Play video with 2x speed in MX player kindly help

I just realized that when you move two fingers up and down the left side of the screen (like when you adjust brightness, but with two fingers) the playback speed adjusts accordingly.


Make the sleep timer on a tablet dependent on whether it's being charged or not

There is no such feature on Android natively.

However, there are quite a few "automation" type apps that can do this for you.  Some of the better known ones are Tasker, AutomateIt, Locale and Llama.  All of these allow you to define a trigger (e.g. "charger plugged in" in your case) and set up various actions such as toggling settings.

Keep in mind that most of these apps require excessive permissions in order to be able to change system settings (and some toggles even require root.)

Also, some manufacturer UI overlays and custom ROMs allow you to set up profiles with different settings.  Switching these profiles is either a manual process, or does not provide such granularity in configuration as the automation apps.


Record video in QHD then reduce to FHD is the same thing of record in FHD

Quad HD recording is superior to full HD as you can see from table

Source

But if Google photos is reducing it Full HD, then the quality will be superior to that of a video recorded in Full HD and uploaded based on Google Product forums

  Videos higher than 1080p will be resized to high-definition 1080p. A video with 1080p or less will look close to the original.

(Emphasis Added)

In other words, if the quality of recording is less than or equal to 1080p, it will suffer  compression losses, not if it is higher


Droid Explorer is unable to browse device

Disclaimer: I am the developer of Droid Explorer

Without knowing the exact version of the SDK platform-tools you have installed (but I will assume the latest), I think the problem is with the Android SDK platform-tools.

Droid Explorer uses a feature in ADB called 'status-window' to keep track of the connection state of the devices. In the latest version (rev. 23), they removed this feature.

You can manually download an older version of the platform-tools and put them in your SDK directory:

Download rev. 21 of the platform-tools from platform-tools_r21-windows.zip
Rename the platform-tools directory in your SDK to platform-tools-23
Extract the zip file, downloaded previously, to the root of your SDK directory. It contains the platform-tools directory in the zip.

This will be corrected in the next version of Droid Explorer so it will again work with the latest SDK. I have been working on multiple ways to replace the functionality that was removed in the latest revision of the platform-tools. Once I am happy with how it functions and am confident that it is stable, I will release an update.


How do I get the location consent prompt back

I tried the solution found here :
Location Consent & undo Remeber This Setting
It did not work the first time.
The second time I left GPS only enabled with GPS on when I rebooted.
That did the trick.
When the phone rebooted GPS was still in GPS only mode and when I turn GPS off then back on I got the "Improve location accuracy prompt again"


I finally solved the issue. It was related to my APN. My Access Point allowed only browsing. I changed it to another access point, and it worked!


Workaround needed: Buying an application for someone else in the Android Market

For some apps, you could buy it on your account, then give them the APK, but this won't work for all apps, as many of them contact the market to make sure they've been paid for. That also might not be entirely legal. At the moment, I think the only option you really have is just to give them the money to buy it.


Tilt left and right is not working in bluestacks

You can always try the arrow keys first to mimic the tilt functions

Left arrow key for tilting left side.
Right arrow key for tilting right side.

Also try the keys Z and X to tilt left and right respectively according to this site and also this site has the same information about tilting.


It's not possible. The settings code is specifically written to prevent this. The closest  you can come is to bring up the Device Administration Settings page in the Settings app. You can do this with:
adb shell am start -S "com.android.settings/.Settings\$DeviceAdminSettingsActivity"


ES File Explorer shows empty /data/ folder

You have to configure ES to use root.

Menu → Tools → turn Root Explorer to "ON".

Source.


No, the camera sensor resolution isn't the only factor that determines whether a phone can shoot high-res video, regardless of the APIs offered by the OS. Phones have special video encode hardware to make a video file from the raw camera data, and the hardware can only encode so many pixels per second. To record 2k or 4k video, the video encode hardware has to be fast enough, and other parts of the system need enough bandwidth/throughput to handle the data rate.

As for Google Camera, there's no point speculating about its future releases. They might choose to focus on a new feature instead, or may wait until more phone hardware supports 4k video. They might even include it in the next Nexus phone but wait another six months or so before releasing the feature more widely.


How to restore deleted pictures from LG K8?

You will not need root access if the device runs android 5.0 or above, A photo recovery software is able to recover photos easily without root due to the new changes in Android 5.0 and above, It's still not clear why Android has left this out of the root only features but it's still handy.

The first thing to remember with data recovery is that deleted files are not actually deleted but rather marked as replaceable files ready for new data to replace it, this means you should not to add any new data to the device or it will overwrite the deleted files, so if you fill up the device with more photos, all the old ones will be non repairable ( unless you have software that is powerful enough ) .. Some people say it's possible to repair a file that has been overwritten 7 to 36 times but i don't believe that..

Anyway, the first thing you should try is DiskDigger
This link is to their no root version Photo Recovery

A tip for using disk digger :   Sometimes changing the default storage path in settings > storage will allow DiskDigger to scan the SD Card as the internal storage. It's sometimes helpful to reverse the default storage device between scans if you couldn't find the files you're looking for


Android phone powers on spontaneously during charging

It's by OEM design. See support questions and in particular this one My phone automatically turns on when I connect the charger. Why? which says

Your smartphone will turn on automatically when the charger is connected. Please be assured that it is a sign of normal operation.

And to prevent it from turning on

To charge when your smartphone is off, connect the charger first and press the Power button to turn off your phone. The display will not be turned on.
When the remaining battery is less than 5%, the battery temperature is too high or low, or the smartphone is turned off due to the high temperature, the screen will not turn on.


Using windows drivers for an air quality USB device

There are a lot of problems here:

The Incredible 2's software doesn't support USB Host Mode, so you'd need to root your device and replace the kernel.
Windows software won't run on Android even if the dependencies are present.  You would need to entirely replace the software.
Android apps can't be written in Fortran or Matlab, there is no Fortran compiler for Android, and no version of Matlab for Android.

So you'd need to put in a massive amount of work here, including reverse engineering the device commands since I doubt it's open source.  I'd advise you to just use a laptop :P


do you have busybox installed? Open up terminal emulator and type busybox if a load of stuff comes up on the screen, then you have busybox installed.

Next, type mount into terminal emulator, if a load of crap comes up then you do have mount installed.

Otherwise, download the BusyBox Installer app on market, and download an older version of busybox. The same if you already have it installed, as the newer versions have loads of errors.

If that doesn't work, then I suggest emaailing the developer with a bug report.


Will I need to move app updates to SD card in Android 4.3?

From my experience with my Droid after this functionality was added to Android, updates "go" to where the app is. That is, I did not need to re-move the app to the SD card after an update. As far as I know the functionality for that has not regressed. (Actually, I don't think much work has been done on it at all. Google would like for phones to just have internal storage.)

That said, there's probably more chance of something going wrong with an update in that scenario. You may find occasionally that you have to move an app back to internal storage to update and then move it back to the SD card. Or possibly re-install. But it's probably rare.

I don't currently have a device with 4.3 and an SD card, so this is a bit of conjecture based on my experience with an older version of the OS. Caveat emptor.


Create whatsapp database from emailed conversation?

Nope you cannot do it. This has been explained in a previous question which should help you understand the reason.


connect my google accont in a new device

I need some other settings on the phone?

Nope. No other setting is required. You should be able to login fine with the credentials.
I'd recommend double checking the password you typed for any mistake or just reset password incase you may have forgotten.


Send SMS to a list of recipients from a text file

Android has a 10-recipient limit for SMS messages to prevent abuse. With root access, you can bypass this limitation. See: Is there any way to remove the 10 recipents limit from the SMS app?


Using an Archos 3G modem with an Acer Iconia tab (Android Honeycomb)

It's plug-and-play on your PC because the industry has an established standard for driver infrastructure in Windows & OSX. Android isn't as friendly to 3rd party drivers. There's some limited success reported with specific models of 3g dongle - you may need to switch devices. Here's a partial list from XDA:

  ZTE MF 639 (might need roaming enabled to get data working)
  Vodafone K3765-H
  Vodafone K3715
  Vodafone K3565 / Huawei E160
  Huawei E169
  Huawai E170
  Huawai E171
  Huawei E173
  Huawei E1550
  Huawei E1692
  Huawei E1750
  Huawei E1752
  Huawei E1820
  HUAWEI K3520
  HUAWEI K3565 -Rev 2


Unable to access Play Store after CM12.1 upgrade

When you flashed from CM 11 to CM 12 or 12.1, did you wipe /data,/system,etc. via recovery?  You'd also need GApps for CM 12/12.1 too, as that would include newer Google Play Services that are compatible with 12/12.1.

Generally when you upgrade from a different OS version (CM 11 being Android 4.4, CM 12/12.1 being Android 5.x.x), it is recommended fully wiping everything before flashing to prevent odd issues like you are seeing here.


The camera LED on my OnePlus One is continuously on

When you say LED for the front camera, do you mean the notification LED? That can be easily disabled in Settings - Display and Lights - Notification and Battery light.
If you're referring to the flash LED of the back camera, you can try taking some pictures with the flash turned off and see whether it works.
If not, try hard reset via recovery.


I had the same symptoms while cooking a ROM when the symlink of /system/bin/sh to mksh was missing.


Which version of Lineage OS do I use for Samsung s4 SPRINT?

I've been using the unofficial "Optimized LineageOS" ROM by JDCTeam for several months now, and it has been working wonderfully, thank G‑d. It is a ROM for several S4 models (I think this is called a "unified" aka jflte build), including the jfltespr (which does not yet have its own official LineageOS ROM, as of 2017/09). It has generally been updated monthly.

jfltespr is the code name for the sprint variant of the Galaxy S4, andjfltexx is the codename for the international S4. ROMs for the jfltexx will most likely not work with the jfltespr, since they use different cellular radio protocols. (When I tried to install the jfltexx version on a jfltespr device using TWRP, this was detected and an error message was issued saying it could not install on the device since was the wrong device type).


How does android transfer with bump apps work?

