Moto G4 Play Churning Through Batteries I have a G4 Play which I used the @#(* out of for nearly a year, until I dropped it into the toilet for 2 or 3 seconds before getting it out. The battery and SIM fell out and I put it in rice for the night before turning it on, as my whole life was and still is on there.

When I started using it again, it would die as soon as it reach around 45% battery, which was really frustrating. I don't remember the other details like if it was very slow or difficult to charge, or if it would ever reach 100%, but it would also drain much faster than it would usually take to go through that span of percentages.

I ordered a replacement battery from ReplaceBASE which they claimed was OEM Motorola, but it was even worse than the apparently water damaged one. They gladly sent me another replacement which appeared to work okay along with the original one, but it would be excruciatingly long to charge any of the batteries and extremely quick to plow through the charge as soon as I turned the phone on. That is like an entire weekend of 60-72 hours to charge the battery up, and maybe 2 hours to drain, and we're talking about a 2800 mAH battery. And now it varies, from dying when it reaches 25% to actually going down to 0%. Sometimes I can turn it back on and it will keep going to 0% if it dies at a higher percentage.

So my question now would be which of the parts are tainted - the phone, the removable battery, the charger, or any combination of the above? What's going on, and is there any risk in testing the parts with others? If I have a Moto E4 to test the batteries with, would I risk damaging the E4, or if I used the E4's factory supplied battery with the G4 Play, would that risk being messed up totally if it's the G4 Play itself's circuitry that is screwed up by the water damage?

What other suggestions can you think of in this situation?

There are very good chances that the internals of the phone are damaged as i have seen in some cases and you cant know the extent of damage without showing it to a repair expert

Coming to DIY
If batteries of both device are physically same than you might try replacing with each other

Tempting with a working E4 would mean chances of damaging a properly working phone which should overall cost you more compared to getting your g4 properly repaired at a repair shop

But, if you are experienced in such tasks you might go ahead and try it yourself but still consider you may end up having 2 damaged phones

And needless to say have backups of both just in case of damage


Have I completely lost my IMEI? I'm stuck with the generic IMEI (004999010640000). I've tried a number of the various workarounds (GSII_Repair, manually deleting the /efs folder, flashing stock and trying both of those from stock, re-flashing CM10 and trying from CM10 again...) with no luck. I was actually missing files in my /efs folder before flashing stock, but even with the full /efs folder I can't find my actual IMEI. So am I screwed?

Your handset is not damaged, not totally.

But you do need to get some professional help, someone who is willing to carry out the procedure in restoring it, provided that someone has the necessary tools at their disposal.

However, you can fix your IMEI using a highly specialized but expensive repair box such as Z3X, NSPro, to name but a few.

Mostly, smartphone users do not have access to them and only repair labs or specialists have them.


I had saved my important photos and videos in NQ Vault App but unfortunately deleted data I have a Micromax A99 Android device. I saved my important photos and videos in the NQ Vault App WITHOUT USING a Google account, but now am trying to recover lost data. It's showing data is not available. How can I recover my photos and videos?

You must have applied for their own cloud backup, take it from there. Else use any Android media recovery tool. You can search for any of them on Google. It would work, as I faced this too.


Facebook "more from related pages" feature Recent updates on the Facebook app came with a new feature : "the more from related pages" after every time you like a post. For me this feature is terrible. Every time after I liked a post I would scroll down to like another one, and just right before I hit the like button this new function will pop some icons out, pushing the wall down and cause me to miss the like button.

So here is the question: are there ways to remove this feature ? I searched through the settings on my app one by one but I have yet to find anything that works.

Feature


How to upgrade Android kernel version I am running a Android device with a kernel version of 3.4.5 on a soc made by mediatek (MT6582). Now recently I found a within post with the stock untouched KitKat based kernel for MT6582. This new KitKat kernel is version 3.4.67 I believe. And in the github page the guy mentioned a thing about upgrading the kernel version without having to necessarily make a new one. It didnt have any steps and I didn't really understand much if someone can help on how to upgrade the Linux kernel it would very very helpful.
Here is what it read:

  Unlike patches for the 3.x kernels, patches for the 3.x.y kernels
     (also known as the -stable kernels) are not incremental but instead apply
     directly to the base 3.x kernel.  Please read
     Documentation/applying-patches.txt for more information.

  Alternatively, the script patch-kernel can be used to automate this
     process.  It determines the current kernel version and applies any
     patches found.

linux/scripts/patch-kernel linux

  The first argument in the command above is the location of the
     kernel source.  Patches are applied from the current directory, but
     an alternative directory can be specified as the second argument.

  If you are upgrading between releases using the stable series patches
     (for example, patch-3.x.y), note that these "dot-releases" are
     not incremental and must be applied to the 3.x base tree. For
     example, if your base kernel is 3.0 and you want to apply the
     3.0.3 patch, you do not and indeed must not first apply the
     3.0.1 and 3.0.2 patches. Similarly, if you are running kernel
     version 3.0.2 and want to jump to 3.0.3, you must first
     reverse the 3.0.2 patch (that is, patch -R) before applying
     the 3.0.3 patch.

So does anyone know how I can upgrade my kernel version...if yes can you please tell me how another related info to help me would also be appreciated.
Thanks

I totally doubt if the kernel is for MTK devices because as per my knowledge goes (I too own a MT6582 device) MTK is a partially closed-source SoC manufacturer who gives out the source code by purchasing.
MTK makes a standard ROM based on AOSP and gives it out to companies but no companies are allowed to edit the ROM unless they buy the license for it.
This means that non-MTK associates can not make any part of the ROM as they don't have  the source-code

My Suggestion: Don't try this stunt because you may end up with a kernel with miss matching drivers and also a boot-looped device as a bonus :)


ClockWorkMod Recovery supports three backup formats. What's the difference between them? Which should I choose? I'm using ClockworkMod Recovery v6.0.4.5.

One of ClockworkMod Recovery's features is that it lets me back up the data stored on my phone's built-in flash memory.  The "Choose default backup format" menu lets me choose from among three options:

tar
dup (dedupe)
tar + gzip

What's the difference between each of the three options?

Which option should I choose?

(Note:  Elsewhere on this site, there's a related discussion.  It speaks more about the dedupe format, but not the other two formats.)

The formats

tar

This is essentially snapshots of all partitions each in single file with extension tar. If you make two backups of the same rom with little difference in user apps, two snapshots of tar files are created, consuming more data on your sdcard.

dup (dedupe)

This backup format backups up individual files in the partitions renamed uniquely depending on some hash algorithm. The major advantage of this is it takes up less space on sdcard. If you make two backups of the same rom with little difference in user apps, the second backup only contains changed files. And when you delete the first backup from recovery, the common files are never deleted, so you don't loose your second backup. But it creates many files on sdcard, thereby many indexes.

tar + gzip

It is same as the tar format with gzip compression applied to save some space on sdcard.

Which one should you choose?

Which one to use is upto your choice. I wouldn't recommend dup format as it takes considerable time during operations. But if you donot backup/restore frequently and concerned about the space on sdcard, u may use dup.


Battery of Nexus 7 started draining I've had my Nexus 7 2013 for a few months. A few weeks ago, for some reason the battery started draining - it was empty after one day or so.

I the reinstalled whole tablet, and after that everything went back to normal, but after maybe 10 days I again faced the same problem with the battery. How can I find what causing this problem, and how to solve it?

Try seeing if a particular wakelock is preventing your phone from going into deep sleep, which can cause battery drain.

If you have rooted your device/can root your device:
You can use Wakelock Detector Free to diagnose wakelock problems. You can download it from the play store. Also make sure you have enabled system processes to be shown.

Once you are on the main screen, make sure CPU wakelock is selected (there is a chip on the top right part). If the bar on the top is mostly green, you don't have wakelock problems. If it is mostly red, you probably do. If so, select the first item on the list below. The first wakelock on that item is the culprit.

Now that you have identified the wakelock and the process responsible for the drain, google them to find out how to solve your issue.

If you have not rooted your device/can't root your device:
Try posting some screenshots of your battery statistics. Furthermore, use those battery statistics to help yourself identify the problem. Google "X app uses a lot of battery", where X is the app on the top of the list in battery statistics.


Unable to handle subfolders in Termux I'm trying to run a program which has its own directory. Termux doesn't allow creating the directory nor accessing the folder (permission denied error) after moving it to the Termux home directory with a root file explorer app. Also with p7zip (command line port of 7-Zip) I can't create a new directory with 7z x -o <folder name> <archive name>, I can only extract to the Termux home folder.

Termux FAQ has a page for the error, but the chmod command results in operation not permitted. I wonder if this issue is related to the differences in Linux distributions and Android:

  Why do I keep getting 'No such file or directory' when trying to
  execute binary (it's file exists) ?

  This happens when you are executing binary compiled for Linux
  distribution, e.g. Ubuntu or Arch Linux. This is caused by ABI
  difference between GNU libc and Bionic libc.

  Create a proper chroot (proot) environment and try to execute binary
  from it.

It's likely that the permission or owner has messed up.

Go find a folder where Termux operates normally, and run ls -ln to get the UID and GID of Termux (they should be the same, on the 3rd and 4th column of ls -ln). Then switch to root with su or tsu and change the owner of the problematic directory to Termux like this:

chown -R 10001.10001 path/to/dir

where 10001 should be replaced with the UID of Termux. Then you should be good to go.


Is there a way to make my HTC-Incredible phone use the optical joystick button to wake up? I'm still adjusting from going from my iPod to an HTC Incredible phone.

One thing that is very non-intuitive for me is to press the power button when I want to "wake up the phone" after it has dimmed out. I'm just so used to using the big button on the bottom of my iPhone for this that I instinctively hit the "optical joystick" button all the time by accident.

Is there any way to configure the button so the optical joystick button can pull the phone out of sleep mode?

This should actually be pretty easy and does not require rooting or custom ROMs, but you'll need a 'lockscreen replacement' app to do it.

The app 'WidgetLocker Lockscreen' allows 'Easy Wake' that allows you to customize which button (Home, menu, trackball, volume, etc) wakes the phone. Check it out on the market, it's $1.99.

There may also be other lockscreen replacement apps out there, but that is exactly what you need: a customizable lockscreen replacement app that supports the feature you requested. WidgetLocker is an example of this.


