Service Mode "Menu not Exist" Android 4.1.2

You need to revert back to Jellybean 4.1.1 to get the extra options under (6)NETWORK LOCK as far as I'm aware.

Like you said there should be 3 other menu options under (6)NETWORK LOCK and they should appear after reverting back to 4.1.1.

You will need the 4.1.1 firmware for your current carrier and Phone model and (Odin) to flash the firmware.

Make sure you save the original firmware first, so if anything goes wrong with the firmware flash, you can revert back to the original firmware.

Hope this helps :)


Google Drive app on Nexus 7 doesn't allow offline editing

From the looks of it, at this point, marking something available offline only allows you to read it offline when using a mobile device (Source). However, you can edit and write files offline if you are using a computer or device running Chrome or Chrome OS. I'm sure at some point Google will allow editing offline, especially for tablets, but at this point, I am pretty sure that you can online view files offline. Sorry.


Automate installation of Android devices

This could be done - but would need to either:

1)root the devices and allow system priviledges high enough to automate uninstall/install/create wihtout user confirmation

2) the user would need to confirm app uninstallations and installations - which would be almost as slow and laborious as doing the work manually.

If you decided to go down the root and run route, you would need to write an app which could install the others for you OR you would need to look into something such as nandroid which can be used to create an image of a working android device and return you a set of image files to deploy to other devices

Failing that, as James said - look at the debug bridge APIs which could be used to accomplish this.


Sync Exchange Contacts Subfolders with Android

The problem has been reported and seems like it might be solved with some release

In the mean while, an alternative would be:

  label contacts rather than put them in folder


Download Odin, SuperSU.zip and twrp for the j110h. Then be sure to enable adb debugging and OEM unlock in developer options. Then reboot into download mode. Plug into PC start Odin, choose the correct twrp and click start and at the same time hold down vol up and home button, I'm thinking g when I flashed this recovery I had to hold the vol up and home while it appeared to restart a couple times but it did work. When twrp finally boots it should mount on the PC and then transfer the SuperSU zip and then flash it.


How does one restore data to phone from Google drive?

Here's a real-life case on someone who'd gotten Google Backup to restore indirectly without root: screenshot

As I recall, a manual trigger for the G Backup restore function was planned for the Pixel series, but this was over a year ago that I'd read about that so I'm not sure what became of that; at that time, an ADB command existed to trigger such behavior, but I'm unsure what the prerequisites and/or limitations are.

My post here also briefly touches on G Backup and other methods I'd explored to solve my own issue with restoring a backup file's data.  Note that there is versioning requirement for the standard restoration method(s) to work, i.e., you can only restore onto a device running the same or higher  of Android (if even then).

Finally, here is a guide I wrote (and fixes) for an Android game, but the same functionality can be applied to more general usages as well.


Max USB Webcam Resolution and Frame rate

It depends on the external camera provider specs.

From External USB Cameras  |  Android Open Source Project

The USB camera HAL process is part of the external camera provider that listens to USB device availability and enumerates external camera devices accordingly.

Webcams generally support USB video class (UVC)
drivers and on Linux, the standard Video4Linux (V4L)
driver is used to control UVC cameras.

Probably, what's quoted is typical or frequently found values but if you want specific information you would need to dig into the code of the device + camera provider.
As asked in the comments maximum limits can be gleaned from

the camera specs and codes

format used  (for example UVC format itself has multiple variations - see linked wiki above)

but whether the device uses full capability or not is the important point.
You would find tons of rooted means and Magisk modules that improve the camera performance with the same device and camera - it's only possible because ROM didn't build in those features.


Users who install and uninstall immediately are counted in Google Play app's downloads?

When a user downloads an app from Google Play, app's download counter is increased no matter if the user uninstalls the app immediately? - Yes
Is there a minimum of time the app must be on the device?
or a minimum of use? - No

From Google developer console help , it appears that both are unrelated and counted as discrete events. For instance, Daily Statistics on the console are defined as below . There is no mention of time it stays installed or use

Daily installs by user: Unique users who installed the app on one or more of their devices for the first time in the past day
Daily uninstalls by user: Unique users who uninstalled the app from all of their devices in the past day

From Quora - How does the downloads count for an app in the Google Play Store work, developer Sophia Wang clarifies that installing and uninstalling will not change the number of downloads, which further supports that these two events are not connected in any way for statistics

Billions: How exactly do Apple and Google count app downloads? says "
Both Apple and Google tabulate unique downloads of apps per user account. This means that they count only one download of an app no matter how many devices that you install that app on after you purchase it"


Are there any devices that are like an iPod Touch, but run Android?

Nothing of quality yet (at least IMO).  Archos has just announced a new product line of Android tablets and smaller devices.  Also Samsung has announced the Galaxy tablet (http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20015395-1.html) that looks impressive.

I think you'll have a ton of options around the Christmas shopping season.. Keep an eye on Engadget, not a day goes by they're not showing another "leaked" Android tablet.

ETA:
here's a link to the Archos 101 tablet.. Looks pretty impressive:
http://www.archos.com/products/ta/archos_101it/index.html?country=us&lang=en


Problems accessing message logs on Jelly Bean with aLogcat

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can see the full text of the errors which are occurring when trying to sync my K9 folders?

It seems that there is no way to see these log messages on the device without root access, but if you do have root access, there are a couple of options, either grant the required permissions to aLogcat or consider using a horrible hackTM to view them directly.
View the log files on your PC or workstation via adb
If you can connect your Android device to a PC or workstation, then you can access the logs via the adb command.
To do this on Windows, first you will need to install the Android SDK (which will require the Java SE SDK) and add the android-sdk\tools and android-sdk\platform-tools to the system path. Then enable USB debugging on your Nexus 7, plug it in via USB, and install the Android Composite ADB Interface from android-sdk\extras\google\usb_driver (I had to force Windows XP to look here, it wouldn't find the drivers on it's own).
For details of how to get adb up and running without the full Android SDK install, or on Mac or Linux machines, see Izzy's excellent answer to
Is there a minimal installation of ADB?
Then you can open a shell (i.e. a cmd window) and run the command:
adb logcat k9:V *:S AndroidRuntime:E

I have confirmed that this works on my non-rooted Nexus 7.

Grant permissions to aLogcat
If you have root access, you could consider granting the READ_LOGS permission to aLogcat, as suggested in this post aLogcat/CatLog/Lumberjack not working? Do this ... on the xda-developers forum:
pm grant <pkg> android.permission.READ_LOGS

To grant this permission to alogcat or alogcat.donate, you would use one of the following commands, depending on whether you are running the donate version or not:
pm grant org.jtb.alogcat.donate android.permission.READ_LOGS
pm grant org.jtb.alogcat android.permission.READ_LOGS

According to one post on android-developers and the ticket, the permission grant survives reboot and update, but not uninstall/reinstall.
Sadly since this requires root access, whether I run this on the device or on my PC (prefixed by adb shell) I just get the error:
Neither user 12345 nor current process has android.permission.GRANT_REVOKE_PERMISSION

I cannot confirm that this works, since my Nexus 7 has not been rooted.

Consider using a horrible hackTM
If you have root access, you could consider making logcat setuid root and running logcat from the device shell, as suggested in this answer to my How can I access android log files on my Nexus 7 without root access?question:
chmod 04755 /system/bin/logcat
logcat k9:V *:S AndroidRuntime:E

Again, I cannot confirm that this works and I would probably only use it as a last resort, given the security implications.

Why are no log messages from K9 appearing in the aLogcat log viewer?
Could something have changed in Jelly Bean which lead K9's logging to stop working?
Since there seem to be remarkably few messages being shown by aLogcat in general, has something has changed in Jelly Bean which could mean that it is no longer able to access all messages?

This appears to be a change in Jelly Bean which affects all applications which may try to read the log files.
Apparently READ_LOGS permission is not granted to 3rd party applications in Jelly Bean. Since this link seems to be unreliable:

Today I've tested my application on newest (api 16) emulator before releasing it to Google Play. It turned out that Android now refuses to grant this permission to 3rd party applications. This is weird because I've looked through all Jelly Bean's documented changes and couldn't find anything that mentions READ_LOGS permission.

and later

The protectionLevel for READ_LOGS is now "signature|system|development". The new pipe syntax for protectionLevel is also undocumented (see http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=34785).

My suspicion is that aLogcat is only seeing messages generated by itself and it's vm.
For further information, see Flow answer's to my question How active should I expect my Jelly Bean system log file to be?


Migrating WhatsApp to new phone and new number

WCDMA is related to network type and micro SIM is related to size of SIM card. You can trim or cut the previous one to micro size and use it in the latest phone. Transfer of account can also be done with in WhatsApp (if you wish to).
*** Tutorial for cutting the SIM


Internal Storage Memory reduced after installing custom ROM

Unfortunately, devices with small ROM are prone to quick "runout", as correctly pointed out by previous comment. It is indeed true that the "actual" ROM size is not the one stated from the vendor but the one dictated by the Android OS itself. As an example, try to insert an SD card to your computer then right click and get to the properties. You will see that although empty , the available memory is less than the total memory reported. This is because also the SD card host some hidden files necessary for the proper functioning of the card itself.
Hopefully you will have a slot for a microSD card on your phone so that you can save all your media and transfer most of the apps to it thus keeping your internal ROM as free as possible.


HD is for sound quality and says that the contact person's phone supports HD sound, whereas the caller ID issue can be because of the error of contacts app or truecaller if it is installed.


How do I make OpenVPN Connect honour the keepalive setting?

It's a bug with OpenVPN Connect, apparently:

  You are absolutely right -- server-pushed keepalive parameters (ping, ping-restart) are being ignored in 1.1.12 and earlier.

  Will be fixed in next release.

  Thanks,

  James

By using OpenVPN for Android (alternative), I can connect properly.


Android 9, google accounts without using google account?

i have had this problem on some Xiaomi devices. even when added contacts offline (with MyPhoneExplorer) it switched automatically into google when device goes online. i bet it is the contacts app per design not allowing local contacts.

i ended up with 3rd party contacts app (like com.simplemobiletools.contacts)


Changing TF300 keyboard dock to Icelandic

Try External Keyboard Helper.

