Automatically enable WiFi when you're near a saved network It looks like one feature coming out in 8.0 Android O is the ability to Automatically enable WiFi when you're near a saved network

Can this be accomplished through tasker today?

Add Profile > State > Net > Wifi Near (as in these questions here and here)

Enter SSID Network Name(s) / Select Networks currently in Range

This works one at a time, but ideally, you could pull from the current list of saved/configured WiFi networks.  Android does keep a list of previously saved networks:

Q: But is there anyway to programmatically retrieve all saved network names and set it as a variable?

Note: Some apps exist like SmartWifiToggler, based on GPS, but I'd rather accomplish through tasker if possible.

I had same issue and finally found a link to this project:
https://www.reddit.com/r/tasker/comments/8p0ywt/project_share_switching_to_saved_wifi/
The project itself does a bit more, but shows one way to get the saved wifis with default Tasker features.
So regarding your Q: But is there anyway to programmatically retrieve all saved network names and set it as a variable?
A: Yes, there is, using Tasker action of type Code -> Java Function (see also function $getConfiguredNetworks in the linked project):
1.) Use Code Java Function to get WifiManager from CONTEXT
2.) Use Code Java Function to get configured networks from WifiManager
3.-6.) Use Variable Search Replace to get SSIDs out of the configured networks using regular expression
7.-8.) Set variable to be checked by Tasker Wifi Near State
9.) (Optional) Trigger steps 1-8 automatically
Detailed Tasker actions:
1.) Java Function:
a) Class Or Object=CONTEXT
b) Function=getSystemService{Object}(String) <select using magnifying glass icon and
either scroll down or use filter on the bottom of the screen, pay attention to not pick the (Class) version>
c) Param=wifi
d) Return{Object}=(WifiManager) wifiman
--> result in Tasker view should look like this: (WifiManager) wifiman = CONTEXT.getSystemService(wifi)
2.) Java Function:
a) Class Or Object=wifiman
b) Function=getConfiguredNetworks{List}()
c) Return{List}=%get_configured_networks
--> result in Tasker view should look like this: %get_configured_networks = wifiman.getConfiguredNetworks()
Extract SSIDs, there are many ways, I did it looping over the list
3.) For: Variable %get_configured_networks Items %configured_network
Delete everyting from the variable that is not the SSID using regular expression
4.) Variable Search Replace:
a) Variable=%configured_network
b) Search=(?:.|\n)*SSID:\s*"(.*)"(?:.|\n)* <this regex will capture the SSID name in capture group 1>
c) Replace Matches=true
d) Replace with=$1
Add SSID to array
5.) Array Push: Variable Array %ssids Position 1 Value %configured_network
End loop
6.) End For
Join SSIDs with / as separator to fit Taskers wifi near syntax SSID1/SSID2/.../SSIDn
7.) Variable Join %ssids Joiner /
Set Global Variable to be checked by Taskers Wifi Near State
8.) Variable Set Name %SavedWifis To %ssids
So once this is done, a Wifi Near %SavedWifis can be used. But after you have added a new Wifi or removed an old one, you need to update the value again.
9.) Execute Taks to refresh %SavedWifis regularly (for example based on time event or whenever wifi connected), if anybody knows a way to react on a 'savedWifisUpdated' event, please let me know.


Sudden battery drain on Samsung Galaxy Ace 2x I have a Samsung Galaxy Ace 2x that is not yet a year old.  For the last 6 weeks, the battery has been draining very quickly, even though I have turned off everything that would cause this (GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.) I have an unlimited mobile browser, and since this started to happen, I have noticed that my data consumption has jumped considerably even though I am doing nothing different (normal usage was between 500-700 mB per month, now 3-4 gB per month). For some reason it seems that the data is constantly on, or the phone is searching for a network, even when I am not using it. I have to charge the phone at least twice a day.  Any ideas??

Try this:

Go to settings > Battery

There you can see the list of things that consume battery. This includes all the system processes, hardware such as the screen and the user apps.
If there is an application that you installed that takes up more than say 20% in that list, that app is your culprit. There is also a good chance that it is the same app that is taking up all that data in the backgrounds. If your screen takes up more than 30%, try reducing your brightness and the amount of time the screen is kept active.

If you want to check your mobile data consumption,
Go to Settings > Data usage.
This will list the data consumption of all apps on the phone.

Hope this helps.


Installing a Boot Animation without using Root Explorer I rooted my HTC Inspire, currently running JellyTime. I want to change my boot animation but the process requires me to access a system folder that is not visible using my current file explorer (ES File Explorer). Is there a way I can change my boot animation without using the app "Root Explorer"?

ES can read/write to protected folders, you just have to enable it in your settings. Open the settings menu (press the menu button, then select "Settings") and find the "Root Settings" item, then enable "Root Explorer" (operate with root permission) and "Mount File System" (allow writing to /system).

Alternatively, many devices/Android versions should allow you to simply put the bootanimation.zip file into /data/local instead of /system/media. You won't need a root explorer for this since /data/local is world writable. This doesn't work on all ROMs, though.

Screenshots for the ES settings:


GPS Tracker for Android phones Is it possible to track the GPS of Android Phone like Sony Ericsson Experia x10? This is what I want, I wanna know the location of Sony Ericsson Phone every time I misplace this phone,or I wanna detect the location of the carrier of this phone. How does it works?
Thanks in Advance.

If you have Froyo or newer (2.2+) you can use SeekDroid (Market link) or for lower versions the same company did Find My Phone (Market link). I've tested only SeekDroid, works great with the web interface, with Find My Phone you only get the GPS coordinates via text message, but you can input the coordinates to Google Maps for example.


Samsung galaxy S3 screenshot doesn't work Yesterday I bought a brand new  samsung  galaxy s3. WHen I hold home button and lock button, it doesnt shot the screen. how to fix it?

Hold Volume Down button and Lock button!
You can't take screenshots like on Android 2+.
Using hand motion feature - For this enable Palm Swipe to Capture feature and swipe your hands above the phone to take a screenshot
Using swipe option

For reference look at the guide on How to take screenshot on Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini


Storage space running out I got my Moto G (2nd gen) just one month ago and ever since I got it its been this annoying notification that won't go away saying that my "Storage Space is running Out" and that "Some systems functions may not work" ... I don't know what to do

I ALREADY
-took half my photos of my phone & put them on my computer
-deleted half my apps
-and cleared data on the remaining apps I have
And it won't let me download any other apps, if .... Keeps stating I don't have enough room. Some one please please help!!!!

Go to settings --> Application manager, now you see which apps which holding more space (which is specified under every application) if it's some google services app which can't be uninstalled click unistall updates and then
Go to play store settings --> Auto-update apps --> Do not auto-update apps to avoid facing these problems in future.

This may help you in losing storage space for nothing. Hope this helps.. :)


Why are apps slowing down my phone just by being installed? I have about 50 apps installed on my phone (not counting system apps). And my phone is absolutely unusable this way. Everything lags so bad that I can barely even enter my lockscreen pattern. I assumed this was because the apps can magically run in the background as services or whatever, but after freezing about 40 of them and making sure that only a very few services were running like whatsapp, my alarmclock app and my firewall app. My phone is still extremely slow.

Why is that?

Back when I only had these 10 apps installed that are running right now, everything worked pretty smoothly.

So what is wrong? A frozen app shouldn't have an impact on performance in such a way. Is there any way to get it fast again?

I've already removed as much preinstalled apps/bloatware as possible and cleaned the system using SD-Maid and used Autorun Manager to disable a ton of receivers that could start some apps. But it is still really slow.

Phones use Solid State Drives (SSDs) for storage instead of traditional Hard Drives (HDDs). This is because carrying and jostling HDDs can cause hardware problems.

Solid State Drives, however, get slow as you fill them up. So when you start to fill up your phone, its storage gets slower. This means that it takes longer to read the code from storage into RAM to execute.

It should also be noted that the description on Autorun Manager says that some apps will just attempt to restart themselves after it kills them. This constant restarting-killing behavior could possibly be even harder on system resources that just letting the background app run, so be careful which apps you kill.

Some background tasks help apps start-up faster too. I can start up a heck of a lot faster if I've already updated my app while you weren't using it. Instead of waiting for my app to get all of the data it needs when you open it, it grabs it in the background and can just display it when you open the app.

Also, if your device has very little RAM, then it can only hold a couple of apps in there at a time. If the apps you're opening have been erased from RAM, you phone has to erase another app from RAM and use that space for the new app.

Basically, there are a ton of reasons why your phone could be acting slow, and it's probably a combination of them that's causing your phone to act so poorly.


Samsung logo loop in galaxy y Whenever I start my phone, the samsung logo animation goes in a loop forever; unless i take off the battery. This started happening after I simultaneously clicked the power button, menu button and volume up button and going to android system recovery and doing wipe data/factory reset. After that it goes on in a loop.

Please help. Thank you.

This is a solution that is specific to Samsung devices. This will only work if you have soft-bricked your device. It is pretty simple to build and can get you into download mode on most Samsung devices, just have your ROM ready to flash and you're good to go!

http://www.xda-developers.com/android/need-a-samsung-usb-jig-build-your-own/

Here is the actual YouTube video that I used to make mine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdn5GoRjhn0


How can I make Android 6 quick settings show up in the same layout when the screen is locked? Why does lock screen hide some of the elements from the quick settings? This makes intuitive usage of the device nearly impossible because I have to remember to look where the icons are and which ones they are. Like I could have a flashlight on the bottom left and on the lock screen its in the middle. Is there a way to fix this? Because "minor" inconveniences like this make me want to get off android. Too many little annoyances that users have to deal with day-to-day.

The elements that have been hidden from your lock screen are hidden for a purpose. Sensitive toggles are not displayed in order to increase the lock screen security.

Due to this, your phone, in unlocked condition shows more toggles than in locked condition. This changes the position of certain toggles and hence your flashlight toggle is moved.

It can be a little inconvenient but you need to live with it since it is making your device safer. Safety by design.