Galaxy S2 GPS not starting A while ago my GPS was annoying me with a lot of 'searching for GPS'. I had to wait at least 10 minutes every time and it holds for just 2 minutes. Then it starts for searching again.

I searched for fixes and tried one. It was done in recovery mode by flashing a zip (lost the source of the site). Since then the GPS isn't even responding! It doesn't matter if I press GPS on or off, it stays off.

I've tried to clear cache, full wipe, factory reset, nothing worked. Tried a lot of apps in the market like: GPS status and toolbox, GPS fix etc. I even rooted my phone with a new kernel, this also didn't work.

What can I do to make my GPS work?

edit: I have a Galaxy S2 (GT-I9100) rooted 4.1.2 XWLSD
Siyah kernel v6.0b5

Got the answer:

I installed a fresh ROM (rootbox) and it helped. Weird that it didn't help before. Now I need to search a solution for faster GPS fixing.


No quality option on YouTube app recently I don't have any quality optiones on YouTube app and videos just can play on default quality and i though maybe the app has problem , so I updated app but that's not work.after that I search on youtube then I realize some old browsers do not support some quality , so I checked YouTube on android browser and I found out the browser don't have quality either but on the Firefox app I have quality option ... I think YouTube app maybe using default android browser option for playing videos or something like that , how can I fix this problem?

is there a way to update default android browser or any trick or any app or any plugin to fix this?
my android is 4.2.2 , I test this advise :

uninstall all YouTube updates and reinstalled but not work.
clear cache and data but not work
set Firefox browser as default browser but not work
try some other browsers still not work
update android flash player, not work

If you are using the YouTube app while on mobile data instead of WiFi, it often will not give you the option to change the quality. So I would suggest using the app on WiFi or only when you have high cellular reception.


Can the Nexus 6P use GSM data if the connected Wifi has no route to the internet? I have a Nexus 6P and use it to connect to a Phantom 3 4K drone using WiFi. Obviously, because it's a private WiFi network with no external connectivity my phone can not contact the internet via WiFi.

This wouldn't be a problem but the app that I need to use, DroneDeploy, requires a connection to the drone via the DJI Go app (which needs to use the WiFi to connect) and the internet to pull down waypoint settings and to use mapping images.

I have a 4G connection however when my phone connects to the WiFi it doesn't seem to try and fall back on the GSM for external connectivity.

Is there a way I can get my phone to use the 4G connection for the internet connection while maintaining the private WiFi link to the drone?

Thanks in advance!

Android 5+ should do this automatically in most cases if there is no route to the internet you will see ! next to wifi icon in notification tray.  You should also still see the mobile data icon showing you are connected to mobile data like LTE or 4G.

You could try to go in to developer settings and enable Cellular Data Always Active

Enabling Developer Settings Menu in Android 6 (4-7 I believe)

Go in to device settings
scroll to bottom
Tap About Phone or About Device or About Tablet
Scroll down to where it says Build Number
Tap this about 8-10x (You will see toast come up after the first several taps and it will say you are x taps away from enabling development settings).

When you are done you can hit back until you are back to the Device Settings window.  Now you should see a new entry toward the bottom labeled Developer Options {}

Enabling Cellular Data Always Active [and possibly Aggressive Wi-Fi to Cellular Handover]

Go in to Device Settings Menu
Tap Developer Options
Scroll Down to Cellular Data Always Active
Tap to Enable this
As it says it will keep Mobile Data connected even if Wi-Fi is connected (so when you disable Wi-Fi Mobile Data is already there no wait.  This can cause your battery to drain more quickly (mine isn't hardly noticeable and I have this enabled and have for some time), but if battery life is a concern it is something to keep an eye on until you have used it and know how your device reacts.
You could also try enabling Aggressive Wi-Fi to Cellular Handover at the same time as this tells the device to favor cellular data when Wi-Fi Signal is low, BUT if drone signal gets low while flying Wi-Fi may drop in favor of Cellular so you may want to try this when drone is flying in safe conditions.  This is just something that could help you in your endeavor it is not a mandatory setting if you rather leave it disabled and only try it if you don't get what you want in your first tests.

Caveat with some Basic Info

You MAY still have some issues since you will now be connected to both networks. You won't know without testing if for instance I go to a website it first sends out a DNS request. The device will have to choose whether to use Wi-Fi or Cellular Data for this request which is hard to adjust [Google: Split DNS VPN to get a feel for what I mean here].  You can get all nitty gritty and look at modifying the routing table if you have root access and all, but hopefully it just works and enabling this setting is all you need.

Note About Accessing Dev Settings

Some Android Versions maybe slightly different in ow you "unhide" developer settings.  So, if what I detailed does not work you can Google: Android x.x Enable Developer Settings (replace X.X with your android version ie. Android 4 or Android 4.4.1 depending on what exact version you are running).


Can I use mono sound on a set of headphones instead of stereo? I have a friend that is deaf on one ear and she would like to get all the sound through one ear bud. Is it possible to get mono sound instead of the default stereo sound through the headphones?

I am not familiar with a setting in Android to mix both channels but perhaps this stereo to mono adapter could help.


Is it safe to clear data for gallery? I have a Motorola Moto E (Gen 1). I've observed that the gallery app from Motorola takes up 50.13 MB under 'Data'.

My question is: Is it safe to select the 'Clear Data' option? Will I lose the pictures stored if I click on it?

You will not lose any of your photos, if  CLEAR DATA operation is performed, it is completely safe to do so. This just means that your preferences have been reset and the cache has been cleared.1 Cache is generated only for providing fast access to gallery files.

When you restart your gallery after this operation, it'll take some time to load and it will once again show you how to navigate through the Gallery app.

1: Pressing the Clear Data button automatically clears the cache too. This is can be seen on the screen right then because when you press the Clear Data button and once the data is cleared, you will notice that under the Cache section, Cache shows 0.00KB and the Clear Cache button is disabled too.


Why can't my Galaxy s4 load my email inbox after I changed the password? I changed the password for my gmail account a couple days ago.  Since changing it, my galaxy s4 cannot load the webpage.  Whenever I try to load gmail in the web browser, it gets stuck loading and reloading the webpage, though no content ever resolves.  I've been trying to load the page daily for about a week now with no success.  I thought it may have the old password saved on my phone, but I enter the new password on the step before loading the page. Tips?

This may be slightly different on a GS4 but give this a try and let me know if you run into any issues:

-Go to Setting -> Apps -> Web Browser (Chrome, Firefox whatever browser you are using)

-Clear Cache

-Clear Data

And if that doesn't work: Uninstall and reinstall.


Access Denied to site using Chrome app When attempting to access the NASA ADS ( http://adsabs.harvard.edu/ ) site via my Samsung tablet (SM-T530NU) connected to a WiFi network I get the following message:

http://ads.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/access_denied

This does not happen when I try to access via my laptop connected to the same WiFi network. This also does not happen if I use the default browser that Samsun ships instead of the Chrome Android app.

I contacted the administrator of the site and he told me that there's an issue where Chrome is apparently "sending out HTTP requests with X-Forwarded-For set in the header", which is causing this. My IP is not blacklisted by the way, I checked.

I have no idea what this means or how I can fix this. Any help will be much appreciated.

Google Chrome's traffic compression servers may be blocked.
They work as proxies and compress your traffic from non-secured websites. Also they are fully transparent so that the server always knows who you are even though you used that proxy.
This means they send the HTTP-X-FORWARDED-FOR flag which seems to be blocked by the website you try to access.


Where I can find my own Google+ Play reviews and ratings? I know that now Google Play reviews and ratings are connected with my Google+ account and my name. But where exactly I can find list of my own reviews and ratings Google Play apps?

Unfortunately to this moment Google not provide such feature to list all our reviews and ratings from Google Play.

But there is method to search all of ours reviews by typing to google.com phrase:

inurl:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details +"John Doe"

where John Doe is our name we use in Google+, but of course this name should be unique.


Swap partitions on android? I just installed AParted on CyanogenMod 9 (Android 4.0.4,Kernel version 2.6.32.9-FXP) and was trying to partition my SD Card to extend internal memory.
Anyway, I found that it can make swap partitions, I'm familiar with the swap partition concept on linux, but does Android (at least my version or my kernel) support swap partitions? would it be useful or just a waste of space?

It was helpful if your smartphone dont' have so big RAM. For create a swap partitions you need a kernel that support this. To create a swap partition download that app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.azasoft.free.swapper&hl=it
Choose the type (I recommend EXT) and choose space. Check Active swap on boot and reboot your phone and this work!


Computer will not recognize phone with USB Debugging enabled so I'm trying to test apps on my Motorola Droid Razr so that I can test with audio and video playback. I'm running Windows XP (woot), and the problem is that when I connect my phone with USB Debugging enabled, the computer doesn't recognize it even though it was just connected as a media device with USB Debugging turned off. I thought I downloaded the correct USB driver because it worked before without USB Debugging.

I thought that the computer could automatically find the new hardware because i had just downloaded it, however this leads me to my next problem: whenever I connect my phone to the computer it kills the computer's internet...weird right? I've tried turning tethering, wifi, bluetooth, you-name-it on/off and it still does that. Any thoughts??

Appreciate the help
Peter M.

The problem lies with the type of USB driver you have downloaded. They are two types of USB driver's.

1.Type1

2.Type2

Type1 USB driver is used only for file transfer and personal purpose like backup etc.

Whereas type2 USB driver is used solely for debugging(development). You need to download the Debug driver for your Motorola Droid razr

You had downloaded the type 1 driver so your device didn't get recognized by eclipse(or ADT).  In order to get your device identified via the debug enabled option download the latest debug driver for your device.

Follow this  link on downloading the device drivers for your device


Why is my HTC Incredible's WiFi so slow? I have a Droid Incredible rooted with Cyanogen 7.

When I use my network wi fi (on cable modem) the download speed is about 400kb/s, using SpeedTest.net's Droid app. When I test with my Virgin MObile LG Optimus V I get 8.5 Mb/s.

I've turned off bluetooth (which I hear uses the same radio as wi fi).

OK, this is embarrassing but I'll leave it here for posterity anyway.

