How to reorder, add or delete home screens in the native Droid Maxx launcher?

Motorola devices are mostly loaded with a very basic Android build with minimum customization. The launcher which they provide is also very basic and light weighted and do have a lot of features. So if you are looking for customizing your home screens then you are not going to find any option in their default launcher.

You need to get a launcher from the Play Store. I will suggest the Google Now launcher. Its very basic yet has quite a few interesting features. I used it in my Moto G (1st Gen.) and it used to work pretty well. There are other good launchers too like Nova, Apex, etc. you can give them a try too.


What do apps designed for small screens look like on tablets?

It depends on how the app was designed.  Android provides means to allow an app to choose from multiple layouts automatically depending on screen size and density, so if the designer cared to, they could provide completely different app appearances for phones and tablets to suit their app to the screen size.

Further information on the tools the developers may have used can be found here.

If they didn't do any of that, then the Screen Compatibility Mode kicks in and its behaviour depends on the version.  In version 3.1 and earlier, if the screen is larger than the app is intended for, it will occupy only part of the screen.  In 3.2 and later, it will expand to fill the screen.


This happend to me on J3  2017, I left it for more than 48 hours but nothing. Then phone batery ran out, so phone reseted and firmware was deleted. I needed to download new firmware with Odin to phone  from https://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/. It took me 8 hours too download it, becaose that site  has Premium with normal download speed, but you need to pay for it.

ODIN DOWNLOAD
Put file in Odin and start downloading.
That process will fail hidden(it should fail) and you need to make a last step manulay. Link for official Sammobile tutorial :https://www.sammobile.com/forum/threads/35929-SOLVED-firmware-flashing-FAIL-after-hidden-img

I do not know if is this going to help you, but you can reset phone with this method to a state before you start this. And if you do everything good you wont loose your data.

And for PIN reset you can just make hard reset :Volume Up + Home + Power button for a couple of seconds and navigate with Volume button to hard reset. It will wipe all of your data to factory settings(if you have Samsung Acc. backup everything will be safe), including PIN code, but you need to input your gmail pasword (if you have gmail on phone) to unlock it,or phone will be locked.


Remove user account in Android 5.0.1 on Galaxy S4

I have spent weeks looking for a solution to this and finally this post helped me! It was so far from obvious and it felt like Google wanted me to keep the account by force lol.

Anyway, what I did was go to Settings > Accounts > Google, clicked the account I wanted to delete, the Sync menu option opened and this is where I always got stuck. Through this, I realized I had to press and hold the menu button on the bottom left side of my S4 to get another menu pop-up with the options of canceling sync or deleting the account.

Finally! Hope this helped.


Remove app notification when app opens from launcher

From searching, an app developer can program this functionality in but I don't think there's a global setting for it. You can investigate into IFTTT type apps like Tasker or Automate - shouldn't be too difficult to set up a trigger when an app is in foreground and then clear notifications (or disable then enable it if clearing is not supported).


Where did my downloaded music on sd card go?

I'm not very experienced with Amazon Music, but on other sources, when you download music to an SD card, it stays on the SD card. So most likely, your music will not appear in Amazon Music because Amazon Music doesn't know to look in your SD card for the music. If you use a file explorer, you should be able to find your music on the SD card.
If your phone doesn't come preinstalled with a file browser, ASTRO File Browser works pretty well for me. There are a lot of file browser apps out there.
There might also be an option on Amazon Music to import or show music on the device/SD card.


Any way I could use a USB monitor with my Droid?

AFAIK, the original Droid is completely hardware incapable of providing video out via usb. The Droid Incredible does provide this functionality, but it has a USB port specifically designed for it (extra pins).


You should be able to just go down to the lollipop version. Going to marshmallow then lollipop won't really do anything other than waste time. Just make sure you flash the stock recovery before going back to the stock rom. You should be able to get everything you need from Asus' site.


Is this the right way to use dd for a full backup?

I let it run and after it finished, dd reported:

7818182656 bytes (7.3GB) copied, 1245.237601 seconds, 6.0MB/s

And ls -l mmcblk0.raw on my computer shows:

-rw-r--r-- 1 terdon terdon 7818182656 Nov 10 14:45 mmcblk0.raw

Since the file is the right size, presumably the backup was successful.


I do not think there's any support for the x10 from CM for the v9 release.
For reference:

Xperia Arc => anzu
Xperia Neo => hallon
Xperia Pro => iyokan
Xperia Mini Pro => mango
Xperia Ray => urushi
Xperia Mini => smultron
Xperia Arc S => ayame
Xperia Neo V => haida
Xperia Active => satsuma
Live with Walkman => coconut
Xperia Neo L => phoenix

Edit:
CyanogenMod is a ROM that targets a lot of handsets. A souped up/bloated version of the Stock Vanilla AOSP Android (the ones found on the Nexus series handsets)
The FreeXperia project was founded by jerpelea who (unofficially works for Sony, gets freebies and contributes to porting CM for that handset etc). Also, FreeXperia project is officially merged into the CyanogenMod tree. Not all legacy devices are supported using the CM ROM, especially for the newer v9 and v10 (ICS and JB respectively.
If visiting this Get CM you will actually find that CM is not supporting the legacy devices!
Have not tried FreeXperia, but have heard it is not 100% stable, as some things are broken on it (If anyone wants to correct me, feel free to say so in the comments) :)


How can I see what kind of car charger I have?

Look on the charger for where it says "output".  It'll say 5V, 0.5A or similar.


Settings -> Apps -> select your app
tap on menu button (3 dots) -> Uninstall for all users


Will I get OTA updates after installing Android L Developer preview?

For the developer preview versions, there will not be an over the air (OTA) update.

This is clearly mentioned in announcement at Android Developer Blog.

So, when the actual Lollipop comes out on November 3rd, Google will create factory images for Nexus Devices and upload to Factory Images for Nexus Devices. Fetch it and flash it again to enjoy Lollipop on your Nexus 5.


How to install adb/fastboot in cmd (with usb-drivers)?

Firstly, you should know that there are two methods to install the Android SDK. If you only need it for a short operation via ADB or Fastboot, 1) is the right one for you. If you do more than hoping that this command or click was the right and you are interested in Android development, you should install the adb-tools via method 2).
1) Minimal Installation:
Notice that in this method you will only install the platform-tools like adb or fastboot.
1.1) Download:

Download the platform-tools for your OS from https://developer.android.com/tools/sdk/tools-notes.html
Unpack it to <home-drive>\platform-tools

1.2) Mount:
The following steps are for Windows. If you need a different OS like Linux or OSX, have a look at this answer: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/42475/91312

Copy the folder path.
Open the Windows Explorer by pressing  + E`.
Right-click on This Computer --> Properties.
Advanced System Settings --> Advanced --> Environment Variables.
Variable PATH --> Add a ; (Semicolon) & your <home-drive>\platform-tools.
Save all & close.

2) Full Installation:
Notice that you will install the full android-sdk and not only the platform-tools.
2.1) Download:

Download the full SDK for your OS from https://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
Unpack it to <home-drive>\sdk

2.2) Mount:
The following steps are for Windows. If you need a different OS like Linux or OSX, have a look at this answer: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/42475/91312

Copy the platform-tools folder. For example <home-drive>\sdk\platform-tools.
Run SDK Manager.exe and update the platform-tools.
Open the windows explorer  + E.
Right-click on This Computer --> Properties.
Advanced System Settings --> Advanced --> Environment Variables.
Variable PATH --> Add a ; (Semicolon) & your <home-drive>\platform-tools.
Save all & close.

Additional:
If you now want to know why there are so many other files or try your own at building your own first app, have a look at the developer site of Google. https://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
3) Drivers:
3.1) Download:

Download the Google USB Driver from https://developer.android.com/sdk/win-usb.html
Unrar & copy the path.

3.2) Installation (Windows):

 + R --> devmgmt.msc.
Other devices --> android device.
Install/Update driver --> Manual search --> Select from list --> select Data storage device.
Paste the path and select android fastboot/adb device.


Google pay wont work unless phone is unlocked even for small payments

It turns out this may be a problem with the official Samsung phone clear view folding cover explained in https://www.samsung.com/uk/smartphones/galaxy-note9/accessories/

When the fold is closed I cannot use it. If I open the fold then even if the phone is locked I can use Google Pay. Removing the foldable cover altogether also works!


No, ADB root does not survive reboots (thankfully, that would be a nice security hole...)
In your case, I'd guess that the permissions on that file got changed, allowing you to push it the second time.


How notifications work with multiple users?

Notifications appear for all accounts of a single user at once.
Notifications for other users do not appear until they are active.

Source: Supporting Multiple Users


Yes MMS can send png files. Even if they change the extension, it shouldn't matter as long as the mime type is in tact. and even if that is different, the image has a specific "header" that should be read by the MMS app. AFAIK, android does not change the extension, or the mime type. (at least the stock MMS app, and the Galaxy S app)

But that doesn't mean it will work with other phones. They might not have the ability to view the file type.


"User 0" message displayed on notification bar of android KitKat

This is a "feature" on the update for the Lenovo P780 I'm afraid. Other users are reporting the same issue (amongst others) with the device.

User 0 is the "first" user on the device, i.e. the "administrator" profile. You could then add subsequent profiles (1, 2, 3) etc for other users of the device. This information is not usually displayed.

You can read the  support thread here  on Lenovo's support forum.

Example:

Post from Kannanovo (user on Lenovo forum)

  I have "User 0" and "U0" in the notification bar i don't know whether this is an issue,

And there are others there.

The reply from Lenovo, last dated the 22th August 2014 (which is the date I'm writing this) follows (from  page 7 )

  Hello there,

  Thank you for all your information.
  We are analysising all the issues received, some of you might have received separate email or message for further information. Please do help us to collect the details, that is very important for us to root cause your issues and provide correct fix in further update.
  please drop you issues here or email me. We will work hard and try our best to give our customer best experience.
  Thank you for your patience and cooperation.

  Wang

As Dan mentioned  another user posted a similar question  without enough detail so I would imagine this new 'feature' is common enough.


