Determine which app is drawing on top of other apps?

Note:

adb should already be setup in PC.
For Android earlier than version 4.4.x, root access may be required.
Some commands would not work on Android earlier than version 5.1.
Jump to heading "Apps for apps" if you're unfamiliar or uncomfortable with command-line and/or the command-line fails to solve your issue.

Edit: cut the chase in the earlier solution and follow this edited section only.
Setup adb and run this command:
adb shell "dumpsys window windows | toybox grep -i system_alert_window"

You would get the output of all the active overlays on the screen. Example of an output with DU Screen Recorder, Tasker and AZ Screen Recorder showing active overlays on screen:

bash-4.3# adb shell "dumpsys window windows| toybox grep -i system_alert_window"
    mOwnerUid=10087 mShowToOwnerOnly=true package=net.dinglisch.android.tasker appop=SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW
    mOwnerUid=10604 mShowToOwnerOnly=true package=com.hecorat.screenrecorder.free appop=SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW
    mOwnerUid=10604 mShowToOwnerOnly=true package=com.hecorat.screenrecorder.free appop=SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW
    mOwnerUid=10649 mShowToOwnerOnly=true package=com.duapps.recorder appop=SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW
    mOwnerUid=10649 mShowToOwnerOnly=true package=com.duapps.recorder appop=SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW
    mOwnerUid=10604 mShowToOwnerOnly=true package=com.hecorat.screenrecorder.free appop=SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW
    mOwnerUid=10604 mShowToOwnerOnly=true package=com.hecorat.screenrecorder.free appop=SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW
    mOwnerUid=10638 mShowToOwnerOnly=true package=ninja.sesame.app.edge appop=SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW

The highlighted text next to package= and before appop is the package name(s) of the app(s) currently drawing overlay on the screen. In your case, the output including the package name(s) would differ.
Note down the package name(s) (henceforth as PKG) and execute this command:
adb shell am force-stop PKG

Replace PKG with the package name you noted down. If you had multiple package names, repeat the command with one package name at a time.
The command would forcefully stop the app and thereby discard the overlay. This should work. You may alternatively strip the permission of "Draw over other apps" (screen overlay in short) from the apps using this command:
adb shell appops set PKG SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW ignore

Again, replace PKG with package name as necessary. Furthermore, you may have to repeat the force-stop command for the PKG. If you decide to revert the changes, replace ignore with allow in aforesaid command.
You may alternatively use App Ops to manage the permissions from GUI.
To know which package name corresponds to which app you could try an open source app like Applications Info. Search by package name and you would get the App's name.
Edit finished
You really need not to read anymore now. I'm leaving the earlier solution (i.e. following section)  intact because 21 people who voted it did find that helpful and I don't want to mess up anymore.

A simple way would be to find out all the apps having the permission "draw over other apps" and then single out them from the ones currently active on the screen. Afterwards, engage in force-stopping those common apps until you pin-point the app responsible for the active overlay.
Enumerate apps having permission for overlay
The permission required by an app to create an overlay is android.permission.SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW (draw over other apps).
We need to find out all the installed apps having the said permission. It is up to you to find out a method for this. My answer here may aid you.
Note that we need the apps' package names and not their labels.
Cherry-pick from active windows
Execute the command
adb shell dumpsys window windows

This would give you details on whatsoever causing something to be displayed on the screen, including the component name of an app causing it.
How you would extract the name is up to you. You may try this command however
adb shell 'dumpsys window windows | grep "Window #"'

If you receive the error: 'grep' is not recognized as an internal or external command, on Windows try this alternative command:
adb shell "dumpsys window windows | grep 'Window #'"

Demo output

Window #4 Window{42065d50 u0 com.android.phone/com.mediatek.phone.UssdAlertActivity}:
Window #5 Window{42197468 u0 ginlemon.flowerpro/ginlemon.flower.HomeScreen}:
Window #6 Window{420fdb58 u0 com.android.systemui.ImageWallpaper}:
Window #7 Window{421e3b88 u0 com.android.contacts/com.android.contacts.activities.DialtactsActivity}:

In the above output, anything succeeding  u0  and preceding / is the package name of an app. An app can have multiple components displaying something on the screen.
You've to create a list of those package names. If you have BusyBox installed, you can do
adb shell 'dumpsys window windows | grep "Window #" | sed -e "s/.*u0 //g" -e "s/\/.*//g" -e "s/}://g"'

Anyhow, now you would be having two lists:

First list contains all the apps having the permission android.permission.SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW.
Second list contains all the apps actively displaying something on the screen.

Compare these two lists and single out apps which are common in both the lists. This third list would constitute of apps having the permission to draw overlay and are currently drawing an active overlay on screen.
Time to kill
Kill each of the apps from the third list one by one and notice the state of overlay. You can use am force-stop PACKAGE_NAME --user 0 or any other method that suits you. PACKAGE_NAME is the package name of the app.
EDIT: It is not necessary to kill an app. You can consider denying the app the permission to draw over other apps. Use this command:
adb shell 'appops set PACKAGE SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW deny'   # replace PACKAGE with package name of the app

To revert the changes, replace deny with allow in the said command and execute it.
If you're running Android Marshmallow, this answer by Andrew T. can be used.
Note: The aforesaid command is successfully tested on Android 5.1.1 and 6.0.1 (CM builds). It is also possible that the command works on Android 5.0.x but I can't guarantee. Execution of that command on Android version released prior to Lollipop would cause failure.
Since often the overlay is perceivable, it would instantly disappear the moment the app causing it is killed, hence, you would know which app was causing that overlay.
Apps for apps
Originally suggested by Izzy, you can use an app which has the functionality of listing permissions granted to installed apps, to single out the apps having the permission  "draw over other apps". You can either search such an app on your own or use the the list Permission checker maintained by Izzy on his website.
You would also need a process/app manager to force-stop/kill some processes. I recommend OS Monitor but you're at liberty to use any competent app. See related apps under System Info.
For demonstration purposes only
I tried Advanced Permission Manager to list apps with permission to "draw over other apps". Afterwards, I switched to OS Monitor to see the apps running in foreground and background. I matched the output from both the apps and individually force-stopped the apps common in both. You can kill a process from inside the OS Monitor, so no need to switch to App settings.
(Click image to enlarge)


Redmi 3 stuck on bootloop with no recovery mode access

If you have access only to fastboot you will need complete ROM (including BOOTLOADER and FULL SYSTEM) because ota upgrade can broke custom bootloader


Why is Clockworkmod taking up so much memory?

I would check your /sdcard/clockworkmod/backup folder and remove any old backups you have in there.

You can also remove them from within Rom Manager under Manage and Restore Backups. Then click on the older backups and select Delete from the menu.


Can bought Android apps be shared between devices you own?

On your phone open the Android Market app, press Menu, then select Help, then choose Troubleshooting (under Users), you should now see the "Retrieving previously purchased apps" headline. This says:

  Your application purchases are tied to
  your Google Account and can be
  installed an unlimited number of times
  on any device.

  ...

  If you change devices, you can install
  previous purchases by making sure you
  sign into your device with the same
  Google Account you used on your
  previous phone.


This problem is taking place when you install Google apps APKs directly on phone.

The solution is installing Google apps image in Recovery mod.

You can always get the latest GApps for any android version such as Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.x), Honeycomb (Android 3.x), Gingerbread (Android 2.3.x), Froyo (Android 2.2.x) and Eclair (Android 2.1.x) from this address Latest GAPPSS


How do I secure my Lenovo ThinkPad tablet against thieves when it doesn't have a Kensington lock?

I believe your question is trying to ask 'Are there any laptop security devices out there that do not use a kensington lock slot?' The answer is, Yes.

To see a nice list of various types of locks that are available for notebooks and laptops, please see this website.

I in no way endorse this seller, however they are one of the few sites that seem to have a nice listing of many kensington-alternative locking devices for laptops. I am merely using it for informative purposes.


Mobile VR headsets: hardware or software?

Look at the teardown of the two devices:

Gear VR - contains circuitry for the capacitive touchpad on it, plus sensors for detecting if the user is present and USB for connecting it with the phone (presumably to send/receive the above 2 signals).

Daydream View - same for the touchpad, plus NFC chips for one-touch pairing with the phone, and Bluetooth for communication with the Daydream controller.

Gear VR is co-developed with Oculus and thus bears their mark.


Error when running android apps via bluestacks (Unsupported Device)

you need Download Google Play Service Based on your Device DPI,

Supported DPI'S :

Also, you can Install CPU-Z Then, look at this section :
for example, look at the Screen Density on below picture :

as we can see on above picture, this picture have 560DPI.

and then, you need Google Play service For 560DPI.(for Example )


Weird that none of those settings worked. I would recommend lowering the vibration intensity, since it is a stock option on most HTC One devices now.

  Go to Settings – Sound – Vibration intensity. Then slide the bars
  left or right to change the intensity.

Referenced here

Other places to check: Settings - Sound & notification - Other sounds - Vibration intensity

If your device does not have that option, I have used FauxClock on my HTC One M7 to adjust it via root: Faux123 Kernel Enhancement - Google Play

If you have the M8, ElementalX Kernel is a good option: XDA thread It has vibration intensity controls, along with a load of other tweaks for saving battery, improving performance, etc.

If you're a fan of Xposed framework, there is an Xposed module available, but I'm not sure of the device compatibility.

If you don't want to root at all, there is an app called Vybe that records custom vibration patterns without root, see a description here. You'd likely be able to record an "empty" vibration pattern so that your phone doesn't vibrate at all. Can't find it on Google Play, here's another app that has the same function, with good reviews: Vibration Control - Google Play

Hope one of these suits your needs


How to disable autostart of an app on LineageOS 14?

Even since LineageOS was known as CyanogenMod, it offered a deeper way to manage apps' permissions than the one introduced by Google from Marshmallow onwards. This feature, known as Privacy Guard, can be accessed from within Settings -> Privacy.

To restrict it from starting on boot, hold on the target app in the list that's displayed, then find the Start at boot entry and flip its toggle. Even system apps can be restricted this way, provided you choose to display them via the menu located in the top right corner.