Q: How does Bump work?
A: There are two parts to Bump: the app running on your device and a smart matching algorithm running on our servers in the cloud. The app on your phone uses the phone's sensors to literally "feel" the bump, and it sends that info up to the cloud. The matching algorithm listens to the bumps from phones around the world and pairs up phones that felt the same bump. Then we just route information between the two phones in each pair.

Q: No way. What if somebody else bumps at the same time?
A: Way. We use various techniques to limit the pool of potential matches, including location information and characteristics of the bump event. If you are bumping in a particularly dense area (ex, at a conference), and we cannot resolve a unique match after a single bump, we'll just ask you to bump again.

http://bu.mp/faq

Your phone has some idea of where you are using cell phone cells or wifi networks, the are several applications that use that. GPS would only work outdoors. So using time of the bump and somewhat accurate location provided by either cell phone cells or wifi networks it can see which two phones are bumping.


Is it normal that most or all rooting apps get so many virus warnings?

Yes, it's normal. Think about what a rooting app does. It exploits a vulnerability in the operating system to get elevated privileges, and drops a new binary so that it will continue to have those privileges, completely subverting the security of the system. In a way, a rooting app is a virus. You certainly wouldn't want to install one by accident, so it's correct that your antivirus should warn about it.

If you want a "clean" method of rooting, the only way is to use the official method, by unlocking your bootloader and using the recovery to root.


Android Tablet Refuse to Enter Recovery Mode

I solved it by doing a firmware upgrade with phoenix flash tool. I also figured out that there is a lot of fake firmware that do not work. they are just empty .img files.


Show app above the lockscreen (i.e. Google Maps)

There might be a better solution out there, but for now this might help.

You can use screen pinning option.

Instructions to pin an app on the screen:

Go to Settings →Security→Screen pinning
Enable screen pinning and also the option "Ask for unlock pattern before unpinning"
Now open the app you want, then switch over to the overview menu
Tap on the pin icon on the app.

You are good to go!

To get out from pinned screen, hold Back and overview button at the same time.

By doing this you get to interact with the app without unlocking the screen, and also as an additional benefit the unpinning gesture helps you from accidentally exiting from the app!


Find a rom made specifically for your device here
https://forum.xda-developers.com/mi-a2-lite

Then use this to unlock your bootloader & flash a new boot.img recovery & rom  https://forum.xda-developers.com/mi-a2-lite/development/tool-tool-one-driversunlocktwrpfactory-t3866191

Warning unlocking bootloader will wipe all your files.
Also make sure to flash g-apps. You can search "opengapps" and your os to find the ones you need.


What do the terms "BL", "AP", "CP", and "CSC" mean in Odin?

CSC (Consumer Software Customization): It is specific to geographical region and carriers. It contains the software packages specific to that region, carrier branding and APN setting.
PIT (Partition Information Table): You only need it if you screw up your partition table or if the firmware specifically requires it because of a change in the partition table layout.
BL (Bootloader): As its name implies, this option is used to flash the Bootloader of the device.
AP (Application Processor or PDA): Android.
CP (Core Processor): We call it Modem.


Why some apps can't access internet using wi-fi?

Are there any proxy settings to access your WiFi? (proxy settings might be provided by your network provider). Most of the apps can't access the proxy settings provided by the android. For resolving that you can use ProxyDroid app (but it needs root-access).


Galaxy Nexus 6:30 minutes to copy 128MB over WiFi, is it normal?

Since you were both uploading and downloading simultaneously and upload speeds are usually much slower (I figured yours must have been around .33 MB/s), then that doesn't seem totally unreasonable depending on other variables.


How to edit the home dock icons (shortcuts) on TouchWiz 4.0 ICS

Touch "Applications"
Touch Menu button
Touch "Grid View"
Touch Menu button
Touch "Edit"
Now you can drag and drop icons to/from shortcut bar


Android SDK: Using the emulator to browse local websites

From inside the emulator, you can access the localhost of the host machine by using the IP address 10.0.2.2 (source).

For further info about creating an AVD and using the emulator, check out the documentation.


Tap on those wifi ssid names and and use forget network to remove phone from automatically connecting to the network


ERROR : I have enough memory but showing Insufficient storage; can't install app

Have you ever used Lucky Patcher by any chance? Sometimes orphaned .odex files can cause this glitch. If you have, follow the directions here to fix the issue. Alternatively, you can manually delete any relevant .odex files from /data/app/ - they'll be stored in the folder of the app you patched. Normally you should only have to delete .odex files relevant to the app that's giving you the install error.


Why is screen sometimes unresponsive when receiving calls

This problem is quite known for sometime for touchscreen devices. Most of the times this happens when the screen is under some pressure during touchscreen recalibration after being woken up by the incoming call (maybe being inside pocket, etc.).

The only solution for you is to disable the option, power button instantly ends call by going into Settings -> Accessibility -> System

If your screen becomes unresponsive to a call, just press the power button (to lock your screen), press it again and unlock the screen (with your pattern or PIN, etc.) Then you will be able to answer the call.

This solution is applicable to any situation where the screen is unresponsive.


Can not unlock my Android device as have no internet connection?

There are several ways even in this stage. I'll try to sum up as many of them as I remember/find. Also, I don't keep it restricted to a single device -- but try to cover as many as possible, so it will be helpful to as many readers as possible. As you kept the device-tag from your question, all of them should find it :)
All devices: if your credentials are not accepted, though they are correct
Sometimes this part seems to be buggy, so this page lists a few work-arounds. Amongst others, these include:

try entering null as password. (together with your google username; according to this page it should be the literal term null)
try entering your username without @gmail.com
Combine 1 and 2
Try the normal recover password routine from GMail.com and start over from 1.

All devices: Bypass screenlock using a special app
UPDATE: The app mentioned in this solution is no longer available. Instead, Reset Screen Lock should do the same.
According to TheUnlockr, the problem should be very easy to resolve:

Go to the web version of Google Play.
Login with the Google account associated with your Android device.
Install Screen Lock Bypass (unfortunately a paid app now).
Reboot your device.

Another source mentioning this is UltraTechy.Com, which contains a few more explanations. According to that, the app will circumvent the "too many attempts" block, so you can directly access your device again (to e.g. make a complete backup before resetting it). As soon as this app is uninstalled, the "too many attempts" will be in effect again immediately. Hence, they add a few more steps:

Go to Settings → Accounts & Sync
Under Manage Accounts, remove all accounts except your Google account. (this should enable your Google username and password)
Go to Settings → Applications → Manage Applications. Find Screen Lock Bypass and uninstall the app. (this will trigger the “too many pattern attempts” screen immediately)
Use your original Google username and password to finally unlock your phone properly
Enter your new security pattern twice to finish

All devices: Unlock via web
If you still know your pattern (and it only was your little brother who played with your device), and have your Google Account login/password ready, UltraTechy.Com offers another approach:

Using your computer, log into your Google account
Go to this link directly – https://accounts.google.com/IssuedAuthSubTokens OR click your e-mail on the top right corner, select Account settings, then hit “Visit the previous version of the Google accounts screen” towards the bottom, click “Authorizing applications & sites” under your Personal Settings → Security.
Under “Connected Sites, Apps & Services” – “Revoke Access” of your Google Account with Android. You will see the screen showing “You have successfully revoked access to Full Account Access”
[Alternate for step 3 - If you have already signed up for 2-Step Authorization previously and are able to generate a new application-specific password at the bottom, go ahead and generate a new password and use that password to unlock your device]
Enter Gmail login and password on your device. It will now accept your login details and will show a pattern screen. Enter the “correct” pattern and you can see the home screen.

All devices: Disable Pattern Lock via ADB
According to this source, there's a way to disable the pattern lock via ADB. A few requirements for this, though:

Your device probably must be rooted
(not mentioned there, but the database we need to update is owned by system/system, and nobody else has read or even write access to it. Also removing files from /data/system is unlikely to be permitted without)
USB Debugging must be enabled on the device (rooted users: alternatively you can boot into recovery, where USB Debugging is not required -- but you might need to manually mount the /data partition)
the Android SDK must be installed on your computer
device must be plugged-in and connected via USB
you need a command line on the computer

On the command line, enter the following:
> adb -d shell
# sqlite3 data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db
sqlite> update system set value=0 where name='lock_pattern_autolock';
sqlite> .exit
# exit

(According to a comment from Kay, on Android 2.3.7 the SQL-Statement should read update secure set value=0 where name='lock_pattern_autolock'; -- at least with CM7 on a HTC Desire)
Now disconnect and power off your phone, and turn it back on and the pattern lock should be gone.
According to Geeknizer, there are a few additional useful steps to follow: After the reboot, use your ADB shell again and...
adb shell rm /data/system/gesture.key

Then reboot again. When device reboots, you will still see a pattern lock screen. But here’s the catch: just try any random pattern and it may unlock then remove the pattern from settings.
Hint: if the Settings app crashes when you try to set a new pattern, remove all .key and locksettings.db* files from /data/system (see "More" below).

Some additional notes from this comment by krlmlr:

Mounting /data will be necessary. This can be done using mount /data via adb -d shell
If the sqlite binary is not available on the device, you can use adb pull to copy the database file to your computer, edit it there (e.g. using SQLiteMan, and finally use adb push to replace it on the device
On his Android 2.x device, the SQL command had to be update secure set value=0 where name='lockscreen.lockedoutpermanently';

All devices: Similar thing without ADB
For those not having USB Debug activated on their device, there might be a work-around using a flashable zip, as described here. This procedure requires the zip file (to be found at the linked page), an editor, busybox and root on the device, plus the device needs to be rooted. Extensive procedure -- too long to be included here. And as it is no help without the zip either, you have to follow the link for this one.
Phones: Use a hole to disable your lock
If it is a phone -- i.e. if you can give it a voice call -- you might be able to use a "security hole", as described here:

Call yourself from another phone, answer, hang-up, directly after hanging up start pressing your buttons like a madman for <30-60 seconds ending with your home button (might take a while to get the timing right). Go into settings and disable pattern-lock.

