Tasker: How can I delete a file after a month

That's rather a question of shell stuff. See this example shell command:

find /some/dir -ignore_readdir_race -cmin -depth -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type f +1440 ! -execdir fuser -s {} 2>/dev/null \; -delete

This would delete all files in /some/dir which are older than 1440 minutes (i.e. 24h). Just multiply the 1440 by 30 to get 1 month, and fire the command via a time-based profile.


Bricked phone due to cut-pasting of apk files

I went to a Cricket retailer (not an official store) for an unrelated issue with my new phone and, interestingly enough, they can, and will, flash the stock ROM back onto my phone. So, problem solved and lesson learned!


LG G3 Resolution messed up - how to stop processes on startup?

have you tried booting into safe mode?  it might boot with normal resolution and then you can try change the resolution settings back to normal.

boot into safe mode LG G3


How can I display image formats not supported by the email app, e.g. TIFF?

The picture viewer of my HTC Desire work fine for TIFF...

Do you try Astro?

BeamReader is able to do it, but it's expensive... However, they offer a 10-day free trial.


Disable alarms for all day events in google calendar

I suspect that the events for which you get notifications have a reminder set in them. So the easiest way to get rid of the notifications is to turn off the reminders in the events themselves. Typically, you would not have a reminder in the birthday event but if the event came from somewhere else (like Outlook or other phone) then the reminder might get added to it. I had this problem on some phones...
however, it could be very tedious to remove reminders individually if you have many events with unwanted reminders.

The second part of the question: I'd use Tasker app for that. However, you have to pay for it. I am aware of a free automation app AutomateIt (sorry can't add a link because I don't have enough rep here) and from description it looks like it can also kill sound based on a rule but I have not used it myself so will not comment.
For Tasker there are instructions on how to implement "Sleep mode" with which the phone with "shut up" at night. If you go down this path I can assist more since I have set this up on my phone and it works quite well.


Not getting any internet on my phone even though it says I'm connected to wifi

It might be due to the network connection of your house's wifi not completely connected yet.

Do ensure that your phone display Connected to (name of your house's wifi) before you continue to surf the net.

Do take a look at the up and down arrow of the wifi connections that its moving as well. Else, try to on and off your wifi and try again till you are completely connected to your house wifi.

If not, you can try to on and off your modem of your house and try to on wifi on your device again.

Hope it helps!


locate lost phone with help from gps and web based google play

If you have enabled Android Device Manager as administrator

You can either use the mobile app on another phone to track it or use this link:
https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager


Installating Resurrection Remix on HTC One X

I've now managed to make a working installation. I followed this YouTube video and the blog post it links. The main difference being the usage of a special version of TWRP rather than ClockworkMod Recovery. Note that the android version included there is 5.0.2, so you might want to use a more recent one instead.


Saving battery life: pressing home button or back button

That's basically what Android does in many cases, yes.  But I don't think it's true that it will have all that much of an effect on battery life.  Most apps don't take long to start up at all — it would take repeatedly opening apps that take multiple minutes to start to noticeably affect your battery life, I would think.  Android does automatically close apps when needed, and apps normally can't run in the background (just services), so there is not much reason to back out of an app rather than just using the home button.


Cant move a single app to SD card on Samsung A21s

Samsung A21s does not allow ANY app to be installed on the SD card..


Titanium Backup is able to read from Nandroid backups, so you can use it to restore parts from them -- and then use Titanium Backup again to backup those restored parts. However, as there's no Titanium Backup for PC, this has to be done on an Android device.

If your goal however is to separate some apps from a Nandroid backup, there are other ways to achieve this: Nandroid copies the entire partition (see: nandroid tag-wiki). So you could mount the images (on Linux, this should be no problem with the EXT file systems at least -- see e.g. Restore only part of nandroid image), or unpack them (for YAFFS partitions e.g. using unyaffs -- see my answer here).

For completeness: there are also ADB-style backups (which again Titanium Backup is able to access). For these, you might want to take a look at e.g. Android Backup Extractor and Android Backup Splitter, and also my answer here on how to convert an ADB backup into a tar file to investigate, using the Perl AdbBackupRoutines from this XDA thread.


Can you send texts from iMessage to someone who has Android and uses Handcent?

If you are wondering if the text will be received through Handcent: yes.  If you are wondering if you will get the group text styled messaging from iMessage while using Handcent: no, I don't think you will.

There are several other SMS options that do support group messaging though.  Android 4.2+ offers group messaging built into the native Messaging app, so if you are on 4.2+ then you probably just need to enable the settting in Messaging app.  If you are on something before 4.2 then you could use GoSMS.  That is what I used until I was updated to 4.2 and it does a great job.  It's not perfect, because Apple likes their iOS exclusivity with iMessage, but it will do the trick.

Again, I am assuming you're looking for a group text solution.  If you are not, disregard my advice.  If you are wondering if Handcent can receive an iMessage, it should, but you wont have a group text to reply to.


Maybe your data carrier had problems or there's a bug at UC Mini. See if next updates of UC Mini can workaround your problem.


Can I flash a custom boot.img to Nexus 5 when "Secure Boot" is enabled?

my custom kernel cannot pass the verification.

This doesn't imply that you cannot boot into the Android with your custom kernel. When the verification would fail, your device would warn you about that and you would be given the choice to continue the boot process or not.

Google mentioned about this here

  RED, indicating the device has failed verification. The bootloader must display a warning to the user before allowing the boot process to continue.

So now, you can flash the kernel in the same manner those having secure boot disabled would do.


the apk file is stored in the internal memory still, it's in the 'data' folder.  I don't think you can do much about that with earlier versions of android but if you find a way then please let me know!


Notification light in silent mode on Lollipop

The best solution I have found so far is purchasing the popular app "Light Flow" for currently $2.49 and in this app activate "Show LED in priority mode". Then just set the phone to priority mode and you have pretty much the same behavior as in pre-Lollipop. Still annoying, though, to have to use an extra app for this. There might be free app alternatives, but I already wasted too much time for this and didn't search for that.


What running applications and services are safe to turn off?

Calendar depends on Calendar Storage; Handcent still relies on the device's services for receiving messages; and I would guess that even if Winamp doesn't rely on Media, your wallpaper or notification sounds or something else does.

I would mostly leave these "System" services alone.  If you have battery trouble, it's likely due to user-installed apps.


According to the source code for ADB push and pull commands, they return 0 for success and 1 for failure.  I have not tried this in batch files, so cannot comment on accuracy.


Flashing an official Samsung galaxy tab kernel

First off you will need to root your tablet. This is relatively easy, especially with the galaxy because it's so popular. Head on over to the XDA Forums (www.xda-developers.com) and navigate to the galaxy 10.1 section. This youtube video also will do it for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krQDP7xYlWg

BE CAREFUL. Follow the steps exactly. You don't want to brick your device.

After that, you'll have ClockworkMod. So first things first: zip up your kernel, then copy it to your device. Most of the time, tablets require sd-cards in order to install things from recovery, so pop in an sd-card and copy the zipped folder here.

Then, reboot into recovery (turn device off, then hold up volume button and power at the same time). You'll want to wipe your cache partition and davlik cache first. Once this is done, go to install zip from sd-card, find your folder with the kernel, and that's it!

BEFORE YOU DO THIS, do a backup of your current system, just in case your kernel really messes up your device. Hope this helps!


How can I save the maps downloaded from Offline Maps in Google Maps for reusing after a factory reset?

If your device is rooted, you can use Titanium Backup to backup the Maps application, which will backup the application and it's data.

After resetting, again install Titanium Backup, (you have to root again, if you had lost the root access, as a first step) and restore the Maps application. While restoring, you get a chance to opt for restoring app alone or app with data. When opting for the later, your offline data also comes.


Will a Samsung Galaxy S6 case fit on an S6 Edge?

All of the non-Edge versions of cases I've seen wrap around the sides which would cover the sides of the screen on the Edge.


What is the name of Android Device Manager Service

The Android Device manager is by default allowed:

<wifi
    blocked="false"
    package="com.google.android.apps.adm" />
<other
    blocked="false"
    package="com.google.android.apps.adm"
    roaming="false" />

https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard/blob/master/app/src/main/res/xml/predefined.xml#L19


Link2SD does not select second partition

According Link2SD page, also the second partition should be primary:

  You should have two partitions on SD card and both should be primary.
  The first FAT partition is your standard SD card storage. The second partition is used for application files and can be ext2, ext3, ext4 or FAT32.

Check if the second partition (the first one can not be used to link apps) is primary and not an extended partition.


What are the limitations of syncing PC settings (Firefox) with my Android?

You cant sync addons or settings between the PC and android due to differences in the platform. The only things which can be synced are bookmarks, passwords, history and even open tabs. Firefox 11's addon sync works only between the PC versions


Is there a way to hide all notifications during the night?

You could use an app called
Notifications off.
(Root required )

It has a settings that lets you block notifications at night.


My guess is that the underlying hardware that makes the screen run is damaged. In a touchscreen, or all monitors in general, a complex series of wires sends electrical impulses to the individual led diodes (a set of Red, Green, Blue is called a pixel). If one of the main wires became damaged or loosened, it will seriously mess up the screen's viewing output.

Judging by the color difference in your photo, the only part receiving signals from the graphics unit is above a defined line (is that a crack? If so, that is most likely where a breaking event could have occurred).

Since it fell down hard enough to eject the battery, the internal components most likely suffered some damage. If you have a service provider, they might be able to look at your phone in more detail and tell you exactly where the issue is and how (if possible) to fix it.

Best of luck!


Android viruses infected my phone (Tecno)

If you do get a virus, you could perform a factory reset to get rid of it, but that means you’d lose all your data. Your photos, saved games, text messages, and everything else will be gone if you didn’t back them up. Obviously, a factory reset should be your last option.