System crashed and not rebooting on Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus

I don't think there is anything we can do about it you will loose the data. Download the Mi Flash tool. And flash the stock firmware.


why do some apps not appear when adding app to home screen?

Long tap the ColorNotes app, then it should be in the Home Screen. Let me know if you already tried this.


As you removed the sd-card, you could use a card reader to attach it to your PC, which makes a search a lot easier. Usually, photos are stored below a folder called dcim on the card. Depending on the camera app (I don't have a Desire, so I cannot check that myself), subfolders there are named differently. On my phone, it uses a subfolder called "Camera". But there should not be too much subfolders there, so it will be easy to find.

If that's not the place where your niece placed the "old images", but as your Desire insists they are (somewhere else) on the card, you can use your file manager (I don't know what OS you are running on your PC) to search for *.jpg on the card -- that might match a lot of other images, but your photos should be listed along as long as they are on the card.


Galaxy s4 has a lot of heating issue with both android 4.4.2 as well as android 5. But the temperature can be decreased if you follow some steps as described belowdecks the link:

http://www.androidpit.com/galaxy-s4-lollipop-problems-and-how-to-fix-them

Now if you have not updated the device and still it heats much then ask for refund. Despite being said all these I would suggest you not to go for s4 because it's     Not what you think of this 2014 flagship model.

it lags too often.
It's battery backup is very less (don't see 2600 mAh)
it heats very much (temperature goes beyond 62 degrees) .

These are quite few problems , there are still lot of bugs too which will definitely let you ask for refund.

Here is a screenshot of what i mean.


Unlock Motorola Droid Razr Maxx (Verizon)

Provided you bought the correct SIM card (StraightTalk provides its service using all 4 major US mobile networks - ATT, TMO, Verizon and Sprint)

from How to Convert Verizon Wireless Phones to Straight Talk:

  Contact Verizon Wireless. Verify your account information and explain
  to the representative that you would like to unlock your phone for use
  with another service. Pay your outstanding balance due and the early
  termination fee, if applicable. Obtain an unlock code from the
  representative.


Flashed my Android and now I can't display arabic, Hebrew

I fixed the issue all you need is to flash the firmware ROM. I was using a custom ROM so I used CWM recovery to install it. Here's a link that could help but DON'T wipe data/reset factory, otherwise you will lose all your data.


Can i use my android device as a windows touch pad?

There are plenty of ways to do this. Here is what I recommend:

Remote Mouse: It's an Android App/Windows Program that serves that exact purpose, and has a clean UI.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hungrybolo.remotemouseandroid&hl=en

You can also use a remote desktop app like Splashtop or Chrome Remote Desktop, these will let you actually display your computer screen on your Android device no matter where you are.


Is there a way to set app-specific volume?

If you have tasker or a similar scripting app, then i guess you could "record" a sequence of actions to be undertaken each time a particular app is started / in focus.


For Honeycomb (Android 3.0+) devices, the official Android 3.0 (aka Honeycomb) user's guide says:
Page 13

Backing up and restoring your data
...
Many kinds of data are backed up, including:

Your Android settings, such as your Wi-Fi networks and passwords, user dictionary, and so on
Many Google application settings, such as your Browser bookmarks
The apps you download from Android Market

Some third-party apps also make use of the backup service, so if you reinstall one,
its settings and data are restored.

Page 132

Back up my data Check
to back up some of your personal data to Google servers, with your
Google Account. If you replace your tablet, you can restore the data
you’ve backed up, the first time you sign in with your Google Account.
If you check this option, a wide variety of your personal data is
backed up, including your Wi-Fi passwords, Browser bookmarks, a list
of the applications you’ve installed from Market, the words you’ve
added to the user dictionary used by the onscreen keyboard, and most
of the settings that you configure with the Settings application. Some
third-party applications may also take advantage of this feature, so
you can restore your data if you reinstall an application.

As for your list of apps, you can easily see which ones are linked to your Market account by going to https://market.android.com/mylibrary


Where do I configure DNS and IP settings in HTC Desire S?

In my HTC Desire I find it under:

Settings-> Wireless & networks -> WiFi Settings

Press Menu and select Advanced

Here I can see option to use static IP by selecting "Use static IP"


Nexus 5: How to automatically toggle Live Display in Cyanogenmod 12.1 nightly at a specific time?

The Night mode set block should be able to toggle night mode.
There's no block for changing Live Display, but it might be possible to change the system settings for it, using the System setting set block, see @Firelord comment for the possible setting names and values.


How to turn off screen without affecting anything else?

Depending on your kernel it might be possible to turn the brightness off your screen to 0 via t he appropriate sysfs file.

On a Sony Xperia Acro S currently running a custom AOSP-Based 4.2.2 ROM (SlimBean 6.2) i found the following:

130|shell@android:/ # find /sys/ -name brightness
...
/sys/devices/i2c-3/3-0040/leds/lcd-backlight/brightness
...

the following command turns my screen off but keeps the apps running:

echo 0 > /sys/devices/i2c-3/3-0040/leds/lcd-backlight/brightness

if you combine this with an app which keeps the wakelock for your device, you should be fine.


Creating and flashing image to Android device

Android fsutils (on ubuntu) comes with tools you need. You can also find them on GitHub. You need: simg2img, simg2simg, img2simg, make_ext4fs, and some terminal knowledge.

sudo simg2simg ./data.img ./data.raw.img
This gives you an image that can be mounted on Linux. To mount it, create an empty folder, then issue command...
sudo mount -t ext4  -o loop ./data.raw.img [new_folder_name]/
You can the find all the files in the folder you created. When you're done with the changes you want to make. Use this to make an Android image for fastboot.
sudo make_ext4fs -s -l [size_of_partition_in_bytes] -a data ./data data_new.img
The output will be the file data_new.img. Then you just use fastboot to flash like you normally would.


Application to take and share pictures automatically

On June 2, 2012, PicPlz announced that they would be closing permanently as of July 3, 2012

PicPlz.

Not only does it give you a number of effects you can apply to your images (like Hipstamatic) but also automatically posts to  Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous, Foursquare, and can backup to a Dropbox folder.


Cannot start emulated Android device/AVD device in Windows 7

Try these steps

Create a environment variable called: ANDROID_SDK_HOME and set it to C:\Users\<<Administrator>>
Open Eclipse > Window > Preferences, click in Run/Debug and String Substitution. Add a new variable called user.home and set it to C:\Users\<<Administrator>>
Create an AVD and run it.

Note The <<Administrator>> means the name of your Windows account; it is where resides the folder which contains your .android directory

An android project member says here:

  As a work-around, you can define the environment variable
  ANDROID_SDK_HOME to point to the directory containing your .android
  directory. The emulator and SDK Manager will pick it up properly.

  Also you should check that the AVD is created in the location
  D:\NN\.android\avd (check in your screenshoots, just above the list
  of AVD, the path in List of existin Android Virtual Devices).


How to detect who is downloading apk files in background?

Probably the quickest fix is going to be when it downloads an .apk, go to the notification, long press it, and when "App Info" pops up, click it. It will open in the application manager the app that downloaded it. (It may not be available on your phone, but it works on my S3.)

Your application manager is another wealth of information. There are way too many specifics to get into much detail about, but for example an app that is supposed to be offline, look at it's data usage. If it has used several MB of data, there's your culprit.

You could also narrow down the suspects by looking at the permissions. If it doesn't require network access, it can't download anything. (Although if this doesn't work, I'm not sure how trustworthy the permissions tags really are if we're dealing with a Trojan).


How to view ringtone associated with a contact in moto g2

For fun, I wrote a very simple script to find out which ringtone is assigned to a particular contact. Sadly, the script needs root access and Busybox and its applets installed and available under PATH variable. Once you meet the above requisites, save the following preformatted text into a file named find_tone.sh under /sdcard.

#!/system/bin/sh

list="/data/media/0/list";
mkfifo $list;
content query --uri content://com.android.contacts/raw_contacts --projection display_name:custom_ringtone | sed -e /NULL/d -e 's/,\scustom/\ custom/g' -e 's/.*display/Contact/g' > $list &
while read line; do
    name=$(echo "$line" | awk -F 'custom_ringtone=' '{print$1}');
    content_path=$(echo "$line" | awk -F 'custom_ringtone=' '{print$2}');
    printf "$name\n";
    content query --uri "$content_path" --projection title | sed 's/.*title/Ringtone/g';
    printf "\n";
done < $list
rm $list;

All I'm doing in that script is:

Creating a named pipe under /data/media/0/
Fetching the values available under the column display_name and custom_ringtone from raw info of all the contacts using content tool, filtering out few things using sed and saving the output into the named pipe.
Having each line of the saved output go through a loop to separate contact's name from the line and using the rest of the line to get the label of ringtone.
At last, deleting the named pipe.

Run the file in a  terminal emulator app:

su -c 'sh FILE'   # replace FILE with path of find_tone.sh. If it was saved into /sdcard, FILE would be /sdcard/find_tone.sh.

Here's the file in action:
(Click image to enlarge)

Note:

The output would consist solely of contacts which were assigned a particular ringtone. All the contacts which uses the default ringtone won't be listed in the output.
The solution is tested on Cyanogen OS 12 (Android 5.0.2).


Do any open source Android roms work on smart clocks?

It looks as though the Lenovo Smart Clock open source software is here.  Looking quickly it appears to be the kernel only.
The device's SoC appears to from MediaTek, codename mt8167s  possibly the same device powering the Lenovo Smart Display.  (The kernel config file is called mt8167s_ref_debug_defconfig).  I don't see any device repositories on github for this, but interestingly, there is a file for Google's Fuchsia OS Zircon microkernel for this board.
Somoene appears to have put the source on github here.  He (I assume "he"- the name is "deadman96385") has a TWRP recovery repo here for the smart clock (which may actually be named iot_mt8167s_som ??) which might be a good starting point for doing a full android port.
Also, looks like he dumped the rom here.


How to determine if my phone supports AndroidOne?

This article states that:

  Android One is a Google-devised programme for hardware manufacturers making smartphones. Being part of Android One - and labelled as such on the rear of the phone - brings with it a guarantee that it's a solid and stable version of Android that's not loaded with other apps, services and bloatware.
  Essentially, it's a stock Android experience.