Error while installing radio in Xperia m running cyanogenmod 12 After completing installation of CM12 in my Xperia M C1904 , I found that there is no signal capturing by the device,but some times it does.
I doubt it is be the issue with baseband . So i had a try installing zip file containing modem.img according to the post
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2703161

But it is not installing
,showing an error in the screen like this

E:footer is wrong
E:signature verification failed

I did this in the cyanogen recovery since after the cm12 installation I'm unable to get into cwm recovery.
Is there any probable way to fix this issue?

thanks in advance

Normally only a stock recovery would be attempting signature verification.

I would suggest reinstalling ClockworkMod Recovery and attempting to flash the modem again.


usb not writable or readable Since I have upgraded my mobile to marshmallow I am not able to see the files in  my san disk 128 gb pendrive on either MX player or file manager which I have downloaded from play store. I was able to do so earlier. However when I connect my pendrive a notification pops up in my notification bar saying sandisk usb drive. But the problem is I cannot see these files in MX player or file manager. Niether can I delete any files from san disk usb drive. Files are only readable there and I can only copy them. They can't be deleted from there. Also when I go in the menu options of the drive my options for moving pictures and video are frozen. I don't know how to access them. They are not clickable. Please help me to allow my pendrive to be readable and writable in mx player and file manager

If your device is rooted Stickmount should fix the problem


What to check when buying a used device I'm thinking about buying a used Android device and I want to know what should I check on the device before I buy it?

Is there an app or something that does some sort of testing on the phone?

Are there any problematic parts that I should check?

Don't forget to check for water damage.

  Every phone that is sold by a reputable retailer
  (T-Mobile, Cingular, Verizon, Sprint, etc.) should contain a tiny
  indicator that clearly shows if water has attacked your phone. This
  little item is typically called the liquid damage indicator, or LDI
  for short. In almost every case, a red or pink indicator means that
  there is water damage. A white indicator means that there is no water
  damage.

Here is the detail.


Nexus 7 issues with lagging, boot-loops, NFC greyed out, and depressed CPU states I have a Nexus 7 16GB which behaved wonderfully for a few months.  I used an NFC app once and the tablet began boot-looping, and lagging.  I turned off NFC when I could and reset the tablet.  It was fine for a day or two but then started locking up again.  I've changed the bootloaders to try to recover it, to no avail.  After attempting to upgrade the OS and it totally locked up, I finally RMAed the tablet (PAIN IN THE BUTT!!!, Thanks Asus...) I finally got my tablet back and the same issues have started again.  I do have NFC turned on, but haven't installed the app that caused the issue last time (NFC tag writing apps)

I downloaded CPU Spy and have tracked the CPU states to find that my CPU isn't throttling up very much, and it hardly reaches Deep Sleep either.  Instead, it spends 7+ hours (not touched by me) at 475 MHz.  It doesn't respond to the unlock very quickly, and it often gets stuck in a screen orientation.

The RMA apparently didn't do anything, although they didn't charge me for anything, so they must have found something.  Is there anything I can do to see if somehow software I've installed is causing this?  Any suggestions?  I'm really frustrated.  I've attached the CPU spy screenshot, and have a logcat file as well.  Is there anything more I can do to track this down?

See also my LogCat results: LogCat

EDIT: Further information: I've gotten it to consistently boot now, but it still falls into a 'always on' with "Android OS" being a major draw on the battery.  It will say something like "keep awake for 7+ hours".  I'm attempting to chase down an app which has the 'stay awake' permission and see if it is something like that.

EDIT: updating to Android 4.2 increases the stability, and the battery usage is more specific.  The NFC service is keeping my tablet awake all the time.  Battery use screenshot

Please erase all data and the dalvik-cache (if you have recovery).

Are you using the stock or custom ROM?

This looks to me like a bug in the ROM to do with NFC - this is the only reason the device would lock up like that.

If you are using a custom ROM, I suggest you contact the ROM developer with the logs, if not, check for a software update.

EDIT:

The NFC service will only run if NFC is enabled - if you disable it, and then reboot, it should no longer be active. If it is you can kill it via Settings->Apps->Running.


Why does Samsung Kies say that my device does not support software upgrading via kies? I bought a Galaxy Ace. It initially came with:

Gingerbread 2.3.3
Build is GINGERBREAD.XWPKY, for regions France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, UK
Unrooted

With that, let me add that I am from the Philippines. And I know that there's a 2.3.4 Asian ROM update (DXKPD) as per here:
http://www.pinoytechblog.com/archives/have-you-updated-your-samsung-galaxy-phones-to-gingerbread-yet

But Kies doesn't show any update. So I thought that Samsung has not released an update for that European region, and concluded that I might need to change it to my region. (Although my local carrier was able to send me GPRS settings while under this region).

So that's what I did. I used Odin on 2 attempts I did so far. I flashed it FIRST with a different region ROM (Germany, I think). SECOND time, I got it right. I now have 2.3.4 GINGERBREAD.DXKPD via Odin and using an OFFICIAL 2.3.4 Asian ROM from this page (MediaFire link):
http://rumah-android.com/new-stock-rom-android-2-3-4-s5830dxkpd-for-asia.html

Here's what troubles me.

Regardless if there's an update or not, Samsung Kies tells me that I couldn't update my firmware even if it's an official ROM.
I can't get GPRS settings now that the region's changed.

Finally, the questions:

Is it possible that my phone is locked to that European region? Is there such a thing?
Or did I use an unofficial ROM?
What should I do next from here?

I'm sorry this is too long. I'm confused and I just need clarifications. I hope I made myself clear. Thanks in advance.

Fortunately there is no region-locking for phones, just carrier locking.

If your phone came with European firmware then you should probably stick with European firmware.  Ideally you'd be able to find something from your carrier even if it was re-packaged by someone for Odin.

As for your network settings, there are a couple possibilities.  You may need to supply the APN information, which you can usually find by doing a web search for "<carrier> apn" or similar.  You might also need to flash a different modem if the one you have is buggy or otherwise incompatible with your device/carrier.


migrating phonebook/contacts after Cyanogen mod install Trying to find a straight answer - I have 3 year old Samsung SCI 1500 and am tired of bloatware, most of which just tracks me.  I have backed up the phone with ADB.  I'd like to root it and install Cyanogen, I know this wipes data.  It appears CM does include a phonebook/contact function, is there a way to populate it with the contact info from my ADB backup?  Can't seem to find that answer anywhere.  I don't want my address list on google.

I'd suggest, in parallel to your ADB backup, to consider some additional backup strategies – especially in the context of "moving to more privacy":

Use the apps' own backup features. For the contacts app, this would be the Import/Export item in the menu appearing when you hit the menu key. As the name suggests, the export created here can be imported at the very same place on your CMified device.
Consider other specialized backup apps (no need for contacts, as above export will be fine) for things like your calendar data, WiFi passwords, etc.
Consider Titanium Backup for almost everything. This app for one has a "migration mode" for later restore on a different ROM, and also supports XML backups for different system data (e.g. WiFi passwords).

When going CM, you will certainly install a custom recovery (such as clockworkmod or twrp) as well. Consider making a nandroid backup right after that (and before installing CM), so you have an "image" of your complete system.

For your later restore, and if you want to avoid the GApps, again Titanium Backup comes in handy. I strongly recommend the Pro version, and buying it directly at the dev's site – as that way it will stay "Pro" even without GApps&Play. It can not only read its own backups, but above mentioned Nandroid and ADB backups as well, so you could pick even single things from them which you might have forgotten to backup separately.

Last hint: If you're looking for a GApps replacement, check NOGAPPS. Not yet fully ready, but looks quite promising.

Now, good luck on your way to freedom :)


All apps seem to be gone I was using my Chrome on Android 4.1.2 on Samsung Galaxy S II and phone suddenly crashed. When phone restarted it looked like all apps are gone, even Google Play.

App Drawer shows only standard apps like Camera, FM radio, Internet, Messaging, Phone, Samsung Apps etc. but all other cannot be seen there.

Application Manager lists my apps under DOWNLOADED label, but instead of apps names (e.g. Chrome or Viber) it shows app IDs (com.android.chrome or com.viber.voip) and instead of app icons it shows some gray icon with labels Android and SD. Under ON SD CARD label it there are no apps. I don’t have external SD card.

I used Android System Recovery to wipe cache partition and it wiped cache for all except Chrome cache.

What can be problem? How can I get my apps back?

This seems to be some sort of faliure or glitch in your phone.

One way to fix this would be to factory reset your phone. by going to Settings > Backup & Reset > Factory data reset.

I would believe that there is nothing wrong with the SD card, so photos & music should be fine.

You can regain apps by then going to Google Play Store > Swipe Left to Right > My apps and install the apps back into your phone.

I hope this works.


Display additional information on the incoming call screen I have a HTC wildfire running cyanogenmod and I really want to display the Organization for contacts along side their name and picture on the incoming-call screen.

Does anyone know of any settings/hacks/mods which can accomplish this?

There is no way to do this without a custom dialler unless you make a custom Cyanogenmod version - and modify the dialler to show this information.


Rooting Android phone 2nd Attempt I rooted my smartphone Huawei Honor Bee five days ago, after a successful root, I uninstalled some unnecessary system apps. then I unrooted it successfully.

Question: If I attempt to root the smartphone again & again, is there any problem arising?

Thanks in advance.

No, there is no danger in you case with a Spreadtrum device, unless you have an issue in the following situations:

Warranty: In some countries/regions warranty will be void because they don't want you to bother their after sales. maybe this is the only reason. But if you have a full flashable factory firmware you will avoid this case.
Bootloader: Google/ODMs/OEMs/Carriers locks it because they simply don't want you to alter their configurations.
Bricking: If you don't know exactly how to deal with root. rooting a device maybe dangerous and may lead to soft brick it, unless you have again a full flashable factory firmware. personally i never encountered a hard brick case while rooting MTK/Spreadtrum devices.
Grant access to Adaware/Malware:- rooting is dangerous for newbies, it will let malicious apps to install unwanted Lock screens, unwanted software, view ads everywhere, etc...)

