Is there an equivalent to iOS "Reset Home Screen Layout" on the Nexus 7?

Go to Settings->Apps, swipe to All, scroll and press Launcher, then select Clear data.

Your home screen is as good as new :)

UPDATE: As suggested by Chahk below, a good way to avoid cluttering your homescreen is by going to the Play Store then going to Menu -> Settings and un-checking the Auto-add widgets option.


can I transfer a game app from galaxy s3 to galaxy tab 2

Use Titanium Backup to backup the game + data and then transfer the backup to your new device where you can use Titanium Backup on the new device to restore the app+data again.

However, please check whether the app is compatible with your new device.


disable sync when in mobile (3g) network

There isn't a way to do this in the default settings for Android devices and most people are surprised to learn that they can keep sync on full time without exceeding even modest data plans.

I would recommend checking out Tasker.  It's an Android application that allows you to automate almost anything on an Android device.  You can use it to automatically toggle on your auto-sync setting using the WiFi state as a trigger.  Tasker is a bit pricey, so please read on.

This widget, if it lives up to its billing should do the trick for you, read the comments, you'll see it turns on sync when wifi is present. It's not named very well, but check it out: wifi AutoSyncAuto Toggle


Connecting Galaxy S3 to DisplayPort via MHL HDTV Adaptor

A few things to consider:

Make sure the HDTV adapter is connected to a USB power such as the wall or a PC (the USB from the TVs don't give enough power)
Have you tried the HDMI to display port adapter with another HDMI output such as your laptop or PC? maybe this is faulty
Try using an HDMI to DVI adaptor
Try another HDMI monitor to ensure its not your monitor


Decrypting microSD card on another Android device or desktop computer

I don't know of any GUI solutions that fit your needs but can share something about working CLI solutions.

DISK ENCRYPTION:

  external microSD card is not merged with the internal storage

You are talking about Android's Adoptable Storage. Actually it's not merged (like in case of LVM), it's just decrypted and mounted as a separate filesystem. Android starts emulating /sdcard from /mnt/expand/[UUID] which otherwise is from /data/media/. Additionally some apps are also movable to this newly adopted storage. In case of FDE (based on dm-crypt), key is stored at /data/misc/vold/expand_*.key, which can be used to mount the SD card on any OS running Linux kernel (including Android). All that you need is dmsetup. See this answer for details.

  content of an encrypted microSD card can be viewed in another Android device and Windows/Linux PC

In case of Adaptable Storage you can backup the master key to some safe location so that it could possibly be used in case device is wiped or no more bootable. Or if you don't want to go with Android's native encryption, you can manually setup dm-crypt FDE (plain / LUKS) on SD card using cryptsetup.

FILESYSTEM ENCRYPTION:

Recent versions of Android mostly use FBE which is based on Linux filesystem-level encryption (for ext4 and f2fs). It doesn't use a single key, instead the master key generates per file keys on the go. On Android encrypted master keys are saved to /data/misc/vold/user_keys/. Device Encrypted (DE) and Credential Encrypted (CE) storages make it further complicated. Also FBE with Adoptable Storage doesn't work on Nougat and Oreo, and doesn't look very stable on Pie. So it's not a very reliable option at the moment.

It's also possible to manually setup FBE using fscrypt (or e4crypt/f2fscrypt) tool provided that your kernel supports it. But again there are multiple issues with the implementation in userspace as well as in kernel space particularly related to key management. So it's again not a very feasible option.

fscrypt is most probably going to replace ecryptfs; another Linux kernel's native feature. It's a stacked filesystem which can encrypt any other filesystem. But fscrypt (per-file encryption) “is more memory efficient since it avoids caching the encrypted and decrypted pages in the page cache”. You can use ecryptfs too on Android if kernel is built with CONFIG_ECRYPT_FS.

FUSE-BASED ENCRYPTION:

All of the options discussed above are native to Linux kernel, so won't (or at least very badly) work on Windows (sorry I have no experience with Mac). However you can go for FUSE-based solutions which have more or less support on Windows as well. E.g. encfs and gocryptfs are stackable cryptographic filesystems; more useful in situations like incremental backups.

If you want to stick with veracrypt, that also works perfect, performs even better than on Windows if combined with dmsetup to make use of Linux kernel's native cryptographic services.

Another FUSE-based solution dislocker can decrypt Bitlocker. But FUSE over FUSE may exert performance penalty, so should be avoided with right choice of filesystem drivers.

  encrypted external microSD is mounted upon booting automatically

You won't find an option with graceful GUI interactions to enter a password upon booting because unlike Linux there is no terminal login or crypttab or PAM. User interaction is only possible by developing an auto-starting app, which won't be up before zygote/system_server and all (native / Java) services are fully running. Or you may try to hack Android framework's SystemUI package to get the same credentials asked through UI (in case of FDE/FBE).

A simple approach would be to put an init.d script or create an init service. This should work with any of the methods described above. This answer can be helpful. I have been using EncFS to extend my external storage on K and L devices (details here). SD card was mounted by an init service, password was saved to /data partition which was in turn FDE encrypted.

NOTES:

Encryption methods described above cover all commonly used filesystems including FAT, exFAT, NTFS, ext4, f2fs etc.
If not using Adoptable Storage, better create two partitions on SD card to let vold service mount first partition on boot. First partition can be of a few hundreds of MBs. Use second partition for encryption.
Command line applications used for encryption are available here for Android.

RELATED:

Cross-platform compatible encryption of SD-card for Android


"Working call Recorder" works on any android device, outgoing calls only.

It works by calling an intermediately calling service, which calls your other party with your caller-id. The recording is then emailed to your email box.
The recording is in high-quality, as it is done on the telephony level, and not through the mic.
The application only works for US and Canada.

Disclosure: I am the developer of this application.


Issue with recording Google Hangouts calls

I've been having the same issue for a little while now and tried everything, disabling even Knox software and Google Play and anything else that seems to be recording in the background, researched online found nothing.

The solution was actually my first instinct actually:

Go into your android settings, scroll down and select About Device.
Scroll down to the last item RESET but you DONT do a Factory data reset just the first option Reset Settings (Reset all settings to their defaults). It wont delete your data but it should fix the issue.
After doing the previous step, my phone restarted. Then when I went to use the native phone dialer software, an upgraded video dialer suddenly appeared (which I guess was half installed in the background).

I have Android 7.0. Not sure if its the same issue with others because there are scenarios from 2015 i was checking into but whatever the reason try Reset Settings.


Choosing firmware version in CyanogenMod or LineageOS

Galaxy S4 Active is not officially supported by either CyanogenMod (back when it was still in action) or LineageOS. Unofficial versions of CyanogenMod and LineageOS are available on XDA-Developers, all the way up to LOS 14.1 (Android 7.1).

As for the other part of your question, contrary to the other answer, you are urged to find ROMs base on the model number (in your case, GT-i9295), and also your baseband version for optional assistance. The reason is there are a number of variants for a phone of the same name; AT&T has their own variant (SGH-i537), and Korean carriers have another very different variant (SHV-E470S). Each could affect what you can and can't flash. For example, E470S has its own array of ROMs to flash, but since the internal is vastly different (despite they look alike), you can't flash it on your own.

If your baseband version starts with "I9295" then you can be sure that your device is indeed a GT-i9295 and can proceed to attempt to flash anything made for it; otherwise, it's likely that the phone is converted from one of the other variants (by flashing a ROM, or spoofing build.prop, whatever), and you should stop and ask for assistance.


Main functions failure (USB Storage, WIFI, SIM, Camera) after boot in Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 running Android 2.3.6

200 apps on Gingerbread :O, time to upgrade now. Even on my OnePlus One with 3gigs RAM and 64gigs Internal Storage, I merely have 20-30 downloaded apps with 2-3 in start-up.

But anyhow, follow this:

Format and install some custom ROM like Cyanogenmod
Keep only required apps.
Remove apps from start-up. Use AIO Toolbox from Play Store.
Use AIO Toolbox on regular basis to clean up.

For all your apps backup: I believe in that list of 200 apps, you must have some system tools. Check if it has backup option for apps or not. Even you can create backup from recovery mode too, if your recovery supports. TWRP/Cyanogenmod/ClockWorkMod do have this option.


Is it possible to connect to multiple mobile devices non-wireless and run tests

Yes it is possible .
If your devices are android you can simply use scripts including adb commands

Steps :

GEt Device ID :
adb devices
Pass adb command :
adb -s $device_id shell am start -a android.settings.AIRPLANE_MODE_SETTINGS

Sample Script :
You can take device id as command line parameter

      for($i=1; $i<=$temp;$i++)
      {
      print "\n********* Opening activities : **********\n";
      system("adb -s $devices shell am start -a android.settings.AIRPLANE_MODE_SETTINGS");
      sleep 5;
      system("adb -s $devices shell input tap 200 200");
      sleep 25;
      }


What should I backup before installing a new ROM?

Jumping between ROMs in the same development series is usually safe without backing up or wiping the data partition (although the cache and Dalvik cache should always be wiped), unless the installation instructions specifically tell you to wipe the data partition (which seems unlikely in this case; if such a drastic change were needed, it shouldn't be a release candidate any more).  I would nevertheless back everything up just in case, both application backup like Titanium Backup and Nandroid backup from the recovery partition, but then I'm paranoid like that.

Jumping to a different series (say, CM6 to CM7, or CM to aosp) you should always back up everything and wipe everything.


In OsmAnd:

Open the navigation drawer (swipe from left or bottom left button)
“Configure screen” (Gear icon)
“Right panel” should have a line for “Speed”, tick that.

The speed will be shown, somewhat small, in the top right list. I think standard is to show only the number of satellites, but there are a few items that can be shown there.

Eta:
I also set “Trasparent skin” at the bottom of the “Configure screen” list. Makes the speed &c. a bit less obtrusive.


Reset permissions of app versus Google Play Game Services

Within the GPGS service (leaderboard) inside the app itself, there was a button to access settings for the user vs the GPGS. I could disconnect the app from the account by digging around there. With that the permissions were revoked.


Does GPS signal quality influence battery life?