However, I guess that might leave you without protection afterwards, as you need to verify with the old method before being able to reset it to a new. But still, I didn't try: it might as well be it ignores the "failed attempts" at this place.
Phones: Use a hole to create a new account
For phones there's a bad work-around according to this post:

call the device from another phone (or have a friend calling it)
answer the call, do not hang up
use the back key (not the home key) over and over. This should eventually bring you to your home screen
go to Settings → Google Accounts and add a new Google account. Sign in with this new account
after it accepts the new account credentials, and logs you in, hang up the phone, and go back to the lock screen.

Now, use the new Google Account's data to bypass the lock screen (via the "forgot" button).
Samsung users with Windows PC
There's a One-Click-Solution to be found at GSMHosting.com which claims to be able to solve the issue. According to the many thanks the poster received, it seems to work. You can download the Windows executable there, connect your phone to your computer, and click...
Forensics
Oh yeah. Those guys who work for courts, police, secret services, corporate security... They've got ways as well. Example needed? ViaForensic's viaExtract can even decode pattern locks! So don't think you're unbreakable. Though: this is only mentioned here for completeness -- I don't think you easily get your hands on that :)
More
There might be more alternatives to that. If I happen to stumble upon them, I hope I remember to update my answer again ;) … And here we go:

If there's a Google account associated with your device, you can use Google's device manager to remotely put a different lock. Of course this would need the device connected to the Internet.
Some more ADB-based methods are described here:

use TWRP's integrated file manager to delete all *.key and locksettings.* files from /data/system
do the same via adb shell (root required)
use any custom recovery to flash a password disable .zip (link is a download from XDA)


Removable MicroSD card detected but not mounted

I solved this by converting my external SD card from FAT32 to NTFS using MiniTool Partition Wizard.


Is it safe to uninstall Google Play Services App?

According to Google

  Google Play services provides you with easy access to Google services and is tightly integrated with the Android OS.

And from the description in the Play Store

  Google Play services is used to update Google apps and apps from Google Play.
  This component provides core functionality like authentication to your Google services, synchronized contacts, access to all the latest user privacy settings, and higher quality, lower-powered location based services.
  Google Play services also enhances your app experience. It speeds up offline searches, provides more immersive maps, and improves gaming experiences.
  Apps may not work if you uninstall Google Play services

I wouldn't recommend removing it.


Why does my tablet reset every time I reboot?

All problems from busybox bad installation path..
Solution from here http://tabletrepublic.com/forum/teclast-a10t/factory-reset-after-every-restart-shutdown-1533-2.html

If device isn't root you should root it .Used Unlock Root and Tasselhof Market.
Also downloaded & copied Root Explorer to microSD.
Install and run it.
Go to /system/xbin and find busybox.
Move it to /system/bin
reboot & profit

All download links are on that forum


This will likely be closed as off topic, but twrp is telling you exactly what's wrong. Your modem does not match the accepted one that you should use. Usually means you need to update firmware (bootloaders, modem, any vendor partitions etc).


Can my Android device become - remotely and without my permission - a wiretap and get used as surveillance device?

Ahh, Schneier on Security,  Unvy gb gur Xvat. :-)

tl;dr

It may be possible, no one can say for sure. And since no one knows if it's possible you can't block it, because you don't know what and therefore how to block.

But first, let use investigate the statement step by step:

Note that the Article is from 2006

  ...said mobile providers can...

Google is certainly able to do so, if you are using a Google Services enabled device (usually the ones with "by Google" on the back). But basically every hardware/software manufacturer, whose parts are placed within smartphone (or traditional mobile phone), is able to install backdoors in his products, which could by used third parties to manipulate the device. Either because they bought this access or because the manufacturer is forced to, for example by a (secret) government regulation.

  ..."remotely install a piece of software on to any handset,..

That's possible and every time you install an app over the Play Store web interface you use this technique.

  ..without the owner's knowledge,..

Usually you will see visual feedback about the installation process, at least until it's running. But the notification about the new app stays in the notification bar. But no one can rule out that there is a silent install method too.

  ..which will activate the microphone even when its owner is not making a call...

Android apps are able to activiate the microphone if they have the permission to to so. But if the app came with a silent install method, who knows if the permission for the microphone was also silently given?

And now, how can I protect my privacy?

As soon as you buy a piece of hardware/software without having the ability to verify the hardware and software components for surveillance backdoors, you are lost.

But there are alternatives. There have been attempts to create open source hardware and software for smartphones. Therefore allowing you to review the components for unwanted modules. See for example Opoenmoko.


Try reboot recovery, though it doesn't work on all devices. You might also need root for this, so first try su.


Multi window is disabled after upgrading from 4.1.2 to 4.2.2

A factory reset seems to work for some people. You might want to back-up your files / data before doing this.

Source: Problems with Jelly Bean 4.2.2 update


Is it possible to copy files to PC when in download mode?

No, download mode doesn't provide you with access to the phone's files, and yes, the error message you see looks very much like it's telling you you're trying to boot an unsigned ROM from a locked bootloader.


Why app data isn't on sd card even if android says its on sd card?

Apps might be movable w/o root to SD card without root but data can't, you can do that by using apps like link2sd (need root) or using android 6+ feature adoptable storage
You are probably wonder why is there section 'Data on SD card'. That's because data is on SD card but internal one, so it's on /sdcard partition instead of /data, but that doesn't give you any more space in internal storage.


Why can't I download anything on my ZTE reef all of a sudden?

As suggested in the Android Central forum post follow the workaround to solve the issue,

Temporary Workaround:

Goto Settings-> Storage -> Unmount SD Card.
Now install the app from the Playstore.
Settings -> Storage -> Mount SD Card and start using the app.

The above steps solved the issue for many while this is not an actual fix it should solve the problem temporarily for installing an app.

As explained in this blog post the actual problem and has a fix for that,

Actual Fix:

The problem is caused by a temporary file called smdl2tmp1.asec that is used during some installations (I think of apps that are movable to SD) but does not get deleted for some reason, most notably when you run out of space. Because of this, the system can't create it and treats it as an error, rather than figuring out that it's stale and simply deleting it.

The solution is go and delete smdl2tmp1.asec yourself. From what I can tell, it could reside in two locations:

/sdcard/.android_secure - this is an invisible folder on your SD card, which you can access with any file manager, like ASTRO File manager.
/mnt/secure/asec/ - access to this folder requires root and a program like Root Explorer

Look for smdl2tmp1.asec in these folders and delete any ones you see. Since it's just a temporary file deleting it seems to be a safe enough operation. Once you've done that, all the update problems should go away.


Easy approach: Link2SD

Manual method:
If you are sure that the file attributes does not matter, then there's an acceptable way to do this. Root is required.
1. Copy the app data from /data/data/com.example.foo to somewhere in your SD card. Personally I recommend sdcard/Android/data/com.example.foo. If you are running Android Lollipop or up, there will be a symbolic link named lib, leave it alone.
2. Kill the app process. Remove the original data. Open a terminal emulator (or adb). Run

su
ln -s /sdcard/Android/data/com.example.foo/files /data/data/com.example.foo/files

That's all. To revert this job, it's a little complex. You'll have to chmod and chown the proper file modes and attributes manually after copying them back.

Special notices:
Never copy and link the /data/data/com.example.foo folder directly as the symbolic link lib inside will fail, which will lead to unknown behavior. Link every (or some of them at your choice) subfolders one by one.


Not able make conference call in Motoroal MOTO E

That message tells you that conference calling is not allowed by your carrier; it's not that the phone doesn't support it. You need to contact your carrier to enable this feature.


This pertains to VOIP calling- quoting from Motorola site

Motorola VoIP and SIP client apps enables customers to make free phone calls to other VoIponMobile users or very cheap phone calls to anyone else in the world from your Motorola mobile phone.
If you have access to a WiFi, 3G or Edge connection, you can save money by using the Internet to connect your call instead of using your mobile minutes. No roaming or out-of-network fees. Make your calls from anywhere in the world to anywhere for just a few pennies a minute. Simple to configure, inexpensive to use

Enabling incoming calls would make you get incoming VOIP calls, provided your carrier permits that ( AFAIK Airtel doesn't)


How to move Apps to SD on the LG P-705 with Android 4.0?

First, you should root your smartphone. Then, use Link2SDapp. Then, move the app to the SD card.


Why is the Android stock browser still alive?

As of June 2014, 15.7% (0.8+14.9) of users still use Android 2.2 and 2.3.x (Froyo and Gingerbread), since Chrome supports only Android 4.0+, these users can't use Chrome for Android.

Also Android 4.0 (ICS), which has 12.3% of users, does not come with Chrome preinstalled.

Moreover, I think the stock browser still comes preinstalled in all Android Jellybean phones (Version 4.1.x , 4.2.x and 4.3.x), which is used by 58.4% (29.0+19.1+10.3) of users.

That means the stock browser is still preinstalled on 86.4% (15.7+12.3+58.4) of Android phones.

  The above should be the reason why the stock browser is still being
  widely used. A lot of users don't bother downloading or changing the
  default/preinstalled browser.

There are no technological advantages of using Stock Browser over Chrome for Android.

  Google has already phased out the stock browser in Android Kitkat (4.4).

Chrome for Android is licensed from Google, while the Stock browser is not. Also, OEMs can modify the Stock Browser if required but not Chrome.
So from a business perspective, it is actually better for Google, if OEMs use Chrome. But some OEMs don't like being dependent on Google too much. To say more is beyond the scope of this answer. If you want more info go here and here.

Google has been slowly shifting the core of Android from AOSP to it's closed source and licensed Google Apps and the browser is one of the last components in this roadmap.

Update (Jan 2017):

As mentioned by Erwinus in the comments, Stock Browser was used for WebView in Android versions before Kitkat.

Stock browser share is now down to 7.26 %


Disable badges on Samsung Galaxy devices

I found this article that explains how to disable it on the Galaxy Note i717. I don't have a SG phone but I imagine the solution would be similar for yours.

Go to Settings > Manage Applications > swipe laterally through the top tabs until you reach "All"
Scroll down to locate BadgeProvider and tap on it
Click on the Disable button and confirm that you would like it disabled.

This will disable all badge notifications as there is no per-app setting interface.


