What can I expect from the "Pure Google" Nexus S 4G?

I have a Nexus S for T-Mobile, and I've enjoyed it so far.

There's only been one update for the Nexus S so far, to 2.3.3. I didn't get it the first day, so I installed it myself.
Unless Sprint turns it off, you should be able to tether. I can both over Wifi and USB.
I have never needed to root, and I'm a rather advanced Android user. You can unlock the bootloader without doing anything fancy on the Nexus S.

I truly enjoy having a clean phone. There are a few apps installed by Google that I can't remove (with root you can), but they don't bug me much. It doesn't have the load of crapware that most carriers apply, and it definitely does not have the various awful custom UIs manufacturers feel they need to add.

It runs fast for everything I do, including some light gaming; I generally wait till I'm at my PC to game, but it plays Angry Birds and Robot Unicorn Attack just fine.


incorrect mapping from brightness slider to real system values

Maybe everytime you unlock the screen, the phone sets the brightness to the current brightness value specified (set) by the slider.

This is something that has to be changed in the framework-res.apk .

If you know how to edit it using APKtool, just proceed.

Otherwise, the most easiest way is using a Tasker app.
Just add a task to set (echo) the brightness to 255 everytime screen is unlocked.


How to customize android operating system of my smartphone?

Check out this XDA Developers subforum: http://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-l90

That's the general discussion forum for your phone, and you can find lots of fun stuff there including mods, themes, guides to root and do other things, custom ROMs, kernels, and more. If you want to play with or change your operating system or its features in any way, XDA is the place to keep a lookout in. But make sure you read posts thoroughly to make sure that you know what you're doing and so that you don't end up breaking or bricking your phone.

As for your specific request, this thread in the L90 forums will get your phone rooted quick and easy as long as you follow the instructions well. Make sure you get ADB and download all the files prior to starting the process, and also, please don't jump into it without making a backup.

Good luck!


How To Get Files Off a HTC M7 That Won't Stay On

So I modified this script to automate file transfer in between reboots:

#!/bin/sh

rfolder=/mnt/sdcard/DCIM/$1
lfolder=$2
homeDir=`pwd`
adb shell ls "$rfolder" > android.files

ls "$lfolder" -1 > local.files

rm -f update.files
touch update.files

while IFS=  read -r q; do
  # Remove non-printable characters (are not visible on console)
  l=$(echo ${q} | sed 's/[^[:print:]]//')
  # Populate files to update
  if ! grep -q "$l" local.files; then
    echo "$l" >> update.files
  fi
done

Its slow but it works


Best guess at real intent of question:

  For my Samsung Galaxy S III (WiFi), how should I best connect to the Internet?

  Should I try to get my laptop (with USB modem) to be a WiFi 'hot spot', OR try connecting the USB modem directly to the Galaxy S
  III smartphone?

Answer 1: (based on your two options)

Your best approach would be to setup the Laptop as a WiFi hot-spot.  It is already working, and you will still be able to use the laptop at the same time.  This will require some knowledge of how to do this (for Windows or Linux ?) on your laptop.

To connect the Galaxy S III directly would also require an additional OTG USB cable, and would be a higher drain on the S III's battery.

Answer 2: (looking at other solutions)

A portable WiFi router, either 3G or 4G, would more easily provide Internet access for both the Laptop and Galaxy S III.  It is much simpler to setup, and some models would even support using the USB modem you already have.  It also has its own battery, for longer Internet time between charging.


How do I prevent Android from going to sleep?

Depending on you tablet, you may have the option to set the screen timeout to "never" under Settings > Display > Sleep.
If you do not have this option, you can enable Settings > Developer options > Stay awake. This will keep your tablet awake while it is charging. This could be useful if your tablet does not support the "never" screen timeout.
Note: If you don't see Developer options in Settings, it may be made available by going to to Settings > About > Build number. Developer options should appear after tapping the build number several times.
(Rowan) Note: Developer settings isn't always in build number it can be in others such as the kernel version. It's mostly trying to be hidden by the devs in different locations and I know this because I myself have found them in different locations on different devices.


PDF files are designed to maintain their content across platforms ,be immune to the application or OS

Hence, recommendation was to try alternate PDF app, which worked for OP. Adobe PDF reader used earlier was buggy, it looks like

Here's a list of PDF readers, thanks to izzy


Why does every application run as a separate user under Android?

Desktop and server systems have a completely different usage model, and they have system administrators to mediate access between users and applications (by setting appropriate group permissions, etc).

With Android there's no room for that kind of thing - your biggest target user base is completely non technical, and security is a must. So things default to high security - no app can fool with another's data. Further, mobile apps tend to be small, and focused on one task, so limiting them to just their own data isn't much of a hardship.


NANDroid on CM12.1, Samsung Galaxy S2 I9100

The problem is in the first point can be solved by this link on XDA.

And by the way it is just for safety in case something happens wrongly. So, you can use that backup to get your old stable state.

Next option for you that you can flash CWM again as you have done previously to install this rom.


Is there a Google Now command to toggle auto screen orientation?

After some investigation I could not find a voice command. But this can be archived  by using a combination of Tasker and the AutoVoice Tasker plugin.


Tried to fix a possible software problem in any way I could imagine. Nothing worked.

Sent it to OnePlus for repairing and now it is working like new. They had to replace a few components, so it was a hardware problem.


Extract full system image from a Samsung Galaxy S5 with no screen

If the source phone is rooted you have multiple possibilities.
If the target phone is also rooted one easy solution may be a back as it is described in Is there a way to do Nandroid backup directly to pc and then restore it directly from pc also?

First connect via adb shell to the phone and get root permissions via su.

Now create backup all app files via tar:

tar -cvf /sdcard/app-data.tar /data/data

Then exit adb and copy the created file to your computer:

adb pull /sdcard/app-data.tar

Afterwards you should have a file named app-data.tar on your computer. Check it with an archive tool and you will find a lot of directories.

You may want to delete certain files or directories from the tar file.
Afterwards you can convert it to an Android Backup so that you can write back the data onto the new un-rooted phone.
Making a tar file to an Android Backup can be done via Android Backup Extractor. Note that some apps will refuse to accept the restored files (because backup is disabled).

The created Android backup can then be restored via adb backup command.


List body sensors available on Android devices

ADB can be your friend here:

adb shell dumpsys sensorservice

will provide you with a list of all your devices sensors plus details on them. In the following example, I've just captured a list of their names (better readability) using my Linux machine with my Wileyfox Swift connected:

$ adb shell dumpsys sensorservice |egrep -B99999 "^halVersion" |awk -F '|' '{print $1}' |grep -v -e '^[[:space:]]*$'
Sensor List:
liteon-light
liteon-proximity
BOSCH Acceleration Sensor
BOSCH Gyroscope Sensor
BOSCH Magnetic Field Sensor
BOSCH Orientation Sensor
BOSCH Gravity Sensor
BOSCH Linear Acceleration Sensor
BOSCH Rotation Vector Sensor
BOSCH Game Rotation Vector Sensor
BOSCH Gyroscope Uncalibrated Sensor
BOSCH Magnetic Field Uncalibrated Sensor
BOSCH Geomagnetic Rotation Vector Sensor
Rotation Vector Sensor
Gravity Sensor
Linear Acceleration Sensor
Orientation Sensor
Corrected Gyroscope Sensor
Gyroscope Bias (debug)
9-axis fusion disabled (0 clients), gyro-rate= 200.00Hz, q=< 0, 0, 0, 0 > (0), b=< 0, 0, 0 >
halVersion 16973825

Distinguishing the sensor types is a different issue and IMHO not covered that easily. But knowing what sensors are there altogether, you can tell them apart yourself.

Self-promotion: My tool Adebar includes those in the device documentation it generates.


Use another launcher (for example, Nova Launcher).


How to stop shuffle playing audiobooks and other non-music?

Continue to use the .nomedia file in your  audio book directory and use a separate audio book player like MortPlayer for listening to non-music audio files like audio books.

Personally I use MortPlayer for audio books, BeyondPod for podcasts and the built in music player for music and things go pretty smoothly.  I don't have audio books messing up my playlists and BeyondPod and MortPlayer have features better suited to listening to audio books and podcasts, respectively.


Is there a UK English dictionary for the Swype keyboard?

Using the version of Swype that comes pre-loaded on a UK Galaxy S, I can long-press on the "Q" in the top-left of the keyboard to get a list of languages pop-up. The top two options here on my phone are "UK English" and "US English".

If I switch between the two, and then swype through "colo[u]r" (obviously you have to swype across the "u" to get from the "o" to the "r") I get "color" as the result in US English, and "colour" as the result when set to UK English, so it would seem that there are two separate dictionaries.


Is there a calendar that I can sync with my phone, without using Google?

The table at http://www.syncdroid.net/ is quite comprehensive. If you have Outlook, there are ways to sync your calendar with your device. Always list your device and OS - it helps.


Cannot add google account (It is not in the list of available account)

Manufacturers must certify their devices with Google in order to have the Google Apps pre-installed1. Obviously that wasn't done for your device. So you have to either install GApps manually (follow the previous link for details) – or use the chance a "Google free" device gives you and install an open source alternative like miroG.

1: See e.g. here; the term for this agreement is MADA (Mobile Application Distribution Agreement)


Change mapping of Hardware buttons in an un-rooted device?

Not sure why would you want to swap those buttons but you can certainly do it using AutoInput (for Android 4.3 and above), Tasker, both are/have paid/7-day full trial, MacroDroid (free/paid) and Shortcut Launcher/ AutoShortcut (free/paid).

After installing Shortcut Launcher you would see four icons namely Shortcut 1, Shortcut 2, and so on in your app drawer.

Tap Shortcut 1 → MacroDroid Shortcut → <Add New Macro> → Volume Up/Down → Volume Down → proceed → ignore Add Constraints → name it "Volume Down".
Similarly, assign a MacrDroid shortcut to Shortcut 2 but choose Volume Up and name it "Volume Up".