No. Bad cellphone coverage decreases battery life because the phone has to transmit with more power to be able to communicate back to the cell tower. It's like when you can barely hear someone hollering at you: you shout louder too to make sure they can hear you. But GPS is a one-way signal: the phone only receives it, it doesn't transmit anything. It doesn't matter how much attenuation there is: either the phone can hear or it can't.

The only way a weak GPS signal would cause more power use is if you leave the screen turned on waiting for an app to get a position fix :-)


Android App - Same phone - Different versions on App Store

App developers have the ability to do a staged roll-out of updates to their apps through Google Play Store.  This means that a small percentage of users (chosen randomly) receives the update first.  The developer can gauge the feedback, and then proceed to a wide roll-out until they reach 100% of their install base.

It's possible that the latest version of this particular app was recently released in such a staged roll-out. One of your phones was randomly selected to be in the initial stage, while the other was not.  There is nothing for you to do, other than wait for the roll-out to complete.

As comments suggest, you can also attempt to sync the app manually by retrieving it from one phone and installing it on the other.  This requires installation of USB drivers for your phone on your computer, and a copy of Android SDK.  If you are rooted, you can get the APK of the app using adb pull /data/app/<app_package_name>.apk c:\ command, and then connect the other phone and do adb install -r c:\<app_package_name>.apk.

On unrooted devices you may want to look into adb backup utility which allows you to generate an .ab file which contains the APK of the app, along with its data.  For example, the command adb backup -f c:\Skype.ab -apk com.skype.raider creates "Skype.ab" file on my C: drive that contains the Skype app and its data.  I can then use adb restore c:\Skype.ab command to restore the app with the data. Optionally, you can clear the data for the app from your other phone in Settings -> Apps.

The difficulty is locating the package name of the app you want to back up.  Although package names are usually descriptive enough, sometimes they can be quite cryptic.  Fortunately, Play Store itself has the package name in the URL.  In your example, the app Out of Milk is located at the following URL: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.capigami.outofmilk. The portion of this URL after "id=" is the package name. In this case it's com.capigami.outofmilk. So your backup command becomes adb backup -f c:\OutOfMilk.ab -apk com.capigami.outofmilk.


Is there a way I can use a Galaxy Note on Virgin Mobile?

Not in the USA. Virgin Mobile USA's network is CDMA, while the Galaxy Note is a GSM phone.

Virgin Mobile UK is a GSM network, so Galaxy Note will work on it.  Although depending on whether the phone and the carrier use the same frequencies for 3G, you may only get 2G speeds.


In Settings - Apps - File Manager delete the updates of this app. This will revert the app to the initial version.

If you don't want to use the app anymore (which would be my advise since Alcatel File Manager is not so great), disable it completely.


Play Store -> GBoard -> Uninstall -> Select the three dots on upper right -> disable auto-update
This will mean that your version of GBoard is without gif functionality, as it was introduced in a later update


This issue happens for many models.

Let me say a simple scenario

You are in a call, suddenly the signal has gone and call drops. Then even waiting for a long time, the signal is not coming.

This is because, the phone didn't attempt to connect to a network anymore.

The solutions

Turn on airplane mode and after 5-10 seconds, turn off it.
Go to operator selection -> manual -> search and choose the operator, later change to automatic.
As you said, restart the phone.


How to give an app permission to write to external SD on a rooted phone

If you know the app package name, you can try the shell command pm grant.

Enable USB Debugging, probably already done for you, then type adb shell pm grant [replace_app.package.name] android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE hit enter. Your app should now have that permission.  Not sure if permanently though.


Is there a way to leave the phone plugged in, but schedule when to actually charge it?

Why don't you want to keep the phone plugged in overnight? Per Is it better to detach a charger when my Android device gets fully charged?, it sounds like sitting at 100% on the charger for ~6 hours is not considered harmful to the lithium-ion battery in your device.

That said, you can purchase a light timer for under $20, set it to only turn on for an hour or two in the morning, and plug your charger into it at night.

But actually, if your phone drains by over 50% during the day, this is probably not the ideal solution, because allowing the battery to drain further overnight until the timer kicks on means that it will discharge even more deeply than it currently does, which will wear down the battery's capacity far more quickly over time than being at 100% charge for 6 hours per day will.
So an optimum cycle might be to charge it to 100% in the afternoon, when it's only down to, say, 70% charge, instead of waiting for bedtime; and then put it on the timer as described above when you go to bed. Just be sure to give it a full discharge occasionally (once every 2-4 weeks sounds about right based on your usage).


What is OTA?
On mobile field such as smartphones, an over-the-air update may refer to a software update that is distributed over Wi-Fi or mobile broadband using a function built into the operating system, with the "Over The Air" aspect referring to its use of wireless internet instead of requiring the user to connect the device to a computer via USB to perform the update.
(Over The Air) Update procedure for Nvidia K1 with Wi-Fi:

Go to “System Upgrade” screen (Settings->About tablet->System upgrade) to enable full update image download.
From “System Upgrade” screen press the dots on the upper right corner and select “Advanced”. In the new menu screen tick the option “Check full upgrade”. Go back to the previous screen.
Now the “System Upgrade” will download the latest ROM image (Size of the update may vary).
When OTA download is finished, press Reboot/Install.

Saving OTA Update.zip for later usage from System Recovery:

If you don't tend to install your OTA now, then don't press Reboot/Install from Step 4, your downloaded update files are found the system.
Open your file manager (Ex: ES File Explorer File Manager) and navigate to “/data/data/com.nvidia.ota/app_download”. you will find OTA Update.zip file.
Move Update.zip to a known location, (Ex: Downloads folder “/storage/emulated/0/download”.
For later usage, reboot your tablet into recovery mode and flash your Update.zip stored on your choosen folder previously.

EDIT1:
How it works?
TLDR, There is an Update.zip file which will be sent through internet to your WiFi tablet, no cellular network is needed for your Wi-Fi Tablet.


I can't connect my Samsung Galaxy SL GT-I9003 via USB

Go to start.
Type device manager.

Do you see some icon with a yellow triangle exclamation mark in it?
If so, you probably did not install any drivers. Install the
Samsung USB driver or the Google USB driver.


How can I prevent my music apps from launching and playing on their own?

After doing some more research, I found a thread with a lot of users having the same exact problem:

Their solution is to use either Headset Blocker or Disable Autoplay apps. This seems to have sort of worked. Just make sure that taskkiller isn't disable either of these.

I am still experimenting on how to fix this issue...

Edit1: I still see the same issue even though both suggested apps are running. I believe the taskkiller app may be causing this issue. I am going to try disable it and seeing if this gets anywhere.

Edit2: Still no luck. I am going to try rooting my phone and installing the Autostarts app


Can I use whatsapp with a number belonging to another phone

Answer is 'Yes', you can use it on your S5 seamlessly while using SIM in another device.

• Your Whatsapp contacts doesn't see any change.

• Remember Whatsapp can only be use on single device at a time(not whatsapp web) that means if you try to open it in your Moto device than you Galaxy device 's account will be closed.


I had the Force Close problem the error was "The process com.motorola.service.main has stopped unexpectedly please try again". Motorola support couldn't solve it so they had me send it for repair. Sent it to them 2X. When i got it back the 3rd time still had the problem so Motorola provided a replacement phone. When i received the replacement the problem occurred again. This only left 2 possibilities, sim card (unlikely) and MotoBlur. I created a new MotoBlur account instead of using my existing one. PROBLEM SOLVED.


. With the backup secured, just access Reboot your Nexus 5 device into Bootloader mode. To do that, hold the Volume Down and Up buttons to power on the device. Once your device is in bootloader mode, use the Volume keys to go through the series of options available on the screen. Now you would want to tap the Recovery Mode to enter with the Power button.


TinyPortriat(Solid): The user is reading the conversation.

Small Phone Icon: This indicates that the user is using the hangouts app on a mobile device.

TinyPotrait (Faded): The user read your messages above the icon.


How to fix android-x86 install on VMware?

You need to follow the instructions.  Specifically:

You have to change your virtual disk type to be IDE because the default type in VMware is SCSI, and [the] Android-x86 kernel is not configured to support SCSI. You can follow these steps:

Create a virtual machine.

Edit [the] virtual machine settings after the virtual machine [is] created.
Choose the hard disk and remove it.
Add a hard disk to create a new virtual disk, then you can choose IDE as your virtual disk type.
When finished, you can install android-x86 normally.


How to run initial Android setup after skipping it?

Some Googling later, I found that you can send this command to your device:

  adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n  com.google.android.setupwizard/.SetupWizardTestActivity

and it will rerun the setup. In my particular case it came up with an error several times to the point I was a bit panicked and decided to try rebooting. Once I rebooted, the error came up again but I clicked through it and then it said "Just a sec" for quite a while but eventually got on with the normal setup.


How is it possible to export the wpa_supplicant.conf from tablet?

I don't know what are you trying to accomplish.
I think you want to get wpa_supplicant.conf file, just go to system/etc/wifi and there is  your file just copy it, it should be possible without root, I don't have root and managed that.


There could be two solutions for it:

Other Programmes might have been using the camera. Uninstall or force stop that app and try restarting your phone. It should work.
Check whether You have given all permissions to camera in security option in settings or in the home screen. Since i had a miui ROM so i know permissions in miui is very hard to handle.


Galaxy s5 Neo. Screen comes on intermittently

I had this issue with my S5 active. There was no immediate fix, but I was pretty sure it was caused by networks being found. I never saw it happen when I had wi-fi turned off, but I never really confirmed that this was the issue.

Also I had a friend who found 'Air wake up' was on, which was being triggered even without waving anything in front of the screen. So maybe check that.


How can I install Firefox on an Android with no service or Google account?

You can grab the latest .apk on a PC from Mozilla's FTP server and sideload it, as noted on Mozilla's wiki.

If you're unsure of how to sideload an app, you can find a variety of methods in How can I install an app given only its APK file? (some require internet connectivity, many do not).


Does the carrier matter when flashing custom roms?