Remotely disable Factory Reset Protection (FRP) for a damaged phone

You can log in to Gmail from other system. Go to Manage my account. Under security option you will find devices Activity. You can select your mobile and choose forget devices. This will remove your mobile from Gmail.
If you can use other working screen. Start mobile and use find my device to remove account.


What is the safest way to perform backups of my partitions?

cat is a very bad idea here. If you really want to make a backup on partition level, rather take a look at dd. What you probably want to do is something like

dd if=/dev/mtd/mtd0 of=/sdcard/mtd0.image

For more details, you might want to consult the dd Man Page. Remark: I'm not sure whether the dd shipped with Android supports the full list of options, so you might have to try out.


Bluetooth audio as input for video recording

I requested developer Bluetooth Mono Router to explain this and if possible answer the question here but there is no response. What I could gather from comments and reviews is this :

App creates a virtual call environment thereby letting audio (music etc) be treated as voice and hence you can hear using mono ear sets meant for voice calls.
Recording of audio is not  by design. It's an incidental artifact of the virtual call feature. It's not a design feature.
This has nothing to do with Bluetooth versions


How to take a screenshot on a Kindle Fire?

You can take screen shots with ddms and the Android SDK. It's not hard to set up. See http://www.thefireblog.com/2011/11/16/houston-we-have-screenshots/:

  So, here’s a quick summary people:

  Install the android SDK tools, then the platform-tools
  Edit your adb_usb.ini file to add the 0×1949 vendor ID at the end
  Ensure that adb is running properly
  Check that your device is online
  Run ddms
  Start taking your screenshots using the Device > Screen Capture option.


How can I read the chat logs from WhatsApp messenger on my Windows machine?

The simplest method is to use the EMAIL CONVERSATION option from within a conversation.

Tap the overflow menu (3 dots), the MORE > EMAIL CONVERSATION.

That brings up a popup allowing you to either attach media files or send the chat without the media files.

There's also Whatsapp Toolbox which has similar functionality but requires ROOT access.


No 3 dots option on whats app on my Samsung Galaxy Grade

If your device have hardware buttons like menu,home,back buttons, you can get those options by clicking Menu button. Those 3 dots denotes menu options for an App. Actually its useful for devices with capacitive(software) buttons. Currently I'm not sure about your device, and I can't find any device named Galaxy Grade. I you meant Galaxy Grand it have hardware buttons and you can use Menu button as mentioned earlier.


Installing the English (United States) language

Android's language/locale/internationalization support is pretty bad at the moment.  I'd recommend flashing a US or UK ROM on it, which will have the language built-in.


It is Motorola's default clock widget.
here is a video that shows ,how can use this widget in other phones


My Samsung S4 won't connect to my computer

I guess your Device drivers wasn't successfully installed in your pc

Here is couple of things you can do,:

Uninstall Kies
Go to device manager of your pc and remove/uninstall anything related to samsung
Reboot your device(optional)
Then Download Kies to your computer and while installing dont connect your s4 with pc.
After installation connect your Device and let it install device driver sucessfully.

Hope this will Help you, For more information See this

S4 connect issue

Link 2


Which mobile company delivers Android system updates the fastest?

Buy a Nexus S device directly from Google. They will be the fastest at updating to the latest firmware. And they will always ship with Stock Android. Everyone else is Way behind. most are behind because they add customizations to android and have to make their changes, then they have to go through the google approval process. Not to mention then having to go through the carriers testing process for deployment.


Syncing Firefox Android downloads in Dropbox

The solution in the link worked on my Pixel 2 with Android 9, using a fresh install of Firefox 62.0.2. But it wasn't on my first attempt. It turned out I was too confident when entering the value of browser.download.dir.

Let's say I wanted to change the download folder from "Download" to "Music". So I put in the value /Music, since I thought I didn't need the help of a file manager to get the path of such a simple directory. But nothing happened. Files were still been downloaded to the "Download" directory.

When I actually used a file explorer (specifically, "Total Commander"), it turned out that the actual path to the "Music" directory was the oh-so-memorable /storage/emulated/0/Music. So when I changed browser.download.dir to that value, it worked.


Instant read/write sync with iCal calendars avoiding the use of google calendars

If you want to sync with a calendar using the iCal format, there are apps available on the Playstore doing exactly that, like iCalSync or iCalSync2, and there's also The Missing Sync (requiring a paid desktop component) or SyncMate (specifically tailored for Mac, but again requiring a desktop component).

Most likely there are plenty of additional alternatives (take a look e.g. at these search results). Unfortunately, I don't know of any native solution not involving 3rd party tools.


Can the Dolphin browser be configured so that the toolbar doesnt scroll along with web pages?

I guess the reason why you don't want the toolbar to scroll with the webpage is because you don't want to scroll up when you want to type a new address. I don't use Dolphin so I can't tell by first-hand experience, but according to this, you can double tap anywhere on the page to show the toolbar so you don't need to scroll up to type addresses.


How can I have fewer, larger icons on the home screen?

The answer is Easy Mode, accessible through Settings -> Display. I had assumed that Easy Mode meant "hide advanced settings" but it actually means "Make big icons and use a default home screen layout".


After months of not being able to debug through ADB, I've figured it out. According to this answer on Stack Overflow, the program EasyTetherUSBEthernet can cause problems with ADB.

Running this in terminal, with a reboot fixed all my problems.

sudo kextunload -v /System/Library/Extensions/EasyTetherUSBEthernet.kextv

If you need to use EasyTetherUSBEthernet you can reload it using:

sudo kextload -v /System/Library/Extensions/EasyTetherUSBEthernet.kext


All app icons not showing up in my home screen

the apps on the homescreens in Android are to all intents and purposes shortcuts, and not the apps themselves.

You should but don't have an icon in your dock (the lowermost part of the homescreen) that opens this app drawer.

The icon usually looks a bit like this:

http://cs3-1.4pda.to/4714358.png

This image shows: Google Now, then your homescreen, note the middle icon on the bottom, and then the App Drawer opened (very right of image). This is the list of all your applications.

You could try (I don't have a similar device) long pressing on a free part of a homescreen and see if you can add an action, or shortcut to the app drawer.

Alternatively a launcher like Nova Launcher or indeed Google's own "Google Now Launcher" are free and have this option.

Here is an example of adding an action in Nova Launcher which might help point you in the right direction (note app drawer):


Integrating gapps into the new rom im installing

You can normally install that zip through recovery itself once the ROM is done installing. So the steps would be:

Go into recovery.
Flash ROM.
Flash GApps.
Flash the titanium update.zip (just the way you flashed ROM and GApps).
Clear dalvic cache and cache.
Reboot.

Hope this helps.


Can the Nexus 7 send and receive GSM texts and calls?

Yes and no. The hardware is capable of sending/receiving GSM calls and texts but there's no way to do with via the stock software. I doubt any after market app would do the trick either, as it appears that tweaks need to be made at the OS level.

There are a couple of devs working on this on XDA. There's no eta, but they should get it done in time. We can only wait.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2025377


Whatsapp on emulator - Can't setup the recorder now, please try again later

This problem can be solved by installing the latest version of whatsapp it is 2.10.768 or 2.11.56.....you can also go to this link to download in your mobile http://www.whatsapp.com/android/


It will indeed have English. The default language may be German, but it can be changed in the settings.


2 options come to mind.

Export sms to text file and upload the text file to a cloud service.
In your application, you would need to recognize when the user wants to load older messages, maybe an onScroll event or maybe a "Load More" button etc...
Store SMS entirely on cloud services.
Only load the sms from a cloud, and upload whenever you receive a message.
The application purely loads the sms list as a ListView from the content returned by the server.

Using PHP and SQL as the server API would work to build your own server.


HTC One X Has Started to Constantly Disconnect From My Network Even at Close Range

Ironically the Android 4.2.2 update I had been waiting many months for turned finally turned up the day after I posted my question. Since I updated I haven't seen the problem occur again so I'm hoping it fixed it. On the other hand it might just be a coincidence so I'll have to see how it goes.


Exchange service polls every minute and drains the battery

I switched to a 3rd party Exchange app and set the built-in Email application to Manual sync. It seems to work now.


Architectural details of Android VPN service : How tun0 gets created?

This is more like a development related question but what I know is that binder is inter-process communication (IPC) mechanism (like sockets) which processes use by opening /dev/*binder character devices. Binder IPC is used by Android's Java framework (for JNI communication) as well as native processes (e.g. for communication with vendor's binary blobs).

tun is Ethernet-like virtual network interface created by kernel (provided that it's built with tuntap support) so that a program can directly read/write IP packets from/to this interface. Creating tun needs ioctl TUNSETIFF be sent to kernel over /dev/net/tun character device (it's /dev/tun on Android). Manually you can do:

~# ip tuntap add dev tun0 mode tun

Android's VPN service uses binder to call native code for tun creation.

RESOURCES:

Android Architecture
How AOSP created tun interface: 1, 2, 3, 4.


Mi max not able to boot up after flashing

It turns out the problem is with the battery. the connector that connects the battery to the main board was damaged. so I guess it didn't provide enough output for the main board to boot the operatinng system up.


how to transfer files on pen drive in phone to laptop?

Some file managers have an "Access from PC" option that allows you to access your device's storage over Wi-Fi (using FTP).

For example, you could use the "Access from PC" option in the free app File Manager + (I am not associated with the developers of this app).

Alternatively, if your device is rooted, you could use ADB over Wi-Fi found in the also free app Kernel Tuner (that I am also not associated with) and then press the "ADB over WiFi" button (found in MISC > ADB over Wifi or its widget), then run

 adb connect (enter IP address here)

(It will tell you what IP to enter after pressing the button).

Then, use adb push and adb pull to send and recieve files from your device.

If your device runs LineageOS (tested on LineageOS 14.1 (Android 7.1.2)), you can also edit the Quick Settings menu (the menu above the notifications) to have an "ADB over Wifi" button (so no third-party app is needed).


How to see the device list of a given Google account

Just visit My Android Apps with your browser, and log in with your account. This will list your devices and apps.

Another good place is the Google Dashboard, which is even more detailed in some respects (shows EMEI on GSM handsets for example), less in others (thanx, @ewanm89).


How do you sync Jorte with an Outlook Calendar?

