What's the difference between "Contacts" and "People details?"

Contacts under Accounts, helps in syncing Google-Contacts (Phone contacts saved )
More on Contacts sync adapter here

People details deals with information regarding Google play games and Google+ (Game buddies and people in your circles on Google+)
More on People sync adapter here


received SMS with content "request failed"

The last part of your question is easily answered, as there are a lot of permission scanners available on the Playstore. For added benefit, I will just mention one: AppBrain Ad Detector also scans for contained ad modules and more:

AppBrain Ad Detector (source: Google Play; click images for larger variants)

As you can see in the screenshots, such an app would turn up in "Has access to your messages", and for sure in "May cost you money".

There are a lot more permission-scanners out there, some even explaining what those permissions stand for and what they mean. Take a look e.g. at RL Permissions, Guardian Droid, or aSpotCat (app by permission) -- and check their related apps for more candidates.


How to check my phone hardware specs on Android terminal emulator

You can enter getprop to get info about device. Or, you can do cat /system/build.prop

If you've root access then you can enter su and then  dumpsys | less to get the name of the services which can give more info about some specific things such as battery. See this answer to know more.

On a non-rooted device, you can do adb shell dumpsys | less provided that adb is running in wireless mode and your device is connected locally in loopback mode. See this answer for more info.


How does 'Android Lost' application work?

Using Android-lost is easy;

Install android lost from gPlay or Google Play (You already did this)
go to the Homepage of Android Lost
Log in using your Google Account!
Use all the nice features, let your phone ring, locate it, erase all your data or change the pin, give the thieve or finder a message etc.


Nexus S battery drains after updating to 4.2.2 even if turned off

You should calibrate your battery:

Fully discharge your phone
Fully charge it when it is turned off
Disconnect charger and wait a minute
Connect it again and turn your phone on
Delete your data/system/batterystats.bin file (with battery calibration for instance)
Reboot your device and disconnect charger

Also, it is common problem, so try to google it yourself

Hope this will solve it for you


So for anybody who starts suffering from high cpu usage starting June 27th 2016, it would appear the 9.2.56 version of google play services introduced this problem.

I have an "034" series device...

http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/google-play-services/google-play-services-9-2-56-release/

explains what that means.

And that would appear to be the problem and I probably can't do anything but prey they fix it.


How do I root Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo V?

According to How to install ClockworkMOD Recovery on Sony Xperia Neo V this should be possible using UnlockRoot (download)1, which requires a Windows (XP/VISTA/7) computer. The process is described at How To Root Android Devices Using Unlock Root Tool, basically as follows:

You should have a backup of your data (for safety reasons)
Your device should be fully charged
USB drivers for the device should be installed on PC
USB Debugging must be turned on in the device
Connect the device to PC using USB cable
Run the downloaded tool, and Click on “Unlock Root”, That’s it.

Another guide available is Learn How To Root the Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo V – in case you are not satisfied with the described method ;)

Good luck!

1: The site hosting the tool unfortunately went down. With some luck, one of the results of this Google search has it.


Prevent music volume from being lowered when using turn-by-turn navigation

From what I've read elsewhere, this functionality is generally handled by the application playing the music/audio. So, I've been testing out various players, and found a couple that do what Casey is requesting, MX Player and Poweramp.

MX Player is primarily known as a video player, but it can also handle a number of audio formats (including Opus, which I happened to be looking for).

One drawback with MX Player is that it can't create dynamic playlists, so you have to have the songs ordered in folders to play in succession.

The other one that does what Casey is requesting is the music player app Poweramp, which lets you choose in its settings, under Audio->Audio Focus->Short Audio Focus Change, between no ducking (unchecked), and pausing (checked). Poweramp isn't free, though.

Another app, Rocket Player, is a music player that will let you choose between ducking and pausing, but will not allow you to disable it completely, which is what Casey is looking for. (The setting is under Settings->Sound->Audio Focus->Temp Focus Action)

For myself, I've found that, especially for audio books and podcasts, I actually prefer pausing to ducking or no ducking, so I like Poweramp or Rocket Player for this purpose.


Google Search App Draining Battery on KitKat

This seems like a fix:

  The solution is to take away 2 permissions: the Google search app
  permissions to keep the device awake, and access location. This gets
  rid of the wakelocks, and still appears to keep google now etc.
  functional. You can do this using App Ops from the play store (needs
  root), or if you are on custom ROMs, through "App Privacy" menu
  setting. Additionally you could also turn off location history and
  reporting, to be on the safe side. Google Now still works, but now
  without the wakelocks!

http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/1zxri4/google_play_services_battery_drain_the_real/

On my device (running CyanogenMod), I went to Settings → Privacy → Privacy Guard → Preferences → make sure Show built-in apps is checked → scroll down and long press Google Search → Keep awake → Denied

For those not running a custom ROM, unfortunately there seem to be a million App Ops apps in the Play Store, but this one looks legit:
App Ops by Lars Team


Try waiting. It's usually because loads of people are upgrading. There's a limit; you should be able to in the next 2 days.


Use a portable small utility mHotspot instead of Connectify. Connectify does have such type of issues. So, mHotspot is my all time favorite when it comes to creating virtual hotspot.

If you're unable to connect for the first time (which shouldn't be case as you were able to connect with AP of Connectify), reload the Wi-Fi driver by dialing *#*#526#*#* or install the "wifi-fixer" app from Play Store.


SD applications return to Internal Memory

To avoid updating apps it can be changed in settings when updating is allowed. Or u can shut it down all together then manually run scans to pick and choose which app you want to update.


Please read the main  How do I root my Android device from this site.

This is a blog on rooting the device and installing gApps on the device (if necessary).

This is the XDA thread on the root apk this should be a one click rooting process.

This is a recovery / ROM for the device

As always the disclaimer to this applies:

  Rooting your phone may void your carrier and manufacturer warranty. You accept all responsibility if you brick your device. If you are ever in doubt STOP! This is not something to take lightly.

Read this also as it relates to the risk of rooting a device.

And once more I have to emphasise: ALWAYS backup everything, all the time. Then back it up again.


Figured it all out!

Apparently Aptoide-dev was installed but somehow only for the guest user.

All I had to do was switching to the guest user, going to Settings -> Apps and remove the Aptoide-dev package.

Going back to my profile did some weird stuff (I can't switch between apps, it'll probably work after restart) but I managed to install Aptoide finally.

Thanks.


What data is initially sent when inadvertently connected to unsecured network?

The only thing sent by Android itself is the captive portal check: a single connection to a Google web server, containing no personal or special data. Google Cloud Messaging also connects to a server using SSL, to receive push notifications that are waiting for your phone.

But any app on your phone can register to be notified when a Wi-Fi connection becomes available, so if an app was due to sync with a server, it might have done that in the background as soon as your phone connected. That could be any app that syncs with a server. Many apps send analytics or crash reports in the background even if that's unrelated to their main functionality. There's no way for you to tell afterwards which apps might have connected at this time, unless the app itself tells you when it last synced (or if it gave you a notification or you noticed new data arriving at that time).

Well-written apps (including all Google apps) use SSL to secure connections to the server, so that information can't be intercepted even on a hostile Wi-Fi network. Not all apps are this well written, though, and which servers you're connecting to are visible on the network regardless. Even if every app you use uses SSL correctly, just the fact they're syncing with the server tells an attacker that you use that app/service. This is a reason why you might want an always-on VPN even if you don't normally use open networks.


If I delete Google account entirely will it delete all the photos saved on my phone?

This link about deleting google account gives you the required information.

As far as I understand, it would not delete the apps and screenshots from your phone.


How to Remote Control Google Doc Presentation?

You could simply use a bluetooth/wifi mouse app like PRemoteDroid. There are a bunch of others, and generally speaking they just allow your device to be used as a mouse/keyboard input. If you can pair with your PC it should work, although I've never tried it myself (I do use PRemoteDroid to pair with and remotely control my Xoom, though; works great).

Another option would be some kind of VNC or remote desktop client, but that's not as lightweight and some of them don't support Linux (Splashtop, for example, doesn't have a Linux server, IIRC).


How to Diagnose Wireless that won't turn on?

This is what i would do myself, and in that order :

Modify the way you authenticate to the Wifi access point. Removing temporarily any kind of encryption. If this fix your problem ---> Your phone most likely doesn't handle some advanced kind of WPA2 or something like that.
Look for an issue in the configuration of the access point itself. Look for MAC address filtering for example.
Finally as a last resort, use command line tools like "adb debug on your phone to read what's happening to your wireless driver on the phone.


Retrieve my phone contacts lost in previous phone

If you backed up your contacts to Google:
(You have tagged the question with Google-account tag, so I'm assuming that you have stored the contacts there.)
First, make sure you actually have saved your contacts to Google. To do so, go to contacts.google.com and log into your Google account. If you see your contacts there, then follow the steps below:
Go into your phone settings → accounts → Google → sync, and make sure that contacts sync, is on, if it's on, but the last sync date was a long time ago, make sure to refresh sync. Your contacts should now appear in the contacts app.
If you have not backed up your contacts to Google:
If you checked in contacts.google.com and the contacts are not there, that would mean that you have saved the contacts to the internal memory of your lost phone, and in that case there's not much you can do to get them back.


Tap on Home icon > Apps and widgets > Settings > Apps > All tab > Scroll down and tap on Camera option > Enable button.


Will Xiaomi Mi band tracker work with Android 4.3?

It is compatible with Xiaomi Redmi 1S Android 4.3. Source.


Strange text messages at five minute intervals with no sender

Questions for you:

Did you install an app recently?
What app did you last install?
How long was that going on for?
Have you checked with your Sprint provider? You're not getting charged for those incoming messages?

It sounds like mal-ware, but do not wish to raise alarm nor fear in you, BUT by answering my questions above to ascertain it.

Quite possibly, it sounds like a scam, if you were to reply innocently like "Who are you?" you could be charged premium rates for sending it.

As for the gibberish, its likely in a language that is not recognized by your handset hence the font shows the "gibberish" character as a result.

IF all else fails, try a factory reset the handset at last resort.

