom.sh:

#!/system/bin/sh

# write log file if executable throws something at stdout/sterr
exec >>/data/media/0/executable.log 2>&1

# execute the binary, should run in foreground, otherwise get in loop
echo "$(date): Starting program..."
exec /system/bin/executable

Create init service:

#/etc/init/custom.rc

# define service, use executable here if script not needed
service custom /system/bin/custom.sh

    # don't start unless explicitly asked to
    disabled

    # only execute once, don't restart if exited
    # don't add if you want to restart service when killed
    #oneshot

    # run with unrestricted SELinux context to avoid avc denials
    # it's required if SELinux is enforcing and service needs access
    # to some system resources not allowed by default sepolicy
    seclabel u:r:magisk:s0

# start the service when boot is completed
on property:sys.boot_completed=1
    start custom

Set permissions on executable, custom.sh and custom.rc as stated above and restart.

Other parameters (7) such as user, group, capabilities are required if you want to run the service as non-privileged user. Granting least required privileges is the recommended approach from security's perspective. See this answer for more details on capabilities and SELinux.

init will keep on restarting service every 5 seconds (by-default) if it gets killed. You can stop the service with setprop ctl.stop custom. Replace stop with start to start again.
To see what happens with service: dmesg | grep init: | tail.

RELATED:

How to run an Android init service with superuser SELinux context?
How to run a script in background from adb shell?


You should probably try to re-flash the recovery image to your phone via fastboot.

Just googling a little, or directly on the xda-developers.com forum you can find all the info you need, including links to recovery images for your model:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=839


How to make screen stay turned on while charging?

This option is still there in developer settings. Those settings have just been hidden since around Android 4.2/4.3. Our developer-options tag-wiki shows you how to enable them:

Go to Settings → About
tap the Build number entry 7 times (hammering the item)
Go back to the Settings main page, Developer Settings should now be visible

In there you'll now find the option to "keep display on".


Grant access to the phone to additional users

Solved in Android 5.0 (built-in feature).


Why do I keep getting "not enough storage space"

Your phone has 8GB internal memory this is low if you have many apps installed, including updated apps.

If you turn on automatic update in google play, turn it off.
If it was already updated some Microsoft apps, uninstall them. This will return some space.
Facebook app is the big app. You can use Facebook lite or browsers instead.
Clear cache. Setting -> Storage/Usage -> click on cache and clear cache.
If you have Line or other chat apps, delete chat history one by one.

Hope this help.


Incompatible / error connecting as MTP device after unlocking and rooting Nexus 4

Are you able to replicate the same error on other computers and OSs? If it's just your computer, remove all drivers and related software and then connect your device and add them again.

Otherwise, you can attempt to ftp to your device using Solid Explorer. It does not require a cable; you'd be able to transfer files over WiFi (albeit a little slower).


Upgraded Galaxy S III to 4.0.4, can't drag app to taskbar anymore. How can I enable dragging again?

According to the User's Manual, there isn't a setting that locks the Primary Shortcuts.  So I would suggest turning the phone off and then restarting it.

Here are the instructions from the User's Manual for Adding and Removing Primary Shortcuts.  Perhaps there's a step here that you've missed.

  You can change any of your primary shortcuts with the exception of the
  Apps shortcut. The primary shortcuts are the bottom row of app
  shortcuts that remain static on all home screens (by default Phone,
  Contacts, Messaging, Internet, and Apps).

Note: Before replacing a primary shortcut, you must first add the replacement shortcut to the Home Screen.

  Press to display the main Home screen.
  Touch and hold the primary shortcut you want to replace and then drag it to an empty space on any Home screen.
  Scroll through the Home screen to find the shortcut you want to add as the new primary shortcut.
  Touch and hold the new shortcut and then drag it to the empty space in the row of primary shortcuts.
  The new primary shortcut will now appear on all Home screens.


How can I root my Samsung Infuse 4G (AT&T)?

Rooting a phone generally does not affect it visibly much, other than a new "Superuser" app in the app drawer.  Rooting only provides ability to gain elevated privileges, with the Superuser app acting like the gatekeeper for other apps requesting such privileges.

SuperOneClick is the preferred method for rooting the Infuse 4G.  If you're unsure if that succeeded, here's what you can try to check if your phone was indeed rooted:

From the Market install the Terminal Emulator app.
Launch the app, and using the on-screen keyboard type in su and press Enter.
If your phone is rooted, a new dialog named "Superuser Request" should come up. Tap the "Allow" button.
You should see a pound sign #. Now type in reboot and press Enter.

If at this point your phone reboots, you have root.  Otherwise you will receive the following message "reboot: Operation not permitted"  This means the rooting did not complete successfully and you may want to re-try it by following any of many guides found online.

P.S. Please be sure to follow the guide designed for your specific device.  Not all Infuses are the same - there are differences between the AT&T version and Rogers', for example.


Why does my samsung galaxy s4 say 'Charging Paused,Battery Temp too High'?

There might be a fault with the battery temperature sensor, due to which it detects high temperature every time the battery temp rises a bit over the normal  (which is common when you use the phone too much or you're charging it).

Does the phone feel very hot when this is shown?  If not, then the sensor has to be replaced,  and take your phone to an authorized service centre.


How can I reboot my phone without the power or volume buttons?

Use the Scheduled Power On/Off features available in the Accessibility setting to turn it off, then back on a minute or two later.


mount: Permission denied (when mounting /system directory on android device)

The command is mount -o remount,rw /system


Outlook Android word suggestion not working in LG keyboard

I have reported the issue to Microsoft's feedback forum, and a few weeks later they fixed it and now it picks up the suggestions that the keyboard offers (I fancy that it was because of my report but can't confirm it :)

So, as of version 2.1.125 (170) mainline, the issue is fixed.


This will fix your problem: download Headset Button Controller (trial), it allows you to override all the headset button functions, override what they do. With that in mind, set ALL button functions to "Disabled". This will prevent any skip tracks, previous tracks, or pauses generated by cracked mic.

Hope that helps


Android compresses all the photos I see online

The compression is actually performed by your carrier. Almost all mobile network carriers compress images to reduce bandwidth use on slow mobile connections.

You can avoid the compression by switching to a Wi-Fi network, or using an HTTPS connection to the website you want: since HTTPS is secured from interception, the carrier can't replace the pictures with its compressed versions.


Way to prevent the noise when 2 phones together

This phenomenon is called audio feedback which usually occurs when the sound from the speakers reaches back into the microphone, and then gets amplified because of the speaker-mic loop.

