How to properly downgrade a phone that shipped with a newer version of Android?

Different Locales:
It is possible that the different locale is shipped with a different bootloader.
This bootloader is responsible for loading up Android and may contain additional checks for stock firmwares before booting. It is also possible that the device was shipped with different hardware (Qualcomm/Exynos processors), so that Android has to include the needed kernel modules and firmware modules to work on that particular device.
Downgrading a device that shipped with a newer version of Android:
It's certainly possible that an updated bootloader may prevent you from flashing a complete older version. There are ways to circumvent this:

Don't flash the bootloader: Some bootloaders just prevent you from downgrading themselves, but not the rest of the firmware. It is then possible to flash just Android and use an older version with the new bootloader (possible on the Samsung Galaxy S3, personal experience)
Use a custom ROM: Custom ROMs are usually free to be installed, even if the device shipped with a newer version of Android. They just don't allow them to be checked, because they are not stock. Thus it's in my opinion the best way to downgrade your device. (Let alone all the advantages of having a pre-rooted, debloated device).
Don't downgrade at all: Older versions of Android often carry bugs, security issues, missing features and warnings in your IDE, that make app development a pain. ROM development only needs a compatible, unlocked bootloader and a custom recovery, so don't worry about upgrading Android on your device. (Unless you got the device from a carrier that puts their custom stock ROM on their devices, then try to not upgrade at all and wait for the community to come up with ways to unlock the bootloader and flash a custom ROM)

What information can help you to find the right firmware:

Go to Settings -> Device Info  and read your Baseband, Build number and Build version
Look up your IMEI on the box or behind the battery on your device (or look for Status -> IMEI information, if your Settings app contains this information)
(if you are unsure which firmware to use because there are different hardware layouts): Get the serial no. of the mainboard. Because currently all phones are SOCs (system on a chip), you should be able to determine whether to use the Qualcomm Snapdragon, Exynos, MediaTek etc. version of the firmware you are looking for.
If in doubt, ask on the appropriate forum on xda-developers; most major devices have sub-forums like "General Help", "ROM development" etc. The people that are active there know what they are doing and should be able to help you out.


How did my niece's face end up on my daughter's body after being backed up to Google photos?

This sounds like Google+'s Auto-Awesome smile feature. If you took multiple similar photos then Auto-Awesome will attempt to create a composite picture with the best smiles. Unfortunately in your case it appears to have thought that your niece and daughter were sufficiently similar that it put your daughters smile onto your niece.

You can see more information (and an example) on this site


Is it possible to disable Google Play indefinitely?

With ICS and up (i.e. Android 4.0+), or if you consider rooting your device, there is something else you could do:

Freeze the MarketUpdater using Androids Manage Applications (ICS and up) -- or, before ICS, e.g. TitaniumBackup
optionally uninstall all updates to the Playstore app

Alternatively, maybe even better (depending on the version of Market/Playstore app pre-installed on your device) -- but requires root (as the Legacy Play Store needs to be installed as system app):

Freeze the MarketUpdater as above
Freeze the Playstore app along =:-0
Install Legacy Play Store instead :-)

No more updates (as that Legacy Play Store won't be updated -- it's an older version of the Playstore/Market app, patched to be used in parallel to the recent version; it has some features which were removed from the current versions), and a less-overloaded Playstore app are the results.


Making Android not respond to connecting headphones

You can make this happen by going in poweramp settings->Headset/Bluetooth an uncheck
Pause On Headset Disconnect and Resume on wired Headset and that should be it


Samsung Galaxy A5 screen has broken, want to retrieve data

Perhaps it is achievable if the "USB Debugging" option is enabled on the phone and you authorized the computer for this USB Debugging purpose.

I know of 1 method which doesn't require you to touch your phone only if you have USB Debugging enabled:

  adb pull /sdcard/ %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\

this shall copy every file and directory from your sdcard to your Windows Desktop

Note: For internal memory you will have to check the internal memory folder, you can check it by the ls command in /storeage/ where you should cd(change directory) to folders inside and check if it is your internal memory stored files.

There's another way to get a backup of your whatsapp app and whole system backup as well(system backup, not data files like whatsapp media, pictures and songs etc.) but it can only work if you are able to touch the bottom of the screen so that you can authorize for the backup, you can do so by adb backup and the steps are listed here :http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-nexus/general/guide-phone-backup-unlock-root-t1420351


No resetting will not put you back on any previous versions of Android. In order to do that you will need to flash whatever version that you want.

I suggest using Wugfresh Nexus Root Toolkit for downgrading. If you decide that you want to go back to stock, unrooted, and locked bootloader you have that option as well. This toolkit will be able to unbrick your device, if needed. It has all the necessary tools to do all the steps to flash another Android version. Plus it'll do the recovery, kernel, and bootloader as well.


How can I disable root on a modded device?

If you install SuperUser you can control which apps are allowed root access.  By default it blocks all requests and asks you what you want to do.  You can give an app access indefinitely and revoke it at any time, or allow only specific requests with a timeout.  Most rooted ROMs come with it pre-installed, including CyanogenMOD, and many rooting methods will install it for you as well.

As an alternative, you could remove the su binary and Busybox from your device to effectively un-root it.


Keep play books audio in the background?

According to this google fourm's message, 17 Dec 16, this is a feature since version 3.11.19

Quote danjaf
Confirm this has been resolved in version 3.11.19
I am running Marshmallow 6.0.1
Thank you to the developer who heard our first world problems.

I have tested myself in at the current version of 4.4.9_RC07.213889590, released 21 September 2018, and can confirm it is still present.


I use this apps to monitor my data usage I found it useful. You should try if you want.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.internet.speed.meter.lite&hl=en&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Dinternet+monitor+android&pcampaignid=APPU_1_6egZXfunKIv6wAP8_ovoCA

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glasswire.android&hl=en&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Dglasswire&pcampaignid=APPU_1_segZXchYxdb5BvHunLAF


SleepBot includes a "smart alarm" feature which has been failing on Android 6.x "Marshmallow" due to "Doze" mode. What's the workaround?

You should be able to turn off App Optimization. Go to settings -> apps -> click the gear at the top right -> then click Battery Optimization. Add the app to "Not Optimized."


The answer is no. But if you root your Hero, the answer is definitively yes. Check out XDA Forums and lookup your device. I know for the CDMA hero there are already 2.2 ROMs ripe for the picking.


Galaxy S3 cell standby is eating my battery

That is terrible! Drains to 50% only in stanby!

Maybe the apps are not really shut off. You can use the free apps - JuiceDefender to save your power. Packed with smart functions, it automatically and transparently manages the most battery draining components, like 3G/4G connectivity and WiFi.

Or you may need to have a external battery to backup. This one sugegsted:

Small and portable design, Powerful and giant inside. Will be helpful!


Nexus 4 does not wake up from Sleep randomly

You might wish to run adb logcat for investigation. But that might only be helpful if you know how to trigger the issue.

Another approach would be, as you already indicated:

start with a factory reset. You know that with a "fresh device" the issue does not happen, as described by your question
install back only a part of your apps (the ones you feel most essential), but not more than ~50%. See if the issue still happens.

Yes: the problematic app was in this batch
No: the problematic app was not in this batch

start over at 1., this time with the other half. Does the issue show up again?

If 2. + 3. are answered "No", it might as well be a combination of apps. If the issue shows up only in either 2. or 3. (but not in both cases), start narrowing down. I will assume here it was part of 3., switch items if it was the other way around:

starting over with factory-reset and installing the first half of your apps.
split the other half in two again, and repeat as above

This procedure should help you finding the culprit, while still being able to use your device and as much of your apps as possible. Of course, you could also start with factory-reset and then install each app one-by-one (which might be the safer approach) – but as the issue might not show up immediately (may even take a day or more), the above might be more practical.


Microsoft teams for Android "not compatible"

You could always try downloading the apk from APKMirror. The site is safe.


You can use a different launcher, I know Nova Launcher can do this. You will have to setup all your apps, folders and widgets again though.


If an app behaves differently on a higher or lower Android version, then it uses code like that (before the app has been compiled):
if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.M){
    // do something on Android 6+
} else {
    // do something on Android before version 6
}

Such code structures will be present in multiple classes of the app. If you want to forge the Android version in the original app you have to decompile the APK using apktool modify every occurrence of such a structure e.g. by replacing the access to android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT which queries the device's Android ADK version and replace it by a constant like 29 for Android 10 and the rebuild the APK using apktool, zipalign and sign (apksigner) it and then you are ready to install the app.
Unfortunately apktool does only generate Smali code and not Java code, which makes the whole task much more difficult as Smali is very low level and not easy to read.
There may be existing programs/apps that already do such modifications in an automated way, unfortunately I don't know or use such apps.


Can one determine the kernel version of a Samsung device from the Android version?

No, the Android and kernel versions are numbered independently of each other.

For example the Galaxy Note 2 (KitKat stock ROM) has a kernel version of 3.0.101. The Galaxy S4 (also KitKat) has a kernel version of 3.4.0.


How to add a new button to the button bar in Total Commander for Android?

Tap on icon (arrow). You get a +, add details as per link - you can see the button with KB, on the first line


Add work email address to Gmail on an Android device

The Exchange option is only available for users with the Exchange Services package installed.  Unfortunately, this package doesn't come installed on all Android phones (as far as I know, only the Nexus devices come with it preinstalled) and isn't available on the Play Store.  However, I did find a link where the apk file can be downloaded from.  After installation, the Exchange option should appear when attempting to add an account (reboot possibly required).

Disclaimer: I myself have a Nexus device and already had the package installed.  I have not attempted to use the link included in this answer and cannot vouch for its safety.


Have you checked to see if sync is on? On ICS+ go to Settings-Data Usage and press the menu button, and ensure 'Auto Sync Data' is checked.

Then go to Account-><select your account> and ensure gmail, or email is selected.

Bear in mind that the email app can't push emails - it can only poll the server at a minimum of every 5 minutes.

