You may have to re flash the firmware. There is a program called ODIN you can use to do this.

First of all install ODIN and the firmware for the S3 and your country on this site http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/ (search for GT-I9300). You will be able to find many tutorials online on how to use ODIN but it is relatively simple. Here is a good YouTube tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CANyNo5qNE (It's quite hard to hear him over the music but it should help). He uses the S2 but it is the same process.

OR

Use the written instructions on sammobile (note this is the firmware for Germanu, so don't use this firmware unless you are in fact German) http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/3/?download=29037.


Can I permanently disable the cell/radio of my phone?

Looks like someone already figured this out and made a script using Script Manager that runs the script on boot. It turns the radio (cell) off, just the same as activating airplane mode, except that it leaves all other wireless settings alone (that is, bluetooth, wifi, etc).

Or you can install a flashable zip described in this forum that you load in recovery mode.

  Removes unnecessary apps (Messaging.apk, Phone.apk, TelephonyProvider.apk, Mms.apk, TelocationProvider.apk)
  Completely turns off cell radio on bootup
  Installs the radiooptions binary in case your ROM does not include it
  Prevents emergency calls and 911 calls (good for giving your kids your old phone to play with)


No, it's not normal. The following might seem obvious if you're familiar with Android, but it's worth a check.

Android has separate volume levels for media (such as music), notifications, and in-call. It also has a separate volume level for when you're using headphones, to avoid deafening yourself by plugging in headphones when the volume is high. It could be that the "in-call without headphones" volume is very low, and the other volumes are normal. Try turning up the volume (with the physical volume keys) while you're in a call (with no headphones plugged in), and see if that solves the problem.

If not, it sounds like a hardware problem with the speaker that goes next to your ear. There is a separate speaker for when it's on speakerphone, or for music or videos. In that case, a warranty claim would be the appropriate course of action, especially if this is a new phone and it has always had this problem.


Upgrading Unrevoked Desire from Eclair to Froyo

If this is a standard OTA update then you shouldn't lose anything at all, and the update should take less than half an hour, just make sure that your battery is fully charged before you start. All your apps, data and configuration should stay. The only exception to this is where things have changed between Eclair and Froyo, so some of your apps may not be compatible with Froyo (though it's been out long enough now that's very unlikely).

Yes, you will lose your root status, but should be able to root again afterwards, provided your chosen root method works on Froyo, or you can find a different rooter that will work if not.


I don't think that developer released a version of that ROM that's compatible with your device so my advice to you would be to go to the Optimus 2X forum and find a Jelly Bean ROM there or you can check out this
link other roms:


Get rid of the "wireless charging" announcement

This answer works for the Galaxy S4, but it will likely work for your S3 as well.

Install the xposed framework, which is a soft-mod framework that lets you modify your current rom (including the original/stock rom) without permanently changing it (you can enable and disable modules at your discretion). The framework and modules, of course, require root.

After you install the framework, install the Nottach Xposed module. This is designed for the S4, but most of the features work on the S3 as well.

After installing the module, enable the module within the xposed app. Open the Nottach Xposed app (acknowledge the warning that it isn't made for your device), enable the checkbox for Framework->Hide wireless charging dialog. Finally, reboot the phone.

Your phone should now be able to charge wirelessly without having the dialog pop up every time. Many of the other options in Nottach Xposed will likely work, though obviously tweaks for things that only exist on the S4 won't work for the S3.


Honor 7 Boot-loop after changing display+frame

You should take the phone to a repair shop and explain the situation to them. Most likely a physical component is damaged or not connected, and the bootloop is caused when Android first tries to initialize or use that component. If recovery has the same problem, but fastboot mode doesn't, that narrows the problem down to a component that's initialized by the recovery image, but isn't by the bootloader. It could be as simple as that some RAM or storage, but not all of it, is damaged. This damage could be permanent or could just be a faulty connection. Possibly it was caused by the same physical stress that broke the display in the first place.


Galaxy A5: How to set power button to reject calls (no root)

No sorry. If you're looking to assign another use to the power button other than what's available in the settings, you'll most likely need to root it.


Can I use symbol links in Android to move programs onto the SD card when they insist on being on harddrive?

Afaik Link2SD does precisely this - it moves apps to sd leaving properly designed symlinks only at where they were before.


Andrew, if su binary in xbin is proper, then run,

adb shell
/system/xbin/su -c mv /system/bin/su /system/bin/su-dead

then reboot and open terminal emulator and run su.

Did this device come pre-rooted? If not then what prevents you
from repeating the process you used to root?


Bootlooping LG Volt will not connect w/ ADB

I solved this by booting into Download Mode (with the phone off, hold Vol+ while plugging in USB to computer).

There were some files that needed to be downloaded, including the LG Flash Tool, which was used to flash the stock ROM to the phone.

After flashing, the phone was in its original pre-activated state but at least it functioned!

Unbrick method for LG Volt (Boost/Virgin)
GSM-Forum: LG Flash Tool
Android Forums: Fix Factory Reset Status 2 errors - for an after-flash fix to boot


Please ensue that the device supports SDHC microSD cards.

Also ensure that the sd card is fat16 formatted.


It didn't bypass the VPN. The apps use your other identifications such as "Advertising ID" identify you. Then this information is used to give you suggestions/recommendations based on your previous browsing or search history.

Most apps will also keep a local cache. So, unless you have cleared data for the app, the app knows everything you previously did.


Where to find IP address in file system (e.g. proc or sys)

I have no Android to test it, but Linux offers:

 cat /proc/net/fib_trie

.. from https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/365225/how-to-get-the-ipv4-address-for-an-interface-from-proc

The output can then be filtered further by grep, e.g.

 cat /proc/net/fib_trie|grep '|--' | grep -vE ' 127|\.0[^0-9.]*$|\.255[^0-9.]*$'


Restoring /system but not /data within TWRP

[Can] I restore only /system and boot my original ROM ?

It depends upon what lies in the backup. If you took the backup of your stock ROM and you're referring to the same backup, then yes, restoring /system using that particular backup would restore stock ROM. But you would need to restore /boot as well since that is part of stock ROM too.

However, if you must restore a different ROM, even if it is a stock ROM, it is a good practice to do a clean flash or atleast overwrite existing /data and /cache files with the ones in the backup to avoid conflict between various versions of files/apps which can cause bootloop or battery drain or whatnot.

In your case, since you cannot restore /data from the backup, I advise you to take a complete backup of your current ROM (including userdata), then reset /data (except /data/media) and /cache, and then restore /system and /boot from stock ROM backup. In this way, you would end up with a pristine stock ROM and can always restore /data when you manage to fix that error you mentioned. This is the path of least problems.


It's because once the sd card is converted to adoptable, the pc will no longer see it. Only the original 32g will be recognized, but you will still have all of the extra space correctly. You'd have to transfer items to the main storage, then move them to the adoptable storage from the phone.


What are the advantages of enabling or disabling Samsung KNOX

Directly from Wikipedia :

  Samsung Knox provides security features that enable business and
  personal content to coexist on the same handset. The user presses an
  icon that switches from Personal to Work use with no delay or reboot
  wait time.1 The manufacturer has claimed this feature will be fully
  compatible with Android and Google and will provide full separation of
  work and personal data on mobile devices and "addresses all major
  security gaps in Android.

(Download Android Terminal Emulator) then
for Disable :

pm disable com.sec.knox.seandroid

and after disable,  maybe you need this again ;

Enable :

pm enable com.sec.knox.seandroid

And i suggest you, in the SuperSu never touch For Disabling the Knox.
it maybe harassment you and need for the second root process.(this is happend for me, but maybe you need to try it).
Also , read these articles :

How to Disable KNOX Security

HOW TO REMOVE KNOX AND PREVENT POSSIBLE ROOT ISSUES CAUSED BY KNOX

How do I Remove or Uninstall KNOX


Cannot find where Google Play Music stores downloaded files (different from similar posts)

In the settings of Google Play Music, if you have it set to cache on the external SD card, your cache location will be /external_sd/Android/data/com.google.android.music/files/music/.

If you have it use the internal storage, the path will be /sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.music/files/music.

Note that these files are named [some-id].mp3, like 124.mp3. So just copying them from this location will be difficult to determine what song they are. Not only that, as GiantTree mentions, the files are encrypted, so even if you copy them off, you cannot play them. It requires Google Play Music to play them.

Here is a screenshot of my files on the external sdcard that I navigated to within droidexplorer.

And Here is using Windows MTP to browse the files.


local headphone enabled FM radio app for nexus 5 (no internet needed)

AFAIK, Nexus 5 does not have a FM radio (just checked the specs at GSMArena.com).

So, you cannot listen to your local FM broadcast and should rely only on online radio stations.


Uninstall official lollipop Samsung Galaxy s5

Yes, you can, with Odin! Done it couple of times, but unfortunately it will start to download the Lollipop update again and will continue to keep asking you to install it. :(


How can I use Google Assistant on Android 7 to play a show on my TV on Netflix on Windows 10? - Super User

TL;DR: I don't believe there is an official Windows 10 app which will act as a Chromecast client (and I doubt there will be). Buy a Chromecast HDMI stick for your TV.

So I have a 2nd Generation Chromecast connected to my TV and through the Google Assistant on my Android phone (6.0.2) I was able to launch YouTube as well as Spotify.

Netflix is a first party partner for Google Home:

https://support.google.com/googlehome/answer/7214982?hl=en

so voice commands work there. You would still need to link up your account but if you had a Chromecast it should work.

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/23924

While you can cast from the Chrome browser it is either a sender or remote control and not a receiver. My Chromecast does appear to be updated relatively frequently which means that Google can force updates while as a client app (on any OS) it could be blocked. Additionally they would need to integrate their DRM stack into Windows which is even more work.

But what if I wanted to control my PC via Google Assistant

Setup your own server to connect to Google Assistant. You'll have a write a Windows client as well which perform the actions. One blocking point is that you'll need to have it up 24/7 to keep it responsive. If you use a hosting service which shuts it down until request the startup delay may tell Google that the service is no longer working. As always coding problems are off-topic here.