Alternatively, AutoShortcut can be used in place of Shortcut Launcher. Use it in a Tasker's task to directly access a MacroDroid shortcut. It is available under Plugin.
In Tasker create an Event based profile from Plugin →  AutoInput →  Key → Configuration:

Keys: Volume Up
Key Action: Key Down

Create a task and add following actions:

Plugin → AutoInput  → Modes:

Configuration:

Key Suppress: Enable
Keys: Volume Up

Timeout: None

App → Launch App → Shortcut 1

Create another Event based profile but for Volume Down (follow step 3)
Repeat step 4  but under sub-step 1 do Keys: Volume Down and assign the app Shortcut 2 in sub-step 2 there.

That's it. It's not completely flawless but the flaws can be ignored.

For any reasoning about related to AutoInput see my answer at Bind action to hardware key combination.


How to Right-click in Microsoft Remote Desktop?

From the Microsoft RD for android FAQ, following are the mouse gestures available on the Microsoft RD client for android,

Direct touch : 1 finger tap and hold

Mouse pointer : 2 finger tap

Read MS RD Client FAQ page for more information.

If the above solution dint work for you, the other way to invoke a right click is to use the Windows On-screen Keyboard and press the context menu key which is in between the right-hand side ALT and CTRL keys. Or Microsoft RD Client for Android provides a Keybord which you can open by clicking the keyboard icon at the top and press the 123 button to open an extended keyboard(shown in the screenshot below). Now Press the Right-Click mouse icon to perform the Right-click action on any particular object by selecting it.

ScreenCapture - Clicking the right-click icon on the keyboard open the context menu on Windows RD client.


My suggestion before you take the step of using your soldering skills, try using another charger, leave your tab connected with it for 3-4 hours, as sometime its just the charger that takes the toll of current fluctuation if that doesn't work, than Verify that your device port is not damaged. Carefully inspect your device's charging port and remove any debris. If all's well so far than verify that your Samsung Tab is running the most recent software. Just tap the System Updates dashboard -> tap Device Software. If an update is available, follow the prompts to install. Lastly is problem still persist it's time to perform a soft reset. A soft reset restarts your device and does not erase any of your content or data.Just press and hold both the Power and Volume up keys until the device turns off.

I hope this help, let me know the results.


How can I add a system service to Android?

You need to build a system application if you want it to be permanent..  Their is other ways to implement the service, like using init.d and some shell commands to be run at each boot ..

However the easiest method would be to build a simple Auto Start application that starts the service.

I found this answer on SO about building an Auto Start application that also starts a new service...

  Answer on SO

It's fairly easy to build... Once you've built the application, try to install it in the system/app folder and see if everything works... You may have a locked system and can not modify the system apps...

So you will need to use a command list that is run on each boot,... Init.d script should do that.


What is this "4 white bubbles with a red dot" notification icon?


I recall having this issue with some calendar not showing up. If I remember correctly it had to do with having some calendar disabled/hidden in google calendar at the time of the first sync; the calendar app would then not bother looking for other calendars.

Try going in Settings > Accounts and Sync > Auto-sync and uncheck it.

Go to google calendar on the web, make sure all your calendar are visible.

Then in Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > All > Calendar Storage > Clear Data

Back to Settings > Accounts and Sync > Auto-sync , check it.

When you next open your calendar, it should be empty, but you should be able to select all your calendars.


What's causing the Sirius XM app to stutter even with a good 3G signal or WiFi connection?

More of a shot-in-the-dark based on my own personal experience rather than a resolution, but do you have anything like SetCPU installed that might be throttling back your clock speed when the phone goes to sleep?


I'll double check but seems that the jrummy root tools app has that feature. Anyone else tried it and can verify either way feel free. If not ill have access on my rooted phone soon and will update my answer then..


How can I set up a new Outlook.com account using a Hotmail account?

I manually setup an Exchange ActiveSync account with the following settings:

Domain: *blank*
Username: myname@hotmail.com
Password: ***********
Server: snt-m.hotmail.com
Use secure connection (SSL): *checked*
Accept all SSL Certificates: *unchecked*


Can't play .MP4 files on my android phone

Try with VLC for Android. If not playing, then your mp4 is not compliant. MP4 is like a nut which contains a video stream and an audio stream. Of one these are not compliant in your video. Encode in mp4 with AAC and AVC for audio/video to be compliant with all devices.


Google Pinyin Input (IME) keeps asking for Google account permission

I had this problem. I'd half installed Pinyin so continual prompting for a login account.
Go to Google play store and search for Google Pinyin Input. When that appeared there was an option to uninstall it (because it had already been installed).


Lenovo vibe K5 is not turning on anymore

In this state, flashing the stock firmware still the solution. You need drivers for the PC to detect the phone.

Click here to get the USB drivers and the flash tool.
Click here to get the flash file (firmware).

Alternative download links:

Firmware
Flash tool
Drivers

FLASHING STEPS:

First download firmware, flash tool and/or drivers from above links.
Extract zipped files to desktop or anywhere you'd like (You'll need winrar or 7zip software to Extract).
Open Driver folder and choose  Qualcomm_USB_Driver_Setup.exe file and wait until finish installation.
Open QPST.WIN.2.7_Installer-00430.1 folder and chose setup.exe file, open and install it.
Now open QFIL from the "C:\Program Files\Qualcomm\QPST\bin" path, Select Programmer option and click on Browse button and Select prog_emmc_firehose_8929.mbn from SW Folder file.
Click on Load XML button and choose
rawprogram0.xml file and then choose  patch0.xml file from the SW Folder folder.
Press and hold Volume Up + Volume Down and insert USB cable and wait until driver install are installed.
Click on Download button and wait until flashing process finishes.

Oh, and you may need a video tutorial to make it easier, find it here:
Flashing process


What folders does TitaniumBackup need to survive a wipe?

All you need is the TitaniumBackup folder on the SD card. This contains all your backup information.

Make sure to have the Auto-sync TB settings preference checked. Titanium Backup, ironically, won't back itself up when running a backup. This check-box ensures that your settings for the app are saved as well (such as schedules and preferences).

You can also create an update.zip file which can be used to install TB in the recovery: Go to the menu, click More, then scroll down until you see Create "update.zip". This particular file will not be stored in the TitaniumBackup folder, but rather on the root of your sd card.

After you wipe everything, just copy the TitaniumBackup folder back onto the SD card, install your rom, and install TB (either from Google Play or from the update.zip file if you created it). It should automatically pick up all its old settings and be ready to restore your apps.


I do see what you are talking about. In my YouTube app (ICS version) I can see several categories under "Browse", where it seems movies would fit in, but this category is non-existent. I do know that there are many videos on YouTube that are "Not available for viewing on mobile devices", and I think this is what's happening in this case.

For example, "Talladega Nights" is currently available under the YouTube movie section, but cannot be found in doing a search on the mobile app.

It looks like this is a desktop only feature for now :/


Local Apache from Android via Connectify

I think this could  be a problem with your Apache configuration. Maybe the server isn't listening on the correct address? Check that the server is set to listen to all relevant IPs or all of them with a wildcard if necessary.


Mac's Android File Explorer and SSH are not in sync

I ended up just using an app that runs the MediaIndexer.

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

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.clypher.mediascanner

Rebooting works as well, thanks user133312!


Are there any notification widgets for android that show the number of missed calls, messages, etc. just like on the regular notification screen?

Take a look at GOTO Lock Screen- supposedly it is fast. It lets you stay on top of your text messages, missed calls, and Gmail notifications all with a simple slide gesture.

A detailed feature list is available here.

Re-reading your question, I see you want widgets to use in conjunction with WidgetLocker - what sms app are you using? Handcent has a medium sized widget which shows unread sms as does GoSMS. You can show missed calls using this Call Log widget.

UPDATE: I do believe I've found something that might interest you - PureMessenger widget will show the following:

Gmail
Emails (POP3+IMAP / need K9FP)
SMS
Facebook
Twitter
Calls


Typing on my Android Device directly from Windows 10

You should try Remote Keyboard, available for Android 2.3+.

That app worked well with my Windows 10 computer and my OnePlus 3T, and you can try this tutorial which shows you how to use the app.

If you don't like this app or if it's not working with your phone, you can try this one : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.volosyukivan

Or, as @A bochur said, you can use an OTG wire.


Not 100% sure, but Smartkeyboard Pro (2-3 Euro) and MultiLingual keyboard both have Macddonian layouts and remember new words. You can teach them while typing, if this is any good for you.
The market shows a few Macedonian specific keyboards, but I assume you have tried this already.


You should be able to set the lock screen in Settings > Lock screen > Screen security.


How about underclocking cpu speed. since the device is rooted. or you can check other services that may not be usefull but running background.

if you have busybox or something installed. maybe you can look for processes and their consumption of cpu.


Although the Original Answer is already in place, let me just re-phrase it, which hopefully resemble Vanilla Android AOSP based phones.

Open "Settings" application
Choose "Apps" or "Applications" from the list of different Settings.
Locate "GMail" App in the List of Apps shown.
Select "Gmail" App and in this screen, there is "Clear Data" option available.  Tap the button Clear data. Confirm the operation and wait for Gmail Sync to complete.

This should clear the Recent labels.


Phones with a Korean SIM, or sometimes Korean phones with any SIM, do not allow the user to turn off the shutter sound for legal reasons. I don't think there's any reasonable way around this.


How to get rid of Christmas Animation from mobile screen

Welcome to the club -- it's from the launcher, I've got that one as well since about that time. As GoLauncher also started spamming my notification area, I used LBE to forbid it going to the network, which worked fine -- but the XMas stuff stuck since then.

