Does Google Nexus 7 LTE has the integrated Portable Wi-Fi hotspot?

Disclaimer: I do not own a Nexus. So the answer does come from internet sources (XDA).
As per this thread these are some of the responses from the owners which indicates that the Portable Wi-Fi Hotspot settings is indeed present in the settings.

The option for hotspot tether is there both before and after the system update.
Nexus 7 FHD LTE with T-Mobile sim has Tethering & Hotspot available but not with newly activated AT&T data plan sim. The Tethering feature disappeared in setting. When I re-insert T-Mobile sim that comes with the tablet, the mobile hotspot is available again in the settings.

So, it is safe to assume, only if your carrier allows tethering or you have a tethering plan the option will appear in the settings menu.


How can I reset my developer options, or otherwise boot my Galaxy S2 on CM10.1 again?

In this situation you have two options, which I'd try in the given order:

Safe Mode

Boot into Safe Mode (details for what Safe Mode is and how to boot your device into Safe Mode can be found in the article How to Boot Android 4.1+ into Safe Mode:

Method 1:

hold down Power button until the power-menu pops up
press and hold the "restart" option
in the dialog box, select "Safe Mode" and hit "OK"

Method 2:

Reboot your device
hold the Vol+ and Vol- buttons at the same time to enter Safe Mode.

A "Safe Mode" watermark in the lower left corner tells you you've been successful. Obviously, you'd have to chose Method 2 as your device won't power up normally.

Now, while in Safe Mode, change the "Developer options" back to normal. Then do a normal reboot to leave Safe Mode.

Hint: If your device sticks in Safe Mode, power down and remove the battery for a few minutes. Then re-insert the battery, and the device should boot up normally.

Factory Reset

As a last resort, you can do a factory reset. Be aware that this will delete all your data, plus the apps you've installed yourself (i.e. the pre-installed apps won't be touched; your SDcard should also remain untouched). As your device still is unable to boot up normally, you can reset it via the recovery menu. Check your device's manual for how to boot into recovery; on many devices, this is done by holding the Vol+ and Power buttons pressed simultaneously until the device booted up to recovery. Other devices may use different combinations; so either try a few, try Google search, or search our site for it. Of course you can ask it in a separate question if you're still out of look ;)


How to troubleshoot a regularly crashing Google Play?

When installing Open GApps on Lineage OS, it must be flashed together with the Rom. Installing GApps after flashing the rom and booting the phone cause crashes. If you want to use Open GApps with Lineage OS, download both and place them in the memory and first flash the rom zip file. Without exiting the rom flash GApps zip and boot the phone. At the firts boot, you will be asked to configure your google logins and then GApps can be used.

Read installation instructions on LineageOS wiki


How can I disable 4G LTE on stock samsung (SGS3) or CyanogenMod?

You can use the code *#*#4636*#*# in caller app, you will find a menu called 'Testing', enter in phone information and then in 'set preferred network type' select 'WCDMA only' or 'GSM only'


Moto Droid v1 disabling primary Wireless AP

Try this - go to SETTINGS > Wireless & Networking > Wi-Fi Settings. In this screen, press the MENU button and then ADVANCED. Click WiFi Sleep Policy and set it to NEVER.

Hopefully, that will retain a connection to the Wi-Fi Access Point.


Cannot choose apps to share with in Google Play Store

Identified the cause.

It is known that Xposed clashes with heavily modded stock UI. That's one reason Xposed version 2.5.1 is the last version which supports without breaking theming engine. Xposed has a setting "Disabled Resource Hooks". If you uncheck it, this problem doesn't occur, but if you check it,it recurrs.

In my case, I don't want to uncheck it as it breaks other things in UI, so it's easier to live with the problem. Though why this should only happen with Google Play Store is unexplained


Odd but great Lock Screen Behaviour - can't get it back

My phone has spontaneously changed to this configuration on the lock screen. I would like to get back to the previous configuration of the clock at the top and the full size pattern lock.

It is impossible to drag or otherwise change the position of the widgets or pattern lock dots on the lock screen. Once unlocked, there is no interface to adjust the lock screen widgets.

Galaxy S4 SGH-M919, Android 4.2.2, Touchwiz.

Does anyone know how to configure this aspect of the lock screen?


How to change the user in ES File Explorer

Open ES File Explorer.  Head to cloud,  or FTP (Depending on which you are using,  and hold on the server.  An option along the bottom called "edit server"  will show up.  Click it, exit as necessary,  and press OK.


How to root MicromaxA116 running on CM11

Since you already have a custom ROM, you can do either of 2 things:

1. Enable native root:

Enable "Developer Options" (tap on "Build Number" 7 times under "About Phone").
In Developer Options, find the "Root Access" item and tap on it, and choose an option other than "Disabled", such as "Apps" or "Apps and ADB".

2. Use SuperSU:

Download the latest SuperSU flashable zip from the developer's website.
Go into whatever custom recovery you are using, and flash it like you did the custom ROM you use.

Both will work, but I prefer SuperSU as that gives more granular control over apps and logging, not to mention a better UI.

WARNING:

DO NOT enable both at the same time to avoid conflicts. Use only one or the other.


Android Market cannot be opened and cannot download any applications

The first thing you could try is to clear the Android Market cache and data. This can be done from Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications -> (All ->) Market -> Clear data. Note that the "All" tab may not be available on your device, depending on your Android version. If it's not there, then disregard that step.


S4 won't see connection to PC at either end

Samsung usb cables have a history of being finicky with data connections. I know it personally from trying to root several Galaxy phones over the years. Your best bet is to buy another usb cable. I highly recommend cables from Monoprice as they are cheap and high quality. However to be fair, any good quality cable you can find from another manufacture would be your best bet.


Why do Android create "Shell Folders" automatically? Can I change the shell folders?

Registry key is a windows concept in android these locations are handled as following

/**
 * Standard directory in which to place files that have been downloaded by
 * the user.  Note that this is primarily a convention for the top-level
 * public directory, you are free to download files anywhere in your own
 * private directories.  Also note that though the constant here is
 * named DIRECTORY_DOWNLOADS (plural), the actual file name is non-plural for
 * backwards compatibility reasons.
 */
public static String DIRECTORY_DOWNLOADS = "Download";

This code snippet is extracted from android / platform / frameworks / base / android-<version-tag> / . / core / java / android / os / Environment.java

So as you can see this returns a hard coded static string and I could not find any function to change it in AOSP code. So you can not change this location for all applications unless you modify the source code and build your own custom rom. For your application obviously, you can download it in its private folder also.

But some OEM had provided this capability in their rom. See this.

A work around to do so for Download folder is to download a 3rd party download manager like ES file manager. It will prompt you to choose download location for the file.


Which program allows remote management of Android devices?

There are a number of Mobile Device Management services on the market, with varying focuses and feature sets.

Mainly mentioning this, as SCCM is mentioned in the question, but Microsoft's solution (that ironically is far better at managing iOS and Android devices than Windows Phone devices) is either InTune (1) (for a cloud-based subscription service) or SCCM MDM (2) (3) (if you're happy managing your own on-premises infrastructure servers).

A good round-up of current services can be found here: 10 BYOD mobile device management suites you need to know. That round-up includes AirWatch, AmTel MDM, Dialogs Smartman Device Management, Exitor DME, FancyFon, Fiberlink MaaS360, IBM Endpoint Manager, MobileIron, Symantec Mobile Management & Zenprise. I've trialled and had good experiences using three of those, and we're actively using one of them to manage BYOD devices at the moment, I think there are different winners depending on exactly what your needs are.


Tablet showing 0 internal storage even after flashed

Disclaimer - I don't have enough reputation to place comments - so here is a suggestion.

I have been looking around and found a blog from a user with the same device who has rooted it successfully here.
Plus the comment from a user here.

I suggest to get your device rooted and then install (clear some temp files before installing if you can) the disk utility from here

From the app, you can see where your data is being used.

PS: You don't necessary need root privileges to get this utility working. However, I am presuming you have flashed the device perhaps to death and may have lot of old data which may be stored from within the system data part of your Android device.


Might be because of static charge accumulated during charging. Use the stock charger if currently not using also there are many tips to remove that static charge off your screen. Try those and tell us.


Updated phone, now fingerprint & WiFi don't work and I can't read or write from internal storage

After a few days, I figured out the solution for each problem:

Wi-Fi: I needed to delete /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf (which had been restored from Nougat) and reboot
Fingerprint: Delete /data/system/users/0/fpdata and /data/system/users/0/settings_fingerprint.xml
Storage: Wipe storage from TWRP, reboot to OS to reformat it, and restore files from TWRP

For those who would be wondering how to update from OOS Nougat to Oreo, here is a guide.


I've been satisfied with All In One Remote so far. It also works with other OSes than Windows. As for run in window-less mode, I can think of a couple of ways to easily hide the server window for All In One Remote. It would just take a few minutes to make in AutoIt. As for provide support for special keys and key combinations, as far as I know, I can do key combinations with it too.


How can I change the rate at which Gmail checks for new emails?

The new mail system does not use the classical POP/IMAP wherein there was a scheduled check on the server for new messages. Now, the notifications are directly pushed to the device by using the Google Play Services infrastructure.
Most Android phones use Doze to preserve battery life. That is if the device is not being used for some time, it will enter a battery saving mode wherein it will not actively listen to incoming push notifications, instead it will wait for some time to do a routine check. As soon as you move the phone, it should wake up and do an instant check.

Most phones will have a way to partially allow the apps to continue to work normally under the lockscreen. The settings will depend on your device, but you can try looking into: Settings > Apps & notifications > Special app access > Battery Optimization. In there, disable the battery optimization for Gmail app.

Screenshot:


I accidentally uninstalled the kingroot app and I can't find a way to completely unroot now

Try installing it again and then removing root, but UNTICK the KEEP BACKUP checkbox.


Screenshots: captured by front camera or back camera?

Remove that lowercase "m" in https://i.stack.imgur.com/XXXXXm.png (More Info)

The screenshot has nothing to do with your cameras. A screenshot is taken by the system (or the graphics driver), who takes one frame from its rendering buffer and saves the frame. Thus a screenshot always has the same resolution as your screen, and is always a PNG.