If you're on less than ICS, then go to System Settings->Accounts and Sync and ensure sync is turned on. Select the account, and make sure gmail is checked.


You can't register the same WhatsApp account on multiple phones at once.

From WhatsApp's FAQ

  Your WhatsApp account can only be verified with one number on one
  device.

Here's a workaround:

Use WhatsApp web on the second phone, that way you'll be able to see your messages on both phones.

On the primary phone, open WhatsApp, in the menu click on "WhatsApp web"

Now, on the second phone, open your browser, and go to web.whatsapp.com then, go to your browsers menu, and click on "desktop site" (depending on your browser, the name of that setting might differ)

Now scan the QR code using the first phone. You will now be able to use both phones with the same WhatsApp account.

This is not ideal, but that's the only way to have the same account on two phones at the same time.


This is a known design problem  when using statically linked libresolv and glibc.

You have 2 options:

Use Google Android's native libc Bionic library instead of glibc.
Build busybox to search libraries in /system/lib (or make the necessary links e.g. /usr/lib -> /system/lib ). Place ld-linux.so.3, libc.so.6, libresolv.so.2, libnss_dns.so.2 in your /system/lib.


I have an old HTC Sense and i am having problems getting market to open or even updating to google play store.

"Android Market" has been renamed to "Google Play Store" long ago. Afraid Google also changed the API since and deprecated the old one, so you won't be able to use this "ancient" version anymore.

For an alternative, you could try F-Droid, an open source Android "market" which should still work with "ancient versions". There you'd also find apps like Yalp Store, which would allow you accessing Play Store.


That must be a USB Driver problem. Download the files in here and follow the instructions.


Why can't I save an emergency phone number in my addressbook?

The solution that worked was to use a browser on my computer to save the number in the addressbook instead of using the Android contacts app. I used Fastmail, but I expect Google contacts would work in the same way. This then syncs to the phone via CardDAV. After testing it, the number is synced and functional.


Try a hard reset and then update your phone by going to Settings > About Phone > Software Update

If you would want to do a manual update then you flash your device and then install Lollipop image. For more instructions see this link


HMM the only thing I can think of would be to get clockwork or something similar and format the space and reflash the rom.


Some Launchers like Nova Launcher supports HIDE APPS and RENAME APPS

To Hide Apps in Nova Launcher:

Go To 'Nova Settings.'
Than Go to 'Apps And Widget drawer'.
Click on 'Hide apps' and Check the apps you want to hide.

Rename Apps in Nova:
* To rename app you have to long press the app you want to rename and than edit app option.


Why do I have an SD card but still no storage space?

The storage used to store apps is internal storage ,android doesn't allow apps to be installed on the SDcard so no matter how big is your SDcard your tablette will install apps in the tablet's internal storage.
You can move apps to SD card using app2SD or in the phone settings but only apps that allows move to SD will be movable if the app doesn't allow app2SD you can't move it.

There is some advanced work around to use an ext4 partition on your SD card as a /data parttion but it needs to be anabled at the kernel level.


In September 2017 the maintainer of Termux released a package termux-exec, which wraps up execve(2) so that files that has a shebang line like #!/bin/sh or #!/usr/bin/env will run correctly in Termux. Just run

pkg install termux-exec

and restart Termux (or open a new session). You'll now be able to run #!/bin/sh scripts.

The previous solution was as following:

  Termux provides a handy utility

termux-fix-shebang

  Whose description reads:

    Rewrite shebangs in specified files for running under Termux,
    which is done by rewriting #!*/bin/binary to #!$PREFIX/bin/binary.

  Just apply it to the scripts you wish to run. It does what its name suggests: fix the shebang line #!/xxx of your script files. It can also fix other scripts like Perl or Python.

Also note that by default your working directory is not in $PATH, so you cannot directly type myscript.sh, but instead

./myscript.sh
^~

... or explicitly specify an interpreter shell (in which case you don't need the directory prefix):

bash myscript.sh
^~~~


Change application to be launched using Voice Action

I believe if you uninstall the Last.fm app, then use the Voice Action "Listen to..", a pop up should show asking which of the default players listed here, will show up and be used.

If however, you'd prefer the default in-built player to play, use Listen To or the app Choice Dialer, available in both free and paid versions in the market.


Ok saddly I have to use a Windows machione to acomplish that. But that was pretty easy after all.

Search for the drivers of your smartphone.I find mine in here:
http://www.mylgphones.com/lg-android-usb-device-drivers
Install a rooter software, searching I found this
http://www.kingoapp.com/android-root.htm
Set you phone in debug mode.
Finally install the drivers, the use the software and there you go
My phone is rooted...


Can't start DroidExplorer because an asset is missing

you need to create Droidexplorer in ProgramData, and then create assets in DroidExplorer ( all folders )
and then it works
i had the same issue just right now


Samsung Galaxy I939 Sim card not recognized after Cyanogenmod

Did you downloaded Cyanogenmod for I939? Cyanogenmod for I9300/I9305/I9300I won't work (I had those 3 phones, they all have different modem). If the ROM you've flashed is not for I939, go back to Samsung stock ROM. Otherwise...

Do you have /efs backup? If you do, restore it, should help. If you don't...

Well, I haven't found any flashable modems for I939, so you should go back to stock Samsung ROM (you can try getting it here (if you are in China you may need to use VPN) or just search it, or look for f.e. "I939KEDLK6_I939CTCDLK6_I939KELK6_HOME.tar.md5" file). It's flashable with Odin.

If it doesn't help, try:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pai4BH3AWq8
http://www.alfredivy.per.sg/blogger/2014/03/efs-folder-imei-corrupted/

If it still doesn't help, you'll need:

working /efs backup (nothing bad happens if 2 phones have the same IMEI afaik), then just restore it and you are done OR
working nv_data.bin file. Those aren't common in the Internet, you should look for other people with working I939.

If you have nv_data.bin, do as this Polish guide says:

go back to Samsung stock ROM
root it
(flash recovery if it got deleted)
install "18060]三星 I939 番茄花园 4.1.2 三网版 5.0" ROM from tomatolei.com
download Root Browser or Total Commander
(perhaps remount /efs as RW - download Terminal Emulator and run su -> enter -> mount -o rw,remount /efs -> enter) <- guide says nothing about it
remove everything in /efs (or better, move it somewhere else)
reboot your device
(perhaps again remount /efs as RW)
edit /efs/factoryapp/factory_mode contents: change "OFF" to "ON"
reboot your device again
(perhaps again remount /efs as RW)
put someone's nv_data.bin in /efs, overwrite existing file if any
reboot
create /efs backup (for example with "efs professional")
go back to Samsung stock ROM
root it
right now I'm not sure, if you IMEI is not correct, try installing "18060]三星 I939 番茄花园 4.1.2 三网版 5.0" again or Cyanogenmod

After this you should get correct IMEI number, if not then you'll have the same IMEI as someone else.

If nothing helps, go to service. Official Samsung service may refuse to help you, but you may find unofficial one with Z3x tools


How to use/install Xperia lock-screen on any Android?

After doing some extra research (5 or so sec), I found that there's an app that gets close. It's called XZ Locker. You can get it from the Play Store.

It has what I asked for.

Pros:
*Very flexible in controlling what elements show up on the screen.
*Let's you customize many aspects of the look and feel of the elements on the screen (e.g. font-size/color, swipe animation, etc.)
*Lightweight and allows for additional options some implementations don't have natively

Cons:
*Security isn't the best. It allows for a maximum pin number of 6 digits. If that isn't chosen, then it gives the option of a defined sequence of gestures using the common dots on the screen.
*Kind of buggy. Certain things create a weird behavior on the app, but not the representation itself (e.g. extra app instance when testing screen).*Can be slow at times, depending on app usage and etc.


Chrome To Phone error "Device not registered for user"

sounds like your phone is using a different google account to attempt to log in to chrome-to-phone. try signing out from the chrome extension, and "Disconnect" the phone from the android app and re-sign in to both.


Driver issues when using Samsung Galaxy SIII via USB for development

The easiest way to get this driver is from the samsung website.  There is a link to a download that installs only the driver (none of the bloat).
See https://stackoverflow.com/a/11851697/1427165 for more details.


How to send SMS from terminal in background on Android?

The syntax that appears to work as attested over at our sister site stackoverflow is and is explains in detail:

adb shell service call isms 7 i32 0 s16 "com.android.mms.service" s16 "+1234567890" s16 "null" s16 "Hey\ you\ !" s16 "null" s16 "null"

  "Isms method number (5 and 7 above) may change with the android version . Read full explanation to understand it."


Is it possible to have multiple instances of the same app (logged in to different accounts)?

There's an awkward  solution:

Renaming the package name inside an apk as proposed by Adobe to fix a nasty limitation of their AIR framework, XDA has proposed the same too.

All use apktool to reverse engineer an app (unpack apk, change package name in AndroidManifest.xml, repack, resign).

Note:
This won't change locations on the SD card though (if it's used, all 5 instances would use the very same folder on the card still, just FYI)


It seems that Voodoo Sound Control on your Fascinate/SGS worked because of three different pieces - the preinstalled Voodoo Control app, a specific digital to audio controller, and a kernel that can allow the two to communicate. As best I can tell the Galaxy Nexus doesn't have the correct DAC nor a kernal that would allow the controller app to work. Sorry, it seems you're stuck with EQ apps for sound quality.

My suggestion at this point, if you're needing more volume from your phone, would be to look into external powered amps.


You can use this app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pereira.autoreboot

It needs root permissions.


Is it possible to view detailed GSM information on my Android phone?

There is this app called Antennas. It can't do everything you have asked for. But it can show you the tower you are connected to, the signal level, and other towers from you carrier that your phone can see/connect to and their signal level.

  Map the GSM/CDMA antennas in your neighborhood. This app monitors the
  GSM/CDMA cellular network connection; displays a map of approximate
  cellular antenna locations and their RF signal strength; and can log
  the data to a text or KML file.