  A non visible soft keyboard (Input Method) intended to be used with hardware Bluetooth and USB keyboards. It automatically brings up the Input Method dialog when Bluetooth keyboard connects or disconnects (on some devices this can also be made to work with USB keyboards). It supports a lot of different keylayouts also provides a lot of configuration options.


How to decrease touch sensivity (Accidental taps)

It was a hardware failure. Replacing my screen panel did the trick.


WhatsApp media is not showing up from WhatsApp account when migrated from old phone

I took help from this Quora post, and I figured out that WhatsApp is installed in internal memory. That's why it isn't able pick up the pictures/media from the SD card. Here is what I did.

I renamed the WhatsApp folder in the internal memory. From Whatsapp to Whatsapp_backup.
Rebooted the phone.
Downloaded an image from a chat. This forced to create another Whatsapp folder to be created in internal memory.
Then moved all the content from SD Card/Whatsapp/Media to Internal Whatsapp/Media folder.
Then I closed WhatsApp and started again. This made WhatsApp to refresh the memory index and pick the media file according to chats.


How can I install flashable zips in Android-x86

This is caused by the install script incorrectly detecting your platform as ARM.

In order to fix this issue, which is specific to the Xposed ZIP file, you must hack edit flash-script.sh.

Search for:

if [ -z $XVALID ]; then
  echo "! Please download the correct package"
  echo "! for your platform/ROM!"
  exit 1
fi

Comment out the exit command, by adding a # before it.
At least in the current version of Xposed (v86), this is line 162 of the flash-script.sh file.

The resulting block will be:

if [ -z $XVALID ]; then
  echo "! Please download the correct package"
  echo "! for your platform/ROM!"
  #exit 1
fi

Source: How to Install Xposed on MEmu Lollipop Beta

[Edit] Since you are having a great deal of trouble, I'm going to provide detailed fool-proof steps for successfully installing Xposed on Android-x86:

Download Xposed to your computer
Extract the contents of the compressed file somewhere
From your file manager (Finder | Windows Explorer | Nemo | Some other), open the directory where the file contents have been extracted to and browse to: META-INF \ com \ google \ android
Select the entire contents of this directory and Control + C
Go back to the directory containing the resulting files (same as Step 3) and then Control + V
Among the files you have just copied is flash-script.sh. Now you must edit this file with a text editor of your choice, according to the previous part of this answer.
Save and close the file. Make sure it is actually saved.
Make a new .zip file with the updated contents, including of course the flash-script.sh file which you have edited.
Send this new (make sure!) zip file to your Android-x86 environment with a method of your choice. ADB, e-mail to yourself, some anonymous temporary file upload service, etc.
From Android-x86, extract the contents of this new zip file.
Launch Terminal Emulator.
Type in su and hit Enter
If you are asked for Super User privilege, confirm (i.e. hit "Allow")
Type sh "flash-script.sh" and hit Enter
Reboot your phone and launch the Xposed APK to confirm whether it's been successfully installed.


can i open flags page on android version 2.3.4

First of all you should get a good browser. Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are some examples.

If the problem is still there go to the settings or the browser you use and disable Javascript. This will stop auto-refresh but will also prevent any interactive content on the websites to run.


How to view devices connected to hotspot on Google Pixel?

Another  "uglier" workaround involves using terminal , but it has an advantage if you already have terminal installed in your device.

Simply type ip neigh in terminal and you should see an output showing connected devices' ip addresses as well as mac address (but it looks a bit cluttered though)

See screenshot:

Screenshot (click image for larger variant)

The information in the terminal output includes
:

IP address of connected client
MAC address (obscured in screenshot)
interface (wlan0)
state of connection (i.e STALE, REACHABLE etc)

Note: This does not need root permissions


What are the different signal indicators avalable on the notification bar?

They are referring to the mobile data connection:

1x: 1xRTT (slow like a dialup modem (here: 80–100 kbit/s), shows up on US Cellular CDMA networks with Google Fi in Northern California)
G: GPRS (slow like dialup modem, here: 56–114 kbit/s)
E: Edge (enhanced GSM, about 400 kbit/s)
3G: UMTS (384 kbit/s to 7.2 Mbit/s)
H: HSPA (enhanced 3G, sometimes shown as 3.5G; up to 21 Mbit/s)
H+: HSPA+ (even more enhanced/faster HSPA; up to 42.2 Mbit/s)
4G: LTE (thanks to eldarerathis for confirmation); up to 300 Mbit/s
5G: not yet in the wild; up to 10 Gbit/s planned

The bars obviously show signal quality, and the arrows show whether data transfer is in progress. As for the colors (your pictures show blue and gray signal icons), please refer to What does it mean when the connectivity icons in the status bar go white/gray?


Accordingly your file should be placed in the 'uploads' folder. But it is'nt happening.

Try to check following solutions.

Clear the app data and cache from app info in settings, and log in to the account and try again.

If it isn't working, What is the size of the file that you are uploading? If its to large, try to upload in modules. According to my experience large files are uploaded but it takes time and meanwhile it doesn't even show you the progress for very large files. So if its in gb or some 500 - 700 mb try to upload in modules.

If still it doesn't work try to upload a simple image file using the same procedure that you used before just to counter-check. If this small image is uploaded then the problem persists in the app in the form of a bug which do not uploads a large file.


Commands run on terminal but throw errors in shell script

Apparently there seems no reason for this, except the possible problem with line endings which often happens. On *NIX operating systems (including Android), lines end with Line Feed (LF; \n or 0x0A) while on DOS/Windows with Carriage Return + Line Feed (CRLF; \r\n or 0x0D0x0A). On Mac, only CR is the end-of-line marker. So some text editors may encode wrong line breaks in shell scripts:

~$ cat -v /sdcard/test.sh
#!/bin/bash^M
^M
pm grant com.termux android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE^M

Here ^M is the visual representation of CR, which can be fixed with dos2unix, sed or tr utility:

~$ dos2unix /sdcard/test.sh
~$ cat -v /sdcard/test.sh
#!/bin/bash

pm grant com.termux android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE

Now the problem should be resolved.


Set a custom ringtone on Sony Z3 Xperia Compact

Based on this tutorial, you need to put your files in /storage/emulated/0/media/audio/ringtones.

If it still doesn't work, try opening the file directly from an Android file explorer, then click "Set as ringtone" (you may need to click on the three dots before seeing it):

(Click image to enlarge)


How can I use Flash Player now that it's no longer supported?

If the Play Store won't play ball, you can download the Flash Player APK from Adobe here.

Direct download links:

For Android 2.x and 3.x: Flash Player 11.1 for Android 2.x and 3.x (11.1.111.73)
For Android 4.0+: Flash Player 11.1 for Android 4.0 (11.1.115.81)

Warning: Those versions are pretty old (2013) and are no longer supported by Adobe. Therefore installing it may make your device vulnerable to attacks from the Internet.


Install a File Explorer, say EStrongs File Explorer, and you would be able to upload arbitrary file from the browser or attach files to Gmail.


Install CWM on Samsung Galaxy S2 (GT-9100M)

I ended up flashing custom kernel from here (for "#1.8. Android Version 4.1.2, Jelly Bean."):

http://androidforums.com/galaxy-s2-international-all-things-root/482994-rooting-galaxy-s2-dummies-guide.html

Then I was able to attempt installation of CyanogenMod 11, snapshot M7, which did not work (but that's another story). Just leaving this note here if anyone comes from google search with the same problem.

The corner stone was that I expected my phone to enter recovery mode with [home] + [volume down] + [power] combo, i.e. that CWM recovery overrides download mode. In reality, these two modes are independent of each other. To enter recovery mode, use [home] + [volume up] + [power]. You do not need CWM to enter recovery mode, but the default feature set is limited, so yes, better get CWM.

Regarding CyanogenMod 11 installation, according to another question here on android.stackexchange, it requires CWM v6.0.4.5 to run. Problem is that officially CWM does not support my Samsung Galaxy S2 i9100M (and even the version I am supposed to download for a generic/international S2 off their website is like v5.8.x.x), so I would need to find a custom built CWM. CWM completely replaces the default recovery mode.

Tried latest Philz touch, but it did not work. Actually it did not work so badly, that I had to

flash original image from Samsung (sammobile.com).
go in recovery, clear data (factory reset), clear cache.
make sure the OS starts (goes into init/setup mode - after factory reset).
flash custom kernel Siyah-s2-v6.0b5.tar, do CWM restore, to bring phone back to shape.

For reference, in my attempt to install CyanogenMod 11 I soft bricked my phone 9-10 times already, with a total of 1 full working day spent on this campaign (8 hours).


Losing connectivity with my carrier, how can I reconnect?

Is there a way to get a notification that I'm off the air?

I don't think this is possible, but there might be an app out there for it. I'm not sure. I'm fairly certain that it's not a native function in Android though.

  Is there a way to reconnect without rebooting the phone?

Airplane mode on/off seems to be the easiest route. If that doesn't work, you can try going into "More..." on the settings menu and look for available networks manually. Maybe you'll find that you find other networks, just not your carrier, and in that case it's actually a coverage problem, or a problem with their equipment since you can actually see networks, just not the one you want to connect to.

  Is this something that happens to others, or am I just lucky?

Connection drops to the network is very common, but it's usually different kinds of drops for different reasons. If you have rooted your phone and you're running a custom ROM, you might need to check out GetRIL. If you're running stock, try a factory reset/reinstall of your device first, or see if there's any updates available from Samsung.

I get drops at times on my Galaxy Nexus as well, but I only lose data connection, I still see my carriers name and I can recieve SMS/phone calls. This sounds completely different from your issue if you are actually losing contact with the GSM network completely.

I'd recommend that you check out if you can find other carriers networks or not (mentioned above), if you can find others you need to notify your carrier first of all. If you can't, it's probably phone-specific but even there your carrier/Samsung should be able to help you if you still have warranty and the device is not rooted.


Does QueueTube download complete videos or audio only?

I am the developer. It was using the full video streams up until last week when I released version 1.8.

However it is possible that the android MediaPlayer when given a video stream, doesn't bother to download the video too, but I doubt so.

Now it specifically downloads audio-only streams, however only on Android 4.3+ devices.

Android 4.2 and lower still stream the full video because the OS isn't compatible with the audio only streams.

To give you an idea of bandwidth consumption, a 5 minute song takes up about...

3MB video stream, HD Audio disabled
12MB video stream, HD Audio enabled
3MB audio-only stream, if your device supports it. The sound quality is about equal (possibly a little better) than HD Audio with video.