There are also other malware removal tools without factory reset:
* Malwarebytes
* Bitdefender Antivirus Free


Nexus 4 wont hold charge after screen and battery replacement

I suppose you prob got a new phone by now or fixed it.

But if you say the "The new battery charged once successfully" you mean you were able to charge it only with the phone off?

If so, sounds like you might have had a short circuit somewhere near the battery's USB port connection, and only occurs when a certain circuit is on due to the phone being on. Or it could be just something is loose... hard to tell from the details given.

What I'd do is try and take it apart again and see if anything got damaged or loose around that area.

Gotta keep in mind these devices are very delicate and use low voltages. You gotta do fixes like this as if they were "surgery" and take all precautions, proper tools, etc. A bit of static electricity discharging from your hand or even damaging the track in the board somehow can cause big time damage. Tiny transistors are easily damaged by static electricity so always wear a anti-static wriststrap when doing these repairs.

Let us know what happened!?


How to take full image backup of partitions or eMMC?

Yes you can boot in TWRP if bootloader is unlocked:
fastboot boot /path/to/twrp.img

Then you can simply dd whole eMMC or individual partitions. You need some  extra memory (on external SD card) to backup whole eMMC or /data partition. Smaller partitions (including the biggest one: system) can be backed up to internal memory i.e. data partition.
For Qualcomm SoC:
(for MTK devices, path is slightly different)
dd if=/dev/block/(bootdevice/)mmcblk0 of=/path/to/external-sd/emmc-backup

For single partition:
dd if=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata of=/path/to/external-sd/data-backup

In order to come up with shortage of space, instead of using SD Card you may save backup files directly to PC using adb shell or exec-out. Thanks to @Izzy:
adb exec-out dd if=/dev/block/(bootdevice/)mmcblk0 > emmc-backup.img

Make sure your adb binary (on Windows or Linux) supports exec-out. Also take care that unwanted non-printing terminal characters don't get included in output.
There are also other methods like adb pull, UMS or streaming over network. For details see How to recover a deleted file from /data partition?
PS:
Another way to save space and to speed up backup process is to backup only the contents of mountable filesystems instead of whole partition image. Particularly userdata and system are larger partitions but they aren't usually completely filled. Mount them and create backup archive using tar so that zeroed out portion of these partitions isn't backed up.
Make sure to preserve all file permissions and attributes (whatever applicable depending on filesystem etc.) including classic UNIX file mode and owner, ACLs, XATTRs and SELinux contexts.   These options are supported by tar. Otherwise things might get messed up. See more details in How to stream an encrypted backup of the entire device to remote host?

RELATED:

How disk space is partitioned in an Android phone?
Why can't I see Android storage as a partition on PC?
Is there any way to recover data from 2nd SD partition?


In terminal-ide how do I get telnetd to start automatically whenever the device turns on?

I don't know of a better solution for now, but I could do it by adding telnetd in the end of the .bashrc file. It is run many times, but the command fails if the address is already in use anyway.

This is a quick hack, but it would be nice to have an initialization script run when the app starts.


Send a SMS for every Android notification (goal: get notifications on Garmin Edge 1000)

In fact, the best way I found to do that for any kind of events that can occurs on the Android phone is by using the Tasker application.

That way, I can choose what notifications will be sent as a SMS, and then the Garmin device will be promptly notified.


Is there an app for Flash support for Android 2.1?

There is an alternative browser, Skyfire, which purports to support at least some Flash videos on Android 2.1.

It should be available in the Market.


Unfortunately the S7 itself comes with USB 2.0 as of official specs, which allows 0.5A max current.


How to get the latest security updates for CyanogenMod?

Sounds like you haven't updated in a long time as at today (2016-02-20) latest nighty for that device is cm13.0 2016-02-19.

If you refer however to a snapshot, as you can see the latest available one is from November.

https://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=serranoltexx


Is it possible to merge contacts from different sources and upload them to GMail?

This answer is based on comments from Niall C.

There are 5 phases in the process :

Select each contact, and then link them when relevant. The goal is to have 1 friend = 1 contact.
Export the list (Contact > Menu > More > Import Export > To SD Card), it will work even if you don't have any SD card.
Transfer the file to a computer (the file is quite light, even with GPG keys and user pics)
Open GMail, backup your contact by exporting them
Import the VCF file

And that's all ! Your contacts in GMail have now phone numbers ! Don't worry, GMail merge contacts becase their email adress is already known.

Source : How to move phone contacts to Google?


ssh to termux server disconnects after X seconds

Thanks to @IrfanLatif I looked at battery options again.

And my phone was in Power Saving mode. When I disabled that, everything worked - whether Termux is running in the foreground or not.

So the problem was not related to the upgrade of Termux.


IMEI Invalid - Lenovo S860, rooted android 4.4.2, nothing works

I am using MTK Engineering Mode app from Play Store to restore my lost IMEI after flashing ROM. You should know your previous IMEI number. It is usually mentioned in the area underneath battery. When you will open your phone you will see it.

Steps:

Open MTK Engineering Mode.
Click MTK setting.
From connectivity tab choose CDS information, radio information, phone1 or phone2, send AT command AT+EGMR=1,7,”your15digitsIMEI”.
Click send AT command button.
Restart your phone and it should work now.

If still unclear see my article here.


Theoretically, yes.

I would assume you could accomplish this by the following process:

Root the device.
Remap every button to the one app you want to run
Configure your device to operate as you want

remove lock screen, etc.

Fill in the gaps

There's where it gets tricky, you could uninstall your launcher as well, but I have not tried mapping buttons to apps (which might require a bit of custom program), and I do not know if you could get to them without a launcher installed, as that is where the system defaults to after rebooting. That being said, removing too much (like the lock screen) could de-stabilize your system, although you may be able to find work arounds for each specific issue (like using No Lock).

This is an interesting idea, and definitely one to play around with. It could yield some interesting applications.


speaker option enabled by default when answering the calls

I know for certain that some apps do have the option of changing the setting (e.g. InDrive allows you to switch to speakerphone when driving)

As for the second question, I believe that CallRecorder is the culprit, because:
a) I have tried TrueCaller once, and did not experience anything like you are mentioning,
b) Call recorder apps generally can't work on unrooted Android (as far as I know) unless you are using the speakerphone, so that they can record your voice, and the voice coming from the speakerphone.


Pair Sony DualShock 4 v2 with Sony Android TV

Yes, it is possible to pair Dualshock 4 v2 controllers on a Sony 2015 Android TV. I have had no success when trying to pair through the TVs Dualshock 4 settings menu, but I successfully paired three controllers (simultaneously) using the Bluetooth settings menu:

If you have a PlayStation - start by unplugging your PlayStation's power cord, since I've noticed that the controllers otherwise sometimes pair with the PlayStation instead of the TV
Press the home button on your TVs remote and go to settings.
Go to bluetooth settings.

Go to device list

Add accessory

Now press and hold the share button on your controller. While still holding the share button - press and hold the PS button on your controller. Your controller's light should, after a couple of seconds, start to flash in a pattern of two short blinks followed by a pause repeatedly. Soon your tv should identify the controller as "Unknown"

Press the "select" button on your TVs remote control (the center button of your remote) to start pairing. The TV will identify the controller as "Wireless controller"

The controllers light will turn solid white when pairing is complete.
You should now be able to control your tv using the Dualshock 4 v2 controller.
If you want to use the controller(s) with PlayStation again, you will need to pair the controller(s) to the Playstation using an USB cable.

While running Android Lollipop I was able to control the TV's menus, play games downloaded through Google Play Store and use the controllers in emulators.
After upgrading to Marshmallow I'm still able to control the TV, but the experience is now pretty much ruined by heavy input lag starting about 30 seconds after pairing. I still hope to find a solution for this.


Will I damage my Android device by charging it using a generic microusb + car adapter?

USB, mini-USB, and micro-USB cables are standardized, the voltage and amperage are the same across all standard compliant USB chargers. As long as the charger is a standard, generic micro-USB charger then it should be alright.

That doesn't make it impossible for a manufacturer to create a non-standard plug that looks like a USB plug, but they're pretty much screwed up if they do so.


Moto G6 audio sending through wrong audio channel

So basically, I waited for a few days and it fixed itself in the middle of the night. I don't know why. Sorry, future humans!

Given that it both spontaneously started and stopped, that it persisted through multiple restarts, and that it was present during safe mode, I suspect that this was either a hardware issue or it was embedded in the registry.

note to editors: this answer is here simply to successfully close the question.


How can I install the vanilla Gingerbread launcher?

There are several versions uploaded to the Play Store. I cannot personally attest to the safety or nature of them, but they generally all claim to be "pulled from the SDK" or similar.

One exception is that I do recall trying the one named "Android 2.3 Launcher (Home)" briefly in the past and it worked fine and wasn't doing anything shady (it's review average is ~4.2 stars at the moment).


Could a thief reset a stolen phone from its default config + screen lock?

Although difficult to generalize, in a pretty good number of cases, using a lock screen PIN/password is not going to be sufficient to prevent someone from wiping your phone and/or flashing it with a new ROM. It may be an effective enough deterrent to prevent them from accessing your personal data, but there are a few considerations that go along with that, as well.

Firstly, if the bootloader is unlockable, then there is effectively no way to prevent someone from reflashing the device. The fastboot utility will give them the ability to flash unsigned images once the bootloader is unlocked, and unlocking it will not be prevented by any userspace security (like a PIN/password or keeping USB debugging disabled). Nexus devices always have unlockable bootloaders, so those are a given. For other devices, you can typically find out if your device has an unlockable bootloader by visiting the development portal of your manufacturer's website. Samsung devices will use Odin/Heimdall instead of fastboot (excepting some outliers, like Nexus devices made by Samsung which also have fastboot), but you can generally find out if a Samsung device will accept unsigned images via a bit of searching (in many cases they will).