  Does not work on Verizon 3G & CDMA Support is limited by Android, not by the application CDMA requires Eclair Works
  best with 2G GSM. 3G/CDMA support is very limited.


Can I set up two children on one device both managed by Google Family link?

Many Android devices allow multiple user profiles (not to be confused with Google accounts).  It's a similar function to what computers have, where you can have the admin account and the child one.

From the second link you posted:

  The steps below will only work if your child's device allows multiple
  profiles

From your comment on this post it's apparent that you're using an Asus Zenpad 3s. That device doesn't seem to have the multi user functionality. (You can confirm this info by simply going settings and looking for "users"). Therefore, you will not be able to add more accounts.

So to explain the difference between the two links you posted, the first one seems to be talking about adding a second Google account to the same device (from settings  → accounts  → Google,) while the second link is discussing how to get past the limitation of one account per device, by adding a second user, which in turn make it as if you're using a different device, with a lock screen preventing the child from switching between users.

  Does this mean two children share one device under Family Link? Or
  that there can be one Family Link account and one other account?

With a device that supports multiple users, you can add either a child, or a regular Google account. If you're adding a regular account, make sure to have a lockscreen preventing your child from switching between users.

  What are the limitations / implications of a second account?

Had that been possible, your child would be able to open Google play store, switch to the other account, and download any app they want.

Therefore, they don't allow more accounts unless you add a new user to the device.


Android 3 (Honeycomb) offers full system encryption natively.  However, as it's only for tablets at this point I will post some other avenues.

There was some work done on this for the G1 using LUKS and Cryptsetup.  I think I've seen this on a moto droid rom too, but you'll definitely need root.  It is not trivial to do, and there isn't too much interest so popular roms like Cyanogenmod don't provide for this natively.

There are some apps in the market that support encrypted file stores (check out Lock Files). I have no idea how transparent that is on the system however.

To your italicized point on remote wipe.  There are MANY solutions for this.  If you're using Exchange you can push this with ActiveSync, if not apps like Lookout, and more provide remote wipe and other functions.  There are even manual ways w/ dyndns and a listening SSH server.

Hope I was some help.


Error when upgrading Android 4.3 to 4.4.2 on Nexus 7 (2013) tablet

EDITED 01/30/2014

If you clear the data for Google Services Framework, you can force the OTA update to start again.

There are a few downsides to this, but with a brand new device, you can safely clear the data and perform the OTA update.

Old Answer...

As deailed in this question, you can download the 4.4.2 image directly from Google and install it on your tablet from your computer.

One method is to use Fastboot:

If you're using Windows, you'll need USB Drivers (official link, and easy mode link, Koush's Universal Driver). The file downloaded includes instructions, which basically boil down to...

Reboot into Bootloader/Fastboot mode.
Connect your device to your PC with USB.
Run the appropriate flash-all file for your Desktop OS (Windows .bat files and Bash .sh files are included with the downloaded Android image).

Note: This will also erase all data on your device. Make sure you back up whatever you want to. If I remember correctly, there's a flash-base or similar option that will not erase your data, instead of flash-all.


On OnePlus One w CyanogenMod, how do I add notes to a Google Contact?

On CyanogenMod, the notes section is after the building icon with the dialog box. See picture attached. If you don't have any notes yet, the field doesn't have a blank so doesn't appear editable.


Without Root, why can I pull a specific apk using adb, but not everything in /data/app. Android 4+?

It's a "permission and privacy" thing. While the .apk does not have any privacy concerns involved (and thus can give read permission to everyone), the data do, and thus the directory is only readable by owner, group, and root (not by "other", which is what you would need -- "other" has only eXecute permissions).

ls -l / | grep data
drwxrwx--x   25 system   system  4096 Jan 28 17:51 data

Which means: Specifying the file directly, you can pull it (as it has the required file permissions, and the directory permits you to cd into due to the set eXecute bit). Specifying the directory instead fails, as this would require to change (cd) into the directory (which works) and build a list of files contained -- which is impossible due to the missing read permission on the directory entry itself.


http://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-x-style/general/moto-x-pure-mvno-carrier-ting-vs-t3218182

One irritation with Ting was that tethering only worked on 3g. Which required manually setting the phone to 3g, after enabling the hotspot. You

MetroPCS in contrast does not allow tethering unless you purchase a metro branded phone.

I was able to work around the metro pcs tethering restriction by adding a "tether_dun_required=0" entry to the sqlite provider.settings file, and now it works perfect on LTE with the stock hotspot software.


How can I fix this Heimdall Control transfer failed (result -9) for flashing a recovery?

Second update (success):

One or more of the following ended up solving my problem (I tried all at once instead of trying each sequentially, sorry!):

Connect the usb cable directly to computer, not through a hub.
Use the Heimdall command line option " --RECOVERY" (instead of "--recovery").
Use the newer Heimdall 1.4 final.

Thanks to Evan Carroll for the info borrowed from other questions!


What's the easiest way to create a QR code for a link?

Using the goo.gl URL shortener: http://goo.gl/a4Wv and adding a .qr to the end of it: http://goo.gl/a4Wv.qr


What's the "Thumbs up" setting in Motorola Camera app

I believe it is the beauty mode

  The 5MP front-facing camera adds one extra control to this menu and that is for beauty mode. There are three options: auto, manual, or off. The manual option lets you move a slider like most other smartphones that offer a beauty mode which blends the skin tones to hide imperfections

Also called beautification mode

  We start off with self portraits, which include a Beautification mode, which is a first for Moto, but not a first for Lenovo at large. It mainly enhances clarity and colors while smoothing out lines on the face, to varying degrees of success.

Off would be to disable the mode, manual would be adjust the beauty effect and auto would let the camera decide

Edit: It's not a thumbs up, it is a silhouette of a female face sideways - you can see that clearly from Lenovo feature, with the 7 step sliding scale. Moto seems to have added auto feature in addition


Is there a way to make Android in general play sound a little louder on the right side?

Settings -> Accessibility > Hearing,

There you can control the left/right sound balance.


Wi-Fi is connected but the device shows "Wi-Fi has no internet access"

Try connecting other devices to the network - if they can connect to the internet, it might be a (strange) issue with your phone, possibly caused by the reconfiguration somehow - "forget" the network, and then reconnect to it. Otherwise, your router may not have or may not be providing internet access to devices on WiFi, also possibly caused by the reconfiguration somehow (however this one seems more likely).


How to change screen resolution on android rooted device?

Thanks to eldarerathis comment.

Indeed, I was able to set needed resolution by modifying kernel boot parameters. Instead of video=-16 in kernel boot options I use video=uvesa UVESA_MODE=1024x768 and all is working in native monitor resolution!

More detailed description is here (in Russian language).


This is possible to be done (infact, anything is possible in android. Thats the beauty and power Android has being open source :) ). You will need to edit android source code.

First, a little info. This text is a string that resides inside frameworks_base/packages/Keyguard/res/values/strings.xml in android source code.

The actual string declaration is:

<string name="kg_too_many_failed_attempts_countdown">Try again in <xliff:g id="number">%d</xliff:g> seconds.</string>

Now for how to edit this timeout.

The lockscreen controls are controlled by a library KeyguardSecurityContainer which resides in frameworks_base/packages/Keyguard/src/com/android/keyguard/KeyguardSecurityContainer.java

You need to edit this library.

The method that controls this timeout is showTimeoutDialog().

Although the code may slightly vary according to rom and android version.

For instance, in CM 12, its declared like this->

private void showTimeoutDialog() {
//This is likely the variable you need to assign your new value to
        int timeoutInSeconds = (int) LockPatternUtils.FAILED_ATTEMPT_TIMEOUT_MS / 1000;
        int messageId = 0;

        switch (mSecurityModel.getSecurityMode()) {
            case Pattern:
                messageId = R.string.kg_too_many_failed_pattern_attempts_dialog_message;
                break;
            case PIN:
                messageId = R.string.kg_too_many_failed_pin_attempts_dialog_message;
                break;
            case Password:
                messageId = R.string.kg_too_many_failed_password_attempts_dialog_message;
                break;
            // These don't have timeout dialogs.
            case Account:
            case Biometric:
            case Invalid:
            case None:
            case SimPin:
            case SimPuk:
                break;
        }

As you can see, you will need to assign your new value to variable timeoutInSeconds.

NOTE: Currently my laptop battery is quite low to compile and test the rom with edited or changed values. So this method is untested. Please perform any modifications at your own risk and after you have proper backups. At best, it could be a change in variable that controls the timeout (since I merely gave the this a quick reading). But this is the library that controls keyguard actions.

Also, on side note there might be some third party app that allows you to do this (although currently I do not know of any such app. But in case it exists...). I told you a direct way to mod your lockscreen guard.

Hope this helps.


All apps except WhatsApp cannot work on WiFi

Try cleaning cache, e.g. using the All in One Toolbox, then restart your phone.


Oppo find 7: bootloader re-lock impossible?

I see the same behavior on my Find 7.  I also seem to recall the device arriving unlocked.  As far as I can tell, it simply does not support locking the bootloader.

Running unlock just instantly says OK despite the fact that Developer Options does not contain the "Enable OEM Lock" setting at all (on the latest ColorOS 2.1.5i software, which is Android 5.0 — the version where that feature was added).  I also cannot find anything about (un)locking the Find 7's bootloader online other than one obscure Thai site that seems like it is probably trying to get clicks by reposting the same instructions for multiple devices.


How to enable the Native Library in OsmAnd?

To activate native rendering go into Settings/OsmAnd development/Use native rendering (Use C++ rendering instead of Java)

Edit: I've added a screenshot from OsmAnd+ 1.9.2g


As long as the data is stored in server of someone else they do have access to data you have stored, but it's different thing do they allow their employees access to data. I'd say no. They won't never give their employees access to your data, but if you read their terms of service you will find it out how they use your data. If they "access to your data" I believe they do not access to data themselves. It's like a bot which finds your interests and fetches more interesting ads front of your face, but basically none of the real persons do not know your interests. Data is anonymous. They use something else than your name or email to identify you to show you ads of your interests.