Changing brightness should have no effect on your screenshots taken, because it does nothing to the images rendered by your graphics processor. For LCD screens, brightness is simply the power supplied to the backlight panel, and the masking (front) panel is not affected. To confirm this, find a static screen and take two shots with different brightness levels. Compare those screenshots pixel-by-pixel and you'll find them exactly the same.

For grainy textures, it's Imgur's service for resizing photos that caused that problem.

I've edited your example post and here's the change:

[![enter image description here][1m]][1]

  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/L21J7.png
  [1m]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/L21J7m.png

See for yourself


How to enable selective app permissions on CyanogenMod?

This was available in CM7, but got removed in CM9 and above, for reasons I do not know myself.

It is possible that the maintainers of CM couldn't find a way to make this compatible with Android 4+ and so left it out.

There are apps on the market that can do this, such as Permissions Denied however this is now a paid app, and I am unable to report whether this works.

EDIT: Ad eldarerathis pointed out in the comments, there is an open feature request to add this to CM10 and later. I suggest you follow this request for updates.


If you have root on your phone, you can use Wifi Tether for Root Users.  I have a Droid4 with Jellybean and got it working after installing the latest version.

For my Droid4, the following settings worked:

Device-Profile: Generic ICS/JB (wlan1)
Setup-Method: Netd-Ndc (master)


How to close a window in multi-window mode?

To answer your first question (since the rest are off topic, and the first one is your title question anyway) apps open in multi window can be shut by:

Tap anywhere in the app you want to shut.
Tap the Bar between the two windows (it may have an arrow pointing at that window you tapped, it may not)
Tap the X on the options that come up

BUT BE WARNED! If you opened an app over an app (for example, you opened YouTube, then gmail on top of it) it would switch to that app. Keep repeating the process to close any unneeded apps.


The main reference resource site for modders and "cookers" of Samsung Spica aka i5700 is at Samdroid forum board, here.

It contains all information you need to upgrade your firmware version, root your phone, etc.


Astrid has support for scheduled reminders based on completion date.

Cloud support is also present - tasks sync with astrid.com

Also Remember The Milk allows a user to schedule due dates depending on the completion of a task - one needs to enter "after x days" instead of "every x days". Android and iOS apps available.


How can I fix my cheap Android 2.2 phone? Should I root it?

IF you know what you're doing, rooting and flashing a custom rom CAN help. Rooting it will allow you to delete some "system" apps that you don't need, and give you access to more control over your CPU, and some ROMs have ways to help save battery. My sister was forced to get a Droid 2 Global after two faulty replacements of her original Droid 1 which she loved, and she hated the Global. Had problems with battery and the way it was set up and everything. So I rooted it for her and flashed a new rom, and she got an extended battery (VERY USEFUL SUGGESTION), and now she loves it. But as rooting voids your warranty, I wouldn't try it if you don't need to or don't know exactly what you're doing.


To successfully flash the TWRP you must enter it at the first time boot after flashing. Otherwise it will be overwritten by the standard recovery and all your efforts will be wasted. Also check this question.

Only first time matters.


How to check if an APK contains native code?

I think this StackOverflow answer should point you in the right direction:

  All of the native code for an app is stored in the libs/ directory in the root of the apk. It's compiled ARM or x86 code, or both. You can find it in libs/architecture_type/lib_name.so. You can dissemble the code with objdump or gdb. Decompiling is a much harder task, but you can find some software that might work for you.


You should be able to wipe via the recovery however, this will wipe all the data on the device including contacts, apps, pictures and videos.

Turn the power off. If your HTC Desire is frozen, pull the battery out and reinsert it
Hold the Volume Down button
Press and release the Power button
You are now presented with a menu that allows for Fastbook, Recovery, Clear Storage, and Simlock
Select Recovery
On the next screen press Volume Up and Power
You should then see the "Android System Recovery"
Select the 'Wipe data/factory reset' option
You may need to confirm your choice (i don't want to wipe the device i have so not 100% sure)


TCL Idol X (s950) stuck in bootloop, after flashing new firmware

Solution that worked for me:

Connect the phone to the charger
Switch it off (10 sec press power button)
As soon as the led light up and the phone screen is black, disconnect it from the charger
The phone should remain off ( wait for 10 sec to be sure )
Connect again the charger and then unplug it after 5 sec
Now try to boot the recovery (power + volume up )

Once you are in recovery:

fix the permission to enable r/w on system.
Clean Cache and Dalvin Cache
if you need flash it again ( you can push file with adb )

Now the phone boots perfectly! I'm using lewa mod for reference.


Tablet apps sounds does not work anymore

The problem is caused because the OS thinks you connected your headphones. I saw that problem in iOS some years ago. Use this app to solve it: WiredHeadphoneRoutingFix


Do HTC widgets not work with ADWLauncher?

HTC Sense widgets do indeed only work with the Sense homescreen. There are knock-offs, but these are usually pulled off the market by HTC very quickly. Beautiful Widgets comes quite close though.


This bug is fixed on CM13.  The microphone is now working, when I upgraded to CM13.


Adding a new spell-checker to Motorola Moto G

The following is the way I enable additional spell checkers on my Galaxy Nexus which runs on vanilla Android 4.3, I hope it will be the same for your Moto G:

Open your app drawer and go to Settings > Language & input
Scroll down to Keyboard & Input Methods section: If your Google Keyboard is enabled, tap its settings button, if not, enable it first.
On Google Keyboard Settings screen, tap Input languages

On Input languages screen, scroll down and enable Polish. Then tap Back.
You should be on Google Keyboard Settings screen again: Scroll down to Text Correction section and tap Add-on dictionaries.
On Add-on dictionaries screen, scroll down and tap Polski (which it should say it is available).

Now it should appear a button to Install this dictionary: tap it and wait until it is installed.
Now, the Install button will be replaced for a Delete button, and the dictionary status will say Installed. Exit settings screens.
Now you can use the Polish spell checker in the phone. Just toggle the language by tapping the Globe key to the left of Spacebar in Google Keyboard until it says Polski and you'll be ready to use it.


I have the same problem, wired headset control worked nice with Podcast Addict (after some minor tweaking in podcast addict settings), but rewind/forward(i.e. prev/next) = double tap/triple tap, on the play button, DID not work with Audible.

A partial solution I have, just tried recently (August 2019):

install "button mapper" app (the app has nasty privileges, a short inconclusive google search suggests those privileges apparently are required to allow the app to do what is intended to do - but please investigate yourself)
in the app, in Headset Button section assign "double tap" to  "rewind" function.

and more or less it works with Audible. The shortcomings:

A) IS NOT WORKING WHEN  SCREEN IS OFF (perhaps is working with screen off on rooted devices).

B) when "double tap" it jump in the Audible the required amount of seconds back but it also pause the playback (so the action is: play-listen, when I want to jump back: double tap, then again a single tap to resume playback)

C) it messed my controls with Podcast Addict, when mapper is enabled, so I have to switch the mapper off to use with podcast, switch on for Audible, (perhaps a further tweak in Podcast addict settings will fix that for me)

For working with screen off, there is a link suggesting some solution, I have not tried this: https://elementalx.org/button-mapper/screenoff-noroot/

Other option perhaps to investigate is a Tasker app.

If any one has an update or know if Tasker can do the job better, please share.


Playing live streams directly from web page?

i think MX player is better than VLC so you can try Live Streams

or for VLC

Open Chrome web browser, browse to chrome://plugins
Now, you will see an option, “VLC Web Plugin”. If this line is available, you have successfully installed the VLC player plugin for Chrome.


Let me tell you a bit about the Android system. When an app is updated, the developer may not merely add files to its directories, but may also delete/modify existing ones. Android system is such that, Google Play Services framework cannot update apps while they are on SD card. So, the apps are always updated by first moving them to device memory, and then modifying/adding/deleting apk files.

Unfortunately, there is no system to automatically move the apps to sd card after update. There may be apps claiming to do that, but I haven't tried any, so I cannot tell.

On all Android devices, be it 4.0-Kitkat, 5.0-Lollipop, 6.0-Marshmallow, 7.0-Nougat or 8.0-Oreo, this system is unavailable. After update, you have to manually move the app back to sd card. Nothing can be done about that.

Please note that all methods mentioned here are on unrooted phone. I don't know what can be done on a rooted one.


Need one-line adb shell su push & pull to access /data from Windows batch file

Well, you have to do a few commands, as I don't believe it will work in one.

You need to do:

adb shell
su
cd /data/path/of/file
cp /data/path/of/file/copyme /data/local/tmp
chown shell.shell /data/local/tmp/copyme
exit
exit
adb pull /data/local/tmp/copyme /destination/copyme

This works for me every time.


No. To move the app to /system/app directory your phone must be already rooted. You would want to install Apex Launcher as system app i.e. install in /system/app because of the following reason.

  NOTE: Due to limitations of the Android framework, you won't be able to add widgets from the drawer unless Apex Launcher is installed as a system app (root required). Please read the FAQ for more information.

If I misunderstood your question and if you were asking if installing app as system app in a rooted phone is that easy, then the answer is yes. You can do it as you have said and once you remove it, your phone will be back to the "OK" state. You can also use program like ES File explorer or use adb to install as a system app.


Here is a step by step guide:

Connect the DC micro-usb port to power, and the other micro-usb port to your computer.
Go to Settings USB and select the checkbox for "Connect to PC"
Run KingoRoot to root the phone.
Download SuperSu.apk
load /system partition in read/write mode with:
adb shell "su -c mount -o remount,rw /system"
adb push SuperSu.apk /system/app/SuperSu.apk


Your options are:-

Re-flash the stock ROM, either from your backup or by finding it on sammobile.com.
Flash a working Cyanogenmod. Be sure to use a stable release, not a nightly build. Nightlies are not suitable for day-to-day use and often contain serious bugs. And to use the apps you've mentioned, you'll need to flash the gapps package that matches your Android version.
Flash some other ROM. Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?
Ditch your phone and buy one with a minimal ROM, such as a Nexus.


Your SD card isn't prepared at the time that the bind command is executed, because the mounting process hasn't ended yet. To bind, you have to wait several seconds for the mounting of SD card & external SD to be finished.