Some devices have other ways of accessing fastboot/recovery, some more esoteric than others. It's not terribly uncommon for there to be a key combination that will boot a device into its stock recovery system, which will provide some means of performing a factory reset, thereby removing any lock screen security that was configured on the device. Another complication can be if the device recognizes a factory cable. The Kindle Fire, for example, would let you flash an unsigned image with a factory cable, meaning you could actually get a custom recovery installed without wiping the device. This would put all of your data at risk if the attacker was properly equipped and technologically savvy.

There are probably other concerns that I'm not considering here, as well, but these are the basic ones aside from bootloader exploits and the like, which are not really predictable in the long-term. In general, though, there is a saying about security which Microsoft sums up as such:

  If a bad guy has unrestricted physical access to your computer, it's not your computer anymore

...and that's a pretty accurate way of putting it for an Android device. If your concern is securing your data then userspace security like a lock screen password, locked bootloader, and keeping USB debugging off are going to be great defenses. If you're looking to secure your device such that no attacker could make use of it, then you've got a significant uphill battle, and the odds of winning are going to be very slim (and quite possibly zero).

NB: For your specific scenario: the Moto G is supported by Motorola's bootloader unlock program. Therefore, userspace security will not prevent someone from resetting or reflashing your device.


Based on the provided logcat it seems like the shutdown is initiated by the healthd that manages for example the battery status:

healthd : battery l=63 v=3913 t=72.7 h=3 st=2 c=5 chg=u

This line contains two values of interest:

h=3 is the battery health value and the value 3 means BATTERY_HEALTH_OVERHEAT.
t=72.7 is the battery temperature in Celsius. This value is quite high taking it as temperature in Celsius as Android does. Hence I would assume that the battery provides the temperature in Fahrenheit but the device expects a Celsius value and therefore thinks that the battery temperature is very high. The default shutdown temperature in Android is 68°C.

What I not really understand is that all healthd message contain the h=3 value even if the temperature is lower. May be this value also reflects past temperature states.

Note: Internally Android does not directly use the temperature in Celsius, instead it uses   Centigrade (Celsius * 10).

At the moment I would recommend to do the following test: Pack your phone into a water proof box and place it for some minutes in he refrigerator (make sure you use the part that has more than 0°C, you just want to cool down the device not freeze it!).
Then get it out of the fridge and start it, and measure the run-time until it shuts down. The time should be larger than before.


816G (indian dual sim) no rom installed, only cwm-recovery

I found the solution here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/desire-816/help/816g-indian-dual-sim-rom-installed-cwm-t3302234

Basically, the backcover needs to be removed and the battery needs to disconnected in order to prevent a bootloop when connected to the pc via usb cable.

Flash this rom (http://www.needrom.com/download/htc-desire-816g-dual-sim/) using the SP Flash Tool for mt6592 (for example this tutorial: http://bm-smartphone-reviews.blogspot.de/2014/05/mt6592-flashing-tutorial.html)

Good luck


How do I hard reset my Samsung Galaxy S2?

Turn the phone off, or take the battery out. Put the battery back in and hold VOLUME UP and the HOME key, then the POWER. Hold all three until you see it says recovery mode. When you get to the android, press both volume buttons together and it will show the recovery menu. The rest should be self explanatory.


Toast message: Failed to init Google DNS, switch to host IP method

Thanks to beeshyams' suggestion, I downloaded the app Notification History and found out that the toast comes from a forum's app. It looks like there are no security concerns for now.


How can I view flash content in Dolphin?

You can try side-loading a Flash Player apk file. There are a whole lot of them floating around on XDA, such as this thread which has a download for Flash 11. Whether or not it works will also depend on other factors, such as the version of Android on the device and the processor it has (Flash requires an ARMv7 processor and Android 2.2 or later).


Is there way to make the virtual keyboard appear over any app?

In many apps I can long-press the Menu button to bring up the keyboard.


Facebook mobile for Droid unable to delete friends

It doesn't appear that you can, at least at this time.

Not particularly surprising. Their app just sends you to m.facebook.com for anything more than basic functionality.


Long screen timeout on lock screen Oreo 8.0.0

Though I couldn't find out the reason for long lock screen timeout, I made a quick solution to get it back working as it was earlier.

Here's the solution, implemented as a flow in the Automate for Android app.

Flow URL: Short lock screen timeout[VM]


This is affected by the manufacturer of your device, as well as your own device settings. Different manufacturers use different types of screens for different devices. Some of the different types are: TFT-LCD screens, as well as different kinds of AMOLEDs. I have had one Sony and one Samsung, and have noticed that even though the Sony has higher pixel density and brightness, it cannot be viewed from certain tilts and when natural sun light reflects on the screen, its content goes practically invisible until shaded.


Every App crashes, if you connect a BT input-device

I'm seeing the same behavior between my Samsung Galaxy A tablet and a Zagg Flex Bluetooth keyboard. When it connects or disconnects, the current app reinitializes itself or force-closes. In order of misbehavior, I see apps do one of three things (with one example each): force-close (Lightning Launcher), reinitialize and lose any work-in-progress (ES File Explorer), or gracefully handle the connection event as if nothing happened (Chrome). Performing a search on Google, it seems that this is "by design:" Android will reinitialize an app when the BT keyboard connection status changes, but apps can declare to Android that the app will handle the event itself and therefore avoid the reload.


There's no such thing as an international ROM. When you see (for example) a Cyanogenmod ROM "Samsung Galaxy S III International", it means that the ROM is for the international variant of the phone hardware, with the right drivers for that phone's hardware. The international variant might just have a different radio (to work on the right GSM frequency for your country), but sometimes the international variant is a completely different phone, with a different SoC or screen, but in the same case.

If your phone is an "international" variant, then a ROM that's for the US variant will be missing drivers you need. Fixing this problem requires finding the correct drivers for your hardware and integrating them into the ROM.

If there is only one variant of your phone, or the ROM is already for the correct variant, then you don't need an "international ROM". The only important difference between ROMs for different regions (in this case) is that they have network settings for networks in that region. You just need to get the right APN settings from your network operator (you can probably find them on their website), go into the Mobile networks settings in your phone, and input the correct settings.


Have you tried to call Verizon? If not, it might help. Also try clicking forgot password. Sorry if this advice do not help. I'm only 14


Can i delete old WhatsApp database backup without affecting the chat?

No deleting old backups would not delete all your chats but only the ones which you deleted before last backup was created and hence are not in latest backup. so you can keep the latest one without any fear of losing whats important to you.


Possible issues
 1) You did not provide all the necessary permissions requested by the app to function properly.
 - you need to go to the settings -> apps and check the permissions.

2) Your network might be an issue.
- check the data transfer rate while in the game, and see if there is data being transferred when this happens. if not more than 2kbps then there is a high possibility of this being the cause.


Is there a way to block USSD balance notifications on Android 4.3?

Easy method (requires root)
Yes, there is an app for exactly that and much more called 'GravityBox' (it is an Xposed module).

For information on how to install it, view a similar post here

Alternatively (does not require root)
If you are lucky your Phone app should have a "Blacklist" to which you can add numbers and prevent calls and/or messages (notifications) from them. Normally found in the settings of your default phone app...
If you don't have it, then you could even try a 3rd party phone app that will replace your default phone app that will do the trick (There is a large variety that are more beautiful, simplistic, up-front and have features including black-listing options...).
Using a 3rd party phone app will leave all your contacts intact, but you may loose your speed dial settings.


You can disable the permission given to WhatsApp from setting --> Apps and notification --> App info --> Whatsapp --> Permissions and then turn off the permissions which you don't want to share. Whatsapp needs a valid sim card to run which can be used on phone or desktop only. Hence, you can run Whatsapp on desktop having a sim card option.


This might be an ad-hoc network that you have accidently connected to. Ad-hoc netowrks is like a network where every device is a router (Very brief there). You can check this just by clicking on the network. You can also just click "forget" on the network after clicking on it in wifi menu.


Why some of the android apps doesn't work on Wifi

After a lot of research yesterday, I found my project was lacking few crucial steps for loading bitmaps

Caching of bitmaps was not properly implemented because of which I was getting Out of Memory errors
I was also getting Android Support Disable plugin error after every few minutes
Android Profile Analyzer was showing lot of irrelevant threads which was consuming memory

Since, I didn't have much time to look in every file of my code. I modified my sluggish code and imported Android Bitmap Sample code from the library.

Most of the common errors of Wifi, caching of bitmaps & Disable Plugin errors were taken care.


Is it possible to know how far away another phone is using bluetooth?

No more precisely than you already know: if it's connected with Bluetooth, it's probably less than ten metres away. It might theoretically be possible to use the round-trip-time between the two devices, and the finite speed of radio waves, to compute the distance, but in practice at these small scales the travel time is less than the latency in the Bluetooth stack. Radio waves take about 3 ns to travel a metre, which is about the time it takes a 2 GHz processor to execute one instruction.

You can get a reasonable approximation using the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) that the Bluetooth stack tells you. This number is available to apps, and it tells you how "loud" the remote endpoint's radio signal appears from the phone. A more positive number means the devices are close together; a more negative number means they are far apart. Some apps use this number when offering a list of devices to connect to: sorting the list by RSSI puts the closest devices at the top.

However, this is only an approximation. The RSSI doesn't simply vary with distance: it's affected by other factors. Reflections from other surfaces and objects can make it increase or decrease, and having objects in between the two phones makes it decrease. For example, if you're holding your phone, and the other device you're connecting to is behind you, so that your body is in between them, it will appear further away. Similarly, if the device is in your pocket or bag, it will appear further away. Even if you stay in the same place and nothing moves, the RSSI will still fluctuate a lot, because of interference from other radio sources.

Bluetooth LE beacons such as iBeacons use the RSSI to present an approximate distance, but it's only to categorise as "far", "near", or "immediate" (nearly touching), because you can't really get more accurate than that with RSSI.