Note that this will prevent an app from firing up at boot, but that, if said app can receive push notifications and you use Google Services or microG, then it will be awakened to display the notification. microG offers a way to disable yet this mechanism.


I tried your answer but it didn't work.
Eventually the following Stack Overflow Answer worked.

1) android-sdk-macosx/tools/emulator -avd <avdname> -writable-system
2) ./adb root
3) ./adb remount
4) ./adb push <local>/hosts /etc/hosts

Android file host can be
/etc/hosts <--- This worked for me
/etc/system/hosts
/system/etc/hosts

Check
1) ./adb shell
2) cat /etc/hosts
3) ping customsite.com


Reboot touchphone without touching the screen

Pressing and holding the phone's power button for a few seconds might do the trick.

It switches off my Android phones.


I had a similar issue, turned out to be a fault with my graphics driver . Assuming you're running windows check your event logs for more info


Can 'coredump' folder be deleted safely?

Short answer
I wouldn't recommend deleting the folder itself, but it should be pretty safe to delete its content (i.e. the files inside). I'm just afraid you won't be able to do so – unless you have root access on your device.
Explanation
Core dumps (on some Android devices also called "tombstones", which somehow explains their purpose) are generated when an app crashes (or force-closes). They usually contain a complete dump of the memory that app was using, plus some additional information – and are intended for debugging purposes (to provide the developer with information about the state the app was in when it crashed – hence "tombstones", describing the "dead of a process").
The system itself doesn't need them at all, so deleting them should be pretty safe. However, depending on implementation, the system might rely on the fact the folder is there – so removing the folder along might have "negative side-effects" (should not, but who knows). As an empty folder is not using up any space, it shouldn't hurt to keep it.
On the other hand: as its only purpose is collecting those "crash reports", and as they probably won't go anywhere either: who cares whether "writing those crash-logs crashes"? ;)


How to deactivate backup apps on other phone remotely?

Assuming that you want to stop your Google account from syncing to your phone.

To stop Google from syncing to your device, you should sign out of your account. To do that remotely, go to this page, sign into the same account as the one on your old phone, scroll down to the bottom of the page, press on the name of the device, and press remove. This will remove your account from your old phone and will stop any new info from coming in. You'll have to sign back in, in order to resume sync.

If you want to fully erase everything that's on the phone, go to Android.com/find log into your account, and press erase in the pop-up press erase again. As long as your phone is on and has internet connection, everything that's on it will be deleted.


Need to enable ICMP Ping response from phone

The simplest (and, of course, tricky) way is to use nping. For example:

  nping -c <ping_count> --tcp -p <your_ftp_port_number> <ip_address_of_your_phone_hosting_ftp_service>

Achieve same goal without modification of Android.


There is no easy way in finding which process consumes your battery. The battery monitoring tool in Android is not active during boot, so anyone wanting to know what's happening will have to make deep hackings in the Linux kernel and Android init scripts. I don't even believe you have a rooted phone or have a Android AOSP sources snapshot somewhere to hack into.

Also I believe that the battery estimation mechanism is somehow fooled at startup. Because it has no previous data to compare to (N is estimated depending on the value of N-1). So the level you see right after bootup is probably wrong. That's why you see the level strangely increasing although no power source was connected in the meantime. To what extent is this level wrong? Question without answer I think.

I have an easy solution though: stop installing apps that make your Android crash or need (stupid) reboot :-)


Installing custom recovery using Odin will erase data or not?

The installation itself will not erase any user data, but to boot a custom system image or custom recovery, your bootloader needs to be unlocked. If it isn't already, then unlocking the bootloader will erase all user data.

Note also that it is generally not possible to use a system image or recovery that was prepared for a different phone. Samsung in particular tends to release two completely different phone models under the same marketing name. Commonly one has an SM- model number like yours, and the other has a GT- model number. ROMs made for one model will not work at all on the other model.


I use Space Cleaner | Boost & Clean by Uniblue. It's super easy to use, it cleans all cache and junk from my Android device, and effectively allows me to manage my apps to create more space on my device.


How to increase device's memory storage?

The system uses internal/device memory for a lot of things like...

app data (/data/data/*)
Dalvik cache (/data/dalvik-cache)
Crash- and other system logs (/data/anr, /data/dontpanic, /data/kernelpanics, /data/logger, /data/panicreports, /data/tombstones)
Misc. caches and temporary locations of Google Services (/data/backup, /data/local)
Misc. system files (/data/system)
Installed apps not on SD (/data/app)

and more. You can free some space by moving apps to sdcard (if the apps support this). On a rooted device, you might be able to move even more (e.g. Dalvik cache, app data). But you won't be able to move all.

You will not be able to "increase device's memory storage" -- all you can do is to increase free storage, not the absolute number. As we had this topic quite often, please see related questions for possible actions, e.g.:

Phone memory full and it shouldn't be
My internal storage capacity is running low, what can I do?
How can I see which applications eat up disk space?
What can I do to manage my phone's internal storage?
other questions from the "Related" section on this page


FRP Huawei P9 Lite with Voice keyboard only

I just used this keyboard, dictating my data by letters, then i opened the Google play and downloaded a normal gboard. That wass really hard, but i did it.


how does an android rom decide the amount of phone memory?

On an Android device, the internal storage is split into multiple partitions. The data from the custom ROM is stored on one partition, and the apps and user data on another. (Generally there are a few other partitions as well.) Because of this, installing a smaller custom ROM doesn't directly give you more free space for data, because they're on a different partition. But if you can make a smaller custom ROM, it allows you to repartition the storage to allocate more space to user data.

Repartitioning the storage is quite risky, as you have to know exactly how large the custom ROM is going to be. If the system partition is too small for the ROM, it will go wrong when or after you install it.

I believe it's more common to simply add some useful apps to the custom ROM, to make it up to a similar size as the stock ROM. This way, you can avoid installing some large apps in the userdata partition, giving you more space without repartitioning. Since updates to pre-installed apps get installed in the userdata partition, not the system partition, even including up-to-date versions of those apps in the custom ROM saves space.


Always Show Navigation Bar Nougat / Disable Immersive Mode

To force immersive mode and to force non-immersive mode, you must be rooted with Xposed framework installed in it. To do the same use app Immersive forcer. This is a xposed module and will work only if used with Xposed framework.

Remember you are not forced to root and by Rooting your phone can be risky and dangerous for your device.
Also, Rooting voids your warranty.
MAIN THING is there is no xposed framework (official) for nougat till now and installing unofficial version if available can brick (soft/hard) your phone.


Tasker: How to disable profile while phone is locked

Here is a fairly simple solution that does not require the use of a variable.

You will need to set up two additional profiles and also ensure that you name the profile you created to trigger on your shake context.  To name your existing profile, if you haven't already, long press on the profile and then touch the A on the top bar to name it - let's use 'Google Shake' for this example.  In order to control the status of a profile through a task action it must have a name.

The first new profile you need will trigger on Display Off.  The associated task should set the Profile Status (find this under Tasker in actions) of your Google Shake profile to Off.

The second new profile you need will trigger on Display Unlocked (rather than Display On).  This will ensure that it only runs when the device is actually unlocked rather than the display turning on and remaining on the lock screen.  The associated task should set the Profile Status of your Google Shake profile to On.

That's it!  Test it out.  Note that it may take a second or two for the Google Shake profile to be turned off and on when the two triggers happen so don't shake too quickly after turning the display off and/or unlocking it.


How can I get "Always on when USB connected" back on Samsung Vibrant (Android Froyo 2.2)?

After some research I found some app on Market that sets this global setting ('StayAwake'). Missing setting looks like Samsung or TMO customization. I'm running official TMO 2.2 update (T959UVKA6) installed via miniKies


If your device is rooted and you're using the XPosed framework, the Deny Location Consent might be what you're looking for:

  Disable the annoying "Improve location accuracy?" dialog and always disagree.


How do I stop a Google account from syncing contacts?

You can go to Settings - Accounts - Google and uncheck "Gmail" to turn automatic synchronization off I think but doing so will stop push notifications about newly received emails and information from your main account won't be synced too.


Because long pressing the power button on all most any android device(if not all) will reboot the device. It is meant to be the restart button in case on a device something goes wrong, you have the option to hard reset the device.

To correctly shut down a device you have to tap the power button and select the option to power of, or if you are in CWM select "Power off device", or I think you can shut it down using adb to.


CAN i reinstall the system apps which i have deleteed accidently during rooting?

You might need to reset your phone to stock rom for that


You might try the following app from play store that lets you view permissions in different ways

Permission Explorer


Got 220 MB space free but still not able to download apps

To be able to download apps in the Play Store you will need at least 510mb available or 10% of the internal memory. Also depends on the size of the app you download. The Android OS uses the internal memory also to RAM purposes so is very relative the available space. Try to clear cache and data from GPStore, GPServices, Reset Apps Defaults and also remove some unused apps.

Also check the link provided by bmdixon


External SD card is not working in Android phone

You can try to wipe the first sectors of the SD-Card. Afterwards the OS should detect again the correct size.

The simplest way to overwrite the first sectors is to use a disk wipe software on your PC that overwrites the SD-Card with zeros (one pass is sufficient).
It is important not to just overwrite one file or the free disk space but the while drive.

In general you can stop the disk wipe after about a minute as you don't need to overwrite it completely, the first blocks are sufficient. Afterwards eject it from your PC and re-insert the SD-Card and format it. The correct size should now be recognized.


"force allow apps on external" on EMUI 5.x not toggling on

Huawei has disabled this function. It won't work unless you root the device.

Source: Huawei support website.


Is it possible to keep track when my Android phone is startup and when it is shutdown?

My standard recommendation again here: Tasker, the most complete automation solution available for Android. Tasker can react on different events and perform tasks when they occur. So you could setup two profiles:

Profile "Startup":

Condition: Device Boot (this is boot_completed))
Task: Write File (with your information specified in the parameters)

Profile "Shutdown":

Condition: Device Shutdown
Task: Write File (with your information specified in the parameters)

For the text you can use Variables like e.g. %DATE. Only difficulty will be to determine whether the shutdown was caused by the user or a program -- no easy recipe here, especially not for un-rooted devices. This information might be extracted from the system logs somehow; but starting with JellyBean, this would require root permissions.