Yes and no. Most times probably not, but there are some carriers which not only apply software modifications but also obtain specific hardware configurations from manufacturers (AFAIK Verizon is one of those having done that in the past for some devices at least, and T-Mobile was mentioned in that context as well).

Which means, there's no "generic answer" to this question, but you must check for each device separately. If the hardware matches, the carrier should be irrelevant concerning the custom ROM – as the latter then again matches the hardware.


According to the openAOS site, the Archos 5 is supported. So I would think that there would be a download for an update package for that specific device. This is how others do it. The steps to install on any of the devices should be the same (or close) the only thing you would need is the install package. I could not find downloads on the openAOS site.


How to properly increase system partition on Moto G xt1033?

It is not possible.

Adopted storage works for marshmallow version and later. You may not use it on jellybean or even if you updated to lollipop.

I might have been wrong in understanding your situation, so please let us know of root status and latest rom or android version you have.

There is also more complexity when creating more than two partitions.
Try what has been discussed in https://android.stackexchange.com/a/145458/90095


If you have a PC cable for your SGH E250 you could try Mobile Master management software for feature phones. It has a 30 day full working trial (download at http://www.mobile-master.com/samsung/sgh_e250.html ). MM supports many different phone models and allows to export contacts to .vcard or .csv format.

Samsung also offers sync software but I found that newer versions often have problems with discontinued phone models. You might give it a try if MM does not work for you.

A) You then can import that .vcard into gmail.com's contact application. Your HTC Wildfire will then sync them once you registered the phone with your GMail Account

B) You can also push the .vcard to your HTC and import it from there. You will be promted to import when you try to open the vcard. All recent Android models allow that.

Last resort: If all that is not possible (I had to do that already once), you're maybe best off by using GMail's Web frontend to manually input your contacts one by one instead of doing it on the phone.

In case you have an old Sony Ericsson model that supports the old sim format of your SGH E250: These usually allow to export phone contacts to vCard format onto the memory stick. You could then just go ahead with A) or B).


How do I disable Fast boot without the Power option in Settings?

I believe the they didn't make fastboot an option until Gingerbread. It should be off by default so I wouldn't worry about that step. You can check to see if it's on by turning your phone completely off and then turning it on to see how long it takes to boot up. If it only takes 10-15 second fastboot may be enabled.

Also, here is a painless way to root your HTC Desire that doesn't require changing fastboot: How to root HTC Desire (Froyo 2.2) without putting in a custom ROM (flashing)?


How to share as image from the Wikipedia App?

Just tried it on Wikipedia app (2.7.5033+2020-08-04) on a Samsung S9 running Android 10. And I was not able to have text over image via the share button as described. That feature was from 2015 and based on the comments in your linked post, they was some concern about image rights issues.
Regardless, I was able tap on an article image for normal sharing.


How do I check if Tasker is the application in focus using a Tasker profile?

The developer of Tasker has specifically excluded Tasker itself from showing up in the Applications list.  He cites his reason in the Tasker Why...? section of his website.

http://tasker.dinglisch.net/userguide/en/faqs/faq-why.html#d


How to sync Google Account every one hour?

There are several approaches to accomplish this. Ready-to-use tools like JuiceDefender or GreenPower "stutter" data (i.e. turn data & sync on only in certain intervals, as you requested). The same could be accomplished using an automation tool like tasker or Llama, which then could be used for other automation as well.

Apart from that, you might want to check what you've enabled to sync (see: Settings→Account & Sync). Maybe you don't need to sync all of that, so you can uncheck parts. I found that about have the stuff enabled there by default I didn't want or need. Less stuff to sync also means less power needed for the job. And bandwidth saved as a side-effect.


About Adding Sim slot on Lg optimus Exceed 2

According to PDAdb, the phone is Verizon-exclusive and CDMA-only, hence it doesn't have a SIM slot (the store programs the cell info into the phone on purchase).

That is, even if you somehow manage to open a hole in the mid-frame, solder a SIM slot on it, and persuade the OS into accepting it, you still will not be able to use it because there's no GSM support at all.


On an HTC Evo, is there any way to sync only 'my contacts' from gmail (not 'all contacts')?

I like to sync all contacts and then in contact list I choose to only show the ones with phone numbers. To do this open Contacts > menu > View > select "Contacts with phone numbers". Not sure if that is what you are looking for but is the only thing I could find for a solution on Evo.

Strange, the directions below will work on other Android devices, but not an HTC Sense devices.

Open contacts > menu > Settings > Edit sync groups. Select "Sync all contacts", "My Contacts" or "Starred in Android".

For HTC sense do the following, contacts (people) > Groups tab > menu > Sync Groups.

Note, on my Evo neither option worked for me. I'm running 2.2 and suspect that is part of the reason.


Prevent Google from uploading pictures when connected to wifi?

To add to the answer Alex has posted (which is correct), if you still want to upload a particular photo to Drive after disabling sync, long press the photo- (select it)  and you will see a share option using which you can share to your drive.

This comes in handy when you have globally disabled sync for photos but want to save some photos to drive


Is there any way to record android screen in android 4.2.2 without rooting and PC?

Yes, you can.

Best App I have found for recording your phone screen: Shou. It requires rooted Android version 4.1 and up. Also, works without rooting your device.

Other applications that you can try Kamcord (Android 5.0+), etc.


As I don't have this device, I can't say too much. Also, I can't comment because of my rep. But whatever.

Try to flash recovery even if your flashboot returns blank screen. It might not work, but hey! give it a try!

Also, try to look Here or Here, it says about flashing firmware.


My Android tablet seems to be "read-only"

I am facing the same issue with my VOX V81 tablet. I formatted its internal storage and did a factory reset. But when I rebooted it, it came to its previous state.

I suppose that it is due to the Avast Mobile security I installed on this tablet; after installing Avast, this problem started. So I suggest you to uninstall any antivirus or mobile security application.


How can I manage Intent association with Apps?

I believe it's a no to both those questions. Yes you can clear default associations only if you know which app is associated with with Intent (you will still be prompted with the dialog asking you which app you'd like to use with the current Intent).

Apart from that there is no way to clear associations. They are hard coded inside each app, there is no way to remove them.

UPDATE: To answer your edited question head to Settings > Applications > Manage applications find your application that you chose as your default app for that intent, click Clear defaults


according to your logs TWRP is currently in simulation mode.

Updating partition details... ...done Full SELinux support is present. Simulating actions... Updating partition details... ...done

1) go to Settings

2) toggle simulation mode off.

Try to flash the .zip again. You should be good to go


Enable "OEM Unlock" via build.prop edit!

OEM unlock is not a line in the build.prop file or any other user accessible file that we know of, it is a hidden flag somewhere (probably encrypted) and not in the ROM itself (flashing a custom ROM or completely wiping all visible partitions does not change the setting's state). Unfortunately, if you can't somehow access the Developer menu, you will not be able to unlock the bootloader.

The answer is that as of now, this is not possible with this device.


How to open Play Market via a voice command?

Google Now has no problem opening apps with composite names. The problem is probably your voice command: the app is no more called Market. The right command is "open Play Store", which is the actual name.


Show boot log at boot instead of boot animation?

There's new version of [root] LiveBoot for devices 4.3 and up on the Google Play Store. There is also a thread for it on XDA


Sending single SMS message to multiple contacts causes MMS

This is an easy problem to fix, I believe @BryanDenny already mentioned it.

Go to the stock Android messaging app.
Click the Overflow menu button down in the lower left hand corner (it looks like three boxes stacked on each other).
Select "Settings" from the pop-up menu; should be the first option.
Under "Multimedia (MMS) Messages, uncheck the item that says: "Group messaging- Use MMS to send a single message when there are multiple recipients".


Does Bluetooth tethering not work, or am I doing it wrong?

Maybe this is too late for some of you but this is a solution for Android 4.2:

Basically you need TUN module since the standard configuration does not include it:
Google Play - TUN.ko installer

Bluetooth thethering - fix solution


It should've been installed by default. If it hasn't then there is something wrong, do you see the play store if so go to the play store and install the other Gapps.

I think it's because you need to setup the space seperately. So you need to install it from there.


How to record all calls and auto-sync to Dropbox?

You can do this from the app you are currently using. Go to the settings and click the dropbox link which can be found under Cloud. Make sure you have installed Dropbox and you're connected to the internet.

Image: Google Play. Click here for a larger variant.

There are other options such as Call Recorder with DropBox as well.


Moving Nokia content to an Android phone

By far the easiest way to transfer anything contacts related to an Android phone is via GMail.

When I moved from an old Nokia phone to my Android HTC Magic about a year ago, I downloaded and installed the Nokia Suite of tools for my phone from the Nokia website, installed them, copied my contacts into the Nokia Suite app on the PC, then did an export from the Nokia Suite contacts app to a CSV file. I remember seeing the Noklia-only NBU format as an optin, but if you're in the Contacts-only part of the suite it should also allow the CSV export (as this is also the easiest way to do a one-off import to other apps like Outlook).

At that point you can go into GMail, click the Contacts link, then at the top you should see an "Import" option, use that to upload your CSV file. All that you should lose from this is the contact's photos, but you can easily back up your contact's photos from the Nokia suite, and then just upload them to GMail one by one, or alternatively let Android on the phone sync with Facebook, etc and pull the Contacts photos from there itself.

You might find that if you already had some people in your GMail address book that you'll have a few duplicates now, just tick the relevant Contacts in Gmail and select "Merge these contacts".

For content, such as photos or music, which are probably just files on the Nokia's SD memory card, the easiest way is to attach the phone to a PC, select Data Storage/Transfer Mode on the phone, then open the SD card drive on the PC, drag all the relevant files onto the PC, then attach Android phone, mount SD card and drag all the content into the relevant folders on the Android's SD card.

As for messages, do you mean SMS/MMS text messages? As far as I know there aren't easy ways to transfer those between phone OS's at all (unless you're already doing something like sync'ing them to GMail).


How can I set the correct SELinux / SEAndroid policy for an App?