On Android 4.3+ devices, the HD Audio switch in settings doesn't really do anything..


As things stand Handcent would fulfill all your criteria save the last one. In any case, ads are shown only in the options screen - never in the message list or conversation view.

If you're rooted, you can use AdFree to try to eliminate them.


Android 4.4 (Kitkat) and volume problem on a Nexus 7

I reproduced the exact same issue on my Nexus 10 after upgrading to KitKat. Cycling power on the device after the update resolved the problem for me.


Kedacom USB Device doesnt work with fastboot Nexus 5x

As for my phone (Xiaomi Mi5) the cause of this problem was driver. I couldn't delete driver and istall another one because Win10 install driver faster.
The decision was a changing OS on to Ubuntu or Windows (7, 8.1) than device was not recognized. And install drivers from Android SDK.


Who is responsible for locking the bootloader?

The OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) or Carriers like verizon, AT&T, etc Lock Bootloaders, Google Devices Like Pixel come with unlockable bootloaders via Fastboot.


Is it possible to add home screens to a Sony Xperia?

this might help:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1138791

you would need to have your phone rooted for this hack. It is for Xperia Play, but would work on other Xperias, as I've done this before on my Xperia Arc S successfully.


Disable popups on cancelled Sprint service on LG G2

Not sure about the error message and making it go away. But you could always put the device into airplane mode and still use WiFi. That should stop the device from trying to connect to the Sprint towers.


Small clock icon above AM/PM on 4x2 clock widget

Going by your description, you're referring to the object circled in this screenshot

That thing indicates that the city the time is being shown for is currently running on daylight savings time.  In this screenshot, we see that New York is observing daylight savings time, and Phoenix isn't.


MMS service is a carrier service and is sent over a cellular network (see: wikipedia page) so you need to be connected to your carrier and it does not work solely on WiFi.

It is quite normal that you cannot send it over WiFi but as soon as you connect to your carrier's network, it works.

I suspect that in your previous experience, you may have been connected to both your WiFi and your carrier, used WiFi for Internet connection and used MMS over your carrier without being aware. If you later started turning off your carrier connection when you are connected to WiFi, this issue may have surfaced.


Installing apps on the system partition is not possible without root. Rooting can also not be enough if you are running a device that has a newer android version, where selinux is enabled and enforcing.

You need to make sure you do the following before being able to install apps to system:

Bootloader unlock (if needed)
Root
Mount /system as RW
Copy apk file to /system/app (or priv-app) (depending on the OS version)
Remount /system as RO or reboot

You might also be able to do it through recovery, but at that point you need to run a custom one, as TWRP, the only difference being that you don't need root at this point.


Dexplorer opens installed APK file and displays info from APK. This is internal application resources, build when autor compiles APK.

To replace specific resources you must decompile APK file, repleace files and compile (build) again.

On new build you must sign APK file with your own certificate (you may generate it). Only author have original keystore to build signed APK file.

App author probably won't provide his application signing key.


How can I root my Pandigital Novel 7" Tablet?

Slatedroid and its Wiki is IMO the best resource for the Pandigital Novel. The Novel does not do any signing checks of its firmware and it's running Android 2.0 so it's rather easy to root.

EDIT: I have learned that the bootloader is encrypted; my previous sentence about "not checking signatures" may be incorrect. (It may only be that the bootloader cannot be replaced.)

Latest community-modified firmware as of this writing

Flashable a-la-carte enhancements (including root)

I notice you posted over there too, so this is really for anyone else that has a PDN 7" and wants this information.

As of note, the White and Black versions are different; the White is regarded as better.


How do I stop PDFs opening in RollerCoaster Tycoon?

Suggestion to install better open with app and set the default for opening PDF app worked for OP. Possibly, RCT didn't figure in the options, but setting it to Google Drive fixed the issue


Using open-source ROM and social network activities

Yes. The manufacturer can do anything they like to the phone. There could be spyware in the radio firmware, which monitors transmitted packets. There could be a filter in the bootloader, which modifies any system image you flash to add spyware. There could be spyware in any of the closed-source drivers, which would be the same in your custom ROM as in the official image.

If you don't trust the manufacturer, don't buy their phone, but on the whole, a phone OEM monitoring your tweets is not a likely threat.


How to change wifi device name on Android 7?

AFAIK it's possible that a phone manufacturer hide that option from UI on their products, and I guess your phone it's one of them. My phone OnePlus 5, however, does allow changing it from Settings app.

So, if root access is available, try this in a rooted terminal environment:

setprop net.hostname "Whatever You Like"

Mount /system partition as R/W, head for /system/build.prop. Find this line and if it exists, change it (this line may not be present on Android 5 or lower):

ro.display.series=Same As Above

Reboot is required. After that the new name should have effect. Before modifying build.prop consider making a backup of it (and have a means of restore, e.g. via recovery-mode): if the file is "broken", your device won't boot up properly.


Is the "Remote Application Removal Feature" also effective for apps from samsung and other alternative stores?

Is [Remote Application Removal Feature] also effective for apps downloaded from alternative stores?

No. Google doesn't care about apps that are downloaded from alternative stores, nor does they have to. Google provides a chance for user to check the application on installation-time (called Package Verifier), but beyond that, it's not Google's responsibility anymore.

  If so, why not make use of this feature to remove repackaged apps downloaded from, e.g., stores of China.

I'm not sure about the connection between malicious apps and repackaged apps. The removal feature is for malicious apps, while repackaged apps are more about copyright issue, which is outside of Google's responsibility.

  If I report to Google that one of my apps has been repackaged and the repackaged app is on some alternative stores, does Google have the privileges to take it down?

Again, no, it's not Google's responsibility. This is a legal issue regarding copyright between the developer and that alternative store, not Google.

  Does Google use this feature a lot to protect IP of legitimate apps? Are there any reports or documents about such statics?

I'm not sure about that, but regarding IP protection, Google might have blocked them before it's even published on Play Store (as per Play Store Developer Policy).


Android 5.0 download notification hidden forever

Goto Settings -> Apps -> All apps, and find the "Download Manager"

The "Downloads" is the app showing in the app launcher, but the app showing in the notification bar is "Download Manager"

Click for larger version


Android 2.3 Tablet: HDMI using both screens

Most probably, there's no way. Your tablet screen and your TV screen use different resolutions and refresh rates, which is generally too much to handle simultaneously for the graphics chip in your tablet.


How to disable autofocus and set focus to infinity?

I'm sure there's some way technically to simply shut off the autofocus, making the camera start up in a default focus and never moving away from that. It is however not a function that I am aware of that it exists in custom ROMS, because that's the only place you'll find modifications like this, and unless there's a big demand for it, it's unlikely someone will code it. I've got a feeling that camera focus might be really tricky to mod from the actual OS.

I think the only way you'll solve this for sure is basically learning to code and inspecting the AOSP source, or paying a developer to do it for you. I'm almost certain it's not a native function of the Android OS.


Break SQLcipher by modifying libsqlcipher.so?

I ended up using Frida to hook sqlite3_key dynamically and got the encryption key. Simple enough.

Brief steps I took:

Setup Frida to connect to your Android device
On the Python end, attach to target app and load JavaScript.

import frida

# Attach to target app
session = frida.get_usb_device().attach("cn.com.company_name.app_name")

# Load Javascript from a separate file.
with open("script.js", "r") as file:
  script = session.create_script(file.read())
  script.load()

# Print any messages that Javascript send back
script.on("message", print)

On the Javascript end, hook into sqlite3_key and read encryption key from memory:

// Locate the SQLCipher library
var sqlcipher = Process.findModuleByName("libsqlcipher.so");

// Locate the `sqlite3_key` function call
var func = sqlcipher.findExportByName("sqlite3_key");

// Hook into it
Interceptor.attach(func, {
    onEnter: function (args) {
        // The encryption key is the second argument to `sqlite3_key`
        var key_ptr = args[1];

        // read 32 bytes worth of data(256-bit key)
        var key = key_ptr.readByteArray(32);

        // And send it back to Python
        send("Got key", key);
    }
});


Whatsapp data transfer from expired Sim card to new Sim card

WhatsApp stores a backup of everyday into your internal memory. If you register in WhatsApp with the new sim still it will allow you to restore the messages of previous chat. No matter what number you had.

Try re-registering with your new number and when it asks you for restore back, allow it to.


I've found it! Pinch with two fingers on the Home Page, to enter the edit pages mode, then move them around.


Put files from PC onto a Samsung Galaxy S7 via Wifi?

SSHDroid + WinSCP. I think it doesn't even require root if not using port 22 (you don't have to). Also allows resume transfer. Been using the combination on my own tablet whose USB MTP connection is not working.

Don't expect transmission speed to be high, though - 2MB/s at best and ~200KB/s at worst, far slower than USB.


Send an SMS from an Android 8.0 using adb

Now, I finally can send SMS through the command line on an Android 8.0-oreo performing next steps:

Installing the ShellMS app on the phone (once for ever)
Going on the phone to Settings > Apps > ShellMS > Permissions > Enable all the permissions (once for ever). This step will no longer be necessary once an issue about permissions will be fixed
Connecting the phone to the computer with USB (and giving permission on the phone for accessing data, if asked)
Issuing next script on the computer:

#!/bin/bash
phonenumber="$1"
message="$2"
# escape double quotes
message=${message//\"/\\\"}
adb shell "am startservice --user 0 -n com.android.shellms/.sendSMS -e contact \"$phonenumber\" -e msg \"$message\""


Recovery image without root functionality for an Xperia Z1 Compact

Re-flash the official recovery and boot images of the device.
Lock the bootloader and disable Developers option.

Official recoveries do not allow to do much i.e rooting, changing/editing build.prop file and other system files. It will buy you time until the child studies enough and figure out that it is possible to change the recovery and root the system.


Shockingly, you can't block calls with Xperia phones.

  Unfortunately it's not possible to do this without installing any 3rd party software. I know that Truecaller has this function if you want to use a 3rd party app.

Source: official Sony forum

You need to download 3rd party softwares that are mentioned earlier:

TrueCaller

Calls Blacklist


How can I recover my photos from the Vault app when the phone is lost?

Nothing you can do.  Your phone is gone, and without a backup, you've unfortunately lost all your data.


