Where does the 'set as wallpaper' feature save your picture in Gingerbread (2.3)?

/data/data/com.android.settings/files/wallpaper. It's a PNG file and appears to be uncompressed due to the size.


Using a cell phone to make calls without signing into Google account. Possible?

Yes, you can use it only to make and receive calls and text messages. Equivalent of not signing into a new device but inserting SIM.
I have seen people do this (without signing into Google account) , using it like a non-smartphone.
Somewhat related Can I use an Android One device without a Google account? Isn't there a compulsion?


How to stop a video from a web page from continuing to play after I shut down web page?

Go to setting /system. You can turn off Running background app when Google chrome is closed. When web page is closed, it will not play video.
You can reset setting to default.


VLC for Android is reported to support opus format. (src)


How can I make Lock Screen widgets work on my Galaxy S3 on Android 4.3?

As far I know this is a security "feature" on Android devices that don't let you open personal data through widgets when you set a lock code or a lock pattern. Only works if you don't have no security set.


Not all media files discovered by media apps

The problem seemed be caused by Winamp not playing wma format files, even though it's meant to support them. Have converted them to mp3 and they now appear in Winamp and can be played.


It's a Toast.

  A toast provides simple feedback about an operation in a small popup. It only fills the amount of space required for the message and the current activity remains visible and interactive. Toasts automatically disappear after a timeout.


Adobe Flash fot Android has been discontinued and all official methods of installing it have been removed. This is mainly due to problems in security, performance and stability, but the rise of HTML5 has also played its part. You can find more info from here or here.


Is Google Earth available for Android phones?

Google Earth is definitely available, I can see it in my Market right now, however it needs Android 2.1 as a minimum to work, so if your phone is running an older version of the OS, then you won't be able to see it as the market hides apps that it knows definitely won't work on your phone.

See the note at the bottom of this page, where it says that it requires 2.1 http://www.google.com/mobile/earth/


Using a phone without data plan for multiplayer game dev

Depending on the model/carrier - your unit could block the access to the UI (past the "Emergency calls only" screen) without being activated. If you can root the unit - this can be easily bypassed.


As Uri seems not to place it in an answer, I will do so -- to help other searchers see there is an answer ;)

As pointed out, there is a MIUI control panel, which should ship with most MIUI ROMs. If it is not included with yours, you will find it in an app called Extended Settings.


Rocket.Chat GCM notifications not showing in LineageOS 16

Typical messaging apps like Rocket.Chat use Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM formerly known as GCM) for retrieving notifications of new messages from the server.
An Android side FCM required the Google Play Services app.

However LineageOS does not include any Google apps by default. Therefore all apps that use push notifications via Google/FCM will not work correctly.

If you want to use an app that uses push notification via Google you have to install the Google apps, for example by flashing one of the Open GApps packages - at least the "pico package".

Afterwards you will be able to retrieve push notifications.


How can I remove all animations on Samsung One UI (Android 9)?

I found the setting to remove the animations on:

Settings -> Accessibility -> Visibility enhancements -> Remove animations:

I have no idea why this is in a different place, and why animations are turned on by default (this is a waste of time).


Scroll down to find the comment field. Your comment will be public.


How to transfer text message backup file to my Samsung Galaxy S III?

I haven't tested it out, but try the WiFi File Explorer by Dooblou.

Here's the link:  http://www.pcworld.com/appguide/app.html?id=648691&expand=false

Sounds like it should do the job you're looking for.


What is Error 38 and how do you resolve it?

This is because your outgoing service is barred by your service provider. If you are from India then most of the service providers here stop the services if recharges are not done in proper interval as per company's policy.


What does "automatic" mean under Network restrictions?

As far as I can tell from looking at the code, "Automatic" means the network is metered if it meets at least one of these heuristics:

The WifiConfiguration has a metered hint, which I assume can be done if the network is added by an app.
The network has an "Ant" (802.11u access network type) of PublicChargeable (code).
The DHCP server sent the ANDROID_METERED option (code 1, 2), which the Android hotspot itself sends.  Additional commentary.

(I found the code links by searching the LineageOS source code on GitHub and opening the corresponding AOSP files, since the AOSP repository browser doesn't appear to support searching; maybe there's another way.)


Moto G Dual Sim Data Roaming Not Working

There should be problem with your internet settings or ROM.

Goto 'settings' > Sim settings
Check the default sim for mobile data.

Try the following steps:

Go to Settings > Mobile data > APN
In that Tap the Menu and Select 'Reset Default'(or similar option).
By doing this your android phone will automatically download latest internet settings from the Service provider.
Restart your phone.
If still the problem exists
Delete all existing internet settings & call your customer care to get internet settings.

Even after the problem is not solved 'check for latest update' for ur phone or Reset your phone to factory settings :( & Try steps 1-4 again


Would Samsung Galaxy Note II battery work on Samsung Galaxy Note?

It won't fit, The Note 2 batteries are physically larger than the Note 1's battery slots. Your best bet is finding a good third-party extended battery.


It comes with an AC adapter and a charging/data cable which can plug directly into the tablet, though it does still use their proprietary cable connection since it plugs into the same connector that the keyboard dock uses (the other end is male USB).

Using proprietary charging cables is not unheard of - Samsung and Apple have done this; I don't personally like it when companies use proprietary cables, but in this case it's mostly because the charging/data port doubles as the dock connector.

Here's an image from Engadget's unboxing/review of the Prime. The AC adapter is at the bottom.


Why does my downloaded MP3 files need to be unziped?

Right, when we download the mp3 files using websites like youtube to mp3 etc etc they provide us mp3 songs in zip files. so in order to avoid it, you need to follow few below steps.

first click on SETTING

then go for DOWNLOAD SETTINGS

then at the end there is an option names MORE OPTIONS

Just check the DOWNLOAD DIRECTLY

that's it, it will solve your issue


Can I use the CyanogenMod installer on Samsung Galaxy S3 (EE)?

I can't think of any reason why you couldn't try it, because it should either work and install CyanogenMod or it won't manage to install anything.  It doesn't always work with my SPH-L710 S3 despite my being able to flash with Odin just fine.

Just do not install the wrong firmware on your own.  There are over ten different revisions of the S3, and going against what's showing on http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/SGS3FAQ for which specific model you fall under (most are considered d2lte now, but not all!) will likely end in a bricked phone.  The differences between the international and the primarily US-only versions are somewhat notorious for bricking the careless.


How to recover Galaxy S4 from unrequested ADB recovery mode state?

I called up Verizon support and they had me simultaneously hold the three keys:

Volume Up
Power
Home

Please understand that this is the key combination for a Hard Reset on the Samsung Galaxy S4 and it will wipe your data from your device.

But after 30 seconds, still no response, so they had me remove the battery for ten seconds and reboot.  After reboot, the phone seemed back to normal.


SELinux prevents my init.rc exec command to execute

I finally managed to solve the problem. There are two problems:

You're not using the "exactly the same identity of adb shell". There are a couple of groups to which adb shell belongs but they're not mentioned in that exec command.
/system/bin/am on its own is not executable, it's a shell script and should be passed to /system/bin/sh to be executed.

So, here's the final and working init.rc statements:

on property:dev.bootcomplete=1
    exec u:r:shell:s0 shell shell input log adb sdcard_rw sdcard_r net_bt_admin net_bt inet net_bw_stats -- /system/bin/sh /system/bin/am start -n com.example.package/com.example.package.MainActivity


Find a stolen Android device without sim card

Cerberus can be activated by both it's web service and via text message.  If you're rooted, it can be integrated into the system apps and so survive a complete wipe.  FYI, NO app will let you track your phone while it's turned off :)

It can also turn on the GPS remotely, has real time tracking using Google maps (looks like Google navigation in a web browser), take pics/record sound & video, sound an alarm, hide itself from the app drawer so thieves won't know it's there, remotely lock the phone with a code, wipe the system, display messages, download the last 10 texts and phone calls, and LOTS more.

Cerberus is $5, and worth every penny. It can be downloaded from Google Play, but the download section on the official site has Cerberus APKs that can be flashed and integrated directly into the ROM.


Icon keeps disappearing from app drawer in CM9

It seems there is a further update to the Xperia Mini Pro, probably 9.1 is way to go, might fix up that known issue. Check on the CyanogenMod page for Xperia Mini Pro.


How to stop getting WhatsApp notifications from completely muted groups?

As you mention that the notification comes and goes within a second, I think that it's actually a WhatsApp notification which says "Checking for new messages" - a screenshot of that notification can be found in this MIUI thread. It is not related to your groups, muting them will not make any difference.

I've occasionally seen it myself; it appears and disappears extremely quickly.
If you want to verify what the notification actually is, check your phone's notification log which can be viewed by creating a settings shortcut to the log on the desktop using your launcher of choice.

I've seen speculations that it only appears if your internet is spotty, or if WhatsApp cannot work in the background for whatever reason (eg Data Saver is on, your phone/ROM is extremely aggressive with background tasks like MIUI is or because of low RAM). Another notification which appears under similar conditions is "You may have new messages", but that messages stays permanently until you open WhatsApp.

As for how to disable it without stopping all other WhatsApp notifications, it would natively only be possible in Android Oreo because of support for notification channels. I think the relevant channel for the notification is "Other Notifications". I've disabled that channel and I haven't seen the notification in ages (then again, can also be because I've never met the conditions for seeing the notification ever after).

I should also warn you that disabling the channel also turns off other notifications like "WhatsApp Web is running" - check everything carefully!


How much data does Google Maps navigation use?

Okay, I did a brief test the other day... only drove about 80 miles, ... obviously longer drives would give better averaging samples.

But from my short drive, it seems that Maps navigation uses roughly 1 MB for every 10 miles.


Fastboot commandline utilisation as per eLinux.org is shown below.

