List main CPU consuming processes since boot

Not exactly what you are looking for but closely aligned solution that can help

Download 3C Toolbox. Amongst the tons of features it has, there is an option to record CPU usage, accessible from Settings →Recorder, where you define recording preferences. For your purpose choose

Time-frame and Rate → 1 minute, every second (warning-heavy battery usage so I selected 1 hour , 1 minute)
Enable Start Recorder on Boot
items to Record → CPU frequency, All processes, Battery information and whatever else you want from options
CPU Utilization can be selected for processes to show from 0.001% to 20%. Select what suits you - I chose 10%
Based on above enable Hide lowest consumer

High Level View: You get a recording of CPU utilization with processes contributing to it .This recording can be analyzed for the duration selected (with different zoom factors) and high level usage processes can be identified.  These processes can be individually selected to show color coded display as below. In the bottom panel of utilization, other factors of interest like battery status, temperature,current etc can be alternatively displayed by tapping on the lower graph

Deep Dive: Your question is asking for specific time and utilization parameters for which you need to get raw data. This is available in .txt file in the location which you choose to save the recording (typically DCIM folder). You can extract relevant process data from the file and export to Excel worksheet and should be possible to filter per your needs ( I haven't tried that bit of exporting to worksheet) . Small extract showing frequency and process init1 below (Also,note that though I had selected recording option of 1 hour,1 minute, file says data is recorded 10 millisec)

3C Toolbox Pro (data multiple of 10ms) Refresh Rate: 6000 Start: 1469856508888 Total Recording: 264000 Frequency7 -23 : 99840|0|0 111360|0|0 111360|0|0 99840|0|0 111360|0|0 /**init 1** : 0|692|0 3|692|0 1|692|0 8|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 4|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 4|700|0 3|700|0 4|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 6|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 4|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 4|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 3|700|0 6|700|0 2|700|0 3|700|0

Couple of other apps which are of use in monitoring app performance are detailed in answer here
Developer of 3C Tool Box is very responsive and can be contacted from within app Settings →Help and Support → Request Support or at XDA thread


How can I rename an app on my phone, and what are the consequences?

If you are willing to install an app , you can try Commandr for Google, which let's you

Integrate Tasker
Launch an app under different name ( custom app name)

Not tried by me


Installing latest possible firmware and Android on HTC Desire HD

There is no "standard non-HTC" version of Android, your device needs custom drivers and therefore a customized version of Android.  If you install a custom ROM it will most certainly be pre-rooted.

You should check XDA's Desire HD development subforum for custom ROMs.  Read a few threads and decide on one that sounds good, then follow the instructions to flash it.  If there are no instructions then just put the ROM .zip on your SD card, reboot into ClockworkMOD recovery, and follow the menus to flash it.


How can I stop the native clock app's countdown-timer from throwing one notification per minute?

Changed the settings in ALARM_NOTIFICATION_CHANNEL, instead of ALARM_NOTIFICATION_LOW_CHANNEL and that fixed it.


Access the network without logging into the captive portal on Android?

Make sure you have enabled root access for ADB in developer options
Connect you phone to your computer via usb or open a terminal emulator on your device (skip step 3)
Type adb shell to open a shell (Assuming you have adb installed)
Type su to gain superuser permissions
Tyoe settings put global captive_portal_detection_enabled 0 to prevent the Wi-Fi from disconnecting if there is no internet connection

Source: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/148442/62445


How to "completely" delete Xposed Framework and modules?

Note: provided that you end up at this post in search of solving the bootloop issue caused by an Xposed module, my answer here would better help you .

For any Android Lollipop

I can now uninstall the app itself but how can I erase the flashed file of the .zip?

See the attached files in the first post of this thread. In relevance to your device's CPU architecture, download the uninstaller archive and flash it from the custom recovery. It would undo the  changes the installer archive made.
In essence, the installer archive keeps the original system files but appends in their name .orig  or convert them into archives (unofficial installers do). It then places its modified files at their location. All uninstaller does is remove the modified and extra files and change the backed up files back to their original self.
Relevant section from the uninstaller script

echo "- Restoring/removing files"
rm -f /system/xposed.prop
rm -f /system/framework/XposedBridge.jar

restore_link   /system/bin/app_process32               0 2000 0755 u:object_r:zygote_exec:s0
restore_backup /system/bin/dex2oat                     0 2000 0755 u:object_r:dex2oat_exec:s0
restore_backup /system/bin/oatdump                     0 2000 0755
restore_backup /system/bin/patchoat                    0 2000 0755 u:object_r:dex2oat_exec:s0
restore_backup /system/lib/libart.so                   0    0 0644
restore_backup /system/lib/libart-compiler.so          0    0 0644
restore_backup /system/lib/libart-disassembler.so      0    0 0644
restore_backup /system/lib/libsigchain.so              0    0 0644
restore_backup /system/lib/libxposed_art.so            0    0 0644
if [ $IS64BIT ]; then
  restore_link   /system/bin/app_process64             0 2000 0755 u:object_r:zygote_exec:s0
  restore_backup /system/lib64/libart.so               0    0 0644
  restore_backup /system/lib64/libart-compiler.so      0    0 0644
  restore_backup /system/lib64/libart-disassembler.so  0    0 0644
  restore_backup /system/lib64/libsigchain.so          0    0 0644
  restore_backup /system/lib64/libxposed_art.so        0    0 0644
fi

If you've the knowledge of setting the appropriate SELinux context for a file in Android from recovery mode, you can simply map the files the installer would've changed, revert the changes using command-line and set the correct context. No uninstaller would be required.
Note: If you're not using the official Xposed Framework then the uninstaller may not work for you. It may even cause unforeseen issues. Best is to search the web for the uninstaller.

Also, where are the modules stored?

Xposed Installer app downloads the modules under /sdcard/Download.
They may be called modules but they simply are apps to Android, hence the APK would be found under /data/app or the locations covered here by Izzy. Alike every app, there data directory would be found under /data/data.

How to delete the modules completely?

Deleting an Xposed  module is no different than removing any user installed app from Android. So, you can use any technique that you would use to remove an ordinary app.
Note that the file XposedBridge.jar under /system/framework/ is what provides modules the necessary APIs to interact with the modified framework.

For Android 4.2.x - 4.4.x
Use the file Xposed-Disabler-Recovery.zip located at /sdcard/Android/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/files. Flash that file from recovery mode (requires a custom recovery) to disable Xposed Framework. If you don't have such file, download it from the first post of the official thread.
That archive, in essence, changes /system/bin/app_process.orig to /system/bin/app_process i.e. it removes the modified app_process and brings the original file back to its glory. It doesn't delete the Installer app. You can make those changes on your own too using adb in recovery mode.
The concept of modules here is no different from what is covered in the above section.


Most modern smartphones produce a lot of heat when playing CPU/GPU intensive games, there's not much you can do about it.

If you reduce GPU frequency, two things can happen: stuttering of gameplay (depending on your game), and the CPU/GPU run at maximum frequency for longer amounts of time to complete the same work (that a higher frequency GPU would have done in shorter time). That may negate much of the heat reduction you are trying to achieve. My 2 cents is to leave the settings at stock.

(for more details, read http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=34153152&postcount=15576 by a chip designer who worked with Nvidia, TI etc).

If you are still keen on underclocking, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1827635 suggests that GPU over/underclocking is possible with SetCPU app. That link is for Galaxy S3, but it should work for your phone too if your kernel supports it (you might have to flash a custom kernel to control the GPU).


Google Play Store - "An unexpected error has occurred. Please try again later"

Well this happened to me when I used to install apps from playstore using a slow internet connection. For this I used to get the error notification in the notification bar. I used to long press the notification, goto app info, and 'Clear data' there. This used to work for me as playstore again syncs once opened. U can try if it works but recommend you not to clear data on other 3rd party apps as you may lose you data.


Micromax A88 too many pattern attempts issue?

I found the solution What I did?

1- Press Volume Up+Power+Home Button it show three option

Fast Boot
Normal Boot
Settings

2- Then i clicked Settings then it have lots of option i selected Factory reset/Delete and click on Menu button ,this button you can see with Home Button then it again show Delete User Data then again Menu Button Some more option and then Ok to delete User Data.

It Resolved my Issue.


Settings > account > google > *menu button > Add account.
Then go back to google accounts and delete the one you don't want.
This will change your play store email!.

*also, it may be slightly different on different roms. I gave you the most common method.


Syncing playlists between Ubuntu and Android smartphone

Spotify allows you to sync your local files to a mobile device (no subscription required). Of course this requires the desktop client installed on a computer and the app installed on a mobile device. Once your local files are downloaded to the device, you can listen to them whenever and wherever you want. It also does not require a data connection (after downloading).

*Note: the later versions of Android client have had issues with this. Give it a shot anyway! The only workarounds are to install an older version of the Spotify app and then download your playlist.


How do I delete an email in Gmail from the notification screen?

Yes - there is a setting you need to change.

The Notification bar's actions are based on what you have GMail set up to do when swiping away an email within the app.

To change it from Archive:

Open Gmail and go to Settings there change the Swiping conversation list from Archive/unlabel/delete to Always delete

This changed my Notification bar action from Archive to Delete


What are the privacy implications of using Talk-to-Text?

From Google's Mobile Privacy Policy:

  For products and services with voice recognition capabilities, we collect and store a copy of the voice input you make to the product or service and corrections you make to the returned recognition result. To improve processing of your voice input, we may also continuously record in temporary memory a few seconds of ambient background noise. This recording stays only temporarily on the device and is not sent to Google. If you choose to personalize voice recognition, we will associate your voice data with your Google Account.


Any solution you find will require root, due to Android's security limitations (3rd-party apps cannot change the default action for intents).

http://www.reddit.com/r/tasker/comments/11swoq/how_to_use_tasker_to_swap_between_launchers/ looks promising, I'll summarise it quickly here.