In the Contacts app (or Phone app if you don't have a direct link in the launcher) press the 'Menu' button then select 'Display Options'.

You should find two categories to choose from, 'Sort list by' and 'View contact names by'.


Disclaimer

This APK's code is obfuscated, hence it's difficult to ascertain its purpose. For those who have doubts concerning my analysis — and I encourage you to —, feel free to download the decompiled APK from my MEGA account.

Analysis

First and foremost, I'd like to state that there are five characteristics of this code that made me think:

the code is obfuscated;
no permissions are ever declared inside the AndroidManifest.xml;
even if the code itself is obfuscated, there are strings which mention EGL, shaders and rendering;
a method in the code probes the device's graphic card;
this APK is not signed.

As for point 1, I often decompiled Google's apps, and they do like to obfuscate their code.

Point 2 greatly limits the potential nefarious actions an app can perform, as long as the app doesn't inherit its permissions by another app.

Points 3 and 4 seems to hint at a software which is devoted to draw on the display.

Point 5 is fascinating, as Android's package installer doesn't normally allow installing unsigned packages.

Guess

My guess is that this is a piece of software developed from Google, by Google. The APK is unsigned, but it might theoretically be installed by a system app, thus bypassing the signature restriction.


I tried the same process from a different laptop and it worked instantly. I don't know what the cause of this issue is but having the alternative solution, I don't feel like investigating any longer.


touchscreen broken, how to enter encryption password via adb

I found it out now:

adb shell twrp decrypt $PASSWORD


Enabling ADB on Nexus 6 with dead screen

I followed this guide

I went into fastboot mode by holding down the power button (force restart) and the volume down key (recovery mode)
I downloaded a twrop image from: https://dl.twrp.me/shamu/
fastboot flash recovery twrp.img
fastboot reboot (while holding the volume down key see note)
Then I booted the recovery image
adb with root permissions detected my device. If you get a permission denied error try killing adb and running with sudo

*Note many devices will replace your custom recovery automatically during first boot. To prevent this, use Google to find the proper key combo to enter recovery. After typing fastboot reboot, hold the key combo and boot to TWRP. Once TWRP is booted, TWRP will patch the stock ROM to prevent the stock ROM from replacing TWRP. If you don't follow this step, you will have to repeat the install.


Nexus 5 not getting net data even though its having hspa+ range

Go to

  Settings > More > Mobile Networks > "Use only 2G Networks"

Make sure the above option is unchecked and you've correctly activated a proper 3G plan. Also, don't forget to configure the APN for using the internet.


Check the time zone you have set under Settings -> Date and time and make sure that it's correct. I had the same problem on my Samsung phone and this solution fixed it.


How to format an SD card directly inside Android?

These steps were using an HTC EVO with HTC Sense - your menu options may be different but should be similar.

There should be a "Format SD Card" in the phone "Settings".  Open "Settings", then go to "SD & Phone Storage", then you should see "Format SD Card".  If the option is grayed out then you may need to unmount your sd card first and then format the card.  Make sure you have backed up anything you want to save with a backup app or just by copying whatever files off your card onto a computer because this will erase everything on the card.

Hope this helps


How can I mount or extract TWRP Nandroid backups in Windows?

ext4.win is a posix tar archive according to the file command.

The only partitions I have in a TWRP backup that are emmc.win are boot recovery and system. Those are basically the same as boot.img, recovery.img, and system.img but renamed.

These are ext partition images and you can read the contents of them with ext2read tool.


Will charging a smartphone while it is in a case lead to damage?

Heat and lithium ion batteries aren't the best of friends, so anything you can do to maintain a lower battery temperature will prolong your battery's life. While charging or under heavy load, you typically generate more heat than while resting, so in either of those cases, if your phone feels physically warm, it's probably a good idea to remove it from the case. However, if you're charging it somewhere that it's likely to be damaged by being knocked off a table, having something dropped on it, having a kid find and play with it, etc. then I'd be more inclined to keep a protective case on it. The life of your phone is much more important than the life of your battery, as a battery is much cheaper to replace (Note: I'm not familiar with how easy or difficult it is to replace the battery on a Razr, beyond knowing that it's not as simple as popping the back off and pulling the battery).

I'll add that while it's possible that a case (particularly the thicker ones like Otterbox produces) could lead to enough excessive heat that it damages the battery, I haven't heard of anything beyond a faulty battery actually damaging itself (think of the exploding battery stories). I would think that we'd hear a lot more about this if it were a significant issue.


Backup Link2sd ext4 partition, resize it and restore

Speaking of GParted, I assume you have a Linux computer available. So steps to be performed are quite simple -- speaking of an external SDCard:

Unmount the card from your Android device, and take it out
Put it into a card reader, attach it to your Linux computer. Mount it there.
Copy all contents into an empty directory on your Linux machine. From the command line, you can use the cp command for that to ensure everything is copied: cp -a </path/to/source> </path/to/target> (replace </path/to/source> with where you've mounted the card, and </path/to/target> with your empty directory's path; for details on the cp command, run man cp or see its man-page on the net)
Optional: check that everything was copied fine. If there were no errors displayed in the previous step, it should have worked fine.
If your card has multiple partitions containing data, repeat the previous two steps for each of them.
Use GParted (or whatever tool of your preference) to drop and re-create partitions as needed, and re-create the file systems
Repeat steps 3-5, reverting source and target (to get your data back on the SDCard)
Unmount your SDCard, safely remove it from the computer, put it back into your Android device, and enjoy!
If everything went fine, and all data is available on your device as hoped, optionally remove the "backup directories" created in step 3.

Job done :)


How to stop Wi-Fi from using all my mobile data?

As suggested by Dan Hulme, this is a malware app that called itself 'Wi-Fi'.  After his comments, I read the below post by Srihari Karanth that helped me to identify that ''Wi-Fi'' was in fact a Mobile tracker app.

Srihari's post

''To know if a spy app is installed first check your Device Administrator list to see if there are any apps which you have not downloaded yourself. If you find any apps, no matter the name, no matter the icon of the app, just disable the privilege and uninstall it from application list as valid system applications will not be listed in there. Device Administrator list can be found under Settings -> Security or Settings -> Application.''

thank you


How to disable rotation during zooming in the Google Maps app?

If I open the app, and make sure I first make a pinch movement with my fingers, it doesn't rotate the map when I rotate my fingers in the same movement afterwards.
So if you want to only zoom, it is best to first make a little pinch movement, to let the app know you're going to zoom.

If you on the other hand rotate your fingers first, it will start rotating the map.

If you only want to zoom in, you can also use the double tap option. That will not change anything to the rotation. But this is a little more work if you want to zoom in a lot.


In what directory does the Dolphin HD browser store its files?

Applications store their data in a folders named after their package.
These folders are located in data/data.

The easiest way to find out the package name is to look at the Play Store url.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.mgeek.TunnyBrowser

The package name is the part that comes after id=.
You can see that Dolphin's package name is mobi.mgeek.TunnyBrowser, so the full path is:

/data/data/mobi.mgeek.TunnyBrowser


The very-originally-named Dynamic DNS Client is a fairly popular app for this purpose.

As for service, noip is popular, free, and reliable in my experience.


Check if a certain directory exists on AVD using ADB command

I tried this on an avd and it works for me:

ls /data/textdata > /dev/null 2>&1 && echo "exists" || echo "not exists"


Cannot flash Android IoT image for Pico Pro Maker Kit

Finally I came trough. Looked int flash-all.bat script which says:

  The fastboot executable must be in your path to run this script

I copied all the Android Thing image, generated by the AndroidThingsConsole into the C:\Android\sdk\platform-tools\ subdir, and run the script flash-all.bat again.
Result is here:

C:\Android\sdk\platform-tools>flash-all.bat

target reported max download size of 209715200 bytes

sending 'bootloader' (479 KB)...

OKAY [  0.017s]
writing 'bootloader'...
OKAY [  0.397s]
rebooting into bootloader...
OKAY [  0.009s]

finished. total time: 0.457s

< waiting for any device >

target reported max download size of 209715200 bytes

sending 'gpt' (33 KB)...
OKAY [  0.006s]
writing 'gpt'...
OKAY [ 28.856s]

rebooting into bootloader...

OKAY [  0.006s]

finished. total time: 28.876s

target reported max download size of 209715200 bytes

Creating filesystem with parameters:

Size: 2009071616
Block size: 4096
Blocks per group: 32768
Inodes per group: 8176
Inode size: 256
Journal blocks: 7664
Label:
Blocks: 490496
Block groups: 15
Reserved block group size: 119

Created filesystem with 11/122640 inodes and 16088/490496 blocks

sending 'boot_a' (32768 KB)...

OKAY [  0.886s]
writing 'boot_a'...
OKAY [  1.222s]
sending 'boot_b' (32768 KB)...
OKAY [  0.883s]
writing 'boot_b'...
OKAY [  1.235s]
erasing 'system_a'...
OKAY [  7.114s]
sending sparse 'system_a' 1/2 (203704 KB)...
OKAY [  5.909s]
writing 'system_a' 1/2...
OKAY [  8.516s]
sending sparse 'system_a' 2/2 (204764 KB)...
OKAY [  6.189s]
writing 'system_a' 2/2...
OKAY [ 11.602s]
erasing 'system_b'...
OKAY [  6.999s]
sending sparse 'system_b' 1/2 (203704 KB)...
OKAY [  5.993s]
writing 'system_b' 1/2...
OKAY [  8.500s]
sending sparse 'system_b' 2/2 (204764 KB)...
OKAY [  5.818s]
writing 'system_b' 2/2...
OKAY [ 11.603s]
erasing 'userdata'...
OKAY [ 26.163s]
sending 'userdata' (33356 KB)...
OKAY [  0.903s]
writing 'userdata'...
OKAY [  1.252s]
Setting current slot to 'a'...
OKAY [  0.030s]
finished. total time: 110.864s
target reported max download size of 209715200 bytes
sending 'gapps_a' (72040 KB)...
OKAY [  1.929s]
writing 'gapps_a'...
OKAY [  2.570s]
sending 'gapps_b' (72040 KB)...
OKAY [  1.938s]
writing 'gapps_b'...
OKAY [  2.467s]
finished. total time: 8.917s
target reported max download size of 209715200 bytes
sending 'oem_a' (1096 KB)...
OKAY [  0.036s]
writing 'oem_a'...
OKAY [  0.139s]
sending 'oem_b' (1096 KB)...
OKAY [  0.036s]
writing 'oem_b'...
OKAY [  0.123s]
finished. total time: 0.344s

Successfully flashed your imx7d.
rebooting...

finished. total time: 0.001s

C:\Android\sdk\platform-tools>


Impact of android version on phone performance

It depends from which version you are going to upgrade. For example, if you are going to update to 4.4.x then yes, you should do it.
Version 4.4.x is a big leap on any Device.