$ fastboot -h
usage: fastboot [ <option> ] <command>

commands:
  update <filename>                        reflash device from update.zip
  flashall                                 flash boot + recovery + system
  flash <partition> [ <filename> ]         write a file to a flash partition
  erase <partition>                        erase a flash partition
  getvar <variable>                        display a bootloader variable
  boot <kernel> [ <ramdisk> ]              download and boot kernel
  flash:raw boot <kernel> [ <ramdisk> ]    create bootimage and flash it
  devices                                  list all connected devices
  reboot                                   reboot device normally
  reboot-bootloader                        reboot device into bootloader

options:
  -w                                       erase userdata and cache
  -s <serial number>                       specify device serial number
  -p <product>                             specify product name
  -c <cmdline>                             override kernel commandline
  -i <vendor id>                           specify a custom USB vendor id

  update: What does update.zip need to look like

In general, fastboot flashes only .img files.

The update.zip generally consists of .img files which will be flashed to the particular partition. A typical  update.zip file to flash via fastboot will have following files and more

boot.img
recovery.img
system.img
userdata.img
radio.img
etc...

  flashall: Where do the flash boot + recovery + system come from, what
  format, etc.

flashall will flash the system.img, boot.img & recovery.img in the current/PATH folder. These images can be obtained from the update.zip mentioned above.

  boot: What is the format of <kernel> and what is the <ramdisk> option

In fastboot boot, the <kernel> format is an .img file. I am not sure of the <ramdisk> option. My guess would be to boot a kernel with a modified ramdisk without altering the built kernel (I am not a developer, sorry).

This is what I have learnt fiddling with Nexus phones. Others can correct any obvious errors in the write up.


I have diagnosed several battery related anomalies with a combination of two apps: one called Diagnosis and the other GSam Battery Monitor Pro.  GSam isn't as robust but it offers a greater filtering options to sort the culprits by CPU usage, power usage, memory usage....  In every case it turned out to be a problem with an app or a setting or my current ROM but those apps helped me track down the problem.

You may also want to check your device's logs for clues.  You can use aLogrec to record your logcat, then note the time of a spontaneous shutdown then check the log to see what events lead up to it.  I can barely understand what is contained in my logcat but this forum post may help you.


As someone who develops apps (okay, not very sophisticated ones, but still) I know that many 'improved' versions of things rely on the originals being present. If you delete the originals the new ones don't work. As a simple example, an all bells and whistles photo editing program may rely on the basic camera 'service'. If you delete that service, it doesn't work. In your case, I would guess your hacker's keyboard relies on the basic keyboard.

As a general rule: unless I am certain it can't affect anything on the phone or I downloaded it, I don't delete it.

I would just start again.


What can I do to manage my phone's internal storage?

I'm using an app called DiskUsage which helps visualize what's using both my internal storage as well as the SD card.


Can I disable geotagging and delete prior geotag information in photos?

I found a camera mod here that allows disable of geotagging and does it by default.  It looks like I either need ADB or root to install it.

Edit:  The camera mod doesn't work, as far as disabling geotagging.

Updated Answer:  The Amazon App Store has Camera Advance Lite (and a non-lite for that matter) that has the option to turn off geotagging, which is disabled by default.

This app Geo Eraser looks like it will remove prior geotagging info.

It appears that using a Gingerbread based OS will fix the problem as well, based on my conversations with Gingerbread users.


how to view a list of spam numbers in galaxy s3?

This is what you want : (On Kitkat - 4.4.2)

  "Settings" > "My Device" > "Call" > "Call Rejection" > "Auto Reject
  list"

or you can Create an List for Block Numbers.

also,

Samsung - Remove a number from the reject list


It was added in a recent update as a pro-only feature.

Edit schedule -> when finished -> Sync to Dropbox


You can uninstall an application from the Market or from the Manage Applications settings screen.

From Marketplace:

Start the Market app.
Hit the menu button and select Downloads.
Find the app you want to uninstall and select it.
Hit the Uninstall button at the bottom.

From Manage Applications:

From your Home screen hit the menu button and select Settings.
Select "Applications"
Select "Manage Applications"
Find the app you want to uninstall and select it.
Hit the Uninstall button at the top.

EDIT: I wanted to add a 3rd method that Rohan Singh had in his answer.

From your Home screen:

Tap and hold on the icon of the application you want to uninstall.
When the trash can appears near the bottom center of the screen, drag and hold the icon there.
After the tap & hold / drag & hold some text will appear indicating that you can uninstall by dropping the application's icon on the trash can.
Release your finger over the trash can and you'll be taken to the same uninstall screen you can get to through Manage Applications in your Settings.


Stream media from Play Store on Android To PC

You can play movies straight from Google Play after you've bought them; Music, go to music.google.com and you can stream and download your music. If you want to get the HD versions, you can download on your phone/tablet and then pull it, I think. Never actually tried it with movies, but I've done it with music before.


While I couldn't entirely reproduce this issue, I found a few points worth to share:

Seems the issue is caused by autocomplete feature in Google App.

Searching using autocomplete

  When you start a search on Google, you can find the information you're
  looking for faster using search predictions. Search predictions are
  possible search terms you can use that are related to the terms you're
  typing and what other people are searching for.

How autocomplete works

Predictions are made based on factors, like the popularity and freshness of search terms. When you choose a prediction, you do a search using the term you selected.

Where search predictions come from

The terms you're typing.
Relevant searches you've done in the past (if you're signed in to your Google Account and have Web & App Activity turned on).
What other people are searching for, including Trending stories . Trending stories are popular topics in your area that change throughout the day. Trending stories aren't related to your search history.

Here's what Google says about autocomplete feature:

  Search predictions aren't the answer to your search. They're also not
  statements by other people or Google about your search terms.

Change autocomplete settings

If you're using the Google app on an Android device, you can turn off Trending stories .

Open the Google app .
At the top left, tap Menu Settings Autocomplete .
Tap the switch to turn "Show trending stories" off or on.

What can't be changed

  Other than Trending stories, you can't turn off search predictions.
  Search predictions are built into Google Search to help you find
  information faster and easier. You can always choose not to use search
  predictions.

As I suggested in comments it maybe a feature associated with newer Google Chrome version, together with new features in Google App.

I suggest, who also check related settings in Google Chrome and look for any options suggesting autocomplete behaviour.
In addition look for any odd history and cache, delete the unnecessary entries, in these Apps as well as  when logged in to your Google account

Hope this helps

Search using autocomplete

Edit

BY default Google stores most of the users's activity in the My account section of Google account.
Here Google collects bits of information based on the user's activity (e.g played youtube videos, location history, browsing and search history)

The information is stored (even without consent) in order to improve user experience - at least that's Google best explanation of this annoying behaviour.

To find out any previous data collected, or at least gain some control over your account, you need to navigate to the "My activity section of My account
here you find most of the stored data, cache etc,and deleted these and also control what data is collected. ( I believe this is the cause for annoying predictions based on previously or commonly visited websites)

I managed to collect samples of the My activity section:

For multiple accounts, Google claims the default account may get to store more of this user data activity:

Carefully review this "collected data" be sure to delete any details you no longer need, I suggest remove everything no longer needed, clear the cache and start afresh. Do it for all Google accounts stored in device

Check if you still see this.

References


How do I close all tabs in Chrome for Android?

Click on Tabs icon in upper right corner
Go to options
Click on close all tabs


This is caused by a security feature of Android, to stop third-party apps trying to overlay or hide the permissions information when an app is trying to be installed.

Apps such as Lux, Screen Filter or any other filter/overlay app will prevent you from being able to click the Install button as they are essentially just an overlay, on top of the "Package installer" dialogue screen.

If you disable or turn off the filter whilst installing an app you should be able to click the Install button again. Once clicked you can turn the app back on.


What is the name/version number of the stock browser that comes on Android 2.3?

Please see this link on wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_version_history

See usage share wikipedia reference, obtaining user agent and application is not straight forward.

Many Android browsers identify themselves as Safari on iOS (among
other things) in order to aid compatibility
Many Linux Browsers identify themselves as Safari on Mac OS X
(among other things) in order to aid compatibility

When I  use Dolphin my user agent does not show anything resembling Gingerbread 2.3.4 or my browser.  The following is by default though I can change my user agent that's part of using a browser.

Dolphin showing as a mobile device:
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.4; en-us; A1_07 Build/GRJ22) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1

Dolphin with user agent as desktop:
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_3; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0 Safari/533.1

For the default Android browser on my tablet:
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.4; en-us; A1_07 Build/GRJ22) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1

And for Firefox
User Agent: on my tablet
Mozilla/5.0 (Android; Mobile; rv:31.0) Gecko/31.0 Firefox/31.0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_sniffing

To go much beyond general user oriented information/interest, you would have find out more from developers.


power button defect: how do I turn my device on

If it's a hardware defect, I would suggest sending it to a service center for repair. You could plug it to a portable power bank so it lasts longer. But before you do that, you might want to back up your data to your PC or somewhere else first.


Can I update my [rooted] phone using downloaded OTA zip file? how?

These OTA files check for every part(file) of the update if a checksum still matches. If your rooting procedure touched some files on the system partition or you removed some preinstalled files this check will fail and the updating procedure will stop because of an assertion error.

As you already found out you need to restore your system partition to the expected state inside the OTA update(matching checksums) install the update via recovery and re-root as this procedure deletes all changes not included in the OTA update package from your system partition.


Do I need network's SIM in in order to receive OTA update

No, you don't. The updates are received from the Servers of the Provider/Manufacturer. This adress is saved in the ROM. So you just need an internet connection via 3g or wifi.


I encountered similar issue on my Moto G 1st generation.

Below steps worked for me:

Go to App Info of the app. Press Clear Data
Open App to check whether mails have loaded, if still same message appears restart your phone.
Check your app again and see.

Make sure Sync option is enabled in Data Usage of the email app.

I hope it helps!


How to install not-supporting-out-of-the-box 3G modems on Android 2.2

I can see two major problems with this.