Tried another network and got slightly better performance (probably b/c the hotspot had weak signal strength).

After more investigation I realized that it was connecting to my network then disconnecting. Turns out the password was wrong, but rather than actually telling me that, it just connected and then a few seconds later (after I'd left that screen) it disconnects.


Reviving my Bricked Tablet via adb and Samsung's Download Mode Okay, here's the story:

I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4". The OS doesn't matter, because it's gone. I had lollipop 5.0.2, decided to root it. OK, rooted it fine. Then decided to get CyanogenMod on it. Welp, when I was wiping it, I accidentally deleted the CM install zip with the rest. I was using TWRP to install the thing, but then I couldn't access it. So, I got Odin and tried to install that and the Clockwork mod. No help, and now Odin throws the "nand write start" error, which, from what I can tell from Google, mean my partitions are screwed up. (Edit: I re-flashed TWRP, and there was no error, but there is this error when getting ClockworkMod. Probably a messed up tar.)

Long story short, all I can do is use the Samsung Download mode, I have Odin, and I may have messed up my partitions.

I do have an adb backup, which means if I can get adb to recognize me device, I can roll it back.

adb seems like the best way to go, which is why I titled the post as it is.

Assuming you have the wifi-variant of the tablet.

Download the stock firmware from here. This file can be flashed via Odin when you're in Download-Mode. From there on you can restart your process of flashing TWRP and then the new ROM.


How to access media files (photos and videos) on Samsung GT-I9082? I have a Samsung GT-I9082 mobile phone (Android 4.1.2) with lots of videos and photos. I want to move them from the phone to my notebook running Windows 7.

I connected it via USB and selected the MTP mode. I got an error on the phone, which said that my notebook is not compatible with that mode.

So I switched to PTP mode ("Connect as a camera"). Then, the notebook recognized both the device and its memory card.

But I couldn't find video files neither on the device itself, nor on the memory card. Searching for *.* shows just 4 files, and their total size is less than 10 GB (this is the occupied space on the memory card according to previous screenshot).

What can I do in order to access these media files on my notebook?

You can try Airdroid for fast file transfer from Android to PC over WiFi. Install it in your phone, turn on mobile hotspot and connect your PC to your local network. After that, Airdroid will give you an IP address. Just open it in your web browser of your PC, and you will get a nice file manager to access files.

If you have access to adb shell, you can also use 'adb push/pull' commands to copy files to/from your Android.


Is there any way to enable the ringer ONLY for a particular caller/group of callers? Is there any way or app that will take a phone that is normally on silent/vibrate, and enable the ringer for a selected group of callers?

My wife is notorious for leaving her phone on silent, and there have been several emergencies where I could not reach her because she couldn't hear/feel her phone ringing. I'd like to have a way so that when I or any other family members call her, her phone will ring, even though she has it on silent/vibrate.

I've read that the app "Locale" may work, but they offer no demo for their app, and I'd prefer not to spend 10$ if it doesn't work. Their dev hasn't responded to the email I've sent.

Any ideas or methods would be very much appreciated.

Have you tried WhoIsIt?

  Setup different ringtones and vibration patterns for SMS, MMS, Google Talk, Google Voice, and K-9 for each contact


How to remove a "Private Protection Password" on an ANDROID MT6592, please? I guess one of my kids activated this kind of password that suddently appeared on my YHAPPY UP620.

The USB mode is not available, so that my PC does not see my phone, and I can not flash it...

How can I solve this problem, please?

Oh! Its very simple. Try to press volume- & power key at a time the will  display a factory reset settings and click on rest and your mobile will be unlocked.


Quick drain of battery in new phone huawei g play mini? Here is a screenshot of my battery drain.

Is it normal , or should I go to service center ? My previous phone had much less sloppier curve . When I bought the phone I charged it upto 100% and then started using it , though at the shop they told me to charge for 3 hours. Should I go to service center? The problem is battery(2500mA) is fixed in this device , so I can't even remove it.

By looking at your screenshot I think you should wait a few days to see if your new device settles down a bit on battery usage.

Why do I say that?

Even though your battery is draining fast when your screen is off, there are not many wakelocks. Give your phone a little bit off time to settle down ( syncing data between all accounts etc.) and it should be fine. If you're still observing heavy battery drain after 2-3 days, then you should go to the service center.


Whatsapp only partially restored Phone got stolen and got a replacement today. Restored Whatsapp It had stuff going back 2 years, but it didn't have the last 7 weeks of chat, I checked the settings and it's supposed to backup everyday...Is there something I'm missing?

If the backup went all the way till %100 but you didn't get the past 7 weeks, this would mean that WhatsApp wasn't backing up for the last 7 weeks.

Being that the phone is now lost, there is no way to know why this is so. The fact that Google drive backup setting is set to do it every day, doesn't mean that this is the setting you had on your old phone. Because, WhatsApp backups do a full backup on your messages and media, but not your WhatsApp settings.

So it's very possible that on your old phone the setting was changed 7 weeks ago by mistake. Also possible that Google drive wasn't making backups for another reason. No real way to find the reason without checking on the old phone.


Samsung GS4 SCH-I545 broken after attempting twrp custom recovery I recently rooted my phone but was unable to find a custom recovery.  I just found this post which I followed.  If you don't want to click on the link it basically says to put a .img recovery file on your phone and run android terminal to install with this code:

su

dd if=/sdcard/twrp.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p21

After doing this the phone shows this message: secure fail: kernel  along with a larger message start up fail and it tells me to use verizon software repair assistant.  That doesn't work.

What can I do?
Thanks in advance.

You don't install TWRP on a Verizon device so easily. In fact if your firmware is not early enough then you won't ever have TWRP since the bootloader is locked down by Verizon and devs virtually gave up on unlocking it. Read up here and the threads here.

What you can do now is to use Odin to return your phone back to stock and at least working. Get firmware for your model here. Make sure not to downgrade, i.e. you need to know what Android version you were on before bricking and flash a firmware of the same version or newer. Simple instructions are on the download page itself, and detailed ones are all over the internet.


Are all Nexus 5 phones sold unlocked? Are all Nexus 5 phones sold unlocked (i.e., not tied to a specific carrier)? If I buy a Nexus 5 from a store in Germany will I be able to use it in another country (Brazil)?

Yes, at this point. But, there's a talk about Sprint-locked Nexus 5.

Note: If you intend to use 4G LTE, then you need to check LTE market-compatibility, too. Other than that, you're good to use the phone in both countries.


Nexus 5 Update To Android 5.1 When I try to download the OTA for 5.1 it gets stuck at "Waiting to download". Am I the only one that has this problem or is there a fix? Also, if
I manage to download it, will I be able to update or will TWRP get in the way?

To download the update, I have to reboot my phone a few times.

To install the update however, I will need to unroot (to get the stock recovery), install the update (after downloading it you get the option to install) and then re-root my phone (not necessary but if you're like me, you will want to).


Android terminal not able to nslookup? Every time I try to telnet to a domain on my LG Ally it fails, but it works if I use an IP address. So I tried to use nslookup telehack.com and it returns:

Server:       0.0.0.0
Address 1:    0.0.0.0

nslookup: can't resolve 'telehack.com'

I have Android Terminal Emulator and BusyBox installed,

It wasn't working with the default dns, so now I've got my dns entries set to OpenDNS, and it still won't resolve.

is there anything I can do to resolve this, or is it a limitation on the Ally?

This is a known design problem  when using statically linked libresolv and glibc.

You have 2 options:

Use Google Android's native libc Bionic library instead of glibc.
Build busybox to search libraries in /system/lib (or make the necessary links e.g. /usr/lib -> /system/lib ). Place ld-linux.so.3, libc.so.6, libresolv.so.2, libnss_dns.so.2 in your /system/lib.


Change screen unlock method (old Symbian style) on KitKat Ever since I switched from Symbian to Android I missed a feature that I consider to be of extreme handiness.

On my old Nokias, I had a short timer (like 10 seconds) that locked the screen in a simple way (the standard two-key combination) and then a longer timer (like 15 minutes) that locked the phone with my personal code. The two-key combination was very fast and also unlikely to happen by accident.

Now I'm running Android 4.4.2 on a Samsung SM-C101 and I have this problem: the "simple" lock method is pressing either the home key or the power key, which is bound to happen when I put the phone in my pocket.

I would like to "swipe to unlock" every time the screen goes off, and to "enter a code" if the screen stays off for some minutes.

But that's not an option on Android 4.4.2 , you only get one unlock method.

I don't want to perform a complicated unlock action every time I put my phone in and out of my pocket and I don't want to leave it unprotected in case it gets stolen.

I can't find an app that replicates the Symbian lock properly. I tried some but they behaved poorly. Do you know some app that does what I want? My phone is rooted.

Since the phone is rooted, is there a way to change the standard behavior of the power and home key? Like, press them in sequence to turn the screen on, or at least disable one of the two (I guess the Home key is more likely to be pressed when the phone is inside a pocket).

Thank you very much.

I found a possible solution for this, but it requires root:

The app "Sequence Unlock" can wake up the screen with a combination of volume up&down and (this is optional) disable the power&home button (only both together unfortunately)

It requires the Xposed Framework


How to edit the number before calling on Android? I want to edit a contact before calling. Let's say I dialed a number by mistake: I don't add 0 for an out-of-state number.
In earlier basic non-smartphones, you had an option in the call history where you could edit the number before calling. So I would just use that it would show me the entire number to edit then I add the zero of change the number if I have typed it wrong.
I just can't find this feature in Android I am searching for this on Google and it seems only those on Windows phones are missing this feature and have posted it in Android forums.
How to edit the number before calling on Android?

One way is you can copy the number, paste it into the dialer, and edit it.
To copy, click on the photo of the particular contact and you will see the number. Long press on it and select copy to clipboard.


anyway to find stolen device location through android device manager while location is off? My android device was lost few days back and now someone has it, unfortunately location setting was off on device so I can't find it through device manager but its telling me device was online 2 hours ago so it means whoever has my device he hasn't removed my google account from it,
so is there anyway i could find the location?

Thanks

ADM will use network based location if possible, but location services must be turned on for ADM to work. https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6160491?hl=en


Whatsapp usage with old lost number I lost my android phone (samsung galaxy grand) . Can I use whatsapp with the same number on my new phone, if I don't have the sim card with that number ? Except for the sms code/call, is there some other method of opening my whatsapp account ?