Can I use one number on two different phone(Device) on Whatsapp?

The short answer: you can't do it using the native app, but there is a web interface that will work on Chrome, Firefox,  Opera and most other browsers  in desktop mode (i.e. "request desktop site" or "user agent: desktop").

Whatsapp allows only one device to pull your messages from their servers. You can make the app think you only have one device by changing the MAC address and some other files using root access, but that doesn't mean it will work.

Whatsapp messages are stored only temporarily on the whatsapp servers. This means thay when device A downloads those messages, device B can no longer see them. This means that, in order to keep your messages synchronized, you will need to constantly sync your messages using tools with root access. This is not very usable to most people.

The easiest solution would be to use the app on device A and the web interface, (web.whatsapp.com), on device B. To make this work on an Android device you need to make it request the desktop site. There you can scan a QR code into your first device by opening the menu and selecting "whatsapp web". Point your camera at the QR code and you can use Chrome to send and receive whatsapp messages.  This requires the device with the official app to be on and connected to the Internet.


What really happens during a factory reset? Does it securely erase all data?

A factory reset reformats the phone's user-data partition, but it's not a "secure" wipe; it doesn't overwrite everything with zeroes.  If you want to be sure everything is erased, you can encrypt the phone first (which overwrites all the data with encrypted versions of itself), then do a factory reset (which sets up a new unencrypted filesystem).

(Update:  Most newer devices — those that shipped with Android 5 or later — are encrypted by default, so there's no need for a manual encryption step before wiping.  I expect that a factory reset should erase the master encryption key, rendering all the old data unreadable — though Google's documentation doesn't explicitly say so.)

Note that a factory reset leaves the phone's system partition (the "ROM") untouched.  If you've made any changes to the system partition (such as rooting), those will remain.


Disable autostart on boot and restrict background execution

Without getting into the details whether or not one  should stop autostarting apps, and what  could be the consequences as discussed in a plenty of other answers, here are my simple solutions which may work without any third party apps, at least on Android Pie.

ROOT SOLUTION:

Apps use BroadcastRceivers to listen for broadcast ACTION_BOOT_COMPLETED so that they can run on boot. Broadcast receiver is an app component that can be disabled with root privileges.

Using Package Manager list all broadcast receivers listening for BOOT_COMPLETED:

~# pm query-receivers --components -a android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED

It will give a list of broadcast receivers in format package_name/component_name. See dumpsys activity broadcast-stats and dumpsys activity broadcasts for more details.

Now to disable a component:

~# pm disable <package/component>

There are apps like Autostarts (com.elsdoerfer.android.autostarts) and SD Maid (eu.thedarken.sdm) which can do same for you. File /data/system/users/0/package-restrictions.xml can also be edited directly to disable apps or their components, but it's not recommended.
It's possible to disable multiple broadcast receivers of an app, and a single receiver can also possibly listen to multiple types of broadcast events.

NON-ROOT SOLUTION: (non-universal)

In order to receive android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED, apps need android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED which is a normal permission and hence can't be revoked by user.

However there is a hidden permission management framework, named AppOps that provides a slightly more fine-grained control of (permission-like) operations. OP_BOOT_COMPLETED is one of those but it's not a part of AOSP, only added by some custom ROMs like LineageOS. If you are on one of such ROMs, you can control the autostart behavior through adb shell:

~$ appops set <package> BOOT_COMPLETED deny

Now the app won't be allowed to receive BOOT_COMPLETED broadcast. There are apps like App Ops (rikka.appops) which can do same for you. Some custom ROMs have built-in front-ends to AppOps with different names like Privacy Guard, AutoStart Manager etc.

Please note that AppOps:

  is not generally intended for third party application developers; most features are only available to system applications

So its usage without root may be disallowed or get harder in next Android releases.

Both of the above methods can stop apps from starting on boot only. An app can listen for some other broadcast events too and it can keep on restarting if killed, or run in background continuously (as a service) if it's designed to be so. See dumpsys activity services for more details.

A slightly different approach would be to stop apps from running in background by using OP_RUN_IN_BACKGROUND (introduced in Nougat) and/or RUN_ANY_IN_BACKGROUND (introduced in Pie) which are part of AOSP:

~$ appops set <package> RUN_IN_BACKGROUND deny

They don't have an equivalent manifest permission, but there is an experimental permission with same name.


First of all... MAKE SURE YOU HAVE DOWNLOADED THE CORRECT ROM FOR YOUR DEVICE..
Steps:

Backup important files
Connect usb
Go to recovery and select wipe
select advance
select the things you wanna wipe.. except the usb-otg thing
After wiping.. go to advance(from home page of twrp)
select adb sideload
Make sure adb is installed on your pc
in cmd(admin) type adb devices and check that your phone there
Type adb sideload LineageOS.zip replace LineageOS.zip with your rom
Enjoy LineageOS!!

I'd recommend you to download eelo.. a fork of LineageOS.. It has MicroG which is really awesome.. I'm currently using the same..


On my device it's /data/misc/wifi/WifiConfigStore.xml
You will need root to access it.


Copy Google talk chat messages to clipboard

If you are using Google Talk and have a GMail account, your chats are automatically logged in GMail. If you search for label:chat, you should be able to find that conversation and copy the text from your GMail application.

BTW, I think that the fact that you can't copy the text from the chat app really needs to be fixed.


Error code 331 is an error that you would get back from the SMS gateway. It means: No network service is available.

If you continue to get that message, I suggest you call your carrier.


How to stop touchpal providing a daily summary?

It seems they recently added an option to disable it:

TouchPal -> Settings -> General Settings -> uncheck Daily Summary

The new interface to disable daily summary (22 Nov 2016):

TouchPal--> Settings--> Look & Feel --> uncheck Daily Summary


Find out over the network if Android device is active

It appears that nVidia Shield Android TV comes with Android 5.1.1 and a Marshmallow update is available since December only. I'm assuming that Android 5.1.1 is the version installed in your device.

Query system services

Enable adb in wireless mode on device. Follow the official guide or this answer of Izzy for instructions, if needed.

You can find the status of Android - sleep or awake - from the dump of various system services.

Service: Power

adb shell dumpsys power

Search the strings mWakefulness and/or Display Power: state. Both of them would give you the status you need.

Example:

adb shell 'dumpsys power | grep -e "mWakefulness=" -e "Display Power"'

gives me

mWakefulness=Asleep
Display Power: state=OFF

Service: Window

adb shell dumpsys window

Search the strings mAwake=true and/or mScreenOnEarly=true and/or mScreenOnFully=true

Example:

adb shell 'dumpsys window | grep -e "mAwake=" -e "mScreenOnEarly" -e "mScreenOnFully"'

gives me

mAwake=true
mScreenOnEarly=true mScreenOnFully=true

Service: Display

adb shell dumpsys display

Search the strings mState=OFF and/or mScreenState=OFF.

Example:

adb shell 'dumpsys display | grep -e "mState=" -e "mScreenState"'

gives me

mState=OFF
mScreenState=OFF

Use Automation

If none of the system services mentioned in previous method worked for you, setup an automation app, such as Tasker or MacroDroid or Automate.

We would now use automation to write the status of Android into a file, such as Sleeping for sleep mode and Awake when it is awake.

Tasker,

Profile: Event → Display → Display Off
Task: (Actions) : File → Write File → select a text file to write into, type Sleeping and uncheck Add Newline
Profile: Event → Display → Display On
Task: (Actions) : File → Write File → select a text file to write into, type Awake and uncheck Add Newline

MacroDroid

Android sadly doesn't come with echo or printf utility, If the device is rooted then you can install busybox and be at peace. If not, download busybox binary, set executable permissions and push it into /data/local/tmp using adb push. Another way for a non-rooted device is to keep three files, one for state, one with the text Sleeping and and the last one  with the text Awake. Whenever the screen turns off/on, copy the second/third file into first one.

MacriDroid also requires a plugin, such as Secure Settings to execute commands.

Trigger: Screen On/Off → Screen Off
Action: Secure Settings → Actions → Run Command:

Command: echo Sleeping > FILE_PATH
Command Name: Screen off

Trigger: Screen On/Off → Screen On
Action: Secure Settings → Actions → Run Command:

Command: echo Awake > FILE_PATH
Command Name: Screen off

For a non-rooted Android, echo should be replaced with ./data/local/tmp/busybox echo. Otherwise, do a copy operation using the command cp SOURCE DESTINATION.

Automate

Your flow should more or less look like this image

(Click image to enlarge)

Your need to create two flows, one for sleep and other for awake. The second block in the flow is named Broadcast receive and can be found under Apps. The third block is named File write text and can be found under File & Storage.

You can now check the content of that file using adb in wireless mode or using SSH (requires an SSH server on Android; run the server on all interfaces and do not bind it to a single interface.)

There is another possibility, such as making your automation app upload the file to a local or remote server so that you can query that server instead of Android to know status.


Get rid of setting bar above Gboard keyboard

Older Gboard doesn't have the setting bar above the keyboard, so downgrading is one of the options.

Here's what Gboard v5.1.18 looks like.


When you use fastboot boot FILE.img, the image is downloaded and written into the RAM and than the normal procedure to boot a boot.img is followed. No changes to any partition takes place.

If the image is invalid or cannot be booted into, the boot process automatically falls back to the image in the boot partition. Once the temporary kernel is booted into, it is treated no different from the one stored in the boot partition. You won't get to see "booted kernel" or alike info anywhere in the Android. Once you reboot the device that image gets flushed out of the memory and the one from the boot partition would be loaded and booted into.