Android 2.2 doesn't support USB host mode out-of-the-box.  This means any external USB peripherals like your modem are not recognized by the Android device.  Although some successful attempts were made to shoehorn this functionality into several handsets, the process is not easy to say the least.  It's only been developed for a few phones so far, and would take quite an effort to port to your specific tablet.  Depending on the target device's kernel's availability of source code, this may not even be possible at all.
Even if USB host is achieved, the Android drivers for the modem would need to be obtained. A quick Google search doesn't return anything useful, which means the drivers would need to be written from scratch.  Without the aid of the manufacturer, this may prove to be an impossible task for a hobbyist developer.

Unfortunately, it looks like you are stuck with using your tab's built-in WiFi for data connectivity.


Wifi and Google Play access after factory reset for off contract Sprint HTC Evo 4G

A factory-reset deletes all the user data. It's as if you had a brand-new tablet (but any system updates you've previously installed will still be there).

This means the tablet won't have the password for connecting to your Wi-Fi network, nor the password for your Google account. The first time you turn it on, it will take you through the same initial setup process as when it was new: it'll prompt you to connect to a Wi-Fi network and log into a Google account. If you log in with the same Google account as before, it'll still be able to access all the apps (and books, music, films, etc.) you previously installed/bought from Google Play


If you're using the Wifi tethering you can MAC filter it by only allowing certain devices to connect. Also make sure you have the password set and maybe even change it if you need to.


Opening a .gpg file via emacs under termux

Error while decrypting with "/usr/bin/gpg":

On Termux there is no /usr folder, so you need /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/gpg (or perhaps you can just specify gpg without full path?).

Also, note that you should use gpg2 if you want to use gnupg2 - the gpg program is from gnupg version 1 (and would require apt install gnupg).


Decrypt crypt7 without key (phone was factory reset)

As far as i know the whatsapp crypt7 files are not actually encrypted.

There is an app that can encrypt/decrypt/backup the crypt7 files without a key.

Also, over copy-pasting your whatsapp folder will also work, i think i've succesfully tried that already...


The most probable reason of your Auto-shutdown could be low battery. (I know its "duh", but bear with me)
Reason 1: Wrong Battery Stats:
This is most probably the problem, because some time ago, I was also in the same position as yours.
Here, you will see that your battery is well above 15%; yet it shutsdown in middle of it, and act asif the battery is finished (not booting there-after).
The thing is, that the battery is finished, but your phone is actually getting the wrong or messed up battery stats.
So when your battery is 1%, your phone is showing 20%.
And then BOOM your phone shutsdown unexpected to both user and the phone.
For me, In order to reset the battery stats, I have to pull out the battery and plug it in again, then with charger on, boot it and it will show correct battery stats.
The culprit?, well it was Easy Tether app.
I used it to connect to my PC and use the WiFi-internet on PC.
As I connected my phone to the PC, it was charging.
And Easy Tether, somehow, messed up my Battery Stats.
(I simply switched to PDAnet+ to get resolve it.)
Solution: You can re-calibrate your battery stats, by deleting the batterystats.bin system file (take precautions tho!).
UPDATE: @Arch gave a very good source about Re-calibrating Battery Stats Please take a look at it!
Reason 2: Damaged Battery.
Well, nothing can be done about this. Find a new battery and see if the problem persist.

If these dont work, try to be more specific about your circumstances.
You have hardly given any information you know.
Kudos!


Is that only very few app really use mult cores power?

It's a pretty subjective question, since no one really knows how many apps do or don't do any given thing. You'd have to carefully analyse each app to find out how much use it can make of multiple cores.

Likely, more apps than you realise are doing this. First off, Android makes it very simple for app authors to work in multiple threads, with helpers like AsyncTask. App developers are encouraged to do most operations in background threads, such as loading bitmaps from storage, transferring data over the network, or long computations. Running those on a second core keeps the app more responsive while the operation's going on.

If the app does anything with GL (most graphics-heavy apps and almost all games do), then it's certainly using two cores. How much use it's making of that freedom to parallelise is different for each app, but again, it lets the app do long-running operations while still responding to you.

On top of this, even if the app you're using right now is only running in a single thread on one core, anything else Android is doing in the background will be running on another core, which again lets your app stay responsive. This might include activities like drawing the system UI, running background services from other apps to check your mail &c., features like "Smart Stay" on Samsung phones, listening for the "OK Google" hotword, and more.

So in short, while we can discuss how much use any given app makes of the power available to it, a sweeping statement like, "very few apps really use more than one core," sounds like the kind of thing an uninformed salesman would say to try to impress you.


Google Music not available for Samsung Galaxy S with Android 2.2.1

While I understand Google might not like this, and probably it is not 100% politically correct answer, here is the link where you can download APK of Google Music.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1072655

If you enable installation from unknown sources, you can install the thing on your phone, without restrictions.

I tried and it worked. I was able to access my music uploaded to Google and even play it.
That means the restrictions are only settings in Android Market, everything else seems to be free of restrictions.


Tablet with android 4.0 update to the latest android OS? (currently 4.4)

Phones and tablets (especially cheaper ones) generally don't have much storage space, and their other components are not that powerful (low memory, slow processor, etc. The Operating System that runs on them must therefore be kept to its absolute minimal size, and be heavily optimized to the very specific hardware inside.

For example, in order for Windows to support a wide range of personal computers from various manufacturers, it ships with a myriad of different drivers, some are generic to handle multiple versions of hardware (i.e. video cards or sound boards.) This way one or two (32 bit Vs. 64 bit) installation packages can be distributed by Microsoft that would be able to be installed on pretty much any compatible PC.  The flip side is that this makes Windows installation huge in comparison.

On the other hand, Android at its lowest level has something called "Kernel". This is what allows the rest of the OS to communicate with RAM, screen, CPU, camera, buttons, etc., and is equivalent to drivers in Windows.  See this diagram of Android software stack.  Due to the above mentioned restrictions, the kernel must be tailored to perfectly match the specific device Android is to be installed on.  This way its size can be kept minimal, but the downside is that it would be incompatible with another device, even from the same manufacturer, that has slightly different components.

The kernel is developed by the device's manufacturer such as Samsung, Motorola, LG, etc.  Since it's based on Linux, the kernel's code is open source, but it usually contains some closed-source, proprietary code from other component manufacturers such as CPU or GPU (e.g. Qualcomm or Nvidia) in form of binary blobs.  Then there is a layer of customization that manufacturers and carriers add to "stock" android, which is also usually closed-source and proprietary.  Sometimes it's a couple of extra apps, but usually these customizations are more invasive in a form of a different user interface, as with Samsung's TouchWiz, or HTC's SenseUI.

When Google releases an upgrade to Android, they are changing all of the Android's software stack, including the kernel, libraries, runtime, framework, and applications.  You can already see where the difficulty is in upgrading a device.  Google's changes require the manufacturers to update their code for all the drivers for each specific device in the phone/tablet.  If Samsung uses Qualcomm's CPU/GPU instead of their own, they will also need to wait for Qualcomm to update their binary blobs.  The same goes for every other piece of circuitry: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular modem, flash memory controller, etc.  Manufacturer of each of these components will need to see if Google's changes require them to modify the drivers that will be included in the kernel, so that the phone continues to work normally.

This is also the reason why an Android OS upgrade intended for a specific phone cannot be simply "flashed" onto a different one.  Different phone models even from the same manufacturer will usually contain different hardware, thus needing a customized kernel.

Now consider the costs to the manufacturer to upgrade every device model they make every time Google releases an upgrade to Android.  Their software engineers must review the changes in the upgraded OS, modify their code for every driver, thoroughly test their changes to ensure their changes don't break anything, and release the final code for roll-out.  Now multiply this by every phone model they've released since the last Android upgrade.

Cell phone giants like Samsung or Motorola can afford this process in the name of customer satisfaction and brand loyalty, but small-time manufacturers simply don't have the resources for this.  There's no incentive for them to upgrade the devices they are probably already selling at razor-thin margins in the first place.


Is there a way to see 3G connection time?

My Data Manager app displays what you need. Check out its data pie (left-to-right swipe) and make sure Time button is pressed.


Internet slow connection after connecting to a custom VPN

The transfer speed via a wired connection will always be more than the wireless connection. Additionally few other factors that can affect your throughput are:

Interferences from other devices in the wireless routers vicinity. You could tweak the channel settings in your router to select a less crowded channel.
The ability of your phone's wireless chip to support high throughput. Here is some info on wireless transfer from Intel.


Go to Google Security
Normally theirs a google service running in background and youre able to find lock or delete your phone. And its a little bit to late for a backup.


Connect to internet via internet cafe PC when no wi-fi or 3G is available?

No; a device-side app can't force the PC to share its internet connection.

One option might be to connect the device and mount the storage to the PC, so the data could be uploaded to a website or emailed.  This has its own issues -- depending on the PC OS and the particular phone, drivers might be needed -- but it should work in some cases.


what is reason behind android update application

One of those reasons:

Manufacturer of your phone is too lazy to issue updated compatible ROM with your phone.
Your phone has old hardware that may not work with new android versions, or it's very hard to modify it to become compatible.
You played with your original ROM, that is some companies checks if you are rooted, or if you reflashed new ROMs on your phone, and consider it as you don't deserve to update your phone :D


If your device is rooted, you can use BubbleUPnP (in the Play Store) as an Xposed module. Then you can cast the phones audio to your chromecast or TV via DLNA.


Add am/pm after the 12-hour clock time in the status bar

It is possible only if your device is rooted and cannot be achieved on stock devices. Changes to status bar components like the clock, date, battery icon, percentage, etc. require root or a custom ROM
On rooted devices, one way is to install Exposed/EdXposed framework and Gravitybox module (For Android 10, see How to install EdXposed on Android 10 without triggering safety net)
Note that Gravitybox does not play well with heavily modified UI, so it's better to check in device/Gravitybox threads on XDA


How do I fix malware installed automatically in the /system directory?

Note: the following method is risky, you might delete core modules and your device will end up in bootloop or not booting at all. Do it at your own risk.