Your device is an Android One as shown here, here and here.

  With Android One, your device will receive up to two years of upgrades to the latest version of Android.

In North America, it was released with Android 7.1. It came already installed with Android 8 in some parts of the world of the world and is upgradable to Android 9.

  Is there a setting I can check that would clearly tell me whether my phone supports androidone or not?

There is no such setting.


Where is the code for the Bootloader stored in an Android phone?

The boot-loader code is stored within the /boot partition. Majority of Android handsets uses the Qualcomm's Boot Loader, called LK (Little Kernel), barring Samsung, which uses their own form of boot-code.

LK has the following:

Variety of nand devices for bootup
USB driver to enable upgrading images over usb during development
Keypad driver to enable developers enter ‘fastboot’ mode for image upgrades
Display driver for debugging and splash screen
Enable Android recovery image and image upgrades

This applies to only, Qualcomm chipsets hence the exemption of Samsung based handsets

There is a website blog that cites this from source

The actual source code, if anyone is curious enough, can be found on CodeAurora site. This is known as CAF, in which a lot of Qualcomm specific code for kernels can be found in.

As a side-note: Google releases source to AOSP, CAF, pulls from them, modifies it to make it fit within Qualcomm chipsets, then the Manufacturers pull those down and add their own bits, it is that for the reason there's, AOSP, CAF and CyanogenMod that are the main three flavours of Android.

The actual source code to the boot-loader can be found on CAF's git repository, and has not changed much, it can also be found in CyanogenMod's source, specifically in, /bootable/bootloader also.


How to perform system upgrade using 3G instead of WiFi?

You can always sideload the upgrade. So download it over your 3G into a folder and then sideload it. You can download directly from google and you can find instructions on sideloading for your phone/os all over the web.


How to transfer pictures from hangouts onto my computer

I think those are saved at Google and synced across all your devices. Try and log in from a PC, go to gmail.com, then look your hangouts to the left. If you can see your pictures there, it's safe to wipe your phone. You can also save the pictures from there to your PC if you want - but they're safe where they are.


Set ringtone to start from a specific point

Well, I don't think that can be done ! Why don't you use several mp3 cutter to cut the song over to the appropriate place you like, there are just load of song cutter apps available over the PlayStore as well as software are also available for the PC's. I have tired searching over the PlayStore and got several apps names MP3 cutter which can help you out with cutting the ringtone to the specific point and then then you can set that as your ringtone.


Why is one folder on my Samsung Galaxy SII not being properly showed on PC?

I finally found the solution (actually I even had left it behind...). Sometime after I posted this question I create another folder and after a while it began to have the same problem. Today I realized that both folder had one common caracteristic: they contained characters beyond the basic ASCII Table (one was called "Músicas" and the other, "Vídeos". When I renamed them ("Musicas" and "Videos", respectively), the issue was solved.


Is it possible to hide the "Listening..." popup that appears after "OK Google"?

There are ways to achieve that:

Using Google search widget

If you have a Google widget, simply tap the mic and say "Okay Google, the window that appears is not covering whole scren but its almost half:

Customising window with third-party tool (XHalo floating module)

Good news is if you have root (and additionally Xposed framework), you can install the XHaloFloatingWindow, pin the Google to Status bar and launch it fron there with a small sized window as shown:


Unbrick Samsung Galaxy Core Prime SM-G360V

Turn it off then hold volume up and down and power and wait until it flashes on then flashes off. Next, let go of those buttons then press them again. This should open the maintenance boot menu, and you can factory reset, boot to safe mode, or normal boot, or debug mode I would either boot to safe mode, or reset it. Cheers.


What is system/bin and system/xbin in android M?

the -> indicates this is a symbolic link. That's how Busybox (and similar apps) work, so other processes can refer to them by the "full fledged name" of the component they need to call.
There are different "busyboxes". The original Busybox has a binary called busybox – yours has a binary called toybox. That won't matter if one of those symlinks is addressed – but if some process tries to call busybox directly, it of course cannot find it if it's not there. To work around that, you could create another symlink to toybox: ln -s /system/bin/toybox /system/bin/busybox (in order to do that you need root and mount the /system partition read/write).


Why I am unable to check balance on BSNL Mobile in Android Phone?

Exchange the SIM cards with two different handsets and replace it as earlier. This worked for me.


Change locale system language via ADB in starting from Android 6.0

This solution doesn't use adb directly but meets the end result using automation on unrooted devices

macrodroid is preferred choice of automation for me,  being simple and free up to 5 macros

Preliminary Steps

Install Macrodroid and grant all permissions it asks for
Actions desired by OP require root. Macrodroid offers a way to do it by without root using adb methods, explained here. In essence, it is granting WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS and CHANGE_CONFIGURATION by running the following commands

adb shell pm grant com.arlosoft.macrodroid android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS

followed by

adb shell pm grant com.arlosoft.macrodroid android.permission.CHANGE_CONFIGURATION

Reboot to ensure commands are updated in the app

Creating Macros and Testing

Trigger : Select Empty Trigger
Action : Set language → French → France ( corresponding to fr_FR)
Constraints : Leave blank
Test it by selecting Test Macro from the 3 dots menu of the macro. The system language should change to French . Save the macro for example French. Create two similar macros for other two choices

Creating Home Screen Shortcut

Usually, if you long press the home screen, you will find the icon for widgets collection. Among them you will find Macrodroid widgets. One of them is Macrodroid shortcuts. Drag and drop that to your home screen , it will ask you which macro it should be assigned to , while displaying a list of Macros. Select the macro and rename the widget e.g., French.  When you press on that widget corresponding macro is executed. Repeat for other Macros. If you are using a custom launcher you will need to search how to access the widgets collection

Notes

Drop down menu selection for languages can be implemented but that would require another Macro. Besides this  method of one desktop icon shortcut for each language keeps it simple and easier to debug
This method will not work on Oreo (You do not get the set language action, maybe due to the way it is implemented)


I'm interested in using a laptop battery as an external battery pack for phone

Many laptop nowadays supports charging over USB while sleeping/suspended. So you only need a long USB cable, and put your laptop under the seat in front of you in sleep mode. A 1.5m cable is best but 1m would work as well.


Broken device after uninstalling King Root

As @EthanZ said the factory reset solved the problem. Press the up volume key and power key when the device is powered of to get to the boot menu. Select Factory Reset. Done! Thanks EthanZ.


Enable screen auto-rotate for specific applications but not globally?

Have you tried a 3rd-party app like Smart Rotator?

  Are you tired of switching auto-rotate setting back and forth? This
  tool can help you auto switching it.

  You can set auto-rorate/portrait/landscape setting for each app, when
  you open those apps, it will help you set screen orientation to auto,
  portrait, landscape automatically.


Install Android to Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 with GNU/Linux

From a GNU/Linux-based OS, you can use Heimdall, an open-source alternative to Odin which is proported to match Odin feature-for-feature while also being more reliable. Otherwise, you can follow any of the many tutorials for installing a new Android ROM. I'll provide a bit more information to help you start your journey:

If you want a custom ROM like CyanogenMod or any of the dozens which are available in precompiled packages for specific devices, then you'll need to use Heimdall to flash a custom Recovery image (TWRP or ClockWorkMod Recovery). The zipped ROM images are flashable through these recovery modes.

If you want stock, Samsung Android/Touchwiz then you can use Heimdall to flash over the entire Android image from Samsung. (Google around to find the one for your model)

If you want to compile Android yourself, you'll likely want a custom Recovery image (TWRP or ClockWorkMod Recovery) and you can download the Android source code or if you want to modify existing custom ROMs, you can download their respective source and compile it yourself. You'd need to hunt down some in-depth Android compiling tutorials in order to do this, as it's not a simple process.

Note: Before flashing anything to your device, make sure that you match the model numbers!


how come my android devices are not visible on my Mac?

I know it's too late. but I just had the same problem. I tried to connect my android phone LG Google Nexus 4 with my Macbook pro.

In USB computer connection only "Camera (PTP)" was working but Connect as Media device (MTP) to copy files from Android phone's memory nothing was visible in the mac.

And I got it solved from the following URL
http://www.android.com/filetransfer/
provided by the android.com


How to decrease screen brightness without draining extra battery

There are two problems you report. One is the excessive screen brightness even at the lowest level that your settings allow. The next is that you want to reduce the battery consumption due to this higher brightness.

If you want the first one but not worried about the second you can try screen filter apps. These will reduce the brightness as perceived by our eyes, but will not do any battery saving stuff.  Please look at the apps similar to Screen Filter

On the other hand if you want power saving as well then probably you should have a rooted device that will allow the apps like Velis Auto Brightness to work.


Where to change country information at Samsung App Store?

Do as follows:

Go to Settings → Applications → Samsung Apps and then tap the clear data and clear cache buttons.
Back to all applications, find Samsung Apps and click on it. Select now the correct country.

Note: The correct country should be where you currently are, or the country in which you registered first. Try first country first, and if it is still does not work - simply repeat steps 1-2 above with the other country.

Hope it works for you!


Storage setting not loading. What do do?

What works for me is first going to Settings >  Apps & notifications, and clearing the cache for as many apps as I can.


Access data on phone with broken screen (Samsung galaxy S5)

I had the same problem with my poor S4 with a screen lock sometime back. To remove the lock, I used the Google app Find my Device to reset the password to a keyboard typable one (you can't just remove the password through it), then after that I used a USB OTG adapter with a USB keyboard to type the password in.


Link2SD error- "mount: Operation not supported on transparent endpoint"

Try with an ext4 partition.

From www.link2sd.info/faq. I had the same issue and this fixed it.


How can I make a change language shortcut for voice recognition in android 2.3.4?

I believe if you hold the microphone icon it brings up a menu that allows you to change those settings. It may be the comma icon on your phone however. Previous versions allowed you to swipe the keyboard. Otherwise there are many alternative keyboards you can download from the Android Play Store.