Unfortunately you can't do that on your mobile device but is possible on your computer . See map help

Language selected on device is common to Google map. If your device is rooted , you can use Xposed App Settings to change language of apps


on the Play Store there are several utilities to clean Phone and speed up processes. My favourite is this:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cleanmaster.mguard

Your excessive use of system RAM is (maybe) due to some persistently active process on your phone. Follow this guide to see yours (and maybe evaulate a uninstallation of some):
http://www.wikihow.com/See-What-Apps-Are-Currently-Running-on-Android

By the way, can you please tell us more information about your Android version?

Best regards,

Luca


If you have rom manager before, then you can install any rom which you will find on different sites


Standalone Chrome to phone outside browser?

You need Evernote! http://www.evernote.com/  They have a web interface and an Android app.  It's really pretty fantastic!


How come some apps won't download from Market?

simple2ext (as described here: http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/20328-solution-to-unable-to-download-big-apps-from-the-market/ ) did the job for me. I am also running CM 7.0.3 and had problems with downloading big apps from market. Sometimes it helped clearing the dalvik cache but not always.


Lost data upgrading roms, but data is still there when viewed with Clockwork and Clockwork alone. Can I recover it?

If you were going from CM10 to CM10.1 — that is, moving from Android 4.1 to 4.2 — your data "loss" is probably because the path to your emulated SD card has changed due to the new multiuser support.  Previously, the SD card was /data/media, but now it's a subdirectory such as /data/media/0, with additional subdirectories (such as /data/media/1) for additional user accounts.  The files should've been moved to the new location automatically when you first booted CM10.1, but maybe that didn't happen.

Using a root file manager or shell, create a /data/media/0 directory if it doesn't exist already, and then move all the other files from /data/media into the 0 subdirectory, and it should become visible within Android again.

If you use ClockworkMod for backups, you may find that it can no longer find your backups directory, because it's still looking for /data/media/clockworkmod, not /data/media/0/clockworkmod.  You can fix that by creating a symlink in the old location.  From a root shell, run these two commands:

cd /data/media
ln -s 0/clockworkmod clockworkmod


How can I tell if an app can be a "link" target?

Short and put in lay terms:

There's no standard defined on how to pass this information between apps, so there are no two apps who can interact the way you want.

Longer and with some more detailed information:

The app-selection menu for e.g. a browser or a homescreen only appears when multiple apps announce their being-available for  a certain service, and only when this service is called (to put it in easy words; the longer and more technical variant talks about intents and listerners). While web-browsers and homescreens are somehow "generic services" existing on all Android devices, there are standard "intents" defined (see e.g. this question on stackoverflow for opening a page in a browser -- or this question here which probably explains it even better).

As long as there is no corresponding intent (with a defined API for how to pass it the specific chapter:verse to show), your wish can not be fulfilled. Moreover, application developers must implement this into their apps before you can use it.

As to my knowledge neither such API exists nor is it implemented -- there cannot exist any programs acting according to your wishes (except, of course, both are from the same developer; if two or more agreed on terms of how to handle this, that already would mean defining an API).


Forced RTL Layout Option not showing up on my Huawei Phone

RTL Layout and Huawei... I don't think you can change the layout yourself unless you're a software developer. Well yes, this is a software issue; I talked to a salesperson from Huawei and he told me that it should be possible to integrate this option with a software update. He promised me to tell the people who are developing Huawei-software about RTL layout. I'm left-handed and I find RTL Layout better. I own a Samsung by the way, it has RTL layout option.
cheers.lina


Open the email you would like to forward.

Click on the "more" 3 dots. it is there under Reply all.


You will find a good explanation of charging slowly in answers to this question Android phone "charging slowly": How to make it faster

  ...charge rate is fast enough for my purposes

It is not what you feel, it depends on the power as you can see from Andrew's answer there. Depending on the power the toast is displayed

Try methods suggested there to improve charging power. If that doesn't help, there is nothing you can do to prevent the notification from showing up

Edit: What finally did work for OP was a thicker Charging cable as was one of the recommendations on the linked answer


Could you indicate me a PDF reader for android with a fit visible feature?

I am not sure about Foxit Reader, but I am using the paid ezPDF Reader.

I am really amazed about its ability to show and fit the content to screen when reading columns of text (like in newspaper). It has other super features like horizontal scroll and automatic scroll to next part.


Make Titanium Backup work across multiple user accounts

I messed up somewhere with multi-user functionality of my Android 5.0 ROM and because of that the following method was tested only on stock Android 6.0.1.

  The owner has root access while the other user doesn't So I can't use titanium as the other but I need to make backups of the other user's apps. (sic)

SuperSU supports multi-user functionality. In its settings you would find the option Enable multi-user under the section Security. Enable it. When you would attempt to enable it, SuperSU would show a dialog stating that all users need to have SuperSU installed in their account and the way to go is to have SuperSU installed as a system app.

Make SuperSU app accessible through every user account

It's very simple to do using ES File Explorer. Copy the apk of SuperSU into /system/app/, reboot and you're done making it a system app.

Alternatively, you can setup adb in PC and execute this command:

adb install -r FILE   # replace FILE with file path of latest and stable SuperSU apk downloaded in your PC

-r would  (re)install the app in all the user accounts.

If you've a terminal emulator app and apk available under /sdcard, then you can execute this command:

pm install -r FILE  # replace FILE with file path of SuperSU apk wherever it is available in /sdcard

Do the same with Titanium Backup app's apk as well, or alternatively, you can always go into that secondary account and side load the app (I doubt whether a secondary user is allowed to do that).

Protect SuperSU from unauthorized access

Protect your SuperSU app with a PIN code so that nobody can grant root access to any app without entering that code. You need to set PIN code in SuperSU when you're logged in as the owner. The PIN code would apply on all user sessions.

You can set PIN code from settings of SuperSU app. It is available under Security section.

This would cause some (major) inconvenience to you since even when logged in as the owner in primary account, if an app demands root access you would be given the option to grant the access only when you enter that PIN code. That's the price you've to pay.

Set Default access to Prompt in secondary accounts

In the SuperSU app of your secondary account(s), make sure the Default access type is set to Prompt only.

Time to launch Titanium Backup in secondary account. Titanium Backup would look for root rights and you would be shown a window  by SuperSu to  provide PIN code. Provide it, grant root access and that's all to be done for setup.


Does Angry Birds and other games have Leaderboard on Android devices?

Android as a platform doesn't have any equivalent to GameCenter currently. Some Android games use OpenFeint for leaderboards and achievements, but it's not an official standard of any kind and it's not implemented in the Angry Birds games specifically. Other games choose to implement their own leaderboard systems (PewPew does this, for example).


How to fix “Unfortunately Contacts Has Stopped” or Very slow contact loading

This is very likely to be caused by a bug in an update, but check with other people who have the same phone to be sure. Assuming you want to keep your system updated, I suggest you move to another contacts app like Contacts+, which offer more options than the stock contacts app.
You might use CleanMaster to see which apps are causing the phone to go slow.
Meanwhile, I would suggest contacting Huawei (if you haven't done so already) so they will fix this issue in a later update.


Can I hide a program from ongoing activities in the notification bar?

As of Android 2.0, the system requires that apps that run constantly in the background, and that require a certain level of priority so that they don't get killed offhand (like music apps), put an Ongoing Notification. This was to prevent abuse of requesting this level of priority without letting the user know that it's occurring.

You can read about this here:
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Service.html#startForeground(int, android.app.Notification)


Notifications are very delayed on android - but only sometimes (apparently FIXED)

One reason could be you have auto-sync turned of which is resulting in emails not being synced automatically.To enable this
Goto Setfings->Accounts & Sync ->tick Auto-Sync
also select your google account from there and make sure "Sync Gmail" option is ticked.
Another reason that may cause this can be battery savers.
Try turning of "battery saving mode" on your device and test again also turn off any 3rd party battery savers if you have any or white list the Gmail app in them.


What is the best way to get pictures on your contacts with ICS (Galaxy Nexus)?

The official facebook app will add pictures to your contacts if you set it to sync your contacts.

Looks like @Dunhamzzz got the SyncMyPix part in before me, I did not get a message that said that there had been a new answer, though.

I don't like that the facebook app removes all the data that it adds to your contacts if you remove the application. To counter the facebook issue, I use an app called SyncMyPix that can pull your facebook contacts and put the image on your contact on your device. The nice thing about SyncMyPix, if it doesn't match a contact, it lets you go through them at the end and say "Sync this Facebook Contact with this Android Contact", and it remembers that mapping so the next time you sync, they are "connected"


If I root the device can I upgrade to Froyo without waiting for the operator's release?

Looking at your profile it looks like you're based in the UK? If so you should have no problem running the Samsung's European JPO release of the Galaxy S Froyo software that went out to unbranded UK Galaxy S's a few weeks ago. As this is an Official Samsung release there's no need to root to apply it, you just need to trick Samsung's software into installing it for you.

To start with I'll make the assumption that you have no problems running the Kies software, that it recognizes your phone when you plug it in, and that you get a "You are already running the latest release" message when you click the Firmware Upgrade link. (this is a big set of assumptions given the quality of Kies, if any of these aren't true, then you need to get Kies working properly before going further).

This post on Vodafone UK's Galaxy S forums lays out the steps Samsung Galaxy S - Froyo Update (Android 2.2) (reply 113). I'll summarise them below as Vodafone are about to upgrade their forums to new software, so I have no idea if the post will survive, or the link will still work in a week or two's time, credit to "ado28" for these instructions.

  First of all you need to go into
  regedit and do some minor alterations
  to the registry.