Requirements:

Tasker
Secure Settings
A second launcher installed
Root access

Install Secure Settings, grant it root access and under Options → Root access make sure Package Manager is enabled.
Go to System settings → Apps, open the entry for your current launcher and press Clear defaults.
Press the home button, select your alternate launcher (probably the "at work" launcher in this case) and select the 'Always' option.
If you have more than two launchers installed, you must proceed with step 5. Otherwise (if you have exactly two launchers installed), skip to step 13.
Open Tasker, and add a new task in the "Tasks" tab (named something like "Disable stock launcher").
Add an action: Plugin → Secure Settings.
Click the edit button next to 'Configuration'.
Pick 'Package Manager' under 'Root actions'.
Click the question mark (?) in the top-left corner and select your stock launcher (or whichever launcher you do not want to use at all).
Make sure the grey toggle in the middle is set to 'Disabled'.
Press the Save button in the bottom-left, then the green check in Tasker.
Press the Test/Play button in the bottom-right; this will disable your stock launcher (or whichever launcher you don't want to use).
In Tasker, go to the profile you want to use your alternate launcher with (probably "At work" in this case).
In the Entry task add a new action: Plugin → Secure Settings.
Edit the plugin configuration: Edit → Package Manager.
Select your alternate launcher (the "at work" launcher in this case).
Set the grey toggle to 'Enable'.
Press Save in the bottom-left, then tick the checkmarks to commit.
For the exit task, do the exact same, except make sure the toggle disables your alternate launcher rather than enables.

N.B. As always with tasks involving root access, there is a small risk of ending up without a usable launcher; as long as you follow the instructions in the Reddit post, you should be fine.


Can an app that has permission to access the photos copy them?

What you are looking at is the static permission to get read/write access to the shared storage (/sdcard respectively /storage/emulated/0).
Since about Android 6 this static permission you grant by installing the app is no longer enough for actually accessing the files on the shared storage. Instead the app has to additionally ask you to get access to those files at run-time. And this time you can chose to deny access. Additionally apps usually ask for this permission at that time when they really need it. This means if access to shared storage is only required for one functionality you never use you should not see this permission request dialog and thus the app never gets access to the shared storage.
But if you get this permission request and you allow it then the app has full access to ever file on shared storage including your stored photos. An app can do anything it want with files it has access to, including sending them to a server in the internet.
Google also recognized that "all-or-nothing permission" was not a good decision. Starting with Android 10/11 the way to access devices shared storage has totally changed and now allows to grant/deny access on a finer granular level.


Is it possible to directly print from Android?

It is possible! Maybe not in the conventional way, but the easiest way would be to set it up as a Google Cloud Printer and download the Cloud Print app.

Also,

  if you have an Cloudprint ready printer (Epson, Kodak etc) or HP
  E-Print enabled printer you don't need your pc to be on, for other
  printers your pc needs to be ON.

So you might not be able to simply find a printer on your network natively in Android, but Google has provided us with the next best thing.


Apps say "bad password" for good password

I found an "interesting" solution to the problem. When I create a password, I enter it into a password protected document. I have been copying and pasting the passwords, so there is no issue of entering different passwords between the Android and Windows logins or mistyping them. As an experiment, I used the "Forgot Password" function in the Android apps. Then I pasted the exact same passwords I've been using and "changed" the passwords in the Android apps. Now I can log in using the same passwords and don't get the "Bad Password" error in the Android apps, and can still log in the Windows version. This worked for both apps that were having the issues. Go figure. Still haven't figured out why, especially why the mail app that had been working suddenly stopped.


phone stuck in boot loop after flashing new (stock) rom

The following steps are pretty much guaranteed to unf**k up your phone no matter how badly messed up it is. I speak from experience.

Turn off phone by pressing hard reset button.
Use flashtools to flash a stock ROM. Download the ftf file from here (I recommend downloading 4.4.2 as its easiest to root and you likely will be flashing something else anyway).
Root your device using any method.
Install custom recovery using app such as TWRP manager or Flashify.
Check if you can install custom recovery and boot into it.
If yes, use it to flash ROM of your choice and you are done. If no, proceed to step 6.
Follow these instruction if you can't enter recovery.

N.B. Here is the missing download link for fix recovery.zip. Also the directions forget to mention after typing su root a message will have popped up on your phone you must allow.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-z2/general/mm-6-0-1-twrp-recovery-t3364871
You now have TWRP working. Use it to flash latest ROM.

Additional tips:

enable allow installations from unknown sources
enable usb debugging
charge phone to 100% before beginning


How do I forward incoming calls over VOIP to another client?

Android phone is technically handicapped to do this. There is no google API to playback an audio stream instead of the mic recording. You would have to rewrite the android's telephony stack to achieve this. And this will be dependent on the hardware and so cannot be a generic solution for all android phones. You cannot find a answering machine android app with recorded voice playback for the same reason.

You can buy a raspberry pi, a USB data dongle with voice calling and supported by chan_dongle project, install RasPBX (based on the open source PBX Asterisk) and redirect GSM calls via VOIP and vice versa. This is pretty easy to setup and cheaper than an android phone.

https://web.archive.org/web/20180306230858/http://blog.carrier-connect.com/raspberry-gsm-gateway/

http://www.raspberry-asterisk.org/documentation/


Now, the only option you've: Flash ROM over USB using Odin (if you have Windows PC). You can find firmware files for your device on Internet (look XDA Forum).


There is probably no such "feature". Maybe there was a power outage? Maybe it's a bug? If it happens again, contact Lenovo and send the phone in under warranty...

Btw, it wears down the battery quickly if you fully discharge it regularly. (https://lifehacker.com/5875162/how-often-should-i-charge-my-gadgets-battery-to-prolong-its-lifespan)


Can I open Chrome on Android from command line ?

Note: You would need root access to run any command mentioned below for Android 4.2.1.

Contrary to traditional desktop OS, apps in Android are called upon using their component, an Activity. While developers can call the activities using the programming, the end-users are left with command-line to do the calling.

Android has an Activity Manager am to manage the activities, and among other things it can do, the most basic thing it does is to call an activity of an app.

Before we proceed,  setup ADB on PC if you haven't since we're going to rely on it. Also make sure that the device is getting detected in PC and by ADB.

The Chrome for Android app's activity responsible for managing tabs is com.google.android.apps.chrome.ChromeTabbedActivity. You can find this activity listed in the said app's AndroidManifest.xml (inside the APK). As for how I came to know about it, I simply launched Chrome, opened a tab, and looked upon the most recent activity using the command:

adb shell dumpsys activity recents

Replace recents with activities for Android 4.2.1.

The real question is:

  [Is] there [an] option to open tabs [in] Chrome on Android?

(Obsolete) Enter the following command to do that:

adb shell am start -n com.android.chrome/com.google.android.apps.chrome.ChromeTabbedActivity -d "<URL>" --activity-clear-task

(Tested on Sept 21, 2015) It seems that Chrome has changed the name of the activity responsible for tabs. The new command is:

adb shell am start -n com.android.chrome/org.chromium.chrome.browser.ChromeTabbedActivity -d "about:newtab" --activity-clear-task

See step 3. in this answer to know the details of the command, if you're interested.

Replace <URL> with the address you want, e.g.  127.0.0.1, google.com.


i can't retrieve a wallpaper setting i looked in my gallery but it is not there

Android doesn't save a history of old wallpapers. If the old wallpaper is still in your Gallery, just select it the same way you did before. If you've deleted it from wherever it originally came from (e.g. your camera photos or downloads folder), through Gallery or another app, then it's gone.


Whatsapp chat history Transfer to android phone

You can't restore chat history from one platform to a different platform.

Eg:- Window to Android or vice-versa as in your case. Read the below Whatsapp faq,

http://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/wp/28060005

It tells,

  You cannot restore chat history from any other phone type to Windows
  Phone, or from Windows Phone to another phone type.

The Whatsapp for Symbian S60 OS creates backup file as .bak files and Whatsapp on Android OS  creates backup files as .crypt files(encrypted). So based on this article from Whatsapp on How to save and restore chat history backups. The instructions are given only for

transferring backups from S60 to S60 phone
Backup files are saved in a folder called ‘wa’ and are called MsgStore.bak which will not be recognized by the Whatsapp application in your Android phone.
Backup files are saved in a format to be opened with WhatsApp. If you want to read your conversations on your computer you can send them as .txt file from WhatsApp to your email.

What you are trying to do is export the chat history. And from this Whatsapp article on How do I export my chat history?,

You can't use this .txt file for importing into another phone. So What you do is only for exporting the chat and you can only be able to read it using a text editor.

  it is not possible to restore your chat history from this exported
  .txt file.


How do I change the default search app in MIUI?

This in terminal app and restart afterwards did the job for me:

su
mount -o rw,remount /system
cp /data/app/com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox-1.apk /system/app/QuickSearchBox.apk

Found the answer here.


How to reset the device information in Google Play Store?

You can visit the accounts page in your computer and click on "Settings" tab. Under "My Devices" section you will have all the devices that your account is being tied with.


Unfortunately, this is not possible with setting Google Voice to forward the caller number to your phone.

When someone calls you using your Google Voice number and you set it up to go straight to your phone, the system spoofs the caller's number and sends it to your phone; the VoIP part of the call ends when Voice connects your caller to you, it's your basic forwarding service.

You cannot control any part of that with the settings from either the webapp or the Andorid app.

EDIT: There's a potential solution to this, depending on whether your emergency contacts have fixed numbers or not. You can set your default ringtone to "None", but for those contacts who do have your number, assign an actual ringtone to them and keep your phone's ringer on loud. Of course, this would not include emergency calls from numbers that you would not know, like hospitals or police stations.


Get data/data/com.android.browser/databases/webview.db from backup.ab

I found a bypass to this problem. Just do a full adb backup including all app data, apk and system data. Then root the phone and restore everything from backup. Then I would be able to access data/data/com.android.browser/databases/webview.db using Root Explorer on my phone.


Turns out headphones were made for desktop use only. The darn manual had not mentioned this at all.