ES File Explorer has support for several cloud storage providers. It allows to "copy" folders from your dropbox folder to your SD-Card etc in a similar fashion as you would copy files locally. The "Network" Tab allows you to add an account.


How do I set Google Chrome to close when I swipe away the last tab?

On newer Chrome versions, to get the app to close itself when you close tha last tab, setting homepage on is not enough. When you set homepage on, you get to choose between:

Chrome's homepage
(enter custom web adress)

The trick is to select the second option and leave it blank!


How do I configure Google Latitude to auto-update with location regularly on a Motorola Droid?

My issue was resolved by upgrading Google Maps to v5.0.

For those troubleshooting this issue, also see this question (which should probably be your first step):   How do I set Google Latitude to auto-update with location regularly?


How to backup the Android calendar file (is there such a file)?

Android stores calender data (and contacts as well) into a SQLite database in the system. The format of that SQLite database differs between ROMs -- so at least for "normal users" it's not that good an idea to "simply" copy that SQLite file. Rather use a good backup app for this. A good example would be iCal Import/Export, which allows you to export your calendar to an .ics file -- and also to import from .ics files, e.g. for a restore.


How to migrate all your contacts between two providers on android?

To do that natively only using your phone, you'd need to either manually enter all those 50 contacts to the new provider, then drop the old entries.

You might also be able to export all your contacts to SD card (using the contacts/people app: Menu › Export/Import › Export to SDCard), edit the resulting file, and import it back again – but that might be error prone.

An easier approach would be using a third party solution, like Simpler Contacts Backup – which directly lets you move contacts between accounts, according to the app's description.


How do Android tablets use magnet to auto-lock the device?

Your magnets are probably in the wrong place. The Nexus 7's magnetic cover sensor is not along the right-hand edge, where the magnets that hold the cover closed are. It's in the bottom-left corner of the screen, about 2 cm from the left-hand rim of the device, and 4 cm from the bottom rim. Put another way: with the device in the "camera-uppermost" orientation, with the stock home screen displayed, the icon at the left-hand end of the tray is in the right place.

You also need a pretty strong magnet. Most fridge magnets aren't strong enough to trip the reed switch, but a Buckyball will do it (if you can still buy those where you are).


Bluetooth reverse tethering for Android on Windows 7/8/10 is not possible out of the box. It might be if you have installed the Toshiba Bluetooth Stack (see below).

As of Windows 10 1809 the Bluetooth PAN network generated by Windows' own BT drivers technically is not a "full blown" network like wired LAN or WiFi. Thus it does not show up in the list of network adapters to use the shared internet connection.

For the same reason you cannot bridge your wired LAN ethernet adapter with the bluetooth PAN (Microsoft documentation says bridging needs two "highspeed" connections - which PAN obviously is not).

As some googling reveals Mac and Linux folks are better off because these OSes can do reverse tethering with bluetooth.

If you really desperately need to do it based on a windows machine your only choice is to set up a virtual machine with Linux as guest OS and do it from there. There is a how-to in German on this solution at PC-Welt.


Memory Expansion For Asus Eeepad Transformer

When you say memory do you mean storage capacity? As far as im aware there is no way to increase the 1GB memory it is supplied with.

EDIT :

This site states 32GB expansion limit for SD card, which seems like its porbably correct :

http://www.techwench.com/asus-eee-pad-transformer-review/


Can you overclock an unrooted Galaxy Tab?

Almost certainly not.  Unless Samsung has provided a way for you to do this — highly unlikely due to warranty and user experience issues — you'll need root and probably a custom kernel that supports overclocking.


Is there any way to activate MTP connection on a phone with broken screen?

If the broken screen still shows the display, I recommend connecting it to a a USB optical mouse with an OTG connector.
Try using adb if that is not case, but it works only when USB debugging is turned on.


Perhaps you can install Revolutionary, and choose the option to install the Clockwork Recovery Mod, look for a copy of the original Froyo rom from somewhere and then use Recovery to put it back on your phone?

Of course, while you're doing that you could check out CyanogenMod v7.1 and see if that gives you what you need.


How to establish a LAN directly between an Archos G9 (Android 4.0, WiFi) and a linux box?

I've recently bought an Archos 101 G9 Turbo (running ICS 4.03) with the intention of using it for work purposes to replace my slow Windoze netbook. The only shortcomming I though I would experience was having access to an ethernet port on the device.

I found an old USB LAN adapter that's been lying around in a drawer for a few years and out of curiosity. I thought it can't do much harm to try it. I plugged it in the the micro-usb port via a host cable and much to my surprise a grey Ethernet icon immediately popped up in the tablet's system tray. I plugged in an Ethernet cable from my network switch into the adapter and lo-and-behold it picked up an IP address via DHCP and connected to the net! No software, no configuration - true plug-and-play!

The Ethernet icon 'lights up' when connected so you can see it's good to go. The only thing I can't find is any configuration options under settings, so it looks like it might only work with DHCP and default settings (if anyone can throw any light on this It would be appreciated).

Even better, these things are still available and really cheap to buy, the host cable (micro USB male to USB A female) was GBP £1.99 and the USB ethernet adapters can still be bought for less that GBP £2.50 online. The USB ethernet adapters are available from the usual online sources. The one I have uses an SR9600 chipset if that's any help.

FWIW I've just tried this on my old Archos 7c G2 tablet running Froyo 2.3.3 and it doesn't work with that. I've tried it on a Samsung, Galaxy tab running Honeycomb 3.2 and this too doesn't recognize the device so I guess it's just ICS it works with.


How to make Froyo's portable hotspot more stable?

Rather than putting it in your pocket, place it next to your laptop with the screen on. Then you can see if your hotspot is cutting out, or maybe your 3G is cutting out. I imagine there is a threshold of where you need a certain strength of 3G signal to operate a hotspot.


Note that this is not guranteed to be the case with every update, and may vary from device to device. However, in every case I'm familiar with, this has held true.

OTA/Automatic updates (and many but not all ROMs installed with a custom Recovery) will generally ignore anything inside the /sdcard/ directory. I keep everything in there and whenever I switch ROMs or update, that directory stays safe as long as whatever I'm installing doesn't require a factory reset.

Devices with no physical SD Card slot such as Nexus, and Kindle Fires have treated that sort of as the default /home/user/ directory. Downloads from Chrome go to /sdcard/Download/ by default. Music gets downloaded to /sdcard/Music/ etc...

Devices with a physical SD Card slot seem to use that as the mount point for an inserted card. You can use it if you have a card inserted - otherwise, it's not available.

Some devices will be different. As Izzy noted, the external SD card can have a different default mountpoint such as /sdcard/external_sd/ or something with /extSD/. It could realistically be any point that the manufacturer or ROM builder decides on.

Having said that, it's always a good idea to keep your data backed up. I haven't had any emergencies, and my data in the directory has never been wiped when I wasn't expecting it, but it's always best to be safe.


installing apk in /system/app with android 5.1 or higher (simple adb push doesn't work anynore)

In Android API Level 21+ (5.1+) modifications in /system/app will not be recognized by the package manager automatically. Insteadyou should try /system/priv-app.
Assume your app is called Foo.apk, create a folder in /system/priv-app/Foo and set chmod 755 & chown 0.0 to it. Then put your apk file in it (the path should be /system/priv-app/Foo/Foo.apk) and chmod 644 & chown 0.0 to it. It will be recognized by the package manager then, or if not just reboot you device and the app is there.
In some ROMs mods in /system/app WILL be recognized automatically but it depends.


How do I disable auto-sync in HTC Sync 3.3?

According to the download page of HTC Sync Manager, HTC Desire phones should be supported.

In my case when I first started the application it started loading all my media files from my pc (which took some time). After everything was loaded, the music etc was stored in my Media gallery of the HTC Sync Manager.

If you want to disable the synchronisation of your phone on connect, disable the option "Automatically start sync when device is connected" under the More tab. In my case that tab was only available when you connect your phone (probably to be able to use different settings for multiple phones).

So maybe you should just try to reinstall the latest HTC Sync Manager, because it should work for your phone too. Just be a little patient.


How and when Android auto connects to a bluetooth device?

AFAIK, Android Bluetooth API does not provide this feature.

I have tried to achieve auto reconnection using BluetoothDevice#connectGatt, with "autoConnect" set to true but it did not work at all.

Like Joe suggested in the comments, I would go for my own implementation, handling both the scanning process and the connection process.


How to Install our android image in laptop ? How to make android boot-able image for laptop?

You want to check out Android x86 project. They have documentation and installation instruction for installing an Android on a regular laptop/desktop.


How many times can an app purchase be refunded on Play Store?

Paid apps/games!/in-app purchases can only be refunded once. If you buy the app again, you can't get refund
From Play Store help (see
Refunds & returns → Learn about refunds on Google Play →Google Play refund policies)

Note: You can only return an app or game for a refund once. If you buy it again you will not be able to get a refund. If a refund is issued you will lose access to the item.

(Emphasis added)
Related: If a paid app stops working, can I get my money back?


How do get SMS messages off a damaged Android phone (Samsung J2 pro)

It's been suggested I post what I did. Note this is for a partly working screen (i.e. some regions detect touch, some do not). There are answers for a completely broken screen here: How do I backup data (SMS/contacts) from a device with a broken screen?

Anyway, what I did:

Download Vysor to my (Mac) computer. (And "Android File Transfer" if it's not there already). Start up Vysor.
Vysor needed USB debugging to be on. For that, on my phone I went into: Settings -> About Phone -> Settings, and pressed Serial Number several times "to become a developer". Then I could go into Settings -> Developer Options, and turn on USB Debugging. In both of those cases, I was lucky in that I could find a part of my screen which worked to select those options. The link above has a away to do this for a completely dead screen.
Plug USB cable into phone and press "Allow" to allow data access to it. Again, I was lucky that "Allow" was on a part of my screen which worked.
Click "Find Devices" in Vysor, and select the phone. I had to repeat steps 3 and 4 a couple of times for some reason, but eventually it found the phone properly, and an emulator started up on my computer.
Then, using the Vysor emulator to control my phone, and I was able to get my SMS's by downloading and running SMS Backup & Restore on my phone.