Can I change what the button on my earphone does?

this app is able to change your earphones button function to whatever you want( open apps, toggle flashlight, control volume...), here's the the link https://apkpure.com/jays-headset-control/se.jays.headsetcontrol


my tablet is not using my external SD card for storage

I also have the A727. :)

It appears that whoever designed the system should have been more careful with how he named stuff -- the internal hard drive is called "sdcard," as you mentioned in your question.

To use the SD card on your tablet, you need to hit the "SD card" button on the top of the screen (using the built-in file manager), as in the picture shown below. There you can see the folder labelled "extsd" = external SD card. (as opposed to the internal one?)

Then, when you open that folder, you can access the files on your SD card. Enjoy! :)


Follow these steps carefully (It's almost same for every android devices):

  Install ADB in your PC. Update the drivers of your device.
  Boot your phone into recovery mode. (Make sure you turned on USB Debugging and OEM from developer options).
  Open the ADB in your PC and check your phone is connected by USB or
  not. If it shows your phone in terminal then proceed further.
  Reboot into fastboot.
  Then unlock the bootloader (fastboot oem unlock).
  After unlocking the bootloader flash the TWRP recovery's img file (Be careful becuase TWRP recovery isn't same for every phone. You've
  to go tho their website and find your phone's. If it's not available
  in their website then don't worry you'll find it in unofficial
  websites).
  Now boot your phone into recovery mode. This will open TWRP recovery now.
  Now you should use ADB sideload method or use your phones internal or external memory to store magisk zip and flash it using TWRP.

You don't need to use KingoRoot to root. Magisk is an amazing tool to root any device.


That type of issue is mostly often caused by an app going over something called a "Dex limit", which has to do with the external libraries an app uses. If you're interested, there's an explanation over on Stack Overflow.

This type of problem has been solved for some people by wiping the device and reflashing.


Understanding android app permissions section (Android Nougat)

Starting from Android 6.0(API level 23), app permissions are listed as normal permission and dangerous permission

  Depending on how sensitive the area is, the system may grant the permission automatically, or it may ask the user to approve the request.

The section App Permissions tells you about the Permission Groups, which are dangerous permissions requested by app and can be revoked by user.

  All dangerous Android system permissions belong to permission groups.

The section All Permissions provides you more details regarding permissions. In which permissions are listed as:
Permission Group for all dangerous permissions further followed by requested permissions in that group.
Permissions which are automatically granted by system are listed under Other app capabilities.

Since you are running Android N, if targetSdkVersion of any particular app is 23 or higher,

All the permissions listed under Other app capabilities are granted.
If you have granted permission for a particular group like Storage, then further permissions listed under storage are automatically granted. App will not ask again if permission is granted.
If targetSdkVersion of app is less than 23, then it will not ask for permission at runtime. However you may revoke any dangerous permission from that app.


How to drop out of airplane/flight mode periodically to check messages

There are multiple automation tools which most likely can do this for you. Some of them, especially in connection with your real concern, are listed in my answer to What is Cell standby and how can I keep it from eating my battery?.

Aside from that, and you might wish to check helpers like JuiceDefender, Easy Battery Saver, and GO Battery Saver & Widget. Amongs others, they do exactly what you asked for: toggling airplane mode or rather the data part of it, to enable apps to sync only in defined time frames.


Where does Voice Actions store my "Note to self" recordings?

When I did the "Note to Self", I was sent an email with the attachment (I assume this is the function, I've never used it before!). The attachment is the *.amr file that you can then download, and it will save it to download/RecordedMessage#.amr.

After some searching, the original file is stored in phone memory, not external, at /data/data/com.google.android.voicesearch/files/RecordedMessage#.amr

Note that you could not find this file because you weren't rooted, I used File X-Plore and did a search in the entire Root section to find them.

Note: If you would like to delete them:

with root: navigate to the aforementioned folder and delete them with your favorite root browser or adb
without root: from the home screen, press Menu, select Settings then choose Applications->Manage Applications and select Voice Search from the list. On the app info page select Clear data. This will delete all data associated with Voice Search, including any recorded "Notes to self", but keep in mind, it may also erase any data recorded to better results on a user-by-user basis.


Go to Settings -> Security -> Lock screen -> Improve face matching.  You will need to confirm your PIN, and then follow the on-screen directions to capture your face again.

After each successful capture you will be placed back to the Lock screen settings menu, so just keep going into the Improve face matching section to repeat the process as many times as you wish.


Phone evicting inactive applications from ram, despite plenty of memory free

And now to answer myself. Looking at Android 4.4.2 (KOT39H) sources, in ProcessList.java we have defined a maximum number of cached apps, set to an arbitrary value of 24:

static final int MAX_CACHED_APPS = 24;

This value is further split as follows by computeEmptyProcessLimit function: 2/3 goes to empty process limit and 1/3 goes to cached process limit.

So now we have an arbitrary limit of 16 for empty and 8 for cached processes. (But go buy a 3GB ram phone, to see how much unused memory you'll have)

In stock android, the only way to change this limit is at runtime, via setProcessLimit(), which requires rooted phone, an application manually installed in /system/priv-app and the SET_PROCESS_LIMIT permission granted.

(In CM11 for example it can also be set in build.prop, but this code is not present in stock 4.4.2)

Luckily there already is such an application on github, called SetAndroidProcessLimit, which, installed correctly, works (my thanks to the author)

Now I have 20 cached apps in ram, that's about all apps I frequently use, and any of them will start instantly, zero delay.

I also figured out how to modify MAX_CACHED_APPS directly in /system/framework/services.jar

download the jar to your pc, unpack the jar
decompile classes.dex with baksmali (or via apktool)
modify in ProcessList.smali and in ActivityManagerService.smali - because this is bytecode, you have to replace not only declaration of MAX_CACHED_APPS but every occurence of it with new desired value
recompile classes.dex
repack the jar
download to phone, replacing original jar (you have to remount rw /system)
reboot the phone; mine automatically will regenerate dalvik cache


The human users of the phone don't correspond to different Linux users. The human users are identified only within Android itself, not to apps. Android provides a completely separate environment to the app for each user - a little like a Linux chroot - so the app doesn't have to worry about separate users. When a new user runs the app, it just looks like a fresh install on a new device, because it's given a brand new data directory, separate from those it's given for other users.


Will this audio/video cable work with a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1?

As I had commented to @onik's answer: If this cable does not have a DAC (Digital to Analogue Converter), this cable will not work.

I also found a search result about a scam related to this kind of cable, which again confirms this. Since I am unable to view the video (restriction at my work) I am unable to see to comment more on it.


Not able to "Clear" notifications from Astrid Tasks (an app)?

Astrid Tasks uses notifications that cannot be cleared by clicking on the "clear" button. Why they did this is a question only the Astrid developers can answer, but my guess is the people from Astrid want to remind you of a task until you actually finish it and/or change its status in Astrid.

By default notifications on Android can be cleared, but an app developer can choose to make a notification not-clearable (if you want technical details on how to do this, go here). If there are any notifications that can be cleared, the clear button is enabled/visible but will not clear any non-clearable notifications when clicked.


"Unable to connect to the proxy server" after updrade to Android 4.3

Tap and hold the WiFi button, then select "Forget Network". Afterwards, search for the network again in the list, enter the password and you are good to go.


Make Google my default contact type on T-Mobile my touch 4G

For my Verizon HTC Thunderbolt, I opened the People application (hopefully the same as Contacts), opened the menu, clicked View (an eye icon), then unselected everything but Google. After that, when I click to add a new contact, Google is automatically selected.


Looking for an app to notify when an elderly person is inactive

SeniorSafety on GooglePlay

This application has an inactivity option as well as fall notifications, gps tracking and other useful options for senior safety.


What does the two speech bubbles notification icon means?

It is a notification from one of the chat apps you may have installed (e.g. Facebook).
It is either notifying you of new messages (which will be cleared when you pull down the notification tray and click on it) or it is trying to make itself persistent so that the system will not remove it from RAM memory (which you can unset it in the settings of the app) which will affect user experience.


How can I install Jelly Bean on a Micromax Funbook P275?

Flashing CWM recovery directly from your Micromax Funbook.
This method is for those who do not want to use a computer to flash cwm recovery or do not have access to a computer to do the same.

Give me credits only for the method. Not for the app and the recovery image.

Things Required:-

Data Connection on your Tablet. (via WIFI)
An file manager that supports archives. Eg ES File Explorer.
A Usable and working mind.

Steps:-

Download the necessary files from here.
Extract the file to the root of your "internal sd card" and you will get 2 file First "Novotools_v1.0" and the Second "recovery.img".
Install the app Novotools_v1.0.
Run Novotools and you will see and option Flash Recovery
Click it and the recovey will be flashed onto your phone.
Reboot in recovery with the help of the application or the old method by Holding the Home/Options and the Power button.
Now you have fully functional CWM recovery.

Using this custom CWM, you can scroll in the funbook recovery mode using the menu button alone.


Xiaomi Mi5s plus' display won't turn on after updating LOS

Update: I solved it by flashing the stock boot.img from MIUI. Yesterday I tried the same with the boot.img provided by the Lineage OS ROM and it did not work.


You can try using iCal Import/Export. It looks like it should be able to export your calendar data. It will allow you to export your calendar(s) to iCal files. I haven't actually tried the application, so I am not sure if it uses the local calendar database on the device, or it it attempts to connect directly to google calendar.


Why can my tablet not use my phone's internet over bluetooth?

According to xerox89 at XDA-Developers:

  I wont say 100% imposible .
  But its 90% NO . Try to get a smartphone to tether . A galaxy Y or xperia mini would be cheap option .


Failure -12 error when installing an apk file

The -12 failure code indicates INSTALL_FAILED_OLDER_SDK, meaning that the app was built for - and requires - a version of Android that is newer than the version you have on your device (source). For example, you should get this error if you had an Android 1.6 device and tried to install an app which required Android 2.1 (or higher). You would need to either:

Update your device to a newer version of Android somehow, OR
Ask the app developer if it's possible to build the app for an older version of Android.


First time with Android, need help with adding media

I guess since no one else answered, I'll post what I ended up doing as an answer.

The solution that worked best for me was iSyncr. It's a Mac/PC app that acts as a middleman between iTunes and your device, so you can sync all your iTunes music, playlists, and song data.