Common and general solutions are to cut off the loop, or at least reduce the loop gain by:

Wearing earphone or headphone (isolate the speaker and the mic, prevent the feedback loop completely)
Mute the mic when not needed to speak (prevent the chance of feedback loop)
Reduce the speaker volume (reduce the volume gain)
Take some distance between the speakers (reduce the volume gain)


So, 5 minutes of activity consumed 11% of my battery

You are mistaken in saying this, don't forget that the phone is on all the time , so that too consumes power. But yes, 1.6% is a little on the higher side, but not too much IMO, considering that you have so many apps/services running

Looking at this, wake locks are reasonably under control

  Deep Sleep (): 7 h 11 m 47 s  98.8%

  Awake (Screen Off) (): 2 m 41 s  0.6%

  Screen On (): 2 m 24 s  0.6%

but, you could also try to limit these using Amplify without disrupting, what is essential  to you (do you require GPS to be on?)

  alarm (com.fitnesskeeper.runkeeper.pro.Runkeeper): 31 m 3 s  Count:0 7.1%

  alarm (com.truecaller.phoneapp.Truedialer): 31 m 1 s  Count:0 7.1%

  launch (com.whatsapp.WhatsApp): 31 m 1 s  Count:0 7.1%

  launch (com.eclipsim.gpsstatus2.GPS Status): 31 m 1 s  Count:0 7.1%

So what you need is something that hibernates apps not in use like  Greenify (not task killers), which is missing from your active list- wonder why you didn't enable it? ( Have a look at greenifytag in case you are not familiar with it and in particular Android's native process management vs. Greenify) This should certainly help you in reducing battery consumption

I would also highly recommend you to read this XDA thread ✭[GUIDE][07-02-2016]Extreme Battery Life Thread(Greenify+Amplify+Power Nap)✭ by V7. It gives a very systematic approach starting with battery life saving tips and how to use apps like Greenify and Amplify to reduce battery consumption. The OP is highly responsive and would revert with solutions, once you post your BBS stats as explained in his thread. I have been able to achieve 0.8% per hour consumption following his thread

Edit: Since freezing apps by Titanium didn't help, they appear to be poorly designed- look for alternate apps. see this in the Greenify question linked earlier


Any way to disable emojis/smileys/everything?

It is not possible to remove in every single app, since some are baked into the app itself. You can remove emojis from your keyboard however as well as from the app in which you are using. As an example, if you have google keyboard, go into settings---> preferences switch emoji switch key off. In apps such as WhatsApp or Macebook messenger, it is not possible without tampering with the app itself.


You might want to try Clean Master from Google Play Store. I had it for quite some time now, when you delete apps it will pop up asking you whether you want to delete residual files as well (if there are any). Also it will scan your SD Card and Phone for any rubbish.


Can an app keep onto its root access permissions after the phone is turned off?

Apps like SuperSU will remember your decision regarding root access to an app and will give that reply each time the app asks, unless you specify otherwise in the settings.
Make sure your app starts after the device boots.

If your application needs root permissions during boot (not after the device has booted) you'll need to enable "su during boot" (SuperSU)


Why do everytime I move a picture to a certain album, it always appears on top of the photos on an app like Instagram or LINE?

When you move files from one folder to other it changes date and time of a file when it was moved and I think there is no way to fix this


What is the browser engine on Android devices?

No.

The default browser on stock Android is Google Chrome. This uses the Blink layout engine. For AOSP installations without the Google Apps, the default browser is the old "Browser" app that uses Webkit.

However, other browsers are available. Firefox uses Gecko, Opera uses Blink, Dolphin uses Webkit, and there are probably others. Additionally, I am informed in the comments that Samsung and HTC install different (non-Chrome) browsers on their phones. I do not know what they are, or what engine they use.

Summary: Android does not have a single browser or layout engine.


How can I tell the differences between a 3G, 3G LTE, and 4G phone?

First, WiMax and 4G are completely separate.  WiMax already has real-world implementation, whereas 4G does not; 4G is still in development.

Second, 3G LTE is also completely separate from 4G.  LTE also has real-world implementation.

A 3G LTE phone can only operate at 4G speeds if it has hardware capable of it.  The manufacturer will undoubtedly advertise this, so it shouldn't be hard to find out.  I know of no current phones that can do true 4G, which makes sense given that 4G doesn't really exist yet.  The same applies for "regular" 3G phones working at LTE speeds.  The Samsung Vibrant, for example, works on T-Mobile's "fake 4G" network with slightly improved speeds, but does not take full advantage of it.  The Vibrant 4G, however, does take full advantage of the higher speeds.

Currently, cell providers in the US and elsewhere are referring to various 3G technologies including LTE, HSPA+, etc. as "4G" when they are not actually 4G.  Examples of 4G networks in development are  LTE Advanced (based on 3G LTE) and WirelessMAN-Advanced (based on WiMax).

Speed requirements for 4G service set the peak download speed at 100 Mbit/s for high mobility communication (such as from trains and cars) and 1 Gbit/s for low mobility communication (such as pedestrians and stationary users).  3G LTE and WiMax do not meet these speed requirements.

The Wikipedia page on 4G is quite informative.


Default browser doesn't play embedded music from a website

In browswer's setting check if you have made the "plugin load on demand". If so, try "always load".


How do I clear the browser's auto-complete history?

If it is auto-completed by Google Chrome, please follow the following steps,

Go to your Google Account Dashboard. This will list all of the information collected on you by Google.
Scroll down to Web History and search for your Credit Card entry or other entries to be removed, and remove it from the history. Or you can go directly to your Web History.
Further, in Dashboard you can scroll down to `Chrome Sync and click on Manage Chrome Sync.
Click on the Stop and Clear button to clear all the Autofil and
Omnibox History and to stop syncing the data with Google Server.

Steps 3 & 4 will merely stop Google from collecting data on Google Chrome's Omnibar (I am not 100% certain on this).


Do I lose pixel information if I use landscape mode?

The orientation you take the photo doesn't affect the pixel information in the image at all. The camera still records an image of (for example) 3456x2304 pixels, whichever way up the phone is. It also sets a flag in the JPEG file to note the correct orientation of the photo. Then, when the photo is displayed, it's losslessly rotated when reading the file, so that it appears in the correct orientation.

A few years ago, this would lead to some image viewers showing the photo in the wrong orientation, because they didn't understand the flag, but almost all photo software (and even embedded software, such as in smart TVs and digital photo frames) can use the correct orientation today.

If you like, it's still possible to postprocess the image. A special tool (such as exiftran on GNU/Linux) can read the image and the flag, apply the correct rotation, and write out the rotated image. It uses a special trick to rotate the image without having to decompress and recompress the JPEG file: this way, there is no loss of quality.


What's the maximum size for a second partition for moving Apps to a SD card?

Nope, no limit.

Source at xda-developers forum


How can I root the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 SM-N900V?

Guys at XDA again did the magic and finally found a way to root this infamous SM-N900V running lollipop 5.0. Here's the entire process in detail:

Follow the steps below to root your device:

Install the samsung mobile USB driver. Plug in your note 3 to a PC, a CD drive pops up for few seconds, open it, you'll find the driver for your device there.
Now enable developer mode and USB debugging on your device.
Download and open the ArabicToolApp.
Inside the tool, Select the baseband version of your device, you can find this information under ( Settings > About phone > Baseband version ) of your android device. Note the last 3 characters and select the Version in the Arabic Tool accordingly.
Click on Read Phone Info. Now, note the log messages in the Arabic Tool, you should only procced if no warnings are given there.
No press ROOT button.

The rooting process should not take more than 6 minutes. If it does, cancel the Arabic Tool and do the following and try again.
- Make sure you've restarted your computer after installing the USB drivers.
- Use USB 2.0 cable and port.

If during the process, your device gets stuck on the bootscreen, do the following:
- Turn off your device, Press (Home + Volume Up + Power) buttons to get into the recovery mode, reset the device from the menu and also clear the cache partition. Now, try restarting your device. If the bootloop still persists, follow the next step.

If the above step didn't fix the problem, you will have to reflash your firmware. To do this, download Odin and SM-N900v OF1 firmware from the link provided below.
Start Odin
Reboot phone in Download Mode by pressing (Home + Volume Down + Power) buttons.
Connect phone and wait for the blue sign in Odin.
Add the downloaded firmware file to AP/PDA
Click the start button and wait for it to show the "Pass" sign. This can take upto 10 minutes.

Once your device starts running normally, make sure you follow the rooting steps given above correctly and try again.