See Kitkat 4.4.x release notes.

Other versions don't always have a positive impact on performance, for example, the performance of Samsung's version of 4.3 was worse than their version of 4.2.2.

Hope it Helps.


Keep the home launcher from being killed

I think ADW Launcher has a setting that should keep the application in memory. Also, CM has a setting to force the OS to keep the launcher in memory. I dont remember where it is at in CM6, but in CM7 it is in Settings -> CyanogenMod Settings -> Performance and it is called "Lock Home in Memory". I don't remember if it was in the same place or if it was called the same in CM6.


Does Google Play have a podcast feature?

Yes, on August 3rd 2012 Google Listen was discontinued and is no longer available on Google Play. If you already have it, it will continue to work, but on November 1st 2012, the Podcast Search will cease to work.

This project was very limited in functionality anyway. There are other apps out there that are updated and actively worked on. I think the last time Google Listen was updated was a couple months after it came out in 2009.

A lot of the podcast apps out there now can make use of the "Listen Subscriptions" folder that is in Google Reader. This is where Google Listen stored your subscribed podcasts. I continue to use Reader to store my podcasts in this location, then I import it to the player on my phone.


Can I connect my android phone to the LAN, via an ethernet cable?

You'll need a USB-OTG adapter, or equivalently for newer devices with USB-C ports, a USB-C to USB-A adapter, to be able to physically connect a USB Ethernet adapter to your phone.  It'll only work, though, if the phone has a driver for the Ethernet adapter you're using.  That may vary from phone to phone.

This USB Ethernet adapter has worked for me on several Google-branded Android devices: a Nexus 5, Nexus 5X, and Pixel C tablet.  I've been told by a friend that it also works on the Wii U.  It's an older device (note, doesn't support gigabit) and apparently pretty widely supported.

However, other Android device makers may have removed some drivers from the version of the OS that they ship on their devices, so there's no guarantee that it'll work with every phone.


S-On, No OS, UNLOCKED, No TWRP and want to install custom OS on HTC One M8

The Problems turned out to be dead NAND flash, which will need to be replaced


I'm about to try out this Battery Drain Rate Alert :)


If you are working with a rooted device or eng build device, you can push TeleCommTests.apk under data/apps/TelecommTests/ which has to be built along with Android source code and then fire the below intent from ADB:

adb shell am start -a android.telecom.testapps.ACTION_START_INCOMING_CALL -d "tel:123456789"


S5 Phone and SD Card Encryption: Do I need to enter in password twice?

No. I have that setup and you don't need to enter the password two times. Also when encrypting, android (at least my 4.2.2) does not let you use different passwords for Device and SD card.

One downside of having the phone encrypted is that Android forces you to use the encryption password in the screen lock. After encrypting the phone, you can't use pattern unlock. This has been reported two years ago.


If the phone is locked and you are not able to open it in any other way, (check the lockscreen, sometimes email is an option), then the device content is gone.

You could try this though:

Take a look into Google photos, sometimes they are backed up there, just search Google photos on your PC.
They could be in Google drive too.


If I root my phone, can my service providor tell if I am using my phone for USB tethering or as a WiFi hotspot?

Technically they can inspect the HTTP Headers and look at the User-Agent field to determine browser and OS; but imagine the millions and millions of HTTP requests for web pages and applications in a given day.

They can do trends, and data mining techniques to find out - but is it worth all that effort for them just to track down someone using a few more MB of bandwidth? Probably not.


Is there an easy way to to send a simple GET request from a lock screen widget?

This could be achieved with tasker: You can create a "task" performing the HTTP_GET you need, and then create a shortcut to that task on your homescreen (the same way you'd create any other shortcut there: Tasker Task shows up in the list of available shortcuts, and lets you select the task to create the shortcut for).


If a Android device is turned off, does the alarm sound?

It depends on the phone and on the alarm app. Some offer this specific function in case your phone does not wake automatically. Some other offer a scheduled wake to turn your phone on just before your alarm has to ring.

Anyway, if you put your phone into airplane mode, it is much like turning it off: provided background apps are closed, all your phone is gonna do is wait for the alarm to ring. It will not send or receive data (for those who don't like waves near them all night when they sleep), and it is gonna leave your battery level near untouched.


Any answering machine app (or widget) out there?

Google Voice allows you to record different greetings and switch between them or assign them to different callers, unfortunately the app doesn't handle these things so you have to manage those settings on the web (voice.google.com).

There's an app called Visual VoiceMail (not to be confused with your carriers visual voicemail app), that works with Phone Fusion's Fusion Voicemail Plus service which replaces your carrier's voicemail like Google Voice does and claims to allow you to change and schedule different voicemail greetings from their app.


How do I prevent apps from automatically closing during updates?

There is no way you could stop from an app from getting terminated when getting updated.

Because when app is getting updated the apk inside the /data/app/nameoftheapp/base.apk gets updated and a .dex file must be made of the new base.apk

So the current process of the app is terminated and then daemon is invoked and it does it job of installing the app


Can files be renamed within Droid Explorer

As the Developer of Droid Explorer:

If the file lives in a location on the file system that is mounted as readonly you will not be able to rename a file. This is for security reasons. The same thing goes for deleting a file. This is something I look to address in the future, but have not found the best solution to allow this safely yet.

Otherwise; you can select the file, and click F2 to rename. Or select the file and click it a second time. There is not a menu item to do this action, which there probably should be, I will get that into the work items and prioritized.


Default rotation direction for landscape apps

You can easily achieve this by automation. I prefer MacroDroid Being easy to learn and free

To understand how MacroDroid works and the settings required for your Android version, see  my answer

Your macro would look like this and you can tweak as you like

Trigger: Application Launched / Closed → Select your application

Action:  Force Screen Rotation →Force Landscape (or) Force Landscape 180 (Screen shot below shows possible options)

Constraints: None


How to read contact details sent from iphone?

Some Android devices does not have support for handling MMS or SMS vCards in their native texting app. That is why you see it as "content not supported" or even blank message.

You can use third pardy app to handle MMS vCards if your Android device does not support it by default too. Search on Google Play. I've created such an app bizCard Manager. There are plenty more that handle SMS vCards but I've not found any that has MMS support.


I have a Moto G as well (small world) and also had this problem when connecting to my school's WiFi network (even smaller world).

It appears like the Moto has trouble autodetecting encryption settings on some networks. You can probably get it working by long pressing on the network, selecting modify network, and then changing the 'EAP method' and Phase 2 Authentication' options to whatever your network requires them to be. Get a friend to open their WiFi settings and then copy whatever they have set. A reconnect should grant you access.

Please let me know if you have any questions or feedback.


How to choose which contacts to download from google

I don't remember if you have that option in froyo.  What I know is the following:

1) In gmail / settings / general, you can configure if you want new emails to be added to your contact list. These new contacts will be added as "other contacts", but won't have the label "my contacts", which is the main label that all your good contacts should have.

2) In lollipop, the contacts app, settings, you can configure which contacts to show:  gmail contacts, whatsapp, ....  Inside gmail, you can choose which contacts to show, and therefore, you can select "my contacts".

3) However, I doubt that this avoids downloading all the contacts. Probably is just a filter to show the ones you want.

4) I suggest adding as contacts those you need. It's fast of you hover the mouse over the email and go to "Add as a contact". The label "my contacts"  will be added to it.

PS: 27 MB in contacts?  That's a hell of a list!


Blackview BV6000 rooting problem / spyware removal / SP Flash Tool freeze

I ended up reading this question after I also tried basically all of the steps / websites mentioned in the question. But I eventually managed to install TWRP.

In order to make the SP_Flash_tool start flashing, after you plug in your phone that is turned off, press power button + volume up

If the flash tool errors, you might not have the right scatter file or twrp recovery.img

If you are not sure about scatter file, try flashing a stock rom (I simply clicked on the latest) and follow the PDF mentioned in the link and you'll be able to use the scatterfile from the downloaded rom.
After flashing the entire rom, it took quite a long time to boot (7 min ish) but the effect was as if nothing really changed. I had backed up my phone before flashing this stock ROM using the stock recovery so now is the time for factory reset, then restore data, then install all updates, re-enable again developer mode, usb debuging and oem unlocking and make sure that the updates actually got installed successfully and that there are no more updates.

Then try this TWRP (12.1 MB (12,783,616 bytes)) which also contains a scatterfile but that scatterfile didn't work for me, I had to use the one from the stock rom that I had just flashed. So in case the flashing still errors at this stage, I think you can tell that its because the version of TWRP is not right, not the scatter file.

Note: The file sizes are of the actual unzipped recovery.img


Can my Android phone detect when it is in the shade?

Yes, You can do this with your phones' Light sensor(usually located above the screen). It measures the light falls on your phone.
There are some apps in the play store which  provide data about the light falls on you phone and you can  save it.

Such an app is Lux meter.And there are plenty of apps to do this. Search for similar apps in Play store.


davide,

cat your init.rc and under # Permissions for InputDevices.

chown system radio /sys/class/sec/tsp/cmd
chmod 0660 /sys/class/sec/tsp/input/enabled  <--your device may differ
chown system system /sys/class/sec/tsp/input/enabled <--your device may differ

Add to your scripting setup after verifying, for my device, a samsung galaxy tab 4

echo 0 > /sys/class/sec/tsp/input/enabled

Touchscreen slain.

echo 1 > /sys/class/sec/tsp/input/enabled

Touchscreen re-enabled.

m


for Root your Device, i think after using KingoRoot, you need Install Latest version of SuperSuthen, Root access is Successfully work.

and, for Delete ;

Use Full Wipe, or Install new rom.


My Samsung galaxy s5 seems to be half rooted

try either rooting completely, or removing any custom stuff(kernel, bootloader etc).
if that doesnt work try flashing the stock ROM manually.


