how do I remove a missed call notification?

You can tap it, it won't call them.

It just goes to the screen with telephone numbers on it.

Another thing you can do, is in the notifications where it lists the missed call , then the first time round, it can also show "call back" and "message"  so you have 3 things you can push. The missed call , which goes to the numbers screen. Or the other two. So only one of those options will call them back. Once you restart the phone you still get the missed call notification but without those other options, still though, if you tap it it goes to the numbers screen, it doesn't immediately call them back.

It's not as bad as with tapping a number on the number screen, where if they're listed under "frequently called" then it calls them immediately, whereas if you tap them under the purely alphabetical list below "frequently called" then it brings up their details from which you can call them.

So tapping the missed call notification won't call them automatically

You can swipe it too, though I suppose swiping might involve a tap, but a tap is fine.


Usb connected constantly flashing on screen

Your usb port is bad - this is a hardware issue. Take the phone in for warranty service.

Edit: I had this happen on my Nexus S as it came out of the box today. I flashed the latest stock ROM, then re-installed CyanogenMod over top (and restored my data). It seems to be a little less flaky. You may not be able to do anything of the sort, but it may help others.


My understanding is that the stock e-mail app sends mail in plain text only -- not HTML. Thus whatever client receives the message will render it in a default font for plain-text messages. For Outlook, that's apparently Times New Roman. (Courier New is another possibility.)

So your question might actually be "Can I send HTML e-mail from the stock Android app?"


Android Emulator - INSTALL_FAILED_NO_MATCHING_ABIS: Failed to extract native libraries, res=-113

As mentioned here: INSTALL_FAILED_NO_MATCHING_ABIS when install apk:

  INSTALL_FAILED_NO_MATCHING_ABIS is when you are trying to install an
  app that has native libraries and it doesn't have a native library for
  your cpu architecture. For example if you compiled an app for armv7
  and are trying to install it on an emulator that uses the Intel
  architecture instead it will not work

To get around this, you need to get these libraries in /system/lib.

This is possible though the use of libhoudini.so libraries. You can root your emulator and push the libraries through adb into /system/lib.

You can find the libraries here and the instructions are given as well.

Generally you need to do the following:

Download a compressed package from the internet and extract it to / system / lib / arm (or / system / lib64, depending on whether the platform is 32-bit or 64-bit). x86 houdini libraries download link
Second, to the directory /proc/sys/ fs/ binfmt_misc under the name of "register" in the file written in a string of strings to tell the Linux kernel, all use the ARM instruction set executable and dynamic library ELF. The file is opened with the houdini program, and all the ARM64 instruction set executable and dynamic library ELF files are opened with the houdini64 program (on the binfmt_misc detailed explanation, you can refer to Linux how to specify a type of program with a specific program to open (through binfmt_misc )
You can remount adb as root and directly push the arm folder (with houdini libraries) to the /system/lib folder like so:

adb -e push C:\Users\User25\Desktop\houdini\arm /system/lib

(Remember to set the correct path and appropriate permissions)
Another second option that I tried personally is to get an avd image with native arm bridge enabled already (in case you encounter problems with rooting your emulator)
Preferably get the avd of RemixOS player or Genymotion and extract the system.img, userdata.img, ramdisk.img and other files like build.prop etc and place the in the system images folder of your emulator (e.g if the downloaded images are for an x86 avd, copy them to the system-images dir of your emulator and paste them in x86 folder of  the correct api level - something  like \system-images\android-26\google_apis\x86 and create an avd based on that (this is useful for just testing you arm apps on on your x86 avd)

You should get over this error, if everything fails then just use an emulator with arm translation tools.


Samsung Galaxy s5 receiving MMS as group messages?

I recommend you change application to another is the simplest thing to do. You can find them on google store, one of the best is Textra (in my opinion).


adb "Permission denied" to run a "./configure" file

This is due to 2 things:

The file does not have execute permissions [AND]
The file cannot gain executable permissions as it is on the SD Card. The SD Card's filesystem can accept file permissions, however it is mounted with the noexec flag, as stated in a comment. This stops files being executed.

Solution:

Copy the net-snmp-5.7.2 directory to the /data/local/tmp directory as root.
Set the configure file to be executable by running chmod 0777 /data/local/tmp/net-snmp-5.7.2/configure as root.
You should now be able to execute the configure script by typing /data/local/tmp/net-snmp-5.7.2/configure and pressing enter.

Note

This should all be done as the root user :)


How can I upload photos from my Android (4.1) to Picasa without resizing to 2048 resolution?

That is described at the Google Support page for Picasa as a limitation, even if you're currently paying for extra space, that doesn't allow you to have image files larger than 2048 pixels on their longest edge:

Picasa and Picasa Web Albums - Free storage limits

  Free storage limits

  Photos up to 2048 x 2048 pixels and videos up to 15 minutes won't count towards your free storage.

  Automatic resizing

  All photos uploaded in Google+ will be automatically resized to 2048 pixels (on their longest edge) and won't count towards your free storage quota.

  All photos uploaded from the Picasa software or in Picasa Web Albums over the free size limit will count towards your 1 GB of free storage. When you reach your storage limit, any new photos you upload larger than the free size limit will be automatically resized to 2048 pixels (on their longest edge).

Picasa and Picasa Web Albums - Account upload limits

  Maximum photo size: Each image can be no larger than 20 megabytes and are restricted to 50 megapixels or less.
  Maximum video size: Each video uploaded can be no larger than 1GB in size.
  Maximum number of web albums: 10,000
  Maximum number of photos and videos per web album: 1,000
  Total storage space: Picasa Web provides 1 GB for photos and videos. Files under certain sizes don't count towards this limit.

You can refer to the How Google storage plans work, to confirm that what you pay only affects the space you have, not the service characteristics.

As a side note: Try and talk to their customers service to work a solution.


I plugged my smartphone to be charged using a car charging adapter. My phone will not turn back on at all!

Is the car charger of good quality? I would try removjng battery,  putting it back in, plug it to wall, wait a few minutes and press and hold down power button


In the developer options, look for a checkbox that says "Force RTL layout direction" and turn it off.

It's a developer feature that helps with testing how apps will look on a device that uses a right-to-left language (such as Arabic) without having to actually change the device's language.


How to get Recovery without the Hardware key

Try booting while pressing the back key. That will get you into fastboot, and you can access hboot (and hence recovery) from there.

If it worked try any solution among this..

It depends on the cause of the boot loop

Wipe cache and dalvik (depending on what recovery you look in different places for these. I think ClockworkMod may have wipe dalvik in advanced). TBH I think this is unlikely to do it, but is harmless.

If something has been corrupted in the ROM then reflashing the ROM (without wiping) will fix it.

If it's data corruption then a factory reset will do it.


Other methods to unbrick LG X210 from other identical phone?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3TmXtOA0IA is this help maybe ?
my phone did react only to show the battery but after you plugin it ask for a signal 1 or 2 second only.you cant see it but you can prove it with usbdeview-x64.zip for example.then you need SP_Flash_Tool_v5.1804_Win.zip and the mtk usb drivers.
It was dead but i got it back to work.the links in the youtube video may be outdated but the information was very helpful for me , i did try to flash a custom twrp! but it wasnt for this device and kill the preloader too.

EDIT in the first two second you have to send the correct signal to hold it in
the usb contact.

Edit MT6580 i-mobile i-style 712 is the device i  got back


I used to get spam messages all the time as well. Normally if you go to your phone carrier and ask them if they can block a certain number for you they most likely will be able to. I have Verizon so when I go to My Verizon online there is a tab you can click on to block numbers, so if your carrier has a website then that is also an option to explore if you can't go into your local carrier store.


How to prevent caching of music in Gingerbread?

Very unlikely. That's the MediaScanner's responsibility. For faster access it scans all directories on given events (e.g. SDCard mounted, boot_completed) and stores the results in a database, where most players pick it up from.

So you can either use a tool like e.g. SDrescan to trigger the MediaPlayer's scan whenever you've manipulated files -- or find yourself a music player that doesn't use Android's media database but rather works e.g. folder based.


Can other apps play music from my Google Music library?

They're only accessible from Google Play Music. It stores them somewhere in the internal space of the app, not in the music library of the phone. There is no way to tell the app to move the file somewhere else at the moment, and no way that I'm aware off to point other app to that specific folder.

That's the main reason why I don't use Google Play Music. I want to be in control of my music folder.


Issues with the TouchWiz music app on my Galaxy Note 2

Well, since no one answered, I'll answer with what I eventually figured out.

I just installed a new music player, because I hate Samsung's.
I used WidgetLocker to put widgets on my lockscreen, and Phantom Music Control to get a better-looking widget to put on my lockscreen.


You can try to recover files before you format it, but yes you will have to format it.  See this question for various methods of SD card recovery: Data Recovery - How to Restore Deleted / Formatted Files on HD Micro SD Card


Q fota,always downloading.
It is over the air,turn off WiFi
Then you will see it downloading,
Then you can turn WiFi back on.


I need to turn my phone off through a computer. Help, please!

Force restart your phone

Firstly, unplug the charger if your phone is connected to a charger.
Press and hold both the Power and Volume Up buttons for at least 8 seconds, until the phone is turned on.

Remove the phone case if there is one to avoid phone buttons being stuck.

If you cannot force restart your phone, plug in your phone with the original charger and let it charge for up to 30 minutes, then try again.

Pictures, settings and paths might differ from those of your phone, but that do not affect the description in this article.

Reference Link


There might be some apps slowing the starup. Autostarts is an app which helps you see what apps run on boot. Unless you have root you'll not be able to make any changes though. It'll just be read only.  See this: Autostarts

Update: Startup Cleaner 2.0 is for unrooted phones. You can now stop an app from loading at startup.


How to play single album on Spotify when bluetoothed?

In the Spotify app, go to:
"Your Library" (lower right) -> Settings (cog in the upper right) -> scroll down and turn off "Autoplay". That should do it. Autoplay does exactly what you said. "Keep on listening to similar tracks when your music ends."