From Jorte's description, it looks like you can synchronize Jorte with Google Calendar. You can also synchronise Outlook with Google Calendar using Google Calendar Sync.

So if you're happy using Google Calendar as a "middle-man" then it would be possible to sync the two.


Is there a way to combine settings (Mobile/GPS/Bluetooth/etc) into profiles?

Check out Locale. It's not the cheapest app, but it is very well made and will allow you to do this. It switches to profiles automatically based on certain conditions too.

For example, when it detects that you are at home it can automatically switch to your Bluetooth/Wi-fi profile and turn off the mobile network.


Sensible method to edit contacts on a Samsung phone?

Try to go into your contacts (in the app you use to phone people), then click a button that says Create Contact and put the number, name, and whatever more info it needs.


How to change message vibration type on s2?

On my Galaxy S III at least, you can only change settings for call vibration. However, I believe if you use a 3rd party SMS program (eg: Handcent SMS, or any other (mostly free) apps on the market), then you are usually able to set custom vibration themes.


Why is custom recovery a prerequisite for flashing a custom ROM?

Stock recoveries usually check the update.zip file being flashed for a specific signature that is only known by device's manufacturer and/or carrier.  You cannot therefore flash custom ROMs on stock recoveries, hence the need for a custom recovery which bypasses said check.


samsung galaxy s gt-19000 is not starting

You said you can now enter Download mode? And I'm assuming you can no longer go into ClockWorkMod

If this is true I would suggest putting stock ROM onto your device via Odin. There are many instructions / manuals available so finding the correct one for your phone and model is down to you. Also its your responsibility when following these instructions, if anything goes wrong there will be no one to blame

I would suggest typing Samsung Galaxy S GT-19000 Stock Rom into a search engine as a starting point

Alternatively here is a link where you can get the stock rom and gives instructions on how to install the stock rom, this Link even has the different country versions of the stock rom however their link to further downloads was broken so if your country isn't on their list here is another option;

Just a note worth mentioning, after installing the stock rom if your phone freezes on the Samsung logo which is a familiar problem, try entering recovery mode - via holding - UP Volume Button + Home Button + Power Button and wiping the cache should resolve the problem

So I looked on XDA (personally I find it a reliable website, with plenty of users commenting on forums as to what works/doesn't work ext.) Here is a Link where developers have posted their custom ROMs for your phone

All the best


It seems to be WiFi region code problem or something.

I also had the same problem. My parents live in Iran and when I brought the phone to Malaysia, it's fixed. But when I sent it back, same thing happened after they inserted the SIM card.

I found a link that might be useful, it might help: http://repo.xposed.info/module/com.majidse.xwifix. I still haven't tested it yet though.


Renaming text files based on a keyword inside the files

The complete shell script follows. You need a Terminal emulator, but I'll leave that to you.

if [ "$1" == "$(cat /dev/null)" ]; then
 echo "Usage: $0 <file>"
 return 1
fi

content="$(cat '$1')"
content="${content#*Name: }"
content="${content// Age*/}"

mv "$1" "$content.txt"

This is to be saved in a something.sh, which, when executed, will require an additional parameter. For example, we'll assume you'll call it renamer.sh, and thus the usage will be:

renamer.sh some/file.txt

. It'll rename the file you give it, accordingly to its content. To give it the correct file, is your responsibility, and it works for only a file per execution. It won't work if the file has spaces inside its name.


AVD doesn't work after installing Android Studio

I faced a similar problem recently on my windows 10 laptop and found out that the Intel virtualization technology (vt-x) was disabled from BIOS.

In case you are using a new laptop which comes per-installed with Windows 8/8.1/10 then chances are that you cannot enter the BIOS manually while booting. Reason being they have changed BIOS to UEFI which is no longer accessible through boot but instead you need to do the following steps:

Go to Windows > Settings > Update and Security > Recovery.
Then under Advanced startup, click Restart now. The system will restart and show the Windows 10 boot menu.
Select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > UEFI Firmware Settings.
Click Restart to restart the system and enter UEFI (BIOS).
from here you can access the UEFI menu (which is similar to BIOS)

Search for the VT-x setting (It may be named as Intel VT or Vanderpool or Virtualization Extensions or something similar depending on your OEM and BIOS.)

Please refer to this link for screenshots on how to access the UEFI from windows 10: http://www.howtogeek.com/213795/how-to-enable-intel-vt-x-in-your-computers-bios-or-uefi-firmware/


The difference between NFC mode on Android (e.g. card mode, P2P mode)

There are 3 NFC modes.
Taken directly from official Android Developer - Near Field Communication,

Android-powered devices with NFC simultaneously support three main modes of operation:

Reader/writer mode, allowing the NFC device to read and/or write passive NFC tags and stickers.
P2P mode, allowing the NFC device to exchange data with other NFC peers; this operation mode is used by Android Beam.
Card emulation mode, allowing the NFC device itself to act as an NFC card. The emulated NFC card can then be accessed by an external NFC reader, such as an NFC point-of-sale terminal.

To make it more easier to understand, Android Authority has a down-to-earth explanation,

In order to determine what sort of information is to be exchanged between devices, the NFC standard currently has three distinct modes of operation for compliant devices. Perhaps the most common use in smartphones is the peer-to-peer mode, which allows two NFC-enabled devices to exchange various pieces of information between each other. In this mode both devices switch between active, when sending data, and passive states when receiving.
Read/write mode, on the other hand, is a one way data transmission, where the active device, possibly your smartphone, links up with another device in order to read information from it. This is the mode used when you interact with an NFC advert tag.
The final mode of operation is card emulation, whereby the NFC device can be used like a smart or contactless credit card in order to make payments or tap into public transport systems.


How can I extract .rar file in my SD card?

Try Root Explorer. Navigate to the path where the .zip file is present and long press on it. There will be an option called Extract All. Click it, and its done...! Your .zip files will get extracted at sdcard/SpeedSoftware.


How to associate alternative app to stock Gallery app when launched from stock Camera app

the answer is you can't ,because the "preview" button action is hard coded in the stock camera app as a link to the right activity in the stock gallery app it sends an intent with the path to the jpeg image to the stock gallery ,the link is not an intent that can be received  by third party apps ,even if you try deleting the stock gallery app the preview button will have no action and in some phones your camera app will force close.


Since Android 4.4, all privileged system apps including SystemUI have been moved to /system/priv-app.


Remove all Google Contacts and keep all WhatsApp Contacts?

If you remove/delete contacts then whatsapp linked contacts also will be deleted. So how can you Keep WhatsApp contacts only?.
But you can view only whatsapp linked contacts
goto

Contacts App
Click on Options
Click on Contacts to View
Select WhatsApp from the list
Now you can view only WhatsApp contacts


realme 3 pro stuck at bootloop (boot/recovery) has been destroyed

The only option is service center bro since u locked the bootloader


Google Maps shows constantly rotating direction despite other compass apps working correctly

Same issue here on my Galaxy S-6 Edge Plus.  The blue dot/shadow spins rapidly.  Master reset did not fix.  Verizon actually replaced the phone and the new phone acts up as well. I went to Best Buy Samsung help desk and they mentioned an issue that is going to be corrected (soon) as an update to Google Maps. I hope this rapid spinning doesn't mess up any of the sensors on the new phone...


I asked a similar question.

As a workaround, you can use the data profile feature of Titanium Backup Pro with the analytics app.


OpenVPN with Android 2.3.x - security concerns

If you maintain the OpenVPN server, you can generate keys that require a password to be used. The technique is described at http://openvpn.net/index.php/open-source/documentation/howto.html#pki.

Scroll to the section titled Generate certificates & keys for 3 clients. You will want to use the build-key-pass script to generate a password-protected key. This will prevent your key from being used maliciously if your phone falls into the wrong hands, though I am not entirely sure if CM 7's OpenVPN implementation supports it.

If you don't have the ability to use build-key-pass to generate and register your own keys, then there is really no practical way to ensure the safety of your key without full-device encryption.


Why Android phones do not have Internet firewalls?

Most consumer firewalls block incoming connections only and allow all outgoing traffic. This is to make configuration easier; you enumerate what services you are running and want to allow, but you do not need to enumerate all the kinds of outgoing connections you want to allow.

Most android devices do not run as servers. Setting up a server process that can listen and respond continuously breaks power-saving features. If you want to send data to an Android device, you get the Android device to connect to you, possibly alerting or sending via cloud messaging, which is a connection setup and managed for power-saving from the Android client side.

What will a consumer firewall do for a device that isn't running services? Nothing because there is nothing listening that you can block traffic to.

If you run server processes on your Android device, this situation obviously changes, but this is not the expected normal usage.


Samsung Note 4 was stolen. Can I get my contacts, pictures, and SMS back?

What you can restore from Google is limited to what you backed up to it.

Make sure to go here and remove your device so that the person who has your phone right now can not mess up with your Google account as well.


Sending an automated SMS before switching off the phone

Tasker should do the first things you asked about, but I doubt you'll find anything that can recognize "Tap the screen 3 times while phone's screen is locked" or "shake the phone 3 times while it is locked", short of writing a custom app.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm&hl=en

Tasker is a great app in general that you really should check out since it sounds like you want to do a lot of automation type stuff.


Change DNS for mobile data without using an app

I did not find a way to reliably do it without an app.

I often use OpenDNS Family Shield, but sometimes it blocks me to visit some particular hacking site and then I need to quickly and easily change the DNS servers.

I used to use Set DNS but it stopped to work in Android 4.3 and further, so I created Override DNS, a new app which mimics Set DNS' behaviour, but it's updated to work even in Lollipop. It has some other nice feature like a PIN protection ad a Wi-Fi SSID filter, too.

The only way I can see to do it without an app is something like an iptables rule to redirect any traffic going to udp/53 to some other ip. A similar procedure is shown in a XDA thread.