Why rooting a device is needed?

You are bored from factory OS and want to try a custom OS if available.
You a modder and want to tweak factory OS by removing bloatware or alter some system apps.
If you are a developer, in some cases you should have root (controlling a serial device for example).


Installing app from Market when it was previously installed I'm developing an app that was just released. Prior to release, I had 10 or so testers that helped me test the app and had test versions on their phones. Now I want them to install the app from the Market so they can be some of the first people to (fairly) rate the app.

The problem is, even after uninstalling the test version of the app, when trying to get it from the market an error pops up saying that "there was an error creating your order." They can't install it. Is there something I or they can do about this?

Update: I told the testers to follow the instructions under Troubleshooting Download Issues -> "Download unsuccessful" message. This did not work.

You could cheat and change the package name for the uploaded app to the market. That way you won't have to instruct your beta users' to do anything differently.

In the future whilst in beta:

 <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
  package="com.your.app.beta"

Then once you want to release just do a little refactor:

 <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
  package="com.your.app"


Any answering machine app (or widget) out there? Is there any app which can function as an answering machine, with multiple recorded messages, like "gone to take a shower", or "in a meeting" and easily switch between those?

Google Voice allows you to record different greetings and switch between them or assign them to different callers, unfortunately the app doesn't handle these things so you have to manage those settings on the web (voice.google.com).

There's an app called Visual VoiceMail (not to be confused with your carriers visual voicemail app), that works with Phone Fusion's Fusion Voicemail Plus service which replaces your carrier's voicemail like Google Voice does and claims to allow you to change and schedule different voicemail greetings from their app.


self-signed certificate install claims success, but android acts as if cert isn't there I am trying to install the self-signed certificate for my web server in Android 4.3. I have the .crt file in the root of the SD card (which is actually emulated as I have no SD card in the slot).

To install the certificate I go to Setting -> General -> Security -> Credential Storage -> Install from device storage.

I get a dialog box showing the name of the certificate (the filename  minus the .crt extension) which I can modify (but don't), a "used for" pull down with "VPN and apps" selected and text at the bottom of the dialog which informs "Package contains: one user certificate". Everything looks okay, so I click "Ok". The dialog goes away and a toast message pops up with "[name] installed".

However if I immediately go to "Trusted credentials and select "User" there is nothing there! The new cert is also not under "System" but I would not expect it there.  If I go to a browser after this and try going to my web site, I still get the warning that the site's certificate is not trusted. I have also tried rebooting, but it doesn't make a difference.

What am I doing wrong? The complete lack of error messages isn't helpful.  Is it possible my certificate is in the wrong format? I have tried using the .crt file in the server's ssl directory and I have tried converting it to DER format.

Update: I read somewhere that Android requires certificates to be in p12 format, so I converted the Apache2 certificate to p12 using the following command:

openssl pkcs12 -export -inkey server.key -in server.crt -out ~/server.p12

I then repeated the above steps, got the same success message, and then proceeded to still not see the certificate in the user credentials and I still get the untrusted certificate error from the mobile browser.

I had the same problem getting Android to really install the certificate, until I found this site which describes a method that worked for me. It boils down to the following steps:

Create a private key and public x509 certificate with v3_req extensions and enabled as a CA:
sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout /etc/ssl/private/my_site.key -out /etc/ssl/certs/my_site.crt -reqexts v3_req -extensions v3_ca

Convert the certificate to DER format, which is understood by Android:
sudo openssl x509 -in /etc/ssl/certs/my_site.crt -outform der -out my_site.der.crt

Use any method to get the my_site.der.crt to your Android device - I found it easy to just have the file hosted by my web server and download it via the Android browser, which then automatically lets you install it.

Although I would've liked step 1 to be broken into two (1a. generation of private key and 1b. generation of public certificate), I didn't invest too much time investigating how to do that. Please let me know in a comment if you found a way that works, thanks.
(Rather than add a comment, I feel this really belongs as part of the answer for future reference, so I am editing it in. --Michael)
Instead of creating a certificate enabled as a CA, I created a self-signed CA and then re-signed my existing key/csr with the new CA.  Then I added the self-signed CA to Android and voila!  It worked!
Generating the self-signed CA:
openssl genrsa -out rootCA.key 4096
openssl req -x509 -new -nodes -key rootCA.key -days 3650 -out rootCA.pem

Re-signing an existing CSR I had from creation of the key from the
openssl x509 -req -in existing.csr -CA rootCA.pem -CAkey rootCA.key -CAcreateserial -out existing.crt -days 3649

Now using a modified form of your second command I converted the CA certificate to DER form:
openssl x509 -in /etc/apache2/ssl/rootCA.pem -outform der -out ~/rootCA.der.crt

The great thing about this is, any additional untrusted certificates that are now re-signed with the new self-signed CA will now be trusted on any device than has the new CA installed without needing to install anything else.  This doesn't exactly solve the problem of trusting sites you have no control over, but it might make it easier if you have any influence over (say) your IT department for an internal server or something.


Filtering Play Store I often look for "best" application among other similar.
Of course, what is best for me, is not necessarily best for anyone else.

When I look for "best" application for desktop operating system, I usually use wikipedia comparison pages, where I can clearly see facts in sortable table, then I can copy it to excel and reduce them with my requirements.
Depending on amount of software, it takes about 10-20 minutes.

However, I fail to find similar technique for Android applications.

For example, last time I have been searching for softkeyboard, I have installed about 20-30 keyboards, activated each one, then checked for functionality and note it in excel manually.
After 4 hours I have make decision, that I am happy with, but it's far too much mindless clicking.

The only way of filtering apps in play store I can see is by category and then by ex. downloads or rating, but thats definitely not what I want.
I have found website like appcrawlr.com that allows searching descriptions and opinions, that helps, but I need more explicit constraints.

This question is general, as I would like to avoid such problems in future, but to be more specific, I'll use my current example.
I am trying to pick "best" call recording app.
I would like it to be able to upload it into cloud of my choice.
Nearly every soft like this claims in description, that it can do it.
So I have picked bunch of apps and installed them.
Then, on closer look I have noticed, that few of them do have option of uploading, but only in pro version (that I do not want, because I do not want google to have my credit card).

On the other side, not every feature of application is noted in description.

tl;dr How can I filter apps in play store, by features they offer?
I cannot believe, I am first person that would like feature like ebay or amazon offers in play store.
Like, for example, I want to find all applications, that record calls, and upload them by sftp or ftps, or other example, I would like to find pdf readers, that offer page cropping - how can I do it?

Currently this is not possible.

You can view apps by category, and search by keywords, but you cannot see individual features of an app.

When you use Wikipedia, you're comparing software that does the same task, so it is easy to compare. However, if every app listed every feature in a standardised way, there would be literally thousands of options and it would be overwhelming for the majority of users.

I'd recommend reading descriptions, play store reviews as well as reviews from online sites like Android Central and Android Police etc.

Rather than comparing tables of specs, I'd suggest just using an app that looks the best, and sticking with it until you decide it's not right. If you leave a constructive review, the developer will be able to improve it.

PS, you can use PayPal or other payment methods so that Google doesn't have you're card details.


How can I stop my phone from thinking it's connected to a computer? I plugged my phone into my TV's USB port hoping to play video from my phone on the TV. This was not successful. It's been about 4 days since I disconnected from the TV and it still thinks it's connected.
I have turned the phone off and on, it may go away for a little while but keeps coming back. The top left status bar will have 2 arrows spinning in a cirle and when I drag downwards to see my notifications I see this:

MTP service status:
Connected to computer

Any ideas?
My phone is an HTC Incredible 2 running Android 2.3.3.

I solved this by plugging in my phone to a computer and choosing Charge Only.  It was using CPU and draining my battery until I fixed it.


Widgets and Notifications on Android 5 (w/ HTC Sense and Nova Launcher) On my HTC One (M8) I used HTC Sense UI and Nova Launcher. Until recently I was able to customize my lock screen, like adding widgets, and I could see all notification icons.

Now Android has been updated to Lollipop on the HTC One. Unfortunately I cannot add widgets to the lock screen any more, nor are there any icons shown in the notification bar (i.e. there is no notification bar at all on the lock screen).

Is this a Lollipop "feature", or is there any way for me to get back to the old Android 4 lock screen behaviour?

I think it shoud be in your lockscreen settings and there should be an option to disable or enable status bar on lockscreen.
My phone has it I think yours should have too.
Its a privacy keeping feature.


How to use Tasker with the new OpenVPN version? I usually use OpenVPN Connect android client for connecting to my OpenVPN server in a raspberry. I also use Tasker to automatically connect to the VPN when I am outside from home. My configuration is:

Send Intent
Action:android.intent.action.VIEW
Cat:None
Extra:vpn.AUTOSTART_PROFILE_NAME: <PROFILE NAME>
Package:net.openvpn.openvpn
Class:net.openvpn.openvpn.OpenVPNClient
Target:Activity

Few days ago, the OpenVPN version has been changed to 3.0.1 , and my tasker is not working any more. At least the tasks are not able any more to start a VPN connection or disconnect it.

Obviously, that means that with the new version of the App, some configuration must be changed. Do any body knows what are these new configurations?

Ok, thanks to this web. Seems that I am right and the configuration has been changed. The new settings for connecting will be:

Send Intent
Action:android.intent.action.MAIN
Cat:None
Extra:de.blinkt.openvpn.shortcutProfileName:PROFIL ENAME
Package:de.blinkt.openvpn
Class:de.blinkt.openvpn.LaunchVPN
Target:Activity

This is able to start the OpenVPN connection using a OVPN file. For disconnection, I also need to change the profile:

Send Intent
Action:android.intent.action.MAIN
Cat:None
Extra:de.blinkt.openvpn.shortcutProfileName:PROFIL ENAME
Package:de.blinkt.openvpn
Class:de.blinkt.openvpn.activities.DisconnectVPN
Target:Activity

The author comments -and it is true- that when disconnecting the application remains opened on the screen at foreground. A solution proposed on this forum for this issue is to use a not existing profile as a connection. When trying to connect to this non existing profile, the first action will be to disconnect the current one. As the profile does not exists no connection will be performed.