Edit: Based on your edit, it sounds like its stopped for a good while due to perhaps its hit the threshold limit of how many SMS to be stored, then when you went to delete them, more kept coming in.

The apps do seem legit.. btw :)

Would you not suggest try this, download this app called 'History Eraser' from Google Play, to wipe out the history of the SMS, just that specifically alone, and nothing else. See if that helps. If more are still coming in, then I hate saying this, factory reset the handset to clear out whatever it is that's causing the jam.


I'm not able to access a certain intranet site

It may be that your intranet sites are actually hosted on another subnet, and access is through a proxy server. Direct DNS lookup, and even IP routing to the host may not be possible.

The browser on your laptop might be automatically configuring the proxy, whereas the tab would not. I can be tricky to determine where the proxy server is, however it maybe possible with netstat and a little knowledge.

On the laptop, start downloading a large file from the intranet, and run this from a command prompt:

netstat -an

Look for a connection on a port like 80, 8080, 443, or 8443. This would be the server you need to configure as your proxy server on the tab.

It's also worth exploring the DNS suffix options suggested above.


On OnePlus One w CyanogenMod, how do I get better camera performance?

1) Set image quality to 95% instead of 100%. Trust me, it helps

2) Set focus from auto to continuous (this also removes the line people get while recording videos). Leaving the focus mode on tap to focus is a great idea. It lets you pick and quickly set your focal point. Unfortunately, IF YOU DO NOT TAP THE SCREEN, SHOTS WILL BE OUT OF FOCUS.

3) Try a different camera app like Google Camera, Camera fv5, OpenCamera, Camera-Next

4) Change exposure mode from center weighted to frame average keeps the whole shot in mind when choosing exposure. Center weighted and the even more extreme spot metering are for focusing on the center of the photo.

Other more involved pain in the a** Options include:

the best fix is to root your phone and install a custom ROM.
Some suggested Roms are paranoid android, liquidsmooth and mahdi ROM.
For more information on how to do this, please refer to my thread on how to get cm updates (link in signature)
Try using manual focus and mess around with the iso settings to get better images

See more tips and a camera app comparisons @ https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/full-oneplus-one-camera-guide-including-third-party-apps.278496/


How can I change the order of suggested contacts in GMail app?

Gmail automatically sorts all the contacts based on your most frequent uses. But if you don't find that name at top, then you might consider saving a new contact.

To view a complete list of your most frequently mailed contacts, click Gmail at the top-left corner of your Gmail page, then choose Contacts. Next, click Most Contacted.

When you’re composing or replying to a message, hover over a contact’s name to see the email address associated with it, and double-click a contact’s name to edit it. If you have multiple email addresses linked to a contact, you’ll see your contact’s email address as well as name.


dd is a block-based copy tool -- it doesn't care what data it covers. adb backup is rather file-based, which is something completely different.

As you've tagged your question backup, you might follow that tag to its tag-wiki, which gives you some insight into available backup methods. You will quickly see the one coming closest to dd being Nandroid, which copies entire partitions. Though you cannot restrict it in the way you can with dd, you could still take its resulting files, copy them to your Linux computer, and use dd to work on them.

One tool not mentioned in this tag-wiki is dd itself. You could check with a terminal editor whether it's present on your device -- chances are good: I just checked with one of my extracted Nandroid backups, and found dd as a symlink in /system/bin, being a symlink to /system/toolbox. If you cannot find it, but your device is rooted (which I assume, as otherwise dd wouldn't make much sense), you could look for a BusyBox which brings it along.


Does Android auto-switch between SIMs for data on dual-SIM phones when one of the SIMs has poor reception?

If you're using the internet on the phone, does Android auto-switch between SIMs on dual-SIM phones when one of the SIMs has poor reception?

No. Android doesn't offer such provisions. Pixel 3a line is dual Sim and if Android has this provision, it would have been incorporated in these phones.
It is most likely referring to Dual SIM Dual Active devices where both the Sims simultaneously can be active be it voice or data. As an example you could be talking on SIM1 and yet receive a call on SIM2 which will be put on hold or you could attend that and put the first SIM call on hold (Pixel 3a have this).
(This is in contrast to Dual SIM Dual Standby, wherein if SIM1 is in use, SIM2 becomes inactive and vice - versa. Such phones are cheaper)
Edit: If you are referring to Smart Signal, the FAQ clearly says it doesn't choose the best signal (as your question implies) but merely switches between two networks

Does Smart Signal automatically choose the network with the best signal?
No, with Smart Signal you’ll automatically switch to EE or O2 if you lose signal on Honest Mobile. On some phones you can also manually select which network you want to be on.


How do I change the Battery Percentage that corresponds to a Voltage in Android

Let's look at the challenges you would face in achieving correct reading, rooting is not a magic key that let's you do everything easily:

The battery capacity (mAh) is coded in two places - the ROM and kernel (see Where are the battery capacity files located?) Only OEM would know from where the values are picked up, so you would need to have a custom ROM and kernel that stores this higher value. You would need to do this own and this is definitely not a trivial effort. ROM "chefs" wouldn't be interested in this (not appealing or in demand). You say you aren't a software person, so it's safe to discard this path.
The charging algorithm is also proprietary and not open source given the competition ( I can  charge from xx to yy% in so many minutes is the sales pitch). So that's your next huge challenge since the charger, charging cable and the device need to be in sync with the algorithm. Impossible for you to replicate. See the charging algorithm
(Source
) of an Anker power bank to get a sense of how challenging it would be to figure out on your own.
Charging incorrectly is going to damage your new battery and the purpose of acquiring it is partly defeated. This would be the result since you aren't easily going to achieve the first two points.

It is for these and probably more reasons that third party sellers who provide extended batteries do not attempt to show the correct percentage. Read the reviews of any such product and you will find complaints around this

What you can do

Use a battery bank of desired capacity.
Experiment at various charging speeds and arrive at a rough correlation between shown and actual voltages.
Rig up hardware based system as you suggested in your question (off-topic on this site)


Change file (pictures, videos) timestamp from filename

Remove from the script the .${i:17:2} in for loop.

It should be:

#!/system/bin/sh
#change timestamp for images filename IMG_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.jpg
for i in IMG_*.jpg
do
    touch -t ${i:4:8}${i:13:4} $i
done

#change timestamp for whatsapp images IMG-YYYYMMDD-WAnnnn.jpg
for i in IMG-*WA*.jpg
do
    touch -t ${i:4:8}1234 $i
done

#change timestamp for videos filename VID_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.mp4
for i in VID_*.jpg
do
    touch -t ${i:4:8}${i:13:4} $i
done

#change timestamp for whatsapp videos IMG-YYYYMMDD-WAnnnn.mp4
for i in VID-*WA*.mp4
do
    touch -t ${i:4:8}1234 $i
done

Note that the images and videos from WhatsApp according to your script have the same time 12:34.

Edit: To also go through subdirectories, change the for loops as followed:

for i in `find . -type f -name "IMG_*..jpg"`
do

j=`basename $i`

echo $j

touch -t ${j:4:8}${j:13:4} $i

done

Explanation:

find . -type f -name ".mp5"`: find files ( -type t) whose names contains " IMG_.jpg" ( -name "IMG_*.jpg") in the current directory ( . ) and subdirectories.

j= basename $i : Get the filename (not the entire path), and assign it to j.

touch -t ${j:4:8}${j:13:4} $i : Change  the file's modification time based on the date and time retrieved from ${j:4:8}${j:13:4} .


Is it possible to configure optical trackpad (trackball) to switch on the phone just like iPhone?

I think turning on from shutdown is not possible without messing with the hardware.  I have a nexus one which is basically the HTC desire and using cyanogen mod i've been able to use the trackball to wake from sleep etc.  You will need to root etc and probably will void your warranty whatsoever.

Try the following link for more info:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=690477

also google  cyanogen mod (i can only post one link at a time)


If you want to use the VPN, the documentation suggests

  If you'd already connected to the network manually, you can "forget" the network. Wi-Fi assistant will then re-connect automatically.

because

  Wi-Fi assistant doesn't connect to networks to which you've already connected manually.


If your phone is rooted then one option may be to try the Sixaxis Controller app (it's a paid app, but you can test compatibility with your phone using the free Sixaxis Compatibility Checker app).

The app should work with both official Sixaxis and DualShock 3 Playstation controllers over bluetooth, but due to the non-standard bluetooth protocol used by the PS3 controllers it isn't compatible with all phones, so test first (using the app above), or check their website.


How can I display my Android on my PC monitor?

You mentioned in your question that you don't want to buy any additional connectors. Any reason in particular? How unwilling are you to spend money? Resolution isn't going to be the problem, it's latency.

If you're absolutely adverse to paying, try running a VNC server on your phone then connect to it using a VNC viewer program on your computer. Laptop Magazine has a very good walkthrough here: How to Control an Android Device From Your PC. They reference VMLite VNC Server which is $9.99 but you can find other VNC server programs that are free (though several don't look terribly trustworthy, IMO). You're getting what you pay for, however; a cheap wireless solution means input lag. Your games are going to be very hard to play and the experience will be generally poor.

If you can manage a few dollars, then an Micro USB to HDMI MHL Adapter (with 5pin to 11pin Micro USB Adapter for your S4 - be sure to read the fine print!) as referenced in gt7599a's answer is the way to go. $15 (ish) plus an HDMI cable gets you a wired solution with very low latency.

If you want something wireless but are also wanting to be able to actually play games, your best bet is an adapter that takes advantage of the S4's WiFi Direct/Miracast capabilities. That means a Samsung WI-FI All-Share Cast Hub ($55), NETGEAR Push2TV ($60), or similar.

How much is it worth to you?


Android device is listed and recognized using adb, Hardware Overview but won't show in Finder?

Its probably about mtp mode or another usb conection mode set it in your android decixe settings or find a program to moint mtp volumes


You've probably looked only at the official builds, go try to search for an unofficial one. If you don't find one, it's better (and your only choice, if you flash a ROM for a wrong device you are going to break your phone) to stay with your old OS. However, you might still want to root it, as that gives you some new interesting options to explore, too.

