Is it possible to backup apk from an installed application? I got some huge games which I don't play regularly but don't want to delete either. Is it possible to backup those apps as apk so that I can install them offline later?
I'm not talking about backing up only the app data, many tools exist for that purpose. I want the ability to install the app again offline at a later time.
Also, this is not necessarily an app suggestion request, any method to achieve this is OK with me.

A very easy way is ES File Explorer from Google Play Store. You can browse to your

/system/app folder (for system apps)
/data/app folder (for user apps; requires root to be accessed)

and copy them to your /sdcard (or anywhere else).

Copying multiple files with ES File Explorer is very easy. Just long hold one of the files, then put check marks on all the files you want to copy.  Then browse to the folder (on your sdcard) where you want to place them.

Connecting to your computer via your usb cable will allow you to backup your sdcard content to your computer.

Update (Accessing the protected data/apps area):

I notice the /data/ directory is not readable. You can pull any of the content if you know it by name. I'll describe a command-line (cli) solution to get the names and the files. However, the backup tools suggested by Izzy are the easiest way to go.

This is a step by step method to get the list of packages and pull the packages using the commandline:

Download and Install the Android SDK package (or see Is there a minimal installation of ADB? for a solution requiring much less space, if you're not intending to develop Android apps). While you'll have access to just about everything in the world (Android), don't be too overwhimed... just focus on an immediate objective, and all the other features can be for a different day.
Add a path to these two directories of the package install ([installedpath]/tools and [installedpath]/platform-tools for a full SDK installation).
Now, with the Android plugged in via the usb, run this to get the full list of installed apps:
$ adb shell 'pm list packages'
You now have a  list the names of all your install apps.
Use the -f parameter to get the full pathname of a desired package by specifying a search string found in the previous list:
$ adb shell 'pm list packages -f reader'
Now pull the full pathname of the package you want to get with:

## adb pull [filepathname] [destination path] ##
$ adb pull /data/app/com.ebooks.ebookreader-2.apk ~/mybackupdir

The steps might appear to be complicated, but they are easier done than said.  Once you perform it a few times, you'll find it very easy to pull any app from your device.  You can also write a script to do this as your own personal backup utility.

While there are gui alternatives as mentioned in the alternate answer, I strongly recommend looking at the features of the adb commands which includes full backups... the option for users to select precisely what they want backed up and where.

Installing the full Android SDK will give fuller access to components of your android device (from the commandline).

Look at the commands:

$ adb -help

Look at the backup section (of the help screen):

adb backup [-f <file>] [-apk|-noapk] [-obb|-noobb] [-shared|-noshared] [-all] [-system|-nosystem] [<packages...>]

     - write an archive of the device's data to <file>.
     If no -f option is supplied then the data is written
     to "backup.ab" in the current directory.

     (-apk|-noapk enable/disable backup of the .apks themselves
     in the archive; the default is noapk.)

     (-obb|-noobb enable/disable backup of any installed apk expansion
     (aka .obb) files associated with each application; the default
     is noobb.)

     (-shared|-noshared enable/disable backup of the device's
     shared storage / SD card contents; the default is noshared.)

     (-all means to back up all installed applications)

     (-system|-nosystem toggles whether -all automatically includes
     system applications; the default is to include system apps)

     (<packages...> is the list of applications to be backed up.  If
     the -all or -shared flags are passed, then the package
     list is optional.  Applications explicitly given on the
     command line will be included even if -nosystem would
     ordinarily cause them to be omitted.)

You can use the Android Backup Extractor to explore the compressed backup file created by the adb utility.

Restoring the backup to the android is a simple "-restore" command:

$ adb restore <file>

The Android Backup Extractor provides a way to explore the backup and pick out individual files (such as the apk's as in the OP's objective) to store or preserve.

The explorer package includes a variety of multi-platform tools, such as Java, perl, and cygwin.

You can extract the backup with (using the java extract opton):

## this line converts the android backup into a tar file ##
$ java -jar abe.jar unpack backup.ab backup.tar

Out side of my initial cli answer, the most precise GUI app to accomplish the OP's specific question is AirDroid.  It's free, extremely user friendly and intuitive to use.

To use, run the app. It gives a local IP address for typing into a web browser.  The link will give you a UI that resembles and Android home screen.  Click on the "Apps" icon and select one or more apps to download.  You can install or reinstall the Apps using the same interface.

There are several other GUI alternatives (graphical user interfaces) available, e.g. QtADB (multi-platform) or, for Windows users, also the excellent Droid Explorer by our member Ryan Conrad (see e.g. Full Backup of non-rooted devices; for more, also see our adb tag-wiki).


How can I unlock and configure my Nexus One without a SIM card? I have a Nexus One which I want to send to my mother.  Where do I go to have it unlocked?

Does it run the latest version of Android and can I install apps without a SIM card?

If you mean unlocked so any SIM can be used, the device comes from Google SIM Unlocked.

From Wikipedia Article:

  The device is sold SIM unlocked (not restricted to use on a single network provider). Google offered T-Mobile USA and AT&T versions of the phone online in the United States before closing the online store in July 2010.

The difference between the AT&T and T-Mobile version is the bands that the phone uses for its network. If you don't have the right bands, the network will fall back to the common network, which is EDGE. For example, if you have a T-Mobile version, and you mother has AT&T, then when she is browsing the internet she will only get EDGE(2G) speeds. Voice there really is not noticeable difference.

So to answer your question, you don't have to take it anywhere, and it costs nothing extra. You paid for it to be unlocked when you bought it.

You should be able to install applications without having a SIM card. At the very least, you will need to have wifi available so you can download the applications. I would suggest a factory reset, then start the device and configure it how you want for your mother, with apps, and email setup, etc.


Developer Mode Dangers I want to enter developer more, How do you see Memory usage in Android O?, but am wondering if there are any dangers in doing so. Obviously I could change things and mess up, but will I open security holes to other apps by being in developer mode?  Or are there other issues I need to consider?

I am using a Sony XZ1 compact.

Thanks,

Fed

No, it's completely safe to enable developer options.

Doing so only lets you access these options from your phone settings. Some of them may be dangerous under some circumstances, but they have to be explicitly enabled by you, as they are not activated automatically.


How do I disable receiving calls and messages? I use my HTC Evo 3D (currently Android 2.3, soon Android 4.0) to record cycling workouts (GPS + Endomondo). During workouts, I don't want to receive any calls / messages for the following reasons:

I don't want to be disturbed when relaxing
I want to conserve the battery
sometimes I listen to music and calls/messages interrupt the music, which I don't like, especially when the calls are business-related during my non-work time

How would I accomplish this? The flight mode doesn't allow GPS to be enabled, therefore this isn't a solution.

There are several ways to accomplish this:

Airplane mode: You say that it doesn't allow GPS, but it does. You need to enable GPS when you're in airplane mode.
Disable radio: In dialer enter *#*#4636#*#*
Select phone info and pick turn off radio.
Take out your SIM card. This one is only applicable if you have a GSM device.
You can enable call forwarding in Phone settings -> Call forwarding.

If your only problem is that calls interrupt music than you can try using a music player allows you to set how audio focus changes are handled. One example is Poweramp.


How can I access my MOTO G3 if I forgot my mobile pattern? I have forgot my screen lock pattern of my MOTO G3. What do I do now? How can I access my mobile now. If there is any solution, please let me know.

It's very simple. Just make it 3 times and if you not able to open than it will ask you the real password code number, you may just put that number to reset the new password, it doesn't take much time, 2 minutes job, all the best!


How do you fix your tablet if Google Play Services is stopping How do you keep Google Play Services from stopping or get it to start back up? It has deleted all my apps and is now telling me every time I try to download that I don't have enough space. What do I do?

maybe you really out of space!
applications are installed in /data directory which is mostly 2gb try to move some of your apps to SD.

About your stopping go back to your Settings > Apps > Google play services, remove if they is any update and clear data and reboot, let the play update itself


Can android phones use micro SD storage in the same way they do internal storage? Dose putting a micro SD card in your android phone allow the OS to mount the SD card and use the storage space the same way it would internal memory eg. photos taken on the phone would be saved to the micro SD card. Or does the android OS treat the micro SD card as an "external storage source" the same way a laptop treats an external USB flash thumb drive ?

The phone in question is a Samsung Galaxy J5 2016.

If its not possible to mount the external storage and use it like "internal storage" is it possible to set that all photos are to be stored on the external storage as this is whats taking up most of the room on the phone.

Since Android 6.0 (Marshmellow), Android supports Adoptable Storage. However, many phone manufacturers, including Samsung, have disabled this feature on their phones.
How to use Adoptable Storage on supported devices:
If you do have a phone that supports this feature, you can turn it on by following these instructions:

Put an SD card in your device.
Open "Settings", "Storage", the SD card, click the three vertical dots, and press "Storage Settings".
Tap "Format as Internal".

What it does:
Here's how Adoptable Storage works, according to source.android.com:

When external storage media is adopted, it’s formatted and encrypted to only work with a single Android device at a time. Because the media is strongly tied to the Android device that adopted it, it can safely store both apps and private data for all users.
...
Apps can be placed on adopted storage media only when the developer has indicated support through the android:installLocation attribute. New installs of supported apps are automatically placed on the storage device with the most free space, and users can move supported apps between storage devices in the Settings app. Apps moved to adopted media are remembered while the media is ejected, and return when the media is reinserted.

So not only does the device have to support Adoptable Storage, but the apps have indicate support for it too to be able to be stored on the SD card.


How do I check which browser I'm using? Some context: I'm using Desire, and it bugs me that it adds "http://www." when I type a word into the address bar. I just want to search...

The application I'm using is called "Internet". Is it something tailored to HTC? Is it based on Chromium?

Go to Settings - Applications - Manage Applications - All - Select the icon you use and this will give you all the information about the program


Fix "android.process.acore keeps stopping" when the contacts provider can't load it's db My phone just decided that it should spam an exception onto my screen that reopens as soon as I tap it away.