So, common issue: GoLauncher not going to the net (I forbid it, and you don't have network connection often). Solution: Enable network once again, update the GoLauncher. At least here, Santa seems to be gone.


I've seen something similar when an app is installed in someone else's profile but not my own, so make really sure you don't still have it installed in any other profiles.


Android Box crash, how to restore /data files

I used an male to male usb cable and the Amlogic Burning Tool to flash a new .img to my box.
That was the only solution that I came accross. And I lost all my node apps.


Is kernel mode of operating system and root permissions in android same thing?

Root permissions and kernel mode are not the same thing. Programs with root access can access part of the kernel, but root is not the kernel itself.

The Android (and Linux) user model has a set of users, each part of a set of groups. These groups are used to manage which users are allowed access to what. For example, in Linux you could set up all printer devices to be owned by the printing group, so only users that are part of the printing group can access printers.

In Android every app gets its own user account to prevent apps from accessing each others data.

Amongst all of these users, there's one special user: root. This is the user with the highest set of permissions, also called the "super user". Basically, all permission checks are disabled for this user. Root can do things like change ownership of files, add users to groups, manage system components and more.

Kernel mode is slightly different. When a Linux-based system boots, the kernel is the first thing loaded by the bootloader. The kernel takes care of processing system commands ("write byte x to file y", "list all devices attached to the USB bus"). It's also where many drivers reside, which help the system understand how to communicate to a device.

After initializing the kernel starts a program in user mode. Programs running in this mode are not allowed direct memory access to devices, they can't modify page tables, basically they can't do anything the kernel is supposed to do. The only way to execute a system command is to go though the kernel, and the kernel decides whether or not a program is allowed to do so.

In Android, the kernel starts an initialization program that in turn starts some background processes and the Android system you can interact with.

The kernel decides what user is allowed to execute certain system functions. Many system functions, such as mounting a partition to make it writable, are only accessible to programs running as root. Root can contact and control the kernel, but in the end the kernel decides what root can and can not do.

So: generally kernel mode refers to code running inside the kernel, while root refers to the permissions a program has.

For the sake of clarity I'm ignoring tools like SELinux which is designed to limit the files programs running as root can access. This is a security measure so that even if a system program running as root gets exploited and starts executing code from hackers, it can't compromise the system. This is done using a special module in the kernel.


Unable to download from an authenticated webserver

You can use Firefox to get around this at the moment. The bug has been going on since 2008.


How do I set up proxy authentication for the entire system without rooting my phone?

The app that did the trick for me is Auto Proxy (requires root).

All apps work, including browser, maps, GMail, etc. and it worked on Android 2.2, 2.3 and 4.0.

Additionally, WiFi proxy settings are built in to ICS, but I've had limited success with it. It seems to automatically disconnect from the wireless network. Your mileage may vary.


How to view internal AND SD card storage on my Moto e4 when I connect it to my computer?

Looks like your MTP drivers are corrupted. One way to resolve is uninstalling the driver and then reinstall it.

Depending on your OS running on your PC, locate the device manager and uninstall the driver:

If on Windows PC;

Go to Device Manager, expand Portable Devices and right click on your device.
Select Uninstall  (also tick the box besides Delete the driver software for this device) and click OK.

Unplug your device and restart your computer.
After the computer restarted, re-connect your device via usb and allow the MTP driver to be installed (it may take a while, so be patient)
When done check if the internal storage is  now visible.


Ability to monitor sound volume when headphones are used?

No, you do not need root to monitor the volume.

If you're looking to develop an app for this project, you're in the lucky place because you do not need to know Android programming to deploy this.

There's an app called Tasker, which allows you to automate your device, but also allows you to export apk's (Android applications)!

Screenshot:

With Tasker, you can set up a profile to detect "volume changed" and send it to your webserver (or store it locally).

The navigation is Profiles Tab > "+" on bottom right > Event > Variable Set > Media Volume: %VOLM and create a new task to send it to your webserver via Action > Net > HTTP Post.

After that, download Tasker App Factory (separate app), and move your profile into a new project by long-pressing on the home icon, clicking "New Project", and naming it. You'll have to drag your profile and task to the new project, and set an icon for your project. Finally, you'll be able to long-press on your project, hit Export, and hit "As App".

Good luck with your project!


Root Samsung Galaxy S3 with broken USB port

You can try and use towelroot, which should support all phones < jun 3 2014


No option to choose "Do Not Validate" under "CA certificates" when connecting to PEAP/MSCHAPV2 WiFi (Android 11)

Have you asked the IT department from your campus ?
Looks like if you 'just' enter the correct domain, it should work with the system certificates.
If so, then you would end up with a more secure WiFi connection.
The article where Yogesh is pointing at, is more an advertisement than independent information. Obvious that securew2 is writing to use their products instead of another solutions.
The root of the problem is a user unfriendly way to connect to a Wifi network in Android.
In many other OS's you need to 'trust' a certificate, which is needed for a safe connection.
Before December update, Android gave 2 options:
1st solution is to import a certificate on a smartphone. Which manually is a hell, or by using an app. (Like securew2, connect this with the site were the article is hosted)
2nd option was to 'not validate' the certificate, and just trust any certificate presented. This however is of course less secure, but a lot more user friendly and can be explained. The risk is that if someone (with bad intentions) set up a network with the same 'name'/SSID, the android phone connects regardless, without warning you are connecting to a rogue network.
To address the security problems in the second option
Android has removed the do not validate option and (according to your screenshot) it seems to be replaced by using system certificates (with a domainname check).
I am curious If you can connect when you would use the correct domain name.


Try resetting your Android to factory setting and see if that helps. Otherwise I would suggest trying out a new ROM, as that helped improve my battery life considerably.


What is “logo” partition on lenovo phone?

1. What is “logo” partition on a lenovo phone?

The logo partition (based on my experience with Mediatek devices) contains :

The very first boot logo (not the Boot Animation)
Battery Charging Sequences (many png images).
Second boot logo (boot_logo file).
Battery charging digits and percentage sign (each digit or sign has its own image).
(For devices supporting Fast Charge) Fast charging sequences (many png images)

  2. I guess it is a bootscreen picture, right ?

Not the boot logo only, It contains many images.

  3. What is the format of this image ?

Not one image only, all of them are PNG files.

  4. Additional details

88 16 88 58 is the partition offset.

C2 8A 0A 00 is the partition size, this is little endian byte order.

4C 4F 47 4F is the partition name.

I can't confirm if this is Mediatek specific or not.

Mediatek MT65xx/MT67xx Logo Editor

If you wish to change the very first boot logo (not the boot animation) of your device based on MT65xx/MT67xx platforms. Try LogoBuilder.

LogoBuilder can unpack and repack your logo.bin file which contains :

Boot logo
Battery Charging Sequences.
Second boot logo (boot_logo file).

LogoBuilder is simple to use:

Unpack your logo.bin file.
Edit what you want.
Re-pack it.

The LogoBuilder can make an update.zip to flash your new logo.bin file with a custom recovery.

Edit:

While you're not satisfied with the answer, read about deflate compression  before spamming the forum with comments/questions.
For further reading, I suggest: The help vampire problem


How to make an Android device to display complex rendering of Indic characters?

Rooted Phone

Android under the folder /system/fonts contains a file named "DroidSansFallback.ttf" supposed to contain all the language characters. Currently it lacks support for many, including Tamil.

One can always replace the file with one that contains Tamil characters, thus allowing the usage of Tamil on your phone.

From XDA Developers Thread - DroidSans Fallback Indic Font, users have tried and successfully used Tamil on their phones.

Download the DroidSansFallback.ttf file
Download the original DroidHindi.ttf file

To acomplish this method, you need root access to your phone, in order to access the /system and change the Fallback file:

Read How do I root my device? if your phone isn't rooted yet.
Follow XDA Developers thread to see how to replace the file:

Using and Android SDK environment:

First Copy the DroidSansFallback.ttf file into your sdcard,
then issue the following commands:

adb shell
su
mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
cd /sdcard
busybox cp DroidSansFallback.ttf /system/fonts
mount -o ro,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
exit
exit

Lastly, rebooted the phone

Note: mount point isn't the same for all phones.

Android APP

While the above method may appeal to some users, I do prefer an APP when available.

Besides, Tamil has a keyboard with a total of 247 characters, while the English one only needs 26. So this becomes a major problem when typing:

See Wikipedia :: Tamil language - Writing System

  The current Tamil script consists of 12 vowels, 18 consonants and one special character, the āytam. The vowels and consonants combine to form 216 compound characters, giving a total of 247 characters (12 + 18 + 1 + (12 x 18))

Thanks to Krishan, and is work on this subject, there's already an APP available to deal with both issues, the system wide usage of Tamil, and a keyboard that can be used to type Tamil Characters.

Read Krishan's post entitled Tamil Unicode Font for Android – Working for detailed information about the development of this solution.

To summarize

Krishan developed and published two APPs at Google Play that completely deal with the problem of having an entire Android OS in Tamil:

Tamil Unicode Keyboard

Tamil Unicode Font


Now it's possible to take raw photos on some Lollipop devices, like Nexus 6 and 5, among others.

Why is this possible? Because Lollipop includes a lot of new APIs to work with the camera (Camera APIs v2), so any developer today can use them and take the most of the device camera.

Nowadays, Camera FV-5 is the best app to do this (although it is compatible with older versions of Android, raw format only works on Lollipop devices). You can try it or buy it.

Note: Raw capture only works on paid version.

This is another useful link!


How to mute sound just on Instagram stories?

Assuming that you're fine with muting all sound whenever Instagram is launched, you can use an automation app on Android to mute the volume when it detects that Instagram is opened.
Similarly the automation app can detect when Instagram is closed and reset the volume to the previous level or to a pre-set level.
There are many automation app's available, e.g.:

MacroDroid
Automate
Rulebot
Tasker

I've experience with MacroDroid only. I'll outline the steps below to mute the sound when Instagram is launched. Unmuting it when Instagram is closed is left as an exercise to the reader.