But, if you either flash a new ROM or want to root your phone, always do a full backup of your system before doing anything! If something goes wrong, the Backup will save your life.


How to send Back Button and Home Button Commands with Screen Monitor-Droid Explorer 0.9.0.4

About keyboard shortcut Home
button input can be send using  Esc
 key located at the top left corner of qwerty keyboard...
Still looking for back button shortcut.


Why don't I see my custom ringtone under Default Notification Sounds?

Just like you put those custom audio files into Ringtones directory for the purpose of using them as Ringtone, you need to put your custom files again but in another directory named Notifications (under /sdcard) to have them listed under Default notification ringtone. That would be sufficient.
Note: reboot the device if the Settings app doesn't show those files after moving in into the relevant directory.
Tested successfully on Nexus 6 running Android 6.0.1.
Edit
Alternatively, you can use a third party file manager app. Quite a lot of popular ones responds to the intent action android.intent.action.RINGTONE_PICKER. When you would tap on Default notification ringtone you would be shown a bottom sheet1 with the option to choose Media Storage or the relevant file manager app. Using your file manager app browse to the location of your custom audio file and select it.
The benefit of the last approach is that you don't have to copy or move the audio file to a particular destination, so you get to save space. Furthermore, once you've selected an audio file using file manager its entry would remain in available tones until you move/delete the file.
1 If you're not shown a bottom sheet then you might be having Media Storage selected as default app to handle that intent or your file manager app doesn't handle that intent. I recommend clearing defaults for Media Storage from Settings app → tap three dots line and select Show system → browse to Media Storage → Open by default → Clear defaults. If that doesn't help, switch to an another file manager app.


Are the Battery Doctor and/or CM Family Suite app(s) needed?

All you really need is good antivirus (which I unfortunately cannot recommend to you - I do not know any REALLY good).

Android has its own build in and carefully designed memory management mechanisms. Forcing some apps to close, beside of resulting in unexpected behaviour, does not improve performance.

If app is in background it does not HOLD memory - it simply is in there in case you need it back. Android will kill it as soon as some other app or process will need this memory and killing it before only slows your device when you restart app that normally would still be "in memory".

RAM is not some precious resource that is being waisted when app is "in it" and is not running - RAM is simply a container and having it empty does nothing good (nor bad).

As of the Battery Doctor - this app is not perfect and does not always show real results. Nevertheless it still can be helpful - if you see any of your app draining energy, you should investigate. Well designed and developed apps should not impact your battery life significantly. If any of them is - you should get rid of it and look for an replacement. But as stated before - be careful! Google Play is not iStore - anyone can publish anything without any revision whatsoever. Be extremely cautious with new apps, with few comments and low download counter, that require from you all the privileges they only can. I saw an calculator that required reading my contacts list and clock requiring privilege to make extra-pay phone calls.


Is there a way to listen to the last call made on a Nexus?

I'm afraid there isn't as calls aren't recorded by default or even stored temporarily.

Sorry this didn't add any more information than Izzy offered in the comment just thought it should be put as the answer. If you're in a similar situation in the future or need to record a call there are plenty of apps available that will let you do that.


Asus Memo Pad HD7 wifi button is stuck at 'turning on wifi...'

First of all, this topic is long dead, but still couldnt stop myself from posting this, as this saved a hell lot of time & nuisance, for me...

all in anticipation of saving ones phone from rooting>deleting>installing all apps> and have pressure situation of whether all this will work or not

by just getting back to date from 10-12-2015 to 07-12-2015, in my case to be precise... VOILAA!!! everything back to normal ~~~ and here i am sharing my facts to help all those who are facing this ridiculous problem.

p.s. had been searching throughout the net for the solutionand found some interesting details... would love to share for others (if they can be of any help) ... factory formating/ soft or hard resetting wont work, so as the phone rebooting will also be noteffective ... setting back clock (manuallly) worked like a charm for me (my mobile lenovo Vibe X, carrier Vodafone) ... this problem arose, in my case, when i updated certain apps 5or6 OTA on Google Play Store (mainly Google inbuilt ones) ~~~ for others sufferers as i came to read through their posts >>> when they updated their handsets (for any updates... irrespective of any app) their wifi settings got disturbed causing the wifi to lock while initialising, not allowing the user to switch On or OFF, just displaying the scree n WIFI turning ON/Scanning/Starting/Searching/etc. ... a common solution suggested by many (which even i was going to try ~ if above hadn't work) was

    > solve it by deleting /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf. It will reset all your saved networks. have your phone rooted and delete the file through a root explorer or you can remove it via ADB (adb shell rm -r /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf. I'm not sure).

You may backup it before, then open with a text reader to see your saved passwords.<<<

on many forums, this was the common solution accepted as the only chance to get rid of the problem.

Hope my this post helps you all,

regards


Help! Google is downloading books to me without my permission or involvement

Assuming this is Google Books, this behavior should not carry on past these few books. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Great Expectations, and Pride and Prejudice are downloaded by default, to give a feel for the program and some reading examples. No additional books will be downloaded without your telling the application to do so.


Get Android 7 do not disturb features back?

I have the same options on my Nexus 6P as I did on Nougat however, they are accessed slightly differently. If you click the 'Do not disturb' text in the notification panel you should see the options you're after. I get the 1 hour option and (when within 12 hours of an alarm) the option to turn off at next alarm.

This article on Ars Technica demonstrates a few other changes to the quick settings pane (see image below too).


Launcher preference not persistent between reboots

Based on this answer,

adb shell cmd package set-home-activity "fr.neamar.kiss/.MainActivity"

However, this only works from an external device.


How to put TWRP recovery on an S5? (heimdall fails with PIT transfer)

Try Odin instead of heimdall, and use corresponding .tar format recoveries. No more hassle of Heimdall command line.


Apps on SD-Card moved back to device storage after being updated?

The problem is you don't have you SD card selected as the default installation location. Which makes the app install back onto the internal storage.

To fix this got to Settings > Storage > Preferred install location then select SD card. After you update it will install app on the SD card by default.


How to install game resources without Wi-Fi?

make sure you must put cache in obb folder. if its a file with .obb extension you must put it in obb folder but first make sure its in correct folder name and dont just copy in obb folder. for example it must be in this path:

  obb/com.ea.game.fifa14_row/main.128.com.ea.game.fifa14_row.obb


Android can't view local content after OS upgrade

As pointed out in comment, this is because of Scoped Storage introduced from Android 10.
Before Android 10, any app could read or write any files to external storage (the place where apps store their data), if they requested the READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE and WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permissions. Starting from Android 10,apps can only access data created by them and not other app's data or common data like images, downloads etc.
This enhances your privacy and is a good thing. Apps can access only data created by them and if they need access to external storage they need to access it using Storage Access Framework (SAF) . The file manager you are using isn't seeking  permissions through SAF, so it can't read while other file explorers you installed can because they use SAF. Apps like Local Storage may help for using SAF when they don't employ this.

Aside, for those users who are rooted and would like to address the security concerns of apps reading data created by other apps, they can try Storage Isolation Magisk Module or XPrivacyLua
also provides a solution by blocking app read/write access to the SD card completely (using the Privacy.BlockGuardOS.open repo hook) or by limiting access to the app's private directories (/sdcard/Android/data/app-id and others, using the Fif.BlockGuardOS.open repo hook).


Can I use a larger battery in my Galaxy S?

A battery such as this extended battery from Mugen Power can be used on the Galaxy S without adding thickness and will usually give you around 30% better battery life. Always be careful when using non-OEM batteries in your phone, there are a lot of cheap ones out there, but a no-name brand battery might leak or short out. Read the reviews and remember, you get what you pay for.


Your second command is correct, but the virtual block device is read only. IIRC, this is caused by the a/b mapping virtualisations.

Referring to https://android.stackexchange.com/a/158890/171244, you can see that specifying the correct block device will help. Try:

adb shell
su -c mount -wo remount /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/system$(getprop ro.boot.slot_suffix) /system

This will switch from the virtual mapper (/dev/root) which is read-only, to the actual partition block device, making it writable


Get Gingerbread back on Samsung Galaxy Y

If you can enter into Recovery Mode(with Power and Volume Up buttons pressed on startup) try to restore a nandroid backup(if made) or flash a new ROM.

If you can't enter into Recovery Mode you need to reflash a stock ROM using ODIN. You need to choose the Right Stock ROM for your region. See XDA-Developers, it also contains a guide to flash these files with ODIN.

Then you can go on trying to update to ICS or JB.


Problem adding web app shortcut to home screen on Galaxy tablet

Could it have created the shortcut on a different page of the home screen? Be sure to scroll left and right to check every page.

If you still can't get that working, there's another method that should still work. Go into the app drawer (the list of apps from the home screen), then go to the Widgets tab. There should be a widget there called Bookmark. Hold it to pick it up, and then drag it to where you like on your home screen.

If you need more flexibility than that, my app Showr lets you create a resizable home screen shortcut with a custom icon or image. You can use any picture you like for the shortcut, and have it open the web page you set or launch an app of your choice. It can even update the picture from the web automatically: for example, if the web app is a bug tracker, and it offers an image showing how many bugs are open, you might want to use something like that as the shortcut.

Download Showr for free from Google Play


Where has the option to mount as hard drive gone ...?

Ok, so I had a look at this thread and, as it suggests, I took the microSD out and put it back in again. Now it works as before. Smells like a bug to me?


HTC Mail:  Move Messages Between Folders, Not Synced on IMAP Server

Sounds like it's just not copying sent messageinto your mailbox at all, only keeping them locally.  I would assume that's just a shortcoming of the app and you'd need to use a different one that supports that feature.  The default client is very basic and buggy.  Have you considered using Gmail?  You can configure it (through the web) to get mail from an IMAP account, and then you could use the Gmail app (which is very good).


How can I connect Android to my PC for backups?

The answer is found in this article:

Fix: Windows 10 Doesn’t Recognize Android Phone

Excerpt:


Kindle Fire Utility provides an easy and automated way to get root, Android Market with other Google Apps including Google Services Framework.