A look at logcat reveals the following being thrown multiple times per second:

SQLiteLog: (14) cannot open file at line 34327 of [605907e73a]
SQLiteLog: (14) os_unix.c:34327: (13) open(/data/user/0/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db-shm) -
SQLiteLog: (14) statement aborts at 1: [PRAGMA user_version;] unable to open database file
SQLiteLog: (14) cannot open file at line 34327 of [605907e73a]
SQLiteLog: (14) os_unix.c:34327: (13) open(/data/user/0/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db-shm) -
AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: Worker-1
AndroidRuntime: Process: android.process.acore, PID: 9149
AndroidRuntime: android.database.sqlite.SQLiteCantOpenDatabaseException: unable to open database file (code 14)
AndroidRuntime:        at android.database.sqlite.SQLiteConnection.nativeExecuteForLong(Native Method)
AndroidRuntime:        at android.database.sqlite.SQLiteConnection.executeForLong(SQLiteConnection.java:599)
AndroidRuntime:        at android.database.sqlite.SQLiteSession.executeForLong(SQLiteSession.java:652)
AndroidRuntime:        at android.database.sqlite.SQLiteStatement.simpleQueryForLong(SQLiteStatement.java:107)
AndroidRuntime:        at android.database.DatabaseUtils.longForQuery(DatabaseUtils.java:842)
AndroidRuntime:        at android.database.DatabaseUtils.longForQuery(DatabaseUtils.java:830)
AndroidRuntime:        at android.database.sqlite.SQLiteDatabase.getVersion(SQLiteDatabase.java:940)
AndroidRuntime:        at android.database.sqlite.SQLiteOpenHelper.getDatabaseLocked(SQLiteOpenHelper.java:311)
AndroidRuntime:        at android.database.sqlite.SQLiteOpenHelper.getReadableDatabase(SQLiteOpenHelper.java:262)
AndroidRuntime:        at com.android.providers.contacts.LegacyApiSupport.<init>(LegacyApiSupport.java:499)
AndroidRuntime:        at com.android.providers.contacts.ContactsProvider2.initForDefaultLocale(ContactsProvider2.java:1668)
AndroidRuntime:        at com.android.providers.contacts.ContactsProvider2.performBackgroundTask(ContactsProvider2.java:1759)
AndroidRuntime:        at com.android.providers.contacts.ContactsProvider2$1.onPerformTask(ContactsProvider2.java:1615)
AndroidRuntime:        at com.android.providers.contacts.ContactsTaskScheduler$MyHandler.handleMessage(ContactsTaskScheduler.java:77)
AndroidRuntime:        at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:106)
AndroidRuntime:        at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:164)
AndroidRuntime:        at android.os.HandlerThread.run(HandlerThread.java:65)

My guess would be, that - for whatever reason - the contacts provider was assigned a different user ID and has now lost access to it's own database. I would guess, that if I clear the database the issue is gone.

Still, I don't want to lose my contacts. I have a backup but that's old enough to say that I would lose some. I'm convinced that the file is still there and I can probably just open it as sqlite file once I gain access but I have no clue on how to achieve this. Trying to work with the com.android.providers.contacts package in adb always leaves me with "package not debuggable".

My Phone is a non-rooted Moto G5 Plus running Android 8.1

Is there a way to backup my contacts or are they gone? Also: Can I maybe just remove the *.db-shm file that seems to be the problem here? As far as I remember that's only some temp file for sqlite anyways.

I posted this question trying to find a solution for about an hour and just 10 minutes later I finally found it myself.

Going into the adb shell and running

pm clear com.android.providers.contacts

does not require root privileges and clears the cache, which seems to include the *.db-shm file.

I'm keeping this question here for future reference

EDIT: This was a misinformation. After further inspection I found out that, pm clear does in fact clear all app data, so don't run it if you only want to clear an app's cache. That command is essentially the same as clicking on the Clear Data button in the app preferences.

The reason why this worked out for me is, that the contacts themselves are stored separately. The com.android.providers.contacts package loads the contacts from that other place and provides it to other apps and therefore is called contacts provider.

The data in the provider's db seems to only be things like the call log and the contacts you recently shared something with. Deleting this data is totally fine and fixes the issue.


WhatsApp with asterisk but not bold In WhatsApp how to send *something* with asterisk before and after the word without getting bold?

From WhatsApp help:

  There is no option to disable this feature.

However you can type a space between asterisk and the first letter after it and MAYBE the text will not be bold on the receiver side (this "hack" depends on the smartphone model and does not work on iPhones).


If an inappropriate review is removed by Google Play, is its associated rating also deleted? Say a user leaves a hateful review on an app with a ★☆☆☆☆ rating. If the developer reports it as inappropriate, Google may remove it as explained here.

Does this only hide the review message, or is the rating also get deleted (so it doesn't weight on the app average rating)?

It doesn't delete it unless Google Play Review Team reviews that review and then deletes it including its rating if it doesn't follow Google Play Comment Posting Policy.

You can report a review either through Google Play Console or Play Store itself.

If you report through Google Play Console, you will be able to report it only once. If Google rejects it, you can't report it again.

If you report through Play Store, it will be hidden only for you, while it is still visible to all other users. If it is not deleted and Google rejects your report, the review will be visible to you again usually after a couple of hours, and the rating will still be counted, but you will still be able to report it again although Google will mostly reject it again and again.

However, in most cases according to my experience when I review 1-star reviews with hateful⁽¹⁾ comments, they don't get deleted. Google is very strict about reviews. They sometimes even delete real 5-star reviews and keep hateful 1-star reviews undeleted. That's frustrating I know. The only 1-star reviews that got deleted were those that were totally irrelevant to the app that promoted a service or another app or simply looked like an ad.

(1) By saying the word "hateful", I mean comments that curse or promote violence.


Screen goes blank during or after the call and does not come back I have an Android 2.3.6 phone.

The problem is the screen goes blank and unresponsive during or after the call.
I can't make or receive any call once the screen goes blank.
In Android 2.3.6, there is no proximity control.

If I do a missed call to my number, then the screen comes back.

The free app Screebl Lite will fix this problem with phone calls. However, it creates another annoying problem after installation - the screen won't shut off or standby without you physically tapping the phone's power button.

Tested on a Samsung Galaxy Proclaim, running Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread.


What currency does the Google Play Store display in? So, according to the help desk (on Google), it says the following:

Note: You'll always see the currency you'll be charged in before you complete the transaction.

The only problem... Is, that I'm not seeing any currency changes. No prefixes (ie. A$##.##, S$##.## or U$##.##; for Australian Dollar, Singaporean Dollar or US Dollar) or anything.
I've found instances where people are seeing two different currencies; one before purchase and another after the purchase (in their current country's currency).
For example (Before purchase screen):

(Confirm purchase screen)

For me, it however... It does not change, so - I have no clue which currency it is actually showing prices in.
(Before purchase screen)

(Confirm purchase screen)

As for through an actual Android device, it only displays the amount and not the currency.

tl;dr - The question is:
Looking at all these pictures, will I be charged:

$2.33AUD? (Currency of credit card)
$2.33USD? (Assumption that Google is using its own currency)
$2.33SGD? (Currency of location; where I am)

Also, as usual - The above costs does not include processing/conversion fees and charges, and other stuffs and whatnot that goes behind the scenes that ends up getting lumped onto your bill.

Okay now I just checked the same app here as you can see:

So it shows the price in my local currency.

I also checked that 4.78 TL is equal to 2.33 AUD, so that price you see there is in AUD.


Give use to Android phone with broken screen I have an BLÜ Pure XR with a broken screen (completely black) which I'm trying to put to some use (security camera perhaps), however, since I can't access the phone at all, I'm not able to turn on USB Debugging, and all strategies I've found online (including putting the phone in ClockWork mode, which I seem to have done successfully) using ADB yield "Permission denied" errors in one form or another (mount: Permission denied, adbd cannot run as root in production builds, ...java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke interface method 'android.os.IBinder android.os.IServiceManager.getService(java.lang.String)' on a null object reference..., etc).

I say I've successfully put the phone in ClockWork mode because if I connect it to my PC via USB and I run adb devices shows me a device in the list, and some of the errors I get include "BLÜ Pure XR" in their contents so it seems to be somewhat successfully connected.

Am I attempting to do something impossible?

This will work only if the touch still works

Plug your phone to your pc
Unlock your phone
Perform the key combination which takes a screenshot
Explore the files of your phone where your screenshots are located
See where you are at
Tap on the screen blindli trying to click on the icon you want to click
Rinse and repeat from step 3


How to uninstall Google/Samsung apps properly? I have a Galaxy A5 2016 and I would like to remove all Google apps for the sake of privacy. I have a rooted phone and it's running Samsung firmware.

I've tried simply uninstalling the apps with an uninstaller app, but when I had removed Google Play Store and Google Play Services some features such as WiFi and 4G stopped working. I know I can disable the apps in settings, but that doesn't achieve the goal of privacy that I have in mind, as the apps still continue to run in the background.

Is there a way to remove these Google apps and keep the phone in working condition?

Install a custom ROM from the relevant XDA forum https://forum.xda-developers.com/samsung-a-series. Make sure you choose one that doesn't have GApps installed by default e.g. lite edition of this one. Then you can install microG (open source reimplementation) selectively as you require for apps that do need Play Services.

I'm sure you could wrestle around with adb etc to get it working with your current setup but probably easier to start with a clean slate and make sure nothing is left behind if you are concerned about privacy.


How to connect a Galaxy Tab 4 to projector with VGA or HDMI? I have a Galaxy Tab 4 10.1 (SM-T531) that I want to connect to a projector. So far as I have checked, there is no working MHL adapter for it.

Could someone please tell me another way to connect it either with HDMI or VGA wirelessly?

I use Amazon Fire TV and the Amazon Fire Stick with my Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 and Galaxy S3. The Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter is supposed to work with Android devices as well. All of these options connect to an HDMI port.

The Fire Stick is by far the most cost effective route and is very easy to use. Here is how to use display mirroring on the Fire TV and Stick (from Amazon's website):

  To quickly start display mirroring, on your Amazon Fire TV remote
  press and hold the Home button and select Mirroring. Then connect your
  compatible device. Swipe down from the top of the screen to open Quick
  Settings, and then tap Settings. Tap Display & Sounds, and then tap
  Display Mirroring.