Why does my nexus 6p goes black after call is answered

Your phone has an hardware issue. The proximity sensor is broken or is covered.

But before, did you put a screen protector, such as tempered glass, may it doesn't have  proper cutouts.

As a workaround, I'd suggest you set up the power button to end calls (Settings -> Accessibility -> Power button ends call).

You should consider taking the phone to a repair center if the above don't work.


Where do Sony Android phones store deleted pictures?

Like Death Mask Salesman said, there is not an Android recycle bin. However, there are apps you can download on your PC to scan your phone and potentially recover a deleted photo. Here are a few (note: I haven't tried any of these and am not affiliated with any of them):

https://airmore.com/recover-deleted-android-photos.html

https://www.easeus.com/android-data-recovery/how-to-recover-deleted-photos-from-android-phone.html

or look up fonepaw

Good luck!


What internet browsers are able to provide text wrapping (fitting the screen) when zooming (beside Opera)?

I will also try to answer my question - and update the answer if possible.

Beside Opera, which seems to provide this by default, I have seen this working in the Yandex browser, but not by default. I has to be enabled under Settings - Text zoom and auto-fit. (It also has a feature that I personally like, of sliding horizontally across the scren to switch tabs.)

UC Browser has this text-fitting feature by default. (Another interesting feature it has is that sliding horizontally across the screen would navigate within the same tab to previously visited pages: left-to-right=Go back one page; righ-to-left=Go forward one page.)


You can if your device is rooted. You need to add the URLs in the hosts file (/etc/hosts) like:
127.0.0.1 facecrook.com
127.0.0.1 liveminmin.com

and so on.
Note that you'll have to remount (as rw) your /system first using the commands:
adb shell
su
mount -o remount,rw /system

Use a file editor to do the editing and then remount the system in ro mode. Also, before editing, copy the default hosts file at some location say /sdcard/host_files/original/hosts and the modified hosts file at /sdcard/host_files/modified/hosts
Now with the Tasker:

Create a time based profile as + → Time and select your timing when you want URLs to be blocked.
Create a task under the above profile and the action inside it should be + → Code → Run Shell:

Type mount -o remount,rw /system in Command
Check Use Root

Create a new action through + → File → Copy File:

Tap the lens icon corresponding to From and select /sdcard/host_files/modified/hosts
Tap the lens icon corresponding to To and select /etc folder by holding it.

Create another new action through + → Code → Run Shell:

Type mount -o remount,ro /system in Command
Check Use Root

Create this last action through + → System → Reboot → select Normal in Type.
Create another profile for the time you don't want URLs to be blocked using step1.
Copy steps 2-5 and choose /sdcard/host_files/original/hosts in step 3 under From.
Make Tasker an exception in any app (if you have) that disables Tasker from startup.

Enjoy!


Is there an 'offline' version of Google calendar for Android?

As I said in several comments, the Calendar app is the way to interact with your calendar offline.

If you're interacting with the calendar via the browser, you need to be connected. The Android browser doesn't support any sort of "plug-in".


How to use micro sd card as internal memory on samsung galaxy tab A

If you don't find any default options available over settings which Chandrani Chatterjee posted, then you don't have any other option until you don't root your device.


Does Android come with free navigation in non-US contries?

Google Maps Navigation is currently available in the United States, Canada, UK, Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland.


Wrong language in a new Chrome private window and in integrated data

I actually solved my problem myself. On the Chrome app, I clicked on Settings-> Languages (in the Advanced category) and then I removed French from the language list, which apparently set to be my first language, I don't know for what reason. Now pages do not display anymore in French, so the problem is solved.

I would like to keep the answer on the website, it might be useful to someone, but admins can delete it if they think it is not useful.


How to disable an activity containing a special character?

You need to escape the dollar character. Otherwise, the shell would interpret  anything after $ as the variable name. Since $SystemDashboardActivity as a variable is not set, your command is effectively interpreted as:

pm disable com.android.settings/.Settings

That naturally would disable the parent (.Settings) component.

Escape $ by prefixing it with \ so as to prevent unwanted interpretation from shell.  Your command should look like this:

pm disable com.android.settings/.Settings\$SystemDashboardActivity

Tested on Android 9.0 running on OnePlus 6. Make sure to run the command as root.


Why my Google Now on my Motorola Razr D3 will not reply with voice?

Voice reply isn't exclusive for Samsung phones: I get it with the same "what's the weather" query on a nexus-7. But it's controlled by a setting in Google Now. From the main window, go to the menu and choose Settings. From the settings page, you want Voice, then Speech output. Set it how you like.

But take note that you only get a voice reply for the special queries that Google Now is programmed for, not for web searches. To get a list of these special queries, press the microphone icon and ask, "Help."


Why should I trust SuperSU / TWRP / Clockwork / ...?

The same reason that people trust already-compiled builds of Ubuntu, LibreOffice, Linux kernels and mainstream-compiled builds of thousands of other open-source efforts.

Namely that they are being backed by large organisations of people, the code or patch file used to build it is required to be submitted (and is most likely diff'ed against the original build, making the insertion of malicious code extremely hard to hide), and the maintainer is usually a trusted member of the community around said program.


How do music players survive hot reboot?

The typical implementation of a "hot reboot" does not actually shut down the OS and restart it (see What does Hot Boot mean? for related discussion). In essence, it's killing the UI and other foreground processes, then restarting the UI components, making it somewhat analogous to restarting the X server on a *nix machine.

The music player spawns a background service that actually handles playback, and services simply aren't interrupted in the hot reboot process. Using the *nix analogy again, restarting your X server typically doesn't kill your daemons, but it will stop any currently running X applications. It's a similar principle on every hot reboot implementation I've seen.

Now I should probably also qualify this with a disclaimer that this is based on my understanding of one such implementation of the "hot reboot" feature. There may be others that do it differently, but since this is not a standard/native feature and it's generally not documented anywhere you'd likely have to reach out to the developer of your particular app or ROM for more information. Heck, this may even vary depending on the music player you're using - the above is just my analysis based on the limited information I've found available on the subject.


Moto G2 (Titan): "fastboot flash recovery" won't work.

Check the below link. This might help you.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/zuk-z1/development/win-zuk-z1-toolkit-0-1-alpha-t3235964

Though the solution mentioned is for Lenovo Zuk Z1 mobile phone. The process of doing it might help you solve your problem.


Can an Android phone be used as a Bluetooth headset/speakers?

As of right now the bluetooth API only supports pairing with the android device as the master.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4474697/use-android-device-as-a-headset-for-another-device


How an Android app can restrict all my accounts on my phone?

General way to identify you or your device

What information the app (and therefore the operator of the app) has about your device depends on the permissions the app have and the Android version installed on your devices (Google makes it harder to gain access to phone identifiers with ever release).

The most important ways to identify your device are:

Telephone number (depends on the SIM card, requires READ_PHONE_STATE permission)
IMEI (hard coded in your phone, requires READ_PHONE_STATE permission)
Android-ID (a random number generated on first start of the device, factory-reset clears it. Since Android 8 every app sees a different but static Android-ID)
Google Advertising ID (randomly generated, can be re-generated in Google settings)
List of active accounts on your device (requires GET_ACCOUNTS permission)

Of course for online-services there exists various indicators that may indicate that only one device is used such as the IP address you use (especially relevant if IPv6 is used), and of course your usage. If two accounts are used from the same IP address but are never online at the same time this another good indicator.

Some those identifiers may change if you use a second user profile on your device, others will stay the same.
In conclusion the only way to totally avoid getting detected as one user is to use two devices that use different accounts for every stored account (especially the Google account).

Slowly app

The slowly app has the following permissions:

android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION
android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION
android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE
android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE
android.permission.CAMERA
android.permission.INTERNET
android.permission.READ_APP_BADGE
android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED
android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO
android.permission.USE_FINGERPRINT
android.permission.VIBRATE
android.permission.WAKE_LOCK
android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
com.anddoes.launcher.permission.UPDATE_COUNT
com.android.vending.BILLING
com.android.vending.CHECK_LICENSE
com.google.android.c2dm.permission.RECEIVE
com.google.android.finsky.permission.BIND_GET_INSTALL_REFERRER_SERVICE
com.htc.launcher.permission.READ_SETTINGS
com.htc.launcher.permission.UPDATE_SHORTCUT
com.huawei.android.launcher.permission.CHANGE_BADGE
com.huawei.android.launcher.permission.READ_SETTINGS
com.huawei.android.launcher.permission.WRITE_SETTINGS
com.majeur.launcher.permission.UPDATE_BADGE
com.oppo.launcher.permission.READ_SETTINGS
com.oppo.launcher.permission.WRITE_SETTINGS
com.sec.android.provider.badge.permission.READ
com.sec.android.provider.badge.permission.WRITE
com.sonyericsson.home.permission.BROADCAST_BADGE
com.sonymobile.home.permission.PROVIDER_INSERT_BADGE
me.everything.badger.permission.BADGE_COUNT_READ
me.everything.badger.permission.BADGE_COUNT_WRITE

As you can see none of the afore-mentioned permissions are present. But I am not very familiar with some of the permissions. Thinking of how I would implement suc a check I see two additional possibilities:

The permissions com.android.vending.* allow to talk to the Play Services and identify your "license" - mainly this is for checking on in-app purchases, but even free apps without in-app purchases are managed by the Google Play Store and therefore get a license. may be this allows to identify if an the app is installed on two devices with the same Google account?

Additionally WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE can be used by the app to write an identifier somewehere on your internal storage. This file can even survive if you execute delete Sloly's app storage and cache and therefore can be used as permanent identifier of your device.


Preferred and forbidden networks on Android

Deselect international OR select the service provider's roaming options under SIM tools, this may  may help to avoid any forbidden network scenario.


You need to open the SDK manager and download the SDK.

Click the button that has install xx packages.

Leave it run it course and once completed add the path


'Charge This Phone' vs 'Charge Connected Device'

Charge this phone

It means that your phone will be charged from the laptop battery via USB.

  Charge connected device (Charge the connected device via USB)

It means to charge your laptop via USB from your phone. Most probably, your laptop (like that of many others), cannot be charged via USB, so if you choose that, it is giving an error. But the option still persists simply because your laptop runs on battery. Had you connected your phone to a PC, this option would not have come.