It wasn't perfect or free, but it was what worked the best for me.


How to find google account of locked phone we found to return it to owner

Keep mobile charged. Owner may send message or call. Try to restore mobile, it ask for google account. May be you can see email id.
Find IMEI number, contact service center for owner or police station for lost complaint.
Try to backup mobile use adb of usb debugging is on. You can find some contact from mobile.


How do I improve audio quality when calling with 3rd party apps? (e.g. Messenger, Discord, Zoom, etc.)

Facebook messenger, Google Duo and other messaging app call use internet connection. Many internet service provider restrict bandwidth for such call. Using 5G network can improve your call quality.
You can use Lease line for internet connection. Such connection does not have any speed limit. You need Lease line on both side then you can get good call quality.
Also update your app to latest version.


ICS upgrade for Asus Transformer should be available OTA

OTA upgrade has been stopped due to several SW issues. A modified upgrade is expected within weeks, be patient.
(I do have the upgrade, but not installed as I have read about the problems... now I am refusing it every day :(


Why does Google Play say app is "incompatible"

From Google App compatibility with Android

When searching or browsing the Google Play Store app, you'll only see apps that are compatible with your device. When using the Google Play website, a device will be grayed out if it isn’t compatible with the app you’re attempting to install. This usually occurs because the app isn’t available in your location or designed for your device's screen size or version of Android
Developers have the ability to target applications to specific devices based on screen size, mobile service provider, location, and a number of other factors. App compatibility can change over time.

(Emphasis supplied)

Is there a generic way to do that?

From the same source

For compatibility information about a specific app, contact the developer directly using the information provided on the Google Play listing

For some apps, reason is displayed ,as in screen shot below from my device ( version incompatibility )

Few years back incompatible apps would state reasons by clicking on a plus sign next to app as mentioned here


Removed sports team from Google Now keeps reappearing

According to the Google Now page sports cards are :

  Shown based on Web History

so I suppose there are still many links related to the Giants in your web history.

Try to go to your google history page, search for everything related to Giants, then remove the shown items, then maybe Google Now will understand that you are no longer interested in Giants results.


Which files/folders on my SDCard are unsafe to delete manually?

I'm tempted to say everything is safe to delete.  It should be, with a storage device intended to be removed and used elsewhere.  But I know some apps will be unhappy.  So a good rule is not to delete anything that's clearly used by an app that you care about.

It's probably a good idea not to delete level 0 directories that start with a . such as /.android_secure/ (protected apps) either.  Those folders are generally used by the system and, while I don't believe Android ever stores anything important on the SD card (besides apps if you consider them important), there's probably no reason to delete them either.  /Android/ and /data/, /sd/ and /*.img, and /settings.db (if present) are also used by the system.  Those are app data, recovery images, and various settings respectively.

Also watch out for a /DCIM/ folder or similar, which may have any pictures you've taken.  Presumably you'd want to back them up.  Likewise with /download/ and /media/.

You'll want to watch out for /update.zip, /busybox, /clockworkmod/, and the like as well if you're rooted or have a custom recovery.

Note if, like me, you have "internal SD" as well as external, then most of the above is stored on the internal SD.  The external SD appears as /external_sd/ within the internal SD, or may be mounted at /emmc/ or similar.  You can apply the rules above to both storage areas.


How can I prevent apps from going full screen and hiding the notification bar?

There is an app for your required feature Status bar in full screen

You can use it with any launcher and it is compatible with Android 2.2+

In the app, you can toggle status bar on/off in fullscreen mode.


In order to remove the book/app from your cloud, you'll need to visit Visit amazon.com/myk. Log into your account and find the book/app. Click the "actions" link to the right of the title. Under it you'll have the option to delete it permanently. After you do so, you'll have the repurchase the book if you want to read it again.


Mapping Xbox 360 (wired) controller buttons on SuperGNES

The problem is related to SuperGNES app.

I've tried other emulators like SNESDroid and Animaonline SNES and voilà worked as a charm!


Remove Snooze -button in Android Alarm-lock

Use Alarm Clock Xtreme. Its reliable & it has everything you want.


Copy contacts from Samsung device to other brand

Using proprietary vendor-software such as Kies for backups usually jails you into that eco-system. If your Galaxy is still available, up, and running, rather use the following steps to transfer your contacts:

open the Contacts app
hit the menu button
select "Import/Export"
chose to export your contacts to SDCard (will store in .vcf format)

Now you've got a decent backup which should restore on any Android device (at the same place in Contacts), and even most other systems, as VCF is a standard format (VCard).

Alternatively, you can also sync all your contacts with your Google account from your old phone. They should automatically sync to all your other Android devices using the same account then.


Why do apps from the play store get moved back to internal storage after update

If it's system applications then what ever you update or download will be automatically moved to internal storage.
If it's not the reason then check your play store storage.


Gmail won't retrieve emails automatically after lollipop 5.1 upgrade

Your setting for Sync is disabled. Enable the setting for Sync in Status-bar.
Hope your problem may be solved.
thanks


Is it safe to delete all empty folders in Android?

From what I read here: http://androidforums.com/threads/can-empty-subdirectories-subfolders-be-deleted.324275/

You can delete empty folders if they are really empty.
Sometimes Android creates folder with invisible files. The way to check if the folder is really empty is using explorer apps like Cabinet or Explorer.


Is there a real solution for "can't connect to camera" issue on 4.3?

In my case was just an app. "Lantern" - flashlight using LED. After uninstalling that app the camera was OK again.


The checksum prevents of stealing data (put sdcard into someones phone and create a backup). You can not restore to even similar phones.
I posted the ektoric solution, please download the script from page 2. This skips checksum and makes it restoreable to other phones. Root is required, but no need to flash custom recovery.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2528969&page=2


Network issues with Jio sim on Sim slot 1 and Airtel on Sim slot 2

It is simply compatibility issues.

A quick Google search shows that AirTel use FDD-LTE as their standard, while Jio use TD-LTE.

Due to current technology restrictions, TD-LTE can't stay on when FDD-LTE cellular data connection is established. So it's absolutely normal that your Jio card runs out of service when you turn on mobile data for AirTel.


Cant go to last week of month in calendar

I've found the problem.

I changed the density to a higher resolution. After resetting to system resolution, problem was solved.

I would still be glad to know if there is a solution that will allow me using the calendar at a high res. as well.


How can I change language for word suggestion while writing an sms text message

In Android 2.2's stock keyboard, a long press on space bar then swiping left or right should allow you to switch between languages you selected on Settings > Language & Keyboard settings > Android keyboard > Input Languages > Select Multiple Languages.

Note that it depends on your manufacturer, carrier, and ROM whether your phone will have the dictionary for the languages you want to use.


How to remove device(s) from My Market Account?

As things currently stand, there is no way to disassociate a device from the ones shown in your Market Account. Keeping them hidden is the only way that Google currently offers.


how to solve screen not functioning properly

Your digitizer is likely broken. You can either send it back to the original manufacturer for repair or find a third party source that can do it for you.

You may just want to consider replacing the phone.


In the Hangouts app, how do I "mark all as read"?

Unfortunate that this question had never received any love. Despite it being an entire year later, this functionality is not available as a feature in the Hangouts app on Android, iOS, or the web.

Here is the most relevant discussion from the Google Hangouts Product Forum

  Thank you for your feedback!
  Yes you are right, there isn't such a button yet. I think Hangouts wants to make sure that you really have read the messages without missing any information.
  However, I'll move your topic to the idea section for the team to consider it as a feature request.
  Nick Ross


Is there an Android phone without proprietary code?

Geeksphone started off with the premise of a completely open software and hardware stack.  So far they released two handsets, One and Zero.  Although both models are severely outdated specifications-wise compared to today's high-end models, the "Zero" model is quite comparable to current mid-range devices.

The company provides source code for the kernel and drivers of their "One" model on the web site.  I couldn't find the sources for the "Zero" model, but I'm sure they will if you reach out to them.


Access media files on NTFS formatted USB OTG drive (preferably without rooting)

You could use the workaround I mentioned in MIUI forum, to use a pendrive with a NTFS format, needing no root.
To do that you need a some custom OTG drives which are bundled in some File manager apps such as MiXplorer.

The Custom USB OTG driver works well this these additional
filesystems: FAT32 (R/W), exFat(R/W), NTFS (R).
Simply open the app,
tap on the three dot menu → More settings → Enable Custom driver for
USB OTG (tick the box to enable)
Done, now insert you OTG cable and
place the pendrive on the port.


WIFI not Connecting on my Samsung S Duos

First check whether its just the Wi-Fi on your phone or the LAN on your System.

There are many possibilities with the Wi-Fi not working properly.

Either the key is not matched with the key you configured under your modem Wi-Fi password.
Signal might be weak. ( if signal<=10% then some devices Wi-Fi
connection is disabled to save power)
In-appropriate configuration of your modem due to which although the
connection might be established you might not be able to browse
thereby showing no internet connection.

For this reason Wi-Fi is termed to have very least preference because of heavy loss of Data during the transmission or disturbance.

Solution:-
If you signal is weak try to get more strength by getting near to
    you Wi-Fi or having an external hardware that could boost your
    signal strength.
If the key is not matched then you need to enter the appropriate the
password as set by you.
If the connection is not configured then you need to check your
manual and Configure the Wi-Fi settings properly and click forget on your old Wi-Fi network to re-configure the network on your device.


Force android 7.0 into roaming for better connection

Try toggling airplane mode, which turns the mobile modem on/off and forces a reconnect. If that helps, maybe one of the "connection improver" apps around could help, which do this automatically.


Change default clock app in Samsung Galaxy Note 9

Enable developer options and ADB on your phone, and get platform-tools for your OS. Then run:

adb shell
pm list packages | grep [whatever the app name is]
pm hide [name of package]

Alternatively pm uninstall -k --user 0 [name of package] to remove it completely.

More detailed explanation here: https://www.xda-developers.com/uninstall-carrier-oem-bloatware-without-root-access/


How can I set Froyo's screen timeout to "Never"?

Seems like what you need is to set the "wifi sleep policy" to never...
You can find that in the Advanced Wi-Fi menu.
Then you could let your screen shut down and still be able to talk with no interference with skype.