I paste here the iptables rules for completeness (I did not tested them)

$IPTABLES -t nat -D OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 53 -j DNAT --to-destination 208.67.222.222:53 || true
$IPTABLES -t nat -D OUTPUT -p udp --dport 53 -j DNAT --to-destination 208.67.222.222:53 || true
$IPTABLES -t nat -I OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 53 -j DNAT --to-destination 208.67.222.222:53
$IPTABLES -t nat -I OUTPUT -p udp --dport 53 -j DNAT --to-destination 208.67.222.222:53

Everything directed from the Android device to any IP, port UDP and TCP 53 is redirected to 208.67.222.222 which is one of OpenDNS' DNS server.

These commands should be placed in a script which is run at every device boot. That functionality depends on your specific ROM. I don't know if something similar can be done in a stock ROM without using an app. Override DNS solves this problem, too.


Android-x86 8.1 in VMWare Workstation doesn't show GUI

To switch to GUI, please ensure that you have 3D acceleration turned on in VMWare Machine Settings.

If you still cannot see the GUI, try Alt+F7


S4 won't connect with usb AND broken screen. Need files from phone

Theres nothing you can do to get the files unless your phone will connect with a usb. As for the screen if you can some how get the files off with a screen and no usb, then i advise you fix the screen for like $30-$60.


Is there an Android PMP equivalent of the iPod Touch?

The Barnes & Noble Nook is based on Android, has no monthly fees, and includes the ability to playback music.  It probably isn't what you have in mind as a media player, but I think it fits your description.


The method of using find is correct.

However there is no group "adb".

Run id -p to get all groups. You will get

  groupid(name)

Then run find / -group <groupid>.

  The groupid is an integer.


Setting up of multiple tablets from out the box

So here's a solution for Linux. The first part you already mentioned in your question, but for completeness I'll include it nevertheless:

#!/bin/bash
#
echo "Plug in the cable now, please!"
# Just kidding: That and skipping the intro you'll have to do manually :)
# As well as ensuring that USB debugging is enabled etc. Test with
# "adb devices". If it shows the connected device, go on.

# Install Wireless Settings
echo "Installing wireless settings..."
adb shell su -c "echo 'network={\nssid="Wireless"\npsk="i*********m"\nkey_mgmt=WPA-PSK\npriority=1\n}' >> /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf"

# Install Required APK
# assuming all the required APK files reside in a "install" sub-directory:
echo "Installing APKs..."
for apk in install/*.apk; do
   adb install "${apk}"
done

# Push Required Configuration Files
# these and all other files you want to push you've placed into
# the "upload" sub-directory **WITH FULL PATH** (e.g. to push "foo" to
# "/data/local", it would be saved as "upload/data/local/foo
echo "Uploading files..."
adb push upload /

# Restart Tablet if Required
echo "Rebooting device..."
adb reboot

Of course, this is just a skeleton; you might wish to have some "success checking" in place, or write a log to evaluate later. But it contains all the technical stuff you need:

adb shell su -c "command" to execute a command as root – here for appending your wireless settings
adb install to install your APK files. In case these are just newer versions of apps already installed on the devices, add the -r (re-install) switch; a simple install would fail then (i.e. make it adb install -r "${apk}")
adb push to transfer files to the device. Note a few things here:

Syntax is adb push <source> <target> (the counterpart would be adb pull <source> <target>)
you can push a file, or an entire directory
<source> and <target> must be of the same type (i.e. either both are a file name, or both are a directory name)
you can only push to directories you've got write access to. So in order to push into "system areas", the ADB daemon on the device must be running in root mode

As the last condition usually is a culprit (on "production devices", adbd runs in "secure mode" – i.e. non-root), use a work around by first pushing the files to a "common area" (e.g. the internal SD card), and then copy them over. Example:

adb shell "mkdir /sdcard/misc"
adb push upload/data/misc /sdcard/misc
adb shell sudo -c "cp -a /sdcard/misc /data/misc

And as a last hint: You might need to check permissions (incl. ownership), at least when it comes to system relevant files. So first try with one device, investigate the results, see if it works as expected (adjust if not – incl. adjusting your script(s)) – and if necessary factory-reset and start over to verify it's working now. And BTW: These "install and upload" stuff is the next item on my ToDo list for Adebar ;)

Good luck!


How do I stop Google Play Services from being automatically installed?

You can check this thread over at XDA-developers. You'll want patched GSF to skip self-updating.

Please note that sticking to older GMS versions (or not having them at all!) might prevent some "modern" applications from working correctly.

p.s. your slowness issue is more likely about low free RAM than disk space.


How to root Bluetimes 3584F Android TV box?

Download the utoo-root-signed.zip file from XDA Forum and move it to SD card.
Download the firmware_Bluetimes_3584F.zip file in question, unzip it and move the files quoted below to SD card:

factory_update_param.aml
u-boot.bin
recovery.img

Rename the utoo-root-signed.zip inside of SD card to g18ref-ota-20131220.zip.
Do the steps 3, 4 and 5 of the "Upgrading guide" in question.

P.S.: Even with the phone rooted I needed to create a 2nd partition EXT4 on SD card to move the apps to it by Link2SD app.

Thank you very much to stane1983.


The images come from your Gmail contacts so you would need to create a contact for the "The Nudge" and assign a picture to it. To easily create a new contact for that email, open it up and click the icon next to the name. You should then be prompted to "Add  to contacts?".


Unknown host error in browser on mobile network

Try deleting a file named 'hosts' from /system/etc. And reboot :)


I suggest you take it to a repair shop, as it sounds like a hardware issue.

Most likely something has happened to the hardware, and the device will no longer power on.

You may also want to try removing the battery for a while, and then reconnecting it.


Do you use Automate app? Those are for making a custom quick settings functions. You can customize them from the app by adding a "quick settings" block and defining its action.


Reenter the new password in configured Gmail account

Some options:

Try hitting Menu -> Refresh in GMail, there should be a notification prompting you to re-enter the password.  If it's in the notification bar, pull it down and click it.
Clear the cache and data for all Google apps on your phone: Gmail, Gmail storage, Google Framework Services, Talk, Accounts, Play Store, etc. via Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications -> All.
If your phone lets you, go to Settings -> Accounts and sync and remove and re-add the account.


Open source driver availability for main Android GPUs?

Broadcom, Qualcomm, Imagination's PowerVR, Nvidia's Tegra, and ARM's Mali GPUs all have partially (mostly) closed-source drivers. In general, the only open-source code in the driver is any vendor extension to the GL and EGL header files, and a GPL'ed shim that can be loaded into the kernel to allow it to communicate with the binary-only driver. Vendors often contribute related code to upstream projects, though, such as X Windows direct rendering code, or the Android graphics subsystem.

Most of the GPU vendors are afraid that open-sourcing their drivers will reveal details of how their technology works, which will provide leverage for patent trolls to make spurious claims that parts of the GPUs or drivers infringe their patents. For this reason, it's unlikely that any drivers will be open-sourced fully unless/until this risk changes.

There are no rules for open-sourcing all the code for an Android device. It would be very difficult to make a completely open-source device. Even if GPU drivers were open, most (if not all) cell radios have binary-only firmware for regulatory reasons: if you could change the drivers, you could make them run on illegal channels, or exceed the maximum permitted transmit power.


Does Google Audit all apps that enter the market place?

Yes.  Google uses a system they call "Bouncer" which automatically analyzes apps submitted to the store for malicious behavior.

A bit more information can be found here.

The system isn't foolproof though.  For example, in July, A few apps on the store were discovered to be downloading malware after the fact from outside the play store.


Syncing music from device to cloud with Google Play Music

It is not possible from your Android device. To sync music with Google Play Music you need the Google Music Manager program on your PC. From there you can sync your music folder with Google and then stream or download it on your device.

There is apparently also the possibility to do this with the Google play music extension for chrome


It looks like GCM Push Notifications don't work with IPv6. I disabled IPv6 entirely in my router and now everything is fine. Though IPv6 was enabled for the past two years and I didn't have any kind of issue. Let's hope a Play Services update fixes it.

Here is where I got the answer. On rooted devices, you can install [ROOT] Disable IPv6 to fix the problem.


my phone won't reboot from fastboot mode it keeps coming back to fastboot mode

Download stock boot.img for your phone and flash it using same command


Yes, in fact you have to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network that the Chromecast (or whatever device you're trying to cast to) is connected to, because casting works over Wi-Fi.

It may be that when you originally set up the Chromecast, you didn't connect it to your Wi-Fi network, but let it use its own Wi-Fi network. In this case, you'll first have to go into its settings and connect it to the same Wi-Fi network that you want the phone connected to.


Nexus 5 "Ok Google" voice output in a non-English US language

I doubt that unless your phone would use a proxy located in US. So yes it is posible...


Does having CWM mean bootloader is unlocked?

Not per se. You can flash any recovery you like without unlocking the bootloader, but you need to unlock it to boot the recovery. If you flashed CWM and you can boot it, it shows that the bootloader is unlocked.


Prevent Chrome from opening certain links in certain apps

Well, This is the way to do it:

Open the app info of stack exchange app in your phone.
Click on "Open by default".

In the next screen that appears, click "Clear Defaults".
That should give you a prompt whenever you click on an SO link.
Just select chrome and it will open in chrome only.


How to switch to Developer mode in Android 4.2.*

Open Settings, go to phone details (where u can see kernel, Android-version, Model number etc).

Tap 7 times the Build Number (ALPS.JB2.MP.V1.3 in my case)

If you already in developer mode, the tooltip with message:
"No need, you are already a developer." will appear.


Does google do anything to stop an app developer from just posting lots of 5 star reviews for themselves?

Short answer: No.

There is nothing that prevent developer from making lots of additional Google Accounts to provide 5 star ratings. Google recently made a change that require a Google+ enabled account to post reviews/star ratings on Google Play (at least using the on-device Play-app on certain phones) which is a small improvement from the past where a simple Gmail account would be enough.


How can I manage/track the data use on a HTC Inspire?

NetCounter will keep track of data usage. It may not be 100% accurate, but it would be a decent estimate.


Samsung Galaxy S having internal sd card problems

I have the exact same problem with my Samsung Galaxy S.  You can also get it going again by holding the "On" button for about 15 seconds.  It has been happening now for about 2 months and it was only today that I happened to be looking at it as it hanged and I saw the message about the internal SD Card, before that I thought it was a corrupt operating system or faulty battery.