To confirm that your device is rooted, you can press the device info button in the Arabic Tool once again to see the root status or, you could also install RootChecker app from the playstore and see it there.

Once you've confirmed that your device is rooted, install SuperSu and follow the instructions in it to install required binaries.

Guys at XDA recently also found a way to unlock the bootloader of this device. Follow the XDA thread below for more information.
Note 3 Verizon Bootloader Unlock


How to make stock browser stop asking which browser I want to use?

You can try this:

Tap your device "home" button;

Tap your device "menu" button;

Tap "Settings";

Tap "Applications";

Tap "Manage Applications":
Look for the browsers in question, notice "Launch by default", with the caption stating "No defaults set", make sure the button "Clear defaults" is tapped, if it's disabled, it means its the only one in use. i.e. no other alternative app that handles the browser.
Repeat that for other browsers you may have.

Next time you launch the browser, a pop-up will appear with a choice, there's a check-box underneath, "Make default", tap that, and next time, the default browser of your choosing is used.
This applies to other apps also that handles the flow of actions as well, such as an alternative to messaging, email, music etc.


I was recording and video on my phone when the battery died, how can I recover the video file?

I had the same promblem. A solution which worked for me was an app "MP4Fix", which you can get in google play for free. It repaired my video in a few sec and placed it in different folder (it kept corrupted video in the same place and also created new repaired one).
I know this info might be too late for you but it might help some others.


Does the MTK preloader reside in the same flash as system or data?

It's present in the Boot ROM, not a directly visible partition in the eMMC.

Source: MediaTek details: SoC startup

The Boot ROM will be embedded inside the processor chip in generic chipsets. (read more) (no idea about MTK)

Further Technical details on working of Preloader: MediaTek details: Partitions and Preloader


Baby likes to play with the mobile screen while watching cartoons; how to disable touch?

You can use MX Player (adware or pro version), which has a "Kids lock" feature under
Settings > Player > Controls > Lock mode.

P.S. you should not give your phone to 8 months old.


Do I need a smartphone with more RAM or one with a higher processor in order to load a big excel file faster?

RAM should not be an issue with smartphones that have 6GB or 8GB of it (I have 1GB
 and Excel workbooks load fine - not really large ones) . So, in that case, it would be the processor. Also, a factor not mentioned in your question: the RAM speed. A lot of smartphones have RAM at 1033Mhz or 1.6Ghz, making a really fast processor pointless without RAM that can support those speeds.


What are "custom ROMs" in relevance to Android?

A custom ROM is basically any ROM (the Android image) that didn't come from the manufacturer of the device.

As for why you'd do this, there are a few reasons

Some manufacturers don't bother providing updates after device release.  Custom ROMs can provide a newer Android version than the manufacturer and thus provide additional features and security updates.
Also, there are various features that some manufacturers don't include, such as 2-way call recording.  Custom ROMs using custom kernels can provide these features.


Controlling phone and making calls remotely

I suggest Teamviewer app for remote control


Go to www.google.com and sign in. Click settings in the top right corner. Then click on "Dashboard      View data stored with this account". This will take you to your dashboard. Scroll down and you can manage contacts. The only group names you can edit are the ones you created yourself. The default Google ones are not editable.


How to adopt SD card as Internal Storage

Well the device may have option of using SD CARD as internal storage if it is marshmallow  or up ,as it was a feature introduced in ANDROID 6.0

Usually it can be found by
Method 1
SETTINGS<

Method 2
If Sd card is not inserted then insert it and a notification will appear  in notification panel that you want to SETUP or EJECT
Select SET UP and it will present you option to format as internal storage
Select it and you will get it done
(if sd card was inserted beforehand only just eject it and reinsert to get that notification )

Method 3.               #root required #
Download an app Root Essential
Grant Root Access
Go to storage tab
Select Adoptable storage
Proceed with instructions
And Now SD card will be used as internal storage


I dont think that the play store requires a download manager. However if you want to download something from a browser es explorer can provide you a download manager. So download es explorer from play store. Its a great app with tons of functionalities.


Application ROM Manager is uninstalled, but market wants to update it every day

ROM Manager shouldn't be a required Systems app to run CyanogenMod.  Take a look at the steps over here to remove a system app from your phone: http://oldwiki.cyanogenmod.org/wiki/Barebones

Something like:

adb remount
adb shell rm -f /system/app/RomManager.apk


How do I delete a Google Plus Huddle message?

It does not look like there a way to delete Huddles, only hide them.  Navigate to the message, hit the menu button on the handset, and select "Hide".


Booting into recovery and doing a factory reset is pretty much your only option.
To get into recovery:
Press and hold “Volume UP + Power + Home” button together and as soon as you see Galaxy S7 Boot logo, release all three buttons.
When you see an exclamation mark on screen, press and hold Power button and hit the Volume Up button once.
Then select factory reset and go thru all the setup again..


How can I determine why my phone won't sleep?

First, look at which apps are runnng (including services).  Then use Titanium Backup to freeze on of those apps (exclude regular system apps/services, unless you've determined nothing else is the culprit) and see if your problem stops.  If you haven't found the offender, un-freeze and try another.


Default ATI Path Change setting on Samsung Galaxy A20


Dragging home button opens Google Search - How do I remove this?

Try Google Now Swipe Disabler.

  Google Now Swipe Disabler repurposes that annoying swipe up from the
  bottom of your phone. If you're tired of having to press back twice
  when your scroll gets taken over by Google Now, then have Google Now
  Swipe Disabler do nothing! If you like the new voice search, but it
  takes too long to swipe up and press the mic icon, then tell it to go
  straight to voice search! You can have super quick access to your
  camera, or maybe you're always needing to do complicated mental math,
  now your calculator is just a convenient swipe away!


Regarding the basic problem - if the phone isn't showing the battery graphic when you connect the charger, that's a bad sign. You could try booting into Recovery mode or Download mode just to see what happens :

you use Recovery mode to clear the system cache and to Factory Reset
you use Download (aka Odin) mode (showing the Android guy) to load/reload firmware
the key sequences to enter both modes are very similar, and they are timing dependent so it may take a few tries to get it working
-- Recovery = Volume Up + Home + Power
-- Download = Volume Down + Home + Power
for either, you start with the phone completely off
press and hold the required keys simultaneously, and release them all when you see the swirling logo (not the static white text)

Try Recovery mode first (use the Volume rockers to navigate; use the Power button to select) and if it boots into this mode just clear the cache and then restart. If the phone doesn't boot normally then try Download mode.

If the phone doesn't respond to either of those methods it's time to take it in to your place of purchase or your local carrier store.

Source : Android Central

Hope this helps !


Connect android device to server in emulator

The problem here is that ADB forwarding attaches itself to the local loopback interface (127.0.0.1), and you have no forwarding from the LAN interface (192.168.43.198) to the loopback interface. The method you can use to achieve this depends on your platform. I don't know what you could use in Windows, but on Linux you can use rinetd and on OSX you can use ipfw

LINUX:

Add the following lines to your /etc/rinetd.conf:

# bindaddress    bindport  connectaddress  connectport
192.168.43.198   40000     127.0.0.1       40000

Then restart rinetd with service rinetd restart or /etc/init.d/rinetd restart.

OSX:

ipfw add fwd 127.0.0.1,40000 tcp from any to 192.168.43.198 dst-port 40000


How to send same text message to multiple people but they would only see their name as recipient?

That's how SMS usually works. When you send a text to a group of people, only they should be able to that they got it. They won't be able to see who else got the text.. unless you were sending SMS through Google Hangouts.