Alternatively, you can use quite nice imo messenger to connect to GTalk, Skype, etc even with no root.


There is a root method available for the VRUEMA7 Build that does not require you to wipe your device or flash ROMs, but it does not have an unlocked boot loader (source & credit to: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2380325)

STEP 1: Download all three files from the first step from the source above and install/extract as necessary.

STEP 2: Insert a microSD card (exFAT format REQUIRED) into your device and connect it to your computer as a media device.

STEP 3: Move the extracted files and folder from the Root Exploit package onto the root of your microSD card. Do not put them in ANY folder.

STEP 4: Open the Android Terminal Emulator App on your device and run the following commands hitting return after each line:

cd /mnt/extSdCard
./pwn
./script.sh

After the second command you should see the '$' change to a '#' indicating root access. The third command will make root access permanent.

STEP 5: After the above commands have run, you can download and open SuperSU and check for binary updates. At this point you should be done and you can open an app that will request root access to test this.


Can't add hotmail.com address into Gmail 5.0

Do you have two-step verification enabled on your hotmail account? If you do, that extra layer of security can trip up GMail. You'll need to create an "App Password", which should be a setting in your Hotmail settings.

From Microsoft's Two-step Verification FAQ:

  Some apps (like the mail apps on some smartphones) or devices (like
  the Xbox 360, for example) can't prompt you to enter a security code
  when you try to sign in. If you get an incorrect password error with
  an app or device, you'll need to create a unique app password to sign
  in. Once you've signed in with your app password, you're all set to
  use that app or device. You'll need to create and sign in with an app
  password once for each app or device that can't prompt you for a
  security code.

  Sign in to your Microsoft account.
  Under Password and security info, tap or click Edit security info.
  If you're prompted for a security code here, enter it and tap or click Submit.
  Under App passwords, tap or click Create a new app password.

  A new app password is generated and appears on your screen.
  Switch to the app or device for which you need the password, and enter the app password displayed on the screen.

  For more info about signing in to specific devices, see App passwords
  and two-step verification.


Where can I get a CAD model for the Moto X

In fact, one is available from Motorola here, posted by Reddit user troub (source). It is a .dae file but can be converted using Autodesk FBX Converter (see www.cadstudio.cz/download or www.autodesk.com/fbx). Alternatively, it is posted here on Thingiverse as a .stl file.


Yes, it's possible. You can restore all partitions grabbed by dd like this:

fastboot -w flashall

Or write separate partitions by

fastboot flash boot

fastboot flash recovery

fastboot flash userdata

Prior to that your should put your partitions to the same directory where you run fastboot. Separate partitions can be obtained by simple unpack of the image got from your dd command.


how can i gain access to texts if i dont have the phone in hand

What Android version & Device is he on ?
It is extremely important to know if the target device has a Firmware update coming soon and also it is important to know what Android Version the device is running on, both these pieces of information can be obtained by getting the target to load a website and provide data to the website for loading.

I made this page as an example of a browser user agent string reader Check Device & Browser example php

After you know the Android version is not going to change ( No Updates ) and you know what the Android Version is.. Then you can look into remotely monitoring that version of Android.

Let me explain some more,
On Android 4.4 or below,
You can track the text messages, calls, call history, message history, application launch history etc..
You can use several application's below Android 5.0 to monitor android almost invisibly.

My favourite would be the simple ones like SMS Forwarder and mainly any Parental Control apps, have a look around at the options, i haven't used Android 4.4 for age's so i can't even remember any others.

Android 5.0+
On Android 5.0+ Things get a lot, A Lot, Harder !

In Android 5.0 you need to select the SMS Handling application, this only allows 1 single application to Read the SMS Messages being sent !
However you can still receive SMS Message's easily using a Broadcast Receiver ( For Phone Number Verification in Applications )

So, on Android 5.0+ it will be very difficult without modifying the system of the phone to allow a monitor application.

Logs and LogCat Reading,
You can still read the sent message's using a Log reading method, It waits for the SMS to go into OutBox or Sent and then uses Read Messages permissions to list all message's in the default SMS App, once it has listed all the message's, it then checks by time to see was last sent.

However Android 6.0+ Implemented
( On Demand Permission Acceptance )

With Android 6.0+ you need to accept the permission to receive calls, sms sent & sms received information at each read... Their goes Invisibility...

Due to the massive number of permission changes to Android, it is probably going to be a fight to get an app working with all permissions permanently accepted so as to stay hidden.

You are the owner of both accounts

I have seen accounts being used to bypass the Messages & Calls & Contacts permissions by using Google Backup...

The Application initiates a Google Backup of everything on your device and then you can access that information by restoring it onto another device that you own.

Conclusion

Permission acceptance can stop monitoring software from working.
Default SMS Application Selection can stop SMS Sent monitoring.
Android 6.0 Stops Monitoring by using Permissions & SMS Application Selection.
Android 5.0 Stops Monitoring by using SMS Application Selection.
Android 4.4 or Below will not stop Monitoring at all.
OTA Updates can update your Android Version and bring about new problems as I've mentioned.
Both Devices Accounts are linked, so data can be accessible by Google Backup & Restore.

Some stuff can be monitored invisibly, however you need to accept the permissions permanently so the user never See's it.

Other methods than Malware or Spyware
A method sometimes used by Law Enforcement Agencies is to Clone the SIM Card, you can buy many SIM Cloning device's online and blank sim cards to clone into... However many ISP or MSP's are monitoring for Cloned sim cards and only allow 1 device to receive the message or call..
Sometimes it is at random who gets the text or call, but only 1 of them gets it.

SS7
SS7 is a security protocol that we all accept when using an Android device, as part of that we allow all our information to be accessible through the security protocol SS7... Even your Camera is accessible while your device is switched Off...

Many hackers have hacked SS7,
You can even use whole website bots that do the hacks Automatically by purchasing an account with them, software can also be purchased that hacks SS7 Automatically as well.

Root Access & Spyware
If the target has Root Access, thing's get a lot easier... Root Access Spyware can literally be invisible... You could manipulate the stock messaging application and also implant spyware into the system, i will not cover that here.

My Advice

  Ask him, tell him that you are unsure about his commitment to the relationship and you would just like to have some closure by looking through his phone ?

It is easy to delete a message and call history i know, but trust is a very powerful thing.


Where does the Foursquare notification come from?

When Google Cloud Messaging receives a message from Google, it sends a broadcast to the related app. The app can receive this broadcast even if no service was running, and it can respond by starting a service, or by creating a notification from within the broadcast receiver itself.

Part of the Android developers' documentation explains the process step-by-step. There's a lot of detail there that you only need to know to write an app that uses Google Cloud Messaging, but it might help satisfy your curiosity.


Le eco le 2 Android 6.0 : How to share my computer internet on my android with USB?

As far as I know, only a few manufacturers include the USB Internet option in the menu.

I was looking for a way to reverse tether my Android devices some time ago as well and eventually developed my own solution. The result is an app that works on devices running Android 4.0 or higher on client side, and all major desktop OSs on the host side.

The app is available on Google Play: ReverseTethering NoRoot


I don't have enough reputation to post comments.

Would you check this thead on XDA Developpers? The method uses TinySU an lternative for Chainfire's SuperSU or SuperUser or  MagiskSU.


Hmmm. Did you definitely tick the 'Transparent Proxy' option? That tells it to make everything go through the proxy.

Another thing I have noticed when using it is that it can be quite specific with a proxy - my school uses microsoft tmg, and has the proxy as 'tmg' in browsers, but proxydroid needs the full URL to the system (which is TMG.academy.(myschoolwebsiteurl).co.uk)


Auto turn on after power on for an Android-based device

It is a kernel (feature known as recovery) and you can't change this, unless you change your kernel with desired option enabled.

Didn't try this out, but Autosleeper Auto power ON-OFF application seems to do, what you want.


After reading a bit this seems to be a pretty common issue with folks who are running Skyraider on their devices.  I don't know exactly what they're talking about, but apparently your radio needs to be the right version in order for your WiFi to act properly.  This thread over at IncredibleForum looks like it might be where you need to start.


Problem importing server certificate to CyanogenMod 9.1

I'am having trouble importing a self signed certificate to my Sony Ericsson xperia Arc S running Cyanogenmod 9.1...

AOSP/Android does not support self signed server certificates for the system's Trust Store, and they make it (nearly?) impossible to import them. I know you can't import them for use in, for example, com.android.browser. Also see this related stack exchange question: Self-signed certificate install claims success, but android acts as if cert isn't there.

If you want to certify one of your servers, you have to become your own CA. You will be able to import your own CA's certificate. Also see Work with certificates on Google's Android help. Notice they work with CA and client certificates; but not self signed server certificates.

The browser's unwillingness to use self signed server certificates will be a pain point for the Internet of Things (IoT), where you try and connect to your refrigerator or thermostat to program it. The W3C's working group has not even begun to tackle the problem. See Proposal: Marking HTTP As Non-Secure on the W3C mailing list.

If you want to become your own CA, then see questions like How do you sign Certificate Signing Requests with your Certification Authority? and How to create a self-signed certificate with openssl?.

  I tried to get it into the system certificates ....

The system Trust Store is burned into the ROM, so you really can't do anything with it. When you modify the Trust Store, you are actually tweaking /data/misc/keychain and one of two files: cacerts-added and cacerts-removed. See Nikolay Elenkov's ICS Trust Store Implementation.


What time does Google Play update apps when it is set to auto-update?

Adding to @Josh's experience mentioned in the comments above, the auto-update is not time-specific - I too have only seen the auto update proceed when on WiFi (my chosen setting) and plugged in charging. On my Sony Xperia running Android 7.0, it appears to be the default behaviour.

I can't find any more reliable sources for this behaviour, but there is lots of personal experience:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/google-pixel-pixel-xl/747707-auto-update-apps-while-charging.html

Annoyingly, it is not mentioned on Google support, and I can't figure out how to give feedback to them about it:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/113412?hl=en-AU

I can only post 2 links in this answer, but the 'WiFi and charging' requirement has been requested as a configurable feature (google 'how-to-allow-auto-update-of-apps-in-play-store-only-when-plugged-in') and there may be a workaround to achieve similar behaviour using the WiFi on Sleep setting (listed on benjaminoakes dot com).