Spare Parts does this. It's included in CyanogenMod and some other custom ROMs, but the Market version should work as well, I think. One of the menu options on the main page is "Usage statistics" which  you can then order by launch count, time used, and app name:


You should make a backup and reflash a stock ROM for your ROM or flash a different recovery for your phone. Also take a look at these sites.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2426426
http://forums.androidcentral.com/general-help-how/369146-only-boots-into-recovery-mode.html
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1794153


OTA Gingerbread 2.3 update fails to install on DroidX (rooted stock Froyo 2.2.1 / unrooted back)

As far as I have read (in some instances) rooting the Droid X can prevent an OTA upgrade from being applied.  If that is the case here, you can perform an operation to return the phone back to its stock state.  In the case of the Droid X, this would be referred to as SBF.  An SBF file is used with a corresponding piece of software (like RSDLite for windows or sbf_flash in Linux) to completely reset the phone.  Here is a site with the files and tools used - Droid X SBF files.  There are many sites and videos that can walk you through this process.

Your best bet is to SBF back to .602 and then you should be able to take the update, but you will lose root and your phone will be fully reset.  As with everything root-related, you are fully responsible for any issues with the phone.  I, nor any others members of this site take responsibility for any issues or damages you run into with your handset.


You can use nandroid to do this.

If you update your recovery image to Cyanogen's 1.4 recovery then it has nandroid built in.

These are tools from the community and are not officially tested or supported so make sure you fully understand what you're doing before using them.


Does Family Link work on tablets that are sold with Andriod 6.0 then get software upgrades to 7.0?

Yes, an app that only works with Android 7.0 will work on all compatible devices regardless of what OS the device first shipped with.

  Children can run Family Link on the following Android devices:

  Nougat 7.0+  Compatible with all devices. (Source)

So the sequence to follow would be,

Make sure that the device you are purchasing, has an update available for Android 7.0
Update the device to latest software from settings  → about device  → software update.
Download Google Family Link, and set it up.

To answer your last question:

  Your phone does not keep an original OS image. Thus, once you update
  your OS (either by OTA updates or by installing a custom Rom), you
  will not be able to revert to the older Android version. Doing a
  factory reset should just reset the phone to a clean slate of the
  current Android version. (Source)


Is Android showing app ads in share menu now?

Blame Microsoft not Google

This behavior was reported in July this year. Microsoft was the culprit. See this XDA blog Microsoft is abusing Android’s share sheet by inserting ads for its apps with reddit
and Android Police
links.

This clearly is a violation of monetisation and ads policy as stated in the blog. See Google Play Content Policies

Your example shows Adobe products. I don't know if Adobe also started doing this or if it is a result of Microsoft - Adobe collaboration

For reporting use Report Inappropriate Apps but I am not sure how far it would help.


Android "google play music app". How force it play ONLY local songs on my phone

Press the hamburger button (top left) and enable "Downloaded Only".


How do I get Google Home Mini to play Apple Music?

I actually found a way! If I connect my phone and the mini solely using Bluetooth then it plays YouTube videos and Apple Music.


Cannot get a G2 to connect to anything via USB

Have you tried checking the device manager on your PC? you might need to install some software to have it work.  However you just use Wireless Storage and type in \G2 in networks to access it.


Rooting and run adbd service automatically

use adbd insecure app then enable it (also at boot). give it root permissions using superuser pro v1.0  and reboot your phone. I did it to gain default shell as root on my phone samsung galaxy star duos.


How to decompile android kernel within android itself?

No. You can't decompile within android. Not only hardware isn't probably strong enough for compilation/decompilation in most cases, but how do you plan to edit such a huge code in android itself? You will infact need special editors like notepad++ or gedit even in PC to organize the code and be able to understand it to edit. Plus its not "kernel.bin", its " boot.img".

So well, PC is only way for now ;)


Receiving incomplete messages on Whatsapp?

All you can do is:

Reset your phone.
Try uninstalling the app and delete all files connected with WhatsApp, then reinstall.
Install a custom ROM which is good choice for you.


What does "discover known accounts" permission mean?

This permission is of moderate-high importance. This allows the
  application to read what accounts you have and the usernames
  associated with them. It allows the app to interact with permission
  related to that account. An example would be an app that was restoring
  your contact, would discover your Google account then send you to
  Google's login screen. It doesn't actually get to see your password,
  but it gets to work with the account. This is also legitimately used
  by applications to add contacts to your accounts, such as dialer
  replacements and contact managers/backup/sync/etc.

Source


Alright, so I found the solution and it was all to do with my own incompetence.
I was flashing on the wrong recovery, instead of the recovery for the Xperia z2 I was putting on the Z2 tablet recovery. Hence why the recovery mode was detecting "Castor" instead of "Sirius". Flashing on the right recovery immediately solved my flashing problem and now I'm running CM12.


How is WhatsApp able to receive messages when not in use?

At first, I thought this was most likely an instance of Android cloud to device messaging, but it can't be: WhatsApp doesn't declare the necessary permissions, and it works in Eclair (Android 2.1), while cloud to device messaging (and its replacement, Google Cloud Messaging) require at least Froyo (Android 2.2).

However, it is most likely some sort of push notification service. It's impossible to say exactly how it's implemented without access to WhatsApp's source code.

The part about it being able to receive messages when not in use is relatively easy to explain, though. The app almost certainly has a service which runs in the background to check in with the server periodically (or receive the server push, or whatever it does). When you receive a message, the service pops up a notification.

As for the question as to how the server could do a push, here's a possibility (again, I can't verify without source code):

WhatsApp starts and opens two sockets: One to listen on and one to send a message to the server.
WhatsApps starts listening on the first socket.
WhatsApp sends a message containing your phone number and the port of the listening socket to the server and waits for an acknowledgement.
The server records the phone and port numbers in the message and the IP address that the message came from.
The server sends an acknowledgement to the app.
The app receives the acknowledgement and closes the message socket.
A message with your phone number as the destination comes into the server.
The server uses the IP address and port number it has associated with your phone number and uses that information to push the message to your phone.

For this to work, the app would need to monitor the state of the network connection and reset the listening socket / resend the registration message when necessary (if the IP address changes, for example).


Choppy playback of HD video on Jellybean

Try this app. I don't know how this app does it but worked for me in my Galaxy Core for palying 720p video smoothly which never played in MX Player or VLC.
Anyways give it a try!

Video Player Ultimate(HD)


This answer on stack overflow suggests that it could be a permissions issue, the user that is attempting to start the adb server cannot access the file. Could you try moving the sdk to a folder that is not within your users area and see if you can start it then?


How to backup Windows 6.5 /HTC HD2/ data and transfer it to Android 4.2 /Samsung Galaxy S4

HOW TO TRANSFER/BACKUP DATA FROM WINDOWS MOBILE TO ANDROID
To make backups and transfer that data to your Android device, you'll need to install PIM Backup on your Windows Mobile device.
Go to www.dotfred.net and download the PIM Backup CAB file for Windows Mobile 6.5 (direct link: http://www.tinyurl.com/PIMBackup65).
Move it to your HTC HD2 and install it.
Contacts:

Make a backup of your contacts with PIM Backup and save it as a CSV file.
Copy the file to your computer and go to Google Contacts. Click on More -> Import.
Choose the CSV file and press Import. Once your new phone has a proper connection to the internet, it'll automatically synchronise with the Google servers and you'll see a complete list of your contacts in the Contacts app.

Calendar/Appointments:

Use PIM Backup to backup all of your appointments to a CSV file. Copy that CSV file to your computer.
Go to Google Calendar and click the mechanical wheel and click Settings.
Go to Calendars and click Import calendar.
Choose the CSV file and press Import. Once your new phone has a proper connection to the internet, it'll automatically synchronise with the Google servers and you'll see your appointments in your Google Calendar app.

Text Messages/SMS:

Use PIM Backup to backup your text messages to an .xml file. Transfer that file to your phone to /sdcard/SMSBackupRestore.
Install the free app SMS Backup & Restore on your Android device.
Start it and restore the XML file.

Call Log:

Use PIM Backup to backup your call log to an .xml file. Transfer that file to your phone to /sdcard/CallLogBackupRestore.
Install the free app Call Logs Backup & Restore on your Android device.
Start it and restore the XML file.


How to bypass system dialog asking to allow access to tablet data on Android tablets, specially those by Samsung?

The dialog "Allow access to tablet data" is a security dialog, therefore from within an app it is not possible to "bypass" this dialog. As it is currently not yet possible to identify a PC via USB and MTP protocol (may be this is possible in future by authenticated USB) there is also no option available like "always allow this computer to access my files".

Otherwise anybody with access to an unlocked Android device could simply copy e.g. all photos and videos fro the device using USB.

The only known way is to enable the "Developer Options dialog and permanently set the option "USB configuration" to "MTP / file sharing"

Alternatively you could use Android Debug Bridge (adb) ADB instead. On adb level there is a computer authentication which allows to allow a computer permanent access to the device via USB. Of course ADB is disable by default, therefore the user first has to enable the Development menu and the enable adb.


Under Settings → Applications → Development disable USB Debugging. (In vanilla ICS this option is under Settings → Developer options)

Plug your phone into your PC via USB with Kies already running.

(Found via GalaxyForums.net)


Hangouts application not always suggesting my contacts when searching

For those asking for a clearer, illustrated answer:

Click on the (+) New conversation
On the right hand of the search box, click on the really-nonobviously-a-modality-switch phone icon:

Search will now be limited to your Google contacts.

Presumably some designer made a bizarre choice to use a phone call icon to represent the phone address book.

Note:  When texting rather than calling, be careful not to click on the contact name rather than the small SMS icon on the far right as this will immediately initiate a phone call.  (credit to Dan Csharpster)


In your devices settings (under Settings → WiFi or Settings → Wireless & Networks → WiFi, depending on your Android version / ROM) you should find a check-box to enable notifications for "open networks". If you enable that (and, of course, have WiFi enabled), Android will always scan for networks in the background (which it does anyway with WiFi enabled) and display a notification in the notification-bar to inform you whenever an "open network" was detected.