I think the problem could be the default "unconfined domain" the binary gets executed when no policy is specified.
An attempt I'd try would be to move the sshelper_sshd (I think it's the sshd server?) somewhere on the /system partition (/system/sbin/?)
I think the best and updated document to read to deal with SELinux implementation on Android (SEAndroid) is How-To SU.
Here an extract from Chapter 5.4.4. Android 4.4.3

A good example of the unconfined domain not being all-mighty, is executing files from /data. Starting Android 4.4.3, this will no longer be possible from the unconfined domain (see #74082 and #78801).
The established practise of including binaries and scripts in your APK, extracting them to /data/data/[package]/files/ or placing them in /data/data/[package]/lib/ and executing them from there through a su call will no longer work out-of-the-box. While there are other work-arounds possible (like copying to and executing from rootfs), one solution is switching contexts to a context not in the unconfined domain (like u:r:untrusted_app:s0, the context the rest of your app is likely to run as). You will need to do extensive testing to see if all the calls you want to make still run in the context you choose, though, and you may have to try some different ones to get the capabilities you want.
Note that executing files in /data will still work as expected from your app if you are not trying to run it as root.


Tasker does not recognise incoming calls

The one you want is Event->Phone Ringing.  The State->Phone Call would not activate until you've answered the call.  Event Profiles activate and deactivate rather quickly so you probably wouldn't see it if you were trying to watch for the green active color.  However, you mentioned that it did not even set a variable through a test task.  Were you using a global variable for that or a local variable?  Try using the Flash action to flash the caller's name and see if that pops up.

Once you get that working and confirmed, you might need to do some more work on your announcement.  I'm guessing you're using the Say action.  You'll need to uncheck Respect Audio Focus in order for Say to talk over the phone ringer since the ringer takes precedence.  You'll probably also want to turn the ringer off temporarily using the Ringer Volume action to allow the Say action to finish and then turn the ringer back on.


Cracked screen, menu buttons non-responsive, need to wipe my phone! Ideas? HELP!

The answers to Is there any way to erase personal information from my phone that has already been stolen? might help you here. Although your phone hasn't been stolen, the same solution seems like it would be appropriate to your case.

If you have sensitive information on your device, and your company doesn't already have a way to remote-wipe it, then what you work for is an in-security company. You should figure out what to do about lost or stolen devices before it happens. Right now, you're putting your customers at risk.


Stream Audible audio to DLNA/UPNP speakers

So I got official response from Audible team:

It's Bluetooth, Auxiliary Input (audio jack, ie wired speakers) or ..burn a CD!

UPnP/DLNA - not mentioned.

So it's Bluetooth I guess for me. Not the preferred option :(

For for completeness' sake, here is precise citation from Audible Customer Service team email:

  Bluetooth
  If your mobile device and speaker support Bluetooth, your audiobook's will play through your speakers similar to how a phone call comes through via Bluetooth. The Audible app must be open and all functionality for the audiobook (changing chapters, narration speed, playing, pausing, etc.) can only be changed through the Audible app on your device.


What information does stock Android send to Google by default, and how do I opt-out?

Android is FACC
Android might be many things, but certainly not "privacy first". At least not if you want to use Google Playstore as a ressource for your apps. While at creation (initialization) of your google-account on your Android device, you are asked "Do you want to store your data with Google?", this only means "Backups of your apps and their data, as far as they support it". Soon you will discover that your contacts and calendars are automatically synced with Google servers, without asking you, unless you explicitly opted out of that.
So if there are any firsts, it's FACC: Android comes Free of charge, is Ad supported, Cloud based, and highly Customizable. Nobody will argue the first and last items are very appreciable, while "the cloud" is fine with most, and the ads are mostly "accepted" (as long as they are not too agressive, like e.g. Airpush).
So what data do Google services collect?
Nick checked some sources (namely, Google's privacy policy), and reported in a below comment:

Google says it logs your "phone number, calling-party number, forwarding numbers, time and date of calls, duration of calls, SMS routing information and types of calls" in their privacy policy. It also logs your IP address.
But it doesn't say if this info is logged for Android users specifically, or if it's only collected from other services such as Google Voice. And it doesn't say whether it logs data even if you're logged out of Android services.

Sometimes what's missing speaks as well (sometimes even louder than the facts mentioned). So starting with the "worst-case scenario", we won't be too much shocked later on. Having created a Google account or not: as soon as a network connection is available, data can be uploaded to any servers. System apps can access identifying data such as imei or IMSI, your phone number, or even your locally stored contacts and calendars (yepp, paranoia-mode enabled again), and with an available network, they could transfer all data they have available anywhere. (Careful: I did not say they do so, just they could).

We may collect device-specific information (such as your hardware model, operating system version, unique device identifiers, and mobile network information including phone number). Google may associate your device identifiers or phone number with your Google Account.

(Source: Google Collection, see below)
Never forget: While Android itself is Open Source, many apps are not. But also keep in mind: this is not just the case with Android, but with any other system as well.
If you want to read some more on Google's privacy:

New Google Privacy Policy: Explained (01/2012)
Google’s in the Privacy Hot Seat Again (03/2012)
Google Collection: What is collected? An excerpt of the privacy policy (06/2012)
The Truth About Android Security (10/2012)

There's one really scary part:

We may collect and store information (including personal information) locally on your device using mechanisms such as browser web storage (including HTML 5) and application data caches.

(emphasis mine; source: Google Collection, see above)
First steps for privacy
At the very first you could check in advance how the device you want to buy comes configured. In most cases, there will be a lot of bloatware pre-installed, which contributes to the "data share". While you cannot really be forced to use those apps, it sometimes is not really possible to get rid of them without rooting. So the less bloatware there is, the better.
rooting is not always an option, as in most countries this will void your warranty. Otherwise you could decide for a more privacy-friendly custom-rom. So when you've got your new device, you will have to carefully check all options whether they might be intrusive to your privacy:

say "No" to above mentioned "Backup to Google" question. Otherwise, next to the list of apps you've installed from Google Play (which Google knows anyway), and data from several apps, also sensitive information like e.g. your WiFi passwords find their way into the cloud.
before you enter any contact or calendar data, make sure to have the sync disabled for them (see Settings→Accounts & Sync). You can still export your contact list easily direct from within the contacts app -- but if you are going to import anything again after e.g. a factory-reset or on a new device, make sure to check the sync options before that (that was how Google got my data, when I forgot that one time).
if you enable Google's location service, this will also send "anonymized" data about places you've been. I placed "anonymized" in quotation marks, as a study recently showed that de-anonymization can be easily achieved. So you might want to turn that off as well.

Android without Google?
Wouldn't it be more consequent then to use Android without Google? This question has been discussed more than once. And yes, it is certainly possible (and before you say it's a "contradiction in terms", I could split hairs and argue that Android is not developed "by Google", but by the AOSP, the Android Open Source Project). You will have to sacrifice some things (as e.g. a big part of the apps on Google Play are hard to find outside Google Play, for example). But if that's a price you are willing to pay to protect your privacy at max, here are some readings for you:

Can an Android phone run without Google?
Guide: How To Use Your Android Phone Without Google
"Android without Google" discussion @ XDA-Developers
XDA developers are also working on a pendant to Google Apps. The project is called NOGAPPS.

Privacy with Android and Google?
Okay, the above approach might be a bit too exaggerated for the most (but hey, only because we are paranoid, that doesn't mean nobody's after us, right?). So what's the way in the middle? I mean, aside the "first steps" mentioned above?
There are many things. In First steps for privacy I already described how to prepare a fresh, unbloated Android that comes with the Google Apps. Now let's look what to care for next:
Pre-installed apps
There might come some pre-installed apps not belonging to the Android core system. And not "really needed" for the privacy-concerned. Stuff like Google+ or Facebook. Starting with Android 4.0, we can simply go to Settings→Apps→Manage Apps, and disable those we don't want to use. This also might give a boost to performance and improve battery-life, as it rids us of several "background services" those apps were running. At startup. Even if we never started them.
Installing new apps
Don't click on everything fancy (well, need to remember that for a later part: ads in apps). Of course look around what sounds useful or interesting to you. But make sure to read through the comments (at least scan through them) for possible obstacles. Ignore those one-word comments like "great" and "shit", and also those just declaring "download problems" and the like. They do not speak about the app. But check if there were any privacy concerns in the past, or any other trouble for that sake.
Then make sure to check the permissions the app requests. Do they make sense (in the context of what the app is supposed to do)? Critical combinations for privacy are e.g. access to personal data (contacts, calendars, etc) with internet. Or simply internet -- as they could send anything. How hard you argue depends on the grade of paranoia you cultivate :)
Privacy helpers
Sometimes it's not avoidable to risk some permissions: of course a web browser needs internet access, as does a SMS app need access to your messages. So how to control or restrict them?
There are several helpers around (see e.g. this list at lisisoft, will take you a while to scan through it :). You can hide sensitive information using...

password stores
locked galleries
crypt containers (see e.g. Droid Crypt)

All these things do not even require your device to be rooted. But really forbidding apps to access things (or control their access) won't work without root. Examples have already be named in bassmadrigal's answer:

LBE Privacy Guard controls access to your data (call-logs, contacts, etc.), to critical functions (initiate calls, access location data, etc.) plus firewall your device (control which apps might access the net via WiFi, mobile data). Careful when you're running JellyBean or higher: the playstore version of this app is known to cause boot-loops there. Rather check XDA-developers, they have a fixed version.
PDroid comes in several variants: PDroid Privacy Protection being the original one, followed up by PDroid Manager and OpenPDroid. Other than LBE, these cannot be installed as an app, but need additional preparations -- as they are deeply integrated into the system. This not only adds another layer of protection -- but OpenPDroid is even OpenSource, which adds another layer of trust as well.

See also how to fake my personal information.
Want some shocking details?
Visit your Google Dashboard, log in with your Google account. Here you can find out whom you contacted most frequently, and what other data Google collected from you.
What happens with all your data when you die, or for any other reason become inactive?
Ooops? Yes, also something one should keep in mind in this context: Plan your digital afterlife. The linked article introduces the new Inactive Account Manager:

You can tell us what to do with your Gmail messages and data from several other Google services if your account becomes inactive for any reason.
For example, you can choose to have your data deleted — after three, six, nine or 12 months of inactivity. Or you can select trusted contacts to receive data [...]