Sorry to hear that. You can connect your phone to a pc or Mac to transfer files from your phone.

You can find it below.
https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/2840804?hl=en

Hope this helps.


This is a power consumption thing. Most time when you're not using a smartphone it's in suspended state. I.e, as many as possible components are off and don't consume power. Awake means the CPU is in the running state. This usually means you're using it and the screen is also on.

Android devices also regularly wake up to check email, push notifications and so on even when thescreen is off. Also playing music or using navigation both with screen off forces the cpu to be awake.

Hence your finding: More awake -> more battery drain


Does deleting content on my phone affect content on Google Photos?

It will stay online.
Auto-backup only add photo, they never remove it.


How can I see which wifi channel / frequency is used by my android 4.4.2 device?

This answer might be helpful for you. However, there are multiple apps could do that. Search wifi on google play. For example, the one I use at work and home is Wifi Analyzer. which graphically shows the channel & frequency for all wifi networks around plus the one you're connected to. I used this app on Samsung galaxy S2. I would post couple of screenshots taken by me but I can't post more than 2 links (new user).


Locus Maps - adding additional zoom levels

After searching and searching - I don't think there's a way to do this. The only option is deleting the old map and downloading the map once again with multiple zoom levels selected.


So an update for anyone who's stumbled across this question in future;

I think I've managed to solve the problem. Connection restored and music is playing no problem, I've yet to test phone calls and texts yet though.

It would appear the problem was with SYNC and my text messages, I was using the Google hangouts app previously which is notoriously unreliable on older handsets, installed Google Messenger (their new SMS client) this morning, just tried connecting again during lunch and all seems well and stable.

If you're having disconnects especially with a Nexus 4 and (by chance) Ford SYNC, try force stopping, uninstalling updates and ultimately disabling Google hangouts. I'm going to fully remove the app tonight via ADB but for now the disabled state seems fine.


Set Russian language on Alcatel Pop S7 (Android 4.1.2)

MoreLocale 2 from the Play Store might be worth a shot.

Taken from the app listing:

  You can select more locales via this app.
  If your locale doesn't appear, please use custom locale function in menu.

So if you don't see your preferred language in the app, you might have luck specifying something like ru-RU in the app's custom locale wizard.


Alternatively, because I'm guessing you're in a process to flash a new Custom ROM and you want to flash manually using fastboot, you can look for a compatible custom recovery, download it and place it in the computer you're using. On fastboot, if bootloader is unlocked, as it probably might be since you're already on custom ROM, write these commands

fastboot boot [path-to-custom-recovery]

It will boot up on a custom recovery that you downloaded

Select Wipe
Advanced Wipe
Check system, dalvik, data, cache
Swipe to wipe
Back to install
Locate the zip and install it or send it from computer using adb sideload


Why can't I write to recovery using fastboot on A/B device?

That's expected. Devices with A/B partition scheme don't have a recovery partition. You can only boot in recovery mode with fastboot boot twrp.img. But to permanently flash recovery to device which can be booted into by proper key combination, you need to unpack both of your boot.imgs (A/B) from device and replace the ramdisk with the one extracted from twrp.img. Then repack and flash boot.imgs back to device.

On TWRP this has  been previously achieved by flashing a special ZIP file, or one could do manually. Now the official TWRP release includes the option Install Recovery Ramdisk:

  Use magiskboot to allow repacking boot images for installing TWRP

Traditionally boot.img and recovery.img had two major components; kernel and ramdisk. On A/B devices, no ramdisk is required for normal boot because system.img is mounted as rootfs when processing Device Tree (dtb) which is appended to kernel image usually. So the ramdisk.cpio in boot.img is that of recovery. Since kernel is same for a device (other than build configurations), so only ramdisk needs to be replaced.

Sources:

Implementing A/B Updates
System-as-root


detect when application using permissions ~ Android

That should be possible. How to realize it, depends on the Android version used: For Android 4.0 and earlier, the IMHO best solution is installing LBE Privacy Guard, which you can configure to issue a popup whenever a given permission was requested (so you can decide whether to permit or deny access). However, do not attempt installing this on Android 4.1+, or you'll end up in a boot-loop; the XDA Developers have "localized versions" of LBE Security Master available instead (a version I find bloated, as it tries to cover to much things).

Apart from these two, I know of no other app informing you of an access at the time it's made (which does not mean there aren't any). Other tools might however log access so you can either see the log entry afterwards, or at least know whether an app has used that permission at all (e.g. XPrivacy). I'm not sure how PDroid handles this, as I've never used it.


Always explain what problem you are having. It is difficult to judge whether it is a compatibility issue or a bug in the apps.

Anyway,
Flud works well on most phones. Some alternatives are tTorrent and aTorrent.


How does one use apps that place a menu on the system bar when the buttons are not in the screen?

I am not aware of Android solutions to this but here is a work around . This app Menu Button , it doesn't require root and creates a virtual menu bar to manipulate the settings for your app by creating Home , Back and Recents

OP has confirmed that it worked for them


android tablet locked after too many unlocking pattern attempts

Try resetting the tablet by using reset button, usually this button is not very visible and would need a pointed object to press it, check manual to find location.


What's "creation mode" in the Galaxy S's offical messaging application?

From a Google search for "mms creation mode" I found this (among others) which says:

  • MMS creation mode — Select Restricted to have your device prevent
  you from including content in multimedia messages that may not be
  supported by the network or the receiving device. To receive warnings
  about including such content, select Guided. To create a multimedia
  message with no restrictions on attachment type, select Free. If you
  select Restricted, creating multimedia presentations is not possible.


Where is the Developer options in the Settings on the S6?

Follow the instructions:

Go to Settings → About device.
Tap Build number 7 times.

After tapping build number two or more times, a toast will be shown on the screen telling you the progress:

  You are now X steps away from being a developer.

After tapping the build number 7 times, you will be notified you are a developer.

Now, Galaxy S6 developer options will be available in the Settings menu.

(Click image to enlarge)

Go to Settings → Developer options.
In the Settings menu, you can find the Developer options right above About device.  Tap Developer options.
Enable Galaxy S6  Developer options.
In Developer options page, drag the switch to right to turn it on. The color should change to green as shown below.
Use Galaxy S6 Developer options.

For example, you want to turn on USB debugging on Galaxy S6. You can tap USB debugging as shown below. This will enable USB debugging for Galaxy S6.

Full list of Galaxy S6 developer options

Take bug report
Set desktop backup password
Stay awake while charging (screen will not sleep)
Bluetooth HCI snoop log
Processes stats (lists the stats of running processes)
USB debugging (you can then run ADB command from PC)
Revoke USB debugging authorizations
Include bug reports in power menu options
Allow mock locations
View attribute inspection
Select app to be debugged
Wait for debugger
Verify apps vis USB
WiFi verbose logging
Aggressive WiFi/cell handover
Allow WiFi roaming scans
Buffer size for logging
Show touches
Show pointer location
Show screen updates
Show layout boundaries
Force RTL layout
Window animation scale
Transition animation scale
Animator duration scale
Simulate secondary displays
Force GPU rendering
Show GPU view updates
Show hardware layers update
Debug GPU overdraw
Show non-rectangular clips
Turn on 4x MSAA
Turn off hardware overlays
Simulate color space
Use NuPlayer (instead of AwesomePlayer)
Prevent USB audio routing
Strict mode
Show CPU usage
GPU rendering profile
Turn on OpenGL traces
Do not keep activities
Limit background processes
Show all ANRs (app not responding)


I'm afraid it's not possible using the standard google photos app, you would need to use some photo-processing software to set locations for photos after they were taken (Picasa comes to mind). Alternatively, you can use the G+ page https://plus.google.com/photos/yourphotos to edit the GPS information, but then again i'm afraid you can only do this one by one. Maybe it's best to just turn on the location feature while taking the photos and you're done


This message is because you do not have any Account Recovery information tied to your account. This is not some Malware, or anything harmful. They will not change any of your security settings by clicking it.

Clicking "continue" will ask you for additional information to verify your account and your device. You should enter the information, it is the information if you need to perform a password reset, or if you are unable to access your account via password and 2-step authentication, this will give google another way for you to verify you are you.


I have approx 300 Samsung tablets in my company (including ~100 SM-T805). I understand that this could be a software issue with your ROM etc, but in our experience, we often do find that the cables can slowly degrade over time, and even though they display that they are charging at full speed, the speed is actually well below the original maximum.

I would suggest you find an alternative cable to test. Drain the tablet battery to 0%, power the unit down and test a full charge with the current cable, (e.g. 2hr 12mins) and then replace the cable, and re-charge the tablet from 0% again.


Android notification dots appearing on random apps

As of now, this seems to be a bug and only appearing in OnePlus phones post the latest Oreo 8.0.0 update. It is unclear what they denote though.

Restarting the phone solves the problem temporarily. It will be safe to assume that a fix could come out in the next patch from OnePlus.

As @beeshyams discovered, this has been reported few times on the forums


Note9: Can you sync DIFFERENT calendars on google calendar and samsung calendar at the same time?

Candl Apps makes two calendar widgets - one called Calendar Widget: Month and another called Calendar Widget: Agenda.

You can add calendars to these widgets which will not automatically change the visible calendars on other calendar apps.

Here are the links to the play store:

Month
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.candl.chronos

Agenda
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.candl.auge


You will have to download this app and install it as a system app, using Link2SD or any similar app. This is just another apk file from another Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2 phone.

Note : Please backup all your data before trying to do so. This way of installing apps is actually not recommended, but works out most of the times.


I just faced and fixed exatly the same problem on my Galaxy S3 I9300 with Android 6 Marshmellow (bliss 6.1 rom). Bootloop happend without any warning at the Night of 31st to 1st November. Just saw my phone rebooting ever and ever. Over the last 5 days I tried to get it back working or even to get some more backups out of the twrp backup.