Will factory-reset delete custom downloaded app's folders? I need to know something. For example an app like Telegram that is a custom downloaded app uses two ways of keeping the data,

in the cache folder and since it is stored in /data

it will be removed

internal storage>Telegram>Telegram Images/audio/...

will this folders be deleted too?

btw I'm using an Android Tablet, I don't know if it makes any difference.

Yes it would delete.

Although if you have a Google account signed in to the device, and the app is written in a way, the app data may be backed up to your Google Drive and can be restored the next time it is installed (given this feature isn't turned off in settings.)

some older devices/android versions may give you the option not to clear internal storage.


How to hide navigation bar on home screen of Samsung J6 How to hide the navigation bar on home screen of Samsung J6?

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


How to remove app images from gallery Possible Duplicate:
  unwanted folders showing up in gallery (bejeweled 2). can they be removed?

I had installed a few application and games, for example beautiful widgets, and several weather widgets etc just to experiment.

After that I have flashed my phone several times, installed different roms, and wiped cache and phone, and did not re-install the apps. But what I see is that the pictures still show up in my phones gallery. How can I remove them.

And how can I make sure files from apps do not show up in my phones gallery app.

Those apps probably cached the images on the sdcard. You can go though and delete the cache for the applications. Some could be in /sdcard/android/<package-name>/, some apps may just create a directory somewhere on the sdcard root.

You can also look at unwanted folders showing up in gallery (bejeweled 2). can they be removed?. It will tell you how to stop images from showing in the gallery, if you still have the application installed.


Is it possible to enable usb debug without touch screen? I have a samsung i9100 phone. The screen is broken. Usb debug mode is not enabled. So is it possible to enable usb debug in such situation? I don't want to replace the screen now.

You need to be rooted and have ROM with sqlite3 support e.g., Cyanogemod. If yes, you can try updating the settings files manually via entering adb shell:

su
sqlite3 /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db
update global set value='1' where name='adb_enabled';
update global set value='1' where name='development_settings_enabled';
exit
reboot

caveat: if you're rooted but have never invoked su via adb, then the system will ask for granting permissions to adb client which of course is displayed on screen and, depending on your superuser app defaults, will be automatically granted or rejected since the screen is broken.

An existing XDA thread suggests a manual push/pull method here.


Where is my TWRP backups on encrypted Android? I encrypted my Android tablet which is a nexus 7. After that I did couple backups. Today I wanted to see the size of the total backups  so I open the TWRP folder on my sdcard. There is nothing there. I do not see them anywhere else either.

I made backups before encrypting my device. and TWRP backups always resided in the TWRP on the sdcard.

So where are the TWRP backups  after I encryted my device (via standard android enc).

I am using TWRP Cyanogenmod11 Android 4.4.4 , using a recent build from this month.

thanks

Older versions of TWRP do not have the ability to mount encrypted file systems, so therefore, it cannot make backups.  In addition, TWRP only supports decrypting certain devices.  According to the TWRP2 Project Page, the only devices that they explicitly define as having decryption support are Galaxy Nexus and TouchWiz devices.


SP Flash Tool | Error. Status_preloader_invalid I am trying to write a custom recovery (TWRP) using SP_Flash_Tool but I get a Status_preloader_invalid error.
The device is "OPPO F1S" with chipset MT6755.
Here is a screenshot of the error and the scatter file I am using.
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1nyQQKPbYot_YxWwHN5lScNAEq84h-o3A
I tried to create the scatter file using Mtk_Droid_Tool but the creation button was greyed out (MT67xx is not supported) so I found a scatter file online

The problem was the scatter file. Using a correct one fixed the problem.


How do I connect my Samsung Galaxy 10.1 tab to a hard wired broadband point (no wifi available)? I have moved into student accommodation which only has hard wired broadband. Please can anyone tell me how I can connect my Galaxy 10.1 tablet to the internet via the wall point provided?

You can't.  The Tab doesn't have an ethernet jack and doesn't support it anyways.

If you don't want to get yourself a wireless router, you can set up a WiFi network through a computer with a WiFi card.  There's a guide on LifeHacker on this for Windows 7.  The basics:

Connect your PC to the wired network
Create an ad-hoc network on the PC (you'll want to encrypt it)
Enable ICS (Internet Connection Sharing)
Connect the Tab to the WiFi network broadcast by the PC

If you have trouble getting the PC portion to work, you should ask how to get it working on Super User since they handle PC stuff like this.


Cannot move apps to SD Card I own a Motorola Moto G 3rd generation upgraded to Marshmallow with an SD card plugged in (formatted as internal storage) and I am not able to get the apps to install there. I tried app2sd and I am able to relocate some of them but the sheer amount of the ones I cannot has filled my telephone's internal storage to the brim. I know that I could solve it by rooting the phone ( it's risky and warranty is voided), however I was looking for another way.

There is no other way unless you void your warranty.. Change the ROM to any custom ROMs it will solve the problem.


How to start application automatically when bluetooth device is connected? Whenever I enter my car, bluetooth is connected. What I would like is my speedcam alert application to be started once BT is connected and ideally terminate application when disconnected. I am using LG G6 with Nougat.

For such automation purposes, you can use any one of the following-

IFTTT (if this happens then do this)
Automate
Tasker (paid app)

Takser is somewhat difficult to use and paid app so I will recommend you to use IFTTT or Automate.
IFTTT has supports for a variety of products such as Phillips Hue lights etc. But Automate is the easiest to use for your purpose.


Google Pinyin Input (IME) keeps asking for Google account permission Google Pinyin Input is an input method (IME) for Chinese.

It keeps asking me for Google account permission.

I deny it all the time, but it always comes back and asks again when I reboot (which is quite often). The IME works perfectly without that permission.

Question: How to deny the permission once for all?

I have a Nexus 5 with Android 7.1.2 / LineageOS 14.1-20170718.
It always pops up one request for each of the Google accounts I have configured in the Gmail app. I never use pinyin in Gmail.

I had this problem. I'd half installed Pinyin so continual prompting for a login account.
Go to Google play store and search for Google Pinyin Input. When that appeared there was an option to uninstall it (because it had already been installed).


Whatsapp on dual sim I want to use dual sim phone with one number registered with whatsapp and another number with data pack , is it possible?

Short answer
No, because WhatsApp doesn't officially support multiple accounts.
Longer Answer
It's technically possible, but you'll need two different versions of WhatsApp. Customised ('modded') versions of WhatsApp exist, and if you install both the official version and a reliable unofficial version, you can in fact have two WhatsApp numbers on the same phone.
However, you shouldn't do this if you're concerned about privacy because the unofficial versions of WhatsApp aren't vetted by any authority and might compromise your device.
Furthermore, there always remains a possibility the unofficial version will simply stop working, because WhatsApp doesn't like them and has begun cracking down on them. There are even (unsubstantiated, and later refuted) rumours that WhatsApp will permanently ban users of unofficial clients.
Instead of installing an unofficial version, you can edit the build.prop file to make it appear as if two copies of WhatsApp are completely different applications but you will definitely run into issues later on as both will try to save messages and media to the /sdcard/WhatsApp folder, resulting in conflicts and confusion.


if my device has logged into someones gmail, will it still show on device list after being factory reset? someone that i was friends with in a phone game decided he hates me and recently factory reset my phone and my tablet remotely through a shared gmail account. that part is over and done, but we shared more than one gmail account and i want to prevent him from doing it to me again.

I would think that when my devices were reset it would remove them from all accounts that they were logged into, but wanted to be sure that he will not still see my devices logged in on any of the shared accounts.

i have not added those accounts to either device again, the only account added is my private account.

Your question is a little unclear so let me know if i got this right.

You were logged in as abc@gmail.com on your tablet/tablets and your friend, being that he had access to this email address, went ahead and deleted everything in your phone, and now you are wondering if he's able to do the same again?

The answer is no, he's not able to wipe your phone again, because when he erased it in the first time, that cleared everything, including all accounts. And as long as you don't add that account back, he won't be able to do any harm.

You can double check this, by going to settings>accounts>Google, and see if "abc@gmail.com" is still there.


Phone app shows all contacts even when contacts app is set to show only gmail contacts I have two source of contacts in my phone(Lineage 14.1), gmail and whatsapp.

In the contacts app, I have set the option to only show gmail contacts.
It works properly (first screenshot). But in the phone app, all contacts are shown, thus getting most contacts twice (once from gmail, and once from whatsapp; second screenshot):

I tried using different phone app, but the result is same.
I tried merging the contacts using the mergings apps on play store, but somehow the contacts reappear after using whatsapp.

Is there any solution? A similar question was asked years ago How to show only gmail's contacts in the Contacts app? , but it doesn't have an working answer.

The sync might be on. And all of your contacts are synced with Gmail. Thus it's displaying them.


Chrome New Tab Page Different/Changed. Samsung Tab 3, Android Kitkat Usually my chrome://newtab looks like this:

When I opened chrome recently and made a new tab, it looked like this (PLEASE NOTE! This is an image I took from chrome beta to recreate the image as I cant recreate it on chrome version 36, as after I cleared chromes data in application management,  it was gone.)

I first noticed there was a Google search bar, and tapping just moved it to the top like the beta did. It looked exactly like the beta one, but how did it end up on my normal chrome? I searched the settings and could not find anything. I had just been browsing reddit and superuser, and was on youtube. When I came back to make a new tab it was different.  I cleared the data for chrome and it was gone, so thats why I installed beta and took a screenshot for comparison.  Any explanation?

I believe your installation was selected for the experiment (aka field trial). The Chrome team sometimes rolls experimental features to a limited number of users (like 2% of all installation). Then they gather some statistics to see how this feature performs. The new style of the new tab page seems to be one of those experiments. You can turn it on (and off) via chrome://flags page in your browser (search for enable-new-ntp).