This does not automatically connect you to that network, for security reasons. Otherwise hackers would have an easy job to lurk you into their honey-pot, hack your device, and leave you - virtually - "naked". It's not a really good idea to simply connect to any open network around. Many background connections are not secured, or at least not well secured, so it would be easy to sniff your passwords or personal data transmitted (same for your "manual connections" via e.g. the browser). So pick your "open networks" carefully.

However: once you manually connected a network, Android will remember that -- and connect you automatically the next time it is in reach. Until you go and remove its configuration manually from the settings.

There are also apps available on the Playstore helping you in this context. While Android's default scanner shows networks using a "captive login" as open as others not using it, they even differentiate. A good example for those is e.g. WeFi Pro (at least it did show these differences in the past -- it's some time ago when I used it last).


AT&T Nexus S: is this sold SIM locked / boot-loader locked?

If the bootloader comes locked, it can be easily unlocked.  Google doesn't let the flagship devices be sold any other way, since they are designed for development.

Endgadget says it's SIM locked. This review says it's unlocked, but I bet they didn't buy it with a contract.

The specs for Best Buy's "T-Mobile version" state that it works for EDGE (2.5G) on the 850 and 1900 MHz frequency bands, in addition to others, which are what AT&T uses.  So EDGE should be usable on any GSM network in the world (I can't find the specs to see if the AT&T version is likewise compatible).  3G/HSPA won't work on AT&T and some others, though, since it's limited to the 900/1700/2100 bands used by T-Mobile.  Google confirms this info.


How do I get my call log to stop listing my text messages

Open your phone application and go to Recent > Settings > View By and set it to what you require.

However, there is an issue on certain Samsung devices that once you press the back button, this setting is lost. It will also often be lost on reboot. If you are affected by this, then change the setting and just press the home button. It will remain like this until you reboot. If you are not affected then it's a one time thing.

Alternatively you could download a different dialer / call log application and just use that. Samsung's own one is quite slow I find.


How to configure custom quick app in Quick Settings with GravityBox?

You didn't configure the quick tile, but only enabled it. To configure it go to QuickSettings management → Tile specific settings → QuickApp tile Settings.

(Click image to enlarge)


You should follow these steps:

Download the relevant ZIP file from get.cm
Copy the downloaded ZIP file to your devices storage card
Using an app such as Titanium Backup, do a complete backup of all your installed applications.
Boot into recovery, and follow these steps:

Wipe data (all data)
Install the zip file as usual

Once done, reboot device.
Using the backup app, restore your apps.
Reboot device.

You will now be running the latest version. The data wipe is highly recommended, but your device should still work without it - you must wipe the dalvik cache at the very least however, or you'll get a boot loop.

Important Note

If you use google apps (GApps) then you must make sure you download the version for CM 10.2. If you do not, you may experience compatibility errors.


Battery life issues on Xperia Z1 after Lollipop update

Check the Battery usage under Power Management in Settings. There you see list of apps showing how much power they have consumed up to then. Check which app is using more battery and uninstall it. If the app is a System app (like Android OS, Android SDK, etc) then you need to Factory Reset the phone to resolve such issues or if any H/W like Screen, WiFi, GPS, Radio etc are using much power then you may consider complaining about the issue in any service center.


how to remove sticky (permanent) notifications from notification bar?

If you're using Jelly Bean, then in manage apps, you can turn off notifications for the specific app. Keep in mind, this will turn off all notifications for the app.


Locating stolen phone after factory reset

There are such solutions, if your device is rooted. In that case, some anti-theft apps such as Cerberus are able to integrate into the system part (ROM) of the device, so a factory-reset wouldn't help the thief.

However: As we are talking about the "clever thief", he will first grab the device, switch it off, take it into some Faraday cage before switching it on again, then boot into recovery/download mode, and flash a new ROM. Bummer. Protection gone.

So there is no 100% protection. Technically, it might be possible if it's integrated into the hardware itself – but I've never heard that such a thing was done for a consumer smartphone.


Is it possible to get FireFox running on Samsung Galaxy GT-I5700?

From the Firefox for Android page : Installation requires [...] 384MB of RAM. Your device has only 256MB. You can always try to install the nightly version, although it may be unstable. Or you can search on google for a stable firefox apk.


force stopping of a preloaded app on kyocera rise

No, Force stop doesn't stop the app running again. It just interrupts it if it's running right now. It doesn't free up any internal storage. It doesn't make any difference to RAM usage: Android will already kill background processes to free up RAM when it needs to, without you pressing Force stop.

As Izzy suggests, try pressing Disable if you're running a recent enough Android version to have that button: it's on the App info screen, right next to Force stop. (You might first have to Uninstall updates.) This will remove the system app from the app drawer, stop it running completely, and stop it being updated. If you're on an older Android version, you can uninstall the app completely only if you root the device and use a third-party app to do so.


Why is my lock screen scrambled sometimes?

My best guess would be an issue that is causing part of the render process of slide lock to take place in landscape mode. I have no idea why that would happen although I have had some strange screen rotation issues with my nexus 7 and a factory reset did indeed fix it.

But since you don't want to turn to that here are some suggestions:

-Try locking rotation on your phone (unlocking when needed)

-Switch your lock screen to PIN or password (there error could be isolated to the slide password).

-Upgrade to a new version of android using kies (it should be available)

Let me know if any of those work out


PSNeuter and ZergRush are too old-school (2.3.x-era), no wonder why they won't work.

This is a very unpopular phone so it doesn't have a custom recovery either. If the one-clickers (usually comes with the latest exploits) won't work then you're out of luck for now.


3 Questions regarding restoring the backup of whatsapp from Google Drive

so I understand there is no option to restore and save my WhatsApp history on the memory card. Could you confirm that, please?

Like any other apps, it is possible to save Whatsapp on the memory card. If whatsapp is installed on the internal storage, then its default location is the internal storage. If it is installed on the SD card, then it saves everything on the SD card.

  If I uninstall the WhatsApp application now, do I have the option to install it on the memory card and so restore my backup on the memory card where there is plenty of space?

Yes. If your phone allows for the installation of apps on the SD card, then there won't be any problem.

  If I uninstall now WhatsApp without choosing to restore the backup but also without selecting the opposite, will I have the option to do it the next time I install WhatsApp or is it now or never?

What do you mean by "If I uninstall now WhatsApp without choosing to restore the backup but also without selecting the opposite"?

When you unistall Whatsapp, the backups are still present in Google Drive. If you then install the app again, it will ask you to restore them.
However, note that:

  Every time you create a Google Drive backup using the same Google account, the previous Google Drive backup will be overwritten. There's no way to restore an older Google Drive backup.


If you want to give adbfs a try, here are some instructions. You need to take care to grab the right one, as there are two projects around: one is simply called adbfs, I couldn't get that to work correctly. The other is adbfs-rootless:

go to the projects github page
on that page, at the right-hand side in about the middle of the page, you find a button labeled Download ZIP. Click that to download the sources.
create a new directory, e.g. mkdir ~/adbfs-rootless, and extract the .zip to it
now first install the dependencies: sudo apt-get install libfuse-dev
change to the directory (cd ~/adbfs-rootless), and build the binaries by simply running make
copy the resulting adbfs binary into your $PATH, where your adb binary is located (for ADB, see Is there a minimal installation of ADB?)

Now you're ready to go. Another one-time job is to create a mountpoint, e.g. mkdir ~/droid. After that, connect your Android device via ADB (after having enabled USB debugging, of course). Then mount it using adb ~/droid, and do whatever you wanted to do (e.g. running rsync, copying stuff, whatever). When you're done, don't forget to disconnect: fusermount -u ~/droid.

To make things easier, I created two aliases:

alias mdroid="adb ~/droid"
alias udroid="fusermount -u ~/droid"

So I only need to type mdroid to mount, and udroid to unmount the device.

Enjoy the fun!


did you make a nandroid backup before your update? If no then here is the problem and solution that I faced recently.

On my Walton primo g1(a local branded phone manufacturer is Gionee) I got an update from 4.0.3 to 4.1.1. So as-usual I decided to update my phone. But after updating my phone I faced frequent crash and had to reset my phone to update it again. However, after this time whenever, I went to market to download anything it prompted the low device storage message. Even I am using my browser and surfing on net, it freezes and gave me a notification that low memory on device. So I looked into my device storage and found only 13 mb were free on my rom.

Solution:
So, I decided to root my phone and to use a custom rom. But after rooting when I went to root/data/data file path, I found all those apps data that I installed previously on ICS rom are still there, which is about 350mb (internal space 500mb and 412mb is user available on my phone). So, I just went to CWM and did wipe data+wipe cache+wipe delvic cache and re-flashed the rom. And my problem was gone.

I don't know about your case here, but it seemed way like my problem. So, you can also give that a try. Just wipe data,cache and delvic memory and flash your phone with the stock JB(which you can download from the samsung website) rom again with odin. And this should fix your issue.

Hope that helps


Flash a smartphone with vanilla Android ROM

Well Google only develops "vanilla" Android (called AOSP for Android Open Source Project ) for some selected phones (the Nexus Series).

Manufacturers use this as base for their phone's OS. So you probably won't get a "vanilla" Rom from your manufactures, but there are probably a few AOSP-based Ports for your phone. (CyanogenMod is also based on AOSP) Rom-Developers tend to use an existing ROM like AOKP or Cyanogen as base because it's already compatible with a lot of devices. Porting "vanilla" AOSP is quite difficult and time-consuming because it lack's drivers and phone-specific code.


Download the factory image for your device here: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images

Follow the instructions at the top of the page to flash. Note that the WIFI and Mobile versions have different images. Make sure to use flash-all otherwise the bootloader and radio will remain the same and the images won't flash.

Another option if you want to keep your ROM would be to download the factory image for the version you have on the device and flash only the boot.img using fastboot flash boot boot.img instead of flash-all. That should restore your boot but you have to know which version you have on the device.