If I charge Nexus 4 with a wireless charger will it charge considering red LED error

If you have the red LED and the device won't charge from the wall, using the original charger, then it's faulty. Send it back for a replacement.


So I believe you used a USB cable with a USB/microUSB adapter ?

If so, you may want to check the quality of your cable and/or use a better one (USB cables are NOT "all the same" : some are excellent, some are utter sh*t).

Unfortunately, the only tool I know for that goal is the QooPow qualMeter : http://www.qoopow.com/. It's a physical tool (= not an app) and a bit pricey, but if you find yourself lost in your cables, it might be a good investment for the future (your friends may find it useful too. Why not pool some money to get one for the lot of you ?).


No Google Account means no Play store.

And one thing is clear, if you don't sign in with Google account then it will not allow you to download or update any application from/to play store.


Google's backup service: what is it for?

I think you misunderstand what Google backup is and does, and it varies by Android version and app... I know this can be confusing but prior to Lollipop the only information backed up was system info (wallpaper, WiFi passcodes, etc) and Google info like contacts, calendar, notes, and stuff. Beginning with Lollipop, the installed apps (not their data) are backed up and can be restored from a list on a compatible Android install. In Marshmallow, application configs (not data) that are designed for MM are backed up. Many vendors/carriers have their own backup tools as well.


What do Online and Offline mean in Viber?

"Online" means that Viber is running in the foreground or background (the user is available for calls or messages). When the phone has no internet connection, or the user manually used the "Exit" option inside Viber, this changes their status to "Last online at..."

In some cases, depending on the mobile kernel and software, the user uses something like Power Saving Mode, so after the idle time, the Wifi is turned off or some background application is turn off ... so Viber is turned off, your bf's viber state is also offline.


Data partition with 23GB only shows 8GB when mounted

After "playing" a bit with the device, I managed to trace the problem to the ext4 partition data. Booted into TWRP, terminal, backed up the files in the partition, unmounted, then:

mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata

And voila! 23GB of data storage available. Restored the backed up files to the new ext4 filesystem and everything is working now, although I feel it a little slower. Nevertheless, it's solved.


Can I hide a specific Google Now place card?

An individual place can be swiped away, but there is no way to tell Google Now to never show you a specific place again.


Sure is!  When you get your new android phone and sign in with your Google account, it will automatically start to re download your apps!  If you want to root the new phone, and the previous one (the one you own now) was also rooted, you could use titanium backup as well to back up your apps and reinstall the them with all their data on the new device.


How can I decrypt or view images encrypted in Sd card, in other phone?

Answer: You cannot decrypt, since it requires both the device and the key which was generated on it to encrypt

Why

Encrypt Files on Your SD Card Using Your Android Phone explains this in simple terms. Quoting relevant portions (emphasis added; deleted text denoted by "...."):

  Unfortunately, it is virtually impossible to access or decrypt the files on your SD card without the right password. Android's encryption algorithm is based on two major factors - the mobile device and the password. Lose any of these, and your encrypted SD card files will be inaccessible. You can only decrypt the SD card files by inserting the SD card into the mobile device that was used to encrypt it and then entering the correct password when the device is powered on....
  The password or key is stored to your mobile device's Random Access Memory (RAM)....Encryption is essentially classified as a high level data storage security process. When you encrypt a file, you are altering its form using a specific algorithm so that the operating system will not be able to readily classify or identify it. With advancements in information security, the encryption algorithms being employed nowadays are basically "fool-proof". This means that there is no viable way of opening an encrypted file other than getting a hold of the key. Even hundreds of supercomputers could take thousands of years to open an encrypted file.

  Encryption is designed to work this way for one obvious reason: Security

To further clarify on the query of OP- again, No, you require the same device on which it was encrypted, it will not work on same model device. A simple  explanation for this is

  The password or key is stored to your mobile device's Random Access Memory (RAM) ( hence, you require the same device)

The underlying principle is that data and key required to access it should be in separate physical/logical locations. While the algorithm for key generation is OEM specific, the actual key generated is linked to the device on which it is generated and hence decryption will not work if the device is changed, since the "key" portion of the puzzle is missing


S5 Note, locked, finger won't work, forget password

You will have to reset your phone. You can try recovering photos from any data recovery app. No other way as you have no backup of any sort.


When did my phone power off due to low battery? Is the information recorded somewhere?

You should install Watchdog Task Manager Lite.
It will monitor all your apps and tell you which apps are consuming the most battery and why.

For all your logging needs, install aLogcat (free) - logcat.


well i hope i am wrong about it but as far as i know there is no way to do so.
i tried searching a method for it and wasted about a good few dozens of hours over it and kept on searching for it until i was sure that it cant be done without rooting the device.
many youtube videos, websites and blog claim they have a method and i tried almost every one i got to know but cudn't find a working method.
hope my answer helps.


Someone is installing apps in my android

If you install security 360 from Google play, it should find all malware, and help you remove it.


I called VZW, and they actually told me it was a bad Google update pushed to my phone prematurely, and that "Google would be fixing it in a couple weeks." Amazing that Verizon won't even take responsibilities for their OTA updates, but blame it on Google.


change UI dynamically according to location

Create the usual splash screen as specified in the below tutorial then you can do a background process which checks on the location then change the imageView dynamically.[http://www.androidhive.info/2013/07/how-to-implement-android-splash-screen-2/]


You can probably install WhatsApp in your old phone again and check if the chats are still available.
If they are available, save a backup to Google drive as well as on your phone and then try again by reinstalling on your new phone.

Check when the latest backup was created automatically by whatsapp either on your old phone or Drive. If there's a recent copy you can copy it into your new phone and try retrieving the chats while reinstalling.

If none of the above works, I think you lost your chats.


Photos copied via bluetooth from LG 4X HD to Xperia Z are no longer sorted

It seems you have lost your folder structure ("albums") due to the Bluetooth transfer. A possible solution would be to copy not over Bluetooth but rather with a Computer (USB) or over Wifi and a network share, to retain the folder structure.

There are many file managers available in the play store which can use network shares. You may also consider using DropBox or that kind of service.


How can I use my android GPS in my notebook through USB?

You might want to take a look at ShareGPS:

  ShareGPS allows you to use your mobile's GPS just as you would an external one for your PC. It has the ability to send GPS status strings out over Bluetooth using virtual com ports and over USB using TCP ports. Then you can use your favorite mapping program such as Google Earth to display current GPS position and to produce tracks.

(emphasis is mine)

There is a user's guide available explaining how to set it up on a Linux or Windows system. If your notebook is a Mac, there's nothing said on that here.

There's also a thread over at the XDA developers about Simultaneous WiFi-Direct and GPS-via-USB tethering which might be worth a look (even if it's only for the GPS-via-USB part for you). If you wonder what that might use for the GPS part -- umm, above mentioned ShareGPS it seems. So this might count as an additional how-to for that said solution.


Is there a way to change the "text to speech" person's voice?

Yes install some other TTS engine like, this or this. And as the market page says,

  To enable it:
  1. Menu > Settings > Voice input & output > Text-to-speech settings
  2. Check "eSpeak TTS".
  3. Set your "Default Engine" to "eSpeak TTS".


How can I re-enable keyboard typing? From voice?

You should be able to choose a default keyboard (i.e. Google Keyboard instead of Google voice typing) through your settings. Navigate to Settings -> Language and Input (titled similarly on most devices), then select an option other than voice input. If necessary, you can deselect the voice typing option to disable it entirely. The screen should look something like this:


Whatsapp on android device: PlayStore error code -11, parsing error when trying manual install

From my own experience the actual WhatsApp 2.16.382 version is not running anymore on devices with Android version lower than 4.0 (officially 2.1 and 2.2) since they launched the video call feature.

It seems like they have dropped the support for those devices as they did for Windows 7 - 7.5 phones, Symbian S40-S60 and Blackberry OS 7 and lower according to their blog.

You should try version 2.16.225 or 2.16.259 (find the apks) which worked for me.


I was checking the notification for different app and noticed that the notification for Clock was turned off. I turned it on and now it works as i expect. Now it does shows up on the screen and I can dismiss or put it on snooze.


How to install cyanogenmod on LG P690 optimus net: how to know which ROM?

The YouTube video refers to an XDA page as shown below:

That XDA page gives further details about the CM9 ROM, GApps and instructions.

Your LG P690's hardware seems to be a close match to my LG P500. So, if you are not satisfied with the ROM mentioned, you can give a shot with LGP500's ROM - the chances of getting it working in your P690 is good. Please search this site for details on knowing from where to download ROM for P500.


Is it possible for the stock Downloads app to detect externally added/modified/deleted files?

Stock download app is unable to detect changes to download folder. It will keep only a list that it is given for download.


I had a bad apk. Got a new one, works fine.


How to make a URL desktop shortcut have the page's favicon?

It has to do with the site having an icon for "apple-touch" defined in the page. for example O Globe has the following:

<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="favicon.png" />

And it works. There are differences in how other versions of android handle this. Here is an article explaining some how this works a bit. There could also be a "catch 22" to this though, as I see that the mobile Twitter site does have the apple-touch-icon-precomposed but doesn't seem to show the icon. This could be because of something Motorola did differently in their modified version of Android, or it could just be a bug.

If the site does not define the icon, then you can use a tool like Any Cut to change the icon.


Cannot change weather permissions on HTC One M9

I'm posting this in response to the comments above.

HTC delivered an android update to my phone and now I am able to change permissions on the weather app. I was able to remove the permission to my contacts and add back permission to location. The version of the Android OS now installed is 6.0 Marshmellow.

I do not recall which version I had prior to the update.  I do believe the update fixed the problem however.

If there is other information you would like about the software versions on my phone please ask.  I can post as comments here.


I can not find informations about Hisilicon kirin 650

This is a Chinese review of Huawei G9 Lite, which has K650 built-in. As can be seen from the AIDA64 screenshot below, all cores are of the same arch, and are online at the same time, albeit at different freqs.


How to change the frequency of Google Play update checks?