Display details stored in address book while receiving a call

True Phone Dialer & Contacts & Call Recorder is a contacts and dialer app that does pretty much what you are looking for except displaying email ID. It's free for 7 days after which you can disable ads by going pro.
Install the app, from 3 dots menu at bottom right → Incoming /Outgoing Calls → disable incoming call notification to see full screen call details.
On my OnePlus 7, Android 10,using the default contact app I filled in details and it displays event date (birthday), address & notes ( Don't be Covidiot- you can replace this by Email address if you badly need that)

(Click to enlarge)
From 3 dots menu at bottom right → Incoming /Outgoing Calls →  additional info, select to show (needs to be manually edited in the contact information using this app)

(Click to enlarge)
I added job information & Nickname manually (my contacts app doesn't have those fields) and now the screen shows

(Click to enlarge)
Eyecon:caller ID, calls and phone contacts is another alternative that harvests caller information and photos from social media and displays - in case, it helps somebody who likes that approach.


Is there any launcher app that behave like Iphone?

Since you've already rooted and flashed your ROM, you can give the MIUI rom a go, see http://en.miui.com/

I feel that is sort of the iPhone feel ROM for Android... no app drawer, newly installed apps get put onto the next available space on your screens. Folders to organise etc. Even the settings look iPhone-ish.


To encrypt or install security app like Prey?

The Cerberus app allows you to remotely track and wipe your Android device, as well as a lot more.

If you have root, you can install it as a system app, and it will survive a wipe - which is really handy, it can also be hidden from the app drawer.

I believe that this app will be the most use to you.

Please not that I am not affiliated with Cerberus at all, and am just a customer.


Is it possible to shut down all antennae except for the gps?

You can activate the Airplane mode to shutdown everything (calls, wifi, etc), and then re-activate the GPS. Only the GPS Antenna will be activated... I think :D


You reset your phone means there will be no apps in that.To find out what's occupying your phone memory goto settings -> manage application or settings->storage option to find out what's occupying space in your device.
Another way: If you have any file manager application installed in your phone  go to internal storage and find out the things which occupying space in your phone.It may be any files such pictures or videos.


How can I automatically connect my phone to the stronger Wifi signal around it?

Unfortunately, there's no native method for this (at least to my knowledge). But WiFi Switcher does exactly that. According to its description:

  The tool checks the registered WIFI networks every 20 seconds. If one of these networks has better signal strength than the currently one, the tool changes the WIFI network to this better one.

But it's not that well rated (3.2 with 75 ratings). The alternative WiFi Jumper has a better rating (4.1@194), but is not free:

  Automatically connect to the strongest available WIFI (scaninterval configurable)
  Even unknown, but unsecured networks can be used automatically (configurable)
  Optional: create Wifi Zones based on one or more Radio Cells to automatically start and stop Wifi Hardware.


why is my file system suddenly read only?

/system is almost always read-only by default. Just remount it as R/W:

# mount -t ext3 -o rw,remount /dev/block/mmcblk0p25 /system

There's also at least one app that will attempt to do this for you, but it may not work on all devices.

Another option is to use adb root (if your ROM will allow it) to restart adbd as root, then simply issue adb remount. On ROMs where adbd is already running as root, the first command is unnecessary and adb remount will work right off the bat. From a PC:

C:> adb root
* Some response about success *
C:> adb remount
Remount succeeded

As to why it's getting blown away, is your device NAND unlocked? Many HTC devices will attempt to restore their /system partition to a stock state if they are NAND locked, making changes to /system fleeting at best. That's something of an educated guess, but the fact that you noted that you are using VISIONary to temproot seems to support that hypothesis.


Reasoning behind built in songs made by the android device manufacturer

"Dream It Possible" is the official Huawei Consumer Brand Song.

Therefore it can be considered as Huawei advertisement even if the song itself is not directly related to Huawei.


Android X86 6.0 boot stuck on Boot Logo in VMWare

At first I had the same issue. But I changed the Display settings and now it works.

Go to the VM settings's
Go to Display settings
Check the Accelerate 3D graphics
Set the graphics memory to 1GB (if possible)
Start your VM!


Apps can store data in both places, but the SD card has a FAT filesystem which does not support file permissions.  This means that a malicious app could erase or change app data very easily if the data was on the SD card.  As well, you can swap SD cards or format your card, and then the app would have "forgotten" all its settings and lost all the other data.  So it's a very good idea to put app data in the phone storage, where Android can manage access to the data and protect it.

On newer versions of Android, the SD card filesystem can be virtualized to enforce permissions.  Couple this with encryption, and the above issues go away.


Lock screen won't reset to swipe from numeric

There are a number of reasons why you may not be able to downgrade to a swipe-unlock.

Exchange Email

If you have an Exchange email account set up, many times the Exchange admins won't let you connect unless your phone agrees to certain security precautions, such as setting up an unlock code.

Solution: Remove the account, or install an Email app that lies to the Exchange server, saying it is compliant when it really isn't.

Device Administrator

Check in Settings->Security->Device Administrators to see if there are any active apps listed. One or more may be requiring an unlock code.

Solution: Uncheck the apps listed. Note that those apps may no longer function properly.

Device Encryption

Not applicable in your specific situation, but enabling Device Encryption will also prevent you from removing a screen lock.


How to stop getting internet through the prepaid card and use only my home wifi?

To manually start and stop internet: Go to Settings -> Wireless and networks -> Mobile networks and disable Mobile data. This will stop internet connection through mobile network. Enable this to start internet again.

To stop it permanently:
Some application may start internet automatically, So to prevent accidental internet consumption, Create a new dummy Access Point Name in Mobile networks section and select that APN. So from next time your whenever you or any application try to connect to internet though mobile network it will try to connect though that dummy Access point and internet won't start. Internet will only work when you connect to WiFi.


You need a third-party app to recieve Wi-Fi calls.

Two popular apps are GrooVeIP (paid & free) and Talkatone (paid). You could also set up Sipdroid (free), which will set up the SIP forwarding using pbxes.com. Or you could use a number of other SIP apps and set up forwarding yourself, but that gets a bit convoluted.


Go into the device settings, then from My device, choose Accessibility. From that menu, press TalkBack, then click the switch in the top-right corner to turn TalkBack off.

After tapping something once to get the yellow box (and the spoken description of what the thing is), double-tap anywhere on the screen to click the highlighted thing.


For starters your device needs to be rooted ( see rooting )

One way could be to fool the system by pretending you have a smaller mAh capacity battery so that it stops charging prematurely (relative to actual capacity) but that's tough because the battery capacity files are hard coded into the kernel, so you need to "cook" your kernel. See
 Where are the battery capacity files located?

Practical alternative is to stop charging at a level that matches your desired voltage.

You can do it the hard way. See
Automatically limit (stop) battery charging at a given percentage

Or

Easier way. See How to limit charging to 60%

Also see Ideal charging / discharging percentage for maximum battery life?

Rather than actually figuring out the voltage levels at which you want to charge / shutdown , it is easier to go by battery charged level and stop charging


Can I transfer my sms messages from my old phone to my new phone WITHOUT using any third party software?

With root

If you're rooted or willing to root, you can check out this method: Where on the file system are SMS messages stored?

Note: If you're transferring between different versions of Android, or even ROMs, I would check if the SMS format is the same.

Third party app

There's SMS Backup+, which is an open source app I found - GitHub, Google Play.
I'm using SMS Backup & Restore for a long time (maybe years) - from their Privacy Policy, it seems that the only data they send is anonymous usage data to Google Analytics.

Note: You can use a well reviewed and popular third party app from play store (bonus if it's an editors choice), and after installing it (before even opening) - move to flight mode, backup locally, remove the app and transfer to your computer or other phone.


Open firefox and start typing to the address bar immediately

If you use Google search you can start typing and web address and it should open in your default browser (Firefox if you have it set like default)

You can also add the Firefox search widget to your home screen as well if you want to get Firefox search suggestions.


Are there any other launchers that display a folder's contents instead of the generic icon?

This won't help people who are still waiting for their phone to be upgraded, but the stock Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4) launcher has something similar built in - it shows a cascaded view of the first three icons in the folder.


If I may elaborate on Vivek's answer, it is likely being caused not so much by apps running in the background but by what apps you have running in the background.
When you put your device into battery saver mode, it disables all apps' ability to connect to the internet without being the app you are currently interacting with. Some really bad offenders in abuse of background data (connecting to a website when you are not using the app) are social networking sites such as Facebook and messaging apps such as Skype and Kik. Google's mobile radio active bug  only augments the drain. Greenify will automate the process of shutting down these power-hungry apps.

Additionally, check to see if any app is causing an issue with wakelocks. The active section of the battery graph would be almost solid.


How to block all phone calls, but only allow SMS and networking?

You can use the tried and tested Call Barring method

Go to Settings
Select Call Settings
Look for Call barring
Now select All Incoming
Enter your default PIN (1234)

There, all incoming calls will be blocked. You may still be able to place calls unless you barred that too.

This feature is carrier network dependent and it already exists in the dumbphone era. Still useful though.


How can I control video playback on another device?

My first instinct was to use a bluetooth remote to control the player device, but it would require me to set up a playlist on the player device ahead of time, it limits the ability to play specific videos, and it won't let me control the volume.

Instead I came up with a solution using another Android device as the control device:

Copy videos to the player device
Install Kodi to the player device
Install Kore to the control device
Start portable hotspot on the display device

Settings > More > Tethering & portable hotspot > Set up Wi-Fi hotspot
Get password
Back > enable Portable Wi-Fi hotspot

Connect the control device's wifi to the player device's hotspot
Open Kore on the control device and follow the instructions to enable remote control on the player device. The instructions are also here: Kodi web server

That's enough to enable controlling playback on the player device. However, if nothing is playing on the player and the screen turns off, starting playback from Kore won't turn the screen on. Here's how I worked around that:

Set the display of the player device to never turn off. Based on the answer from here, install Automate and use the flow provided to keep the screen on.