The frustrating thing is that when it hangs I lose all my contacts, my text message history and my customised settings like shortcuts to certain apps on the desktop.

It also loses the default setting for connecting to the Mobile Access Point set by my mobile provider. Sometimes when it reboots people can't ring me, they think it rings once but I don't hear it ringing at all and I get no missed called.

It's funny, I notice that this post is dated December 27th and this is roughly when my phone started giving trouble, my phone is about a year and a half as well.

The advice given here by Izzy is probably the best advice for this situation but I just wanted to contribute some content here that might help more people with the same problem to find this post because unless you are looking at the phone when it crashes you will never think that the internal SD Card was at fault.  It is more likely that you will find that your phone has switched itself off or has just hung.


Unable to take screenshots, "Couldn't save screenshot, storage may be in use" error

It might probably due to permissions error in KitKat (and Lollipop) running Android phones.

♦ Layman Solution :
The most common way is to reboot your android phone and try taking the screenshot.
If it doesn't cut it, try going into safe mode and come back to normal mode back.

♦ Professional Solution :
Wipe dalvik cache in recovery mode.

♦ For Xiaomi users :
Create a folder called Screenshots in /sdcard/DCIM/
Note: MIUI saves screenshots in /sdcard/DCIM/screenshots/


Screen turns black after a telephone call on a Samsung i9220

The problem could be your proximity sensor, which is located on top of the front of your phone. Basically the way it works is if you're on a call and you put your phone to your ear, the screen will go out to avoid your ear messing with the touch screen. If you are under warranty, have it checked on your nearest service center. I had this problem once, told my service center that I think the proximity sensor is the problem, then they fixed it in under 30 minutes.

Check out this question and install the apps from the top answer and see for yourself:

How do I test that proximity sensor on Galaxy Nexus works as expected


How do I undo "always show pictures from this sender" on Android gmail?

In the Android Gmail app,

From the main inbox or inside any email: Bring up the Menu > Settings > General Settings. Now click the Menu button again to bring up sub-menu of options > Clear picture approvals.

WARNING: This clears ALL your approved sender settings, I believe there is no option to revoke by individual email senders.


How to decide which MicroSD card to buy for your Android device

This answer assumes that your phone is running Android 5.0 "Lollipop" or higher, and that your phone lets you move apps to a MicroSD card. (Most ancient Android 4.x phones, and even some modern Android phones, lack support for moving apps to MicroSD cards.)

Choose a card good enough for fast app performance

It's quite possible that you'll eventually decide to store apps on your MicroSD card. Therefore, I recommend that you choose a MicroSD card which is good enough for fast app performance.

Lots of product-review websites offer recommendations. The Wirecutter's recommendation article is a fine choice; it looks like they've been periodically updating it for the past few years.

I'm reluctant to offer a specific recommendation here, because I may not return here to update this answer every few years.

Don't be cheap: upgrades may be impossible

Before storing apps on a MicroSD card: Consider buying a card large enough so that you'll never need to upgrade your current phone to a larger card. This is because, once you've installed apps on a MicroSD card, it may be difficult or impossible to upgrade your phone to use a bigger card.

MicroSD cards can fail

MicroSD cards store your data on a tiny flash-memory chip. Unfortunately, the profit margins on MicroSD cards can be razor-thin. To cut costs, manufacturers use low-grade flash-memory chips which may be far less reliable than the flash memory built into your phone. See, for example, this source.

MicroSD cards can fail irreparably, without prior warning.

If it only holds photos, music, and videos, a MicroSD card will probably last for years. If you store apps on the card, though, this puts more stress on the card, and it may fail significantly sooner.

If you plan to store any irreplaceable data on your MicroSD card, make regular backups. If the backups are encrypted, keep extra copies of the encryption key in two different places.

High-endurance MicroSD cards

You can buy special "high-endurance" MicroSD cards. These may be more reliable, but are often slower. (Source.)  I therefore assume it's probably unwise to store frequently-used apps on "high-endurance" cards.

Avoiding counterfeit cards

Counterfeit cards can fail, permanently, within an hour or two of purchase. The Wirecutter offers some good advice on avoiding counterfeit cards. One good option is to shop in-person at a trustworthy local store.

Detecting counterfeit cards

There are lots of tools which can tell you whether or not a card is counterfeit. Some such tools are very slow. The fastest tool is ChipGenius (for Windows). If its reported card capacity matches the advertised card capacity, then the card is genuine. Another reasonably-fast tool is FakeFlashTest (for Windows). These tools are freeware. (Source.)

Dealing with counterfeit cards

If you bought a counterfeit card, you may or may not be able to get your money back. But it's worth trying.

First, you can ask the retailer for a refund.

If that fails, you can try any of the following:

If you bought the card from an online marketplace, contact the website operator.
If you paid using a credit card, contact your credit-card issuer.
Contact your local Better Business Bureau, if there is one.
Contact your local small-claims court, if there is one. You don't need a lawyer.
Contact another local court.
Contact your government.

Speed matters. If you wait too long, it may be too late to try to get your money back.


go to settings, more, application manager , then slide menu to the left till you see all. then scroll down and look for smart wifi and simply turn smart wifi off.  hope that helps.


flashing twrp on lg g4 no error, but no twrp

I solved the issue..
Apparently, when you enter recovery mode, the phone asks you whether you'd like to do a factory reset, and you choose yes it boots into TWRP :)
Hope it helps someone.


Go to play store, locate the app there and choose to uninstall !


I wish the phone you are using was not stolen, you are facing Goolge FRP issue.

To solve your problem, try this workaround: Bypass FRP on Galaxy S6.


It's a bug in the app. Android has a thing called the media-scanner, which scans newly added files for metadata, so they can be included in media players, photo albums, etc. It relies on the app that creates the file signalling the media scanner process to scan the new file. If the app doesn't do this, the new file won't be added/visible.

If you look at other questions with the media-scanner tag, you'll see some ways to force a full re-scan, at the cost of draining the battery somewhat.


Xbox Smartglass does not install for another user

Some apps cannot install for multiple users. Searching the developer forums, the only suggested solution is to contact the app developer (Microsoft) and ask them to test and enable multi-user support.

Technically, it is likely only a small issue like hard-coding where user-data should be stored and accessed instead of using the system provided path variables. Very trivial to fix once the developer is aware of the issue. If the app as open-source you could probably have done it yourself.


How to save Google search to My contacts

When you search for the business (or person), it will give you a phone number, if you click on that phone number, it will open the dialer.

Somewhere on the dialer there will be an option to add to contacts (on stock android it is at the top), click that, then click new contact, fill in the name, and you are done.

However, this doesn't include the name, or address, and I don't think there is an easy way of adding those (unless you have a business card with an nfc tag).


Enable notification badges on the Galaxy S III

Yes, other apps can do that, but it is up to the app developer to implement Notifications.

This morning when I grabbed my phone I had two different new email notifications (multiple accounts), a Facebook message notification, an app update notification, a Draw Something nudge from my daughter, and a notification that I had new podcasts downloaded in DoggCatcher.


Looking for some way to share images and other media to Facebook (without having the Facebook app installed)

Login to facebook from your moblie browser. Click on the Photo at top left of facebook home page. Click Add photo or Add Video as per your requirement. Then select the content you want to upload.


WhatsApp not prompting to restore from Google Drive backup

I'm assuming if I click Backup, it will backup current state, not restore??

Yes, don't tap backup. You will lose your entire backed up data. Also disable auto backup until the problem is solved.

Try reinstalling the app. This often helps.


How do I recover lost data on a damaged SD card that was encrypted by my tablet?

Okay, your issue sounds weird. Your SD Card is 1) Damaged and 2) Encrypted, yet you want to recover data from it?

If 1) is true, then whether 2) or not, you can't access the card. If 1) is false, and 2) is true, then, generally, you should be prompted to enter a password to use in decrypting the card. If that prompt doesn't come up, then you likely might need to use the exact device used in encrypting the SD card to decrypt. If that device isn't available, you might need a similar one to use to try.


How To Edit TwLauncher lnk path/application/label

As far as I know the TW launcher stores the informations about the home screens icons and the packages icons in a SQL database file inside its data folder for which the full path can be, as for example for the stock TW launcher on a Galaxy Y phone (GingerBread v.2.3.6), /data/data/com.sec.android.app.twlauncher/databases/launcher.db

To view the content you need a SQL viewer app, to edit the content you need a SQL database editor.

I don't think Evil has any part on hidden so well what you are looking for; I think is just a kind of obscurity by complexity ;)

And for the Help part of your question, I'm sorry but I don't have clues.

Anyway, hope that my answer will be of some help to you.

All the best.

Hal Ex


Automatically replace app after opening APK

As eldarerathis already pointed out in his comment on your question: If the app is already installed, and the certificate matches, you will be prompted whether you want to replace it. If the certificates differ, there's a conflict: The app cannot be updated due to the mismatch, and it cannot be installed along as the package name is already in use (apps use an internal package name, which e.g. is shown in the URL on its Google Play Store webpage). If the package is corrupted, you again get another specific error (telling you it is corrupted).

So most probably, the .apk you try to install manually has been tampered with. If it wasn't you doing so, I would refrain from using it. If it was you, and you know what you are doing -- or you know the source to be trustworthy (e.g. the developer of the app provided you with an unsigned testing version), you have to first uninstall the original app before installing the "tainted" .apk.


Device lose root access after installing SU .zip update from stock recovery

SuperSU zip is an unsigned zip and can only be flagged through a custom recovery like cwm our twrp. You can search on xda for a custom recovery for your device. Use Kingroot to root your device again, use fastboot or ODIN from PC (refer to XDA  for proper device-specific instructions) or Flashify to flash a custom recovery image, then full unroot from Kinguser, and then flash the SuperSu zip from custom recovery.


Pictures and videos not showing in the gallery

Consider any of the solution mentioned below.
Solution 1
Note: Follow the steps for both Internal and external SD Card

Go to File manager  -> Android ->  Data -> com.android.gallery3d.
Delete the folder (com.android.gallery3d) in both internal and external SD card.
Go to Settings -> Apps / Application manager -> search for Gallery -> open Gallery and tap on Clear Data .
Switch off your phone and wait for few minutes (say 2-3 min) and then switch on and wait for few minutes.