I finally got a solution to "No Service" after installing Cyanogenmod 7 on HTC Incredible 2. The answer is simple and it does not have anything to do with flashing radios, reinstalling ROMs, etc.

Simply turn the phone off and remove the battery to take out your SIM card. Then switch it back on without the SIM in it. After it has finished rebooting,
make sure the network bars are appearing even without any signal (in other words, an "x" on the bars) and also airplane mode is off. Now go to "Mobile Network Settings" and choose "CDMA/GSM (auto)" and not the preferred one.

Now turn off the phone and put the SIM back in. Replace the battery, start the phone, and tadaaa! Your phone will have the most amazing connection!


Can I play YouTube videos at 2x Speed in DicePlayer or some other way?

I was using DicePlayer and I confirm that it supports 2x speed for video playback for media contents.

I am not sure how are you going to play youtube videos on this player. Youtube uses it's own stuff to play the content.


Can't make gallery photos lock screen wallpaper (Samsung S3)

I have a Samsung Galaxy S4, but see if you can set a common wallpaper through a similar path: Settings > My device > Display > Wallpaper > Home and lock screens.

UPDATE 2013-12-06: Another solution you could try is to clear the default app for pictures. If it's a 3rd-party app like QuickPic, go to your phone's Application manager (via Settings), select the 3rd-party app, and do a Clear defaults.

Afterwards, open the Gallery app (not a 3rd-party app like QuickPic), pick a photo, left-soft-click to open a menu, and click Set as. You can pick either: Home screen, Lock screen, or Home and lock screens. Source.


Default folder location for images when saved as 'wallpaper'

The default download location is /sdcard/download, I don't know if it's different for wallpaper.  The current image used as wallpaper is stored in /data/data/com.android.settings/files/wallpaper.


In tasker, trigger when airplane mode is turned off

There are two possible ways to do this:

Checking the "Invert" tag on the Airplane Mode state, causing it to become active when Airplane Mode is off.
Using the Mobile Network state to detect when the device is connected to a mobile network (check all network types if you're not sure which to use).


Why cannot I open an .apk file though download "unknown sources" is checked?

Possible cause can be a corrupted download. Try downloading again. Also try to open in a third party file explorer, many (like ES File Explorer) will let you see package name and version of the apk (without installing) which can help to make sure that the downloaded apk is not corrupted.


odin twrp install hangs galaxy s7 edge G935

It's because your s7 edge from Verizon has locked bootloader and you cannot flash a customer recovery via Odin due to twrp not being an official samsung signed tar or md5 file and your phone rejects it.. also because your not rooted either and may never be unfortunately..  I'm in the same boat and recommend disabling verizon ota updates with package disabler pro apk to stay on the build apb1 to heighten your chances of possibly getting rooted because security patches are added to every update..


Using adb, no root required
Use the command adb shell wm size 720x1280
Using phone, root required
Download any Terminal app, such as this one.
Type the command su to enter superuser mode, and then type wm size 720x1280 into the terminal.
Source: http://www.theandroidsoul.com/change-screen-resolution-adb-android/


How can I send my 4.4.2 device's SMS from the Web without changing the default app?

Sadly that's a limit of android Kit-Kat the "options" I see are:

not to use MySMS for sending via Web, and have GoSMS as default SMS App
Set MySMS as default SMS App, in order to send via Web
Wait until and if in the future MySMS support that feature ie. sending via SIM without having the default privileges
Find an other app that may fit both of your needs.

eg. A quite similar app is HOLA SMS it can send web SMS without being default (edit. That changed to the last update)
So you can buy credits for it and send web to sms with sender your Phone Number so nobody can understand that it is not a SIM message. Then setting it as default once in a while the messages will be synced and added to your phone.


Can I install an MTK6577 ROM on a Star W007 6575 MTK?

No, you can't install a ROM on a different device than the one it was compiled for. Even devices based on the same SoC usually need differently configured ROM files, let alone ones based on different SoCs such as these two.


Normally, that red blinking light on a Nexus 4 means it's not getting enough power (the battery isn't charging, or is undercharged).

Try charging your phone overnight with a 2A charger.


The format of the info returned by the

  adb devices -l

Appears to have changed. So the regular expression extracting the info doesn't work any more.

I have worked out a new one, but haven't worked out how to submit the change into the github repo.


I was struggling with the same issue for a while. Finally, found a way out to track traffic coming from the emulator. You can start the emulator using:

emulator -avd <emuName> -http-proxy http://<SYSTEM_IP>:<PORT>

where emuName should be replaced with your emulator instance's name; SYSTEM_IP should be replaced with your system's IP address and PORT should be the port where the interceptor is running.

You can take a look at this:
http://stick2code.blogspot.in/2014/04/intercept-http-requests-sent-from-app.html.
Hope it helps!


Can Google+ Friends See Your App Downloads on Play Store, or Just the Ones You Rated?

Recent shared activity on Play shows items you have rated or +1'd. Just installing an app, buying a book, or renting a video does not make the action listed.


Will the Samsung Fascinate work without a battery?

No.  I have another SGS model and it works with no battery for a second, as long as the battery's in when you start it up, but quickly shuts off.


There is a small ribbon next to the check box. You can drag and move list entries with that.


Need to force close the "Phone" (Dialer) app manually

Thanks @RossC, for your comments.

Adding this as answer:

  Leave the memory management to the OS. It depends on the version
  (4.1.2 in your case), the OEM (LG) and the particular dialer app. As a
  rule, task killers degrade performance, and the app being in memory
  has no impact on your battery or performance. I'd say leave it be.


Installing Google play services without flashing

Tried to do this, too after my first few flashes, but this did not work. As far as I know it makes a difference for some apps if they are system Apps or just installed and I think this is here the case, too. After all you could install the smallest packet, then you have got less system apps if this helps. Another idea would be to disable the background processes as showed in this video from XDA and then those apps should just work if you really open them up. This would not involve greenify but would have the same effect as far as I can tell.


HTC Desire won't boot - buzzes 7 times instead

I gave up and returned the phone to the guy I bought it from on eBay, saying it was faulty. My conclusion was that it was an intermittent hardware fault.


Is there a default "dark" theme (i.e. black background)?

Apparently the "night mode" promised for Android 7 hasn't been implemented after all, but there's a High Contrast Theme by Samsung for Android 7 that works in a similar way.


How to downgrade from Lollipop to Kitkat?

Unfortunately you cannot downgrade from the newest version of Android to an older version, unless you root or modify your device's permissions. Ask your carrier to see if they can flash a new ROM to your device.


What is an easy method to test whether UDP traffic is blocked?

You can check if UDP traffic is blocked with this app:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=be.ac.ulg.mobiletracebox

It's free and it works on not rooted devices.

Just select UDP category and run the test.

To check if UDP traffic is blocked only on certain ports you can use "Advanced" to set Destination Port (along with other fields of the packet).

I'm affiliated with developers of this app, but frankly I don't know any "famous" app doing the same job.


How to store 'adb devices -l' output to a text file?

You can use > after any command followed by file name or file path where you want to save the file. It  would look like this:

adb devices -l > FILE_NAME


How can I explore my Android from my computer?

The Android Debug Bridge (adb) can do pretty much everything you want. It is part of the Android SDK, just download the SDK and enable USB debugging on your phone.

You can get a shell with the command

adb shell

and you can get files from the phone with

adb pull

All the commands are documented in the first link I gave.

Another way to get any file from the phone would be to use any of the backup utilities available and back up your whole phone to your computer where you can examine it. As you already rooted your phone you might already have a backup utility installed, or you can easily install one, e.g. Titanium Backup Root or Nandroid. I have no experience with those two though, I can't tell you anything more about them.