You can also or alternatively turn on "Offline mode" at the top of the settings screen. This will only allow the app to play already downloaded songs and will not use any data. You can leave the app in Offline mode for almost a month at a time. They require you to go back online after 29 days to confirm that you still have Spotify Premium and then you can go back to offline mode if so desired.


SuperSU binaries won't install to my HTC One M8

I have had this issue and there are 3 ways to try to get around this.

You will need a custom recovery to attempt 1. or you can use Odin alternatively for 2. below. The superSU binaries are often (but not always) installed via recovery and the app itself gives this option.

When superSU asks you to update the binaries, rather than select 'Normal' select 'Recovery' and see if it can install that way.
Flash superSU.zip directly in your recovery or Odin. Here is the link to Chainfire's latest version. I have tried this myself and it fixed the issue for me on a number of devices.
Install an alternative super user app from the market. (This can be messy, and you need to ensure superSU is completely removed)


You should take a look at this thread - It's a different phone, but similar problem. You should try start your phone in Safe Mode, or try to (painfully) get to the application menu and clear the data for the HomeScreen Application. If Safe Mode works for you, I would try deleting apps that you may have installed around the same time as your first encounter with this error message - An app is the most likely cause of this problem. (Because you say you reset your phone, which should clear any apps you installed, I am assuming you reinstalled all your apps).


Is it possible to recover Google authenticator database

Google Authenticator uses "seed" values which are symmetric keys used to generate OTPs (One Time Passwords). This means there is more than one copy of these keys, one with Google and other with the registered applications. In a sense they are in pair, hence symmetric. When you try to register your new device with authenticator, there are more than two copies of these keys and this causes an authentication problem. If these keys were easy to be backed up and restored, the security might have been at risk. So, all you can do is re-register your new instance of Google Authenticator. For this you need to follow these steps-

Log in to your Google account (Since the Authenticator's key we have wouldn't be useful here, you can choose either Call or Message to get a code on your registered mobile number.)
After logging in, go to My Account > Sign-in & Security. In the password and sign-in method click on 2-step verification (you will be asked to enter your password again).
On the next screen, you will see an option for Authenticator app, click Change phone and select Android or iPhone(accordingly).
On your new phone install Google Authenticator app and open it, go to Set up an account and choose Scan barcode. Delete the previous entry if you have pre-installed the app and have an account registered.
On the next screen, enter the 6-digit key which you get on your app.
Let me know if there's an issue.


Chrome - swipe to dismiss articles on home page missing

After trying various flags, this worked - enter in address bar
chrome://flags/#interest-feed-content-suggestions and in options disable and relaunch chrome
Also see Chrome - how to swipe to dismiss articles on home page for a fix for version 84.0.4147.89


Device says bootloader unlocked but OEM unlock option can enabled and disabled?

It would be good if you enable the Allow OEM unlocking option before proceeding to unlock bootloader
I tried by adjusting the chord into the port and running fastboot getvar unlocked which gave no value meaning the device is still locked (ss attached)
Even though it says nothing (unlocked : YES etc), I did switch the toggle on for Allow OEM unlocking before proceeding to flash just to be on a safer side and successfully flashed twrp recovery and carbonrom and the device is running well


If you're talking about the one in the title picture, it's obviously an LG V10, specifically the dark blue color variant. The signature "secondary screen" is present.


Remote path to Angry Birds Space savegames

adb shell ls -l /data/data command will get you the file and directory listing you are looking for.

Specifically for Angry Birds Space, try adb pull com.rovio.angrybirdsspace.ads/files/highscores.lua C:\abs_highscores.lua


How can I get missing apps back after factory resetting my rooted x10 Mini?

Are you running a custom ROM on your Xperia x10 mini? If you are missing the Google Talk app, this means that factory rest deleted some of the Google apps required for Market to work properly. I would suggest finding the appropriate GApps package for the ROM you are running and re-flashing it.


Switching to TouchNooter home from Stock Home

You can go to Settings>Manage Applications> All Applications> then, find & select the Home app--- scroll down, and select "Clear Defaults"

The next time you press your home key, it will give you the same dialog asking which app to use.


How to screencap the smaller display of Samsung Galaxy Fold using ADB 'screencap' command?

The screencap command can be configured to capture a specific display using the option -d.

  -d: specify the physical display ID to capture.
  See dumpsys SurfaceFlinger --display-id for valid display IDs.

The output of dumpsys SurfaceFlinger --display-id is a bit longer, therefore you can filter out the display ids:

dumpsys SurfaceFlinger --display-id | grep display_id

On my device I only have one display with display_id=0.

Therefore the final command looks like this (just replace display_id):

shell screencap -d <display_id> -p /sdcard/testss1.png


How to enable developer settings in android 5.1, instead of LOLLIPOP game

In vanilla AOSP builds, the Build number menu is the last one on the About phone panel. From your screenshot, your device instead has Software version in that location. Try the 5-7 clicks on this area. If that doesn't do anything, or produces a message like "No need, you are already a developer.", then I'm afraid your OEM has removed this ability and given you only minimal Developer options capability in the form of a USB debugging switch. The good part is that it's already enabled so at least you have that.

Also, the Lollipop game that you found after multiple clicks on Android version is also what happens in normal AOSP devices.


How to disable GPU rendering on Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8"

After failing to avoid freezing by SW settings, I resorted to last resort: Baking motherboard. :)
Result: Device is bricked. It wont even start. I will buy a new motherboard.


How to run a firewall and an AdBlocker on a non-rooted phone at the same time?

You can use adguard for this purpose which has the capability of both a firewall and an adblocker. It sets up a local vpn for non rooted phones. It also has a proxy mode. ( inorder to use with other vpns).


How can I display Exchange sub folders with the native mail application?

Partial answer - This link shows how to open subfolders on the Galaxy S3. But it doesn't work on my Galaxy Advance with Android 2.3.6. The native mail app seems only to display top level folders. K9 works better.


There is a way to remove everything but one app from android?

Removing system apps can damage your phone and make it unable to function.  I would recommend installing an app like macrodroid then setting up a macro to kill off all the other applications and only run Caustic 3. If you really want to remove the other apps, then installing something like System app remover (ROOT) would do the trick. The first method is a lot safer however.


how to connect Galaxy S4 to Macbook Pro?

There are a few ways to mount an Android device to your Mac.  I'm not sure if all the following are supported on the Galaxy S4, depending in part on what version of Android you have.  (There are other methods for accessing files on your phone, some of which would require root..  but these listed below are built into most recent versions of Android.)

The file access methods include:

Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) -- this is basically a mode where your phone pretends to be a digital camera and is accessed as such.  Picture/media-related apps such as iPhoto recognize it as a camera and will ask to auto-import pictures (and possibly videos as well) from the DCIM folder.  Depending on the format of your large video, this may be the way to go if you're importing directly into a media app.

USB Mass Storage (UMS) -- this method basically turns your phone into a USB flash drive.  The computer recognizes and "mounts" it as it would a normal flash drive.  Unfortunately, when you mount your phone's external storage to your computer, your phone itself can't access the content-- it can't be mounted in two places at once.  But for quick drag-and-drop, this method works pretty well.

Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) -- this is a method of accessing the files on your phone which simultaneously doesn't block the phone's own apps from accessing the external directory.  It works a little smarter by working at the file/directory level rather than just handing over the whole block device the way UMS does.  MTP is what the aforementioned Android File transfer app is for-- it let's you to access the files and integrates with OS X.  More info here.

To access these different types of connections on Android, generally you go to Settings, then to Storage.  If your device is plugged into your Mac, you should see three dots in the upper right corner of the action bar at the top of the screen.  The menu item says something like USB computer connection.  From there, you can select from the above connection types.

Again, depending on your version of Android, the options may not all be there.  But hopefully one of the three will be there and will work for ya.


question google maps and street navigation

No, google maps navigation will not work without Internet connection! You can however install a navigation app which will work without Internet. For example HERE Maps. Don't forget to download maps for the area where you want to travel.


Alternate (keyboard) task switching method for CM9

My 3.2 method does work with CM9, and the default launcher (Trebuchet), with these adjustments:

Go to Settings->Launcher->Homescreen->Search Bar, and remove it.  Keyboard focus will default to the apps button (the ::: icon) at the top right
Arrange icons on the right side of the screen instead of on the left.  Down-arrow, from the apps button, will go to the top-right icon in the same way as it used to go down to the top-left from the search bar in 3.2

Other launchers are also an option (Go Launcher EX duplicated the old behavior, although it forces phone UI elements), but this is the shortest path if you're otherwise content with Trebuchet.


I share my experience and knowledge as an android developer:

Most widgets don't consume (or use just a bit) processor power when they are not visible, but some would consume even if your screen is off and phone is locked. It is based on what task the widget is considered to do, and how developer has written and optimized the code.

As a general rule: more widgets would slow down your launcher (desktop) because your phone has to render UI of the widget every time it is shown to you.
As I see, your phone is a low-end one and surely, it shows some lag when you add more widgets, but keep in mind that smartphones are made to do TASKS, not to just scroll fast and be lag-free. So, if you really use those widgets, keep using them!

And one more thing, if your phone is running on Android ICS 4.0 or newer, you wouldn't need any task manager or task killer. Android itself best manages tasks and you shouldn't worry about background tasks, as long as you haven't installed any malicious app.
killing background apps NEVER improves speed on your phone or battery life.


I don't know the syntax, but Terminal Emulator on my Samsung Galaxy S lets me run tail.  I would assume any console app would allow it.

As noted in the comments below, tail is part of BusyBox so you can get it from there.  There is a root app on the Play Store  that includes BusyBox if you don't want to search for a package to sideload.


Android Samsung TAB e auto turn on Hotspot?