How to connect Android mobile with PC using Teamviewer app using Wifi connection without internet?

For that you need the full version of TeamViewer.

reference: http://www.teamviewer.com/en/help/40-Can-TeamViewer-be-used-within-a-local-network-LAN-only.aspx

You can establish Remote control sessions on your local network directly by using IP addresses or computer names. By default this feature is deactivated because software firewalls may open an acceptance dialog when configured this way.

To activate the LAN mode in TeamViewer full version and Host module:

In the menu click on Extras and then on Options
On the General tab activate Accept incoming LAN connections

When selecting accept exclusively it will display the IP-address of the computer in the ID-field.

A connection can now be established using the IP-address or alternatively using the host name.


Thumbnail images and screen shots have disappeared after installing booster

This booster probably deleted all the cache files from your phone and as a result you don't see the thumbnails of your previous photos.

Go to

sdcard/DCIM/

and delete the .thumbnails folder & restart your phone. That should bring back your thumbnails.


How to disable app notifications of a certain app?

You can disable a notification off an app by following the steps below:

Note: This guide is made on Android Lollipop and it can vary per device/Android version.

Open Settings:

Scroll down till you see Apps and click it:

Search for the app that you want to disable the notifications of:

Now uncheck Show notifications and tap OK:

Now your notifications of the app should be disabled.

Hope my answer helps somebody!


What are the minimum hardware specifications for Android?

Start with the Android compatibility page.  This outlines goals for Android's compatibility and links to the current Compatibility Definition Document which has the technical requirements.  All versions of the CDD to date are below.

Android 11
Android 10
Android 9.0 "Pie"
Android 8.0 and Android 8.1 "Oreo"
Android 7.0 and Android 7.1 "Nougat"
Android 6.0 "Marshmallow"
Android 5.0 and Android 5.1 "Lollipop"
Android 4.4 "KitKat"
Android 4.3, Android 4.2 and Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean"
Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich"
Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" not available (since it was not a public open-source release)
Android 2.3 "Gingerbread"
Android 2.2 "Froyo"
Android 2.1 "Eclair"
Android 1.6 "Donut"

These are also linked to from the Android Compatibility Downloads page which also includes test suites.

There is no Compatibility Program for older versions of Android, such as Android 1.5 (known in development as Cupcake). New devices intended to be Android compatible must ship with Android 1.6 or later.

Notable points:

The absolute minimum requirements for Android were originally a 200 MHz processor, 32 MB of RAM, and 32 MB of storage.
Out of the box, Android is incompatible with ARMv4 or lower; ARMv5 or higher is needed to run native code without modifications.
Android 4.4+ requires an ARMv7 processor. Custom versions have been made for ARMv6, however.

The requirements in these documents must be met for a device to be "Google Approved" and ship with the official Google apps such as the Play Store and Google Talk.  However, they are not necessarily hard requirements.  Since Android is open-source it can be modified to run on lesser hardware, and the opposite is possible as well — modifications necessary to run the OS on a device may make the firmware image too large to fit on it, just for example.


How to stop Chrome (on Android) from opening a certain website for joining to Telegram Channels?

The link to open the telegram channel will be there in your incognito windows tabs.
Close that tabes from your incognito window.
Then these telegram channels opening automatically when you open chrome browser will be stopped.


How can I delete all images in the album on my Sony Xperia S?

Deleting based on File Extension:

You may install Terminal Emulator from Play Store. Open it and enter the commands.

find $EXTERNAL_STORAGE $SECONDARY_STORAGE -iname "*.jpg" -exec rm {} \;

You may replace *jpg with *png , *jpeg , or other extensions involving picture formats.


Android Weather / News stopped working claiming it doesn't know where I am

Google has stopped supporting "Google News & Weather" in favor of the new "Google News" product.  Once the switch happened, the app itself does not make it clear what has happened.  You have to tap on the "Headlines" tab (which is unintuitive), at which point the only top story is "We're no longer supporting Google News & Weather".

It also says, "Tap to switch to Google News" but in my experience tapping on this doesn't do anything.


Is it possible to set CPU speed with Tasker?

It seems to me that you could get there by having tasker either directly set the system variables necessary to overclock or to access the commands that setCPU uses.  To do that you can use the "Execute" plugin that executes commands like you would in the terminal emulator.  A lot of this is over my head but you probably understand terminal commands and such better and may be able to make sense of my ramblings:

Install the Locale Execute Plugin
Create a new profile for when you run psx4droid
Add a task to set the CPU
Add an action and choose Plugin/Execute
Execute the command necessary to reset(overclock) the CPU.  Here's a link to explain how to format the commands. Unfortunately I don't know what command does this.

Theoretically, when you open psx4droid it should run that profile you created, changing the CPU settings.


Can't login to any Google apps, error pops ups each time attempted

Check to see how low your Memory is and try Uninstalling some unneeded Apps...then Force Stop All Apps & Unneeded Resources THEN try again..Hopefully this will help...  Not an end all Be All...just a possibility...


Although charging it slowly will not have a problem, in your case your shouldn't as it is giving a 'x' mark..But you should take care you're not using your tab while charging. Since the charging process is slower than normal, if you simultaneously plug in and use the tab, the battery might deteriorate. Also use quality charger.


This happened to me. I tried to re-flash its firmware then finally it just turned off and cannot power on again. The technician also gave up and said the motherboard is beyond repair. I recall that I overused it and maybe my very cold room generated some moist inside the phone short-circuiting the motherboard.


Get Timely Alarm Clock. I've never tried more than 10 alarms but I guess it should be worth a try. It's free after all & extremely sexy.

Also you should try adding calender events instead of alarms and change the sound to something loud.


Click on the Download notification showing the progress and it will take you to Downloads app. There in app you can cancel the download.


When you're in download mode(bootloader), go to your pc and download a firmware from here: sammobile.com/firmwares/database/SM-T110

Follow the instructions on the site:

Extract (unzip) the firmware file
Download Odin v3.10.7
Extract Odin ZIP file
Open Odin v3.10.7
Reboot Phone in Download Mode (press and hold Home + Power + Volume Down buttons)
Connect phone and wait until you get a blue sign in Odin
Add the firmware file to AP / PDA
Make sure re-partition is NOT ticked
Click the start button, sit back and wait few minutes


Is it possible to make developer options inaccessible via tapping build number 7 times?

To disable developer options:

Go to Settings and scroll all the way down to Developer Options.
If you manage to identify a button (toggle) next to Developer Options, go ahead and tap it. All the options inside the tab will be grayed out, meaning they are disabled.
Open the Settings menu of your Android device.
Scroll down and tap on Apps (Applications). On Samsung, you need to go to Apps > Settings > Applications > Application manager.
Make sure you have the ALL apps filter selected.
Scroll down and tap on the Settings app.
Tap on Storage and hit Clear data and confirm by tapping Delete.
Go back to the Settings menu and check to see if Developer options is gone. If it’s still present, restart your phone and check again.


How to get rid of hovering circular notification shortcut in CyanogenMod?

Thanks @eldarerathis the link to the video helped me get rid of it.

To get rid of it, I had to DOUBLE tap the "halo" and move to the X area just as you would when getting rid of apps from the launcher.


There's a sticky XDA-Developers thread for that: [INFO]Stock Images & Other Links. I have clicked and verified that the MediaFire links are working, downloadable and contains exactly the files you wanted:


Google Account shows two Android Login Service in Connected Sites, Apps, and Services

"Android Login Service" will show up if you use the browser login.Revoking it will prevent the device from logging in, phone will ask for password.

Just to see I went into my account>security>connected apps and revoked access to everything that started with android(In my account also there were two entries). Phone ask me to sign in again and everything's working so I'd say do the same. I don't think you're hacked but still, it certainly couldn't hurt.

Link to discussion about accesses


If the app has installed itself as a system app, then no, factory reset will not remove it. It will just wipe it's data, but it will start installing again, after you boot your phone up.

You will need to flash your device with a stock firmware file, which does not have the virus installed.

You can follow this tutorial:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/general/tutorial-how-to-flash-lenovo-a536-stock-t3300818


Is super su and twrp rom specific or phone specific or not specific at all?

SuperSU is generic, same for all (most) devices, some specific devices or methods may require a specific version though.

TWRP is very device specific, each build is customized for the intended device. http://twrp.me is the official site for TWRP which has a database searchable by device.

CM13 is pre-rooted, you do not need SuperSU at all.


How can I access /sdcard/ when I connect to PC (MTP)

/sdcard and /Internal storage are same directory.

As for why the file does not appear instantly is because of a bug in MTP mode as MTP cache is outdated until a phone reboot. If you do not wish to reboot the phone,

Possible Workaround:

Settings → Application Manager → All Apps tab → Media Storage → Clear Data
Install SD Scanner app → Open App →  Click on Start Rescan

Tested and Works on Android 5.0 Lollipop


How do I enable a forced stop & disabled Bluetooth Share app on Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich)

For apps that are forced stopped, locate them in the Play Store and click Enable button to enable them.


Closing a window within an activity using adb shell commands

When it comes to closing a dialog or a window, a user uses the Back key of their device. Through command-line you can emulate the functionality of Back key using a particular key event. The key event for Back key is KEYCODE_BACK. It has the constant value 4. Use it with input command in this manner:

adb shell input keyevent KEYCODE_BACK
adb shell input keyevent 4    # alternative

I recommend you read this answer by Rene Barbosa. It lists many useful key events. I also recommend you execute adb shell input to find out how useful that command can be.


How to launch app when phone is connected to a specific Qi wireless charger?