You'll need to root your device and install BusyBox (from Google Play).
Download Minimal ADB and fastboot
Enabled USB debugging
Install USB drivers

Open Minimal ADB and Fastboot tape the following :

adb shell
su
mount -o remount, rw /system
cd /system/app
ls (list all installed apps)

or even better:
 lsattr (display all installed apps with their attributes).

Then using the rm command, delete any suspicious app, like following :
rm com.exemple.malware.apk (tape the exact name displayed with ls command).

You may encounter some apps that refuse to be deleted with the rm command :

First check their attributes with lsattr + com.app_name.apk
i.e: -i-a--A com.app_name.apk
Then remove those attributes with chattr -iaA + com.app_name.apk
i.e: chattr -iaA com.app_name.apk

Finally you'll be able to remove them.

PS: Disable WiFi or data connection while doing this.

You can post the output of installed apps here, and we'll check out what to remove or not.


Enable Camera Shutter Sound Switch on roooted Samsung Exynos with Android 9+

After days of searching I finally found out how to do it. The solution was to change the "cscfeature.xml" file in the folder corresponding to your country code. This file is encrypted, so I've written down a step by step guide. (no xposed or magisk modules needed, only root access to the filesystem):
add Call Recording en Shutter Sound options to your Exynos phone by adding 2 CSC options to cscfeature.xml

check your csc code (about phone > software information > service provider sw > last 3 letters: [CSC])

in root explorer goto: /system/product/omc/[CSC]/conf/cscfeature.xml

download OmcTextDecoder (https://github.com/fei-ke/OmcTextDecoder)

put the downloaded "omc-decoder.jar" in a folder together with the encrypted "cscfeature.xml" file on a linux pc

open terminal and cd to the folder where you have put the files

run: java -jar omc-decoder.jar -i cscfeature.xml -o cscfeature_decoded.xml

open the "cscfeature_decoded.xml" file in a text editor

add the following lines to the file:
<CscFeature_VoiceCall_ConfigRecording>RecordingAllowed</CscFeature_VoiceCall_ConfigRecord>
<CscFeature_Camera_ShutterSoundMenu>TRUE</CscFeature_Camera_ShutterSoundMenu>

save the file and rename your old "cscfeature.xml" to "cscfeature_encoded.xml"

encode the edited file by running the following command in terminal:
java -jar omc-decoder.jar -e -i cscfeature_decoded.xml -o cscfeature.xml

copy the changed and ecoded file back to your phone: "cscfeature.xml" and backup the old one to "cscfeature.bak"

reboot and you will find the shutter switch in the camera settings!

extra options:
https://www.askvg.com/tip-enable-hidden-secret-features-in-samsung-galaxy-smartphones/


Nexus 4 screen got hung until battery drained and on restart stuck on flying dots

Had a similar issue, when battery is high, restarting the phone goes into a boot loop.

I wait for the phone to drain out, and then connect it to power source and switch it on at once. The phone now boots fine. I have no idea why it does that though.


From Swype documentation
Backup and Sync Demo: Register all Devices with Swype Connect • Download the latest build of Swype from the Google Play store

• Open messaging application and long press on the Swype key to open Swype Settings
• Select “My Words”, then select “Register Now” to activate Backup and Sync
•In messaging application input names of friends a few times and select “Add word to Dictionary”
• Long press Swype key to open Swype Settings, select “My Words” and then select “Edit My Dictionary” and you can view your dictionary
•Multi-Device Dictionary Sync •

If using a brand new device without Swype previously installed

• Go to “Android Settings”, “Applications”, “Swype”, and select “Clear Data”
• Open messaging application; walk through the Swype registration process with your device email
• Once activation is complete, go into “Swype Settings,” select “My Words,” and then select “Edit My Dictionary” and you will see that your dictionary has been completely restored
• Go through this process with all your Android devices if desired


How to put Android phone into "deep sleep" using Tasker?

Options for "Airplane Mode", "Mobile Data" & "Power Mode" are all
  unavailable/ red in Tasker. The phone is not rooted but am I correct
  that these aren't available in Android 5.1?

On recent versions of Android,  restrictions have been put in place that prevent lot of previously easily toggleable settings (e.g. location, mobile data, night mode, more) and are no longer available without root.

As expected there are workarounds to help toggle many settings without root.

Conventional methods employed involve circumventing Android's security policy on this permission (android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS)  and declaring the appropriate permission for toggling secure settings explicitly on the target app/plugin that will be used to toggle these "secure settings" via Tasker.

Using a plugin

It is possible to get most of the "power toggles" switched off using Tasker and an  additional plugin Auto Tools.

Autools offers built-in options to toggle location mode (off, device only, battery saving, high accuracy), mobile-data (on/off), battery saver (enable/disable), notification listeners etc.
Additionally you can toggle flight mode using any of the methods listed here (without root).

Setup

In tasker create a new action:

Plugin >> Auto Tools >> Secure Settings

Pseudo plugin

This detailed method described here offers useful steps to toggle most of these secure settings with ease.

  You will have to create an app using Tasker and declare the
  appropriate permission for toggling secure settings. You will then
  need to explicitly grant permission to that app.

  This is to workaround Android's security policy on this permission.
  Ordinarily, you wouldn't want to grant this level of permission to
  other apps, but since this an app you're creating yourself, you don't
  need to worry about it. The actual toggling is done with Java calls.

The app you created works as a sort of pseudo-plugin. In a task, use the Launch App action and choose your new app.
In the Data field, you will specify the setting to change and the value to change to. The format of the Data field should be as such: [setting name space]|[setting name]|[value]|[value type] .

Important!

In both cases remember to explicitly grant the app(s) two extra permissions added called

android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS and android.permission.WRITE_SETTINGS.

Connect your device to your computer, and open up a command prompt.
Run the command adb shell pm grant [your package name] android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS

E.g adb shell pm grant [com.joaomgcd.autotools] android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS

Acknowledgements

[Project Share] Toggle settings (e.g. location, mobile data, night mode, more) WITHOUT root


You should reflash your stock firmware and root again via odin. You can also use framaroot or towelroot to root the s3.

https://towelroot.com/ - just download, install and 'let it ra1n'

http://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/framaroot/root-framaroot-one-click-apk-to-root-t2130276 - same as above: install and choose exploit, then reboot.

If the above does not work try the below.

Classical method:

First off all you should download the proper root-file written for your phone (e.g.  cf-autoroot) and odin  3.09. Activate the developers options by hitting the build number seven times and enable usb-debugging and unknown sources - then put your phone into download mode (vol-, home and power buttons) and make sure your phones usb drivers are installed to your pc. Then turn off samsung kies and your antivir, because they will cause problems. Now start odin as an administrator and connect your phone via usb. There should be a blueor yellow com:0 box lighten up. Press the pda button and select the unzipped content from your cf-autoroot file. Do not touch the ticked boxes on the left side!!! Press start. Your phone should load the data and restart by its own. The rest happens by itself.

Flashing a firmware is done the same way as above with the following exceptions:

you dont choose the autoroot file. You choose the firmware.
you can download clean and official firmwares at sammobile.com
flashing can take up to 40 minutes
i do not like samsung devices

Cheers.


Move data (without cloud storage) from CM 13.0 to LineageOS

First and foremost: provided that you trust 3rd-party APK provider sites (APKPure, APKMirror, etc.), no Play Store access is not a problem - you will only be restricted from paid apps. For trust issues read this question (and others related) on the site.

Contacts:

In the Contacts app, top-right menu - import/export - export to .vcf file.
Select items you want exported.
A .vcf file will be saved by default to the root of the internal storage - back it up somewhere.
Import later with the import from .vcf file option.

SMS: use the app SMS Backup and Restore. Been using the Pro version of the app since Android 4.x and it always worked smoothly. Backed-up content will be stored in the SMSBackupRestore folder under internal storage. APKMirror

Mail: your mail is supposed to be all up in the clouds, i.e. synched with your mail server, so there should be no need of backing them up in the first place.

Media files (picture, music, etc.): provided that you know the location, just copy them off the device. Use the details option in the Gallery app if you need help locating a specific picture.

App data: the free version of Titanium Backup is enough for backing up individual apps' data. Backed-up content will be stored in the TitaniumBackup folder under internal storage. Note that, before restoring app data, you might have to start them once. APKMirror

Copy backed-up contents off the device (keep folder structures intact), then after flashing LOS, copy them back in place, and use respective restore options.


How can I find the saved password in Android browser?

There is no functionality to view saved passwords included in the stock browser.

The only method for retrieving passwords saved in the stock browser is to open the webview.db file (it's an sqlite database) in /data/data/com.android.browser and look at the password table (it's stored in the clear, no encryption or anything), but that requires root.


Turn's out there's init.sh support on Lineage (content of /etc/init.d/90userinit):

#!/system/bin/sh
# call userinit.sh if present in /data/local

if [ -e /data/local/userinit.sh ];
then
   log -p i -t userinit "Executing /data/local/userinit.sh";
   /system/bin/sh /data/local/userinit.sh;
   setprop lineage.userinit.active 1;
fi;

So I wrote a bash script that removes the /dev/input/event3 on boot, thus It disabling touch input on boot time:

/data/local/userinit.sh:

#!/system/bin/sh
rm /dev/input/event3

If I ever need to re-enable touch input, I can simply remove the bash script.


Xposed module for home key configuration while phone is locked

Yes and it's called Xposed Additions - available as a free or paid version on the play store. I use it to disable the power button wake on my Galaxy S4 and replace it with the "media play/pause" function and it works flawlessly.


Why is the SSH server not working on Android 4, are the ports being blocked?

As far as I know, the default ssh port IS 22 on Ubuntu, just as "Lie Ryan" pointed out.  You might want to check your sshd_config files on your PC, if you want to take a look at this article, it specifies on how to change the default ssh configuration on Ubuntu--as well as the official documentation.  Beyond that, check your current firewall settings, you might be able to open that specific port temporarily to ssh-type service if you want to confirm that it's not something else.