That's it now. All the images and videos would be showing under Gallery.
Solution 2

Go to the respective folders where images/videos are stored.
Go to Settings > Show hidden file and see if there is  a .NOMEDIA file. If there is such file then delete it.
Switch off and switch on the device.

That's it.
Solution 3
If above solutions don't work, then you have to search for apps in Play Store which scans SD Card . SDrescan is good. It's only of 20KB in size. And then scan the memory card using that app.


Google Sky Maps does not follow pointing direction. How can the sensors be calibrated?

I guess you mean to physically wave the phone in a pattern of a three dimensional infinity symbol (or simply a figure of 8).  This YouTube video gives a good demo.

Moto G2 has gyro in addition to what Moto G1 have. Hence it should work like a charm and the issue you are facing should be a calibration issue at a low level.


Yes, it seems so:

  Many (but not all) Galaxy SII are supported by installing a patched kernel.


Can I download Android apps to a computer and then transfer to my phone

Indeed you can - there are a number of ways - via ADB and pushing it.

A simpler way would be to either connect your device via USB to your PC and copy over the android APK files to a folder on your SD card (either internal or external on your device).

Using a file explorer like ASTRO, Estrongs or some other one of choice, you can then navigate to the folder where you placed those APKs and click on them to install.

Prior to this, you ought to enable the option ALLOW INSTALLATION FROM UNKNOWN SOURCES in ANDROID SETTINGS > APPLICATIONS.


On a Nexus S, how do I activate the front facing camera in a Fring video call?

From the Fring for Android user manual, do this after starting a video chat:

  To switch camera, press the switch button on the left side.

If it doesn't work on the Nexus S, it's probably because they haven't had time to fix it since yesterday.  You can report a bug on their forum.


Install Orbot Proxy by Tor. You will have to root the phone if your apps don't have their own proxy settings. Tor is a very good anonymizing network; in fact, Stack Exchange has their own website for it: StackExchange

You can also configure a VPN and connect your phone to that, via Settings or by downloading a VPN app. You can subscribe to a private VPN server (small monthly fee), you can create your own VPN server, either with OpenVPN software or Windows 7 VPN wizard, or, if privacy doesn't matter, you can connect to a free, public VPN server.

Other than those two methods, options get very difficult from here. There's no reason the above VPN method shouldn't work, unless your device doesn't support it. Still, try a VPN app (This one seems to be legit and has pretty good reviews).

Sometimes VPN's are blocked as well (think massive corporations), although it is almost impossible to completely block one. Try hosting your own VPN server, in the situation where they have a targeted block-list.

Also, in the event that if your device rejects everything you install on it, one would have to modify the .APK's of the apps themselves to target a custom VPN or proxy server. Programming knowledge is a requirement. This would all be to avoid rooting.

I think that is the entire list. Good luck


In the contacts menu do you have a menu item called accounts? It should show which accounts are synched up and also have the option to not sync to any account. You could turn sync to accounts off here and may then be able to import contacts to phone only.

Alternatively you could make sure the phone is not connected to the internet (wifi or data), import the contacts into one of the accounts, then go into settings and switch sync contacts off for both the accounts available.


Error installing CyanogenMod: Unsupported bootloader

Looks like the bootloader can be upgraded using this post and tool from XDA:  Bootloader Upgrader Tool [Falcon] [Peregrine] [41.18] [41.19] [41.1A]


Super One Click is written in C#. You need Mono to run it under Linux and other Non-Windows platforms. You can check your Ubuntu Package Manager for Mono or download it from here.

The XDA-Forum-Link also has a link to a detailed description on how to make it work under Linux.

I have never personally used it on Linux, but once the program is up and running, it should be very self explanatory.


(Galaxy Note 1) Can I use custom ROMs and Recoverys made for the GT-N7000 on a GT-N7000B?

It worked for the Nightowl ROM.
Now the device just identifies as a GT-N7000.
I reporter this to the developer and he added the info to the OP.


TiBu's FAQ says:

  Click “Backup all user apps” (if you want just your apps) or “Backup all user apps + system data” if you want everything backed up. This doesn’t seem to always backup SMS and contact history.

Unfortunately it doesn't explain all options in detail -- but from the above quote one can conclude:

"Backup all system data" normally includes contacts, SMS, etc (but might miss some history -- not clear if the latter a) refers to an old version, as I never experienced that, or b) is device-specific)
"Backup all user apps" must include the data, otherwise the term if you want everything backed up wouldn't make sense.

To make sure, just visit the above mentioned FAQ for a closer check, which might answer other questions (you didn't know you've had ;) on the way.


I can think of two relevant facts.

Apps that were pre-installed as part of the system (i.e. came with the phone) are not deleted by a factory reset: they just go back to the original version, and will probably be updated by Google Play later.
If you had Back up my data turned on in the device settings (on the Backup & reset page), then as soon as you signed into your Google account, the phone will have started to reinstall all the apps you had installed previously, and the data of all the apps that support Google backup.


Can I open a route I created in Google Maps in Navigation?

Google Maps for Android does have a bicycle option.  You just have to select it from the drop down menu.


Would updating my rooted Sony Xperia Z brick it?

No.

Instead you may lose your root access in turn, because some system settings go back to default when updating a device, which will probably include your superuser.

Your personal data and installed apps will not be affected.


Android voice search doesn't recognize Exchange contacts

Contacts>Settings>Contacts to display>Select all the accounts


How do I plug in an emoticon into my keyboard

The feature that emoticons can appear when you type in a word was introduced in some previous Swype versions earlier, maybe with version 2.0. It is hardcoded and not subject to change in any way, like so many things concerning Swype. The only thing is that you can switch off the icon prediction, if you run a newer Swype version. If your keyboard came preinstalled, you need to deacitvate it and buy the actual Swype keyboard on Google Play.

Hardcoded also is the languages dictionary and in some languages the dictionary is very poor (e.g. german) but since long they got never updated/repaired. The only thing the user can fill is the user dictionary, which is very limited to some few hundreds entries, then it is full and older entries are deleted. Also this is not changeable.

The Swype keyboard (run by Nuance) is as it is and the support (e.g. in the forum) is nearly not existing, so don't hope about any change.

Sorry, nothing you can do. Use it as it is.


Cannot SIM unlock Samsung Galaxy S7 with Rogers (Canada)

There are several ways you can unlock your Samsung as highlighted below. Unlocking by code is by far the safest method. Detailed instructions on how to obtain an unlock code can be found at point 3:

You can ask your current carrier to unlock it. The law says they are obliged to do it, but the bad thing is that your phone must NOT be under contract.
You can go to repair shop. They will unlock your phone by cable using a special software. The bad thing is that you have to leave your phone there for a few hours.
You can use a third party phone unlocking service like this (SIM unlock Samsung galaxy). They will search and provide you with an genuine unlock code from the manufacturer's database. This is the safest method to unlock any phone.


Durability issues of sd-cards in phones?

I had bad luck with any "cheap" cards that I ever bought. They usually end up being "off brands", and some of the slowest performing. The cheap ones usually don't even mention the class rating, which means they are probably a class 2, or worse. I never had them fail in the short time you seen, but they did fail, and after 2 cheap cards failed on me in my android device, I spent the extra couple bucks and went with a "name brand" class 6 (I couldn't even find a class 10 when I bought it). I have had this card for almost 3 years now, it has moved between 3 different android devices in that time, and has seen its share of custom android ROMs flashed to the host device. Not to mention it even had a time, before froyo, it was partitioned to with 1GB EXT4 partition to act as an "extension" of the devices internal storage, and even SWAP at one point on my ADP1. I have had zero problems with it.


How much power does a Galaxy Tab 10.1 charger need to supply?

This turns out to be more complicated than just the amperage rating of the power adapter.

This XDA post says that the Tablet itself may 'step down' to 0.5A charging if it cannot detect the right support in the USB host.  There are some additional details in this post but I don't grok them.

That thread led me to this slashdot comment which seems very useful and knowledgeable.  If I understand the story correctly, unless the tablet can negotiate with the host device, the amount of power it can draw is limited.  A physical "hack" (now part of a USB standard) in the adapter can make it clear to the USB client (the tablet) that there is no host device (its a wall wart), so it can charge faster.  Without the hack, the device is limited in the amperage it can use.

More details on the USB charing spec are on wikipedia.

I just verified some of this with my Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the no-name 2A USB wall charger I have.  If I plug my tablet into this "unapproved" USB adapter, then I get a little red "x" on the battery charge indicator in the system tray.  Additionally, I get the "media scanner running..." alert (which I think means that the Tablet thinks it might be connected to a computer).  I cannot tell at what rate (2.5mA, 500mA, 2A, etc) the tablet is actually charging at, though.

If I plug the tablet into the 'approved' wall wart, I get no such red "x", nor any "media scanner" alerts.

All that said, in practice, I've found that the tablet will charge up on my no-name USB adapter.  I'm not sure if that's because I tend to turn the screen off (and I don't have 3G), and thus the power draw of the sleeping tablet is less than the 500mA, or if its actually getting the full 2A.

I think the upshot is that any reputable wall charger or anything labeled as "compatible" with an iPhone or iPad will probably support the USB charging spec, and thus will fast-charge a Samsung Galaxy Tab.  But I'm just guessing.  It would be nice if there was an official USB logo or label for chargers that supported this mode ...


yesterday I had the same problem,and finally I found the solution.

Flash TWRP recovery on your one X, and power off.
Then Connect your phone to your PC by using usb cable
Boot into twrp recovery select mount & storage on twrp menu and the
select Mount USB Storage,after doing this your PC should see your phone as USB storage.
Copy your rom file into sdcard on your PC.
Disconnect the phone from PC,reboot your phone into bootloader and
then run twrp recovery.
Before flashing rom full wipe is recommended to avoid problems, so full wipe by twrp recovery or by fastboot commands (fastboot erase cache)
Flash compatible boot.img by using fastboot commands (fastboot flash boot bootfile.img)
Full wipe your device
Then flash the rom.zip by using twrp,that's all.