You can use Tasker (7 day trial available) to accomplish this or Macrodroid (free up to 5 macros)

Objective: Auto switch-on  mobile hotspot after boot

Profile (or Trigger)

Create a Profile which allows triggering of the Task after boot:

Go to Profiles Tab and click  "+"
Event  → System  → Device Boot
Tap back to exit from this window

Task

You will notice as soon as you exit, you will be prompted to link this Profile to a Task;

Scroll all the way up the Task list select "New Task + "
You can name this Task AutoTethering or anything.
Click "+" to add new Action
Net  → WiFi Tether (Set On)
Press back the way all back until you exit Tasker (your profile is now saved and is ready for execution)

Extras: Give Tasker more priority (allow auto-start for Tasker, exclude from battery optimisations, task killers etc)

Explanation: Soon after boot, the first action  turns on Wi-Fi tethering (note:  Tasker already has a built in WiFi Tether variable which is capable of handling tethering state)

This should work. (tested)


Simulate menu button in older app (Android 2.x) on Android 4.x tablet

When a newer device loads an app that targets an old Android version, it displays a menu button on the system bar, near the home, recents, and back buttons. It has the same "three dots" icon that you see on newer Android apps. Pressing this has the same effect as pressing the menu key on a device that has one.


How to find out the maximum number of contacts that the SIM card phonebook can hold?

European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) lays down standards for SIM

From 3GPP TS 21.111 version 8.0.1 Release 8 pertaining to 3G

  10.2.6 Number of entries : The specification shall support storage of at least 500 entries.

This does not mention the SIM storage size in relation to the number of entries

I was hoping to find a  correlation between size and entries and this is the only thing I could find.


what is the path the file system location where SMS messages stored?

In CM11 (Android KitKat) when using stock messaging app the database file is located at:

/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db

Note that it's not a text file, it's a sqlite database file which needs to be accessed via sqlite-capable front-end (such as sqlite command line client).


Where is the official location to conduct feature requests?

The Android Bug Report system.

Search to see if someone has already suggested the feature, then submit your idea using the feature request template.


Will a HTC hard reset also reset the firmware?

From this post:

  System updates overwrite /system. Factory reset wipes /data and /cache but doesn't touch /system. Simple as that.

The seller likely is just trying to eliminate personal data to prevent you from getting hold of any.

And in extreme cases where /system does get reset/cleared, there's always RUUs (HTC's factory firmware) which you can use to recover. In fact, even if the phone works just fine when it arrives, you might still need it to update the phone to the latest version available (OTA updates might've been discontinued by HTC).


When downloading a Rom on NOTE 4 questions

It seems These are Have different Roms.

Galaxy Note 4 Models:

T-Mobile SM-N910T Galaxy Note 4
Sprint SM-N910P Galaxy Note 4
AT&T SM-N910A Galaxy Note 4
Verizon SM-N910V Galaxy Note 4
Canadian Rogers SM-N910W8 Galaxy Note 4
Canadian Bell SM-N910W8 Galaxy Note 4
Canadian Telus SM-N910W8 Galaxy Note 4
International SM-N910F Galaxy Note 4
International SM-N910C Galaxy Note 4

and According to list, you need SM-N910A Galaxy Note 4 Rom for AT&T.
hope this help.


Forgotten Swipe Pattern lock for Nexus 6P (but fingerprint works!)

What you can do since you have such an open phone is unlock the bootloader temporarily and flash a custom recovery to remove the password related files. Here's how:

Unlock your bootloader - 1
Install a custom recovery - 1
Use the custom recovery's "File Manager" feature to remove the following files - 2:

/data/system/password.key
/data/system/pattern.key
/data/system/locksettings.db
/data/system/locksettings.db-shm
/data/system/locksettings.db-wal

Reboot your device
It should now have no password/pattern, enjoy your device
Reinstall stock recovery (should be automatically reinstalled when you reboot) and relocking bootloader - 3 (Optional)


The problem is that DNS binding support is different on Android. Lynx, wget, etc, if statically compiled by standard GCC under Linux, will not be able to lookup the domain name, but would work with a numerical ip address. You can see that problem in many of the busybox implementations for Android.

There is some discussion of this at Kevin Boone's KBOX2 Project


Update WebView system component on KitKat

In Android 4.4 the webview component cannot be updated from the Play Store - it is fixed to version 30.0.0.0 (and 33.0.0.0 in 4.4.3). This was changed in Android 5.0:

https://developer.chrome.com/multidevice/webview/overview

  In Android 5.0 (Lollipop), the WebView has moved to an APK so it can be updated seperately to the Android platform. To see what version of Chrome is currently used on a Lollipop device, simply go to Settings < Apps < Android System WebView and look at the version.


How can I fix Droid2 "Link Contacts" so it chooses the right primary name?

The Droid2 has a protected bootloader, meaning custom ROMs can't be loaded unless it is cracked.  (It hasn't been cracked yet).

That said, you can root the phone and you might be able to replace the Contacts app with another one.  The problem is that the Contacts.apk file is more than just Contacts -- it's also the Dialer.  Kind of an important file.  Replacing should be OK though as long as you back up the original and can restore it, but don't expect the replacement to work.

Googling "2.2 contacts.apk" should give you a few different versions of the app that you can download and test out.  Note you probably need to deodex your phone before you can replace a system app.  To actually replace it, use an app like Root Explorer to browse to /system/app, mount that folder as R/W, rename Contacts.apk to Contacts.backup or something, and copy in the new Contacts.apk.


HTC Desire stuck on HTC Logo on start up!!! Only able to open recovery

I ended up wiping my complete phone, even the OS...

had to go to the service center to get it fixed...

Now fixed...No resolution given from service center..


Multiple update notifications from Android Market

I guess this is by design as the majority of users don't have 4 accounts on their phone. The whole idea of those messages is to give the user the opportunity to download a new version as soon as it comes out. You may not want to use your mobile data when you don't want it to. Maybe the update automatically tickbox would bypass this message, however it will probably still say that 3 updates have been applied.

So what you maybe looking for is silent updates https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10328471/can-we-do-silent-updation-for-android-application looks like you can do it with a rooted phone.

I too think that Google can handle multiple accounts in a more intuitive ways across their products. Since its out of our control to improve these closed source apps ourselves I will say its better than it used to be. I think the best solution for Google would be to combine these messages into one notification ie "5 apps have been updated".

Make some noise on the Google support pages to improve this UX, this may be a good start http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/label?lid=551c5c4cca827a18&hl=en


How to disable popup on Chrome for Android?

In Google Chrome for Android, go to Settings > Content settings > Website settings. Select the website in concern, and clear the data / cache for it.


The problem is that some systems think of different ways to use the exif information. There are several possiblities, but for the motorola milestone (droid in the US) it was that the picture got a "rotated" mark in the EXIF, but it didn't get the height/width set correctly

(example: lets say you have a hxw = 3x4 camera. If you take a landscape shot, you'll get the normal hxw= 3x4 sized shot, and everything is fine. If you take a portrait shot, you STILL get the hxw = 3x4 (but you would want to see hxw = 4x3), and an extra mark that says "this shot was rotated). Some programs could work with this (twitpic for instance), but some coudn't.

Now you might face the same issue. I would look into your shots, and check what the exif says. If the exif has one of these issues, you might need to change (possibly use some sort of automatic process) the exif. Also, another viewer might help here.


Should the phone be fully charged before flashing a rom?

It's just because, under some circumstances, flashing can take a while.  You really don't want your device shutting off while it's being flashed; it can brick the device.

The calibration for the battery is stored, yes, but usually it gets adjusted within a few charges of the phone.  It might be a little inaccurate for a while, but it's not a major concern.


Enabling Android as USB host on Galaxy Nexus or Nexus 10

I don't know the specifics about n10, but I found out an issue with my n7. When I bought it I got USB OTG/host working, but now when I tried with 4.2 it does not work anymore!

I found out that it was configured incorrectly. If you check /etc/permissions/tablet_core_hardware.xml you should see line android.hardware.usb.host in there, but after 4.2 upgrade it was not there anymore.

So for me it looks like the only way to get it working is to root the device. :-( I wonder why it has been taken out.


Can I lock desktop icons on X10 Mini Pro?

It would seem as the only solution is to install ADW Launcher, as suggested in the other question.
And no, you don't need root to install ADW Launcher.

If you do decide to change launcher to ADW Launcher, Here's a link on how to lock the screen on the Complete guide to ADW.Launcher


Get alarm alert when receiving an email from specific sender

You are correct Gmail no longer allows to select individual sounds for labels. If messages from a particular sender are way too important to miss, then create a filter for that sender using Gmail via the browser not the app. Select a message from the sender, then on the right, click on the 3-dots and select "Filter similar messages". At the bottom, select "Create filter with this search".  Tick "Apply the label", then select "Choose Label" followed by "New label". Give you label a name and click OK. After creating the label, click on "Create Filter".

Open the Gmail app, go to Settings, select the account you have just created the filter and  label from, if Notifications is not selected, then select it. Click on "Manage Labels", select the label you created for the sender, enable "Label notifications" and "Notify for every message".

Go back and Disable notifications for the other labels.

It is the only way for now to get notifications for that sender only until the ability to select ringtones for labels is restored.


"Print" option not showing up in share menu

It could be that in Android 10, they changed the print icon and moved its location. They also used the same icon several times over. To be sure it is the correct icon, you'll need to read the text under the icon.


Using PIN instead of a password for encryption on Galaxy S3

It is not possible to change the PIN any more in the settings because everything except the alpha numeric password is greyed out. The solution is Tasker together with Secure Settings:
Create a task "ChangePin", add an Action "Plugin", "Secure Settings" and choose "Password/Pin" under "Dev Admin Actions" as Action. Choose "Enabled", "Pin Code" and enter the new Pin code, then run the task.
This action will also change the encryption password to the weak PIN, so proceed to the next section. For more details you can check at Samsung India site in its support option.


How to erase all data on android tablet?

There are a couple of things you could do.

Boot into recovery mode, and perform a factory reset that way. Google something like "recovery mode " and the volume buttons act as the arrow keys and the power/home button as the back/select button.
Log into your Google account on your computer (if you aren't already logged in) ensuring that it is the same account as the one on your tablet. And go to https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager
From there, if your device is supported, you should be able to wipe your device, or even better, change the device's password so that you can easily unlock it again.


Why is transmitting a file locally through AirDroid slower than downloading it from the internet?

If I connect both the phone and the desktop to a WiFi router, I only get roughly half that speed.