Touch screen is not working properly after replacing LCD display and Touch screen

The fact that you replaced your LCD and Digitizer of the tablet may suggest that this will be a hardware problem. Assuming that the device was functional before the 'surgery'.
You might want to double check all the connectors of the digitizer and or display. When that is all 100% correct you can consider that the digitizer will be Dead on Arrival.
Good luck..


How to unlock samsung tab with the fingerprint scanner not working

I have an S5 with fingerprint on it. After 5 incorrects there should be a button next to Alternative Password saying "Unlock via Google". Does yours not have it?

I looked at your article and there were a few methods they missed.

a) Try hooking up your tablet to your computer, after you've downloaded and installed the "Samsung USB Drivers for Mobile Phones.exe". Download adb and call it from your command prompt/console, like this:

cd c:\adb-fastboot
adb devices

If it shows a device with a long ID attached to it, you're in luck!
You can now use the ls command and adb pull to browse through your device and copy files and pictures back to your computer. adb pull instructions for pictures

If you're not in luck, try booting to recovery mode using the buttons and try adb devices again. If that doesn't work, always try another computer! It took me 5 different computers one time to get drivers working.

Along with the ls command, you can also remove your lockscreen PIN by running this command:

adb shell
rm /data/system/gesture.key

If that does not work, try this:

adb shell
cd /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases
sqlite3 settings.db
update system set value=0 where name='lock_pattern_autolock';
update system set value=0 where name='lockscreen.lockedoutpermanently';
.quit

If that doesn't work, you can use adb backup to get a full "app data" backup of your device before you reset it. Use this along with adb pull on all your pictures. Refer here for adb pull instructions for pictures.

I hope this helped, good luck retrieving your files/unlocking your device!


You might want to take a look at Locus Pro. Not sure about the free version, but at least the full version's app decription includes Search (by adress, coordinates, contact). It has full offline maps support (downloable directly from within the app), supports location via network as well as GPS, and comes with a lot of useful addons.

There might be other offline map apps available in the Playstore, so you might want to search there. Also, the Mapsaurus app (or its website) might help you find a similar app.


Are there maps that I can download to a PC and later transfer to the android phone?

I use OsmAnd which works well with offline maps (OSM). Download offline map(s) once and after that no internet connection is required to use them.

You can download the .obf-file of your location from this list of offline maps. Or use the  app to download .obf files directly to your device.


Applications moved to SD card cannot be loaded

Use a different Launcher like Apex and you'll be fine


This limitation has been discussed in reviews, and is mentioned directly in Google's Help page about it

  Note: Your watch cannot connect to Wi-Fi networks that take you to a page before you can connect (for example, Wi-Fi networks at places like hotels or coffee shops).

It is simply not possible at this time with standard Android Wear.

XDA Developers does detail a way that they claim works, if rooted, to achieve this, but it's a lot of extra steps, and won't work for devices such as the Moto 360 that don't give you access to ADB. Presumably custom ROMs could build something in to support this as well, but I've seen none at this time.


How can I find if I have a rogue background process killing cpu and battery?

Enable Developer Options on your phone (usually done by tapping the Build Number in Settings → About phone 7 times) and look for an option named "Running Services" in it. It shows a list of all applications which are running, for how long, and the amount of RAM they are using. If you tap on the app it will also list those services of the app which are running and allows you to force stop each service.


unable to restore contacts after changing ROM

Open the .spb file in Kies
Select all your contacts and click save as.
In the file name field type whatever you want with en extension .vcf
Copy the newly made file to your sd card
Import from the contacts app


Share contents between my Galaxy Note 5 and Samsung Smart TV

Screen mirroring is a feature available on some editions of Samunng Smartphones, but unfortunately has been removed in later builds on smartphones and replaced  Samsung Smart View and related.

  Using the Screen Mirroring feature, you can share your Galaxy device’s
  screen with your Samsung Smart TV or with an HDTV using the AllShare
  Cast Wireless Hub.

The following phones support the Screen Mirroring feature by default. Some phones can be modified through a custom ROM, so they also may be able to support screen mirroring.

Samsung Galaxy S3, S4 ,S5
Samsung Galaxy Note 2, 3, 4

Nevertheless you can use alternatives app to achieve the same e.g Screen Mirroring from Playstore.

Another aggressive way of enabling the feature in Note 5 is perhaps rooting and editing build.prop line: wlan.wfd.hdcp=disable (anywhere within the additional build properties section, preferably at the end)
under /Device/system folder. (Remember to save and reboot) as outlined here on XDA thread.


Does Google+ to new Photos app "cut & paste," or "copy & paste" archives?

When you run the Photos app for the first time, it asks you if you want to display your pictures from Google Drive in the gallery.

It also states that the pictures will stay in Google Drive unless you move them.

I haven't (yet) found anywhere in the Settings that lets you change your mind.  If I do, I'll put up a screenshot.


Executing ADB commands while running scrcpy

You can open up a new command prompt window and issue whatever adb commands you want. They would work.
You can also put scrcpy in background if you want to use the same command prompt window to do something else there. Head over to Superuser to know more about this.


"Play Music" app keeps changing the volume of the sound by itself

Try to use the original earphone. The original earphone has volume control on it, if you use different earphone you can get this problem.


(How) can I get contacts with no name to display the Organization instead of "Unnamed" on my Android phone?

On my HTC Magic, I just put the business name in the contact's name field, then have all the businesses in a Contacts group called "Businesses" for when I want to find one of them quickly. To be honest this is also the way I used to do it on my old Palm, too.


Google play store opens when leaving contacts

I think it is caused by some third party app ,to confirm this call someone in safe mode and see if playstore is started.

If the problem is not in safe mode ,It is confirmed that it is caused by a third party app.

Now you have to guess which app is causing this issue but rather than guessing you could see running apps in process status which is located in developer options.

Or you could check application manager  and in running tab see any unknown/strange/untrusted app.

After un-installing that app I hope your problem will be solved.

Hope it Helps.


How to push and install APK files from a PC over Internet?

Setup a VPN! Having your phone rooted will let you install OpenVPN . You should setup a server (and connect it too to the VPN) and your phone will be your client.

Then you'll have a server and a client in the same network so you can use adb commands! Push, pull, install...


Blocking apps to be installed in AVD environment?

There are multiple ways to detect if an app is running on an emulator. But in your case it seems to be a general problem because the error already occurs on installation:

Emulators are usually x86 devices because of emulation speed (as PCs usually have x86 based CPUs). The number of real Android devices with x86 architecture is very very low hence if a developer does not support x86 this can result in an error like you encountered.

Try the latest beta emulators image for Android R it supports both x86 and arm. Therefore on on this emulator image you should be able to at least install the app. If it runs is a different question.

In any way a rooted physical device is usually suited better for an analysis.


android.process.acore has stopped unexpectedly

I updated my HTC ChaCha over the air (OTA) to 2.3.5 two days ago.

Identical issue. Keep getting same error whenever I press the green call button or a number to start dialing or attempt to start the "Phone" app.

I don't have a "Contacts" app any more.

I believe the issue is in an app called "Dialer" because that's what displays when I tell my phone to report the issue to HTC.

Work around:

use the favourites (people) widget that comes, by default, on the second screen. Press the right arrow and you'll go to your contacts list. From there you can call your contacts - or add new contacts and call them.

Note that the phone does receive calls okay.

This is an outrageous bug. The software update should NEVER have been pushed.

Additional issue in 2.3.5: the initial boot up "Enter PIN" screen isn't sized correctly for the ChaCha - there are some white line dots at the top of that screen - presumably the bottom of the text saying "Enter PIN" - but all you see is the text input field and the "OK"/"Cancel" buttons. Also it seems this phone requires a SIM PIN even when none is set. Further - if you type your PIN wrong 3 times it doesn't tell you that it is expecting the PUK.

I think HTC have got serious issues when it comes to software development. I wish CyanogenMod was available for the HTC ChaCha - because it was the ONLY way I could use my HTC Desire Z (default HTC software for that had show-stopping issues, too).


How to allow auto-update of apps in Play Store only when plugged in?

Note:

Following solution:

is tested on Android 4.2.1, COS12 (Android 5.0.2) and CM12.1 (Android 5.1.1) - all of them running Play Store v6.0.51
requires a rooted Android
here is a short demo of the solution

While browsing the manifest of Play Store, I took an educated guess that only the following service is likely the initiator of auto-update of apps over Wi-Fi.

com.google.android.finsky.autoupdate.ReschedulerUsingAlarmManager$CheckWifiAndAutoUpdate

I played with that service under few conditions on different devices and found it useful for the goal in question. It goes without saying that the  auto-update setting of apps should be set to "Auto-update apps over Wi-Fi only" in Play Store.

Here is what you can do: Install an automation app which can execute series of actions when power source and Wi-Fi are connected and later on, disconnected. I used Tasker (trial version; userguide) as the automation app.

Profile: Setup two contexts. See How to create a profile with multiple context in Tasker? for any related help

State → Power → Source: choose it
State → Net → Wifi Connected → fill details per your needs or leave all or any of them untouched

We would be needing two tasks: an entry task and an exit task. See my answer here for related help.

Enter task: (Actions):

Code → Run Shell

Command:

pm enable com.android.vending/com.google.android.finsky.autoupdate.ReschedulerUsingAlarmManager\$CheckWifiAndAutoUpdate;
am force-stop com.android.vending;
am startservice com.android.vending/com.google.android.finsky.autoupdate.ReschedulerUsingAlarmManager\$CheckWifiAndAutoUpdate

tick Use Root

You may optionally add one or more actions to notify yourself that the update procedure has begun. I used Alert → Flash to notify myself  via a toast.

Exit task: (Actions):

This task requires Busybox's applets installed. See How do I install missing command line tools onto an Android device? for related help.

Net → Test Net

Type: Mobile Data Enabled
Store Result In: %Mdata

Code → Run Shell

Command:

svc data disable;
svc wifi disable;
am force-stop com.android.vending;
am force-stop com.android.providers.downloads;
down_path=$(content query --uri content://downloads/my_downloads --projection _data --where "notificationpackage='com.android.vending'");
[[ "$down_path" != "No result found." ]] && echo $down_path | sed 's/.*=//g' | xargs rm -f || echo continue;
content delete --uri content://downloads/my_downloads --where "notificationpackage='com.android.vending'"
pm disable com.android.vending/com.google.android.finsky.autoupdate.ReschedulerUsingAlarmManager\$CheckWifiAndAutoUpdate;
svc wifi enable;
[[ "%Mdata" == "yes" ]] && svc data enable || echo doing nothing;

tick Use Root

Again, to notify yourself, use any action of your choice.