Samsung Galaxy S3 I9300 is not detected by fastboot under Ubuntu 14.04 When I connect my device in Download mode to my laptop, it is not detected by neither adb  nor fastboot commands:

fastboot devices and sudo fastboot devices returns nothing when device is connected in "Download mode".

fastboot device and sudo fastboot device returns < waiting for device > when
device is connected in "Download mode" and nothing occurs if i disconnect and reconnect the device.

cat /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules returns:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="04e8", ATTR{idProduct}=="6860", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="04e8", ATTR{idProduct}=="685d", MODE="0666"

cat /lib/udev/rules.d/70-android-tools-adb.rules returns:

# Udev rules for letting the console user access adb.
# Vendor ids
# Important product ids
# d001 adb recovery
# d002 adb system

# Applies to 18d1
# 2d00 accessory
# 2d01 accessory,adb
# 2d02 audio_source (part of libgphoto2-2)
# 2d03 audio_source,adb
# 2d04 accessory,audio_source
# 2d05 accessory,audio_source,adb
# 4ee1 mtp (part of libmtp-common)
# 4ee2 mtp,adb (part of libmtp-common)
# 4ee3 rndis
# 4ee4 adb,rdnis
# 4ee5 ptp
# 4ee6 ptp,adb
# 4e41 mtp
# 4e42 mtp,adb
# 4e43 ptp
# 4e44 ptp,adb
# 4e23 rndis
# 4e24 rndis,adb

ACTION=="add|change", SUBSYSTEM=="usb", \
  ATTRS{idVendor}=="18d1", \
  ATTRS{idProduct}=="2d01|2d03|2d05|4ee2|4ee4|4ee6|4e42|4e44|4e24|d001|d002", \
  TAG+="uaccess"

# Applies to 04e8
# 685b mass_storage
# 685e mass_storage,adb
# 685c mtp (libgphoto2-2 libmtp-common)
# 6860 mtp,adb (part of libgphoto2-2 libmtp-common)
# 6862 rndis,dm
# 6863 rndis
# 6864 rndis,adb & rndis,acm,dm
# 6865 ptp
# 6866 ptp,adb
# 6864 rndis,dm
# 6865 ptp
# 6866 ptp,adb

ACTION=="add|change", SUBSYSTEM=="usb", \
  ATTRS{idVendor}=="04e8", \
  ATTRS{idProduct}=="685e|6860|6864|6866|6866", \
  TAG+="uaccess"

cat /lib/udev/rules.d/70-android-tools-fastboot.rules returns:

# Udev rules for letting the console user access fastboot
# 4e40 grouper
# 4ee0 mako/manta
# 4e30 maguro/toro

ACTION=="add|change", SUBSYSTEM=="usb", \
  ATTRS{idVendor}=="18d1", ATTRS{idProduct}=="4e30|4e40|4ee0", \
  TAG+="uaccess"

# Applies to 04e8
# 686d odin mode (Download mode, Bootloader mode)

ACTION=="add|change", SUBSYSTEM=="usb", \
  ATTRS{idVendor}=="04e8", \
  ATTRS{idProduct}=="685d", \
  TAG+="uaccess"

lsusb returns Bus 002 Device 015: ID 04e8:6860 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd GT-I9100 Phone [Galaxy S II], GT-I9300 Phone [Galaxy S III], GT-P7500 [Galaxy Tab 10.1] if device is booted normally or in recovery mode.

lsusb returns Bus 002 Device 024: ID 04e8:685d Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd GT-I9100 Phone [Galaxy S II] (Download mode) if device is booted in "Download mode" (power-on device with Power Key + Home Key + Volume Down)

adb device returns 4dxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  device when device is booted normally.

adb device returns 4dxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  recovery when device is booted in recovery mode.

adb detects device and can reboot it in both normal mode and recovery mode by following commands: adb reboot and adb reboot recovery. But if run adb reboot bootloader or even sudo adb reboot bootloader just boots device in normal mode. To boot device in Download mode I have to manually press Power + Home + Volume Down keys simultaneously.

I tried restarting my laptop and device, but no success.
My android-tools-fastboot and android-tools-adb and android-tools-adbd versions are: 4.2.2+git20130218.

Samsung devices with Download Mode do not support fastboot.

adb is not supported in fastboot mode anyways (nor Download mode).

If you want to flash something via fastboot, you must use Odin or Heimdall (or another tool that works with Download Mode).


Sharing computer internet connection with LG - P990 (Optimus 2x) Is any way to connect the LG-P990 (optimus2x) to internet by sharing a computer connection? I am frequently traveling abroad and the data fees in roaming are very high and I have available the internet on my laptop.

The solution is called Reverse tethering, and it can be done with several apps, like Connectify. You can find a quick introduction to it here.


Samsung S6 Edge Screen I have a Galaxy s6 Edge and the screen functionas, however the touch screen facility no longer works. I am trying to clear the data prior to sending it off as it holds financial data.

I have tried the manual reset using the up/down and ... options but that just reboots the phone.

Is there anyway I can access the phone using my PC to either force a factory reset or wipe?

Cheers,

Tim

You can access your S6 edge remotely on your computer by using SideSync.

However, your phone will need WiFi to be turned ON or to be plugged into the computer using a USB cable to allow the connection. Hope this helps.


NFC battery draining through constant use Does putting a device that constantly checks/uses NFC affect/drain the battery? One example is Dimple IO which puts NFC buttons on the back of your phone.

The Tag Dispatch System of Android Developers  says

  Android-powered devices are usually looking for NFC tags when the screen is unlocked, unless NFC is disabled in the device's Settings menu. When an Android-powered device discovers an NFC tag, the desired behavior is to have the most appropriate activity handle the intent without asking the user what application to use.

Therefore, your device is scanning for NFC tags, when the screen is on , so power would be used.
My guess , is that this power consumption would be low, and not cause a drain on battery, since

NFC is low power meant to exchange information within 5 cms
NFC is active only when screen is on
Since the tag information may remain unchanged, it may not require frequent polling
NFC isn't quoted as a battery hogger in the battery drain culprits list (subjective)

Specific to your question, it would depend on

How well the app optimises power ( it is not compatible with my device to see behaviour)
NFC chip level power consumption used in your device
How doze optimises (if using Marshmallow)

I would think that power consumption would be negligible, but it is a good idea to verify using an app like  GSam Battery Monitor to see the actual power consumption and you could post your findings as an answer

Edit: Answer to Does NFC drain power if tag is attached constantly? on Electronics SE gives good technical reasons for why the consumption should be low


What does TRWP backup include? If I would take a backup via TRWP, does it include all my apps, app data, messages, contacts or it would just take backup of the ROM only, so I could get a fresh ROM with factory restored when I restore it ?

To my knowledge, TWRP does a nandroid backup. As you can read in the tag wikis of the mentioned tags (nandroid, backup), a Nandroid backup takes images of your partitions. It's not a backup on the file level, but on partition level. So it includes everything stored on those partitions. Doing a full Nandroid backup of your system thus includes the entire system, one file per partition. There are only very few things not contained, such as the radio-firmware.

So to put it as a short direct answer to your question: Yes, a full Nandroid backup would include all your apps, app data, messages, contacts.

Though it might be complicated to extract them separately (Nandroid can't do that, it's always an "all-or-nothing". But e.g. Titanium Backup can read data from Nandroid backups. Just in case you'll need that :)


Renaming text files based on a keyword inside the files I have many files inside a folder with .txt extension. Now they are named randomly by an app but I want to rename each text file to some words written in those files itself after words Name: but before word Age:.

Example

A file named 13765_46748.txt contains:

This is just a test file containing info of each persons.
Name: Pearson Bratts Age: 55 Profession:Technician

Now I want the above file to be renamed to Pearson Bratts.txt using Tasker or any other script app with working script.

The complete shell script follows. You need a Terminal emulator, but I'll leave that to you.

if [ "$1" == "$(cat /dev/null)" ]; then
 echo "Usage: $0 <file>"
 return 1
fi

content="$(cat '$1')"
content="${content#*Name: }"
content="${content// Age*/}"

mv "$1" "$content.txt"

This is to be saved in a something.sh, which, when executed, will require an additional parameter. For example, we'll assume you'll call it renamer.sh, and thus the usage will be:

renamer.sh some/file.txt

. It'll rename the file you give it, accordingly to its content. To give it the correct file, is your responsibility, and it works for only a file per execution. It won't work if the file has spaces inside its name.


Recovering data on Samsung Galaxy S II GT-I9100P without USB connection Samsung Galaxy S II GT-I9100P only goes as far as the "Samsung" logo, and remains there.  How can I backup the data on the phone before attempting get the phone working again?

I have attempted the instructions here:
Rooting Samsung Galaxy S II GT-i9100

It completed the "installing update", but after the reboot it got stuck on the "Android is upgrading starting apps" screen.  I waited for about 10 minutes before powering it off and on.  It now just gets as far as the Samsung screen and continues there, as before.

Kies doesn't connect to the device, hence why I assumed I'd need to do this without USB connection, perhaps via the memory card as per the link above.

Could clockworkmod help?

I have now:

accessed the Android stock recovery, and wiped the cache.
accessed the Android stock recovery, and installed "CWM-SuperSU-v0.97.zip" via the external SD card.
accessed the Android stock recovery, and installed "recovery-clockwork-4.0.1.5-galaxys2.zip" via the external SD card.  This gave me access to the CWM recovery menu.

From the CWM recovery menu, I accessed the "backup and restore" option, which allowed me to attempt a backup with Nandroid.  The backup appeared to have completed.  I have since tried to backup again, but this time it says "SD Card space free: 0MB  There may not be enough free space to complete backup... continuing... Backup up boot image... Error while backing up boot image!"  How can I confirm if the initial backup was successful, and where does it back up to? It seems to imply it was backed up to the "SD Card" - I assume that means the partition of the internal memory chip that is labelled "SD Card" and not the external SD card.  If I do a "wipe data/factory reset", will the backup be preserved, or will it all be wiped?

I also notice while exploring the CWM menus, that if I look at "install zip from sdcard", and then go to the option "choose zip from sdcard", it allows me to browse the folders on part of the phones internal storage, and I can see folders relating to specific apps that I have installed.  It allows me to access the folders, and also the subfolders, but it doesn't show me the files (I assume this is because it is set to only show ".zip" files).  This indicates to me that at least some (if not all) of my data could be recoverable.  Is there any way to browse the folders and their contents so that I can see all the files, and then copy/move the files to the external SD card?

Phone is now working.  Photos and contacts still intact.  Here's what happened:

I gave up and selected "Wipe data/factory reset" from the Android recovery menu (turn phone on whilst holding down power, vol up and home button at the same time).