Droid 4 no longer finding any GPS satellites I have a Motorola Droid 4 with Verizon service. As of two days ago, it is apparently getting no GPS data from satellites. I thought it was a temporary glitch (cloudy sky, just turned the phone on, etc.) but none of my apps that use GPS are getting sufficiently accurate location data and it's clearly relying only on mobile network location.

A Google search for "GPS droid 4" hasn't been terribly helpful. Based on "How can I fix my Android's crappy GPS?" I checked that I've got GPS turned on (yes), am using AGPS (yes), having the mobile networks help with location as well (yes).

I downloaded GPS Status & Toolbox, and I get zero GPS reception even after leaving the phone sitting outside with a relatively clear sky for 30 minutes (far longer than it should ever take to get reasonable satellite fix with any GPS) -- no information at all for the lat/long. Resetting the AGPS and downloading new does not change anything.

I also tried GPS Test and can see zero satellites :\

Is this a problem that can be fixed (either by me or a professional) or am I looking for a new phone if I want to know where I am?

After the phone went through a factory reset, the GPS still wasn't working, which supports that the problem is hardware related.

The Droid 4 chip (indeed, all of the circuit board) isn't accessible without significant (read: warranty-breaking) disassembly, and I couldn't find any store that could/would repair.


Use VLC (desktop) to play music while phone is plugged in Can I use VLC (desktop) to play music while phone is plugged in to my PC via USB?
I have tried to open folder, but when I do, my phone isn't in MyCompter as a compatible device. Is there a plug in or something that will make this work?

Alternatively, is there any media player available that will play the music on my phone through my computer when it is plugged in VIA usb?

Thanks

Right, I have done some playing around and I think I know the answer problem.

On older Android devices (I'm sure my old Desire HD worked like this), when you connected your device to the PC it showed up as a removable disk and was assigned a drive letter by Windows. The newer devices, including my Nexus 4 and HTC One, show up as a "Portable media device" and are not assigned a drive letter. When you try to add the file to VLC it is looking for a path to this file, however no path actually exists. If you opened the "Music" folder which is located on your device, from within Windows, and double clicked on one of the files, you may notice (I did 'cause my PC is pretty slow these days) Windows actually copies the file onto the PC; I guess to a temp folder somewhere (found the folder: C:\Users\Jonny Wright\AppData\Local\Temp\WPDNSE\{00000001-0001-0001-0000-000000000000}), and then plays the file from there.

In short, I don't think its a problem with VLC, or even Windows to be fair. Its the way device makers are allowing you to browse your device from within Windows, and I bet other OSes aswell.

Sorry, I don't think its possible unless you can get your PC to see your device as a "Removable storage" medium and assign it a drive letter.


Wifi Networks Always in Range I'm using a samsung galaxy s4 on T-Mobile and I have been experiencing a problem where two wifi networks always appear in range. These networks are not my own, and do not appear to be my hotspot name. They appear even when I travel from one city to another. They always appear with the same name. I am beginning to think it is something malicious because the networks disappear after I perform a factory reset of my phone, and reappear within a few days.
I am pretty selective of which apps I allow to run on my phone. With very few exceptions most of my apps are from trusted developers like google, microsoft, facebook, dropbox etc.
Has anyone experienced a situation like mine?

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


Is there an app that can turn off wifi for me when screen goes off? I have a Kindle Fire HDX 8.9. I have looked for a WiFi Sleep Policy (or similar) setting under Settings -> Wireless & networks -> WiFi settings -> (menu button) Advanced but there is none.

Is there an app available for this device that can set WiFi to turn off during sleep?


Where are the sources and issue tracker of Ghandicam? I want to report a bug in Gandhicam, and possibly fix it.
But I can't find Gandhicam's bug tracker not source code.
Any idea where they are? Not found via Google.

Gandhicam is an application for live video/photo upload, aiming to help whistle-blowers protect civil liberties, making phone confiscation pointless.

I am not sure it is open source, as I could not find any reference to it being so, but you can try using the Contact link on their website to report the bug.


How to detect GPS status through adb shell? I need to detect GPS status through adb shell. I have tried dumpsys location command but the output of this command is not changed when the GPS is enabled/disabled.

You can use this command:

adb shell settings get secure location_providers_allowed

Possible outcomes:

returns nothing, implying the GPS is switched off.
gps,wifi,network or gps,network -- High accuracy mode
wifi,network or network only -- Battery saving mode
gps -- Device only


How to root Micromax Canvas HD A116 device running Android 4.2.1? I have never rooted a phone before & did some primary search on xda forums for Micromax Canvas HD A116.
I found a link to root the phone but the steps listed on it are a little incomprehensible to me.

Can anyone please provide a detailed step by step procedure to root my device from the xda forum link or your own method in simple, specific steps?

My phone is running Android 4.2.1. If any other information is needed about my phone, please leave a comment.

You can root it easily by using the Framaroot application. Here is a link to the XDA thread, where you can find more information on the app http://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/framaroot/root-framaroot-one-click-apk-to-root-t2130276


I tested the "lock" feature on Android Device Manger, and now I can't unlock it I was just testing out Android Device Manager and I tested the lock feature. I entered a password, as requested, and the phone was locked. I was told that since I already had a lock screen on my phone, the password wouldn't be needed. I went back to Android Device Manager and there is only a "lock" option, not an "unlock" option.

Now I can't access my phone since it won't allow me to enter the password on the phone, or unlock it from Android Device Manager.

you have not mentioned which phone you are using, but i found this step in XDA forum, and this seems to have solved it. Could you check if one of the solution helps you: xda-adm-unlock, check out the post #3 by maysider.
Here is the complete snip of the sollution from XDA:

  so the BUG is "made by Samsung". Samsung just do not accept any
  correct PIN or password (maybe because of "wrong" keyboard).
  could anyone tell me how to remove the lock without wipe? thx

  edit:

  solution 1) just if you have debugging mode on then follow this
  solution http://maxoberberger.net/blog/2013/08/unlock-android-device-using-adb/

  solution 2) just if you can change your keyboard for another (if you
  are allowed when entering password)

  solution 3) just if you have Samsung account, log into Samsung Dive >>
  "unlock" (my case)

  solution 4) no debuging mode + no keyboard solution + no samsung
  account? >> just and only wipe through recovery or Google Device
  Manager

  Happy now, but I was lucky

  SAMSUNG BUG in 100 %

HTH.

Edit by Izzy: The link with "solution 1" proposes changes made with ADB, which require root access:

adb shell
cd /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases
sqlite3 settings.db
update system set value=0 where name='lock_pattern_autolock';
update secure set value=0 where name='lock_pattern_autolock';
update system set value=0 where name='lockscreen.lockedoutpermanently';
update secure set value=0 where name='lockscreen.lockedoutpermanently';
.quit
exit
adb reboot

This will unset your device lock completely, as if you did not have defined any.


Accidentally deleted Bluetooth from Android Yesterday I got a message from perhaps one of my antivirus that "Bluetooth Share has permission to send text messages without your permission and may cost money". It gave me the option to delete it and stupidly I said yes. To be honest, I thought an app called Bluetooth "Share" would not be the actual Bluetooth apk I used on my phone but rather some third-party app from the Play store. But now I cannot use Bluetooth on my phone and I have no idea how to fix it.

My phone isn't rooted and if anyone has any idea how to restore Bluetooth on my Android 7.0 Moto G4 I would be very grateful!

Your AV shouldn't be able to delete system apps (assuming it's not using root). At worst it can disable them and you can restore it from either app management in system settings or you can check if your AV has a restore option.


SD Card not working after partition I was falling short of memory on my Samsung Galaxy S5 16 GB running on Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 rooted and TWRP recovery so I bought a new 32 GB Micro SD Card and made partition with this Command a month ago :-

adb shell
sm partition disk:179,64 mixed 50

and the partition completed successfully. Now from past few days it is not working. when I open settings it says Checking. when I checked adb shell sm list-volumes it outputs this

shell@klte:/ $ sm list-volumes
private:179,67 checking 9d457504-6aea-4eaf-8514-3d25c9ed5846
private mounted null
public:179,65 HiddenMount D27B-3E68
emulated mounted null
privatemode unmounted null

I dont know what went wrong. please help me to resolve this.

It was a mistake to do partitioning by yourself. Android don't very like third-party partitioning tools.

I recommend you to format SD-card via standard Android menu. If it fails then use PC card-reader or even specialized software recovery tools.


Why do Docs, Sheets and Slides keep recreating their data? Look, I am never, ever ever going to use Docs, Sheets and Slides on my LG K7 (running 5.1.1), but I have come to terms with the fact that there is no way to remove them from my phone without rooting, which I am not interested in doing.  But I figure at least I can free up scarce storage space by erasing the apps' data, which typically is on the order of about 70 MB each.  Liberating 200+ MB of available space on a phone that only has 4GB internal storage, 3/4 of which is taken up with the OS and apps that can't be removed:  it means the difference between "Not enough space to update apps" / "Voicemails will not be downloaded" and normal operation.

But every time I clear this memory -- without fail -- I find that within 24 hours the data is recreated and I am right back where I started.  Note that I'm not using Docs, Sheets or Slides during this 24 hour period, so the apps are not running.  Why does this data keep getting recreated, and is there anything I can do to stop it?

You shoud disable those apps:

Go to Settings › Apps – where you usually deleted the data
before deleting data:

push the "force close" button to make sure the app is not running. Else it might recreate data before you reach the point of disabling it.
then push the "disable" button, so it won't start anymore.
on "disable" you might be asked if you wish to revert to the "factory version". Say yes: this will remove all updates the app has received, and which are stored in "user space" as well. So this will even free additional space

finally push "clear cache" and "delete data", to complete the cleanup job.