This is because of the way a Wifi network works. If you transmit data from one Wifi device to a second Wifi device connected to the same Wifi network (using the Wifi frequency and the router does not support MIMO) the data will be always transmitted this way (defined by the Wifi standard):

device 1 -> Wifi router -> device 2

Therefore each packet has to be transmitted twice over the air and in your Wifi only one device can be active (sending or receiving data) at a time.
It looks like the limiting factor in your set-up is the Wifi transmission speed. Both devices seem to use the same Wifi frequencies and therefore can not communicate at the same time but alternating. Therefore you only get the half speed.

This situation would not occur if your Wifi would support one of the following techniques:

The Wifi works in both 2.4GHz and 5GHz mode (and one device supports 5GHz Wifi)
The router has multiple antennas and can use antenna diversity (MU-MIMO) so that multiple devices can communicate at the same time

Alternatively there would be the possibility to use a WiFi Direct connection. It does not involve the router, therefore the connection should be up to twice as fast. But I don't have any experience with such a connection and AirDroid.


How do I open a text file of any extension in Android?

A programming editor might solve your issue. Take a look at e.g. 920 Text Editor or DroidEdit:

920 Text Editor and DroidEdit (Source: Google Play; click images for larger variants)

Both support at least syntax highlighting for several programming languages, and from the screenshot at least DroidEdit seems to be able to directly work with Dropbox (see the headline).


"Account unlock" when not connected to internet?

Search and download Unlocker or Screen Lock Bypass app from internet (which are no longer available in Play Store).
Push it to the system from recovery (with update.zip).
Start the system.


Suspected malware on stock apps in a Mediatek mtk65* based phone

I am sorry but you totally misinterpret the scanner results.
In both cases one of 61 scanners has detected something - that looks more like a false-positive. Additionally the scanners that detected something are uncommon. Not one of the major virus scanners detects anything on the samples. Rescan it some days later and if nothing has changed the chance is very very high that the result is not correct.
Additionally one item is detected as "PUA" - not as virus. PUA is the abbreviation for  - Potentially Unwanted Application - usually software like advertising trackers falls into this category.
The other is a PUP - hence a "Potentially Unwanted Program" which effectively means the same as PUA.
Conclusion: You totally panicked because you don't understand how to interpret the VirusTotal results.


As Bharat G noted, I don't see a single solution either. nandroid (clockworkmod is a custom recovery) backup comes close to what you want but it is more or less disk imaging and different custom recoveries uses varied formats to store the images so expect no coherency here.
Overall, whatever you do after logging in the device the very first time after a factory reset, the changes  are saved inside:

/data (custom settings of Android, apps installed, their own custom settings, other miscellaneous things such as logs, accounts info, Wi-Fi credentials) -- called userdata, and

/mnt/ or /storage/ (the location where user media is stored such as docs, music, videos, and so on) -- Internal and External storage, in short.
See what's inside /data here or on  Android Folder Hierarchy.

You need or need not to worry about the user media, as long as you know what factory reset will delete. For example, in some devices, factory reset will nuke both /data/ and internal SD card. In some other devices, you can choose to leave internal SD card (/data/media) intact while resetting the device.
Coming back to Nandroid backup, the option to backup user media is not provided in a custom recovery but you should be able to back it up using a custom script. That would  use dd IMO. Where you would  save it if the storage doesn't have enough space is altogether different matter to consider here.

There should be at least some ability to pick and choose what to restore from the backup archive.

The default options  to choose what to restore or backup in a custom recovery comes down to partitions only. There is no granular control such as to select specific files. A custom script would definitely and immensely help you though.
As GreenRaccoon23 noted, there are apps which can ease the pain.
(Requires root):

Apps like Titanium Backup can selectively backup and restore  the apps and few other miscellaneous settings.
Apps such as Nandroid Manager can let you peek into a Nandroid backup but don't expect much since it just opens the backup in read-only mode. For example, if you're unaware about where an app is located inside the backup, then this app won't be of much use to you.
Helium - App Sync and Backup  and My Backup Pro may also help a bit.


"No command" in recovery mode after flashing with CF auto root

Woohoo! I had issues running Heimdall as root. But it works fine as a normal user.

I also had to enable OEM unlock in the developer options.


My internal storage capacity is running low,  what can I do?

The only way to do this is linking apps to SD card.

First : Rooting.

How do I root my Android device?

Disclaimer : I'm NOT responsible to any damage you do to your phone ,Although it is very rare for someone to damage his phone while rooting (or a myth), and Rooting might void your warranty , some warranty policies void if rooted and some other void when unlocking bootloader (i.e installing custom mod) ,I did both actually.

Second : Partitioning SD card.

Linking apps to SD card requires a second partition on SD card.

XDA Developers - Partitioning SD card

Third : Activating Link2SD or S2E.

You can use one of these apps to link apps to SD card(I prefer Link2SD) :

Link2SD
S2E

If you use link2sd you must choose the type of your ext partition at the first open of the app ,then restart ,if you restart and the app tells you the same message see BONUS section of my answer.

Fourth : Linking apps to SD card.

This is using Link2SD (I didn't experience with S2E) :

After activating Second Partition of your SD card you should now link apps to SD card.

NOTE : an app must be on internal memory before it can be linked , if you try to link an app while it's on SD card it will be moved to internal then linked ,so make sure there is enough space to move it.

when you long press on an app ,a context menu appears ,press Create Link to link the app.

Bonus : Manually mounting second partition :

first you must install this app to mount it:

Terminal Emulator

then open the terminal emulator(and make sure you give it root access),and type the following (each line standalone):

su
mount -t ext2 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /data/sdext2

now open link2SD and Menu > More > Quick Restart it will restart your android system (not your phone),However you must do these steps every time you restart the phone (not via Link2SD)


The stock camera app doesn't allow such manual adjustments, so you'll probably need a 3rd-party app such as DSLR Camera Pro $3, Shot Control $3 with a free demo or Camera FV-5 $5 with a free demo. This will let you manually adjust the shutter speed, aperture, ISO, etc like a DSLR.


Phone won't boot and won't enter recovery, even after reflashing TWRP

So, I got it working again. The method was to not flash using fastboot.
I actually booted the recovery remotely with

fastboot boot recovery.img

Then flashed cyanogenmod (the system) and gapps from the external SD card.
On reboot, the system updated itself and it's working again.

And I can boot into cyanogen recovery mode (but not TWRP, as before).

Seems that it's fixed! :-)


2-step authentication calling me in Thai. I don't speak Thai.

Did you took a copy of Backup Codes which are provided while enabling 2-Step Verification? They can help you to login if you've them.

Otherwise, try resetting your password. That's the only option left. And, from the next time install the Google Authenticator App from PlayStore as it creates code by itself and comes very handy. No reliance on SMS/Call.


You can visit http://g.co/WearCheck on your phone to see if it supports Android Wear.


Android Chrome browser - how to make it always open to BLANK page? And new tab open to blank as well?

Doesn't seem to be anyone out there who can answer this, so I'll post my workaround. Make a home screen shortcut to "about:blank". Using the Nova launcher, you can change the name to "Chrome" and the icon to be identical, and just use that to launch the app.

Unfortunately it still doesn't do anything for new tabs though. I mainly use Adblock Plus browser because Chrome is ridiculously notorious for pushing Google content, and will continue to do so until they add more options for control.


Moto E on Lollipop has KitKat's boot animation

My Moto X did this same thing for almost a month after Lollipop was released. Eventually, Motorola Boot Services updated through Google Play and the animation updated. It also introduced a few bugs Motorola has yet to fix, but give it time, and you will receive that update again relatively soon.


Why should I "Set up my profile" within contacts?

There are a few possible uses. This special contact also sets your photo and name in the quick-settings tray (the one you pull down from the top-right), and it's the source of the name and image used if you have multiple user profiles on a tablet.

If someone finds your phone unlocked, they might use your contact details to help find you and return your phone, but the settings here don't affect the lock screen message, which is the usual way to help your phone get back to you.

You might also use this to quickly send your contact details to someone else's phone via Bluetooth or NFC.

Finally, apps which you grant the appropriate permission ("Read your contacts" and "Read your own contact card") can read this special contact. They might do this to address you by the correct name, or to set up contact data without you having to enter it again. Obviously, exactly what they do depends on the particular app. For example, I have a free app Owner Photo Widget which uses this feature to make it easy to put your photo in a lock screen widget. This makes it easy to identify whose phone it is, if you leave it behind in the office, or a similar situation.


Jelly Bean on the Galaxy Nexus - forcing an update?

There are many variations of the Galaxy Nexus. Most likely, your phone is yakjuxw, which gets the updates from Samsung. The other phone is either yakju or takju, which use Google's own updates, which are released quicker.

The versions are interchangeable, if you don't account for international customizations or possible carrier modifications. For example, see my answer here on how to change the yakjuxw firmware to takju Jelly Bean, which can be then officially upgraded to 4.1.1 via OTA.


If you root a phone can you still get the upgrades to to the O/S?

Whether you still can update to "official versions" via ota-update or otherwise, depends on multiple things. Basically, the manufacturer might include a check whether the currently installed ROM is valid -- in this case, an update will fail as you changed the /system partition during rooting. If no such check takes place, an update might succeed -- but you may have lost root access (if the update replaced the /system partition; tools like OTA RootKeeper might prove helpful in those cases).

For further details, please see e.g.

How do I update the OS on my device?
How do I upgrade my rooted Nexus One using OTA updates?
Rooting and updating to Official Updates


How to do a full factory reset and clean the phone completely?

As the firmware resides in /system, flashing a firmware obviously overwrites that partition. /boot is usually involved here as well. Whether the two get "wiped" is a different question; but as otherwise things could get "mixed", which might cause unwanted side-effects, I'd say they are (I'm not 100% sure with this). So in these two partitions, nothing of the previously installed firmware should remain.

That's different for the other partitions of your device. So usually, /data is not touched by the flashing process, but of course it will be touched once the new system boots up (it e.g. needs to initialize the dalvik cache for the newly installed system apps, which is located in /data/dalvik-cache). For the /cache partition (holding the application cache) it's similar: It usually is not touched by the flashing process, but used normally afterwards. Hence it's a good idea to wipe these two (Cache and Dalvik Cache) when installing a different ROM. It might not always be required, but it doesn't hurt.