The Android firmware is composed of several image files.  These image files are flashed to (device specific) locations on your devices internal memory.  Typically these images are for the bootloader, recovery, fastboot, and the system (OS).  The remaining memory is mapped to your internal storage.  Since each device expects them to be located at different locations depending on the manufacturer, you cannot modify them safely.


Google chrome search results different view

Google might be doing some A/B testing with their UI - iirc they did that a few years ago with black/dark/light blue shades for links. Could you try using incognito, another device and/or another internet connection? Then you can work out how they are targeting you - in any case it's probably temporary.


How to delete Hola launcher on Intex phone?

Launcher3 is the stock launcher. You can't remove it without rooting your device (it might void the warranty).

And, for the Hola launcher. If it's getting automatically downloaded from the Internet (Google Play Store), then you may disable auto app update or restrict background data to prevent it from getting downloaded.

If it's not getting downloaded from the Internet, then I'm afraid it comes pre-installed (bloatware). You can't uninstall those without rooting your device (voids warranty I repeat).


Samsung Galaxy Note 4 stuck in reboot loop - what is the problem?

Update: I went to a Samsung repair centre where they concluded that this was a hardware issue, and the hardware needed to be replaced. (The cost of this was £200, so it does not represent value for money in my opinion)


MarketMarks app: How to perform Backup and Restore

An recent update to MarketMarks has fixed this bug, and it now works as expected.

Furthermore, the user can now customize the folder where the backups are stored.


Are there Andoid versions > 2.3 for my Sony Xperia ST25i (as of July 2012)?

Not officially yet. According to Sony, the Xperia U will be getting ICS in Q3 of this year.

That said I believe there are now some beta 3rd party ROMs floating around with various degrees of success.


receiving calls/text if mobile data is off

Yes!

Turning Data Off only disconnects Internet connection. It doesnt effect Calls/Texts.


FLAC files getting corrupted on microSD card

This is almost certainly an SD card issue, especially since initially the files are fine and not corrupt, and get that way over time. Your device and it's applications will only read the data from the SD card, not change it or write to it anyway. There is a very slim chance that the card reader in your phone is defective, but I think a safe bet would be the card itself is failing.

This is the most definitive answer I can offer with the information given.

I am not normally one to recommend a specific brand here, but my personal experience with SanDisk has been very disappointing in terms of reliability in multiple product lines they carry. I would recommend moving away from SanDisk and trying perhaps a Samsung EVO+ series card.


Is charging with a USB-C adapter and a type A charger dangerous?

Description of your adapter holds the key :

  Charge & Sync: Uses USB 2.0 protocol for high-speed Micro USB charging and fast data transfer (480 Mbps). Has a 56K? pull-up resistor for unbeatable safety and reliability

(Emphasis Added)

This kind of resistor is to specifically cater for generic cables - from the section Good and bad cables

  The specification table below shows what values can be used to set a specific Type-C charging mode and underneath, in the small print, we can see that a 56kΩ resistor should be used with all legacy cable connections. This is to limit the amount of current transferred to Default USB power or the USB Battery Charging standard (if the cable supports fast charging) when connecting up to older USB type devices.

In the specific adapter of yours, it is catering for legacy cables as a precaution whether the cable has it out not

tl:dr; You are good with this adapter


How can I start GPS track logging from an intent?

There's an open-source GPS track recording app called GPSLogger. It has shortcuts to start and stop, and also publishes the necessary intent details, so you can start and stop recording without having to interact with the phone. You can also configure it ahead of time (via the app's settings) to save files in various formats and/or upload to Dropbox, OpenStreetMap, or other sites of your choice.

I'm sure there are other apps with the same functionality.


Why are USB cables of two different OEM's different

The two questions you link to are to do with different chargers, not the cables. If two cables both adhere to the USB standard, they're interchangeable. You can tell if a cable adheres to the standard, as it will have the USB logo on one or both of the plugs. It's not allowed to display the logo if it doesn't meet the spec. There are two cases where you might have a "USB cable" that really isn't (and thus doesn't have the logo):-

I've seen cheap cables that don't have the D+ and D- lines wired correctly. They ought to be a twisted pair, as USB uses differential signalling to make it more resistant to noise. But the cheapest cables save money by having a single line that's only wired to the D+ pin. These cables will be unreliable and might not work with some devices.
Some devices use a USB port to charge but not to transfer data (i.e. they're not USB devices). Examples include Bluetooth headsets and game controllers. These devices sometimes come with a cable that looks like a USB cable but only has the power pins wired: the data pins aren't connected to anything. Such a cable can only be used for charging.

Apart from these exceptions, the cable itself makes no difference (as long as it's not physically damaged). What makes a difference is the charger: the thing you plug the cable into, that also plugs into the mains. For faster charging from mains power, manufacturers get around the limit on how much voltage and current USB is specified for by introducing their own extra modifications to USB.

These allow the manufacturer's charger to charge compatible devices faster. However, so that the charger still meets the USB standard, and won't fry a standard USB device, it can only supply the extra voltage or current if it detects that the device is compatible, using extra pins, or by having the pins wired together in a special way. Devices that don't have the manufacturer's modification will only charge using standard USB current, so will charge more slowly.

Because there's been such a need for high-powered charging, recent revisions of the USB standard have added more support for chargers and have increased the current limit, but the manufacturers still use their own extensions (to make sure chargers from the same manufacturer are interchangeable).


the "yes" option could be at the bottom and you may have to scroll to it for it to appear.


I have 32 GB external, but my internal is only 4GB!

From my point of view, the best solution is to root Your phone and install Links2SD or App2SD ROOT PRO form Play Store. If rooting is not avaliable (lost of guarantee) please use App2SD for non-root users. There is a lot of such apps in Play Store. It moves parts of apps to SD card and frees space in internal memory.
But if You root Your device, all app parts can be moved to SD, even part of system apps.


Does encrypting the Xoom tablet use battery faster?

Encryption is a fairly CPU intensive process, so using more battery is not unexpected.  Though it depends a lot upon the apps you use and how much they read/write to the storage.  I would expect that an 'idle' Xoom with encryption would last just as long as one without, but if you use an app that does lots of little writes to disk, it will end up using more CPU.

The encryption happens at the block layer.  This means that small writes to the disk require a read, a decrypt, an update, and then writing the block back.

I don't see any useful stats about the actual CPU overhead.  (Android is using the 'dm-crypt' module of the Linux kernel to do the disk encryption.)


Input adb shell dumpsys location and look under "Last Known Locations".


Recover whatsapp chat backups after reset without access to old number

The WhatsApp backups are encrypted with a key which is connected to your account. This ensures that the backup only gets restored if the user connects the same phone number. If not, this backup holds zero value for WhatsApp.

This also means that the database backup (on your SD) card cannot be read. So, you shall not be able to decrypt and bring it to a readable version. I'll really look for possibilities of getting the old number re-issued or something.

Without access to that old number, there's no chance (as per my knowledge) to decrypt the database and restore it or make it readable.


Is it possible to run any sort of hardware diagnostics through ADB

Investigating in this issue, we already have a lot of broken screen questions providing some clues:

You could hook your device to your TV screen via HDMI. This should mirror its (invisible) screen. Of course this would require your screen at least to respond to touch events.
AirDroid might provide some help, as it allows to manage your device for many things, and also advertizes to stream the screen of your Android in nearly real-time
You could use some VNC server, and start it via ADB as described in Broken Screen + Using adb shell to run vnc server

The latter obviously was the solution fitting you best, as you reported having done exactly that with VMLite VNC server. Not the cheapest solution (this app comes for about US$ 8) – but certainly cheaper than paying off a tech :)


Why is one of my WiFi networks not visible after connecting to the other one?

How many other APs (Access Points) and devices are their in the vicinity?

If your first AP (on channel X) is causing overloading (or interference) on that channel, other APs are going to change signal strength and/or change to other channels.

Basically, you are dropping a large pebble into a small pond.  There is always going to be other effects.

If this happened under controlled conditions (i.e. out in the country), with no other signal sources or traffic, then you would have a legitimate puzzle ..


What data flows through AirDroid's servers?

When using AirDroid do your text messages and/or data get transmitted through AirDroid's servers or is that data kept locally between your Android device and your computer?

AirDroid for Is AirDroid Secure? has noted:

  [In] Remote Connection Mode, your account credential, SMS, contacts, call logs and many other sensitive private information are all securely transmitted via HTTPS and we never store them (except your AirDroid account information, the latest location of your Android device if the Find Phone feature is activated) without your explicit consent.

(Emphasis mine)

For Lite mode and LAN Connection mode,

  [All] data is transferred on the same local area network and not exposed to the Internet[.]

(If needed, see What's LAN Connection Mode and Remote Connection Mode?)

In Lite and LAN Connection mode, you're not sending anything to AirDroid's server(s).

  My understanding is that your computer and Android device need to be on the same wireless network, yet AirDroid requires a login to their servers.

As per AirDroid's help center, you can use AirDroid without logging in or having an account. See How to Use AirDroid Web Without an Account?

use Lite mode: find the IP address of the Android device having AirDroid running on it and use that in a web browser.
scan the QR code : go to web.airdroid.com and scan the QR code there using your AirDroid app.
use tethering

The first and last method can work without the need of Internet access, thereby, comes under local transfer.

See What is local transfer and remote transfer?

Local transfer: When both PC and Android device are under same network.
Remote transfer: When the device and PC are on different networks.

Relevant readings:

Why Remote Connection Mode When the Device and PC Are Connected to the Same Network?

There is a catch however. If you're certain that the latest AirDroid app requires log in for its usage, then either the help center has not been updated accordingly or the log in itself isn't mandatory yet you've somehow ended up believing that it is needed.


I have less than 40 apps (including system apps); What else can I remove?