  Do not update Kies! If you do then I
  think this tweak won’t work! The Kies
  version I used was 1.5.0.10024_74 but
  I fooled it into thinking it was the
  latest version

  Step by step guide

  Back up everything you wish to keep, including Apps, phone numbers,
  Text messages etc because we're going
  to wipe your phone clean before we
  start!
  Go to Settings – Privacy – FACTORY DATA RESET and click. Follow the
  prompts and then let it wipe your
  phone.
  Now you have a bare naked phone again and can proceed onto the next
  step.
  Open up Kies and leave running
  Connect phone
  Open Regedit by clicking on Start – Run – then type in regedit and press
  enter
  Scroll down to Kies and look for “Localver” see pic
  Change your Localver code to 1.5.3.10103.100
  Now go to your Device DB folder and change your settings to these:

  "SoftwareRevision"="I9000XXJF3/I9000OXAJF3/I9000XXJF3/I9000XXJF3"
  "ProductCode"="GT-I9000HKDXEU"
  "HIDSWVER"="I9000XXJF3/I9000OXAJF3/I9000XXJF3/I9000XXJF3"
  "DEVCONINFO"="" Delete the writing
  in this box and leave blank.

  Now go back into Kies and click "Update firmware"

  This will now allow everyone who has
  JPA on their handset with the product
  code XEE to be replaced with JPO and
  the product code XEU which is for the
  UK. Once you have successfully updated
  then allow the phone to boot up. Once
  booted up you will now need to go back
  into your settings and change your
  product code to XEU. To do this open
  your keypad and type in *#272*YOUR
  IMEI# and now you will be back to
  having a lovely wee choice of product
  codes to enter. Choose XEU and
  install. The phone will reboot and you
  will now officially be on JPO with the
  correct product code XEU!

  Please note that by doing any update
  on your phone could cause it to brick
  itself. The guide I have written
  worked perfect for me however I can’t
  be held responsible if your phone
  bricks itself. To be safe always try
  the 3 button recovery method first
  before you update and also doing a
  factory reset first usually ensures a
  smooth installation of new firmware.

Extra note on Kies: as stated above, this doesn't work with the latest version of Kies. If you need an older version of Kies then this version should allow you to do this (according to XDA): Kies version 1.5.3.10093_82.

If you do end up uninstalling and reinstalling Kies and find that it doesn't detect your phone any more, then first thing to try is clicking the menu icon in the top-left corner of Kies and selecting the "install drivers" option.


How do you extract the boot.img from a samsung g4?

getting the proper adb version and also using Linux instead of windows AND screwing with the usb debug feature until a proper RSA key exchange finally occurred. The combination of the 3 corrected the issue.....


Is there any software for Tablets to edit PDF or PS -files?

You could give Qoppa PDF Notes a try:

The best app for editing, annotating, filling forms, and signing PDF documents.
qPDF Notes is a user-friendly, all-in-one PDF app to view, edit, and markup PDF documents, digitally sign and share them, and fill PDF forms. Saved documents are fully compatible with Adobe Acrobat and the PDF standard, and can be viewed in any capable PDF reader.

The link leads to the demo (which places a watermark on all your edits); a full version is available for about EUR 4.
If you just want to annotate, there are plenty of apps available capable of that.
P.S.: And it sure is "The best app for editing PDF documents" at the moment -- I could find no other, so it's also the only AFAIK :)


What is actually happening on the rom when I rooting android device? What is happen on rooting?

When you use your phone, access applications and navigate it's file system, you do so as a user with a given set of permissions. This places certain restrictions on what you can and can't do or access.

Rooting your phone places an executable on your device called su (switch user), this executable switches the account credentials and permissions that you use to interact with the file system on your phone, making you a super user.

Android is based on the Linux Kernel, and this is essentially the same as achieving 'root' on a Linux device (hence the term rooting).


Telegram still knows my location after using a VPN

there are different methods to get the user's current location in android. If you have turned off your location  it checks your last known location from your phone

Try changing your current location in maps by using/downloading FAKE GPS from play store.

Hope this helps.

Thank you


ADB dumpsys batterystats - How does one read it?

This is a partial answer that needs more details through the full dump to understand whats the and read the output of what the system is trying to convey.

The data unit is a number taken from the following list:
 1: Number of objects
 2: Number of bytes
 3: Number of milliseconds
 4: Number of allocations
 5: Id
 6: Percent
 s: Number of seconds (monotonic time)
 Default value for data of type int/long is 2 (bytes).

Breaks down to what I think is:

The data unit is a number taken from the following list:

1: Number of objects = (4)

2: Number of bytes {057}

3: Number of milliseconds. +21h44m19s484ms wake_lock=1000 screen screenwake=1000

4: Number of allocations wake_lock=1000, screen screenwake=1000

5: Id. android.policy:POWER

6: Percent
 s: Number of seconds (monotonic time)
 Default value for data of type int/long is 2 (bytes).

https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core/+/master/logcat/event.logtags

The time value starts at boot to current breaking the time down to.

+21h44m19s484ms
First the time since thw device was bopted and reads like:

21h is 21 hours.

44m is 44 minutes

19s is 19 seconds

484ms is 484 milliseconds.

However there is more going on since it reads line by line meaning one line is not the complete story. In order to understand whats going on the full log or dump is crucially needed.


So what 'Access Denied' in this case is you do not have the correct permissions to execute the file. This can be solved 2 different ways:

use the sudo command (super user can run any file)

sudo myprogram -options param1 param2 param...

use chmod o+x filename to let anyone execute the file

so basically you need a rooted device to be able to run that file, unless you change the permissions of the file before you transfer it to the device. You can use the chmod command to add the execute permission to the file before you hand it off to the device. This way anyone can execute the file. Be warned, adding the execute permission for everyone is a security hole if the program can be used to change the file system in any way. Rooting your tablet in this case might actually be safer.


Samsung Galaxy S2 recites any actions that I do. How to turn it off?

There is a big chance you turned on TalkBack accessibility option by accident. You may want to turn off to fix this "issue".

Enable or disable accessibility services.

From the Home screen, touch Applications  > Settings > Accessibility .
Touch Accessibility to toggle a checkmark.
Touch TalkBack to toggle a checkmark. When enabled, recites menu options, application titles, contacts, and other items when scrolling and making selections.

If an Attention prompt appears, touch OK to continue or Cancel to exit.

(copied with slight modification)
To scroll when TalkBack is active, use 2 fingers when scrolling. From Google Support

Tip: To scroll across screens, use two fingers along the screen.


How to block those annoying "Your device is infected" ads in Chrome without root

Now that you are rooted, you have a host of options and can be free from Google's policy of removing Ad blocking apps from play store

Install Xposed for your Android version and then Adaway to block all ads. remember to keep updating hostfiles periodically

  AdAway is a utility for root users used to help manage hostfile entries. AdAway doesn't directly block ads; it limits unwanted ads by blocking servers that distribute those ads to websites

If you are not familiar with Xposed, Xposed: The mighty Android tool box by Izzy, would be very useful


Cannot sign-in Google account on Samsung Galaxy S with 2-step authentication

If you signed up for 2-step verification, you may need to enter an application-specific password in place of your regular account password. You can generate an application-specific password when you are authorizing access to your Google Account. This process takes a few minutes, and you only need to do it once per application or device.

Note: For Android devices running 4.0 or higher, you do not need an application-specific password and only need to submit your username and password. You'll be directed to another page where you can enter a one-time six-digit code.

To check if 2-step verification is on or off, visit https://www.google.com/settings/.


In your Gmail app go to settings, then click on your your target email address (where you want to get image attachments downloaded) , then untick the option which says "Auto download attachment to recent messages via Wi-Fi" try again to get your image.

It seems attachment downloads are restricted to wi-fi (default) but option is not clear at all as it seems to imlply a different thing. So disabling this option implies both data and wi-fi are considered (although the option is a bit misleading) It however fixed the issue.

Edit

Downloaded images are saved in downloads folder of sdcard or here /storage/emulated/0/Download

credits: beeshyams


As suggested in comments, I looked at my phone settings and it was in dark setting. Whatsapp likely upgraded in the background to default theme so it automatically turned dark (latest version of WhatsApp does that).

To revert to light theme, from chat settings, change it to light theme. If it doesn't change, clearing cache and rebooting may help


I find Epistle a useful text editor that syncs with a Dropbox folder, it's not the most advanced editor but can handle both plain text and Markdown formatted plain text (as used here). It uses the built-in Android text selection features, so you can select a line by dragging the text selection arrows to both ends.


What does this icon in my notification window mean?

Its shows that your phone is in Extended Standby Mode.

You can find it in Settings->PowerManagemnet

Extended standby mode increases the standby time by reducing the background activities when the phone is in standby mode.

Data will automatically be turned off and background activities will be stopped from waking up , while applications will also be prevented from syncing data.

You will still be able to receive calls and texts, while the calendar application and  alarms will still feature normally. As soon as you unlock your smartphone it'll go returning to functioning normally.

Any ongoing downloads or bluetooth transfer will be allowed to complete and once completed data will be turned off.

Extended standby mode is replaced with Stamina Mode for Xperia running on Jellybean or higher

Source : SONY


cloud bookmarking app or method working with del.ic.ious/gmarks?

There's an add-on for Dolphin Browser HD which can sync with Google Bookmarks: Bookmarks to SD.

GoMarks for Google Bookmarks is also in Play Store.

Do try Xmarks too if you need cloud bookmark sync (not limited to Delicious, Gmarks). It has an Android app as well as Dolphin add-on too. But, its not free on Android.


Sounds like it might be your ROM. You could start by clearing the cache and dalvik. If it were me, I'd back up my sms and mms and do a full flash. I doubt a factory reset alone will help. I had an issue with permissions when my phone was connected to USB with certain ROMS, sometimes accessing with my PC, sometimes through recovery. I have to believe it's ROM related since the current version of PAC-man I'm using has been much more cooperative. I doubt it's driver related, but that'd be the safest starting point if you have sensitive data on your phone.


Play Store icons and downloaded app icons, same or different

Icons are also provided by your icon theme. But for convenience both kept nearly similar.
Yes, it is possible to keep two different icons. But, that will create confusion to your user. I can cite you an example of an app. This app is SuperSu. It can change up to 7 icons ( including 1 invisible ) if a user opts.
You can also change app icons by using some app that replaces icon from the app and from your system. For an example see this app.
You can also follow this tutorial to change the icon.