The kernel I used to root my phone included ClockworkMod Recovery with a backup program already integrated, so you might already have that available too.


Can airplane mode turn itself off automatically

A forced system update, for example, will apparently disable airplane mode.
This can happen without user interaction.
However, such automatic deactivation of Airplane Mode for a system update would generally require the user activating WiFi (after entering Airplane Mode) or some other communication channel that allows the phone to become aware of the requirement for an update.

Also, some apps can activate and deactivate Airplane Mode, if permission is granted.  This is especially true for older (<4.2) versions of Android.


Can I safely delete items in my "downloaded apps" folder?

Direct answer: Yes you can safely delete the apk you download once it is installed.

Developed answer: Any apk file you download goes to the external storage (either external sdcard or fuse-mounted internal storage that appears as external storage). Installing an apk is just a matter of copying it to internal storage (inside a folder within /data partition). so once installed, the apk becomes redundant, and it is safely to remove the one you downloaded.


Restore phone and keep whatsapp number after changing sim

Insert the new SIM into the phone.

Go to Whatsapp settings > Account > Change number

Validate the new number.

Go to Chat settings > Backup conversations

Follow the instructions here to restore the conversations


What can I do to increase battery life on my Android tablet?

The key was to delete the Telephony application.  This tables has no phone.  After deleting the following built-in applications, TelephonyProvider & Phone, A new icon appeared in the top box, it was a signal bar strength icon with an X in it.

Now the "Cell standby" no longer appears, and the battery lasts 3-5 hours depending on what I am doing.


Do cache cleaner (or "phone booster") apps actually work?

I can say, in my experience that it is truly contingent on the tool you choose to use.

I am very happy with SDMaid, which i have used for years. It seems to clean everything it says it will.

If you read through my other postings here, you will find I usually recommend it for the "CorpseFinder" functionality to clear remnants of older, non-fully uninstalled apps, though the AppControl, SystemCleaner, and Databases functionality are useful, too.

I am satisfied each time I use it that the cleared item were non-critical, yielding back space I can use. I have not encountered a problem with either my phone, or my tablets, where files were improperly deleted, that I would attribute to some actions of this software.

DISCLAIMER - I am not the developer, or attached to the product in any way, except as a satisfied user.


Is it possible to prevent the screen turning off when pressing the power button?

You can prevent lock button from turning off you screen by altering your settings.

Go to your settings
Select Security
Deselect the check box Power button instantly locks


A Google Voice number forwards any calls it gets (and I believe texts) to numbers you set up. There is an option where all calls to that number can also ring in Google Hangouts.

If you are travelling, you could download Hangouts on your phone and make a temporary Google Voice number forwarding calls to your home phone. When the number gets a call it will ring your home phone and in your Hangouts app if your phone has access to internet.

If you choose to answer it in Hangouts, it's the same as having an internet call with the person who called you. Call quality will suffer/improve depending on internet quality/speed.

If you are going out of US/Canada, I don't know if you will be charged for calls. Most questions can be answered here


TWRP showing error 7 even when the rom is correct

I also had this issue but I installed Android Revolution HD and it worked! It booted and said that the /data is corrupted and it required a factory reset. I gave the only option Reset and it booted back to twrp(i was using it) and there it automatically formatted /data!
Hope it helps you.


Finding a way to create a WLAN between tablet and phone

Android, starting from 4.0, does officially support a form of p2p wifi networking called Wifi Direct. A Wifi Direct-capable device can create an access point which any other Wifi-capable device can access. I don't know about Nexus 7 specifically, but Galaxy Nexus does support Wifi Direct so I'd presume that so is Nexus 7.


As for all driver problems, you should first try the following:

Disconnect the device
Uninstall all drivers for it
Reboot
Install the official drivers (probably the ZTE-specific ones)
Reboot
Connect the device


Why does flashing my Tab3, 7.0, 8GB, WiFi (sm-t210) fail with Odin?

As Odin in Windows doesn't seem to work for my device, I tried another application such as Heimdall-Frontend.
This application differs from Odin in that it uses the extracted files from a stock ROM where as Odin uses the stock ROM to upload to an connected device.
Anyways, I found that from Heimdall all files are successfully downloaded to the Samsung Tab3 device.
Yet there was a slight difference between the download of 'system.img' file and all the other 9 files out of the stock ROM.
After the download from Heimdall completed, it was released and right after that the Tab3 device goes into reboot.
While after the download of all other 9 files, it took a few seconds before the Tab3 goes into reboot.
So my guess here is that right after being released, the Tab3 goes immediately into reboot and deletes that way the successful downloaded 'system.img' file.
That would also explain as to why there's no change after the successful flashing with Heimdall.


Persistent Notification for Calendar Events

I am replying (I see no one else has) because I have always used the calendar/notifications functionality in the EXACT same way you have, and was also distressed of this change in functionality.  I think we are in the minority, though, because your post is the first acknowledgement I have even seen anywhere about this issue.

The only solution I have is to look at third-party apps.  Although someone appears to have ported an older ICS/Jelly Bean-era version of the stock calendar which you can find in the Play Store, I have not used that too much.  At the moment I am using Business Calendar, which I THINK comes somewhat close to replicating the functionality you and I are accustomed to (although I am still watching it to see).  I also gave Today Calendar a very close look -- it is much closer to the Google aesthetic, and even has aspects of Material Design implemented.  It appeared also to have persistent notification functionality, although for some reason I had problems with the syncing.  This may have been fixed.

If you have come up with any solutions, I would love to hear them!  Good luck!


Well, if you care about data, its a good practice to backup always.
In your case, anyway, you don't have backup available with you. So, the only option available for you to avoid 'force close loop' is to goto recovery and flash it with the appropriate rom. Please note that you will lose all the data present on your sdcard, however, the data present in memory card would remain intact.


It seems you are getting an error on the fastboot oem unlock step. If you don't get the bootloader unlocked, then you might as well forget the remaining steps.

To make sure the device is actually in the right mode, I recommend putting it in the bootloader manually.  The easiest way to do that is to first turn the phone off. Now hold the volume-up and volume-down buttons, and then press the power button.You'll now see the Android roboto with his front panel open. Check to see that the text below it starts with "FASTBOOT MODE" in red. At the bottom of the screen you may also see the lock/unlock status.  Now plug the device into your computer and try the unlock command. If you have a bootloader that shows the lock/unlock status on the device screen, it should change right away. Once you're unlocked, you can proceed with the flash commands.  If you get past the unlocking and still have problems, come back with a new question.


Screen Mirroring error : Green screen with audio

Had the same issue, and tried to reinstall/update the display driver = Intel(R) UHD Graphic 620 at https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/126790/Intel-UHD-Graphics-630.
It's 100% solved. Microsoft issues.


Is there NTP like time syncing for non rooted phone?

Unfortunately, you really need root for this.

From ClockSync, Google themselves have mentioned this:

  Hi, it is by design that applications can not change the time. There are many subtle aspects of security that can rely on the current time, such as certificate expiration, license management, etc. We do not want to allow third party applications to globally disrupt the system in this way.


Gadgets 360 review for P3S (see connectivity under detailed specifications) states OTG is not supported

Maybe the app you used returned a false positive


Nexus one hack to work on 8500/1900 freqs

This is set in hardware, there is nothing you can do about this. You can learn more about this in http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/android/thread?tid=395c29e6b9cab6bc&hl=en


Asus Zenfone 5 phone not turning on after factory reset

You have two options, either you can send it to the service center of ASUS as it is still in warranty period, or you can flash the stock rom. But you may have some warranty issues in future if you flash it by your own.