No, this is impossible. If I were you, I would send a broadcast message to all of my contacts regarding my new number.


Change attachment download folder I use the builtin mail app to access a Exchange mail account. I have set it to download all attachments automatically, and it puts them in the Downloads folder. There is only an option to choose between internal and external storage for attachments, but you can't choose the folder. Is there and config file or similar that I can tweak to change this?

Ok so you are wondering if you can change the download folder by changing some sort of config file. This sort of behavior has been sort of deprecated in Android. As an Android Developer, we are supposed to make all of our cache files private so that they cannot be accessed by another person or, more importantly, another program. Letting other programs root around in your files was a big security hole for linux, so it is kind of frowned upon now, so I would be very surprised if you found a config file where you could change the Download folder. If you want to be able to set your download folder, then you could try to find an app on the market that has such functionality.

And yes I know the frustration you are talking about, I used to use my Droid 3 for doing my school email and finding and opening attachments was next to impossible.


Can one make shortcuts (launchers) to Settings actions? I have a Samsung tablet with Kitkat and I'd like to be able to access some of the setting fast. For example I'd like to unmount the SD card or change the screen lock from "None" to "Password" using a shortcut or launcher on the desktop. Is this possible without 3rd party apps? Right now I have to dig through the settings to do these tasks.

I think it is not possible without third party apps. At least not on stock Android. But you could check out Secure Settings. It provides access to a lot of settings.


How can I disable mobile data completely? I have a pre-paid plan and don't want to use my mobile data except for two days in the year. However, since there's the quick option button mobile data, I fear I might press the wrong button when I'm dizzy.

So is it possible to deactivate mobile data completely, such that a press on the "mobile data" quick button won't activate it anymore? Or a little bit more drastic: how can I remove that feature from my phone?

If the solution is device specific, I'm looking for an answer for a Samsung Galaxy S2 (GT-I9100, running stock 4.1.2), but I would like a general solution.

Create a dummy APN and select that as default.

With this, even if you enable data accidentally via toggles, it would still not connect.

 PS: Added as an answer as suggested by OP


How to deal with (orphaned) WakeLocks? I guess most of you at least have heard about WakeLocks. Many of you will have experienced them already -- wether knowingly or not. Some may know how to deal with them in general -- but only few know how to deal with the "more complicated candidates".

For those who don't know, though above link leads to an explanation, a short summary: Apps may request a WAKE_LOCK to keep a device component from "sleeping", so they can perform a task even when the display is turned off. This is very useful in most cases (e.g. keeping the screen on while navigating, keeping WiFi active to stream music) -- but used in the wrong way, it causes your battery to be drained within short term (up to 25% per hour).

Most times it is easy to identify the source (usually a bad behaving app) -- I will show this in an answer below, as it might prove helpful to many users. But what to do if the app which requested the WakeLock exits without releasing it? The Android system will not take care of it. Sure, a reboot would solve the issue -- but it is not always an (desired) option.

So, from a users perspective (I'm not asking about development solutions, but how a user can handle things):

What can be done *by the user* to solve the issue and avoid further battery drain?

I prefer answers not involving root (so all users can benefit from it). However, "rooted solutions" are fully valid and welcome as well.

How can I tell I'm affected?

This is probably the first question to those not familiar with this topic. With Gingerbread (Android 2.3) and above, you've got a service aboard helping you to figure out: battery statistics. Though manufacturers tend to place it at different points, it's mostly found in Settings → About the phone → Battery or similar, and shows a list of the apps having used most of your battery. On top of that is a small graph. Tap that, and it brings you to a screen similar to this one:

Screenshot of battery statistics on Android 2.3

I chose a screenshot from one of my devices which illustrates the issue. Looking at the lower two blue bars ("Aktiv" = Device was kept awake (active), "Bildschirm an" = "Screen on"), the right-most blue bar on "Aktiv" indicates a WakeLock: Device was kept busy despite the fact the screen was turned off. So by this we can be pretty sure we've got a WakeLock -- but we cannot tell who caused it.

If your device does not offer this screen (or the bars at the bottom: I just discovered e.g. the LG Optimus 4X running Android 4.0.3 has cut these bars off), you can find them e.g. using GSam Battery Monitor:

Similar information from GSam Battery Monitor -- here the mentioned "blue bars" are yellow/orange

What caused the WakeLock?

Unfortunately, this question cannot be answered using pre-installed apps (except for, maybe, some Custom ROMs). But there are tools available that can. The best known candidate for this is BetterBatteryStats, and shows us the cause in its partial wakelocks section:

Screenshots from BetterBatteryStats

In the first example2 (taken from the app's playstore page), the event causing most of the WakeLocks was a desired one: We don't want the playback stopped while listening to music. So the second example3 (taken from a real case on one of my devices) might prove better: the topmost 3 events are caused by the very same app, which needed the WakeLock to keep the IMAP push service active.

For an alternative to BetterBatteryStats, check out the Wakelock Detector app mentioned in UzumApps' answer -- which seems easier to handle especially for non-techies:

Wakelock Detector -- Click image to enlarge. (Source: Google Play)

What can be done?

If the case is as clear as in the second example in the previous section, the action is quite obvious -- at least in my case: I don't need to be informed immediately when a mail arrives; a delay of 30min is absolutely acceptable. So I went into the mail app, disabled IMAP Push (see also: Push Email), and instead switched to a 30min poll interval. WakeLocks did not entirely disappear, but dropped markably -- battery life improved noticably.

Then there's the case mentioned in the question itself: A bad behaving app not releasing its WakeLock. Confront the dev with your findings and ask for a fix. If he delivers: problem solved. If not: There's almost always an alternative app available.

What if it is the Android System itself?

Yeah, sometimes it looks like just that: 98% or more consumed by some Android service. Oh, if it's 98%, in most cases the candidate is named LocationManagerService. Bad guy spying at us? Not necessarily. In this special case, the listed "bad guy" is not even guilty -- at least not directly. Here it is another app requesting the current location too frequently. There's an excellent article on Setera.org about this: Pinpointing Android LocationManagerService battery drain. To give an abstract: It uses Android's dumpsys feature (requires root!) to dump a system state, and lets you investigate the listeners established for the LocationManagerService. A closer look at their configuration shows which are constantly "hammering" it for location info (some do so permanently, i.e. without a break). As the app's ID is listed along, and at another place in the dump even together with the apps technical name, you can still identify it and take appropriate actions.

And what about UFOs?

Unfortunately, there are such: Apps which registered a WakeLock -- and then exited without releasing it. What's left are *Unused F***ing Obsoletes* -- WakeLocks held for no use. So no way to simply bring the app to foreground and re-configure, or making it release its WakeLocks.

Here the only solution known to me is a reboot -- and I would like to have a better solution. Of course, if you know the guilty app, the steps concerning it are the same as above: inform the dev, get a fix -- or replace the app. But about getting rid of the current WakeLock? Maybe somebody else can provide a better alternative to the reboot?

Are there some recommended further readings?

Sure. One for now, I may add more later:

[GUIDE] Wakelocks Definition and how to prevent them (XDA Developers, March 2013)


Can user data be recovered after formatting and flashing stock ROM? I am exchanging my old Android L phone for a new one. I have formatted the whole phone including bootloader and flashed its stock ROM using SP Flash Tool twice. I hope my data has been overwritten.
Are there any chances that my data may still be recovered?

I have formatted the whole phone including bootloader

Bootloader can't be overwritten, your device will be bricked. I think you meant boot partition which contains kernel. But that doesn't contain personal data you've been saving. That's saved on userdata partition which is mounted at /data and one of its directory /data/media/0 is exposed as /sdcard through emulation. So the major concern is to securely erase /data partition.

  Are there any chances that my data may still be recovered?

Please note that on most newer device /data partition is encrypted by default (FBE/FDE enforced using forceencrypt or contents_encryption_mode flags in fstab). In this case your actual data is saved to /dev/block/dm-0 which is a logical volume mapped by device-mapper's crypt target over userdata partition. It means that data available on userdata block device is encrypted and not identifiable.
Secondly Android issues a scheduled/continuous TRIM command to flash storage (eMMC), which makes sure the deleted data is physically Erased from cells (which is a requirement before re-writing it; this is where Flash Media differs from HDDs).
Thirdly when you do a Factory Reset with stock recovery, BLKDISCARD or BLKSECDISCARD is issued before creating filesystem (formatting), which again makes sure the whole block device (userdata) is Erased. It means that all the Logical Block Addresses (LBAs) which belong to this partition will now return zeros if read.

If all of the three conditions meet on your device, be ensured that your data won't be recoverable.

Note that:

Overwriting data may not necessarily overwrite it, particularly on F2FS, which always writes data to new blocks as a part of it's wear-leveling strategy.
Simply formatting (creating filesystem) neither erases data nor overwrites it. It just recreates data structures (e.g. superblocks, file tables, directories, inode/block bitmaps, journals etc.). Formatting should be accompanied by TRIM or BLKDISCARD.
There is still a possibility that data is not Erased from physical cells (PBAs) even after issuing TRIM or BLKDISCARD, and it can possibly be recovered e.g. with chip-off forensics. There are a number of factors involved, including Over-Provisioning space, Wear-Leveling and Garbage Collection capabilities of the eMMC on your device.

For more details: How to make a complete factory reset, without anyone being able to retrieve my data?


Cannot connect my Nexus 5X to Windows 10 PC I have got a Google Nexus 5X and I would like to connect it to my Windows 10 PC.

This is not my first Nexus phone and I'm familiar with things related to a computer as a developer.
But I just can't succeed to make my Nexus phone recognized by the Win10 PC.

At work, on my Windows 7 PC, my Nexus is recognized and I can transfer files.

But at home on my Windows 10 PC, drivers installed by Windows are not OK. There is a yellow warning on my device, displayed in the device manager.

I tried to activate the debugging mode (Android developer settings), tried to reboot, to change USB port.
I also tried with the Google USB Drivers. (I also know that by default, on my Marshmallow Nexus 5X, I have to change connection mode "USB charging" to "Transfer files (MTP)").