#!system/bin/sh
sleep 10
n="$(dumpsys mount | grep -c 'external')"
until [ $n -eq 1 ]
do
sleep 1
n="$(dumpsys mount | grep -c 'external')"
done
mount -o bind source target

Note: n="??" is changeable by according to your own system.


Blocking a call without the calling party knowing it

This is a network function and no app will be able to perform the behaviour you're looking for.

At best, you can create a custom "silent" ringtone for a known number. Else, if you'd prefer pressing the volume buttons will usually mute the ringing while giving the dialler the perception that the call remains unanswered.


How do I edit the urls of the speed dial buttons in Opera Mobile?

Touch and hold the icon. A "Remove" and "Edit" should pop up. Drag and Drop the icon on the "Edit".  Now do your editing.


How to delete unsent message from google hangouts?

If a message was not sent yet, long tapping on the message reveals a menu. This menu has an option "do not send" (or similar). Clicking it, the message will be removed.

After the message was sent, there is no way to rollback - the remote side will be able to see it.

Text messages are sent practically on the spot, thus this option has only a little relevance. However, images send on google hangouts might have an enough long upload time to break their upload.

In the case of such accident, I think it is still the best to turn the phone off on the spot, then block its all possible network access (sim + wifi), and then solve the problem offline.


The device need to be converted to Unified UserData partition - Cyanogenmod

You really should've read either the XDA thread or the CM Wiki before doing any of this...

Migrate to the one big partition for CM-13.0 :

(Optional) Backup all your data, applications, internal storage, ...
(Optional) Empty the internal storage with the old ROM or TWRP 3.0
(Optional) If wished, do a full Nandroid backup from Recovery
Flash the latest ROM zip of your device to start the unification
Read and follow the instructions from the zip if anything goes wrong
(Optional) Restore your Nandroid backup if you want to
Flash the same ROM zip for CyanogenMod 13.0

So in other words, simply flashing the zip twice back-to-back will do.
Also, ditch CM recovery - it's not required and pathetically weak in function against TWRP. That will also allow you to connect to PC with MTP and put the zip inside the storage before flashing, which saves time if anything goes wrong (you don't need to adb push again).


Download Manager causes high CPU usage on Motorola Razr with stock Android 4.0

Nothing worked... finally installed a custom build of CM10 into my razr, camera/flash doesn't work but the phone is stable so far (I have tested it for 2 weeks), my advise is to just format android phones with this problem or install a known ROM.


Sudden battery drain on Samsung Galaxy Ace 2x

Try this:

Go to settings > Battery

There you can see the list of things that consume battery. This includes all the system processes, hardware such as the screen and the user apps.
If there is an application that you installed that takes up more than say 20% in that list, that app is your culprit. There is also a good chance that it is the same app that is taking up all that data in the backgrounds. If your screen takes up more than 30%, try reducing your brightness and the amount of time the screen is kept active.

If you want to check your mobile data consumption,
Go to Settings > Data usage.
This will list the data consumption of all apps on the phone.

Hope this helps.


Here is what to do:

Use Mobile SSH or Termux to get to a virtual terminal.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobileSSH.feng.gao&hl=en

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.termux&hl=en

While in terminal, install xrdp

sudo apt-get install xrdp

Use Juice on your Android to get graphical screen access.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sonelli.juicessh&hl=en


There is an option in SuperSU in the settings tab, called Full Unroot, use that and it will remove root from your device.


What system are you running the emulator on? At the moment, it just seems like your system is probably too slow to run the emulator. The emulator is very resource intensive, and unless you have a high end machine it's going to be very slow.

For the start, you'd want to start with a smaller screen resolution. Tablet-sized screen resolution is practically impossible to emulate unless you have a very high-end machine, try WQVGA size. Next check how much RAM you allocate for the virtual machine, if it exceeds the amount of free RAM you usually have when you don't have the emulator running, then it's going to be very slow due to heavy swapping. Also, close other applications running on the system to free up resources.


How do I find out which App changes the Alarm Volume?

From experience with my  zte zmax2 with Android, it is the built in music player labeled " music player ". Which is a bug needing a patch yet to my knowledge. When on external speakers in the headphones Jack and a song on loop, it has the alarm look all the way up, yet went off at the music volume level despite saying otherwise. Hope this helps.


Transfer SMS message history, without Google account

There are several apps supporting to Backup SMS/MMS (and of course also to restore them), running locally in "user-mode" (if you prefer cloud storage, which by the question you do not, there are also ways to Backup SMS into the Cloud).
As your devices have root support, you might consider using Titanium Backup – which allows you a.o. to export your SMS/MMS as XML files (and also to restore that, of course). This solution should definitely work with CyanogenMod (while above mentioned apps should as well).
A note on the "backups via ADB" RossC referred to in his comment on your question:

Can adb be used to recover SMS messages while in permanent “Safe Mode”? deals with backing up the corresponding database file. When chosing that approach, you should make sure to only restore that on the very same device, ROM and Android version (e.g. after a factory-reset, but never after a ROM/Android upgrade or on a different device). Otherwise you might run into trouble (says one who had that issue in the past, so you can believe it ;))
How do I backup data (SMS/contacts) from a device with a broken screen? has answers with the same approach (to which the same warning applies), but some answers also mention tools simply utilizing ADB to access the device. I've never used any of those (as most seem to be Windows-only – like Moborobo, Myphone Explorer (most famous solution for Windows-people, offering a lot more than just SMS), Mobogenie, DroidExplorer (the dev is active here!) – and I'm on Linux – my only windows are for light and fresh air), but I'd assume they do more than simply "copy the database file", so they might fit your requirements. Still, for above reasons, read their instructions carefully.


Motorola G4 refuses to connect to iPhone's Hotspot

The older devices sometimes just do not connect to networks with new Wi-Fi encryption modes. It can be an reason because as you said your Moto G4 connects to other wifi spots.
You can try to change region on your G4.
Or change your encryption method on your iphone.


I am unable to paste. Is there a solution to this bug that doesn't involve rooting or factory-resetting the phone?

I updated the software to 4.1.2 and the problem has gone :-)

I don't know if the bug has been fixed, or the process of upgrading has corrected the faulty state the phone was in. I'll update this post if the problem comes back...


What exactly does the pop filter in google photo editor do and how can it be applied to videos?

Pop filter is used to increase sharpness ( though I can't find official description)

For videos, Adobe Premier Clip does similar job using the highlights function, accessible from highlighted icon in the first screen shot. Subsequent screenshots show the effect

I am not familiar with Adobe after effects, as Adobe Premier let's me edit on the mobile itself and hence is preferred


This will fix it.
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/eula_windows/index.html
It is the official reformat tool of the people who design sd card standards. I had to do this with my own 200gb sd card that was seen as 16mb after using as internal storage for a phone.


Using Swype, or a Swype-like keyboard, is there a way to type without lifting my finger up?

Your lifting the finger between words IS a gesture. And I guess that's the fastest & easiest one without confusing the keyboard.


How to find out which apps are draining the battery?

I think the "Battery" in "Settings" might give a hint and you should turn off  those apps working in the background when you don't use them.

And play your phone in somewhere cool, because hot atmosphere will also drain the battery fast.

Also you can download a third party app like GSam Battery Monitor(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gsamlabs.bbm) to check out what makes your battery drain so fast.


Can I hide the time on the Cyanogenmod 7 Lockscreen?

Well, I didn't find a way to hide it; but switched to using WidgetLocker for my lock screen and just disabled CM's.


An accepted solution is described with the question How to move contacts and other data from Symbian to Android? -- which might be of special interest to you, as it covers the transfer of other data as well. The SMS Migrator tool described there does, according to its description...

  4 steps to migrate / import / transfer / move SMS from Iphone,
  Window Mobile, Symbian (Nokia), BlackBerry, Sony Errison,
  Samsung, Siemens, and so on to your Android.

A step-by-step guide can be found on the product's website.


Newly installed apps creates multiple app icons

Two possible solutions:

1) Try deleting the cache and rebooting. On my phone, you can do it as follows: Settings > Storage > click on "Cached data" and accept.

2) Maybe it's the play store that creates the problem: Go into the settings of the play store and disable "Add icon to Home screen".


Why does my phone vibrate when service is lost?

My Droid Bionic (running Android 2.3.4) has a "network lost tone" setting under Settings/Sounds.   If you the phone is in silent mode with vibrate enabled, this setting might cause a vibrate, although I have not experienced that particular scenario.   Your phone probably has a similar setting.


There is no emulator that can totally emulate an Android device?

You are talking about an Android device, there may be 100.000 small differences between a real and an emulated devices. Even eliminate all those differences that can be "fixed" requires quite some work.
Just the execution speed is an indicator you can't forge that easily. To emulate an ARM device that costs US$99 you may need a PC that costs more than US$1000 and then the execution speed of an ARM emulator will still be lower than the physical device. This is because emulating an ARM CPU on an x86 CPU is difficult and requires a lot CPU resources.
Even if you would use one of the new Apple computers with M1 ARM chip (or aonther device that runs a fast ARM based chip which therefore understand most of the ARM commands directly) there will still be differences on code level you can detect and therefore guess that with a high probability it is an emulator.
Another problem is that assuming you would be able to create an emulator that an app can't detect as emulator you then you sell it to anyone on the internet. Very soon those people you don't want an app to run on an emulator will recognize your emulator, get it and tear it apart until they have found a way to still detect it.
Therefore from my perspective the answer to your question is: yes with a high probability there are emulator at the moment no app can detect as emulator. However to keep it that way those emulator are never published and can not be bought or retrieved anywhere.
For example Anti Virus companies most likely have such an emulator, because malware usually contains the most sophisticated way to detect if they are running in an emulated environment or a regular device. Running in an emulated environment for a malware usually means there is someone analyzing it (which obviously the malware author doesn't want to).


Solution for "ghost touches" - Procedure to disable a small portion of the screen from being sensitive to touch?

Connect your phone to a PC via ADB and use this command: adb shell wm overscan left,top,right,bottom where left, top, right and bottom are the coordinates upto which your screen works properly.

For example, if my phone with a resolution of 480px × 854px, would have had this problem, I would write adb shell wm overscan 0,0,0,839 to disable 15px at the bottom of the screen.


Is there an Android equivalent for iPhone's "mobileconfig"?