Create a new macro
For the trigger set: Application Launched/Closed -> Application Launched -> Instagram
For the action set: Volume Change -> Media / Music -> Slider value: 0%
For simplicity you can leave the condition empty. However, you could for example set a condition that checks whether a headphone is connected and only mute when that's not the case.

Other enhancements would be to store the volume level before muting such that you can restore that level when unmuting.


Can I change the phrase "OK Google Now" to something else?

Apparently you can use the training software it includes and just train it to hear something else. As in, if it says "read this: " just say whatever you like.


How to use Titanium Backup to keep stuff through factory reset?

TiBu stores its backups in a folder on your SDCard (either the internal or the external, depends on what you have and how you've configured it). So you can simply copy that entire folder over to your PC before applying the factory-reset. Just check the root of your SDCard(s) for a folder named TitaniumBackup.

After the factory reset, the folder should still be there (unless your device is one of those including the card with the reset – hence the copy to PC, which in this case you now can simply copy back). Launch TiBu, and restore what you want to have restored.

One thing to keep in mind: I don't know what's causing your trouble, but restoring the entire backup completely might bring it back if the troublemaker was included there, so take care ;)


Why my sdcard suddenly re-mount when phone in use to play game, watch movie or idle?

sdcards remount by default as read only on errors, could be one.

or the contacts of the sd slot are dirty or loose

or the micro usb port is so overused that random connect events happen that might get your card unmounted for a mount on a then not existing pc.

^that paragraph

is based on what happened to my motorola milestone 2, if I plugged that into the car charger it want crazy activating and deactiving dock mode 6 times per second.
maybe something similar goes for charge indicatiors.

also magnets in vicinity of androids can cause the strangest quirks


Exchange ActiveSync on Android: All flavours of Android are not equals

The stock email cient is not working after I updated ICS 4.1.2 cyanogenMod 10.  I am using nito desk touchdown and its very reliable.


What determines which application acts to a bluetooth AVRCP command?

media-button-router, already mentioned in one of your linked questions, tries to figure out what app is currently playing music and to dispatch the AVRCP events to it. In addition, it lists all apps installed, that declare to listen to AVRCP events.

What makes AVRCP complicated: Some apps, like Sony's Music Unlimited, seem not to declare android.intent.action.MEDIA_BUTTON in their manifest. For this (or maybe some other) reason they can't be controlled via media-button-router. I know that e.g. Music Unlimited can be controlled via AVRCP since I read it in a user comment and also I was able to get it running once but unfortunately it's not reproducable. So in those cases it seems that we have to wait for an app's update with a clean implementation of AVRCP event handling.

According to media-button-router's wiki "Media Button Intent handling is done through ordered broadcasts, and each app sets it's own priority for receiving." So maybe it could be possible to write an app that displays theese priorities and, in effect, would allow you to determine what application will start. However, I don't know about such an app.


The default Android external SD file structure

You should have a default structure used by Media Scanner to collect data present on your system, that gets stored on a database, allowing it to keep track of all the media content present on the device:

  Music/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as user music.
  Podcasts/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a podcast.
  Ringtones/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a ringtone.
  Alarms/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as an alarm sound.
  Notifications/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a notification sound.
  Pictures/ - All photos (excluding those taken with the camera).
  Movies/ - All movies (excluding those taken with the camcorder).
  Download/ - Miscellaneous downloads

Adittionaly, when taking screenshots, by default the folder used is:

  Pictures/Screenshots/

The media scanner service

When your device boot's up, the media scanner service is launched and runs through the entire external storage to find if there is any new media content.

If new media is found:

It adds an entry of that media content into the content database
Each entry in the content database contains the media meta-data (name, date, file size, etc...)
When changes are made to a media content, the database needs to be updated, otherwise, third party applications will not be able to access that particular media content.

Applications make use of the public class MediaScannerConnection, as to "force" Media Scanner to perform an instant scan. That's with applications like Instant Upload are able to work properly.

  MediaScannerConnection provides a way for applications to pass a newly created or downloaded media file to the media scanner service. The media scanner service will read metadata from the file and add the file to the media content provider. The MediaScannerConnectionClient provides an interface for the media scanner service to return the Uri for a newly scanned file to the client of the MediaScannerConnection class.

Google+ Instant Upload

  With Instant Upload enabled, photos and videos taken with your phone are automatically uploaded to a private album on Google+.

For this APP to work, make sure Sync Instant Upload is enabled on your phone:

Go to your phone's Settings > Accounts & sync.
Touch the account you'd like to enable sync on.

Learn more about how to Configure account sync options, where you can:

Configure general sync settings
Sync information manually
Change an account’s sync settings

Possible Solutions

After the above introduction on how things work, in order to try and solve this issue, one can:

Check for the Pictures/Screenshots/ folder presence.

e.g., using a file manager.
Check if Instant Upload is Enabled and set to sync with your account.

If all checks out but still no avail, try rebooting the device to see if Media Scanner will properly recognize and add the missing media content to the database.
Not likely, but a recent update or crash may have disrupted the Media Scanner service.


How to sync all photos on Android with Amazon Prime Photos?

I just found the answer to my question in case any one else cares from the Amazon support page:

  To upload your photos and videos:
   From the Android Gallery on your Android device:
  Open the photo, album, or video you want to upload.
  Tap the Share icon, and then select Cloud Drive.


Do I need a complicated root? Why? How (Samsung GT-S5660)

Ok if you havent checked out the link Uri posted, "root," to put it simply, is administrative privileges on the phone and gives you the ability to mess with core system files and configurations.

The "Superuser" app is just an app that is designed to grant or block root permissions to different apps.

Rooting android phones is sometimes complicated but it mainly depends on the phone and manufacturer as different manufacturers lock down their phones in different ways. Some developers have brought it down to you just plugging in your phone when a certain app is running and everything is done for you while other times will require you to run terminal commands, and download specific software onto your phone. Unlike standard desktop Linux, root has to be acquired through exploits apparent in the phones.

Now why gain root?

Well for android phones, it allows us to a variety of things such as have the ability to underclock our processors for considerably better battery life or overclock them for performance. We can also create wifi-hotspots with ease, run network based attacks such as ARP-Poisoning, conduct cookie hijacking and so on. Its like jailbreaking an iPhone (except its a LOT more power to tinker in the palm of your hands).

In your case, your app probably configures the network card on your phone for the File Server in a way that cannot be done with the traditional Android API and so needs more system access (hence the request for root permissions).

There is no "simple" setting to turn on root no matter what phone you have. This is because carriers make money by locking down your phone and forcing you to pay for more functionality (i.e tethering/wifi-hotspot). If they give you the ability to activate root, then some people could easily circumvent their control, thus making them lose money. The other possibility is that careless people who don't know what they are doing could seriously mess up their own phones and thus making it a support nightmare for carriers and manufacturers who now have to deal with bricked phones.

What should your best approach be? It all depends. If you really plan on tinkering with the phone or want custom software or want better battery life, then rooting is for you. If you just want to use your phone with no extra functionality or no hassle, then don't bother for root as you probably don't need it.

If you do want to root, CAREFULLY follow all instructions and do your research. Your best place to start is on your device forums on xda here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1404

The 1 click root also has a very good chance of working but this isn't verified to work with your device afaik.


It's the Battery Stamina Mode (Two hands holding the battery).

  Battery STAMINA Mode builds on the same technology as Extended
  Standby Mode. You can turn it off if your dont want it in the
  Power management Settings page.

  Starting one minute after the screen has been turned off, data traffic
  is automatically blocked and background activities are prevented from
  waking up the system.

  When Battery STAMINA Mode is running, you will also get power
  management tips to help you save even more energy, and keep your
  device going even longer. For example, if Battery STAMINA Mode is
  turned off and you leave your device with the screen turned off for
  six hours or more, you will get a recommendation in the notification
  bar to turn on Battery STAMINA Mode. You will also be notified about
  apps that consume a lot of power. [Ref.]

You can also White list some imporatant apps, thus allowing them to run in the background.

Read More on How battery Stamina Mode works?


Transfer Whatsapp Chat from iOS to Android

As far as I am aware, as the iOS system has a built-in restriction that stops one accessing its filesystem, you cannot get access to the conversation history backup files.

Even if you managed to obtain read/write access through a jailbreak of some sort, the iOS messages dump might not even be of a compatible format to be displayed on Android.

In short, there is no easy/safe way to transfer your WhatsApp conversation history between iOS and Android. Android to Android, however, is a different matter.


No MAC address di iMX51_bbg froyo 2.2 Epad 8'

You should be able to find the MAC address in your Settings.

Menu | Settings | About phone | Status | Wi-Fi MAC address


Is it true that "the Google USB Driver is located in
  android_sdk\extras\google\usb_driver."

Yes that's the default location where the downloaded google usb drivers are located.

If you can't find them, then it may be that these were not downloaded in the first place. Be sure to download them through the sdk manager interface.

Alternatively you can always download the appropriate OEM driver manually from the website and extract them to the default folder.

Installing the USB driver

Connect your Android-powered device to your computer's USB port.
Press the WIN Key +  X buttons and select device manager
In the Device Manager right pane, locate the device
and right-click the name of the device you connected, and then select Update Driver Software.
In the Hardware Update wizard, select Browse my computer for driver software and click Next.
Click Browse and then locate the USB driver folder. You can also select the option; Let me pick from from a list of device drivers on my computer then browse for the driver. e.g, the Google USB Driver is located in android_sdk\extras\google\usb_driver\.
Click Next to install the driver.


I still can 'delete for everyone' message on WhatsApp? Why?

WhatsApp has changed the way it works. You can now delete for everyone within an hour and eight minutes.