The cable I use is OK because it works on my Windows 7 PC and I bought it on Google's Store.

I also had a call with Google Tech Support and they just told me that they don't have any solution for my problem, because I have already tried everything they are used to advice.

I just don't know what to do.

My last try, was to install 'Media Feature Pack for Windows 10 N & KN' (it helped me when I wanted to connect my previous Nexus 5 on a Windows 8.1 laptop).

Any suggestion ?

Sorry for my english.

Best regards,

Hellcat8.

Okay I finally found something which helped me.

The Media Feature Pack for Windows 10 N & KN (all editions) alias KB-3010081 is for the first version of Windows 10.

But for the Windows 10 with the big update we had a few time ago, there is an update which supersedes the KB-3010081.
This is the KB-3099229 : https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3099229.
 Download : https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49919

After all my attempts to resolve my problem, this is the thing which did it for me.

I Hope it will helps.

Best regards,

Hellcat


Can't boot Samsung galaxy ace GT-S5830i Failed to mount /system (Invalid argument) I can't boot my Samsung galaxy ace GT-S5830I after I tried to flash a custom rom built for the GT-S5830, if I try and boot into Recovery I get the following errors:

-- Applying Multi-CSC --
E: failed to mount /system (Invalid argument)
E: failed to mount /system (Invalid argument)
E: failed to mount /cache (Invalid argument)
E: Can't mount /cache/recovery/log
E: Can't open /cache/recovery/log
E: failed to mount /cache (Invalid argument)
E: Can't mount /cache/recovery/last_log
E: Can't open /cache/recovery/last_log

I have tried flashing using Odin and flashing again from the SD card using a different rom but that didn't work! Is there any way to fix this?

There is a way to fix this. You have to sideload that ROM. For that -->

Just download adb (android debug bridge) minimum requirements. Sideload  your rom . It may seem to you that you got stuck there but don’t panic, wait at least 5 minutes. After that remove your battery and press (Power+Home+volume up) upto it shows samsung screen and then release. Then just install your rom from recovery mode.

No need to get panic on those failings. They happen sometime.


FOTA download stays at 0% and can not get rid of it on Verizon Ellipsis 7 I have Verizon Ellipsis 7 (QMV7A) running on Android 4.2.2. I've been stuck with FOTA downloading for 3 days, and it's draining my battery. The download will not progress past 0%. I have tried to stop the download but it just pops back up. I found the same issue on AndroidCentral, but there's no solution either.

Is there anything that I can do to fix this?

I have the same problem on two Verizon Ellipsis 7 tablets. I've called Verizon tech support 3 times; each time I seem to get a tech rep that doesn't seem to understand tech talk. The FOTA process has been running on both tablets for five days, showing 0% progress. On one tablet I did a factory reset. As soon as the device started back up, so did the FOTA process.

UPDATE (3/4/15) - I just talked with Verizon technical support, again. They now say it is a known issue with that update and they hope to have it resolved within a couple of weeks.

UPDATE #2 (3/12/15) - Verizon now says to return the tablets for repair. They have a special program to address the issue. They will pay the freight, the repairs are free (even if out of warranty), and the return should be within 5 business days.


Using smart phone, how to make phone call using google voice number? I have an Android phone (Motorola E) with the official Google Voice app installed.

I always give people my Google voice number. For this reason, when I call people I need my google voice number to appear instead of my real mobile number so that they recognize me.

However, when I turn on "Always use Google voice to make call" in the GVoice app, the number that makes the call is some other number (my guess is a number created by Google) and NOT my GVoice number.

I've tried to do this for a long time but in vain. Could anyone help?

Although the number that is making the call (initiated) is a random number, be assured the number that shows on their caller id is your google voice number, unless you have a different setting in your voice.google.com set up or on your phone.

I noticed mine did this too when i called out from my phone the other day, but my client saw my gv number

Chad


How to create and use multiple partitions on external SD card with different filesystems (Ext4, exFAT, NTFS)? I want to create 4 partitions on external MicroSDcard through ADB shell commands, not on Windows or Linux. Also want to show all partitions in Android GUI (SETTINGS > STORAGE > SDCARD)  and make them usable for all apps and file explorers.

Dedicated first partition exFAT or NTFS  or FAT32 (whichever Android permits and gives optimum performance) to store apps, photos and media.
Second partition ext4, dedicated to applications linked through Link2SD. Or I want some applications or auto scripts or tools or commands to set the apps mainfest to always install on SD card.
Third partition ext4 or NTFS or exFAT, dedicated for auto recording random backups or shadow images of partitions for different time, if possible through commands, scripts or apps like Titanium backup or others.
Fourth partition ext4 or NTFS or exFAT, dedicating for Virtual memory
(as we do for pagefile.sys in Windows or Linux swap partition).

If I format 1st partition with ext4, exFAT or NTFS, Android OS doesn't show it in SETTINGS > STORAGE> SDCARD > PARTITIONS and asks to mount or erase the partitions.

Now to limit and specify the questions:

Can SD card have 4 partitions and will Android and SD card support it?
Examples of commands to partition in Android; fdisk or parted or the best one.
Is it necessary in Android that 1st partition should be FAT32? Or can we make it exFAT or NTFS to which Android Apps2SD and others apps can download?
Can we force mount command in some startup boot init file to mount all four partitions?
Will this mounting show the partitions in Settings and device file manager?
Or can we view these partitions through ES File Manager or Solid Explorer or Root Manager and take their backups too?

Please guide me through the safe, secure, best and feasible method and procedure which does not damage the device hardware or SD card.

A few points on four partitions:

  Dedicated first partition exFAT or NTFS or FAT32 (whichever Android permits and gives optimum performance) to store apps, photos and media.

For apps consider Application Class but that's expensive. Others will exert performance penalty more or less. On filesystem selection, the biggest downside with FAT32 is its 4GB maximum file size limit. Also it doesn't have some built-in phenomenon to deal with growing fragmentation which may reduce performance over time. You can find many online resources on pros and cons of FAT32 and exFAT. Also see the MS's official Filesystem Functionality Comparison.

  Is it necessary in Android that 1st partition should be FAT32?

Not necessary if your device supports other filesystems. FAT32 is Android's default for secondary external storage (SD cards and USB drives) since the start days. Since SDXC cards (32GB+) come pre-formatted with exFAT (though not a technical limit), many OEMs add exFAT support to their devices. However exFAT was closed-source until recently, so it's not part of stock Android (except some limited addition in Android 9). But now it's very likely to be added to Android's kernel source. See some relevant details in this answer.

So check if your kernel supports exFAT: grep exfat /proc/filesystems. NTFS is still closed-source and doesn't have a stable in-kernel open-source driver. However it's possible to mount exFAT and NTFS using FUSE drivers. In each case vold must support the filesystem.

  Or can we make it exFAT or NTFS to which Android Apps2SD and others apps can download?

Irrespective of filesystem, all apps don't have write access to external SD card unless you make some changes to ROM. See details in How to save files to external SD card? and Android's Storage Journey.
There are apps available to move unsupported apps to SD card. Or you can manually (bind) mount a SD card partition (or directory) inside /data. Surely you need ext4 (or f2fs on new devices) for this purpose (to enforce UNIX permissions). But it doesn't necessarily needs to be a partition, you can place a loop file on first partition.

Trying to modify app's manifest (or asking how to do so) can be considered unethical or illegal.
You don't need a dedicated partition to store backups. Instead first partition can be used.
If you want to use whole partition for swap, that doesn't need a filesystem (but mkswap). If you want to create swap file instead (which isn't a bad idea), again you can use first partition for that. However using external SD card for swap is not always a good idea. From zram commit to mainstream kernel:

  embedded systems normally are reluctant to use eMMC or SDCard as swap because there is wear-leveling.
  ...
  Although we have real storage as swap, it was a problem, too.  Because it sometime ends up making system very unresponsive caused by slow swap storage performance.

Android supports swap with zram back-end (which creates a compressed block device within RAM) since Android 4.4. Android's OOM killers (old in-kernel lowmemorykiller and new userspace lmkd) do take swap into account. If your kernel supports ZRAM, using external SD card for SWAP is not recommended. It can worsen the performance and will kill the SD card very soon due to increased I/O operations.

  If I format 1st partition with ext4, exFAT or NTFS, Android OS doesn't show it in SETTINGS > STORAGE> SDCARD > PARTITIONS and asks to mount or erase the partitions.

It can be due to unsupported filesystem (see explanation above) or multiple partitions (see explanation below). However if a partition is manually mounted with proper permissions, apps are able to read/write files there. You may use sdcardfs or FUSE to emulate the filesystem for fixed permissions. But this way Android framework is unaware of mounted filesystem and Android apps won't be notified of new storage. Neither you can manage the mounted storage from device Settings.

  Can SD card have 4 partitions and will Android and SD card support it?

Android kernel by-default supports GPT which can have up to 128 partitions. MBR also supports 4 primary (or more logical) partitions (inside extended partition). Generally there is no technical limit but Android's userspace may mount only first partition, or may not recognize multi-partitioned SD card at all e.g. due to unknown partition type including Linux (0x83). Though vold supports multiple partitions before Android 6 too, you need to define FUSE (sdcard) init services, add entries to fstab, configure storage in framework-res.apk etc. If mounting multiple partitions doesn't work without these changes, you need to mount (additional or all) partitions manually (or rebuild your ROM with modified code).

  Will this mounting show the partitions in Settings and device file manager?

No. See explanation above. Not sure what you mean by "device file manager".

  Or can we view these partitions through ES File Manager or Solid Explorer or Root Manager and take their backups too?

Yes and no; depends on how, where and with what filesystem permissions you mounted the filesystem. See explanation above. Not sure what you mean by "take their backups too".

  Examples of commands to partition in Android; fdisk or parted or the best one.

Partitioning works alike on all OSes. There's a long list of CLI and GUI tools and you'll find hundreds of tutorials online. Assuming that your SD card is enumerated as mmcblk1 and you want to create first partition of 32GB while leaving the rest for second, a one liner on Android can be:

~# sgdisk -Z -n 0:0:+32G -n 0:0:0 -p /dev/block/mmcblk1

See sgdisk manpage for explanation and more options. If needed use partx -uv /dev/block/mmcblk1 to update kernel of partition table changes, or simply reinsert SD card.