You can turn off automatic update checking by pressing menu and than settings in the play store. You can then manually go to my apps to update them. This will not greatly increase the work you have to do, because even if there is a notification once a week it would still require you to confirm the updates. There is no option however to change the frequency of the automatic updates.


How to create shortcut in the homescreen for 'Favourites' tab in Dialer?

If you use Dialer One as your dialer or even if you install it but use the default stock dialer app, you can get to the Favorites screen by long pressing a blank area of the homescreen, and from the SHORTCUTS menu, choosing FAVORITES.


Android 7.0 on LG G-Pad X8.0 doesn't allow restricted profiles?

If your device have a SIM card port (the chip which is used to be able to make phone calls and access the internet through 3G or 4G, no Wi Fi) then it is considered a MOBILE PHONE. Restricted Profiles are not supported on mobile phones:

"Phone options

Unfortunately, restricted profiles aren’t available on Android phones running any version of the OS. It’s a logistical problem, claims a Google engineer, since phones are used for calls and texting, and restricting access could make the device owner miss such things."

http://www.greenbot.com/article/2949895/android/how-to-make-your-android-device-safe-for-kids.html


How do I avoid the server-specified security policies for my work e-mail?

First off, talk to your Exchange administrators.  See if they deliberately are setting the mobile device security settings so tightly.  I would have a discussion with them to see if they can loosen up the security settings.

If you only want email you could try K-9 from the app store.  It uses IMAP to get the mail from the server so your exchange server will have to have that turned on.


How to visit the /data folder on my Android on my PC?

You can't directly mount the internal storage.  You need to be rooted to view it on your phone, or you can use adb pull from the Android SDK Tools to copy it off the device.


Turns out my server config was missing the "push DNS ...." option.  My other devices worked because I had set a DNS server in the adapter settings that overrode the lack of a DNS server being pushed by the OpenVPN server.


What you could try doing is flashing a custom recovery onto your phone, then get USB debugging permission using the custom recovery, to then launch a screen control software to control your phone.
Every phone have a different way of installing a custom recovery, I remember Oppo phones need edl to install one, you can search up "oppo f5 recovery custom recovery" to find the custom recovery and install method.
After that, get adb, start adb by adb start-server. Next, reboot into recovery mode, it can be done by doing a button combination.
You can then push a key file in your .android folder when your device is detected as in recovery, if you are on Ubuntu, it is in ~/.android. Push the adb_keys in the folder to /data/misc/adb/adb_keys, use adb push ~/.android/adbkey.pub /data/misc/adb/adb_keys
After that, run all these commands to finish our work:
su
mount -o remount,rw /system
cd /
echo "persist.service.adb.enable=1" >> default.prop
echo "persist.service.debuggable=1" >> default.prop
echo "persist.sys.usb.config=mtp,adb" >> default.prop
echo "persist.service.adb.enable=1" >> /system/build.prop
echo "persist.service.debuggable=1" >> /system/build.prop
echo "persist.sys.usb.config=mtp,adb" >> /system/build.prop

After that, type reboot to reboot to system, you should now be able to use scrcpy to control your screen.


After googling for a while I found a solution. Enable adb debugging on the phone and run this command:

adb shell dumpsys display | grep mBaseDisplayInfo

Find the part that says "density". This is the screen DPI. Reducing it will make Android think your screen is bigger, and it will shrink all of the UI respectively. I changed it from 240 to 200 by running this command:

adb shell wm density 200

Now the problem app looks like this, and I can use it:

screenshot showing fixed app

Note that this will affect everything on the phone including the homescreen.

I found this solution here. Contrary to what that page says, I did not need to reboot for the change to take effect.


How to disable the Denial Log Reporting Service on SGS4?

You need to root your phone and remove or "freeze" everything related to OTA and KNOX. Once done, you can remove the all AVC audit file(s) in the directory: /data/misc/audit/. You may also need to put SEAndroid into Permissive mode with: su 0 setenforce 0, but this only lasts until next reboot.


Un-plug your router for 30 seconds and try again. If it still happens then your router might be going out other than that your device might be buggy and you need to get a new one.


Disabled screen lock - don't want to clear credentials

The certificate is stored in Credential Storage, which requires a pin/password to be set for use in encrypting/decrypting the certificate. The nature of the problem is documented here on code.google.com and you can star the issue, so hopefully Google will address it in future.


There are 2 adb commands:

adb forward
adb reverse

As you mentioned in the comment, you are probably looking for adb reverse which works like this:

adb reverse tcp:<remote> tcp:<local>

Where <remote> will be TCP port on your Android phone and <local> the TCP port on your host computer.


How do I transfer from HTC SENSE to the computer?

One way would be to use WebSharing Lite available at Google Play/Android market. Once installed, you can navigate to an address set up by WebSharing via your computer and transfer any files you need.

EDIT:
There are many applications to do this as pointed out by @richard-borcsik below. This is just one off the top of my head. If you establish a Google Account for your android device and then log into Gmail for that Google Account, the contacts that you have on the phone/device automatically show up in your Gmail Contacts list. At least, that has been my experience. So you may not really need a separate application to transfer/update contacts.


Nexus 7 soft bricked, Need to recover data

You could flash TWRP recovery (not sure if available for your device) which has an in-built file manager and and terminal and move files to any usb storage.


Delete the "Phone" part of a contact whilst keeping the "Google" part?

To answer my own question - here's a different approach to achieve this (Google-only contacts)

Ensure all required Android contacts are synced to Google
Export the contacts to CSV on a computer
Delete all contacts from the Android (that'll be both "Phone" and "Google")
Import the contacts from CSV to Google
Google will then sync to the phone

Kind of obvious in hindsight. Hope this benefits the community in some way!


Two of my contacts are internally being mixed up

Removing BOTH contacts and recreating them resolved the issue.


Is it possible to set volume presets based upon Android TV input source?

Currently There is no way to do so, as Android TV does not differentiate input sources based on the devices you use. You could alternately set different volume on different devices if possible.

After thinking for a while , it could be possible by writing a bit of code and rooting your Android TV. If you are using HDMI to connect the devices, the TV detects the Graphic Card used to display content, if you have different Graphic Cards in you devices this will be possible. You might get help on xda Developers


Can Android NFC devices be used to clock in a RFID/HID timeclock for work? (As a tag?)

Generally no, unfortunately Android phones can't be used as a card easily as phones running the stock OS can't emulate a card. This is due to restrictions put in place by the Android operating system rather than the underlying hardware. See also this and this where I've answered other similar questions.

Saying that it depends on what you're using as an RFID timeclock. If you were making your own then you could use Android's NFC peer-to-peer mode to talk to the clock. Another alternative is instead of using the stock Android OS is to use Cyanogenmod which does allow for emulating certain card types.


How to hide navigation bar on home screen of Samsung J6

Maybe that in the Settings app, you could setup the full screen mode setting especially for the default samsung launcher.
By this way you could hide the navigation bar, or the statubar or the navigation bar and the statubar.


possibility of adding gtalk contacts to my whatsapp

Nope. It's not possible. A key reason for this is (at least) that

GTalk identifies people with email address while
WhatsApp identifies people by their mobile number.

On top of this both of the systems are proprietary and I don't think neither Google nor WhatsApp would want their users to be pushed over to the other system.

The above said, if you have the mobile number(s) of your GTalk contacts then those will, of course, be added to WhatsApp automatically if they also use WhatsApp. But that's really just stating the obvious.


Folder seen as file when connected as MTP

Because of the different way files and folders are handled on Windows when compared to other operating systems, it could be that the folder is corrupted and Windows is seeing it as a file (which it really is in the Android filesystem).  It may be possible to fix this problem by:

Creating a new folder,
Moving the contents of Backup into the new folder,
Removing Backup, and finally
Renaming the new folder to Backup

However, depending on what the underlying problem truly is, this may not fix it.


why does my whatsapp sometimes show me as having been online when I didnt log on at any stage

No. It is not related to phone problem.

When your WhatsApp in foreground then it will shows as online to others.
When it is in background (After removing from recent tabs), it will shows last seen to others.

Sometimes if your WhatsApp in recent tabs then it will shows online to others.


So i figured this out, and it was deceptively simple. It seems to be an 'undocumented' feature that if you set up a category within outlook with the name of ICE, it will automatically (at least on samsung phones) set contacts tagged with that category into the ICE group on the phone.

I ended up writing a script that ensures whoever has outlook gets the category, and then contacts tagged with that category.


Can the video chats on Messenger or WhatsApp be hacked?

In theory there is no way hack any video call because whatsapp include a point to point encryption.


How to import names+phone numbers into my Android smartphone (a Galaxy S3)?

No programming is required in this case. You need to make little changes to you text file so that it looks like below:

================

Name,Phone

Rakesh Patel,9825798257

Ramesh Patel,8758965854

==============

First row should be column header: Name, Phone
Name and number should have a comma as a separator.
change file extension to *.csv

Then Go to Google contacts ==> click  More and select Import and upload the CSV file.

This will import all your contacts to Google account.
Then add same google account to your Device (if not added already).
If Sync option is already enabled, your contacts, calendar etc. will start syncing with Google account data when your device is connected to internet. (If sync is disabled, you need to enable it first)


Hope this helps.
On my Note3 running Lollipop I was able to check for supported external resolutions by running ( via a terminal app or adb shell )

>dmesg

and ( filtering with grep ) looking for the lines:

<6>[  581.051746] hdmi_edid_add_sink_video_format: EDID: format: 1 [640x480 p60 4/3], Supported
<6>[  581.051756] hdmi_edid_add_sink_video_format: EDID: format: 1 [640x480 p60 4/3], Supported by MHL
<6>[  581.051767] hdmi_edid_add_sink_video_format: EDID: format: 16 [1920x1080 p60 16/9], Supported
<6>[  581.051777] hdmi_edid_add_sink_video_format: EDID: format: 16 [1920x1080 p60 16/9], Not-Supported by MHL
<6>[  581.051790] hdmi_edid_add_sink_video_format: EDID: format: 4 [1280x 720 p60 16/9], Supported
<6>[  581.051801] hdmi_edid_add_sink_video_format: EDID: format: 4 [1280x 720 p60 16/9], Supported by MHL
<6>[  581.051812] hdmi_edid_add_sink_video_format: EDID: format: 133 [1280x1024 p60 5/4], Not-Supported
<6>[  581.051822] hdmi_edid_add_sink_video_format: EDID: format: 133 [1280x1024 p60 5/4], Not-Supported by MHL
<6>[  581.051833] hdmi_edid_add_sink_video_format: EDID: format: 132 [1024x768 p60 4/3], Not-Supported
<6>[  581.051843] hdmi_edid_add_sink_video_format: EDID: format: 132 [1024x768 p60 4/3], Not-Supported by MHL

which you'll note correspond to supported resolutions in:

>cat /sys/devices/virtual/graphics/fb1/edid_modes
1,4

then select your preferred output using :

>setprop hw.hdmi.resolution 1

and then re-plug the mhl adapter.

which in my case resulted in 640x480 which was the only option supported by my 800x600 projector.