Nope, unfortunately there is nothing like this to my knowledge.I'd love to be proven wrong though


Why does my Xperia X10 spontaneously reboot?

I read similar reports lately, related to Titanium Backup.. When it runs, it kills apps to back them up, causing the phone process to restart. If you aren't running something similar, I would recommend using USB debugging and the SDK to capture log data..  Known as "logcat" in the Android world.

Oh -- Here's an easy way to capture and review log data on the device without the SDK --

Is it feasible to disable the SIM pin requirement to avoid the problem in the meantime? Could replace it with the Android pattern lock to retain some security.


Android Google translate update September 2017

Each app update generally should improve functionality/add new features or fix bug. If youre a fan of Google Translate you would've noticed that the new feature was already available in the web version. Since they're implementing this feature now in android, its not totally with bugs like the one you encountered.
So my suggestion is that you disable the translate webpage option and activate "translate copied text" option which was available in prior update. When the need arises to translate, just copy and a poo up would should for you to translate. [This is however not as fluid as the webpage translation though ]

Hope I helped... Lemme know


How can I use the volume buttons for skipping songs?

When the lock-screen is enabled, Android disallows apps to interact with buttons in the way you ask. However, though it's not an app, but I believe CyanogenMod ROM allows for this. And if that's the case, there will be other ROMs out there that allow for the same.


WiFi doesn't work when SuperSU 2.72 binaries are installed on Android 7

Today, SuperSu released a new version with a wifi fix https://download.chainfire.eu/1014/SuperSU/SR5-SuperSU-v2.78-SR5-20161130091551.zip


Chances are you are using a stock launcher (maybe Samsung's TouchWiz) that leaves empty spaces when you uninstall an app.

If you are using Samsung Galaxy S4 (using stock launcher), you can go to the Apps screen, and click on left menu key > View type > Alphabetical grid. If you are not on an S4, see if you can find something similar to this.

If you do not have the Alphabetical grid option, you can install a 3rd party launcher like Nova. Nova can sort your app drawer alphabetically.


TF700 boot loop after update to CM10.1.2

Installing the previous, working version solved the problem. After that an installation of the gapps zip-package may be required.


Does anyone knows who is paying for the free (normally paid) Android programs on the Amazon store

No one pays or gets paid.

According to the original version of Amazon's developer agreement (see section 2(a)) a developer received at least 20% of the price the developer set for the app, regardless of the price Amazon actually sold it for.  But they changed the agreement, adding the sentence "No Royalty is payable for Apps with a List Price of $0.00."


How to set the YouTube app to play 360p instead of 240p video?

The YouTube quality settings are determined by each video (although if you select a higher quality, it will default to that for the next time).  Hit the three-dot menu button:

Then the Quality cog button:

Then you can select the quality setting.

Other videos might have more options for the quality setting:

This completely depends on external factors like, for example, the size of the source video that was uploaded to YouTube.

You can also (from the 3-dot menu on the app Home) go to Settings → General to turn off the "Limit mobile data usage" option, which will allow videos to default to higher quality when you are not on Wi-Fi.


The installation steps of android package

No, it does not unzip the package every time. The dalvik-cache is where is stores the cache of the the dex (The dalvik executables) files.

I know system apps are cached when the device is first booted, if the cache does not exist. User apps, if I had to guess, would be done when installed or first launched.

After it is cached, it will not have to update that cache until the application is updated, which is why I think it happens in the install process. But it is also possible to just read the Manifest from from the APK and see what version it is when it is launched. If the version is different then the version in the cache, it could re-cache it.

edit
I want to build on this a little.
I just cleared my dalvik-cache and rebooted my device. Watching the device logcat through DDMS while it booted shows that it does system apps and "users" apps at boot up.

The PackageManager "collects" the certs of the apk. then it unpacks the apk. The PackageParser stores any permissions that the APK has.

So these steps are done when the device boots (if the apks changed since the last boot, or the dalvik-cache was cleared). But this same process would be completed when the APK is installed, since the PackageManager & PackageParser are the ones that handle the process.

edit2
This isn't just the "run" process, this is what happens when the app is installed. The dalvik-cache acts as sort of the "registration" of the application. But during install, the app also registers with the system any "receivers" that it has. These are like the listeners for specific actions that happen, what type of links it handles, things like that. There is not a registry like the windows registry, but yes, the OS keeps track of the applications that are installed, and the actions that can launch the application.


Samsung S3: Only retrieve "contact with number" in contact search

From my experience, GMail won't put people you have only emailed into your "My Contacts" built-in group (See Gmail and auto-adding contacts).

Because of this, you should be able to tell android to only pull from your "My Contacts" list, which would presumably only contain  your important contacts.

The steps to do this will vary depending on your ROM. I'm using a nightly build of CM10, and these are the steps:

Open Contacts
Press Menu button, and choose "Contacts to display"
Choose "Customize"
Choose the account of interest, and make sure only "My Contacts" is
checked/selected (Or any other groups you want).

Hopefully that helps you out, or at least gives you an idea of how to accomplish this.


Disable Gmail app swipe to delete for IMAP account

It seems that this isn't possible at the moment. The support article for Gmail on Android states:

  [You can] set default action & swipe to archive or delete messages for Gmail accounts. For non-Gmail accounts, the default is always delete, so even if you change this setting to archive, your messages will still be deleted.


My HTC One X seems to be self destructing after Jelly Bean update

If those problems started right away after the update: did the update process include a factory-reset? If not (and nothing else helps), this might be your chance:

Backup all things you can backup (luckily on JB that's not too big an issue, see Full Backup of non-rooted devices -- but I recommend to have all your apps into separate packages, as otherwise a full restore might bring back your problems). Then do a factory-reset.

Before restoring anything, check if your problems are gone. Then restore your apps one-by-one (just to make sure to not bring back the problem).

As for the backup process: check with Helium - App Sync and Backup, this is the easiest way to go. You can mark all your apps, make sure to check that .apk files are included (by default, Helium only backups data), and give it a go. Helium creates separate backup archives per-app, so you can restore them separately. Make a copy of the backup folder to your PC, just in case -- if restoring via Helium should fail for any reason, this still gives you the chance to use adb restore via USB.

Background: It might very well be that some settings got messed up on update. A factory-reset will erase all your apps and data, plus the Dalvik-Cache (optimized app code -- this might be the culprit if it doesn't 100% match the new Android version), so all settings revert to "default". Your Android system ROM (JellyBean) will not be reverted to what you had before, so no worries for that :)


First step: I would update the Google SDK.  The latest SDK introduced snapshots.  This means you don't have to wait on the emulator to boot the next time you cold start it.  Instead it'll load right where you left it when you last closed the emulator.

I'm not sure why your home computer is performing less than your work computer if it has better hardware.  My (new) desktop is running the newest i7 processor (8 cpus, HOWEVER: the emulator only runs on ONE cpu.  So your clockspeed is what matters here, not how many cores you have.  Does your home pc have a slower clockspeed than your work?), 8 gb ram, and a SSD and the emulator runs much faster than my laptop (last gen i7 with 4 cpus, 4gb ram, no SSD. But my desktop has nearly twice the clockspeed as my laptop).  My guess would be the clockspeed.


Output audio with Bluetooth and speaker at same time

In most cases, smartphones does not support the audio output to Bluetooth and to speaker at the same time. But some models support output to more than 1 Bluetooth device.
check this lifewire tutorial https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-connect-multiple-bluetooth-speakers-4173788


How i open winmail.dat files on my android?

winmail.dat files are Microsoft proprietary files created by Microsoft Outlook and Exchange. Usually Email apps from Microsoft should be able to handle such files. However searching for winmail.dat in Google Play Store shows that several other apps are claiming to be able to open such files.

If you receive such files the sender is using Outlook via Exchange and your contact is misconfigured. Contact the sender and ask to change your contact to plain text format then you will no longer receive such attachments.


App icon with heart inside of a square speech bubble!

Research on the internet indicates this is a "like" icon for a message posted through the GroupMe app. See if this app is available on the phone used by your father.

Here is the Google Play page for the app.

Here is the Reddit thread I found indicating the purpose of the icon.


How to change mobile connections's DNS on Android KitKat?

Ok, first of all full disclosure: I'm the author of an app which is now on the Google Play Store and which makes you able to change DNS for any mobile connection on Android 4.4. The app requires root, costs a couple of bucks and is called Override DNS.
I was told, on a now deleted answer, that is fair to link to my app as long as I expose it clearly.

The problem I found with this release of Android (4.4) is that, apparently for caching reasons, the system behaviour has been changed to redirect all DNS queries to a system daemon called netd (here's a link to a presentation related to Android networking before 4.4 which, however, covers part of these topics).

The getprop/setprop method does not work anymore. Those values, when changed, get simply ignored by the netd daemon.

It's necessary to communicate directly to the daemon via the /dev/socket/netd socket. In Android it's now present a tool called ndc which does exactly this job.

The syntax for the DNS related stuff is this:

# ndc resolver flushif <iface>
# ndc resolver flushdefaultif
# ndc resolver setifdns <iface> <domains> <dns1> <dns2>
# ndc resolver setdefaultif <iface>

The app automatically guesses the network device name and applies these commands each time a mobile network gets activated.


A year and half? I don't think you can do that because WhatsApp changed the encryption system of messages a couple of months ago.

Below is my WhatsApp message backup.


"Brendon's url" and Chinese apps on home screen. Is it a virus? How do I fix it?

This is downloaded by "Software Update" App Version 09.05.
Force stop it and disable for time being.


Set Nook Simple Touch back to Stock Reading App

I found that if you install another reading app, then when you open an epub it will offer the choice of reading apps and you can pick the default one "reader". You can then delete the extra reading app.


How does Avast Anti-theft Survive a hard reset

Hello I have been the author of Theft Aware, the core technology that later become Avast Anti Theft (my company was acquired). Yes it was possible to survive a hard reset, on rooted devices. I even built a root installer that did the hard work for you. Unfortunately this was not a mainstream feature so after I left Avast they decided to remove it - so now its not there anymore. Hope that helps.


Adding an SD card doesn't add space to your phone, it provides an additional path for storage.  Your phone has limited internal memory that can't be increased.  After adding the SD card, it should mount on its own.  After that, you should try moving some media or apps to the SD card to clear enough room on your phone to install your update.