Now that it's disabled, it won't start on its own anymore – and thus not collect or recreate any data. Nor should any updater pull updates for it.


Whatsapp web and message notifications If I successfully disable "Whatsapp web is currently active" on the notification panel, are the individual and group messages and alert silent too?

In case you have disabled the notification by blocking it, you've probably blocked the whole WhatsApp from showing any notification. In that case, you'll not get any notification from WhatsApp.

However, in my phone, it doesn't show any such notification at all when using the web feature. Even I've seen many others use it, but no notification is shown. That's what is making me doubt that you have the correct WhatsApp. Maybe I'm wrong, and it doesn't show the notification in India, but that shouldn't be the case. Please make sure that this is the WhatsApp you've installed, because there are some more similar looking apps in Google Play.


How can I add an icon to the MIUI home screen? I just got a Nexus One, which uses the MIUI interface. It came with two different gallery apps. I prefer the cooliris app, but there's no icon for it on the home screen, which makes it difficult to access. I can't seem to figure out how to add an icon.

Everything I've found on the internet is either inaccurate or otherwise unhelpful. This should be simple. What am I missing?

I found the problem: The icon already existed on another screen. However, I was confused because both icons are identically named (Gallery) and are nearly identical in appearance. Thus, I didn't realize that I had both icons already.


Trouble connecting to 4G when Wifi enabled, but low signal I have a Samsung S5 Neo (SM-G903F), Android 5.1.1

My I access internet apps/sites when i am close to my router, works great. But when I go up a floor, and am basically out of range from the Wifi router, the phone does not switch to 4G... but still tried to access Wifi, but evidently its not strong enough to actually connect - so I basically get no connection. I have to manually disabled Wifi, and then it connects fine.

Is there a way to "lower the sensitivity" level, to allow the phone to connect to 4G when the Wifi signal is weak?

Thanks!

On Android 4.4, there is an option "Avoid poor connections" under Settings->Wi-Fi->Advanced(perhaps under the menu). You want to set this option on.

This option is not present in Android 6. I'm not sure whether it's present in Android 5.1.


How to disable warning messages? On Android 4.3 un-rooted, is there a way to disable all the annoying warning messages that pop up when you enable Airplane Mode / disable Airplane Mode / raise the volume too high / etc?

Apparently the Xposed mod allows to do this tweaking but I have found no solution so far for an Android device that hasn't been rooted.

You can use Tasker with the AutoInput plugin to detect the pop ups and close them.

Or you can use Tasker to turn Wi-Fi, GPS etc on/off. You may have to add Tasker as an admin app for it to control the GPS and some other functions.


Copy Google talk chat messages to clipboard I got some message over talk that I want to copy to clipboard. That is not possible. Long pressing does nothing. Tried on 4.0.4-ICS and 2.3.7-Gingerbread without succes.

If you are using Google Talk and have a GMail account, your chats are automatically logged in GMail. If you search for label:chat, you should be able to find that conversation and copy the text from your GMail application.

BTW, I think that the fact that you can't copy the text from the chat app really needs to be fixed.


How do I manually enter Clockwork ROM Recovery? I have Droid 2 Global (droid2we) and I've tried Power + Volume Up, but that doesn't load any recovery mode. I've also tried Power + X but that loads the standard Android System Recovery <3e>, which won't install unsigned zip files.

I can load the Bootstrap Recovery app which will let you reboot into Clockwork Recovery mode, which does work. However, that requires a functioning system which makes it a pointless way to launch a recovery mode!

These are the steps to boot your Droid 2 phone into Recovery Mode should you need to.

Turn Droid 2 Off
Press 'X' on the physical keyboard and then Press and HOLD Power button until the Exclamation Point/Android picture shows(after motorola symbol).
To access menu options Press the "Search" button depicted by the Magnifying glass on the Keyboard and the menu items will show up.
Browse options with the Volume Up and Volume Down keys and select option with the Camera button all on side.
Select first option of "Reboot phone" or risk messing up your brand new Droid 2!

EDIT:- the link to XDA forum that explains you problems

And one more thing if its android recovery that is loading then it means that the CWM recovery is yet not installed

Hence this is the video link on how to install it(CWM)


Joining Contacts has no effect (SG3 4.1.1) I just switched from the SG2 to the SG3. They transferred all my contacts at the store.

I now have a lot of duplicate contacts, some of which are Phone contacts and some of which are Google contacts. I am working to clean this up.

On my old SG2, joining contacts did what I desired: 2 contacts would become 1 with all of the information from contact A and contact B 'joined' together.

On my new SG3, when I join contacts, I get a message saying 'Contact Joined', but there is no visible effect. No additional data is added, no additional joined contact is present, and when I browse through my contacts, both copies of the contact are still present.

What am I missing?

There are similar questions such as Merging duplicate contacts - is my phone broken?. My question seems very similar, but no one sufficiently answered the poster's original question in my view.

It might be a good idea to start over, but I would need a way of separating out the Phone and Google contacts when I export. Thoughts on that point?

Thanks.

After much searching for an answer, I found this in another forum.

I use Companionlink to sync my old Palm Desktop database to my S3. The contact records come into the device showing as a phone record, but most times don't auto join to Facebook and LinkedIn records...even if the names match exactly. I tried in vain on many records to join contacts by clicking on a contact then selecting the paperclip icon to join contacts. I would go through the motions and join the contacts, and get a confirmation that contacts were joined, even though it never actually happened. This solution below works! It appears that the 'main' way of getting this done (at least with Jelly Bean) has a programming flaw. Hopefully it will be fixed when Key Lime Pie comes out. In the interim, use this solution below.

Do this:

Open the settings for one of the contacts (click on the "pencil" while viewing the contact)
Put the cursor at the end of the contacts last name, like you're changing their name, and type a space (hit space bar) then it will bring up other similar contacts below. Choose the account you want join by touching it and the phone will prompt you to join contacts.

This method has not failed!


Can Android Device Manager only locate your phone if it is signed in to your Google Account? My phone was stolen two days ago, and I have only just had internet access to start looking up ways to find it - or, more specifically, at least recover the photographs on it.
While I had tried to back up the images by loading them onto my laptop, for some reason the phone wasn't showing up under "My Computer" so I gave up...ironically this was the day before it disappeared (it was a new phone).
I am pretty sure it was signed into my Google account, but I hadn't changed any other default settings. I tried searching for the phone on Android Device Mananger, but it can't locate it - presumably because the thief/ves wiped it? I guess I'm just hoping that maybe the device manager can't locate the phone because it's off...
Otherwise, is there any other way at all that I can retrieve my photographs?

Thank you (:

To use Android Device Manager (ADM):

  Your device's location access need to be turned on and be signed in to your Google Account. Android Device Manager won't work for devices that are turned off or that don't have a mobile data or Wi-Fi connection.

No, you will not be able to retrieve photos remotely from your phone. You can check whether your photos were uploaded by default to Google Storage. To prevent from losing photos in the future, you can setup your phone to automatically upload photos to the cloud.


How can you add an reoccuring appointment at the last day of every month in the calendar Is there a way to add a reoccuring appointment to the calender in Android at the last day of every month ?

Not exactly.  Here is what I ended up doing.  Maybe it will work for you:  In my case, I wanted an appointment to appear at a specified time on the last day of the month and remind me 1 hour early.  I ended up making my appointment on the 1st day of every month and then setting reminders to SMS message me 25 hours early and 24 hours early, respectively.

It seems that if you want it exactly on the last day, most people resort to setting up 12 separate appointments, one for each month, that repeat annually.  But, then you'll have that 29th day of February to deal with as was the case this year.  Mine worked anyway...


Quick Question - Hot Reboot - Android Can anyone please tell me what is the difference between the a normal Android boot vs. a hot reboot!? When I toggle the power options on my tablet to turn it off or reboot it... It says on the bottom "hot reboot"!? I have looked it up online, and nothing has giving me an understatement of the difference. Nothing clearly defines it. That would be great thank you! :)

A cold boot means start a machine from a state where its power is not supplied, and a cold (hard) reboot means completely shut down power then power up as a normal boot. In a cold boot procedure, the BIOS first starts after the machine gets powered, loading the system's loader before actually starting the operating system.
On the contrary, a hot reboot does not cut the power to a machine, but simply shuts down the running OS and re-load it. No hardware components lose their power during a hot reboot. Only the system works as if it's normally booted.


Is this android mobile device credit card payment system secure and safe? Mobile device credit card payments and credit card readers are appearing everywhere, but then we all know any payment app's security is nought if the android device is rooted.

Before I give my credit card to be read, how can I check that this merchant's mobile device payment system app is legit, and that her phone is not rooted?

You know the same way you know that any card reader the merchant is using doesn't clone your card or misuse your payment details: you don't know at all.

It's possible for apps to detect whether the phone has been rooted or not, so one might expect that a payment app would refuse to work on a rooted phone, just like some video streaming apps do. But as the consumer, it's not possible for you to verify the security of the merchant's card reader, whether it's a smartphone or a special-purpose device.

The good news is that it's not your responsibility to do so. If the merchant allows your card details to be misused, whether deliberately or through negligence, they'll get into trouble with their merchant acquirer (i.e. their bank). You can "dispute" any fraudulent transactions with your bank to get them reversed.


On-device calendar exists? I am coming from iOS to my first Android (Samsung Galaxy S7) and having hard time adjusting. The first thing that is throwing me off is lack of a calendar app.

The phone came with Samsung's own S-Planner, but I wanted to use a more native android app (so that if my next phone is not Samsung, I don't have to relearn). However I cannot find anything else installed on the device. Any online search results in various 3rd party calendar apps. So, is there no such thing as a "native android calendar app"?

Secondly, the 3rd party calendar apps have options of syncing to Gmail/Exchange/other accounts, but is there no such thing as "on-device calendar" (like on iOS)? One that isn't linked to some account online?