Alternatively, what I did is I created a flow that detects when Kodi is running, and if it is it 1. disables the wifi 2. enables the wifi hotspot 3. turns the media volume all the way up (the volume can be controlled from Kore using the volume buttons) 4. keeps the screen on.
Set up a screensaver on the player device to blank the screen to maximize battery life

Kodi > Settings > Interface settings > Screensaver > Screensaver mode > Black

Other than higher battery use due to the display workaround, the only other downside I've found is that Kore doesn't support playlists, so you have to create a new queue every time.


Samsung Galaxy Tab 2.7" home screen wallpaper

If you're just trying to set it for home screen, try either Wallpaper Wizardrii mentioned above or Image 2 Wallpaper (com.shirobakama.wallpaper).

However if you're going for lock screen then IMO you're out of luck, at least on Samsung devices. None of the 2 above apps acknowledge Samsung's separate lock screen wallpaper and thus would not touch it.

If you're so desperate for this feature that you're willing to pay extra effort, flash non-Samsung-based custom ROMs like CyanogenMod - Tab2 has plenty of them.


Is it possible to know the wear level information of a phone, like SSD have with SMART?

SMART was originally designed for ATA devices and extended to SCSI and PCIe/NVMe later to cover almost the whole range of HDDs/SSDs. Trying to send SMART commands to eMMC, e.g. using smartctl would throw error: Unable to detect device type. Please specify device type with the -d option.

Unlike SATA or SAS, eMMC communicates over parallel links and has a different command set. One of these commands (CMD8) dumps the Extended CSD (Card Specific Data) register which holds card's internal information and device capabilities including Life Time Estimation and Pre EOL (End of Life) Estimation. EXT_CSD register can be read (requires root) using mmc tool from mmc-utils:

~# mmc extcsd read /dev/block/mmcblk0 | grep -E 'LIFE|EOL'
eMMC Life Time Estimation A [EXT_CSD_DEVICE_LIFE_TIME_EST_TYP_A]: 0x03
eMMC Life Time Estimation B [EXT_CSD_DEVICE_LIFE_TIME_EST_TYP_B]: 0x03
eMMC Pre EOL information [EXT_CSD_PRE_EOL_INFO]: 0x01

* 0x03 indicates health status is estimated between 20% and 30% of the device lifespan.
* 0x01 indicates Normal pre-EOL status.

Depending on your MMC driver, the above information is also available through sysfs interfaces:

~# cat /sys/devices/soc/7824900.sdhci/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:0001/{life_time,pre_eol_info}
0x03 0x03
01

* Path may differ depending on eMMC vendor.

Another option is to read ECSD register from debugfs:

~# cat /sys/kernel/debug/mmc0/mmc0:0001/ext_csd

But parsing ECSD raw output is an extra job.

For UFS part I'm not sure at the moment if the health/wear estimation is available through HCI Capabilities Registers or not. Also unlike eMMC, UFS operates over a serial communication link and supports a subset of SCSI commands. So it might be providing SMART (or SMART-like) monitoring system. Someone else may update the answer if some authentic source of information is available.

REFERENCES:

Wear Estimation for Devices with eMMC Flash Memory
eMMC ELECTRICAL STANDARD (5.1) (JESD84-B51A)
UFS in Linux kernel
UFS Overview


How to modify app permissions on a rooted device without third party?

You can use adb (Android Debug Bridge) tools.

-Install platform-tools which are included in Android SDK
-Toggle USB Debugging options on your phone.
-Connect to your phone with adb.

Example operation for testfile.txt

Upload your file with 'adb push ' command.

adb push testfile.txt /data/local/tmp/

Get shell with 'adb shell' command.

adb shell

(You will get a prompt like below.)

Become superuser with 'su' command.

shell$ su

Change permissions of testfile.txt to 644 (-rwx--r--r-)

chmod 644 /data/local/tmp/testfile.txt


Google Now has no speech on Galaxy Note 3

Answering my own question, this seems to just be my misunderstanding of how Google Now works.
I was typing the search and expecting a voice response.
But apparently it only responds with a voice if you ask with a voice.
If I use voice search, then a voice does indeed reply.

Leaving this question/answer here in case anyone else has the same misunderstanding.


Why is not every Android Modification Open Source?

Generally, most of the OEMs share the kernel source but there are some cases when they don't (XIOMI). The reason for not sharing it is present in the xda link.

  I want to specify one last thing for those readers who are not familiar with the distinction: GPL is a license and not a contract. Some jurisdictions see key distinctions between these two, as contracts are enforceable by contract law and licenses fall under copyright. So breaking a license’s term is still judicable. The distributors who don’t accept GPL’s terms and conditions can’t copy and distribute GPL software under law.

So OEM who are not in American market does this more often.

Every part of the code cannot be kept publically available. Because it contains many patents bounded by the non-disclosure agreement e.g. Camera Software. Some developer friendly companies publish the binary blob for such parts so that it can be used in any custom rom for the device e.g One Plus provide dash charge firmware and probably camera too as a blob.


As the policy says: this enables the administrator to erase ALL data. As it's a device administrator (and not a user admin), this applies to the entire device.

Idea behind this is to protect sensitive corporate data, which might be contained in your Exchange account. In case the device gets lost, your IT admin can trigger the "data self destruct". Sounds like using atomics to kill a fly to me (wouldn't it be enough to destroy all those Exchange app data?); but of course you could have copied sensitive data to any other part of the device.

Besides, that's usually not the only policy installed with an Exchange account. In most cases it also includes that you have to use certain lock mechanisms (e.g. you no longer can use a pattern, but have to use a PIN or password), and in some cases even other stuff. Which is one of the reasons I'd never accept such an account on my device.


Free app to block calls and SMS based on pattern

Try aFirewall

Despite the name, it's an SMS/Call blocking app.


How to force Backup Assistant to sync in airplane mode with WiFi on

Definitely contact the dev about that, like Izzy suggests.

You could simply not use Airplane mode (you're not really saving battery life if you're still enabling WiFi and other radio connections like Bluetooth and GPS) and just disable mobile data on your device.
This article indicates that you can easily disable Data by going to Settings > Battery & data manager > Data Delivery > and un-tick the Data enabled option. This might vary across devices and carriers.

That should allow you to use your device without a mobile carrier network connection, saving battery by not searching for the network, and allow the app to work just fine.


How can I use my internal storage as extra RAM?

You don't need to use 3rd party things like a swap partition or zRamSwap. 512MB RAM was/is still standard and will be sufficent for almost all scenarios most probably for some time (at least for Android 4.0 and 4.1, see this CyanogenMod forum post).

(You stated in the comments that your Xperia Active has 512MB RAM)

Longer version:
To begin with, "ROM" is basically a false name for the system partition and means read-only-memory (it's most of the time mounted read-only, hence "ROM"), this sits most probably on some kind of NAND flash. RAM (random-access-memory) is 'working' memory that is really fast but volatile in comparison to NAND flash. Both types are needed (fast vs. persistent) and cannot be interchanged. At least not completely (you could add a swap partition on custom roms.)

At first: Don't use the internal memory as swap! Flash storage (NAND) has only about 10.000 write cycles. Better use your sdcard for it. See this guide on XDA for the pro's and con's and howto do it. If you just want to play around and wonder if you could do something useful with the free space on your /data partition: Don't do it. Leave it the way it is.

Here's a basic picture illustrating a regular architecture.


tl;dr

Use browsers (e.g. FireFox) that are proven to be not vulnerable to FREAK bug and try to avoid these sites until they've fixed their server. The bug is not device-dependant nor Android version-dependant.

From FreakAttack.com,

  Who is vulnerable?

  The FREAK attack is possible when a vulnerable browser connects to a susceptible web server—a server that accepts "export-grade" encryption.

  Clients

  Update (Mar. 5):   Browsers are vulnerable to the FREAK attack because of bugs that allow an attacker to force them to use weak, export-grade encryption. One example is the OpenSSL bug described in CVE-2015-0204, but some other TLS libraries have similar problems. Far more browsers are vulnerable to the FREAK attack than was initially thought when the attack was announced, including:

  ...
  Chrome on Android
  Stock Android Browser
  ...

  You can check whether your browser is vulnerable using our FREAK Client Test Tool.

  Chrome for Windows and all versions of Firefox are known to be safe. However, even if your browser is safe, certain third-party software, including some anti-virus products and adware programs, can expose you to the attack by intercepting TLS connections from the browser. If you are using a safe browser but our client test says you’re vulnerable, this is a likely cause.

  What should I do?

  If you use a browser …

  Make sure you have the most recent version of your browser installed, and check for updates frequently.   Updates that fix the FREAK attack should be available for all major browsers soon.


Where is Google's internal account authentication token located?

The authentication token for Google accounts and of other accounts which uses AccountManager class are stored inside:

/data/system/users/0/accounts.db   # for Android Marshmallow and earlier
/data/system_ce/0/accounts_ce.db   # for Android Nougat and above.

0 implies primary user of the device. If you have secondary user accounts, replace 0 with the user id of that account. To find out the user id follow my answer here.

Note that access to that database requires root access.


Is there a keyboard featuring Undo/Redo?

The default keyboard does not have the redo/undo features. However you can try some third-party keyboard app like AI type keyboard which have these features.


No, you cannot disable text preview completely. You can adjust how many lines you'd like to see (1-3), but like iOS native Messages.app you will be presented with a message preview.

That being said, on Android platform you can replace most default applications with the ones you like more. Perhaps you will be able to find SMS/MMS app that offers this sort of customizability.


How to Get Back the External SD Card Notification

Change the volume serial number of the sd card.

There might be various ways to do it, this one worked for me when I had the same problem after touching "clear all" when displaying notifications.

Mount the SD card on a windows PC.

Note the drive letter of the sd card by opening a windows explorer window.
For example let's say it was mounted as E:

In a command prompt window type the following command to find out the current volume id of the sd card, assuming the SD card is E: drive.

vol E:

It should give you a number like 1234-5678

Download the Microsoft utility "volumeid" from this link at Microsoft:

Follow the instructions at the link for using the utility and give the SD card a new volume id.