After partitioning use mkfs.fat/mkfs.exfat/mkfs.ntfs/mkfs.ext4 to create filesystem. All tools are available for Linux and work on Android as well.

  Can we force mount command in some startup boot init file to mount all four partitions?

Yes. Create an init service or init.d script. See details in How to run an executable on boot?


cannot longer share apps on latest version of Google Play Store Stock Galaxy S4 GT-I9505, latest public version of Google Play Store, now when I open an app I do see the uninstall / Open or Update buttons and a new visual showing nicer/bigger application icon and round icons showing downloads count, rating results, similar apps etc, but unfortunately no longer a button to share the app link via whatsapp / gmail etc...

Is this problem only with me or also others unable to share apps anymore from Google Play Store?

thanks and regards,
Davide.

I am using a Nexus 4 with new version of PlayStore. I can see a "Share" button just below the "Reviews" section. You can check once again if you have missed it :)


Why do I have to set lots of my settings again after a phone reboot? For examples:

I have to set Input Method back to SwiftKey
I have to set what application I'd like to use when I clicked sms icon (I'm using ChompSMS)

All these happens after a phone reboot.

Do you have either app moved to the SD card (using Froyo)?

If yes, then you need to move then back.  The apps aren't loading when the phone boots, so the phone is reverting to what is currently available on boot  (stock SMS/keyboard).

You have to remember: with Cyanogenmod, it will let you move any app to SD card, regardless of whether the app is set to allow you or not.  I made a similar mistake with Swype.


Error looping, "Unfortunately, Setup Wizard has stopped." With my S4 running CM13 I'm now getting this error,

  Unfortunately, Setup Wizard has stopped.

How do I resolve it?

Here is a method that you can do without whiping,

Boot into TWRP Recovery
Mount System ( Mount → check System )
Advanced → File Manager
Browse to /system/priv-app/Setup-Wizard
Delete it


How can I schedule timer to power on and off device? Is there any way to schedule timer to power on and off device?

Example daily power on at 8am and power off at 10pm.

Depending on the device that you are using, this setting can easily be configured, in fact it comes natively on some devices like Xiaomi (MIUI), LG, Oneplus or Lenovo.

For example on my device running MIUI 9, I can easily configure the timer like so:

Open the Security App → Battery → Settings (Gear icon on top right corner) → Schedule power on or off:

Enter time setting and tap OK, you're all set!.

Alternatively this feature can also be configured on some android ROMs:

Settings → Advanced → Scheduled Power On / Off.
Configure as needed.

Another workaround:

  If neither of these options is available, then you could simply take
  the advantage that your android device can be woken up by an alarm
  even if its in the off state:

  This workaround simply requires any android app capable of turning off the device at scheduled time e.g Tasker, Automate, Macrodroid etc
  Then set an ideally silent alarm (e.g stock CM11S alarm (with a silent alarm) to power on the device.

Credits Oneplus forum: Schedule power on and off


Disable notifications for subsequent messages from same sender Is it possible to, either through the OS or third-party app, to disable subsequent text message notifications from the same sender? For example, Sender A sends four text messages in the span of 30 seconds. I would like to receive a single notification rather than four separate ones.

Give Tasker (Found in the play store) a try! It's a great app for things like this.


Google Maps strange green texture when zooming in On my tablet Lenovo 10" Android 4.2.2 my Google Maps looks really annoying, when I zoom in it has this green texture covering the map. Anyone knows why this happens and how to get rid of it? Google Maps is up to date.

T

EDIT : It is also awfully slow and it takes seconds to respond to touch and zoom.

EDIT 2 : Its only the app, in the Browser (Chrome) it works well.

EDIT 3 : Got it back to normal, by uninstalling updates, deactivate Maps and restart the device. Still would like to know why this happened.

Uninstalling updates, deactivating Maps and restarting the device worked.


How can I root the Galaxy Tab 10.1? How can I root the Samsung GT-P7510? I've tried z4root and many others, but they all seem to support Android 3.1 and not 3.2. I gather 3.2 is specifically designed to eliminate the exploit that z4root and others depend on.

You will need to flash a pre-rooted 3.2 ROM onto your Tab.

A Google search brings these instructions for installing a custom Recovery:

  First, you will need Windows computer. If you don’t have one, borrow a
  Windows laptop from your friend or family member.

  Second, make sure you’ve installed Galaxy Tab 10.1 Windows drivers.
  (Download it here)

  Third, put your Galaxy Tab 10.1 into ODIN download mode by holding
  down both Power Button and Volume Down buttons. Right after the
  Samsung logo shows, you will see two menus, let go of both buttons
  immediately and then hit Volume Up button, you should be in ODIN
  download mode.

  Fourth, download the tabrooteasy.zip file and unzip:   Download
  tabrooteasy.zip

  Run the Odin3 v1.85.exe program, then choose PDA, choose
  “recovery-cwm_4.0.0.4-sam-tab-10.1.tar.md5″ and hit Start.

  You can reboot your Tab 10.1 by holding down the Power button.

The instructions go on to rooting Android 3.1, so you will need to slightly alter those.  Instead of using the "root" ZIP included in the package, you will need to obtain a pre-rooted Android 3.2 ROM.  There are many such ROMs available on XDA-Developers forum, so take your pick (e.g. this one,) download the ZIP file, and copy it to the SD Card.

Continue on with the instructions to reboot into the ClockworkMod Recovery:

  Reboot into ClockworkMod Recovery by holding down both Power Button
  and Volume Down buttons. Right after the Samsung logo shows, you will
  see two menus, let go of both buttons immediately and then hit Volume
  Down, then Volume Up button, you should be in ClockworkMod Recovery.

You will now need to perform a factory reset/data wipe to avoid any compatibility issues.  With the volume buttons for up/down, navigate to "wipe data/factory reset", and select it by pressing the Power button, and then scroll down to and select the "Yes" option.  Once that operation completes, you can continue with the instructions, substituting the file name they are suggesting with the one you've downloaded:

  ... choose “install zip from
  sdcard” (using Volume buttons) and hit the Power button.  Next, choose
  “choose zip from sdcard” and hit the Power button.  We are going to
  zip the Root/SU files again by going to “choose zip from sdcard” and
  hit the Power button.  Choose the [ insert file name of downloaded ROM here ]
  file and hit the Power button, the hit the “Yes” button.

  When that is done, you just need to reboot your Tab 10.1 and you
  should have a fully-rooted Android 3.2 Galaxy Tab 10.1.

According to some comments this method should work on the WiFi-only model of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (GT-P7510).  However, you might encounter issues transferring the downloaded files onto the Tab.  A comment suggests a work-around:

  Ok folks. I got my Galaxy GT-P7510 wifi only tab (build HMJ37) rooted.
  Since I was not able to transfer the Samsung zip file to the root of
  the tab even tho Odin successfully installed the Clockworks recover
  file I decided to try a different approach. I transferred the Samsung
  zip file to the Alarms folder of the tab. I then shut down my tap and
  powered it back up in Clockworks recovery mode. When in recovery mode
  I selected “install zip from sdcard”. I then selected “choose zip from
  sdcard”. I selected the folder “Alarms” then selected the Samsung zip.
  I then selected “Yes – Install Samsung zip”. After the successful
  install I rebooted the tab, went to apps and BINGO…..SUPERUSER!!! I
  then successfully installed several apps that required a rooted tab.

Good luck!


Im trying to download apps but it says insufficient storage but I have plenty of storage and an sd card I try to download apps like Vine and other apps but, it continuously says insufficient storage and I have an sd card and enough internal storage to download. It makes me angry. Please help, I need don't want but need some apps and it wont let me download.  I have a Samsung galaxy ace style and I got it June 13th. Thanks.

I had the same problem on my Huawei Ascend P2, I did a factory reset and it seemed to work, though I highly recommend copying over to your computer every file on your phone before even trying to do so, I don't know the cause myself, the theories I have are:

Virus
Damaged internal memory

If it still doesn't work after the factory reset then you need to take it to a specialist (unless you are one) and take it apart and replace the memory.

P.S Don't treat this as a answer as such, I don't have the reputation to comment (which I think they should allow everyone to do instead of risking losing a ton of rep).

P.S.S Have you checked to see if your SD card is being read by your phone?


Can I add special characters to the default Android keyboard? Sometimes I need to type a special character or symbol that is not accessible by default through the Android keyboard. Currently I do this by copy/pasting them from other sources, very inconvenient.

Is there a way to add custom characters to the keyboard?

It's typically things like currency symbols (such as ₭ ₩ ฿ ƒ) or math symbols (such as ∈ ⇔ ∫ ⌊ ⌋ ∑ ) etc.

No, you cannot add custom keys on the default Android Keyboard.

But what might work is keyboard shortcuts. You can create shortcuts like when you type "yt" option to change to "You there" will appear. So may be you can create keyboard shortcut that when you type "ms1" it will change to ₭.

To create keyboard shortcut:

Go to  Settings -> Language & Input ->Personal dictionary
Tap the “+” sign in the top-right corner of the screen and create your shortcut.
Now, go to the Messaging app, compose a new message, and tap one of your new shortcuts—and when you do, the phrase you entered will appear in the row of auto-correct options just above the keyboard. Tap the phrase to add it to your message.

More details on keyboard shortcut is here: http://heresthethingblog.com/2012/12/04/androidiphone-tip-create-custom/


How can I set a server address to automatically sync my device time? My Institute has a server which has a IP address 192.168.1.xxx
I want to set my sync server to that IP address.
All other time sync servers are blocked so I am asking this.
If it is possible then please reply.

In Android there is no option to manually add server address like it is there in windows time setting.

Android has no option for NTP syncing – time synchronization takes place by other means (via your mobile carrier, see Where time information is received from the network? and What is the synchronization source for the internal clock). To enable time synchronization via NTP, you can e.g. use ClockSync – but without root powers, 3rd party tools are pretty much limited, as they're not allowed for "fine adjustment": the "finest interval" they can adjust by is 30 seconds.