Type of Charging is determined by :

Charging Signature - see  here
The D+ and D- pins of the cable that negotiate the charging voltage and current with the device, in tune with the charging circuitry in the charger (see Overview of USB Charging for more
So a Qi charger would be recognised by the internal circuitry in the device and voltage / current negotiated with the battery charger circuit , depending on the charge level of battery

I am not aware if the API provides information regarding the make or brand or ID of charging, to use that to trigger any action. If available , that would be so very convenient for OEM's to tie users to their own chargers as a sales strategy :). I have also not come across any evidence in the charging algorithms published by charging IC manufacturers. This is not a  definite conclusion though

Coming to your requirement,  automation is the preferred option. Many apps are available. I prefer using MacroDroid , since it is free (upto 5 macros) and easy to learn. To understand how MacroDroid works and required settings,  my answer here

Your macro would look like this

Macro : Dashcam (name of macro )

Trigger: Power connected / removed → Power connected

Action: Launch application → Select from drop down your dashcam app

Constraints:  WiFi State → WiFi not connected to network ( assumption here is that when you are in your car you are not connected to any WiFI network.  When you are connected to any network say at work or home, and charging this macro will not run, meaning your dashcam will not be launched)

Alternative constraint suggested by OP, an excellent one ( thanks ) is

Bluetooth State: → Device connected


Install Android TV on older Sony Bravia TV

NO. NO. NO. NO. The hardware is different and so is the kernel. Its just not supported Unless one of The devs around ports it to the tv which is highly unlikely


There are multiple solutions. As I don't know how you tried to download it (or with which app you received it), I'll give you a few "blind shots":

Downloading it with the browser: This might give you the error you described (see below for a possible solution on this), or might simply store the file in your downloads folder (depending on the browser used). In the latter case, the saved file is often mis-named to .epub.html, so you'd have to rename it and strip the .html off to be able to open the book with your reader.
Receiving it with the mail/gmail app: There should be a way to simply "save the attachment" to your sdcard. You need to find the correct folder with some eBook readers; Aldiko might offer you to import it to its library from wherever you've stored it.
Downloading it with your PC, and copying it to your device: Same steps as above after saving the attachment.
Try Moon+ Reader as alternative eBook Reader app: As far as I remember, Moon+ registers itself for the .epub extension, which should completely solve your problem with the error message (the book would be opened directly in Moon+ Reader). And even if not, it has a lot of OPDS libraries pre-configured where you can download books from directly from within the app.

One or more of above items should help you out of your misery. Enjoy eBook reading!

PS: If you like Moon+: Until the end of this month (February 28, 2013), the Pro version (Moon+ Reader Pro) is offered for half of its usual price to celebrate its return to the playstore after having been unfairly banned. This is an offer you should take then :)


How to customize the quick settings drop-down menu in android 4.2?

Currently I can only find customization options through mods or other updates to the ROM. For example: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1999125

It would really be great if stock Android 4.2 would provide functionality to add tiles, re-order tiles or change the function of long/short taps on tiles. This issue has some of those feature enhancement requests: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=40285


apps like IFTTT are used for automating work by creating a recipe or using the one's already available, it won't help you enable your LED notification light.
Someone from Motorola Customer Care stated-
"Unfortunately, you can't enable the notification light of your Moto X play, this feature is not available anymore, we have replaced the LED for Active display, It will show notifications as well, the LED that we have included is just for emergency It just light up when your device is full of charge or when It needs charge."

Here's the link for it-
https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-enable-the-notification-light-of-Moto-X-Play

The gist comes out, that you must root your device in order to use the apps available on the Play Store to enable the LED notifications.

hope this helps..


How to see at what time an SMS was sent?

Download and install the application "Android Messages" made by Google LLC.
This app replaces the standard Message app. To see the time an SMS/message was sent, just push and hold a finger on the message and press on the information icon that appears. In my case (OnePlus 5T, Android 8.0.0) I could even check messages that I had received before I got the app.

Source: https://androidforums.com/threads/text-messages-actual-time-sent.73270/page-2


How can I recover my pictures from Vaulty Stocks

I realize that this doesn't directly answer your question since it appears you don't have a backup, however I have used Vaulty, which looks like the free version of the same app by the same company, so I am assuming the method used to hide your files is the same.

If you are able to find your .vdata files you can easily convert them all back into regular files by the command line without any sort of password/pin.

Make a backup (just in case) and then put all your .vdata files in the same directory and execute:

find . -type f -name "*.vdata" -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i 's/\x6F\x62\x73\x63\x75\x72\x65\x64//

Poof. There are all your files. This definitely works for Linux, but I'm not sure about Mac. If someone can confirm this for Mac feel free to update this answer or comment and I'll do it myself.

Unfortunately (if you are actually interested in security) Vaulty DOES NOT secure your files at all! If you need real security, you need an app that actually encrypts your files with something like AES encryption. However if you lose your password there, you're sweet out of luck. That's a good thing. Just make sure you don't forget your password.


Android is an Operating System, similar to Windows. Windows does not have a BIOS either, the computer has a BIOS.

Phones don't have a BIOS though, they have firmware.


Why does the Android device connect to a secured wireless router without providing a password?

Do you have another Android device (like a phone, maybe) that you'd previously connected to that same Wi-Fi point?

Android 4, Ice Cream Sandwich, (and possibly older versions too, though I don't have any to hand to check) has an option to sync saved Wi-Fi passwords between different Android devices on the same Google account. Here's the option under Settings -> Backup & Reset on my phone:

There are also apps that allow you to sync Wi-Fi passwords between your laptop and your Android devices, though I assume you'd know if you had one of those installed.


Google Contacts Sync has stopped - Synchronisation problems with Google contacts

You can use this Contacts sync fix app from playstore..
It might help you
this app is free. No obligation to pay.
Download the app from here - Contacts sync fix


How does adb shell differ from a terminal emulator?

I thought adb gives some sort of unrestricted temporary access (like temporary root).

When you open an ordinary terminal emulator app, you're shown a terminal and are automatically logged in as a particular user. The User ID of this particular user is the user ID of your displayed terminal emulator app. Such user and app is considered untrustworthy and is not allowed to do quite a lot of things. You can see the blacklisted items in the source code of untrusted_app.te.

ADB on the other hand when interfaces with the device gets to use the user ID 2000. This user is called shell and can do quite a lot of things for the purpose of debugging but still cannot meet the intricate demands of an end user1. Unless the Android offers a mechanism to switch to another user at will (such as 'su'; not graphical but console), the end user is limited to make any good use of shell user only when device is connected to PC in debugging mode. Follow the source code of shell.te to know about the privileges shell user enjoys.

In short, if the Android is not rooted shell user obviously comes as a winner because of privileges granted to it in contrast to an untrustworthy user, but it does not serve as a good substitute for superuser (su). In addition to that, as I noted above it comes with a cost.

Related resource: user IDs which come defined in Android

1 Temporary or otherwise, root user always have the user ID 0.


How to share my laptop internet connection via wifi to my android tablet?

As described in this answer most versions of Android don't support Ad-Hoc WiFi networks, however if you try using an application such as Connectify then this should allow you to use your laptop's internet connection on your phone. If you need them then instructions on how to set it up can be found here.


Enabling WIFI hotspot from a computer without usb debugging

No. ADB doesn't work without debugging.

However you can try your vendor native app, like LG PC Suite or Samsung Kies. It probably can have phone management capability and enabling/disabling its features.


Under Settings -> Location and security there is an option for "Lock screen after" where you can choose how long before the pattern is required.  With this setting changed you can turn the phone off and back on and only have to swipe down.

Under Settings -> Display there is an option for "Screen timeout" that should change the amount of time before the phone goes to sleep.

As far as I know the swipe down is not optional.


Answer for for Android 7.0+ : It is not possible to turn it off. No little (i) after long press of notification. Only can be disabled for lock screen. So annoying.


LG-P990 (2x) Australian, upgrade to ICS or latter

To upgrade your phone to official LG's ICS release do the following (remember to backup all your important data before starting):

Go to official LG support page for your region, Downloads & Manuals section
Scroll down to Search by keyword and input this: Optimus-2X-P990, click the only
result.
Scroll down to Downloads
Click the tab Software Update
Follow carefully all the instructions there.


I need unbrick my samsung galaxy tab 10.1

Connect your tablet to your computer and run

  adb devices

If your tablet is detected then execute

  adb reboot bootloader

Your tablet will then be in the download mode.


Some SIM cards have PUK codes printed on the punch out cards that the SIM card came from.
T-Mobile for example has PUK code printed on the plastic punch out.


Fastboot is not providing a token when trying to unlock HTC One M9

(bootloader) [KillSwitch] : /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/frp
(bootloader) [KillSwitch] Last Byte is 0X00, disable unlock
(bootloader) [KillSwitch] oem unlock Turn Off!

This means that you need to enable Developer Options in your phone's Settings (go to About and tap the version number repeatedly), then go into those options and check Enable OEM Unlock.  This setting prevents a thief (who doesn't know your device password and thus can't change this setting) from unlocking your bootloader, flashing a new ROM, and gaining use of the phone.

See http://www.droid-life.com/2014/11/04/fyi-android-5-0-introduces-enable-oem-unlock-option-in-developer-options/

Note that not every phone has this setting: only those that can be unlocked by fastboot in the first place do. This answer applies to the phone in the question and other phone vendors that allow their bootloaders to be unlocked. Not all vendors do.


Headphone music controls not working correctly

The solution lies in your first sentence. You're using an HTC headphone.
Music controls are not standardized so every manufacturer implements them differently. As if this wouldn't be enough, different models have different implementations too. The only headphone that's guaranteed to work is the one that came with your device.

Apple on the other hand has a certification program to make sure that 3rd party accessories will work with iDevices.


Obtaining some 4.0 functions on a 2.3 phone through rooting?

Short answer: No!

That would cause the handset to boot-loop or cause F/C (Force Close) as Ice Cream Sandwich and later, their apps are relying on the v4.x framework.

By bringing it across to Gingerbread could spell disaster and "weird" issues with the handset.

However, bringing across Gingerbread 2.3.x apps across to Ice Cream Sandwich should work, (Paradox ahead...) as ICS upwards would have compatibility layer within their framework for running apps that target below ICS! Hope this part makes sense!