How can I get the latest compatible app version?

Ok, this is not exactly what I was looking for, but it works... it is more like a preventive approach.

So, my solution would was to install Titanium Backup (which requires root access to work) and backup all my apps. Then, whenever I need more space, I just backup my apps before I go on. If I need them again, I can use Titanium Backup and restore.

And this is why I consider it a preventive approach: it is all about regular backups.

If anyone knows a better way to do this, please share =)


Galaxy S 2 battery won't charge while being on

Try factory reset. My phone had this issue as well. After a factory reset it worked fine. But be sure you back up all the important data first.


Honor 5C Camera App used for scanning the QR code and obtain the contacts !! explains this as a smart way to add contacts without typing

Go to contacts

Click on the QR code of the contact

The QR code will be appearing on the screen

Open the Camera App in the Honor 5C phone

Click on the View details. Click on Create new contact and Click on Add to contacts

I don't have that device but this seems to be what you saw and introduced in EMUI 4.1


Why I can't scan QR code inside Whatsapp?

You don't need to install third party QR scanner, rather than you have to use the QR scanner present inside the whatsapp it can be found under whatsapp>Menu>WebWhatsApp, use it to scan the QR Code and your problem will be fixed.


Why can't I see live wallpaper option in HTC wildfire after updating to 2.2 (Froyo)?

Live Wallpapers aren't available for the Wildfire.


How can I view Google My Maps on my phone (Nexus One)?

Bearing in mind I'm using CyanogenMod6 + Google Apps your mileage may vary - but I can access my My Maps as follows:

Open Google Maps (the application, not the full site)
Click menu
Select Layers
Select More Layers
Select My Maps and your maps should be displayed

Job done

[Edit] Looks like I'd installed the wrong Google Apps package when I flash my ROM last night, (tiny instead of medium), and the updated version has the Layers button up next to the search bar - so I don't need to open the menu (step 2) anymore.


Warn or Block Internet Access When No VPN?

If you set up your vpn connection manually in settings. The three dot menu bar has this option in one if its menus.


Why does the Google Authenticator app have "obsolete" in its title on Play Store?

Looks like Google has released a new version of Authenticator (as of March 21, 2012) under a new package name: com.google.android.apps.authenticator2.

Old version:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.authenticator

New version:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.authenticator2

Different package names means that you can have them both installed simultaneously, but my guess is that Google will eventually remove the old version from the Play Store.

Installing Authenticator 2 without uninstalling Authenticator allows Authenticator 2 to import your currently configured sites.

I've read a few posts from people claiming that Google lost their signing key, and this why they have to release a new app under a new package name. I want to emphasize that there is no evidence to support this claim. While it is true that signing keys cannot be changed with app updates and therefore require a completely new app/package name, a more plausible explanation could be that Google wants to integrate Authenticator more tightly (e.g., shared UIDs, signature permissions) with other apps (see below).

Additional info for those interested:

The signing key used on the old version of Google Authenticator (SHA1 fingerprint: 24:BB:24:C0:5E:47:E0:AE:FA:68:A5:8A:76:61:79:D9:B6:13:A6:00) is also used to sign: Scoreboard, Goggles, Finance, Google Voice, Shopper, Transalte, Chrometophone, Earth, Reader, and a few others.

The signing key used on the new version of Google Authenticator (SHA1 fingerprint: 38:91:8A:45:3D:07:19:93:54:F8:B1:9A:F0:5E:C6:56:2C:ED:57:88) is used to sign: Google Maps, Google Play Store, Gmail, Google+, Google Chrome and Google Music.

Update: Google has put up a blog post talking about the new up as well as the upgrade procedure.


How to transfer the data from my current sd-card to my new sd-card?

If you have a PC and an USB SD-card reader I would do the following:

Unmount/eject the old SD-card (or simply power down the Android phone)
Place it into the USB SD-card reader and connect it to your PC
Copy all the files using the Explorer or a similar file manager to a folder on your hard disk
Eject/unmount the USB SD-card reader
Replace the old SD-card with the new SD-card
Connect the USB SD-card reader with the new SD-card inserted to your PC
Copy all the files from the folder on your hard disk to the new SD-card
Eject/unmount the USB SD-card reader
Place the new SD-card in your Android phone

If something goes wrong you can still switch back to your old SD-card and you can start another try.


Already S-Off, need root on HTC One M8 Verizon

Found the answer. There's a support channel, #sunshine-support on irc.freenode.org. Just go in there and type !info ring, and one of the devs pretty much instantly responds. Or, you can just type !info getroot directly and let them get some shut-eye. Anyways, that will provide you with a link to an apk called SUInstaller. At the time of writing it's at: http://theroot.ninja/apks/SUInstaller.apk. But, if it moves, follow the instructions I just gave to get the current one.

Anyways, you install this app and it will reboot your phone (installing su in the process). Then, just download SuperSU from the Play Store and follow the prompts. Reboot when it tells you to and then give it about five minutes after the phone boots up for everything to finish loading. Then, you can use something like Root Checker (also available on the Play Store) to verify that you have root access.


Enable vibration and location services while on battery saver

Vibration and GPS are considered as system services, not apps. Thus, it cannot be exempted on the usual setting when Battery Saver is enabled. However, since Android 8.0 Oreo, it is possible to tweak some settings for Battery Saver.

This is related to the BATTERY_SAVER_CONSTANTS global settings that can be modified through ADB.

/**
         * Battery Saver specific settings
         * This is encoded as a key=value list, separated by commas. Ex:
         *
         * "vibration_disabled=true,adjust_brightness_factor=0.5"
         *
         * The following keys are supported:
         *
         * <pre>
         * advertise_is_enabled              (boolean)
         * datasaver_disabled                (boolean)
         * enable_night_mode                 (boolean)
         * launch_boost_disabled             (boolean)
         * vibration_disabled                (boolean)
         * animation_disabled                (boolean)
         * soundtrigger_disabled             (boolean)
         * fullbackup_deferred               (boolean)
         * keyvaluebackup_deferred           (boolean)
         * firewall_disabled                 (boolean)
         * gps_mode                          (int)
         * adjust_brightness_disabled        (boolean)
         * adjust_brightness_factor          (float)
         * force_all_apps_standby            (boolean)
         * force_background_check            (boolean)
         * optional_sensors_disabled         (boolean)
         * aod_disabled                      (boolean)
         * quick_doze_enabled                (boolean)
         * </pre>
         * @hide
         * @see com.android.server.power.batterysaver.BatterySaverPolicy
         */
        @UnsupportedAppUsage
        @TestApi
        public static final String BATTERY_SAVER_CONSTANTS = "battery_saver_constants";

For the possible integer values of gps_mode:

/**
     * Either the location providers shouldn't be affected by battery saver,
     * or battery saver is off.
     */
    public static final int LOCATION_MODE_NO_CHANGE = 0;

    /**
     * In this mode, the GPS based location provider should be disabled when battery saver is on and
     * the device is non-interactive.
     */
    public static final int LOCATION_MODE_GPS_DISABLED_WHEN_SCREEN_OFF = 1;

    /**
     * All location providers should be disabled when battery saver is on and
     * the device is non-interactive.
     */
    public static final int LOCATION_MODE_ALL_DISABLED_WHEN_SCREEN_OFF = 2;

    /**
     * In this mode, all the location providers will be kept available, but location fixes
     * should only be provided to foreground apps.
     */
    public static final int LOCATION_MODE_FOREGROUND_ONLY = 3;

    /**
     * In this mode, location will not be turned off, but LocationManager will throttle all
     * requests to providers when the device is non-interactive.
     */
    public static final int LOCATION_MODE_THROTTLE_REQUESTS_WHEN_SCREEN_OFF = 4;

As stated on XDA Developers, How to Customize Battery Saver Mode in Android 8.0 Oreo:

Install ADB and USB drivers if necessary.
Connect the Android device to the PC with USB and wait until the device is detected
Open a command prompt and type adb devices to make sure the ADB detects it.
Type adb shell
Decide which values wanted to be changed. Inputting multiple keys are supported with comma separation. For this specific question: vibration_disabled=false,gps_mode=0
Type settings put global battery_saver_constants <new_value>. Note that the change is permanent, so to undo, the user needs to manually input the opposite values instead.

On rooted devices, it is also possible to run the settings command directly from the device using terminal apps like Termux.


I can't delete bad piggies off Galaxy S4

Do you have root? I don't know, so I will just say both ways, with and without root.

--With root

Get a Root File Explorer (I recommend ES File Explorer), open the menu, scroll down to the root option and turn in on. Then navigate to /data/app and delete the app file. The file name should be the apps package name. That would be com.rovio.BadPiggies.apk. Delete that. I can't remember how Lollipop installs apps, so if /data/app is full of directories, then just delete the directory named com.rovio.BadPiggies.

--Without root

You need a computer for this. Download ADB (I'll give you a link) to your computer. cd to where ADB was downloaded to. Plug your phone into the computer. Open up a terminal (or CMD if your on Windows). Run adb devices. It should list your devices serial number, and it's status. Allow the computer to use ADB. The prompt will be on your phone.
Run adb shell, then run the following commands in order:

cd /data/app
ls

If ls's output was a bunch of files ending in .apk then run rm com.rovio.BadPiggies.apk, and if it wasn't, then run rm com.rovio.BadPiggies.

Hope this helps


making picture frame widget take up entire screen?

You can't re size widget in Android Gingerbread. I don't have SII and can't say but many widget comes in different sizes like 1x1, 1x4 etc. Try scrolling to see if there is other sized picture frame.


Does WhatsApp keep my status when I change phone?

No. The status is stored on WhatsApp's servers along with other basic information about your account, such as phone no, profile picture, last seen and changing your device doesn't automatically change them.


Disable magnetic screen on/off *without* Xposed?

You can delete /dev/input/event6 directly. Then everything with the Hall sensor will stop working.

To make this happen automatically, you can write a simple script and let it auto-run at boot.