Hard-bricked with dead bootloader Samsung Galaxy Pocket (GT-S5300)

A carrier or the manufacturer with the correct JTAG setup are likely the only ones who can help you.  If you can't get even the bootloader to work there's nothing you can do as a user.


How to get Assistant to look for music only on my phone

Okay---Having wasted three full days of my life on this, and having finally found the answer, I will  post it in case anyone else encounters the same problem.

I installed a different music player, namely Pulsar, which I believe is designed to play only local music.  I also did a bunch of other stuff, like disabling YouTube and uninstalling Google Play Music, which might or might not have contributed to the solution.   But Pi Music Player is still installed and the voice commands still fail to control it properly.

I (once only) told Google Assistant to "play Steve Goodman on Pulsar", it did what I asked, and ever since, it's been defaulting to Pulsar for all of my music requests, just as I wanted it to.  Following the exact same strategy with Pi Music Player does not work.


Apps don't see adoptable storage anymore

I figured it out. In the "Storage & USB" Settings, click the SD card and in the top right corner there are three vertical dots. Click on those and then "Migrate data". This fixed the issue for me.


Is shielding private data from apps possible by isolating/jailing them?

Staring under Marshmallow (Android 6), the Android OS is able to restrict individual permissions (which may or not be fine enough control for you) for an app. Under prior versions of Android, there was no ability to restrict a single permission; if you didn't like that an application used something, then you simply had to choose to uninstall the application.

You can inspect and change permissions under Settings->Apps->[Specific App Name]->Permissions. You can see the table of dangerous permissions that you are probably worried about. These permission categories cover the examples you have enumerated (contacts list -> contacts, call log -> phone, photos -> storage). Izzy has pointed out that there is no separate control for reading v. writing, which could be an issue if your application needs to write to storage but should not be able to view photos.

As Izzy has pointed out, there are some things you cannot control with these permissions, for example access to the randomly generated Android ID or internet access.

Whether an application still functions with a permission disabled depends on how it was written. Well written applications will continue to function in some way. Applications that are targeted to versions of Android before Marshmallow or that are simply poorly written may simply crash.

You can set permissions for Google Apps. You can for example:

prevent the Photos application from reading storage, which means it will not be able to display your photos.
prevent Gmail from reading your contacts

Using multiple users will not help you with privacy. When you install an application, this application is available for all users. You do not need to open an application for it to access your data. So while under user A the application cannot access user B's data, this does not really matter because the application can also run under user B while in the background.


__bionic_open_tzdata_path: ANDROID_DATA not set!

For ssh users, following up on @Death Mask Salesman's comment. sshd allows setting up ENV via proper config (from man --pager='less -p ^ENVIRONMENT' ssh):

  [...] Additionally, ssh reads ~/.ssh/environment, and adds lines of the format “VARNAME=value” to the environment if the
       file exists and users are allowed to change their environment.  For more information, see the PermitUserEnvironment
       option in sshd_config(5).

However I couldn't succeed to set it up on my phone (Sony Xperia "Tsubasa" / LineageOS 14.1). Thus I resorted to adding in /etc/bash/bashrc:

export ANDROID_DATA=/data ANDROID_ROOT=/system

then logging in...

$ ssh root@... -t bash
tsubasa / # env | grep ANDROID_
ANDROID_DATA=/data
ANDROID_ROOT=/system

:-)


How is the list of apps allowed to install another apps populated?

Just to add some related details to @ReddyLutonadio's answer, android.permission.REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES is the one which defines which apps would appear in the list you have mentioned, and it's required on Android 8+ to install apps from sources other than Google Play. But this permission alone doesn't define if the app is allowed to install unknown packages or not. It has protection level Signature:

  The system grants these app permissions at install time, but only when the app that attempts to use a permission is signed by the same certificate as the app that defines the permission.

It means that user apps will never be allowed this permission. The apps which are allowed in "Settings" > "Apps & Notifications" > "Advanced" > "Special App Access" > "Install unknown apps" are those which have AppOps operation OP_REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES allowed. You can also check from adb shell:

~$ appops query-op REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES allow

Results must be same as in Settings. To deny any of the apps:

~$ appops set org.fdroid.fdroid REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES deny

And it will appear as Not allowed in Settings.

Other permissions which are controlled with AppOps can be seen with dumpsys package | grep -A100 'AppOp Permissions:' | sed '/^$/q'.

RELATED:

How to grant an app a permission that isn't in its manifest?


How do I tell if my Samsung Galaxy uses XEU or BTU etc...?

XEU or BTU (...) are Samsung CSC codes. CSC stands for Country Specific Code. It is unique for each country or region or network carrier. This website lists them all.

So to check which CSF file your Samsung device has, try the following:

Dial *#1234#
Go to Settings > About phone > Software information then you should see something like Service provider SW version, see screenshot below: Here AIO is the CSC.

Download Phone Info app from Google Play Store


There may be packet loss occurring on your network. Try pinging the site.

Windows:  ping www.viki.com(Windows will auto 6 pings)
Linux:    ping -c(x) www.viki.com(where x is the number of times to ping)

If the result is that there is substantial packet loss(above 10%) try clearing your DNS Cache.

Windows: type cmd within Windows search to get Command Terminal then type:ipconfig/flushdns at the C:>
Linux: Depends on the Linux distro.  usually located in /etc/init.d  Once in the /etc/init.d directory see if there is a file named "dns-clean"  if there is just type:  ./dns-clean  then try to log on to www.viki.com again.  Hope this helps but keep in mind that there could be other causes for your problem but this is a good start.  Good Luck!


How can I stop the status bar from hiding?

Nova Launcher has dozens of settings for its Home Screen layout and personalization. Included is a Notification bar setting, which allows the device owner to hide it on the Home Screen.
It can be found under the Look & feel settings.
Change the state of Show notification bar to experiment to taste.


If you've installed any Apps on the SDCard, you can simply move them back to internal storage via the Settings→Apps→Manage Apps menu, walking your downloaded apps one by one and see whether it is installed on SDCard. This should be your first step.

For the remaining files: If your device offers an "internal SDCard", you could simply use a file manager like e.g. ES File Explorer File Manager to move "normal files" from the external to the internal SDCard.

Both steps done, remove the SDCard (either should down your device to do so, or simply use the Settings→Storage menu to unmount the card first if you can access it without shutting down the device).

Optional step: Once the card is removed, you could check again if you still can move apps to SDCard, as the device might use the internal SDCard for this.


Xperia V can I relock my bootloader for Bravia Engine to work again?

Just relocking won't work, you need to restore the TA partition (which contains DRM keys for Bravia Engine) that you must have backed up before unlocking your bootloader.


Getting internet for Galaxy Tab 2 from Galaxy S3

Yes, very easily actually.

To Make your S3 emit a WiFi network

Enable 'WiFi Tethering' in System Settings->More->Tethering and Portable Hotspot->Portable WiFi Hotspot.
Configure the hotspot (name, password etc), in the Setup WiFi Hotspot menu.

To Connect your Tablet to the WiFi network

Enter the tablets WiFi settings, and turn WiFi on.
Select the WiFi network you configured on your S3).
Select connect. If you setup a password, you need to enter it.

Other Info

If you do not see the WiFi Hotspot option, then your network has disabled it. If you're rooted you could use an app such as WiFi Tethering - just be aware that this will produce an Ad-Hoc hotspot, and Stock Android cannot connect to these types of hostspots.

There is currently no way, AFAIK, to create a standard WiFi hotspot without using the stock android tethering system.


How can I find obb folder in a rooted device to copy a game's sd data files and play game?

Here is a backup tool by Koushik Dutta (aka Koush) : Helium Backup

Using this you can backup complete app including data and restore it back. Just backup on your device, copy the files to your other device and restore it back.

I've tested it personally and it works flawlessly on non rooted devices.

Try this and let me know if you face any issues.


Why is Youtube draining the battery and what could we do?

Try to install Greenify.

  It helps you identify and put the misbehaving apps into hibernation
  when you are not using them, to stop them from lagging your device and
  leeching the battery


Can apps in Huawei AppGallery be downloaded in China?

After going through their publication process, I can answer the question now.

The answer is yes. They give you the option to publish apps in China, on the condition you submit additional documents required by the government of China. You need also to display a Health Advice in your app prominently.


Nexus 4 wont charge or turn on; LED is blinking red

Try to long press power in for about 30s.
Then short press.

This is how I recover after a Nexus4 crash.


How to recover data from adaptive storage while rooted phone stuck at boot?

before starting , i'd recommend making a FULL backup of your SD card , through a raw image ( google the 'dd' command in linux)

i followed the guide here ; Corrupt SD card formatted as internal storage

BUT with some IMPORTANT MODIFICATIONS of my own !

Phone was stuck in BOOTLOOP and later stuck at BOOT Animation, no access to any usual file manager utility. Mind you , this is a VERY Grievous situation , since there's no trivial method of gaining access to your sd card (it shows as 0mb in TWRP file manager) for backing up your precious data , pics and memories. Also , this is the only part which is a bit shaky since i am not completely sure if my phone was rooted or not (since my problem changed from bootloop to boot animation when i tried to install to SuperSu through TWRP) and retrieving the encryption key is central to solving this. I had to get the .key file , since that was pivotal to breaking the SD card's encryption. So amidst all the panic , i was able to browse , through TWRP file manager , to the /data/misc/vold folder and found the .key file. This was a MAJOR breakthrough !
Next , to extract the file. i used another , UNENCRYPTED SD card and transferred the .key file to that card , through TWRP file manager , read that SD card into the laptop and got the .key file onto Ubuntu (16.04) . Decoded the .key file and got the 16 byte key. there's 2 ways to do this ... either open the file through a hex editor (i used BLESS) and copy off the 16 pairs of hex digits you see OR use this command ;

  hexdump -e '1/1 "%.2x"' expand_8838e738a18746b6e435bb0d04c15ccd.key

make sure you're in the SAME directory as the .key file when executing this command (advanced linux users will work their way around this but i want it to be as beginner friendly as possible)

so , i got the 32 digit / 16 byte key.