Make sure you use the right drive letter, the drive letter of the SD card. You don't want to change your hard disk by mistake.

In a command prompt window, the syntax is:

volumeid E: 1234-5679

This will change the volume id of E: drive to 1234-5679

When you put the SD card back in you android device the device will think it's a different card and show the sd card mounted notification.


Can a Dream's camera really zoom from the camera app?

There is no mention of physical zoom on the HTC Dream specification page. (To my knowledge no Android camera has that.)


Galaxy Nexus, playlists not showing up in other apps

I also hit this issue. I even went as far as downloading the ICS source code. It would seem that the music app on the Nexus is "Google Music", whereas the old music player is "Android Music". The old one is actually included in the source code, but it is not installed as part of the standard image. I actually compiled the old one, and installed it, and when I created playlists there, they were visible to other apps.

I suspect that because "Google Music" can do much more - cloud storage, music store etc. this means that it stores playlists differently. For example, an external app wouldn't know what to do with a playlist which included content which needed to be streamed from Google Music (and probably wouldn't be able to access the service.

I think Google are changing the strategy in the APIs. They now want you to use music controls to play the music in its default player. This makes some sense, but makes it very difficult to support apps which work in <3.0 and >3.0, and will probably become more complicated as more people manually download Google Music.


Twitter for HTC Sense claims multiple accounts are not supported

You could always clear the data for the app, if the app is simply kicking you out when you open it.

Go to Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications. Select your app, and click Clear Data. This will wipe all data from the app, as if you had uninstalled it and installed it fresh*.

*To be technical, it isn't the same as uninstalling and reinstalling because the dex files in the Dalvik Cache remain unchanged. Installing a fresh copy would regenerate those files. But it really shouldn't matter for non-developers.


What is meant by the Nexus S being a "developer Phone"?

It primarily means that the boot loader is unlocked so it is much easier to upload ROM's for testing. Additionally the default installation will be the original AOSP version of the code and include root access to the phone's software.

It does not mean that the hardware is a "test" model. It's a fully developed phone. What it doesn't have is more important than what it does have. What it doesn't have is the additional locks and proprietary junk that a carrier modified phone normally has.


Turn off vibration notification for ALL apps at once

Update: Android Pie (9.0) finally allows you to disable all the vibrations. Go to Settings app > Accessibility > Vibration. Some ROMs still don't have this option, in which case you may want to check out my old solution.

Old solution - applies to Android Oreo or older (<9.0):
Stock Android does not have an option to disable all vibrations. This frustrated me as well, so I made an app that can turn them off system-wide - https://blade.sk/projects/global-vibration-toggle/
A rooted phone is required, as there is no API for disabling vibrations.
The app is basically a user-friendly wrapper for this shell command: chmod 444 /sys/devices/virtual/timed_output/vibrator/enable.


One click root methods use a simple rootkit exploit package to gain root permissions to the Android kernel. Once this is done, they modify file permissions to make the rooting permanent.

These exploits have been patched by Google and device manufacturers for a long time now, and the vast majority of one click rooting solutions are outdated and no longer work.

In other words - your firmware is too new. It has been patched against rootkit exploits.


Is it possible to change which output the audio is played through?

You can simply use an app like Earpiece. It does what you want to do. You can pop Earpiece up on top of another application simply by holding down the SEARCH key. then check Audio through earpiece

On a side note, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Playing audio at high volumes, especially for a prolonged amount of time, can damage speakers and/or hearing.


Lock screen doesn't show notification on Android Lollipop

Go into settings and then into Sounds and notifications. There should be an option called "While locked". Tap into that option and select from the list to show notifications on the lock screen.


How can I add an icon to the MIUI home screen?

I found the problem: The icon already existed on another screen. However, I was confused because both icons are identically named (Gallery) and are nearly identical in appearance. Thus, I didn't realize that I had both icons already.


Unable to view videos - Message: "sorry, video cannot be played"

I had this problem with videos that used to play and then simply don't anymore.  It's not your video player or the video format, its something screwy with Android's file system.

Solution:

Download Rescan Media app from Google Play store.  Install and run, but do not enable the auto-close feature; just run it then minimize.  Your files should play now.


How do I prevent my phone from restarting after a System Update?

When a system update is performed, the phone reboots to allow the new files to take over the old (the old files will be removed from the system). On some devices, it is possible to delay the update, but when it (the update) is done, one has to restart the device.

If you don't want to update at all, then install a firewall and block the wireless update app from accessing the internet.


How do I make the camera app save photos to the SD card right after taking them?

There's a setting for that in the Camera App, which lets you toggle the default save location. You need to scroll down for it, though, and that's not very obvious. But, there is a setting for that.


Android App unavailable for download in Isle of Man

I read that some internet providers on the Isle of Mann route their signal through Ireland disallowing the download of the software by IP address.

I'd recommended checking to see if you can download it through WiFi or finding an APK of the latest version and just installing it.

EDIT: Just provide the APK direct to them


Where to get OpenSSL binary for Android?

Your best bet will be to build it from source.

There are a few StackOverflow questions that you might want to reference if you haven't already.

How to use openSSL Library in the ANDROID application

How to build OpenSSL on Android/Linux ?

Openssl Build Issue with Android NDK r8

The first SO has an answer linking to a GitHub project android-external-openssl.  I would suggest trying to work with this code as a starting point.


Privacy with third-party accounts with Gmail app

On your device, Install Packet Capture and you must install it's Certificate to decrypt SSL packets.
Start Capture with Packet Capture.
Launch your Gmail App and try to send a test email with your non-google account.
Return to Packet capture and verify the sent packet.


Questions about rooting a tablet device for making kiosks

For a solution like a kiosk you would use dev hardware where you have full access to the hardware (JTAG for example) and then you would push your own Android build with root access enabled and then push the ROM to the dev board.

That said, for a kiosk type deployment you would NOT want root access available. Therefore when you push your ROM root would not be enabled.

I think your confusing root access and an unlocked bootloader.

By a dev board and learn how to build your own ROMs. :)


Not ringing for incoming calls (Micromax Canvas Tablet P480 - Android 5.0.1)

Suggest you to set any of the screen lock(swipe, pin, etc). and try ringing, and then even when screen lock, phone rings. It worked for me.


How do I disable the "Select input method" Notification?

This is a standard 'feature' of ICS. Aside from the notification, changing input methods can be accomplished through the "language and input" section of the phone menu. If you disable and uninstall all keyboards except for one, so there is nothing else to switch to, the notification may disappear.


Google Now on Tap
on Marshmallow does something similar but not perfectly

Long pressing the Home brings up the Google Now on Tap with various options , one of them being calling the number listed ( others being- text, share and add contact). The number gets pasted on the  telephone app without any user intervention. One can directly call from there

This is from a resturant search using an app. It works well in this case

This is from a random telephone directory search on mobile browser (details blacked out for obvious reasons). Here, it picks up only the first number, so this option is a hit and miss , if there are several numbers in the image


If it works like older roms that used to support the "apps2sd" before the google implementation, then yes, you need to format your SD card outside of your phone, on a linux distribution. You can use like an Ubuntu Live CD if you don't have linux installed on a PC already. Then you open up a partition tool, like GParted, and set up your partitions. IIRC, the first partition must be EXT2/3/4 in order for the device to use it like it is actually part of the internal memory. Then you can partition the rest as FAT32.

Back before Froyo, when the custom ROM I used supported this, there was nothing else to do. Just put in the sdcard, boot the device. It would pick up the partition and mount it automatically. As for MIUI, I do not know if it does that. I am actually surprised that they still support this. All ROM devs I know have dropped support for it since google introduced the "built-in" method. I personally hate the built-in apps2sd. I dont feel that it works very well.

While the ext2/3/4 method has the drawback of not really being able to remove your sdcard, it does still give you the ability to mount your FAT32 partition, if you choose to, to your PC and still let the device have access to the ext partition.


Movement (gyro) input reversed on Zopo 998

I found the problem and it doesn't look good so far. It's a bug which is model specific. The Zopo 998 is known for this issue (fixed in the 999 model). Perks have been asking for a ROM to correct the error.

Going to just have to keep my eyes open for some fix.


How do I install the new Gmail app on Cyanogen?

I installed it simply by going to the market and updating to the new version. I know I have it installed correctly as it popped up a "What's New" dialog on first run.

I have a HTC Magic 32A with CM6.


It happened to me once because I had a slow internet connection. Connect to a high speed internet and try again.


you don't need an official "skin". You just need to figure out what screen dimensions and memory capacity the device you want to test has and create a deployment target file.


Is there a GB size limit for SD card for a HTC evo phone?

If you're referring to the HTC Evo 4G, the Supported limit (According to GSMArena) is 32GB.

GSMArena is usually pretty good for anything hardware related, so if the afore mentioned model is the one you have, try searching GSM for your model.

Source: GSMArena


This is how I got it working:

I registered a new account through my Mobile phone (HTC Desire HD, during phone setup).
I got an email from htc sense with a link in it to confirm my account
clicking the link open a page to htc sense, and tries to complete the registration and log you to your account page, but in my case it kept hanging
While in the confirmation page, I clicked on login again and were able to log in even though registration was still ongoing. Apparently the acocunt gets registered even though the page hangs.


Galaxy S2 X t989d firmware update - Kies crashes

Samsung Kies sucks horribly. The only way I've gotten it to work is to run it in Compatible with Windows XP (Service Pack 3) and running it as a administrator. It should work fine then.


Cannot install Whatsapp - it says insufficient storage available

Maybe there is a Dead Data Folder
Download and install SystemCleanup on Google Play
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.SystemCleanup.Inteks.org&hl=en

ROOT ACCESS necessary

Delete Dead Data Folder for WhatsApp.

insufficient space while updating WhatsApp on CyanogenMod


Downlading works fine on wifi but not on data

Please mention through which app you are trying to download.
one possible reason it is not downloading on mobile data is most apps don't download content on mobile data by default, you have to go to the app settings and check if there is any option saying download only on wifi, if that's the case then just enable downloading on mobile data from there.