#!/system/bin/sh
exec rm -f /dev/input/event6

To restore without rebooting, examine it with ls -l before deleting (or you have to reboot)

Assume ls -l gave this result:

crw-rw---- root input 13, 68 1970-01-01 00:00 /dev/input/event6

Take note of the two numbers after owner/group, run this to recover

mknod /dev/input/event6 c 13 68


The gesture feature is explained on its official manual (scroll down to Gesture), albeit slightly outdated.

  What is the purpose of the small spot at the center of the screen when I turn on the app?

The small spot (or the "gesture water drop", as it's officially called) is the trigger to start gesture action.

As hinted by the error message, you have to add a new gesture for this feature to work as supposed to be:

Open Fast Access (the drawer on the left side) by tapping the "three horizontal bars" or by sliding a finger from the left side of the screen to right.
Open Tools, there should be a Gesture with on/off button. From here, you can disable/enable the feature. Disabling the feature will remove the water drop.
Tap Gesture.
Select Add a gesture.
Choose the action you want to do.
Draw the gesture on the middle of the dialog
A new gesture will be added. You can also delete/edit the gesture.

Red dot is the starting point (i.e. gesture water drop)
Light blue line is the gesture path

Now that you have gestures defined, you can use it on the app:

Go back to main screen
Draw the gesture starting from "gesture water drop", following the path you've defined.


Deleting unwanted contacts after accidental account sync

Removing the Google account should have invariably deleted the contacts linked to that account, from your phone.

If not, go to Contacts, choose "Contacts to display" and select the Google account of your friend. This should bring up only those 'unwanted' contacts. Select all and delete. In case if the account does not show up in "Contacts to display" then you can try adding the account once again. But this may delete all the contacts from your friend's Google account. Make sure to ask him to take a backup / export all contacts, in case if he needs to restore in his Google.

Hope this helps.


Making an app into a full screen widget (no source code)

No, you can't convert an activity into a widget from outside the app. They work in completely different ways. With an activity, the app's process is running and controls all of the GUI controls in the activity. For a widget, the app sends a description of the widget layout (including all the images) to the launcher, and then the launcher's process is responsible for drawing that layout on the screen. The app doesn't run all the time: it only runs when it wants to update the widget layout (e.g. to change the "new mail" count after getting a push notification) or when you interact with the widget.

It works this way because keeping a process running for every widget would use a lot of memory and battery.

With the new multi-window changes in Nougat, it would be possible for a launcher to embed an app's activity as if it were a widget, but the launcher would have to be written to support this, the app would have to support multi-window, and it would still use a lot of memory and battery, and the unusual configuration could well trigger some latent bugs in apps.


If you take a look at the Air browse feature under Air Gestures, you will see that it is limited only to the following applications:

Gallery
Internet
Music Player
Music on lock screen
S Memo

So NO, you can't use it for presentations.


I want to stop ringtone silence feature while incoming any call and shaking my phone in Intex Cloud Y2

Root your phone and change specific entry in database using sql editor app . I don't have this phone so can't hands on by myself.


Removing the default guest user account on Android Lollipop

Yeah, you can remove it. Just switch to the guest user, pull down the notification with two fingers and tap on the user icon in the top right corner. It will then offer you the possibility to remove the guest user.


Does Samsung process its single take images in China?

Not sure how to resolve this question, thanks to @Robert and @IrfanLatif in the comments. Did some digging and this is probably just a bug. If it happens again, well, I'll see. Additional thought: Onedrive is connected to the photos app so maybe something with that.


Samsung Galaxy Tab P-1000 no longer recognised by the computer

Try starting your Galaxy Tab in Download mode.  This is done by completely shutting it off, and then holding both Power and Volume Down buttons together until a big yellow sign with a droid holding a shovel appears, with "Downloading, do not turn off target" message underneath.  If so, you can try flashing the stock ROM via Odin or Heimdal utilities.

You can find the detailed instructions on the Development section of XDA-Developers forum.


How do I play videos in a loop in the Samsung stock player?

The stock video player on the S3 doesn't have this functionality. You can achieve it by installing another video app such as VLC for Android.


How do I add an Outlook email signature on new Nokia 8V?

To add a signature (text not html) on Outlook, simply go to Settings -> Signature.


Tablet shuts down due to low battery when battery meter is above 10%

It is more likely here that your battery has lost its rated capacity. A new battery is recommended. Any kind of calibration wouldn't work on a degraded battery.The charging and discharging both should show jumps.If you can, you can try the battery in a friends Nexus, Also try a different charger for tests.


How to get rid of lock screen in Samsung Galaxy S2?

You mean you want to just disable the lock screen completely? Here's how to do it:

Open your settings.
Go to Security and open your lock screen settings.
If you have a code or password set for your current lock screen, enter that code and continue.
Choose none as your lock screen option.
Lock your phone and unlock it again, it should open up your phone straight away and not show a lock screen.

(source)


What file system does the format option in settings > storage use?

It will format the external micro SD card to FAT32.


Custom sound notification on Google Calendar events

Setting up distinct alarms for separate calendars within the Google Calendar app--or for separate events on any of those calendars--is not a feature provided in the Google Calendar app. If you wish to have that function and to continue using the Google Calendar app, you'll need a third-party add-in such as Calendar Event Reminder. (CER)  That one costs a couple of bucks but there may be other options, perhaps even "free" apps.


How to install core GMS packages to use Google Play Store?

I can well remember that Huawei devices can be added with GMS by flashing a flashable GMS package.

You'll need to first find a compatible 3rd party recovery for your phone. IIRC TWRP is (unofficially) available for Mate 9, so you can take a look at XDA Developers Forum.

After flashing recovery, go to OpenGApps and download a package that's suitable for your device (arm64-7.1-pico) and flash it via recovery. Voila! You now have GMS and Play Store on your device!


forwarding calls using another sim (using dual sim android phone)

Most dual SIM phones are dual-standby only. When one SIM is "in call" the other is not available. Because of this I think the first issue is finding a phone with two separated active radios. After this it all comes down to software.


Charge and USB keyboard through 1 USB port

The most likely way to use a keyboard while charging on a single port device is to use a Bluetooth keyboard.

Failing that, you may need a different 3-way cable.  The keyboard certainly needs power to operate (unless it has internal battery power), but a correctly wired 3-way cable should be able to both power the keyboard and charge the device.  You can verify that there's voltage on the charge pins of the two USB connectors on the 3-way cable, with a meter and suitable fine probes -- though it's very possible that the device will refuse to accept charge if there's a data attachment on the USB port.  You'd have to contact Samsung to verify that.


Galaxy S3 high RAM consumption even on idle

First a few things on the symptoms:

On Unix/Linux/Android, "free RAM" is considered a "wasted resource". If RAM is not occupied by running processes themselves, the system uses it to buffer and cache other things, like the file system. This should speed things up, as usually RAM allows faster access.
For more details, please check out ram tag-wiki.
"task killers" are discussed controversely. While most (if not all) people agree they are fine to stop "rogue processes", it's certainly not their job to "free up RAM" or even "save battery". In these terms, they are rather contra-productive, as most killed processes simply restart themselves (which costs more battery than if they'd kept running, and fills up the "freed RAM" again as well).
For details on this, closer information can be found in the answers on e.g. Do I really need to install a task manager?, Do task killers actually work? and Is it advisable to run a task killer app on Android.

And finally, to the issue itself (experiencing lags). As you describe it as a problem "growing with the time" (i.e. it was not there in the beginning, but slowly became more and more visible), you will probably find some help in the answers to My device is getting slow, apps start misbehaving/crashing. What can I do?


HTC First - Not getting any Notifications for Phone, text or Voicemail. Only can see when Clicking on it

All those notifications usually turn up in the notification bar, located at the top of the screen. On all devices. Have you checked there?

example of the Android notification bar

As you can see in this example, that's where notifications are displayed. Here you see, this user has new SMS and mail in their GMail app pending (to the left). Other notifications are indicators of available services (to the right), here telling that WiFi is active and the device connected, silent mode (no sound) is active, cell phone signal is available, battery is about 3/4 full, plus the current time.

Your "missed call" notification should also appear in the left-hand area, the symbol looking like this:

missed call icon

Often, there're also numbers associated with them. Some launchers/lockscreens even allow for more custumization.

I would wonder if none of these are available with your device. Above examples are standard, and should be always available. Numbers on the icons (indicating how many missed calls, or how many SMS are pending) are something different: some manufacturers ship them by default, others don't. But using custom launchers / custom lockscreens, many things are possible.

Trouble with your HTC First might be the launcher: if I'm right, it comes with "Facebook Home", which wants to facebook-ify everything, and thus might hide some things usually visible. I don't use facebook at all, so I'm not that familiar with this area. But if that's the culprit, according to a review at AndroidCentral, Facebook Home can be turned off. On the other hand, a bunch of screenshots in the very same review clearly show those notifications being there, though a bit colorless:

HTC First screenshots (source: AndroidCentral)

See the top of those screenshots -- and you will easily identify the GMail notification described before, here in the second and third screen :)


This will work on the following Galaxy Note 2:
1.International Galaxy Note 2 GT-N7100
2.T-Mobile Galaxy Note 2 SGH-T889
3.AT&T Galaxy Note 2 SGH-I317
Other carriers
Sprint Galaxy Note 2 SPH-L900
Verizon Galaxy Note 2 SCH-I605
(Given a link to video and more description at last sentence)
Step 1.

Put your Galaxy Note 2 into Download mode by turning off your phone
first then holding down Volume Down, Center Home, and Power buttons
together.

Step 2.

Once you see the warning screen, hit Volume Up button to enter ODIN
Download Mode then connect a micro-USB cable from your Note 2 to your
computer.

Step 3.

If you  have to install Samsung USB drivers

Step 4.

Next, download GalaxyNote2Root.zip

Step 5.

Unzip the files. Next, open up the ODIN program by double-clicking on
the .exe file.

Step 6.

You should see a yellow-highlighted COM box with a random number. If
you don’t see it, double-check your Windows drivers (the Samsung USB
drivers you installed in Step 3) and unplug, plug your Note 2 back
into your computer.

Step 7.

DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING ELSE and click on “PDA” button then find the
file cwm6-root-note2.tar(in unzipped folder).

Step 8.

Hit Start and let ODIN flash the custom CWM Recovery. When it’s done,
your Galaxy Note 2 will reboot and you should have a fully rooted
Galaxy Note 2.