A factory-reset in principle is a combination of the two: it wipes the /cache and /data Partitions. So other than the manual wipe of the caches from a custom recovery, it also removes all user data (including the user-installed apps).

Note: Don't confuse a "wipe" with a "safe erase": with the right tools, data still might be recoverable following a wipe.

With this on your mind, your second question becomes obsolete: if you just want a clean system for yourself, this wish is already granted. If, on the other hand, you did these steps to sell your device, there's always the point of what could be restored. For a "safe erase", you might want to take a look at special tools like Nuke My Phone / Nuke My Tablet, which overwrite everything with "garbage data", and finalize this process with a factory-reset.


Problably in the song property there isn't the album tag. You can modify it and add the name of the album using a Music tag editor. You can also change the pick of the album.
I use the app "Star Music Tag Editor"


Android in app purchase issue: You already own this item

Summed up from the comments:

This was a known issue with Google Play, which meanwhile is resolved (read more on this Google support page, opening the "fixed/resolved" item, and there you see [#8849329] Falsely received error: "You already own this item", together with more details).


Is there a way to eliminate Google Play Books / Newsstand?

Since Android 4.0, it is possible to "disable" apps without root. However, not all apps can be "disabled": some (pre-installed) system-apps are protected against this. Still, it's always worth a try if you don't want to root your device:

Go to Settings→Apps
Select the "All" tab
Scroll to the apps in question, and open their entry
Here you see either a button labeled "Disable", or one labeled "Uninstall Updates". If the latter is there, tap it: this will uninstall all the updates this app received during the time you already used the device. Now the "Disable" button should be visible in its place.

Is it "grayed out"?

Tap "Delete Cache", then "Clear Data". This will remove all cache files the app might have created, all its data, and its configuration.
Still "grayed out?" Then this app is "protected", you cannot "disable" it without root.

Otherwise: Tap it. This will disable/freeze the app.

These actions are reversible: You can always re-visit the apps entries here, and push the button again (it will be labeled "Enable" then).

If you could not deactivate an app this way, all that's left is root and some "Bloatware remover", as indicated by Lucas' answer. Apart from Titanium Backup, there are several other "root-apps" which can do that – though Titanium is a great choice, as it also provides the means to do full backups and more. If chosing this path, make sure to freeze apps first to check for side-effects: As with above steps, a "freeze" is revertible – a "remove" is not (at least not easily).

Also see our bloatware tag-wiki, which will give you / point you to more information.


unwanted text message when unable to answer a call

Open your Phone/Dialer app and go into its Settings.  Look for "Quick Reply" or similar and you should be able to disable it or remove the entries.


How can I prevent certain websites from appearing in my Google search results?

For Android phones, You have to just click on the options button at the top right corner of the website you want to block and then select not interested in stories from xyz.com. Google will now stop showing anything from that website to you.
If you are using the Chrome Browser on PC, then you are lucky. Because, Chrome has an official extension called Personal Blocklist just for this. You can download and install it from here.


Just a bit of warning: Even if you do delete these pictures that come from in-app advertisements, you'd have to block those apps from accessing the internet otherwise they'll download those pictures again. [Unfortunately, that's another question entirely]

Otherwise, to fully delete these pictures, it'd be best to use a third-party app, as follows:
http://features.en.softonic.com/how-to-permanently-delete-files-on-android

The reason why I suggest using an app instead of, say, deleting them right off your SD card is that most of them won't be on the SD card. Most apps usually hide them inside their own personal data folders, so the link above should help you.


How to "fastboot flashing unlock" when device has no volume rocker?

When a device has no volume rocker it is usually flashed using an external tool and not via traditional fastboot methods.
In this case, the device is a MediaTek Android smartphone (MTK based), and nearly every smartphone with this chipset can be flashed not using fastboot, but with the SP Flash Tool.
The latest version SPFlash Tool v5.1924 can be downloaded at:
spflashtool.com or androidmtk.com
This tool allows the flashing of Scatter Based Stock Firmware on devices powered by Mediatek Chipsets. All you need is the correct Scatter based Stock Firmware of your Device.


How does Google know what apps I've installed if I login to gmail via browser?

The login to Gmail is the very same you use for Play Store – so in fact Google knows it's you. The browser sends a user-agent string, by default identifying your device (brand and model). The history of your activities in Google Play Store tell which apps you've installed in what versions on this device.

So yes, that would be an easy thing to do for Google. I cannot say if that's really happening (or if your guess of not using the native app triggering such message is what's done) – but it's technically possible.


Streaming Android screen to YouTube, Twitch etc

I figured out. The Omlet Arcade
app works like a charm.
It even supports internal audio streaming, but only from Android 10 which supports it itself.

In case anyone has the same use case as me - drawing - then the app I use for collaborative drawing is Aggie.io, and for stylus-on-tablet drawing I use Lenovo NoteSaver, which one of the few apps which supports the drawing pad.


Android 4.4 allows you to view recent requests - this is probably the closest you can get...

This probably exists in prior versions too, I just don't have a device with JB to test it with. You get there from settings->location


ICS or Jelly Bean cannot work on this particular phone due to hardware limitations, and many ROMS like CyanogenMod etc. are designed for the international version, not the korean version, thus you will have some problems.

My recommendation to you is to use KIES to go back to the latest Samsung released Gingerbread, root, then use a custom kernel (Tegrak is my personal choice) to get a lagfix. It will hopefully breathe new life into your phone. Hope this helps.

Also note there're many apps for Gingerbread that give you the feel and performance of ICS, such as Gallery ICS, Camera ICS, and ICS Launcher. Aside from being unable to run Chrome, you may not notice any difference.


Only vibrate when there are no active notifications

You could use tasker this way:
-First, deactivate notification sounds for all apps.
-Then, configure tasker to suit your needs. This resource might help.
Note that root access might be required.


SD Card Offline HTML Browser will show those saved files locally.

Android Open In Browser states the issues, but does say Opera Bowser will work on some Samsung devices.


You can try Documents To Go. You can create, edit, and view MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and even PDF docs.

As a free alternative, you can upload your Excel docs to Google Docs and use the free GDocs app.


Where have "predefined SMS messages" gone in Android 5?

You should look in the Phone/Dialer app, not SMS/Hangout app. This is from stock Nexus 6 Lollipop:

Open the Phone app

Tap the overflow menu besides the search box and tap "Settings":

Tap "General"

Tap "Quick Responses":

Edit your quick responses editing the text box that pops up when you tap on the list view:


Backup locked huawei p9 before hard reset

I think it's not possible to backup all your data via USB with 'USB Debugging off'.

But it may be possible, if you make a backup using TWRP (android app.) with root access in mobile's external card.


Yes, it can. GSM and later phone protocols automatically adjust the phone's transmit power according to the strength of the signal it gets from the cell tower. It's just like how, if you're talking to someone and you can't hear them very well (because they're a long way away, or in a noisy environment), you'll tend to talk louder or shout, but if you can hear them clearly (they're right next to you), you'll talk more quietly. The phone works the same way.

Of course, for the phone, "talking more loudly" means putting more power into its transmitter, so the battery will be drained faster. If you switch to a network that has cell towers further away from where you spend most of your time, your phone will be using more transmit power more often, so it will use energy more quickly. Note that it's the received strength that matters (i.e. how much attenuation there is), not the quality of the signal, so you may find this happens even if you get a better signal overall.

Cell handover, when you move from one cell to the next one, also takes more power, and your new network's better internet speed might be a result of having denser cells in your area, leading to more handovers.

Finally, the worst thing for a phone is being completely out of range, because it has to periodically transmit on the maximum power to try to get a response from a cell tower. (This is why it's especially important to turn your phone off for a flight: once the plane gets out of cell range, all the phones will start blaring out as loudly as they can.) It's possible that your new network's coverage is much better at your home and your office, but during your commute, you haven't noticed that you leave the service area completely, and so your phone starts draining the battery then.

In summary, there are lots of factors, so it's hard to predict the effect of changing network operator, but it can have an effect. Of course, that doesn't stop it being a coincidence in your case.


i've had the same issue occur with the same symptoms.  used to work fine and then randomly started re-cycling as you mentioned.  several forums indicate this to be a pervasive issue as a result of a recent update.

i just chatted with samsung tech support and they recommended a factory reset.  it worked.  but i worry as to whether it will just eventually re-download the update the caused the issue in the first place...


How can I recover deleted calendar events?

I don't think it is possible to recover these.. Only if you should have backups of your Outlook calendar, but I don't think a lot of people take backups of their calendar


Unknown icon on status bar in Motorola atrix 2

It looks like the icon for a telecommunications device for the deaf.


How to decrypt the corrupt SD card formatted as internal storage?

Even it does not fully answer the question, here's a guide to decrypt the external storage formatted as internal. You do need to be root on your phone, however.

The gist is that we search for strings including the keyword expand and ending with .key within vold using:

$ strings vold|grep -i expand
--change-name=0:android_expand
%s/expand_%s.key
/mnt/expand/%s

It returns a 16-byte key.

expand_8838e738a18746b6e435bb0d04c15ccd.key

Then you pass the key into this bad boy:

# dmsetup create crypt1 --table "0 `blockdev --getsize /dev/sdb2` crypt \
aes-cbc-essiv:sha256 00010203040506070809010a0b0c0d0e0f 0 /dev/sdb2 0"

And mount that in:

# mount -t ext4 /dev/mapper/crypt1 /mnt/1/
# cd /mnt/1
# find ./ -type d

Now you can cp everything elsewhere and hopefully save some data. Remember to exclude any key-related data (grep) when doing so, in case you want to reformat as ınternal again and put your stuff back in.


How to know if there is any way to access data from a stolen Galaxy S3, or Android phone in general, via automatic backup or any other way

Your contacts and calendar (by default) will be stored with your gmail account.  Most likely when you activate another phone you'll immediately see this data if you activate the gmail (Gooble Play store) with the same account.


Skype showing me as online - after stopping app and even after device shutdown?