Thank you

The native AOSP calendar app was replaced by Google's own1. It went by the package name com.android.calendar, but is no longer found in either Google Play Store or on F-Droid (you can find its code on Github, though). As for synchronization, that's usually not done by the calendar app itself but by the corresponding sync service; most calendar apps use the "calendar provider" of the Android system to store their data.

If you want a "local calendar" that's not synchronized at any cost, and your device doesn't offer such, you can e.g. use Offline Calendar; but that app doesn't seem to be maintained anymore (last version is from 2013).

1: See Google’s iron grip on Android: Controlling open source by any means necessary


Unlocking the Nexus 9 bootloader I'm trying to flash the Android M Developer Preview onto my Nexus 9 (volantis) following the steps from Google.

However, when executing the unlock command, I get an error that permission is denied:

$ fastboot oem unlock
...
(bootloader) ability is 0
(bootloader) Permission denied for this command!
OKAY [  0.006s]
finished. total time: 0.006s

What have I done wrong?

The instructions don't make mention of the setting in the device's developer options.

Make sure to enable the "OEM unlocking" setting there:


Transfer apps, data, and settings from Marshmallow to Lollipop I've been using a Moto E 2nd generation that I bought in Europe, but I've now returned to the US and am replacing it with the US version (XT1527) of the same phone because the European one (XT1524) doesn't get LTE service with my carrier, AT&T.

The old phone is running Android 6.0, but the new one only has Android 5.1, and offered me no options whatsoever to transfer anything over when I set it up.

I'm no Android expert, so forgive me if the answer should be obvious, but…what's the best way for me to get my apps, app data, and settings transferred across to the new phone?

I sort of thought Android was supposed to offer to do this for me at setup, but maybe it doesn't work when moving to an older version of the OS?

Thanks so much!

If you have a pc and patience you can transfer all things from your old Android smartphone to new one.
For contacts
Transfer your contacts from phone to your gmail ID(add a account then press sync contact in account section..Google it if u don't know)
For photos
Normally photos are stored in

  Internal/DCIM
  Copy it into your pc

For apps
Download a app called App Backup Restore - transfer
And backup all your apps and transfer it to your pc
For game/app data
Its usually stored at internal /Android
Here you will find 2 folders one is data and other one is obb
Data contain all the data's of apps and small games
Obb contain files of large games

Or

You can use Xender or ShareIt to transfer all files from old Android to your new Android phone.
Hope I help you


Nexus 5, IMEI 0, how to restore IMEI? I dropped my old Nexus 5 on asphalt, and the phone display crashed.

I made a backup, buy new phone, and restored the backup on it.

But I did not know that before restoring I must take a backup of EFS.

So now when I dial *#06# I've got "IMEI 0" answer.

But phone can dial, works OK, but "IMEI 0" confuses me, and it's may be illegal to have IMEI 0.

Can I restore IMEI myself? I have no backup of EFS from new phone.
(There is no LG service centers in my local area.)

See this thread and scroll down to the EFS backup section-- efs contains "things like your MEID or IMEI... your data profiles.. radio settings." etc.

Usually backing up a phone (with clockworkmod recovery, for example) will back up the /data and /system partitions... maybe /cache... but not usually the efs...)

So I'm not clear if you're saying you've overwritten your new phone's EFS partitions  (/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/modemst1 and /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/modemst2) with .img files from your old phone?  Or perhaps with zeros?  Not clear exactly.

If you have the old phone still and can get into recovery, I bet you can probably still use the provided .zip to grab the efs partition backups.  Or, if you only have adb access, you can still probably dd them to the SD card manually.

If you choose to copy the old phone's EFS to the new phone, check to make sure it's legal in your area.  Anyway, hope this helps.


Can I track a deactivated cell phone that is using a textnow app through wi-fi? My 16 year old daughter ran away 6 days ago with her 23 year old boyfriend who also happens to be a convicted child molester. She is using a textnow app on a deactivated cell phone she got from one of her friends. I'm desperate to find her.

It appears that TextNow can provide some potentially meaningful details to law enforcement.  It is however unlikely they would comply with a request directly from you.  Their info page is here: https://supportfree.textnow.com/hc/en-us/articles/204431979-Law-Enforcement-Subpoena-Requests

If you have not yet involved the police (and if you are in USA requested an Amber Alert to be issued) this would most definitely be the time to do so.  You'll need the authorities to request this information anyway, and they will have their own ways of trying to locate them which may be far faster than getting info from TextNow.


rmt_storage keeps polling and spam logcat In logcat I can see rmt_storage keeps doing something every 2/3 seconds

I/rmt_storage(15279): rmt_storage open success
I/rmt_storage(15279): rmt_storage shared memory ioctl success
I/rmt_storage(15279): rmt_storage mmap addr = 40009000
E/rmt_storage(15279): rmt_storage wait event ioctl failed
I/rmt_storage(15280): rmt_storage user app start
I/rmt_storage(15280): rmt_storage open success
I/rmt_storage(15280): rmt_storage shared memory ioctl success
I/rmt_storage(15280): rmt_storage mmap addr = 40009000
E/rmt_storage(15280): rmt_storage wait event ioctl failed

It seems like the process rmt_storaeg is spawned again and again and has some failure.

Id like to know WHAT is rmt_storage.
what are the consequences of stopping it and why does it keeps polling something even when the device is totally idle and the screen is off.

It's a bug in the Android build as near as we can figure.  If your device is rooted there's a workaround otherwise have fun charging your tablet every single night.  Check out this Google Groups thread about it.

On my Galaxy S4 I stopped the service and everything still worked.  However I found that after disabling wifi, I was unable to enable it again until I rebooted, even after restarting the service.  Obviously this is not the case with the Nexus 7 2013, but that does confirm that it's "modem" related.

However I've found several other threads online that reference this service as having to do with external SD Cards (in some ROM development threads) but I do know that with it stopped my S4 wasn't able to toggle the wifi state anymore.


Access whatsapp and transfer to new phone Here is an interesting one. I got a new sim card, but never changed it in whatsapp to the new number, now my phone is broken (screen is broken) and I cannot retrieve my whats'app account as I would first have to change to the new number from the broken phone... any thoughts? Btw I don't have the old Sim card.

Here is an article, but it only works if the new sim card has the same number.

If you still have the old sim card, try to install WhatsApp on the new phone using the old sim and it will automatically restore your contact to your new phone after you can can change to your new SIM card.


make chrome default browser I'm using Galaxy Note 2

Nowadays, every link in FB app and in Whatsapp is opened in the native browser

I want to make Chrome the defualt browser for all actions including these two apps.

How can I do this?

Head to Settings -> Apps -> All -> Internet -> Clear Defaults. Next time you do a search or open a link, you'll be given a choice of which app you want to open it with. Select Chrome and put a tick in the "Make Default" checkbox and that should make Chrome the default browser.


Moto X: Press 1 to Accept Incoming Call Recently, upon receiving an incoming call, I get a voice notification asking me to "Press 1 to answer the call".  Probably started a couple of days ago, which perhaps correlates to having received Motorola Assist updates about that time.

My initial thought was that this was Google Voice call screening.  While I do have GV installed, I am not using it nor have I even set it up.

Any thoughts on where else the calls are getting trapped out?

The solution to this problem was to turn off Google Voice Call Screening. Though the GV app was not installed and I do not know how the setting became enabled, I logged onto my GV account to turn off this setting.


Can I delete an app I got on sale? I recently downloaded an app for free from Google play store. It usually costs $0.99, but is now free.
If I were to delete it, will google remember that I purchased it, even though I paid nothing? Can I delete it now, and install it later without purchasing it?
Thanks in advance!

From play store support:

  You can use apps you bought on Google Play on any Android device
  without paying again. However, each device must have the same Google
  Account on it.

  You can:

  Reinstall an app you bought but deleted
  Install an app on more than one Android device.
  Install an app on a new Android device.

Even though the app you downloaded was free now, being that usually it is a paid app, Google will count it as if you paid $0.00 and therefore it's counted as if you bought it. And as quoted above, purchased apps can be reinstalled later.


Why do the system apps show 0B memory space occupied? I had noticed in my phone's applications manager, that the size of the system apps are displayed as 0B, which indicates that no memory space is occupied by that particular app.
Please see this screenshot in which the pre-installed Browser app is shown to have occupied no memory space:

But, I know that every app is composed of several files, so no app can have 0B size. But, the size of third-party apps are shown correctly.
Why does this happen ?

Many system apps have their (original) apk's stored on the system partition, which as it is fixed in size wouldn't really count towards available storage.  Nor are they user removable.  So it doesn't make a lot of sense to show a size for them, when they are not consuming any fungible resources which a user could chose to put to a different use instead.

And if pre-dexed as is typical for things packaged in a system build, they don't need those lookup resolutions against the installed system libraries stored in a runtime-writeable place either, something that is ordinarily a cost of having a latent downloaded or sideloaded app installed.

  When the system apps are used, they create some data and cache, for which their size becomes a few kilobytes only

Indeed, that makes sense, files created during use cannot be stored on the system partition, but only on the data or cache partitions, competing with what other apps need to store there.

All of that is not to say that some other configuration might not report this differently, or that some other system apps may consume fungible resources by the time the user can interact with the system, but only that what is being reported is an arguably legitimate representation of reality.


adb.exe runs then disappears I had ADB working just a few days ago, but now, whenever I try to run adb.exe, it will start the daemon successfully, and then after a couple of commands the adb.exe file itself will disappear. When I try to uninstall then reinstall platform-tools via Android Studio's SDK manager immediately afterward, the uninstaller hangs (though the window doesn't freeze) after the following output:

To install:
Preparing "Uninstall Android SDK Platform-Tools (revision: 27.0.1)".
Generating patch...
"Uninstall Android SDK Platform-Tools (revision: 27.0.1)" ready.
Finishing "Uninstall Android SDK Platform-Tools (revision: 27.0.1)"
Stopping ADB...

with the status:

Packing .installer/

However, I can't seem to find anything ADB-related in Task Manager. I tried killing it with adb kill-server, buy CMD's reply was of course that it couldn't find adb. After I restart Windows, the uninstallation/reinstallation runs perfectly well, but ADB just disappears all over again. What in the world is going on, and how do I get ABD up and running again?