Your phone will boot into newly installed CWM Recovery automatically once and install Superuser app and su binaries then reboot.
You should find a new Superuser app called “SuperSU”.
You can easily verify you have root by downloading Titanium Backup app (free on Play Store) and running it. (a Pop up will appear)
In here they described with details and video that "How to root Note 2" .
You have to just go for the carrier name, under which you are now.
Good Luck
NOTE:I'm not responsible if you mess up your phone. Make sure you know what you are doing before following any instructions. Go here .Just read it.


How to remove an account from Google Hangouts?

Try to revoke access to that account from your phone -- or simply from Hangouts/Talk if it is listed -- through this page.

When you add a new account to Hangouts, Android automatically adds it to your globally accessible accounts (Settings > Accounts). As far as I know, there is no way to activate temporary log-in sessions.


Cannot access /sdcard/ (internal storage)

Try moving your primary storage in settings.. go to apps scroll all the way down and change your storage from phone to sd storage and vice versa. And you should be able to access everything on sd card etc. ES file explorer is a great free app in case you couldn't get it by changing storage in setting


Slideshow wallpaper using files in hidden folder

Android treats filenames that start with a dot as hidden. So, there's no way for any app to show them. However, you can still see them on a file explorer that can see hidden files (may need root access).


My Pixel 2 doesn't give me a notification when I attach it to a PC

Do you have a lock-screen enabled on it? Most Android phones will require you to unlock it before it will connect to the file system. If you don't have a lock-screen, you may want to check out this article and make sure it's set to file mode, and mot just MTP or charging.


Getting "Storage space running out" message in Galaxy S4; *#9900# does not show any menu

Approach 1:
Many users have had the problem of "6GB of miscellaneous files". The problem might be because of /sdcard0/DCIM/.thumbnails.
You can go ahead and delete the folder. This may free up your memory. To delete .thumbnails folder, you need a file manager that can see hidden files. After deleting the folder, also delete LOST.DIR and reboot. Clearing apps' cache is recommended.
Approach 2:
This might be a Verizon carrier bloatware. Verizon customer support seems to confirm it (see reply #5 in this link). This problem is not just confined to Galaxy S4, but to other phones too (Note 2, Note 3 Galaxy S3 S4 S5).
Deleting  /data/media entirely seems to have worked for some (needs root access).
Alternatively, installing a custom recovery (eg: CWM) and choosing to delete all backups in the Internal SD seems to have solved the problem for many users.


Moto G5 Plus Wi-Fi disconnects every now and then

Actually, the issue here seems fairly clear in looking at your troubleshooting... discounting the fact that your router is 9 years old and likely not up to current standards, you did state:

  I don't think the problem is my Wi-Fi Router(D-Link DIR-600M) because
  the issue occurs with WiFi Routers at my workplace, Friend's home as
  well.

Considering you have tried this on multiple networks and connections, and you have factory reset and performed a network reset multiple times, the conclusion can only be that your phone is defective. You should contact Moto for a warranty replacement, or just consider replacing it if it is no longer under warranty.

In looking at all the troubleshooting you have done, and given the above quoted statement you made there doesn't seem to be any other possible cause.

There is no known issue with WiFi on the Moto G5+ in any Android version or release, and since this is not related to a single router or connection, the issue seems quite clear, your Moto is defective.


Samsung Galaxy S not displaying contacts, only unknown is shown

After some investigation I found a fix that works for me.  Use this at your own risk.

First, the summary:  The file /data/misc/rild_ril.clip is a single byte,
either ASCII '1' or ASCII '0'.  Somehow this value is being flipped from '1' to '0' during low storage space conditions and causes the problem.  The solution is to either edit the file, or just delete it and let it be rebuilt.

The steps to fix this problem on your device without losing any data are as follows:

Requirements:
ADB or a terminal/console application.

Steps:

Get to a shell prompt.  If you're using ADB, it's adb shell.  If you're using a terminal/console app, just launch it.
Type rm /data/misc/rild_ril.clip.
Reboot the phone.

That's it. Please let me know if it works or doesn't work for you.


Why does Google Pinyin Input need to access my contacts?

Usually keyboard apps want to access your contacts for "predictive search" and auto-correction. If you don't like that, it should be fine to reject that request (and thus not giving them access) – without any "harm" to the app. Only it then won't know your contacts' names and cannot use them for auto-correction and "predictive search", of course.

That the request popped up while you were not even using the app might also be normal: depending on how it was programmed, it might want to update its dictionary while not being actively used. That it does so when you've never ever used it, is either bad programming or intentional bad habit (of course seen as a service to you, as it's always the case with pre-installed bloatware).

If this worries you, you can go to Settings › Apps, switch to the "All" tab (to show all apps, including the pre-installed ones), scroll to the app, tap its entry, and see if you can uninstall or at least disable it.


With on-board methods: You could go to Settings→Data Usage and setup and restrict "background data" for all apps. For this, you would first need to setup some (fake) limit of monthly data (5 TB is fine; you just need to set simething here). Then you can tap each app and activate the check-mark to "restrict background data".

Alternatively, you can pick some automation app such as Tasker or Llama, and have it disabling background data altogether whenever you're not on WiFi, and re-enable it whenever you're on WiFi. Much easier to setup (as you wouldn't have to care for each app separately, and remember that whenever a new app is installed).

If you want to disable mobile data altogether, this again can be done via Setup→Network, for mobile data and WiFi separately. So you could just re-enable it manually whenever you need it; disabling mobile data has no effect on WiFi, so you wouldn't need to permanently switch back and forth. Of course, those automation apps could take care for that as well ;)


Insufficient storage space & Insert SD card

you could try using the Windows partition manager to format the micro sd card and create a brand new partition. You could try using the tool h2testw to check if the card is damaged or authentic.


Are there commercially available devices that support more languages than those officially supported by Google?

From prior experience in building AOSP before, the language strings for all aspects of the system, are stored in xml file, found in the AOSP source framework/base/core/res/res. Inside that directory in the source, there's values-XXX/strings.xml and values-XXX/do-not-translate.xml, where XXX is the ISO country code based on the standard guidelines. This gets built and generated into framework-res.apk found in the ROM's live system under /system/framework.

On an existing ROM, its possible to 'sort of' add translations into it by decompiling it but the effort would not be worth it as the XML data is compiled and "gets lost in translation". I say 'sort of' very loosely, as either the outcome would be it may work or it may not work, but the effort would be big and possibly break existing core Android functionality.

You can most certainly add a language add-on for the keyboards but that's about it.

From the aspect of developers, where localization is concerned, the principle is pretty much the same as in the AOSP source. So if the developer wants to add in French language support, he/she can simply create a values-fr/strings.xml and shove in there, the french translations and so on. Of course, there will be variants such as Canadian French, Swiss French, for example. So their files, would be values-fr-rCA/strings.xml, values-fr-rCH to cite the example.

This is where CM has the most languages support and are in a state-of-flux due to users spotting mis-translations etc.

Only Google provides the core languages - such as Italian, French, German, Spanish, English (both US/UK) to name but a few.


reverse tethering : share laptop internet connection thru bluetooth

Download and install Toshiba Bluetooth stack (don't forget to reboot)
Right click Toshiba Bluetooth icon in the system tray and choose "Option"
Turn on "PAN" service and "DHCP" option.
Open terminal (Press Win+R, then entering cmd). Go to the Toshiba installation folder (similar to this):

cd "c:\Program Files (x86)\Toshiba\Bluetooth Toshiba Stack"

And rerun the PAN service by entering:

TosBtPSS.exe /END

TosBtPSS.exe /NAP

Then you can share the internet by using ICS, Bridge Network or 3rd party NAT in Windows such as NAT32.

I also wrote a Bluetooth reverse tethering tutorial.


Only get sound notifications from contacts and certain apps

Info
You could be better off with another approach like for example:

Set the notification sounds for SMS and ringtone to an empty audio clip. (no sound)
Add all your contacts to a contact group.
Set your preferred SMS/ringtone sounds for that entire contact-group.

This may be better for long term use since it won't hide and silence notifications of all installed apps.
Note: This may depend on your phone make/model/firmware.
Answering your question
I'll use Skype as an example.
Open app info for skype
Settings->Apps->Skype
Notification settings
Select notifications, then tap the name of any notification category (not the toggle switch).
Then toggle (enable) the option named Ignore do not disturb at the bottom the list.


Try moving your apps off tablet drive and put them on the internal sd card.
Go to settings-Apps. Slide the screen to "on sd card" (upper right of screen). Check box the apps to move. Then go back to "downloaded" screen. Click each app and clear data, clear cache.
That freed up 100mb on mine. Good luck


Can't mount disc image file, "The Disc Image File is Corrupted"

It's simple - you chose the wrong recovery -the one you linked to is for Huawei P9 lite

Your device doesn't have an official TWRP but has a unofficial TWRP linked here

TWRP meant for one device model cannot be used for another. Period

That's exactly what the other answer was saying.

Please take the trouble of reading the relevant forums in XDA to be aware of the device specific techniques.

Next, TWRP cannot be opened at C:/ of your computer

You need to set up adb (press on that to read the wiki. You don't need Android studio for this - it's meant for developers and occupies memory unnecessarily. Uninstall that and read the next paragraph carefully to install what is required for this purpose

To set up adb see instructions here Is there a minimal installation of ADB? and How to install adb

It is strongly recommended that you read and understand what you are doing with a rooted device (as you say you have rooted it). Consequences can be very very unpleasant and you could end up holding a paper weight instead of a phone


How can I set up email (mostly yahoo) so that no matter which device I delete an email on, it will be deleted on the other?

As roxan already pointed out: What you want is IMAP for all your E-Mail accounts, configured with an Android client (e.g. K-9 Mail).


Gmail app not displaying status bar notifications

Open GMail, and open its Settings. Click your username@gmail.com, and make sure Notifications is checked. Then, click Inbox sound & vibrate and click Turn Gmail sync on. Configure the Notifications at the bottom as you like.

In Settings, make sure Sync Gmail is also checked.

With regards to GMail sync frequency, see this question: How to set gmail sync frequency?