I fully expected this to erase my data (photos and contacts included), but at least get my phone working again.  However, the phone is now factory reset, but all contacts and photos are still there.


Decrypting Encrypted Micro SD Card without phone Since the release of the new Android version, has anyone had any success with decrypting the contents of a Micro SD card without the use of the phone?

I want to encrypt my card incase I lose the phone. However, I also don't want to be in a situation where something could happen and I am left with no way to retrieve contents from the SD card.

I don't think the purpose is to allow any decryption of the SD card without using the phone were it was encrypted. Or you could just add specific files to the cloud so that you don't have to worry about retrievable situations, in most cases people tend to use the cloud for photos and video, especially with the space it gobbles up, having 16gb 60gb worth of files on an SD card is pretty risky vs storing it in the cloud, but to answer your question you need to find it the encryption specifically serves the purpose of preventing the decryption unless the content is being decrypted from that parochial device


Ubuntu 13.10 adb "device not found" I'm trying to reinstall Android on my first-gen Nexus 7. I'm using adb to do so because the install is so corrupted I can't even use the touch screen.

I use Ubuntu 13.10 and I have adb and fastboot installed. My Nexus is plugged in. This is what I type:

sudo adb kill-server
sudo adb start-server
adb devices

And... nothing shows up. How do I fix this?

Try running "sudo adb devices". Or, fix your udev rules so that the USB device is writable by your user (see the link in caffinatedmonkey's comment)


Google Maps >9.60: Can't access the layers. How to turn off/on layers? I recently opened Google Maps and found the traffic layer to be enabled. And so I tried to turn it off by swiping from the left to open the App Drawer (aka Hamburger Menu).

Unfortunately the usual button for layers was grayed out and said that the "Layers have moved":

When I click the button it just closes the App Drawer.

I can't figure out how to access the "Satellite & traffic" or any layers. In the new version of Google Maps, how do you turn on/off the layers (i.e. Satellite, Traffic, Topology, etc)?

version is: 9.62.1

I tried to search for how to access the feature. But all I found was some webpages that said the layers feature in Google-Maps was moving... but nothing about how to access the layers feature after it moved.

I have this change on my Samsung tablet.

I have a new button at the top right of the map, where the compass symbol used to be,  which accesses layers.


Disable display countdown during the use of Google Maps When I use Google Maps for my Samsung Galaxy S, after a while the display goes dark and the GPS disconnects. Is there a way to disable the display countdown during the usage of Google Maps?

I use the Tasker application to change the screen timeout and brightness (as well as the GPS) when I use Maps or Navigation.  I turn on GPS and disable timeout when starting Maps/Navigation and turn them off on exiting.  Tasker allows you to specify certain tasks that are activated when opening/closing and application.  It has several other features and uses, but I find it works well for the problem you are having.


Phone is finding every wireless access point except mine! I have a Samsung Galaxy S using the default firmware (version 2.2).

Unfortunately, it can't seem to find the wireless at work.  When I click "Scan" on the list of WAPs, it continues to appear as a "Remembered" access point rather than connecting.

The laptop is finding the SSID with full bars, so it's just the phone being tetchy.

I've tried rebooting the phone and the router with no change.

It was indeed Wifi channels (as per phunehehe's comment) - setting the router to use band 11 suddenly brought the access point back into being detectable.  Excellent.


Managing calls between carrier number and Google Voice, using GV as primary I'm looking for the best way to set-up/manage my calls between the carrier # and Google Voice as I use both.

I'm using a Samsung S4 on VZW (however I would prefer to use phone/Google Voice/app to manage rather than rely on VZW settings)

I have certain calls go to Google Voice and the rest go to carrier. The problem is that the 'other' calls are many and I was sick of hearing my phone ring all day when I only want to receive those calls at specified times. Part of my solution was figuring out how to set-up call blocking on the S4 (last phone was a Thunderbolt and as far as I knew this wasn't in the settings)

My big problem now is that every blocked call ends up going to my Voice-mail and a lot of them have automated recordings so my inbox is filling up. I'd like to find a way to block all carrier calls, and not allow them to forward to my Google Voice inbox for Voice-mail on a specified schedule.

e.g. Block all calls/VM's M-F 1am-1pm

If the "other"  calls are usually at certain times of the day, you could use Tasker to automate things for you.


How can I stop the status bar from hiding? On my Samsung S10 with Nova as the main launcher, I'm noticing that for a few days now I don't have a status bar when on my home screen. The status bar is there when I'm working from inside any application, but as soon as I move the the home screen, it is pulled up somehow (literally, I see it moving up and disappearing). I can easily get it back by just swiping my finger from the top of the screen just a bit downwards which is why I don't think this is a bug or the launcher somehow covering it. But I'd prefer for the status bar to remain visible all the time.
I'm really not aware of anything I have done to cause this. I might have pressed something by mistake but I did not tinker with my phone in some meaningful way.
I tried googling this but all I get is results about how to show or hide notifications or icons within the status bar. When it comes to hiding and unhiding the status bar, I could only find development examples but as mentioned, I have never developed anything on this phone, it's also not rooted.
Some help on this would be much appreciated.

Nova Launcher has dozens of settings for its Home Screen layout and personalization. Included is a Notification bar setting, which allows the device owner to hide it on the Home Screen.
It can be found under the Look & feel settings.
Change the state of Show notification bar to experiment to taste.


Boot Animation Will Not Loop Samsung Fascinate running CyanogenMod 10.1-20130723-Nightly.

I made a custom boot animation that works, but it plays once and does not loop. The desc.txt file has the proper formatting to loop, folder structure and zip method. I have the bootanimation.zip in two locations on the device memory: /system/media and /data/local

I have matched the permissions to the other files on both locations, however that still hasn't fixed it. Why is not looping like it's supposed to? When I restore the CyanogenMod animation it plays just fine.

UPDATE: Downloading boot animations from the XDA Forum worked just fine. I tried three. Mine are still refusing to work.

Create an animation script (text) file as desc.txt with the following content:

240 320 24
p 1 0 part0

Explanation:

In first line 240 320 24, 240 320 is the device's resolution and 24 is the frames per second. Higher the number, faster the animation.
In second line p 1 0 part0, p is a code to tell it to look at new commands, 1 is the number of times the boot animation will play (0 means infinite), 0 is a code to tell it to pause. 0 means no pause, 10 means pause for 10 seconds - repeating or moving on to next line.
part0 is the foler in which your animation images are contained.

Could you please check whether fourth parameter is 0? If not set it to 0 for infinite loop.


Do wireless charging adapters interfere with NFC? I've just got a Huawei P30 (standard, not Pro or Lite) and realised it doesn't feature NFC - with no less than 4 wireless chargers in my house and 2 in my office. But I use Google Pay all the time - in many ways I rely on it.

I've done some Googling and I can't find much info about this - the closest I came was an article about wireless charging slowly damaging the NFC controller chip over time in a Nexus 7 due to a circuitry flaw.

Would adding a Qi adapter pad inside a case affect the data-only NFC on the device? With it not being a native feature, I can imagine there may be some safety drawbacks to the internal antenna and circuitry.

But at the same time, Huawei had an official wireless charging case available. So, maybe it's not a problem for the P30?

TLDR;
Qi wireless charging can damage NFC tags and readers.

I don't have any experience with using Qi adapters and NFC in conjunction but I would imagine there would be some interference.

Depending on the position of your NFC chip, the Qi adapter may partially or completely cover the chip. Whilst this would only be a very thin layer of metal obstructing the chip, the interference would largely depend on the quality of the NFC chip.

I do have a wireless charging mount in my car that I have previously placed an NFC tag on. I was able to charge my phone (Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and Note 9) perfectly, however, my phone struggled to consistently read the NFC tag. It would often either not read the tag at all or would repeatedly read it, which was very frustrating as the routine I had set up would send multiple messages to my wife.

So, it would seem that wireless charging and NFC can interfere with each other if not implemented correctly. If this is a risk you can not afford to take, then I would suggest sticking with a charger cable or perhaps a magnetic charger cable for more convenience.

Following OP's comment I have done some more research regarding NFC degradation caused by Qi wireless charging and have come across this article from RFID Journal.

The article details an NFC-enabled wireless charging system for cars and, although it doesn't specify any sort of statistics, it does state that NFC tags can be damaged by wireless charging.

  NFC devices are also commonly stored in the wallets, purses and pockets of individuals for payments, access control and more. NFC tags, however, can be damaged or destroyed by the magnetic fields of wireless chargers, creating a potential conflict for a variety of NFC technology products

I wasn't completely satisfied with this.

I changed my search criteria to specifically look for details on NFC readers and it wasn't long before I cam across a post on the Nordic Semiconductor DevZone forum regarding Qi wireless charging damaging an NFC reader.
In the thread one of Nordic Semiconductor's support staff responds with the following

  Yes, QI currents can damage NFC readers/tags, and what you're describing does not seem reversible. Sorry about that. Although we can't guarantee anything, adding the extra capacitor seems to protect the NFC tag sufficiently, so I suggest you give it a go. Additionally, it wouldn't hurt disabling the NFC while you're charging either, but I don't believe it to be crucial.

So, given this information and OP stating that NFC doesn't work with wireless chargers (at least that's my understanding of OP), I would be inclined to believe Huawei disables the NFC reader while charging wirelessly in order to protect the NFC reader from damage.


What happens when a country changes its DST schedule? What happens when a country changes its DST schedule? For example, Israel has just lengthened its Daylight Savings Time by a month. It seems like no firmware update was issued by Google for this. How does Android update its timezones and times?

Time is updated using specific protocols. The information exchanged might include a DST flag (at least I would have done that if I'd made the specs), together with a TZ and the unix time stamp. But given that not even NTP does that (neither TZ nor DST), it might be doubtful.

So far the thoughts. However, GSM devices such as many Android smartphones rather use NITZ (Network Identity and Time Zone), which a.o. specifies (according to Wikipedia):

  This standard allows the network to "transfer its current identity, universal time, DST and LTZ"1 but each is optional, and support across RAN vendor and operator varies. This presents a problem for device manufactures which are required to maintain a complex timezone database, rather than rely on the network operator.