From TheVerge:

  WhatsApp has quietly changed the way its message deletion feature
  works. Originally introduced in October, the WhatsApp “delete for
  everyone” used to only allow you to delete messages up to seven
  minutes after you sent them. WABetaInfo has noticed that the latest
  version of WhatsApp extends that time limit significantly to one hour,
  eight minutes, and 16 seconds.


Do Android devices make active or passive scan when looking for WiFi AP

The only "official" explanation I found is in this comment (dated July 2009) in the Git repositories on android:

wifi: WifiManager.startScan() will now do passive scans by default.
Active scans will only happen if an hidden AP is in use, or if the new method
WifiManager.startScanActive() is called.

The existence of an hidden function to start an active scan (reported here) suggests that the normal scanning function is indeed passive. This is to be taken with a grain of salt, though, as the Android documentation doesn't explicitly tell if the function WifiManager.startScan() is passive or not.
Also related: this two posts on SO (post 1, post 2) report that the scanning activity is passive (post 1) and that since android 4.3 it not even possible to call the active scan method (post 2) - but there is no link to official sources.


Asus TF700T Does not prompt for forgot password

After trying to recall my lock pattern a few more times, I noticed I had previously overlooked the "forgot password" text that was an inch or two below the lock pattern. The text blended in with my tablet's background and was barely visible. Chalk this one up to a clear case of operator failure.


The answer for me involved a number of things, but I think one is really the key.

Use the "recovery" Command, bro

This uses CyanogenMod's/AOSP's recovery program to wipe the user data and disable encryption. (found in this answer on Stack Overflow) Boot into your recovery, and then from your computer run

adb shell recovery --wipe_data --set_filesystem_encryption=off

Your phone will reboot into system and things should hopefully work as planned.

If you need to run it from the phone itself (ie: you don't have a computer nearby to adb with):

recovery --wipe_data --set_filesystem_encryption=off

It should wipe, disable encryption, and reboot system.

If All Else Fails

Don't use this method unless the above doesn't work or apply to your scenario.

Destroy the LUKS Header for Filesystem Encryption

You need a recovery which will allow you to drop to a shell as root, so TWRP works in my case.
Locate the userdata partition by looking around in /dev/block/platform/*/by-name/userdata.
Write out a ton of zeroes to the beginning of that partition to wipe the LUKS header:

dd if=/dev/zero of=$PATH_TO_YOUR_USERDATA bs=4096 count=512

I claim no responsibility for what you do with this command. If you screw this up, you can brick your phone by overwriting your bootloader or other critical partitions. Make sure that $PATH_TO_YOUR_USERDATA points to the real userdata partition. Check the size of that partition to make sure you're wiping the right thing. I have a 16GB phone and userdata is 10.4GB, with the rest being dedicated to system, but your phone will be different.
Reformat that partition as ext4 using make_ext4fs $PATH_TO_YOUR_USERDATA.

There might be errors, but usually they relate to not being able to find the internal "sdcard," this is okay.

After all this, reboot recovery again and then run a factory reset just to be safe.

Why Does This Work?

Simply doing a factory reset seemed to not do anything for me, the phone would still see a LUKS partition there. I assume that this is because the LUKS header still existed at the disk level and the ext4 partition was just overlaid on top of it. For some reason, Android prioritized detection of a LUKS partition over an ext4 partition and attempts (and succeeds) to mount that.

Where to Go from Here

(If you know what you're doing, you might also want to wipe system and install your ROM from scratch. Again, I take no responsibility for anything you do with the information contained in this post.)

Worked for me on a klte G900T (Samsung Galaxy S5 T-Mobile). Your mileage may vary.


Is it possible to flash a boot.img kernel with twrp?

Boot into TWRP, select Install and follow the screenshots for the rest.

(Click image to enlarge)

It's not a problem for TWRP to which ROM your particular kernel belongs. The size should not be greater than the partition. That's all.

If the kernel is not good for the ROM, your device would not boot into the ROM or would cause some other instability, so proceed with caution.


Your network provider may provide a "Last Number Redial/Called" or "Call Alert" service.

This is usually a number that you call that will tell you the phone number of the last incoming call to your phone, or can often be implemented as a service that you can turn on and off (again, usually by calling a number or issuing a USSD code) which will inform you in some way (usually by text message) of missed calls.

For example, in the UK, O2 used to have a number, 1471, that you could call to hear an automated voice message telling you the number of the last person that called your phone.  Unfortunately, they have withdrawn that service however, they have replaced it with a free "Call Alert" text message service.

Note that there is no universal mechanism to retrieve the number of the last person that called you, if you no longer have (or never had) that information saved within your phones own call log.

Each of these services is specific to your mobile network provider who may or may not even offer such a thing.  If the last number that called you is truly missing from your phones own call log, you may try to get in contact with your network provider to see if they offer a service as described here.  Also note, though, that even if they do offer such a service, it'll usually only retain the very last number that called, so if someone else calls you in the meantime, the number that you're seeking will probably be lost.


How can I wipe cache partition in ASUS Fonepad 7 (K00Z) tablet?

see if this helps :

I installed the temporary custom recovery to root my device, may be you can use that custom recovery to clear the cache.

Search for the methods to root this device.

I will post the link if I can find


Got the answer:

I installed a fresh ROM (rootbox) and it helped. Weird that it didn't help before. Now I need to search a solution for faster GPS fixing.


How do I hide "Show Sample Cards" in Google Now?

From Google:

  To see some sample cards from the main Google Now screen, touch Menu > Settings > Sample cards. When you’re finished and want to get back to the main Google Now screen, touch Hide sample cards.


False "Internal memory space is low" on tPAD - need a root access

You can use Kingroot. License is Chinese, but when you accept it, app changes to English. And you don't need a computer.
Then install ZArchiver. It can get to the system folders, if the device is rooted.


Can I override the default DNS settings on an HTC Evo without root access?

Everything I've seen suggests you can only do it if your phone is rooted.  Here's a tutorial for those with rooted phones.


As I already wrote in my comment: A downgrade (as well as an upgrade) can be performed by flashing the corresponding ROM (for references, see other downgrade questions). To find a matching ROM, please see Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?. For the process of flashing, you might want to check with the rom-flashing tag, especially the questions dealing with the SGS2.


Why does my Android OS state that there's, "Not enough free space to install the program", when there's plenty of free space?

This can be caused by having any partition full, so you can try clearing your cache and other partitions that might be full. I'm guessing it's the cache since it clears out by itself.


Can't access tethered server from Android browser. (Time out  or "URL blocked")

Problem may be caused by HTTP Proxy server. Proxies help to manage web traffic on the providers end, but can and probably will disrupt access to local addresses. Proxy options may be available in your network settings, but on many phones these options are hidden. An app such as HTTP Proxy Settings will give access to the hidden settings. Simply clear out the hostname and port for un-proxied access. Make sure to write down original values so changes can be undone.


YouTube "can not connect to server" error on specific videos

Okay... This is a common problem with an easy solution.... So first of all you need to make sure you don'thave any firewall, driodwall app cause they block the media server which is heavily needed by YouTube. Secondly if your problem isn't solved try installing the latest flash player . also, if you're on wifi, go to the settings of the wifi you're connected to, open up the settings, advanced settings, and then I.p settings then select DHCP. if you're on data go to the settings and try ticking/unticking the Apns on the wap of your operators....


You can use any launcher (eg. Nova Launcher).

When you add the shortcut to the home screen, press and hold on the
shortcut icon, tap Edit.
After this, it will open a dialog box to edit the caption along with the icon. Tap on the icon and select the required one from your phone.


There is no chance to access system folders without root.


What do the buttons on the Android power control do?

The last three are GPS Receiver, Data Sync and Screen Brightness. As seen here.

And it looks like the Extended Controls app gives you even more control (android police article) and here it is on appbrain.


Possibility of monitoring internet traffic in case where galaxy tab is used as a mobile access point?

This depends completely on their mobile plan and how they have set up the tablet. AFAIK, most internet tethering apps do not collect activity, but theoretically their mobile provider could be monitoring the activity on their connection and reporting it back to your employer. However, there are too many factors here to give you a definitive answer.


Does your second sim slot works at all ?.
Have you tried putting just one sim card in the sim slot 2 ?

 If it doesn't works then there can be two possible reasons for this :
Your android OS isn't detecting your sim slot 2. In simpler words, the android doesn't know there is a second sim slot. Mostly happens when you're on a custom ROM.
A hardware failure.There is some hardware issue in the second sim slot that you have on your phone!. Mostly common with Micromax devices. No offence!

 One of my friends had this issue, for him the second reason was the problem!. Good Luck ! Tell me what you find. Also, do tell me which android version  you're using and what ROM you're on.


No option for "mobile network" on Dell Venue 8

Check Settings → Wireless & networks → More → Mobile networks → Data enabled to enable it

See user guide


How to reverse acceptance in Android Device Manager?

Google has a weird mix of app settings, device settings, and a website to manage location permissions.  I've found that the easiest way to access most of it is through Settings → Personal content in the Google Maps app:

As you can see I've gone through those one-by-one to disable all use of my location info by Google.  You might also need to go to https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols/location.

Android Device Manager still works though even though my device is not actively sending things up.  To remove your device from ADM entirely, you have to remove it from your Google account via https://myaccount.google.com/device-activity.  This will naturally also sign you out of Gmail and the like on your device.


android apps wont connect over school wifi

My school uses a similar system, probably the same actually.  What I think it is, is either Deep Packet Inspection or your Firewall.

I am almost positive, all I know is that your school blocks the applications somehow (it could also just block the website or server the app uses).


How to cancel email account setup without accepting server specified security policies?

Found it - you have to go through the phone's general settings, not the Email app.

Settings > Personal > Accounts > Exchange ActiveSync, then select your account, then there's a option "Remove" in the menu from the ... dots menu icon at the top right of the screen.