Google Play Movies with restricted accounts

It turns out it Google Play Videos was defaulting to my other Google account which has no content. So I just needed to switch accounts and it worked perfectly.


Disabled and need help answering HTC EVO shift with 2.2

I thought this was totally possible but for the life of me can't find anything that says it is.  I was sure I had seen that option somewhere but going through the settings on my EVO 4G (similar to the Shift) I can't find anything that says auto answer.  Same thing when I searching around online.

So it appears that there is no built-in way to set Auto-Answer

However, there are a few apps in the market which claim to provide this functionality (this is by no means all of them, just three from the first page of results):

AutoAnswer
NACM
Advanced Telephone

If you don't want to go the app route I also found these Blue Ant Bluethooth Headsets which supposedly allow you to answer the call by actually saying the word "answer".  This may be a better option than to always answering a call instead you can tell the headset when to answer or not.

Hope this helps


Can I charge my phone with many different charger speed types?

All the chargers should work, to a varying degree... if they are QC compatible, the phone may charge faster than "normal", if not, the phone will attempt to draw current up to the maximum capacity of the charger or the phones "normal" limit.

Does this effect the battery in any way and does it effect the time before I have to charge it again?

Yes, of course it does... Different sources will vary the recharge time, one charger may charge the device to near full in a significantly shorter time than another device, causing you to have to recharge sooner or more often. Charging very fast, such as Quick Charge, can have a negative impact on the long term life of the battery itself.


Fastboot failed with (data transfer failure (No error))

I found the answer:
This problem happen in case that the fastboot is not compatible with software version, e.g. when we want to run a fastboot.exe from Windows and connect to a device that has software has been built with Linux machine.


Xiaomi Mi Unlock "Not connected to the phone"

I had the same problem, figured it out eventually.

Just extract the Mi unlock tool files into a new folder directly in the C Drive.

Hope this helps.


There is an infrared/red-light sensor near your camera that detects whether the phone is in a pocket or bag. Online consensus is that depending on your phone manufacturer, there are varying degrees of success to how well it works.


Does a malicious android WebView break the DoubleSubmittCookie countermeasure against CSRF?

Short answer: no.

Long answer: CSRF exploits the trust that a site has in a user's browser. CSRF protection is not intended to protect the server from a malicious user agent or from an untrustworthy user. The user is responsible for choosing a trustworthy browser.


Can't connect Samsung Note 3 to Windows 7

What i would try the following:

Remember to try to connect to the laptop between each stage and if it still doesnt connect, go to the next step.

Doublecheck that your phone can connect to another computer, since my list assumes that the problem is on the pc, and not any settings on the phone.

Use a short usb cable without extenders, and use the best usb port to make sure that your phone gets enough power and speed for the connection. If you have a blue usb port(USB3.0) in your laptop, use that one And use the stock usb to micro usb 3.0 cable.
Make sure your phone is up to date by going into "Settings"-> "General"-> "About device"-> "Software update" -> "Update"
In early stages of new samsung updates, you need to do it via Kies. Check for an update via your other PC(desktop). Open Kies -> "Tools" -> "Firmware upgrade and initiation"
Reinstall Kies and make sure Kies is up to date(under "help"->"check for update")
Reinstall the USB driver. Open Kies -> "Tools" -> "Troubleshoot connection error"
Reinstall the USB driver manually. http://developer.samsung.com/android/tools-sdks/Samsung-Andorid-USB-Driver-for-Windows


Getting "The application [APPLICATION NAME] ( [APPLICATION ADDRESS] ) has stopped working unexpectedly. Please try again"

Sounds like a database got corrupted, but perhaps it's just cache.  Try clearing your cache via ClockworkMod Recovery if you have it or an app like this if you don't.  Running "Fix permissions" in CWM or ROM Manager might also help if you're rooted.

If that doesn't work take a look at your logcat and see if there are any errors that are more clear about what the problem is.  Otherwise I'd probably opt for a factory reset; unfortunately, I don't think it would be easy to track down what exactly was corrupted without more info.


Cannot boot Android-x86 on PC - Emergency remount

(I ended up installing LineageOS x86 14.1 instead of Android x86, however, these instructions should still work for Android x86)

After trying to find my answer, I ended up removing my partition for Android-x86 and installing the LineageOS 14.1 .rpm. On Debian Linux (or Debian-based, like Ubuntu) install it with:

sudo alien -ci cm-x86_14.1.rpm

where cm-x86_14.1.rpm is your Android x86 package. If you are told alien is not installed, type sudo apt install alien before repeating.

After a while, it will convert into a .deb and then install. However, you will get the following messages:

/boot/grub/custom.cfg: No such file or directory
/boot/grub/custom.cfg: No such file or directory

In order to add the boot code that failed to be added, put the following in /etc/grub.d/40_custom:

menuentry "Android-x86 14.1-r2" {
    search --set=root --file /cm-x86-14.1-r2/kernel
    linux /cm-x86-14.1-r2/kernel quiet root=/dev/ram0 androidboot.selinux=permissive buildvariant=userdebug
    initrd /cm-x86-14.1-r2/initrd.img
}
menuentry "Android-x86 14.1-r2 (DEBUG mode)" {
    search --set=root --file /cm-x86-14.1-r2/kernel
    linux /cm-x86-14.1-r2/kernel root=/dev/ram0 androidboot.selinux=permissive buildvariant=userdebug DEBUG=2
    initrd /cm-x86-14.1-r2/initrd.img
}

(I got the boot code from the cm-x86 postinit script)

Replace cm-x86-14.1-r2 with the location of Android-x86 (for example: android-x86-7.1-r1), and replace the 14.1 in Android-x86 14.1-r2 with your Android version number (like 7.1 or 8.1).

Then, reboot and select Android-x86 14.1-r2 to boot Android.


If you use an Android device with Google Play Services, Google has a document which requires what the device MUST have:

Current Android Compatibility Definition Document - 5.3 Video Decoding

As you have an Android 5.0 device this document would apply:

Android 5.0 CDD - 5.1.3 Video Codecs

Note that your video file is an AVI container format which isn't listed so it would be up to the manufacturer to support that format or any additional codecs.

As to why can't you just add a codec see this StackOverflow post:

Adding video codec to Android

The short version is that codecs are in ROM and you can't write to ROM unless you are creating your own Custom ROM.

TL;DR: No, you can't add codecs. Use a third party player which supports your format or convert your video to a supported format (both of which you've rejected).


Can't download application with storage full, even after attaching a micro SD card

Just inserting a SD card didn't mean that you can install apps in a phone which is already occupied a maximum of internal.

You have to change the default install location in settings. Which is not available in many devices.

Go to apps navigate to all apps, click on the app name to access details.

Choose Move to SD card. So the app will be moved to sd.

Likewise, make some space in your internal for the new apps..

Also move files like, songs, videos , etc. To sd.

If your phone has the option enable to install apps on SD card, go for it.


Two suggestions:
1) Rephrase your questions using better English grammar in order to make it more understandable.
2) (An actual possible solution) Connect your phone to your computer via USB, backup all important data (all data should have already been backed-up via Google Sync but it's good to be safe), then attempt a factory reset.


Why does the Maps application keep launching?

Try Uninstalling and re-installing it.
Clear the app data.
Might be a bug with the custom ROM (ignore if on stock).

As for WHY it is happening, could be a faulty installation IMO, but if the package was faulty, it wouldn't get installed in the first place. Anyhow, just try the above steps.


Hiding your files from the Media Scanner

Include an empty file named .nomedia in your external files directory (note the dot prefix in the filename).

This prevents media scanner from reading your media files and providing them to other apps through the MediaStore content provider. However, if your files are truly private to your app, you should save them in an app-private directory.

Source - Android Developer


How to remove occasional pop-up messages from the provider

Not without either loading a custom ROM that doesn't have these popups. These are probably "features" added for your carrier, so a more "generic" ROM would probably stop them.


Is this a SD card that you have used for a long time on other devices? Do you, or have you, done a lot of writing to it?

SD cards have a limited lifespan, so the less amount of writing you can do to it, the better. You might want to do a chkdsk on it to see if it finds any bad sectors. If you find any, that would be your culprit.

I've had SD cards last for about a year and then files start disappearing, etc. That's when I would use it for everything - as the main SD card (swapping it), which means a lot of writing as apps save their data, backing up nightly with Titanium Backup, saving photos, caching, etc.

Once I learned about the limited lifespan of SD cards, I finally retrained myself to not use it as the main SD card. Now, I do weekly backups, once a week and I only store my music on the SD card, and photos that I take with the camera. The latest SD card I have has now lasted over a year which is longer than the others before it.

Also, quality of SD cards is a given. Don't go for the cheaper, off-name brands. They don't last long. It's better to shell out a few extra bucks and get a name brand.


Why is Copy+Paste of text a once only operation - I have to keep Copying for the next paste

Although Android itself shouldn't be rule out, you should first check the issue is not related to your keyboard. If possible, try to install another keyboard app for example GBoard. Set it as the default keyboard app, enable its clipboard, then try to copy and paste. Verify if the problem persists or not.


ii cant get into my gmail account forgot password

You can try to follow these steps to reset your password: https://support.google.com/accounts/troubleshooter/2402620?visit_id=0-636165652605527813-2656708135&p=ar_other_problems_username&rd=1

If none of them work for you, you probably can't regain access to your Google account.


Unbricking a FRP-locked phone while leaving it rooted

Unfortunately, there is no way to unbrick a device and leave it rooted (1). You must flash the stock firmware into the device, thereby making it unrooted. Usually this a bricked device occurs when the device has been modified with so much alterations to the point where FRP detects it bricks the phone (3). The best way to counter this is to install a custom recovery image (like TWRP) to safely fix your device.


How can I see which location has the most reviews/ratings in a given area on Google Maps?

There does not seem to be any option directly in the Google Maps app to do this. However, the Google Maps API provides this information for developers.
Searching further, this website seems to provide an approximation of what you are looking for, probably using the API. You can search for top rated places in a given city, filter by place type, and also view all the places on a map.
Screenshot for reference:


You'll need to build the whole source using

source build/envsetup.sh
lunch
make -j4 # change 4 to the number of cores+1

and then make a SD card image, detailed instructions for example here: http://nilvec.com/testing-an-android-image-built-from-source/