What I found was: I got it running with factory reset and right after installing either of them: telegram, davdroid, the phone crashed directly in the appstore while installig. Then the phone rebooted and got stuck.

Important: you should make a twrp/nandroid backup if you not already did.
a lot of reading, testing and questions in xda got me that far and this link here finally brought me to the ida: TWRP backup - Can I restore some app data without restoring the whole image?

initial Idea:
extract all neccessary /data/data and data/app subfolders of your apps in the system and restore them to a clean factory reset.
This worked not perfect but I got it running to access some more data as before. I did the copy or delete of the app folders through twrp -> advanced -> file manager.

Update:
After I later got another(quite simple) idea on the base of initial guest  post: why not going the way in the other direction and removing apps in the broken installation.
This did the trick perfectly. I finally got into my broken rom again, all remaing apps worked as before (quite important to me since encrypted apps like threema and signal are not just copy-data-backups).
Right now I am doing backups of my old Android 6 system :) for the import in my new Android 7 setup.

Hopefully it works for you, too!

OK now step by step what I did:

be sure to have a twrp backup of your device (efs,boot,system and data) and to have your broken system installed and not factory reseted.
then in twrp got to advanced -> filemanager and navigate to systemfolder. there delete all unneccessary apps by deleting the appropiate folders in /data/app and in data/data. This will "uninstall" the apps. These will not be optimized or loaded when you boot up. I especially deleted Telegram, DavDroid since I knew out of my checks one of them was causing the error. but i just deleted more apps that I do not need a backup or which are less important. For me this did the trick! Even better this can be done 1 after 1 if neccessary. I first tried this with all apps -> again bootloop. Tried it again with less apps -> worked. So its likely not the system its directly a app in the optimizing/starting process killing the bootprocess.
just to be sure clear cache and dalvik cache to be sure android is reloading the changes and not seeing and cache
then go for a reboot to system (Fingers crossed)
if your're able to boot in again, then imediately open google play store -> scroll down to settings and deactivate automatic update of apps ( Just to be sure not getting any update causing a crash while you are inspecting your data, making updates and so on)
finally i would recomend thinkig about moving on to a Nougat rom (if available for you). It's likely that there will not be an update soon fixing this bootloop problem (even if its unclear what caused it or which app(s)). I choose ressurection mix since its a quite active project and frequently updated.

best luck to you guy, I know how hard this problem hits.Alex.

(Guest "Alex." and me are the same author -just forgot that I already have an account).


Yes. The Installation Aborted:Status 7 error indicates an assertion fail during execution of the updater-script binary inside OTA file. This can be due to one of 2 things:

The OTA zip itself is corrupted (bad download). This then indicates a signature mismatch error.
The updater-script could not find the appropriate properties in your system during execution. This means that the updater-script checks for some particular values in your build.prop, which allow it to confirm that it is being installed on the system it was meant to be installed on. The updater-script has assertions, a kind of safety mechanism (or exception handlers, if you prefer). to verify this. This indicates an incompatible system software version versus OTA zip.

In both cases, you would be better off redownloading and double checking the update(checking the checksums if any are provided), or manually updating via adb sideload (Recovery Mode option Apply update from ADB), Recovery Mode option Apply update from SD card, or using an HTC RUU or fastboot.


Phone boots very slow and restarts by itself

After flashing a new firmware it is advised to perform a factory reset (all your data will be lost, so take a backup.) While the phone is off:

Press the VOLUME UP, HOME and POWER buttons together till it vibrates. Now it has entered RECOVERY MODE.
Navigating using the volume buttons highlight the option wipe data/factory reset and press the HOME button to select and confirm it on the next screen.
Finally select reboot system now to restart the phone


How do you name a folder on the home screen (Gingerbread, HTC Incredible)?

Tap to open the folder, then long-press the text making up the name. That should change it to an editable field.


Can an Android phone pull contact data from somewhere other than Google Contacts?

There are several sources that can be used for contacts. I eg use CardDAV (and CalDAV for calendars) with my own Nextcloud install (an app named DAVx5, formerly called DAVDroid, takes care for the sync). There are more sync apps available, and also other, more light-weight server software (like Baïkal).
You can also use a local contact storage and take care for backups manually (using the Contact app's export/import feature). On-device they all use the same database (which has a field to mark the source, so data added to one does not get accidentally synced to another). If your device does not provide such local storage, apps like MyLocalStorage can provide it.
Should you want to hide contacts from other apps, you'd need to keep them away from the "ContactsStorageProvider" offered by the system. This is possible using apps that provide their own contact storage, such as Contact Book or OpenContacts.


Nexus 7 System error 'show low battery logo'

By searching in Google, I landed in a discussion thread on XDA.  It seems that this issue is a software bug and just to troubleshoot, keep the battery charged fully and see at what level of the battery this issue comes up. And you are being referred in that discussion as well ;-)


Since Android 5.0 Lollipop, the feature is built-in as one of accessibility options.

Open Settings
Select Accessibility
Below Display section, toggle Color inversion.

After toggling it for the first time, the "Invert colors" toggle will be added to the quick settings menu.


How do I know which applications slows down the phone?

Although you can't find out what apps are 'slowing down' your phone, you can find out which apps are using your battery the most. Generally if apps are using a lot of battery power, they're probably slowing down your phone too.

You can find the list of apps vs battery usage in Settings > Battery.


I'm the creator of the HTTP Request Shortcuts app, and I believe it can be used for what you're describing. You can try this:

Open the HTTP Shortcuts app
Click the + button at the bottom right to create a new shortcut
In the dialog that pops up select "Scripting Shortcut"
Give the shortcut a name (and a description and different icon if you want)
Click on "Scripting" to open the Scripting editor
Enter the following JavaScript code:
const number = prompt('Enter the number');
sendIntent({
type: 'activity',
action: 'android.intent.action.VIEW',
dataUri: 'whatsapp://send?phone='+number,
});
Save your changes.

You can then run this shortcut from within the app, or place it on your home screen. When you click it, it should prompt you to enter a number, and will then invoke the URL 'whatsapp://send?phone=' with the number appended.
Hope this helps. For more information regarding Scripting in the HTTP Request Shortcuts app see the official documentation here: https://http-shortcuts.rmy.ch/scripting


How can I install apps to 'Phone capacity'

Go to Settings->Apps, select a app and choose "Move to SDCARD", it should move it to Phone capacity, but if that doesn't work, root is the only solution I guess


Android since 5.0/6.0 contains an integrated app usage statistics system. It tracks which app is used when and how long.

The data collected by this system can be accessed by every app with the correct permissions - therefore you can find a lot of apps that are able to display the app usage of your device.

Based on this information you can easily find out which app(s) you have not used for a certain period of time.


If you are looking for the name of the font you have changed to, you can use the website What the Font.


Can I use dual boot in my Android mobile phone?

Yes it's possible to dual boot Android and Windows Mobile or dual boot multiple different Android ROMs or dual boot Android and WebOS.


Unfortunately, if there are no backups of your device, it cannot be restored.

However you may still have some data!

If you had the app Google Photos, your photos are saved online, and can be accessed at photos.google.com.

If you had Google Drive on your phone, your files can be received on the platform on your computer.

If you had Chrome, your bookmarks are most likely synced with your computer.

If you have any questions, please respond!
Regards,
James Kerrane


My Samsung Galaxy S III claims that a screenshot was "copied to clipboard". What?

The clipboard (like on Windows for instance) can hold different types of data.

Raw images (like your screenshot) are one of those possible clipboard contents and thus you can paste them in, given that the app you use allows you to paste image data from your clipboard.

The supported data types that the clipboard can hold are mentioned in the Android Documentation (https://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/ClipDescription.html).
I believe it either saves an Intent with the type ACTION_ATTACH_DATA or a Uri to your image or holding your image as a data string (Base64 encoded).


The notification appears to be coming from apps installed from the Firefox Marketplace on Firefox for Android.

These apps can be found by opening the menu in Firefox and going to Tools > Apps.


Stop Chrome from opening Google Maps app

A few options - open the Maps app info and disable it is the easiest. I also just noticed that with the Xposed module XPrivacyLua if I block Chrome from being able to get applications no links are ever opened in another app.


Samsung galaxy S freezes while upgrading to gingerbread and doesn't want to turn on?

I'd try removing the battery and plugging it into USB.  Then, while holding both Volume Down and Home, insert the battery and wait.  This should get you into Download Mode (screen with yellow triangle) and Kies should be able to update you.

If this doesn't work try other key combos -- both volume buttons, or VolUp+Home.  If they don't work either, disconnect from USB and put the battery in.  Then while holding one of the key combos, click the Power button and wait.  Yank the battery and reinsert to try a different combo if need be.


Bluetooth keeps turning on by itself - Is there a way to determine why?

You gave permission to all apps to change the phone settings as per need which means some app which uses Bluetooth connection is using that to turn the Bluetooth on. Change that setting and it will work fine


Does Alcatel One Touch Idol 3 show which LTE Band is used (e.g. 12)?

I currently have the Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3, and yes it does support band 12. In fact, my phone is currently using band 12 over band 4 which is what my OnePlus One was using, since it doesn't support band 12.

One way to check is to download the LTE Discovery app.
Or, open your phone's dialer and type *#*#4636#*#* -- this will open up Testing mode.

Go to Phone information and it will show which band your phone is using.
See screenshots below. First two are from my Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3 and the last two are from my OnePlus One. As you can see, the Phone information mode for the OnePlus One does not show the LTE band for some reason. (Depends on the phone I guess.)

Also notice how band 4 is in use on the OnePlus One according to LTE Discovery and there are no bars, whereas the Idol 3 has 2 bars of Band 12 LTE.

Note that these two phones are placed right next to each other.

Click image(s) for larger version


Google Reader is a cloud-based feed reader service. On top of this service, there are many apps as a front-end to user. E.g.- Official Google Reader apps (Web, Android), Feedly (Firefox, Android) etc.