How safe is the android Lock Screen with password?

I wanted to know, so I tried entering my password incorrectly repeatedly. (Motorola Droid 3 - Android 2.3.4)

After 5, 10, and 15 attempts I was given a 30 second "cool down" where I could not try again.

On the 15th attempt I was informed that if I entered my password incorrectly 5 more times I would be forced to re-sign in with my Google Account.

So after 20 failed attempts, you can no longer try to enter a password - you must sign in with your Google Credentials.

I would say you are reasonably secure from a brute-force password log in at the password screen.

This does not take into account any other methods - just attempting to brute force.

This answer may address methods that could be used to bypass the lock screen.

To specifically address your concern about Firefox for Android's stored passwords - you can disable Firefox Sync on a lost tablet (Mozilla's Instructions) by changing your sync password. Mozilla also suggests changing all of your passwords after it.


Cannot delete hundreds of duplicate contacts

Firstly where are the duplicates from? You should be able to selectively sync items from exchange, thus uncheck the contacts section. Furthermore, some default contact apps allow "link", where you can link all aspects of the contacts. I gather your issue is for phone, mobile, email etc it is creating another contact.

The fact that they are reappearing backs the theory it is due to repeated sync. A handy alternative would be grab any contacts from your exchange, tick the option to migrate to SIM then disable sync. You'll still be able to search for them via email etc by selecting "search on server" etc.


Android Phone Off State and Boot process - Does Android consume power when switched off?

Clarification
You're asking different things in each part of the post. The title asks "Does Android consume power when switched off?" but the latter part of the post asks "which is watching the key press events?", with a few different questions in between, which adds further distractions and confusions to the possible answerers...
Anyhow, I guess it all boils down to:  "Once an Android phone is turned off, what wakes it up to start a process in each appropriate situations?".
Backgrounds
To answer this, I'll have to take you to even lower level of an electronic device: hardware.
You may argue,

"What are you talking about?! A hardware is nothing when there's no software! Something HAS to be there watching the button input and I'm simply asking what that could be".

Be patient, please. Well get there soon.

"But...!"

Believe me. Besides, you might need to remind yourself of the definition of 'software' and 'hardware' now, since we're about to dive deep into such a low level.
I wonder whether you've ever played with an Arduino, those little boards that get clicky button inputs and put flashy LED outputs. A chip working as the brain in one of these devices* is called an 'MCU', or a 'microcontroller'. A computer - including Android devices - is equipped with a few of these. Every firmware/ROM chips, BIOS chips, or any programmable ICs is likely another microcontroller.
Simple Answer
These MCUs are quite simple compared to CPUs, but more robust and energy-efficient. For this reason, MCUs are often used to aid CPUs to set things up for them. How do they work? Essentially, they behave just according to how a firmware is programmed inside the ROM.
"Ha, so it's simply the Boot ROM, isn't it? You could have just said so!" Well, you'll have to know a bit more to understand better to get an answer for each of your oh-so-many questions.
Deeper Explanation
The keywords are interrupt and sleep mode (the terminology of the latter may vary).
(Wrong) Example
The firmware could be coded in a way that the chip would constantly be looking at the external inputs. However, this is not the ideal way. The chip will have to retrieve the state of a button, compare whether it's on or off, and then count up to 50ms or so to simply wait. Now back to retrieving the state, and so on. The poweroff state could last hours, days, or even years - all the while unbeknownst to the poor little chip is whether the moment for it to shine again would ever come...
Sorry, that was a little bit disturbing. The existential crisis is not the only problem though, if that helps. Even if the chip were to be actively working, each glancing costs valuable resource as well!
Interrupt
Interrupt works the other way round. It's more like giving a notification to the main computational part. An MCU with the capability, essentially every modern one, is prepared with a procedure where they could push away & forget whatever they were up to before, execute a specific function to respond to the interrupt signal, and then get back to the task they were doing before. This way, an MCU doesn't have to actively, repeatedly compute a retrieval & comparison set. In the case of a typical Android device, you could assign interrupt for [power applied/removed on the charger pin], [power applied/removed on the charger pin] and [power button pressed].
Sleep Mode
You may ask,

"Okay, sooo... now that MCU doesn't have to be burdened with that, it could happily sleep?"

HA! No.
...well yes. MCU could just sleep there.
Actually what I want to remark here is that, don't quote me on this but, what they sip when they sleep should be comparable to self discharge of a battery. At this point, there's so little software involved here that I would say those running at this point are all purely implemented in the hardware - but that's just my opinion and I don't consider myself expert enough to get you necessarily convinced.
Closure
So, basically, when in the poweroff state, Boot ROM is barely running that battery consumption is minuscule. When awakened, all it has to do is to call Preloader and/or to tell LK about what happened. I'm not sure of even deeper details; I have no idea but I'm willing to say it should be implementation dependent.
Clear Ups
I guess at this point, your main question should be answered.
Followings are answers to your other questions.

Does Android consume power when switched off?

No.
It is not any part of the Android OS ("Normal boot", you said) that consumes power.

Does Android consume power when switched off?

Yes but barely.
Note that there could be additional power consumption to run other parts, notably RTC (Real Time Clock) module.

But is the phone really off when we turn it off and the battery is inserted? I know that Android is really shut down but is the phone completely off regarding the software level?

No but almost.

when the phone is off and we press the power button is it the hardware which starts the boot really from zero (from the boot rom) or at this point the phone has already been finished with processing the boot rom, the preloader and loading the little kernel as well which is watching the key press events?

More like former.
Except Boot ROM is constantly running but barely.
Hope you got better idea about how everything works now!
*Note: Most Arduino boards have two MCUs, one in the center and the other to control the USB interface.


Still visible after I deleted my WhatsApp account

PS: I've just talked to some of my friends and on their phone I disappeared from their Favourites list automatically without manually refreshing.

I've just received the following answer from WhatsApp's support team:

  Hi there,

  Thanks for confirming your account to be deleted within the WhatsApp
  settings. Your phone number has been deactivated and it is scheduled
  to be deleted within 30 days. Therefore, please have your contacts
  refresh their Favorites List so that you no longer appear as a
  WhatsApp user.

  If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to
  contact us. We would be happy to help!

Sad that my friends have to refresh their Favourites list manually for me to be deleted. Especially when exactly this is described by WhatsApp's FAQ to be done seemingly automatically when you delete your account:

  Deleting your account will do the following:
  […]
  Delete you from your friends' WhatsApp Favorites lists.
  […]


Internal storage sd read in laptop: where are the files?

SD cards used as internal storage on Marshmallow devices are encrypted, you cannot read them in a computer, or any other device under normal conditions.

There are articles about how to extract the encryption key from the phone and use it to mount the encrypted file system in Linux, but it is still not perfect. https://nelenkov.blogspot.com/2015/06/decrypting-android-m-adopted-storage.html


Kingo Android ROOT. It's an installer for Windows. Just plug-in your phone with the USB cable and run the wizard.

Framaroot didn't work for me. So, I tried that one.


How do you fix "adb locksettings not found"?

I tried updating the phone to Android 8.1 and 9.0 and the issue seems to have been solved in both releases. If you're facing this issue try updating the OS and see if the problem still persists.


You can run ip address from a terminal or adb shell to get the MAC address.  Specifically, ip address show wlan0 will give you the MAC for the Wi-Fi chip on most devices.  The address is shown after link/ether on the second line:

22: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP qlen 1000
link/ether a0:b1:c2:d3:e4:f5 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.0.12/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global wlan0
inet6 ab01::c23d:45ef:ab67:89c0/64 scope link
   valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Thanks to Firelord for this suggestion.

Another alternative:

If you have BusyBox installed, you can run busybox ifconfig.  That will give output similar to the following (note the HWaddr on the first line):

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr A0:B1:C2:D3:E4:F5
          inet addr:192.168.0.12  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: ab01::c23d:45ef:ab67:89c0/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:993 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:747 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:904409 (883.2 KiB)  TX bytes:125749 (122.8 KiB)

If you don't have busybox you could try running ifconfig alone, but the version on my device has no output (and ifconfig wlan0 just shows the IP address).


Scan a single channel to measure RSSI of a specific AP when not associated

Install iw and then issue:

iw dev wlan0 scan freq 2417

It synchronously scans only the frequency(ies) you specify. This can give you multiple results per second!


More flexible Digital Wellbeing settings for limiting time spent in specific apps?

TimeLimit can be used to achieve the first three goals. Steps to follow:

Go into Settings -> Digital Wellbeing and delete all existing time limits, making a note of them as you do so, so you can recreate them below. They will be managed by Timelimit instead, from now on.
Install Timelimit from F-Droid (where it is called Open Timelimit) or Google Play.
Open the Timelimit app
Grant all the permissions requested - except the device management permission, which is optional, and dangerous, because I think it is impossible to unlock your phone if you forget your "parental" password.
Set a password for the "parental" user (which can be just you, or it can be someone else who you trust to set limits on your behalf)
Add apps which you don't want to be time-limited to the "Allowed Apps" category. Be warned that notifications will be limited too - so make sure to add apps which you want to receive notifications at all times from, to this category!
Create a new category, e.g. "Social media".
Add the apps that you want to be in this category
Set a time limit for each day that you want the time limit to apply on, individually. So if you want to limit the apps during week days, you have to create 5 separate limits, one for each day. There is a warning message that warns you that you have to do it this way, but it's easy to skip past it and miss it. The problem is, if you just select all 5 week days, your limit will apply to the whole 5 days, and once it's exceeded, it's exceeded for the whole week!

The "child" user is the user that is restricted, and does not need a password. You can rename that user if you are not a child, by going into it and tapping the gear icon.
If you are asking someone else to manage the time limits on your behalf, perhaps because you don't trust yourself to manage them appropriately, there is currently no option to rename the "parent 1" user, but you can achieve the same effect by creating a new "parent" and then deleting "parent 1".