OMG, I have found the following posting: http://community.skype.com/t5/Security-Privacy-Trust-and/Skype-invading-and-changing-people-s-online-status/m-p/2961695/highlight/true#M28546

According to above the "always on" concept was a deliberate decision by Microsoft:

(...) we have changed the way online status presence works:
(...) we are showing you as online to your contact even when you left or
force killed the app on your mobile phone (...)

They admit that certain scenarios need fixing:

Now we've identified a few scenarios where this is simply misleading:
 - you've switched off your device
 - you've disconnected from the internet (e.g. by switching to airplane mode
   and you are somewhere mid flight)

In these occasions you are right now still shown online and we are working to
make Skype presence indicator be meaningful in these scenarios as well.

This is just so weird.
They should certainly make it configurable.

For now the only way to disconnect is to manually "sign out".
Quitting the app isn't sufficient. Shutting down the device is neither.

Status Update (2015-08-15):
The problem is back. And it's even worse!
Even though i manually sign out, quite the Skype app and shut down the Android device I'm still being shown as "online"!
Observed with: Skype 5.9.0.14047 @ Android 5.1.1


What is the official name and nature of the panels that are sliding upwards in web browsers

Your question made me search and it's  modal bottom sheet

are an alternative to inline menus or simple dialogs on mobile and provide room for additional items, longer descriptions, and iconography. They must be dismissed in order to interact with the underlying content.

(Emphasis added)


How to keep using Google Maps in Chrome browser and avoid launching the app?

The trick mentioned here works for me on Chrome 61.0.3163.98, the latest on Play Store

  open chrome and go to     chrome://flags/#tab-management-experiment-type

  Click the drop down under Switch preferred flavor of Herb

  Change it to disabled

  Click the blue restart button that appears at the bottom of the screen

Alternatively, you can use Chromer , which is a light weight version of Chrome. It has the advantage of launching browser from apps and quickly reverting to the app without losing place from where you clicked


Photos app doesn't show any photos when Internet connectivity is limited

Even thought the photos are stored locally, when in the main view of the photos app only the thumbnails or nothing at all (if thumbs are not cached) will be shown when internet is off/blocked/limited.

The only way you can access the local copies while using the photos app is to open the menu on the left and select "Device Folders" and then go into the Camera folder (or wherever it is you are trying to access).

Click Images to enlarge

Unfortunately because the internet is limited you wont have access to the nice new features such as the advanced photo search or the nice date order layout as these are all server-based features.


Which app should I select when inserting my phone into the car dock?

Tasker should be seeing the event even if the system doesn't have it set as the default handler, so you should be safe setting Smart Dock as the default. (That said, you could also have Tasker handle the launch of Smart Dock.)


System has been modified. Pls contact the manufacturer. Thank you. -- i don't know what this mean and something's wrong with my phone.

There are only two ways out of this:

restore the backup you (probably didn't) make before tampering with system files
try to backup what you still can, and flash the system (either with the stock ROM for your device, or with any matching custom ROM, whatever you prefer. If you don't know where to get that, take a look at Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?

For the future please note that everything you delete in /system will be gone for good. Always make a backup before you play there – and make yourself familiar first with what you're up to do ;)


HTC One - keeps shutting down when rooting

If reboot:
This is just part of the process of rooting on some devices and some devices it won't do this.

If shut down:
It means the root is installed on your phone and the rooting process is finished.

Hope this helps


How do you move an app shortcut between launcher screens?

Drag the icon to the edge, not the corners.  It can be a little finicky depending on the particular touchscreen hardware your phone has.


Macrodroid: Convert "+63" area code to "0"

I am not sure what went wrong at your end, it could be wrong configuration, misuse of global variables or a silly mistake. In the absence of trouble shooting information, it's a guessing game.

Your approach of changing 63 to 0 as in the title is totally unnecessary.

Macro Logic

Outgoing call number is assigned to local variable A as a string (don't use global variables unless you need)

The length of the string in variable A is assigned to variable strlen. We have two types of outgoing numbers, those starting with +63, which is 13 digits long and the other starting with 09 that is 11 digits.

We use IF-then-ELSE logic. If the string length is 13 (corresponding to numbers starting with +65):

a) We use text manipulation to find out the first six digits to find out whether they are allowed codes or not. In either case, they are assigned to variable A.
b) If the first 6 digits are allowed codes, no action is taken. If they aren't a warning dialogue is configured. This is done by the nested IF loop and can be extended to include more area codes.

Back to step 2,if it is not 13 digits, then actions in else loop will be carried out. We are looking at 11 digits corresponding to 09 starting numbers. But by saying not 13,we are also including other cases like police, fire etc., which have 3 digits and for which the warning will still pop up and the effort to exclude this 3 digit case is not worth it IMO.

For 9 digit numbers, the same set of actions at Para 3a) and b) are executed.

At the end both variables are initialized

Macro is slightly long owing to comments, so it's in two screenshots, the first one covering IF and next one ELSE

(Click to enlarge)
OP has confirmed it works as expected. To prevent MacroDroid being killed follow instructions at don't kill my app.com


Why can't I get past CAPTCHA after changing Google Account password?

Try unlock the captcha: https://www.google.com/accounts/DisplayUnlockCaptcha
Then, go back to your android phone e retype o password.


I use Moto G3 with Lineage OS (July month build). I had the same issue of auto downloading which started two days ago.

What I have observed is the downloading takes place when I turn on mobile data after 10 AM in morning or 10 PM at night. The files are not shown in ES Explorer app, but I can see those files queued  if I use in-built file manager of Lineage OS. I tried to see which app was using mobile data at that time using My Data Manager app and it showed that Media Storage system app was using the internet.


Why does my HTC Desire play a tune (like notification) without a visual message?

It might be caused by a notification set for a calendar event (or a task, if you have a task organiser that integrates with the calendar). I found that if I dismissed a calendar notification, it would continue to activate but it wouldn't appear in the notification bar! I had to go through my calendar, look for events with notifications, and disable any outstanding ones that I found.


Does Google+ client come preinstalled on Android phones?

Google Plus is not shipped typically as an standalone app but a part of the bundle named Google Apps (GAPPS).
The core of the GAPPS package is the famous app named Google Play Services which is accessible directly by the user in the form of Google Settings.
That said, an OEM isn't allowed to ship Google Plus or any part of GAPPS package, without the consent from Google. Google on the Android Compatibility page has stated that:

Licensing Google Mobile Services (GMS)
After building an [Android compatible device], consider licensing Google Mobile Services (GMS), Google’s proprietary suite of apps (Google Play, YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail, and more ) that run on top of Android. GMS is not part of the Android Open Source Project and is available only through a license with Google.

(Emphasis mine)
See also: Android forks: Why Google can rest easy. For now

To get their hands on GMS apps, OEMs need to license them from Google; and in order for a device to get a license for the apps, it must pass the Android Compatibility Test Suite and meet the Android Compatibility Definition.

Is having it a mandatory requirement on manufacturers to be certified by Google?

I can't answer this part satisfactorily since I'm restricted to my opinion. However you may take a note on the info in the aforementioned link. It has mentioned that certain OEMs are contractually bound to not to produce non-Android compatible devices so as to avoid Android fragmentation which would be inimical to Google's business. The contract itself isn't released for the public view, so you're possibly on your own.
As for the part why the users are being forced to use or at the least have them in their device, you should consider asking your OEM first! :)
Also see: Why do phone makers not let me uninstall their pre-bundled apps?

Edit by Izzy:
as Firelord asked me to include it, I'll append it here:
There's an article on Engadget on the Google Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA), which describes some of the background. Simplified, if a manufacturer/OEM wants to include Google Play Store (which most want), they must not only include a bunch of additional Google apps, but also place them on the main homescreen page. So yes, this is "a mandatory requirement on manufacturers to be certified by Google" – not only for Google+.


How to download a specific part of any online streaming videos on Android phone?

You can use different Screen recorders for your requirement. Just start the recording where you wish to, and stop it when your are done. This way you can get your required length of video.
I'll try to list my top picks for the same.

AZ Screen Recorder: AZ Screen Recorder is the gold standard for screen recorder apps. It's light, easy, accessible, and cheap. It doesn't require root, has no watermarks and no time limits.

DU Recorder : It records your phone screen with up to 1080p/60fps quality. The app also works in 20 languages, has a decent UI, and a video editor built-in. It's all entirely free to download and use. It does have problems, though. Tablet support is a bit flaky and some people found bugs. Still, for free price, it's one of the better screen recording apps.

Vysor: Vysor is a fun little app that allows you to cast your device to your computer screen over USB. From there, you can use it on your computer or screen record it on your PC if you’d like to. It tends to work pretty well although you will need to fork out a little bit of money in order to get HD quality. This app doesn’t record anything on its own so don’t expect any options to do so. You’ll have to record it on your computer on your own.
Hope this helps.


How to remove TouchWiz and revert to a vanilla Android UI?

It's impossible to root out TouchWiz without modifying the Samsung source code to remove and replace it; it's heavily embedded in the OS.  This would be a massive effort and I don't believe anyone's done it.  The only alternative is a ROM built from stock in the first place, such as Cyanogen as Ryan mentioned.


Orbot not starting on rooted Samsung Galaxy S4 (Verizon)

I just installed Orbot awhile ago, and I got it working on my rooted Samsung Galaxy S4. You need to set the proxy for your APN.

Go to System Settings > More networks > Mobile networks > APN. Open your existing APN, and take note of the settings. You need to make a clone of this APN (so that you will still have the original APN, and have another APN that goes through TOR). Go back to the APNs page, and create a new APN, copying the settings from the other APN.

Then, set these:

Proxy: localhost
Port: 8118

After that, make sure you select the newly-created APN as your new APN. Your network will refresh in a bit. Open your browser and open check.torproject.org. If it was successful, you should see something like this:

WARNING: If you use the GMail app (or in my case, Kaiten configured with my GMail), it may detect unauthorized access, and you may be asked to reset your GMail password online.