Example CMD. When I reinstalled ADB after taking this screenshot and tried again, I didn't even get the * daemon started successfully message.

OS: Windows 10

Device: LG V30+ (United States/Sprint), Android 7.1.1, LGE USB driver

As esQmo_ guessed in the comments on my question, my antivirus (Avast) was blocking adb.exe, probably with some silly "heuristic protection" feature. I checked my quarantine folder and found it chock full of adb.exe's. I whitelisted adb.exe and did not run into any more problems.


One WhatsApp account, 2 phone numbers Let's say I have a number in my country and WhatsApp account associated with it. I want to travel far away, where roaming would be ridiculously expensive. Is it possible that I can buy a SIM card local to that country I choose to travel to, and still be able to use my home country's WhatsApp number?

Yes, you will be able to use Whatsapp with another SIM card and your old account, but do not reset or reinstall the app to not provoke number verification.
Source: personal experience; https://faq.whatsapp.com/en/30028016/.


Problems with SetCPU on Sidekick 4G I installed SetCPU on my SK4G today, and for the most part things are running fine and I haven't had any problems.

At first I was getting a lot of lag and my phone kept freezing, so I checked this post and it helped me out a lot.

But I ran into one more problem. My phone keeps shutting off and I have to take out the battery and put it back in order to turn it on again. It's happened twice.

Could SetCPU be the cause of the problem?

Profiles:

Main / 816max - 312min (ondemand)

Temp > 35.6 C / 608max - 216min (ondemand / priority: 100)

Charging / 760max - 456min (ondemand / priority: 75)

Screen Off / 456max - 312min (ondemand / priority: 50)

I should also mention that I don't have a custom ROM or Kernel on my phone. It's just rooted.

Absolutely yes. I have a SK4G as well, and tried SetCPU out too.  It force closed regularly; whether it's due to overheating I can't say for sure, but it seems the most likely cause.

FYI, all the SK4G ROMs are based on the stock ROM as no one's reverse-engineered the hardware requirements to build custom kernels for it yet :(


"Call not sent" when adding a call on Samsung Galaxy S6 Sometimes, when I am on a call and try to add a call, I get an error message that reads, "Call not sent". It only happens sometimes, and I can't figure out the pattern. It seems to be related to the number I'm calling, but not in any obvious way. For example this morning 917.533.9562 worked but 212.784.8053 did not.

I am on a T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S6 (SM-G920T), Android version 5.1.1, and I use Google Voice for all of my dialing.

If anyone can me solve this I will greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

Unfortunately the update "broke" Google Voice on Note 4 and Galaxy phones (T-Mobile 5.1.1 update).

You can see information on this here:

We're all hoping that someone (Google, T-Mobile, Samsung) will care enough to fix it.


How can one change the battery saver to dark mode in Android 9 (Samsung Galaxy S9)? I use Samsung Galaxy S9 with Android 9.

Screenshot from the Google Drive Android application, which seems to indicate that it is possible to change the theme in the battery saver:

How can one change the battery saver to dark mode in Android 9 (Samsung Galaxy S9)?

The "Set by Battery Saver" option only means that the app's theme is determined if Battery Saver is enabled or not.

The Battery Saver itself does not have its own theme, but apps can query if the setting is enabled or not for customizing its behavior, including the theme.

On Google Drive (and some other Google apps, and possibly 3rd-party apps), this setting means that if Battery Saver is enabled, then use the theme that saves battery (e.g. dark theme).

To summarize:

Dark: always use the dark theme
Light: always use the light theme
Set by Battery Saver:

If Battery Saver is off: use the light theme
If Battery Saver is on: use the dark theme


Reinstall OS on GT-S5830i Is it possible to re-install the OS (Android 2.3.6) on to my GT-S5830i?

If yes, how can I get that done?

Yes.you can reinstall the OS.

There's a low level flash tool called heimdall (or Odin) that can be used to reinstall the firmware or install aftermarket firmware onto the Galaxy Ace.


App that enables the missing charging light and notification light in Samsung S10, S10 Plus and S10e I moved from Samsung Galaxy S6 to Samsung Galaxy S10e, and found out that there's a fundamental functionality missing:

There are no indicator lights (AKA LED light) for different cellphone states.

This means:

No indication lights for new notifications (in Samsung Galaxy S6, it's e.g. blue light for messages, white light for Whatsapp messages, and so on).
No indication lights for charging state (in Samsung Galaxy S6, red light is for charging or battery below 15%, green light is for full charge).

I'm looking for an app that compensates this unfortunate lack, with one important requirement:
It should work even when "Always on Display" functionality is off - as it was on Samsung Galaxy S6.

Is there an app that enables this?

After trying about 10 different apps, I found (only) a single app that answers these requirements:

LED Me know

I'm by no way affiliated with this app.

Here's how to achieve these 2 requirements:

Do yourself a favor and don't be afraid of this extensive writeup. If you're like me, absolutely craving for these basic functionalities, it's completely worth the effort!

Setup

First, Always on Display must be turned on.

Now, to get rid of this distracting clock and notification icons:

Go to "hamburger" menu > "Setup", and swipe the "Hide AOD" slider to an enabled state.
Go to Settings > Lock screen > clock style > Always On Display > select the "edge" option (the one where the clock and date appear on the edge of the screen).

The combination of these two will actually remove all content from the Always on Display screen.

Charging light

Under the app's "hamburger" menu, there are 3 relevant options:

Charging Style
Fully Charged Style
Low Battery Style

Under each one of them:

Swipe the "Charging Enabled" slider to an enabled state.
Under "Charging Color", pick the colors you're used to from your previous Samsung device.
Under "Charging Style", pick circle.
Under "Interval", set "Show For 60 seconds", and "Hide for 0 Seconds" (for some reason, you can't actually enter a 0, so that erase the default value (which is 1 seconds)).
Recommended: under "Customize", set width to 120, height to 120, Left position to 915, and top position to 10. This would make the circle. This would actually position the indicator light as a "halo" around the front camera.

Notification light

Under the app's "hamburger" menu, go to Baseline Style menu.
Then:
a. Swipe the "LED Enabled" slider to an enabled state.
b. Set "Stop after # minutes" to 0.
c. Recommended: Follow step 5 above in a similar way to set the indicator light shape and position.
Under the app's "hamburger" menu, go to Customize Apps menu, and only choose whichever apps you'd like to enable. You can customize a different color for every app.
Also, mark the "Show System Apps" option to display system apps like Calls and Messages - you probably want lights for them as well.


Nexus 7 ignores apple-touch-icon Go to any website that has:

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

For example: bbc.co.uk, starbucks.com, or play.com.
Create a bookmark from the browsers.
Go to Bookmarks, and Add to Homescreen.

On other Android devices, the icon that appears on your homescreen will be the icon specified in one of the two tags above. On my Nexus 7 though, it always uses a bookmark icon with the site's favicon in the middle. I know the icons are working, because if you go into Chrome => Bookmarks, it shows the bookmarks with the apple-touch-icon there, just not on the homescreen.

Did this change in Jellybean? Is it a bug, or intentional for some reason? I can't find any mention of this behavior anywhere online.

It looks like Google is afraid of being sued by Apple for using "square icon with rounded corners". There is an issu on http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=125076. However there is information about fix version set to 25th release. I don't know if chromium and chrome versions have the same numbers, but last time I checked Chrome it was on v. 22. There is also a posted suggestion of introducing chrome specific Android-Icon.


Can you grant superuser privileges to an application? I was wondering wether it is possible since ES File Explorer has the root explorer option,  which I need to see where Termux got installed/from where it's running to be able to navigate (though it seems that I can't).

So, is there a way to grant just it such privileges with adb,  or  at least a permission for viewing such files?

Your device needs to be rooted first
You can only grant SU permissions when the application asks for it in a rooted environment. Forcing the app to ask for permissions is not trivial or likely to succeed . For details, see related question linked below
If you are not rooted, you can't bestow super user privileges to any app

Related How to add root permission to some app by myself?


LG G5 Stuck in Fastboot Mode I have the LG G5 for about a year now. Today, my phone get into fastboot mode, I haven't done anything. Now, I tried all the tutorials in youtube, and removed battery, even downloaded ADB and tried the fastboot reboot command. Nothing worked.

It always show the same message:

Welcome to Fastboot Mode for bootloader unlock:

Please check 'Enable OEM unlock' in Developer options

Quick Guidance

1) Read Device ID
   fastboot oem device-id

2) Write Unlock Key
   fastboot flash unlock unlock.bin

3) Check bootloader is unlocked
   fastboot gevtar unlocked

How to exit fastboot mode

1) Press the Power button for 10 secs to turn off the device

2) Use 'fastboot reboot' command if the fastboot is available

I tried the HOW TO exit already.
Even talked to the LG Service, they told me to send it to them.
Any Ideas how the problem can be solved otherwise ?

some 3 years later, for anyone asking the same question, or if the OP still needs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4jbBmZbzVU
pull out the battery and turn on again.


Motorola Nexus 6 won't show its filesystem I've had a Motorola Nexus 6 for some time now, and I tend to be a bit static with it -- I'd uploaded the majority of my music library at the time and then didn't change much for a long time.

Now I recently purchased a number of new songs and wanted to upload them to my phone, but when I plug it into a computer (any computer I've tried so far, two linux systems and one windows 10) they recognize the Nexus 6, but when I try to open it in a file manager they only show an empty folder. Rebooting either the computer or the phone had no effect.

When I attempt the same thing on my Samsung Galaxy tablet, the tablet prompts me to enable sharing and after I confirm that I can browse the filesystem on my tablet, but the Nexus 6 phone never shows me that dialog.

It's entirely possible that I accidentally enabled a security feature and forgot about it; can anyone offer suggestions where I should start looking?

It took a lot more searching than I liked, but this question put me on the right track.