Google Currents is a front-end digital magazine/ newspaper delivery app (with cloud sync) available to Android and iOS (no web interface yet). Google Currents can read feeds, but it wasn't designed for that. Google has a vision attached with it: Real digital magazine/ newspaper delivery which is beyond normal feed reading! See the differences:

Feed publishers don't have control of content display in end app, but Currents publishers do have. They can divide their currents in sections, sub-sections. They can decide the layout of this digital magazine etc. Its not just nice looking magazine interface.. its more than that. Feedly, which sync with Google Reader, also provides magazine interface, but its not really a magazine. Think about your real-world magazine reading experience.
Currents can be premium. Current publishers can charge you which is not possible with Google Reader. While there's a concept of premium feeds (which is rare), Google Reader can only subscribe it. But, Google Currents can be marketplace for that.

Google Currents can't replace Google Reader because its different thing. If you don't have special interest in those hand-created digital publications, go for Google Reader. You can use it on web, Windows, Mac, Ubuntu etc along with tablets and smartphones (all in sync for read/unread status, starred items). You can have thousands of interface choices thanks to Google Reader API. And yes, you can always mix feeds in Google Reader to create your own feed DJ (which is not possible with Google Currents).


I haven't used it myself, but I've noticed Neer in the market -- It sounds like what you're looking for.


Found a decent workaround: I managed to scan the native app in Windows, installed from the link whatsapp.com/download. It's not a perfect solution, because I rather have it as a tab on my chrome, rather than a stand alone application, but it's close enough. I wish Whatsapp will come up with another authentication method, because it seems that many users are experiencing problems with the current approach.


Is it possible to wipe the phone without uninstalling the apps?

If you are rooted, you can use an app like Titanium Backup to back up your apps (and their data).


Are there USB to LAN adapter that are compatible with Android 4.0?

According to this XDA-thread an Apple USB->Ethernet adapter works on a similar ICS device. So technically it should work. But it in your case it could be hardware limitation, so you should try it out before buying. Just go to an Apple store and ask kindly ;-)


Can I install packages to external SD card on Termux in Android?

Unfortunately you can't.

The packages you install using pkg install, which is actually a wrapper for the frontend of the famous Debian Package Manager, APT. APT downloads packages provided by Termux and installs them. So the packages are just Debian packages. Witha bit of Googling and/or digging, you'll find that file paths are hardcoded, i.e., they'll always be extracted (installed) into /data/data/com.termux/files/usr.

Possible tricks are, apparently, possible. However it's not recommended to try any as Termux is highly similar to a real Linux environment, which means any bad SELinux context or wrong permission can cause programs to malfunction.

Answer: Try to free up your internal storage if you plan to install more packages in Termux, instead of thinking about installing the packages to elsewhere.


How to open a message database(.db) file from Sony Xperia phone in computer?

.db files are not plain-text files, so Notepad is the wrong approach. Those are SQLite databases, so you will have to use some SQLite browser for the task. The linked Wiki page gives you some more details. SQLiteman would be a good choice, and there's even a portable version available. For an alternative, there's also SQLite Browser.


Samsung Galaxy S3 requesting network security key when tethering

Go to setting > more settings > tethering now enable tethering. On same screen tap tethering again, not to turn off, so tap to the left of the tether on switch. A screen opens, go to bottom left corner and tap configure.  Scroll down you will see a password field, tap the show password then copy and paste the password to notepad or write it down. When your laptop asks for a security key enter password. I did this for the first time in ten minutes.


Does the GPS hardware draw power when no app is using it?

Most phones tend to cache your location periodically and use this information when requested by you applications so that battery drain isn't a big problem.

I believe this is called assisted GPS.

This does have the disadvantage of allowing to your location to quickly become inaccurate. Imagine if your location is cached as you get onto a train,  you then you take a photo at the next platform, but your location wasn't updated, the location stored in the image could be miles out.


Disabling the affected app in settings and then enabling them brought back the original icon:

Go to Settings › Apps
Select the "All" tab
Scroll to the app showing up with the wrong icon on your homescreen/drawer
Tap its name to open the app-info
Tap the "Disable" button, which then changes to "Enable"
Tap "Enable" again

Done. Disabling the app cleared its icon from the launcher (cache?), enabling forced it to load the original one. What I did not try but maybe would solve the issue as well is clearing the cache from the launcher, then restart it (or reboot the device).


Can't stop Skype from intercepting phone calls

Try to reinstall Skype and the you can call a number with the default dialer.


Insufficient storage updating Android app

The app's data size had crept up to over 100MB. Still shouldn't be a problem in my opinion, but apparently that was enough to prevent updating.

I cleared the application data "Manage apps" -> "Chrome" -> "Clear data", then was able to update Chrome successfully from Google Play.


Is it possible to kill your phone by installing wrong system software?

Nice question! Short answer: Yes and no, it depends on how a device is designed.

One needs to now how a device initially boots and look at the involved components to be able to answer this question. To get an idea, here are some examples from my memory:

All newer Google Nexus devices (except the Nexus One) are pretty much unbrickable.
Most Samsung models for example have their bootloader on the eMMC chip: Brickable
To unbrick, one needs an alternative way to boot from e.g. USB to fix it (this solution exists for the original SGS i9000, but there's currently no way to do it with later models)
Sony Xperias have the bootloader in non-writable mask ROM: Unbrickable.
You could delete the whole eMMC chip and still boot into Flash Mode or fastboot mode (needs model specific key combos on boot), unlock the bootloader or use their software (PC Companion) to revive it. See Androxyde's FlashTool and Sony's FlashTool.
Raspberry Pi's have the bootloader in mask-ROM which then boots from the SDcard: Unbrickable
(Well, this is not a real Android device per se, but you get the point. PS: The Pi can be damaged by overclocking)
Some Samsung eMMC chips have faulty firmware: Brickable (source)
A way to fix it has recently been found but it's very risky and only tried by one of the devs. CyanogenMod's Wiki has more information.
The original HTC Magic had its bootloader on the eMMC: Brickable
In general: If one part of the chain is breakable (without the ability to revive it), you can brick your device. For example, it's possible to get into a catch-22 situation where no further action is possible (e.g. unlockable bootloader + broken system&recover) although the device would still boot to the bootloader.


Why my Galaxy Nexus display is unable to present solid colors?

It's likely the matrix which you are seeing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PenTile_matrix_family

The Galaxy Nexus uses the RGBG matrix just like previous galaxy, however it's much higher resolution than many other pentile displays.

Here's a magnification of another, similar screen from a different samsung phone. http://www.droid-life.com/2011/09/28/samsungs-super-amoled-hd-screens-bring-back-the-pentile-matrix/

If that's not what you're seeing then it may be a hardware issue.


Google Calendar events created on the phone won't sync

Answering my question after the comments, it turns out only 'PC Sync' would show when creating an event by tapping on a specific day/time, but when using the 'Add event' option, the other calendars would show as an option. Once this is used the first time, then tapping on the day/time shows the other options. All good.


in whatsapp, how do you display contacts in alphabetical order?

The screenshot on the right, is showing you your active chats. This goes by the order of the last message you received.

To view all your WhatsApp contacts in an alphabetical order, click on the green circle on the bottom right of the screen. This will bring up a list of all your contacts that use WhatsApp.


Is there a way to have phone screen display more contents?

The actual size of a screen is less important than the resolution, i.e. number of pixels on the screen. For instance, if you move from a 1920×1080 4.5 inch screen to 1920×1080 5.5 inch one, there are chances things will appear the way they did before, but just larger.

When choosing to buy a new device, look at the dots per inch (DPI) or pixels per inch (PPI). Higher DPI means that the pixels are smaller, or, in other words, if two screens have the same size, the one with higher DPI will have more pixels. In general, higher DPI leads to “nicer” screens, which is especially noticeable for text and vector graphics.

There could be benefits to get a larger screen with the same DPI: for instance, reading small text on a tiny screen could be very problematic; the same text on a larger screen would be more readable, even if DPI stays the same. However, lower DPI could make the text much less readable even on a larger display; for instance, after using for a year an old HTC phone at 469 ppi, I found Samsung Galaxy Tab A with its 132 ppi to be absolutely unusable for reading, even if its screen was much larger than HTC's one.

I'm unaware if it's possible to change the resolution on Android devices without rooting it, but it would be a bad idea anyway. What would happen is that a single pixel will have to display, say, what would correspond to 1.3 pixels. As a result, you will be able to see more icons and text, but it would be terrible visually.

For the same reason (as well as to reduce the impact on the GPU), most PCs do let you change the resolution, but won't allow you to set one which is superior to the native resolution of your monitor.

Another issue which appears when changing the resolution is the fact that some applications on Google Play may be marked as incompatible:

  Keep in mind that altering your DPI may cause the Google Play Store to incorrectly label your device as incompatible when downloading apps. This is caused by developers limiting their app's compatibility based on a device's DPI value.


This problem usually occurs when, for whatever reason, your phone is set to only use WiFi to make calls in the call preferences menu. On Android, with Jelly Bean upgrade, some apps will alter this setting apparently. Here's the fix. Enjoy!

From home screen, access Apps/Settings/More Settings/Wifi Calling (Press the part to the right of the on/off button to open another menu)/Connection Preferences. Choose either "WiFi Preferred" or "Cellular Network Preferred". Make sure the phone DOES NOT have "Never Use Cellular Network" selected, or every time you shut down your WiFi or go out of range of it, you'll be listed as in Airplane Mode in the on/off menu, but not in the apps/settings/.. menus, because your cellular transceiver is disabled by that setting. Note: These instructions and menu layouts are specific to my Samsung Galaxy S2 with Android 4.1.XXX Jelly Bean, but can easily be adjusted to other phones.

Hope this helps, and my best to all!


No wifi after changing provider / sim card

I found out that disabling the AFwall+ firewall solved my problems. Now everything works. This has worked with the previous provider, and I don't understand how changing the simcard can result in this.


Where is the factory reset button on Android 4.0.3?

The actual setting is:

Settings
Storage
Towards the bottom is the factory reset option


From any file manager that allows root access to system files you can go into /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf file or directly search for wpa_supplicant.conf file.