How to use multibyte file names in adb shell?

mksh developer here.
mksh uses UTF-8 internally, but is currently limited to the BMP (basic multilingua plane), which means U+0000 to U+FFFD. If you want to use SMP codepoints (U-00010000 to U-0010FFFD) on the input line, you currently have to disable the UTF-8 mode (sorry):
$ set +U

That switches to a byte-wise mode which does not limit the input. (You can tab-complete files with SMP characters in them, but not directly input them, because input is validated.)
$ set -U   # switches back to UTF-8 mode

Switching mksh to full 21-bit Unicode is already on my TODO, and I’m currently hoping to be able to provide it for the next release.


if your device is not encrypted with login credentials you can delete locksettings.db

adb shell su -c "rm /data/system/locksettings.db*"

However, bear in mind the following files are required for FBE encryption. If you delete these files you won't be able to decrypt userdata partition, all data is lost

/data/system/gatekeeper.password.key
/data/system/gatekeeper.pattern.key
/data/system/locksettings.db
/data/system/locksettings.db-shm
/data/system/locksettings.db-wal


It seems, that the problem is bad position of rubber gasket in proximity sensor.

https://youtu.be/AZDAIgwbXk4?t=8m22s


How to recovery deleted system app by kingroot

Open Kingroot, go to Purify. Click Tools at the bottom, then Bloatware Remover, then tap the little picture of a man and bin in the top right corner. This will allow you to undelete system apps. Cheers!


how could I view google maps search history? (not location history)

You can view and search your history on https://myactivity.google.com .
There is the option to „filter by date & product“, from where you can select Maps and a period of time.


How to mark an app to check the price variation

You can check the app on AppBrain, which provides an alternative frontend to Google Play. Their app pages a.o. feature a history section. On the example of aCalendar+:

App history (source: AppBrain; click image for larger variant)

As the screenshot shows, you get a price history along with the changelog (right part) if the app was paid – and you also get a rating history (left part).


Gmail closes when i touch icon in blue address bar

It sounds like your tablet is missing the 'Contacts' or 'People' app (or has one customized by the manufacturer, which doesn't understand the same intents). Since every OHA-certified Android device has it, Gmail is trying to launch it without checking whether it exists, and that's what's going wrong.

If you disabled the app yourself (by clicking Disable in the app's page in Settings → Apps), then you have to re-enable it to avoid this problem.

If the Gmail app was pre-installed on your tablet, then this is a system integration error. You should complain to the manufacturers and ask them to release an update to fix the problem.

Until then, or if you installed Gmail yourself on a tablet that doesn't support it, you should be able to fix the problem if you can find and install the original Contacts or People app.


How to disable battery saving when battery level is below 15%?

You may be able to mock the battery level to 100% by using ADB by the following command:
adb shell dumpsys battery set level 100

The battery level should then stay at 100%.


SyncThing, Lolipop, and "Transport endpoint not connected"

Try different Sd card or your sd card might have a low space try Different method like Syncthing to otg or internal storage.


IS it common for mobile data to stop working but normal phone reception to be fine?

Not normal , check your phone params to be sure that you did not disable data , you can also dial *#*#4636#*#* to open the diagnostic menu then first item and scroll down to "preferred network" and check what is written.


Battery drains on my LG G3 despite everyone saying it has a great battery life

Maybe a longshot for you, but i changed the home launcher on my g3 to google now launcher from playstore and battery improved a lot.


HTC One M8 settings not allowing file transfer

One thing you can do is to use the HTC One M8 root toolkit, which allows you to fix most of the phone's problems with a click of a button. I am not very familiar with the HTC toolkit (I have a Nexus) but you should be able to factory reset your phone without wiping data from here.

You can use this method as a last resort if nothing else works. Here are some websites showing how to fix/backup the specific problem:

http://www.htc.com/us/support/htc-one-m8/howto/465027.html

http://deviceguides.vodafone.ie/web/htc-one-m8/change-settings/bluetooth/transfer-files-via-bluetooth

http://www.htc.com/us/support/htc-one-m8/howto/465041.html

If these don't work either, call HTC support since it may actually be a problem with the phone.


Yes. If the files are identical, by definition, they should also be identical in size, regardless of platform (Unless the file is a sparse file, and/or the mechanism by which the FS driver of the platform reports file sizes is buggy).

But for identical apps, however:

Not necessarily. The file size mostly differs for native-compiled executable code (ARM vs. x86 chipsets,etc.), graphics resources supplied as per the device's graphics capability (OpenGL ES 2.0 vs 3.0), and so on.

In your case, it would be better to compute and compare checksums for the files, instead of size, as they depend on the contents of the file which should not vary from platform to platform, except as stated above.


Does a HDMI splitter exist that will split hdmi into video and audio?

4x2 True HDMI Matrix Switch w/ Analog Audio Output

or

1 x 2 HDMI Splitter Distribution Amplifiier with Toslink Audio Output


Network Locked SIM card on Unlocked Note 9

OK Digging around found the solution.

Samsung devices have a regional warranty lock, I needed to make a 5-10 minute call to a local number using the Tesco SIM to unlock the phone for use with networks outside that region.

It is clearly printed on the box, but Tesco helpfully put thier own welcom to Tesco mnobile sticker over this.


Screen goes back to home screen frequently, after Data Network enable

Same phone. Never had this happen to me.
Using a custom ROM though. BroodROM Business Edition.
I would recommend upgrading your system or flashing a custom ROM.


How to fix phone booting only into fastboot mode after flashing a custom ROM?

Old thread, but helped me fix my Wileyfox Swift as well.

I had the same issue - followed the TWRP route, erased and loaded the new image.
On restart, the bootloader refused to load the system, just went round and round. Speculation on my part, but this might have been because some of us had to "patch" the 'fox bootloader to get the Android 7 update to load in the first place.

The links on the facebook page posted by Bo Lawson (thank you) are still active at the time of this post. I selected the "last" cyanogen release (see the Swift links, used ZNH2KAS7EB).

TWRP was already on, so I booted to recovery, used adp to push the file SW27-WF-CRACKLING-CM-13.1.5-ZNH2KAS7EB-RECOVERY.zip to /sdcard, then used TWRP to install it.
This also replaced the "new" bootloader. The old Cyanogen image booted without issues, so just turned on USB debugging, then rebooted to bootloader.

Fastboot flash'd recovery with TWRP(3.2.3.0) again. Rebooted to recovery, then installed the replacement image (not Lineage, but e.Foundation's beta).

Works!
...and there was much rejoicing.


Let's say: without rooting the device, it's quite unlikely to be possible.

On a rooted device, one could symlink the download folder to a folder located on the SDCard, and thus trick the system to directly download to the card (the way Link2SD works with installing apps on SDCard).


I also had this problem today. I typed in 1234 for the PIN and it worked, but I don't know why or how.


Prevent USB data transfer (when phone is in use) and being charged

Edit: While reading up on this after answering, stumbled upon the name for this threat- Juice Jacking, defined as (emphasis added)

Juice jacking is a term used to describe a cyber attack where wherein malware might be installed on to, or data surreptitiously copied from, a smart phone, tablet or other computer device using a charging port that doubles as a data connection, typically over USB.

Further, mitigation section of wiki says

Juice jacking is not possible if a device is charged via the AC adapter shipped with the device, a battery backup device, or by utilizing a USB cable that has its data cables removed

The simplest way would be to use a cable that only charges but does not allow data transfer. Such a cable is non-standard, since it does not adhere to standards wherein data connectors / cables also play an important role of negotiating the power requirements (1)

These cables come with a disadvantage- charging speed is very slow (often by a factor of 10x as reported in some forums). A work around is to buy a cable of 20 AWG thickness (2)  Since 20 AWG is the thickest cable permitted and by virtue of its thickness offers least resistance , and therefore faster charging.  Such cables are available on ebay as an example. While these cables may charge at a reasonable rate, they are not recommended for regular use, as charging current rate is constant and not negotiable (as desired by battery charging logic)

Other Possible Methods

adb commands/ tweaking your system OS: These may or may not work since it is highly dependent on the way device OS is designed. To get a flavor, see my answer , which is the opposite of what you want to achieve.

Edit: Thanks to Firelord's answer, found a way that hasn't been documented anywhere AFAIK.

You can run this command:

adb shell svc usb setFunctions
This should reset the USB mode/configuration to charging only.

DIY methods modifying the cable or end connectors:  Not recommended unless you have a good knowledge and are adept at such tinkering. For example,  How-to-make-a-USB-no-data-charger-cable- Google search will give you many more

USB Condoms:  I didn't make that up :). These are  implementation of DIY methods, sold as ready for use.  SyncStop/ USB condom is one such product- many are available

Note:  All above methods result in sub optimal charging and IMO not recommended for regular use since charging power can't be negotiated
Interestingly, there is a product Charging Safely over USB marketed last year (currently out of stock as per website). This recognises that doing away with data connectors is a bad idea, and permits power negotiation to happen (although slowly) while denying data transfer  by using capacitors to limit bandwidth only for power negotiation
Bottom Line  Use 20 AWG cable recommended right on top, and as sparingly as possible

(1):  USB charging specifications in conjunction with Battery Charging Revision 1.2 lays down " standard for establishing the proper way to charge a battery from a USB port "
(2):  American Wire Gauge (AWG) is a reference for thickness of cables. In this system, larger numbers indicate thinner wires. USB specification above makes reference to AWG numbers of 20, 22, 24, 26 and 28


The LG K51 has many variants. All variants have Android 10 except the LG K51 for Boost Mobile which has Android 9.

Ive also looked into the credentials and theres a whole list of apps downloaded that have the name Root in them. As well as a system file saying RootPA. Is my phone as risk or is it still safe?

When trying to root via 3rd party apps, they download files (and bloatware) that must be use to root. If you really want to root your phone, better search Xda-Developers to find if there are methods for your phone instead of using the one-click apps.


Moto G - Bricked after update. Constantly booting to CWM

Try to install Cyanogenmod again, be sure to clear cache, dalvik, data and system


Cannot find packet data in Samsung Galaxy S

You must be referring to Mobile Data. Take note that using mobile data on the road will incur data charges per minute or per data size (consumption), depending on your plan.