What you need to do is connect via USB, then unlock the phone and drag the top bar down. One of the notification areas will say "USB charging this device", and when you tap it you're offered the choice of USB charging, MTP file sharing, PTP photo sharing, or MIDI passthrough. Selecting MTP filesharing will let your computer browse your phone's files.


Using adb backup to recover files in Android I encountered a situation similar to the question:
How can I recover a deleted file on Android?
I have a Sensation XE which is not rooted.
From the previously linked question, is there away that I can achieve step 2 in the highest rated answer using adb backup?

Step 2: Acquire an image of that block device with dd:
dd if=/dev/<blockdevice> of=/sdcard/image bs=4096

No, you can't. dd operates on block-level (it makes a 1:1 copy of the data blocks), while adb backup works on file-level. The two are not compatible.


What does "discover known accounts" permission mean? I am not sure what an app can do to me if it is able to discover my account, to what extent?

Thank you very much.

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

Source


My Samsung tablel 1 is not restarting? It stop working in process of restarting where android symbol is coming. So what should I have to do for resolve this issue?

Ugh...I have been researching this problem too my friends. I have the galaxy tab 7.0 and it has that stupid market instead of play store. While reading, i noticed this happens quite a bit. From what i have seen a hard reset doesn't always do the trick, good luck, sorry i couldnt be more help. I am interested in this solution myself.


My HTC ONE M8 bluetooth cant connect with other phones My htc m8 doesn't connect with other phones with android higher than 5.1 but with bluetooth speaker or a device with android 4.4 work.

Try to flash the official firmware or another rom


Identifying icon with phone on speaker mode or titled Wi-Fi under a rectangle It just appeared today. No idea what it is. When I pull down my notification screen there's nothing new.

I use an LG G6, running Android 8.0.

While I am not fully convinced, user chuckdawg1999 of Android Central and Community Manager vzw_customer_support replied that the icon is for Wi-Fi Calling or Wi-Fi/HD calling through Verizon.


How do I expand my Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray internal storage? Possible Duplicate:
  My internal storage capacity is running low,  what can I do?

I want to install many apps on my Android phone, but the internal storage is small. How do I expand my Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray internal storage?

I am sorry, but you can't expend the internal storage; all you can do is move on SD card every application that accept that.

To do that, you can go in Settings -> Apps -> On SD card, and see that all the apps in that list are checked.

If any app is un-checked, click on it, and chose Move to SD card on its info page.

Also, if you root your phone, you can have complete control over the apps installed on internal memory, delete those that came pre-installed that you are not using, and maybe move more on SD card.


Message application deleted A friend just rooted (don't know if it is the correct word) my Galaxy 551 and some of the applications he deleted, Orkut, some games, etc, he also deleted the Message application.

I can't send or receive messages, the icon com menu has disappeared.

How can I get it back? Samsung Galaxy 551 with Android 2.2

Thanks in advance

See if your friend created a backup of your phone - that's a suggested step in lots of root instructions, and it is possible he did this so you can just re-add the missing application.

Assuming this wasn't done though, you may want to just start over. The following webpage has information on using ODIN (Samsung service application) to restore the original software to your phone. It looks like it covers all the regional variants, you'll need to read carefully to find the applicable software and process for your region. If you provide more regional information, I'll see if I can find more precise steps.

https://galaxy551.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/the-stock-rom-and-odin-thread/

UPDATE:

I don't speak the language and the Google translate is very sloppy - so I may be misunderstanding this thread. Hopefully you speak the language.

For a Brazilian phone, this forum thread has steps for installing a rooted stock 2.3.4 update (sounds like a prerelease leak of an official ROM, which are common to Samsung devices) and reply #8 in the thread also gives steps for installing the 2.2 version that you have installed right now.

Update #2:

Since I started replying, that forum stopped responding. Hopefully just a temporary glitch, but just in case, here's another page I found that includes links to download the Brazilian software.


Install button not working (third party app) on Nexus 5X I am unable to click on install button. I have made back up some of my apps. But now when I'm clicking on the install button, it's not working. Cancel button is working nicely. I purchased it 3 days ago. I didn't install any app that is related to screen brightness. I googled for this problem, I found an issue with screen brightness app. I didn't install any kind of these apps. I'm using Marshmallow 6.0.
Any suggestion please.

At last I got the solution. I didn't install any screen filter app. But in Nexus 5X, there is an option which controls screen brightness.
Make Adaptive Brightness turned on, you can find it in Settings > Display > Adaptive Brightness > ON. That's it, now you can install any app form any source.


How to create contacts on SIM card/internal memory? I'm trying to add new contacts on a phone, but I can only create Google contacts. I really don't want to hand over data to a company that has no real understanding of the meaning 'privacy'.

I just want to create contacts on my SIM card or internal phone memory. On other phones that's possible but for some reason it's not possible anymore.

edit

My phone is a Motorola Moto E with Android 4.4.4

edit 2

interestingly, on my Sony Xperia Z, (same Android version...more or less), I can create a contact on my phone. This is weird.

Just a suggestion: have a look at MyLocalAccount from FJ Softwaredevelopment.

  This app does represent a local contact account. This is helpfully for devices without local contact account (f.e. Nexus series) if you don't want to sync your contacts with Google servers. These contacts can be synced then f.e. with MyPhoneExplorer to your PC.


How to boot with a volume button? I have a motorola-moto-g which has a broken power button. I tried to fix my button by gluing it but now it seems that the button connection is somehow isolated and unworking completely, similar to that of this post. Now I need to find a workaround for being able to power my phone up if it shuts down.

I've researched about remapping volume buttons but most of what I've seen seem to work only on already powered up devices. I believe what I need is a lower level remapping. How can I remap volume up button so that it acts completely like the power button?

As mentioned here, with some charge in your battery connecting to a PC or laptop via USB should work for Motorola Moto G. If this does not work for you try the below steps/solution.

Below methods will work depending on the make and model of your device; so no guarantees for the model you mentioned. However I personally have tried this on LG Q6 phone and it works for it. I assume it will work on other LG phones as well.

Plug your phone into the charger while it is shutdown. Some phones may  switch on this way.
Long pressing the volume buttons(try on both the buttons one at a time and if it does not work try both together). You might get a boot menu with instructions for navigation in the menu. Accordingly, select to power on the phone(system).
Connect to a PC or laptop via USB. I tried this with a my LG phone and it booted up instantly.

(LG 2017 and later models should be following the same firmware strategy so I am thinking it will work on all LG phones made in 2017 and later. I am writing this thinking it may be useful for LG owners facing similar issue)


Google Search App Draining Battery on KitKat I am talking about the app that shows up as "Google Search" in the Battery statistics.

My Phone is a Nexus 4 on KitKat.

This app draws a lot of battery, up to 50% in idle standby. It also has a "Keep awake" value of usually at least several hours.

Possibly related, I noticed that my phone is ALWAYS awake according to the battery stats. One charge merely lasts 8 hours.

I have switched off Location Recognition and I have deactivated the Hotword Detection ("Ok Google") in the Settings for the google search bar on my home screen.

Does anyone experience the same problem and are there any suggestions for a solution?

EDIT: Disabling the search app solves the always awake issue and improves battery life. Of course this is not a real fix.

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


How to edit 'etc/hosts' file in non-rooted phone? I'm using LineageOS 14.1 and don't want nor need to root it. How can I remount /system rw and edit /system/etc/hosts?

All answers in "How to edit 'etc/hosts' file?" expect a rooted phone.

Unless I missed something, that is not possible. Without root access only the mechanism of flashing an update (via recovery or OTA) can modify /system. To be accepted, such an update archive must be signed with the same key as the ROM – which is something only the developer of the ROM (here: the LOS team) can do.

There might be a way via a custom recovery which lets you edit all file systems directly (see e.g. twrp). But without knowing what device it is, it cannot be said if a matching recovery exists (you can check that in the Devices section of their website for official images, and search XDA for unofficial ones). Apart from that, it's either rooting the device or not editing any file within /system.


Does Android continue to run after phone is switched off? I was wondering about this: it seems that when you set an alarm, even if you switch off your smartphone, on reaching that time the alarm manages to ring.

Is the Android framework still running and hence the Alarm Service is able to detect change in time, or other reason?

There was a question here asking if it is an expected behavior, it has two answers saying not much more as simple yes.

I am going to answer this question as a question of why is it so, whether Android is running, and how it works if not.

The answer is: no, Android is not running nowhere, nor is Linux underneath him. Wake up on alarm is a hardware feature which was around a long time and was actually very common a time ago. The feature involves hardware. And because of the associated costs, I think, manufacturers started to implement it less and less. There is quite a lot of expensive phones today, which don't have it.

The alarm clock while power off feature has nothing to do with Android or whatever OS is on the phone. Any device today is never quite completely off. There are always few chips powered. No conspiracy here, those chips in question are well documented power chips, without any special spying powers if that is in question. We can say a phone, or other device, is on if it's processor is on. That can be woken-up by various events, only one of which is the power button. If you plug a charger to a powered off phone, it will power on, determine what's happened, then it shows a battery charging graphics. There is usually separate boot for each such event. One of such could be a signal from an alarm clock. You have phones which shows such alarms while they boot to special alarm clock mode, and then you have phones which will go through normal boot to show alarm in its alarm App.

But it's not just to send the wake signal. Phones offer multiple alarms, you have timezones, silent modes, and there need to be a way to store the alarm value from an alarm app when you set an alarm time into the clock chip. I don't think it's all such a big deal, especially when a basic clock is usually there somewhere anyway, but it's cheaper without it.


File from Ubuntu to phone? I am looking for an app  that works similar to "Chrome to Phone", but for file transfer from a desktop. With a right click on a file you can choose "Send to phone" and an application on your Android phone will see it and receive the file. Does anyone know a solution? And does it work on Ubuntu Desktop? And if it doesn't exist; What is the best alternative to send a file to my phone through the internet and without Bluetooth or a USB cable?

You could also use a browser based remote desktop tool like Airdroid or Remote Web Desktop