Aside from that, it seems to me that this question was asked more than 6 months ago; if the OP hasn't figured it out by now, I doubt he'll be interested to pursue it further.  I suggest either accept an answer, provide update on the situation since, or perhaps close the question.

EDIT: depending on your android ssh-server app, and whether or not you're running it with su privileges, this is from the "QuickSSHD" website:

  non-root users are limited to ports < 1024 and the QuickSSHd application user, which CAN read and write to the SD Card.


Huawei p9 lite usb working but not working

I encountered the same problem and all I did was to change the usb cord or the usb-port. Hope this helps.


Is it possible to use hundreds of Android devices with the same google account?

Did a quick google search, seems like there is no limit placed devices connected to your Google account. The only apparent restriction is four devices for Google Music.

Aside from a bug, there no documented device restrictions.


Android USB reverse tethering: How to fool the apps

I'd say that there are only Mod specific solutions. Nearly every App that I know uses this Android API, and therefore the code snipped in your questions, for network connectivity checks.

One would need to change the Cyanogen source so that the OS (Android+Cyanogen) is aware of the USB reverse tethering network connectivity and returns the right information to app requesting the current network state. I don't believe that this can be done with some artificial layer between the API and the app that "fools" the app into this. It's more realistic that Cyanogen implements the handling of reverse tethering by imitating an active WiFi connection. You should ask them to address this topic.
Maybe in the future Android has official support for reverse tethering. :)


You can use ES File Exporer

Goto App Manager (press menu to get app manager)
There you can see list of applications installed in your mobile
Select Live wallpaper apk
click on Backup
You can find apk in location /sdcard/backups/apps

*Edit:*

System Live Wallpapers are located on your phone in path:

  system/app/LiveWallpapers.apk

You can use ES File Explorer for the same.
But your device need to be rooted to access system apps.


conversion printing app from landscape to portrait mode

One of the best apps for your (=my) aimis the app "Samsung Mobile Print".

Select 2 Up
Print it to your android device (use Google Cloud_Printer)
Wait a couple of minutes until your android device will download the new document (unfortunately this solutions converts colors to black/white, but for me it's okay)
Send the downloaded PDF to a normal Google-Cloud-Print or Remote-Print-App!

That's it!


How to create a link on website by long-pressing in Internet browser?

My understanding is, that when you press a link, it directs you to the desired page, but the URL automatically changes to a more general one, and therefore you cannot create a home screen shortcut.

I found a very simple solution to this problem. Hope it works for you as it worked for me. I did it in chrome. It should also work for Firefox.

Put your phone into airplane mode, then long press on the link, and select 'copy link address' then paste the link in the URL bar, and press enter. As soon as it directs you to the 'connection failed' page, go to the three dots menu and select 'add to home screen, rename the shortcut, and press ok.

The shortcut will now appear on your home screen. And when pressed, will direct you to the desired page.

If it still gives you the wrong page, then try all of the above, using incognito mode.


Is there a way to display current weather on lollipop lockscreen?

There are a decent number of 3rd party weather apps that have an option to add the current weather conditions to your notification bar. Consequently, enabling one of these persistent weather notifications will add the entry to your lock screen as well.

I personally use 1Weather, which looks like this:

This is (in my experience) a pretty common feature for weather apps, so you could "shop around" a bit for one that you like.


Try this:

Install ADB and fastboot. If you already have the Android SDK, you can find these tools in dir_to_sdk/sdk/platform-tools/. If you don't have the SDK, here is a direct link to Minimal ADB and Fastboot (for Windows).
Install your device drivers if applicable.
Run the following code from your ADB/fastboot directory:

fastboot oem unlock
fastboot oem off-mode-charge 0
fastboot oem lock
fastboot reboot

Note: On certain devices, performing fastboot oem unlock may perform a factory reset.


Why does the youtube offline videos get expired

Apparently YouTube videos downloaded for offline viewing get expired after a certain amount of time. I haven't heard anything official about though.

The downloaded  videos are stored in the internal storage but they are saved as .exo file format which only the YouTube app can open (you can't play them with any other media player app)

The best advice I can give you is to use a YouTube downloader like Tube mate to download the videos.


Vibrator not working after upgrading to ICS - Samsung Galaxy S2

Go to Settings -> Sound and make sure Silent mode is set to Vibrate, then in RINGTONE & NOTIFICATIONS section, check the option Vibrate on ring, then call yourself and it should vibrate.


How to bypass lockscreen Android Marshmallow?

Try with this Dr.Fone for Android, it can help you unlock Samsung Galaxy and LG without the passcode, and no data loss.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4o8z_lDLd0


Can't connect to the device with ADB when it's in recovery mode

WARNING: fastboot oem unlock completely wipes your data!

adb is not available in the bootloader, try using fastboot instead

for a quick and dirty rundown of flashing your device with a new image using fastboot:

adb reboot bootloader
use fastboot devices to verify your device is visible, if not, you're probably running windows, and you have to install some funky drivers.
if you don't see 'unlocked' at the bottom of the screen, use the command fastboot oem unlock
then just:
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash userdata userdata.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

If you feel super confident you could just:
adb reboot bootloader && fastboot oem unlock && fastboot flash boot boot.img && fastboot flash system system.img && fastboot flash userdata userdata.img && fastboot flash recovery recovery.img && fastboot reboot

PS You should only use the flash commands if the referenced files are present, if not you may or may not brick your phone (haven't tried flashing a non-existent file to the device yet)

Warning: Unlocking bootloader wipes off data in your phone.


Restrict access to safe mode in the Android 6.0+ devices without rooting

My solution which I applied is to simply deactivate the volume down & so they will be unable to go into the safe mode, this is very practical and you will be saving money.


Why does my phone keep forgetting the Default apps?

Normally there're four reasons for default apps to reset.

You install an app that can handle that intent.
You uninstall an app that can handle that intent.
You update an app that can handle that intent.
The app is on the sdcard and you rebooted/mounted it on a pc.

The fourth is commonly overlooked. Without source level changes this can't be modified.


How to un-install HTC's gingerbread ROM for Desire

The best known option for the HTC Desire is to use unrEVOked - http://unrevoked.com/recovery

unrEVOked has the added benefit of flashing in a version of Clockwork Recovery. That way you can just boot into recovery, do data wipes, and flash Cyanogenmod.

Note that there is a chance that Gingerbread could prevent unrEVOked from performing its usual processes. In addition, your previous rooting adventures could have placed an alternate recovery into the phone as well. I believe you can press Power+Vol-Up when starting the phone to invoke recovery mode. If Clockwork is present, you may proceed to flash away.


Can't hear people unless switched to speakerphone on Galaxy S4

I fixed mine using following instructions:

Go to Settings → My Device → Sound → Samsung Applications → Press Call → Turn Off Noise Reduction.


How can I open and edit large text documents on my Android device?

I'd suggest using ES file Explorer. I has a editor built-in that works pretty well for txt files. I have also tested with a file that's more than 900kb and worked fine.

Hope it helps!


Can Truecaller Android get Caller ID on 2G connection?

People install Truecaller app.
The app uploads all your contacts name, mobile number, photo and other details to its server.
The app queries its server with the number which is calling you and gets persons name and displays it.
So you see Truecaller needs internet access to function whether through the Wifi / GSM/GPRS/EDGE etc. network. So you are in a location with only 2G and no Wifi, Truecaller cannot get a CallerID.


Boot from SD or external hardware device?

You always have to modify boot.img, so the answer is no. If you considering to edit boot.img and manage to mount the external disk to /system, you should mount another partition to /data too.
There are apps like Multirom out there which can loop mount ext4 image files located on internal storage. Afaik not for pie, you should try with some old device first before soft bricking your S9+


Uninstall programs that are not visible in Application manager

You can use alternative application managers available from the Play store, or even Titanium Backup if you are rooted.

secondly if you are rooted,

Download any root explorer,
Navigate to /system/app/ or sometimes /system/priv-app/ and manually
uninstall by deleting the packages (you may need to delete files
from android folder manually eg. obb files)
Reboot and you are done (optional)

If none of the above works,

Do a backup of apps and data using a backup manager (Recommended:
Helium for non root users, Titanium Backup for root users)
factory reset the phone, and delete '.androidsecure' and 'Android'
folder from external memory if exists.

Voila! you are done!


My Phone Time-Travelled Again. How? and Why?

I thought I was the only one facing this issue, and I didn't even know how to describe my problem back then. Looks like we're on the same boat.
Even I'm using the Moto G (XT1033), but on NXROM 10.2, and I started facing this issue around a year ago until last December. The phone randomly reboots when I'm using it, and as you had described, it went back in time, and all the messages, downloaded files, statictics for a period of time and other stuff just vanished.
I tried to Google this up, and here is my understanding (I may be wrong, so please correct me if so):

It turns out that this happens due to a kernel panic, and when the fsync function is not executed. fsync is responsible for writing the data from the buffers (all changes you make to data, like new messages, photos etc. is stored temporarily here) to the internal storage. When a kernel panic occurs, all the data in the buffer is not moved to the internal storage, but just vanishes. So all those changes you made just vanishes into thin air.

I was pretty frustrated about this, and then I stumbled upon LSpeed (available on Play Store). There was a battery profile which emphasises on conserving battery life. It disables kernel panic, and modifies a whole lot of other settings. Since I installed that, I've not faced this issue again. Try this out and do let me know how it works out for you.


When selecting an USB extension cable to extend power cord, what are the relevant considerations?

To be honest I think that its affected by the voltage on the USB port. Some ports are only .5V while others are 1V.


Is there a way to route all traffic from Android through a proxy/tunnel to my Tomato router?

You can configure android to use a proxy server. But you must do it either from the adb client, or from the terminal in a rooted g1.

> adb shell
# sqlite3 /data/data/com.google.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db
sqlite> INSERT INTO system VALUES(99,’http_proxy', 'proxy:port');
sqlite>.exit

read about @ http://discuz-android.blogspot.com/2008/01/set-proxy-for-android-web-browser.html


I've been researching this for a long time now and as of yet there doesn't appear to be any way.