You don't need to back up apps bought on Google Play to install later.  So long as the device has your Google account registered on it, you can download and install it from Google Play at any time.


I think you have two options:
1: Transfer to a Google Account login to a Google account on your Blackberry and go to the contacts app > gear icon > General > Contacts Management > Copy Contacts and you will be able to copy them straight to the Google account. Then login on your Galaxy S6 and enable contacts sync.

2: Export as a vCard or .vcf file contacts app > gear icon > General > Contacts Management > Import/export and select an option. Then transfer the file from your Blackberry to your S6, and go into the contacts app and click import.

If in option one, for whatever reason you are not able to login to a Google account and transfer the contacts, you can export them as a vCard or .vcf, and import them into Google contacts on your PC directly.


Google Now screen is blank (Nexus 7, Android 4.2)

Invoke Google Now again to be in the same place as is on your snapshot. Just press Back button to hide keyboard and press three dots button bottom right and select Settings. You will get the summary where you can realize that you have Google Now switched Off. Just select this item and continue with the wizard to switch Google Now On.


BlueStacks APK Install Error : INSTALL_FAILED_OLDER_SDK

The app you're installing is meant for newer Android versions than what's emulated in the BlueStacks environment. If there's no new version of BS available, you will either need to give up on the app or use a different emulator.

There are workarounds involving modifying the manifest of the APK file to be installed, but since you don't really know what APIs the app will actually use, shoehorning it into an older SDK won't always work.


Gmail app - increase font size when sending

The rich text compose app update for Android does not include font size.  It only allows changes to bold, italic, underline and text color.


How are the gallery application edits applied to images?

You can find the source for this app in the Gallery2 package in AOSP. All the code for the photo editor is in src/com/android/gallery3d/filtershow. The saving is handled by tools/ImageSave.java, which has this comment explaining the behaviour (which I've formatted):-

  In order to support the new edit-save behavior such that user won't see the edited image together with the original image, we are adding a new auxiliary directory for the edited image. Basically, the original image will be hidden in that directory after edit and user will see the edited image only.

  Note that deletion on the edited image will also cause the deletion of the original image under auxiliary directory.

  There are several situations we need to consider:

  User edit local image local01.jpg. A local02.jpg will be created in the same directory, and original image will be moved to auxiliary directory as ./.aux/local02.jpg.
  If user edit the local02.jpg, local03.jpg will be created in the local directory and ./.aux/local02.jpg will be renamed to ./.aux/local03.jpg
  User edit remote image remote01.jpg from picassa or other server. remoteSavedLocal01.jpg will be saved under proper local directory. In remoteSavedLocal01.jpg, there will be a reference pointing to the remote01.jpg. There will be no local copy of remote01.jpg. If user edit remoteSavedLocal01.jpg, then a new remoteSavedLocal02.jpg will be generated and still pointing to the remote01.jpg
  User delete any local image local.jpg. Since the filenames are kept consistent in auxiliary directory, every time a local.jpg get deleted, the files in auxiliary directory whose names starting with "local." will be deleted. This pattern will facilitate the multiple images deletion in the auxiliary directory.

In short: yes, it saves edited images in a .aux directory, inside the directory the image came from.

It also stores the filter chain you used to create the image in XMP metadata inside the new image (the filtered one), in the namespace http://ns.google.com/photos/1.0/filter/. This information consists of:

SourceFileUri: the URI where it has saved the unmodified file
filterstack: a serialized representation of the stack of filters it used (in the same format it saves presets to its private database)


Moon+ Reader reads chm's and almost anything


Failed to load Android and TWRP recovery after flashing twrp recovery image

I tried adb reboot recovery at the earliest time I see Team Win is starting up. That works and give me the fastboot mode.
Then I flashed another recovery image.


Samsung Andriod Mobile does not detect 5GHz Wifi from Verizon Router

I am sorry to tell you..
Your phone is not 5g.
Your phone was created in 2017 before there were any 5g carriers or even 5g phones.
Network technology for this phone is limited to 2G, 3G, and 4G but don't fret! this is still a really nice phone and supports wifi!
Why don't you just use Wifi?  It's fast.. faster on most ways.. slower in a few others.


Cannot find SDK or point to it, both programs installed

After you install the Android SDK, you have to run the studio.exe or studio64.exe before you install DroidExplorer.  This might install a bunch of platform updates.

Check this post of Ryan's for a full explanation of what to do.


On Android the communication between the web browser and the sms app bases on "Intents".
based on your description the problematic component in this set-up is the web browser.
Hence using a different app that can send Intents to other apps or using the adb shell can be helpful for testing out SMS links directly.
There a a lot of apps in Google PlayStore that can send Intents to other apps, for example Intent.
If you want to try adb (Android Debug Bridge) use the following command to sens an sms intent:
adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d sms:1234?body=5678


Remove notification bar in Samsung Galaxy Tab 3

You need a launcher app to do such things. Try using launchers available on PlayStore, like Nova Launcher. Launcher will give you access to hiding notification bar, configuring desktop grid, playing around with doc and so on.


Is com.android.syshandler a malware file on Android 5.x?

Unable to comment because of low reputation: Did malwarebytes indicate which files the malware resides in? (.apk)

And about UC News - those are notifications from the application UC Browser. You should be able to get rid of those by either uninstalling UC Browser or by blocking notifications  for UC browser.


How did the WhatsApp support team knows I have a rooted phone?

From your build version OnePlus2-userdebug 7.1.2 NJH47F b4eb8634d4 , one can easily say that you are using a rooted build.

  userdebug like "user" but with root access and debuggability; preferred for debugging

For more info about build type see this

In this case any root hide app will not work. You can try to edit build name along with root hide.


Problem copying files from PC to Galaxy S3 (slow or frozen)

You can use Dropbox and other cloud based storage, very useful for moving files.


Upgrade Cyanogenmod from 9.1 to 10.1 without losing information?

Here's some advice for moving between any two Android ROMs that will serve you well:

First, do a full nandroid backup if you're not feeling completely confident. You can do this in CWM Recovery, or via ADB (Android Debug Bridge). This will create an "image" of your entire device.
Now that you're safe from screwing anything up beyond repair, go ahead and use TitaniumBackup to backup all your system settings and your user apps (I usually don't backup system apps as this might cause problems). Backups will be saved on your /sdcard/ and will not disappear when you wipe.
(Before this step, make sure you have the ROM zip files on your sdcard, otherwise you'll have to add them via ADB) Go into CWM Recovery and wipe your device (cache and data). Remember, /sdcard/ is still fine. Now install your shiny new ROM.
When you've booted your new ROM, install TitaniumBackup first of all. It will recognize that there's already TitaniumBackup files on the sdcard (from before), and you'll be able to batch install your apps and restore system settings.

Some advice on restoring backups: be conservative. Start by restoring apps without user data, as old data may break the app. If somethings missing and it annoys you, restore that app only with data. Same goes for restoring system settings, deselect everything and just restore what you really want (usually just WiFi hotspots for me).


What's the point of encryption with 3x3 in OnePlus 5 if it has 409104 combinations meaning it can be cracked under a second with any modern processor?

Countering your supplemental conditions...

  To clarify I mean booting into recovery mode, ADBing, and trying to decrypt the partition directly, without artificial timeouts that OSes do.

Stock recovery doesn't have regular ADB capability (only ADB sideload, and that only flashes signed firmware).
Even with USB Debugging enabled, you can't authorize a random PC to debug over ADB, since the authorization dialog is behind the lockscreen.
Can't read/pull anything from /data even if you have ADB authorization, unless the device is rooted.
Can't flash a custom recovery without unlocking the bootloader, which nowadays requires flipping a switch in Settings - Developer options, again behind the lockscreen. Unlocking also fully wipes all data including the internal storage.
If the bootloader is already unlocked then theoretically none of the security measures would ever matter - but such is a very rare case for regular users, and anyone who do it would (or should) know the risk well already.


Set encryption password for booting on OnePlus 5?

I was trying to do this too, but it seems like this is by design as seen at  oneplus forum.

Apparently nothing gets decrypted after boot until you enter your pin/pattern but it's still a bit disappointing if you want the phone to not even boot without authentication.


How can I root my General Mobile e-Tab 7b tablet?

If you want easy root access and Developer support, It would be a good idea to get a well known android device from the likes of Samsung/HTC/Sony, etc.

I don't think there is good support for niche and low volume tablets.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

EDIT:
You can do something like this:

Look up the ODM of your Tablet. It probably is some Chinese no-label company.
See other tablets which are based on it and check if you could root them.


Many questions in one, but …

No. They all mean whatever the system sees as "primary external storage". If you've got an "internal SD card" and an "external SD card", this usually means the internal.
Nes. Depends on. Without root powers, this is correct. With root powers there are ways around – see e.g. our link2sd tag-wiki (for a broader intro, also see our app2sd tag-wiki)
the devices internal storage (i.e. /data/data)
if you don't have that much internal storage left, you don't deal with them at all. Initial download goes to internal storage, so no way1.

1: note that with Android 6+ you can adopt the SD card as internal storage to work around this limitation, on the cost of other limitations


How to sync contacts and calendar with Linux system, without using Gmail?

It depends on how you are managing your contacts and calendar on your Linux system.

If you are using Evolution, Sunbird, Thunderbird, Lightening, Kontact or Yahoo then MemoToo will get the job done.


Is there a standard place for the Owner Information on an Android phone?

If you go to Settings > Accounts & sync settings, you should be able to see their gmail address and possibly Facebook. You can probably contact them through one of those.


What you can do is get the .apk file of the Google PlayServices and Google PlayStore from some trusted source like Android Police etc. You can also use these .apk files Google Play Store and
Google Play Service and install it over your device that's should solve the updating problem you are experiencing.


Check, where your contact is stored. If it is stored on your SIM, then you can't add any field. To add a field, you must export this contact to your phone first.