Why does Huawei Honor 6 show something other on screen when I put a magnet on it?

It's a feature to display useful info and interact with it when you're using magnetic case for Huawei Honor 6. Searching for "Huawei Honor 6 magnetic case" will show how it's supposed to be used:

(Image courtesy of Lelong.my)

From what I researched, most of Honor 6's magnetic cases have small cut-in on the front-right side where you can touch the screen to interact with the phone while the case is closed.


disabling sideloading APK'S via disabling the packageinstaller

This question offers itself to a variety of approaches, because it seems that you are relying to an unknown extent on your user's lack of dev savvy.

A) Simplest: if your user is not an android tech, and you have no app store installed on the device, why assume that they know what an apk is and where to obtain one?

B) however, if you think that thats too simple , you can disable unknown sources and hide the setting from the user, (that should work on a reg phone, though not sure about lineage OS.)
adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.android.settings.<settingName> to disable a particular setting has been known to work on some devices, you can try it on the package manager as well, as it does not remove the apk from the phone just de-registers, though a factory reset will return the setting, and you'd have to look into preventing the user from performing factory resets.

there are many approaches that would offer a similiar level of protection.

C) Therefore, (if you think a non-dev user will figure that out,) it seems that parental control apps and/or app managers would be the most complete basic level protection.

D) you can get super deep and play around with the OS - possibly recompile the package manager app.

in summary: at the end of the day android requires pm in order to function properly. the packageinstaller app that comes preloaded with your firmware is only one of the many ways to install apks on your device because it is only a UI for a native android functionality which doesnt disappear when the package installer app is removed. to fully and irreversably disable this functionality in a way that only very experienced dev cannot circumvent is a very complicated job. However an app manager or parental control solution can usually offer near complete security from an average user.


How can I tell CWM to perform a full backup instead of an incremental backup?

Technically, CWM 6 isn't doing incremental or full backups. What it is doing is storing "blobs" that are shared between backups if the data hasn't changed between the two. When you run a new backup, it reuses what it can. If you delete a backup set, you don't actually delete the data, and the next time you run a backup, CWM deletes any blobs no longer in use.


Using Android phone to control a raspberry pi nintendo 64 emulator

Android 9 added support for the Bluetooth HID Device Profile which can be used to make a Android device behave like a HID gamepad:
https://developer.android.com/reference/android/bluetooth/BluetoothHidDevice
The Bluetooth HID profile isn't available on all devices, you can use the Bluetooth HID Profile Tester app to see if it's supported:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rdapps.bluetoothhidtester&hl=en_US&gl=US
I've had some luck using ginkage's GamePad app:
https://github.com/ginkage/GamePad


What launchers support Tasker's Go Home to a paticular page?

The now (almost) obsolete LauncherPro supports this feature.


How do you close apps in Android so they aren't taking up resources?

Advanced task killer is very simple, light(< 300kb), and can be placed as an widget to kill all the running process in a single touch.

Also if you have developers options enabled in your phone you can select the number of background process limit or what to do when user leaves a process.


It is worth a try to for!at the card fat32, then attempt to move the app again. I know however that some applications are not built for use from an SD card so it could be application specific also. to see if this is the problem  attempt to move different applications and see if the same error occurs.

Let me know how it goes.


This configuration, using the system's default contacts app, is officially unsupported as of now:

  You won't be able to use Hangouts as the default app for calling on your Android device, like when you start calls in Google Contacts. But you can choose to use the Hangouts dialer when you touch a phone number on a website or other apps, like Google Search or Maps.

However, in lieu of rooting, you can instead try a third-party contacts application that broadcasts the proper intent for the Hangouts Dialer. Based on a quick test, it appears that Contacts+ does this, meaning that you can tap a contact and it will allow you to complete the call in Hangouts. Other third-party apps may support this as well.


How to export a google keep todo list to google calendar?

To Do list cannot be exported

Only reminders can be exported - see Google help

So instead of to-do mark them as reminders and switch the calendar to show reminders or else try the  solution mentioned here Widget to show calendar events and TODO items merged in a single agenda?


What is actually happening when you hard brick a phone?

It has nothing to do with the processor, unless you've fried it.

Usually, the only software-based hard brick that is possible is when you overwrite the bootloader.  Without a (working) bootloader, the phone (a) cannot get to the point where it would load the operating system and/or (b) cannot have working software loaded onto it.

If you get into this state you need to access the hardware more directly to write a new bootloader, often using JTAG.


Safe mode for LG G4C

Begin by pressing and holding the Power key unti the phone's options are displayed on the screen.

Afterwards select and hold Power off until "Restart in safe mode" is displayed.

Then tap Turn on safe mode in order to confirm the operation.

As far as I know you cannot initate safe mode from phone turned off state.


Wi-Fi works well in other devices but shows "limited connectivity" in my Sony Xperia Mini Pro

use dynamic ip address ..and forget network and restart  your mobile  and then enter correct password in wifi network .and  stay in wifi router range.


Opening a pdf file duplicates it on android

I would try to go to the pdf reader app settings and clean the data.
Settings -> apps -> the pdf app -> clear data
This will reset the app.
Is this happening to different pds files or just one? Is the file located on the phone or on the internet?


Advanced "Find in page" in Google Chrome mobile?

With Chrome for Android, you can't perform "advanced" search for example using regular expression. There are extensions such as Chrome Regex Search or find+ | Regex Find-in-Page Tool that allow to fine tune your searches on a page, but Chrome for Android does not support extensions.
If you are not opposed to the use of other browsers than Chrome, you can use Yandex browser or Kiwi browser (they are both based on Chromium. Install one of the extensions mentioned above as you will on your PC, then you will be able to narrow searches on a page.


Stuck in fastboot, unable to access recovery or system (oneplus 3)

Boot loop was resolved by using the USB-C cable provided by OP, however the recovery partition seems to be corrupted. Phone works though so nbd, recovery can be sorted out later on.


You can remove write permission on your file. You would need toybox (inbuilt in Android since v5.0) or busybox. Assuming you have toybox already, use these commands in a terminal emulator:

su
cd /data/media/0/DIR              # replace DIR with wherever your file is. E.g. if the file is in /sdcard/Download, then DIR should be Download, so that the whole command looks like /data/media/0/Download
toybox chown 444 FILE_NAME        # this would set read-only permission for every user in the system for that file. Change 444 to 666 to revert changes.
chattr +i FILE_NAME               # alternative to above command. This prevents writing as well as deletion of the file. Change +i to -i to revert changes.

If you're wondering why the commands are performed on file under /data/media/0, read the answer here from Irfan Latif.


How can I geo-tag a photo after I've taken it?

Actually I found such an app, after a fair bit of searching.

Photo Geolocator (Google Code)

Currently you can't look up locations via an address, so it only really works for nearby locations, but that's still better than having to edit images on a PC, IMO.


Unless the ROM is specifically designed to allow some kind of default set-up (and I don't know any that are), you can only do this by building the ROM yourself from source. You can edit the build scripts to remove any apps or features you don't need, and the source code to change the default settings, then compile a ROM image yourself.

You don't say why you're flashing a ROM every few hours. Obviously if you're flashing different ROMs, changing the source each time is going to be harder than just setting the settings on the device. If it is essentially the same ROM you're flashing each time, then you can keep your settings across flashes by simply not wiping the userdata partition when you flash the new ROM. Bear in mind that if the ROMs are significantly different, this may make the new ROM unstable, because it's trying to use settings files that were written by the old ROM.


Method to block calls on dual SIM and block notifications from some apps (scheduled)

Caveats

OP is willing to reject unknown numbers in weekends
They have their office contacts and private labeled in their address book
Only office people call on office SIM , they are not aware of private SIM number and vice versa for private contacts
They can continue to use data from Office SIM
Not tested on dual SIM but should work

I don't think it is possible using SIM based approach, alternative non root automation approach using macrodroid which is simple and easy free up to five macros ( App link )

Blocking calls in off times

Create a macro and name, save it  (Add Triggers,  actions and constraints by pressing +)

Triggers

Call Incoming → Select Groups →  Office (office numbers stored in contacts and grouped by this name)
Call Incoming → Select Contacts → Non Contact (additionally select Unknown caller if required)

Actions

Call Reject

Constraints

Day of the week → Saturday & Sunday

add constraint of  AND /OR /XOR/ NOT → OR (ensure the little inverted triangle shows OR)

add constraint Time of day → set start and end time for example 2000 to 0800

what it does is that on weekends OR during specified times calls made by non contacts  / unknown numbers and office folks are rejected

Test it by changing triggers and constraints . Use the 3 buttons menu → Test Macro

Blocking Office app notifications

Trigger

Notification → Notification Received → select apps → choose office apps from drop down → Text content → Any

Actions

Volume change → Notification → Set slider to zero
Clear Notifications → select apps → choose office apps from drop down → Text content → Any
Volume change → Notification → Set slider to the level desired

Constraints As in above macro ( Hint: from 3 dot menu use clone macro to get a copy of macro to save repetitive selection)

What it does

Action 1 mutes the notification volume to zero ( you don't need to hear the ding when you don't want to be notified)
Clear notifications during the time / day chosen in constraints
Action 3 restores desired volume level so that you can hear other other notifications that you  want to


How to force apps to use different language instead of system language?

It took some time but I found solution. As I mentioned in original question, I was asking for hacky workaround and , well, what I found is very hacky.

step 1 : Have a root, the root is power. You need to have something to "flash" files to system from .zip. Clockwork recovery mod is more than sufficient. Alternatively, you can use computer with ADB and flashing tools.

step 2 : Xposed. Now we getting to core of it, literally. Xposed is framework, core for so called "Modules" With its help you can modify your android down to last variable. Great tool by itself.

step 3 : Module "App Settings". Hell yeah, now we are getting to it. Besides many ways how you can screw up your application there is field called "Locale" where you can set pre-app based language.

.... and when you are on it, you can install GravityBox too. Don't ask for what is used but you can thanks me later.