From this we can learn: It might be this information is provided via NITZ, as the specs allow for it. But network providers also might include additional sources to ensure this.

One other point is that not all carriers support NITZ (see Wikipedia). I'm not sure what they use instead (a good guess might be the Reference Broadcast Time Synchronization); but different carriers might use different methods. So to me it looks like there's no "general answer" − as you can also see in this discussion: Sometimes (or rather "some places") it works, in others not.

If you want to dig deeper:

Time Synchronization in Telecom Networks
Deployment of Precision Time Protocol for Synchronization of GSM and UMTS Basestations (PDF)
Frequency and Time Synchronization In Packet Based Networks (PDF)


What kind of hardware problems is a cheap Android phone likely to have? For development and application purposes an organisation I am with is considering buying a cheap Android handset here in India (this is the handset).

But what kind of problems can one anticipate in such a phone?  Most of what I can find on the net is just references to a "short life" - which does not tell us what kind of problems would actually occur - and lack of access to Google Play (on the software end).

I should note that this is a rather peculiar use case in that it's mainly going to be an SMS gateway and at most a very low demand server for SMS (possibly for Web too - there is a discussion on our situation in this SO question).  But we are interested in this question in general as well.

Edit: For reference, most such cheap handsets in India - and I suppose in most of the world - are made using licensed designs of low end Chinese phones.

My answer for you is twofold; there are innate downsides to off-brand devices but - most importantly - your use case (development and application purposes) might make off-brand Android phones a poor choice.

This is from my experience with the phones (I have a lot, having lived in Asia for years, and seeing a lot here in the States)

First, the general issues. Cheap, off-brand phones like that can actually perform quite well - but those good phones can be few and far between. Often, you'll face issues with any/all of the following:

Screen quality - This is generally the first place no-brand manufacturers cut corners. Many, if not most, of the devices will have low resolution and poor color reproduction.
Battery - This is the next big issue with these. There are many reasons that cheaper design, development, and manufacturing generally mean poor battery life. From the chips used, to the battery technology used, to the radios (In your case, dual-SIM is a known battery-drainer).
Local Support - Your Mileage May Vary™. Many, if not most, no-brand devices are quad-band GSM-devices - worldphones!! But many are not, and almost all are poorly documented. It may claim to be a worldphone, but who knows for sure?
Slowness - These things are cheap. Good NAND is expensive, good SOCs can be expensive. Most off-brand phones are much slower than the big-name phones from HTC, LG, Motorola, etc...
Customer Support - Almost universally non-existent when dealing with these things.
Long-term Manufacturer Support - You're almost guaranteed to never see an update to the Android OS on these phones.
Community Support - The devices are, unfortunately, almost never supported by the hacking/modding/Open-Source communities. Phones from big names almost all have communities for modding/roms/help built around them.

That doesn't seem so bad, right? You'll be developing software for your organization. You don't care about watching movies - so screen quality doesn't matter - and it'll always be plugged into a dev machine - so battery doesn't matter either. You probably expected slowness too. You probably don't care about those issues!

Let me tell you why you might want to care.

Screen - It's likely to be an old, depracated screen resolution. If you're going to be developing applications to publish then it could be a problem making your app compatible with standard screen sizes. (Your SO question implies you're not, so this might be a nonissue).
Slowness - You mention that this will be a low-demand server and SMS gateway. Slowness may be a downside for you. The phone you linked is VERY SLOW.
Long-term Manufacturer Support - This thing runs Android 2.3.6. That's ancient. Even though that version is still used on many Android phones today, it could be very limiting for you with its old API.
Community Support - It's very likely that you'll need to use ADB, perhaps get root, and a plethora of other generally-simple tasks that could be made difficult by the way the phone is engineered. Usually, there's a community to ask for help when things like this get in the way. Not so for this phone.

TL,DR: You will probably be able to make a workable solution with the phone you linked. There are some very significant unknowns - hiccups you may run into with your project, and hiccups you may run into with the phone - that might be bad with this phone, or they might be no problem. If it was me, I suggest this little phrase:

If you have to ask, "is this phone going to work?" then you should probably consider a different phone. Get a device that you know will work. Nexus phones are made for this situation. And big-name phones, while not as much as a Nexus, will probably be a better solution than the phone you linked.

I realize the price of Nexus phones in India is expensive, but I would say it's worth the added cost.


How can I reclaim space used by the defaul email client The default email client on my phone is reported as have almost 2.5Gb of data.   It's used to sync with my work Exchange account.   I've reduced the number of days to sync and the number of folders to sync, with no reduction in the reported space used by the app.  I do notice that the trash folder claims 999+ messages, even though I delete the contents most days from my laptop client.   That folder doesn't offer sync settings, and I can't find a way to select all of the messages to delete them.

Short of clearing all data for the app and setting my account up again, is there any way to reclaim some of this space?

I ended up deleting the account and re-adding it.   Space used by Email went from 2.7Gb to 16Mb.

On my Moto X, running Android 4.4.4, Delete the account from System settings (i.e., not in the Email app) -- under Settings, in the "Accounts" section, find the account with the Email app's icon and name that matches the name in the app.  Tap the account name, then the menu icon, and select "Remove account".   Details may vary on other Android versions.

To add an account to the Email app, click the menu icon, then select Settings", "Add Account" will appear in the right side of the top menu bar.


Scripting app that can listen on notifications I'm looking for an app that can run in the background, and listen for a silent notification from a different app (i.e. shows up on notification list but makes no sound) and once it appears, make a sound. Is there an app that I can script like that?

Download MacroDroid Pro from here, install it and open it. Back to settings and allow it in the following aspects:

Allow All Permissions about it in application settings
Allow Notification Access in notification settings
Allow Its Accessibility Service in accessibility settings
Allow Device Administration in security settings
Allow Usage Access in security settings and all other permissions it requests

Open it and

Click Add Macro
Notification Received Trigger and select which application you want notified for
Play Sound Action and select which sound you like notified for
Just leave an empty constraint since you want to be notified at all times or put instances to consider before the above happens
Save the macro and you're ready to go

The Macro Summary should look something just like this:

You could have solved your problem


Unchecking the "show notifications" for the Phone app My carrier keeps sending the voicemail notification to my device. I can force-stop the phone app (makes the notifications go away), but EVERY SINGLE TIME the device reboots or do something phone-related, boom, its back.

In the app info, the checkbox for notifications is shaded.

Is there any way to make the checkbox unmarked?

I have root, terminal emulator and ADB to play with.

Since you've root access, you can easily allow or ignore the notifications of any app.

Install a file manager having root explorer feature such as ES File Explorer or MiXplorer.
Go to /data/system and open notification-policy.xml.
Add <package name"PKG_NAME" /> between <blocked-packages> and </blocked-packages>, such as:

(Click image to enlarge)

Replace PKG_NAME with the package name of the app whose notifications you don't want to see. See View app's full package name?
Save the file and reboot the device. The "Show notifications" checkbox would now be seen unticked.

There's also an alternative approach which didn't work for me. You may give it a try though. Find it here.


Galaxy S4 Android 4.3 is repeatingly asking about TouchWiz Every time I press the home button Android asks me to choose between Standard and Simple. How can I can rid of this annoyance?

update 131130 16:26 CET

I installed another launcher and tried to clear and disable everything with TouchWiz and still it's repeadingly asking me the same question every time I press the home button.

Update 131201 10:47 CET

I read that rebooting the phone and/or uninstalling the google search update could resolve the problem and after rebooting the phone the question hasn't popped up for a while. I'm clicking around to verify that it won't appear and the solution at this time seems to be that rebooting the phone will do it and I might not have to uninstall the search update which was mentioned.

I found the solution on another blog, seems to be working.

http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s4/334381-touchwiz-wont-stay-default-launcher.html


Android in app purchase issue: You already own this item I am interested in purchasing the Game from Google Play Store, but when I try to purchase it using the buy Button in game menu it takes me to Play store and there I get a message "You already own this item", but when I click on details button in the message box the play store application crashes.

Now I don't know even if I own this or not. If I own it then why didn't I received this full version and if I do not own it then how I will be able to purchase it?

Summed up from the comments:

This was a known issue with Google Play, which meanwhile is resolved (read more on this Google support page, opening the "fixed/resolved" item, and there you see [#8849329] Falsely received error: "You already own this item", together with more details).


Windows cannot detect the Galaxy S I9000 when connected through USB When I connect my Galaxy SI900 with the PC, I get the message, "A USB device connected cannot be recognised". I reinstalled drivers on the PC and it resintalled Kies. Thses didn't resolve the problem. Any suggestions.

I was having the same issue with Kies. Latest version of Kies and latest USB drivers solved my issue.


Where to check what apps I have purchased I got a statement from my bank and I have 2 transactions I do not know what they are.

  Google *E-Commerce Ltd GOOGLE.COM of 15.99

Normally I have a text, which indicates what app or service I have purchased. But these positions are simply don't have that information.

What is it? How to check what I have purchased in Google so far?

I think what you want is the My Orders page.

This is reachable from the Play Store web site under the "gear" menu in the upper right.

I see all of the things I've purchased from Google Play, including apps, music, etc.

For what it's worth, there does not appear to be a way to get a list of your orders from within the Play Store app. However, I do see a list of transactions in my Google Wallet app, although admittedly they're not all necessarily from the Play Store.


How to use Android modem without using PC I have rooted my mobile. I wanted to use modem of Android phone without connecting to PC. How to give AT commands without connecting to PC, because in http://atinout.sourceforge.net/, it is suggesting to use '/dev/ttyACM0' file which is not present in Android device.
I am not sure, but it seems ttyACM0 is related with USB, how to use same command in Android mobile, if I have rooted my mobile successfully.

Some devices would have the kernel compiled with ACM serial support (this is dependent on manufacturer/board/kernel) so that it could be used as a dial-up modem from a PC via USB cable, that is the functionality behind /dev/ttyACM n where n is a digit as allocated by the kernel.