(Read more in the linked article)
Protect your device
Now you've taken care no data is leaving your device, even locked data away in "data vaults", and secured the "back-doors" -- you should not leave the front-door wide open. Go to Settings→Security and set up a screen lock. Multiple choices here:

the good-old PIN code. Not really secure. At least not, if you use King Roland's PIN for Druidia's planet shield (or president Screw's for his briefcase; in case you do not know Spaceballs, the PIN was "12345" for both). Also not your birthdate or something like that.
a pattern-lock. More secure, as a relation to data retrievable by social-engineering is quite unlikely.
a password can be highly secure, if you use all characters available: letters (upper and lower case), numbers, special chars. And make it long. E.g. Ti1$spnc3h! -- how to remember that? Check: "This is a $uper secure password nobody can 3asily hack!"

Anti-theft protection
Also a lot of solutions on the playstore. Highly praised solutions include Cerberus anti theft, avast! Mobile Security, and more. If your device gets lost, with a good anti-theft protection you can

check its position
sound an alarm
remotely back-up (retrieve) stored data, before you...
remote-wipe the entire device including its sensitive data

and optimally, the anti-theft app automatically informs you in case the thief changes the SIM. It hides itself (stealth mode) and, with root available, can even protect itself against a factory-reset by integrating into the /system partition. So the only chance a thief has is to immediately switch-off the device, put it into a Faraday cage, and flash a new ROM while it's still in there...
Anti-virus
...you can left out, if you've followed above steps. Yes, there certainly is malware around. But with all the protection levels taken, and careful selection of sources as well as the apps themselves, risk is absolutely minimal. I never had malware on any of my devices, though I've tested a lot of apps over the past years. After all, Anti-virus (or rather anti-malware, as yet there was no virus sighted for Android) might give a false sense of security ("What shall happen? I've got that Anti-virus."), as they cannot really detect everything (no heuristics, e.g.), but rather check against a database of known malware mainly.
Backup
Last but not least: Having turned off all Google services (or at least restricted them to a minimum), you will need an alternative backup. To be honest: even if you've decided to answer "Yes" to the above question of "Do you want to backup your data with Google?", you will need a good backup -- as that "Google backup" might be many things, but for sure not complete (apps must explicitly support it by implementing its API, which is done by few apps).
For this, if your device is rooted, I strongly recommend a little investion: do yourself (and your device) some good, and buy Titanium Backup PRO. You won't regret it. TiBu is a very powerful tool to backup and restore apps including their data, restore parts of nandroid backups (see: nandroid tag wiki and backup tag wiki for details), freeze/unfreeze apps, detach apps from the playstore, and much more. Scheduled backups included. Stored to your sdcard or, if you really want to, to the cloud.
Not being rooted, but having a device with Android 4.0 or higher? Take a look at Carbon - App Sync and Backup, so you can at least backup all your apps and their data, plus some of the system data. Scheduled backups are planned here as well.
Additionally, you might want to take a look at Full Backup of non-rooted devices for more details on this topic.
Conclusion
As I wrote, there usually isn't a simple answer. You can use "Android without Google", cut down all network connections, and so on -- but at latest when you also take out your SIM, it's no longer a smartphone. Android is designed to be network enabled, from its very beginning.
You could say "who cares", and let it all go -- and complain when it's too late.
Usually you have to find a way in the middle, deciding how much of your privacy you are willing to sacrifice for how much comfort/convenience. I just listed possibilities, showed what is to be found where, and what solutions exist to protect your privacy the one way or the other. Hopefully, my elaborations will help you making your decisions.


Found a film or strip stuck inside the back cover of Lenovo K3 Note

According to people at https://www.reddit.com/r/lenovok3note/comments/3eousk/could_the_lenovo_k3_note_be_optimised_for/ it's used for shielding the Sim cards.

I'd be surprised, and posit it is actually an anti-theft or tracking RFID sticker - possibly bigger then typical as it needs to work through more packaging?


How to restore my old deleted WhatsApp messages

There are usually two ways of restoring your messages. Local backup or Google drive backup.

Local backups are stored on your phone for up to 7 days only. After that, they are automatically deleted. Therefore, if more then 7 days have passed since you deleted the messages and you haven't manually saved those files, you will not be able to restore the deleted messaged that way.

Google drive backups on the other hand, are made periodically in the time specified by you. Check your WhatsApp settings to see when the last backup was made. To do that, open WhatsApp, go to settings -> chats -> backups. If the date of the last Google drive backup is before the time that you have deleted the messages, then you can still restore them.

To restore your Google drive backup, follow the steps provided by WhatsApp's FAQ page here

Have in mind that you will lose all the messages that were written after the time of backup.

Otherwise, if the conditions above don't match, you won't be able to restore those messages.


Protecting or Limiting my account's power

As far as I know there is no way that you can limit the ability of the phone to edit content.  That said there are many steps you can take to ensure that somebody won't be able to get to the stage where they can delete your content and dealing with it if it happens:

setup a pin number on your sim
setup a lock screen on your phone
install an application like SeekDroid and give it admin access so that you can remote wipe your phone if you lose it
install two factor authentication on all accounts which support it (Google, Dropbox, Facebook certainly do atm.  Others may)
make regular backups of anything you would be lost without, and store those backups in the cloud or in multiple places
don't use the same password more than once.  I use LastPass to ensure that all my passwords are all over 20 random characters.

You should really follow all of these steps - it adds a bit of overhead to some tasks, but I certainly favour the security over the convenience.


Most likely they're encrypted by Gallery Vault so they're unrecoverable without decryption.

You could try to recover the photos from before being placed in Gallery Vault with DiskDigger on the PlayStore    This doesn't require root access if the device is running Android 5.0 or above, For some reason all the photos are stored in sort of hidden recycling bin.

  Tip for DiskDigger :
          If you can't find your photos, try to swap your default storage device in settings > storage to swap the default from internal storage over to SD Card, This sometimes gives DiskDigger the permissions needed to scan the SD Card also, It's because the device actually uses the SD Card as Internal Storage on some devices. The internal storage has read write permissions for DiskDigger to scan it correctly, However the SD Card hasn't got this permission, So it's a good little trick to make it scan the SD Card if you couldn't find the files on Internal Storage


Unable to install any application on my android phone

I'm wondering if this isn't a knockoff Android with a different OS that is skinned to look like Android, or one that's running some kind of weird custom ROM. There are a huge number of "Android" tablets and phones coming out of China lately; some are legit and some aren't. If you look at sites like dealextreme.com, you'll see some pretty wild stuff.

If it's an actual Android phone, the contacts can be synced from a Gmail account, or manually added in Contacts. Unless the phone has a SIM card and you're saving contacts directly to the SIM, you won't really run into a hard limit on phonebook entries. The small phonebook, the "unsupported media" error and the missing Applications menu makes me a little suspicious that the phone might not be what it seems.

I would be extremely interested to see some pictures of the phone if possible. Aside from general interest (I'm sort of a knockoff phone enthusiast, if there is such a thing), maybe some photos would help us figure out what type of phone it is and whether or not you'll be able to load any apps on it somehow.


On Moto X Play (6.0.1), Data usage →WiFi → Network Restrictions displays this self explanatory note - I assume this should be the case with your device also, even if not explicitly mentioned

From Google Support

  If you use Wi-Fi, you can set your device to restrict data usage on Wi-Fi networks that are mobile hotspots. This will help you optimize your data usage by preventing apps from using background data or large downloads on these networks.

Edit: To clarify reference made to data network in Moto definition, this helps -
From 8 ways to tame your data-hogging Android phone

  Once you designate a hotspot's Wi-Fi signal as a "metered" connection, your Android device will obey the rules of the cellular-data road whenever it's connected to that particular connection—meaning, for example, Android won't exceed any mobile-data limits you've set, or allow your apps to use background data if you've restricted it.

Verified by setting 50 MB limit on mobile data, setting my WiFi as metered and trying to download a 600 MB ROM. I got a warning on my notification bar as shown below


Is it possible to install Android on an iPhone 4?
Technically speaking, yes. The bootrom of the iPhone 4 has long been exploited. If you want to try, here's a few steps you can take:

Exploit your iPhone 4 using any bootrom exploit
Build a custom Android kernel for your iPhone 4
Write a custom loader with all the necessary configuration and components
Boot it on the iPhone 4

What're the missed requirements?
There could be a lot of them, for example, the storage chip, the CPU, a lot of things can go wrong with this type of exploit.
What's the latest version that can run on the iPhone 4?
None. But if you somehow manage to get Android running on it, I would say you can run up to Nougat. Because your iPhone 4 have a single core and 512mb of ram, this configuration is similar to another device called Samsung Galaxy Star and it has almost the same configuration in terms of ram and CPU cores, and it is able to run up to Nougat.


Swapping the "home" button functionality

If you're using the AOKP ICS ROMs, then there is a setting under System Settings->ROM Control->General UI->Long Press Home Action but it seems to only let you choose between different kinds of recent menu lists. I know this is a narrow part of your situation, but information for your taking nonetheless.


In most cases a startup manager does not require root to disable an app from startup unless the app is a system application. I am not too sure as to why autorun manager is requiring root, but I would suggest installing a different app to manage startup apps.
In the past I have used Startup Manager to do this.
Try this app and see if it fixes your issue.


VS98523c updated successfully but 4G Data doesn't work

after the 3rd or 4th reboot the 4G data now functions again.  sounds like other phones and other versions were having this issue as well.

Cellular data not working since 5.1 Lollipop flash

How do I get my mobile data to work again, after the new Android 5.1 update?

Nexus 5 upgraded to 5.1 and mobile data wont work anymore

Moto G 1st Gen - Mobile Data not working after upgrade to 5.0.2


It appears that the action Media → Music Play Dir cannot play files for infinite times. I tried with multiple Maximum Tracks value (with(out) Random enabled) and reached the conclusion that the maximum number of time Tasker would play a media would not be more than the number of playable files in the working directory.