NEXT , decrypting the SD card AND making Linux recognise it. when i read it in , through the card reader , it wouldn't show in Nautilus (the Ubuntu filemanager) but upon running fdisk-l and parted -l , i saw

"parted -l output"

http://pasteboard.co/5klviklR8.jpg

"fdisk -l output"

http://pasteboard.co/POGvyBOxO.png

notice the android_meta and android_expand , those names gave me hope , that my data was still intact. ESPECIALLY , since at the beginning of the problem , i had created partitions and partition tables in the sd card through the fdisk utility (but i ctrl+c'ed out so it's possible that the changed were not written , PHEW! )

the unknown filesystem was the biggest pain in this whole fiasco ... since according to the few guides and discussions regarding this issue , SD cards formatted as internal by marshmallow were supposed to be ext4 filesystem. but that was not the case , at least not here.

So , to decrypt the card , i used

dmsetup create crypt1 --table "0 `blockdev --getsize /dev/mmcblk0p2` crypt aes-cbc-essiv:sha256 "insert your 16-byte key here w/out double quotes" 0 /dev/mmcblk0p2 0"

if you get some ioctl related error use this format instead (this is the EXACT format i used today , with my key and everything)

dmsetup create crypt7 --table "0 `blockdev --getsize /dev/mmcblk0p2` crypt aes-cbc-essiv:sha256 07147CFFB77F249A5DBD2AD204610E7D  0 /dev/mmcblk0p2 0"

please note that the dmsetup utility should be installed in linux. (google it ) . also , note that i went for the parition 'mmcblk0p2' , since that was the bigger one in size and had the obvious inference of containing all the data !

this went well , completed without error. the next bit , though , ABSOLUTELY drove me crazy and took around 20 hours (including my sleep time ) to be properly resolved.

the GADDAMN file system ! it was written EVERYWHERE that adoptive storage is formatted as ext4 , so when i ran the command

  # mount -t ext4 /dev/mapper/crypt1 /mnt/1/

(please note that mnt/1/ should exist as directory in your root folder , if not , use mkdir to create it)

it yielded the damn error

  wrong fs or bad option.

and this got me thinking ... if the sd card is NOT ext4 type , then HOW ON EARTH am i supposed to know what file system it is out of all the possible ones !

i searched and searched for a command that could force cycling through ALL possibilities in a brute-force method or any entry i could make in the /etc/fstab file that could AUTOMATICALLY detect the filesystem somehow, but to no avail...

5 . In the end , i recalled ... that maybe , just MAYBE the filesystem was f2fs (flash-friendly file system). And that proved to be a telling recall ...

for this code ;

  mount -t f2fs /dev/mapper/crypt1 /mnt/1

proved to be the WINNING GOAL !

i was then able to cd into /mnt/1 and saw some very familiar android-esque files and from there on , it was Eternal BLISS !


Phone becomes slow after updating to Jelly Bean

Try the following solution from another website:

Method 1:
If your device is on stock firmware, that also means it does not have a custom recovery like CWM or TWRP not installed on it, do the following steps:

Pull out the the battery of your phone, wait for about 30 seconds and reinsert it to its place.
Boot your device into ASR (Android System Recovery) mode. The method involves a hardware key combination and varies from one phone to another. For Samsung phones, for example, the key combination is Volume Up+ Home + Power keys. The tablets which generally have no Home button, you can enter the Recovery mode by pressing and holding the Volume Up + Power keys simultaneously.
In the Android System Recovery, scroll down to “wipe data/factory reset” option using the volume rockers and select it using the power key.
In case, wiping the data factory does not help you, you should also try “wipe cache partition”.
When you have wiped the data/factory, go back to the main menu and reboot the device by “reboot system now” option.
The bootloop problem should be fixed now.

Method 2:
If  you have a rooted device with CWM Recovery installed and your phone is caught into a bootloop after flashing a custom ROM or mod, do as follows:

Pull out the battery, reinsert it after 30 seconds and boot the device into CWM Recovery: Volume Up+ Home + Power keys simultaneously.
Go to “Advanced”
Choose “Wipe dalvik-cache”
Now go to “Mounts & Storage”
Choose “Wipe /cache”
Reboot your phone
The bootloop should be gone now. If it still persists, do this.

Boot the phone again into CWM Recovery
Now go to “Mounts & Storage”
Choose “Wipe /data”
Choose “Wipe /cache”
Then reboot your phone.
Now the phone should reboot normally. Next time when you install a ROM, follow the instructions prescribed by the developer. Be more attentive to the warnings before experimenting with any third party ROM or mod. Always ensure what you are about to install is meant for your device.

If the Above Methods Do Not Work!
In case you are not able to get your device come out of bootloop, your final option should be to install or restore a previously backed up ROM by putting the device in recovery mode, or to install the official firmware/factory image to your phone your tablet.


What values to set in Static IP Settings of Wi-Fi when changing DNS?

You should use OpenDNS Family shield which blocks porn and malicious websites.

Dns1: 208.67.222.123
Dns2: 208.67.220.123

If your ISP blocks other DNS's, try a secure connection (use Port 443):

Dns1: 208.67.222.123:443
Dns2: 208.67.220.123:443

If you're phone has root access I recommend using a paid app called OverrideDNS which encrypts your DNS queries like DNSCrypt and makes you forget about all DNS issues that you might have, it also works on cellular data.


Network quality related battery discharge

I had a similar issue with an S4 mini.  I found the best solution to turn off airplane mode and then turn on wifi, which essentially keeps it from searching for a cell signal when one was poor or non-existent.  You can create reminders or macros to do some of this on a non-rooted phone.


I can't comment due to limited experience.

Where is your question?
Try to insert the old battery and see if it improves the network coverage?
A Izzy stated, try to turn it off, remove the battery and turn it on again.
You can also try to turn on airplane mode for 1min, turn it off and check whether your network coverage gets back to normal. That's what I used when my 3G connection seems lost, it is faster than rebooting.
Try with another (a friend's) SIM card,
Change location where coverage might be better. The subway has no coverage, you know :-)


Is it possible to have a root-running app on no-root android?

Firstly let me clarify something.

Being rooted is not a binary situation where you are either rooted or not rooted. Process of rooting is adding custom binaries to system partition. These binaries, depending on the way they are coded, can answer suid calls from apps so those apps can have the right to execute orders not with their own UID but with the UID 0 that is the root user.

Secondly, can you run apps with su rights without adding those binaries?

It can be possible but even if it is, I don't know of such a method. Maybe there are workarounds but I never heard of them. So I think I can say no to that.


Definitely, yes. I can't see any problem using stylus on Android devices. But you need the one for capacitive screen (or "Capacitive stylus", as mentioned by eldarerathis)

As a proof, there is an article that lists some of the best styli for tablet devices.

Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with the site or its creator. The site is used only as a proof that there are styli for Android tablet.


MIUI newest version displays annoying message popups

The simplest way would be to just turn off all notifications for the applications.

You need to swipe down your notification bar and then long press on each notification, it should open up a menu for disabling all notifications, if this doesn't work then you'll need to open up the applications individually and thoroughly go through the settings of each app, most likely you'll have an option to turn these type of notifications off.


A Forums Manager on Motorola Forums said:

  Moto E will not support OTG.

See the full thread here.


How to add Exchange calendar to Sunrise calendar app

Open Settings (for your phone, not the Sunrise app)
Scroll down to Accounts

Tap Add Account

Select Exchange Account
Set up your Exchange Account


Problem with Samsung Galaxy S2 Driver on Windows

Right-click on that "SAMSUNG_Android" and select Uninstall.  Then make sure the Delete the driver... option is checked, and click the OK button.  This should clear out the old drivers from the system.  Now unplug the phone and try uninstalling and re-installing Kies.  Reboot the PC and try plugging the phone in again.

If you are on Windows 7 64-bit, you may be able to bypass Kies software by installing this driver (remove the "SAMSUNG_Android" from Device Manager again before installing the driver.)


Why is there no Java compiler on Android?

If you have Android 5.0 (lollipop) or later, use termux. (Terminal IDE is great but only works up to android 4.*). It's on the google play store, and the source is on github.

It has an apt repository with several compilers, including ecj, the
Eclipse Compiler for Java, and is much faster than javac.

There's also golang, clang, gcc, node, python and a whole bunch of other stuff (tmux, vim, ctags, cscope, emacs, latexetc etc etc).

NB: this doesn't actually answer your "why" question, but might be helpful...


HTC One M8 GPE unable to run Android 5.0 or 5.1

The trick is to install the firmware-only RUUs rather than the full RUUs. While the full RUUs are tampered with and therefore won't pass signature checks on non-S-OFF devices, the firmware RUUs provided on http://www.graffixnyc.com/m8.php are authentic, and will install on S-ON devices.

Make sure you update in stages:

Install firmware 3.11.1700.5 (for Android 5.0.1) — look for file with MD5 a3e2bd4b51c0ceff46e52f521e9454be on the GraffixNYC page
Install firmware 4.04.1700.4 (for Android 5.1) — look for file with MD5 6ac5701060b4e15adb0cef7f13eddccd on the GraffixNYC page

If your device is unlocked (not S-OFF, just unlocked), you might need to temporarily relock it before you can install RUUs:

fastboot oem lock

Installing RUUs is done with:

fastboot oem rebootRUU
fastboot flash zip firmware.zip


Prevent homescreen/desktop from showing before my start-up app?

I can see nobody is answering this so I'll give you a long way of achieving this.

You need to build a Launcher application, the launcher application will be blank, it simply starts the activity of your app, or preferably it just does nothing at all.

After the blank launcher loads, the onBoot event will trigger your app to start.

A long work around...

To begin with,
Have a look on Stack Overflow, I found this question that fits perfectly in my opinion...
Make my app the home screen launcher....?

This could be a good workaround as well, probably better than my original idea haha :) hope it helps.


How to remove rounded black corners which appeared after system upgrade?