Thanks to this Force 720p Resolution on InForce 6540


“Error while retrieving information from server [DF-DFERH-01]” on Play Store

for android 5.0

Go to "SETTINGS"
Click "GENERAL TAB"
Scroll down and click "Application Manager"
Scroll across to "ALL"
Scroll down to and click "Google Play Store"
Click "CLEAR DATA"
Go back and now open "PLAY STORE"


Hacker's keyboard v1.38.2 doesn't show any suggestions other than "Android"

It seems that the dev has decided to seperate the keyboard and the completion dictionary. Download and install the completion dictionary by searching pub:"Klaus Weidner" in the Google play store and then, the suggestions will appear.
Quote from the Hacker's keyboard app description:

Completion dictionaries are provided by plug-in packages, see the "other applications by this developer" section for the currently available list. The keyboard also supports use of dictionaries (but not keyboard layouts) provided by AnySoftKeyboard language packs.

Quote from the English completion dictionary description:

In the future, the English dictionary will no longer be included in the Hacker's Keyboard package. Use this external dictionary to provide English completion suggestions.
An English completion dictionary for use with Hacker's Keyboard. Needed for future versions, release 1.29 still has  it built in but I plan to unbundle it to save space.


Why am I not receiving network signals on a Samsung S3 T-999?

It was a really stupid thing. My phone's network mode was set to cdma while my country operates in gsm. It solved it.


Web messages interface - How do I control if messages are sent as SMS or MMS?

When you add a media item such as a photo to your message it automatically turns the message into a MMS


The only thing that I can think of is that you're sending a type of message that can not be sent by default (e.g. MMS messages). I had an issue where long SMS messages would automatically be converted to MMS, thus not being not-sendable. Check whether the message type is SMS, and also check whether you can send short SMS messages (that won't be converted to MMS).

Also, try installing different messaging app (like Google's Messenger), to see if that helps.


Android Restricted Profiles. How to restrict play store?

Restricted profiles (as opposed to a 'full' user profile), by design, do not have access to Google Play, and a host of other Google services that need a Google account to tie setting to.  You can even restrict the user to as many or few apps as you'd please, based from the main account.

Internet access is NOT restricted in any way


How to get USB file transfer working on Oreo 8.1?

Go into Developer options, scroll down to "Select USB Configuration" and select MTP ( Media Transfer Protocol ) even if it's already selected.

This solved the problem for me.


There's a fairly good chance you overheated a component in the device. Most likely a charging component or someone. There isn't much you can do besides going to a phone/tablet repair shop. But that could cost more than the tablet itself.


Nexus 7: does ruining the bootloader hard-brick the device? Or is there still a chance to recover?

If you can get the device to boot to fastboot then you can "fix" a brick.

I have "soft bricked" my devices many times.

Samsung has "Download Mode", basically their version of fastboot. If you have an image that you can flash, you can recover. The same goes for the Nexus 7. If you have an image, which google provides because they are "developer" devices (as well as consumer).

The term "brick" is used very loosely and doesn't mean what it meant back in the WinMo days. When you bricked your WinMo phone it was as useful as a paperweight.

The only true bricks I have ever seen is when something fails in the hardware. Anything else that I have seen there is still a way to get to recovery, fastboot, download mode, etc. If you can get in to any of those you are golden.


How can I view title text for a web image (xkcd.com) on an Android based browser?

The right answer is to just go to http://m.xkcd.com. There is a link on there to show or hide the alt text.


Android OS updates can be region specific. It depends on the OEM builds. In case of Samsung, yes.
You can update through Odin, but other region binary may not have the required operator information or other settings related to your region.
I suggest you wait for an update in Kies. Should be available soon.


The stock browser on Android gingerbread has this limitation (see resource download_not_acceptable).

It is possible to download more file types with a an alternative browser (ex: Opera mobile) or a download manager.


Why does my Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc LT15a reboot itself and not even load the home screen?

Try:

Removing SIM
Restart phone then go to setting -wireless networks-more-mobile n/w-n/w operator
Here you select search mode manual then select your network in 2G mode(ex. Vodaphone 2g or Airtel2g etc). Make sure not to select a 3G network.


How can profile (log the charging and discharging current for some time period) my battery?

This is not as in-depth as FireLord's answer, but I found a few apps that might be useful.

These all appear monitor current and have a log feature:

Current Widget: Battery Monitor by RmDroider
Battery Utility Free by SUXD
Advanced Battery Monitor by Codeka
Battery Monitor Widget by 3c
Battery Spy by Vertiform Technologies

These are more general system monitors but they appear to include battery stats and logging:

Elixir 2 by Tamás Barta
AndroSensor by Fiv Asim


Even though you already drained the battery and recharged it, I would recommend doing it once more (except let the phone die), just to recalibrate the battery. After that, check out what is eating up your battery in the settings. Try playing with the different radios (BT, WiFi) and seeing what effect each one has. If all of these don't work, try getting a new battery under warrenty or buying one and replacing it yourself (I would try Motorola Moto X 2nd Generation Battery Replacement - iFixit)

If ALL of these don't work, then 5.1 is messing with your phone (even though I have a Moto X running 5.1) and try installing a rom of 5.0.1 or even something else like cyanogenmod.

Good Luck!


How to take clickable 360 degree tour to explore the area

This appears to be a feature of Google Maps/Street View which has some guidelines for that effect:

From Publish and connect 360 photos with the Street View app:

Step 2: Connect your photos

Your photos may be automatically connected within 24 hours if:

You’ve made and published a set of 360 photos according to these spacing recommendations.
"Geotag 360 photos" is turned on.
You've earned and activated the trusted badge in the Street View app.
You’ve used auto-capture to make indoor 360 photos within two small steps of each other (1 m / 3 ft).
You’ve used auto-capture to make outdoor 360 photos within five steps of each other (3 m / 10 ft).

You can also have the Street View app suggest the five closest 360 photos that you can connect.

Open a published photo.
In the top right, tap More [the three dots]  and then Connect nearby photos.

OR

Connect Photos Yourself

Open the Street View app.
On the "Profile" tab, find a photo and tap Select.
Pick the photos you want:

Choose two photos: Tap the ones that you want to connect.
Choose all photos: In the top right, tap More [three dots] and then Select all.

In the top right, tap More [three dots] and then Connect 360 photos.
Your photos will show up on the map as numbered markers.
Tap and drag each photo to the correct location. Swipe left and right on the photo to see all directions.
To try your new connection, open your photo in the "Profile" tab and tap the white arrow.


Mediaserver is eating my phone's battery?

In case anyone is still having issues, try an app called mediaserver killer.


How can I turn off the "low battery" noise?

If you go into /system/media/audio/ui, you can delete/rename LowBattery.ogg to remove the low battery sound. This will work as long as it is using the system low battery sound as an alert. I don't know anything about Audio Manager, or whether this is even possible, but it may be using its own sound, in which case this would not work.

This requires:

A rooted device
A SuperUser enabled file browser/terminal emulator
/system to be mounted in read/write mode


Mine wasnt caused by an app.  My Do Not Disturb was accidentally set to do not disturb for anything.  Changing the settings worked.


Yepp, in the shell. echo is a built-in command, see Why is echo a shell built in command?, Wikipedia: Shell built-in, and The echo command. So you won't find any "echo binary", as it is contained in the sh command.


Is there a ODIN or heimdall varient on Xperia?

Yup for Sony experia devices it is called Androxyde Flashtool
-Flashtool is a software used to flash Sony [Ericsson] Xperia line (2010 to 2013) phones that use the S1 protocol

Please check http://www.flashtool.net to have more informations


External Hard Drive to Smartphone without additional power supply

A) Is my goal really achievable? How?

Unsure, see the answer to the second question of item E.

  B) Is my assumption right, that my LaCie HDD won't spin because of power supply issues?

Yes. The HDD isn't spinning up because the power supply isn't sufficient.

Another reason would be the HDD being broken otherwise, but this is unlikely the case given your very detailed description of your problem.

  C) Will the mentioned WD HDD do the job? If no, other suggestions, please.

For the same reason as B, this is unlikely. 2.5" HDDs nowadays have a fairly similar power consumption, regardless of brand. Older HDDs and HDDs with higher capacity tend to draw more power, but not making a huge difference.

  D) How do I have to format my drives to be read by Android? (I've read ExFAT should work...)

Nothing. You're done it correctly - exFAT is the right filesystem for them.

  E) What are the actual power requirements (in watt) of those drives?

As given in whatever you've read. Those claimed power requirements are usually correct.

  What is the actual power output of my Smartphone over OTG? Maybe someone with experience (and/or who has these drives) knows those numbers?

So, this is the most tricky part...

I haven't used any Huawei phones, but from my past experiences phones don't output much power (usually less than 2W) to OTG devices. It's likely that your phone is doing the same - not supplying as much power as needed by the HDD.

From previous news (in my local language Chinese - sorry), Mate 20 / Mate 20 Pro is capable of running as a power bank, or "reverse charging". I'm guessing that the claimed 5V/1A output is only achievable in reverse charging, not OTG.

The conclusion is not quite delighting - you have to get some kind of external power supply before you can use your HDDs with OTG.


My new Nexus 7 doesn't allow me to receive apk files with bluetooth

Android only accepts certain file types (from a hardcoded list) by default.