I tried doing a LOT of outside-the-box research using info from other android devices that operate in a similar way.

I've tried unlocking the bootloader by compiling my own unlock file using cuber_unlockbl, I've tried the old psneuter method. All to no avail.

Unfortunately this seems to have been on-going for some time since update 5.3.2.1 and with the new 6th gen Fire released it seems interest in breaking open the newer firmwares has dwindled in the communities. Most answers on xda just forwards people to the main page where it is stated that nothing can be done.

You have probably already done this, but you CAN install the Play Store on 5.4.0.0 That seems to be the best there is.

It's a shame. I bought my first fire 5th gen tablet new and installed a custom rom on it. I liked it so much I bought this one, but they were no longer available new and I had to get this one refurbished. It came on 5.3.2.1, and upon enabling WiFi it almost instantly updated to 5.4.0.0.

I actually had told it to disable updates, but aparrantly there is some OTA update method Amazon use and it just updates anyway...

Very poor from Amazon to be honest. Since they are discontinued it would be nice if they released an update and unlocked the bootloader. But that is NEVER going to happen.


Your phone has malwares that hide files by adding a .nomedia file in every folder, and such folder should not be scanned and indexed by multimedia players.

Download ES Explorer, go to its settings and enable Show hidden files. Afterwards browse to every location where your photos, videos, music are stored and you should see a .nomedia file, delete it. Your files should now appear.


how to make swipe elite plus volte phone

Make sure your phone supports voLTE, in which case  the guide to activate it is found here: How To Enable Jio VoLTE calling on any Android Smartphone.

Alternatively, you can use  Jio4GVoice to make HD voice or video calls over 4g. For more information please refer to this website: Make any smartphone to support voLTE (HD voice and video calls with Jio4GVoice

Hope this helps


That may be possible without root if the app you want to manipulate allows debugging via Android Debug Bridge (ADB). If an app can be connected to an debugger is specified in it's AndroidManifest.xml in the android:debuggable entry.

If the app is enabled for debugging you can enable the USB debugging mode on your device and connect to it via adb. Then you can connect an standard Java debugger to the app and inspect/modify variables.


Ethan Yonkers (Dees Troy) the Developer of TWRP has your answer, build it yourself, as long as the manufacturer follows the GPL license guidelines and releases the kernel source it isn't super difficult... https://plus.google.com/+DeesTroy/posts/iyyM1kYULEa

  Requesting TWRP for unsupported devices

  There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about what devices we
  support and why we choose to support certain devices over others.
  Official support for a device usually comes about in one of two ways:
  1) We somehow get our hands on the device either through someone or a
  company donating the device to us or occasionally we save up enough
  money to purchase a device ourselves. 2) Another developer who
  actually owns the device steps up and ports TWRP to their device, then
  they work with us to get their device added to our official
  distribution.

  Occasionally there's a third method where we work with a remote tester
  who owns the device to get the device working in TWRP. This third
  method is not used very often because by and large, remote testers are
  epic failures. Remote testers often need tons of hand holding and
  line-by-line directions. Remote testers often fail to know how to get
  things like adb and fastboot working. Remote testers often fail to
  make themselves available when we need them and they disappear before
  we're able to finish verifying a completely working build. At this
  point, we usually only work with remote testers that we already know
  and have a relationship with so that we can ensure that we're not
  wasting our valuable time working with someone who doens't know what
  they're doing and will disappear before the job is done.

  Sure, you can offer files and to be a tester and offer to provide
  everything we need, but most likely you'll be ignored because we
  simply don't have the time.

  You can compile TWRP yourself by following this guide:
  http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1943625 To put it
  short, you will need:
  -A Linux environment, either virtual or native
  -A full Omni build tree, about a 15 or 20GB download
  -A copy of the stock recovery and/or kernel source for your device
  -A basic knowledge of adb, fastboot, Linux command line, make files, and strong ability to figure things out on your own via searching on
  Google

  If none of the above works for you, feel free to donate the cash or
  ship us your device and we'll try to work on it when we get a chance.

Remember that to use custom recovery, your bootloader must be unlocked.


Disable swipe down to reload a page in Chrome browser

It is possible to disable the feature in Chrome browser version 41 and above. The easiest way to disable this is to visit the chrome://flags in your Chrome address bar and to disable the pull to refresh effect,

chrome://flags (disable-pull-to-refresh-effect)

Preventing the pull-to-refresh effect:(Based on this Chromium docs)

  The default action of the pull-to-refresh effect can be effectively
  prevented by doing any of the following :

  Applying “touch-action:
  none” to touch-targeted elements, where appropriate, disabling default
  actions (including pull-to-refresh) of the touch sequence.
  Applying
  “overflow-y: hidden” to the body element, using a div for scrollable
  content if necessary.
  preventDefault’ing some portion of the touch
  sequence, including any of the following (in order of most disruptive
  to least disruptive):

  The entire touch stream (not ideal).
  All top
  overscrolling touchmoves.
  The first top overscrolling touchmove.
  The
  first top overscrolling touchmove only when

  1) the initial touchstart
  occurred when the page y scroll offset was zero and
  2) the touchmove
  would induce top overscroll.

  Disabling the effect locally via
  chrome://flags (disable-pull-to-refresh-effect).

  Note that the pull-to-refresh effect will never activate if any
  scrolling occurs before the overscrolling motion, e.g., if the user
  first scrolls down, then back up, or if the page scroll offset is 0
  but has a scrolling div that the user scrolls up before overscrolling.

Note:

The pull-to-refresh swipe down feature is added to Chrome version 41.0.2272.92. So any version below that won't be have the pull-to-refresh feature.


How do i get my phone's IMEI number if it was stolen?

You should be able to get this information from your network provider as they will have a list of IMEI numbers that have been used by your sim card depending on the system that their customer care is using. They may need to contact a higher department in order to get this information for you.


I had this headache for long time. But,  then I discovered this app by Adblock. This works on rooted android phone. And blocks all the ads displayed by various applications on your phone.

Be sure to download the adblock app,  not the adblock browser. And yes,  they have a browser for web surfing without ads, also works without rooting the device.


How to bookmark a custom URL in Chrome mobile browser?

You can add a different bookmark and then edit it to what you need.

Open Chrome.
Open your address https://www.example.com/go/app1 and wait until the final page (with different URL) is read. (Or use any other URL but the previous one may already gives more accurate page title useful for the bookmark.)
Click the menu, then click ☆ (star) to bookmark current page.
On the menu, click Bookmarks.
Find the bookmark from step 3.
Click the 3-dot on the right, select Edit, then change the URL to your custom URL https://www.example.com/go/app1.


There are some more suggested apps for the Tattoo here on XDA.  It sounds to me like they have stock firmware that is rooted, however — perhaps that's required.  I've heard of other devices that don't work for tethering with CyanogenMod (and I'm not familiar with nFinity).


ICal Events Not Showing Up In Device Calendar

I finally managed to fix this.

If anyone else has this problem:

Go to Settings > Apps > All and clear data and cache for Calendar and Calendar Storage
Go to Settings > Accounts > Google, choose the menu and re-sync all
Wait for sync
Open the Calendar app and set it up again


Google Authenticator used by native apps?

Native Google apps don't use password (which you entered before activating 2-step authentication) everytime to log in. They only need it for the first time. After the first authentication, an Auth. Token is downloaded which is used for subsequent logins. As this Auth. Token isn't your main password, verification code isn't required at all. So, your apps continue to work without asking anything.

To invalidate this Auth. Token, you'll have to change your main password. Do it and you'll be asked to enter password in Android device. And, this time, your main password wouldn't work. You'll have to generate and use application-specific password. Native Google apps don't prompt for verification code. They only seek passwords which would let them authenticate.


Kitkat appdrawer hide apps and create folders

This has never been a feature of the stock launcher. Perhaps you were using a phone on Jellybean where the manufacturer had replaced the stock launcher with their own launcher, which had this feature.

Since Android supports third-party launchers, just install a launcher (home screen) app which supports this feature. There are many to choose from.


How to use Microsoft Streets & Trips on Android?

There are several RDP/VNC application on Android, which can be used to "run" any Windows application.

What you basically need to do is fairly straightforward:

Setup a server or virtual machine running a Windows machine
Install a RDP/VNC viewer on your Android
Configure the viewer to connect to the server

Citrix and Azure virtualization platform can be accessed by regular off-the-shelf RDP viewer. As an alternative, many open source or off-the-shelf virtualization software like VirtualBox or VMWare also supports RDP or VNC protocol for remote displays of their virtual machines.

How to set up the server is outside the scope of [android.se], try [superuser] or [serverfault]. Once the server is setup, it's fairly straightforward to setup the Android part, come back with a more specific question if you had trouble when you get there.


How can I downgrade my HTC Explorer from Android 4.0 to 2.3

One option is using RUUs. A few Google searches should get you going.

Another is flashable stock ROM zips. A few searches in the XDA Developers forum for that device should put you in track.


Locking the speed of the cpu on an android phone

I am not aware of CPUControl's settings but you can try some other applications to lock the speed. You can try KernelAduiter to perform this and many more operations.

You can change the CPU speed by specifying the minimum and the maximum and for best battery and if you're unable to do so, change the CPU governors.

If the CPU speed increases to 1.3GHz only for a few seconds randomly, set the governor to Conservative
If the CPU stays for long at 1.3GHz, check out which application is using the CPU so much.

2a. Open Terminal Emulator

Gain root access using su
Run top and let it display results on the screen
Press Volume Down + c to terminate the command
Scroll to the top and check out the process/app using the maximum CPU. If you find that process/app useless, terminate it


Can you answer or reject a call with a voice comand?

You can try the app Voice Call Answer SMS Reader which claims to do what you are wanting :

  Now answer incoming calls and read SMS content by giving voice command to your phone. First of its kind app. Simply say YES or NO to pick or reject the call or to read SMS content. This Call Answer and SMS reader app can be very useful if you are driving.


How do I change the delay between rings?