Requirement: Rooted phone Samsung Phone

AccountAndSyncSettings.apk -- NO, Sync settings, this is required, even if out don´t sync, this is because it syncs more than just calendar and contacts, it is the effective sync to your google account, required for just about anything.

ApplicationsProvider.apk -- NO, required for application installation and uninstall.

audioTuning.apk -- ?, not really sure about this one. I guess this is an automatic sound adjustment according to background noise, however I´ve never seen this into effect. If you´re feeling lucky, you can try removing it, however I´ve never monitored this actually showing up resource managers.

AxT9IME.apk -- YES, This is the stock Samsung keyboard. You can remove it, but even if you have swype, swype doesn´t have all of the keyboard layouts. I´d leave it, to my opinion, this is kind of essential.

BadgeProvider.apk -- NO, Something to do with messaging and email. Removing this causes SMS and email related apps to force close. Even if you manage to keep the program open for long enough without it foce closing, you won´t be able to send messages, they´ll just be stuck on "sending".

Bluetooth.apk -- YES, incorrectly named, this apk actually manages the Bluetooth printing rather than the bluetooth itself. If you have no need for bluetooth printing, this won´t ever be missed or will never bother you in any occasion.

BluetoothOPP.apk -- NO, this apk actually manages file transfer between phones. Remove this and you´ll never be able to transfer files. This actually includes streaming music through Car bluetooth and headsets, since they effectively speaking, file transfers.

BluetoothServices.apk -- NO, provides general framework for Bluetooth. If you´re going to use bluetooth for any reason, this apk is a must. Removing this one breaks all other bluetooth applications.

BluetoothTestMode.apk -- YES, this is activated when you need to test the fidelity of your bluetooth. You can do that by going into the test section by typing the secret code ##197328640##. Removing it is possible, however, some BT connections actually test the bluetooth to measure how much data is transfered. This way, it calculates the buffer size it needs to use, and at what quality media can be streamed. Removing it can disrupt communications with those BT terminals or you can experience fade-outs, where while listening to songs, the sound will fade every few seconds, because of inadequate bandwith. (this can occur even with this application left as is, if your BT terminal doesn´t have the auto regulation feature)

Browser.apk -- YES, removing this will make you lose your browsing ability (not internet as a whole). If you have firefox or opera for android, and like those best, you can remove this without any problems.

BuddiesNow.apk -- YES, this is just that widget offered by the TouchWiz launcher. If you don´t use it, remove it.

CallSetting.apk -- NO, do you like to use your phone for... umm calling people? This is kind of essencial, it will allow call setting to be edited. Stuff like call waiting and forwarding will not work if you remove this, as well as other stuff I didn´t have time or willingness to test, as soon as I confirmed dialpad and other things while calling had been disabled.

Camera.apk -- NO, this is the camera application. If you find an alternative one (I don´t think there are any on the market) you could remove it.
CameraFirmware.apk -- NO, this is the actual ROM (if you will) for the camera. Without this, camera.apk is useless.

CertInstaller.apk -- NO, Installs certificates for the apps you install. I assume without this, you cannot give permissions for apps to do things and access certain folders and files. I´m guessing if you don´t have this installed, you couldn´t even install root on your phone. So in short, no.

ClockPackage.apk -- YES, however this controls the alarm clock, stopwatch, world time and timer. There are alternative applications online if you want, but this seems to do the job pretty well and all under the same apk.

Contacts.apk -- NO, this controls the contacts application (the contacts / groups / history / activities tabs). Removing this will make you have to call everyone by physically inputing their number.

ContactsProvider.apk -- NO, this controls contacts sync. Pretty useful if you still don´t use google contacs sync, you should try it. In theory if you don´t use it, you could remove it, but I don´t know what effect it would have on your contacts.

CSC.apk -- NO. This breaks CSC. According to insanity, this can be removed after first successful boot, but if you ever have to hard reset or restore factory settings, this will not allow you to boot successfully.

DataCreate.apk -- NO.

DialerTabActivity.apk -- NO. This controls the dialer. Even if you have all your contacts already stored, you cannot call them without this app.

Divx.apk -- YES. This is some licesing information for the video player. I don´t really watch alot of videos on my phone, but after removing this I´ve never had any problems. If you do remove it, and have problems, post it on the comments.

Dlna.apk -- YES. This is allshare. Never had any use for it, and it shall not be missed.

DownloadProvider.apk -- NO. Handles file downloads and market downloads.

DrmProvider.apk -- NO. In theory, you cannot remove it, it will break your ability to play DRM protected files, aka, Ringtones and SMS notifications. I´ve been in the process of de-DRMing my ringtone files. I would imagine, if you don´t have a reason to play DRM protected files, this could be removed. However keep in mind all DRM protected files will not be able to play. This apk takes up a lot of memory and stays on all the time on the background. It is one of my most hated apks, it serves no function rather than to protect you from copying or editing the stupid samsung ringtones.

DrmUA.apk -- NO, see above.

DualClock.apk -- YES. Dual clock widget. If you don´t need, remove it.

Email.apk -- NO. According to insanity, removing this will break things.Haven´t tried it yet though.

EnhancedGoogleSearchProvider.apk -- YES. This controls that ability to hold the menu button for a second or two and the search menu pop up. I usally keep it.

FactoryTest.apk -- YES. Removed it without any problems. If you have ever run autostarts, you´ll realize how much of a hog this apk really is during some actions.

FlashPlugin.apk -- YES. This allows flash content to be displayed, so even though you can, I don´t recommed it.

FlashSVGPlayer.apk -- YES. As far as I know, this is the player which provides you to view the flash content through the plugin above. Removing this might break your flashplugin.

FMRadio.apk -- YES. Radio player.

Gallery3D.apk -- YES. This is a battery hog. It´s that fancy 3D accelerometer enhanced gallery. If you remove it, you won´t be able to easily access photographs though. If you want a good replacement, I would suggest QuickPic, it does the job, it´s fast and doesn´t hog memory (although its not fancy like the 3D Gallery)

GlobalSearch.apk -- YES. This is the search function on your phone. Remember the Enhanced search this above, well, that actually accesses this to do the search. That can be removed and this will be fine (although you´ll have to access the search feature by the app drawer). But if you remove this, the enhanced search will be useless.

Gmail.apk -- YES. Don´t use gmail? It can be removed, but will break Talk.apk as well.

GmailProvider.apk -- YES. I guess it is tied to gmail.apk. See above.

GoogleApps.apk -- ?. This is didn´t even come installed on my phone, so I guess it´s not that important.

GoogleCheckin.apk -- ? Same as above.

GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk -- YES. Syncs contacts through google. This can be removed, but you won´t be able to sync contacts.

GooglePartnerSetup.apk -- NO.

GoogleSearch.apk -- YES. This is the google search widget you can add onto your launcher desktop.

GoogleSettingsProvider.apk -- NO.

GoogleSubscribedFeedsProvider.apk -- ?. Don´t know, this is not on my phone.

GpsSetup2.apk -- NO. This sets up GPS configurations.

gtalkservice.apk -- YES. You might have this as talk.apk or gtalkservice.apk, although it´s all the same thing, it´s Google Talk.

HTMLViewer.apk -- YES. No side effects were noticed when removing this.

HwCodec.apk -- ?. Don´t have this on my phone.

IcsService.apk -- ?. Don´t have this on my phone.

InfoAlarm.apk -- YES. This is the daily briefing widget. Don´t need it remove it.

InputEventApp.apk -- NO.

Layar-samsung.apk -- YES. Layar. Seems awesome on paper. Never has been of any use in reality.

LbsTestMode.apk -- YES. GPS testing mode. Can be accessed via ##197328640##, but not needed per se.

lcdtest.apk -- YES. Removing this will cause your screen to not turn off when you lock your phone. By installing spare parts you can fix this, however if you don´t use spare parts for any other reason, that´s just replacing a passive apk for one that invades your phone on all levels. So I rather just leave it and not worry about it.

LogsProvider.apk -- NO. Lots of things will crash and force close if you do.

Maps.apk -- YES. Google Maps apk. If you don´t use it, remove it, but it is pretty useful, since it has gps navigation as well.

MarketUpdater.apk -- YES. Safe to remove but when the market gets updated you won´t be recieving the update.

MediaProvider.apk -- NO. Needed to access media files and ringtones.

MediaUploader.apk -- YES. This uploads pictures to picassa (facebook as well?). If you don´t need it, remove it.

Memo.apk -- YES. Remove it and you won´t be able to write memos though.

Mms.apk -- NO. This controls MMS sending and recieving on the phone.

MobileTrackerEngineTwo.apk -- YES. This app and the next control the tracker ability on your phone. What this does is if you lose your phone you can use this to track it down and find it. If it gets stolen, you can use this to lead the cops to the thief. Although this is an awesome idea, if you don´t live in a perfect world, it would be wiser not to go after the guy who stole your phone in case he decides to, hum..., go kill you afterwards... Besides, I live in Argentina, and the cops cannot be trusted to do this kind of job... they´ll tell you they can´t do anything. These things stay on memory all the time and really consume battery, so if you don´t care about this feature and really just take care of your stuff, you´ll not be needing these two apps.

MobileTrackerUI.apk -- YES. See Above. I forgot to mention though an extra feature this offers though. If you have these 2 apks installed, you have the samsung apps and singin (you´ll see them later further down), you can use another apk called wipereciever.apk to remotely wipe all the data on your phone, in case you are very privacy concious. However, removing any of these 2 apks, removing samsung apps and not setting up a samsung apps account before your phone gets stolen, this feature becomes disabled. Really in my opinion, its too much stuff to be worried about, and my phone doesn´t contain any nuclear launch codes. So I rely on my lock screen password to protect my data. (Most thieves don´t have the knowhow to crack the lockscreen protection and access the info inside the phone. At most they´ll get bored and might find the info on how to flash a new ROM or reset to factory settings, where your info will be deleted and your privacy sensitive stuff with it).

MtpApplication.apk -- YES. Required to sync with Kies. Do you flash your ROMs rather than update through Kies, this is useless to you then. (Updating through Kies is the equivalent of upgrading from XP to windows 7. It does the job, but it never works as well as installing from scratch.)