Enough about failure. Let's come to business. I came up with this following simple approach of mine:

We're going to list all the files in your working directory (the same directory where your media files are kept) and store it in a variable. We will randomly select a file from the previous output, get the duration of the file, play it, set Tasker to wait for that much duration, then loop back to where the random selection of a media file occurs.

Actions

Files → List Files:

Dir: working directory where media files are kept
Match: *.mp3/*.wma/*.3gp
Variable: %tracks

This step list all the files with MP3, WMA and 3GP extension available in the working directory, creates an array %tracks and fill the path name of each file as a value in that array.

I learned this step from this post of UncleMike.
Variables → Variable Set :

Name: %max_tracks
To: %tracks(#)

We're creating a variable named %max_tracks and assigning the size of %tracks array as its value. This variable would be used only in next step.
Variables → Variable Randomize:

Name: %rand
Min: 1
Max: %max_tracks

This step randomly selects a value in the range 1-%max_tracks and assigns the randomly chosen value to %rand.
Media → Test Media:

Type: Music File Duration Tag
Data: %tracks(%rand)
Store Result in: %duration

This step finds the duration of randomly chosen (%tracks(%rand)) media file and assign the duration as a value to %duration.
Variables → Variable Split

Name: %duration
Splitter: :

It is my assumption here that all of your media files are less than 59 minutes 59 seconds in duration. The duration received in last action is in the format MINUTES:SECONDS. In this action, we're splitting variable %duration at :. This would store MINUTES in %duration1 and SECONDS in %duration2.
Media → Music Play:

File: %tracks(%rand)
Stream: Media

This step plays the randomly chosen media file.
Task → Wait:

Seconds: %duration2
Minutes: %duration1

This step makes the Tasker wait for the amount equivalent to the duration the randomly chosen would be played for.
Task → Goto

Type: Action Number
Number: 3

This step repeats the cycle from action 3 for the purpose of playing another randomly chosen media file.

Note: The Variable Randomize action of Tasker could bug you if the files are very short in numbers. That's something I can't help with.


Not all equipment which uses SD cards can use SDHC cards.  It may be that your device doesn't support the sdhc card you are using.


How do I run an Android app on an iPhone?

Generally, you cannot run Android apps on an iPhone.

Based on my 30-60 minutes doing research on Google it seems there is no general solution.

This Android.SE post
This Quora question

However, some apps can be emulated on an iOS environment.

Cydia is an emulator option for jailbroken iPhones, as mentioned in the Quora post cited above
iOSEmus is an emulator option without the need of jailbreaking iPhones. By the way, I recommend these installation instructions.

I welcome anyone who has more general solutions.


Every time I plug in my phone via USB it automatically mounts the SD card (Xperia Arc version)

Go to Settings->Sony Ericsson->Connectivity and un-check Auto connect in MSC.


Is there any way to re-render a photosphere?

Not a full answer (came here looking for an answer myself), but here are a couple of partial solutions I figured out so far, perhaps someone else can improve upon these.

First of all, temporary files for the last few photosphere sessions can be found under /sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.gallery3d/files/panorama_sessions/. You can extract these out and use an external program such as hugin to stich them. I tried this on a couple of photospheres and though they didn't come out great, I have at least something instead of nothing. I kept the files around and looking around for a good guide on using Hugin.
I was able to trick photo app to reprocess them, but it didn't produce desirable result. This is what I did:

I connected the phone to my laptop and went into the directory where the session files are (via adb shell).
I identified the directory for my previous session
While the camera is still connected to the laptop, I started taking a new photosphere, took a couple of snaps
Identified the directory for the new session
Copied all files from old session directory to the new session directory
Ended the photosphere to trigger a processing.

The photo app did process the old images, but it doesn't reread the session.meta and orientations.txt and instead uses the data from the new session (must be cached in memory). The result is that you  don't get a full photosphere, unless you complete the photosphere in the new session also, which I don't mind doing in the interest of saving the photosphere, except that I realized I had to capture the new photosphere in exactly the same sequence as before or the resultant image will all be out of place as it would be stiched in the wrong order.

Ideally, if there is a hidden task in the photo app to invoke the rendering, we should be able to trigger it on the old sessions folder, but I don't know where to begin.


Can I block specific apps from using GPS?

With LBE Privacy Guard you can block positioning permissions for certain apps.
You can download it here: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.lbe.security.lite

It is important to note that LBE does require your phone to be rooted.


Is there are way to change Android's default screen orientation?

Run this from adb shell or from a root terminal:

content insert --uri content://settings/system --bind name:s:user_rotation --bind value:i:0

Change the value to 1 if you want to go back to Landscape (2 and 3 also work for upside-down portrait and reverse landscape).


Is this a phishing or hacking attempt using a survey? How do I get rid of this popup?

Try to open the list of installed apps and then inspect the list. Uninstall anything that you think you hadn't installed
especially something like mul widget .


Just in case you are in hurry i think you are missing wiping davlik cache
and then install zip from sdcard,and make sure the zip is the correct firmware for your device,and also once your bootloader is unlocked, to root your device is not a big deal,search for supersu package on google for your device and install it as "Install zip from sdcard" in custom recovery mode
Full Process:

first of all get the original firmware for your phone ,search the internet using your mobile phone name etc. and please be sure to check that the firmware is the same as your phone's original firmware.(Which i think you already had)
2.Now if haven't already please install custom recovery like CWM(Clock work mod) or TWRP,i was using CWM.(You also seems to have this from your question)
3.Copy the firmware to your device or memory card location
4.Enter recovery mode,Now once in recovery, wipe cache & factory reset, remove davlik cache, and or cache
5.Now Select the option install zip from sdcard
and continue all the verifications.
6.wait for a while until its done.
7.Now reboot your phone.
please note that this information is for successfully recover bootloop(soft brick) for android 4.2 ,while this must be the same steps for your device, please just be sure before proceeding


GPS doesn't work offline on Samsung Galaxy S4

If your GPS is set to use AGPS mode, it doesn't work at all when offline for some reason.

Go to Settings - General - Location - Mode - GPS only. I didn't notice at first that it was a selectable option.


How can I shut off sync or change its frequency?

As well as the other answers, you can change the frequency that some accounts sync by going to Settings -> Accounts and sync.  For instance, when I click on my Facebook account from there I can change the "Social networking sync interval" to none, 3 hours, 6 hours, 12 hours, or once per day.


How can I view an XLXS file attachment to a gmail message?

It appears you don't have an app that can view excel spreadsheet (.xlsx). Solution: Download an app that can view them, such as Google Sheets, then try to open the file again


Is in-app purchase still exists on the device if buyer's account is logged out?

If you are logged in with your Google account, the app will be in the list of all your apps and you will be able to re-install it on any device conected to your Google account.


Remove boot password from the command line

vdc cryptfs changepw default current_password default_password

does the trick. Replace current_password with the real current password.

I believe the new password specified is irrelevant, as the DEFAULT_PASSWORD constant is used anyway. However, the current password seems to be required, atleast when using hardware-based encryption.
(see https://github.com/LineageOS/android_system_vold/blob/61a3249612495e7a5b2a1950859e9eb43dfc4559/cryptfs.cpp#L2858)


Make Android open a page at a specific time every morning

Using Macrodroid:

Add Day/Time trigger, then select Monday to Sunday and input the time.
Select the Open Website / HTTP GET action, then enter the webpage that should be opened.
Select Set Variable action. Choose "New variable", give it a name and select Integer.
On the Constraints tab, select Macroid Variable, select the variable create during step 4, select "<", and set Value to 51.
Give your macro a name, save it. It will look like the image below:

The macro will trigger daily at the exact time you entered opening the desired webpage for 50 consecutive days.

Disclaimer: I am not related to Macrodroid developer(s).


How do I connect to PPPoE based broadband?

You need to know username and password to connect to the Internet using Ethernet port if you are using an Ethernet modem which is not configured.
Ask your ISP for the username and password.


How can I force a complete new sync of my Google contacts to my phone?

What I did:

I removed my Google account from my phone, then deleted all data of the Apps: Contacts, Contacts Storage and Google Contact Sync, rebooted the phone and added my Google account again. Result: All my Google contacts are gone (and the phone is suddenly quite fast again! :-)

... however, it does not work to sync my Google contacts back (my LinkedIn contacts are still there). When I go to Settings > Accounts (Google) > my Gmail account it shows that all different apps have synched, however the "sync" icon stays visible for the contatcs, while it disappears for all other Apps after sync. –  Pedi T. 1 min ago   edit

I really had expected that removing the account will solve the sync issue .... any hints? But actually, this question is answered now, the remaining question is, how to fix my broken sync of contacts ...


Have a look at simulating keyevents on Android and search for "KEYCODE_VOLUME_UP" and "KEYCODE_VOLUME_DOWN".

Events can be generated by executing "input":

#local shell:
input keyevent 24 #vol up
input keyevent 25 #vol down
#remotely using ssh
ssh your-phone input keyevent 24 #vol up
ssh your-phone input keyevent 25 #vol down

# 'su -c command' to make it run as root (if not already). EDIT: now escaped properly.
ssh your-phone su -c "input\ keyevent\ 24" #vol up
ssh your-phone su -c "input\ keyevent\ 25" #vol down"

Your shell needs appropriate permissions most probably to fire input events I guess. If you do public key authentication and keep your private key loaded in memory (ssh-add) you can make a wrapper script and just execute this without beeing asked for a passphrase. Note: There's a considerable overhead for both 'su' and 'input', all in all one single volume adjust takes 2.5s to complete on my HTC Desire.

EDIT2:

shell@android:/ $ id
uid=2000(shell) gid=2000(shell) groups=1003(graphics),1004(input),[...]
shell@android:/ $ time input keyevent 24
    0m0.92s real     0m0.29s user     0m0.06s system

Seems like you have to be member of the input group (here GID=2004) to have the capability to generate keyevents using 'input'. Also, I noticed that the screen has to not be locked (and/or off), because the lock would consume all keyevents eventually. Note also that the command takes almost 1 second.


How to upgrade / swap SD card without losing data and installed apps?