For more details, be welcome to see:

Is there NTP like time syncing for non rooted phone?
Time server for Android
How do wi-fi only Android devices synchronise time?
Can I set an alternative time source?
Time server for Android

To make these sources easier to find, I've just linked them to our clock tag-wiki.


old emojis in whatsapp I have upgraded whatsapp on my phone but i dont like the new emojis on whatsapp so the quesition is : Is this possible to get my old emojis back using whatsapp's latest version apk with apktool debugging?

You can install a WhatsApp mod like GBWhatsApp. Then, activate "Old Emojis style" in settings.


Cubot S208 Avoided Bad Internet Connection, How do I disable? we're hoping somebody out there can help us with a new Cubot S208 smart phone we've just bought. We've been using it for a couple of weeks on various wi-fi networks and not experienced any problems until 2 days ago. We tried to connect to our home network which we'd connected to many times over the last 2 weeks but we got the Obtaining IP address message. This stays on the screen for ages, then the message says Avoided Bad Internet Connection. I tried out the phone on a neighbours wi-fi network (which has the same security type WPA-PSK with its own password), and this worked okay. We used it last night and it intermittently logged onto 1 or 2 different wi-fi networks in town, other networks we got the same error message as we're now getting at home Avoided Bad Internet Connection. So, here's what we've tried so far:

Took the handset back to factory settings
Tried connecting to our home wi-fi on its own (we switched off our wireless laptop in case it was causing the problem)
We deleted our home wi-fi connection and re-entered it on the handset

And today we're still getting the same error message when trying to connect at home. Our wireless router BTW is a Belking54g (not sure if that's the problem?). Does anybody have any suggestions what we can do to rectify this problem as currently we're not able to use the handset at home for internet now. One other thing; we don't have a SIM card in the handset yet (in the process of buying one).

We've seen lots of other comments online where other devices are getting exact same problem, and we've also seen some software online that suggets it can cure it but would appreciate some honest advice.

Really hope somebody out there can help us. Thanks for listening :-)

I've just sorted this problem. This device had been working perfectly on our home wifi connection until 2 days ago so I had no reason to suspect our wifi router. However I thought i'd check and somehow the device's MAC address had 'disappeared' from the MAC address filtering allowed list. How does that happen? Anyway, I reentered the MAC address into the router and it connected straight away. I suspect this might reoccur and I have no idea how it deleted itself from the list, however, at least I know how to rectify it next time.


occassionally my screen goes to a series of historical windows (previous apps, searches, etc) how does that come up? Ready to select an app
the screen changes to show a series of windows (chronological in order) of the last usages of the phone
How do I access that?  Where is the command or what is the finger-to-screen command?

This "Menu" comes up when you either long-press the Home button or the Multitask button,
which is usually located to the right of the Home key.

If you are using a Samsung device, this button is usually located to the left of the Home key.


Is it possible to get the audio files for the TalkBack "earcons"? I'm interested to know whether there are audio files tucked away somewhere for the "earcons" - the sounds that TalkBack makes for certain things, like links, page scrolling, etc. Are these available somewhere/somehow?

Talkback is open source, and the files available on Github:
https://github.com/rmtheis/eyes-free

The audio files are included in the repository in .ogg format. Simply download the repository and extract all of the .ogg files to access the audio.


How can I emulate pressing another application's Quick Settings tile? I'd like to programatically press another application's Quick Settings Tile, e.g. from the shell or Tasker.

In this particular case, I'd like to press ProtonVPN's tile in order to automate connecting and disconnecting.

After tearing apart the app, I found that I could reliably disconnect the VPN with:

su root -c am start-foreground-service -n com.protonvpn.android/org.strongswan.android.logic.CharonVpnService -a android.net.VpnService.DISCONNECT

I can sometimes connect with:

su root -c am start-foreground-service -n com.protonvpn.android/org.strongswan.android.logic.CharonVpnService -a android.net.VpnService

However, this is not very reliable as it's an internal mechanism that bypasses much of what the app does in the process of properly establishing a Quick Connect connection.

If there's an intent that will simulate what occurs when an app's tile is pressed, it should provide a much cleaner solution.

In this instance, the app has the service com.protonvpn.android.components.QuickTileService and an intent action filter of android.service.quicksettings.action.QS_TILE however I'm at a loss for where to go from there.

I'm stepping out of my comfort zone with this one, but seeing as no one else has had any input, I thought I may as well mention it for you to test:

1) Go to G Play Market and install Nova Launcher.
2) Skip all the setup and go straight to Home screen with Nova as default launcher (since you're just testing functionality at this point)
3) Long press your background and select Widgets, then scroll down to Nova Launcher and find the "Activity" widget (for me it's the second widget); long-press then drag to an empty space on Home Screen
4) Once you let go to set the widget, an overlay prompt will come into focus and start loading.  Depending on your device and number of apps installed, this may take a minute or two, so don't be alarmed.  Once it finishes loading, scroll down to your app and locate the activity thread you're looking for and select it (you can long-press them one by one to test the function as well, it will return you back to the previous overlay prompt if the thread didn't cause a crash...if it does, you'll have to restart from step 3.

I always thought it was a neat function but never got around to testing what it was capable of doing.  Hope this works out for you!

NOTE: I am enrolled in the Beta, and have the Prime (paid) version, so I'm not sure if that might affect this specific function or not.  You can likely purchase for testing and request refund if necessary.


Is it possible to only silence certain notifications? I'm running Android 2.2 FroYo on an HTC Droid Incredible. When I go to bed, I want to turn off all notifications except for incoming phone calls, which I still want to receive. Is this possible, either natively or through an application?

I asked this question to a friend and he suggested the AudioManager Widget. It allows you to control volumes for Alarm, Media, Alerts, Ringer, System, and Voice Calls independently. It also allows you to toggle vibrate for alerts and ringer independently. So far, it seems to be a solid app.


OTG Is it possible to connect two devices I would like to be able to copy files from SD card (through card reader) to USB flash drive. All is connected through OTG USB Hub, but all the apps I found mount only one OTG device at a time. Is there any way to connect two at once?

YES - it is possible. It seems thought your phone/tablet has to be rooted. I've tried all the apps I found without root and could only connect one device at a time. Today I rooted my tablet and got Stick Mount app. Now everything works great - I can  copy files between SD Card and USB Drive, which is what I wanted.

Here is the link to the app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.chainfire.stickmount


How can Google Maps accurately locate my phone when GPS is disabled? Possible Duplicate:
  How does Google Maps estimate my location without GPS?

I was wondering how Google Maps on my Android phone can locate me with a good accuracy when my GPS is disabled.

At first I though it was with the cell tower but I'm not sure it can achieve this precision and it is way better when the wireless is enabled.

Experiment that i did.

If GPS is OFF and Wifi is ON = Perfect location
If Wifi is ON GPS OFF = Still Perfect location
If Wifi is OFF and GPS is ON =  location is not precise.

Tested this with 5 -6 Phones

Any Idea why ?

Google have a huge database of the approximate locations of a large number of phone network cell towers and wifi access points all around the world. If your phone can "see" one (or more) known cell-tower IDs or Wifi AP SSIDs, then it can query Google's database to ask where that is and use that for your location. The cell network towers have a large range (kilometers in some cases) so that alone won't give a precise location. As Wifi is a very short range signal your phone can locate you very precisely using that, particularly if you're also picking up Wifi signals of different strengths from neighbouring houses to triangulate from.

All of the quoted sections below are from: Google Maps Help - Location-based services

  Because GPS is not always available and locations derived from cell
  towers aren’t very accurate, Google (and other Internet companies) use
  publicly broadcast Wi-Fi data from wireless access points to improve
  our location-based services. By using signals from these access
  points, your mobile device is able to fix its general location quickly
  without using too much power.

...

  Our Location Server uses only publicly broadcast Wi-Fi information to estimate the location of a device:

  The MAC (Media Access Control) address. This is a number that identifies computing devices – whether PCs, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, or wireless access points – interacting with a network. MAC addresses usually look like this: 00:01:02:0A:0B:0C. The number is usually fixed for the life of the device. A MAC address tells you nothing about the owner or user of the equipment concerned. It’s just a string of characters that’s technically necessary for web pages and other content to be properly delivered to your device over the Internet.

This data has been collected in two main ways: as their Google Street View car drives around it always has a precise GPS fix, at the same time it listens out for Wifi APs that broadcast their identity and records where it was when it picked them up, and does the same for phone network cell towers; in addition they "crowd-source" the data from Google Maps users on mobile devices, as the Google Maps users travel around with GPS enabled Google Maps will check which cell-towers they're connected to and which wifi points they can "see" and periodically upload this information.

  Google Maps on an Android handset is an example of a reliable channel, since we can be confident that the SSIDs and MAC addresses it sends as part of a location request haven’t been tampered with before being sent.

  So, for example, one way to ensure that your changed SSID is submitted to Google quickly, open Google Maps on an Android Device with WiFi enabled, and use the My Location feature to establish a location fix in the vicinity of your WiFi access point.

See also How does Android get the coarse location?


Does the Google Drive scanner cache local copies on Android? I looked around and couldn't find the cached images or PDFs. But that doesn't prove they don't exist.

Our specific need is for our scan to go straight into Drive, with no stops along the way that can be tracked later.  We have a regulatory imperative to save to a secure site and not leave anything on our phones (or tablets).

Interestingly, fidelity isn't that important, just that the scan has been saved in Drive and not locally.

SHORT VERSION: The Google Drive Scanner will, by default, leave cached versions of the PDF file it creates.  I still hope to find some setting that will turn off this caching.

LONG VERSION:  Here's how I figured it out.

I have a rooted droid (Note2) I used to do some testing.  It has BusyBox and a couple of good terminals installed. After getting into the root shell ('su'), and from the root position in the filesystem ('/') I ran the following command

find -iname *jpg -mmin -2

immediately after taking a pic with my camera.  It found the new pic just fine.  I then ran the same command after using the Google Drive Scanner.  Nothing showed up.  That's good.

I ran nearly the same command but changing the name:

find -iname *pdf -mmin -2

immediately after using the Google Drive Scanner.  The find command located PDF files cached in this location:

/data/data/com.google.android.app.docs/files/fileinternal/

Now I have to determine a way to manage those caches (this is all about HIPAA data for my company).

Hope this is helpful to someone.