Is there a music player that can play music from the Google Music Store as well as Amazon MP3?

Have you tried CloudAround yet?  It's a music app that lets you listen to everything on your device as well as sync/stream from a few cloud storage providers.  This includes offline music you saved from Amazon MP3.  The app scans your device for all music files and gives you a handy list of everything available.  Once you login with the various cloud services, your music stored will show up too.


Changing SD Card Just a Simple Copy & Paste

Joel,

I've done this before, and I've had mixed results. Make sure you have Windows set to see hidden files and folders, then drag everything over. Your phone may refuse to remember the SD card-stored apps you have (as in, you've moved an app to run off the SD card), but it may also work. App settings, as far as I remember, seem to come over. I'd say it wouldn't hurt trying.

I know it'll preserve the link to Gallery pictures and videos and music and such.


Where is Voice Privacy on OnePlus phone?

Since Voice Privacy is a CDMA network function, and OnePlus One is a GSM phone, there is no such option to be selected. GSM technology doesn't have the same vulnerability as CDMA.


How to sync with iTunes acting as an iPOD

DoubleTwist lets you sync your phone's music library with your music on your computer from iTunes (and Windows Media Player as well, I believe) either by plugging it into your computer's USB port, or by syncing wirelessly over-the-air (though the wireless feature costs a little bit). You can find it at http://www.doubletwist.com/ and in the Android Market at https://market.android.com/details?id=com.doubleTwist.androidPlayer.

Another option is to sync your collection wirelessly using Google Music, though you can only stream your music using it, or download it and play it only using the Music app (cannot be played by other media players on your phone). Google Music is free (for up to something like 20,000 songs) and it backs up all your music that you have on your computer (or that you purchase from the Android Market) both to your phone and your computer.


In Settings -> Languages & input, tap on Virtual keyboard, then Google voice typing. Tap on "Offline speech recognition", then All. Select the language(s) that should be downloaded and use offline.

Alternatively, if you have Gboard installed, in Settings -> Languages & input, tap on Virtual keyboard, then Gboard. Click on Voice typing, then "Offline speech recognition". Click on "Offline speech recognition", then All. Select the language(s) that should be downloaded and use offline.


Use MX Player.

It has an option to sync by specifying the time to adjust (in seconds).

Go to Options (3dots) ->Subtitles-> Synchronization while playing a video to adjust it..


Android 2.3 Keyboard on SE X8 running 2.1

The 2.3 keyboard cannot be installed on 2.1 as-is.  It relies on the 2.3 Voice Search app, which uses API methods not present in 2.1.  (See this XDA post.)  I'm sure someone is in the process of hacking the keyboard to work though.  To be honest, the only difference I see with the 2.3 keyboard is that the keys are smaller, which I dislike.


Where is the temp file of recorder in Android?

It's on main drive of your phone (at lest it was in my case), named something like .voice.3ga

Just plug in your phone to PC, an run search for .3ga file type.

Hope this helps.


In my case, mounting the volume as f2fs did the job.


how to search a particular song using search button

You have to add Music to the Searchable items in the Search settings.

These settings you normally find when pressing the phone's Search button (to view the Search widget) -> [Menu] -> Search settings -> Searchable items and you select the items you want to include in your search.

On a HTC phone I think you find these settings here:
[Menu] (while on a Home screen) -> Settings -> Search -> Searchable items.


Transferring data from SD Card to Internal Memory and vice versa

There is no automatic way that you can do this. However if you really want to do it, you will have to connect both memory cards to computer and transfer the files manually by selecting all. And if you don't have computer you cant do by app, es explorer which is freely available in play store this transfer by first placing the files in your sd card and then insert the new sd card and if the system prompts you about the storage full, then you have what you want.


Google Voice typing no longer works in French, works in English

I noticed that Android had locally an offline recognition pack for English.  So, I ended up selecting the French language for offline recognition, Android downloaded a pack and now it works.

Not the actual fix to the initial problem.  It worked online before, but in practice it works.

It does not explain why on-line speech recognition would fail.

Also, is offline recognition as good as online ?

Edit: in order to reproduce the problem with logcat to get a log, I uninstalled offline French pack and now voice typing works at all times, even after rebooting.  So, the problem looks like it's definitely gone and we'll never know?


How to prevent Wi-Fi from disconnecting during a WhatsApp call?

If you have Avast battery saver, uninstall it. It keeps disconnecting your wifi.


Backup stock HTC Desire ROM with Unrevoked

If you root or install a custom ROM you void your warranty.  It doesn't matter if you undo it.  You might be less likely to be caught, but that depends on the carrier/manufacturer.  And if you're running a custom ROM and your phone breaks, you will often not be able to restore the backup (depending on how it broke).  If you want to keep your warranty, don't do anything that is against its terms.


If I set an Android 4.0 to use face recognition, after which I shave my head, will face recognition still work?

You can "recalibrate" face unlock by switching to another type of lock screen and back, as this causes a new reference image to be taken. Meanwhile you can unlock the device with secondary measures (either PIN or pattern unlock).


I confirm it will attempt to connect all the time and drain battery in half a day in my case. To solve it you should untick the data in the network settings and check that GPRS/EDGE/HSPDA icon is not visible on top next to the signal strength bars. But at least APNdroid (or manually modify the APN name) will prevent any connection and any extra charge during roaming session.


IS it OK to flash stock ROM from other country?

Yes, it's OK to flash stock ROM from another country. BUT, take note that it may have different languages, and a different baseband/modem. Having a different baseband can cause network issues (or a very hot phone), but you can flash a baseband that works for your country.


How can I remove vibration when the phone is turned off on my Samsung Galaxy S9 (non-rooted Android 9, One UI 1.0)?

This is option is not for user’s control. It’s default for all smartphones.
The main purpose is to alert the user when their phone shuts down otherwise there is a chance that users may not know whether their phone is off or on.
So OEM provides this feature as default and cannot be controlled until the phone is rooted. Rooting a phone will give you a full control over the phone. But this is helpful. If you feel to remove this option, root your device but that is difficult fix to this. Mainly it is not a bug.
Hope it helps!


You can run Webserver on Android for example :
KSWEB

but, there is 2 Case for use with Android Device :

First :

  your phone Broadband is how much ?

  this Broadband can support users
  and online at 24 hours of day ?

second :

this is not good idea for start webhosting or other something with a Android device.your hardware need backup and set other Options...

and about Questions :

1.

  Point me at what to read about this, so I can set it myself

yes you can.use below link :

http://www.androidguys.com/2014/04/22/host-website-android-device/

2.

  Tell me if the phone can run only on a charger, without a battery
  (because I expect it won't live long if the battery is constantly
  charging)

i have no idea, But this links maybe can help you :

http://www.makeuseof.com/answers/can-i-directly-power-an-android-device-by-circumventing-its-battery/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp_sJYQR1Bg


What is this `adb` utility I keep getting advice to use?

About adb

To put it shortly, adb (Android Debug Bridge) is a utility made to be installed on a computer, in order to let it gain a shell on a phone that's either connected via USB cable, or on the same Wi-Fi network.

On certain devices running Android Lollipop (5.1.1) and possibly lower versions of the OS, it was possible to trick a device into connecting to itself, since the adb client came bundled in the phone as well. This is not possible any more because, from Android Marshmallow (6.0) onwards, Google removed the adb binary from the phones to reduce the usable attack surface.

It is possible, though, to manually reintroduce the adb client on a phone, without needing to compile the binary yourself. Refer to the adb tag wiki for more info about this topic, as well as about installation on a computer and general troubleshooting.

Where to get it

Some time ago, in order to obtain adb and another utility, called fastboot, one had to download the full Android SDK from Google, if they wanted an official package. Nowadays, a small, official bundle has become available, as XDA says. It includes binaries for the most common operating systems.

How it works

The adb client, installed on your computer, makes a connection to a plugged or otherwise detectable phone, by means of an internal server. Then, the user will be able to send a variety of commands to the phone itself, which will be listened to by adbd, a daemon residing on the phone.

When using adb, you impersonate the user called shell (UID 2000). This user is special, in that they can grant app permissions and access more information than a simple user. This fact, though, does not mean that adb is the same as su, as the latter lets you impersonate any user.

More info about adb and its workings may be obtained by looking at the official documentation.

Issuing commands from a phone

The majority of commands that can be issued via adb tend to be utilities that come preinstalled in a phone.

In order to access them, you need to install a terminal emulator app on your phone (note that Termux is special, in that it specifies its own PATH, thereby ignoring system binaries). This will, for example, let you issue commands such as logcat directly on your mobile device. Remember to omit the adb prefix, though.

It is worth mentioning that, should you lack root permissions, the range of commands you'll be able to execute and the info you'll be able to access will be significantly less than if using adb, because the UID that invokes them will be the app itself, and apps have less permissions than UID 2000.


Stuck in twrp after trying to root Samsung A7(2018)

Thanks to @alecxs I was able to fix it. The reason why I was stuck in twrp is because I wiped system through twrp(I was frustrated when I couldn't boot in magisk after many times of trying so I decided to let the System go,  the first time trying to root an phone so I didn't know what I was doing).
DON'T WIPE THE SYSTEM!
I still don't know why "Zip file is corrupt" ocurred, maybe because I tried to install magisk through sd card and the sd card was corrupted, or maybe because the twrp I flashed was unofficial, I don't know, but here is how you can recover your phone back:
1.Install the stock rom/firmware for your model at samfw.com,
before you install the stock rom for your phone model you should know your phone CSC(Country Specific Code), if you don't know it just boot in download mode and you will see Carrier ID associated with phone CSC Code
2.Boot in download mode and flash the downloaded rom. If that goes well and now you have your phone back but you still want to root then go to Magisk Installation Guide and follow the instructions.
If you experienced the same error like mine while trying to flash magisk on twrp with sd card then next time instead of sd card try to copy magisk in cache partition and then in twrp flash from there.


Method for installing apps on corporate devices to be deployed to users

Try these:

I don't want to sound stupid, but have you selected the auto-update setting to be turned on for the app on the play store? You can turn on auto-update in the settings of google play store app and then navigate to the app and press the menu button and tick the auto update button.