How to configure Show Owner Info on Lock Screen on Galaxy S2 / Android 4.0.3?

There is no submit button. Just hit the back button and lock your phone to see the result.


What is this icon in the notifications bar

Icons show that apps were updated by Google Play Store.


Connecting an Android device to a Windows network

Nice question I would be interested in the same. ES File Explorer looks like the app to do the trick.  Check this out...
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tablets/connect-android-to-windows-and-samba-shared-directories/1262


It looks like the only way to do this would be to use a custom launcher. I've found three options that have this capability.

Nova Launcher Prime ($4.00)

Apex Launcher Pro ($3.99)

Holo Launcher Plus ($3.99)

There is also a free Holo Launcher, but I don't think it has the customizable tabs.


Is there a way to delete my information permanently from my phone?

I'm using Huawei Mate8 too, what you need to do for deleting information is to perform a "factory reset" of the device and then all of your phone data will be deleted from your Huawei Phone.

I would like to recommend encrypting your device before you are getting ready to wipe it. The encryption process will scramble the data on your device and, even if the wipe doesn't fully delete the data, a special key will be required to unscramble it.

To encrypt your device on stock Android, enter settings, click on Security, and select Encrypt phone. The feature may be located under different options on other devices. The next step is to perform factory data reset. Then would be kind of done already. If you are still concerned about the security, you can repeat the two steps above. To confirm it further, or you can download free data recovery software for Android to recover the data as to see if the software can restore them.


How to detect the name of my current launcher?

Open Settings->Applications->default applications.
Tap home screen and select your required launcher.
(if you have only stock launcher(for Samsung devices, it will be Samsung Experience Home), then there will be only one present, if you've installed other launchers like Nova etc. , then there will have a list of launchers available. Selecting any one launcher will set it as default launcher of device)

As AndrewT said: When you install 3rd-party launchers(from play store or using apk), you just add more selections for the launcher, but not necessarily replacing it wholly. Or in other words, you can have 10 launchers installed on the same phone at the same time, but only 1 active launcher.


Upgraded my device from KitKat to Lollipop, is there a way to get the airplane mode back to the power options?

This is the way Google wanted the power menu to work in Android Lollipop. It's just terribly inconvenient for those who used Android before. But if you really need to bring back the feature and have a rooted phone, you can try this method which works on Nexus.

But you don't need to go to the settings to enable Airplane mode. From the top of the screen, just swipe down twice or drag down once using two fingers to reveal the Airplane mode toggle.

It's the quickest way to use the Airplane mode in Lollipop. Some apps in play store(Power Toggles, Toggle Airplane) has shortcuts to enable Airplane mode but you need a rooted phone for that to work.


I live in Israel,my Google Play country is set to USA. How to change to Israel?

You have good instructions here:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/7431675?hl=en .
But since this is Google you need to add payment method.

Change your Google Play country
If you move to a new country you may want to change your Google Play country. Your Google Play country determines what content you see in the store. The apps, games, and other content in the Store can vary by country.

You can only change your Play country once per year. So if you change your country, you won’t be able to change it back for 1 year.
When you change your country, you won’t be able to use your Google Play balance that you have in your old country in your new country.
Change your Google Play country
To change your country, you need to set up a new country in Google Play. To set up a new country, you must be in that country and have a payment method from the new country.

On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Play Store Google Play.
Tap Menu Menu and then Account and then Country and profiles.
Tap the country where you want to add an account.
Follow the onscreen instructions to add a payment method to that country.
The first payment method must be from the country you’re adding a profile for. Once you create the profile you can add payment methods from other countries.
This creates a new Google Payments profile linked to the new country. The Google Play Store will automatically change to the new country. It can take up to 24 hours to change.

If that is not working:
Fix problems changing your Google Play country
If you can't change your Google Play country or don't see the option to, try the following:

Clear your cache and data
On your phone or tablet, open the Settings app Settings app.
Tap Apps & notifications and then See all apps.
Scroll down and tap Google Play Store Google Play.
Tap Storage and then Clear cache.
Tap Clear storage and then OK.
Check if your app is updated
Open the Google Play Store app Google Play.
Tap Menu Menu and then My apps & games.
Games with an update available are labeled "Update." You can also search for a specific game.
Tap Update.


How to remote control using Droid VNC Server via USB?

There's no manual or FAQ I've found for the program so I'm not certain if this is the way they intended it to be used. It does work, though, and I can't see an alternative method of using USB.

You need ADB installed along with the proper drivers for your device. This varies with platform and phone, so check Google or XDA.
Enable USB Debugging on your device -- Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging
Plug in, start droid VNC server
On a command line, run these commands:

adb forward tcp:5801 tcp:5801
adb forward tcp:5901 tcp:5901

Visit http://localhost:5801 with a browser or point your VNC client to localhost:5901

I do notice that performance isn't any better over USB vs a 802.11g, so I'd only recommend going to the trouble of this if accessing your device via WiFi isn't feasible.


find / -iname *.mp3

or esfileexplorer and the like have a show by type feature.


Can't set static IP for WiFi correctly in Android device

It would be best to choose your static IP address from the main gateway. In this case 10.2.19.27 . So IP address is anything from 10.2.19.xx where xx is any number from 1 to 255 (depends on network prefix) apart from 27.

It is also okay to put the gateway address as the first DNS entry and as for the second either put a public DNS like Google DNS e.g 8.8.4.4 or Open DNS like configured in your settings 4.2.2.2

After that ping and see if the address is reachable


Turning off cell broadcast in HTC Desire 816

Try this

Settings - Call - Slot 1 call settings - GSM call settings - Cell Broadcast


Is it possible to receive files on memory card during wifi direct transfer ? Is it possible to change wifi direct send/receive settings ?

ES File Explorer used to be by choice for Android phones rooted or not, until the development was lagging and not current.

FX FileExplorer is to me, the best file manager out there. Has everything ES has and more but is also maintained often, updated and secure.  I don't 100% remember why I stopped using the former, but I do recall WebDav, FTP, was not great amongst other things. Read "A Short Story of A Fallen King" and the comments. You will read similar sentiments among other users.

Forgot to mention: FX protects your privacy:

No advertisements
No tracking of user activity: FX does not ever "phone home"
Built by NextApp, Inc., a US corporation founded in 2002; all proprietary code was developed in-house.


Is there a way to root a Samsung Galaxy S4 running LineageOS 17.1?

It seems to be a Magisk 22.0 bug (issue #3949).
Rebooting into download mode (Home + Volume Down + Power) and running

heimdall flash --RECOVERY Magisk-v21.4.zip

rooted it!


Is it possible to get my headset to initiate a recording app and record my voice?

I can't say too much here, but this thing may be achieved by an app called Tasker. Many users say it god of android. To function on every aspect of requirement, it needs root access. In your case, it does not require root access.

You can use its capability to achieve that certainly. This is wiki page of that app.

Edit :
As OP said that he has hands on Headset Button Controller. This app is also supports tasks created by Tasker app.
Steps to Achieve this ->

  Open Tasker App. Go to Tasks tab. Click Plus(+) to add a task Record. Now edit the task to get it function what you want.
  Click +, then click on Media , then Record Audio.
  Give the file name of your recorded file. Select your source ( In this case Microphone). You can select format on your choice.
  Now link this task with that app. Open app. Click on one of interaction that you want (Single click is your choice in question).
  Now choose Tasker task and select the task (Record) as you created in Tasker app.
  You are good to go. Try it.

I tested it by myself. So, it must work. On more out of Tasker, use WiKi as posted above.


Is there any way to mass background restrict app battery usage?

I don't think there's anything else because all you have to do if you want to restrict background battery usage is to toggle the slider on all 50 apps which barely takes a minute. But if you want help for a longer lasting battery you should search for "Battery" on the google play store and you will find a lot of apps to help you.


How to delete Group Contact that is greyed out without an access to menu or drop down box?

I was the sole admin on a group that I created in WhatsApp. I had to delete the group for some reasons. I removed the members one by one. At last I exited from the group. After that I deleted the group by clicking the options button by the side of menu button. It took sometime and disappeared.


Because Google Text-to-Speech isn't really an app: it's a library app. That is, it doesn't have a user interface for you to interact with; rather, it offers an interface to other apps to use its functionality. Other apps on the phone can give text to Google Text-to-Speech for it to speak out loud.

It's up to the author of the app in question to use the facility offered by Google Text-to-Speech: only apps that have been written to use it can do so. So if you want Firefox to use Google Text-to-Speech to read out web pages, you need to file a feature request with Mozilla (the organization that develops Firefox) asking them to support this.

For the same reason, the way you use it in an app that does support it, such as Google Play Books, is different from app to app. There might be a button or menu item to read text out, or there might be a setting to make the app read things out automatically.


I don't know what your app did, but I find it strange that it is no longer booting. I would suggest trying to get your device in to recovery mode. I have never done this on a non-rooted device so I am not 100% sure you can do a factory reset from the "stock recovery". But I know you can do it on a rooted device.

I found these steps, but again, I am not sure if this pertains to only rooted devices.

Turn your desire off, Now hold the volume down and power button in to boot into hboot.
Now use the volume button to navigate to boot recovery and select it by pressing the trackpad button.


Why is Google Music preinstalled outside of the US?

Google Music (or Play Music as it's called now) isn't just used for music purchased from the Play Music store, or for music stored in its cloud service, it can also play music stored locally on the phone, or on inserted SD cards.

My UK Galaxy Nexus has it pre-installed, even though the Play Music Store and cloud storage service aren't available here. It is just the latest version of the built-in Android Music player, and works perfectly well for playing MP3s saved on the phone, even if you never use any of the cloud services or the store.


Cannot format userdata, Fastboot refuses to detect

I was using an unofficial release of TWRP, as at the time there was no official release. However, the official release for my device added an "Erase Data" button, which allowed me to succesfully flash Lineage.