In the Samsung Galaxy S4, mobile data can be enabled in Settings > Connections > More networks > Mobile networks > Mobile data. You can also find a Mobile data quick-switch in the quick settings section of the notification panel. See if you can find something similar for the Samsung Galaxy S. With this checked, you can now surf the internet using your phone.


How to send a special keyboard sequence using Microsoft Remote Desktop

Scenario: Your PC (node_1) and Remote PC (node_2).

Open the onscreen keyboard Start -> All Programs -> Accesories -> Ease of Access -> On-Screen Keyboard on node_2.

When you want to send ctrl+alt+del, press Ctrl+Alt in node_1 and click del in node_2. (Worked for me in node_1=XP and node_2=Win7)


If you enabled "My Location" in Settings > Location & Security > Use wireless networks then your Cell/Wifi and/or GPS data will be sent to Google to triangulate your location if there is an application in the phone that requested for location. Your GPS data may also be sent to Google if you're using Google Latitude, Google Navigation, location-aware search, or use other location-based services.

Third party applications may also track your location, read their privacy policy before installing those applications if you're concerned.

EDIT: According to Android Central

  Android does the same sort of thing,
  boys and girls. And it's supposed to.
  But it does it right. Instead of
  saving days and weeks and months of
  location data, it saves the 50 most
  recent cellular GPS locations, and 200
  most recent Wifi fixes. And it's
  stored in a little file on your phone.

  ...

  You can shut off Android's
  location services and stop further
  caching of location data. It's in
  Settings>Location & Security.


You can turn 3G data back on through 'Settings'.

Go to 'Settings'
Go to 'Wireless & Networks'
Somewhere near the bottom should be 'Mobile Network' - enable it

Now you're phone should have both 3G and WiFi enabled. If it can connect to a WiFi, it'll use WiFi; otherwise, it'll fall back to use 3G.

edit: as Seth pointed out below, these instructions may differ slightly between android phones (but should be relatively similar). Instructions above are for the HTC Desire.


How do I stop the home button from waking my Samsung Galaxy S5?

If you rooted your S5 it is pretty simple (and you don't have to install third party apps):
1) use a file manager and go into root -> system -> usr -> keylayout and find the file  gpio-keys.kl ;
2) Open it with a text editor and find the lines with "WAKE" written in them;
3) Go to the one with "HOME" written in it and just delete this word and all the spaces between the number on the left and "WAKE" on the right;
4) Save the file and you're done;

If you can't do this 30seconds thing because your S5 is not rooted then I'd suggest you to root your phone: a new world opens right in front of you ;)


How to enable adbd to listen to a port at boot time in Android?

The reason it does not work properly is this:
The init.rc script resides in within the RAMDisk attached to the boot image.
Hence the init.rc script that was edited and pushed across is now overwritten by the boot image's own script upon reboot - effectively changes are lost!
You need to extract the boot image, using every boot image has the kernel and the RAMDisk. The tools available to do this can be found here.
Extracting
When invoking the script split_bootimg.pl on a boot image it will recreate the following:

boot.kernel
boot.ramdisk.gz

The two files are obviously self-explanatory. To extract the ramdisk, create a directory called RAMDisk and from that directory, invoke this: gzip -dc | cpio -i, to recreate the directory structure that is used in the RAMDisk which gets flipped over to the live file-system upon boot. In there, the file that is of pertinent information is init.rc. Now that can be modified to your heart's content.
Putting it back together
Go back up a directory level, and issue this - mkbootfs ***RAMDisk*** | gzip > my_custom_ramdisk.gz.
Then, to "attach" the original kernel to the boot image, issue the following: mkbootimg -base 0x.... -kernel boot.kernel -ramdisk my_custom_ramdisk.gz -o my_custom_boot.img.
At this point now, a boot image has been constructed, then that boot image will now have to be flashed via fastboot flash boot my_custom_boot.img.
TL;DR
Changes are lost upon re-boot because the script is not properly edited which required extracting the boot image and modifying it and re-packing it. Once re-packed and then the boot image is re-flashed, the changes will be permanent.
This is done every-time the changes are needed.


Apps are automatically closing/restarting and phone is running slow

"The problem is that under certain circumstances Android 5.0 and 5.0.1 leak memory, and when the leak has reached a critical point then Android tries to compensate by forcibly closing apps to free up resources. What the out-of-memory killer doesn’t know is that it is Android itself that is leaking the memory and not the apps."

http://www.androidauthority.com/fix-lollipops-massive-memory-leak-coming-soon-ish-577101/

It is an Android lollipop bug. It should be fixed with the next update.


How to edit root files in /sys (Permission Denied)?

in Shell Terminal Emulator app I'm hit with the following:
  "...whatever.../system not user mountable in fstab"

toybox mount returns that error when UID isn't 0 i.e. you aren't root.

  tried to modify a file in the root browser. The file:
  /sys/devices/virtual/android_usb/android0/power/control

/system and /sys are two different filesystems. Mounting one R/W won't allow you R/W access to the other. /system is the mount point of a partition which contains Android OS. It can't be mounted R/W without getting root access and without disabling dm-verity. sysfs is Linux kernel's pseudo filesystem which provides information related to hardware stuff and exposes some interfaces to userspace for kernel configuration and tweaking.

sysfs is mounted R/W by default but not every file in this filesystem can be modified. Only some specific values can be written to specific files. The file you are trying to write is related to power management of USB Gadget driver of kernel which is to let the device be in some kind of slave role (device mode), not in USB host role. Possible values for control file are auto and on as per documentation.

  after trying to save the file with the contents "0" instead I'm provided with this big ugly error message

I'm not sure about that Java related error, you can get better help at stackoverflow. However you can get a root shell and do:

~# echo -n on >/sys/devices/virtual/android_usb/android0/power/control

This must work, I've tried that in GUI text editor too. Probably the value 0 you are trying to write isn't a valid value for kernel, except if you are changing something at driver level.

If the purpose is only to edit files for testing which can't be accessed / modified without root, create / edit / delete a file in /data/local. /data doesn't need remounting.


Unable to delete old calendars from Microsoft Outlook Android App

I found this discussion helpful:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/osettings-ocalset/deleted-calendar-showing-up-in-ios-outlook-app/2812d42a-4bdd-464c-9077-b1517d6f665c

What worked in my case was:

1.deleting both outlook account from account settings AND outlook app

creating microsoft exchange account according to instructions from the link above
installing once again outlook app, but this time using not outlook settings but Microsoft Exchange settings


Problem with new Marshmallow 6.1 on Samsung J5

Try to delete and reinstall the application, id don't work try to reset the phone


Disable Save As Pdf Option In Print Dialog

If you can get your hands on the source to rebuild the /system/app/DocumentsUI/DocumentsUI.apk and /system/app/PrintSpooler/PrintSpooler.apk since it relies on the first app, you can manage but any other way won't work for you


Does modifying read cache on my SD card also affect the speed of reading my Ext3 partition?

As with normal disks, this should apply to the disk and not a specific partition. Some file systems offer additional caching, which then would apply to the specific partition -- but disk cache should always apply to the entire disk.


Where do Hike and WhatsApp store their messages?

For WhatsApp:

Backups can be found at:
/sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases/
(Use this tool to decrypt it: WhatsApp Key/DB Extractor or WhatCrypt)

Live database can be found at (requires root):
/data/data/com.whatsapp/databases/msgstore.db

For Hike:

Backup can be found at:
/sdcard/Hike/Backup/chats.backup

Live database can be found at (requires root):
/data/data/com.bsb.hike/databases/chats


AFAIK, the vibrator motor that are used in the phones are called Q-Coin motor as they are in a shape of a coin. They are of permanent magnet type accepting two leads for positive and negative DC voltages.  The circuitry that operate this motor just can switch on the motor for a specific period of time and can change its rotation direction.  All other parameters of vibration are set by motor's design.

Hence, for your need the amplitude of the vibrator motor has to be increased to make you aware. And unless the motor itself is replaced, this can't be done in my opinion.

This is a specification of such a motor and you can see it's details.

UPDATE:
After searching Google, I stumbled on more info about these motors. With that information, it seems that there are two types of such motors. One being fitted with an eccentric rotating mass and another being a linear actuator (working more like a speaker).  The article about linear actuator says that this is the present trend and beautifully explains how the motor works.

If the Nexus device that is in question is vibrating at its maximum amplitude, then there is no way any software component to increase its amplitude. Other way, if device is NOT vibrating at its maximum, then by increasing the applied voltage there is a possibility to increase the amplitude.

Thanks to @Konrad Rudolph who made me to know more about this motor.


Missing Fedex cloud print on OnePlus w/ Androind 4.4.4 / T-Mobile

I had a very similar issue.  I don't use Chrome on the desktop (Firefox) but I don't think that is relevant.  I am also using Nexus 5 with Android 5.0.1.  On my PC on Firefox I could see the Fedex printer listed along side the Google Drive printer but on my Nexus I could only see the Google Drive printer.  I fiddled with this for a while but I eventually got it to work.  I'm not totally sure what I did that fixed it but this what I tried:

Visited https://www.google.com/cloudprint/learn/ and clicked Try It Now
Select Print to Fedex Office and clicked the checkbox to agree to the terms (this only showed up once and maybe this was blocking it from showing up on Android?)
I didn't bother trying to print a test page to Fedex but I did go back print a test page using the Save to Google Drive option (again not sure if this was needed)
I verified that it showed up properly in my drive account
Finally I went back to my phone: Settings -> Printing -> Cloud Print.  Still only Google Drive printer listed (damn!).
But then I hit the back button and tapped Cloud Print once again (hey why not?) and all of a sudden the FedEx Office printer was listed!

So I'm not really sure what the deal is with this (definitely still beta I guess).  I think either agreeing to the terms on the PC and/or printing a test page kind of forced a refresh of cloud print settings down to my phone.  I wonder if clearing the data of the cloud print app would have a similar effect?  Anyways, I hope this helps a future person that got here via Google like I did...


Linux fails to mount Android device in USB MSC mode

This commonly happens when you're trying to mount a disk when you should be mounting a partition on that disk. Use ls /dev/sdb* to see if any partitions (such as /dev/sdb1) exists on the disk, and then mount that instead of trying to mount the whole disk.