There are two solutions:

The sender can rename their files before sending to one of the white-listed mime-types (by adding an accepted file extension).
Buy a phone from a manufacturer that supports it or install aftermarket firmware such as OmniROM or CyanogenMod that allow all file types with inbound bluetooth transfers.

If the manufacturer hasn't changed this behaviour or extended the list, the accepted mime-types as of January 2015 are:

"image/*",
"video/*",
"audio/*",
"text/x-vcard",
"text/plain",
"text/html",
"text/xml",
"application/zip",
"application/vnd.ms-excel",
"application/msword",
"application/vnd.ms-powerpoint",
"application/pdf",
"application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet",
"application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document",
"application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation",

I.e., just add a media file extension (eg. .jpeg/.png/.gif/.mp4/.mp3/), Zip file (.zip), PDF (.pdf) or office document (.doc/.xls/...), etc.

The list is defined in the string ACCEPTABLE_SHARE_INBOUND_TYPES variable if you like to see the exact and current definition in the source code.


Samsung Galaxy S7 stuck at boot - power button not working in recovery mode

My power button will work after scrolling to the option using the volume keys but I've always wondered about what it says below the options for the hashtree lineup..


Which specific storage space is low, when getting "Low Space" on Samsung Galaxy S?

It is usually /datadata that gets full on the Galaxy S. Interestingly this partition is not displayed in the Storage Setting Menu. The quirk is that /datadata is mounted on a special very fast flash chip that only provides 170MiB of storage space.

While this was enough in the "early days" of Android when the Galaxy S was released, it can easly become tight with modern Apps. /datadata is used to store application user data, and while many apps only place a few KiB there, some apps require to store more. Typical candidates that store around 20MiB in /datadata are Google Chrome and Google Currents.

ATM the best practice is a fix that lets you control which apps can store data on the fast chip and which are outsourced to the slower RAM. This script can also be installed with an app called datafix.

To find the apps that consume the most space use su && du -s /datadata/* |sort -gr |head. For example on my device:

shell@android:/datadata # su && du -s /datadata/* |sort -gr |head
39180   /datadata/com.android.chrome
20809   /datadata/com.google.android.apps.currents
16763   /datadata/com.google.earth
9431    /datadata/com.google.android.apps.plus
8938    /datadata/com.inisoft.mediaplayer.a
8270    /datadata/com.google.android.apps.maps
3015    /datadata/com.google.android.apps.docs
2160    /datadata/udk.android.reader
2096    /datadata/com.android.providers.contacts
1597    /datadata/com.fsck.k9


Can't change galaxy s4 lock screen wallpaper if security is in place

From what I've read this is a known "issue" with the S4.  When using pin security you can't change any lock screen widgets either.  If I was sure that my Fitbit Flex would continue to work with the S4 I'd have flashed CyanogenMod onto my S4 (they have been producing nightly versions for the S4 for a couple of weeks now).


How can I enable USB Debugging on an LG G2 (vs980) with a broken screen?

In this situation, since you have rooted your phone and can access the device via recovery adb, create a startup init.d script to set adb to wifi listening and then connect via wifi.

/system/etc/init.d/97adb

#!/system/bin/sh

if [ -e /sdcard/adb_wifi ]; then
    /system/bin/adb_to_tcp &
fi;

/system/bin/adb_to_tcp

#!/system/bin/sh

# Close STDOUT file descriptor
exec 1<&-
# Close STDERR FD
exec 2<&-

# Open STDOUT as $LOG_FILE file for read and write.
exec 1<>/sdcard/did_adb_tcp

# Redirect STDERR to STDOUT
exec 2>&1

while :
do

/system/bin/iptables -F
/system/bin/iptables -P INPUT ACCEPT
/system/bin/iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT
/system/bin/iptables -P FORWARD ACCEPT

setprop service.adb.tcp.port 5555
stop adbd
start adbd

/system/bin/sleep 120

done

/sdcard/adb_wifi

Ensure the former two files are +x and that the final file exists. Reboot. Wait. You now have 120 second intervals to:

adb connect [yourip]:5555
adb shell ps | grep sh
adb shell
> su
> kill -9 $PID_OF_SH


ADB Shell Input text unicode value gives permission error

From this StackOverflow post: adb shell input unicode character adb shell input isn't designed for unicode characters.

The most promising answer points to a github repo: ADBKeyBoard however there is a note that it may not work on Android O / Android P.


How can you sync a calender with an iCal link?

For read only feeds ICSDroid does this. It'll work with facebook's feeds too.

DavDroid will do the same for a proper caldav server (syncs in both directions)


How do I turn off the power-on sound and camera sound in a Galaxy S II?

This requires a rooted phone. There is a good guide here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1103399

If you don't have ADB, get the full Android SDK from here: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html (it might come in useful multiple times, and all app developers should already have it). Don't trust websites offering ADB alone unless it the official Android site. After installing it, browse to the install directory, then "platform-tools", then open the command line -- on Windows 7, this is done by shift-right-click and choose "Open command window here", then type "adb".

Power-on sound

This sound file is NOT in the standard location for Android (/system/media/audio) so most guides haven't worked for me.

Connect your phone to your computer and open ADB. Go into shell with "adb -d shell". Now become super-user with "su" - your phone must be active and unlocked - a dialog will open which you accept. In ADB again: " mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system".

Now rename the sound files so they can't be found!
"cd /system/etc"
"mv PowerOn.wav PowerOn.wav.old"
"mv 1_Power_on.ogg 1_Power_on.ogg.old"

Restart your phone. There should be no power-on sound.

Disable camera sound

Again. this sound file is also not in the standard Android location (/system/media/audio/ui/camera_clicker.ogg) so most guides haven't worked for me.

First, make your / read-write. In ADB, go into shell then type "cat /proc/mounts", find the line where "/" is the second column, and remember the first column which in my case is "rootfs". In ADB do "mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 rootfs /"

Now you need to edit the root default.prop (that is, "/default.prop"). In ADB: "cp /default.prop /sdcard/default.prop". Copy it from your SD card to your computer (Samsung Kies is the easier way). Add the line "ro.camera.sound.forced=0" and save. Put the edited file back onto your sdcard with the same name. Now "cat /sdcard/default.prop > /default.prop"

Restart your phone. Open the camera app. Taking photos and videos should now be silent.


Not sure if it does what you want to, but I use Quick System Info PRO (free).
In this app, via "Basic Info", you can get to the battery details, and check the "Power Usage". This gives you a break-down on which processes are responsible for power usage in percentages.
I have found it to be the most extensive monitoring application I could find. Also, the Dmesg and Logcat viewer (alos in the app) might give you an indication which messages are exchanged and thus which application/thread is responsible for activity.


Swipe required before pattern unlock on Marshmallow 6

I cannot confirm whether this feature would work on your particular ROM but it definitely works for stock Android 5.x and 6.x. You would need a rooted Android, compatible Xposed Framework installed and GravityBox [MM] installed and activated.

In GravityBox, under Lockscreen tweaks go to Direct unlock and choose Standard or See through. Select Default under Direct unlock policy.

(Click image to enlarge)

This would make sure to show the unlock phase of lock screen whenever the device is securely locked and screen is turned on.

1 Xposed Framework for stock Android [based] ROMs: Android 4.x, Android 5.x and 6.x


Erasing SD Card contents and personal data

The other answers are a little misleading.

First, it doesn't really matter from a security standpoint whether you've got things stored on the SD card or on the internal storage.  The SD card is easier to remove and read outside the phone, but the internal storage can be read as well (most easily from the device itself but also from a PC).

The second thing is that I would expect this wipe to be insecure, i.e., file deletion rather than zeroing of the storage.  (I haven't checked myself.)  I recommend using a program like Eraser to zero your SD card.  I don't have a good recommendation for the device storage, unfortunately.


How can I turn off an Android phone in the same Ethernet remotely using a Windows computer?

Shutdown as a command requires root
The simple answer is you can't perform a shell command from within an app for shutdown an Android system unless your device is rooted.
For performing the shutdown command on Android special permissions are required. When triggering a shutdown via UI the command is internally forwarded to a component that has the permissions to shutdown the system.
But regular apps (and therefore this applies also to all processes like telnet or ssh started in the context of an app) don't have this permission and thus can't shutdown the system.
Workaround: shutdown via adb over IP
Executing the command shutdown -p via adb should power off your phone.The problem is that adb by by default only available via USB connection (if you have enabled developer options and adb). The only workaround would be to connect your phone after booting to a PC and enable adb access via IP. This would be then allow a sort of telnet (via "adb connect IP" instead of telnet).
Warning: ADB over IP is really equivalent to telnet which means that it's data  is transmitted totally unprotected in plain text on network level. Therefore you should use adb over IP only in safe networks.
See also this question: How can I shutdown my Android phone using an adb command?


Separate volume level for speaker-phone mode?

Boy, separate volume controls for the speaker and earpiece would be useful, wouldn't they?

You can probably do what you want with Tasker. It lets you control all kinds of settings on the phone based on events. (Some ideas from Lifehacker.)


If I change SIM card, will I lose my memos?

SIM card and application data are not related at all. You can change SIM and the only thing you will lose is contacts and messages stored in the SIM card – if you have them stored on SIM. See this for help Backup SIM message and contact without transfer to phone


Does Titanium Backup work with system using Link2SD

Titanium Backup works fine with Link2SD. I've been using them together for about six months, with around 100 apps symlinked. There's no reason taking a backup would uninstall linked apps as Wolfgang reports, and I've also had zero issues restoring backups of linked apps, so it's clear that Titanium follows the symlinks correctly. In fact, I have just finished restoring all my apps from Titanium after flashing a ROM.

The only caveat is that when you restore in Titanium, Link2SD will not automatically link apps as they are restored, even if you set it up before restoring the rest of your apps. This is annoying, because it means you have to be conscious of your available internal memory and only restore in batches that will fit in your free space, then link the apps and do another batch.

Other than that, they work very smoothly alongside each other.


Ok, I've finally found how to locate the s/n.
When the tablet is off, press "volume down" + power until the hboot menu appears. Then pick the barcode option, and there you can find the IMEI, S/N and MB codes.