How does Google Now know it's listening to music?

I don't know specifics of Google's system, but there are two technologies that are relevant to solving this problem, and it may use both together (depending on circumstances). Either way, the first thing it does is to Fourier transform short samples of what it's hearing. This gives it the spectrum of the sound, telling it how much of each frequency is present, and (because it has a sequence of samples) how that changes over time. Once it has this, it can filter out some very high- and low-pitched bands that don't help to identify the sound.

The output of this is a collection of "buckets", where each bucket represents a frequency band for a particular fraction of a second, and the value tells you how much sound there is in that bucket. This is where there are two possibilities.

Bayesian classifier

The simplest possibility is to give these buckets to some kind of pre-trained Bayesian classifier. This is a class of AI algorithms that can take some collection of features (the frequency/time buckets) and classify the situation into one of a set of groups you define: in this case, "speech" or "music" or "something else". Although it takes a lot of training data to teach the algorithm how to make this classification, the parameters that result (the pre-trained algorithm) are very compact, so it's practical to include these data in the app, allowing off-line classification. I'd expect that it uses this kind of algorithm on its own if you're using Google's off-line speech recognition feature.

Don't forget that a use of this feature might be to recognise an "OK Google" query in a pub with music in the background, so the classification isn't just as simple as "speech" or "music": it has to decide which is louder or in the foreground.

Music recognition

The other possibility is to try to find a matching piece of music straight away. Music recognition involves a big database of all the music you want to recognise. Each piece of music has already been run through the frequency analysis, so it's indexed by the same frequency/time buckets that the app has recorded. The app just has to go to the cloud to ask the database, "Do you have any music that has these buckets?"

The time part of the buckets is only calculated relative to nearby buckets, so it will find the piece of music regardless of what part of it you're listening to. Also, the information in the buckets is reduced with a hash function (a function that turns some numbers into a smaller number), so it's resilient to losing some frequencies (because of a bad sound system or other noise in the background).

This is a really long-winded thing to do just to tell speech from music, and it requires querying Google's servers to do it, so it wouldn't normally be a good option. It's only a good option because, if it is music, the app will need to do this anyway to recognise it.

Summary

Given the advantages and disadvantages of the two algorithms, I'd expect that the app includes both. For off-line use, it would just use the simple classifier. For on-line use, it might well use both in parallel: using the classifier to give a quick result if the input is very likely to be speech, while it waits for the music database in the cloud to try to recognise the particular piece of music (or say no).


What is the exact functionality of Google Play Services & Google Services Framework (gapps)?

Google Play Services (com.google.android.gms) is an app which works in collaboration with a number of other closed-source apps to provide Google Mobile Services (GMS) to Android users. To quote a few of them are Google Ads, Firebase Analytics, authentication (of Google account login, saving credentials from other apps, through SMS), Google Cast devices, Game Manager, Drive, Cloud Messaging (push notifications), Google Fit, Location Provider, Maps, Instant Apps, nearby devices, search predictions, Google+, SafetyNet, Tasks, Wallet etc. Further details can be found here and here. Play Store (com.android.vending) provides additional APIs/services like In-App Purchases, App Licensing and Play Protect.

From your comment:

  So is it only APIs for app integration, or is there also Google's internal proprietary code for analytics, usage tracking, metrics etc?

Developers can tell better, but AFAIU everything is proprietary except the API interferes. Google's own proprietary apps like YouTube, Chrome, Gmail, Maps, Gboard, Messages etc. rely on these APIs/services, and mostly refuse to work without GMS on device. In addition to those, OEMs are bound in contracts to ship their devices with Play Services pre-installed as system apps. App developers find it more convenient to build their apps with Google APIs. In fact many AOSP features are becoming dependent on Google's proprietary products unnoticeably. Quoted from here:

  The Doze restriction on network access is also likely to affect your app, especially if the app relies on real-time messages such as tickles or notifications. If your app requires a persistent connection to the network to receive messages, you should use Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) if possible.
  ...
  FCM is optimized to work with Doze and App Standby idle modes by means of high-priority FCM messages.

If you have GMS installed on your device, dumpsys activity services will usually show more than a dozen Google services running in background like MeasurementBrokerService, PersistentBoundBrokerService, ContextManagerService and GcmService etc.

  Also, how is the functionality split between Google Play Services and the Google Services Framework?

There are a number of apps which work in background with Play Services like Services Library, Shared Library, Carrier Setup, Market Feedback Agent, Backup Transport, Config Updater, Contacts Sync, Partner Setup and so on. A more exhaustive list can be found here. Google Services Framework (com.google.android.gsf) is also one of these apps (sharing UID with com.google.android.gms) which is mainly about Cloud Messaging (FCM) but there isn't a clear line (at least officially spoken) between functionality of different components of GMS suite.

FURTHER READING:

Install Google Play Services without Google Play Store
What Is Google Play Services? Why Do You Need It?
GMS Certification for Android 9 Pie Based Devices
The facts about Google Mobile Services (GMS) in the Enterprise


How do i find my Mobilenumber on my Samsung Galaxy 5

Use your phone to call a friend with Caller ID (usually any mobile phone nowadays).
Take note of the incoming caller's number. That's your number.


"Accept-Language" header sent by Chrome browser on Android

As far as I tested, the following behaviours apply to both Android and Linux Desktop versions of Google Chrome:

Every time you change your system locale (via LANG environment variable on Linux; or via System - Languages settings on Android), Google Chrome resets its own language settings (and the Accept-Language header) to a pre-defined list.

For example, if you set system locale to "English (Canada) / en_CA.UTF-8" and restart Chrome, the Accept-Language header will contain four locales: en_CA, en_GB, en_US, and en.

In Chrome settings, you can adjust the list of languages, leaving only "English" (no region suffix), and after a restart of Chrome, the Accept-Language header will contain only one locale: en.

I do not know about uk / ru languages, but you could try adjusting the language list in Chrome settings (don't forget to restart Chrome) and visit https://httpbin.org/headers to examine your Accept-Language header.


How do I pause a song thats playing while my phone is locked (Samsung ace 2)

Here are some apps to suite your needs:

Tactile Player – Control Android Music Player Using Hard Buttons

"Tactile Player is my favorite tool which gets the job done and I must say, this one is a must for any music addict who wants to change songs using Android’s hard buttons or play/pause the current playing song. When you are listening to music and don’t want to unlock Android’s lock screen, simply enter the following commands

Press the volume up button two times to play the next track.
Press the volume down button two times to play the previous track.
Press the power button three times to pause or play the currently playing soundtrack.
It works and the best part is that there are no settings and absolutely no configuration required on your music player app. The only catch is that the Tactile player app must run in the background or else the default music player app won’t be able to receive your commands via the volume and power buttons."

Simply Lock Screen – Replace Android’s Default Lock Screen And Add Multimedia controls

"Simply Lock Screen is a wonderful lock screen replacement app for Android which comes packed with basic multimedia features. You can show clock, date, time and media buttons on the lock screen itself, thereby allowing you to control the order of songs that is being played by Android’s default media player app.

Simply Lock Screen adds three buttons on it’s lock screen, so you can play a previous or next track or pause the current one by tapping the respective buttons on the lock screen itself. This one is a good choice if you are looking for a better lock screen replacement with added features."


Problem seems to be that your settings has changed, you probably store the numbers under one default account (gmail, hotmail , yahoo) and you display another.

Try to save a number and check under wich account are you saving, then check with account are you displaying.


If someone is seen online does that mean they have opened our conversation or any conversation on whatsapp?

You can read from the WhatsApp FAQ:

What does "last seen at..." and "online" mean exactly?
"online" means that contact has WhatsApp open and is connected to the internet. However, it does not necessarily mean they have read your chat.

That clearly stats that a contact with "online" status just needs to have the app opened within an active Internet connection.


I think you need to have Google Voice initiate your calls rather than the dialer app.

Generally speaking you'd change the setting in the Voice app for "Making calls" to "Use Google Voice to make all calls". If you'd like to be prompted before the call, then you can use "Ask every time I make a call". (There's also an option to use it just for international calls.)


Android Auto not working with Samsung Galaxy S10

I've found the problem. To solve it I've installed the Android Auto from APKMirror app on my smartphone. This I've done because Android Auto is not yet supported in my country (Belgium) and The Netherlands.


Parallel Space game progress file location

If you don't have rooted phone, you can not do it. Problem is in PS, in most cases you need to change settings of PS. So tap on three dots in right upper corner, go to Speed Mode and turn it off.
Speed Mode can reduce battery consumption and speed the PS, but it also disaable Google Play services to achive that.


You can give someone the APK generated when you debug your code, and they can insall it provided that they activate the flag "install from untrusted sources" (or something like that... don't know the exact words because I have the italian localization)

BTW: distribution of APK signed with the SDK-generated debug certificate is a bad thing, you have to sign it with your own key


Is it possible to shutdown or restart a Logitech Revue without pulling the power cord?

Google's support page provides this option:

  To Reboot your Google TV:

  To reboot your Sony TV or Bluray player or your Logitech Revue, press
  Control + Alt + Backspace on your controller.

If you had adb connected you could also try adb reboot, which works on other devices.


Nexus 7's MTP does not connect in mass storage mode anymore

I've occasionally seen a new (or factory reset) N7 refuse to appear on a PC until you change the storage mode to camera then back to MTP. From memory (I don't have my N7 to hand) go to Settings, Storage, tap the three dot menu and there is an option to change the storage mode there.