For stock rom and guide visit following.

Asus Support
XDA


AFAIK there's an "ad-free fee" you could pay to Amazon 15 bucks. Apart from that, available solutions require you to root your device:

Kindle FIre HD 2013 - Remove Ads from Lockscreen

  root your Kindle Fire HD 2013
  Download and install ES File Explorer from amazon AppStore (its free)
  Start ES File Explorer and enable Root Explorer
  Browse to /data/securedStorageLocation/dtcp/
  Mark the adunits folder
  Go to "more" and "settings"
  Remove the permissions from "rwx --- ---" to "--- --- ---"
  (Optional) Remove all folders in the adunits folder

Disable Kindle Fire HD Lockscreen Ads - YouTube
More via a simple Google search ;)


What's the point of pseudo-big.LITTLE CPU in Nokia 7 plus?

I think you are mistaking the "Kryo" brand from Qualcomm from being different than just a customized version of ARM big.LITTLE.

As stated in the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660/630 announcement article from Anandtech:

  Snapdragon 660’s Kryo 260 CPU uses four semi-custom Cortex-A73 cores in the “performance” cluster and four semi-custom Cortex-A53 cores in the “efficiency” cluster in a big.LITTLE arrangement. The Kryo 260, however, does not hit the same peak frequencies as Kryo 280, and Kryo 260 uses 1MB/1MB of shared L2 per cluster instead of 2MB/1MB of L2 for Kryo 280.

The confusion probably is from the fact that while there are 2x2 sets of CPU cores on the chipset, Qualcomm's branding the package of the 2 "performance" and 2 "efficiency" cores as the Kryo CPU. The obfuscation is probably due to Qualcomm emphasizing their customization trying to differentiate from ARM's reference big.LITTLE A73/A53 CPU core set.

Honestly while GSM Arena is a good starting point, if there is confusion/conflict further research should be done.


Where is system update option located in Alldaymall A88S tablet?

Settings > About tablet > System Updates/Update Center


How many apps can be installed on an Android device?

In the source code of Android M that you can find here, is this statement:

/**
 * @hide Range of uids allocated for a user.
 */
 public static final int PER_USER_RANGE = 100000;

In this line of code, it states that a user can have one hundred thousand UIDs.

However there is a conflicting information. You know that root UID is 0 and system UIDs start from 1000. Normal user apps start from 10000. This interval defined for user apps' UID numbers is also stated here as:

  FIRST_APPLICATION_UID has the constant value of 10000 (0x00002710)
  LAST_APPLICATION_UID has the constant value of 19999 (0x00004e1f)

Therefore, first UID that will be given to a user app will be 10000, and last one will be 19999. Therefore, it states that a user can have ten thousand apps.

So, which one is correct? I think this might explain. Before 4.1.1 LAST_APPLICATION_UID was 99999, allowing ninety thousand user apps as the limit. However, this is for user apps while PER_USER_RANGE doesn't specifically say so and therefore probably includes all UIDs from 0 to 99999. After 4.1.1 LAST_APPLICATION_UID was reduced to 19999 but PER_USER_RANGE was left untouched.

So for pre-4.1.1 versions, the limit is ninety thousand user apps and for 4.1.1 and after it is ten thousand user apps.

That is of course the limit that Android accepts. But in most cases, your storage will be full before you can reach such numbers.


Why would a free app be in the top grossing section?

As per Oxford: top grossing means earning more money than other similar things or people.

But as per google app store it may refer to :

Top-Grossing = Sum of all revenue generated from the purchase of the app + sum of all in-app purchases

It also means that app listed in top grossing lists holds people's attention for the most time. So even if an app is free but still if it is getting downloaded the most then it will feature in this list.

Also many of the free versions apps like angry birds, cut the rope etc. provide in app purchase ability i.e you don't need to bye a paid version but to access more features you have to pay some amounts which ultimately boost's apps revenue and ranks app higher in list.


Use FolderSync. I was using it to sync folders with Google Docs. After upgrading to Google Drive, sync still works. I have just tested by adding new Google Drive account. Google Drive is fully supported. Just, choose Google Docs when adding account in the app.
In case, you don't want to pay, its free lite version is also in Play Store, but with some limitations.

It supports two-way sync as well as one-way sync (up or down). You can use its up sync for backup purpose. It also supports filters based on size, extension etc. So, if you want to backup all photos from your SD card, the app is good to go. It features Delete after Upload, too.

You can schedule sync jobs, too. So, it can do backups automatically without any hassle. The best: It features Instant Sync. If you turn it on, files will be synced as long as they will be modified or added in folder.


Is possible to read the memory from my phone (S6) in recovery mode?

You cannot get access to your data through stock recovery. Stock recoveries are designed to format the data and cache, and flash OTA updates. Offering shell access through recovery is a risk to user's privacy so it is naturally avoided.

That said, I had noticed in the past some low-end MTK chipset devices' stock recovery offering (could be in encryption unsupported devices only) an option to backup user data. But even that backup is stored inside phone's storage which presumes that the user can boot into Android normally and get hold of it.

In short, you need to look elsewhere to get hold of your data. Stock recovery is no good here.


Why does MTP show wrong directory location?

What is Content Provider?

It seems to be a problem related to Media Providers. As the name suggests, they provide a database of available media in a more organized way to other apps as the Contacts Storage (com.android.providers.contacts) provides contacts to requesting apps. Purpose is to scan and store media file info for quick access so that individual apps don't have to scan folders manually for an up-to-date library, reducing time and effort.

Android's built-in Media Providers:

Some file explorers, media players and gallery apps depend on the files database (/data/data/com.android.providers.media/databases/external.db) built by Media Storage app for MediaStore content provider from the contents of external storage (/sdcard and external SD card; removable storage like USB isn't indexed). Apps Media Storage (com.android.providers.media under which com.process.media runs), Downloads (com.android.providers.downloads.ui), Download Manager (com.android.providers.downloads) and MTP Host (com.android.mtp) work in collaboration under same UID.

Database is built/updated as MediaScanner (android.process.media) is invoked by some app such as by sending broadcast MEDIA_SCANNER_SCAN_FILE or through scanFile. Broadcast receiver com.android.providers.media.MediaScannerReceiver is launched on boot that listens for android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED, so MediaScannerService will also launch on boot. But restarting phone sometimes doesn't update whole external database (or at least delays). MediaScanner is also triggered when a new storage device is mounted i.e. on MEDIA_MOUNTED which could possibly be manually broadcasted to force updation on pre KitKat versions.
In response, apps are informed of updated databases such as by receiving broadcast MEDIA_SCANNER_FINISHED or through onScanCompleted.

Problem with Media Providers:

MtpService is also a part of Media Storage. Due to some bugs (acknowledged since 2012) in implementation of MTP, database isn't updated or is delayed or isn't properly communicated with the client as the files change, so MTP shows outdated / incomplete contents. The same can happen if an app creating or downloading a new file fails to trigger the MediaScanner or fails to receive back the updated information.

Solution:

In order to force database updation, delete the file and run some media scanner app. Non-root users can delete this file by clearing data of Media Storage app.
But be aware, it'll also clear internal.db which will make ringtones unavailable and a new database will be built from /system/media on next reboot i.e. on BOOT_COMPLETED.