Or

Delete Airwatch and ask the users to download the app again.
They can then recive auto-updates as the app is linked to their
account

Idea: From what I know you can deploy apps via Airwatch, so try deploying the Airwatch app update to the phones. (This is only an idea, It probably wont work, but is worth a try


How to remove/hide "Likee Videos" from imo main menu?

Go to settings
Then you can see " Function"
Click it turn off likee vedio


What should I do after installing a new battery?

The reason why batteries degrade over time is because blockages build up in the individual cells as the current passes through them, preventing them from fully charging. This is a chemical process and is unavoidable, but one thing that is sure to speed it up is extreme temperatures. Too hot and the reaction speeds up. Too cold and the phone eats up all of the power to warm the components.

So here is a few helpful tips for keeping your new battery happy:

Keep your phone off of any insulated surfaces when charging
Turn off background processes that can make your phone run hot
Turn off features that you aren't using or don't use frequently (Bluetooth, location, even turning off wifi can cool down your processor)
Keep your phone close to your body in cold weather

If you are concerned about the length of a charge, some of these tips can help there too. There are also free apps that allow you to manage the processes running on your phone, clean up junk files, and boost the efficiency of the apps you are currently using. There are also some cheap apps that allow you to modify several aspects of the OS without needing to root your phone.

As far as charge frequency, you should be fine regardless of what you do.


You need to root the device and give permission to copy files using any root explorer.


"Touch to download SoundCloud" notification

You can identify the app responsible by long-tapping the notification and clicking "App info" on the pop-up menu.


import about 300 thousand numbers in android

I think i Solved it myself
1-I used MS Excel to change the format from TXT to CSV
2-And then I used Contacts from Windows to import the CSV
AND then exported them to a folder that contains 300,000 contacts of VCARD or VCF files
you can find it in here (C:\Users\USERNAME\Contacts)
3-AND using CMD to export them all to ONE VCF.
The Code:

copy *.vcf combined.vcf

4-And then used ADB to connect to nox.
The Commands:

$ adb connect 127.0.0.1:62001
connected to 127.0.0.1:62001
$ adb devices
List of devices attached
127.0.0.1:62001 device

5-Copying the combined file into Nox Sdcard

$ adb push contacts.vcf /sdcard/contacts.vcf
$ adb sync

6-And then using contacts app from NOX to import the file from sdcard.


Headphones controls not working with xperia ray

The Ray's 3.5mm jack only supports sound. It isn't a microphone jack.


I found this advice on another chatroom:

Disabling "Facebook app installer" and "Facebook app manager" in app manager made this unwanted garbage stop harassing my precious S7.

it helped me.


Swap z and y keys on Xperia Mini Pro with Android 4.0

I don't know if Sony devices might have a different keyboard pre-installed. But the usual place to look for this is Settings→Language & Input, look for Keyboards and input methods. Here you should be able to configure your keyboard:

On my ICS device, next to each input method available is a "gear symbol". Tapping that, opens the settings for that input method. The topmost entry is labeled something with "Input Language". Tap that, and you'll find the available languages, again with a "gear symbol" letting you select the keyboard layout.

As all languages in the list have their keyboard layouts announced, you might also simply enable the language with the correct layout there. My list e.g. has:

English (QWERTY)
English (AZERTY)
English (QWERTZ)

So you'ld just need to enable the one you want. You also can enable multiple languages you then can switch between directly from the keyboard, of course.


Only use pattern lock instead of swipe screen and pattern lock

Without rooting, etc there is no way on the Droid 3 to go back to the Droid 1 lockscreen experience. Motorola and their forum users recommend using a lock timer so you don't have to use the pattern every time.

Motorola Forum Post


Yes. All contents of WhatsApp including archived chats media , messages, audio notes will be backed up to Google Drive

I have done backing up and restoring multiple times so can absolutely confirm


Google Play does not install applications through OpenVPN connect

To answer the "How to investigate?":

Enable ADB (Android debugging) on your phone.

Go to settings -> about this phone (or similar naming) and press the "Build number" 7 times. Congratulations, you are now a developer!
Go to settings -> Developer Options. Enable "Android debugging"

Connect your phone to a PC and install adb on there.

On debian based Linux: apt-get install adb
On arch based Linux: pacman -S adb
Please see Google "How to install adb on YOUR_OS" for other Operating Systems

Open a terminal on your PC (On Windows, make sure you are in the same directory as the adb binary. You might need to replace the adb below with ./adb or ./adb.exe on Windows.)
Run adb devices to make sure your phone shows up. Confirmation on phone might be required.
Run adb shell to get a shell into your phone.
Within that shell, run logcat *:W (without the *:W for more verbosity).

You will now get a lot of log entries, the *:W shows only warnings and "worse". Without disconnecting USB or closing the shell, try to get something from the Play Store now. Watch the log window on your PC. Try to look for anything related in there.

My guess is that Google simply blocks downloads from your VPN (logcat should show this clearly), so have this workaround aswell:

Install F-Droid

F-Droid is an alternative App Store that has a lot of really nice open source applications.

But I want an app that isn't on F-Droid

Check out Yalp Store on F-droid!

I personally do not use Google services and removed everything Google from my phone. Nor do I have a Google account. Whenever I do need an application that's only on the Play Store though, I use Yalp. You don't need an account, you can browse apps just like in the Play Store and they install just as easily. It's kinda like a proxy to the Play Store. APKs are being downloaded from Google, not some fishy weird websites, so it's safe to use.

Depending on how Yalp works exactly, it might try to access the APK from Google's servers using your IP, which means it might still get blocked. But it's most certainly worth a try and might very well work!


Can I use a modern Android phone with no phone plan?

Yes, it is possible, but it might be tricky depending on the phone.

For instance, I bought a T-Mobile G1 (not the Android Dev Phone version) and had to have a SIM card in it.  You can either borrow a friend's or you can do what I did, which was buy a prepaid-SIM card.  It cost less than $40.  If you have a friend's SIM card that has a data plan, then you can activate the phone.  But if you don't want to have to have a SIM card in the phone anymore, you'll have to root the phone and install CyanogenMod on it.

Now if you bought a pre-paid SIM card, then you can activate the phone over wifi by following these steps (this is specific to the G1).

A G1 is probably the cheapest phone you can get if you're only wanting to use it as a hardware testing device. On ebay it is around the $100-150 range.


Please help with Stock/Custom Rom for Bluboo s8a

I finally got another ROM version which was extracted into .img files to use sp flash tools. I flashed the ROM with sp flash tools and the phone worked again.

Tools needed:

Sp flash Tool
Firmware

The link to the stock firmware/ stock ROM file for BLUBOO S8a _V27.20180314 is here

ps: credit goes to Rusya77@ Ruslan N and Samin Sikong


Contacts and calendar no longer syncing between google and phone

Try these things:

Go to the tablet's System Settings/Account (Google), tap your account name, make sure Calendar is checked for sync.
Go to the Calendar app's Settings, tap your account name, and make sure the calendars that you want synced are checked.

OR

Settings-->Apps--> click on the ALL tab-->Calendar.
Then Clear Data.
Then go back to Settings-->Accounts-->Google--> Tap on Calender for sync.

Short cut name will change according to which android version you are using.


Its a faulty phone. Take it back and get a new one.

But you can turn off mobile data and it will stop rebooting.

or search google for "Motorola Defy+ Rebooting" for other opinons


One SVN app is available in Google Play.

But I think it can work as SVN Client only,
I haven't tried it though.


Remove google-account from older smartphone

If you are using Google Two Step authorisation, then you can revoke the one-time password that you assigned to the phone remotely from your Google account's settings, I don't think that this is possible unless you are using the Two Step authorisation.

Go to your Google Account Settings page, click the Edit link beside "2 step verification", click "Manage application-specific passwords", look down the list for the password assigned to your old phone and click the "Revoke" link. Next time the phone tries to access your Google account, it should be denied access and your sister will see a warning asking her to enter the new password.

If you haven't set up the two step authorisation then, to do it directly on the phone, as long as the phone is running Android 2.1 (Eclair) or newer, then you can go into Settings -> Accounts and sync -> then select the account and you should have a Remove account button at the bottom of the screen.

Once you've done this switch the phone off and on again (just to make sure that no apps are running that have already logged in), and it should be removed.

Note that this won't remove all of your old data from the phone, it will just remove some of the Google synced data, and stop anything new from coming down from (or going up to) your Google account. To be sure that all of your old data is removed from the phone, you will need to wipe the phone with a factory reset.


Mediaserver using excessive CPU time and battery

Killing all running apps didn't solve the problem, nor did disabling the automatic sync for Google account items like videos/photos (which I heard suggested for a similar battery issue).

What did work was simply rebooting the device by holding the power button and picking shut down. After rebooting Mediaserver no longer appears to use much of my battery in the usage chart and my charge lasts like it always did. So if you get the same issue, just reboot.


You have to use the Android SDK, specifically the command fastboot, to flash the stock system.img and stock recovery.img.  Only flash the boot.img only if a custom kernel has been flashed, if not, this isn't required.  With USB Debugging enabled in Settings - Developer Options, you'll need to boot into the bootloader.  You'll also need the factory image for the current version of stock you are running.

You'll need to use the commmands:

fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash boot boot.img

Rooting modifies /system, which OTA's will check and fail.  Also, any other recovery except for stock recovery will also fail to flash the OTA.


Find application size on Google Play Store

In the app and in the website, you can only get the size of the APK.

But for additional downloads (extensions), it's usually not documented, but they can go to as much as 4GB. See this SO question: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21330911/max-size-of-an-android-application

In some cases, it just says "Varies with device".


XPrivacy: ability to batch-set one permission for all apps?

I found that the ability to select multiple apps and then batch-applying a template is available in the Pro version of the app. That's not exactly what this question asks for, but it does seem that if applying just one permission change (instead of a whole template) exists or will ever exist, it will also be a Pro feature.

Source: https://forum.xda-developers.com/search/thread/2320783?query=batch