What does those tasks do?

When the conditions for both the contexts are met, the enter task is run. The commands in that task does these things in sequential order:

enable the aforesaid Play Store's service
force-stop Play Store
start the said Play Store's service

And that's all for the auto-update to begin.

After remaining activated, whenever the profile deactivates (simply because a condition for a context doesn't meet anymore) the exit task would run. That exit task executes following steps in sequential order:

store the state (enabled/disabled) of mobile data in a variable Mdata
the job of those commands is to:

disable mobile data
disable Wi-Fi
force-stop Play Store
force-stop Download Manager

I noticed that if an update (download in progress) for an app is interrupted due to unavailability of Wi-Fi, the progress bar (notification) is dismissed, the status of the progress gets stored in a row in the table downloads of database downloads.db. (That database is located under the data directory of Download Manager.) That row also contains the location of the partially downloaded file.

In order to make sure that auto-update doesn't occur on the next successful connection to Wi-Fi and making sure that it never does so when the profile is not running the enter task, following is what rest of the commands do:

extract the location of the partially downloaded file from the value in the column _data corresponding to a row identified by com.android.vending as notificationpackage. We aim to delete that file. This is a small sacrifice to make.
if there is indeed a file path under _data, then use it to delete the file pointed by it.
delete that row, otherwise, it will be read by Download Manager when network connectivity changes (reconnected to a Wi-Fi) and auto-update would begin again.
disable the aforesaid Play Store service so that auto-update never begins on it own
enable Wi-Fi
enable mobile data, if it were enabled prior to running this task.

1At the time of creating the first revision of this answer the current Play Store version is definitely not 6.0.5 but above. However, none of my devices have received any further Play Store update so far.


How to make my phone vibrate when a text or an email is received when in vibrate mode?

You can enable vibrate for SMS from Messaging -> Menu key -> Settings -> Notification settings -> Vibrate. Not sure about Email since I use K-9 (in case you use it too it's in the app, Long-press the account -> Account settings -> Notifications -> Vibrate).


This answer to #2 in your question is, unfortunately, "maybe". The CM7r2 HBOOT (along with several others) is maintained by AlphaRev, and they note in their website's FAQ:

  Will this touch my currently running ROM?

  We try to leave the current ROM and datastructures completely intact.
  It is, however, advised to ALWAYS nandroid backup your phone before
  you run this procedure.  You will then always have a correct/current
  backup to fall back on in case something breaks.

So it's designed to flash without affecting your current ROM install, but it's a bit of a delicate process so there are no guarantees. There is generally always a certain amount of risk involved in these types of things, but especially so when dealing with the bootloader/HBOOT. Make a backup. If you can, copy the backup onto another device (your computer, for instance). Always prepare for the worst and hope for the best when it comes to data that you don't want to lose and you'll generally be fine.

As per your question about whether or not it's worth it - this sort of depends. The reason that some ROMs support certain versions of HBOOT and not others is because the different HBOOTs are designed to create different partition layouts on your device. There is a table on the website which details the layouts, and which I'll summarize here:

Name               /system   /cache    /data
---------------------------------------------------
Bravo Stock         250M       40M      147M
Bravo N1Table       145M       95M      197M
Bravo Data++        180M       5M       252M
Bravo Sense         180M       40M      217M
Bravo Oxygen r2     100M       5M       332M
Bravo CM7 r2        145M       5M       287M

Certain ROMs are designed to take advantage of the differing partition layouts, making them incompatible with others. For example, a ROM with a lot of stock components and additional packages may need more than 145MB of space for its /system partition, so flashing it on the CM7r2 HBOOT would not work. It's generally best to stick with whatever the ROM author recommends, which does mean that switching may be necessary in some cases.


How to store system app's settings on /system partition?

You can't. Configurations / settings / cache / databases of every app (system or user) are stored on /data or in /sdcard/Android/ for some apps. That's why /system partition is of limited size as compared to /data. Android works that way. Apps aren't built to read and write settings to /system partition as it holds a read-only filesystem, only changed during OTA updates. A read-write /system partition won't fit into Verified Boot  mechanism implemented by Android for security and to prevent malware attacks.

Further reading: Android Partitions and Filesystems


Disable Briefing Notifications on Galaxy S8

Bixby --> scroll down till you see News --> click the 3 little dots on the right and disable notifications


You can download this app from the Google Play Store, called Soft Buttons Light.

It really works, even on HTC Chacha.


Cannot Connect to PC. No USB Connection Notification Bar on Device (Samsung Galaxy Tab S)

This solution is for those who will face the same problem:
To fix same problem on my S4 mini I've tried:

Numerous PCs and USB cables
USB debugging (& Stay awake & Unknown sources) checked and unchecked
Unmounted & remounted SD card
Asking the PC to look for new hardware
Removed and re-installed PC drivers
Dial *#7284# or *#0808# and set MTP+ADB USB Setting

Nothing help me.

However, thanks to Google, I have the solution , as follows:

Remove phone from PC and remove battery to shut off phone.
Plug USB cable into PC.
Plug USB cable (other end) into phone.
The PC install new hardware appropriate drivers for a few minutes (phone without battery)
Unplug USB cable from phone
Put battery back in and turn on phone
As the phone boots, hold down Volume up and down. Phone boots into safe mode.
Plug USB cable into phone.
I saw notification about USB MTP-connecting on the phone. PC have found my phone!
After the reboot in normal mode problem was fixed


Rooting Nexus 7 - SuperSU Binary Update Installation Failed

You should be able to download the latest SuperSU from Chainfire.  Push that to your Nexus 7 using adb push and install it from your custom recovery.  I'm guessing you have that already?


Transfer file securely android to pc via LAN

BTSync is one way to go,
another way is to install ssh server and use rsync/scp to copy what ever you need.


How to make my cellphone a router or a hotspot thing with a constraint

You can turn your device into a Wifi Hotspot (there is an option in the general settings, usually with the other connectivity settings).

Generally, you will need to pay your Cellphone provider to allow you to use this particular feature (although there are ways to get around this - but that is another thread).

Bottom line, there is an option in the settings - if your phone can support this, you will easily be able to turn it on.


Using Official Raspberry Pi Power Supply to charge phone?

USB standards specify 5V plus / minus 0.25 V which is supplied by pi 10W supply whereas 13 W supply is 5.1 V which is not recommended

So you can use the 10W power supply

Thanks to Ghanima in comments
 , who pointed out something I overlooked

  The 13W supply is listed as 5.1 V with a 2% line regulation (that would be 5.1 V plus/minus 0.1 V) which puts it well within the USB spec

So you can use both chargers safely, as pointed out in other answer giving additional reasons. Sorry for missing this detail


Ah I managed to find out what the problem was.

Basically, these events were imported from an .ics file generated by a timetable builder website (I'm a university/college student, and the website builds your timetable for you if you key in the modules you take/plan to take). The classes that occur every alternate week are not saved as occurring every other week; they are saved as occurring every week, with exceptions of the dates of the alternate weeks.

I'm not sure if Google Calendar officially supports this as I see no option to save a repeating event with exceptions manually, but after importing the .ics file, these events show up fine in the web browser in Google Calendar. The calendar app on Android, however, does not recognise these exceptions, so they just show that the event occurs every week.


Changing the ringing volume when pressing volume keys

You probably played a game or something and didn't close it correctly. You probably just pressed the home screen.

So, just restart it, or go back and close it properly.


Can the game "asphalt8" be played on iOS and Android together?

According to "Diana FromGameloft" on the Gameloft forums:

  You and your friends have to play the same version of the game on the
  same platform/device in order to see each other.

Also "Gameloft_Ryan" posted on Windows Phone Central forums to say:

  You can only play cross-platform multiplayer with W8 and WP8 users.
  There isn't cross-platform for Android and iOS.

So unfortunately it looks like Gameloft haven't included cross-platform multi-player in Asphalt 8, so you and your friend won't be able to play against each other.


I have a NEXUS 4 device, I am not able to unlock because some digits are not responding. Is there a way to remotely change password?

More of a hack, but I bought a micro usb to usb adapter, plugged in the mouse and was able to press on the buttons


Does rooting (but no custom roms) trigger knox's void warranty

There are two events that will trigger the Knox flag to change from 0x0 to 0x1.

Unsigned recovery (recovery.img) is flashed
Unsigned kernel (boot.img) is flashed

It's not the actual custom rom that trips Knox when you get to flashing. It's the step before that, getting a custom recovery loaded in order to flash the rom itself.

This is also why the de-la-vega root method works, because it flashes a prerooted stock system image to your device without touching the two partitions that DO trip Knox of modified.


Phone log shows numbers not Contact Names after installing Samsung S3 Security Update

Contacted the customer support and they told to hard reboot the mobile. It worked for me. Please backup all your apps, contacts etc using Kies before doing a hard reboot as it will restore the mobile to it's factory settings. It is a pain but had to do it to get my phone back working.


How to remove android chrome notification requests?

To remove notifications for an individual site on Chrome for Android, you need to block the Notification permission by doing the following:

Open Chrome -> Settings.
In the Advanced section, click on Site Settings, then All Sites. Sites that have permissions set will be listed.
Find the site you are looking for, click on it.
Under the Permissions section, click on the permissions you want to remove, in your case the Notification permission, then select "Block".


command line language for Android tablet (wget equivalent)

Did you tried Termux?
The terminal emulator for android, this does not require any root access either.

Edit: to install wget type pkg install wget and press enter.

For pdf viewer use native android one such as Mu Pdf or, Google pdf viewer

Once installed you can try xdg-open filename.pdf
It will give you a list of the compatible app to open the file or else you can open the pdf viewer app to browse files of your choice.


How to change launcher application on cyanogenmod 11?

The Google Launcher is available at Google Play – so you can install it like you would install any other app.


I figured it out. My network was configured to use the network address as the router address. Windows is able to handle this just fine, I guess, but Android systems can not. So I changed the Addressing settings to set the router to end in .161 instead of .160 (the network address) and it's all good :D