Bryan above is correct.  There's no way to add a delay, at least not without a custom ROM.  To introduce a pause between the rings find an MP3 you like and use something like Audacity to append a few seconds of silence after it.  Then use that file as your ring tone.


Access phone from computer without passcode

You can try few links I am giving you here and if you are really worried much about all your data,then go to data recovery specialist and get data recovered.

http://computersaremylife.wordpress.com/2013/09/15/broken-android-touch-screen-cant-unlock-solution/
http://android-commander.en.lo4d.com/
http://www.fosshub.com/MyPhoneExplorer.html
https://code.google.com/p/androidscreencast/

Most of these required 'adb and USB connection' enabled.


Milestone rooted with the Universal Androot, can I install ROMs?

In short, your phone has a locked bootloader.  There is no way to unlock it (currently).  What does that mean to you?  Basically it means you can flash "ROMs", but you cannot flash a new kernel on the phone.  The kernel is what controls what clockspeed slots are available on your phone to over/underclock to.

For example, if someone made a Gingerbread ROM for the Milestone, you could flash it.  But you will always be stuck with the same kernel that originally came with your phone.

As far as I know, you should be able to use ROM manager to flash ROMs on your phone so long as it is rooted.  It's just that none of these ROMs will be able to change your kernel.


Does Android have a "device driver" architecture?

Android does not have "device drivers". If you were to think of the entire Android ecosystem within your handset, split into 3/4, using the Java Programming language, the remaining 1/4 is the kernel written in C/Assembler. It is there within the kernel is where the drivers are embedded. That is part of the kernel's job to interact with touchscreen, accelerometers, compass, etc, and certain interactions with the hardware gets delegated to the Android side of things. That is a summary in abstract form for the layman to understand.

On to hardware manufacturers such as Acer, Huawei, HTC, Samsung, Sony, Zte, to name but a few, what each of those companies do, is publish the sources to the kernel, so that it can be built. Although, having said that, some are not exactly GPL compliant, some provide sources, which may not be fully complete, quite possibly, due to the restrictions on certain closed-source for a particular hardware, or others just flagrantly violate the GPL and not publish it at all. Perhaps, some do distribute the source in which the process of rolling your own kernel can fail due to malformed errors in the code or missing extra code.

That applies to, generally older kernels, version 2.6.x, in which a mix-and-match of the appropriate sources gets merged in manually, to create a build, this is where it can backfire quite horribly, the build breaks, kernel refuses to boot and lots of hacking to get the build to work.

Atheros, is one very classic example of a wifi chipset found in quite a large majority of handsets, notably, the sources for the device driver, are quite hard to find, which has resulted in broken builds of the driver, in turn, when integrated with the kernel, as a whole, Android refuses to start the wifi. Due to obscurity of the source, hackers have attempted to get the appropriate wifi driver from other stock ROMs thereby exacerbating the gambling on the functionality of the wifi which either work or break.

The newer kernel versions 3.1.x, have most of the device drivers employed for usage with Android, merged into the main kernel sources thereby minimizing the chances of mix-n-matching, merging the source manually for a hardware, be it a new compass, acclerometer etc.

If there's anything amiss feel free to comment, and amend this accordingly.


why my Gyroscope/accelerometer work only in portrait mode?

Your device's interface will rotate whether the app you are using was designed to (e.g. Modern combat, Dead Trigger, Browsers, etc) ,  apps that were not to intended to change between portrait or landscape won't rotate the interface of your device (e.g RealCalc, instagram, etc).


Popup virus warning received from ninaxu.com

You can tell this is nothing but a fake (trying to make you take the bait) by just some basic rules:

a countdown: "If you don't act within 2 min, the virus will X". Interesting: How do they know that will happen in exactly 2 min? Nothing but panicking you.
the SIM card would be damaged: nonsense. Never heard any malware attacks the SIM card. Or the battery, which those messages often claim as well.
"Google's antivirus": Apart from the fact that there is no such app, Google definitely wouldn't chose an approach like that.
"13 virus": LOL Name a single Android virus (hint: there is none. Especially not 13. The term "virus" is completely mis-used on the Android platform, most obviously either as a "scare word" or because people are used to that kind of "software" from their Windows machine. True, there's malware – but no virus. Read the Wikipedia article on Computer Virus on this, and take a special close look at the end of the first paragraph: "the defining characteristic of viruses is that they are self-replicating computer programs which install themselves without user consent" (emphasis mine). Malware on Android is usually installed by the user himself)

So after explaining the background, I can only agree with Andrew:

  It's just a scareware popup by suspicious websites/ads. If you didn't follow the link on that popup, you're clean.

And you usually get out of that by pressing the back button multiple times, closing the relevant browser tab, or closing the browser altogether.


It is definitely possible to do what you want, although it needs a couple of things done, which may or may not be viable to you.

You will need to use Link2SD to link all data related to Google Maps onto your SD card (or just the data(ext) in your case should do the job).

However, using Link2SD requires (1) your phone to be rooted, and (2) a second partition on your SD card, which will be used to store "linked" applications.

Complete details can be found within this answer:

https://android.stackexchange.com/a/145591/167026


I believe you can move apps to the "internal SD card" by going to Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications, selecting individual apps, and choosing "Move to SD" if it's supported. Though honestly I keep all my apps off the SD, so I don't know whether it tries to move them to external or internal SD.


How would I go about fixing SIM card not registering after flashing a custom ROM made for a clone of my device

I fixed it by doing the following:
Wiping Dalvik/ART Cache, Data, System, and Cache.
Flashing the ROM (Resurrection Remix).
Flashing the kernel fix.
Restoring Tee, NVData, and NVRam from my TWRP backup.

See this XDA thread for extra details.


Repeating “Unfortunately Google App has stopped” error on Nexus 5

As it says "Google App", it's most likely the app named Google (no kidding: there's such one, just follow the link – though I cannot find it in Settings › Apps by that name). Just tried the one from the drawer, brings me to Google Now – which again matches the app you've got trouble with, as your question states: "wanted to access Google Now, but it wasn't there".

Going by the icon, the corresponding app in Settings must be Google Search – which again makes sense considering Google Now is part of that.

So I'd suggest you try to go there (in Settings › Apps) and clear it's cache. If that doesn't help, try clearing its data as well (same place). If that doesn't solve it, open the Google Settings app (not the general device settings, but the settings app with the "g" for "Google" in its icon – you can find it in the app drawer) and deactivate Now and Cards there. This disables Google Now, but solves the issue (as you've proven).

Hint in case you cannot reach out to Settings or the Google Settings app (e.g. if that pop-up reappears faster than you can tap somewhere else): You can clear all app caches at once by booting to recovery-mode and "wipe cache". No data lost that way. Another good hint in this context is safe-mode: if the troublemaker is a user-app, it won't be started here, so you can clear cache/delete data/deactivate/uninstall such an app from there.


Alarm/Cal Event repeating every alternate day and that which does not sync with google

Create an event in Google Calendar with the repeat/reminder frequency that you want.

To avoid synchronizing the event with external calendars, put the event on a phone-private calendar: http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=168512&topic=21414#1077952


How to disable "Flash while ringing" on the Xiaomi A2 Lite

Try this:

Go to Settings.
Tap on System Apps.
Tap on Phone Section.
Choose Incoming Call Settings.
Now disable “Flash when ringing” option.


How to use Google Assistant in car while paired to Bluetooth, but without changing audio input to Bluetooth?

If you have the newer android 7.0 OS version, yes there is a way:

Go to - Settings -> Sound and Vibration -> Separate App Sound
Once there, tap "app" and select "add application", then look for the google assistant app (labeled "Google" with the "G" trademark icon that has a small inner grey circle around it within the app icon bubble).

Set this app up with the audio device "phone", and it should work solely through the phone speaker/mic from then on, even when your car Bluetooth is connected.


`Wipe Cache` option missing in Google Pixel 2! (A/B device)

Your device doesn't have /cache partition
Reasons

/Cache partition is not required to be as big  on devices which have A/B partition catering to seamless updates since it doesn't need to store OTA updates which are done seamlessly

The cache partition is no longer used to store OTA update packages, so there is no need to ensure that the cache partition is large enough for future updates

As further explained in Implementing A/B updates

A/B devices do not need a recovery partition or cache partition because Android no longer uses these partitions.
For non-A/B updates, the cache partition was used to store downloaded OTA packages and to stash blocks temporarily while applying updates. There was never a good way to size the cache partition: how large it needed to be depended on what updates you wanted to apply. The worst case would be a cache partition as large as the system image.

Pixel 2 like my device MiA1 follow this system and they probably decided to do away with the entire partition instead of keeping it small

/Cache is also used by Google Play downloads as explained here What is the /cache partition?. I am assuming that is handled by /data/cache

Edit: Thanks to BoLawson, who pointed out that app cache is on B partition. See APK Caching|AOSP. Note that this is only applicable for popular apps / apps on the device out of the box.


How can I delete AVG Antivirus on my Xperia Z1?

You need to go into Settings > Security > Device administrators and uncheck the box next to the AVG app. You will then be able to uninstall the application normally.


How to fix sdcard empty under root with Kingoroot?

I never used Kingoroot, so can't be sure if it provides and option for master mount (su mm) or not. You can switch to Magisk or SuperSU once the device is rooted. If you can't or don't want to, you can use:

su -c 'nsenter -t 1 -m /system/bin/sh'

from commandline instead of simple su. This will make you switch to root mount namespace. For details see this answer.
nsenter is usually available as busybox applet.

Since mount namesapce was implemented in Android 6, this might not be the problem with your KK device.

PS:
If Kingoroot works for you, it indicates that your device has some serious security flaw(s). Do consider an upgrade.


Similar to this question which asks about 2.2.1, there don't seem to be any real "changelogs" made available for Android updates. However, you can look at their git repository to see the commit log. Here's the shortlog for the 2.3.4_r1 tag.

The summary: mostly bugfixes, and the addition of video/voice chat for the Google Talk app. Apparently this is only enabled on the Nexus S since the Nexus One doesn't have a front-facing camera, but I don't know that for certain.