Found this on reddit (thanks to "jyapayne"):
adb shell settings put secure sysui_rounded_size 1
adb shell settings put secure sysui_rounded_content_padding 5

First line is the corner "roundness" and second line ist the padding of the status-bar elements to the edge.
The Thread


S8+ stock always on display not showing notifications

There are possible reasons why these notifications no longer show:

Type  of Always on Display (AOD) mode you are using (Clock/Calender)

It has been noted that if you're using the calendar AOD mode then you won't see any notifications, just the clock, calendar, and battery %.

  I could not get any notifications when using the calender AOD, but I do get messages and missed calls when using just the clock options in AOD. Nothing on emails in either, and I'm using the stock email app for an exchange work account. I could not get any notifications when using the calender AOD, but I do get messages and missed calls when using just the clock options in AOD.

Email client incompatibility

Sometimes there's some incompatibity or bug in the stock email application causing this. Check your email clients and if possible try switching to Gmail client. It somehow worked for one user.

  I switched my email accounts from the Samsung email app to the Gmail app (both email accounts are non-Gmail types).  Now my notifications are working fine.  I'll assume there is some problem with the Samsung email app regarding notifications going to the Always On Screen.

New changes introduced in AOD updates

It could be that new updates in the AOD features have brought some changes with it, for example the most notable change was the requirement of screen lock option.

  You must use one of the screen lock options for notifications icons to appear when phone is in AOD mode. Before the update this was not necessary.

  I picked the Swipe in the lock screen options and my notifications came back. It was working before that last update

Possible solutions

In addition to the above you may additionally try the following to resolve the AOD issue:

Clearing app data

Do a clear data for Always On Display. Go your device’s Settings >> Applications >> Application Manager >> Always On Display > Storage > Clear data

Fine tuning miscellaneous notifications

Make sure notifications are allowed for Messages. In the device’s Settings >> Notifications, make sure the switch next to Messages is turned on.

Switch to another Always On Display layout

Other workarounds

Install alternative  Always On AMOLED – BETA from Google Playstore

References

No notifications in Always On Display mode
S8 Always On Screen Notifications Intermittant
No more missed call and message notifications on Always-on-Display Galaxy S7 Edge
Customize-samsung-galaxy-s8-always-on-display


Google Play , YouTube and Gmail show error message “No Connection – Retry”

Try these:

Clear the Cache on your Android device

To fight the No Connection – Retry error message on Google Play Store app on your Android devices, try to clear the Play Store cache since this could be a reason of this error of repeatedly getting this network error message.

To do this, go to Settings > App, scroll down to All apps and finally to Google Play Store app. Open the app details and tap the Force stop button to reach to the cache clearing button namely Clear Cache.

That’s all what you needed to do to clear out the app cache. Restart your app and you might have just got rid of the No Connection – Retry error message on the Google Play Store app.
Check Date / Time settings

In case clearing the cache did not work out for you, there can be a minor glitch in your date and time settings causing the No Connection – Retry error message on Google Play Store app of your android devices. Check the time and date since a plenty of users were facing this network error message because of incorrect time settings.
Make sure to enter the correct Google / Gmail password

Another solution is to check your Google / Gmail account password. Did you change it and forget to re-enter in on your Android device? Whenever you change your password your Android device gets a notification to re-enter it. As soon as you correctly enter your new password, your Android phone or tablet would be able to get all the Google services back on the device.
Still getting the No Connection – Retry error message on Google Play Store app?

Do a factory reset!

Of course this is the very last option to go for but you would have to do it if your Google Play Store app simply refuses to connect. Before resetting your Android device never forget to back up your data since factory reset would wipe out all the data.


After exploring a little more, I found this solution:

Click your device "home" button;
Tap "Settings";
Tap "Sound";
Tap "Vibrate";
Select either "Never" or "Only when not in Silent mode".

That's it!


Add contact without using "Google account"?

Disable the Google Contacts Sync app (Settings -> Apps -> All -> GoogleContactsSyncAdapter -> Disable) and reboot, then try adding a contact again.  If this does not help and you have rooted your Android then you can delete /system/app/GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk with a file browser (but take a backup first!).
Either way, next time you create a contact you should be informed that the contact will be stored locally.

As far as I can tell this won't break anything else.

However, if you also use another account with sync function like Microsoft Exchange (for hotmail), you'll have to remove that one too. In case of Microsoft Exchange, it's best to remove the entire account, because just disabling the app prevents you from receiving emails anyway.

Source


.nomedia is on or off, no way to exclude just certain file types. You might want to try including the album art in the music files (it'll still show up in the music player) and then copying them over, rather than adding the art to the folder on your phone.


Swype keyboard does not show, after changing to Swype keyboard and locking screen

sometimes its happen to me also.But I can deduce that issue can be happen with swype in two cases.

if you are running out of RAM then swype will take some time to launch. because as I have seen swype will take more than 30 MB of RAM and it can take more while it have to start.
If you have moved your application SD card then it may take some amount of time to launch.

what actions supposed to do ?
  If you are running any kind of task killers , set swype to ignore for killing.
keep swype in your Phone memory only.


Google Play Services have stopped message is popping up continuously on screen

Have you already tried rebooting your phone or deleting some data/apps, because if you don't have much space the app will always crash also you could try to reset the play services to the factory version and try starting Google Play to automatically download the newest version that hopefully works.


Twitter widget appears to be broken: "Application not installed"

I had a similar problem with another app (not Twitter) I went into my app manager and saw that the app was installed on my "External Storage" even if I never moved it there. I moved it back to the Internal Storage and it was fixed. My card was already fine to begin with but for some reason, the widget didn't like it.
Anyway, I never recommend putting apps on the SD card, it slowed my S3 to a crawl. Keep it for media and docs.


Can I "purchase" a free book from the Store without providing a credit card number?

Looks like it depends on the book. From Google Play support:

  Downloading free music, TV shows, and certain free books and magazines is still considered a transaction, even when the price of the item is $0.00. If you don't have a credit card associated to your Google Wallet account or if you don't haven't set up a Google Wallet account, you'll be prompted to add a new payment method upon when downloading certain content from Google Play.


Can I train Google Voice Actions to better recognize my voice?

You could try enabling the "Personalized Recognition" option in the Voice Search settings. This option basically causes Voice Search to store words and phrases that you use on your Google account, and gradually build up a voice library of your speech patterns. You can read the original announcement for it on the Google Mobile blog.

I believe this feature is only available in the US on Android 2.2 or later, but it's possible there may be other restrictions as well.


How to setup a Tasker profile to switch ariplane mode at night UNLESS I actually use the phone?

I would create a Profile for each of your preconditions, as well as an entrance Task for each one. The task would simply set a variable (separate for each task).

Then, have an exit task for each precondition. It would clear its own specific variable, and then run the "Airplane Mode" Task.

The "Airplane Mode" task would check all precondition variables. If any are set, do nothing. However, if they are all clear, and the current time is between 22:00 and 07:00, it can safely activate airplane mode.

Finally, have another Profile for the time. When 22:00 rolls around, it will simply run the "Airplane Mode" task. Another one for 07:00 will run "Normal Mode" which would simply deactivate airplane mode.


Disable Cyanogen 10.1 notification drawer widgets

So to sum up the bit of confusion that is in CM 10.1 now - there are actually two sets of notification bar toggles. One works like the old set from previous CM versions, and it appears in one row above your notifications when you pull down the bar. These are the "Power Widget" toggles.

The second set was a feature added upstream in Jelly Bean, and is referred to as the "Quick Settings panel". These are laid out as multi-row tiles - which it sounds like you are describing - and you can switch to this view by tapping the top right icon on your notifications shade (after pulling it down):

You cannot, to my knowledge, get rid of the Quick Settings panel completely, as it is baked in to Android. However, you can prevent it from appearing of its own accord by going into

Settings > System > Quick Settings panel > Quick pulldown

and selecting the "Off" option. The other options are "Right" and "Left", with the idea being that you can basically divide the notification pulldown into two swipe areas if you like. For instance, by choosing "Right", you can access your notifications by pulling down from the left side of the bar, and access the Quick Settings panel by pulling down from the right side of the bar. If you choose "Off" then the only way to get to the Quick Settings panel should be if you pull down your notifications and then tap the icon in the top right. Effectively, this disables the Quick Settings panel from ever appearing unless you explicitly choose to see it.


Dangers of modifying a manufacturer firmware

The risks involved by reflashing a firmware are :
In case something went wrong during the flashing process (You should have to be very careful while it is flashing tho), The phone will be PERMANENTLY RENDERED unbootable, or you might PREMANENTLY brick your phone.
I strongly suggest you to not to try to do anything above if your device has a warranty from it's manufacturer, otherwise, You may confirm trying to attempt that.


I'd suggest you try llama. Why because its free and its awesome. It can not only handle ring volume but WiFi, mobile data, run apps and many more.

The best thing is it works with Cell Mesh, so you don't have to keep GPS on.


White Background In Landscape Text Input

I assume you have a screen like this one? There's a way to disable the so called "fullscreen landscape keyboard". Some custom roms have feature an option by default, but not CyanogenMod.

What you could try is to download the Xposed Framework and disable that fullscreen landscape keyboard through Xposed Modules like "Gravity Box" or "XBlast Tools".

Those two modules also feature a lot of other useful tweaks.

I hope I understood you correctly and that this will be helpful.

EDIT: Those two modules I mentioned above may be a bit confusing at first. So I would rather recommend this module instead: No Fullscreen Keyboard Xposed - Android Apps on Google Play


Can my Samsung Galaxy Nexus and iPhone 5 share same micro USB charger?

Technically yes, but you need a Lightning to micro USB adapter, like this one.


Google two-step verification doesn't want to work. Pops up, I approve and nothing happens

I've encountered this issue before and in the end it turned out to just be a server-side outage / traffic.  Either wait it out after submitting or try again in a bit if it times out, but don't spam requests as it'd likely contribute to the delays.  Feel free to confirm it's not an network/carrier/ISP connectivity issue on your end first (e.g., switch to mobile data or vice versa), but when it last occured I was quite peeved there was no mention anywhere on Google's end in support resources regarding ongoing outages.


Downgrading Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 Downgrade Confusion

If the phone is unlocked, then go ahead.
It wouldn't matter which carrier that firmware belongs to. As long as it's stock, then you can flash it with no worries.