Find text within an email in GMail or Inbox by GMail Mailing list digests are generally very long.  They contain multiple emails concatenated together with an index and my traditional approach to reading a single email on the desktop is to use Ctrl+F (find text) to navigate/locate content within the email.

Android browsers typically have a 'Find on Page' function, but an equivalent doesn't appear to exist with Gmail or Inbox by GMail.  Have I overlooked something?

Alternatively- are there any apps that offer a generalized search mechanism for selectable text regions in Android or extend the functionality available from a long-press on selected text?

You can search for emails containing a certain bit of text as stated here but that doesn't narrow things down to the specific portion of the page. However, the search functionality in Inbox will highlight the section of text which is a step up. Depending on your device, I recall having this functionality on my stock S4 ROM, so if your phone has another email client try that out.

I haven't seen this functionality or anything similar in Outlook or the Yahoo client.

So I'd say your best bet to meet your Ctrl+F type searching is through the browser, then inbox isn't too bad as it highlights occurrences but doesn't jump to them then the rest do the same thing of searching for text in an email but not highlighting it or do anything like Inbox or a browser can do. That being said, I haven't tried many other email clients on android but that's what I got from the ones I tested.


Sony Xperia Tipo JB installation unsuccessful I was trying to install JellyBean on my sony xperia tipo and have suddenly come to a halt.
I was following this tutorial.
The only thing that differed here is I obtained the latest JB from Cyanogenmod.

I have successfully installed till the recovery image installation (CWM). Post that I tried selecting the zip which I had downloaded but the installation aborts.
Unfortunately it is not meant for tipo and I have come to a halt. I want to know what is the appropriate CM for Xperia Tipo and how do I transfer that appropriate cm_xx.zip to internal storage in the recovery mode.

I was able to solve the question:

The problem was i couldnot find the driver for the device.Did it the manual way by selecting the Android adb interface driver.

And then used

adb push <local> <remote>

to push the file on to SdCard.

More references on the same can be found here .


Is there a way to automatically turn off the wireless hotspot once I get back home? I use the wireless hotspot function daily as part of business, providing a wifi network from my Nexus 7 tablet (Lollipop, oem) to other business-essential devices.

When I get back home (alternatively, within range of my home Wifi network), I'd like to have the hotspot automatically turn off, and the tablet to use the wifi network.

Currently, if I forget to turn off the hotspot, I can inadvertently empty or overuse my mobile data, which is obviously quite costly.

So, is there a way to have the hotspot turn off automatically (but not using a timeout) based on location and/or wifi availability?

I would prefer non-root, non-flash-another-ROM solutions but am open to these as well if they're more elegant.

//edit: An additional problem is that work and home are ~300m apart in a rural environment, so geolocation is flakey and the cell tower doesn't change. Wifi presence is the only good discriminant I see...

Other than MacroDroid which is already covered by 3DDario here, you can consider any of the following apps -- none requires root for the goal.

Tasker (paid; 7 day free trial).

Profile: Any of the following would do:

Location: choose the location
State → Net → WiFi Near → fill the details -- I'm unsure whether it would work if the hotspot is enabled.

Task → (Action) → Net → WiFi Tether → Off

Since the final goal is to connect to Wi-Fi at home, another action can be Net → WiFi → Set → On.

Droid Automation (free/paid) may also work here.

Trigger: Location area (Geofencing - Beta) →  fill the details
Task: Networks → Wi-Fi → Enable

The dry run worked for me.

Condi (free) also worked in my test case.

Action:

Connectivity and Sensors → WiFi Tethering →  Off
Connectivity and Sensors → WiFi  →  On

Condition: Location → select location

Done!


I am unable to connect to wifi network I am using motog first gen mobile, i have upgraded to lollypop os, after that i am unable to connect to wifi router(netgear) in my room, it is not showing in the display, outside room other networks are showing in display, except my room network.
     please help me on this

Regrads,
Praneeth l

There are several things you could try. Have you tried restarting both the router and the phone?

If it still doesn't work I would recommend trying to connect to your router using another phone or laptop.

If another phone or laptop can connect, I would recommend reseting your phone.

If another phone of laptop can't connect, you need to debug your router


permission denied error trying to run custom script, but works in SSHDroid I wrote this script to reset a USB controller:

echo -n '1-2' | tee /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/unbind
sleep 0.5
echo -n '1-2' | tee /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/bind

I can then run it like so:

q201:/data # sh foobar.sh
1-21-2q201:/data #

But I cannot run it like this:

q201:/data # su -c "sh /data/foobar.sh"
tee: /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/unbind: Permission denied
1-2tee: /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/bind: Permission denied
1-2
1|q201:/data #

It only works when I am connected to SSHDroid on my rooted device, other apps such as Kernel Adiutor, Script Manager fail to run the script and get the same permission denied error that I get when I try to run it with su.

The su binary that came with my android device does not prompt to grant permission. It just gives it to any apps that ask.

I just want this script to run via other apps, and/or on startup.

The issue is with SELinux, and upon further digging, it seems I had to adjust the permissions of these files to make this work. I don't really understand it, but it seems to work.

chmod 644 /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/unbind
chmod 644 /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/bind

echo -n '1-2' | tee /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/unbind
sleep 0.5
echo -n '1-2' | tee /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/bind

chmod 200 /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/unbind
chmod 200 /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/bind


Storage location of "adb_keys" I have a Galaxy s3 (I9300) that has a broken touch screen (display is fine). I therefore can not click the authorization dialog that pops up when I try to access the device via adb on any ROMs above Android 4.2 as they require authorization to access the device via adb.

On 4.2 and 4.3 of the stock ROMs, I am able to copy my ~/.android/adbkey.pub  file from my machine to /data/misc/adb/adb_keys on the device via CWM recovery and gain access. I have tried this with LineageOS 14 which is on Android 7.1.1 and I still don't get access. I am wondering where the adb_keys file is located on android 7.1.1 so I can do the same.

Since Android 4.2 when public key authentication was added to ADB, up to latest release 10, there are only two possible locations for adb_keys on stock Android:

  On the device, vendors public keys are installed at build time in /adb_keys. User-installed keys are stored in /data/misc/adb/adb_keys.

So is the case with Android 7.1.1:

static const char *key_paths[] = {
    "/adb_keys",
    "/data/misc/adb/adb_keys",
    NULL
};

First one is only found on userdebug/eng ROMs. Also on debuggable builds, you can set ro.adb.secure to 0 to "allow adbd to connect without authentication". However "user builds filter out PRODUCT_ADB_KEYS, so no /adb_keys will be included". (Source)

So the RSA public keys added to /data/misc/adb/adb_keys should work. Make sure proper ownership (system:shell), mode (0640) and SELinux label (u:object_r:adb_keys_file:s0) are set on the file and restart adbd after adding key(s). Also check correct line endings (use dos2unix) after adding key(s) and make sure the right private key pair is available to adb server on PC. Path is ~/.android/ on Linux and %userprofile%\.android\ on Windows, or add the key filename/directory to ADB_VENDOR_KEYS environment variable.

RELATED:

Why “adb root” does nothing?


Video stream from Android phone to laptop over the internet I would like to transfer a video stream coming from my Android device to a remote PC through the internet. I want to connect to the Android device from my PC to see what is showing on its camera.

I tried TeamViewer but it does not allow the user to access a mobile phone from a PC.

I tried Skype & Tango (Video call) but they do not automatically answer calls.

I am struggling to find a solution. Is there any?

I guess there is: WebCam Free consists of an app for your Android device, plus a server component to be put on your computer. From the apps description, this could do what you want (didn't try it myself, but it's certainly worth a look). I linked the free version; a paid version is available for about 1.50 Euro.

If that doesn't do (or you don't like the idea of a PC component), you might give a try to Cloud Spy Cam (it also has a demo available on the play store). Sounds even more promising (I'd say this is exactly what you're looking for).

But since all good things are three, a third option is IP Webcam, which "Turns your phone into a network camera with multiple viewing options."

So now, happy play!


Android emulator in Windows 10 has no border My Android emulator is working very well in Windows 10, but without any border so I can't move it. It was not problem until the emulator starts and appears in the corner of the screen. When the emulator starts, I can see only half of the emulator, and I can't move it.

How can I make the border visible or even move the emulator?

The problem is that the emulator does not appear fully on the screen, only half of it appears as shown in the image below and I can't move it.

This isn't normally a Windows-centric area, and generally questions about emulators would fall into the programming off-topic arena. You can probably bring the emulator to the forefront in Windows 10 by the following KEYBOARD entries (and you should know them anyway by heart). The System Menu which, appears at the top-left of windows, can be accessed even WITHOUT A MOUSE! You can move windows into the current viewport with the keyboard + careful arrow usage.

Activate the specific window you want to move - you may be able to click with the mouse.
KEYBOARD entry to activate the System Menu: Alt + Spacebar
KEYBOARD entry to activate the MOVE command: Down-arrow + Enter
KEYBOARD entry to move the window to your liking: Arrows: Left,Right,Up,Down until you can see the menubar(s) you need.
KEYBOARD entry to leave the window in position: Enter
Continue with mouse, menus, etc. to find command related to positioning the window size permanently.


color os to cyannongenmod on one plus phone I just bought the one plus phone.
It comes with Color OS which is mostly in chinese and I want to convert it to Cyanongenmod.

There are several guides on the web:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H60fcm0ujqA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDKOEtN9pbo
for example.

BUT, each time I try to install the file from sd I get "installation failure" message without any further explanation.

Can anyone help me with installing this OS?

I don't have a OnePlus One, so take this answer with a grain of salt.

Make sure you are installing the .zip and NOT the .img factory image file from Color OS's recovery mode.

If that doesn't work, you might want to try one of the nightly builds to see if it works instead.

If you STILL do not have success, you may want to try installing with fastboot instead of the .zip-- note that this will require the .img factory image file, not the .zip file.  The steps for fastboot mode on the OnePlus One are:  1. Turn the phone off. 2. Hold volume up + power until the "fastboot" screen appears.

You can read more about using fastboot at the cyanogenmod wiki: wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Fastboot

To ensure a smooth boot after you flash the new system, don't forget to do a "factory reset" to erase all the previous personal data when switching OSes...  that is an option that should be available somewhere in the recovery mode.  Good luck!