How to clear memory in 2.3.4 like I did in 2.2.1

Your previous Task Manager was a Samsung addition, and not part of Android itself.

In 2.3 onwards there's a very similar and memory usage listing. If you go into Settings, then into Applications and click the "Running Services" option, it should show you everything that's running along with how much memory it's using. There's also a small graph at the bottom showing RAM used vs RAM free.


Nougat: Possible to set all notifications from the Gmail app to not make any sound?:

You can edit the notification settings;

Settings -> account you want to make silent -> uncheck notifications or change preferences with the box below


Device keeps on asking me to sign into my wifi network

When you are asked to sign in to continue, instead of allowing the redirect to open in chrome or any other browser you installed open it with androids built in browser instead.


Getting market error "Sorry there's not enough space to install this item."

I was getting this error because my Gingerbread update was filling the /cache folder.  Deleted it (this probably requires root) and was able to update apps again.


Yes, totally normal. This is the UI's way of telling you that you've reached the edge.


SuperUser doesn't give/prompt root access

Download Root Checker and see if phone is still rooted. If it isn't rooted anymore, re-root your phone.


Voice to text punctuation and new line in Spanish andorid 5

Only for  Spanish(Spain) but not for other variants (for example Spanish(LatinAmerica))

AFAIK the available commands are:

  "coma" (,)
   "punto" (.)
   "signo de interrogación" (?)
   "retorno de carro" o "nueva  linea"  (carriage return)
   "signo de exclamación" (!)


Does Samsung has a feature like second space in Xiaomi?

UPDATE: there are apps for isolating environment and e.g. hiding other apps. Check Island.

Unfortunately, lots of Android capabilities are limited by producers - that's the case, too. According to this link on Reddit, people are searching, but with no success. The only devices are tablets, described e.g. here on Samsung Support page for Galaxy Tab S.

Of course you can enable multi-user functionality by modifying system files, but mostly that's not the way a standard user like - warranty issues, triggered Knox, disables access to S Apps... essentially, lots of problems.

So, to sum up - without modifications, it's impossible on Samsung smartphones to enable multi-user functionality. Root your phone, and then you'll be able to turn on multi-user, but keep in mind that rooting your device comes with lots of pros and cons.


Have a look for towelroot tr. It might work on your device. It is just an apk you can install and start. It uses a kernel vulnerability. Chances that it works are high if your firmware is older than june.

To your issue: did you enable (usb-)debugging mode? Its in developper options. If you do not see them in your settings, go to AboutDevice and hit build number 5 times quickly. It enables a (secret) menu in your settings where you can enable adb.

On some samsung devices you can change usb mode by typing *#0808# into your phone apk. Without hitting the call button, a service menu opens up immediately. Perhaps this works for your device too. Did you try to do adb shell or adb devices from your commandline?

New devices now usually ask for an ok on the device screen  before you can connect. Disconnect and connect again, watch out for this popup. Did you check the developper menu in settings? There you can also flush the known pc's and their settings. Allowing the popup to sow up again after connecting.


Cannot disable MMS link sharing without creating Samsung account

The phone sending SMS messages with links instead of MMS messages was due to RCS (Rich Communication Services). It was turned on by default in my new phone.
Because it was not enabled or not available on the recipient's phone, the messaging app was sending web links instead of standard MMS messages.
But the setting to turn it off is not in the Messages app itself. It's under the general "Settings", in
Connections > More connection settings > Rich Communications
It seems that the Samsung instructions about disabling link sharing and which required a Samsung account were about some other unrelated "feature", irrelevant to my real problem.


I'm switching mobile phone service and I want to port over my contacts

If you're just after the contacts, that should be easy as 1-2-3:

open the contacts app, tap the menu, chose "Export to SDCard"
copy the resulting file (in most cases named something like 0001.vcf over to the new phone
on the new phone, same as in 1. – just chose to "Import from SDCard"

Of course, there are several more alternatives – depending on your preferences:

if you've synchronized your contacts with Google (or some other cloud service), they should automatically be synced to your new device as soon as you connect it with your account
plenty of backup/restore apps are available to assist you, some even specific to contacts
more information might be found in our backup tag-wiki


Lock and erase options not appearing in Android Device manager

It is now the morning after the evening I wrote this question. My Lock and Erase settings are now automagically present in Android Device Manager.

I have not changed any settings or powered off the phone, it was just 'sleeping' last night.

So it looks like the Google servers needed some time to enable the settings.


Normally you can set the dns server if you configure a static ip. This can easily be done in the wireless settings.

If you don't want to set a static ip you can use third party apps like DNSset.

[edit2]: DNSSet might not be the right app because it will open a separate VPN connection. But Dns Changer might work. Simply enter your dns server in the dns server field and press DNS to accept the change.

[edit]: I don't know how your emulator connects to the network (cellular or wifi). If it's using wifi you can go to wireless and networking options, Wifi settings, More, Advanced and finally Use Static IP. Now you can set your static IP and the dns server. This will not work if your emulator uses a cellular connection.


Can I extract my contacts from my device remotely

If you saved your contacts as Google contacts, you can access them by visiting the Google contacts site and logging in with the account under which you saved those contacts, which will likely be the Google account associated with your device.

If you're unsure about whether you saved your contacts as Google contacts, you should check that site using the primary Google account you used on your device, and any other Google accounts associated with that device.

If you can't find them in your Google contacts, then, unless you set up some tool on your device beforehand specifically for this purpose, you will not be able to recover your contacts.


Passwords containing "!" are always wrong

In the comments, ce4 pointed out what was going wrong.

A space gets inserted automatically after each exclamation mark (and probably other sentence limiting characters like full stop, half stop or question mark too), resulting in an invalid password with a space char too much.

Whenever I enter an exclamation mark, I also enter the following character, use backspace twice and then enter the following character again. Seems to be the simplest solution yet.

Samsung should consider turning off these weird auto-complete stuffs in password boxes!


Can anyone identify the S notification icon

I figured it out finally. It is Shopkick app.


Unsupported SD format renders my micro SD card useless. Is there a way to fix it?

Plug it into PC and format it to FAT32. That should done the trick. Or maybe you can format it trought phone take a look for that option in storage settings.


Pressing volume keys causes songs to skip

This is a feature of CyanogenMod. Pressing and briefly holding one of the volume buttons when the screen is off will cause the music player to skip forward (volume up) or backward (volume down). The intention is that this allows you to skip tracks and whatnot without having to unlock the device.

If you find it annoying then you can disable it completely in your settings: simply uncheck the option at Settings -> Sound -> Volume rocker music controls. Alternatively, try to use short presses of the volume buttons when the screen is off and it should adjust the volume rather than skipping.


Does the built-in Google app data backup work?

Does the in built-in backup service work? Yes.

But maybe not how you expect/want. As you mentioned apps need to 'opt in' to backup data and most apps don't actually use this. I'm only aware of a couple that do. As far as i know, the backed up data is only actually restore to a device when the device is initially set up, not when you install an app from the Play store that you've previously used (i could be wrong on this though). Google recently launched a way for games to sync progress between devices which more apps seem to be using and are publicising this more.

Helium and adb backup work differently in that they backup the data stored on the device and don't require opt in. Helium uses the adb backup method so essentially they work the same way (although it doesn't require a pc to perform the backup).

Titanium Backup backs up the apk and the appropriate 'data' folder (NOT the folder on your sd card by default) and again this does not require any opt in from the app developer.

Personally i use Titanium Backup as it was the only option when i first rooted my first phone. I've not used Helium so can't say if it's better/worse. When i have used adb backup (not via Helium) it took a long time to backup/restore but it does work quite well.


Several helpful apps are mentioned in the answers to What can I do to manage my phone's internal storage? Guess the question and its answers would be useful/interesting to you anyhow.

Apart from that, there are also our useful command line utilities, which you can execute in a terminal (either via adb shell, or using a terminal app):

df: stands for "disk free", but also shows the used space. Is not interested in files or symlinks, just operates on the entire partition. So this should list you up how much space is used/free on each storage.
du: a close relative, "disk used". Is not interested in "divisions" such as partitions or directories by default (that can be dealt with via parameters), but checks "anything below". It doesn't follow symlinks, which might prove useful to you – as will the parameter -s (summary). Without that parameter, each directory would be listed up with the space consumed; with -s only a summary of all space used below the current location will be printed.

You will find several other useful commands in our command-line tag-wiki. For your low memory, you also might want to visit our insufficient-memory tag-wiki.


want to see WhatsApp chat msg from old number

In order to restore your messages from Google drive, you would need access to the same number that was used with WhatsApp during the backup.

From WhatsApp's FAQ

  In order to successfully restore a Google Drive backup, you need to
  use the same phone number and Google account used to create the back
  up.

You can always ask the people that you chatted with, to send you a copy of the conversation by email, with the feature that WhatsApp providers for that here

Depending on how desperate you are, you can call the number that you used to use with WhatsApp, and ask the person to help you restore the chats. The person would have to send you the verification number that he receives from WhatsApp, and after you successfully set up and restore your chats, you can change your number back to the new number that you have now. (Good luck with that)


From the developer of 3C Toolbox Pro in XDA

3C Task Recorder, whether rooted or not, it can collect CPU, memory and network usage . It creates a CSV file that you can easily use from a PC.

If non rooted, you will need 3C Companion PC app
to enable memory usage and improved CPU stats.

Recording options in screen shots below (some of them paid)

I don't use the recorder. The pro version of Toolbox linked at top is far more versatile and has tons of features (there is a free version too with less features). If you are interested only in usage, the recorder should suffice. Screenshots from 3C Toolbox

Edit
OP confirms

Task Recorder works great and could actually unrootedly track random access memory usage for me even without its companion.


When rooting android device, what is changed in device?