To check for that, look in /proc/config.gz which is the kernel configuration file used, this is a gzipped file detailing the configuration of how the kernel was built, the ones you are looking for is, need to search for it:

CONFIG_USB_ANDROID_ACM=y
CONFIG_USB_F_SERIAL=y
CONFIG_MODEM_SUPPORT=y

again, its dependent, some elect to not include it, others will omit it

So basing my comment above, I think you're using the wrong device file name, the real modem device file is /dev/smd0 which is used in conjunction with /dev/socket/rild (See my answer on StackOverflow explaining about that).
/dev/smd0 sits in front of /dev/socket/rild, rild daemon reads from that device and relays it to /dev/socket/rild which is then handled by the android layer in both directions.

Try using either of the device filenames, with atinout program referenced on sourceforge, to see what outcome you will get.

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for messing up your telephony stuff if you carry it out as per on the sourceforge site, if it gets messed, reboot!


Add swap support to Android I own Samsung Galaxy GT-i9082, Trust me, its really very slow due to its low RAM i.e 1GB only. I have Installed Custom ROM of Lineage OS From XDA but it still doesn't supports swapping which is the only way to increase my SMARTphone's RAM. How can I add Swap support to my Kernel? I am really a new born baby in android and don't know much about it.

Swap in Android requires special kernel support... to my knowledge there is no stock based custom kernel pre-built with swap support for your device. You can see if your kernel, or any kernel for that matter, has swap support by opening a terminal (via Termux or other terminal application) and entering the following command:

cat /proc/cpuinfo

And look at the Features line in the output for swp or swap, if one of those occurs and you are rooted, then you maybe able to use swap space. - Source

Building a kernel yourself with this support is outside the scope of Android Authority, if you wish to pursue this option I would suggest using a dedicated forum for this type of thing such as XDA's Galaxy Grand Duos Development forum for more information.

That said, there is one custom ROM I am aware of which has swap support built in called Viper OS, more information on this ROM is available in it's official support thread on XDA Developers.

Be aware there are custom kernels that support zRAM, or compressed RAM, which might be sufficient for your needs... They increase usable RAM by using the kernel to compress the data it stores in RAM at the cost of some performance and battery life, the amount of benefit or performance/battery loss is purely based on your individual usage. Grephene and DedS kernel are available for your device which support zRAM. For more information on zRAM and it's potential benefits and issues, please see What is zRAM in kernel and Z-RAM, do you use it? threads on XDA or see Google for more information.


Why is Google Play Books incompatible with my Nexus 5? Today, I have bought a Nexus 5, and I want to download Google Play Books from Google Play, but I get the prompt message as seen in the above image.

Why am seeing this message and how can I install the app on my phone?

Google Play Books comes pre-installed on Nexus 5, at least here in the Netherlends. If you do not have it nor can install it via Play Store I would guess that it is a country/operator restriction.


How safe are downloadable lock apps? I've noticed quite a few lock screen apps and some of them do seem to be rather interesting.

But, are they really that secure? I've seen some where I can bypass them by using the Recently Opened Apps list. I've also noticed that some of them show whatever was previously up when I turn my phone on again.

These shortcomings seem to imply that they're very easily circumvented. Is this true and is there a way to make them more secure?

It depends. Some are secure while most are insecure. For example there are finger print apps. Most of the people knows the trick so its insecure.


Recover Nexus 6P that won't boot past Google logo So I had a random reboot while debugging apps with android studio and after that device doesnt boot past Google logo. Factory reset and cache wipe do not help.

Eventually I found this guide https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz6x7k-VkpUJRjl6WjRhVmdXU0E/view. But The problem is that I can't complete step 16 because device is enrolled in Adnroid beta program so there is no public image available that I need (NPG05F). I've found https://developer.android.com/preview/download-712.html but there is no Nexus 6P image listed for some reason. Will it be added soon?

Device OS is 7.1.2 (angler/NPG05F)

So is there anything I can do to get my device back?

ROMS for your device and instructions to flash them can be found here: https://developers.google.com/android/images

Hope this helps!


Why are my auto-complete suggestions so bad? When I'm typing into a text entry field, the auto-complete suggestions I get are much worse than they used to be (they have never worked well on this phone, but have worked great on previous Android phones).  For example, if I enter "Th", my suggestions are "Rh" and "Therock", rather than "The".  The only suggestions that seem valid are names out of my address book.

Any ideas?  I've turned on all the auto-complete settings, but the suggestions are still terrible.  I'm using a Nexus One running 2.3.4.

This appears to be a bug in the 2.3.4 update. It is being tracked here.


Android 8.1 Keyboard on Galaxy Tab A doesn't display word choices My old Samsung Galaxy Tab running Android 4.2 would always show 3 word suggestions above the keyboard as I was typing. I thought it was very helpful. But my new tablet(Galaxy Tab A 8") running 8.1 doesn't have that. Can I get that back?

Let it be set to default keyboard(Samsung Keyboard).

Follow steps to turn on word's suggestions:

For Galaxy tab:

Follow the steps:

Open Settings - Scroll down to System - Language and input-Choose Samsung keyboard.
Under Smart typing choose Predictive text and enable it.

For Handsets:

Open Settings-General Managment-Language and Input-On screen keyboard-Samsung Keyboard.
Now turn on 'Predictive text' option and again in this option turn of 'Auto replace'.

Note: Auto Replace will enable the keyboard to replace predicted words by itself and this could create problem while typing.


Sometimes AMOLED display turns green or purple (tinted) I am using Samsung Galaxy A5 A500G since last month, but sometimes while using the phone, the display turns slightly green or purple (tinted) in shade. But as soon as I adjust the screen brightness, the display becomes normal.

Is it a problem?

Is it a problem ?

Not if it vanishes by increasing brightness a bit or moving out of shade. It is a problem if you see this with normal day time brightness

Why does it happen?

Samsung AMOLED displays are based on PenTile technology and manufactured by Nouvoyance ( Nouvouyance partners with Samsung and  also supplies Pentile displays to other OEMs as well). Instead of the conventional (called Real Stripe) OLED displays pixel pattern of RGB , PenTile uses RGBW, which cuts power consumption to half for the same brightness and hence longer screen life as well

This technology has   disadvantage of  colours looking grainy, more so warmer colours. This effect is visually more pronounced in low brightness

(OR)

Red LEDs consume least power for same brightness followed by Green and Blue, so when the screen is in low brightness red is comparatively brighter and gives a pinkish/ greenish hue. This is considered to be a feature of Nexus 6 and not a bug

Any /combination of these two factors makes the color combination look tinted and variously described as purple, brown or pink. This should be the main reason for your observation (other being a problem with screen or screen digitizer, if it is very pronounced).


Typing/sending text messages using Kies Does the Kies software allow one to type and send text messages from the PC?

You can't.

But, on the other hand, you can use the Kies Air application, which you can obtain through Samsung Apps. It allows you to access your mobile on the desktop browser if both PC and phone share the same Wifi network.

Then you would be able to send/recv messages on the desktop, amid many other things like accessing photos, videos, contacts, call logs, music, file system... and so on.  It is like a small web interface to your mobile.


Install TWRP to only one slot or offline boot.img file, not both I want to install TWRP on my phone that uses the A/B partition schema. The official TWRP installer ZIP by default installs to both boot_a and boot_b. This always breaks the system in the inactive slot because I install Magisk after flashing/OTA.

Can I install TWRP to only one slot, or an offline boot.img file (like Magisk Manager supports)?

So this way, I ended up creating a script on my own.

Lucky enough, installing TWRP to boot.img isn't hard at all. The install script in TWRP just replaces ramdisk.cpio with the one ramdisk-twrp.cpio provided in the ZIP.

The effective part of the script is as following, root is of course required.

ln -s /system/bin/linker64 /sbin/linker
cp <path-to-magiskboot> /sbin/magiskboot
mkdir /data/local/tmp/twrp
cd /data/local/tmp/twrp
/sbin/magiskboot --unpack <path-to-boot.img>
cat <path-to-[ramdisk-twrp.cpio]> > ramdisk.cpio
/sbin/magiskboot --repack boot.img
cp new-boot.img /sdcard/new-boot.img

Now the TWRP-installed new-boot.img is located at /sdcard/.

To install to a single slot, dd the boot image out and apply the same process as shown above and dd the new image back.


Is android kernel a microkernel or a monolithic kernel? Since the android kernel is derived from the mainstream Linux kernel, with additional drivers for a specific android device. is it safe to say that the Android kernel is also a monolithic kernel?
But Android removed System V IPC features (message queues, shared memory segments, semaphores),So to summaries i just want to understand how different is the Android kernel with respect to the mainline Linux kernel?

The term ‘monolithic’ is usually applied directly to the kernel of an operating system, rather than the operating system itself which is a boarder, fuzzier concept.

Monolithic kernels, such as Linux, are distinguished from microkernels such as Mach and L4 by having a relatively large amount of code operating in a shared address space. Microkernels tend to have a smaller amount of a shared code and communicate between the components of the kernel using a fast message passing mechanism.

Since the default android kernel is derived from the Linux kernel, it is safe to say that the Android kernel is also a monolithic kernel.


Schedule Auto Shutdown on Android I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 and was wondering if it's possible (like on Blackberry) to setup a schedule for automatic device shutdown.

For example, on my previous phone, I could indicate for the phone to auto shutdown at 12AM and auto turn on at 7AM.

Is it possible on Android without download third-party app?

Natively, there is no way to schedule shutdowns and boot ups of the Android system. If you do decide to root there are applications in the Play store that can shedule a shutdown (you may even be able to make your own busybox script instead). However booting up will never be possible the way Android handles shut downs because when Android shuts down, it is not running.And so, there is nothing in memory to initiate any sort of startup process.


I am running Paranoid Android 3.97 but Root Checker is showing me that my Nexus 4 is not rooted I am running Paranoid Android and Franco Kernel but I do not have access to data/data folder is empty. Root Checker app is showing me that my phone is not rooted for some reason. It was working fine when i was on Android 4.2.2(Paranoid Android 3.67). How can i fix this?

Thank You

You need to Flash the Kernel first and THEN root the device. In 4.3 google have implmended a securty feature which causes some rooting problems.


Password protecting shell access We distribute android devices to other developers so that they can develop on our devices. We want them to be able to install / uninstall / debug apps, but we don't want them to be able to run adb shell and look around in the file system. Our devices are rooted. Is it possible?

It might be possible by modifying su  source code. You can modify so that some commands require a password such as the shell. Create your own custom su based on the device.