GPS functionality degradation on Galaxy SIII

I had big problems with GPS in my galaxy s2, the connection was unstable and sometimes it took 30 minuts to get the signal

To analyze the GPS signal you can use something like GPS status

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eclipsim.gpsstatus2

I've discovered that my phone was suddenly loosing all the signals, so I suspected an hardware problem

The GPS uses as antenna the metallic board that is inside the phone

I've disassembled the phone, and Cleaned this board from oxidation in correspondence of every screw with a nail file

I'm surprised of the result the GPS signal really busted (it fix in 30 seconds inside the house) and is totally stable

You can find here a video tutorial specific for s3

Galaxy S3 Gps Fix (When Screw Tightening Doesn't …: http://youtu.be/VI4hs19riRM


How do Moto X and Nexus "wake on pickup" work?

Devices like Moto X and Nexus 5X/6P use a sensor hub to achieve this feature, which is a:

microcontroller unit/coprocessor/DSP that helps to integrate data from different sensors and process them. This technology can help off-load these jobs from a product's main central processing unit, thus saving battery consumption and providing a performance improvement.

The Android specifications suggest that the manufacturer implement a sensor hub:

The sensor stack of a device can optionally include a sensor hub, useful to perform some low-level computation at low power while the SoC can be in a suspend mode. For example, step counting or sensor fusion can be performed on those chips. It is also a good place to implement sensor batching, adding hardware FIFOs for the sensor events. See Batching for more information.
How the sensor hub is materialized depends on the architecture. It is sometimes a separate chip, and sometimes included on the same chip as the SoC. Important characteristics of the sensor hub is that it should contain sufficient memory for batching and consume very little power to enable implementation of the low power Android sensors. Some sensor hubs contain a microcontroller for generic computation, and hardware accelerators to enable very low power computation for low power sensors.

So the availability of this feature depends on the hardware of the device: if the manufacturer includes a sensors hub, then the power consumption will be optimized because the central processor isn't involved. Otherwise, the only possibility is to install dedicated apps (see for example the one cited in my comment) that will monitor the accelerometer, resulting, though, in a higher battery drain.


Nexus 7 2013 error upgrading to 5.0.2 OTA

Since Android 5.0, any modifications to /system will cause OTA updates to fail. Android Police noted that:

  ... the OTA script no longer patches individual files. Instead, it patches
  the system block directly and treats it as one enormous blob.

Therefore you have 2 choices if you want to update your device.

Remove any modifications to the system partition and remove any files that you may have added/renamed and restore any deleted files.
Flash the factory image. For the 5.0.2 update you can probably flash just the system image although this may not be the case for later updates. To do this you can use the instructions in my answer here (although it is for a different Nexus device the procedure is the same, the file names may differ though). To just flash the system image you can just perform steps 1 and 6.


Deleted play store accidently form my rooted Sony Xperia C2305 using lucky patcher

If you are running a custom ROM, you will need to re-flash it along with the corresponding GApps package.

If your phone is unmodified stock (beyond rooting) you will need to re-flash the original phone firmware as described in this guide, and optionally re-root it.

Quote of the guide from the above mentioned post:

  *Download wmshua
  *Download ftf file of 16.0.B.2.13 or ftf file of 16.0.B.2.16(preferred)  (these files are specifically for Sony Xperia C C2305), If you have any other deivce, download their firmware files.
  *Install Sony PC Companion
  *Switch Off your mobile phone and get the Original USB Cable pf your device
  *Open Wmshua and then Connect your device to PC pressing the Volume Down Key
  *As Soon as connected Wmshua will install device drivers (taking about a minute), then go to "Flash" option and select the ftf file from
  there. And click on Start. It will take about 10 minutes or maybe more
  to flash the file. Wait Till It Completes.
  *Now your device is ready on 16.0.B.2.13 or 16.0.B.2.16 whichever you selected


It's not the version, and permission to access Internet is on. I think it may have been a temporary glitch: after an hour, it was back to normal & has been ever since, so hopefully problem solved.


Unable to install CyanogenMod on Galaxy S2 i777

From the CyanogenMod Wiki:

  "Status 7" Error
  I have a stock AT&T Galaxy S2 (i777) which had been updated to the latest version of Android from AT&T. I followed the instructions for installing CM 10.1 but received the following error:

assert failed: getprop("ro.product.device") == "i777" ||
getprop("ro.build.product") == "i777" ||
getprop("ro.product.device") == "SGH-I777" ||
getprop("ro.build.product") == "SGH-I777" ||
getprop("ro.product.device") == "SGH-S959G" ||
getprop("ro.build.product") == "SGH-S959G"
E:Error in /sdcard/cm-10.1.3-i777.zip (Status 7) Installation aborted.

  I tried updating to the very latest version of ClockworkMod Recovery, but that didn't help. The solution I found was to edit the "updater-script" file located at cm-10.1.3-i777.zip\META-INF\com\google\android. I removed the first line from that file which was performing the assert and getprop statements. I was certain I have an i777, so I was pretty sure that removing this line would be ok. After removing this line of code I pushed the CM zip file to my phone and was then able to install ok.

  This page was last modified on 3 December 2013, at 22:42.

So if you are 100% positive that you have an i777, then you can follow these steps:

extract the update package zip file
navigate to */META-INF/com/google/android
open updater-script in a text editor like notepad++
remove the first line that does the "assert" checks.
zip the folder back up, using only "store", no compression.


How to kill processes to get maximum available RAM?

That's a really silly thing to do. Android will automatically kill background processes to make more RAM available when necessary. Most of the time it leaves background processes in RAM (but not running) to allow those apps to start up quicker next time, and to use less power (because it doesn't have to keep reloading the app into RAM). See the answers to this question for more info.


You can try KingoRoot instead of kingroot....


An quite easy way is to configure an android virtual machine (using virtual box or VMware). You can find   the Android ISO image here: http://www.android-x86.org/
It exists many guide on the Web to install Android on a virtual machine. (only google "Android x86 virtualbox for instance)

You can also use Genymotion (requires register) which configure a VM according to the device you specified


Cannot boot to twrp recovery after rooting second time

It was a firmware issue. TWRP requires latest firmware/ROM to be installed. Otherwise twrp get stuck at teamwin logo.

I installed latest MIUI ROM (MIUI 8.2.1) on my device and rooted it and installed latest TWRP image(3.1.1) using fast boot. It booted to twrp recovery successfully.


Android GTalk, Chromium Gtalk, Gmail Gtalk - how can i send files such as image, music, video clips like whatsApp?

Google Talk doesn't have any of those features. It's meant as a complement to Gmail, and it's intended that if you want to send files or persistent things to your chat partner, you'd email them.

If you want a chat system that has all the features of WhatsApp, why not just use WhatsApp?


Can apps know where you are even without GPS?

Apps can get your approximate location without GPS, but only if they have the "coarse location" permission.  The "fine location" permission lets an app get your GPS location too, if GPS is enabled.

When you an install an app, Android shows you the permissions it needs.  If you don't see coarse or fine location in the list, the app can't get your location.


How to share android directories over LAN using SMB protocol

If you have a rooted phone, you can use one of these two apps that let you set up a samba server: Samba Server or SambaDroid (they are portings of Samba for Linux). Of course, you can find and use any other equivalent app. Root is required because Windows doesn't recognise non-conventional servers (i.e. which use non-standard ports), so you must be able to change the default ports on your phone.
If your device is not rooted, then you can:

create a Samba server with your PC, granting read/write privileges to the shared folders
use Es file explorer as a samba client (the smb protocol is built in)

In order to do it, follow these steps in Es (I will cover only the android side, assuming you know/will find out how to set up servers on PC):

open side menu, go to 'network' and choose LAN
touch the plus sign at the bottom right corner, this interface will pop up:

leave the 'domain' field empty
fill in the server name (local ip address of your PC), and username and password that you set up for your server
do not check the 'anonymous' box (if your server isn't password protected then check it)
choose a name for the server to be displayed on your phone
And that's it.
This should do the trick (as long as you enable r/w on your PC), doesn't require root and is well built in to Es file manager.


How do I print from Android through my LAN?

I've used the app "HP print service plugin" to print to my HP printer that's on the network, and it doesn't seem to use the Internet. The plugin was preinstalled on my device, and may not be compatible with your device, but you can have a look here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hp.android.printservice

Oh, and the plugin seems to support USB OTG too.


Go to SETTINGS > WIRELESS & NETWORKS > Wi-Fi SETTINGS

Press MENU and choose ADVANCED.

Click Wi-Fi SLEEP POLICY and make sure NEVER is selected.

This might help your WiFi connection remain connected.

These are available on my Samsung Spica running v2.1 (Eclair).


Cancelling notifications for app updates

Switch to CM10 if you can - you can then adjust notifications on a per-app basis.

Note though, that for your problem, the only way to prevent " xxx app has been updated" notifications might be to disable the Play Store from showing notifications, which IMHO isn't a good idea.


I have used my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 Charger and had success every time to wake up my phone from SOD. It takes around 5-10 min before you can see on the screen that it is charging. But a fast indication can be that the fixed red LED will start to flash and after a couple of minutes the screen will wake up and show that it is charging.

PS: I have discovered that both Samsung and LG phones are very picky when it comes to which charger you are using. Samsung and LG phones usually accept each other's charger but they will not accept unbranded ones or ones from other brands like Sony. So if you don't have a Samsung or LG charger go to your local store and buy one. I can't guarantee that it will work, but it does work on my phone.


Using apps from two countries on the same device

Adding a second Google account should work. If you're in the US and you're trying to download Canadian apps try this:

(It worked for me without the vpn but you can try with)

1.Download a vpn from play store. Make sure it's one that allows you to choose the county your 'in'

2.Turn off location on your phone

3.After successfully setting up the vpn, to the desired county, add a Google account to your phone (settings/accounts/Google/and account.)
You might need to create new account in case Google 'knows' your spare accounts location

4.Now, go into play store, open the menu and change the account to the one you just added. Try downloading the app.

After that you could switch between accounts within the play store app depending on which apps you need to download


Android 7, Firefox OS and Tizen in MultiROM Manager on Nexus 5

Android 7 won't get a official rom from google u need to get a ported version or instal Cyanogenmod. FireOS is discontinued by mozilla. and tizel is samsung only. You can try Pac-Man rom.