The issue appeared to be the built in /sdcard filesystem had become suspect and was being mounted read-only. Rooting the phone could probably have resolved it but it was still under warranty - so I just had it replaced.


Is there any way to use a touch screen monitor to CONTROL an Android tablet through USB?

As far as I know, no Android devices ship with drivers for a USB touchscreen monitor. To make this work, you'd have to find or write drivers for Android, and they'd probably be specific to the type of monitor.

In the first instance you could approach the monitor manufacturer and see if they know of a driver for Android, or are willing to give you the datasheets you'd need to write one.


How to force phone to switch to faster mobile data network during file transfer

I hate when that happens. It happened to me more times than I could count while I was traveling through western Maryland (and it's even worse when the phone mysteriously switches from 4G to 1X and refuses to go back to 4G or even 3G)...

Anyway, there are three things you can try.

The first, obvious one is to relocate the phone to somewhere that you get a better signal. This may not help much at all if you're in a fringe coverage area and in a residence, but it's definitely something you should attempt.

Next, to force the phone to reconnect to the network, just toggle airplane mode on and off. (BTW, don't bother with any of those so-called "network signal booster" apps. All they do is toggle airplane mode on and off, hiding the notification bar so you can't see what it's doing.) This is probably your best bet. In my experience this will get your high speed connection back most of the time, but you still aren't guaranteed to keep it long enough to finish your download.

Your phone also has a secret menu which can be accessed by entering *#*#4636#*#* into the dialer. In this menu you can view various statistics about the mobile data connection, as well as change which network types the device will try to connect to. (The exact types vary by device and firmware revision, and I don't have a Droid 3 on hand, so you'll just have to look and see for yourself.) In my experience, though, this didn't help much; the phone would just give me no data service instead of 1X, or refuse to connect to 3G/4G, or to any network at all. Also, be careful in this menu; if you change a setting and don't know what to change it back to, you could completely kill your ability to connect to the network, requiring a factory reset.


Is it possible to leave some apps in the internal memory while using S2E?

S2E moves the whole applicator folder to your ext partition. If you want to move specific applications you need to use something else.

Something else in this case can be Link2sd. You can pick apps and even data to move.


built in command line pager/viewer like less? Without busybox or root access

I know this question is a bit old. But I run into exactly the same problem and would like to share my solutions.

1st solution

Check if toybox is installed. If you are lucky, ls | toybox more may work.

2nd solution

However, I am not satisfied with the first solution, since more does not support going backwards. It turns out that vim is installed. In this case, you can run ls | vim -.

3rd solution

If you use emacs, calling adb shell in shell or eshell solves the problem. This is more or less the same as your screen workaround.


Extract app name from app-store:// and intent:// links

The application ID is essentially a regular Java package name that follows these 3 rules:

1.It must have at least two segments (one or more dots).
2.Each segment must start with a letter.
3.All characters must be alphanumeric or an underscore [a-zA-Z0-9_].

As you can see in your links, the URL on Google Play contains the application ID.

https://developer.android.com/studio/build/application-id


What do I need to improve performance of the Android emulator?

Past versions of the emulator were extremely slow on all platforms.  However, there are now native x86 versions of the emulator; performance should be considerably improved.  You should be able to get them through the Android SDK (or through Intel's website, see this Stack Overflow post).

However, I would recommend (for end users) Memu instead; it's very fast and reliable.  Genymotion is the best alternative if you aren't on Windows.


How do I view google's motion photos on my windows PC?

I did some experimenting based on the post by @jameshenstridge and came up with a simple PHP script that successfully split every google motion photo i threw at it.

<?php

  $src_arg = $argv[1];
  $src_dir = realpath(pathinfo($src_arg, PATHINFO_DIRNAME));

  echo "Scanning for files...\n";

  foreach (glob($src_arg) as $src) {

    $file = realpath($src);

    if (!is_dir($file) && in_array(strtoupper(pathinfo($file, PATHINFO_EXTENSION)), ["JPEG", "JPG"])) {

      echo "\tProcessing: " . $file . "\n";

      $filesize = filesize($file);
      echo "\t\tFile size: " . $filesize . "\n";

      $handle = fopen($file, "rb");
      $data = fread($handle, $filesize);
      fclose($handle);

      $eoi_pos = strpos($data, "\xFF\xD9\x00\x00\x00\x18");
      echo "\t\tEOI segment position: " . $eoi_pos . "\n";

      if ($eoi_pos !== FALSE) {
        $output_base = $src_dir . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . pathinfo($file, PATHINFO_FILENAME);
        echo "\t\tSaving photo...\n";
        file_put_contents($output_base . "_photo.jpg", substr($data, 0, $eoi_pos + 2));
        echo "\t\tSaving video...\n";
        file_put_contents($output_base . "_video.mp4", substr($data, $eoi_pos + 2));
      } else {
        echo "\t\tSKIPPING - File does not appear to be a Google motion photo.\n";
      }

    }

  }

  echo "Done.\n";

?>

It should work on Windows and Linux.  You just pass a path  as the first argument and it will split any files that it believes are motion photos.  You can use wildcards.  It's non-destructive - the source file(s) are not deleted.

Some example uses:

php google_motion_photo_splitter.php c:\test\file.jpg
php google_motion_photo_splitter.php c:\test\*.jpg
php google_motion_photo_splitter.php c:\test\*


Prevent using YouTube app for watching YouTube video

You need to clear the default setting to open YouTube videos in the app.

Go to settings -> Apps -> YouTube -> Defaults -> Clear defaults


I changed the company brand boot logo Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus and now don't start

The phone is probably a Mediatek device, Download SP Flash Tool, Install VCOM drivers and Flash it using a Windows Computer. I once did same thing for Tecno J5 and it ended up so. That's the thing you should do. But read how to flash it. Because flashing the preloader.bin file will brick it forever. So you must be cautious on the files you mark. Or ask me how if you feel fearful about the process. It will end up cool. Of it is still not MTK based, flashing stock ROM will unbrick it


Can you Disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth from Google Apps or a MDM Server?

From looking at that page, I'd say it's just the connection settings. I don't think you can completely disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.


Un-register service from hwservicemanager

You can check system/hwservicemanager/ServiceManager.cpp to see when and why hwservicemanager is setting ctl.interface_start to trigger init to start the HAL service.

Unless you are willing to update system/hwservicemanager/ServiceManager.cpp, I don't see a way to achieve what you are trying to do.


How can I restrict a user's ability to modify settings or install apps?

You can't... unless you manufacture the device by yourself.

You can't stop power users from flashing ROM which would flush your software based protection (even if you have embedded the solution in ROM to survive factory reset). Unfortunately, almost all devices in Market support it. If not, there are ways to hack bootloaders, too.

If you are still interested in software based solution, try contacting Soti. They provide such type of solutions at a cost.


After upgrade to android lollipop Moto G 1st Gen getting slow and lagging

No need to reset the phone.Clearing cache partition should do the job.
How to clear cache partition on Moto G


You are in a so called "Download Mode". You should hold your power button until your phone reboots.


Can Opera Mini or Mobile be configured to set the page title as the subject when sharing as email?

Short answer - no. There are advanced options accessible by typing the URL opera:advanced , but most of those deal with the rendering engine.


If you are on 4.2.2, you might want to read e.g. ADB Whitelist As of the Android 4.2.2: Starting with this Android version, "remote devices" (i.e. those you run ADB commands from) must be authorized by the Android device (i.e. the one those commands are runnin on) -- so your Android device can tell "trusted callers" from "malicious attackers". You can also find this in detail on this article on AndroidPolice:

  The way it works is pretty simple - when you connect your PC to your Android device via USB, Android gets your PC's RSA key (an identifier token). In Android 4.2.2, when you have USB debugging enabled, this now causes a prompt to appear on connection, seen below.

(image source: AndroidPolice)

Update from the comments below:

Additionally, as Shurane pointed out, behavior of adb keyevent seems to have changed with Android 4.2.2: while before adb keyevent 26 was a dedicated "screen-off", and adb shell input keyevent 82 a dedicated "screen-on" switch, now adb keyevent 26 is a toggle which turns the screen off (when it's on) and on (when it's off), as noted by Pepelac.


Do the new NFC options in 4.4 Kitkat allow one to have a combined digital wallet?

All that host-based card emulation (HCE) does is it enables app authors to support more hardware: that is, devices that don't have the necessary secure element hardware. Developers of apps that previously made contactless transactions using the secure element will now be able to make their apps work on devices that don't have that hardware. However, using HCE is less secure than using a hardware secure element, so it's likely that payment card operators will choose not to support this.

Secure payment cards

The obstacle that stops you reading your own cards into your phone (cloning the cards) is not related to the phone's technology: it's because the card is designed to prevent this. The card contains a secret number that can't be accessed via an NFC transaction. To be more precise, there's no sanctioned way to do this: security researchers and criminals have found ways to use flaws in the design to clone various contactless payment cards. I wouldn't recommend doing this, as doing so may constitute a criminal offence where you are, and will almost certainly make you liable for your bank's losses should anything go wrong.

In summary: the only difference that HCE makes is that if your bank already offers an app to do this, but it doesn't work on your phone, it might (if your bank chooses) work after you upgrade to Android 4.4.

Door cards, etc.

Unlike the high-security payment cards, with processors and secret numbers, door entry cards and tags and the like often just have an ID, which they present to the card reader. Such cards are already very easy to clone. The main obstacle has been getting the the phone to present the desired ID, and HCE means there may well be an explosion of apps that are made for just this use case. (See also Can I clone my (mifare classic) Access card with an Android device?.) However, the long-term result of this is likely to be that door entry systems are changed to use challenge-response protocols and thus become harder to clone.


How to find an app is compatible with Intel based Android device or not?

Bluestacks emulator running on a computer with Intel processor, is a good way to test, Intel processor(x86) based app or game compatibility.
https://www.bluestacks.com/

Genymotion emulator is also a good alternative
https://www.genymotion.com/


Previously Rooted Nexus 5 is not recognized via USB after stock 5.0 OTA update

Perhaps it is issue of USB connector. Most of the times due to dust it does not get proper contacts on USB pins and its not recognized over USB. Try to check that.