First, turn off your phone's radio by entering Airplane Mode - usually this'll be by long-pressing the power button and selecting Airplane Mode.

Next on your homescreen, press MENU and click SETTINGS (or navigate in your preferred way). In SETTINGS, choose SD CARD & PHONE STORAGE. Press UNMOUNT to dismount your SD Card.

Now remove your SD card from the phone and insert it into your card reader on your PC.

Copy ALL the files to a folder of choice.

Insert your new 4 GB card into your cell phone and choose to FORMAT it from within the device. This is the safest course of action. Remove the new SD Card and use your PC to move/overwrite all data from the copy of the old card to the new one.

Re-insert your new card into the phone and reboot so that the scanning of the card takes place.


Can I set the alarm to stop after some time?

The feature I was looking for is called (on the apps I’ve found that have it) “auto-dismiss”. I’m trying Alarm Clock Xtreme Free, which offers this feature; if I’m happy with it I’ll upgrade to the paid version.


Redeem Google Checkout coupon on Google Play

There is no way to use coupon codes with Google Play.


How do I hide or disable the Clear Defaults dialog or notification?

You can stop this notification from showing up, but you will need root and Xposed framework installed. So this solution is only for experienced Android user.

http://repo.xposed.info/module/com.mohammadag.disablecleardefaultsdialog


If you install the Android SDK on your computer, you can connect the phone via USB and use the adb tool to perform a factory reset on your phone.  That will erase all your data.  You can also use adb to retrieve files and data before doing the wipe.

To retrieve files, type the following at the command prompt / terminal on your computer (make sure it's running in the directory where you have the SDK):

./adb pull phone-file backup-file

For example,

./adb pull /sdcard/DCIM/myphoto.jpg C:\backups\myphoto.jpg

And to wipe the phone:

./adb wipe data

You might need to try some variants of that, and on some phones you will unfortunately need to be rooted.

More info on adb: http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/adb.html

Edit: There's a better way to do a factory reset!  It's harder without a screen, but not impossible.

Power the device off. If the device is unresponsive and does not turn off, remove the battery and then re-insert it.
Press and hold the Home key and the red End key for 30 seconds, the release.
Wait a few seconds, then press the Home key and the Power key again.
Wait 30 seconds, then press Volume Down twice.  Click the Power button once.
Give the phone a few minutes to do the factory reset.

With-screen instructions are here.


Your phone (as most other Android phones) have two kinds of persistent storage -- internal and external. The internal storage is fixed into hardware, and is not intended to be user-serviceable. Your SD card is the external storage, and is very much replaceable -- it is very accessible and can be swapped for another one, including greater capacity ones (see this question for some additional information).

However, replacing the SD card won't help in your case -- your phone complains that its internal storage space is low. This is a problem that has plagued HTC Desire, which is otherwise a great device.

Some things you can do:

Move applications to the SD card
Remove unneeded applications (from your words, not quite possible)
Clear up some messages, drafts, application caches, and in some cases application data
Downgrade some of the preinstalled applications that you do not use. See this question for more details


Google Search is the package that contains both Google Search and Google Now. I think you can disable Google Now while keeping the search part by going into Now->Settings->Switch Google Now (first item).

If it doesn't solves your problem, then you can disable Google Search in Settings->Applications->Google Search->Disable.


Is there no way to get scripts to run in Android?

Python/PHP specific
If you are asking specifically for Python and PHP scripts, SL4A probably is your best choice (though there are other Python
supporting apps in the playstore, like e.g. QPython Lite). And if you want to automate things, you might want to take a look at the SL4A Script Launcher (in connection with TaskBomb task scheduler) as well.
Shell Scripts
But talking about "Linux" and "scripts in general", the first coming to my mind are Shell Scripts. These can be run directly from the command line using any terminal emulator (e.g. Android Terminal Emulator, Terminal IDE) -- or, if you prefer some "graphical help", using specific launcher apps like SH Script Runner, ScriptMe, or Script Manager.


Recent models of Lenovo K-series are running on PURE UI, which is similar to/the same as stock Android experience, thus Lenovo did not preinstall their own Lenovo Gallery app. Some models have Google Photos preinstalled as their stock gallery app instead. Otherwise, users have to install any compatible 3rd-party Gallery app on their own.

References from Lenovo Forums:

Lenovo Vibe K5 Note: No in-built/(in the phone) gallery app in Lenovo Vibe K5 Note
Lenovo Vibe K5 Note: Gallery app not present in vibe k5 note
Lenovo K6 Power: Lenovo K6 Power Gallery App is Not Showing
Lenovo K6 Note: K6 note has no gallery
Lenovo K8 Note: Lenovo Gallery App Missing
Lenovo K8 Note: Not able to see gallery


Phone frozen for a short time after unplugging from charger

Do you use a nexus 4? This should not be happening with your phone as nexus 4 is quite a fast one. It happens with slow phones especially when you have battery saving apps installed. Try formatting your phone and deleting apps you don't need.


The BluetoothTest app is part of the stock image on most Samsung devices. It's a system app, and as the name suggests, it's for testing the Bluetooth hardware. If you root the device, it's safe to remove/"freeze" this app. It shouldn't normally run or cause any problems at all, though some users have reported that in some cases it shows up in the battery usage list for their device. (Googling {Samsung BluetoothTest} gives you some forum posts, but no solid information.)

As for the permission to "modify the battery statistics", this label is wrong (see this old Android bug report), and is phrased differently in newer Android versions. The permission only allows the app to read the battery statistics. An app might use this to help you identify which apps use the most power, or to find and disable power-hungry apps on low battery.

There's no real need for BluetoothTest to use this permission, but as the app info screen explains, many system apps are bound together in a single process, because this is more (power and memory) efficient. As a result, all of the apps bound together in this way share the same permissions, which means the single process has more permissions than any one of the apps needs. This only applies to system (i.e. built-in) apps: apps you download and install are kept separate for security.


How to prove an Android device is hacked? Retrieving logs from recovery booting

I would try a good file explorer app for your device. The link in a good one for non-rooted devices and it's free. Also, you can remote access your file system on another device. I don't think it will be in real-time, but a way to monitor or link to someone that can help you with this.
I would also hook your device up to a computer if you have access and make sure you have all your settings right on your device (refer to this YouTube video). At the very least, copy the entire file system. Even if you cannot make heads or tales of it, someone can.
I would also download a system cleaner app (after copying the files) like SD Maid. Clean up your cache, history, passwords, etc. Then change all passwords. Run cleaner again. Re-hook up to the computer make another copy of everything save to compare later. Extreme, factory reset your device in recovery if you can. Re-setup your device the way you like it, even the exact same way through your Google account, and make another copy. Then make a copy every now and then to see to have on file.
Ideally, I would root your system for the benefits of having some third-party APKs.


The kindle fire was just recently updated and the update removed root from the device, and it broke the Super One Click root method used. Once another root method is found (it may have been already) the developer of Super One Click will most likely update the application to support the Kindle Fire again.

Here is an article from Engadget talking about the update.

  Just when you thought it was safe to root your Kindle Fire with a single click, Amazon has clamped down on homebrewing enthusiasts. The company has begun pushing out an update for the $199 tablet that breaks the root, disabling the SuperOneClick utility in the process. If you've rooted your tablet and are still running a version of the Amazon-flavored Gingerbread, you're susceptible to the update any time you're connected to a WiFi network. However, if you've already made the leap to another version of Android, such as CM7, you can bypass this and any future software updates. There are some improvements with 6.2.1 though, as smoother scrolling, password protected WiFi use and the ability to remove recently used items from the home screen carousel are among the upgrades. If you're looking to read up on the issue before taking action, roll up your sleeves and hit the links below.

XDA-Developers Topic

From that thread, if you modify the hosts file and put the amazon update server to point to localhost (127.0.0.1) you will not receive the update, but If you cannot use Super One Click, it sounds like it is too late for you. You seem to already have the update.

Steps to disable the Kindle Automatic Silent Update:

Modify /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1   s3.amazonaws.com
Disable OTASilentInstall
Use an app like Titanium Backup and Freeze the OTASilentInstall apk
Rename OTASilentInstall (Optional)
Another option is to use a tool like RootExplorer and rename OTASilentInstall.apk to OTASilentInstall.bak.

As for your Electrify, I found some steps to root but I don't have the device so I do not know if they still work.

Turn on USB Debugging in Settings -> Applications -> Development -> USB Debugging - check the box.
From the market download and install the Superuser App to your phone. You may be asked to update binaries but you can't till you're rooted. It's OK as is.
Download and install the drivers to your PC from the link in step 9 below.
Download both the ADB package and the torpedo root file to your PC from the link in step 9 below.
Create a folder on your C: drive called Root.
Unzip the ADB package to the Root folder and move the torpedo root file there as well.
Plug your phone into your PC with the USB cable. Set USB Settings to Charge Only.
From your PC click Start:Run: type CMD and click OK.
Enter the prompts shown at How To: Root Motorola Photon 4G


How do I install apps to Internal/External SD instead of Phone Storage

The answer to your re-phrased question can be found in the app2sd tag-wiki. In short:

App2SD cannot move the entire app to SDCard, there are always things remaining in phone storage (e.g. data, Dalvik cache, and some more)
There are alternative methods moving more stuff, such as e.g. link2sd or Data2SD

For details, please see the linked tag-wiki.


Using the GPS instead of Google Location Services in Chrome

Use Firefox, no location needed, blocks that nosy one
use duckduckgo search also does not track or sell, true privacy


Droid Explorer - Input string was not in a correct format

As the developer of Droid Explorer, I would suggest that this is more suitable as a bug report, which actually already exists.
Although, there is probably a workaround that you could do.
I have seen that this usually happens when there is a version of the SDK that was pre-release or something along those lines. The error happens when it tries to verify the SDK version. The folder names are used as the version, and when there is a letter in the version name, Droid Explorer does not like that.
Check the android-sdk/build-tools directory and see if there are any folders that have A-Z in them. If one does, that is the problem. For example, I have seen situations where there will be a folder called android-4.4W. I would suggest deleting that folder, open the SDK Update Tool and download the versions of the build tools that you want/need.