Although this article is somewhat old (2011), it goes over the concept of rooting and how rooting is done. Rooting is basically exploiting a security flaw (in phones which do not have have it exposed to public unlike the Nexus line of devices) to get the phone to execute code not from the manufacturer.

http://seasonofcode.com/posts/how-rooting-works-a-technical-explanation-of-the-android-rooting-process.html


How to disable dashboard summary in Settings app?

Simply swipe from right to left on the conditional summary and it will disappear.


Open the People application (it's the name of the contacts app in Jelly Bean) and edit the entry for "Me". Set your picture there.


I have found a soulution here but it's for Nexus 6P and Android 5.1 but I think it will work in your case as well.

Android System
There's an internal problem with your device. Contact your manufacturer for details.

The problem occurs because of a check that Google implemented in Android 5.1 (and it seems stayed in after) which compares /system/build.prop with the values found in /vendor/build.prop.
If they differ you get that error message. All one has to do to get rid of the error is to change the 3 values in /vendor/build.prop according to the values in /system/build.prop.
On the link you can find a flashable zip. The magic is in the update-binary file:
/sbin/busybox egrep "^ro\.build\.(date(\.utc)?|fingerprint)=" /system/build.prop \
    | /sbin/busybox sed -e"s/^ro\./ro.vendor./" \
    > /vendor/build.prop

So you need:

install TWRP on your device
send vendor-build-prop-fix-signed.zip to your device
reboot into recovery mode
flash the zip but don't wipe anything
reboot your phone

If it's not work (but it should be work), you can try this method.
It says you should download and flash/install the vendor.img which matches your ROM's base.


No, that wouldn't remove the requirement for root. Symlinks don't get around the permission system in that way. If you try to access a file via a symlink, you still need to have permission to access the target of the link. Hardlinks don't check permissions when you access the file, but they do when you create the link, so you would still need root.

This would be a bit of a security vulnerability if it worked that way, not just on Android, but on Linux desktops and servers too.

Apart from that, it's a bit of a flaky way to sync data. If you make a change on your phone while it's offline, and then make a change on the tablet before the sync happens, whichever one doesn't sync first will lose its change. You need to manage that very carefully, and it's very easy to get caught out by accident. If the app developer adds the feature, they can consider changes separately and work out a useful way to merge them.


Updating any app is retaining its older version?

From your description, it sounds like the problem might be due to built-in apps. Built-in apps (that come with the phone) don't take up your storage space, because they don't live in the data partition (where your apps and data are stored), but in the system partition. However, they can't be updated in the system partition, because it's read-only. Updating a built-in app is done by installing the new version to the data partition and ignoring the old version. The effect of this is that the whole size of the app occupies the data partition. Subsequent updates don't keep taking up more space: once the app is on the data partition, the package is simply replaced with newer versions in the usual way.

For instance, say the YouTube app is 17 MB. When it comes with the phone, it occupies no space on the data partition. It takes 17 MB in the system partition, but since you can't use that partition for anything else, that doesn't matter. Now you update YouTube from Google Play. The new version takes 17 MB on the data partition, as if it weren't a built-in app at all. The old version is still on the system partition, inactive, but it still makes no difference.

If you were to update a lot of built-in apps at once, then the effect would be much bigger.

This only applies to the app itself (the APK file), not its data and cache, which are always stored on the data partition.

Other than in the case of system apps like this, two versions of the same app (identified by their package name) can't coexist on the same device. Installing a newer version always removes the older version.

On a rooted device, or if you install a custom ROM, you can make the system partition writeable and update built-in apps directly on the system partition, so they still won't take up space on the data partition. This is quite a risky business, though: it's easy to accidentally change files you shouldn't change, and lose all your data or make the phone unusable. There's a reason the system partition is normally read-only!


How does Android determine if it has an Internet connection?

When the data indicator is orange (on Kit kat ; grey on older versions), this means that the device is unable to receive a response from GCM (Google Cloud Messaging, the framework that handles push notifications). This traffic is sent through ports 5228, 5229, and 5230. If the AP is blocking or interfering with traffic on those ports, push notifications won't work and the data indicator will be orange. Manual refreshes and other Internet traffic will still work fine if the ports used for those transmissions (80, 443, etc.) are not blocked.


How can I install apps again after forgetting my "content filtering" PIN in Google Play?

You might be able to remove the PIN by going into Settings > Apps > All > Google Play Store, and press on Clear Data.

Not that this will not have any effect if you chose to confirm every purchases with your Google account password.


I would try and clear the cache of this application

menu
Settings
Applications
Manage Applications
All
Market
Clear cache

Just to see whether this should help.

You might also want to click the 'Clear data' button but than you must login to your account again.


Why whatsapp with a specific contact fails to receive messages?

I realized I had a very symilar problem with a contact today.
Creating a group with only the problematic contact was a successful workaround, the final solution was deleting the original chat that stopped working and creating a new one.


TWRP: Could not mount /data (even after format data / change file system)

While formatting with twrp results in an error, formatting with fastboot worked for me:

start phone, which will boot into twrp
reboot -> bootloader
fastboot format:ext4 userdata. This will of course delete all data from the phone.


How to disable message button on lockscreen?

In my device you can change or get rid of them by this way: Settings-> Security-> Shortcuts


Want to update Samsung Galaxy On7 to Nougat

Yes, that links seems safe to me. It tells you to download the official firmware for your device from the official Samsung page or SamMobile, which is a trustworthy website. The problem is, you won't find the Nougat firmware there either, because it's not released yet. The only thing you can do is wait until Samsung officially publishes Android 7 for your device.

By the way, flashing any kind of Android firmware is never illegal, since Android is open source (only exception is when paid content is included for free). It can only void your warranty.


Get Alarm Clock Xtreme Free. There is also a paid version which removes the ads.


Why can't WhatsApp write to bind mounts?

# mount -o bind /mnt/runtime/write/6333-6461/WhatsApp /mnt/runtime/write/emulated/0/WhatsApp

Apps cannot directly access /mnt/runtime/write/6333-6461 or /mnt/runtime/write/emulated/0/ because /mnt/runtime is only traverse-able by root. Apps access /storage/emulated/0 or /sdcard (symlink to the former) which is bind-mounted to /mnt/runtime/write/emulated/0/ for apps with WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission. External SD card is accessible at /storage/6333-6461 in the same way.

When /mnt/runtime/write/6333-6461/WhatsApp is bind-mounted at /mnt/runtime/write/emulated/0/WhatsApp, WhatsApp will actually try to write to external SD card which is not allowed at least since Android 4.4. This is controlled by using permissions READ|WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE / READ|WRITE_MEDIA_STORAGE, GID everybody (9997) / media_rw (1023) and mount namespaces. See details in How to move files to external SD card?.

  Any solution to the problem?

There are some workarounds to set required permissions using FUSE or sdcardfs when bind mounting external directories. For details see How to bind mount a folder inside /sdcard with correct permissions?


Installed CWM on note 2, but the phone is not rooted

You are rooted. AFAIK Samsung bootloaders are already unlocked, you only need to flash the recovery to get the "root"

Now for the problem.

Go to settings->about phone and tap the build number 7 times to enable developer options. Then go to settings->developer options and there you should be an option similar to root access. Make sure you select Apps or Apps and ADB (recommended) in it and you should have root access.

If there is no such option, download and flash SuperSU via recovery and you should have root access later.

And that addition of "255|" in indicates you being in root user mode and accessing terminal as root. So its a positive sign here as well.

Alternatively, in case you failed to get the root to work, you can also flash
some custom ROM like Cyanogenmod via recovery.

But rest assured, you are rooted. Its probably some bug and flashing supersu should probably fix it.


How to connect an android device to a VPN?

If your company is licensed for it, Cisco's AnyConnect ICS+ should work for you. Alternatively, ICS should support the correct configuration out of the box, but not all vendors have implemented this properly.

If you can't get it to work correctly using ICS's IPSEC support, you can try VPNC Widget, but it requires root, and if your phone doesn't have the TUN module built-in, it won't work.


Can we find out who has developed the app by looking on the signature?

Yes it's possible, you can check by unzipping the APK, finding the META-INF/CERT.RSA file which contains the developer's public key and using the command openssl pkcs7 -in /path/to/extracted/apk/META-INF/CERT.RSA -inform DER -print.

For more info have a look at the first section of this link: https://www.evilsocket.net/2017/04/27/Android-Applications-Reversing-101/.


Jelly Bean search - only contacts and apps?

The Universal Search function had to be limited on newer Android versions due to one of Apple's lawsuits. Thanks to this, the search behaviour had to be modified and can't be restored without rooting the device.

For rooted devices the situation is somewhat better since you can replace GoogleQuickSearch.apk with a modified version. You can see the steps on XDA. As always with modifications requiring root, use caution. I'm not certain if the APK is device-dependant.


Is it posible to change the locale of my device?

If you want to change locale settings on your device, the Set Locale and Language app1 might prove helpful as well. Locale-Einstellung looks almost the same. MoreLocale 22 might offer an alternative, as it also allows to create custom locales -- which is also supported by Custom Locale3.

With Any Locale4 switching the locale can be as easy as tapping a widget -- as it is with LocaleSwitch5 or the Language Picker Widget6.

Also very nice: Raygional7. And there are probably many more to chose from...


After the Lollipop update, SD card not detecting

Best recommendation, after you've presumably tested the card on your computer and verified it works:

Use a disk imager such as this one to make a full image backup of the SD card onto your computer. This will ensure things like permissions are preserved in case that becomes an issue later.
Separately just copy all of the data off of the card onto your computer.
Reformat it from your computer as FAT32, then load all the data back onto it.
See if it mounts on the phone.
See if it actually functions the way you want, and all your apps can access it the way they need to.
If step 5 doesn't work out, then try restoring the image you made in step 1, and see if it works properly now.