MusicPlayer.apk -- YES. This is the music player. If you remove this, you can still preview sounds and stuff through the SoundPlayer.apk. This can be effectively replace by PowerAMP and Winamp. In fact, if you have a stable music player alternative installed, I would recommend you delete this, since it could cause clashes and you might even get both players playing different songs at the same time via Bluetooth.

MyFiles.apk -- YES. This is the default file viewer installed by Samsung. If you use RootExplorer, this is kind of pointless. However, I sometime do things on the go and need to access things fast. I usually use this for everyday use and leave RootExplorer just to do alterations such as what we are doing in this list, so as to not delete important things by accident.

NetworkLocation.apk -- YES. This is the semi-accurate GPS simulation. It uses Cellphone Cell information to estimate your location, rather than using the battery hog GPS antenna. If you remove this, things like automatic weather location will be broken (you´ll have to input your location manually). I usually leave this on, because since it uses the very GSM network used by the phone, it seems like hitting two birds with one stone. Using the real GPS will force you to have two antennas working together. This wastes a lot of battery, and really most of the time the network location does a pretty good job of narrowing down your location. If you use GPS A LOT, I recommed just buying one of those TomToms or Garmin GPS, it has better maps, better accuracy and the very device is optimized to use only the GPS antenna, therefore wasting less battery, and not wasting your phone battery life.

OtaProvisioningService.apk -- NO. According to insanity, this is required. However see wssyncmlnps.apk to get more of an idea.

PackageInstaller.apk -- NO.

Personalization.apk -- NO.

Phone.apk -- NO. Remove this and you won´t have the dialer application. Even though your phone will theoretically work, you just won´t be able to dial out or view missed calls and stuff.

PhoneCrashNotifier.apk -- ?. Don´t know, my phone doesn´t have this.

PhoneErrService.apk -- NO.

Phone_Util.apk -- NO.

PicoTts.apk -- YES. This is part of the text to speech (not speech to text). If you´re blind, this is kind of important, because the phone will read via a a robotic voice things to you. This is also part of the Google GPS application where it will tell you "turn left" "keep right". If you remove this, GPS navigation will work, you just won´t have someone talking to you. If you decide to remove this, remove TtsService.apk as well.

Preconfig.apk -- NO.

RilFactoryApp.apk -- ?. The galaxy 3 seems to be the only phone in the world that has this. Nowhere I have seen is this apk mentioned. I have no idea what this does.

SamsungApps.apk -- YES. Samsung apps, if you remove this, you can remove signin.apk as well. If you remove this, and you manage your music and have apps via Kies, they might not work, however Kies will still connect (if you want to update firmware via Kies). By removing this, your samsung and touchwiz widgets will still work.

SamsungWidget_CalendarClock.apk -- YES. Calendar clock widget.

SamsungWidget_FeedAndUpdate.apk -- YES. Feeds and Updates widget.

SamsungWidget_StockClock.apk -- YES. Stock clock widget.

SamsungWidget_WeatherClock.apk -- YES. Weather clock widget.

SecDownloadProvider.apk -- NO. I believe this has to do with the maket, so I´d just leave it alone.

serviceModeApp.apk -- NO. Required for secret codes and service tasks, such as those accessed by secret codes.

Settings.apk -- NO. Isn´t settings explicit enough?

SettingsProvider.apk -- NO. Some Carriers will send you settings via sms or internal message. This is mostly for those people who don´t really know how to configure their phone (anyone not reading XDA ). Although it seems banal, it could be useful at some point, and some people have reported things force closing because of this

SetupWizard.apk -- NO. In theory can be deleted after first successful boot. However this could cause problems if you need to factory reset

shutdown.apk -- NO. Tells you your battery is low and manages shutdown notifications.

signin.apk -- YES. See SamsungApps.apk

SisoDrmProvider.apk -- NO. Has to do with the DRM. If you successfully manage to remove DRMUA and DRMService, maybe this can be removed as well. Don´t know, haven´t been able to rid my phone from drm still.

SnsAccount.apk -- YES. Does the feeds sync with facebook and twitter. Without this, you won´t be informed of new tweets of your friends saying "OMG! I´m at the toilet reading cosmo magazine. LOLZ".

SnsProvider.apk -- YES. See above.

SoundPlayer.apk -- YES. This, not to be confused with MusicPlayer.apk plays sounds and previews ringtones. Even though it can be removed, you´ll be pretty limited if you do, since it works a bit faster and to the point than MusicPlayer. It doesn´t genera playlist, history and has no visualization. It just plain to the point plays sounds. Even if you have Winamp, PowerAMP, cubed or whatever I recommend keeping this.

Stk.apk -- YES. You know those annoying menus your carrier offers you, you know, to inform you about your hororscope (no I didn´t misspell it), roaming information or traffic information, making you send a message so they can send you the info back? This is the menu apk for that. Don´t want to download your carrier (payed) games or apps telling you bad jokes? Delete this.

Street.apk -- YES. Streetview for Google Maps. Removing it will not break google maps, but you won´t get to view street pictures.

Swype.apk -- YES. Swype keyboard, and awesome alternative to samsung´s. It does a good job at predicting text, but not essential if you like to manually type all words out.

syncmldm.apk -- YES. Device Management. I read something somewhere but don´t really remember what it was. I deleted this accidentally while trying to delete syncmlds.apk but nothing has broken yet...

syncmlds.apk -- YES. This has to do with the Synchronize page options in the settings menu. If you don´t use it, it has no meaning in your life.

Talk.apk -- YES. Google Talk. There was some chatter about removing this breaking Gmail or the Market. As far as I´ve read, this can be removed, although I still haven´t gotten around to trying it out.

TalkProvider.apk -- YES. See above.

TelephonyProvider.apk -- NO.

thinkdroid.apk -- YES. This is the mobile version of a microsoft office clone. Removing this will not let you open .doc or .xls or .pps on your phone.

TouchWiz30Launcher.apk -- NO. Even though if you use Zeam or LauncherPro or GoLauncher, removing this is kind of dangerous. Let me explain. A while ago when I was a virgin at ODIN flashing and new to the phone, i deleted this because I was using LauncherPRO. I had also deleted something that made my phone force close all the time. I didn´t trust flashing yet, and in my haste, I decided to restore factory settings. The thing is, when you do that, it deletes all non stock apps and reconfigures the phone to use stock apps. When I that, even though the phone booted, I couldn´t access anything, because launchers also control the appdrawer. My phone was literally blank, although if was working. The problem is, if you factory reset, the settings that control your USB connection as MODEM or PDA go back to its original settings. As mine did. So I couldn´t get to anywhere on my phone and couldn´t get my computer to recognize the phone. Until I flashed it via Odin (after a 7 hour desperation overnight, and finding some miracle Samsung USB x64 drivers for mobile phones on a forum) the phone was in effect soft bricked.
If you remove anything from this list and have problems, you can factory reset or prepare you contacts and apps for a flashing via ODIN. If you delete however, you won´t even be able to prepare yourself or backup anything. I wish this upon no one, so I advise keeping this, just to be on the safe side.

TouchWizCalculator.apk -- YES. Calculator app, although can be removed, it´s pretty cool and functional.

TouchWizCalendar.apk -- YES. Calendar app, although can be removed, it´s pretty cool and functional.

TouchWizCalendarProvider.apk -- NO. This has something to do with calendar sync and seems to be the connection between the calendar app and the phone´s internal calendar and date settings.

TtsService.apk -- YES. See PicoTts.apk

TwWallpaperChooser.apk -- YES. Wallpaper Chooser. If you have 3DGallery or QuickPic installed, you can use those to set wallpaper, even though there are some wallpapers (internal to this apk) you won´t get.

UNAService.apk -- ?. I have no idea what this is, and so doesn´t insanity.

UserDictionaryProvider.apk -- YES. You know when you add new words, like names and nicknames to your keyboard prediction? This is where those are kept. Delete this and you´ll have to write like the English Academy of Words wants you to write. LOLZ and WTF won´t be recognized as words and you´ll have to write them out everytime you write them, rather than it being available to you via prediction.

Vending.apk -- NO. Part of the Android Market. Actually this IS the Market.

VideoPlayer.apk -- YES. Video player. Do as you wish.

VoiceDialer.apk -- YES. Allows you to dial by speaking someone´s name. Most people´s names when I say them, tend to return something entirely different from what I was looking for. Sometimes though, it surprises. For some reason this sometimes doesn´t work if you don´t have mobile internet activated, making me believe this actually sends via internet the recording, and an algorith somewhere in the Google empire sends the decodification back... Very ineffective.

VoiceRecorder.apk -- YES. Allows you to record your voice. Some people complain the quality is too low, however I use this as a notepad, rather than writing my to-do list, I speak them. Much faster and much easier. Don´t see why something such as this would need audiophile levels of quality.

VpnServices.apk -- YES. VPN for Android. Perhaps gMote or applications that allow you to control your phone via PC desktop might require this. I don´t , so I delete it, and it doesn´t break anything.

wipereceiver.apk -- YES. Remember mobile tracker? This is the apk that lets you wipe your data remotely.

WlanTest.apk -- YES. Tests wireless settings, via the same test menu mentioned on the above test apks. Required for OTA updates.

WriteandGo.apk -- YES. Write and Go application.

wssomacp.apk -- NO. Required for SMS messaging.

wssyncmlnps.apk -- YES. This is Over The Air Programming. What this does is if your provider decides it has a better way to configure your device or alterations to do to improve something, they´ll send you a message telling to dial such and such number. Your phone will go into download mode and somethings will be updated. My carrier never has done such things, and really I trust the guys from XDA to configure my phone way better than my carrier. I usually remove this.

YouTube.apk -- YES. Since android has limited flash support, this application allows you to take the full youtube experience, rather than having to access youtube through the browser. Delete it if you don´t watch videos.