If the new SIM uses the same phone number and plan, throw out the old SIM and use the new one. If it seems to change your number, keep the old one if it fits in the device.

The new one is indeed likely to be more secure.


Mp3s open in Google play after tapping always, have already reset all app preferences. What now?

In the Firefox address bar, enter about:config.
search for download.preferred.
After the search had filtered some items, You will see a preference named browser.download.preferred.audio/mpeg whose value is probably com.google.android.music.
Tap the Reset button at the lower right corner of this preference.

Future tip:
To see preferences you modified yourself, enter about:support, and check under Important Modified Preferences.


Why 'am start PACKAGE' cannot launch some apps and shows an error?

use this:

adb shell am start -n com.whatsapp/.HomeActivity


Tap on Picture in MMS and a different picture opens up?

It is a known bug with the MMS in SOME LG smartphones where the older version of “Messages” app is installed. Previously deleted MMS picture shows up in newest incoming MMS message instead of the intended image due to this bug.

You can fix it by updating the "Messages" app to the latest version.

Source: https://www.lg.com/ca_en/support/product-help/CT30014940-20150929584034


Lg stylo2 moving apps to sd card problem

According to this it was a feature removed in Marshmallow update.
Quoting user tommytm75 from the android central forum:

There is no solution yet. I have the same issue. After going back and
forth with LG, finally someone answered my question.  This is the last
email I got from LG.
Hi Tom,
Thank you for contacting LG!
We regret any inconvenience you’re having.  Upon checking, I’m afraid
that the Adoptable Storage feature  has been removed on the
Marshmallow update of the LG G Stylo  and this means you may not be
able to fully use the SD card as internal storage of the device. I’m
so sorry to disappoint you in this matter.
Should you have any other questions,  please feel free to contact us
again via Email, Live Chat, or Phone by calling 1-800-793-8896.
Thank you and we wish you all the best.
Sincerely,
Edrian
--- LG Customer Service

Source: LG G STYLO - not enough memory on sd card?


Prevent entering PIN code before lockscreen

There is no way I am aware of for doing what you want. But why you need the pin unlock, just remove it from settings and stick with the unlock screen,, in this way you will not have your sim locked


Hidden sms message sent at every startup

Sounds more like a virus. The only guarenteed way is to flash a fresh ROM and start over. Malware is getting smarter and smarter and may be able to hide itself on the OS unless you start fresh.


Go to Settings > Storage > Scroll down and unmount your Pen Drive.


How to login to Oneplus OxygenOS after motherboard change with 2-step verification?

Other tech senior proposed to change the motherboard 2nd time OR to have a new phone. I accepted the latter.


Can I unlock my Razr M (Verizon) for international use?

All Motorola phones are unlocked for use overseas.  These phones will not work for AT&T and T-Mobile, but they do work out of the USA(I have used one myself)


How to make an application to ignore updates?

Multiple approaches here.

First, you can open the PlayStore App, hit the menu button, go to settings, and advise it to only work with WLAN, plus not install apps automatically. This would cover part of your problem.

Second, you could also tell it to not check for updates at all. While on a first look this seems to contradict with your intention -- please read on. Go and install yourself the Appbrain App Market App. This actually utilizes the Google Play store, it is not a separate market. It even uses your Google account for everything. Now synchronize your installed apps with the AppBrain App. After that, you will see available updates -- and you can decide on a per-app basis whether to...

accept this update
skip this update only (and be reminded only for the next update)
skip updates for this app altogether

As you told the "original" PlayStore-App to "shut up", there won't be multiple update notifications. Just use the Appbrain App for updating your apps -- it will do so by calling the PlayStore app using its API. Batch-Updates ("Update all") are of course possible as well.


How to backup applications' data from second or subsequent user of a currently non-rooted device?

I use Helium on a non-rooted Nexus 7 (2013) to backup my app data (but not the apps). I have only one user account but since that app data is user-specific, is contained in my user area, and the backup is placed in my user area, I'd be surprised if Helium would have any trouble backing-up each account separately. I have not had occasion to restore a user's data from a Helium backup, so be I can't vouch for that process.


What is the difference between a proximity sensor and a light sensor?

If the proximity sensor worked by simply measuring received light, it would be useless at night :) There are various methods this sensor can work, but the main idea is to decide if the phone is being held up at a person's ear. This is a yes or no question so the sensor doesn't have to be able to measure the distance, there just has to be a designated treshold, which, when crossed, triggers the output value from 0 to 1 (and thus, it turns off the screen).

The light sensor, however, needs to measure the brightness the phone is exposed to, usually to be able to adjust the screen's brightness. This way, for example, it can turn up the brightness in sunlight and reduce it at night.


Remove google accounts from Android Market

I don't think so, probably only way to block it would be deleting it :(


Why does the in-call volume change on its own on my Samsung Galaxy S3?

The problem was caused by an app that I installed for allowing the company I work for to page me. This proprietary app had a bug that caused it to drop the in-call volume during a call; Updating the app fixed the problem.


You can try to install it directly from this page - http://www.1mobile.com/kindle-13239.html

However, be warned that due to certain geographical restrictions, the app may NOT work as intended if not supported.

Re: your market app not connecting - can you browse the net or connect other apps? Can you sync your Google account on your device? What tablet do you have?


How to install Google Apps And Services on Lollipop AOSP ROM?

You don't install all the APKs individually. Since you've installed an AOSP ROM, what you are looking for is a gapps package that you flash in a similar way to how you flashed your ROM. You can get a minimal gapps package that will install everything you mentioned here.

You need not worry about converting them to system apps. When you flash the package from your recovery, they will be installed as system apps in the system parition.


It's not just about Google apps. You can't remove any system app without root privileges. The reason is very simple. You need higher privileges (system; root) to write the system partition which contains those system apps and you don't have it. system partition is mounted in read-only mode by-default.

Unless that partition is already mounted in read-write mode, a system app uninstaller would first have to remount the partition in read-write mode and then would begin the procedure of removing the app. To remount, they require root permissions while you're asking something impossible here.

Thinking about adb wouldn't help here because it doesn't have the privilege to remount that partition too.

As for freeing some disk space, know that disabling those Google apps and clearing their data from Settings → Apps → All apps should be enough because even if you somehow end up achieving the impossible, you won't be able to see any difference since the insufficient-memory issue is associated with data partition, not with system.
See Where in the file system are applications installed?

As for any concern about the battery, you may be able to save some juice using Greenify.


Is there a multi-protocol chat client that doesn't require a separate account?

IM apps that don't require an additional account tend to be few and far between on Android (in my experience, anyway), but so far I've seen two:

eBuddy - This does have an associated "eBudy ID" account that you can register for, but you're not required to do so in order to use other protocols.
IM+ (free, pro) - Same as eBuddy above. Another potential selling point is that the tablet interface is much nicer, IMHO.


In most players you need to tell it where to find the music files or have the ap scan the device. i use Music folder player its free and does the trick


can't find executable installation file in droid explorer folder so how do I install on windows 10 please

GitHub is mainly for developers, therefore the main view shows the source code repository. On GitHub the binary files are usually available in the "releases" section of each project.

https://github.com/camalot/droidexplorer/releases

In this page you can finde the ZIPed version of the DroidExplorer installer.


When i flash a new custom rom, does it get rid of other things that i've flashed before?

As of Lollipop all custom ROMs have transitioned to the new system.new.dat + system.transfer.list format, so the /system partition will be fully overwritten, which means bye bye GAPPS and Xposed. If you migrate to a different ROM, you'll also need to wipe /data (not including /data/media which is your internal storage).

Then again, flashing GAPPS/Xposed again isn't that hard, is it?

As for ROM recommendation, I think it's against SE's rule to do that here (XDA wouldn't allow that either), so better go try everything yourself. I myself am a die-hard CM fan.


Interchanging battery with a higher capacity battery

Not Recommended in general

Battery Charging has various stages

These stages are regulated and controlled by the the charging circuit in charger/ in device by firmware files to switch to various stages. Battery capacity is very much integral to this. By replacing with a battery of higher capacity (or extended battery unless OEM approved) charging may less than optimal and therefore the performance or life of battery could be affected
Edit: The number of terminals and purpose could also vary ( some batteries have three terminals and some have 4). This would be an issue
Your case: There is hardly a difference in mAh so it may not matter at all , if it fits- normally OEMs like Samsung make sure that the batteries cannot be interchanged between devices - can't say about Redmi. The benefit you would get is marginal, so would recommend playing safe and not replacing to avoid any problems


I'm assuming there is nothing showing up in the notifications bar to let you know what wants your attention.

I would open up a system monitoring app (like OS monitor) and check to see what has recently accessed services.  If an app doesn't jump out on its own, you can then sleuth backwards with Permissions Explorer and see what is tapping the service to give you the notification.


what you are trying to do is very possible but your methods will never work. firstly you gotta know that there are two different com.whatsapp folders. The one you were just talking about is so useless anyone any device can access, you need the whole directory from . to copy this you need root permissions right, and to copy them in a new device you need root as well, so that you are able to put them in the root dir.


Filter out ARM native apps in Play Store

The Google Play Store automatically filters your application to devices with compatible CPU architecture. E.g. if you have a library which is only compiled for ARMv5, your app will only show up for devices with ARMv5 and ARMv7 processors. Your device should show you only apps that are compatible to your device.
Source: Android Developers - Filters on Google Play

Short answer: no, you can't filter those apps manually. You may try to uncompress the APK file and check its configuration, but it will be too much complicated work.
If you need a detailed answer, read further. You may not have understood me completely with above answer I gave, let me explain in details:
There are two types of applications based on native library use (native library is compiled with Android NDK)

Apps with Native library (i.e. these apps use native library with CPU specific architecture and these libraries directly execute on CPU instead of using Dalvik VM/ART)
These kinds of apps are filtered in Play Store, because there are multiple version of apps present in the Play Store specific to device (for x86 with x86 compiled library, and for ARM with ARM compiled library. Source - Developer can publish multiple APKs with different configuration)

Apps without Native library (these apps execute on Dalvik VM/ART)
These apps are CPU-architecture-independent, so there is no effect with which device you use these. Also here Dalvik VM will be compiled for your device by device OEM (in your case, ASUS)