Google Play Services Has stopped message continually popping up on my Samsung phone The following message keeps appearing on my Samsung Galaxy S4 phone screen about every three seconds

"Unfortunately, Google Play Services has stopped".

Is it actually a virus or it is a problem with the Google Play Service?  I have tried disabling the Google Play Service but the message keeps appearing.  I have Norton Mobile running on my phone to pick up on viruses and to alert me to any possible security issues and also Lookout. They haven't picked up anything.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

Solution 1 – Update Google Play Services to the latest version. You can download from here. You may be getting an error because you have a very outdated version or the one you have is having a conflict/bug with the current Android version in your phone.

Solution 2 – Clear the Google Play Services cache. The Google Play Services app in your phone acts like a framework for all the Google and Google Play apps installed in your phone. You can try cleaning up its cache and see if that would fix the issue. This worked with one of our team members! Read these quick and easy steps :

Go to Settings > Apps.
 Scroll to All apps and then scroll down to “Google Play Services” app.
 Open the app details and tap on the “Force stop” (see "Force stop is disabled"
 below) button.
 Then, tap on the “Clear cache” button.

Solution 3 - Uninstall the updates of "Google Play Services".

As in solution 2, go to Settings > Apps.
 Scroll to All apps and then scroll down to “Google Play Services” app.
 Open the app details and:

tap on the “Force stop” (see "Force stop is disabled" below) button
tap on the "Disable" button
tap on the three dots at the top right and select: "Uninstall updates"
once uninstallation is completed, tap on the "Enable" button

Solution 4 – Clear the Google Services Framework cache. The Google Services Framework system app on your Android device stores information and helps your phone sync with Google servers — and keeps your Google Play Services up and running. This could be one of the reasons why you are not able to connect to Google servers using the app and keep getting the error message. Read these quick and easy steps :

Go to Settings > Apps.
 Scroll to All apps and then scroll down to “Google Services Framework” app.
 Open the app details and tap on the “Force stop” button.
 Then, tap on the “Clear cache” button.

Solution 5 – Check your Internet connection. May be your WiFi network is blocking any of the IP addresses that Google use. You can also try switching the WiFi on or off on your phone — same with mobile data.

Solution 6 – This goes without saying, but may be a simple reboot of your Android phone/tablet could fix the problem.

Solution 7 – I hate to say this, but in the end, you might just want to install a custom ROM that is stable with no bugs.

Force stop is disabled If either the "Disable" or the "Force Stop" buttons are disabled then:

  OS Android 8.0.0 (Samsung Experience 9.0.0)

Go to Settings → Device admin apps
Deactivate the following apps if they are listed:

Find My Device
Google Play

  Note Please, keep in mind that you may have to experiment with what apps you deactivate.

  Your device admin apps list may differ. For example, you may have more or entirely different apps.

  I have found that disabling the above two apps was enough for me to disable and force stop "Google Play services".


contacts storage on android 2.3.5 Is there a way to have access to the file/s that list the contact details on an Android 2.3.5 phone? My contacts storage is growing up to many MBs, and I would like to be able to delete some of these contacts from the stored files with a scripted solution.

I'd recommend you to use GUI of Contacts app for clearing contacts, but if you are really interested in it, this is the database used to store contact details: /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db. To alter anything inside it, you need root access and proper SQL queries.

The location of database may vary depending on device..


When I remove a payment profile will I still be able do install my purchased apps? I purchased a few apps a few years ago, and my credit card expired a long time ago. So if i close my payment profile on google play will I still be able to install the apps I purchased?

It appears you are confusing payment method with payment profile

If you close your payment profile then you can't install earlier purchased apps as explained in Google payments center help

When you close this profile, the service(s) below will be canceled:

Google Play Apps

YouTube

Google Play Movies

Instead, Add, edit, or remove a payment method


l2_hsic prevents my device from Deep Sleep. How to fix it? I have installed BetterBatteryStats and CPU SPY, because I noticed that I had a faster than normal battery consumption when the tab was left alone.

I made a 30 mins test Wifi OFF, Flight Mode On, where the 29 mins of them showed me l2_hsic under Kernel Wakelock -> Since Unplugged.

Does anyone know what causes this and how to prevent it ?

Thank you.

( I am running Stock ICS 4.0.4 rooted)

As Flow already pointed out in his comment to the question, that is a known bug. However, if you're affected, there's at least a kind of "ugly work-around", as described in the article How to solve battery issues after ICS update in your Galaxy Note. Their conclusion states:

  Anyway, this is a kernel bug in ICS, we have to wait for new update. The solution for this is: shutdown your Note, peel off the back cover, remove the battery; hold the battery for more than one min, put the battery back, put back the back cover; start the phone. Then, everything goes back to normal. Reboot your phone will NOT solver this issue, at least for me.
  Next time, when you encounter this issue again, try the procedure again.

They further write that, if you once encountered this bug and worked-around this way, it seems it is hard to hit the bug again -- so with some luck, you will only have to do this once.

And yes, I saw that article refers to the Galaxy Note. But talking about a kernel bug in ICS, and your tablet being from the same manufacturer, chances are pretty good this solution will apply to your tablet as well.


How do I properly install a system app given its .apk? I removed a system app (com.android.mms) and I have the .apk needed to restore it, however it won't install through the standard channels (running the .apk gives me "application not installed"). What's the proper way to install a system app's .apk?

You will need to push the .apk to the phone to the System partition to the folder /system/app or /system/priv-app when using Android 4.3 using adb. You can find more info about adb here: http://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=ADB.

In order to write to /system you likely have to remount it read-write:

adb shell
su
mount -o rw,remount /system

Or, do it entirely from the host's ADB:

adb root
adb remount

Now you can place the .apk:

adb push my-app.apk /sdcard/
adb shell
su
cd /sdcard
mv my-app.apk /system/app
# or when using Android 4.3 or higher
mv my-app.apk /system/priv-app

Afterwards if the flags are not already set change the permissions. All System-Apps need to have the permissions rw-r--r--. You can also change them via ADB with the command chmod 644 /path_to/your_file. Though it's quite old, this may help

After you have placed the .apk you need to reboot your device. For example with adb reboot.


Android Application fundamentals Process Virtual Machine I just started on application development and wanted to learn properly everything about how Android works.

I came across four bullet points (https://developer.android.com/guide/components/fundamentals) that explain that Android sets each app as a different Linux user and that each process has its own virtual machine (VM). Here's the part confusing me, one of the bullet points (third one) doesn’t specify which process are encompassed in a virtual machine.

  • Each process has its own virtual machine (VM), so an app's code runs in isolation from other apps.

This is the first time on the page it mentions a process which is why I am confused.

My question is which processes are running in a virtual machine?
- Is it the main Linux process only?
- is it ALL of the processes within the Linux process?

If so, how can processes communicate between each other if each one of them are running in isolation (in VM)?

Thank you for your time.

None of the apps are running in a virtual machine. Really, the page is trying to explain that there's a separate instance of the JVM for each application process. It's quite a misleading description.

FYI, there's no such thing as a "main Linux process". Linux is the kernel, which is not a process; rather, it is above all of the processes, in charge of creating, scheduling, and destroying them, and mediating their access to the hardware.


Nexus 7 2013 error upgrading from 5.0.1 to 5.0.2 The 5.0.2 update fails.  This Nexus 7 (2013) has not been rooted or anything special like that.  I double tap to install update, it reboots, starts the install, then just says "error" in red over the android.  It sits there for 30 seconds or so then reboots into the previous OS, 5.0.1., which still works fine.  In a day or so it want to try again and still fails with error.  Any ideas?

So I have had this problem and saw it was not fixed. If you follow the official guide here: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images#razor you can manually flash and upgrade. That will reset your tablet so you may want to not do this.

To flash a system image:

Download the appropriate system image for your device from the internet (You can use the link above to find one), then unzip it to a safe directory.
Connect your device to your computer over USB.
Start the device in fastboot mode with one of the following methods:

Using the adb tool: With the device powered on, execute: adb reboot bootloader
Using a key combo: Turn the device off, then turn it on and immediately hold down the relevant key combination for your device. For example, to put a Nexus 5 ("hammerhead") into fastboot mode, press and hold Volume Up + Volume Down + Power as the device begins booting up.

If necessary, unlock the device's bootloader by running: fastboot flashing unlock or, for older devices, running: fastboot oem unlock.
The target device will show you a confirmation screen. (This erases all data on the target device.)
Open a terminal and navigate to the unzipped system image directory.
Execute the flash-all script. This script installs the necessary bootloader, baseband firmware(s), and operating system.

Once the script finishes, your device reboots. You should now lock the bootloader for security:

Start the device in fastboot mode again, as described above.
Execute: fastboot flashing lock or, for older devices, running: fastboot oem lock

Locking bootloader will wipe the data on some devices. After locking the bootloader, if you want to flash the device again, you must run fastboot oem unlock again, which will wipe the data.


Why isn't Clockworkmod Recovery "Sticking"? I've tried multiple times to flash ClockworkMod recovery onto my unlocked Galaxy Nexus (LTE\CDMA variant "toro" build) device. Each time I can boot into recovery and ClockworkMod displays. However, if I completely reboot my device (boot into Android and then reboot), when I try to run recovery, my phone shows an android with a red exclamation point and refuses to boot. I've tried flashing from both Linux with the fastboot tool as well on the device itself with ROM Manager. ROM Manager reports that ClockworkMod 5.5.0.4 is flashed.

What am I doing wrong?

I had the same problem and I found the solution is to rename a file in the system folder:

remount /system in read/write mode (use something like the Root Explorer app or ES File Explorer; both have root modes (check the app's settings) for remounting /system as writable)

rename the /system/recovery-from-boot.p to /system/recovery-from-boot.p-bak

(note: you could delete it, but renaming is much safer since its easily reversible)
you could also do this manually in an adb shell or on-phone Terminal session:

mv /system/recovery-from-boot.p /system/recovery-from-boot.p-bak

after you've renamed the file, you might have to re-flash your CWM if it had been missing previously

http://androidforums.com/galaxy-nexus-all-things-root/470831-how-all-things-root-samsung-galaxy-nexus.html#post3712027