Source: XDA


Factory reset phone with bottom part of touchscreen not working so I can't set it up. ADB functions not working properly

From what I've found there are certain adb commands which do not work in recovery mode. adb shell wm commands are among those.

When I tried this on the other phone it was with it open to the main launcher with adb enabled through the settings.

For anyone else with a similar issue, I believe the only solution is to get a usb to micro usb converter and connect a mouse to your device for the set up, and then enable adb through the settings.


How to change the language of Google Chrome?

Usually websites that you visit will be in the language that they were made in.

My guess is that Google results in your browser are showing in Japanese and you're looking to change that.

To do so, go to Google.com then scroll down to the bottom of the page. There, press on "settings" -> "search settings" -> "language in Google products" -> English (or any desired language)

Also change "region for search results, to "current region" as shown in the screenshots below.


Fastboot command stucks and goes to disk sleep

I finally discovered the source of the problem - another process had apparently claimed the USB device. In my case, fwupd was automatically connecting to the device, attempted some kind of USB transfer and failed. However, it didn't release the device, which is why fastboot was stuck and waiting for it to be released.
Stopping the fwupd daemon, fixed the problem.
I've opened a bug report with fwupd here ( https://github.com/fwupd/fwupd/issues/3187 ). Meanwhile, if you want to be able to use fastboot, make sure no other process is using the device.


How to migrate accounts to new Google Authenticator app?

This is actually what you have to use backup codes for.
If you can still access your old device and it's rooted you can backup the database and restore it on your new phone.

However, if you can no longer access your old phone and you do not have recovery codes you have to contact their support and sort it out with them.

This is the purpose of two-factor authentication, if the second factor is inaccessible you can no longer access your account. If someone knows your password they can't do anything without your phone aswell.

This is also why services like authy are really sketchy due to the second factor not being offline-only.


Sorting all files by their modified date, i noticed the mystery file dates match with those of the Navfree app i used at that time. So aside from being slower than its previous version, it also litters temp files all over my card.


Is "android_secret_code" a code to unlock the SIM?

No, android_secret_codes contains a list of dialer codes to enter hidden menus. It is typed in Dialer to enter those hidden menus (they are usually in form of *#-------#).

You need the PUK Code (PIN Unlock Key) to unlock your specific SIM card. You can get PUK from your carrier network. You can call them and get the PUK once you verify your identity.


How to force android 6 to automatically connect to a network without internet access?

As mentioned here since Android 5, when  the device connect to. Wi-Fi network it makes  a quick HTTP request to check if it has internet access.

  This check is, for example, done with
  clients3.google.com/generate_204 , a “webpage” that always returns
  an HTTP status code 204 No Content| . Thus, if the device receives a
  204` it is connected to the internet, otherwise it assumes that this
  network does not provide proper internet access or is just a captive
  portal.

Most probable resolution is to disable captive portal detection, ad there are a variety of ways to achieve this:

Using AdAway to prevent the HTTP leak (blocking the URL)

Configuration of AdAway which blocks Google’s captive portal detection.

# captive portal

 127.0.0.1   clients3.google.com

 127.0.0.1   clients.l.google.com

Disable captive portal detection

With a rooted phone you can simply disable captive portal detection. Just get a root-shell through adb (or SSH etc) to run the following command:

settings put global captive_portal_detection_enabled 0

Additionally see this related question: How to disable captive portal detection? How to remove exclamation mark on Wi-Fi or signal icon in Lollipop?

Change the server for captive portal detection using AdAway

Another option for changing the captive portal detection server is to change its IP address to one that’s under your control.

You can do that with AdAway, for example. Let’s say your captive portal detection server has the IP address 5.189.140.231 , then you may add the following to your AdAway configuration:

5.189.140.231 clients3.google.com
5.189.140.231 clients.l.google.com

The webserver at 5.189.140.231 should then of course accept requests for the foreign domains.

For other workarounds see here


Connected to wi-fi but Whatsapp messages won't send

First wait for sometime, while device is connected to wifi and it starts to auto update apps and uploading/syncing of local data backup such as photos, notes, contacts get started.

If you're seeing a syncing sign  on the top of the screen as shown in picture then wait for sometime until process ends.

Alternatively, the other major thing could be settings turned on that is "stop app using data in background".

I use above settings to prevent specific apps from using heavy data in background.

Read the linked article.


I'm giving the method to disable this in Xperia phones. Maybe Samsung follow the same. Tap on Settings\Wifi\Advanced settings\Scanning always available. Disable Scanning always available.


How to remove persistent suggested URLs in Chrome on Android?

Press the arrow on the right of the suggested site that you want to delete and the adrress will be filled. You will now have the filled address and bellow some other suggestions from that site, but now, if you kepp you finger one of two seconds over the suggested site a pop up message will appear asking you if you want to delete the sugeste site. That it.


Where are app-provided wallpapers stored?

Check out this answer, just in case the wallpaper was moved

That being said, since you're looking for an app-provided wallpaper and not a system provided wallpaper, we'll probably need to know the package name of the application in question (and you'll need to have root access to your device, which I believe you already have).

So assuming the package name of the app is com.example.superdupperlauncher, then you would need to look into /data/data/com.example.superdupperlauncher/files/ or /data/data/com.example.superdupperlauncher/


How to resolve Instagram force close for CM9

i have cm10.2 nightly kernel and happens exactly the same. i read that some peolple with cm10.2 quarx didn´t have this trouble.
On the other hand I couldn't find any solution, so I'm thinking in testing cm9 (for motorola defy+) or go under cm7.


Samsung S5 screen turning on and off when plugged in to charge

I was having the same problem - plugged the Samsung cable into a dual charger with higher current capability (my wife left her charger at the cabin) and the phone quit complaining.

An intelligent design decision - have the phone use more power to complain about not enough power during charging...


Changing default behaviour of the Phone app in Oreo

A possible solution is to automate the process of clicking the Call history tab when the phone app is opening. It is not elegant but may help you.

Using Automatem create the following flow:

In the Apps section, select App start. Click it, in the Package option select the Phone app from the list. Click Done.
In the Interface section, select Interact. Click it, set the Proceed option to When UI element appear, then click Record Interactions. A small widget will appear. Open the Phone app, then click on the call history. Click the check mark on the widget. It will take you back to Automate, and many parameters of the Interact block will be filled for you. Click Done.
In the Flow section, select Flow stop.
Click the Flow beginning block, give the title a name; then click on "Install home screen shortcut".
Link the blocks as seen on the image, then save and give the flow a name.
Give the required permissions when asked.

On your home screen, there will be a shortcut created with the label (title) you inserted in step 4. Clicking it will open the Phone app, then show the call history,

It is not elegant because for a fraction of a second, you will see the Favorites tab before the call history is shown.


Disabling safe mode or removing apps from safe mode

That's something I'd say is impossible without rooting. Safe mode is for the case an app goes havoc, so it must disable all user apps (for the havoc-app to not be started, so one can uninstall it or clear its cache/data). Which means, in order to exclude an app from being excluded (oops), this app must be "converted" to be a system app (i.e. it must be installed on the /system partition) -- which only is possible with root-permissions (or if the app ships within the ROM).


Check that the following setting is ticked:

Settings->Wireless & networks->Mobile networks->Data enabled

Also verify that the access point name settings are correct and the correct access point is chosen. You should be able to find the details of what it should be on the Vodafone website. The settings are at:

Settings->Wireless & networks->Mobile networks->Access Point Names


How do I undo the "enable lock & erase" on android device manager?

In your phone, go to the settings, then go to lock screen and security, tap on other security settings, in there you'll find Device administrators, tap on it, then you will find the option "Find My Device" you can turn it off or on.

This settings path may be OEM-specific; other devices may have slightly altered terminology, though Device Administrators is generally well-marked.


If you press 'back', then the keyboard changer button is replaced by the menu buttom. This is still a bit more complex than what it was in the 4.x times, but should at least allow you to disconnect if you want to avoid e.g. manually detaching your screen, etc.


After some googling, it appears that B&N audiobooks are in MP3 format with no DRM.  That means they should play on almost everything that can play audio, including the Novel.

Edit: Their FAQ says exactly that, and mentions how to download the files.


If I install an aftermarket "Always on Display" app, will it cause excessive battery drain?

Yes but also no.

Basically, AoD is purely software. It does not require special hardware (you can even use it on an LCD screen, although it will use significantly more power and does not make much sense). This is why there are plenty apps available that let you keep your screen on.

At the same time I would also answer the question with no, because even though it is purely software, it's not just an "app". If you use one of those AoD apps, they will keep your device awake. All the time. This will use a lot more power compared to a device with AoD out of the box, which still allows the device to go to sleep while keeping the screen on, which saves a lot of energy.

However, depending on the device and how aggressive the power management is, you might not notice much of a difference. On my OnePlus 5, with fairly aggressive energy saving options, an aftermarket AoD app does not use a whole lot of power (about 1% to 2% of the daily power draw - comparable to a couple of minutes of surfing with Google Chrome).


Why does my EVO Android phone screen keep turning on?

First, killing background processes will do nothing; they'll just be restarted.  Instead, focus on apps.  You could use an app like Titanium Backup (requiees root) to "freeze" an app, and see if the problem stops.  If it does you know what app is the problem.  Then uninstall it, or turn off background sync for it or something if that might be the problem.  TB can uninstall system apps, but be careful which ones.

I had this problem when I had SipDroid installed -- every time its connection dropped and came back up, it would turn on the screen.


How to install P12 certificates in mobile Firefox?

At this time, Firefox for Android does not support importing a PKCS #12 certificate.  This is bug 868370.

If you have root access to your device, you can import it manually using a Linux computer attached to the phone with adb.

If your client certificate came from a <keygen> form, you can use the same form in Firefox for Android to generate and install a new certificate directly (skipping the PKCS #12 step).


Samsung Galaxy I9000 not detected by Odin in download mode

You have to stop kies.
It has a thread in the background, so seach this in the taskmanager and stop the process.