PS: Note that the internal SD card we see is emulated from /data/media/ using sdcardfs (or FUSE in older versions of Android). Actual contents of internal memory can be seen directly from /data/media/ (root required). UMS used to expose the /data block device to PC but was deprecated in favor of MTP. It's a good option when larger size of data is to be transferred at high speeds. It can be enabled by some workaround.
There are also other reasonable alternatives for MTP like FTP, SFTP/SSHFS, adbfs etc.

RESOURCES:

How Android categorizes files based on their extensions
MTP, External Storage, and Your App
Scan Media Files In Android
Broadcasts overview
Android Content Providers


Does Android have a "router setup page" when acting as a wireless or wired hotspot?

The Android builtin wifi tethering is designed to use 192.168.43.1/24 as the server, with netd handling the tethering, using dnsmasq. First DNS range is 192.168.42.1-254 and and 2nd DNS range is 192.168.43.1-254.

Netd is not easy to change. It requires a socket to communicate with it, and that socket is taken when android starts tethering. But going through the source files for Tethering.java (I used Froyo) we see:

// usb client will be provided 192.168.42.129
private static final String USB_NEAR_IFACE_ADDR      = "192.168.42.129";
private static final String USB_NETMASK              = "255.255.255.0";

// FYI - the default wifi is 192.168.43.1 and 255.255.255.0

private String[] mDhcpRange;
private static final String DHCP_DEFAULT_RANGE1_START = "192.168.42.2";
private static final String DHCP_DEFAULT_RANGE1_STOP  = "192.168.42.254";
private static final String DHCP_DEFAULT_RANGE2_START = "192.168.43.2";
private static final String DHCP_DEFAULT_RANGE2_STOP  = "192.168.43.254";

And Later on we see those ranges used, AS BACKUPS.

    mDhcpRange = context.getResources().getStringArray(
            com.android.internal.R.array.config_tether_dhcp_range);
    if ((mDhcpRange.length == 0) || (mDhcpRange.length % 2 ==1)) {
        mDhcpRange = new String[4];
        mDhcpRange[0] = DHCP_DEFAULT_RANGE1_START;
        mDhcpRange[1] = DHCP_DEFAULT_RANGE1_STOP;
        mDhcpRange[2] = DHCP_DEFAULT_RANGE2_START;
        mDhcpRange[3] = DHCP_DEFAULT_RANGE2_STOP;
    }

The main source for the dhcp ranges is not the hardcoded 42 and 43, but read from array.config_tether_dhcp_range, an internal string array. But it is currently empty.

You could edit the android framework. On my phone, it is /system/framework/framework-res.apk. There are a ton of tutorials online for editing framework-res.apk, from simple strings to full theming. Find one for your phone and android version.

Main thing you want to change is the /res/values/arrays.xml

Look for <array name="config_tether_dhcp_range" />

Change to:

<string-array name="config_tether_dhcp_range">
     <item>192.168.x.y</item>
     <item>192.168.x.z</item>
</string-array>

compile/zip/sign as needed (follow a tutorial), then reinstall.

If you want more than one range, just copy the two items over and over. You always need to provide a start and a stop for each range. Try to keep it in the same /24, ie 192.168.50.5 and 192.168.50.99 or whatever. You can confirm it is working with busybox ps | grep dnsmasq or if you don't have busybox ps dnsmasq then use the pid in cat /proc/pid/cmdline. You should get (or similar):

  /system/bin/dnsmasq --no-daemon --no-poll -no-resolv --dhcp-range=192.168.50.5,192.168.50.99,1h

FWIW, my WIFI tethering uses the default dnsmasq ranges, yet my computer was assigned 192.168.43.147/24 and gateway 192.168.43.1/24. Not sure why yours defaulted to a 42.x address.


Have you tried to change the Network connection in settings? If 2G only or 3G only works, then it might be a band problem.


PC doesn't perform copy from it to sdcard/internal storage

Use ES File Explorer https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.estrongs.android.pop&hl=en free.
How To Use
Go into your PC and set up a share folder. Use this as reference http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/how-do-i-share-folders-in-windows-7-with-the-shared-folder-wizard/
Either place your file to transfer in the shared folder or make the shared folder where your file is located.
Now install ES File Explorer on the device and run app.
Goto the quick access menu (3 dash button in the top left corner).
Select Network>LAN.
Bottom of the screen select SCAN, might take a minute to acquire connection.
Select your shared folder.
Select your file (long pressing file and select copy at the bottom)
Goto the quick access again and select LOCAL
Pick your destination location from there and tap PASTE
Enjoy!!


SD card readers don't work via USB OTG but USB thumb drives do, any ideas?

I believe that the problem is lack of power. Your phone doesn't deliver enough power to the card reader. I would suggest using the same kind of cable you used to need when connecting an external hard disk using USB. It has one contact for the hard disk (card reader in your case), one for the phone and one for extra power (use a separate USB charger/adapter).  That should solve the power problem.

I don't know where one can find this kind of cable in your part of the world. They should be fairly easy to find though.

If this doesn't work I would use the Googles ADB developer tool to check the logs on the phone to see if there are any error messages that could help.

Good luck!


Is it possible to enable vendor-disabled user accounts in rooted device with Android 6.0?

If you cannot access the multi user menu in the settings app it is possible that the manufacturer completely removed that feature from its android version. Luckily you can install a similar feature manually but you need the Xposed Framework.


How to ensure a factory reset wipes /data/media?

/data/media is actually your so-called "internal SD card" space.  It's not wiped by default because, as the name implies, it's intended for media storage like photos and music.  It usually should not contain any personal account information or important app data (that isn't encrypted).  Many custom recoveries do have an option to wipe the internal SD card, you just need to select it when doing your factory reset.

TWRP actually has a detailed post about this at https://twrp.me/faq/datamedia.html.  The most relevant excerpt:

  In TWRP we also have a wipe internal storage option that rm -rf's the media folder and a "Format Data" option that formats to recreate the entire file system in case something goes completely wrong or to remove device encryption.

If you just want to free up the space, you could also simply use a file browser to deleted everything on your internal SD card.


I think you should try using *67* followed by the number you intend to call and end with a #. This works for me as my number gets shown as anonymous on the other phone I am calling. I hope this helps.


How can I reclaim space used by the defaul email client

I ended up deleting the account and re-adding it.   Space used by Email went from 2.7Gb to 16Mb.

On my Moto X, running Android 4.4.4, Delete the account from System settings (i.e., not in the Email app) -- under Settings, in the "Accounts" section, find the account with the Email app's icon and name that matches the name in the app.  Tap the account name, then the menu icon, and select "Remove account".   Details may vary on other Android versions.

To add an account to the Email app, click the menu icon, then select Settings", "Add Account" will appear in the right side of the top menu bar.


Change "Audio Applications" in Notification Bar

It appears to be a TouchWiz/SGS3 feature.  A post on XDA developers suggests freezing ContextAwareService.apk if you'd like to disable it, but no way to edit the list.  Another post suggests that a more recent release (LFB) has options related to this (settings -> accessory -> audio applications), but doesn't expand on whether or not you can edit from there.


Can't see Nexus One as a USB drive when connecting to Windows 7

Under 'Settings' there should be an option 'Connect to PC'. From here you can change the connection type or get the phone to ask you each time it plugs in. (Apparently this is an HTC Sense specific setting(?) so not as relevant here). edit: an answer here has directions to the USB settings.

If it is still not working after changing the settings it may be worth trying another USB cable. Are you sure the cable is working ok? Does the phone indicate that it is charging when it is plugged in to the PC? The cable needs to be capable of data transfer (some will only supply power for charging). Also, the USB port needs to be USB 2.0, not 1.0 or 1.1

If you are sure the cable is working and the phone is still not recognised this might be a Windows problem perhaps. Try re-installing the device driver by 'uninstalling' the phone in Device Manager (see link below for details):

Info in answer from this post here


You're probably looking for an MHL cable.