In any case, the video/voice chat could probably be made to work on the Nexus One somehow considering that it has already landed on the CyanogenMod codebase (and the latest nightly builds), so it's more or less working on other "unsupported" phones already. I know the EVO has a working implementation in the latest CM7 nightly build, though it did crash when I tried to switch to my rear camera (not that I'd really need to do that).


How to edit the list of reserved ports (under 1024) on Android?

Ports are not reserved by Android (or by any other OS) but are assigned by IANA for specific use. If a port is free i.e. no process is connected to or listening on that, you may use that with your program. But this may break the app's functionality for which the port is reserved. Otherwise you'll have to modify the source code and rebuild all the programs that are using a fixed port. It doesn't seem logical and practically possible.

For instance UDP port 68 is reserved for DHCP clients and the same is on Android:

# ss -up
Recv-Q  Send-Q   Local Address:Port   Peer Address:Port
0       0         192.168.1.11:68      192.168.1.1:67      users:(("system_server",pid=4521,fd=249))

So if you want to use this port for your program, your will have to modify Android source code to replace all instances of port 68 with some other unused port and then rebuild the ROM.
However you are free to use it when device is not connected to some network through WiFi or mobile data which obviously doesn't make much sense. Or you can configure static IP, Gateway and DNS so that DHCP is no more  needed and the port gets free for other usage.

Further reading:

Why are the first 1024 ports restricted to the root user only?
How do I reserve ports for my application?
Reserved TCP/IP ports


Searching for factory image of NTT DOCOMO GALAXY Nexus?

Hardware-wise, the NTT DoCoMo (SC-04D) and the version sold on Google Play Store (GT-i9250) are identical.  You should be able to use one of the "maguro" takju factory images (ICS or JB.)  Definitely do NOT use the CDMA/LTE image.


Annoying adverts showing on top of other apps

The first reason for these annoying ads might be because of your browser when you have accidentally clicked on any of adds shown.Those malicious adds may install some apps in your ROM(internal memory) which may not be uninstalled so easily or will re-appear every time you connect to internet.
So, you could take backup and restore the phone to factory settings.
I did the same way when i was attacked by these malicious apps.

PS: these type of apps may import your photographs and other data. Please be cautious and do factory setting ASAP.


How to get contacts from an Android phone to an iPhone?

The Mail, Contacts, and Calendars settings allow you to sync all 3 from multiple different web services to the built in Mail, Contacts, and Calendars apps. These should automatically sync when you open the different apps.

The contacts will be merged by default, but you can filter based on source i.e. Gmail, My PC, etc.


Use one of those:

cat /proc/mounts
mount
  # free disk space of mounted fs'
df
  # this shows you available devices
cat /proc/partitions

ps: Lines containing asec are moved-to-sdcard apps (it's each an encrypted volume per app for security reasons)


When should I start charging my Lithium battery?

As soon and as often as you can. Spending time at any extreme of charge (high or low) can damage lithium batteries. High charge isn't that bad, considering how quickly modern devices will drain away from that state. Spending time at lower charge levels will damage the internal structure of the battery though.

Draining to "0" on the device won't actually immediately kill the battery though -- the battery protection circuitry will prevent it from going down to critical levels. But the more time you spend at lower charges, the more cumulative damage you do and the more time you take away from the lifespan of the battery. Do the best you can to avoid this, and you'll likely have a battery that still gives you 70-80% of it's life by the time the device is considered obsolete.


Remove the white background on app drawer on Android 5.1

This is very much possible, but you will require a custom launcher. For the sake of this, we'll use Nova Launcher.

Install Nova Launcher and set it as the default when going back to your Home screen.

Go to the "App & Widget Drawers" screen in Nova settings and scroll down to find the options shown in image. Make sure the switch for "Card background" is set to off.


Is there a way to prevent specific apps from using geo-location functionality/permissions when not running in the foreground?

Yes and no.

Some versions of Android allow control of a background activity manager.  In Android 9, the Adaptive Battery function can be used to force certain apps not to run in the background.  There are also 3rd party alternate apps which can provide the same functionality.  This means that there is a way to prevent geolocation whenever the app is not in foreground.

However, if you need to keep the app running while in the background, or if you are specifically interested only in a permissions based solution, the answer is no - not without root.

With root an app such as Tasker could be set up to run a task that modifies another app's permissions every time it is triggered.  See for example this Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/tasker/comments/79yjrl/change_other_app_permissions/


I'm seeing duplicated images and videos on Gallery

That's not duplicates. If you are the "device owner", /storage/emulated/0/ is your storage area (where your files etc. reside). /storage/emulated/legacy/ is a symbolic link, always pointing to the logged-in user's storage. That is, if you are the device owner, and you are logged in, both locations are identical. If some apps show the contained files as "dupes", they obviously have problems interpreting symlinks.

While for the gallery, this sounds pretty strange (if we are talking about the stock gallery, and not a 3rd party app): the very same Android developers who designed the multi-user capabilities should have been aware of that. Still, this is not the first time I heard about it. I cannot find the other issue currently, but a solution is as follows:

Go to Settings→Apps→Manage Apps, and scroll to the Gallery app. Open its entry, tap "Clear Cache" and "Delete Data". Tap the back key, and repeat the same for the "Media Storage" app.

Don't be afraid about losing data: the Media Scanner will re-collect them at its next run. You can trigger the scan by either...

powering off/on the device (bah!)
going to Settings→Storage and safely remove the SDCard, then mount it again (OK for one-time use :)
using a helper app like e.g. SDrescan or Rescan SD Card! (if you need it more often)

Once the Media Scanner is finished, all your media should re-appear in the Gallery app. Hopefully without the "dupes" :)


Cannot connect to my WiFi: "Saved, secured with WPA /WPA2"

I don't know if this is an Android issue, so much as a WiFi problem. A while ago (before I got my Android) I had some issues connecting my computer to my WiFi -- my computer sensed that the network was there, but wouldn't connect. I was advised to reset the network.

Unplug all parts of the network: router, modem etc.
Hold your breath for ten seconds.
Reconnect everything.
Try connecting to your network again.

This worked for my computer; give it a try for your phone, and tell us what happens.


No, there is no other way. You must have a Gmail account to download from Google Play Store.

From their site:

  To use Google Play to download Android apps, you'll need to have a
  Google account with a Google email (either Gmail or a Google-hosted
  domain) associated with your phone or tablet.

If you don't like Gmail, you don't have to use it. Just disable the syncing for emails, and you'll be fine.


Auto turn off switch for android phone according to battery status

Tasker is exactly what you need.

You can do lots of automation with tasker. App is a bit hard to understand but when you figured it out it has the power of freedom.

Tasker Play Store Link


Why is the HTC Legend Froyo ROM labelled as being for Vodafone?

I've done sort of the reverse -- installed a US T-Mobile ROM to my T-Mobile phone while I had it on the Canadian Rogers network.  Since the Legend is also a GSM phone like my Vibrant, I would expect yours to work just as well as mine did.  Just make sure you have your SIM card in for the whole process.


Why app updates download entire app instead of only "updates"?

As far as I know it does download just the updates (referred to as the "delta") on Jellybean 4.1 and above. Obviously the initial install is the full app but updates only download the data that has changed from the current installed version (i.e. the "delta" of it).
You won't see anything different when updating most app, it will still look like it's downloading the full app but on some larger apps you will see if 'jump' parts of the download which indicates that it is just getting the delta.

Engadget and AndroidCentral both have articles indicating that the Play store does provide delta updates


Resetting the device will do the job. But you'll lose all your data. There's also a risk of google account authentication requirement on reboot after you format in certain devices involved so continue at your own risk.
Here's how to do it:

Press and hold the power button for 8 seconds, and the device will power off automatically.
Reboot the device by pressing and holding Volume down + Power button at the same time
Now, you can format your device from the recovery mode. Navigate with the volume keys and choose wipe data/factory reset. Press the power button to confirm.
Your device will reboot after formatting just like a new device and logging in back to your Google account will restore most of the data if you had backed up before.


spell check for more than 1 language in Android

This is a known bug in Gboard:
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/72386511

I tested flesky and SwiftKey and they do at least a spell check for one language.

Even if I only chose one system language and only one dedicated spell check language Gboard underlines nothing. In general this is the same for every App. Only Google Docs seems to have its own spell check.


Why is my News & Weather app using so much data (and battery)?

What you need to do is delete your weather app, revert the Google Play Store to the factory version, and then wait a day or so. In my personal experience, this will stop both of them from transmitting so much data, and restore your battery life to normal levels.


SIM card detection and Battery Drain - MI Redmi Note 3

The only likely solution is to take it in for repair or replacement. This sounds very much like a short somewhere in the hardware.


Downloading using youtube-dl and QPython on Android

I solved this by using a Python script inside which I used youtube-dl not from the command line but with the YoutubeDL API (their documentation is good). Then, add this code Python script in which you are using the YoutubeDL API.

import os
os.chdir(r'/path/for/download')


WiFi continually turns off and on Sony Xperia Compact (Android 8.0)

Downgrade to nougat. Tried everything (reset router, delete network settings, software repair via companion etc etc.) nothing worked except the downgrade.


How to set Google dialer as the default dialer in Sony Xperia Z3+?

You may need to clear out the default for the Sony Dialer first.

Settings > Apps > All > [insert Sony dialer app here] > Clear Defaults

I find that dialing a number from your contacts may not prompt you for a new default, either. Instead, navigate to a website that has a properly formatted number like(###) ###-#### that you can tap on to have it open in a dialer - that should prompt you for a default selection.

After your default is selected, you can disable the old dialer so it doesn't show up in your app list.


Can I configure my Android Phone to block certain numbers calls?

I am not sure about an option in the system itself but the app mr number will do that for you:
The lifehacker article talks about the app http://lifehacker.com/5648876/call-block-unlimited-automates-call-blocking-and-routing-on-android-phones