According to the Xperia Z manual, that icon indicates that "Stamina Mode" is active.

I don't see it in the Xperia T manual, so I'm guessing that there was a recent update to your device that added that feature.


What if you accidentally deleted some important apps and can't install them back?

For common system apps like the ones you've mentioned, there's no way to uninstall or reinstall them: without root, it at all you can disable them (not all of them even). But they are usually not held in the playstore for re-installation. Even if they receive updates via the playstore (like GMail, Maps, and the Playstore app itself), some of them must reside on the /system partition in order to function correctly (the Google Play app is one example for that).
But as the same situation could also apply to "normal apps", let's take a closer look:
User apps
Though they are usually coming via Google Play, it might well happen they get removed there one day (recent examples are the ad-blockers which got banned). For this, tools like AppMonster come in handy: they enable you to store a copy of the apps .apk file to your SDcard (the Pro version even can do so automatically whenever an app is installed/updated). So in case you have to remove an app for some reason, and want to re-install it later (or even if you want to install the same app on a device without Google account), you can do so by side-loading the .apk. Uninstallation, of course, is easily done either via Settings→Apps, or even via AppMonster itself.
System apps
Here it's a lot different. Without root, you can at maximum disable an app (Settings→Apps, scroll to the app, open its details, press the Disable button) -- if your device is running Android 4.0 or later, that is.
With root, things become a little different: theoretically, you could uninstall everything. A practical issue might be you're rendering your device unusable, if you e.g. uninstall something basic to the system. Also, removing their data might be an issue on re-install. So if you really have need for this, here's my recommendation:

Get ADB installed on your computer (either via the full Android SDK -- or using a minimal installation, see Is there a minimal installation of ADB?
Make a backup of the app you're going to uninstall to be prepared in case something goes wrong. You can use adb backup for this, which backs up the app including its data.
Make a copy of the app's .apk file for a re-install. You can use adb pull for this. The .apk is located in /system/app, so your command could look like adb pull /system/app/Browser.apk . to copy the browser's .apk from the device to the current directory on your computer.
Now that you have two fall-backs, you can try to uninstall the app. Again using ADB, you first call adb shell, then you need to become root (su), and now you can use the pm (package manager) tool to pm uninstall com.package.name. You can also remove the .apk from /system/app.

To re-install the app, you simply copy the .apk back to /system/app. To restore the data, you can use adb restore.
Note that dealing with system apps always bears the risk to render your system unusable. So it's always recommended to make a complete backup (best using Nandroid backup from your custom recovery) prior to such operations -- so in the worst case, you can go back to where you've started.
Dealing with the "The process X has stopped unexpectedly" error
There are several ways to deal with this error. To my knowledge, none of them includes uninstalling a system app.

if the app in question is a user app

delete its cache. If that doesn't help:
delete its data. If that still doesn't help:
delete the app. If that cannot be done due to the app being in a "force-close-loop":
boot into safe-mode, and delete the app from there.

if the app in question is a system app:

pray you've got a good backup :)
as with the user app: first try delete cache, then data.
nothing goes? Then you've got to do a factory-reset


Is rooting a surefire and safe process, or is it risky?

"is rooting safe"
The answer is difficult. Every tool you use to root your device says do with your own risk and we are not responsible for any damages caused to your device.

is root legal
Nothing to do with legal but it voids your devices warranty.

does my device becomes slower
No , many tools and tweaks are available to speed up rooted devices .

what is the best rooting tool
That depends on what device you use.

about data loss
No data will be lost. However a backup is taken to avoid data loss.

Try googling to find the best rooting tool for your particular device. Alternatively,
you can download some rooted stock roms (specific for your device) and flash them using recovery.

Try e.g. Kingo root, this is the best for me.


I have encountered this problem with link2sd multiple times already. You can try to recreate your mount script via link2sd, reboot and then relink all your application files, lib files, and dalvik-cache.. hope this solves your problem.


Is there a way to color code events in de default Calender application

Yes you can, you will need to create a different "calendar" (probably "tag" would be a better name, but that's Google's terms for it).

Creating a Calendar (do this from the Desktop, I didn't found a way to do it from Android's Calendar app; do anyone know?):

Go to http://www.google.com/calendar.
Look for the "My calendars" box on the left, click on "Add"
Fill in the information, and click Create Calendar.
You can change the color later from "My calendars" box, by clicking on the triangular button.

Adding Events to Calendar (can be done from Android):

On the "Create New Event" view, choose the calendar you've just made from "Calendar" combobox.


I can't connect wifi tether network with tablet

Most likely, your X8 is broadcasting the wireless network in ad-hoc mode rather than infrastructure (AP) mode. Android does not natively support ad-hoc wireless connections, which is why your tablet cannot see or connect to the hotspot.

Your options depend largely on the state of your devices. If your phone is rooted then you can try a custom ROM or kernel that is built with support for infrastructure mode. XDA's X8 sub-forum would be a good place to start looking for a ROM/kernel that suits your needs. Custom ROMs may list infrastructure or wifi tethering support in their features, though you may have to skim the ROM's thread as a whole to find out.

If your tablet is rooted then you could try to find a wireless module that has been built to support ad-hoc mode. There are modifications for many mainstream tablets that will enable this functionality, usually consisting of a patched version of the wpa_supplicant binary that would need to be installed on your device.

If neither device is rooted then there is probably not much you can do. You may want to look into other alternatives, such as perhaps Bluetooth tethering.


Is it possible to temporarily disable all notifications on Android wear?

You can disable the notifications on your wearable device by following steps below:

Swipe down from the watchface
You should see something like this:

Select the option on the left will put your watch to silent mode.

Hope my answer helps.


Flashing Samsung Galaxy Note 3 with Android on Linux

For flashing Samsung devices on operating systems other than Windows, you might wish to take a look at our heimdall tag-wiki:

  Heimdall is a cross-platform open-source tool suite used to flash firmware (aka ROMs) onto Samsung mobile devices

Thought your device doesn't seem to be explicitly mentioned as being "officially tested" on the projects homepage, the page writes:

  Users have reported success with a wide variety of Samsung's mobile phones and tablets from all around the world.

Heimdall (Source: WebUpd8.Org; click image for larger variant)

Update: If Heimdall somehow doesn't fit your needs, according to our odin tag-wiki there's also JOdin3 which works browser based. Haven't tried that (no Sammy here), but might be worth a look.


Android added a plus sign before the number, making an undesired international call

The best way to avoid this is to add your country's international prefix (It's +39 for Italy if I'm not mistaken.) This way your network providers treats it like it would without the prefix ie. it will be a domestic call if you're in the same country, but it will still work if you're calling from a different country.


How to flash Cubot r11 stock rom on bricked phone?

You can use SP Flash Tool. You need MediaTek MT65xx USB VCOM Preloader USB Drivers for it. If you care about data, you should make a full rom dump (or at least nvdata metadata oemkeystore and userdata partition). You need a scatter file for this. A scatter file you can create with WwR MTK v2.30.
If fastboot is working, you can try "fastboot format:ext4 cache" to fix bootloop. You can try to port a TWRP and "fastboot boot recovery.img" then you get full access via adb in recovery (and if metadata is still intact it will hopefully decrypt userdata).
If the bootloop is caused by flashing TWRP, install Universal Disable_Dm-Verity_ForceEncrypt.zip to disable the dm-verity boot chain validation.


Is it possible to recover apps removed from Google Play?

You can try to find the app on a site such as apkmirror.com or apkpure.com. Download the .apk file for the app, and install it using adb. This is called "sideloading," and you can find instructions for it here or here.


Restore IMEI of Xiaomi MI4C Without Another Phone

What you need.

Download MTK Droid Root & tools.
A Windows computer.
Have already set USB Debugging mode enabled on your device.
A USB cable.
Have setup ADB & Fasboot on your PC.

Instructions.

Connect your device to PC, then launch MTK Droid Root & Tools.
Droid Root and Tools will detect your Android device.
If your device is detected, you will see its IMEI on the Phone Information tab on the droid root and tool interface.
Then find the Root button that's located on the lower right side of the interface.
Select Yes button if asked whether you wish to Root. You will see Root Shell Script Access.
Then you'll see a window box named Change IMEI, Backup/Restore, NVRAM.
Now replace the IMEI on the window box with the IMEI number from the rear side of your Android device.
Then choose Yes. Reboot your device for the changes to apply and finish.

I got the instructions from the following page; repair MTK IMEI, that page contains pictures to clearer its point.


Droid Explorer is pretty old and unmaintained for years.

Some years ago Google changed the API of adb. If you are using a recent version of adb together with Droid Explorer which was developed for the old adb version this may end up in several non-functional features.

You should better check for an adb based tool that is still actively developed and maintained.


Backup the system's "Personal Dictionary" on Android 7 and import on different phone?

It is quite odd that it isn't syncing across devices. I know that recommending an application may not always be the best solution but I did just try Personal Dictionary Backup on my Xperia XZ running 7.0 and it was able to backup and restore my personal dictionary.

Do keep in mind that it backs up to a .dat file on your internal storage. The folders name that it backs up to is "UserDictionaries". This means that you would have to digitally transfer the .dat file in that folder to your new device in a folder with the same name as well as installing the app on your new device.


How can I stop Android from automatically searching a term when I choose it from my search history?

The anonym with the vague answer is correct, just not nearly complete.  For keyboard-less phones (like my N1), the trackball or trackpad can be used to scroll down the list of suggestions, and that will enter them into the text field for editing.  For most phones with a hardware keyboard like your Droid, use the d-pad next to the keyboard to select the suggestion for editing (some of them still retain a trackball or trackpad).  Once you have the correct entry in the search box, tap it to continue editing.

BTW, I just discovered this, and it's going to make my life a lot easier.