Here's the cable to connect your Samsung Galaxy S3 to HDMI:

http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/mobile-devices/accessories/connectivity/EPL-3FHUBEGSTD

NOTE: 2 Different web sources that I saw right away seem to say it's not a standard MHL cable.  Make sure you check to ensure what you buy is compatible (Or us an official source like above):

http://blog.clove.co.uk/2012/06/08/samsung-galaxy-s3-uses-a-different-mhlhdmi-adapter/

I had the official cable for my Samsung S3 a few years ago and it worked great.


How to enable the landscape mode on the default launcher on Android Marshmallow?

Auto rotate Home screen was one of the top features of 2nd Android M Developer preview.
I hate to burst the bubble, Auto rotate home screen feature was not incorporated in the final version of Android Marshmallow 6.0.

  We're  disappointed to see that auto rotate support hasn't made it to the home screen, however. In the second developer preview, the Google app added an "allow rotation" option to the home screen settings, which let the home screen rotate like any other app on the system. We loved it. It never made the jump to the final version, though.

Source

However, if you have got a rooted phone, you can modify build.prop file to get this feature.

Navigate to and open /system/build.prop file using any Root explorers
Add log.tag.launcher_force_rotate=VERBOSE at the end of the file
Optional step: Add lockscreen.rot_override=true to enable screen rotation in your lock screen
Reboot to see the feature working!

Source


If you want to view your website in all devices just put webfonts in the your website. web fonts are embedded fonts that you put on your server and with proper css link everybody can view that without installing the fonts on devices as per following steps:

Downlaod Lohit-Punjabi.ttf  .wof and .eot files from
https://github.com/svn2github/wikia/tree/master/extensions/WebFonts/fonts/Guru/
upload this file (Unzip after upload) to your website's home directory where yous style.css file is present.
Following  should be written in your style.css file:@font-face {
font-family: 'Lohit Punjabi';
src: url('Lohit-Punjabi.eot?#iefix') format('embedded-opentype'),
url('Lohit-Punjabi.woff') format('woff'),
url('Lohit-Punjabi.ttf') format('truetype');
font-weight: normal;
font-style: normal;
}

{
font-family: 'Lohit Punjabi', 'Shruti', 'Sans';
font-weight: normal;
}

For other websites not having web fonts use firefox for android  and then get addon https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/android/addon/gurmukhi-fonts-package. Now you can view all webpages in Punjabi Gurmukhi fonts without any complex procedure or root. This add on has been developed by me.


Automatically Install apps after factory reset

Make sure you have checked Automatic Restore and Backup my Data in Settings>Backup & Restore.

And also sync your google account right after a reset. You'll notice that all of your apps are reinstalling in the background.

Hope it helps.


Can I use my Android device as Wi-Fi Adapter for my PC (i.e. Tethering to PC through USB, but using Wi-Fi not Phone Network)?

You can achieve this natively on some versions of Android (for me it works on KitKat 4.4.4). All you have to do is connect the phone to wi-fi as usual and then connect the USB cable and do a USB tether. Some devices may require you to enable WiFi sharing in the mobile hotspot settings. Your computer should detect a new hardware - a "USB ethernet" or similar, you may need to install drivers for that, ymmv. Then it behaves just like any other network card. This works for all common operating system, including Windows (where the drivers part may apply).
Just to be sure, you can disable mobile data on the phone for the time being but the phone should be smart enough to route traffic via wifi automatically when it is available.
No root needed.


Does Viber app have a menu to close the app?

Just installed Viber on my Samsung Galaxy S4 (Android 4.2.2), and I can find an exit menu via More Options > Exit.


Alarm silent, even when not in silent mode

This answer is credited to user abhioxic, who came up with the solution in a comment.

Clearing the cache and data from the Clock app resolved the issue. After clearing the cache and data, the old alarms were removed (data loss) but new alarms ring properly.


How to fix a sudden increase in battery drain?

I tried lots of things but in the end only a factory data reset of the phone worked.

Before I did the reset the battery drain looked like this in Settings > Battery:

The shallow gradient was when I booted the phone in safe mode. This at least suggested the issue was likely to to with one or more apps rather than something inherently wrong with the phone.

GSam Battery Monitor wasn't much use. All it told me was that Google Services or Google Play Services was draining the battery but it didn't tell me which app(s) were causing that.

So I opted for a factory reset of the phone data and installed apps manually, just one or two at a time, watching the battery drain in Settings > Battery to make sure the newly installed app wasn't suddenly increasing battery drain. I'd wait at least 12 hours before installing another one or two apps. So this approach takes a lot of patience and isn't very practical if you use your phone for many things in the mean time. But now my battery life has increased from just half a day to 4 to 5 days...

I don't know whether this could've been fixed without a factory reset, or what app or setting caused the battery drain to increase suddenly in the first place. Ideally there would be some way of getting a breakdown of battery drain within Google (Play) Services due to different apps invoking it.


Control phone on MacBook Pro via bluetooth?

A similar question was posted entitled "Software to control mobile phone via bluetooth" over at Superuser.com on 11th December 2012 to which I responded:

https://superuser.com/questions/517884/software-to-control-mobile-phone-via-bluetooth/517888#517888

My response was this:

A program called Remote Professional from mobileways.de claims to be able to make calls from your PC-mobile. There is a brief article about it entitled Remotely Control Your Phone from Computer from Technize.com

A youtube video and link to download the program is also included: http://www.technize.com/remotely-control-your-phone-from-computer/

However this method used a PC rather than an Apple Mac. It may well be possible that mobileways.de offer a similar program for Macs.

So in theory what you have asked is perfectly plausible, if they haven't developed a program for apple macs, they may do in the near future.


How to Uninstall HTC Applications/Widgets

Yes, you will have to root and invalidate your warranty to remove these apps.  Most of the time however you can "un-root" and no one will be the wiser.


How to download a phrasebook from google translate

If you are logged into your Google account, your Phrasebook will synchronize across devices and you can also access it from the web interface of Google Translate. Furthermore, after importing to Anki you can synchronize your decks across devices.

In the web interface of Google Translate, show the Phrasebook by clicking the Phrasebook icon in the upper right corner:

Export the Phrasebook to a Google spreadsheet by clicking the Export icon, again in the upper right corner:

Click "Yes, import the data".
Export the resulting spreadsheet to .csv format:

The .csv file has four fields: source language, target language, source phrase, and target phrase. To import the data into the Anki desktop application, choose File -> Import in the menu, and in the dialog that opens, choose Front for field 3 and Back for field 4:

Click Import, and you're done :)


Adjusting between Group & Single text messaging on Galaxy S4

In the stock messaging app: settings->multimedia message (mms) settings->Group messaging.
When this is checked, it will send a single MMS message to multiple people (all within the group), like in examples 2/3.
When it is unchecked, it will send a message to each person in the group individually, like in example 1.

All incoming group messages will come in as a group message regardless of this setting.  This setting simple controls how your messages are sent to a group.  As far as I know, however, you are not able to do this on a per message basis.


Why is sound on my Android suddenly increasing?

It could most likely be a bug. I suggest you upgrade your Android via Kies or manually.

Galaxy Nexus is known to have a similar software issue with volume: http://techie-buzz.com/mobile-news/galaxy-nexus-to-get-a-software-update-to-fix-the-volume-bug.html Perhaps it could be the same with your S2, especially since it is on older Android version.