Xperia Ray ST18i - CWM - install zip from sdcard, error message: This package is for "ST18i,..." devices; this is a "".?

I found an answer here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=30908422&postcount=186

Edit the updater-script, but don't try to fix it - remove the condition altogether since I know I'm on the correct device.

Thanks adulfo!

PS. bizarrely, after powering down, when I returned to recovery, a different version (6.0.5.1) of recovery came up rather than 5.027.  Possibly x-Parts had improperly installed CWM, and the second install 5.027 made it possible to access it, because after originally installing with x-Parts I could not boot into recovery.  (Although that does not make sense either because x-Parts says it installs recovery into the system, and it is erased by flashing a ROM)

Still, I don't know why CWM did not recognize the device as an ST18i (and thereby failed the script), especially since it had done so during the installation of CWM recovery.


I had an ongoing and frustrating experience with audio skipping and the "sdcard unexpectedly removed" fault.  I disabled programs, kept my screen open, got a faster card etc.  I should say here that my audio was not on the sdcard, it is in the phone memory.  I hunted through my settings time and again, and finally I came across something in the developer options.  The option to force apps to ask for access to the sdcard was checked.  I unchecked that option and presto!, both my problems went away.  Also, I should say that no app ever asked for permission to access the sdcard.


How to view recovered (deleted earlier) images?

Recovering images from a previously formatted media usually means that the images are "carved" from the RAW data by detecting the image headers.

Images that are not stored as one data block (image is fragmented on file-system level) can not be fully recovered using the carving method because the information which blocks belong together was erased by formatting the media. You end up in having image files of the original size but from a certain point on the images just contain garbage data, not the image data.

A good image recovery tool should detect those defect images and let you decide what to do with them. Looks like your software does not work this way and now you have broken images that can't be loaded fully - e.g. for generating the thumbnail.

You may find software that is able to display the remaining parts of the original image, and save it to a new file. But this software has be be able to deal with defect image files and I don't know what Android apps could be used in such a case.


Did you try to permaroot anyways?

I'd try a factory reset and then try again.


Trusted places not present under Smart lock in Nexus 5 (Android 5.0 lollipop)

Sometimes you have to activate the Trust Agent: Settings -> Security -> Trust Agents -> enable Smart Lock


Google's android products are still going to phone storage

Many apps require to be stored in internal storage. This is by design and it cannot be changed. Most of the Google apps such as Hangouts and GMail cannot be stored to external storage (i.e. SD Card). So whenever you download an app that requires internal storage it will be stored in internal storage regardless of your app storage setting.

P.S. Developers prefer internal storage as external storage is generally slow to read and affects the performance negatively.


Can I really edit my Telegram messages only with the desktop client?

A simple tap on a message you sent recently will bring up the action menu containing "Edit".


How to remove Android stock movie player as preferred default app for movies?

Normally you would do this from Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications.  Find the app in the list, click it, and choose Clear Defaults.


Taking pictures/videos from both front and rear camera simultaneously?

This is what I could gather from answers on Stack Overflow. I have no development background, so corrections are welcome.

Camera could have only have one object as mentioned here. But this was depreciated from Android 5.0. So, devices running KitKat and below, cannot have this feature.

It seemed to be possible on some devices to open both front and rear camera as mentioned here. However, it is not possible on all devices due to hardware & Software restrictions (see comments)

The Android camera APIs generally allow multiple cameras to be used at the same time, but most devices do not have enough hardware resources to support that in practice - for example, there's often only one camera image processor shared by both cameras.

The link in your question is the best I could find for a clear explanation.Nokia, Samsung, LG seem to have started this trend on some of their devices. Such devices either need Dual Camera Mode or Dual Sight Mode. There wasn't much I could find about these OEM specific technologies. The Frontback Camera app mentioned in the link, works on Pixel 4a Android 11. Note that the pictures were very grainy and not worth the result IMO.

OP tried apps mentioned here and they didn't work.
This  leads me to conclude that it is both a hardware & Software feature and apps can be poor substitute. I doubt if trying on other devices would show better results. Neither have I come across any rooted or Xposed modules that can do this, so it is best to buy the devices that support this natively, if you want this feature badly.


Heyy tristo
          Its not a fix solution but for try you can download su binary zip file from google 2.76 version and after download move it to sd card from downloaded folder after shut down the phone and come in reboot in recovery mode normal power off and volume up and down key press one time to reboot but setting may be change for your phone so check on google before rebooting after when its done choose recovery mode use volume up key to select then select install zip from sd card use volume down key and press power button then select zip file from sd card at bottom and press power button and then click yes to flashing after done flashing press go to go back and from options reboot the system.after reboot go in supersu error should be going on if not click on continue and normal mode its showing installing binary after some time it will show installation sucess and reboot so reboot now and then open supersu its time error will go surely if not continue process done again and this time don't reboot click on ok and close supersu and open again problem may be solve
Your qutipie AJ


Netflix does not allow being installed on a rooted device. If you manage to install it, it will refise to run (flash black and exit).

If you insist on installing it from Google Play, unroot your device first.

If you insist on letting it run well without unrooting your phone, consider using some Xposed modules (e.g. RootCloak).

Alternatively, you can unroot your phone then root it again with Magisk, as suggested by Matthew Read. However I haven't tested this method personally and I can't guarantee it'll be working.

References:
1,
2,
3,
Google Search


Disable Split-Screen/Multi-Window for apps

[Is] there a way to simply change what occurs when the recent app button is held?

You can tweak the Overview (Recent) button for long-press event using GravityBox [N]. GravityBox requires a comapatible Xposed Framework.

In GravityBox module, go to Navigation keys actions → scroll to Recents key → tap Long-press action → choose an appropriate action.

From then on, long-pressing the Overview button would not show spit-screen mode.

Tested on Nexus 6 running stock Android 7.1.1.


Limit the Internet bandwidth of Android device

While not for the faint of heart, how about the Linux command Traffic Control? Check out the man page for a quick run-down.

You'll need root and the Android Terminal Emulator app (or similar). I think this guide will be helpful, especially the script quoted below (although because I'm not rooted I haven't tried it myself). You can either try to run the script using sh or using BASH, or simply type the commands from the script directly in terminal after replacing the variables with your desired values. Let us know how it goes.

#!/bin/bash
#
#  tc uses the following units when passed as a parameter.
#  kbps: Kilobytes per second
#  mbps: Megabytes per second
#  kbit: Kilobits per second
#  mbit: Megabits per second
#  bps: Bytes per second
#       Amounts of data can be specified in:
#       kb or k: Kilobytes
#       mb or m: Megabytes
#       mbit: Megabits
#       kbit: Kilobits
#  To get the byte figure from bits, divide the number by 8 bit
#

#
# Name of the traffic control command.
TC=/sbin/tc

# The network interface we're planning on limiting bandwidth.
IF=eth0             # Interface

# Download limit (in mega bits)
DNLD=1mbit          # DOWNLOAD Limit

# Upload limit (in mega bits)
UPLD=1mbit          # UPLOAD Limit

# IP address of the machine we are controlling
IP=216.3.128.12     # Host IP

# Filter options for limiting the intended interface.
U32="$TC filter add dev $IF protocol ip parent 1:0 prio 1 u32"

start() {

# We'll use Hierarchical Token Bucket (HTB) to shape bandwidth.
# For detailed configuration options, please consult Linux man
# page.

    $TC qdisc add dev $IF root handle 1: htb default 30
    $TC class add dev $IF parent 1: classid 1:1 htb rate $DNLD
    $TC class add dev $IF parent 1: classid 1:2 htb rate $UPLD
    $U32 match ip dst $IP/32 flowid 1:1
    $U32 match ip src $IP/32 flowid 1:2

# The first line creates the root qdisc, and the next two lines
# create two child qdisc that are to be used to shape download
# and upload bandwidth.
#
# The 4th and 5th line creates the filter to match the interface.
# The 'dst' IP address is used to limit download speed, and the
# 'src' IP address is used to limit upload speed.

}

stop() {

# Stop the bandwidth shaping.
    $TC qdisc del dev $IF root

}

restart() {

# Self-explanatory.
    stop
    sleep 1
    start

}

show() {

# Display status of traffic control status.
    $TC -s qdisc ls dev $IF

}

case "$1" in

  start)

    echo -n "Starting bandwidth shaping: "
    start
    echo "done"
    ;;

  stop)

    echo -n "Stopping bandwidth shaping: "
    stop
    echo "done"
    ;;

  restart)

    echo -n "Restarting bandwidth shaping: "
    restart
    echo "done"
    ;;

  show)

    echo "Bandwidth shaping status for $IF:"
    show
    echo ""
    ;;

  *)

    pwd=$(pwd)
    echo "Usage: tc.bash {start|stop|restart|show}"
    ;;

esac

exit 0


This is a common problem and is often solved with little work.

This should fix your problem:

1) Remove your Google Account (From you device settings)

2) Clear Google-Play-Store cache and data

3) Sign-in with your Google Account again

4) Try to download an app


Why is Google Maps always running in the background?

One part of Google Maps is a so called "Location Service", which kicks in on a couple of intents (e.g. always when your network connectivity changes -- which happens when you login to a new WiFi network, or to a new cell tower). It caches your current location to the "location cache", which should serve to faster provide your current location when needed (and to update Google's location database, as the cache's contents are submitted in intervals).

Without being rooted, there's not much you can do about. But if your device is rooted, you have several options:

Use an app like Autorun Manager PRO (yes, here you need the "Pro") to disable the listeners which cause it to kick-in1
Use Titanium Backup ★ root to freeze the app when you don't need it, and un-freeze it on demand2

Which method to prefer? I personally would go for the second. Titanium backup lets you create a widget on your desktop to toggle the "frozen state" of an app, so you can easily switch it on/off. Disabling some listeners might work well -- but the app also might start behaving strangely.


Looks like the issue isn't related to Android itself, but to apps installed: I had ESET Smart Security (antivirus) installed with a firewall - and the firewall blocked (or ignored) my set proxy. Disabling the firewall solved the issue.

I'm posting it to help other people facing the same issue.