You can open it with any text editor.

If you have Terminal Emulator you can also do this:

cat /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf

You will find all your saved passwords inside that file. Password will be stored as:

network={
    ssid="WiFiName"
    psk="password"
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
    priority=1
}


Are there sandbox apps that does not require the phone to be rooted?

That would be a contradiction in terms: In order to disable permissions on-the-fly, root permissions are required -- no way around that.

For non-root users, there's only a different approach: Take the .apk apart before installing, manipulate the Manifest (remove unwanted permission's requests), re-assemble the .apk, and then install the modified package. Unwanted side-effect: No direct updates, as the signature on the package breaks this way. An app doing this is e.g. apktool, available for Windows, Mac and Linux.


What would presently be the best way (if any) to emulate older versions, like Android 2.0 Éclair, on a PC or mac?

Warning: performance on older pre-HAXM emulators was slow
My experience at the time: Android AVD not showing anything. only “ANDROID” in the middle of the screen
Do realize that any Google Services like Google Maps or even cloud based notifications for those older APIs probably don't work anymore.
If you need performance, sadly old hardware is your best bet as emulators had to do ARM to x86 translation in addition to mainly software based rendering.
If you are still serious about finding an old emulator see: Where can I download an older version of the Android SDK?
You will have to download the entire package and install the full legacy SDK.
Should you go down the legacy SDK path, please use a small screen size (640x480 or 800x480) as rendering fewer pixels helped performance.


"Thank You." Seems to work. It will stop listening, but also will pop up a list of Ok Google commands. Which is annoying and unneeded. Personally I just say"open (last app)" and resume my life.


Google Photos Add a Location on Multiple Files

This can only be done through desktop on Picasa web albums as far as I know, but Picasa shares photos with Google Photos, so it should work.

Put all your photos with the same location in an album (you can do this with Google Photos)
Go to Picasa Web Albums and find the album.
Under "Actions", click "Album map"

This will bring you to the album map. Once there, click "Edit map"

Click the first picture in the album to select it, then while holding shift click the last picture in the album.

Drag the pictures out onto the map. You may want to find your location first.


Try to unlock the bootloader with Sunshine S-Off then use kingo rooting tool. Or try Kingo first as it's free but Sunshine will test your device to make sure it can unlock the boot loader. If so, it will cost 25$ but you have better odds of getting root with the boot loader unlocked.

I have the same phone, I lost root and could not get it back with traditional maxx rooting methods so I unlocked my bootloader with Sunshine then rooted with Kingo but I did all this on android 4.2.2 so it may or may not work on 4.4.4 (please comment on this answer with your results if you try this).

Another program like Kingo is Root Genius.


How can I fix this Nexus 4 erratic ghost/phantom touch input issue?

have the same issues as the first bloggers that posted.

I have the Nexus 4 16Gb and in February 2014, I cracked the screen and changed the digitizer.  In the process I tore the lithium polymer bag for the battery and subsequently the phone started to have a sweet smell. After 5 days the phone started acting up with these ghost images which was typing the same random characters in Google Plus, the camera took photos by itself, it shut off by itself and made squealing noises and just have been crazy. Only upon plugging in the phone into the adapter charger would stabilize and use it on a regular basis.

After reviewing several blogs, one person recommended changing the battery, which I did and this has fixed the phone. I've had a new battery in the phone for over 4 days now and it's working perfectly fine. I am running Kit Kat 4.4.2 and have all of the different kinds of apps installed on the phone. screen replacement and battery replacement can be found on YouTube.

FIRST! Change your battery, don't give up the phone. Spend the money ($21 Amazon) and don't regret because you didn't try to change the battery and see if it works again.

Hope this helps and pass it on to others you may know!

**UPDATE:  Apr 13, 2014.  Phone is working as normal using USB charge and wall charger.  IT'S THE BATTERY CAUSING THE GHOST IMAGES.


In the Contacts app, you should have a Contact for you under the heading My Profile.  That's where you'll have to setup a photo and any other info there you wish to add.  It should be right at the top of the list.


How to create an update.zip file that can copy & rename a file?

Actually you can do that by using the run_program syntax in updater-script to execute a shell script that moves/copies/pastes files while in recovery. But of course, you must extract the files that are to be pasted in somewhere (/tmp for instance).

Part of the updater-script:

package_extract_dir("stuff", "/tmp/stuff");
set_perm(0, 0, 0755, "/tmp/stuff/movefiles.sh");
run_program("/tmp/stuff/movefiles.sh");

The sample shell script can be like this (named movefiles.sh in this case):

#!/sbin/sh
# Backup files
cp /system/framwork/something.apk /path/you/want

# Paste files
cp /tmp/somethingssss.apk /system/framework/something.apk

# Set back permissions (the copied file has the same permissons, but the new ones does not)
chmod 644 /system/framework/something.apk

But remember, the EOL of updater-script and the shell script must be the same, in UNIX format, or else it won't work.


The last App update keeps downloading after reboot

You need to clear the data of the Download Manager and of the Play Store. Go to:

Settings -> Applications -> All

Now for both of the apps mentioned above choose Clear Data and Clear Cache.


How can I enable adbd during boot on Cyanogenmod?

Since Android 4.2.2, [USB debugging requires authentication], something that is not possible during boot. To disable this, set the following property in default.prop (inside initrd):

ro.adb.secure=0

Alternatively, copy ~/.android/adbkey.pub into the initial ramdisk of the boot/recovery image at /adb_keys. This preserves the secure feature while granting your key access.

This enables adbd for a short time. It seems that some process is setting sys.usb.config=mtp. To work around that, I applied this patch (perhaps only the start adbd part is necessary, I have only tested the below):

--- init.smdk4x12.usb.rc        2013-10-24 18:47:34.894857300 +0200
+++ init.smdk4x12.usb.rc        2013-10-24 18:47:40.775493943 +0200
@@ -12,10 +12,11 @@
 on property:sys.usb.config=mtp
     write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/enable 0
     write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/idVendor 04e8
-    write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/idProduct 685c
-    write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/functions ${sys.usb.config}
+    write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/idProduct 6860
+    write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/functions ${sys.usb.config},adb
     write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/enable 1
-    setprop sys.usb.state ${sys.usb.config}
+    start adbd
+    setprop sys.usb.state ${sys.usb.config},adb

 on property:sys.usb.config=mtp,adb
     write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/enable 0

You won't be able to get root (su) through this. For that, set:

ro.secure=0

Updating the initramfs block, the initramfs header field and the SHA1 ID (header) of the boot.img is not in the scope of this answer.


How can I get rid of the guest login 'feature" of lollipop 5.1.1?

Try disabling it in androids app settings


SystemUI.apk and framework-res.apk causes bootloop after being modified

Signing won't work by just copying the files from the original folder. You could try building the ROM yourself then you'd have the signatures, but I believe there's a much better solution that I've described below.

If you're modifying things that are in res/ and assets/ overlays are most definitely the way to go. They don't require any signature tricks and they can be easily added/removed without you having to even touch the SystemUI or framework. You can use cmd overlay to enable and disable them easily. Building the overlays isn't really easy, so you'd have to get some knowledge related to aapt in order to understand how to build them, or you could use a theme engine like Substratum. There's a template that you can modify and you can manage the overlays within the app.


Hands-free mode not working on Samsung Galaxy SIII

I've got the same phone running android 4.4.2. My phone does not speak email messages. It only speaks sms text, caller id info, and two other notifications. If you consult the help manual on the phone, the usage is a little clearer.


Android apps follow rules where each app is stored unter <pkgname>
and usually the data is stored in databases. big data (games) usually stored in obb

/storage/emulated/0 is your Internal Storage (which is a view for /data/media/0)
/data/user/0 is a symlink to /data/data (where you have no access)
/data/user_de/0 is rarely used for some apps (not sure if this my country code or stands for DeviceEncrypted)

so the example paths looks like this

/data/user[_de]/0/com.randomlogicgames.battletext/files/
/data/user[_de]/0/com.randomlogicgames.battletext/databases/
/data/user[_de]/0/com.randomlogicgames.battletext/shared_prefs/
/data/user[_de]/0/com.randomlogicgames.battletext/cache/
/storage/emulated/0/Android/obb/com.randomlogicgames.battletext/
/storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.randomlogicgames.battletext/files/


Changing the color of the lollipop... Does this serve any real purpose?

No. But if you long tap it, you can play a game similar to Flappy Bird.


For VIVO Y30 mobile, pls go to setting and search for OTG and enable this (by default, it is off) .. Once making this, you have to connect any usb device within 5 mins or the setting will be on off automatically. Please try and let us know


HTC one X Gallery Pics and videos are not visisble

Try to enable the app named "Media Storage" from App->Menu->Manage apps


Does Android resolution matter for other than clarity?

No, what matters for clarity is acuity, or the "number of pixels versus screen size versus viewing distance". A 800x480 image shown on a 100" monitor seen 30 cm viewing distance would look awfully pixelated, while 480x320 screen on a 2" monitor seen at the same viewing distance would look very sharp.

LG Optimus S has a 480x320 pixels on a 3.2 inch screen (i.e. 2.66x1.78 inch screen). The pixel density of LG Optimus S is (480/2.66 = 320/1.78) = 180 pixel per inch, IOW the size of a single pixel is 1/180 inch.

On a viewing distance of 20 cm (the typical viewing distance for a phone), 180 pixel per inch translates to 0.04233 arcminute per pixels. For comparison, human eyes can resolve 0.3 arcminute in a good lighting condition.

The extra resolution gives programs two options; it can either use it to fit more stuff in the same area, or it could use higher resolution images and produce sharper display. Home screens often do not do the first since it will make the icons smaller and more difficult to press, instead they calculate the amount of stuff to fit from the actual physical size of the screen instead of the resolution.


Go the to MyInfo tab and set your status to Sign Out.

Once you're signed out the back button works as expected and exits Skype.

EDIT: As of v2.9.0.315 (at least) Skype has simplified the log out mechanism:

In the home screen of Skype simply do this: